Youth Books

This book touches my heart. It is so typical of the many children who are lost through the cracks by our educational system. It shows real courage on the mother's part for never giving up on her son even in his darkest moments. The family was drawn into Brian's World as victims of circumstance.
So many children and their families suffer because their child has learning disabilities and most educational systems seem to turn a blind eye as our precious children turn to drugs and suicide to escape the torment and torture that awaits them inside our schools and at the hands of peers and authorities alike.
Brian was a bright young man who learned to cope the best way he knew how as he drifted through the cruel world in which he lived. I laughed at his antics and cried with his mother as she struggled to save her precious son.
I believe this is a book for all to read from 12 to 99 and especially for educators. I think Brian's short life has a message we need to hear before it is too late for yet another of our young people.
A must read to add to your summer list of reading materials you won't be able to put it down until you finsih. ...

"Brian's World" by far is one of the best written true stories I have ever read. Throughout the entire reading I felt the author was sitting beside me and telling me her story. She writes as though she was talking directly to me and you can feel it comes right from her heart with total honesty. Throughout reading "Brian's World" I found myself not being able to lay it down for any length of time; when I did lay it down I was right back with it in my hand and reading, just wanting to know more about this fine young troubled youth whose mother loved him unconditionally from the beginning of his life to the end. I recommend "Brian's World" to all parents around the world.

Catherine Roberts writes courageously about her struggle to protect, support and encourage her son from illness in infancy through learning disabilities to drug and alcohol addiction. Catherine faced the many challenging situations in raising a learning-disabled child with grace and dignity and ALWAYS with her son's best interests at heart. She shares with us hers and Brian's tale, honestly, truthfully and frankly. The book is chock-full of emotion and interspersed with pain and humour.

Catherine Roberts writes courageously about her struggle to protect, support and encourage her son from illness in infancy through learning disabilities to drug and alcohol addiction. Catherine faced the many challenging situations in raising a learning-disabled child with grace and dignity and ALWAYS with her son's best interests at heart. She shares with us hers and Brian's tale, honestly, truthfully and frankly. The book is chock-full of emotion and interspersed with pain and humour.

I laughed, I cried, I felt the pain of Brian and his mother as they journyed through life trying to find a place where Brian would fit in. I know this story all too well and I could relate to all the turmoil that this family faced. I could feel their pain as teachers and authorities alike labeled Brian and condemed him. I cried as peers tormented and ridiculed this loving caring child. It was the fact that Brian was taken from an outgoing child model to the depths of substance abuse as he looked for peer acceptance that broke my heart. I wanted to shake him many times as he manipulated his loving mother to get his own way. He certainly learned the system and how to play it at the expense of his mom. But through it all she showed Brian unconditional love and acceptance never faultering or giving up on her precious youngest child. When you read some of the funny things Brian did as he grew into his teenage years, it is hard to realize that he understood the english language so litterly in its content. Brian was a very bright child who thought very seriously about the future and what he wanted even as a child. I loved the story about him at about age 10 when attending a business meeting/ tour of Weyerhauser he asked the Weyerhauser representitive how much money he earned. But his explanation for the question was extremely well thought out for a ten year old. I also enjoyed and laughed through the story of Brian's practice driving his fathers antique car and then after getting hooked on the garage painted it with wood paint and a paint brush in hopes no one would notice. I was apaulled to learn that Brian after being rehabilitated for 10 months in juvenille hall was let out with no place to go and no support form the system. This is so typical of what happens to many of our youth today. I commend Catherine on a job well done. I would recommend this book to all from teens through seniors. My grandmother read this book as did some of my students and all of us gave rave reviews. I would recommend that all teachers and people working with troubled youth especially the youth justice system take the time to read Brian's World. You won't be able to put it down until you get to the back cover. I can't wait to read Catherine's next book.

I teach reading, and I like Rylant's work. For me, BIBBA was personal. Rylant grew up near where my father's family lived for generations. My Dad left to escape the poverty-- he didn't want to be a miner like his Dad. As I grew up in Utah, I knew very little about my Dad's early life.
BIBBA was a wonderful read, especially since Rylant is only a few years older than me. I vividly remember Bobby Kennedy's charisma, and the shock of his death. There are many places in BIBBA to cry-- when Rylant's father dies just before she is to see him for the first time in many years, for example. There is also the simple joy of that first kiss, and all those little moments of growing up. Read this book!

If you loved sharing Cynthia Rylant's Henry and Mudge books with your kids, do yourself a favor and read this memoir of growing up in Appalachia. I was delighted to find Ms. Rylant's talent for telling tales of simple magic at work again in this personal story. You might also enjoy reading Missing May, and CYnthia Rylant's other books for older children and young adults. She is a very special writer whose writing for kids is clearly not her only gift.

Focusing almost exclusively on her childhood and adolescence, Rylant describes growing up in the small town of Beaver, West Virginia. She was abandoned by her beloved father, an alcoholic, at age three, and sent to live with her grandparents between the ages of four and eight, while her mother went to nursing school. The heartbreak of losing her parents so young is the reason she became a writer: to help her make sense of life. Rylant discusses her passion for the Beatles, Bobby Kennedy, and kissing. A sensitive, often humorous piece of self-revelation by a fine writer. Includes personal photos and drawings that evoke the Beatles era in a scrapbook style.

"But I'll Be Back Again" is the autobiography of Cynthia Rylant, who writes books for young people. In BIBBA, Rylant recalls her childhood and adolescence in West Virgina. The book opens with her mother's separation from Cynthia's alcoholic father. Rylant goes on to discuss her extended family, her friendships, her heroes, her youthful sexual awakening, etc.

One intriguing aspect of the book is the way Rylant reveals how people and issues from her childhood eventually were reflected in her works of fiction. This is a short book, but well complemented by 16 pages of photos and documents from Rylant's childhood. Rylant's style is frank and direct, yet also demonstrates grace and tenderness. Overall, a fine book.

Any young person who admires Cynthia Rylant's books should treat themselves to this book. Anyone who writes, or who wants to write, should read this story of a young girl who becomes a writer. Full of wonderfully detailed stories and snippets of her life; this book is a joy.

This is a new and exciting book with colorful characters! I hope this is the beginning of an adventure with Adam. Randy Haynes has the ability to bring the characters to life. This reader wants to have more!

This is an excellent mystery that introduces a new hero, who I hope will appear in a series of books. The atmosphere will draw you in. I am looking forward to the next book.

It took W. Randy Haynes five years to write his first mystery, but the effort was worth it. The first time "out of the gate," as he says, he garnered a selection as a finalist for the prestigious 2006 Lambda Literary Award. Haynes is a disabled Vietnam vet who found time on his hands during the long Lake Tahoe winters. But Haynes is originally a Texan, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a member of the Cherokees of California and started up
a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Lake Tahoe. He is presently working
on a sequel to CAJUN SNUFF.

Special Agent Adam Stephen is inexplicably tapped by his somewhat boorish boss to investigate the mutilation murder of a U.S. Congressman who happens to be Black. On his way to New Orleans, Adam meets up with a woman named Adaline Fontenot, a widow from New Orleans, who not only opens doors for him during his investigation, but who will change his life forever:
"'Mr. Herndon? I'm Adam Stephen. I really appreciate your talking to me."

Adam handed over the letter of introduction.

'Come in.' The man unlocked the office door and turned on the lights. The office was unsophisticated but functional. Herndon took a seat behind the desk and motioned for Adam to sit in a chair. 'So, you're a friend of Ms. Fontenot, huh? How did you get so highly connected?'

'It was an accident. We met on a flight to New Orleans, and I've visited her home since. She's well-known in the state?'

'You could say that. Ada is the power behind the progressive politics here in Louisiana. She prefers to work behind the scenes and avoids publicity.'"

CAJUN SNUFF is an understated, yet passionate whodunit that is character-driven and examines the politics of the South and the attempt by right-wing zealots to take over our country. Adam Stephen is a dreamboat of a character who is both as spicy as New Orleans and, at the same time, is vulnerable and strong. When Adam meets up with Homer, a neurotic bloodhound with separation anxiety, Haynes injects just the right amount of humor to enliven and lighten the tale. But Adam and Homer bond, Adam saves the day, and Haynes sees fit to give us a reverse ending. CAJUN SNUFF is extremely well done and is a great little tale full of intrigue and local color.

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer

Having been raised on a bayou in Louisiana, gone to school in Lafayette and lived in New Orleans for 22 years I found Mr. Haynes book fascinating, imaginative and insightful of the darker side of Louisiana Politics, criminal aspects plus the goodness of Southern hospitality. The characters are from every aspect of life in Louisiana, from down home country people through the flamboyant Gallery owner to the bigots, criminals and every other group that populates the landscape.

This is a great murder mystery with many twists and turns. The descriptions of the locations are wonderful with great details. I am looking forward to the next book with Adam Stephens.

I can only hope that this is the first of many mysteries to be produced by Mr. Haynes. The lead character Adam Tyler Stephen is a fascinating blend of sleuth, hard-nose FBI agent, and a sexy single gay guy. He solves the mystery of the murder of a Congressman, and in the process upsets most of officialdom in Washington, at FBI headquarters, New Orleans, and the Louisana bayous. In the process, he befriends the doyen of New Orlean's Garden District, a sassy FBI secretary, an aged butler, and a college age gay kid who is allegedly a Neo-Nazi. Needless to say, the convoluted plot keeps the reader guessing until the very last few pages.

The character development of Adam is such that he could theoretically become a new gay super slueth if his creator decides to make him such. I can only hope that there are more stories for Adam in Mr. Haynes imagination.

'Car Chases and Fake Bologna' is a book that really meant a lot to me. As a teenager myself, from the very first page I couldn't help but think, 'hey, this is me!'. I followed every page and felt as though I weren't alone in the world. Feelings and emotions I could see in myself kept me with it the whole way through. I can truthfully say that I didn't once put the book down while reading it, even reading it through a second sitting the next day. The poetry inside is both serious and light-hearted - an entry for every emotion I can think of. Its one of those things you feel you can grow up with - the more you read, the more the author ages, and the closer you become to it. I am very, very fond of this book, and I HIGHLY recommend it to anybody out there, regardless of what you’re used to reading. Its worth it.

Car Chases and Fake Bologna, which quickly became a favorite read of mine, finally tells the real story of what life is like for an american youth. The experiences, stories and emotions feel so real because they are real, not semi-true memories of long ago. I found myself laughing, feeling lighthearted and sorrowful throughout the whole book and it was so easy to connect to the author. So many of her emotions were the same that I was experiencing but still the author was so original and creative kept me turning the page for more. As I said before this is one of my favorite books and I highly recommend Car Chases and Fake Bologna for anyone looking for a refreshing, sincere, and often humerous take on the real life of america's youth.

I love poetry and I have to say I liked this book. It has something for everyone. From love poems to ones of silliness to those reflecting anger and hatred. Some make you wonder how sane the author is, but others make you smile so truly that you really don't care. I can't wait to read her next book.

I have read and reread this book and find it utterly fascinating. It is an insight into the mind of an American youth, but it is not a childish book, nor does it suffer the revisionist flaws of an adult reminiscing about their youth. It is a collection of thoughts written by a young girl with the ability to communicate her feelings. The poetry ranges from silly to passionate and back again (I love "Demon Girl"). It is a very good read, but be careful, she will charm you - after all, she is a witch.

A great new book by one of my favorite authors. This girl is going to be famous one day.
Her first published collection, Marie's Book of Spells, wasn't really to my taste but this is exactly the sort of thing I like to see. A peek into the mind of an American youth through poems and journal entires. Always honest and vastly entertaining. I'm eagerly waiting to see what she comes out with next.

The Children's Ministry Resource Bible is the best. With all the helpful lessons in it, right with the text, anyone can easily teach an evangelistic or discipleship lesson for children. There are more resources in in that I have ever used and I have had one for over 10 years. A constant friend and companion for a Bible teacher for children, my Children's Ministry Bible is the totally the BEST!!

Special features: "The Wordless Book" uses colors to present the gospel message *Teacher Training section shows how to communicate Bible stories simply *Lesson outlines *Footnotes clarify important terms, phrases, and ideas *Concordance *Color maps *Presentation page *and more! size 6 1/2" x 9 1/2" x 1 1/2" 1760 pages hardcover from Nelson

I saw this at "Teaching Children Effectively" by Child Evangelism Fellowship. This looks like the perfect companion to the level 1 training. If you are a Sunday School teacher, Good News Club leader, AWANA Director, or Children's ministry worker, this is the book for you.

This resource is the best resource that I have seen. It is a great resouce for studing the bible as well as a resouce for teaching children.

This book is simply the New King James Version of the Holy Bible with a lot of extra's like good study notes, dozens of lesson plans, job aids, teacher training lessons, and other resources. It lives up to its title. I have used it for four years and have shared it with my Christian friends. A must have if you're a Sunday School teacher in a scripturely based church. Also a good tool for Christian Home School teachers.

This Bible is such a great resource! It's NKJ so it's a literal translation and there are footnotes for all the words kids might not understand. There are lessons throughout it that each present the gospel message in a way that both ties into the lesson and is clear for even very young children. I can't say enough good things about this Bible, even if you don't teach children, it is still an excellent resource. Anyone who has kids in their home or anyone who knows a kid should have this in their library.

This book was very nice: lovely pictures, gentle storyline that was also informative. I enjoyed it very much.

This is a great way for young and old to lean about sweet grass basket making! Perfect for late elementary school students.

The book's illustrations were very interesting and creative. The story line was an accurate dipiction of slavery and the history behind it. It connected strong family ties from generation to generation with the beautiful basket weaves and family customs. Those who are associated with the geography of the book can make a strong personal connection to the atmosphere of the book. For teaching purposes, it relates the importance of family history and bonds throught the generations. It also shows how far we've developed as a society. It would be part of our text set for slavery in our classroom.

If I were making a very short list of books to remember Charleston by, this would be on it. The language is lyrical and wonderful to read aloud. The illustrations are gorgeous. Both Raven and Lewis do a superb job of sharing the meaning of family ties across generations, as well as sharing the Gullah culture. I'm a newcomer to the Low Country, and I don't have any African heritage, but still, something in this story really resonated with me. Highly recommended!

We love the South Carolina Low Country, and are proud to own a number of sweetgrass baskets, most made by the same lady. This book was a wonderful find to share with my daughter, who is almost 4. The pictures are lovely, and the history is honest without being too brutal for younger listeners. Older readers will certainly get the depth of the slave history, while it serves as a good introduction for the younger. I found it to be a poetic and lyrical read, and a good explanation of how the art of Low Country coil basket weaving (also known as Charleston sweetgrass basket weaving) has been passed down.

Frank McCourt must've penned a primer for those who write autobiographies profiling their rise out of quintessential Irish childhood to become successful teachers, pub owners or actors in the Big Apple. If not, we'll develop a one, having slogged through a few Irish experience autobiographies in the past few years. CROSSING HIGHBRIDGE, a soulful reflection penned by Maureen Waters, fits the bill. The first of her family not born in Ireland, Ms. Waters left a secure Irish Catholic Bronx neighborhood to become professor of English at Queens' College. In HIGHBRIDGE Waters revisits her old neighborhood and youth in an attempt to exorcise a few demons and make sense of tragic loss.

Speaking of school, name a primordial recollection that separates Catholic childhood experiences from those of the less fortunate. Stumped? Parochial school--does anything compare? I recall nuns swooping like hawks about the classroom slapping the ten-thumbed hands of boys while praising the girls, all who had mastered the fine motor skill control requisite to master the Palmer method of penmanship And priests, remember their surprise visits? They dashed about classrooms rooting out the heathens who failed to memorize today's catechism. Waters pens a charming reunion visit to that school we loved, where Sister Immaculata, or Sister Alvera, or Sister Whoever, ruled the roost with an iron claw, er, fist.

Waters infuses a recognizable dose of Irish Catholic guilt. To wit: "You want to be a teacher? Are you daft Maureen? The proper thing, young lady, is to save yourself, marry a decent man and have a dozen children!" Or the refrain heard by many a young Irish lad, "Pat, the family hasn't ordained a priest in two generations. Your mother and I want you to consider the seminary." Familial guilt threads its way through CROSSING HIGHBRIDGE.

No growing-up-Irish spiel should lack a smattering of old-country angst, and it doesn't hurt to parade a skeleton or two out of the family closet in the offing. Forced by her father to work the family farm at an age when she should've been in school, Water's Mayo-born mother exuded the lifelong melancholy of lost opportunity; melancholy she wore on her shirtsleeve. According to Waters, an aunt told her that her maternal grandfather beat the six daughters, including Maureen's mother, Agnes. Also prone to unleashing impressive levels of violence, maternal grandpa Ruane was once hush-hushed off to a mental institution. Further, Water's father, Daniel, witnessed his share of perverse Black and Tan justice and senseless political murder while caught in the flame of Ireland's republican fire of the 1920s. Waters also lost an uncle in a failed attack on a Sligo military garrison during the Free State revolution. There's more--but perhaps these are skeletons better left in the closet.

Which leads us to the subject of humor rampant in Irish tragicomedy. CROSSING HIGHBRIDGE is bound with all the Irish charm and storytelling one would expect---but not the leprechaun-like humor. Waters might've survived unscathed an abusive marriage, the lofty expectations of the Church, the vagaries of a difficult mother, and a professional career bound by the shackles of sexism, but the loss of a son in a tragic accident stopped her in her tracks. Waters wrote CROSSING HIGHBRIDGE, she offers, as a step to recovery and to pay homage to those who had gone before her. Writing with the passion of someone who needs to unlock the past in order to make sense of the present, she keeps an optimistic eye on the future. CROSSING HIGHBRIDGE is a worthwhile read.

Along with her title of Professor of English, Maureen Waters' résumé includes, Director of Irish Studies at Queens College in New York.

I was able to identify with nearly everything Miss Waters wrote about her Irish Catholic upbringing in Highbridge, because I too came from the same place, and I knew her sister Agnes many, many years ago. However, if I had not had the privilege of knowing Maureen and her literary family, I would still have been able to appreciate the writer's gift of style where she combined gracefully, history, philosophy, religion along with the socioeconomic conditions of the 1940's and 1950's growing up in Highbridge.

This profoundly moving memoir of growing up Irish/Catholic/female in the midcentury Bronx began with the author's need to understand the loss of her son to accidental death by drugs and alcohol. As she puts it, "the drive to piece together cause and effect was a belief that I had far more power than I actually did for good or ill." She sifts the past out of psychological necessity, desperate, guilty, and finds ordinary treasure: in human characters - her father, an immigrant from Sligo, her mother from Mayo, a feisty and lovable little sister, Agnes, and, above all, in her beautiful and enigmatic lost child of the flaming red hair, Brian Patrick - and also in their brave and lonely human places (Highbridge on Hudson, Long Island). She looks back for clues to her loss from the perspective of a divorced single mother trying to juggle children and hold her own in academe (she's now a professor of English). Memory sifted through the prism of such luminous prose and honest emotion offers a gentle and moving consolation to this reader. The story of the author's Catholic journey, from insider - the parish was Sacred Heart - to outsider is told with devastating brevity. I'll never forget the final image of women's exclusion. It rings so true. The abyss is present in Waters' world, but to me this is a book of hope

This beautiful memoir of growing up Irish-Catholic-female in the Bronx at midcentury began with the author's tragic loss of one of her sons to an accidental death from drugs and alcohol. In order to survive herself, she must understand: "The drive to piece together cause and effect was a belief that I had far more power than I actually did for good or ill." The bereaved mother, who is also a professor of English, sifts her past for answers. She uncovers the treasure of human characters (her father, Daniel Waters, an immigrant from Sligo, her mother from Mayo; her rebel little sister, Agnes) in their brave and lonely human settlement (Highbridge on the Hudson). She looks back on the cost of parenting alone as a divorced young mother and trying to hold her own in academe. The consolation that memory - and Waters' luminous prose - makes for her and for this reader is profoundly moving. The story of her Catholic journey, in particular, the movement from insider - the parish was Sacred Heart - to outsider, is especially strong: she tells it with a devastating brevity and one final image that I'll never forget. It rings so true. This is a courageous book about loss in which you come to see that what remains is, after all, a matter of life understood and hope.

I could relate to nearly everything that Miss Waters wrote about in Crossing Highbridge, because I came from that Irish Catholic enclave, I knew the Waters family long ago, and I went to Sacred Heart with Maureen's sister, Agnes.

Maureen Waters is a gifted writer who combines history, philosophy, religion, and the socio-econimic conditions in a working class environment in the 1940's and 1950's, with utter grace, and at the same time, the reader can experience some strong emotions of saddness and joy.

"The Dark Side of Hopkinsville" is a collection of short stories written by the distinguished African American journalist Ted Poston. Mr. Poston was a reporter for the New York Post for years. When joined the paper, he became the first black reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper.

Theodore Roosevelt Augustus March Poston spent his early years in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the youngest of eight children. His parents were educators with his father often called upon to settle disputes of fact among the men of the local community.

These stories are about segregation, the complexion game, social pretension and how silly these issues really are. Set in the early twentieth century, they cover the final idyllic years of Ted's childhood before the death of his mother. These stories are not angry, they are humorous and entertain as well as educate.

The character's are vivid and well developed. Mr. Poston is efficient yet thorough in developing them vividly in remarkably few words. There's Rat Joiner, Ted's best friend from Billy Goat Hill. Rat is Huck Finn to Ted's Tom Sawyer. There's Mrs. Nixola Green head of the `Blue Vein Society'. The membership was reserved for Negroes of light-complexion enough to see their veins. Knee Baby Watkins a kid that absolutely, positively refuses to walk. Mr. Fertilizer Ferguson who's rough exterior (and smell) hides his entrepreneurial genius. The humorous cast of characters goes on.

This slim volume necessarily includes "The Revolt of the Evil Fairies" Ted's most anthologized story. (If you haven't read it, you know nothing about African-American literature.) In it he rebels against the complexion discrimination perpetrated by Black people by other Black people in the context of a school play.

Mr. Poston led a long and successful career as a journalist. This reviewer just wishes he'd written more fiction than this gem he has left us.

While this book is about life for a Black child in rural Knetucky in the early 1990s, much of this will be easy for people of almost any background to relate to.

This look on a Black child's life is not entirely the fun stuff of Bill Cosby's Fat Albert or the grimness and despair of Richard Wright's Black Boy, but it combines the good and the bad to prevent it from being either rose-colored memories or gloom-despair-and agony-on-me. We get the fun of beign a kid and palying games and getting into srapes with your friends as welll as the brutal racism and classism of the times in whcih Ted Poston had lived. This would make a good cartoon series or movie (anyone at Disney listening)?

In either case, it would be a good idea of older folks from the pre-television era would read this book with the kids and talk about it afterwards.

Truly one of the most fascinating books of the decade. It is the African American version of The Little Rascals. It is an amazing tale of friendship, and a community that truly lives the African proverb, "It takes a whole village to raise a child." This books gives meaning the prejudices even within the same race and social class in a fun loving,yet serious way. The Dark Side of Hopkinsville should be read by children of all ages. The adventures of several friends during the turn of the century will affix your mind to yester year. It will bring back memories of your childhood and the wonderful experiences you shared with your closets classmates and friends. You will remember the times you "cut out", of school to go fishing or perhaps wish you would have. There are stories that you haven't told for perhaps decades. Reading this book will recall familiar stories from days gone by, it will make you smile, laugh, cry and at times wonder why. But, through it all you will realize that you made it over and suddenly you are here and you are still here. As I read the story it helped me realize that although things change they somehow stay the same. There is really nothing new under the sun. There is a Rat Joiner who still whipps the Kaiser. Some people are meant to stay alive even after they are gone so generations after generations can meet them, they are meant to be known for ever, such is the case with the characters in this book.

Truly one of the most fascinating books of the decade. It is the African American version of The Little Rascals. It is an amazing tale of friendship, and a community that truly lives the African proverb, "It takes a whole village to raise a child." This books gives meaning the prejudices even within the same race and social class in a fun loving,yet serious way. The Dark Side of Hopkinsville should be read by children of all ages. The adventures of several friends during the turn of the century will affix your mind to yester year. It will bring back memories of your childhood and the wonderful experiences you shared with your closets classmates and friends. You will remember the times you "cut out", of school to go fishing or perhaps wish you would have. There are stories that you haven't told for perhaps decades. Reading this book will recall familiar stories from days gone by, it will make you smile, laugh, cry and at times wonder why. But, through it all you will realize that you made it over and suddenly you are here and you are still here. As I read the story it helped me realize that although things change they somehow stay the same. There is really nothing new under the sun. There is a Rat Joiner who still whipps the Kaiser. Some people are meant to stay alive even after they are gone so generations after generations can meet them, they are meant to be known for ever, such is the case with the characters in this book.

As a child my grand-daddy "Rat Joiner" often called Ted Poston's name and I never paid close attention that he was a real person and best friend to my grand-daddy. After growing up leaving home, my mother Anna Joiner Harvey "Rat Joiner's" daughter, informed me that a lady by the name of Kathleen Hauke came to Hopkinsville interviewed many residents and initiated a book signing of "The Dark Side Of Hopkinsville". As I eagerly read the book in one sitting I happily recalled some of the stories grand-daddy told of Ted Poston over the years. The annedotes are heart warming and so real to almost anyone who lived in a southern or rural setting. The experiences and relationships forged in the book among the various characters can be applicable to most of our lives. The challenges that were over come by the characters as children encourage us all that life is one test after the next. With deep rooted faith,family and friends we can overcome any obstacles in life. This is evident in that Ted Poston and Theodore Roosevelt "Rat" Joiner, came from such humble beginnings and made outstanding contributions in life. Ted became a noted author and reporter and "Rat Joiner" left a long line of descendents (over 350 grand and great-grand children alone).

My mother gave me this book when I turned 12. I would not have made it through the next 6 years without it.

I read this book when I was 12-13, it was published in one of the Russian teen magazines. Honestly! I don`t know if I could survive at some points of my teenage years without it.GREAT thanks to Dee Snider! My oldest boy just starts his difficult years and I will get him this book at all costs. It`s a bit pricey here, and very difficult to find. I wonder if it ever was re-edited. If not - it should.Actually, I think they HAVE to include this book in school program.It would save us parents so much trouble!

This is Dee Snider at his finest. I agree with the other viewer who said that this book should have been handed out in junior highs. I wish I'd had this book when I was a kid, it would've helped me through the rough spots. I picked this up at [a thrift store] for $.10 simply based on the sheer fact of the ridiculousness of the cover, but the actual text inside is fantastic.

Two thumbs up, Dee Snider, you are a god amongst men.

This book is the greatest book ever written for teenagers. Any teenager, no matter how popular or how outcast could get a lot out of this book. Dee Snider did a terrific job with his light hearted humor and his very true insights. Any teenager will be amazed at how much they can relate to this book. Dee also does an excellent job of helping the reader with such things as making friends, becoming less shy...etc. If you can, I would highly recommend buying this book, you could read it over and over.

My grandmother gave me this book for Christmas when I was 14 (I'm 23 now). The book is funny, honest, informative, and extremely well researched. Although some statistics may be out of date, the basic information is still true. The book provides information, resources, personal anecdotes, and jokes about hard-to-talk-about-with-your-parents issues like sex, drugs, masturbation, dating, suicide, school problems, family problems, peer pressure, and self esteem. And it's pretty gosh darn funny. I would feel comfortable giving this book to a 13 year old. After all, my Irish Catholic Grandmother gave me this book

I can't say enough about the wisdom in this book. Perfectly applicable for today's Christian workers and the environment in which they work. Anywone working with children in church should have a resource like this. This author obviously knows what she is talking about. She is an exremely talented and devoted Christian teacher. I also suggest her other book called Touching Hearts Touching Lives. The biography alone makes it extremly valuable to anyone considering persuing teaching as a career. A lot of wisdom and love has been poured into both of these books.

I volunteered to teach a class of four year olds for a year in a church ministry. Seven of the kids were great, but one little boy's behavior made me regret my decision, and his behavior started affecting the other boys. I picked this book up at a Children's Ministry Seminar, and it changed everything. I instituted the suggestions in this book, and the difference was almost miraculous. Not only did I understand the boy better, but the suggestions worked! I saw change immediately, and the boy's behavior continued to be good as long as I was consistent. The year turned out to be a blessing to me and to the kids. He was a sweet boy who was always excited to see "his teacher," and he said he'd miss me over the summer.

It's a great book. It helped me understand the different types of kids... and how they learn differently... Now I can spot a learning type from across the room... really helped me understand the "wiggly" kid...

The Discipline Guide is an excellent source for anyone who is working with children. It can be used for teacher training. The book covers a variety of areas in discipline. The authors incorporate all the aspects of a child's whole person in a concise and understandable way. This book will change your thinking and will forever help in working with children. I really enjoyed reading the book and plan to use it when I train teachers in church. It can be used in a variety of ways, from sunday school to daycare.

The Discipline Guide is an excellent source for anyone who is working with children. It can be used for teacher training. The book covers a variety of areas in discipline. The authors incorporate all the aspects of a child's whole person in a concise and understandable way. This book will change your thinking and will forever help in working with children. I really enjoyed reading the book and plan to use it when I train teachers in church. It can be used in a variety of ways, from sunday school to daycare.