Appearance
Clifford's First Valentine's Day
Five year old Claire, my great granddaughter, received this as a Valentine present from me. The day Amazon delivered the book, she called up to say that she loved the book, and proceeded to read the entire story to me, with only a little help from her seven year old sister. The girls have always enjoyed the Clifford books, and are so happy that they can now read them "all by myself."
Clifford's First Valentine's Day
My 1st graders love this book! It is one of the favorites of the Clifford series.
The Baby on the Way
This is a beautiful picture book featuring a black family living in a city. Jamal, a pre-tween asks his grandmother if she has ever been a child. She tells him that indeed, she was a child once and, at one time was even a baby on the way!Curious, Jamal asks her to tell more. His grandmother describes her own mother's pregnancy and her place in the family. His grandmother is the youngest of 10 children and she describes the joyous fanfare in preparation of her birth. Beautiful pictures illustrate the story; the characters' faces are delightfully expressive. Jamal's grandmother describes events from her early girlhood and tells Jamal that one day, he may have a child or grandchild who will ask him if he was ever the baby on the way.A loving story about the connection of family and traditions that will find a permanent place in the hearts of readers.
The Baby on the Way
Good picture books featuring African-American characters (particularly contemporary ones) are few and far between. They appear in spurts and splutters in the marketplace and unless they garner a prestigious award of some sort they sink back down into obscurity despite their own brilliance. When I consider the sheer swath of mediocre picture books featuring white children that take attention away from the really wonderful picture books featuring black children... it's enough to make a children's librarian physically ill. Now I'm a big Karen English fan. I consider her book, "Speak To Me (And I Will Listen Between the Lines)" to be perhaps the best little-read children's picture book available on the market today. My admiration was due in part to her own brilliant writing, and in part the illustrations of the accomplished Amy Bates. Now English has written another moving title that jumps with aplomb between the past and the present. She has also, however, been paired with illustrator Sean Qualls and the result is less brilliant than it might have been. A great book that fills a definite need, I regret that I can't recommend it as heartily as "Speak to Me" due to my own personal problems with its accompanying pictures.While gardening on their apartment building's rooftop garden, a question occurs to Jamal that had never quite come to him before. Was his grandmother ever a little girl? Ever a baby? To his evident surprise his grandma says that she was most definitely a baby once. Heck, she was once the baby on the way. With that Jamal begins to hear the story of how his grandmother was born. She was the tenth child her mother birthed and was born on a large family farm. A midwife had to be sent for and her father even left his plowing in the field to attend to the birth. When at last she was born, Jamal's grandma was the baby of the family. "You know, my feet hardly touched the ground my whole first two years. I was carried everywhere. Just passed around from person to person". And when Jamal has heard the story and the only sound left is the wail of a siren somewhere, he wonders if someone will ever ask HIM if he was once the baby on the way. Grandma says she hopes someone will and then proceeds to tell him the story of his own birth as well.In many ways, "The Baby On the Way" reminded me of another rural African-American midwifery title, "Missy Violet and Me" by Barbara Hathaway. Obviously "Missy Violet" is a book intended for older children, but the two work together especially well. In her New York Times Review, Jenny Allen noted that perhaps when Jamal's grandma says, "should you live so long" when he asks if anyone will ever wonder if he was a baby, she may be referring to "the violence that snatches the lives of so many African-American men". Whether or not this was English's intent, it does add a kind of poignancy to the story that it might not have had otherwise. Such multiple interpretations attest to English's superb writing in this matter.Now I know that as a reviewer of children's books I have a certain responsibility not to elevate my own preferred illustration style for children and condemn those pictures that don't strictly correlate to that art. That said, I had a great deal of difficulty enjoying Sean Qualls' illustrations. Having taken a glance at his other illustrated book for children, "Powerful Words" by Wade Hudson, it's obvious that the style he chose for "Baby On the Way" was a personal choice. Flat and utilizing a kind of makeshift messiness, it conveys the scenes well but is so doggone simplistic that much of the emotional impact of English's words is lost in the viewing. Now this isn't to say that Qualls doesn't do some mighty interesting things with the pictures. I was particularly taken with his tendency to mirror the events Grandma relates on the right with images of contemporary urban life on the left. No matter what exciting events occur on the right page, there's always Jamal or Grandma on the left either listening or telling the tale. In this way we get a nice distinction between today's city life and the rural sharecropping farms of sixty-some years ago. If it weren't for the fact that the illustrations also flatten and somewhat depress the story, I'd consider Qualls a competent illustrator of this book. The New York Times Book Review article on this title accused Qualls' illustrations of a feeling of melancholy suffusing certain pictures. Actually, I didn't feel much of this. I just thought that a different artist could have brought so much more to the tale. Qualls has his own strengths. They just weren't apparent in this book.Just the same, "The Baby On the Way" is a strong title and one that deserves a look. Due to Qualls illustrations I was initially going to give this book a mediocre three stars. I've amended that to four but with the strict understanding that I think a different artist would have done better by this book. It's a great read and will probably strike many as perfect. It just didn't win me personally over 100 percent.
The Mental Keys to Improve Your Golf
.This will be the BEST [price] you will spend on your Golf game.I forget how I met Michael Anthony but I will not forget how his book changed my golf game. It was about 3 years ago that we met. I was so impressed with his book I helped him with his web site for NO money up front. I said when you get your book in front of people they will read it and they will start buying it and you will pay me. That is how much I believe in him and his book.This is not your average book on Golf. It teaches you the things that no Golf pro does or can in my opinion. This book has the ability to cut your score down even if you are not a great athlete but don't think the pro's can't use this book because they can and they do. A bunch of pro's on tour use Michael Anthony teachings.This book teaches you how to think your way around the course. Every time my score goes up a few strokes I read the book and it goes back down.I had the ability to play Golf and shot good scores (mid 70's) but most of the time I was in the mid 80's. This book has kept my average game over the last few years under 80! And I have not seen a Golf pro to work on my swing in that time.Golf is a game for life and so is this book.If you do not find this book helpful Golf is not for you!Great book!!
The Mental Keys to Improve Your Golf
> I'm really getting a ton out of your book. I had a goal to become a single digit handicap by the end of the season this year. I start as a 14 in the spring. Just got my most recent revision and I'm at an 8.7. The Mental Keys has been an integral part of the process of lowering my handicap. Thanks!!!> Also as I have been rereading the book I've noticed a number of the references to Tiger. You may want to use his mental game in a negative perspective now. I believe that when he was at the top of his game it was in large part to his mental toughness. He seems like a mental midget today with his game. Just a thought.