Hello! Many of you may have seen the Dateling show where they were teaching their babies sign. I know some sign language but didn't think to use it with my baby. But when I saw that show I started using simple words for everyday thing with my 13 month old. He started picking them up in 2 weeks. Words like milk, cracker, medicine, eat. But there were alot of food words i did not remember, so I ordered this book. I ordered it thru a book club, and not at the book store, so i did not know the contents. I am very sorry I did. I Know about 75% of the signs in that book, and I want to say that if I did not know them, I would never been able to do them by reading the illustrations in this book. They are not clear at all and do not have any written disciption of how to do the sign. Signing to my son has made a difference, less crying, he cannot talk yet but he can let me know what he wants. But please spend your money on another signing book

This Book has very nice bright pictures but it is very hard to
follow as far as knowing what the hand movements are. There is a section in the back of the book that has sign descriptions for every sign but it's very slow going if you don't know the sign and you have to turn to the back of the book to check hand position. I was quite disapointed in this book.

This book is an excellent source to teach children and even adults sign language. The illustrations are accurate in their represenation of sign. It is coloful and visually attractive which makes it easy to read. The black and white manual alphabet, the fingerspelling, signing and aspects of sign provide excellent directions and pointers to singing correctly. The sign descriptions are a great supplement to the illustrations.

I recommend this for parents, teachers and students as an itroduction or foundation to sign language.

It would have earned 5 stars if it differentiated between "sign language" and American Sign Language".

Being an educator I congratulate Baker for writing such a helpful book.

The authors write in an engaging and animated style, and the "issues approach" to biology introduced in this text is an excellent way to introduce the material. Non-science students in particular will benefit from such interesting-- and sometimes even exciting-- demonstrations of the importance of the topics covered.

Unfortunately, the book fails to live up to its ideal, and does so right from the start. Chapter One, for example, is so full of mistakes, oversimplifications and downright silliness that I would be embarrassed to assign it to my students! There are errors of dates, misleading definitions of concepts (sometimes even conflicting with the books own glossary), and inept treatments of non-scientific concerns (ethics and religion). The "thought questions" throughout the book frequently tend to be written in leading ways that suggest which answers will be "acceptable." Although the book tries hard to bridge "the two cultures," the reader is constantly reminded that science is one thing (defined by its rigorous method), and all other human efforts are "other" (nonfalsifiable, therefore "anything goes"!)

As a biology text, this is quite successful. Topics and explanations are accurate, clear and simple. It is a pity that the authors' laudable attempt to connect the science to significant social, ethical, and political issues is not similarly clear and well-informed. I fear that in the long run such carelessness may do more harm than good.

Biology Today, An Issues Approach gives a refreshingly innovative perspective to biological science. When so many texts seem to be clones of each other, this book addresses the same concepts in a completely new way -- through a series of pertinent and often controversial applications of scientific knowledge. I was led to this text after an exhaustive search for a book which would cause my students to think critically about the biological issues which they see every day in the news. Minkoff and Baker's book is the only one of its kind I have been able to find which meets the requirements for my course. In addition, on-line supplementary material is invaluable for providing possible essay topics, research areas, lecture outlines, etc. I highly recommend this book to all teachers who are considering establishing a course in biology that seriously challenges the students to look beyond the headlines and evaluate biological issues in light of their own ethical and social perspective.