Customer Reviews

Headfirst Into America!

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
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It had created quite a stir when the Grahams sold their house, packed up their van, and set off to explore the U.S. Much of America and the major media all wanted to know what the family discovered along the way and fans have followed the Graham's progress via the Internet.

Classifying this book is hard. It could be a journal, a homeschooling guide, a history lesson, or even a travel guide. Picking up the book is easy. Just start at any chapter. Photos are plentiful and are peppered generously throughout her book.

Marlene gets an "A+" for organization. If you have this book in your lap (or even your easy chair!), you'll quickly find what you are looking for.

It is a book that gives the A-O.K. to America from a family who insisted on "taking its pulse."

I started following the Graham family on the net from the day they were featured on local TV in Phoenix. It was an exciting year following their adventures, a family of four, travel the USA, visiting every state in a van. Marlene wrote a weekly journal. Things picked up steam when the were on national TV, the Barbara Walters show, Today!

Marlene took a year to write her book, HEADFIRST INTO AMERICA! We live about a mile from the Grahams and bought the book directly from the author.

The book brings back some vivid and some nearly forgotten memories of places they describe and we have visited. But this is an adventure story, not a travelog. A family on the road in a van for a year, lots of togetherness, too much sometimes, fights and feuds develop. Marlene doesn't pull any punches. She tells it like it was.

We use the book as a planning guide when we take car trips, some places that we never thought to look the Grahams have made very worthwhile.

It's also a user guide for home schooling your kids.

I've met Marlene and appreciated her candor and warmth. She knows what she's talking about and it's worthwhile reading!

I am from Lansing, MI and Marlene called me when they arrived. It was really neat.

It was nice to have the trip we all followed on the Internet put into book form. Marlene did a good job of journaling what most of us only dream about doing!

This book details what most people only dream of doing. A family adventure lasting a year traveling through out the United States in a van and documenting what they did and who they met along the way.

The book can be used as a travel guide and history book. Indexed so you can find a particular area of the country you might be interested in.

What a terrific journal of the Graham families adventures across the USA. I found it so informative as well as entertaining. The whole families perspective is given of each special place they saw and the people they met along the way. The hospitality of complete strangers that they met via the internet and the Graham families desire to get to know the people and the characteristics of the region they were visiting, intrigued me also. They told so much about each region with it's special features no matter if it was small town USA or a US capital city. That is truly the only way to get to know the real physical and spiritual beauty of our country.

We were very fortunate to get to spend some time recently with the Graham's as they traveled through West Virginia. They are just as terrific and special as you can imagine. I would recommend this book to everyone wishing to travel or for pure reading enjoyment. A real treat!