Sign-Ups

Item Description

Mother-Daughter tea with guest author Natasha Friend! Sign up to enjoy a fun and inspiring afternoon tea with author Natasha Friend!! A unique opportunity to meet an award-winning author and talk to her about her books, her inspiration, the writing process and how she became a writer. We will read her award winning book Perfect in advance.

Hosted by Grace OToole and Laura Bede, 5th grade moms, with special guests Anna Sheehan and Deborah Hensley!

Date to be determined. $20 per Mother / Daughter Duo.

Who is Natasha Friend? Natasha Friend was born to an English professor father and a poet/actress mother. She was raised in a house without a television. At the time, she thought this was the worst form of child abuse. Now, she understands the method to her parents madness: they wanted her to be a reader. Spending most of her childhood at the Hamilton Public Library, Natasha found her mecca, the young-adult section, and her hero, Judy Blume. She, too, wanted to write stories about girls who felt alone. Girls whose parents were screw-ups. Girls with spunk and spirit and resolve. Natasha began dictating stories to her father, who typed them up on his 1930s Remington typewriter. Most involved rainbows, unicorns, and poor orphan girls discovering treasure. She knew she was supposed to be a writer in seventh grade, when a sweet boy gave her a love poem and she felt compelled to correct it for syntax and rhyme scheme. Today, Natasha is the award-winning author of Perfect, Lush, Bounce, For Keeps, and My Life in Black and White. When she isnt writing, she is building forts and making chocolate-chip pancakes. Natasha lives on the Connecticut shoreline with her husband, three children, and dog, Beckett. Review of 'Perfect' by Common Sense Media: In PERFECT, Natasha Friend has created a character who will make readers cry and cheer as she struggles and then slowly faces her problems. These problems reflect her mother's inability to accept the father's death, her sister's desperate need to talk about him, a new relationship with the most popular girl at school, and most of all, her own sadness she's repressing in damaging ways. Readers may not have the same problems as Isabelle, but watching her ability to face them and move on will be inspiring. With its realistic dialogue, difficult moments of self-discovery, and harsh critique of relationships, Perfect is a very quick yet unforgettable read. The graphic nature of this book may make it hard for some young teens to read alone. However, it's an excellent choice for a mother-teen daughter book club.

Item Special Note

www.natashafriend.com