New Zealand Books

I honestly could not tell you how many times I have read this book (or the entire series, in fact). While I liked all of the books in the series, Death's Master is the one that has stayed most clearly in my memory. The stories of Zhirem, Kassafeh and Simmu have stayed with me for many years.

For those of you not familiar with Tanith Lee, she writes lush prose and in this series focuses on creating a cycle of stories which interconnect. Although it would be easy to go over the top, she somehow manages to always stay on the good side of going too far. Although any of the books in the Flat Earth series can be read as stand alone novels, I believe that you will be more quickly immersed in her world if you begin with Night's Master (the first in the series).

I first read it as a pre-teen (snuck home from a garage sale). However, it is not for nothing that these books are called "adult fantasy". Caution recommended for younger readers.

Tanith Lee addresses some disturbing questions in this book. One is, what would you do with immortality if you have it? The other, what would you do if you were invulnerable?

The androgynous Simmu, (he actually could change body forms too), the son of a lesbian queen and, for lack of a better word-- a corpse, was adapted by demons after he was left to die in his mother's tomb. He later meets Zhirem, a boy made invulnerable at the cost of his mother's beauty. The novel addresses their tortured love story in the context of the Demon Lord's mischievious plans to entertain himself, and the Death Master's fight to preserve his supremacy over humans.

Character development was excellent in the case of Simmu and Zhirem. You could read into why they ended up doing what they did, but you could never guess what they were about to do before it happens. Simmu gains immortality and becomes the King of Simmurad (City of the Immortal). Zhirem, the invulnerable, becomes th! e greatest sorcerer in the world, but was directionless until he was taken up by the Death's Master to take on and destroy Simmurad.

The other characters in the story are no less fascinating. Simmu's mother, Narasen was inflicted with a curse by a spurned sorcerer (would-be lover), but her cleverness saved her. Unfortunately, she was felled by treachery in her moment of weakness. Having struck a deal with the Death's Master, she was bound to serve him as the undead. Lylas, the witch, was the Death's Master's handmaiden. Her schemes drive the story forward. Kassafeh, Simmu's wife and the daughter of a sky elemental, was the key to Simmu's immortality. However she finds herself trapped in her immortality. Ironically, she breaks out by betraying Simmu, thus becoming the key to the destruction of Simmurad.

The other questions addressed include, why do people chose to do good, to the point of becoming saints? Is it because they are afraid of being evil? What is evil? ! And so on...

The story is of course, a LOT more complicat! ed than that. After all, it is about how unusual people dealt with unusual circumstances. I totally loved it. It's a great example of Tanith Lee's work, it's brilliant and if I had more space, I will keep on babbling on about how wonderful this book is.

If you've never read Tanith Lee's stuff, this could be a great intoduction for you.

This was the second book I ever read by Tanith Lee, the first was the Silver Metal Lover. I stumbled across it in used book store, read it in a couple of hours and then ran out to find the rest of the series. I love Lee's fantasy novels and this series is probably her best.

The story takes place over an extended period of time and tells the tales of several different characters and how they relate to dying, death and immortality. The common thread is the Lord of Death and how humanity perceives him. There is also the side story of how he interacts with the Lord of Night and the demons. The entire series has a mythic quality, like these were the tales of some long lost culture.

The books in this series are: Night's Master, Death's Master, Delusion's Master, Delirium's Mistress, & Night's Sorceries.

You could read the first 3 books out of sequence and not have any spoilers. Don't read Delirium's Mistress until you have finished the first 3. The last book is a collection of short stories and can be read at any time, but it is assumed that you are familiar with the mythos of the flat earth.

I have read this volume several times. Each time I read it, it moves me beyond what mortal life can do. Through the first half of the book, I feel light and carefree as if it strips my sorrows. After the end, I drip into the bleakest, blackest melancholy, despair unlike any other. After a period, My despondence lifts and I feel free. I am cleansed of all human pressures and woes. I highly value the tome for it's pure unadulterated emotions.

Death's Master ultimately clutched me by the heart and reeled me into spirals of emotions, reviving deep regions within which I almost doubted I had. The characters are so magnificently described that you actually able to feel at one with them, experiencing their joys and weeping when tragic irony had its will (the misfortunes of beloved Zhirek and Simmu...).

This is definately one of Tanith Lee's most brilliant ventures yet.

I bought my son several of the Let's Read and Find Out books for Christmas. He's a first grader going on 7 years. These are just absolutely fantastic books for introducing varoius difficult concepts. I like that they contain alot of information, but are still easy to understand. Hard to find something "not too young, not too old" for this age. We love them. This particular one was a favorite.

One of my older children brought this book home from a school book sale many years ago. It was a hit with both of my children for several years. Then, as they grew up, the book was put away in a box for another time.

When I had another child, I got out that "box for another time" and stacked the books on a shelf. This one was amongst them, and onto a shelf it went, though I did't expect it to be of interest to him for several years yet.

But lately, at 21 months, Jack has been asking for this book frequently -- and listening with interest to reading after reading! I doubt that the concept of "how much you weigh on Mars" makes much sense to him yet -- but the idea of gravity is one that he is working out, and Branley's explanations of the Earth pulling everything to its center is simple and seems to satisfy even at this age!

Even better, the science is simple, but accurate so it's a good start on his physics education!

Although this book will painlessly teach your four year old what science is and what that abstract concept, gravity, is, it is also excellent for a teenager who is struggling through a physics course. As Einstein said, you don't really understand a concept until you can explain it to your grandmother. Well, this is a book for Grandmother.

This book is as important as it is wonderful. It brings home the Big Secret about science that escapes most people: Science is about the unknown, not the known. There are lots of mysteries out there; the business of science is to change the unknown into the known, which is the lesson, I think, of Franklyn Branley's masterpiece.

In 1990, my husband went to the library and brought home " gravity is a mystery" for our son to read. He loved it! It was his favorite book for weeks! Every night one of us would have to read it to him. This is a fun book that everyone should get a chance to read.

For those who are about to visit New Zealand & love waterfalls, this is the book for them. It gives good descriptions of the Waterfalls & their locations with details of how to reach them. A must have book for Waterfall-holics.

I am part-way through the production of a Hi Def Video on "Waterfalls, Brooks, Creek & Streams" that has taken me all over the US and Canada and another shoot comes up which required me to travel to Australia last month. What an opportunity! Just hop over to New Zealand and shoot some more waterfalls for my video! But how do I find them? I Googled "New Zealand Waterfalls" and up pops Johnny Cheng's beautiful book. It arrived in time for me to take on my flight. I would only have a few days to shoot in New Zealand, so needed to choose the waterfalls carefully. With all the great photos and detailed maps and directions in the book, I found it easy to make my choices. I selected my base near Fiordland on the South Island and during the limited time I was there, got terrific footage of some beautiful waterfalls. The directions, maps and distance measurments in the book were spot-on, so I didn't waste any time "searching". The shots I got of these New Zealand waterfalls are stunning in High Definition. My thanks to Johnny Cheng and his book "New Zealand Waterfalls" for helping to make my DVD even more beautiful!

I found the book "A Guide To New Zealand Waterfalls" to be one of the best waterfall books I have seen. The book is packed with color photos and maps. The layout of the book is very user friendly and well thought out. The writing is very clear and concise.

This is a must have for all waterfall lovers and anyone living in or visiting New Zealand.

Scott A. Ensminger, founder of the Western New York Waterfall Survey.

This is a very well produced, very well rounded guidebook. I was a bit disappointed at the lack of coverage of the South Island (considering how many waterfalls there are on the South Island), but given that the author lives in California, and conducted this research over a few trips to the other side of the planet, this is a commendable book. I own many books on the subject of Waterfalls and this is simply one of the best ever printed.

Nature enthusiast Johnny Cheng presents A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls, an absolutely stunning trail guide written especially for nature hikers desiring to see the pristine beauty of New Zealand's glorious waterfalls firsthand. Packed with gorgeous full-color photographs, maps, extensive text directions, an at-a-glance rating system for the different hikes categorizing them according to scenic value, hiking difficulty, and driving difficulty. A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls is very tightly focused on its subject matter and does not have any information about hotels, restaurants, and the like; little more than a brief glossary, a one-page summary of English in New Zealand, and an index round out its coverage of waterfall hikes. A truly stunning guide, unmatched in its coverage of waterfalls and filled with breathtaking photographs for the armchair traveler.

For those of you entering 'political science' as an academic major, you must read and re-read S. E. Finer's magnum opus, his three-volume set THE HISTORY OF GOVERNMENT FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES.

You will learn how foolish our system of government is for the Twenty-First Century. It is the purpose of government to make human life tolerable and survivable. The usual nitwits in military, religion and business conspire to destroy the principle of enjoyability of life.

Since Dr. Finer has a lucid mind, he will teach you things that your own physical laziness or mental sloth would preclude you from learning. He will empower your mind. Will you use his knowledge to hurt your fellow man or to help your fellow man? A work of this genius is read more by fools and scoundrels (who wish self-enrichment at the expense of the common good or group), rather than humane, sensible minds concerned about the well-being of their society.

If you are a Political Science student and/or teacher, and you do not own a copy of this three-volume treatise---by cold logic you are a pauper, a miser or a dunce!

Respectfully,


John E.D.P. Malin, M.A. (Literae humaniores)
Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer
Informatica Corporation
Executive Division
P.O. Drawer 460
Cecilia, Louisiana 70521-0460

Contact: InformaticaMalin@gmail.com

Ever so often you find a book that not only deepens your insight on the topics you expect it to cover, but also gives you a wholly different perspective in a much wider field. This is such a book. This book covers the whole field of development of government. The first part gives a referencemodel for descibing government, its most important uses and the powers limiting it. This part would be a satisfying book in itself. The most fascinating parts come later. The rest of the book discusses all the governmental systems that where in some way innovative.All you ever wanted to know about goverment and but never knew that it could be so interesting. But it als gives insight in the mechanisms of power. The description of the signifcance of access to an chinese emperor and the importance that gives to humble titles as royal cupbearer etc. lets you see patterns you can see in everyday life and more important lets you enjoy them. I found the book to be full of these gems, and at the same time it maintains a clearity of focus that is amazing. The only drawback is it's size and the time it takes to think about what you have read.

This book is one of those rare works that is so very good, that you cannot really describe it: language is not rich enough to do it justice. I can do little more than quote from the review of the prestigious The Economist:

"If there were a Nobel prize for political science, Sammy Finer would deserve to win one for this extraordinary trilogy--a work of scholarship so broad in its sympathies, so ambitious in scope and so elegantly crafted that it leaves the reader gasping, literally, with astonishment and delight...[L]ikely to be read as long as Aristotle. No finer work of political science...has been published in this century."--The Economist

Finer's triumphant work of comparative government history is a rare gem. It is not often that a historical study is both deeply informative and perspective changing. This book is both. Finer does not simply outline the devolopment of government, but constructs an entirely new intellectual system for viewing, interpreting, and discussing government. From there he moves on to trace the evolution of government from Sumer to the Industrial Revolution. Every major development is explored, and many minor ones are also included.

Finer shows a mastery of every time and place in history. It is amazing that he can conver accurately and informatively Han civilization and then switch to an excellent discussion of Roman civilization. The same skill with which he reconstructs the governments of Sumer and Egypt is applied later to the constitutional monarchies and revolutionary governments in modern Europe.

Finer's masterpiece ought to be read by anyone interested in an objective study in how societies orgzanize themselves. It is a highly useful reference that should be owned by anyone who works with history on a regular basis.

This three-volume set constitutes the most stimulating and thought-provoking item I've read so far this century, and it is likely to remain so. I stumbled on it by chance in the Bookshop at the British Museum in early 2001. I read it in the United States later that spring and since then a day doesn't go by but what I remember some insight that I gleaned from it. It is history in the grand style, but with a message that is simple and powerful: people are pack animals. They will be governed -- sometimes in a haphazard or mediocre manner, often appallingly, once in a while really well. Not least among its many virtues, the set shows better than a thousand stumps speeches just what is so distinctive about the tradition of liberal democracy, and how it came into being (for more detail, pop over to the separate Amazon page for Volume 2 of this set and read the instructive comments of "Amazon Customer").

A motivational message to prospective readers who are dismayed by the prospect of a three-volume set. You don't need to read all of it to get value for your money. You don't even need to read it in sequence (I did not). Perhaps the most accessible parts are in Volume III, especially Books IV ("The Re-creation of the State in Europe) and Book V ("Pathways to the Modern State"). From there you might want to go back to Volume II, specifically Part III of Book III, more precisely still Chapter 7 on "The Republican Alternatie: Florence and Venice," followed by Chapter 8 and its magisterial discussion of "Representative Assemblies." From there a natural course is back to Volume I and its discussion of Athens and Jerusalem (Finer is particularly good on the distinctive contribution to governance from the tradition of the prophets). This is a Western-centered view, and should not be read to distrct attention from Finer's extraordinary treatment of the Chinese, the Indians and the societies of the Middle East. But these are in some sense self-contained units and can be addressed on their own terms.

This backwards progression would leave for last the stuff that Finer put first: the "Conceptual Prologue," which is perhaps better understood as a summary and analysis. But whatever route you take, surely there is no end of riches in this extraordinary capstone to a great scholarly life, well lived.

I had no idea of the things Arnett had done before the 1st Iraq war. He has led quite an amazing journalistic life. Very enjoyable read.

I have read several reporters auto-biographies but Peter's is the most interesting and gripping. It is full of insightful detail that really makes you feel the excitement and terror of being a war correspondent.

For anyone with the least bit of interest in the Vietnam "police action" and the Gulf War, and honest wartime reporting from someone with an impenetrable sense of integrity, this autobiography is a "must read." Dr. Arnett's autobiography should also be required reading for all jounalism students as a measure of their worth and what it takes to persevere when the "real story," the story on the ground, may not necessarily match that of the "party line."

Want to know what really happened on the battlefield in Vietnam and else where? Read this book. As with most good journalists who stood firm maintaining the freedom of the press, and gave the public a true picture of what was happening abroad, he was railed on by the Pentagon and Whitehouse officials throughout his career. I've just read the book and something especially haunting was the last chapter. He is covering Afghanistan, the year was about 1993 after the 'freedom fighters' got rid of the communists and the entire country is ridden with corruption, violence, and warring factions. While waiting for his plane to Kabul he has a conversation with an influential Pakistani who blamed the chaos on the "mercurial American foreign policy". Saying "all you Americans cared about was destroying communism, and you welcomed extremists to the struggle and trained them to kill. But many of those people don't like you either, and you're the next target". On the very last page, Arnett ends the book as he is leaving Afghanistan, he writes: "The collapse of the Soviet empire, the end of the Cold War, had not brought harmony to Afghanistan, merely conflict and criminality. And the United States would reap a bitter harvest from the seeds of the Islamic revolution it helped sow. I was glad to be leaving Afghanistan but I knew that the story was not over". I would probably have to go back". As usual,the Pentagon and their right-wing pundits who attack people like Arnett as sympathizers, and conspiracy theorists, have been proven wrong by history, and the current events today.

A thrilling account by a master journalist who pursued `the story' for four decades over four continents. Guided by a determination to write only what he himself saw, Arnett sent out a steady stream of reports about what was actually happening in Vietnam, shrugging off the official military handouts as the "Five O'Clock Follies." His doggedness, bravery and resourcefulness in getting to where the action was resulted in Pulitzer Prize winning reports. He later became famous, if controversial, as one of the few American reporters to cover the Gulf War from inside Baghdad. An exhilarating read.

Read your typical history book covering Chinese history and you'll get a very distinct picture of the Jurchens and Manchus--about their conquest of china, the corruption of the Qing government (as if no other dynasty had corruption), of the power-hungry Aisio-gioro Nurgaci, founder of the Qing dynasty, and their alien, steppe-nomadic ways. Most Chinese history books have little good or substantive to say about this north-east Asian culture whose term for their religious priesthood was adopted by the West, "Shaman" (Chinese, "saman").

This book takes all that mythology and anti-Manchu rehtoric and blasts it to pieces with a compelling story of a people who have rarely been studied objectively and as a culture separate from the Mongols and Chinese. Nurgaci was not the man of the myths we've heard and never called himself Emperor. In fact for most of his life his title was "beile of the Jianzhou Jurchens". He was a great lord and chieftain of his lineage, but not even an autocrat in his authority, ruling jointly with his brother, Surgaci, for many years.

Besides the myths about Nuragi, many cultural myths are also dispelled. One major one is the assumption that the Manchus were nomads with a steppe culture analogous to the Mongol culture. This book explains how and why this assumption is wrong and is essential to anyone who wants to know the real Manchu people.

I'm only 3 chapters into the book and already know I need to reread it. there's a lot of information for the student of Jurchen and Manchu history!

WELL DONE!!

I read this book after Evelyn Rawski's "The Last Emperors" and it did answer & clarified a lot questions I had with regards to the Manchus and how they were like before entering China proper. The chapter on Nurhachi was good as was the section on the inevitable power struggle between Cixi and Guangxu (my only wish that this was elaborated further).
Crossley's book is highly recommended for both casual & serious historians alike. My suggestion is to read this first before Rawski's "The Last Emperors"

I have read a more recent book Evelyn Rawski's "The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions " in which she discusses the context between her book and "The Manchus". The two books are probably quite similar but I think that Rawski's book would contain much more undisclosed material.
I have decided not to change the rating on this book in the interest of fair play.

I visited to pick up the paperback of this book, and saw this perplexing comment below. This book and The Last Emperor are apples and oranges. This is a popular book (I got my original copy from History Book Club) and intended for reader's with a general interest, or maybe beginning historians. The book by Evelyn S. Rawski is an academic title, very thorough and erudite. But also the books are not on the same subject. Rawski is about the Manchu emperors, their courts and palaces. The Manchus is much more general. Please do not get confused into thinking that these two books are on the same subject.

It's funny to note that at many times the Qing dynasty faced many of the same problems that we see today: overpopulation, government corruption, war against drugs. So much of what we think of as Chinese is also Manchu and was introduced rather recently. Well writen and clear all the way through.

We recently visited New Zealand and searched at each venue for books that capture the magnificent landscape. Although there are many beautiful books, this is the best. We found it at the Te Papa museum. It has won a gold award. The feature I like best - apart from the photography itself - is that the book is divided into sections according to the type of landscape - coastline, lowlands, mountains etc, and does justice to each.

This is a simply beautiful book of photographs. Apse's custom-built medium-format cameras and his eye for composition and lighting have produced a collection that distills the essence of New Zealand's beautiful "Four Seasons in a Day" landscapes.

I just returned from 3-weeks in New Zealand and I must have looked at 30 NZ published photo albums before I left, settling on "New Zealand Landscapes." The US price for this NZ published book is a little steep, but it beats the pants off anything else I saw.

This is the first time that I have ever written a review but I feel that I must in order repay what Mr. Apse has provided me.

This book is my favorite collection of photographs, period. The photographs are technically perfect and do justice to a landscape that itself is almost indescribable. Whenever I pick up this book, I know that I'll be sacrificing an hour because I just cannot put it down.

Thank you Mr. Apse.

I am an amateur photographer who just returned from an extended vacation in New Zealand. I spent a lot of time looking for the perfect scenic picture book to take home as a souviner, and I must say that this one was absolutely the best! Andris Apse is an amazing photographer - his images of the New Zealand country and coastal areas are incredibly well composed. The lighting, the scope, the sheer beauty of it all..... it's difficult to put into words. The price for this title in the US is well worth it. If you are able, definitely get your hands on a copy. And if you want to have a look at more of his stuff, visit his website.

Even if you've never been to New Zealand, I highly recommend this title as a thoroughly enjoyable work of art!

I just received this as a gift. It's filled with some amazing shots all over New Zealand and some nearby islands. Some of the photos do not even look real they are so picture perfect. I love his use of light in the photos as well. Only thing better will be getting to go there. :-)

Katherine died at the age of 32, a real pity because she was fouding a complete personal and masterly style of her own. Her stories are anecdotes of everyday life written with an incredible onomatopeyic style. You can easily find Chejov influence in her (one of her stories is just a translation of the russian master) but for the non russian speakers it is a treat to find this gift for subtelity in an australian writter.
I think this is a good selection of her work, but would rather recommend the penguin complete works. Anyway you can find in here some of her masterpieces:
Prelude and At the bay (I think one of them was first publish by leonard and Virginia Wollf in the Howgarths Press, VW reconigzing that she envied mansfield style): Onomatopeyic style for days of sun and sea
Je ne parlais pas français: More playful and cruel. Young
The fly: her masterpiece and probably the best short storie of all times. Complex, ironic, full of meanings.
If you are going to do a Mansfield tour start with
1.In a german pension: Her youth playful written critizising germans. Witty and inteligent
2- Bliss &stories: A littel to much sensibility but always great
3- The garden party & stories: She grows to inmense proportions
4-The dove nest& stories: Really ill. Strange stories presided by the fly
So good luck. I reaally envy you that will discover her. It is whole pleasure

Katherine Mansfield is one of many very talented writers who were eclipsed by others more famous (such as Woolf) or who were forgotten (because of her early death.) I decided to read these excellent stories after a critic compared her to Flannery O'Connor. Knowing O'Connor's works very well, I thought it an odd comparison at the time, because they wrote in different periods, countries and styles. But after having read these stories, I think I understand this astute insight into their unique talents: both writers mastered the art of the short story through mystery and manners and spoke to universal truths.

This collection of short stories is a remarkably good introduction to Katherine Mansfield. All of her most well-known and representative stories are included here, along with some that are lesser-known.

The beauty of Mansfield's writing lies in her poetic description of detail--her power of suggestion--and her courage. She was determined, both in her life and in her writing, to move against the current of the time. Her life was filled with problems; her health, her love life, and her writing all caused her measureless pain, but in spite of these she lived her life the way she chose to live it. And though her writings were often critized--not least by her notable rival, Virginia Woolf--she kept on in the face of difficulty, and is now recognized as a major transformer of the short story.

A few examples from this collection would be in order. In "At the Bay," Mansfield examines in great detail the experiences and emotions of each member of a large family in New Zealand. It is in this story that she displays perhaps to the fullest extent her ability to take seemingly unimportant details--gestures, looks, scattered thoughts--and from them build a fascinating portrayal of an individual's personality.

In "Psychology," she conducts a unique experiment. At first glance, not much happens in the story; but on further examination and multiple rereadings, the depth of conflict becomes evident, and then, Mansfield's understanding of the deepest nooks and crannies not only of the female but also of the male character.

"The Singing Lesson" progresses in a lighter vein; a spinster singing teacher receives a message from her fiance, breaking off their engagement; she begins her teaching miserable, heart-broken, and full of anger. Thirty minutes later, she receives another message in which he reassures her of his love. The story contains interesting use of imagery and simile, and pokes mild fun at the tragic mood swings of the young woman.

Mansfield's stories are not melodrama, but lyrics. They are short, poignant silhouttes drawn in quick and sometimes uneven brushstrokes, but always carrying the touch of genius.

There are 28 stories in this very excellent collection by Katherine Mansfield, the settings reflecting her own life experiences in New Zealand and England in the early part of the 20th century. Her detailed descriptions of objects are intrinsic to the stories, tiny sparkles that spread out and create a canvas on which her characters interact. Every story has its own suppressed passion as Ms. Mansfield gets right into the heart of what makes us all human. They are filled with arrivals and departures, spinsterhood and marriage, love and loss and pangs of despair. Children play a role in her writings, as do distinctions of social class. Life is a struggle for her characters who are timeless in their humanity, although they all live in a world that existed more than 80 years ago. With rare exceptions, the stories are sad. I was impressed by her writing, which is layered with subtleties in the way she deals with the major themes of life and death. Her structure is unique for its time, as there doesn't seem to be any center or an easily identified beginning, middle and end. Often, they are simply small slices of life, rare glimpses into human nature with sharp insights that sparked my own memories and feelings. It might have been uncomfortable, but reading these stories was a deeply enriching literary experience.

I have come across Mansfield numerous times in school, but not until this year, when I read her entire collection of short stories, have I begun appreciating her greatness as a writer. In her stories, Mansfield captures some of the impressions we encounter daily and have time only to remark how surprising, how sudden, and how fleeting they are. Some stories, like "A Garden Party", "The Doll's House", "The Daughters of the Late General", accurately convey the sense of loss, the breath of youth, the regret of unfulfilled lives all in subtle and striking prose. The beauty of the writing lies in the subtlety of description, the use of symbolism, and the immediacy of the language, not unlike her contemporary and admirer Virginia Woolf.

I was fortunate enough to find a copy of Claire Tomalin's biography of Mansfield, and reading it gave me a better grasp of the context of the writing. If the stories sometimes seem remarkable or shocking for the time they were written in, Mansfield's life too readily provided a source to draw from. Her presence and personal failings, triumphs, and conflicts are felt throughout her work, and rereading the stories knowing about her life impressed this sense further. Her stories show what a writer can do when inspired, and suggest what a much greater writer she could have been with time, health, and happiness later in life.

Fantastic Book! Makes a revolutionary concept seem simple and obvious. As an education student, I plan to take from this book for the rest of my life.

This text was recommended reading and as a teacher myself, I find it confounding that it was not required reading during my teaching education. She certainly was ahead of her time, but Sylvia Ashton-Warner might still be distancing herself from those standard based minds determined to put children into the molds we have decided are necessary for their own good. How do we get children to see the power of language so that writing and reading have personal meaning that piques a lifelong journey into the love of learning--this book has some incredible seeds that a willing and curious mind might take, study, and find itself using to change the world, and at the very least the landscape of education as we see it today. Read this book if you want children to come alive to learning.

I am a teacher of 18 years who had to read this book in 1977 as part of my college teacher training and would like to share this book with all teachers. It is as relevant for me today with our scripted phonics and literature-rich reading programs as it was then. Sylia Ashton-Warner does more than portray a method and philosophy to teach reading to New Zealand's Maori children--she paints a vivid, dramatic picture of any classroom. The reader can see the combination of her daily, organized lesson plan superimposed with the actual unpredictable, spontaneous, and social nature of children. Sylvia writes in such a perceptive, humorous way that our sympathy goes out to the Maori children who are expected to learn reading, but are expertly led, not forced.
One of her main points was that the contemporary "Dick and Jane" method of teaching reading was too imposing, stagnant, and foreign to inspire success and a love of learning for her Maori students. She created a new system to do the job of bridging the old, illiterate civilization of the Maoris to contemporary New Zealand. Her method became famous. It is fairly simple and has been used since in a multitude of kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms. Children were allowed to give Ms. Ashton-Warner, their teacher, a new word every day. The word was traced, written, practiced, shared, and reviewed the next day. If the word was important enough to the child, it was remembered and therefore called an "organic" word since it came from an important part of the individual child. Children had word cards and every day would locate their own personal word cards amidst the class' collection.
As Ms. Ashton-Warner used this method over time, she was able to categorize important words, and thereby came across universal truths regarding words that made reading easier for her students. The two widest categories she called "sex" and "fear" words, and if a word was easily learned then it fit into one of these categories. Although I personally don't like her use of the word "sex," she explains her conception of it as referring to the human needs of love, acceptance, and survival.
As students became proficient with this first introduction to words, they were "graduated" to more advanced classes in reading and writing, using their own personal word banks, until at last the traditional school books could be used successfully. In addition, Ms. Ashton-Warner wrote and illustrated her own version of basal readers for Maoris, using their own interests and lingo, as another part of transitioning them from their own culture to the literate and modern New Zealand. It is tragic that most of her original works are gone.
In actuality, the book "Teacher" is much more than a description of a pedagogical method. It is a work of art, describing the talent needed to teach. It is a work in psychology, showing one how to cope with the enormous diversity and constant problems of the real classroom. It is a work of teaching methodology, inspiring a teacher to value and inspire the inner thoughts and feelings of a child, and to take those raw materials and create real learning experiences for that child.
I actually read this book once a year. It has become a part of me that allows me to take each day as it comes, to see special inspired moments in a child's day as being a huge, poignant step in their education.

In generally straightforward prose, Sylvia Ashton-Warner describes the success of her "organic" teaching method for five-year-old Maoris, a native people of New Zealand. The idea is as brilliant as it is simple: young children will best remember words that are nearest their hearts.

For young Maoris at the time of Ashton-Warner's writing, these words were not always positive, as many of her students were from troubled backgrounds. Words such as "fear" and "kill" were as popular among them as "kiss" and "love." Ms. Ashton-Warner's infant reading texts were hand-crafted by her for each student's particular needs and interests. After developing an "organic" vocabulary, the Maoris were better able to tackle traditional English elementary texts.

I found a sixth edition of this book in my late father's library. It was required reading for my father's Masters in Education program at Hunter College in New York City during the late 1960s and early 1970s. "Teacher" was first published in 1963.

Contemporary readers, especially Americans, may find the style somewhat dated. Towards the end of the book, Ms. Ashton-Warner changes from a conversational format to a diary-like, almost stream-of-consciousness style which is rather confusing. She also uses New Zealand terms such as "pa" and "haka" whose meanings have to be determined with some difficulty from context.

All that said, the message of "Teacher" is as vibrant today as it was when this work was first published. It is as relevant to building cross-cultural bridges as it is to enhancing learning among students of all backgrounds. My father drew upon it in getting reluctant older students to write and read about things that they were truly interested in. "Teacher" provides an important caveat to today's world of standardized testing and rigid pedagogical criteria.

Hard for me to write a short review of this book since I've written a book about Ashton-Warner's contributions to teaching young children.

The point is, Ashton-Warner was a careful observer of the young Maori children she taught. She knew that what she had been trained to do in a college teacher-training program wasn't working, so she really looked to see what the children cared about, and invented ways to teach them based upon their deep interests and respecting their culture, different from her own. She, a left-handed artist, was different from the mainstream, and wanted to be appreciated...and she carried this and other knowledge from her personal life into her teaching. Ashton-Warner wasn't a woman of perfection, but she made a contribution that lasts...This book has changed the lives of many, many teachers -- I know because they have told me.

If you have seen the film 'Rabbit Proof Fence', then you simply must read this book. Carolyn Wadley Dowley has presented all the historical context necessary to allow the reader to understand the themes and setting of the film more deeply, and has richly illuminated this period of Australian history.

Wadley Dowley succeeds masterfully in bringing this fascinating episode in Australian history to life, filling the framework provided by historical archives, contemporary analysis and oral histories with fresh emotion and reality. Through Silent Country is all the more remarkable for its ability to preserve a clear distinction between the voice of the author and those of the real historical actors in this human drama. Wadley Dowley's treatment of the historical sources and oral history transcripts, along with her honest and moving journal record, provide a strong basis for the reader to understand - from several fascinatingly diverse perspectives - her new and complete account of the escape from detention of this group of Aboriginal Australians, and their epic trek back to their home country. This work is important and ground-breaking, both in content and in style. It deserves to be widely recognised as such. I recommend it without hesitation to all who want to explore the landscape of Australian history, and especially to Australians who hope to discover a new perspective on their past.

This book is an excellent contribution to Australian history. I recommend it highly.

This exceptional book - which I note has just received a significant Australian history award - is the author's account of an event from 1921 in the Western Australian goldfields. Further, it is the story of what was required to uncover such history. Through Silent Country is history as it all too rarely written - emotive, gripping, full of fascinating characters, and ultimately triumphant. The 'heroes' of the tale are the Wongutha people of the Western Desert, who walk hundreds of kilometres across unknown (silent) country to return to their homes from forced exile. Loved it!

This book follows the circumstance of the forced removal, in 1921, of the Wongutha people from their their homeland in the Western Australian goldfields to Mogumber, a feared place of detention.The events are set in context, the complete picture slowly emerging through the author's own travels over the escape routes the Wongutha used, from `speakings' about the escape and related concerns, documents (officialdom's cold tone chills even now) and a `new account; by the author. This is not a dreary recitation of facts but an imaginative reconstruction of the events. The Wongutha's plight, as they face encroaching settlement and drought, is emotively drawn. Just brilliant.
Good Reading Magazine(Australia). January 2003.