Most people know John Florio by his great translations - Montaigne's essays and Boccaccio's Decameron. Early in his career he produced his 'First Fruits', a collection of dialogues and translated passages from literature designed for novices in the Italian language. By 1591 he was aiming his 'Second Fruits' at those already fairly accomplished in the language but who wanted to improve their vocabulary and usage. More than that, Florio wanted to introduce the English to the use of proverbs in everyday speech. The dialogues here are designed to that purpose and are littered with them. The conversations are wryly witty and give a fascinating snapshot of everyday London life for a gent about town at the end of the 16th century. Furthermore, to those interested in the development of the English language in Shakespeare's era, they reveal the extent to which Italian conversational flair was migrating, along with fashion and culture, into London life. Many of Florio's proverbs are instantly recognisable as a familiar tool of modern speech - here you can discover their origins and see how they wove their way into the literature of the period. Students of the English Renaissance literary scene can also have fun spotting the other writers Florio spars with in his prefaratory letters to patron and reader. In passing he also takes a dig at a treatise published earlier the same year under the initials I.F. listing folk-lore sayings about weather-forecasting. I have seen the original of this little work, clumsily written in a limited vocabulary and clearly not the work of John Florio, though some library catalogues sadly list it as such. To conclude, anyone studying Florio's translations should also take a look at his 'Second Fruits' as they provide a key to his own contributions to the authors he translated.

This book, first published in the U.S. in 1990, covers 129 extant animals and a further 13 extinct animals. Aside from a lovely foreward and introduction, rare species from all of the geographical regions including Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia, the Americas and the oceans are covered. Each animal is explained under the topics of description, geographic distribution, habitat and population. A lovely illustration follows each explanation. The language is simple enough for a ten year old to comprehend, but it still provides an informative account of each species. Among the animals covered are well known ones like the tiger, panda, leopard, wolf, black rhinoceros, blue whale, walrus, orang-utan and komodo dragon, along with lesser known creatures such as the Cuban solenodon, Indri, olm, maned wolf, yellow-footed rock wallaby, pygmy hippopotamus and numbat. It focuses on not only mammals but also reptiles, birds and amphibians.

I recommend this book to any person who is interested in learning about some of the most endangered animals in the world. What you'll get is an easy to use book with easy to read text along with eye-candy artwork to drool on. The book consists of 192 pages.