My two and four year old both love this book. One of my favorites. They can really relate to the story and imagine the animals we have seen at the zoo coming to OUR house. The pictures are beautiful.

I just loved this book and so did my children. The illustrations are beautiful and colorful, the story is imaginative and fanciful (which is lacking in so many other children's books these days).

This book is a must have for any young child!!!!

In her book, Howard discusses her life as the wife of a diplomat living in Iran for several years. She traveled all over Iran and met women from all walks of life; big city sophisticates, traditonal villagers, nomads and others. Howard discusses the ups and downs of women's lives in a totalitarian Islamic state where there is no freedom of speech or press; where saying or printing the wrong thing can result in imprisonment, fines and/or whippings. There are so many restrictions on Iranian women and Howard does a great job of describing how they get the proverbial short end of the stick in almost every aspect of life (one exception is that female homosexuality carries a lesser punishment than male homosexuality). She describes their brave struggles for personal freedoms and the same privileges that men currently enjoy.
"Inside Iran: Women's Lives" is best described by the author in one of the last paragraphs of her book:

"The general frustrations with everyday life here, the petty restrictions of the dress code and the restrictions on freedom of speech are tempered with the warmth and hospitality of Iranians. For me, it was a fascinating experience and a lot of fun. But for some women, not just foreigners, Iran sometimes feels like a life sentence from which they cannot escape."

Lots of charming black and white photos included.

Foreign correspondent Jane Howard made her home in Iran for five years and raised her two children there: these experiences brought a more personal set of insights into the lives of everyday Iranian women, explored here. From tea in a nomad's tent to presidential places, Inside Iran: Women's Lives provides a different image of Iranian women than most books would offer, going beyond the veil to explore how they work outside the home, drive, and even become politicians. A fascinating report.

I knew this lady years ago when I was in college with three of her sons. Her sons loved her and her cooking! We all did! About 10 years ago I stumbled onto her first book in a gift shop and snapped it up. Now that I find out she wrote a second book I'm anxious to own it as well. Because it is now out of print, I'm hoping to locate a used copy. She is my mentor, now that I have teenagers of my own.

A must for the person who likes to read as much as he/she likes to cook. It has alot of receipes from the heart. Good, clean, & fun to read as well as cook!! I enjoy just sitting down and reading it. Makes for a relaxing time. You can tell the author has alot of joy herself, as well as putting this book together. Great gift idea for friends & family. Thanks for all the fun, food, & laughter! I've known this lady for 38 yrs. now & she's everything you read about in this book. Thanks mom!!!!

This book is available via Scholastic Books on this month's FIREFLY paper (the preschooler age sheet)

I'm so disappointed that this title is out of print! It is beautifully illustrated and simply written, conveying the excitement and wonder of the arrival of a very special new baby. The announcement of Mary, Joseph and the innkeeper that "The baby is coming!" bring home Jesus' humanity, while the same announcement by the angels, shepherds and wise men proclaims his divinity. The beautiful and simple words and illustrations are perfect for our three year old. The characters have the skin color of the people of the land of Jesus' birth. This accuracy is too often missing from children's books about Jesus.

This is a great book to learn how to deal with everyday life and being more patient with yourself and others around you!! It has already helped me a great deal and opened my eyes to new options in life! Thanks M.J. Ryan for writing this great book!

Mary Jane Ryan's POWER OF PATIENCE puts it all into perspective. Through inspiring quotes, stories, and practical suggestions, she creates an insightful, personal and very useful journey for readers. I've had the book a week and have already read it twice (the combination of a house fire, huge loss and a very bad insurance company are making me a student of patience and perspective...thank goodness for this book!). POWER OF PATIENCE would also make a terrific gift.

I just love this guide. I use it every day to start my day at work. It really gets me to meditate on God's wonderful word. It is so great, that I am buying it for a friend.

This book revolutionized my own Bible study time. The Quiet Time Companion uses several different approaches to freshen up personal study times. Weekly sessions may study a single passage, a character, or a word. Other sessions will look at the same passage from several different perspective or will spend two or more weeks on an indepth study of a section of scripture.

This multi-themed approach keeps your Bible study from becoming routine. You will not find a three month study of Leviticus. It cuts down on the theological/philosophic mumbo-jumbo giving straight but not dumbed down look at the Word of God.

Another innovative approach the authors used in creating this devotional aid is that the weekly sessions are composed of 5 lessons, giving you 2 days of individual study (the authors do make some suggestions) but this is an excellent opportunity to work in preparing your Sunday School lesson during the weekend personalized study.

The authors are to be commended! Bravo!

If you get you're hands on this one, as I did as a 13 year old at a thrift store for 10 cents, you'll never let go. Now 20 years later, the entries by these women mean many different things to me. I didn't understand Anais Nin, I do now. I understood Anne Frank, or I thought I did. Then there were all these other wonderfully written pieces by who, I didn't know....Sand, Dostoevsky, Carr, Wordsworth, Sand. I still draw off these women and their love, work, and power as the book is broken into those three parts. I still believe in the next twenty years I'll find something new, and the twenty years after that. I believe my 10 cents went a long way, and whatever monetary value it is worth to you, this is their words for us to keep forever.

I highly recommend Moffat and Painter's selection of diary and journal entries by a wide variety of women. They organize the excerpts according to themes related to love, work, and power. Well-known diarists one would expect to be here are, such as Virginia Woolf, Anne Frank, and Anaïs Nin. But some of the most striking are by women that are not well known, at least in America. Hannah Senesh, who did spying work for the early state of Israel; Carolina Maria de Jesus, a Brazilian who grew up in abject poverty; Martha Martin, who survived the ordeal of being stranded in Alaska and having to give birth by herself--these are a few of the extraordinary women in this book. Reading it is like sitting down with strangers who quickly end up friends--and since so many of them are writing because no one around them could listen, they pour out everything in their hearts and minds. The coeditors have a knack for selecting just the right sequence of entries, making the book more than the sum of its parts. Finally, Painter's afterward, titled "Psychic Bisexuality," caps the book with a thoughtful consideration of the significance of diary writing. Anyone who can appreciate self-expressive writing will profit by reading this book. Vintage is to be thanked for keeping it in print for so long.

During the 19th century, many American families were packing up their belongings and headed westward in search of land, prosperity and a fresh start. In, "The Road to Home," we meet Jeremiah, a father taking his children, Remembrance, Joshua and Lily back to their home in Hartford, Connecticut. The sudden loss of their mother after the birth of Lily has forced the eldest child, Remembrance to take the mother's role for the younger siblings. On the journey back to Hartford, the construction of the Erie Canal sidetracks Jeremiah. The canal gave hope to people wanting to move towards the west. The family retreats in Rome, New York in a tavern headed by an aggressive woman named Maude Tucker. Jeremiah decides to earn extra money by joining the workers of the Erie Canal. Mem is infuriated with her father's decision to stop because she is anxious to relinquish her duties to her grandmother, aunt and cousins back home. Jeremiah promises his children he will only work for one full week and then they can continue on down the road, but the weeks rapidly pass and they remain trapped at the tavern. Mem realizes that her father has succumbed to the allure of money and cheap whiskey. He has betrayed his promise. She quickly packs up her brother and sister to embark on a treacherous journey home. On the way home, they encounter a myriad of interesting strangers. This book is truly a twisting adventure that deals with the challenges of growing up too quickly as an adolescent. "The Road to Home" would be an excellent tool for fifth and sixth grade classrooms. A teacher could easily incorporate language arts, history, music, art and math with this story.

Since her mother's descent into madness and eventual death,thirteen-year-old Mem Nye has been the one to care for her two younger siblings, seven-year-old Joshua and one-year-old Lily. When her father finally admits defeat and sells their New York frontier homestead, with the intention of returning to their old home in Connecticut, Mem believes things will finally get easier. But they only get worse. Her father, a reckless dreamer, halts their journey when it has barely started, so that he can take a job working on the Erie Canal. All week long he leaves Mem and her siblings at a tavern; on his one day home, he spends the time drunk. Finally, Mem has had enough. Determined that Joshua and Lily have a better home, she decides to take them back to the relatives in Connecticut on her own. But their journey through the wilderness will be filled with hardship and peril, and will test the limits of Mem's courage, endurance, and love. This was excellant as a historical novel, but also as a tale of a girl who is determined to make a better life for her family. I highly reccomend it. It is especially good if you read the other two books about Mem, Journey to Nowhere and Frozen Summer, but it stands on its own as well.

Great photos showing a fox kit growing up starting as a newborn. Follow them when they are two weeks old, a month old, six weeks, two months and 12 weeks old. Informative story line for preschoolers. This series keeps the attention of little ones and you know they are learning something both as they look at the pictures and hear the story.

I recommend the other books in this series as well. Dorling Kindersley books original publisher of the series, now published by Scholastic, have wonderful details. Each page has a row of small sketches on the top and bottom of the page that show the fox at play at that particular stage, as well as a little photo of a fox on the spine.

Great photos showing a fox kit growing up starting as a newborn. Follow them when they are two weeks old, a month old, six weeks, two months and 12 weeks old. Informative story line for preschoolers. This series keeps the attention of little ones and you know they are learning something both as they look at the pictures and hear the story.

I recommend the other books in this series as well. Dorling Kindersley books original publisher of the series, now published by Scholastic, have wonderful details. Each page has a row of small sketches on the top and bottom of the page that show the fox at play at that particular stage, as well as a little photo of a fox on the spine.

Your College Experience: Strategies for Success 4th ed by John N. Gardner and A. Jerome Jewler.
This book is excellent for a first semester college introduction to academic life. It deals with the issues students need to address for academic success such as critical thinking, time management, active learning, learning styles, reading, writing, listening and speaking, test taking, library use, computer use, academic resources, advisors, relationships, diversity, stress management, finances, alcohol, drugs, and sex. The book has six parts: 1. Strategies for success, 2. Plan ahead, 3. Take charge of learning, 4. Hone your skills, 5. Get connected, and 6. Know yourself. There are one to four chapters in each part totaling fourteen chapters, about one per week for a semester. There are exercises and guiding questions for a personal journal at the end of each chapter. A highlight is the interactivity provided by the CD-ROM packaged with each textbook. Each chapter has a self-assessment, has exercises from the book formatted to use on the computer and refers to textbook pages, has additional exercises not in the textbook, quizzes, crossword puzzles, and journal assignments that can be done on the computer. The CD-ROM links to many Internet sites for additional information and self-assessments. The book comes with a free four month subscription to InfoTrac, an online library. This book is good for the visual learner, the CD-ROM is particularly good for the kinesthetic learner, and the discussion exercises are good for the auditory learner. There are also supportive materials for faculty who adopt the book, and the CD-ROM is available on Blackboard and WebCT as online course management tools.

I bought this book my first year of college, I am now a sophomore and STILL using it. I found it so helpful. I even recommended it to friends.