MR

Back in college I got a job as a summer janitor at the local elementary school. One of the things I had to do was clean up in the library. I took this time as an opportunity to catch up on some reading... in the form of the Mr. Men series. Mr. Impossible is the story of a man who can do it all. Assuming you define all as things that you can't do. He will delight and entertain with his antics!

Wonderful childrens story of LBJ's delightful interaction with "Head Start" students. My mother wrote this, and I am very proud of her! The original publisher passed away and business was sold, therefore "out of print". The book is available for republishing for those interested.Clint Montgomery (214) 827-7000.

The simple text and artwork captivated my daughter. The sturdy hard board is great for a toddler. This is one of her favorite books.

Mr. Jordan visits the park as an infant,a child, a young suitor, a husband and father and as an old man. The park has something special to offer in each phase of his life and he passes on the love he has for the park - his favorite place - to the following generations. Sweet but not sugary with beautiful illustrations.

H. R. F. Keating wrote (in Henderson's Crime & Mystery Writers) "I put E. W. Hornung's stories about A. J. Raffles, gentleman cracksman, squarely besides the Holmes tales of Conan Doyle (Hornung's brother-in-law). Both sets of stories seem to me to have that feeling of absolute rightness, perhaps the surest way of distinguishing that hard to define thing, 'the classic.'"

Karen Stanton's book, told "solely" from the perspective of Yudi, Mr. K's longstanding buddy and dog, always leaves me with a catch in my throat and an opportunity to talk to my kids about how books can create emotions among readers. The story is great (wonderfully thoughtful repetitions throughout), and the art is whimsical and fine. A nice contrast to the disturbing-for-a-few-moments quandry Yudi faces when he comes back to a home with no opera, no meatballs and no Mr. K.

The effect is comparable to that of Anna and the Old One--another of the few stories about seniors out there--but ends on a very satisfying and upbeat note.

"Don't get me wrong. Mr. Knocky is a nice guy. It's just that he drives us nuts..." After school, all the kids want to do is meet at their favorite hangout. But Mr. Knocky is always there to meet them, telling the kids goofy stories that they really don't care about. How can the kids tell the old coot to keep his stories to himself without hurting his feelings?

'Mr. Knocky' is a nice little book that examines a problem all kids have at one time or another: There's an adult (hopefully a relatively harmless one) who insists on talking to you, but you don't want to have anything to do with him. I won't tell you how it ends, but the book offers a great lesson for kids in how to get along with weird adults!

Ages 5-8
30 pages

McCabe knows Laurel & Hardy both well. He spent a lot of time with both of them interviewing and preparing the book. This is not a biography (although McCabe would write biographies of both men), it is a look at what inspired the creative genius behind the funniest comedy team in film history. McCabe studies the backgrounds of both men and how that influenced them both. He looks at how they began and tells what comedians influenced them as they matured. He tells of how they developed their wonderful films and how the process went of developing an idea. McCabe knows this all secondhand from Stan and Ollie, but it still seems fresh.

Originally published in 1946, this is a terrific presentation of Civil War photos by the Matthew Brady team. Of special interest is the section reproducing Brady's post-war lantern slide lecture book, with unedited captions, for a program that was to have been presented at Carnegie Hall.

Roy Meredith's text covers Brady's pre-war career, with a large sampling of his portraits - including Lincoln - then takes up a chronological account, mostly of the Eastern Theater, as Brady & his team followed the armies in a wagon, processing their plates under terrible conditions. A large amount of photographs must have been ruined in the rain & mud. Brady mostly points his camera at the terrible aftermath of battle, at bodies & broken barricades, but there is one rare photo that may have been shot during Antietam. Brady is present at an out door gathering of Grant and his generals (Brady calls it a "War Council," but Grant never put his plans up for a vote. We see a defeated Lee, his great dignity intact. The Grand Review marches past. The Lincoln conspirators are hanged. Then we meet an arrogant Custer; a delegation of Native American chiefs; the curvaceous dancer, Laura Le Claire; Andrew Carnegie and finally, President Grant.

There are many books available of Civil War photographs. This one is excellent because it focuses on Brady. It's a large book - over 300 pages & 300 photos. Dover publishes fine books at bargain prices.

Bob Rixon

Mr. Lincoln's City: An Illustrated Guide To The Civil War Sites Of Washington by U.S. Army Major General Richard M. Lee (Retired) is enhanced with 15 maps and 130 historical photographs as it offers the reader a series of major tours throughout downtown Washington, DC, to 80 sites that were significant to the events occurring between 1861 and 1865 during the American Civil War. There were a total of 68 forts encircling Washington, which the Union forces utilized as a major war base with its rail net and staging areas. This proved critically important as Confederate forces approached the city when the great battles took place in neighboring Virginia to the detriment of the Union Army. Here land marked for the onsite visitor as well as the armchair traveler are the Washington Monument slaughterhouse, the fetid creeks and canals, the sick, the wounded and the dying lying in hospitals strewn across the city. This is also the place where President Lincoln brought his forces to final victory, preserved the union, and resulted in Washington becoming the premier city of a reunited republic -- an unassailable position it has held down to the present day. Mr. Lincoln's City is an enthusiastically recommended addition to American History and Civil War History reference collections, as well as an ideal resource for planning a Civil War oriented tour of Washington, DC.