Trish Kuffner, a former computer programmer and mother of five, wrote Surviving Your Preschooler followed by Surviving Your Toddler. Hoping to inspire and encourage other stay-at-home mothers, the Coquitlam author recently compiled The Children's Busy Book (Lighthouse Books/Sandhill $15.95). Four ways to create secret messages, an experiment with an egg to show how dental cavities are formed and a bouncing bubble solution are just a few of the 300-plus ideas to entertain 6-to-10-year-olds. Two more activity books are in the works. 0-9696626-4-5 (2003)

[Spring 2003 BCBW]