Out just in time for Christmas, Anne Neuberger's book is a welcome addition to the family bookshelf. Adults, as well as children will enjoy the book.

The first part of the book re-tells the story of the life of Saint Nicholas who was born in Patara, Asia Minor about 280 to aging parents Theophane and Nonna.

It follows his unusual selection as bishop of Myra at a young age and speaks of his acts of kindness and generosity.

The second part of the book contains other miraculous stories from other parts of the world: Turkey, Italy, Siberia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, and the U.S.

The book explains how St. Nicholas became Americanized and secularized to become Santa Claus, and also includes ideas for how to celebrate St. Nicholas' Day as well as a script for a St. Nicholas Day play.

Neuberger's book is a delightful look at the real St. Nicholas.

I came across this book while looking for methods to smooth local orientation measures in an image processing application. The author presents more information than you wanted to know about the "right" ways to compute averages and related measures of axial (undirected) data. Particularly useful is the treatment of tests of uniformity and the discussion of the Von Mises and wrapped normal distributions. If you work with data that is best described around the circle, e.g. direction of bird flight from a landmark, this is a good reference to have on hand. It will help you to avoid the common mistake of applying conventional descriptive statistics to circular data.

I had to love a book of poetry that includes the line: "A conscious conversation is a great vacation." (Carry Me to that Sanctuary) What makes it more appealing to me is that the line was written by a teenage male. Having two teen males of my own, reading this book was a delightful step into a world view that is often not open to me, at least if they can help it. The author says to "Stay tuned in all day...wherever you go" (Tune Jazz). His book of poems, including some I admittedly do not totally understand,(hence the four star review says as much about me as the book) gives readers the chance to do that. Glimpses of what it's like to be caught in a speed trap (Set Me Free) to what it's like being in high school (Sit Down and Pay Attention) make this a real gem if you care about teenagers. If you've ever felt like the author "I like to come prepared, but don't always know what I need" (Carry Me to that Sanctuary), get this book for your teenager--and one for yourself!

This book provides the reader with a wide span of information. It follows the use of wheels from early potters wheels and cart wheels to complex uses of wheels like gyroscopes and gears. While the format is easy to read and colorful, it is not a "blurb" book- it requires a reader to get through a paragraph or two to get information. This format makes the book a good choice for being read aloud or for a new reader to use. Another great feature of this book is that it points out the use of wheels for other than transportation purposes. The fly-wheel, in particular, is a welcome addition to a basic information book about wheels. The inclusion of an index and a "fact-file" increase the useability of this book for young researchers.

The university I teach for uses this book. It is an "easy to complex" book which is perfect for the classroom or for the manager who wants to improve his or her strategic management skills in the comfort of their reading room. The strategic management model developed by the authors is easy to follow--and remember--to include the many connections it makes with external and internal analysis. I am most impressed with the authors' coverage of leadership, organizational structure, and culture. Not only will you learn the basics of strategic management--but it is a quick read and includes some outstanding case study's to reenforce the learning. A great read.

This is an excellent reference book for anyone seriously studing geology and glacial geology of New York. This book is a great source of information, including additional references. I recommend this book to anyone in the field.

The first page of Sudden Death pulled me in and kept me turning pages due to the suspense.I have read it 4 times!The moral is kind of hard to see but it so saying that you don't need to take steroids for sports.It was saying don't sacrifice your body for something you don't even need to succeed."Would his father have taken steroids if the were available?Billy tried to convince himself that his father would have but inside he knew it wasn't true."All of this happens at and average American school called Cresswell High.This story probably would have happened recently.Lara Crandall has been dying to break a good story for the school newspaper to put in her résumé to go to journalism school. She gets a lead that the school hockey players are might be using steroids.She investigates and three players on the team are using them and they want this story buried.They will stop at nothing to put this story away.When hockey players start dying,Lara finds out she might be the next target.

Sustainable development is a vast and complex subject where a new entrant can easily get lost. This concise book first offers a review of the issues involved, principally the problematiques centred around natural resources such as land, water, and biodiversity. It then tries to integrate these problematiques into a systems model whereby the non-expert policy maker can obtain a clearer picture of the stakes involved in a development intervention. The model presented, called "sustainability assessment map (SAM)", enables visualisation of the impacts of an intervention. This cannot by itself be an aid to decision making since it lacks the quantitative aspect, but I find this simple trick very interesting for illuminating the problem and for guiding discussions during preparation of an a priori assessment plan for a development intervention. I find both the introductory material and the model of representation very interesting from pedagogic point of view.

The 42 contributors report from all fields of ongoing research within the field of Talent and Giftedness Development. Contributors are (in addition to the 3 editors) as famous names as Howard Gardner, Joyce Van Tassel-Baskin, D.K. Simonton, Barbara Kerr, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (Flow), Miraca Gross - to mention a few in the order of appearance. The proceedings are not only about talented and gifted children, but about adults as well, and all sorts of talent/giftedness are under scrutiny, from multiple gifted persons over single field gifted to savants - to give you some 'land-marks'. There are contributions about e.g. * pros et cons as for early college education, gifted underachievers etc., and contributions with focus on * 'the special population of gifted learners' as females, the disadvantaged, the disabled, the racial and ethnic minorities. * Further the very crucial subject: the influence of emotions on the development of the gifted, mentally and socially - is covered. * The self-perception of the gifted in a world which cannot provide realistic mirroring. * How gifted people are interacting with each other, in the family, and with siblings.

A multitude of entrances to the problems of 'the gifted learner in western societies' is representated in this volume, covering a broad range of perspectives. Further, there is elaborated reference material in connection to each contribution, directing you where to go for further reading. A good, broadbased introduction to the many areas a world, build on more modest intelligences, need to take into account, if wanting the gifted to be an integrated asset and the 'hope for the future' they actually are born to be.

This interesting autobiographical account was written by a West Point graduate of the 1850s. His experiences in the pre-Civil War west are especially informative, as not many first-hand narratives of that era have been published. His assignment after graduation from the military academy was to the New Mexico territory. There, he participated in the short Navajo war, and with vivid descriptions, tells the story well. He was wounded during the conflict and after being sent home for convelescence, tells about the most difficult choice confronting those classmates of his from the southern states in their future direction. Although Averell didn't excel at his later military career, never the less his work with the pen makes for interesting reading.