Looking for a smart, funny, verbal frenzy to delight school-age audiences? This one is a MUST DO! Reading it with carte blanche playfulness a la "Southrin' Stah-yle" you will have as much FUN reading this one aloud as any of your listeners. Don't forget to glance up now and then to see all the twinkling eyes. I read this two years ago and maybe stunned the 1st graders into silence with the roaring of the bear but the 3rd grade today quickly piped in the chorus of "...EAT...YOU... UP!!" (heavy emphasis on the "puh!") Dare I say more fun than sharing the stories of Brer' Rabbit? Same vein, but updated/smarter/slicker with Kesey's savvy vocabulary. (4.9 AR level - or, "fourth grade, ninth month" for independent readers). Anyone who loves language, acting, humorous moral tales will LOVE this one.

The illustrations are drop-dead gorgeous but the story really steals the show. My husband and I are always quoting from this one--"and then I'm gonna DRINK SOME BUTTERMILK!" I love the dialect and the wonderful similies ("like an elevator up a greasy groove"). Can't wait to have kids so I can read it to them.

I loved reading this book to kids in the library. It has tons of great adjectives. It's full of fun and keeps kids guessing as to 'what will happen next?' I want to own this book!

I thought this was a wonderful book. I enjoyed Thayers use of poetry to exrpress the emotion in the story. The language used in the text is of very high quality and when read by an adult to a child, the child is able to thourghly understand. The illustrations play an important role with the text. They not only enrich the text, but they tell a story in itself. We can feel the emotion of the players and the crowd through Polacco's work. Overall I thought this was a wonderful book and reccomend it to a child of any age.

Thayer's classic ballad, 'Casey at the Bat,' is greatly enhanced by Patricia Polacco's brilliantly achieved, big-hearted illustrations. Ms. Polacco captures emotion, action, and character through wittily exaggerated, slightly loopy pictures, and through lots of uncrowded background shenanigans. It's very cinematic: She effectively isolates action through extreme close-ups, and extends time through a montage of events occurring within a single picture. Like the auteur she is, she even adds some opening and closing story elements (while leaving the poem intact) that augment the poem's appeal to the younger reader.

This book is simply great fun to read aloud; you'll find yourself wanting to memorize its evocative imagery and epic aspirations:

"Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt; Five thousand tongue applauded when he wiped them on his shirt. Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip, Defiance flashed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip."

You and your youngsters will love the humor and the drama in this a classic rendition of Thayer's beloved poem. Infants and toddlers will enjoy the bright pictures, and all readers will appreciate the perfect teaming of Thayer and Polacco.

Casey at the Bat tells about mighty Casey and his missing 2 strikes - like messing up in life.

I like the paintings that are made from water colors in My Dog Rosie. I also like how the author writes about his own dog. I like books that are not to long and not to short like My Dog Rosie. My Dog Rosie has good descriptions. I like when the author shows you a picture of his own dog. I think anybody will love this book.

My two-year-old daughter, a big fan of dogs, loves this book. It is written in simple language and describes activities to which a two-year-old can relate. The presence of the Grandpa is an added plus! Highly recommended by our whole family.

My two-year-old loved this book. The story about a little girl who has to take care of a dog is very appealing to young children

Author Cynthia Rylant and illustrator Barry Moser were both reared in Appalachia, and they are completely in sync on this book. The calm, clear-eyed text and the evocative watercolor paintings balance and enhance each other beautifully.

Rylant doesn't shy away from the harder truths of Appalachian living. About coal mining, she writes, "Many [Appalachians] are coal miners because the mountains in Appalachia are full of coal which people want and if you are brave enough to travel two miles down into solid dark earth to get it, somebody will pay you money for your trouble." On the facing page from this plainspoken truth is a haunting Barry Moser watercolor of a green-clad coal miner, his eyes weary and his skin gritty with coal dust, his lunchpail resting beside him.

The beauties come through, too. Rylant writes, "Morning in these houses in Appalachia is quiet and full of light and the mountains out the window look new, like God just made them that day." Throughout the book is a sense of quiet and purpose and appreciation for a way of life most of us will never know. It's a moving and transfixing read.

Cynthia Rylant has once again captured the true spirit of the Appalachian culture. Her descriptions are right on target. Many of us, who live in this wild and wonderful country, know folks just like those she introduces to us in all of her stories. The significance of this book, for me, is to keep alive the warm, wonderful spirit of this amazing culture she so colorfully shares with readers. I'm giving this book to children and adults as well.

This book is wonderful! I read it to my class to help them understand what life was like in the Appalachian Mountains compared to their life in Chicago. My students were spell-bound, held by the wonderful descriptions and beautiful illustrations. They really understood that there are many different cultures within our nation!

As a young man my Holy Trinity was: Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman. Emerson's essays are pure poetry; Thoreau's "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience" became a blueprint on how to live and why to write; and Whitman's life and "Leaves Of Grass" taught me about myself.

"A Life Of The Mind" filled each page with the authenticity and richness of a life well lived. Thoreau, the humanness, the naturalist, the friend and son; the poet of the unraveling, entangled soul beating within the humdrum of everyday and ordinary life, leaps from every page. I have read other biographies on Thoreau which never captured the mind and writer of "Walden". Here the man and life equalled and qualified the literature.

Richardson is more than a biographer of Thoreau; he's made from the same stock. He didn't simply tell of a man and his life, he savored, and shared in the same poetics and struggles as the man he researched. The theme of Thoreau's life was an opportunity to express his own convictions and struggles.

It was while reading an anthology of Thoreau's work that I first understood why some poets and writers must write. I came to understand how every sentence could be layered with meaning and timelessness. After reading this biography I must reread my annotated "Walden". I must sit in my backyard amongst the leaves and flowers and shapes and densities I've not paid attention to in some time.

If you want to get your mind around Thoreau's mind and the more significant facts of his life, buy and read this book. Because the chapters are brief but meaty, and because Richardson's an accomplished prose stylist in his own right, this book is a joy to read and, I have found, is wonderful to come back to periodically, particularly when looking for a great way to spend ten to twenty extra minutes profitably.

Robert D. Richardson takes the busy-bodied world of Thoreau and places each of his accomplishments into context starting with their respective intellectual origin. In the process of doing this, Richardson constructs the world of Thoreau's Concord and creates it for us vividly and realistically. This is by far the best Thoreau bio out there and serves a perfect book-end with his Emerson bio, The Mind On Fire.

I thought this book was the best when I was a kid, and I still love it! It is one of the cutest books I have ever read! I am now in the 8th grade, and I used this book for a speech competition with my friend. We got a superior (not to brag or anything). This book is probabally for kids from ages 5-8.

This is a great book for primary grade students. The illustrations are large and wonderful to look at. The text captures the devotion of a dog and the aloofness of a cat to perfection! I loved it!

I Am the Dog I Am the Cat doesn't tell a story - instead it tells about the characters of a cat and a dog. Anyone who has ever owned either will recognize the essence of the animals in Hall's excellent verse, while Moser's elegant illustrations capture the dog and the cat beautifully.

I recommend this book to anyone who has ever had a pet or ever hopes to have one. Excellent for reading aloud, but be prepared for some rather urgent requests for a dog (or a cat) when the book is done.

Have you ever had a man accuse you of stealing his dog or having him try to kill you? Well in the book Shiloh Season by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, a boy named Marty has this problem. He worked for Judd Travers` for two whole weeks and kept secrets just to keep his beat up dog named Shiloh. Judd says Marty did not even earn that dog and it still belongs to himself. So Judd starts to drink more and more beer. Then all of the sudden one night he got so drunk he got in an accident. One night Marty and Shiloh were taking a jog down to Dr. Murphy's and he was not home, but Judd was around. They took a rest on a log and right in the middle of Marty and Shiloh a bullet comes flying. Judd! That is all that came to Marty's mind. Was it Marty or Shiloh he was trying to kill? Well if you want to know read this book! It's a great adventure story. I think you'll love it!
I like this book a lot, but I did not like it when Judd killed animals and tried to shoot at people.
I think the book was pretty neat though. When Marty had his mind full of secrets it made me think about what he might do with them. He might tell someone or he might not tell anyone. Then I was thinking of what might happen if he spilled out a secret. What might that lead to? This book kept me in a lot of suspense throughout the whole time I read it. The book has many cliffhangers in it so it makes me want to keep reading. I really enjoyed the book, but that Judd Travers made the book have some horrible scenes that were hard to understand and was uncomfortable to read. That's how I feel about this book.
The main character in the book I read is Marty. Everything is based on him and his life. He is a 10 year old boy who lives in Friendly, West Virginia. Marty has blond hair and two bratty sisters. Their names are Dara Lynn and Becky. He also has a friend named David. They go to school together and are in the same class. Marty has many traits throughout the book. One is he is a very curious boy who always needs to know things. He is also a very courageous kid. He is always spying on Judd, making sure he doesn't do bad things. Marty is a very caring kid. When his dad thought Judd was hunting in their woods, Marty was worried about Dara Lynn and Becky, but most of all Shiloh. Marty has many strengths. One is he is very good in school. His teacher feels that he wrote a great report but he must use his "family" language at home and good grammar in school. He also is a very good spy. He goes to Judd's house with his friend David. They were being very underhanded. Marty also has weaknesses. He just barely leaves Shiloh to get on the school bus. Rarely does Marty ever go to friends house for a long time. Those are some of his strengths and weaknesses.
I think Marty does all the right things! I think Marty loves Shiloh so much that whenever he is not with him he anticipates being with him. To me Marty resents Judd Travers. Everything in Marty's life seems to be very bewildering. During the book everything seems to change my mind. One minute I like the book, the next minute I do not like the book. Marty, a young 10 year old, seems to do quite a lot for his age. He is a very brave young boy to me. I like this book a lot because it makes you feel like you go right inside and the book comes alive. This was a spectacular book! I hope you will read it.
I thought this book was wonderful because it made me think about how hard life could be and that I do have a good life so I should be proud.

Shiloh Season was about a boy named Marty and a dog named Shiloh.They had an adventure that Marty would never forget. The setting was in a town just like any other town and the characters were realistic because Marty was like any other kid and Shiloh was like a normal dog. The main character was a very likable person because he was nice. I liked this story because it was exciting. Shiloh was like a real dog. My favorite part was when Judd Travers wrecked because he was always mean. One thing I learned from this book is that you can't make some people happy. I would recommend this book to a friend because it's realistic and heartwarming.If you like this book you will like Shiloh.

Have you ever struggled to keep your pet? In the book Shiloh Season by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor a boy named Marty Preston tries hard to keep his dog Shiloh. Judd Travers a mean hunter formaly owned Shiloh. Judd attempts to kill Marty and Shiloh. Judd was trying to shoot Marty when he was at his doctor friend, but luckily missed. One of Judd's rabid dogs bit Becky in the arm. She was weeping and weeping, but Shiloh came to the rescue when he attacked the mad mutt. Judd tried to run over Marty and Shiloh with his rusty truck. One late balmy night Shiloh was sleeping on the porch Judd shot his gun and woke up Shiloh. This is a book I recommmend.

I must confess that I don't understand the reader review below who found this biography of Emerson to be a difficult read. Although not quite a page-turner, I managed to read this in very little time at all. I must also confess that I do find Emerson himself incredibly difficult to read. But what I find to be the case in Emerson himself, I did not find to be true in Richardson's biography. While I find that Emerson constructed one stunning sentence and aphorism after another, I generally find his essays to be slow going. Nonetheless, while I am not his biggest fan, he is unquestionably one of the four or five greatest figures in American intellectual history, and Richardson's biography does him great justice.

The great merit of this biography is that at the end of it, you feel that you have gained considerable insight both into Emerson and New England intellectual life in the 19th century. I was especially intrigued with Richardson detailing of Emerson's reading. Emerson was, without any question, a great reader. Great readers rarely read books from cover to cover. Samuel Johnson, who was himself one of the most accomplished readers in the history of civilization, once said that we have more of a need to reread than to read. But he also once quipped, "What, you read books all the way to the end?" Emerson did not read books all the way to the end. But like Johnson and other great readers, he had a genius for picking out the most important points. What Boswell wrote of Johnson is true also of Emerson: "He had a peculiar facility in seizing at once what was valuable in any book, without submitting to the labour of perusing it from beginning to end."

One comes away from the book also enormously impressed with Emerson's character. He seems by any standard to have been a remarkably good human being. He was both a man of high principle, and a man of powerful attachments to other human beings. I found the accounting of his various friendships, many to equally famous individuals, to be of the utmost interest. Also, he seems to have met virtually every important thinker and writer in the English-speaking world, from Coleridge to Carlyle to Melville.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a deeper knowledge of Emerson's life and work. By any standard, Emerson is one of the giants in American life. His influence on American thought is incalculable. Consider: not only was he the major influence on such American literary figures the magnitude of Thoreau and Whitman; he was a profound influence on artists such as Thomas Cole, Moran, and Bierstadt. America's deep-rooted environmentalism is steeped in Emersonian Transcendentalism. John Muir was a devoted reader of Emerson. One could make a case for Emerson having had perhaps more influence in the shaping of American thought than any other individual. This biography is an outstanding introduction to that person.

A remarkable biography of an enduring genius in American history.'Emerson: The Mind on Fire', is a reading experience that was at once moving, educationally rewarding and, above all, inspiring. The book is a well- crafted, well- researched analysis of 'the' American philosopher of the 19th century. After completing the work, I felt as though I knew the great man intimately, and found myself feeling sad that he wasn't in the phone book or had an email address to invite him and his family over for dinner. As Thoreau once wrote, "Surely joy is the condition of life." And this is most certainly the leading emotion that I felt while reading this book. And as Emerson wrote: "The purpose of life is individual cultivation, self expression, and fulfillment." At the risk of sounding too praiseworthy, Richardson's commendable biography has given me the opportunity to experience all three of the above. Since a freshman in highschool, my predelication to Transcedentalism has moved in and out of my life like a warm breeze. This particular work has re-lit this old philosophical spark,causing the winds to rise again, so to speak, creating a kind of intellectual excitment. I have read hundreds of biographies on many great individuals, but this one ranks as one of the best. I recommend this book highly.

Richardson has given us a most profound biography of one of the world's most profound men. And in this case, I'm almost as impressed with the biographer as the man he reports. This book has 100 chapters, each one as full of outstanding ideas as some entire books I've read. I owe many wonderful evenings and mornings to Richardson who has given me the keenest insights into my favorite teacher and author. Richardson so accurately portrays Emerson's journey of a self-realized soul marching in his conviction of the final authority of the individual self that I personally felt I was making the same journey. In so many moments, something swelled within me while reading this book, that I thought perhaps even one such as myself might grasp these elevated concepts Richardson so lucidly explains. Emerson himself said, "only that book is good which puts the reader in a working mood." While reading this book I have felt encouraged in my own quest to do the work of unfolding my own nature with reverential awe, as Emerson admonishes us, by keeping my own journals and studying to unify myself with the eternity at the core of my being.

Richardson not only studied Emerson to write this book, he studied the books that Emerson studied thereby showing Emerson's method, intellectual origins, and his native genius that courageously broke with contemporary traditions to create a cohesive world-view that has inspired so many.

Emerson, more than any other author I have read, believed in the grandeur of the soul--not just his own--but in each of us. He wrote in his journal, "When I look at the rainbow I find myself the center of its arch. But so are you; and so is the man who sees it a mile from both of us. So also the globe is round, and every man therefore stands on the top. King George, and the chimney sweep no less."

If you are looking for a book to not only stretch your limits of understanding but help you realize the helping hand at the end of your own arm, do yourself the favor and get Richardson's biography and spend many enlightening hours studying Emerson with Richardson. You might also consider spending the extra few dollars and get the hardback . It'll last a lot longer under the wear you'll give it referring to it again and again.

I purchased ISBN:0195283600. This particular edition differs a bit from other reviews I've read--no portraits, etc.

It's an Oxford, so if it were possible for me to have gotten an NRSV with the Apocrypha in genuine black leather from someone else, I'd have done it gladly. Oxford generally cuts corners in the Bible-making process.

Because it will be a secondary Bible for me, I'm not terribly peeved about Jesus' words NOT being red, there being no concordance, and there being no dictionary of any kind. The leather is nice but a bit stiff. The spine, however, is sewn and very flexable--a major plus for a long-lasting Bible.

I like the fairly handy size very much. Bibles are gennerally made way too big. The paper is very quality and the font selection and paragraph-style page layout is very nice as well.

Reguarding the translation itself: I'm particularly pleased with the traslating of the Old Testament and Apocrypha, well done and very readable. I'm not at all offended with the gender-inclusive rendering with certain passages, as footnotes mark each diversion from the originals. When I began reading the Bible, I started with an original Living paraphrase because the KJV was just too much for me. I soon learned that the translation was so terribly compromised for readability, I was missing out on a lot of important meaning. The NRSV is a fantastic balance between readability and accuracy, if you ask me. Thinking of giving a Bible to new believer or someone just starting to study it? Give them an NRSV!

If you're considering this particular printing for your main Bible, I'd suggest shopping around first. But overall, I'm satisfied.

This Bible contains hard to find family-genealogy pages in a NRSV edition. It is oversized, leather bound, and has large type. As a bonus, there are colorful portraits of old testament characters, and maps and an index. A fine gift for a new family.

This is a superb example of one of the most scholarly translations of the Holy Scriptures available! The large print makes it immensely readable and the price is reasonable for such a quality book. The addition of the Apocrypha makes it the essential Bible to have in your home library and a family treasure for generations! I highly reccommend this translation and this particular copy! Modern language, large print, this Bible can reach every member of your family with it's timeless message of hope.

This book looks into the supernatural and let's you know we weren't all civilized forever!This book opened my eyes, i never knew that wiccans and their covens could be burned to death!I recamend this book to people who are interested in wiccans and thier history.

I used this book while writing an essay for my IB American History class, on the social causes for the Salem Witch Craze. I found this book very helpful, with very good information, and very easy to understand. Being wiccan, i also liked the last chapter of the book, explaining modern day witchcraft. This is a wonderful book.

This history of witches and persecution examines not only the usual Salem trials, but witch-hunts from around the world and over the centuries. Milton Meltzer's probe into the truth behind the stories provides a wider-reaching account than most and enhances a recommended portrait of witch perceptions and prosecution around the world.