Customer Reviews

The Beejum Book Audio Edition

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Alice Howell has given the world a huge gift in her BEEJUM BOOK. Few authors possess her remarkable ability to combine wit,wisdom, sensitivity and a highly creative facility of the English language to produce a beautiful metaphor for human life and transformation. Since BEEJUM is about the life of a child, Teak, some might assume that BEEJUM is only a childrens' book. Far from it. Alice has packed so much life and wisdom into each chapter that one can hardly stop reading it. Like all great literature, it can be understood at different levels, making it interesting to young and old alike.

Like the book, the main character lives her life on two levels - inner and outer. We are transported enter a inner world of Beejumstan - from Teak's point of view, learning lessons from her outer life as she is living it. But it is the rare child who are exposed to such intuitive wonder as is Teak, largely through the fascinating family in which she lives and with whom she travels the world.

At the end, we discover that the story is both profound and autobiographical. And despite its occasional sadness, we learn that Teak's unusual life created the delightful sage, Alice Howell, into the gifted author and teacher she has become. Teacher, mentor, therapist, astrologer, respected author, Alice personifies the coming of the Hagia Sophia into the modern world. Those who know something about Jungian psychology will be especially attracted to its depth insights. Readers will feel themselves growing with each page! Read BEEJUM with you kids, read it for yourself....but read it - and enjoy!

A rare treat, written by a rare soul...a book for our time and all time. It speaks of the universals in all people and places.

This amazing book will capture imagination of readers of all ages, said my mom. At first, I did not understand what a Beejum was, but as I read on, I not only felt like a part of their world, but also learnt some helpful lessons. Like being an "inside" and "outside" person and having "little me" and "big you". I recommend this book to everybody who wants to stretch their immagination, learn something about themselves and laugh a lot ( and cry a little). I will have a Beejum party with my friends. Thank you, Mrs. Howell!

Just to say that before mailing off anything to my grandchildren, I always listen to it first myself. Quite often this is a chore for me - even though if I know it will be a pleasure for them.

Not so The Beejum Book! I thouroughly enjoyed every moment and know they will too!

Ms. Howell, the author writes -probably a bit autobiographically, of a ten year old girl named Teak, short for Thaddea King. Ms. Howell reads the book in a lovely, comfortable grandmotherly voice as she draws you into the world of Teak. Teak's "real life" takes place all over Europe, as her father is a businessman whose presence is demanded in Europe. The story takes place in the thirties, and affords the reader, while being drawn into the complexities of Teak's life, short but marvelous descriptions of the great European cities of that era; their hotels, streets, restaurants, museums, etc.

Teak, of course, only wishes she had a real home where she could live what she thinks would be a "normal" life, with school and lasting friends. She is a spunky young thing, though, and when she isn't getting trapped in a hotel sauna, and other such excapades, she is ardently discovering all she can about the world she lives in. Her parents and grandmother, indeed everyone she meets - and they are many - are deluged with questions.

And then one bright day - Beejumstan! I can't tell you about Beejumstan, or how she gets there. It just wouldn't be fair - to Teak, to Ms. Howell, to you. Ms. Howell tells it splendidly. She reads with vivacity and such good rendering of the voices of all the many characters we meet - both in the "real" world and that other very special "real" world, Beejumstan.

I can't reccommend this book highly enough - both for the old young and the young old.

My wife and I listened to the Beejum Book on tape on a recent car trip. We wondered who did the terrific reading. Then, when we re-wound the tape, we found it was the author. Made us wish we'd had books on tape when we were younger.

In every child the Cosmos is born anew, and Alice O. Howell in the Beejum Book has a way of returning the favor. In Beejumstan, eternal truths rebirth into moments fresh and young. So many different people inside of each of us, all examining the world, wondering, needing, fearing. All children know this, and in Beejum they greet these inner selves, look them over, and come to see them in others. I read the book with my youngest son -- he a page, me a page -- and the cahoots between us has never really left. In an age of hurried children of all ages, where movies are breathless blockbusters and bestsellers genre, where company is the TV show in pieces trying to fit itself between the long commercials, the Beejum Book is the rare moment of the inner voice. Time and differences fall away, and in your loneliness, you remember you're never alone. Saying that here, typing it out in our cynical world, it sounds trite, loses its meaning. But what is more important to say and share with each other as we journey through life? Alice O. Howell says the important things in a way that we can all hear them. She turns the difficult over playfully, joyfully, without fear; she probes it, puts it on steamships and trains, wonders at all its facets, dresses it in flop ears, thumps its tail. She takes your child-hand in her child-hand to see all things anew -- as "truly limitless in extent and of incalculable age."

Our 6-year-old grandson took me into his bedroom and locked the door. "Do you have a book to read?" he asked. "Yes," I said, "I have many." "Well, you must read this book, and as soon as you finish, you must bring it back." He handed me "The Beejum Book." I was not especially looking forward to reading a children's book, but I began that evening. Soon I was reading passages aloud to my husband, astounded at Ms. Howell's clever weaving of valuable lessons into her amazing tale. I rationed my readings, extending the pleasure as long as possible. When I came to the end, I handed the book to my husband. He read it straight through. The tale is wonderful, the lessons for all.

This is a book for children and adults alike. It is a book that will keep giving you gifts long after you have finished the last page. It is hard not to read the book all at once, but it is fun to spread the adventure out. This book is a gift to the world and I hope that many will read this little jewel and be blessed by it. I certainly was.

How many stories give us the chance to get the joke AND the lesson? This one does! Early in The Beejum Book, a mother notices that something is "the matter" in the uprooted existence of her only child, Teak. This opening act of a parent's attention takes Teak -- and us -- on an alchemical romp around the landscape of "what matters most." The alchemy of this beautifully told tale is that it turns whimsy into wisdom, presents "characters" that transcend caricature, and delivers perennial truths by way of swift narrative pace. Throughout, Ms. Howell casts an unflinching, hilarious gaze upon such human foibles as materialism and self-pity -- and winks. Thank you, A.O. Howell, for a page-turner of a yarn that leaves the reader both yearning for more and reassured that it is all within.

Dear Mrs. Howell,
I've really enjoyed your book , Beejumstan. It made me look inside myself, and see my true self.
I really liked Grandma King, and so did my mama. I'm almost eleven years old and going into fifth grade.
I'm currently living in Nairobi, Kenya, and am always thinking about Teak while I travel!!!! You are a talented and wonderful author!! I think that you have brought us a book that all people can enjoy!!!!!
I was adopted and sometimes think about things like who my birth parents were and what it would have been like if I'd grown up with them. Your book gave me a feeling that I'm not alone, that others have similar feelings as well!!
The story that is based on your life has made me and many others understand that we have similar feelings about things. I think that you are an inspiration for the younger generation like me and others. I will try my best to help bring the humor, happiness, sadness and joy out of this book for others to enjoy and feel their own uniqueness in this world. I think that you are one of the most awesome authors I have ever come across .
Yours lovingly and adoringly, SF

This is probably the worst children's book I have ever read, and as an elementary school teacher, I have read more than my share of children's books. There isn't any plot to speak of, and most of the book consists of cutsey characters delivering long new-agey monologues. It is my understanding that the secret to writing good fiction is "show, don't tell"; in other words, your narrative should make clear the points you are trying to make without your explicitly stating them. This book violates that rule on every single page, with excruciatingly boring results.