I was disappointed in the book. I came away with a few parctical suggestions, but a 5 page essay could have given me the gist. The rest of the book was repetitious and superfcial.Having mentioned something important, for instance, lke evaluating the readability of a book, they then simply referred the reader another book. The authors seemed to spend time every chapter stating that how a teacher uses their information will depend a great deal on the teacher and his/her students. Of course it does. Just say it once. It was almost as if they were hedging their bets. Compare this to a literacy book written by Lucy Caulkins and it really seems elementary.

I have been using various approaches to Literature Circles for about 7 years, and this is one of the best books I've read on the subject. Instead of teaching one specific technique, the authors present a variety of methods for implementing Literature Circles. Many of the strategies were new to me, and all of them were very practical and appear easy to implement. One theme that runs through the book is the need to find out what works in your classroom. The companion book, Literature Circle Resource Guide, is also extremely useful as it provides many time-saving forms and handouts. I can't wait to start using these strategies in my classroom.

I am new at starting Literature Circles in my classroom, and this book gave me very practical suggestions that I could implement right away. I especially liked the examples given of charts that a teacher could use in his or her classroom. The book gives hints all the way from focus lessons and good books to begin with, to ideas for reading responses. A reader can take this book and go step by step in creating Literature Circles for his or her students. It was one of the most helpful books on this subject that I have read.

Think of this as your basic math book. Once you get a calculator, you'll probably keep it around but it won't get used much. That's what this book is to quilting.

My quilt teacher strongly suggests her students purchase this book when they start quilting. It provides good, easy-to-follow lessons in rotary cutting. And it's important to know how to cut triangles and hexagons and such with your basic Omnigrid ruler.

Sooner or later (it was sooner for me), you'll end up investing in a few good plastic templates. That time will come when you do your first quilt with a lot of triangles. I bought my triangle and hexagon templates when I needed to cut over 200 triangles and almost 100 hexagons. Sure, I could have done it with the methods taught in this book, but I wanted to finish my quilt some time this year!

Having said that, I would still recommend you buy the book. If there's ever a chance that you'll be without your fancy gadgets, you're best off having this book in your collection. For the price, you're better off safe than sorry. Besides, the book has close to a dozen nice quilt patterns in it. Most of the patterns involve stars and there are some nice quilts in there. Again, for the price it's hard to justify not adding this book to your collection.

I gave this book an overall rating of 3, but it's only because my plastic templates mean this book sits on a shelf more often than not. The information presented in the book is clear and easy-to-follow. There are a lot of good illustrations and color pictures of the quilt projects.

Do I sound wishy-washy? It's only because it's hard to sell an abacus when you can buy a calculator or computer. Then again, if those gadgets break, will you still know how to do math? Get the book.

I also got this book for a class in basic rotary cutting. For the price it's wonderful. She tells you the math formula you need and the layout is realy great. A name, photo, formula, hints for cutting, etc. all on one page for each shape. And the star patterns in the back are beautiful. I wish she included some of the shortcuts though, like sewing 2 squares together, drawing a line on the diagonal and sewing 1/4 inch from line on both sides then cutting to make 2 half trianges...it would make the book so much more useful. I paid $$$ just for a pamphlet on what size to cut for what finished size...this one tells you the formula and includes some projects as well. I give it a 4 for content and value. Beginners would gain the most from it.

I teach rotary cutting and HIGHLY recommend this book as I teach out of it. Sure there may be easier ways to make half-square triangles, but is the best rotary cutting reference book I have seen in all my years of quilting.