Loved the characters in this book. The author created a whole cast of people with depth and emotion. This book made me laugh out loud and cry real tears since the story is real and raw and it is easy to get lost in their lives and really feel for them. Great writing.

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I had never heard of this author before, but I LOVED this book. It was one of the best books I have read in a long time. It was one of those where I was sad when it was over.

Told by nine year old Evelyn "Button" Peters. The year is 1961. Button has seemingly cold parents and not many friends. Her only source of affection seems to come from her Aunt Verdella, who wasn't able to have children of her own. Button spends as much time with her as possible, but it still isn't the same as having a 'best friend.' Then the Malone sisters, Freeda and Winnalee, come busting through their small country town changing everything and everyone. Winnalee is nine like Button and though they are totally different, they become fast friends. Winnalee is a fiesty little girl who carries her mother's ashes around in a jar and a big book she calls "The Book of Bright Ideas." She is trying to record the mysteries of life in the book. Her sister, Freeda, is in her twenties and wild and a little loose. She has no trouble tellin' it like it is. The men in town swarm around her and the women can't help but hate her.

Basically the book shows how just a little love can change a whole family and a small town.

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Ladies practice your Keggles excercises because you will pee your pants with this book. This book will bust your gut at the sametime it breaks your heart.

Well written easy to follow and memorable characters. It is funny how the regular lives of people contain both humor and heartbreak. I loved the little girls and their book of bright ideas....a kids way of making sense in this chaotic world by their observations of the adults in their life. The kids write their interpretations of these in there book of bright ideas. It is quite comical and mischieveous. Oh if the adults only knew!!!!! Is a testament to the intelligence of children's perceptions at such a young age! ADULTS OUR CHILDREN ARE LISTENING!!!!

There are a ton of everyday lessons. This is a dance naked in the rain kind of book.

I loved it! I would re-read this book.

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A very quick read. A little girl and her big sister drift into a small town and make some friends and some enemies. It is the story of friendship, loss and the wonderment of childhood and how everyone has secrets. This was a really sweet book that is well written. Great Beach or vacation book!

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I loved this book. The characters came alive...who wouldn't want to get to know these people. Heartwarming book with a bit of a twist. It's about friendships and much more.

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Using a child narrator for a novel intended for adult readers is a tricky proposition, but Sandra Kring pulls it off with perfection in The Book of Bright Ideas.

Evelyn Peters (aka âButtonâ) is the heart of this tale of childhood friendship that grows with the intensity that only eight-going-on-nine can muster when an unconventional pair of siblings burst into their staid midwestern town like the fireworks on âMarty Grawâ. Freeda Malone is a fiery redhead with the mouth of a sailor, the body of a temptress, and a perhaps too-healthy appetite for male company. Her baby sister Winnalee is an impatient bundle of energy, dubious fashion choices, and big ideas (which she writes down in the titular book). That the two girls should instantly become best of friends is almost inevitable, as Button's imagination is nurtured by Winnalee's flights of fancy, and Winnalee finds stability and loving acceptance from Button's Aunt Verdella.

What's perhaps less to be expected is that the free-spirited Freeda also opens doors for Verdella and for Button's mother, Jewel â a process Button sees and describes, without fully understanding what's at the base of it all. She knows only that, bit by bit, her world is getting just slightly bigger, though sometimes the grown-ups around her make choices she can't really comprehend.

Kring keeps the point-of-view firmly with Button, even as events unfold in the adult world that will change everything in heartbreaking ways. Most readers will have winkled out the main revelation long before it's made, but can still feel the pain the knowledge brings to everyone touched by it.

Definitely worth the read.

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What a sweet book, and the powerful story it tells about humans, and flaws, and acceptance. Strong female characters, and challenging situations. It doesn't have a "happy" ending, yet it had a hopeful ending. Excellent read.

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I ordered this book after a recommendation from a friend. I was a little disappointed, yet liked it enough to finish it. It was an easy read and relatively entertaining. I think it is more of a young adult book, yet the friendships that were cultivated and the relationships between the characters throughout this story is something any reader can appreciate.

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This book was named to the New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Aged list in
2007, but I would only recommend it to a teen with some disclaimers for the behaviors of certain characters. Overall, I loved the book and it has some very good points--some from the "Book of Bright Ideas" that one of the two youngsters in the book maintains. Some of the lessons are just about the hard, cold facts of life and of how we see ourselves. Also, it is not just another book with a feel-good ending but one that is more true to real-life.

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Wonderful book that tugs at your heart.

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What a great book! Told from the viewpoint of a nine year old girl nick named Button, the story tells of a very shy young 9 year old girl who becomes mesmerized by 10 year old Winnalee and her 25 year old sister Freeda. Button's aunt, Verdella, has taken the young newcommers to town under her wing and put them up in Button's grandmother's old house. Freeda quickly becomes the topic of the town gossip due to her "wild" ways. Button and Winnalee become quick best friends and Winnalee's vivid imagination starts to bring Button's personality to the surface. The characters are developed well and the trouble they get into is very realistic. The book leaves you hoping for a sequel to this great story.

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