I regret buying this. Its partly my fault for not reading more reviews. Its also partly the problem with buying on line. In a book store had I looked at this book I would have seen that is merely a lesson plan for teachers with out an idea. The book offers almost no information. Instead the premise is that the 'student' should go out and do the exercises. In other words, learn it by yourself.
Perhaps if you are a teacher without an idea you could use this for lesson plans. The authors are an example of university teachers who publish garbage to appear to advance their status on campus. Otherwise this book is useless.

This is not a good book if you want in-depth information on the subject of lighting. However, it does give a nice overview of the major areas of photographic lighting. Unfortunately, it leaves the reader wanting more information and further explanations. I felt this book was a good read for a novice photographer, but not someone who knows the basics, but wants a more in-depth view of the broader categories of lighting.

I think the question is whether you are an advanced amateur or pro photographer already-someone who is looking for advanced diagrams, etc. on studio setups, etc. That is NOT the type of book this is. For someone-such as myself-who is self-taught and trying to learn or solidfy an understanding of lighting, this book is an excellent tool. It does include exercises, but by no means do they take up the bulk of the text. Most of the text is lean, clear writing that helps you understand the characteristics and behavior of light, some different choices you have for lighting, etc. As such, the book very much fills a niche for a certain audience because unlike other books, this one attempts to teach the foundations of photographic lighting. And it does that job well.

Twelve-year-old Andy Rusch has lived in a small town named Serenity all his life, working part time in his father's hardware store, but this fall proves anything but serene. In additon to a few buddies his own age, he has added a most unusual, adult, friend, who quietly grows in personal influence on the impressionable youth. Eventually Andy feels the strain and frustration of this emotional tug of war; he writhes under the unfair burden of having to choose to honor his new friend's different background or to obey his father re his future. The book presents this moral dilemma: does a Democracy--with the best of intentions--have the right to force modernization upon a harmless immigrant with a childlike faith in his power over Nature and the human heart?

Onion John is the kindly-given nickname of a man from Eastern Europe, whose English is undecipherable to everyone but Andy--who has to work at understanding his speech, until he discovers the trick of translating John's gutteral tongue and bizarre (medieval) ideas.

The boy, with no more ambition than to become a shopkeeper in New Jersey, becomes a companion to the strange but friendly hermit; they combine forces and enthusaism as they attempt to produce first rain, then gold. Onion John knows the rites to ward off "evil" spirits, to protect innocent workers, and even to fumigate an entire town. But does Serenity Need to be fumigated out of its expansive good will and generous desire to improve

John's living conditions--dragging him into the 20th century against his will? There is NO black magic, just European folklore and superstition. This is a simple, down home story about a boy who views his dad as a hero and his adult friend as a victim. Serious themes with elements of humor and touching family values.

In a recent writing assignment, my son wrote the following about Onion John:

The events that take place in Krumgolds' Onion John would probably never happen today. For instance, if a homeless man dressed in a strange coat and reeking of onions approached me on the street and spoke in a foreign language, I would not stop to wonder, If I listened long enough, would he start making sense? No! I would walk away - quickly. Not Andrew J. Rusch, Jr. He stops and really listens to Onion John, leading to their friendship and, eventually, the concern and care of their home town, Serenity. I enjoyed the interesting ideas Onion John had; for example, making rain with a parade and driving ghosts and evil spirits away with smells. I also like the part of the story that dealt with the "race to space" and Andy's dad's desire for Andy to get to the moon. I tend to prefer more adventurous stories or stories with a little more "action," which is why I chose to give Onion John four stars.

This book just made you feel good. At first, it seemed like Andy was the only one who wanted to help Onion John. But then, the whole town teams up to build him a new house with electricity, a stove where he doesn't need newspaper to light. When his house burns down, you know the people care about him. It is sad when he has to run away from the town of Serenity.

I thought the book was very confusing but I liked the way it protrayed the father-son relationship. I thought that Wideman used many stereotypes of whites in the south that he really didn't need to write about. overall the book was decent but it seemed to jump around a little too much for me.

I am astounded by how many of the present reviews here state that this book dwells too long on race. They seem to miss the point. It is all about race and how that is interpreted within American society. Race as it relates to power, power of white over black. Its history continues to have huge resonance within the society to this day. Fatheralong dwells on the impact of racism felt within the fabric of African American families - particularly focusing on how it translates from father to son. A subject that is not happy or pretty, but is conveyed in a poetic, thoughtful, confrontational and heartfelt way. Nothing will change unless people grapple with the enormous fallout of racism. This book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the dynamics of racism.

Being a South African i see the effects that the ideology of race has had every day. Yet Fatheralong took my breath away and left me feeling very sad and ashamed but not without hope for the future. Widemans' use of prose is both eloquent and angry, which is also reflected in the structure of the novel. Short bursts of anger are alternated with more lengthy contemplative passages. The flow in prose (and the lack of distinction between him and his father) creates the impression that now, once Wideman is a father himself, he and his father have become one. The seperation that once existed is now erased and the bond between father and son can be mended. But race is not the only issue that gets tackled here. Like Susan Faludi, Wideman is also talking about a generation of men who had fathers who weren't so much absent as silent.

i suppose you should take this review with a grain of salt, for i have only made my way through the first chapter. unfortunately bruer is an amazingly awful writer. in taking nearly thirty pages to illustrate that which should have been said in five, and with the words "new brain science," "new brain science," "reiner," "reiner," "reiner, " ringing hollowly, like some dreadful mantra in my mind, i fell into a stupor, one that could only be cured by closing this damned book. that is not to say that i won't return for a second look. call me a glutten for punishment perhaps. Or rather, could it be that i sympathize with what i have understood his argument to be thus far? anxious potential soccer moms and dockers kakhi gents, do not worry, properly applied neuroscience will save this country from the awful pestilence of.... low SAT scores... inability to hold a steady job... juvenille delinquency... violence... if we hand our little tykes over to the experts (which i guess is what consititutes "community" in this day and age) between the ages of 0 to 3 (as if the next 15 weren't enough), then we can eradicate the evil at its source - hit the neurons and hit em hard, while they're still fresh and spunky.

in all seriousness though, what this book seems to be critiquing is a very unclever and misguided liberal humanist agenda which would prefer to rest content with an astonishingly unrealistic cure-it all program than acknowledge the complexities of social distress and rebellion. neuroscience provides the crutch of truth to prop up this facile agenda. and in so doing we can, with clear conscience, avoid the disparaging task of examining and questioning the priorities of the society we live in. Much easier to let the market run free as the sole source of meaning in this culture, and delude ourselves into believing that youth violence, boredom, and alienation are simply the product of an ill formed mind.

am i jumping to conclusions?

I'm going to start by disagreeing with a reviewer below. Dr. Bruer is not suggesting that we ignore our kids! Rather, his valuable book makes the simple point that neuroscience does not "prove" that the experiences of the first three years profoundly and irreversibly influence the remainder of life. It is true, Dr. Bruer points out, that abnormal and/or abusive environments do indeed damage kids. However, provided the child experiences normal care (a standard which varies greatly worldwide), he should develop normally. According to Dr. Bruer, There is no good nueroscientific evidence that "enriched" environments lead to better brain development.

Dr. Bruer also points out that there may be good reason to believe that the brain remains plastic (changeable) throughout life. That's good news for those who came from less advantaged environments! It's also a relief for parents who for whatever reason could not give their children the good start they would have liked to give.

This book is important to read for two reasons: first, it gives a good example of how science can be misinterpreted or even "created" in order to further a pre-set goal. Second, it sheds some light on a potentially dangerous effort to introduce super-early education programs for all children, disadvantaged or not.

But I am holding back a star because Dr. Bruer fails to qualify his arguments with an important point. Even if the first three years do not of themselves determine the course of life, these are the years when habits are formed and the parent-child relationship is established. In other words, if we handle kids well and spend lots of time with them in years 1-3, we are much more apt to continue to do so in years 4-6, 7-9 etc. The kids will also have the good habit of enjoying their family life, and will, I believe, be much more open to parental influence. For this reason, parents need to take the day-care vs. in home-care decision much more seriously than Dr. Bruer implies.

With that caution, I would recommend this book to parents, teachers and anyone interested in public policy.

After shelves upon shelves of books, magazines, and essays have been written about the brain science behind our childrens' developement, we finally have a book that actually discusses the evidence rather than shaping it for a particular goal. Mr. Bruer is not an advocacy group. He's not a political action committee. He has researched his book thoroughly, sourced it, and even interviewed the original scientists whose studies were horribly misinterpereted, misconstrued, or just plain misused. If you listen to the media, there are mountains of data regarding the connections between your baby's environment, and his/her brain developement. Mr. Bruer lets us hear from the scientists themselves that this is not true. They tell us that what little scientific evidence we have regarding such connections is incomplete, and should not be extrapolated to any practical parenting curriculum. In sum, we should raise our kids with common sense, love, and care. What a comfort that such a time-honored notion should still prove true.

The author has a wonderful respect for the ADHD "disorder," but absolutely no respect for the CHILD with the disorder! Over and over, my thoughts kept returning to the idea that there was little attention given to the child. The child is often referred to as lacking focus and proirities or acting with no apparent direction. To the ADULT in the scenario, there MAY be little rhyme or reason to the child's activity, but the author seems to forget that the CHILD may have a very valid reason for his behavior and we just may not see it! There was little evidence that the author supported the idea of getting into the CHILD'S world and attempting to understand the ADHD from his/her point of view. I was horrified by the fact that, as an educator, I KNOW that some of the behaviors and indicators the author used to identify ADHD were developmentally inappropriate! (Exactly how many 18-36 month old children share and play co-operatively? In the authors mind, inability to share and play this way AT THIS AGE is a classic sign!) A parent just confronting ADHDand using this as a resource would feel there was only ONE option in the world MEDICATE MEDICATE MEDICATE! This book actually presented the chapter on medication before all other options simply because it was what the author perceived as the most popular way of "dealing" with ADHD. Once this medicating was well in hand the author suggests using the dreaded Fiengold Program and LIMIT the diet.

I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to anyone as more than a resource for understanding the "disorder." I would NEVER suggest reading this as a means of trying to "help" your child! This program will do NOTHING for your children. It will make life more conveinient for you but will limit and frustrate your child. If you are looking to read a wonderful book on ADD/ADHD and these amazing bundles of intelligence and energy, I would HIGHLY recommend "The ADD Book" by Dr. William Sears as the ultimate CHILD centered ADD resource.

If you could buy only one book to assist you in helping an ADD/ADHD child, this would be it. Taylor has a real knack for "getting inside the skin" of these children. He has a genuine empathy, and is one of the few authors who can explain them in a way that makes sense.
Even after years of working in this field, I find that I gain new insights and practical information in each chapter. For example, he writes, "Poor depth perception results in clumsiness, awkwardness, and occasional stumbling and running into things." It's a lot easier to sympathize with the klutzy child when you look at it from that perspective!
Rather than simply list and catagorize symptoms, as do many books on the subject, Taylor digs into the issues, demystifying them and offering practical, hands-on suggestions for both professionals and parents.
His understanding of the physiology of ADHD is clear in his description of food cravings. The child who craves salty and highly seasoned food, he explains, is deficient in minerals; the excessive desire for cheese shows a need for amino acids. Similarly, itchy skin and rashes occur because, "Basically, their bodies have lost some natural moisturizers in the form of essential fatty acid derivatives and are suffering from a form of dehydration."
He covers many underlying and related conditions. Taylor has clearly done his homework and is aware of the newest research on conditions that include Asperger's syndrome, autism, PDD, etc. The stakes for these children are very high, and it's essential that a parent be well educated in all the various areas that are involved. The areas include: the use of medicine, the role of nutrition (not the politically correct nutrition du jour, but that which is backed by solid research), and those behavior modifying techniques that really work.
Taylor is unique in that he is an undisputed authority in all of these areas. His gift to the reader is that he offers a wealth of information in a way that can be absorbed and put to use quite easily.

BEFORE READING ANY OF THESE BOOKS I NEEDED TO KNOW IF THERE WAS A FANCLUB MENTIONED IN ANY OF THEM...AS THAT IS WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR...

PLEASE TELL ME BEFORE I BUY THIS BOOK...

IF NOT..CAN YOU RECOMMEND ONE THAT HAS A MENTION OF A FAN CLUB? I WANT TO WRITE TO MISS HEPBURN PERSONALLY..AND WOULD LIKE VERY MUCH TO GET IN CONTACT WITH HER...

THANKS ...

YOUR HIGHNESS

Author John Bryson has managed to assemble a comprehensive photo collection of the great, and extremely private, Katherine Hepburn. Bryson has used his publishing and Hollywood contacts to compile an interesting collection of little and never-before-seen photos of Hepburn's life as actress, artist, athlete, co-worker, ham, homebody and friend. It could not have been an easy task to assemble such an array of unusual and revealing photos, and Bryson's observations and commentary illuminate without the usual stilted editorialization that so often accompanies photo biographies. This is a fine work any Hepburn fan would want for their library. I say buy two--one for a friend, and one for yourself!

I am a homeschooler, and I bought this book because I was looking for something about the Crusades written specifically for younger children. This one fits the bill, although the language is rather dry and patronizing. It has some very nice illustrations and a few quotations from actual sources. I could see this book in a school library for 2nd-5th graders to use for research, but it is not the fun book I was hoping for. I'm not sure that I would recommended for homeschoolers.

Flavell provides a detailed and comprehensive guide to the thought and work of Jean Piaget that was without peer when written. Unfortunately, Piaget continued to work for almost 20 years following the publication of this book.

The strength of Flavell's work is the 297 page summary of Piaget's theory. Like most summaries of Piaget's work, chapters are devoted to the sensory-motor period, preoperational thought, concrete operations and formal operations, but I found the introduction to Piaget's epistemology (chapter 7) and Flavell's comparative definition of Piaget's model of intelligence (chapter 2) to be most enlightening.

Flavell writes with a flowery tone somewhat unusual in developmental psychology, but spares little in his attempt to explicate the intricacies of Piaget's thought in a balanced, but critical, manner. Nonetheless, I prefer the shorter work by Herbert P. Ginsburg and Sylvia Opper titled "Piaget's Theory of Intellectual Development." This later work is more comprehensive in that it includes Piaget's entire career, and makes better use of experiments as illustrations that Flavell does.

shows great ways and ideas to have fun with your infant/toddler

I only gave the book one star, because zero stars was not an option!

Any book that advocates shutting your child in the room and not checking on them until morning is not only medically unsound, but also cruel. You'd be better off reading Dr.'s Ferber or Sears.

I found this book a great companion to Dr Ferber's book. This one is very easy to read, well organized, and provides pep talks if you're about to start a difficult transition with your child. However, it lacks the graduated steps of the Ferber program (check on your child after 5 minutes, then 10, etc) that is so useful in the Ferber program. I used this book a pep talk before doing the Ferber program of crying with checking in intervals, and holding the door shut for a minute at a time. It worked! The first night we tried it for my toddler (who just discovered how to climb over her bed rail and wake us up every night for the past 2 months), she cried and jumped out of bed for 2 hours, then slept through the night. The second night she cried for 10 minutes, but stayed in bed and slept through the night. The third night, she let out a cry then went to sleep! If you prefer this type of cold turkey method, use it, but with Ferber. Otherwise, try one of those no-cry solutions which takes much longer, but may suit some parents.

This book does have some concerns to me, but overall it was helpfull. People who left reviews saying they were told that they would sleep fine during some trials did not read this correctly. It clearly states if you cant handle the three day stint, dont do it! "Try what you are more comfortable with" and there were other options than the three day program. It also does not tell you to lock your child in their room and dont check on them. This book helps you understand that you dont need to run to your child the second they start crying, because then they think everything will be solved the minute they start to fuss, which leads to manipulation. I personally would not like the three day program, but this book gives good advice on how to get your child ready for bed without fuss.