What kid doesn't love pizza? You cannot go wrong with this book. The illustrations are extraordinary!!!

This is a children's book that sweeps away the viewer, young and old alike, into a light, colorful fable about sharing and fun. The illustations are wonderfully vibrant and richly bring to life the delightful story of an eccentric King discovering pizza for the very first time. I highly reccommend it!!

If you love kids' books like I love kids' books, you've also found a few that are simply perfect. No other word describes them adequately. The characters are delightful, the plot expands with charm and insight, every word is exactly the right word, and to change even a simple punctuation mark would be a crime. The King of Pizza is one of these books. Ah, to be ruled by such a wise and caring king, to have subjects as generous as Salvatore, the pizza chef, to have a national decree of pizza every Saturday night! Life is good and The King of Pizza in my lap has made it even better. Thanks, Mr. Sanzari and Mr. Hurst. Keep cooking up more magic.

Awesome... my 4 1/2 year old child was reading within minutes of picking up her first Bob book. The author(s) took easy-to-learn sounds and turned them into interesting, fun stories that build confidence and promote early reading. No home with young children should be without this series of books... I am now buying them as gifts for family and friends. Definitely recommend!

Finally beginning books for children who are really just beginning. My three-year-old has known her letter sounds for over a year but suddenly began reading with her introduction to Bob books this month. She is gaining confidence and is surprised that she can read like her older cousins. Her six-year-old cousin is also excited about reading since she borrowed our Bob books two months ago. One word of caution, clever children will quickly memorize the story line that goes with the simple pictures and may tell you the story without reading the words. It was helpful for us to break the words down letter by letter on index cards before attempting our first Bob book.

Most books that claim to be "easy readers" require a first-second grade reading level. Bob Books start out at a much lower level. To read book 1 the child must know only "m" "a" "t" and "s." I have seen no other readers that start at such a basic level.

My children love the characters and feel so good about their reading ability. Only Bob Books afford them the feeling of accomplishment that comes from finishing a whole book. When I first purchased them I was a bit surprised at how "homemade" they seemed, but now I see how perfect they really are for new readers.

In an attempt to read, my 5 year old would come to me a hundred times a day with some book or the other and ask,'what does this say, mommy?' As it is, I was already looking around for a good reading material her age and thankfully came across Bob Books Kids. Believe me, if you are trying to teach your child to be an independent reader, then this is just the thing for you. Bob books comes in a small box with such fun to do things like activity books and finger puppets besides palm size reading books. With just a few, small one-line sentences in each story, my daughter could finish one book in no time and was jumping up and down. To finish one book is a big achievement for any child her age and the fact that she was motivated to read more, made me like Bob books even more.Your child can even color the pictures given in these books. I would mention however that your child should have some knowledge of phonics,before he/she attempts these books.You don't want to frustrate the child. I would therefore suggest workbooks by American Education publishing on Phonics and reading. To further hold their attention, try mispronouncing easy words given in the books like Barb, Mop etc. and let them correct you. I would instantly get my daughter's attention back. Finally if you can ignore some uncommon words used in these books, you would be fine. Happy Teaching reading!

These are simply the finest first reading books on the market today! Each page has a sentence such as, 'Peg had a big cap,' along with a simple illustration. At the end of each book is a list of unique words contained in the book (usually about 20-40) listed by the vowel sound. The set of 12 books also comes with a teacher/parent guide that give the story behind the Bob Books, hints for teaching your child to read, and questions you can ask the child about each book to help with comprehension and enjoyment.

This set of books really hooked my daughter on reading. We gave these to her when she started Kindergarten and she would read them on the way to school. The nice thing about having 12, is that when she mastered one of them, her 'reward' was to get the next! These books provided her first good experience with reading.

These are the absolute best early reader books I have found anywhere! Short vowels, simple words and sounds to start off and then each book adds a little more so your child can have early success, then gradually move up to harder words and eventually long vowels. There's nothing else like them. Great for early phonics practice. Closest thing to the books we learned on. (Remember, "See Dot run. See Spot run. See Dot and Spot run.", etc?) These are the first books every child should read. Try one set, then buy them all.

I was an avid reader as a child, and the GREAT BRAIN books were some of my favorites. I am now a mother of an avid reader, and tried to locate the books in several book stores. (For some reason, the library did not occur to me--shame on me!) I am so glad to have found them on Amazon.com that I am buying the whole set. This will be a great way to spend time with my son this summer! To parents--you will enjoy reading these with your children (sons or daughters)To children--you will enjoy reading these yourself (or listening, if you don't read yet). Very humorous series! Have a great time reading!

I like most of the other reviewers loved these books as a kid. I recently saw a copy at a relatives house and remembered how much I enjoyed them. I wanted to get the series in a set to give to my 8 yr. old daughter for Christmas this year but can't find it available anywhere. My mother teaches English as a second language to foriegn students and last quarter she used The Great Brain as the book they had to read and report on. She has taught this class for a couple of years and always has a difficult time getting her students to read the book she has chosen. Last quarter was different, most of the class read the book ahead of schedule and she had to come up with something else to finish the quarter. I highly recomend the whole series for children and adults.

While I grew up in a family of three brothers, somehow our adventures were never quite as exciting as the scrapes that T.D., J.D., and (less often) S.D. continually found themselves in. I can remember many wonderful days and evenings reading along with our dad through this book and all of its successors (The Great Brain Returns, Me and My Little Brain, etc.) and then many happy returns to the series by myself as I got older. I think it's testament to how wonderful the books are that even 15 and 20 years after reading them I still remember the characters and plots as well as I do, and I remember them as top-notch. Said memories include: engaging, sympathetic characters, great adventures both in and out of town as the Great Brain plots to outwit bullies, authority figures, and nature all in pursuit of glory and profits, all told from the perspective of his admiring younger brother J.D., who provides not only the Watson-like character to T.D.'s Holmes, but also a strong moral compass and corrective to some of T.D. excesses.

I think the highest accolade I can give (and this series certainly deserves it) is that I will be reading these books with my own children if I am lucky enough to have them someday, and I recommend them to anyone looking for great stories of childhood, family, and the struggles and joys contained therein. Well done, Mr. Fitzgerald. My only regret is that I can't seem to find a boxed set of the entire collection.

My daughters are huge Seuss fans. My six year-old, in particular, loves the way Seuss puts words together with his irresistable blend of scansion and rhyme. His books can be read on several levels at least, and most of his stories contain some sort of lesson or other that a parent can use to initiate discussions about larger topics.

This book has three stories, one about an ambitious turtle, one about a vain bird, and one about two silly braggarts. All three are short, can be read easily, and raise questions about morals which young children can understand and explore. My favorite of the three is the first, Yertle the Turtle, and his insatiable quest to be the biggest and best, which leads to his eventual downfall.

This is not my absolute favorite of all Seuss's books, but it's a good one, and one I can recommend heartily for any parent and child.

Three great Dr. Seuss Stories in one book.

Yertle The Turtle presents what Dr. Seuss does so well -- Reaching kids with good morality tales that are fun and easy to commit to memory. The three lessons (Don't be greedy, be happy with how you look, and don't try to one-up each other)are well presented in a format that's fun and leads easily to discussion.

The art is fun, as always, and the poems clever. Dr. Seuss scored with this one, also.

Researchers constantly find that reading to children is valuable in avariety of ways, not least of which are instilling a love of reading and improved reading skills. With better parent-child bonding from reading, your child will also be more emotionally secure and able to relate better to others. Intellectual performance will expand as well. Spending time together watching television fails as a substitute.

To help other parents apply this advice, as a parent of four I consulted an expert, our youngest child, and asked her to share with me her favorite books that were read to her as a young child. Yertle the Turtle was one of her picks.

This book has three stories in it, each with the same theme: Making Yourself More Self-Important Is the Wrong Direction!

Those who are familiar with Dr. Seuss's works during World War II as a political cartoonist will recognize the Yertle the Turtle theme as part of his satire of fascist dictators....

Your child will meet a lot of bossy people in her or his life, and this book can help prepare the way for understanding that one must assert one's rights or be trampled on. The child who is a natural leader can also learn the lesson of not abusing others. This story is a fundamental one for a democracy and should be read by every child. You will want to discuss applications of the lesson, as well, with your child.

The drawings are very funny and will keep your child laughing throughout.

Gertrude McFuss is about the dangers of envy. She was a girl-bird with the smallest plain tail ever. She had just one droopy-drop feather. Her friend, Lolla-Lee-Lou, had two feathers . . . both of which were larger. Gertrude decided she must has two also....

Your child will undoubtedly develop some envy of another child at this age. This story can help you point out the dangers of envy, and the very real drawbacks of getting what you want in many cases. So if your child decides this story is funny (and he or she will), you can then switch over to examples relating to clothing, toys and so forth in the child's own life.

The Big Brag is about a rabbit who competes with a bear to see which animal is the best....

This story is obviously focused on the importance of letting your deeds speak for you. Children like to get into squabbles like this about their potential and ability, and your reading of this story can help avoid that.

These timeless lessons should be irresistible for your child!

This book is a collection of short essays on Brazil. I found at least half to be quite interesting, though I probably skimmed about a quarter of them. Many of the essays frequently give a first hand account of life as a small farmer, favela resident or fisherman in Brazil. These essays capture and explain to the English reader the hopes, values and experiences of actual Brazilians. Most English readers gain their understanding of Brazil only second hand through academics or journalists. This book offers a fresh, reality based perspective on Brazil for English readers who haven't learned about Brazil outside of academia, the New York Times, or the beaches of Rio.

From exerpts of historical claims to letters from diplomats, from essays on slavery to descriptions of food, this book gives insights on the spirit and history of Brazil in easy to read snippets. A picture of a people emerges from original sources and non-academic evaluations that adds debth to what you will see when you go there.

I brought this book in Los Angeles on the way back from a trip to Disney with my children. I finished it almost when I arrived home. The book has great insight and should be read by Brazilians, because it presents things as they are, not as they are supposed to be. Maybe the book will be públished in Brazil some day. I hope so.

This book is good for learning Chinese characters. Ten characters are introduced each lesson and then combined with ones learned in previous lessons. Chinese is often mistakenly called a monosyllabic language and this book shows the true way by showing how the characters can be combined different ways to form usable words. The characters introduced in this two book series are those most frequently used so by the end of the second book the author says you can recognize two-thirds of the characters used even though that is a small fraction of all Chinese characters. The font used in the book is especially big and clear so it's easy on the eyes. This book uses only the traditional form of the characters used in Taiwan and overseas; not the simplified form used in Mainland China.

The DeFrancis series of books on Chinese includes "Beginning Chinese", "Character Text for Beginning Chinese", the two volumes of "Beginning Chinese Reader", and I think an intermediate book as well. While I am not thrilled with "Beginning Chinese" as a text (you can read my review on that book), I think that the readers are admirable. They are designed to teach the writing system on its own, independent of the course material in "Beginning Chinese", and yet there is a certain thematic continuity between the two books, so that they can be used as a supplement to each other. The Yale series used the same process in their earlier set of books, which are something of a classic in the field.

The books start off teaching you ten characters a lesson. They build up from the simpler ones to the more complicated, and also drill you on forming words from the characters you already know (most Chinese "words", if you can use the term, consist of two characters, each with a meaning of its own).

DeFrancis apparently produced the book "Character Text for Beginning Chinese" in addition to the Readers because some educators balk at the system of teaching the writing system independently, preferring to teach their students the words they learn to speak as they go along. I've tried both ways, and I really believe that it's a mistake not to treat the writing system as a separate subject with beginners.

You can probably teach yourself to write from these books without too much trouble. However, learning to write Chinese is an aesthetic experience as well as a linguistic one, and I don't know how authentic your handwriting will be without a teacher. DeFrancis takes it about as far as you can in a book, reviewing the traditional ways that Chinese children are taught to write the component parts in a balanced way. The grammatical demands are minimal, since it's assumed that you're using other material for that part of the learning process. On the whole, a very creditable effort, which is no doubt one reason why it has survived as a standard text for so long.

Excellent book to learn how to read Chinese characters. The excellence stems from several features: 1) the emphasis on combinations rather than characters alone - during every lesson you learn about ten characters but many more words (combinations of two or more characters); 2) large size of the characters - very, very useful for the beginner; 3) systematic repetition -- characters from one lesson are used in the following lessons in a systematic way that helps to build and keep your vocabulary. I can't think of any other book available on Amazon that shares these features. If you get the book, I suggest you buy both volumes together because the appendices with stroke order and simplified characters are at the end of the second volume.

Once a child knows the basic letter sounds, he or she is ready for Bob books! I have 6 kids, and we homeschool. I used other books for my 2 oldest, but my son Alex began reading with Bob Books. He loves them!

They are written at a perfect gradient, beginning with 3-letter, short vowel sound words. They are written just as I would have written them!

I do wish the books were larger in size (not more pages, just bigger pages) and the pictures are just drawings - no color. An improvement of better, more colorful pictures and larger pages would get a 5-star vote from me.

These are great tools, and I recommend them for every beginning reader.

I gave Bob Books to my son when he was four years old and quite proficient with his letters of the alphabet. He started reading, and he has been doing so ever since. Bet I don't have to tell you how happy it made me feel (althought now we have to stop at the library almost every day and pick up new "Easy Readers"). The Bob Books start with very simple words that can be sounded phonetically without knowing any of the rules, and then progress gradually, usually adding one or two new sounds per book. The books are very short and very simple in meaning, able to hold children's attention and giving them a huge sense of accomplishment upon completing each book. They are color coded for easy recognition of different levels. Excellent also for children learning English as a second language (my son). You can't go wrong with them, trust me, I am a savvy buyer.

My son started reading on his own and was having trouble getting through a whole Dr. Seuss without help. I wanted something more basic. When I looked at the Bob series, I thought it might be too basic, but it came highly recommended, so I bought it anyway.

First books out of the box, I was very disappointed. The binding is the same quality as a []magazine - staple through folded sheets of paper. The stories were so boring. The pictures so simplistic. Line drawings that look like someone doodled them during a boring meeting at work.

Then I watched my son. He actually read the words. Read every word. No making things up when the word was too hard. No making things up when he thought he knew what was next. He actually read.

And since the words were simple, he was able to pay attention to the story at the same time. On the other books, he was reading the words - but not getting the story. With the Bob books, he laughed and giggled. He is getting practice now. When he gets to where he can read the whole first series without a mis-step, we'll start the second series.

Reading take practice and going through the simple stuff until you can read words at a time instead of letters at a time is great. Boring as all get out for the grown up - but great for the kid.

Do NOT get these books for a 2 or 3 year old thinking that they can learn early. They will just tear the books up.

Do NOT get these to read to your kids. You'll just fall asleep.

DO get these when your child is ready to learn on their own. They will love the satisfaction of reading a whole book themselves. And you will enjoy seeing them get better with each reading.

I honestly thought I was wasting my money. I can honestly say that I was wrong. This was worth every penny and then some. I now know what my daughter's first book will be....

This mystery book is about 3 children, Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose, who follow clues to track down a missing famous author. I read this book to my 2 daughters ages 8 and 5. They both loved it. My 5 year old normally has a hard time paying attention to chapter books but SHE was the one begging for "just one more chapter" each night when it was time to put the book down. This morning she asked me if we could start the "B" book tonight!!! My 8 year old packed the book to take with her to school to read herself during DEAR today! I would say it's a hit all around!

Have you ever invited a famous person to visit you who accepted the invation and strangely never showed up?Well Dink has! The
Absent Author is Dink and Ruth Roses' favorite author.The author's
name is Wallis Wallace.Dink invited him to the Book Nook and
Wallis accepted it to sign books.All of the kids meet at the Book Nook and Wallis never showed up.Dink thought he was kidnapped because of the letter they got.Its a mystery where and who the Author really was.I think the book is really interesting because
its a mystery book.Also because the kids were acting like detectives.The absent author was suspenseful.It also made me think.I really think that you should buy this because how much intersting stuff is in it.

I gave this book five stars because it was a mystery book that the kids are looking for a absent author. They thik she is a boy. I like it that way because you really do not know what is happening so you are wondering were the absent author is. Then once you now some clues you could find the author.

J.D.'s brother Tom, the Great Brain himself, does not appear at all in this particular book. This one takes place after Tom has left for the Catholic Academy and is mostly about J.D. trying to follow in the Great Brain's footsteps, a task that J.D. doesn't fulfill until the last chapter, which makes this one a pretty tedious read. Tom's absence leaves a gaping hole. Try to imagine if J.K. Rowling were to write another book about Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Harry Potter is not in it. That's how boring 'Me and My Little Brain' is without Tom. But readers of the Great Brain series still shouldn't skip this one. It explains the adoption of a youngest son named Frankie, who will be mentioned in the fourth book, 'The Great Brain at the Academy.'

John Dennis Fitzgerald intended to chronicle his youth in Utah for adults, not children. His publisher thought otherwise and the result are these gems. I don't even call them children's lit gems because I find them just as enjoyable as an adult. Before I go on, you should know that Fitzgerald wrote one book about his youth that is for adults, called "Papa Married a Mormon". It is one of the most amazing books on the American west that I have ever read. Sadly, it is out of print, and you may, like me, have to pay an exorbitant sum to get a copy. Trust me, save up and do it. Now back to this book. Every single Great Brain book in the series is pure gold, and the entire set can be had cheaply, so I say buy them all at once. I "put my money where my mouth is" as Tom the Great Brain would say, and bought the lot.

John Dennis Fitzgerald intended to chronicle his youth in Utah for adults, not children. His publisher thought otherwise and the result are these gems. I don't even call them children's lit gems because I find them just as enjoyable as an adult. Before I go on, you should know that Fitzgerald wrote one book about his youth that is for adults, called "Papa Married a Mormon". It is one of the most amazing books on the American west that I have ever read. Sadly, it is out of print, and you may, like me, have to pay an exorbitant sum to get a copy. Trust me, save up and do it. Now back to this book. Every single Great Brain book in the series is pure gold, and the entire set can be had cheaply, so I say buy them all at once. I "put my money where my mouth is" as Tom the Great Brain would say, and bought the lot.