Product Description
"Mama," writes Brenda Richardson, "you taught me how a black woman could survive and prevail in this world...but because you never learned yourself, you couldn't tell me how to make love work...I don't mean any disrespect, Mama, but...now I have children of my own. And in a loud revolutionary voice, I declare to the universe: the pain stops here."

Clinical psychologist Dr. Brenda Wade and coauthor Brenda Richardson ask their African American sisters to consider this question: "What lessons about love and intimacy were passed down from your foremothers to you?" In this provocative rethinking of the African American woman's experience, the authors suggest that African American women share an emotional legacy that began when their ancestors were dragged in chains to the "New" World and continued as their descendants suffered through the violence and humiliation of the Jim Crow period and later racism. Indeed, they argue, the long shadow cast by these historical events impacts romantic practice, lives can be transformed once there is a true understanding of the power of inherited beliefs.

What Mama Couldn't Tell Us About Love shows how important it is to grieve and make peace with this brutal history. As you will see in this remarkable uplifting book, it is possible to use the positive messages inherent in the African American experience to create a better life. Learn from the "Sisters Spirits"well-known African Americans whose stories enliven these pagesas you move toward emotional freedom. Listen to the words of the spirituals interspersed in the text, enhance the coping skills and strengths your forebears harnessed to help them survive and prevail, and believe that emotional emancipation is your birthright.

Mama may not have told you all this in so many wordsbut there is no doubt that she would want to see you take these last steps toward freedom and abundant love.Amazon.com Review
Among the most damaging and unexplored legacies of thetransatlantic slave trade are the negative, afrophobic mores and mythsthat have devastated black male/female relationships. This book byclinical psychologist and Essence magazine contributorDr. Brenda Wade and coauthor Brenda Lane Richardson examines many ofthe so-called scarcity beliefs, such as: "There are no good men outthere"; "Any man will cheat if he's tempted"; "I'll always be alone";and so on. What the authors advocate is not only an acceptance ofhistorical burdens but the willingness to express grief and delve intothe deep, spiritual wells of one's ancestors. "The only way we canattain freedom," they write, "is by bringing our past into the lightof understanding. What's required is a different sort of liberationmovement, one that allows us to work through the shame and guilt thatkeeps us from embracing ourselves." Richardson and Wade offer severallife-enhancing beliefs central to self-healing--"God loves me"; "I canmake something out of nothing"; "I can make a way when there seems tobe no way"; and "My heart will guide me if I listen." An enjoyable anduplifting reading experience, What Mama Couldn't Tell Us AboutLove offers words of wisdom that women of all hues canuse. --Eugene Holley Jr. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

What I need!
I am on purpose today, I have so much emotional baggage that needs to be ridden.This piece of work was designed for a sister like myself.

What every black woman needs to know is in this book!!!
Great book!

This is the type of reading that can change a family tree, make our families whole again, build relationships out of.Every female I know will receive this book from me this year for Christmas......it puts your entire life in perspective!!

Great book! .
I purchased several copies of this book to give to the women in our family, and friends. I feel it is a must read.

Very informative and applicable to personal growth
This is an excellent book and necessary for each one of us to read to better understand who we are and why we make the choices we have made and continue to make.If we want something different for our lives, this book introduces us to ways to examine the lives and choices of our mothers, grandmothers, etc., in an effort to make different choices......

Understanding yourself in a new light
I have never read a book that revealed more about black male female relationships.I've read this book three times, and I've given as a gift to other sisters in the struggle just as many times.I recommend this book highly to anyone on a search to understand themselves intergenerationally. ... Read more

Product Description
Follows Mr. Bear, Chester Dog, Bartholomew Kangaroo, and the other inhabitants of the House at the End of the Lane as they bake, work in the garden, write poetry, and celebrate Christmas. ... Read more

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Beyond the rickety gates at 76 Pumpkin Lane lies Tombstone Hall - a pop-up haunted house! Read the spine-tingling story, play with the gruesome characters and discover ten terrifying rooms brought to life with pops and flaps. ... Read more

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Chapters: Alycia Lane, Larry Mendte, Tom Snyder, John Facenda, Jessica Savitch, Edie Huggins, Diane Allen, Jim Gardner, Stu Nahan, Amy Freeze, Larry Kane, Vince Dementri, Susan Barnett, Dave Roberts, Renee Chenault-Fattah, Judd Hambrick, Cecily Tynan, Lisa Thomas-Laury, Dave Price, Beasley Reece, Jim O'brien, Tim Lake, Walter Perez, Tamala Edwards, Gary Papa, Ralph Penza, Ukee Washington, Lori Delgado, Tracy Davidson, Bill Campbell, Maria Larosa, Tom Negovan, Marc Howard, Sallyann Mosey, Matt O'donnell, Wally Kennedy, Jack Jones, Dave Frankel, David Ushery, Pat Ciarrocchi, David Murphy, Mary Stoker Smith. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 129. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Alycia Lane (born May 10, 1972) is an American television journalist. Until January 2008, she served as co-anchor of the weekday evening newscasts on KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of February 8, 2010, she is a weekday morning anchor at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. She made international headlines twice. First when she sent pictures of herself in a bikini to a married sports anchor and they were intercepted by his wife, and again when she was arrested for hitting a police officer in New York. Lane, a native of Lake Grove, New York, is of Puerto Rican descent on her mother's side and Welsh descent on her father's. She has a master's degree in Broadcast Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Albany, where she graduated with honors. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and speaks fluent Spanish. Alycia Lane has been married twice. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her boyfriend Chris Booker, an afternoon radio personality on KAMP-FM 97.1. Lane's television career bega...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=3424311 ... Read more

Product Description
In a time long past, in a land far away, a family has suffered an unspeakable loss.

But a lonely goblin has been watching. And he knows what to do to help them heal.

From internationally acclaimed picture book masters Mem Fox and Leo and Diane Dillon, here is a rich and moving original fairy tale about family, friendship, and the power compassion has to unite us all. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The Goblin and the Empty Chair
What an amazing book! My granddaughter asked me to read and reread it to her. The illustrations are beautiful, but the story is amazing. Mem Fox gives us all lessons for learning in this beautiful story.

GET THIS BOOK!!!
I almost missed out on this great book because I was put off by the plot summary. Saving a seat for a goblin? But there is nothing unlikely or cute about this tale.Mem Fox has created a deeply meaningful book which should be read and then read again. Here's a book to put on the same shelf as Jon Muth's Three Questions.

A few tears
There are no kid-lit artists drawing more beautiful than the Dillons, period.And Mem Fox's story is just the right amount of sadness.On days when you feel a need to clear your sinuses, or just have a good straight-out eye-washing cry, this is the book.

Grief and Kindness


After Goblin sees his frightening reflection in a pond, he hides himself away for many lonely years to keep from frightening others. One day, however, hespies a farmer who, seemingly overcome with grief, leaves his work unfinished.Goblin comes in the night and finishes the farmer's tasks when he feels certain that no one will be watching. Ah, but the farmer, unable to sleep, watches from the window.

Repeating this pattern with the farmer's wife and daughter, this story has all the finest fairy tale elements. The empty chair of the title is never explained, but the implication is that the family members are grieving for the person who once sat at the table with them. The exquisite, framed illustrations greatly expandthe story. For instance, on the farmhouse walls, there are pictures of a boy. The illustrations also show that the green, but tall and elegant goblin always keeps the
lower part of his face covered with a scarf. In the denouement, as Goblin finally sits in the empty chair, the family smiles as the girl unwinds the scarf.In the type of fascinating element that causes children to return to a story repeatedly, the illustrations never show the goblin's face. Beautiful and intriguing.

A Wonderful, Wonderful Book - we loved "Goblin and the Empty Chair
First let me say that "The Goblin and the Empty Chair" by Mem Fox, is not just a cute book that's a good read aloud. It is a book with a memorable story; a story with some real depth to it, and I am so thankful to be able to share this with my family.

It begins with a well garbed goblin seeing his reflection in water and deciding that he is so scary that he will hide his face away from the world. What he cannot hide, however, is his good heart, and when he sees a farmer breakdown one day, drop his tools and bury his head in his hands, the Goblin decides he must act.

Taking sympathy on the fellow the Goblin goes at night and "[H]e dug where digging was needed. He chopped where chopping was needed." And "[H]e painted where painting was needed. And was careful not to be seen."

In a short course of time, something similar happens with the farmer's wife and the farmer's daughter. They are overwhelmed by their burdens, and in each case, the Goblin goes and does what needs to be done... quietly, and secretly. Or so he thinks.

**if you don't like spoilers you might want to skip down to Talking Points**

The book ends with the family sitting down for a meal. They look at the empty chair at their table. The mother gets up and gets a setting for it. The daughter then goes and opens the door, and they wait for the Goblin to join them. After some delay, he does, and then the little girl takes away the wrap that the Goblin has been using all these years to hide his face. Then they smile at one another and dine.

I hardly ever go into so much detail in my reviews, but I felt compelled to do that for this book because it has such as lovely message. What I told my son and daughter -- and I think this is a book adults should talk about with children -- was that the Goblin hid away his face, but not his heart. He did good deeds and did not expect to be recognized and praised for them.

And the farm family at the end of the book, accepted him and weren't frightened by his appearance because they saw him first through his deeds, and because he was such a good person, they could not be afraid of him.

Talking Points:::

When we finished this book, my 7 year-old son looked at me and said, "Mom, that was really good." And to me that is the best praise of all. The book 'moved' my child and made him think.

oDelightful artwork. Diane and Leo Dillon have made the Goblin a wonderful and mysterious creature.

oExcellent story with a message.

oVery, very good read aloud. (I read the book alone, but it didn't really come alive until I read it out loud)

Pam T~
mom and reviewer for BooksForKids-reviews
(#1036) ... Read more