This is a delightful book for children ages 4-7. Children will laugh at the acts of this oversized Newfie puppy. A must for the dog-lover in your family! Parents will love the colorful illustrations.

Dean Griffiths, the illustrator, has done an incredible job depicting both the nobility and the potential goofiness of this breed! The story is very funny (although there is a harrowing rescue at the end) about an overgrown puppy adopted by an older lighthouse captain and his wife. The "puppy" proves to be a great deal of trouble because of his enthusiasm and his insecurity (he tries to send the lighthouse cat away because he's worried the people like the cat better) until he shows his true colors in a daring rescue during a storm. A fantastic book with a lot of whimsy and sincerity.

The American accent is truly the very prerequisite of coolness these days: to "nativize" oneself in the rich American popular culture requires a considerable mastery of that peculiar pronunciation, and such mastery is not that easy to attain unless one is prepared to spend countless hours through immersion in movies and songs, or better yet, through a stay in the US.

Aspiring for coolness might be one possible motivation, an addition to the repertoire of accents to impress friends and relatives might be another; the average student should find this book a required material whatever the drive for the endeavor. I actually used the book as a self-study, and I found it tremendously helpful especially after the jargon-laden introductory books on phonetics baffled me to no ends. There is something very pleasing to the analytical mind: logical explanations, instead of reliance on learning through repetition, are given in places they are warranted.

The authors decided not to adopt the full IPA transcription for the sounds, a choice which at times bothered me, as it is hard to switch between one system of transcription to another when using another book. Schwa (mid central rounded) and carat (open-mid back unrounded) are not distinguished, probably on a wise consideration that such distinctions are not phonemic and only unnecessarily complicating.

I go an used copy of this book in the year 1988 when I was an English teacher for TOEFL in Taipei. As I taught "listening comprehension," which was the weakest area for Chinese students, I tried hard to finding as much relevant reference as possible. Unlike a lot of difficult/academic TESOL books, among the dozen reference books I got, Manual of American English Pronunciation proved to be the easiest to comprehend, most practical and most resourceful. This manual was organized in such a logical and easy-to-understand way that most English teachers and students alike would find it easy to absorb and put into daily use. As its title suggested, it should be used as a manual instead of a book.

The best part that helped me most was "Lesson 16, The Sandhi of Spoken English." In this chapter, the authors introduced the various forms of Sandhi-forms of English that were commonly seen, for example, reduction of unstressed function words, the disappearing of "t" and palatalization. I saw WOWs in most of my students' eyes when such knowledge was revealed to them. "No wonder I simply couldn't understand spoken English, " I guessed that was their feeling and I was glad to help them decode the mystery.

I got on Amazon to see if there's an updated version I can buy. I look forward to its fifth edition.

I loved reading the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books as a child, and I loved reading "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle", "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic", and "Hello, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle" again in this wonderful collection. The only problem is that "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Farm" is not included.

This is a great collection of all the Mrs. Piggle - Wiggle books. This is such a cute book. I remember reading these books when I was little and am very happy to be reading the treasury

Parents of children who are ADHD/LD will appreciate the real-life stories of other parents and children who have difficulties navigating Social side of life. Many practical strategies/suggestions are offered here.

Reading the anecdotes is probably as close as you can get to 'walking in your child's shoes' and understanding their personal experience of living with a learning disability.

If you enjoy "politically correct" words and phrases, be aware that the word handicap/handicaps/handicapped is used somewhat frequently in this book, however, this factor alone should not deter a reader from gleaning the valuable information and strategies offered.

My son has learning difference woes, and in trying to get a handle on things at school (mostly), I've searched high and low for information. I put tags and stickies on almost every page of this book - marking ideas, situations, stories, and such that either sounded like my son or gave me ideas and a great deal of insight and support for my journey in helping him have fewer social troubles with others. I cried, laughed, and felt stronger after reading the book and wish I could use the author as a doctor for my kid! I feel strongly enough about what all the book has to say about how teachers and parents are so integral in the training and learning processes of these kids that I am buying another copy for my son's elementary school officials to share amongst themselves in the hopes of giving them ideas to help them cope better with the kidlets they have to deal with at school. By (diligently) working together, parents and schools can make help these kids improve their social skills to a level that makes all feel better!

The reviewer from Decatur, GA has described the plot. This is another good story from Betty Neels. It's just about the same plot--doctor, plain girl, beautiful villan(ess). The descriptions of England, Holland, and the various foods eaten are always interesting. All I can say against it is there is no sex, but that's not why I read Ms. Neels--I read them because most of the time the heroine is plain and she gets the prince.

Cover: The doctor meets his match .....
Patience Martin is a county girl with a sharp tongue and absolutely no interest in the latest fashions. She's hardly the sort of woman who normally attracts the attention of wealthy Dutch surgeon Julius van der Beek!
But something about Patience makes her stand out - and it isn't just because they were snowbound together. Not that it means he'll fall in love with her - not with the glamorous Sylvia van Teule making it clear she expects to become his wife ....
This is yet another of Betty Neels' charming tales of a brave, practical loving heroine who is living with two elderly aunts and making a living as best they can after suffering a severe setback in financial circumstances. Patience is a no-nonsense compassionate hard-working woman whose capabilities are finally recognized and appreciated by the Hero. You will be charmed by the heroine's love for her aunts and the way she protects them from the unpleasant aspects of their current life. You will laugh out loud when the adorable tyke involved in the story sticks out her tongue at the widow stalking our hero! :)

While a book by Deborah Grace Winer reads as smoothly as a beach novel, it also offers enough information for the reader to come away knowing and caring about the subject. "On The Sunny Side of the Street: The Life and Lyrics of Dorothy Fields", is no different, except her song lyrics tell as much about Ms. Fields as does the book. This was a savvy, sexy lady, a 1920's well-bred lady who could get away with writing-- "I've never mussed the crease in your blue serge pants. I never get the chance. This is a fine romance." Reading the lyrics themselves is one of the best things about this book. As familiar as they are, many hidden gems of wit and craftsmanwhip are discovered. Learning the stories about these songs came to be written, and why, and with whom, is all gravy. The meat is in the perfection: Could you get more precise about a relationship than, "Close As Pages In A Book"? More poignant than "Remind Me"? Fields was the only female lyricist who reached the plateau right up front with all those guys -- Hart, Hammerstein, Mercer, Porter. Her songs are catchy, colloquial, and cut to the bone. Dorothy Fields wrote with 18 collaborators, but her biggest hits came with Jimmy McHugh, Jerome Kern, and Cy Coleman. For the 1973 Broadway show, "SeeSaw", music by Cy Coleman, Ms. Fields wrote in, "Nobody Does It Like Me": "If there's a wrong way to do it, A right way to screw it up, Nobody does it like me." The song is perfect for the character singing it, but not for Ms. Fields. When she had a lyric to write, Dorothy Fields didn't screw it up. Nobody wrote it like her, right on the money. -Elizabeth Ahlfors

When the Smithsonian issued a recording in honor of Dorothy Fields, the 22 selections that boasted her lyrics included "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "I'm in the Mood For Love," "Never Gonna Dance," "On the Sunny Side of the Street," "Big Spender," and "If My Friends Could See Me Now." Even those few titles reveal (1) how many familiar lyrics she wrote, (2) how long a time period she was artistically active, (3) for how many media she wrote. Her first datable work is from1926, her last from 1973. A remarkable woman in what was after all a man's craft.

Equally fascinating were her co-workers: Jimmy McHugh, Jerome Kern, Arthur Schwartz, Sigmund Romberg. And they are all here in Deborah Grace Winer's (Schirmer Books, 1997).

I did enjoy this book immensely and found it easy reading. What I missed was a sense of the personality around which this book is centered. Read about Dorothy Parker, for example, and you have a sense of what drove this artist. No such feeling comes from this book, in which the author has taken an objective view of the life and times of Fields and made little attempt to get "under the skin," so to speak. Perhaps I ask for the impossible since the author was not privy to any personal writings of her subject. But there are always friends who could have been mined for such information. Dorothy also tends to get a little lost for pages at a time as the personalities of other luminaries of the time are discussed. As fascinating as they all are, our interest wanders too often from the main character.

Still I give this book 5 stars for what it does and not subtract for what I personally think it lacks. The illustrations are quite good, by the way, and the inclusion of many of her lyrics is a good thing.

This is a collection of interviews of famous and not-so-famous women who have navigated their fiftieth birthdays. The women as individuals may be described as admirable, fascinating, witty, and even awesome (check out Dolores Huerta who has spent most of her adult life as a full-time human rights activist, living in poverty or near-poverty, while giving birth to 11 children--most of whom are now college graduates--and periodically catering to the demands of one of her three husbands). A more interesting aspect of this collection is what these women have in common. They each find this time in their lives more free, more focused on making a contribution to society, less focused on physical appearance and pleasing others, and less concerned (if not unconcerned) with having men in their lives. Tabra Tunoa, a jewelry designer and manufacturer, said, "You waste a lot of time in your thirties trying to look twenty and in your forties trying to look thirty"--one comment from among several in the interviews which imply that the forties are for clearning up the vestiges of denial of age, and the fifties are for embracing its gifts. Said Gloria Steinem, "I learned that to be defiant about age may be better than despair--it's energizing--but it is not progress." Rountree has done a fine job of asking the right questions, eliciting illuminating answers, and photographing 18 women who are worth hearing from.

The author of On Women Turning 50, Cathleen Rountree, is an artist, wrier and lecturer specializing in women's issues. Her book is made up of photos of and interviews with 18 women in their 50's and above. Some of these women are famous, some not, but all of them are fascinating.

I really enjoyed the portraits in this book because they do not aim at a Vogue-model, fake-beauty effect. Instead, they artistically reveal each woman's character, personality and wisdom. The prose narration is also excellent, because Rountree presents each woman's experience with growing older in her own words. The result is that this book reads like 18 short, interrelated autobiographies.

There aren't a lot of good books out there geared at encouraging women over 50 in a sexist society that tells women they are worthless without youth and beauty. Of those I've seen so far, this is the best written and most respectful of older women. As such, I recommend it not just to women over 50, but to the men and younger women in their lives who love them.

Americans today are sick of things. We've got way too many of them and most of them are utterly useless, oftentimes almost grotesque in their superfluity. A flip side to this overload is that we, especially the younger generation, lose touch with how beautiful and life-enhancing a thing can actually be. We're awash in things, but ignorant of "thingness." In all the rhetoric about possessions not creating happiness--true at bottom but overdone--we're forgetting that, yeah, actually, some things do make me pretty damn happy.

This book Quintessence shows us a few of these special things and allows us to enjoy them by pointing them out, and on a more general level the book persuasively argues for a re-appreciation of objects of affection and even of utility. The things shown in this book vary widely--from a brown paper bag to a Harley Davidson to a Camel cigarette to a Keds hightop--all sharing the one common quality of "quintessence," the quality of having it. At least as the authors see "it," that is. Fortunately, they're almost always right. I came across no thing in the book that I rejected as having a classical "thingness" that, once recognized, does work on the senses and can sometimes even bring an unconscious smile to your face. Accompanying the photos of these objects is stylish, flowing prose from Edwards and Cornfeld, both accomplished writers and people of fine taste. Edwards, now a columnist at Forbes ASAP, has written on topics as diverse as men's clothing, technology, office politics and the difference between how West Coasters work vs. New Yorkers, and all of his work exhibits this special talent of searching for, and often finding, the essence of the thing. The book, then, is a joy to read as well as look at the pictures. I came away with a new appreciation for the things I love in life--I remember my fifth-grade red nikes, my Costco-bought Spalding basketball, the Ferrari Testarossa--and I think others who read this book will do the same.

Unfortunately, the copy being sold on this website is not up to snuff with the quality of the book itself. There are a couple missprints and the page layout next to the pictures isn't great. The original printing of this book now retails for large sums, sometimes in excess of 700 dollars, and imagining how fine this book well-printed would be offers a clue as to why. For persons of lesser means, however, this copy will do just fine to get the message across: don't forget, amidst plenty, the value and aesthetic pleasure to be gained from one, loved thing.

We need another book like this. Most design books lack "it".

I first read this book a few years ago, when I was in about fourth or fifth grade. Being a tomboy at that age and even a little now, it was great to read a book about a girl who didn't sit around and "play dollies" and put on make-up. It was also neat to read about this feminist young girl, working for equal rights even though she was just a kid.

I like the ideas that this book presents. I reccommend it to any kid to read, boy or girl, any age. I think most kids will understand the point the author is trying to make-- that females deserve the same opportunities as males, and that not all women and girls think the same way-- without being annoyed by obnoxious characters and corny writing. I think it's a funny book, both because of how interesting Barbara's writing is and how dated it is, from the 70's. (hehe..) But it still makes a good point and is fun to read.

Adults might like this book, too. It isn't written in a patronizing way and isn't boring. I've read it at least ten times, and I'm seventeen. Just last night I dug it out of a box of my old books to read again. But I have a tendency to do that a lot, anyway. :)

I have 10 nieces and nephews who all love to read. I remembered this book as being my favorite growing up. I'm ordering it so they can read it too!! As a kid I identified with the book because I was so into sports. I'm going to read it again when it comes in! Hope you enjoy it too.