Voices from the Fields : Children of Migrant Farmworkers Tell Their Stories

Book Description

"Now in paperback, this critically acclaimed book offers readers a rare glimpse into the lives of today's migrant children. "

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful book for multi cultural interest.......2006-11-10

I used this book as an extension book for a thematic unit I created over Mexican Migrant Farmers. It is great to bring home the idea that this is not history but is still going on in present day!

Easy read, yet sad.......2002-02-02

I write that as a title because if you look into these children's eyes there is hope and sadness. It bothers me to see how these children and their families are forced to live. I live in the N CA wine country and I see the same thing going on here. Exploitation of the workers, inadequite housing, awful pay.
I would LOVE to see a follow up book about these families now that it is 10 years later to see how they have fared. The young gang member who left his gang, the teenage mother who dreams of going to college, the little boy who wants to buy his parents a car. Did any of them make it?

Review Of Voices From The Fields.......2001-04-17

Voices From The Fields is about nine different children all of which are Mexican/Spanish. Each tells a different story about their life. All of these children have one thing in common, they work in the fields or they have a close relative that works in a field. Their stories range from being involved with gangs to the difficulty of moving up in society. As different as these nine children may be, they all care very much for their families and believe nothing is more important. Throughout the book there are photographs of the children and their families. Photographs aid the text in describing conditions and emotions of the people being discussed. Through this mix of text and photographs emotions can be amplified. Children most importantly can aid from photographs being provided since they may not understand certain things they read; yet photographs may open the doors for them. The can better see different feelings such as joy or anger as well as people of different cultures in their own environment. It can also become apparent to children who read the book just how important family is to each of the nine children. They are all care for each other very deeply and this is obvious through the photographs. Julia Hirsch says "A far more complex and elusive relationship between text and image occurs in those books which use snapshots, or other similarly dramatic image: pictures which contain some emotional charge, such as a gesture caught in midstride, an object viewed from an unusual angle, an enigmatic facial expression, a blurred background, or deep shadows and diffuse lighting."(Hirsch, 142) Manuel Araiza talks about his home in the book and such details such as the home being comprised of one room with a kitchen. Next to the text where he is discussing these conditions is a picture of the house. Immediately we feel more sympathetic towards Manuel since we are able to see with our own eyes what he is describing to us. The photographs in this book allow children readers to "experience" a minority culture that most children otherwise would never be exposed to. Hirsch later goes on to say, "Photography in recent years has also given "visibility" to yet other aspects of the human condition which have formerly been kept from most children."(Hirsch 150) One example of these "human conditions" is presented in the book for children to learn about. This condition is the life of migrant farm workers and their families. The photographs in this book depicting ethnic minorities, which also happen to be largely immigrants, provide for an excellent learning experience for children. Books focusing on different cultures and ways of life especially ones with such rich and detailed photography are good for children. These books help to educate on material that is beyond the classroom. Emotions, feelings, and different situations are better understood. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so by supplementing photographs with the text of the book children take with them a great deal more than would have been without photographs.

Picking into migrant families lives.......2000-08-23

I have recommended this book to teachers, counselors, therapists, social workers, politicians and law enforcement officials. It takes you inside migrant families lives and lets you share with them their success, sacrifice, and nostalgia. Beth Atkins captures more than images in her photographs. She captures pride, hard work, and nostalgic happy lives away from home (Mexico).

Book Description

"When the Tree Flowered is John Neihardt's mature and reflective inter-pretation of the old Sioux way of life. He served as a translator of the Sioux past whose audience has proved not to be limited by space or time. Through his writings, Black Elk, Eagle Elk, and other old men who were of that last generation of Sioux to have participated in the old buffalo-hunting life and disorienting period of strife with the U.S. army found a literary voice. What they said chronicles a dramatic transition in the life of the Plains Indians; the record of their thoughts, interpreted by Neihardt, is a legacy preserved for the future. It transcends the specifics of this one tragic case of cultural misunderstanding and conflict and speaks to universal human concerns. It is a story worth contemplating both for itself and for the lessons it teaches all humanity."-Raymond J. DeMallie, editor of The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt. "A warm and often moving piece of literature which can be appreciated for its literary value and for its insights into Sioux culture."-Richard N. Ellis, Rocky Mountain Social Science Journal. For more information on John G. Neihardt, visit www.neihardt.com

Customer Reviews:

Soulfull Search.......2000-11-08

This book was recommended by my sister-in-law, who is 1/2 Lakota Sioux. I wanted to understand more about the culture, the language, the inner feelings of the Sioux. This depiction, from a Lakota who went through the changes from freedom to confinement in his formative years, was sobering. I happened to find a 1951 version at a library and am now ordering the updated version to keep. I will be reading it again. I cried when I realized what my ancestors had done.

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The Freshmen Team Does Well
Another Anthology & Largely A Good Thing Too...
Excellent Stories of Life in the Gay Community
An Outstanding Book

Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction

Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0786714212

Book Description

Certain to become a literary touchstone, Fresh Men collects the best new writing by emerging gay authors from around the nation. The critically acclaimed author Edmund White, chair of the Creative Writing program at Princeton and the author of more than 17 gay works, selects 20 original stories from the new crop of extraordinary writers. With equal parts sensitivity and irreverence, Fresh Men speaks to the broad range of gay experiences. From stories of coming out, coming of age, self-representation and family to sex and love in the time of AIDS, from living in the closet to loving in a post-gay world, this book highlights the complexities of gay life. This groundbreaking collection also embodies a wide spectrum of literary tastes, from works rich in experimental, transgressive elements to more conventional, traditionally crafted stories.

Customer Reviews:

The Freshmen Team Does Well.......2005-07-20

First, this new anthology of gay writing, FRESH MEN, has a clever title with at least two meanings. Secondly, the writers are all for the most part unknown. Edmund White, who selected them says that not one writer has had a book published yet. Third, they come from all areas of the United States as well as the British Isles. And they are not all Caucasian. The stories are set in a variety of locales and are not all about gay men picking up other gay men in bars. We can finally read about gay men who interact with other people besides other gay men and live outside a gay ghetto in a large city, usually New York. As you would expect from most any collection of stories, some are better than others. Some of the stories are excellent. I would put "ONJ.com," "Acqua Calda," "TV Dinner" and "Teamwork" in that category. "ONJ.com" by Vestal McIntyre, the first story in the book, is about a young woman in the world of advertising who wishes to "make a gay friend," a silly wish on its face, and gets more than she bargains for. In Keith McDermott's "Acqua Calda" a young American wrestles with how and when or if he should tell an Italian whom he is attracted to that he is HIV positive. "TV Dinner" by Reed Hearne is a funny account of a minor TV personality's filming of a day in the life of a waiter in the California Bay Area. Kevin Reardon's "Teamwork," which according to the biographical data about the authors won the 2003 Richard Hall Memorial Short Story Contest, is a great little story about proofreaders at Healthco, "a pharmaceutical advertising agency. The narrator has a crush on Todd, a perfectly drawn character, who when he gets fired over an ampersand by Gregory, a gay art director who "played for the team," responds: "'You're a bastard, man. . . I am so out of here.'" He is just so "kwel."

This is a very good collection and introduces the reader to writers he wants to read more of. Several of the selections are from novels in progress and should be available soon if not already.

Another Anthology & Largely A Good Thing Too..........2004-12-18

These twenty stories seemed to me excellent, also okay, few deficient. I found a quarter of them to be good art.

(1) Five stories seem artistically meritorious. Plus the gay-specific content seems to universalize to general human themes.

"TV Dinner" is a romp. Set in a high-end status-snob restaurant, it serves up the real "menu" of human discomfort-food. Several "courses." The waiter's rage at being a "candy-ass bootlick," and his terrors too. The chef's self-deluded egotism. The society matron's gorging unhealthily on Status Cake. The smarmy politico mayor exposed as being a gross feeder. The cast of workers in the out-caste system, pretty petty frustrated in the all-too-subhuman jealousies and other deadly-sin ingredients. But the author is a master-wordchef who concocts up these raw materials gourmet-style with his buttercup-swirl of tall-food diction, aesthetically-nourishing word-candy, a just-desserts confection whose sauce-iness is perfectly balanced with sweet-sour imagery plus insight. This many-course tasting menu moves right along madcap but on point!

Not so shabby either is "Teamwork," about a proofreader at an advertising agency. Poignant specifically about the "beautiful young man named Todd D'Onofrio," fetching but unobtainable, the protagonist's Harlow or shepherd boy... But pointed generally about the universal human tangle of miscommunications, pettiness about font-styles, power and status issues, insecurities, insensitivities. The miscast of characters in the office seem to carry these warts and blemishes like a virus re-infecting those whose Psychological Immune Systems are not mature enough. Solid and sprightly, madcap and satirical.

Adult men with younger or teenage males is the subject of both "Some Speculations on the Bob Uncertainty" and also "Chicken." But the former, pondering why a young hunk continues to revisit an older man, seems to do so with much enjoyable grace, verve, bemused and appreciative non-needy distance aesthetic not emotional.

"American Widow" portrays a woman inundated by giant waves of major depression. It energetically risks sentimentality in the depicting of her almost-melodramatic multiple missteps, but it does powerfully paint her pathos.

(2) A second set of stories seems (to me) more simply to simply narrate events, almost diary style. In "Aqua Calda," an American on a film shoot in Italy, scores with an Italian. Okay... In "Taking Pictures," a highschooler sees that a teacher of his takes videotapes of the guys working out. Okay...

(3) Minority perspective is represented by "Wave," His Five-Year Sentence," and "Rondo." New here is local color and representativeness I guess.

(4) Psychological insight however Politically Non-Correct I saw in three stories. "ONJ.com" shows gay man and straight woman but can candidly ask whether this man at least is as he describes gay men generally, as being "damaged, dangerous people. They feel wronged and are looking for vengeance." Refreshing anyhow to investigate. In "Advanced Soaring," why why why does moonstruck Mark keep on seeking after louche lax Luke at all? And in "The Inadvertant Headshot," the protagonist fears becoming a soiled type: "the humorless, thin-skinned gay man, the art fag, the prissy prude who trafficked in disdain" contemptuously to "rue, resent and scorn again" because feeling out of control. Something gay here; something human also. We are well past the Dark Age when a hoity (and hetero) reviewer would allude to the above dirty laundry as indicating something like "the pathology of homosexuality," blah blah. (Of course, it is still verboten now, to even reference in the same sentence, "homosexual males," and the issue of "attachment disorder" or problems-with-intimacy...)

Finally in its own category, "Ground Control" sends us home with a take-out treat. The 16-year-old gay highschooler has his problems, with self-image, self-acceptance. But his, and our, hero is his 14-year-old brother Frankie. This kid comes out to his dysfunctional family simply by drawing Star War cartoons of himself and Luke Skywalker. At the kitchen table. Just going about his business. Utterly unbugged by his sister's or anyone's reaction to his being his own true if socially-despised self so early. A universal model for us all, gay, straight, bi, or plaid...

Then six more stories I haven't mentioned. But all told, the anthology is quite valid for those interested in some quality and much variety in current gay male short fiction.

Excellent Stories of Life in the Gay Community.......2004-11-17

"Fresh Men" is a collection of twenty short stories selected by distinguished author Edmund White. All are interesting. There are stories with African-American, Hispanic, Filipino, and Asian characters, as well as the usual types. There are stories set at school, in the family, at work, at cruising, and around relationships. The variety is good, at least as it has been understood.

The last two sentences of Edmund White's introduction read: "If this anthology is thought of as a house, it's a big rooming house inhabited by every kind of client, of every age and color and background, some on their way up and some in quick descent; some of the roomers are shacking up and others are breaking up. It's a very full house."

When I look at the "About the Authors" section, the twenty stories' authors now live in or near the following places: New York City 7, Yale University 2, 1 each at Boston, San Francisco, Long Beach, Montreal, London, Austin, and 5 unknown. When I read the stories, the locations are New York City 6, coastal California 6, with additional locations in Montreal, Dublin, London, Sicily, Honolulu, New Orleans, Tucson, Florida (near the Space Center), rural Maine, and over the Atlantic {Some stories have multiple locations). There is a feel of gay cosmopolitans writing for other gay cosmopolitans. This has been a successful approach for previous anthologies.

Still, after the November elections, I have heard endless commentary on the divide between 'blue' and 'red' states, on the need to counter 'religious' criticisms, on the fear of being transferred from a state with domestic partnerships and state permission to raise children to one without. These stories do not feature material anti-gay characters or people considering marital status-related issues. The stories are personal and relationship-oriented, not political.

I do worry that writers from or directed at socially conservative areas are not part of the "new voices in gay fiction" that "Fresh Men" proclaims. One of the reasons for the setbacks in the recent elections was the inability of a large part of the Midwestern and Southern electorate to imagine a different, improved world. Having local voices is a large part of moving ahead.

This is a fine collection. I can relate to the stories. I do recommend the book highly.

An Outstanding Book.......2004-10-15

I recommend this book to anyone, gay or straight. The writing is top-notch, often hilarious, and always compelling. From beginning to end it will hold your interest and impress you. We'll be hearing from these authors in the future, I'm certain, and this is a wonderful opportunity to get in the "ground floor" of their careers. You won't be disappointed!

Hyde Park Gate News: The Stephen Family Newspaper (Modern Voices Series)

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Hyde Park Gate News: The Stephen Family Newspaper (Modern Voices Series)
Virginia Woolf , Vanessa Bell , and Thoby Stephen
Manufacturer: Hesperus Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1843917017

Book Description

As children, Virginia Woolf, sister Vanessa Bell, and brother Thoby, collaborated on their own family newspaper. Published here for the first time ever, the Hyde Park Gate News also includes their original drawings. Ingeniously mimicking the style of the leading newspapers of their day, the Stephen children—Virginia, Vanessa, and Thoby—present a charming and candid portrayal of the day-to-day events at the family home in London and at their holiday home in St Ives. Gossipy, playful, and at times irreverent, they record the comings and goings of a host of figures while also proffering their own fictional, poetic, and artistic creations. Virginia Woolf is one of the most important figures of the Modernist Movement; her sister Vanessa Bell was a painter and a central figure of the Bloomsbury Group.

Voices and Votes: How Democracy Works in Wisconsin (New Badger History)

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An informative study of historical happenings and significant landmarks in Wisconsin's political evolution

Voices and Votes: How Democracy Works in Wisconsin (New Badger History)
Jonathan Kasparek
Manufacturer: Wisconsin Historical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Politics & Government | Reference & Nonfiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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Democracy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Voices and Votes: How Democracy Works in Wisconsin by Jon Kasparek is the sixth book in the Wisconsin Historical Society’s New Badger History series aimed at upper elementary and middle school classrooms. The eight chapters interweave history and civics, providing a comprehensive overview of state, tribal, and local governance in Wisconsin. The accompanying teacher’s guide by Bobbie Malone encourages students to compare and contrast historical circumstances with current events, so that young learners come to understand both the differences and the continuities in our evolving democratic society.

Distributed for the Wisconsin Historical Society Press

Customer Reviews:

An informative study of historical happenings and significant landmarks in Wisconsin's political evolution.......2006-05-02

Expertly researched and co-authored by Johnathan Kasparek and Bobbie Malone, Voices And Votes: How Democracy Works In Wisconsin is an informed and informative study of historical happenings and significant landmarks in Wisconsin's political evolution. Knowledgeably offering an extensive compendium for young readers to learn from, Voices And Votes grants a comprehensive and thorough analysis of the history and civics of Wisconsin's state, tribal, and local governments. Voices And Votes is very strongly recommended reading material for students and adults for its invaluable, "reader friendly" format providing an accessible reference for Wisconsin's political history. Part of the "Badger History" series from the Wisconsin Historical Society, No Wisconsin school or community library should be without at least one copy of Voices & Votes: How Democracy Works In Wisconsin.

Selected from Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed (Writers' Voices)

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AWESOME SCI-FI STORY
a realy great book
Read this and the whole of Martian Chronicles

Selected from Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed (Writers' Voices)
Ray Bradbury
Manufacturer: Writers' Voices/Signal Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

AWESOME SCI-FI STORY.......2000-04-28

This is one of the lesser known books by Bradbury, yet is just as good as Martian Chronicles or Farenheit 451. It is a quick, fascinating must read!

a realy great book.......1999-03-05

This book was awsome.Sospensful yet scarry. I could not put the book down!!!!!!!!!!11

Read this and the whole of Martian Chronicles.......1998-10-03

This story is not a part of the famous "Martian Chronicles", but it is very close - a family from comes to colonize Mars and slowly turns into a Martian family forgetting where they came from. It's not the usual cheap sci-fi about monsters and aliens, though - it's very smart and emotional, like all of Bradbury's work.

Voices of a New Generation: A Feminist Anthology

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Voices of a New Generation: A Feminist Anthology
Sara Weir , Constance Faulkner , and Sarah Weir
Manufacturer: Allyn & Bacon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Feminist Theory | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0205344143

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New Voices in Science Fiction

Manufacturer: Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Minus 55 (New Voices in American Fiction: Science Fiction & Fantasy)

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I used to know the author.......
Kept me guessing
Forget the Turing Test!

Minus 55 (New Voices in American Fiction: Science Fiction & Fantasy)
Andrew Odom , and Mark Slankard
Manufacturer: Dry Bones Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1883938422

Book Description

Jack sits alone with his half-empty bottle of whiskey as he waits for the big midnight celebration to begin. Beyond the door, he can hear loud music filling the dining hall where he is to perform. Nothing specific, just the general mass of the festive beast waiting for the freak to entertain it.

Customer Reviews:

I used to know the author..............2003-02-22

The author was the batboy on mine and his brothers baseball team,so I was intrigued when I heard he had written his first book.I must say,I'm impressed with his first effort.I'm hoping for the follow-up very soon.I will be one of the first to buy it.

Kept me guessing.......2000-12-18

Mr. Odom has a easy to read, natural style. I love a mystery and although this is not a true mystery in the "who done it"style, it kept me guessing until the last page. Bravo, Mr. Odom.

Forget the Turing Test!.......2000-06-13

What do a neck shackle and high level government AI computers that refuse to do their job have in common? They have Jack in common. Jack "Suicide" Simmmons, the aging, foul mouthed, whiskey drinking, cigarette smoking, Abraham Lincoln lighter toting protaganist of this highly entertaining novel. Two agents of B.A.D. (Bureau of Astronomical Destruction) repeatedly screen subjects for potential martyrdom, complete with purely theatrical thorough background checks that monitor metabolism from a suitcase computer. Taking on the form of a sci-fi thriller, Minus 55 is really more of a meditation on the death experience in a media saturated post-modern society in which the boundaries between 1st and 3rd person are indistinguishable. Highly recommended!

New Science Fiction Voices (Milford Series, Popular Writers of Today)

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New Science Fiction Voices (Milford Series, Popular Writers of Today)
Jeffrey M. Elliot
Manufacturer: Borgo Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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