Author Paulette Maggiolo draws upon her many years of work in public school systems as classroom teacher, supervisor, administrator, member of a Teacher's Association, and a member of the Administrator's Association to write The Guilty Teacher, a strong, vivid, accurate, detailed and compelling novel about drugs, students, teachers, and America's troubled public schools. Maybe Maggiolo's The Guilty Teacher can do as much for the reformaton of the public education system that Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin did for the abolition of slavery.

I've been teaching for 13 years and have read almost every book about teaching that I could. Most were fairly good, but they lacked that honest and "been there" view that a real teacher has. This book has it. I can relate to the situations, problems and students. Great book.

I really enjoyed this book. I couldn't put it down yet wasscared to turn to the next page. The issue of drugs is so much moreinvolved than I thought, yet as a parent, I needed to know. This is absolutely a must read!

Mandy finds a family of hedgehogs and rescues them, but she and James have to trach them to live in the wild on their own again, without getting hurt.

The book's setting: The setting was at the town of Welford, in the very center of town.

Main characters: There were 6 hedgehogs: 1. Rosie was a mother of four whose leg was run over by a car. 2. Scout explored, and wandered, and was eaten by a badger. 3. Spike was the heaviest guy. Spike was named for his tail. It always went up like a spike. 4. Tiggy named for her clumsiness and size. 5. Speedy named for his incredible speed. He was the loudest of the lot. He helped Guy. 6. Guy was first found in a net farmer used for potting beans and plants. He was blind and was helped by Speedy. There were 3 children: 1. Mandy, a girl adopted by vets, has an interest in animals. She wanted to help the animals. She got all her knowledge from her parents. 2. James was Mandy's best friend. James' father, Mr. Hunter, was the very first to find Rosie and her babies and he almost put a pitchfork through her. 3. Claire found Guy, a blind hedgehog. Her father, a doctor, ran over Rosie's leg with his silver car. He turned his front yard into a hedgehogs' hotel.

Summary of the book: Rosie, a mother of four, was run over by a car. Her babies had to be nursed as well because if they were abandoned, they could be eaten by badgers and foxes. Then Guy was found. He was helped by Speedy, who followed him around, helping him, being his eyes, because Guy was blind. They were nursed by Mandy Hope, James Hunter and Claire McKay. There were four baby hedgehogs, but only three survived because Scout was eaten by a badger.

My personal reaction to the book: I think this book is sad, enjoyable and very well-written. It makes you really want to read on and on until you finish. But when you finish, you have this empty, hollow feeling. You got the hollow feeling because you've enjoyed the book so much. You really want to read on and on forever, but it always have an end. When it does end, you want more to read. I always like hedgehogs. I really like the hedgehogs in this story. I wish it wasn't so sad. It would be good if Scout wasn't killed. He was just wounded and he had to be nursed.

Hedgehogs in the Hall is a heart warming story about a young girl, Mandy, and her brother James. One day Mandy is outside and is putting some grass in the compost pile. Then a hedgehog pops its head out, and her little hedgehog kids do the same. The hedgehogs go in to the hall of Mandy's house and walk around. Then the mother hedgehog walks in to the street and a car is coming. The hedgehog was hit and was taken to a man from a clinic who helps the hedgehog's leg to heal. After the hedgehogs are all healed Mandy has an idea to make the hedgehogs safe from all roads and birds. Mandy and her brother think how to make a refuge for the hedgehogs. They talk to many people in the city. Almost everyone helps to make the refuge. After one week all of the work is done and the people have made a refuge for the hedgehog. Will it work? Or will all the hedgehogs die? I think the book is very good. If you like to read books that are similar to what happen in real life then it is a very good book for you. I like the little hedgehogs because they are very cute. I like the part when one of the hedgehogs is walking under a porch and it makes a funny little noise like a squeak. All around the book is very good and never gets boring. I would love to read the next four books because the author gives a lot of detail and good pictures. I wish the author would put more sounds in to her writing. I think this book should get a Newbery Award for a good detail and cliffhangers to the end.

Mickey Mantle's wife, Merlyn, and their sons tell the unique and inspirational story of their very separate, often harrowing private lives with the husband and father that was there for them through their lives before cancer took him away. Merlyn and the boys discuss how the effects of alcohol and the spotlight of fame play a role on him and how they all came to be. Merlyn talks about Mickey Mantle the most because they were the closest, and she discusses what she went through as a wife and as a mother. The boys tell their vivid stories of what they can remember while the father was emotionally and physically absent. The dexterous Mickey, played ball everyday and is still a very well-known name in the histroy of baseball. This story explains his lief and career while alcohol impacted himself physically, hi gamily, and his life mentally. It also touches base on his career achievements and how he became the amazing Mickey Mantle.

I have read several books on Mickey Mantle and this one is one of the best. Mickey's story is one of the best in baseball and he remains one of the most popular players in history. This book is an excellent look at the effects of fame and alcohol on the family and how the family members came to grips with things. The stories presented here are told by his wife Merlyn and his sons. Through his family, Mickey's story lives on and he continues to inspire us.

I'm only 13, and Mickey Mantle is my favorite baseball player to live. I have read about 6 books on the "Commerce Comet" and this book is exceptional. In the first chapter the Mick talks about his alchohol abuse. Then Marilyn talks about her highschool sweetheart. This is a great book.

Kitten in the Cold
By: Ben M Baglio

This heartwarming story is about Alex Hastings who is sick in Europe. For a Christmas gift Alex and her family are going to America for the operation. Three days before Christmas, Amber, the cat, is missing. Can they find her, or will she freeze?

I like this book because it has excitement. It takes you and draws you in. It's sad when Amber is missing. I like Mandy in this book because she will do anything to save an animal in need.

I think the main idea in this book is that friendship never ends. Alex doesn't want to leave Amber in Europe. See if Alex will solve her problem! Ben Baglio makes you think about your cat or pet and makes you wonder if your pet would run away in the freezing cold.

When Alex loses her kitten it seems like another terrible thing that happens to her after the disease she already has. Fortunately the Adam Hope family comes down with a plan not only to find the little cat but also to collect money to send her to have treatment in London. This is a very cute cuddling story that will make you cry.

Mandy and James meet a very ill little girl named Alex who has a beautiful kitten named Amber. Alex has to go to America for a very serious operation, but won't go until she finds Amber, her kitten, because she is too worried about her. Will Mandy and James be able to find Amber to make Alex feel better about getting her operation?

This book is extremely good if your are planning to visit Korea for personal or business reasons, or if you are learning the language and would like to enrich your Korean repetoire. The first part of the book has common expressions, greetings, daily interaction terms, business and travel terms, emergency situation terms, and terms to let you express nearly everything your can think of quickly and easily. The book has the english phrase on the left, its Korean counterpart is then written on the right hand side with the way to pronounce the phrase next to it. In addition to having these phrases, the book takes time out to teach a little about Korean culture, tradition, and etiquette. The second part of the book is a very good dictionary that has a ENGLISH - KOREAN section and a KOREAN - ENGLISH section. The book's small size and the fact that it has a clear, vinyl-like covering makes it the perfect book to take with you.

Excellent
This is all i need to say

I found this book to be quite helpful. I just came back from Korea last month and the book helped me a great deal. I taught myself Hangul and I learned quite a few words from this book. The grammar section is also helpful. And even when I didn't know how to say something, my hosts would pick up the book and look for the phrase in Korean and then point to the English equivalent for me. Between that book and there Korean-English Dictionary, we did quite well.

Mr. Burt has put together a wonderful list of the most influential authors in Western (and a few Eastern) literature. It is a great companion to any literary enthusiast's library; conversly it would also be an excellent guide for someone who is looking to broaden their literary horizons, and not waste any time on overly-obscure or difficult to decipher texts. Don't get me wrong, not everything on this list is easy (If you can get through Joyce's Ulysses you are a better man than I), but each text is well known enough that a wealth of criticism or in many cases reading companions can be found for them.

My only gripe is the exclusion of Dr. Samuel Johnson from the list. The man wrote the first English Dictionary - what's more influental that that? But the fact that you can argue with Burt's lineup while at the same time seeing the sense of his choices - that's what makes for an excellent piece of work.

This book is a fun introduction to some of the world's greatest writers and their works. It is both entertaining and educating. The whole "ranking" idea is a bit silly and seems to be an american obsession. Like all "rankings", however, it is quite subjective and not that important. The important thing is that its author provides insightful and meaningful introductions to many wonderful writers that make up an essential part of our shared cultural history. Approximately two to three pages are devoted to each writer and the high quality of the individual introductions is maintained throughout. The book is not too scholarly and not too general or simple...just right for the type of book one expects it to be.

...and good reading. This book presents three-page summaries of 100 great writers, each with an illustration and introductory quote. Different from encyclopedia entries, these pieces emphasize the significance of each writer's contribution, from a literary-academic point of view (good for once-upon-a-time English majors). It's not a stuffy book, however -- it's written for the general reader, with interesting anecdotes. And of course the ranking provides some thought-provoking entertainment.

Bold, interesting, exciting, surprising, elucidating, sharp... and maybe a little bit too sharp at the edges. Daniel Reid is a wonderfully eloquent spokesman for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in general, and particularly of Chi-gung, which he has studied for many years. His opinion about the subject, stated elsewhere, is that "...Chinese chi-gung is by far the most profound and effective sytem for self-cultivation of health and longevity ever developed", and he is probably right, and he goes to great lengths to prove it. This book is Reid's latest, and it is thoroughly researched; his argument presented beautifully, artfully, intelligently, showing true love for and conviction to the philosophy and practice of Chi-gung. There is not a single statement in the book which is not documented by scientific evidence, accompanied by quotes from experts in the fields of biomedicine, TCM, martial arts, meditation, physics, and so on. However, and eventhough Daniel Reid is perhaps one of the best qualified persons in the Western world today to present such a thorough and lucid dissertation on the subject, (in my very humble opinion) I find some of his conclusions a bit too forward, and this, I think, could mislead newcomes to Chi-gung into expecting a bit too much. Now, do not get me wrong, I loved this book. I practice Chi-gung and T'ai chi ch'uan myself, and am deeply interested and involved in the study of Chinese philosophy and the Tao of Cultivating life. And Mr. Reid also states clearly, several times throughout the book, that chi-gung requires serious commitment, but anyway, an ounce of prevention and a good dose of pragmatism is my recommendation for those who read this book as a first introduction to Chi-gung (which is one of the author's main intentions). It's worth what you'll pay for it, as long as you remember that reading about something like chi-gung is only the half of it, and that experiencing it is as thorough and complete a thing as the contents of this great book!

This book is simply amazing. From the moment I started reading this book I was hooked. I just could not put it down. Once I started incorporating the simple breathing techniques discussed in the book,I noticed immediate improve ments in my circulation, energy level,flexibility,and mental clarity. Then after trying some of the moving exercises I felt totally charged as if I was being pumped with electricity, I have never felt better. This book is a must if you are interested in learning more about yourself, your inner strength, and your place in the universe.

This is a very compact book. It covers many things in CHinese Chi Gung, like Breathing exercises,self-massaging, acupressure, postures, meditation, health. It also covers the philosophy of Tao which Chi Gung itself is based on. Reid explains it in a clear way that's easy to read for Westerners. Personally, I've tried Chi Gung and it does really increase my energy and vitality and clarity. Especially the breathing exercises, god if there's one thing you should improve to make your vitality 'explode', it's by improving your BREATHING. Even Anthony Robbins teaches the 'power of breathing'! So it's not traditional mumbo jumbo. What chi gung is mainly about is, Chi (Air/Energy) Gong (Work/practice) that's what it means! Overall, this is a good guide for those who wants to know what chi gung is. You might also want to read another good book by the same author "The Tao Of Health, Sex and Longvity", it's a thicker book but it covers more subjects like diet, nutrition,fasting,breathing,exercises,correct sexual practice for vitality,meditation etc. Read it and most importantly, USE IT AND DO IT!

Daniel Ford's novel served as the basis for the excellent Vietnam war film, "Go Tell the Spartans". The movie was generally faithful to the novel, with just a bit of Hollywood added. The story follows draftee Stephen Courcey through special forces training and finally into the jungle of the Central Highlands of the Republic of South Vietnam. There, the experience of his military advisory team seems to be an allegory to the American involvement in Vietnam. One of the characters, a number crunching junior officer, allows that it will take 50,000 American combat deaths to "stabilize" the situation in Southeast Asia. This statement in this work of fiction written in 1967 is pretty amazing when you consider that the final American death count in Vietnam was 58,000 and change.

The novel moves quickly and flows nicely. The characters are strong. You find yourself somehow inside Corporal Courcey's head and laughing at Captain Olivetti's obsession with his CIB, his combat infantry badge. The role of Major Barker in the book is much less central than it is in the movie. But then, Burt Lancaster played the ... out of Major Barker in the film, so they may have made certain adjustments for the star.

There is a sadness and fatalism about the book that may bother some. However, the topic is not exactly uplifting. On the whole, a worthwhile and enjoyable read.

Ok, even though this happens to be a fictional account, and the names and places are completely fake, the description of events is extremely eerie and just plain dead-on for what became Vietnam. The book came out at a time when the war was still believed to be winnable, but Ford gives us an honest look at the unwinnable situation of Muc Wa, and what it did to its ever-loving and overwhelmed young commander. I think we've all heard too many storied of this same sort that happened in Vietnam, and here it is again, but its simply one of the best books if you want to get a feeling of what it might have been like to be a young man with what was basically a nearly impossible mission, one he felt a patriotic and militant duty to fulfill, but, like so many other times the powers that be wouldnt allow it. Another strong point is its brevity, it gets the job done without having to do it over a 300 or 400 page novel, the book and the language within it will flow easily for most any high school student. An excellent read on the subject, and highly recommended.

This is a classic, a story written by a journeyman reporter who was in Vietnam before the war escalated out of control. The story is a metaphor for the conflict: a handful of Americans and a platoon of Vietnamese mercenaries are told to garrison a "town" called Muc Wa. There is no town--just the remains of some French emplacements and a graveyard. (The graveyard becomes a major theme in Go Tell the Spartans, the Burt Lancaster movie made from Ford's novel.) They set up a garrison, the Viet Cong attack, the garrison is reinforced, and onward and upward in a spiral of violence that ends only when the Americans are ordered to "exfiltrate." For a novel that was published in 1967, that was a darned good prophecy. Read it, and wonder how the United States was so pigheaded as to believe it could ever win a war being fought on those terms.

wo side effects from reading "Inside the Works" are blindness, resulting from the weird font, and nausea, resulting from horror so hardcore that you want to wash your hands after putting the book down. Edward Lee along with Tom Piccirilli and Gerard Daniel Houarner, are the writers featured in this "3-way collection of hard core horror". All three have a kind of genius for writing almost pornographic horror that is intense, gut-wrenching, and scary, yet strangely compelling. Although these stories are like skinny dipping in a pool of blood and other bodily fluids, I kept getting the sensation that I was reading something NEW and FRESH. Edward Lee's novella The Pig was drenched in torture and mutilation but amazingly enough these elements were used in service of a great story rather than the other way around! Also worthy of mention i! s that many of the situations in the story had me laughing out loud! Counterbalancing Lee is Tom Piccirilli, whose five short stories were grim little journeys into hellish back alleys of New York. At this time, I have yet to read all of Gerard Daniel Houarner's contribution but I will soon! If he's as good as the company he keeps than I am in for a ride!

The Pig was one of the most disgusting stories ever. Buy it. The "Plugger" scene in this story is unmatched to date.

Two side effects from reading "Inside the Works" are blindness, resulting from the weird font, and nausea, resulting from horror so hardcore that you want to wash your hands after putting the book down. Edward Lee along with Tom Piccirilli and Gerard Daniel Houarner, are the writers featured in this "3-way collection of hard core horror". All three have a kind of genius for writing almost pornographic horror that is intense, gut-wrenching, and scary, yet strangely compelling. Although these stories are like skinny dipping in a pool of blood and other bodily fluids, I kept getting the sensation that I was reading something NEW and FRESH. Edward Lee's novella The Pig was drenched in torture and mutilation but amazingly enough these elements were used in service of a great story rather than the other way around! Also worthy of mention is that ! many of the situations in the story had me laughing out loud! Counterbalancing Lee is Tom Piccirilli, whose five short stories were grim little journeys into hellish back alleys of New York. At this time, I have yet to read any all of Gerard Daniel Houarner's contributions but I will soon! If he's as good as the company he keeps than I am in for a ride!

If you are developing software test automation, this is a very useful book. Especially helpful are the chapters on using data-driven testing frameworks, which reflect lots of hands-on practical experience. The framework examples are the best hands-on guides I have seen published on this valuable technique. This book fills what has been a big hole in the software test literature.

"Purchasing a software testing tool suite does not constitute implementing a software process". Wise words from Dan Mosley and Bruce Posey in "Just Enough Software Test Automation"; maybe some development managers need to take heed.

Too many times have automated test tools become shelfware, or the cost of maintaining the scripts prohibitvely expensive. The authors of this book offer a simple and easy to use data-driven framework that can minimise scripts and human effort. They place their framework within the Rational Unified Process (RUP).

The book offers actual and detailed advice that goes all the way down to code and script templates. Based mostly on Rational tools, the book gives lip service to Winrunner and anything said can be translated to any automated tool.

Their open-source framework is the Control Synchronized Data Driven Testing(CSDDT). Data to be input, keywords to navigate through the application and actions to be performed are held in the spreadsheet. There are four main scripts: A Main script that reads and processes the records; a window selection script, a tab selection script, an action script and error handling script. Data input is held in an array and there is a comment field that documents the test record. Your application code is held in a switch statement, and it is highly conceivable that your project can have single figure script numbers. There is also a script that converts the spreadsheet data in a .csv file that is read by the Main script. There is detailed
information given on how to implement the CSDDT. It is a framework I use and am pleased with.

There are two interesting chapters on Unit and Integration testing. Like eXtreme Programmers they believe in automating unit tests that pass at 100% before submitting for build. They correctly argue that unit tests should be constructed before development code is written and they also point to the xUnit group of tools.

They make insightful points about the necessity of integration testing: Could you not help but identify with the following statements: "... We have seen two chronic problems: First, the build fequently does not install on system test machines. Second, the fact that unit and integration testing has not been done previously forces the system test team to do tests that development should have already executed." Again they also argue for automated integration testing else "it will not get done."

I feel however that Mosley and Posey's ideas need to be infused with agile values and practices. For example do we really need improved software requirements documentation, verbose Test Plans and meticulous test design when requirements change so much? Do we really need all these Rational tools and the time it takes to use and update them? Can we not make automated functional tests an integral part of requirements? What about Pair Test Programming? How are we going to increase oral communication? Is devolopment and test a false dichotomy? These kind of issues also need to be addressed as we begin to construct software in a radically different way.

"Just Enough Software Test Automation" written by Daniel Mosley and Bruce Posey describes test automation from a practical perspective gained from much experience by the authors with commentary and contributions from several well respected leading practitioners in the field. Key fundamental points are emphasized and explained throughout the book with supporting descriptions and concrete examples for using a data driven framework to implement and maintain software test automation.

While the book is well written and easy to read for someone who's familiar with software testing and who may have some experience with test automation, it assumes that the reader does have experience in the field.

The authors begin by reviewing important fundamental practices of software testing that are critical to effectively sustaining both manual and automated testing efforts. They provide recommendations on how to approach test automation for each phase of the software development lifecycle beginning with requirements through the final stages of testing. The authors present very specific recommended techniques and tools and offer many examples using a data driven framework with emphasis on Control Synchronized Data Driven Testing (CSDDT). Most often the tools mentioned and examples provided are those offered by Rational, Inc. as well as the use of Microsoft Excel. Frequently, automated tools from other vendors are referenced when they are applicable to the technique being discussed. They provide references to books and to several web links that offer sources of information on similar frameworks using other tools. The authors include useful information in the appendices such as a captured discussion on the subject of the data driven approach by leading practitioners, automated testing definitions, an example test automation project plan, and a test automation project work plan template.

Some of the key points in the book include the importance of identifying and documenting application and testing requirements as well as documenting test cases and conditions. They emphasize the importance of planning for test automation and implementing it similar to any other software development effort. This includes the separation of roles between test designer and test implementer. They urge that test automation be performed at most phases of software development including unit testing, but that it primarily be used for regression testing. The key success factor for test automation is the maintainability of test scripts. The authors point out that this is extremely difficult using a capture/playback method of implementation and that a data driven approach using modular scripts has shown to be much more successful in the long run. The authors do a good job of describing these key points and then making specific recommendations with examples on how to implement them.

As a practitioner of test automation, and reviewer of this book, I very much agree with these key recommendations and support the authors' intent to educate people implementing test automation as these key points can be the difference between failure and success.