(Click twice for music)


 

 

(Click book cover image for more info)

 

 

(Review from Magna Diaz, Librarian, Philadelphia, officer of the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association)

"The Purple Hat Gang" weaves a glorious tale about five girls on the cusp on adulthood back in 1961.

Yes, it was Camelot. Yes, it was a softer and kinder time in America, but it also shows the troubles, joys, pain, heartache, triumphs and tragedies that befall those in the tender years of 12 and 13, and that those issues are not exclusive to any particular decade, or group or culture.

The storyline also gives girls a sense of empowerment ... it's about accountability, first love, difficult choices, random acts of kindness, doing good deeds, and growing up the right way. It's message is powerful without being preachy and it leaves everyone who reads it with a good feeling.

It's a story that needed to be told ... and read.. and loved... And it is.

(Faith , a College Freshman in SEPTEMBER!, June 9, 2006)

Take me back to 1961!*!*!

I waited three weeks to get this book from our library, but it was worth it. I loved the characters and the honesty of their lives. I know it was written for a younger audience, but still I found myself absorbed, turning page after page. It's not like a history book of 1961, I've read alot about that era in school. This was a look inside five girls every day lives, their friendship, their families, (good and bad) and their ups and downs at home and at school. I enjoyed reading about the music, the fashion show, the dances, the sweet romances, and the connection that these girls had to each other well into adulthood. The epilogue was particularly touching. This story about friendship is one that will stay in my heart for a very long time. What a different world this would be if we all wore purple hats.

(Review from Alicia Allen-Stewart, a School Teacher)

A Nostalgic Charmer...
I was one of twelve Pennsylvania school teachers asked to read 'The Purple Hat Gang.' I was not born in time to appreciate the nostalgia of 1961, but my heart went there just the same. It is a story about five young girls who went all through grade school together, and now, at the time of their 8th grade graduation, comes the realization that they are about to go their separate ways. It is a very different coming-of-age story - no matter what your age, you will find a connection here. Ms. Kristen has written 'Little Women' for the millenium. It is touching, funny, fast-paced, and so very, very charming.

If I could give it 10 stars, I would...

(Review from Sharon Grossman, a Philadelphia School Librarian)

A Teen Age Must-Read!

The "Purple Hat Gang" by Judith Kristen was embraced and enjoyed by my middle and high school girls at the Girard Academic Music Program school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.They totally fell in love with her when she came to speak with them at school. Ms. Kristen writes with compassion and humor so that the lives of the five girls come to life on the pages. It is a coming of age story of friendship and solidarity, a story of hope.The high point of the story is the birthday sleepover party. Here the girls really learn about each other and their hidden secrets. Teen girls will be able to relate to the characters and situations, such as boyfriends, graduation, and family relationships. Excellent!


(Review from Kathy Long. Philadelphia School Librarian)

A School Hit!!

Our students here at Jones Middle School are in awe of the story of five girls coming of age in the 60s. I have some students who never read a book before and finished this one!

How wonderful!

(Review from Cathi Saul, a college student from New Jersey)

A joy to read!

'The Purple Hat Gang' is not only a look back into the time America called 'Camelot'. it's a look back into a time in all of our lives when we were forming the person we wanted to be. Did some of us become that person? Of course we did. Did some of us fall short, of course we did.

But this book gives you hope and faith that you are able as long as you think you are able - that all of us have a 'Purple Hat' somewhere, and that we can put it on and become the master of our fate and the captain of our soul no matter who we are, or where we have been.


(Review from Sandria Cassidy, a NYC restaurant owner)

Although obviously written for a young adult audience, The Purple Hat Gang will capture you regardless of age. If you read this with your daughter, niece, or grandchild, be prepared to see the years fade away to take you both to a time and place where love and loyalty healed just about everything. It is a touching, funny and wonderfully genuine story about the best of friendships.


(Review from Marilyn Douglas-Boyd, interior designer)

I read it twice!

I was an elementary school student back in 1961 and what memories! --- the songs, the school dances, the friendships. I was so taken by it that I purchased 3 other copies for my daughter and two nieces. In a world where we are constantly being fed violence and war and hate, it is so nice to read about loving friendships, doers of good deeds, and those who have learned to be the masters of their fate and captains of their souls. It's the road to really growing up the right way! I salute Ms. Kristen's work. It is a positive note in an out of tune world and I loved it.


(Review from Chiarra, a NJ High School Junior)

One of my favorite books! I just finished The Purple Hat Gang and I really loved it. It's a true-to-life story about the power of friendship and the importance of having someone to talk to and lend you a hand when the rest of the world tunes you out.

Top

 

(Review from Angel, Student of Honor and MEGA reader)

A WOW of a story!

I am one of three dozen students who was asked to preview Ms.Kristen's latest Young Adult book, 'Olivia Twist...a quest for the glass half full.' I met Ms. Kristen last year when she visited my school, so the preview reading of her new book was quite an honor for me.

I was expecting something like 'The Purple Hat Gang' (her other book) but this one is quite different. This is a modern day tale of the many abused children who slip through the cracks of the system. The kids who come to school smiling and being nice to everyone, yet not really having any reason to smile. It's about the kids who are abused mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

This book should be a wake up call to many parents, step parents and foster parents, but those kinds of people who abuse children in this way will never see themselves in this book. Denial is an ugly thing. So, knowing that her situation is one that she will have to take into her own hands, the heroine of the story 'Libby Staples' tackles her emancipation from a horrid homelife with intelligence, fervor and a never-say-die attitude that I admired. I like the empowerment theme that Ms. Kristen's books have. It shows you that no matter what life dishes out to you, through faith in yourself and sheer will, you can come out on the other side of it with strength of character, a good heart and a powerful spirit that no one will ever be able to break. I just loved it!!!!!!

(Review from Paula, a college student)

Struggle and Victory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a real look at what it's like when you're up against apathetic/issue-ridden/mentally and emotionally abusive parents. The system only helps so much, face it, and worse, it looks at you as if you're just some malcontent teenager and they just pray for the day you turn 18 so they can shove you aside. (HEY! No bruises, no broken arms ---NO CASE!)

This story is about one 14 year old girl, Libby Staples, who takes her life into her own hands and makes a genuine difference. Libby wasn't about teenage rebellion, Libby was about teenage liberation!!!!! If I learned anything from this book it is THIS ----- You really will NEVER know what you can do, until you try! Awesome book! Totally Awesome!!!!!

(Review from a Teacher from Los Angeles, CA)

Olivia Twist --A Staple For Every School Library!

'Libby'. What a wonderfully appropriate name for a girl who liberates herself from an oppressive, abusive environment. The teenage years are difficult enough to negotiate without the added burden of a dysfunctional family. Judith Kristen's book gives hope and direction for these lost kids. I highly recommend OLIVIA TWIST!


(Review from Lindsay, a book lover from Vermont

....Captivating from start to finish!

This story makes you feel that nothing in life is so bad that you cannot overcome it when you believe in yourself. Libby's diary entries will tug at your heart. Break out a fresh box of Kleenex for this one!

(Review from Cindy C., High School Senior)

A MUST read !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the most captivating stories I have ever read in my life. Olivia Twist is about the system gone wrong, and parents gone wrong, and a child left with nothing but hope. You can't help but cheer on Libby throughout this book. Her road to victory was hard won and well deserved. GREAT reading!!!! Passionate storyline!!!


(Review from Tina, A student from Milton Hershey School)

Touching... A look inside the heart and mind of an abused 14 year old. Her diary entries were riveting...

 

(Review from Ashley, a student at Camden Catholic)

This book touched my heart... I loved this story!!!!!

I left my step parent's home to go live with another relative when I was 15, so I totally relate to the story of Libby Staples. I was also abused for years, but I was always afraid to say anything. Like would anyone believe me? Would anyone really help me? Usually my family (an otherwise very gossipy bunch) suddenly didn't want to talk to me when I started to talk about my abuse.

I read this book and tears filled my eyes. I could see myself in almost every page. No one has the right to treat you badly.No one has the right to make you fearful of every move you make. HEY!!! Find someone who will listen to you, like Libby and I did!!! It might not be easy (and it was difficult for me) but, after that, when every night is a good night's sleep, without wondering what Axe someone would have to grind with you the next day is just so unbelievably worth it!

Peace of mind is so freeing!!!! Become the person you were meant to be and leave those who only want you when you do and say what they want to hear FAR FAR behind!!!!!! This is the BEST book for people like me and Libby, who need help, insight, hope, power and love.

Top

(Reviewer from Barnes & Noble)

Five Stars!!!!!!

Having grown accustomed to voracious reading over the years, I've become increasingly depressed with a lack of truly worthwhile prose out for consumption today.

The vast majority of new books I've read have been tolerable, but it is rare that one encounters a work with as skillful of style or as engaging of characters as Judith Kristen's "Another Day in Paradox."

Both confronting a long-standing social taboo regarding May/December relationships running contrary to the traditionally accepted younger female/older male lines, Grace Anderson meets a man she feels she can entrust herself to love with nearly storybook intensity - Will - and Kristen's work analyzes both the corresponding social fallout of such an action, as well as the psychological ramifications of how far one author is willing to go for genuine love.

The work ranges from witty, even tongue-in-cheek, at times, to pointedly touching, flying across the gamut of emotions, yet skillfully indulging each one. It would be a fitting enough compliment to call this a "good love story"; however, it is something more than that.

Mrs. Kristen's work is, quite simply, a truly good book - of which there are far too few these days.

Top

(Hillary Sparks, a student)

Kristen's Best Yet!

I have grown up reading Judith Kristen's books. When I was just 14 I read "The Purple Hat Gang". When I was 15 I read "Olivia Twist". Now I am almost 17 and here comes her latest book, "The Light and Dark side of Seventeen"! To me, this one is the best! The story takes place in 1959 in Philadelphia and the Jersey shore. It's about two girls, who by a terrible series of events not only meet each other but change each other's lives. It's about best friends, white lies, black lies, the right guy, the wrong guy, hope, pain, and personal triumph. I love how her stories seem to fit my soul. The dialogue is so real that you can actually visualize each and every character. I'm was not only entertained, I was moved, inspired, and captured. There's nothing I like better after reading a really good book to just sit back and say, WOW! This was one of those books from start to finish!

Thank you Miss Kristen, once again! I loved it!

(Review from George Deitz (georgedeitz@yahoo.com), special education teacher)

HOW LIFE USED TO BE ........
As a fifty something guy from the Frankford/Northwood area of Philadelphia, this book brings back a lot of memories! Places, people emotions and happenings! Its about the situations, problems, and opportunities we all faced as kids. A MUST READ for all ages. One of those growing up themes- the coming of age-like the movie 'Stand by Me' one of my favorites! THANKS JUDY!!!! WELL DONE!!!!!!!!!

Also recommended: "Purple Hat Gang"



(A reviewer (harris@eckstutconsulting.com), I love books that are well written...)

Capturing the present in the past...
Exceptional reading for the teen genre. The writer brings the life and times of high school girls and their friends coming of age in the late 50's at the 'Jersey Shore' coping with the challenges of being a young female as they do today - just in a different time and place.

Top


(Mary Ellen Scott, retired teacher)

5 STARS!

A different gift of voice!
I was deeply moved by many of the stories and poetry within this book. These students should be so proud of what they have accomplished. I will suggest a teen writers guild to all of my friends who are still active teachers.



(Theresa Rand, mother of three teenagers)

5 Stars! It hits home!
Being a teenager these days isn't easy. Parents give up, most teachers learn to look the other way, and the media caters to their every superficial whim. These kids need leadership and they need to be heard. The entire idea of this book is to do just that, I applaud Lindenwold High School and Judith Kristen for making a difference in the lives of these teen authors.

Top


(H. Otto, an educator)
Bravo!

The Writings on the Wall is the second anthology from The Teen Writers Guild of Frankford High School. I used their first book, 'What We Want To Tell You' in my creative writing class and it helped my students tremendously. After reading this book to all of my classses, '282 students total', we all agree that this is an even better book than the last. We hope to create our own Writers Guild very soon. Thank you for inspiring us!


(Agnes Sharp, Grandmother of Twelve Teens)

2007 is definitely not like the teen world that I grew up in back in the 1940s. There is a deep sense of loss in these children nowadays. Both parents work, inner city schools are dangerous and there are no repercussions for ill-behavior, poor work habits, or lack of knowledge. Everyone just moves on.

These students have no genuine communication skills, their manners are out the window, their writing skills. (read a text message one of these days) and leadership is nowhere to be found and, all of this results in the mob mentality that we are seeing now ---- all across the board, all across the country.

When a school with a bad reputation such as Frankford High School has, steps up to the plate to give their students the opportunity to passionately speak their minds,hearts and lives, to join in a class that not only teaches them to appreciate good writing and reading, but also teaches them to reach out, and improve their own talent, and secure a better spot for themselves in the real world that's waiting for them after high school, then every school in this country can do the same thing!

Stop glorifying sports teams and start creating readers and writers and thinkers --- for they are the only ones who will change our world for the better!

Top


(Shelly Fredman, Teacher/Author, Santa Monica, California)

"My Name is Henley -- my life and times as a rescued dog" is as entertaining as it is educational. I realize it was written for a young audience, (7 to 12) but I found myself wrapped up in the world of Henley and his darling cat friends just the same. What a great idea to write this book in the dog's "voice". It brings the issues of being a rescued animal to life in a way that other more conventionally written books about the same subject cannot convey.

This is easily a 5 star book, appealing to children of ALL ages!

(Bob Wagner, the author of "The Blue Parakeet is Asleep under the Pancakes" and
Main Columnist for All Around Pennsauken, New Jersey)

I’ve been keeping busy these last few months watching the birth of a book. Pennsauken’s own, Judith Kristen caught my attention back in the Spring when she was healing from some surgery. Jude’s been my friend for quite a while and I stopped in to share some gossip and giggles while she convalesced, and was handed a neatly typed manuscript: “My Name is Henley … my life and times as a rescued dog.” - her eighth book.

Jude doesn’t sit still very well. Her forced recuperation was interrupting her schedule of writing seminars, meetings, book signings and writers guild work -- which was okay with me, because I now had a chance to play catch up with the blonde dynamo. And catch up I did. Sitting at her dining room table dodging Henley drool from the Sheepdog and Mookie swats from the orange cat, I heard all about the “New book”.

Jude’s other new book; “The Light and Dark Side of Seventeen” was just out, by weeks. She has been busy setting up meet & greets, and book signings and all that other busy stuff for months.
And just because she is forced to sit still by the doctor, she pops out another one. This is what she calls - resting. As usual, I am a tiny bit jealous, and of course, envious, because she can get all this terrific stuff done so effortlessly.

Fast forward to later that night, when I put down the just read manuscript, and started bugging my wife to read it, too. It’s not a huge, long read. But it was devoured! My bride, the teacher, saw so much great stuff to use in her classroom. And I found a message about life and death that parents have been trying to explain to kids for generations. The book is written in the dog’s voice, so we both loved the dog and cat give and take. I truly believe this Kids Book – for kids of all ages – will be a million seller. And I think it’s neat that it comes from Pennsauken.

Without giving away the whole book, it is written by Henley whom I call Helmsley, Bentley, or Barkley, just to throw him off. The storyline is about the dog, a rescued, fuzzy sheepdog, and his second chance at life in the world of Judy, her husband, Andrew and five rescued cats. The special limited edition is available right now. I’ve watched reactions from folks I know and trust in the business, and I see this birth process has been delivered just in time. Otherwise, normally staid and calm individuals would be exploding all over the place. The book has already been picked up in Europe, and is being translated into Germanand Spanish. Animal rescue organizations and associations are lining up to get orders. Schools are waiting to use the book in curriculum. And, I am waiting for my signed First Edition, as I have been here throughout the entire process.

I took the manuscript on vacation, and read chapters to my grandkids every night before bedtime. The one night I missed because of Casino interference, I was accosted the next morn, and had to read more before we went to the beach.

Grandparents are going to be heroes again!

So, I probably won’t be able to shoot the breeze for a while, with my buddy Jude. Her new Aquinas & Krone Publishing Company will be occupying most of her time. Maybe I’ll take a job there, just to stay close and enjoy the excitement. I could walk the dog, and answer phones.

What a cool ride it has been.

Top

 

(Henry Michael Edwards, a retired businessman,
February 5, 2006)

A gift for everyone!

How sixteen teens ever got their heads together enough to write such diverse, thought provoking, and heart-wrenching poems and stories is beyond me.

I myself am a former Philadelphian and a product of the public school system (the 1950s). School life, and life in general, these days, is not even close to what I remember as a kid and the words from these children prove that.

They also prove that in a world that is so quick to slam their urban-ness, they are strong enough to not only make a difference in their lives, but they also found a way to put it all in writing to let their peers know that they can do the same.

This is possibly the best lesson of all. BRAVO!

Top

Educational Testimonials

Custom Graphics & Site Creation ... by WebCraftSiteDesign
Original Matching Soundtrack ... by SoundSmiths