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With an economy of line and focus on nature that has deep roots in the New England traditions of Thoreau and Robert Frost, Philip Booth writes poetry that evokes crystalline images of sea, woods, and fields and explores the timeless themes of love, uncertainty, and responsibility. With many of Booth's early works now out of print, Lifelines presents a unique opportunity to become reacquainted with one of the major voices in contemporary American poetry. ... Read more

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Lifelines
Phillip Booth pulls out the miracles of everyday life. Big philosophy in small poems; big lessons from our routines of the days. ... Read more

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This book explores Larkin's distinctive place within the poetry of the twentieth century. It includes discussion of Larkin's response to the academic professionalization of poetry fostered by "difficult" Modernism; his diverse poetry of love (in relation to the responses of the poems' addressees); his original development of the genres of reflective elegy and self-elegy; the key metaphor of the domestic interior; history versus historicism; the poetry of place ("here" or Hull); and the profane and sacred (focusing on his animal poems).
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"All who have succumbed to the allure of the railroad will be stopped in their own tracks by this eye-filling, show-stopping debut showcase." — KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review)

Start with a vintage poem by Philip Booth, whose rhythms recall the cadence of a moving freight train. Pair it with detailed realistic paintings by Bagram Ibatoulline that masterfully and dramatically capture an American freight train in its heyday, along with all the small-town denizens who stop to watch its crossing. What you have is a majestic picture book that will enthrall train enthusiasts of all ages and delight anyone who appreciates a heady dose of nostalgia.Amazon.com Review
It's one of childhood's most time-honored pursuits: counting cars while waiting at a train crossing. Celebrated poet Philip Booth has captured its appeal and unmistakable cadence with precision and wit, backed by the vibrant, nostalgic illustrations of Moscow-trained first-timer Bagram Ibatoulline.

The poem "Crossing" first appeared in Booth's 1957 debut collection, Letters from a Distant Land, so parents and grandparents might have an easier time than kids recognizing some of these freight carriers: "B&M boxcar, / boxcar again, / Frisco gondola, / eight-nine-ten, /Erie and Wabash, Seaboard, U.P., / Pennsy tankcar, twenty-two, three." But the rhythms remain the same, and even if the automobiles stopped at the crossing look like they hail from Havana, kids still won't be able to keep from counting the tankers and boxcars on this old-time steam engine.

Booth still lives in his childhood home, and he's clearly hung onto that wide-eyed perspective in his fast, loose language. Lucky for us it's been preserved and revived--and even enriched, thanks to Ibatoulline--in this sweet and well-executed adaptation. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

4 1/2Brilliant Piece of Americana
The 1953 poem by Philip Booth that serves as a series of word pictures was not originally intended for a children's book.However, broken into one and two line of 2-3 words per page(often including numbers), it works: It holds your attention, and mirrors the sights and sounds of the gigantic freight train depicted so brilliantly by Bagram Ibatoulline.

Still, there's no getting past the poetry, and that means that imagery and word sounds may predominate over an easily understood text. However, what imagery!It's muscular and choppy, dirty and noisy and industrial and chalk-through with a thoroughly American vernacular.

Youngstown steel
down to Mobile

on Rock Island track,

Ibatoulline's gouache pictures are on a grand scale, echoing the power and energy of the poem, yet he skillfully introduces a human element: Kids counting the freight cars going by, peering at each other both beneath and above opposite sides of the train, gazing and gaping at the contents; even a man with barely contained patience waiting for all 99 or more pieces of rolling thunder (including introductory engine and the concluding, chased-after caboose) to pass the old railroad crossing and head for points yonder. (Even adults may tend to wax poetic after reading this to their young audience!).

"fifty-nine, sixty,
hoppers of coke,
Anaconda copper,
hotbox smoke,

...Hiawatha,
Lackawanna,

rolling fast
and loose.

The beginning of the poem may seem little confusing, "...count the cars hauling distance through town," but that may be old railroading slang, or simply Booth's description of a railroad's work. You can read this wihtout pausing to think about the meanings and historic allusions, or adults and older readers can do some computer-aided research to track (pun intended)them down: "Frisco gondola," "Eric and Wabash," "Seaboard,"
"Phoebe Snow," "B&O..."I discovered, for example, that Phoebe Snow was a name used in advertising years ago, young singer Phoebe Laub adopted the name much later.

You prpbably know the kind of adult who buys a train set for his kids, but plays with it more than they do. THAT adult is gonna love this book. Your kids might also, if they're not old enough to want to learn the nuts and bolts of railroads and trains, and young enough to eat up the big, dramatic pictures, and the sound of your voice evoking, as Philip Booth does, the sights and sounds of an American masterpiece.

great pictures, not a story
I didn't enjoy reading this and my kids, 4 and 9 didn't seem to enjoy it either.The pictures are beautiful and you can talk to your kids about a story as you look at the pictures, but the actual narrative part of this story is simply a list of car names and places.It is not captivating or interesting and tells no story to follow along with.If you like illustrations however, you will still get some enjoyment out of a very well illustrated book.

My son is an absolute train nut.Much more enjoyable reading books include the "Little Red Train" series, "Steam Smoke and Steel", "Chugga Chugga Choo Choo" and even the sliding "Freight Car" Board book.

My son loves The Crossing!!
I purchased this book for my 5 year old son who LOVES trains.He enjoyed this book so much when he borrowed it from the library, that I just had to buy it for him.The illustrations are so life-like and the rhyming of the words made it easy for him to memorize in no time at all.It is his favorite bedtime story.For any child that love trains, this book is a must have!!

A visual treat for adults and kids
My two year old son is already a train junkie.He pulled this one at random off the shelf at our local library; we read it every night before bed.Sometimes we read the text, sometimes we just describe what is going on in the pictures.The text is a pleasant rhyme about the different kinds of cars on a long freight train (B&O box car, Frisco gondola, Pennsey tanker, etc), counting the cars as they go past the railroad crossing.It is the truly breathtaking artwork that makes this book a keeper--each page a different viewpoint of the railroad crossing scene, with the steam engine, a kid dragging his toy truck, a dog sleeping in the car window, different kinds of freight cars, a group of kids making faces at each other across the track...

Amazing illustrations!
I was so sad to see someone describe this book as "boring"!The incredible illustrations spark the imagination.My son loves the boys who can suddenly see each other over the short gondola car, the page where the children bend down and wave to each other under the train, the woman who makes the "ohmygoodness" face at the cow leaning out of the cattle car...we love this book because there is something to talk about on every page.It's our favorite bedtime story. ... Read more

Product Description
Booth's eighth poetry collection, with its evocations of compassion, tenderness and invading darkness, implies that redemption will come only from having loved well and wisely. PW remarked, "Booth is a traveler keenly, almost mystically, aware that 'how you get there is where you'll arrive.' " ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great American Poetry at its Best
Philip Booth is today's Robert Frost.Exploring not only the New England landscape but also his lifetime of experience living there, Booth proves that classic American poetry still exists.A scholar and professor, Booth is a too-often-overlooked poet who offers us much in his work and his study.All of his volumes are must-haves in my opinion, but "Selves" gives us a nice collection of some of his best.This book, along with "Trying to Say It," should be on the shelf of any poet or lover of poetry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Adorable, Fictional Account of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Stern tells his story as though he were writing a novel, complete with dialogue and imagined scenes between his "characters."As such his book will be quite useless to conventional researchers, however, his narrative is certainly entertaining and helps to show the evolving 20th century misconceptions about the Lincoln assassination and John Wilkes Booth.

Kara Sowles & Suzanne Davies ... Read more

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The book opens with works written under the pseudonym 'Brunette Coleman', including the two novellas, Trouble at Willow Gables and Michaelmas Term at St Bride's, and the poem sequence Sugar and Spice. The remainder of the volume is devoted to the unfinished drafts of two novels, No For An Answer and A New World Symphony, on which Larkin worked after the completion of A Girl in Winter. It ends with two short debats of 1950 and 1951, which pungently dramatise his sense of failure as a novelist and his rejection of marriage. ... Read more

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An introduction to development control, a topic of interest to students of planning or urban studies, with a comparative flavour, drawing particularly on the USA, France and Hong Kong. ... Read more

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This monograph surveys the results of government intervention in the market for retirement income provision throughout the world. The authors begin by looking at high-income democracies in which governments have, to a large degree, taken over the function of providing pensions. They find that state provision crowds out private provision and places a considerable fiscal burden on developed country governments. This fiscal burden is then combined with complex regulatory systems that are imposed on the private sector and which make pensions incomprehensible. Furthermore, as the authors show, the ageing populations may make meaningful reform of government pensions programmes impossible, as 'grey' electors flex their muscles. The authors find the same patterns in middle-income and low-income countries. State pension systems are often found hand-in-hand with a lack of security, partly because of the problems of corruption and inflation. The state frequently does its best to crowd out private initiative, but, where they are allowed to, families make provision for retirement in all sorts of ingenious ways. The authors reject the World Bank blueprint of formal, structured pension systems.They suggest instead that governments focus on ensuring that the legal and financial infrastructure exists to allow people to make proper provision for their retirement. So-called 'market failure' will always ensure that the result is imperfect. But, by comparison, government failure around the world has had catastrophic effects. ... Read more

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Just who among us... would have the courage to simply walk away from wealth and social prominence to search for true love, happiness and a loftier set of values...? ... Read more

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Citizen involvement and the concept of partnership in urban governance has long been a major issue in the transformation of local democracy. The move from delegated to participative forms of local government has, in principle, profound consequences for governance at the scale of cities. However, it is clear that partnership and participation are interpreted in many different ways, according to the traditions of government in different countries. This volume brings together the experience of three countries in which very different approaches to participation are evident: Canada, France and the United Kingdom. By comparing and reflecting on these countries' approaches and the resulting changes in governance, it provides an in-depth analysis of the intentions and effects of involving citizens in policy making. It also highlights innovative new forms of partnership that are emerging within metropolitan areas at a local level. ... Read more