Product Description
This collection of poems assembled by award-winning writer Marilyn Nelson provides young readers with a compelling, lyrical account of the life of revered African-American botanist and inventor George Washington Carver. Born in 1864 and raised by white slave owners, Carver left home in search of an education and eventually earned a master’s degree in agriculture. In 1896, he was invited by Booker T. Washington to head the agricultural department at the all-black-staffed Tuskegee Institute. There he conducted innovative research to find uses for crops such as cowpeas, sweet potatoes, and peanuts, while seeking solutions to the plight of landless black farmers. Through 44 poems, told from the point of view of Carver and the people who knew him, Nelson celebrates his character and accomplishments. She includes prose summaries of events and archival photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Great Book in Great Condition
I was amazed that I was able to get the book as quickly as I did and it is in great shape. This is a very good book.

Carver's Life in Sanpshots of Poetry
This biography that won both a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Honor is an awe inspiring book. Nelson tells the story of George Washington Carver's life through a series of poems that act like snapshots in a photo album.She begins with a poem about Carver and his mother being stolen from their owner when they were slaves.John Bentley is sent after them but can only find baby George who he returns to the Carvers who raise him with his brother Jim.The poems go on to tell of Carver's search for education, his resourcefulness, and his spirituality.Different poems describe his artistic abilities, his studies of botany, his appreciation for all of nature, his artistic nature, and his dedication to his students and all of his people. The book traces his life from its beginning in slavery to his years in college and as an instructor at the Tuskegee Institute.Nelson's poems describe the life of an amazing genius who is too often overlooked as simply the inventor of peanut butter.Each poem acts as frame in the film of Carver's life.The poems work together to tell the story, but each poem can also stand on its own as a photograph of a moment from an amazing life.The historical footnotes in the text help to clarify the poems and the photographs of Carver, his family and friends, his creations, etc. help to create a better understanding of this incredible man.

Carver's poetic life
First I have to say that Marilyn Nelson is a wonderful person. And I think she is one of the best poet's of her generation. Her poetry is great, and her book, _The Homeplace_ is one of those books that everyone should own. But even great poets can write mediocre poems. This collection is a series of short poems, usually a dramatic monologue of some sort, that together are supposed to make up the story of George Washington Carver's life (it includes pictures and little biographical footnotes). Pretty much the same thing she did for The Homeplace. It worked in The Homeplace, but not here. The problem isn't so much Nelson's skill as a poet (few are better than her), rather it is Carver's life. It just doesn't make good poetry, or at least not 60 poems. I understand Marilyn wants to tell us about Carver, but perhaps prose would have been a better way to go about it (that and this book seems to be marketed for young children--I don't think they can fully appreciate the nuances of Nelson's poetry or Carver's life). That said, there are several good poems in the book, "Clay" and "Cafeteria Food" being my personal favorites. Well, not every collection is going to be great (look at Frost's later books), so I eagerly await the next book from Marilyn Nelson, be it poetry, essays, or fiction.

excellent!
i really enjoyed this collection of poems by george washington carver! i have plans to be a teacher when i finish college and i think that i will use this book in my teaching plans! the poetry is basic at times so that most any student will be able to understand and yet it has a deepness that will require some thought on behalf of the students. i recommend this book to anyone who enjoys poetry, history, or teaching. i have put this book on my wish list with hope that someone will but it as a christmas gift for me. that is how much i liked carver's work. kudos to mrs. nelson for putting the collection together and getting it published. i can clearly see why carver a life in poems won the newberry award.

Entrepreneurial Alchemy�s Best and Greatest Advocate
As a person coming from a hard-core science and engineering background, I never thought that poetry had any `value'.I never once saw in poetry insight into the nature and state of affairs of human beings.So I was very surprised when I read Ms. Nelson's Carver, A Life in Poems.Ms. Nelson presents us with poetry so rich in texture, so layered in meaning that these few lines of prose convey much, much more information than hundreds of pages of dry text.The book skillfully combines anecdotal historical footnotes with powerful poetic prose to tell the story of the most influential man in American agricultural history.

Carver the man overcame severe hardship and the prejudices of others to achieve great things.Living in a time when opportunities were few and far between for American Blacks, and slavery was a vivid recollection, Carver blazed a trail that few have been able to even approach, let alone top, since then.Even though he dealt with his share of racism, not every person not of African-American ancestry was unkind to him.Given the least of all of his peers, black or white, Carver went on to achieve the most in life.In spite of the hardships, the racism, and even the slights and insults of his own people, he left behind a legacy of good work, compassion, and technical accomplishment that stands the test of time.As such, Carver takes a solid place among the great minds of antiquity- from Imhotep, Egypt's greatest builder, to Confucius, China's greatest thinker and statesman.

Although Carver's array of inventions is impressive, his ingenuity and knack for turning what others see as worthless into something valuable, as in the poems `Chemistry 101' and `The Wild Garden' and `God's Little Workshop', is truly astounding.Carver had tremendous impact in a host of scientific disciplines- agronomy, botany, chemistry, and plant pathology to name a few.For me, Carver's life demonstrates the importance of a creative and spiritual base.Carver could not have developed the hundreds of practical uses for the `goober', or peanut-the plant that African slaves brought to the United States, and that White farmers fed to their animals before eating themselves- if he did not have a highly developed creative side.Moreover, his unyielding faith in the Creator, and his reliance on his faith in times of great peril and suffering, enabled him to endure what I and most other people would consider to be the unendurable.Carver's creativity and great spiritual faith gave him the inspiration to make practical use of those things that others considered worthless.In many ways, Carver was the unassailable prototype of the entrepreneurial alchemist- he created something of value out of literally nothing.Professor Carver's many achievements clearly demonstrate the importance of the study of economic botany.

I would like to add that four of his most important contributions to agricultural science- resting the land, crop rotations, application of riparian sediments and the use of legumes to replenish the vital nutrients of intensively cultivated and depleted soils, closely parallel the ecological practices of the great agrarian societies of Asia and Central and South America.The Native Americans, and their Asian compatriots, were well aware of the benefits of these practices, and had developed strong, stable and successful agricultural methods which in turn allowed for the flowering of some of history's greatest civilizations- the Inca, the Maya and the Aztec cultures.In fact, as F H King pointed out in his groundbreaking work, Farmers of Forty Centuries, at the beginning of the 20th century, the farmers of Asia had been using these techniques continuously to maintain and perpetuate the cultivation of the same plots of land, feeding increasing numbers of their people, for over four thousand years.In effect, these ancient farmers had developed sustainable farming practices and projected them four millennia into the present.In this way, I see Professor Carver as not only the Father of the Peanut industry, he is, and rightly so, The Father of Sustainable Agriculture in America.

It is both refreshing and heart-warming to me to know that an African-American man of science can also be a Renaissance Man in the fullest sense of the word.Gifted in the arts and gifted in the sciences, Carver blended art and practicality in a way I can only hope to partially attain.From this book, I humbly receive a new and invaluable hero, a new and awesome role model- Professor Carver, Jack of All Trades, Renaissance Man Extraordinaire- a true man of the people, a true Titan of Science. ... Read more

Product Description
In the 1940s, as the world was at war, a remarkable jazz band performed on the American home front. This all-female band, originating from a boarding school in the heart of Mississippi, found its way to the most famous ballrooms in the country, offering solace during the hard years of the war. They dared to be an interracial group despite the cruelties of Jim Crow laws, and they dared to assert their talents though they were women in a “man’s” profession. Told in thought-provoking poems and arresting images, this unusual look at our nation’s history is deep and inspiring. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Poor Substitute For the Real Thing
The story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm is one that deserves to be told.In a nutshell, they were an all-girl(women), racially mixed swing band that started out playing to raise money for the Mississippi Country Day School and highlighted their run by playing the Opera House in Nuremburg, Germany shortly after World War II on a USO tour.The were Afro-American, Asian, Latina and had white women passing as black (to avoid Jim Crow laws).After the war, some of the band members found other careers, others married and had families, and some stayed with the band till around 1948.They were the most successful all-girl band of the era.The Sweethearts owned their own bus, and long before Sun Ra even thought of it, they owned their own home.

Marilyn Nelson and Jerry Pinkney's book only hints at that story.Although Pinkney's illustrations are colorful, imaginative and whimsical (worth 5 stars in themselves), Marilyn Nelson's poems are at best cute.

You have to wonder why Ms. Nelson didn't just write a straight narrative of this very intriguing band.Is it because the Sweethearts sold the rights to their story to Motown Films for $100 each, in perpetuity, thus blocking access? Motown has sat on this project for years.If this is the case, the shame lies with Motown.

The story of the Sweethearts of Rhythm is the stuff of American legend and deserves a full length feature.I can only imagine audiences standing and cheering during the final credits, especially now that we are so besieged on
every front.

Marilyn Nelson and Jerry Pinkney have the rhythm down perfectly in this one and you certainly won't regret or forget the read!
A tenor sax rested on its stand and a trombone quietly lay in its case in a pawnshop.The door to the shop was closed and the instruments began to talk of their "glory years on the road with an all-girl band."They all began to swing and sway in remembrance of a time and a band long since forgotten by most. Decades earlier there was a time when men had gone off to war and jazz musicians were needed.The Piney Woods Country Life School, in Piney Woods Mississippi was founded by Laurence Jones in 1909.Eighteen years later he gathered together some of the girls from the school to form a jazz band.

They were predominantly African American, but there were others.There was a "Chinese Saxophonist, a Hawaiian trumpeter, and a Mexican clarinetist."They represented the world as so became known as the "International Sweethearts of Rhythm."They soon began touring, but later broke from the school.They weren't being "paid a fair wage."They knew how to swing and entrance an audience.They were some of the best musicians the states had to offer.They were hot!

It Don't Mean A Thing
Pauline Braddy On Drums

On some tunes, she'd lash may bass home like a jockey;
On some all she did was high-hat rickle the beat,
Always greacefully making the transitions,
Watching the music and the dancers' feet.
The jitterbug was one way people forgot
The rapidly spreading prairie fires of war.
Man, the house would bounce when her licks were hot!
We gave those people what they were dancing for.(Marilyn Nelson)

Before I read the book, I read the author and illustrator notes in the back of the book.Both were stunning and you won't hear any spoilers here.The next thing I did was hit the internet and found several mesmerizing clips of these young women, including one in which we could hear Braddy solo.The book?I was enthralled by the way the poetry and the illustrations combined to tell the story of the times and the "International Sweethearts of Rhythm."Marilyn Nelson and Jerry Pinkney have the rhythm down perfectly in this one and you certainly won't regret or forget the read!

Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children
The late 1930s saw the formation of a swing-music band comprised of female students attending the Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi for low-income and orphaned African American students.Originally founded to raise money for the school, this big band had such talent and attracted so much attention that it toured all over the country and played to record-breaking crowds in such notable venues as the Howard Theatre, the Apollo Theatre, and the Savoy Ballroom.

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm stood out for their ability to be taken seriously as musicians in the male-dominated world of jazz. The departure of many male musicians to serve in World War II helped this all-female band gain a foothold in the American music scene, but they continued to tour and record songs even after the war ended.The Sweethearts also stood out for their courage to defy the Southern Jim Crow laws and play as a racially-integrated band, which meant avoiding arrest by having the white members of the band wear wigs and dark makeup.

Rather than report these interesting events as a detailed narrative, Marilyn Nelson has chosen to communicate the band's story as a set of rhythmic poems written in the voices of the instruments. Jerry Pinkney has added further to the richness of the book with collages of different shapes of textured papers, music sheets, maps, and flowers superimposed on his dynamic sketches. The meticulous research that both Nelson and Pinkney conducted shines through clearly to make this volume a uniquely expressive work of historical fiction.
... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Inspiring
This book is so good for young minority dancers to see. It makes ballet more tangible when the pictures look like them.

Perfect for young ballerinas
My 10 year old cousin, a highly disciplined ballerina, loved this book.It contains accurate depictions of perfect ballet poses and wonderfully beautiful young Black ballerinas.Perfect!!!

Beautiful Ballerina Book
The product came complete and with neat packaging. The book cover and pages were intact with no tears, folds or marks. In addition, I receive the book ahead of the projected delivery date which was also a plus. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (8)

wreath for emmett Till
Just not what I thought it was.My fault, I should have read the description more carefully.

Reader Response
Emmett Till, a fourteen year old African American, was a victim of the racial violence during the 1940s. Emmett was accused of whistled at a white woman. Four days later, he was brutally beaten, shot in the head, and thrown into the Tallahatchie River with a cotten gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. Less than an hour of consulting, the murderers were found not guilty by an all white male jury. The inhumaan nature of this crime and the lack of a guilty verdict outraged both the black and white communities in the United States. The death of Emmett Till helped lead to the civil rights movement.
Marilyn Nelson tells the story of Emmett Till in the form of a heroic crown of sonnets. The detestable act of lynching is presented in this beautiful presentation, almost as if it were for Emmett Till himself. The short lines are filled with powerful emotion, and the interlinking sonnets keep the reader flipping the page to read on. For the young adult audience, sonnet notes are provided at the end of the book to add some clearity. Marilyn Nelson's _A_Wreath_for_Emmett_Till_ received a Coretta Scott King Award Honor, as well as a Michael L. Printz Award Honor.

For Whom the Bell Tills/Tolls
The tragic story of the death of Emmett Till, Jr. in 1955 is one that plays a large part in the Civil Rights movement.Till, then 14 a Chicagoan was visiting relatives in the South.He said "hi, baby" to a woman who was white.The hue and cry was fierce; how dare this child talk to someone who was not of the same race?

To make matters worse, a posse was formed and Till as well as his cousin were roused from their beds and taken from the house they were in.Emmett Till, Jr. was beaten to death.

What makes this child's tragic death a turning point was that Till's mother had his funeral televised with an open casket.The world at large would see just what bigotry, ignorance and hatred was capable of and of one young casualty it claimed.Till's mother, who died in 2003 never stopped beating on the drum for her only child and for an end to cruelty and bigotry.Hers was a voice that was heard by people such as President Johnson (1963-68); Attorney General and later Senator Robert Kennedy; Martin Luther King and countless others.To this day I cannot watch that funeral dry eyed; the thought of the anguish this child's mother endurned for the remainder of her life is just....painful.

Emmett Till Jr.'s death, which took place some 10 years before Bloody Sunday aka March 7, 1965 was a touchstone event.In looking at the Civil War Movement; the riots; the efforts of many to secure fair and equal treatment for ALL individuals can look toward Emmett Till, Jr. as an unlikely martyr.This child's needless death, horrible as it was did call attention to similar racist-based atrocities being committed.

As heinous and atrocious the injustice to this child was, Marilyn Nelson offsets the horror with some beautiful poetry.The rhythm and flow of the words and the idyllic images contained in some of the sonnets stand in stark contrast to the ugly, leering head of Jim Crow and the Racist Regime that flourished.

Form Over Content
A fellow teacher is doing a unit on African-American lit and the Civil Rights Movement as a lead-in to Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird"."A Wreath for Emmett Till" was one of the books she shared with the class.I have perused it myself, still unsure whether I should actually purchase it or not.Two things other reviewers have mentioned that I too find appealing about the book are:1)The sheer complexity of constructing a heroic crown of sonnets and 2)the historical backdrop of the events described.Unfortunately, these aspects have very little to do with the content of the poems themselves.Most of the information about Till is contained in the preface and afterword, not in the poems themselves.Likewise, others reviewers, like I, praise Nelson for giving a tour-de-force in making a heroic crown of sonnets (and her commentaries about the sonnets were enlightening), but to be honest, the poems themselves were not particularly outstanding.I would buy the book more as an example of the structure and form of poetry rather than as an example of good poetry (If that makes sense).

Beautiful Poem
This book is in the form of a Heroic Sonnet is a brilliantly written book. It is about giving a wreath to Emmett Till, a young child who was lynched after whistling at a white woman. Till, who normally lived in Chicago, was spending the time at his uncle for the summer. After whistling at a white woman, Briant, Milan and a third person kidnapped Emmett Till. Soon after the kidapping, they lynched him. Later in the Trial, Briant and Milan were found not guilty, though later, it was proven they were guilty. This book was brilliantly written into a heroic sonnet, each of the first lines stating: R.I.P. EMMETT L. TILL. It got me emotionally connected, displeased by the racism people had back then (i.e. allowing Briant and Millan the right to be not guilty just because Till was Black). This book was brilliantly written through the use of similies. It allowed you to invision the racism back then. The only comment I have against it is the World Trade Center reference, mentioning 9/11 hadn't happened yet. Other than that, A Wreath for Emmet Till by Marilyn Nelsen was an excellent work of poetry. ... Read more

Product Description
Romance and the Christmas holidays come together with the help of ghostly apparitions, time travel, miracles, and angels, in five romantic tales by Marilyn Campbell, Carole Nelson Douglas, Justine Davis, Edith Layton, and Emma Merritt. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

VERY GOOD SERVICE
THE BOOK CAME QUICKLY AND HAS BEEN ADDED TO MY CHRISTMAS READS FOR 2010.EACH YEAR, ALL YEAR LONG, I COLLECT ENOUGH BOOKS TO READ DURING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER...THIS I DO FOR ME.

THANKS FOR THE PROMPTNESS AND QUALITY.

SARA ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Broteer Furro was "first man to document both his capture from Africa and life as an American slave!"

His name was Broteer Furro, the first son of a prince. He was born in Dukandarra, Guinea in 1729. Broteer's mother left his polygamous father when he was five and left him in the care of a farmer. A year later, his father came to fetch him, but soon after that his father was murdered and he himself was sent on a four hundred-mile march, only to be sold into slavery. In Anamaboo he soon boarded a canoe bound for Rhode Island.

He was soon dubbed "Venture," but that was the only thing about Broteer that changed. He remained a determined, fiercely independent person throughout his life. He would go on to raise a family and struggle to buy their freedom. This is his story, a story he dictated for the world to remember him by. It was published in 1798.

I was fascinated by Venture's story, having never heard the name even though the author's information claims he was the "first man to document both his capture from Africa and life as an American slave." The biography was printed on the left-hand page, the poetry on the right. Although both were stunning, I was somewhat distracted by the set up as the story was so interesting and went back to the poetry only after finishing the story.

A unique poetry collection
The Freedom Business is a unique poetry collection, in which each poem is created in response to the true-life memoir of Broteer Furro (1729-1805), later dubbed "Venture Smith", the first African known to document his capture and life as an American slave. As the decades passed he eventually earned his freedom, and that of his wife and children. Poet Marilyn Nelson places pages from Furro's eighteenth-century prose memoir side-by-side along with original poetic works, illustrated by the dark, earthy watercolor collages of artist Deborah Dancy. The whole is a work of art that reveals emotion, determination, and survival; the daily life of a practical man for whom everything had a price - even his life, and the lives of his family. Highly recommended.
... Read more

Product Description
Soaring images, rhythmic language, and wry humor come together in these three narrative poems that explore travel from an African American historical and social perspective. A cab ride turns into an amazing encounter with the driver, an amateur physicist whose ideas about space and time travel spark the poet’s musings on chutzpah and artistic ambition. A trip to Triolet, a Creole village in the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, leads the poet to ponder the past and present as she reflects on the ironic complexities of the slave trade and its legacy shared by so many peoples.And in "The Cachoeira Tales," longing to take her family on a journey to "some place sanctified by the Negro soul," the poet finds herself in Brazil’s Bahia, along with a theater director, a jazz musician, a retired commercial pilot, an activist, a university student, and two mysterious African American women whom they meet along the way.In rhymed couplets, each pilgrim tells a story, and the result is a rollicking, sensual exploration of spirit and community, with a nod to Chaucer and to traditional Trickster tales.

Using her remarkable ability to educate and inspire, Marilyn Nelson demonstrates the power of travel to transform our imaginations. We have long known that travel broadens; in these poems, it also deepens and makes wiser.

Joined skin to skin, we moved like molecules
in the great, impossible miracle
of atmosphere, swaying to the music,
all eyes on the stage, all hearts attuning
themselves in beautiful polyrhythmy,
one shaking booty. On one side of me
a young man danced; I felt his muscled warmth
flow into mine, his pure, sexual strength.
On my other sides young women danced, whose curves
bumped me softly, dancing without reserve,
hands waving in the air, releasing scent
fragrant as nard. We danced in reverent,
silent assent to the praise-song of drums.
—from "Olodum" of "The Cachoeira Tales" ... Read more

Product Description
In The Fields of Praise, Marilyn Nelson claims as subjects the life of the spirit, the vicissitudes of love, and the African American experience and arranges them as white pebbles marking our common journey toward a "monstrous love / that wants to make the world right." Nelson is a poet of stunning power, able to bring alive the most rarified and subtle of experiences. A slave destined to become a minister preaches sermons of heartrending eloquence and wisdom to a mule. An old woman scrubbing over a washtub receives a personal revelation of what Emancipation means: "So this is freedom: the peace of hours like these." Memories of the heroism of the Tuskegee Airmen in the face of aerial combat abroad and virulent racism at home bring a speaker to the sudden awareness of herself as the daughter "of a thousand proud fathers." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

good collection
nelson's collection as a whole is pretty good, though it does drop off a bit in the hermitage section. her poems are poems of home and family and spirituality. it's a good selection of her work.

A Mother's Insight
Marilyn Neslon's The Fields of Praise is a book about motherhood. She is a refreshing turn from the sexually explicit yet uninterpretable poetry that pervades modern day poetry. The compassionate and romantic pieces in herbook are generally directed towards children. Though her poems oftenexpress fear and concern, they are not exploding with the dark, depressingdiction of utter despair that pervades current poetry. She brings thereader into the real world of a loving heart without beating the readerover the head with fraudulent fervor or suffocating the reader withmeloncholy. As a mother hunts down and abolishes anything she feelswill harm her family, Marilyn Nelson is quick to criticize perceived socialills. Some of her poetry takes on the appearance of criticism anddenunciation and can even be interpreted to be bigoted. In many ways herpoetry is of a right wing conservative nature as opposed to the liberalovertones that her contemporaries write with. It is always a pleasure tosee someone who strays from the norm, however, her overall imagery and toneare not appropriate for effective social critique. Mrs. Nelson shouldcontinue to provide the audience with an attentive watch over her children,but she cannot be both the lobbyist and the mother.

Love That Sex
Marilyn Nelson's book The Fields of Praise is an excellent collection of poetry that captures the deep-down curiosity of the reader.Most of her poems have a parental tone and reflect on her life experiences with her mother and with herself as a mother.Also, several selections deal withthe deep down nature of humans and the reason for our actions, such as in"Propositions," where she asks the difficult question of whereour sexual desires come from.As a religious person, one of my favoritesis "Thus Far by Faith."It is about the faith that the oppressedAfrican Americans had while they were held captive by slavery.It actuallyreached out to me and made me examine some parts of my life and realizethat I was worried about nothing.One poem, "Rilke's ThirdElegy" still baffles me.I had the privilege of listening to herrecite some of her poems, and someone asked her to read this poem, whichsomeone else wrote, but she included it in her book.When someone askedher about the meaning, she said "Well I think it is aboutmasturbation," but I think she was joking.Marilyn Nelson does a goodjob of capturing the readers imagination and discusses life and decisionmaking in depth.I enjoyed her book and would suggest it to any poetrylover.

The Agony and the Ecstasy
In The Fields of Praise, Marilyn Nelson brings her views to life in a series of well-constructed poems.Her poems cover a wide array of topics, to include racism, sexism, religion, motherhood, illicit sex, and poverty.The characters in her poems commit unimaginable crimes and achieveinconceivable feats.Indeed, Nelson's poems cover the entire humanspectrum. Nelson writes in a deep, penetrating style.Skipping thenonsense that some writers embrace, she delves to the heart of the matter,analyzing and constantly questioning human motives.Indeed, Nelson is notafraid to confront the sickening evil that lurks within human nature andthe events that unfold when the malevolence is unleashed.Her poems onpure, unadulterated evil reflect her fearless stance on describing, and infact deploring the evil in human nature.Nelson offers an accurate, candidview of the events that unfold around her.On a lighter note,Nelson analyzes with extreme clarity the unconditional love a mother hasfor her child, and the unbridled purity of the natural world.Nelsoncelebrates the love and affection that is found within the souls of allhuman beings.Most of all, however, she analyzes the deep-rooted maternalinstincts of mothers.In her poems, Nelson argues that the bond between amother and her child is indestructible.In many of her works, Nelsondescribes the intense protectiveness of females toward their offspring.The Fields of Praise is an excellent collection of Nelson's poems thatprovides deep insight into the positive and negative aspects of humannature.Indeed, Nelson's knowledge and deep comprehension of humantendencies shines through in her works.

Selected Praise
The Fields of Praise, a compilation of related poems by Marilyn Nelson, had both very good pieces as well as some mediocre poems. I appreciated Ms. Nelson's attempt to categorize her poems into a few broad categorieshowever I thought the poems in her third section "Hermitage"became redundant with the last stanzas acting almost like punchlines.However like mentioned earlier, their area few gems that make thiscollection worth having. My personal favorite piece is the very last one ofthe book, "A Minor Miracle". I thought the realism (also knowingthat it is a true story helps) encapsulated in this piece was amazing.While I have not read every poem in this collection, there are some that Idislike and others that I like.Overall, discovery of an enjoyable poem,like "A Minor Miracle", makes the time spent hunting worthwhile. ... Read more

Product Description
Based on a course given to internal managers at Texas Instruments, this book is an introduction to neural nets for computer science, artificial intelligence and R & D professionals, as well as MIS or DP managers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

any idiot knows the details in this book
Upon receipt of this item and a browse through I immediately decided to return it.The information contained within is basic info and person that has traveled more than once in their life as an adult will know.There was a lot of information about travel in general and very little about actually traveling solo.But, if you are looking for general travel info the book is quite complete.

An exceptional informative travel guide!
This is the very best informative guide to travel and all the pitfalls to avoid that I have ever read.The author sticks to the pertinent and important facts, without boring the reader with a lot of unnecessarydetails.I would recommend this book not only to "solo"travelers, but to everyone who wants to read a good informative guide totravel.

Truly outstanding help in its important, specialized topic.
If you've ever considered traveling alone, this is certainly the book you need to help you decide--- go to! Readable, specific, informative tips---and, unusual for a travel book, this one is not padded with storiesof the author's travels. Still, the author has traveled alone for years, soyou can be sure her tips are practical. The book is organized in three mainsections: what to do before you leave, while traveling, and upon returning.Especially valuable and useful: 8 check-off lists, including documents,toiletries and health items, gifts, general, and a form to add your ownpersonal reminders. In sum: a truly practical, useful book! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

one of the best volumes of contemporary poetry
There is no doubt in my mind that Marilyn Nelson's poetry will be remembered for generations to come, and this collection, _The Homeplace_ (which was a finalist for the National Book Award), is the primary reason why. Nelson's poetry is good by any standards, but _The Homeplace_ stands head and shoulders above her work, which says quite a bit. I've read her new and selected poems. They were very good. The only complaint is that they weren't divided by volumes, so it wasn't until i picked up _The Homeplace_ and read it that I realized just how good the poems in this volume are. Because _The Homeplace_ isn't a collection of short poems, rather it is one long narrative poem. It's divided into two sections. Section I tells the story of her mother's side of the family, going back five generations to her great-great grandmother, Diverne. The story of this family goes through slavery, the turn of the century, wars, and up to the point where her mother and father meet. It's a heroic and touching story. Section II is the story of her father's time as WWII as a Tuskegee Airman. _The Homeplace_ contains everything good about poetry, and everything that poetry should be: story, form, meaning, love, and a wonderful use of language. This isn't a book you should pass over. It should be read--slowly and again and again.

A Story in Poems
In The Homeplace, Marilyn Nelson's third book, the author writes about members of her family.In the first part, poems describe the lives of her maternal ancestors going back five generations.The second part focuses on her father and his colleagues, the first black members of the Air Force.Though individual poems are capable of standing alone, the collection chronicles the history of American race relations, from Diverne, a slave, to Pomp, who lives with the stigma of his mixed blood immediately following the Civil War, to the Tuskegee Airmen, who must repeatedly handle skepticism about their abilities.Individual poems describe anecdotes, little moments in these lives, sometimes told in the first person and sometimes in third.The general sense creates a quilt of such moments, with individual poems contributing to the whole. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Poetry, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2005. The length of the article is 2574 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Letters to the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
Author: David Fenza
Publication: Poetry (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 187Issue: 1Page: 64(9)

Article Type: Letter to the Editor

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Poetry, published by Thomson Gale on December 1, 2004. The length of the article is 3700 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Letters to the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
Author: Jon Parrish Peede
Publication: Poetry (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 185Issue: 3Page: 241(10)

Article Type: Letter to the Editor

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
A curious ladder inadvertently becomes a pathway to the clouds in this droll, interactive translation of an enchanting Danish poem.

So first it did a little dance,
then it did a little prance,
then, as nicely as you please,
it waddled off with stiff red knees.

Once there was a jaunty ladder, abandoned by a mysterious carpenter, that sprung to life and decided to take a trip through the countryside. As time passed, the gentle ladder found itself intrigued by a seriesof encounters with people and animals that climbed it to the top and disappeared into the sky, only to return, one by one, in a triumphant parade at the end. This exquisite edition of THE LADDER, the text of which was originally written by renowned Danish poet Halfdan Rasmussen, combines a translation by award-winning author and poet Marilyn Nelson with simple, striking artwork by Pierre Pratt, featuring several foldouts and partial pages in a charming, whimsical design. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

My son loved it!
I bought this book for my 3,5 y.o. He absolutely loved it. The poem is very pretty and illustrations are colorful.
5 stars! ... Read more

Product Description

From the woman named one of “America's Best Leaders” by U.S. News & Report
Powerful insights into the practice of motivation

Marilyn Carlson Nelson has achieved global recognition for the Carlson brands of hotels, restaurants, cruise, travel, and marketing services.

But that's only part of the story.

As a daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother, Marilyn has always put people first. When her grandson asked a simple question about her life, she decided to write it all down-her fondest memories and deepest insights-in How We Lead Matters: Reflections on a Life of Leadership.

This thoughtful book offers a surprisingly personal glimpse into a multi-faceted woman who happens to be one of the most successful CEOs in the world. She describes the thrill of flying in an F16 over Death Valley (without getting sick), and throwing a barbeque for the KGB (who preferred vodka to the traditional beer). She shares the difficulty of making choices and sacrifices to run her family's business, and the heartbreak of losing a child.

Her insights are sprinkled with the timeless words of Mahatma Gandhi, Anne Frank, Oscar Wilde, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, and others, as she talks about what it's like to be a woman in today's business world, while reflecting on an engaging array of subjects-from equal rights to corporate wrongs to motherhood. Most compelling of all, she reveals how a meaningful legacy is built one day at a time.

Customer Reviews (8)

Great read - good gift idea
This is the perfect gift for the young business person.Those of us not so young will enjoy her insight and be inspired.
Glad I read it.

Reflections of a remarkable leader
The author of How We Lead Matters, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, just retired from the job of CEO at Carlson. You may know the company under its brands, including Radisson, Country Inns and Suites, Regent, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and TGI Fridays.

Carlson is one of the largest privately held firms in the world. The company employs more than 200,000 people in more than 150 countries. Last year's revenue was $40 billion. The company was founded by Marilyn's father, Curt Carlson, during the depression.

Right about now you may be thinking that this is a typical "rich kid takes over daddy's business" story. You might suspect that Marilyn is a bit of an empty suit.

You'd be wrong on both counts. And if you know a little bit about Marilyn Nelson and her story, you can make a wise decision about whether to buy this book.

The subtitle of the book is, "Reflections on a Life of Leadership." That's exactly what it is. It's not a treatise on leadership. It's not a chronicle of successes. If that's what you're looking for, this is not the book for you.

It's also not a book that you read from front to back and are done with. Instead, it's a collection of the very personal reflections of a very successful leader with a fascinating story.

Marilyn wanted to work her way up in her father's company. She really did. But, alas, she wasn't the son he had always dreamed would succeed him.

Curt Carlson embodied what a lot of people think is good and bad about "old school management." He valued conservative management and conservation of assets. He also thought that a woman's place was not in the executive suite, especially if she had children. Even if the woman was his daughter.

He actually fired Marilyn. Here's how she told the story in an interview with Chief Executive Magazine. It happened when she went to his office to tell him about a promotion her boss in the company wanted to give her. She expected excitement, maybe even praise.

"Instead, he said, 'Go home. Your husband's a surgeon. You can't both have 24-hour-a-day jobs.' And I said, 'Well, I have lots of energy. I can manage this.' I had three children at the time. And he said, 'Well, not here,' and fired me. I cried all the way down the back stairs."

She could have taken his advice. She didn't. Instead she started working on community projects. She helped bring the Super Bowl to Minneapolis. She was the first woman to run the United Way. She served on several corporate boards. Some people wanted her to run for Governor.

That seems to have gotten her father's attention. But she was never really sure he would ask her to return to the company until he announced her appointment as CEO. She's been a very effective one.

Revenue has doubled. And the company has changed. Today, forty percent of Carlson executives are women.

When you read Marilyn Nelson's reflections on leadership in this book, you'll get a sense of who this remarkable leader is. She is a product of all the threads that make up her life.

She learned from her father. She's a conservative manager. She understands results.

She also chose to do some things differently than Curt Carlson. They both value the conservation of assets, but Marilyn has extended that to human assets.

And she has learned from her unique, bottom-up, career path. One of the best things you can learn from managing organizations that depend on volunteers is how to lead when you don't have monetary incentives and you can't compel performance.

How We Lead Matters: Reflections on a life of leadership is a wonderful book to dip into for a bit of wisdom or a whiff of inspiration. It's a book you should read if you want to learn lots of little leadership lessons from a truly extraordinary leader.

A delightful read
I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend and found it to be uniquely delightful. It is very easy to read with the format two page "sound bytes": one page essay preceeded by a thoughtful quote. The essays reflect on life in light yet profound ways. This book is easy to read, entertaining, and inspiring. It is the rare book that I want to return to again and again. Ms. Nelson is humble about her accomplishments in turning around the culture and growing Carlson Companies to double in size and to be a world leader. She walks the walk while talking the talk, and is dedicated to creating a workplace where diversity, fair play, and achievement are successfully blended to create a world-class company. If only more corporate leaders were like her! - Deb Morrin

A light book with profound meaning
A friend suggested that I read the book.This is Marilyn Carlson sharing her thoughts. The postscript was quite moving for me when she talks about"The Journey Not the Arrival Matters". Dad passed 2 years ago, and I understand the meaning of it.

A great book to read and give to others, young and old.
Marilyn Carlson Nelson was CEO of Carlson, which had brands such as Radisson, Regent, carlson Wagon Lit Travel, T.G.I Fridays, Carlson mMarketing, and other hotel chains.This little book is very inspirational anduseful for any leader.She goes beyond the obvious platitude method by applying every idea to a situationshe faced. I also enjoyed that each idea was prefaced by a short famous quotation that was vey apt. I found myself re reading the quotation after the article as well.The kind of book you put on your bedside table to ispire you each day. It does not have to be rushed through - but savoured.Truth has no need to be wordy. ... Read more

Product Description
There is a skeleton on display in the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut. It has been in the town for over 200 years. Over time, the bones became the subject of stories and speculation in Waterbury. In 1996 a group of community-based volunteers, working in collaboration with the museum staff, discovered that the bones were those of a slave named Fortune who had been owned by a local doctor. After Fortune's death, the doctor dissected the body, rendered the bones, and assembled the skeleton. A great deal is still not known about Fortune, but it is known that he was baptized, was married, and had four children. He died at about the age of 60, sometime after 1797.Marilyn Nelson was commissioned by the Mattatuck Museum and received a grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts to write a poem in commemoration of Fortune's life. The Manumission Requiem is that poem. Detailed notes and archival materials provide contextual information to enhance the reader's appreciation of the poem. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Seeking one's Fortune
There are as many ways of honoring the long forgotten as there are ways of mucking that honor up.I came to "Fortune's Bones" with just a bit of trepidation, I admit.Though I knew author Marilyn Nelson had created this book to honor a man long dead in the best way she knew how, I was still recovering from a similar, and foul, title called, "Journey To the Bottomless Pit" which also came out in 2004.In both books, a man who was a slave during his lifetime is honored with a children's book of fiction.In "Journey", the book was a simplistic version of a complicated man's life.I prayed that "Fortune's Bones" would not be the same.Those prayers were answered tenfold.Marilyn Nelson tells the story of Fortune in a manner respectful of his life, then accompanies this retelling with a requiem written in his honor.Though I would have enjoyed further factual information on the topic, this is a worthy addition to any poetry collection or non-fiction collection, for children, teens, or grown adults, anywhere.

There once was a man named Fortune.Born a slave in the 1700s, he and his wife and his children all belonged to a Dr. Preserved Porter.Later tests on Fortune's bones show that his life was not an easy one.His back was once broken and though he had a healthy skeleton, he died at the age of 60.When he did, Dr. Porter took Fortune's death as an opportunity to study human anatomy.He removed Fortune's skeleton, tapped the bones, and made himself a complete human skeleton.Every bone was carefully marked and studied by Porter and his ancestors.Years later, Fortune's name was lost and the skeleton was mislabeled "Larry" and given to the Matttatuck Museum.In the 1990s historians did research on it and found Fortune's true name once again.Now the only question that remains is what to do with Fortune's bones.Do we bury them and put him to rest at long last, or do we learn more from them about 1700s slaves and slavery?The question remains unanswered, but author Marilyn Nelson has done what she can.In this book she writes a requiem in Fortune's memory.Filled with free verse poetry, a Kyrie of the Bones, and a Sanctus at the end, "Fortune's Bones" is a text of respect.

One of the many things I loved about this book was the fact that as an author/poet, Nelson tells us why she wrote what she did.One poem is entitled, "Not My Bones", in which Fortune states clearly, "I am not my body", to anyone who cares to listen.This phrase comes from the Vietnamese Buddhist leader Thich Nhat Hahn, a fact that could well have gone uncredited by a less careful author.Each poem in this book is accompanied by factual information pertaining to Fortune's story, along with photographs, papers, tapestries, maps, and other important documents of the period.As a whole these poems speak beautifully together, forming a single Requiem.I especially liked "Dinah's Lament" in which Fortune's wife speaks of the cruel injustice of being forced to dust the bones that once would, "hold me when I cried; to dust where his soft lips were, and his chest what curved its warm against my back at night".Nelson, the accomplished voice behind her other great book, "Carver: A Life In Poems", is at her best here.

Admittedly, there were aspects of this book left unspoken that I (and I'm sure others) would have liked to have heard more about.The book is a Requiem and doesn't dwell on the fascinating process scientists took to discover Fortune again.There's a small series of three pictures on one page that shows three stages of facial reconstruction of Fortune, taken from his bones.That's something that would have made for a fascinating story in and of itself.Or how did the researchers and historians eventually discover who Fortune really was?Who did they talk to?What did they read?Sadly, such information will have to wait for another book.It's not answered here.

"Fortune's Bones", will obviously be snatched up by any child and/or teen assigned to read a book of poems since it's a mere 32 pages altogether.This is a great good thing.In spite of its scant length, this is a title that will teach a lot of information to a lot of kids in a wonderfully stirring way.The poems are mindful of the past and give the greatest of respect to a man of whom we know so little.A wonderful publication

Fortune's remains the Mattatuck Museum
Fortune's skeleton is not on display. The exhibit about Fortune at the Mattatuck Museum includes a photographic illusion allowing visitors to see an image of Fortune's skeleton transform into a painting of Fortune as he may have looked in life. Fortune's actual bones have been carefully placed in archival museum storage, awaiting a community decision about whether to bury the remains or preserve them for future study. ... Read more