Green Books

Having suffered abandonment as a child...along with many of the contributing writers in TOUCHED BY ADOPTION; I felt the anguish while reading the poems and essays which brilliantly express the loneliness and pain which so many orphans experience. This collection should be read by orphans and anyone thinking of adopting. It is a revelation to find so many who are able to write of the deep emotions connected with the giving up or taking in of another human being. Kudos to Nancy A. Robinson who so valiantly collected and edited this powerful study.
William R. Holman. (Roger Bechan) THE ORPHANS' NINE COMMANDMENTS. TCU Press. 2007.

I read this book over Christmas and found it to be in keeping with the season. I enjoyed the poetry and the story "Stupid" by Sarah Freligh. I recommend this book for everyone!

Ms. Robinson has amassed a large collection of work from 75 respected poets, authors and playwrights, all of whom have one thing in common--an adoption connection. Some, like the father of former basketball star Issac Berg, and myself, adopted children, many internationally. Others, like Paula Friedman of California, were birthparents. Still others were themselves adopted as children. It is a privilege to have my work included in this edition, whose writers hail from many racial and religious backgrounds, yet sing in chorus: We can all learn from one another, and from the adoption experience. Alyssa A. Lappen

As an adoptive aunt, I found this book compelling reading. More important, my adopted niece recognized herself within the pages and was moved by the experience. This was a perfect gift for Patty, and I highly recommend it to others!

Terryl Paiste, Fairfax, Virginia

As the author of four poems in this anthology, I can now say that I don't feel alone anymore. Each poem, each story I read, I am compelled to read a second time. Every time I pick up this book, it feels like I'm picking up a part of my life. I recommend this book to anyone ready to delve into the heart of adoption.

I purchased this book for each and every one of my cousins that has graduated high school and college since last year, and they all love it. It is one of the most inspirational books I have ever read! I'm truly surprised that its not all over the NY Times bestsellers lists! Thank you so much Jennifer!

My mom bought this book for me for my early graduation present. She thought it looked like something I needed to take to college. She was right. This book to me is the best present anyone could have ever given me. It has sooo much in it. The famous pros in this book truly touch ones soul, and warm the heart. There is a passage in there about mothers and daughters that really made me cry. There are other passages that made me laugh, because they related so well to me. I recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a graduation present, it truly is the best!!!!!!!!!!

As a teacher for more than twenty years, I have watched many seniors prepare for graduation. In my own teaching, I have helped to prepare my own students for this transition through the writing and reading they do. However, I have never found a book that provides that crucial "stepping stone" as well as Selig's does. It's simply terrific. I am especially impressed by the diversity of her sources of inspiration: from the writing of students to those of professional writers, both past and present,this book offers its readers a rich mine of ideas. My only regret is the subtitle which targets this book as a book for graduation. It is certainly that, but it would be a great gift for anyone who is taking a next big step of any kind -- moving on from a death or a divorce,beginning a new career, etc.

Boy, this is a terrific book. I would highly recommend it for all readers young and old... we're all are graduating continuously from one stage or other in our lives, so even those of us who have left school a long time ago can benefit from its wisdom. Kudos to Ms. Selig for an excellent job done.

When I first recieved a copy of what now? I must say it wasn't what I had expected. Though After reading through it, I thought to myself now here's a book that shine's with inspiration. I was so glad that I had gotten the words and wisdom that I needed from so many different resources. Not only was it the inspiration but the being able to reflect upon my experiences with those that were shared in the book. I would definetely recomend that not only seniors who are graduating from high school get a copy but also those who thrive off of daily inspiration, this is the book for you!

We should all weep, because most people are too stupid to appreciate Adam Green's fine sense of humor. Due to these fine individuals not buying this brilliant book, it is now out of print. I am sad. Fortunately Adam's other book, the Book of Hollow Days is still available, and every bit as funny. If you don't own any Adam Green yet, you owe it to yourself to find some of his work. You will laugh until you are in severe pain.

I second all the opinions of this book. I got it for a birthday present when it first came out and now I loan it out to my friends since they can't find it. Every time i re-read it I find myself still laughing out loud. If you like bizarre, wickedly funny humor, this book _cannot_ be beaten!

In my earlier review (below) I stated that Adam Green's book "What were you in a previous life?" was no longer available...apparently it IS available now. I bow before the publishing gods...THANK YOU for bringing this book back! Now that it IS available, I suggest that everyone buy one or two copies. If you already have it, they make great gifts! If you have any doubts about just HOW funny this book is, read the reviews. You won't be disappointed...unless you're completely humorless and dead inside.

As a number of the other reviews noted, this collection is not for everyone. But, if jokes about torn puppies, monitoring your friends for hints of suicide, and dog vomit are your cup o' tea, then this book is for you.

One of the funniest books I've ever read.

This is a book of very morbid hilarity. It also exudes an amount of contrarianism. Do it. Buy it. Let yourself laugh.

This final entry--1988 marks its long-delayed arrival--in a lengthy career (starting in the mid-1940s) of scant fiction marks the end of the postwar, triumphalist, yet marginalized, Midwestern Catholic parish--and notably here, rectory--intrigues that Powers excelled at conveying. His scale, being so focused, gains accuracy and depth by its concentration upon detail. Like a model railroad set, the 1:150 (or whatever!) ratio means painstaking attention to fidelity. Such realism to the untutored eye appears grotesque or caricatured, but to an aware observer reveals a nearly exact fit of form with content.

I give it four rather than five stars as I have re-read (and reviewed here, "Morte" and the thirty stories in their original three volumes as well as the collected reissue) all of Powers recently, and I believe that his many strengths as a writer are at times clouded slightly by his tendency towards oversubtlety. A forgivable fault in an era of so many authors straining for the obvious or what critics call "overdetermining" their subject, but Powers tends in all his work towards lengthy passages where not much goes on at all, but in which an editor could have polished the presentation and refined the craft even further. Powers appears to have been his own worse enemy and his own most scrupulous critic, on the other hand. Be it as it may, Powers makes nearly all of his peers look hasty, scattered, and undisciplined by comparison.

Action over the course of a priest's youth, coming of age, and gradual rise from curate to administrative assistant (when that word did not connote a secretary or receptionist) and then pastor comprises the narrative. Less verve here than the worldlier, more urbane Fr Urban had, but perhaps in his principled if compromised (the whole crux of the tension) fidelity to the needs of separating "Church from Dreck" Powers reveals that the need for reform Fr Urban realized while Vatican II was still in session (so to speak) by the end of the decade became all the more apparent as the slow slide downhill accelerated. Set by its conclusion around 1968, if offhandedly, the Catholic Worker roots of Powers and his conservative radicalism stand his fictional main character in good stead as priests wander off, parishioners ignore crusty priests' reprimands, malls open on Sundays, the hillbilly's war machine thunders on in the small town press, and guitars with cant supplant chant.

This novel, like his earlier (sharing with it a clumsy if rarified referential title) "Morte d'Urban," (1962), suffers from arid stretches, where the humor is so deadpan, the pace so true that the inert nature of our own shared experience with the clerical protagonists appears too neatly aligned. Dullness enters. A VD quarantine warning takes up one and a half pages verbatim. A few sample sermons from Father Felix (who helps out saying weekend Masses) summarize the stultifying, yet sincere, homiletics of a certain, less soundbitten, age. So with Powers, who in this novel had been criticized as a man out of time, with figures he identified with whose era had passed them by. Joe is only in his mid-forties. He seems much older. This may be a sign of now-diminished respect, when the maturity demanded of authority figures gave an earned dignity and a bit of unearned noblesse oblige to the clergy in smaller towns where the collar still mattered. Joe Hackett manages to get through the routine, and out of the limelight that had once courted his counterpart Fr. Urban, this parish priest does his best balancing God with Mammon, as the demands of a new accounting system make fundraising all the more essential, even as this pulls at the Gospel admonition that it's better to give alms in secret. How to square this with the need to make accountable freeloading parishioners when the Archbishop's needs come payable on demand? Out of such quandaries, Powers raises his own quiet art.

The need in fiction for a jolt, a spark, a spin off from the quotidian to the profound nestles, certainly, in Powers. This, however, moves along leisurely, and often nothing seems to happen for chapters at a time. Then, you understand that this accurately limns the trajectory of a recognizably human life like our own. You can see Powers' study of Joyce in his preparation of the slow ascent to epiphanies, such as Fr. Joe Hackett's finessed blessing of a scruffy draft resister who steps to tie his shoelaces while the padre finagles praying over his head and out of eyesight or earshot as the young man prepares to flee to Canada, on the pastor's unspoken advice but according to his moral example.

Re-reading this nearly two decades after it appeared, I admire Powers' critique of not only the institutional Church and its compromises with the world, but of his own admission that holy Joes only go so far in their own zeal in battling for their losing side. They must do so, vowed to do so and called by their Maker, but Powers recognizes in his own mellowing how annoying piety and phariseeism can be for the rest of us. Not for nothing is an early battle Joe engages in at the seminary, much to the disgust of some classmates and the suspicion of his rector, over the necessity of wearing a hairshirt.

Constructed in part from stories written over the past (two of which appeared in the last of his three thin story collections, 1975's "Look How the Fish Live," the novel does let its seams show. I wonder if parts of this novel were left too long on the shelf, or in hibernation. Yet, this is how Powers wrote. Very slowly, spending days pondering if a character would use the term "pal" or "chum" in referring to a confrere. Such was his state of mind, and more power to him. Probably a patron saint of scrupulous writers, if he is canonized as he deserves! His friend and colleague Jon Hassler eulogized him as "a saint with a bad temper." Hassler notes how Powers could strain so long over a detail that a reader, even an informed one such as himself, might miss the very nuanced finesse.

The extended battle of the story that was "Bill" for Joe to learn his new curate's name appears tedious and unbelievable, a shaggy-dog tale after a few pages of the many devoted to this embarrassing and rather cryptic episode. The story earlier published as "Priestly Fellowship" enters the novel mostly unchanged, but again the dive into the post-Vatican II uproar appears muted, if perhaps less dated for its lack of topicality to specific changes so much as the persistent lack of clerical fidelity. Yet, as the novel lengthens, the episodes do build upon possibilities tucked into these two stories, and while they unfold in off-handed and perhaps overly-controlled fashion, they are truer to the texture of everyday life for being so controlled. Holiness comes, if at all, minutely slow. The lack of histrionics or forced symbolism remains despite the uneven pacing in his longer works Powers' greatest talent. Powers knew when and how indirect first-person voice carried his stories; his shift in and out of his protagonist's minds is at its best in the imagined reverie Joe lets himself into as he pitches in the yard with Bill to let off steam. As with Urban's similarly prosy--both exaggerated and ordinary-- temptation at Belleisle in "Morte," the priestly heroes let their deepest selves emerge when they pretend they are just like the rest of us. Powers, and we, know better.

A final word, quoted from one of his students in Commonweal on his death in 1999. In the novel, out of his collar on a much-needed vacation, Joe passes himself off at the hotel bar as working for a "big concern," in "life insurance." The firm? "Eternal." Sort of a multinational, he admits, although he works out of a local "branch office." Powers explained when asked in class why he wrote so much about the clergy, and if he was anticlerical. "I'm not anticlerical. I simply look for a story that elucidates truth. If a human being buys an insurance policy, that's not much of a story. But when a priest buys an insurance policy, there's something going on that needs to be said and I want to say it." It took him nearly fifty years to write it.

Anyone who has not read J.F. Powers is missing a major American voice in letters. This review will not be adequate to even speak of his skill.

Complete lives are sketched with the faintest of references, such as a family who the hero, Father Joe Hackett, brings from the city to remind his comfy parishioners of the trials of the poor (shades of the "holy poverty in the city" mantra so common from my youth). He tells their entire story with three unconnected lines sprinkled as a leitmotif throughout the narrative.

The hero's interior monologue is both revealing, and surprising. Throughout the novel faint points of challenges and grace (and simple, just-sufficient grace) carry the reader along with Father Joe's eventual conversion (rededication?). This is the story of a bumbling soul who eventually inhales the breath of the Divine.

Every person I've ever given a J.F. Powers book to has thanked me (Catholics and non-Catholics alike). Highly recommended, for this is monumentally great literature.

It is nothing short of a tragedy that more readers aren't familiar with J.F. Powers. This book is truly brilliant. Powers is at heart more craftsman than contemporary novelist, which is doubtless why he only published two novels. Wheat That Springeth Green is unlike anything else I've ever read. It's that rare novel that achieves perfection.

Joe Hackett, for all his faults, is one of the most fully-realized and sympathetic characters in contemporary fiction. As he matures, so does the book: from his hilariously overblown pretensions at the seminary, to his ennui and malaise as a pastor, to his subtly glorious final redemption.

In the final analysis, the book is not so much satire as fable about goodness. Despite being about the life of priests, the book is more a moral fable than a simply Catholic one: it's about how to do good in a world where it all seems futile. Joe Hackett is a cynic, but he's also at heart an idealist and optimist. So is J.F. Powers.

I read it in the early fall, a perfect time of year for me to read this sort of book, as it reminded me of my early years as a student at a Catholic elementary school in the suburbs. The book follows the life of a Catholic priest named Joe Hackett who struggles with faith and politics and more than anything else the shattering mundanity of his suburban life. Tree-lined streets, shopping malls, station wagons, vinyl siding, and wall to wall carpeting are Hackett's foils in a book that manages to be charming, melancholy, and very funny at the same time. Reading the book turned out to be a great way to spend a few September weeks. If anyone out there happened to enjoy The Sportswriter and Independence Day by Richard Ford, then you will enjoy this book as well.

The best of the series of books published by The New York Review of Books are all the works of J.F. Powers, who died in 1989. Powers' novels and stories are almost entirely concerned with Catholic clerical life in the midwest. I hadn't read his last novel, Wheat That Springeth Green, and I was happy to find that the new edition contained an introduction by the author's daughter, Katherine Powers. Wheat That Springeth Green is every bit as fine as Morte D'Urban, his first and only other novel written some 25 years earlier, and a National Book Award winner as well. In its treatment of character and plot the latter novel is theologically perhaps even more complex.

Joe's character is cast from the first pages: as a toddler he gets attention from his parents' friends merely for declaiming at a party "I go to church!" We also learn of his parents' antipathy towards the parish priest's intoning on the subject of the "Dollar-a-Sunday Club," an attitude that Joe will inherit, and which becomes a theme that will be played out in a number of surprising ways. We also sense something of his aloofness in these first chapters as well. He doesn't keep up with many friends, but he does seem to know the value in keeping up appearances: "Joe just smiled at Frances and everybody, so they couldn't tell how he really felt about being in the sack race..." Joe is a good athlete, even in grade school, and the race he really wants, but doesn't get, is the sprint.

Much of the story revolves around Joe's relation to money, so that even an early adventure (described in nearly pornographic detail) involving his first adult relations with women is later understood to be subsumed by his larger pecuniary obsessions. His sexual sins, or at least the memory of them, turn out to be something of a red herring: at the seminary he asks his instructor, "Father, how can we make sanctity as attractive as sex to the common man?" a question that (rightly) earns him nothing but mirth from his fellow seminarians. We are given hints that as Joe grows older he succeeds in overcoming his youthful scrupulosity. After a stint at Archdiocesan Charities he is assigned to the parish of St. Frances - a name shared by his childhood infatuation and a co-traveler in that youthful adventure. So as far as sex is concerned, there is in his maturity there a sense that all is right with Joe, if not the world. That this is the case is dramatically reinforced by the nearly hopeless entanglements of an ex-seminarian, some of which leads to misplaced retribution that Joe patiently, even faithfully endures. These episodes are magnificently structured, displaying in Joe's life a kind of fate that is worked out through choices made less in freedom than with a concern for propriety and in service to principles that are neither his own, nor of the church in which, as he says in other circumstances, he does so much hard time.

Other obstacles to holiness, as perhaps they always must, remain. Although his basic attitude is good, the reader realizes that the young Father Hackett has refused one halo in favor of another when he refuses to toady up to either the priest in his parish or to the archbishop in his archdiocese. Money matters are everywhere in evidence: the rectory built by Joe; bribes offered by parishoners; purses collected on behalf of retiring priests; inheritence; a collection drive that is farmed out to a private firm - in which Joe will take no part. All this points to beyond the contradiction in one man's character to a paradox that is funamental to our very being. How do we care for an abundance which is most fully ours when we least consider it our own?

Joe's misappropriation of his own nature, and indeed human nature, leads to a truly heinous transgression in one of the final chapters. That this transgression is committed and then resolved in secret, without comment from Joe or even the narrator, points toward a God who is as truly all merciful as he is unnoticed even by lesser beings working on his behalf. I would guess that the true thorn in Joe's side is also Powers', and while reading I several times wondered whether the crux of the story wasn't inspired by his frustration at watching baskets and plates passed through the pews, week in and week out, for a lifetime.

Very highly recommended.

A Letter to My Sisters: The Way Out V.L. Green has shown us that a good romance novel can still be captivating without all the explicitness and vulgarity. He book is so well written. I couldn't put it down. Each episode made me want to find out what would happen next. She is certainly an author to keep up with. May God continue to bless your work V.L.
A Letter to My Sisters: The Way Out

Author V. L. Green, a Mississippi native, has crafted the endearing tale of Pamela Charles in the Chrician romance WHEN DESTINIES MEET.
The end result is a story that will stike a chord with men and women alike with its portrayal of how a bruised heart can almost destroy you if not addressed.

Set in Mississippi, the main character, Pamela Charles, is a woman who many can identify with. She allowed herself to love once and was rewarded with heartbreak. Vowing to never make that mistake again, she throws herself into her work---effectively managing to shut out most people, including her family. When her health is threatened, the Charles family rallies to her side to intervene, setting the stage for love to once again find a home in her heart.

There are many things about this book that struck a chord with me.

For one, I could identify with Pamela and her feelings about not being suckered again by the treacherous waters of love and romance.

Her mother tries to help her deal with the pain she has endured with this encouragement: "You need to let go of the past. You can't change it. Accept it. Let it go... Find someone. Fall in love."

If only it was that easy. Always quick on her feet and ready to defend her rationale, Pamela fires back with this conclusion: "There is no such thing as love. It's an illusion weak people use because they're afraid to be alone. I'm neither afraid nor weak."

In her own words are the fears that a great deal of us have when it comes to love: the uncertainty of how it will change us. Pamela was so careful not to be perceived as afraid or weak that she hardened herself against anything that was outside her comfort zone.

Just as it seems that there is no hope for Pamela to find love, Green introduces her and others to the hope of a second chance at love.

Anthony Newman is the man she wanted and needed but thought she could never have. No matter how much he tried to show his feelings were genuine, Pamela as not making it easy for him.

But is anything worth having ever really easy? The author makes us carefully consider this. WHEN DESTINIES MEET will cause the reader to ask if everything truly does happen for a reason.

Is it possible we have to be broken in order to be rebuilt the right way?

Cleverly written, with moral lessons throughout, it is a book that will make you want to believe in the possibility of happily ever after again.

I have read this book so many times, and I never tire. It always leaves me feeling good about life -- even those disappointing moments. It's like meeting up with an old friend. I think the author does a wonderful job of communicating how God is always working on our behalf -- even when things seem to go wrong. I am so thrilled that I took the journey with Pamela and Anthony. I highly recommend it.

First of all, I want to thank Stanley for being kind enough to give me the first book I read by this author. I was moved by the deep simplicity of her work. By that I mean, I found that I felt her work and could feel her love for her work. I often feel that the truest words flow from the heart to the mind and then through the fingers to the paper.

When Stanley told me there was another book, I bought it from this site along with a few others. I find that I am, once again, moved by the quality and sincerity that comes through. Please give your heart and your head a gift and read this book. It is truly a wonderful read.

It is from this thought that I want to thank my mother (God rest her soul) for telling me that learning to read was the greatest thing I could ever do, because there are some special books out there And she was right! This book is one of 'those special book" !

I love reading Christian romance. The characters were inspiring and the novel flowed very well. This is the first I've read of V.L. Green but I would enjoy reading her again - she ranks right closely up there with my other favorites Ryan Phillips and Kendra Norman-Bellamy.

Author is the hospice chaplan who tends to dying persons. He believes that dying persons use metaphors to express their feelings, fears and experiences on encroaching death. Their language should not be dismissed as halucinations, or side effects of powerful drugs they may be on. On the contrary, author suggests they are separating themselves from this world and their ego and starting to assume more of a spiritual role subconsciounsly. This particularly book explans near death experience (NDE) of the persons who were clinically dead but returned to their life, near death awareness (NDA) of the people in their last moments in this world when they are aware that they are transcending to a diffirent, spiritual world and near death life (NDL) experiences of the people that are deceased but appear to the other persons to whom they were emotionally close while live thru shadows, smell or dreams. I found particularly soothing to learn that most people die the way that they have lived. If they were private persons, they choose to die alone; if they were angry persons, they die angry death by being hostile to the people around them. If anything, this book has helped me understand and accept that we are all deeply spiritual beings and carry that spirituality with us without even knowing. Death in itself is union between our spiritual inner self and God. It can be one of the most rewarding ad gratifying moments in one's life and people who care about that person the most. This book has made me understand death as more acceptable part of life process.

A wonderfully written book by Mr. Ron Wooten-Green. I recommend this book highly to nurses, doctors, and anyone else who has a loved one facing death. After reading "When The Dying Speak," one will think of death in a whole different light. Aileen

Following my mother's death, my faith in the afterlife was sorely challenged until I read "When the Dying Speak". This book provided a reaffirmation of my beliefs. The myriad of messages shared with Mr. Wooten-Green by dying patients and by their families provided VALUABLE insights and understanding of what the dying may be experiencing, what they may be needing, and what the families may be needing. A most significant message shared by the author is that when we are with the dying, we are on holy ground! I will be forever grateful that this author took the time to "put to paper" such an inspirational review and commentary. GET THIS BOOK FOR YOURSELF AND FOR OTHERS!

My mother (Rosemarie Twomey - see review above) gave me a copy of this book. I have enjoyed it so much and it has given me such a different way to approach my fear of death of loved ones that I'm here at Amazon.com to buy copies for friends of mine who have recently lost loved ones and also one who ministers to the dying and bereaved. I'm so glad to have the opportunity to read this while my parents, spouse and siblings are still alive and healthy. Thank you Ron!
- Teresa Twomey

This is an easy-to-read book that, I believe, would be extremely useful to anyone facing the imminent death of a loved one or friend, or (as will happen to most of us) will face that at some time in the future. For me, it takes away the feeling of helplessness I have felt in the past when dealing with such a situation. The author gives some practical and edifying guidance as to how to "be there" for the dying person. Beyond that, it is an uplifting and spiritual rendering of the experiences that the author has had in his ministry as a Hospice chaplain, including some painful, but beautiful, accounts from his personal life. Anyone in the hospice or caring industry would be well-served by a reading of this book.

I've gotten a lot of use out of this book. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. Would make a great gift for a teen or pre-teen.

I bought this book shortly after receiving a ton of beads for Christmas and I had a great time making these! They are easy to make and the instructions are simple and clear. The best part is that it comes with all that you make them. The bobby pins turn out beautiful and I love wearing them in my hair!

I love this book. It is easy to use and turns out beautiful beads. The one thing it lacks is a ruler. I used a permanent marker to make a ruler on the inside back cover. Then all you need is wire cutters and you're ready to start crafting!

I bought this book hoping to learn a new skill--and I did. The instructions are simple to follow, and quite varied, enabling the reader to make a wide assorment of designs. Most importantly, all materials needed come with the book. Although I purchased additional beads, wire, and pins so as to not yet take the supplementary package apart, I was still able to make some beautiful hair assortments. What's great is that these bobby pins take so little time to make, and they can be customized to an infinate extent.

This book is not only easy to use, providing all supplies along with crystal-clear insructions, but the results are also spectacular. Whenever I wear a pin in my hair, people ask about it, and always respond, "You MADE that?" The only complaint I have is with the dragonfly instructions. It looks much better to use two E beads with a faceted bead in the middle for the body and tiny seed beads for the eyes. Look at the pictures to get ideas for your favorite construction. The pictures in this book are a true inspiration. I love making these pins and have become an addict.

My 22 month old daughter loves to read this book with me! i think she likes that the main character is a big girl and she's spending the day with her mom- something my little one can really relate to!

This is truly a wonderful book!
This story is told by the little girl who is going to town with her mother for the morning.
She has a big green pocketbook, just like Mama's, but hers is empty and she can't find anything to put inside it.
Mama says "hurry", because the bus is coming, so the little girl brings her empty pocketbook along anyway.
During the course of the morning, she gathers many treasures and by the time the bus comes to return the girl and her mother home, her pocketbook is full.

The little girl's view of the world is refreshing and enchanting~
She observes that the cool marble walls in the bank smell like pennies~ And she is amazed that, at the drycleaners, the machine knows exactly where to stop for mama's suit.
This is a delightful book that moms and daughters will enjoy, but both boys and girls will like hearing it, and seeing the usual best from Candice Ransom and Felicia Bond's awesome pictures.

Fantastic story, amazing illustrations. My daughters and I have both loved this book from the first time that we read it. The story is sweet and you just want this little girl's day to last forever. A must read, over and over.

This book reminds me so much of when I was a little girl and went with my mother to run errands. Back then the stores really did hand out keyrings and pocket calendars and my Grandma worked at a dry cleaner so I got to see the "magic machine" a lot when people picked up their clothes. My girls both love this book, even though the oldest is now 13. We have completely worn out the binding of the hardback copy we have!

This is a wonderful book for mothers to read to or with their daughters. A simple day of errands turns into something magical between them and a hand-me-down green pocketbook holds the key to a delightful day.

Although Bob Mathias: Across the Fields of Gold will not be a big threat to win any Pulitzer Prize, I thoroughly enjoyed it's charm and always felt good every time I picked it up. This story is a sleeper, not in a boring way, but in the fact that Bob Mathias is really one of the great "stories" of the 20th Century. It just may be a sleeping giant!

This book is a "must read" for anyone that enjoys reading about a truly great american athelete. This is a one of a kind book, put together with a great deal of thought and preparation. I applaud this book. It simply can not be put down, once you start reading. Where photographs and text truly meet! Bravo!

Just want to say that I enjoyed reading Across the Fields of Gold. I am inspired by this great athlete from a wonderful time in the USA when family and community pitched in for the good of all.

I just want to say that I very much enjoyed reading such a positive sports story. This book will be a terrific one for young people in that they can see that sports stars are not just self-centered, selfish individuals. You don't have to be an athlete to like this book. It's fun and inspiring.

It is truly amazing that one person could have done so many things in his life. The book is interesting, funny, and inspiring. The book was a gift to me from my son (after he read it!) and we have had some nice disscussions about what it was like when Mathias did all these heroics and what it is like now in this country. I like the book too because it gives the reader hope.

I have never experienced a learning to read set of books that I actually WANTED to read MORE OF! The brand new readers approach learning to read in such a fun way that you can forgive them for being less structured than other sight-reading sets. Who wants to read "the fat rat ran to the dog?" NO ONE. If you make reading fun, then it doesn't feel like work. My younger kids enjoy reading these books with me, not just my beginning reader. The pictures are cute, the stories are funny, and everyone has a blast. I used to be really set on business-only readers, but the BNR sets changed my mind for good, especially since my daughter is ADHD and at risk for Dyslexia. It is very important that she be engaged for her to learn anything. These definitely do the trick. THANKS BRAND NEW READERS!

This is an excellent set for starting your child with word recognition. I'm not a huge fan of phonics-based reading, as it generally produces slower readers as they have to sound each word out. Also, phonics methods also teach sight words anyways (e.g., light) for those that don't 'sound' how the appear.

This set includes 10 story books, a book your child can write and illustrate, a chart with stickers for each book they complete, and an award to give them when they can read all. The stories are simple and repetitive and thus easy to memorize, so your child will feel confident as they read the stories aloud. The illustrations provide good word prompts as well.

With my son, after he was able to "read" (memorize) a story, we then worked on pointing to each word as he read to promote word recognition. He was very proud at earning that sticker as well as being able to read. After he was comfortable with pointing to each word, I printed out word cards (see my customer image) so he could play a game where he matched each word to the card and created the sentence. This helps him recognize the word in other settings, not just within the story. By then, he has learned to read the words in the story!

Great set, great value, and just what I was looking for. Highly recommended!

These sets contain 10 books that each tell a very short story with a funny ending through repetition. Illustrations are done well, characters are memorable. Child feels a sense of accomplishment as the set contains a chart with stickers for each book completed, a certificate of completion and a "BLANK" book for the child to author/illustrate their own book. Set also contains a parent guide. Our son loves these books... highly motivated him into a reader. He is the top reader in his kindergarten class and now has the love of books/reading that will pull him along through his education at a heightened pace.

My 4 year old daughter loves the Brand new readers sets. I have to make her pace herself or we would run out in a week. They are colorful, simple and we LOVE the stickers and award that comes with each set.

I have looked for something for two years to encourage my homeschooled son to learn to read. The simple format, repitive prhases and, predictiable wording make it easy for him to read. He still does not want to sit down and read but once he starts these books he usually finishes without much frustration and he really enjoys reading them and finding out what happens