A Prayer for Children: Yours, Mine and Ours

In a style resembling Erma Bombeck with a touch of Robert Fulghum, Knoxville News-Sentinel columnist Hughs begins these short essays about children with a prayer-like poem of the same title. The essays are a potpourri of the humorous, the nostalgic, the sweet (and sweetly sad) and sometimes the tragic. The children she writes of are her own, those of neighbors and friends, childhood playmates, a few luminary figures (Helen Keller) and children in general. Topics cover everything from ordering take-out from McDonald's (cleverly called McDarn-Its) to getting your ears tweaked by doting uncles to dying of leukemia. There are plenty of nuggets of wisdom here, too: In a letter to the parents of a teenager killed in a car wreck, she implored them not to blame themselves because ``unless we put kids on a leash, we can never control what happens... [life is] all a risk.'' A perfect Mother's Day gift. Author tour. (May)