This book is beautifully illustrated, designed and written. It is a perfect book for anyone who likes birds and an equally perfect book for those who love beautiful things. The latter might find that they love birds after reading the book. Overall, a very well done book.

This is a very informative book for those who want plain language information on attracting hummingbirds and butterflies. The author explains things, step by step, and shows pictures to help your understanding. All of the Ortho books are written in a clear, comprehensible manner. A definite buy for your library!

The Human Web is an excellent summary of human history. It is indeed a bird's eye view in that it looks at the broad overall sweep of human affairs and doesn't bog down in unnecessary detail. The major theme is the construction and expansion of human webs, or interconnections that tie cultures and civilizations together ever more tightly. If space voyagers ever arrived on Earth (and could read a human language) this book would be one of the first things I hope we hand them to help them understand us.

"A Hummingbird's Life," written and illustrated by John Himmelman, is an excellent educational book for young readers. The book is an introduction to the life cycle of the ruby-throated hummingbird. Nearly every page contains a beautiful full-color illustration, along with simple text.

Himmelman shows us hummingbirds hatching from their eggs and learning to fly. He then follows a hummingbird on his migration south, and shows us the "dance" with which the male hummingbird seeks to attract a mate. Many other aspects of hummingbirds' lives are also portrayed. The book contains moments of both humor and suspense, and ultimately celebrates the beauty and resilience of these amazing creatures.

The book's educational value is enhanced by a short but useful glossary. Himmelman clearly has both a knowledge of and affection for hummingbirds, and both of these things come through in this wonderful book.

A beautifully written, gorgeous book about keeping wild birds as pets. Their antics are very funny indeed, and kept me chuckling, but are told with sensitivity and understanding.

A collection of essays, this gem is sure to deepen and change your understanding of salvation, creation, God, the Church and many other topics. I found it hard to sleep after reading this book at night, as it seemed to charge my mind with a surge of creativity and a desire to put my face on the floor to pray. These essays are far from dry. Engaging from the start, they cover the following topics: 1.Apophasis and Trinitarian Theology 2.Darkness and Light in the Knowledge of God 3.The Theology of Light in the Thought of St.Gregory Palamas 4.The Procession of the Holy Spirit in Orthodox Trinitarian Theology 5.Redemption and Deification 6.The Theological Notion of the Human Person 7.The Theology of the Image 8.Tradition and Traditions 9.Concerning the Third Mark of the Church: Catholicity 10.Catholic Consciousness: Anthropological Implications of the Dogma of the Church 11.Panagia 12Dominion and Kingship: An Eschatological Study Bibliography

It is hard to imagine a better presentation of these topics. My only complaint is his use of greek and latin without translating. While his use is usually inferrable from the context, if you are unfamiliar with theological jargon, you'll want a greek-latin-english dictionary at hand (maybe not, though). PLEASE don't let that scare you. It is a minimal amont of times that you'll not get what he means. Besides, isn't time to learn a little greek? Although Lossky's works are always worthwhile, his "Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church" takes the cake. He's done his homework, now do yours!

This beautiful picture book is a real treat for any admirer, young or old, of nature and the work of John James Audubon. From first page to last, it is a tribute to an extraordinary man who had a passion for America's wilderness, as well as to the wilderness itself. Robert Burleigh tells the story of the pioneering environmentalist through an imaginary rhyming letter to his father, with accompanying excerpts from Audubon's journals. Wendell Minor, a renowned jacket artist and distinguished picture book illustrator, enlivens the text with some of his finest work, which is complemented by a few of Audubon's original paintings. Mr. Minor portrays the curious woodsman as he rambles through sun-dappled forests, investigates a cormorant's nest on the side of a rocky cliff, and admires the untamed spirit of a temporarily captive hawk. Later on, the story's tone changes from carefree revelry to a heartfelt plea for wilderness preservation, as Audubon mourns the loss of the woodlands and the birds he holds so dear. While holding a dying pigeon in his hands he remarks: "And as I watched it die I knew/The world I love is passing too. And I must paint it all because/We need this memory of what was. . ." These inspiring words are accompanied by some poignant pictures of a flock of now-extinct passenger pigeons--once the most populous bird in the world--streaming across the sky, and a once-mighty forest reduced to stumps. There is a hopeful note in the story, as well: "But listen, now, from every tree/I hear them calling out to me: The crow's ka-kow, the lark's ti-ti/The warbler and the chickadee." In order to preserve nature, we must first appreciate even the smallest aspects of it, from the the mighty bald eagle to the tiny chickadee. The book leaves one with a sense of hope about the conservation movement and a refreshed passion for the outdoors, especially birds, which are so plentiful and so striking in this country. With his paintings Mr. Minor has skillfully captured the personality of the man and the beauty of the birds he loved, and Mr. Burleigh has brought poetic words to help us remember Audubon not just as the vanguard in the American conservation movement, a mere icon of history books, but as a true woodsman who loved this country and its wilderness with his whole heart. INTO THE WOODS makes a lovely gift for any aspiring naturalist of age 8 to a lifelong birder of age 80. Pick up a copy for the child in your life and one for yourself. Also be sure to check out another new picture book, RACHEL: THE STORY OF RACHEL CARSON, which, like INTO THE WOODS, tells the story of a pioneering American environmentalist and is wonderfully illustrated by Wendell Minor.

In this delightful, colorful book Big Bird and Elmo learn an important lesson about themselves. Big Bird is unhappy because he is too big to do things with his friends, and Elmo is sad because he is too small! In the end both learn a valuable lesson about their respective sizes.

We have a 17 month old, and this has been her favorite book since she was 7 months old. In fact, this book has been to Europe and back because she couldn't part with it.

The author does a wonderful job showing children that regardless of their size, they all have an important contribution to make.

Excellent scholarly work that explains and shows what Audubon did, and how he did it. As a collector of original Audubon Havell prints, I found the introductory chapters to be informative, readable and very helpful. Wonderful explanations of his technique. About eighty of the plates are rendered nearly full size in this large book. The other 390 are included in an index as full-color 3 X 4 prints. All of the 435 original "Birds of America" images are in this book as well as quite a few other Audubon watercolors that were never syndicated for printing. There are several appendices including one that lists the actual size of each watercolor. Very helpful to a collector. I especially enjoy comparing Audubon's original watercolor paintings depicted in this book, with the large, excellent renderings of the Havell prints in "Audubon Birds of America" by Tim Parmentor, also available from Amazon. My one tiny complaint is that all of the color images are designated by the Roman numerals that Audubon assigned to them. Pain in the neck. Great gift book for both art students and birdwatchers.

Anyone looking for a chronicle of the American wilderness in its infancy would do well to start here. There is great charm in the journals of 1820, where the spellings are still Audubon's own, and the flavor of the times -- especially regarding life on the frontier, and concerning everyday life in old New Orleans -- is everywhere. With his "Bird Biographies" of everyday varieties, as well as descriptions of now-extinct species, such as the Carolina Parakeet, and Ivory Billed Woodpeckers, this book is a treasure not just for nature lovers and bird aficianados, but for lovers of history as well.