Boys Books

This installment of Betsy Duffey's series about Cody Michaels is just as fun as the others! Cody's mom, worried that her son is too enamored of television and video games, signs him up for a one-week summer camp experience. Cody is horrified and thinks of lots of reasons not to go, but after a couple of days he finds he is having a good time -- even without electricity!

Funny and well written, this should be a hit with beginning readers or those ready for chapter books. Terrific.

My 10 year old son LOVED this book! He thought the book was really good and kept telling everyone that they needed to read it, too. It seems that it is very entertaining - he pointed out some of his favorite parts that he thought were funny. I think he was drawn in right from the start when Cody comes up with a list of reasons why he can't go to the camp his mom wants to send him to - including the dog might forget who he is and he would miss Wheel of Fortune. As you can tell from the second reason, Cody is a couch potato and not much for the great outdoors...at least at the beginning... The most amazing thing to me was that my son found something that he liked to read so much that his gameboy sat around gathering dust! :) I had ordered this book along with several others for him to read, but he was able to check it out in the school library before they have arrived. At first I was disappointed that he was reading it before my surprise package came for him, but since he loved it so much, I am sure it will be reread.

My 10 year old son LOVED this book! He thought the book was really good and kept telling everyone that they needed to read it, too. It seems that it is very entertaining - he pointed out some of his favorite parts that he thought were funny. I think he was drawn in right from the start when Cody comes up with a list of reasons why he can't go to the camp his mom wants to send him to - including the dog might forget who he is and he would miss Wheel of Fortune. As you can tell from the second reason, Cody is a couch potato and not much for the great outdoors...at least at the beginning... The most amazing thing to me was that my son found something that he liked to read so much that his gameboy sat around gathering dust! :)

I had to write a review for a fifth grade project. Here it is...
This book is about a boy named Cody who spends all of his time watching TV and playing Video Games. But his mother wanted to change all of that. She sent him to Camp Bear for one week of the summer. It was a nature camp without electricity. How was Cody going to survive without electricity? But after 2 days without video games he was having fun with his new friends, Moose and Otter. There were real things to do at camp, such as kayaking, archery, horseback riding, swimming, pottery, fishing, and nature walks. He learned how to handle real life situations like, loosing his swimming trunks in the lake, dancing with girls, and saving his friend from a dangerous rattlesnake. Cody has so many new adventures that he survives the week and has fun.

This book is very funny. If I could give this book
a medal, I would. This book would make you laugh from
begining to end. I would recommend this book to
people who like to laugh alot. I would not recommend this book to people who don't like to laugh, or anyone who doesn't like kids books

This book is highly recommended for parents that have trouble with raising their children to listen to instruction. The book teaches how to implement consequences, discipline and reward. It is a great book to teach parents how to deal with their children (i.e.-Nanny 911). It has examples of reward charts etc. Highly recommend if you are counseling families as well.

Written by expert authors Ray Burke, Ph.D., Ron Herron, & Bridget A. Barnes, who have many combined years of professional experience creating and delivering Girls and Boys Town's parent training programs in the United States and other countries worldwide, Common Sense Parenting: Using Your Head as Well as your Heart to Raise School-Aged Children is a practical guide for parents and caretakers. Chapters offer sensible advice and simple techniques for encouraging good behavior, correcting problem behavior, teaching social skills, helping children succeed in school, handling peer pressure, and much more. Now in a newly revised third edition with more answers for commonly asked parental questions, as well as additional insights into modern quandaries such as computer misuse and Internet dangers, Common Sense Parenting is an enthusiastically recommended fundamental guide.

The book title says it all! Do it and create a win-win for parents and kids! Fail proof!

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."

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!"

Entertaining and packed with excitement the compilation offered on the pages of Coolhead Luke is intended for the middle grade reader. Writer White is a media consultant who strings words together for pleasure. In the back of the volume she incorporate a Glossary of expressions relating to poetry along with a collection of optional questions for teachers to use with groups of children.

Laughable compositions having titles which include -Coolhead Luke-, -Ebenezer Nooze-, and -The Eyes Have It- set the tone for this work of verses and whimsical imagery. While aboard the -Freaky Bus- the reader will meet Old Baldy Bob, whose nose is gigantic, Stretch Joe whose neck is eight feet tall or so, as well as Bewildered Bill and Eraser Head McGee. Other verse lead the reader to a serpent hat, the King of Mud or even a cuddly Cyclops.

The commencement of the book includes the writer's notes to parents as poet White explains how at an early age her illustrator son Colin was interested in faces. Even as a very young toddler Colin started to become aware of faces in the outlines on curtains or leaves on trees. He began sketching faces at age two.

As his depictions progressed the writer noticed the representation seemed to have a tale to tell, thus the stanzas to go together with the illustrations was born.

Professor Bickle, we realize is in a pickle for the reason that he has a mouse who is fickle. A Motley Three is made of up of she, he and me. We have Lunch with the Mussies. And, we discover, nothing upsets Coolhead Luke.

Illustrator White is an upper middle grade student in Massachusetts where he goes on with producing drawings and other art work.

In concert, the White team of Mother and son, have created a characteristic and thought-provoking anthology of verse and art. Writer White tells the reader that the drawings set down on the pages of Coolhead Luke were fashioned by Colin when he was ten years old.

I have found my own class of students take pleasure in poetry. I like the addition of the glossary explaining Haiku, Rhyming Couplets, Rhyme Scheme and Structure along with Limericks. Following the glossary are helpful suggestions telling how to locate some of the poetic forms in the works offered on the pages of the book.

While my First Grade students are a bit young to truly understand the whimsy found in Illustrator White's work, they do take pleasure in the tempo and pulse of the poems themselves as they listen while I read the verses aloud. We often sing My Country Tis of Thee as one element of our daily opening exercise and after I read Coolhead Luke are learning to sing My Country's Teeth I See for the fun of it.

Target audience is middle grade and older readers. Interesting work produced by Mother and son White family members, happy to recommend for the personal pleasure reading collection, as well as classroom, school and public library collections.

Molly Martin
Reviewer

This is a great book! The illustrations by Colin White are original and sometimes profoundly insightful. The poems by his mother, Jen Lasker White, perfectly match the style, intent and wit of Colin's art work. Although this book is fun for everyone, books of poems that boys love are few and far between. This one truly delights and inspires my 10 year old son. And that ain't easy! Kudos to Jen and Colin!
Leslie O'Flaherty, writer, poet, singer, teacher

Coolhead Luke is a very special children's book for all ages. Jen White's humorous verses beautifully highlight Colin's original, entertaining drawings and at the same time teach important and meaningful lessons that children can easily absorb. Once you read this mother son collaboration with your child, you will want to buy books for all his or her friends, and so will your child! Coolhead Luke would be a great birthday or Christmas present for a grandchild, too. Tasha Halpert author of Heartwings: Love Notes for a Joyous Life

I read this book with my 8 year old son who LOVED it. The pictures remind my son of the silly books he likes to read. The poems that go with the pictures could not be more clever. Seriously!! We have our favorites picked out but found them all to be great fun.



The idea that this was written by a mother connecting to her son's art work is what clinched it. Something about that bond that speaks volumes.

Coolhead Luke is a fabulous collaborative effort between mother and son.
The son's wildly insightful drawings are perfectly matched by his mother's
lyrical verse-stories that delight with intelligence, insight, plain fun,
and wise moral endings outside of any overt religious bias. This is a
5-star book for middle-school kids and every imaginable adult! Read it out
loud (as all poetry should be read) and find yourself belly-laughing while
caught in the nets of surprisingly delightful insights in rhyme.

Courageous Journey - An inspiring documentary of courageous men and women who found the will to make the best of circumstances beyond belief, hold the faith for a better future and are making a difference in this world - for themselves, their families and friends, their countrymen and all who are touched by their lives. Thank you to Barbara Youree for eloquently writing this inspiring story and to Ayuel Leek Deng and Beny Ngor Chol for sharing their story and making a difference in this world.

Courageous Journey: Walking the Lost Boys Path from the Sudan to America is an incredible story of courage and determination of Ayuel Leek Deng and Beny Ngor Chol, two young boys torn from their families by Sudan's civil war. As children, they flee bombing and trek through the desert with thousands of other youngsters who are not sure where their journey will take them.

Accomplished author Barbara Youree chronicles their trauma of experiencing starvation, attacks by vicious animals and enemy planes, and death of their friends. Finally reaching a refugee camp in Ethiopia, Ayuel and Beny believe that "education will be their parents." They become leaders at the camp and after ten years finally have the opportunity to go to the USA. When Ayuel learns his destination is Kansas City, Missouri, he affirms, "Light has come to my darkness." Today, these two young men are pursuing their education determined to help their homeland.

Using the boys' own words, Youree brings the reader a greater understanding of the courage of two young men who are called "the seeds of the new Sudan." This is one book I could not put down until the last page.

The violence of Africa, despite being under reported in American news, is all too real. "Courageous Journey: Walking the Lost Boys' Path from The Sudan to America" is two young men's unwillingness to give up. Ayuel Leek Deng and Beny Ngor Chol have been through many things many times that many Americans never hope to encounter once. The violence over race, oil, money, all occurs as these two try to live their lives. A true story, "Courageous Journey" is eye opening and thought provoking, a telling of what really matters.

Courageous Journey profiles the lives of young boys in Sudan who in order to flee persecution had to walk to Ethiopia. There they lived in refugee camps and were finally taken in by the United States and other countries. Most of the story focuses on Ayuel's experiences, thoughts and feelings. It is heart wrenching to realize that these men were driven out of their homes by gunfire and explosives when they were around six, and remained refugees until they were in their late teens or early twenties!

The narrative follows the lost boys as they flee burning villages, most separated from family and friends in the chaos. They form new bonds with those in their group, worry about their loved ones, help those in their group, and most of all try to stay alive- a tall order at a tender age. They walk to Ethiopia through the desert fending off starvation, disease, animals, and helicopter gunfire.

We read about their hopes and dreams-how these hopes are raised, how they get dashed, how it takes a toll on their will to live, and ultimately on their lives. We read about the brutality and death they witness caused by both natural and political conditions. We witness the monotony of life in the refugee camp, and the little hope such a life holds for all at the camp.

When Ayuel gets picked to come to America, we follow his orientation sessions, his journey to America, more orientation, and how he and the others adapted to live in an American city. On the heels of Ayuel's arrival to America, 9/11 happens. In the aftermath of 9/11 we read about their fear of those left behind (will America stop taking in innocent refugees), and the heightened fear they come to have for being mistaken as terrorists. As they settle into normal lives, we see how they try to contact each other (sometimes across continents), and the joy when they reunite with their loved ones who now live hundreds of miles away.

The backdrop of this book is highly politically charged. However, the narrative remains focused on the human elements of fleeing one's country, enduring hardships to get to a refugee camp, acclimating to life in a camp, and finally rebuilding one's life in an adopted country.

Armchair Interview says: Be prepared to shed many tears while reading this book.

Courageous Journey tells the tale of thousands of young children cruelly separated from their families in Sudan's civil war, facing the horrors of starvation, attacked by savage beasts and savage people. Ayuel Leek Deng and Beny Ngor Chol tell their individual stories of despair and hope through master storyteller, Barbara Youree. A must read,this book sends a timely message to the world about the plight of Sudanese people.

I like Cow&Boy very much. But..as with any of these comics compendiums..it is sometimes too much of a good thing. The M-Sat four panels or eight on Sunday is just right.....but suddenly you are overwhelmed; limit your daily reading of this book and you'll love this strip forever.

I very much enjoyed this first cartoon book of Cow and Boy--easily worth the money.

I love this comic because it is both insightful and funny. It does not fall back on tired norms like most comics. The character also have believe ability and depth. But most of all its funny in a way that refreshingly different than the rest of the every 5 day comics, I will surely get the next book he publishes.

Cow and Boy is hysterical! My kids love Cow, who is clearly the conscience for Billy (aka Boy). Great for adults and kids of all ages.

I have purchased several of these books to give to friends. Cow competing in the county fair, Billy going to school, and Cow in a bunny costume are just a few of the highlights of the first year of this comic strip. Who knew a cow could be so funny.

I thought the book was very good but it made me mad how Nancy likes Mick rather then Frank. Frank didn't even seem BOTHERED by the looks Nancy and Mick gave each other. The mystery was a cool one but it wasn't exciting and it was kinda slow.
It was a good book but not the best.

This is a very good story. I just wish Keene would follow up on people in the stories in later books. Like Mick, you never get to see him again thus far in the series.

Nancy Drew comes to Australia to help Mick Devlin, an old flame). Then she runs into the Hardy Boys who are visiting a family friend. Frank is just a little jealous of Mick. Exciting ending. and a few other suspenseful moments.

This book is the coolest ! It is not only the most excellant book that I've ever read, but the most thrilling, too! Nancy Drew had to keep up with the Hardy boys in the first part, but they had quite a job trying to catch her up in the end! GREAT BOOK, CAROLYN!

I think that Danger Down under is a real mystery.Nancy and George are in Australlia trying to help a friend of Nancy's old boyfriend, Mick, When they run into the Hardy Boys! The Hardy's are looking for a poacher who has been killing rare animals.Nancy and George decide to help the Hardy's on thier case too!Together they come up with a long list of suspects. Could all the suspects be working together? Could the two cases be linked? You'll have to read the book to find out!

I thought this book was amazing! It was so interesting that Frank and Joe didn't even know their criminal until the very end. I also thought that it was very cool that Frank and Joe were able to see a tooth that was a voice transmitter called the Molar Mike. Soon after they see it, it is stolen and what they have to do to get it back gave me chills just reading it. When Joe got pushed into the way of an oncoming subway that would have scared me so much I think I probably would have quit the case! The way the author was describing all the wax figures in the museum was creating pictures in my mind because he was giving so many details! I would totally recommend this book to anyone: boy or girl. I enjoy them and I know that some of the boys in my class read them. The Hardy Boys Series are definitely one of the best series I have ever read because there is so much detail and specific word choice in it! I love the way the author describes things and makes them come alive! I also love the way he has all the clues leading up to the revealing of the criminal. I've loved reading this series ever since I was very young and I'm still reading them today!

I thought this book was amazing! It was so interesting that Frank and Joe didn't even know their criminal until the very end. I also thought that it was very cool that Frank and Joe were able to see a tooth that was a voice transmitter called the Molar Mike. Soon after they see it, it is stolen and what they have to do to get it back gave me chills just reading it. When Joe got pushed into the way of an oncoming subway that would have scared me so much I think I probably would have quit the case! The way the author was describing all the wax figures in the museum was creating pictures in my mind because he was giving so many details! I would totally recommend this book to anyone: boy or girl. I enjoy them and I know that some of the boys in my class read them. The Hardy Boys Series are definitely one of the best series I have ever read because there is so much detail and specific word choice in it! I love the way the author describes things and makes them come alive! I also love the way he has all the clues leading up to the revealing of the criminal. I've loved reading this series ever since I was very young and I'm still reading them today!

I thought this book was amazing! It was so interesting that Frank and Joe didn't even know their criminal until the very end. I also thought that it was very cool that Frank and Joe were able to see a tooth that was a voice transmitter called the Molar Mike. Soon after they see it, it is stolen and what they have to do to get it back gave me chills just reading it. When Joe got pushed into the way of an oncoming subway that would have scared me so much I think I probably would have quit the case! The way the author was describing all the wax figures in the museum was creating pictures in my mind because he was giving so many details! The Hardy Boys Series are definitely one of the best series I have ever read because there is so much detail and specific word choice in it! I love the way the author describes things and makes them come alive! I also love the way he has all the clues leading up to the revealing of the criminal. I've loved reading this series ever since I was very young and I'm still reading them today!

The Hardy Boys are in London visiting their friend Jax, who has just perfected a tiny radio transceiver capable of being fitted into a tooth! When a mysterious fire occurs at an exhibit Jax was working on in the Tower Of London, authorities are suspicious of him. Later, Frank, Joe and Jax are attacked and finally the invention is stolen from a hidden wall safe! Frank and Joe track down the clues which seemingly involves a Russian spy and solve the mystery is a twist ending.

I have to admit I was intrigued by the title of this book and the cover art. The story is one of the better Hardy Boys stories in a while. The writing is good and the author creates a good atmosphere for the setting, which is London England. The mystery involves one of the Hardy's friends, Jax who has invented a transmitter that can fit inside a tooth. Lots of suspects, red herrings and a surprise ending make for a great read!

It is not often that a woman sees into the heart and mind of a young man. This is one of the gifts Holt brings us in this lovely little volume of stories. Young Jimmy, in 'A Day at the Ballpark', comes to grips with the adult failings of his parents, and his uncle JD. He also muses about his sister - in spare, unemotional language, Jimmy details the shocking and sad fate of Kate.

'Checkup' is more a prose poem than anything else. As such, it cuts to the core and with no wasted words shows us an unhappy relationship -- lies, deception, and despair. Three pages -- a moment in time that promises the years ahead for this couple.

I live on Cape Cod. I have seen Jimmy. I've seen those guys sleeping on the beaches. And Holt explains why they are there-- or at least why Jimmy is there. 'Outside' puts the reader into the head of this young man. It's not a comfortable place to be.

But the surprise is in the except from Holt's novel 'Realworld.com'. Peopled with movers and shakers of the online world, with high-tech geniuses, and assorted brainy types, the novel also introduces us to Willow, a young teen-age girl. Well, now. Willow comes alive on these pages. She is torn between independence and reliance on her mother. She is ambivalent about life and her inability to make decisions for her own future -- she is still young enough to do as her mother wishes. Willow is not a main character to this story, but she is so well drawn I wish she were. As she discovers her talent for basketball, and excels at the sport, we wonder about her parentage --- but I get ahead of things here. Holt stops the excerpt: a king-sized cliffhanger if I ever saw one! And there are no promises of when we get to read the rest of 'Realworld.com'!

There's more to look forward to in this novel than Willow. But this character was a surprise. Tucked in among some larger-than-life characters (well, I think I can guess upon whom they are modeled!) is this one young girl who shines and shows us without question the perception and sensitivity of Steve Holt. I'd like to see more of what Holt has to offer and am waiting for the rest of this book!

It is not often that a woman sees into the heart and mind of a young man. This is one of the gifts Holt brings us in this lovely little volume of stories. Young Jimmy, in 'A Day at the Ballpark', comes to grips with the adult failings of his parents, and his uncle JD. He also muses about his sister - in spare, unemotional language, Jimmy details the shocking and sad fate of Kate.

'Checkup' is more a prose poem than anything else. As such, it cuts to the core and with no wasted words shows us an unhappy relationship -- lies, deception, and despair. Three pages -- a moment in time that promises the years ahead for this couple.

I live on Cape Cod. I have seen Jimmy. I've seen those guys sleeping on the beaches. And Holt explains why they are there-- or at least why Jimmy is there. 'Outside' puts the reader into the head of this young man. It's not a comfortable place to be.

But the surprise is in the except from Holt's novel 'Realworld.com'. Peopled with movers and shakers of the online world, with high-tech geniuses, and assorted brainy types, the novel also introduces us to Willow, a young teen-age girl. Well, now. Willow comes alive on these pages. She is torn between independence and reliance on her mother. She is ambivalent about life and her inability to make decisions for her own future -- she is still young enough to do as her mother wishes. Willow is not a main character to this story, but she is so well drawn I wish she were. As she discovers her talent for basketball, and excels at the sport, we wonder about her parentage --- but I get ahead of things here. Holt stops the excerpt: a king-sized cliffhanger if I ever saw one! And there are no promises of when we get to read the rest of 'Realworld.com'!

There's more to look forward to in this novel than Willow. But this character was a surprise. Tucked in among some larger-than-life characters (well, I think I can guess upon whom they are modeled!) is this one young girl who shines and shows us without question the perception and sensitivity of Steve Holt. I'd like to see more of what Holt has to offer and am waiting for the rest of this book!

Funny, the Random House blurb says the short stories read like Richard Ford's writing, but I think the novel reads like Tourist Season by Carl Hiassen. It moves very easily from South Beach to rural Vermont to Harvard Square to backwoods Arkansas to an internet chat room, but each place is very real and so are the characters. When is the rest of the novel coming out? Has Bill Gates read this?

I heard about this from a friend in Chicago and I decided to give it a read. Kind of an amazing book. The narrator in the short stories seems to be the same guy, at different stages in the process of a difficult life, growing up on Cape Cod. The voice is very simple yet it registers a pretty powerful range of emotion, whether the scene is a baseball game, an exchange between father and son, an incident that occurs to the kid while hitchhiking, or whatever. You can feel the kid trying to hold onto important things in his life as he is losing his innocence and things are kind of breaking down all around him. Great stuff, and you don't often get it in guy fiction. I haven't seen other stuff by Holt, but he knows his baseball, among other things. Then there's a long excerpt from a novel, called Realworld.com, and that is totally different, almost slick in a way similar to Turn of the Century (Kurt Andersen), but with hilarious caricatures of day traders, a pretty scary Bill Gates-like character, etc. and a very likeable main character named Overtime Overton, who's a washed up pro basketball player. I recommend it, although I'll be kind of ticked off if I never get to read the rest of the novel.

I loved this book !!! Don't be fooled by its small size..it's filled with real life in all its pain, mystery, pathos and laughter. If the excerpt of Realworl.com is but a tease, bring it on, Steve !!!! I will try to wait patiently for the full text...

A Day at the Fair with Chili Boy stays with you long after you put it down. This is a delightful and touching coming of age story. Grace Holly is fascinated with a young man who is every parents nightmare and this of course makes him more desirable. In the end Grace's strength and character carry the day but the
poignant memories of that fateful summer linger into adulthood. A.W. Wilk captures not only the feelings of the young people but also the time and place.

I think it is a very good book for anyone to read. I give it a 4 out of 5. I enjoyed the book more than i thought i would. It seemed like it went by pretty fast. I just got into the book and i coulndt put it down. Overall its a pretty good book.

This book has more than just words, the author put so much thought behind it, that it challenges the reader. It is a modern,upbeat page turner. It is about doing the right thing and about a young girl following her heart. This book is a master peice!

A Day at the Fair With Chili Boy is a wonderful work of literary fiction in an era in which those who truly appreciate quality fiction find themselves starving. Mr. Wilk's story is insightful and moving, his descriptions are poetic, and his dialogue is vivid. A superbly written and thought provoking book.

A hilarious yet touching novel about the folly of youth as seen through the gentle eyes of wisdom. It explores the undeniable attraction that wickedness holds for us all, even when good sense tries to intervene. Well written and thoroughly enjoyable.

Finally...a book that you don't mind reading over and over again to your child! Smart and funny, and very original. My then 5 year old daughter loved it...and I have to think that it helped her begin to appreciate good humor...not just "stupid funny". The illustrations are big, bright, colorful, and goofy, too. This book is a keeper!

One morning Jason wakes up to a dilemma - his runny nose feels unappreciated, and has run away entirely. Jason must follow his nose across the country all the way to Nose Island where he discovers a revolution is brewing. Can he stop it? Good reading skills will lend to appreciation of this zany adventure.

This is a book that respects a child's intelligence and understanding. The writing is funny and challenging and the pictures are moving -- these are images my son will remember! It's got a Harry Potter-like mix of scary, surprising, and cheerful moments that kept even MY interest.

Read it out loud and have fun!

My four year old has asked me to read her this book five times already, and we've had it for less than two days. The last time she did this was with Where the Wild Things Are. This is a truly fun book with wonderful art. The amazing thing is that I'VE enjoyed reading it each and every time.

An interesting, exciting book that I recommend to anyone with kids who like to laugh!

I saw a review of this book that called it "the best read aloud in many a year" and I 100% agree. IT IS! It is smart, original, funny and refreshing. My husband and I read it to them right away and they fell in love with this tale. They loved spunky Jason and his wild adventures on NOSE ISLAND. They laugh out loud every time we read this story and they adore the gorgeous illustrations. I have not seen a book that is this original, funny and smart for children in a long time. We eagerly await more Jason adventures and urge anyone with 6 to 8 year olds to buy this book.