How to tame temper tantrums: Picture book from Smart Love Press

Jilly's Terrible Temper Tantrums​ and How She Outgrew Them​
by Martha Heineman Pieper, Ph.D.​
Smart Love Press, LLC​
May 2017

The message of Dr. Pieper's recent release is clear:  Parents dealing with tantrums should help children understand that seeking help and a hug is far superior to the misery of a temper tantrum.

What is different about this book 
The didactic picture book may be an effective way to help parents, and to help children, understand an alternative way to deal with emotional outbursts.

The calm and gentle support that Jilly's parents provide in this story is surely a good thing.  I wonder, however, at what point we begin to teach children that being happy is not always the highest goal.

What I'll do now that I've read this book 
The illustrations by Gershman support the tale and somewhat extend the story.  But overall this picture book lacks the magic that great literature provides.

This title will serve as a tool for parents, one I'll keep in my toolkit for recommending read-alouds that support and inform parenting skills. 

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The Paris Spy: A Maggie Hope Mystery

The Paris Spy: A Maggie Hope Mystery

by Susan Elia MacNeal
Random House Publishing Group
Aug 8, 2017

This seventh entry in the Maggie Hope series is a strong one.  We see the heroine maturing in both her professional life and her personal one.  With what has at times been an irritating protagonist, this book's story line brings a welcome glimpse of a intelligence office who is both increasingly confident and self-aware.

What's different about this book 
At the end of the sixth book in the series, The Queen's Accomplice, the author leaves the story in mid-air, literally, as Maggie Hope flies off to France for both personal and professional purposes. In contrast to some of the earlier Maggie stories, this latest title shows Maggie increasingly grappling with the moral and ethical issues of the war she and her friends and country find themselves in -- yet Mattie seems less needy, less reactive, and more introspective.  Again, the book ends with a cliff-hanger ending, and once again, the reader is left wondering how Maggie will make it out of the latest trap. A trap she is in, ironically, because of her mature and self-aware choices.

What I'll do now that I've read it 
The Maggie Hope series has built a strong readership with my library patrons, and this latest will fill a nice gap in the tapestry of England and Europe in the throes of WWII.  I look forward to providing this title to my own patrons -- I notice there is a considerable hold list already for the book not to be released for another 6 weeks or so!

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