My 16 mos. old daughter loves this book more than any other. She always reaches for it. And even though she has pulled the shoe off Gnu she still wants to read it again and again. I am online now looking for more books like this one! Very cute and creative.

bought this book for my nephew and he loves it. loves all the pulling, lifting, seeing the pop-ups. can read it with him again and again without him losing interest.

Babies, to parents, to grandparents were delighted and charmed by this clever, bright, adorable book. We all just love it and so will you. Bright colors, a simple story, beautifully drawn, and the most incredible pop-ups ever. We were all ga-ga over this book. More! More!

Collectively compiled and edited by Shaun L. Gabbidon, Helen Taylor Greene, and Evernetta D. Young, African American Classics In Criminology & Criminal Justice is a selection of twenty-three crucial articles focused upon criminology and criminal justice from a distinctively African-American perspective. The rather impressive list of contributors include such outstanding scholars as W.E.B. Du Bois, Lee Brown, Elijah Anderson. Eruditely written, persuasively worded, and weathering the test of time, these writings here assembled are a very strongly recommended supplement to both Black Studies and Criminal Justice reference collections and reading lists.

All of these recipes are served at Cucina Bella in Chicago. They are universal and are easy to create at home.

Certified herbalist Corinne Martin's Herbal Remedies From The Wild: Finding And Using Medicinal Herbs provides full descriptions for fifty-two medicinal herbs common to North America. The information provided includes the herb's appearance, where it is to be found, how to properly harvest and prepare it, and recom-mended dosages for specific ailments. Martin also includes cautions about conditions that preclude the use of the herb. The reader is given complete instructions for making teas, tinctures, salves, and syrups. Herbal Remedies From The Wild is a core addition to any personal, professional, or community library alternative health medical and herbal reference collection.

Recently in an interview with Charlie Rose Meryl Streep spoke of women needing a dream that portrayed them as powerful, particularly as they age. Helen Luke's autobiography is just such a dream. It is a carefully woven tapestry of her dreams, her thoughts, her readings (the wide range of her reading & interests included Lord Of the Rings by Tolkien, Dante, T.S. Eliot, C.K. Williams,& Larry Dossey's Shamanic books), and the encounters that she had in her life (which included Robert Johnson, Carl Jung, Dr. Meiers, Toni Sussman,Dr. Kunkel). The patterns of this tapestry speak to us of a life that followed the Way of individuation, as she refers to it in the autobiography. What most impressed me was the way in which she lived the path, risks and all, that Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell taught, despite her Christian Scientist upbringing. This straightforward autobiography & her journals model The Way. Her courage to leave her mother behind while she was dying in order to follow her "dreams" was inspirational. Her discussion in her diary entry about C.K.Williams work Descent Into Hell (which she refers to frequently, reminding me of how good a book it was) and it's demonstration that "a 'daughter's gift to an injured mother' through language, even many years after a mother's death, may be valid" fed many beliefs that I have had about how healing can occur and ones role in it. The book read like a road map to a fulfilled life, well marked by the signposts of the numinousities, synchronicities, and struggles encountered by a thoughtful individual. It is hard to put down, I read through it almost at once, and will be studying and thinking about the lessons it holds for a long time. I am quite confident that most men and women will not regret studying this book.

This is wide-ranging collection of Winnicott's writings on assorted topics of childhood and adolescence. It is especially important as a set of historic writings. His kindness and intelligence prevails. Winnicott was a child psychoanalyst with an especially tender heart, and his love of children, and respect for the efforts of families - often against unnerving odds - is obvious. However, it should be noted that some of his theories, while advanced in good faith and respected at the time they were introduced, have been disproven over the years. For example, enuresis (bed-wetting) is now known to be something that psychoanalysis does not "cure." (It is often inherited, and afflicted children outgrow it, period.) His articles on adolescence, written more than thirty years ago, are not "current," but still valuable. Winnicott's discussion of autism, while humane and well-meaning and enlightened for its time, is also somewhat off the mark, in light of contemporary findings on autism. Nonetheless, there is much that is valuable in this collection of papers. "The Niffle," with its report on a discussion about God that a small boy has with his father, reminds the reader again that Winnicott was not only capable of great love and understanding, but of awe.

Definitely worth reading.

Little Pilgrim's Progress is an excellent resource for those teaching young children about being a Christian. The book itself is written in plain and easy to understand English. This timeless story is written so that even a child can understand the concepts taught in this book. I have found it very helpful in teaching the Children's Bible Class at my church. The story truly enhances God's Word. It also is a great motivator for children to read.

I read this book in elementary school, and it really is such a phenomanal adaptation of the Pilgrims Progress! I felt like it commuicated the same message very clearly for young minds. I have never forgoten this book and many of it's details. It made a big impact on me as a third grader, and I know that it would be the same for any child. The story is very interesting and understandable for children. I would certinly reccomend this book to any younger person, as well as adult who might stuggle reading the original work.

In this wonderful book (published by Moody Press), author Helen L. Taylor takes the Christian classic Pilgrim's Progress and reworks it for younger readers. She simplified the words and concepts, but stayed remarkably close to the original story. The chapters are nice and short, which makes this an excellent bedtime read, which is how I read it to my nine-year-old son and eleven-year-old daughter.

This is really two stories in one book, the first story tells of Christian, a small boy living in the City of Destruction, who hears Evangelist talking about the Celestial City where the great King lives. Christian becomes a pilgrim, and sets off for the Celestial City. Along the way he has many encounters and learns many lessons. The second story is about Christiana, a friend of Christian, who sets out with others to walk the same path, and they encounter many trials, often different than the ones faced by Christian.

This is an excellent book. It is jam-packed with Christian concepts, which you can then stop, at a convenient chapter break, and explain. Indeed, if I have one complaint, it's that I wish that this book had a study guide to accompany it! My children were a little disquieted by the martyrdom of one character, but as this is also a part of the Christian experience, I am glad that this book addressed it.

So, I must say that my children and I all loved this book. As a matter of fact, I think that I will make reading it a yearly tradition (for a while, anyway). We highly recommend this book!

I first read this as a child, growing up in the south in a pentacostal holiness church. This book was my very first introduction to the Jewish Faith, what it means and how it impacted day-to-day life. I found that this family was a very loving family who encouraged their girls (then baby boy) to learn and to grow up strong. I remember wanting to be Jewish so that I could be a member of their family. There was so much fun and love.

Well, I have since learned about the "Jewish" stereotype. However, I was not suckered in by the error because my first experience with Jews came about through the All of A Kind Family books. I am convinced that I knew the truth about the Jewish people because of these books.

I strongly recommend that these books be added to all reading lists, as they help to teach kindness, love, and tolerance for all people, just like they helped to teach to me.

I happened upon a copy of this book at a rummage sale when I was seven years old and have enjoyed it ever since. Though it is never laugh-out-loud funny, it is highly entertaining and definitely falls into the category of feel-good books. Author Sydney Taylor created sweet and interesting characters whose lives you immediately want to follow.

The story chronicles the lives of five Jewish sisters growing up in New York at the turn of the century. Four-year-old Gertie is the baby of the family. Six-year-old Charlotte is a daydreamer who is idolised by her little sister. Eight-year-old Sarah cannot be better described than by Taylor, who refers to her in the narrative as "always the practical one". Ten-year-old Henny is the impish, mischievous one of the bunch (and they need one, considering how docile the other daughters usually are!). Twelve-year-old Ella is the oldest daughter, a talented singer with a big crush on her father's friend Charlie, who is hiding a secret.

The story chronicles the lives of the family throughout their various trials and tribulations over the year. If my sister and I are any indication, any reader will want to read and re-read it!

The whole "All-of-a-Kind" series was one of my favorites as little girl! I used to devour these books and I'm so happy to have found them so I can give them to my 9-year old niece for Christmas! I hope she loves them as much as I did. I remember feeling totally involved with the family and couldn't wait to read the next book. I agree with some of the other reviewers, as a Christian, I wasn't really knowledgable in Jewish customs and this book taught me so much about Judaism -- celebrations, religious customs, history, etc. So not only was I reading a wonderful story, but I learned something too. Also loved that it was set in the turn of the century -- that was a learning experience too. Wonderful wonderful book -- so happy I found it again! Thanks, Amazon

When I took Geology in college, I loved the course. I only had one problem. It was very difficult for me to identify rocks and minerals in the field. If I had had this pocket field guide, the course would have been a snap.

Now, I enjoy taking my children to study outcroppings, and this book will be a great addition to our investigations.

First, the photographs are stunning. In fact, any temptation I might have had to develop my own samples is set aside by having these wonderful images to use.

Second, the information is detailed and thorough. There is a lot about the crystalline structure of each mineral, the hardness, and many tests that are specific to that particular mineral. There is a very good section that describes how to apply the hardness tests (I always had trouble memorizing that area for some reason). There is plenty of good safety information for how to use the various acids that can be employed to identify minerals. Everything is nicely summarized so it is easy to find.

Third, all those subtle distinctions about various kinds of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks that used to puzzle me are very clear here. Whew!

Fourth, the book has great directions for locating good spots to examine rocks.

Fifth, you also receive a wonderful description of the equipment you need, and ways to use it safely.

Whether you think you like rocks or not, you should give this book a try. It will open up a very interesting world full of ways to locate and identify interesting rocks and understand the stories they can tell. As a result, you will have immensely more understanding of the world around you.

I also suggest that you read up on plate mechanics as well, so that you understand more about how the landscape is formed before erosion takes over. The combined knowledge of these two areas will greatly add to your understanding and appreciation of evolution.

Get in touch with the physical world around you as foundation knowledge!

I am new to the study of geology and have found this book to be indispensable in identifying rocks and minerals in the field. It even has a few tips at the beginning about how to do tests, and each mineral suggests tests to further aid in identifying them. It has also been a great reference when reading texts about geology. I use it to look up the rocks and minerals mentioned there. Very helpful for later field study. The least I can say is: buy this book, it is EXCELLENT!!

Rockhounds, Crystal Healers, Students- here it is! The photos & scientific information are "just what the doctor ordered". A perfect addition to a library or guide for a collecting expedition. Also, an EXCELLENT way to see all those stones you keep reading about in texts.

This classic of the english literature, written by Kate Chopin, is a revolutionary novel for the time she had to live. It was bad seen and was forbiden for more than 50 years. The idea that a woman, a married woman, would laeve her husband and her children, to live with another man,wasnt allowed in her society. Im not saying that nowdays such a thing is allowed, but in those earlies days, this thing wasnt even thought, thats why this book can not have a happy end for Edna, because in no way her dream would have been come true. Personally Y think Robert loved Edna vey much, but he knew, he never could have been with the woman he loved. Her friend Madmoisselle Reisz, told her she needed to be strong to face her feelings and let Robert by side, because he finally would destroy her life. At the end that was what finally happened, Ednas complete life turned around Robert until that point, in the absence of her husband, she left home with the only purpuse of beeing alone until Roberts return. Y think that she was so in love, that she was forced to sink in the sea. Personally I found it an excellent book and it could bea very good advice for further generations.

Though at one time I, too, would have rated "The Awakening" one of the worst reads of a lifetime--for its predictability in the context of a woman oppressed by Victorian society, and the most undeveloped, unsympathetic heroine for whom I was unable to muster the slightest emotional investment--a nagging, relentless undercurrent of something I couldn't quite identify festered long inside me regarding this novel until the story, and author, were at last redeemed upon my third reading, in a literature course that finally ended this internal struggle.

Having much faith in Kate Chopin as a writer, I never felt 'the awakening' was about sex. This was too easy, even for a book set in Victorian Society. Further, it occurred to me that although women were limited beyond the domestic sphere in this era, suicide was not particular to the phenomenology of Victorian women (as it was, say, to Wall Street brokers at the onset of the Great Depression).

"The Awakening," in title and content, is irony. Edna Pontellier's awakening is about who she perceives herself to be, and who she actually is. She dreams of passion and romance and embarks on a summer affair, yet she married Leonce simply to spite her parents, who don't like him. She moves out of the family home to live on her own--with the permission, and resources, of Leonce--hardly independent. She claims to crave intimacy, yet she fails horribly at every intimate relationship in her life: she is detached with her children, indifferent to her husband, leery of her artist friend, and can hardly stand another minute at the bedside of her warm, maternal friend, Mrs. Ratignolle, to assist her in childbirth. (Ratignolle was my favorite character of all, read after read, simply because she was so content with herself.)

The Awakening? The surprise is on Edna, who is not the person she imagines herself to be. The irony? Edna Pontellier is never awakened to this, even at the bitter end. Feminists have adopted this book as their siren song...embarrassing at least! A feminist reading would, predictably, indict Victorian society as oppressive to women. Yawn...So that's new?!! Tell us something we don't know! I can tell you that concept wouldn't be enough to keep a book around for a hundred years.

But the concept that has sustained this novel over a century's time is its irony. And it is superbly subtle. I believe Chopin deliberately set up Victorian society as her backdrop to cleverly mask this irony...'the awakening' is not something good (a daring sexual awakening in a dark era for women): it is something horrible that evolves and is apparent to everyone except the person experiencing it. This reading makes Edna's character worth hating! Chopin herself hated Edna Pontellier and called her a liar through her imagined conversation with her artist friend at the end of the novel.

Chopin also cleverly tips the scales in Edna's favor in the first half of the novel, but a careful read reveals those scales weighed against her in the second half. I give the novel 5 stars because it took me three readings and help from a PhD lit professor to figure out this book. And I'm proud to say that I am, at last, awakened.

Can you imagine the impact this book must have had when it was first published in 1899? So scandalous! And it still has the power to make its readers eyes grow wide.

My only complaints are that the ending was unrealistic. (Of course, it fit the BOOK completely---it just wasn't practical.) I also think the portrayal of Edna as a nonchalant mother (as opposed to a nurturing mother) was unfair. Chopin wanted readers to view Edna as a victim, and when Edna turned around and neglected her own children...that didn't help our sympathy for her. ...Yet surely we readers realized this was a woman who was too oppressed and stifled to know what to do with herself.

Anyway, before I forget, a word of caution: HAVE A DICTIONARY NEARBY!! WHOA! Chopin was obviously VERY intelligent, along with being ahead of her time. Vocab. word after vocab. word, I tell ya.

Overall, the reader feels pity for practically every character. But it's not such a melancholy atmosphere that would make one want to stop reading it; it's merely proof that Chopin can weave a web of believable characters struggling with believable circumstances.

I would voice one more disappointment, though, if it wouldn't serve as a spoiler. ...Um, I think I was hoping that Edna would betray her husband a little more than she did...succumb to temptation a bit more...because I was rooting for her! I was sympathizing with her, and I thought she should get what she has longed for. But no such luck. Her conscience probably prevented something from going too far. Rats.

This is a sophisticated read laced with French phrases and lengthy paragraphs, but worth your while.