Natural Science Books for Children (and Grownups, too) (Article in Progress)

Natural Science Books for Children

(and Grownups, too)

Living with Nature Center

Family Museum and Library

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

Retired Professor, University of Santo Tomas

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

The Fine Edge of Awareness Part 1: To Baby Mackie* and Her Generation

* Mackie now 13, lives in Brisbane Australia, with her parents and brother.  She is a grand daughter of the author on the maternal side.

Continued -

"Ten-ten-ten" - the dog that found a home

Ten-ten-ten - the dog that found a home

A home he found and a happy company with us 

and the neighborhood.

Dr Abe V Rotor

 

    Jemille and Ten-ten-ten

It was a quiet afternoon and guess who was knocking at the gate.

A starving dog, a mongrel, and what is there in him to gain?  

Could you spare me a morsel? His eyes moist and sad, begging,

And food we gave, closed the gate, everything was quiet again.  

The sun was setting down, we saw a shadow seeping through the gate,

He is still there, I told the children, and he was knocking again, 

Could you spare me a place for the night? His moaning told us so,

Who are you, who is your master? Silence. I felt a little pain.   

We took him in.  It was a special date on the calendar that comes

But once, and never again, not in a lifetime or generation.

Tenth day of the tenth month of the first decade of the millennium,   

And we named this lost dog Ten-ten-ten. What a celebration!  

A home he found and a happy company with us and the neighborhood,

Call his name, you wish luck and fortune, how easy to remember! 

And children tired from school come knocking to play with their friend,

Can we play with Ten-ten(-ten)? Heaven sent a dog to love and share.  ~

My Life's Rhapsody (In celebration of World Poetry Day, March 21, 2026)

World Poetry Day, March 21, 2026

Theme: "Poetry as a Bridge for Peace and Inclusion."

My Life's Rhapsody*

Mateo Lawrence M Rotor, 10

                   Valley of Peace, acrylic on canvas by Mateo M Rotor 

As tempest blows a flower's whisper,

Love receives a curious wonder,

For when we tend to cross the mystery's sea,

We can always return to our house of ease.

As birds sing and flowers begin to bloom,

The stars shine and say "See you soon"

And as blades of grass continue to grow,

We need not much of the sorrow.

For thru the stars, sky and mountain peak,

We will always find the home we belong and seek,

This might sound like a narration

But I assure you, this is just a lyrical affiliation.

But even as dramatic it may seem,

It wouldn't hurt to ever believe,

That no matter where we tread,

There will always be an invisible thread,

And thru that thread connects our very hearts,

Until the time our days go dark.

For when the thread ever twines,

Our friends and family will stick by our side.

So don't fret, fear, or woe,

For there will always be tomorrow.

And if you ever question your life's worth/esteem,

I only need to say one word: Believe

So remember the teachings of those you hold dear,

Because you never know when they will disappear.

And as I finish this symphonical tune,

I would say, Merci et bonjour. ~ 

 

* Subject in English 7, VII-OLCD St Paul College of Ilocos Sur. (SPCIS)
Rhapsody: 1. an effusively enthusiastic or ecstatic expression of feeling. "rhapsodies of praise" 2. (in ancient Greece) an epic poem, or part of it, of a suitable length for recitation at one time.

 

Reflections 3

Reflections 3

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Reflection by a Waterfall

"Reflect not my folly and greed ...

Reflect not the future gloom ..."

Amadeo Waterfalls, Cavite.  Photo by Marlo Rotor c 2005

                              Reflection by a Waterfall

Reflect not my folly and greed,

Never Narcissus of old;

Of the deities on his shoulder,

Of youth never growing old.

Reflect not of the future gloom,

Of Heaven denied and lost,

Lost pristine and the butterflies,

And of the Malthusian ghost.

Death is an empty shell I see

Lying in the murky depth,

And a lone deer in memory

Shall man someday pay his debt.

The Good Life, oh we always say,

Is progress and destiny,

Taming both time and space

To create our sense of beauty.

Narcissus, what lesson have you

Taught mankind since you fell in?

Oh, beauty, the land of the doomed,

Where lust is the greatest sin. ~

2. I love the rainbow

"it's reborn when worn and old

into a cathedral in the sky.""

Rainbow across the Bamban River, Tarlac. 

Photo by Marlo Rotor, author's son.

I love the rainbow

because it holds a pot of gold

that glitters in kaleidoscope,

and prism on its huge crown,

where lovely deities play I'm told;

it's reborn when worn and old

into a cathedral in the sky

cherubim sweetly sing in praise,

humbling the proud and bold;

it guides the lost from the fold

and those searching for heaven -

a rainbow suddenly appears

whenever faith grows cold. ~

    3. Dirge of a Dying Creek

" I am dying, dear mother, I long for you and my kin;

  I choke with debris, laden with waste matter,

  my banks are no more, concrete walls have taken over;

  I am dying mother - but my mother doesn't answer;

  my mother doesn't answer." - avr

        

The afternoon sun casts an aura of the creek's once beautiful state with trees and shrubs lining its banks. Now the creek is virtually dead - biologically. Note highly polluted water and dumped quarry materials blocking the natural waterway. (Parallel Aurora Blvd, QC)  

.

Dirge of a Dying Creek                   

  

Once upon a time, so the story goes, clouds gather 

     from the sea and land, cumulus to nimbus,

falling as rain, drenching the trees and grass and all,

     and down the lake and river and field it goes. 

I was born this way, like my kin, many miles away,

     children of Pasig River, seat of a civilization,

the artery of vast Laguna Lake and historic Manila Bay,

     and I, a tributary of this magnificent creation.     

I lived in the stories of Balagtas the poet laureate,

     in Rizal's novels, Abelardo's Kundiman song,

I throbbed with the happy heart of a living system,  

     like the Rhine, Danube, Nile and Mekong.

I am part of history, obedient to man and nature's will,

     I gave him clean water and fish, I sang lullaby;

laughed with the children at play under my care,

     through generations and time sweetly went by. 

Seasons come and go, the story goes on - ad infinitum -

     but where are the birds that herald habagat?

where have all the children gone after class, in summer?

     reflection on my water, green carpet on my rock?

I am dying, dear mother, I long for you and my kin,

     I choke with debris, laden with waste matter,

my banks are no more, concrete walls have taken over,

     I am dying mother -  but my mother doesn't answer;

     my mother doesn't answer.~

The Reasons I Write and the Books I Have Written

The Reasons I Write and

the Books I Have Written

"Books open your mind, broaden your mind, and strengthen you as nothing else can." - William Feather. 

Dr Abe V. Rotor

Part 1 - The reasons I write

"I write to rediscover indigenous knowledge and folk wisdom which enlarges and enhances our sense of history and tradition..." -avr

Published by University of Santo Tomas, launched 2008 Manila International Book Fair, SMX Mall of Asia, 220 pp. "The book is a compendium of indigenous technical knowledge complemented with modern scientific thinking. The narratives offer an exploration into the world of ethno-science covering a wide range of practical interest from climate to agriculture; medicine to food and nutrition..: (Excerpt of Foreword by Dr Lilian J Sison, dean UST Graduate School).

" For the science educator and communicator, here is a handy volume to help you reach the popular consciousness. You will find here more than ample number of examples for making connections between lived experience and scientific information." (Dr Florentino H Hornedo, UNESCO Commissioner)

My friends would exclaim and even if they don’t, I could read their eyes. “Why you are still alive!” And I would return a wide grim. And we rejoice. There are many things in this world to be happy about and rejoice. 

Twenty-two years ago today I was dying in a hospital. After two major operations, I left everything to Providence. I was supposed to deliver a response being an author of a book published by UST, Light from the Old Arch. My daughter Anna stood before the audience on that occasion and gave the response on my behalf. It could not have been any better if I did. She is a brave daughter, and I believed she was guided by the Light I saw and wrote about – Light from the Old Arch. 

And so, since that day and everyday thereafter I would rise before the sun does, and write my thoughts in the creeping light of dawn. Thoughts come beautifully in the morning of a new day, which I simply call a “bonus” – a term I couldn’t define, much less understand. Every morning is a beautiful morning, and there is nothing more beautiful than it because it is a bonus of an extended life. It is an extension of a breathing, thinking and feeling soul. Above all it is a bonus of thanksgiving. 

It was only then that I began to understand who and what is a writer, but why should one write remained elusive, beyond my understanding. I have read about Scheherazade the story teller of "a thousand and one nights," I have read a part of the book Walden Pond of Henry David Thoreau who wrote it far away from society. Or the Brownings in their exchange of romantic feelings in classical poetry. How powerful are the themes of Ernest Hemingway, and I did not expect how his life was ended had I not read what Van Gogh did when he had painted everything, except death. Hellen Keller wrote in the light of darkness because she was blind. So with John Milton who wrote Paradise Lost, and later Paradise Regained when he was already blind. How could Rachel Carson had written if she didn’t see Nature like a woman being raped and trampled? 

Before I simply wrote. I looked on all sides for what every event or action there was. Until I saw a dim light coming from the window of an old house. I traced it. It was far and dim yet penetrating in the mist of time, and obscured by the passing views of change. 

But it is almost magic. It’s a miracle, if I would say so, because I am still alive today. Thought after thought, page after page, chapter after chapter I was able to write a book, and another. And another that my alma mater, and the UST Publishing House are launching with other new books. 

I write because I believe in Robert Ruark’s Something of Value .  He said

“If a man does away with his traditional way of living and throws away his good customs, he had better first make certain that he has something of value to replace them.”

· I write because I believe in Lola Basiang relating folklore to children. We imagine a campfire, around it our ancestors exchanged knowledge and recounted experiences, with spices of imagination and superstition. It was a prototype open university. Throughout the ages and countless generations a wealth of native knowledge and folk wisdom accumulated but not much of it has survived. 

. I write because I believe in Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which in the same way as Aesop’s fables, survived after two or three thousand years.

Homer and His Guide, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905), portraying Homer on Mount Ida, beset by dogs and guided by the goatherder Glaucus (as told in Pseudo-Herodotus)

· I write because I would not look farther than the timelessness of Christ lessons in parables? The Sermon on the Mount, The Prodigal Son, the Sower, The Good Samaritan - these and many more, continue to live in the home, school, pulpit as it had persisted in the catacombs in the beginnings of Christianity. 

· I write because Homer, Socrates, Aesop, Buddha, Christ and other early authors did not write. I am the lesser teacher so that I will enshrine the teachings of these great teachers. I am aware that it is through oral history, in spite of its limitations and informal nature that these masterpieces were preserved and transcended to us - thanks to our ancestors, and to tradition itself. 

· I write because I am one of those who inherited and benefit today of the valuable basic scientific knowledge such as the Pythagorean Theorem (all philosophies are resolved into the relations of numbers), the Law of Buoyancy from Archimedes, the Ptolemaic concept of the universe (although it was later corrected with the Copernican model), Natural Philosophy of Aristotle (Natural History), not to mention the Hippocratic Oath, the ethics that guide those in the practice of medicine which our modern doctors adhere to this day. 

· I write about Tradition and Heritage. Just as the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans – and even the remote and lesser ancient civilizations like the Aztecs and the Mayas had their own cultural heritage, so have we in our humble ways. Panday Pira attests to early warfare technology, the Code of Kalantiao, an early codification of law and order, the Herbolario, who to the present is looked upon with authority as the village doctor. And of course, we should not fail to mention the greatest manifestation of our architectural genius and grandiose aesthetic sense – the Banawe Rice Terraces. (photo)

. I write for adventure because I was a boy once upon a time, and the Little Prince in me refuses to grow old. On my part, like other boys in my time, boyhood could not have been spent in any better way without the science fictions of Jules Vernes – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Eighty Days Around the World – and the adventures of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It is the universality of human thoughts and values that is the key to the timelessness of tradition – indeed the classical test of true masterpieces.

· I write about children’s stories. I can only wonder with awe at the determination of the Grimm Brothers roaming the villages of Europe soon after the Dark Ages began to end, and the light of learning began to dawn again, the two scholars retrieving the fragments and remnants of stories surviving the darkest period of history of mankind. And what do we know? These stories, together with the stories from the 1001 Arabian Nights, and Hans Christian Anderson have kept the flame of human hope and joy alive in cradles, around the hearth, at the bedside – even as the world was uncertain and unkind. 

. I write because I often ask myself if it is only truth that can withstand the test of time. Or, if only events that really happened constitute history. And if there were any tinge that these stories were based on the culture of a people in their own time, would we not find them, we who live on the other side of the globe and in another time? 

· I write to explore and retrieve traditional knowledge from records of the past, archaeology, and testimonies of old folks. It is indeed an enormous task not only what but how we can gather the fragments of knowledge, distinguish facts from myths, reality from imagination, and draw out the threads of wisdom and weave them into a fabric we call science. Today with modern science and technology, we create virtual reality scenarios on the screen and in dioramas, reliving the past and deliver them right in the living room and in the school. 

· I write to rediscover indigenous knowledge and folk wisdom which enlarges and enhances our history and tradition. Even beliefs and practices, which we may not be able to explain scientifically, can be potential materials for research. And if in our judgment they fail to meet such test, still they are valuable to us because they are part of our culture and they contribute immensely to the quaintness of living. 

· I write because I am inspired by the beautiful novel Swiss Family Robinson written by Johann Wyss nearly two centuries ago. It is about a family stranded in an unknown island somewhere near New Guinea and during the many years they lived in the island, they learned to adapt to a life entirely disconnected from society and devoid of the amenities of modern living. When finally they were rescued, the family chose to stay in the island – except one son who wanted to study, promising that he would return to the island. 

· I write because of similar stories of the same plot such as Robinson Crusoe, a classic novel by Daniel Defoe, and recently, Castaway, a modern version of a lone survivor shown on the screen. We can only imagine what we could have done if we were the survivors ourselves. 

· I write to challenge the young generation if such stories have lost their appeal, more so of their relevance. It is as if we have outlived tradition in such a manner that anything which is not modern does not apply any longer. What aggravates it is that as we move in to cities we lose our home base and leave behind much of our native culture. 

· I write because I hope to help hold the tide of exodus of people moving into cities, whether in ones own country or abroad, and the lure is so great nearly half of the world’s population is now living in urban centers. Ironically the present population explosion is not being absorbed by the rural areas but by cities, bloating them into megapolises where millions of people as precariously ensconced. And now globalization is bringing us all to one village linked in cyberspace and shrunk in distance by modern transportation. We have indeed entered the age of global homogenization and worldwide acculturation.

· I write to take a good look and compare ourselves with our ancestors from the viewpoint of how life is well lived. Were our ancestors a happier lot? Did they have more time for themselves and their family, and more things to share with their community? Did they live healthier lives? Were they endowed - more than we are - with the good life brought about by the bounty and beauty of nature?

· I write to raise these questions that analyze ten major concerns about living. In the midst of socio-cultural and economic transformation from traditional to modern to globalization - an experience that is sweeping all over the world today - these concerns serve as parameters to know how well we are living with life. 

· I write to raise the consciousness of the reader as he goes over the various topics in this book and help him relate these with his own knowledge and experiences, and they way he lives. 

· Simple lifestyle 
· Environment-friendly 
· Peace of mind 
· Functional literacy
· Good health and longer active life
· Family and community commitment 
· Self-managed time 
· Self-employment
· Cooperation (bayanihan) and unity
· Sustainable development 

· Twenty-two years ago I began to gather and put into writing many things about living. Primarily these are ethnic or indigenous, and certainly there are commonalities with those in other countries, particularly in Asia, albeit of their local versions and adaptations. It leads us to appreciate with wonder the vast richness of cultures shared between and among peoples and countries even in very early times. Ironically modern times have overshadowed tradition, and many of these beliefs and practices have been either lost or forgotten, and even those that have survived are facing endangerment and the possibility of extinction. It is a rare opportunity and privilege to gather and analyze traditional beliefs and practices. 

I write for the old folks to whom we owe much gratitude and respect because they are our living link with the past. They are the Homer of Iliad and Odyssey of our times, so to speak. They are the Disciples of Christ’s parables, the Fabulists of Aesop. They are the likes of a certain Ilocano farmer by the name of Juan Magana who recited Biag ni Lam-ang from memory, Mang Vicente Cruz, an herbolario of Bolinao Pangasinan, whom I interviewed about the effectiveness of herbal medicine. It is to people who, in spite of genetic engineering, would still prefer the taste of native chicken and upland rice varieties. It is to these people, and to you in this hall, that this little piece of work is sincerely dedicated. 

I would like to read the excerpts of the writings of the critics about my new book. 

“Very common people, in very common settings, with very simple objects, now tell us how to keep in touch with nature. For instance we rejoice in the bounty of leafy vegetables growing on discarded tires, sustained with compost from a city dump. We also find relief from a burning fever through a cup of lagundi tea, or savor broiled catfish fattened at a backyard pond. Sometimes, we painfully ponder the fate of a dog headed for slaughter, or grieve at the gnarled skeleton of a dead tree, or awe in at the metamorphosis of a cicada, or immersed in the lilting laughter of children at play.”

Anselmo S. Cabigan, Ph.D.

“Cultural anthropologists affirm culture as the soul of civilization where people attain their identity, value orientation and aesthetic sense. Culture gives the people their perceptual apparatus and orientation of understanding. It is the reservoir of life-wisdom of the people. Today, the concept of integral sustainable development includes cultural progress which starts from a positive social self-definition and identity. Hence, local history and cultures provide a glimpse of the indigenous wisdom of the people that speaks of their religious worldview and deep connection with the Earth.”

Professor Ronel P. dela Cruz, Ph.D.

Professor, St. Paul University Quezon City

I thank all of you most sincerely for being part of this memorable occasion.

Part 2 -  Books written by Dr Abe V Rotor

avrotor@gmail.com

Winner of National Book Award 2007, Living with Nature in Our Times, 

a sequel to The Living with Nature Handbook [Winner of Gintong Aklat 

 (Golden Book) Award 2003]

 

AVR views award-winning books at Yuchengco Museum, Makati

Philippine Literature Today: A Travelogue Approach (co-authors Abercio V Rotor and Kristine Molina-Doria, C and E Publishing Co.) aims at guiding students, in the light of present day trends, to trace back the foundation of literature’s basic tenets and principles and preserve its integrity and true essence.  Four pillars of Philippine literature stand sentinel to help the students answer the question “Quo vadis?” To where are we heading for? 

Four great Filipinos are acclaimed vanguards of Philippine Literature. The cover of the book, conceptualized and made by artist Leo Carlo R Rotor, depicts the theme of the book - travelogue in literature with these heroes.   Jose Rizal on politico-socio-cultural subjects, including ecological, Rizal being an environmentalist while in exile in Dapitan, Misamis Oriental, Mindanao; Francisco Baltazar or Balagtas on drama and performing arts in general, fiction novels and plays, evolving into stage show and cinema; Severino Reyes or Lola Basyang on mythology, children’s stories, komiks, and a wealth of cartoons and other animations and Leona Florentino, the Philippines’ Elizabeth Browning, Ella Wilcox, Emily Bronte et al, epitomize the enduring classical literature. 

 

"The humanities hold the greatest treasure of mankind."  Co-authored with Dr Kristine Molina-Doria, the book, in summary, makes Humanities, a basic 3-unit subject in college, interesting and attractive to students. The book is distinct from conventional textbooks by being experiential in approach - meaning, on-site, hands-on, and encompassing of the various schools of art - old, new and postmodern.  Learning is further enhanced by viewing an accompanying compact disc (CD), and by having easy access to a wide range of references principally from the authors' works on Facebook and Blog. [avrotor.blogspot.com] It is a publication of C&E, one of the country's biggest publishers and distributors of books. Launched in February this year it is now adapted by several colleges and universities.

" 'Do unto the land as you would the land do unto you. Treat the land with request, if not with reverence.' xxx The tree is taken to represent the environment. Each poem and each painting is like a leaf of a tree each revealing a little of the many marvels of this unique creation. Each poem and each painting is a plea on behalf of this new vision and of this new ethics." (Excerpt from the Message by Dr. Armando F. De Jesus, Ph.D. former Dean, Faculty of Arts and Letters, UST 2010)

"What makes this poetry collection specially significant is its ecological slant which gives it an added dimension rarely attributed to other poetry collections. xxx to “get out of the house” and bond with nature. It is a departure from the usual stale air of solitariness and narcissism which permeates most poetry today. Every poem indeed becomes a “flower in disguise” using the poet’s own words." (Excerpt from the Foreword by the late Ophelia A. Dimalanta, Ph.D. Director, Center for Creative Writing and Studies, UST). 

The book contains 170 poems and verses with accompanying photographs and images, 190 pp, in easy reading font, Times New Roman, bold type. Published by University of Santo Tomas, launched 2008 Manila International Book Fair, SMX Mall of Asia, 220 pp. 

"The book is a compendium of indigenous technical knowledge complemented with modern scientific thinking. The narratives offer an exploration into the world of ethno-science covering a wide range of practical interest from climate to agriculture; medicine to food and nutrition..: (Excerpt of Foreword by Dr Lilian J Sison, dean UST Graduate School).

" For the science educator and communicator, here is a handy volume to help you reach the popular consciousness. You will find here more than ample number of examples for making connections between lived experience and scientific information." (Dr Florentino H Hornedo, UNESCO Commissioner)

--------

 

Winner of the Gintong Aklat Award 2003 by the Book Publishers Association of the Philippines. The book has 30 chapters (189 pp),divided into four parts, a practical guide on how one can get closer to nature, the key to a healthy and happy life. Second printing, 2008.

"Once upon a time, nature was pristine, undefiled, and unspoiled. We used to live in a dreamlike world of tropical virgin forests, and purer hidden springs, calm ponds, and serene lakes with majestic purple mountains, crowned with canopied trees. That was when people took only what they needed, caught only what they ate, and lived only in constant touch with a provident earth." (excerpt from the Introduction by Dr Anselmo Set Cabigan, professor, St Paul University QC and former director of the National Food Authority)

 

A Sequel to the Living with Nature Handbook (312 pp), it was launched at the Philippine International Book Fair. It won the 2006 National Book Award by the National Book Development Board jointly with The Manila Book Circle and the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts. Published by UST Publishing House, the book has 35 chapters divided into four parts. The book can be aptly described in this verse.

"Nature shares her bounty in many ways:

He who works or he who prays,

Who patiently waits or gleefully plays;

He's worthy of the same grace."

The principal author is Dr. Belen L Tangco who wrote the verses and prayers. Each verse or prayer is accompanied by an appropriate painting by AV Rotor. Full color and handy, it is useful as a prayer book and reference in the Humanities.

"Indeed, God speaks to us in the little details of nature - through the trees and the flowers, in the drip of rain, in the blow of the wind. He speaks to us in all of His Creation..." (Excerpt from the Foreword by Fr Tamelane R Lana, UST Rector

A coffee table book, full color, published by Megabooks in 1995. It was dedicated and presented to the Holy Father, John Paul II, on his visit to the Philippines by the late Jaime Cardinal Sin, Sister Teresita Bayona SPC, and Fr. James B Reuter, SJ.

" Doctor A.V. Rotor is an extraordinary man - scientist, painter, musician, photographer, poet. With these verses he becomes something more than an artist. He is an apostle - trying, in his own gentle way, to bring man to God. and God to man, through beauty." (Message by Fr James B Reuter, SJ in his own handwriting)

A collection of 18 essays about life and living, 216 pages. Published by UST in 2000 with the Preface written by Fr. Jose Antonio Aureada, regent of the Graduate School.

"What is considered a religion of disconnection betrays man's inability to see sensuality through divinity and divinity through sensuality... It was Victor Frankl, a Jewish psychotherapist-philosopher, who popularized logotherapy, a word of Greek origin which literally means healing through meaning. Dr Abe. the poet-musician-painter-scientist rolled into one, reminds us of the Franklian inspired principle: The unheard cry for meaning if only well-heeded in all aspects of life - from the least significant to the extremely necessary, from the most commonplace to the phenomenally sublime - can only restore authenticity back to living life beautifully."

The book is in full color, 75 pages, written by a very young student of then St Paul College QC. In the words of Sr Mary Sarah Manapol in the Foreword, "Viva is a youthful poetess who thinks and writes about pain and loss, friendship, joy and love, music and the arts, nature, math and literature, war and piece - these belie her age of 17 summers."

Dr AV Rotor as co-author, provided the photographs and paintings that fit harmoniously with the poems. More than this, he encouraged the young poetess to write her first book which was launched on her debut. Here is a verse from an anonymous admirer.

"After reading Light of Dawn, 
How can I live without poetry and art?
From the love that I shall find, 
Shall not my heart depart."

Poems, poems, poems, 72 pages, a handy book, colored and black and white, published by Megabooks 2000. The late secretary of justice Sedfrey A Ordonez wrote in the Foreword "... it is inescapable that after reading his poetry and after examining his paintings which accompany his verses one is led to the conclusion that the man who created the multi-disciplinary tour de force is a Renaissance man, one who reveals his reverence for nature by means of music, verse, and painting."

The authors have embarked on this task of providing people with more information about the many uses of some plants. While herbal plants have long been recognized because of their nutritional and medicinal qualities, their other uses are not fully exploited... May we continue to promote alternative medicine... The prices of medicine and health products remain unaffordable to most of our countrymen and herbal plants are the best alternative as most of these have been proven to be effective." (Excerpt from the message of Dr Juan M Flavier, former senator and secretary of health)

A Giraffe Book, it contains 72 verses, mainly four-liners, each verse  accompanied by a photograph or painting. Most of the photos were taken by students in the Humanities at then St Paul College QC. The school president wrote the Foreword, an excerpt of which reads as follows:

"It takes deep reflection to arouse one's inner child to take notice of the undistinguished buds, hyacinth, date palms... and it takes a trusting, affirming, and enlightened teacher-artist to lead and inspire..." 

Peacemaking in Asia (350 pp), contains papers presented in the 7th General Assembly of different religions in Asia held at UST in 2008. The proceedings were compiled, edited and published into a book by AVRotor, now in circulation among participating religions.  Copies were made available at the Interfaith Center, TARC Building, UST. 

Celebrating the Gospel of Life - Basic issues in Bioethics - editor and contributor (Anthropological Perspective of Environmental Ethics: Human Life and the Environment.)

Part 3. Latest Book

"A book is a gift you can open again and again" - Garrison Keillor.

Table of Contents

Part 1 – Community Life - Realities and Challenges
Part 2 – Understanding Nature, the Great Teacher
Part 3 – Keeping an Environment-Friendly Relationship
Part 4 – Nature – Great Provider of The Good Life
Part 5 – Conservation of Natural Resources
Part 6 - Nature and Humanities
Supplemental Articles (Fillers)

About the Author 198
Number of Pages - 286   

Published by Sadiri Publishing Quezon City

sadiri publishing@gmail.com       

Other books and manuals written by Dr Rotor

• Farm Marketing in Asia and the Pacific, Asian Productivity Organization Tokyo Contributor and book editor, 1992
• Our Generous Fragile Earth. Mimeographed 1991
• Economic Entomology Manual, De La Salle University (Araneta) 1965
• Plant Morphology and Physiology, De La Salle University (Araneta) 1965
• Farmers' Digest (publisher and editor 1963-66)