Sherman Books

The poetry of Sheila Cowing comprising Stronger In The Broken Places is vivid, intimate, immediate, lyrical, and memorable. Tidewater Specialties: On the cover the man leans to his gun,/his dog poised with her paw lifted, ears perked./Above the frozen reeds the goose glides toward them/open for landing, wings thrust back.//What I saw were the heavy bodies/strung by their feet from the clothesline,/the delicate, tapering heads;/you in the front hall braking the back of your gun./For years it's worked to hate hunting/and the sweet smell of gun oil on yellow flannel,/to study marshes where purple hoods defy snow,/rails slip through eerie grasses./I've kept those marshes secret./I still can't wear the pin you gave me,/the two gold geese flying.

The November 2000 issue of Midwest Book Review praises poet Sheila Cowing and writes : The poetry of Sheila Cowing comprising Stronger in the Broken Places is vivid, intimate, immediate, lyrical and memorable. TideWater Specialties: On the cover the man leans to his gun/his dog poised with her paw lifted, ears perked./Above the frozen reeds the goose glides toward them/ open for landing, wings thrust back.// What I saw were the heavy bodies/strung by their feet from the clotheline,/the delicate,tapering heads;/you in the front hall breaking the back of your gun./ For years it's worked to hate hunting/and the sweet smell of gun oil on yellow flannel,/to study marshes where purple hoods defy snow,/rails slip through eerie grasses./ I've kept those marshes secret./ I still can't wear the pin you gave me,/the two gold geese flying.

I am not a home-schooling mom but I do have family members who have selected this option. I read the book to get a better understanding as to the advantages and more importantly, how they handle the negative responses that they often hear. I found this book fun to read and very enlightening. Mr. Sherman has a witty writing style and gives very compelling reasons for home schooling. I found myself longing to have made that choice but as my son is now in high school, it's a moot point. I just learned from my step-daughter that she has decided to home school her 4th and 5th graders because the school they attend in North Las Vegas is very rough. I visited Amazon.com to order a copy of the book for her but when I discovered that it's on backorder, I decided to send her my copy.

I would highly recommend this book for parents who home school, for relatives of home school parents and for those who are considering this option.

As the non-homeschooling, but supportive sibling of a sister who homeschools, I have often been asked by friends, acquaintences and other family members why my sister and her husband homeschool. This book provides some of the answers. It is well-written, succinct, thoughtful and has an accessible easy-read format. This is not an in-depth exploration of homeschooling, but a relatively brief explanation of some of the very valid reasons some parents choose to teach their children at home. It would be a great resource for people thinking about homeschooling, to help clarify their own thinking about the issue. It would also be a great gift for their parents or other concerned relatives to start a positive discussion about the topic.

A beautiful book....written with love and tribute from a son to a father...a father who taught him honesty, hard work....and showed him, by example, in his own unique way, how to be a man.....A beautifully, beautifully written book.....

A sweet, honest tribute to the author's father and filled with pearls of wisdom for living today. It brought me to laughter and to tears and gave me new perspectives in parenting my children from a Christian perspective. Must reading!

Wax Strings was fun for my 7 year old daughter on a long trip a few years ago. (Bring nail clippers for cutting string). Fingers get sticky with wax, but clean up easily. We had string left after the trip. Now I'm looking for more string for another trip.

My two grandaughters, age 13 and 6, loved this craft book. The ideas and instructions were exciting and easy to follow. They played with it until they ran out of wax strings. Even my 4 year old grandson made his own rainbow with the wax strings. Great book - it engages and encourages imagination and creativity.

L. Frank Baum's Wizard Of Oz has created 39 official sequels, over a hundred unofficial sequels, nearly 40 films, and much more: so any collector seeking a comprehensive guide to all Wizard products must have The Wizard Of Oz Catalog to keep track of all the formats and take-offs. All forty Oz books in the original series, related books, films, videos, comics, radio shows and more are cataloged in entries which cover performers, plots, and more. No price guides, but this is intended as a catalog of Oz products.

...about Oz in all its permutations. This compendium of Oz knowledge was not only educational in all of its entries but it was fun to read, too. Sherman imbues his catalog with critics reviews, editorial comments and asides that make the factual information come alive with the Hollywood of old and today's fascination with the movie, books, and memorabilia.

There are capsule synopses of all the original books along with movie, radio, stage, advertising, and computer game adaptations as well as actor/production credits. Pictures and illustrations give an insight into the characters and the graphics of the time.

Some of the interesting info covered in the book:
1. Baum intended to break many of the unofficial "rules" for children's fairy tales
2. David's Lynch's movie WILD AT HEART staring Nic Cage is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz story.
3. Baum's widow decided to reject Disney's offer to purchase the rights to make an animated movie and instead sold the rights to an animator who failed to bring the story to the screen.

I bought this as a gift for a friend and wound up keeping it for myself.

At only 226 pages for volume 1, this is a short collection of readings, which allows the teacher to assign interesting monographs or classics. What the text does it does well, such as to provide handy introductions to the readings, a few questions to consider for each source, provide maps and some pictures, end each chapter with provocative questions, and covers most regions of the world.

Each reading is two pages or less, and that allows students to get their feet wet in a nice variety of historical events, ideas, and personalities. While I wish some of the secondary sources would present a more complete history of their topics, they have been chosen well and many are selections from top scholars such as A.H.M. Jones on Rome and Euan Cameron on the Protestant Reformation.

Is it Eurocentric? Sadly, three of the fifteen chapters concern Europe from the middle ages onward, but Asia is also well represented, and one finds a chapter on the Mongols and nomads of central Asia. Central and South America is slighted, and Islam's chapter is too brief.

It is overpriced at around $53. For a few dollars less one could assign Worlds of History, ed. by Kevin Reilly, and get more sources, a longer text, better introductions, global coverage, and Reilly's expertise. But the Reilly text is the typical B/W, plain, and dense small paperback of 500 pages, whereas this text by Sherman is large size, full of colorful illustrations and maps, and easier for students to look at. Both books are viable options for world history courses.
Prof. Christensen, Biola University

This book is an excellent companion to conventional textbooks in a Global History course. The Introduction and "Consider" feature before each source helps the reader to pinpoint key ideas and important themes in the document as well as provide important background information which aides in the understanding of the source. The wide variety of sources focusing on various aspects of each topic help to provide a well-rounded view of the subject.

I'm a freelance music journalist who does a lot of writing about women in rock. This book scores very highly with me based on range, subject, and knowledge of the individuals covered.

The author divides the book into a section devoted to the 50 women who have defined rock and roll, with a short essay on each, and a recommended discography. I like the selection much better than some books (including the truly disappointing Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock). He doesn't include ALL the artists I consider essential, but that's a personal matter. I think he did a very good job, with a range from the obvious choices like Joan Jett and Tina Turner to more obscure but important artists like Lita Ford and Suzi Quatro.

He includes several appendixes with info on all-girl bands, all-girl groups (singers as opposed to instrumentalists) and spotlights on frontwomen of renown, ranging from superstars like Stevie Nicks to the cult heroines like Christina Amphlett and Doro Pesch.

This is a book to give people who don't know much about the subject, or to throw at people who say "women can't rock."

It's not a historical survey (though the author recommends several books, including the one I think of as the definitive volume, Gillian G. Gaar's "She's a Rebel"), but it's a very good basic reference volume.

KW

Vol. II of the Pirate Writings 'Best of' series is just as good as volume I. Peppered with tales from big name writers and rising stars, this volume has something for everyone. I must read for lovers of SF/F short fiction.

I reviewed this book at some length at www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?contentid=15313

My bottom line recommendation: "If you are in any way concerned with the status and future of US el-hi education, you owe it to yourself to read this book."

It's an important book and deserves more recognition than it has received to date.