Berry Books

Ms Hynes shows her breadth of experience in this field, and the text would be invaluable as a training resource in many fields of supportive human development and therapy.

If you're looking for an intelligent and practical guide to facilitating bibliotherapy - with individuals, couples or groups . . . with adult populations or young people, there is no better blueprint for success than this. Mental health professionals, teachers, librarians and parents interested in the therapeutic application of literature will find Arleen Hynes' advice indispensable. As a practicing bibliotherapist, I have read virtually every book written on the subject and this is the only book I wouldn't live without.

My son made me read this book about 20 times in a row after we got it, and now it is among his favorites. he loves the wrecking balls and the character with a backhoe as well as "Jack Hammer". The thick cardboard pages and durable wheels make this book hard to destroy and a great value.

My son loves this book. It's about his favorite cartoon Rescue Heroes and it has great action in it. Every page has a wheel you can turn to make for action (ie: like the strobe of flashing lights, a cat being rescued, a boy throwing a basketball toward the hoop, etc...) My son loves all of the different Rescue Heroes and this book has a lot of them in it. And who doesn't love a happy ending!

The Biofab War is the first of a four book series. The first book was published by Ace and the other three were published by TOR. It takes place in the last decade of the Cold War, with a lot of cold warriors finding themselbves facing an alien invasion. Grand Space Opera. One weakness is that all of the K'Ronarins have the same naming system. There is no appreciable cultural diversity for the K'Ronarins. Other than that, it is a fun read.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Read it if you can get it. The other review covered it pretty well. What would you do if suddenly you found out Earth had been secretly invaded and humans were just a colony of a long-fallen empire? Take up arms and fight the green bugs or lay down and become lunch? Where's my M11A? Bring it on!

Contact TOR Books at: inquiries@tor.com and ask for a reprint. I have. All your friends have. Whay haven't you? While your at it check out my website with a Stephen Ames Berry page under the good reads section:

http://members.xoom.com/jeremydobe/index.htm

C-Ya

Jeremy

This is a wonderful collection of poems about being different shades of black--all compared to different berries. I didn't even know some of these berries existed! Each poem comes in the first person narration of a child and they all have a great voice. A wonderful resource in the classroom, a great book for parents.

Reviewed by Genevieve Chatel (age 8) for Reader Views (11/08)

The theme of this book is that everybody is beautiful no matter what and that it is okay to have different color skin. Each poem is different in its own way and I noticed in this book that the author talked about different colors of black skin, like golden skin or coffee-black skin or cranberry black skin.

In the poem "Skin Deep," the author mentions the line "Put yourself in someone else's skin" and pretend like you feel like that person feels. The poems made me really think about putting myself in someone else's skin and it made me think for the first time about how it would feel to be black.

One of my two favorite poems in this book is `Snowberries.' And the line that I really liked in this poem is "And I want to be as black/ as midnight/ and moonless water/ So no words can wound me."

The other poem I like is `Nightshade.' It says "I feel as purple/ As nightshade/ Of an eggplant/ That the great berry among berries/ Smooth skinned."

I like the pictures in "The Blacker the Berry: Poems" by Joyce Carol Thomas because they looked like grainy old photos or jean material. Also, they look really life-like, and these pictures remind me of old paintings. The children in these pictures seem very happy.

I'm mainly what you call a "city slicker"....but for eight happy years of my time with the New Mexico State Police and the local prosecutor's office, I lived in a part of New Mexico called "Little Texas". The point of this autobiographical introduction is that I saw rodeos...and rodeo clowns... in operation. I couldn't possibly improve on the term Edd Voss used to describe the clowns so I'll repeat it here: "lifesavers in grease paint."

What Joshua Berry has done in "Busted" is provide rodeo fans and city slickers alike with a priceless look into the life of a rodeo clown at work and the critical life saving job they do. What I liked best about this story besides its riveting style, heart-stopping action and folksy, down home voice is the intriguing format Joshua uses to tell us this story...the Eight Seconds That Are An Eternity.

The entire piece takes place during one action packed bull ride at a rodeo...from those last tense seconds in the chute before the cowboy gives the signal to release the gate to practically the time for the next ride. Within that intriguing format Joshua gives us the heart-stopping blow by blow of the duel between 1600 pounds of enraged beast and the cowboy trying to stay on and the men trying to keep him safe to ride again.

I suppose it's pointless to remind everyone that this 1600 pounds of fury doesn't know it's a sporting event, and that he's out to punish the unwanted passenger on his back. And equally pointless to state that the beast's desire to punish means crippling injury or death to the rider or the clowns trying to protect him if he is successful. Joshua makes us keenly aware of that through the details of the action as the drama of these eight seconds unfolds and runs its course...second by second. But he does something more which I find exceptionally well done, given the exciting format that he chooses: he educates his readers on the responsibilities of the clown (which are more than meet the eyes of the fans) and many of the do's and don'ts of the profession.

Yes, while remaining totally riveted by the action of the story, the reader learns much as well. "Busted" is well worth the read, not only by persons interested in rodeo, but by anyone absorbed by the saga of brave men making a living protecting the lives of other men. A Great Big Five Stars for this one, Joshua, and thanks again for another story of courage and the human spirit triumphant! John W. Cassell

John W. Cassell is the author of Crossroads: 1969and four other books on the American scene 1969-1972, as well as several short action and military thriller stories, including Armageddon: 1973 - Part 1

Who in their right mind would jump into the arena with a raging bull? They now call them Bull Fighters but we used to know them as Rodeo Clowns, and one of them happens to be named Hapless Henry. Writer Joshua Berry takes us into the arena with Henry to experience the adrenaline rush as Henry finds himself pitted against a bull named River Styx who wants nothing more than to cause great pain to the man who is brash enough to sit on his back. Henry's job is to make sure that the bull doesn't hurt the rider. So grab onto the edge of your seat as Henry tries to distract the bull from hurting the rider while trying very hard to keep from getting hurt in the process.

Kids left alone are raided by hungry Civil War soldiers but the eldest cleverly uses berry juice to make everyone look like they have a really wretched case of the measles. The ruse works, and the supplies and children are left alone. This one cries out for the readers to finish up by making their own sweet berry pie!

Author/illustrator Karen B. Winnick's original picturebook, Cassie's Sweet Berry Pie: A Civil War Story is the tale of a young girl during the American civil war. Her father is away fighting in the army, and her mother works in the hospital tending to wounded soldiers. When Union troops raid her house for supplies, she must come up with a clever ploy to protect her family's food store, proving that huckleberries can be used for more than sweet pies! The gentle color artwork perfectly complements this tale about resourcefulness - not to mention help from the most unlikely places.

This is THE book for everybody using CCDs for diy projects. Although the camera itself can not be build anymore without being very lucky in finding a way to get all parts, it is still very revealing about how to actually build a camera and design the circuits. A real classic!

The authors take you through step by step of how CCD's work. Then how to build your own. I loved it and built my own camera from the book. It is really easy if I can do anyone can.

This is quite a different take on what we might usually think of as typical Victorian sentimentality about children. The new readings of such classical works as Dickens's Dombey and Son and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights show that Lit Crit hasn't completely abandoned such all time favourites!

I bought this book to help me with my son Frank, who interest in Victorian novels has grown of late to unhealthy proportions. The other night I had to ask him seven times to come to the dinner table; while spooning down equal doses of butter rice in squash and pumpkin ice cream (the recipes for which are included in the index of this book!) he looked up only once from Wuthering Heights to announce that he wished he had tuberculosis.

Unfortunately, the book's excellent discussion of the development of the concept of "children" in the Victorian era is woefully short on advice. Last night Frank slipped a note under his door (he has been locked in his room for three days) announcing that he had become a poet, and to challenge me to a duel. This situation is not covered anywhere in Berry's book.

The surprise recipes included at the end of the text are delicious!

This is a beautifully, compassionately written little book on learning to honor your body, respect your needs, and take care of yourself. Berry teaches self-nurturance in one of the best ways that it can be fully experienced: on a moment-to-moment, daily basis. She encourages readers to take good care of their bodies through regular physicals, nutrition, exercise, massage, hot baths, and more. Included are delightfully sensual and joyous ideas for self-nurturance, and many little quizzes to see where you are in the process of self-nurturance. Extremely valuable for those who have become disconnected from their bodies, as well as for women who have experienced childhood trauma. A wonderful gift for a close friend or a sister. Most of all--for yourself! Highly recommended.

This book helped me de-program all those messages that make women think they have little value unless they are thin, firm and young. This book opened my eyes. Short, daily meditations teach us to enjoy and respect our miraculous bodies.

First-hand accounts of events in Medieval history are not easy to come by; reliable accounts are even harder. Odo of Dueil chronicled the Second Crusade, which ended in disaster with the seige of Damascus in 1148. Though Odo did not accompany the crusaders, he did have access to a great deal of first-hand testimony to the event, which only he alone recorded for posterity. Odo's account is also of high literary quality, making it all the more worth reading. Though this translation dates back to 1947, the writing is fresh and does not sound stilted. For more serious scholars, the complete Latin text is included.

The Second Crusade (1147-1149) was a disaster from the Christian perspective. Such a momentous disaster that most contemporary historians of the time did not write about what happened. The author of Chronicon Mauriniacense wrote that "(Louis VII) was not able to do anything useful, worthy or mention, or actually, anything worthy of France" and Otto of Freising says that since everyone knows the magnitude of the calamity and it is not worth repeating. However, Historians need sources to know what happened! The lack of other writings makes Odo of Deuil's De Profectione Ludovici VII in orientem an immensely important document. It also helps that Odo was the royal chaplain of Louis, accompanied him on the Crusade, and thus had first hand knowledge of the events.

Odo's motives are very interesting and very obvious. Ostensibly his reason for writing is to provide his abbot of St Denis, the famous historian Suger, with raw material for a life of Louis VII. However, his chronicle is anything but a dry list of events. His purpose is to put his sovereign in a good light, attribute the defeat to the Byzantine Greeks, and most importantly provide information so that other crusaders in the future do not make the same mistakes. He lays out the route they took, geographic detail, various opinions of various leaders, invents critics of events to further explain them, and how to improve transportation of supplies etc. The main flaw to the work is that the text covers only the first 3/4 or so of the Crusade. It is not known if the rest of the source was lost or even written.

The introduction to this volume is truly remarkable. It is to the point, provides supported reasons for the conclusions made, and information on the manuscripts existing and a summary of the historical events of the Crusade. The Latin text is also useful for historians.