Maxim Maximow Maximow itibaren Numana AN, Italy itibaren Numana AN, Italy

We start with a bouncy rhythm, as the kid describes how his paints got taken away. Then he gleefully (to the tune of "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More", of course) sneaks to the closet starts painting his whole body (and, incidentally, the rest of the pristine white house!) I love the color, and I love the rhythm. Seriously, I'm reading this every day to my two nieces, age 5 and 3. They can't get enough of it! I will note that there is a scene where the kid almost paints his (now naked) butt (singing "But I'm such a nut, I'm gonna paint my...." before his mother walks in with a timely "WHAT?!?" to end the fun again), and, of course, this whole book is about a child misbehaving willfully (he climbed onto several boxes to retrieve his paint from the closet, after his mother told him to stop at the start of the book). But it's such fun that I think so long as you're clear that This Is Not Cool In Real Life that your children won't misunderstand and start misbehaving in your own home.

The book traces a group of girls who are recent college grads through their twenties. Girls in White Dresses is written in the first person with different characters who are all friends narrating each chapter. Jobs, families, where to live, friendship, boyfriends, and later husbands and children are the main focal points of these girls. Their lives are discussed using how they are felling and what they they are doing at that moment to further the story. While it may seem like a superficial read since many times the why is not discussed, I feel as though it is a story which most women in their twenties feel as though they are living. Many times it is hard to explain the why when they themselves do not understand it. As I read the book I kept relating to them and realized the book is really a discussion of adulthood.