to gain attunement to the chakras. I can't give this book 5 stars because I just don't know enough about the chakras to know how good it is. But... this book gives info like what music will stimulate a chakra, what dream images one might expect to encounter when a chakra is awakening, what yoga positions will enhance a chakra's functioning and what visualizations one can do when working with a chakra. I have never seen information about the chakras presented like this. Although I know that flower essence chakra remedies are available this is more a DIY approach using the Bach essences.

Competency-based recruiting is made easy with MBTI and this book nicely explains all the finer points of the technique. I recommend this book for all those who wish to implement Competency based activities in their organization

This a very accessible, though dated, introduction to Ghana written by a political scientist (now in the Israeli Knesset) and an anthropologist. The only real problem with the book is that the story ends in 1979, just as Flt Lt Jerry J Rawlings comes to power and initiates a significant reorientation of the Ghanaian economic and political system. It is a pity that Pellow and Chazan have not updated this book. Now of interest more as a history than a description of the contemporary scene.

I thought the book was very helpful with my group sessions. I highly recommend it.

Growing Up With Language is Naomi Baron's fifth book about language. Baron writes this book for "parents, medical practitioners, educators and students." Since her graduate work, Baron has tried to reconcile the gap between studying in academia and practice and research with real children. Three questions remained unanswered. The first "How do you teach language?" The third and most difficult , "How do children crack the language code?" Any new parent or parent to be who has read Infants and Mothers by T. Berry Brazelton, will feel comfortable with the format of this book. Brazelton describes the development of three babies that he calls "Quiet," "Active," and "Average." Baron also chooses three styles of language learners that she identifies as, Sara, Ryan, and Alex. Throughout the book Baron includes a myriad of anecdotes to illustrate each language learning milestone for each of her three learners. When reading the book from cover to cover, you will discover that information is often repeated. Some readers will read specific chapters dealing with grammar, or baby talk, and will find the repetition of information helpful. Others will find it redundant. Each chapter concludes with an "Ideas and Alerts" section. These sections and the concluding Notes section are invaluable. Baron also chooses three "normal" children. In Chapter One, Baron introduces her three subjects and gives an outline for the remaining chapters. Baron identifies seven phases of language development and four themes. The first theme involves the "Conversational Imperative." The imperative compels people to talk to babies, pets, and stuffed animals. Theme II is the "Phantom Normal." All parents are yearning to know that their child is "normal." Theme III is "Language Orienteering," this is Baron's term for how children learn language. "Language Saturation," is how language learning is measured. Language is a social activity. Parents and children engage in a "duet" of conversation. Chapter Two illustrates the conversational relationships of the three children and their families. Baron discusses the common features of babytalk and the development of language from birth to the emergence words. Biology impacts language development. Changes take place with the palate, tongue and larynx that allow an infant to first use his mouth for nourishment and later for communication. Short hand allowed secretaries to conserve time and space without losing content. Children create their own spoken shorthand when communicating with others. Young children exploit their expressive vocabulary confident that they have maintained meaning, even when adults need an interpreter. Chapter Three, "Language on a Shoestring," illustrates through a variety of anecdotes how children attempt to communicate using their limited language resources. Adult language and phonology requires young linguists to perform tongue calisthenics. Because of the difficulty of sequencing certain sounds, water becomes "wawa" and Thank you becomes "Tanku." Depending upon the volume of language modeled for children, each child develops a language learning strategy reflecting his language environment. Katherine Nelson named the early word users as "referential." Referential children use recognizable words at 9-10 months. Referential children begin using grammar and creating their own word combinations using analysis of modeled parental language. "Expressive" children will have their first words appear at 12- 14 months. Their language is "echo" the speech of adults, and are less likely to take risks. Baron states that many children fall between these two groups. The two learning styles mirror the parental learning styles. Referential parents ask many questions and talk about objects in the environment. Expressive parents use language related to social activities and conversation. Preschoolers establish a vocabulary, then they must work and mold their grammar. Most adults do not remember their children's colloquialisms, however Chapter Four, gives examples that will be familiar to most parents. Using words analogies children create new words of phrases as needed. Use of analogy caused Alex to respond." I changed up my mind." Alex had heard response, "I made up my mind," numerous times. It seemed a logical response to also "change up" your mind. "Bags on the Banks," is the title of Chapter Five. The subtitle is "Orienteering in Meaning, Sound and Conversation." What are "bags on the banks?" To any preschooler, they the bags that are often put on parking meters, when they are not in use. To a preschooler who does not know the term "parking meter," bags on the banks is a logical way to express meaning. As children become "saturated" with language, they begin to create humor, and see relationships between events. Children begin to have "language awareness," and are able to manipulate the language, sometime creating unexpected humor. Once you understand the concept of a sunset, would a rainset, or snowset seem impossible? Chapter Six, demonstrates a child's ability to manipulate language. Chapter Seven, focuses on emerging literacy. Baron discusses the impact that Sesame Street has had on many modern preschool children. While singing the praises of Sesame Street, she does not consider the television as a substitute for parental communication. Susan Foster-Cohen, author of An Introduction to Child Language Development, suggests that there are two responses to language research. One is that of an observational response and the other a logical response. Cohen considers Baron to be the former and herself the latter. Foster-Cohen suggests that Baron's book is for people" with little or no familiarity with linguistics." Growing up with Language, will give parents and teachers of young children an insight into how they develop language, and offer a variety of suggestions to aid in this process. It would be a useful resource for professionals who are communicating with parents about language development. A reader of Growing Up With Language will understand the meaning of morphology, pitch, intonation, and the importance of glides and liquids. Anecdotes will bring back memories or perhaps provide a few chuckles. The resources and notes listed give ample suggestions for continued study. It is a reader friendly book, that is not intended to offer a course in linguistics.

The very short 1981 edition currently before me features black and white illustrations by Philip Gough, and was translated by Naomi Lewis.

There's been a trend lately for fantasy authors to take traditional fairy tales and retell them, either as novels (as in Mercedes Lackey's case, or Peggy Kerr's _The Wild Swans_) or short stories (Tanith Lee did this even before Terri Windling came along). Hans Christian Andersen's little gems *aren't* traditional folk tales - he did the work - but quite often serve to fuel such fires anyway.

The translator, Naomi Lewis, has included a brief introduction discussing Andersen's life and career, and a few pages of notes at the end of the book discussing the original publication and origins of each story herein.

"The Princess and the Pea", "Thumbelina", "The Emperor's New Clothes"

"The Little Mermaid" - If you're only familiar with the Disney version, I warn you that they discarded much of what makes this story truly great. When evaluating a translation of this story, a quick test is to check the last scene between the mermaid and her prince to see how well the translator captures the actions and feelings of the characters.

The youngest of the seven mer-princesses has always been more fascinated by her grandmother's tales of the world above than any of her sisters, but she has the longest to wait for her first trip to the surface on her fifteenth birthday. Since mer-folk turn into seafoam at the end of their 300 years of life and have no immortal souls, she is especially curious about her grandmother's tales of how humans, when they die, can rise into a higher world just as the merfolk rise to the ocean surface, but one the merfolk can never reach, save through a human's love. (Oscar Wilde once turned this upside-down in "The Fisherman and the Soul", a very good story in which a fisherman fell in love with a mermaid and magically cut himself free of his soul to join her in the sea.)

As each of the sisters in turn makes her first journey, we see the world through their eyes, and since each has a different temperament and their birthdays fall at different times of the year, each sees and seeks out different sights. But when the youngest princess' turn finally comes (her name is never given), she has experiences that even the 3rd sister (the most adventurous of the lot) never had: a prince's birthday celebration at sea is struck by a great storm, foundering his ship before her eyes.

"The Steadfast Tin Soldier" - A toy story.

"The Nightingale" - Try Lackey's _The Eagle and the Nightingales_.

"The Ugly Duckling"

"The Snow Queen" - Check out Joan D. Vinge's novel of the same name.

"The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep" - They're porcelain figures who have fallen in love, but when her grandfather arranges a marriage for her with a mahogany carving instead, they decide to run away together.

"The Happy Family" - One of Andersen's lesser-known stories, of a little family of snails who know that they're the most important people in the world. :)

"The Goblin at the Grocer's" - The poet rescued an old book of poetry from the grocer who was using it as scrap paper, and the household goblin took offense at what was said. But when he entered the poet's room to play him a spiteful trick, he got more than he bargained for.

"Dance, Dolly, Dance" - Very short story about a poem written for little Amalie and her dolls.

First reading this book for an anthropolgy course, I had no idea how fascinating it was going to be. The book is a detailed description of the life of himalayan herders, specifically focusing on the village of Melemchi in Nepal. It describes the agrobusiness that subsidies the main activity of milk and milk by product production. Also, the intricate lives of these people and their interdependence betwen them and their environment is maginificent. All in all, awesome information with simple but detailed text. This is a great book for those who are interested in learning about different world cultures, and the author makes it easy to identify with people who live a much simpler, but just as work filled, as ours. Great book and very interesting!

Although I had to read this novel for a Spanish literature class, I found myself enjoying it immensely. There are so many questions that we have about what happens after death. This novel shows you one possibility.

Ana Maria is in limbo between life and death, and although she is dead to our world, she can still hear, see and feel. As she lies on her deathbed, she has memories of her life with each of the people who come close to her bedside. Her tumultuous and unhappy life leaves her unable to die and rest peacefully until she has released her anger and sadness in this world. Through her memories and seeing those at her deathbed for the last time, she is able to die in peace and rest for all eternity.

This novel is captivating as it leads you through her life post-mortem. The narrator is sometimes Ana Maria herself and sometimes another force. At times, she even has the spirit from beyond pulling her closer to her final resting place.

The novel is not always exciting, but it definitely makes you question religion's take on what happens after death.

I picked this up in a supermarket as a pick-me-up for my son when he had a cold and now I'm getting a fresh copy--the first one has been loved to pieces!

This book is roughly Elmo-shaped. Each two-page spread has a verse based on the song, "If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands," such as "If you're mad and you know it, stamp your feet," and "If you're sad and you know it cry boo-hoo." Some of them are a bit unexpected in my view, such as, "If you're proud and you know it stand up tall." However, they're all positive ways of expressing emotions and my son LOVES to do all the motions.

It isn't a classic, but it's great fun!

As with her previous books - "The Shaker Legacy" and 'Rural Japan" Linda Butler captures the timeless spirit of Italy. Her photographs have the ability both to convey a feeling for the atmosphere of a place but also for the people who live and work in it. Her unerring photographic eye homes in on the essence of her subject matter. Her craft is impeccable. Her book most enjoyable.