We got this book purely by accident and our 14 month old son LOVES it. He repeatedly asks for it to be read to him. He has worn out the first paperback version, so now we need to go buy a hardback in hopes that it will survive.

He hasn't read the words yet, but I'm sure he will.

Great book with very vivid illustrations.

Who needs Harry Potter, we've got Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo.

This book is full of fun, colorful pictures. It lights right up from the beginning as the train and box cars carry the freight to the city. It then winds down when the freight in unloaded and everyone is sleepy. The setting of this bold story is in the little boys bedroom, which has a very imaginative flare. My 14 month old son loves this book, since i brought it home a few months ago. Unfortunatly we also have to replace it as he too, destroyed it. But it is worth the replacing, he would have us read it to him every night!

Yes, little girls like trains too! This is such a fun book, for train lovers of all kinds! The rhymes make the book predictable, the colors in the illustrations are captivating, and the rhythm makes readers young and old want to jump aboard the train.

Often you will find my little one and I yelling, "Chooooo Chooooo" and "Whooooooo, Whoooooo" right along with the book. Giggles not included with this story. You will have to find those as you read it together.

This is another fun and witty book from Daniel Pinkwater. Mr. Plumbean lives on a street called Neat St. All the houses are neat, and they are all very similar. One day a bird drops a big spot of orange paint on his house. The neighbors want him to repaint his house, to make the house look neat again. He repaints his house, but with lots of odd and strange colors and designs! All the neighbors are outraged and appalled; they think he's flipped his wig!

I've read this book to kids, 3- to 5-year olds, and they think it's hilarious. I think most kids would love to strike out and look different, make unusual art, et cetera. The world of adults probably looks boring to lots of kids. But overly serious adults discourage kids from looking or acting too far from accepted norms. Mr. Plumbean, and his creator Mr. Pinkwater, show kids that it's okay for your house to look different, and for you to be different!

My only quibble with this book: after Plumbean changes the looks of his house, the neighbors complain for a while, then ALL the other neighbors change the looks of their houses as well, to look like their dreams, as did Mr. Plumbean. It's a bit of a stretch. Did they ALL want to change their houses? Isn't that a bit of conformity in itself? If at least one guy had left his house the way it was, and said "my house always looked like my dreams," (surely, Plumbean and all of his newly enlightened neighbors would approve) it would have seemed more in keeping with the "be yourself" theme of the book. As it is, all the neighbors seem to be hopping on the bandwagon.

Out in the real world, not everyone wants to have a goofy looking house (or outfit, or car), regardless of what other people think. Anyway, that's my quibble. I give this book 4 stars. Little kids (and older kids, also, apparently) really love it!

RESOLVE TO BUY THIS HUMOROUS BOOK.

ken32

Let your dreams become your reality! Make waves! Be who you are, not who everyone thinks you are! Share your dreams and bring joy and a sense of freedom to all who come in contact with you! These are the messages of "The Big Orange Splot", Daniel Pinkwater's utterly, delightlful tale. Mr. Plumbean turns the disaster of the "big orange splot" of paint dropped on his roof by a sea gull into an opportunity to break away from the constraints of conformity. You will smile as you read how his daring actions liberate his whole "neat street". Recommended for children and adults who all need reminding that there is still a child in all of us. I LOVE this BOOK!!!!!!

The Big Orange Splot is, according to me, the best children's book I have ever read. It shows children (as well as adults) that being yourself is the right thing to be. Creativity is sometimes stifled in this world, and this book shows that it is a wonderful thing to be creative. This book helps the reader to grow as an individual, and to heighten their level of self-esteem.

PROS: Information Technology Control and Audit is a great book. If you are interested in the profession of IT auditing, then this book is for you. This book covers everything you need to know about the field of IT auditing. Topics covered in this book include: CAATs , IT auditing standards and guidelines, audit planning, internal controls, auditing of operation systems , auditing of applications, auditing of the software development process, auditing of CIS operation and network security. In addition, This book is a very good research tool. Its appendices have lots of information about IT professional organizations. Students and IT professionals who want more detail information about a particular topic covered in this book can visit these organizations' web site for more information. To help people without technical IT skill, this book has a glossary that explains complex IT terms in plain English.

CONS: I found some minor spelling errors. Also, this book does not have any colorful charts and graphs. This makes it look really boring.

I personally love this book because of the following reasons: 1. This book is very easy to read- compared to the other books I have read, this book presents the contents in a very clear and concise way. 2. A very through book- the book provides people with detailed information about IS auditing. It covers most areas in which an IS auditor will utilize in his/her practice. 3. An informative book- the book provides people with different valuable tools, techniques as well as guidelines in addressing the audit, control and security problems. In addition, the book provides numerous research resources and case studies.

However, the format of the book may be improved by the following suggestion: the book should use different font size to distinguish different level headings.

I found this book extremely helpful for beginners to build understandings of what IT control is and how IT auditing is performed. This book tries to present a general but complete picture of IT control and auditing, and guides readers step by step to understand IT auditing processes and methodologies from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. The major contents covered in this book include IT auditability and controls, system development controls and auditing processes, CIS application controls and audits, IT operational controls and audits, and legal issues involving IT auditing. The concepts and practices introduced under these topics are of particular value for IT auditing beginners. This is also a well-structured book. Followed the major texts are appendixes of practical audit cases, bibliography of publications, professional standards, glossary, and sample audit programs, all of which provide both IT auditing beginners and professionals with valuable references for further research and study of IT auditing.

I did find some spelling errors and structure confusion in a few chapters that affect readability and understanding of the texts. But they don't affect the overall content quality of the book. This is still a good book to have for learning and referencing.

Whenever I go to a bookstore with a new friend, I check out the Daniel Pinkwater section. The ones who turn out to be the best friends inevitably remember _some_ Pinkwater book from their childhood--Lizard Music or Fat Men From Space or The Magic Moscow--but the best and most resonant are Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy From Mars and The Snarkout Boys And The Avocado Of Death, and they're both included here. The former is about the best teenage-friendship book ever written, the latter drives a stake through the heart of the teenage-detective genre, and this anthology also includes the ridiculously brilliant Young Adult Novel. I want my kids to have this book. More to the point, I want my kids to think they're not supposed to be reading this book, but to read it anyway.

This book was "very grand indeed." That quote was a review of another book that alot of other people liked but I didn't. Anyway, I should be focusing on the content of this book. I thought it very nice of Mr. Pinkwater to put 5 novels in one book. It made it so much easier. I never finished Alan Mendalson or the Last Guru, but I read all the other ones. I can't decide if I like "Slaves of Spiegal" or "Young Adult Novel" the best. I thought his ideas in all of those stories extremly and startilingly original. I went on a car trip with my parents and I discussed "Slaves of Spiegal" with them. I recall all of us laughing so hard we cried. I'd have to say that "Young Adult Novel" was my personal favorite. I was sort of suprised in the first chapter when it had all that smaltzy stuff about "Kevin Shipirio, Boy Orphan, but I was extremly confused when I read the beggining of the second chapter and it said "This is Charles the Cat speaking." I soon worked out the cofusin , though, and I fell in love with this unforgettable novel. MY favorite parts include when the Dada Ducks put a toilet in the display case at school, when they first see Kevin Shipario and swoon over him,all the grapenuts stuff, and at the end when President of Mexico says "It is a Dada Story, it has no Moral."

When i picked this book up I was about nine I started reading it. it is really somthing you have to read, alen mendelsohn the Boy from mars is my favorite story you can't explain how good it is you have to read it. if you liked harry potter you will love it if you didn't you'll still love it.daniel pinkwater is a genius when it comes to writing .i just don't know how he does it but he really is good at it and he's got to keep up the good work if he is going to keep us going it should be a sin not to read this EXCELLENT book. i wish i could explain how good it is but you'll have to read it to find out don't hesitate just do it it is the longest book i ever read it is the best book i ever read as well.

Lizard Music is a must read for people around 10-12. If you like comedy and/or suspence you'll love this book. First you meat a kid named Victor a 12 year old. His parents have left on a vacation and so has his sister so he's all alone. After watching the late late night movie he sees the strangest thing LIZARDS PLAYING MUSIC! Later he sees the strangest man known as Chicken Man who keeps a Chicken named Cluadia under his hat. With the help of Chicken Man he goes to an Invisible island with a wonderous city with the strangest sights you've ever seen. The ending is the best but you'll have to read the book to hear it. So as I said bever READ THIS BOOK!, you'll be glad you did.

I LOVE this book. I first read it when I was 9 or 10 and it actually started what I call my "lizard phase," which lasted until I was about 13. Daniel Pinkwater's books are smart and outrageously funny and life-changing and I recommend them to EVERYONE. Other good Pinkwater books to try are both Snarkout Boys novels, Borgel, and Young Adult Novel. But they are all good.

I started reading Daniel Pinkwater books when I was 7. The first book I read was Lizard Music. I like it the best. I think it's cool because it's a magical book and I like magic.

I am Jewish, and when I read this book, I found out the realistic happening of what could have been me in the Holocaust if my ancestors had not moved to America before this all started. Books like "The Devils Arithmatic" are very well written books but do not give the 411 on what really happned. For example, "The Devil's Arithmatic" skiped parts about Jews ging into a ghetto and they made the Jews not know who the Nazis were in 1942. By that date, everyone that was Jewish knew what was going on and would have probably been sent to a ghetto long before. This book, however, gives the true happening of the Holocaust, and shows what people lost that were so dear to them. I was almost in tears when I finished this book. My teacher at my middle school had a historical book report project she assigned. She reccomended "Daniel's Story" as her favorite book. My friend who sits next to me, is Hindu and read the book when she knew nothing about the Holocaust. She loved it and couldn't put it down. In conclusion, this book is one of my favorites and it was a great learning experience- even though I knew much about the Holocaust already. Please read it!

In class we were reading this book,and it was so touching that I will never forget it.I loved this book,and not only did it teach me more about the Holocaust,but it encouraged me to learn more about the Holocaust. Daniel starts off a 14 year old boy an a train,but then goes through hard times,loosing his family and ending up at a concentration camp. I encourage all the other young readers to read this book or buy it.It will be worth the time and money!

Daniel's Story, a book about a young boy going through the holocaust is one of the best books I have read in my life. I picked up this book because of my love for historical fiction. Daniel's story brought me smiles, tears, and sympathy.
Carol Matas is a great author and great descriptiveness towards her writing. She writes as the character. As if Daniel were my age, talking like my age. This creates more of a connection with the main character for the reader.
This book describes the average life as a jewish child during the holocaust. What they had to go through, and the triumphs they had to overcome. I would highly suggest this book to anyone and everyone. Even if you are not interested in historical fiction.
Great for school teachers as well for their students to read because of its historical information. Basically Daniel is taken from his home to live in a ghetto. Here, his family either dies or gets trasnsported somewhere else. Him and his father manage to stay together, and stay alive. Their is also a little love route in this book for all of you girls. haha
Again, great book, good to read. Highly suggest if you want to learn about the Holocaust and the way it really was. Daniel is a great, strong character. And the way the author portrays him through out the book relates to many of the young readers out their.
Here is my personal rating:
Description: 4/5
Want a book that can give you vivid pictures in your mind? You will find it here. Great descriptions of not only settings, but character detail. Although the author can be abrupt at some times.
Plot: 5/5
Great plot, although it is very similar to Elie Weisel's "Night". But great story of a young boy and father trying to survive during the lead of the Third Reich.
Characters: 4/5
You will find many character through out this book. Many though are young boys, just about Daniel's age. They all though have very unique characterisitcs. Although sometimes the author could use more description in them to make them "Round Characters".

So, my raiting would be a 13/15. Again, great book!

I first got "introduced" to vi in the late 1980s and I've never wavered in my support of this sometimes-maligned text editor. However, it wasn't until I read this book, that I realized how powerful an editor it was and how many fun things you can do with it!

Besides describing in much detail vi's various commands, there are also chapters on vi's companion, ex. ex has a large number of its own commands that can be used in conjunction with vi while working on text files.

There are also chapters on various vi clones (vim, nvm, elvis, and vile - certainly interesting names on their own) and their features. The last part of the book features reference information on vi (commands, online resources, and a troubleshooting section) and ex.

If you like me love vi and aren't ashamed to admit it, this book is a great place to learn more.

It's often said that there are very few quality computer books in the world, but this is most definitely one of them.

If you've never used the vi editor before, this book is for you and if you've been using it for years, this book is also for you.

The book is organized so that the reader can start at an introductory level in the first couple of chapters and learn how to use the editor. Then as the user gets comfortable, they can go back and read the next couple of chapters and learn a great deal more. I've done this several times over several years, and my editing abilities STILL increase dramatically afterwards.

The book also goes into good detail regarding the vi clones in later chapters. I personally use gvim and found the section with specifics on vim to be of great help.

The bottom line? The book is extremely well organized and absolutely thorough in covering the topic. The book was written in 1998 and the information is still up to date. And given the fact that it's a computer book costing less than 30 dollars, the actual *value* of the book deserves 10 stars!

The 6th edition of this book is excellent! For the novice, it is very readable, and is able to bring a user up to speed quickly with simple, solid coverage of the basics.

It is also an excellent resource for the more advanced users, with good informative coverage of advanced editting techniques w/vi. The section on the various clones is also well done.

If you get this book, it is worth getting the little vi Editor Pocket Reference book, too, because its small size (~ 7" x 4" & 72 pages), makes it a convenient and easy to use reference book. I keep one of these little guys by the home linux machine, and another one at the office, too.

For a book to be even considered to a classic; then it, i.e., the book has to stand the test of time (and by so been read, pondered on and enjoy by several generations). The Decameron (Oxford World's Classics) by Giovanni Boccaccio, et al is one of these few books, e.g., The Odyssey, Thus Spoke Zarathustra et al. The story follows a plethora of storytellers whom all have gone to the countryside to escape the plague. The stories are filled with bravura, vigor, fortitude, a bit of sex and many other subjects (that are all written with an uncanny ability). If one considered oneself to be a scholar or a learned man then this book, i.e., The Decameron (Oxford World's Classics) by Giovanni Boccaccio, et al, is a must have; since not owning or having read it, then one as a person/scholar/learnedman must be considered less then civilized.

Any book defined as a true classic is likely to be thought of as stultifying and incomprehensible...at best. Yet, there are dozens and dozens of books that are true classics and still manage to speak to today's modern audience. Boccaccio's Decameron is one such book.

The Decameron was written around 1350 during an outbreak of plague in Florence. It is the fictional account of ten young people who flee the city to a country manor house and, in an effort to keep themselves occupied and diverted, begin telling stories.

Ten days pass in the pages of the Decameron (hence its name), and each person tells one story per day, making a total of one hundred stories. These are stories that explore a surprisingly wide range of moral, social and political issues whose wit and candor will probably surprise most modern readers. The topics explored include: problems of corruption in high political office, sexual jealousy and the class differences between the rich and the poor.

The titles themselves are both imaginative and fun. One story is titled, "Masetto da Lamporecchio Pretends to be Deaf and Dumb in Order to Become a Gardener to a Convent of Nuns, Where All the Women Eagerly Lie With Him." And, although the title, itself, is a pretty good summary of the story, even a title such as this cannot adequately convey Boccaccio's humor and wit.

Another story that seems surprisingly modern is, "Two Men are Close Friends, and One Lies With the Other's Wife. The Husband Finds it Out and Makes the Wife Shut Her Lover in a Chest, and While He is Inside, the Husband Lies With the Lover's Own Wife on the Chest." A bit long for today's modern world, perhaps, where popular books are dominated by titles such as John Grisham's The Firm, but the outcome of this story is as socially-relevant today as anything that happened in fourteenth-century Florence.

The Decameron, however, goes far beyond plain, bawdy fun and takes a close look at a society that is unraveling due to the devastating effects of the plague. The people in Boccaccio's time suffered terribly and the book's opening pages show this. The clergy was, at best, inept and, more often than not, corrupt. Those who had the misfortune to fall ill (and this includes just about everyone) were summarily abandoned by both their friends and family.

Those looking for something representative of the social ills of Boccaccio's day will find more than enough interesting tidbits and asides in these stories. Serious students of literature will find the ancestors of several great works of fiction in these pages and readers in general cannot fail to be entertained by the one hundred stories spun by these ten refugees on their ten lonely nights.

Giovanni Boccaccio THE DECAMERON. Second Edition. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by G. H. McWilliam. cli + 909 pages. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1995. ISBN 0-14-044629-X (Pbk).

Second-hand opinions can do a lot of harm. Most of us have been given the impression that The Decameron is a lightweight collection of bawdy tales which, though it may appeal to the salacious, sober readers would do well to avoid. The more literate will probably be aware that the book is made up of one hundred stories told on ten consecutive days in 1348 by ten charming young Florentines who have fled to an amply stocked country villa to take refuge from the plague which is ravaging Florence.

Idle tales of love and adventure, then, told merely to pass the time by a group of pampered aristocrats, and written by an author who was quite without the technical equipment of a modern story-teller such as Flannery O'Connor. But how, one wonders, could it have survived for over six hundred years if that's all there were to it? And why has it so often been censored? Why have there always been those who don't want us to read it?

A puritan has been described as someone who has an awful feeling that somebody somewhere may be enjoying themselves, and since The Decameron offers the reader many pleasures it becomes automatically suspect to such minds. In the first place it is a comic masterpiece, a collection of entertaining tales many of which are as genuinely funny as Chaucer's, and it offers us the pleasure of savoring the witty, ironic, and highly refined sensibility of a writer who was also a bit of a rogue. It also provides us with an engaging portrait of the Middle Ages, and one in which we are pleasantly surprised to find that the people of those days were every bit as human as we are, and in some ways considerably more delicate.

We are also given an ongoing hilarious and devastating portrayal of the corruption and hypocrisy of the medieval Church. Another target of Boccaccio's satire is human gullibility in matters religious, since, then as now, most folks could be trusted to believe whatever they were told by authority figures. And for those who have always found Dante to be a crushing bore, the sheer good fun of The Decameron, as Human Comedy, becomes, by implication (since Boccaccio was a personal friend of Dante), a powerful and compassionate counterblast to the solemn and cruel anti-life nonsense of The Divine Comedy.

There is a pagan exuberance to Boccaccio, a frank and wholesome celebration of the flesh; in contrast to medieval Christianity's loathing of woman we find in him what David Denby beautifully describes as "a tribute to the deep-down lovableness of women" (Denby, p.249). And today, when so many women are being taught by anti-sex radical feminists to deny their own bodies and feelings, Boccaccio's celebration of the sexual avidity of the natural woman should come as a very welcome antidote. For Denby, who has written a superb essay on The Decameron that can be strongly recommended, Boccaccio's is a scandalous book, a book that liberates, a book that returns us to "the paradise from which, long ago, we had been expelled" (Denby, p.248).

The present Penguin Classics edition, besides containing Boccaccio's complete text, also includes a 122-page Introduction, a Select Bibliography, 67 pages of Notes, four excellent Maps and two Indexes. McWilliam, who is a Boccaccio scholar, writes in a supple, refined, elegant and truly impressive English which successfully captures the highly sophisticated sensibility of Boccaccio himself. His translation reads not so much as a translation as an original work, though his Introduction (which seems to cover everything except what is most important) should definitely be supplemented by Denby's wonderfully insightful and stimulating essay, details of which follow:

Chapter 17 - 'Boccaccio,' in 'GREAT BOOKS - My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World'
by David Denby. pp.241-249. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-83533-9 (Pbk).

Toqueville's work unquestionably will last for as long as human nature remains the same. Certainly, it is diverting to read accounts about the topography and anachronistically idiosyncratic habits of the inhabitants of America over a century ago; the fundamental value of his work, however, lies in his acute understanding of human nature that does not change throughout time. I must, however, qualify this statement, since there is only one Book, the author of which I am in utter agreement. One part of his book I disagree with concerns the ways of ending slavery. It was not nearly as dangerously problematic as he thinks, since most Western nations that had had slavery peacefully eradicated it, and America could have done so by several means. (One way, although a distinct compromise, could have been for philanthropists, abolitionists, and/ or government to requite the slave owners their money and thereby instantly free those enslaved.) Having said that, I wholeheartedly agree with much of the work, and think that more than most writers on the American polity, he truly perceives how certain tendencies of human nature are revealed in this particular society founded upon practical wisdom, personal responsibility, self-reliance, and faith. Many of his disquisitions on these tendencies that could be accentuated in American democracy are now more thought-provoking than ever. One prominent example is his understanding of an issue fundamental to Americans. He famously shows how they are pragmatically intent upon getting things done by combining in 'societies.' A problem could occur if ever the citizens in general become selfish and much less self-reliant: 'individualism' could arise. He articulates a bleak portrait of a society in which none care to take personal responsibility, but are willing to sacrifice freedom for temporary security. This is disquieting for modern society, and it would be well were more people to read his work and learn from it.

The specific edition I am reviewing is the Heffner addition which is a 300 page abridgement. I also own an unabridged edition but I have only read Heffner cover to cover. What is amazing about de Toqueville is how uncanny many of his observations are over a century and a half later. He accurately predicted in 1844 that the world's two great powers would be the United States and Russia. He aptly pointed out that Americans are a people who join associations and he is so right 156 years later. Although there are both religious extremists on both ends, ie fundamentalists and atheists, he was dead on that, as a whole, we are a religious society but that our religious views are moderate. De Toqueville shows how American characteristics evolved from democracy as opposed to the highly class structered societies of Europe. From de Tocqueville, it could have been predicted that pop culture, such as rock music etc, would develop in America because the lack of an aristocracy causes a less cultured taste in the arts. In a thousand and one different ways, I found myself marveling at how dead on de Toqueville was. Most controversially, those who argue that we have lost our liberties to a welfare state might well find support in de Toqueville. Here, 100 years before the New Deal, he forsaw that a strong central government would take away our liberties but in a manner much more benign than in a totalitarian government. There are certain liberties that Americans would willingly sacrifice for the common good. Critics of 20th century liberalism in the US might well point to this as an uncanny observation. By reading "Democracy in America," the reader understands what makes Americans tick. De Toquville was an astute observer of who we are as a people and should be read by all educated Americans.

I want to note that there are several editions of this great work and in deciding which to buy, be aware that each has a different translator. I feel Heffner's translation is slightly stilted but, he did such a wonderful job in editing this abridgement that it, nontheless, deserves 5 stars.

De Tocqueville was simply of one of the great social scientists writing about America and Democracy. From reading the book I deduced that De Tocqueville was a social scientist before Marx! He compares European culture and government with the fledgling culture and democracy he observes in America. He is very much impressed with what he sees taking place in America in the 1830's and hopes it will spread to Europe. He at first believed that America's prosperity was simply due to geography and their distance from powerful neighbors, he abandons this idea after his visit to America. He comes to realize that the West is not being peopled "by new European immigrants to America, but by Americans who he believes have no adversity to taking risks". De Tocqueville comes to see that Americans are the most broadly educated and politically advanced people in the world and one of the reasons for the success of our form of government. He also foretells America's industrial preeminence and strength through the unfettered spread of ideas and human industry.

De Tocqueville also saw the insidious damage that the institution of slavery was causing the country and predicted some 30 years before the Civil War that slavery would probable cause the states to fragment from the union. He also the emergence of stronger states rights over the power of the federal government. He held fast to his belief that the greatest danger to democracy was the trend toward the concentration of power by the federal government. He predicted wrongly that the union would probably break up into 2 or 3 countries because of regional interests and differences. This idea is the only one about America that he gets wrong. Despite some of his misgivings, De Tocqueville, saw that democracy is an "inescapable development" of the modern world. The arguments in the "Federalist Papers" were greater than most people realized. He saw a social revolution coming that continues throughout the world today.

De Tocqueville realizes at the very beginning of the "industrial revolution" how industry, centralization and democracy strengthened each other and moved forward together. I am convinced that De Tocqueville is still the preeminent observer of America but is also the father of social science. As a retired Army officer and political philosopher, I found this book to be a must read for anyone interested in American history, political philosophy or the social sciences.