Festivals Books

NOTEWORTHY - A Collection of Recipes from the Ravinia Festival.

This cookbook is the culminiation of a three year project undertaken by the Women's Board of the Ravinia Festival Association to benefit Young Artists.

There is over 600 recipes, 46 of which are pictured on 16 full color pages.

Today's Career Woman, short on time and long on taste, will be delighted by the quick gourmet selections. For the Creative Cook whose ultimate pleasure is entertaining at home, this book is a valuable resource. The criteria of excellence has been successfully achieved in this collection of widely appealing recipes that ensure outstanding and delicious results.

THIS IS A LARGE, HIGH QUALITY HARDBACK COOK BOOK.

In 1986 this book retailed for $15.95.

The recipes of Noteworthy have made their way into my family's collection of favorites. I trust this cookbook so much that I make untried dishes on special occasions. Noteworthy has not let me down!

This cookbook is a marvel--it is far and away my favorite cookbook. I turn to it for every event, and it contains all my family's favorite dishes. One note, however, follow the recipies closely! Omitting or changing any ingredient really alters things substantially (I don't like olives and left them out of a dish and it truly sufferred for it. When I made it again, I added the olives and it is now a favorite!) This book is an excellent gift idea.

I own both Noteworthy and Noteworthy II, recipes from the Ravinia festival and I cannot say enough about them. For nearly eight years now, I have used these cookbooks for every family gathering, cocktail party and family meal. My love of cooking was stimulated by the recipes provided in these books which are both easy to follow and delicious. I have not yet found one recipe I didn't enjoy after preparation. Noteworthy is well organized and has sections of great photographs to entice you to select one of it's great dishes. You will dazzle your guests with the wonderful combinations and not feel like you had to try to hard. These books are among my favorite possessions, I'd be lost without them. You'll not be disappointed...ENJOY!

my three-year-old son loves this book we read it every night before bed at his request. I just purchased "My mama monster love me so" and "Jeepers creepers" both by Laura Leuck and they are instant hits with my son. Really worth reading whether it's Halloween time or not.

One witch treks about collecting a shopping bag full of ghoulish ingredients for her stew. Told in rhyme, it's also a counting book from one to ten and then back down: "Five vampires on the loose, gave the witch some fresh blood juice."
The mummies, scarecrows, ghosts and skeletons contributing to the stew are mostly a jolly sort illustrated in a variety of poses and suitably murky colors. The tenth grouping of characters (werewolves) disturbed me a little with their oversized heads and sharp teeth. I deducted one star for this.
The story ends with all the characters partying and enjoying their stew. The pacing and excellent illustrations make this a natural for reading to a group of preschoolers at Halloween.

This has got to be one of my and my kids favorite halloween time books. The writing is very clever, the pictures in the book are really cool. I started reading this book to my kids when they were about four years old. They continue to read the book on their own and now they are about ages six and eight. Great book on every level.

This was sitting in the middle of my local Barnes & Noble's Halloween kiosk in the children's section. It was perfect timing, because I was in the mood for halloween reading for my 3 1/2 year-old. One look at the pictures and he was sold...

I love this because it reminds me of the books that we'd have read to us during Story Hour at the local library in the early 1970's when I was a kid.

The illustrations are delightfully creepy and are very reminiscent of something film maker Tim Burton would have created. The story is simple and leads your child through his first ten numbers and the characters that are introduced along the way are perfectly suited to this halloween adventure.

Makes me ALMOST not miss those old Dorie books (by Patricia Coombs) as much!

Highly recomended for parents who aren't afraid of something that is actually a bit creepy and spooky and not rooted in some other insipid pop-culture source.

Cormier has always written wonderful characters. His books have always been invitations to walk with them through their personal torment. This is not a happy book, his books never are. You get a sense of strength having gone through the same tragedies as the main character. Its a warm embrace into a cold world.

Eleven-year-old Darcy Webster, caught between girlhood and adolescence during World War II, makes her first friend ever when she meets Kathleen Mary O'Hara, and their relationship blossoms until Kathleen Mary mysteriously disappears. At the same time, Darcy's father is reported missing in action. All this, plus Kathleen Mary's "baptizing" Darcy, brings her to a painful spiritual crisis.

Other Bells for Us to Ring is beautifully written but it raises many issues about God, miracles, growing up and alcoholism.

There are some beautiful passages where Cormier has blended words into a lovely picture.

It had wonderful characters. I felt like I was walking with Darcy through her personal tragedy. This is not a happy book, but I got a sense of strength feeling like I had gone through the same tragedies as the main character.

The most moving part in the entire story was when Darcy looked to an old nun, Sister Angela for help and wisdom, who explained the beauty of life and faith to her. I found this part amazing and extremely moving. I really got something out of it. Sister Angela's words were inspirational to me they really explained God to me. I knew who he was and everything. But I have never really understood things until I read what she said to Darcy.

I thought there would be a happy ending. I really did. It was happy at first, when I learned that Darcy's father was safe and sound, but in the next chapter when I learned what happened to Kathleen Mary, all my expectations came down with a great and glorious crash. It was powerful when John Francis showed up and gave Darcy the news. I thought that the giving of the doll gave me closure. It was a sad ending but yet it wasn't. It is quite hard to explain.

Overall this is a powerful book. It is truly exceptional.

As her father moves the family to an army town Darcy makes a new friend in an otherwise strange setting. She and Kathleen Mary become inseparable, best friends forever, and begin a journey of friendship that exposes Darcy to the Catholic faith. One day Kathleen Mary is gone and Darcy's father is missing in action. Darcy seeks out the help and wisdom of an old nun who explains the beauty of life and faith to her. As Darcy struggles with the loss of friend and father her newly discovered knowledge helps her through. This is a beautifully written story, one that is probably best suited for ages 11 and up. There are some beautiful passages where Cormier has blended words and imagery into a lovely picture.

I am not religious and I'd rather stay away from religion. When I read the back of 'Other Bells for Us to Ring' I thought: oh know, a sappy religious novel. But I read it anyway, because I trusted Robert Cormier not to disappoint me with a sappy religious novel. Religious it was, sappy it was not! I've never been particularly interested in Catholicism and never knew much about it, but I learned a lot from this book and feel all the better doing so. Both Darcy and Kathleen Mary O'Hara are exceedingly likeable characters, particularly Kathleen Mary, who was in my eyes a younger version of Amy Hertz from Robert Cormier's novel 'I am the Cheese.' I thought there would be a happy ending. I really did. It was happy at first, when I learned that Darcy's father was safe and sound, but in the next chapter when I learned what happened to Kathleen Mary, all my expectations came down with a great and glorious crash. My father, when he saw me weeping, muttered about an 'adolescent mood swing.' I just kept sobbing. Why do good people have to die? Why?

I read this book as a kid and I still remember how much I loved it. It really is not a typical childrens book. Its a great way for a parent to spend some quality time with their kids reading the book aloud. It is filled with fantastic characters like Hopper T. McGrass and Perigrine. The adventures that Peregrine stumbles into are hilarious. The book would keep any kid occupied and asking for more. I thought it was interesting that there was a specific way to read the book. You are meant to begin it at a certain point before christmas and then read a specific amount each evening until the story finishes on Christmas Eve. An awesome book that definately reguires a read.

What a wonderful story !!! Written with both child and parent in mind, it provides many hours of happy, family-oriented entertainment. Parents will appreciate the tongue-in-cheek humour, the similarity to everyday life and the vivid imagination of the author. Children will listen spellbound to the magically detailed experiences of Peregrine and his friends. Peregrine himself is absolutely adorable, facing the world with innocence and trust and love - and we find ourselves feeling that same innocence and trust and love - rekindled in our hearts from our own childhood. The companion colouring book is a great idea and the idea of "practice pages" is awesome !!! I await, with eager anticipation, Keith Broad's next book. Where in the world will Peregrine go next, and what wonderful adventures are in store?

What a wonderful story !!! Written with both child and parent in mind, it provides many hours of happy, family-oriented entertainment. Parents will appreciate the tongue-in-cheek humour, the similarity to everyday life and the vivid imagination of the author. Children will listen spellbound to the magically detailed experiences of Peregrine and his friends. Peregrine himself is absolutely adorable, facing the world with innocence and trust and love - and we find ourselves feeling that same innocence and trust and love - rekindled in our hearts from our own childhood. The companion colouring book is a great idea and the idea of "practice pages" is awesome!!! I await, with eager anticipation, Keith Broad's next book. Where in the world will Peregrine go next, and what wonderful adventures are in store?

When I first read this book to my children, we read the first 4 chapters. My children where both so intrigued that they would try to guess what would happen next. My six-year old son feels that when he looks at the illustrations that he is a part of the story. My three-year old daughter loves the book so much that we have been reading it over and over again since December. I had to buy her a book for herself. The storyline makes you feel like you are actually right there with Peregrine. Now my son is attempting to read the book to us at night before bedtime. This book is a wonderful read for children and adults. The three of us are awaiting the next Pottontot Chronicles.

With a happily contorted version of the Santa Claus mythos, Mr. David has made a delightful story with a great outlook on human nature. This book is a perfect antidote for those who run screaming when being force-fed the mantra that 'Polar Express' is a modern Christmas classic. It avoids cliche, makes one laugh, and has the admirable quality of having likeable characters, including the independently-minded hero.

What do I love best about this book? Is it the whimisical illustrations? The wonderful story? The infusion of myth and merriment into a charming tale that will please both young and old? All of the above!

This story is deliciously naughty and nice with Santa Claus' boy going to help the naughty children of the world explain their bad deeds, but along the way, he discovers something about his own naughty antics.

This should be heralded as a classic, right along with Rudolph and Frosty.

This story about Santa's little boy, Peter, teaches readers a lesson about giving. Peter tries to help the naughty children of the world and helps himself as well. This Christmas story is entertaining while it teaches an important lesson about the true meaning of Christmas. It also teaches "naughty" children everywhere that there is hope for them if they do something nice for someone!

It was the part of the Claus family job, son Peter hated most, separating the naughty kids from the nice. He knew first hand what it was like to be on the naughty list, since he was on it last year. No presents under the tree. "Does it have to be that way? Can't naughty kids get gifts too?" Santa was firm. "I didn't make the rules. More nices than naughties and you go on the nice list and get lots of presents. More naughties than nices and you go on the naughty list and get nothing. That's the way my father taught me to do it when he was Santa, and the way his dad taught him." But to Peter, it just didn't seem fair. Santa didn't even know what those poor "naughty" kids did to get themselves on the list, in the first place. So late that night, he hitched the reindeer to the big sleigh, and set off on a mission to help those naughty children before it was too late..... Lawrence David has written a delightful holiday story with a gentle message about fairness, forgiveness and saying you're sorry, that won't be lost on young readers. His simple and straightforward text is beautifully complemented by Delphine Durand's charming and humorous childlike, geometric illustrations that are bold, bright, and wonderfully expressive. Youngsters will enjoy poring over the artwork and finding all the special little details in each picture. Perfect for youngsters 4-8, Peter Claus And The Naughty List is creative and original, a nice addition to your holiday picture book shelf, and a wonderful read-aloud story the entire family can share, discuss and enjoy together.

My children are growing up with Spier just as I did. The youngest love to look at the pictures and hear me tell about them. Older children love to make up the story as it progresses. Great tool for promoting imagination.

You don't have to be a child to revel in Peter Spier's beautiful full-color art (and at age 55 I can speak from personal experience). Here he tells the story of a typical American Christmas season with never a printed word, beginning on December 13 and going on the following January 4. A family of five (plus dog and cat) shop the bedizened mall, make decorations, address and send out Christmas cards, choose and trim their tree, shop for and prepare their holiday feast, go to church, open their presents, and welcome grandparents for Christmas dinner. Nor does the artist fail to show the post-holiday chores--taking down the trims, vacuuming shed needles off the carpet, returning gifts and putting the denuded tree out on the curb. From the hectic (the mall scenes) to the beautiful (the family standing outside its own house to inspect the effect of the decorations, a streetscape showing neighboring homes including two that aren't decorated at all), the fun (a mass snowball fight) to the contemplative (Mom and Dad sitting before the fire on Christmas night after the grandparents have gone home and the kids are in bed) to the mischievous (the family cat tearing a piece of meat off the turkey carcass as it sits on the kitchen counter), it's all here. Spier's Christmas is a season of love and joy and peace, as we're told Christmas should be. This book should be tradition in every home that celebrates it.

We set this book out with all the other Christmas decorations every year. It's a tradition. Even the older ones in the family enjoy the book without words. The beautiful illustrations take you through a journey of a family's Christmas season. If you love Christmas, you must have it.

This is too delightful a book to be out of print!

Mr. Speir again showcases his talent for detail in this charming, word-free picture book about Christmas. The story is linear, have a starting point and logical ending point, but many of the images in between could easily be shuffled about with no detriment to the overall book.

What we have here are snatches of personal memory, vignettes of both public and hidden moments, perhaps even just a glance that catches a simple image from a childhood Christmas past, all faithfully recorded in the mind's eye and replayed with each new Christmas season for years and years. I was struck by how carefully Mr. Speir was able to capture these images for us, all of which we instantly recognize in a sort of collective unconscious, or universal memory.

The ornaments packed away in the attic, the hectic shopping at grocery stores and shopping malls, hanging a wreath, standing outside in the quiet dusk to admire the Christmas lights and the tree in the window, a packed church service, carolers, bringing small gifts and a visit to the elderly nieghbors, the cat sitting by the electric candle on the window sill and looking out at the world, the silent night, the magic of Christmas Morning, the presents, the dinner, the relatives, the phone calls to old friends and family seperated by distance, the quiet moment by the fire at the end of the day.

Everything, absolutely everything is here, lovingly detailed by Mr. Speir's ink pen.

This is the perfect Christmas, with no fighting, no stress, no phony commercialism, no bickering children or adults. Like memory, Mr. Speir wisely highlights the good, the pleasant, the golden, the loving, and the ideal rememberances of Christmas.

A rare and wonderful achievement, and a Christmas book to be treasured.

Nicholas Rudall's Euripides' The Trojan Women: Plays For Performance provides a new translation of a literary classic of pathos and war, capturing the classical drama in a new form designed as a play for performing to modern audiences. An outstanding literary work Euripides' The Trojan Women is highly recommended for any studying Euripides.

Diane C. Donovan Reviewer

Edith Hamilton, in The Greek Way, says that "Euripides is the saddest of the poets" and that "no poet's ear has ever been so sensitively attuned as his to the still, sad music of humanity." The Trojan Women, a heart-rending read, certainly supports these opinions.

Written in Athens in 415 B.C. in the throes of the ruinous Peloponnesian War, the play was a condemnatory response to the recent Athenian atrocities against the neutral Greek island of Melos. After taking the island, the Athenians executed all the men and enslaved the women and children. It was an end of innocence of sorts for the city that had long considered itself the world's citadel of what we now call civilization and culture. In criticizing it, Euripides reached back to the central event of the Greek epic heritage, the legendary victory over Troy, for his setting and characters.

The resulting tragedy opens in the aftermath of the slaughter of the Trojan men, with Troy in flames and the women being divvied up as slaves to the conquering Greeks. Euripides is unflinching in his depiction of the inhumanities visited upon the vanquished. King Priam's daughter, Cassandra, is raped by Agamemnon, king of the Greeks. His other daughter Polyxena is cruelly murdered. In one of the most moving scenes in all of literature, his grandson Astyanax, a young child and the only surviving heir to the Trojan throne, is taken from his mother Andromache's grieving embrace and thrown to his death from the highest wall of the city. In fact, the only pity and decency presented among the Greeks is found in the Greek messenger Talthybius, who cleans the body of Astyanax and brings it to his grandmother Hecuba after Andromache's pleading to bury him is denied as she is taken away to her fate as a Greek slave.

Many have read this work as a blanket indictment of war. I read it as a misanthropic perspective on human nature, with its glimmers of what we call humanity intersticed between the harsh reality of our cruelty, hatred and violence, a reality set free within the lawless terrain of war. Those with a rosy view of our genetic inheritance should generally be given fair warning before engaging the works of Euripides, and The Trojan Women is no different. That said, whatever one's views of our species, this is one of its finer artifacts and it deserves a wide reading despite the passage of over 2,400 years.

Having seen a staged production of this text at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, DC, I am looking forward to reading the text in detail. In the theater, this was a powerful, painful confrontation of the effects of war on the victims -- the women and children. No heroes, no vainglorious praise of war. Just the horrors of surviving and loss. Troy becomes every war-devastated landscape. The parallels to Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, etc., etc. were not to be denied.

Rudell is able to bridge the centuries and make Troy contemporary. The language is both elevated (in the style of classic tragedy) and immediate in its emotional impact.

About 416 B.C. the island of Melos refused to aid Athens in the war against Sparta. The Athenians then slaughtered the men and enslaved the women and children, an atrocity never before inflicted on one Greek city-state by another. As preparations were made for the ruinous expedition against Syracuse, Euripides wrote "The Trojan Women," as a plea for peace. Consequently there is a strong rhetorical dimension to the play, which prophesies that a Greek force would sail across the sea after violating victims and meet with disaster. However, there the play also has a strong literary consideration in that the four Trojan Women--Hecuba, Queen of Troy; Cassandra, daughter of Hecuba and Priestess of Apollo; Andromache, widow of Hector; and Helen--all appear in the final chapter of Homer's epic poem the "Iliad," mourning over the corpse of Hector, retrieved by his father Priam from the camp of the Acheans. Whenever I have use "The Trojan Women" in class I have always used at least that last chapter of Homer to set up the play.

As with his last play "Iphigenia at Aulis," which tells of the events right before the Achean army left for Troy, "The Trojan Women" reflects the cynicism of Euripides. Of all the Achean leaders we hear about in Homer, only Menelaus, husband of Helen, appears. He appears, ready to slay Helen for having abandoned him to run off to Troy with Paris, but we see his anger melt before her beauty and soothing tones. In this play the Greeks do more than enslave women: they have already slain a young girl as a sacrifice to the ghost of Achilles and they take Astyanax, the son of Hector, out of the arms of his mother so that he can be thrown from the walls of Troy. Even the herald of the Greeks, Talthybius, cannot stomach the policies of his people. The play also reminds us that Helen was a most unpopular figure amongst the ancient Greeks, and there is no satisfaction in her saving her life (Note: you might want to check out Isocrates's "Encomium on Helen," an exhibition speech in which he shows off his talent by defending the hated woman). The idea that all of these men died just so that she could be returned to the side of her husband is an utter mockery of the dead. This translation by Nicholas Rudall focuses on the performance of "The Trojan Women," but it is certainly useful for those interested in the historical or literary aspects of the play as well. Another interesting analogy is to use this play in conjunction with "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes, so that students can compare and contrast an anti-war comedy and drama.

My son's kindergarten teacher read this to them this week, and my son and I fell in love with it! A very different story for Halloween, and one that will have your child(ren) wanting to put THEIR jack-o-lantern in the garden instead of the trash, just to see what happens. Terrific story, beautiful illustrations - I'm here to buy several copies to give away as gifts.

My 6 year old son picked this book himself at the library, probably for the colorful, textured drawings but was soon glued to the story of Tim and the pumpkin he named "Jack". The story follows Tim and Jack through a year of seasons and the many physical changes in "Jack" until Jack disintegrates. Later, Tim notices a tiny sprout and later, a whole crop of pumpkins grow! Tim gives them all away except one which he names "Jack" of course.

This is a great little story, far removed from the frightful and cutie-pie ones that are so prevalent at Halloween. Pumpkin Jack is a jack-o-lantern who gradually collapses and dies after Halloween, as all do. We see the little boy through the seasons of his year, occasionally reminded of the old jack-0-lantern. In the spring, a tiny vine begins to grow where the old jack died. The vine, of course, grows pumpkins, which, in the fall, the boy gives away--all but one. Fine watercolor illustrations, which in some places are a bit rough, but the story more than makes up for them. This is what the death of nature in the autumn is all about, beautifully told, with a message of renewal in the end.

Pumpkin Jack is a magnificiantly drawn children's book. It's one of the books that you can relish viewing repeatedly. Very good feature since I anticipate having to read this out loud over and over again to enchanted children. The story is excellent.

Raisel's Riddle is outstanding because this Cinderella is not concerned with her appearance, nor is the rabbi's son. It is a wonderful twist to have knowledge be the commodity most valued!

Raisel is a Jewish girl that is orphaned and seeks work in a Rabbi's household. She attends a Purim dance, meets the Rabbi's son, and asks him a riddle. He seeks her, after the dance, to marry because of her intelligence. This is an adaptation of the story Cinderella. It is told about the Jewish holiday, Purim, which celebrates Esther, the Jewish queen of Persia. It preserves the essential qualities of a Cinderella story by having the girl orphaned, poor, kind, and marrying the "prince" of the story. It contains several references to Jewish words/phrases, such as Zaydeh, synagogue, rabbi, and Talmud. The illustrations match the text well by depicting what is written. The illustrations depict the characters in traditional dress of Jewish people for the date, when not wearing costumes for Purim .

There are so many different cultural adaptations of Cinderella, that I think it would be interesting to teach a unit with Cinderella as the theme. This could be a way to introduce the children to different cultures, while maintaining something that they are familiar with, Cinderella.

Raisel's Riddle is a story that gives profound meaning to the Cinderella fairy tale , Jewish-style. Instead of beauty being the criterion for selection of a wife, Raisel's intelligence and knowledge are the "charms" that win the heart of "Prince Charming," who in this story is a rabbi's son. Another irony is that instead of the woman having to pass the test of beauty, the man has to pass the test of intelligence and wit before Raisel agrees that he is fit to be her husband. Contrary to the feminist critique that Judaism is a system of patriarchal domination, including the idea that girls are not to be taught sacred lore in the same way as boys, Raisel, an orphan, grows up in the home of her grandfather, a Judaic scholar, who teaches her Torah and Talmud. "Get thyself at once to Amazon.com and buy this book." It is endearing and heartwarming.
Rabbi Fred V. Davidow

This is a Jewish version of the Cinderella story. Far better than the original in my opinion, because instead of something as random as shoe size, the key to discovering the heart-stealer is her riddle and her wisdom. This book stresses the importance of learning and is a wonderful romance at the same time. Beautiful!

The following text made me rethink my plans to give this book to my third-grade nephew: "A few years after Nicholas was ordained bishop, a man who kept an inn on the outskirts of the city murdered three youths and then hid them in a tub of brine...". Not exactly bedtime story material. So, I'll set it aside to give to him when he is a bit older. In the mean time, I did give him Paul Prokop's book The True Story of Santa Claus which I think is more appropriate for a younger audience.

A wonderful family keepsake. Well written and well presented in a beautifully artistic work. Something to read to children. An answer to a life long question. Is Santa Claus real? Or Saint Nicholas? Wonderful!

Opening with the traditional version of the beloved poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" renowned children's book author Marianna Mayer seques into the life of St. Nicholas, the saint whose legendary generosity was the genesis for Santa Claus.

St. Nicholas, who lived during the fourth century in the area that is now known as Turkey, was the child of practicing Christians who died when Nicholas was but a boy. Fortunately, they were people of wealth so the child was left with a handsome inheritance which it is said he used to help others.

According to stories that have grown up around the saint when he was still a boy he overheard villagers in the marketplace discussing a family that was destitute, so impoverished that three daughters were to be sold into slavery.

That night young Nicholas stealthily approached the family's home and threw a bag of gold in through an open window. So astounded was the man to find this amazing gift that he sat by the window each night hoping to see his benefactor.

When he did catch Nicholas leaving another bag of gold the man wanted to know how he could repay him. The boy only asked that the man never tell who had helped him.

Later, as an adult, Nicholas was elected Bishop of Myra and continued his selfless generosity which won him legions of followers.

Illustrating her story with reproductions of paintings by some of the world's greatest artists, including Tintoretto and Fra Angelico, Ms. Mayer has created a keepsake Christmas book that families will enjoy season after season.

- Gail Cooke

How I wish I'd had this book when I was a child. That certainly would have cleared the Santa question up for me in good order.

What is so wonderful about this book is that it is a biography of St. Nicholas, the bishop who was later canonized as the Patron Saint of Children. Santa Claus is a variation of the name Saint Nicholas. In Dutch, St. Nicholas is translated as Sinterklaas.

It is a beautifully illustrated work that shows how the tradition of Santa Claus caught on and is a book families are sure to enjoy.