Shepard Books

It was a favorite of mine when I was a little girl. I was reminiscing about going to the library as a child while talking to my own little girl and I remembered 'drip drop splash'...

This children's book follows the water from rain to puddles, streams, rivers, and finally to the ocean. It was illustrated by Leonard Weisgard and it was a 1947 Caldecott Honor book (i.e., a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustration in a book for children.

I love this book! It has very colorful illustrations and LUSCIOUS language. This book should be added to anyone's book collection immediatly.

The perfect companion to Sloman's book, especially given the great photography.

Arm yourself with these two books and a circulating audience tape from late '75 and you will treated to the Essence of Bob Dylan.

I gave this four stars because I don't think Sam would want it to get five. That would make it too perfect, and once you read Jack Kerouac's On the Road, you're always wary of making things too perfect. That also seemed to be the idea of the Rolling Thunder Revue: to let things fall together even though that means they may fall apart (and by Sam's reckoning they eventually did).

Coupled with J. D. Salinger stream of consciousness writing, Sam dragged Kerouac's real time typing into the deconstructed stage with all four walls down. I only know Sam from his portrayl of Chuck Yeager in the Right Stuff from the book by Tom Wolfe-- the book full of Wolfian gimmicks but the film made the old fashioned way, his plays like True West, and the fact that his mom once toasted my fledgeling writing career-- I hope one day to make her proud.

Sam was hired to make a film of the Revue tour, and wound up making a book. While that means it has pages, photos, and a cover, within that loose definition, it falls apart as much as it can. Sam uses the "f" word, but as a word, not for effect (it is a word). There are bits of writing like this: "Fans are more dangerous than a man with a weapon because they're after something invisible."

The thing that galvanized the tour was fighting to get Rubin Carter released (which eventually happened), and Dylan penned the amazing "Hurricane", an absolutely riveting song when you hear it on the Bootleg Vols 1-3 CD set (or various other ways it exists), not only for the lyrics and music, but Dylan's delivery, at once cool and impassioned, the crazy quilt of images, skewed syntax, sprung rhythms, and well, Sam Shepardness of the whole thing.

But was it all a museum set piece? More safely enshrined rock history? Or can it happen now? Will someone rise up today for Eric Volz? Let the thunder roll on.

This book is an excellent look behind the scenes of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review which made it's way through New England back in the Fall of '75. Sam Shepard has done a great job of capturing the feel and characters that surrounded this historic tour. Not to be missed by any true Dylan fan.

I really enjoyed readind True Stories About Abraham Lincoln. The thing so great about it is that it has so many interesting facts. He is famous because he was our 16th president. If you have to do a book report you should pick him.

"True Stories About Abraham Lincoln" features woodcut illustrations by Charles Turzak, with accompanying stories from Lincoln's life by Ruth Belov Gross. The text is printed in red ink opposite the black woodcut prints. The stories deal with both the triumphs and tragedies of Lincoln's life. However, the woodcuts dictate what parts of Lincoln's life are included or omitted. Consequently, there is no reference to the Lincoln-Douglas debates and the Civil War is dealt with in rather general terms. Still, with each two-page spread a separate unit, this book is easily accessible by young readers, who will find the artwork as fascinating as the stories and might be interested in doing something similar as an art project.

He's a lot more than a face on a penny. This little paperbck contains many true tales about Lincoln's life, from his birth in a log cabin, his hard work on the farm, the first book he owned, up to his presidency and assasination. The 22 stories are very short and written in simple language. The text is easy for even young children understand, but some of the topics are heavy, including the death of Lincoln's mother while he was still a child. This book brings to life the humanity of Lincoln as a boy and a man. It is illustrated by black and white woodcut prints, with red ink for the text.

Many children's books are really for adults, and this is likely one of them. It's aimed at adults who wish to remember their childhood summers spent in a family-owned cabin in the woods. If the kid readers lack this experience, they wouldn't enjoy the book as much, but they might still enjoy the story being read to them by a parent.

~Jack J.

A beautiful story about a girl's experiences with her family at a lake. The illustrations enhance the story line providing an opportunity to re-live past memories of my own. I recommend this to anyone who has spent time near/on a lake. A great gift idea for all ages!

I use this book often with my elementary students to show them that words can create pictures in their readers' minds. The author paints a picture on each page, vividly describing fond memories of different parts of her vacation at the cabin. The illustrator supports that with incredibly detailed pictures. The kids were in awe of this book, it was very powerful for them, and for their writing!

Reading Writers at the Movies is nearly as engrossing as seeing the movies that are the subjects of the book's 26 essays. Of course, that's probably to be expected when writers such as Susan Sontag and the infamous Salman Rushdie offer their takes on movie classics.

The typical take on movie criticism is that anybody can be a critic, since everyone has an opinion. But when a writer who can appreciate the craft of character creation gets ahold of a movie (or should I say, vice versa), it can quickly illustrate the difference between an artist and a hack for hire. Rick Bass's critique of Buffalo '66--a movie that, as he confessed in his essay, I had no desire to see because of its gimmicky subject matter--vividly illustrates what I call The Pauline Kael Theorem: The feeling that, even if you don't agree with a review from a given critic, you're still thrilled to read his or her take on it.

There's a wide variety of movies covered, too. The expected classics are here, such as The Wizard of Oz (Rushdie's take on it is, you should pardon the expression, one for the books) and The Godfather. But the book also covers some underrated gems (such as Frederick Wiseman's documentary Titicut Follies) and some critical howlers (Titanic) that will make you either look at old favorites in a new way or make you run out the video store in search of an unseen gem.

This book should be required reading in courses on movies, criticism, or just plain old writing.

This is a truly superior collection of non-fiction pieces by well (and some not so well) known fiction writers on their favorite films. Writers represented here include Robert Coover, Susan Sontag, Francine Prose, Rick Moody, Stephen Dobyns, Charles Baxter, and 20 more; the films they've selected are a really interesting group of movies, ranging from, believe it or not, the Japanese 60s cheesefest Destroy All Monsters! to The Godfather to Titicut Follies, among others.

What's also interesting is the diversity in the length of the pieces. Richard Howard turns in a punchy little 2 pages on Robert Bresson's Un Homme Echappe (A Man Escaped), while Edward Hirsch (unknown to me) waxes at length--32 pages--on the film Stevie. Aside from those mentioned in the last sentence, directors represented include Chabrol, Buster Keaton, Vincent Gallo (the great Buffalo 66), Polanski, Fassbinder, Coppola, Wajda, Truffaut, Antonioni, Huston, Godard, and, interestingly, Samuel Beckett for the film version of Quadra.

A fascinating read for film fanatics, or for those who love literary fiction--or just plain great prose. Definitely recommended!

Alternately playful and earnest, erudite and silly, these are delightful essays and perfect vacation reading. Most of the authors use this as an opportunity for some sort of memoir, some are deft at film criticism, some spend too much time laboriously recounting a plot, but the vast majority of the pieces are astutely observed, unpretentious, and immediately likeable.

When I went to introduce my preschooler to Winnie-the-Pooh, I bought the big book with the complete stories and poems. It didn't take long for me to figure out that it wasn't quite right for my 3-year-old. Reading a story out of the original works takes a good 15-20 minutes, which is more than one can really expect from a preschooler or toddler. Also, the original Pooh is a bit like Sesame Street, in that there are phrases and indeed entire sections of the stories that adults will find amusing but which will just go over a child's head.

And yet, I didn't want to break down and go the route of the Disney-fied Pooh books, with their cartoonish illustrations and watered-down plots and characters.

That's why I was so pleased to find the Easy-to-Read series. There are six easy-to-read titles from two publishers. They are:

Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees
Pooh Goes Visiting
Eeyore Has a Birthday
Tigger Comes to the Forest
Christopher Robin Leads an Expedition
Pooh Invents a New Game

Each book is based on one chapter from the complete works. These little books are divided into four chapters, although it should be no problem to read one from start to finish in one sitting.

The print is large and well spaced, and there are ample illustrations (the original drawings by E.H. Shepard) on every page spread to keep little eyes engaged in the story. Most important, the editor has removed most of the passages that aren't so kid friendly and has simplified the stories without giving them a Disney style candy coating. One could read the original story and then the easy-to-read version and get the same basic plot; when going from the Milne works to the Disney versions, the same is certainly not true.

I didn't give these books five stars because the editor retained some language and dialogue that may be a bit confusing for children in the intended age range. Nevertheless, these books are a wonderful introduction to a classic cast of characters for the preschool set.

This is a classic and favorite Pooh story. It's been told many times and it's been seen on television / video. This is a wonderful retelling, adapted by Stephen Krensky (who also does the "Arthur" chapter books) and featuring the original-style illustrations.

In this story, Christopher Robin leads Pooh and our other friends in the Hundred Acre Wood on an expedition, or as Pooh calls it, an "expotition." Some are a bit frightened at first, but they know they're okay as long as Christopher Robin is around.


This is a story of adventure and discovery. It has classic Pooh charm and shouldn't be missed by Pooh fans.

In this anthology college teachers from all walks of life tell us how who they are, where they're from, affects their pedagogy. It's a terrific, ecclectic collection that should be required reading for teaching assistants beginning their careers. May it liberate and enlighten them, and any others who can come to personal history, to class, with an open mind.

Like most collections of essays, the quality of this one is mixed, but if you can stomach the sometimes trite personal narratives ("I came from a trailer park and now I teach at a community college full of students from trailer parks!"), you'll ultimately enjoy the insights that some of the book's 21 contributors have to offer. However, the collection is aimed at a specialized audience, particularly college English teachers, so if you haven't spent a significant portion of your life wondering why, with all your education, you have ended up where you are, this book won't make much sense.

The most interesting essays address the problem of social class within academia itself. For example, Olivia Frey writes, "The regard (disregard) for composition and composition teachers has interesting parallels with the daily struggles of workers and laborers, and their status within society at large." Although the sentiment here is nothing incredibly new, the fact that it is stated in print is in itself significant and might disturb many composition instructors (and their administrators) who are in deep denial about where they are and what they do.

At times the collection turns on itself, however, with some contributors appearing to advocate relaxed standards and "dumbing down" theories based solely on the social class of students. As a whole, the book would be more effective if it focused entirely on the problem of social class within the teaching profession, but it's still a great read.

If you like friendship, deer, and sad books you should read this book. A.M. Monson is a good author because she wrote The Deer Stand. It is a good fiction book. Our rating for this book is 4 stars. If you don't like killing animals or if you are a vegitarian stop reading it at page 166. The Deer Stand is suspenseful. It seems to get short when you get to the end.

I loved it!!!!!!!! At the end I had to stop beacause I was crying so hard! I've recomended this book to every one I've met.

If you enjoy giving your children beautifully illustrated books with delightful, entertaining and informative content, this is a wonderful addition to your child's library.

"Down Buttermilk Lane" is a great way to introduce your child to the Amish way of life. Through it's colorful pictures and colloquial writing, it transports you to Buttermilk Lane, a road that really exists.

My son loves riding in the car and leafing through the pictures as we pass Zimmerman's store, the Ebersol Chair Shop,and many beautiful farms in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

A beautiful book in every way.

The artwork in this book is breath taking. It is set in fall and the paintings are stunning. I was looking for a book that explains a little about PA Dutch/Amish life, and this book just exemplifies it, it doesn't explain it. They use some scattered PA Dutch sayings and words, and it walks you through a typical, ?non-farming? day. The family takes their horse and buggy to go shopping at the general store, they visit a friend at the farmers' market, and have dinner. At night, the cows still need milking. It's a nice gentle story, but I would love to know why there is a very prominent car displayed in one of the paintings, on an Amish farm??? My son wanted to know why, and I couldn't explain it. This is a nice gentle story about the PA Dutch way of life.

In the introduction to "The Dracula Book Of Great Horror Stories" editor Leslie Shepherd correctly points out that the tradition of the horror story goes back all through human history, predating any recent trends. It's a good point to start this collection of relatively older stories on (although I strongly but respectfully disagree with the introduction's dismissal of both modern horror movies and of the older Gothic horror writings that predated the 1800s explosion with "Frankenstein", Poe et al.) We have here a fine collection of horror stories originally published between 1843 and 1951, including tales by names well-known to anyone with a passing familiarity with horror (Bram Stoker; H.P. Lovecraft; Edgar Allan Poe) to less familiar names like Jerome K. Jerome and Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Also included are highly famous authors not usually associated with the spooky or macabre, H.G. Wells and Charles Dickens, the latter of whom actually wrote a fair bit in or bordering on horror territory over his career.

Wells's "The Cone" is, of all the stories in the book, the one that would least sound like a horror story upon a brief description (a tale of jealousy and suspicion set in an early industrial works setting) but upon reading it, it fits the Horror bill perfectly, and is one of those stories that expands the whole range of the field. It's also one of the best in the book. Another of the best is "The Voice In The Night" by William Hope Hodgson, a tale of seafarers encountering a mysterious prescence in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; a very moving tale and arguably the book's scariest. Edward Bulwer-Lytton's "The Haunted And The Haunters, or The House And The Brain" is a great haunted house story, intriguingly descriptive. Lovecraft is represented by "The Festival", a fine story but not his best (in my opinion) but hugely important for featuring the first appearance of the legendary book Necronomicon, which would feature so prominently not only in so many of Lovecraft's stories but in tales of his contemporaries like the hugely under-heralded Clark Ashton Smith (the whole 'Weird Tales' era of writers seem to have gotten along very well and frequently lent their creations back and forth) and through to more recent times, being mentioned in written works by the likes of Brian Stableford and in movies like the "Evil Dead" series (where it's referred to as 'Necronomicon Exmortis')(incidental note - any readers of the 1800s/early 1900s era of horror fiction now thinking of checking out the "Evil Dead" series should be aware that it's quite extreme territory. Good though - especially the second one!). "The Dancing Partner" by Jerome K. Jerome succeeds at having both a quirky charm and a darkly unsettling atmosphere simultaneously, and, published in 1893, could be considered a forerunner of science fiction as well as a fine horror story.

Other writers in the volume who I haven't mentioned previously include E.F. Benson, Algernon Blackwood, W.W. Jacobs, L.P. Hartley, M.R. James, and Guy de Maupassant, who contributes the book's only tale not originally written in English (the French "L'Auberge", known in English and presented here as "The Inn", translated by M. Laurie in 1929, nearly forty years after its first publication). A great book either for those already into the horror fiction of the era covered, or for those who've mainly read modern works and are interested in delving back a bit.

This book is a wonderful bedtime companion. Containing classics such as "The Monkey's Paw" and "The Judge's House". Almost every story contained in this volume is a masterpiece. I recommend one story before bedtime for a truely chilling experience!