Stewart Books

Reviewed by Brianne Plach (age 9) by Reader Views (5/07)

Siddharta has had a rough life. His mother dies just 7 days after his birth and his aunt becomes like a mother to him. The boy's father, King Shuddhodana, is told that his son can become a holy man when he is older but for now he will be a great ruler. As he grows up, he feels that life is full of suffering. He is encouraged to look for some enlightenment. He learns the benefits of meditation. He becomes a leader in his own way. The road to becoming a leader takes many twists and turns along the way. He also meets some people who encourage him.

"Becoming Buddha" provides an interesting insight into Buddhism. It gives non-Buddhists a chance to see a little of what Buddhism is about. It is not my religion, but gives me a look at another religion. The pictures in this book are very colorful and look like they are painted. It is very artistic. "Becoming Buddha" has in its foreword written by the 14th Dalai Lama, that the author doesn't believe in Buddhism but hopes that she can contribute to global peace.

Note from Brianne's mother: On the book jacket, this book says that it is best suited for children over the age of 12. She is younger than the target audience so we read this book together. She had a lot of questions about Buddhism since it is much different than our faith.

This is a very well done children's book on an important world religion. It uses the narrative story of the Buddha's life to demonstrate the fundamental principles of Buddhism i.e. material life is characterized by suffering, the middle way between two extremes is best and there is a release from the cycle of suffering.

Where children are concerned, it is a good story that captivates attention and sparks the imagination. This re-telling of the Buddha's life fits the bill and introduces many sound principles that apply to any religion e.g. ultimate satisfaction is not to be found in the material world, the way to deeper meaning is inward, suffering is largely caused by selfish desire, etc.

In a diverse world, books like this can help to bridge important gaps. This one has a good story, principles, illustrations, etc. I highly recommend it.

The book tells you everything you wanted to know about fashionable beds, and includes great photography. I highly recommend it as bedtime reading or as coffe table adornment.

The book tells you everything you wanted to know about a fashionable beds and includes great photography. I highly recommend it as bedtime reading or as coffe table adornment.

Folks,

You have to get ahold of Thorton Burgess Bedtime Story Books. If you're searching for traditional values reading for your youngster, these are the ones. They're written around the turn of the century, (the one we're finishing) and are just good, clean fun. The reading level of these books is pushing 2nd grade if you're youngster is above average, but 3rd graders get the most from them. I read the full 20 volume set (hardcover) and it accelerated my reading comprehension, and my vocabulary three grades beyond my peers because the stories were interesting and very well written. Try them out and you won't be disappointed. Happy reading. A big Thorton Burgess fan.

I grew up in a small New England town and read almost every book in the children's section of the library, though none of the books I read stand out in my memory like the books by Burgess. I have never, in all my 40 years, met another person who has read these books. I would like to encourage all to read his books. They are delightful stories with something for everyone.

The name of this book is "Harry's Mad" by Dick King Smith. The book is about a boy named Harry. He gets a letter from is uncle's wife saying that he has passed away and she wants him to have somethig and if you want to figure out what that is, then just read it! Ryan T. Webster age 9

The beloved Johnny Chuck experiences many trials throughout the book,one of which is a yearning to roam from his home. However, he faces all of his problems with a cool head. Some of his tribulations include an annoying nuisance in the form of Sammy Jay, and a mystery animal that provokes our hero.

I thought the Adventure books were great!(Chatterer the best!)I first started reading them when I was about 7 or 8. I'm now 13 and I still enjoy the books. They really do help kids appreciate nature and most importantly, life. These would be great books for kids ages 5 to 10, I think.

Chatterer the Red Squirrel is a precious animal adventure story that young children will love. While reading it to my 7 year old, my 11 and 13 year olds would inevitably wander into the room. Chatterer is a mischievous little red squirrel. If he's not picking on Shadow the Weasel and learning the hard way what an unruly tongue can do, he's in Farmer Brown's Corn CRib stealing corn. His mischieviousness finally catches up with him and because of his carelessness Farmer Brown's boy traps him. He then becomes a prisoner, although a quite comfortable one. He soon realizes that freedom is much more important than anything else. Throughout the story he learns many life lessons, although they seem small, which we as humans should take to heart. I would highly recommend this book.

OK- I read Tropic of Hockey back when it came out and loved it. So, in describing why I have waited nearly two years from the time "The Best Game You Can Name" was published to get around to reading it, I can only summon the images from Cameron Crowe's masterpiece "Singles" when Campbell Scott's character Steve greets the long-awaited Kyra Sedgwick with, "What took you so long?"

Well, I can only plead the fifth on that, but I LOVE this book. Bidini's style is easy to enjoy- his words flow, coming from the heart, and he weaves a good deal of musical and cultural references througout.

But it's the hockey- oh, the HOCKEY that keeps you on target and turning every page without slowing down. Bidini deftly navigates between anecdotes from his own Toronto Morningstars amateur club to the first-person accounts of former NHLers who speak openly and candidly of their playing days and experiences.

This is a rich narrative- some of Bidini's talking points and references will be lost on more than a few, but when he gets down to the brass tacks: the hockey- he's definitely on his A-game.

There are so many outstanding stories told here, and they keep getting better as the book goes on. I loved former Boston Bruin Walt McKechnie's tale of a young rookie named Dave "Tiger" Williams literally fighting to make a Toronto team and Maple Leaf great Darryl Sittler's warning to McKechnie, which he thought nothing of until Williams blackened one of Terry O'Reilly's eyes. "Gee, Taz-" says McKechnie sitting in the dressing room between periods. "Sittler said that the kid had gotten in a fight per game since the preseason started." Replies O'Reilly: "He'll have two tonight."

That's just magic. As a die-hard B's fan growing up near Boston and worshiping O'Reilly and his Big, Bad Bruins (Al Secord was my first REAL hockey hero), these are the stories I never got enough of when I thirsted for whatever information I could get my hands on, and eagerly awaited every issue of The Hockey News.

Bravo, Dave- this is a GREAT book. And it is my honor to accord this work with a 5-Star rating that is well-deserved. This is must-reading for any true hockey fan...you'll want to go out and lace up the skates immediately after reading just one chapter. Unfortunately for me- that will have to wait, but rest assured. When I return stateside and get back out on the ice, I'll be thanking Dave Bidini for helping bring some of my passion for hockey back.

Baghdad
02-06-08

The Best Game You Can Name

I love all of Dave's books, and this one doesn't disappoint. The fun details about his musicians' league hockey tournament are interspersed with great anecdotes from NHL players about their good coaches, their crappy coaches, their good teammates, their lousy ones, the practical jokes they played on roommates... All in all, just a good enjoyable read. Since I'm a recent NHL fan, it was nice getting caught up on hockey dirt from the non-internet earlier years. I'll bet that if you buy it, you won't be disappointed in the slightest. So, go, what are you waiting for, click on the book and have it shipped to your home overnight.

This book is a Vietnamese recipe book. It contains the author's favorite Vietnamese recipes. Many of the recipes are new, and many of them are also found within Foods of Vietnam.

I make many of these recipes over & over. The chicken and mint salad is outstanding even without the chicken. An excellent nuoc cham. Another favorite is Vietnamese-style scrambled eggs. Yum, yum, yum.

Anyone who appreciates Ansel Adams' black and white photographs of landscapes in the West will enjoy Dorothy Monnelly's images of the serene coastal marshes and wetlands in the North Shore of Massachusetts. As Jean Faulk Adams, who served as president of the Ansel Adams Gallery, says in her Forward: this compilation shows that Ms. Monnelly knows "the Great Marsh and its nuances intimately, much as did Ansel Adams the Sierra Nevada and his beloved Yosemite." The extraordinary sharpness of detail, the sense of light and perfect composition of beautiful scenery in these photographs will make you smile and leave you feeling peaceful.

Richard Howard

This book offers a beautiful portrayal of the Great Marsh in Massachusetts, an endangered coastal wetland area. My family and I were brought back to our summer vacations in Gloucester through Monnelly's stunning and varied images. Their beauty lies in their very simplicity, and the photographer's ability to tune into the detail of the scene around her and quietly record it on film is unique and special. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an escape from the hectic life of jobs and stress - simply sit back, relax and ponder the salt hay and gentle waves.

Provides many stories of people...some famous, many succesful...who have come through mental illness and gotten on with their lives. Some are role models in that they share their paths from success to rock bottom and back again. The book also has a chapter on "what it feels like," enlightening those of us who may have experienced one form of mental illness but don't understand what people with other mental illnesses experience. All-in-all, an interesting, informative, easy-to-read, enjoyable book.

I thought this book was both entertaining and informative. Some of the stories were brutally honest, and some were also very uplifting. I learned quite a lot about mental illness by reading this book -- and I'd have to say it's changed the way I view this topic. Some of the stories were very, VERY moving.

According to Roger Tory Peterson (who has a blurb on the inside cover of this book), "the birds of the north country have never been more beautifully portrayed" than in this book.
I'd have to agree, as the profiles of each of these birds are complemeted by incredible full-page paintings that are so life-like and detailed that they seem almost three dimensional. You can see every bit of feather texture on the Boreal Owl, for example, and the coloration is perfect. I particularly like the way each bird is highlighted against a white background, with only a bit of branch or foliage on which it perches, just enough to give a hint of the foliage in its natural habitat. This puts the emphasis exactly where it should be- on the birds themselves and the effect is quite striking. They "pop" from the pages.
But this is more than a beautifully done collection of bird portraits. The text is compact but provides full information on the habits, nests, habitat, breeding and migratory patterns of these birds. When writing about the Gray-cheeked Thrush, for example, it is noted that "both sexes sing during courtship". Such tidbits of interesting trivia are fascinating to read.
Bird lovers are sure to learn more about each one featured in this book and the drawings deserve to be showcased, perhaps with the book open on a table or a book stand. It is simply that extraordinary!
A complete Bibliography and list of references complete this book, along with some suggestions for materials useful in identifying birds. Quite a find for the birdwatcher!

James Fenwick Lansdowne of Victoria, British Columbia, is one of the leading bird artists of his generation. Still under thirty, he has produced some of the finest portraits ever made of North American birds. Scientifically accurate, they are also works of art: original in concept, imaginative in treatment, full of action and life. Now for the first time Lansdowne's bird paintings are made available in superb full-color reproductions with accompanying text by the well-known ornithologist and former Executive Director of the Audubon Society of Canada, John A. Livingston. Birds of the Northern Forest contains fifty-six plates printed in six colors. The half-title pages, one for each plate, carry Lansdowne's pencil sketches. Each color plate covers a full page given to a single bird, occasionally a pair, along with appropriate background detail. In each instance the page opposite carries the descriptive text. The subjects run from waterfowl, game birds and birds of prey to the more familiar thrushes, finches, sparrows and warblers.

The book has been manufactured in Italy with scrupulous attention to all its aspects, from paper and binding to the reproduction of the illustrations them selves. The artist's original conception and execution have been captured with extraordinary fidelity.

Fortunately birds recognize no political boundaries. Though both artist and writer are Canadian, the species they portray are well known in the United States. This magnificent book is created in continental, not national terms. Later volumes are planned to focus on other regions of North America.


J. F. IANSDOWNE

Born in Hong Kong of British missionary parents, J. Fenwick Lansdowne came to Canada in 1940 and was educated in Victoria, British Columbia. He became interested in birds at a very young age and studied birds and their anatomy for a year at the Provincial Museum in Victoria.

Lansdowne is now recognized as one of the fore most bird painters in the world. His paintings have been exhibited at major galleries and museums including the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto; Audubon House, New York; the Brooke Bond Centres in Toronto and Montreal; the Kennedy Galleries in New York; the Tryon Galleries, Lon don, England; and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The city of Victoria presented one of his paintings to the Princess Royal in 1962, and other paintings have been acquired by such collections as Audubon House, the Beaverbrook Foundation, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Ulster Museum, Belfast, Ireland, the Art Gallery of Victoria and numerous private collections including that of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.



JOHN A. LIVINGSTON

A lifelong naturalist, conservationist, and wildlife photographer, John A. Livingston was born in Hamilton, Ontario and graduated with his B.A. from the University of Toronto. After serving in the RCNVR in the Second World War, he be came Executive Director and later President of the Audubon Society of Canada. He has been editor of Canadian Audubon magazine, and for seven years wrote and narrated "Audubon Outdoors", a weekly radio program on conservation and natural science. An executive producer for the CBC, Livingston has also written many scripts for television including two award-winning series, "Explorations" and "The Nature of Things."

Livingston's love of birds has led him to study them in twenty-seven countries on five continents. He is at present a trustee and Treasurer of The Nature Conservancy of Canada, a Director of the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, a member of the Commission on Education of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and is also co-editor of a new ecology series entitled The Naturalist's America.