North America Books

Last night I had a dream. It was about this unpublished book. I read it there and it was wonderfull

Mr. Simon J. Ortiz's work, "Men On The Moon", is a collection of three earlier groups of his short stories. The tales are not just of contemporary Native American life but also of their History, and specifically their History with the, "Mericano".

The History of Native Americans cannot be written without the experience of loss, displacement, internment, and racism to mention just a few. The Native Americans are one of the Genocides that this Country is responsible for, and even though we who made read this History took no part in the atrocities, we also are the only ones who can make amends. Those responsible, the dead, are not terribly productive.

These stories are not complaints nor are they a cry for pity. They are each brief statements of fact that no matter how tragic maintain a sense of hope. Justice, fairness, acknowledgement of the crimes committed against them are perhaps some of the redress they illustrate/seek.

The book is not grim; it is full of irony, sardonic moments, and even humor. The short story that is also the title for the book is wonderful. An elderly man muses about the first information he sees on viewing his first TV. A series of questions follow with answers from a younger family member. If NASA had to answer these questions as put forward by this wise old sage, the groping for answers would be amusing, and the space program would be doubtful. I don't believe the Author was actually questioning the merits of the space program, rather illustrating how easily things may happen despite failing the most basic of queries.

There are stories of heroic service for the United States during her wars, and too there is a story of one man that went to prison rather than serve. I mention these as I found this book very balanced. This is not one Native American's list of complaints, rather a reasoned and balanced view of their History and what that History has wrought.

The book is great reading that communicates its message in an informal conversational way consistent with Native American Culture. It loses nothing to the extent its format is not structured in the traditional manner of, "scholarly", History. Nonetheless this man is a wonderful writer, a poet, role model, and eloquent representative for his people.

When I read this book, Simon Ortiz's voice came from the pages. Simon Ortiz writes like he speaks and his stories are rich and beautiful. As a student of his I have had the unique opportunity of hearing many of these stories orally, but they have not lost their beauty and depth being written down. If you like this book, check out Simon Ortiz's poetry. You won't be disappointed.

I highly recommend this brief but superbly written synopsis of the Mexican War. Even though it is aimed at students, it does not talk down to the reader and really captures the events, political debates, protests, and ultimate outcome of the conflict. John Eisenhower's "So Far from God" and John Weems' "To Conquer a Peace" are good choices for those wanting a more in-depth look at the war, but for those shopping for a quicker, easier read, Nardo's book really fills the bill.

Historian Don Nardo has written numerous excellent books for young people, mostly about ancient times. I have had the good fortune to use some of them in teaching my high school history classes. I was not aware until now, however, that he is equally versed in American history. Most people today do not remember the Mexican War. That is probably due in part to the fact that it was a shameful affair, in which the United States quite literally launched an essentially unprovoked military aggression against a neighboring country, mainly out of greed for land and deep-seated racial and ethnic bias. Though Nardo does not take sides, since he is writing for studnets and must remain impartial, he allows the facts to speak for themselves. And those facts nearly leap from the pages. Numerous passages from books, newspapers, and official documents of the times provide copious documentaion worthy of scholarly history books (although Nardo is always careful to keep the writing clear and easy to understand). It is difficult, after reading this superlative treatment of the war, and especially the events leading up to it, to think about Texas in the same way I used to. The way this country acquired it was and will always remain a stain on American honor. Nardo must be congratulated for a job exceedinly well done.

A well written and kind of disturbing book about a war most Americans have pretty much forgotten. The author tells it like it is, or was to be more precise, without trying to gloss over the bad parts, for instance where Americans were lawbreakers, greedy, and sometimes warlike and brutal in their relations with the Mexicans. Those are the disturbing parts, because today we don't like to hear that our country can do things that we normally associate with guys like Saddam Hussain. But the story has to be told because it did happen and forgetting about the past is a big mistake, as some scholar once pointed out. For those who are unhappy about George W. Bush making it into the White House, I wonder what they would think of James K. Polk. They should read this book and find out what this guy did to make sure the country got its hands on Texas and California.

makes NYC manageable for the tourist.

maps are much better than those found in other guides.

This is the best guide available for walking tours of the cultural attractions of the Big Apple. I've used this and earlier versions of this book off and on for 25 years, both when I lived in New York and subsequently. The ratings of New York's major and minor sites from one to three stars are spot on, just as the Michelin Green Guides for London and Paris are. Useful both for the tourist with a few days to spend in New York as well as the resident New Yorker who needs to haul visitors around town to those attractions usually disdained by natives.

I was on one of those tv show/ movie tours in NYC recently and the tour guide had the most interesting stories to tell about the city. After the tour was over, I asked her to please tell me where she got all of her information. She explained to me that the NYC government requires that tour guides pass a test to get a tour guide license. In order to pass that test, they recommend that you study the Michelin NYC Green Guide. I wanted to make sure, so I called the licensing division and asked them what I needed to do to prepare for the exam - sure enough, they said to get the Michelin Green Guide NYC!! This travel guide has to be good!

Mission Memoirs recently won a 2000 Benjamin Franklin Award, and is one of 29 titles included in the Rounce & Coffin Club's Annual Western Books Exhibition.

....and written with a lively and moving commentary. Well worthy the money and very informative, each chapter giving a brief history of a particular Mission, some personal reactions, and of course the photographs. The author went out of his way to eliminate contemporary influences like cars and planes and streets; the reader gets a feel for what each Mission might have looked like long ago.

Caveat: if you are aware of how much many of the so-called Mission Indians suffered under a system of religious slavery, you might not welcome the author's effusive tone. My reaction to visiting the Serra Missions was not spiritual delight, but anger, sorrow, and nausea. (My Cherokee ancestors walked The Trail Where We Cried.) At the same time, the author doesn't pitch religion; he photographs and writes up his reactions, and his sense of wonder comes through nicely.

I've never been much for history-- until reading this book. The photographs are lush and gorgeous; the text is rich and personal; the mere layout of the artwork is striking. It's really a wonderful work!

I used this novel with my high school English class last fall. I teach in an urban environment where kids are reluctant to read, period. But I found that the students were REALLY into it. I had students who I suspect never read, reading it and telling me so. They kept saying, all year, "can't we read another novel like Mollyockett?".

It is told in flashback by the title character, Mollyockett, a medicine woman/weaver/wanderer, the last of her nation, the Peqwackets. She tells the story to a young English settler, Sarah. As she loses strength, Sarah tends to her and listens to her stories. For the most part, she tells the story chronologically... and she has an interesting life. Pat Stewart weaves the stories together seemlessly so that nothing seems forced or strange. If anything, she makes the reader want to know more about the real story.

We were lucky to be able to host the author at our school and she captivated the kids. Mostly, they wanted to know about Native American Medicine practices, since they were studying that as part of their unit, but many wanted to know how she actually wrote the story; she told them about the process of researching the history and making up parts she didn't know about. I still think some of the students had a hard time realizing that the story was based on the life of a real person!

It is rare to find historical, fictionalized accounts of Native Americans, and even rarer to find ones about Abenaki or any other New England Native American groups.

Anyway, I highly recommend this novel to teachers to use in their classrooms, but also to anyone who likes historical "fiction"... uhm, fictionalized history?

Basically, when we read fiction (or as in this case, fictionalized history), we want a story...the kind of story that in early times would have kept us listening to the storyteller until the tale was completely told. Pat Stewart's device, letting Mollyockett, the last of the Pequawkets, tell the story of her long life in the white man's world is just this kind of tale. It is clear that the author has carefully researched the life and times of her real-life character and that Mollyockett's story is based in fact. However, by taking some poetic license Stewart has been able to breathe life into Mollyockett, going beyond the facts and fleshing out the personal qualities and skills of this unusual woman. The result is a series of well-told tales that are revealing of both the storyteller's life and character, informative of the Native American history of New England, and revealing of the ambiguity of the French and Indian Wars. Avoiding the pitfalls of using any vernacular, Stewart has Mollyockett speak clear, almost poetic language. A storyteller herself, Stewart has faithfully produced a character that spins her own stories with a compelling, yet gentle voice that absorbs the reader. I recommend this book to readers of all ages who like good stories about real people and events that really happened.

In just 163 pages, Pat Stewart tells the story of Mollyockett, an Abenaki Indian woman who lived most of her life in the hilly country of western Maine. (Or, rather, bedridden in her final days and hours, Mollyocket tells her own story to a ficticious young gift descended from one of Andover, Maine's, first settlers).
What a remarkable story she tells--a tale of the struggle between native people and settlers, a story of this strong woman's own deep apirituality and faith.
Even the book design is distinctive, modeled after a purse which Mollyockett wove and which now belongs to the Maine Historical Society.
I recommend this slim, creative and engaging book as a fine way to meet one of our country's native ancestors.

From the DJ: A terrible monster is plaguing the Anasazi villages of the Southwest's canyon country, so much so that the villagers are afraid to plant their crops. Who will same them from this monster's wrath? The Twins, twelve-year-old sons of Changing Woman, respond to the villagers' cries for help and decide to seek out and destroy this monster, the Walking Giant. Armed with lightning arrows - gifts from their father - and magic feathers, they set out to defeat their enemy, and become heroes of the people in so doing. Immortalized for centuries through the oral storytelling tradition, the Twins now come alive on the pages of this colorful book, a partial recreation of the traditional Navajo story, retold and illustrated by two talented Navajo people.

I liked this book because it was very nice and somehow funny. Mostly I liked the characters in the sroty and what they did to save their village. It is a great book for all ages to read and I enjoyed reading it. I hope everyone that read this book will enjoy it as much as I did.

This was one of the first pieces that Bahe and Vee worked on together. Bravo! I am in awe of Bahe's illustrations and captured by Vee's words. Being a Native American, I can see and read the vision of the two's colaborative work and how they both echo each others impressions of this traditional Navajo story. It should be a part of our childrens plate of literature to consume prior to going to the Euro-Classics.

I ordered this book after my son has completed his "Let's Cut Paper". It is not any harder than the "Let's Cut Paper", but it just gives him more chance to practice his cutting skills.

I love these products. You need to try them. My girls beg to do them.

I bought this for my son who is now 3. He was a bit younger when we started using it, and he loved it immediately. We also paste our cut out pictures onto paper and put them in a binder so he can do "school work" like his big sisters. It's simple, fun, minimal mess and gives my son a great sense of accomplishment. I just ordered about 4 more of the Kumon books to go along with it.

As a teacher staying home with my toddler, I wanted materials for her that would be fun and educational without her catching on to the fact that she's learning something. This fits the bill...and each page has a little reminder to parents of what their expectations should be, so kids don't get frustrated. I suggest getting a few different books together and just doing a few out of each. Mix it up!

My son is 2. We bought the maze,color,and trace books too.Although he likes them all, the sticker and paste books were by far the easiest for him to use at his age.The quality of the paper is wonderful w/ bright colors and a thickness that holds up to a toddler.We use scotch tape instead of a glue stick when I'm not in the mood for the extra clean up! I homeschool our other child, these books make him feel like he's doing his "school" too. I will definitly continue to buy Kumon books in the future.

We have several of the titles in this 'Lets....' series and they are great books to get started on colouring, sticking, tracing etc. My [...] son and I love to work on them and they are wonderful 'instant gratification' projects for young children. Small pages to work on encourages small people to finish each page and get to the next. I would highly recommend them and then for older kids, the next levels - check the ages on the books. Great activity workbooks.

A fantastic book, wonderful illustrations, and lots of items to search for while learning the alphabet with your child. A book that can be read over and over again, year after year.

Growing up in Canada and in this area where these pictures in the book were painted bring back fond memories of my childhood and reading and discussing this book with my kids gave them a better understanding of how the alphabet can be understood, and that there is alot more to our alphabet than we think. This is a great way to extend their knowledge to be more aware of various types of trees, wildlife, flowers, etc... This book is a masterpiece and should be added to everyone's book collection.

Each page has a beautiful, realistic picture with a sentence of alliterations for the letter. Each picture also has a hidden letter, making the book challenging, informative and fun.

Mountain Lion was a wonderful book to read. I had been looking everywhere for a comprehensive book or video on the Mountian Lion of North America and I feel I have hit the jackpot. This book tells you "everything you ever wanted to know" about the Mountain Lion and more. From it's origins and how it relates to Natives all the way to it's current situation. Chris Bolgiano writes with a sympathetic eye and makes you realize how important preservation is not only for the Mountain lion and other animals but for humans too. She speaks about Mountain Lion sightings in places where logging and building houses have eliminated the big cat from these areas. She feels people still see sightings because of their phycological need for wilderness. She made me think more about preservation and the importance of saving our wilderness. I would recommend this great book for any Cat and Animal lovers out there. It could also be interesting for conservationists and anybody who is active or interested in enviromental issues.

This is Ms Bolgiano's first book. I happened to read her second book, The Appalachian Forest, first. I liked that book so much, I had to try this one. I am glad I did.

Ms Bolgiano is both a thorough and accurate researcher and an excellent writer. The text of Mountain Lion benefits greatly from both these talents. It is clear that the author traveled widely and spent much time and money in gaining a deep and expansive understanding of cougars and their dealings with our species before writing Mountain Lion.

Once she started writing, Ms Bolgiano wove a tale of this most illusive and truly wild of our wildlife species that is fascinating and a real joy to read. I have only a short time each day to read. I repeatedly found myself looking forward to my daily reading time as I read this book. Finally, I sacrificed large sections of a few nights of sleep and devoured and gorged until I came to the final page. Once done, I mourned the fact that it was over.

To anyone who has even a tiny interest in wild creatures and how we interact with them, I recommend Mountain Lions most highly. It is like taking a tour of a large portion of our land and gaining a much deeper understanding of the people and wildlife of each area. Equally beneficial, one comes to a better knowledge of and a deeper respect for our great, wild, American cat. Reading Mountain Lions, An Unnatural History of Pumas and People, is time extremely well spent.

The reader can tell that a great deal of research went into this book. It is also obvious that the author loves and respects her subject. If a myth about this animal needs to be broken she does so- but graciously. It was especially hard to read about the state of the Florida panther and how they are now so inbred it really is better to bring in the Texas animals to breed. Most of all it is Bolgiano's writing that carries the book- wave after wave of clear, precise prose.