When a young lad organizes a Halloween party, he doesn't realize that it is all of the uninvited guests who will cause him so much trouble. Ogres, witches, skeletons, and other horrors join his party, freely mingling with his costumed friends (who don't notice a thing!). However, when the uninvited guests begin to trash his home, the hero of the story lectures them and starts them to clean the mess they've made. But, can they clean the mess before his parents arrive?

This cute book is presented all in rhyme, but the rhythm of the text is so lose, that it does not become oppressive (e.g. out/ home/ afternoon/ phone/ plans/ here/ not/ fear.). The illustrations (one page-sized picture for each page of text) are quite quirky, and add a lot to the general feel of the book. My seven-year-old son enjoyed this book immensely. He did not find the rhyming too heavy, so I wouldn't let that worry you.

Overall, this is a great book.

It's the basketball league championship and Cody suspects trouble when nobody shows up for practice. Larry Bird Lewis miss a practice? Something big must have happened. Cody spends precious time investigating as the minutes tick off for the semifinals. Fast and fun reading.

Introduction: Working Together to Listen and Learn (Catherine Clark Kroeger); Part 1 -- All the Hurting; Chap 1 -- Power, Patriarchy, and Abusive Marriages (Cynthia Ezell); The Burden of Inequality; History of Patriarchy; Marital Violence; The Battered Wife; The Battering Husband; The Role of Culture; The Role of Religion; Marital Rape; Gender Inequality and Marital Rape; Role of Religion in Marital Rape; Treatment Issues for Therapists and Pastoral Counselors; Implications for Religious Leaders; Justice, Equality, Intimacy; Chap 2 -- When Right Becomes Scriptural Abuse (Melissa Kubitschek Ezell); The Husband as Spiritual Leader of the Family; Sacrificial Love; Total Acceptance; Conclusion; Chap 3 -- Battered Christian Women (Elizabeth Pearson); Religion and Battering; Surveying Battered Women; The Need for Response: Ministers and Church Leaders, The Church Community, Health-Care Providers, Therapists; Chap 4 -- Testimony of an Abuse Survivor (Lydia); Chap 5 -- Reflections of an Abuse Survivor (Marge Cox); Chap 6 -- Christian Men Who Hate Women (Margaret Josephson Rinck); Chap 7 -- The Silent Killer of Christian Marriages (Amy Wildman White); The Characteristics of Emotional Abuse; The Traits of an Abusive Husband; The Traits of an Emotionally Abused Wife; Responses to Emotionally Abusive Marriages; Chap 8 -- The Evangelical Family Is Sacred, but Is It Safe? (Nancy Nason-Clark); The Response of Christian Churches to Wife Abuse; Evangelical Churches and Abuse: Signs of Sensitivity; The Experience of Pastors in Counseling Abuse Victims; The Informal Support Network; Churchwomen's Response to the Transition House Movement; Challenges to Seeing Church Sensitivity: Giving the Violence a Name, Reconciling Abuser and Abused, Making Few Referrals, Preaching Reluctantly Against Wife Abuse, Interpreting Abuse in Families of Faith; Making the Church a Safe Place: Recognize That Abuse Exists, Identify the Unique Role of the Pastoral Counselor, Ensure That Victimized Women Are Offered Choices, Support Violence-Free Family Living, Build Bridges to the Community; Part 2 -- And the Healing; Chap 9 -- Sexual Abuse Survivors in the Church (Diane Strong Nesheim); My Story; Wolves in Sheep's Clothing; Issues That Contribute to Abuse: Headship and Submission, Misinterpretation or Selective Use of Scripture, Obedience to Authority; Hindrances to Healing from Abuse: Faith or Magical Thinking? Simplistic Answers, Loss of or Misplaced Trust, Guilt Reinforced, Denial of Feelings, Virtue in Self-Denial, Suffering as Payment for Sin, Virginity Upheld; The Church's Role in the Healing Process: Allowing the Expression of Anger and Rage, Offering Forgiveness, Seeing the Family as It Really Is, Using Alternative Images for God; Transformed Christian Communities, Christian Education, Reinterpreting Scripture, Training for Clergy, Seeking Justice;

Chap 10 -- "God, I Hate You"; "Sally, I Love You" (Pamela C. Court); The Case of Sally; The Push to Religious Conformity; Gender Issues; Anger at Her Family; Sally's Issue with God; The Use of Imprecatory Therapy; Chap 11 -- From Victim to Survivor and Beyond (Anne Findlay Chamberlain); What Is Sexual Abuse? Who Are the Victims of Abuse? Who Are the Abusers? The Journey of Healing; The Effects of Abuse: Emotional Effects, Physical Effects, Sexual Effects, Relational Effects, Spiritual Effects; Guidelines for Survivors: The Choice to Heal, Paradigm Shift, Regaining a Voice, Get Safe, Trust Your Intuition, Learn to Love Yourself, Learn to Love Your Body, Learn to Love the Inner Child, Find Healing Communities and Rituals, Learn Balance; How Others Can Help Survivors: Spouses, Family and Friends, The Church; Chap 12 -- Group Work with Evangelical Abused Wives (Mary Williams); The Literature; Hindrances to Stopping Abuse; Lack of Awareness; Group Work: Problems, The Format; Conclusions; Chap 13 -- A Theological Analysis of Hierarchicalism (Joan Tyvoll); Made in the Image of God; A Social Theory of the Trinity; Social Trinity and Creation; Hierarchicalism Enters with the Fall; Authentic Power and Secular Power; Hierarchicalism as the Secular Power Structure; God and Hierarchicalism in the Old and New Testaments; The Body of Christ -- the Model for the Community; Exposing the Evil of Hierarchicalism; The Roots of the Conflict; Hierarchicalism Dims the Glory of God; Hierarchicalism and Women; A Better Way; Chap 14 -- Disputing the Excuse for Abuse (Andrew C. Perriman); The Metaphorical Sense of Kephale; I Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:23; The Argument about Submission in Ephesians 5:21-24; Other Passages That Address Subordination; Conclusions; Conclusion -- What Can the Church Do? (James R. Beck); Respond to Abuse as Jesus Would; Root Out Abuse; Educate the Congregation; Understand the Relationship between Abuse and Misuse of Authority; Create a Healing Environment in the Church Appendix -- Some Biblical Thoughts for Abused Women

Havighurst adds a very needed point a view to the debate about health care devlivery in the US, particularly in light of the debate surrounding the Patient Protection Act. Havighurst outlines that the biggest factor contributing to problems in health care financing rests in the fact that the financing structure of employee-based insurance de-couples consumption of services from cost. In addition, the dominance of health care by the medical profession's vague and subjective standards regarding medical necessity coupled with the American myth of health care as a right sets up a system where cost is not taken into account when making treatment decisions. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the the Patients Bill of Rights will cause in increase in insurance premiums of 4.2%; about 1.7% of this will be "passed through" to workers in the form of less taxeble income, resulting in a loss of about $22 billion in Social Security taxes over the next nine years, further straining an already weak program. The rest of the increase will cause a decrease in benefits, employers dropping coverage, and higher employee costs. Havighurst's book outlines how innovative health care contracts can be structured to provide varied levels of coverage and pricing, in order to allow real choice in benefits and costs, rather than letting the Federal governement dictate the degree of insurance one must purchase. It is a worthwhile read for anyone intersted in health policy.

Jim Brodey lit up the Lower East Side of New York City for thirty years. Alongside contempories like Ted Berrigan, Anselm Hollo and Ron Padgett, Brodey helped to change the shape of what we consider 'modern' poetry.

The Heart Of The Breath is Brodeys' final, magnificent statement to the world of poetics. In these pieces, Brodey rearranges the world to fit into his broad and dynamic parameters - which include anything - literally - ANYthing. Leaving no stone unturned, fearless and bold, Brodey walks through these pages like a lion stalking his prey. These poems are filled with humor. These poems are filled with pathos. These poems are strange. These poems stalk off into the fog and dissapear forever.

These poems breath.

The World Eskimo Indian Olympics (WEIO) are competitions and demonstrations of Alaska Native music, dances, and games that have been held annually for over thirty years. In this unique festival, six Alaska Native groups are represented as they demonstrate and compete in traditional activities such as seal skinning, the blanket toss, the high kick, kayak races, and dances.

This book is fantastic! It helped me slog through the 179 thank you notes I had to write after my wedding. There were lots of great ideas of what to say and how to say it, and beleive me, after about the 25th thank you note, I needed all the help I could get. There is good solid, practical advice as to how to manage the thank you note writing task as well as inspirational advice to help you stay properly focused and, well, thankful. All in all, it was indespensable!

This book is one of the most helpful sources to understanding and looking at Henry Moore's world, work and learning his regard for the objects of reality he transformed into his sculptures. It is truly amazing and it is the actual sketchbook of his very own sheep. It is a wonderful book.

Number twelve in a distinguished, and, multivolume effort by Dr. Gary Moulton, The University of Nebraska, The "Herbarium" volume of "The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition" is the most comprehensive, edited botanical reference of the known plant specimens of the Corps of Discovery, 1803-1806.

As an impressive culmination to the Journals, the herbarium collection finalizes the extensive botanical scholarship contained in the notes produced by Dr. Moulton in the previous eleven volumes, published periodically over the past twenty years. The product of extensive research into the known world repositories of the extent plant specimens, this volume contains only one known error in terms of inclusion of a plant specimen that cannot be attributed to the expedition's collection. This one specimen at the Charleston Museum has been discounted since publication.

Nevertheless, this volume contains relatively high-quality image reproductions of the known 238 specimens in the Lewis and Clark Herbarium, in addition to a clear introduction to the history of the Herbarium collection and the scholarship behind its most recent publication. 227 specimens are currently housed in the Academy of Natural Science in Philadelphia, and the remaining 11 are housed in the Kew Gardens, London. Of this list, 177 are distinct, individual specimens.

In the future, it is more than likely, despite this exhaustive effort on the part of Moulton, that a few new specimens will emerge from the depths of the American Philosophical Society, The Academy of Natural Sciences, and Kew.

Until such a time, this volume is an absolute necessity for anyone seriously interested in understanding the natural history ramifications of the expedition, the study of Lewis and Clark, and, for that matter, America's landscape legacy. One wonders how many more specimens would have been added to this collection if Lewis' early collections for the lower-Missouri had not been lost to decay during the expedition itself.

"Volume 12, Herbarium of the Lewis and Clark Expedition," Gary E. Moulton, Editor, The University of Nebraska Press, completes a fantastic series and must be added to complete one's collection of the first eleven volumes of the truly great American literary epic.

The only wish of this author would be the publication of high-resolution, color digital images of the Herbarium on CD or DVD, as a compendium to this volume. Perhaps in this way, we could all experience more clearly the wonder of viewing this most valuable treasure.

Dr. Gary Moulton should be congratulated for a job very well-done.

Alex Philp The University of Montana