A hilarious, deftly written debut novel about a woman whose wanderlust is about to show her that sometimes you don’t have to travel very far to become the person you want to be… There are many reasons women shouldn’t travel alone. But as foul-mouthed, sweet-toothed Kika Shores knows, there are many more reasons why they should. After all, most women want a lot more out of life than just having fun. Kika, for one, wants to experience the world. But ever since she returned from her yearlong backpacking tour, she’s been steeped in misery, battling rush hour with all the other suits. Getting back on the road is all she wants. So when she’s offered a nanny job in London – the land of Cadbury Cream Eggs – she’s happy at the prospect of going back overseas and getting paid for it. But as she’s about to discover, the most exhilarating adventures can happen when you stay in one place… Wise, witty, and hilarious, Girls Who Travel is an unforgettable novel about the highs and lows of getting what you want—and how it’s the things you least expect that can change your life.
Hiring a nanny--and getting along with her afterward--may be one of the most important things that parents do, yet many of us approach the whole business with fear and trembling, or at least a lot of questions. Even parents who may manage dozens of employees at work can be at a loss when it comes to dealing with the person who will be looking after their children. Nanny, au pair, caregiver--no matter the term, the thorny issues remain the same: -How do you find someone you like and trust? -Should you invite the nanny to Thanksgiving dinner? -When should you raise her fee--and by how much? -What should you do when the au pair is a flirt? -How do you sort out the laundry and other chores? -Nanny surveillance--should you spy? The Nanny Book provides real, down-to-earth solutions for almost every conceivable issue or problem. Filled with advice gleaned through interviews with families and nannies, this book will turn parents into their own experts. Other books focus almost exclusively on hiring a caregiver. The Nanny Book is the only guide that gives smart, parent-tested solutions to those sticky situations that can make or break the relationship.
It's 1979 and twenty-one-year-old Linda Kovic needs to learn a language fast in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a flight attendant. Broke yet determined, she chooses French immersion and contracts to become an au pair for a wealthy family in the Loire Valley. Yielding to poor judgment, she lies on her application and claims to speak basic French, confident she'll be forgiven once she arrives at the Chateau de Montclair. As she struggles to adapt to her challenging new environment with the hard-to-please Madame Dubois and her two incomprehensible children, Linda signs up and attends language classes at the local university. When she encounters, Adam, a handsome young student, her life becomes more complicated-much more complicated-adding fuel to her internal battle for independence. French Illusions: My Story as an American Au Pair in the Loire Valley is the first of two books based on the author's diaries.
A witty and entertaining magical novel telling the story of a ten-year-old girl and her quest to visit all ten aunts in order to discover the fate of her parents - were they really killed by pirates at sea? Encountering dragons, witches and water-sprites among others, Bronte is taken on an adventure she could only have imagined...
Warriors of Disinformation is a scrupulous, honest, and fascinating account of what we have been missing all these years. Snyder reveals both the high-minded principles and the lowbrow comedy and establishes the credit that disinformation's warriors deserve for helping to bring an end to the cold war.
From the playground to the playroom, mothers and nannies are engaged in a relationship like no other – they are sometimes co-parents and comrades, often confidants, and much more than employer and employee. It is a complex relationship that touches on issues of love, trust, and money. It can be a wonderful collaboration between two women who care for the same child or it can be a difficult situation with unfulfilled expectations on both sides. Mothers can be obsessed, conflicted, and confused about how to manage caregivers – but they also must contend with how they feel about having another woman take care of their children. Caregivers love the kids, but often run into trouble dealing with mom. And Nanny Makes Three goes behind the scenes of domestic arrangements to discover what moms and nannies or au pairs are really thinking about each other, the kids, their respective jobs and their identities. In this eye-opening book, Jessika Auerbach plumbs the depth of this unique child care relationship and presents a perspective that draws from both sides. Mothers' and caregivers' genuine and unique voices are equally represented giving a balanced view to this highly complicated, emotionally charged relationship. Anyone who is a mother, working or not, or thinking of becoming a mother and wondering how to juggle career and children without dropping the ball somewhere along the way will gain invaluable insight from And Nanny Makes Three. "The relationship between any working mother and the caretaker of her child involves some of the most intense, important, conflicted, and complicated interactions a woman is ever likely to have. Once a mother returns to work - full-time, part-time, any time and anywhere - it's the one relationship that almost more than any other will keep her awake at night, make her furious, desperate, grateful, and guilty. As a mother who both loves her children and needs her job, it's also often a relationship she wishes she would never have to have. Yet from the moment it begins, it becomes hopelessly and forever entangled with her view of herself, her love of her family, and her need to support them. In this way it becomes instantly and inextricably folded into the dialogue every mother carries on within herself, with her partner, her colleagues, and her friends: If playground, cocktail party and book group conversation is anything to go by, the topic of nannies, what they do to us and what we do to them is right up there with talk about love, sex, and school waiting lists." --from the Introduction Jessika Auerbach was born in Germany, but grew up primarily in England. She studied at the Institut des Sciences Politiques and the Sorbonne in Paris and at Oxford University, and since that time has lived and worked as an editor and writer in New York, Connecticut, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong. Her four daughters were born on three different continents, and she and her husband remain happily in touch with almost all the nineteen nannies, au-pairs and part-time babysitters who have provided them with childcare over the years. She currently lives with her family in Singapore, where she is working on her next book.
Three teenage girls from different backgrounds work for a summer in the Hamptons as au pairs for a wealthy family, and in spite of many ups and downs, all three end up changing for the better.
Willy loves playing outside but hates wearing clothes, especially hats and pants! He also likes to say, "NO!" and do things his own way. One hot summer day, Willy runs away from his mum and plays outside all day without anything on! He gets redder and redder, until? Poor Willy learns the hard way about protecting himself from the sun.Written in quirky rhymes by Tara Pavlovic-Shepherdson with fun illustrations by Stacey Sherwood, this hilarious cautionary tale will have kids rushing to put on their hats (and pants!) and have sunscreen applied.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 English children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures. It is seen as an example of the literary nonsense genre. The artist John Tenniel provided 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the book.It received positive reviews upon release and is now one of the best-known works of Victorian literature; its narrative, structure, characters and imagery have had a widespread influence on popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre. It is credited as helping end an era of didacticism in children's literature, inaugurating an era in which writing for children aimed to "delight or entertain". The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. The titular character Alice shares her name with Alice Liddell, a girl Carroll knewscholars disagree about the extent to which the character was based upon her.
The Reading Group follows the trials and tribulations of a group of women who meet regularly to read and discuss books.Over the course of a year, each of these women become intertwined, both in the books they read and within each other's lives. Inspired by a shared desire for conversation, a good book and a glass of wine-Clare, Harriet, Nicole, Polly, and Susan undergo startling revelations and transformations despite their differences in background, age and respective dilemmas. What starts as a reading group gradually evolves into a forum where the women may express their views through the books they read and grow to become increasingly more open as the bonds of friendship cement. In The Reading Group, Noble reveals the many complicated paths in life we all face as well as the power and importance of friendship.
