I used The Wilderness Reader in teaching a course in stewardship and field ecology for teachers. I found that the book contained a wide variety of different types of environmental writing and that all of the selected pieces were excellent examples of the genre. Several of my elementary school teachers even read parts of the reader to their students.

Many newer guides have been published about birds of this region, but this book still deserves its place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in birds of South-east Asia. Illustrations are good, and descriptions are detailed and mostly accurate. A bit bulky to carry in the field, but not a problem if you bring it in a backpack. The situation with forest fires in South-east Asia (especially Indonesia) is growing worse each year, so get out there and see some of these extraordinary birds while you still can!

Any serious birder to the listed regions of this book would buy this book.

It is the best guide of the region so far with excellent plates and useful details. What I find especially useful, particularly for the raptors, is that they show illustrations of the birds in flight.

The drawings appear consistent and the bird's information at the back of the book is easy to access.

The birds are categorised according to their family which definately makes for faster checks and identification, which I find important when in the field.

The spine of the book though is a little week and you might want to have it rebound before it falls apart - especially with all the browsing that is to be.

This was the book that everyone who seemed to be serious used in Borneo, but if you are going to be out in the bush for more than a few days and make frequent use of field guides, consider having it re-bound before you leave -- many people I passed along the way were finding that the plate pages were starting to fall out.

The Land of Oz is..well..WOW. It definately is not just a sappy children's book, it's funny, and truly amusing. Don't call it a child's book, call it a book for all audiences.

When I bought The Land of Oz, I opened up a new world of adventure. Little did I know, The Wizard of Oz's author, L. Frank Baum, had written 13 other books after The Wizard of Oz.

The Land of Oz is about a young boy named Tip, who lived with a witch named Mombi. Mombi was a very evil witch and one day she journeyed to an old wizard to get some magical ingredients. While she was gone, Tip constructed a man out of wood and carved a pumpkin and placed it on its head. Then, he set the "pumpkin man" standing out in the street so it would scare old Mombi. When she returned, she wasn't scared but mad at Tip. She decided to try the Powder of Life, an ingredient she had gotten at the wizard's house that would make anything come to life, on the "pumpkin man" to see if it worked. It did and brought the "pumpkin man" to life. Mombi was going to turn Tip into a marble statue in the morning for trying to scare her, so Tip and the newly called Jack Pumpkinhead left to journey to The Emerald City. Jack Pumpkinhead was the first of many new characters to come into the Oz stories.

The reason I would suggest this book is because it is fun. There are adventures and new characters and a surprise close to the end. Also, characters like The Scarecrow, and The Tin Man appear in this book. Dorothy is not in this book because it is kind of a prologue to the next book, Ozma of Oz.

After I finished this book, I realized that I really liked it and would like to read more of the series. As I continued to read the rest of the books, I liked them more and more. As of 7/3/02, I am on Tik-Tok of Oz, which is book 8. As you can see, I'm far in the series and still reading. If you liked The Wizard of Oz, then you will probably like The Land of Oz.

I suppose some would consider it sacrilege and those who only know "The Wizard of Oz" the movie wouldn't believe it, but "The Land of Oz," the second book in L. Frank Baum's 14-book series, is clearly superior to "The Wizard of Oz." No Dorothy, no Toto, no Lion: no problem. This book is sensationally entertaining. Whereas the first book seemed more interested in presenting marvelous characters and creatures scene by quick scene (which it does well) than in delighting us with what they say and do, "The Land of Oz" is a tour de force that will keep a smile permanently affixed to your face (like Jack Pumpkinhead!). Baum's style is enormously improved; he supplies more detail, more endearing dialog, more fun, more edge, more sides to everything. The characters and creatures are marvelous: the aforermentioned Jack Pumpkinhead (my favorite), the Highly Magnified Woggle-Bug, the gump (two sofas, an antlered animal head, palm leaves and broom brought to life as a flying "thing"), the Saw Horse, the army of girls who take over the Emerald City and make servants of the men (in 1904!), Mombi the witch (far more interesting than the Wicked Witch of the West), and on and on, including more vivid portrayals of the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman. Overall, considerably better than the first book, which is good in its own right, and simply one of my favorite books, one which can be loved by adults (as I am) or children. If you read only one Oz book (OK, you have to read the first one, but if you read only two) include "The Land of Oz".

I just returned from a trip from Ecuador where I used extensively Volume II of Ridgely et als' book. Having already some acqaitance with both the birdlife of the Neotropics and the bird books on the region I found the plates and the text still very useful when identifying the birds I and my travel mates saw. The weight and the size of the book is, however, making its use very difficult out in the field. The paperback editions did not hold very well during the three weeks, and publishing the book in 3 rather than two volumes could have helped that a lot. Even though the plates do not live up to the quality of the standard dictated by Guy Tudor in the, yet, two-volume handbook on South american birds, but I still found the pictures very informative. The text on habitat, altitudinal distribution, call, and the range maps often helped to narrow down the number of look-alike-species to a manageable level, especially when identifying hummingbirds or tyrant flycatchers.
All in all (and getting back to the question in the title) I could not call this book a champion in the league of field guides for being overweight (just try to carry it on the 'D' trail near Bellavista), although it truly deserves the four stars for the text and the plates alike. If you use it as a 'hotel' rather than a field guide or need it as a reference work for your home library (or have the plates and the text of Vol. II rebound separetely, as I did) you will appreciate the amount of information gathered in this book.

What a set of books, no doubt about that! For the first time, there is a full set of very useful color plates for one of the core South American countries. It is certainly a great accomplishment to have all the species pictured in color and on a more or less consistent standard. However, I do not agree with other reviewers who rave about the plates. Too many of the bird pictures have an overall flat appearance, with the color rendition being too simplistic or too bold. And while a good number of the birds are depicted in good or even unnessessarily large size, others would have benefitted from a larger sized rendition. Just because a species is small does not mean it has to be depicted in a diminutive size, unless there are larger species of the same group on the plate. Thus, while the plates are most useful, it is nevertheless disappointing to see that the overall standard (except for the plates being all in color) is rather lower than what was already published decades ago e.g. in "Birds of Colombia".
The field guide volume has excellent range maps and very helpful comprehensive texts. A somewhat more compact layout would have allowed for a smaller overall size of the book, however. The way to do it is being demonstrated in the book itself. The texts facing the plates use the suggested compact layout most convincingly. Spanish bird names are given in the main text, but, unfortunately, there is no index for them. To conclude, this is by far the more useful field guide for the general area than the also new "Birds of Peru" with its almost non-existing texts, lack of range maps and much less satisfactory plates. (P.S. This is a revised review as I think my first version did not do the book justice.)

I just received my copy of the The Birds of Ecuador and am very
pleased with it. I think the plates are very good with a lot of
detail. I compared plates for the same species in the book: A Guide To The Birds of Costa Rica, an excellent book also, and
found the detail to be better in The Birds of Ecuador. I also
really like the distribution maps for each species. I am
planning to do a birding trip to Ecuador and the maps will help
in making the travelling plans.

Loads of Knowledge and observation are pumped in to this wonderful book. Its a blessing to have a copy of this book for the woodduck admirors.

Wood ducks were almost hunted to extinction during the turn of the 20th century - but with dedicated biologists and hunters, the duck survived. This book goes into the ecology and natural history of this magnificent bird. Too bad the pictures are in black and white - but the well written text makes up for that - based on real research and field data from all over the wood duck range. A wildlife manager's library is not complete without this book.

This in-depth field guide is useful for both beginners and experienced bird-watchers. Wonderfully illustrated. Illustrations make for easy identification, and maps show distributions well. Divided into groups of related birds. Some photographs may have been a good idea, however.

This is Pizzey's second field guide to Australian birds, and it is quite unlike the first. Pizzey I was an excellent reference, but the plates (by Doyle) were mediocre and of limited value for field identification. Pizzey II features superb color plates by Frank Knight, with a reduced facing-plate text by Pizzey that surpasses other current field guides in the amount of distributional information furnished. Unfortunately, the ungraduated distributional maps are clearly inferior to the maps in Michael Morcombe's Field Guide to Australian Birds (Steve Parish Publishing 2000) and the Simpson & Day Field Guide to the Birds of Australia.

Though slightly smaller than Morcombe (6.5" x 9.5"), Pizzey II is a large format book (6" x 9") that is easy to read, but a bit heavy for packing in the field. Nevertheless, foreign birders visiting Australia would be well advised to take both Pizzey II -- for the illustrations -- and Morcombe -- for the huge quantity of useful information and detailed field notes on the (amateurish) plates. For routine use in the field, the guide of choice remains the light and compact (4.5" x 8") Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds (Weldon 1989). The other Australian field guide, Simpson & Day, is a worthy competitor with color plates of comparable quality to those in Pizzey II, though perhaps not as conveniently arranged.

In conclusion, all four current Australian bird guides are five-star books, though each has its strengths and weaknesses. Pizzey II is artistically the most pleasing and would be the guide of greatest interest to book collectors interested in fine bird art.

Peter Menkhorst's book is widely regarded as THE field guide to the mammals of Australia. Compact and easy to use, with fantastic illustrations by Frank Knight, its a must for anyone interested in identifying Australia's diverse mammalian fauna.

I've been doing alot of research on illustrating various Australian Mammals and found that this book is the most compacted of all reference materials. You get the whole animal to view. So many times when cross researching you find yourself struggling to figure out what the animals feet really looks like, this book I find is really helpful.

As tour coordinator at the H.F. Johnson House, Wingspread, I've met many Wright enthusiasts who rely on this guide when visiting the Midwest. The following incorrect information has been brought to my attention several times and we have notified the publisher in case the book is re-printed. I would still recommend the book as an excellent guide. Just be aware that the information on page 88 about "accessibility" to the Herbert F. Johnson House, Wingspread is incorrect. Wingspread is a Conference Center today and when conferences or meetings are not in session it is available for self-guided tours M-F, 9am to 4pm. Call the Wingspread Tour Coordinator(414)681-3353 to check availability.

An excellent reference book for Wright enthusiasts who enjoy hunting for his built works. Contains color pictures, addresses, local maps and even GPS coordinates to help travelers find Wright-designed buildings. Also contains several paragraphs of information plus a rating for each site. Aids travelers with limited amounts of time to focus on the best sites.

This is a very funny book The author has a very unique style of writing. It is about a boy named Harry, who behaves poorly it is funny. Harry has to be good for one school day or get one ant sticker the stickers late you go on trips on not or he does not get to go on the field trip to the swamp. The characters are Song Lee, Harry, and Sidney. Harry gets in lots of trouble because he pretends to smokes and fuels around . But Harry has friends so if he gets in trouble, he has them to back him up. I would recommend this book to kids between the ages of 8-10 years old. It is a very funny book.

I really enjoyed this book about the cery interesting character, Song Lee. This comedic book will put a smile on any child's face! It will add nicely to any Suzy Kline book collection!

As a college graduate in Botany, I have seen many field guides. I probably own of 30 in different categories, and this one is one of my favorites. It was the only one I carried on a trip to California to identify trees in the Bay area. The color illustrations make a huge difference as they are very accurate and easy to use a field guides. It does require you to have a little more than a basic knowledge of trees, as it does not start out with a dicotomous key.

The best book I found for understanding the classification of trees, and for getting clarifying the differences between the major tree families...