This is another one in the American Girls series about Josefina Montoya, a ten-year-old girl living in the New Mexico of 1824 (actually January of 1825). In this book, the Christmas season ends with a successful party. However, just as the new year begins with a high note, Josefina feels the world pulled out from under her when her aunt Dolores announces that she is leaving the rancho and returning to Santa Fe. They are happier with Tia Dolores living with them, and they know that their father is. And so, the sisters begin their scheming...

The final chapter of this wonderful book is a highly informative look at the changes New Mexico experienced as it changed over the years. I must also mention that Jean-Paul Tibbles' lovely illustrations are an excellent addition to the story.

This final book in the Josefina story is every bit as wonderful as the first one, and definitely maintains the American Girls' tradition of excellence. The story is exciting and entertaining, and I especially liked how the author wove Josefina's faith into it, making it appear the natural part of her life that it would have been. My daughter and I loved this book, and we both recommend it to you and your daughter.

Changes for Josefina is one of the better books in the American Girls Collection. In the book, Josefina and her sisters have party for their friends and neighbors. After the party, Tia Dolores announces that she wants to move back with her parents. When Josefina and her sisters find out the real reason that Tia Dolores wants to leave, they find a way to get her to stay.

About a girl named Josefina who lives in 1824. She is Mexican and lives on a ranch with her dad and sisters and aunt. Her mom died two years ago. Her aunt who she calls Tia Dolores is going to leave and Josefina wants her to stay. Will her daring plan work?

This is the favorite French textbook I have ever had and I have been studying French for um... 6 or 7 years. It is well-written and easy to understand. The chapters are well-organized and I think the best part is how the authors explain verbs and verb conjugations... there are so many ways, ugh! However, there is a new 7th edition out now, so if you need this textbook for a class check to see which edition you need before you buy this textbook. Also, this book is geared toward beginning students so it may not be too helpful if you already know a fair amount of French.

I am using Contacts, 7th ed., along with the workbook/lab manual. I also purchased the CD set, which contained 14 CD's with about 40 minutes on each. I have enjoyed these materials immensely. Since I am studying on my own, the CDs have been a key part of my training. This book covers the equivalent of two semesters of college French. The pages are colorful, with many descriptions of contemporary French life. For those who are using it in a classroom setting, many of the exercises creatively get partners to have dialogues. I highly recommend it for self-study, study with a partner or in a classroom.

From the moment I married a French woman, the need to actually speak the language became obvious...easier said than done. After flailing about with inferior texts for about two years, I finally happened on Valette et Valette's Contacts. True to the title, they skillfully prepare a cocktail of language instruction and cultural information - which entice the learner through a difficult subject. I would recommend it without hesitation; in fact, I am in the process of ordering a new hardback to replace my current edition (which now resembles a pack of cards).

I read this book when it first came out around 15 or so years ago. The story really truly touched me and I regret the fact that I did not purchase the book at that time. (Read a library edition)
Since then, I moved to a completely different region of the world, and am anxious to get my new used copy sent to me so I can pour into a story that I've been longing to read again, since I've been trying to procure a copy of it for 10 years now!
If you are considering purchasing this book - don't hesitate. It is THAT good.

I also read this book in high school and it stays with me to this day, 12 years later, as the best book I have ever read. Paul's generosity and the relationships he developed were truly touching. What an amazing story.

I read this book when I was only fifteen years old and, still, ten years later and of all the books I've read since it is the only book that still stands out in my mind. I have searched high and low for it since but have not been able to locate a copy. It's a shame because it is hard to find such writing from the heart these days.

This is another book in the American Girls series about Josefina Montoya, a ten-year-old girl living in the New Mexico of 1824. In this book, Josefina and her sisters prepare for Christmas, a grand celebration in New Mexico, made all the more special by the towns use of the Christmas altar cloth made by Josefina's late mother. However, when the altar cloth is brought it, they find out that the flood (Josefina Learns a Lesson) damaged the cloth. The girls rally round to fix the cloth...and perhaps fix themselves at the same time.

The final chapter of this wonderful book is a highly informative look at Christmas in New Mexico in 1824. Jean-Paul Tibbles' excellent illustrations complement the story nicely, and add a great deal to the joy of reading this book.

This is a wonderful story, with some excellent lessons. I liked the way the family pulled together, and worked hard towards something beyond themselves. Also, I like how the family's religion is worked into the book in a warm and inspiring way. This is another excellent American Girls book, one that my daughter and I recommend to you.

In this book Josefina gets to be Maria in the Christmas play. She has a happy Christmas.

Josefina Montoya is a nine-year-old girl growing up on her family's rancho near Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1824. Mama died last year, and since then, life for Josefina, her father, and her older sisters, Ana, Clara, and Francisca. Even though things have been better since Mama's sister, Tia Dolores, came to help out, the Montoyas still grieve. Josefina feels that celebrating the Christmas traditions will make her miss Mama more - but they bring her peace and happiness. And one special night gives Josefina courage and hope for the future, and brings Josefina an unexpected gift. This book was very good and I learned a lot about the traditions of Mexican families living on the Southwest frontier in the 1820s.

In Jean Genet's complex novel The Thief's Journal, the author has modeled his protagonist, Jean, on himself, and the loose, conversational plot after his own experiences as a young thief, drifter, and poet in thirties and forties Europe. 'Jean' is Genet's fictional recreation of himself; but readers should keep in mind that Jean's relationship to Genet is to some degree imaginative. The book provides an excellent illustration of how even when speaking or writing with as complete an honesty as believed possible, man is still caught in a process of creation, structuring, and discrimination-a process of fictionalization. Therefore, honesty, sincerity, and truthfulness always retain elements of artifice, and, as pure states, remain ideals only.

Abandoned by his family as a boy, sentenced to reform school at sixteen, as a young man, Jean is still "alone, rigorously so," he lives "with desolation in satanic solitude." Realizing early that he is, in status and nature, completely at odds with the social order, Jean learns through trial and error how to care and not to care, how to make all possible outcomes to his actions reasonably acceptable. "Rejecting the world that rejected me," Jean exacerbates his position: identifying with his rejectee status, he feels it appropriate that he should "aggravate this condition with a preference for boys." Thus his homosexuality is at least partially an act of self-creation, part of his perverse desire to transgress the rules of order as broadly as possible. Jean decides he will henceforth admit to guilt whenever accused, regardless of the truth or the nature of the crime, and thus rob his accusers of the ability to jeopardize his fate.

"Betrayal, theft, and homosexuality are the basic subject of this book," he says. For Jean, theft becomes a means of survival while simultaneously representing a daily blow against society. If caught and arrested, he readily throws himself into the homosexual life of the prison, making himself available to those in authority as well as to fellow inmates. Jean allows himself a somewhat desperate game of searching for a dominant male partner who is completely, impossibly powerful. Submitting physically and emotionally to men he believes meet this standard, Jean repeatedly proves himself the more powerful by betraying the men when he inevitably senses a definitive crack in his exaggerated conception of them. Once he has glimpsed some "inelegant," unforgivable portion of their imperfect humanity, his slavish masochism fades and sociopathic indifference replaces it: the abandonee becomes the abandoner and assassin. For Jean, a well-planned, keenly-felt personal betrayal is the ultimate show of toughness and "a handsome gesture, compounded with nervous force and grace."

As in Genet's other novels, homosexual love and physical interaction is a given between all of the male characters--pimps, prostitutes, gamblers, gangsters, and thugs--each of whom has a theoretical set of rules and limits concerning the degree of their own participation. But regardless of their speeches and proud macho denunciations, they loosen their belts for one another at a moment's notice if they feel so inclined. Genet cleverly has Jean reacting and reporting in the same indeterminate manner: Jean identifies Michaelis as wholly homosexual but then denies it; one-armed stud Stilitano, who wears a bunch of artificial grapes buttoned inside his fly to lure strangers and enhance his mystique, routinely denies Jean access to his body at night but coyly raises the subject repeatedly during daylight hours. Regardless, Stilitano and Jean live and share a bed together, affectionately plucking one another clean of head and body lice. Ugly Salvador strikes Jean on the street for kissing him in public while simultaneously whispering, "tonight, if you like," in his ear. When hairy Armand decides he respects Jean too much to be anything other than friends, Jean sleeps between his open legs, Armand's colossal sex organs resting nightly on his forehead.

Only gorilla-like, Paul Muni-faced Java is wholly unconcerned with the nature of his acts or words. He provocatively exposes himself to other men in saloons, daring them to hold and guess the weight of his genitals, and repeatedly forces himself on willing Jean, who, gloriously obliterated by Java's assault, finds it a blissful but inevitably temporary salvation. Java "cringes in fright" during a fight, and Jean sees even his cringing as beautiful. But then "yellow diarrhea flows down his monumental thighs," and--well, so much for Java. Clinging to his masochistic illusion, Jean continues drifting, his submissive position a seeming necessity. When discovered sleeping in a beachfront shack by a guard, Jean services him automatically and the guard accepts it automatically as a given in turn. These are the strange, all-encompassing rules of Genet's world. But free or imprisoned, single or partnered, masochist or sly sadist, Jean is ultimately self-fulfilling and independent.

Jean, who says "metamorphosis lies in wait for us," is an almost unknown quintessence, a mass of animal meat and instincts coupled with emerging homo sapien characteristics. Constantly in a liminal state of becoming, he atavistically prefers stepping sideways or backward instead of forward; for long periods his existence seems mere ostensible movement through time and space. But Jean, who in fact secretly enjoys and protects his isolation, really seeks only to fulfill himself "in the rarest of destinies," a kind of quest for "sainthood," one born of reducing himself to pure essence and thus becoming his own temple, savior, and deity. On this final road, which Jean sees reachable by both subjective and objective methods, including sacred betrayal, there is in truth no room for anyone but himself, as there will be none afterward when he has attained his goal of becoming a selfless but self-complete being, like Jung's psychological, alchemical, and hieratical hermaphrodite.

The Thief's Journal is a full-frontal, multi-layered book that should be read several times to be fully appreciated. One of the finest portrayals of the introverted character in literature, The Thief's Journal has a great many things to express about man's nature and psychology, most of which should be revelatory if somewhat jarring to the general reader.

This book is mesmerising. The distinction between the beautiful and the obscene is folded inside out like a velvet glove. Abjection has never seemed so appealing.

I don't think I would categorize The Thief's Journal as Gay fiction. I would allign it more with existentialism/metaphysics in that Genet's sensibilities and motives lie in other areas than solely his own homosexuality. Genet seeks to travel deeper and deeper within himself in order to reject "your world" as well as its inherent value and morals systems. I think his own homosexuality is among one of the many plateaus or steps that he uses in his "journey". As he says, his life was open to his own interpretation; the signs were interpreted in his own way for his own purposes. Sometimes Genet's prose is heavy in that his lines are long and he uses run-ons separated by commas. He takes great care in his descriptions (necessarily so) such as the gob of white saliva in the corner of someone's mouth. The work is another bold gesture by a man who brings the reader as close to the author as is seemingly possible. Another reviewer here says to check out Celine. Make sure to read the editions translated by Ralph Mannheim, he's superb.

The story of these four people, struggling to survive in the face of tremendous danger reminds us of the evil that humankind is capable of inflicting, but also of the sweetness of triumph and defiance. An excellent first work by the author.

The incredibly written account of two couples that survived the trecherous Holocaust to marry and then move to America. The story starts out with all four young adults facing many normal issues until they are faced with prejudices and then changing of the system. When the Nazis take over they are all over whelmed and their lives are forever changed. The novel takes you through everyone's lives as their live through the Holocaust and survive to tell their story. I think that this is the best book that has ever been written about the Holocaust and it so beautifully done that you have to stop and catch your breath at the end. In the end, you feel love and you feel sympathy to the two couples who had to endure such pain. I loved this book and I will read it over and over because it is such a classic.

Jean Peck has beautifully written the story of how four individuals (two men and two women) who live in Hungary and Poland face and ultimately survive the Holocaust. As their homelands become embroiled in Nazi Germany, they are caught up in the Holocaust. Their survival stories, each very different, are revealed in this book. The book does not stop with the end of the war but lets us watch as they gather the strength to continue their lives after suffering devastating losses. They marry and all four become distinguished doctors. Jean Peck gives a remarkable portrait of four remarkable people. It is an inspiring book, one I highly recommend.

This is a wondeful book on all things mammoth. With both a fact-filled and readable text and a wealth of excellent illustrations, it is a great resource for young and old. Though the main star of the book is the famous woolly mammoth, other mammoths are covered, such as the dwarf mammoths of Wrangel Island, the California Channel Islands, and of Malta and Sicily; the Columbian Mammoth; the Steppe Mammoth; and the ancestral mammoth, Mammuthus meridionalis.

All aspects of mammoths are covered, anything you could ever want to know about them (that is known to scientists I should say). Mammoth evolution is covered, with discussions and illustrations showing the relationship between the various types of mammoths as well as mastodons and elephants. The entire Proboscidean family tree is detailed, tracing back the evolution of the group to trunk-less Moerithierum over 40 million years ago. The history of mammoth discoveries in Siberia is discussed with many great illustrations, showing many of the famous finds such as the Beresovka Mammoth and baby mammoth Dima, both well preserved frozen mammoths. The mammoths (Columbian Mammoths) that were trapped in the infamous La Brea tar pits of modern Los Angeles are reviewed, with an illustration of a typical scene at the tar pits and discussion of paleontology there. All aspects of mammoth natural history are delved into; what they ate, what preyed upon them, how they aged, the nature of their hairy covering, what habitats they favored, along with detailed discussions of mammoth anatomy and physiology, even analysis of mammoth molars and how they chewed and electron microscope images of mammoth blood cells. Mammoths and human culture is well covered, with ample illustrations of cave paintings and carvings of mammoths, early man hunting and eating mammoths, mammoth bone tools, even mammoth bone huts! The final section of the book is devoted to mammoth extinction and the various causes, primarily climatic and human hunting. Also included are a useful glossary, an appendix discussing how what is known about mammoths came to light, several maps detailing mammoth finds around the world, and a bibliography.

Great popular science writing and lavishly illustrated, this all one could ever want on mammoths.

I have studied Mammoths for a long time now and this book was the best source of information I have seen in a long time. It is soo good I built a web site dedicated to the book and it's authors. Check it out at http://www.angelfire.com/tn/mamoths/index.html

This book captivated both me and my 12-year-old. It has a million years of mammoth history. The photos of fossil bones and frozen preserved mammoths are excellent. I had not realized mammoth fossils were so common, and that they existed throughout the U.S. If all you know about are the frozen wooly mammoths of Siberia, then you must read this book to get the whole story. The book clearly covers the different types of mammoths, including the dwarf mammoths that survived until only 4000 years ago! Now I want to know where I can find info on what's been learned since this book was published in 1994.

As the quote on the cover suggests, this may very well be "the most important work of Sartre's to be translated since Being and Nothingness." To be sure, The Critique of Dialectical Reason may be also, or even The Family Idiot. But it must also be recalled that Search for a Method, while first published as an occasional piece for a Czech journal, was latter published as the introduction to The Critique, and, moreover, Sartre states that The Family Idiot is in fact the sequel to Search in the preface of the former tome. Indeed, both of these works are much more comprehensible after having read Search. The reason being is that Search outlines the method and general strategy utilized in both of those books (and in Saint Genet to some extent even though it came out prior). The method is of course the progressive regressive method and the strategy is a quasi anthropology mixed occasionally with a new hybrid of existential psychoanalysis. As the two major works that came out of Search can attest - those being The Critique and FI - his method is equally accessible to both large scale cultural descriptions (the Critique) and in depth profiles of a single individual. The former case asks 'what are the conditions that have created modern western man as we know him,' the latter asks what are the conditions that have created this particular individual.'

For those who are aquainted with Sartre's earlier existential writings, this kind of thinking may seem altogether foreign. The old Sartre would have been loathe to suggest any form of conditioning or that one has been made in some way or other. But, this is part of the reason why many feel he abandoned his existentialism. I, on the other hand, do not feel that he did at all. In fact I suggest his existentialism is richer and his arguments more tenable in his later phase. As Sartre himself suggested in an interview late in his life, "life taught me the force of circumstances." It will be circumstances, both grand and minute, that all go into forming the people we are, both collectively and individually. Circumstances are, in other words, the factical moments out of which our contingent choices are made. Thus, Search sets out to examine a methodology that can account for both the factical and contingent, the necessary and the random, in the making of a people, person, or culture.

By Sartre standards this is a relatively easy read with a big payoff. As I mentioned, it is crucial to understanding the major works that would follow, as well as the occasional and literary works that would follow, e.g. his many writings on politics and even plays such as Condemned of Altona. But I also feel it stands well by itself and I do not feel that the reader necessarily have a background in Being and Nothingness or earlier Sartre to get something out of it. Indeed, it is also an excellent source for those seeking alternatives to the various more popular forms of psychoanalysis as well as cultural studies. Sartre was a maverick, no doubt, and often he failed in his attempts to construct a solid theory. But here, in Search, I believe that Sartre is at his best and most profound.

Professor Barnes easily makes clear Satre's works even through his haze of Extentialism. As Sartre gave us his posture of dialectical materialism, Professor Barnes clearly explains Sartre. Thank you Professor Barnes, and, do it again and again, please.

"Search for a Method" was originally intended as a postcript to the 1960 "Critique of Dialectical Reason," but it became the intro & then was published separately. Its thesis, "Cultural order is irreducible to natural order," forms the basis for an examination of contemporary Marxism, which Sartre calls "arrested." Between "Being and Nothingness" and the often puzzling posthumous material, this is the best and most concise intro to Sartre by Sartre. Kudos to Professor Barnes for another outstanding translation!

This book is wonderful and engaging. It is about a little boy, George W. Allen who shares his name and his birthday with George Washington. He knows many facts about George W. but he wants to know more. One day he decides he wants to know what George W. had for breakfast and the learning adventure begins!! I read it to my boys 6 and 4 and they loved it. My sons enjoyed the facts about George W. like: he had two horses named Nelson and Blueskin. There were many "fun facts" such as this in the book. I loved it because in addition to learning about George W., it shows children different ways to search for information. George Allen first goes to the library from there to the card catalog, and then the biographies. Then his family took a trip to Washington D.C., and to George Washington's home in Virginia. It's a great addition to any family library.

You have the wrong illustrator listed. The illustration on the cover is by Tomie dePaola and you have Paul Galdone listed.

George Allen feels related to George Washington because they share a name and a birthday. He knows many facts about the first president but George Allen wants to know what Washington ate for his breakfast. His detemination to succeed makes the book an interesting tour through history. We learn many facts about Washington and also the rewards of perseverance.

This entertaining and informative book touches on the history of cats and shows young people the various ways cats communicate with their human companions. Readers discover that cats can have as many as 19 different ways to say "meow" and that their tails, ears, and whiskers play an important role in their communication with people and other cats. While much of the material is a wonderful introduction on cat behavior, the author talks about cats going outside freely at night (most humane groups advocate cats remain indoors for safety) and notes that those cats will eventually get into fights. She also mentions their eventual return home with bloodied wounds, but fails to advise the reader (supposedly young children) to get the feline proper veterinary attention. This was my only disappointment with the book, however, and it should not be dismissed on this one account, as there is good information in here for little learners.

Let's start simply and honestly, the same way these tomes approach their subject matter, and say these are the cat's meow! Jean Craighead George has penned two ultra-thin volumes on communicating with our best friends and felines, and each is a howling success. The Newberry Medal-winning author does what someone like Elizabeth Masrshall Thomas has tried to do in books tens of thousands words and pages longer and could not. Jean, by George, had found the winning ways to teach pet lovers how to chat with their four-footed pals. Her writing is sparse: "A lick is not a kiss. It is a statement that says you're a wonderful leader." Her advice is refreshing: "Growling is aggressive talk. Don't growl back. Dogs don't like that." As special as her words is the whimiscal use of arkwork: actual color photos of the animated author interacting with illustrations (by Sue Truesdell) of equally animated cartoon cats and dogs. (We just love the one of George on all fours, rubbing heads with a cat!) Four paws up!

I happen to own an earlier version of this book -- a paperback book with only black and white drawings. This book with charming and goofy watercolor cats contains all the useful and entertaining information as the first one but will be so much more accesible to children. It has helped us understand our inscrutable pets and to better meet their needs which is why we are here in the first place. A MUST for the cat lovers library.