Titles Books

This book could not be more beautifully illustrated. Spirin's art has a wispy, dreamlike delicacy combined with beautifully rendered detail. It looks truly magical. One two-page spread depicts a battle royal between armored cats and an armada of rats sailing in ostrich-egg shells -- it's almost too beautiful and fantastic to take in.

The story itself is a lesser-known fairy tale, filled with heroism, romance, virtue, and wicked villains. My four-year-old fell in love with it immediately, and we have played many games of "white cat" in the last few weeks. The cat queen is lovely, brave, wise, strong -- and exquisitely dressed! What little girl wouldn't be enchanted? Boys will love the high adventure and excitement of the story, complete with wicked dwarfs and fire-breathing salamanders. In every respect, one of the finest fairy-tale picturebooks I've ever seen.

My parents bought me this book when I was about 9 years old at a book fair at school. They even got it signed by the Author. 13 years later, I am now 22 and still love this story.
The Story of the White Cat comes to life as you read it. The artwork is drawn in such fine details that when I go to sleep at night I can still remember all that happens in my dreams. The White Cat her self is filled with magic and mystery that it makes one want to know more about her. If you enjoy reading about enchanted castles and Wise Cats in fantasy then this book is for you.

The young prince must search for what his father requests. He immediately finds a magical castle instead, and by trusting the White Cat he finds all he needs. In between there are some great adventures, fanciful and courageous. My daughter enjoys this book and we've read it many times.

The illustrations in this beautiful book are worth getting it for alone. But when you add to this an exciting and interesting story - one that I never tire of reading and my children never tire of hearing - this book is an all-around winner. I highly recommend this book as a mother and a teacher.

The story, part of ancient Nigerian lore, is an intriguing one, providing insight into non-Western folktales. However, it is the illustrations that truly make this book. They are stunning in their vibrancy. My toddler son really enjoys this book and I love reading it to him.

Buy this book for the illustrations. They're spectacular. You'll want to frame each one and hang them on your wall. Of just leave it on your coffee table for people to ohh and ahh over.
For anyone who can't afford an original Carla Golembe -- she's a famous artist who exhibts in Mass. and Maryland -- this is the next best thing.

I find myself struggling to get my daughter to eat foods good for her body and read books good for her mind. This book accomplished what I wanted -- it teaches about a different culture, taking care of the environment, and how greed leads to punishment. It did this with an entertaining story and beautiful pictures, fully deserving it's prominent place on my daughter's bookshelf.

Why the sky is far away is a great story that teaches important ecological and moral values in a fun way. The illustrations are amazing and the story is delightful.

Willa and the Wind is an interesting and quirky tale from Janice M. Del Negro about two sisters living alone (with no visible parents) on a farm. When the North Wind comes through and steals their corn meal, the younger sister Willa decides that she is not going to put up with that and journeys to the home of the North Wind to demand compensation. She is clearly a character that knows how to handle herself, and is notable in her refusal to be scared off by the mean and nasty old North Wind. She proudly shouts her name and refuses to leave empty handed. This sets into motion a series of trips back and forth with a mystery to be solved.

The greatest strength of this book is that Willa is strong and angry and brave, even though it takes her a while to catch on to the innkeepers' antics. Once she gets it, she proves herself to be highly intelligent and outsmarts the innkeeper to gets all of her magical gifts back. That the audience sees that it is the innkeeper causing the mischief with Willa's gifts makes it all the more satisfying when she finally catches him in the act.

The illustrations by Heather Solomon are exceptional due to their use of multiple mediums. The beautiful watercolors show a vibrant world and simple everyday objects, like Willa's skirt have shocking patches of magenta and orange. The illustrations also incorporate collage for large surfaces, giving the mountains a rocky exterior or the fireplace the look of real bricks. The use of pencil adds subtlety and gracefulness, such as in the tendrils on the wind. Sometimes the art simply illustrates the text; other times it accentuates it. The story is told from the point of view of an emotionally detached omnipotent narrator and the illustrations all the reader to see emotions play across the characters' faces.

My five-year-old triplets and I love this book. It's lyrical, funny, thoughtful and thought-provoking, and we all thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

My mother is a retired first grade teacher who bequeathed to us her personal library of children's books, accumulated during her 35+ years of teaching. It's refreshing to come across a new book like this one that's as memorable and as well-written and illustrated as any of these books from the past.

Here is the wonder-filled tale of a girl with the nerve and persistence to confront the north wind . Though the mischievous wind is honest in his dealing the innkeeper she meets is not. Willa meets the challenge with pluck and spirit. My daughters can't get enough of this new hero !

Willa is bold and clever - so she's going to ask Old Windy, the north wind, to return the cornmeal that he stole. Problem is - Old Windy also is bold and mischievous - but fair. He'll exchange something for the missing cornmeal. Soon three bold contenders vie for cornmeal in a zany tale with vivid illustrations by Heather Solomon.

I think William the Curious was a great book. I think the lesson was very reasonable. Being perfect isn't everything. I think the pictures are wonderful and I really liked this book. I was stunned by the great words that were in the book.

Okay, I wish I was a kid again. Can I be a kid again?! I bought this book because it was about a knight who was curious and I can't think of a more perfect quest for a knight than curiosity. This is a little gem of a book and it could be made into a wonderful movie. It's art. It's a wonderful story about a knight who goes on a quest and learns that everything perfect is not so perfect. But that's okay. Even flawed it can be magical. William is a terrific character. The art work is fantastic, and I want to be young again. Mothers of young children should read this to them often. It's got a great message and it's clever. Not enough books for little boys either, and this is a great one. Buy it now.

Youngsters are inquisitive and so is the brave little frog in William The Curious, a delightful environmental fairy tale written and richly illustrated by Charles Santore.

A queen's desire for perfection and the consequences of this quest are explored, as well as the meaning of courage.

This is a charming book that lets children (and adults) know that sometimes what appears to be perfect, isn't. The pictures a lovely and engaging and the story moves along well. My four year old declared "it should be a movie". Definitley a good bed time story.

I wrote this as part of a blog post and didn't want to see it go to waste. I'm 41 years old, and my mother can still quote large sections of the book from memory because I begged her to read it to me so many times! I believe that this story has really helped to shape my life for the better, even though I would grow up to fall for the deception of a wolf that had all the appearances of being safe. I'm so glad that I had this story so deeply engrained in me when I did.

"The Wolf and the Seven Kids" was about an evil wolf that, despite the mother goat's wise instruction about how to spot wolves, deceived her seven baby goat "kids" while she was away. That wolf uses some very clever, deceptive tricks to break into the home and devour all but one of the kids. With the wolf asleep in the backyard of mother goat's house, the one little survivor who had hidden in the base of a grandfather clock told his mother what had happened. Mother goat goes into the yard, cuts open the belly of the (apparently very profoundly tired wolf), liberates her children who were saved from being swallowed whole. The kids find six rocks to replace in the void of the wolf's stomach, and the mom sews the wolf shut (before he wakes up) with the sewing kit that the kid who hid in the clock brought to her. The wolf awakens saying "What is this that knocks against my poor bones? I thought it was kids, but it feels more like stones!" He thirstily hobbles over to a well to draw out some water and falls in - to his death - instead. Mother goat and her baby kids join hands and dance around that well, rejoicing that their foe had been conquered, all resulting from the effects of his own actions."

If they're are any Christians out there, you are welcome to come and read my blog post about the book. Some of the elements don't relate to the book, but I do talk of the impact of the moral message on my life.

http://undermuchgrace.blogspot.com/2007/12/christmas-monikers-and-cat-in-box-for.html

This is one of the great books I've grew up with and during these days it's hard to find any good books to read for children that actually have a moral point. This story teaches your kids the dangers of talking to a stranger. Although it's a bit scary, it's a good story for kids out there to alert them the dangers of the world involving strangers. The illustrations are beautiful and enjoyable for kids

It features a goat with seven kids (like the title suggested), warning them of not opening the door to anyone but her, because a wolf is looking any ways to gobble them up, by hook or by crook, while she's going away for a while into the forest to look for for food. As expected the wolf came and tried so many ways to tricked the kids to open the door. When he finally complished this, he gobbled them all up, except for the youngest kid, who managed to hide itself somewhere. Both of them found the wolf and a graphic scene of the mother goat cutting the wolf up to save her kids and replacing them with rocks before she sew it back up.

The Wolf and the Seven Kids is an excellent story to use for children when teaching them about the dangers of talking to strangers. The illustrations in this story are vibrant and grab the readers attention. Even though there is a graphic scene where the wolf eats six of the seven kids the mother saves her children by cutting them out of the wolf's stomach with a pair of scissors and then fills his stomach with rocks and sews him up. This shows the mother as the hero because she saves her children. This is an excellent story but I would be careful about reading it to younger children because they may get scared when the wolf eats the kids.

Ann Blades' version of this familiar Grimm tale is delightful. It took me back to my childhood, when I spent many happy hours studying my books of Grimm's fairy tales. The soft-edged, colorful drawings are appealing and playful. I consider this a very nice book, and have ordered several as gifts.

This is part of a collection that I am ordering, a few at a time. I hope to have the whole set displayed in my dining room available for my grand-children and I to share.

What makes this particular volume of Lang's collection remarkable is its collection of quite unknown stories. While we all love "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Cinderella", there is nothing wrong with venturing for more complex stories, and that is what this volume provides.

I have not researched these, but I am under the impression that many of these stories were actually "written". I'm not sure how everyone will take that threat to oral folklore, but good fantasy is good fantasy, and I enjoy reading a fairy tale-esque story with extra complexity that still holds the same aura.

The illustrations are gorgeous, as usual, and display intricacies that fit the stories superbly.

Perhaps a more wild collection, but for that I love it all the more.

With tales such as The Blue Mountains, The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership, The Dragon and His Grandmother, Fairer-than-a-Fairy, The Flower Queen's Daughter, The Glass Axe, How To Tell a True Princess, and many others how can anyone not find this book fun to read? Once again, Lang edits a book full of fairy tales from many lands that will entertain children and adults. The black and white illustrations are also superb.

When I was younger my Mom used to read me a book until I fell asleep. As I grew older, I began to read myself to sleep. As things changed only one thing stayed constant, my favorite books are still Andrew Lang's Fairy books. The Yellow Fairy book is a collection of 48 fairy tales written the way they were supposed to be written. Each tale ranges in length anywhere from a couple of pages up to about 20. The tales are fairly easy reads, but they don't lose any of their appeal. The book also contains several wonderful illustrations.
Some of the stories include: The Six Swans, Story of the Emperor's New Clothes, The Crow, The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership, The Three Brothers, The Magic Ring, How to Tell a True Princes, Thumbelina, and more.

I would suggest reading this book, I love it!

My best friend and I have loved this since the third grade and we are now going into the seventh grade. In the third grade when we discovered this book we put a yellow paper clip on the page with the sweetest poem and since then we have both left the school that the book belonged to. The paper clip is still there today and most people in the school know about the paper clip so they don't move it. They all know the story.

I thought that this book was well thought out. Though, this book gears to middle and elementary aged children. If you want to have a cute little autograog signing inside a yaerbook or autogragh book, this is the book to use. Inside the book are 11 different sections such as, "I Love You, I Love You", and "Forget-Me-Not".I'd recommend this book to any middle school aged child to read.

I had this book in the fourth grade and was delighted to find it available used on Amazon.com! It was just as wonderful as I remembered it and my kids love it, too!

Let me start out by saying that my mother had this book when she was little. She loved this book and still remembers many of these little verses. Such as: "You love yourself, You think you're grand, You go to the movies and hold your hand, You put your arm around your waist, And when you get fresh, You slap your face!"

"Grandma has a habit, Of chewing in her sleep, She chews on Grandpa's whiskers, And thinks it's shredded wheat."

Zomo is a rabbit who is "clever" but wants "wisdom" so goes to SkyGod, who tells him he must do "three impossible things:" bring him "the scales of Big Fish in the sea, "the milk of Wild Cow" and "the tooth of leopard." Zomo tricks the fish into dancing to his drumbeat until his scales fall off, tricks the cow into ramming the palm tree until she's stuck so he can milk her (reminds me of Brer Rabbit and Sis Cow), and then trips the leopard on the slippery scales and milk to get the tooth. Unique, vividly colored illustrations accompany the simple story. I will say I don't quite get the ending where he earns wisdom, and all he does with it is run very fast (wasn't he doing that already?). Overall however, the illustrations and clever rabbit make a great story for my toddler.

With Zomo the Rabbit : A Trickster Tale from Africa, Gerald McDermott demonstrates again why he is our favorite when it comes to children's books. The tale is clever. The illustrations are spectacular, as always. McDermott's books are the favorites of my 7-year old, who reads them over and over again. My 2-year old also loves them.

Is there any higher praise an author/illustrator can receive than to hear a reviewer say, "Well, I never really loved anything else this person did, but I think this book is bloody brilliant"? Probably. But I for one feel that Gerald McDermott (who I've always respected but never felt any real affection for) really hit the nail on the head with this book. "Zomo" has the near impossible task of being both amusing and informative. So many African folktales relayed in children's picture books end up being a little dry and dated. For example, the book "Zomo" most resembles in plot is, "A Story, A Story" by G. Haley. Yet that book is a dour dull creation when compared to this amazing little concoction. This is a book that every child should read at least once in their lives.

As you open the book you see a clever little rabbit all decked out in kinte cloth. The text reads, "Zomo! Zomo the rabbit. He is not big. He is not strong. But he is very clever". When Zomo decides that being clever is not enough and that he wants wisdom as well he quickly requests it from the Sky God. To attain wisdom's secrets, the Sky God commands Zomo to fetch him the scales of Big Fish of the sea, the milk of Wild Cow, and the tooth of Leopard. Zomo immediately sets out to fulfill these tasks. For the fish he plays a catchy tune on his drum, so entrancing the sea dwelling creature that it dances its scales off. The Wild Cow is lured into a tree and, while stuck, Zomo milks it. As for Leopard, some of the slippery scales dropped into slippery milk cause the feline to slip and knock out a tooth. When Zomo presents these items to the Sky God he is instantly told that wisdom consists of courage, good sense, and caution. Zomo has thus far had the first two, but now with three new enemies he should exercise the last for a while.

I think what I loved best about this book was Zomo himself. This is a remarkable thing too. Too often the cocky hero of a tale (especially a trickster tale) is too brash and self-important to garner any real love from the reader. But Zomo's different. He's sprightly and a joy to follow. From the geometric patterns of his face to the energetic dancing of his little black furry feet, he's a pure pleasure to watch. The illustrations themselves are so bright and cheery it puts such similarly colorful stories like, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" to shame. But best of all is the narration. I've given you the first sentence of the book, but the rest reads just as well. It's catchy and delightfully placed upon each and every page.

Some books you pick up and groan when your kids want you to read them forty or fifty times in a row. Other books you wish they'd ask you sixty or seventy times more. "Zomo" is in the latter category. A fun filled romp with a delightful West African base, the book is one of the best I've ever had the pleasure to peruse. Highly recommended from here to the sky and back.

One of the universal figures in mythology is the trickster, from Hermes of classical mythology to Iktomi of the Indians of the American plains. Zomo the Rabbit is an example of an animal trickster and is often at the center of many of the traditional tales of West Africa, while other cultures tell similar stories about the Spider and the Tortoise using guile and trickery to outwit their larger foes.

In "Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa" Gerald McDermott knows that he is clever but wishes to acquire wisdom. But before he can earn wisdom the Sky God gives him three impossible tasks and requires Zomo to bring him the scales of Big Fish in the sea, the milk of Wild Cow, and the tooth of Leopard. The question is whether Zomo's cleverness can make up for the fact that the is not big and he is not strong. Well, of course, he can, but that does not necessarily mean that gaining wisdom will make his life any easier out in the jungle.

McDermott's colorful artwork is influenced by African designs and he tells the tale with simple, rhythmic language that will appeal to the youngest of readers. The author and illustrator has been studying the trickster motif in folklore and mythology for some time, having earned a Caldecott Honor for "Anansi the Spider," another tale from Africa. "Zomo the Rabbit" will obviously remind many young readers of another rascally rabbit, which will help establish the idea that the trickster has been around for a long time in many different, but similar, guises.

Excited for this book. Compare with the tradicional book of Oncology, is easy to understand. I recommend as a part of training in Oncology Field. A "must-have" Book

The book is about the latest treatment in oncology. It's easy to obtain information out of this book. It has everything breast, lung, colorectal cancer, etc.

This textbook while being comprehensive enough,is enjoyable to read. As opposed to other major oncology textbooks, it provides definitive conclusions regarding treatment and is not overly burdening to the reader. Because Oncology changes so quickly, one could likely get by with this textbook and following the published literature.

I found this book explains the field of adaptive control very well. It covers its basic theory, its proof, and also its application. It is very good book for anybody who has interest in adaptive contro, and for anybody who will just begin to study about adaptive control.

This book is easy to understand compared to other adaptive control texts. The examples are interwoven with the text. The theoretical complexity of adaptive control is contained in a few chapters and can be visited after some experience with the practical aspects have been obtained.

I found this text to be an overall excellent compilation of many different adaptive techniques. If you are looking for a text to contain proofs versus 'justifications', then this book isn't for you (steps are skipped to emphasize the result). However, if you implement the algorithms, you will get the results as stated. The book states up front that it is limited to SISO. However, in the references at the end of a chapter, you will find MIMO references (IEEE pubs, etc). I've enjoyed the book, and I'm keeping it.