The format of this bibliography is without precedent. We suspect that this book will one day be considered the prototype for all bibliographies because of its clarity, ease of use, and the lavish production details.

This book will serve as a high water mark for all bibliographies to follow. The numerous illustrations, the obvious painstaking care with which the material was assembled and, above all, the accessability of the material to all researchers, professional and novice, make this a necessity for any library.

This book was a lifesaver. As a book collector, I cannot tell you how important a bibliography formatted like Pastore's can be. I wish he would write more. BRAVO to him for writing and to AMAZON.COM for carrying this book.

Christopher Burkett is the heir of Eliot Porter as a master of color photography. He finds astonishing beauty in intimate color landscapes, and this book has the production quality to convey it. If you liked "In Wildness is the Preservation of Life", buy this book! You'll love it.

This book is great.The full-color photograps(namely tress and foliage)are breathtaking,the oversized pages carry vibrant colors in splendid views from every part of America.All plates are beautiful,but in my opinion,the most beautiful are the following plates:
1(Wild Red Maple and Fog/New Hampsshire)
2(Cherokee Autumn Forest/Tennessee)
6(Luxuriant Red Maple/Kentucky)
14(Sunlit Aspen Mountain Valley/Utah)
19(Franconia Hillside/New Hampsshire)
20(Mountainside,Red Oak and Aspen/Utah)

21(Golden Aspens and Red Oak Mountainside/Utah)
22(Aspen Grove/Colorado)
29(Red Woodbine/Vermont)
32(Old Sequoia at Sunset/California)
41(Twilight,Virgin River and Zion Canyon/Utah)
44(Waimea Canyon,Sunlight and Cloud Shadows/Hawaii)
47(Sunset,Native Koa Tress/Hawaii)
62(Sunrise and Autumn Blueberries/Maine)
The most beautiful plate is NUMBER 21.Burkett,you and your photos are wonderful.

This book represents the best work of the individual whom I consider to be America's best outdoor color photographer. Burkett captures moments, light, and nature in ways that make viewers stand in awe of his photographic technique, photographic vision, and of nature itself.

The production quality of the book is surperb. You can feel the love (and probably pickiness) that went into it.

Enjoy!

What a wonderful book! Leon Combs is a great storyteller. Living in the Ozarks and near the Bradleyville area most all of my life I could really visualize the story. The characters and situations were like telling a part of my own family and hometown history. The play by play of the basketball games was like being there in that place and time. I would love to see it on the big screen! I'm ready for the next book Mr. Combs.

This author not only reveals the spirit of the sport, his colorful, descriptive narrative takes you into the very hearts of the players. Nostalgic, well-written story about a winning team, interwoven with games and statistics, makes this book a winner. Can't wait for the movie. It will happen.

I just read this wonderful book last weekend. My parents, Harlan and Betty House, were two of Bradleyville basketball's most enthusiastic followers. Both are mentioned in the book for a small portion of their contributions to the Bradleyville basketball program. The Bradleyville teams, those that were champions and those that were not, were made up of very special people--people who were willing to use all their god-given talents as best they could. With hard work they overcame their limited personal, family, and school resources. Bradleyville coaches were the best at enhancing the skills of their players and making a team out of very different individuals. The whole community was energized by the hard work and success of those winning teams. They were proud of the victories and the way their teams achieved those victories--by being great sportsmen. This book captures the spirit of the people, the players, the coaches, the community and the era. This story of our own Missouri "Hoosiers" will be enjoyed by anyone who enjoys an uplifting story about those who can prevail over long odds by hard work and fair play.

Teamwork & Teamplay by Jim Cain and Barry Jolliff is one of the most complete texts I have ever read on the subject of adventure-based activities. The activities illustrated in Chapter 4 are numerous, and most were new to me. Chapter 5 shows how to construct each prop required for the activities, and the bibliography in Chapters 1 and 8 are without a doubt the most complete of any published to date. The writing style is easy to follow, and the graphics, photographs and illustrations make reading the book a joy. Every time I pick up this book I find more ideas for experiential activities. I would highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to increase their knowledge of the experiential training world.

I try to keep up on new books, especially in the field of teambuilding and cooperative games. I picked up a copy of Teamwork & Teamplay about 3 weeks ago, and I am still finding wonderful ideas, activities and information throughout the book. I needed some new activities for my youth group, there were many in this book. I needed to find some ideas for other books on group games, and I found an extensive bibliography (just as promised). I decided to construct a few of the props myself, and found a well illustrated chapter on making your own equipment. I then tried to find a supplier of some specialty climbing webbing, and sure enough, right there in Chapter 8, I found dozens of places to buy equipment. Holy Cow, Jim Cain and Barry Jolliff, I've never seen a more complete manual in my 15 years of working in this field. Great Job, and if this program allowed more than 5 stars, I would easily suggest 10 for this effort. I'm going to empty off my teambuilding bookshelf, and just keep Teamwork & Teamplay up there.

I've worked with high school groups and some corporate groups in outdoor adventure education for more than 12 years and this book would have been most helpful earlier in my career. This is a MUST BUY for anyone who in involved in training or education. The vaule of the book is so much higher than the acutal price. Once again. This is a MUST BUY for your personal or business libaray.

After reading Kate and Jim McMullan's delightful, I STINK, my children and I can't pass a garbage truck without smiling. This totally original book takes us into a whole new world of trash. Readers will relish every word uttered by the tough-talking garbage truck while falling in love with his adorable face. My children begged me to read and re-read the alphabet soup pages--a look at what every garbage truck slurps up in an average day. This is the perfect gift for children of all ages. My family anxiously awaits the next book by this very talented husband and wife (illustrator/author) team.

We think that the book I Stink is an awesome book. It's about a garbage truck, and he says he stinks. It has great illustrations and they are detailed enough that the book is awesome, but not so detailed that you can't read it out loud. Also the garbage truck tells everything that is in his truck in ABCs. This book is colorful, funny, and educational. Little kids would love it. While they would like it, they are also learning their ABCs. The ABCs are things in a garbage truck. Also, the garbage truck talks.

We can't decide what about the book we like the most: the story or the illustrations. The dialogue of the trash truck is so entertaining especially if you put a lot of drama and fun into the way you read each of the pages. The pictures are colorful and whimsical. We review the book at least twice in each sitting and find something new in the illustrations each time. You will love the alphabet soup! This book is fabulous fun each time we read it.

I liked Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson. It is a book about a girl who likes to quilt and make things. I like to make things myself. I think it's important to learn how to make things that means something to you or to people. This book also takes place during a time in America's history when there were slaves. I would have given this 5 stars, but it was too short of a book. If you like books about quilts and history, I also recommend Lucy and the Liberty Quilt by Victoria London. It also is about a girl who likes to sew things with meaning.

Sweet Clara is taken from her momma and sent to work as a field hand for Home Plantation. The work is hard and Clara dreams of going back to her momma. Lucky for Clara, Aunt Rachel teaches her how to sew, which means being a seamstress at the Big House. There she hears for the first time other slaves talking about the Underground Railroad that can carry them to freedom. But without a map of where to go, runaways fall prey to "paterollers." Then Clara gets the idea that a quilt could serve as a map to freedom once it is completed. Gathering information about the Railroad as she collects scraps of fabric to make her quilt, Clara dreams of the day it will be finished and she can travel the road to freedom with her loved ones.

Deborah Hopkinson's story assumes young readers already know about what slavery meant in the United States in the years before the Civil War. The focus on "Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt" is on the inventiveness and courage of a young girl in helping her people wind their way to freedom. What I like best about James Ransome's paintings are the evocative looks he always captures on Sweet Clara's face, which help tell the story as much as Hopkinson's words. This is an excellent book for young students to learn more about the Underground Railroad and the quest for freedom.

Sweet Clara's aunt teachers her how to sew and she makes a quilt. She and young Jack leave because they were slaves, but you are going to have to find out if they make it to freedom or not. I liked this book. It was very interesting and I learned about history. I think you will like it too.

I felt the book was well written, but, I have always wondered why some relevant information was left out. I only hope that Mr. Tobin and his editor will contact me. My Grandfather was Captain Myron T. Hess one of the officers Mr. pyle was with that day he was killed. My Grandfather and his 1st Sargeant were responsible for killing the Sniper which took Mr. Pyle's life. I have for years had the literature which substantiates this claim. As a proud Grandson, I have always wished that My Grandfather and his 1st Sargeant were given some text. But I have yet to find it in published books or film.

The author, James Tobin, recounts Ernie Pyle's life from his childhood in Indiana to his 1945 death in the Pacific Theatre. The text notes "Sadness verging on bitterness always colored Ernie Pyle's memories of his early years," and relates that his adult personal life also was basically unhappy. In 1928 while working for the Washington Daily News, Pyle began writing an aviation column that ultimately was carried by all Scripps-Howard newspapers. Foreshadowing his WWII reporting style, Pyle' favorite subjects were the anonymous airmail pilots telling "tales of the pilot's feats of bravery and improvisation."

From 1935 to 1942 he roamed the western hemisphere where he wrote a column on his wanderings for the News and developed into a consummate craftsman of short prose and as Tobin noted "...in the process created "Ernie Pyle." Reflecting what would be his wartime style the author notes, "...he studied unknown people doing extraordinary things." The text relates Pyle's activities as a war correspondence in Tunsia where he shared the dangers and discomforts of the infantrymen at the front, and developed a bond with the American infantryman where his "writing transcended propaganda; it was richer, more heartfelt." At home Pyle's editors were delighted with the rapid growth of his popular column. After Tunisia, he followed the troops in the invasion of Sicily and later into Italy.

In Italy, he completed construction of his mythical hero, the long-suffering G.I. The text notes that the "inescapable force of Pyle's war writings is to establish an unwritten covenant between the soldier at the front and the civilian back home." Tobin also notes "Soldiers could see an image of themselves that they liked in his heroic depiction of the war...The G.I. myth worked for them too." However, as Pyle was becoming the "Number-One Correspondent" he became troubled because he had been "credited with having written the truth...He had told as much of what he saw as people could read without vomiting. It was the part that would make them vomit that bothered him..."

Pyle covered the Normandy landing in June 1944. In contrast to today's instant TV battlefront coverage, Pyle admitted to readers "Indeed it will be some time before we have a really clear picture of what has happened or what is happening at the moment." Pyle followed the infantry into France. The book notes, "The hedgerow country of Normandy was a killing field such as Ernie had never seen, and as the weeks passed, the constant presence of 'too much death' whittled down his will to persist." Once again the G.I.'s affection for him had risen after they saw Pyle force himself to share their dangers, which sometime made him, scream in his sleep. Those with today's anti-French attitude would agree with Pyle when he wrote that in Paris he felt as "though I were living in a whorehouse-not physically but spiritually."

Ernie Pyle returned to the United States in mid-September 1944. After a much needed rest, in January 1945 Pyle left for the Pacific Theatre. Here Pyle was in a different environment. He couldn't relate to the hot food and warm beds aboard Navy ships, the comfortable living conditions of airmen stationed on Pacific islands and the generally pleasant environment on Pacific islands. He wrote, "It was such a contrast to what I'd known for so long in Europe that I felt almost ashamed.... They're...safe and living like kings and don't know it." Even when relaxing with an aunt's grandson, a B-29 pilot who tried to relate the real combat conditions in the Pacific, Ernie just didn't understand the Pacific Theatre.

With the Army's 77th Division, "He went ashore" on a small island north of Okinawa "on the 17th of April 1945, talked with infantrymen during the afternoon and spent the night near the beach in a Japanese ammunition-storage bunker." The next morning he hitched a ride when at ten o'clock the jeep he was riding in came under Japanese machine gun fire. After jumping into a ditch with the jeep's other riders, Pyle raised his head and was killed instantly. Far from home, Ernie Pyle died among his beloved infantrymen.

In closing James Tobin writes "Ernie and his G.I.'s made America look good. The Common Man Triumphant, the warrior-with-a-heart-of-gold-this was the self-image America carried into the post-war era."

While the technology of war reporting has changed greatly since WWII, the author is correct when he observes, "As a practitioner of the craft of journalism, Pyle was perhaps without peer. After him, no war correspondent could pretend to have gotten the real story without having moved extensively among the front-line soldiers who actually fought."

The book ends with a nice touch, an Appendix that contains a potpourri of Pyle's articles.

I first became aware of Ernie Pyle as a young lad when I ran across a dusty old paperback in my grandparents attic. I voraciously devoured each page only to be saddened when I realized he never made it home from the war.

Here is a wonderful tribute to Ernie and his easy going manner mirrored with his elequent style of writing. From the absense of life, back through his lifes struggles, this work is a journey into Ernie's life. It will bring back floods of memories from older readers and give new readers insight into a great journalist who was taken from us in the prime of his career.

Ernie's manner of writing was a joy to read and Tobin has done a superb job in relaying his stories in regards to the common man, and the private soldier.

James Thornton mixes an environmental awareness with the deep human need for meaning to craft a guide to living with spirit. His activism reminds me of "Earth in the Balance" by (then Senator) Al Gore, his teachings, of "Path of the Heart" by Jack Kornfield, his spirituality of "The Direct Path" by Andrew Harvey, and his science of "The Ages of Gaia" by James Lovelock. This is a well written book, by a very deep soul, and we can all learn a great deal from him. Fine work.

I read this book because I strongly believe in reading opinions I disagree with. And in the end, I do disagree with some of Thornton's conclusions. However, I have to admit that this is one of the most insightful New Age texts I have ever read. It was very challenging on a personal level, and I learned a lot about myself while reading it. Thornton is certainly thought-provoking, intelligent, and a capable writer. If you enjoy New Age books, you should definitely read this one. If you do not, you should give this one a try. Few books about spirituality get better than this.

Not long ago, after having read many books on Buddism and meditation, I began to think that maybe the whole idea of a personal, loving God or Father was a myth of my own making... Our making... A fabrication we needed to survive... An opium of the masses. Although I gained much from reading on Buddism and meditation, I found I just didn't want to let go of the idea of a personal, loving Father with a plan for my life. If this is your hope too, read this book. His encounter with God is honest, unpretentious, and truly mystical. I no longer have any doubt.

Although you can tell this is definitely a young adult book, it was an interesting read. I've never read any Dinotopia books before, and I decided to read this after seeing Dinotopia on tv. The illustrations in this book are gorgeous. The author skipped over a lot of details, turning this into a really bare-bones story, but it was still a good read.

This is a great book. Kids love to have it read aloud, and will read it themselves, too!!! When I got the 1st book, "Dinotopia", I didn't read it-just looked at the great pictures! When I did read it, I loved it...Great everything in this book!!!

The first book was one of a kind...until the second came along and finished the story. Dinotopia: The World Beneath is a must have for anyone who has read the first book. There are new adventures, amazing new discoveries, plenty of exciting action and a satisfying conclusion to everything. The illustrations are just as spectacular as they were the first time and the story does not dilute itself one bit. I urge you to find yourself a copy of this book, and also a copy of the original if you have not read that either; both are amazing books meant for all ages.

The author takes you through his experiences during WWII from the Naval Accademy To VJ day. The events flow from one period to another in an orderly manner. I read this book in three days, not wanting to miss a line. Sometimes reading fast to find out what was happening next. He keeps you in suspense through each chapter and joins each in an orderly transition. As a WWII submarine man, I found the action accurate and reported with sincere modesty. I served with Vice Admiral Calvert in the USS SKATE SSN 578 including two cruises to the North Pole. It was an honor to serve with him and he is a credit to the Navy and the American tradition "get the job done." I would recommend this book to any WWII history buff. Raymond L. Aten, LT(SC) USN(RET)

Silent Service was a true page turner for me and I found it difficult to put down in the two days I spent with it. Admiral Calvert does an excellent job in conveying the realities of life aboard a WWII attack submarine; the boring day-to-day routines, various navigational methods, the extraordinarily complex relationship between the submarine and it's crew, the adrenaline charged excitement of an attack, the terrors of a depth charging and the courage of the men who went into this exhausting, claustrophobic, unforgiving world with it's ever present threat of a ghastly death (twenty-five percent of American WWII submariners never returned from their last mission). Calvert's prose is engaging, informative and lucid; The book is divided chronologically into fourteen chapters of roughly twenty pages per, each addressing an aspect of his wartime experiences; from the USS Jack's commissioning in January of 1943 to his (mis)adventure in Tokyo immediately following the surrender. A brief afterword follows up these retrospections. I highly recommend this book to those interested in submarines and/or WWII.

This book is excelent. Reading this, I really got a feeling as to what it was like on a submarine in World War II. It includes action sequences that really make it feel like you were there, on the sub. Calvert is a genius. I highly suggest this book for ANYONE who is interested in submarines, WWII history, or Naval History. I really think you will love this book as much as I did.