Bradford Books

A bit of magic in a real world - well, almost - which reminds one of the "olden" days. Could have been - and could be. Do you remember?

I found the "Nevermore County Gazette" using Google; the people of Nevermore County certainly have their own opinions of this author, and not very complimentary at that!

The secrets are out but not yet well-known. That certainly calls for a cautionary note to Ms. Bradford if she, indeed, intents to re-visit there for sequel-material. Beware!

I can't recommend this novel. It's stuck somewhere between being for kids and being for adults and doesn't know what to do with itself. The storylines and general feeling is suitable for kids, but the level of writing is overly detailed for them. The characters are too one-dimensional to be of any entertainment. I couldn't identify with any of them. The environments are very cliched mystical Grimm brothers kind of stuff. The writer is in love with the sound of her own voice and just goes on and on sometimes.

This is a fantastic collection of stories that shed light on some of the everyday and not-so-everyday ocurrances you'll find if you just look that little bit closer into the small communities off the beaten track.

The tales are carefully and beautifully told and just enticing enough to make you believe in magic.

Can heartily recommend for curious young minds looking for adventures - and old minds that have refused to grow up!

Enticing short stories in the Fantasy realm. Sounds like a place I know and would like to return to. Ms. Bradford does a fine job creating her characters. They take on a life of their own as is demonstrated on the website of The Nevermore County Gazette. "Summer's Island" sounds like a movie in the making. Are there sequels in the works, I hope?

"The Legends Of Nevermore County" is trip to a secret place not so far away. In fact it is strangely familiar. There are deep secrets, hidden agendas, dark and light happenings all seemingly connected to mist, a tree, and a mountain. We start with a natural disaster understood by cows but no one else, that ends in the strange transformation of many creatures. We are introduced to a woman who longs for travel, but waits at home the rest of her life for her ride to arrive. Young Klee, who falls in love with a tree. We sit on the floor watching TV eating Mrs. Winston's wonderful doughnuts. We run into Mother Goody a healer and herbalist that we all wish we had living in our neighborhood. The mysterious Rainbow Weavers live here in Neever's Knob beside the river, grazing their sheep in the surrounding highlands, and exercising their strange weaving rituals. There is the story of a young boy and his coming of age, I reflected on my own personal experiences while looking through his young eyes. Then there is the magic honey from Summer Island that can cure most any ailment, and the secrets of the women who harvest it.

This part of Nevermore County, connected solely to the rest of the world by two small bridges across the Noname River, is a magical place, almost like the "Waltons" placed in the "Twilight Zone". But Ms. Bradford makes us believe, as she reports on the secret lives and experiences of the families who have lived there for generations. She has managed to bring me back to the child watching TV on a Sunday night. Mary Martin as Peter Pan was pleading with me to believe in fairies to save poor Tinkerbelle's life from Hook's poison. Right then, as I clapped my hands until they hurt, I believed, as I have never believed before. Adelle, I believe in Nevermore County and want to read more.

A most interesting book I didn`t have time to read until now - I am reading it these days. The binding and other techn. character. are satisfactory - considering the price, excellent.

In the colonial stage of America's discovery, Europeans' conception of America appeared to be positive because at this stage the subject was the exploration and settlement of America and that was why Europeans received exaggerating accounts of the New World and its manifold opportunities. The colonizers' tracts and the travelers' accounts exaggerated the romantic attractions of the New World. The vast and abundant resources of the New World were admired, in a propagandistic and persuasive discourse. Both the Puritans and the colonizers (which were often one and the same) wrote exaggerating accounts of their adventures to lure Europeans over to the New World. Mourt's Relation (1622) was written to persuade Europeans that life in Massachusetts was a venture in a plentiful land. The book overlooks the calamities of the first winter and overstates the rich resources of Massachusetts. Yet, it is an excellent read.

The book is more detailed about the history of Plimoth Colony from Edward Winslow's and William Bradford's perspective.

This delightful little book describes the first year of the Pilgrims in America. Written to make life in Massachusetts sound like an adventure in a bounteous land, the book ignores the extreme hardship of the first winter and instead focuses on the rich resources of Massachusetts and the relationship the Pilgrims developed with the Indians. Here, the book drives home two points: (1) Europeans had long come to North American to fish and trade. These activities left a mixed legacy that the pilgrims had to overcome. (2) The Indians were everywhere. In fact, the first trip by the Pilgrims to visit chief Massasoit was motivated in part by this fact: Indians families were coming in great numbers to Plymouth to look at the English and interact with them. This was keeping the English from focusing on their farming. A wonderful book!

This is an excellent book. The unknown author ("Mourt") describes in detail the accounts of life during the settlement of the Pilgrims. "He" describes the account in a day-to-day style, accounting for making food, building houses, and encounters with the indigenous peoples. The Pilgrams' travels to find a home and the actual settling are fascinating and well described. I will never think of the Pilgrims or indigenous peoples the same way again. Overall, this book is very insightful.

The language is archaic, I feel I must warn you. But if you can get past that, and you like colonial history, you'll love this one. It will give you a much better idea about the Pilgrams, far beyond the over-dramatized and unrealistically happy Thanksgiving story.

Mary Bradford Clark has opened her heart and soul in writing this first person account of her own teen pregnancy and her decision to give her baby up for adoption in the late 1960's. The years of doubt and regret are dissipated when her "lost" adult daughter finds her and they reconnect and find a missing piece in each of their lives. The book is remarkably open and touching and is a must for all who are considering their options when they find themselves unexpectedly pregnant, as well as for those considering adopting a child.
As a psychiatrist, I recommend this book to many of my patients.
"Reconnections" speaks to all of us about loss and redemption.
Highly Recommended.

Robert I, Fink, MD

This book is very touching. I couldn't put the book down and cried several times from sadness but also joy! Among the healing that is portrayed, there are several underlying stories that are realistic but also very unkown to many people. I would reccommend this book definately!

I had great hopes for this book. Upon reading it, however, I was grossly disappointed. Too many cliches, poor grammar, a limited vocabulary, and a disconnected theme all detract from what might be a very nice story. Get a new editor!

The real stories of people's lives are often more inspirational, meaningful, and heartfelt than fiction could ever be. The journey taken by Mary and Kathy is a compelling portrait of a mother and daughter finding themselves in their "Reconnection" with each other. This well-written autobiography brings the reader the personal perspective of birthparent and adoptee. The shame and mystery of adoption is lifted in this revealing, honest book. Life is to be celebrated as a joyful reunion leads to love and acceptance.

My name is Mary Bradford Clark and I am the co-author of Reconnections. My daughter Kathy, whom I gave up for adoption at her birth, wrote this book with me. It was her surprize phone call to me in 1992, our reunion, and subsequent growing relationship that has provided healing to us and our families. Writing Reconnections was in itself a way to revisit both painful and positive memories. Through writing Reconnections Kathy became a legal member of our family, a sister to her sister, and a full daughter to me. She chose as an adult to be adopted by her birth family.Reconnections is a book which celebrates reunion, adoption, and connection to families, both birth families and adoptive families. Kathy and I have done readings of this book throughout the U.S. with the hope of encouraging and supporting birth moms to "come out of the shadows" and adoptees to follow their dreams. Reconnections is a poignant, upbeat and honest memoir that we hope you'll enjoy.

I found Ariel's Crossing difficult to put down. In fact, I skipped Morrow's reading in New York for fear of something being revealed that I had not yet learned. Not only does Morrow tell a fascinating, multi-layered story, he creates wonderful characters. I was struck with the realization mid-way through the book that I really LIKED all the characters (except David, but that is his own fault), not so common an experience. Which is not to say that they are some kind of exemplars, they are ordinary, flawed human beings who make mistakes, but grow; people who I could care about.

I found Ariel's Crossing difficult to put down. In fact, I skipped Morrow's reading in New York for fear of something being revealed that I had not yet learned. Not only does Morrow tell a fascinating, multi-layered story, he creates wonderful characters. I was struck with the realization mid-way through the book that I really LIKED all the characters (except David, but that is his own fault), not so common an experience. Which is not to say that they are some kind of exemplars, they are ordinary, flawed human beings who make mistakes, but grow; people who I could care about.

Ariel Rankin grew up in Manhattan thinking that Brice McCarthy was her father. However, recently the Manhattan publisher has learned that Brice is not her biological father, but that Kip Calder had sired her. Stunned with the truth, and single and pregnant, Ariel decides to meet Kip.

In the 1960s Kip impregnated his girlfriend Jessica and fled to Southeast Asia where he became a spy. Brice, irate with his best friend for what he did to Jessica, stepped in and married her, helping her raise Ariel. Now Kip is back home in New Mexico, nearing death and wants to meet his daughter. However, instead of waiting for her, Kip decides to finish his life with one last quest. He is helping widower Delfino Montoya to reclaim the ranch the Feds snatched from her family for those notorious tests in the proving ground.

ARIEL'S CROSSING is a deep relationship drama filled with numerous subplots that draw from the divergent culture that the Manhattan Project and subsequent nuclear research brought to New Mexico. The story line is action packed though some of the secondary threads take away from the prime theme. Still readers will feel mesmerized as the characters take the audience on a tour of the Land of Enchantment including the pits rarely seen by anyone who is not a Lobo or an Aggie.

Harriet Klausner

I have been waiting for this book for five years, and it is so worth the wait! I fell in love with Morrow's "Giovanni's Gift" and went on to read everything I could get my hands on, and my favorite was "Trinity Fields", which is the sister book to "Ariel's Crossing". But now that I've read "Ariel's Crossing", it tops my list. Ariel is a wonderful, inspiring young woman whose journey to self-discovery, through some amazing yet completely believable twists of fate, so often resonates for me personally. I also love Franny (aka Mary), who discovers herself by simply re-inventing herself as someone else, and Sarah Montoya, the wise mother who guides her whole family (adopted and otherwise) with wry intelligence. (Not to mention Francisca, the ghost whose very presence seems to make a place home.) Also, Morrow's use of language is sublime---so rich and lush---and yet, unlike so many writers, it enhances his storytelling rather than interfering with it. You really *live* with these characters, you feel like you're walking through the landscapes with them---you're right there on horseback with Ariel when she---but I won't blow it for you--you've got to read this book!

I heard Morrow read last week and bought Ariel's Crossing, and couldn't put this brilliant novel down. He's a great reader and if you have the opportunity to hear him, I suggest that you take it. Not only does Ariel's Crossing ask the most important and troubling questions about the effects of our current nuclear age and its atomic history, but it intelligently explores a woman's search for self and family. How many novels do that? The spiritual center of Ariel's Crossing is stunningly beautiful, compelling, enriching. Reading it is a personal journey into the badlands and beneficence of the human soul.

Levitin, professor of psychology at McGill university has managed to gather the work of some of the best minds in cognitive psychology together in one book. A plethora of interesting and informative essays, this book is a must read for anyone who every wondered: who am I, and why do I think the way I do?

This book delves into the human psyche and engages the reader into discovering the nature of human thought and its processes. An intriguing and informative read!

This book is great. It is clear and easy to understand. It is making this topic so much more enjoyable!

As defined by the editor of this book, cognitive psychology is a field that studies the information processing capabilities of the human mind. Having its origin in an actual college classroom, the book does give a good overview of some of the developments in cognitive psychology and can be read profitably by anyone interested in the field. Since it is targeted towards undergraduate students in cognitive psychology, articles are included that introduce the field both from an historical and a philosophical viewpoint. Those readers interested in artificial intelligence will also find many of the articles of interest, especially those that address the actual cognitive processes in the brain that are involved in problem solving or goal-setting. Philosophical argumentation on the `mind-body problem' occupies a portion of the book, but the space devoted to such speculative matters is refreshingly kept at a minimum. It is clear throughout the book that the editor wants to keep the mind-brain distinction intact.

One of the more interesting articles in this collection is the one by K.A. Ericsson and J. Smith on the empirical study of expertise. The identification and study of expertise is important not only from the standpoint of cognitive psychology but also in artificial intelligence, where it is becoming more important to identify when a machine has expertise in more than one domain. The authors have given the reader an overview of what they call the `original expertise approach'. Their goal is to first characterize expertise in a domain-independent way and then discuss chess as an example. Crucial to any study of expertise is being able to distinguish between outstanding individuals in a domain from those that are not. The authors also want to distinguish "stable" achievement from that which might be accidental or happen only once. But most importantly, they point to the need for a `control group' who, given the same opportunities to achieve, could be compared with the achievements of an individual deemed to be unusually talented. The author's `original expertise approach' tries to define conditions under which one can study critical performance and find out which of its components are responsible for making it superior performance. It is necessary in their approach to design a set of tasks in a given domain that illustrate superior performance and to be able to bring out this performance in actual laboratory conditions. This approach is therefore difficult to carry out, since the conditions in real life needed for superior performance are hard to replicate in the laboratory. Their discussion of chess performance is helpful in this light but it still leaves doubt as to why superior chess players can perform as well as they do and the exact nature of the cognitive processes that they use to attain superior performance in chess. Of course, one cannot observe directly these cognitive processes, and the authors recognize this. However, they argue that using the observations of certain tasks, one can study these processes by using an information-theoretic model of cognition.

In some research circles in artificial intelligence there is currently a great interest in creating machines that can deal with information in more than one domain without changing appreciably the "programming" or "software" that processes the information in these domains. Called `artificial general intelligence' by some, the goal of researchers in this field is to arrive at a notion of machine intelligence that models what is found in human intelligence: the ability of humans to solve problems in many different domains (sometimes concurrently). Those readers interested in these developments may find the article by J. Tooby and L. Cosmides on the functional organization of the mind and brain of some interest. The emphasis in this article is that the brain is a biological entity that has evolved to process information. The authors call the brain an `organ of computation', which means that as a physical structure it contains a collection of programs that process information, and that this physical structure exists because it contains these programs. The programs are considered to be the functional components of the brain, and they are there because they solved a particular type of problem in the past. The problems that had to be dealt with evidently had to be confronted over long time scales, in order for evolutionary adaptation to occur. In addition, in order to sophisticated structures to evolve, the brain had to confront nontrivial problems that require heavy computation. The authors emphasize, and this is very important for readers interested in artificial general intelligence, that there is no single algorithm that is able to solve every adaptive problem. The human mind is therefore composed of many different programs for solving different problems. The reverse engineering of the human brain will therefore involve the identification of those functional units and collections of computations that it uses in order to be biological successful. If these functional units are independent, then the algorithms themselves are independent, and thus there is no notion of `general intelligence' used by the human brain. Brains are built from adaptive problem-solving devices, though they may have incidental capabilities that may make them appear to be `generally intelligent'. This modular approach to the brain taken by the authors seems to be a reasonable one, and they recognize that more evidence must be accrued. And certainly an organism, human or not, will have a better chance of surviving if their neuronal systems or problem-solving abilities are independent of each other. If one module is damaged for example, the organism can still have the capability to deal with problems and issues that are confronted by the other undamaged modules.

Far from being like the old, dry, boring Psychology books of yore, "Foundations of Cognitive Psychology", though a required text for the Cognitive Psychology students at McGill, is able to hold its own and rise above the competition. A collection of articles, ranging from the philosophical "Where Am I?" by D. Dennett to the downright scientific (for example "Features and Objects in Visual Processing" by A. Treisman), the book gives the reader and the student a sample of the many possible views and stances regarding Cognition. According to Webster's dictionary, Cognitive Psychology is defined as "relating to, or being conscious of mental activity (as thinking, remembering, learning or using language)." Levitin's "Foundations" proves that Cognition is much more complicated than just a simple definition in the dictionary. Students and interested readers will benefit from this text.

It's probably a very good book if you are planning to use film as your medium. For a digital photographer, the book is not particularly relevant.

Perhaps another review is unnecessary considering my agreement with the previous reviews. I did want to include that I found that the book inspired me to move from a slight curiosity to action. I purchased a Canon A1 and some filters just to use for infra-red photography. Everything I needed to know to get started was included in the book. I also loved the balance of different styles and techniques the book presented. The first portfolio that of Simon Marsden uses different techniques, and indirectly warns of overdoing what infra-red film has to offer by using what Mr. Milsom uses as a standard film / ISO / filter combination. I have great respect for Hugh Milson and am very thankful for the time and care he took in creating this book.

I highly recommend this book for those who are interested in infrared photography. It is a well-balanced combination of technical information on infrared radiation and how it varies, composition and visualization of infrared images, comparisons of the same scene shot with infrared and standard B&W film, use of IR film with different filters and types of subjects, and portfolios by seven photographers who cover a wide range of techniques and styles (including B&W IR, hand-colored B&W IR, and color IR). For most photographers, this is the only guide to Infrared you'll need.

A very good book covering all aspects of infrared photography. If you are the least bit interested in getting your infrared right than you must get this book. Excellent images and well laid out. Recommended.

All too infrequently an item, a book comes along that is stands out. This book is one of those rarities. I ordered some books from Amazon on infrared only to return them, not this book. It is both informative and inspiring. If you want to try this photographic venue this is may be the only book you might need.
Good technical section and a great display of examples of photographic art. There is even a section on infrared flash.

Buy it.

I loved this book. Unreservedly, uninhibitedly, with my heart and soul. I'm loaning it out now to all my nearest and dearest. Perhaps you'll disagree with its conclusions about the applicability of its particular non-linear models to marital interactions, but surely you'll appreciate its subtly saucy asides and its smackdowns on the dirty dogs of qualitative research, those rascals who make hypotheses and draw conclusions without the rigor of mathematics to back them up.

So, as a dilettante and casual appreciator of good writing and good science, I found a lot to like. But I also have to speak out, as a sometime math tutor, of the fantastic quality of its middle chapters. Essentially, the middle chapters go to the trouble of teaching you all the math you need to appreciate their models, from pre-calculus onward. The explanations are so rich, so clear, and so grounded in practical reality, that I think they'd be helpful to a more general audience - anyone who needs a refresher or any beginning student of calculus or beyond who isn't "getting it". The authors don't stick to what you do to do the math, the rote symbol manipulation on which all too many textbooks focus, but what the math itself does, what the math means, and how it relates to processes in the real world. It filled me with a glowing warm warming glow, I have to say.

This book has an excellent introduction to model building; one of the best I have ever read. Starts with easy math and college stuff you probably forgot much of, then shows how to do great and unexpected things with it. You dont have to know all the math to see how powerful it can be for exploring any relation: man:woman, customer:seller, investor:company. What attracts them, engages them and holds them. When it doesnt work, why not. The other use? People who want to understand better why marriages work or dont. The findings the authors made are here. You dont need to know or even read the math parts to be able to use the findings, which are new and powerful. Certainly worth $28 bucks and a read.

I love John Gottman's work and I assign him regularily to my students. His work on partnership processes has always been first-rate and this book is no exception. Don't let the math scare you--it is an interesting read, indeed!

This book offers common sense for marriages, but now it adds math. If both partners have the mathematics background and enjoy complex equations, this book is worth the value in entertainment. Modelling your marriage is just plain goofy, which adds to the novelty of this book.

If you don't enjoy sitting down and going through a math book doing the problems and setting up equations, this is not the book for you.

Chapter 2 with an overview of marriage research was fascinating. Chapters 3-8 with a discussion of non-linear modeling and catastrophe theory were very clear.

The sections applying the non-linear modeling to marriage interactions were less convincing. Part of the problem is that each non-linear model concerns a single discussion rather than the state of a marriage as a whole. A marriage with two steady states is one thing; a conversation with two steady states is something else.

Gottman's previous work has found that the ratio of positive to negative interactions in a single marriage discussion can strongly predict whether the married couples will divorce. Couples with a good marriages had an average of a 5 to 1 positive/negative ratio while couples that ended up divorcing had an average of a 0.8 to 1 positive/negative ratio. Not surprisingly, the parameters of the functions of the nonlinear models were also different between the divorcing and the happily married couples, but it isn't clear that the additional complexity gets the authors much, if any, analytical benefit.

I think I can claim to be probably the only clinical neurologist who has read both this book and its first edition cover to cover, which really reflects the fascination of the articles more than incredible compulsivity on my part. The book is divided into 11 sections--development, plasticity, sensory systems, motor systems, attention, memory, language, higher cognitive functions, emotion, evolution, and consciousness, with anywhere from 8-15 articles in each section (total 94 chapters!), averaging around 15 pages each, and a helpful introduction written by an expert for the sections. There are also a large number of color illustrations. For the most part, the articles are very clearly written reviews, and would be appropriate for the upper undergraduate or graduate level student. The emphasis is obviously more on neuroscience than on clinical medicine, though helpful correlates to neurological patients can be found in many chapters. Michael Gazzaniga has once again done a masterful job in assembling contributors, and it is wonderful to see how much the field has advanced since the first edition of this book was published in 1995. For anyone with more than a casual interest in the field, this book is a MUST HAVE!!

I am a neurologist. This is the single best book I have read for providing the physiological and anatomical basis for human cognitive behavior. Each chapter is written by an outstanding neuroscientist.

I am a freshman in High School and after taking a semester course in Biology Honors and a little guidance from my teacher I set out to do my final human anatomy project on how drugs affect the synaptic regions in nerve cells. Using this book and the Internet i completed the project successfully. The thing about this book is that if you already don't have some understanding of the nervous system, this book may be confusing, yet if you want the latest in the field and not to much history and coverage on the supposed "Mind-Body Problem" get this book. This book is a great text for showing the cell processes and overall nervous system.If you just want a basic understanding of how the nervous system works, get another book, yet if you want to comprehend and do some nice research papers i would recommend this book. This book is a compilation of most the research in the cognitive neurosciences and is in depth and comprehensive as books get. Sure its size and weight may have caused some back strain when in my bookbag, but it was worth it. Check your library for this book before you pay out if you just need it for a paper or project, but if you want to do some learning like I did then buy it.

The Cognitive Neurosciences by M.S. Gazzaniga is an exhaustive (and I mean exhaustive) collection of articles representing major theories in each field of cognitive neuroscience. The book focuses on cognitive neuroscience as opposed to something like neuropsychopharmacology or neuroanatomy. It also weighs a ton and a paperback version would be most welcome. Being comprehensive, there is a good deal of depth, but not the kind of depth you'd see in a text on a specific area (e.g., memory). That being said, this is the high-mark for this kind of comprehensive book. My favorite book in the area. Stephen Cox

I checked this book out from our library to see if it would meet my needs as an in-depth introduction and more to the neurosciences. I have a number of MIT press/Bradford books and expected quite a bit from this one. I was impressed with the breadth and range of topics and the quality of scholarship, but the incredible number of typos, particularly in the second section, left me steamed. Those poor authors who had the spelling of their names butchered in print have my sympathy. These typos include some in the diagrams, which lead to confusion. I expect a better quality of editing from a large professional university press. I bought Principles of Neuroscience (Kandel) instead. My advice would be to check out a copy of the Gazzaniga from your library and go over it to see if it is acceptable to you before you spend [...] on it.

I picked up this book not expecting it to be true. The author does a good job of illuminating the lives of many people in and around the main character Ota Benga. This book also expertly portrays the cultural and political environment that raped Africans in the Belgian Congo, and oppressed them in Anglo-America. I highly reccomend this for your own library if you are an honest student of history.

I heard about this book while listening recently to National Public Radio. I'm glad I took the time to get it and to read it. It's the fascinating story not only about a pygmy named Ota Binga, but about ourselves, the people of "the Modern age." Though we're a bit distanced from the early 20th century, we still bear the marks of Modernity with its trust in empiricism and its belief that science has all the answers. Thinking themselves the epitome of humanity's development, and inspired by theories of social Darwinism, inquiring minds went to Africa in search of pygmies they could put on display at the 1904 Worlds Fair in St. Louis, along with the aged Chief Geronimo, Ingorots from the Phillipines, and others.

When S. P. Verner returned most of the pygmies to their native land, Ota asked to return to the United States, once again becoming a pawn in Verner's plan to win accolades and gain financial reward because of his travels in Africa. Though few took Verner very seriously (in great part because of his lifelong struggle with mental illness), the Bronx Zoological Gardens did take an interest in Ota. It was there that he became a virtual prisoner of that institution and became known as "the pgymy in the zoo." When representatives of the Colored Baptist Ministers' Conference received word of Ota's address being at the zoo's Monkey House, they pressured authorities to be allowed to take him to an orphanage (although Ota was already an adult). Finding Ota to be more and more unmanageable, the zoo's leadership agreed.

Rather than ruin the story for you, let me encourage you to read it for yourself. It takes a few more turns as Ota moves south and it eventually comes to a sad end. Abandoned by Verner, and unable to purchase a ticket to Africa, Ota Binga finds another way to return to his beloved land: "If the darkness IS and the darkness is of the forest, then the darkness must be good."

This book is both entertaining and disturbing. Above all, it is thought-provoking. One of the authors is grandson to S. P. Verner, so it was probably a difficult volume to produce. Looking closely at our ancestors can be unnerving ... it can remind us of ourselves.

A remarkable story of a heroic pygmy caught up in western society and western prejudices. Recommended as a good read.

I'd read references to a pygmy being placed on display in a zoo around the turn of the Century, but had never seen more till I was inspired to investigate by a song about the pygmy in an album by Pinataland. This book was the only adult book I was able to locate on the subject. I was suspicious because the grandson of Verner, arguably the "Villain" in the story was involved in the book.

The book appears to me to be reasonably unbiased, and certainly is no whitewash of Verner. It tells about Verner's three trips to Africa, how Ota Benga went to the USA with Verner, returned to Africa, and asked to go back to the USA, supposedly temporarily, but what ended up to be a permanent and tragic return. It ends up that Benga was actually on public display twice, and that there was another group of Africans with him placed on display who had a less unhappy end. There are a number of divergences from the story of Ota Benga and of Verner, especially in the first third of the book. These made me impatient early on, but the divergences are justified. There are a lot of people involved in this story from all over Europe and North America, including Bernard Baruch, Geronimo, King Leopold II of Belgium, Roger Casement the Irish revolutionary, Mark Twain, and P.T. Barnum.
I recommend finding the book if you are remotely interested in the topic. My personal suspicion is that after the raid by hostile Africans that destroyed Ota Benga's family originally, Benga was pretty much destined for an unhappy end. This doesn't excuse the selfish and/or indifferent behavior of Verner. Verner shifted from a caring, but not too responsible guardian of Benga early on to to later seeming to actively seek to forget and ignore the human who had placed his future in Verner's hands.
The only real negative about the book I can find is that the author is sometimes tempted to journey into psychohistory of his characters with little justification. As long as you accept these ventures as sheer speculation and nothing more, you'll be fine.

Ota Benga

The Pygmy in The Zoo A review by Dan Schobert

It has been well said that `ideas have consequences. It was the idea of evolution which, early in the 20th century, placed a human being behind zoo bars.

The account is detailed in: Ota Benga, The Pygmy in the Zoo by Phillips Verner Bradford and Harvey Blume. (1992, St. Martin's Press)

The story is how the paths of two men crossed in the late 19th century. One was ex-missionary turned explorer, Samuel Verner and Ota Benga, estimated to be about 28 years old in 1906 and described as being 4'11" and weighting some one hundred pounds. By definition a pygmy is a short person, a dwarf, though some people would choose to view these people as being less than human, a creature not quite evolved to full human status.

Verner grew up in a prominent southern family and had visions of becoming an adventurer, not unlike Robinson Caruso. He traveled to the Congo as a missionary but changed his vision when he saw the possibility of adventure, even with financial reward. The idea that he could gain some riches came on the heels of an intense desire by many in this country to develop the science of Anthropology. There were attempts to exhibit people like Ota in fairs and elsewhere, supposedly representing early stages of man in a long evolutionary history. It was into this turn of events that Ota Benga fell a (perhaps) willing victim. During one of Verner's trips into the African interior, he came upon Ota and brought him along to this country. Eventually Ota became part of an exhibit at the Bronx Zoo.

One of the few photographs show Ota holding an Orangutan, in an African setting. Ota was not said to represent a stage of evolution but it was implied. This incensed a number of black ministers in the New York City area who initiated a campaign which eventually had Ota released and placed into an orphanage for black children. Keep in mind he was an adult, perhaps over 32 years old. Later he attended school in Virginia where in died in 1916, at his own hand.

Squeezed between these 280 pages, Bradford and Blume present little glimpses of the atrocities visited upon many in the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium in his search for wealth.. This story, written in part by Verner's grandson, does not apologize for the treatment Ota received. There is an apparent contempt for the ministers who felt `Darwinism was a Christian fraud.' More than anything, Ota Benga is an account of what happens when people start from the wrong point. Wrong ideas always give wrong results. An apple tree does not produce oranges.

Verner attempted to reconcile his missionary concerns with those he thought to be true from Darwin. According to these authors, "To Verner, there was no contradiction." Apparently Verner, no student of the Bible, was a Theistic Evolutionist.

In all fairness, this story is very interesting though sad and provides some insights into events long past. The idea that someone, an actual human being, would be put on exhibit in a zoo is incredible, but the question revolves around the more basis concern: what does it mean to be human?

This question was being asked in the days of Ota Benga and is still being asked today, largely by those who endorse abortion.

. May 17, 2001

This is one of the easiest products I've seen that allowes you to interact with your children. At a time when the season is chaotic, this product returns you to the reason we have Christmas.

This information is taken from the publisher's website.

We've wrapped up all of the anticipation, excitement, and wonder of being a kid at Christmas into What God Wants for Christmas. This kid-friendly, interactive nativity - with seven gift boxes, a colorful pop-up, and an illustrated poem - contains a surprise ending that will open a child's heart to Jesus. Use this hands-on lesson in Sunday schools, outreach events, or family devotions, over multiple days or all at once. It's simple, easy to use, and fun for all ages!
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This is a wonderful resource! It's a creative way to tell the Christmas story and the figures are very nice - not cheap looking. It's very easy to use and great for the whole family!

Our kids want to play with this over & over & over...and it's made to do that...we don't have to say, "don't touch". This new FamilyLife product tells the Christmas story in a new, fresh, and very personal way. We think it will have a huge effect on "kids of all ages"....grown ups too !!! Way to go FamilyLife team...we love your Resurrection Eggs too!!!!

My daughter recently asked me, "So what can we give Jesus for Christmas?" Bingo! This kit is basically a nativity scene with a twist.

Included is a book with 7 sessions that can be done whenever you like (we're doing two a week), 7 reusable presents (one to open at each session), and a manger. Six presents contain pieces to the nativity, and in the seventh box is a mirror. Hence, what can we give Jesus for Christmas? Ourselves!

This has been great for teaching my 3-year-old very visual daughter about Christmas and Jesus' birth, and my 1-year-old son really loves to play with it to. Which brings me to my only complaint: The manger is paper tacked to foam core, which is fine but will probably not last past this Christmas. It has already started to come apart in several places. The figures are tiny yet lovely (though Gabriel does look quite feminine) and should last for some time if not handled too roughly. I plan to use the book and presents next year and the year after.

As a closing note, the book mentions that this is a great way to present the plan of salvation (i.e. give yourself to Jesus), and I think so too!