People Books

Every company has those take-them-or-leave-them dead end employees - but then there are those employees who are truly special, and who make the company run as it should. "Love 'Em Or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay" is a guide for managers to making sure they keep these star employees happy and productive, so one's company can stay happy and productive. With countless tips to keeping the cream of the crop producing for your crop, "Love 'Em Or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay" is an essential read for any manager and for community library business collections.

Well worth the purchase. In addition to sound "theory" provides very practical application. If you subscribe to the concept that BEING BRILLIANT AT THE BASICS will get you to the next level, this books is clearly for you. We bought one for all our HR Managers around the country whereby they can utilize the practical application ideas as bet fit their facility.

As a busy professional, it's easy to fall into the trap of tending to the task and not so much the relationship. This book brings me back to that important balance. Chapter six, "Family", was extremely useful and helped me understand that employees have needs that, many times, surpass their pay check. I was better able to work with an employee who had special family needs. This book is filled with practical, relevant, and usable advice on keeping employees engaged. This book is an essential read for leaders today. If you care about developing your people you will understand them better after reading LOVE 'EM or LOSE 'EM.

In any economy, the ability for managers to engage talent is a mainstay, yet few know how to do it. Love 'Em or Lose 'Em teaches `em how. It is practical and down-to-earth, providing leaders, at all levels, ideas which they can implement TODAY. This quick read is chalk full of anecdotes and suggestions that are low to no cost, leaving managers with no more excuses. More business books should take their cue from Love `Em - no wading through troves of mind-numbing theory. It is friendly, approachable, and to the point.
Debra Bogowitz, Accelerated HR Solutions Group

Unlike the hundreds of management books out there that can be rather philosophical and academic on how to create a productive work environment (with many of the concepts capable of being covered in three, not three hundred, pages), this book focuses on 26 strategies with countless practical actions under each strategy that a manager can take to make the work environment (read: "people") highly productive.

Best yet, the authors' strategies for employee engagement and subsequent retention don't cost big bucks to implement. And if you haven't figured out how much payroll dollars you lose by disengaged employees who ultimately leave, you're missing a big chance at improving your bottom line.

If there was ever a phenomenal return for money spent, it's in implementing Love 'Em or Lose 'Em's s6 strategies. But that means you have to first invest in the book! Buy it!

First, let me mention that this is a pretty wordy book. Maybe a bit too wordy, because it does seem to drag on in parts. I'm constantly cutting out a paragraph here or there because it doesn't add much to the story and I really want to get on with things anyway.

And, you know, it is a nice story - about a woman who "makes the world more beautiful" by planting lupines - but there just isn't much to it.

It's not very compelling to me. We read it only occasionally.

A co-worker talked about this book at an event and after previewing it, I took it out from the library for then four year old. A few months later, when we are at a book store, she spotted it and had to buy it as a present to herself for turning 5 - with her own birthday money. I think that says volumes to the books lasting power. The story is sweet, the drawings are excellent, and the message is lasting. Nice read for a parent to a child at the end of a long day.

This is a great story about giving back something in life. Great gift idea when combined with a real Lupine plant or seeds. Then the story and flower will be remembered forever.

I just left home and school to live on my own as an intern in DC. I've been doing lots of responsible adult type activities, cooking, waking up early, cleaning etc and was feeling a little strange about feeling so old. As I was walking to work this morning, I took a slightly different route that had a house with lupines just covering their yard. They looked so beautiful in the morning. I immediately thought to myself "what was that book with these flowers??" and called up my lovely mother. It felt like a long lost dream. I could remember the symbolism, but not the specifics. When I was young, I think I was enthralled with little Alice being able to paint the clouds and even more so when she becomes a librarian and transforms the landscape by the sea. This is a truly amazing book. I'm going to walk to the library tonight and check it out again. It definitely made me appriciate beauty in the world as a child, and through my memory of it, as an adult.

This book is a short biography of Barbara Conney's great Aunt Alice Rumphius, who grew up in New England, loved the sea, and wanted to visit faraway places. And also had an objective to do something to make the world more beautiful. I have always loved this book and have had that very same goal ever since the fifth grade when our homeroom teacher read it to us. The book concludes when Barbara Cooney the author says that her Aunt Alice (Miss Rumphius,) tells her that she too needs to do something to make the world more beautiful. But even SHE doesn't know yet what that could be. I personally think that she made the world more beautiful by writing and illustrated this masterpiece. Everybody young and old should have a copy.

I read portions of this book aloud to several people and with no exceptions grownups and children alike, it touched their very souls. I found it in an elementary school library but just had to have a copy of my own after I read it. It is a quick read as well as a must read. It will change your entire life view about the importance of reading and writing and learning. I can't say enough about this book. Read it. You will immediately see what I mean.

"Clottee get me food!" Think if you were a house slave how you would feel like a piece of meat always being bossed around and made fun of. If you want to read a book about a slave girl this is the book for you.
A Picture of Freedom is a Dear America story, like you would have never thought. You might think she is always tired and sad. However she works day in and day out just to stay alive. This girl Clotee wants to be like others as free people not a as a slave. She wants freedom. Her friend Spicy and her aunt Tea respect her. Furthermore one day she thinks about running away. Then she thinks if she runs away and gets caught, she might be killed. If she stays here at the plantation her life will be rotting away and working for nothing for the rest of her life. So what would you do if you were a slave?

I picked up this book because I am interested in slavery and Dear America. What a great read! Having to use "thinking squares" for it the first time I read it didn't ruin it for me. Clotee is likable, intelligent, and respectful to older slaves. The ending is not stereotypical (no more details given). My only complaint is its portrayal of slave owners (they are people just like the rest of us), but I see where Clotee would get that negative perception of them. I recommend it to pretty much anyone!

Clotte, a twelve year old slave girl at Belmont Plantation in Virginia, has been reading and writing as long as she was fanning for her Master's son during the hot summer months. She hasn't told anyoone about it, not even her mother figure, Aunt Tee, or father figure, Uncle Heb. A new slave was bought by the Master and to Clotee's suprise she was muscular and pretty at the same time. Hince, Clotte's brother-friend, had feelings for her and they started to court in the cooler and winter months. Hince was a jockey for the Master and he had never failed Master Henley until a team from Richmond bet that thier horse could beat Big Can, Hince's horse. One of them drugged Big Can and Hince lost the race, therefore having to be sold to the Richmond team who was moving to the Deep South where slaves had it even harder than in Virginia. Spicy and Hince couldn't handle being apart and ran away. This made Clotte think she needed to help slaves that were going to be sold to the Deep South or that were going to be sold to anywhere else. Clotte had the aid of Master's son, William's abolitionist tutor mentor. However when he was forced to leave and attempting to shut down the Underground Railroad passage through Belmont Plantation, Clotte felt that she needed to keep it open since it was so important. This book is good for any adventure reader and it helps to understand the way that African American slaves had it back in the 1850's and '60's.

This is a wonderful, heartwarming story that is perfect for introducing the plight of slaves to children without frightening the children to death. Clotee, though a slave, retains power from her masters by learning to read and write and keeping a hidden diary of her observations. Though this is admittedly unrealistic (where is she getting all these writing materials), the power she retains in doing this keeps the situation from ever feeling overwhelming or helpless to the child reader.

My son bought this book for a College Course at Purdue Calumet. The day it came I started reading it, It was a very good read,very heartbreaking that a child lived this way. It took me one night to complete, I had such a hard time trying to put it down. My son had a hard time getting into the whole story, until I told him to look at this girl as if she were a relative or friend. That's when it captured his 18 year old heart. It makes you think about what a Cruel world we live in. This book will break your heart, especially if your a mother.

This book is, essentially, written in rhythms with short pages and short paragraphs that make it a really fast read. I really enjoyed this novel, I found it was very insightful and moving.
However, as an honors student, I am used to over analyzing everything and when I read something I always find myself thinking: how could I make this better? In the beginning, the character talks about having a tin roof and I instantly saw this as a metaphor that would be carried on throughout the book. A tin roof means that the father does not gamble away the money, that the son works in the city, and that the rain stays out and the baby is healthy. The tin roof, I thought represented protection and security, something the main character would not have once she entered the brothel. I was disappointed though, and it was never brought up again.
I was also a little confused, this book does not stay consistent and some times it is written in past tense and other times in present tense.
I was not all that happy with this format, it made it go fast but didn't leave a lot of room for character development and I felt that I didn't get a good enough sense of the horrors of what was happening in the brothel.

I wasn't particularly expecting this book to be my sort of thing, but I found it to be surprisingly easy to read. The subject matter is quite sensitive but the story is told in a quite unique way.
The writing smart, crisp and the chapters are very short. In fact some of the shorter chapters are like poems. That might sound like it's pretentious but I found it really worked. The story is quite moving in places and I enjoyed it because it's not the sort of thing I would normally read. If I have any quibble it's that, due to the short chapters and liberal spacing used on the pages I found I'd read all 270 odd pages in one day. I could happily have read a bit more.
Anyway hats off to Patrica McCormick who tells the tale of sexual slavery without ramming home any kind of message designed to make the reader feel guilty for having (hopefully) a more pleasant existence than the main protagonist.

I finished this book in one night. I was very moved, and feel for girls in these situations all over the world. I was surprised to find this book in the teen section at target. Its very graphic & detailed, but leaves a lasting impression. I would highly recommend this book for mature teens and adults.

Truthfully, I started this story and stopped. Started and stopped. I kept having nightmares in my sleep of Lakshmi. These dreams were so harrowing that I would have to step away and pick up another book with new words to scrub out the ones from Sold that conjured the images in my mind. (I know this may sound weird to some people but I'm aware that I operate like a sponge at times, making it very difficult for me not to feel. I'm just too spiritually sensitive to such things.)

In other words, Patricia McCormick writes with a brave and an unflinching eye. The story is told from the POV of Lakshmi. A novel of this proportion is difficult to summarize because this story is about everything: all that we hold dear and all that we fear, the hopes we have for our children and the dangers that exist for many other children in the world, the strife of women and the bias of men...I could go on and on but instead will focus on, what for me, is the novel's triumph: the power in believing.

Lakshmi believes that she is old enough to help earn money for her family; when they lose their crops to a monsoon and her stepfather demands that she be sold, Lakshmi is brave and looks forward to the opportunity to help. She believes that this will help the family put a tin roof over their home, clothes on her baby brother, and food in their stomachs.

Once she is sold, she believes Bajai Sita and Auntie are going to set her up for housework. When that doesn't happen, she is taken under the care of Uncle Husband, whom she believes will protect her but instead, he sells her into the hands of Mumtaz--the sadistic owner of a brothel called "Happiness House." This girl, for all that she is forced under in her sexual slavery, is strong. Initially, she believes her hunger can outlive Mumtaz's threat to starve her if she doesn't work. Actually, Lakshmi's belief is correct because it was Mumtaz who grew tired of waiting for Lakshmi to give in so Mumtaz begins drugging her.

The details from then on are harrowing and like I said, I had to put the novel away several times to give my mind a break from the pain Lakshmi endured. It was all so vivid and made all too real after reading McCormick's author note.

After a while, Lakshmi believes that she can pay off her debts. When she finds out that Mumtaz has no intention of letting her go, Lakshmi holds on to the belief that an American worker will rescue her...I won't say whether or not this happens for those who don't like endings to be spoiled.

I can't say enough about this book and yet there is so much more that my heart knows needs to be said, like the way the characters survive through the power of language, how education should not be a privilege but a right to every person in this world, the crisis of health care and fighting to educate communities about HIV, the power of friendship and memory...there's just so much in this novel. Goodness! I HEART McCormick for writing this book and you will too if you haven't read it already.

this was a nice book on diversity. i think one of the things people get the most worked up over is spirituality. it's one of those things that can touch a person more deep than anything else, and everyone's perspective will differ, even if only minutely. wars have been started over the issue, and all because we're too pig headed and focused on our own validity. this book starts off with animals and rocks and trees each saying that what they think god is is indeed the true god, and that god seems to resemble the speaker. then the old turtle stops them and tell them of the coming of a new group, humans, and how they are supposed to be a message from god the the earth and a prayer from the earth to god. then people come and after while start to do not so nice things and nature says to stop. then the beings that said god was like themselves at the beginning of the book said they saw god in that which was opposite themselves. i guess the moral being have an open mind about that which is different from yourself, because it really isn't so alien to what you believe.

This book begins with the beings of nature having an argument as to who God is, an age old question. The old turtle speaks up and tells everyone to stop! And tells of a new being that will come and be in the likeness of god out of his love, humans. Then the humans start to argue and fight and destroy the earth. Till again the turtle said stop, and the people began to listen and realize the beauty they were destroying, the earth. The story is not specifically religious but more of a lesson of not to destoy what we have been blessed with. The illustrations are chinese watercolors and they are imaculate! Definately a must to add to your collection.

This is a book for children, but really is a lesson for mankind. Beautiful drawings. A good read out loud for children.Simply beautiful!

"Old Turtle" has become a tradition of giving in our family. When we recieve the announcement that a child has been born, we get a copy for the babe. We like to think that this is one of the ways this child will first hear about creation and our place in it. The illustrations are simple and exquisite, the narrative compelling. I'm a "big kid" and I love it.

I am so torn here. I love this book - my mother would love this book. So what's the problem? It's a feel good book that seems like it would better reach a new parent, a teen, or someone going through hard times better than a child.

The story clearly has a moral tale to convey. I tend to like that, and I love the message on diversity. Unfortunately, as far as plot/story, it falls short. It fails to go beyond just a morality lesson. And for this, it failed to captivate either of my children.

If the target audience are children: For lessons on friendship with story intact, try pumpkin soup. For a story about diversity and acceptance, try The Woman Who Outshone the Sun. For general moral tales - Zen Shorts.

I first read this book when I was about ten years old, and I remember it instantly becoming one of my favorite books. Re-reading it again at age twenty-three, I continue to be impressed by the compelling characters, the heartbreaking plot, and the undeniable compassion the author has for telling this story. As explained in the author's note, the author had a brother who had Down's syndrome, and this book was written as a tribute to him. What a compelling, compassionate, heartfelt tribute it is, too. Beautifully written, the story flows nicely but readers should be warned that it deals with some tough topics (parental death, misconceptions of mentally handicapped, death of a "sibling"/relative, low-self esteem issues, and first love). I personally recommend this book for only children over ten, due to the difficult subject matter.

This is a beautiful, wonderfully written book. Though a work of fiction about a young man named "Punky", author Wood's wrote this book as a tribute to her late brother. I myself am a sibling of a man with Down Syndrome and as such this book is very close to my heart. People with Down Syndrome possess personality traits such as blunt honesty, obsessive/compulsive-like reliance on routine, stubbornness, finding great joy in simple things and in a job well done. Wood's depiction of Punky, who possesses all these traits and more, is dead-on. So much in her characterization of Punky describes my own brother. I am also from Missouri, where the story is set, and can attest to her descriptions of the settings being very accurate. I own this book in paperback and only wish I could still find it in hardback because it will be a permanant part of our family library.

This book is a "must-read", it is sad at parts but I won't spoil the book for you!!! If you are looking for a great book read this, you should also read the sequel Turtle On A Fence Post, it is also great! The Man Who Loved Clowns is about Delrita, a girl who's uncle "Punky" just turned 35 years old, he has down-syndrome.I won't tell you any more but trust me READ THIS BOOK!!!

This is the greatest book. Perfect for children of all ages. ITs a heart touching story, and shows how families need to stick together no matter the circumstance. This story is a great example of how no families are perfect. Punky is a wonderful character/person, he touched my life. This book makes you want to smile and cry at the same time. Its an amazing book, don't just take my word for it, go ahead and read it yourself.

This is the most sincere book that I have ever read. I actually read it aloud to my 6th grade students. We were all moved and touched so much by the main characters, Punky and Delrita. This book exposed my students to many morals and excellent character traits as they learned the importance of accepting others, even if they are different. My students have missed this book so much since we finished it. I think it will leave an everlasting impact on their lives, and they will always treasure this story that we shared together.

Although this book was written in the 1960s, it is, still, very relevant today. This book was recommended to me back in 1983 or 1984 when I was in the military. I bought it with a number of other books. It took me twenty years to read it. I should have read it alot sooner; but, the rigors of life and the fact that a good many other books I bought kept pushing this one further back on the reading list. I grew up in the streets of NYC and saw his life being played out in a number of guys and gals I hung out with at that time. I didn't get caught up in the drug scene nor in the gangsta scene but, like the author, there was a lot going on outside the walls of the house to keep me outside nearly all day. Yeah this world was much newer for me then rather than now but I had to see what was going on within and without my neighborhood. As a parent looking at my kid, I know this world is new to them, which I can't shelter them from. As my kids look at me as their parent, they are constantly telling me to get out of their way. I want to see what is going out there. This only helps me to keep life real for them with a dose of non-reality here and there. Fortunately for Claude Brown, the street made him wise and through his book some of us can reminesce about those days and explain to others what urban life was like for us and how it made us what we are today. For others who have not experienced this urban lifestyle, take the book for what it is and re-evaluate your own experiences in hopes of passing on a reality check of your own life to your children.

This is an awesome book that I highly recommend to all young men trying to find their "way". It can be a little harsh, but it is about life in the inner city and a young man becoming a man.

I can't believe I didn't write a review for a book I read 10 years ago. This is one of my favorite books. It was this one book that drew me into reading books and becoming a book lover. One of the best books I ever read. Highly Recommended!!

Claude Brown's slightly fictionalized autobiography recounts his childhood and early adulthood throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Manchild in the Promised Land also documents the changing atmosphere of Harlem and the people it affected. Brown tells stories of himself as a hell-raiser, involved in theft and drug dealing, and spending time in juvenile detention centers like Wiltwyck and Warwick. He was able to establish a feared and respected name for himself both among the streetwalkers of Harlem and the inmates of the reform schools. Lacking formal education (resulting from years of playing hooky) and idolizing the criminal elements around him, he seemed to be heading down a short road of vice and danger.

Only after Brown moved to Greenwich Village shortly before turning twenty was he able to begin viewing Harlem with a more objective eye, and see the factors that led him down the downward spiral he had been traveling. One of the main reasons Brown believes he and his friends were wrought with such violence and recklessness is due to the mentality imported by their parents from the South. The thing that mattered most to them was fighting: for one's money, girl/family, and manhood (Brown 260). He feels that that rural mentality had been brought to a crowded city life that was not only incompatible with the setting, but also destructive. He laments, "it seems as though if I had stayed in Harlem all my life, I might have never known that there was anything else to life other than sex, religion, liquor, and violence" (Brown 281).

As a youth, Brown excelled in these very base attributes. It wasn't until the introduction of heroine, or "horse," as it was first introduced in the early 1950s, that he feels Harlem truly became unable to cope with their values. Instead of young men fighting for honor, they were killing and robbing for money to sustain their overwhelming addictions, introducing more guns into the neighborhood with desperate people wielding them. He witnessed his friends begin to fade away into scratching, nodding junkies. However, by this time Brown was able to leave and slowly break away from the crumbling Harlem he once knew, watching from afar many of the individuals he once hustled with fall victim to the crimes they themselves would perpetrate.

Many opted instead to stay in Harlem and live the street life. He attributes this to the attitudes of whites outside Harlem and the racism they encountered. To live a "clean" life usually meant to work for a white man who underpaid, referred to them in a racially derogatory manner, and made them perform the most labor intensive tasks. When it came to these prospects, most understandably chose the life of a self-employed drug dealer in Harlem over the self-effacing menial work elsewhere, despite the danger (Brown 287).

Where some people turned to drugs or religion to deal with these problems, Brown found his calling through more established and secular means. Education and music became outlets for him to express himself, gain a self-pride through non-criminal means, and eventually lead to a promising career as a lawyer and author.

One of the things that make this autobiography interesting is its use of language. Brown writes in a notable street dialect, however, the language itself evolves with the character. For instance, "cat" slowly comes into use around page 67 and is used throughout, though it receives less use towards the end. More notably, on page 109 the young Claude begins idolizing a street pimp named Johnny: "To Johnny, every chick was a b*tch. Even mothers were b*tches." And so on page 114 Brown writes "Jackie was a beautiful black b*tch." From then on women are regularly referred to as "b*tches" until the character matures enough to treat women with more respect, and Johnny's spell seems to have completely worn off by the time Brown falls in love with a fellow student. Likewise, the sentence structures become less erratic and grow in sophistication as the book goes on, using less slang chapter by chapter when he begins to change. This seems to be by design.

Claude Brown's personal accounts are no doubt fictionalized to some degree, for his characters go on exhaustive speeches several times, and he certainly didn't tape record them for every word. However, Brown's intentions are to present Harlem and its difficulties in approachable and creative ways. To allow readers (such as white-suburban-me) an inside look into the ways of urban life it invites an understanding and, hopefully, sympathy for the situations of the junkies, prostitutes, and drug dealers that we pass on the street. He shows them in a way that cannot be easily neglected, in intimate, personal relationships that reveal the influences and regrets that have placed them in those situations. These factors were not unique to the 1940s and 1950s. They existed before and do so today. Brown allows insight into the hardships while telling an encouraging tale of one who made it out. By personal drive and education, through art and self-expression (as this book is), he shows that the situation is not dire, but attitudes must change before the world will follow.

I was able to find this book relatively easy, based on a few keywords. My boyfriend started reading it several years ago and was unable to complete it. The storyline stuck in his memory and I bought it as a surprise for him, because over the years he mentioned it occasionally. Thanks for making the lookup so easy!

More than Anything Else, by Marie Bradby is about a boy that has a family and works at a painful salt mine but more than anything else he wants to learn how to read. One night when he, his dad and his brother were walking home he saw a man reading his newspaper to every one. Then they rushed home and the boy tells is mom he wants to learn how to read. Then his mom gives him a book and she says that she thinks it's called the alphabet but she doesn't know because she can't read. So the boy reads it and doesn't understand it so he tries to look for the man reading the newspaper. He finds the man and the man teaches him how to read and the boy jumps up and down with joy. Then the man says "What's your name?" and the boy says "Booker." Then the man draws it on the ground. Booker stared at it knowing how to spell his name and knowing how to read.

Booker doesn't express himself unless it's really important to him. Booker doesn't talk very much in the beginning of the book. He just introduces himself and tells what he thinks about in his mind. He only says something out loud when he wants to read. He tells his mom and the newspaper man but he never tells his family how he feels and and when his dad and his brother don't believe in him. This book reminds me to always believe in my self and never give up.

By Arthur

" More than anything else I want to learn to read. But for now, I must work. More Than Anything Else is a true story about a boy named Booker, hiss brother John and his father. They were slaves and had to deliver salt near the Kanawha River in the mountains. They had to use a shovel to put the salt in the barrels. Booker tried to learn to write in different ways, but had trouble until the newspaper came. Booker had a problem because he wanted to learn to read and write, but couldn't because he was a slave.

I like this book because it shows you a lesson on how you can learn to read. The theme of this book is to never give up on your dreams! I recommend this book to 7-10 year old children. I told you this was a true story, so if you want to find out who Booker really is, then read this book. by David M

This is by far, one of my favorite children's books of all time. If anyone have seen the beautiful watercolour paintings in this book, you'll also wonder why this book haven't receive the attention it fully deserves. Not only are the illustrations exquisite but Bradby's text is brilliantly poetic. This book will reminds us of a time when not everyone had a chance at an education where some kids today foolishly take for granted. It takes us back to the simplicity of a time when there were no computers, cell phones, or any of today's over overindulging gluttony. This book teaches us about the human spirit and what we can do with the power of words. This is an overlooked book during the Caldecott selection process. I hope that everyone will have a chance to see the beauty in this book. If you can't wait to have Amazon.com send this to you, go to the library and check it out yourself. It is an amazing piece of work in both text and art!

My son is 4. He is like most of the kids in America who have everything. I used to tell him there were children without food and could not afford to go to school. He did not understand. When I read him this story, his eyes were wide opened. I can tell this story hit his heart really hard, and definitely touched his soul. I am not an African American, but I almost cried. We have to show our children how lucky they are today. They definitely have more than they need, and do not know how to appreciate.

Well, 53 Five Star reviews pretty much says it all.

This is a beautiful book. Not only is the artwork superb (see the cover and Amazon's "Search Inside This Book" feature) but the story is glorious. A triumph of the human spirit when everything in the immediate environment says 'give up' and 'don't dare to dream'.

In this fictionalized story of Booker T. Washington, a young boy ignores the difficult world around him -- where newly freed slaves struggle to find their place in the changing American economy, where 9 year old boys work alongside grown men doing hard labor, where families are short of food -- and dreams of something better.

He says in the book:
"I see a man reading a newspaper aloud and all doubt falls away. I have found hope, and it is as brown as me.

"I see myself the man. And as I watch his eyes move across the paper, it is as if I know what the black marks mean, as if I am reading. As if everyone is listening to *me*. And I hold that thought in my hands.

"I will work until I am the best reader in the county. Children will crowd around me, and I will teach *them* to read."

A love for books and the importance of the written word comes through in this book. A great book to include in any home library.

Five Stars. Beautiful art and story. Amazon has the age range as 4 to 8, but as a mom I think 4 is too young to fully absorb the implications of this story. Likewise, I think the message is one that children older than 8 could come to love.

"Am I doing the right thing?" Every adult child of a family member requiring eldercare asks this question. The Complete Eldercare Planner will help today's busy caregivers with medical, financial, and personal issues by condensing hours of research into a concrete plan of action. In one volume, readers will learn about emergency preparedness; how to tell when your elder needs help; talking about sensitive subjects; sharing the care; long-distance assistance; money and legal matters; health and wellness; insurance; housing; safety; transportation; maintaining quality of life; aging with a disability; death and dying; and more.

This carefully designed guide also presents material in an unusually accessible way, with dozens of checklists, step-by-step mini-planning guides, lists of low-cost/free resources, website index, questions to ask with places to write down answers, spaces to record elder's vital medial, financial, and personal information, and more.

This book is full of clear, common-sense talk, just the thing I needed when I bought it. Dealing with an aging parent can be tricky in the best of circumstances, and at worst can threaten the whole family structure. The level-headed advice in this book can help to keep things on track, and can help family members to develop the best plan for dealing with their particular situation, as it did with us.

I did a "speed-read" of the book in the 24 hours before a family conference. I did note a fair amount of repetition of ideas in the book, but that is not necessarily a bad thing: if you're reading just the chapters that seem most relevant, then that's where those ideas need to be mentioned. One bonus: reading the book made it clear to me that I need to be doing some elder planning for myself, and with my own children, to make things easier for them later.

For those who have been, or will be, managing the health and financial welfare of your elderly parents, this book provides very helpful and detailed guidelines on how to do this with tact and compassion, as well as providing numerous resources. I ordered copies for all of my siblings. Best resource I found on the subject.

7-22-05 -- Recently I found myself along with 3 other siblings and spouses thrust into new uncharted waters in a totally new season of our lives. Suddenly and without any training we were and continue to this day having to take care of my aging parents. I for one will freely admit that as a child I was never trained, prepared, nor exceptionally gifted to undertake such a task. It is just not the type of thing that you can ever really get to a line and say ready...set...go...and do it very well. Elderly health care in 2005 does not always afford us the luxury of any long preparation either emotionally or financially.

Suddenly unmercifully and usually without warning you hear over the phone in the midst of a busy American routine those words you dread. It's Cancer, a stroke, or replacement surgery, just minor or major operations which means weeks of homecare and hospitalization's, etc., You are suddenly no longer swinging a few bats warming up in the on deck circle there in safety at a bit of distance. But you find yourself thrust into the batters box. You are no longer the stand by just in case fill in player who dressed for the game just in case you would or might be needed. But suddenly with a phone call, you find yourself thrust without any prior warning into the batters box. You are to take charge with 3 others voices and votes, your parents primary healthcare.

Now, if you call a frantic call for "HELP" in the middle of the night when just the week before things were okay a warning, well then, you're doing better than we were. You find yourself suddenly up at the plate with bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the ninth your teams behind 3 runs. To top it off you're facing a 94mph fastball pitcher who also throws a mean slider called the reality of life. You have never been good at hitting these kinds of pitches. Much less being the homerun hitter the team needs at this moment and are all looking to you now for. Then you hear through your wife there is a book available on just such a thing. It allows you to calmly and logically check out all of your options. It tells you in simple language just how you go about walking through this difficult mine field you've been thrust into without training or any real prior warning. It tells you how to do this without losing your mind, your family unity, and most of all your parents dignity.

I found myself literally reading the pages of Joy's, "Elder Care" wonderful "How TO" book on the plane going headed to Florida. I was then going there for my Dad's 80th B-day party as well as a visit to help out for 10 days at my elderly parents. Little did I know then, that I would see those 10 days turn suddenly into 46 long and hectic days I ended up spending there. Little did I realize as I paged through this how to book on Elderly Care that it would be like a daily Bible to me. I was literally reading a chapter ahead of the events as they unfolded in the next days. It was giving me the answers to question I had not yet asked, but found myself doing so in the next days to follow.

As a former Eagle Scout, USMC SGT., Police Officer, Business owner, 20 years as a Lay Minister and being Happily Married to the same woman for over 26 years now, I'd received lots and lots of great training. Even you will have to admit that this background covers a lot of diversified and really good training. But nothing, absolutely nothing, but my Faith prepared me emotionally, physically, or all of us financially for the events that would suddenly and totally unwelcomed show up in the middle of the night. They just seem to attack you without ceasing on these issues when it's "Your Mom or Dad."

Thank you Joy, for the time it must have taken you and the wealth of information this book contains. I personally know that it was truly a Godsend at a time of crisis in our lives. It still today continues to guide us along these slippery slopes. But because of this well timed work of Mercy and Grace, we have maintained as a family, and continued to allow my parents their Dignity and somewhat their independence. I believe this book will help answer the question of the heart on elderly care and give you practical and timely information to steer you to through the minefields of elderly care life. You should have a copy on the shelf in your own homes and be reading it now, if your parents are near or reaching retirement age.

We waited and it caught us totally by surprise. But it didn't catch Joy by surprise...I personally believe that she was obedient to the Spirit of God to produce this work for a time such as this. Our generation will Thank Her one day I believe for her unselfish actions in writing this Elder Care "How To Bible" for the uniformed. The Word of God says that "...my people perish for a lack of knowledge..." I believe that this book is full of knowledge that will help us all in our moments of crisis and bring life and health to all who read it.

Thanks for listening to my lengthy review and a very special Thanks to You Joy. You just keep on writing Joy and we will keep getting filled with the great knowledge we all need and can practically use for our loved ones. God Bless you and again... Thank you from our families hearts to yours.

God Bless You,
David D. Spaulding

My mother in law needs so much care and we had no clue on what to do. We bought this book and we bought the 36-Hour day. We are completely sure now that we are making the right choices because of the tips in both of these books. I recommmend this book highly.

This book shares Arnold Abbott's firsthand knowledge of anti-semitism with hope that anyone who reads it will have a better understanding of Judaism and come to an agreement with the author that anti-semitism is "a virulent disease acquired through a stupidity syndrome"[Quote from the book]. I cannot even dignify the villians in this book with the term, humans. They are simply "Holes in the air". After reading it I was afraid I had missed something so I read it again!I didn't miss a word the second time. If I were to drop my gold Rolex and this book; I would pick up the book first.

A very powerful book that reveals both love and hate for mankind. The book uncovers atrocious inhumane behavior by powerful people past and present. We "The People" need to make the difference in todays society to live and let live, to overcome our prejudices and love thy neighbor. I started reading this book slowly and about 1/4 way through it I could not put it down. Thank you Arnold Abbott

"When in Doubt...Blame a Jew!" was one of the most enlightening and educational books I have read. I am of Jewish faith, went to Hebrew school, and was bat-mitzvah'd but never have I gained as much insight about the Jewish religion as I did from reading this book. It covered the history in great depth and also added humor which really made it a pleasure to read. The author's ability to relay his own first hand accounts and experiences made the journey even more enjoyable. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone who wants to gain knowledge of the Jewish religion, humor, persecution, achievements, and the many ignorant anti-semitic individuals who took the time to hate instead of learn and understand.

When in Doubt...Blame a Jew has been helpful in teaching me and connecting many historical lessons. Although I considered my knowledge of our history to be fairly broad, this book provides depth, a way to place events in context. I especially liked the listing of famous Jews and Jew-haters which are helpful in teaching my children both pride and caution.

Our story, clearly and fairly written. A good guide for those of us who think that we are fully assimilated, it teaches us just how true that is.

Reading this book makes you feel like you're sitting at your grandfather's feet taking a vicarious journey through history. Although I believe in Jesus Christ, I appreciate the value of Jewish history. Mr. Abbott's account of the Jewish struggle is written in a non-apologetic tone. I especially liked his exposé on hate-based ideologies and important figures like Mr. Ford. Mr. Abbott talks straight and not crooked. His straight-talk is also evidenced by the pictures, which are heart-wrenching and left me speechless.

The fact that Mr. Abbott actually fought against bigotry makes me respect his writing even more. This book is a must read for anyone who wants an easy-to-read personal account of the plight of the Jews (with a little humor on the side).