Brimner's Raindrops is a gentle, poetic tie-in to primary science units about the water cycle. Big and bold illustrations by David Brooks in soft, pastel colors are dreamy--as if seen through a soft rain. Brimner, who is one of the best loved writers for kindergarten and first grade, has a winner here. Like this one and you'll enjoy some of his other emergent readers--Cowboy Up!, Nana's Hog, Firehouse Sal, How Many Ants?, and the hysterical duo Max and Felix. Kids love them (and so do their teachers).

A first-grade team teacher, I find Brimner's emergent reader to be a useful tie-in to our science unit on the water cycle. Although he doesn't clobber readers over the head with scientific facts--it is, after all, fiction--the cycle is there for young readers to discover and enjoy. An excellent choice for anyone wishing to tie scientific fact to the realm of young fiction.

Most C-programming books are very thick and the authors spend a lot of pages in explaining historical and detailed aspects of the C-language. As a chemist I often get frustrated when reading these type of books since it takes about 250 pages before they e.g. explain how to read or write to a file. When you finish the books you are not at a level of solving real problems in C. C programming: The Essentials for Engineers and Scientists by David R. Brooks goes, as the title says, directly to the essentials for a scientist. The book is based on a five-step problem solving procedure throughout the book. This way of structural-thinking, which is often neglected in other books, helps the reader to get a good programming habit in any programming language. Since the book is very problem oriented, the author is able to cover more advanced programming topics than other C-books. The book is designed for undergraduate studies without any knowledge in programming, but may be used by anyone interested in learning C. Many programming examples and exercises are taken from the field of chemistry and physics and thus, the book is perfect as a introduction course in C for chemists and physicists.

Charlotte's Web has always been my favorite book. I have read it about ten times. It has lessons in living for any ages. There is life, death, love, hate -- all the emotions people experience. E. B. White captured all this in his writing. His life story would interest anyone!