Sarah Ferguson

You may see this book and think ah I don't really like to read inspiring stories...is this all this is are a bunch of stories of people's experiences? No, its not! This book is absolutely amazing. I started this book unsure of what I was going to be reading and I ended up not being able to put it down and finished it in just a few short days! This IS a great book filled with advice and its not just the little stuff. It discusses the changing of bad habits, keys to peak performance, like for show more example a time line of how you feel during specific times of the day and what to do during those times. Ex: Schedule dentist appointments between 7 and 9 am as your pain tolerance is highest in the early morning. It talks about success, failure, how you feel about yourself (getting rid of that negative self talk), change, responsibility, expectations for ourselves and so much more. This is not a book to be missed, I promise you that. I would say this book rates an 10 out of 5 if I could rate it higher, yes it is that great! show less

“Tea for Ruby” is about a little girl who gets an invitation in the mail to have “tea with the queen.” The story revolves around Ruby telling her family, teacher, and friends that she has received this exciting invitation, and they respond various reminders of appropriate behaviors like “don’t forget to chew with your mouth closed when you have tea with the queen!” This big idea of the story is to remember the importance of proper behaviors. The book would fit under the show more category of a picture book under the genre of contemporary realistic fiction and it is most appropriate for girls, around the age of an elementary school child since Ruby herself is a young elementary school girl. I really enjoyed the book because not only teaches children proper etiquette, but it also ties in the importance and fun of having grandparents be involved in children’s lives. It touched on various points of proper behaviors, such as not shouting or talking over other people, with repetition that engages the reader. At the end of the story, the “queen” ended up being the little girl’s grandmother, who had invited her to a formal tea party where they dressed as royalty. show less

I knew Sarah Ferguson had written a series of kids books, so I was both surprised and intrigued when I learned she was branching out into the historical fiction genre (my favorite). And excited about seeing what a royal-insider might be able to do.

You won't see the name on the book jacket, but on the title page, you will see Ferguson had a co-writer, historical romance author Marguerite Kaye. Unfortunately, for me, even with Kaye's help, HER HEART FOR A COMPASS turns out to be just an OK show more read.

The novel centers on a distant relation of the Duchess, Lady Margaret Montagu Scott, the second daughter of a Scottish Duke, who lived during the Victorian age. But this book does NOT actually tell HER story. According to Ferguson, this story is largely made up -- since virtually nothing is known about Lady Margaret. Which I suppose has the advantage of allowing Ferguson and Kaye free rein in creating this novel. Ferguson also explains in the Author's Note that the book contains elements of her own story as well. Here's how.

Lady Margaret is a free spirit who refuses to conform to the expectations of her age. She is more outspoken and independent than women of her age are supposed to be. She refuses to marry a man for the betterment of her family and disregards the wishes of her parents. All causing a scandal. Instead, Lady Margaret prefers to live according to what she wishes. (Sound familiar?)

How Lady Margaret experiments with her hard-won freedom (including travels to Ireland and later, the United States), how she manages to earn some money, how she tries to improve the lot of impoverished people, and how she deals with love -- all these make up the substance of the story Ferguson and Kaye created.

It's a fine story. It's compelling enough to keep you reading. The writing is acceptable. But it didn't quite hang together for me and it is probably about 100 pages longer than it needed to be, if it was a tightly written book.

So, if you, like me, are curious about what the Duchess of York can do as a writer, enjoy! show less

Always dancing about with her toy bear, Rosie Red Curls is sent to ballet school by her mother, who tells her that perhaps she will find her special talent. At first things don't go well at Madame Natalie's school, as Rosie finds herself continually out of step, and not quite right in any of her positions. Fortunately her teacher knows just what is needed, in order to reassure and inspire her...

One of a number of children's books written by Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York, Ballerina show more Rosie was apparently based upon an incident from its creator's own childhood. I found the story pleasant, and the artwork quite cute, but overall I wasn't that impressed. There's nothing wrong here, exactly, but given some of the excellent ballet picture-books out there - Tallulah's Tutu and its sequels, the Ella Bella Ballerina books - I'm not sure I'd recommend this one that highly. show less