Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

With lots of children of my own, I'm always looking for new books to read with them. Even though Beth Stern has no children and never will, I thought, what the heck, the pictures look cute. And the pictures are cute and well drawn, you can tell it was illustrated by a professional. That's where the professionalism ends. The author somehow manages to make a book about a sick cat all about herself. Here's an excerpt... "There was no way anyone would ever choose him. But one Saturday a nice lady named Beth came to the shelter and picked she chose Yoda!" Oh Beth, you're such a saint. Her name appears almost as many times as the cat's name. The author manages to be judgmental as well... "But then Yoda's owner didn't want to care for him anymore." Gee Beth, maybe the owner couldn't afford to care for him anymore. Or maybe the owner had to move to a place that wouldn't allow animals. Not everyone can marry a wig wearing shock jock worth hundreds of millions earned by years of racist and misogynistic skits and jokes. Skits like "Black Jeopardy" and throwing baloney at women's bare behinds paid for everything you have, including your ability to foster these animals. While the illustrations are high quality, some of them are crass and in poor taste, especially for a children's book. One of the pictures shows a beautifully decorated palace-like cat room. Another shows a closet, specifically noted to be "Beths' closet" with rows of purses and shoes. Every picture of Beth shows her with fancy jewelry. How many kids can relate to that? We get it Beth, Howard made a lot of money and you can afford expensive things. The book reads exactly how one could expect a book from someone without kids who didn't earn the lifestyle she leads... out of touch, boastful, self indulgent, and not kid-friendly. Beth Stern recently posted on Instagram: "Every book sold helps ME save more animals." It's all about her. She is literally chauffeured around in a limousine to deliver the kittens she has fostered. If she actually cared about animals rather than this just being something to pass the time in her lonely ocean side mansions, she would just donate the money spent carting these animals around to a shelter that is more efficient with its funds than North Shore Animal League. I can't take the philanthropic angle of this book too seriously either. North Shore Animal League has a terrible ranking from Charity Navigator. If you want to help shelter animals, please just donate to your local shelter as I do. Beth, has it ever occurred to you how many animals you could have saved instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on designer shoes, handbags, and dresses. I certainly don't begrudge anyone those things, it just seems a bit hypocritical when you are asking regular folks to support your vanity projects while you and Howard have three palatial estates worth in excess of $100,000,000 dollars all for two people. Again, I have no issue with those things, it just comes off as crass when you ask others to support your vanity projects. Another issue I have with the author is that she is a self-proclaimed animal advocate. She's an advocate for animals as long as they are cute and furry. You couldn't count the number of leather purses and shoes this woman posts on Instagram. It's just all so hypocritical. It's really just an awful book from a seemingly awful self absorbed tone deaf person. As I said earlier, if you want to support animal shelters there are much more efficient ways to it. Howard will just pay off the rest anyway, so this is really more of a Howard Stern charity project than an animal charity project.