RAMON

Jeane F. Sanders

PUBLISH AMERICA

1-0610-768-2

A coming of age story, with a twist, this is an entertaining story for pre-teens. Ramon is a mouse who lives in the town of El Valle, near the Arizona-New Mexico border. He is one of a “small community of mice” who “spoke English and Spanish and lived a life very much like the townspeople lived.”

 It all starts the day before the Ano Nuevo celebration and two days before Ramon’s birthday. He is sure no one notices that he is growing up and is angry that his brothers and sisters make him do all the chores. Young readers with siblings are sure to relate to Ramon’s feelings.

 The young mouse runs away and through a series of adventures learns a number of lessons and grows up a lot. He wants to go home, but tells El Padre, “now I have nothing to say. All I did was run off and get sick.” Of course, his family welcomes him home and he tells them “I guess I really was a nino when I left, but now…”

 The use of English and Spanish words in the same sentence will help readers learn how to use some simple Spanish terms and gives a sense of the authentic conversations of the Southwest. This is a fun book for both boys and girls.

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Stasha Dog's Secret Dream

Stasha Dog, as told to Tomi Jill Folk

PETALS & PAGES PRESS

978-0-9797057-8-6

This is a cute “storybook to color” of one dog’s dream of riding in a hot air balloon. Stasha never saw a balloon before moving to New Mexico with her people. At first she was frightened, but then she developed a “secret dream that only my people know.” Stasha wanted to fly in a balloon. Finally she gets a chance, but…you’ll have to read the book to find out if Stasha’s dream comes true.

 Along the way to achieving her dream, Stasha shares information about balloons, ballooning, and the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in a way children will be able to understand. The coloring book format of the book includes line drawings in black and white, by Hank Bruce, which are appealing to young readers. Even those just learning to read will enjoy coloring the pictures and having their parents read the story over and over. The cover has color photos of the actual balloons featured in the book and of Stasha herself.

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GRASP,
Making Sense of Science and Spirituality

Jim Trainor

UPNORTH PRESS

978-1-456-35408-4

Available from Amazon.com

and

GraspTheBook.com

Jim Trainor, Episcopal priest and professional physicist recently released an interesting book: Grasp, Making Sense of Science and Spirituality. Trainor has set out to “write not so much as to provide a comprehensive text book on either science or theology but to provide a perspective on both and how they relate to each other.” In the process he has made such complex ideas as quantum physics and ‘string theory’ understandable. Trainor also shows how belief in a sovereign creator God is not at odds with science, but rather science and theology compliment each other.

Trainor uses delightful, simple stories to explain the relationship between science and faith. He says we often think “if we can come up with a theory…say, about how the Big Bang unfolded over the past 14 billion years, we can now claim to understand the development of the universe without invoking the God of the Bible. This just doesn’t make sense.” He tells of his mother’s blueberry muffins to illustrate. “I didn’t know how my mother made the muffins…I always saw those muffins as…evidence of her love for me....One day…I cam across her blueberry muffin recipe…I had discovered the secret of my mom’s blueberry muffins…Did my discovery of my mother’s blueberry muffin recipe destroy my confidence in her love for me?...Of course not!” In the same way, learning more about the science of physics doesn’t leave God out of the process. ...

 He points out that the scientific concept of reality, size, distance, and time are really impossible to grasp. He says, “We should not expect to define, measure, prove, or disprove God by our meager grasp of reality.” We should remember, too, “the Bible was not intended to be a predictor of science and technology.” God’s emphasis is on “his relationship with human beings; it’s not to give a detailed explanation of how he created the universe.”

That very relationship is why we can all, whether we are learned physicists or ordinary folk, “know the mind of God, and it doesn’t involve understanding the origin of the universe…Having the mind of God is all about love.” It is not about facts or knowledge or about knowing what we do and do not understand. ...

Jim Trainor says that our view of life is like a house under construction. “Science builds upon the foundation of research…each brick is carefully evaluated and understood…we are like the entry level laborer working on the house…we have not been given the privilege of seeing the final plans.” However, “faith provides a different view of the house…we know its purpose is: to glorify God…we see the completed house, but only as through a fog…we believe the object of our faith is true, we cannot always explain it using scientific language.”

Read the entire review here.

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Blind Tom,
The Horse Who Helped Build the Great Railroad

Shirley Raye Redmond

MOUNTAIN PRESS

978-0-87842-558-7

Did you know horses played an important role in building the Great Railroad in the late 1860’s? Blind Tom, The Horse Who Helped Build the Great Railroad was one of them. Shirely Raye Redmond tells Tom’s story with leading questions that keep you turning the pages.

 This beautifully written book, lovingly illustrated by Lois Bradley, opens a chapter of history almost forgotten in this time of fast jets and superhighways. It wasn’t always this way. As Redmond writes, “Back then, there were no cars or airplanes…The trip [from New York to California} took many months.” Blind Tom pulled the flatcars with the rails for the track. He was even there when the golden spike joining the eastern tracks to the western ones was driven on May 10, 1969 in UT.

 Blind Tom will keep young readers turning the pages to learn about this interesting horse and the history he helped make. Redmond also provides a map, bibliography, and online resources for anyone interested in learning more about the railroad.

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Changing Light

Nora Gallagher

VINTAGE BOOKS

978-0-307-2-77558 

 Nora Gallager, author of such non-fiction Christian staples as Things Seen and Unseen and The Sacred Meal has written an intriguing novel exploring the choices and consequences of a man and a woman in the shadow of the Manhattan Project. Changing Light is the story of Eleanor Garrigue and Leo Kavan. Kavan runs away from Los Alamos when an accident claims the life of a fellow scientist and exposes him to radiation. Eleanor finds the sick man and takes him to her home. Intrigued by her guest, Eleanor is also conscious of the impropriety of his presence. After all, she is married, although her husband lives in NY.

The Episcopal priest in Santa Fe, Fr. Bill, finds himself drawn to Eleanor and tries to save her from herself when he learns she has taken in a stranger. Although he understands “each of us had another, deeper life than the one being lived…This only partially understood life (refused, often; banished, easily ignored) might be what we call the soul,” Fr. Bill attempts to save Eleanor from her own decisions. In the process he sets in motion a more complex situation than he could have anticipated.  

As the strange mix of spies and FBI, good intentions and suppressed desires, moral and ethical choices moves toward a climax, Eleanor and Kavan find themselves changed and in a way given renewed life. Eleanor herself has a glimpse of this during the Easter service when she realizes, “I, too, look for the living among the dead. And I know why. If I had been with those women…I would have dropped my spices and run away…because I was afraid of that new life.” But, what sort of new life can the players find in a world that changes dramatically with the burst of light over Japan?

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Pancho Finds a Home

Karen Cogan

AZRO PRESS

978-1-92911-16-7

Pancho Finds a Home is a delightful story about a “little brown dog who did not have a home”. He does, however, have a big heart. Pancho comes to a town where all the people are busily preparing for the Feast of St. Anthony. He makes friends with a burro, a hen, and a goat who tell him about the food they most desire.

Kindly Pancho decides, “We’ll have our own fiesta.” He collects roasted corn for the burro, cakes of bread for the hen, and creamy cheese for the goat along with a sheet for a tablecloth. The animals are thrilled with their party and “even the sheet and the flowers were eaten by the goat.”

This sweet story by Karen Cogan is sure to entertain children. They might even learn about sharing and helping friends from this polite dog who does find a home.

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Amadito & Spider Woman

Lisa Bear Goldman

KIVA PUBLISHING

1-885772-30-0

Lisa Bear Goldman has written a beautiful story that will help children deal with their feelings. Amadito comes home feeling sad because another child teased him at school. After his brother and father offer advice, Nana takes him outside. She explains that “Fear is our own creation…if there is peace within one’s heart, fear can find no resting place.”

 Nana tells Amadito that some people avoid feeling pain in different ways, like work or becoming prickly like cactus or hard like the tortoise’s shell. She tells him, “Do not be afraid of your feelings.” Nana adds, “Look at the small things and then look at the whole. You will learn much about yourself and the world around you.”

 Amadito ponders her advice as he watches the stars appear. He gradually understands that he is “a small part of the whole…and there was no room for fear.”

 Goldman’s story gently introduces children to accepting and dealing with feelings of hurt, anger, and pain as, like Amadito, they begin to understanding that we are all part of the whole of creation.

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New Mexico,
A guide for the Eyes

Elisa Parhad

EYEMUSE BOOKS

978-0-0820497-0-9

New Mexico, a guide for the eyes is a visually lovely book filled with photos of New Mexican crafts, traditions, buildings, even food. The author, Elisa Parhad, says she was inspired to create this first in a series of guidebooks. Unlike most guidebooks, you will find little about where to visit and stay, but you will learn the “everyday details that make up the soul of a place.”

 Parhad’s book is one that will enlighten even the native New Mexican about the history and usage of nearly 100 important facets of life in the state. Everything from cowboy boots, which evolved in the years after the Civil War to be better used in the West, to the nutritious prickly pear cactus are included. Hispanic, Native American, and Anglo contributions to the life and culture are included. St. Francis and the Navajo Yei images co-exist in the book and in the state as do Queen Anne style architecture and Pueblo buildings.

 Not necessarily a book to be read cover to cover, New Mexico, a guide for the eyes is a reference newcomers, visitors, and old timers will return to again and again. Parhad, who moved to New Mexico when she was 11 and lived in Japan as an adult, understands the culture shock of encountering “unfamiliar imagery.” Her book will make it easier for all who love New Mexico to find new understanding of the diversity and beauty of the state.

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Castle Lark

and the Tale that Stopped Time

Zelda Leah Gatuskin

Amador Publishers

0-938513-31-1

Listed as a science fiction fantasy, Castle Lark and the Tale that Stopped Time is more. Gatuskin weaves an enticing web of story within story that holds the reader spellbound, like the magic that permeates the ancient Castle Inkibreakie.

 An unlikely pair of teenagers from the year 2170, meet on an excursion to the old home planet of Earth. Abandoned during the Evac, Earth is still deemed unlivable although there are dome covered areas, like the Four Corners Sanctuary, where Earth-life can be experienced. Fasha, on a vacation tour with her family, is angry when her father brings Alex to join them. As Fasha explains via her notepad link to her friend Heather on Mars, “When we went to meet Dad at the spaceport yesterday he had this kid with him, Alex, the son of my ‘aunt and uncle’ Glo and Gordon Huntly….Alex was going to spend the rest of summer with his dad…but when he got to Luna-1 Uncle Gordon wasn’t there…Anyway…Dad says he’ll bring Alex on vacation with us. My father, the saint.”

 When they experience life outside of a dome for the first time in New Africa, the two begin to develop an affinity which deepens when Fasha convinces her parents to let them visit Strathbogie Castle. The Castle turns out to the be the Gordon ancestral home and base of experiments to abate an amazing vine that covers all of what was once Great Britain.

 With their guide, Amy, they are drawn to an uncharted tower (Inkibreakie). Inside is an amazing manuscript that warns, “This story has plenty of middle, and more than one riddle.” As Fasha and then Alex take turns reading the story, executives of ClimaTech and their parents converge on the tower with mixed agendas. Time not only stops, in converges, into an unexpected climax that leaves the reader wanting more of the enchantment.

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The Red Candy Caboose

Lando Brown

PAW MARK PUBLISHING

978-0-578-04079-0

Lando Brown has written a fun story for children (of all ages) who love trains. He takes the reader back to a time when trains were used to transport everything from cargo to circus animals. Every train had a caboose. One was special, because the brakeman threw candy to the children.

Now there aren't cabooses on trains any more. Casey and her dad find one in a train 'boneyard'. It turns out to be the exact caboose and "Coop" the exact brakeman from long ago. Readers learn a lot about trains and especially cabooses in this entertaining book.

Brown actually worked on the railroad and most recently on the Santa Fe Southern tour train out of Santa Fe.

Even more fun for train enthusiasts is the log at the end of the book where children and their families can collect train stickers and submit them to the RedCandyCaboose.com website!

 The Elephants
in the Land of Enchantment

Beverly Eschberger

Kinkajou Press
978-1-932926-02-6
 

In this third book of the Elephant Family Adventures, Beverly Eschberger takes us from London to Albuquerque, NM. The Elephant Family Adventures are entertaining chapter books for early readers.

 An invitation from an old art student is the impetus for the visit. Within the story, young readers learn a lot of interesting facts about the Balloon Fiesta, life in Albuquerque, and get to attend a quinceanera. Eschberger is able to impart the facts without boring the reader or slowing the story.

 This book is a fun adventure. We are invited to set aside preconceptions and believe that when the Elephant family puts on raincoats, or in New Mexico baseball caps, that no one recognizes that they are elephants. We also learn that the Elephants “(as everyone in London knows) are very fond of peas.”

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 Splash Ink with Watercolor
Looking East, Painting West

Ming Shu Lin Franz

SPLASH INK LLC

978-1-60402-088-5

With Splash Ink with Watercolor, Looking East Painting West, Ming Shu Lin Franz has produced a visually appealing guide to an art form that is little known in the west. A short history of the traditional form and usage of the Splash Ink in Chinese art is followed by an explanation of how Ming has incorporated western art forms into this ancient style.

The book includes detailed step-by-step instructions so that even the beginner can begin experimenting with Splash Ink. The art form combines the free-form pouring of watercolors on rice paper with more structured western style painting to complete the piece. Each work is unique and strives, as Ming says, “to capture an impression and express the emotional response [of the artist].” 

Fascinating and beautiful photos throughout the book demonstrate the various steps of creating Splash Ink art. Franz also includes photos of her own work and examples of art done by some of her students to offer inspiration for anyone considering trying this intriguing art form. The reader is drawn to experience, with Ming, her feeling of “getting lost in another world…splashing dynamic shapes onto paper…Nature, Ming, and the image become one.”

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Chasing Sophia,
Reclaiming the Lost Wisdom of Jesus

by Lilian Barger

Josey-Bass/Wiley Imprint

978-0-7879-8380-2

Barger responds to the cultural shift that looks for answers to life outside the context of traditional Christian religion. Rather than seeking to find God in 'new' theologies, which more often are modernized versions of ancient cultic practices, she turns to the ancient Wisdom found in the Bible. Barger begins by reminding the reader that throughout the Bible, the Wisdom of God is characterized as feminine. "Wisdom has built her house" and other citations from Proverbs introduce each section of her book, Chasing Sophia, Reclaiming the Lost Wisdom of Jesus.

"The early Christian's vibrant and central understanding of Jesus as the Wisdom of God has been virtually forgotten," Barger states. She goes on to explain why "for those seeking to find their female voice, sophia has not remained merely a Greek word for wisdom." Barger thoroughly explores this wisdom (sophia) from the historical roots to the present day applications in our lives.

For Barger "wisdom encompasses multiple ways of knowing" including our bodies, the earth, and community. She points out that 'wisdom' is not the same as 'knowledge', but rather a largely lost seeking for God in all parts of our lives. From Mary Magdelene to Dorothy Day, she points to women who have embodied this type of wisdom. Barger warns that wisdom often finds prophetic voice, which sets the wise one at odds with culture.

Barger concludes by insisting the sages are necessary even though (or perhaps because) they "do not necessarily write books, host talk shows, or take the stage. They walk close to use and are largely defined by their presence in our lives." This book is an intriguing study of Sophia as the source the deepest realization of the wisdom of God in our lives.

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Death Comes for the Archbishop

by Willa Cather

VIRAGO MODERN CLASSICS

Cather’s work is a classic. She takes us inside the life of Jean Marie Latour, a French Jesuit priest assigned to the NM Territory immediately after the Gadsden Purchase. The book is based on the life of Jean-Baptiste Lamy, first Archbishop of the newly created NM Territory.

 Latour struggles with a way of life very different from his home in France and his previous parish in Ohio. He is confronted by rebellious priests, such as Padre Martinez of Taos, who have developed their own form of Roman Catholicism after years without any oversight from Rome. The young Archbishop gradually gains the respect and even love of his far-flung flock as he performs the long delayed baptisms and marriages.

 This story takes you inside the not so long ago world of New Mexico as she struggles to maintain an identity despite the collision of Yankee, Hispanic, and Native cultures. Latour must direct his flock back to the True Faith while dealing with the multiple political pressures from church and state including the Pope, Gold Rush, and Civil War rocking the United States. Personages like Kit Carson and John Fremont are among his allies in the effort.

 His dream of building a Cathedral in the Romanesque style is realized when Latour finds the perfect rock in an outcropping south of the capital. Built with the help of a French architect, the Cathedral and the faith it represents are the crowning achievements of his bishopric. The story ends when Latour dies on his estate north of Santa Fe, rather than returning to France because in NM “he always awoke a young man.”

 For lovers of historical fiction and those who want to revisit the early years of NM Territory, this book is a gem.

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The Mormon Mirage

by Latayne Scott

As part of a Blog Tour book promotion I agreed to review an interesting book by Latayne Scott. The original book was written to explain why she left the Mormon Church in the 1950’s. This new, third edition, includes updated information and also internet annotations.

 The Mormon Mirage is an interesting look behind the scenes of Mormonism written, as Scott remarks, “for ‘regular people,’ not scholars.” In this, she succeeds admirably. Anyone seeking to understand how the Mormon Church was formed and what their beliefs are will find this a valuable reference. Throughout her work, Scott quotes the Holy Bible to refute Mormon teaching and doctrine.

 Scott highlights the differences between the definitions of theological concepts as understood by Christian writers and worshipers and the Mormon community. Such things as the Holy Spirit and salvation mean entirely different things to the two belief systems. She explains why these differences, in defining basic ideology, makes it difficult if not impossible for Christian and Mormon believers to reach any agreement. While it may appear that the same language is spoken, each side is hearing a different meaning.

 Scott has added two additional chapters to this third edition of the work. In these she explores the “Issues and Challenges Facing Mormonism in the 21st Century.” New archeological, DNA, and other scientific evidence have attacked and undermined some of the core beliefs of the Mormon Church. Scott lists nine important issues ranging from the influence of the internet to polygamy that she suggests undermine even further the basis of Mormonism, even for current Mormon believers.

 She adds that she can understand the confusion of the many former Mormons struggling with faith and with those confronted with disillusionment about their beliefs. “I was there. I believed,” she repeats. Because Scott was active in the Mormon Church, she can indeed speak to the doubts and fears of Mormon and ex-Mormon believers. This same knowledge helps her to explain Mormonism to interested Christian and even non-Christian inquirers.

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Klanges has taken a forgotten chapter of American history and brought it to life for teens and adults in White Sands, Red Menace. World War II has ended, but the race to reach space is just beginning. Against the backdrop of Alamogordo, NM, where the building and testing of rockets is conducted, we meet close friends, and almost sisters, Suze Gordon and Dewey Kerrigan.

Alamogordo in the summer of 1946 is not Los Alamos where the girls met and spent the war years while their parents and other scientists developed a new weapon. The threat of that bomb now overshadows the future of the world. Their Los Alamos experience has made them feel like misfits in the post-war world. Dewey, especially, wonders if she will fit in. Her interest in science and engineering is not encouraged in girls. Meanwhile, Suze struggles with jealousy toward her best friend and fear of losing her father.

A lot can happen in a year. More aware than most of the realities of the bomb, both girls mature and learn about themselves and their families amid numerous challenges that include the beginnings of the Cold War and the Space Race.

White Sands, Red Menace is a fascinating journey back to a time often missed in traditional history classes.

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The MoonQuest

by Mark David Gerson

Light Lines Media

978-0-9795475-8-4

Subtitled “A True Fantasy”, The MoonQuest by Mark David Gerson is an allegory for that within each of us that calls us to search for our voice, our gifts, our reason for living. Toshar, a young, unlikely “exception to the law of balance,” finds himself sent forth to seek and reawaken M’nor, the moon. Doubt, disbelief, and the laws of the King have driven M’nor from the land and silenced the voices of the bards.

Toshar must face and conquer his fears and doubts in order to accomplish this task. Along the way, he gathers companions—“The Four as One”—to assist him, but the greatest aid is his gradually developing ability to tell stories. Toshar’s stories flow from within him and transform the world. His companions also learn that they, too, are part of the storytelling and it is only through all four stories that M’nor is awakened. Evil and darkness must still be defeated. As in all good quests good does triumph. M’nor returns to sing again over Q’ntana and Toshar embraces his destiny as Elderbard of the land.

 Along with Toshar and his friends, the reader enters a world where story and song are silenced and the only hope is to reawaken them and defeat the darkness. Gerson’s fantasy invites us to journey along, holding our breath at the dangers and rejoicing at the succession of stories within the fantasy that call M’nor back to life in this world. Along the way, we are reminded to listen and embrace the stories and songs within ourselves for it is only then that good and light can endure.

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The Gypsy In Spanish Red

by Melissa Leith Ash

LAMY PRESS

978-0-578-01926-0

The staccato pace of The Gypsy in Spanish Red by Melissa Leith Ash is in perfect harmony with the subject. Vadoma is the Gypsy princess, adored by her father and tribe for her beauty and the gifts of dance and second sight. Her passionate nature leads her to a dangerous liaison and leaves her far from her family.

 Amid threats from the Inquisition, fascinated hatred from the peasantry of Spain, her love for Carlos, and the plots of renegade monks who want to claim her powers, Vadoma races passionately through her young life. With Sashe, her amazing horse and her faithful dwarf companion Panchito Tawno, the young woman escapes again and again from seemingly imminent disaster.

Ash weaves a web of dramatic tension that draws the reader into the furtive yet joyful lives of the gypsies of 17^th century Spain. Based, according to Ash, on a ‘true Gypsy legend,’ their renowned psychic powers are an integral part of Vadoma’s soul and often help her escape from danger, even when she does fall into the hands of her enemies. As the book crescendos toward the end, it seems Vadoma can, yet again, triumph.

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Echoes from the Womb,
A Book for Daughters

by Jan Marquart, LCSW

Jan Marquart is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). She uses her expertise in this field to explore a sometimes misunderstood relationship—that of mothers and daughters. She says that each woman needs to have an understanding of “what being my mother’s daughter meant to me.”

This short book is filled with vignettes from Marquart’s own journey to understanding her mother’s role in the relationships and choices she has made. She also uses case histories to illustrate the reality that a woman’s mother has a great impact on who she becomes as an adult.

Marquart takes the reader through three stages on this journey of discovery. The first is Awakening to the idea that mothers leave a lasting impression on their children, both intentional and unintentional. The next step is Mourning. This includes grieving the imperfections and rejoicing in the good pieces of the relationship so that the third step, Healing, can begin.

The core of the book is the exercises found at the end. Marquart encourages women to journal through these stages and offers activities to facilitate the process. As the title says, this is “A Book for Daughters” to use as they seek to understand their mother’s role in their life.  

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