This book takes the process of learning to write and makes it fun for students. The idea of placing learning to write within the framework of a sports metaphor works for this book aimed at middle schoolers. Looking back on my own experience with learning how to write, I really wish these lessons had been around; my teachers and classmates would have applauded.

Andrew Larson, Indiana Communications Major

Patricia Tabb and Nancy Delano Moore show that they have the "write stuff" in their new book, Ready-to-Go Writing Lessons That Teach Key Strategies. Tips and strategies for teaching writing are shared through eighteen practical and insightful lesson plans that cover the writing process. Each lesson is easy to follow and can be readily adapted to cover a wide range of student experience levels. Particularly appealing is the "Literature Resource" section included in all of the lesson plans. Literature excerpts or authors' comments that connect directly to the writing lesson being taught are immediately at one's fingertips. What a time saver for busy teachers! This book is sure to become a favorite of language arts teachers everywhere.

What a great idea: to write the story of one imaginary class as it moves from grades K through 5 encountering different (but always reflective and hard working) teachers. It's a practical look at powerful literacy instruction in action. The teachers' "monthly logs" give the reader a peek inside their heads as they plan and evaluate their programs. This is a good read for brand new teachers (they will surely identify with "Miss Nouveau" in second grade!) and all those who strive to improve their instructional practice.

This is a great book and goes right along with the Four Blocks Literacy Program. It really explains how to implement the program in a sequential manner. After teaching Four Blocks this year I am excited to read this book. It really makes sense and I know will be a big help next year.

This book was great. The stars in the book were very candid and insightful. I was encouraged by the way that everyone in the book made it seem so easy to get in shape and stay healthy. I would definently recommend this to anyone who is new to getting and staying in shape.

If you love the sea, you're going to love this little book of poetry. The author, born in England, remembers her childhood summers by the seaside at Herne Bay, then rediscovers her love while visiting North Carolina's Outer Banks. Combining free verse and sonnet form, the poetry is uncomplicated and simply beautiful. This would be a perfect gift for anyone who treasures wind, wave and nature's beauty!

Though I am a history major and major history buff, this
outstanding book has taught me a great deal. Outside
of Economic History (Landes, Mokyr, Bairoch, Jones) there
is a depressing lack of works on long-term, integrative
history-perched at a level that the average educated reader
can understand. Pre-Industrial Societies fills that gap
admirably. It is highly informative and extremely well
written.

A brief overview: Pre-Industrial Societies explains how human
society in most of the world (primarily Eurasia) was organized
during the last 4800 of 5000 years-a pretty long time.
That is to say, most of what we refer to as 'History'.
What is unique about Crone's book is that it gives the reader
a *complete* picture of 'The World We Have Lost'.
I would not want to spoil things for the potential reader,
but among many other things she points out how
the Franciscans (or Sufis for that matter) made
excellent use of social 'dropouts', whereas modern

hippies provide society with 'mere nuisance value'!

Pre-Industrial Societies was part of a series of
historical books(hence the un-sexy title);
the other books were not nearly as good.
Aside from Bill McNeill and David Landes,
I know of no other living historian as talented as Crone;
all three share excellent historical skills and
Macaulay-like writting ability. Put these things together
and a great book is practically guaranteed...

Other reading text books are full of philosophies. The authors of this text, instead, provides you with tested procedures that allow you to step right into a classroom and see for yourself how it works. It is written with such description and detail that you can immediately implement the ideas into your classroom as well. A must read for beginning teachers and vetren teachers as well.

Warm-hearted, colorful illustrations carry us along with Tanya and her new friend, the wardrobe lady at the performance of the ballet Coppelia. When Tanya gets lost backstage she is lucky enough to experience a "show and tell" about some of the costumes from other famous ballets. She dances with the wardrobe lady and the French ballet terms are sprinkled liberally throughout the story. This book would be well appreciated by a certain niche of readers but would probably not be of interest to non-dancers.

Tanya and the Magic Wardrobe is magic itself. Wardrobe's and Magic have been inextricably linked since C.S. Lewis (c.f. the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and in this book the tradition continues.

The illustrations are as usual delightful and the prose is beautifully expressive of the magic that always seems to exist between the very old and the very young (the Old Dancer and Tanya), between those who share a love of something greater than themselves (dance), and the magic of dress-up (whether in the theater or the play room).

Our own ballerina asked for this story to be read three times the day we brought it home, and has asked for it again every day since. And I can't wait to read it to her again and again.

Helena's young brother is late back from a short visit with a school friend. His stage has had an accident and he is dropped off by Lieutenant Peter Clivedon who is travelling to Sussex by post chaise.

The heroine's mother is widowed, borrows against her Helena's upcoming marriage only to be told the groom has died in a battle in Spain. Fortunately Clive appears once more and offers his hand in marriage.

I like the detail and characters, the plot seems to involve a number of misunderstandings. Peter's character is slowly exposed and he turns out quite differently than he first appears.

From the dust cover...

SHE HAD ALMOST LOVED HIM BUT NOW SHE DESPISED HIM

Miss Helena Hammond had suffered a tragedy that had left not only herself but her family at Point Non Plus deeply in debt and with no apparent escape. Therefore, Lieutenant Peter Clivedon's appearance was nothing short of a miracle. Aware of the untimely circumstances, but also aware of Helena's breathtaking beauty, Peter offers to marry her, and although greatly surprised, she gratefully accepts. Once married, they move to Whisperwood, and over time, Helena grows very fond of Peter. But their idyllic interlude is shattered when Helena learns that Peter has concealed a terrible truth from her. A truth so painful that Helena is compelled to leave Whisperwood and demand a divorce. Peter knows that what he had done was to protect the woman he so dearly loved. He could only hope she would come to realize this before it was too late.

Published in 1997, this volume is a result of a conference held in September of 1996. It is a collection of over 30 journal articles and poster papers. Because it is aimed at doctors, people comfortable reading medical journal articles will find its coverage of NP-SLE interesting; it's probably a bit on the technical side for most non-MD readers. Any doctor (primary care or specialist) that treats patients with lupus should read this book if they're not already familiar with it's contents. At least that's the opinion of this reviewer, who became acutely aware of the disturbing level of ignorance of NP-SLE among even well-regarded rheumatologists.

I read this book as part of an English course on late-19th and 20th century American literature. It's the first time I've read a novel by Henry James, having so far only seen the movie adaptations of 'Portrait of a Lady' and 'Washington Square'. Having been wary of reading James (because of his reputation for dense, convoluted prose) I was surprised at this novel's relatively brisk plot and overall readability. The story itself, ostensibly a simple one about one man's inability to understand a seemingly complicated woman, also has interesting things to say about gender, class and the relationship between the United States (personified by the heroine) and the rest of the Western world. I was actually somewhat amazed that the image of America created through the characterization of Daisy Miller still rings true 125 years after this book's publication.

As is often the case for Henry James, there is scarcely a detail of his work that can be made better somehow.

DAISY MILLER: A STUDY, 1878, is among the principal novellas of history and literature. Very simply, the story involves a young girl Daisy Miller, wandering through Europe, and from America. She is sensitive and capricious. Her ways attract attention, such that perhaps she appears a lustrous woman of carnal desires, or disrespectful to cultures not her own, or stupid. At any event, she catches the eye of another tourist, Mr. Winterbourne, a "nice guy" who not unlike the nice guys of our own world lucks out. He does not get Daisy, but watches as she kisses another and loses herself to unappreciatve men. She does this from anger, resentment, and want of attention. She becomes a symbol of many things, and in the end she dies. The book has been debated for decades.

The dialogue is so well crafted as to be sacred. No further editing of this story is possible, for James took very great pains to edit his work multiple times over. And here, we see a flow of talking and happenings that seem to real to even be on the page. As for instance the communication of Mr. Winterbourne and Daisy's little brother (I believe). The little boys talks, and behaves, as a little boy would. And, Mr. Winterbourne likewise behaves as a young man would to a young boy. Greatest of all are the marvellous dialogues between Daisy and Mr. Winterbourne. They flirt at times, and one feels Winterbourne's longing for her. They feel his sadness, a real sadness, as when she is not feeling for him nearly as deeply. I likened myself to to the man.

I am glad to know that Mr. James was credited as having been "the Master."

I hadn't read James for about eight years or so when I came across a copy of Daisy Miller in a pile of discarded books at a local university. It sat on my shelf for a while longer, as I knew full well that James writes in thick sentences, making up for the lack of volume by quite a bit.

What I found was what I have come to expect from James, even in his early works. This book does a great deal in terms of pulling together many levels of interpretaion: Old World versus New World, common versus exclusive, and also the chaser and the chased.

This last viewpoint in particular is what stuck with me. We have a young girl, and a young man. They meet once for a few days, and the young man becomes utterly fixated on her, if for any other reason that she is playing, in his view, hard to get. When she turns her attention elsewhere, the ante is doubled and tripled when, for a variety of reasons most likely centered around our young hero Winterbourne, the American society in Rome starts to give our heroin the "cold shoulder". Given that James writes most often to examine the person most in focus in the novel, I tend to atribute most of the troubles of this young girl to both herself and Winterbourne, not just the society of the time. This is far from a safe academic interpretation, however.

The notes included in the book are helpful for getting into the mindset of the typical reader of James' day, but are not distracting. Overall, this would probably be suitible for an ambitios middle school student, and just right for most high school students.