Becker Books

great recreations of favorite fairytale costumes. Patterns easy to follow, fit well, simple but elegant.

This is a wonderful book! What a great way to create many hours of make-believe and play. I do have to alter the patterns a bit, since my dolls are a little bigger, but it is not a difficult process. I can use scraps from my stash and fabric remnants for most of the patterns. I love that it even includes instructions on how to make the backdrop settings and props. I would highly recommend this book!

Has your 18-inch doll been fantasizing herself as the beautiful Princess Cinderella? Has she been hinting around to dress up as Little Red Riding Hood for her next masquerade party? Or maybe, she's more practical and just wants a warm and snuggly Cowardly Lion or White Rabbit suit for those cold winter mornings. Say no more! All these patterns, plus fifteen others, can be found in this book. From Hansel and Gretel to that naughty little Goldilocks, your doll can be it all. And once she's smartly outfitted, you can find the directions to make all the necessary furniture and must-have settings from simple supplies, like cardboard project display board, felt, white foam board, and other things available at your local craft store. What a great book for the doll who has everything!

I often find that I have to weed out over half of the ideas I find in a resource book before using plans in my classroom. This book actually INSPIRED me to create extra lessons for each unit to keep the fun going. The only thing that would improve this book is if it were a few thousand pages longer.

These teachers are geniuses! They should be awarded some sort of literary award for this collaboration of exciting ideas!

The creativity and inspiration found in this early education book would be an asset to any teacher's bookshelf. As a reference for "how to entertain while teaching" it is unsurpassed. Kudos to the authors and I look forward to more of their work.

I bought this book and love it. The dresses are stunning. I'm amazed that I am able to make these dresses myself. I agree with the authors that this is not a starting to sew book. Some sewing experience is needed to understand the directions and pattern pieces. The authors do not have you purchase unnecessary items. The results are stunning.
I hope that the authors make more pattern books of this quality.

This book has twelve gorgeous outfits for 18-inch dolls in styles not easily found in stores. If you are looking for dress-up clothes for this size doll this is definitely the book for you. The patterns are easy to follow and are rated by level of difficulty, and there is a good photo of each outfit. This book made me want to buy more from these authors. First-rate.

This is a wonderful book of princess costumes for the 18" doll. Every little girl should be able to find a princess outfit that she wants. Easy to follow instructions, easy pattern pieces.

When I read this book three years ago I never heard of a Decathlon and I never thought I'd be one. When my mom got me this book for me for the first time I was interested, and wanted to find out what this book was about. I was in track but I only ran the mid-distants runs. I do like to play around with different events and when I did I would do better then the best on the track team. So I began to compete in some events durning track meets just to find out that I was doing well in them. But my track coach would disapprove of trying too many events and not concentrating on my mid-distant runs. Well, I read this book and was introduced to the decathlon and I wanted to do it, and I did. I have competed in the decathlon for two years and have increase my score by 1000 points over that time and plan on doing even better next time. I am now training very hard for it and this time I'm going to be more ready then ever. This has done great things for me and Dave Johnson's life is so similar to mine. I was also a rebal in my early years and then I got a sign from God and was instantly changed. I would appreciate it if Dave Johnson's would read this. I want to think him for changing my life. -Aaron M. Mills

This is a book that you can often compare to times in your own spiritual life. I am 12 years old and got this book last Christmas. I have read the whole way through it lots of times, and it has never been any less exciting.

This collection of poems by Robin Becker is truly wonderful. Her poems range from funny and ironic, to deeply moving, to acute (if sometime oblique) social critique. Her topics range over a wide range of concerns (as noted in the description above), but she is a poet, plain and simple, not a lesbian poet, Jewish poet, and so on. Her insights are her own, from her own specific perspective.

To me, the most amazing thing about this collection is the high level of quality maintained throughout. While not every poem is a "home run," there are not fly balls or grounders either: none of the filler stuff that is all too prevalent in books by established poets.

I read a considerable amount of contemporary poetry, but I only discovered Robin Becker during the last year. I was amazed by her poems. This is a poet who is struggling to write about whatever glimpses of truth she can find, not settling for easy answers or arresting, but ultimately hollow, metaphors or symbols. Additionally, one must consider that many gay or lesbian poets either seem to write primarily about their sexuality, or they attempt to keep that autobiographical fact out of their books (for fear of being cast by readers as being solely a "gay poet.") Even in the literary world, I think that ambiguity makes many readers nervous. Any poet facing the decision about whether to reveal his or her homosexuality in print knows (and quite possibly fears) being pigeonholed because of sexual orientation. Becker's work is ambiguous (or, more clearly, complex) only in that she chooses to focus on many different subjects, with her lesbianism being one of many subjects from which she gleans meaning. Thus, she cannot be categorized neatly. For any poet, such uniqueness is almost always a compliment, and it definitely is one in her case. I read all of Robin Becker's books this summer, and each (with the exception of her first collection, included in *Personal Effects*) had at least a few poems that were amazing and will remain in my memory forever. However, if I had to choose a favorite book, I would pick this one. The sheer quantity of highly successful poems in this collection makes reading *All-American Girl* a very rewarding experience.

Over the past two weeks I have been reading the book America's vietnam war by Elizabeth Becker. This book not only talks about the war that our country has been involved in but also Vietnam's past and how the country became how it is today. Also this book goes way back to when the Chinese invaded and how some of their culture is still in the Vietnamese lifestyle. The Vietnamese soldiers really wanted to defend their country as they have so many times. While the south as you learn in the book felt that they were fighting America's war and often did not fight too strongly or simply refused to fight. Even though the south vietnamese were being payed 10 times the amount that the NVA, or North Vietnamese Army recieved the North had so much more determination. And that was all it took to win against America and it's allies. This book is a great history lesson of vietnam and surrounding countries slightly and one great book to read.

I teach an AmCiv course at the college level on the literature of the Vietnam War, often to students who don't know much about the war and the period. So I am constantly on the lookout for a good, concise general history of the war, written without a political ax to grind. This is it. It won't win the Pulitzer Prize in history, but it won't take you six months to read either. It covers all the essential bases in a readable fashion. I was happy to find it.

Book was basically in new condition and was received very soon after ordering. Book provided great info for my research.

This is a wonderful book, and the story behind it is even more wonderful. The period of time covered in this book were the glory days for the muralist movement. And huge numbers were painted in the Chicago Public Schools. Over the years, they were neglected; they were covered over; they decayed.

In 1984, Flora Doody went to Lane Tech High School to start a Resource Program for students with disabilities. She saw and loved the murals there, but knew that, with all the other problems in the school, restoration was not a priority. Ten years later, however, she began the Mural Preservation Project at the school. She knew the director of the Chicago Conservation Center and they became involved.

And then they decided to investigate early 20th century murals in other Chicago public schools. They found treasures.

A fascinating book, you will learn the history of murals, American social history, and the story of some very dedicated preservationists and educators.

I work in Customer Service and have been reading a lot of Customer Service related books. I really enjoyed reading this book. It is insightful and funny at the same time. And as many times as the author mentioned his first book, that makes me want to go out and buy it also. I would recommend this book to anyone working with the public.

Hal Becker has done it again! At Your Service is a great book describing the ups and downs of customer service. Even though every one talks a good game, Hal shows that only some are able to deliver. The book is funny, interesting, and thought provoking. I recommend it to any student of marketing, business, or human nature. It's sure to become a classic. Way to go Hal.

Many books have captured that fascinating differences between genders, but Carol Becker goes further and deeper. She explores the dynamics of mixed-gender teams, a little understood but frequently practiced work configuration in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Becker's sensitivity to the many subtleties of inter-gender communication and her insightful understanding of the barriers to leadership for women are invaluable learnings to organizations in both sectors. The book was stocked with living examples and helpful suggestions, elements that heightened its relevancy and readabililty. I appreciated her primary target, that being nonprofit, mission-driven organizations; however, readers will quickly sense the transferability of her findings and recommendations to corporate America.

The book is good! Readable. But, better than that, it gives hope to women and men who work together and want to work together better.

Becker interviewed numerous 'mixed-gender' teams in ministry and then juxtaposed their stories against 'Nine Criteria'. The 'Criteria' may seem common sense but they are not. The case studies, observations and text are informative, provocative and instructional to women and men in ministry but hopefully also to the world at large.

Becker's Criteria gave me a quick snapshot of what mutual ministry can approach but also its hazards and challenges. I highly recommend this book.

This is a great booklet for making smocked clothing for American Girl dolls or other dolls of similar size. The patterns and instructions are both great and I have been able to modify these to make all varities of outfits. These are my favorite and most used smocked doll patterns that I own.

This book contains about 6 patterns for 18" doll clothes plus about 6 smocking patterns, one for each outfit. The smocking patterns are rated for beginner, intermediate & advanced. Everything is written clearly & simply. A great beginner's handbook on smocking.