Delia Ephron is a loving dog-owner who lives with her family in New York. She obviously has a lot of talents; fabulous cook, "master" at painting scenes in your mind, and (of course) a great screenwriter and book writer! One of the movies she wrote the screenplay for was The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Mrs. Ephron has written many books as well; her first one was How to Eat like a Child and the most recent was Frannie in Pieces.

The book Frannie in Pieces is about a girl named Frannie, age 15. She is an only child, divorced parents, remarried mom, who feels that when her (real) father dies a week before her 15th birthday, nobody cares and she is the only "keeper of his memory." Because of the sudden death, Frannie struggles to believe that the world is still "safe." When Frannie goes back to her dad's house to take all of the important memories, she finds a mysterious box with her name written in fancy letters. A handmade puzzle, from her dad for her birthday is in the box. He finished it early, WAY early! This leads Frannie to think he may have had a premonition of his death. Anyway, she takes the puzzle to her home, and when her mom is asleep, she slowly puts together the puzzle, piece by piece, experiencing strange but wonderful adventures every night...

You will have to find out the rest by reading this truly interesting book!

You can get a lot of advice from Delia Ephron, being such an experienced writer. She says, "It's important to have room for you to express your feelings, and it is good to have books such as dictionaries and inspirational stories." Inside the book with her signature she autographed - "Life is a puzzle!" One of her sayings that goes most with the book that she shared with us is "Life is full of mystery and magic, funny and sad." Notice how a lot of her sayings relate to REAL-LIFE. This must be her favorite genre!

So far, all we know about what she is writing next is that her new book is going to be called Suky Tanks!

To find out more about Delia Ephron and her books go to http://www.deliaephron.com

Also go to www.youtube.com and type in "Frannie in Pieces" in the search box for a surprise!

Elisha is a 7th grader at Rancho San Joaquin Middle School and attended the event.