My favorite pirate book, and we have most of them, I ordered 5 more to give as gifts, Easy to read, and absolutely darling pictures. Story line keeps us all amused. I changed the work, "hate " on the last page to dislike, since I would rather say dislike around my five year old.

We've had this book for about 2 years....we're still reading it! My son (now 6) loves it. But it's definitely not just a "boy book". It's fun for everyone. We have several other "Critters of the Night" and "Little Critter" stories too. These are the kind of books that encourage kids to 'want' to read simply because they are fun, entertaining and just well done. We've bought every one of these books that we've come across - except for the "L.C. and the Critter Kids" series - and we have not bought those only so there will be something to look forward to in the future as my son enters that particular reading level.

I just stumbled upon this book and my 4 year old and 1 year old just loved it. It has a great story about a benign pirate who loses his gold tooth to a sea beast and then must search undersea to find it again. The illustrations are great. Best of all, it is a Step Up To Reading book. We read it to our 4 year old and the verse is constructed so that he can finish the sentences all by himself. It is his first real "participation" book, but it is not just exclusively for older preschoolers, as our 1 year old is equally interested in it as well. We really are pleased with this book and are looking for more just like it.

Do phantoms drive sports cars? Find out!

Mrs. Jeepers is taking her class to the opera. They see a sport car that is really cool. In the opera, they meet a violin player who doesn't like Eddie very much. But this guy is driving the sport car!

They try to get a ride in it, but this guy won't. Is this guy a phantom? They have to find out. How about having the opera singer who really likes Erik (the violin player) have a person who adores her. But can they do this before the intermission is over?

This book is really great. Its kind of like the phantom of the opera but with a more exiting twist

I have read almost all the Bailey School Kids books and this is one of the best. The book relly discribes what is going on.

Let's admit it...all parents help out with homework. Sometimes the help is simply altruistic, other times it is to meet a glaring deadline and of course there are times we just want to make sure everything is done right. To this end, "The Reader's Companion to American History," is a solid companion for parents who pitch in and help their kids finish their homework. It is also a valuable source to make sure our kids are not cutting corners.

This book has it all...brief entries, articles, essays, maps, tables, bibliographies, thorough cross-references and a big-time index. If you want to find out facts about political, economic, social and cultural history, editors Eric Foner & John Garraty do a splendid job. Moreover, the first-class collection of nearly four hundred contributions from eminent scholars, biographers and journalists is very impressive.

Name it...James Monroe (fifth president of the United States), Marilyn Monroe, The Monroe Doctrine...its all there. This book is great to have around during crunch time on homework. It is reliable and easy to use. Its big and heavy and not easy to carry around but when it comes to your kid's education...its worth its weight in gold.

Although I've only read a small fraction of this delightful reference work, I'm quite grateful to own it. It allows you to quickly research difficult topics, check the veracity of a book, and follow your intellectual curiousity.
For example, I recently watched a biography of Frederick Douglass, the 19th century abolitionist. That revitalized my interest in the fiery orator and the abolitionist movement. The Reader's Companion contains a concise, yet in-depth profile that emphasizes Douglass' insights into the roots and consequences of racism in the 19th century.
This hefty reference work, featuring the work of respected scholars should be used by anyone enrolled in a United States History course, professional historians, and amateur historians.
There is also enough balance that you can easily detect the biases of various writers.

the book is invaluable as it is quite difficult to read any history book and know every subject or person involved in the reading. Therefore, the reader's companion is a great source when doing history projects or simply reading history. One does not need to pull out all his encyclopedias or go online to find out who a person in his or her reading is. For any student, especially those of history, this book comes highly recommended. The exerpts are detailed, yet not too lengthy, and provide enough bacground for the average researcher.

I bought this book for my husband last year as a Christmas gift.. it is STILL in our bathroom. We have read and re-read it time and again. This year I'm getting another one. It makes a great gift and believe it or not.. very interesting conversations. Oh ya, and tons of laughs! definately 5 stars.. if not higher.

Highly entertaining. This book is filled with more pedantic and esoteric material than you can imagine. I couldn't recommend it higher. In fact, I recommend it to all my friends as a great book for airplane trips, waiting around, and even a coffee table book.

I have all the bathroom readers and this one, in my view, is the best one so far. If you liked the others, you'll like this one. And if you don't have any of the others, this is a good place to start.

"Africa" is the companion volume to the recent PBS series of the same name, and like the series, is organized into eight parts, each one focusing on a particular geographical region of the continent. In clear, concise language, John Reader gives us the historical and geographical background of each area, the current economic and social structure, and the problems affecting the particular region. The photographs are mind-blowing; they are so gorgeous that they almost dominate the excellent text. The one disappointment, for one who has also seen the PBS series, is that the book doesn't follow the individual stories of people in depth as the PBS production did; however, no one who hasn't seen the TV production will miss it, and it in no way detracts from the overall value of the book. This is one book about the "dark continent" that does the continent, and its people, proud.

This is an excellent book for anyone who might find Reader's earlier book "A Biography of the Continent" too much of a good thing. "Africa" explores many of the same themes and issues, but the information is arranged differently and there are more illustrations; this book is aimed at the educated lay-reader. Still it is an important and outstanding book. Reader is a good writer and his research and grasp of a myriad of disciplines related to his subject is impressive.

The story is told by geography: Savanna, Desert, Rain Forest, Mountains, Sahel, Great Lakes, Coast, Southern Africa. Being a "companion" to the PBS/NGS TV series there is some (but not much) focus on the people who appeared in the television documentaries. Mostly Reader tells the stories behind the story; his history of Africa is as much about the environmental, geographical, and physiological as merely chronological. For example, Reader tells why bananas and plantains are so important in African history; what makes camels so invaluable in the Sahara, how sickle cells and malaria are related, even the advantages and disadvantages of walking upright. Of course there is some in-this-year-such-and-such happened, but that is kept to a minimum. This "Africa" is not only an outstanding introduction to Africa, it should also be of interest to any Africanist.

The photographs by Michael Lewis are good enough to be a book of their own; they combine with Reader's well organized and informative text to make "Africa" an excellent portrait of the continent. Reader's "Biography of the Continent" is also highly recommended.

My 4 year old loves to have these books read to him. Before I introduced these books to him he was at a much simpler level of book, but his interest - because of the droids (robots) has helped him grow into these. My 7 year old devours them by reading them to himself and to his brother.

It talks about the fate of Anakin Skywalker. I thought it was a good and detailed book. It gets right to the point.

Friendly watercolors.
Chubby toddlers.
Adoring relatives and adorable babies. What's not to love?

Vestergaard's wonderful word play on a universal theme, babies and the people who love them, is pleasing to the ear. Wallace's illustrations compliment the fun.

All this comes wrapped up in a pastel presentation of perfect poetry.

Makes me wanna go "ahhhh!"

BABY LOVE is a delightful collection of short poems that celebrates the world of babies. Some of the poems are sweet and touching while others are silly and fun. My personal favorite is called SWEET DREAMS:

"Of all the places you can rest,
Your favorite one is Daddy's chest.
You tuck your head beneath his chin,
Feel his breath and smell his skin.
Your cozy perch moves up and down...
Up and down..."

BABY LOVE makes a perfect shower or baby gift for any new parent. It's also a cozy, cuddle-up read aloud with your own special baby. John Wallace's delicious watercolor illustrations and imaginative borders are the perfect compliment to this engaging collection. "Enjoy this wee bliss."

I love this book and The Absent Author. Thery both are kind of scary and really mysterious. The Bald Bandit is about three kids, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose. A boy has taped a robber robbing the Green Lawn bank. The three kids have to find the tape and the robber and you'll be surprised at who robbed the bank!!

A new children's mystery series from A - Z. Meet Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose and enjoy their adventures in Green Lawn. Help them solve who robbed Green Lawn Savings Bank. A great way to spend quality time with your children and have fun together as a family. Can't wait for the "Canary Caper" to become available.

As the title states, the reviews included are intended for books for those in grades seven through ten. This is a reference work and it contains short, one or two sentence reviews of both fiction and non-fiction young adult books. General reference books such as encyclopedias were not reviewed. The 2000 edition contains 11, 730 titles. Many of the books included contain review citations. The preface states that that Best Books For Young Adult Readers was designed to help librarians evaluate their current collection, build new collections, build reading lists and finally to provide reading guidance to young adults.

I have never thought I could find a book that was packed with so much information! With over 1000 pages of book titles, authors and discriptions, it is easily a book I know I can trust. Best of all, all of its books are just for teens(Ages 12-18)! With all the books out these days that focus on trash, it's really hard to find a good book to read, in my opinion. I'm a book-loving teen, myself, constantly searching for a new book. The reason I like this book is because with so many titles, with descriptions, to choose from, I don't have to spend a lot of time at the library like I used to. =)

I'm not sure why this book claims to be appropriate for baby-preschool ages. On the back of the book, it has a reading level 2 clearly marked on it. We even bought it from the Scholastic book forms the kids got in second grade.

At any rate, this book is good for a variety of ages, which is a definite plus when you have children of different ages. Little ones can help spot the pictures. Older ones can read the story as well as spot the pictures.

My family and I did this as a 'group' project. Each child would scan thru the page and try to find all the pictures first. There are 11 pictures, so the week around Halloween, we'd pull the books out and try to find all the pictures. It made the waiting time for Halloween go by and it also let them enjoy Halloween just a bit longer.

John Speirs' books are a lot of fun and I highly recommend them!

My 4 year old son had the best time trying to find the hidden pictures in this book. He wanted to look at it every night before bed for about 2 weeks. The book has lots of hidden pictures that you and your child will both have lots of fun finding! My 2 year old even liked it! We're going to get other books like this by the same author for sure!