I purchased this Chicken Soup book for my eight year old son, although the book states 9-12. The younger version for kids seemed too "slight." And his teacher had read a few stories from this version, so we decided to buy it for him as an Xmas 2000 book.

I have found it riveting, and many of the stories can bring tears to your eyes. The stories are concise. The writing is fluid and easy to understand. I was struck, however, by the intensity and hard edge realism of some of them. There is a section on death and a number of the other stories touch on grief, divorce, loss and death. My son just lost his grandmother in March (my mom) so I believe some of these tales will be helpful. They touched my own heart. Parents should be aware however that there is a heavy dose of despair--albeit overcome by strength and love. Also some nine year olds are more mature, wiser and perhaps less innocent than others. A nine year old from an otherwise happy, intact family who has yet to face a great deal of loss or grief may be taken a back, perhaps even a little frightened. This is a good work that should be reviewed first by a parent. Certainly consider the age prescribed. Also examine your own views on death, dying and marriage dissolution. These stories may helpfully support them, or they may not.

As a consultant in the child and youth development field, I would be more likely to steer the 11-13 year old grappling with specific issues to this Chicken Soup.

Loaded with fun-filled to tragic stories, Chicken Soup for the Soul is a great book to offer.
As some may say, "Life is filled with happiness"... When you are in your teen to pre-teen years... life doesn't seem as happy. Chicken Soup provides stories that relate to your problems and may be able to help you. But it's not just filled with stories that are sad and gloomy. This book has funny, interesting stories, too. It even provides poems!
I feel this book should be read by students in the pre-teen, to teen years. It's interesting and gives you some facts of life.

Do you think you have a tough life? Maybe you also want to check out other kids' lives. Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul is a great book for preetens who think they have hard lives. This book is emotional, and it really made me think of what other kids have to deal with. The kids in this book have courage, faith, and pride. It also made me think of growing up and outgrowing things. This book is definitely a good way to express your feelings. It even has some famous people in it. Mia Hamm, Beverly Mitchell, N'Sync, and Karl Malone have stories in here about their lives. If you want a book that you can express your feelings with, Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul is definitely that book!!!

This is an excelent resource for those individuals who are interested in Participatory research. It is a virtual "how to book" The authors have carefully assembled a workbook that helps teach many of the skills needed to learn through participation. Whether you are a researcher, facilitator, or someone who just works on the grass roots level; you will appreciate the variety of topics and activities that are discussed.

Chapter headings include: -Adult Learning -You, The Trainer and Facilitator -Group Dynamics and Team Building -Principles of Participatory Learning and Action -Training in Participatory Methods in the Workshop -The challenges of Training in the Field -Organizing workshops for Training, (Orientation and Exposure) -Plus: 101 games and Exercises for Trainers

I recomend this book to anyone interested in participation, participatory research, Planning (especially advocasy), people who work with unempowered peoples, those who want to empower people, anyone interested in methods of learning.

On a personal note: I am a planning student at the University of Tennessee and I have found that books like these (workbooks) serve as a valuable tool when trying to implement or exercise participatory learning reasearch. I have been facilitating for about a year now and although there is no suppliment for practice and experience, books such as these, help.

OK, dealing with garbage is real life, but do we have to read our children stories about digging through a dump? My daughter loves Zak and Wheezie, but I think the story could have been much more fun. I wish they had used another episode to base this book on. The message about recycling is good, though. If you missed this episode, I just wanted to explain that this book is not just about cleaning up the child's room, it includes the whole process of garbage from house to dump to recycling. Informative, yes, but fun, well, I don't think so.

I like the story about how Emmie and Zak learn to respect their sibling's stuff even if it looks like junk to them. The story was just a bit long, and the girls preferred the video, but it was still a very good story. In the true form of the awesome Dragon Tales stories, everyone works together to help find a solution to the problem. I love these books, and I am glad that I bought them!

My three year old, being an avid Dragon Tales fan, loves this book. Not only does it please her for its connection to her favorite television show, it pleases me because she learns about compassion and how different people can have different feelings about the same things. I highly reccomend this book.

We are using this book, believe it or not, as a required text in an intermediate level French course. I would not recommend it. Almost everything in this book is simply common sense. The information is too general to be useful - it would be much more helpful simply to learn about the language you are studying. The writing is rather simplistic. The only people who might find it useful are those who have never studied a foreign language. If you are already learning one, you know everything in this book that applies to you.

The book is designed to cover the "psychological, linguistic, and practical matters surrounding the successful acquisition of a new language." It covers the first two quite well, but the presentation of "practical matters" often falls short in providing nuts-and-bolts ideas with sufficient examples to help you implement them.

A much better book for most aspiring language learners looking for a how-to guide is Graham Fuller's "How to Learn a Foreign Language". It is less academic and more practical in tone, providing many suggestions with plenty of examples. The only practical things I saw in Rubin and Thompson's book which Fuller's did not have are (a) a self-test to help you identify your weak spots in language-learning skills, and (b) a section to help you clarify your objectives in learning a new language.

If you like the academic approach, this may be a good book for you. If you prefer a more familiar tone with a "hands-on" emphasis, get Fuller's book instead.

I wish I had this book 20 some years ago when I began learning Chinese. Although I have many years of language study behind me (including a degree in Chinese language and literature), I still found helpful, new ideas in this book when I bought it two years ago.

Many language teachers do not teach well HOW to be a student of the foreign language that they teach. That is because many of them are native speakers and never themselves had to think about how they learned language. Also, many of the teachers (particularly native Chinese teachers) are the product of a very archaic and dsyfunctional (my opinion of course) education system. Students of such teachers would benefit greatly from reading this book.

Also inspiring is the latest research and theory about language learning presented here. When I began foreign language learning, it was an accepted "fact" that adults (like me) could not learn languages as well as children. It is a suprise and relief to read in this book that research now debunks this myth.

I was suprised to see the other reviews of this book here on Amazon and to see that they were negative. I have found it to be a very helpful, well researched and well written book and an important reference in my continuing language studies.