This book inspired me to start my own nature journal and gave me the confidence to draw in it! Wonderful, encouraging and instructional. If I can draw nature, then anyone can!

Okay, this is a winner! If you do NOT have it on your bookshelf then get it! This has become one of the required textbooks for many of my courses. (Visit my Amazon page for more information.)

It is flat out beautiful -- the beauty is that it is filled with the illustrations and notes by the authors. The book delves into the questions you might have, doubts that might arise -- and those get answered but the book allows and encourages creativity and growth through the nature journal process.

You'll find hints for what tools to pick for your illustrations and notes, tips for observing, what information you might want to include, how to overcome your critical mind, beginning drawing exercises and tips on how to enchance your creativity. You'll find a seasonal section that gives some good suggestions for documenting natural changes and events. Later there are more drawing exercises on shading, drawing flowers, anatomy, landscapes, etc. There are also samples of different journal techniques, tips on how to set up a nature study, how to keep records, how to journal for a scientific study or biological research project and still more!

Toward the end of the book group journaling and exploring is discussed. What you will also find are valuable tips for quizzes, writing, science, art, history, music and math projects. The suggested reading list and assessment scale for the journal or porfolio are also vital resources within this book.

If you are not convince now you never will be! One of the best personal journaling _and_ teaching books I've encountered this last year.

What makes this book so great? It is partially a nature journal itself, yet it is full of *real* ideas for your notebooks. I love the authors' drawings and comments, and how they help you draw well with small exercises. I was amazed at how well I could draw a bird after doing the bird sketches they recommend. They include sidebars with annectdotes of teaching approaches. They suggest ways to make a note book your own, to make it more interesting, and to make it more scientific, too!

Some of my favorite pages in the book are city or country landscapes, including houses and buildings. The authors remind us that humans are part of nature, and what they build is too, just as a wasps' nest is. A drawing of a street in Cambridge MA made me a bit homesick...but it also reminded me that this would be our last year with a cabana at the beach. I started documenting our days there, and rather than take photos, I tried to record our days in pictures I drew. These are not amazingly Rembrant-esque, but they accurately reflect the days we spent. With a bit of help from this book, I was able to capture perspective and shadowing as I drew my children and the local flora and fauna, and add comments as I draw--the time and temperature, what the animals are doing, when the last rain fall was, or how I felt. The entries in this notebook include the buildings and benches, the fences and the kites--everything it take s to capture a scene.

Leslie and Roth talk about different types of notebooks, with examples. Seasonal notebooks capture the changing wilderness; scientific notebooks record observations with commentary. A notebook may include only flora or fauna. It may record a journey or special occasion.

A nifty section includes a discussion of materials and tools for drawing. Leslie demonstrates pens vs. pencils and markers, drawing the same leaf with several different tools. She tells us her preferences, but leaves us to choose for ourselves.

One side-bar includes the author's reflexion on teaching nature journaling: When asked about drawing in an nature notebook, one second grader said, "Well, I can draw the sky." That's how I felt about drawing...and yet that phrase says so much about nature notebooks. The sky is so big, yet so simple. I think this sums up the whole book. Keeping a nature notebook is so simple, yet such a big part of our education.

An excellent book to get you started with capturing little pieces of nature to bring indoors with you. Truly helps diminish the "Oh, I can't do that" syndrome. Take the kids with you and make a project of it. You'll find it's easy and fun too.

This book was recommended in our homeschool loop. I bought the book hoping for some ideas to get me started, always wanted to start but felt uncomfortable about just doing it. The book will end all your worries! I was very impressed by the books contents and how easy it was to get started. My 5 1/2 year old daughter and I have started with the very basics as part of our daily school lessons and I plan to add more as we progress. You do not have to be an artist to do this! This is your journal and you do what you want in it, nobody needs to see it unless you want to share it. It will make you become more observant to your surroundings and the way things are constantly changing. A great base for any homeschool program.

If you're into nature and you haven't lost touch with a child's wonder, you will enjoy Nature Journaling. A great book for families who like to wander together or for adults who want to reconnect with their natural surroundings.

Ancient Celtic Festivals deserves ongoing mention as a fine resource for kids ages 8-12 years, which explains how modern celebrations are rooted in ancient Celtic history and festivals. Links between the ancient rituals and how they are celebrated today require good reading skills but reward with many insights.

Halliwell's Film and Video Guide, now edited by John Walker, is the single most importance source of information about movies and an essential reference tool for everyone who loves movies. As I work in the film world, I own hundreds of movie reference books. Many are useful but Halliwell's Film Guide is the one I have to keep on my desk at home and at the office. Maltin's paperback guide is good but it does not give as many credits as the Halliwell guide so it is not as useful. And the Halliwell Companion is also hugely helpful as well when one needs to to look up the films of stars and directors. Neither has as much depth as specialized works but no other books have so much information in such handy form. I couldn't live without it, cinematically that is

Halliwell's Companion makes all other film encyclopedias look superficial in comparison. It is essential for all film buffs who like to cross-reference info. The only minor quibble I have is that, as the BBC's film expert for decades, Halliwell naturally places a lot of emphasis on the British film industry -- at times to the point of making it seem as if it were as significant as Hollywood's contribution

Month by month the Northeast US outdoor scene brings changes in the plants, animals, and climate. Opportunities for children to become involved in observation and simple projects are related to several attractively illustrated pages for each month. I've bought several copies of this book over the years, and am delighted it's back in print. Preschool and primary classrooms will find much to enjoy; youngsters refer over and over to favorite pages. It would make a nice present to a child's classroom; if there's already one there, so much the better!

Machiavelli's second most famous work, this book deals with the author's commentary on the way the Roman Republic was run and why it was so successful in expanding its borders. He stresses the reason it was so stable and successful was the solid core of reasonable laws, a standing army of professional soldiers and plunder/tribute from surrounding countries.

He illustrates the ways in which the good ideas of the ancient Romans could be applied in contemporary politics (it was written during the XVI century).

Unlike the Prince, which propandasizes his personal political opinions and describes the ideal ruler, the Discourses deal mainly with mundane economic and social issues, with little personal opinion.

It is filled with anecdotes about the lives of interesting or exceptional Romans and is not that difficult a read at all. In reading it for my first-year history class, I found it was a very good summary of the complicated life of the Roman Republic (it deals very little with the time of the Empire).

Although much can be learned from modern writers about the history of Italy, the sentiments and evaluations of politicians and historians of this period (sixteenth century) are unique to their day. It is wonderful to read Machiavelli's evaluation of Livy's historical accounts and see why certain actions which would be shunned by modern writers made perfect sense then. Such accounts help the reader not to be trapped in his own day's thought processes, but have an expanded scope of history. Very enlightening!

These are Machiavelli's essays on the lessons to be learned from Titus Livy's first ten books about Roman history. Though other works existed, Machiavelli chose Livy's histories because Livy was an eye witness to the fall of the Roman Republic.

Machiavelli's purpose for writing The Discourses can be summed up in one line: "The multitude is wiser and more constant than a prince." More to-the-point, however is the later phraise: "A corrupt and disorderly multitude can be spoken to by some worthy person and can easily be brought around to the right way, but a bad prince cannot be spoken to by anyone, and the only remedy for his case is COLD STEEL."

With every stroke of his pen, Machiavelli sets out to prove the superiority of a republican form of government. He values freedom of the citizenry above all else, and provides princes everywhere with grizzly tales of what happens when it is restricted. His influence on the Founding Fathers, and particularly on the works of Paine and Jefferson, is evident. Our current leaders would find themselves more secure if they stuck to Machiavelli's principles.

Over the last 20 years (or so) I've sent corrective notes to Leslie Halliwell and the subsequent editor, John Walker. For the premiere film encyclopedia, the Filmgoers Companion still has lots of errors, missing information for supposedly complete filmographies, and many many unlisted film stars, especially from the "transition period" to talkies (Anita Page, etc.). Personally, I think Walker was a very bad choice; he doesn't seem to be "into" the encyclopedic format of this valuable resource.

I would say that this is certainly the flimgoer's encyclepidea to all things related to movies and the people involved in creating them. As far as knowlage about films goes. I would say this is impressive and is recommended to any serious film buffs out there.

If you need a new edition of this work, try Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies.

This is a great reference for film-lovers. Especially if you enjoy viewing less main-stream films.

I'v just cheked out for THE DROWNING POOL ; again no star , and again ,the reasons why I appreciate STUART ROSENBERG are remarkable the same .(Has he a past, something like that?) Just that he couldn't pass two stars sounds kind of unfair. I will add something , yet : his sensitive aproaching of some kind , makes his movies that LIGHT , so any oter films appears heavy , incoherent or unclear. (inspite of their artistical values , of course )

Gensu2000 seems to think Halliwell's is "as stuffy as a film book can be" and comments on their horrifying undergrading of such groundbreaking cinematic productions as "Evil Dead" and "Braindead". Why surely these great films should be given four stars and placed on marble pedestals! Face it, most horror films are the paramount of lowbrow entertainment. And seemingly lowbrow people like Gensu2000 will enjoy them, as they are intended for that audience. And it's good that they have made a film review book for that type of person, such as the VideoHound book, but Gensu does not have to go around expressing his idiotic opinion. Laymen term the intelligentsia as "stuffy" because they have no understanding of what it is like to be intelligent. Keep quiet, Gensu, and go on watching your primitive ape movies, and reading their glowing reviews in your primitive ape film guide.

Though advertised as a continuation (i.e. 14th Edition)of the "Filmgoers companion" it is only a list of people in the movies. Gone are Halliwell's definitions of movie tradecraft and lists of themes, individual classics and personal notes. A fine actor like Lee J. Cobb gets a single line, while Jayne Mansfield, known more for her off screen antics, gets many more. The quotes from the movie personalities is a nice touch, but when I look up somebodies filmography I do not want to see etc. at the end of an incomplete list.

Leslie Halliwell(1929-1989) was the publisher of this informative and extremely enjoyable reference book on many of the cinema's most influental figures. What sets Halliwell's great book apart from the others is that it includes not only the most famous of today and yesterday's stars/writers/producers/directors, but a great many obscure, but no less important names in the industry as well. Halliwell's book is also unique in that it includes a list of technical terms that are extremely vital in the motion picture industry, as well as a list of popular film series, and a complete list of Academy Award winners. Whether you are looking to be informed or entertained, Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies serves both purposes well, and is a compulsive read guaranteed to give die-hard film buffs hours and hours of endless reading pleasure. The book, formerly known as The Filmgoer's Companion, is actually a companion piece to an older favorite, Halliwell's Film Guide, also strongly recommended for the serious film buff.

If you were to have only one book on the movies, this would be it. It has almost everything and everyone connected to movies. About the only changes I'd recommend would be larger type and sections on writers, directors, photographers, stunt men, etc.