Connecticut Books

Here We All Are (26 Fairmount Avenue)The next book in a wonderful series by Tomie dePaola, this short chapter book written especially for his chosen audience, is the part of his life when his family is completed; his baby sister is born. Parents and children will love the easy way that Tomie blends the real view points of children with the stuff that adults think is so important. Bravo.

Growing up can be a challenge for any young child and Tomie was no exception to the rule. Tomie took his liability and figured out how to turn it around to his advantage. This book shows that anyone big or small can follow their heart and make their dreams come true. Tome Depaola wrote and illustrated this book for readers to understand that time changes but childhood experiences remain the same for all individuals. I highly recommend this chapter book for any child experiencing the introduction of a new sibling or the adventure of moving to a new environment. Especially for a mischievous young boy who is full of life. I think this book can give them the positive drive to be creative and inspire them to bloom where they are planted.

This book really brings together all facets of the family that children and young readers can easily understand. I would recommend the book for all ages.

What makes Tomie de Paola such an endearing (and enduring) children's book writer is the fact that he has never lost touch with the magic of childhood. An autobiography that embodies this quality is bound to appeal to children, especially as Mr. de Paola relates this slice-of-life story from the perspective of a young boy growing up. In this installment of the 26 Fairmount Avenue series, Tomie recounts the arrival of his new baby sister, Maureen; to this day, he is extremely close to his younger sibling. The book, with de Paola's customary gentle wit, provides young readers and writers with an admirable example of the art of autobiography. The author's charming illustrations complement the lyrical text.

Here We All Are is the latest chapter book by Tomie dePaola about his childhood. It tells the story of Tomie and his family as they move into their new house at 26 Fairmount Avenue in Meriden, Connecticut, and the exciting things that happen to Tomie during his first year in school. Tomie is a very bright and curious little boy, but he doesn't always follow the rules his strict teacher sets out. He steals the show when the kindergartners put on a play, and often breaks into song when he is supposed to be napping. Things go better for Tomie when he begins taking dance lessons with the kind Miss Leah. The highlight of the book is the birth of Tomie's baby sister "with a red ribbon in her hair", just as Tomie hoped and prayed.

Our favorite parts of the book probably were the parts where Tomie caused trouble in school without really meaning too, especially when he totally derails the class production of "Peter Rabbit". Lots of kids can relate to the experience of getting in trouble for just being themselves. Knowing that young Tomie grew up to be a successful author, artist, and dancer helps kids see that they don't have to be perfect or just like everyone else in order to do well in life.

We would recommend this great book to anyone in grades K through 4. The stories in it are ones that children of that age would love to hear and would definitely be able to connect with, although it would probably need to be read aloud to kindergarten and first graders. The reading level is just about perfect for second and third grade. Fourth graders probably won't find the reading hard, but they will be able to use this book as a way to get a look into how Tomie's other stories and artwork came to be.

By the way, this book is the second in a series of chapter books about Tomie's childhood. The first is called 26 Fairmount Avenue, and it is just as good. The third one should be out later this year.

This is a fascinating book. Worthen was still an undergraduate at Yale when she began it, and she brings both the idealism of youth and a mature writing style to the page. Besides being a fly on the wall at some of the most important foreign policy events of the 20th century, the reader also gets an inside view of one of Yale University's most elite communities -- the Grand Strategy program, which trains future leaders in the art of statecraft. Followers of contemporary political events will be particularly interested, since two of the Grand Strategy professors -- John Lewis Gaddis and Charles Hill -- have close contacts with, and regularly advise the Bush Administration. This is no tawdry expose of secret societies (a la Secrets of the Tomb), but an insightful look into how an experienced diplomat mentors some of the most accomplished students in our country. It also is a moving coming of age story, as Worthen learns that her mentor is as flawed and human as the famous leaders he counseled.

I'm sorry but I've read this book twice now and I don't know when I've had a more amateur read. I'm with Publishers Weekly on this one, this author is smart and clever and in love with her own voice but she's not a natural writer, and her apparent infatuation with Professor Hill gets tiresome after only twenty-five pages. I can imagine that students who went to Yale and took courses with Hill might enjoy reading about him. Will anyone else? His family, perhaps. To the rest of us, even after Worthen's comprehensive look at his career, he seems like a nobody who somehow wound up at the top echelons of a corrupt government and now runs pretentious power courses from a cushy academic post. Worthen gives us a charming picture of campus life at New Haven, and how a lottery system insures everyone an equal shot at studying with Professor Hill.

I got the impression also that Hill was flirting with Worthen continuously, but that his passion for Norma was making him "walk the line" as Johnny Cash used to say. Hill certainly seems unabashed by Worthen's curiosity about his romantic and sex life, even urging her on to ask him some unseemly questions even Bill Clinton might have balked at, though I didn't catch if he wears boxers or briefs.

The revelations about Iran/Contra are minor ones, and debatable. I hate to break it to you, Molly Worthen, but your emperor has no clothes.

The Grand Strategy course he teaches, she notes breathlessly, culminates in a "Crisis Simulation" day in which students are thrown into an imaginary crisis like an outbreak of Ebola or Muslim terrorists occupying the Senate chambers. It's like a Universal Studios tour ride putting you, the tourist, into Jack Bauer's shoes on "24." And out of such theme parks our foreign policy is born.

For a wonderful read about a man I know, but thank you even more for articulating the hugh problem at the heart of academia today -- political correctness that has left a whole generation of students with a disfunctional inner compass. Thank God Charlie Hill decided to teach at Yale after he left the Foreign Service!
Francie Bremer

This biography is the first I've read of a man I've had the privilege to know. It's also the first review on Amazon I've felt compelled to write. I applaud Worthen's ability to peg Charlie Hill. Her characterizations are 100% in my experience of man who has lived a compelling life. I recommend this book to all students of foreign policy.

Yes, you can marvel at the fact that a professor buys coffee at Starbucks. I feel sorry for those who've forgotten that.

Charles Hill is the consumate man behind the curtain - Worthen writes a bio worthy of close examination - her writing is just lovely and shows her wisdom. - Great job.

Martha knows a lot about gardening, which she learned a great deal of from her father. Her book," Martha Stewart's Gardening Month By Month" is my favorite gardening book to return to again and again. In this book, she goes through each step of the gardening process in a month by month format, explaining what to do during each month of the year, as she shows you how she created her beautiful gardens at Turkey Hill Farm in Connecticut. You will learn how to plan your garden,about soil preparation,what and where to plant,all with gorgeous color photos. You'll learn about growing vegetables,fruits, flowers and herbs. She's even included some recipes! There is a handy index, bibliography and source guide in the back of this large 360 page book.

This is undoubtedly one of my favorite gardening books of all time. I highly recommend it!!!

Over here in England, we are just beginning to be included in the Martha Stewart 'empire'. (Of cousre we have our own home grown lifestyle gurus, but I think a toughie like Martha could wipe the floor with the lot of them!) As a keen gardener I was eager to get my hands on this book to learn more about American gardening plants and styles, and ideas; to my surprise this book is in essence a rehash of the work of the very English Penelope Hobhouse, Rosemary Verey and Christopher Lloyd! Still, a good book, and a good read, despite the photographic quality not being up to the usual standards for garden books.

Basically, it's good for inspiring beginners; however, if you want to garden in 'le style anglais' go to straight Penelope Hobhouse. As I believe they say in the States - she's got it going on!

I know, I know, this is Martha's stuff, the woman we all love to hate! However, the book is arranged in a friendly fashion, giving a month-by-month tour of her gardens, with information on typical chores she will expect from her gardeners that month!

As with everything else Martha does, her gardens are on a grand scale and ambitious. What I like about this book are several things: she gardens in a similar climate zone to mine; her gardens are generally unpretentious, and her English-inspired style is one I enjoy. Each month, she lays out the work needing to be done for the various flower and vegetable gardens, then focuses on a seasonal aspect of her garden. The book is lavishly illustrated, and for those of us who are visual people--what gardener isn't?--the ideas are inspiring.

The information is fairly basic, but actually useful to those who are beginning to garden on a more serious scale. She does not seem to depend heavily on chemical warfare and emphasizes such basics as good soil preparation and the other down and dirty aspects of good gardening. If your gardening budget can afford it and you find inspiration from good garden design photos, this book is worth your time and money.

Once again, Martha has inspired us with her advice and illustrations. This book follows Martha month to month in her (and her staff's) preparations of flower and vegetable gardens, the trees and shrubs at Turkey Hill.It helps one to understand the layout of her gardens there. Some recipes using items from her garden are included. It does not give as much advice as one might expect, but inspires all the same. Martha does have much for all of us to learn, men and women!Yes, there are some things we wouldn't use in day to day living, but, almost everything she covers in her books and on her shows(from climbing trees to beekeeping to cooking and gardening) are very pragmatic.

i read the Moffat series books when i was young.. many years ago.. i still remember the wonderful stories 40 years later.. to not read these wonderful stories would deprive any child of wondrous times of hardship and amazement by a sweet, kind, brave girl.. if you have a child.. or children.. if you love to read and haven't found these books yet.. find them.. read them.. for yourself.. to your child.. or let them read them to you..

oh one more thing.. i'm a man.. and still i found these books spectacular.. these are not stories of just a little girl.. they are stories of those times.. of war and people.. my favorite, the money under the ice and the coal.. i now have 2 daughters who have read them as well.. and they loved them..

The mysterious middle moffat is not mysterious. That's the fun it and the humor. The middle moffat is even better than the first book! The sequil! how rare is that? The middle moffat is an excellent book for everyone of all ages. Janie is just too much fun, she is the most excellent of all the moffats.

I'm only rating it four stars, but I really did enjoy it. Jane, the "middle moffat" is trying to do everything. She makes friends with a 99 year old neighbor, while at the same time trying to do everything to help him live to a 100. She helps her little brother Rufus at Christmas. While everyone's asleep, she climbs downstairs...

Anyway, I really liked this book, and I think kid's UNDER nine would enjoy it too.

Okay, you know your average family, right? Well The Moffat's are anything but ordinary! I mean sure they have two sisters, two brothers, and a widowed mom. But do normal families have 10 year olds who are friends with 99 year olds? I think not, besides the fact of being a little weird, The Middle Moffat is a perfectly written book. The Middle Moffat is an excellent book by Eleanor Estes. Wonderful, adorable art for kids, that you will enjoy, drawn by Louis Slobodkin, The Middle Moffat is 234 pages packed of laughs and touching moments. The Middle Moffat won Horn Book Award and Newbery Honor Award. Some other books written by Eleanor Estes are: Alley, Ginger pye, Pinky pye, Hundred Dresses, The Moffats, Moffat Museum, Rufus M., Tunnel of Hugsey Goode, and The Witch Family. Most of these books have received awards such as ALA, Library Journal, NY book review, Newbery Honor, Publisher Weekly, and Horn book award. I loved reading about the adventures of Janey Moffat, in The Middle Moffat. I highly recommend you read it. Janey has kooky adventures in boring Cranbury CT. Janey will be remembered forever.
In Janey's first adventure she puts on an Organ Recital. Most of the people in Cranbury come; of course there is a twist. Then you can't forget when Janey spends a day with Mr. Buckle, or when she meets Nancy, her best friend. Along the way Wallie Bangs, a mechanical wizard moves in next door. But what did he do with her skates? Or the best adventure and heart warming of all, Christmas Eve, all Rufus wants is a pony! Rufus might not get what he wants, what'll Janey do this time to help her brother. Once Janey fixed Christmas she joins a play, the three little bears. But no, her head is gone! Nancy and Jane then set off for the eclipse in Cranbury. Guess who they meet he's furry too! "I'm no good..." sighed Janey. HA! Yeah right, Janey takes up Basketball and see what she does for the team. It can't be Janey and Nancy not friends! Nancy feels bad about hurting Janey and gives her a ring, ahhh friends again. And Janey can't soon be forgotten on Mr. Buckle's birthday, what a sweet gift she bought him.
Reading The Middle Moffat was like a chocolate cake baked to perfection, every layer of frosting perfectly smoothed on creamy and whipped. YUM! Go ahead and read up. Eleanor Estes adds humor to every page! I love reading this book, the characters are so fun! For instance in parts she used words a four year old would like ignoramus. Estes uses incredible wording only a kid would understand and an adult would laugh at. Like in a part Janey [Estes] thinks you save daylight in a box. Or when she waited up all night for Santa to come. Of course I can't stop laughing when she convinces the all the neighbor hood kids to run into Wallie Bang's basement and steal their stuff back.
I love the plot of this book too! I like how Janey is always trying to be mysterious. Or when Janey won the basketball game and her wish came true. Or when Nancy gave Jane her friendship ring I couldn't help but smile. I think the best part though is when she gave Mr. Buckle his birthday present. Throughout all the chapters of Janey's adventures each one making me smile. I think this book is well dissevering of all the awards it won. Eleanor Estes has the most creative, spunky, humorous, lovable, and fun way of writing.
Overall as you can tell I loved reading this book. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to say how much I like it, but I can try. If you read the book for your self you will understand the way Eleanor Estes writing flows and makes you want more. After each sentence you are begging to read a little more just to widen that smile. All her sentences just flow into one another making it so you can read for hours. I loved the way she wrote about a ten year old. Janey is just too young to understand what people mean. She has her own ideas about the way the world think and I think a lot of us can understand and relate to that. I recommend this to anyone who needs a good laugh and need to lighten up. Or someone who has just come home and has had a horrible day. I can guarantee that if kids or adults read this they will laugh, cry, and smile with Janey.

I read this book to my three boys ages 9,6 and 3 and they could not stop laughing. Jane's imagination and simple ways of viewing life around her really capture what it is like to be a kid. We had to stop several times so that they could act out certain parts. I think Jane is a friend that we all would like to have. She's beyond nice and there is never a dull moment when she is around (whether it's in her mind or really happening). Now that we have read the book we really miss Jane.

I must say that I particularly enjoyed the review of the Fla. resident. I am a 23 year resident of this town that Brenda C
ullerton describes. I only wish I had known her, AND her family! The "McMansions", now an everday word here, are ridiculous! She saw it with the building of one behind her own home!!
But the most compelling thing about the book is the waste,of human lives!! These people were disfunctional, no doubt about it!And probably would be charged with "child endangerment" today. But the love that the author shows for her mother and father, NO MATTER THEIR QUIRKS, and her inability to express that love, makes a true study in the nature of human beings!Sometimes, we lose what we choose to. She chose to make it front and center in this book! I can't say that I agree with all the author did, nor her family!! Some people will go "AGHG"! But as a resident of this town for some time, it sure is nice to see the veneer crack, and people weren't so perfect I truly loved when she described her mother gardening in her black bra and baggy panties!! And her mother going to town in the pink foam rollers!!That would be a REAL NO- NO today! This is a town of "Stepford Wives"! Would THEY go to town in pink foam rollers and snap-it beads?? Thanks, Brenda, for bringing a little "real" back to Ridgefield!!!

It's a crime that Brenda Cullerton isn't writing novels, because her style (reflecting years as a professional writer) is powerful and distinctive. So is her story of her upbringing by a pair of eccentrics protected by their talent and family wealth from any need to face reality. Cullerton, having escaped her parents after college, bravely decides to wade back in and come to grips with them in their declining years (which are every bit as colorful and maddening as their mid-life crises). I found her unvarnished account of her relationship with them enormously heartening. With the support of her husband, she got as close to them as she could and came away with some peace of mind--and a great book.

"As mother taught me, life was a stage - a real stage, with no metaphor intended - and everyone on it but us was an extra."
(-The Nearly Departed: Or, My Family & Other Foreigners)

Far from prosaic and most definitely diverting, Brenda Cullerton's unabashedly candid memoir "The Nearly Departed: Or, My Family & Other Foreigners" is a refreshing departure from the autobiographical norm. Dancing between dark humour, stinging wit and poignant life realities, the author's recollections of her wildly outlandish family are often more bitter than sweet. To be sure, the collective confessions from the `Cullerton Family Crypt' will have you sobbing, guffawing, sighing, and feeling strangely schizophrenic - all in one chapter.

The truth is, Brenda Cullerton's family would raise anyone's eyebrow. At the forefront of these eccentric anecdotes are her parents - a social misfit mother who gardened in baggy black undies, lavish jewelry coupled with pop-it beads, and her hair bedecked in curlers; and an alcoholic father who was usually found anywhere but home, and amassed a hidden fortune as traveling businessman in the shoe trade (only to later hide his cash in their dilapidated barn, stuffed in the toes of moldy footwear).

Now in their winter years, Brenda Cullerton's parents - suffering from ill health - evoke her return to this alien landscape called "home". As the author painstakingly sifts through piles of family memories encountered along the way, not only does she learn more about these virtual "foreigners" who are family, but ultimately discovers herself and the all reasons for her insatiable desire to escape the past.

Artfully and intelligently captured on paper, it is Cullerton's ingenuous journey through introspection which makes "The Nearly Departed" quite nearly flawless.

Far from prosaic and most definitely diverting, Brenda Cullerton's unabashedly candid memoir "The Nearly Departed: Or, My Family & Other Foreigners" is a refreshing departure from the autobiographical norm. Dancing between dark humour, stinging wit and poignant life realities, the author's recollections of her wildly outlandish family are often more bitter than sweet. To be sure, the collective confessions from the `Cullerton Family Crypt' will have you sobbing, guffawing, sighing, and feeling strangely schizophrenic - all in one chapter.

The truth is, Brenda Cullerton's family would raise anyone's eyebrow. At the forefront of these eccentric anecdotes are her parents - a social misfit mother who gardened in baggy black undies, lavish jewelry coupled with pop-it beads, and her hair bedecked in curlers; and an alcoholic father who was usually found anywhere but home, and amassed a hidden fortune as traveling businessman in the shoe trade (only to later hide his cash in their dilapidated barn, stuffed in the toes of moldy footwear).

Now in their winter years, Brenda Cullerton's parents - suffering from ill health - evoke her return to this alien landscape called "home". As the author painstakingly sifts through piles of family memories encountered along the way, not only does she learn more about these virtual "foreigners" who are family, but ultimately discovers herself and the all reasons for her insatiable desire to escape the past.

Artfully and intelligently captured on paper, it is Cullerton's ingenuous journey through introspection which makes "The Nearly Departed" quite nearly flawless.

I read a review of "The Nearly Departed" in the Ridgefield Press, which I still have delivered to my new address in another state. The review had me laughing so hard, I decided that I simply had to get this book. Having spent 23 years in Ridgefield, CT was a plus as I could picture so many scenes as described and these are NOT things one would see in Ridgefield! Perhaps one would see people going down a Main Street in pink foam curlers elsewhere, but certainly not there. Now that that is in perspective, Brenda Cullerton has a wit that will get you laughing out loud, but the book is so much deeper than one might first think. I realize that the average family is dysfunctional to a degree. Unfortunately for Brenda, her family seemed to encompass every dysfunctional element known to man! Hopefully in writing this book, she was able to come to terms with issues in her life; I know that in reading it, she helped me to both understand and come to terms with some things in mine. Thank you Brenda, for both a terrific laugh and a learning experience.

This was an enjoyable read and I learned a lot about New Haven from its founding to the present day. Well worth the read!

Having grown up in New Haven before I moved to N.Y.C. in my twenties, I enjoyed reading "New Haven: From Puritanism to the Age of Terrorism". I learned more about the city of my birth and experienced moments of nostalgia. A delightful read and there are many wonderful illustrations, including photographs of Union soldiers on the Green during the Civil War, the demolition of the State House after New Haven ceased to be the co-capital of Connecticut, the Hindenburg flying over New Haven the day before it burst into flames in N.J., JFK visiting New Haven, and the May Day protest of 1970...

"New Haven: From Puritanism to the Age of Terrorism" is a general history of New Haven and covers the years from the founding of the colony by puritan settlers and the natives who inhabited the region to the present age. Sletcher covers 400 years of history and includes many details and events related to the development of the Elm City. As a small colony town in the New World, New Haven eventually became one of the most prosperous cities in the United States during the nineteenth and part of the twentieth century. In the last two chapters, Sletcher explains the decline of the city (i.e. industrial and middle class migration to the suburbs), recent attempts at revival (i.e. Dick Lee's renewal program in the 1950s and 60s) and ends with a epilogue of the problems now facing the city after 9/11. This is a book worth reading for anyone interested in the history of New Haven or Connecticut. One area where Sletcher could have provided more information was the historical relationship of Yale and New Haven -- the important role of the university in relation to the prosperity and later decline of the city. Yale is mentioned intermittently, but a more detailed account of town-gown relations in the first half of the twentieth century would have made the book more enjoyable as a whole.

Because of this lacuna, it is surprising to read from "New Haven Native" (below) that he thought the author had placed too much emphasis on Yale. "New Haven Native" also writes that the important role of gun manufacturing was all but ignored, but from my reading of the book gun manufacturing and the significant role it played in the city is mentioned repeatedly in the book, beginning with Eli Whitney and his gun-manufacturing plant on the Hamden-New Haven border to the closing of Winchester and other plants after WWII (pp. 43-5, 105, 106, 117, 123-4). The Franklin Street Fire of 1957, which killed 15 garment workers and which "New Haven Native" believes changed the city forever, was by no means a defining moment in New Haven's history. A Google search of the event produces 3 brief references to the fire. The tragedy nonetheless is an important part of social history, but this is largely because it reveals the poor working conditions of New Haven women, which is discussed in the book (pp.111-12), along with other issues related to New Haven women (pp.43, 49, 104, 107, 111-12, 117, 123, 126) and the emergence of the New Haven Fire Dept. (pp. 47), etc. Such an assertion about the significance of this particular fire is astounding and begs the question of whether the author should have included every fire in New Haven from colonial times? He does discuss the fires and looting in the black riots of 1967 (p. 134), but that was an event that changed New Haven forever; it was a defining moment that smashed New Haven's image as "the model city." It also marked the end to Mayor Lee's urban renewal efforts. Considering the number of tragic fires each year in the city of New Haven, there might be another book for someone to write -- "New Haven Fires."

From the disparagements of "New Haven Native," it is not clear if he actually read the book or has an axe to grind with the author or Yale University. What is clear, however, is that he did not read the favorable review of the book in the New Haven Advocate (12/30/04) by Stephen Lassonde, a professional historian who specializes in the history of New Haven: Sletcher's book, as Lassonde concludes the review, "offers a concise, sweeping narrative that often brings long-forgotten, mundane and overly familiar landmarks of the city's past alive with meaning." Consequently, it is apparent to me that "New Haven Native," a self-proclaimed "amateur historian," is an amateur, but no historian; belligerent, but no critic.

The Author, a Yale Historian, fell into the trap of confusing New Haven's History with Yale's History. He highlighted the role of the University much more than an objective account called for. A New Haven Native and amateur Historian I was chagrined to find incomplete or otherwise flawed discriptions of events I lived through. There were a variety of petty errors that cast doubt upon how well this book was researched or proofread. For example, the reference to "Giant Shirt Co." should have read Gant Shirt Company. The significant role of Firearms manufacturing in and near New Haven, was all but ignored (Winchesters, Marlins, Mossburgs, Dardrick, High Standard) was not adequatly explored. Events that changed New Haven forever again were not enumerated as one might expect i.e. The Franklin Street Fire. This book will go to the first charitable book sale. It has not earned a place on my reference shelf.

The author explains complex issues about New Haven's early history using simple language and makes the subject interesting. He covers many aspects of the city's history, including slavery and the rise of industrial prosperity and its eventual decline. It is a general yet comprehensive history covering political, economic, social, religious, and cultural developments of the city and provides close to 60 historical illustrations (drawings, paintings, maps, and photographs) as a supplement to the narrative. Furthermore, it is not simply a history of New Haven, but also of Connecticut, New England, and the United States as well as Britain during the colonial period. An excellent book for anyone interested in American history or history in general.

I first encountered the Rufus M. story in grade school, when we read the part about Rufus knitting washcloths for soldiers, and making friends with Al.

Knitting washcloths? Who does such a thing? Now I know. Because the subject keeps coming up - in World War I history, World War II, and now it's a popular pastime for knitters. And every time I see a knitted washcloth, I think of Rufus M. Any story that sticks with you for so long has to be a good one.

This is a very good book because it is also placed around the time of WWII. It is about one person and it is not an `I' book, meaning it is not written in first person. Rufus M. is special because he has many odd friends including a cardboard boy, a soldier named Al and a flying horse named Jimmy. Only Al is real (meaning alive). Rufus M. is part of the Moffat family. I have read about the Moffat family previously in another book called The Moffat Museum. In this book, they have already moved from their original little yellow house to Cranberry. Rufus M. tried to be a ventriloquist and a wizard. I think it is very funny when he tried to perform a knife trick by using a rubber knife to plunge into himself!

"Rufus M." was a really incredible book about the smallest Moffat child, as we know as Rufus. I thought it was really interesting when you see how Eleanor Estes really pulls you into the life of an average 7-year-old boy going through life in thick and thin times. It really shows you the struggles of an energetic young boy growing in different ways that explain how he thinks and feels. I liked how Eleanor Estes focused on this one adventurous little Moffat unlike how in the "Moffats" she introduces the incredibly fascinating family. What also made me so hooked on to this book was the creative adventures the writer cooked up for Rufus to live in this book. She made it feel like Rufus was right there sharing all his emotions, expressions, and feelings all to the reader. This book was exciting and fun and no matter what any one has ever read they will look back at one particular book and this one and say that this book definitely showed them a whole new world as when the other book could never even shoed them an imagination as big as a tiny pond rock.

I liked "Rufus M." a lot it was probably the most adventurous books I have ever read. In a way that Eleanor Estes compares this book to her "The Moffats" book you can tell that Rufus Moffat is a completely different 7-year-old boy you would've thought he would be compared to athis book all about him and "The Moffats" which introduces our lively and fascinating family to begin with. I thought this book really made me so buried into it's pages because of the way the writer took the time to create more and more adventurous tale for Rufus to live through and be a part of. It really made this book something special. But I'd have to say his adventures would take you through some times that you would just not believe! One thing for sure, you would say his characteristics drive him into the pit of emotions and feeling.

The story Rufus M. by Eleanor Estes is about a kid named Rufus Moffat. Rufus has some trouble sometimes, but he practices until he gets it right. Rufus writes his name like this: Rufus M. Sometimes Rufus gets trapped, but he finds his way out. Sometimes Rufus can get rough. Rufus M. is also clever. He also makes up imaginary friends. One time he makes up the invisible piano player. Rufus is almost unbeatable.

Rufus acts like a seven year old. That's why I think he's a seven year old. Rufus writes his name sloppy at first. Then he practices and practices and he gets better and better. He gets better at doing tasks that use to be hard. Rufus is a great kid, unlike any other (no offense). This is the story how Rufus became unbeatable.

The characters are Rufus, Sylvie, Jane, and Joe. Rufus has messy hair, he is seven, and he is rough. Sylvie is nice. She is also clever, and she is about nine. Janie is a girl who is clever, but not exactly as clever as Sylvie. She has a crush on a friend of hers. She is eight years old. Joey is Rufus's brother and he is nine years old. He likes to play with Rufus and he is rough like Rufus. I believe in the chacracters of the story and I am interested to find more about them. I can picture the individuals in my mind. They get on with one another by playing with each other. I like Rufus best because he is funny.

The author is a good writer. She uses words like "urge" and "dozing." Her writing would make me imagine the story even if there were no pictures. The author treats me like a big kid. It is like it is written by an expert. I think the book is great. The cover also looks great. It makes me want to read the book right away. It urges me to talk about it to my friends. The pictures are interesting and they make the story better. The printing is pretty small, but the words are easy to read.

The book is great in my opinion. I would suggest boys ages seven to nine and girls eight to eleven would enjoy it. I give this book five stars.

I loved the book. It's a great mystery, with colorful characters. I love the whole series. It's also a fun book, and it's not full of dark or gruesome scenes like some murder mysteries. I would recommend to anybody who likes mysteries.

Combining great detail of the dog fancy with a mystery which keeps you turning the pages into the wee hours of the night, WATCHDOG again shows that Ms Berenson is the best in the class of dog-mystery writers.

What a great book! This is one of the best dog mysteries out there. The characters are incredibly real (I think I saw Melanie and her son in Central Park the other day.... hm...) and the pacing was wonderful. It was a book you couldn't put down. And even though I'm not really into the Sam-Melanie thing, I was excited to see them become a little more committed! My only qualm would be to give Faith a little more of a pronounced personality to really make her come alive. Other than that, I can't stress the greatness of this series!!

Loved reading this one before bed. More twists and turns than usual and her characters have become like real people to me. Love the referrals to dog shows and training,grooming, etc.since I got my Standard Poodle. Even if I don't ever end up showing her, I can dream...

Funny how we don't hear much from Melanie Travis's brother Frank in her previous mystery adventures. We know he exists, and we've seen him a few times during family get-togethers; all the same, I'm sure Melanie prefers not to have him around, for when he is he's either raiding her refrigerator or asking for money. In Watchdog, Frank is asking for much more: he wants his sister to help clear his name when a business associate is murdered.

Frank's latest big venture in a string of failed jobs and prospects is a coffee bar in a nearby Connecticut township. Locals are protesting the business, and one would that was the worst of Frank's worries. Then his financial backer turns up dead on the construction site, and Melanie -- whose hands are full with dog shows, a new job, and a marriage proposal (finally!) from Sam -- must come to the rescue.

Berenson is always a delight to read, with fun characters and lessons in dog grooming. Watchdog is no exception; watch out for this one and for Melanie's future exploits.

I ordered this book for my husband, we now reside in California, so I thought he would enjoy it for Christmas. I also purchased one for my inlaws. When I received it I was very surprised at how samll this book is. It measures approx. 7 - 8 inches across the cover. I would have liked it more if it was a bigger book with larger pictures.

A delightful compendium of Charles Monagan's Connecticut Magazine columns written over the years, his collection features some of Connecticut's most beloved sights. It also includes a few of Connecticut's own original inventions, such as Pez, Mounds Bar, The Colt .45, Wiffle Ball, The Top-Sider, Raggedy Ann, Silly Putty, The Sunfish, and Witch Hazel. It's a collection that will leave even those who have lived in Connecticut all of their lives saying, "Wow, I never knew that about Connecticut!" Monagan's prose is elegant, colorful and rich in detail, and each of the 50 essays is thoroughly enjoyable.

The author takes us on a journey through a State that is vibrant in all of its natural offerings. His first stop is "that charming little archipelago off the Branford coast" - The Thimble Islands, one of which Monahan describes with characteristic eloquence: "a lone house sits possessively astride its rock like an insect on a bread crumb." His collection concludes with a look at Connecticut's lighthouses. He asks the reader, "Who isn't drawn to the image of the faithful, unwavering light flashing high above the crashing waves or through a gathering mist?" Who isn't indeed!

Monagan artfully captures with vivid imagery the finer points of the Connecticut locales he has chosen to profile, including such interesting spots as The Sleeping Giant, Hammonasset Beach, Cornwall Bridge (a 137 year old covered bridge that spans the Housatonic River between Sharon and West Cornwall, Gillette Castle, and Castle Craig. He takes us along the Merritt Parkway and the Post Road, to the Waterbury Train Tower, to the Town Greens and the State Capitol, and shows us with luscious language what makes each attraction special in its own unique Connecticut kind of way.

This book is a wonderful resource and great conversation starter. Every Nutmegger should have one on the coffee table!

"Connecticut Icons: 50 Symbols of the Nutmeg State" by Charles Monagan, provides a multi-angled window on the frugal beauty of this place of American origin, Connecticut, evoking its character, traits, and values. Each of the entries gives pithy portraits of sites, facts, and things, resonant with history and laden with a poetic meaning as well as the pragmatism of a people who like to make things work. Whether writing on the hot dog from Blackie's or a gaudy castle, an Italianate train tower in Waterbury or the wiffle ball born of Shelton plastics, roadways as cluttered as the Berlin Turnpike or as would-be pastoral as the Merritt Parkway, a Mounds bar from the Armenian ingenuity of Naugatuck or the Sperry top-sider concocted on the Long Island shores in 1937, amusement parks of yesteryear or white clam pizza, the Yale Bowl's football unheroics or the state capitol's misplaced golden dome, Monagan can turn the banality of the everyday into poetry and history. "Connecticut icons" conjures taken-for-granted foods, tools, greens, roadways, or buildings into signifying traits of deeper value, ethical qualities like "reliability," spareness, frugality, decorum, pride in labor, under-statement, exactitude. This is a splendid book, a work of character, insight and staunch beauty worthy of its subjects.

Pondering "things most of us see but take for granted, that could take a closer look," Monagan graphs a deft "iconography" of place combining sensibility and research, humor, local color, and common sense. If Connecticut "sit[s] between Rhode Island clam chowder and Manhattan clam chowder without a chowder to call our own," there is much else to savor and praise. From witch hazel to tobacco sheds and steamed cheeseburgers and the Cornwall Bridge, "Connecticut Icons" is a work the great Walt Whitman would love and honor as bric-a-brac of the American sublime.

There is a superb essay on Connecticut as ethos and place by the great American poet, Wallace Stevens, who spent the better part of his life in the insurance business and poetry vocation in Hartford, where he had migrated from Pennsylvania Bucks County. It is the best meditation I had ever read on what makes Connecticut abide as place, value, and style in some thrifty, pragmatic way. "It is a question of coming home to the American self in the sort of place in which it was formed," Stevens writes, affirming his ties to "an origin of hardihood, good faith and good will." I go back to it now and then, for inspiration and an overview of this "place of origin." In these bleak times, we need to be reminded of such values. Steven's essay is the only thing that comes close--though in a far less detailed and dated way-- to the under-stated beauty, joy, and insight of "Connecticut Icons."

I bought this book as a gift for a Connecticut native who moved out of state for work and he said it is one of the best gifts he has ever received. This book makes a great gift for your friends who love Connecticut and now find themselves living elsewhere but still pining for Connecticut. It is also a nice way to introduce people to many of the charming sites in Connecticut.

Born in Waterbury 55 years ago, I couldn't get away fast enough from what I considered to be the overly colonial, unhip and dreary industrial towns yet the old stomping grounds remain a major part of my personal nostalgia. Charles Monagan writes as someone who has stayed where he was born and embraced it, delving over the years into all of its nooks and crannies and found a way to remind the rest of us what we have left behind, forgotten, or missed along the way. Full of fun facts and fond observations, this book invites anyone to take a closer look at the Nutmeg state, where we have no chowder and I might add, any accent, being oddly neutral in between the defined patios of NYC and Beantown. A great read!

OK, I admit it. I read "We Wish You a Merry Murder" first. This was the third of the Susan and Kathleen books I read. Loved "Merry Murder" and pretty much hated "40th Birthday Body." This one, however, is a keeper. Both the cops and the suburban housewife who helps them solve the murders here confront their prejudices about the way the "other half" lives, be that rich vs. poor, or married vs. single. Susan is not just another frivolous dilettante wealthy stay-at-home mom. She's a good friend with great sensitivity. This one doesn't have the laugh-out-loud funny moments of "Merry Murder," but it's good nonetheless. Like the other reviewer, I was VERY disappointed in the "Menu for Murder" TV movie based on this book. They butchered it. All of Valerie Wolzien's books would make good Sunday night TV movies or Lifetime TV fare--but only if they stick to the book more faithfully. I love these characters, and what you see here is just the start of a fun series with people you don't mind visiting again. After this one, just skip "40th Birthday Body" and take the rest of the books in order, and things will unfold without missing a beat.

I have read several of the books in this series and wonder how I could have missed this one. Susan Henshaw is a suburban housewife heavily involved in the local PTA. At the annual PTA luncheon, one of the committee members dies after eating a sandwich laced with cyanide. Several weeks later, another committee member is also killed with cyanide, this time in a beverage. Susan is nearby in both instances. The CT State Police are called in to assist the locals and they enlist her help in solving the murder. You never know what lurks beneath the surface of the upscale suburban community.

This is a wonderful start to the series. No one is what they seem, and everyone appears to have a secret. Athough in retrospect, the author gives clues, the murderer came as a surprise to me. Great Book!!!!

Susan Henshaw is just as puzzled as the police are when two of her co-workers on the school PTA are poisoned within a short time. She works with a police investigator who thinks that her powers of observation and deduction will be a help to him. As Susan and the police delve into the lives of the PTA families in their wealthy Connecticut neighborhood, they uncover possibilities of adultery and drug abuse. It isn't until the end that they put together the clues and finally come up with the murderer. The motive is pretty thin, but still this book is a fun read and is the beginning of a long-running series.

In the 1st book in the Susan Henshaw Mystery series, we are introduced to the members of the local Parent Teacher Association (PTA) in the affluent town of Hancock, Connecticut. Serving on the committee each year, the wealthy suburban mothers raise money for their children's educations, and help to ensure that the quality of the education stays exceptional. When two members of the local PTA drop dead a couple of months apart, Susan Henshaw, the PTA vice-president, is approached by two state detectives to aid in their investigation. Susan is surprised by their interest in her, until she figures out that she tops the list of suspects in the case. Giving background information on her friends and fellow PTA members isn't that difficult for Susan, but she struggles with having to give up some of the "juicier" bits of gossip from the tight knit group. As the police begin to investigate, they learn that everyone has a secret in this seemingly perfect community, and they must work quickly to discover a murderer before the list of victims grows again.

I enjoy domestic cozies, and was excited to find a new series to try in the genre. I liked the book enough to read more in the series, but was a little disappointed that the majority of the book focused on the police investigation, and the questioning of suspects. There was a lot of focus on the police, and I would have liked to learn more about the life of the main character, Susan Henshaw. However, there is a lot of promise to this long-running series, and I enjoyed the interesting characters and their relationships in this setting.

If you enjoy domestic cozies such as the Jane Jeffry series by Jill Churchill or the Lucy Stone series by Leslie Meier, give this series a try.

The next book in the series is called "Fortieth Birthday Body". Enjoy!

In this, the first of the Susan Henshaw novels, Valerie Wolzien introduces the reader to a clever, quick-thinking suburban housewife. That may not sound like a winner, but IT IS! Susan is a fantastic character, with depth and real emotions, combined with a talent for detection. She isn't snooty at all, and anyone could relate to her and her family. Wolzien's book is smart, funny, easy to read and a great look into the PTA --where petty jealousies and murder lurk. A must read! Note: the books can be read out of sequence, but starting with #1 is best!