This is the review which was in the Times-Picayune on March 3, 2002.The young and the restless

The epic tale of the Acadian 'Evangeline,' told for children who know the territory
03/03/02

By Marigny Dupuy Children's book columnist

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poetically tragic love story of Evangeline and her lost love, Gabriel, has held readers in thrall since its publication in 1847. And whether readers know the source or not, many are familiar with its opening line: "This is the forest primeval." Sentimental by modern standards, it is a tale of families torn apart, exile, homelessness, death and the pain suffered by separated lovers -- and it has a sad ending. This not the typical material for a picture book for children.

"Evangeline for Children," written by Alice Couvillon and Elizabeth Moore, illustrated by Alison Davis Lyne, retells the story in simple language. From the pastoral happiness enjoyed by the Acadians in the French settlement of Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, to the cruelties they suffered at the hands of the British who expelled them in 1755 to various locations in American and Europe to ensure their political powerlessness -- this describes a sad piece of history. The settings and events are real.

The story is told through the sorrowful experience of a pair of Acadian lovers, Evangeline and Gabriel (fictitious, though possibly based on real people), who are separated during the grand derangement of 1755 and only reunited many decades later -- and then only for a moment. Evangeline searches desperately for her Gabriel, going as far south as the town of St. Martinville, La., inquiring at every settlement of displaced Acadians for news of her love, but never with any success. She eventually joins a convent and is reunited with Gabriel through pure chance as he lies on his deathbed. She dies soon after and they are buried together.

While the story is not necessarily suited for young children, there is a connection with the history of south Louisiana that makes this useful for teachers and librarians. Many local children are familiar with Evangeline Parish to the Evangeline Oak and the statue of young Evangeline that stands prominently in St. Martinville, and may enjoy learning more about Evangeline's connection to our part of the country. Certainly the link between the exiled Acadians and Louisiana Cajuns is a meaningful one.

Illustrated in full color, "Evangeline for Children" includes an excellent short history of the Acadians at the end of the book, describing their troubled history, their significance in Louisiana, and the story of Longfellow's epic poem.

_________________________

There are precious few books which address the history of the occult in a sensible manner. Foreseeing the Future: Evangeline Adams and Astrology in America does it very well indeed. Though author Karen Christino is obviously sympathetic to her biographical subject, the early 20th century astrologer Evangeline Adams, she tries to be objective in assessing her life and work. I personally found this refreshing, as it allows the reader to make up his or her own mind. Do we believe that Adams was a terrific astrologer or someone who exaggerated her successes in order to impress the public? Did she really forecast World War II or the stock market crash of 1929? It's up to the reader to decide, since Christino documents the facts and examines Adams as a real person and not just a legend. We're given insight into what drove Adams to such an unusual profession in 1900, her troubles with the law and her unfulfilling marriage to a much younger man.

I especially enjoyed the sections describing the development of the occult in the U.S., including information on palmistry and spiritualism and Adams' relationship with the infamous magician Aleister Crowley. If you're intrigued by astrology, the occult or New Age topics and are tired of all the flaky, off-the-wall books out there, you will enjoy Foreseeing the Future. It brings a sometimes mysterious topic down to earth and tells a terrifically entertaining yarn at the same time. I loved it!

This new tome from notorious occultist Crowley was originally two books with Evangeline Adams as its author. According to the introduction by H. Beta, Crowley was in New York for sometime and met with Adams whom they were to write a book on astrology together. Due to unfortunate circumstances, Adams took the material that Crowley wrote, reworked, omitted and added her own material and eventually became an authority on the subject. The two books by Adams, "Your Place in the Sun" and "Your Place Among the Stars" (written 1927 and 1930 respectively) are essentially the works of Aleister Crowley. This edition by Samuel Weiser brings back Crowley's original writings in their original form and in one book. In a similar format as Magick Book 4, 'The General Principles of Astrology' is bound in a nice maroon hardcover cloth book with a sigil embossed on the cloth cover in metallic gold (looks like a modified Mercury symbol). Crowley's writing at many times is elusive even for the most astute occultist, however, as in Magick 4, he is making great efforts to be clear to a larger audience. The text was written in 1915 before the discovery of Pluto, so for some astrologers that may be your only set back.

In my opinion and from what I know of Crowley, the work is largely unfinished, however, what is presented is entirely a workable system. Crowley probably had the least amount of faith in astrology as a science among all the occult arts, but because he was so verse in many subjects, he is not one to let it be unexplored. Astrology seems as vast a subject as Kabbalah, as so much is written about it, that it seems that no one person can legitimately claim authority. My preference is Alan Leo's work even though much of his work is before Pluto as well. Crowley stands as a modern authority on much occult work that this was a book I could trust in giving a clear exposition on the subject.

The book is broken up similarly to the many astrology books out there on the market today. Beginning general aspects of the houses, different signs to be aware of and their meanings and a correspondence with his tarot deck. Then a discourse on the meanings of the planets, rising signs, sun signs with each of their attributes and characteristics. After a large section taken up by each planey in a sign, he ends with 100 or so famous people and their horoscopes. So in my opinion, Crowley could have easily enlarged this already big work (596 pages!). In sum, the book is well presented and will look sharp on any bookshelf, and for any serious astrologer to consider this excellent entry into the large world of the study of the astros.

This is an excellent book written by a John Frederic Herbin who was the only Acadian descendant living in Grand-Pre when he wrote the book. He details many of the unknown happenings following the Deportation of the Acadians from their land and the cruelty they suffered. He also writes about some victories though short-lived.

Herbin is especilly remembered for purchasing that precious land where the Acadian Ancestors had lived and worship and had been deported from.. seeing to it that a memorial church would be built on the site of the old one.. and giving the land to the government of Nova Scotia - Grand-Pre then became a National Historic Site of the province.

This is the book that teachers need to read when thinking about how to assess kids using the theory of multiple intelligences (MI theory). It provides lots of practical tips, teacher anecdotes, forms, guidelines, and examples to steer any teacher from kindergarten through high school toward documenting a child's progress in school in all subject areas in a way that celebrates their multiple intelligences. The book includes excellent contributions from Lynn Stuart, principal of the Cambridgeport School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Jill Harrison Berg, a middle-school teacher at the school, regarding how MI and assessment work together effectively in a way that honors children's lives in a public school setting. Of particular value is the CD which comes with the book, which includes examples of different student portfolios showing samples of math, reading, writing, art, and projects in science, social studies, and other areas. What I especially love about the book is its respectful and gentle attitude toward kids. Most assessment approaches in education are disempowering and alienating to children. In such cases the teacher exercises arbitrary power over the student: plucking work from the child's hands, sitting in judgement over it, and then summarily throwing it back on the child's desk. This book is quite different. It suggests that the teacher assess in the true sense of the word (assess actually means "to sit beside"), by sitting alongside of the child, going through her work, and helping her to articulate her own understandings of what she has created. The author of this book, Harvard professor Dr. Evangeline Harris Stefanakis has worked directly with the creator of the theory of multiple intelligences, Dr. Howard Gardner, and with Steve Seidel, Joe Walters and other members of the Harvard Project Zero staff, and has blended their work with her own deep understanding of important issues in special education, multi-cultural education, ESL, and assessment to create a book that should prove to be an enduring one to educators who seek to match their MI instructional approaches with assessment strategies that are true to the spirit of the multiple intelligences movement.

Evangeline Bruce must be congratulated for this excellent dual biography of Napoleon and Josephine. This is the most useful kind of biography, in that we not only learn the idiosyncratic details of individual lives, but the protagonists serve as windows through which we observe an age.

I have assigned this book to my students in a 300-level seminar on "The Age of Napoleon," and it has generated innumerable classroom discussions on valuable topics: the role of women in revolutionary and imperial France, the sources of political power, the nature of Thermidorian society, and many other things. Despite the length of the book, the students ate it up.

Bruce makes an occasional small error. She describes Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte as "uxorious," despite the fact that both men (indeed, all the Bonaparte men) had several lovers. She describes Andre Massena as "over six feet tall," although he was actually only about an inch taller than Napoleon. She describes General (later Marshal) Augereau as "illiterate," which was true of him before he became a general, but he had learned to read and write before the period she describes.

But despite these things, her grasp of the "big picture" is so good that this book will become one of my standard texts on this period for years to come.

I rarely read pronography combined with hilarious social/political and personnal satire. The Pearl gave me such a woody/chubby that I had to put it down constantly and take care of business. A Victorian lust novel that is far more graphic in it's description of copulation and light bondage than any of gynecological glossies availabale today. Almost all fantasies indulged. Read this book with your lover as mental forepaly extradionare or if you have to be alone for extended periods of time, i.e. prison,at sea or the seminary.

Like many, I imagine, I stumbled on Evangeline Walton's four-part adaptation of the Welsh national epic, the Mabinogion, when it came out in paperback in the 1970s. It was immediately obvious that these books were something special, a level above some of the derivative Authurian "fiction" that even then was flooding the market. Not being an antiquities scholar or linguist, I have nothing to say about how authentic the author was to the original piece.

I am excited to see that the "quartet" is being re-issued and I can buy it for my son...not sure if I can dig the paperbacks out of the basement. They did have excellent cover art.

The author emphasizes the magical elements of the myths, and the emotional reactions of the characters, placing them in a half-real sort of dream-time. The language is sparse and understated, however, counterbalancing the less-than-believable events, and lending a patina of antiquity. As I recall, however, there is a (pseudo)-psychoanalytic slant to things, lending a decidedly 20th-century slant. The stories are old, but re-told for today. Not too much sex or graphic violence either...perfect for the teenager ready for something a bit deeper and modern in outlook than The Once and Future King, more complex than Lloyd Alexander's quintet (Black Cauldron, etc.) by a quite a bit (these books are probably inappropriate for pre-teens), but not quite as cutely "radical" as Mists of Avalon.

Maybe its just nostalgia for how great they seemed when I was a lot younger, but I thought they were great and intend to order the re-issue.

this book really helped me in the understanding of welsh myth. i have been looking for a good series of books on this subject and these are the best that i have found.

This is an outstanding teacher-practitioner's view of how to best understand the abilitiy of all children to learn. The author gives a strong understanding of teaching children - and puts the emphasis on a child's strengths, not their weaknesses.