When the House was Bright Pink Welcome to a world where yo-yos and Hula Hoops, Jell-O and Kool-Aid, "Father Knows Best," "American Bandstand," drive-in theaters, and homecooked meals are the norm. Welcome to a time when e-mail and cell phones don't exist; when girls can't wear pants to school; when houses mustn't stay bright pink.. This collection of short coming-of-age stories in verse travels to a 1950's, 1960's America, where the world seemed safer-at least in Mountain View, California. These stories, though reflecting a bygone era, speak to us in the present. For the need to be heard, to be seen, to be recognized are as perennial as the stars in the sky, as eternal as time flying by. These verses were written for grown-ups, but can be read by children twelve years and older. Read a poem a day, or a poem a week..Enjoy the illustrations. Enjoy. Follow a "homely" middle child's observations and struggles while growing up in a nine-member family. See how family provides the foundation for an overall happy, memorable childhood. See how family buoys her from drowning in a larger, harsher world-a world torn between rejecting her and molding her into a "proper" American. The center of this world is pre-Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Region. Enjoy. About the Author Jacqueline Chan Valencic didn't become obsessed with writing "rhymes" until she was laid off from a high tech company in 2001. The rhymes kept coming; she couldn't stop-It was too much fun. She was 53 years young. Since childhood, writing was just something she did-a natural extension of the self: in diaries, letters, short stories, essays, free-verse, and even in an unpublished novel. None of these writing mediums, however, exhilarated her as much as writing poems that rhyme. To her, it was and is the most challenging.and stimulating. Her poetic heroes?-Robert Louis Stevenson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ogden Nash, Dr. Seuss, and Shel Silverstein. Born in China and raised in Mountain View, California, Ms. Valencic now works and lives with her husband, Jay, in Las Vegas, Nevada.