Steve and Patt Saso have focused on the work that parents need to do, both within themselves and with their teens, to approach parenting of teens with effectiveness and compassion. Drawing on widespread experience with teens and family life, the Sasos identify the lessons and gifts that parents can uniquely offer their children. Their suggestions are both practical and profound. As a father of four, ages 7-14, this book helped me remember how much I want the best for my kids and what I need to do to make that happen. This book's primary value is that it does not depend on changing the teenager, nor does it collapse into putting all of the responsibility (and guilt!) on the parent; rather, it's about changing the relationship. Parents of children of all ages will be encouraged by the Sasos' insights. This book makes for a greatly appreciated gift.

The Sasos have written a terrific guide for parents wading through the muddy waters of raising teens. As a high school guidance counselor, I have recommended this book to many parents, and have had great response both from the parents and their teens. A great way to narrow down the point of conversation with your teen and make some mutually agreeable progress. Teens feel respected by the way this book characterizes their needs. Parents feel supported in their need to find common ground with their teens. I highly recommend this book to anyone who works with teens.

We found the Saso's book to be extremely practical as a tool for helping parents of teenagers. In our work as Marriage & Family Therapist, educators and seminar leaders, we are always looking for helpful books on family relationships to suggest to people. The Saso's book is the latest and one of the very best on parent-teen relationships that we have read. They are not only practical, but also very personal as they share real-life stories from their own family. Their 10 best gifts for teens are foundational qualities important in all healthy relationships. We highly value the work Steve and Patt Saso have done in this fine book.

This book consists of fourteen poems about different insects. Each poem is written in two parts and must be read aloud to be truly appreciated. The two parts fit together, and when performed aloud, have a rhythmical sound. Having children act out the poems as they read them would be a great way to incorporate dance and creative movement. I would recommend this book for all teachers and parents who want to get children excited about poetry.

I think everyone should read these great poems! I am in middle school and I took a drama speech class. For one of the speeches me and my friend did a poem in here about bees. Everyone loved it and was laughing. If you need to find a two person poem or any cute poem at all you should get this book.

Joyful noise is a great book to read with another person. It is filled with poems for two voices about insects. It has from Book Lice to Water Striders, House Crickets to Grasshoppers, Water Boatmen to Fireflies. I really enjoy reading it with one of my friends!!

I came into this book with some experience of commercial web programming and a knowledge of H.C.I, so I realised that it is important to make information on the web accessible to all, but had little idea on where to start. In the first pages I learnt something new about alt text for images, and realised that this book was going to teach me a lot of essential things about making web sites accessible!

It starts with an insight into the legal area of accessibility and moves on to look at common myths such as having a text only alternative to a site. Then it shows you how you can present your content, navigation and data input in the most assessable way, and then shows you ways on how you test your site, making sure everyone can enjoy your online efforts!

What I love about this book is the explanation behind it. Not only does it show you the practices, it backs them up with clear and concise reasons on why these techniques can make your web site easy to use for anyone, including those who may have disabilities. It is a major eye opener and it will be a book that sits on my desk day in, day out, whilst I program web sites. I can't recommend it highly enough, and it is an absolute must read for all those who program on the web and those who use the web to display and gather information."

Two new words have joined the vocabulary of web designers in recent years - usability and accessibility. You will often come across them used in tandem.

Usability really became an issue when Jacob Nielsen infamously denounced Flash as 99% bad. Accessibility became a priority for web developers working on government projects after Section 508 was brought into law in the United States.

Accessibility became an issue in Australia during Maguire vs SOCOG in 1999, when a blind man filed a complaint with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) that neither Olympic Games tickets purchasing information nor the souvenir programme were available in Braille. Most importantly he alleged that the SOCOG website was not accessible, and to make it so would have been well within budget. SOCOG was found to have discriminated against the complainant and damages were awarded against the organization.

Accessibility is now a civil rights issue. It is also not that difficult to implement on a website, once you learn how it can be done. This excellent book, Constructing Accessible Web Sites, teaches you all that and more. It is the first on its subject, and will not be the last, but it is damned a good beginning.

All eight co-authors have been pioneers in the field of accessibility, and Glasshaus deserves praise for having assembled such a team. They cover more than website accessibility - their expertise extends to the accessibility of web design tools themselves. An apt reminder that the web is as much about reading as writing, for writers as much as readers, a real medium of two-way communication.

All websites can now be made accessible to varying degrees, even Flash websites since Flash MX, as Macromedia Senior Product Manager for Accessibility Bob Regan demonstrates in Chapter 10. So there are no excuses for failing to add increased accessibility, and usability for that matter, to that new project you are just about to commence.

Ensure you have a copy of Constructing Accessible Web Sites at hand when you begin. And also take a look at another equally essential reference on the subject due out any day now, Joe Clark's Building Accessible Websites. Accessibility is the newest and most necessary website building skill. There are no excuses now.

Of the books and resources that I've read on accessible web sites, this is by far the best - especially from a UK perspective.

The main UK legislation that specifically mentions web sites and accessibility comes into force in October 2004 which, at the time of writing this, is still over two years away. This means that there isn't a great deal of information and certainly no legal cases that we can draw on from our country, so we have to look elsewhere to see what is happening.

This book benefits in that, although it does cover Section 508 and other already in place legislation, it also gives a great all round understanding of the topic, and is very easy to read. Having chapters written by different authors means that you get a far greater depth of experience and information, which can only benefit the reader.

If you're going to buy one book on accessible web sites, this should be at the top of your shopping list.

Hari Kumar's father made every effort to ensure his son would grow up to become the perfect Anglo-Indian executive. Hari was raised in England and was attended by a governess and later a tutor. He attended Chillingborough a top school known for its production of British Civil Servants. Eventually, Hari was to return to India to work for the Indian Civil Service. Unfortunately, external forces disrupted his life and although he returned to India, it was not in the circumstances his father had planned. THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN is the story of Hari's life.

THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN is Book I in the series written by Paul Scott known as the Raj Quartet. JEWEL is a complete novel, but it also lays the groundwork for the three other books in the series. The later books elaborate the story laid out in Book 1. Although Hari is absent from large sections of the text in Books 2-4, he is the main character from the beginning to the end. He is the invisible presence who haunts the other characters. He may symbolize India, but As Daphne Manners says in her journal, he is his own simile.

JEWEL takes place in 1942, mostly in India. Hari's story is a composite developed from many viewpoints--court depositions, recorded hearing proceedings, journals, and the personal remembrances of those who him. The narrator piecing the story together appears to be a writer or reporter describing the so-called Mayapore riots of 1942 and their aftermath in the years following. Pandit Baba, an Indian scholar, says in a Book 2 that the word "riot" is a misnomer. The English say it was a riot but the Indians say it was a lawful protest by a people who had suffered outrage and wanted Independance.

The Raj Quartet reminds me of Jane Austin's novels --especially her later books MANSFIELD PARK and EMMA. Like Austin, Scott has a keen understanding of human nature. His characterizations of Harry and Daphne are flawless. He builds them one fine layer at a time until the reader is convinced they must have been "real" people. Scott also describes an historical place and the people who lived in it with what the reader can only believe is verismilitude. Like Austin, Scott brings an exquisite sense of timing to his storyline. The near misses and plot twists leave the reader breathless. And,like Austin, Scott's sense of irony is so deftly incorporated one can only wonder at the various possible interpretations of the text.

JEWEL like India is difficult to understand. Scott has written his book in English, and as Hari Kumar's father said, English is a beautiful language but "it cannot be called truthful because its subtleties are infinite. It is the language of a people who have probably earned their reputation for perfidy."

I truly envy the reader who yet has to come across The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott. The four books are absolutely fantastic. Beginning with "The Jewel in the Crown" one sets out on a journey through the British Empire's last years of rule in India, and it is one magical trip. Scott portrays a group of people through the books, some main and some minor characters, but all are described vividly and distinctly, and it is nearly impossible to stop reading and follow these characters' destinies.

The main story through which everything evolves is the love affair between a somewhat awkward English woman and a British top-school educated Indian, who has trouble finding his place in an India he does not know. Their relationship is looked upon with disgust, above all from the Police Inspector Merrick, one of the other leading characters through the four books. Merrick also has a soft spot for the English woman, Ms Manners, and is outraged and humiliated by the fact that she would prefer this Indian, Hari Kumar. His anger is naturally strengthened by Kumar's superior education and upbringing, his speaking English with a received pronuciation whereas Merrick himself has a working-class background he desperately tries to hide.

But this is only one of the stories that the books describe; there are many different characters and families that interact somewhat, we leap forward and backward, some people meet each other, some don't -but it is all beautifully tied together to the backdrop of the political instability that would eventually lead to the end of British rule. The books give, apart from superb story-telling and interesting characters, a profound lesson in modern history in this part of the world. Scott is very objective and as a reader you develop both warm and resentful feelings to the British and the Indians alike. A superb read deeply recommended.

The Jewel in the Crown is a novel that combines a story of romantic love, a heinous crime and its consequences, and a detailed account of the social and political aspects of life in Colonial India, at a time when British rule was nearing collapse. It also presents the reader with several ironical situations which, if they accomplish nothing in their own right, serve to heighten one's understanding of the hopelessness of any form of reconciliation between the Britons and Indians that could erase more than a century of colonial oppression and native resistance. However, behind all of this, and also in front of it, one basic theme dominates the scene: As Mr. Scott writes in Part Five, the section devoted to 'Young Kumar', 'In India an Indian and an Englishman could never meet on the same terms.' This inescapable fact is what dooms the relationship between Daphne Manners, an English girl living in Mayapore, India, and Hari Kumar, an Indian who was brought up in England. It is Miss Crane's failure to recognise this unequivocal rule that leads to her undoing. It is possible that Paul Scott's main goal in publishing The Jewel in the Crown was to prove that by 1942, after a long history of racism, colonial oppression, and violent native uprisings, the British had no choice but to 'Quit India.' The time when the turbulent events of Great Britain and India's common history could still have been resolved had long since passed. The story was closed; the outcome inevitable. Daphne and Hari's failed attempt to break the old social barrier pushes the reader's hope of British-Indian reconciliation to the ground, and the terrible and ironic fate of the two lovers, and of Miss Crane, all champions of tolerance and understanding among the English and Indian populations living in India, drives that hope into the dust.

When I was in junior high, I was addicted to reading juvenile sports fiction. Shortly after beginning seventh grade, I went to the alphabetical beginning of the fiction section in the school library and began moving down the alphabet. As I went, I examined the books and read all that were sports related. In a little over two years, I had read every sports fiction book in the collection. Of all those books, the Kid From Tomkinsville was one of the most memorable.
While the background of the 1940's made the presentation difficult for someone in their early teens in the 1960’s, the descriptions of baseball more than made up for it. Roy Tucker is the title character and an excellent pitcher. However, immediately after one of his best games, he slips and cracks his pitching elbow. This finishes him as a pitcher and the main theme becomes his quest to come back as an outfielder.
He is initially very effective and believes success is assured. However, he soon begins to struggle and doubts creep in. The description of all of this is a combination of one of the best baseball stories as well as one of triumph as a combination of talent, hard work and persistence lead to his success. I still remember the scene where his manager comes to his room and tells him the problem is that he is playing for himself and not for his team.
John Tunis is one of the best writers of sports fiction that has ever lived. He makes baseball exciting, even when all the action is taking place off the field. While our society has moved on to a point quite different from the time period of the story, baseball is still a game where strategy, preparation and dedication can triumph over athletic ability. That has not changed, and the descriptions in this book will continue to keep the attention of baseball fans for decades to come.

When I was a kid in the late 60's and early 70's, I read all eight books in the J.R. Tunis series in his Dodgers series. Anyone who gets into the series MUST start with this one. Roy Tucker is an integral part in nearly all the books ("Young Razzle" being the exception), and "The Kid From Tomkinsville" introduces him along with the other characters. While some of the dialogue is of the "gee whiz" variety, the book and series are excellent. I'm so glad they were re-released, and I now have all of them. Now, I want to get a Dodgers replica jersey with the name "Tucker" above the number 34. Any kid between 9 and 90 who reads this book will know why.

I first read this book when I was 7 years old in the 1970s. I still love it to this day. The characters jump off the page and take you back to the 1940s, a different time and world.

Wow, this is horror at its best! This book has it all, thickly layered plots, sub plots, thrills, chills and a spine tingling frightening storyline. Everyone should read this book, can't imagine anything better in this genre.

I've read a lot of horror thrillers but none of this caliber! Paul Masters proves he's successor to the throne with this book. What a concept, great job, Paul! I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to be terrified!

I thought STIGMATA was good but this story is utterly spellbinding! This is the best book I've read in the past 10 years, the competition doesn't even come close. This is what a horror thriller is meant to be!

Over the last 15 years I have been involved with organizations undergoing major change. For all of those years I have tried to discover why change, that appears so essential to these companies, fails most of the time. I have searched for years for a logical answer.

I happend to notice the title of this book at a donated book sale at our local library.... I picked it and others up and proceeded to add it to the pile of books I would some day scan. On a long business flight I started to read this book.

I could not stop. As the authors laid out their ideas I covered the pages with notes.

Finaly a logical explanation of why change, even obviously necessary change, fails. Even more the begining of a method on how to make it work.

Knowing the difference between first-order change, and second-order change can change your life! See if you can figure this out: "It obviously makes as difference whether we consider ourselves as pawns in a game whose rules we call reality or as players of the game who know that rules are 'real' only to the extent that we have created or accepted them, and that we can change them." This is pretty much what this book is about. And this, "When a person enters therapy, he is fully entrenched in a dilemma: what he wishes to attain has become all the more important and urgent ... and because of this urgency it is all the more important that no risk of falure be involved in the eventual action." Complex stuff. I read it once, and now I'm back to read it again. It's hard to absorb it all the first time even though you know you're reading some pretty radical stuff that you probably ought to be acting upon!

This is a great book on the mind. It shows us that we don't really need to know the mechanisms of things to make it work. Just like we don't have to know how a car works in order to drive it. The mind is the same way. Never mind the mechanisms it involves but if you do this and this, a person will do this and this. And surprisingly, although most of the suggestions are counterintuitive, most of the things discussed in the book actually work when we try it out on others. Try it and you will see! If you want to know why these things work, I'd suggest you read "Rhythm, Relationships, and Transcendence" by Toru Sato. It is a very insightful book about relationships and consciousness. If you get the message, you will know why the things suggested in Watzlawick's books actually work. Happy reading!

To parents: Has Alzheimer's touched your family yet? As we baby boomers and our parents age, it's more likely than not to do so. It's difficult enough to watch your own, once proud and independent parent struggle with this horrible illness (I know, I have), but how are you going to explain it to your children? Jake Moon's story is one that perhaps all families can use as a starting point for discussion. Jake's fears, frustrations, anger, and love for and about his grandfather, Skelly, are presented with honesty and a touch of humor in this important and perfect tale...

To the kids: Meet Jake Moon - a regular kid (just like you) who loves his family, but, Boy! They sure can be a pain sometimes (just like yours)! Especially his grandfather, Skelly, who USED to be so great to live with. Now that Skelly is sick, Jake has to babysit him. And Skelly does the most embarassing things all the time! How can Jake get on with being a regular kid with all this going on his life? The Graduation of Jake Moon is funny, truthful, and a story you will remember for a long, long time. Be prepared to root for both Jake and Skelly, because you'll love them both!

I feel this is a very good book it is about a kid who has a very weird and lively grandfather. Then he finds out his grandfather has Alzheimer's. This Changes everything in jakes life especially because he has to live with him. Jake's mom say she will make his life as normal as everyone else's. But it just doesn't work out every time he has a friend over something weird happens and Jake doesn't play sports because he is embarrassed to take his grandfather anywhere. This book will make you want to help other with the Alzheimer's Diseases.

Through Barbara Park's wonderful writing, a boy struggles to help and understand his grandfather, Skelly, who is diagnosed with Alzheimers. From the point where Skelly is normal, to the point where he can't remember where his keys are, to the point where he can't do anything for himself.
Along the way, Park invents some delightfully quirky characters! Mrs. Russell, Skelly's nurse, was my favorite...

"'This stupid hat isn't even his, I bet! And even if it was his, there are a million ways it could have gotten to the edge of the water. Like the wind could have blown it. Or a dog might have carried it down there. Or---'
'OR A WHOOPING CRANE COULD HAVE FLOWN IT!' she shrieked.
I stopped jumping and just stood there. I mean, that's the whole trouble with Mrs. Russell. Just when you think that you may have made a connection, she goes and says something so freaky it scares you."
-The Graduation Of Jake Moon, by Barbara Park

One of the great moments! Hilarious and touching. You must read this book.

This book is a trek into memory and is one that is held together by two riveting and story-unifying scenes. It's scenes like these that keep the book still haunting my own memory two weeks after finishing it. The book, just like real life, is merely a cycle - a repetition of connected events.

Both scenes involve the author's dead friend, Jonathan Wright, once a professional photographer and mountaineer who was tragically killed by an unpredicted avalanche.

The author, Rick Ridgeway, is asked by Wright's daughter to take her back to the grave site of her father on the flanks of Minya Konka in "wild Tibet." While hiking the well-worn trail to Tengbocke Monastery, Ridgeway describes himself identifying the white-capped river chat on the banks of the Dudh Kosi. He is perhaps a few hundred yards of Asia Wright, the dead climber's daughter. Ridgeway is suddenly reminded of doing the same identification some twenty years earlier when Jonathan came upon Ridgeway at the river's edge. Back then, they together thumbed through the bird book until they indentified it as the same one they were looking at. Now years later, in almost the exact same spot, Asia Wright comes up the trail, and seeing Ridgeway squatting next to the river, stoops and says, "What are you looking at?" Dizzying deja-vu.

The second motif occurs at the end (don't read this if you don't want to know the surprise). Here, Ridgeway has found the grave site where twenty years before he had buried Jonathan after the fatal avalanche. He approaches the tumbled stones that still partially cover the body. He shifts a rock and sees the hair of his friend. Ridgeway reaches down and holds the strands between his fingers, rubbing them slowly and gently. Years before, Ridgeway had done the same right before Jonathan had died. Ridgeway held Jonathan in his arms. He remembers when he moved his fingers through his hair while Jonathan's lips changed color and suddenly his face paled and something "went out of him," and he died.

These scenes are lasting memories for Ridgeway. I connect with the author as he connects with his past. Below Another Sky is a touching account of an aging mountaineer with a rich heritage and valuable advice to those of us too timid to climb mountains and risk our lives.

What a wonderful story this is! Rick Ridgeway writes and reflects with maturity and humility of his initial climb up Minya Konka in China's Sichuan province, the loss of his friend Jonathan in an avalanche during the climb and then his return to the mountain a decade and a half later with Jonathan's now-grown up daughter, China. I read this entire book in two long sittings and as with all great books hated to see it come to an end. The narrative, which weaves together earlier climbs and adventures, growing up and taking risks, along with the trek back to Nepal, Tibet and China is a spiritual as well as a geographical journey. Ridgeway has learned much from his incredible life -- about things that are of consequence and things that are not. His wisdom and common decency, his kindness and his loyalty to friends and to memories, and they way in which he imparts this to his friend's surviving daughter is inspiring and touching. I'll read this book again sometime soon and I'll think about it for a long long time because although it is a story that begins with tragedy and death and concludes with a visit to the site of that tragedy, it is at the same time a superb hymn to a life lived full and well and true.

I bought this book after reading Seven Summits which recounted Rick Ridgeway's involvement with Dick Bass's and Frank Well's attempt to be the first to bag the "seven summits".
This is a moving story of not only the loss of Rick Ridgeway's friend and climbing buddy in an avalanche in the himalayas where he also almost died but an account of his return voyage with the friend's twenty year old daughter to where the avalanche had occurred some 18 years before. It is a travel narrative, mountaineering book, great insights on Nepal and Tibet with interesting sidetrips through his memories, trips to Patagonia, being in a Panamanian jail when he was but twenty and what it taught him...etc. You have got to like this guy! A perfect read for the introspective armchair adventure traveller who loves Asia; which is the name of the twenty year old girl who finds her father's grave and her way in life on this trip.

This is a great book for anyone planning a committment ceremony -- gay, lesbian, bi, or straight. It contains great pratical information, which it delivers with an great, irreverent sense of humor. Lots of stories from other couples' searches for the perfect outfits, caterer, etc. This book helped my partner and I write our own ceremony and put on what several guests told us was the "most beautiful wedding I've ever been to."

My partner and I are planning a commitment ceremony -- (Why didn't somebody warn me about how much work this would be?!)-- and being two guys, albeit gay ones, we really didn't have any idea about what we were doing. We looked at several straight wedding guides and planners, but they weren't very helpful for planning an alternative wedding. We could have made it up from whole cloth, but we needed some idea of the basic do's and don'ts of a wedding. Finally, we found and purchased THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LESBIAN AND GAY WEDDINGS. What a godsend! It takes you through the whole process from engagement to honeymoon and beyond, step by step with in depth descriptions, explanations, and alternatives to tradition. The authors present what might have been rather dry material in an engaging, entertaining manner that keeps it interesting and fun. I found myself reading sections that didn't really apply to us just for the heck of it. They liberally sprinkle personal anecdotes and first-hand experiences from gay and lesbian couples who have tied the knot throughout the book. An invaluable resource for anyone planning or even dreaming about a same-sex ceremony.

I really did not know what to expect when I bought this from Amazon, but I knew that my partner and I needed some help in planning our commitment ceremony and I didn't want to read the standard bridal magazines or wedding planners (they didn't exactly look like a great resource for two guys). This book was the perfect solution -- it covers all the issues and questions that a gay couple faces when planning a wedding from making the announcement to taking the honeymoon. Want to know what stores are gay-friendly with their registry services? Or where to go for a same-sex couple cake topper? Or suggestions for your vows? This book has it all. Beyond exceptional content, it is also well-written, well-designed, and is full of interesting and entertaining bits of trivia about gay marriage. The back of the book includes a thorough index of other off-line and on-line resources to help as well. A great resource.