In this volume of the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series written and illustrated by Mike Venezia, we learn about the life and work of Paul Cezanne, who was apparently the moodiest of the great Impressionist artists. Venezia uses examples of Cezanne's works and his own cartoons to show the artist's views on art. However, when Venezia claims that the other great impressionist artists of the day felt that Cezanne may have been the greatest of them all, I have to admit the reasons why they would think that are not at all clear to me. Venezia contends that Cezanne's artwork "influence almost every modern artist who came after him."... I understand that Cezanne paid as much attention to the backgrounds and the space around objects as he did to his main subjects, and that he wanted to show how he felt about nature and not just depict nature as it looked, but none of this seems particularly monumental to me. Maybe it has more to do with the multiple perspectives he used in the same painting or the way he created depth without using a lot of perspective, but Venezia does not tie the evidence together with his argument. I think he needed to spend just a little bit of time talking about specific influences that can be traced from Cezanne to some of the artists that followed him to prove his case. However, although this is the least impressive volume in this series that I have seen to date that is certainly a relative claim. The Getting to Know the World's Great Artists books are an excellent introduction for young students to the world of art. Reading all of these books is like taking an Art Appreciation course (and having fun while doing it too).

New Olympics approach, so will Updated ISF rules. Still, once again, Paul Elvstrom helps us win regattas and defend our cause before protest committees. A very clear and useful guideline, supported by Elvstrom's great sailing experience.

This book is packed with great images of Paul Gustave Fischer's art. It shows how his art changes over his career getting brighter as well as his experiments with different styles that were emerging at the time. I can't read Danish so I can't comment on the text, but even not being able to read it, I get alot of enjoyment out of this book.

As a long-time Sunday school teacher, I completely disagree with the review by Horn Books. The Biscoe's have compiled a wonderful, creative series of books. The scripts and songs are fun, and provide a good springboard for additional activities. I loved the variety of illustrations - far from being a dis-service to the reader, I found the variety of styles refreshing. Highly recommended if you can find a copy.

Expecting a large 8 by 10 inch book of over 100 pages of fantastic verbosity, I received a small, 60 page book with language suitable for a 6 year old. But I thought it was just great! Perfect for new Kariya fans and younger hockey fans. Not recommended for hard-core hockey fanatics, but a definite read for little hockey tykes.

Nice collection of historic stories about the history of LSD. This has a slightly different account, of the history we have all heard before; as reguards the 60's counter-culture movement.

The books I have read in this series, Black Americans of Achievement, have all been terrific. They are clearly written and easy for children to understand. They have marvelous black and white illustrations and photographs throughout. Each illustration and photograph has a caption that gives the reader more information about places, people, and events related to the subject of the biography.

The length of the books is just right. These books are long enough to cover the important events in the subject's life and to meet the requirements that teachers often give for book reports (a book longer than 50 pages. Yet they are short enough that they don't intimidate elementary school children. (This biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar has 110 pages.)

These books are well organized and informative. In the back are an appendix, a chronology of the person's life, a bibliography, and an index.

The biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar was fascinating. I am curious to know more about this poet, especially his religious beliefs. Also, I would like to read more of his writings. He had many obstacles to overcome, such as being poor and black at a time when racism was rampant. (He lived from 1872 to 1906.) Yet he worked hard, took risks, and persevered until he achieved his dream of being a successful poet and author. He was a very talented poet who inspired other black poets such as Langston Hughes. However, the latter years of his life were sad and tragic as he became chronically ill and developed an alcohol problem. Details about his alcohol problems were omitted, as is appropriate in a book written for elementary children. I am now interested in reading an adult biography and am curious to know if he turned to God for comfort in his despair.

Tony Jasper gives us an overview of Wings from the band's inception in 1971 up until 1977. Each album and band member is profiled, as well as giving us a chapter on Paul and Linda's homelife. Mostly geared toward younger readers.

There is not a lot known about the early life of Paul Revere, which leaves it to author JoAnn A. Grote to fill in a lot of the details in this juvenile biography. Grote spends a lot of time speculating as to what life was like for the young boy. Young readers will learn about how young Paul became an apprentice silversmith and eventually a premier colonial craftsman, whose talent went to printing money and making teeth. Of course the big event in Revere's life was the famous Midnight Ride, immortalized by the poet Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. Revere served as the basis for the famous poem, not because he was the only rider that night, but because more words rhyme with "Revere" than with "Dawes," the name of the other rider that night. In fact, Dawes name does not appear in this book either.

This volume is part of the Revolutionary War Leaders series, which also looks at the lives of Nathan Hale, John Paul Jones, and Betsy Ross among others. Of all the volumes I have read, this particular one has a reading level that is geared more towards younger students. Having read other books about Revere I know that we know more about the things Revere made over his life than we do most of the details of his life. Young readers will get a sense for how he was one of the most trusted couriers of the revolutionary movement in Boston. More importantly, they will understand that Revere's patriotic endeavors had to do with much more than just sounding the warning when the British regulars marched to Lexington and Concord.

Rotha's place in documentary history lies in the early days in Britain - as a colleague of John Grierson, a documentary film-maker and a writer about film. His influence remains strong, in spite of his books having been out of print for some years. Apart from Eric Barnouw and a couple of tthers, he is the only writer about documentaries capable of creating prose as stunning as the films themselves. Like the best film-makers, such writers make it look easy. Grierson would agree, as he wrote in his review of Rotha's 'Shipyard' in 1935: " (Rotha) is...our film historian; and he is the keeper of our conscience as much as the keeper of our records........ ". Incidentally, Grierson then goes on, in his usual blunt fashion, to criticise Rotha's films, calling them "impressionistic", a coda for "apolitical" and "superficial". (Grierson was wrong). Rotha was significant asa a film-maker in the thirty years from 1933 - his credits include 'Contact', 'Shipyard' , 'The Face of Britain', 'World of Plenty', 'Land of Promise', 'The World Is Rich' and 'The Life of Adolf Hitler'. For much of hat time he was at the centre of Britain's documentary scene and he took to upon himself to document the documentatrsts. Much of what we know about Grierson and others from that time comes directly or indirectly from Paul Rotha. Thus it is as a writer, critic and diarist that Rotha will be respected in the 21st century. From his seminal and contrarian 'The Film Till Now" (1930), through ''Documentary Film' (1935), 'Rotha On Film' (1958) and the breath-taking 'Documentary Diary: An Informal History of the British Documentary Film' , Rotha created not only a body of work but an essential part of the legend of the Grierson days. If documentary has a founding myth, Rotha was the shaman who interpreted it for lesser mortals. Petrie and Kruger's book returns Rotha's work to us after years spent searching second-hand bookshops. Most of the copies owned by film schools and libraries seem to have disappeared some time ago, lost to poor but obsessed students. It may not be the whole oevre, but this "best of Rotha" collection is a great start, with selecions from the major works, woven together chronologically within sections to form powerful linear narratives on 'The Art of Film', 'Cinema and Britain' and 'Film Practice'. The editors also give us a very decent, forty-page introduction to different aspects of Rotha work, plus excellent bibliographies and filmographies. Libraries will need this book because of its utility as a documentary film course book. A lot of industry professionals will want to to fill in the half-remembered fragments and remember why they entered the business in the first place. The next generation need to know the past to better create the future. (Docos)