This book is a useful mix of theory and specific strategies, of reports on current research and examples of best practices. After reading it I think I understand better the dynamics of conflict in the classroom, and I also have some new things to try in crisis situations. It is a huge and ovewhelming book which most teachers would avoid, so I cut it apart into five sections. I handed the sections to teachers, who read them enthusiastically when they would never have tackled the whole book. It can be read like that, in sections, and not necessarily in order. The content is highly recommended but the format must be made teacher friendly!

Long and Morse have written and collected a panorama of articles which collectively define the state of the art in aproaches to troubled and troubling students. This book goes beyond the traditonal to the truly insightful interventions which focus holistically on the child or youth and his struggles within systems. Strategies for regular education and special education teachers are clearly described, and a list of resources in areas from sexual abuse to grief are inculuded. The book begins with a collection of short stories from contemporary literature in an intoduction to the reader into the minds and lives of children who are emotionally disturbed. Conflict in the Classroom has been a classic in the field for 30 years, and this 1996 edition is as worthy of the same honor as its fine earlier editions

I found this one in the Dartmouth Bookstore Basement for $1 and what with it being National Poetry Month (April) and the cover blurb declaring it the winner of the 1997 Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize (no I've never heard of it either), I figured I'd give it a shot. It was four quarters well spent.

Using traditional poetry forms and the incidents of everyday life, Webb crafts some really witty and wonderful little poems. Whether he's writing about a Cristo art project (Umbrellas) or The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Twenty Years Too Late to See The Rocky Horror...), he uncovers the amazing in the mundane. Several have a pretty sharp edge to them, like Prayer for the Man Who Mugged My Father, 72--suffice it to say, the mugger hopes the prayer doesn't come to pass. And a couple are just really funny, like Broken Toe, where the title occurrence at least snaps him out of his middle aged complacency. And I found one image that for me really captures what poetry can do at its best, the clever use of words to paint an indelible image. It's from the poem Spiders:

Their webs, transparent fielders' gloves,
pluck flies out of mid-air.

The baseball analogy alone is enough to get my attention, but the play on the word flies exemplifies the cleverness on display throughout this collection.

The poems of Charles Harper Webb are well worth checking out. I found a bunch of his poems on-line and linked to them below--give them a try and if you see the book for $1, grab it.

GRADE: A

Probably one of the best and most clever books of poetry written in the last ten years. Webb is a member of the "stand-up" school of West Coast poetry, a movement that seeks to inject comedy and surprise into the otherwise staid and dull world of poetry. He's Billy Collins, but with a much darker--and smarter--edge.

This book relates the closeness of people in real life daily situations. Example: A "somebody" is a person you have to have around to appreciate the "whobody". Any "newbody" can become a "whobody"...You have to read the book to appreciate this example. You will not be sorry for taking the 10 minutes.

This book is amazing. It was at the time, and likely still is the most comprehensive and detailed research into schedules of reinforcement ever done. The detail and the jargon make it hard going in places, and the almost fanatic obsession with quantizing everything is a little aversive. Nevertheless, if you persist in gleaning the main ideas from this book, and convince yourself of their importance and correctness, using the detail, you will be richly rewarded with a completely new understanding of the wonderful research that behaviorists have performed, and the sometimes startling results. Highly recommended even for persons with only slight familiarity with behaviorism.

Most of psychology is easy to avoid, since its is as close to science as Dr Suess. While Skinner can feel like he is going off on a tangent now and then, is analysis is on the mark. Some people argue that he tried to reduce things to much - maybe these people feel that Skinner is hurting their Ego. While I could try to tell you that you should read the book and judge for yourself, I have to remember that you have no choice. You will or you wont read it, not because of your "free will" but because of your history of reinforcement.

I finished reading this book today and I couldn't wait to review it. A friend suggested it to me. Normally I hate sci-fi but this book was the fire! It was the pertect idea. Set far enough in the future to be interesting but not so far that you can't even relate to it. A.C.C brings up all kinds of great explanations as to what the ship could be, most of which I wouldn't have thought of. Like when Boris Rodrigo wants to inform his church that he feels the second arc has come to collect Gods children. That was a great take on the situation I didn't think of. The characters are a little bland I guess but it's such a short read and there's so much information to digest there was really no room for hardcore character development. Who cares anyway, the main character, Rama, is what I wanted to know more about. A.C.C did an excellent job of not giving away to much information. Im glad that walking away I only know enough about the ship to keep me from going mad. The best mystery is one that can't be solved completly. I would suggest this book to anybody, sci-fi fan or not. It's a short, exhilerating read and worth any amount of time you take to read it. Also, from what I've heard, Arthur's collaborator butchers the soul of the Rama idea in 3 more installments. Im not going to read them. I have no interest in taking a leak in my Cylindrical Sea.

"Rendezvous with Rama" was, and is one of my favorite science fiction novels, penned by the great sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke.

In the 22nd century, the asteroid detecting system SPACEGUARD detects what at first looks like a very strange looking asteroid entering the solar system and heading towards the sun. A space probe sent to investigate discovers the "asteroid" to be really a gigantic cylindrical space vessel. The crew of the spaceship "Endezvour" is sent to investigate the alien spacecraft dubbed "Rama".

Clarke paints such a vivid picture of the inside of Rama, that I could almost see it with my own eyes. The three ladders extending from the center of Rama into seeming infinity, the view of the cylindrical sea, the large empty "cities", all vividly described. Also, I really liked Clarke's description of Rama coming to life. The way Rama starts off in darkness, then the lights come on, the cylindrical sea melts, and the "biots" start rearing their heads.

Clarke doesn't forget about the issue of gravity in space, something many science fiction writers leave out. Rama rotates, giving the inside of the ship a sort of artificial gravity. As you climb down the ladder from the center of the ship, the gravity increases from zero to normal. It's nice to have a science fiction novel with some science in it, something Clarke's novels always have.

Appropriately, Clarke doesn't reveal everything about Rama, leaving a sense of mystery much like he did at the end of "2001".

The characters aren't drawn vividly, a frequent complaint by Clarke detractors, but this didn't bother me. We're here to explore Rama, not the characters. This book is a great read for any lover of science fiction or Arthur C. Clarke. Beware of the sequels co-written by Gentry Lee.

When I first read Rama many years ago, what stunned me was the sheer scale of imagination that it represented. In fact, Clarke's strength has always been his imagination. Even today, reading the book for the umpteenth time, I have the same feeling. The degree to which Clarke describes Rama and at the same time explains just how complex interstellar travel could be is truly amazing. His description of Rama's interior (the Cylindrical Sea, the layout, the stairways, the biots) are so vivid and clear that one can picture the craft. The sheer scale of the project fills the reader with a sense of awe and wonder that remains all through the book. The story is simple : in short, an asteroid watch spots Rama, an object hurtling towards the solar system and then realizes it is no rocky planetoid but an artificial object made by intelligent beings. A ship is launched to intercept and possibly explore Rama. Their experience and interaction with Rama is the heart of the book. The context is one frequently favored by Clarke - that of humanity as near-children, stumbling (almost by error and perhaps a bit of extra-terrestrial design) on matters far greater than they can comprehend (2001 A Space Odyssey, Childhood's End). Humanity comes in "contact" (so to speak) with an advanced alien intelligence which it can barely begin to comprehend. And while humanity fears that it may be subject to domination, even tyranny, the sublime ending designed by Clarke is if anything even more telling. Without giving away the plot, I can only say that the final realization of our sheer insignificance in the scale of the Universe is pretty humbling. As always, Clarke's writing style is top drawer, filled with subtle humor and sly digs at ourselves. A must-read.

Turning to the first page of this book, I expected a hard hitting, unified description of "truth in an age of unbelief." The book is definitely hard hitting, and Chuck Colson is renowned for his willingness to take on issues that are controversial.

What's missing in this book is unity. This book is essentially a series of anecdotes. "Eclectic" is the word that comes to mind. This is a good book to read, I guess, if you only have three pages worth of time to read in each sitting, and you don't mind switching topics after those three pages. Or it might be useful to students looking for ideas to develop into a research paper.

That type of content proved too fragmented for me to enjoy. This was my first book by this author; I will check the Table of Contents more carefully before beginning my next Chuck Colson book.

Once again the texts of several of Charles Colson's BreakPoint radio commentaries are collected into the book format. As with A Dance with Deception, which I finished a short while ago, the short editorials focusing on the difficulties with maintaining a fundamental Christian world view in a seeming increasingly harsh and anti-Christian world are readable and, more importantly, thought provoking. Recommended.

Those of you who enjoy Colson's "Breakpoint" radio series will definitely enjoy this book, for it is a compilation of many of those "episodes."

The book is divided up by topic into various "chapters," with 6 to 10 short "clips" per chapter. Some will warm your heart, some will make you angry at the world we're in, and some will make you wonder how people could be so stupid!

This is a good book to read if your looking for somthing light, or if you aren't able to devote undivided attention to something deeper, or if you're looking for something you can read to fill in short intervals of time.