Home and Family Books

As a wanna-be homeschooler/unschooler with children in a fairly traditional school, I find myself continually returning to this book to re-center myself and to put my role in my sons' education back into the right perspective. It's very accessible and a wonderful compilation of ideas set forth by homeschooling advocates from John Holt on. The suggestions for enhancing school curriculum at home are excellent and have served our family well.

What the Rest of Us Can Learn from Homeschooling is a book every parent can benefit from reading. It offers heartfelt advice and valuable tips from a number of highly experienced homeschooling parents who have put a lot of thought (as well as trial and error) into supporting their children in learning and growing. There are many misconceptions about how homeschooling, but this book provides clarity on the subject, offering tried and true, practical ideas on how a parent can similarly support a child who is in a school setting. It's amazing how fun and easy it is to provide a wonderfully rich educational environment for a child, but it involves putting aside preconceived ideas about how learning works--this book is a great help in that regard. A very thought provoking book!

Dr. Hagag has written an important and timely book. Recently the options for cancer treatments have become so vast and diversified that it can be overwhelming for the family and the lay person and aggravate an already stressful situation. This book helps the reader sift through their emotions and feelings and helps them know that they are not alone and that there is help and guidance out there for them. It also provides a valuable tool in understanding the disease and its stages in a thoughtful and simplistic manner that is easily understood. Dr. Hagag carefully guides the reader through the various phases of stress related issues and presents a comprehensive list of information and resources. His material is based on his extesnive experience dealing with cancer patients and their caregivers. All of us in the medical community who diagnose and treat oncology patients appreciate the task that Dr. Hagag took on himself to write this book. This is a great achievement. I recommend the book highly and have alrady recommended it to our medical community and suggested that they acquire several copies of this book so that they are available for the families of patients. I hope that Dr. Hagag continues his research and updates this book, of very important information, that is so relevant to our times, every couple of years.

When I first read this book I was so happy to have something that answered many questions on what it is like to be faced with a loved one with cancer and how to navigate these rough waters. This book gave me the meaning to new words, what is oncology? (study of tumors) and where do I get help i.e., drugs I can't afford. It was like reading a Dr. Spock handbook for me in dealing with cancer in my family. I felt relieved that such a wonderful book arrived on the market. Dr. Hagag comes across as a compassionate person who understands the guilt, insecurity and bewilderment of families faced with this grim disease.

I got this for my family who lives in Florida. After seeing what has just happened down there I hope that they were prepared since this book gave them all of the information they needed. I can't tell you how much this book is worth, I've given it to my friends who are expecting so they can have safe families.

"When Disaster Strikes Home" covers EVERY imaginable disaster circumstance an individual or family might encounter. A must-have for every home's library, especially since 9/11.

I think the book is warm and shows some interesting aspects of real life and how much Jesus can change our hearts through love. I specially like the picture of Jesus being the spring of water that changes everything where it flows into green.

I read this book over and over as a child and I think it influenced my involvement in foster care now. St. John writes with a real knowledge of what a children who find themselves in trouble are like. It is realistic, and yet extremely hopeful.

This 64-page book packs a punch! I've read a lot of books of Biblical Womanhood, and Dorothy presents a point of view and uses Scripture for her examples in a way that I've never read before. It's very convicting and she calls sin, sin. I loved it! A perfect addition to my library.

Where's Mom? The High Calling Of Wives & Mothers by Dorothy Kelley Patterson directly confronts the dilemma Christian women face between the lure of a professional career and the demands that being a full-time wife, mother, and homemaker put upon one. Interpreting the choice from a Biblical perspective, Where's Mom? draws on God's word to show the fulfillment to be found within raising the next generation, above and beyond the endless rote demands of ordinary jobs. A thoughtful and devout look at scripture, woman's role, and the path to happiness and spiritual well-being, Where's Mom is highly recommended and inspiring reading.

I would recommend this book to every parent, especially parents of Austism, ADHD, and ADD children. It truly educates us on everyday items we use in our houses we are not aware of, that are not only toxic to our children but ourselves as well.

I was really impressed with Amilya's book. I had heard the story of Ms. Antonetti on Oprah and in various publications like People and Time but never gave it much attention but after I read the book everything she is saying made real life sense. I never realized how the products in my home could kill me and I took it for grated that the products I always considered safe could actually be the cause of my allergies and so many other ailments. The best thing about the book is Ms. Antonetti doesn't just tell a sob story or simply tell us everything in our homes is bad, she actually spells out in detail practical solutions you can implement immediately to make your life safer. A great read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeff Lucas displays a poignant, more compassionate side in his latest work, "Will Your Prodigal Come Home?" I am a fan of Lucas' writing and his acerbic wit is still evident, but his comforting tone and encouraging advice will be a great blessing to any believer struggling with estrangement issues. The subtitle nails it: "An honest discussion of struggle and hope." I found his commentary on guilt especially helpful. As always, Jeff is ruthless in his treatment of the myopic, legalistic religious establishment. Another recurring Lucas theme is "the party" sadly lacking in the lives of so many self-confessed Christ-followers. "Will Your Prodigal Come Home?" is timely and refreshing, and I cannot wait for "The Prodigal-friendly Church."

It took me a week to get through the first two chapters of this book. I would have to stop reading because I couldn't see through the tears. It was as if Mr. Lucas had been living in my heart. He verbalized like know one I have read how the parent of a prodigal feels. His compassionate understanding of God's love for us the true prodigals and how through this He knows our pain and hears our hearts was amazingly comforting. His suggested prayer for the prodigal and examples of what this means gave me courage I wish I could thank him for this book personally. This is a great book for grieving parents that gives understanding, hope and restores faith in a God who understands and loves us and our prodigal. Thank you Mr Lucas.

This is a wonderful picture book for horror fans of any age -- including adults.

The story is apparently about a broken-down society in which food and water have grown scarce, electricity is out, and people are left to fend for themselves. The story is narrated first-person by a teenager named Ben who lives alone in the basement of an apartment building after his family was killed by wolves roaming the city. But these are not ordinary wolves, Ben assures us, leaving me to wonder if he's talking about werewolves. The kindly Mrs. Radinski doesn't believe in any wolves despite Ben's repeated warnings. Then one day she goes missing...

Or maybe there are no wolves. Maybe Ben is a mentally ill teenage runaway whose hallucinations have painted a threatening shadow over the peaceful streets and parks he remembers from his childhood. We can't really tell for sure, because Ben is the only narrator we have, and no matter what's really happening, Ben just isn't all there.

I've read hundreds and hundreds of picture books, but I've never seen one anything like this. The story is told with a genuine sincerity that is made more powerful by the poor spelling, and the dark sketchy illustrations complement the writing perfectly. I'm not sure who the target audience is, but fans of Neil Gaiman's twisted perspective on horror will love this. Buy it for teenagers or adults, or for anyone old enough to appreciate a good psychological horror story.

Margaret Wild is one of Australia's most successful, imaginative and challenging writers for children, and Woolvs in the Sitee the bravest to date. It is a beautiful and frightening book, with poetic language rich with unsettling imagery and metaphor. It presents a dystopic post-Western world, in which people vanish and `woolvs' prowl. The exact nature of these woolvs is never quite spelt out.

Nor, for that matter, is anything else: the most striking aspect of Woolvs in the Sitee is the phonetic spelling that forms the voice of protagonist Ben. The device speaks of his interrupted schooling, the disappearance of his family, and mirrors the collapse of his society. Anne Spudvilas' illustrations are spellbinding, full of shadows and menace, amplifying the unnerving and paranoid atmosphere.

The book deserves the awards it has won (and will no doubt win). However, the book is challenging, and I do wonder who the intended readers are. Younger children are not cognitively developed enough to understand the many metaphors and resonances essential to grappling with the text. By the time older children have matured enough to understand the text, they generally reject picture books.

To test the theory I ran the book past my three girls. Each reacted quite differently: my six-year-old Dr-Seuss-fan was terrified; my eight-year-old Harry-Potter-freak was bored; and my ten-year-old, who is mid-way through The Lord of the Rings and attempting to translate the Elvish, was badly irritated by the spelling, which she found made it difficult to read physically. In Piagetian terms, the eldest has moved on from concrete to formal logic, but even so, none of my girls was as excited by the book as I was.

Likewise, I was unable to persuade any of the three to 'read' past the first page of Shaun Tan's beautiful The Arrival.

Is Woolvs in the Sitee then an attempt by adults to push post-modern genre-straddling texts onto children for the children's own good? Is there an intellectual didactic purpose behind its authorship, which is rejected by kids as they reject all preaching? Is the book really aimed at well-meaning, literary parents hoping to broaden their children's minds? These are probably questions which arise whenever children's books break with expectations.

It's refreshing to see a child's book that isn't all pastel-pink fairy-floss and no fillings, but my feeling is that Woolvs in the Sitee is possibly too alienating for many of its intended audience.

As a psychologist with >20 years experience working with children and adolescents I have read scores of books on motivation, study skills, and academic improvement. This is simply the best. I am so glad it is now available because for years it could only be purchased through Bernard's Australian publisher. A great book for students elementary school through college.

This book gives simple, straight forward ideas from both a professional point of view, as well as the point of view of various children. It provides excellent motivation techniques, as well as warns of common distractions, and influences that deter children from success. It has inspired me to do better for my children, in hopes of them achieving great goals. The simple but thought provoking worksheets inside are wonderful tools to assist both parent and child! A must read for all parents, educators, and even for children!

The things that we learned after reading Your Survival and watching the DVD would have saved our family from the incredable problems that we are
encountering after our house was lost during the recent California fires.
Everyone should read this book and watch the DVD.

Compared to some of the other disaster and survival books on the market, this one is very user friendly and practical for families. The book is well organized into preparedness, survival, and after disaster sections. It offers suggestions that are realistic and fairly easy to do and also provides checklists and other useful tools. The dvd is a nice additional feature and reviews the topics in the book. While I haven't used it yet, there is also a website that appears to provide you with many online tools and suggestions. This book is very comprehensive and I would recommend it to any family that takes an interest in protecting their loved ones and assets in today's unpredictable world!