Books with author Richard Keith Taylor

In 1956 a Canadian family was stationed to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization air force base in France. They are put into the small "C" Block in Private Married Quarters for Flying Officers and Flight Lieutenants, about 8 miles from the base. No TVs or telephones are in the PMQs. Peace and order are not watched over by police. Gangs of teenagers are formed to take advantage of those their age or younger who should enter the basements of the PMQ units they live in. Rickey, an innocent eight-year-old, is the oldest child of the family who just moved into "C" Block. He is invited to join the gang in the block called the "Air Force Brats", not long after his family settles in "C" Block. The higher the rank in the block; the smaller its size. In no time he finds himself the subject of derogatory jokes and serves as a "go-fer" by other gang members. Rickey makes friends with a bully from "B" Block who he used to be at odds. They avoid the "Brats" by taking a long route to the Department of National Defense school rather than take a shortcut across the large field surrounded by other blocks. Just before his family leaves the PMQs for a camping holiday in England and Scotland, the bully Rickey befriended disappears. Rickey continues trying to locate his "bully" friend three weeks later after returning from the holiday. He tracks the "bully" friend to where his corpse is hidden. It looks like suicide, possibly murder. After that shocking discovery the family returns to Canada and Rickey has to contend with other let-downs in his life on his own.

Volume 4. Alaskan Land Cruise, 62 pages, 57 pictures. The Chispita books are written on the premise that an adult reader can use the experiences of Pita to teach/enhance the life experiences of a growing child as well as the fun of games, puzzles and adventures that the world has to offer. In volume three "Alaskan Cruise" Chispita ventured to Alaska with her Pita Kid's by cruise ship, but as she said "The adventure does not end there". Volume four takes little Pita and her companions from Seward Alaska to Fairbanks by bus, train, airplane, jeep, raft, paddle wheeler and foot, with a stop at Denali park where they marvel at this land of the mid-night sun with it's many and varied story's. From Seward we travel by bus to Anchorage, along the way Pita visits the old folk's animal home to make new friends, at Anchorage we board our domed rail cars and venture north to Denali National Park and Preserve, where we stay for several days as we tour the preserve by bus, jeep, airplane and river raft to interact and photograph the wild life, and we do mean "WILD" as our bus is bumped by a mad Caribou and little Chispita learns from Chuck the Marmot and Lobo the Wolf how to play a good joke. At the preserve it's hard to say what is the most fun, but the flight by mule plane and sight seeing Mt. McKinley from our twin aircraft as well as the three day photo/camping tour with a professional photo guide, were but a few of the highlights. The adventure moves on to Fairbanks Alaska ending with paddle wheelers, 100# cabbages, gold panning and yuking up at the Alaskan pipe line. All punctuated by graphic photos, "enjoy".