Great book! Couldn't put it down. More like poetic prose than poetry. Kiki Faktor tells it like it is in a loving and humorous way.

This book touches the heart and soul of the reader. Each page will make you laugh, cry or just say, "I've been there too." I highly recommend "Journey" to everyone.

This collection of a woman's journey through incredible odds to achieve a level of serenity that she has achieved is amazing. The pains as a mother, the Universe ripping her son from her and all the pain involved, cut to the quick of my own personal pain with my own son. The poetic structure and flow swept me down stream and kept me going and going until the end, and I wanted more. An excellent choice for a guide post to one woman's well journaled path to serenity, It was all about the journey, and that is what good writing is all about. This book is timeless.

Coal Miner's Holiday by Kiki Delancey is a book of short stories that more closely resembles poetry. She writes a variety of different types of stories with the constant being her use of vivid metaphorical descriptions. The first story is told from the perspective of the main character's thought processes. The accuracy with which DeLancey puts the character's thoughts into writing creates an interesting effect since we rarely think with the same focused coherence that we use to tell stories. The result is that we read two stories at once, what is physically happening and what the character thinks is happening.
Most of the stories in Coal Miner's Holiday are not long narratives involving fantastic or complex plots. Rather they could be compared to snap shot portraits of moments that capture an emotion or mood. These stories are of the colorful characters and personality quirks that arise to make life interesting in small towns of working folks where there is nothing better to do. The artistry the author displays in expressing the nuances of these moments has the quality of works you might find in photographs hanging on fancy museum walls.

I've just finished COAL MINER'S HOLIDAY after delaying the ending for a few months. I hated to see this excursion end. Kiki DeLancey's style of writing is unique and engaging. She introduces the reader to unknown worlds of labor, strife and the bowels of the earth in one large sweep of pure unadulterated reality. This is a world of coal miners, a world unavailable to the average reader. Their passions and disappointments, their pleasures and personal endeavors are unlike those of the average citizen. I enjoy new experiences, delving into lives that are remote from my journey and learning something new when I read a book and Kiki provides all of these things with vigor and charm. Her stories engage the reader, her characters captivate the reader, and her themes linger long after leaving this particular road. I cannot say that I preferred one short piece over another, or one character more than another, but I can say that I'll be first in line when her next book arrives.

When I began reading the first story in Coal Miner's Holiday, I Loved the Squire, I thought of Hemmingway, mostly because of the stark and sometimes choppy prose. I'm not a huge Hemmingway fan, so I had my reservations, but by the end of the story, I found myself marveling. Delancey is a unique voice, and her stories stick in the mind. As is often the case in good writing, their complexity is belied by the simplicity of their language. It isn't the stuff of MFA programs; it's real, often rough, sometimes down-and-dirty.

These are not all stories about coal miners, although they are set in midwestern coal country. Some, like the trilogy bracketed under the heading "Swingtime" and the marvelous little gem, "Story of the Bread" (My personal favorite; I believe it should be required reading for EVERYONE, period), spring from the author's Greek background. Delancey jumps back and forth in time--"The Seven Pearls," for example, delivers us an oddball prophet in the Hippie age, while Dinger and Blacker is set in and around a speakeasy.

This is great stuff. Buy, enjoy, give it to someone who appreciates fine, quirky writing and very human characters.

Susan O'Neill
Author, Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam

Too often these days children's books and tv shows are simply aimed at keeping a child's eyes glued to a colorful page or to a screen, without much thought to imaginative stories or to helping a child to learn or adapt. Not so with this opus. The subtle, fun, and funny narrative cannot but succeed in infusing in the child reader the importance of going to the doctor and of conquering his or her fears of health care. Although Kiki Thorpe and Tom Brannon do a great job in bringing this into book form, it should be noted that this book is adapted from a "Bear" episode written by the talented Chris Moore, whom Thomas Bonfiglio once called, "The best children's writer since A.A. Milne." I only wish more of his work was available.

This book is an excellent choice for explaining your child's visit to the dotor. It covers everything from eye charts to vaccinations. Bear rids Ojo of fear of shots in a simple way that works for your own little ones. The other characters are enthusiastic about their check-ups, which I believe is a great example and very influential to our children. If I could share one book before a doctor's visit with any child, this would be it. Light hearted yet full of information kids can relate to, this is one of the best "Bear" book yet!

This book is a pretty good adaptation of the movie. Considering the wild visual action and humor of the movie, the author did a a decent job of describing them for the book. A great read for kids of all ages.

This a great easy-to-read adaptation of the wonderful movie script.

This was a fantastic book! I highly recommend it to any woman who is going through this stage. Joyce Ben-Kiki and Robin Herman present a humorous account that address issues any woman can relate to. This book makes a great gift!

This is an amusing but insigtful look at a complex subject. The drawings are hilarious and the humor makes the whole subject a lot less threateninng.

Rhymes and great illustrations make this a great book for toddlers. Characters from "Bear in the Big Blue House" guide through the collorful pages.

I've just started incorporating a night time read into my eight month old son's bed-time routine and Bear is a big part of this. He loves the bright colours, the warm characters (he waves to Bear and Tutter on the cover every night), and I love the scope the pictures give me to make my own additions to a story.

This is a great series of books. I know I'm buying more of them!

This book is an incredible resource for anyone who wants to become a flight attendant. Not only is it filled with great information, but the author has a writing style that makes it fun and interesting to read. I applied for a flight attendant job shortly after reading it, and I was fully prepared, confident and I was successful. I have finally left my boring job behind and I owe it all to Kiki Ward and The Essential Guide To Becoming A Flight Attendant.

The Essential Guide to Becoming a Flight Attendant is hands down the best investment I have ever made! I researched many of the flight attenndant books out there and found this one to be the most up to date, informative one available. You are going to get information in this book that you simply cannot get anywhere else. The author of this guide is not only good at explaining and exposing the career and exactly how to get it, but the guide really inspired me to get out there and go for it. I was absolutely the best prepared applicant in my interview, and it showed! Thanks to this guide, I am now proud to be a flight attendant. I rate it as a must have!

I gave the guide to myself for Christmas last year and set my mind to being hired at an airline in 2002. I am so glad I bought the guide and educated myself before I ever applied. I was so prepared at my interview session and it was obvious that others were not. There was a not a question asked that wasn't in this book. The funniest thing is that my interviewer caught a glimpse of the book in my bag and recognized it right away. She praised me for preparing for the interview and guess what.... I start flight attendant training next month! This guide was exactly what I needed to completely inform myself about the flight attendant life, totally prepare for my interviews and finally get the job of my dreams!

Given the popularity of the Harry Potter books and the glorious animated film version by Hayao Miyazaki, I'm amazed that it's taken this long for this book to appear in English. Eiko Kadono's "Witch's Delivery Service" (Majo no Takkyubin) also deals with the education of a witch child; in this case, a rite of passage for a witch named Kiki. She has to spend her thirteenth year on her own in a witchless town, making a living by her witch craft. The book is a celebration of the independent spirit of its protagonist and the changes she goes through at this pivotal time of life.

I'd like to give this book the full five stars, but I have a couple of caveats. One is the cover illustration by Irvin Cheung, showing a robust, rosy-cheeked Euro-witch. Somehow, it totally misses the warm and evocative line-drawings by Akiko Hayashi, which fortunately are included in the book.

Translating is one of the world's most thankless job. If the translation is really fine, the reader shouldn't even notice it. The irregularities should be smoothed out, the oddities of one language seamlessly patched with the oddities of another.

Lynne E. Riggs has created a mostly complete, very readable English version of Kadono's book, but there are a few quintessentially Japanese touches that got missed. At one point, just before she leaves home, Kiki tells her mother, "Anata no musume wo, shinjinasaittara, shinjinasai. Mou yooi wa dekitemasu." Riggs's reading of this ("You should trust your own daughter more! Believe me, I'm already ready to go.") is literate and understandable. However, one of my Japanese teachers pointed out that this is an old Japanese song. A Japanese reader would certainly pick up on this, while a Westerner would not. My attempt at translation would cue a Western reader by preserving the rhythm:

"I'm your daugh-ter, o mother dear,
Just trust in me, I say,
Have faith in me.
I've got plans, I'm al-read-y pre-pared..."

Nitpicking? Maybe, but also an illustration of the pitfalls awaiting the translator.

As I said above, though, this is a fine translation of a fine book, long overdue in English.

i am so happy that they re-released this book in english. the english version was out of print but here it is again. it is different from the movie from which it is taken from. there is even more to the adventure in the book. i just wish they have english versions of the other 3 books.

I've always been a big fan of Miyazaki's movies, but the best thing about this picture-book edition of KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE is that kids who are beginning readers really enjoy it. The English version of KIKI'S has been available for several years, and kids who have seen the movie are eager to read the book, or have it read to them.

The picture quality is excellent, and the text is in good English, unlike some translations I've seen.

Too bad the book is hard to find. My copy has been damaged, and I wish it were easier for me to find another!