This book is an excellent tool for teachers who are looking for a new fun way to get student's excited about exercise.

This second volume in the ongoing Teen Ink series cements what I thought after reading Teen Ink: Our Voices Our Visions -- this franchise is taking teen expression to the next level. The stories, poems, art and photography in Teen Ink 2, drawn from submissions to the Teen Ink monthly magazine, are all moving and very, very real.

But what is most important in this book is that, like the first in the series, Teen Ink 2 gives voices to the millions of teenagers who are thrown aside by all the magazines and T.V. shows that dictate who teenagers are, what they should buy, and who they should be. It's not superficial, not patronizing, and not an adult take on teen life.

Among the many fantastic characteristics about this book is the continuing growth of the nonprofit enterprise: Teenagers who want to write can always submit to the book and magazine (instructions on where to send submissions are included in the book), and many more Teen Ink books seem to be in the works.

Keep up the good work, Teen Ink!

This wonderful and amazing book should delight anyone who has any interest in China, and perhaps even a great many who don't, so long as they have at least a sense of humor and a sense of adventure. Here, in relatively short, action-packed chapters, a large cast of well-defined characters, with nicknames such as "Iron Ox" (a.k.a. "The Black Whirlwind"), "Bee Sting Huang," "The Three-Inch Poxy Midget," "Short-Arse Wang," "The Magic Messenger," and "The Opportune Rain," to name a few, hurry you irresistibly along through stories of heroic combat, political intrigue, judicial corruption, last-minute rescue from execution, drunken brawling, adultery, revenge, murder, cannibalism, you name it. The book amuses your sense of adventure in a subtler sense, too, in that you get caught up in time travel and experiences of cultural difference and strangeness that make this narrative unlike anything you've ever read before--really one of a kind.

In terms of style, for example, the translators have worked hard to give you a feel for how perhaps this "novel," a vast collection of diverse tales, was originally derived from or always close to conventions of oral storytelling: characters are dismissed from the scene with verbal formulas like "we say no more of him"; the audience is sometimes primed for action, like a barehanded fight with a tiger, with the comment, "it's slow in the telling, but it happens in a flash"; and the storyteller/narrator sometimes draws himself up to deliver a short, often humorous poem to commemorate or point the moral to what you feel must have been a familiar tale to the audience. The greatest triumph of the book for me, though, in terms of style--and it's certainly related to this matter of oral storytelling--is that the characters, all of whom have plenty to say out loud, speak in distinct styles or accents: colloquial and even slangy for low-life types and the rough-and-ready sense of manliness many of the characters aim to project, but sometimes almost comically formal and elaborate in scenes where characters meet and strive to outdo each other in politeness and a sense of honor.

In terms of what's happening, too, you are carried away into a wonderfully unfamiliar world. Take this matter of the cannibalism, for example, which has often been suppressed in earlier translations of this ancient saga. In their little shop of horrors, the inn by the great tree at Crossways Rise, Zhang Qing, "The Gardener," and his wife, Sister Sun, "The Ogress," drug the wine of hapless travelers, chop up the hefty ones for sale as buffalo meat to people thereabouts, and "turn the skinny ones into mince meat for pie fillings." When Wu Song, one of the heroes of the tale, rescues himself from an attempt by "The Ogress" to carve him up, "The Gardener" realizes they're dealing with someone special, someone with The Right Stuff, Chinese style: he bows to Wu Song, prostrates himself and loudly regrets that his wife "couldn't see what was staring her in the face." The hero, "seeing the husband's manner was so correct," not only releases "The Ogress," but laughs it up with both of them and joins them in a feast (not on mince pies). "The Gardener," to make conversation, says he has to be careful about whom he kills. If he and his wife were "to meddle with"--that is, make mince pies out of--any of the young women who make their living as traveling performers, for example, word might get out and someone "might proclaim it from the stage" that he's no "gentleman." Wow, what an insult! And what an injustice! The incongruities here seem to me wild and funny. But the underlying truth, I suppose, is that we're traveling, as readers, through a world whose values differ from our own in ways that often amuse, sometimes shock, and (at least for me) always fascinate. "Murder one can forgive," as one of the heroes elsewhere says, proverbially, expecting everyone to nod in agreement, "but not an insult to one's feelings." Oh? How would that play in Peoria?

Some readers of this review may be put off by observing that the present volume is the second in John and Alex Dent-Young's on-going translation of this classical Chinese narrative, the SHUIHU ZHUAN, more generally known in the West as THE WATER MARGIN. The first volume, which they title THE BROKEN SEALS, is also in print with the same publisher, of course; but the important thing to say in the present context is that this second volume stands very well on its own, and in fact contains some of the most famous and arresting episodes. For "episodic" is the right way to describe it, I think. The book as a whole (I'm waiting for their translation of the rest of it!) seems to have a large, wave-like rhythm, as these ambiguous outlaw-heroes, outcasts in a divinely inspired but humanly corrupt imperial system, full of toadies, hypocrites and cowardly cheats, gradually converge on a mountain stronghold near the marshes of Mt. Liang. But the real fascination and life of the book for me are more immediate: they lie in the moment-by-moment rendering of the characters and their actions, narrated in this new translation with unmatched vigor, humor and colloquial ease; the insights you get into daily life of Chinese peddlers, soldiers, petty bureaucrats, bawds, outcasts, gentlemen, and countless others; and (as I've suggested) the really absorbing experience you get of seeing what very different things people from another culture--and not only, I suspect, in days gone by--cherish or take for granted. Treat yourself to a classic but completely novel novel!

This book is a three parter. In the first part John W. Young explains to us how language in Orwell's "1984" was used for thought control. In part Two and Three, he compares the fiction to the reality of language and terminology used in Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. Not only does he show us the flaws in totalitarion languages, he even shows us the counter-languages that develop to help people under the dictatorial rule keep things 'real'.
One point he makes is that while governments have a hard time changing the meaning of words or banning them completely, they can make words worthless by using them so much that the words lose all meaning. Kind of like how we use 'democratic' today.

This book provides a vivid acount of the difficulties of a black inter-city kid trying to make it in a world that as a youth he little understands. I am very thankful that John shared his story and his open faith with the rest of the world. ... This has been a blessing. Thank you!

Although there aren't lots of designs to choose from (15) they are well-chosen with full-color pictures and easy directions. Includes hats, gliders, snapping mouths, jumping frogs, poppers, pinwheels, beads, star box, balloons, lilies and more. I borrowed it from the library to show my kids, but I'm buying a copy to keep.

After having read "A Vaquero of the Brush Country" , I have a question. Where in Dawson County did Mr. Young deliver the 700 steers and what route did he take and to whom did they belong? The book is very good.

I found Dr. Selby's book poignant and insightful. His use of the personal in history makes one see the war in human terms. The ambivalence, sacrifice, and struggle of the participants shatters the romantic notions of the Confederacy to reveal real human beings. The imprint of the war on the profiled Virginians brings history to life. I strongly recommend it.

What a fun way to learn more about Ancient Egypt! This book is written as if you were living in Ancient times and planning a trip to Egypt during the reign of Ramesses II, around 1250 BC.It is written in the style of a travel guide, with information on practicalities, getting around, where to stay, food and drink, and what to do if you get sick.Like all good guidebooks, there is information on the best souvenirs to get(papyrus sandals, amulets, and scarabs)and where to find the best entertainment. And of course there is lots of information on the top sights: the Great Pyramids, the Step Pyramids, the sights of Memphis, the Valley of Kings and Tomb Art at Thebes, and the sights of Nubia.At the front is a fold-out map of the entire region so you won't get lost. "Tourists tips" are scattered throughout the book. A very entertaining way to learn history!

Excellent sneak peek at this eagerly awaited movie. Great snappies from the film. Seems to be a new twist on the old classic Cinderella, wicked soon to be step mother/sister and all that. Maybe more of a cross between Cinderella and The Parent Trap without the twins.