Steven Bauer (1)

This is a novel by an eminent poet, and it reads like it: the prose is simply delicious, a pure pleasure merely to read aloud to oneself. The tale itself is a curious mix of the deeply mythic and the mundane modern. A child can read it as a simple adventure story, but for an adult there are--besides the glorious language--resonances of all sorts, A few samples:

"Young one," she said. "Are you sick?"
"I don't think so," he said. "Do I look sick?"
"You certainly do," the crone said. "What's the show more matter?"
"All I feel is sad," Condor said. "It's like I have something growing inside me that wants to get out but can't."
"Indigestion," the crone said. "You're not chewing your food properly."
Condor shot her a disappointed glance. "I don't think this is something for you to joke about."

You had his wings broken."
"I admit it," the owl said. "The other animals might have learned from his example. My power is absolute, but illusory, much like your light. I assume those I rule won't understand my power is something which can be taken away from me."
"I hadn't known your penchant for the philosophical," the moon said. "But all the philosophy you could command can't change the fact of Maxwell's death."
"He was only one raven," the owl said.
"Yes," the moon said. "He was that."

"I followed you last night after you saved my life . . . ."
"Do me the favor of eschewing the melodrama," she said . . . .

Wise-cracking, philisophy and pain, and eloquence. Sounds like a good start, yes?

(More at http://greatsfandf.com/AUTHORS/StevenBauer.php) show less

Satire for all ages from 8 to 108. First chapter eerily evokes the political events shortly after 9/11, despite being written before the attacks. Funny, accessible, and just a tiny bit didactic.

This little gem perfectly illustrates what happens when unjust laws are obeyed.

This book is about a boy who on his sixth birthday hopes for a dog. He wants a dog so bad he starts pretending he is a dog even going so far as to live in a training school for dogs! This would be a good nap time book, and also a good lesson in having fun with imagination anything and just having fun with it.