Breanna is a beautiful dancer, singer, and actress. However, she doesn’t have the support of the two people she loves the most: her parents. Together with the help of her friend Amber and her pet Bunny she tries to achieve her dream to be a star. Will she be able to convince her parents? Will Breanna win the part in the Broadway show? Will her parents let her keep the part if she wins.

Breanna is a beautiful dancer, singer, and actress. However, she doesn’t have the support of the two people she loves the most: her parents. Together with the help of her friend Amber and her pet Bunny she tries to achieve her dream to be a star. Will she be able to convince her parents? Will Breanna win the part in the Broadway show? Will her parents let her keep the part if she wins.

Cleopatra: Glory to Her Race was written for the enjoyment of children ages seven to fourteen. Now elementary and middle school aged children can learn about historical figures too. To keep your young readers´ interest, the historical biography is written in storybook form and divided into three parts with short chapters, color illustrations, and to your children´s delight -- humorous animated fictional characters.

"Cleopatra: Glory to Her Race" was also written with the educator/parent in mind. The biography includes: introductory vocabulary for each chapter, historical character reference, historical map, pronunciation guide, historical timeline, and best of all--a historical appendix! This last resource is an invaluable tool for parents and teachers. All the answers to your children´s questions are at your fingertips!

Cleopatra: Glory to Her Race was written for the enjoyment of children ages seven to fourteen. Now elementary and middle school aged children can learn about historical figures too. To keep your young readers´ interest, the historical biography is written in storybook form and divided into three parts with short chapters, color illustrations, and to your children´s delight -- humorous animated fictional characters.

"Cleopatra: Glory to Her Race" was also written with the educator/parent in mind. The biography includes: introductory vocabulary for each chapter, historical character reference, historical map, pronunciation guide, historical timeline, and best of all--a historical appendix! This last resource is an invaluable tool for parents and teachers. All the answers to your children´s questions are at your fingertips!

Book Review, September 2004:

Del Casino crafts an engaging and vivid portrait of a young man attending a competitive high school in the 1960s. Told through first person narration, the always observant narrator might remind some readers of Salinger´s Catcher in the Rye.

The narrator is preparing to take the AP calculus final exam of his senior year of high school. As he waits to start the exam, he reminisces about freshman year. Characters are fresh, and descriptions of their clothing and the language they use make it easy to get caught up in the story. Intending to take my time and read the book over a couple of evenings, I found that I had to finish it in one sitting.

The 1960s setting will appeal to young adults who are interested in those tumultuous years as well as young adults just looking for a good read. Situations described in the book are still relevant to today´s youth. The narrator deals with trying to fit in at school, avoid bullying from the rough crowd of students at a neighboring high school, and solve a hometown crime committed by a gang member.

The book is well suited to its target audience; however, strong language and some plot elements might be objectionable to some parents. However, the prevailing themes are rejecting violence, being fair, and finding ones own place in the world. I would recommend this well written book to teenagers as well as adults.

By Sarah Lomas, M y s h e l f . c o m < /p>___________________________________________________

On The Balls Of My Feet is about 100 days in the life of a high school freshman opening his eyes for the first time to many new experiences and the anxiety and exhilaration of not knowing what´s coming next. It´s the story of a reluctant but curious 13-year-old boy that leaves a sheltered middle class environment to attend Xaltus, a highly competitive school situated several miles from home in a crime ridden inner city neighborhood.

Through a series of flashbacks, the boy narrates the story of his early days as a freshman from his perspective as a graduating senior preparing for and taking his last high school exam. The introduction provides a glimpse of the older, wiser senior and briefly introduces some of the important characters around which the story revolves. After a brief encounter with a pre-freshman student and a delay that prevents the senior´s exam from getting underway, the senior thinks back to his own freshman year.

The book consists of two intertwined stories. The first is about a freshman coming to grips with the usual issues, fears and challenges that have faced adolescents throughout time. His plight is heightened by the intellectually and physically demanding setting of his school and the neighborhood in which it resides. We learn about school through the numerous descriptions of his various classes and classmates. There´s his math teacher, an aging, stern and brilliant mathematician and former contributor to The Manhattan Project. In sharp contrast is his young hippie Chemistry teacher, who our narrator suspects became a teacher to provide access to the means and ingredients of making drugs. His flamboyant and colorful History teacher introduces him to the gritty (if not sordid) side of European History. A young attractive English teacher stimulates his interest in literature and fuels his adolescent sexual fantasies. Other characters also make lasting impressions on him.

In addition to a variety of colorful teachers and classmates are his two best friends. Lenny is the street-smart wheeler-dealer with a knack for persuasion and a vindictive streak. Gilbert is the bright eccentric capable of great intellectual achievements, but falls short in managing life´s practical tasks.

We learn about the crime and violence our main character learns to live with through descriptions of his run-ins with gangs of students from the neighboring high school. One gang in particular, led by two street bullies, Guario and his sidekick Freddie, illustrates the sense of physical danger that has become common in our main character´s life. Through interactions with Izzy, who appears to be a close relative of the devil himself, we come to appreciate his ultimate fear of serious harm with which he must contend.

The second story is about a robbery committed against a friend, which is interwoven among the first story´s classroom anecdotes and extracurricular incidents. Guario is accused of robbing and assaulting the owner of a newsstand in the school neighborhood. Despite the fact that our main character has been the object of numerous shakedowns by the bully, he believes Guario is innocent of the crime and takes it upon himself to prove it. During the course of a few weeks, he investigates the facts and uncovers evidence that supports his theory. What happens next changes our main character´s life forever.