Since my earlier review, we have used this book extensively - kids and mom included. All our children turned out some beautiful artwork, and had a great time in the process.

The layout of the book is well done, and the different methods are covered in a logical order. The pictures are so clear they both illustrate and motivate. It is a pleasure to turn the pages and gaze at the photographs and page designs.

Contents include: getting started-materials and tools,making felt ropes,making beads of many shapes and sizes,rope and bead figures, flat pieces of felt, felt balls, small felt projects such as buttons, flowers and butterflies, masks, felt vessels, seamless wearables, finger and hand puppets, making a felt scene with posable figures, patterns, a source directory (US only unfortunately) and an index. Once you master the basic techniques, it is up to your creativity to reign!

The directions are clear and step by step, making it very "do-able" as a family craft activity. I get the feeling the author must be used to teaching this craft to families and children, as she really spells out each step.

All in all, this was a purchase we are still really happy about - it is a very family-friendly book. It would be great to see further publications by this author showing more advanced techniques, and showcasing her designs.

This is a beautifully illustrated, inspiring book. The basics are covered in wonderful detail, as well as more advanced projects,and they are things you really want to make! We found the instructions very clear, and many clever hints are given to make felting straightforward, and lots of fun. Having been a bit scared to try my hand at this craft, in the midst of experienced felters, this book helped me to jump in, and then get hooked! Fantastic!

Great for helping you to relize the importance of a layout.
Planing ahead is something I didn't usually do.

What a great rescource for someone trying to make those needed changes. Just getting started is aleays the most difficult of any task. This book assists in getting anyone well on their way.

One day Nicole woke up and looked into the mirror and she saw the same thing she saw every day, her young, fresh but flat no curved body, she had a flat chest and a small butt. But Nicole didn't really mind at least she could do more things than the girls she knew that had already grown breasts and their butts have enlarged. Later Nicole went to school and felt kind left out with her curveless body, then she went to one of her friends to talk about her body. Her friend said everything would be ok and whispered something under her breath that Nicole couldn't make out. Then Nicole went home. Later that night Nicole started to feel strange and went to look into the mirror. Nicole didn't notice anything and then she went to sleep. The next morning Nicole woke up and felt great. Then she walked over to the mirror and gasped. Nicole noticed that her breasts had grown, pressing against her shirt so that she could see her nipples. Nicole then looked in the mirror again and she saw that her butt had also grown larger and her waist had got narrower. Nicole noticed her butt felt really tight in her pants. Nicole looked at her breasts agin, she couldn't beleive what was happening!

I can barely remember this book, it was so long ago that I read it. But I do remember this, I kept on wondering if it was British family, it's not about the Irish woman-bearer of death, and it's terrifically funny and well-written. Anne Fine portrays Estelle as your average girl-turned-banshee (usually a girl turned teenager. . .). Will's story is great, and especially the end. Is there a hidden message in there Ms. Fine? I will now tear apart the entire basement looking for my copy, to reread it.

The British Museum has a wonderful collection of Chinese art, from the Neolithic to the early years of the 20th century, and this book uses the collection as an introduction to Chinese culture, and to the varied forms of art--bronzes, jades, pottery and porcelains, calligraphy and painting, sculpture, cloisonne, and lacquer work--that the evolving culture has produced for the past 5000 to 6000 years. The book opens with a very good but brief introduction to Chinese history and then surveys the various art forms. The color and black-and-white illustrations are glorious, and good choices have been made about the pieces to show in color (though one always wishes for more, especially in my case of Qing ceramics). The British Museum collection is featured, obviously, but the individual pieces are occasions for very clear and interesting discussions of the type of work each represents; the book in this respect is very much more than a catalog of one collection. I especially appreciate this more general information about various types of Shang bronzes or Qing ceramics, for example, and the detailed information about materials, techniques, and production. Anyone at all interested in Chinese art and culture will value this book, and it's also a book that will excite people who haven't previously been interested. Excellent and beautiful.

This is a truly wonderful children's novel that everyone can enjoy.It follows a day in the life of a girl named Bonny who is forced to attend a snooty charm school,and is shocked by the shallowness of it's teacher and students.

Everything about "Dawn of the Floating World: Early Ukiyoe Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts" is superb: the quality of the unglazed paper, the beautiful design and color reproductions, and the solid scholarship that accompanies the presentation of rare Japanese prints from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

If you are a collector or student of Edo-period Japanese prints, you undoubtedly have dozens if not hundreds of books in your art library, but few will match the quality of this volume or give you access to such a rich lode of information on the earliest of the Japanese printmakers (1650-1765). Nor will many other books stand up to the quality of the text provided by an all-star team drawn from the British Museum, Museum of Fine Arts/Boston, and Dartmouth College. The text entries present: poems in romanized Japanese as well as English translation, aesthetic assessments of the prints, biographical information on artists, interpretations of symbolic devices, and details--where relevant--of the kabuki plays, actors, locations, and activities depicted. Even the footnotes, printed at the inner margins of the pages devoted to text, are fascinating and will help intellectually curious readers to readily locate the best of source material.

Slouched hat over his eyes, a pistol in his belt and a paint brush in his hand is the signature description of Diego Rivera, one of the world's greatest muralists. Young people will be enthralled over this fictionalized biography of an artist whose works were dedicated to the poor.

Born in 1886 in Mexico, frog-faced Diego was a child prodigy in the art world. His talents in drawing were far ahead of those in his age group. Diego was a rebellious one and defied the rules of priests, teachers, his family and school. "Diego was just being Deigo" was his father's refrain when given negative reports about his brilliant son.

The author covers the whole of Rivera's artistic career and shows us the best of his signature paintings and murals. Children can get the feel of the mischief of Diego, his commitment to the poor and his undying love for his painting. Diego's work as a muralist revived an art long dead and carried it to even greater heights. His work impacted many artists in the United States and all over the world who came to be taught under the feet of this great man.

Diego Rivera:Artist of the People is an excellent book for introducing children (ages 8-12) to Diego Rivera's muralist art, Mexican history and the development of Mexican art. A bibliography is provided for further reading about this great man and his work. Some of the photographs of Diego's works are in black and white. Those pictures take away the great splash and use of color that Rivera is known for in his works. Other than that minor flaw this book is a wonderful view of Mexico's greatest artist.

i though this book was abaltly brill. it is about th ralashoin ship between two twins and there freind. it is very moving and i couldnt put it down i would say that is one of annes best writes. i loved it espesilly as i have always wondered what it would be like to be a twin. it is a lovly book and is not really roud like the tital might suggest . the ice house was the twins secret place. i recomend you read. im 13 and i loved it( if you hadent gussed!!!!!!)

A marvelous book that deserves to be reprinted, this is the story of a ten-year-old orphan girl living on a huge moldering English estate with her nasty governess. She discovers a group of Lilliputians who have been living on an island on the estate since they escaped from the sideshow into which they were put by an associate of Lemuel Gulliver many years before. There's a good T.H.White homepage with a far more complete review at http://home.techlink.net/~moulder/mistress.html. Like the best children's literature, this is written so well as to be a delight to any adult reading it to his children (as my mother read it to me in the mid-fifties). Find a copy in the library, if you can.

I got this for my niece, a 10-year-old re-reader of the Potter books. I had read it in my early teen years, and followed up with the King Author books. The political undercurrents were invisible to me then, and don't add much now.

She said she liked it. I'll probably get her the Sword in the Stone for Christmas.

It has a happy ending. I had a crush on the protagonist as illustrated by Eichenberg. At 52 it is difficult to be sure of one's competence in reviewing a book for young people, but the memory of it persisted so long that I missed it, long since lost, and paid an exorbitant price for a used copy for my daughter a few years ago. She liked it too.

Odious though comparisons may be, I find more magic in the characters populating Mistress Masham's Repose than I do those in the Potter books. I think, too, that there is something to be said for the progressive maturity of the subsequent White books. Years from now my daughter and niece (and I) will still be enjoying T.H. White.

Maria is a ten-year-old orphan girl, growing up in her crumbling ancestral home, under the authority of a cold guardian and a tyrannical governess. But when Maria paddles over to a small island in the center of a lake on the grounds, she makes a marvelous discovery: the island is peopled by Lilliputians. Yes, the sea captain who rescued Gulliver so long ago, returned, and trapped a group of the unfortunate Lilliputians for a sideshow act. But, they had escaped, and built themselves a new home on the island called Mistress Masham's Repose. Unfortunately, human nature has changed very little over the last three hundred years, and the Lilliputian's safety exists only in their being unknown to the humans living around them. Can Maria safeguard the little people from her greedy guardian and governess?

I caught the title of this charming book quite by accident, but am delighted to have it! Author T.H. White (who also wrote The Sword in the Stone and The Once and Future King) did an excellent job of building a magical world set into our own, peopled with characters that are fascinating, scary, charming, humorous, and so much more! The storyline kept me on the edge of my seat, as I watched Maria and the Lilliputians adventure through the book.

This is an excellent book for young readers, and for adults as well. I highly recommend this book to everyone!