While celebrating a special occasion eating in a nice restaurant near Seattle, my 4-year-old was devastated when his celebration balloon drifted up to the high ceiling. I picked up the "Balloon Galloon" as his bedtime story that evening, not knowing it told of this creature which eats the balloons lost by children all over the world. No book could have fit the occasion better, and several days after that my grandson would mention the hero of the story and want reassured that there really isn't such a creature as the Balloon Galloon. It's a book children will enjoy and remember.

"Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign" is an excellent history of the Valley Campaign of 1862. For me, the highight of this book was that it was originally written in 1880. The notes in the back of the book make frequent mention of how the author was able to contact the people who actually served with Jackson - talk about primary source material!

Speaking of notes: they are sometimes more fun to read than the main text. In addition, they contain detailed reports of battle casualties are also found in the notes section.

The one negative that I found with this book (which is a 1995 reprint of the original) is that it doesn't have any maps. The text refers to various maps (1 through 7) - but they are nowhere to be found. This isn't a big problem, but I still think the publisher should have included them.

An essential for any serious student of Jackson or the Army of Northern Virginia. Five stars plus, but not for the novice. Col. Allan was Jackson's ordnance officer, and after the war he devoted the better part of his remaining years to these two comprehensive works included under one cover. Allan intended to write a comprehensive history of the Army of Northern Virginia for the entirety of the war, but his premature death left this greater work unfinished. His work on Jackson, which primarily covers the Valley Campaign, I consider the better of the two works because of its greater completeness. Both, however, are superb, early intensely scholastic efforts on the war, fully deserving of the stature as primary source works on the Civil War. The footnotes are old-style, page by page. Read them that way; slow, but it adds flavor. Buy this one while it is available.

This comprehensive manual provides all the detail any clinician would need to focus on geriatric rehabilitation. There are 7 units, dealing with general physiological health, psychological health and a new paradigm that focuses on concepts of wholeness and uniqueness vs. the traditional medical model. Pathokinesiology is addressed along with therapeutic interventions. Sensory losses are addressed also, a great book for the novice gerontologist or one with experience to have information at one's fingertips.