Owen Books

This is a must for all Pastor's and those in Youth Ministry and Children's. You must buy it.

I liked "Hurray for Ali Baba Bernstein because it was very funny.In chapter #3, some of the shops had names that had stuff to do with a king and he was acting silly.I also thought it was good in chapter #1 and #6 because they were mysterys and I think this was an approprite way to begin and end the story.

Exotic tales of the Orient from the 1930's. "Dr Shen Fu", a Weird Tales magazine reprint, is about the elixir of life that grants immortality at a price. If you're tired of modern authors who all sound alike, this is the antidote for you. Owen's palette is loaded with splashes of Chinese and Japanese colours. Marvelous.

Yes I am the author- here are some great reviews:

Reviewed by Publishers Weekly January 2005
HUTCH OWEN: Unmarketable
Tom Hart. Top Shelf

Hart?s angry nonconformist Hutch Owen is a modern comics icon?a pissed-off homeless man who stands up for idealism and represents the individual against looming corporate hegemony. But the tales in this collection are not angry diatribes. Instead, they mix slapstick and verbal humor to create high-level social satire. In the first story, "Aristotle," Hutch pays for a cup of coffee by parading as a mascot outside his favorite coffee shop. His free-form rants catch the eye of his continuing nemesis, corporate head Dennis Worner, whose goal is to market the entire world into bite-sized, profitable chunks. The denouement finds Worner and Hutch in a helicopter over a desert "creativity camp" where Worner has sent his other lackeys for some toughening up, with disastrous results. "Public Relations" is a darker, 93-page tale set in New York in the aftermath of 9/11. Again, Hutch?s outsider freedom makes him, ironically, a prime spokesman for the "rebellion" that marketers use to sell their products to anesthetized consumers. This story is somewhat more complicated, and it doesn?t unfold entirely clearly as it takes a sympathetic look at traumatized people who are trying to find a way to survive in a commercial society. The simple art isn?t quite up to capturing the apocalyptic finale, but it defines the humor and characters well. Hart?s greatest strength is seeing all sides of the stories he?s telling. Hutch Owen doesn?t have any answers, but he has to keep raising the questions. (Jan.)

[...]

The author includes an informative introduction for parents and other caregivers regarding how to talk with children effectively about death. I particularly appreciated the format of the story. Betsy's parents talk with her about the death of her friend in an open and supportive manner. The feelings Betsy experiences are realistic and speak to the various ways in which children may react to death. This book addresses topics including funerals, burials and creating remembrances for the deceased. A warm, wonderfully written book that can be shared with children by parents, teachers and other caring adults.

One of the latest titles in the outstanding "Meet The Author Series" from Richard C. Owen Publishers, Imagination showcases popular children's picture book author Mike Thaler who tells young readers about himself, and what it's like to create, write, and illustrate stories for children everywhere. Full-color photographs and warm, personal narration make Imagination an enjoyable read to share, especially with budding young storytellers curious about the creative process. Also very highly recommended for school and community library collections are two other "Meet The Author" series titles: Laura Numeroff's If You Give An Author A Pencil... and Denise Fleming's Maker Of Things...

My mother was visiting with me and was telling me what a good book this was for building our trust in God and then at the end of the book the publishing company had omitted 16 pages from 105 to 121. She really enjoyed the book and would like to read the omitted pages. Could you please help us to secure this pages. Thank you and God Bless.

The late Alfred Hayes (1911-1985) was a prolific and talented writer whose credits include seven novels and a series of screenplays and adaptations for television. Perhaps the very best of his novels is "In Love", a story set in Manhattan during the 1940s when a middle-aged man relates to a young stranger the story of a last love affair that was replete with lust, emotion, depression, and a dysfunctional relationship. A finely crafted work of enduring literary merit which was originally published in 1953, "In Love" is now once again available to a new generation of appreciative readers and is an especially recommended addition to both academic and community library collections.

-er.

Although it does not seem to have been either a commercial or a critical success (and is out-of-print, though widely available), I think that James Purdy's 1986 novel is superb: a hilarious but oddly touching book. For the first hundred-plus pages it provides an account of a not-very-bright, twelve-year-old Chad Coultas, growing up in a small Midwestern town at an unspecified date between the end of World War I and the start of the Great Depression. (Purdy was born in 1927 and grew up in rural Ohio. . . but I doubt was as poor a student as Chad.) His usually absent father, Lewis, has squandered his mother-in-law's fortune in bad investments. His mother stays in the mansion-sized house, trying to ignore realities of any sort, preferring to work on delicate embroidery. His sister spends most of her time in front of a mirror practicing to become an actress.

And then Decatur, a decorated Menominee Indian hero of the First World War, whose fortune has been waxing as the Coultas one has waned, starts stalking Chad. picking him up after school each day in a different car. This alarms his spinster teacher, Miss Lytle, who had been Decatur's teacher earlier. Miss Lytle visits Mrs. Coultas, but the latter is even more reluctant to acknowledge this disconcerting pattern than she is to face the realities of her husband's infidelities and malfeasances. . . or that her son looks remarkably like Decatur did when he was on the cusp of adolescence. Soon they are off on a rollicking road trips with both biological and legal fathers.
The second half of the novel is picaresque, but Chad is no picaró. He is too oblivious even to be an unreliable narrator, so it is good that Purdy did not make him the narrator.

There is some blood (and tar and feathers...), but the novel is not depressing, as some of Purdy's other fiction definitely is. Much of it is uproariously funny, though deadly serious issues of racism are central to the plot. Although the book veers away from lyrical realism into dreamily gothic surrealism half-way through, I found the second half very entertaining. Some suspending of disbelief is necessary, but not as much as in David Lynch works, and the book has a satisfying denouement (unlike not only much of David Lynch's work, but some of Purdy's other work, too).

Recognizing that I am in a minority, I highly recommend this novel as more than a worthy successor to such earlier masterpieces as MALCOM and IAM ELIJAH THRUSH.

Don't bother paying the ridiculously high prices for used copies of the hardcover edition!
Karoline Leach's book is being reprinted by the original publisher(Peter Owen Publishers;located in London,UK). 'In The Shadow Of The Dreamchild' will be released sometime at the end of October 2008, in paperback format,with expanded/revised material. It will be interesting to see what new material(if any) is added to the book.