Barbara Mahany

Feeling saggy in the Bright Ideas Department? Well, there's a nifty little green-and-burgundy primer to stoke your flames. Titled "52 Projects: Random Acts of Everyday Creativity" (Perigee Trade, $13.95 paper),...

Sometimes it takes a cell phone to find out your fairy godfather has tapped you on the shoulder and dropped $1,000 in your lap. Thing is, you have to remember...

Sometimes it takes a cell phone to find out your fairy godfather has tapped you on the shoulder and dropped $1,000 in your lap. Thing is, you have to remember...

Maybe there's magic in that storefront. The place certainly cast a spell when it housed Hydrangea, the Wilmette tea room that made you feel like you had pulled up a...

You might think about wrapping it in a brown-paper cover, considering the pitying stares you'll get while lugging it around. But, then again, maybe you'd do best to give it...

The e-mail was urgent: "We're all somewhat out of sorts, bordering on distraught because Speckles has gone AWOL. . . . Thanks for praying for his safe return and understanding...

In case you hadn't noticed, boys do these things: squirm, walk in circles while thinking, burst out doors, tap their toes while reading. It's not that they're fidgety, it's how...

Sit down. Hold on to your seats. In case you hadn't noticed, plenty of kids 9 to 13 are more than dabbling in sex, drugs and all things once thought...

As bedtimes fall back into place, and backpacks slide from the closet to their school-year perch at the front door, it's time to start wondering how to navigate the world...

Every once in a while, along comes the book you swore you would have conjured up if only you'd had a magic wand. Voila: "The Organized Student: Teaching Children the...