Jackson Jones and the Puddle of Thorns was a delightful, fun story. Jackson and his friends were real. They spoke like real kids, fought like real friends and had tender, loving hearts....like real kids. I used this book as an opening novel for my summer school class of 4th and 5th graders...mainly boys. They loved it!! We planted a "puddle of thorns" at our school as a follow-up, and had to spend some time looking for packets of seeds for zinnias and nasturiums! A very fun book, well written and illustrated.

This is a rich, thorough and exciting collection of songs from California's past, and should belong in the hands of every fourth grade teacher in California. Songs are grouped according to major periods in the state's history, making it easy for teachers to enliven their students' study of each of these periods. If you don't play an instrument, worry not--simply play selections from the accompanying CD, charmingly rendered by the Calicanto Singers and additional vocalists.

Many of the songs are simple, short and catchy--perfect for student performances. Your students will be singing these memorable ditties long after rehearsals have stopped, and in so doing, gaining a feel for what life during California's past must have been like. Nothing can make history more relevant, interesting, immediate, and enjoyable than music!

This book has more errors than should ever be allowed in a professional product. There are typo's in both text and examples. The CD does not contain the source code from the book and I vote this the worst source ever of any computer based information I have found to date. It has left me very unsure of the publishers (QUE) standards and I may never purchase another QUE book again. I simply do not trust them. Spend your hard earned money on a different choice

"Special Edition Using Java, Second Edition" is an excellent reference to JDK 1.0.2. However, today (April 15), only a month and a half after being billed as "Computer Programming Expert Editor's Recommended Book, 03/01/97", it is a dated reference and the cover claims of JDK 1.1 coverage fall short--they are preliminary and peripheral to primary Java programming topics. For example, there is no coverage of the major changes in the Java event model of JDK 1.1, which permeate almost every application. I recommend waiting for better JDK 1.1 coverage, hopefully in Joseph Weber's new version, "Special Edition Using Java 1.1" which has not yet been released, but for which Amazon is taking orders today

This book is nothing if not large. This was QUEs attempt to capture the entire spectrum of JAVA and make it easy to understand (a task that they accomplished) but then the standards changed again. This is still a great book for learning Java; but, you will have to move on to other resources for news on the updates