Adventures of Rusty and Ginger Fox by Tim Ostermeyer

Adventures of Rusty and Ginger Fox by Tim Ostermeyer. Synergy Books. November 2010. ISBN No. 9780984504008. 45 pp. YA Fiction.

Timothy Ostermeyer calls himself a Master Photographer, and every photo in this book proves he deserves every letter of that title. Beginning with pictures of two red foxes at two weeks old and continuing with all the animals they meet, the pictures add to the fascinating adventures these animals experience. One must add these pictures are so children-friendly that parents won't have to worry about nightmares or fearful thoughts following a child's reading of this terrific story.

Rusty and Ginger get bigger and with their parents not far behind them begin to explore the world of the forest and woods, meeting wildlife that are both dangerous, friendly, and in between. As they meet seven different animals, the author presents fascinating facts first about the foxes such as their length, height, how far they can run, what they weigh, where they live, their various colors and habits, what they eat and how much they can eat in one day.

The young reader then learns about similar qualities of other wildlife animals, such as deer, wolves, bears, bobcats, and more, until they finally meet two little girls seeking a treasure.

Adventures of Rusty and Ginger Fox is a delightful book that parents will want to buy and read to their children as well as give to older young adult readers. This reviewer guarantees that even the parents will be looking through this story more than once and be glad to share about it with more readers. A great gift for all ages! This is a superb, artistic, educational and beautiful book!

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Walden Pond Press: A Division of Harper Collins. January 2010. YA Fiction. 313 pp. hardcover, ISBN #: 9780061836831.

Liam Digby is not your average 12 year old; he looks like an adult and is taller than any of his peers. His Dad tries really hard to understand him but Liam remains an enigma, a young guy who eats, sleeps, and drinks online video gaming programs, one in particular which even he is unaware is training him for something profoundly BIG!

Liam pretends to be his Dad and applies for an unbelievable opportunity, a contest for greatest Dads which will be an amazing adventure. As Liam's a daredevil of a sort, he figures he can handle this adult posing. Having dared to ride multiple times in a G-gravity roller coaster and experimented somewhat with his father's Porsche, what's next?

Much to his surprise, Liam wins the prize and takes, as his daughter, a friend, Florida. Here begins a bigger contest in which one adult from the other three winners will get to go to outer space with all the children. But these are not ordinary children by any means and Liam's "Dad" skills are hilariously not exactly up to par at first!

Cosmic is a tale about the wisdom of fathers and a higher purpose behind all those addictive video games that just might really save a bunch of very exclusive lives. It's not soppy, and it's downright funny in so many places. This is a very cool story that will please not only young adult but also adult readers. Behind the fun and adventure are some solid, scientific, intelligent facts presented in a fascinating way.

Very nicely done, Frank Cottrell Boyce!!!

The Journey Home by Michael Baron

The Journey Home. Michael Baron. The Story Plant. 2010. ISBN: 9780981956862.

The Journey Home relates the strangeness and wonder of connection. It all begins with Joseph waking up in a strange home, surrounded by a family who accept his fragile condition and soothe him with warm meals and a place to stay overnight. For Joseph is unable to remember where he came from or where he was going before he was found passed out on the sidewalk outside of the family who found him. When he leaves that place of shelter, he meets Will, a young man who knows he has a goal to reach but seems quite unsure of precisely what it is or how to tackle the journey there. He begins to find purpose in attempting Joseph in his quest for home and identity. The closest they come is through the sense Joseph has of a woman whom he loves and whose presence enlivens the very essence of his life’s meaning.

Antoinette is living in an assisted living facility which she finds strange, and so she retreats into her room, living in the memories of the beautiful love she shared with her late husband, Don. Her son, Warren, going through a divorce and presently unemployed, is lost and frustrated by his mother’s slipping more deeply into another world. He slowly begins to recreate a new relationship with her by cooking her favorite meals and watching her joy as she comes alive with each meal he so tenderly prepares. The descriptions of these meals will make the reader want to run out to buy ingredients to try the same culinary delights, but we also sense that it is the love that goes into the preparation turns them into exquisitely appreciated delights. His conversation with Jan, a nurse at the facility where Antoinette lives, puts some delicate humor and meaning into the present moment and offers the possibility of hope for the future to both of them.

What fuels our passions and what is the heart of true relationships? The Journey Home is a story about three very different characters. In truly listening to each other and learning what feeds the heart, mind, and soul, all these characters learn true love and relish the journey to the center and peripheries of that precious world that is ever new and ever alive in a unique, memorable cycle! Lovely novel!!!

New Self, New World: Recovering Our Senses in the Twenty-First Century by Philip Shepherd

New Self, New World: Recovering Our Senses in the Twenty-First Century. Philip Shepherd. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California. August 2010. 512 pp. ISBN #: 9781556439117

Imagine for a moment living in a completely “balanced” world where mind, heart, and body are synchronized and no dominance is present to distort life as we know it. The premise of New Self, New World moves even beyond that idea, laying out the possibility that life as we know it will take on an even greater experience, a fifth dimension as it is explained.

Philip Shepherd takes the reader through mythology, various ideas about consciousness, what occurs when we place too much focus on the mind without consciousness, of just what encompasses an idea, of a lack of connection to the core of our heart and “pelvic” intelligence, several suggestions to reacquire our innate sensitivity that is meant to operate in balance with thinking and other parts of our existence, such as through the process of restoring consciousness of the body to awaken that pelvic intelligence.

It also challenges previous understandings of male and female activity and passivity, a misunderstanding of true logic, the importance of perspective (also redefined) on experience, and the power behind “being present” in the moment within this new type of balanced living.

Exercises are provided for the body, mind and being to begin this process. This is not a light-weight book and scientific, literary, mythological explanations galore fill these pages. This reader would have liked to see more examples of how this new self and new world operate; in spite of its premise, the book is quite heavy on a logical, “head” presentation. Still, for those seeking wholeness of living, this is a new presentation of old and new ideas that offer a map leading to an altogether different way of living, one that seems to this reviewer to be healthier, happier, and more productive than what most find in day-to-day living. Fascinating!

Falling Home by Karen White

Falling Home. by Karen White. November 2010. NAL Accent Trade/New American Library/Penguin. 352 pp. ISBN #: 9780451231444.

Cassie has escaped a small town in Georgia she found absolutely stifling and has joined the world of a successful career and boyfriend in dynamic New York. But one phone call changes it all. Her father is dying and he wants to see her. Worst yet, she gets the message from her sister, who married the man Cassie once loved; and now they tell her she is needed. How can she return home and bear the pain of betrayed love and how will she respond to the town busybodies who feel they have the right to know the family’s entire story?

But Cassie’s life is about to be turned upside down. For as many gossips and busybodies she meets, she is surprised that an old friend, Sam, the town doctor, a man she didn’t even recognize as an old high school peer, takes an interest in her present circumstances. He’s not about to be insulted or literally take her rebuffs as she repeatedly reminds him and everyone else that she’s only back for a visit and her real life lies elsewhere.

Wounds hide the love we all hold deep down for a place called “Home,” a place with precious memories, a place that forms the fabric of who we become and will always be. What will the future hold for Cassie once those veneers of defensiveness and pain dissolve with a lot of patience and dedicated attempts to break down the walls of escape?

Falling Home is even better than On Folly Beach, the author's most recent novel, and that’s saying a lot!!! Get ready to curl up with this terrific novel and enjoy an unpredictable, engaging, and revealing story! Wonderful!

The Fun of Dying: Find Out What Really Happens Next! by Roberta Grimes

The Fun of Dying: Find Out What Really Happens Next by Roberta Grimes. 2010. Greater Reality Publications. Pb. 149 pp. ISBN #: 9780980211115.

The title of this book is bound to grab many readers. After all, who doesn’t wonder whether there is an afterlife; and if so, what is there, what is it like, etc., etc. Roberta Grimes has combed all the research out there to attempt to provide answers to every human being concerned with the life beyond the one in which we now live. Some of what she offers is common knowledge and other ideas are quite astounding!

The evidence covers science, religion, and other psychological phenomena that the author clearly indicates need not be opposed to each other but which actually consists of a continuum of experience that is impossible to contradict. It involves experience coupled with cutting edge knowledge, such as quantum physics, that is actually comforting, albeit challenging to those with rigid, dogmatic notions of the afterlife. Suspend disbelief while you read this book and take in the plethora of possibilities, such as the reality of energy that is not measurable as matter or time.

A considerable amount of space is given to the healing one needs after the death of the earthly body and how precise that is to each individual who passes over to the afterlife. Possible learning lessons, reincarnations, cravings satisfied, the necessity of forgiveness, the sense of awareness now being a part of our eventual passing, the role of religion in our passing and afterlife, and so much more fill these pages in a concise, clear and intriguing manner that keeps one’s interest through every single page. An appendix includes the author’s sources which the reader may seek to explore for greater detail about this common but unknown world – a process that is meant to be joyful and as normal as our current living.

The Fun of Dying… is a comprehensive, fearless guide to a world all will one day enter, as well as one which offers so much comfort, healing, and grace concerning our thoughts and feelings for those who have gone before us. Engaging and a complete account of what may become one’s own future!

Lost Island Smugglers by Max Elliot Anderson

Lost Island Smugglers. Max Elliot Anderson. SharksFinn: A Port Yonder Press Imprint. 2010. 263 pp. ISBN #: 9781935600022.

Sam Cooper is moving again because his Dad’s work as a research biologist takes the family to new exciting places, this time to the Florida Everglades. But the hard part is making friends and having to leave them, although Sam has no problem with that part of the move. If anything, his friends have a harder time because Sam’s a fun and reliable guy; he’s used to leaving but they’re not used to losing friends. On arrival to his new home, he quickly makes friends with a very funny “doughnuts” story.

Next thing that happens very quickly is that Sam is invited to learn scuba diving for free as his friend’s father owns a marina and rents boats and equipment. Sam, Tony, and Tyler quickly master this sport which they all love. Pretty soon they are ready to go beyond the training area, but they are about to explore where it’s dangerous to go!

Sam is having plenty of scary dreams about diving, especially now they are going out for their first solo dive, a fact that Sam has neglected to tell his parents. Off they go on a catamaran, which is a totally new experience for Sam, riding along with the motor to propel them instead of the wind and using sails to course through the water. An unexpected storm is about to turn their plans haywire, and they wind up on Lost Island, unable to leave and unprepared with no food or shelter. That’s nothing compared to what they soon see on the island, some mysteriously-dressed men who don’t look very friendly and who are taking extra care to hide a secret.

Lost Island Smugglers grips the reader’s interest and continues to hold it until the very last page. Max Elliot Anderson describes the boys’ adventures so realistically that the reader feels like he or she is right there participating. This novel, which is part of the “Sam Cooper Adventure” series is a terrific addition to the exciting books Anderson continues to write for young adults! Very nicely done, Mr. Anderson!