This is a hilarious story of Paddinton, who decides to bake a cake while Mrs and Mr Brown are not at home. He makes a spectacular mess which he decides to clean up with the vacuum. Unfortunately he sucks up the cake and when he reverses the vacuum, spews it all over the kitchen. Luckily, he gets it all cleaned before Mr and Mrs brown return form town.

My 5 year old daughter recently read this book to me. She loved hearing the story of Teddy's adventures, and this book has inspired us to start a scrapbook of her adventures with her special toy animal friend. The last chapter is wonderful as it describes the bond of friendship between the bear and the little girl who loved him.

Money is scarce on the Navaho reservation and the lack of funds in the police department means less officers and increasingly faulty and out of date equipment. Officer Frankin calls in a possible burglary in progress and requests help but the broken radio stopped working before he can give a location. By the time Ella Clah, the officer in charge of the special investigations unit, finds him, he is dead with a bullet in his brain.

It is clear that money is needed to upgrade the equipment and hire more officers. NEED (Navaho Electrical Energy Development) thinks they have the solution to the problem. They want to build a small clean nuclear power plant on the reservation believing it is a step in making the tribe self-sustaining. There is a large segment of the Navaho population that doesn't want anything to do with the project and those who are adamantly opposed to the project wind up dead or shot at. It looks like the NEED forces are turning militant but Ella suspects a cold-blooded killer is making it look that way while pursuing a personal agenda.

TRACKING BEAR is a great police procedural that gives readers an insightful look into the culture of the Navaho living on the reservations today. The novel displays the schisms in the tribe between the traditionalists and the modernists as well as the new traditionalists. The who-done-it is complex, compelling and exciting with a plethora of suspects from a grieving father to a Navaho activist. Aimee & David Thurlo have written another fascinating installment in this popular mystery series.

Harriet Klausner

Anyone who was fascinated by the PBS program on these two polar bears will enjoy this book. It tells the story of their early years before being transfered to the Florida zoo. The photos are amazing! I've used this book as a resource with K-6th graders, and all ages have loved it. The text under the photos is very small and in blue, making it difficult to read, but the main text is fine, and otherwise the book is wonderful. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in these two very special bears.

Although I did not see the television documentary on these two little darlings, I nevertheless loved the book. Although they are now big bears, the story of little Klondike and Snow's early years is interesting, educational and touching. Abandoned by their mother as cubs, the two bears were raised by humans. This book clearly illustrates the love and devotion of the Denver Zoo towards the cubs' care and development. Klondike and Snow are now thriving at Sea World's Wild Arctic exhibit, were they have plenty of living space and attention!

This book is wonderful for any animal lover and people interested in animal/human interaction.

I was truly fascinated by the special program on Klondike and Snow and will watch it every time I see it. I have not yet found the video to purchase. If you loved watching these two bears grow up, then this will be a great book to purchase to remember them when they were cute and cuddly. I recommend this book to help teach children to love and respect animals. When we see how truly beautiful they are you could never harm them. Children learn these values early in life.

Marion Hollins' life story is an amazing series of accomplishments, crowned by her design work at Cypress Point and Pasatiempo Golf Clubs. This is a 'must read' for Central Coast people who want to learn more about how Marion's dedication and determination influenced the formation of Pebble Beach and Pasatiempo during the '20s and '30s. Her tragic ending at an early age leaves the reader wondering what more she could have accomplished had she lived a bit longer.

Marion Hollins is by far one of the most accomplished persons in American history. Her story is motivating and incredible. For anyone who doubts their ability to succeed, this is a must read.

The rhythm and rhyme of this story entranced my son. It was the only book that he showed an interest in from one to four months old. He loved the contrasts of night sky and the white wind in the illustrations and was captivated by the inflection you can read this story with. The fur cover really caught his attention later and provided additional textile enjoyment. Now that he is one it is still his favorite book to pull off the shelf for me to read.

This is a beautifully illustrated book with a soft, furry cover. It is a comforting bedtime story ideal for reading aloud. We keep extras on hand as baby gifts, and my kids (ages 4 and 9) still count it as a favorite. A little bear is worried at bedtime and his mother reassures him he has nothing to fear. She will help him whatever the situation. The illustrations are among the best I've seen.

Dave's lyrical writing style engages the reader throughout this 275 page book, which thoroughly chronicles the fate of the grizzly bear in Colorado. One is left with a sense of wanting to know what's next, what's happened since the ink of this book dried in 1994?

Personally, I felt compelled to action, to do my part to help keep the San Juans as wild as possible for those Ghost Grizzlies to have a chance to someday rematerialize.

David Petersen captured my attention early in the book and kept me glued to the pages all the way through. He presents the reader with the grizzly bear, its natural history, and its possible existence in the Colorado wilderness. Along the way, he involves you in exciting adventures and a thrilling search for bruins. This is a must have book for the library of anyone interested in grizzlies, wilderness, the rockies, and the general outdoors. This is definitely the best book I've read in a long time.

Stories about particular bears and events in the southwest, from the 1820s to the present. Shows the changing attitude toward bears. Written by David Brown, who also wrote the very good book "The Grizzly in the Southwest: Documentary of an Extinction".

I could not put this book down!!! Wonderful stories about the Great Bear that roamed so much of the American West. This is really a history lesson about how our ancestors exterminated the Grizzly mainly due to not fully understanding this animal. Let this be a lesson for present and future generations on how to preserve the American Grizzly.

Under the heading "Feminine Hygiene and Bears," Glacier National Park's current website claims, "although evidence is inconclusive, sexual actitivity or a woman's menstrual period may attract bears." Women who are concerned about warnings like this should read Backcountry Bear Basics. Instead of repeating or embellishing Glacier Park's menstrual warning (as far too many writers have done over the years), Smith reviewed the evidence and found it wanting. He devotes eleven meticulously documented pages of Backcountry Bear Basics to the menstrual myth. After a graduate student did a study on polar bears and menstrual odors in 1980, the superintendent of Glacier wrote a memo that said the results of the study "were inconclusive and the applicability of the thesis to Glacier's grizzly and black bears is questionable." So why does Glacier continue to post menstrual warnings? Smith says park officials are "in a quandry. Because of 'liability implications,' NPS officials felt they had to warn park visitors that it might be dangerous for menstruating women to travel in bear country. At the same time, the NPS had to tell employees that it was safe for menstruating women to work in bear country. It was clear there would be lawsuits for sexual discrimination if the NPS refused to hire women for jobs in bear country." Whether the topic is menstruation, food storage, or pepper spray, Dave Smith really did his homework. You get practical advice in this book that you won't find anywhere else.

This daring book challenges conventional wisdom about bears, it's well-documented, it provides safety tips you won't find anywhere else, and it's written with style. Reading Bear Basics is like sitting around the campfire and chatting about bears with a witty outdoorsman who has years of first hand experience with bears, and an encyclopedic knowledge of bear literature.

You casually mention that bears eat anything and everything; John Muir wrote that to bears, everything is food except granite. "John Muir was wrong," says author Dave Smith. "When it comes to natural foods, bears are rather finicky. Out of 1,000 types of plants in a given area, they might only consume 100-250, and each of those will be eaten during a particular season." To reduce the risk of encounting a bear, Smith suggests contacting land management agencies before you take a hike: "Resource management experts can often predict when and where to expect bear because the bruins are so keyed in on seasonal food sources."

X-C skiers generally don't give much thought to bears during the winter, but Smith says, "When I worked as a winterkeeper in Yellowstone, I often saw my first grizzly tracks in March. During the unusually mild winter of 1995-96, winterkeeper Steve Fuller saw grizzly tracks in February. No matter where you're going, you should be aware of bear hibernation patterns.

You ask if bears have good vison or poor vision, and Smith replies, "A 1937 report from Europe noted that brown bears in a zoo could see people at 120 yards, and recognize their handler at 60 yards." He then relates an anecdote by a bear researcher in Colorado who was spotted by a black bear from a distance of 800 yards. He closes by noting that Yellowstone Grizzly Foundation research director Steve French has an "excellent rule of thumb regarding the vison of bears: if you can see a bear, you should assume the bear can see you."

Backcountry Bear Basics is filled with useful information like this. Now if I see a grizzly 150 yards away, I'll assume the bear can see me and I won't move around unless the bear is preoccupied. Although many books discuss bear vision and other topics that are covered in Bear Basics, Smith consistently gives the most thoughtful, pratical information on each subject. In addition, he debunks a lot of myths about bears. This is the ultimate book on bears and bear safety.

I have lived in Yellowstone NP for 25 years. Dave Smith's book , in my opinion, is the backcontry bear bible. Dave's knowlege and research on the subject is outstanding. I insist that my employees are familiar with this book before heading out for a back country experience. Well researched and informative. A must read for any serious backcountry camper.

This is not a slight on Mr Grau who I believe was only the translator of this Soviet era text; however, do not expect to learn much from this book.

The translation is excellent, this book reads as if it was written in English. Unfortunately this is the only good thing I can say about this work.

The idea that the original collection of these vignettes was done at the Frunze academy, the equivalent of one of the US Military's war colleges, goes far in helping to explain the pathetic performance of the Soviet military in Afganistan, Chechnya, and their other post WWII encounters. The vignettes are poorly written, only include one point of view, and lack almost every aspect of detail that would normally be required in this sort of work. Yet, based on a vague outline consisting of at most 150 words that describe a three day offensive action the original authors at the Frunze academy would make sweeping "lessons learned" comments on the importance of intelligence, or the coorindation of fire and maneuver. Of course, beyond making these couple of statements, nothing of practical value in the area of tactics, techniques or procedures are provided to the reader.

The quality of these after action reviews are poor and they offer very little to learn from. For a comparison I would urge any reader to contact the US Army's Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth. The history department at the CGSC has produced numerous texts of the same type, but the quality is incomparably better.

...

I believe this book originally started off as a Military paper, which got published and sold. Mr. Grau has done a 3 part series on the Afghan-Soviet war. This is part 1 in the series.

Like the other comments, very easy to read, and to the point. Goes over specific battles, what happened, and how it all broke down. The conclusions and commentary at the end of each battle are excellent. This book works great with the others in the series, esspecially "The Other side of the Mountain: Mujahidden Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War" - which does the same thing, but talks about the battles from a Mujahideen standpoint. The second book is almost impossible to find...... doesn't carry it. Lastly, there's a third book coming out called "Russian General Staff: The Soviet-Afghan War" which looks at the war from the general level - I guess overall strategy.

Overall, excellent book on tactics. And easy enough to read that you don't need to be an officer in the military to understand.

The Soviets experienced in Afghanistan the slow death of a thousand cuts. In his book, "The Bear Went Over the Mountain", Lester Grau carefully examines some of those small cuts. The book consists of a number of short vignettes written principally by Soviet Platoon and Company Leaders. In these short narratives, these leaders describe their combat experiences in such realms as ambush, convoy escort and urban fighting. At the end of the story, there is the Frunze Military Academy analysis of the narrative in which the strengths and weaknesses of the action are analyized. The vignettes end with Lt. Col. Grau's analysis of the action.

This book is not for someone looking for a general military history of the Soviet experience in Afghanistan. It is a book about small unit tactics and about what works and what fails. I only hope that this valuable book and his other book, "The Other Side of the Mountain" is being ready by young American Platoon and Company leaders currently fighting in Afghanistan.

I obtained both books through Amazon.com UK.