I just got my first PBGV in Augest of 2001 and before I got my wonderful little pbgv I bought this book and it helped me alot understand more about the breed and it also helped me in learning about the differnt begining kennels of the first PBGV's. It also help me understand how this wonderful breed came to be. If you are intrested in getting a PBGV or are getting one I would seriously recommend this book because of all the information it will help you with in the future.

From The English Dog World magazine: Breeders and exhibitors of the Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen round the world have been waiting for a definitive book on their breed, and here it is.

The authors have taken immense pains with the history, development and spread of the breed round the world, Many hundreds of hours of research and much traveling must have been undertaken to produce a volume of this scope.

The detailed discussion on the points of the breed will be of great use to those in PBGV, to those considering buying into the breed. and to any who essay to judge.

I have just finished reading the Petit Basset book by Valerie Link and Linda Skerritt and found it full of new information and facinating to read. The authors have done themselves proud

This is another one of the American Girls Short Stories series about Josefina Montoya, a nine-year-old girl living in the New Mexico of 1824. Josefina always loved watching her aunt Dolores playing the piano, and when she agrees to teach her how to play Josefina is overjoyed. However, very quickly, her piano lessons turn into drudgery, and Josefina begins to get discouraged. But, through the joy she brings to one listener, Josefina learns about trying again.

The final chapter of this book is a look at life on a New Mexican rancho, plus a quick lesson on a Mexican dance, la vaquerita. As with the other books in this wonderful series, Jean-Paul Tibbles' illustrations are excellently done, complimenting the story throughout.

This is another wonderful addition to the Josefina library. My daughter and I both enjoyed the story for itself, and I like the lesson it taught. My daughter and I both highly recommend this book!

"Again, Josefina" is the second book published in the series of Josefina short stories. The setting of the story takes place shortly after the book "Josefina Learns a Lesson". Josefina is fascinated with Tia Dolores's piano and the wonderful music that Tia Dolores can make with it. Tia Dolores is willing to teach Josefina how to play, but Papa wonders if Josefina will be able to manage it with her chores and school lessons. Josefina persuades him to let her learn how to play the piano, but is quickly a disenchanted learner when she realizes that she must start from the beginning and practice more then she has time to do. When Josefina feels that she is not making progress, she asks Papa if she can quit. Instead of allowing her to quit, Josefina is challenged to find a way to practice. She is a clever child, and she finds a way to practice even when she is not sitting at the piano. Then, she finds her joy in playing the piano and acceptance for herself as a learner when her toddler nephew happily "dances" to her imperfect piano playing. This short story is an excellent tale of the frustration of learning something new, and the value of doing something for pleasure instead of perfection.

"Again, Josefina!" is one of the "American Girls Short Stories" series of books for younger readers. Written by Valerie Tripp and illustrated by Jean-Paul Tibbles, this volume tells a tale about Josefina, who lives with her family on a New Mexico rancho in 1824. Josefina decides to learn to play the piano, but discovers that playing a musical instrument is harder than she expected.

An enjoyable story is nicely complemented by the warm, nicely detailed illustrations. The story is accompanied by a number of enjoyable supplemental features. There is a "Meet the Author" page. Also, "A Peek into the Past" takes a historical look at life in New Mexico in Josefina's time; this supplement is illustrated with reproductions of art and artifacts. "An American Girls Pastime" gives instructions on how to dance la Vaquerita, a traditional dance of New Mexico. Finally, there is a glossary of Spanish words used throughout the book: "cuentos," "rancho," etc. The whole book is about 50 pages long, making it perfect for readers who may not be ready to tackle a full-length novel. Overall, a well-done entry in the series.

Carolina lives in an old school bus with her mother and baby sister. The family's poverty is poignant yet unsentimental. Despite her mother's objection, Carolina calls her Melanie instead of Mom, because "a real mom wouldn't live in a school bus. Real moms lived in real houses. They were married to the fathers of their children. So she kept calling Melanie Melanie." Carolina makes two new friends: one is an injured baby crow and the other is a Stefan, a wealthy boy just her age who has everything -- except the use of his legs. As always, Hobbs tells her story with clarity and courage. She refuses to dodge the hard questions but makes her characters (and her readers) face them and try to find answers. This is a powerful book about loyalty, friendship, and choices.

Bought another copy for another granddaughter.The first one loved the story so much she is rereading it. I highly recommend this book .

Carolina Crow Girl is a fast moving easy to read book! I got it two days ago and spent my Thursday reading and got through a lot more than half! I am not the fastest reader either! If you are looking for an easy to read quick little book this is definately a great pick! It shows how to get along with just enough. You don't need a mansion to go through life.

This is another one in the American Girls series about Josefina Montoya, a ten-year-old girl living in the New Mexico of 1824 (actually January of 1825). In this book, the Christmas season ends with a successful party. However, just as the new year begins with a high note, Josefina feels the world pulled out from under her when her aunt Dolores announces that she is leaving the rancho and returning to Santa Fe. They are happier with Tia Dolores living with them, and they know that their father is. And so, the sisters begin their scheming...

The final chapter of this wonderful book is a highly informative look at the changes New Mexico experienced as it changed over the years. I must also mention that Jean-Paul Tibbles' lovely illustrations are an excellent addition to the story.

This final book in the Josefina story is every bit as wonderful as the first one, and definitely maintains the American Girls' tradition of excellence. The story is exciting and entertaining, and I especially liked how the author wove Josefina's faith into it, making it appear the natural part of her life that it would have been. My daughter and I loved this book, and we both recommend it to you and your daughter.

Changes for Josefina is one of the better books in the American Girls Collection. In the book, Josefina and her sisters have party for their friends and neighbors. After the party, Tia Dolores announces that she wants to move back with her parents. When Josefina and her sisters find out the real reason that Tia Dolores wants to leave, they find a way to get her to stay.

About a girl named Josefina who lives in 1824. She is Mexican and lives on a ranch with her dad and sisters and aunt. Her mom died two years ago. Her aunt who she calls Tia Dolores is going to leave and Josefina wants her to stay. Will her daring plan work?

I found this book to not only be informative about the origin of corsets, but beautifully illustrated with period photographs and poetry concerning corsets throughout the centuries.
I am very pleased with this book!
Melissa Hawes.

Women, rejoice! You have given up your corsets, thrown off the painful cinches which restricted your natural form into a warped male ideal, and refused to comply with yet another imposition of male domination. Except... you haven't. We might think of the corset as being an outdated fashion accessory that has no place in the twenty-first century, but according to Valerie Steele in _The Corset: A Cultural History_ (Yale University Press), the corset is still here after hundreds of years. Her book is a large-format work with plenty of beautiful illustrations (not many that have a direct erotic appeal), but it is also a well-referenced text that gives a broad history of a controversial garment. It isn't just controversial now; a writer in 1731 wrote, "The Stay is part of modern dress that I have an invincible aversion to, as giving a stiffness to the whole frame, which is void of grace and an enemy of beauty." Steele reproduces many funny satirical pictures of tugs-of-war to get the stay cinched up tight (and everyone remembers Scarlett O'Hara's comic fight for a smaller-corseted waist in _Gone with the Wind_). Corsets were blamed for cancer, circulatory diseases, asthma, ugly children, and death. Probably corsets did not distort the body permanently; once undone, everything shifted back to natural positions. Corsets worn for workaday use were probably not very restrictive. It seems that, despite a wide belief to the contrary, fashionable "wasp waisters" did not have their lower ribs surgically removed; there is no written evidence of such a procedure, which would have to be performed without anesthesia and antibiotics.

Corsets have gone in and out of fashion in response to changes in styles, deliberate dress reform, and historical and economic forces. Steele shows that insisting that men were responsible for inflicting corsets on women is simply incorrect, and how the French Revolution, the industrial revolution, and both world wars affected corsetry. A rebound after the Second World War was cut short by the hippies and women's liberation. After that, Steele argues, we have had a run of exercise corsetry, shaping the body by aerobic exercise and weight training, an ideal that still holds sway. Surgical corsetry via liposuction continues the centuries of bringing women's bodies into agreement with the ideal of beauty, whatever that is.

Through all the centuries, corsets have had an erotic and a sadomasochistic pull. Corseting girls, and even boys, was a theme in literature having to do with their boarding schools, although it is doubtful that such corseted academies actually existed except in fevered imaginations. One can count on fashion designers to continue to include corsets on their most showy productions. Such lights as Madonna have taken advantage of the fetishistic potential of corsets, and they seem still to be desired under bridal gowns, reinforcing a sexual link. Steele has a dry sense of humor to enliven a sometimes academic text; she laments, "Admittedly, we know nothing about underwear in the premodern period," or puns "The English especially believed that a straitlaced woman was not loose," and she deadpans her research within a periodical titled _The Corset and Underwear Review_. One can look at the impressive illustrations she has gathered in this book (the often hilarious Victorian advertisements are the best) and see easily that men and women are going to have to change into entirely different creatures before they have corsets no more.

Steele's book is well-researched, elegantly written, and, of course, fabulously illustrated. It's a great read for history buffs interested in Victorian manners as well as modern fashion-hounds who've noticed Britney Spears and Julia Stiles sporting updated corsets on the covers of Cosmopolitan and Rolling Stone magazines.

Chief curator at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and author of several other scholarly books on fashion, Steele approaches the subject of body-sculpting lingerie with utmost seriousness. For this book, she teamed up with cardiologist Dr. Lynn Kutsche to investigate the damage wrought by tight-laced corsets on women from Renaissance courtiers to modern Hollywood icons. She clipped accounts of corset-induced casualties from Victorian medical journals and visited the Smithsonian Institute to view its collection of female skeletons with rib deformities. Though she eventually ruled out the idea that the Smithsonian skeletons were deformed by corsets, Steele did find that corsets were responsible for many milder health predicaments, including shallow breathing, shortness of breath, atrophied back muscles, and potential difficulty in labor.

Why did women persist in wearing these waist-cinchers for nearly four centuries? Steele doesn't pretend to fully unravel that mystery, but she tantalizes us with details about the origins of the corset and the rise in its popularity, especially during the Industrial Revolution, when mass-production first made fashion available to the middle-class households, and corsets were no longer soley the province of aristocratic ladies.

I have this book and also the Felicity doll and I really enjoy the American Girl books and found this to be my favorite out of them all. The story shows that back in the 1700's girls had the same problems and adventures that they do today.I reccommend this book to any young girl.

This is the first in the American Girls Short Stories series about Felicity Merriman, a nine-year-old girl living in the America of 1774. In this book, Felicity is bored with her constrained "girl's" world, where her time is spent wearing cumbersome dresses and making small, uniform stitches. Excitement enters, when she meets the knacker's new horse. The knacker, Jiggy Nye, is a cruel man who mistreats the horse. Here Felicity learns that sometime you must work for what you love, and sometimes you must give it up.

The final chapter is a fascinating and highly informative look into life in 1774. This book lives up to the excellence that characterizes most American Girls books. My daughter and I greatly enjoyed it, and we recommend it to you.

Felicity loves horses and hates having to sit still and straight. Then she hears that cruel old Jiggy Nye has a new horse and just about worked her to death. When she sees the horse she instantly falls in love with her and gives her the name of Penny. She decides if she doesn't do anything about Penny being beaten no one will. Will she be able to save Penny in time?

Val and Jeff Gee bring their extensive experience in employee training to a simple, yet effective book version of the training sessions they designed for top corporations. They offer seven critical ideas - keys - to providing outstanding customer service. Each one builds upon the premise and actions of the previous one, making these lessons sensible, precise, and natural to put into practice. The book illustrates each key with anecdotes, case histories, boxed lists, cartoons, and exercises. This creates an interactive learning experience. Nicely written in an upbeat, conversational style, it does not talk down to the reader or take the tone of a cold, authoritarian "employee manual." Neither is it condescending by being overly simplified in thought or tone. We [...] recommend this book to anyone whose position involves serving customers, or supervising those who do.

I do a lot of human resources training in my work, and have recommended this book to numerous organizations. It is well written, and makes its points clearly and without unnecessary theorizing. I also have never before seen customer service presented from the perspective that the server isn't doing it for the customer or the company, but for their own sense of excellence and satisfaction.

Super Service is one of the rare books on this subject that delivers what it promises. Val Gee and Jeff Gee know their stuff and communicate it with real style and enthusiasm. Moreover the tips are practical easy to implement and inspirational.

If you buy this book you will for sure get your monies worth. It is a great book for those of us who are a littel worried about making suggestion to parents for using aromatherapy on their children. If you are new to aromatherapy be sure to include this book in your library. It won't stay on the shelf long; you will read it many times over. Great book. Buy it you won't be sorry.

I took an aromatherapy weekend seminar as an introductory to this fascinating subject. Was I surprised as to how interesting and versitile aromatherapy is. As a mother of 4 young children,I have always used natural medicine as a first priority and this has saved us many trips to the doctor and many doses of unwarranted antibiotics. I did not realize the potential that essential oils possess until I took the seminar. I bought this book after I took the seminar and have used it lots especially the oil blends for respiratory problems. I also have used her other book called The Fragrant Pharmacy and this book is LOADED with information. This lady knows her oils and is one of the best there is.You won't regret buying it!

This book is an indispensable guide for every parent who thinks pro-actively about their children's long-term physical and mental health. Powerful, yet safe, aromatherapy is a sound way to treat everything from influenza to sunburn in children. Many complaints such as aches and coughs that might otherwise have to wait for a visit to the doctor can be addressed immediately at home, using the healing power of nature.

I loved these stories growing up and missed them when I started reading to my sons. I'm glad they are still around. Lessons are hidden in many of the stories, but not as blatent as many new childrens books seem to be.

Great stuff. Came with a poster, too!

If you're thinking of buying this to be AFRICAN lore, don't. This is an adaptation of the Joel Chandler Harris Uncle Remus stories, focusing on those containing the Brer Rabbit character. The stories are delightful, and will be a joy to any (I also heartily recommend buying a complete set for reading aloud), but the tales are drawn directly from the heart and soul of America (there are no raccoons and bears in Africa, anyway...sheesh).

After visiting Disney World last year my 4 year old daughter kept after me to retell the story of Brer Rabbit and the tar baby, I was so pleased to find this book with its great illustrations. When we read this book before bed we just can't read one. My daughter likes all the stories not just the Tar Baby and the poster is great too.