School Time Books

This work is designed for children in grades 3-6, but is easily adapted to other age groups and to family formation, sacramental preparation, and vacation bible schools. The 30 lectionary-based services include a reconciliation service, scriptural Stations of the Cross, the luminous mysteries of the rosary, and celebrations of the saints. General topics include living in peace, belief in Jesus, and walking in justice. Services contain gospel readings, reflections, activities, and prayers designed for group participation. Activities range from designing peace posters to donating items for children in crisis. This is an excellent resource for teachers, catechists, and family-based small church communities.

When asked to write a poem, many children have difficulties because their vocabularies are limited. This book, which lists a set of very common words and all the common words that rhyme with them, will be invaluable to the youthful poet. There are two lists in the book.
The first is a listing of 237 groups of words where all in the group rhyme and the second is an alphabetical list of all the words that appeared in the first. Also included is a set of illustrations with a short verse. They are simple, on the order of:

Katie Baytee had a curse:
She only spoke in rhymes and verse.
Her mother took her to a nurse,
But after that, her verse got worse.

Written at the level of the late elementary child, this is an excellent reference book for the class when the assignment is to write a short poem.

Many a person's fantasized about living in Arthurian times, despite the ickiness and violence of the era. What if you were given the CHOICE? It's a good question that is raised pretty well in this particular book...

Lindsay, the main character, suffers along the same lines as many literary high school students. The way to avoid being squished is to stay out of the way. But when she is roped into a school production of Arthuriana, she is suddenly transported to the REAL Camelot. And the question is raised: would you rather be a downtrodden sophomore, or a far more respected person in the glorious court of King Arthur?

It's a good question, handled fairly well, though I would've preferred a little more depth in the handling. Lindsey is a sympathetic character with understandable worries and responses to things that happen to her, both past and present. The writing style is a trifle bare, and often I felt that I didn't have enough insight into what was going on there.

All in all, a nice time-travel read and nice Arthurian read.

This book is a good introduction to the invention of the first cereal. It provides colorful pictures to represent newer cereal labels; and black and white pictures to represent a time period many years ago. The author divides the book into short chapters that give a chronological review of W. K. Kellogg's life. I encourge young readers to read this easy and interesting story about how our favorite cereals were invented.

I am new to the world of quilting, so this book and it's ideas and terminology were difficult to understand at first. I had to read the instructions a few times before I caught on, but once I did, I couldn't see why people aren't all doing quilts like this. It's a "quilt as you go" approach. That means that you don't have to piece together all of your quilt blocks, then sew the batting and backing on, then sew over all of your original stitches to quilt. It's an excellent time saver.

I bought three of these Werewolf Club books for my [...] son who just finished [...]. They are the first chapter books that he can read on his own, and he likes the stories so much and is so proud that he can read them, that he sat the rest of the family down and read a few chapters out loud to us. Some of the words are too difficult for him (e.g. except, solicitors), but for the most part he can figure them out independently. The chapters are very short (1-2 pages, usually) and this seems to help him not feel overwhelmed. I recommend these for anyone who likes silly but fun stories, and who is ready for easy chapter books.

While this book was fun to read, it is also a serious attempt into describing the definition of evil versus good. It is also a look into how rumors take hold and just how much a rumor is a rumor and what is the truth? People take different viewpoints on one another and this book shows that.

I am not sure what I expected when I read this book. I have read one other of his book in its entirety and another one that I put down because it was too crude for my liking. This book is much better than those two and definitely had me thinking. I love Wizard of Oz the movie and the book ... but this is such a refreshing change of pace that I enjoyed this book too.

Let's start with Elphaba's skin color. It's green and even her own mother didn't want to nurse her. Elphaba grew up as an intellectual. She disappeared from main society when she decided to take up a cause of saving the Animals (the talking ones, that is) and fell in love with one of her former classmates. Then there's Nessarose, her sister, who is the Witch of the East. Beautiful and beloved of her family, Elphaba had to take care of Nessa until she escaped to the university at Shiz. The comparison between the sisters is simple. One is considered to be ulgy but is the brains. The other one is beautiful but considered to be dim. Now who is the more dangerous woman? Definitely not Elphaba. Elphaba danced more in the shadows trying to avoid controversy. Nessa ruled the Munchkins and is the one that chopped off the Tin Man's arm and set the lovesick carpenter on the road to becoming a man of tin.

This is just a sampling of what went on in this book. It is a story of a woman who legend has made her into a terrible person, when in reality she wasn't. Dorothy wasn't even trying to kill her, just helping to clean Elphaba up. Yet, Maquire showed what could have been and is a different version of Baum's Wizard of Oz. He has managed to tie in the political climes of the 90s into this book and I had to keep looking at the copyright as some of his theories are still timeless that it's true even today.

I have not seen the musical and would love to. While this book is recommended that I read for a book club ... I am glad that I finally had a chance to. It is much better than I expected and definitely kept me on my toes. I love books that make me think.

9/2/08

I just finished reading Wicked at 3:50am 29 Aug 08.

This book is not my normal read. The style was much darker than I had thought it would be. In the first 80 or so pages, I could not believe how bad the book was. But as I read on I fell in love with the Wicked Witch of the West. While the book describes her as unattractive, I see her as the most beautiful creature in OZ. I wanted to cry when it ended even though we all know how it ends. I think it would hurt to much to read this again but still a must read.

The book was in decent condition upon arrival. The book itself is worth the read, I enjoyed seeing the land of Oz through the prepective of the Elpahba (the wicked witch). Gregory Maguire has become one of my favorite arthors and I am now unable to put his books down.

This book offers a peculiar mix of philosophical blather and burlesque comedy. I give it one star because the writing is good enough to draw you in but then leaves you high and dry. The other star is earned by the characters of Nanny and Amah Clutch (I'm not sure about the spelling of Amah Clutch as I listened to this book).

You can read "Wicked", as I did, with little awareness of the musical. Of course this is a clever idea, and we often find the evil or bad people much more interesting, George Lucas' bungling of Darth Vader notwithstanding. Elphaba is the center of attention, naturally, but only occasionally is actually interesting. An opportunity for true development of her character and a mission was lost.

Elphaba, never really "wicked", never really develops. She has her moments, inspired about animal rights and mildly fighting the Wizard's tyranny. I read the theme about the dysfunctional Oz and the suppression of rights and all that as a creative idea, and not as a parallel to America or anything else. Trying to compare Oz to modern times isn't that interesting and, if Maguire really meant to do that, he did a lame job. His story and writing were not nearly sophisticated enough, and he had no plot that developed the theme well enough.

I wouldn't exactly call the book dull. For one thing, I kept wondering when the development into the "wicked witch" would occur and when Dorothy would appear. Why so long in the Vinkus west - is something going to happen? How exactly was he going to hook into the movie's events? It's getting rather late, don't you think? Finally, Dorothy drops in, the action picks up temporarily, and then the novels sputters to its end.

I can see why the musical is apparently different. The novel clearly needed to be adapted for the stage, as it's too dark as is.

I was cruising along, eagerly awaiting a happy ending when the protagonists could finally be together as was meant to be.....and then SHOCK. It can't be! I felt upset confused and betrayed when I got to the last page. It was all a ruse. If she was going to do that to us then maybe she should have developed that plot twist a little more instead of just cutting everything off. For this reason I don't feel I can recommend the book and will probably not read another by this author.

Another Anita Shreve's hit, sober, heart-wrenching and full of texture. I had no idea it had a connection to one of her previous books, "The Weight Of Water", which I read years ago (and liked very much). It connects us with one smaller character in that book, Linda, but it is not necessary to read its predecessor to get into this one, as it is not a sequel.

Linda and Thomas meet and fall in love as teenagers, but the story unfolds backwards, after a chance meeting in Toronto, when they are both in their fifties. They have not seen each other in twenty-six years. Their past life with all its joys, flaws and pains resurfaces. The anatomy of a very deep, moving true love is described with such emotional substance, its essence never lost to the reader.

And the end. The surprising ending. I found this novel to be a page-turner and possibly the best one I've read by this author (I've read almost everything written by Ms. Shreve). A love story to be remembered.

I've read several of the author's books and all are suspenseful, sometimes draggingly slow. Sometimes you can't undersand the plot due to the long sentences with strange constructions. The love story is such that you feel the ache of the characters. But why the ending? Nowhere does it explain this. It doesn't fit the story at all. And you wait until the last paragraph to get it. Is a sad book and you never really feel happiness. Drags you down.

I'm an Anita Shreve fan and I liked the way the book started out with the present day events and reflected on events from several years past and then events from much earlier in the life of the narrator. I'm not sure what I expected and I found the book to be a good, solid love story of two individuals who were destined to be together. However, after reading the ending, my reflections made me realize that this may be Ms. Shreve's best work. The ending pulls at the heartstrings of the reader with an ironic twist that leaves the reader thinking and reflecting on the book for quite some time.

There was a build up to the suicide in the last paragraph? Where? Was it buried somewhere in the verbose chapters telling of Linda's attitude towards hotels? Was it typed somewhere in those irritating italics?

When I finish a book I usually donate it to a thrift shop. I simply can't donate this book. I would hate to think that someone else wasted a few hours of their life by reading it. I tossed it in the recycling bin instead.

Horrible book. Don't waste your time.

Great book by Michael Shermer and a foreward by Stephen Jay Could.
I love the section on History and Pseudohistory-Holocaust- Debunking the deniers
Great book to retool our "Skepticism Radar".
Question....everything!

I got this book (an autographed copy, no less) after a debate between the author and a Christian apologist. The debate was very polite (possibly too polite; I think they were worried about how the students watching would behave if either side decisively won) and I don't think any minds were changed. Mr. Shermer spent most of his argument explaining why Theists believe what they believe, and why atheists don't. I remember wondering why he didn't simply argue against the beliefs themselves (many of which are beliefs about the world that can be proven one way or the other, such as whether God answers prayers like the Bible says he does). After reading this book, I understand it! Whether the beliefs are true is not the main deciding factor for most people; this book does an excellent job of explaining the way people's minds justify various beliefs.

Well written easy to understand book about the psychology of how people (even smart people) can fall into common logical fallacies and come to wrong conclusions if they aren't careful.

Must read.

debunkers are losers

whats the difference between debunkers and Christian fundamentalist..there isn't one there!

there both cults!

there is an esoteric side to life that the scientist don't know much about..I have had experience with ESP,OBE and helped make 2 documentary's on UFO phenomena.The reason people believe in strange things is because TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION!

I have no time for sceptic debunkers

OBTW it's possible to get 3 pairs dice correct in a row! Because I have done it (without conscious effort) "small inner voice"..it comes to when NOT thinking about it.

all I can say to debunkers..is get real..it's DIRECT EXPERIENCE!..positive people know the truth!

I feel sorry for debunkers..

Because they are pleasure addicts who have no evidence that the Bible is bad and in hypocrisy, attack it.

Just look at the stupid title. So whatever is "weird" and "odd" must be wrong huh? That's a childish school bully's insult: look at that guy over there, he's a weird because he doesn't dress, talk like us or agree with whatever we think is cool, so he must be inferior and let's keep insulting him.

The authors reject this over 1900 years old common sense advice:

"Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment." - Jesus

"There is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof leads to death." - Proverbs

They reject it, hence why their book, even the title, is stupid.

What's weird is believing that unimaginably complex amount of ordered life-sustaining and replicating information, a super beautiful universe with life-friendly areas; living replicating, emotional, multi-sensory, biological robots which enjoy singing, dancing, learning, and doing good and evil were created by an exploding bomb from dozens of billions of years ago with no explanation as to why it exploded which no one saw explode in the first place, and which the evidence shows did not ever happen.

Nor is there any evidence to explain why many living kinds of animals that are supposed to evolve over time (according to evolutionists) have not evolved after millions of years, but only lost some features such as the ability to defend against a certain kind of disease or digest some sort of food (like how non-animal humans have been losing the ability to digest milk or bread well). Nor is there evidence to explain why there are very high-tech ancient man-made tools in millions of years old strata when evolutionists claim man wasn't evolved enough at that time to make them or how an exploding MATERIAL bomb can create SPIRITUAL things like GOODNESS, EVIL, INFORMATION, and THOUGHTS. To believe the impossible over the evident and probable is what is "weird".

Twain spoils a promising premise with bloated preachifying, colorless prose, and an uneven, nigh-absurdist plot arc.

I have always received the best service when I have placed an order from you. Outstanding!!!!!

With each Twain novel I read, I am amazed at how he can be so funny while packing such astute insights about life. This novel is no exception as Twain strikes the balance between the two again here. The premise for this novel is perhaps Twain's most original idea (when did Tom Sawyer ever time travel?) and the story and characters satisify at every turn. While this isn't Twain's best work, I think that some of his funniest moments are in this novel. I recommend Tom Sawyer as the place to begin reading Twain, but if you are already a fan then this book is a must-read.

Although I usually enjoy Twain's writing style, and his sense of wry humor, there was something about A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court that was less than satisfying.

Some of the situations that the protagonist gets himself into are "classic" Twain. When the narrator is transported back to the time of Camelot, he begins to speculate about rituals, customs and general style of life. There is one part where the townspeople are convinced that he can perform great magical feats (he actually has Merlin as his rival), and when they corner him about performing one, he has to think of a way to please them or face punishment. He realizes that he can remember when an eclipse is going to come, and there is the way out of his situation. There are many adventures, where the narrator becomes critical of their ways, as a time warp will do. He is a fish out of water in many ways in this new world, not understanding, for instance, their need to have extravagant adventures: "Hardly a month went by without one of these tramps arriving; and generally loaded with some tale about some princess or other wanting help to get her out of some faraway castle where she was being held in captivity by a lawless scoundrel..." Because of his ability to perform great acts, he becomes known as the Boss, and helps to free some poor peasants from terrible punishments.

Maybe what made this less of a story was that it became too "preachy" and filled with social commentary. Although this is what usually makes Twain's novels, here it seemed to detract from the over all story. I was much more interested in hearing about the next adventure, but the narrator continued to rattle on and on about what he felt was wrong with this society. You get the feeling that Twain, not the narrator, is speaking after awhile. In the end, I guess it wasn't really the book I expected it to be. Still, it has its moments, and there are some parts that will have you chuckling to yourself as you read.

I consider Twain to be one of my favorite authors, but this is one of his lesser achievements.

I have always loved Mark Twain since reading Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer as a kid. At one point I had even memorized "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" as a seventh-grader in Catholic school. Twain has always held a sentimental place close to my heart, so when our book club chose to read and discuss A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, I was all for it.

I had heard vaguely of Twain's atheist mindset and his antagonism toward religion in general. But until I read Connecticut Yankee, I had no idea how much irrational and unfounded antipathy Twain had for the Catholic Church in particular. The pervasive theme in Connecticut Yankee is that our modern enlightened world is far superior to that which went before and that the "bad old days" of slavery and oppression were almost completely the fault of the Catholic Church. This anti-Catholic sentiment can hardly be denied as Twain himself urged reviewers not to mention it when the book first came out. "Please don't let on that there are any slurs at the Church," he told a sympathetic reviewer in the Boston Herald. "I want to catch the reader unawares, and modify his views if I can."

So Twain engaged in what we know today as the "last acceptable prejudice." By way of a simple comparison, let us imagine that, instead of Catholics, Twain had chosen Jews, Mormons, or Evangelicals as the villains of Connecticut Yankee. Would it still occupy the exalted position it does as an American classic? Or would it be relegated to those dusty shelves where reside other scurrilous works or racist manifestos to be studied as a historical curiosity of a meaner age?

For me, the most annoying aspect of Connecticut Yankee was Twain's almost total ignorance of history--or, perhaps more accurately, his decision to turn history on its head to better fit his polemical aims of blaming all the ills of society on the Catholic Church. This is a classic example of what happens, I suppose, when a journalist with a wide breadth of knowledge but no depth attempts to novelize about a historical subject. To address some of Twain's errors:

1.) Slavery in antiquity was in no way the fault of the Church. That pernicious institution long predated Christianity and was endemic to classical pagan societies. Indeed, the Church has a long history of making the lot of slaves more tolerable and being among the premier abolitionist institutions in the world.

2.) The idea that the Church suppresses intellectual freedom is a fable made up during the Protestant rebellion, though it is heartily embraced by Twain. Far more erudite scholars than I have examined this fallacy in detail, so rather than address this topic in detail here, I would point the reader to Tom Woods's excellent book, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization.

3.) Twain writes naively of democracy, putting in Hank Morgan's mouth the notion that "Where every man in a state has a vote, brutal laws are impossible." One wonders what Twain would have made of our modern America, where not only every man, but every woman has a vote, and yet the ghastly practice of abortion is not only legal, but enshrined as a human right. Democracy of itself does not ensure enlightened government. Without the temper of religion, democracy is as likely to produce brutal and repulsive laws as the worst monarchy. De Tocqueville understood this. It's a wonder that Twain did not.

There are many more, but this review is already more prolix that I had intended.

As always, Twain's writing sparkles in Connecticut Yankee and his lampooning of the style of Mallory is very funny. His characters, however, viewed 120 years later, are crudely drawn. Hank Morgan is an Alger-esque self-made man whose compendious knowledge of all subjects is just a little too convenient. The legendary Arthurians are all soulless pawns that Twain moves around to further his polemic. No insight is offered into their characters at all. They are all cruel and completely self-serving--as they must be in Twain's mind because they belong to the aristocracy. The story ends on a bizarrely depressing note for a tale that was predominantly a humorous satire for the first seven-eighths of its length.

In short, this is not a book I will be reading to my kids as a bedtime story. For me, it is to be considered a shameful period piece, written at a time when it was acceptable and even laudatory to be a Know-Nothing and make up slanders about the Catholic Church. That it is a cleverly-written slander is only another mark against it. Amusing slanders are pleasing to read but have the potential to do real harm both to the target and the reader.