Lucy's Summer

Donald Hall

Illustrated by Michael McCurdy

Softbound, large format

Regular Price: $10.95

Introductory Price: $9.95

Picnics, visits from Gypsies, canning vegetables in the kitchen, going to the big city - all this an more filled Lucy's New England summer way back in the early part of the 20th Century. Donald Hall's own mother was the girl Lucy, and she told him many, many stories about how life was in her childhood. He has beautifully captured life in those times in a way sure to enchant both children and adults. Michael McCurdy provides softly colored woodcuts that make the story even more wonder-filled.

This is simply lovely family reading - may all your own summer's be as richly filled as Lucy's!

Lucy's Christmas

Donald Hall

Illustrated by Michael McCurdy

Softbound, large format

Regular Price: $10.95

Introductory Price: $9.95

Late in August a branch of the sugar maple turned red, which made Lucy think of autumn and winter.

Lucy Wells liked planning ahead.

Evey though it was far off, she thought about Christmas at the South Danbury Chruch, where all the families in the village opened their presents together.

So she started making Christmas presents.

Thus begins one of the most endearing Christmas stories I've ever read. Based on stories his own mother told him of her childhood, Donald Hall's story of a young girl's early 20th Century New England Christmas so beautifully captures the slow-paced warmth of those times, and the love of human hearts, that my own heart just melts every time I read it. The gentle woodcut illustrations are a perfect reflection of the story as well.

All in all Lucy's Christmas is just perfect.

The Power of Grammar
A Phenomenological Approach

Proceedings of a Colloquium of Waldorf Teachers

Compiled and largely presented by Anne Greer

Spiral Bound

Regular Price: $24.00

Introductory Price: $22.00

This is an energetic and exciting compendium of questions, answers, practical approaches and deeper understand - in short, it is everything anyone who is in love with language and wishes to teach it well could wish for.

Between two modest covers you'll find both food for thought and examples to be emulated. This was truly a colloquium where minds met and understand and purpose developed. Anyone engaged in teaching English grammar will find many years of resources in The Power of Grammar, whether that teaching is in a classroom or a home. The Power of Grammar is a powerhouse in and of itself.

Very highly recommended.

The Dragon of Two Hearts
Book Two of the Star Trilogy

Donald Samson

Softbound

Regular Price: $14.99

Introductory Price: $13.50

The tale of the the Dragon Boy continues in The Dragon of Two Hearts! (Dragon Boy - Book One of the Star Trilogy is described here.)

Answering a call of distress, the knight Michael find the king of Gladur Nock surprisingly reluctant to be rid of the shadow of fear the dragon casts over his land. And then he meets Princess Aina, a warrior maiden who first imprisons men and then trains them to do battle against the dragon.

With whom should he align himself? And what chance does he stand anyway against a ruthless, violent, and remorseless dragon? What good has all his training with a Luck Dragon been to prepare him for this moment?

Find out in The Dragon of Two Hearts - rivetting reading for ages 9 and up.

Cancer Recovery Guide
15 Alernative and Complementary Strategies for Restoring Health

Jonathan Chamberlain

Softbound

Regular Price: $25.00

Introductory Price: $22.00

In Europe and the U.S., we have a forty to fifty percent chance of illness from cancer at some time in our life. So what do you do if you are diagnosed with the disease? The harshness of orthodox treatments (surgery, radiation and chemotherapy) are well-known. Their use is widespread, but their results are not very impressive. Faced with these options, informed patients are increasingly seeking alternative and complementary strategies to take control of healing their illness. This book provides an overview of those options.

Jonathan Chamberlain watched his wife suffer and eventually die—both from her cancer and from the direct effects of the orthodox treatments she had undergone. His experience led to a journey in search of other methods of overcoming cancer. What he discovered stunned him. There are many alternative and/or complementary remedial approaches out there—dozens of them—many offering very good chances of recovery.

In Cancer Recovery Guide, Chamberlain presents fifteen simple and practical strategies for becoming well again. These strategies are grouped into three families—those that relate to the mind and the emotions (did you know stress makes cancers more aggressive?); those that address the health of the whole body (cancer cannot survive in a tissue environment that is truly healthy); and those that focus on attacking cancerous tumors directly.

The personal stories cited throughout Cancer Recovery Guide testify to the therapeutic possibilities of the strategies presented.

Contents:

• Introduction: Understanding the Basics
  
  
• Embrace Hope - Cancer is Curable
• Harness the Healing Power of the Mind
• Love and Forgive Yourself and Others
• Relax and Laugh
• Detox the Body
• Oxidize the Body
• Alkalize the Body
• Empower the Body
• Feed the Body with the Right Nutrients
• Cut the Cancer's Energy Supply
• Interfere with the Cancer Cell's DNA
• Induce Cancer Cell Suicide
• Attack the Tumour
• Attack the Causes of Cancer
• Open Yourself to Possibilities

The Timeless Storyteller
A Study of the Parables in the Gospels

Evelyn Francis Capel

Softbound

Regular Price: $18.95

Introductory Price: $17.50

Originally, Christ told the parables to crowds gathered by the lakeside in Galilee, to his disciples in private, and even to his opponents. These parables grow from age to age as human consciousness develops, revealing as little or as much as we are able and ready to hear. In The Timeless Storyteller, Capel considers twelve of Christ's parables in a way suitable for our time.

The Bee Book

Jakob Streit

Softbound

Regular Price: $10.00

Introductory Price: $9.00

Streit’s father was a beekeeper and it was in early childhood that Jakob developed a passion for the honeybee. This exquisite reader factually and scientifically allows one to enter into the magic and mysterious world of the bees.

The Bee Book offers a beautiful transition from the Animal and Human Being lesson block of Grade 4 to the Botany lesson block of Grade 5 - and would be an appropriate reader for those grade level.

Little Bee Sunbeam

Jakob Streit

Softbound

Regular Price: $10.00

Introductory Price: $9.00

This story reader for younger children relates the adventures of a honeybee named Little Bee Sunbeam. The little bee is in a search for a particularly good nectar to make honey when it suddenly becomes very cold. Honeybees cannot fly when the temperature drops so abruptly and our little bee must spend the night alone in the forest where an exciting adventure unfolds.

I would recommend it for Grade 5 as a reader based on the level of vocabulary used - it also fits in beautlifully with the Botany lesson block. For grades 3 and up, it can be used as a story to be read by an adult.

Making a Family Home

Shannon Honeybloom

Photographs by Skip Hunt

Softbound

Regular Price: $20.00

Introductory Price: $18.00

Making a Family Home is a book of real beauty, one both personal and universal. In describing her home and family life, Shannon Honeybloom shows how she made—and how we can make—a house into a real home as she shares her own efforts, hopes, and lessons in making a safe and healthy home that provides warmth and intimacy for the whole family.

One small cautionary note from my own life: the author's home is beautiful and warm. It is also large and requires a level of prosperity that not all of us have when raising our children. I raised my children in homes that ranged from tiny houses to apartments (also tiny) to rental houses and at that time I might well have looked at the author's home and decided that her suggestions were beyond my means.

I'd like to say clearly that although not everyone can live in such a house, we can all make such a home. It is not at all beyond the means of most parents to use whatever space they have in ways that nurture their children and their family life - and it is here that the author's suggestions coupled with the beautiful photographs can be a real help. If you look to the detail and the spirit of what is being said, what emerges are hundreds of ways we can do little things that have large, heartwarming results. And believe me, your children will thrive in the midst of it.

I very highly recommend and applaud Shannon Honeybloom's contribution to the health of families everywhere.

The Waldorf Book of Breads

Collected by Marsha Post

Illustrated by Jo Valens

Edited and Introduced by Winslow Eliot

Spiralbound

Regular Price: $14.95

Introductory Price: $13.95

What child doesn’t like to feel and knead bread dough, watch it rise, and then taste it fresh from the oven? Not only is enormous fun for everyone, it is also invaluable to young children as they grow into our world.

These recipes have been handed down by grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and friends. They are easy to follow and encourage the baker, young and older alike, to use the best possible ingredients, making bread once again the healthy “staff of life” it once was. The Waldorf Book of Breads includes tasty breads for the daily table and specialty breads for the seasons and special occasions.

And, like the Waldorf Kindergarten Snack Book and the Waldorf Book of Soups, The Waldorf Book of Breads is spiral-bound, so it lies flat to make life in the kitchen a little easier.

Under the Sky
Playing, Working and Enjoying Adventures in the Open Air

A Handbook for Parents, Carers and Teachers

Sally Schweizer

Softbound

Regular Price: $25.00

Introductory Price: $23.00

Sally Schweizer presents a fresh world of possibilities for children in both urban and rural areas, opening doors to expanded experiences of life in the open air. Packed with anecdotes, games and practical activities, Under the Sky is a vibrant resource for parents, teachers and carers.

What can children do outside? How about singing, whittling, chatting, climbing, digging, and making dens? They can build, run, watch small creatures, count tree rings, listen to stories, perform puppet plays, learn woodworking, and investigate the many forms of bark. Outside, children can enjoy quiet conversations or make a big noise, be alone or be with others. And that's just the beginning ...

Under the Sky is an invaluable guide for everyone who wants to help children cultivate play and imagination. It features ideas for planning expeditions and adventures, toys and equipment, and activities for the four seasons and the four elements! It includes plans, tips and advice on child-friendly outdoor design, materials, surfaces, seating, gardening, pets, wildlife—even campfires, picnics and train journeys. Under the Sky also includes a chapter on how educators can work toward formal “early years” government goals.

Well, I Wonder
Childhood in the Modern World

A Handbook for Parents, Carers, and Teachers

Sally Schweizer

Softbound

Regular Price: $27.00

Introductory Price: $24.50

In our modern world, imagination, play, wonder, and even fun itself are in danger of being left behind. We have surrounded children with technology and early learning, television and computer games, and then top that off with premature intellectualization, early reading, and tests.

Sally Schweizer calls for a reevaluation of childhood and an awakening to the real needs of children. Being a mother of four and having spent more thirty years in education (as a kindergarten teacher, teacher trainer, and advisor), she is qualified to ask the hard questions and offer real solutions. Well, I Wonder is packed with practical suggestions, anecdotes, humor, and delightful quotes from Schweizer’s students. Her approach is based on the study and practice of Rudolf Steiner’s educational philosophy, as well as personal, firsthand knowledge gained from long experience.

The author guides us through the stages of childhood development, explaining children’s need for daily rhythm, movement, and play. She emphasizes the importance of guarding children’s imagination and the significance of festivals and celebrations. She offers helpful tips and wise advice throughout this well-illustrated book, which also features an eight-page color section on the evolution of children’s drawings.

Saint Francis and the Wolf

Retold by Jane Langton

Illustrated by Ilse Plume

Hardbound, dust jacketed

Regular Price: $16.95

Introductory Price: $15.95

One of the most beloved tales of St. Francis is that of the Wolf of Gubbio. This gently illustrated retelling of the story is exquisite in its grace and warmth, and it's voice is just right for such a story.

The great wolf of Gubbio was a ferocious creature who terrorized the town and was slowly reducing its people to penury and starvation. In nearby Assisi, Brother Francis heard of their plight and came to their rescue. Unbelievingly, the villagers watched from the ramparts as Brother Francis called to the wolf, tamed it with his tenderness, and made it pledge that if the people of Gubbio would care for him, he would do them no harm. The great wolf took the pledge and lived in harmony with the citizens of the city until its death.

Included also as inside leaves is Francis's Canticle to the Sun.

This is altogether a lovely book - for children ages 5 and older.

Sexuality, Partnership and Marriage
from a Spiritual Perspective

Wolfgang Gädeke

Regular Price: $30.00

Introductory Price: $27.00

I, for one, braced myself for a rather staid book by a priest (Gädeke is a priest in North Germany). It is not that at all! Sexuality, Partnership and Marriage takes an incredibly candid, straightforward look at some of the most highly-charged issues facing modern men and women. What is healthy sexuality? Are marriage and monogamy still relevant? For everyone? What is the significance of partnership? How does it differ from marriage, or does it? There are wonderful, real-life, love-filled insights and advice between these covers that, because they are so real will be very helpful to many people.

Biodynamic Gardening for Health and Taste

Hilary Wright

Regular Price: $35.00

Introductory Price: $30.00

What a beautiful, useful, mouthwatering book this is! This is one of the most well-presented gardening books ever to have been printed, and the very clearest explanation of how to garden biodynamically that has ever been written. Truly, this is the book that, whether they know it or not, gardeners all over the world have been waiting for.

What captures my heart the most about Hilary Wright's book is that she writes engagingly about biodynamics, the earth's rhythms, gardens, gardening, compost, and while holding your attention as if you were reading a page-turner, she weaves a picture of all of this (and more) being one thing, a whole. She does this in a way that is not just immediately comprehensible (it is most certainly that), it is also crystal clear that gardening within the unity of nature and using biodynamic methods is just not difficult. It's not difficult to make compost (she shows you several ways). It's not difficult to use the preps you need (i.e., the homeopathic preparations used in biodynamics), it's not hard to tend your garden and protect it in wholesome ways, and it's absolutely no problem finding ways to enjoy eating what you grow.

In other words, in addition to pulling it all together and making it clear, Hilary Wright has made biodynamics do-able by any gardener who wants to garden.

So grab your spade and digging fork, your seed packets and trog baskets, and head out into the world of nature that is your garden, no matter how big or small, whether in the soil itself of containers. The harvest you reap will be so much more than the wonderful vegetables you can grow.

The Book of Camp-Lore & Woodcraft

Daniel C. Beard

Regular Price: $12.95

Introductory Price: $10.50

This is the fourth "handy book" by Dan Beard, the founder of the American Scouting movement, who believed that having boys build things with their hands was not only a detriment to making mischief, but also the basis for building great lives. Today, I would hasten to add that it's not such a bad idea for girls, either. In this belief, Beard was indefatigable, and every Scout worth his merit badge was expected to read his classic tract on camp-lore and woodcraft.

This is my favorite among the handy books, though the Field and Forest Handy Book comes in a close second. In Camp-Lore, he takes boys on a camping trip and instructs them in the art of building a fireplace and lighting a fire, designing a campsite, cooking flapjacks (not to mention muskrats and porcupines), packing a trail horse, pitching a tent and handling an axe. His texts were successful, and continue to be successful, because they threw boys back to their own devices, encouraged initiatives, and gave a convincing argument that the outdoors provided excitement and could be enjoyed by anyone who took the time to prepare.

We need more of this in our world and our children need more of this in their lives. I hope there are many children who are given the gift of being able to put to hand many of the things in this and Beard's other books. It's "just the ticket" to the healing of so much that ails us.

Eighteen Days Till Home

Shirley Latessa

Softbound

Regular Price: $25.00

Introductory Price: $22.50

Eighteen Days Till Home is just the sort of novel I like -- it's an engaging story that beckons you to turn just one more page and keeps you coming back as often as possible; at the same time, woven into its well-written and entertaining text is an invitation into realms much deeper than the surface of the tale, realms of soul and angels, of life and death, of love.

In short, it's a practically-perfect novel: great reading without being mere entertainment.

Here's a synopsis of the story:

Unable to reconcile hereself to the deaths of her husband and her eldest daughter, poet Elizabeth Layton is teetering on the edge of an emotional abyss. To keep her from excessive mourning, her sister and brother pressure Elizabeth into going on a museum sponsored trip to the Aegean. This becomes a journey of healing, self-discovery and spiritual awakening. Against a background of ancient and exotic settings, Elizabeth meets Paul, a fellow traveler and lifelong student of Anthroposophy, who helps her understand her life in ways she never imagined; and Eric, who brings with him the challenges of love.

Diagnostic and Therapeutic Elements in Light-Darkness-Color
Research on Different Types of Depression

Chantal Bernard and Janny Mager

Regular Price: $19.95

Introductory Price: $17.95

The goal of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Elements in Light-Darkness-Color is to show how Liane Collot d'Herbois's understanding of the therapeutic uses of painting can provide the basis for precise, complete and reliable diagnosis of a patient's condition with regard to different symptoms of depression.

Using this diagnosis, it is possible to create a therapeutic plan in collaboration with a doctor that is specific to an individual's particular needs.

Part 1 uses Collot d'Herbois' lecture by the same title to develop a basis of understanding of the human constitution in relation to its spiritual, soul, etheric and physical parts. The authors present a conception of pathology from two essential notions: the formation of foreign bodies and the tendency to an illness similar to congenital consumption. They also offer some general elements as to how to conduct a therapy.

Part 2 shows how these elements correspond directly to the conceptions of the human being in health or illness according to the Collot d'Herbois' approach.

Part 3 demonstrates through analysis of free pictures by the patients in charcoal and in color how we can begin to establish a diagnosis in relation to the two pathological tendencies describes. The the elements of diagnosis and therapy are assembled for the different types of depression related to the cardinal organs.

Hawthorne Valley Harvest
A Collection of Plays for the Elementary Grades

Compiled by William Ward

Regular Price: $22.00

Introductory Price: $20.00

Hawthorne Valley Harvest is a collection of 23 plays spanning the full elementary school grades and including a Michaelmas Pageant for the entire school. The author offers teachers practical suggestions for preparing a play with children for production.

Contents:

First Grade

• "The Light Child" by Andree Ward
• "The White Snake" by Ariana Hays
• "The Devil with Three Golden Hairs" by William Ward
• "The Six Servants" by Jolene Jackson
• "Snow White" by William Ward

Second Grade

• "The Voyage of Saint Brendan" by Kevin Kilb
• "Saint Jerome and the Lion" by William Ward
• "Odelia and Aldaric" by Laura Summer
• "Saint George and the Dragon" by Claire McConnell
• Saint Martin Legend by William Ward
• "Saint Martin's Pageant" by William Ward
• "Jumping Mouse" by Patrice Maynard

Third Grade

• "Passover Celebration" by William Ward
• "The Maccabees" by Patrice Maynard
• "Joseph and His Brothers" by William Ward
• "Moses" by William Ward

Fourth Grade

• "The Forging of the Sampo" by Kevin Kilb
• "The Death of Baldur" by William Ward

Fifth Grade

• "The Epic of Gilgamesh" by Gloria Kemp
• "Zarathustra: The Golden Star" by Jolene Jackson

Sixth Grade

• "The Peacemaker" by Beatrice Cohen
• "The Sacred Flame" by William Ward

Fifth-Eighth Grades

• Michaelmas Pageant Introduction by William Ward
• "Michaelmas Pageant" by William Ward

The Falconer
A Story of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen

Christopher Sblendorio

Regular Price: $10.00

Introductory Price: $9.00

Federico II was a fascinating man in whom it seems that much of the Middle Ages, its greatness and its turmoil, were gathered up into one person. Christopher Sblendorio, a class teacher at the Great Barrington Waldorf School, has written this beautiful biography of the man who became the Holy Roman Emperor during the early 13th Century. It is frankly all too rare to find a book for students that is so very well researched and equally well written as is The Falconer.

Splendorio's biography does what every biography should do: it approaches its subject with what I'll call a compassionate objectivity that looks at as many facets of the life that was lived as are possible to know about. The story moves along like an exciting novel, the portrait of Federico becoming richer and more alive with each turn of the page.

This wonderful book could be read and enjoyed by anyone ages 11-12 and older. It was written with the author's 6th grade class in mind.

The Star Rider and Anna McLoon
Two Tales from Ireland

Retold by Jakob Streit

Translated by Nina Kuettel

Regular price: $8.00

Introductory Price: $7.50

These two tales, one believed to date from the 17th Century and the other from more recent times, were collected by Jakob Streit and a friend while in Ireland.

The first story, "The Star Rider," is a legend about a young man who comes to learn of a dreadful destiny said to be laid upon him by the position of the stars at the moment of his birth. It is a story of uprightness and acceptance, of injustice that is turned to right through the honesty of both accused and judge. It is a truly beautiful story with a warm, heart-opening ending.

The second tale, "Anna McLoon," tells the story of Ireland's last travelling storyteller, her life and the tales she told. It also speaks of a deeper connectedness to the rhythms of the world and life and death themselves.

I very much appreciate the rich and gentle translation that Nina Kuettel has provided us - her words echo the beauty of these stories in a lovely way.

As a reader, this would be good around 6th grade or later. The stories could be told a bit earlier, but there is a depth to them that will be better appreciated by older students and adults.