Boyd Books

We gave a copy of this book to the women who cut my daughters hair for locks of love. She loved it and keeps in her salon. The story is about a girl who wants to find something special about her self, something she can do that is unique, not just have beautiful hair. Then she sees a sign in a window and gets the idea to donate her hair. It is a wonderful story and shows the girl sitting in the chair getting her hair cut.

Everyone seems to love Melissa's long, thick shiny hair: it's her best attribute. But Melissa wants to be known for more than her hair: she wants to be known for real talent. Problem is, she can't seem to come up with anything original or notable. Suzanne Bloom illustrates the fun story of how a little creativity turns a natural asset into a talent.

I have been in the O.N. house and have contributed a few pieces to the collection of Michael and Gabriele Boyd. To me, it is the perfect house in design and functionality. The collection of early industrial design to mid century modern or simply put - from Breuer to Prouve and Eames. This book describes one of the best modern collections worldwide and offers pieces that any museum can envy along with the house that frees your spirit of unuseful clutter and lets you create. The house and functionality is in detail and written I invite anyone to enjoy this book for it is the best pictured private collection in a truly deserving setting. The effort and determination of M & G Boyd to renovate the O.N. house have paid off and as the book shows, they deserve every credit imaginable for it. What a house and outstanding modern collection. This book is a must have for any collector of modern industrial design, architectual design and good taste. Enough said... Just buy it and enjoy.
Thank you for the book Michael & Gabriele. -
D.Axer - Modern20

This book is beautifully put together in words and photographs. It is interesting, intelligent and informative. There is no better gift for those who appreciate good design. I recommend it whole heartedly.

Frances Park and her sister wrote a beautiful, moving story about the way families were split up during the Korean War. I bought this book initially for my daughter, but enjoyed it just as much as she did. The Korean wording interspersed throughout the book made it even more touching for me. Not only did I find the book educational for my daughter, but a great, interesting book.

The words and the illustrations condense an intense experience of family love, loss and hope into a format which can be shared and appreciated by a very wide range of readers. A beautiful work which can gently launch meaningful and memorable discussions between children, young adults and parents. The themes of sacrifice and freedom are portrayed in a manner which is realistic without being unnecessarily harsh for a younger audience. I very much look forward to future efforts on the part of the two talented authors.

A great gift for a new grandma!
I have to keep reordering this book because I keep giving mine away - and I want one to share with my own grandchild!

As my own granddaughter lives hundred of miles away, I continually search for books that we can share long distance. I thought this book would be one I would send for her parents to read to her. Instead, I am sending her one copy and buying myself a copy to keep for her visits here. Beginning with the grandmother rocking the newborn baby to exchanging pictures and homemade cards, this book reinforces the efforts my granddaughter's parents and I are making to create and maintain a strong bond between my young granddaughter and I. I especially like that the emphasis is on establishing traditions (i.e. the yearly planting of seeds), doing activities together (i.e. picking apples), and sending homemade art to each other (cards and drawings).

The author came to my school and gave a book talk, and this book looked exciting so I bought it. It was what most books aren't: Educational AND exciting. That's what made it very enjoyable. The Mystery of the Maya: the Lost City of Palenque doesn't just tell you facts, the author is on an adventure and writes it sort of as if he is writing a journal along the way. It makes you feel like you're there. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who's hungry for fun!

I homeschool my 11 year old son. He chose to do a project on the Maya and came across this book at the library. What a great book! The pictures are beautiful and the style of writing is very friendly.

You can tell that Peter loves his job of researching and writing. I highly recommend this book. I know that I am heading out to find more written by Peter!

Blessings,
Debbie

I throughly enjoyed reading this book.
You never know where this author is going to take you.
I will be watching for his next book.

With wonderful scenic descriptions of Chicago, Brooklyn, and other places, Mr Boyd weaves tales of suspense. Many of the 13 short stories have elements of the paranormal or intuition, which provides additional depth and texture. Never gratuitously gruesome, you almost forget that these stories are about malevolence and murder, as you observe the personal journeys of the stories' characters.

Unlocks the mystery of testing athletes for illicit drugs - why are these drugs a problem, how are they detected, what are the consequences? Caroline Hatton explains in understandable terms the very complex process of identifying chemicals in the laboratory which are used by athletes to make their bodies stronger, faster and more enduring under the intense pressure of the Olympic Games. She provides a personal look at the doctors and researchers working in the labs to uncover this wide reaching and wide spread deception. Along the way, she also addresses important related topics, including educational path to these laboratory jobs, why athletes use drugs in competition, and the increasing problem of designer drugs.

This book is a wonderful resource for middle to high school students, and even adults. The misappropriation of ancient and modern medicine (and quickly evolving designer drugs) in the desire to be acknowledged as the best in the world is a surprisingly engrossing topic. A great reference for the library, this topic will be of lasting interest for years after the Olympics are over.

Truth is always stranger than fiction, and this story is a must for all young children to read. Any attempt to cheat by taking drugs in sports is
a big story - and will ultimately bring down the athelete. Win fair and clean - a strong messaage.

In 1989 five states and two multinational corporations schemed to locate a 'low level' nuclear waste dump in an isolated northern Nebraska county by offering them, $3 million a year for 40 years. The town officials agreed to host the site - but what evolved was unexpected on all sides: a fierce battle by Boyd county's farmers who fought corporations, the state and the federal government to prevent this from happening. Author Susan Cragin was asked to write this story by Greg Hayden, Nebraska's commissioner to the Compact charged with sitting the dump, who was opposed to the Boyd County selection process. Her eye-opening account is moving and revealing.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This true story, researched and told by Susan Cragin, is an amazing tale that is so captivating, I couldn't put it down. The author deserves great respect for digging out the complexities of a story spanning over 20 years. The book is especially interesting because it not only tells the story from the perspective of a group of people struggling to stop the powers-to-be from building a nuclear dump in their agricultural community, it includes the actions, motivations and insights from those supporting the dump. Getting both sides of the story makes this book special. The book is never a dry recounting of facts. It is a powerful read as it enlightens, inspires and entertains.

On The Yankee Station by William Boyd is a series of short stories, the longest of which provides the title for the set. This particular story is a superb piece of short fiction, much more than a short story, confronting, in less than twenty-five pages, several big issues and, at the same time, drawing its characters in considerable, complex detail.

Set on an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea during the Vietnam War, it describes the antagonistic relationship between two crew members. Pfitz is a pilot, conscious of and grateful for his perceived and actual status, a status he does not hesitate to assert to his advantage. But this tendency is sometimes exercised to excess. It is as if he needs to feel the elevation of his status in order to bolster his own self image. In short, he is a bully. This characteristic begins to dominate his thoughts and actions when events conspires to question his own competence, his right to that nourishing status.

Lydecker is a member of Pfitz's ground crew. Suffice it to say that Lydecker is not at the intellectual end of the fighting machine. Neither does he hail from privilege. Quite the contrary, in fact. Lydecker, had he not joined the navy, would probably have grown into a complete bum, at best one step up from a down-and-out. Even in the armed forces he can only aspire to the most menial of tasks, but he is at least thorough and tries to keep his nose clean. But for Lydecker events conspire to heap suspicion on his competence, a suspicion constantly fuelled by a torrent of abuse and accusation that flows from Pfitz, the pilot it remains his responsibility to service.

Pfitz likes his job. That much is clear. He takes a particular liking to napalm and delights at the idea of heaping tons of the stuff from his jet onto the population of rural Vietnam. He takes involved interest in technical improvements to his preferred weapon, improvements that ensure the fireball sticks firmly to anything it encounters, thus guaranteeing that it will burn right through. If he were closer to the action, one feels that Pfitz would delight in the smell, the mixture of burning organics saucing the suggestion of roast pork emanating from oxidised human flesh. He takes that kind of pride in a job well done.

Lydecker is demoted, effectively humiliated by the time he gets an opportunity for some shore leave. During his week in Saigon he remorselessly pursues two forms of recreation, one out of a bottle, the other between whatever sheets are on offer. But there is one girl who is different, staying remote from the business of others, busying herself about her own affairs. She is treated with apparently universal and complete contempt and she alone amongst the bar hangers-on is never on the menu, her meat not for sale. Bullied himself in the workplace, one might expect Lydecker to sympathise with her plight. But he treats her with as much - if not more - disdain than the rest and, eventually, it is more out of spite than either sympathy or desire that he insists on a session with her, forces himself on her merely to underline his right to assert assumed control. What Lydecker subsequently experiences with that girl changes his view of the world just a little, but enough to influence events elsewhere, his new-found conscience constructing a plan he might employ back on board.

In a short story, William Boyd illustrates class systems embedded in the USA's professedly classless society. He confronts the so-called clinical nature of modern warfare by identifying the blunderbuss of terror that maims everything in its indiscriminating line of fire. He characterises sadism, vengeance, conscience and retribution. He draws sketches of exploitation, both economic and social, and illustrates how communities, even whole societies, can be seen as built on a crass and ruthless assertion of domination for domination's sake. And all of this happens in less than twenty-five pages.

Other stories in the set are also of a very high standard. To review them all would reproduce the book, no less, for they are succinct, often surprising, sometimes humorous pieces which together form a supreme achievement.

Of all of the millions of words written about the contoversial war in Vietnam the ones in this book ring truest! Cdr. Nichols, a veteran of over 300 combat missions flown from carriers in the Tonkin Gulf and over 3,000 hours in the Crusader, knows how to bring the reader right into the cockpit with him. What a spectacular true story of a truly unusual war! Read it!!!

I read these stories to my fourth grade struggling readers and we could not have had more fun! Who can resist this troll in "Three Billy Goats Gruff"? Yolen writes, "The troll was nine feet tall and he was nine feet wide. He was mean and he was green. He had a nose like a banana. He had ears like leaves. He had teeth like knives. And he was very, very ugly." Just think of poor Little Billy Goat Gruff having to come up against that guy when all he had were horns that were nothing more than nubbins!

What a great time people can have when they read this to children..or just one will do.

Jane Yolen has choosen the "least scary" of the fairy tales to introduce preschoolers and early elementary to wonderful tales of the imagination. The illustrations are simple and engaging. Great collection to read night after night to your youngest children.