Books with author Thomas Barker

This book will have you laughing. It’ll have you crying. But most of all you will be fascinated by the events and the people you meet in this sixty-six year span of American history. Grow up with an extraordinary American family in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Watch as automobiles increase in number, entertainment evolves, and electronic devices are invented. Experience the joys of the Pikestein family as it matures and prospers. Enjoy their triumphs and cope with their tragedies. This is the continuing saga of the “Legend of the Pikesville Cave” – Tom’s book that covers the Civil War and the immediate years after that conflict.Tom Barker continues to spin a tale that will keep you cheering for his heros and the characters they meet along the way, including W B Selden holder of the first patents on the automobile, Lee de Forest the father of Radio, A. C. Gilbert inventor of the Erector set, and characters you never knew existed. Illustrated with drawings and photographs reminiscent of the past. You can visit the fictional village of Pikesville right in Tom’s basement where it is a part of his operating toy train collection.

Will the great innovations of the twenty-first century be American or Chinese? Who is winning the innovation race? And what are the implications for the people of other nations?There is a contest for technological supremacy occurring across the Pacific – a contest of historic importance, for its outcome will shape the world during the coming century and the winner will claim not just economic, military, and political ascendancy, but also superiority in their values and system of government. For those who grasp that technological innovation underlies economic strength, this book unravels some of the most important, but least well understood dimensions of American and Chinese competition. In a succinct, informative, and evidence-based manner, it analyzes whether China can match American levels of invention and innovation. Along the way, it draws conclusions for other nations caught between the Eagle and the Dragon - nations like Australia, Japan, and Korea - who are weighing the advantages of strategic alliances and trade links with both great powers.There has never been more a more important time to understand the implications of escalating American and Chinese competition. For those who believe technological innovation underlies economic strength, this book presents the facts in a straightforward but compelling manner.

Mr. Finch leads a quiet life with his best friend, a small red bird. Nothing very exciting ever happens to them, and that suits Mr. Finch just fine. Until one day when Mr. Finch’s one and only friend disappears! Worried, Mr. Finch heads off in search of the bird, right into the heart of a jungle that has recently invaded the city. Suddenly, Mr. Finch finds himself on an extraordinary journey that teaches him a lot about himself. Will this journey allow the two friends to take flight and finally find true happiness?

It wasn’t until I began writing Child and dredging up long buried memories that I rediscovered just what a wonderful and extraordinary childhood I was privilege too. What started out as a short narrative quickly turned into a full-length book. Though I have gone on to do many things throughout life looking back I have to concede that being a kid ranks right at the top. Child provides the reader insight into places and times far removed from what exists today; it chronicles a young boy’s struggles and adventures as he comes of age and how he copes to reconcile living in two distinct worlds.

Mike Daniels wants more than anything to make the freshman basketball team. Although he has excellent basketball skills that were gained on a grass and dirt court during elementary school, one fact works against him-he is only four feet eleven inches tall. During tryouts, six footer John Reardon deliberately smashes into a pick set by Mike sending him crashing to the hardwood. With the cracking of bones in his right wrist, Mike realizes his freshman dream is over. His later efforts to make the sophomore team and get even with John wind through a series of events leading up to the conference championship game.

This book will have you laughing. It’ll have you crying. But most of all you will be fascinated by the events and the people you meet in this sixty-six year span of American history. Grow up with an extraordinary American family in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. See automobiles evolve, entertainment mature, technological devices get invented, and lives that encounter joy, and cope with tragedy.

Walter Foster's classic How to Draw and Paint series provides aspiring artists with an exceptional array of art instruction books featuring all subject areas and media. Each title includes easy step-by-step exercises as well as finished illustrations or paintings that will inspire artistic talent in anyone. Packed with practical information, helpful tips, and fundamental techniques, the How to Draw and Paint series offers a complete library of resources to which artists of all skill levels can refer again and again. ¥ Discover how easy oil painting can be with 14 stunning demonstrations ¥ Find out what materials and colors you'll need to get started painting right away ¥ Choose your favorite subjects--from still lifes, flowers, and landscapes to street scenes, buildings, portraits, and more ¥ Follow along step-by-step to create textural, color-filled works of art ¥ Learn the secrets of composing with the color white and "suggesting" details ¥ Master the techniques for painting with a palette knife

Child in Paradise is the story of an American boy growing up in a foreign land; it chronicles his everyday trials and triumphs as he makes the convoluted journey from childhood into adolescence. A story that takes place predominately in the tiny tropical Central American Colony of British Honduras, now Belize. It is a collection of memories as told by the old man this boy became. Biographical materials are usually written to combine the person with the significance they have with particular names, dates, places, or events, history abounds with them. For the vast majority of us who live in everyday anonymity the only important dates and places were where and when we were brought into the world and again when we leave it. Thus it is with my life, it cannot in large part be measured or pinned to any extraordinary events or dates, but rather to a series of everyday happenings some major most minor each woven and intertwined together so that over time they create the tapestry of a person's life, so it is for all of us. This is how I see mine and how I have attempted to write it. There comes a time in one's life when the daily pressures of living life ease and one finally finds time to participate in a little introspection, to look back in an attempt to determine where the forks in the road had been and the consequences of taking the ones chosen. I was able to pinpoint with some measure of certainty just how and when the views I possess of life and my surroundings were formed, thankfully most were beneficial though there were a few I found somewhat disturbing. I found as I dredged up some of my earliest memories I had a tendency to write them down as if I were still that little boy, So in essence much of what follows is seen through the eyes of that child over fifty years ago.