A great book for finding and seeing France from another vantage point. There is great detail and information about this country not found in travel guides. The information about French people and their unique life styles is invaluable to the traveler. This book is such a find, outlining marvelous places to experience and know about. The color photography is great, with insight into "hidden" France. I can't wait to use this book in France.

We have four of Helen Cooper's books: The Tale of Bear, The Tale of Pig, The Tale of Frog and The Tale of Duck. They were given to us as a set and my daughter just loves them. They are perfect books to read to babies and toddlers as they rhyme beautifully and the illustrations are wonderful. My toddler wants us to read them to her all the time, over and over. She reads them to our cat and can remember words from the pictures. I have absolutely fallen in love with Helen Cooper's books and I am in search for more as we all enjoy them and never tire of reading them. I recommend this book for the baby set. I wish Ms. Cooper would write a Tale of Cat.

The Tale of Pig along with the three others in the series by Helen Cooper; The Tale of Duck, The Tale of Frog, and The tale of Bear are such a joy to read to little children. We received them as a gift when my boys were 3 and 4 and now we read them to a friend who is two. They beg to hear them over and over. Each book shows how Timothy loves his toys and how he deals with the heartache his mischivious cat causes. Pig is met with the whoes of no longer being able to hold coins but Tim still loves him. The other great thing is the toys are in each book which is really fun! You are really missing out if you don't get a copy of each of these books!

Although neither of my girls(2 & 4)have a favorite 'blanky', this book will hit a chord with all parents. Helen Cooper's books are a delight for parents AND children. This book tells about the loss of a favorite bunny-and the adventures it has while it is lost. Really a delight!

Let me qualify something. I have a two year old. This book is not good for a two year old. Pictures: Poorly done, with some artistic watercolors that are really to dark. Not a bright happy and pleasing in the illustration department. The pictures are really elementary in skill level. Story: This book is really just a huge social message about the loss of habitat for certain animals. I dont think that little kids really can conceptialize this let alone care. The message also offers no solution to the problem. Leaves you hanging at the end as you wonder if you missed something. Text: Not a rhyming book. Actually, just did not have good flow. I hate to be the odd man out here, but for MY purposes - not a book that I would recommend you buy.

My almost 2 year old son got this book for X-mas.We have been reading it everyday since. He loves it! After reading this book 3 or 4 times he says sleepy now when it is time to go to bed.
I like it because it seems to get the message across that night is for sleeping. Plus it has beautiful illustrations and the text isn't completely assanine. After writing this I am going to buy some more of this authors books. Too bad she doesn't have one about going to the potty :)

I purchased this book for my daughter when she was two. She is now almost three, and this is still one of our favorite bedtime books. My daughter enjoys (and relates to) the little boy's not wanting to go to bed, and the stalling that is involved. My daughter gets a kick out of the vrrooming car sound. We love to explore every detail together on each page of the charming illustrations. My daughter loves to point out how sleepy everyone gets as the story moves along, making her sleepy too. I especially love the part of the mother and the ending!

Reading music was always something of a mysterious art to me. This book really clarifies it and makes it seem possible for me to sight-read in my lifetime!

I found this to be a very good book to learn the basics of how to read music. I sing in a choir and always had a hard time following the music in the sheet music books. The book helped a great deal, and I only wish that it contained a bit more instruction.. but I think that for less than ten bucks, it's a great deal.

Our "Bears" unit will be complete with sharing this story with my Head Start children in their classroom. Will fit in very nicely with our favorite stuffed animal and then all children can make one to take home

Getting and keeping the attention of eighteen 4 and 5 year old children is no mean task, The Bear under the Stairs, had them riveted, All of them. And at the end of the story the best accolade ever, expressed in three wounderful words, " Again teacher again." Barbara A Lawless. (Nursery Teacher, The Infant School. Bahrain .)

The tales of King Arthur and of the knights of the Round Table are well-known and have been the subject of many books, poems (Tennyson), at least two musical works (Purcell's "King Arthur", and the famous Broadway musical, "Camelot"), and films ("Camelot", based on the musical, and "Excalibur"). The most famous English-language book version of these tales is this version by Sir Thomas Malory, yet this is not easily readable, even in modern prose. The modern English rendition by Keith Baines is excellent, for it allows those of us who do not have Ph.D's in English literature to get an idea of what the original was like, but the book itself is tedious in its very nature.

What you should expect with this book is a very good beginning and ending, and a "will it ever end ?" middle. Arthur himself cannot be called the central character, for he is virtually absent, except in the first tale of the book, which deals with his coming to power, and the last one, about his death. The rest of this book is concerned with jousting and tournaments, so much that in the end one gets bored with this never-ending succession of fights with knights whose names you'll only read once and which have no consequence on what is supposed to be the larger plot (such as the quest for the Holy Grail, or the famous Tristram and Iseult tale). Of course, the better-known knights of the Round Table, such as Launcelot, Tristram, and Percivale, are present, but only from time to time, and narration often shifts from one to the other for no reason.

What this book lacks most is continuity. Apart from the first and last tales, everything in between is not in chronological order, which gets confusing. In one tale one character is dead and another is well-known; in the next tale the first character is living and the second one is unknown (just take the example of King Pellinore and Sir Percivale). All tales were obviously separate ones, and the reader, at some point, will simply stop trying to understand how Malory ever came up with such an order for his tales. If Malory (or his original publishers) had any idea in mind when they chose this setup of the tales, it will appear unclear to most readers.

One of the few good points of this book is that, since it was written in the late Middle Ages, it avoids to a certain extent the over-romanticization of the Middle Ages, which is what later authors, such as Sir Walter Scott, did to such an extent that even today we cannot think of the Middle Ages without having in mind the picture-perfect version of it (which I will not delve into -- I'm sure you know what I have in mind). Even though chivalry as described in the book has some romantic elements attached to it, it is never fully exploited, and "Le Morte d'Arthur" certainly does not fit the requirements to be classified into the romantic genre (which was not fully described until the nineteenth century). This book therefore does not use romanticism as we now know it. But this good point may also be one of the book's weaknesses, because the topic is a legend, and not fact. Because this subject is not historically accurate (and some parts of the book are hilariously improbable), Malory could not use realism to replace romanticism, and I believe that if he had used more romanticism in his book it would only have made it better. In the end, Malory used neither style, and this makes his writing style very dry. His characters are mere fighting machines with no emotional depth, his narration is action, action, and action: no description, either of his own characters or of the scenery (a castle is a castle, nothing more). The scenes he depicts cannot be located, for the setting is never described. Malory, above all, was an awful storyteller. He could only describe his characters jousting and fighting, and since this had nothing to do with the larger plot, this only lengthens the book for no reason. (If you want a modern comparison, just think of a public orator who just tells personal anecdotes that are not related to his topic.)

Furthermore, anyone interested in the Middle Ages has nothing to gain from reading this book. It holds no historical interest (apart from a study of the English language, but then I would not go for this modern rendition) for the reason that its subject is not based on fact and its description of society in the early Middle Ages is simplistic. This book is certainly no "Canterbury Tales", in which a lot can be learned about what was life during the Middle Ages. So if you are mainly interested in history I'd skip "Le Morte d'Arthur" and I'd go for "The Canterbury Tales" instead.

In conclusion, "Le Morte d'Arthur" is worth reading only if you have the patience to go through it, for this book is overlong and repetitive. Keith Baines's rendition makes this task easier, and his appendix on the main characters is very helpful if you intend to skip parts (which you should not do because the whole is chronologically inaccurate).

This modern prose rendition of Le Morte D'Arthur by Keith Baines is a surprising (and surprisingly well-done) help when first getting aquainted with Malory's work. It's not a retelling for children that waters anything down nor is it an abridgement of the original. Everything from the original is included only pared down (for instance, endless descriptions of minor duels and battles are just simply mentioned or listed). It's all based on the Winchester Manuscript edited by Vinaver which is divided into eight books: The Tale of King Arthur; The Tale of King Arthur and the Emperor Lucius; The Tale of Sir Launcelot Du Lake; The Tale of Sir Gareth; The Book of Sir Tristram of Lyoness; The Tale of the Sangreal; The Book of Sir Launcelot and Queen Gwynevere; and, Le Morte D'Arthur. If Caxton's edition of LE MORTE D'ARTHUR has ever seemed overwhelming (or just a bit confusing and repetitive) to you but you want to experience this great work with all its charm and wonder and metaphor then this retelling by Keith Baines might be a find for you. To give you an idea that it leaves nothing out this rendition is over 500 pages. It also has, as an appendix, a synopsis of principal characters. The poetry doesn't seem to be lost in this retelling, and even if some of the poetry is lost you can always go back to the Caxton or original Vinaver after reading Baines but at least have a much clearer grasp of the territory and what's happening. In the Baines retelling I noticed the scenes with the women (and some of those intrigues set more in the court and private realm) come more to the fore whereas in Caxton they sort of seem lost here and there in the background.

This review applies to the abridged audiocassette version. I have not read the book, but I will, after hearing this wonderful reading by Derek Jacobi. His immaculate British accent truly brings to life this epic tale of King Arthur and his knights' adventures. I highly recommend this version and also: 'Excalibur' the movie, T. H. Whites' 'The Once and Future King', and also Carl Orffs' 'Carmina Burana - Empress of the World' - music which was featured in 'Excalibur'. These four put together can give you a truly grand starting experience of the Arthurian Legends.

BARRA explores a small island of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland through striking black-and-white photographs, Gaelic poetry, and prose. The illustrations highlight the rocky coastline, the island's famous castle, Highland cattle, croft houses, and much more. The text covers the geography and history of the island, as well as the religion, superstitions, customs, and folklore of its people, interspersed with poetry in Gaelic (also translated into English). A beautiful souvenir for anyone who's traveled to the Western Isles in reality or only in daydreams.

One of the many children's books I've gotten out of the library that I have since bought.

The titular Cat of this story lives in a two-family, but doesn't consider either family his ("Tom Cat") owner, but when one family decides to make their own decision about that, it's up to Tom Cat to set the record straight.

The book explores the curious way a cat can find its way home when it's been surplanted elsewhere and also just what the definition of "home" is. Perhaps more importantly, however, is the message: There's more than one way to LOVE a cat!

The text had many repetitive phrases which I can now leave out and have my 3 year old son fill in for me. This is also a book that I am sure my son will enjoy reading on his own when he is older.

Beautifully illustrated as well!