George's Store shows us how love gives depth to our whole lives. George is a man who loves his job--waiting on the customers at his general store. When a customer walks into the store, George's eyes twinkle, and he says he will guess what they want. George delights and charms his customers with this guessing game, at which he is quite good. One day, a pretty young woman walks into the store, and George sets about trying to guess what she wants. He guesses one thing after another, and each time, the young woman says, "No." "No." "No." After George has guessed every item in his store, the pretty young woman points to him, smiles, looks him directly in the eye, and takes George completely by surprise when she declares, "George, I want you!" In short order, they are shown married and living happily with their children in back of George's beloved store. As a parent, I appreciated this very positive representation of someone with an ordinary job dedicated to making his life's work extraordinary for the pleasure of himself and his customers. I was quite impressed by the modern young woman who could confidently declare what she wanted. And I appreciated the closing images of a close knit family happily interacting with each other in the apartment behind the store. I read this story to my children when they were in pre-school and elementary school, and now, at 19 and 22, it is one of the books they remember best. Recently, my daughter was describing a young man who had charmed her with his engaging manner and imaginative wit. I told her she sounded like the woman in George's Store, and she said, "Yes! George, I want you!" This book, which is now out of print, deserves to be re-issued: it's an excellent model for today's children (and adults)in many respects.

Want to write a play? Here's how! Popular playwright Frank Priore gives you a guide to writing, publishing, and selling plays to schools. His new book, Getting Your Acts together, tells you everything you need to know to write a play of your own. Priore wrote, directed, produced, and acted in plays for more than thirty years. His plays are popular in schools across america. He lives in College Point, New York, and his "idea of heaven is sitting at the picnic table in his backyard and tapping out the dialog of a new play on the keys of his laptop computer while puffing on an eight inch, 54-ring, handrolled, imported cigar." He enjoys his work, and fifty of his plays have been published for audiences who appreciate his talent. "The goal of this book is to help you to create the kind of bright, witty, easy-to-produce plays that will startt those royalty checks parading to your mail drop," Priore writes. Indeed, when you read his directions, you understand how easy it can be. "Act One: Get your hero up a tree," he tells us. You want your audience to wonder how your hero got up in the tree and how he will get down. You want to captivate your audience in the first act. Once you captivated your audience in Act One, you continue to captivate in Act Two and Act three. You develop your characters and plot in subsequent scenes. "Picture the characters on your set, drop the problem in their laps, and see what develops," the author advises. Beg, borrow, or buy a copy of Frank Priore's book if you want to write a play. he succeeds in telling you everything you need toknow about writing, directing, and producing plays that will be popular and profitable. ###

I liked this book because it was one of those books that makes you not want to stop reading. Some parts of the story were scary because I always read in the dark. My mom kept on yelling at me because she wanted me to go to sleep but I didn't want to because I still wanted to read the book. It was pretty easy to follow and some parts were weird, but I liked it. I'm 12 years old, and I would recommend this book to people 12 years and older that like adventure books.

" The day Jackson Pollock died I called a certain man I knew- a very great painter-and told him the news. After a long pause he said, in a voice so low it was barely a whisper,' That son of a b---he did it'. . . . With this supreme gesture Pollock had wrapped up an era and walked away from it." Feldman was very much part of that era, the Fifties when American art was becoming the most important post-war art there was its unique expressions. Sure Europeans tried to copy us but only became more academic about as Boulez and his excursions into chance/aleatoric gesturing. This collection of essays very clearly reveals how important American expeimentalism was to music. Feldman's forever endeavor to merely create, create at a high intensity working like a Dutch diamond cutter,or lens grinder,toying with creative means as his use of indelible ink, this he said makes you think about what your writing than how you are writing, puts the creative process back into the head.Or composing at the piano, which slows you down so you need to think more. He followed the intellectual currents, anything that brought a sense of richness and other dimension to his art, he knew for instance Henri Bergson's concept of memory and time,how that might affect his music,and painterly means was second nature to him hanging out at the Cedar Bar in New York talking for hours on Light,texture,perception,shape,design,concept, facility,gesture,timbre,tone,chiarscuro, there is ample historical data here as well, almost like a subtext of these ,like an unwritten history of the avant-garde, a "Conversation with Stravinsky"(not really),his first meeting with John Cage(after a performance of Webern), Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, also his travels to Berlin, and England and experiencing the avant-garde through Cornelius Cardew, and British experimentalism.His last years was devoted to long durational compositions, and he merely said he had more time to compose in these years,but Feldman here is filled with marvelous quotes,things,items,shapes for the mind"I knew I was going to be a professional the day I first became practical.Practicality took the form of copying out my music neatly,keeping my desk tidy and organized-all the unimportant things that seem unrelated to the work,yet somehow do affect it.". He also knows how to look from greater heights from mountains, tothe substance of modernity, those who stopped creating and became more interested in themselves as Stockhausen were "Modernists"; for Feldman allowing your materials,the shape,structures of your music tell you the secrets of creativity was most important and became a cause.

Although the title is slightly misleading, the book is a "must read" for any archaeologist just begining to work with glass finds. "Glass for Archaeologists" would be more accurate. Frank covers everything to do with glass as a material, but an archaeologist automaticly thinks of vessels or anything else, produced from glass. Clear explanations on everthing from glass chemistry to dating methods, to production. Also a good bibliographical guide.

Wow! This is a terrific book on mathematical thinking. It is very readable, full of insights, aha's, and quotable thoughts like, "The heights of mathematics are scaled by standing on tables". This is a must read for classroom teachers and essential to student teachers. Frank Smith is an outstanding educational theorist, and his newest offering is a worthy addition to educational libraries.

Often topical humor doesn't age well. Mr. Frank's work does -- it is genuinely funny. There is always something goofy happening in San Francisco for him to have fun with as seen through the eyes of his range of characters. His daily strips are posted at sfgate.com

The book is a great way to remind yourself what Christmas is all about. The collection of quotes from famous and not so famous authors, speakers, and the Bible are broken down into topical chapters such as Family and Christ.

This makes a great gift to give friends and family, either by itself or as a small add on.

This is a wonderful book. It has adventure, suspense, and a love story all wrapped into one. If you are looking for a great read pick up this book if you are lucky enough to find it.

As an authority on Roy Rogers, and a Rogers biographer, and a researcher of the silver screen cowboys and author of numerous related books and more than 300 published articles on the subject, and as a Western comicographer, I highly recommend this work for any and all interested in more data than has previously ever been published on this subject: it is thorough yet consise, and crammed full of illustrated examples of the work of the many artists who contributed to this--one of the most exciting and important media in our Western heritage, pertaining to the American cowboy in the comic art form. I have had a long association with Mr. Black, and he demonstrates here his devotion to research and the subject. This is a tremendous reference source for Western Americana buffs, students, and Western art/comics buffs and collectors. I am working on a massive reference book of all Western comics, 1900-present day, and have found Black's work to be an invaluable reference, not merely for it's content, but for it's quick and easy-to-use format. It has been long overdue!