I am a long time San Diegan with a passion for local history. This book does a wonderful job of telling the history of our beloved park. There are plenty of photos with descriptive captions. Excellent text as well. Mr. Showley, My hats off to you! Thanks for a great book.

Mary Bradshaw Richards was one of the first women to enter the park on vacation. Many men visited the park for reasons from surveying to vacationing. This story tells the story of Yellowstone from the point of view of one of it's first tourists. An interesting read for women.

I've lived in, worked for, and studied the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and I can confirm that Lowry has done his homework well. This book is more than just a voice crying in wilderness. Lowry not only exposes the problems, he offers very viable solutions that merely need the political support of the common man to be implimented. Unfortunately, since this book's publication things have gotten worse, especially in Canada. One of my biggest frustrations has always been that the American public doesn't know the extent to which self-serving congressional interests are ruining our national treasures by preventing the NPS from doing its congressionally mandated mission of historic and natural preservation. It's not just budget cuts folks! As Lowry explains, its mega-cooperation owned concessions exploiting visitors at the expense of the very ecological health of parks in the name of "visitor services." It's scientific research intentionally poorly funded and results ignored, or worse yet, severely censored before they are allowed to be released to the general public. And it's all here, well documented in "The Capacity for Wonder" including scores of interviews with rangers from all over the continent who haven't given up... yet. This book is for all of us rangers who dare not speak because we have to feed our families, and for all you voters and tax payers who do "GIVE A DAMN!" but until now, just don't quite have enough accurate information to act.

This is the most complete book available on the human history of Sequoia National Park and describes the struggle to protect the giant sequoia.

This book is a must for any police officer especially park law enforcement. Hoping for a new version soon!

What a great book! Best I can tell, this is the only history of Denali available. This book is full of the history of not only Denali, but also early Alaska and the Park Service. There are page after page of vintage photographs and maps. The text reads smoothly and quickly and amazes at every page. I thought that Denali might be our most special National Park--now I know that it is.

When I found Flash! Bang! Pop! Fizz! I was finally impressed with a children's book of science experiments. My judgment was validated when a friend told me the following story that showed its magic.

Clients of hers recently moved into a new home. Their oldest boy was to do a science fair project in school and the family, still partially unpacked, could not put their hands on any books or materials that might prove helpful. A trip to the library left the young student totally bored and disinterested.

My friend offered her own copy of Flash! Bang! Pop! Fizz! to the distraught mother. The mother called the next day, incredulous and excited. Her son loved the books and picked out a project. The situation turned from grim to enthusiastic.

The boy is the oldest of three children and the ecstatic mother said she was going to go out and buy three copies of the book since they would be needing them for the next seven years of science!

I recommend the book to all!

If Janet Chahrour's, "Flash! Bang! Pop! Fizz!" had been around when I was a kid in school, I'm sure my chemistry and physics grades would have been much higher. Who knows? I may have been the next Einstein!

This is a wonderful book for students to learn how to appreciate the physical sciences and have a whole lot of fun while doing so. Chahrour drew from her many years experience as a science teacher to compile 25 different activities and experiments that children can perform using everyday household items.

With amusing titles such as "Whirligig Rocketry," "Pop Can Pedestal," "Portable Alarm," "Fabulous Play Goop," and "Your Dear Friend, Egbert," children learn the basics about air pressure, density, chemical reactions, liquids, gases, gravity, motion and many other scientific concepts. In addition to clear, step-by-step instructions for each experiment, the book provides vocabulary lists and easy to understand explanations of the scientific principle under study.

The book is an easy to read large format paperback, profusely illustrated in color, and contains guidelines for parents and teachers.

Even though, I've been out of school much longer than I care to admit, I found Chahrour's book to be fascinating and fun. Although written for children from grades 5 to 9, it definitely appeals to children of all ages.

If you love maps, Grand Canyon, and geology, you will want to have this marvelous map on your wall. It's a big, dramatically colorful geologic map, covering the entire eastern region of the Canyon, where most of the hiking trails are located. Grand Canyon geology is simple and bold, and therefore eminently accessible to the amateur. This map, which makes it even more accessible, is a wonderful companion piece to the handful of geology books about the Canyon, and will inspire you to purchase one if you have not already done so. With a little effort, using the legend in the margin, you will soon learn to pick out every layer of rock that you can observe from the rim or encounter on your hike or float. Needless to say, the map is even more of a treasure-trove to the professional. More than a map, the beautifully printed sheet also includes several cross-sections of the Canyon, revealing what is going on beneath the surface. If you have visited the South Rim you may have seen this map. Two copies are on display in the entrance hall / cocktail lounge of the Arizona Steak House, adjacent to Bright Angel Lodge. Because of its size, it is not a map you would want to carry in your pack, but, tacked up on your wall or unrolled on a table, it will provide plenty of rock-solid lore as you plan your next Canyon adventure or remember the magic of your last visit.

Although you don't have to be going down the Grand Canyon on a raft to get the most out of this guide, this will greatly enhance your experience if you are.

This book is jam-packed with the information you want. If you've ever been on a raft and wondered "Hey, what's up that side canyon?", Williams tells you all you need to know, from what mile marker the hike starts at, to where to park your boat and camp, to how long and difficult the hike is and what you'll see.

The book includes maps and gorgeous photographs to augment the text, plus background information on the Grand Canyon--geology, history, politics, and folklore--that's just plain good reading.

If you're one of the lucky ones who gets to paddle down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon each year, DO NOT GO without this book to take that experience to a new level. And if you're one of the many folks who explores the Canyon by hiking in from the top, here's a book with a bunch of information you don't want to be without.

How often have you've heard the tales of gloom and doom regarding the deforestation of the tropics? Undoubtedly, the numbers are grim and the outlook for many forests is not good. This is why this story, wonderfully told by William Allen, a science writer at the ST. LOUIS DISPATCH, is particularly refreshing and guardedly optimistic.

Allen craftily weaves anecdote with history, real people with events to present a story that tells how a relatively small park in NW Costa Rica (Guanacaste National Park) developed into the Guanacaste Conservation Area, some 10 times larger than its original size. But the story is not limited to the success in creating a larger park. Rather, the author depicts the efforts of a determined group of Costa Rican and foreign scientists (led by Daniel Janzen) as they attempt to reverse the effects of deforestation and actually bring a substantial area back to some semblance of its original state.

The story delves quite a bit into Janzen's personality and raises the issue of a foreigner's role in a project such as this. Would it succeed without him? Just what would it take to restore non-virgin forest? Is this an idea that might work elsewhere? Just a few of the intriguing questions dealt with in this book.

I particularly enjoyed the beginning of each chapter, where the author introduces an anecdote upon which the rest of chapter usually builds. The anecdotal information is highly entertaining of itself, and when used as metafor, it is easier to remember the larger points made.

If you're into eco-whatever, this is great stuff...

paul e.