I read Wild animals i have known by Ernest Thompson.Its a 245 page book fild with short storys about animals.It as A little something for everyone. It has adventure, comody, sadness, and bunnys. Each story has its own characters both human and animal.My favorite story is one intitled Lobo.Its about a wolf traper and his toils with lobo the leader of the neiborhood wolf pack. Each story kept my attention throughout the whole book.I would recomend this book to everyone who likes to read about animals.

I first read this book as a very young reader, almost sixty years ago. Seton's ability to identify with the wildlife he studies,but with a minimum of anthropomorphism or sentimentality, and then write touching, exciting mini-dramas is enhanced by his role as an observer who does not inject himself as a foreign influence in their lives.

I'm buying copies of the hardcover edition for my grandchildren, for this book will be read more than once, and kept for a lifetime. Get it before it goes out of print again. Robert H. Tyrka, Sr. rtyrkasr@chesint.net

Seton Thompson's stories of wild animals and their wonderful ways touch the hearts of young and old. There are no happy endings in this book, because the moral is that animals always die tragic deaths. But if you want to learn the laws of nature and better understand animals and their ways, these accounts of a hunter-trapper will reward you with hours of enchanted stort-telling.

I first found this book in the library, and after returning it three weeks later, I was drawn back to check it out again. This is the only book of its kind, and made me want to immediately take a vacation--whether in an electric car or not! Perrin's journey takes him across America with Solo, his converted Ford Escort wagon, and he writes about a good portion of American culture, right down to his thrill to spend only $21 for a night in a hotel in Utah. He writes about all the questions posed him, the curiosities that were too irresistible to pass up, such as how expensive are the solar panels, what is the car's range, is it expensive to convert a regular car, and so on. Although Perrin's book is already over eight years old (and I was saddened to see that it is out of print), it is clear there has been some progress since the electric cars that basically had only one power source that was cheap, reliable and had a reasonable life expectancy, albeit a dangerous one: lead-acid batteries. I would feel uncomfortable sitting on top of (or near) 800 pounds of sulfuric acid. Solo has a limited range, only 150 miles a day and can only get up to about 65 MPH. The drawbacks come when accessories must be used: heater, lights, and defogger. I wouldn't have the patience to drive such a car, but maybe driving such a car would teach me patience.

I loved this book! Perrin makes nonfiction as literature an art, and breathes new life into travel writing. His book is very helpful in itself about a good, consistent writing style, and I love it when the writer takes me to the places he visits: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and so on. In that sense, "Life With an Electric Car" has no equal yet, and the author knows it. If you can find this book, buy it and keep it. Perrin's book is like a good drink that is sipped, not gulped down. Read it slowly. You may begin to think that the days of gasoline powered cars are numbered. That they are. Highly recommended for readers 14 and over.

Noel Perrin is a professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College. He had a moment of enlightenment when a student asked him how he traveled the thirteen miles to class that morning. "I drove in, in my gas-guzzling, air polluting farm truck," he admitted. Then began his quest to find a vehicle more consistent with his beliefs and his profession. He acquired Solo, a Ford Escort converted into a battery-powered, solar-panel-assisted electric car with a range of nearly sixty miles (on level ground on a warm day).

Perrin's adventures with Solo are in the best tradition of the "travelin' across America" genre. We share his frustration as he realizes that he can't make it up and over Donner Pass, and abandons his coast-to-coast drive to bring Solo home from California. (He buys a pickup truck to tow "him" - Solo is male.) We watch his chagrin as he realizes that his new truck/car caravan can't back up - not even a few feet - and he has to select motels, restaurants, and gas stops based on the shape of their parking spaces. We worry with him the first time he drives after dark; how fast will his headlights drain the batteries? Back at home, we cheer as the college gives him his own personal outlet next to a reserved parking space.

Perrin's attention to detail adds to the pleasure. He doesn't just state Solo's mileage range and charging time; he spells out the cost in time, worry, and inconvenience. School is thirteen miles away, and he can recharge the car during classes. His wife has her own separate home forty-six miles away - a little too far for comfort, especially with hills and cold weather making extra demands on his seventeen batteries. Perrin gives a detailed analysis of the "cradle-to-grave" pollution costs of owning Solo vs. owning a gasoline-powered car. He contends that Solo costs society virtually nothing - especially since he started to recharge "him" from a series of solar panels.

Three chapters have been added to the expanded paperback edition. These bring us up to date on the latest in electric vehicle technology and the evolution of the field.

This is a most enjoyable and informative book. It left me with a rather surprising urge to rush right out and buy an electric car!

This is a wonderful book, filled with recommendations of books which have been overlooked. One of the books mentioned is "Kai Lung's Golden Hours," and that establishes all by itself Mr. Perrin's right to recommend books.

Reading this book sent me on an odyssey where I discovered James Gould Cozzens and many other authors whom I had never read before.

So look at this book as the literary version of "Beautiful Music You Have Never Heard Before."

I found my copy in a used-book shop, and have treasured it for years.

Highest possible recommendation!!!

An interesting collection of reviews of books you wish you could have read. I've always been interested in old books, and now, thanks to this book, I've got a couple I'm definitely keeping my eye out for

Yes, censorship is alive, even in the Land of the Free. Perrin's terrific book is essentially a history of censorship in the UK and US. In the US, the censorship appears primarily as "bowdlerization" in which the rougher edges of a written work are edited out to avoid offending sensitive readers or arousing witch hunters.

The "Dr. Bowdler" of the title refers to the guiding light of a printed version of Shakespeare that was popular in the US in the 19th century. Bowdler and family produced this edited version for "family" consumption, since "raw" Shakespeare was deemed too raw for popular sensibilities, and for children in particular.

For this paperback version, Perrin included an update to report on more recent events. The most incredible story had to do with Bradbury's famous anti-censorship SF novel "Fahrenheit 451" and how the complete edition was supplanted for a few years by a censored edition.

Noel Perrin is great. I love all his books about living the simple, back-to-the-land rural life written by someone who is not quite an outsider and not quite an insider.

I bought this for my urban, "not-into-reading" nephews when they were 11 and 9 years old, thinking that they might not ever crack the cover, yet today (they are now 17 and 15) I found it in their bookcase well-worn. They say they've really enjoyed it, and tried several of the projects. Although its style is antique, and not quite as easy to follow as the "...for Dummies" type of how-to books, and some of the topics may no longer be of interest, I highly recommend it for all kids (boys and girls). I am buying it for my young daughters (and myself), expecting our family will enjoy it for many years to come.

Topics include "Snowball Warfare" and a whole section on Winter, "Home-Made Boats," "Novelties in Soap Bubbles," "How to Camp Out without a Tent," "Dogs," "How to Make Puppets and a Puppet Show," and "How to Make Various and Divers Whirligigs."

If you want to get your kids out from in front of the TV or computer and foster their creativity, buy this book and open it!

I read this book in the fourth grade and did many of the projects, Trapping, camping, snow forts, skits and plays, magic, all the things an American boy (or girl for that matter) will find exciting and fun.

I have given the American Boys Handy Book to the children of many of my friends. It will spur anyone's creative thinking, young or old!

If you like this one check out the American Girls Handy Book written by Beard's sister.

I had a copy of this as a kid and read and re-read it to the point that the cover was more tape than original material. A wonderful guide to doing things yourself, and a welcome antidote to today's passive consumer paradigm of childhood. A fair number of the materials called for are hard if not impossible to find today, but the spirit of adaptation and improvisation that imbues this book will inspire the reader to find substitutes. Some parents may suspect the fair number of projectile- launching devices described, but the book is infinitely less violent than most child-oriented television shows and never fails to stress safety. My friends and I learned a lot of practical mechanics and crafting skills, developed our hand-eye coordination, and never shot anything more fragile than a plastic figure. We did a heck of a lot more damage to each other and our environment playing soccer and broomstick polo. My own future children will unquestionably have a copy of _The American Boy's Handy Book_ when they're old enough.

Perrin thoroughly undermines his case with his unstoppable arrogance and partiality towards the Japanese. To him, they were the best at everything they tried their hands at, and the poor West serves as a bumbling, backward foil to this genius people. While Japanese superiority in a number of fields is well-documented (and Perrin does a good job with the quality of swords) Perrin's chauvinism is jarring and makes it hard to hear him. It also blinds him to what seems to be the major force behind the Japanese reversion to the sword: at the same time, Japan closed itself almost entirely to foreigners (who had introduced guns and every innovation having to do with them to Japan). The ferocious chauvinism of 17th - 18th century Japan (which one might daresay existed through, say, 1945, and contibuted not a small amount to their cruel wars of conquest in Asia), combined with a centralized, authoritarian, non-democratic, government and pacified country-side, are clearly the major forces behind the reversion to the sword - and this much is clear using nothing but Perrin's book! Still, he can't admit it, which is frustrating. By avoiding this critical aspect of the Japanese reversion to the sword, with all of its very unsavory aspects, Perrin sabotages any understanding of what such an action meant and could mean for us. Maybe a more thoughtful commentator can provoke us to ask some meaningful questions.

I picked this book up for my husband, the medieval weapons enthusiast, but I found myself riveted by the story it told and read it first before passing it along to him. Not knowing much about Japanese history pre-World War II and what I'd gleaned off of looking at woodblock prints, this was a great, quick introduction to the major eras and military conflicts of the 1500-1900s.

This is not just a book about the Japanese and firearms. It's also about the long struggle of Japan to limit the influence and ideas of foreigners. From the Dutch traders being limited to living on a tiny island and only allowed to make one annual trip to the mainland, to the outlawing of Christianity and indifferance to improvements in firearms technology, it's all riveting stuff.

Sometimes the tone of the book is a bit breezy, keeping it from being too serious an academic work, but I found the author's style easy to read and enjoyable. This from a person with no real interest in guns!

If you are interested in understanding traditional Japanese culture, another book to try is "Lost Japan" by Alex Kerr. Absolutely nothing to do with artillery, but covers the rest of the fine arts of Japan.

I read Noel Perrin's little book soon after it was first published in a different imprint, but returned to it around the time of the Gulf War in 1991 to remind myself of a few things that Professor Perrin wanted us to think about. I think many readers may mistake it as primarily a book about Japanese history or about the Tokugawa clan who banned guns mainly to maintain civil order in what was a genuine police state, one they were to rule for 250 years. Though a long-time student of Japan, I shudder to think of someone like Saddam Hussein picking up a few lessons from the Tokugawas. Perrin's point, though, was peace. He wrote this book, I believe, because he was a passionate anti-nuclear activist and advocate of non-proliferation. In talking to friends, he learned how the Tokugawas had - perhaps for the only time in human history - decided to give up a weapon of mass destruction, and they did it in part because they saw it as an evil, and a threat to their martial society. Samurai were expected to live and die by the sword, though the warlords who fought it out for control of Japan in the war-filled years around 1600 that brought the Tokugawas to power were perfectly happy to use massed muskets in battles that created more carnage than would be seen on any battlefield until the Napoleonic wars. At the end of the day, Perrin's assessment of the moral purpose of the Shoguns who banned the gun is probably naive, these were power hungry and paranoid dictators who sought to prevent massed musket attacks against themselves. But the book provides a fascinating vignette of how a society reordered itself and learned to live in peace for 250 years. I consider the book one of the more elegant essays on the confrontation in mankind's history between our inexorable bloodlust, and our yearning for something more sublime.

Perrin provides a series of essays on "great" (but not well-known) children's books. I really enjoyed reading his insights (I turned first to the essays on books I knew and loved as a child, as I would suspect most readers would) but later read the rest of the essays. It's clear that Perrin loves literature, and loves reading to children. I was especially taken by his discussion of Margery Sharp's books about Miss Bianca (the source material for the Disney Rescuers movies, but the books are far better than the movies). He points out how Sharp included little parodies of Regency novels in her writing - how she made her writing complex beyond what a child would notice (i.e., the child would not say "Oh, she's parodying Thackerey here"). The general thread that runs through the essays is that *good* children's writers do not write down to children, they write "across" to them, and include enough complexity of plot or language or syntax that the child is not patronized (and in fact, can go back and reread the books as an adult and not say "What did I ever see in that??" This book would be a wonderful gift for new parents.

I just finished the last half of this book last night. Perrin's book is a droll but always honest take on the country life in his beloved adopted "homeland" of Vermont as he alerts the reader to the realities behind the romantic vision portrayed on various Maple syrup containers. Country life is tough and not for the soft-hearted or timid. Some of the chapters are dated (it was published in 1978), especially the pick-up truck advice. But I did learn a lot from this book as I consider my own move to the hard rural life of Vermont and I was thoroughly entertained the whole way through. It's a really easy read with some great tips if you're thinking of making the move to a more rural life. I'm looking forward to reading Second and Third Person Rural books in the next couple of weeks. I got through this one in 3 days of sporadic reading.