I nanny for a couple different families that have kids of different ages, and this book has been incredibly helpful to me. I do not go to work without this book. The kids know by now that it's full of fun activities and that they'll never be bored when I'm watching them. I've found that many of the activities can be modified for younger children when you are playing with some younger and older kids. This book is a great resource.

As a mother of two young boys, age 6 and 8, I can tell you that kids would much rather plop down and watch cartoons rather than make their own fun. Ms. Ellison's book has changed all that in my family. Now the kids flip through the book with me to find an activity they'd like to do, and don't even complain that they're missing their favorite TV shows! My oldest son has even started a club for the kids in our neighborhood based on an activity in the book. Thank you, Ms. Ellison, for helping my family turn off the TV and turn on their brains!

I babysit for 2 little kids, and this is like a Godsend! All the activities in this book are do-able, and actually really fun. Every single one is fun and you can do all of them with your kids! It's terrific! Plus it gets them AWAY from the TV.

Collaboratively written and developed by Anne Daly (current national president of the American Diabetes Association), Linda Delahanty (nutrition counselor and diabetes specialist), and Judith Wylie-Rosett (co-director or of prevention and control for the Diabetes Research and Training Center), 101 Weight Loss Tips For Preventing And Controlling Diabetes is an excellent and authoritative informational sourcebook and springboard which is ideal for non-specialist general readers seeking to learn more about controlling their weight and dealing with their diabetes. Quick and easy to read, offering solid, well-researched information drawn directly from the American Diabetes Association, 101 Weight Loss Tips For Preventing And Controlling Diabetes is a superbly presented and very highly recommended introductory primer, especially for people with a family history or other risk factors of diabetes.

Judy McIntyre is one of the world's authorities on loons. This book reflects not only the wealth of her technical knowledge about loons (written in a very readable style!) but also personal glimpses into the lives of loons from someone who has spent years studying them in their natural environment AND in captivity. It's a fascinating read!

This work is very well written, concise, and very helpful for the new case manager or the seasoned professional. The generic case forms in the appendix are very well prepared and user friendly. Having been in case management for several years, this book gives good ideas for improvements, as well as meet the needs of any manager.

This book is fun and educational. It was named as one of the best children's science books of 1993 by Science Books and Films, a publication of the AAAS, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C., America's oldest, largest and most prestigious science organization. Also named as one of the best children's books of 1993 by The Child Study Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College, N.Y., N.Y

The main reason to buy this book is for its photographs - and they are spectacular. The book is fabulous.

Rrose Is a Rrose Is a Rrose is a valuable contribution to any gender study or discourse. Complete with gender-conscious commentaries and gender-awareness raising photography, Rrose establishes itself as one of the forerunners in photography regarding this seldom considered, but often accessed, aspect of human life, sex, and sexuality.

Rrose... highlights most of the key issues within gender discourse as depicted through photography: gender hierarchy, origination of gender, androgyny and indifferentiation, and gender tension (both masculine and feminine manifestations).

Especially provocative are the works of Matthew Barney. However, all the works included provide a strong case for the necessity of higher states of gender-consciousness.

This book cannot, and should not, be easily dismissed.

This is an excellent book for introducing kids as young as 3 to the concept of germs and the use of sanitary precautions. It's a wonderful pre-school teachers aid to bathroom ettiquete and a good tool for parents. The illustrations are wacky and colorful but the message is clear & direct. It's a must for all early ed teachers and a great gift to your local preschool ! Enjoy!

Anne Tyler's brilliant and heart-felt novel, Saint Maybe, has surely touched readers of all generations. The thoughtful analogies and individualization of characters familiarizes a person with this Baltimore family of 1965. The magnified details that the author provides are immaculate and transform the reader into a participant rather than just an audience in the emotional roller coaster of the Bedloe family. In this compelling story, Bee and Doug Bedloe have three aspiring and hopeful children. Their middle child, Danny, meets a woman at his place of work and soon after has a beautiful baby girl, Daphne, with her. Ian, the youngest child, conveys his opinion about his brother's marriage and child and of the dishonesty on his wife's behalf. Ian and his parents' lives will forever be burdened and complicated with the effects of his choice of displaying his notions. After a change of heart and spirit, Ian is enlightened, yet confused as to his purpose in the world. Anne Tyler brings to life the everyday occasions that may seem so insignificant to a person. Although the story was dull on a few elements, the majority of the novel was notable and also eloquently depicted. Dedicated and patient readers will ultimately enjoy Saint Maybe.

When a novel begins by describing a perfectly normal, happy family, you know something terrible is about to happen. In the case of the Bedlows of Baltimore, 1965, it's the invasion of Lucy. When their oldest son Danny introduces her as "the woman who changed my life," the life that is about to be altered most profoundly is not Danny's, but his 17-year-old brother Ian's. A misguided remark, spoken in anger, propells Danny off the deep end with tragic results and leaves Ian with a burden of responsibility that defines him for the next 25 years.

He's the perfect hero for a novel of the nineties--"a medium kind of guy, all in all," attractive, laid back and fundamentally nice. Also fundamentally ineffectual. His guilt drives him off the track of modest middle-class success and into a quasi-Christian cult, where destiny is clearly drawn for him: the opportunity to earn salvation by caring for the children of his dead brother.

Anne Tyler sets modest goals, and surpasses them. Her characters are sympathetic and winsome enough to draw a reader into their lives, though unlikely to linger in memory far beyond the final page. The story unfolds in episodic flashes, skipping up to ten years in the turn of a chapter yet meandering in detail, with the endearing clutter of everyday life. It's a perfectly valid way to tell a story, though less than satisfying to those of us who crave a strong resolution. Saint Maybe, like Ms. Tyler's other novels, doesn't conclude so much as muddle to a stop, with the characters smiling ruefully. Along the way, the vississitudes of his life have shaped Ian into the sweet, bemused beatification of the title. Very early in the book, he wonders "if there was any event, any at all, so tragic it could jolt him out of the odious habit of observing his own reaction to it." The answer is No; his self-absorption does not lessen, it only changes form. At the end, he still hasn't figured out much of anything, but the family is all together and Life Goes On.

Toward what? The reader may think about it briefly, in a nineties kind of way, close the book and go forth clueless.

Saint Maybe is a thoroughly enjoyable book with especially interesting characters. The hero of the story is Ian Bedloe, a 17 year old boy who must deal with the guilt he feels after he- as he believes- causes the death of his brother. Searching for forgiveness, Ian finds religion at the Church of the Second Chance, and he is able to bring meaning to his life. The story is an interesting examination of organized religion, faith, and the roles they play in one's life. I particularly liked the characters' examinations of religion- from Agatha's skepticism to Ian's almost blind faith. Although all of Anne Tyler's books are virtual masterpieces, choose to read this one if you like to think about religion, faith, and all the questions which have no answers.

The book is good, but not great. The author presents a good overview of Elizabeth while sometimes going into excruciating detail. There in lies the problem. Much of what I wanted to know more about: court intrigue and the supporting characters were often given short shrift. At the sametime, the author works very hard to maintain the "virgin queen" myth, often off handedly dismissing evidence for Elizabeth's affairs. The book also ends abruptly, telling us little about Queen Bess' last years.

On the plus side, the author does an excellent job explaining the queens religous views. Still, there are better biographies of this facinating subject to be read.

Anne Somerset's biography on Queen Elizabeth I, was the first historical biography I had ever read. I became interested in finding out more about the famous red-haired monarch from the Hollywood version of her life, in the film "Elizabeth". I knew the film version had taken some license with the historical record, but I felt that the more accurate and less glamorous story about Elizabeth, the monarch, had to be interesting as well.

The story of Queen Elizabeth, both as a historical figure and a woman of 16th century England, is a interesting one and Anne Somerset makes it an easy and thoroughly enjoyable read. She goes into great detail and has many annotations to support her statments about Elizabeth, yet at the same time, the reader doesn't feel as if she is reading a scholarly work. It was such a pleasure to read and I found it difficult to put down.

For those of you out there who are either intimidated by biographies and other books about historical figures, or think them dull, this is a great place to start your journey into these kinds of books.

I've read almost a dozen books on the Tudors and this is the best on Elizabeth I. Although I usually get my doses of the Tudors from Alison Weir and Antonia Fraser, Anne Somerset has truly written and organized a beautiful book. An impressive work -- better than any other I've read on the world's greatest monarch.