The Wonder of Boys

Amazon.com

In the thoughtful and provocative The Wonder of Boys: What Parents, Mentors, and Educators Can Do to Shape Boys into Exceptional Men, therapist and educator Michael Gurian takes a close look at modern boyhood. Gurian asserts that the biological and neurological differences between boys and girls need to be accounted for and nourished in order to raise healthy, happy boys. In discussing boy culture--and the roles of competition, aggression, and physical risk taking--the author concludes, "It's not boy culture that's inherently flawed; it's the way we manage it." If the natural, testosterone-based impulses of boys are squelched or ignored, Gurian posits, such biological truths may find their way to the surface in other, more negative behaviors. He suggests that boys do best when they are part of a "tribe," three families that include: a birth or adoptive family; an extended family of friends, teachers, peers, and mentors; and the "family" of outside culture, media, religious institutions, and community figures. The Wonder of Boys offers advice on how to understand and build strong father/son and mother/son relationships, stresses the importance of healthy discipline, and suggests methods of teaching boys about sex, relationships, and spirituality. Parents and teachers of boys will find this book to be an insightful read. --Ericka Lutz

Book Description

I n this edition of his parenting classic, Michael Gurian considers how the culture has changed in the ten years since The Wonder of Boys was first published, including the impact of the Internet.

Customer Reviews:

You Need This Book.......2007-07-23

This book is a great resource for anyone who is raising or just loving little boys. I am a mother to three boys ages 6, 3 and 2. This book has helped me tremendously to understand and love my little guys even more.

An Excellent Tool.......2007-05-15

This book helped me a lot in getting to know the nature of a boy. Mr. Gurian provided me with information on how a boy's body and mind develops through different stages of life. Ever since I read this book, I have been recommending it to my friends and neighbors. And, of course, I've been rereading this book every once in a while, always "discovering" something new and valuable. Besides, this book helped me to better understand the male population in general.

realities, not beliefs.......2007-05-04

When I first started reading the Dec. 2005 review by "Superego", it seemed to me that giving the book the a terrible rating plus a review title that consisted of a 23 exclamation point warning must be due to more than the stated reason of having "several disappointments". Then, in the middle of the review, Superego mentions that it "go[es] against my own personal and spiritual beliefs." No wonder it got a terrible rating!

However, it strikes me that Gurian was trying to go beyond "beliefs" --especially pre-formed ones--and present realities, especially the reality of different neurophysiologies, regarding gender differences and how that impacts real differences in the actions (and therefore the upbringing) of each gender. Single mothers--and everyone else--should beware of letting pre-set beliefs dominate an inquiry into how and why certain humans (males) tend to act and think differently from other humans (females).

By the way, Superego's review is completely wrong when it states that Gurian said nothing that a child's parents do will have an impact on children's lifestyles and habits. In fact, much of the book is about how to positively impact a boy's habits and lifestyle. How could someone have have missed that? Is it because the author's suggestions went against that reader's personal and spiritual beliefs?

A Teacher's Point of View.......2007-04-15

It has been my experience that boys and girls are inherently different. This books give insight to those difference and how best to address those differences. It makes me woner why co-ed schools have become the norm.

a must read.......2006-11-10

this book should be read by every parent or grandparent with boys. It is wonderful.

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A Humorous Portrayal of Academia
Buy it. You'll like it.
"Why did you keep writing this book if you didn't even know what it was about?"
Strange Tripp
Seen the film? - read the book

Wonder Boys: A Novel
Michael Chabon
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312140940

Book Description

Grady Tripp is a pot-smoking middle aged novelist who has stalled on a 2611 page opus titled Wonder Boys. His student James Leer is a troubled young writer obsessed by Hollywood suicides and at work on his own first novel. Grady's bizarre editor Terry Crabtree and another student, Hannah Green, come together in his wildly comic, moving, and finally profound search for an ending to his book and a purpose to his life.

Customer Reviews:

A Humorous Portrayal of Academia.......2007-07-25

This is a book one can easily read in a day or two. I adored the film and its cast and absolutely could not wait to get my hands on the book. I think the reason I do not award it five stars is because I just got done reading Rex Pickett's "Sideways" beforehand. That book was so wonderfully sardonic and darkly comic, that anything following immediately after was destined to savor of anticlimax.
That being said, however, Chabon's Wonder Boys was also good fun, if perhaps not always thoroughly plausible (admittedly, the thing with the tuba got a little old for me). Moreover, having been a university student for the past six years, the book's view of the academic community is, I dare say, not too far off the mark.
This is a quick read, and if you are like me, you will be totally endeared to the main characters (especially James Leer).
I recommend both the book and the movie.

Buy it. You'll like it........2007-05-24

I adore this gorgeously written, laugh-out-loud funny novel. The first 70 pages are a textbook example of how to complicate a narrative. And Grady Tripp is one of the all-time great American literary characters. Don't hesitate to buy yourself a copy. This is one of the most purely enjoyable American literary novels of recent years.

"Why did you keep writing this book if you didn't even know what it was about?".......2007-04-21

In this farcical send-up of academia and the writing life, author Michael Chabon focuses on forty-ish author Grady Tripp, an aptly named writer/professor who is so often stoned that after seven years he has written two thousand pages of a book that is not even close to being finished. Grady's book, Wonder Boys, is much like his life--lacking in focus, fixated on the moment, and completely empty of goals or a sense of direction. His third wife has walked out on him; he's been having an affair with the Chancellor of the college where he teaches, and she is now pregnant; his editor is pressing him for a final draft of his unfinished book; and his publisher and everyone at the college are wondering if he will ever duplicate the success of his first novel.

As the novel opens, Grady "saves" one of his students, James Leer, from a possible suicide attempt, but his "mentoring" of James leads to hilariously absurd disasters for both of them. Grady's editor, the tuba-playing transvestite "girlfriend" who accompanies him, a collector of memorabilia from the marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, and the violent owner of a car that Grady was given to settle a debt, further flesh out the wacky characters and keep the reader amused and laughing almost non-stop.

As the weekend progresses and Grady's personal life further unravels, he finds himself driving around with the transvestite's tuba, the Chancellor's fatally shot malamute, and an equally dead ten-foot boa constrictor in the car's trunk. Scenes in which he tries to prevent the trunk from being opened are worthy of the Marx Brothers.

The dialogue is snappy, the narrative speeds along, the word play and humor never flag, and the satire of academic life and the world of writers shows the stamp of familiarity and the author's own offbeat sense of perspective. A grand farce which carries the bite of satire, Wonder Boys avoids the arch self-consciousness of so many novels of academia and comes across instead as pure, unadulterated fun. n Mary Whipple

Strange Tripp.......2007-02-06

A couple of years ago, on the recommendation of my stepson, I read Michael Chabon's prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, one of the most remarkable, inventive and entertaining books I've ever read. Fearing disappointment, I waited a couple of years before tackling another Chabon novel--settling on "Wonder Boys", having read about it in here.

Working from a much narrower perspective than the sweep of time and place in "Kavalier", Chabon focuses "Wonder Boys" on a single weekend in the life of shambling, dissolute English professor Grady Tripp. Still, over the course of that weekend we meet his wife (a Korean adoptee), his editor (a homosexual recreational drug user), his student (an insecure liar), his roommate (a voluptuous Utahan), his lover (dean of the college), his lover's husband (a high end memoribilia collector), his wife's Jewish-Korean family, a transvestite, a tuba and an unfortunate dog. A short, but telling backstory describes Tripp's childhood idol, an aging and depressed horror writer who roomed in the house where Tripp grew up. In the interests of space and time, we don't get to meet many of the characters in the "novel within the nove", also "Wonder Boys", a 2600-page opus that finds Tripp less than half-way through his plot outline with just a few hours left to satisfy his editor. The characters interact, the plot twists, and wackiness ensues--symbolized by the contents of the trunk of Tripp's aging Galaxie 500. The ending seemed a bit romanticized, but at least it's unexpected, given all that takes place to get there. Chabon's style is just short of complete farce, making the story highly entertaining, yet still riding on the fringes of believeability. I don't think I read it quite as fast as Tripp and company lived it, but I needed more sleep than they did, it would seem. A solid four-star read. I'll tackle Chabon's other Pittsburgh book some day and look forward to whatever he writes as a followup to "Kavalier".

Seen the film? - read the book.......2006-12-14

The story ostensibly centres on Prof Grady Tripp's attempts at completing his increasingly out of control follow up novel of the title, Wonder Boys; yet as is not surprising with Michael Chabon, as well as an interesting plot, it is very much about characters and relationships. Central here, in addition to Grady himself, are his editor Terry Crabtree and young student James Lear, something of a loner, as well as host of other divers characters including Grady's pregnant mistress, an adoring female student, a transvestite, a dead dog and a tuba.
The real beauty of the novel is the interaction between the various characters. Grady and carefree drug reliant Crabtree are long standing friends and this clearly comes through. Crabtree has a crush on the Grady's mysterious student, the unreliable James; Grady's beautiful student tenant has a crush on him; and Grady's third marriage is coming to an end while he pursues his mistress, the college Chancellor. His failing marriage does not prevent visiting his wife's family for Thanksgiving, and taking along James. The relationship between Grady and James is particularly well drawn; while seemingly a little detached from James, it is clear from Grady's actions and the superbly written lengthy dialogues between the two that Grady cares about James.
No one comes out of this shining, the individual characters do have their redeeming features, it would be a mistake to right them off as insincere, and one cannot help be drawn to these people for all their human failings.
Wonder Boys is very funny, enjoyable and at times moving, but above all it is the beauty of Chabon's writing that makes it an absolute must read. If you've seen the film you must read the book, there are, not surprisingly, differences.

The Two-headed Boy And Other Medical Marvels

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Guilty pleasures justified
A sensitive treatment of a difficult subject
A Fascinating Book
another great book from Jan Bondeson

The Two-headed Boy And Other Medical Marvels
Jan Bondeson
Manufacturer: CUP SERVICES
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0801437679

Amazon.com

Please, don't stare. Dr. Jan Bondeson, author of The Two-Headed Boy and Other Medical Marvels, aims to humanize his subjects and move beyond the standard exploitation of people with extremely visible medical anomalies. Though one might say that he benefits from our undeniable fascination with the extraordinarily different, he writes brief but thorough biographies that show real, three-dimensional people underneath the hair and horns. His medical understanding rivals his historical acuity, and the reader will find the interwoven threads of science and culture breathtaking.

Perhaps most intriguing is Bondeson's analysis of eccentric tales with little or no physical documentary evidence, such as the egg-laying Scotsman or the Irish gentlelady who was said to have given birth to 365 babies at once. He finds many convincing after stripping them of contemporary superstition and embellishment; this should motivate greater interest in seeking out nonmedical anomalies for deeper research. Fans of good, old-fashioned freak shows will enjoy the profuse, often charming illustrations and the final chapter on men and women reputed to eat such delicacies as stones and live animals long before Ozzy Osbourne made headlines. The Two-Headed Boy and Other Medical Marvels will surprise those looking strictly for cheap thrills, though--the subjects are too human to treat lightly. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

A successor to his popular book A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities, this new collection of essays by Jan Bondeson illustrates various anomalies of human development, the lives of the remarkable individuals concerned, and social reactions to their extraordinary bodies.

Bondeson examines historical cases of dwarfism, extreme corpulence, giantism, conjoined twins, dicephaly, and extreme hairiness; his broader theme, however, is the infinite range of human experience. The dicephalous Tocci brothers and Lazarus Colloredo (from whose belly grew his malformed conjoined twin), the Swedish giant, and the king of Poland's dwarf--Bondeson considers these individuals not as "freaks" but as human beings born with sometimes appalling congenital deformities. He makes full use of original French, German, Dutch, Polish, and Scandinavian sources and explores elements of ethnology, literature, and cultural history in his diagnoses.

Heavily illustrated with woodcuts, engravings, oil paintings, and photographs, The Two-Headed Boy and Other Medical Marvels combines a scientist's scrutiny with a humanist's wonder at the endurance of the human spirit.

Contents The Two Inseparable Brothers, and a Preface The Hairy Maid at the Harpsichord The Stone-child The Woman Who Laid an Egg The Strangest Miracle in the World Some Words about Hog-faced Gentlewomen Horned Humans The Biddenden Maids The Tocci Brothers, and Other Dicephali The King of Poland's Court Dwarf Daniel Cajanus, the Swedish Giant Daniel Lambert, the Human Colossus Cat-eating Englishmen and French Frog-swallowers

Customer Reviews:

Guilty pleasures justified.......2007-03-12

Jan Bondeson, a prolific, multilingual medical lecturer, has made a career of popularizing medical curiosities, but unlike other popularizes, he has also published technical studies of the same subjects -- some famous, some unearthed from ancient libraries -- in professional journals.

Thus, he brings a dose of medical sophistication and historical rigor to a topic that is, understandably, often treated shallowly.

As it turns out, not all the curiosities in "The Two-headed Boy" are medical. At least two are psychological only -- fakes.

The history of how fakes were understood before they were understood to be fakes has its own interest. Although the reader interested only in sensational freaks will find plenty of them here, lavishly illustrated, too, the presentation is likely to be offputting for the casual gawker. Bondeson himself has little use for such, whether rude yokels or elegant townies.

Well, it is a dangerous thing to delve into such a field without finding scoffers to point out that the writer and/or the reviewer may be deluding himself about his higher motives.

Nevertheless, as human beings with just one head (if that), our fascination for those with more than one is both very human and, if deftly handled, a legitimate exploration of social understanding as much as of organic pathology.

Bondeson is deft.

While it can never have been socially fashionable to grow up with two heads or covered with hair or sprouting horns, it was arguably worse to do so in premodern Europe. Almost all of Bondeson's examples come from Europe, although many of the older ones from regions where few English-speakers can navigate the libraries as well as Bondeson, a Swede, can.

In the old days of isolated villages, the life of a freak could be more or less tolerable or a hell on earth depending on the attitude of those who spread the news -- whether vicious gossips, humane farmers, greedy doctors or -- probably worst of all -- preachers. Bad enough to be born disfigured without some priest deciding you (or perhaps your mother) have sinned.

That we moderns are not always any more advanced is revealed in Bondeson's discussion of separating Siamese twins, the part of the book that can most easily claim the high ground.

Although "The Two-headed Boy" was published as recently as 2000, it is refreshingly free of po-mo claptrap. It is a surprise, a good one, not to have to endure trivial and shallow explanations that freaks are "others" whose social status is "gendered" or colonized or whatnot. In other words, Bondeson is an old-fashioned scholar, in the best sense of the word.

A sensitive treatment of a difficult subject.......2006-03-06

Especially interesting to me was the chapter on conjoined twins, and the stories about early attemps at separation - some successful, some not.

I, too had heard the story about the woman who had a litter of 365 - 182 male, 182 female, and one freemartin - and he's right, IMHO it was a hydatiform mole and nobody would mistake that for babies.

A Fascinating Book.......2002-06-19

Author/physician Jan Bondeson's work, THE TWO-HEADED BOY & OTHER MEDICAL MARVELS is itself a marvel -- it is a sensitive, humane discourse on cases in teratology (the study of congenital malformations). The word teratology derives from the Greek root 'terato' which is often translated as "monstrous" or "freak", however it also means "wondrous" and "marvelous". Dr. Bondeson never loses sight of his subjects' humanity and focuses on the wondrous aspect of teratology.

Dr. Bondeson's work is well-written and meticulously-researched. He discusses teratology cases from the Middle Ages through the Victorian Era, often providing contemporaneous illustrations and an occasional photograph. The book focuses records of multiple-headed individuals (conjoined twins), dog people (hirsuitism), and stone children (lithopedia), among other things. Dr. Bondeson examines and analyzes archives and reports of medical marvels which sound like legends, myths, fairy tales and ingeniously-contrived hoaxes. The book reads like a good mystery novel with Dr. Bondeson as the detective. He offers plausible medical explanations for accounts which, otherwise, would seem questionable, if not outright fanciful.

another great book from Jan Bondeson.......2002-03-22

although we are taught that our interests in "freaks" is wrong and twisted, Jan Bondeson challenges this idea and takes us back to a time when such curiosity was normal and accepted, and some freaks were like rock stars. This book is intelligent, well written, insightful and very interesting. With excellent research Mr. Bondeson shows us how these people lived, some of their joys and many of their sorrows. He deconstructs some of the mythology that surronds these people and their stories. He shows us formost that they are simply people. I highly recomment it.

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Time to grow up
Holy Blabbermouth!
Be afraid. Be very afraid...
Vanity press
Holy Moly, Somebody Put His Bat Back In The Cave!

Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights
Burt Ward , and Stanley Ralph Ross
Manufacturer: Logical Figments Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0964704803

Customer Reviews:

Time to grow up.......2007-06-15

What can I say about this book> It's really little more than Burt Ward's letters to Penthouse. He covers very little about his real personal life but stays focused on his sexual smorgasbord. Even that is unconvincingly portayed with the variety of females he encountered ranging from 'Psycho' re-enactors, vampiresses, French Mile-Highers, to wham-bams. I'm not saying this didn't happen to him, he was afterall a celebrity of a hit tv show. As others have pointed out, he recalls events that couldn't have happened and the time flow of the book is sporadic, jumping forward and backward. Ward's juvenile braggadocio about his sexual contacts becomes very stagnant as well as his constant mentioning of the 'beast of the Battrunks".

Ward is careful to insist he never cheated on any of his wives and claims to have a high moral and family standard. He says he didn't sleep with women without actually talking to them for a while first or taking them to dinner, yet he repeatedly mentions quick acts in the dressing room. One of the most amusing parts of his stories is that with every new detailed story of a woman he is with, they "took each other to new levels and learned more than he ever knew or thought possible"; come on, there's only so many 'new' things you can do. Hypocrasy arises when Ward talks of a steady from Hawaii that was bi-sexual but he was put off by it and ended the relationship because her lifestyle was wrong (conveniently she also had a 'sugar daddy' taking care of her but was willing to give him up if Ward married her). So he can't condone her partnership with another woman but then shortly after gives an entire chapter on how he took on eight prostitutes at the same time. Not to mention how he took a woman he 'loved' and performed acts on her in front of West while he took care of himself.

This whole book seems to be about two things really. His sexual conquests and belittling Adam West, his purported best friend. Having mentioned the first part already, the latter really borders on jealous rantings. Afterall, name something else Ward did after Batman? West at least did a few things. Other than attempting to degrade West's manhood, Ward also insinuates he (Ward) was better at the act than West was to the point West had to voyeur Ward in action. He also insinuates West may have jump off both sides of the swing and finally wraps things up with indicating West was a moocher. This coming from the guy who married into Victor Posner's empire and who for the previous twenty years spent his life roaming malls and car dealerships to sign autographs.

Overall, this is a pretty sleazy book based upon Ward's bragging and skeptical remembrances, however, you're compelled to read it because it's so funny because you know he's exaggerating. You can't have instant connections to every girl you meet, every encounter doesn't make you learn something new, and you just don't cut down your 'best friend' that way. Really, it's a quick money maker for another failed actor of a hit tv show. The book would have been so much better if he had actually talked about his real life and not his conquests. His father's death gets a six word sentence very late in the book although it happened around the time of the show, how did that affect you, Burt? You feel kind of dirty after reading parts of it, but if you read West's book "Back to the Batcave", you should read this one too.

Holy Blabbermouth!.......2006-01-25

You gotta hand it to Burt Ward, he's not a guy hiding behind the usual mask. He really tells ALL in this memoir of sex, stardom, and life as a sidekick.

Any one of his excruciatingly detailed descriptions of his myriad sexual encounters reads a little like a sex blog, but there's something genuinely likeable about this talented guy who never seemed to grow up. And when I say, "talented," I am not referring to his dorky acting in that atrociously camp TV series. His talents consist mainly of great personal charm, a near photographic memory, early athleticism (pro skater as a toddler? believe it) and impressive martial artistry. Whatever "IT" is, he has it in spades, and the book has a kind of glow about it. He's confident, enthusiastic, funny, and unapologetic. Even when he's dishing dirt about Adam West (Batman), or devouring groupies like a bag of chips, he's utterly captivating and ...I don't believe I'm actually writing this... playful.

In between the smutty sections, there are lots of interesting tidbits about 60's network television, vignettes of what it means to make the best of being forever known as "Robin the Boy Wonder", and through it all, he manages to stay juuuuust gentlemanly enough to praise the good work of fellow actors and those whom he depended upon. But surely his wife is just a little grossed out to know that in print and wide distribution is his rating her AAA+ in "screaming wallbangers", multiple orgasms, and "tongue action" a page flip away from a lovely baby picture of their daughter. Eeeyw!

Fun reading for fans of the series or of 60's tv in general, but don't take it too seriously, fandom folks. I mean, he even admitted he never read Batman comics as a kid.

Be afraid. Be very afraid..........2005-12-13

Well, let's see... to begin with, it's not a non-fiction masterpiece. I'm giving it three stars just for Burt's gutsy approach. You know, I loved Batman - the original series with Adam West and Burt Ward from watching the show religiously as a child - this was amazing, campy brain candy. Great guests, funny (yet crazy) plots, all of that Holy Batman dialogue and animated "POW" and "WAM" nonsense. As much as I have grown to love anything retro - the cheesier the better, in fact - I did feel a bit dirty after reading this. Who knew these sexcapades were going on? My memories feel a bit soiled as well. But I did snicker a few times (along with some grimacing). Now about that cover... I don't even know where to begin. BURT! WHY? WHY? WHY WOULD'YA DO IT TO US???? Sigh. I'd better stop here. Though it is a must read for any real retro-Batman fan. Just be prepared... Be very prepared...

Vanity press.......2004-05-29

In Ward's book, he claims to have had a relationship with a blonde actress who was making a show the same time he was on the Fox lot. Doesn't take Sherlock holmes to deduce that he's talking about Marta kristen from LOST IN SPACE. He claims she flipped out when he dumped her.

Well, I met her co-star and friend Mark Goddard a few years ago, and, with some prodding, he flatly stated that Marta never dated Ward and that his opinion of the 'Boy Wonder' was low indeed.

Ward also claims to have viewed a screen test of Lyle Waggoner audioning for BATMAN, and that Ward recognized LW from the Carol Burnett show. Only problem there is that Lyle had yet to join Korman, Burnett et al. at the time BATMAN was in preproduction.

Holy Moly, Somebody Put His Bat Back In The Cave!.......2002-11-10

After reading the first few pages of this book, it seemed like it was going to be an inspirational story of Burt Ward's struggle to success in one of the most beloved TV comedies of all time. Instead, I was brought into a somewhat funny (if not exaggerated) tell-all. At times it was charming, funny, and clever (for example, the stories about his first wife, apperances at schools, and one heck of a chapter on Julie Newmar) ...but in other moments it would go into sleazy, trashy, and VERY over-exaggerated nonsense (referring to yourself as a mock 'Super Stud Porn King' leaves a bad taste in anyones mouth).

Book Description

The village of Coven Tree is again bedeviled.This time a mysterious impressario named Dr. Hugo Dredd offers to save the townspeople from a terrible drought by lending the services of young Bufu the Rainmaker—but at a dreadful cost. `Masterful storytelling that will keep audiences hanging on every word. Perfect to booktalk or read aloud.' —BL.

1987 Children's Editors' Choices (BL)
1988 Choices (Association of Booksellers for Children)
Children's Books of 1987 (Library of Congress)
1987 Children's Books (NY Public Library)

Customer Reviews:

TOTALLY AWSOME!!!!!!!! (Better than waffles).......2006-11-07

This book was the best book ever, full of suspense and action. If you like action or any other suspensful book because it was full of different individual stories and characters, the best book ever was this book. The book is so short and could be read in one day. If you enjoy this book, I also recommend The Wish Giver Three Tale of Coven Tree.

P.S This book ROCKS

Not worth reading.......2002-02-01

If the title of this book sounds like it's trying too hard, that's probably because it is - and the story follows suit. Not terribly suspenseful, its characters only faintly given depth, rarely engaging and boringly derivative, the story seems to focus on writing style at the expense of relating anything substantive. The story is cloying, with overdone and predictable characters and situations, all of which makes the characters' occasional sense of urgency confusing since their stakes and motivations are never really addressed. In fact the exact motive of the chief antagonist isn't ever made clear - it all just comes off as being menacing for the sake of being menacing - and so the protagonists' struggle just seems pointless. There are times when the story takes itself so seriously and is so bad it's funny - such as when Old Magda gives Ellen a stick to defend herself against great danger, the townspeople accept Dr. Dredd's monsters into their town without a second thought, and numerous anachronisms roam unattended. These events would be intentionally funny if they were treated as comic hubris - but they're not. Additionally, the characters in the town are barely made distinct by their names. Not even deeply characterized enough to be stereotypes, the townsfolk are a mob - a grey, behaviorless, functionless mob.
Compare this story to some of the great suspense/mystical/adventure stories - like the Narnia Chronicles, or for something darker Christopher Pike's work - it doesn't stand up for a moment. Bland, bland, bland.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!.......2001-02-15

this spellbinder kept me at the edge of my seat while i read! it's the best book ever.........A MUST READ!!!!!

Great Book! :).......2000-03-15

Dr. Dredds wagon of wonders was my favorite book of Bill Brittain. I always wanted to read it! I liked it because it was exciting and I couldn't wait till the next page! I hope you like it as much as I did!

Mozart, The Wonder Boy (Great Musicians Series)

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Mozart, The Wonder Boy (Great Musicians Series)
Opal Wheeler , and Sybil Deucher
Manufacturer: Zeezok Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0974650536

Product Description

Back in print! We love the Wheeler & Deucher composers' series from the mid-20th century. This classic children's work on Mozart will be enjoyed by all family members, whatever their age. We are amazed how much history, biographical material, and music are included in each work. Mozart, The Wonder Boy presents the musical genius of this child prodigy, the loving family in which he was reared, and the impact he had on the world around him and to generations beyond. "Here is a book about the most musical boy that ever lived. Fortunately for us he wrote a great deal of music and this we can hear today even though we can never hear him play it. His music is always lovely and you will surely hear more of it as you grow up. Through his music, Mozart will always be to us a wonder child and a wonder man" (Peter W. Dykema-from the original 1941 edition).

A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (Everyman's Library Children's Classics)

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Even purged of their "heathern wickedness," these tales are a delight
Excellent retellings of Greek myths
A little-known gem of thrills for all ages
"...it had the effect of a vision." - from the Introductory

A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (Everyman's Library Children's Classics)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Six legends of Greek mythology, retold for children by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Included are The Gorgon’s Head, The Golden Touch, The Paradise of Children, The Three Golden Apples, The Miraculous Pitcher, and The Chimaera. In 1838, Hawthorne suggested to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that they collaborate on a story for children based on the legend of the Pandora’s Box, but this never materialized. He wrote A Wonder Book between April and July 1851, adapting six legends most freely from Charles Anton’s A Classical Dictionary (1842). He set out deliberately to “modernize” the stories, freeing them from what he called “cold moonshine” and using a romantic, readable style that was criticized by adults but proved universally popular with children. With full-color illustrations throughout by Arthur Rackham.

Customer Reviews:

Even purged of their "heathern wickedness," these tales are a delight.......2005-09-11

In the spring of 1851 Hawthorne wrote to his publisher, James Fields (of the renowned Ticknor and Fields), proposing a children's book retelling six well-known stories from Greek mythology. He planned to adopt "a tone in some degree Gothic or romantic." In addition, he wanted to make the fables suitable for young Christian children: "of course, I shall purge all the old heathen wickedness, and put in a moral wherever practicable."

I am usually not a fan of sanitized tales--even when written by someone the status of Nathaniel Hawthorne. But, in spite of their overt preachiness and their occasional preciousness, there's something charming and original about these adaptations. Even adults might enjoy these six tales: Perseus's slaughter of Medusa, Midas and his golden touch, Pandora's box (stripped of Prometheus's role), the apples of the Hesperides (or Hercules's Eleventh Labor), Baucis and Philemon and the magic pitcher (which, in my opinion, is the best of the lot), and Bellerophon and Pegasus's battle with the monster Chimaera.

Threading these stories together is Eustace Bright, Hawthorne's college-age narrator, who relates his versions to a gaggle of local children (a couple of whom taunt him for his bumptiousness). Hawthorne uses this framing device to insert himself as his own critic. Overhearing one of the stories, the father of one of the children is not amused, finding Eustace's taste "altogether Gothic" and advising him "never more to meddle with a classical myth." To this critique, Eustace petulantly responds that "an old Greek had no more right to them, than a modern Yankee has," and he accuses classical writers of forming these tales "into shapes of indestructible beauty, indeed, but cold and heartless." If anything, Hawthorne has certainly brought warmth to these old stories.

Still, the reading level might be a tall order for many children under 8 (although an adult can adapt them for reading out loud). Hawthorne sprinkles his prose with salutatory references to his real-life neighbors in the Berkshires (there's even a line about Melville writing "Moby Dick") and with puns and quips that have lost their context. And he gets carried away with his descriptions of the countryside. Hawthorne's evocative passages will surely strike modern readers as hopelessly old-fashioned, although the author realized that he was trying the patience of children even from his own day. After three florid and nearly insufferable paragraphs describing a meadow, for example, Hawthorne apologetically interrupts himself that "we must not waste our valuable pages with any more talk about the spring-time and the wild flowers. There is something, we hope, more interesting to be talked about."

What's more interesting, of course, are the stories of Greek gods and monsters and flying horses. Fortunately for readers young and old, Hawthorne mostly stays away from the scenery and sticks to the legends.

Excellent retellings of Greek myths.......2002-04-24

Once upon a time (I was about 8), a family friend handed down his Collier's Junior Classic series to me - each volume is a glorious hodgepodge of short stories from here, there, and everywhere. I got to be very fond of Greek mythology, especially "The Chimaera" and "The Miraculous Pitcher", since the Collier retellings of their respective legends were much more lively than the ordinary.

Alas, I forgot the name of the author of "The Chimaera", and even that my favourite versions of the myths were all written by the same person. Some talented guy writing for the series, no doubt, I would have said, if I'd thought about it. A couple of years ago, I started browsing through an impressive-looking illustrated volume of mythology in a bookstore (which you now see before you). Whoa. "Scarlet Letter" Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote *THESE*?

His retellings of Greek myths were originally spread over 2 volumes (the other being _Tanglewood Tales_), but they can be obtained in a single volume these days. I can personally do without the gang of Tanglewood kids providing the official audience for the stories-within-a-story, or the defense against critics put into the mouth of the storyteller Eustace Bright, but then I want more space for more myths. :) Each myth in _A Wonder Book_ has an Introductory and After the Story section where the storyteller leads up to the tale, then fends off any awkward questions from his young audience.

"The Gorgon's Head" - The story of Perseus, from his infancy through the quest for Medusa's head. Hawthorne skates delicately past the question of who put Perseus and his mother, Danae, in a chest and abandoned them on the sea, let alone why (toned down for kids, and all that), and of course doesn't go into detail about what mischief Polydectes might intend if Perseus can be got out of the way.

Hawthorne is otherwise thorough about details: he even includes the Three Gray Women, who share the use of a single eye, who had to be persuaded to reveal the location of the monsters whose gaze turns living creatures to stone.

"The Golden Touch" - The Midas legend, of how a king, blinded by a love of gold, foolishly asked Apollo that he be given the gift of turning things into gold with a touch. Be careful what you ask for...

"The Paradise of Children" - The story of Pandora's box. Hawthorne's version, much as I like his other mythological tales, has been prettified a little too much: everyone in the world was a child who never grew up, before the box arrived.

"The Three Golden Apples" - The 11th labour of Hercules, wherein the king sent him to fetch the apples of the Hesperides. The tale begins with Hercules meeting a band of nymphs, who hear his account (only briefly summarized, alas) of his preceding labours before directing him to the one person who can direct him to the garden: the Old Man of the Sea...

"The Miraculous Pitcher" - Philemon and his wife Bauchis have grown old together - the only kindly folk living for a good way around a prosperous village, whose inhabitants delight in tormenting vagabonds (although they'll fawn on wealthy-looking strangers). Then one day a ragged youth called Quicksilver and a taciturn man with an appearance of great wisdom are driven out of the village...

"The Chimaera" - Bellerophon's pursuit of Pegasus, whom he seeks because only in the air does he have a chance of killing the monstrous chimaera. Bellerophon's long wait beside the fountain of Pirene, where Pegasus descends to drink, is enlivened by several characters living round about: an old man who can't even remember his glory days, an overly timid maiden who'd run from anything unusual, a yokel who only appreciates plowhorses, and a little boy (the only one who really believes in Pegasus).

A little-known gem of thrills for all ages.......2002-01-18

One day last week, I could not, even after hours of deliberation (the snow had made engagements scarce), decide what book to read next. I finally came upon this little volume on the end of my parent's bookshelf and decided to give it try. How could I have known what charms were in store? I felt like a little girl again, and as Eustace Bright, the ambitious college student who narrates these tales, held his little auditors in awe, my eyes, too, were wide with wonder. It truly is a "wonder book," full of high fantasy, thrilling action, and the inimitable imagery of a master. Though geared towards "boys and girls," Hawthorne explains in his introduction that "children possess an unestimated sensibility to whatever is deep or high, in imagination or feeling, so long as it is simple . . . It is only the artificial and complex that bewilder them." Indeed; the book hardly condescends, and so will gently stretch the middle-grader's vocabulary. But readers -- or listeners -- of all ages will delight in this collection of tales, for I was equally, if not more, entertained by the introductories and postludes to each story, which relate the antics and dialogue of Eustace and the little children he entertains. These interludes also expand the stories by slipping in commentary and interpretation.

Don't pass this one by; it will truly win your heart, whoever you may be!

"...it had the effect of a vision." - from the Introductory.......2000-12-22

Hawthorne's gentle, charming collection of classic myths retold for the children of his day is a neglected classic. Addressing the reader in personable Victorian fashion, his prose is clear and beautiful. Consider this sample:

"Within the verge of the wood there were columbines, looking more pale than red, because they were so modest, and had thought proper to seclude themselves too anxiously from the sun. There were wild geraniums, too, and a thousand white blossoms of the strawberry. The trailing arbutus was not yet quite out of bloom; but it hid its precious flowers under the last year's withered forest-leaves, as carefully as a mother-bird hides its little young ones."

But Hawthorne is also equal to the task of less genteel, more vigorous images:

"At this sound the three heads reared themselves erect, and belched out great flashes of flame. Before Bellerophon had time to consider what to do next, the monster flung itself out of the cavern and sprung straight toward him, with its immense claws extended, and its snaky tail twisting itself venomously behind."

Customer Reviews:

A horrible book!.......2007-03-29

The art was ok and the writing was ok... however the plot was pathetic!!! It was one of the worst crafted books I have ever read. Batgirl and Robin fight to the "death" to get out of being trapped by the Penguin. Which while not very clever wasn't dumb... but then Robin shoots Batgirl supposedly in a non-vital area... err... what? After he shoots her they both leap up and fight there way to freedom. What? Why didn't you just do that in the firstplace? There wasn't any reason and now Batgirl has a sucking chest wound as they escape. They have officially run out of ideas and instead of trying to come up with something clever they decided to come up with something stupid. Like a mystery novel where the end solution had nothing to do with what happened in the book... if you like trite simple stories or are suffering from major brain damage this is a plot that you can really wrap your mind around. Otherwise... avoid this book like the plague.

Great Bat-Family Reading.......2006-10-11

I've liked Tim Drake as Robin ever since he came on the scene and saved Batman from The Scarecrow. I thought he was a cool Robin and he's really grown as a character.

I've liked Cassandra Cain as Batgirl ever since I picked up the first issue of her series mostly because he costume looked really cool (I love the whole stitched over mouthpiece thing)!

So putting them together in their own comic book (well, not really their own comic book but their own city), seems like a great idea! And it pays off. Paring the post-Identity Crisis/War Crimes Robin with Batgirl makes for a dark and great tale of loss and finding a way to move on. Fresh Blood is about hiding from all of the things that are bothering you and being surprised when those things follow you along just the same. We can't hide from our sorrows - they are part of us. And both Robin and Batgirl find this.

What I really liked was Robin's fight against becoming Batman! This characterization just goes further to prove how cool a character he really is! Add to that Batgirl's desire to be nothing but be exactly like Batman and... well, you got the makings of a whole lotta fun!

Pretty good.......2005-11-05

I thought that the book was really interesting how it went about explaining Batgirl's handicap with books. I know that Robin is younger than her, but at the end of the book they should've kissed. They were physically really close to eachother, they really should've kissed. Most of the pictures were good, but when they showed Robin's dad and girlfriends, that was messed up. I didn't like the drawer's style.
My opinion.

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