We LOVE this book!
The world of quality science books for very young children is sadly lacking. Mudpies to Magnets definitely fills a huge void. The book is detailed, clear, accurate, and age appropriate. Don't think this book is strictly for young children, older ones enjoy it as well. It really helped reinforce concepts in a real, fun way. If your kids are struggling with science or think its 'boring' you definitely need this book.

I love this book! It is a great introduction to science for young kids, beginning with pre-school age. Sensible focus on asking questions, observing and measuring phenomena. Uses a child's natural curiosity about the world all around and harnesses it to encourage the systematic thought on which science is based. I will be teaching a science class for my daughter's Montessori class every two weeks and will take many (most?) of my lessons from this book!

This book and the original Mudpies to Magnets are my best choices for simple, one-page science activities. These science books and experiments were clearly written with the parent or teacher in mind. Although the books contain a wealth of knowledge and experiments, none of the material is overwhelming for the adult participant. The experiments themselves require only inexpensive, household materials. And each of the experiments that we have tried are fun. One caveat: Ignore the age rankings as a wide variety of children (up to age 10) can enjoy all the experiments in these books...from The Science Spiders(TM) Newsletter.

Mr. Sneeze just keeps giving and giving. This book is amazing; our daughter has heard it over and over and still wants more. It is the perfect length, not too long, not too short (she never looses interest). I would definitely recommend this to everyone who has kids.

The children in my family have recycled and shared many of the Little Miss and Mr. books by Roger Hargreave for the past several years. But the favorite seems to be Mr. Sneeze.I recently found an old copy of Little Miss Trouble that belonged to my youngest child who is now a junior in college. He was excited but said " I'd give $100.00 for Mr. Sneeze". It is still out of print, but amazingly his cousin still had my son's original copy! He was estatic to find it under the Christmas tree this past Christmas! So... Mr. Sneeze never grows old!

Our 5 year old loved to help creatate stories on our summer vacation. By the end of the trip he understood what types of a words adjectives and verbs were! My husband and I were impressed at how much of a fun family activity this was. For families that loved the movie SHREK as much as we did you will enjoy the way that the story is told in the same fashion as the movie, scene by scene. This will be the first thing that I pack on our next trip!

This mad lib is the best they are sooooo funny.....

It is crazy that this book should be out of print. What are publishers thinking of? The verses are a delight, though they become increasingly tragic as the book progresses - "The Sea Bell" is a devastating account of something like clinical depression, yet like many of the rest it has a strange beauty. On the surface much is easy-to-read verse, but often has subtle allusions to deep matters. Many links with "The Lord of the Rings" for those who know where to look, and, I think, an unusually personal account of Tolkien's own struggles to find beauty, wonder and enchantment in the bleak modern world - it is only coincidence that "The Sea Bell" is the only one of his major works for publication written in the first person?

A social history of Kenya 1957 to 1978, interwoven with the political changes of the times. At the center of the story is Paulina, who progresses from a 16-year old farm girl from Western Kenya to a self-assured and matured woman in Nairobi. Maybe for the first time, an author who lives in Nairobi, tells us about the common people and the disenfranchised masses in that city - something a tourist would never see or even think of. It is a fascinating story, and so very well written. Interwoven with this tale are the political happenings, from MauMau to Uhuru and to the final statehood under Kenyatta. She describes the feuds between the different tribes, such as the Luo from Lake Victoria, the Swahili from the East Coast, and the dominant but persecuted Kikuyu from the Rift valley. Murder and mayhem did not bode well for the new country and the inside readings from this book are fascinating.

On a personal note: early in 1969 I had the very special experience to meet Tom Mboya, who was then 39 years old and a rising star in Kenya's politics. At that time, my stated view was that he would either be president, or be killed. Tom Mboya was assassinated in July of that year. I am very glad to see from this book that this brilliant young man has not been forgotten.

The worst thing about this story is the fact that the late author never wrote a sequal. A Dark Travelling involves a boy who gets extra-hairy during full moons, his adopted sister who is a witch, his brother who lives in a castle and the exchange student who lives with them, having been raised as a trained assasin. They are part of a group of families which together controlls the secret interdimensional commerce between parallel worlds, and who support a revolution on a Darkband... an alternate reality where forces of Dark have taken over. This was a fascinating novel for Zelazny's younger fans, with visible influences from A Wrinkle in Time and the Dark is Rising sequence

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. As a teacher I thought I had a pretty good grasp of world religions. This book enlightened me even more. Easy to read without being condescending or patronizing. Excellent photos and graphics throughout. And it covers a broad range of religions from all over the world, even some that are no longer being practiced. Every page has internet links where you can research more information. A worthwhile purchase!

This book is fun to read and appropriate for any child. It is funny and helpful, not didactic or worrying. It describes how it feels to have worries, to have trouble talking about them, and how to diminish the worries. At the age when children begin to have worries (4, 5 and certainly later as well) this book is a good starting point for talking about them.

I love this book--A great resource to use to make/meet all connections/steps in Bloom's. Also includes great ideas for 50+ specific topics (Civil War, American Revolution, Early Explorers; Trail of Tears, Salem Witch Trials, Women in History).

This is the epitomy of Classic Batman. The story arcs are beyond reproach, even if the dialogue and expositionary blurbs are melodramatic and farcical by today's standards. If you grew up a fan of Batman: The Animated Series, you'll recognize this as the archetype for what that series became. The artwork, at most times, is the epitomy of the era. These days comics are more artistic and design-oriented, while these remain rather straight-forward. As such, they are the standard by which all other comics of the era, from the 70's through the mid-90's, should be measured.

This collection of Batman tales remains one of the most engaging, fun, and brilliantly wrought sagas of the Detective's long and storied history. Steve Engleheart pens a classic with the Joker fish, and Silver St.Clair stands as one of the more memorable and alluring love interests that the Batman has had over the years. However, as has been said before (yet cannot be emphasized enough) the real attraction here is the artwork, which (sadly enough) marked the pinnacle of Marshall Rogers' career, and remains one of "the" definitive renditions of the character (alongside such luminaries as Neal Adams, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Alan Davis, and Dave Mazzuchelli- look for their work). Ably abetted by Terry Austin in the height of his prowess (see Essential X-Men vol.2 for more of his very best work with joltin' Johnny Byrne), the Batman as presented in this collection is truly awe-inspiring and larger than life. Or, in other words- THIS BOOK IS BEAUTIFUL! An "art-fan's" delight. Not only that, if you are looking for "classic" Batman- the gentleman detective-cum-player, the swingin' bachelor with a keen intellect and a penchant for fisticuffs, well, you can't go wrong with this one. Top drawer, people, top drawer.

It was a dark and stormy night. (or should that be Knight?) "It's Joker weather," says Commissioner Gordon. "True Commissioner," says Chief O'Hara, "But it's also tailor made for him!" The Batman is a character who needs lots of atmosphere. Darkness, rain, lightning, tall dark buildings, smoking gangsters, skinny trees bereft of leaves, all this and more fill the very affordable paperback collection of some of the best Batman stories ever produced. BATMAN: STRANGE APPARITIONS collects the beautifully drawn and superbly written DETECTIVE COMICS 469-476 and 478, 479 from 1977-1978. Some have called these issues "the definitive Batman." It was these stories that got the ball rolling on making a big budget and serious Batman movie and you can definitely see that many of the ideas from that movie came from these stories.

These pages are alive with atmosphere! Artist Marshall Rogers' panels literally drip down the page and capes slither behind the storyboards. Rogers sometimes lets the design of his panels tell the story as much as the art within them. When characters talk on the phone the panel's edges are drawn like phone cords. Sometimes panels rest on top of full-page illustrations that most artists would weep before covering up. Rogers is teamed for the most part with the incredibly talented inker Terry Austin. Together they provide pictures that are at once moody and sharp and exquisitely defined. When Batman menaces a thug you believe it. When Bruce Wayne has a nightmare you feel it. This artwork is a joy to look at and if the story were rotten it would still be worth buying this collection just to see the Batman look like the Batman should!

As the tale begins, Bruce Wayne has given up living at Wayne manor and he and his loyal butler, Alfred, have moved to a luxurious penthouse in the heart of Gotham. This makes it easier for the Batman to prowl the night. The first two issues, drawn by Walt Simonson (later of THOR fame) before Rogers came on board, sets the stage for what is to come. Bruce Wayne meets the beautiful and intriguing Silver St. Cloud and falls head over heels for her. But their romance is interrupted when a scheming white collar criminal, who has been turned to phosphorus (which burns on contact with air he loves to scream), decides to take revenge on the city that he believes is responsible for his fate. Dr Phosphorus contacts the corrupt city official "Boss" Rupert Thorne and agrees to spare his life if he will get the Batman off his back. Though Batman defeats Phos (of course) Boss Thorne continues to use his political power to undermine the Batman through the rest of the novel.

Hugo Strange, a great character who appeared long ago in BATMAN #1, is brought back from the 1940's. Strange has a hospital for the rich needing privacy that is actually a place where he drugs and mutates and blackmails them into doing his bidding. It isn't long before he captures millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and (gasp!) learns that he is really Batman. Hugo Strange is an interesting character who seems to admire the Batman as his only equal. "Truly a life of genius is a lonely one," he says. Strange is killed by Boss Thorne, but don't count him out! He is the "strange apparition" the book is named after. He haunts Boss Thorne all through the book and even helps the Batman out a time or two.

Next, the Batman faces off against the Penguin and another character from the golden age of comics, albeit retooled for the 70's Deadshot. All the while he dodges the machinations of Boss Thorne and as Bruce Wayne falls deeper and deeper in love with Silver St. Cloud, who by this time has discovered that he is Batman. After all, she "has spent many nights studying his chin." The bittersweet romance between St. Cloud and Wayne is so thick you can taste it, and for the reader extremely satisfying. It is rare to see the Batman obsessing over a woman as he flits through the darkened Gotham streets, but that is what he does. But he has little time for mooning because his next opponent is the maniacal Joker.

"My world goes CRAZY sometimes," thinks Batman as he considers all the things that are piling up on top of him at the beginning of "The Laughing Fish." The Joker has another insane plan and is on a killing spree. There are some beautiful scenes between the two archenemies and the Joker is portrayed as delightfully chilling and insane. His laugh is described as "raining down like ice cubes." The two Joker issues are my personal favorite Joker stories. He is deadly, evil, menacing and doggonnit FUNNY! The Joker never takes himself too seriously - except when he does. And if you don't know which way he is taking himself at the moment - he'll kill you. You gotta love a guy like that (from a DISTANCE!)
The plot lines of Silver St Cloud, Boss Thorne, Hugo Strange and The Joker all come to conclusions, but I won't spoil them for you.

The paperback ends with a pair of stories featuring a new Clayface, written by Len Wein and continuing with the beautiful art of Marshall Rogers. Clayface is a somewhat tragic figure who is in love with a wax dummy. Wein does a good job conveying this and keeping it sad rather than comic.

STRANGE APPARITIONS features an all-new cover illustration by Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin and a foreword by Steve Englehart? It is attractive and easy to read without cracking the spine. It gives you 10 classic comics for thirteen bucks - such a deal! And Like any good compilation, this one ends too soon and leaves you begging for more. Unfortunately that more will have to come from back issue bins - at least until someone decides to collect Englehart's Justice League America!

Highest Possible Recommendation!