Books with author Michael H. Markel

Do you know how old is the culture of Aboriginal Australia? Some say it is 60,000 years. That is a very long time and archaeologists are finding evidence of this all the time. I have been to Lake Mungo which is near Mildura and the Murray River. It is now a dry expanse with no trees in the middle where the lake was. Did it dry up because of climate change or did something cataclysmic happen? On the edge of the lake are sand dunes and over the centuries middens of discarded shellfish are being exposed by the wind.Their story is oral so there is no written record of their lives. In this book you may read some of the stories, often to explain creation. The Australian Museum has many but they are no longer available online as the stories belong to the people retelling them.Then Captain Cook arrived and thousands died as the white man pushed further from the capital cities to find farming land and to run sheep. Now they are leaving the land because of the drought.

Do you like telling stories or listening to them? This book takes you by the hand and look at what was happening in post-war Australia. Do you have a grandparent who was growing up in this time? Have you ever asked them what it was like before television and big supermarkets? Where did they shop and how did they get there? Did they have to walk or catch a bus, a train or a tram? What appliances did they have in the home? Television didn’t come onboard for most people until after the 1956 Olympic Games. There are exercises to help you with your story of your relative plus questions you can use and a letter to invite them to tell their story. Maybe you know someone in your community who would like to help you. It’s all here.

When Gracie Michaels suffers a tragic accident, she decides that she won't let anything or anyone keep her from seeing her twin brother Ritchie again: not even death. However, she had no idea that she was getting involved in a battle with immortals for her brother's very soul. Thus begins Gracie's horrifying journey from the earthly planes of existence to the very gates of hell to save her brother and all of humanity.

Kristen Marsh dreams. By merely clutching something as she falls asleep at night her imagination conjures up a dream pertaining to this object. An amazing gift? To this ten-year-old it's more a curse, even though it may predict an event in the future or explain one from the past. When Kristen visits her grandparents' farm at Christmas, she snuggles at night beneath a patchwork quilt made of family remnants from years ago. Imagine the dreams produced from these scraps of cloth where she learns of a dark family secret, and how - today - she can right a wrong of the past.

Sisterhood can be a love-hate relationship, especially when you deal with the competitive spirit of pre-teens--kids who just happen to possess superpowers. So it goes with Alexa (age twelve) and ten-year-old Rachael Casaday, seemingly "normal" sisters with special gifts handed down from previous generations. In BOOK 1: SUPER KIDS, they will need these powers, not to mention the love and support of each other if they are to even survive this tale of wickedness and deception. The forces of evil are out there--a threat to their family, the community, and ultimately the lawmakers of our country. Leave it to the Casaday girls to derail this diabolical plan.

Young superheroes Alexa and Rachael Casaday return to that abandoned factory, the backdrop for the near fatal climax of Book 1: Super Kids. They rescue Isaac Fromme, the cruelly mistreated gentleman who vanished--imprisoned in a crypt beneath the crumbling building. Could Fromme be a vampire, one of the "good" ones? Why is this elusive man researching a grotesque creature originally thought to be a figment of local imaginations? The Casadays must use their extraordinary gifts again to prevent misguided individuals from destroying the beast. Will their superpowers make the world right again in the wilds of South Jersey?Monsters AND vampires? Fascinating.