Illustrated with color photos and black & white drawings enhance Evelyn Kaye's entertaining travelogue as she follows the 1878 route of Victorian traveler Isabella Bird through northern Japan. The adventure of a woman traveler in that part of the world in those days was so remarkable that Evelyn discovered that more than a hundred and twenty years later Isabella Bird was still remembered with her book still in print (in Japanese), community memorials erected in her memory, and the subject of a Tokyo television show! Adventures In Japan is a unique, totally engaging, wonderfully well written, enthusiastically recommended account of a personal journey through Japan as seen through the eyes of two women travelers, one from the 19th century and the other from the 20th.

Adventures in Japan provides a modern woman's story of following Victorian adventurer Isabella Bird's 1878 through northern Japan, where Bird is still remembered. Kaye's three-week journey provides a fascinating account of both her experiences in northern Japan and Bird's lasting influence in the region.

Learning vacations are a growth industry as many want to blend travel with the opportunity to foster new skills. Travel And Learn lists hundreds of such vacations offered by the Smithsonian, University of California, National Audubon Society an other established organizations, providing trip details, contact information, and comments from participants. Invaluable.

I loved this book. What a character! Not only did she travel the world, but she did it with her own money and under her own leadership. Admittedly, she hired lots of support (whole entourages in some cases) but nevertheless, the journies were hers and hers alone. I've done alot of traveling as a single woman, and even these days it takes some courage and self-reliance. I have much admiration for Isabella Bird, who went to all these far-flung places before there were all the modern conveniences and attitudes. Phenomenal woman!

Nowadays, traveling overseas the Ugly Americans & their children are becoming endangered. Going anywhere by public transportation seems even more of a hassle. Evelyn Kaye's FAMILY TRAVEL: Terrific New Vacations for Today's Families is a guidebook worth exploring, with this in mind, it was written prior to September 11, 2001, so the simplicity of travel arrangements may well have changed.

Evelyn Kaye sets about informing you about the where, what, when, who & how of making a family vacation as perfect as possible.

From Travel Tips - those silly things we tend to forget at our peril when traveling with children to About This Book which includes "Parent-Tested Trips." From Down on the Farm to Camping in the Open; from Eco-Vacations to No-Cost Low-Cost Vacations. Whether your preference is for On Foot and On Wheels to Over the Seas and Far Away; or for Ranches and Cowboys to Ski and Snow; or your want to Travel and Learn or go On The Water, this expert spills the beans & spells it out along with providing names & contact numbers on some nifty secrets to traveling light & traveling well.

Certainly FAMILY TRAVEL needs to be in your library as you plan on your next family vacation.

I would have given this book 5 stars except for one problem. It really needs a pronunciation guide. Even adults will have difficulty pronouncing some of the unfamiliar animals' names. That said, all else is wonderful. The illustrations give a real feel for the forest habitat and its inhabitants. The story line describes typical activities of the various animals. It is like watching a PBS documentary on wildlife! In the back of the book there is a globe of the world, with the appropriate area spotlighted, and a one page blurb about the Virunga Mountains which is directed towards adults. Then there is a beautiful four page spread of the rain forest. On the fold-over pages to the four page spread are 32 different illustrations of plants and animals that live in the forest. A beautiful & informative book. I am eager to also read the other books in this series.

(this is another where I *would* give zero stars, if I could)

I would normally hesitate to dismiss any person's life story as having NO merit, but "The Hole in the Sheet" is going to be the exception. This book confused and saddened me. The sections of memoir are painfully authentic, but the degree of vitriol in the rest of the book is frightening.

When I picked it up, I expected a scholarly work, with at least some reasoning and argumentation. Instead, Kaye rambles on hatefully, extrapolating a vast web of all-male conspiracy from just her own upbringing within one particular Jewish family. I mean, I'm sorry her experience was so awful -- but only the most twisted mind could really blame the world's oldest monotheism, the source of all our society's morality, for all the evils Kaye charges it with.

Don't forget, it is SHE, not the men of the Talmud or the Shulchan Aruch, who writes Jewish women out of the picture -- by making the assumption that our foremothers in Europe (and farther back) had no hand in forging the religion we have inherited from them. Judaism has always been in the forefront of women's rights, though it may prioritize those rights differently from Kaye. Women in Judaism are more than just careers; instead, Judaism honours foremost our role as bearers of life.

This book has become required reading for antisemites, a frightening reminder of how the eyes of the world are still on us, waiting for any sign of evil beneath the surface. One antisemitic website refers to "the Jewess Evelyn Kaye" and the conclusive "proof" she provides of Judaism's ultimate deception. While such lunacy may keep Kaye's book in print, I can only hope this isn't the audience she envisioned when writing her book.

I pray that Kaye has somehow been able to reconcile her troubled past with the genuine worth and wisdom that Judaism has been able to offer so many, and that she's found contentment in her own life. Even that, however, cannot undo the damage this book has done.

As women have been so repressed for centuries, it is essential that they now begin to recognize the origins of these tactics. It is time for all women--and men as well, for they are victims of the same malicious action--to take a look at a most remarkable book that displays the insidiousness of these patriarchal teachings which has its roots in the Judeo-Christian "ethics" of old. My hearty congratulations to Ms. Kaye, the author, who has displayed a remarkable insight in establishing a truth--even though there are those who may still choose to disbelieve it, and remain in denial as to its effects.

A first person experience narrative of a woman born into an orthodox household who decided to leave and pursue a career, marry, and raise her children with a liberal, secular education. This is a balaced, thoughtful work. Ms. Kaye goes to great lengths to make clear that her feeling is that women and young girls should have opportunities equal to those of men in this world. This is a fine book for teen-age high school girls to learn about this topic.