So many allergy specialty cookbooks end up with gooey, or bland tasting recipes that are far from exciting.

This book, however, changes all of that. Interesting, easy-to-use, delicious, and practical, this book could be the only one that you need if you suffer from any food allergies or sensitivities.

It is excellently laid out, with fascinating and thorough information, and I have used it again and again. Although it is not as gourmet as I usually eat, it is sufficient for the average cook/chef that has to deal with allergies in their household.

I highly recommend this book.

As a person who is allergic to wheat, dairy, and eggs, I found this book to be an absolute lifesaver. Anyone with food allergies would know how difficult it is to buy or make alternatives that are cheap, simple, and most importantly taste good. I was very excited when I found this book because it is full of delicious, everyday recipes that are very easy to make. Besides being allergic to many different kinds of foods, I am also a college student living on my own. I didn't have much cooking experience, but I had no problems following the recipes. Another great thing about this book is that the ingredients in the recipes are used over and over again in different ways so there is very little waste. The recipes are also arranged neatly in different catagories, and the book includes detailed information about different ingredients and a rotation diet. I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone suffering from food allergies because it has allowed me to enjoy many common recipes I otherwise could not have eaten. I thank the authors with all my heart for writing this much needed book.

As a child psychiatrist, I recommend this excellent book without reservation to parents of children who are overweight. "Helping Your Child Lose Weight The Healthy Way" provides parents with lots of useful information and practical tips for helping their child modify his or her eating and exercise patterns, while maintaining both the physical and emotional health of the child. Thanks to the authors for providing such a useful resource for both parents and health care professionals who work with children.

I should say up-front that Judi is my nutritionist and I have been seeing her for about six months with wonderful results. I read and enjoyed her book, which contains the same great information that she provides in her office.
Though the book is geared towards parents, the message applies to anyone and everyone that is trying to lose weight, eat healthily, and generally improve their relationship with food.
The book promotes moderation, something that is woefully missing in so many diet advice books. Everyone is pitching extreme thinking to deal with a problem that many people view as extreme. But in the real world, we are surrounded by hundreds of diet decisions each day and consistently making healthy moderate choices is a skill like anything-- it must be developed over a period of time-- it requires education, common sense and the empathy of the people around us as we learn.
This book is really a wonderful resource for parents, who are teaching their children to take care of their health as they grow, and for adults who are working to keep themselves fit and well.

This book is about a boy and his uncle. The boy really likes his uncle. His uncle owns a store. The boy likes a bear at the store. One day after a visit to Uncle Tim's house he found out that Uncle Tim had Aids. When the boy went to Uncle Tim's house, one of his friends had to walk him to the bathroom. Uncle Tim died. The boy was really upset. The boy got a lot of the stuff from the store and that helped him to remember Uncle Tim. I feel sad that Uncle Tim died. There should be a cure for Aids.

This book offers a realistic, kind explanation of terminal illness in a manner that children over age 4.5 can understand. It deals with a death from AIDS. Don't let this dissuade you, we used it to explain terminal cancer. It also addresses being angry as part of the grief process.

Saying Goodbye to Daddy is a good resource for when a child has lost a parent suddenly. It starts off with breaking the news to the child. The feelings of confusion, saddness and anger are well described in this book. It gently discusses the finality of death in a way that mimimizes the fear. It also discusses the funeral home and the funeral. The child is given the opportunity to deside if she wanted to go to the calling hours and the funeral. The child was allowed to be angry. She was allowed to discuss her fear that she had somehow caused the accident because her father was upset with her breaking a cup. She was supported by a sensitive and loving family. She was assured that she would always be taken care of. The story showed that the adults were also grieving but they were able to provide the needed support this child.. There was an adult always present with the child and the adult was supportive, kind and loving. Overall, the story shows the need for a child and their family to talk openly about death, reminissice about the person who died , discuss the rituals following the death...ie calling hours, funeral and to discuss feelings after a significant loss. Due to the support given by the family, the child has a degree of peace by the end of the book. Good book for schools, churches and other community resources that might be tapped by people in the community who may be faced with having to provide some support to a child who has had a parent die. I will be adding this book to our Hospice library.

The idea that possitive thoughts and words can improve our health is a great premise, however this book goes too far in the examples of every type of ill stemming from what you say. The book is repetative and rather far fetched in the examples of the authors multiple ills. One chapter would have been enough. A group of us were reading this book together and we voted to drop the book after chapter 4. The vote was 12 to 0!

I have read Ms. Levine's book - in first and second editions. I was honored to have Barb share her first edition with me while it was still in it's rough state. If you are looking for a book by an author who tries her darndest to practice what she preaches/writes - then this book is for you.

There is much more to this book than meets the eye. It is an important guidebook for life. If we look back over our life we will see that many problems were caused by misplaced words. Words expressed at the wrong time in the wrong way. If we look honestly it becomes apparent that through our expression, we help chart our course in life. We KNOW the words we speak are important. However, Barbara Levine gives us graphic examples of just how important they really are. How they affect our physical, mental and spiritual health. This book is more than just a study, it is a practical workbook toward greater awareness. If we apply the techniques in this book we will become more conscious of everything we say, and everything we do. We will become people who speak and act from a position of strength, rather than ones who react hastily from a position of weakness. It is a guidebook towards self-mastery, and therefore an important book for everyone's bookshelf.

I am currently in the process of adopting two four year olds and thought the book would be helpful. Although it may be helpful to older children, I found it a bit depressing. I would worry after reading it my younger children they would start having some of the thoughts or symptoms described in the book just from hearing them.

We found this book a great way to introduce the idea of what being adopted really means to our almost-4-year-old daughter. Although some of the story line is above her level of understanding, she loves the book (as evidenced by its' dog-eared appearance). This is definitely her favorite for bedtime reading, and she will repeat phrases or concepts from the book at other times. We know she will have questions in the future that aren't addressed here, but this was a great place to start.

I read this book with my 9 year old adopted son. Even though he didn't comment, I felt it helped him feel alone in his feelings and questions about his adoption. The story is very realistic and discusses many of the questions he has had recently. I highly recommend this book for any adopted family, especially for those children adopted at birth. I think it would be a bit above the heads of some younger children.

We rent this from the library every year and hope to find a copy of our own. The stories are short, well-written and easy to relate to despite the very different lives these children lead. Exposes kids to other cultures & traditions w/o the gratuitous politically-correct overtones and stereotypes that ruin so many holiday books.

Another great Hanukkah book for the 6-10 age group: The Trees of the Dancing Goats by Patricia Polacco. A warm story of neighborly concern that leads to deeper understanding & subtly highlights the common underlying theme of the 2 December holidays. Also not a 'formula' story.

Harmful to Minors presents a well-researched and powerful case against the stereotypical sex-negative and anti-pleasure philosophy that has pervaded Western thought about minors since Freud. Levine's work is in no way an apologia for predatory pedophilia, but rather is a long overdue reexamination of the roots of sex-negative thinking and its consequences in distorting the sexual lives of minors in Western culture. It also exposes the terrible consequences of that thinking - grave miscarriages of justice, teen pregnancy, harsh stigmatization of normative sexuality, teen prostitution, damaged self-esteem, shattered relationships, etc.

Levine rightly calls into question a great many "unquestioned" assumptions about minors' sexuality, highlights the abject failure of "abstinence unless married" sex "education," and exposes the real motivations and beliefs of the religious and secular conservatives who have seized control of the public agenda surrounding sexuality and sex education. A must-read book for any sex-positive citizen, not only for its truthful and hard-hitting treatment of the sexuality of minors, but also for its chilling message of how our culture has been hijacked by sex-negative thinking that could influence future generations in profoundly harmful ways.

I just finished the book, 'Harmful to Minors' by Judith Levine and all I can say is WOW!, is this book long overdue. It is sensible, concise and intelligent from cover to cover, and is a must read for any parent suffering anxiety over raising a child in the current alarmist atmosphere surrounding child sexuality. There has been plenty of controversy in the US over the publication of this book, mostly from the right-wing x-tian conservative faction. After reading this book it has become glaringly obvious that they have not read it. Perhaps a few have skimmed it looking for choice morsels which they can extract from the surrounding context and infuse with their own meaning (you know, much like they do the bible), so let me set a few things straight. Not once in 'Harmful to Minors' does Ms. Levine excuse or advocate abusive coercive or violent sexual behavior with children (or anyone else for that matter). On the contrary it seems that Ms. Levine cares very deeply for children. What the book does do is research the origins of our current alarmist attitudes and examines how this prevailing hysteria about child sexuality can do children more harm than good. (just one example among many, parents may become increasingly afraid to show physical affection to children, thus depriving them of much needed loving contact.) The book also examines present US laws, policies and trends in sex education and how they fail children on almost every level. (another example:the age of consent laws which protect an 8 year old from unwanted sex also 'protect' a 17 year old from sex with her 18 year-old boyfriend.) This book gives us a disturbing insight into our increasingly vigilant restriciton of normative activities in children - 'playing doctor' is now seen as sexual misconduct, sending love-notes in class is 'sexual harrassment' and an adolescent mooning resulted in him being placed in a restrictive and brutal program for child 'sex-offenders'. But the best thing Levine does in the book is offer some sound ideas and solutions for raising children out of this oppressive hysteria. 'Harmful to Minors' does NOT advocate any form of child abuse. What it does advocate is raising children in a happy, healthy, safe, loving and informed envronment with lots of affection, care and respect. How can anyone argue with that?

In the 1960s and 1970s educators and parents gradually expanded a comprehensive sex education program in the schools, with acquiescence in the home. Starting in the 1980s an effective counterrevolution led by the Christian Right moved the program to advocate only abstinence, silence on sexual orientation issues, and silence on abortion. Meanwhile hysteria on pornography, molesters, AIDS, sex crimes, and inappropriate touching have triggered waves of legislation and police action in society in general.

Judith Levine's "Harmful to Minors" seeks to describe society's view of the sexuality of minors and of sex education and to point out the problems the current conservative, restrictive views are causing our youth and those who love them, including parents.

The book provides good illustrative examples and gives reasonable histories of legal and legislative trends leading us to where we are now. It is an excellent catalogue of how teachers, social workers, psychologists, and legislators (even against their better judgment) have created an atmosphere where people are to be regarded as innocent children until they are 18 and that any teaching or touching or relationship that upends the notion is to be severely punished. She cites many studies and other references to back up her descriptions and views. She lays out an attractive alternative vision of how society would manage these issues. It is a useful book because it gathers together in one place observations that convincingly counter the current political correctness.

If she writes a revised edition, it would be useful for her to expand the explanation of why the counter-revolution happened, going beyond Republican presidents, Christian fundamentalists and AIDS scares. There should be mention of changes in the family, with dual income earners, fears of tort liability, kids staying in school longer, day care becoming more important, and parental fears and desires to assert control. In the midst of blaming tax cutting, she should acknowledge somewhere that society channels the maximum money it can to the elderly, who often vote against funding for children's programs. Also, the media love sex stories about minors. She should note President Clinton's weakness on initiating more truth-telling and in supporting Joycelyn Elders. Still, the notion that religiously-crafted federal grants changed sex education everywhere is something to ponder when proposed secular federal funding of religiously-based charities (some with clerical sex scandals) could lead in turn to a federal audits and overhauls of all religious organizations and some of their policies.

The revised edition should flesh out her alternate vision more. For example, she acknowledges that there are children with different sexual orientations and that some of them get kicked out of their homes at an early age to live on the streets. How would sex ed program content expand to be sure these and other LGBTQ children and their peers were well educated? On exiled kids, she neither calls for charging the parents with criminal child abandonment nor for local governments to launch civil suits to recoup the costs of services provided to the kids. The parents want rights and authority but are allowed to escape obligation without any questions asked. Why?

Curious kids, stonewalled on all sides, grow up twisted and neurotic.

This book is a good starting point for talking back to the stampeding herd on these topics.

Every child will relate to something different. The children for whom I bought this book didn't relate. It was too boring and they lost interest in hearing it read. I loved all the ideas, but would recommend reading it at a library to your child first to see if they respond to the style of writing. I would highly recommend "The Unwedding" as an alternative. Written in a child's humor with a child's perspective, my children ask to read it again and again.

The author supports her theory that virtually all women hate men. She does not, however, condemn their misandry, but rather justifies their prejudice. Intellectually it has promise, but morally the justification of sexist prejudice is quesionable.