The Foreign Service Journal, November 2003

F O C U S N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 21 Shakespeare and the Beatles.” When Purdy, a career FSO who retired in 1987, began studying Chilean wine seriously in 1970, there was no easy way to learn about the subject other than by word-of-mouth. Purdy’s self-education in Chilean wine was an avocation and labor of love. Twenty-five years later he decided he would have to write the book he was still looking for, and the first edition of the Gringo’s Guide was born. The book is an engaging and very practical introduction to the world of wine, its history, geography, making and appreciation. “Trying and Buying Chilean Wine — and Where to Find It” is a key chapter that is complemented by a chapter on exports and the availability of Chilean wine in the U.S. What the Gringo’s Guide lacks in polish, it more than makes up for in personality and basic information about wine in general and Chilean wine in particular. To purchase the book, contact the author by e-mail: fredpurdychile@yahoo.com, or write to 211 Briarcliff Road, Harrisburg PA 17104. BOOKS FOR CHILDREN The Hunter and the Ebony Tree Nelda LaTeef, Moon Mountain Publishing, 2002, $15.95, hardcover, 30 pages. In this authentic African folk tale geared to 5-to-9-year-olds, a hunter must overcome a daunting challenge before he can marry the girl he loves. It will take more than mere strength — the girl has made sure of that! The hunter will need brains, a good plan, loyal friends and excellent archery skills. Given its slightly advanced vocabulary, this strik- ingly illustrated book is ideal for parents to read aloud to their children. Author and illustrator Nelda LaTeef, the daughter of a Foreign Service officer, was born in Tunis and spent the first 18 years of her life overseas. The seed for this, her first children’s book, was planted under an acacia tree in Niger where Ms. LaTeef encountered the village griot, or storyteller, during a stint of fieldwork for an anthropology course at Harvard University. The book received the Storytelling World Honors Award in 2003, and has also been published in Italian. A Korean- language edition is planned. Ms. LaTeef is the author of Working Women for the 21st Century: Fifty Women Reveal Their Pathways to Success , a book selected by the New York Public Library as recommended reading for young adults. She is planning three more books based on African folk tales, and another eight books for children. Zoe Calvin Watlington, Ebonylaw Publishing, 2002, $9.95, paperback, 28 pages. Tolerance is good but embracing differences is even better! That is the message of this happy book for children between the ages of 4 and 7, which introduces the concept of diversity to children in terms that they can under- stand. Zoe is a little girl with a “chocolate” dad and a “vanilla” mom who moves to a new location to begin kindergarten. In the process, she meets many new people and addresses the differences in skin col- ors among her classmates and in her own family. Author Calvin Watlington, a member of the Foreign Service since 1998, is a former teacher and an attorney with a strong interest in children’s rights issues. His motivation in writing Zoe was the desire to humanize the statistics on biracial and multicultural families, and, in particular, to give the children of these families a friend to identify with. Mr. Watlington is currently posted in Tegucigalpa with his partner Danielle Roziewski, an education consultant, and two young children. He worked with two Nicaraguan artists to illustrate Zoe , his first children’s book. MEMOIRS OF FOREIGN SERVICE LIFE Food Soldier Howard L. Steele, Ph.D., Ravens- Yard Publishing, Ltd., 2002, $17.95, paperback, 277 pages. A native of Pennsylvania with an interest in subsistence agricul- ture and agriculturalists since childhood, Howard Steele was a professor of agricultural economics before joining the Foreign Agricultural Service in 1971. Over a 34-year career he served in 43 countries on six