Teaching children about good deeds, friendship, and creativity can be tricky themes to deal with, nonetheless, ten-year old Natalie has embraced the task with much ease, as her narrative naturally flows with frolicky and light dialogue, creating a lively pace that will make reading aloud a pleasure.

Quite interesting is that at the very onset of the book, Natalie introduces her readers to the story's characters with their respective ages ranging from seven to twelve. She also includes a sixty-even year old grandma, an eighteen year old dog, and Mr.Windy-whisper, that belongs to the family of mother-nature. All of these characters are described with their various attributes such as the families they belong to, their eye and hair colors, their favorite foods, and specialties of each, such as having fun, sensitive to feelings, as well as many other traits. In addition, Natalie provides her personal adorable vibrant and spunky illustrations of each character creating an expressive and rich backdrop to the story.

The narrative unfolds when seven-year old Meeka Venya receives a note that is delivered to her by a dog called Dogon informing her that Nina Kay has a bad, horrible scratch on her finger and she won't be able to play her instruments. They must quickly come and make her feel better. Dogon dashes off to three other friends, Jonsy, Kiki, and Sokron bringing them the identical message, and at the same time, informing grandma Babushka, who was spying on the friends from a cupcake, that their plan was running well.

The friends meet and decide to have a make-your-friend-feel-better-party where they will come up with all kinds of suggestions as to how to cheer up Nina. At this juncture, Natalie tells us more about the musical world of Nina, who wishes that her friends were present. To her delight, her wish comes true when her four friends show up on her door-step-all carrying presents for her. We also learn that Nina' s house is filled with rules, all beginning with the word don't- a reminder to parents that negative commands are not always the most effective.

After discussing what they should do, each of the friends decide that they would draw a picture on a separate piece of cloth and then they would create a story, eventually sewing together all the pieces to make a friendship quilt. You notice that Natalie shies away from suggesting the endless variety of activities children indulge in that very often focus on structure or skill building, which, although have their merits, nonetheless may prevent play that is essential for developing imagination and creativity. And as many respected authorities have pointed out, children who actively engage their imaginations are rewarded with a host of benefits and learn many great lessons in life. Also, as evidenced in the magical and sometimes funny tales the children narrate, they learn the power of friendships, the importance in performing good deeds, problem solving, and discovering talents, as well as inner powers that they thought never existed in themselves.

To encourage reluctant readers to ignite their imaginations, Natalie includes at the end of the book six unfinished stories providing fill in the blanks. Natalie has written a book that no doubt will be gobbled up and may even win her some more prizes, as was the case with her first book.

Talented ten-year old Natalie Tinti lives in California. She is not only a writer and illustrator, but also a dancer and, as she says, a very good friend. Natalie informs us in the Author's Note that she was inspired to write her second book “because I feel that helping each other builds a stronger community and that imagination is a huge part of everyone's life. I hope this book will spread the message that friendships are an important part of life and that everyone should take a chance at helping everyone.”

Natalie's award- winning talents began in 2004 when, at the tender age of five, she won first place for the poster contest at the 4th Annual Artists Event hosted by Great Graphics Bella & Animal Friends of the Valleys. That same year, she achieved first place for the Visual Arts Primary Division at her school for the Reflections theme “A Different Kind of Hero.” In 2007, her art piece was placed in the Promenade Mall at the Youth Art Exhibition hosted by the Temecula Valley Art Council. Recently, Natalie's book, Sewing a Friendship, was awarded a Silver Medal in the 2009 award contest hosted by the nationally recognized Readers Favorite Book Reviews under the Children-Chapter category.

In 2010 she was a finalist  in the Children's Picture Book, Soft cover Category hosted by International Book Awards and also winner in Children's Motivation Category hosted by National Indie Excellence Awards Winner Spring 2010 Pinnacle Achievement Award hosted by the North American Bookdealers Exchange Silver Medal in the 2009 award contest hosted by the nationally recognized Readers Favorite Book Reviews.

In fact, she's matured as a writer since her first book - which she wrote when she was a younger ten!

As a fiction writer myself, I'm rather in awe of this young talent. Her stories are well structured, her characters complex, and her prose completely uninhibited by staid, adult convention:

As Nina turned the next page with gratefulness and excitement to see what would be on it, she was so full of thrill that she even forgot about her scratched up finger.

An adult writer likely would have felt compelled to rewrite that sentence a hundred times over, and it would have gotten worse each time!

And let me tell you something about that "scratched up finger": it's the trauma that sets the whole story into motion!

Now it's easy to be dramatic about unrequited love, or a bomb going off in the public square, but it takes a real author to spin a tale worth telling that hinges on a scratched up finger. Natalie Tinti does just that, and for 180 pages no less!

There is no end to this young lady's storytelling sophistication. Each of the five distinct young characters in this book spins a story within a story, and Natalie ties all five together. And the world she depicts is a world I (a 48 year old man) wouldn't mind living in!

It's a sweet, hopeful, energetic and safe world. The girls have a Babushka, a secret agent dog, and Mr. Windy-Whisper (the wind) not only looking out for them but hanging on their every world. It's a world in which every obstacle can be overcome with mutual support and joint creativity. Or, as Natalie says, it's about

The Power of...Imagination, Friendship, & Mind!"

Sewing a Friendship 2 features the five main characters from the first book, plus a new one...a boy. They have names like Sokron Blossom, and each has a fictional alter ego (I told you this was sophisticated storytelling!). Sokron's is Sokora.

Have I mentioned that Natalie Tinti is also her own illustrator?

I was blown away by the art in her first book, and again in this second one, but I'm a writer, not an artist. For expert opinion, I called in two teen fans of Japanese Anime. (Anime is an art form Natalie is clearly influenced by.)

I started off by asking how old they thought the artist was. They agreed she was probably a female in her twenties, though one opined that the artist could just as easily be an older man. (Anime characters can sometimes be a little too - shall we say - curvy. Natalie's characters, on the other hand, just look like very imaginatively dressed ten year olds.)

It's inspirational to see that a 10 year old is capable of such stunning creativity, and your children will likely take inspiration from that.

And the story itself is all about creativity. When Natalie Tinti's characters try to decide what to do next, there's a veritable blizzard of ideas put forth, and the girls have to sift through them all to come up with a plan of action.

So if you have kids at home (girls in particular will like this book) who have been known to stare blankly at a screen while proclaiming, indignantly, that there's nothing else to do, you couldn't do any better than to turn off the electronica and present them with their own personal copy of both Sewing a Friendship books.