Review of Things Grandpa Wanted Me To Know
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[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Things Grandpa Wanted Me To Know" by Jim Foltz.]
Jim Foltz dedicated Things Grandpa Wanted Me To Know to his three grandchildren. This is his first work as an author, but his career as a songwriter helped him write this book. The book is full of quotes, proverbs, and wise words from a wide variety of people and sources. I like that many of the names were familiar, but I was also challenged to research some unfamiliar ones.
There are 58 chapters with an average of 16 quotations in each chapter. Some of the sources are cited as being from unknown, radio, book, movie, and TV. Many chapters contain the author's own quotes. Some of Foltz's words of wisdom deal with musical inspirations, such as "Nothing feels like music." Some of them are humorous, such as "The answer is there is no answer." I wonder what Foltz's response would be if one of his grandchildren gave that in reply to a question he asked them.
One negative is that some of the quotations are repeated occasionally. Sometimes the words are attributed to different people. For instance, the familiar quote that begins "Dance like no one is watching" gives credit to Mark Twain in one chapter and to an unknown in another chapter.
Affirmative quotations are plentiful, but the one I relate to the most is this one from the author: "There is no better drug than the sun." I am taking his advice right now and writing this review from the sunshine on my deck.
Many others besides grandchildren will benefit from having this book in their library. Because I am an English teacher, I immediately thought of a writing lesson using this book. Students would be asked to choose a quotation, explain why they chose that one, research the author, and explain how the words would relate to details from that person's life. Finally, they would be asked to speculate how they could implement that quotation into their lives.
My rating is four out of five stars. I deducted one star due to the repeated passages. Because this is a book of quotations, marking errors was not possible, but I did find one obvious typo. I will end with this last tidbit from JF to ponder: "You can say this, you can say that, but what you do says it all."
******
Things Grandpa Wanted Me To Know
View: on Bookshelves |
Jim Foltz dedicated Things Grandpa Wanted Me To Know to his three grandchildren. This is his first work as an author, but his career as a songwriter helped him write this book. The book is full of quotes, proverbs, and wise words from a wide variety of people and sources. I like that many of the names were familiar, but I was also challenged to research some unfamiliar ones.
There are 58 chapters with an average of 16 quotations in each chapter. Some of the sources are cited as being from unknown, radio, book, movie, and TV. Many chapters contain the author's own quotes. Some of Foltz's words of wisdom deal with musical inspirations, such as "Nothing feels like music." Some of them are humorous, such as "The answer is there is no answer." I wonder what Foltz's response would be if one of his grandchildren gave that in reply to a question he asked them.
One negative is that some of the quotations are repeated occasionally. Sometimes the words are attributed to different people. For instance, the familiar quote that begins "Dance like no one is watching" gives credit to Mark Twain in one chapter and to an unknown in another chapter.
Affirmative quotations are plentiful, but the one I relate to the most is this one from the author: "There is no better drug than the sun." I am taking his advice right now and writing this review from the sunshine on my deck.
Many others besides grandchildren will benefit from having this book in their library. Because I am an English teacher, I immediately thought of a writing lesson using this book. Students would be asked to choose a quotation, explain why they chose that one, research the author, and explain how the words would relate to details from that person's life. Finally, they would be asked to speculate how they could implement that quotation into their lives.
My rating is four out of five stars. I deducted one star due to the repeated passages. Because this is a book of quotations, marking errors was not possible, but I did find one obvious typo. I will end with this last tidbit from JF to ponder: "You can say this, you can say that, but what you do says it all."
******
Things Grandpa Wanted Me To Know
View: on Bookshelves |
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