by Nancy Pearl (2005)
The response to Nancy Pearl's surprise bestseller Book Lust was astounding: the Seattle librarian and winner of the 2004 Women's National Book Award even became the model for the now-famous Librarian Action Figure. Readers everywhere welcomed Pearl's encyclopedic but discerning filter on books worth reading, and her Rule of 50 (give a book 50 pages before deciding whether to continue; but readers over 50 must read the same number of pages as their age) became a standard MO. Once again organized by topic, this sprightly follow-up includes an array of titles in nearly 150 eclectic categories, including Plots for Plotzing (highly unusual storylines), Animal Love (in which humans fall in love with animals), The Autobiographical Gesture (memoirs about complex lives), Child Prodigies (child characters who are called on to perform great and sometimes heroic acts), Nagging Mothers, Crying Children (true tales from the frontlines of parenting), and Libraries and Librarians. Both a valuable reference and a vastly enjoyable read, More Book Lust offers a wealth of enthusiastic, quirky reading recommendations.
Michael Shoulders
Nightly, the members of a bear family that values books and reading share a personally inscribed book and a cookie with Baby Bear to celebrate milestones and memorable days in his life. Includes recipe for honey oatmeal cookies.
text by Gayle Byrne
An only child describes the good and bad side of having no siblings, comparing his life especially to that of his cousin Nico, who has two brothers and a sister.
Jonathan Tudge
Where do young children spend their time? What activities are they involved in, and who do they interact with? How do these activities and interactions vary across different societies and cultural groups? This book provides unique answers to these questions, by describing the lives of three-year-olds in the United States, Russia, Estonia, Finland, South Korea, Kenya, and Brazil. Each child was followed for the equivalent of one complete waking day, whether at home, in childcare, on the streets, at the shops, etc. Graphic displays and verbal descriptions of the children's everyday activities and interactions reveal both the ways in which culture influences children's lives and the ways in which children play a role in changing the cultural groups of which they are a part. This book also has a clear theoretical rationale and illustrates why and how to do cultural-ecological research.
Sue Sharpe
This book explores important factors operating in the father-daughter relationship, a subject that has received relatively little attention. Sue Sharpe uses the words and experiences of daughters and fathers to draw out the complexities, contradictions and conflicts of this relationship. The research covers all stages from childhood to old age, and highlights the most consistent and important aspects that emerge from these experiences. It looks at daughters who wish to please, and fathers who withhold their approval; and at the complex range of reactions involved in the father's reaction to teenage sexuality and the effects that this might have on women later in life. A common complaint from the women in the book centres on the inability of fathers to express feelings and emotions. Fathers and Daughters poses important questions about the nature of fathering and the effects of ageing on the father/daughter relationship.