Education Books

I was introduced to the book recently, with the author presenting at the local public library. Over 100 people showed up from all walks of life, and all seemed to have benefited from the approach he takes on creativity.

The book is an excellent guide on how to change your critical thinking processes into creative thinking processes.

His work even helps deal with stressful issues- you shortly find new ways to tackle problems - and sometimes even find new opportunities. I recommend this book to anyone who is ready to realize the importance of creative action in their lives.

Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking

This book is based on the outstanding premise that how we think is more important than what we know. Tim explains why thinking skills are likely to be even more important in the rapidly changing future. The book then expands on exactly what productive thinking is and why we need to do it! Although initially based on the proven concepts of the Osborne Parnes Creative Problem Solving Model, Productive Thinking takes the ideas of divergent and convergent thinking, and together with an excellent choice of thinking tools and techniques, weaves them together in the 6 step Productive Thinking Model. Elegant in design, thoroughly researched and proven in practice. An easy to read and very informative piece of work. Well done Tim.

Ken Wall - Australia

Thinking is intuitive. Thinking is common sense. Thinking is hard wired into humans. If all this is true, more people would put common sense into common action. It's not the case, though is it?.

When one understands, one can make decisions more easily, more quickly and more correctly. Tim Hurson's book whacks it out of the park so well, we purchased 150 copies for clients and will follow up with them to make sure they read it and, well "Think Better" to dramatically improve their business.

As Tim writes on page 10 of his must read book, "The ability to think better will soon become the most significant competitive advantage companies and individuals can claims. Thinking better is what it's all about."

Our company trains insurance agents (Throw the eggs now) to help their employer clients better understand what they pay so dearly for. The word insurance seems to connote the worst images...an intangible concept that is difficult to understand, costs too much and does not perform when one needs it.

Page 88-Perceive a problem. Pick a solution. Do something. Finding the real problem to create broader solutions takes training. Tim shows one how to analyze properly, find the solution and implement. Not only is one step difficult for too many business people, but putting all three into action, is almost impossible for most. Isn't the goal to at least beat Paretto's 80-20 principle?

The insurance business is replete with "This is how it's always been done. This is the way to do it now." If readers will follow Tim's Productive Thinking Model framework, it will help them think better, think more effectively, and think more powerfully. We'll finally hear no more "This is how it's always been done."

Makes sense to us. It will to you also.

Tim Hurson's "Think Better" is not a treatise for armchair philosophers but an action-packed thriller, an exciting travel guide from theory to practice.

Productive thinking, Hurson argues, generates new things, as opposed to reproductive thinking, which refines what is known. It is the deliberate search for breakthrough rather than incremental change and it is powered by the alternation of creative and critical thinking.

The book presents a model which includes a rigorous method and superb practical tools and techniques that have been designed, developed and successfully tested in real life by the author. In the process, thinkers are urged to balance facts and feelings, information and imagination, aspirations and action and persevere through the "third third" of the brainstorm - that final stretch where the really great ideas emerge.

The clear writing style and the well-organized content are enhanced by quality story-telling that gives the book soul, with true stories (hospitals, insurance companies, furniture, space travel) as well as imaginary ones (how an airline might make its middle seats attractive).

Tim Hurson has clearly done a lot of productive thinking about productive thinking in this contemporary and comprehensive work, which constitutes a major contribution to the literature of creatively confronting challenges.

THINK BETTER by Tim Hurson is a thorough presentation of highly useful working tools for creative idea generation to creative problem solving.

Though I have been teaching the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Process Model since 1978 I learned many things through the complete presentation that Tim makes in THINK BETTER.

In the book he provides his interpretation of the OP CPS Process and adds several excellent tools to make the OP CPS Process more effective in either workplace or personal problems.

This is an excellent book for people who are trying to learn much about how to use a complete process fro examining challenges, generating ideas, narrowing down those ideas into potential solutions and developing workable plans and to go through a planning process in order to increase the potential results.

Morgan is amazing in this book. I must say this book was my favorite so far. I havent read the fifth yet but this was actioned pack. I finished this book in one day.

Oh, my god. I liked Cal so much and he turns out evil. Such a dissapointment. The book itself wasn't though. I don't want to give too much away. But pretty much what happens is Cal and Selene turn out evil, Hunter turns out good.
I am so confused(sarcastic). Its a real page turner. Anyone who loves to read, read it.

And agian this is one of my Favs!

This book is awesome just like the other ones.
Morgan is just starting to calm down when her she is haunted by a terrible thing that happened in a pervious book. Cal is acting strange and makes Morgan more nervous. Towards the middle of the book Morgans life is shifted when an unexpected visitor shows up.
This book is great and I couldnt put it down. Cate shows in Dark Magick that something is coming. You pracitcally feel it in the words. Its exciting and shifts the plot for the rest of the books.

The events at the end of the previous book have Morgan very upset. Is Hunter dead? Did she really kill him? Has anyone found his body? Every day and hour brings agony for her.

Cal becomes more mysterious. He is both closer and more secretive, and strange things are going on with his mother. Morgan becomes confused. But then she finds out Hunter is alive. She is relieved to know she was not responsible for someone's death.

In her confusion she must learn to try and trust Hunter and even his cousin Skye. What she learns makes her more confused.

Final confrontations reveal much about the characters and their plans. It is a good and tense story. Can't wait to see what happens next.

I purchased the Sweep series for my 13 year old daughter in the hopes that maybe she would read. "She hated to read." Well I was amazed, and could not get her to go to sleep, as she would spend the whole night, with a night-light on reading these books. She enjoyed them so much, and could not stop talking first about Cal and then Hunter, that I had to see what all the fuss was about.
Well after two weeks, a book a day, for a girl who hated to read, it sparked my curiosity, so I started reading, and was surprised to find out how enjoyable a Teen book about Teen Witches could be. I am not really into Wicca, but these books are really enjoyable. I am on my fifth book, and my daughter read each twice, and is know on the Circle of Three Series. I have to highly recommend these books to those parents who can not get their daughters to read. These are excellent stories, full of fantasy, horror, and fun.

Amazing book! Whether you are preparing to take the Internal Medicine boards for the first time or preparing for recertification, this is an

excellent resource. It is well-organized, concise, and comprehensive. Definitely a must-have for anyone interested in internal medicine. Highly

recommend! Thorough, beautifully-organized, and extremely well-written! Get this book....You won't be disappointed! A must have for all the

internal medicine residents!!! Extraordinarilly structured questions and even better explanation focused on the highlight topics in internal

medicine. If you are reading this, you are probably preparing for an ABIM internal medicine exam in addition to all your other duties. There is

never enough time, is there? Well, I was preparing for the ABIM recertification exam, since I'd finished residency. I had slogged through the

Medstudy review book over the course of five months, dutifully going over every page.... Tres painful. There were three weeks left before the

exam, and I figured I'd give this book a try. I quickly discovered how ignorant I was, despite doing the Medstudy book review. My friend taught

me a lot of critical care medicine way back when, and use Frontrunners Internal Medicine Syllabus and Internal Medicine Q&A Review, syllabus

companion for the board review and Turbo Mnemonics. Excellent materials to prepare you to pass the CERTIFICATION EXAM and Recertification exam.

The questions are well-written, and the answers give you really good feedback. The questions are highly relevant, reflecting what the ABIM wants

you to know. I got my pass notice from the ABIM today. I would recommend this book to anyone preparing for the boards.
Definitely a must-have for anyone interested in internal medicine. Highly recommend! Thorough, beautifully-organized, and

extremely well-written! Get this book....You won't be disappointed! Whether you are preparing to take the Internal Medicine boards for the first

time or preparing for recertification, this is an excellent resource. It is well-organized, concise, and comprehensive. The questions are

challenging and pertinent with clear answers that emphasize the teaching point being made. The outline format highlights important points about

each subject. In our program, we are also using this book as a resource for everyday teaching during morning report and other clinical

conferences. Overall, I am very satisfied with this book and highly recommend it!

I have been using both Medstudy and Frontrunners as an adjunct to board review for my recertification. Medstudy is by far more superior as it has a more comprehensive review of each topic, whereas Frontrunners is very abbreviated and in outline form in its review. The questions in Frontrunners are also very unsophisticated, lots of matching and not many case presentations. Finally, try to call customer service or contact the company through the phone number or e-mail on the website, the e-mail link didn't work for me, and it took several days to get a call back, no one answers except a machine even though it gives liberal hours for being open. All in all, the product strikes me as being crude. If you like an outline style and already have some other more comprehensive text, then you might like it, but its quite pricey, even for what it is.

As the Educational Director for our residency and a practicing internist, I found this to be hands-down the best resource out there as far as a database of old exam questions in prepping the internal medicine boards. We also found that the book to which this is a companion (i.e. Frontrunners Syllabus), was extraordinary in laying out all the key material in a nicely-organized, concise, and outlined format offering "recently and commonly asked material". Together, these 2 books form the core of our own ABIM Certification residency training program and were mission-critical to getting our perfect pass rates last year. [...]

My partner and I studied together this time, as we'd both missed the mark terribly on several prior administrations of the exam. We both passed easily owing in large part to this book. (incidentally, we found the book samples far easier to read (translation: not blurry) and far easier to evaluate from their main site). The outlined and user-friendly layout of the syllabus, with its boxed-in/bolded/starred points really made a huge difference and we saw the starred points ALL over the exam. We also owe our success on the exam to the 1300 Q&A book, which gives a massive number of old exam questions. We also found the Slide Shows (CD) essential for all the image questions, EKGs, etc. Bottom line, we're extremely happy we found this curriculum, and we're equally happy to have this exam behind us (finally). We easily score this curriculum a zealous four thumbs up.

This is a must-have for the I.M. CERT exam. The starred items, my favorites, pointed to recently asked material, which made my studying alot more enjoyable. In my opinion, nothing comes close to Frontrunners' review. My partners used it for their internal medicine RECERT and were equally pleased. As for me, I wouldn't have passed without it. Make sure you get through it at least twice before the exam since there was a load of material on the exam right out of the syllabus. I also went hit all of Frontrunners practice Q&A for the I.M. boards and got both from their www.frontrunners.info website (they had samples there, etc). In my opinion, if you're serious about passing or want to excel, you'd be foolish NOT to get a copy of these, even from a friend, before sitting for the exam.

This book will help my newly made 6th grade child's math class more understandable! It's what our school uses for their math program!

This is the best handbook I have found for parents or students. I recommend this for all middle school parents trying to help their kids.

Great Book! I bought it for a math class, but have already used it with my sixth grade son. Must have for anyone with children; great reference material for anyone who even needs to know how to help a child with math at home.

I have 4th grade and 2nd grade kids and It is nice to have a resource to show a different explanation than their textbooks. I like the simple set up. I am sure we will get much more use as the years go on. Wish I had it when I was younger.

My wife really likes this book. Good examples, however, wish there were more practice sheets for the child. It is a good parent reference book and easy to follow.

The concept of this book/puzzle is simple: each page is a separate room. Left-hand pages include brief descriptions of the rooms, while right-hand pages feature detailed illustrations of the rooms. The two major puzzles of the book are: 1. to get to the "center" of the maze (room 45), and find the shortest route back to page 1, and 2. to solve the riddle feature in the center of the maze.

The illustrations are fun to look at and, to my eye, resemble the work of Chris Van Allsburg ("Jumanji", "Polar Express", "Zathura", "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick").

I recommend this book for lovers of riddles and puzzles or anyone who enjoyed "MYST" or the old Infocom games, like "Zork".

This is a must in any library, whether you like mazes or not. Beautifully done.

The format of this book is interesting: each numbered page is a room. The reader's goal is interesting: find the path from the first room to the 45th room and back. The text follows a person (the narrator) guiding a small group of visitors around the maze-building. The drawings are all pen & ink (no color). The task & setup are fun, but ...

Here are my issues: (1) The narrator is a bit nasty -- nothing unsuitable for young children, but certainly not pleasant. (2) You absolutely MUST solve at least one riddle to find a path from room 1 to room 45. (3) There is no way to know whether you have found the correct answer to a riddle -- or for that matter, the shortest path.

My daughter & I have enjoyed reading this book together. It was intersting & fun. You'll enjoy it more if you aren't expecting a 5-star book.

This book is truly one of the most amazing creations I've ever held in my two hands. The dialogues, the pictures, the clues, riddles, symbolism, historical references...it's all fantastic. I've been working on this for over three years now with my best friend and several others, and although we solved it over a year ago, we still keep going back to this book. Everytime you open it up, there's something new to discover. And the more research we do, the more incredible it becomes. It truly lives up to its' title as the World's Most Challenging Puzzle. We're still trying to dicipher clues in some of the rooms, although we have theories about nearly all of them, and some hard facts on quite a few.

If you want to discuss anything about the Maze, please feel free to e-mail me...we're always interested in new opinions

A puzzle not for the faint-of-heart -- there is NO solution available to brute force and you are not expected to solve it in an evening. It's an exciting, detailed trip through a fiendish den of riddles and allusions with an untrustworthy guide, and I've used it as a great conversation piece with smart people. (Somewhere I have whole notebooks filled with sketched maps and riddle notes, the combined efforts of my theatre group ...) Highly recommended for those who love difficult, DIFFICULT puzzles.

This rhyming children's book is terrific toddler reading. The drawings are beautiful and our kids have both loved it. Our two year old loves the animal illustrations and verses. A great pick!

We recently ordered 5 copies of Quick as a Cricket for our grandson and as gifts for other children. Our kids grew up with this book and it is timeless. All the copies we ordered were paperback but one arrived supersized. The pages are 15 x17 which is wonderful. The pages of the smaller books are 6x6. Both sizes have their uses but we really enjoy the wonderful illustrations in the larger format.

My children love this book (they are 5, 3 and 1). The illustrations are amazing and the words are few, but very creative. It's very fun to immitate the pages as well.

Cute book! There are puppets that can be purchased to go along with the story, they are great for kids to keep them engaged and involoved.

I used to use this book while teaching children at a learning center, and now I use this book to read to my daughter before bedtime. The pictures are great! The read is short which is great for kids with short attention spans. Absolutely a must have!

I don't own this book, but I just checked out from local library. He has got such a great imagination. Another great book he created. Awesome!

There is really no reason for me to review this book with 30 other reviews already here. I will just state that I loved it. I "read" it to my 4 year old and he wanted to read it again right away. If you look at each picture carefully and discuss with a young child what is going on before you turn the page, they will love it. And if they are like my boy, they will then read it when they are alone. I went to see him that night up in his room and he wanted to read it to me. We sat there while he described each picture and the story in surprising detail. I really think this is a great book with fantastic illustrations and a wonderful story. The author is brilliant.

If you like incredible artwork with an amazing story line than you will love Sector 7 by David Wiesner. Each of his books is absolutely incredible and this is no exception. I bought this(and others of his) for my daughter who is about to become an art teacher to use in her classes and she was thrilled! Enjoy!

This item was exactly as described in the item description. It was in the original packaging and is in excellent condition. I am very satisfied and I highly recommend this seller and product to everyone. This is an excellent book by an excellent author!

Flotsam and Freefall were the first two books I explored by David Wiesner. Sector 7 is not to be missed either. Wiesner's style and creativity are wonderful explorations for all humans(and especially children). M.C. Escher has an honored presence in this book, as he does in Freefall. The theme of flying is present here, as in all of Wiesner's books, and the fanciful creative nature of Wiesner's story and illustrations (paintings?) are not to be missed. Second language learners will immediately have something to say (in their own language) about this book. So will everyone else who reads it. Anyone who has taken the time to sit back and enjoy the show clouds put on will appreciate the ideas within this book. Don't hesitate!

As a mom I love Mouse Paint! There is depth to the story. In addition, the innovative introduction of concepts with primary colors is just plain fun. Reading for reading is always good. But reading to teach information opens up new horizons for lifelong learning. The whole book has me smiling all the way through. It is short so when it becomes a beloved favorite -- and it will be a favorite guaranteed! -- you can easily get through it to the satisfaction of all. This is the type of book I tell my friends about.

This edition in hardback would be nice as a gift.

Mouse Paint is a great book for early childhood. I use this book for infant toddler storytime. The colorful pictures make easy eye contact for young children. The book was in excellent condition and delivery was expeditious! Thank you Amazon.

Great book for learning colors. My son just loves it and it teaches how to mix colors as well. Very educational and entertaining.

This is an adorable book, a real must have for kids of any age. It talks all about colors, primary colors, mixing colors, etc.. And the mice in the story are so cute. Simple but entertaining.

This is a super source of creative inspiration for young children. Start them out working with an adult or older child, and they will absolutely take off with creativity and use of colors!

There's hours of educational entertainment inside this slim volume!

This book gets 5 stars because it focuses precisely on Programming. You can see by the other user reviews that this is an excellent book.

You want to make the most of your training? Tried of making no gains? Get this book, read it, shut the hell up and implement what is in this book!

Along with Starting Strength (Rippetoe), this book is one of the best books you can read if you want to learn about strength training.

Rippetoe and Kilgore combine science, 25+ years of experience, and common sense to write one of the best books on strength training that you can own -- regardless of you're current skill level.

Highly recommended. Best of the best.

This book is essential to your training library. It, with Starting Strenth should provide all the information that anyone would ever need in regard to weight training. It does not have a bunch of references, but that does not mean this book is not reputable. This book simply does not need many outside references because Rippetoe and Kilgore ARE those references. Their credentials are impeccable and it would "behoove" anyone who wants to weight train CORRECTLY to take their advice.

As with most of the books that I have read on advanced weightlifting programs, the book is heavy on theory and low on examples. The author gives some general and somewhat confusing parameters on how to design a program and then fails to give a full body workout. The book even states that working the body as one unit is the way to go, but then only gives examples on specific exercises like the push press or squat. Its well written and one can tell the author is extrememly knowledgeable. I just dont understand why he didnt give a full body workout example for beginner, intermediate, and advanced lifters.

My book was about the senior year when the guys finally meet the girl of their dream. This guy name Jeremy meets the girl of his dream her name is Jessica Wakefield, who has a twin sister name Elizabeth Wakefield. But their is a little problem that jeremy has everytime he wants to go out with Jessica something has to go wrong. they never get to see each other until the last minute. this book is very interested for young girl like me, i guaranteed that you will enjoy reading this book. if you really want to know what your senior year will kind of be when you finally get there or if you are already their you make think its kind of what you went thru.

This book is a great book. It is about highschool students and their lives. If you like this book you will like the other SVH books. There are lots of other Books like Sweet Valley university and elementary and you get the idea.

I love the whole jessica and jeremy thing, i think he is really good for her. i just wish she would get over will, he is a jerk. i feel bad melissa tried to kill herself, but i mean over a guy? really... melissa is supposed to be super cool, but why is it everytime her and will break up she goes mental? she is not exactly stable... conner is annoying and liz is annoying for trying to be with someone like that. he isn't worth her or maria's time.

This was a really good book. It just didn't have enough Liz/Connor interaction for me. I think Connor is being a jerk at the end. I like how it ended with Jessica and Will makin up and Jessica and Jeremy getting together though. I also like the friendship developing between Ken and Maria. Overall, a very good book.

Following the events in "Your Basic Nightmare" (#6), "Boy Meets Girl" (#7) makes some interesting changes in the main character's lives. For starters, Jeremy Aames finally asks Jessica Wakefield out on a few dates after their first kiss in the previous book. However, their dates never seem to go as planned, and they both begin to have their doubts about whether or not they should continue seeing each other. Plus, there's that added tension with Will Simmons showing up on one of their nights out. His appearance would seem harmless (after all, Jess swears she's over him), but if you read on, you'll see why it's not.

Next up is Melissa Fox, who is hospitalized after trying to kill herself in book #6, right after Will Simmons broke up with her. Most everybody feels guilty about this incident, especially Jess and Will, yet that's not stopping either one of them from thinking about each other. Could there still be some possible chemistry between these two? (I hope not. Jess seems happy enough with Jeremy, without Will ruining things.)

And lastly: Maria Slater had caught Elizabeth Wakefield and Conner McDermott kissing, and now she's not speaking to either one of them, mostly Liz though. And not surprisingly, Conner is now avoiding Liz, too, so she can "work things out" with Maria. More like so he can leave the "relationship" quietly.

There were some really good lists, journal entries, and assignments in "Boy Meets Girl", in particular Liz's freestyle writing assignment about the meaning of love and Maria's "Why Books Are Better Than People" list (my favorite). This is probably one of the better books I've read so far in this series. Jessica is finally back to her old self, worrying about boys and appearances, plus being more assertive, which was the biggest character trait missing in the previous six SVHSY books. "Boy Meets Girl" is worth reading if you finally want to see Melissa get her comeuppance and Jessica land on her two feet again. For readers age 12+