MR

Kevin is a minister who is at a crossroads in his life. Then his car breaks down and he ends up knocking on the door of Rella's house. The telephone's down and Rella is in labor (her truck driver, slightly neglectful husband has died). Rella's daughter and son are looking for an angel to help her, and Kevin gets recruited. Being stranded at their house, Kevin falls in love with Rella and her three children while he's still trying to find his way in life. While not very memorable, it is a very cute, sweet story, worthy of taking a break from everyday life and enjoying.

This is probably the best of Lynn Doyle's slim books - certainly the funniest. (The other contender would be "Ballygullion" (his first book) - not as funny, but pithier). Unfortunately all of Doyle's books appear to be out of print and hard to find, but well worth the hunt.

I was born and raised in Co. Down, and apparently my mother bought me "Ballygullion" in 1967. The two Doyle books that I still own - and I wish I knew what happened to the others - are this one, published by Blackstaff Press in Belfast in 1979, and "Ballygullion" published by Duckworth, London 1967 (originally published by Maunsel & Roberts, Dublin, 1908).

Lynn Doyle was the pen-name of Leslie A. Montgomery (1873-1961), born in Co. Down, now in Northern Ireland, who in his day job was a bank manager. The Ballygullion series of books are set in a fictional village called, uh, Ballygullion. He wrote "Ballygullion" in 1908, but most of his books were published after the partition of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Doyle himself was never clear as to which side of the border Ballygullion was located. Irish politics/religion don't play much of a role in his books, although he doesn't shy away from any subject in service of a good story or a laugh.

The Ballygullion series are written as a first-person narrative style (the narrator being local storyteller / village character Pat Murphy), with most of the dialog in phonetic dialect. This means it takes a dozen or two pages to get into the swing of reading it. My American wife got the hang of it easily, although there are some words that elude her, (and some that elude me also!). She loves the books as much as I do.

Wee Mr. Anthony was the subject of a couple of the stories in "Ballygullion", and it seems he became popular enough to rate a book of his own. He was a solicitor (laywer, basically) who was utterly inept and blindly over-confident at everything he did - an Irish Barney Fife. He especially enjoyed hunting, and usually employed Pat Murphy as his guide or gillie - no-one else would go near an armed and desperately short-sighted Mr. Anthony.

Buy some of these books if you can find them - they are timeless, beautifully written and hilarious portraits of Irish village life. And, if you are a publisher, buy the rights and re-publish them!

By the author of 'Who Sank The Boat?' This is a fun way of learning about Archimedes Principle. He hops in and out of a bath with, variously a kangaroo, goat and wombat, examining the water level each time, and trying to understand why when ALL the friends are in the bath it always overflows.

Well illustrated. And, yes, he shouts "EUREKA!"

Mr Arkadin is another creation of the genius. A mysterious giant named Arkadin, his fragile daughter and a man called Guy are the main characters of a story in which an unbearable suspense is carried to the very end. However what makes the book rather worthy is the descriptions rather than the storyline. A bit like Fowles may be, but very successful...

We have used this wonderful book for the last two weeks. Here are some student comments.
If math is hard for you buy this book....Jacob
Filled with wonderful pictures....Michelle
This book will make you learn...Da Kayla
This book is really cool....Kasey
I like math and so does Mr. Base Ten....Dustan
Mr. Base Ten makes math easy!....Bryanna
He invented finger covers. I'm so glad!....Ryan
This book teaches you and it is fun.....Tanisha
You can read and do math at the same time!....Michaela
I love the illustrations and the story...JaiQuan
I never knew math could be such fun....Harley
I learned where the hundreds go from this book....Fantasia
Tens were hard for me...not any more....Natasha
This taught me so much more about about math. I love it...Burgundy
You make me love math....Marquise
This book is fun....Mackenzie
Tens and ones make sense now...Christopher
I want to write a book this good when I grow up....Cassie

What more can I add? This book is a wonderful addition to any classroom. M. Gregory

The rich Reginald Basset faces daily routines of financial accounting and purchases - but despite his wealth, he feels something missing in his life. He notes children playing seem to be having a better time then he - and he begins to understand there's more to life than money. Mr. Basset Plays is an involving, fine written, and very highly recommended story.

This book is brilliant, it is filled with excellent pictures that will make your sides ache.

A welcome contrast to the overly studied and glamourized coffee-table porn books of late, this book contains images from the notorious seventies underground erotic quaterly.
edited from a unique series of magazines that featured the Mythic sex appeal of seemingly ordinary black men. Produced during the height of the black exploitation period, these images may be hard to look at during our current P.C. times. However, as a historical artifact of seventies pop culture and sexual liberation, it's an interesting item. The complete lack of sophisticated art direction is precisely it's strength. The garish interiors and un-polished men are period perfect. This work did not share mr. mapplethorpe's ultra refined visual taste and obsessive eye for artistic details. Museums and galleries were not the intended targets......it was all about arousal. Direct and immediate....for anyone who had a particular fondness for a specific type of ebony brother.

I did the art for Mr. Bill in Space, with the help of NY art director (the Wizard) Jim Wilson, who designed the miniatures for the "movie version" Mr. Bill -- and Carl Waltzer did the amazing photo work. It was the most fun I've ever had working out the sluggo gags with Walter. The whole crazy book I think contains my best ever cartoon work.

Karl Kofoed

Gerry Gomez Pearlberg, who won the Lambda Award for her debut collection Marianne Faithfull's Cigarette, follows beautifully with Mr. Bluebird. Whether contemplating the ephemera of pop culture or final things, her poems are born of humor, pain, and an abiding love for language. "Death's the unpatented/gizmo built into all real beauty." She speaks with moving authority to us all.