Education Books


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Education Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Education
My Pants Are Haunted (Dear Dumb Diary #2)
Published in Mass Market Paperback by Scholastic Paperbacks (2004-10-01)
Author:
List price: $4.99
New price: $1.70
Used price: $0.01

Average review score:

Dog love
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-04
This book is good, but my little pug ate it. So it must have been really good.

never do anything, ever
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-04-11
funny,I like the page that she picks up the grandma's underpants.

Dear Dumb Diary
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-25
Kids have you heard of the book DEAR DUMB DIARY? Well if you haven't, this book is funny. Also it is interesting because the girls in a middle school fall in love with Hudson, the cute guy in the school. Even though I think he looks ugly in the picture of him on page 7 of the book.
Three girls decide to give another girl a much needed makeover. This is a part of the book I mostly enjoyed. Make overs are when someone changes their way of dressing. The girl who gets the make over, Margaret, wears the same thing almost everyday. Two girls, Jamie the main character and the author of the diaries & her best friend Isabella take Margaret shopping and buy her new popular clothing. After Margaret becomes popular she decides to go back to being herself and to wear her usual clothes and Hudson notices her.That's when the problem begins.
Well,I think you guys should read this book because,when you are feeling down you can change your mood to a happy one.
I recommend this book to girls 7 or older because it is written as a diary.

Giggles, a Diary, and a Girl
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-10-04
Do you like funny books? I have a book that will crack you up! My book is called My Pants are Haunted. It is about a girl named Jamie Kelly who writes in her diary. She writes in her diary about school, her parents, her dog Stinker, her friend Isabella, a mean girl Angelina, and a boy she has a crush on named Hudson. She gets new pants for school. She gets holes in her pants. She gets really upset because they were her best pair of jeans. This book is a series. I think this is a funny book. So get down to your nearest book store and get this book.

From the parent of an "Non-Reader"
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-11-26
My 10 year old daughter is very picky about the books she reads. It's very sad: I buy a book, she reads one chapter, then puts it down forever...BUT when we got "Dear Dumb Diary..." she read it from cover to cover without stopping. Now she has the others in the series and is waiting for more. She has almost worn the covers off.

Education
Network Application Frameworks: Design & Architecture
Published in Hardcover by Pearson Education (1998-12-15)
Author: Eric Greenberg
List price: $52.95
New price: $19.36
Used price: $7.17

Average review score:

A must read for IT Infrastructure Strategists and Designers
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 1998-11-04
As industry analysts articulate the "vision" of the intranet becoming a unified platform for delivery of information services. Eric Greenberg has made it possible to develop a strategic architecture or roadmap to making it a reality.

Peter G. Daniels R&D, Network Strategic Planning

Very valuable read.
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 1999-07-15
Excellent book!

I think that NAF is a very valuable book to read. I certainly learned a lot about the integration of networks and applications.

Everyone who works in the enterprise software business, be it as an administrator or developer, can gain a lot of insight and specific information by reading this book and thinking about it.

END

MCSE's and CCIE's can greatly benefit from this book
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 1999-05-25
I highly recommend this book to Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSE's), Cisco CCIE's, and Network/IT professionals in general, new and old. Network Application Frameworks is a welcome change. With every page, Greenberg caters to the reader's every need, providing a comprehensive collection of information in a concise easy-to-read format and with an entertaining style. If you need to understand Microsoft technologies, networking, and distributed systems in general, this book is as good as it gets.

NAF:DA, excellent, lucid roundup of technologies that matter
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 1999-05-06
Greenberg has put together an extremely readable account of the technologies that matter in the developing of applications for the emerging Networked Age. (You think "emerging" is wrong, and that we're already "there"? Just wait -- you ain't seen nothing yet. China, India, all of Africa have yet to join!)

It's not necessarily the kind of book you'll wish to read from cover to cover, but as an "e-business technical architect" at a Big-5 I have found NAF:DA to be an excellent resource into which to dip from time to time. Very highly recommended.

Invaluable for MCSE's and CCIE's, Network Designers, IS/IT
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 1999-06-06
This book is an invaluable comprehensive guide to network design, distributed computing, and overall client/server architecture including security. Highly readable, it clearly explains important network design and distributed computing technologies-- how they work, what their key design constraints are, and how they compare. It is suitable for both beginners and advanced professionals looking for answers to difficult questions. If there's one book Microsoft or Cisco certified professionals, network designers, Information System (IS/IT) professionals, or application architects should buy this year, in my opinion this one is it.

Education
No Talking
Published in Hardcover by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (2007-06-26)
Author: Andrew Clements
List price: $15.99
New price: $7.30
Used price: $6.93

Average review score:

No Talking
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-22
"No Talking" is a realistic and entertaining book that describes a competition between the boys and girls at Laketon Elementary. Each team tries to go untill the end of the week without talking. Commotion occurs as a result of the silence. The teachers and the principle are getting annoyed by the constant silence to they decide to take action on the nonsense. Does the teachers stop the competition or do the children pull them into the fun? Read to find out!

Loads of fun
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-17
The basic plot: A couple of 5th graders decide to see if their class can go 48 hours without talking. Boys against girls. If a teacher addresses you, you may respond with the maximum of three words.

No Talking is an adorable story. It's a fun concept, and the author takes the idea and moves it along at a quick, easy pace. I loved the sweet ending. It was very much a "happy book" - one that leaves you with a smile. Highly enjoyable . . . it almost made me want to try the kids' experiment, too.

a great book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-14
No Talking is a good book about girls versus boys war with no talking. The war started when a boy did his report on India and he heard about this man who tried not talking to clear his head. This book has a good moral and teaches kids a good lesson. I would say third - 5th grade should read this.

Book Review: No Talking
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-28
Working in a public school, I am around children every day. Here are two facts that I feel I can state from experience:

1. Kids like to talk

2. There is nothing that gets the youngsters going like boys vs. girls competition

In No Talking, Andrew Clements manages to merge both of these eternal truisms.

At Laketon Elementary, the 5th grade class has a reputation for embracing the spoken word - so much so that they earned the nickname "The Unshushables" from teachers. On top of all this noisiness, the boys can't stand the girls and the girls aren't all that keen on the boys.

One day Dave Packer attempts something that surely has never been done by anyone in his fifth grade class - to make it through the school day without saying a word. He fails, but his experiment leads to a challenge between the boys and the girls: Two days of school. Whichever group talks the least wins.

This book has all kinds of classroom implications, and the rivalry between boys and girls will immediately draw kids in. No Talking is an entertaining story and a quality fiction selection

"No Talking" deserves talking about!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-04
This book, "No Talking", was pretty good, though when you read the breif explanation of the plot on the back of the book, it sounds better than it really is. It is also a short book, and I finished it in about 30 minutes despite its catagory: "chapter book". I thought it had a fairly nice plot, and it did teach a lot, but it also wasn't as funny or as great as it sounded. As I said, it was short with an alright plot.

I loved the humor it did have, though, and I thought the ending was interesting and heart-warming. You also had to love some parts with the only three-word answers the kids gave the teachers' answers. However, I thought the beginning was written in a confusing way. Also, there were so many characters, I woke up the morning after I finished the book and couldn't even remember half the names.

FOR PARENTS: (Scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest/worse)
bad language - 0 there was no bad language
sexual content - 1
1. one example of sexual content was that a girl kissed a guy on the cheek
violence - 0 there was no violence
adult content - 2
1. one example of adult content was that the main character, Dave is yelled at by the principal and he yells back, which shows rebellion.
2. another example of adult content was that the book is based on what Dave read in a book on India about the well-known Muslim, Gandhi, and Dave seems to think Gandhi is very wise in not talking, which may come off offensive or confusing.

Overall this was an okay book.

Education
Nonfiction Matters: Reading, Writing, and Research in Grades 3-8
Published in Paperback by Stenhouse Publishers (1998-06)
Author: Stephanie Harvey
List price: $22.50
New price: $15.00
Used price: $10.84
Collectible price: $24.95

Average review score:

A Transformative Book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-08
This book transformed the way we teach reasearch at our school. Our students can't wait to dig deeply into subjects and share what they've learned with others. We've truly become a community of learners and the tools and encouragement in this book helped to make that happen. I re-read it every year.

A ReflectiveTeacher's Guide
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 2002-04-08
Nonfiction Matters by Stephanie Harvey is a great book that not only gives teachers great ideas on how to teach nonfiction writing, but also on how to learn along with the students by inquiring about real things in life anyone of them might have an interest in.
I recommend this book to any teacher who is willing to take the challenge and transform her / his classroom into what every classroom in the world should be. Teachers will find new incentives to motivate their students along with simple economic ideas that will get their students writing passionate, interesting nonfiction papers everyone will want to read.

Outstanding
Helpful Votes: 13 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2005-02-03
Every middle-grade teacher should own this book! It is such a relief to find a book by an author who clearly knows how to engage students in authentic, "real world" material. Not only is this book enjoyable to read, but it actually shows you how to jump in and make nonfiction reading work for your students--or your children--wherever they may be on the ability spectrum.

I think it can be difficult to teach things which we intuitively do well, and many teachers are good readers. This book is marvelous, because it refuses to advocate a painful, repetitive break-down of dull practice skills. Instead, it shows teachers and parents how to explicitly address skills within a meaningful context. That is so critical! For example, the book talks about readers making connections, and recognizing types of connections, including text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world. Making connections is not a new idea for reading teachers, but these categories are great for making non-fiction accessible.

The ideas and strategies in the book are motivating and inspiring, if overwhelming. The author's journey is really that of a continuing learner, and it was so valuable to me to read about her overflowing ideas and philosophies and strategies, as well as the way she handled roadblocks with colleagues and students.

I love that this author has the courage to present teaching as a "messy" art and science. It doesn't pretend there is one right answer or one right method or one right kind of student or teacher. It recognizes the complexity of so many variables coming together--ability, interest, personality--and acknowledges and addresses these variables, instead of pretending they don't exist.

This is a book for thinking, reflective teachers, and it's good.

An essential resource for teaching nonfiction
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-13
I just had this book assigned to me for my upcoming course in Materials for Teaching Reading. The semester hasn't even started yet, and I have devoured this book. Stephanie Harvey has done an incredible job of breaking down the process of reading, writing, and researching nonfiction in such a way that I really feel prepared to go out and start teaching it. Not only am I prepared, I am EXCITED! I can't wait to implement what I have learned in my future classes, as well as in my own life journey of continued learning and research. Not only is there great information, the book is written in a very readable, interesting manner, a good example of good nonfiction writing.

*How* to write papers
Helpful Votes: 32 out of 34 total.
Review Date: 2001-06-02
When I was in school, we were told to write papers, but were never really taught *how* to develop one. We were told *what* to do -- make an outline, write the paper, and revise it -- but that didn't help me figure out *how* to do any of these things.

Now my daughter is in third grade and I'm trying to help her learn how to write. Our first use of the book helped us capture and explore what she learned on a museum trip. I was really impressed with the resulting report. It was focused, full of real content, and had a delightful narrative style. We even used wondering questions to help us focus further inquiry.

This book is a must-have for anyone interested in life-long learning.

Education
Off The Map: An Expedition Deep into Empire and the Global Economy
Published in Paperback by New Society Publishers (2002-09-01)
Author: Chellis Glendinning
List price: $15.95
New price: $6.00
Used price: $4.94

Average review score:

I was expecting to like this as much as the other customers did.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-23
As much as other reviewers were raving about this book, I thought I would like it just as much. I really thought it was a mediocre work of writing. It consisted of haphazardly organized observations about empire, presented with very little sense of coherence. The observations were often superficial and rarely put into context. It's like reading a collection of notes from a conference on globalization, mixed with a few writing exercises from a creative writing class.

This book would make good reading material for a coffee house. Read it where you don't care if you're interrupted. Read it where you'll get more insight out of the conversations it sparks with strangers and acquaintances.

I don't recommend reading this book unless you have at least a couple of semesters of Spanish on your high school or college transcript. The author writes a lot of the fictional (?) dialogue in a mixture of Spanish and English, and she doesn't always provide enough context clues to figure out the Spanish if you don't already have some education in the language. (Fortunately, I did.) The Spanish-English mixture really wasn't necessary for the book; it was more distracting than helpful, and at times it seemed to stereotype the speakers a little bit.

Like all of Chellis' books, she walks her talk.
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-28
It would be difficult to add to the depth of insight other reviewers have already provided. Chellis' insight and passion are reinvigorating planetary healing on multiple levels. The best gage for this is the example of her own life. Read everything she writes. A modern visionary with a powerful and compelling voice.

A THOUGHTFUL & COMPELLING TRIBUTE TO SUSTAINABLE CULTURE
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2000-10-10
What impact has three hundred years of Western imperialism had on the way we treat each other -- and the Earth -- today?

How is today's global economy simply our latest expression of colonization?

How can our personal woundings become doorways to self-healing and form the basis of a commitment to sustainable planetary culture?

In her new book, Off the Map (An Expedition Deep Into Imperialism, the Global Economy, and Other Earthly Whereabouts, Pulitzer-nominated author and psychologist Dr. Chellis Glendinning explores these themes with a directness, clarity and emotional intensity that awakens the reader to profound insight about the nature of today's world.

In a lyrical braiding of three stories, she weaves the threads of her personal story of sexual abuse in a European-American (and Anglophile) family in the 1950s, the history of the last three hundred years of Western imperialism and a present-day horseback ride through the recently colonized Chicano world of northern New Mexico, where she currently resides.

Glendinning sees Off the Map as a continuation of her past work. "My focus is always the relationship between the personal and the political," she notes. "This book is an effort to make clear that everyone on the Earth is still experiencing the legacies of the classical age of empire, that corporate globalization is just the latest expression of Western imperialism and that, ultimately, it cannot work."

Throughout the book, we follow Glendinning's story of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, through her healing to the reclamation of her essential self and her reconnection to the power of land and nature. We also follow the story of the land-based Chicano peoples of northern New Mexico, a story that goes to the heart of the unspoken wound of imperial systems: the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized.

Glendinning, a highly respected eco-psychologist, received a Pulitzer nomination for her book When Technology Wounds (William Morrow). Other earlier works include My Name is Chellis and I'm in Recovery From Western Civilization (Shambhala) and Waking Up in the Nuclear Age (William Morrow). Off the Map is a compelling look at the unexamined implications of our rapidly expanding global economy and, as such, should cause a great stir among economists, sociologists and all those concerned about the future of humanity -- and all of life -- on Earth.

beyond the clean, well-lighted office
Helpful Votes: 12 out of 15 total.
Review Date: 2001-02-16
To the thorough reviews below I'll just add:

It's nice to see someone in my field working for rather than against the social forces that oppose the conformity and imperialism that show up nowadays as well-marketed, hyperconvenient, quick-fix "psychotherapy" (or is that psycho therapy?). Listening to the soul of the world, Chellis Glendinning hears in it an anguish echoing her own--and acts bravely and actively on behalf of both.

There's an annoying idea at my school (Pacifica) that all such activism = acting out, a kind of puerile and heroic impulsiveness--whereas working the imaginal, perhaps from within a well-lighted office on convenient days, should be enough. The example of the author's way of being indicates otherwise. We certainly need to monitor our activism, lest it become just another kind of colonizing arrogance so characteristic of our empire-driven civilization; at the same time, to say and do nothing except in private is not enlightened or soulful, it is cowardly.

Good work, Dr. Glendinning!

By a pioneer in the field of ecopsychology
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 2002-12-06
Off The Maps: An Expedition Deep Into Empire And The Global Economy by psychologist, social activist, poet, and a pioneer in the field of ecopsychology Chellis Glendinning offers a unique look at globalization -- the modern-day alternative to the economic empires of European and Western history. Using maps as allegory, Off The Maps peers between the lines at the individual hopes and lives of workers and the working class at home and abroad as they struggle beneath the crushing spread of politically imperialistic, homogeneous mass-culture invasive, free-trade oriented, international corporation dominated, western-style consumerism. Off The Maps is a welcome and timely contribution which is very highly recommended for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in international politics and economics.

Education
One Size Fits Few: The Folly of Educational Standards
Published in Paperback by Heinemann (1999-03-30)
Author: Susan Ohanian
List price: $18.00
New price: $4.99
Used price: $1.48

Average review score:

A Book Worth Reading
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2000-07-05
One Size Fits Few by Susan Ohanian contains more citations than I've ever seen in a single reading! One can't accuse this author of not doing her research before writing this book. Virtually every statement she makes is backed up by a reference to a well known public figure or educator.

Throughout the book, the author makes numerous cases against the use of educational standards. At the heart of these multifarious denouncements is the recurring theme that standards are dehumanizing. At one point she reminds us of some essential life skills that are usually ignored when standards are created: "The great words of teaching are the one syllable ones: read, write, teach, learn, work, skill, care, help, hope, trust, faith, love. And the greatest of these, of course, is love." (p.127)

Although the author is not in favor of senseless educational standards, we can infer that in order for successful learning to take place, we must answer to some "higher" "standards," those which recur universally within the context of being a good human being. As a long time educator, those are the standards I must strive to have my students attain.

The book is outstandingly well written and thought provoking. Its 7 chapters are divided among 3 sections. The chapters include Ohanian's observations and views, recounted in the form of anecdotes; each under its own title. The language is simple and down to earth. One can start reading this book from any page and still gain wit, wisdom, and fact.

This Book is a Must Read for Teachers!
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2000-10-07
Susan Ohanian's book is a must read for any teacher or parent who is concerned about the current standards madness. With humor and insight, gained from actual teaching experience, she exposes standards as a dehumanizing experiment in social darwinism. Using examples from her work as a teacher, she shows how students do not easily fit into the little boxes that "standardistos" would have them fit into. Her final conclusion, that we should just trust teachers, is quite subversive. I really enjoyed reading this book.

By the End of this Book, "Standardistos" Will...
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2002-06-19
By the end of this book, all school reformers assuming that standardization of the curriculum improves quality will...
... recognize and understand the detrimental impact of educational standards.
... use the proofreader's deletion mark to eliminate standardization.

The title of a section in chapter 7 is "If You're Sure You Know The Solution, You Are Part Of The Problem." How true of many of the "school reformers" today who think THEY have all of the answers when THEY are not even in the classrooms! As is often the case with "education reform," those who are in the classrooms on a daily basis (teachers and students) are excluded from the debate - their voices lost in the sea of sound bites coming from those Ohanian refers to as "corporate-politico-infotainment standardistos."

As Ohanian so concisely demonstrates in this book, the idea for education standards comes to us from the business world. What those "corporate standardistos" fail to realize is a simple (and yet major) difference between a classroom and a business office. In a business setting, if you have an employee that is slowing down production, lagging behind, refusing to do the work required, having problems working as a team player, and displaying a lack of concentration or focus, what do you think happens to that employee? The obvious answer is the reason a public school classroom is not like a business, has never been like a business, and will never be like a business. The moral here is STOP trying to "reform" schools like you would a business.

The current buzzword in "education reform" is accountability. I happen to agree that we need more accountability. We need to hold governors, school board members, legislators, and school superintendents accountable for failing our children by forcing through agendas laced with standardization and testing disguised as school reform.

It is long past time that the two groups most directly involved in teaching and learning are given a voice in the school reform debate. The voices of teachers and students need to be heard and respected.

A Book Worth Reading
Helpful Votes: 24 out of 25 total.
Review Date: 2000-07-05
One Size Fits Few by Susan Ohanian contains more citations than I've ever seen in a single reading! One can't accuse this author of not doing her research before writing this book. Virtually every statement she makes is backed up by a reference to a well known public figure or educator.

Throughout the book, the author makes numerous cases against the use of educational standards. At the heart of these multifarious denouncements is the recurring theme that standards are dehumanizing. At one point she reminds us of some essential life skills that are usually ignored when standards are created: "The great words of teaching are the one syllable ones: read, write, teach, learn, work, skill, care, help, hope, trust, faith, love. And the greatest of these, of course, is love." (p.127)

Although the author is not in favor of senseless educational standards, we can infer that in order for successful learning to take place, we must answer to some "higher" "standards," those which recur universally within the context of being a good human being. As a long time educator, those are the standards I must strive to have my students attain.

The book is outstandingly well written and thought provoking. Its 7 chapters are divided among 3 sections. The chapters include Ohanian's observations and views, recounted in the form of anecdotes; each under its own title. The language is simple and down to earth. One can start reading this book from any page and still gain wit, wisdom, and fact.

A true activist teacher
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2001-10-09
"One Size Fits Few" is for all those frustrated teachers who see standadized tests as unfair and a complete waste of time. It's a book that full stories, arguments, and analysis that will provide teachers, parents, politicians, and education activists with ways to talk against the current standards craze. Like she says at the start of her book: "What the education world needs is a few strong administrators and teachers and parents to join together, proclaiming, 'Enough is enough'--people who know how to say, 'We're as mad as hell, and we're not going to this any more.'"

Education
Ordeal by Fire
Published in Paperback by McGraw Hill Higher Education (1986-01-01)
Author: James M. McPherson
List price: $12.95
Used price: $9.00

Average review score:

Excellent Civil War reference - Brilliant narrative
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-24
Ordeal by Fire is an excellent reference for anyone studying the Civil War. James McPherson has a brilliant narrative style that makes his work a pleasure to read, and easy to comprehend. This is a must-read book for anyone studying the civil war. It is also a good reference for the Reconstruction era.

Second to None
Helpful Votes: 14 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 2004-02-15
McPherson's work here is quite comprehensive, notwithstanding The Battle Cry of Freedom, and quite detailed which makes it exactly the right text of choice for a Civil War classroom. The maps, charts, and photographs show without crowding the material the nature of the battles and campaigns the Union and Confederacy fought against each other. The photographs include gems that drive the ravaging, taxing, bloody hell of war home to readers. One cannot help but be shocked by the photograph on page 490 or many of the others depicting the horrors of war. That is one of many reasons that make this a book worth reading. Also worth mentioning is the meticulous amount of information and the methods by which it is organized. McPherson's text is mainly digested details of the war as he rarely refers the reader to other sources. There is an excellent organization to the text that makes it second to none.

Outstanding textbook
Helpful Votes: 17 out of 17 total.
Review Date: 2003-10-14
While the general reader or Civil War buff might enjoy McPherson's popular "Battle Cry of Freedom," this book in a first rate textbook on the Civil War. McPherson spends ample time exploring the causes of war: the disputes over slavery in the territories, the attempts at compromise, and finally the start of the war itself. His military analysis of various battles is suscinct but comprehensive: satisfying to the military history buff, but not confusing to the lay reader.
Most importantly, McPherson incorporates a lengthy discussion of Reconstruction into the book (an element missing in "Battle Cry of Freedom"), thus describing the crucial aftermath of the war.

Excellent Civil War Depiction
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-21
Ordeal By Fire has been an excellent source so far of what caused America to enter into a full scale Civil War

Brilliant!
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2005-03-23
Insightful, and comprehensive. I bought this book in order to study for a DSST exam on the Civil War. I find myself going back to it now just for the joy of reading it. By the way, the book does a super job of getting you ready for the exam.

Education
Our Principal Promised to Kiss a Pig
Published in Hardcover by Albert Whitman & Company (2004-08-30)
Authors: Kalli Dakos and Alicia Desmarteau
List price: $15.95
New price: $3.18
Used price: $2.00

Average review score:

Our Principal Promised to Kiss a Pig
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-02-22
I thought this book was precious. I loved the anticipation Hamlet felt waiting to see if the students reached their goal. I loved how the pig fell in love with the principal after the kiss. It was cute as could be, and I know that students will enjoy reading it.

(I have worked with a principal who kissed a pig after the students successfuly raised/collected one million pennies.She kept her promise. I hope the pig felt the same way about her.)

A zany and entertaining story of a pig-kisser
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2005-05-14
Carl DiRocco illustrates the rollicking story of a principal who promises to kiss a pig if his students read lots of books. Good reading skills will help young picturebook fans enjoy this zany and entertaining story of a pig-kisser, which is based on a true story.

Get Your Laugh Machine Ready!!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2005-02-04
Frank Hodge , Children's Literature Specialist,
Hodge-Podge Books, Albany, New York

Ms. Juliet, the narrator just happens to have a pig she received from her aunt, an English teacher. The pig is named Hamlet. And now the fun begins. Poor Hamlet's balloon speeches are adaptations of words from Shakespeare - with no apologies to Will - "To kiss, or not to kiss, The principal in school? Why choose a pig to be their fool?" Get your laugh machine ready. It is wonderful.

An Endearing Book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2005-02-04


The world of children has been waiting for Hamlet, the pig, to introduce them to
Shakespeare in this humorous, intelligent and endearing book.

A Delightful Book for Children of All Ages
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2005-02-04


Ah, Hamlet. A tragic lover with unrequited ardor, and a hero who uses passionate poetic verse to express himself. Shakespeare's Hamlet? No. Kalli Dakos' Hamlet. He's a pig (literally) and the lead character in a new children's book called Our Principal Promised to Kiss a Pig.

In this new book, the principal (Ms. Juliet) wants her students to read 10,000 books. Quite a feat. If they do, she'll kiss a pig. But Hamlet is not a willing subject in this game. "To kiss, or not to kiss, the principal in school? Why choose a pig to be
their fool?"

Paraphrasing the English playwright/poet/actor is an excellent balance to the narrator's easy tone and simple words.

If the child asks, "Is that poetry?" and the parent replies that it comes from Shakespeare - what better way to get both parents and children interested in learning more?

I highly recommend this book to children of all ages (that includes parents).

Education
Out of Order
Published in Library Binding by HarperTeen (2003-09-01)
Author: A. M. Jenkins
List price: $16.89
New price: $5.75
Used price: $0.44

Average review score:

My thoughts
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-10-26
I think that this book was really very good. The characters kept me interested in reading more because they didn't seem fictional at all. I'm not much of a reader, but I read this book so fast because I could relate to almost everything that was going on. Understanding what the characters actions is so easy because you can see exactly what they are going through.

A Gem
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2005-04-16
I love this book. The main character, Colton Trammel, is written with wonderful depth. The author shows him with all his faults-- not too bright, sometimes cocky and insensitive-- but he's written as such a real, heartfelt character that I grew to care about him almost as if he were a real person. The female characters are also presented in full dimension-- the horrible Grace who doesn't realize she's horrible; sad Dori; and Corinne, who is more like Colton than either of them realize.

Besides the terrific voice and characterizations, there is great humor and a gripping pace to this novel. I can't wait to read more books by A.M. Jenkins.

for reluctant teen male readers
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-13
Although I own 5 copies of this book, I haven't read it yet. Why? Because the boys in my 9th grade English class keep it checked out of my classroom constantly. As soon as a boy returns a copy, the next young man on the waiting list checks it out. I have never seen teenage boys respond to a book like this. Back in August when school started, I only had one copy, but I have purchased 4 additional copies since then. During SSR time, a boy started reading it because I insisted he read something. He would have preferred to put his head down on his desk - absolutely not allowed. He said, "But, Miss, I HATE to read!" I told him that's OK, just stare at the book until the bell rings. That way if the principal had dropped in to make sure we were doing SSR, I wouldn't get in trouble. When the bell rang 15 minutes later, the young man begged me to let take the book home to finish it. He returned it the next morning and started to recommend it to others. Not one boy has yet to read the first 2 pages and not finish the book. Most of my students have read the book in no more than 2 days. Some said that they stayed up all night to finish it because it was so good. No female students have expressed any interest in the book...maybe because the cover has a picture of a baseball on it. As far as I'm concerned, this book works magic on boys. Every boy who has read it in my classes has gone on to read several more books. What more could a teacher ask for? (FYI - My school is in a low socio-economic area, high poverty rate, almost every student is on free/reduced lunch, gang related crime, urban area, etc.)

Out of Order
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-11-12
I absolutely loved this book. It was your everyday life as a teenager in your typical high school. It includes all of the negative things that go on in high school too, so that makes the book a little restrictive for kids younger than 8th grade. But I still liked it. It covered everything from relationships to falling into peer pressure to constantly harassing people. Colt, the main character, is very rude, and really sucks at school work. He is really only good at baseball. But that makes him a bully to everyone around him that he considers, "lower than him". But as he starts to get a taste of what he's been dealing out to everyone when a new girl moves to their school and doesn't take any crap from him. She just sends it right back his way. What made the book so good was when he finally realized how mean he really was to everyone, and he matures. It is kind of eye opening though, because I know there are probably people like that in my school, and I realized that the situations in this book really do happen. But I give you this warning... there are many cuss words, and bad conversations. But it makes up for all of that in the end, I think.

OUT OF ORDER is a realistic book.
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2004-07-26
Colt Trammel is trying to make sense of his high school world. His classes are like gibberish, his girlfriend Grace freaks after he tells her he loves her, and his lab partner is a new girl with green hair, for Pete's sake. The only time Colt knows what's going on is when he's playing baseball.

A.M. Jenkins is a master at drawing readers right into the characters. Colt is not a simple jock stereotype. His love for Grace makes him vulnerable, and the failures he experiences in his classes make him feel perpetually stupid.

Colt's struggle with the romantic poets from his English class becomes crucial when his grades drop below what is acceptable for playing athletes. He finds a tutor in Chloe, formerly of the green hair. Jenkins writes their tutoring sessions with humor. Anyone who has struggled to understand classic poems will especially enjoy these parts of the books.

It is also nice to see in a book the boy's side of a painful dating relationship. Readers will sympathize with this supposed tough guy as he pines for Grace, who doesn't treat him well.

Jenkins gives us a three-dimensional character in Colt, who is likable despite some bad choices that will have the reader cringing. OUT OF ORDER is a realistic book, and readers will want to see more of what happens to Colt.

--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio

Education
The Papyrus Basket
Published in Hardcover by Xulon Press (2006-06-28)
Author: Phyllis , Young-Ae Kim
List price: $23.99
New price: $15.77
Used price: $15.77

Average review score:

An Honest Testimony
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-18
I was moved to tears time and time again as I poured over the pages of this most honest recount of God's miraculous intervention in the establishment of a very special university. Mrs. Kim's attention to every detail and her gift of obviously having pondered each moment in her heart as Mary did, has enabled her to write a testimony that draws in readers to stand before the wonder of the Living God. Like a bright beacon of hope, the true stories in this book will warm your soul and gently nudge you to realize again that there is a loving God who hears and answers even our smallest prayers.

Who said miracles don't happen in modern times?
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-08-04
Who said miracles do not happen in modern times? Who said Moses' opening of the Red Sea is only a story in the Old Testament? This book is truly a living testimony of God's miracle that still happens in our daily lives, a living witness that there is miracle wherever there is God's will.

Once I started reading this book, I could not stop. When I finally reached the back cover of the book, I realized that my eyes were swollen with tears and my mind was full of joy; my God is truly the living God who is with me all the time!

It's a Great!!!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-18
This is a book that tells us a true Handong story. Whenever I read this book, I wish to give to my American friends as a gift. and now I can. Thank Phyllis Kim for telling us a real story and thank God for telling us your story.

Simlpy Amazing.... Bernice Choi (Boston)
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-20
You will need a box of tissue to read this book! This book has deeply moved me because I got to see God at work in 21st cent. through Dr. Young Kil Kim and his wife. Their courageous obedience to God's calling has arose countless stories of trails, tribulations and triump. Once you start this book, you won't be able to put it down. I highly, hightly recommend this book to others!
Simply amazing!

True Grace Awakening
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-18
This book gives vivid testimony of how God led Young Ae Kim and her husband through suffering and showed His grace. Each moment and day of their lives, they witnessed and lived through God. Many challenges never led them to failure but to victory which was only possible through God's grace.
If anyone wants to know what grace awakening is all about and live through God's grace, this book is a MUST have.


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