Youth Books

Originally published in 1991, and now featuring a new introduction by award-winning author Shirley Abbott, The Bookmaker's Daughter: A Memory Unbound is the poignant memoir of a daughter remembering her father, growing up in Arkansas in the 30's and 40's. Her father survived the tough times of the depression not through the trade of physically making books, but rather through the business of gambling and horse racing. Yet The Bookmaker's Daughter is about books in another way; the father who once read to his young daughter and stimulated her imagination saw her outgrow her small home town and head for New York City after graduation, against his wishes. A heartfelt tale of family bonds thicker than water, stronger than time.

I read her story when it was first published, also lost it after lending it to a friend. Since I didn't remember the author or title, it was left as a memory of a book I enjoyed both for the story AND the word-craft. I would compare the satisfaction of reading this bood with that of "Daughters and Rebels" (Also published as Hons and Rebels) by Jessica Mitford. Suddenly, last night, the title popped into my head, and here I am, ordering it for myself and several friends and daughters...

I read this book several years ago.I lent it to a co-worker who moved away from this area.Unfortunately,we lost touch & I lost my book.Recently,I purchased a new copy for myself & am just now getting around to rereading it.I strongly identify with the writer,even though our lives are very different.Her love for her father touches me deeply.I will always prefer to read a biography or autobiography to fiction any day.

This small book should be must reading for those, both Northerners and Southerners, who want to know why we Southerners think like we do. Dr. Bolsterli's book about growing up in the 30's and 40's in the Arkansas Delta is wonderful. In writing about race, food, violence, the Confederacy, family, etc., she hits a lot of targets. At the risk of being trite, you will indeed laugh and cry. I suggest to better experience the book that it be read while eating a bowl of pot likker with some cornbread crumbled up in it. Buttermilk might also be helpful

Very much like my childhood, sans the farm. A wonderfully written memoir that would make an excellent gift to anyone who grew up in the South before integration. The phrase "common" was something I learned as a child - to be "common" was to bring shame or disgrace to one's self and family. "Don't do that, Rachel," my friend's mother said "it's common." No other explanation was needed.

The carefree childhood days of Bolsterli's (and my own) South are gone now, having long been replaced by asphalt, industry, and the complexities that seem to be a necessary part of modernization. Bolsterli tells of daring feats with neighbor children, of playing without the constant adult supervision that is a must for today's child. I well remember long afternoons spent in our neighborhood, without anyone worried about my whereabouts, let alone my safety. Then there is the dark time, a murder in the family, with the polite perceptions and differing accounts - it's all there and Bolsterli tells it so well.

A good book to read at least once more.

As I child, I passed by the author's childhood home many times when visiting my friends the Rices in nearby Watson, Arkansas. There were always brief comments about the stately Southern home at the end of the long drive and the important, cultured family that had lived there for generations. So, when I first read BORN IN THE DELTA, immediately after it was published, my reaction was partly personal.

It is a beautifully crafted portrait of unique aspects of the Southern culture that still persists in the Mississippi Delta region. Each chapter tells a readable, retell-able story about everyday topics that range from the manners we taught our children, to Southern cooking at home. From the meaningfulness to children of a lively backyard pond, to the way proud Southern families artfully coped with the financial stresses of a volatile agricultural economy. And each chapter is more colorful, more rich with imagery, more authentic than the one before.

Berstoli's book is also informed by her deep knowledge of language and sociology. Her years in the University of Arkansas' English department provided a platform for continued research into Southern communication styles and social conventions. She has localized this book to a very small sub-region (focused in and around Desha County in Southeast Arkansas), which allows for observations that are much more precise than the popular, overgeneralized Southern stereotypes.

If I taught a class in American History, I would certainly include BORN IN THE DELTA as a text.

This is an outstanding book, for professionals and casual readers alike. Dr. Woods breaks down the taboo of teenage suicide with personal anecdotes and a truly engaging style. She shows us that this subject, which might make us cringe, is a very real part of our world, with impacts ranging from the quiet lives of individual families to headline-grabbing events such as the Columbine massacre. Rock music lyrics, a teenager's internal tug-of-war between pressure to achieve and desire not to disappoint, gender- all these aspects and others are brought into the open and discussed in a way that is both interesting and scientifically sound.
The entire book is solidly supported with references from medical and scientific journals, yet the author's writing style makes this book completely engaging and a truly absorbing read. It is an empowering book: it not only lists signs that can indicate a greater risk for teen suicide, but goes on to describe ways of addressing them- some original and logical "do's" and "don'ts". Overall, I loved this book because of the undeniable importance of the subject and the author's terrific writing style.

A subject rarely talked about in public and even less in schools. Teenage suicide is a problem that we must actively deal with. Dr. Woods gives insight into the many ways that we as individuals can make a difference in another person's life and possibly prevent another person from taking their own life. Dr. Woods explores many cases of teenage suicide showing many different view points of triggers that can lead to suicide - signs to look out for and possible approaches to handle them. It is commonly believed that depression is the sign to look for in a person who is considering suicide. Often this is not the case as Dr. Woods illustrates.
The book does not cover all the reasons for suicide such as side effects of a medication, nor does it claim to be the definitive encyclopedia on the subject. More importantly it sheds a light on an epidemic that is prevalent in our society and should be discussed towards prevention and positive action.
This is an important book that parents and adults who work children with should read.

A subject rarely talked about in public and even less in schools. Teenage suicide is a problem that we must actively deal with. Dr. Woods gives insight into the many ways that we as individuals can make a difference in another person's life and possibly prevent another person from taking their own life. Dr. Woods explores many cases of teenage suicide showing many different view points of triggers that can lead to suicide - signs to look out for and possible approaches to handle them. It is commonly believed that depression is the sign to look for in a person who is considering suicide. Often this is not the case as Dr. Woods illustrates.
The book does not cover all the reasons for suicide such as side effects of a medication, nor does it claim to be the definitive encyclopedia on the subject. More importantly it sheds a light on an epidemic that is prevalent in our society and should be discussed towards prevention and positive action.
This is an important book that parents and adults who work children with should read.

Written by high school teacher and principal Sam Shumate, The Bridge Crew is a memoir of growing up in a Blue Ridge mountain village in the 1940's and 50's. In an era before television, video games, personal computers, and personal automobiles, the kids met under a pedestrian walkway to plan activities to entertain themselves - from building huge spider webs on the bridge to oiling the tracks to watch the "Virginia Creeper" attempt to leave the Warrensville depot. True tales of mischief, with some hijinks that were deadly serious at the time yet can be regarded with humor after years of reflection, make The Bridge Crew a nostalgic reminiscence of days of yore.

I love this book. First of all, it is by one of my former teachers at Northwest Ashe High School in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I grew up just a few miles from the author's home and the setting of this great book. My husband's family moved to Warrensville in the 60's when he was only a baby so he grew up with the colorful characters Mr. Shumate describes in such passionate and eloquent detail.

This is a must read for anyone who is from a small town and wants to drift back in time to a simpler life for "just a spell".

I am in awe of how the author paints a picture of life in this rural community. I read the book in one sitting, I laughed so hard in places that I thought I would hurt myself. Mr. Shumate is a captivating writer and I hope that we will see more from him.

This book took me back to a time and place I have only seen in my dreams. The descriptions and the family tales are truly exciting, interesting and the stuff western ledends are made of. What a wonderful family history and place. I plan on visiting in the near future.

The current generation of Selman's offer a retreat for birders, outdoors people and horse riders. I am looking forward to my late spring adventure along the Buffalo Creek.

If you are at all interested in natural history, history, the prairie, Oklahoma, or families in general, this is a book you will greatly enjoy. It 's also a beautiful book with generous numbers of great black and white photos. Definitely a "must read."

The Buffalo Creek Chronicles is a team effort, uniting the photographs and commentary of Don House, memoirs by Sue Selman and observations by Gary Lantz focusing on the personal, cultural and natural history of the Selman Ranch, some 16,000 acres of native prairie along Buffalo Creek in northwest Oklahoma.

The ranch dates back to when founder J.O. Selman herded longhorns up from Texas during the 1890s while he accumulated land of his own in the big, unfenced cattle country known as the Cherokee Strip.

J.O., or "Jimmy Few Clothes" as he was called due to the stark poverty that inspired him to join a trail drover crew at age 15, eventually amassed more than 60,000 acres between the North Canadian and Cimarron Rivers. Today Sue Selman's children represent the family's fourth generation to live and work on the ranch.

Lantz and House spent over a year exploring the ranch from every angle-on foot, through the window of a pickup truck, in the saddle, in a wagon pulled by a team of draft horses.

During that time they became acquainted with Selman family history, the sodbusters who lived in dugouts carved into dirt bluffs, pioneers who arrived here in covered wagons, epidemics that swept the countryside, plagues of grasshoppers, cowboys with a taste for whiskey, the last horseback bank robbery in Oklahoma, blizzards, dust storms, droughts. The authors found Indian artifacts and ancient buffalo bones half buried in the banks of Sleeping Bear Creek. They rode with the Selmans as they celebrated their family heritage during a two day longhorn cattle drive held on the ranch. The men dodged rattlesnakes, made the acquaintance of a few porcupines, helped guide hunters from as far away as Buffalo, New York and watched a remnant flock of lesser prairie chickens stage a spring courtship drama that once thundered from every suitable knoll stretching from the Cimarron River sandhills to the rainshadow of the Rockies.

A sampling of some of each can be found in this book, along with Sue Selman's recollections of growing up in the rough `n tumble Buffalo Creek cattle country during the 1950s, a time when little girls learned to rope as well as cope in what was traditionally a man's hard-edged, sunburned world.

This book is about cows, grass and a proud heritage and culture seeking new ways to survive. Fickle cattle markets have prompted Sue and her children to explore nontraditional land use practices, including fee hunting and nature tourism, to keep the family together and the ranch intact.

A special section devoted to Don House's black and white photographs seeks to portray the stark dignity of a landscape that oftentimes unnerves visitors due to the encircling bigness of it all. Capturing he Buffalo Creek country on film is an exercise in interpreting overpowering horizons, a landscape that must be dissected and examined in increments, then somehow visually and philosophically reconnected to grasp the sum of all the parts.

Don's camera examines not just the landscape, but also moments of time and space contained within that landscape. In addition to his contemporary photographs, he has judiciously selected and edited historical pictures that add faces and places to the personalities represented in the text.

The mission of the Buffalo Creek Chronicles was to write the biography of a ranch that continues to defy all odds and exist under the founder's name, along with the people, the plants, the animals and the weather that comprise the character of this particular place on earth. The Buffalo Creek country can have a hard edge to it, and the people must acquire a special toughness to survive here. Yet at the same time this land can be beautiful and brimming with life. The writers hope this book will give readers a new appreciation for not only our rapidly disappearing native grasslands, but also the ranchers who do so much to preserve what little remains

This is not a book for children. Rather it is a recollection of images and perceptions of the adult/child who survived the camps of World War Two to tell the tale. Cordelia Edvardson is a humanist who wants the world to abolish all that is inhumane most especially when it comes to children. She knows what its like to be taunted, terrified and have a tortured soul. A must for every policy maker, teacher, and whoever still believes in preserving a sane world.
glenys sugarman

This was just a great book. No books that I've read on this subject have been quite so compelling!

The author mesmerizes you with the simplicity and eloquence of her writing. She moves you with her childhood, her courage in the camps and the power of her spirit in returning to choose life again.

Charlotte's Story, written by Charlotte Arpis Niedhauk, edited by Mary-Alice Herbert, and published by Laurel and Herbert, is a fascinating page turner as well as an important historical document of how a young couple managed to exist alone on an isolated Florida Key in 1934-5. Their survival reminds one of the manner in which people lived before the advent of electricity, supermarkets, running water, or any of the modern conveniences. Their "store" was the beach, where they would look for and find what they needed from raw materials cast forth by the ocean. Charlotte's resourceful husband Russ would make such objects as a dipper from a coconut shell with a handle carved from a madiera limb, a windproof ashtray from the bottom of a shell, fish and lobster traps, kitchen cabinets, and even a jewelry box from a coconut for Charlotte from their "lumber store," the beach. City-bred Charlotte learned to cope with mosquitoes, sandflies, and scorpians, and even how to scull a boat. Their island home was visited by a potpouri of strange, often frightening characters, who threatened theri lives and made off with their property. No one who reads the book will ever forget the couple's experience in the terrible hurricane of Sept. 3, 1935. According to a newspaper report, the barometric pressure was the lowest ever recorded in thehistory of world weather. Excerpts are given from Russ's diary, i.e."Violent wind squalls lasting from 20 to 25 minutes. Sometimes with wind bursts to 70 or 80 miles per hour....Charlotte is sitting on the floor in the open doorway. She saw the tide receed 50 feet before each squall, and then return with a rush. Each time a little higher. No waves visible. The wind has blown the tops off. Afraid for our boat at high tide...The roof of the old house is blowing off in chunks. I can't stop it." After the hurricane was over, the couple decided that being alone on an island had lost its attraction for them, and decided it was time to return to the homeland. At the beginning of their sojourn on Elliott Key, Charlotte seems a naive, somewhat helpless young female. It was a delight to see her grow into a resourceful, independent woman who was an equal partner to her husband. She wrote her story from notes and memorabilia almost a quarter of a century after they left Elliott Key. The first edition of Charlotte's Story was published in different form by Exposition Press in 1973. When the book went out fo print, the clamor for it was so great that Laurel and Herbert republished and reedited it in 1998. This is a book for everyone, Florida Keys residents, tourists, feminists and macho men alike; in other words for simply everyone who loves a good read.

Simply a joy. I loved this book. The setting, the charactors, and the pace. The view of the lifestyle, history, and geography. It was a fun easy read that just couldnt be put down.

While seeking some new Keys Fiction I had the good fortune to have this gem of personal prose proposed by a good bookseller. Normally I like fiction, but I was desperate for a book to read beside the Gulf, and what a read it was. This is the Florida of legend, the roots of Hall, White and Corcoran can be found here. The difference is this is real. Islands with one owner, bootleggers, rum running, customs men, body dumping, good old boys and gals, boat "lighteners," conch lassoing, lime tree tending, chowder cooking and endless beach combing for demi-johns, mahogany, cedar, planks and boxes. All told in simple, straight-forward prose. What I am trying to put into words is that this is an enjoyable adventure in reality for those of us who like the fictional adventure of the contemporary Keys writers. Oh. and the wicked developers are not there yet, but the sense of their impending arrival is clearly here in the devil may care attitude many express who live in this wonderful piece of history.

Hey, I still think this is got to be one of the most awesome books written by a kid. The first edition is out of print but there's a second edition. Check out the writer's website: http://www.wendyisdell.com .

ntorous. The book being a great classroom utensil can teach wonders about science and math. I recommend this story to children who want to learn!

I read THE CHEMY CALLED AL and found it very intriguing on many different levels. I found its references to alchemy and to chemistry both accurate and surprisingly allegorical--the protagonist's journey itself is a journey into deep theoretical parts of the universe and the inner self. I purchased the book for my child, but found myself reading it for myself.

Dr. Turner writes with dry wit and intimate understanding of the beauty, complexity, and mystery of the Eastern Shore of VA.

Loved the book, couldn't wait for the next chapter. Easy to read. Turner has another book East of the Chesapeake and it is a must also. After you read the first one it's nice to check out his museum. In his books he has such an interest in people, he finds something interesting in anyone he seems to meet. Very enjoyable writer.

With the recent purchase of a 1926 farmhouse on Hoopers Island on Maryland's Eastern Shore, I wanted to learn more about life on the Bay. My family and I hoped this book would shed light on perhaps a gentler time, with a return to "the basics." William Turner has written a wonderful account of his life growing up on the Chesapeake Bay in the 40's and '50s. The stories are entertaining, with laughs, as well as gasps, as well as tears. My sons, ages 10 and 6, beg me to retell his stories on our drives to our new Eastern Shore retreat home. From bear sightings to pig butchering to duck hunting adventures to sinking boats in the dead of winter, William Turner paints vivid images in our minds of life on the Chesapeake Bay during a time of neighborly help and family closeness. He is an artist, and shares his sketches in this book as well, which further brings home the true meaning of his stories. This is a treasure!

Alex was an amazing man. I was privileged to meet and get to know him during the last year of his life. His wisdom, his honesty and his heart will never be forgotten my me or, I dare say, anyone who knew him. He gave me an autographed copy of his book and I have read it several times. This is not just a story, it's a remarkable man opening his heart, to share his experience, even though it hurt. He was never afraid of that pain, but faced it with courage, hope and a powerful love of life and the world and the people around him.

I heartily recommend this book, do read it.


Do Svidaniya, Rest in peace, Child of the Kulaks.

this book is sort of sad but it is also very suspicious and breathtaking i think that it is really good but its sad how many people die. two brothers go to china then to australian from russia.one dies but the other then returns to russia for a visit sixty years later!!!!

Alex Saranin's story is a vivid description of the first lost generation of Soviet Russia, millions of children lost their parents into the civil war, collectivization and other soviet human mills and it's aftermath. The great suffering endured by them and the waste of lives and souls is great evidence of these terrible whirling years into which a whole generation was engulfed.