Shepard Books

When a red-eyed Goblin peeks out of the laundry basket, the Big Witch faints and Cook predicts disaster. The evening's Tea and Magic Show will be ruined! Anxious to help, Dorrie offers to Goblin-sit, only to discover that it's a much harder job than she thought. After a serious of small mishaps and a few disasters, Dorrie saves the day. Illustrated with drawings by the author.

Earth Times Two is a parable about a parallel-universe United States. A boy with low-grade telepathy is transported to a different dimension when he meets his mysterious cousin. He discovers a world dominated by telepaths with the technology of the mid-Industrial Revolution. The nominal democracy in the US is a police state; he helps his new friends on the path to freedom while trying to return to our world.

I first read this book when I was in fourth grade; it is appropriate for readers in grades 3-7.

This is a great book for teaching that spoken words go with writen words. As you go through the book the words are big enough to point to as you say them. My daughter loves the size of the book . The pictures are all "Classic Pooh" meaning they come from the orginal book and are not the images from the Disney films. The story is a bit off in that it is very very simple.

So my class was doing their library day thing. As it is still the beginning of the year, I don't dare let them along with the poor librarian. And then I realized that I had absolutely no read-aloud books for that week. So I randomly pulled this one from the shelf.

I did not expect it to be such a gem. Not only did I have every little pair of eyes glued to me during story time, but I was likely more interested than they were.

Emma is excited because her Grandfather Wong is coming from China to live with her family. However, immediately upon arrival he accidentally scares Emma with stories of dragons. To make it up to her, he explains that Chinese dragons are good and even promises to take her on a dragon hunt.

What ensues is a semi-magical story of dragon lore, natural phenomenon, and the equally-wonderful story of the relationship between grandfather and granddaughter.

I was touched and entranced as scientific fact mixed with mythology, bringing Emma and Grandfather Wong closer and closer.

And the paintings are beautiful as well.

Alfie has an interesting problem at his house (the water pipe breaks) while his sitter is with him and his little sister. Water drips from the ceiling and begins to make a huge mess. The sitter and her parents along with Alfie's help take care of the problem. Not one of our all-time favorite stories, but one we enjoy from time-to-time.

This is a book of stories chosen by a vote of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America association, in the mid-nineties. Apparently in a six month process they voted for their favorite stories, etc. Because writers are slow and can't think of their favorites it takes them six months? Bizarre. Anyway, doesn't really maker how long they took to do it. It was apparently produced had a Science Fiction Hall of fame volume, multiple, actually, as the novellas etc. go in other books of the series. These came out in the late sixties, but the fantasy name change inclusion for the SFWA was 1992 according to the book's intro.

Anyway, there is an earlier book with this title, and the same editors. I should quote the famous Tim of LibraryThing on the non-brightness of doing that.

The limitation they chose was the stories had to be post 1939, when Unknown Worlds, the fantasy magazine edited by John W. Campbell started, because it had logically worked out fantasy, or something. The other limitation is no longer stories, novellas, etc. 'May be a future volume with those' to paraphrase the intro. No sign of it 10 years later though, it seems, so you could probably make it one of those 1000/1 William Hill novelties if you wanted.

So, right from that you are pretty much likely to get a book that is inferior to the early volume. No Lovecraft, Howard, Smith, Poe, etc.

That certainly turns out to be the case, with a 3.60 average, compared to 3.66. It is still a good book, just not an excellent one, and no real Hall of Fame, with less standouts. You could call it The Modern Hall of Fame, perhaps, although calling the thirties or early forties modern doesn't sound too modern to me.

So if you have a choice and just want to get one of these Hall Of Fame books, get the earlier volume.

Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Trouble with Water - H. L. Gold
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Nothing in the Rules - L. Sprague de Camp
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Fruit of Knowledge - C. L. Moore
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Tlön Uqbar Orbis Tertius - Jorge Luís Borges
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Compleat Werewolf [Fergus O'Breen] - Anthony Boucher
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Small A55a55in - Ray Bradbury
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Our Fair City - Robert A. Heinlein
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : There Shall Be No Darkness - James Blish
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Loom of Darkness [Liane the Wayfarer] - Jack Vance
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles - Margaret St.Clair
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Silken-Swift - Theodore Sturgeon
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Golem - Avram Davidson
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Operation Afreet - Poul Anderson
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : That H3ll-Bound Train - Robert Bloch
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Bazaar of the Bizarre - Fritz Leiber
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Come Lady Death - Peter S. Beagle
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Drowned Giant - J. G. Ballard
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Narrow Valley - R. A. Lafferty
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : F@ith of Our Fathers - Philip K. Dick
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Ghost of a Model T - Clifford D. Simak
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Demoness - Tanith Lee
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Jeffty Is Five - Harlan Ellison
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Detective of Dreams - Gene Wolfe
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Unicorn Variations - Roger Zelazny
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Basileus - Robert Silverberg
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : The Jaguar Hunter - Lucius Shepard
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Buffalo Gals Won't You Come Out Tonight - Ursula K. LeGuin
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Bears Discover Fire - Terry Bisson
Fantasy Hall of Fame SFWA : Tower of Babylon - Ted Chiang


Gnome sweetener.

4.5 out of 5


Mermaid ring-in doesn't quite make the seal of sobriety.

4 out of 5


"Why," he stammered, "you...you're the Queen of Air and Darkness."

3.5 out of 5


Vague geography tract.

2.5 out of 5


Count3respionage canine capers.

4 out of 5


Rugrat's gonna get me, maybe I should get it first?

4 out of 5


Stone loser.

3.5 out of 5


Whirlwind collection.

3 out of 5


Werewolf symphony.

4 out of 5


Witchy Lith.

3 out of 5


Eyes for greed, will consume you.

3 out of 5


Virgin deception test, unicorn required.

3 out of 5


"I am not a human being!"

3.5 out of 5


Witchwolf teamup success requires djinn psychology.

4 out of 5


Time-stop devil of a deal indecision.

4 out of 5


Wizard errands suck, so do commercial cr@psters.

4 out of 5


You like me? Great! Now you can be me!

4 out of 5


Shrinking from investigation.

3.5 out of 5


Ditch illusion psychic projection projectile fun.

3.5 out of 5


"Don't you see, Mr. Chien? You've learned something. The Leader is not the Leader; he is something else, but we can't tell what. Not yet. Mr. Chien, when all due respect, have you ever had your drinking water analyzed? I know it sounds paranoiac, but have you?"

3.5 out of 5


Dead drive ok with me if booze is good.

3 out of 5


Succubus. Sword. Swing. Simple. Ask her, stoopid.

4 out of 5


Parents eventual terminal lack of patience with kid with the brilliant new old stuff.

5 out of 5


Ex3cution not too well d___.

3 out of 5


Mythological species replacement with sasquatch chess master.

4 out of 5


Computing angel Cunningham countdown plan.

3.5 out of 5


Man decides sexy werejaguar is better than cr@ppy American cop show.

4 out of 5


Don't eat the salmon.

2.5 out of 5


Hibernatin's a big ol' waste of time.

4 out of 5


Built like a brick lighthouse tunnelway to heaven.

3.5 out of 5

good book to read for ages four and up. pictures are well drawn
cute story and a good book to read over and over.

This book is really a series of lectures given in 1912. However, Jefferson's insigts are as fresh as today's newspapers. Other than a few illustrations, the book could have been written this year. Jefferson does an excellent job of calling all pastors to their Biblical role of caring for the sheep. This is a must read for every pastor who is serious about his calling.

I grew up reading this book to my grandfather and it is an easy book for children to read. It gives a wonderful depiction of the special relationship grandfathers have with their grandchildren. Even though I am grown up now, I still read this book to my grandfather when I visit him. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.

I bought this book because I'm a huge fan of Victoria Chess. I liked it quite
a lot. The illustrations are great and the feeling of imminent disaster for
some innocent child is always looming if not outright smiling out at you.