The Reading Corner.

[Rusty Edge]

Yeah. They are meant for boys about 10 or 12 and up. So they aren't that difficult, except for a few period words thrown in for authenticity,  like "ague" for fever sickness, as an example.
Usually 250 to 300 some pages (iirc). I had some down time in waiting rooms yesterday.

I want some practice writing reviews for these books before I submit anything to Amazon, so feedback is appreciated. The books are often alike, sort of like different episodes of a popular tv series. The challenge is to figure out how to express each book to make it appealing.

My wife asked me if my Dad used to read these to me, and if that's what got me to love reading. No, I wanted to read before I could start school. That honor goes to "If I ran the Zoo" by Dr. Seuss.

 I explained that I remembered that his favorite authors were Howard Pease, who wrote stories about the merchant marine ( my dad joined the navy ), and Stephen Meader , who wrote his favorite book, "Bulldozer". I found "Bulldozer" in the Jr-Sr high school library in  7th grade, when school  began a week or so after his funeral. It was a way to bond with him.
There were a few more books on the shelf, and I was able to order in a couple of others through the county library system over the summer.


The guy who publishes them now read them as a boy and they inspired him to become successful. He was looking for a copy of one to give to his grandson, but they were hard to find once they were purged from the school and public libraries. His search led him to the author's son, and he wound up buying the rights and photocopying one of the famous stories page by page in order to re-publish. It was costly.

As it happens, that particular book, "T-Model Tommy" was about a kid who turned a lawn mowing business into a trucking company during the Great Depression. The publisher has heard from a reader who said the book inspired him to do the same thing. Some of the other books have had a similar affect on people, so I guess it's a small cult following now, although Meader  was very popular in his lifetime, and was often asked to speak.

As for the library purges, well, the books were worn. Also, some of the portrayals of minorities are considered stereotypes now. I think that's to be expected since he published his books between 1920-1969, and he was sometimes writing about times before he was born, all the way back to colonial America . What I think is more important, is that the main characters treated them respectfully.

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay; you need to find ten or more different ways to say "Americanism at it's best!" if you don't want that to be a signature line - also, minority readers may (mistakenly) find it to be another code for 'Whites only'.  Excellent reviews otherwise, that give me an idea of that the book's about, sorta the tone, and an idea whether I might like it (I loved this kind of thing as a boy, so yes, if they're actually still good at my age.)

Is there any way to make money on those Amazon reviews?

[Rusty Edge]

I haven't decided the review format yet, whether I'll use a tag line for example.

I don't know if there's a way to make money from Amazon reviews, unless you're selling something. If you are selling something, there's certainly money to be made writing ad copy, wherever.

I'm reading "Bulldozer" now. This was a contemporary story in it's day.

[Valka]

Okay; you need to find ten or more different ways to say "Americanism at it's best!" if you don't want that to be a signature line - also, minority readers may (mistakenly) find it to be another code for 'Whites only'.  Excellent reviews otherwise, that give me an idea of that the book's about, sorta the tone, and an idea whether I might like it (I loved this kind of thing as a boy, so yes, if they're actually still good at my age.)

Is there any way to make money on those Amazon reviews?

Yeah, anything that smacks of "USA#1" is an instant turnoff for me. Canada has its own pioneering history, and my grandfather used to have a sawmill in British Columbia before he settled in Alberta. I've run across far too many obnoxious people online who think we have no history or culture - there's a really old thread from sometime in 2005 in the Civ IV section of CFC where I got into an argument with some people about that.

As for making money (or anything else)... if you sign up with Library Thing, you can sometimes get free books to review (you get to keep the book). It's basically a lottery, though, as every month there's an Early Reviewers List that's sent out to everyone and you can request a copy of any or all of the books available for your country. After that, it's just a matter of waiting to see if you're chosen.

I'd sure be fascinated to know just how many people are writing under the name "Harriet Klausner" on Amazon. I doubt there really is such a person, as the sheer number of reviews published under that name would require more reading each and every day of the year than any one person could possibly do (if you subscribe to the belief that a reviewer should actually have read at least part of what they're reviewing).

[Rusty Edge]

Thanks for the input, Valka.

Actually, he wrote one non-fiction book about a Canadian family that trapped from dogsleds, traveled by canoe, kept a fisher as a pet, and made moose hide moccasins.  Basically a diary transformed into a novel. I think that was in the 1930s.

[Buster's Uncle]

Canadianism at its beast!

[Rusty Edge]

Stephen W. Meader was a social worker who wrote books for boys, 6th grade and up, in order to broaden their horizons. He wanted them to have a sense of the scale and variety of the country, from sea to sea. He wanted them to learn about the past and see progress, and be able to look to the future and see opportunity. His books are mostly fun and inspirational.

Bulldozer was a contemporary story set in Maine and 1st published in 1951, and my Dad's favorite book. The main character  Bill Crane, recently graduated from high school, and his former neighbor, "Ducky" Davis ( based upon the author's son, Steve Jr. ), a mechanic recently discharged from the Army, go on a fishing trip together to celebrate. Luckily, they discover a small bulldozer which fell through the ice into the lake a few months ago. They  manage to get ownership, recover it, and get it running with Bill's savings and Ducky's know-how. Not easily, but affordably.

As the only son of a deceased father and a feeble mother, college is out of the question for Bill. He finds work for his Bulldozer, and gains experience and reputation pulling stumps and other odd jobs for farmers. He learns, or is forced to learn about estimates, records, and budgets. He and Ducky find an opportunity, a housing development, and a used attachment that would allow him to dig basements. Bill arranges to buy the equipment, get a loan, and bid on the project.

At this point he faces adversity from the big competition. The banker leaks Bill's bid intentions from his loan proposal to the region's primary construction contractor,  one of the bank's biggest customers.  An operator from that company tries to intimidate Bill, and then sabotage his dozer by removing a nut. The guy was caught trying to plant dynamite on it, but the local constable was the operator's buddy, and let him slide.

Bill's luck turns worse- rain delays, rock ledges undetected by test holes, and that rival operator getting the guy drunk Bill hired to blast out the rock. Bill perseveres and prevails.

He uses profits to buy a war surplus bomb carrier to haul the dozer with his Plymouth, thanks to a 2nd transmission installed by Ducky. He gets a shed for hauling it away. He buys a farm plow he'd been renting. He does a variety of other interesting work with the dozer - fighting fires, logging, building a pond.

Lessons learned are that if you always try to do the right things, you can use your friends and reputation to get through bad luck and adversity when you're willing to stick it out.

Does he capture a wanted arsonist? Rescue his girlfriend? Prove himself? Get the big contract? Buy another dozer and take Ducky on as a partner? Well, mostly.

And my Dad? He never went into  construction, but when he got out of the Navy he used what he learned as a paymaster to go into banking. There he advanced rapidly by helping people make their money work for them, becoming the youngest bank president in the history of the county, and making my hometown the place with the highest deposits per person in the state.

It's a great book for reading, sharing, or gifting.

What do you think about this one, Buncle? Is it too long?

[Buster's Uncle]

No, depending on the venue.  -That's not terribly long for a good Amazon review or anything.

What I think you mean to say with "Americanism at it's best!" is old-fashioned bildungsroman boys adventure like they don't make anymore - sorta.  Find a catchy way to put that in your own words if you want a catchphrase/signature line.  Find ten different short ways to phrase it if you don't.  Nothing wrong with either approach.

[Valka]

You should keep any discussion of plot points vague, as some people really don't like spoilers. Reviews are not the place to tell the story, just whether or not you liked the story and why.

Somebody reviewed Harper Lee's sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird the other day on CBC.ca... and promptly revealed a couple of things that should have been left for the reader to find out on his/her own. As a result, I for one am not going to buy the book, at least not retail. Maybe in a library sale years from now. I'd have to think on it.

[Rusty Edge]

Stephen W. Meader was a social worker who wrote books for boys, 6th grade and up, in order to broaden their horizons. He wanted them to have a sense of the scale and variety of the country, from sea to sea. He wanted them to learn about the past and see progress, and be able to look to the future and see opportunity. His books are easy to read, fun and inspirational. Great for reading, sharing, and gifting. This is one I enjoyed as a boy and again as an adult.

"T-Model Tommy" was a contemporary story set in western New Jersey, Philadelphia and the Poconos, and the city of New York.   1st published in 1938 during the depths of the Great Depression, it was very likely Meader's most inspirational book. The main character  Tommy Ballard, recently graduated from high school, was inspired by Steve Jr., the author's mechanically gifted son ( who really did scrounge together a model T  during the depression so he'd have something to drive ) and a chum of his who really did start up a trucking business in those difficult days.

Tommy is the only child of a widowed, sickly, nervous mother. He's a feisty red-head. Now it's up to him to support her, and he tries many things to make ends meet. Coaching football, moving a family to a new home, pumping gas, hauling coal, mushroom soil, gravel, and produce. Horse-trading trucks and even mowing lawns, too.  Some of these ventures were more educational than profitable.

It isn't easy. Illness and break-downs have to be dealt with. There are strikers, hijackers, and the time-wasting weigh stations of the highway patrol to be avoided, if possible. Not only that, his old football teammate, now playing for Yale, is after his girlfriend. To make matters worse, the guy has social status, is handsome, rich , and very condescending. 

My favorite episode in this book involves an antique hauling job. The road dust and a thunderstorm combine to cover the furniture with spots, in spite of the tarp. The antique dealer takes advantage of Tommy, and insists he polish all of the furniture on the load before he will pay him, because it's not in the same condition as when the dealer bought it.

 Tommy was counting on getting good recommendations from this job. He got mad, knowing he couldn't get any more jobs  hauling if this main street businessman bad mouthed him.  So he polished the furniture HARD. It shined back at him, and he decided that anything worth doing is worth doing well. He used elbow grease on the whole load, and it shined so much it made the rest of the furniture in the shop look shabby.
It made the dealer feel guilty, and not only did he pay Tommy , he hired him to polish the rest of the furniture in the store.

Good old fashioned Can Do spirit!

( How's that for a format, a review, and a tag line? )

[Buster's Uncle]

Not bad at all.

[Rusty Edge]

Thanks, Buncle!

Valka, what do you think?

[Rusty Edge]

 Stephen W. Meader was a social worker who wrote books for boys, 6th grade and up, in order to broaden their horizons. He wanted them to have a sense of the scale and variety of the country, from sea to sea. He wanted them to learn about the past and see progress, and be able to look to the future and see opportunity. His books are easy to read, fun and inspirational. Great for reading, sharing, and gifting. This one I didn't find until I was an adult.

"The Long Trains Roll" was a contemporary story set in central Pennsylvania, 1st published in 1944 during World War II. While the place names have been changed, railroaders and locals will likely recognize the Horseshoe Curve, Cresson Mountain, Juniata River, Hollidaysburg, etc.  The main character  Randy MacDougal, is a teenager from a railroading family, working on a track repair crew assigned to the Curve as a summer job. At this point in the war, the track crew is mostly boys, women, and old men. For that matter, the railroad has been stripped of healthy young men, and uses mostly older and unfit ones.

The book gives you an inside look at railroading in that era- the web of acquaintance among railroaders, their jargon, their jokes, and various work- on the track, in the office, control tower, roundhouse, caboose, and steam locomotive cabs. It also gives you a sense of the strategic importance of the four parallel tracks of Horseshoe Curve crossing the mountain. It connected Chicago, the national rail hub, with Philadelphia, New York, and all of the cities of the east coast from there. Trainloads of coal to supply the power plants and industrial production, oil for the war effort, food, weapons, supplies, and troops traversed the curve several times each day.

Since Randy is young and fit he is often sent to run along the track to flag down an approaching train if there is trouble ahead. He also gets involved in a sort of Hardy Boys style mystery with possible enemy spies and saboteurs. I won't spoil it.  It's not far-fetched. My grandfather was a fireman on that section of the Pennsylvania Rail Road during the war, and he told a story about a saboteur who'd cut a chain and turned a track switch. It would have crashed the train into a warehouse, but my grandfather spotted it in time, the engineer "dynamited it" ( threw the drive wheels  into reverse ) and they were able to stop short, although some of the wheels jumped the tracks in the middle of the train, causing a delay, but not a wreck. This got the railroad detectives involved.

My favorite episode in this book involves a speech by an army general who praises the short-handed railroaders of America for their  accomplishments of keeping the country running,  and getting the massive war production from the factories to the docks, moving the 10 million men from home to training camps to port, along with 8 tons of supplies each and a ton per month thereafter.

Good old fashioned Can Do spirit!

[Rusty Edge]

Okay. Using the T-Model Tommy approach I had 5 reviews go live today- Tommy, Bulldozer, Lumberjack, The Long Trains Roll, and Boy With a Pack.

Thanks, Buncle and Valka.

[Buster's Uncle]

Gonna be a star on Amazon, eh?