This book is an excellent guide to teaching spelling in a new and more productive way. There are many concrete, useable examples and it is written in an easily comprehendable form. It is interesting, intelligent, and practical for the everyday classroom. This is obviously a compilation of many years of experience, rather than a theory that has gone untested. Hooray for educators like these who watch children and are not afraid to try new things!

If you can only get one book on teaching writing using the Writer's Workshop model let it be this one. It's detailed, full of practical tips, but most important--you will be INSPIRED! I immediately started my own writer's notebook after I read this book. One caveat...this is not a book that you can pick up on Sunday night because you want to start the program on Monday morning. This book is written to be read and re-read, pondered and poured over. That having been said, this is NOT just a book of theory, it thoroughly and lovingly explains all the nuts-and-bolts of the workshop.

Lester Laminack has given all readers who have had their life touched by Alzheimer's new hope. My grandmother passed away with Alzheimer's, and I was devastated when I felt she did not know me. However, this book gives you hope that somewhere deep inside the people it affects, this horrible disease cannot fully erase those memories. It should be recommended reading to not just children whose lives have been affected by this disease, but adults as well. Thanks Mr. Laminack for giving me a new hope to hold on to! :)

When young Troy and his Grandma Angel visit Momma Olivia in the nursing home we get a brief glimpse into the life of an Alzheimers patient. Any family coping with Alzheimers will immediately recognize the tender care, the love, and the hope that lies within the lyrical language of this most sensitive story. The poetic prose and exquisite art reveal a rich and robust life now trapped within. A sensitive telling of a difficult issue. Kudos to Mr. Laminack and Ms. Bergum.

Miss Olivia just sits with her hands folded in her lap and stares, saying nothing. Her daughter Angel and great-grandson Troy visit, and she still sits as they talk to her. She still says nothing, but she thinks of beautiful memories from her past, beautiful as the sunset the nurse had pointed out that evening. Beautifully illustrated by Constance R. Bengum, this wonderful book was written by Lester Laminack, who went to the same high school as I. Though it was published in 1998, I didn't discover this book until Christmas 2001 when I was visiting my sister and she showed me the copy she had purchased. It is such a beautiful book, and a wonderful gentle and loving story that can help young and old cherish their loved ones who have Alzheimer's.

Every kid goes through this, that anxious waiting for the first loose tooth. Lester Laminack captures that eagerness in delightful humor. If you have young children in your life they will be begging, "Please read Trevor again my tooth is loose!" This one is a keeper.

What fun! If you want children to laugh right out loud, read Trevor's Wiggly-Wobbly Tooth, a story that youngsters, teachers and parents easily relate to. Children get into the story by predicting how Trevor's tooth will be extracted and by telling their own first-tooth stories; expect lots of discussion following the reading. The plot is appealing, the characters are real, and the laughs are genuine. After reading it once, expect to be asked to read this book again and again. It goes into the basket of favorites!

It can be troubling to be the last kid to lose a tooth and that is exactly the position Trevor finds himself in. But finally his tooth begins to wiggle and his friends, who are all members of the missing tooth club, tease him about the ways grown ups may try to PULL it out. What a hoot when his Grandma Sally shows up at school to make taffy. In the perfect predictable style Trevor's tooth comes out in the taffy. But when Grandma Sally tries a piece of taffy ALL HER TEETH COME OUT! Every time I read this one to children there is rousing laughter.