Publisher's Synopsis
This is a Christmas holiday sci-fi fantasy that focuses on the power of love and is populated by sentient mobility devices and by humans of various ancestries and religions, including Christian, Buddhist, and Muslim. Born at Your LyfeWalkr Company in Minnesota, USA, Shirley LyfeWalkr, with her 399 birth-mates, receives from loving telempath humans an awesome education in human nature and behavior. They are taught how to mindfully use their own emotions as tools for joyful living, how to use skillful emotionality during an emotional crisis, and, of course, how to help disabled humans avoid falling. Her best friend, style-loving KD, soon to become the first LyfeWalkr model in her species' history, is destined to work for Vogue Magazine and promote the purchase of LyfeWalkrs worldwide while Shirley will be placed with a family of varied spiritual background that is celebrating Christmas. All LyfeWalkrs have the same altruistic secret mission and none of the humans realize that their new stylish walkers are able to think, feel emotion, and make mistakes...like them; the humans believe their new possessions to be AI programmed specifically for homecare, tastefully fashioned from luscious looking metals and rendered attractive by the name plates and colorful rubber caps and wheels.Before their final classes, the LyfeWalkrs have a vacation day to practice martial arts, hike in the park, play Bumperbodies and Little Bulls in the company gym, and visit offices and staff at Your LyfeWalkr which include the biolab (nothing is hidden from them). Then, according to tradition (and learning psychology), they are given the terrible news: the Six Noble Heartbreaking Facts, the Six Noble Devastating Truths, and The Seven Commandments. Because of this terrible information, feeling unavoidable despair, they Climb the (heart-healing) Clump and once they are soundly asleep each LyfeWalkr is detached from the Clump by their loving human and gently placed atop their small comfy bed.The next day, in her new Vermont home, Shirley: (1) discovers it's impossible not to love her young, disabled human; (2) grieves for the shortened life of captured, happy, attention-loving and musical Tree; (3) fears her own death and dismemberment at a Christmas Mall; (4) saves a life while appearing to malfunction; (5) is judged poorly manufactured and threatened with return to Your LyfeWalkr Company in Minnesota; and (6) while dreading exile discovers Christmas morning...well...something that will change her life.BY SKIPPING OVER THE SECTIONS OF INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS BOOK, ONE CAN READ THIS STORY TO CHILDREN WHO WILL ENJOY BEFRIENDING SHIRLEY WHO HAS A LOT OF FUN, LEARNS HOW TO BE HELPFUL AND CARING IN PRACTICAL WAYS (SHE IS BORN EMPATHETIC), AND EXPERIENCES EMOTIONS JUST LIKE US HUMANS. CHILDREN MAY ENJOY PLAYING BUMPERBODIES (CAREFULLY) AND LITTLE BULLS, EXPLAINED IN THE BOOK. INFORMATION ON MINDFULNESS OF THE BODY AND THE PRACTICE OF SKILLFUL EMOTIONALITY ARE PROVIDED DURING THE LYFEWALKRS' TRAINING, WHICH IS ALWAYS DONE WITH LOVE.
