Park Books

Cheryl Hagedorn is a late bloomer in the world of writing and publishing. She gained her Masters Degree in Writing from DePaul University after a varied career that included computer programming; the Salvation Army; and actually teaching writing at the setting of her mystery, the Park Ridge Senior Center. She's also taught writing at the Chicago Department on Aging. She is a member of the Emily Dickenson International Society and the Illinois Philological Association.

What happens at Senior Centers? Do people form cliques? This is what Cheryl Hagedorn uses as the basis for her PD James type of psychological mystery. Hagedorn's own Park Ridge Senior Center serves as the backdrop. A group of long-term pinochle players dare each other to commit murder to get rid of the pushy active members of the Senior Center. Four modus operandi's form a confusing soup for Detective Stanley Nevins, son of Stella Nevins, another Senior Center attendee. To make things worse, Stan drops by to see his mother, only to discover that she has been seeing one of the pinochle players:

"A kaleidoscope of emotions zoomed through the detective's head. THE PROFESSOR! THE GUY PLAYING CARDS FROM THE CENTER WHO HAD CALLED STAN 'STUNNING SHEILA'S SON.' THE ONE WHO DID THE THING ABOUT ALLITERATION. He took a seat near the window. The coffee table with its two cups, two dirty dessert plates loomed between them and him. The two men eyed each other. Gus lifted his chin as if defying Stan to speak."

Hagedorn does a nice job of recreating daily business at a Senior Center and creating characters who are interesting. Human nature drives her plot, and one can imagine the seething resentments, even in a place that should be completely non-threatening. But there's the rub. Take a seemingly neutral environment and add passion and cruelty, and one has an excellent plot. Hagedorn's own understanding of human nature from years of experience provides the spark, and her writing skills tell the rest of the story. PARK RIDGE is an entertaining whodunit that rates with Agatha Christie and could easily convert to an enticing television movie.

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer

Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (1/07)

Park Ridge is a senior center in Chicago. Like at most senior centers, the members play cards, play pool, visit and take dance classes. Jack, Ellie, Margaret and the Professor play cards each day. Gordon was less than enthusiastic about Jack. "Hot headed Jack with his typical short man's bluster coupled with an acid tongue had a hard time being civil to anyone including the director. Don't know how those other folk put up with him." The feeling was mutual. Jack just plain didn't like Gordon.

When Gordon is found murdered, his fellow card-playing friends consider Jack the prime suspect. A lively discussion ensues on who each would like to murder. "Presuming, of course, that the perpetrator would not be discovered, and therefore, not apprehended? If I didn't think that I would get caught, I would select as target for my exercise the esteemed (but not by me) Benjamin Wilson, resident computer guru, I loathe that man."

So begins the game of murder.

Detective Stanley Nevins is sent to investigate the case. From the moment he and Teresa Cusentino, director Park Ridge, lay eyes on each other, they feel an attraction. As Stan investigates the escalating case his relationship with Teresa grows stronger.

Cheryl Hagedorn's "Park Ridge" is a delightful murder mystery. The plot is interesting and not only held my attention but also was extremely funny. The characters are well developed. Jack, Margaret, and Ellie were a senior center's worst nightmare -- out of control card players, developing a new game, one that's deadly. The romance between Stan and Teresa was nicely developed without rushing things. I eagerly turned pages to see what the seniors would come up with next. This is an excellent read. I highly recommend this book to all mystery lovers.

Park Ridge is traditional mystery genre with a touch of romance, and I quote from the back cover:

"On a day in late February, in a small, northwestern suburb of Chicago, four card players began the complex process of bidding for the privilege of calling trump. The winner, Jack Buchtel, named trump. The trump he named was murder."

This was a good read, primarily because Cheryl Hagedorn is a good writer. I must say, however, that I had a bit of a problem with the motivation for the murders. It seems these days that just about anything which annoys a person is an adequate reason to end another person's life . . . and I don't think this applies solely to senior citizens. That would be the only criticism I might make of this novel.

We know who the murderers are and so, the challenge is how the detective solves the crime and gets his girl. If you're a mystery buff, you'll most likely enjoy this well-written tale.

Elderly pinochle players at a suburban senior center are pushed too far by seniors who want them to get up and get going. They make trump murder. Each player chooses the person at the center who annoys them the most and comes up with a creative way to get rid of them. Four murderers and five different methods (including a banana). Insight into the thought process of the murders makes for a "whydunit" instead of a "whodunit" approach.

Park Ridge successfully combines murders with romance when the suburban cowboy detective and the senior center director find themselves attracted to each other.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the sequel.

I worked in an adult day center and this new author has developed characters that are very much like people with whom I worked. While I usually enjoy figuring out who the murderers are, discovering the "why" is an interesting twist. The book has romance, intrigue, and psychological suspense while five people are murdered (one with a banana). An excellent and fast read. Good for discussion groups (questions supplied on author's website). Can't wait for the next book.

This book has given me answers to what I've been searching for. In a practical way it explains how to get peace in our daily life. The authors show us how to achieve levels of awareness and consciousness -- and relationship skills that help us get free of many of our conflicts.

The Power of Humility truly reminds us of the power we can attain when we let go and surrender. Clearly describing the stages we go through as we progress spiritually, much was brought into focus and defined. With examples of personal stories and a spectacular explanation of "Spiritual Bypass," I now know more than ever before what we need to do to become closer to Source. This book is a favorite.

I can't express how wonderful a read this book was. I felt like it brought me back to the real me. I wished I'd found it earlier. I'd be a better person, and am because of it.

I wish I had enough money to buy a copy for each of my family members and friends. It's that good. I read it, and re-read it immediately a second time. I love this book, and have started reading it to my 9 mos son.

Our responsibility in life is to respond with ability. Doing it with humility and leaving the ego aside is where our journey should be guiding us.

Buy knowing that you will cherish this book for many reads to come.

This book has important information to help people come together in understanding. All of us can benefit from it and live better lives and have better relationships because of it. The Power of Humility is just that - powerful!

Many parts of this book have the potency of Whitfield's Healing the Child Within and A Gift to Myself. Within this volume, there are reminders of what attracted many to Whitfield's writings when he first appeared on the landscape of the human potential movement almost 20 years ago. Charles was already modeling Humility in his written, audio and visual works back then. This book contains enough nourishing resource to make it worth the while.

Outstanding ideas....this is the way to practice golf. I just ordered this book last month and my game is honestly 10 strokes better.

This book is for all golfers, especially the serious ones. I was introduced to this book during my college golf team days, and still use it to teach at my club. If you are truly serious about your game, check out Pressure Games. Especially....to my fellow teaching pros.

This is definitely the best way to practice. Don't go out and hit balls....go out and practice with a purpose. Great book !

This is an excellent golf book. It takes the boredom out of driving range practice. I reccomend it highly!!

This is a great book for those of you that want to really get serious about golf. Take this book out to the driving range and play some of the games in it and you'll leave feeling like you really accomplished something instead of mindlessly banging balls. I played this putting game called Wagon Wheel and when I went out to play, I didn't have one 3 putt, and everything within 4 feet went in the hole. I was on the golf team at ASU and we all used these games when we hit the range. This is the most professional way to practice that I've found.

There are many, many bits and pieces of useful advice and direction to guide retirees or soon to be retirees floating around in the book world. This book has done a masterful job of bringing most of the key decision factors and issues together under one "roof". Not only are the standard factors-finance, climate, entertainment etc covered but personal emotional and physciological issues are covered. The handling of death, care giving, emotional trauma are covered. Perhaps a most useful feature are the numerous matrices and check list tables throughout the book. Example-the check list of values Vs time allocated to these values will let a lot of people decide what is really important to their retirement "health".This allows management of time and prevents frustration.

The Retirement Sourcebook is a buoyant guide to the later years. Loaded with possibilities as well as helpful realities, this book is an invaluable asset in refining your vision of the life you'd most like to lead. The authors are ebullient examples of retirees who have blossomed after leaving the structured workplace. They share their wisdom ("when you have time, you have options") as well as their considerable practical knowledge. And there is no shortage of inspiration with role models cited ranging from Colonel Sanders to Mother Teresa.

The chapter on financial issues alone is worth the price of admission. The authors, experts at "working the web," sift through the mountain of information available for the nuggets that will help you make an informed decision.

If you yearned to see Alaska but considered it too expensive or thought a condo on a golf course would be a tranquil place to live, read this book before you make any decisions.

The Retirement Sourcebook covers nothing less than the entire gamut of human experience from stress and living wills to how to get rid of junk mail.

You'll be referring to it for years to come.

This is a fantastic book about that most exciting life cycle stage--retirement. But retirement doesn't mean "to retire" as in relaxing, taking it easy or doing little. Retirement can be the most fulfilling and rewarding time of your life and it is often the most active time as well. But to get the most out of it requires careful planning...and that is what The Retirement Sourcebook provides. Mary Helen and Shuford Smith have thoroughly researched their subject and leave no aspect unexamined. The book is full of ideas and answers. Nancy Holmes, Retired from private practice in family therapy and currently manager of an art gallery

This book, which is aimed at the mid-life adult contemplating retirement, is comprehensive, clearly written, and wonderfully current. I purchased it for the Senior Collection our local library, and I will use it myself as I look ahead to retirement.

Mary Helen and Shuford Smith recognize that successful retirement is a process requiring much more than choosing a pleasant place to live. Lots of decisions, opportunities and challenges accompany the retirement journey, and the authors offer excellent tools for addressing them. Some of the tools are self-evaluative, while others look outward, pointing to other avenues we can explore along the way.

In fact, part of the book?s success stems from the fact that it provides sound advice on a variety of topics without getting bogged down on any one subject. Instead, it offers suggestions about other resources--books, documents, organizations, web sites, etc. The web sites, especially, extend our reach in remarkable new ways.

The highlight of this book for me, however, is the way it is written. Every time I pick it up, I feel as if I?m being introduced to yet another member of a circle of wise friends. The authors draw much of their material from interviews with retired people, and nuggets from those conversations are sprinkled liberally throughout the book. These new friends are people who have done it right--or who have learned from a mistake or two?and I mean to pay attention to what they have to say.

I picked up the book at10 p.m and couldn't put it down for an hour. Three years ago I left my job to begin a dream; so I was fascinated with how it might apply to me. This book gives you ideas, data, and places to find out more. I found myself in the pages and it made me laugh. Most importantly, it conveys a vision of what this part of our lives can be.

Morrow's book concludes with a chapter entitled "Two Roads," to revolution or to counterrevolution, to workers power or to Franco. It was not only the abstract need for socialism, that Morrow explains the Spanish revolution could have won only by going to workers power. The disastrous policies of the Stalinists, the social democrats, and the anarchist labor bureaucrats subordinated the struggle to the dictates of big business in Spain and imperialism abroad, the same forces that welcomed Franco.
Morrow is very good at explaining how this policy prevented the workers, peasants, and oppressed peoples in Spain from solving the many national and democratic tasks, supposedly solved in the US in 1776 and in France in 1789: land to the tiller, freedom from feudal rights and powers of nobility and church, national independence for the colonies in Africa, linguistic freedom and national rights up to self-determination for Catalonia and the Basque Country, to name a few. Fighting for these things was the natural reaction of popular masses in Spain as soon as Franco tried to overturn the republic. Sadly, Morrow shows how the Republican government lost because it turned its back not only on these rights, not only on socialism, but even the basic democratic right of workers and peasants to organize political parties, unions, workers councils, to publish and speak freely.
Morrow is not all depression and criticism. He saw with his own eyes the natural response of the working peoples in Spain to fight beyond the limitations of class collaboration. He saw how that power nearly defeated Franco and how it could have defeated Franco especially if the Republic had joined with the struggle of the colonial masses and oppressed nationalities to gain freedom Read Morrow and learn how the coming struggles will be victories and not defeats.

Socialist correspondent Felix Morrow writes a powerful account of the revolutionary uprising of Spain's workers and farmers in the 1930's and the heroic battles they waged to defend the rights and organisations won through struggle.

The counter revolution began in Spanish Morocco under the command of fascist General Franco, aided and abetted by Hitler and Mussolini while the liberal democracies from the United Sates to Britain and France, sitting under the shade of "neutrality" looked the other way secretly hoping for the Generals success.

For revolutionary fighters who thought the Soviet Union's bumbling help to the Spanish toilers was due to a series of bad misjudgements came to the realisation they were in fact coming up against counter revolutionary Stalinism.

Despite the impediments posed by social democracy and Stalinism, the Spanish workers had an ability to learn the lessons of previous events at great speed and combined with their almost unlimited capacity for struggle, were able to overcome what stood in their path.

However, they were let down not by the usual suspects but by the organisation that seemed to be the most free of the Stalinist and social democratic straightjacket - the POUM.

Morrow takes the reader through the earth shattering events that unfolded in Spain at the time and takes up central challengers facing that countries working people in the battle for state power.

A fascinating and powerful book, this tells the story of the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, of the heroic struggle by workers and peasants against the fascist revolt led by Franco and backed by Hitler and Mussolini.. It is full of rich lessons for today-- including of the role of the so-called western democracies, the governments of the United States, Britain and France, in undermining this struggle for fear of unleashing a deep-going workers revolution.

This fight went down to defeat, but the leadership lessons to be learned from this experience are invaluable today. The need for workers to organize independent of the parties and policies of the bosses, bankers and landowners; the importance of championing land reform for poor peasants and the rights of oppressed nationalities (in Spain's African colonies for example) as a precondition for forging unity in struggle, come through in vivid detail here. Also the sharp test in practice of the disastrous policies of different political currents vying for workers and peasants support: from the Moscow-led Communist Party, to the anarchists and the POUM.

Written as the civil war unfolded, this book documents the tremendous capacity of ordinary working people to fight oppression and change society, and the crying need for a leadership capable of leading this movement forward.

Although written in the late thirties, this is still one of the best titles on the Spanish civil war available. Unlike many other books on the subject, which analyze the events from either an anarchist or stalinist point of view, Morrow offers a socialist perspective. He illustrates quite well the shortcomings of both the anarcho-syndicalist CNT-FAI but does not fail to criticize the strategy and tactics of the "marxist" POUM either. Morrow takes specific events and shows how the POUM repeatedly failed to fill a revolutionary void due to its indecisive leadership. Indispensable reading material for socialist activists as well as readers with a general interest in labor history and revolutionary history.

Morrow was a great editor, a great journalist, a man who captured the spirit and realities of the Spanish civil war, not as an uncritical supporter of the Republicans, but as a revolutionary critique familiar with the lessons Leon Trotsky tried to give about the Russian Revolution, familiar with the betrayal of the class collaborationist leaders of the Communist and Socialist parties in Spain.
In this book we see in the flesh what we may here about in other writer's analysis of this civil war. I was always struck by how he shows the imporance of the struggle for land and support to the small farmers, not by analysis but by describing the debates he heard on this subject between Spanish peasants and Franco's troops.
The rise of Le Pen and France and the attempts of the same social democrats and stalinists to get workers in that country to subordinate the struggle to supporting Chirac is an errie echo of the same policies that Morrow shows led to the defeat in Spain.

British brothers Lawrence and Lorne Blair set out in the 1960s on a marvelous, thought-provoking, ten-year adventure through the 3,000-mile length of the remote Indonesian archipelago. Inspired by a dog-eared copy of Alfred Russell Wallace's The Malay Archipelago -and his nineteenth century voyage of scientific exploration and discovery--their unforgettable odyssey set sail out of the Celebes (Sulawesi) for the Spice Islands on a perilous schooner crossing with the seafaring Bugis. Tossed to and fro from home port Makassar to isolated Aru Island-stalked all the way by rotting ship beams and the specter of pirates-they were rewarded with one of the rarest sights on earth-the fluffy white plumage of the elusive Bird of Paradise.
Metaphysical, anthropological, and intellectual in tone-with a healthy dose of dry wit and humor-the Blairs take you along as they confront komodo dragons, chew betel nut in Sumba, witness a traditional Pasola battle, and herald the annual arrival on shore of the sacred nyale sea worms. Full of naive courage and boundless curiosity, they sought out Asmat headhunters/cannibals in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Undaunted, these dream wanderers went eye to eye with the fiery blast furnace of simmering Krakatoa. They commandeered a longboat upriver and trekked through the leech-ridden jungles of Borneo with native guides on an arduous land search for the secretive, traditional Punan hunter-gatherers. Ring of Fire chronicles their cultural encounters on Java as they visited the sultan's court (and sacred "kris" knife) and an acupuncturist who harnessed yin/yang energy to heal the sick with self-generated electric charges. Open-minded and non-judgmental about the diverse religions and customs they encountered, the Blairs became deeply enchanted by trance, and by the shadow screen nether world of the wayang kulit. Their travels took them back to Sulawesi for the funeral of the last king of Tanah Torajah-into a unique architectural-animist pocket where boat-shaped roofs rise out of the cool forest floor representing ancestral sky ships on their descent from heaven to earth.
The thrill-seeking, nomadic Blairs unexpectedly found themselves permanently landlocked and suspended-mind, soul, and body-in the island Shangrila that they discovered in Bali. An artist friend in Pengosekan-a vibrantly creative community of farmers and painters-invited them to build a new house on his land. In true, cooperative Balinese style, the brothers had only to pay for the necessary raw materials (bamboo, coconut wood, and elephant grass) and the religious celebration at the completion of the structure. The people of Pengosekan freely contributed their skilled labor and artistic expertise; this shared investment in and commitment to each other's dwellings works to further bind the village together. Sleeping and learning in their open-air platform obervatory perched high above the sculpted jade rice terraces, the Blair brothers came to call Bali their very own, lifelong island of the gods. They would return time and again-in between sometimes dangerous, always enlightening meetings with natural peoples along the equatorial frontier-to their permanent home base in Bali. It is here that they fell in love with one culture and one island out of the hundreds that they visited. Lawrence and Lorne fully explored their adopted pied à terre-from startling footage of the eruption of Mt. Agung in 1963, to the cremation of famous 116-year-old Balinese artist Lempoad, to the opulent funeral procession of the last rajah of Gianyar. (When Lorne died on his beloved Bali in 1996, he was cremated and his remains returned to the sea in accordance with Bali-Hindu religious rites.) Their amazing adventures (available in book or video format) are the stuff of storybook legends-from the hidden rainforest peoples of Borneo, to islands where magicians still hold sway, to the sun-speckled spiritual haven of heart-shaped Bali.

Goes beyond your usual "travel tale", it is a marvelous adventure and thought provoking regarding the natural peoples of the earth. The chapter on the Dream Wanderers of Borneo will open doors of perception for an alternative world view. The author writes with clarity and quite a lot of humor. The entire book is very personal in its tone and gives the feeling of actually having shared the experience of the amazing journey.

This book and the companion videos are near and dear to my heart. It kept my dreams of returning to Indonesia alive through a long a crippling illness. Lawrence and Lorne Blair were the adventurers I wanted to be. Openminded, good humored, and willing to try new things. This book kept me good company through some baaaad times. But there is far more to recommend this book than armchair travel lust. The writing is excellent, photography spectacular, and all in all a great story. I highly recommend it to anyone curious about Indonesia. I did finally get to go back and even explore a little. I'm forever grateful to the Blair brothers for this gift of a book!

An incredibly interesting tale and at times quite deep account of a 10-year joureny through the remotest islands in Indonesia. I wonder if the author is aware of how couragous he and his brother were to go to the places they went and meet such people as cannibals and headhunters and come back to tell the story! Not to mention the more subtle metaphysical comments here and there about the various religions they encountered and all of it presented with a very dry wit.

I was blown away by this book, as much by how spiritually aware it is and how well it was written. Wow! What an adventure!

Sometimes when we grow up praying the Rosary, we lose the reverence we should have for it. With this book, the author has shed new light on how I see this prayer and the Mother of God. Instead of praying to her, we're asking her to sit down with us as we get to know her son better through her eyes.

I would also recommend this book to any protestants who would like to understand the Catholic view point on Mary and the Rosary in a non-threatening way.

The book itself is beautiful as well; Jansen has chosen exquisite artwork that serves as a photo album of Jesus' life for the reader to meditate on.

I just received this book from a friend, and can't think of a more thoughtful gift. It's beautiful to look at, easy to read, and unlike most sources on the rosary, does an excellant job of explaining why and how meditative prayer can be powerful in our lives. Instead of just telling you how to pray the rosary it actually made me look forward to doing so. I loved that his approach was for all Christians - not just Catholics, who want to deepen their relationship with Christ. I've gone through a number of books and pamphlets, looking for something useful for folks not raised to the practice of the rosary (or those who do so mechanically, with no effect), and this is by far the best I've come across.

Gary Jansen shows us the importance of slowing down and,using the repeating prayers of the rosary, inducing a meditative state. He argues that by repeating the rosary you force onself to slow down. He uses some personal anecdotes to illustrate this. This book is a unique perspective and belongs in ones personal library of anyone trying to find peace thru the power of prayer. I loved this book!

I bought a copy of The Rosary when it came up by chance as an "Amazon Recommendation" for me. I completely believe in fate and signs and thought this to be one. Although I have tried in the past, I wouldn't normally read a book about a prayer but this one is different. It is more than a book. It's a kind voice speaking to you, whispering in the background even while it's put away neatly on your bookshelf. It made me look at the Rosary in a completely different way than I did in all my years of Catholic school. I would recommend it not only for someone who is interested in prayer but also for those of you who have trouble with meditation. I have tried "walking down the path into the forest and closing the gate" and so on and so on as many meditation guides recommend but the nagging stress of my day to day life always distracts me back to the present. Here, Gary Jansen teaches a deeply meaningful type of meditation. I now keep The Rosary on a shelf above my bed and have reached for it during some hardships that have occurred in my life in the past months. It is truly an inspiration.

A very enlightening and deep book. You'll return to it again and again for inspiration and guidance.

The Santa Cruz Mountain Trail Book is concise, well-written, accurate, well-organized, and comprehensive. Tom Taber has done an excellent job of providing the right information on city, county, and state hiking trails of the peninsula, from south of San Francisco to Santa Cruz, and from highway 101 to the ocean -- an invaluable resource.

There is no other guidebook focusing on the coastal mountains immediately south of the city of San Francisco, a rich mosaic of open-space preserves. Taber's diligent research and love of the area make this an essential reference

We live in Bay Area and have been using 9th edition of this book for several years exploring Santa Cruz Mountains. It has been a great experience!

The book has a map of Santa Cruz Mountains at the beginning of it, with the parks marked on the map and the list of the park names. There are pictures for you to get an idea of the area, and very good educational description of the park.

This is a great book for people living (or intending to visit) the bay area, who like to go hike, bike, picnic and camp.

I've bought several books in the past, but this one covers a lot more of the trails in the area and with better detail. It tells you if trails are open to bikes and/or horses, talks about the camping facilities, details how long a walk you will have and the types of things you can expect to see out there.

There are also little sections on the local history, how the geology stuff works and many more useful snippets of info.

Definately the best book I've found for picking places to go walk, but then, it is somewhat targetted to the area where I live.

It says a lot about a book that it is continuously in print and updated for 30 years. This edition, the 10th and printed in 2006, preserves the nice features of previous editions and also offers the author's reflections upon what remains to be done for conservation and recreation in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The general format of the book has not changed. Every county park, state park, open space preserve, or land otherwise available to public access in the Santa Cruz mountains is described (in alphabetical order) with special attention to the hiking opportunities in each. Trail descriptions are a bit sparse, but Tabor includes a decent map of each area to allow you to find your own way. The book is also chock full of "Special Sections" which detail local and natural history and also discuss such practical matters as where you can actually walk a dog in this part of the distinctively 'canine unfriendly' Bay Area.

Tabor's suggestions for the future of the Santa Cruz Mountains are worth noting. He urges the construction of more campgrounds and backcountry trail sites, an absolute necessity. It is almost impossible to get camping reservations on weekends. He also suggests practical ways to extend trail systems and increase the salmon and steelhead runs in mountain streams. I'm less sympathetic to his demand that the gun club near Castle Rock be shut down. I'm not a gun owner, but I never felt I was near a "war zone" when visiting this state park. In my opinion, antagonizing outdoor sportsmen will not promote conservation, but I could be wrong on this. On the whole though, this book is an excellent guide to the region and hopefully it will inspire more efforts at conservation and preservation in the area.

As a graphite artist of about every other subject,I used to think drawing realistic portraits was beyond my capacity. I can't remember why I initially decided to give it a try but there was something believable about their first book on realistic drawing that made it seem possible. The comments I've gotten on my efforts (even well before they were completed) were enough to convince me that it was really happening. Carrie and Rick actually guided me through the process perfectly with their books. This one is my favorite because as a grandparent I can blend my two favorite past times now. Thanks, you guys.

Secrets To Drawing Realistic Children by Carrie Stuart Parks and Rick Parks is just as their other Secrets to Drawing books, an exceptional tool. If you are a beginner or an experienced artist, this great book will be of value. I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning or improving their skills.

This book is remarkable. I am a self-taught artist and Carrie has been the best guide I could ever imagine without actually being here and holding my hand. Her books are wonderful for beginners without being too simplistic. She has great advice and examples and covers it all without going into boring stuff like the history of the pencil. She gets right down to it and you can too. I've shocked myself in going from stick figures to actual commissions in under a year. I mostly draw for pleasure, and don't actually want many commissions, but I'm far better at it than I ever imagined. Carrie teaches you that drawing CAN be learned and easily. Thank you Carrie for giving me the tools to fulfill a life long dream. I'd give you 10 stars if I could.

I highly recommend this book. Written in a lighthearted humourous way this book helps the reader understand and remember all the secrets of the trade. As an experienced artist I found Secrets to Drawing Realistic Children a most valuble teaching and refrence resource. Anyone wishing to advance their skills in drawning would greatly benefit from this book!

This is a good beginners' book to learn the art of drawing portraits. Full-face, three-quarters, profile, angles, distortion and shading are well-covered by the author. Important techniques of proportion, shading, perspective, how to draw eyes, how to make the irids bright and realistic and add highlights to give life to pencil drawings.


There is a section on "toys", by which the author means "drawing tools." She discusses types of erasers, including electric erasers. These sound as if they are gimmicky to say the least, but an electric eraser, which makes repeated small movements, is a boon for lightening shaded graphite areas in a controlled manner. Colored pencil artists swear by them. Pencils are of course covered, as well as paper types.

The tone of the book is rather casual to the point of silliness, but if you are an amateur, intending to learn to draw children, this might be appealing.

Now, about that title. Shouldn't the title be "Secrets to Drawing Children Realistically" (Or ..in a realistic manner?) I'm floored that the publisher didn't figure out that "realistic children" are probably the only kind of children you and I would want to be drawing, unless there are upcoming titles such as "How to draw Crash-Dummy Children" or "How to Draw Unholy Minions-of-Hell Vampire Children of the Night"."

I think this book touches peoples hearts. The author did a seriously good job of researching.

I read this book many, many years ago while in middle school (?) and I couldn't put it down. Having been from Oregon, I found the tail of the Sager family incredible, and the Oregon Trail has always intrigued me. I ended up reading the whole in book in two days because it was so great.

What I love about this book is it is historically accurate, gripping, and interesting to children. While it is not written with fantastic literary flourish, it is an engaging and amazing story. As a teacher, it fits with the fourth grade Washington curriculum perfectly and that is where I have used it. It sparks interest in readers (both young and old) about the Oregon Trail, history, and the Sager family.

The most famous book about the Sager family is probably "On to Oregon!" by Honore Morrow, on which the movie, "Seven Alone," is based. But "Stout-hearted Seven," is based on more thorough research and is more accurate. This is the one our fourth grade teachers usually read aloud as part of their curriculum on Washington State, and it's the title that most students will come into the library to check out and read again.

While there are many good fictional accounts about the Oregon Trail, this is the one I'd recommend first for upper elementary grades, simply because of its basis in actual events.

I'd also recommend visiting the Whitman Mission in Walla Walla, if for no other reason than to see the wagon wheel ruts and the Sager names on the gravestone. Our family did this a few years ago as part of a quick 5-day trip along the Oregon Trail, starting in Independence, Missouri. If we ever go again, I'd prefer to take at least two weeks.

I read this book recently and I absolutely loved it. It's the story of the Sager family, and their hardships and trials while on the Oregon Trail. I don't want to give the book away, but I must say that a tragic accident leaves the seven Sager children orphaned and in the care of the other members of their wagon train. The family now consists of 5 girls and 2 boys: John (13), Frank (11), Catherine (8), Elizabeth (6), Madeline (4), Louise (2), and Rosanna, only a newborn baby. They are adopted by the famous Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, where they live happily in their care for 3 years, until the tragic Whitman Massacre. That's where I'm going to stop, because if I tell you of the horrible things that happened there, I would ruin the entire story. Anyone who likes historical fiction, or even is just looking for a good book to read, I reccommend this book. So even if you don't buy it from Amazon or anywhere else, just get it from your local library, because this book is worth your while.