Robert is an only child and he is used to having his mother all to himself. One day Robert's mother announces that Stevie will be coming to stay with them while his mother is working during the week and Robert is not happy. Robert gets jealous of the attention the younger Stevie (who Robert considers a crybaby) gets from his parents and hates the fact that he has to share his toys, friends and everything else with Stevie. Robert cannot wait until Stevie's mother comes to pick him up at the end of the week, or can he?

Stevie was published by John Steptoe when he was only nineteen years old. He expertly captures the feelings many children have when they have to share things or attention with a younger child or sibling. Check out Stevie, for a humorous story that most anyone can relate to.

Reviewed by Stacey Seay of
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

wow THats a good book for kids and i know that stevie was mean and stuff and he was a black man but i dont care robert maybe thinks in his mind that stevie is a nice little stevie.can i say it again??wow THats a good book for kids and i know that stevie was mean and stuff and he was a black man but i dont care robert maybe thinks in his mind that stevie is a nice little stevie.

Stevie, written and illustrated by John Steptoe when he was only 16 yrs. old, was the inauguration of a wonderful career as a children's author for Mr. Steptoe. All of his books are heartfelt, compassionate, richly illustrated, and can bridge the gap among all races; he was doing the multicultural thing well before it was "multicultural"ly defined and politically correct. Stevie fits in with our current PC climate without coming off as trendy and purposeful. It simply tells a tale of a young boy, Stevie, who is sent to stay with an older boy and his family while Stevie's mother works at her new job. The older boy, Robert, resents the intrusion of Stevie in his life. Always tagging along, getting footprints on the bedcovers, and acting "like a baby" to Robert's mother, Stevie is the classic irritating but innocent little brother who, in the end will be sorely missed by Robert when Stevie's mother finally comes to take him back home with her. As a young white reader who grew up in a very white world, this book, about two African-American boys, was always my very favorite children's book not only because of the stunning illustration, but because of the commonality and familiarity this book held with me: it could have easily been my story. And it could have been any story for any child anywhere. I loved the fact that it was introduced at a time when race relations needed bridging and commonalities needed awareness. It is a book for the ages.

The colorful Florida east coast locations create a very interesting setting for this exciting and suspenseful story. Of special note is the central role played by the small town of Cassadaga, a place largely inhabited by Spiritualists. Their belief in the continuation of life beyond the grave and their attempts to communicate with inhabitants of the "spirit world" are key elements in this mystery. I liked it a lot.

This book was especially interesting to me as it describes an area of Florida with which I was very familiar -- except that I had never been to the Spiritualist village of Cassadaga near DeLand. It was fascinating to read the detailed descriptions of this place and to see how the author wove this material into a suspenseful tale that involves the search for a dead girl's true identity and an attempt to bring a serial killer of young women to justice. I also found the two protagonists, a 71-year-old retiree and a young female TV reporter, to be very attractive and well-defined characters. I enjoyed this book very much.

"The Surrounding: A Spectral Mystery" is a unique blend of suspense, mystery and the supernatural. Set in real and familiar Central Florida locations, including Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach and the Orlando area, it also involves the small Spiritualist community of Cassadaga. Ev Chambers, one of the protagonists, is a 71-year-old "spiritual counselor and medium" and through him we enter the colorful and unusual world of Spiritualism. The author has an effective way of making the "otherworldly" seem perfectly plausible through his use of specific, everyday details. The other protagonist, Katie O'Hara, is a traffic reporter for a local Orlando television station. She is a very attractive character who becomes obsessed with finding out the truth of sister she never knew she had -- one who now seems to be reaching out to her from "the other side." A very good read.

I just returned from Argentina; I also read Imagining Argentina. This one is the best. It creates a world of magical realism in which you are drawn into each & every character. Not to be missed.

The lyrical power of Thornton's prose gets better and better with each new book. In this book, he follows the trail of the missing "adopted" children and the determined search of the grandmother from the time when so many people disappeared, either killed or kidnapped by the Argentinian military - stories that began in his wonderful, earlier books: Imagining Argentina and The Naming of the Spirits. There is a truthfulness to his writing that bypasses logic and goes straight to the heart. I couldn't put this book down. From one novelist to another, I want to congratulate Thornton on producing some of the most powerful literature I have read in the past few years.

I'm so glad I read this book. It satisfies on many levels. The senseless tragedies of the "disappeared" is made personal in a well written tale. The community of grandmothers who marched every Thursday is the foundation for an incredibly constructed story that, at its core, embraces two boys raised in a family not their own.

I like very much this small booklet "There's Magic" written by Diane Elizabeth Lawrence. Yes, because the small poems are like flashes of light, full of joy and optimism. They pick up the best sides of every event, of every thing she touches, and open your eyes to something different. Great sensibility and drops of serenity. I am hungry every day to suck a sip from "There's Magic", to gather the better part of my daily life.

Angelo Di Berardino, The Vatican.

"There's Magic"reminded me through its tiny little bursts of smiles how very much we miss appreciating the taken for granted things in life. A touch of sunshine,babies,ice cream,flowers,bunnies all touch our ahhh yes moments. "Magic" is a feel good,great to be alive elixer. A perfect pick me up. Diane Lawrence gives good hugs.

Anyone who has had a child, been in love, appreciated life will love this book of poems. It makes you stop and think about all the special, simple and wonderful things in the world that we forget to appreciate. It is a book that is nice to have in your home, so you can pick it up when you need to put a smile on your face.

I highly recommend, “There’s Magic” by Diane Elizabeth Lawrence.

This collection of poems from Ferlinghetti opens the mind due to it's variation of poems from over the years. His style has remained the same yet we see a different side of Ferlinghetti with each era of poems. This was very enjoyable and I recommend it highly.

Some of these poems are really really good! Ferlinghetti has great imagination, humor, moments of enlightenment or shall i just say that his poems are really fresh and astonishingly real and immediate? From poems about underwear to poems about Mattisse art exhibits, this collection is a must have for poetry lovers!

I'd also recommend Gregory Corso's poetry collections for those of you who are interested.

I bought this book after seeing Ferlinghetti speak at my school in New Hampshire. He was fantastic, and his book is even more so. Buy it!

I picked up a hard copy first edition of this at the Strand in NYC. This is the type of book I love. Well written adventure in a world that has passed. What has also passed is book quality. The edition I have is so solidly put together, someone will pick up same in 2070 and no doubt enjoy this book as much as I did. A testament to the hardware and software . The 20 and 30s period was at the cusp of when the jungles of Malaysia, Panama, and Brazil were not yet overly intruded upon by the outside world. Lawrence's sense of humor in the many situations ultimately demonstrate his respect for the locals and locale (but his being a "boss" on these expeditions hides that a bit). Incidences of death amongst colleagues, porters, and now rare wildlife (there are few tiger hunts here that are bit sad)are too easily put aside. But on a one off basis there are some great moments with the West Pointer in Panama, the irresponsible American kid taken along to the Philippines, the hardships of the overweight archeologist up the Amazon, the tiger encounter in Malaysia and more. I laughed aloud many times. This balances the distress one gets on a de-capitation or two and depletion of Sumatran rhinos. An excellent read. Some of the situations tie out so wonderfully here that one wonders about some creeping fiction. I have found though that travel done right leads one into situations that can not be made up. Lawrence, I keep my doubts in check.

Lawrence Griswold's account of his travels in South America and southeast Asia in the 1920s and 30s is as endearing as it is ridiculous. Much in the same manner as the geographers and historians of the ancient world, his narrative walks the fine line between epic real-life experience and absurd, cliched hyperbole. The result is an entertaining tale of faraway places in a time when the world was a little less accessible, and political correctness had not yet been invented. Griswold's unflappable persona in the work coupled with his descriptions of the people he meets along the way provides most of the humor, as well as the ridiculousness of several of the situations in which he and his traveling companions find themselves. The anecdotal and episodic nature of the book means that it is not a whole unit overall, but Griswold does an excellent job of finishing his creation with flourish: the tale of the Komodo dragon and the castor oil.

Our all-American adventurer friend, Lawrence Griswald takes his archaeology passion to the jungles of Central and South America where he meets with killers, traps and really big snakes. Then, off to Indonesia to be the first to capture the deadly living dinosaur: the Komodo Dragon. If these 20's and 30's Indiana Jones adventures are to be believed, then Griswold was the greatest explorer ever. Otherwise, he's the greatest story spinner ever. Either way, who cares. Watch out for the chapter called "Thirst!"

Excellent read - fun, informative, insightful. Should be great learning tool for those new to the M&A world, and both healthy and entertaining to those who have experience already. Lederman is a very bright guy, and his writing style is that of a fine story-teller. Always clear... always interesting. An "older" book now, but gives interesting fundamentals to foundational strategies still important in 2000. (I just re-read, and am glad I did)

I enjoyed Lederman's writing style and imagine him to be a fairly modest man of extraordinary talent. I hold the CFA designation and my reading choices tend to be finance oriented with an occasional foray into pulp like "Rainmaker", "Predator's Ball", "Liar's Poker", and the other usual suspects. "Tombstones" renewed my appreciation for the legal aspects of M&A, which are introduced here by way of an interesting personal history. Lederman provides an introduction, rather than an exhaustive study, of tax and legal issues. This book drew me in much more than "Big Deal", which I have yet to finish. I recommend both, given Wasserstein's obvious accomplishments and his more contemporary account. "Tombstones" is first and foremost a very good story and thus more engrossing. Also, the lengthy disourse on Ian Reich was heartfelt and of peculiar interest given his reemergence on the front page of the WSJ.

Great book. Hearing the stories from the inside, it'll make you skin crawl to read about the largess of the 1980's. The book covers all the "greats": Keating, Pickens, Reagan and Miklen to name a few. This book would make a great movie.

The TWO GARDENERS in question are Katherine White of New Yorker fame and Elizabeth Lawrence who wrote a garden column for years for the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. White's columns on gardening written for the New Yorker magazine were compiled by her husband E. B. White (CHARLOTTE'S WEB, STUART LITTLE) and published after her death in 1977 in the book entitled ONWARD AND UPWARD IN THE GARDEN. Lawrence wrote a number of books, including THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE and THE LITTLE BULBS. Her book THE MARKET BULLETINS was completed by the New Jersey gardener Alan Lacy. The market bulletins were wonderful publications farm women in the South used to communicate information about seeds, plants, animals, receipts (what they called recipes), and other items they for sale or being sought. Elizabeth shared a good deal of information about the market bulletins which were not published north of Virginia with Katherine whose one interests lay with garden catalogues when their friendship began.

Lawrence and White corresponded for several decades. The two women discussed their gardens, their columns, their books, and their lives. In the early part of their correspondence, they often wrote each other by return mail. Toward the end of Katherine's life, the letters were few and far between as illness began to affect her movement and ability to see. In spite of their suffering, they continued to observe the world around them and relay how things were going in the garden-the latest blooms, the ravenous mice, the unexpected cold snap, the new greenhouse. Their words remind me of the hope and comfort women have long experienced when a letter from a loved one arrives. As my 87-year old aunt with whom I still correspond says, it doesn't matter what you write, the smallest thing matters.

The editor of this collection of letters Emily Wilson, quotes a librarian who remarked after having read the letters Elizabeth and Katherine wrote to each other, "I got a feeling of moral interdependence on a creative level. Somehow I had viewed the creativity of successful people as a strong force that perhaps needed channeling but not encouragement. Now, on this new-to-me-plane, I see again that no man is an island."

As the editor of TWO GARDENERS/KATHARINE S. WHITE AND ELIZABETH LAWRENCE, I welcome hearing from readers. I am now writing the biography of Elizabeth Lawrence and would benefit from hearing others' understanding of her, both in these letters and in her books. Emily Herring Wilson

Delightful! The correspondence of 19 years between White and Lawrence is insightful, informative and elegant! Their letterse (far more elegant than e-mail) give us glimpses into life in the 60's and 70's and beyond. This book, which is expertly edited by Emily Herring Wilson has inspired a perennial garden at our Wisconsin home and a renewed interest in the writings of E.B. White, not to mention the writings of Katharine White and Elizabeth Lawrence. These two career women and ladie were supportive and encouraging of one another for 19 years!

Tracing images of women's bodies through nearly two centuries of literature, Fasick analyzes selected novels from Samuel Richardson to D. H. Lawrence to construct a historical overview of class and gender relations as reflected and refracted in the pages of the English novel.

Tracing the progression of images of women's bodies through nearly two centuries of literature, Fasick analyzes selected novels from Samuel Richardson to D. H. Lawrence to construct a historical overview of class and gender relations as reflected and refracted in the pages of the English novel. Though recent discussion and women's roles in literature and culture has centered on women's sexuality as the defining factor in the female character, Fasick focuses instead on ways that writers have depicted women as possessing nurturing qualities that distinguish them from men. Rigid adherence to this idealization of femininity constructs a standard difficult for women to achieve. Held to the ideal, Fasick asserts, women appear grossly culpable rather than simply human. Fasick begins with an analysis of Samuel Richardson's novels that examines three linked themes: sensibility, maternity, and anorexia. She continues with a discussion of Frances Burney's treatment of the expressive female body. She then analyzes novels by Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Charlotte Bronte in light of Victorian attitudes toward women and food and toward female invalidism. In conclusion, she returns to Richardson, pairing his novel Pamela with Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover for an examination of cross-class romance and the resulting implications for class and gender. Throughout, references to conduct books and periodical literature of the time provide contexts that illuminate the primary texts. Fasick's insights will interest students of the novel, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fiction, women's studies and gender studies, and class relations in literature.

The author traces the progression of images of women's bodies through two centuries of English literature to construct a historical overview of class and gender relations as reflected in the English novel. She focuses on ways women have been depicted as possessing nurturing qualities that distinguish them from men in work by authors including Samuel Richardson, Frances Burney, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bront and others. For students of the novel, 18th-19th century fiction, and women's studies.

This is the standard to which all military unit histories should conform. There is a wealth of information here - from training to combat deployment to VJ Day. The text covers the personalities, battles and tactics, and contains many personal accounts. The photos are superb and plentiful, and are complemented by color photos. Even better are the 55 color aircraft profiles, covering markings and camoflage from beginning to end. I wish that all of the unit histories that I own were produced to this standard.

Having an Uncle that served with the 345th, I found the detail to be amazing. The accounts and memories of the people interviewed glues you to your seat and gives a fresh perspective of what it was like when war wasn't so cut and dry. Excellent pictures and text. My personal interest made it even more interesting. I found it to be very accurate and concise.

Few books ever achieve the level of excellence that this volume has. The amount of time and effort that made this book happen is very obvious. From the first days of training in the United States through VJ day in 1945, this book reads almost like a day by day diary of the 345TH bomb group. Most of the photos are published here for the first time from private collections, and their overall quality is amazing. The interviews are written almost exactly as they were dictated; nothing is cencored or changed to be "politically correct". Some areas of the text are humerous to read, while others are sad and often very graphic in the details given. It shows a side of the war that is not often dealt with in great detail. I consider it a privilage to own this volume, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to read a true aviation history from crewmen who were there.