DVD's of the PBS Documentary Ten Sisters: A True Story

produced by Tim Hartin and written by Alison Davis Wood are available from WILL TV 217 333 1070.

An artist, Stonesifer began writing in her late 80's, and published three books for children with Mayhaven and Wild Rose (Mayhaven Imprint): The Peanut Butter Kid, The Monarch, The Snow Goose & the Butterfly Tree, and Then and Now Stories. Sister & Me, an autobiography for older children and adults, provides insight into her influences and inspirations.

The late Gertrude Stonesifer became a friend, and we spent many hours working on her books and enjoying a good meal or a drive where Gertrude saw art in everyday objects and told of her adventures. Marrying late, she was adveturous. She took a tramp steamer to South America during the 1930s, and when her young husband died suddenly, she took over his newspaper while caring for her infant son. Life was an adventure for Gertrude and every conversation with Gertrude is memorable.

Some books are informative, many are entertaining, and some are very important. In these toubled times, this book offers the readers all three advantages.

Two men, one from the United States, one from China, fought on the treeless slopes of Korea, experiencing love and loss, political upheavals, and personal devils, and who, years later and by chance, became great friends.

Wilson Powell is the son of an American scientist, whose work helped develop the atomic bomb. Zhou Ming-Fu is the son of a Chinese shopkeeper. Both men, through essays and letters, have sought to come to terms with the influences of their lives.

This very candid autobiography includes Day's estrangement from his only son, his reaction to his first wife's love affair, to the Great Depression, to his own love affair, and to a long-term, but limited second marriage. An active, competent, and graceful man until his last days, Day left a truly honest legacy in this story of an ordinary man.Reared in London's famous Barnardo's Orphanage, Day, as a 10-year-old child, was sent across the north Atlantic to work on a farm in Canada. Work eventually led him to America and the train yards of the midwest, always searching for a home of his own...

This book arrived two weeks before John Day's death. Alert to the end, he showed it to the steady stream of visitors who came in and out of his room. It was, he said, something he had to do.

Brother Mine takes us through a Midwestern saga of life's journey, the small dramas and the big life-challenging dramas. Mike's insightful prose moves the reader quietly, but powerfully, through a world of family, career, and passions that create a life and shape relationships." —Dan Davis, editor and publisher , Victory Lane Magazine

A reader writes: "...the manner in which the book was written just 'pulled' me back to a better era that caused me to reminisce about...that time....You caused me to ...realize how good it really was, back then. I believe your book would bring back 'simpler time' thoughts to anybody from the forties and fifties..." —Larry Lowe

Dear Family

Dr. Kawasaki discovered the disease named after him, Kawasaki's disease. Collins' book, On The Wings of Love: Michael's Story, is the only known book on Kawasaki's disease for those outside the medical profession. Collins wrote of her grandson's death from heart failure resulting from Kawasaki's disease, and the American Heart Association believes complications from Kawasaki's is the number one cause of death f rom heart failure in American children.

A reader from the UK wrote: "....I have just finished reading your book about your Grandson Mikie....thank you for having the insight to put your tragedy into print. It was so helpful to read the same feelings of disbelief and sadness when a member of your family is subjected to KD....There needs to be much more awareness."

"Devastated by grief...Collins has written...in hopes of alerting other families..." —Sue Ann Wood, St Louis Post Dispatch

"The disease strikes children under the age of eight. How the disease is contracted is not known, and at times it is fatal."

—Amy DeHart, County Star Journal

Scottsburg rests justs off Interstate 65, the main artery running north and south through America's heartland. The tree-covered hills shelter small farms and tiny, unexpected neighborhoods set miles from the main roads. Peaceful, idyllic places where windows are scrubbed, women still hang laundry outside to dry, where neighbors share local gossip and older children ride upand down the gravel roads on dirt bikes purchased by hard-working parents.The houses show pride in ownership, rising out of the rocky soil and carefully tended front yards and backyards that fall gently away to tree lines so thick they mask the rising sun.

The Lincoln's only home, located in Springfield, Illinois, has offered up many stories, some humorous, some poignant, and some very surprising.

Dr. Wayne C. Temple—Photo by Quintin Porter

Lincoln's Travels on the River Queen

Lincoln and the Long Nine brought Illinois' Fifth Capitol to Springfield, Illinois. This structure, a short walk from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, is filled with the history of Lincoln, and other great figures that walked its halls. Included in this journey through history are the men and women who built this edifice and the behind-the-scenes incidents that fill the pages with wonderful facts.

This is a book that speaks to people in ordinary language about extraordinary events

Changnon wrote in his preface: "After years of train watching, I found East-central Illinois...had more train activity than any comparably sized rural area in the nation!"

This book is the first written by Changnon about trains in Illinois.

An interesting note: The publisher met the author before Mayhaven was established. He told about the book he had written and the cover, painted by his father. As the author was retired, it was a surprise to find out his father had painted this schoolhouse when he was 90 years old.

A history of the Osmond, Illinois, Lutheran Church

A unsolicited reader said it was the "Best book on Church history I have ever read."

This book provides the surprising history of Bailey Island—from its rich fishing, shipping and trade industries to its lesser-known historic footnotes, including contact with famous figures, to gatherings of the Ku Klux Klan and the author's grandmother's connection to Helen Keller, who lived, for awhile, on the neighboring island.

Because of a publishing rights limitations, this book will not be reprinted