It has been seven months since my mother and oldest son were killed in an automobile accident. It has been the hardest thing I have ever had to endure. This book offered a tremendous amount of practical advice. At times he was a little technical and wordy, but overall, this book helped me so much, and I believe it will help others who have lost a child.

This book helped me more than anything I was able to do when our 18 year old son died in an accident 1985. The author, Ronald Knapp, wisely covers a broad range of circumstances and gives a clear and compassionate set of guidelines for those who mourn or those who wish to help mourners when a child dies, regardless of the circumstances or their values and beliefs. I will always remain grateful to him for writing the book, and I deeply regret that it is out of print. I loaned my copy to a friend several years ago, and it has since been passed on to many. Now I need another copy, for it is a book that will always remain helpful and timely!

In 1983 I lost 4 members of my family in a fire. After reading just about everything on the subject of death and dying, grief, and survival this was the only book that really spoke to me. Over the years I have loaned it to several family members and friends who have lost a child and everyone has had the same response. It's a terrible shame this book is out of print.

This excellent book offers parents solutions to common problems, as well as tips for positive guidance and effective praise. The program seems to be designed to encourage parents to expand on their current parenting techniques, rather than abandoning current practices in favor of a "new method." It boosts parents' esteem as well as giving tips on how to boost children's self-esteem. It sits on my shelf next to "1-2-3 Magic!"

The following review was done by the National Parenting Center upon awarding the Common Sense Parenting Book as well as the Common Sense Parenting Audiotape with its coveted Seal of Approval.

"When it comes to reading advice about parenting, what we've discovered is that parents like to be spoken to in a direct, common sense manner. No need to use flowery or highbrowed language, just give me some tips and I'll take it from there. Like the name implies, this book and the like-titled audiotape delivers the goods. Common sense tips and good ideas presented in an easy to read and listen to format. Parents mentioned that they really liked the written exercises which serve to help reinforce what you've learned. Here is a logical sensible approach to parenting, featuring good examples that our parents give a thumbs ups."

Behn's new book is magnificent. Poem after poem, hear such clarity of complication, such intelligence, such heart. If this book doesn't win ALL the prizes, I'll be surprised. On the other hand, it's a book that in all good ways doesn't seem to care about prizes. It's ambition has some eternity in it. Any serious reader of poetry will cherish this book.

The opening poem of Horizon Note introduces a spider who reappears at intervals throughout this book. The speaker states,
"If you play the fat black note of her body/anywhere upon her intricate staff/it only sounds like her." And the word-music Behn composes within this compelling book only sounds like her.
She has all her poetic instruments in tune. Through rhyme or playful word trills or long melodious movements of thought and sound, she playfully and painfully pushes words to their limits to confront and question their beauties and their frailties. Behn is a maestro here who understands the power of language, and at every turn--even in its griefs, its failings--she finds the music there. A stunning collection of poems.

A simple and beautifully told story, in very short chapters, this book follows a bereaved father and his young daughter through one cycle of the seasons. As they come to terms, each in their own way, with the loss of their wife / mother, they also grow closer and come to a slow, gentle understanding about beginnings and endings and how life works. Moving, tender, and gentle, the dialogue between father and daughter and their small adventures as the year turns are true to life. One of the best books on this difficult topic for readers in second to fifth grade, and deeply helpful to children who have lost a parent or face the serious illness of one.

This book is full of helpful tips and hints. It's a no-frills design, but it packs a lot of information. Out of all the books on parenting multiples that I have read, this one has given me the most/best information. I HIGHLY recommend it.

This book helped me through the hardest time of my life. It exampled what I was going through and why I was going through it better than any other book I read on pregancy.

I thank God every day for my little gifts and having the strength to endore the pregnancy and the birth. This book helped me through both. I would recommend it to anyone expecting a multiple birth.

EXCELLENT SOURCE FOR A MOTHER EXPECTING TWINS!TELLS YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW. PLEASE ALL THAT ARE HAVING TWINS~TAKE IT EASY~BECAREFUL WHAT YOU DO. I DID, BUT STILL LOST MINE AT 21.5 WKS. JENNIFER~MOTHER OF SAMANTHA & TRAVIS BORN ON MAY 15, 1999

This is a terrific book for sharing with yor family and almost every family likes movies. The analysis is quite inciteful and the movies choices are interesting and inspired. The lessons are good ones and easily followed by children and adults.

I just saw this book listed in my local paper and I ordered it right away because I have teens who are difficult to communicate with. Last night I actually sat down with my son and daughter and we watched "Scent of a Woman." We had a great discussion afterwards about cheating, friendships etc. This book was a god send. I recommend it to anyone with children who are tough to talk to. Thank you to the authors for this wonderful addition to our library.

I actually bought this book because I am always looking for great, meaningful movies to watch and when I saw it I thought this would be perfect!

Also - I passed it along to my friend who is a teacher and she has used it in her class for friday movie-days . . .

There need to be more books like this one. An important topic like prematurity needs more attention.

Dail R. Cantrell was recently nominated for a Book of the Year award for Equal to the Task, one of the best books on the subject ever written. This book is a good companion.

I thought this book was wonderful. It helps people who have never experienced life in the NICU get a glimpse of it. I have quadruplets and all 4 of my babies went through the NICU at Chidren's Hospital in Minneapolis. Dr. Ronald Hoekstra took care of my babies and he is as wonderful as the stories in this book make him sound. It is very difficult and hard to explain what life is like in the NICU and this book does a marlvous job of conveying that. I have given this book to many friends and family members to help them understand what I went through.

I loved this book. I often read and the gym on the exercise bike and my mind will wander. Not with this book! I was engrossed with the stories and tears came to my eyes often as these people of faith go through very challenging times. Although written to partially explain how the Christian faith of these parents and some of the staff helped them through their individual ordeals, it was not offensive. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the wonder of new life.

This is a really super book. Normally, each time you pick
up a self-help book it is abstract, nothing concrete, no examples
or scenarios. This books really lays it all out. It gives you
practical examples, question and answers! My child is enjoying
the exercises as well.

Thank you.

The approach on this book brought almost inmediate results as I helped my son with certain anxieties. It was like magic! Very good tool. Thanks

My teenager suffers from PTSD - his anxiety is so sky high that he was rarely going to school. After a years worth of visits to psychiatrists and medication which was not working, I purchased this book and put it in action the week it arrived. My son had not made it to school on a Monday or Tuesday since the school year began - after one session of "realistic thinking" on Sunday nite - he went to school Monday! He was then able to go all week - even to midterm exams! On the following Sunday nite his anxiety began again and we started another round of realistic thinking - he made it to school. You must try this book - it is excellent!

I picked this book up at my public library. I wanted an overview on education in America and the different philosophies on education. I started to xerox so many pages out of it, that I decided to buy it. I am a teacher and I remember my teaching classes (years ago)on different theories of education. When you are new to teaching, you have a view of what you want to do in the classroom, but little experience to see what works. Now, years later, I am able to reflect on my philosophy of education with more depth. This book gave me new ideas that I didn't know existed out there. I like many of these alternatives. The truth is that every student is different and we need a variety of methods to reach each one. I can tell that the author is a bit biased. He clearly prefers a few methods (who doesn't) , but I still appreciate his effort. The overview and structure of the book are well-done.

I found this detailed catalogue helpful in understanding what is available in education today. I recommend the book to parents leery of the secularism,"multiculturalism," the "psychologized classroom", and other educational hazards which are now the order of the day in government schools. Koetzche's book should help parents find schools that are compatible with their values. Koetzsch writes concise, 2-4 page discriptions of the major types of schools, both public and private, with the history, philosophy, and methods which constitute them. He tries to maintain neutrality, and most of the time he succeeds; but at times he seemed to be way too easy on so-called "progressive" education, presenting what its proponents say are the advantages, but not enough of what the critics say in rebuttal. At the same time, I could detect slight hints that he was less than enthusiastic about religious schools, but he gave them a pretty fair shake, nonetheless. Just take what he says with a grain of salt and go observe schools yourself. If you don't know what Montessori is all about, or Waldorf schools, or Friends schools, or Christian schools, or Catholic, or Foxfire, or Carden, but you want to become more informed, this is the book for you. He tells you where you can find out more information at the end of each description. He also tells about homeschooling, and has a chapter on how to start your own school.

If you have children and you care about the kind of education they receive, you absolutely MUST read this book - ideally before they ever start school. In a single volume it will give you a background into what traditional public education is all about, explain why it may not be your best choice, and introduce you to almost two dozen other options. Educational alternatives described in this book range from the well-known (Montessori, Waldorf, homeschooling...) to those you may have never heard of, such as Reggio Emilia, Carden, and Foxfire. It also includes descriptions of schooling options in half a dozen different religious denomimations. Every parent owes it to his/her children to read this book before the child begins school.

Miss the Mark

All these other reviews all sound so...professionally done.

All I can say is I like to read, and I read 50 books a year. This one just didn't make the grade. While the point of view flip-flops from one main character to the other, the entire book is written in a passive voice that almost hypnotizes the reader every time she's forced into reading "was" after "was" after "was" after "was." Even the climax occurs off-stage.

What "was" the point of that?

Mr. Anthony's freshman effort is a pale comparison of the same old stuff that didn't work in the 90's.

Half a star out of five-and I'm not one of these "5-Star Ringers."

At eighty-three, Mickey Sienna lives alone in his New Jersey home ever since his beloved wife Dorothy died a few years ago. Mickey's four children worry about his living alone at his age, but do nothing until he doses off while making fried eggs, setting his kitchen on fire. The siblings discuss what to do. The three oldest want to move dad into assisted living while the youngest by twelve years Jesse wants his father to move in with him.

When threatened with the home, Mickey leaps at moving in with Jesse. The two men walk gingerly on eggshells as they struggle to find a middle ground and avoid a generation war. Mickey forces Jesse to bring his girlfriend Marina to him so he can meet her. He quickly realizes these two have a rare chance for a once in a lifetime love, but his son is a moron who thinks love eventually dies. Mickey relates the story of his one true love, not his spouse of fifty years though he loved her too. Will Jesse understand what he has before he loses it or is fatherly advice too late for a grown up son?

THE FOREVER YEARS is a delightful family relationship drama with a wonderful romantic subplot. The story line is amusing yet poignant as Mickey struggles with his decreasing capacity and his adult children tussle with what is best for their beloved dad. Jesse is an enjoyable individual who is a mocking cynical Metro New Yorker (oxymoron?) as well as a nurturing person. Though Marina seems too perfect to be real, fans will appreciate Ronald Anthony's enchanting and beautiful modern day novel.

Harriet Klausner

After spending thirty-two years as an outsider in a family of overachievers, Jesse Sienna has decided to try to forge a more meaningful relationship with his father, Mickey. Eighty-three but as proudly independent as ever, the elder Sienna is outraged to learn his older children are prepared to move him into an assisted living facility. The kitchen fire was an aberration, a fluke, but try telling that to Matthew, Darlene or Denise.

Jesse has offered to share his home, however, and Mickey has reluctantly agreed to move in with his son: Letting go of the past will be difficult, but adjusting to his new living situation will be even more arduous. At first, father and son share awkward silences and hostile conversations. They gradually settle into a routine, though, and their disagreements become less frequent. Jesse is even beginning to feel like he has gained ground with his father and earned his esteem, when a philosophical difference once again introduces tension into their relationship.

Instead of cherishing what he has, you see, Jesse is taking an exceptional woman for granted and being very guarded with his emotions. He's convinced that his love for Marina will eventually burn itself out, that their relationship will inevitably falter, but Mickey is wiser in the ways of love -- and is compelled to tell his youngest son about a very private heartache. One that he has never before shared with any of his other children...

Whatever you're expecting to glean from the pages of Ronald Anthony's debut novel, The Forever Year, know this: There's unexpected depth and dimension -- and warmth and wit -- to this eloquently stated story encapsulating a father and son's relationship, and their disparate experiences with love. The impact of Mr. Anthony's prose is really quite remarkable and will evoke a profound response from readers.

It doesn't matter how often this story has been told and retold through the ages, or how predictably allegorical its message is. In the hands of a gifted storyteller, the plot is renewed, revived and refreshed, and presented in such a way that every nuance is exquisitely captivating. Bold words, I know, but I've never been a very big fan of mainstream fiction, finding it too dark and oppressive, too pessimistic in the face of love and all its realities. Not so in The Forever Year, a gourmet delight to a reviewer starving for a rare, exotic delicacy -- as rare and exotic as a long-term, committed relationship in a commitment-phobic world, that is.

Love is fleeting and burns out quickly, after all, so why expend a lot of energy on a relationship doomed to wither and ultimately fail? Mickey Sienna is appalled by his son's cavalier treatment of his girlfriend, Marina, however, and sets out to teach Jesse a valuable lesson by relating his own story of love and loss. And what a beautifully haunting story it is. Jesse had hoped to finally establish a bond with his father, but he is quite unprepared to hear about the Great Love of Mickey's life. Admittedly, he romanticized what it would be like to have his father living with him, but he never thought he'd be privy to such intimate details.

And where is all of this leading, anyway? Why, to a gratifying conclusion, of course, though there will be a few tears along the way. Told from the first and third person perspectives, The Forever Year is both a family drama filled with endearingly familiar characters, and a tender love story graced with uncommon beauty, wry humor and an abundance of wisdom. If you're a purist who refuses to cross over into mainstream fiction, you're letting a good thing pass you by. I've rarely enjoyed a novel this much (outside of the romance genre) and so relished its every word.