One act review / 6 to 30 children (10 to 15 is ideal), ages 5 to 15

Area staging; unit set.

This musical romp through the joys and sorrows of being a child is hilarious. Children give 23 lessons in such subjects as how to beg for a dog, how to torture your sister, how to act after being sent to your room and how to laugh hysterically. The pace is fast, the tone subversive and the recognition instant.

"Applause, applause, applause "-- Steve Allen

"Delightfully clever."-- Hollywood Reporter

"Razzle dazzle staging, Broadway style songs and an imaginative script."-- TV Guide.

'I have bought more copies of this book to give to people, in a frenzy of enthusiasm, than any other . . . Heartburn is the perfect, bittersweet, sobbingly funny, all-too-true confessional novel' Nigella Lawson Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel discovers that her husband is in love with another woman. The fact that this woman has a 'neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb' is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel is a cookery writer, and between trying to win Mark back and wishing him dead, she offers us some of her favourite recipes. Heartburn is a roller coaster of love, betrayal, loss and - most satisfyingly - revenge. This is Nora Ephron's (screenwriter of When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle) roman a clef: 'I always thought during the pain of the marriage that one day it would make a funny book,' she once said - And it is! Books included in the VMC 40th anniversary series include: Frost in May by Antonia White; The Collected Stories of Grace Paley; Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith; The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn by Nora Ephron; The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor; and Faces in the Water by Janet Frame

Bestselling author Delia Ephron shares a deeply personal collection of stories and essays, anchored by a loving remembrance of her sister Nora.
In "Sister Mother Husband Dog, "Delia Ephron brings her trademark wit and effervescent prose to a series of autobiographical essays about life, love, sisterhood, movies, and family. In "Losing Nora," she deftly captures the rivalry, mutual respect, and intimacy that made up her relationship with her older sister and frequent writing companion. Other essays run the gamut from a humorous piece about love and the movies--how one romantic comedy completely destroyed her twenties--to the joy of girl friends and best friendship, the magical madness and miracle of dogs, keen-eyed observations about urban survival, and a serious and affecting memoir of life with her mother and growing up the child of alcoholics. Ephron's eloquent style and voice illuminate every page of this superb and singular work.

What does you in--brain or heart?

Frannie asks herself this question when, a week before she turns fifteen, her dad dies, leaving her suddenly deprived of the only human being on planet Earth she feels understands her. Frannie struggles to make sense of a world that no longer seems safe. She discovers an elegant wooden box with an inscription: Frances Anne 1000. Inside, Frannie finds one thousand hand-carved and -painted puzzle pieces. She wonders if her father had a premonition of his death and finished her birthday present early. Feeling broken into pieces herself, Frannie slowly puts the puzzle together. But as she works, something remarkable begins to happen: She is catapulted into a foreign landscape suspended in time where she can discover her father as he was B.F.--before Frannie.

Universal and timeless, Delia Ephron's How to Eat Like a Child is a delightful revisiting of the joys -- and tricky ploys -- of childhood. Made into a children's television special and a musical theater revue performed across the country each year, How to Eat Like a Child offers advice beyond the artful etiquette of food consumption. Ephron also teaches us "How to Laugh Hysterically," "How to Have a Birthday Party," "How to Torture Your Sister," and much, much more. As the Washington Post Book World noted, `After the giggles of recognition have subsided, one thing will be very clear: all adults are kids in grown-ups' clothing."

A story of hope, love and life in the face of cancer, and the miracle of second chances When Delia's beloved first husband Jerry died of cancer in 2015, after thirty-three years of marriage, she struggled without him. Floored by grief, it never occurred to her she would find love again. But fate had other ideas. An article she published about the pain of shutting down Jerry's landline sparked a series of emails with a widower she'd dated in college fifty years ago, and they fell deeply in love. Delia and Peter found themselves soul mates in their seventies, but as their whirlwind romance came into bloom, Delia was diagnosed with leukaemia - the same that had claimed the life of her sister Nora. See-sawing between tears and laughter, Left on Tenth is the spirited story of Delia's second chance at love, and a heartfelt and inspirational account of life after cancer. 'A tale of brilliant hope, of heartache and uplift, so refreshing - it is a wonderful read.' Mariella Frostrup 'Illuminating, generous, sparkling with wit, wisdom, humanity and wonder' Rachel Joyce 'I absolutely loved this book. All of life and death and everything in between is in the pages' Clover Stroud 'Tender, witty and romantic ... makes you immediately want to get cosy, slow down and shut off the world for a moment.' Emma Gannon 'If it's possible to fall in love with someone by reading their story, I just have.' Sam Baker

"One of the sharpest observers of human behavior around."-Booklist (starred review) BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SIRACUSA, coming in trade paperback on June 6, 2017! Tracee is a runaway bride and kleptomaniac. Lana's an audacious beauty, a recovering alcoholic. Rita is a holy-roller minister's wife, desperate to escape her marriage. One warm summer's night, these three women go on the lam together. Their car breaks down on a rural highway in North Carolina and they're forced to seek shelter in a seemingly abandoned nightclub. Which is where they meet Marcel. And soon everything changes. Marcel, you see, is a lion. Written with the deftness, humor, and sparkling wit that mark her books, plays, and movies, Delia Ephron's The Lion Is In is an unforgettable story of friendship, courage, love-and learning to salsa with the king of the jungle.

An electrifying New York Times bestselling novel about marriage and deceit that follows two couples on vacation in Siracusa, a town on the coast of Sicily, where the secrets they have hidden from one another are exposed and relationships are unraveled. With her inimitable psychological astuteness and uncanny understanding of the human heart, Ephron delivers a powerful meditation on marriage, friendship, and the meaning of travel. Set on the sun-drenched coast of the Ionian Sea, Siracusa unfolds with the pacing of a psychological thriller and delivers an unexpected final act that none will see coming. One of People Magazine's Top 10 Books * A Washington Post Bestseller * A Los Angeles Times Bestseller * A USA Today Bestseller * One of Vulture's 100 Greatest Beach Books Ever * A People Magazine Summer Reading Pick * One of Elle, InStyle, and Marie Claire's Best of July * A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2016 (Fiction)