This is a second-hand tale, which is as it should be, as Joe Two Trees did not want his life-story lost, and he did not want the Algonquin tradition of story-telling lost, either. For those of you who liked "Tatham Mound" by Piers Anthony, you'll like this one. If you like this one, "Tatham Mound" becomes suggested reading.

Theodore Kazimiroff tells us the story that his father told him, which was the story that Joe Two Trees told him. The first few chapters tell of how Theodore's father, as a boy, explored the rural areas around New York in 1924, and stumbled across a true treasure. He was looking for Native American artifacts, and found instead a friend and a living repository of Native American history: Joe Two Trees. These early, preliminary chapters are fine, but I would have been disappointed if the entire book followed this course. It didn't.

After the story of the boy meeting the Indian, the book moves on to give us Theodore's recounting of his father's recounting of the recounting of Joe Two Tree's life. From that point on, the reader will find his/her eyes glued to the book. Two Trees was born in 1840 to a small clan of Algonquins in the area of the Hudson River near New York City. By the time he was fifteen, every Indian he knew was dead or vanished. He believed that he was the last Native American left, period. He set off into the White Man's world to avoid the terrible loneliness of his solitude, and gradually becomes Joe Two Trees.

His trek through the ugliness and beauty of the new world being created by the White Man is a quiet adventure that takes the reader along and leaves one feeling that the adventure was actually shared. There is kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, success and triumph, and a gradual process of Joe Two Trees realizing that he was destined to be "The Last Algonquin" and did not belong in the White Man's world. He goes from being "Two Trees" to "Joe Two Trees" and back to "Two Trees", known as Joe by the boy who was the author's father.

What might be most surprising is the quality of writing in this book, which is nearly flawless from a writer who did not write anything else, at least that I could find. Perhaps the purity of his writing was driven by the quality of this remarkable tale. Please keep the tradition alive by reading it, and by passing it on.

The Last Algonquin is a sad but heartwarming story about a man and his attempts to come to grips with his place in the world. The fact that this man, Joe Two Trees, is the last of his tribe of the Algonquin's makes his journey that much harder and more interesting. If you are looking for an official history of the American Indians, this isn't the book for you. However, if you are looking for a deep and touching story of one American Indian, and what we as a nation have lost by ignoring the heritage of American Indians, then you will enjoy this book. Mr. Kazimiroff has done an excellent job of preserving the story given to him by his father and keeping the memory of Joe Two Trees and the Algonquin Indians alive.

I found this book to be a really fun read. It is well written with great discriptions of what life was like in New York in the 1800's. Equally sad and revealing is this story of one of the last Indians in the New York regions. It is a story of a boy who in the 1920's happens upon an aged Indian who has to to tell his story to someone so that it is never forgotten. The Indian, Joe Two Trees, does in fact have a story that should be told over and over so that we should not forget that at one time he and his people were really the first Americans on this continent. This is a story that should be shared with any children that you have.

Callan's a great storyteller, but this is not just a storybook. He's a great guide, but this is not just a guidebook. Callan beautifully combines the two worlds in BT&BF to lend the reader a guidebook with stories that whet the appetite for an Algonquin trip. Callan gives the reader several options for weekend or week-long trips in the park and spices the descriptions up with his great storytelling ability. The only drawback is the lack of an index where one could compare trip length, difficulty, etc. in a table format instead of having to leaf back and forth through the book, but don't let that dissuade you. This is an excellent resource for the Algonquin canoeist.

The last word was every bit as incredible as the first...WOW! That Brookie on the cover would hit the spot right now... I'm pretty hungry... unfortunately it's only an image printed on paper... not very satisfying or tasty for that matter. The main thing you need to know about this book is that it's ultimately just a bunch of words on paper; like most other books. And hidden beneath this thin veil of "outdoor writing" is really just a silly lesson in Yin and Yang philosophy, as the words of the book depend upon and are largely defined by the Old Growth Forest paper that they are printed upon. And vice versa. Whatever. Spend some money. Check it out. You might be disappointed... then again,you just might not. Besides, everyone needs an extra book or two to fill those annoying gaps that appear in your bookcases when somebody pulls out another book to read, or to slap a fly with, or to use as a temporary, mobile writing platform. Happy reading!

Henderson writes in prose that do for the bird dog what Mclean has done for fly fishing. He writing is redolent of Melville or Homer. Well worth the read.

This book is great. I liked it and thought that it was very interesting. I just learned about the algonquins and really liked learning about it. This book helped me understand the algonquins better. This book was wonderful and I think the author did a wonderful job making it.

Color is what this book is all about. Beautiful pictures follow well-written text that takes one through the different seasons (as expected) in Canada's oldest Park. A real treat!

Michael's first encounter with wolves was at age 12 and he can't get enough of them. He considers himself very lucky to have been drawn to the natural world at a young age and this beautifully written book shows it. I'm not just saying this; I really like his writing style because it's so down to earth. The timber wolf has had a bad rap and it's about time we realize its importance in the natural scheme of things. Incidentally, there's a great chapter on Algonquin Park's annual wolf howl event, which is in August. Ever been to one?

Anyone interested in the Twenties, the writing of the Twenties, the birth of mass media, the culture of the Lost Generation or the Algonquin Round Table writers must BUY THIS BOOK!

i first heard of this book while watching reading rainbow on pbs...i had to have this book being of cherokee indian blood
i am a mom and this book...once again was for myself...the art
work/illustrations are so compellingly beautiful that i tore three
pages out and put them on my wall...the depicition of the american indian 'cinderalla' emerging from the water hangs in my
bathroom...and the gossiping sisters hang in my foyer/hall by front door of my home...books like these make you feel so glad to
be alive to experience little invaluable treasures such as these...this particular version of the classic european story of cinderalla is also an award winning book...it is hard to find positive stories especially for the children/family like 'the rough-face girl' i let my mother read it and she loved also...

This is a beautifully told Algonquin Indian version of the Cinderella story. From reading this story we learn that not all things are seen with the eyes, but with the heart, as with the Rough-Face Girl who earns the love of and the right to marry the Invisible Being. We should all be like the Rough-Face Girl by seeing the beauty of the earth around us and not taking any thing for granted.

I highly recommend this book.

As a principal of an elementary school, I cannot say enough for the impact Rafe and all of his books have on our children and their teachers and families. My personal favorite is Dear As Salt, and if you have a chance to purchase it anytime or anywhere, you must!!! Rafe is the most amazing storytelling and children's author of our time. The content of Rough Faced Girl is not only a Cinderella story at it's finest, but can be used by 4th grade teachers throughout New York State as part of their curriculum. I always wait for Rafe's next great work!

At the end of last year, a friend noticed that I was interested in hats. I began to purchase what I would call those "Alicia Keys/Ashanti" type hats.....modern, retro with a twist of my own personal style to boot. Well, he said that when he saw this calendar I instantly came to mind.

Crowns, remarkably done with Black and White photography, shows Sistas of various ages and backgrounds in all their crowning glory. It even gives a synopsis of how they came to be hat wearers or better yet HAT LOVERS.

Although the calendar has present day photos, the Black and White style gives you a feel of a day gone by. It puts me in the frame of mind of a lazy Sunday afternoon....visiting family down south. I feel I can hear someone saying...."chile, did you see Sista Ann's new hat?? uuuhuu...well, hers alright but mines betta." :)

I have this calendar hanging up at work. It's a nice diversion to occasionally look back and still a moment with "my people"....my Sista friends and their lovely Crowns. :)

I have already purchased this book three times. For myself, for my mother and for my ninety year old Nana, a former milliner and Deaconess of Bright Hope Baptist Church of Montclair N. J. where hats were worn and worn fiercely ! I had it send directly to her at her rest home in Florida and she was "tickled pink". The photos are wonderfully done and the one page stories of the women wearing them are compelling. You will find yourself laughing out loud one minute and weeping the next, I kid you not. Get this book !! It reveals the lives of Black women in a way I never thought possible. As they say, a picture is worth....

I just received this calender - it is not a book - from amazon.de - Germany. Whow! It is everything I hoped for and more. It pictures 12 very different women who each share a statement or a little story about their hats. But more so, they share a little of themselves. And each and every one of them is an inspiration: to be proud of yourself and to hold your head - and hat - high. It is not a question of being black or white, but a question about being female, strong, and sure of yourself. Definitely more than just a calendar.

When I sat down to read 'People of the Mist', I was not sure what to expect. The synopsis on the back cover said that the book was about the Native American people in the Chesapeake bay area, and in particular about the murder of a young girl, Red Knot. Well, I was amazed with the writing style of Kathleen O'Neal Gear, and W. Michael Gear. I got into the book after a chapter or two, and couldn't put it down. The authors had me guessing till the very end of the book as to who the murderer was, and I'm usually good at figuring things like that out. If you want a good novel with an excellent mystery componant to it, 'People of the Mist' is the book for you.

I have read almost all of the Prehistoric "People of the..." novels by the Gears (I am currently reading the People of the Masks). People of the Mists is FANTASTIC! What a great murder mystery! I could not guess the killer til the end...and even then...wow! The characters are well drawn and the hints and clues and potential killers with their wide array of motives are very skillfully inserted in the story. I like all of the books of the series. People of the Lakes is the best, with Mists ranking second on my list. Highly recommended!

I think this is the first prehistoric mystery I've ever read. I usually don't read mysteries, but I've read all the books in this series, and I enjoyed this one as much or more than its predecessors. It's nice to see something different from past storylines. The only thing that bothered me was that the characters sometimes explained their customs to each other in a somewhat clumsy effort by the authors to teach the readers something about the culture. For example, they talked about matrilineal systems more than once, emphasizing how the mother's brother, not the father, is responsible for the children's upbringing. Once might have been all right, but more than that seemed a little too much. Other than that, I thought the book was great. And, as a resident of the Susquehanna Valley, I was pleased to see the Susquehannocks mentioned somewhere besides a history textbook.