I finished reading this book with my 9 year old son last night, and today I found my son re-reading parts of the book out loud to a friend -- now that's a first. What a fun and funny book! We like this McGrowl book even more than the previous one and we can't wait for the next book in this series. Enjoy!

This is a really interesting behind the scenes look at the making of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. The perspective is from that of Bob Balaban, the actor who played the Translator/Cartographer teamed with Francois Truffaut. The anecdotes are fun and interesting, a look at what it was like to hang out and work with two of the greatest directors in history, one at the beginning of his career, still young and kind of idealistic, the other being a master at the height of his talents, acting for the first time. If you love CE3K, Speilberg, Truffaut or have a thing about guys who are constantly mistaken for Richard Dreyfuss (some of the funniest stuff in the book, this is a great read) It isn't really a dirt dishing tell all, it is more of sweet memories of the struggles involved in making a groundbreaking piece of cinema.

Programming Domino 4.6 With Jav

Lotus Domino support for EJB programming mode

This is by far the best and most useful book I have purchased in a long time! Bob has great insights on the future of Web interfaces to data and how you, as a programmer, can effectively work in the new paradigm. He does an excellent (and concise) job of helping you sort out the architectural options for the web: cgi/perl/asp/activex/etc. The book then has a detailed explanation of everything you need to know to program Domino in Java. I found Bob's speculation on the CORBA/IIOP and Domino v5.0 technologies especially useful in planning our IT infrastructure. Please buy this book if you are curious about Domino and Java! If you are new to Java you should also find a beginners guide. This is not a 'learn Java and Domino' text for beginners. Intermidiate and Advanced users, however, definitely need this book before they write another Agent in Domino or another CGI script in Perl. This book will wake you up to the future of the Web, Domino, and Java programming!

Every night I read to my son, who is now nine.
We have discovered many great books together --
classics like "The Gammage Cup" and "The Hobbit",
and newer books like "The Marvelous Misadventures
of Sebastian" and "Island of the Aunts". We also
read simpler but fun books like "Sideways Stories
from Wayside School".

Out of the 100+ books we've read, McGrowl was
definitely our least favorite. You could say
it helped us appreciate the good books that much
more. The story didn't move at all, the characters
weren't involving, and the logic of the book was
laughable (I'd find examples but the book has been
relegated to the bottom of the "to be junked" pile
in the basement -- oh, I remember one: McGrowl
can hear a blade of grass move but can't hear the
bad guys lurking behind a nearby tree).

We probably wouldn't have bought the book were it
not for the short bio at the back listing the
author's accomplishments in the film world. This
book proves that you can be an actor and director
and not be able to write a children's book. Who
had the audacity to put a number 1 on the jacket of
this book, as if it would be the first of many
McGrowls? I just learned with dismay that there is
indeed a number 2 McGrowl book in the shops.

Another annoyance was that a very large font is used
to make the book look more substantial than it is.
But I suppose in this case short is good.

Note from my son: instead of this book I'd love to
recommend the Redwall series by Brian Jacques.

I think this book is a very nice transitional book from simple chapter books into more complex books. My 8-yr old daughter, who is a very good reader, did expand her vocabulary the use of bigger and more complex words. If you love dog stories, you'll like this one too.

i spent 3 weeks looking for a book to get for the first few weeks of school,then my freind told me about mcgrowl and since i love dogs i read it and then i read it a second time a third time and a forth time,and i could not put it down for a second i even dreamed about it if your looking for a good book read MCGROWL