Welcome to Issue 24 of the SUPERIOR BOOK PRODUCTIONS newsletter!

The holiday season is upon us. This year, as you are shopping for gifts and you are considering which charities to donate to, I encourage you to take the time to invest in organizations that promote reading for children. Several groups, such as Toys for Tots and local schools have book drives so children will have books for Christmas. Libraries and bookstores also fund these drives, or they will be able to tell you about them. Many churches have gift trees, and even if you end up getting a request to buy underwear, Barbie dolls, or the latest action figure for a child, there’s no reason why you can’t include a book.

We’ve all heard the saying that if you give a man a fish he’ll eat for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime. Nothing is going to teach children how to fish and prepare them for the real world more than learning how to read well, which in turn will provide them with knowledge and an ability to communicate.

As a child, I was always passionate about books because a love of reading was instilled in me at an early age. I remember being jealous of a diabetic friend because she would get books for Halloween since she couldn’t go trick-or-treating. I would rather read than eat candy then and now. I also remember always getting books for Christmas and my birthday and wanting to hide away and read right away. I can’t tell you how many happy hours I spent reading “The Wizard of Oz” and its sequels, voyaging on the Dawn Treader and reading the other Narnia books, imagining I was Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Edison or Daniel Boone. Books teach children to dream and be imaginative; imagination leads to creativity, to inventiveness, to contributing to society and solving human problems. Give the gift of reading this holiday season to the children you love and to the children you don’t know but who still need to feel loved.

Thank you for reading and Happy Holidays!

Tyler R. Tichelaar

New Books

In “Five Dances with Death,” Austin Briggs has imagined what it was like to experience the Spanish Conquest of Mexico from the natives’ viewpoint. The story begins with a lot of tension right from the beginning. We are immediately brought into this world and into the mind of Wasp, the story’s narrator (Briggs has spared the reader from tongue-twister names by simplifying them to what they mean). Wasp is one of the warrior leaders of his people, and he tells us that he and his people have been summoned to Mexica, their rival nation against whom they frequently war:

“They had invited us to their festival under the pretext of praying together for a good crop. But we knew they really wanted us to witness the sacrifice of our warriors captured in the last war season. We knew they wanted us to understand the futility of our resistance and to lose our will to fight. The enemy’s lavish display of power didn’t disturb us, however. We only came to get my daughter back.”

Wasp’s journey to get his daughter back and his fascinating experiences in the spiritual world offer one of the most unique reading experiences in years.

In a society where half of all marriages end in divorce, and people often date numerous men or women before finding the one to marry, a lot of people are asking why they can’t find the right person to have a relationship with. Whether you are a man or a woman, you’ve probably been in this situation; fortunately, Ronald Moore has the answers to your questions and the solutions to your dating dilemmas.

Moore begins with a survey of the current state of relationships today. Yes, he talks about things like commitment and family values and old fashioned ideas, but he also shows that human nature hasn’t changed that much over time. He provides several examples from the Bible and from history of failed and dysfunctional relationships, including Henry VIII, who kept getting rid of one wife for the next. Moore says, “Nothing has changed about human nature since Henry VIII’s day; we still make the same mistakes and fail to take ownership of our own behaviors rather than learn. We are often like Henry; instead of changing what is wrong with us, we change mates.”

To read more, visit If It’s Raining Men, Why Is Your Bucket Empty?

“Create Happy Kids” has the perfect title since every good parent wants his or her kids to be happy. But the subtitle clarifies that this book isn’t solely about pleasing your children. It’s about parenting them in a way that short-term will make being a parent easier for you, and long-term will assist your children in growing up to be well-adjusted and able to operate in the adult world. I also love that author Shirin Sherkat describes herself as a “Parent Strategist,” and she fully deserves that title for how she provides useful strategies for parents to raise happy, responsible, motivated, and respectful children who not only listen to their parents, but who believe their parents listen to and respect them and are on their sides in wanting what is best for them.

To read more, visit Create Happy Kids

Not only has Harold Richter composed over 600 limericks, but he’s done so with the purpose of bringing pleasure, laughter, and insight into life and love in this charming collection. A lot of self-help books are out there, but “Love, Life, and Laughter in Limericks” isn’t one of them. Nevertheless, readers might become better people from reading this book; at least, they will feel lighter and happier, and they may come away with a new viewpoint about different aspects of life. And best of all, Richter’s use of the short limerick form gets to the point of various matters, often with a sharp twist at the end of the poem, a turn that is often humorous or meaningful or both. Whether Richter is writing about work, flu season, the holidays, or winning the lottery, enough limericks are here to make anyone laugh.

To read more, including samples of a couple of Richter’s limericks, visit Love, Life, and Laughter in Limericks

Upcoming Events

The holidays always find me busy and this year is no exception. If you want to find me at a book signing this year, here are a few of the planned events.

Sat. Nov 26, 10-6pm & Sun, Nov 27 11am-5pm. The Outback Holiday Art Fair. Marquette Armory, corner of Wright and Lincoln Streets. Marquette, Michigan. Over thirty other vendors will be there selling holiday gifts. I will be joined by my friend and fellow author Gretchen Preston, who will be releasing her new book More Valley Cats.

Fri. December 2, 5-9pm, Sat. Dec 3, 10am-6pm, Sun, Dec 4 11am-4pm. The TV 6 Christmas Craft Show in the Superior Dome, Marquette, Michigan. Over 100 vendors selling everything from books to crafts to food to mittens and anything else you can imagine. My fellow author Jenifer Brady, author of the wonderful “Abby’s Camp Days” series will also be there along with half a dozen other Upper Michigan authors.

Sat. December 10, 1-3pm. Snowbound Books, Marquette, MI. Join me and fellow authors Lynn and Lon Emerick, Matthew Williams, Gretchen Preston, Lesley DuTemple, and Mary Kinnunen for a book signing.

And don’t forget that you can find me year round on my blogs at:

My Marquette and Children of Arthur