This book provides a valuable historical and theoretical perspective on the development of psychoanalysis. It is seen from the eyes of an American lay analyst who received analytic training in Vienna in the early 1930's and subsequently returned to New York. With a well-balanced and sensible perspective, the author takes to task some of the big names of the early years of psychoanalysis and the cult-like, dogmatic nature that manifested itself in the movement. Her narrative depicts first-hand experience of the aloofness of the therapist which was characteristic of "classic psychoanalysis." The author advocates the need for a relationship of openness and rapport between analyst and client which is essential for providing a positive environment in which the client can thrive.

In this book you'll read about a silly family. Annie, Andy, and Candy Banana made a hilarious mess out of their apartment. They did not like the mess they made. Everybody refused to clean up. So of course they had to find another solution to the problem. In the strangest ways, the Banana family tried to defy gravity by living on the ceiling. This book will keep young readers giggling until the last page. We used to have a copy of itt, but we lost it. I would dearly love to acquire a replacement. Please ask the publisher to print more.

The Bat Mitzvah Club: Debbie's Story is a novel by Shayna Meiseles about Debbie, a young girl attending the Chicago Hebrew Academy who worriedly anticipates her Bat Mitzvah (the Jewish ceremony for girls transitioning from childhood to adulthood), and becomes mortified when her mother enrolls her in the Bat Mitzvah Club, where she learns of an unsolved family mystery from her grandmother. The Bat Mitzvah Club: Debbie's Story is enthusiastically recommended as being an adventurous, thoughtful and enjoyable story.

Black Elk Lives: Conversations With The Black Elk Family is an intimate set of interviews with the family and descendants of Nicholas Black Elk collected and edited by Hilda Niehardt and Lori Utecht. The intent of the collection is to present more of the perspectives and outlooks of the family members. Even more important, Black Elk Lives is a celebration of the strength and resilience of the human spirit, and the questioned survival of a way of life and thought that is Lakota in origin. Beginning with a transcription of a 1969 talk at Pine Ridge Boarding School by Benjamin Black Elk, the son and interpreter of Nicholas Black Elk as well as father and grandfather of other contributors, Black Elk Lives contains chapters on family memories, the changing roles of men and women, reclaiming the legacy (of Black Elk), the use and misuse of Lakota religion, fighting in Vietnam (Clifton DeSersa interview), working, Lakota legends, stories and games, grandfather's healing, and caring for grandfather (Black Elk).

Each chapter is actual interview dialogue, which allows the Black Elks to speak in their own chosen words. Because of this, and because of the relationship between the Black Elks and the interviewer(s), the reader has a sense of being told from the heart the feelings and experiences of these representatives of the Black Elk family. Sometimes the outlook is distinctly bleak and sad. Sometimes it seems hopeful. Other times, the speaker is making corrections, often to the assumptions or misunderstandings of the interpretations of "Black Elk Speaks" and other matters of Lakota vision.

Black Elk Lives is invaluable because of just that opportunity to inform the nonnative population. An example of this is at the end of the chapter titled "The Use and Misuse of Lakota Religion." Aaron DeSersa Jr. says:"It's just like my great-grandpa's book: People are walking on this road and some go off the road. As I've said, my great-grandpa's vision wasn't a spiritual vision. It was the future of our people, the Lakota people. Some people can't look at it that way - they want it to be spiritual and have a deep meaning. But what it is, when you look at it and interpret it, is what our people are going through in this life and in the future, and how they're going to be put back on that good road - bringing back the old ways and ceremonies and understanding them(p.103)."

The chapters of interviews and dialogue are enriched by several pages of black and white photos of the family members in several different decades. The cover jacket photograph of Nicholas Black Elk on Cuny Table (1931) is magnificent and unforgettable. Another helpful detail is the Black Elk family tree described on page 151. It is good to see the generations descent into the present. Perhaps there was not space for the birth dates of the present generation . It is still helpful to see the names of all the family members and to trace their lineage.

Black Elk Lives is a vibrant expression of the inheritors of the vision of "Black Elk Speaks". Now it is to unfold what will happen if people listen. Black Elk Lives will help to ensure that not only will they listen, perhaps also they will begin to hear and understand.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

June Singer's Blake, Jung, And The Collective Unconscious examines the words and images contained in Blake's works, considering Jung's concepts of archetypes and other ideas inherent in the verbal and visual images. An important, involving work.

In this study of the book of Esther, the author takes a personal approach, encouraging the reader to reflect on his/her own life. At the end of each chapter are questions for individuals or small groups to use. The braided streams are the major influences in a woman's life, which are intertwined, but which ebb and flow, sometimes with one becoming a raging torrent, and another a dried up stream bed.

This book will encourage you to reflect back on your own life, seeing where you have been, and encouraging you to nurture all your braided streams.

This book tells the story of Libby, blind since a young age and her heartless sister. This book offered everything and was a real tear jerker yet satisfying. Being deaf myself, I found it wonderous to read of a character coping with a disability and attempting to educate those around her. An excellent read, one that I have read many, many times! In fact my book is pretty much tear stained and dog eared.

Like the cover illustration, this story is round and warm, like a bowl of soup. It was a very nice Sunday, in the middle of spring, in the middle of breakfast, when Rudie Dinkins heard his mama say that Rudie's after-school and sick-day sitter, Mrs. Gittel, had the flu. But Mrs. Gittel is more than the sitter, isn't she? She is Rudie's older friend. Rudie goes down the hall to Mrs. Gittel's apartment and hears 13 "a-choos" before he even knocks on her door. When he's sick, Mrs. Gittel makes him chicken soup. So, with his mother's help, Rudie, a nice boychik, cooks a batch of chicken soup using Mrs. Gittel's secret ingredient: sweet memories of their friendship! The soup requires at least three sweet stories about the person who will be consuming the soup. And soon Mrs. Gittel, the Chicken Soup Queen, is feeling good as new! (if Arthur hadn't moved so far away, maybe her son, Arthur, could have made the soup? No?) Well, Mrs Gittel is cured so well, that she feels well enough to help Rudie who has a Tummy ache later in the day. Mommy seems to be crying in one illustration: Is it cuz Rudie is so sweet that you can bottle him as medicine, or is it because she is peeling an onion for the soup? Please be sure to read the recipe aloud at the end of the book. A recipient of a Sidney Taylor Award!

I found this book to be excellant. It follows the early childhood experience of a number of children with different special needs. It covers interviews from parents, educators, and family members. I felt the book really emphasizes the idea that these are, first and foremost, children. They need the same experiences as many "typical" developing children. It also hits hard on the subject of the parental involvement and how important it is in the "BIG PICTURE". I would recommend this book for anyone working with children, preschool teachers, elementary teachers, and childcare providers alike. It is an "Easy Read" full of great and useful information>