We never truly know how powerfully our simple acts of kindness can impact those around us. This truth is demonstrated in One Smile, an inspiring new offering from Illumination Arts Publishing. This lovely book is filled with richly detailed watercolor illustrations by Mary Gregg Byrne. The story follows a young girlfs innocent smile as it starts a chain of selfless giving that ripples throughout the entire community. Cindy McKinley drew her inspiration for One Smile from her desire to show children the powerful blessings that can flow from a simple smile. In this delightful telling, we find Little Katie walking through the park with her mother. Katie passes a sad young man who has lost his job. After she looks back to give him an encouraging smile, he feels inspired to start looking for work. The young manfs renewed confidence spills over when he helps a woman by fixing her flat tire. The wonderful chain of kindness flows from person to person, eventually circling back to touch Katiefs life in a heart-warming and surprising conclusion. One Smile also includes a page to help children and their families ponder the types of activities they can do together to help others. After reading this enchanting book, each of us will be encouraged to pass along One Smile to everyone we meet.

A freely given smile can be infectious, as a little girl and her mother, hurrying to catch the bus, find out. As they rush through the park, the girl smiles at a sad young man on a bench and suddenly his world doesn't seem so hopeless. With a lighter heart, he moves on-and notices a woman struggling to change a flat tire. He stops to help, and her frustration melts away in the young man's act of kindness. Smiles, acts of kindness toward strangers, are passed on and on throughout the story, and the effect they have on each person is quietly profound and, in some ways, comes full circle. A smile really can change a lot.

An amazing thing happened when I read One Smile, written by Cindy McKinley-I felt like every character in the story, I guess because the story is about every day people in life situations. Each and every one of us has "been there"and faced trials and tribulations like the characters in this book.

But what the story is really about is how doing one good deed for one person each day can make a long lasting difference in many peoples'lives. What begins as one perfect, heart-cheering smile passes from person to person in the form of many kind acts until it finally comes back to reward the child who began the circle with that inspiring smile.

It was author McKinley's hope to show children how powerful a single act of kindness can be. The book is recommended by the "Pay It Forward" Foundation, which is based on the book of the same name. In the novel Pay It Forward, written Catherine Ryan Hyde, the main character Trevor believes that if he does something good for three people, and they each do something good for three more, nine people will be helped, who will each do something good for three more, and the cycle continues.

One Smile presents thoughtful questions to share with your family and a family challenge to work together to help others.

Recommended for ages 3-8, the book is a great asset to any family or church youth group. Beautifully illustrated with wonderful watercolor art on each page , by Mary Gregg Byrne, the pictures come alive to tell the story.

This is a wonderful book! Had been waiting for its release and it lived up to the wait. Everybody will like this book, from its Outer Banks commentary to the characters to the surprise ending. Glad I found wendyhowellmills.com for book signing schedule and more! Thanks Wendy for these great books and keep 'em coming!

I absolutely loved the book! It's even better than the first one. I couldn't put it down and didn't know who the bad guy was until the end. Wendy's writing is wonderful and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I'm ready to read her next one as soon as she writes it. Way to go Wendy!

This book is a great read! It moves swiftly and keeps you guessing right up to the end. The characters from Mills' first book seem like old friends. Highly recommended!

This book inspired me so much. It touched me because I am a child of divorce just as Sarah was. The book made me feel like I was on Denali- talking to Gabe and listening to Sam sing his joyful tunes. Now I know what I'm going to do with my life. I'm going to climb. Thank you, Mrs.Murphy. It was a wonderful book that touched my greatly.

I thought that To The Summit was an excilent book. It really opens your eyes to what you can acomplish if you have the determination and mentalability to put you mind to it. Sarah is a 17 year old girl that has the dream of reaching the summit of Denail and beening the youngest person to clime North Americas highest mountain. I thought that the book was great and would highly recamend it.

It is an excellent book that I enjoyed reading, I am even reading it again. It shows that with determination and a positive attiude, even a 17-year old girl can over come the challenge, both metally and physically of climbing North America's largest mountain. Not only getting stronger phyiscally , Sarah was brought closer to her father, and her life. Once again I have to say 'WOW! '.

This has been a wonderful book for me. Kevin McKinley's writing and advice have given me the tools and the motivation to start my son's education fund, write a will, review my life insurance, and so much more. Everything is laid out in plain and concise language which makes it very easy to follow and implement his suggestions. Plus, he explains why it's so important to do these things and how to start NOW! Thanks to Mr. McKinley for writing the perfect financial planning book for busy parents.

This was a great read. Like Kevin, I am a practicing Certified Financial Planner. In 15 plus years of practice, I have read tons of book and articles on amassing wealth, etc. Most are a lot of fluff and "the same old thing." It is not the public schools responsibility to teach our children about money. As loving parents, it is ours! Tomorrow is my oldest daughters 14th birthday and she is opening her Roth IRA. Kevin builds a strong case for using money as a tool to give our children much more flexibility as they face life's challenging decisions. Imagine how different your life could have been without having to pay back student loans and/or knowing that your retirement years were well on their way of being secured when you were only in your early 20s. Kevin, thanks for a job well-done!

I received this book as a late Christmas present and think it should be a mandatory read for all parents, of children young and old. I'm still unclear as to what my own parents were thinking when we were growing up regarding our financial future. I know now they didn't create college funds or wedding funds or life insurance plans for us. This book shows how parents -- no matter the income level, resources, desires for the kids' futures -- can invest and save for the next generations. I like the way the author writes - it's witty and clever without being silly and trite. And the suggestions are crafted in a way that makes follow-up easy and manageable, even for a novice like myself. I highly recommend!

This is a wonderful book for all doll artists.
It show step by step the process the late Robert McKinley
used to complete one of his dolls. Excellent!

Many dollmakers relish anything they can find from the late, great Robert (Bob) McKinley. His outstanding work and terrific personality made him a real hit with anyone who knew him, and influenced many others who only experienced his genius "second-hand".

At this time, his book, "Sculpting Dolls in Paperclay" is almost completely unavailable, with used copies fetching prices upward of $200. However, there is a source of his four video collection and his other book, "Dollmaking: One Artist's Approach" online at dollvideos.com.

Many doll aritsts who have either seen the videos or read this book have said that it is almost like being in the workroom with Bob. Can you imagine a better way to learn his terrific dollmaking skills!

It is unfortunate that the terms of Mr. McKinley's will prevent the sale of his books or videos by any other means.

If you want to learn to sculpt the human figure -- buy this book! I had struggled for a very long time to learn to sculpt, then I found this book. The very next figure I did was radically better. While I have evolved my own "hand", my basic technique is based on the fundamentals I learned in this book.
This book covers every aspect of the dollmaking process. From sculpting the head and hands, drafting a body pattern, constructing the body and armature, to drafting and constructing the costume and finishing the base. Every stage of creation is documented in step by step photos of a single doll, which is an especially invaluable feature unique to this title.
I was fortunate enough to have met Bob briefly and this book captures not only his working methods but also the giving nature of his personality. We are all of us fortunate indeed that this book was written, and that this information is still available to anyone willing to learn and grow as an artist.

My third grade teacher read this book to our class and I instantly fell in love with it. I'm 20 years old now and Beauty is still one of my favorite books. It teaches children a valuable lesson in the importance of family and friendship and is a great book for parents to read to their children. I'll guarantee that the parents will enjoy it just as much (if not more!) as their children. I highly recommend this book to ALL ages.

I read this book outloud to my two sons,then ages 9 and 11,seven years ago. They still laugh and cry when we talk about this story. It is one of our family favorites. All families go through tough and trying times. All little boys grow up. It's nice to read a story that comforts you through your walk in life, a story that works out so much of the day to day problems of children and their families. Beauty is a great family memory. I'll always treasure the experience of reading this story to my children.

I really enjoyed this book. It was really sad what ended up happening to Beauty ( I am not going to give it away if you haven't read it). It was really great!

This is a retelling of the classic fantasy Beauty and The Beast. But this version has a bit of a twist, McKinley's "Beauty" doesn't quite live up to her nickname and can be more accurately described as an awkward teenager, a girl who prefers to spend her free time with books and horses. I liked her immediately. When her Father accidentally stumbles upon the bewitched castle of the "Beast" he is forced into a promise that will forever change Beauty's life. To give anymore of the plot away would be to ruin the magic of the book.

BEAUTY is categorized as a children's book (10 and up) but I think it will appeal to anyone who loves a magical, sweet, old-fashioned love story. McKinley's characters are well-drawn, sympathetic and just plain lovable, right down to Beauty's charming horse. This was another one of those rare "unputdownable" books for me. It's a keeper and one I intend to read to my babies when they're old enough to sit still long enough to enjoy it.

Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, and Robin McKinley's beautiful reworking of the "tale as old as time" just makes me love it even more. It's a feel-good story that I go back to time and time again, rereading my favorite parts. After wearing out two paperback copies, I finally invested in the hardcover edition. This masterful novel is perfect for young adults to children at heart. The proof? I'm a freshman in college, and earlier this year I read it aloud to my two roommates, who both adored it. And a literature course I'm taking right now has this wonderful novel on its reading list! Beauty is a strong, likeable heroine that adolescent girls will easily identify with. The Beast is a wise and noble character, and the reader finds it easy to care about him and empathize with him. Beauty's father, sisters, and brother-in-law are strong, warm supporting characters. This is the perfect novel.

I love this book. It is perhaps one of the best renditions of Beauty and the Beast, and I like it even more than the well-known fairy tale. The skeleton of the story is widely familiar but McKinley lets her creativity flow through the writing and creates a totally original telling of the tale.

Honour is not your classic so-weak-that-the-guy-has-to-do-everything damsel in distress. She is spunky, intelligent and real! The character develops into a complete, realistic person through the story, and so does the beast. Clearly one who loves fairy tales as well, McKinley tells the tale with grace, charm and enchantment, that not only gives depth to the story, but makes it real in our minds. You don;'t get a goody-good, beautiful, flawless Beauty, but rather, one whose nickname mocks her appearance (compared to her sisters) and whose character has flaws, like any other person in real life. The love story unfolds with a plot that wrenches your emotions through the unfortunate situations and have you tearing with joy at the happy ones.

Unlike many other authors, who tend to inject too much violence or sex into fairy tales to make them the "adult" version, Beauty is a remarkable tale written with originality and maturity. This book is the definitive of how fairy tales for adults should be like. Well-rounded, well-written and complete.

Read it.

This is just a terrific book, filled with humor, wisdom, pathos and adventure. The author poignantly describes his childhood descent into blindness, his efforts to ignore it, his initial rebelliousness, and his gradual coming to terms with his handicap. Before long, the reader, like Erik, no longer sees blindness as a handicap, but as one of many hurdles life tosses in our way. It is certainly less of a burden to him than was the sudden, tragic death of his mother, which he movingly addresses and comes to terms with. He finds purpose to his life, he finds love, and he finds friendship and adventure on the mountains that he climbs. Buy this book and give it to any friend who has an inclination toward self-pity, and it may change their life. Read it and be inspired by the resiliency and strength of the human spirit.

This is a must-read for crowds of all types. Touching, humorous, moving, the story of Erik will inspire many. Being blind myself, I can totally relate to situations Erik describes such as the "shaking" vision, wanting to be accepted among peer groups of any age, and the comical remarks that must be made to lighten up a situation. I especially enjoyed the adventures in dating and picking up women. Blind people too want to know what a person looks like and it was great to hear someone else echo the embarressment of mistaking a voice for a "sexy" woman only to find out it's a "girly" man. Those mistakes are made and have to be laughed off. It's just a feature of life, just like blindness is only a feature of a person, NOT THE WHOLE person. I strongly suggest this book to anyone looking for information or coping on blindness. Read it and you'll never be the same.

This is an ease read but surprisingly soul-awakening book for me. There are statements on life lessons strung together like jewels hidden everywhere in this book, from the start to finish, mostly on self-assumed constraints that are common to everyone, sighted or not. I found vicariously the family love, friendship, and community support invigorating. I sensed the humor, strength, commitment, and perseverance Erik W carries with him daily, not just to the mountain top, which makes this book an absolute page-turner. Thanks Erik W for writing this book and share intimately with the readers the details of your journeys and the poeple in your life, we all have a lot to learn and draw from your experiences touched by the top of the world.

The first part of this book depicts a spoiled little girl with a sense of entitlement who didn't (and still doesn't) know how good she had it! The couple who adopted her were fabulous parents. They were good to her beyond all measure and loved her unconditionally. Unfortunately, Sarah has never been able to accept that love, let alone return any of it. The story she tells, however, of the search for her birth parents becomes more and more fascinating as the pages turn..... It is quite a story, and by the end of the book I felt that she had come to terms with who these people were and are, but the adoptive parents are still out there someplace, wondering what happened to the little girl they adopted and loved. Sad story.

I beg to differ with some of the other customer reviews posted for The Book of Sarahs. Reality is messy. Members of the adoption triad--birthparents, adoptees, and adoptive parents--share a complicated, emotionally charged relationship from the moment the adoptee is born. There are one thousand and one reasons why birthmothers feel that relinquishment is the best possible choice for their child; there are just as many reasons why adoptive parents choose to raise a non-biological child. But the adoptee has the most to gain or lose. In my twenty-six years as a birthmother, I am continually amazed by the infinite variety of paths triad members have traveled, yet we're all connected by the same feelings of uncertainty, wistfulness, and longing for what might have been. Thankfully, adoption today is much more open, kinder, gentler; many studies have documented the impact of adoption on all triad members, and there are fewer black holes than there were a generation or more ago. Catherine McKinley's personal story of life as an adopted Black child raised in a white family and predominately white community will captivate readers. One does not have to a member of the adoption community to appreciate her search for self. Ms. McKinley's prose is a pleasure to read, a beautifully, richly written story of relationships that readers will find hard to put down.

This is a very interesting, readable account of a biracial adoptee's search for her birth parents. Growing up, she fixates on the idea of an imaginary but vividly detailed African-American birth mother. Finding out that her actual birth mother is white is only the first shift she must make in her outlook. Subsequent revelations shatter some other expectations, but there are some happy surprises too. Every step of the way, though, the relatives she turns up are actual people, with histories and flaws and good points and bad points, not one-dimensional characters ecstatically welcoming the lost sheep.

It wasn't a major point in the book, but I just had to laugh when the author described her lack of enthusiasm for the adoptive family's hiking and birdwatching expeditions, even though she was adopted as a baby. A very funny nature/nurture case study.

It is clear from the beginning of this book that trouble was looming on the horizon for these intrepid, but somewhat reckless, climbers. The loss early on of one of their comrades to a fall into a crevasse was predictable. How they could think of walking unroped, on a glacier that they knew was ridden with crevasses, is almost unbelievable. This was due, no doubt, to youthful inexperience and a lack of leadership necessary to set the parameters of what would be acceptable in terms of safety. These factors combined were to cost them dearly. It was not until near the end of their forty two day stay on the mountain, that they coalesced into a team.

Notwithstanding the sheer recklessness of their initial, bumbling efforts at a winter ascent of Mt. McKinley, the fact remains that they did achieve the first such summit, no mean feat any time of year, but almost inconceivable in the dead of winter. Coming off the summit, their thermometer recorded the temperature at a quite bone chilling minus fifty eight degrees.

Caught in a whiteout on their descent, however, the three summiteers were forced to dig a snow cave, where they were were to spend endless days, in weather which saw temperatures plummet to an almost mind boggling minus one hundred and forty eight degrees with the wind chill factor, hence the name of the book. That they could survive this, is a testament to their fortitude.

In their snow cave, it was a relatively toasty minus thirty five below. That snow cave was the only thing that stood between them and certain death. With virtually no food, frost bitten, and suffering from disorientation due to the altitude, they waited out the storm and lived to tell the tale.

This gripping chronicle, of the forty two days they spent on the highest and coldest mountain in North America, is a classic in mountaineering literature and one of the best books on McKinley climbs. Those who love this genre will certainly enjoy this book. It is made all the more interesting by the author's new afterword, which gives a retrospective of what happened to all those who participated in the first winter ascent of Mt. McKinley.

This book is incredible. You cannot put it down. A great gripping TRUE story!

I bought this book because I wanted to get a feel for high altitude climbing though I have no interest in climbing for myself. Geez! I got the picture. I'm still blown away by the story of what happened on the mountain. But, thankfully, blown away, only in a metaphorical sense...

I had a friend who was a high altitude climber who told me about a friend climbing in the Himalayas. The guy went out during a blizzard at high altitude to relieve himself and was never seen again. My friend said,"He was blown into the stratosphere". I never understood that kind of language until I read this book.

It's an incredible story of survival right up there with the story of the voyage of the crew of the Endurance.

The writing is awfully good for a mountain climber!