Tadpoles & Fireflies: "figuring it out" (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781098022648)

This story takes you from the recollections of a four-year-old through the years to a baby boomer's senior years. A glimpse of elementary school, junior high, and high school, to college and beyond. She shares her relationships, lets us know her family, friends, teachers, and colleagues. You will learn to know her and those who were and are part of her life-- the ones who changed her life.

There are loves and loses, all portrayed in a sincere, honest, and, many times, humorous way. It is written in a stream of consciousness manner, so you need to pay attention to keep up, or you'll miss some of the laughs and some of the tears, possibly all of the fun and all of the memories.

The beginning is a bit like Happy Days meets A Christmas Story, without the bunny suit or BB gun. Through all of this is the emotional story of the person living it, and you'll feel it--the joy and the pain, the friendships, and hardships, and the great love of her life. The theme of this tale told from a senior point of view is the leap from childhood to puberty to adulthood and trying to negotiate all the changes physically, mentally, and strategically.

The author leads you along the way in a manner that pushes you turn to the next page. Moving along with this small-town Midwestern firstborn tomboy through her senior years, the time when the realization hits that most of her life has gone by. Time to now assess all the choices, the decisions, the mistakes, and the victories and maybe devise a plan for the remaining future.

Wanting to leave a story for her daughters and their children, Diane opens up her heart and lets you in, pulls you in. A journal becomes a novel, and the story is told. It is overwhelmingly a feel-good story with a bit of heartbreak thrown in...the story of a life.