With clarity and directness, the authors provide an inspiring and practical guide for teachers to infuse character education throughout the curriculum. Their framework adds much needed meaning and integrity to learning and honors the creativity and wisdom of each teacher. -Rachael Kessler, author of "The Soul of Education: Helping Students Find Connection, Compassion and Character at School"

I read this book with much interest. The topics addressed here are of great importance for educational practice, and hence, as the authors rightly emphasize, for the larger society. They approach the issues of character education from a variety of directions, including a highly suggestive American Indian perspective that has been far too little understood in our culture. "Teaching Virtues" is a stimulating and thoughtful contribution. -Noam Chomsky, Professor, M.I.T., and author of "Language and the Problem of Knowledge" and "Manufacturing Consent"

"Teaching Virtues" adds to our understanding of the connections between the teaching of virtues and the practice of moral reciprocity within community. -C.A. Bowers, Professor of Education, Portland State University and author of "Educating for an Ecologically Sustainable Future" and "The Culture of Denial"

The cover image stopped me in my tracks at the bookstore, and I bought multiple copies. The young woman at the checkout counter was mesmerized by the image as well. The illustrations inside equal or surpass the one on the cover.

The images are detailed but not fussy. They are highly evocative of German Romanticism -- very moody, dreamy, somewhat melancholy, with an emphasis on the grandeur of Nature. If you enjoy the illustrations of Maurice Sendak, Edward Gorey, Arthur Rackham, et al., you will like this book.

Like Barrett's artwork, Poole's text tells the classic tale soberly, including the queen's botched attempts to strangle Snow White with silken laces and prick her with a poison comb. There is also more mention of Snow White's mother and father than in many retellings. This version is certainly more in line with magical/mystical/matriarchal imagery than Disney's.

Some of the images -- e.g., drops of blood -- and the story itself may be too intense for very young readers. For me, this book is a contemporary gem and is worth seeking out.

Wonderful illustrations, of course, but also the story includes the incident with the poisoned comb (left out in many editions). A great book for parents looking to replace the Disney-fied version for their children.

If you like this, also check out the same author/illustrator team's collaboration on "Joan of Arc."

The illustrations are beautiful without being frou-frou, serious without being creepy. Highly recommended for ages 4-8.

This is the well-known story of a princess whose evil stepmother tries to have her killed. The huntsmen could not go through with it and tells Snow White to run away. When she does she finds herself in the company of seven small men. They live in a house very happily until the queen finds that Snow White is not dead. She finds Snow White and tricks her into eating a poisoned apple. Snow White dies. She is awoken from her death by the kiss of a prince and they live happily ever after.
The reason I enjoyed this version of Snow White more than others that I have read was that is was not as much of a fairy tail like story and more of a darker approach to it. The seven dwarfs, for example, are not shown as happy little creatures that sing and dance all day long. They are merely shown as small, kind men. The illustrations in this book are so beautiful even though they are not the bright colors that would usually go along with this story.

I really liked this book. It was about a girl that lived on the island Rass. Her sister,Caroline, was so perfect. They treated Caroline better than they treated her. This book was so awesome! I definitly reccomend it for young audiences or for old audiences. This is an all around good book. You might think its boring at first but you have to hang in there, because the end is GREAT!

"Jacob Have I Loved" was most definitely the best book I have ever read. It is an amazing novel. Katherine Paterson is a wonderfully honest author with a dazzling sense of creativity. I recommend this book to almost any good reader, ages 10 and above. It is a book that should not be missed.

Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Patterson, is a book that I highly reccomend to all readers around in the world. It is a great book that has several themes such as: love, jealousy, and goals. These were the themes that were shown most in the book. It explains the pros and cons of having a twin sister. It also shows the love between Mr. and Mrs. Bradshaw towards each other. What I mostly love about this book is, how Lousie realizes that she is not in her sister's shadow and she dosent feel hate towards her. Lousie matured and finally accomplished her goal, which was to leave Rass and have a great life. The thing that keeps you wanting to read this book without putting it down, is how Katherine Patterson makes you wait for eveything. She lead you to Louise accomplishing her goal in life, but she made you wait. Thus, making this book one of the best books I have ever read. I thank Mr. Rome, my reading teacher, for picking such a great book out, for us to read. In closing, i would just like to say that this book helped me in many ways realize how my life could be, how it could turn out, and what i can do to make my life better. I am postively sure that this book will help me in my future, and I know I will never forget the book JACOB HAVE I LOVED!

I bought this book mostly for the stories and illustrations, but was surprised by how good the recipes are! Almost every recipe I've tried from this book has been a great success and added to my permanent recipe file, and I am fairly confident whenever I try something new from this cookbook that it will turn out well. Some of my new regular favorite meals include the Risotto with Asparagus and Pine Nuts, the Porcini Omelet with Feta and Sage and the Whole-Wheat Vegetarian Pie. There are some old standbys included in this cookbook, but for the most part, the recipes are delicious and different without being bizarre or difficult. If you're looking for some delicious new recipes, or even if you are just a fan of the movie Babe, consider getting this book. Even if you never cook out of it, you'll enjoy the "cozy" feeling of the stories and photos. Now that this book has been remaindered, it's really a great buy, too.

I will try to avoid the obvious references to food and pigs. *grin* That aside, this is a wonderful cookbook! I bought it as a fan of the movie, and was delightfully surprised at how good a book it is. Contains breakfasts, soups, salads, vegetables, suppers, pickles & relishes, and deserts. The warm linguini with fresh tomato, balsalmic vinegar, and parmigiano-reggiano is quite good, as are the pecan sugar cookies. Although these recipes are not vegan, they are most definately vegetarian, and tasty!

the recipes in this book are so unusal that you are dying to try them just to see what they taste like... yet they are not unusually difficult. I was pleasantly surprised at this book... you'll never miss the meat.

I bought this book after reading about it in my yoga magazine thinking I could really use a good book of poems to ponder and this book is terrific. The poems really will quiet your mind. I love that such a wide array of authors are represented - from Rumi to Dogen to Emily Dickenson to Walt Whitman. A great collection. Glad I bought it.

One of the most inspiring collections or sacred poetry ever compiled. The translations are perfect. The sensual/spiritual quality of the words can transport you into altered states. Beautiful. Al Link - 4 Freedoms Tantra

Much like Mitchell's Tao Te Ching this selection of poerty from various spiritual traditions is a joy to read and a nice tool for reflection and meditation. Zazen On The Mountain by Li Po has become my favorite poem and this work has been helpful to me in many ways. The Enlightened Heart is a lovely book and a great companion to his Tao Te Ching. Thumbs up for Mitchell's work as editor.

Here is a complete set of portraits of America's greatest generators of wealth. Only such a collective study allows us to appreciate what makes the great entrepreneurs really tick. As H.W. Brands shows, these men and women are driven, they are focused, they deeply identify with the businesses they create, and they possess the charisma necessary to persuade other talented people to join them. They do it partly for the money, but mostly for the thrill of creation.

If you are chasing the, "American Dream," of becoming a successful entrepeneur, this book is definitely a must read! H. W. Brands has compiled a collection of highly enterprising and inspirational people in his book. I not only was encouraged by reading about such great American men, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie, I was even more impressed with the profiles of such determined business women as Oprah Winfrey and Mary Kay. Their lives and positive, business tactics shed a shining light, leading the way to establishing a successful enterprise.

Common beliefs shattered by uncommon men- Henry Kaiser would have taken on the challenge to build Rome in a day!

"Rags to riches" is another common adage; but the route to getting there is what distinguishes the daring from the rest. But the most important factor that has made these great achievers who changed and paved the course of business history is the strong desire to excel against all odds. What else can explain the rise of Andrew Carnegie from the drudgery of working in a dirty shop floor to being the master of one of America's greatest steel company.

Do not read this book in a hurry. Brands has an excellent command on the English language and his style of narration matches the true values that one can derive from the 25 great persons described in this book.

I have recommended this book as the first assignment to my daughter during her summer vacation.

Your search for human excellence ends here.

The book is a true complete guide to anything that shoots, even the airgun section is great..

It also includes a wonderful web directory, index of every known maker's address etc..

The only problem is with listed prices, some of them are little above average (I assume these are the manufacturer's suggested retail prices), While other prices listed are True market prices, which may confuse you a little.

GUN DIGEST IS AN EXCELLENT PUBLICATION ABOUT GUN & AMMO THAT IS AVAILABLE IN THE MARKET TODAY. I HAVE BEEN BUYING THIS BOOK EVERY YEAR SINCE 1980. DUE TO MY PREOCCUPATION I MISSED 1988, 1999 & 2000 EDITIONS WHICH I SHALL ORDER VIA THE INTERNET THROUGH AMAZON.COM. THIS BOOK WAS HELPFUL IN MY CAREER AS IT EXPANDED YOUR KNOWLEDGE MORESO WHEN I AM SO FOND OF HUNTING & SHOOTING.

So what if it appears only yearly...Gun Digest is the best periodical firearms publication going and has always been. The monthy magazines don't support scholarly firearms writing...only Gun Digest.

The first copy of Mad I saw was issue 29 in September 1956 (still got it too) and I was hooked. How could a magazine be so funny and be so spot-on with its satire? Easy, just employ the 'usual gang of idiots' that's how. I kind of grew out of it when I discovered the National Lampoon, how could a magazine be so funny etc, etc. But I have always had a soft spot for Mad and this book of covers is a super addition to my back issues and other Mad books.

All 399 (up to November 2000) covers are in this well designed and printed book Mostly one or two covers to a page sometimes with Frank Jacobs' commentary and with a lot of the latter covers you get to see the preliminary cover roughs. As the years go by you can see how the covers changed from simple visual gags into ones that are much more graphic and busy because they have to work harder on the newsstand. The ideas are still very funny after all these years though. My favorite is issue 35 (October 1957) a wraparound that celebrated the fifth anniversary with a great painting from Norman Mingo showing a few dozen very famous American merchandising characters seated round a dining table, Alfred's at one end grinning. I would love this as a poster.

I think it is worth mentioning for Mad fans the seven CD-ROM 'Totally Mad' set, every page from the issue one thru to December 1998, the interface is very user friendly and the discs have a lot of additional aural and visual surprises.

BTW, Robert Silver's photmosaic book cover, made up from the magazines covers, is stunning.

I loved this book , mostly because Im a mad magazine FAN!!! BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!!!! GREAT BOOK

"Mad: Cover to Cover" is a glorious full-color collection of the cover art of "Mad" magazine, from its founding as a comic book in 1952 to 2000. The outrageous covers are accompanied by witty and insightful commentary by Frank Jacobs. Since "Mad" has satirized so many aspects of American popular culture throughout its existence, this book also serves as an ironic look at five decades of United States history.

Most of the covers feature Alfred E. Neuman, the goofy red-haired kid who, as the symbol of "Mad" magazine, has become an instantly recognizable (and, dare I say, beloved?) cultural icon in his own right. We see, over the years, the many crazy incarnations of Alfred: on Mount Rushmore, as Baby New Year, as Batman's Robin, as Uncle Sam, as Michael Jackson, as a Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle, etc.

The running commentary offers fascinating glimpses behind the scenes of "Mad." Particularly interesting is the story of the long-suppressed cover depicting the first President Bush burning a flag; with the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War, the "Mad" team decided that the incendiary cover was inappropriate for the time.

This is truly a marvelous book, full of color, laughs, and memories. Even if you're not a regular reader of "Mad," you may find this book to be a fascinating mirror on American fads and foibles.

Great words of wisdom, thoughts to ponder. I love the messages of remembering to enjoy the moment as well as others. This book is a real keeper - highly recommeded!

Sorry, you won't be able to learn baking from this book, instead, you may find it's something more like Zen.

This little poetic story lead us to a place where we can have perfect peace of mind. The reason why Human Being are Human Being is we can better utilize our thinking power.

Jacob is a humble yet great influencer.
Each of the little stories inside the book sounds or looks very simple, but there are always great thoughts behind.

A must have for the ones who embrace life and humanity.

This is a small-beautiful book. Full of profound aspects of life. The Jewish baker tell his stories and answer the questions form the people passed by.
Noah Ben Shea is a thinker who knows how to use the word and combine them back smoothly. The book splits into many small sesstions and leave the space for the reader to think along.
I would say this is a kind of simplified-philosophy book. But it ain't heavy at all. In contrast, it's ready for reader to digest.

Novelizations of Biblical tales rarely work well. Some religious authors over glorify the characters, making them saints, reducing their credibility and immediacy. Non-religious authors usually try to reinterpret the Bible to fit a "modernized" word-view or social gospel, which changes the meaning of the story. Fortunately, Buechner avoids both of these pitfalls with this re-imagining of the lives of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. He ruthlessly depicts ancient cultures, full of graphic sex and violence, where God chooses a few unworthy messengers to carry out his work amid the backdrop of pagan gods and brutal animal sacrifice.

While the forefathers of the Jewish and Christian faiths are more wholesome and generally better behaved than their contemporaries, they often misinterpret the meaning of God's words, leading to bad decisions and dysfunction. Jacob ends up married to two squabbling sisters, siring children by his servants, and watching his older sons sell his favorite son into slavery. In fact, when you think about it, Jacob makes very few good decisions and leads a troubled life no one would envy. Yet, out of the turmoil, he becomes a "hero of the faith" and changes the course of history forever.

Buechner has a gift for direct, strong, image-laden prose that moves his story forward without too much analysis or "preaching". His voice is at times sorrowful, humorous, or downright cranky. His account embellishes on the Biblical versions without contradicting them. He relishes in showing us his characters' flaws and mistakes, all the while highlighting the work of "the Fear" in their lives. I urge you to read this book; you'll never look at Genesis the same way again.

Frederick Buechner's training and experience as an ordained Presbyterian minister, combined with his incredible literary skills make reading his works a pure joy. His retelling here of the story of Jacob, son of Isaac (whose name means Laughter), brings to life like no other author I've read the struggle toward God, the intra-family strife, and the sheer battle to stay alive in harsh times and an unforgiving landscape.

Jacob was not a perfect man -- but his yearning toward God was earnest and all-consuming, at the very core of his being. Buechner shines the light of his talent on Jacob's life, on the right and wrong decisions and actions, on the joy and sorrow, on the good times and the difficult -- and he does so with a loving hand, making no judgements, illuminating the whole and allowing the reader a multitude of aspects upon which to meditate and ponder, drawing parallels to our own lives and times as we do so.

The novel depicts a time during which people struggled within themselves -- and with their traditions -- to make the transition from worshipping many gods to worshipping one, and that transition was not an easy one. We can see the same struggle going on within our world today -- if we blur and expand the meaning of the word 'worship', we can see too many things that we value and allow to control our lives that should be peripheral to our journey, such as money, power, &c. Early in the book, Jacob makes reference to this transition (from p. 7), speaking of the 'old gods': 'When I say that I have forgotten their names, I mean that I cannot remember their names without trying. Maybe they also remember me. Who knows about gods? Maybe they have seen every step I have taken ever since. Maybe they are still waiting for me to capp once again on their queer and terrible names.'

The question of the Name of God is addressed in several places in this wonderful novel. He is referred to as 'The Fear', as 'The Sheild' -- but not given a name in the true sense of the word. He is never referred to as 'Elohim' or 'Jehovah'. On p. 161, during a physical struggle with God on the bank of the river Jabbok, God gives Jacob a new name: '"(Your name) is Jacob no longer...Now you are Israel. You have wrestled with God and with men. You have prevailed. That is the meaning of the name Israel" I was no longer Jacob. I was no longer myself. Israel was who I was.'

The question of the Name of God is burning within Jacob's soul. From the same passage: 'He was too close to me to see. I could only see the curve of his shoulders above me. I saw the first glimmer of dawn on his shoulders like a wound. I said, "What is your name?" I could only whisper it. (God replies:) "Why do you ask my name?" We were both whispering. He did not wait for my answer. He blessed me as I had asked him.'

On p. 184, Jacob experiences a bit of an epiphany on this subject: '(God) refused me his when I asked it, and a god named is a god summoned. The Fear comes when he comes. It is the Fear who summons.'

There is love, loss, spirituality, adventure, struggle, life and meaning within the pages of this book -- it has been written with talent and understanding and seeking, and it is a story that may be enjoyed and appreciated on many, many levels, as entertainment and as inspiration. I can wholeheartedly recommend ALL of Patrick Buechner's fiction as a rewarding literary experience.

Jacob, to be truthful, had never really spoken to me before this novel. This hauntingly beautiful retelling seeks to explain why he acted the way he did without whitewashing him.

The well known stories of his relationships with his parents and twin brother Esau are here, as well as his two wives and sons and the famous ladder dream and wrestling match with the angel.

Jacob is no saint (for instance, the fact that he barely sees Bilhah and Zilpah as people when he thinks of them at all subtly brings the point home of what being a slaveowner really means), but he has spoken to Mr. Buechner through the ages about why he was justified in doing what he did to Esau and preferred Joseph to such an extent over his other sons (Joseph, incidentally, is the most loveable character in the book, finally breaking the cycle of pain as the embodiment of the reconciliation of Jacob's mind to Esau's heart, and Jacob's retelling of Joseph's story - presumably from what his son told him after their reunion - is beautiful and one of the highlights of the novel). Through his life there is only one constant - God - and their relationship reminds us how frightening the Lord must have seemed at times to the patriarchs and matriarchs long before the Good News.

Buechner's voice for Jacob is utterly compelling, and the novel is biblically sound with one major exception. Like many before him and doubtless many who will follow, he doesn't deal with the thorny Biblical fact that Dinah was raped and Jacob wasn't all that concerned about it (the issue is skirted by theorizing that Jacob knew Dinah loved Sheckem and what happened between them was consentual).

This will eventually become a classic. Please note that at times it is rather sexually explicit - definitely an R rating.