From Jean Craighead George, best-loved author of more than eighty nature books for young readers, comes another marvelous story about a complex culture, family importance, and the vast relationship between humans and the natural world. This is one of her best, along the same line as the provocative WATER SKY--the story of a young man who learns about the whales of Arctic Alaska--and THE TALKING EARTH, about a girl who rows through the Everglades, befriending animals along the way. Although Ms. George is best-known for her classics, MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN and the Newbery Medal-winning JULIE OF THE WOLVES, her other novels are great adventures, too. SHARK BENEATH THE REEF is the story of Tomas Torres, who, at fourteen, is learning about his changing home and trying to cope with the new decisions he must face, the most important being his choice to become a fisherman or a marine biologist. A great shark only complicates this decision, as Tomas's dream is to kill the shark and carry it into his small Mexican town above his head, with the bells of the mission tower ringing in praise. However, it is when Tomas comes face-to-face with the shark that he realizes how vital it is to his family's well-being, and he forgets his dream and thinks, more sensibly, like a man. The ending is one of the best parts about the story, when Tomas and his teacher discuss the varying faces of nature and how it cannot be controlled, although humans may think they'd like to and can. The entire story sparkles with details about the teeming life of the seaside environment, interesting, well-described characters, and the importance of legends and heroes to many cultures. Nature and animal lovers will enjoy reading about the different creatures and birds found in this part of the world, although not much is given to the shark to allay fears about its legendary ferocity.

The book, Shark Beneath the Reef, by Jean Craighead George is a wonderfully intriguing story and a magic to read. The tale of an adolescent Mexican boy growing into manhood and his dreams of becoming a fisherman is all a wonderful story in itself. But put together with his family's downfall, the price of growing up, and best of all, his epic adventures in the reefs, it is phenomenal. It is a delightful and emotional way of getting a dose of a dream, let alone a truly wonderful work of art. It is a masterpiece. Shark Beneath the Reef is an excellent book to read, especially for young adults because it is very detailed and full of adventure. It is detailed and has the reader turning pages constantly. The amount of detail is so great that it gives the reader an idea of what it is like to live in another world, whether an improvement or not from the average American teen's life today. For instance, Tomás, the main character's adventures in the coral reefs make you feel like you are really there. The detail leads you to wonder what the main character's mind tells him to do, and what he will do with his unusual talents. Besides containing great detail, the book is just plain capturing! Risking lives, a family's struggle, and strong friendships spice up the story and conclude the book making you hungry for more each time. For example, when Tomás is in a life-threatening situation with a huge shark, you can feel what he must be thinking, facing the shark. This book is a wonderful way of spending your reading time. Although this book is incredibly fun and inspiring to read, there was one part of it that might not appeal to everyone. The majority of the book is to the point and a wonderful experience, but the beginning of it is just a little bit vague and difficult to understand. It may not appeal to people who don't enjoy adventure stories or nature, but it will be a dream come true to those who do. It just requires patience because in the end the whole plot ties together. Don't let the beginning discourage you to finish the book, because you will be missing out on a wonderful tale of a boy who just wanted to dream, but whose dream became reality. Shark Beneath the Reef is a "must read" book.

Shark Beneath the Reef is an excellent book about a Mexican boy who lives near the Sea of Cortez. His family catches and sells sharks for a living. He heard about an enormous shark who lives under the coral shelf. He dreams of catching the shark and holding it above his head in the plaza as a hero. He is also making his mind on whether he is going to school or becoming a shark fisherman. Meanwhile, his family is suffering because the sharks have gone out of the area and they have very little to sell. The government officials also wants to begin taxing the fishermen because they are making the beach a tourist site. The family camp is on that beach, so they try to avoid the the officials as much as they can. I liked this book was because of the plot. It was action sometimes and drama at another. The positions of the plot sections were completely mixed up, but exactly in order. The moral was also astounding. I am still amazed at how the story ended out. I thought it would be a simple decision, but it turned out to be completely different. Absoluteley excellent literature. You have got to read it!

When I was given this book by a client I was thrilled. The book's a brilliant red front cover is beautifully illustrated with a cartoon dog. The inside pages are illustrated with more canine cartoons interacting with photos. At first glance it seems to be an intriguing children's book. Unfortunately the cover of this book is where all positive comments end.

I believe the author's intention in this book is to teach canine communication skills. If I am correct in this assumption, she not only failed miserably but may have caused more harm then education.

She advises "To say hello to your dog, sniff toward his nose. That's dog talk. He will answer by pulling his ears back and close to his head. What he is saying is 'Hello, Leader". Ms. Craighead-George is describing a dog who is telling their nose-sniffing-human "This is a bit uncomfortable, please stop". A dog's ears going back can be a conflict behavior.

She goes onto say "'Good night' in dog talk is physical. Rub your dog's head, ears and neck. Lower your lids and sigh into his fur. You are the mother dog licking her pup off to sleep." Although I often enjoy a nice snuggle with my dog I am relatively certain he knows I am not his mother or a dog. I was relieved that she did not suggest I lick my dog, we all have to draw the line somewhere.

Ms. Craighead-George advises "'Good-bye' is a whisk of the tail, then turning and walking off. Since you don't have a tail, swish your hand downward and show your back. If your dog does not choose to hear this unwelcome message and races after you, tell him, 'I am the boss,' in dog talk, then repeat the dog 'good-bye'." I will admit to frequently suffering from serious bouts of tail-envy but I'm afraid my hand waving behind my rear end is a bit of a stretch in wishful thinking.

Ms. Craighead -George crosses the line from embarrassingly silly to potentially dangerous in her section titled "How do you say 'I am the boss'?" She advises, "The most effective way is to put your mouth on his muzzle. That means in dog talk that you are the leader. His ears will go back and against his head, and his tail will lower. This is his way of saying, 'Yes, you are my leader'." I suspect many people who attempt this will have time to contemplate what their dog was really saying ("You have totally lost your mind and you are frightening the heck out of me") while they wait patiently in the emergency room to have their dog bite treated.

She suggests if your dog becomes anxious or confused you should "Sniff his nose to tell him not to be angry or confused. Nose sniffs are peace talk." I have a sincere concern that for a dog that is in an anxiety situation, a human sticking their face in his to sniff his nose may increase the stress level to a point where the dog may feel he has no other option but to bite the face that sniffs him.

It is cautioned in "How to Talk to Your Dog" that children should not roll onto their backs while playing with their dog or they will be saying in dog language "I am your humble servant". My own dogs must be the most misinformed canines on the planet. They have three young humble servants in their household and they don't even realize it!

I would recommend that the author stay with ridiculous but harmless comments suggest as "You can pass other messages with your eyes. Think, 'I love you. I love you,' and your lower lid will involuntarily come up and soften your expression. Your dog will read that and return this message by softening his eyes."

I am still uncertain to what population this book is directed. I can only hope it was not written for innocent children and will only fall into the hands of adults who will quickly realize this book for the nonsensical hogwash that it is.

This book shows young people the joys of communicating with dogs, from how to recognize dog talk through body language to the various ways animals communicate through whimpers, sniffs, and barks. The book, however, assumes that young children will know not to apply these very "hands-on" techniques to strange dogs--a very dangerous assumption that could lead to dog bites. The book offers two suggestions that one should never do in front of an aggressive dog: one is to wave a newspaper above the dog's head, the other is to sniff a dog's nose to calm an angry or confused dog down. Children should never be expected to calm an angered or aggressive dog down. While the book has lots of good information on dog behavior that could benefit both children and adults, it lacks the cautionary requirements to keep kids from getting bitten by dogs too.

Let's start simply and honestly, the same way these tomes approach their subject matter, and say these are the cat's meow! Jean Craighead George has penned two ultra-thin volumes on communicating with our best friends and felines, and each is a howling success. The Newberry Medal-winning author does what someone like Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has tried to do in books tens of thousands words and pages longer and could not. Jean, by George, had found the winning ways to teach pet lovers how to chat with their four-footed pals. Her writing is sparse: "A lick is not a kiss. It is a statement that says you're a wonderful leader." Her advice is refreshing: "Growling is aggressive
talk. Don't growl back. Dogs don't like that." As special as her words is the whimiscal use of arkwork: actual color photos of the animated author interacting with illustrations (by Sue Truesdell) of equally animated cartoon cats and dogs. (We just love the one of George on all fours, rubbing heads with a cat!) Four paws up!

The illustrations are realistic and high quality. I have issus wth the organization of the verses and the verses not matching the illustrations.

One problem lies in that each verse cites up to five different animals and that not all the animals are pictured on the pages. This is very confusing for my four year old who asks me where a certain animal is pictured and it simply is not there. Other pages where the verse references time of day (afternoon) and no animals, show animals. Why not have pictured simple landscapes with skies that relate to that time of day instead? For example the picture for noon doesn't even show a sun, let alone a bright shining sun, it shows a close up of bison, and bison are not mentioned in that passage at all.

Sometimes the animals within one passage are not even related to each other by habitat. An example is mentioning a stork, killdeer and a cardinal in the same passage. Yes, they are all birds but they just aren't in the same habitat, preventing them from being depicted in an illustration together. I'd have prefered mentioning three ocean dwelling creatures within one passage, even if some were birds, some fish, and some ocean dwelling mammals.

I do love picture books that feature seasonal themes or time-of-day themes. I also love books that feature animals.

I have never seen such an annoying arrangement of verses and such a mismatch of words with illustrations in a picture book for young children. For this confusion and annoyance, I grant one star. I dislike it so much that I can't stand to read it to my children and am donating it to my local library.

A great children's book with wonderful illustrations that will spark young children's interest into the animals they may send around them.

I have always loved George's work and now there is a book that even the youngest of children can enjoy, from this nature loving Newberry Medal-winning author.

To date I have bought four copies as gifts for friends and family members who just had newborn babies.

This is simply a wonderful book! I truly enjoyed using it while tutoring a fourth grade remedial reader because it was simple, yet beautifully worded and superbly illustrated. Each illustration is a marvelous nature portrait in itself. My fourth grade student (who happens to be very interested in science) savored each lovely portrait, as we talked about the animals and environments depicted in each one. Though the words are few and simple, the book avoids being overly childish. Rather, it respectfully presents the cycle of the day (morning, noon and night) and the beauty of various animals as they act in their natural environments throughout the day.

As I was reading this book it did't tell me that much about anything except that this did this and that did that. If I were you I would not buy this book. Although it is my opinion on the book, you might really like it.

Naturalist Jean Craighead George introduces us to the world of the mountain lion, the road runner, the cactus, the kangaroo rat, the ringtailed cat, the swift fox, the elf owl, the coyote, and the bombadier beetle in this book as she did wolves and caribou in JULIE OF THE WOLVES and peregrine falcons in MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. A young Papago Indian girl named Bird Wing and her mother live in Arizona's Sonoran Desert. This usually arid place is about to fall victim to a terrible thunderstorm and a flash flood. Bird Wing and all the animals of the desert struggle to find shelter before the flood. Some will survive--and some will not. This is a beautiful story about the close connection between human beings and all living things, and the unpredictable ways of nature. Other books in the ONE DAY series that include exciting natural disasters are ONE DAY IN THE ALPINE TUNDRA and ONE DAY IN THE PRAIRIE. There is also the fascinating ONE DAY IN THE WOODS and ONE DAY IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST. And don't forget Jean Craighead George's 80+ stories about nature, like The Thirteen Moons series and THERE'S AN OWL IN THE SHOWER.

Yet another wonderful book by an author very much in tune with nature and ecological concerns. She teaches while she entertains. Having lived in the region portrayed in this book, it became a gift to young friends back in Minnesota to introduce them to a COMPLETELY different world. Yielded fun discussion and comparison. They wondered at and enjoyed it very much!

The book Case Of the Missing Cutthroat is the worst book I have ever read. There is no point in the story. me and my friends joke about suffering from the Jean Craighead George disease. By the way don't read this book.

Originally titled HOOK A FISH, CATCH A MOUNTAIN, this is another Eco-Mystery from children's greatest nature writer, Jean Craighead George, author of JULIE OF THE WOLVES and MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. However, this book never quite gets to level of those classics. The story concerns Spinner, a teenager who is taken on a fishing trip against her will. After she catches a huge, nearly extinct cutthroat troat, she ends up going on a wild adventure through the woods to solve the mystery. I never could get really into the book, as Spinner is not a very likeable character for most of the story and some of it is hard to understand. But great descriptions--like an exciting lightning storm on the side of a cliff to a dangerous grizzly bear attack--come to the rescue. Any young ecologist or naturalist will want to read this story. Don't forget the other Eco-Mysteries--WHO REALLY KILLED COCK ROBIN?, about a boy who must solve the mystery of the death of his town's feathered mascot; THE MISSING 'GATOR OF GUMBO LIMBO, which concerns a girl who must track down a majestic alligator in the Florida Everglades; and THE FIRE-BUG CONNECTION. Also, Ms. George's other eighty or so novels should be more rewarding than THE CASE OF THE MISSING CUTTHROATS.

When Spinner and her dad go fishing for the weekend her dad promises her if she caught a whopper he would throw it back,but when she catches the family prize cutthroat trout her father keeps him. These kinds of fish are very rare in that part of the river so Spinner and her brave cousin Al set off to solve "The Case of the Missing Cutthroats"!

While I found this book fascinating overall, the writing was rather dry. At times the ethnographer's naivety and bias are somewhat disturbing, but he is ultimately successful in conveying a vivid picture of the Canela. I would recommend this book soley because the topic is very interesting and offers an interesting cross-cultural study.

William and his wife Jean are very successful in executing a both interesting and seemingly accurate investigation of the Canela. Like Chagnon's book Yanomamo, but less harmful,Crocker's, The Canela keeps the reader reading. The introduction sets the scene well and the historical context chapter is helpful in understanding the tribe and its origin. The following chapters on bonding through kinship, ritual and sex are easily understood. I also enjoyed the epilogue which answered a few of my questions on the Canelas current state. All in all, a successful ethnography.

George Rutler is one of the shining stars of the Catholic right. He's had his own show on Mother Angelica's network, his videos are for sale in conservative Catholic bookstores, and he's written a few books that are highly touted among conservative Catholics. I haven't read all of them, only his book on St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests. Frankly, I wasn't impressed with it. This book is a bad imitation of Chesterton, written exclusively for an audience of like minded persons as the author. His smug self-rightousness didn't leave me wanting to run out and buy his "complete works." You can almost hear him patting himself on the back after what he regards as a particularly clever statement. It's not a bad book if you agree with absolutely everything the author says. In fact, his world would be a pretty nice one to live in. The real world, however, the one most people live in from day to day, doesn't bear much of a resemblance to this guy's depiction of it.

It's an inspiring story, and Rutler writes a wonderful look at his life. It's a good read, but is very intellectual and philosophical - not your typical book about all the great God does thru the Saint but rather those great things in the context of life in St. John Vianney's time. Not for a lazy reader - it's too full of deep ideas.

Don't get the wrong idea. This book IS an entertaining read, but that is about it. There are many books in the "Gurdjieff field." Several are vitally important and many are useful to varying degrees, but there are quite a few that are a mere litany of second hand accounts, innuendo and gossup. Such is The Harmonious Circle.

There are a few authors that do the subject justice: De Hartmann, Anderson, Peters, however, James Webb is NOT one of them. Other books are first hand accounts and though subjective too, reading of the difficulties that those students encountered, as well as the insights they experienced, can be useful to those seeking a path. On the other hand, this book is written by an author who is unfortunately not qualified to write about Gurdjieff (or his "followers"). This book is far from being "the best" (maybe the "best" of the worst).

Full of a few interesting stories and much conjecture, this is not a book for those looking at gaining a deeper understanding of the significance of Gurdjieff's ideas or an accurate picture of the man. However, water does indeed seek it's own level and for those wanting a good fix of the superficial, this book is for you - an easy read especially if you like reading rambling opinions. I'd be careful about buying this book as a gift. Try James Moore's Anatomy of a Myth, instead. I give The Harmonious Circle 2 stars because it might be of some use - like lining the cage of your American canary.

This book avoids the devoutly worshipful attitude of Moore, Patterson, Bennett and thier moon-mad ilk, and likewise doesn't fall into the pit occupied by the kinds of ignorant dismissals and outright misrepresentations of fact found in so many other books, like those fairly recent things written by some well-known Brits--a psychologist, a lit professor and a famous occult writer. This is a complete presentation of the lives of G. and O., drawing the only conclusion possible: G's ideas are a brilliant but derivative hash made out of a random assortment of old occult documents and a little bit of hearsay, and G. himself just yet another trickster guru--if we give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's that much. But the book says all this with a remarkable grace, depth and style; this man knows what he is talking about and knows how to say it. Rare in this genre.

"Blue of Noon" is the story of Henri, an amoral man living in Europe during the 1930s. He is supposedly married, but spends his time with similarly amoral women, lacking clothing, inhibition, shame, and even proper hygeine at times. He zips between London, Paris, Barcelona, and Frankfurt, and frankly, engages in nothing but immoral self-satisfying activities in every spot.

At various times, he agonizes over his relationships with his wife, his sexual partners, and his deceased mother. He becomes embroiled in a Communist revolutionary plot in Barcelona, with one of his sexual partners, a Jewish woman, involved in its planning and execution. He reveals his necrophilic obsession to two of his partners, further revealing the exact, even more sickening, subject of his obsession to one of them. He has sex, he gets sick, his women have sex, they get sick, everybody has sex, everybody gets sick. For the punchline, near the end of the novel, Bataille throws Nazis into the picture, showing us that all the depravity of fascism is comparable to the depravity he has shown us all along. Though published in 1957, the book was originally written in 1936.

This reviewer isn't buying it. Not a word of it. Not the story, not even the "1936" part. For one thing, the writing style is actually more mature than that of "L'Abbe C", published in 1950. Bataille is most probably trying to show off that he detected the evil inherent in the Nazis "way back when". I don't give him that much credit.

For another thing, I think he uses Nazis as an easy way to score "scary" points. One might intellectualize his choice by saying Bataille is trying to tell us that no matter how disgusting humans may act, at least we're not as bad as Nazis. Imagine a murderer begging leniency because he's not a Nazi. He's still a murderer. It seems Bataille is using Nazis to justify the pornography he just wrote, as if the world is such a horrible place that pornography is just another little bit of it, and tries to throw a philosophical wrench into the works, as if saying life is meaningless in the face of all the horrible things fascism is doing to us in Europe, but I suspect it was all done just for the hell of it. I frankly don't see any rhyme or reason to the thematic choices he makes.

I have nothing against the depravity or explicit nature of the book. "Been there, done that", right? It's not even all that explicit, there's probably less sex in this book than the average mainstream novel today, and he's certainly not advocating committing even the slightest harm to anyone. There are a few disturbing or distasteful ideas here and there, but one never gets the sense Bataille really means what he's writing. One gets the sense he's simply trying to come up with every juxtaposition of immoral behavior and social taboo he can, just to tweak the reader's moral compass a bit, trying to get a cheap rise out of his audience. Maybe this was an interesting exercise in 1957 (or "1936"), but given the state of depravity which existed in Germany during the 1920s, and the state of sexual liberation which swept Europe from the late 19th century through the early 20th century, I strongly doubt it.

Perhaps the target reader for this book will be the person interested in twisted versions of 19th-century literature (Bataille wrote like someone living 50 or 100 years before his time), or the works of De Sade (albeit in highly shortened format, this book being only 126 pages).

I'm pretty fondly disposed to Bataille, but Blue of Noon was a disappointment. The title and the cover are wonderful, and having read Story of the Eye and L'abbe C just before it, I expected great things. But what I received instead was a drawling, shabby, painfully tedious and remarkably unmemorable narrative ramble. It isn't as disturbing as Story of the Eye, and it isn't as interesting as L'abbe C, and it feels much shorter in the surreal atmospheric magic that made those two books worthwhile. If you've already read and enjoyed Bataille, you may want to check Blue of Noon out, but it is not one of his better works.

I don't really know how to begin this review. There's not really a good angle to approach this remarkable and beautiful book. What do you do when the very things that attract you to a woman disgust you and yet they turn you on at the same time. In this novel Henri and his wife, whom he sometimes refers to by giving her the name "Dirty" are driving each other insane. They love each other but the very intensity of their personalities makes them fated to never be at peace. This is the root of their despair, that they both realize the futility of being with each other. Henri sinks into dissipation and having relationships with women he thoroughly despises. The first, a woman named Lazare, he refers to as a "raven of ill omen". She is so ugly and despicable but he loves her in a way simply because she reeks of death. He wants to surround himself with an environment that reflects his state of mind. Dirty is dying and you sense that in reality her spirit has already passed on and its simply her image dragging Henri into her own horrible hell. Most of the book takes place in Spain just as the Spanish Civil War is beginning and there are all kinds of portents of the coming World War which adds to the darkness of the characters. This book was brillantly done. The characters seemed so real because they did hurt each other, because they did have unhealthy obsessions which they revel in instead of hiding them within. They give full vent to their joys just as much as their miseries. This is the first book I have read by Bataille and I am curious to see what his other work is like.

I had to do this as a book report. There is not much to talk about it. I just hate it and wish I could rip it up. I did not like it because they changed the subject to much. I did not like that animals talked. It was very confusing. And too much detail, instead of sticking to the story line of the boy and grandfather on a mining trip.

One of the other reviewers on this page does not seem to know what he/she is talking about. The animals in the book do not talk. Instead, they are projected with dignity and accuracy. Jean Craighead George, author of the Julie books, the My Side of the Mountain books, and nearly eighty other wonderful nature stories for children, wrote DIPPER OF COPPER CREEK with her husband John George (they are now divorced), as well as VULPES THE RED FOX, VISON THE MINK, and other fine but, in my opinion, not appropriately recognized nature books. This is a wonderful book, and the story of a young boy becoming a man while his favorite birds become independent around him, is unforgettable. Any nature lover will appreciate this book. You must look deep into the poetic and beautiful text and know that this is indeed not a book to be ripped apart.

This was one of the most fantastic books I have ever read! I love the way Ms. George trys to see what is would be like from the Dippers' point of view. Keep up the good work! Dipper (*v*)