I have every one of the FBFW collections. I've been a part of the family since they first appeared. Probably because this is the family I'd have had if not for the divorce. My favorite part is that each member isn't really cartoonish. They have faults and frustrations, they fight, they make up....it's believable. I'm an avid reader and part of the enjoyment is caring for the characters involved. I care for these characters. This is the only strip I need a daily fix for. I reread the series over again, just as I do Little House on the Prairie and for very much the same reason. These stories are a history of our time. Lynn has recorded the last 20+ years of family life and the world that affects it.

aprils teenage years are forcing the patersons to rewrite the rules they have relied on for so long in regards for their parenting. The greated media threat to april's brother and sister was Mtv and keeping them from watching it was probably a simple task compared to what they are faced with April. Outside influences once thought to stop at the front door are easily accesable through the computer and satellite TV and the reality of how unsafe society has become. Face it, we all have a real fear of someone so desperate to kidnap a child they will break in to a locked home. Their fear has forced them to keep April within their sphere of influence evenif it means she has to work at the store along side her mom, something Elly never had to even think about when Micheal and Elizabeth were April's age. This book, even though its humor, is a brilliant editorial on the radical adjustments parents are making in their lives with the onslaught of the radical changes in our society.

Seems like all the young girls in the sweetsy comic strip are slowly turning into idealized supermodels lately. Even the blonde rugrat, Meredith, who seems to have inherited big, fat Angelina Jolie lips from her equally blonde mommy. And now ALL the nubile-aged females are ALSO developing these famous lips, Elizabeth and April included.

No wonder sweet, perfect young Elizabeth just had her bones jumped by some paunchy pervert and she never got around to calling the police on him yet; she was so damn wide-eyed and childishly innocent even into her twenties.

Even in her diaper years, the toddler Meredith looks like she's going to be the queen bee one day in kindergarten, junior high,and high school with her wavy Hollywood-blond curls and pouty pink lips that you usually find on a starlet or a streetwalker.

Shiloh is going to LOVE little Meredith so much! (Sounds of kittenish clawing.)