inquire Books

There are a plethora of books out about inquiry, the hot new buzzword in science education. This one has real substance. As a scientist, I think Llewellyn captures the true nature of science inquiry. As a teacher and professional developer, I especially like the self-assessments and rubrics to help make the transition from traditional practice to inquiry-based practice in the classroom. I use it so often that I keep losing it because I am always lending it to someone. This book will be useful to anyone who teaches science and wants to reach more kids more effectively.

Ambitious Abbey Garner spends a lot of her time hard at work at her great-grandmother Granny Po's quaint though struggling beauty shop. It's all part of her MBTF plan; Abbey has vowed to make a million dollars before she is thirty-five so she can be financially independent and not follow in her family's tradition of getting pregnant young with the wrong man. When Gena, a posh young woman, decides to rent the beauty shop and turn it into a modern spa, Abbey is both excited and little apprehensive. She fears losing her job, but once Gena assures Abbey that her employment is guaranteed, Abbey realizes that she will be able to make some real money. But Abbey's carefully constructed plans are altered when Abbey's mother, who abandoned her four years earlier, reenters Abbey's life. Abbey must learn to see though the lies and figure out who her family really is.

There is something so down-to-earth about Beauty Shop for Rent that makes the story so likeable. The characters have no shame, which was sometimes a little shocking but mostly refreshing because of their honesty. I loved how all of the characters were nicely developed, especially Abbey and Granny Po, who were my favorite characters. I also loved watching Abbey mature through the story. All the characters' connections were easy to understand. I really loved Abbey's family of friends, because though each contrasted another slightly, they all fit together perfectly. Laura Bowers wrote this story in a way that even though specific years and locations are given, it seem that this story could happen anytime and anyplace. I had a hard time believing Beauty Shop for Rent was a debut novel because it was so incredibly well-written.

Fans of Stephanie Kuehnert's I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone will also enjoy Abbey's coming-of-age story in Beauty Shop for Rent. I definitely recommend this funny, cute, and beautiful story to all readers.

Kudos to a new author. This is a great book for any age reader. You will relate to these people and situations. The characters and settings are so real and believeable that you feel like you know them. It could be your neighborhood and your friends. The book was at times heartbreaking, and at times heartwarming. There were times when I was angry with some of the characters because I know how mean teens can be to each other. You know that you have known people who have been in these same situations. The mother who can't deal with life, the daughter who feels deserted by both parents and the older women who take a young person under their wings to give her all the love and support needed by a teenage girl. You will love this book.

I picked this book up after my then-13 year old read it cover to cover in less than a week. This was the longest book she had ever tackled, and when she finished it that quickly, and gave it a thumbs up, I knew it was a keeper!

I thought I might be bored since my 13 year old thought it was so good, but I actually found myself very interested in the story, the characters, and how it was going to end. I think that's the beauty of it - what you think might just appeal to kids really has themes we can all identify with.

I think this is a great story, and I hope the author continues to bring out new books. I will definitely be watching (and waiting anxiously!!!) for the next one!

This beautiful debut from Laura Bowers infuses horses, charm, family and mother-daughter dynamics that all come together in BEAUTY SHOP. I read the book in one evening and couldn't put it down. The most heartbreaking scenes between Abbey and her mother are pennned so well that I felt inside the room. I'll be looking for Bowers' next book.

There is nothing like Polly's Parlor, where a free dose of gossip comes with a manicure.

For Abbey Garner, her great-grandmother's old-fashioned beauty shop and the familiar elderly customers are home and family to Abbey ever since her mother left her several years ago. Now fourteen-year-ld Abbey works alongside her great-grandmother, Granny Po, giving perms and haircuts and investing her earnings towards her goal of becoming a millionaire before the age of thirty-five.

But in the last few years, the outdated Polly's Parlor hasn't been doing too well due to competition from more modern beauty salons. In fact, Granny Po has been trying to rent out the beauty shop, but nobody has been interested...until now. Gena is a fun and ambitious woman with big plans to turn the beauty shop into a friendly modern-day spa. Can the beauty shop be transformed and still remain Abbey's home?

In addition, between work, high school, and thinking about boys, Abbey is also worrying about her fragile, depressed mother. When she shows up for a surprise visit, Abbey's world is about to be turned completely upside down.

BEAUTY SHOP FOR RENT is the story of a girl growing up and trying to find a place in the world. Realistic, yet humorous, this is a satisfying novel that I'm sure many readers will be able relate to.

Reviewed by: Safia Abdul

I have a granddaughter who is Down. She absolutely loves the pictures in this book. We are teaching her to just love books, and she is four now, so I look for books at this time with wonderful pictures of things she can find outside in the world. Trista and I enjoy this book very much.

To the person who didn't like this journal, you may find it helpful if you also had the small book, by the same title, Inquire Within.
I found the book first...and the journal quite by accident :) and felt that it would help to spark my creative process.
Since I have only purchased M.E. books (some of my favorites!) and this is the first M.E. journal for me, I was happy to find it. I do like the spiral bound feature :) and I would probably enjoy it more, if the pages were not of a color (peach) and if there were some blank page (with-out lines) for sketching :)

I was very disappointed after experiences w/other journals writen by ME to find this was really a blank journal with a few scattered thoughts. It is spiral bound and easy to use, but I had expected more from her. If you merely want a place to write this will be more than adequate, but I expected thought provoking questions and the like.

NOVA took on the question of whether psychiatry is really science ("Freud Under Analysis"). Why? Because psychiatry, although polemic, has enough substance to it to deserve criticism. I don't expect to see a NOVA on "Astrology Under Analysis."

General Semantics (GS), and its founder Alfred Korzybski, have enough substance to them to warrant attack. Max Black, Martin Gardner, Steven Pinker, and other bright, sincere attackers have delivered their criticisms of GS. Having read Dr. Bruce Kodish's defense of GS against the attackers ("Contra Max Black" 1998), I feel if Korzybski were alive today he'd be patting Kodish on the back and urging him to "Give them another whack!"

But GS is a philosophy opposed to fundamentalism and intolerance. How does a tolerant person defend anything? The answer is in the book's title: with daring inquiry. The inquiry part says "Here are my beliefs, tentative though they are." The daring part is selling one's ideas with the best logic one can muster without being fundamentalist. Kodish excells in both.

Speaking of "Dare to Inquire," he says "In it I give my present responses to some perennial questions about the nature of the world and of humans, the role of science in society, the 'meaning' and purpose of life, and how we humans can get along with one another. Whether or not you agree with my conclusions, I hope they inspire you , the reader, as you formulate answers for yourself." Now THAT's tolerant and undogmatic! That's Inquiry. Now to the Daring.

Kodish attacks fundamentalism with a fervor. He reminds me of William Perry's concept of the "committed relativist"--one who knows he doesn't have the only map of the territory, but who champions his map against less-well-thought-out ones. And his map is a modern cornucopia of GS tachniques (abstracting, non-allness, indexing, etc.) applied to perception, mathematics, politics...and even religion.

I (and probably you) don't hold to some of Kodish's conclusions. But that's just content. His process is impressive. Were I on the staff of NOVA I wouldn't produce the episode "General Semantics Under Analysis" without Dr. Kodish's consulting advice.

Bob Eddy

There is an old Zuni Indian saying that there are no truth, only stories.

Bruce Kodish seems to have lost track of what is one of the most important statement of General Semantics: "The Map is not the territory."

While Mr. Kodish is eager to point out what he perceives as others' failings (i.e. mistaking the map for the territory) the author is all too willingly and self-conplacently loosing track of his own shortcomings in this matter. A major focus of General Semantics is that what we perceive to be fact and reality is only a portion or one aspect of reality. A thing the author does make sure to remind us of but then quickly forgets as he proceeds to present to his readers HIS view of the world.

The world is what it is. We can make all kinds of maps and models of how the world works, and some of them can be very useful, and we can talk about them with great benefit. But the models and maps and any words one can put together can never do more than approximate the actual world or the actual phenomena being examined. The actual territory is beyond verbal description.

Bruce Kodish would have us believe that his own political/ideological views are an accurate description of reality, while the views of those with whom he disagrees are based on an erroneous perception of that same reality (i.e. Bruce's reality.) In so doing he falls prey to the "either-or" fallacy and "black-white" thinking he only seems able to perceive in others, thus exposing his own dogmatism and biases-which are many! This makes "Dare to Enquire" more an exercise in demagoguery rather than the sober appraisal it pretends to be.

The main goal of Korzybski's General Semantics is better human relationships at all levels of our human interactions-personal, interpersonal, societal, international. This can be accomplished by being highly and unceasingly attentive to the ways we speak, listen, understand, interpret, give meanings to, give values to, 'think' about, and evaluate words, symbols, and other features of our human and physical environments.

A lot of excellent books and essays have been written on that subject. I wish I could say that "Dare to Inquire" is one of them but it is not.

Life can be pretty confusing these days. With newspapers being used to spout forth political agendas instead of unbiased news, international and national terrorism rampant, and governmental officials showing us the path to unethical behavior it only increases the confusion. The solution, at least on a personal level, is through inquiry. "Dare to Inquire" examines scientific and ethical inquiry as a pathway to truth.

The focus in the book is on a field of study known as general semantics. Using the principles of general semantics you can remove illusions that appear to be reality. In fact a major focus of general semantics is that what we perceive to be fact and reality is only a portion or one aspect of true reality. By opening your understanding to more fully grasp all of reality it opens the doors to deeper understanding, happiness and better communication in all areas of life.

Bruce Kodish is very blunt about the fact that this is Humanistic philosophy. Those who have a dogmatic opposition to humanism will not like the book, others will find it interesting, informative and a recommended read.