This book includes birthday greetings and celebrations from 19 different countries. Packed with interesting trivia and simple games, recipes, and crafts this book is fun for the whole family and is a great way to begin to introduce different cultural celebrations to small children.

From the Critics From School Library Journal Gr 2-5-Through interesting text and colorful, dynamic illustrations, this excellent offering briefly describes traditional New Year's celebrations and customs in 20 countries. The introduction explains that varying cultures observe different calendars and seasonal celebrations. Each spread highlights a different country, providing the dates of the observance; the name of the holiday; the traditional greeting (with a helpful pronunciation key); and a related game, recipe, song, or craft. Simple, colorful line drawings illustrate the projects and a world map pinpoints the location of each celebration. Festive side borders with stars and fireworks adorn each page. This title's particular strengths are the activities and the lengthy bibliography. A book that will greatly enhance research projects or study units.- Betsy Barnett, Eads School District, CO Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. From Children's Literature New Year's traditions vary around the globe. In this informational picture book, the author presents customs that may be unfamiliar to most Americans. Twenty countries are featured; each has a double-page spread that includes a small world map to identify its location. Some basic information is given at the beginning of each section-the date(s) on which the New Year is celebrated, the name for the New Year, and the pronunciation for a New Year greeting in the country's native language. Historical nuggets about each country and how it typically celebrates the New Year are contained in a short text. An accompanying activity is included for each country; these are simple and varied (traditional foods to make, crafts, games, and music). The illustrated instructions for each activity are easy to follow and require common supplies. This book is a very useful follow-up to an instructional unit about New Year's celebrations around the world. 2000, The Millbrook Press. Ages 4 to 10. Reviewer: Carol Lynch

Laini Olindorf is a teenage girl thats very concious of her weight, she thinks that only thin girls gets dates. In this novel by Arlene Erlbach proves that it's not true, you just have to find the person.They should love you for who you are inside and not how you look. Laini found Frank and he proved that he didn't care about anything else except as the great person she was.

I loved this book. It gave me great tips on how to get a rat , waht to do once you get the rat, and was up-to-date!I would reccomend this book to anybody!

I'm sure that Ms. Erlbach was tapped by her publisher to write this book because she's a KSU grad and a prolific author of children's books. And her other books are fine..I've read a number of them.

But I'm not impressed with this book.

The pictures shown are out of sequence with events as they happened.

Items that wouldn't change over time, such as sculptures are not shown on the illustration of the guard vs. students, in order to give the reader a sense of things as they exist today.

The use of color photos in the text is hap-hazard. (Perhaps it would have even have been cheeper for her publisher to greyscale the 3 or 4 and call it a day.)

With all of that said, it is the only book about May 4th 1970, available for the school and children's room markets. And even that has taken 28 years to happen! So it's a good start...but there's so much room for improvement.

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio
Gotta get down to it soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know

I am sure more people know Neil Young's lyrics to the CSN&Y song "Ohio" then remember what it was all about, although certainly the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph this is on the cover of this volume is unforgettable. Actually, it is rather interesting to think that what happened at Kent State on May 4, 1970 would be worthy of a Cornerstones of Freedom volume along with events like the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Arlene Erlbach begins this volume with a concise summary of what exactly was being protested on the Kent State campus that weekend after President Nixon's announcement he would be sending U.S. troops into Cambodia. An incident involving a car driving through an impromptu bonfire ended up with Governor James Rhodes ordering out the Ohio National Guard to Kent State. Erlbach goes through the chronology of what happened that day, showing how "the unthinkable" came to happen. The book deals with the aftermath of the shootings, in terms of both criminal and civil trials, as well as what happened to the shooting victims.

"Kent State" ends with a detailed description of the memorial built at Kent State to commemorate the incident, which honors both those students killed and injured as well as the American servicemen and servicewomen who lost their lives in Vietnam. The threshold of the plaza has three reflective sones inscribed with the words "Inquire, Learn, Reflect," which also reflects why students would read this particular Cornerstones of Freedom series. I am sure most American history books make Kent State a minor footnote to the story of the Vietnam War, but even if this book does not really get into how the death of these four students affect the nation's psyche, I think you can appreciate that it really did so.

The book is useful, and tells you a lot of things that are vital to starting a business. However, most thinks she tells you about can be found anywhere, such as online. It doesn't have information that you can't find somewhere else. But the part in the beggining about Kids in business is kind of cool.

I think this book teaches kids many different business ideasthat help them to start thier small kids business. I also think thatthis book contains ideas that cover a lot of ambitions that kids may have. This book also answers some questions that you may have about you and your childs small business.