Finn: A Novel

Book Description

In this masterful debut by a major new voice in fiction, Jon Clinch takes us on a journey into the history and heart of one of American literature’s most brutal and mysterious figures: Huckleberry Finn’s father. The result is a deeply original tour de force that springs from Twain’s classic novel but takes on a fully realized life of its own.

Finn sets a tragic figure loose in a landscape at once familiar and mythic. It begins and ends with a lifeless body–flayed and stripped of all identifying marks–drifting down the Mississippi. The circumstances of the murder, and the secret of the victim’s identity, shape Finn’s story as they will shape his life and his death.

Along the way Clinch introduces a cast of unforgettable characters: Finn’s terrifying father, known only as the Judge; his sickly, sycophantic brother, Will; blind Bliss, a secretive moonshiner; the strong and quick-witted Mary, a stolen slave who becomes Finn’s mistress; and of course young Huck himself. In daring to re-create Huck for a new generation, Clinch gives us a living boy in all his human complexity–not an icon, not a myth, but a real child facing vast possibilities in a world alternately dangerous and bright.

Finn is a novel about race; about paternity in its many guises; about the shame of a nation recapitulated by the shame of one absolutely unforgettable family. Above all, Finn reaches back into the darkest waters of America’s past to fashion something compelling, fearless, and new.

Praise for Finn
“A brave and ambitious debut novel… It stands on its own while giving new life and meaning to Twain’s novel, which has been stirring passions and debates since 1885… triumph of imagination and graceful writing…. Bookstores and libraries shelve novels alphabetically by authors’ names. That leaves Clinch a long way from Twain. But on my bookshelves, they'll lean against each other. I’d like to think that the cantankerous Twain would welcome the company.”
–USA TODAY

“Ravishing…In the saga of this tormented human being, Clinch brings us a radical (and endlessly debatable) new take on Twain’s classic, and a stand-alone marvel of a novel. Grade: A.”
–ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“A fascinating, original read.”
–people

“Haunting…Clinch reimagines Finn in a strikingly original way, replacing Huck’s voice with his own magisterial vision–one that’s nothing short of revelatory…Spellbinding.”
–WASHINGTON POST

“Meticulously crafted…Marvelous imagination…The Finn of Clinch’s novel is certainly a racist villain but also psychologically disturbed and disconcertingly compelling.”
–SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“From the barest of hints in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Clinch has created a fully believable world inhabited by fully realized characters. Clinch treads dangerous ground in making one of America’s greatest novels his jumping-off point, but he brings it off magnificently…The language of this book is one of its great beauties…Finn is far from one-dimensional, and that is another beauty of the book. Clinch has a knack for putting us squarely inside the heads of his characters….Clinch draws as compelling and realistic a picture as any we’re likely to find…Finn stands on its own. The richness of its language, the depth of its characters, the emotional and societal tangles through which they struggle to navigate add up to a portrait of life on the Mississippi as we’ve never before experienced it.”
–dallas morning news

“His models may include Cormac McCarthy, and Charles Frazier, whose Cold Mountain also has a voice that sounds like 19th-century American (both formal and colloquial) but has a contemporary terseness and spikiness. This voice couldn’t be better suited to a historical novel with a modernist sensibility: Clinch’s riverbank Missouri feels postapocalyptic, and his Pap Finn is a crazed yet wily survivor in a polluted landscape…Clinch’s Pap is a convincingly nightmarish extrapolation of Twain’s. He’s the mad, lost and dangerous center of a world we’d hate to live in–or do we still live there?–and crave to revisit as soon as we close the book.”
–newsweek

“I haven’t been swallowed whole by a work of fiction in some time. Jon Clinch’s first novel has done it: sucked me under like I was a rag doll thrown into the wake of a Mississippi steamboat…Jon Clinch has turned in a nearly perfect first book, a creative response that matches The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in intensity and tenacious soul-searching about racism. I wish I could write well enough to construct a dramatic, subtle and mysterious story out of careful, plodding and unromantic prose, but for now I’m just happy to have an alchemist like Jon Clinch do it for me.”
–BOOKSLUT

“Finn strikes its most original chords in its bold imagining of possibilities left unexplored by Huckleberry Finn.”
–austin american-statesman

“An inspired riff on one of literature’s all-time great villains…This tale of fathers and sons, slavery and freedom, better angels at war with dark demons, is filled with passages of brilliant description, violence that is close-up and terrifying…Everything in this novel could have happened, and we believe it… so the great river of stories is too, twisting and turning, inspiring such surprising and inspired riffs and tributes as Finn.”
–new orleans times-picayune

“A triumph of succesful plotting, convincing characterization and lyrical prose.”
–ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

“Shocking and charming. Clinch creates a folk-art masterpiece that will delight, beguile and entertain as it does justice to its predecessor…In Finn, Clinch expands the bloodlines and scope of the original story and casts new light on the troubled legacy of our country’s infamous past.”
–new york post

“In Clinch’s retelling, Pap Finn comes vibrantly to life as a complex, mysterious, strangely likable figure…Clinch includes many sharply realized, sometimes harrowing, even gruesome scenes…Finn should appeal not only to scholars of 19th century literature but to anyone who cares to sample a forceful debut novel inspired by a now-mythic American story.”
–atlanta journal-consitution

“What makes bearable this river voyage that never ventures far beyond the banks is the compelling narrative Clinch has created. He writes exceedingly well, not with the immediacy Twain imbued to Huck's voice, but with an impersonal narrator’s voice that almost perversely refuses to take sides. And the plot is masterful.”
–fredericksburg freelance-star

“Disturbing and darkly compelling…Clinch displays impressive imagination and descriptiveness…anyone who encounters Finn will long be hautned by this dark and bloody tale.”
–hartford courant

“Jon Clinch pulls off the near impossible in his new novel, Finn, which brings Huck's dad to life in all his terrible humanness…Clinch vividly paints the origins of the amazing Huck...powerfully told.”
–winston-salem journal

“Gripping…he inventively remaps known literary territory…the descriptive riffs are lucent.”
–chicago tribune

“The best debut so far of 2007.”
–men’s journal

“Inventing Huckleberry Finn’s father using only the thin scraps of information that Mark Twain provided is a pretty admirable feat, and reading Jon Clinch’s first novel provides an almost tactile pleasure…Clinch clearly respects Twain, but he doesn’t feel especially cowed by his inspiration, and some of his inventions qualify as genuine improvements on the original text.”
–washington city paper

“In this darkly luminous debut…Clinch lyrically renders the Mississippi River’s ceaseless flow, while revealing Finn’s brutal contradictions, his violence, arrogance and self-reproach.”
–Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

“Bold and deeply disturbing. . . A few incidents duplicate those in Twain,
but the novels could not be more different; instead of Huck’s unlettered child’s voice,
we have an omniscient narrative, grave, erudite and rich in the secretions of adult knowledge;
terse dialogue acts as an effective counterpoint. All along, Clinch’s intent
is to probe the nature of evil . . . a memorable debut, likely to make waves.”
–KIRKUS REVIEWS, STARRED review

“Every fan of Twain’s masterpiece will want to read this inspired spin-off, which could become an unofficial companion volume.”
–LIBRARY JOURNAL, STARRED review

“This is a bold debut that takes a few tentative steps in tandem with the familiar Twain,
but then veers off dexterously down a much more insidious, harrowing path.”
–BOOKLIST

“Jon Clinch’s first novel Finn…succeeds wonderfully because its gritty lyricism is at once authentic and original…reminiscent at times of Cormac McCarthy…the eloquence of the telling will never make the courageous reader wish for a gentler touch. Like any appealing novel, Finn achieves the force of a dream with fascinating actions, indelible characters and spellbinding language. Its ...

Customer Reviews:

Suspend your disbelief and it's pretty good.......2007-09-27

If your favorite folk song got reworked by Queen, you might like it. Or maybe not.

The writing is vivid, the "I can't put it down," type, and this is good because there are built in roadblocks: you know what's gonna happen to Pap Finn before you even pick up the book, the language and history are not in sync with the time represented, and--most importantly, Clinch fails to convince me that Huck is half black.

I am aware that the inspiration for Huck was very likely a black boy Twain knew, whom everyone envied for his freedom. However, the boy Twain talks about was not someone Twain said hated and denigrated [his own race]. In Twain's book, Huck's racism comes so naturally to him, and his realization that Jim is a human being is so difficult for him, it is not possible to reconcile that person with one raised lovingly by a black mother. In addition, by the time Finn lies to Huck about his mother Huck knows Pap to be a liar about everything else.

That said, Clinch delivers quite a few "Aha! THAT explains it!" moments, such as his explanation for why there was writing on the walls of the "house of death" or how Huck got so superstitious. And his pictures of the Widow and of Judge Thatcher are intriguing.

Good for when you're already in a nasty, cynical mood. Also good for making me want to pick up Huck Finn again.

Fascinating.......2007-09-12

Finn is not an easy book to read because, in its own way, it is even more horrifying than the fantastical books by writers such as Thomas Harris who splash gore around to such a degree that their books lose all sense of realism. The horrible crimes that are committed in Finn, on the other hand, always make the reader cringe simply because they seem to be happening to real people in a real world. As is so often the case in a man like Finn, he is the product of cold and abusive parents who warped him from the beginning. He is in constant rebellion against his father, a town judge who rules his courtroom and his home with an iron fist and who has no more sympathy for his sons than he does for the criminals he sees in court.

Clinch, of course, begins with the world created by Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn but he fleshes out that world in a way that Twain himself was unable to do in the period in which he wrote. Using incidents and characters from Twain's book, Clinch provides the back story to Huck's tale that explains much of what Twain had to leave unsaid in the original.

The elder Finn depends on the Mississippi River for his very life. The river provides him with the catfish that he sells or exchanges in town for the supplies that keep him alive. More importantly to Finn, it is the sale of those same fish that make it possible for him to consume the amount of alcohol that makes life worth living for him. Equally important, the Mississippi is always there to cover a man's sins and, as the book begins, one of those sins, a dead woman who has been skinned, is floating down the middle of the river toward town. But since Finn is a psychopath this is hardly the last of his crimes that the reader will witness.

The most controversial aspect of the novel is Clinch's contention that Huck was a mulatto whose mother had been purchased off a steamboat in slave territory and taken back to Illinois against her will. That Huckleberry Finn was a black child is not a new theory, and Clinch has made that possibility the centerpiece of his novel. That fact alone determines the ultimate fate of not only Finn but of Mary, Huck's mother, and it leads to the complete moral collapse of Judge Finn.

This may not be an easy book to read, and I don't feel that I should say that I enjoyed it, but it is definitely one that will stay with me for a while. I've read many books that I can barely remember any details of just a year or two later. Finn is in no danger of becoming one of those.

FINN, a dark chapter of racism in America.......2007-09-11

When you read FINN by Jon Clinch, you are immediately taken back to the 19th century where the story begins about the detestable life of Pap Finn, the father of Huckleberry Finn from Mark Twain's THE ADVENTURES OFFINN HUCKLEBERRY FINN.

FINN is a sequel to Huckleberry Finn concentrating on the life of Huck's father and his misdeeds. The writing is formal and the slang mimics the language used at that time so much so that you sometimes don't know what they are talking about.

Clinch, a professor of American literature, breathed life into some of the characters from the original story - the widow Douglas, Judge Thatcher and even weaves the $6,000 in gold Huck found in the cave.

The thrust of this book, however, is the character Finn, a laid back drunkard, who shuns authority and all its trappings including his respectable father, Judge Thatcher and his often spineless brother, Will, who cannot stand up to the Judge.

But what comes across most powerfully in this story is the raw brutality of life, the cruelty to others, the subsistent poverty and the entrenched disregard and racism towards blacks. The characters treat blacks in the story no differently than you would a bug found in your house and don't even flinch when they sometimes swat the life out of these innocents for a wrong word or an indifferent look. The brutality is so intense in some of the scenes that I cringed reading it. However, Clinch says in his note at the end of the book that these characteristics were, "...all drawn whole from Twain's novel and followed here to their likely ends."

FINN is the dark version of Huckleberry Finn portraying the brutality and cruelty of life in the 19th century and perhaps Clinch was trying to awaken us to the horrors and senselessness of blatant racism.

Pretentious.......2007-09-04

This seems like a college writing class assignment taken too far. Or a literary publicity stunt. I don't understand the idea of attaching yourself to someonelse's work. I'm unhappy, beacause I was actually excited to read this book. Now everytime I read Huck Finn I have this book's stain to erase.

First it is so slow that it put me to sleep every 10 pages.

I don't understand why it is written so far from Twain's style. I know he's not trying to be Twain, but he's using Twain's setting, characters and some of his scenes!

Why put in big words, like micturate, when Twain didn't. Should we be impressed?

Can we also stop with novels mixing up the timeline! Is this supposed to make it more excitng or mysterious? If your story isn't good enough for a linear timeline then something is wrong.

The part that really pushed me over the top was the afterword, the author talks about being humble and reverential but then concludes that Twain would have liked what he did with his characters. Come on.

I would recommend this book to insomniacs and fishermen. We have to read about catfish every page.
Everyone else stay away and don't ruin Huckleberry Finn for yourself.

Very good.......2007-07-29

The supple and complex "Finn" is a good example of what I would call gorgeous writing. The prose loops around grandly at times, but there is a legitimate end to this approach. Layers of intent and personality are detected, examined and explained. Most thoughful readers will find delight in that process.

One minor frustration with this novel? It sometimes needed more of the hard slap of context, if only as interlude.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics)

Average customer rating:

An Adventure
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics)
The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn
Legendary
An adventurous novel, my favorite book!

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics)
Mark Twain
Manufacturer: Bantam Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0553210793
Release Date: 1981-02-01

Amazon.com

A seminal work of American Literature that still commands deep praise and still elicits controversy, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is essential to the understanding of the American soul. The recent discovery of the first half of Twain's manuscript, long thought lost, made front-page news. And this unprecedented edition, which contains for the first time omitted episodes and other variations present in the first half of the handwritten manuscript, as well as facsimile reproductions of thirty manuscript pages, is indispensable to a full understanding of the novel. The changes, deletions, and additions made in the first half of the manuscript indicate that Mark Twain frequently checked his impulse to write an even darker, more confrontational book than the one he finally published.

Book Description

Hilariously picaresque, epic in scope, alive with the poetry and vigor of the American people, Mark Twain's story about a young boy and his journey down the Mississippi was the first great novel to speak in a truly American voice. Influencing subsequent generations of writers -- from Sherwood Anderson to Twain's fellow Missourian, T.S. Eliot, from Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner to J.D. Salinger -- Huckleberry Finn, like the river which flows through its pages, is one of the great sources which nourished and still nourishes the literature of America.

Customer Reviews:

An Adventure.......2007-08-30

It has been said that all American literature begins with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Reading this book for the first time was a delight. Though I was thoroughly familiar with most of the story, I still found the book to be a page turner. The character of Huck, the manchild, has to be one of the most fascinating in all of literature.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics).......2007-08-05

I read this book years ago when I was very young, but it still stands today as my alltime favorite. As I turned the pages, I lived that exciting adventure along with Huck and Jim. The language is a bit difficult at first, but you get the hang of it rather quickly. It is recommended reading for all ages.

The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn.......2007-07-19

Again, I am never disappointed in purchasing books from you because they are always superior to buying local. Thanks for your service you provide to your customers.

Legendary.......2007-06-25

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: classic. I really enjoyed this book. Mark Twain managed to keep the boyish atmosphere of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer while adding in adult like concepts, such as decisive moral choice and honor, to create a work of fiction that many hail to be the "Great American Novel."

If you're not familiar with the story: Huck, after having found riches with Tom Sawyer, is living with the Widow Douglas and no longer leading a life of vagrancy. I won't go too deeply into the story because: a) there are a lot of plot elements and it would be impossible and b) it really is something that you have to experience through the eyes and in the language of Huck Finn (the entire story is written from his perspective and in his dialect as opposed to the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which was written in Twain's distinct voice). Notable plot elements: Huck's escape from Pap, Jim and Huck's travel down the Mississippi, the Duke and the Dauphin and the Royal Nonesuch, and Huck and Tom's (who is present at the end of the book) contrivance to "free" Jim (you'll understand the "quotations" after you read the book).

Overall, all the hype surrounding this book is well deserved. Anyone who can read the English language should read this book (it should be a requirement punishable by death). You won't be disappointed.

An adventurous novel, my favorite book!.......2007-06-12

Witness Huck's transformation into maturity, through reading this captivating book that preaches independence and loyalty. Huck's dedication to his friend, Jim, is truly touching and serves as an inspiration to all!
Since the beginning of Huck's journey, Huck is living on his own without real adult supervision for the first time. He escapes from the custody of his abusive and manipulative father, and runs into Jim, who becomes a father figure to Huck later on in the story. Along with this "independence" Huck is forced to make his own decisions, which Huck first derives from the racist thoughts he had learned growing up, which he was having problems applying to his new African American, and escaped slave, friend. As Huck sees the cruelties of the world, where the white race call African Americans "[...]" and when the life of a slave is not valued, he eventually decides that what he was taught as a young child, no longer applied to the circumstances that he now lived in. As a reader, we can read and marvel at the brave adventures that Huck takes on and acknowledge him for his independent thinking!
Huck's refusal to give up their friendship and trust, and the knowledge and wisdom that Huck gained should be envied by everyone. Therefore, Huck is an inspiration for courageously breaking away from the negative views of society by upholding honor and establishing his individuality. Don't miss out on a book that can change your own outlook on life, learn the positive impact your decisions can make on the world!

Average customer rating:

This book has little to do with SES and more to do with Communication
Essential
Absolutly one of the best books you'll ever read!
Finn looks at working-class literacy versus elite literacy
Too many oversights and contradictions

Literacy with an Attitude
Patrick J. Finn
Manufacturer: State University of New York Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0791442861

Book Description

This book is for teachers, parents, and community organizers who are on the side of working-class children. It's about the resistance of working class children to the kind of education they typically receive, education designed to make them useful workers and obedient citizens. It's about working-class habits of communication and ways of using language that interfere with schooling. It's about a new brand of teachers, followers of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire who are developing effective methods for teaching powerful literacy in American working-class classrooms. It's about teacher networks where teachers devoted to equity and justice find mutual support. And it's about community organizers who are bringing working-class parents together around education issues and helping them mount effective demands for powerful literacy for their children.

Customer Reviews:

This book has little to do with SES and more to do with Communication.......2007-03-06

Set aside the terms literacy and the socioeconomic status that most readers of this book focus on. Read the book in terms of communication development, and develeopment of higher oder thinking and reasoning skills. These higher order thinking skills and communication styles are found in schools who's student are successfull, and in homes where learners are engaged in functional dialogue that enables them to shape their environment and act upon it. This is the heart of Literacy with an Attitude. As a teacher, this is a must read for every teacher to evaluate their own biases and provide direction for students who do come from "under-resourced" backgrounds. This book can also be useful for parents who want to evaluate their own teaching practices- becausae we all know, as Literacy with an Attitude teaches us too, that parents are a student's first and most influential teacher.

If you are teacher- read this book! Today! With the mandates of NCLB (closing the gap- even between low SES and higher), this book can provide some valuable insight and inspiration.

Essential.......2005-02-20

I found this book to be one of the most important books I've read. I was a working-class student, and Finn's description of typical attitudes astounded me, because I had those attitudes, but thought I was fiercely independent and radically individual. Oh, well.

It is written in a friendly and encouraging way, and offers proven methods to improve education across class and cultural divides.

Absolutly one of the best books you'll ever read!.......2002-08-24

If you have ever wondered what the difference is between children of working class families verses those of more afluence, (hint, it isn't simply the money) if you ever wondered what the difference could possibly be that leads some children into the chute toward dead-end factory jobs, while others have jobs that hold some promise, this is the book to read! Read it, then take a closer look at your child's classsroom, their homework, they way they are spoken to, etc. Take it with you as a guide and visit the classroom often, and at different times! You may be shocked at what they are actually learning. Be warned--that reading this book gives validity to the saying "The truth will set you free, but first, it will [upset] you ... !"

Finn looks at working-class literacy versus elite literacy.......2001-10-29

This book shows literacy at a socio-economic level, and what teachers of the working-class schools need to strive for in their classrooms. It answers descriptively the reasons schooling and literacy for the America's working-class children are not the same for other levels of the social spectrum. It is insightful and inspirational!

Too many oversights and contradictions.......1999-12-31

Finn contends that the degree of literacy that is taught and exercised in schools is a key determinant in attaining social position and agency. Professionals, managers, and executives acquire an empowering literacy that emphasizes evaluation, analysis, and synthesis in contrast to the functional literacy that is taught in working-class schools which leads to routine, non-creative work and diminished social role. It is Finn's mission to empower working-class kids through changes in the educational system that will create, what he calls, literacy with an attitude.

Finn arranges schools along a line including working-class, middle-class, affluent-professional, and executive elite schools.

Working-class schools are strictly teacher-directed emphasizing order and discipline. The subject matter is largely fragmented facts with little relevance to working-class lives. An uneasy standoff exists between derogatory teachers and reluctant students.

Middle-class students also have minimal input to the educational process but see the value in the information in textbooks and teachers' efforts. Anxiety-producing testing is emphasized but is accepted as essential for success in white-collar jobs. Competency is the goal, not creativity.

It is only in affluent-professional and executive-elite schools where empowering literacy is found. Students are able to participate in planning their own education. Creativity and problem solving take precedence over getting the facts right. The executive-elite schools stress academic excellence and the exercise of control. The affluent-professional schools are more wide-ranging and even willing to critique the social status-quo.

Finn finds that working-class culture itself has an impact in school settings. The dominant form of communication is implicit which relies on unspoken, shared opinions and beliefs. However, success in schools is dependent on the ability to fully use language. Also, working-class parents tend to emphasize obedience in younger children, not exploration. But constrained personalities can be at some disadvantage in settings where personal initiative is key for success, as in good schools.

So working class culture itself must be overcome to gain equal footing with articulate elites. But the Finn mission of extricating working-class kids from dead-end schools is fraught with other contradictions and difficulties.

It is difficult to understand Finn's claim that "the savage inequalities in schools are not the result of a conspicuous conspiracy to oppress the working class." It is Finn that describes the suppression of the fledgling corresponding societies in 1790 England who had a mission to empower the English working class via the extension of literacy. He further shows that a main factor in establishing public education was to control the working class. Why wouldn't the same sort of policies deployed by many levels of government and supported by business interests against the American labor movement throughout most of its history be reflected in the public education of the working class?

Finn proposes that "transforming" intellectuals who see schools as sites of social struggle for the working class will initiate change. He does not clearly address where sufficient numbers of these agents for change can be found. Nor does he explain why their actions would be tolerated by school officials and the larger society. It is somewhat disturbing to see proposed the use of children to achieve a social agenda.

It is unclear as to whether Finn fully appreciates the individualizing that occurs in the elite schools. It is individual creativity and excellence that is developed. But in Finn's new working-class schools, students become "collective" actors for social change. Is student solidarity equivalent to maximizing education? Where would the new schools fit among his school models?

A glaring piece that is missing from the book is the location and numbers of the various types of schools that he describes. One can only speculate that the middle-class school model predominates in the US. That data is necessary to get a handle on the feasibility and relevance of his proposal.

Finn's book ultimately does not come to grips with the contradictions within the working class itself as well as the demands of capitalism. Despite an emphasis on social class in the book, Finn does very little to acknowledge that working class education occurs within and is shaped by capitalistic class relations. And what he proposes would have ramifications for those relations. Capitalism does not require extensive education for most of its workers. Somehow the reader gets the feeling that close to an invisible hand is going to guide working- class students to empowerment nirvana despite the real obstacles noted.

Average customer rating:

Excellent, well-balanced resource for parent involvement

Wow!! A must-have for all parents AND teachers

A commonsense guide to what kids should be taught..

Good Analysis / Poor Solution

Unimpressive and unhelpful

The Educated Child: A Parents Guide From Preschool Through Eighth Grade
William J. Bennett , Jr., Chester E. Finn , and Jr., John T. E. Cribb
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Children's Book of Virtues

The Book of Virtues for Young People: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

ASIN: 0684833492

Amazon.com

William J. Bennett, that doyen of common sense who brought us The Book of Virtues, has returned to the topic of child rearing, delivering a massive canon on the education of young children. He joins fellow veterans of the U.S. Department of Education Chester E. Finn Jr. and John T.E. Cribb Jr. in offering a traditional, back-to-basics resource for parents. The Educated Child is a tome to page through and return to as the years go by, with chapters divided by subjects and grade levels. One of the most helpful aspects of the guide is its outline of what to expect--or demand, in some cases--in the K-8 essentials. The writers list book titles, historic dates, science topics, and other issues that should be covered, borrowing heavily from E.D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge Series, the fact-specific book series that begins with What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know.

But Bennett et al.'s take on education goes further, with the authors weighing in on such controversial topics as sex education, TV, the Internet, self-esteem, and school uniforms with statements that largely reflect their conservative reputations. They also stick to the insistence that Western culture be emphasized in American classrooms. In some cases, however, the three don't always agree--acknowledging diverging views on year-round education, for instance. Some of what they cover is basic, instinctive stuff: we don't need another guide telling us to talk to our children about their school day. But there's valuable advice, too, such as how to save your child from a bad teacher and what questions to ask in a parent-teacher conference. For parents puzzled or overwhelmed by what the authors refer to as "the blob" of the education bureaucracy, The Educated Child can be a helpful insiders' view from those who once governed the biggest blob of all. --Jodi Mailander Farrell

Book Description

If you care about the education of a child, you need this book. Comprehensive and easy to use, it will inform, empower, and encourage you.

Just as William J. Bennett's The Book of Virtues has helped millions of Americans teach young people about character, The Educated Child delivers what you need to take control. With coauthors Chester E. Finn, Jr., and John T. E. Cribb, Jr., former Secretary of Education Bennett provides the indispensable guide.

Championing a clear "back-to-basics" curriculum that will resonate with parents and teachers tired of fads and jargon, The Educated Child supplies an educational road map from earliest childhood to the threshold of high school. It gives parents hundreds of practical suggestions for helping each child succeed while showing what to look for in a good school and what to watch out for in a weak one.

The Educated Child places you squarely at the center of your young one's academic career and takes a no-nonsense view of your responsibilities. It empowers you as mothers and fathers, enabling you to reclaim what has been appropriated by "experts" and the education establishment. It out-lines questions you will want to ask, then explains the answers -- or non-answers -- you will be given. No longer will you feel powerless before the education "system." The tools and advice in this guide put the power where it belongs -- in the hands of those who know and love their children best.

Using excerpts from E. D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge Sequence, The Educated Child sets forth a state-of-the art curriculum from kindergarten through eighth grade that you can use to monitor what is and isn't being taught in your school. It outlines how you can help teachers ensure that your child masters the most important skills and knowledge. It takes on today's education controversies from phonics to school choice, from outcomes-based education to teaching values, from the education of gifted children to the needs of the disabled. Because much of a youngster's education takes place outside the school, The Educated Child also distills the essential information you need to prepare children for kindergarten and explains to the parents of older students how to deal with such challenges as television, drugs, and sex.

If you seek high standards and solid, time-tested content for the child you care so much about, if you want the unvarnished truth about what parents and schools must do, The Educated Child is the one book you need on your shelf.

Download Description

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Bennett (The Book of Virtues) and his colleagues (Finn, author of We Must Take Charge; Cribb, formerly of the U.S. Department of Education) offer American parents an impassioned and straight-shooting reference for educating their children. In prose free of academic rhetoric, the authors state: "[I]f your school is inflicting a mediocre education on your child, the sooner you know about it the better." They then present a "yardstick" by which to judge the academic quality of any school (public or private). A model core curriculum organized by grade level--primary (K-3), intermediate (4-6), and junior high (7 and 8)--presents the material clearly and logically, and helps readers assess whether a child is getting a thorough dose of English, history and geography, the arts, math and science. While blunt in their criticism of decaying academic standards (evident in grade inflation, lowered expectations for students and terrible international rankings), the authors are unequivocal in their support of dedicated educators and all those willing to hold children to the highest possible standard. Parents may question some of the model curriculum's expectations (e.g., that second graders dramatize the death of Socrates), but the authors are quick to reassure readers that the book's purpose is not to serve as a list of must-haves but rather as "inspiration and general guidance" in gaining a sense of "the knowledge and skills that should lie at the heart of a solid elementary education." Bennett is a controversial figure because of his passionate cultural conservatism. But this book, despite a brief word in favor of school vouchers, is about padagogy, not politics. It's an ambitious and commonsensical guide that will inspire both parents and educators.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent, well-balanced resource for parent involvement.......2007-09-03

The authors make the case for parent involvement by providing a clear picture of America's public school system. Without providing a blanket criticism of all schools and teachers, parents are reminded that only they can make sure their children receive the education they need to become successful citizens. By listing curriculum objectives by grade level they empower parents to ask questions about what their child is learning. Suggestions for working within the system - and within the family to supplement the system - are provided. Every parent should be this involved.

Wow!! A must-have for all parents AND teachers.......2007-07-20

This book is so good I can't do it justice! As a teacher, I wish all my students' parents had read this. As a parent, I feel confident about the decisions I've made and will make, knowing I have informed, sound advice from such a worthy author. So many problems in education would be solved by teachers and parents reading and implementing what the authors recommend. This book helps parents understand what they should do and why to insure their child has the opportunity to get an excellent education. Money, or the lack thereof, is no excuse for ignorance. This is America and every child is offered a decent education until they are 18, unlike most countries. It is the responsibility of the child to work and earn an education and the parents to monitor them. Among other things, there are great suggestions about TV, not overwhelming your child with toys, specific books for your child, extensive resources for a wide variety of parenting needs, including homeschool, and even tips to help evaluate "expert opinions" and school curriculum. Parents should teach manners at home, self-esteem comes from accomplishing something worthwhile, and if schools spend time teaching those, it takes away time that should be spent teaching academic subjects. These ideas seem like common sense, but popular culture has introduced some bizarre and counterproductive ideas on child-rearing and education in the past 20 years. The tone of the book is empowering, not judgmental, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is involved in educating a child.

A commonsense guide to what kids should be taught.........2007-04-07

I particularly like the checklists of what subjects are appropriate and customary at the various grade levels. It is a lot clearer and more interesting reading than the state standards our kids' school hands out, which are written in educator-ese. If you are interested in your kids' education then you should be interested in this book.

Good Analysis / Poor Solution.......2005-03-11

This book provides a good overview of what children should learn year by year, subject by subject, and how parents can help them achieve their educational goals. One reviewer complained that the authors overemphasized the importance of limiting T.V. and reading to kids, but I am a teacher and can tell you that many parents don't bother to take those basic but crucial steps with their kids. The authors offer a good analysis of the problems with public education today (which both parents and schools can contribute to), but their main solution to the problems of the educational system is standardized testing. As a teacher in Texas, where high-stakes testing rules the public school system (which is why I work at a charter school and will never send my child to a public school in Texas), I have learned that placing such overwhelming emphasis on an annual test does not raise the standards of students' educations, it has actually caused too many schools to teach to the test, cheat, and neglect the needs of gifted students in order to prep the slower ones for the tests.

Unimpressive and unhelpful.......2004-05-24

I purchased this book to help me with ideas for homeschooling my children. This book is the longest in my collection but it is the least informative. The first 100 pages or so deride the current efforts of public schools, yet offer little advice except "turn off the television" and "read to your children". The most interesting and helpful information in the book was taken directly from the Core Curriculum Series, which is a useful resource for parents who want to ensure that their child is receiving a good education. This book is preachy and redundant.

Mel Bay Presents Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation

Average customer rating:

THE BEST
Excellent Book. Deeper into the pentatonics.
amazing
Feel You are Stuck??? Get this book!!!
See your fretboard in a totally new way

Mel Bay Presents Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation
Jon Finn
Manufacturer: Mel Bay Publications, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786668660

Product Description

Renowned Berklee College of Music faculty guitarist Jon Finn, combines his experience, education, and stylistic versatility in this eclectic series of lessons for aspiring rock guitarists. Jon's innovative approach is unique, fun, and challenging. The book/CD set and DVD both offer a well researched original take on the use of pentatonic scales in rock improvisation. Using his "Warp Refraction Principle" which takes into account the major third tuning interval between the second and third strings, Jon presents a series of five vertical patterns applied in two-string increments throughout the fretboard. The philosophy behind this project is to present concepts and techniques as a thought process rather than simply providing a reference manual.

Customer Reviews:

THE BEST.......2007-10-06

Hands down this is the best method ever in breaking down the scale patterns and learning to master the fingerboard.

If your shakey on your scales or simply have trouble moving from postion to postion this book will show you the light.

Even if your quite comfortable with your scales you'll learn to see things in a new light. You'll be breaking old ruts and treading new territory after some serious study.

Even after all that you'll learn some new ways to use some old tricks like say, "Pentatonic Scales".

Jon Finn is a Master Teacher.
This is the Standard all Method Books Should Aspire to but few do. This was quite obviously written by someone who cares and someone with a strong desire to teach.

BTW He's a killer Guitar Player as Well.

Excellent Book. Deeper into the pentatonics........2007-03-30

The pentatonics are absolutely essential for rock, blues/rock guitar. If you already know the 5 patterns of the major and minor pentatonic scale then this book would further increase your playing abilities.

This book takes the 5 patterns (boxes) of the pentatonic scale and dissects them. He illustrates a very intelligent way to use patterns derived from the pentatonics. The result is you can break out of the patterns that you usually play and expand your playing anywhere on the neck in any key.

amazing.......2007-02-10

Wow, this book and DVD (not so much the cd for me) is really amazing, even for a beginner guitarist this put my soloing way above what i could do, 10x what i was able to do in 30 mins ago. I have tried many guitar methods and they all say the same thing and i was still confused about how to solo like my favorite guitarist and this book and dvd solved a lot for me, i also like it because its personal and funny, its not your standard how to learn ____ book. everything in here worked like a charm for me on the first try and blew my mind because of the simplicity. if your interested in actually playing nice melodies with your guitar and not just knowing theory about how guitar is played ( like other books), this is for you. this guy summed up in 2 mins what i have been trying to do for 3 weeks with my guitar teacher.

Feel You are Stuck??? Get this book!!!.......2007-02-06

Living here in Boston has given me the opportunity to study with great Berklee Professors (Tomo Fujita & Don Lappin)... never Jon though. He's too busy. I've seen Jon play in pretty small bars here in Boston and always asked myself how he does it. This book explains it all.

This book is great for guitar players who are stuck in one position. I've been there and this book summarizes the fretboard geometry very well. Jon explains his approach to moving up and down the neck without being stuck in one position. It all makes sense.

It comes with a CD and DVD. Great Book, Great Player, Very Inspiring!!!

See your fretboard in a totally new way.......2006-06-17

I just started going through this book, and it has changed the way I look at my fretboard. I don't know much about music theory, but this book explains things in a simple way that I could understand immediately. I highly recommend this book.

The Hospital Phone Book 2006-07 Edition (Hospital Phone Book)

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The Hospital Phone Book 2006-07 Edition (Hospital Phone Book)

Manufacturer: Douglas Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High

ASIN: 0872284298

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (The Classic Collection)

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Great Classic
Excellent Audio CD of Classic
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (The Classic Collection)
Mark Twain
Manufacturer: CD Unabridged
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1587886006
Release Date: 2001-08-01

Book Description

When we first met "the pariah of the village . . .the son of the drunkard" in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", Tom was "under strict orders not to play with him", so he played with him every time he got the chance. Twain took his most outrageous and outcast character (and perhaps the one he loved the most), Huckleberry Finn, from the book and wrote his own Adventures.

This giant work, in addition to entertaining boys and girls for generations, has defined the first-person novel in America, and continues to demand study, inspire reverence and stir controversy in our time.

Customer Reviews:

Great Classic.......2006-07-16

This is a great book and deserves the place it has as a literary classic. The audio version was very good with the narrator using very different voices for the various characters so there is no confusion about who is speaking - a weakness with less talented narrators. The reason that I gave this product 4 and not 5 stars was the packaging - which I found to be inadequate - the case is cardboard and each CD comes in a paper envelope - not good for storage over the years, especially if it is used on a consistent basis by multiple persons. But the actual narration was first class and brought the well known book to life.

Excellent Audio CD of Classic.......2004-03-09

Finally, a reading of a classic that is worth the money.

This story's narration covers a total of 9 Cds, and each disc has about 97 tracks (each track is only about 30 to 45 seconds). The good aspect of this is that it is quite easy to find your spot and, then pick up where you left off, if you happen to stop reading in the middle of a chapter. The negative aspect of short tracks is that it is difficult to skip around to particular chapters without "guessing" where a chapter might end (because there is no insert to tell which chapters are contained in each disc).

Overall, Dick Hill does a superb job of reading in this unabridged version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Hill's voice personifies Huck's narrative, and he keeps the Southern flavor of Twain's novel intact. What makes this reading particularly great is that Hill has a great ability to not only take on Huck, but other characters as well. Hill changes his voice for other characters such as Tom Sawyer, Jim, the Duke and the king, Pap and others. For this reason, this CD is a great tool for the reluctant readers in classes, and serves as a great supplement for the study of this novel.

I have found that buying audios to classic to be a gamble because you never really know what you are getting, but this is one of the best I've gotten.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.......2004-02-21

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a really interesting book about a boy and his adventures. The main character, Huck, narrates it. This gives it a certain amount of intimacy that it would not otherwise have. One of the things I found most interesting about this book is that Huck befriends a slave, Jim and helps him escape to freedom. This presents a large moral dilemma for him, because he does not want to be considered an abolitionist, but Jim is his friend. In the end he decides to help Jim and they raft down the Mississippi together. The description of their friendship is the best description I have ever read. Another aspect of the book that makes it all the more interesting to read is the colorful characters they meet along the way. Mark Twain has an incredible imagination and you then find yourself becoming attached to the characters as you move through the book. This is one of Mark Twain's greatest strengths. In the end I would recommend this book to readers of all ages because I think someone of any age could get something from it. Whether you read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a means of entertainment, to gain a life lesson, or to understand the social pressure associated with befriending a black man prior to the Civil War, you will definitely be able to gain something from reading this novel.

Average customer rating:

Not Free SF Reader
Wonderful fun for kids and adults alike
Tove GENIUS
Magical 40 yrs ago, magical now.
great for kids; great for adults

Finn Family Moomintroll (Moomintrolls)

Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0374423075

Book Description

The Moomins, creatures always ready for adventure, find a magical hat that can change anything-or anyone-into something else!

Customer Reviews:

Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03

Short, stumpy, silly looking troll things are fun.

If those guys aren't odd enough, they have a bunch of friends that are other strange looking creatures. This book is basically about the hijinks they get up to after finding a magic hat, that pretty much looks like what you would expect your garden variety stage magician to be wearing.

However, this particularly piece of millinery actual is the real deal, though, not a stage prop.

Wonderful fun for kids and adults alike.......2007-01-23

Tove Jansson's _Moomin_ stories were among my favorites when I was young, and I still give them pride of place on my bookshelf. These are great stories -- calm, charming, thoughtful, imaginative -- and they're refreshing in a world where Disney film tie-ins and cleaned-up Victorian fairy tales are marketed as the be-all and end-all of children's literature. Jansson's little creatures live in an invigoratingly distant and different world, and her stories teach responsibility, imagination, and personal ethics without ever being moralistic. Family and friendship, tolerance and curiosity, love of nature, compassion for those smaller than yourself, the joys of life at home and the romance of the open road -- these are constant themes in the Moomin-world, along with a healthy cynicism about the pretentious, conventional, egocentric and ridiculous aspects of adult life.

BTW, these books are great for reading-aloud. And Jansson's delightful pen-and-ink illustrations really bring the Moomins to life.

Tove GENIUS.......2007-01-11

Finn Family Moomintroll is the only Moomin book I have fully read so far. (My girlfriend and I have an agreement wherein we can only read these out loud in each other's company -- this does them true justice -- so it's going to take awhile.) The copy I'm reviewing here was a gift for friends of ours, who loved it. For more information on Moomins, Moomin books and Tove Jansson, searching the web is the best way to go. Let me point out that Finn Family Moomintroll is considered the best of Jansson's Moomin books. Let me also point out that there is a theme park called Moominland [...] based on this series, not to mention cartoon series, comic books, a CD of songs (haven't heard them though) and crafts of all kinds [...]. Kids or adults with a quirky or sweet sense of humor will love it.

Magical 40 yrs ago, magical now........2006-10-06

I remember loving this book when I was small, but I remembered nothing about the story.

I read it to my daughter this year.

We both loved it.

Simple, a little silly, meandering, gentle, and -- mysteriously -- magically charming.

great for kids; great for adults.......2006-06-14

When I first talked about this book in elementary school (about a million years ago...ok, 21 years ago), no one seemed to know what I was talking about. Turns out my having lived overseas in the 80s exposed me to a bunch of literature that just now is hitting the American mainstream.
This particular book is one of my long time favorites. The characters are a bit absurd, but it's amazing how you don't really notice that as you get to know them better.
Jansson is able to weave life lessons and psychology in a brilliantly subtle fashion into the stories.
This book isn't about happy endings or the world having to be a certain way; rather, I think it embraces the world the way it is without being pessimistic.
I wish I could give this book six stars.
Extremely enjoyable, quick read. I'm going to order the entire series right now.

American Constitutional Law, Volume II: Cases, Essays, and Comparative Notes (Constitutional Law)

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American Constitutional Law, Volume II: Cases, Essays, and Comparative Notes (Constitutional Law)
Donald P. Kommers , and John E. Finn
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0534539386

Book Description

AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW presents a comprehensive look at the development of American constitutional law from its early, seminal Supreme Court cases (Marbury v. Madison) to the present. The comprehensive book is organized traditionally, beginning with governmental powers and concluding with civil rights and civil liberties. AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, VOLUME II, covers Chapters 8-14 of the comprehensive text dealing with civil rights and civil liberties.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Signet Classics)

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Nietzsche's choice
Tom and Huck

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Signet Classics)
Mark Twain
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451528646

Book Description

Few books capture both the simplicity and complexities of American life quite like these enduring "boyhood" classics by Mark Twain.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Take a lighthearted, nostalgic trip to a simpler time, seen through the eyes of a special boy named Tom Sawyer. It is a summertime world of hooky and adventure, pranks and punishment, villains and young love.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
He has no mother, his father is a drunkard, and he sleeps in a barrel. He's Huck Finn-liar, sometime thief, and rebel against respectability. But when Huck meets a runaway slave named Jim, his life changes forever. And on a raft floating down the Mississippi, the boy nobody wanted matures into a young man of courage and conviction.

Now includes a new introduction.

Customer Reviews:

Nietzsche's choice.......2006-08-03

In a letter to his friend Franz Overbeck dated 14, November, 1879, Nietzsche says, "If you do not know the latest book by Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, it would be a pleasure for me to make you a little present of it."

Both novels define the picturesque masterpiece and are the twin highpoints in American prose.

Tom and Huck.......2004-07-24

I LOvED this Book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I loved the adventure, the excitment, and the comedy!!!!!!!!!

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