This is another in the American Girls series about Addy Walker, a ten-year-old African-American girl living in the America of 1865. In this story, Addy makes a new friend in the form of M'dear, a kindly old African-American woman whose blind eyes see more than most. Sadly, as Addy learns more about her new life of freedom, she learns more about the racial discrimination that pervades the world around her. It's up to Addy, with M'dear's insights, to see the way forward in such a dark world.

The final chapter is a look at what it growing up was like for African-American children in the America of 1864. Once again, I must praise American Girls for producing such a wonderful book. This story sets out race relations in a no-nonsense way, but without recrimination-it is a true lesson in healing. My eleven-year-old daughter loved this book, with its realistic history and gentle lessons, and I loved it too!

This book continues Addy Walker's adventures after successfully escaping her plantation for freedom up North.

Addy continues to be amazed by the opportunities that are so much more broader than those on the old plantation, but also realizes that even "free" states have racial segregation and discrimination. She is no longer the property of slaveowners, but still cannot travel certain places or excercise privlleges that whites in Philadephia are able to use.

With her friend Sarah's encouragement, Addy picks out a birthday. While such an action might seem mundane by today's standards, Addy (like others during slavery) never had a day that was uniquely hers. Taking her time with the big decision, Addy ultimately picks a day that has meaning for her and indeed, the entire nation.

Addy, an escaped slave, makes a friend, and worries about segregation. When is Addy's birthday? What can she do about prejudice between blacks and whites? How can she make this birthday a happy one? And can her new friend help her? Find out in this lovely tale.

This book is among the first to apply complexity theory to developmental psychology, and is definitely a must read for anyone interested in either topic. When read in conjunction with Port and Van Gelder's Mind as Motion, Walter Freeman's How Brains Make Up Their Minds, and Alicia Juarrero's Dynamics in Action, one begins to see aborning the outline of a new framework for a naturalized philosophy of mind.

Surprisingly, even a younger child can understand the first part of this book, which introduces some higher level mathematical concepts in an engaging manner. I would like to see more books like it!

Pirates, naval warfare, ship wrecks and sunken treasure...this book has it all !

While archeology (even the marine variety) can be a dry subject, Roger C. Smith does an excellent and workmanlike job of extensively documenting the maritime history of the Cayman Islands.

As the son, grandson and nephew of a long line of Cayman Island mariners (my ancestors were among the first permanent settlers) I found the documentation of many of the stories told by my elders to be fascinating.

Today the Islands are best known as a tourist destination and a major player in the world of off-shore banking.

This was not always the case. In the distant through relatively recent past the Cayman Islands were a significant supplier of manpower to the regional and even the world maritime industry.

Mr. Smith documents the maritime evolution of the Cayman Islands with extensive research in the Islands and Europe.

Coupling the research with detailed field work and an ability to write in an informative and entertaning fashion results in a GREAT READ.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in maritime history, pirates, treasure or the Cayman Islands.

This book is divided into seven sections:

The first section deals with history and clinical examination. This is probably only of interest to veterinary students who have not yet entered clinical rotations.

The second section is sorted by clinical signs. It might be my approach to cases, but I have found this section the least useful and rarely refer to it.

The third section is of diseases and management of the neonate. This section is sketchy and lacks detail. For the equine neonate, it is not as comprehensive as Koterba's Equine Clinical Neonatology, which although published in 1990, still contains the best information on the subject.

The fourth section on collection and interpretation of laboratory samples is extremely useful. The textboxes, a great layout feature throughout the book, are of particular use in this section. Some detail is lacking in this section (for example there is no explanation of the difference between BEecf and BEb), but overall it is the section I refer to most often. The table for conversion from 'American' units to SI units is especially useful for reading the international literature.

The fifth section considers diseases of each organ system separately. This leads to some repetition between this and the first section and between different organ chapters, but overall is a good approach. The different organ chapters reflect the authors and editors, and are variable in quality. The cardiovascular and hepatobiliary sections are particularly good. The bones and renal chapters are generally poor.

The sixth section is a missed opportunity. Treatment options are not covered in sufficient detail throughout the book and should be gathered in this section. Some sections, such as the fluid therapy which is found in the alimentary chapter, should be expanded and moved to the therapeutics section. Principles of treating shock, endotoxemia, pain and inflammatory conditions should have been covered in this section. Instead they are scatterd throughout the text in variable detail.

The seventh section regards congenital, hereditary, immunologic and toxic disorders. Only the toxicology chapter is well written.

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Overall the layout and indexing of this book make it very accessible. However, the content is of variable quality and needs updating. I would recommend this to Food Animal Veterinarians. For Equine veterinarians, Reed and Bayly is probably a better buy.

This book is an extremely thorough account of basic large animal medicine. Equine lameness and other medical orthopedic issues are not a part of this book. I have also used this book when dealing with exotic species, relying on the thoroughness of its basic medical approach to make educated extrapolations.

Need to know something about large animal medicine? This book almost certainly covers it and in great detail. I relied on this book as practically my sole large animal source in veterinary school. My only regret? That I didn't buy it sooner. The only area it may be lacking in is equine lameness.

This book presents a new way of modeling geometric forms. The idea of using paper plates to form the Origami-like 3-d models is unique! "Children" of all ages will enjoy creating these spatial phenomena. Very Clever.

This book shows exciting paper plate folding activities that will definitely enhance the understanding of Geometry. The idea of using paper plates (a relatively inexpensive classroom resource) to gain understanding of otherwise complex and abstract figures is unique! There seems to be no age limit to the fascination of the origami-like activity. Thanks to the author, Bradford Hansen-Smith, for showing us your models in Chicago.

I find this volume much less required than Vol. I. It's good stuff for a GM to have around ("The PCs have really done it this time. Let's see how long it takes them to freeze to death...Oh, here's a rule for that!), but really, really not important for players. There's a list of poisons and what they do in game terms, which might be handy, but it's largely ways for GMs to tweak their roleplaying environment toward greater/lesser realism, make up random societies (that's a table I hope to never use.)

It's still worth its 4 stars, but only as a GM. There are no ads, disads, or skills, nor are there background systems or anything else like that. It's all about environment hacking via rules.

As an alpaca breeder for seven years, I still use this book as a reference guide and highly recommend it to folks who might be interested in breeding alpacas. It covers a wide range of topics with great illustrations and facts, from what signs of labor to look for to how to care for the newborn cria and don't forget the dam, after she delivers. Know that everything listed and described might not happen, but is a nice presentation and helpful resource to have besides your vet. If your vet is new to camelids, its a great reference source for them as well.

Overall i think the book is a good read. Hempstone does a good job of telling the times as the they were during his term in office in Kenya. Some of the things maybe slightly exaggerated but i think the important thing is that it tells what was in our minds during this time but we as kenyans were unable to say. He also does an excellent job of describing Moi; dictator, vicious, illiterate, corrupt etc. (probably would explain why Moi is suing him)
There were several things that i didn't like about the book. Everytime Hempstone mentions a person he has to tell us what tribe that person belongs to...urrrgh....if there could be a reason for banning this book in kenya..this would be it! The other thing i noticed was that Hempstone does an amazing job of making himself look good in the book. The book is filled with notes of important people or not praising him for this or that....it struck me as very self promoting. Some of the stuff about locals was absolutely untrue. For example...at one pt he says the Samburu are know to diet on meat, milk and urine like the maasai. The urine part is an outright lie, i say this a maasai born + bred deep in maasai land...maasai do not drink urine...yaaak....blood we drink urine is a no-no!
The last and minor thing is the endless repeatations in the book. Several statements are repeated over + over again through the book...i got the impression that maybe a pt was being drum into my head.
Nevertheless, this book gives an interesting insite into the political issues in kenya as well as most likely alot of the other african countries. I was kind of disappointed that the book didn't go more into depth on the sudan crisis --- that region of africa needs serious help!

Whilst the book is certainly a useful and informative perspective, and covers a fascinating and deeply perturbing subject, it's difficult to overlook the author's pomposity and self-righteousness; so much so, that, given his rose-tinted and deeply erroneous belief in wondrous US foreign policy, one begins to wonder whether his views upon events in Kenya at the time are equally skewed.

Having only lived in Kenya a very short while, and not during the time he describes, I cannot have my own understanding of events to corroborate what he says, and Hempstone certainly makes little attempt to back up any of the stories about the nefarious Biwott and megalomaniac Moi, beyond saying that he got them from reliable sources... Which is a real pity, because it would be so nice to see him truly skewer the indubitably corrupt and malignant politicians.

As a memoir it's certainly entertaining enough, as long as you learn to flip through Hempstone's self-promoting blather, which at times begins to sound like a curriculum vitae. It gives you plenty of fascinating historical background, and a decent understanding of the beautiful country Kenya is, but as reliable reference material, however... Who could say?

I was in Kenya when Amb. Hempstone was there and all included in the book is highly accurate. It is a very good read about life in Kenya during those years.