As an early elementary school teacher, I read a lot of children's books. Mary Alice is one of my all-time favorites. She is a very efficient telephone operator who tells people the time. "At the tone, the time will be 1 o'clock exactly. Quack". (Did I mention, she's a duck?) Mary Alice catches a cold so Boss Chicken insists that she go home to take care of herself. Her boss tries to assure her the position could easily be filled by someone, but Mary Alice is hurt by the remarks and frets over someone permanently replacing her. Boss Chicken interviews and hires a series of different operators, who, for various reasons, don't fit the bill (no pun intended). The snake hisses and scares the customers, the dog can't tell time, an armandillo has trouble seeing the clock, and the beaver is so eager that she can't wait for people to call her so SHE calls them. In the end, Boss Chicken fully understands the difficulty of the job and appreciates Mary Alice.
The story and the pictures are wonderfully funny. I especially love the picture of Mary Alice wearing her pink bunny slippers.
What makes this story even better is that it lends itself to dramatic storytelling. I use different voices for the various characters in the story.
My kids and I thoroughly enjoy Mary Alice Operator Number 9 and I know you will, too.

A classic childrens tale redone into a great piece ofliterature for any young child! Great pictures! END

If you love James Marshall's "George and Martha" stories but your child is outgrowing them, you can find similar humor in chapter book style in "Rats on the Roof." The stories are all about animals and their goofy dilemmas. There is a sheep who gets into big trouble by pretending to read when he can't (he thinks a "DANGER - Beware of Wolves" sign reads "welcome to the pretty green park"). And there is an owl who has to defend her tree from a hungry brontosaurus (who said only meat eating dinosaurs are dangerous?)... Marshall's funny illustrations add to the pleasure of the tales. "Rats on the Roof" is clean, lighthearted reading.

Es un libro muy intersante, puesto que en muchas partes Latinoamérica, aún se trata el procesamiento de arroz de manera rudimentaria. Entender los fundamentos científicos del tema puede ahorrar muchos miles de dólares a muchos empresarios que aún piensan lo contrario. Por lo que recomiendo su lectura para los técnicos e ingenieros que operan estas plantas industriales.

I can best describe A River Ran Out of Eden as an epic. It's a tale of courage, morals, and combatting inner demons. I would also not hesitate to call it a fable. It clearly shows how a single person can disrupt a perfect little domain. It tells the story of a family that has lived alone on an Aleutian island for years, and are perfect, until a stranger comes to the island. The plot is well-paced, there aren't many characters, but they are very well written. This book also presents the plot from every character's point of view, making it great to read. Each character has distinct problems, and I think their mishaps could easily be applied to everyday life. The symbolism is also applicable, the stranger in the book could easily symbolize modern life, and the family could represent all that is traditional. How these two concepts clash is very real, and makes a wonderful story as well.

My 5 year old was thrilled to find a book he could read ( with some help) that had several stories from all of our favorite authors! James Marshall, Dav Pilkey and six others!

We picked this book up to read when my daughter and I were browsing through a bookstore--it looks like it must be one of James Marshalls minor works; but trust me, its good! Its hilarious! (as usual) Watch out for Mr Raisintoasts' speedboat and the fat lady with a moustache who will "BOP" you if you don't give her a kiss! Sigh. Hes such a great author! Thank goodness for James Marshall; even though its not something that jumps out at you at first, you won't be disappointed!

Harry Allard and James Marshall once again create a masterpiece, featuring the Stupids. Everything about this is perfect - the plot, the details, the illustrations that add the perfect counterpart to the text. I read this book with my family as a child, and we frequently had to stop to catch our breath because we were laughing too hard to read. Can't wait to read it to my children.

Interested in the later Shakespearean plays I didn't expect to be recommended a book on Shakespeare's theater quite like this one. What makes it unusual is a focus not just on Shakespeare, though he is here. He takes a back seat sometimes but only so you can get to see how something big was happening in London after the death of Queen Elizabeth and how a whole host of the leading playwrights of the day contributed to it. The importance of Jacobean Londoners' interest in Great Britain that Dr Tristan Marshall describes is a major theme and it makes for a fascinating read. King James I is rarely viewed in a positive light and this informs the way we see the dark brooding tone in plays by Webster like 'The White Devil' and in Jonson's 'Volpone'. Dr Marshall's analysis provides a context for understanding how an alternative focus for a royal interest could be communicated via setting plays in ancient Britain. As King James's biggest political manoeuver, making a British kingdom out of England, Scotland and Ireland was a highly contentious issue. The fact that so many playwrights were interested in it - and most of them very positively - means that we need to fundamentally re-think the way we view Jacobean political culture. This really is well worth reading. Dr Marshall has made an extremely valuable and timely contribution to a field of study whose champions have rarely spent time in this early seventeenth century period.

An excellent book for teaching the importance of reading and gaining an awareness of simlarities in plot. Poor Winnie learns that she may the next 'stuffed chicken for dinner' as a result of not wanting to read a famous tale. The story takes the reader on a rollercoaster of 'what-ifs' and creates wonderful moments for predicting text. I will be using this story for numerous lessons in my classroom, from developing a sense of story to partner predictions. Excellent illustrations, too!