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even if you're not a fan of ocean themed lit like i am, you'll love this book. for 1-6 yr olds, it is a fabulous read. the cadence of the rhyme and beauty of the artwork (illustrations) will keep YOU, the adult reader, enthralled as well as your little rugrats, the listeners.

it is supremely aggravating to do a night-time read-a-loud of a book that doesn't flow well, or halfway rhymes, or has a horrid plot-line or diaglogue. no such worries here.

over in the ocean...

grind said the mother, we grind said the three (or 2 or 4 whatever)

its catchy w/o being annoying, and simple and...best of all...not too long not too short!

great for learning your numbers, too.

REVIEWED BY: Wayne S. Walker, reviewer with Stories for Children Magazine



Have you ever wondered what it is like under the ocean around a coral reef? Following the same rhyming pattern of the popular nineteenth century song "Over in the Meadow" by Olive A. Wadsworth, author Marianne Berkes describes the lives of mother sea creatures and their babies in the coral reef so that children can understand more about them and have fun while learning about nature. One octopus squirts. Two parrotfish grind. Three clownfish dart. Four stingrays stir. Five puffer fish puff. Six dolphins jump. Seven angelfish graze. Eight needlefish skitter. Nine gruntfish grunt. And ten seahorses flutter. As the author notes, "The animals really do squirt, grind, dart, etc., as they have been portrayed."



The striking and realistic illustrations by Jeanette Canyon are all constructed entirely from polymer clay. The back of the book has the entire song with the music, along with several curriculum components, including information on ocean family babies, the coral reef community, the animals mentioned in the book, and even descriptions of how the illustrations were made. There is also an explanation of how children can sing the song with different finger or hand movements. In addition, the book reinforces learning to count from one to ten. This book has won several awards, including Learning Magazine's Teacher's Choice Award. Children will find it fascinating both to read the words and see the pictures.

My 1 year old loves this book - the artistry is amazing and really captures her attention! I think it has actually peaked her interest in books. We love it and hope to see more books by this author and illustator!

While the pictures are great and it is a good concept, it has not been a big hit with my 17 month old daughter yet.

This book is beautifully illustrated. It would be a terrific accompaniment to a trip to an aquarium.

Historical Realism. Middle elementary.

Summary
This picture book is story of Rose Blanche, who lives in Nazi Germany. After she sees a boy trying to escape, she wants to know where the little boy went. When Rose discovered a death camp and the starving people, she started taking them food without telling her mother. "Rose Blance was getting thinner. In town, only the mayor was staying fat." The Russian soldiers come and the camp disappears. Flowers grow where the camp was.

Illustrations
The colors are primarily brown, with detailed and interesting pictures. Each page has a little color, which stands out and reinforces the words (e.g., red dress of Rose, gold Jewish star).

I'm in 7th grade and my teacher read this book to the class when we were learning about World War II. This book has stuck with me for a long time!!! After she read this book I could not stop thinking about it. If you read this book, make sure you have a box of tissues nearby.

I have never heard of this book I picked it up because the pictures are so lovely. I began to read and was struck by it's simplicity and power at the same time.

I became confused at the end I did not know what happened because the author switched from first person to third person.

This book explains so much in such a simple, soft spoken way in the eyes of a small child.

Nothing could be more profound

Congratulations! You have successfully located the best translation of the book "Rose Blanche" available on the market today. While the British and German translations may change significant portions of this tale around and about, the American version (all thanks to hard work of excellent translators Martha Coventry and Richard Graglia) is true to authors Gallaz and Innocenti's original plot and vision. So well done you! Give yourself a pat on the back and a hanky. You'll need it after you finish reading the book.

It's Germany during World War II. As we watch, our little heroine, Rose Blanche, describes the early days of the war. The soldiers are being packed up and shipped away and everyone is cheering them on. Swastikas are plentiful. One day, Rose sees a small boy escape from a van in the middle of the street. The boy is quickly caught and placed within the cramped van once again. Curious, Rose Blanche follows the van to the edge of town and into the forest. There she comes face to face with the children of a concentration camp. After offering them some of her food, the first person narrative abruptly begins to be told in the third person instead. We are told that Rose Blanche continued to bring food to the hungry children. Finally, the citizens of the town flee, wounded soldiers amongst them. Rather than escaping, Rose Blanche makes one last trip to the camp, only to find it empty. A single shot rings out and we see the Communist soldiers filling the now abandoned town. The book ends with, "Rose Blanche's mother waited a long time for her little girl". Flowers bloom, but the single purple bloom the girl placed on the barbed wire has wilted.

Tragedy in the key of E. The text is rather well written, giving no specific person or persons blame, but rather suggesting a collective guilt. Admittedly, I was a little taken aback by the sudden switch in narrative. One minute you know exactly what Rose Blanche is thinking and the next you can only interpret her emotions through descriptions and visual images. A review of this book in the March 2004 issue of "Children's Literature in Education" suggested that this is done so that the reader is given a bit of distance when the girl is shot. Admittedly, I don't expect my heroines to die in the picture books I read but I think we can chalk that up to naivete on my part more than anything else. This is, after all, an incredibly realistic work of fiction. The character of Rose Blanche even attains a kind of religious piousness at the end of the tale. In her final picture, she stands in the position of a saint. Her eyes are downcast, one hand lightly touching her heart, and the other placing a small purple flower on the broken fence.

Which brings us to the illustrations. Innocenti's pictures deftly tell a story within the actual text. In the first few pictures, Rose appears in happy crowd scenes. Then, as she discovers more about the world in which she lives, she is placed farther and farther away from other people. Rose is continually set apart from the others by her clothing as well. Where everyone else is resigned to grays and browns, Rose sports a pink dress with a bright red bow on her head. The illustrations are strikingly realistic, never becoming cartoony or visually inconsistent. Innocenti is deft at the millions of different ways in which light changes a scene. And to top it all off, he's done some of the most brilliant fog I've ever seen put down on paper.

This is a book about seeing what other people won't. The name "Rose Blanche" is explained by the author on the book flap. The Rose Blanche was a group of young Germans that protested the war. Like the heroine of this tale, they were unduly executed for the crime of thinking differently. The best use of this book is to utilize it in such a way that we can never forget how important it is to question authority at all times and to always fight for the truth. It seems that message is more important today than ever. A tip of the hat to the Rose Blanches of the world.

The time period is World War II. The main character is a small girl, named Rose Blanche. This is her story.

Rose is walking about one day through a forest when she comes to a tall barbed wire fence. Inside the fence is a concentration camp, where many people are being held. Rose goes to this place everyday, bringing food to the children.

Then, one day, when she reaches the small clearing where the children are, she finds it gone. Bits of wire and wood are lying littered on the ground, and she holds a small purple flower above the scattered wood.

The flower is a single ray of hope, shining brightly through the darkness. It is a hope that the war will end and hope that the lives of people across the world will return to normal. This book is a symbolism of what one little girl did to make the world a better place. Rose Blanche is truly an interesting, and touching read.
~~**Jessica**~~

The children and I loved, loved, loved this book with its subtle humor and surprise twists. There is lots of opportunity for input of ideas and if I could read it 5 times in a row, it has to be able to keep the reader's interest.

Good easy reader teaching children positional words and their meanings. Also teaches children that there is meaning in every portion of a book. Pictures need to be looked at, also. A book to enjoy just for the sake of enjoyment, too!

THis story is classic. I use this book so much that I have to retire my old copy and replace it with a new one every couple of years. It is a fabulous vehicle for storywriting in the primary classroom.

I have been reading Pat Hutchins books to children for many years. They are wonderful!! Rosie's Walk is a great book for sound effects! As Rosie goes obliviously on her walk,the fox encounters all sorts of sound effect producing trials. Great fun!

We have the board book edition, and I have to admit, I didn't think my 2-year old was going to like it when I first flipped through it. There didn't seem to be much to it --- no eye-catching illustrations and not much text. Shows how much I know... My daughter loves it. The story is less about Rosie the hen and more about the fox --- what happens to it from page to page. It is truly a sequential story and shows cause-and-effect: on one page you see the fox leaping towards Rosie, who is walking past the pond. On the next page, you see the fox in the pond. Your toddler will make the connection on her own: "Uh-oh. Fox fall in water."

My 14 month old has been choosing this one over other bedtime books since at least 9 months. The rhythm is soothing to me too, even on the 3rd reading in a row. That really helps by the end of the day!

I have bought many copies of Ten, Nine, Eight to give as baby gifts. I love this book. I have been a librarian for over thirty years. I am so glad that this one has stayed in print.

The more I read this book to my 2-year-old son, the more I like it. He liked it right away. It really is a peaceful "goodnight" book.

My children have this book memorized, and so do I. We recite it sometimes without the book as a going to bed poem.

It is a wonderful addition to any parent's repertoire. If you have a friend expecting, be the one to buy this book.

It's better than "Good Night, Moon" by about 78%, at least.

Not quite a board book, but smaller than most picture books, "Ten, Nine, Eight" fills a nice gap in the middle. Molly Bang's exquisite colors illustrate this counting (from 10-to-1) book that culminates with the protagonist fast asleep.

The context is as warm and familiar as the counted objects: A little girl (it's difficult to tell how old she is, sometimes her face looks a liitle more mature than at other time) climbs up onto her daddy's lap. The dad is obviously smitten with his daughter, but in an unforced manner that seems to come from deep inside. The gentle pictures of their affectionate interactions provide the countable objects. These include 10 toes, 7 shoes (later we see the cat with the missing one), six "pale" seashells (each with its own shape), four "sleepy eyes which open and close," two "strong arms around a fuzzy bear's head (actually, you can see three arms, but you can always exclaim, "you're right, there are three arms!)," and "one big girl all ready for bed."

Ms. Bang's varied palette uses both bold primary colors and some more "sophisticated" hues not always found in a book for crawlers and toddlers. Overall, the tone is pleasant and warm, and the rhymes unforced and natural.

TIKI Modern is the best collection of TIKI related information yet to be published. If you are looking for a good coffee table book with entertaining reading and lots of photos about a time when American's were taking their minds off the Cold War, you will not be disappointed.

Hi tiki-lovers!
I've just purchased this book and I think it's a real bible about the style. The edition, as usually Taschen does, is stunning, and the typography, page composition and presentation is simply tiki-retro (even connected with the Atomic Age aesthetic).
As some of the reviewers has mentioned, ther's a lot of Witco stuff. This aspect, although can be questioned, is essential for the european people, because we haven't had this way of decoring in our continent. It's like if you write a book about Formula 1: if you dedicate a main part to Ferrari you're talking about one of the must-to-know!

Five stars from Barcelona!!

Jose Maria

A MUST HAVE for anyone interested in the atomic/tiki/moderism era. Lots of information and historical photos all in one book. I also recommend another book by this same author (Sven Kirsten)entitled, The Book of Tiki. You will not be disappointed!

We have several tiki books and this one is fantastic. Very good quality. Lots of information and wonderful pictures. We have some of the author's other books and they are equally good.

While its predecessor volume, The Book of Tiki, is a straight-forward exploration of the Polynesian popular culture that came to fruition in early 1960's America, Sven Kirsten's Tiki Modern... and the Wild World of Witco is a more ambitious attempt to place this peculiar phenomena in the larger social, artistic and intellectual context of the time period, primarily as exemplified in the three-dimensional art and furnishings of William Westenhaver.

Both volumes offer an incredible wealth of playful imagery depicting all of the various idioms in which the concept of "tiki" found (and continues to find) expression. This makes Tiki Modern an entirely essential Volume 2 in Kirsten's ongoing attempt to catalog the genre for the growing number of tiki devotees worldwide.

For the intellectually curious, however, Tiki Modern is more than an extrapolation on the first book's suburban tiki archeology. It is an entirely sober effort to explain how a passing suburban infatuation can be understood as a metaphor for America's conflicted psychological condition at what could now be called the apex of her global cultural influence and power.

The World of Witco- a Westenhaver-sculpted map of the world - as depicted on the inside covers of Tiki Modern is the perfect expression of what Kirsten has tried to achieve with this book. On one level Tiki Modern and Westenhaver's map convey the limitless scope and raw energy of space-age primitivism, but on a deeper level they illuminate America's emergence from an inward-looking, pre-war isolationism to a self-conscious and over-sized sense of itself as a global superpower.

A careful reader will linger over the text in Tiki Modern as well as the well-cataloged art and be inspired not only to appreciate and perhaps collect Witco furniture, scupture and paintings, but to seek out and understand how North American society interpreted itself during a period in which the wealth and idealism of the New World pushed the boundaries of technology, art, fashion, architecture and music into realms both sublime and grotesque.

If one looks carefully, the seeds of America's eventual failure to fulfill its imagined destiny as a unifier of peoples and cultures can be glimpsed in the pages of Tiki Modern and within the wild world of Witco. The photograph on page 15 depicting TV host Steve Allen astride a New-Guinea-style crocodile is perhaps the best expression of this quixotic optimism. For those more tactile, I'm certain Kirsten would suggest taking a seat at one of Westenhaver's exotic bars, or perhaps lounging on a dragon sofa.

Mr. Tolpin combines his journalistic background with imagery and thoughts of both the useage and construction of the Toolbox. Everything from Masterfull pieces in the Smithsonian Institute to Ancient functional pieces are discussed and illustrated. Due to this book, I have decided to build a pair of wall mounted boxes to display old tools and bring comonly used tools to a better location when I'm working.

Lots of pictures, ideas, descriptions and this book serves its purpose of giving me ideas on current and future projects.

Recommended

I just received this book. Wow! Because of all the good reviews, I expected a good book. This is one beautiful book and is way above my expectations. I would have been satisfied if it only contained photographs and illustrations without the text, they are very clear. I have not purchased a book that has impressed me as much as this one, ever. I can only add my positive comments to the many reviewers before me. It is well worth your investment whether you just want to scan through a beautiful book or are a serious craftsman wanting to build fine furniture for your tools.

Tolpin is a refreshing change from the old bland how-to's that have been republished with outdated material year after year. This book is no exception. I love how the author takes you through the history and evolution of the toolbox. The color pictures are gorgeous.(Or maybe it's the toolboxes?) This is a must own for any tool lover. A great gift idea for that person you know with the messy shop!

I'm setting up my first workshop. I bought Scott Landis' Workbench Book for guidance on building my workbench and this book for guidance on workshop tool storage. I found Landis' book extremely useful, but this one did not really have what I was looking for.

This book is called the Toolbox Book for a reason. While the subheading is "A Craftsman's Guide to Tool Chests, Cabinets, and Storage Systems," the focus of the book really is (often spectacular) handcrafted toolboxes. Only one chapter -- 14 pages -- is devoted to "Designing In-Shop Tool Storage," and much of that is about the generic design process (how to make a story stick, how to draw your design first, etc).

So if you're a novice like me looking for practical workshop tool storage ideas, I don't think this book is worth the money. I definitely didn't learn any more here than I have just browsing woodworking sites on the internet.

None of this is a knock on the book, really. It's a beautiful, well-written book that's gotten glowing reviews from other readers for a reason. But I think its audience may be more limited than the subheading, and some of the other reviews, might lead you to think.

Informative for a novice like me. Good pictures (in color) to identify the plant. Sturdy cover - should last a life time of carrying around with you when shopping for a particular plant. Overall, it's a quality book for southern gardening; I'm very pleased with the content.

I'm buying my second copy of this book, after giving my first away to someone else. Even if I only had limited bookshelf space, I'd still want to keep a copy of this handy reference around. It is an excellent companion book to The Gestalt Gardener radio show, since it provides an opportunity to associate pictures with words on the radio. The format of color pictures and descriptions makes it easy to identify plants that I don't know by name. Best of all, the plants that are included in the book are great, no-maintenance, proven winners.

I wish I would have had this book 10 years ago! So amazing! I continually refer back to it. I love the author's laid-back, practical approach to gardening (but I can also tell he is a very experienced and knowledgable horticulturist). It's just my speed. As I read through this book, I found myself going "Oooohhhh, that's why that plant didn't take."
At the beginning of every chapter (be it shrubs, trees, annuals, perennials, etc.) he gives you a rundown of what are the "easy" and the "difficult" plants to grow. I found this very helpful, since I have 3 children under the age of 3, and I don't have the time to mess with super-fussy plants right now! Every one of my friends that's into gardening has tried to steal this book from me! It is a must have for any gardener, be it beginner or advanced!

Felder Rushing makes gardening seem more like common sense. If you feel intimidated about growing a beautiful garden this book can change that. Simple lists of easy and hard to grow varieties of every type of plant are in here. Fun facts mingled with plant history and some really great ideas. I love this book so much I keep it on my coffee table and read through it when TV is boring- which is alot. In short, I like this book.

Great Book! Felder Rushing has a way of sharing information in a way that is funny(sometimes) and interesting as well as informative. A great sequel to Passalong Plants which he co-authored with Steve Bender. A must have for the southern gardener.

A View from the Tub: An Inspiring and Practical Guide to Working from Home

This was a practical guide that really helped me to consider all the different aspects to consider about working from home. The technology portion was a little dated but still a worthwhile read.

What a wonderful, encouraging, and insightful book. I became aware of A View From The Tub as I began my first network marketing adventure. I have no business education and was introduced to a product that I knew I could sell. I previously considered a variety of multi-level marketing companies but did not have a passion for any of the products. Then I discovered Healthy Chocolate and knew I wanted to share it with as many people as possible. I was desperate for direction.
After reading A View From The Tub, I was very motivated by all the practical advice and the "real life experiences" that the book provides. I was able to tailor that advice to my own situation and am enjoying a welcome level of success in my new endeavor. For the first time, I have email and actually have my own web site [...]. I am meeting a completely new group of people and expanding my business daily. The book helped me find direction and helps me stay focused.
During all of this, my husband was already working from home. He is able to telecommute for a large company in data base administration. The book provided both of us with simple changes we could make to his work in order to diminish the impact on our home. It has given him better focus while at work and more clarity on when to leave the office behind. I cannot thank Millie enough for all that she has done for me and my family.

Millie Szerman's A View From the Tub is a practical no-nonsense How-To Guide to starting your own HBB. Millie's book answered all the questions I had that nobody else wanted to answer and then there were answers for questions I wouldn't have thought to ask, but am glad Millie thought to include! Well-organized in an easy to follow readable format with checklists and blank pages for your own notes, my copy of A View From the Tub is well-read and I have referred back to it often every step of the way in structuring my own HBB.

Like any good good teacher/mentor who is worth their weight in gold, Millie selflessly gives her student readers the tools of the trade to do with them what they may.

Make this book your First Investment in your own HBB and you are bound to get off on the right track! Thank-you Millie!

Very good book for anyone already working or wanting to work from home. Millie Szerman did a great job of covering everything you need to take into consideration. Great book.

In my recent attempt to launch a freelance writing career, I read this book and found it to be useful in two ways. First, it forced me to get organized, especially in terms of understanding my strengths and weaknesses as a future telecommuter. Second, it's been inspirational in that the many anecdotes have helped me to realize what's crucial for my business' success. My favorite element to this book is that it's short and sweet. Szerman gets right to the point and doesn't waste your time. However, she's got enough meaninful tips, exercises and information packed inside this guide to keep the serious entrepreneur very busy. Thanks for the great advice!

This volume is the conclusion of one of the best love stories of all time. You must start with volume one and read the whole set. I've got the books and the TV series, and I re-read/re-view them quite often. It's a funny, silly, heartbreaking, frustrating and ultimately a heartwarming, beautiful story. After all their difficulties, Yusaku and Kyoko finally get together in a perfect final volume. I just wish we could have more (hear that Takahashi?)!

Rumiko Takahashi is known for letting the relationships between her romantic leads drag on for years or even decades without them ever evolving or being consummated (see Inuyasha), but as the last and concluding volume of Maison Ikkoku opens, Godai and Kyoko enter a love hotel. Godai should be in heaven, right? I mean, this is what he's always wished for. But things become a bit awkward when Kyoko says that she is thinking about Soichiro. Godai thinks she's talking about her dead husband, but Kyoko corrects him and says she meant her dog, which happens to have the same name. Is that the truth? Suffice it to say, Godai suffers from impotence at the moment of truth. Things get even more complicated when his ex-girlfriend, Kozue shows up wanting to talk about their relationship. She had already told him a guy proposed to her but she didn't want to say yes because she didn't want to hurt Godai's feelings. On top of all this Godai is going to find out how he did on the teacher certification exams. The only way he can ask Kyoko to marry him is if he passed, so there's a lot riding on the results.

I have been reading this series off and on for a little over two years now and I have to admit I got a little misty eyed when I came to certain sections of this last volume. Simply because you never wish good things to come to an end. I used to have that experience a lot with anime and manga series, but it has become rarer lately, probably because there is so much product coming out that you don't have time to lament the end of one before you start another. Instead of just centering a review on this one volume, I'll just make some comments about the series as a whole because in terms of quality they were all about the same. The central conflict of the manga that lasted through the first to most of the last volume was the lack of courage Godai had to make Kyoko his. He bumbled his way through a relationship with Kozue and some childish competition with Mitaka the tennis coach but he was just never aggressive enough to pursue Kyoko with a single-minded determination. He was too wishy-washy. Kyoko too suffered a lot because she wanted to be pursued, hunted, and caught by an alpha male. While this kind of thing makes for a lot of heartache and tragedy in real-life, in the manga world it's the perfect tried and true setup for comedy. And boy was Maison Ikkoku funny! One of the best comedies I've ever read. I've still never figured out how Takahashi was able to make such a masterpiece from such simple materials and operating mainly with character interaction rather than plot. To me, that's the hardest story to write. Making the lives of everyday people interesting and fun. It's also great to experience a relatively long manga series that has true resolution and ends on an upbeat and happy note. A great manga work.

I must have read MI a dozen times in Japanese, and I recently bought the whole series in English just for fun. I'm generally pleased with the translation, but a mistake in this volume on one of my favorite lines in the whole series prompted me to comment. "When she laughs, the world is mine" should be "When she smiles, the world is mine." Subtle, but important.
Now that I have that off my chest, ignore the nitpicking and buy the whole series. If you like great stories and superb characterization, you can't go wrong.
I'm dropping a star for some rough editing at the beginning of the series and for a few other productions problems.

Whew!
I laughed until my mouth hurt, I went thirsty while reading this series so I wouldn't wet my pants or spit out my juice. I tried not to read Maison Ikkoku in public because my laughing made people look at me.
I made sure that when I reached the more tender, introspective scenes, that I locked myself in my room so I wouldn't embarrass myself when I began to cry.
I connected with Yusaku because I'm a college student, and with Kyoko when she was in deep thought.
I don't know what powers of telepathy that Ms. Takahashi has that she can pinpoint the exact thoughts that go through a person's mind. Being a creative type, I can understand a little, but her skills are uncanny and her comedic timing plays out as some of the best TV skits.
(Just remember the double-takes of the characters and you know exactly what I'm talking about)
I'm happy to say that I was not only entertained, but also learned a great deal about proper story-telling, pacing, and emotional setting.
This was truly extraordinary. Yusaku's heartfelt plea to Kyoko, Kyoko struggling within herself over moving on, the events and circumstances in life that hinder or help us... I'm getting emotional here.
Bravo Ms Takahashi. I know there is a kind of lifetime achievement award in the comic world that you should receive, or perhaps you already have.
It took me two years to finish the graphic novels. A two years that I rushed through and now wished I had savored more, but I'm not complaining.
All Yusaku's dreams came true as well as Kyoko's.
May all our dreams be just as fruitful.
I'm going to miss these people.
And I mean ALL of them.

There were times I thought the story of Maison Ikkoku would never end--the complications just compiled and continued! But at last, the conclusion arrived, and it left me feeling relieved and satisfied. I was still left to wonder about a couple things, though. For instance, just what does Yotsuya do for a living? Was this something I was supposed to pick up at some point, or are we left to wonder forevermore?
I'm glad I started reading the series, and I'm glad I read it all the way through. All that money was well worth it.

Stella Suberman writes about what she knows best - her life. She did it successfully with her first memoir, The Jew Store (an EXCELLENT book), and she continues her story in When It Was Our War. She tells of how she met her future husband, Jack, in Florida, of their courtship and wartime marriage, and then of their ensuing separations and reunions as Jack is posted to various U.S. bases in the Air Corps. You can feel her uncertainty and loneliness as she moves from one base to another, waiting faithfully while her man is in training. She feels the first sting of prejudice at one base where a landlady makes no bones about her distaste for Jews, but she makes a few good friends that sustain her in these hard times, and later when Jack is posted overseas. There is a warmth and humanity in this homefront narrative that makes it special. Anyone who lived throught the long difficult days of WWII will relate, but you don't have to be over 70 to like this book. It is simply story-telling at its best. I feel like I know Jack and Stella, and am looking forward to Suberman's next book, which I understand continues their story. - Tim Bazzett, author of Love, War & Polio

I read The Jew Store and was actually looking to see if she had written another book. Thankfully, she did! I read this before getting married, which turned out to be an appropriate time. This was a transistory period for the writer becoming of age, married and realizing how different her image of people were in comparison to the likeness all people share. I have used this in my classes with high school age children.

She has a gentle way of making us laugh at her mistakes and cry at her pain and teaching us that it is okay if we have not gotten to perfect at the ripe age of 20-something, as long as we are still trying to attain it.

that is Stella Suberman, you must read her books. Absolutely delightful writer--the kind of person you wish was a personal friend. Flawless, seamless, writing that will wrap you into her narratives. Glorious.

When It Was Our War is so informative. It describes many aspects of WWII and the American culture at that time. It is extremely enjoyable because the author adds a humanistic aspect by telling her own story of following her husband around the country as he trains to become a bombardier, and by describing the people she meets along the way.
People come in and out of Stella's life, and some make a great impact on her. Truths are revealed and her eyes are opened. Suberman's whole perception of the world changes.
War has a way of making people come face to face with reality. Suberman's writing is a window into the realities of WWII, and what was happening at the home front. She draws vivid pictures of the time period.
I was captivated by how touchingly personal she got when she described the persevering love her and her husband had for each other. It didn't matter that they were far apart. It didn't matter what was happening in their lives. Their love never faltered.

Earlier reviews are all excellent! Stella Suberman and her family were prolific letter-writers; their contemporary correspondence obviously provided vivid details linking her journey into marriage and her growing insights into the social patterns existing in our country to her account. Suberman's book provides a vivid historic backdrop of American lives and attitudes during the war. She is unflinching in her honesty! I recommend this book for anyone interested in the home front, women's history, or vivid pictures of how Americans viewed the war, including reactions to the Doolittle raids, the songs sung, the experience of traveling by train and car. It is an incredible social history. And, as the guys said when a pretty girl walked by,''HUBBA HUBBA!"