Ross Books

Who wouldn't want to be the kid to help Santa and save Christmas? When Robert, listening on his radio in the Midwest, learns from an Airship Captain that the Polar Ice Pack has cracked in several places, he knew that could spell trouble for Santa, and Christmas. This is a holiday story with lessons for all year 'round. The story goes well beyond Christmas, and mixes ecology, geography, airships, and hobbies in an engaging way. Both budding hobbyists/scientists and experienced ones will enjoy this story.

Arctic Airlift is impressively illustrated and entertainingly written by the nationally recognized artist Richard Ross (an Associate Professor of Design, Buffalo State University) whose work has been exhibited at the Society of Illustrators and feature in a number of professional and popular publications. This is a 40-page picturebook Christmas adventure story for children grades 2 through 5 about a young boy with a two-way radio in the Midwest and an airship captain in the arctic north who must team up to rescue Santa and his workshop. Unusually warm sea currents have caused the Polar Ice Pack to crack and flood! An exciting parable that reminds young readers that it's important to never give up, and sometimes one needs a little help from friends. The uniquely styled, heavily shaded color illustrations give this charming Christmas rescue story a distinctly unique feel.

You can not longer build and live so close to the water's edge but these beauties are grandfathered in on beautiful Muskoka and Rousseau, et. al. I thought of my boyhood days on a lake in Northern Minnesota. I remember smaller and less grand boathouses where the sundappled water reflected off the rafters inside. You were really one with the water. This book captures the essence of it all--I could almost smell the water, wood, paint, varnish, canvas, wet rattan and wicker--

At the water's edge

Muskokaá Boathouses.

This book gives the reeder a chance of dreaming back to the early yaers of the 20th century and experiance how the riche and famuose people spent there weekends and holidays. If you are intrested in old houses, especially bothouses, and architect designs this book is a must.

This book is my best inspiration ever.

Peter Östlund Stockholm Sweden

First off, this atlas is set up like anatomy is taught in medical school, not in college. It is divided up by body part rather than by system. That said, the illustrations are high quality. There is also a code in the book that will get you to a web site with more information. In light of the dubious quality of cheap atlases out there (they are often replete with errors in labeling), this is one of the better ones.

A friend of mine recently introduced me to this book and I have to say, I'm impressed. It's fantastic! I studied anatomy in my first year of med school so I'm familiar with the other big Atlases (Netter's, Gray's, Gosling's, Grant's...) but in my opinion this book surpasses them all. It's the artwork. The artist has found the perfect balance of detail and clarity. Some of these illustrations have to be seen to be believed. Especially those relating to the circulatory system. The book also cuts down on superfluous text, providing the most relevant information. The pearls of clinical information are very good and these add significance to the information and make it easier to remember -- Easier to remember is key.

Great job to whoever was involved in making this invaluable resource!

I think this book is a great inspiration for any female adolescence who is going through those tough years. This book leaves you with the feeling that you can accomplish anything that you set your mind on doing whether your 15 or 55. Great book....it should be in all the public schools.

i met the author , Martha J. Ross - Rodgers at a booksigning . I brought a copy of her book Awakenings for my niece who is 15. I decided to read the book myself prior to giving it to her, and I must say that I was quite pleased. This book is an excellent read for people of all ages.Awakenings brought back so many memories for me. The issues that she presented in Awakenings such as intrarace racism was definitely one that I could relate too. You see - the lighter the skin tone, the straighter the hair texture, the more that you were viewed as being better many times in the black community. As a child, I saw this many times, and even now as an adult it is still happening. Ross - Rodgers also brought up other issues such as self esteem and best friend issues. What was interesting was that even though the book is fiction, the issues are real. It is definitely a must read for the ages of 12 years old and up.

I'm not sure what it is about this book, but my 11-month-old loves seeing the pictures and having it read to him. It's one of the few books we have that he appreciates and this age and that will be a great starter book in a few years when he's learning to read.

I have a four-year-old who thinks the story and pictures are funny; that gets his interest in reading it. The point of the book to teach a few easy first words is accurate: my son is starting to recognize letters, so seeing the same words over and over tends to help him recognize the words. Well done.

I thought that this book was great. We checked it out from the library and my six year old son has chosen the teddy bear party. He was not too thrilled with the bowls of porage cakes, but all the other ideas are great and really get the kids involved.

MElissa

This is a great book. I only got it yesterday, but it has lots of wonderful ideas. Although this is really a kids do it yourself book, it can also be used by parents, or party planners like myself. It has a pile of themes, and each one includes invitations party hats, crafts decoration, favor and games. Most of the party hats, favors and games are those you can make from paper and other things around the house. Most of the crafts can be used as games, and many can also be used as favors. I always like Kathy Ross's books, but this one was GREAT!

I met Ross Phelps in Prague in 1990. This is an amazing true story of personal strenght, will and courage. The book is definitely worth of buying it. Martin Kostal, Prague - Czech Republic

Knowing this family as I do and playing a peripheral role in their experience to support the patient, Ross Phelps, I can strongly recommend Elaine Phelps' narrative account of her son's determination to survive - in fact, thrive - in the face of a killer cancer. Ross' ongoing, 15-year battle with a pediatric bone cancer, osteosarcoma, is an inspiring story of personal will. This book will be a source of comfort and hope to cancer patients, their caregivers, their families and friends.

To share his personnel battle and thoughts during his struggles with epilepsy..Stuart managed to keep his sense of humor and strength. His emotional journey is one of the most realistic, detailed trips involving a fight against an illness I was unfamiliar with. I had to read his story twice as we all miss things the first time around. He is a man of determination, yet humble in his battle. The book at the same time is a love story, between he and his wife, Lisa. I believe if not for her strength and love, this book may not be here to educate and give us strength in battle against medical odds. I experienced sorrow, as well humor in this wonderful book. I recommend "Beyond My Control" to any person battling medical issues, and to any person in need of a little strength. This book is a Hoozey!!

Thank you Stuart, for sharing a deep meaning personnel journey of strength and love. Carol

I found this book fascinating. It is amazing that while trying to recover from brain surgery to be cured from epilepsy, a secondary condition can develop (depression) which is also a huge hurdle to get over. How the human brain is so vulnerable. This book is a very honest account of the authors struggles with both conditions which brought up some deep underlying emotion for me. I wish the author and his family all the best. Carolyn (New Jersey)

This book, along with Smither's CHRONICLES OF THE BIG BEND, are MUST READS for the serious Chisos Mountains area hiker. Along with the historical/geological/botanical/zoological everything elseical information, Maxwell includes a packet of foldout maps. The maps alone are worth the price of the book. Don't worry about the publication dates of the above books, nature works on a time-scale that makes these books timeless to the human reader. Most of the more recent publications can't come close to adding anything new to this information.

This book does an excellent job of introducing the reader to the Big Bend region. Even those who have experienced the beauty of the region and its people will find this book a handy reference. The author is a former superintendent of Big Bend National Park. As described in the title, the book covers the geology of Big Bend (including an excellent introduction to geological processes for the uninitiated like myself), the history of Big Bend (including the histories of place names and other local legends), and an overview of local vegetation and the native uses of the vegetation by the old curanderos. Included throughout the book are 117 illustrations and black and white photographs. Many of the photographs offer a unique glimpse into the lives of those who settled this rugged country. Also included with the book are five separately printed illustrations, including a 360-degree panorama of The Basin (obviously from days long ago - notice the lack of trees!), and several geological maps. This is definitely the favorite book in my Big Bend library!

Fortunately, I have a copy of "Lost Pony Tracks" in my personal library. Well, two; the second one, a replacement of the original, is in excellent condition; the "first", a small pocketbook version, is battered, well-worn; bears all the earmarks of an energetic cowgirl child having read it many times over, including a well-placed ketchup stain or two. The cover of that over-loved book still fascinates me - a silhouette of a cowboy on his horse, leg thrown over the pommel, a Saguaro cactus off to the left, and a flaming Southwest sunset backdrop behind them both. It's something not forgotten easily, and that photo-cover is etched in my mind and belongs to the story.

The book without the cover at all, stands at the top of it's kind. Ross Santee was a writer of extraordinary talent. As a self-described "tenderfoot" coming from the East, "Lost Pony Tracks" sprang from his personal encounters with the cowboys of the Arizona of long ago. It is a wonderful book; he captures the essence of everything; the horses, cattle, the "wrecks" with the pack horses; the unique individuals he meets during his stay with them, a self sufficient, tough "breed apart" of men - although us women are in short supply within the pages of his book. (lost woman tracks?) They made their own entertainment, their own religion. He gives us a glimpse into almost everything real of the life of the buckaroo.

One of the passages best remembered was toward the end of this remarkable story that you didn't want to end: "Why is it", he wrote, "when an old cowboy gets ready to take that long, one-way ride, he always starts talking about some old pet horse that's been dead for forty years?"

The way of life as they knew it is dead too; and while it stubbornly exists in some places still, it is in a form that would be unfamiliar to the one Santee saw and lived with on his journeys into the old West.

I highly recommend this book if you can obtain a copy. It's authentic Western Americana, written in a style you won't forget.

First published in 1953, this book is currently out of print, and it shouldn't be. It's a fine, wonderfully written, sensitively drawn memoir of cowboying in Arizona in the years before and after WWI. Santee was 26 years old when he left his small-town Iowa roots and a struggling career as an artist in New York to spend some time with family in Arizona, where he took a job as a "lowly" horse wrangler for an outfit near Globe. Over the years, as a western writer, who illustrated his own books in his distinctive style (now much appreciated), he based his stories and novels on this experience of the everyday lives of men and their horses.

Santee was a perceptive, thoughtful, and observant writer who captured in accounts of incidents and conversations a depth of social history that is hard to find in other books of its kind. It's also rare to find a portrayal of cowboy life so heart-felt. While he had his complaints about men whose faults and deficiencies made them ill-suited to being cowboys, he is chiefly interested in the many men he regarded as admirable for their one-of-a-kind personalities and their strength of character. Among them is the foreman, Shorty Caraway, whose early years on the range are recounted in Santee's "Cowboy," and there are many others, each captured with a precise and loving eye for detail. There is a generous spirit and a gentle humor throughout this book that is sometimes sentimental without ever being corny. In his depiction of daily life in an all-male work environment, Santee gets it just right. His books belong on any shelf of western literature.