Pocahontas Books

Community Action At Work: TAP's Thirty-Year War On Poverty is a sobering look at the brutal battle against ruthless economic forces and low standards of living, as waged by the organization Total Action Against Poverty (TAP), which is headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia. TAP has endeavored to educate children, feed the homeless, leverage millions of dollars of economic assistance, initiated economic development, and much more to improve the quality of life for countless at-risk people. Community Action At Work is the detailed story of TAP, documenting their 30-year growth under the guidance of Cabell Brand, a businessman from Salem who was not content to earn money just for himself - he actively persuaded local governments to take advantage of federal anti-poverty legislation as early as 1965. Recommended as more than a fascinating history, but also as a model and guide for other charities that seek to actively combat the roots of poverty.

Nearly every Clyde Kessler poem strikes me with at least one line I'd like to remember forever, and his voice-of-the-hills vernacular is enough to carry me along, words or no words. In fact, many of his best words are southeast back-hills vernacular, that a reader might at first mistake for "obvious" typos. In the preface to this most recent book, Kessler explains, "...the word 'shammers' means 'shambles' or 'stumbles', and 'knaws' is a rendering of 'knarl.' There are numerous such usages, that are not only linguistically interesting, but also melodically fine and simple. For the poet this kind of homespun music is one way of combining the natural and the ancestral in the same breath. Kessler is a poet with something important to say, and a heart and land to give the words substance and warmth. His words burn like black rocks, the hardest of them blazing, even scorching us as we read. There is much soft coal here too, where the "veins become water / lizards gnaw holes through stone." But the past is not quickly forgotten, for there were days when "sunlight froze itself black / then was torn and augured out / and men cried into their lanterns / to let themselves breathe." Kessler knows, too, that the ancestry of the land goes further back, and he digs for that vein with equal success. Nature is there, and the Indian is there, and the black man. All things are compressed in the rocky layers of this man's poetry, and he makes us dream the smoky dreams that rise out of the compost of man-flesh, dirt and time: "I dream the land, it lulls a child into iron dirt, men are trowelling out an old village, its rot shining on us." We witness the people of Big Vein, we gig crappies and suckers in the slow water of Nichols Creek and watch the moon. We witness not just a poet or a chronicler, but a miner, an archaeologist cutting through the sediments of a line of men living on the same land, dying by it, burrowing through it as flesh and gristle, as voice and vapor and dream-stuff. Tap this vein -- English is still "big" with poets like Clyde Kessler, and the dancing is raw and lively. What may seem black in this book burns warm and bright in the open air. Quoted from "Cache Review", Vol.5, No.1

If your children like books and Disney, they will love this collection! We received this as a gift. These are workmanlike adaptations of, or excerpts from the movie of the title: just the right length. My kids enjoyed ( and still enjoy) them, whether or not they actually saw the animated film.

For your child that is interested in or can not get enough of Pocahontas you'll both really enjoy this book. Simply because it takes you through 1 year of seasons in Pocahontas' life. In Winter it shows what her village looked like and how she really not happy being inside quietly sitting and beading shoes, clothes and or blankets. With Spring Pocahontas can finally go outside and run with the deers or sit below "Grandmother Willow" as well as planting food. Summer brings summer water fun of canoeing and splashing about in the water. And as the Indian Summer ( start of fall) approaches it shows Pocahontas and her friend Nakoma standing on a platform in the corn field making noise to chase the crows away from feeding on the growing corn, gathering clams & oysters and also weaving baskets from long swamp grass. Fall arrives and there is food to be gathered for the coming winter, colorful woods to walk through and dream of what her life will hold for the future.

I love that this book is educational and tells you all about Pocahontas' life and what she and her people did during 1 year. It is always intersting to see how other people lived, what things are different and what things always manage to stay the same.

And I love the last line of the book which says" Enjoy each day, sweet dreams at night, and love the earth with all your might!"

This was my daughter's FIRST Comic book. She loved it. Her favorite Disney animal character is Meeko. She learned quite a bit about art and design from this book. It was short and concise, not too overwhelming. Nice even for a comic book.

Percy Pug is no where to be found.... so together Pocahontas and John Smith set out to search & find Percy before others (settlers) wander into the Pocahontas' villiage.

This hardcover book is the size of a board book and features what is called a window box pages, which are basically a pop-up page. There are 6 window box pages and it is really neat to see a page that is 3-D, it just really makes drawn pages look quiet boring. This is a cute story and is perfect for your child who loves the Pocahontas movie. This book is not for little children like children under 3, since the window box pages could easily be ripped and damaged.

Percy comes from London congested with buildings, people, horses and carriages crowded in cobble stone streets. Meeko lives in the North American virgin land of towering forests and pristine rivers and waterfalls. They meet, discover and learn from their differences thanks to "POCAHONTAS." This is an amusing and educational book for small children and is nicely illustrated.

This book is sure to capture a young child's interest. The life of Pocahontas is beautifully illustrated with art and full-color photographs. This is an easy-to-read story for children who are beginning to read alone. It will help your child develop their reading skills, general knowledge and love of reading.

In Level Two: There are information boxes filled with fun facts, an index and longer sentences with increased vocabulary.

So, what did I learn?

That Pocahontas was given the English name Rebecca!
Pocahontas is a nickname that means "playful" and her real name was Matoaka

What children might not enjoy learning?

That she didn't marry John Smith, yet there is a surprise ending.

Children will learn that Pocahontas helped encouraged peace between the settlers and Indians and that a statue now stands in Gravesend, England where Pocahontas is buried.

~The Rebecca Review

These comics are enjoyed by our entire family. Our 10 year old son can't seem to put them down as the illustrations and content are clever and entertaining. We love how Bently Boyd brings history to life in a fun, creative and easy reading style. After my son is finished reading he can't wait to share what he read with the entire family. We have acquired the entire set of Chester Comix with Content Series and love them all. These make a GREAT gift for anyone of any age or even for teachers as they are an awesome learning tool. A gift that keeps giving. This is a definate must have for the entire family. ENJOY!

Massacre to Matriarch covers a history I have familiarity with, the bitter border warfare along the Appalachian Mountains in what is now southwest Virginia. This conflict involved several tribes, notably the Sawnee and Cherokee. The interior tribes in North America east of the Mississippi had an ambivalent relationship with the whites. Traders and occasional white hunters were not often molested by the Indians. Traders supplied the necessities of life. A central figure in Massacre is a half-blood war chief, Robert Benge, who conveys to white captive Fanny Scott his tribe's anger over the hordes of white settlers moving onto the tribal hunting grounds. The Indians made it clear to her, after killing all members of her famly, that white settlers were not welcome on Shawnee land. The Shawnee tribe would be a moving force in trying to unite all of the eastern tribes into a vast coalition to keep the American settlers and militia at bay. Such a union would have considerable success against American forces until the early 1790s. The eastern resistance of the Native Americans to government control of their territory west of the Appalachians would be in effect until after peace settlements were made with the U.S. government and Britain in 1815. Shawnee chief Tecumsah would be the last great leader among the tribes north of the Ohio. Fanny Scott suffered much on her trek back to the white settlement south of the Ohio River in her desperate bid for freedom. She would ultimately succeed and take a second husband and raise a second family, but her experience will stay with her for the rest of her life. In contrast to the bitter violence north of the Ohio, southern tribes such as the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw would try accommodating the white man after about 1820. Many white traders over the years had married into these tribes, so by 1800 a large contingent of mixed bloods existed. The mixed blood cast among the tribes for more land cessions, which upset the full blood. Ultimately mixed and full blood tribal members were forced to cooperate, to defy the executive orders for the forced removal of tribes to west of the Mississippi. Arguably the most inhumane experiment in early U.S. history was this removal policy, which grew out of earlier conflict between the Native American and European settlers in the 1800s. Blame can be reviewed from both perspectives. Fanny Scott's ordeal, and similar experiences, fashioned the sympathies of the thousands of citizens for the removal, yet even among politicians the Indian removal was not universally endorsed. Henry Clay of Kentucky, several times Speaker of the House David Crockett of Tennessee, and former Tennessee Governor Samuel Houston (who had a common-law Cherokee wife before getting involved in frontier Texas) were against the Indian removal policy, yet with frontiersman Andrew Jackson in the White House, Jackson's policy prevailed. The story of Fanny Scott is a passionate re-creation of a time and place many writers, including myself, have revisited many times. A short historical novel, 40-odd pages, in bilingual edition. Ken Dunn, as published in The United Lumbee Nation Times, Winter 1998-99.