That is what our son said after reading this short but powerful account of the experience of being an intelligent but dyslexic child in today's educational system. He said that the book spoke to him in a way that he had never experienced, and he felt the relief of discovering that others share his frustrations. I couldn't get him to return the book to the library, so I had to purchase a replacment copy on the web! Thanks Mr. Wood! CN

I'm 15 and had to critique a book having to do with the Middle Ages. While other people chose The Prince and bigger books I sorta cheated and got this 30 page book with pictures. It had lots of informative facts and little cartoon drawings that helped me better understand the info. It took me 20 minutes to read so it was really easy but I actually learned alot.

Paul Gauguin was at the heart of the Post-Impressionist movement with his lush, colorful artworks revolutionizing modern painting a the turn of the 19th Century. Largely self-taught in a diversity of media including oil painting, printmaking, and ceramics, Gauguin came to his career as a Parisian artist relatively late in life, and went on to paint subjects drawn from where he would live ranging from Brittany and Martinique, to Tahiti, and the Marquesas islands. In Gauguin, art expert Britt Salvesen drew from research developed by Douglas W. Druick and Peter Kort Zegers, enhanced with 79 superbly presented illustrations of which 52 are in color and 27 are duotone. Gauguin is a very highly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library art history reading lists and reference collections in general, as well as being strongly commended to students of the life and work of Paul Gauguin in particular.

The design of this book is as vivacious as the works in the exhibition. Glee is a brief but striking impression of the work of twenty artists who have embraced digital technology and are using it to refresh and revitalize abstract painting. In her succinct introductory essay, Cappellazzo describes how two of the twenty artists exhibited--namely Jim Isermann and Peter Halley--have been "primary sources" for the other eighteen. Both Halley and Isermann create works that are intellectually complex, yet visually so simple they transcend the limitations of art-historical categorization. By being included in this exhibition, Halley and Isermann, come across as not only a kind of art-historical reference but more importantly as energetic contributers to abstract painting in the new millenium. With Halley and Isermann as inspiration, the other eighteen painters foreshadow energetic new directions in abstraction. For anyone apprehensive about the future of painting amid the digital revolution, Glee is assurance that abstract painting is as vigorous as ever.

I first read this story several years ago and over time, it has remained vividly in my memory. I can recall scenes and dialogues and picture the images painted by Ms. Williams' words in my mind. Katie's story draws you in before you realize it and you are swept into the mountain country of Arizona in the Old West, struggling along side an orphaned family. Ms. Williams brings the era and the people alive, touching fiction with history. Almost all the characters, especially Katie and Bill, offer something of interest to the reader - you get the sense that each has his or her own story. "Home Mountain" is a sweet story (a bit unrealistic), a historical romance without a doubt, but something about it lingers. It is a tale of the strength of spirit, of family and of love and if you enjoy historical stories, it is worth a read.

This beautiful picture book is a real treat for any admirer, young or old, of nature and the work of John James Audubon. From first page to last, it is a tribute to an extraordinary man who had a passion for America's wilderness, as well as to the wilderness itself. Robert Burleigh tells the story of the pioneering environmentalist through an imaginary rhyming letter to his father, with accompanying excerpts from Audubon's journals. Wendell Minor, a renowned jacket artist and distinguished picture book illustrator, enlivens the text with some of his finest work, which is complemented by a few of Audubon's original paintings. Mr. Minor portrays the curious woodsman as he rambles through sun-dappled forests, investigates a cormorant's nest on the side of a rocky cliff, and admires the untamed spirit of a temporarily captive hawk. Later on, the story's tone changes from carefree revelry to a heartfelt plea for wilderness preservation, as Audubon mourns the loss of the woodlands and the birds he holds so dear. While holding a dying pigeon in his hands he remarks: "And as I watched it die I knew/The world I love is passing too. And I must paint it all because/We need this memory of what was. . ." These inspiring words are accompanied by some poignant pictures of a flock of now-extinct passenger pigeons--once the most populous bird in the world--streaming across the sky, and a once-mighty forest reduced to stumps. There is a hopeful note in the story, as well: "But listen, now, from every tree/I hear them calling out to me: The crow's ka-kow, the lark's ti-ti/The warbler and the chickadee." In order to preserve nature, we must first appreciate even the smallest aspects of it, from the the mighty bald eagle to the tiny chickadee. The book leaves one with a sense of hope about the conservation movement and a refreshed passion for the outdoors, especially birds, which are so plentiful and so striking in this country. With his paintings Mr. Minor has skillfully captured the personality of the man and the beauty of the birds he loved, and Mr. Burleigh has brought poetic words to help us remember Audubon not just as the vanguard in the American conservation movement, a mere icon of history books, but as a true woodsman who loved this country and its wilderness with his whole heart. INTO THE WOODS makes a lovely gift for any aspiring naturalist of age 8 to a lifelong birder of age 80. Pick up a copy for the child in your life and one for yourself. Also be sure to check out another new picture book, RACHEL: THE STORY OF RACHEL CARSON, which, like INTO THE WOODS, tells the story of a pioneering American environmentalist and is wonderfully illustrated by Wendell Minor.

Kenneth Josephson's Retrospective is a phenomenal view of life through the artistic eye of black and white photography. Josephson's pictures-within-pictures are interesting and fresh, a new take on a theme that others have tried, but not mastered as well as Josephson. If you like black and white photography, this book is a must. I saw the exhibit at the Whitney in NYC, and purchased the book afterwards. Unlike some photography books, where the pages don't capture the magic imparted by the prints when seen in person, this one does -- beautifully.

Wood has put the "war" back into the Wars of Religion. This volume contains a magnificent analysis of the French royal army and its operations. The nature of the military conflict, particularly in the early wars of religion, had serious consequences for the crown, the state, and French society as a whole. His thesis is that the crown failed to deliver a knock-out blow to the Huguenot rebellion in the early wars due to an incomplete "military revolution" (the problems of logistics, supply, personnel, financing, social organization, etc. that all needed to be solved by early modern states in order to field effective standing armies). This led to a state of endemic civil war that lasted for over a generation. This book is an essential contribution to the fields of military history, warfare and society, the Wars of Religion, and early modern France. Now, we need someone to write the equivalent analysis of the other side...

Morely researched this book for five years and documented it with over 70 pictures, diagrams and trail maps; but most of all it is readable, current and accurate.

New Wood Puzzle Designs: A Guide To The Construction Of Both New And Historic Puzzles is a detailed, involved and definitive woodworker's guide to creating timeless classic wooden puzzles as well as new and innovative wood puzzle types. Superbly illustrated throughout with full-color photographs and unambiguous sketches, New Wood Puzzle Designs is clearly and cleanly written in language the lay reader and novice woodworker can understand as readily as the long-devoted hobbyist. New Wood Puzzle Designs in a truly excellent and highly recommended book for woodcrafters of all ages and skill levels.