Dear Mr. Blueberry (Aladdin Picture Books)

Book Description

"Dear Mr. Blueberry, I love whales very much and I think I saw one in my pond today. Please send me some information on whales." It's vacation time, so Emily has to write to her teacher to help when she discovers a blue whale living in her pond. Mr. Blueberry answers that she must be mistaken, because whales live in the ocean, not in ponds.

Throughout the summer, Emily and Mr. Blueberry exchange letters, until Emily has a happy surprise to share with her teacher. In the process, Emily learns a lot about whales. And Mr. Blueberry leans even more about imagination, faith, and love.

Customer Reviews:

book.......2007-05-09

This is an all time favorite in our preschool. Had trouble finding it until now. Great service. Good book.

Endearing for the young child/ Instructional for the classroom teacher.......2007-01-12

Wow! This book serves a plethora of functions... From the very young they will be enchanted with the beautifully jewel toned colours on the pages... If your child likes ocean animals they will learn all about whales in this beautifully told tale of the growing bond between a young student and her teacher as Mr. Blueberry teaches and corrects her misconceptions of whales habits and habitats. It is a great vehicle to use in the classroom to teach letter writing, writing notebook, and several other writing workshop minilessons. Great literacy selection... My son who is 6 as well as my class of aged 10 and 11 year olds adore this book on many different levels... ;)

A lovely children's book.......2005-11-13

I've been using this book with my kindergarten and first grade to introduce text illustration. They absolutely love it. I get applause every time I read it.

The illustrations are beautiful watercolors inspired by Emily's view of what is going on in her back yard.

My favorite part of the book is that readers are not told conclusively whether there was actually a whale in Emily's pond. It preserves a bit of the magic of believing that Arthur the whale was real.

A wonderful book for boys and girls.

Excellent Book.......2005-09-21

I loved this story. My third grade students enjoyed the playful letters between Emily and Mr. Blueberry. We are studying animals in science and they are doing a research project on an animal. We are modeling a writing project after the format of this book. They are writing the letters from both perspectives using the animal they are learning about. They are enjoying being the 'expert' on their animal.

Disappointed.......2005-08-02

Reading the reviews for this book I thought it would be a more substantial book than what I found. It is a cute idea, but it is lacking in content. Very disappointed...will probably end up as a garage sale book.

The Long Night of Winchell Dear: A Novel

Average customer rating:

Liked Marty & the Driver Characters Best
Not a good title for the book
A great new book by Robert James Waller
Long time reader
Entertaining Romp From Versatile Writer

The Long Night of Winchell Dear: A Novel
Robert James Waller
Manufacturer: Shaye Areheart Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

High Plains Tango: A Novel
A Thousand Country Roads
Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend
Old Songs in a New Cafe: Selected Essays
Just Beyond the Firelight

ASIN: 0307209962
Release Date: 2006-11-14

Book Description

The steady tick of an aged Regulator wall clock and the squeak of an overhead fan turning slowly are soft but insistent, counting down the night, while the high desert thrums like a half-remembered Victrola song. The sounds are below the consciousness of Winchell Dear, an old-time gambler, a Texas poker player on the southern circuit, as he waits for something . . . something vague that his life of chance tells him is evil and moving his way. He has gassed and oiled the Cadillac and adjusts the pistol in his right boot, then plays one of the six fiddle tunes he knows, thinking back to his good days with Lucinda Miller. Alone, he waits in his remote ranch house, while, just outside, an acquaintance named Luther hunts, unblinking and of nervous temperament and moving through yellow primrose bending in the night wind.

In Diablo Canyon, a distant part of Winchell Dear’s ranch, Peter Long Grass squats by a campfire, contemplating the profile he saw moving along the ridge of Guapa Mountain an hour ago, thinking about the gambler’s housekeeper, Sonia Dominguez, about the small, quiet world he has fashioned far from civilization and what undefined presence might now be threatening it. He gathers his tools and begins to run across the desert floor.

And boring toward all of them is a cream-colored Lincoln Continental with two men aboard. Traveling from Los Angeles on a mission they’ve been given, they are professionals, cool and implacable at the start, but becoming steadily more confused by the strange landscape they are passing through. Forty minutes from their task, they ready themselves, while a kitchen wall clock ticks its way through the long night of Winchell Dear.

The Long Night of Winchell Dear finds master storyteller Robert James Waller at his best as he takes us through the wind and dust of the high desert mountains, into the shadowy world of high-stakes poker fought in the back rooms of Amarillo and Little Rock, and headlong toward the book’s stunning finale of chaotic terror, where an unexpected hero emerges.

Customer Reviews:

Liked Marty & the Driver Characters Best.......2007-08-11

Caution: Spoiler Ahead. I have most, if not all of Waller's books, and The Long Night of Winchell Dear was a good, fast-paced read - except when it got bogged down with too much detail & time spent about poker-playing strategy & techniques. I enjoyed Marty & the Driver characters most - they reminded me somewhat of Steinbeck's George & Lenny. They provided suspense, tension and humor, and I enjoyed their dialogue. As I mentioned, it seemed to me that too much detail & time was given to Winchell's poker-playing education and prowess, since, in the end, it didn't matter and had no effect on the story's outcome. Of course, he won his ranch by bluffing at poker, but still, I didn't think the story benefitted from so much detail. As for the oft-mentioned rattlesnake, as the end drew near, it was obvious that "Luther" was going to be Marty & the Driver's demise. Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I hope Waller writes another non-love story such as this.

Not a good title for the book.......2007-02-21

This book reads like a classic. The literary quality flows. It's unfortunate that a lot of people might not read the book because of the title. I'm a librarian so I get a chance to look beyond titles and summaries before I choose to read a book. I give books a chance to interest me. I'm very glad I did with this one. However, still I say, Winchell with the last name of Dear would of kept me off balance while reading the book because the last name (one word!) unknowingly sends a mixed message regarding the content. Everytime I read the word "Dear" my mind kept wanting to revert to light romance reads. There is a meaningful story inside this book and well worth the time it takes to read it. I hope the book doesn't become a "albatross" for the author.

A great new book by Robert James Waller.......2007-02-11

I love anything by Robert James Waller.......this was another great book, building up to a surprising end.

Long time reader.......2007-01-11

I have read all of Mr. Waller's books and have enjoyed them a great deal. With this novel he seemed to be more in a hurry to tell the story. I always enjoyed his storytelling how hepainted a vived picture. This book he put everything together in the final pages of the book; disappointing quick ending.

Entertaining Romp From Versatile Writer.......2006-11-30

Fans of Madison County will be surprised and a little shocked by this book, but fans of all of Waller's books should appreciate it. After his first three romance books took off, Waller changed directions and started doing something few writers do... he started writing what he wanted to write and didn't hold to any one genre. While I like his love stories best, even the one contained in High Plains Tango (his most developed to date) I did enjoy "The Long Night of Winchell Dear."

Borrowing lyrics from his song "Blue Suspenders" from his excellent and underrated album "Ballads of Madison County," Waller creates Winchell Dear, a professional gambler with a checkered past and a few regrets. Dear lives on a ranch he won in a poker match. On this property also lives his maid, an American Indian, and a rattlesnake that is mentioned several times to foreshadow it is going to play some part in the story. Staying with the maid in her adobe is an aging Mexican drug runner. On the way to the ranch, for reasons left unexplained until the very end, are two comical stereotypical mob hitmen who banter back and forth and use language the average "Madison County" romance reader will likely find inappropriate. Waller builds up all of these characters, makes us care about them, and brings them all together in the end. He also introduces a few others along the way and tosses in a pinch of romance (but not quite enough to satisfy.)

As always, it takes a chapter or two to get used to Waller's style of writing. He skips from one character's point of view to the next without using section breaks. Some of the narrative and a little of the dialogue is clunky. It is kind of hard for a man who lived in Iowa all his life to move to Texas for a couple of years and pick up on the rough Texan vernacular, but Waller gives it his best shot. Some of it is kind of forced, as if lifted from old west movies from the forties, but once you get into the story you overlook things like that. And he misuses the term "ya'll." Northerners take note: "Ya'll" is PLURAL. No Texan is going to tell one person, "Ya'll want to go to the store?" The term means "You all," much like, "You guys" or "You's twos."

Aside from those minor complaints, the story is fast paced... I can see it being made into a pretty good movie. Waller's prose, as always, captures the winds and mystery of the rugged Texas night. He holds a great respect for the reclusive ways of life and the dreams that surround them. He captures the essence of his characters and doesn't disappoint. I look forward, as always, to his next one. And hopefully next time it will be another love story, as that is the kind of book he writes best.

Average customer rating:

My Favorite Book of All Time!!!
Weird, unlikable characters in a diffuse plot
Loved it! Please give us more about Agatha
The best Hassler novel since Staggerford!!
A lovely, insightful book with well developed characters

Dear James (Loyola Classics)
Jon Hassler
Manufacturer: Loyola Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Fiction | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Green Journey
Staggerford: A Novel
North of Hope (Loyola Classics)
The New Woman : A Staggerford Novel
The Staggerford Flood

ASIN: 082942430X

Book Description

Agatha Magee, the feisty, quick-witted, fiercely Catholic doyenne of Staggerford, Minnesota, confronts crises large and small in her 70th year. She is forced to retire from her beloved teaching, she's crushed to learn that her Irish pen pal James is a priest, and she's faced with the evils of the world -- from Irish terrorism to the petty jealousies that tear apart life in a small town. Jon Hassler explores themes of loss and spiritual renewal in this engaging novel.

Customer Reviews:

My Favorite Book of All Time!!!.......2006-07-01

I have read this book four times now (there is NO other book I've read this many times). Agatha is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction and I read a lot of fiction. She's true to herself in everything she does! I really love the relationship she has with the townsfolk and most particularly with James, although this isn't the first book with Agatha (Staggerford) or with Agatha and James (Green Journey), it can stand alone. It's warm, it's touching, it's funny, it's sad, it's, quite simply, wonderful!

Weird, unlikable characters in a diffuse plot.......1999-10-06

Hassler is an excellent writer and knows how to develop characters, but there just isn't enough plot in this book. Dragging in a bunch of stories about people caught up in the Irish feuds didn't do it for me - in fact, I skipped some of that. Agatha is distinctly unlikable as is Imogene. The only character I cared about was French. Hassler's books always move slowly, but this one was too glacial for me. I did finish it, but only because I was on vacation and didn't have much else to do.

Loved it! Please give us more about Agatha.......1999-08-01

I love Jon Hassler's novels and wish he would write many more, especially if Miss Agatha is one of the characters. I find myself thinking about her all the time, wondering how she is doing, and hate to have to remind myself that she exists only in our imaginations. She is a combination of your favorite grade-school teacher, a beloved aunt or grandmother, the elderly neighbor loved by all, with a little of Aunt Bea mixed in. Read everything Jon Hassler has written. You can't go wrong with any of his books.

The best Hassler novel since Staggerford!!.......1999-06-11

When you put this book down you won't be able to wait till you can pick it up again. You actually miss the characters. It's about feelings and love and everyday life and just how nice it can actually be. Hassler's characters are among the sweetest people you'll come to meet. --And Agatha talks some more about Miles Pruit!!

A lovely, insightful book with well developed characters.......1998-07-12

"Dear James" is a sequel to "A Green Journey", further exploring the staunch character of Miss Agatha McGee and continuing her complicated relationship with James.

The book focuses closely on his characters and their interactions. Their detailed conversations and day to day activities show us just who they are and how they fit together as a community. This book is not a travelog; if you are looking for great adventure and beautiful descriptions of exotic lands, look elsewhere. Instead, it's a marvelous portrait of regular every day small town people, their values, their lives and their interconnections.

I have always been impressed with the depth and consistency of Hassler's characters. He treats Miss Agatha McGee and all the residents of Staggerford (and elsewhere) lovingly and yet humorously. His characters are honored even for their foibles.

He presents information about his characters as his novel goes on, painting layer upon layer of experience and character. He builds these characters carefully and logically, so that when they reach a turning point or make a decision, it always seems consistent with their makeup. Yet even when a character makes a decision that seems almost tragically wrong to me, it always seems consistent with their belief systems. This strikes me as very rare in the fiction I read.

Miss Agatha McGee in particular has become a fuller, more developed and more complicated character with each book. Her life and her decision, very different from mine, do manage to bring her happiness and peace.

Through Hassler's insightful writing, I have developed a much greater understanding of belief systems and motivations very different from my own.

Book Description

A collection of previously unpublished correspondence between American artist Marsden Hartley and avant-garde impresario and photographer Alfred Stieglitz, My Dear Stieglitz chronicles a painter's three-year-plus European pilgrimage before--and during the inception of--World War I. Beginning with Hartley's 1912 arrival in Paris, his letters to Stieglitz from this pioneering capital of modern art and world culture provide sweeping accounts of Gertrude Stein's salons, gossip of Montparnasse cafés filled with poets, writers, artists, and composers, and commentary on paintings by Picasso, Cézanne, and Matisse. Searching for social acceptance as well as artistic growth and inspiration, Hartley reports to Stieglitz on leading galleries such as Ambroise Vollard, Bernheim-Jeune, and Paul Durand-Ruel, while finding solace in art at the Musée du Louvre.

From Germany in early 1913, Hartley writes vibrant letters about the Expressionist artists in Munich, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, and their group Der Blaue Reiter. Hartley's missives quickly become up-to-the-minute exposés on avant-garde trends in Germany with childlike lamentations over the bustling, modern city of Berlin. His glory in Germany turns solemn with the onset of World War I and the death of his close friend, a German officer named Karl von Freyburg--a loss vividly depicted in Hartley's renowned war motif paintings from this period. Steiglitz's correspondence from New York gives an American point of view of a war in Europe and chronicles exhibitions at "291," his own gallery for modern art. Although Stieglitz's letters are less personal than Hartley's, he shows subtle signs of resentment toward the famous 1913 Armory Show, which usurped his reign over modernism in America.

Closing in late 1915 with Hartley's return to an America filled with anti-German sentiment and a New York seasoned by the influx of modern art, My Dear Stieglitz provides an intimate perspective on modern art and the human condition during the tempestuous years of the early twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

An informative and intrinsically interesting collection.......2003-02-11

Compiled and edited by art historian and expert James Timothy Voorhies, My Dear Stieglitz: Letters Of Marsden Hartley And Alfred Stieglitz 1912-1915 is an informative and intrinsically interesting collection of previously unpublished correspondence between America artist Marsden Hartley and avant-garde impresario, editor, and photographer Alfred Stieglitz chronicling Hartley's three year European sojourn before and just at the inception of World War I. The letters begin with Hartley's 1912 arrival in Paris and provides invaluable commentary on Gertrude Stein's salons, the paintings of Picasso, Cezanne, and Matisse, and his encounters with many of the leading lights of the European world of artists, art dealers, and gallery owners. Hartley continues in 1913 to write an informative correspondence about the Expressionist artists and art trends that he encountered in Germany. This amazing body of correspondence concludes with Hartley's late 1915 return to an America seasoned by the influx of pre-war modern art. My Dear Stieglitz is a welcome and invaluable contribution to 20th Century Art History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Super collection of letters!.......2002-12-18

I loved this collection of letters because the correspondence is so succint, complete, and filled with emotion and drama. The letters really gave me a sense of what the artist was going through at this time in his life.

Book Description

``This book provides great insights and perspectives into target cost management practice by combining theory and practice both in the U.S. and Japan.''--Hiroshi Oakano, Professor, Osaka City University. ``Target costing is an essential tool for companies striving to achieve and maintain a position of true cost competitiveness. This book makes an important contribution to the field of strategic cost management, and should be required reading for any executive interested in achieving world-class business performance.''--Charles H. Noski, Senior Vice President and CFO, Hughes Electronics. Target costing has been successfully used as a srategic weapon by Japanese companies for nearly two decades. Now, with Target Costing, Shahid L. Ansari and Jan E. Bell help you understand the tools manufacturers must use by strengthen their companies' competitive advantages. The one-and-only reference on how target costing is building a culture of excellence in many organizations todoay. Target Costing illustrates how this management approach: helped companies like Chrylser, Caterpillar and Boeing make impressive comebacks; centers on the principle that cost management starts before a product is produced; shows why investors looking for solid companies can use target costing as a sign of market dominance.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent introduction to the topic of target costing.......2000-08-23

This book gives an excellent overview of the topic, written in an easy understandable way. The authors have researched numerous articles and studies and compiled them into this work. The book also contains a lot of tables and graphs to illustrate the text. The foundations and the scope of target costing are well discussed and a small case study gives an idea how target costing is working in a practice. Moreover, there are a lot of references to literature and some examples from industry discussed. In the appendix there is a very useful collection of tools used in the target costing.

Definition and scope of target costing as explained in the book:

The target costing process is a system of profit planning and cost management that is price led, customer focused, design centred, and cross-functional. The target costing initiates cost management at the earliest stages of product development and applies it throughout the product life cycle by actively involving the entire value chain.

The difference between target costing and cost management is that the latter focuses on reducing the cost when they are already occurring, that means when the product design and the process are already defined. The target costing approach on the other hand helps to identify the allowable cost for a product in the design stage, the cost at the manufacturing stage are therefore known to be achievable and competitive. Further cost improvements are achieved by kaizen costing (continuous improvement).

best practice best theory.......2000-04-02

this book is best for persons to understand the target costing indeeply with plain english. this book is also suitable for cost management in the globe.

BEST PRACTICE BEST THEORY.......2000-04-02

This book provided more detail for target costings, more useful everyday, in both practical and theorical case. Moreover, this book use plain english for whoever in the world.

Average customer rating:

Querido Salvatierra/Dear Mr. Blueberry
Simon James
Manufacturer: Lectorum Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Infantil y juvenil | Libros en español | Formats | Books

No ficción | Infantil y juvenil | Libros en español | Formats | Books

Pato Para Presidente

ASIN: 1930332882

The Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III

Average customer rating:

This is a great book, one of the greatest statements of humanity every made, surprisingly told by detective William Dear.
Wonderful window into the youth of late 70's/very early 80's!
Gamers Should Read the Real Story
Excellent book
Interesting book

The Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III
William C. Dear
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Mazes and Monsters
Please Don't Kill Me: The True Story of the Milo Murder
Mazes and Monsters

ASIN: 0345326954
Release Date: 1985-10-12

Customer Reviews:

This is a great book, one of the greatest statements of humanity every made, surprisingly told by detective William Dear........2007-09-09

Brilliant, 16-year-old James Dallas Egbert III was a college student at Michigan State University and he had disappeared: was he kidnapped, was he dead, did he commit suicide? No one knew the answer. A real mystery.
Then the papers broke the news that he had been involved with "Dungeons and Dragons;" suddenly his disappearance took on a more sinister note. Many preachers and conservatives spun stories equating "Dungeons and Dragons" with a Satanic Cult. They speculated that James(many called him by his first name as opposed to the name he was actually called by the people who knew him; I always thought that said more about them than him) had been murdered by these "Dangeons and Dragons" Cultists. But if you were paying attention, you noticed that Dallas wasn't as important to them as attacking Dungeons and Dragons.
I remember it all made me more curious: wanting to know what really happened to Dallas, what the truth was.

The last thing I remember in the papers was the News that Nationally known Detective William Dear had found Dallas and brought him home to his loving parents. Some offered the opinion that to be young, small(Dallas was 5'3") and friendless was too much for the young man and he chose to disagppear to bring relief from all the pressure he was under.

At the time I never bought the "Dungeons and Dragons" Cult story. I had friends who played the game. I, myselft, never "got it."
My friends were very smart and perfeclty normal as far as I could tell. I did try to play it a couple of times; I considered myself(rightly or wrongly) as smart as they were. It just wasn't for me. Even though I am considered a computer "expert" of sorts, I never play role games, even today.

I remember Dallas wanted to work/own a computer store, certainly that placed him on the cutting edge of technology in 1979/1980. And remember he was a genius too.

I think I would have understood and liked Dallas if I had known him.

Unfortunately, sometime in 1980 news broke that Dallas was dead from suicide. But that wasn't the end of the story. This book is the real story.

I remember this case when it first broke into the news. Almost everyone referred to it as the "Dungeons and Dragons" case. If you "Google" James Dallas Egbert III's name, you'll get a few defenses of the Dungeons and Dragons and a lot of attacks on the games, especially by members of the religious right.
The fact that Dallas was gay probably has a lot to do with it. And to me, they all miss the point.
This book was written by the detective who found Dallas and is exactly the book which should have been written.

This isn't a story about Dungeons and Dragons; this isn't a story about a cult; about being brilliant or being gay.
It is about a young man who disappears. It is about his family hiring the best detective in the country to find him. Mr. Dear realized early on that the case wasn't going to be easy. Correctly, he knew that he would have to understand Dallas to find him.
Page by page, Mr. Dear leads us through how he learned who Dallas was and why he was the person who he was.
But more than that, you can see how Mr. Dear comes to understand Dallas and, more importantly, like him.
As each page unfolds, we, through Mr. Dear's eyes, begin to like Dallas too.

As his book unfolds, it is apparent that Mr. Dear had taken this case personally. He wants Dallas found and he intends to do whatever it takes. There isn't a false note, nor insincere word in this book. Dallas needs to be found, because people love him and care about him. The only one who doesn't seem to realize it, excluding the lunatic fringe(and they deserve to be excluded), is Dallas, himsself.

I don't want to give anymore of the story away, but will add that when Mr. Dear found Dallas, Dallas knew that the detective genuinely cared about him(he had been relentless in his search, putting the fear of God into those who were hiding Dallas). Dallas may have been afraid of where he was and how he got there; he may have been afraid of being found, but he also had to know that Mr. Dear was a "good-guy," a friend, someone who really cared about him. He could see, as anyone who has read the book knows, this was not done for money or fame. This story was told because James Dallas Egbert III mattered, he counted; and like I said, the only one who didn't seem to realize it was Dallas. And that is the true tragedy of this story.
I think this book ranks among the top detective stories ever written, especially, among true crime stories. But I would put it another catagory. I think it echoes "Death Be Not Proud". Death Be Not Proud is the story written by famed journalist John Gunther about the death of his son, Johnny at age 17 from cancer.
Though styled as a memorial to his son, it is, in fact, the story and celebration of his life.
Mr. Dear's book has done the same for Dallas. It has helped us see him as real person, someone worth knowing, appreciating and treasuring. I would add that it is has done much the same for Mr. Dear.
I only wish that Dallas had a chance to read it, himself. He would have realized that he really did matter, that he was worth knowing and the luckiest people of all would have been the people who had the chance to be his friend.
I know William Dear knows that. I do too.

Wonderful window into the youth of late 70's/very early 80's!.......2007-06-13

"The Dungeon Master" is a great read for 3 reasons [the third being the most important by far]:

(1) For those of us who played the original Dungeons & Dragons and/or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game back during (roughly) the same time-period Dallas did, this book will probably trigger some old, wonderful, personal memories of the game that have not received any attention in years. I know that is what happened with me during the process of reading this book. I doubt that the youth of today would really understand or appreciate the original game all that much- from what I have seen overall, they are kind of lazy when it comes to reading, writing and using their imaginations (Imagination: an antediluvian word, which has no direct translation for today's youth- the closest they can get to it (which is still a far cry) in their language might be "X-box," or "Play Station.").

(2) Okay, in addition to being fairly unimpressed with the dungeon that he went through when he played the game, former D& D gamers will also notice that P.I. Dear did not have a complete grasp of the game- but he DID know enough to understand the basic idea of what fantasy role-playing games were about. ...And that was all he needed to help him understand one of Dallas's serious interests (and therefore understand Dallas better). Despite his limited knowledge of the game, I thought Dear was very fair and unbiased toward it [and also please note that even though the title of the book is called "Dungeon Master," P.I. Dear does not focus only on D&D, but also looked at all the other serious interests that Dallas had]. If his book gives an accurate portrayal, Dear is a great P.I., and an even better human being.

(3) By really taking in Dallas, his tragic life, and also the lives of the young people in this book, one gets a GREAT window into youth of the late seventies/very early eighties. His life (like many others of that era) epitomizes the serious problems caused by the large generation gap that existed between the parents and the youth. Unlike today's parents and children, where there is much more of a blur between how the two dress, speak, and even behave- the differences back then were much more pronounced. As bad as drugs are now, they were MUCH, MUCH more rampant during those times, and the parents, who had no experience with drugs, were generally clueless. While unfortunately more parents are divorced now, and have much less time to spend with their children, today's parents really seem to be much more approachable and communicative (and as a result the youth back then were much less demonstrative and communicative- at least with their parents), are much less demanding (at least with academics), much more accepting (even of homosexuality- which was taboo back then- with everyone) and give their kids a lot of love, and A LOT more money, than the parents of Dallas's generation. Even if some of today's youth do not have stellar parents, they have teachers who (unlike back then) are also very approachable, and often bend over backwards for their students. Today there are many more support groups and hotlines for the youth at every level, peer mentoring programs, and if worse come to worse, one can always turn to the internet for help from thousands of youth-oriented support groups. Available 24-7-365. Dallas had none of these things, and after reading this book, one can really appreciate how far support and caring has come for the youth since then, and feel for Dallas that much more...

...After I finished the book, I was left wondering... How would Dallas have been if he had lived now? What are all those people- especially his parents and younger brother- doing with their lives now? Can one still easily access the tunnels underneath Michigan State like back in 1979? And finally, who the heck got that big table into that room with that tiny entrance down there, how did they do it, and is it still there? God Bless you, Dallas.

Gamers Should Read the Real Story.......2006-03-05

Anyone who was a roleplaying gamer in the early '80s ran into plenty of people who, upon learning of the tie to the hobby, would roll their eyes and say "Isn't that the game that the guy got killed playing in the steam tunnels?" And, I gotta admit, William Dear didn't do Dungeons & Dragons or roleplaying games any favors by the way he handled the case. But, then, of course, neither did James Dallas Egbert III. And the fact that a James Eggberg, also of MSU, attended GenCon at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, when James Dallas Egbert ran away from school, just helped cement a tie in the public's mind that really wasn't there. Of course, a bad Tom Hanks movie inspired by the events didn't help any either. Gamers will be interested in finding out the truth about Egbert's disappearance, both because it lets them refute uninformed critics and because it is a bizarre and interesting tale of bright kid pushed too hard. A good read. Donald J. Bingle, gamer and author of Forced Conversion.

Excellent book.......2002-03-29

William Dear expressed the emotion, tension, and high risks that he and his collegues experienced in an almost minute to minute update of the mystery. This book is far superior to any other detective or mystery story, fact or fiction.
Even though the actions depicted in the book occurred nearly 23 years ago, I felt throughout the whole narrative that I was also in search of Dallas. Willam Dear is a tremendous caring person.

Interesting book.......2001-08-25

While I had heard about the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III, I had not realized that there was a book written about it. "The Dungeon Master" was an interesting read detailing William Dear's search for the missing kid. One thing I found completely astonishing is that the students at this college were actually playing Dungeons & Dragons in tunnels that ran under the school. I am a fan of the game, but what these kids did was a bit much. Anyway, this book is a good read for anyone who enjoys true stories.

Average customer rating:

Eat Your Poison, Dear
Do or Die
Not good, he has written MUCH better books.
good book !¡!
Eat Your Poison Dear

Eat Your Poison, Dear (Aladdin Mystery)
James Howe
Manufacturer: Aladdin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0689803397

Book Description

Cafeteria food may be hazardous to your health.

Poor Milo Groot -- he's sprawled on the cafeteria floor, his cracked glasses inches away from his white face. Could it be the apple chili dogs?

Could it be poison?

Kids at the middle school are dropping like flies, and Sebastian Barth suspects there's something fishier than tuna dreamboats behind the epidemic. The trouble is, too many cooks have had the chance to spoil the stew.

Sebastian finds out.

At least he thinks he does, but he soon discovers that whipping up a dramatic disclosure without all the ingredients is a recipe for disaster.

Customer Reviews:

Eat Your Poison, Dear.......2004-03-12

Eat Your Poison, Dear is about a bunch of 8th graders. In the story, after one day at there everyday normal middle school cafeteria a student had gotten sick or so everyone said, he got the flu. Everyone felt sorry for this middle schooler. Need less to say, another student if fact didn't feel that the student had gotten the flu, in fact he had thought that he had gotten poisoned. Every Prembroke Middle Schooler had eatten at that cafeteria before and they had never gotten sick. Until that very day came.....the one kid who knew that it couldn't possibley be the flu, went in and investagated the cafeteria. He decided to ask the lunch aids if he could "help out" in the kitchen. His help out was more like an investagation. He started to kinda interview all the cafeteria staff and start to ask a lot of questions. He had gotten through all the staff members when he came across a staff member that he had not yet interveiwed. Her name was Miss Swille. In the middle of his interview he came across a jar. A lonely jar with little herbs and spices in it. He asked her what she did with those herbs and spices, she replied that she adds them to all school lunches, but only the 8th graders. When she said that she only adds them to the 8th graders lunches, he replied why do you only put them in our lunches but not the 6th and 7th graders, she said because your grade is specail. He replies with an indeed. So after a couple of minutes, Miss Swille said that she had to get back to work so she can prepare for the 7th graders lunches. He said ok i was preety much done anyways. So Miss Swille went into the back kitchen and seem to have forgoten so the student took a small white envelope and sprinkled just a little of her famous herbs and spices into the envelope. He ran back to his house and called his friend and then his friend came running over. He explaind everything that happened with the herbs and spices. So they both were walking out of his house with the small envelpoe and his friend asked where are we going? He said we are going to Milo Groot's house. Milo Groot was really good at finding out what things ment and how to figure out what is in the herbs and spices that Miss Swille is hidding. Now I'm not going to tell the ending because it gets really good. This is a great book if you are the kind of perosn who likes mystery book. This book had a surprising ending and its a great book to read for fun! I would recomend this book to children of the ages to 7 to adult. Its a great book even for adults. Its more of a childrens book but, its a fun book for adults or teens to read too.

Do or Die.......2003-02-15

In this story there is a young boy named Milo Groot, and he got food poisoning from the school cafeteria. He gets very sick and his best friend Berry tries to help him figure out who had done it? While trying to figure out the mystery some strange things happen to Milo and Berry. Milo just kept getting sicker and sicker and Berry started to see into the future little by little (none believed him not even Milo). And every time he saw into the future he would feel a lick feeling in his stomach. But that wouldn't stop him! In the middle of the story one of the lunch ladies that they thought had done it got very sick and died, so there went one of the suspects! So the person who was poisoning these kids was younger then 30!
Berry being a good detective that he is, figured out the mystery. Milo seemed to be getting better and better after this event because the lunch lady was into witchcraft and was putting a spell on both boys. But she was putting the wrong spell on Berry and that's kind of why he figured out who did it!

Yes I liked this book! It was very informing, but at some points there was no point and it was very boring. I think I liked it more then I disliked it!

Not good, he has written MUCH better books........2002-07-25

I usually LOVE reading Howe books. But when I picked up this one I had to put it down again and it took all of my strength to keep reading. It was, I'm sorry to say, VERY boring. There was no humor, nothing worth reading about, and I myself would not reccomend this book to anyone, but a person who can't sleep.

good book !¡!.......2001-10-01

I love mysteries, so this book was interesting to me. I also love books dealing with people my age: and Sebastian and his friends were in the eighth grade... perfect. I loved how there were a few things that could be the cause, but there was one Howe focuses the reader on; however, with the experience i have with stories and dialogues, i knew it could not be the obvious. Overall, I give Eat Your Poison, Dear; A Sebastian Barth Mystery a green light, even when it comes to all the books there are out there...

Eat Your Poison Dear.......2001-02-21

It starts in the lunch room of Pembrooke middle school were Sebastian Barth and his friends are getting lunch. their lunchlady turns out to be a nutrision freak. so this month was apple month. then once they sit down the school newspaper editor, Milo Groot sits next to them. But while they eat their meals Milo pukes. he is sent to the hospital with a case of the flu yet he recovers in one day. Since Sebastian has a radio show so he investigates. later that week Milo hurls again and is sent off with another case of the flu. He recovers in one day again and joins Sebastian in the investigation. Soon they find out that it might be poison. Meanwhile Milo has a petition going to get rid of a gang. Then two different people hurl. then when they think they have all the facts they go on the air and anounce that it was a boy named Eward Davidson( name at school is Harley WHo always picked on Milo) is the poisoner. But then Sebastian finds out something and it all fits together and turns out not to be Harley. Sebatian runs for Milo's house and accuses him because one the ingrediants to the poison could be easily found by Milo.

Dear Munificent Friends: Henry James's Letters to Four Women

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At last a very readable Henry James book

Dear Munificent Friends: Henry James's Letters to Four Women

Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0472110101

Book Description

Henry James was not only a prolific novelist but also a prolific letter writer. This edition of 150 previously unpublished letters to four of his female contemporaries reveals James to be a warm, witty, and astute commentator on a world now lost. The James revealed in these engaging letters is a vital, clever, and lively man with an intense interest in affairs of his day. The letters present a delightful picture of Victorian-Edwardian culture, including health cures (Fletcherizing and going to health spas), literary scandals (he feared writer Edith Wharton would be destroyed by her mad husband Teddy), domestic affairs (the marriage market, child rearing, antiquing, decorating, and gardening), and historical events (the Civil War, Queen Victoria's funeral, England's great Coal Strike, the Dreyfus case, and World War I).

Susan Gunter has selected and annotated correspondence between James and four women in his social milieu: Alice Howe Gibbens James, wife of William James; Mary Cadwalader Jones, wife of Frederic Rhinelander Jones (New York socialite and Edith Wharton's brother); Mary Frances Prothero, wife of Cambridge academic Sir George Prothero; and Lady Louisa Wolseley, wife of Viscount Garnet Wolseley, commander-in-chief of the British Forces.

Of the 10,000 extant letters by James, over two-thirds of them have never been published. The selection presented here is designed to reveal the writer's human side, his humorous and warm views of Anglo-American life over a fifty-year span, as well as his intimate participation in nineteenth-century women's daily lives. Editor Susan Gunter has provided an introduction that offers a helpful historical overview of nineteenth-century women's roles, a biographical register of people mentioned in the letters, a chronology, and brief biographies of the four women correspondents.

Readers interested in gender studies, biography, intellectual and cultural history, and literary history and those who enjoyed the recent film versions of James's novels Wings of the Dove, The Portrait of a Lady, and Washington Square will find this book fascinating.

Customer Reviews:

At last a very readable Henry James book.......2000-03-30

Having read and attempted to comprehend several James novels, it was with some foreboding that I opened "Dear Munificent Friends". I was pleasantly surprised by the accessiblity of James's most prolific body of writing, his letters. The editor has carefully selected about 150 of James's previously unpublished letters written to four of his close women friends spanning a fifty year peroid---from an estimated ten thousand existing letters. These four friends were very influential in the arts, science and politics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The letters reveal a side of James that is not commonly perceived: he was a witty, compasionate gossip. The letters are a wonderful, very well written record of the social, political and scientific thinking of the times. Did your mother ever tell you that you should chew your food 100 times? James followed this prescription and wore out his teeth prematurely. I was gripped by his narrative descriptions of major events of his time such as the funeral of Queen Victoria and the beginning of World War I. I recomnend this book to anyone who has an interest in James and the remarkable period in which he lived

Lightning East to West: Jesus, Gandhi, and the Nuclear Age

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nonviolence by a master

Lightning East to West: Jesus, Gandhi, and the Nuclear Age
James W. Douglass
Manufacturer: Wipf & Stock Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 159752610X

Customer Reviews:

nonviolence by a master.......2007-06-27

Jim Douglass is a truly great man, whose commitment to nonviolent resistance to warfare is practical and inspiring. This book, and the next two in the sequence, weaves in an out between Jim and Shelley's (his wife) personal nonviolent resistance to our warfare state and his theological explanations for his positions. His writing is lucid, his personal story inspiring, and his theological reflections deeply supported and unique. THIS IS A MUST READ!!!

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