A Fellowship of Defenders: The World War II Veterans, First Baptist Church, Marietta Georgia

Book Description

Billy Whitestone gets the assignment of a lifetime when his school paper sends him to interview Albert Einstein. But though the world-famous physicist loves children, he is also somewhat reluctant to be interviewed. How will Billy win him over?

Using child-friendly language and stunning oil paintings to engage young readers, this fictionalized biography offers a vivid account of the life and times, struggles and accomplishments of Albert Einstein — who is revealed as a mischievous and sometimes temperamental student in his own right. Based on archival photographs, Jacques Lamontagne's artwork draws readers into Einstein's world, while a handy historical timeline accompanies the story.

Customer Reviews:

A great research tool!.......2003-01-04

This innovative biography explores Albert Einstein's life and his ideas. As a teacher-librarian, I use this book to inspire my students to use interviewing skills when conducting research. What's the Matter with Albert? should be in every library.

Loved it!.......2002-12-24

I loved "What's the Matter with Albert?" I bought it as a gift for my 7 year old granddaughter Lauren, who loves to read. Before giving any book to her, I always make sure to read it first, so we can have phone discussions about it. (I am a long-distance grandma and she lives 3000 miles away.) This book was an excellent choice because of the lessons it will teach her.

I loved the way Billy found the courage to face his fears and conquer the challenge of interviewing a genius like Albert Einstein. I liked that it shows that it's okay to daydream, to think about life in a different way than the people around us think, and that if you face your fears, you can accomplish many things in life. There will always be people who feel that because someone thinks "outside of the box" or appears absent-minded, something is wrong with us.

I loved the childlike style of Billy's four questions and that the answers were actually in Einstein's own words. And I thought it was a good lesson to show that Billy was able to do further research and write another story on his own once Albert Einstein 'opened the door' to Billy's quest for knowledge.

This story will teach my granddaughter that our imagination is what makes us unique, that once you take the first step and just do your very best, you can accomplish great things, in spite of your fears.

On a personal level, I think I related to this story because as a child, I always felt "different" and didn't look at things in the same way as other kids did. I was a daydreamer, couldn't concentrate in school and often got into trouble because my mind wandered.

I wish I had been able to read this book when I was young - I'm sure it would have made me feel that it was okay to look at things differently, to ask questions, to always be curious. (I'm a cookbook author today, so I guess I succeeded in spite of myself!)

Thanks to the author for a wonderful book! I also loved the illustrations and the way they were integrated into the story. They remind me of Norman Rockwell's artistic style. Well done!

Norene Gilletz

Who would have known?.......2002-12-15

What a great book! The title and the Norman Rockwell like illustration of Eistein immediately caught my attention. What's The Matter With Albert? Who would have thought that this famous scientist, this amazing genious of the 20th century would have anything the matter with him. I loved the way the author tells us about all the struggles and difficulties the young Albert Einstein had as a student. I always figured the guy sailed through school, and that he likely graduated by age 12 and was then courted by major universities around the world. But no, Albert was asked to leave his school!
I thought this book shared some fascinating facts about Einstein's life in a cute and unintimidating way - a fictional character's (a cub reporter with the Princeton Elementary School News) interview with Albert Einstein. At the end of the interview the young reporter asks Albert four more questions. My favorite, and I hope the author doesn't mind me sharing this one, is "What makes you think up all those great ideas?" I loved Einstein's answer - "I use my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world". There are several great quotes from Einstein in the book.
I bought this book for two of my 8 year old nephews. I hope they will have as much fun reading it as I did and will be encouraged to let their imaginations fly and take them to all sorts of interesting thoughts and places.

Einstein -- A Child's View.......2002-12-15

In her wonderful new book, WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH ALBERT? A STORY OF ALBERT EINSTEIN, author Frieda Wishinsky brings the Nobel Prize-winning scientist to life for young readers.

Billy, a shy young reporter for the school newspaper goes to interview Einstein to find out what he was like as a child. To his surprise, the great genius had lots of problems when he was a boy. Any child who has ever felt shy, inadequate or less than a star will relate to the young Einstein, who was late to talk, not a star in school, and subject to bursts of bad temper.

Wishinsky's style invites the reader to explore Einstein's world in a variety of interesting ways. These include the text of his final report on Einstein "When he Grew Up," a timeline of the important dates in his life and an excerpt from Billy's notebook, with answers in Einstein's actual words. For example, to the question "Why don't you wear socks?'", Einstein asnwers "When I was young I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in the sock. So I stopped wearing socks."

Children will find the man and the story irresistable. Told in clear, engaging prose and dialogue, WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH ALBERT EINSTEIN? will delight all young readers. Jaques Lamontagne's illustrations of Einstein at different periods of his life will round out the familiar image of the frizzy-haired genius.

Frieda Wishinsky has added to the long list of books about Albert Einstein one that truly makes him accessible, and that will be treasured by children of all ages.

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Healing a Spouse's Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas After Your Husband or Wife Dies (Healing Your Grieving Heart series)
Alan D. Wolfelt
Manufacturer: Companion Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Death & Grief | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Grief & Bereavement | Death & Grief | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Similar Items:

Understanding Your Grief: Ten Essential Touchstones for Finding Hope and Healing Your Heart (Understanding Your Grief series)

Healing the Adult Child's Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas After Your Parent Dies (Healing Your Grieving Heart series)

Healing Your Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas (100 Ideas Series)

The Understanding Your Grief Journal: Exploring the Ten Essential Touchstones (Understanding Your Grief series)

Healing Your Grieving Heart for Teens: 100 Practical Ideas (100 Ideas Series)

ASIN: 1879651378

Book Description

Helping widows and widowers learn how to cope with the grief of losing their helpmate, their lover, and perhaps their financial provider, this guide shows them how to find continued meaning in life when doing so seems difficult. Bereaved spouses will find advice on when and how to dispose of their mate's belongings, dealing with their children, and redefining their role with friends and family. Suggestions are provided for elderly mourners, young widows and widowers, unmarried lovers, and same-sex partners. The information and comfort offered apply to individuals whose spouse died recently or long ago.

Customer Reviews:

Pleasing to the Eye.......2006-10-04

A book well done for the fan of Thomas Mann. It gives LOTS of detailed photos of all his work through the years, as well as an account of his life. I'm glad he gives acknowledgement for all the people who contributed to his success. Well done!

Over 40 years of creative genius.......2005-03-08

This book displays a beautifully photographed representation of Thomas Mann's creative genius that is not to be missed. Thomas Mann is a true modern master and this book details his life's work and inspiration from the past three decades. From the use of non-precious metals, found objects, and objects that are created to look old, Thomas's highly recognizable industrial style is an inspiration to many, and he will be remembered for his contribution to the world of jewelry arts, for many years to come.

Customer Reviews:

a journal with plenty to look at.......2001-05-16

There is a nice array of information and photos in this book, with places to write down information for each season and month. However its not a book that would suit being taken out of doors and laid in the mud while you work. It has some nice ideas as well.

Amazon.com

The Learned Musician is an apt subtitle for this intellectual biography, which assesses the career of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) with the scholarly rigor one would expect from a Harvard professor. Opening with a 1737 attack by a critic who labeled Bach a pedant who spoiled the natural beauty of his creations with "an excess of art," Christoph Wolff cogently compares the German composer to English scientist Isaac Newton. Both men "brought about fundamental changes and established new principles" in their chosen fields, he argues; both sought to reveal God's harmonious ordering of their world. While Wolff conscientiously covers the basics of Bach's life, including his two marriages and the musical achievements of his gifted family, the author's primary focus is on his performing (Bach was an unrivaled organist) and composing. From the Goldberg Variations through the Brandenburg Concertos to Art of the Fugue, Wolff carefully analyzes Bach's innovations in harmony and counterpoint, placing them in the context of European musical and social history rendered in nicely atmospheric detail. Casual readers may find this dense tome a bit daunting, but serious music lovers will relish the deeper understanding it conveys of a genius who transformed Western music. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

Finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. A landmark biography of Bach on the 250th anniversary of the composer's death, written by the leading Bach scholar of our age. Although we have heard the music of J. S. Bach in countless performances and recordings, the composer himself still comes across only as an enigmatic figure in a single familiar portrait. As we mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, author Christoph Wolff presents a new picture that brings to life this towering figure of the Baroque era. This engaging new biography portrays Bach as the living, breathing, and sometimes imperfect human being that he was, while bringing to bear all the advances of the last half-century of Bach scholarship. Wolff demonstrates the intimate connection between the composer's life and his music, showing how Bach's superb inventiveness pervaded his career as musician, composer, performer, scholar, and teacher. And throughout, we see Bach in the broader context of his time: its institutions, traditions, and influences. With this highly readable book, Wolff sets a new standard for Bach biography. 42 b/w illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Detailed, historical, factual but lacking insight.......2007-10-12

Very complete factual account of Bach's life and musical production. So many facts and such little insight into the man behind the facts. What good are all the facts if we come away from this book without a enlightening vision of the man. The books provides a complete catalogue of Bach's works, which is very handy.

Lifetime accumulation of knowledge by a great scholar.......2007-06-24

We should all thank Christoph Wolff for putting his thoughts and knowledge of Johann Sebastian Bach in print. Christoph Wolff is the world's leading authority on Bach. He is currently Director of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, an appointment given to the person who presumably knows Bach best. He is University Professor at Harvard Univesity, a title given to those of retirement age that Harvard wishes to keep. A previous example of a University Professor is Paul Tillich. Christoph Wolff himself is a repository of knowledge about Johann Sebastian Bach that is unmatched in the world.

Christoph Wolff still teaches the course on Bach at Harvard that I audited during the 1975 academic year, except that now it is taught every other year. What a great intellectual experience that course was, to learn what Bach was trying to do, while contending with multiple personal and situational problems without a mentor, coping with the changing situation in Leipzig and the Thomaskirche and Thomasschule, all the while developing the intricacies of his music! I have experienced nothing intellectually to match his course.

Sometime after I audited his course, Christoph Wolff became Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University, and upon achieving retirement age, was made University Professor.

In the course, Christoph Wolff discussed Die Kunst der Fuge. He emphasized that, to write a fugue one must resolve its closure or ending first. In his book, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, Christoph Wolff described Bach's early skills in German tablature, an early form of music notation used in north and central Germany in the 17th century. A musical score, written by Bach in tablature during his stay in Weimar, has recently been found. This finding emphasizes Bach's mastery of this form of music notation. A thought has gradually come to me, based upon information gathered from the writings and lectures of Christoph Wolff. When Bach resolved the ending of Die Kunst der Fugue, he may have written it down in tablature. It was a sort of shorthand for him, and, most importantly, it was beyond the scrutiny of the casual observer. Upon Bach's death, his sons may have recognized the resolution of the ending of Die Kunst der Fugue as tablature, but they did not recognize that bit of tablature as the resolution of the ending of Die Kunst der Fugue. I shared these ideas with Christoph Wolff during a visit with him with my wife, Julie Moll, at the Bach-Archiv Leipzig in May, 2007. It would be a most rewarding experience to hear the end of Die Kunst der Fugue. If the end of Die Kunst der Fugue is found, I strongly expect that Christoph Wolff will play a pivotal role in it.

There is no other book to match this one on Bach. I enjoyed it thoroughly.I found it refreshing and stimulating and had difficulty putting it down. This book represents the lifetime accumulaton of knowledge about an important topic, Johann Sebastian Bach, by a world-class scholar, Christoph Wolff. That is enough for five stars for me any day.

fascinating biography of Bach.......2006-06-30

I have read other biographies of Bach, but none more detailed or insightful than this. He really comes alive as a person.

well written, interesting...not "textbook-ish" .......2006-02-24

This book is really well written. It doesn't feel like a textbook when I read it, instead, it's as if you're reading a story. I don't feel as bored when reading for my class assignments. I'm able to read and remember what was said in the book.

A True Scholar.......2006-02-24

Hours of research on the part of the author pass by you in a few simple sentences. My recommendation comes from the value reflected in the nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. I agree and am grateful to hold in my hands ONE book so complete in information.

Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician & Bach.(Review): An article from: Notes

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Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician & Bach.(Review): An article from: Notes
David Schulenberg
Manufacturer: Music Library Association, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Online Books | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on September 1, 2001. The length of the article is 2765 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: Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician & Bach.(Review)
Author: David Schulenberg
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2001
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 58 Issue: 1 Page: 59

Article Type: Book Review

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JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: THE LEARNED MUSICIAN.(Review) (book review): An article from: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life

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JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: THE LEARNED MUSICIAN.(Review) (book review): An article from: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life
Michael Linton
Manufacturer: Institute on Religion and Public Life
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Institute on Religion and Public Life on November 1, 2000. The length of the article is 477 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: JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: THE LEARNED MUSICIAN.(Review) (book review)
Author: Michael Linton
Publication: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Refereed)
Date: November 1, 2000
Publisher: Institute on Religion and Public Life
Page: 64

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

An intelligent and sensitive account of wartime Shanghai.......2001-01-02

I first heard about this book when the author and I appeared on the same radio program to discuss our books about Shanghai. (My book is "Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City, 1842-1949.") In the course of my research I read nearly all of the memoirs published by members of Shanghai's refugee Jewish community. All have their virtues, but Tobias' is one of the more thoughtful and reflective. It also has a novelistic flavor, especially the beginning when he recounts-sadly and movingly-his family's departure from Germany. The story he tells us is indeed strange, on so many levels, yet there is an all-pervading sense of the events the author describes as being all too urgent and real. "Strange Haven" captures Shanghai's details, its look, sounds and, above all, smells, wonderfully well. He goes into great detail, as well, about the experiences of the Jewish refugees in Hongkew, the area the Japanese turned into their version of a Jewish ghetto. Above all, "Strange Haven" is a story of survival in an extraordinary time and place.

Excellent description of life in the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto.......1999-09-15

As some one who lived as a youngster in the wartime Shanghai Jewish Ghetto during the same time as the author, the book provides a very poignant, detailed and accurate description of what it was like, for impoverished European Jews to cope under the Japanese occupation, while living with equally poor Chinese families in over crowded slum like quarters. The author alluded numerous times to the horn-of-plenty the small orthodox community seemed to enjoyed and of which he personally benefited as well, while every one else had barely enough to prevent starvation. How the Yeshiva could have smuggled in enough US currency, (inviting a death penalty if caught by the Japanese) and distribute $30 US dollars a month, ( fortune at that time) to each family has always been a mystery to me. The hypocracy of a Jewish religious community stuffing themselves with fresh kosher meat, milk, butter and vegetable while the rest of us suffered from malnutrition, needs some further explaining. It has left a permanent bad taste in my mouth. Aside from this, Tobias has written a well balanced and touching account of his own personal, his family's and that of 18,000 other Jewish refugees' struggle to survive in the war time ghetto of Shanghai under Japanese bayonettes. We who lived through it will always have a feeling of gratitude to the equally suffering Chinese people. Claude Spingarn, cespingar@aol.com

STRANGE HAVEN: A JEWISH CHILDHOOD IN WARTIME SHANGHAI.

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STRANGE HAVEN: A JEWISH CHILDHOOD IN WARTIME SHANGHAI.
Sigmund. Tobias
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPWC20

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