This is the first title in an outstanding series of Alvin books by Clifford Hicks. Sadly, they all seem to be out of print.
The Alvin books were my favorites as a kid. I checked them out from the library repeatedly and devoured them. As a 10 year old, I wanted to hang out with Alvin and Shoey. The books are full of laughs, adventure, and great storytelling. They take us back to small town America, before kids had to deal with grownup problems.
If you have a kid, buy this book for him. Buy it used, buy it on Ebay, buy it at a used bookstore! The other titles (all very good) in the series are ALVIN'S SECRET CODE, ALVIN'S SWAP SHOP, ALVIN FERNALD FOREIGN TRADER, ALVIN FERNALD MAYOR FOR A DAY, and ALVIN FERNALD SUPERWEASEL. All are great. Another great series if you like the Alvin books is the Mad Scientists Club books by Bertrand Brinley. Check them out.

I am 45 years old... my 44 year old brother came over and talked about how this book changed his life. He read it as a kid and became an inventor of sorts himself... a perpetual tinkerer. He wasn't sure of the name and I found it for him and ordered him a copy as well as my 9 year old son. It took some insistance to get by boy, Nick, to read it. He couldn't put it down and when my brother came over to visit he quized Nick on select parts of the book. They both smiled and laughed. Having read it myself I can tell you it is a most wonderful book. Buy it! Your kid will remember it always.

A VREY GOOD BOOK. I like the inventions that Alvin made and how the book was written. It was neat how Alvin solved the mystery with his great inventions. I reccommand this book to you if you enjoy reading mystery books. So go to the bookstore and but it, Right Now!

I checked this book out of the library for my 16 month old son. He absolutly loves this book! It quickly became his "lovey" and he carries it everywhere. So I knew I had to own a copy of this book and have it on hand, before the library's copy was due back! The mice are drawn so cute! There's mice on almost every page, some are bigger and some are smaller. My son points out all the mice on all the pages, even the small somewhat "hidden" mice. They story has great rhyming text, it's great for learning animals too. The story is about pet shop animals and it says how the other animals smell, are loud, or shed...but mice make the best pets! After reading this book, when my son's older...I can see him asking for a pet mouse! Ha ha.

This is one of my son's favorite books. It is very well written and the rhymes in it flow nicely. I recommend this book to anyone with children who are learning to read.

Beautiful illustrations and great rhyming text! Perfect for beginning readers. BUY IT!

Not just for men. Women will enjoy it as well.
Great!

It has been my privilege to have personally known for the last 25 years, the bombardier on this plane, Bill Wright. It was a joy and a thrill to read of the previously unknown heroics of Bill and his crew. The world has been blessed that these men were spared the plight of so many of their comrades. Bill, and I am sure others mentioned in this book, have lived exemplary lives and have positively influenced so many young men and women. Their miraculous survival, so vividly described in this masterpiece, is only surpassed with what God has allowed these men to do with their spared lives. Knowing this should only add to your enjoyment of this book.

A quick--because it's so engrossing--and arresting read. Any airman who has flown in combat since will find Alling's honest and homespun thoughts, feelings and experience about what he and his crew were about similar to his own. Although human nature doesn't change, technology surely does. As a veteran of the air war over Vietnam, my experience dodging SAMs in an F-4, as harrowing as it was, seems almost trivial compared with the German air defenses Alling and his crew encountered day after day on their bombing runs. It made me appreciate him and indeed, "the greatest generation," more than ever. With this book, Alling continues to make valuable contributions to his country.

This could easily be rated only two stars if you don't have the right frame of mind. However, the Enquirer specializes in poor taste so if you are inclined to consider buying this book, presumably you have a morbid curiosity about its contents. Therefore, let's not be hypocritical and cast harsh judgments as to the subject matter of the volume. In presenting poor taste in a big, glossy coffee table volume, this is a great five star effort.

Superficially, this volume is beautiful; it truly rivals the Time Magazine coffee table books in layout and colorful photos. However, as is the case with the weekly Enquirer, this book picks up where People magazine leaves off. How tasteless is a full topless photo of Nicole Simpson? How about open casket photos of dead celebrities such as Bing Crosby and River Phoenix (and no, River did not look like he was just sleeping)? Years ago I kind of thought Xaviera Hollander (the Happy Hooker) was a babe. Well, there is a photo of her at well over 200 pounds in a skimpy bikini. Guess what? According to the photo's caption, Hollander says a lot of men like her that way.

Want to see a photo of Richard Gere skinny dipping? I didn't but I'm sure many of you do. Well, it's there in this volume. Do you want to see Michael Jackson's disintegrating nose in bandages? Just open this volume and you'll find it. In short, this book is great for those of us too full of ourselves to buy the Enquirer at the supermarket. However, a beautiful volume from top name booksellers; ah, now that's respectable.

The New York Times boasts that it has all the news that's fit to print. The National Enquirer prints the rest, and the photos that illustrate their untold stories provide a record unlike any other. Here folks you get Elvis, no longer shook up, finally finding peace in the valley (or at least the music room at Graceland) in the dramatic "last photo." You also get John Lennon and Steve McQueen on slabs in the morgue, "Happy Hooker" Xaviera Hollender looking like a blimp, and Michael Jackson looking like a freak. Okay, he always looks like a freak, but the fact that he looks no less freaky in the pages of The National Enquirer, where everyone looks like a freak, says something profound. This stunning coffee table style collection is a photographic monument to the dark side of celebrity, and an absolute must own for every American.

The Enquirer is infamous for its shameless portrayals of American celebrities (and the odd royalty living elsewhere). This amazing collection of photography though is something even more rewarding than the weekly grind-out of the delightful tabloid. The images are juxtaposed SO skillfully, and with great humor. A dumpy, potato-like Xaviera Hollander and beau just across the page from slender and youthful Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear - a horrible, prophetic Dorian Gray vision of the future! Plenty of foreshadowing photos of relationships doomed to failure, a gallery of mugshots and coffin shots. The famous Elvis casket photo is easily eclipsed by the very gruesome River Phoenix shot. If I had to pick one shot as a favorite, it would be the Christmas cheer of Anna Nicole Smith and her 90-year old sugar daddy, the expression on her face instantly confirming the nation's worst speculations of that relationship. The best cross-page pairing is aging-but-sexy Joan Collins in her bikini across from a braid-wearing Sean Connery in HIS futuriffic bikini from a 70s Sci-fi movie. Can anyone possibly think he's the sexiest man alive after seeing THAT??? The book also maintains that peculiar and annoying quality of the Enquirer that some soccer-mom favorite celebrities are somehow "untouchable" - Oprah and Rosie O'Donnell are visions of personal triumph and noblesse, never to be shown in an unflattering manner. Despite that minor gripe, you can't afford to miss this photo treasury of everything beautiful about the supermarket years of the Enquirer. I'm hoping they do a companion volume of the best of the Enquirer's "shock value" black & white early years.

Great reference book! Gives you all the information you need to propagate--nurserymen to laymen.

I propagated woody plants as a sideline business for a number of years and considered this book THE source. For many species, specific concentrations for rooting hormones are specified. This is invaluable information since for many plants there is an optimal concentration and using a higher or lower concentration of reduces rooting success rates as well as root development.

Dirr has done all the research and you reap all the rewards. His conclusions are backed up by many scientific studies by various individuals and groups. The first part gives a summary of the diferent propagation methods and the second part has very detailed data on specific species. I save hundreds of dollars each year by propagating by own southern magnolias, red tip photinas, and navel oranges. This is, by far, the best book on propagation out there!!

"Blahous has produced a timely, comprehensive, accessible . . . review of the issues involved in financing Social Security after 2020. . . . Blahous is aware that the complexity of Social Security means there is no single best financial and political solution. Interested readers will find this a sound addition to the literature. Useful index. All collections." CHOICE

After the excellent "The Real Deal" (by Schieber and Shoven), is there anything more to say? Yes, a lot, actually, as Blahous's very original and valuable book makes clear. I loved several aspects. The honesty of the comments shines through. He criticizes the press, the demagogues, some unions, not in partisan fashion, but only where their bias or lack of knowledge contradicts facts -- a feature that earns the gratitude of all of us who want an honestly considered solution, whatever it turns out to be. His insider's view of the political evolution of Social Security's recent history is totally fascinating and another valuable feature. I'm a student of this subject, and Blahous's book helped me understand some things I didn't see clearly before. One is why certain factors in the NCRP plan were phased in over that particular 20-year period. Another is how valuable is the proposed raising of the benefuit for the lower-paid. A third is why he describes Senator Gramm's proposal as an add-on when I considered it a carve-out. Perhaps it's unnecessary for all members of Congress to read this book. But I do hope the necessary few on staff and others who help members decide how to vote read it, because the more it influences their deliberations, the better for the country.

OK, so I haven't quite finished all of this book, but I want to go ahead and weigh in my opinion NOW in hopes that I can entice a few more of you BEFORE you decide which Presidential candidate has a better shot at saving Social Security.

Dr. Blahous advocates advance funding of future Social Security benefits using investments personally chosen and owned by Americans themselves. But don't let this scare you away if you are a Democrat. This book cuts through the politics and the baloney on BOTH sides, and gives a lot of fair minded information so YOU can decide. (The guy writes well too, which always helps!)

In general there are very different styles of portraits or figure painting, from very photographically detailed and accurate to rough sketches. This book is about a kind of very rough watercolor figure sketches with strong and varied colors. The colors are exaggerated and more of expression than accurate "true" ones. Some like this style and some don't, for those who like it this book is a gem!

For me that like the more naturalistic figure it is still a source for inspiration even though I won't copy his style.
I can recommend the book, not as your first or only figure painting book, but as your second or third, it will spice up your collection.

As a side note, the book is printed with a paper/ink combination that smells so bad I have had to let it lie for a while before I can read it... That part of the impression of the book is not worth even one star :-)

I just recieved this book today. I read most of it as soon as I got it. And then I started painting right away. The directions are simple and easy to understand. And each lesson will give you satisfaction as you complete it. This book concentrates more on abstracts, shapes, and colors. If this is the style you are looking for this is a great place to start.

I was captivated by this book when I first flicked through it. The striking pictures of naked women probably helped but Charles' unique style really is what captivates. For example, one of my favorite pictures is of an old man fly fising. This book inspired me to first reproduce some of my favorite pictures from the book and then to do a series of paintings myself -- a good learning experience. The book is well illustrated (of course) and layed out, and would be a great tutorial in watercolor painting and/or painting people (clothed or otherwise). Charles also wrote a similar book on painting flowers (not of interest to me) and an older less colorful book on painting portraits -- which I was fortunate enough to pick up cheaply and new in a second-hand store. This book is the best of the three though.

Here it is, a book which contains all of the Peanuts cartoons created in the year 1991. Some jokes come out flat, but most get smiles, chuckles, or even out-loud laughter for their creativity, orignality..and a good punchline always helps.

Sure, computer-generated strips are the new thing, but you can't really mess with the strip that changed comics...

If you know anything about the Peanuts Gang, you cannot help but lve them. In this collection Schulz, has outdone himself again. Anyone seeking a good laugh or a smile brought to a cloudy day should take a look at this.

This is a most charming collection of the antics of the round-headed kid we all love. With comics from a year's worth of newspapers, including the Sundays, you'll have enough to read to keep you entertained, over and over again. Not only are the Peanuts Gang funny, but inspiring, touching, sad, and as the title indicates, sometimes even profound. With Linus' wise advice, Lucy's sassy attitude, and Snoopy's admirable imagination, Charles Shulz' creations give us insight to the most enigmatical yet simplest part of our lives: our childhoods. Read the comics once and laugh, but read them again, look into the words more, and see the other emotions buried underneath. Charles Shulz was truly a genius, and the world will miss him.

Everyone understand that happy, confident, well- balanced Teen's do not just happen. This is why I feel that parent ought to read Parent/ Teen Breakthrough The relationships Approach. Everyone knows that being a parnet is life toughest job, but thanks to Mira Kirshenbaum and Charles Foster, Ph.D. has built a road map for parent to have a better understanding of thier child emotions needs and how to deal with them effectively. This book also show parents how to help children develop a healthy self image and understand thier own emotional. This book is very insightful and easy to read and easy to understand.

Excellent book for parents with preteens and teens. It is full of very compelling examples of behaviors that can be expected if a solid relationship between the parent and child has not been established. The crux of the problem is often the parent. We are comfortable controlling our children (it works) when they are smaller and we're quite surprised when they begin to mature and really need us to be a best friend. The book does not preach, but clarifies the value of building a new relationship. Perfectly appropriate for people of any religious faith. It is a gift that I give to parents very often.

During my son's eighth grade year I struggled constantly with conflicting ideas about how to control and moderate his behaviour. None worked and my husband and I spent many hours arguing and I spent many hours on the carpet at the school for various infractions. Completely seredipitously this book landed in my hands. I don't read self-help books and books of that ilk but after perusing the first chapter I thought "Yes, this sounds right." I have adopted the basic philosphy in all my dealings with my son. Despite my husbands claims that it is merely the easy way out (avoiding confrontation and bright lines), it is in fact a great challenge to stand up to the almost relentless advise that comes in on childrearing from all sides. It is not easy to say this is what I believe and I will stick with it understanding what you say about dire consequences. I often feel all alone and this book is a huge, absolutely huge, comfort to me.

Used the text to teach intro this past fall. students found it readable (so did I). Will use it again.

This study guide was wonderful, it helped me to get an A in my general psychology class. If you read the material and then follow it up with answering the questions in the guide you too may do well in this class. This study guide is a must!!!

I used this book for a course called general psychology. This book is full of knowledge and explains each term in everyday language so the reader can grasp the concept. I felt that the book explained everything so well that I would easily got a A in the class without ever having to have the teacher explain anything to me.