Environment and Nature Books

John's ADVENTURING IN ARIZONA has always been a favorite on our bookshelf.

"A superb new guidebook called ADVENTURING IS ARIZONA is a fast-moving blend of history and trekking advice for canyoneers, climbers and river rafters. Author John Annerino even can tell you, mile by mile, how to see the Grand Canyon in virtual solitude.

Of all the general guidebooks I know on the Arizona outdoors, the best for hard-won information is John Annerino's ADVENTURING IN ARIZONA. A longtime resident of Prescott and Tucson, Annerino has been tooling about on the state's dirt roads and hiking trails for a couple of decades now, and he's covered a huge swath of territory firsthand. He takes in well-known destinations, from the Grand Canyon to South Mountain, but, more to the point here, he offers mile-by-mile instructions for more remote places like the Superstition Mountains and the Lechuguilla Desert. One of the treks he proposes, not for the faint of heart or easily sun-stroked, retraces Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino's route across southern Arizona's Camino del Diablo - a fitting name meaning "Devil's Highway," a route that comes the closest Arizona has to compete with Death Valley for sheer hellishness. Water is nearly non-existent along the route, and those attempting it should bring along at least four gallons per person per day, a luxury Kino could not enjoy. Many available guidebooks uncritically repeat long-obsolete information on the location of the Camino's few watering holes. Annerino went out to the place himself - in summer, no less - to map them on foot, an act that may well save a few lives some day. -New Times

I found John Annerino's ADVENTURING IN ARIZONA a great source of information.

ADVENTURING IN ARIZONA by John Annerino [is] one of my bibles

Bridge End World A superb book that covers areas not addressed by other similar books.The author has vast experience in the subject area.Speth is aware of the magnitude of the problem but is persuaded it can be resolved.A good read ! John Cairns,Jr.

This is a book that must be heeded. It is about the most crucial, portentous issue of our time: the rapid destruction of the natural world by human activity and human institutions. Other issues that now dominate the news and with which we are preoccupied--the war in Iraq, the presidential campaign, the faltering economy, the health care debacle--are from a broad perspective merely transient. They will pass. But The Bridge at the Edge of the World makes us look unflinchingly at a crisis that will not pass--the eroding ability of our planet to support life. Global warming is only one of the megaproblems that threaten our future. Others include the toxification of the environment, the loss of biological diversity, dwindling per capital supplies of water and arable land, too many people consuming too many resources and producing too much waste. Dean Speth is most trenchent in pointing to the underlying causes of our environmental failure: market capitalism that does not value the environment, human health or the future of life; corporations whose only duty is to profit; government that fails to protect us from corporate misdeeds and, of late, has abetted those misdeeds. We are standing before the abyss. Speth warns. But he offers a bridge across that fatal chasm. A better economics that reflects the realities of what is happening to the world. A new politics that recognizes and addresses the real crises facing humanity. And a new consciousness by all of us to end our indifference and lethargy and demand that we do what is needed to protect the future for our children and grandchildren. This is a quiet, beautifully written book, but what it contains is explosive enough to wake us all up.
Philip Shabecoff

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R227HOY1RAP1LO This is a quick introduction to the book. The video is on YouTube at [...]. Enjoy!

I hope that "The Bridge at the Edge of the World" has been written soon enough that it is not too late.

Conservatives will not appreciate his thoughts on capitalism as it relates to climate change, but they would do well to read them.

This book is a gem written with authority and principle. One of his conclusions is that today's environmentalism has not been successful. I wish that he were wrong, but know that he is right.

Author of Mr. NewHeart (New Heart): Heart Attack to Transplant and Beyond

Google "david hollar the face of war" to preview my next book about my year in Vietnam as an infantry officer.

As do other current writers such as Thomas Homer-Dixon and David Korten, James Speth sees us heading for catastrophe in the way we're over-using and over-polluting the earth, but holds out hope that we may yet turn back from the brink of destruction. He attributes our predicament to an economic system based on little more than constant growth, which in turns requires ever more extraction from the earth; weak or nonexistent government leadership; and an environmental movement that has been less "movement" and more an insider operation that down deep believes a) the government can and will eventually do the right thing and b) there won't be need for drastic redirection of our economic and political systems or serious change in our way of living.

Speth calls for a rediscovery of the true meaning of life (relationships, service, enjoyment of leisure, etc.)--and orienting our economic pursuits around this; a new form of participatory democracy that takes back our country from the corporate-led government we currently "enjoy"; ending over $850 billion in annual global subsidies for "perverse" practices such as overfishing the seas; developing an economic model that incorporates environmental care, human rights and worker well-being at its core; and international treaties with "teeth" to enforce environmental protection of critical habitats and endangered species and ecosystems.

This is a depressing book in that it clearly lays out the challenges facing us; it is hopeful in that it does provide a "bridge" to get us from this world to the next. It's up to us to build it and then be ready to walk over it.

Telling quote: "When the crisis occurs, the actions taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, and to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable."

I love the art of Bev Doolittle. This is just a great book to add to my collection.

When I first looked at this book, I rolled my eyes. The Earth is My Mother? But when I opened the book, and I began to read, something made me want to cry, and make a difference. I understand Sarah's love for nature, and the inspiring tale of her makes me want to stand up and save the world. The way all her snapshots oddly made one picture of a mother, HER mother, OUR Mother, it just made me so happy. This book looked so..well..stupid, and right now, I can hardly believe my previous thoughts about it. I practically hugged this book. The next day, when I almost littered, I stopped myself, because I remembered this book. A life changing tale about a girl who makes a difference...all for her dead mother, and though she didn't know it, for herself...to protect Magic Canyon.

Another "earth" book I love for the illustrations is:
Dear Children of the Earth.
I also love a novel about how hope can work miracles, that is an all-time FAVORITE of mine:
The Secret Garden

This is a beautifully written adventure story set in the Southwest which my son and daughter, ages 10 and 11, both loved. It made a terrific family 'read aloud' for all of us. Like most kids today, they are conservationists and lovers of nature and Native American lore. The author artfully sets forth an important environmental issue, destruction of habitat, in an adventure-story format. The 11 year old heroine, Sarah, is brave and delightful, wrestling not only with saving the earth but family difficulties my kids empathized with. The illustrations by Bev Doolittle -- 'camoflague' art the kids loved to piece together -- are gorgeous. We loved it! I'm ordering a few copies for friends -- it's a great summer read for kids.

THE EARTH IS MY MOTHER is the tale of a girl named "Star" -- a spunky 11-year and a true heroine. EMM has been beautifully illustrated by Bev Doolittle--known for her "camouflage" Native American and wildlife artwork. Since millions of dollars from the proceeds of Ms. Doolittle's works have gone to support the National Wildlife Federation, you can imagine the major theme of this book is the preservation of the wilderness. The storyline is based on Ms. Doolittle's concept but the text was actually written by Elise Maclay, author of two books of poetry, "Approaching Autumn" and "Green Winter." EMM is a feast for the ear and the eye.

I cannot praise this book enough as it reflects all my core beliefs--that girls can be strong, brave, and caring individuals, that traditional cultures have much to teach us, that we are all part of the great circle of life, and that we are made from stardust and the earth is our mother.

As a childhood fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder's stories, Thorton Burgess' "Old Mother West Wind" tales, and fan of American Indian traditions and lore as well as a lover of the great outdoors, I was pleased to discover a book I could hand to my granddaughters with these words, "You want to know what life is about? read this book."

If you and your children love nature and the outdoors, give yourself a treat and read this book together. I read this with my 10 year olds, and all three of us loved it. There is enough adventure to spark a child's imagination, and the tale provides opportunities for teaching one's children about important conservation issues. The artwork is wonderful, and we had the poster which is included with the book matted and framed. My girls love to look at the poster, and discuss again the details of the story that are depicted in this wonderful artwork by Bev Doolittle. This is a book that your children will remember and return to again and again.

Emma Sleeth's book has dozens of practical ideas that I want to implement right away. I've already turned my refrigerator and freezer temperatures up, unplugged all unnecessary appliances, and started washing my clothes in cold water instead of warm or hot. Every little bit helps. Thanks, Emma, for sharing your wisdom!

This thoroughly delightful book for young people will encourage anyone who reads it to take steps in the direction of caring for the environment.

Well organized, easy to read and packed with suggestions for students!

Each chapter discusses a different subject of conservation and there are lots of decorated "boxes" giving hints along the way.

A helpful, engaging read for anyone!

Just the thing to give an up and coming youngster, especially if you know they wish to be useful in this world. Emma Sleeth writes in a conversational style that is a 'fun read', but this book should make me and you do something to help this world. Too many of us ( I am a grandma!) have used and used and not thought of the ramifications of our willynilly expenditures (especially of non-renewable resources). Emma Sleeth gives great ideas for all of us, to rectify that situation. I will hang clothes on the line. Yes, I will! I will. I promise.

I couldn't set this down until I finished it! (Then I immediately passed it along to more readers!) I am, however, looking forward to going back and reading it again and applying all the great practical tips to my life. It's Easy Being Green is thoughtful, practical, amusing, heartwarming, and sure to make a real difference in each reader's life! My advice: order this, read this, start quoting this! Join the Ms. Sleeth and her father and keep serving God and saving the planet!

Green things are not only growing outside, they are appearing on store shelves and in advertisements across America. In my search to find a meaning behind all this mania, I have read several books and learned a lot about caring for creation. What's great about this student's guide to serving God and saving the planet is that it is more than a mere handbook. I have found both Ms. Sleeth's personal story and her helpful tips to be an aid to my understanding of both "going green" and the role of my faith in this process.

The book is great, easy to understand and great images.

Beautiful gardens and parks don't simply settle themselves on a site. They are planned, developed and planted by caring human beings. Those of us who are amateur gardeners and landscapers are influenced by the great public gardens and parks of the world. And the public gardens and parks didn't just appear out of thin air. All of what we find beautiful was influenced by something older or from somewhere else. And this wonderful book takes us back in time and on the highways and byways to times and places where man first came upon natural sites and imagined the possibility of recreating at least the impression of what his eye beheld.

This beautiful volume with its fine black and white photographs and drawings makes everything seem simple. It takes us down two main roads, the formal and informal. What could be more basic? Yet over half a century or more of shaping the land around half a dozen houses and reading dozens of books, some very useful and beautiful, I do not recall seeing an explanation of how these two main roads came to be trod. But in The Landscape of Man, it is all here from the beginning, from the time when farmers gathered on the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates gazed upon the fields spreading before them and other such early independent beginnings.

We are the descendants of those who sought beauty and consolation in gardens large and small in the great civilizations of the past. Each of these, over great time frames, came to influence and cross pollinate with one another. And the Jellicoes trace all of these rivulets and streams from their headwaters down to the well established gardens of the world to which we are heirs. The writing is simple and direct, the photos illuminate their points, and their site drawings are clear and useful.

This is a book for gardeners to enjoy over the winter so that they may dream about how they might shape their little spaces and understand a little more of the shoulders on which we all stand as we place our first trees and shrubs in the bare ground before us. It is a great book, and I recommend it not just for professionals but for those whose gardens lie far in the future. It is the best book I have ever come across in explaining the history and possibilities of landscaping.

I have owned my copy for years. Hundreds of sentences are highlighted and notes fill the margins. I should have reviewed this fine work many years ago.

My professor introduced this book to us when I took a History of Landscape Architecture course in University of Southern California in Los Angeles. It was only available in hard cover at that time and was very expensive ($98.00). I did not buy the hard cover version and waited many years later and bought the soft cover version at a great price. It has many powerful images to illustrate the gardens and architecture in many different cultures. It'll show you how brilliant human beings can be.

What is a "Landscape of Man"?

"To qualify as a `landscape of man,' an environment must be deliberately shaped at a specific time." "Art is a continuous process..." Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe and his wife Susan wrote, "All design therefore derives from impressions of the past, conscious or subconscious, and in the modern collective landscape, from historic gardens and parks and silhouettes which were created for totally different social reasons..."

"The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day" includes 28 sections and they are separated into two parts, Part One is "From Prehistory to the end of the Seventeenth Century." It covers landscape from pre-history to 1700 AD and includes 17 sections covering Origins, the Central Civilization (Western Asia to the Muslim Conquest, Islam in Western Asia, the Western Expansion of Islam: Spain, the Eastern Expansion of Islam: Mughul India), the Eastern Civilization (Ancient India, China, Japan, Pre-Columbian America) and the Western Civilization (Egypt, Greece, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages in Europe, Italy: the Renaissance, France: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Spain, Germany, England, the Netherlands: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries). The text for each section follows a standard format of Environment, Social History, Philosophy, Expression, Architecture and Landscape. Case studies have striking black-and-white photos, paintings and plans and a brief description.

Part Two of the book is "The Evolution of Modern Landscape." It covers landscape from 1700 AD to present and includes 11 sections covering the Eighteenth Century (Western Classicism, the Chinese School, the English School), the Nineteenth Century (the European Mainland, the British Isles, the United States of America), and the Twentieth Century (Europe, The Americas, the Western Hemisphere: the New World, the Eastern Hemisphere: the Old World), and Worlds Trends in Landscape Design. The text follows a standard format of Environment, History, Social, Economics, Philosophy and Expression for each Century and then a standard format of the Home, Landscape, Comments and case studies for each section.

"The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day" has 408 pages, 746 illustrations and 6 maps. It is a great book for architects, landscape architects and urban planners!

The original edition, hardcover with beautiful dust jacket, was printed in 1975 in England. It is one of my favorite all-time photo books, since in includes shots of Borobudur, the Ziggurat, the Red Fort in Delhi, Angkor Wat, Ctesiphon in Iraq - lots of photos hard to find even on the net. History all the way to the opera house in Sydney. A most fascinating book. Large: 9 1/4 x 11 3/4, 383 pages, a sound minimal text with each plate numbered and easily referenced - to me this is one of the great books. Everyone who has travelled, or who wants to travel, will enjoy this tremendously. (Many of the areas shown are difficult and often dangerous to visit, now.) Try it. You'll like it.

This book as a classic. It is not only for those who want to study our changing perceptions of our landscape and our moves to define it over the past few millennia, but also to architects who build 'buildings'. This tome takes us through man's history, and outlines our aesthetic evolution with our landscape as a changing canvas that represent our different social conditions. A must-have if you are a student, an architect, or just a person who wants to see how we became what we are!

Beautifully illustrated and thought evoking story which allows young readers (and their parents/teachers/siblings) to see what an impact different choices make in lives both factual and fictional.

Milo and his mice friends on their very special island find a mysterious stone and then need to decide what next step to take. Pfister gives a choice for the reader: happy ending or sad ending. Very clever and both endings should be read so that children can understand how choices build upon choices both in writing, creativity and in real life.

Great book for adults as well and Grandparents may want to keep a copy on hand for when their grand children come visit.

The illustrations were awesome. We liked how the author made the stones shine like gold. This book lets you choose between a happy ending and a sad ending. We liked having a choice. Those of us who chose the happy ending liked it because it taught us that when we take something, it is important to give something in return. Those of us who chose the sad ending liked it because it showed us what would happen if we don't learn this important lesson. We think you would like this book because you can learn a valuable lesson and have fun at the same time.

This is a great story to read out loud to a child at the end ofthe day. My kids couldn't wait to see if Milo and the other mice madea good choice or a bad choice in how to handle the magical stones. As a matter of fact, my kids (ages 10,9,and 6) made me go back and read the other ending right away. This book teaches a hard lesson about greed and covetousness without being too preachy. My kids were enthralled with the glowing stones, and the beautiful illustrations. This is a favorite book in our house - I would buy it for any child's library.

This book so clearly shows students/children the effect the ending has on a story. It's great if you're teaching students or your own child how to write stories. Just reading it gives them perspective and, with each of their stories, they can write two different endings and choose the better one. This book is FANTASTIC! Get it!

Milo and his mice friends find some glowing, magical stones which led them into making a bad choice or a good choice. This book offers two different endings- a happy one or a sad one. This is a great story for all young children to enjoy. Marcus Pfister's illustrations and texture on the pages capture both children's eyes and hands. After reading the happy ending to my kindergarten class, they could not wait to hear what happened in the sad ending. I highly recommend this book.

While not intended primarily as a textbook, I have used SeaLife as the text in my introductory oceanography class for the past two years. The authors present their ideas clearly and the illustrations are well done. An adequate index is furnished.

although not a "complete" guide, a wonderful book for every sea-loving creature! wonderful pictures and informative text for every amateure or pregraduate student

A "must have" for both armchair and amateur naturalists with a keen interest in the marine world. I'm a scuba diver who lives in the Pacific Northwest but takes vacations around the world. The joy of this book is that it begins with the beginning--the origination of the oceans, including a bit of tectonic theory--and progresses to a detailed description of many of the genera in the oceanic realm. It's not a detailed guide to my particular corner of the world, but as a general guide to the world's oceans it can't be beat for both it's breadth and depth. This is a beginner's book with some real 'meat' to it! I highly recommend it.

I first ran into this book in the bookstore of the Institute of Oceanography at La Jolla, California. I was tempted to buy it, but put it off for a while because I live very far inland and could not justify the purchase. I later bought it elsewhere, but passed it on to my daughter who lives much closer to a sea coast and gets out there occasionally. I was glad to give it to her because after going over this volume for a few months I can say that this is probably the best first book for anyone interested in marine biology. It is certainly very beautifully designed and well written.

The color plates and great black and white drawings really illustrate this book in a way that is seldom seen in such works. Numerous details are covered in the text that are backed up by the superb illustrations. The plates of marine habitats and their inhabitants were especially effective in this regard.

If you can get just one book on marine biology, this would be it!

This is an absolute must have if you are looking for a quick explanation of all aspects of ocean life. The authors have done a thorough job of making short, detailed explanations to almost anything you might be looking for. This book is basically a fun to read encyclopedia of marine life.

Excellent book. Interesting read. Inspiring call to action.

I read a lot, but I almost never pin my husband down to read him sections of a book. When I was reading Totem Salmon, I couldn't help it. I kept saying, "Listen to this one." I owned a home in the Mattole River Watershed in the late 70's and early 80's. I was amazed at how well Freeman House captures the essence of the area and the people without caricaturing either. Over and over he writes a few sentences which really "get it right" in explaining the landscape, the weather or the people of the area. This is not an easy "how-to" book on bringing back the salmon, but it brings out why it is worth the effort for as long as it takes.

Briefly...as an environmentalist from both the non-profit, agency and barefoot,dreadlocked worlds I really appreciated this book. The author brings out the complexity and poetry of the technical, natural and spiritual mosaic involved in watershed work in the northwest (and eveywhere for that matter). For anyone who has ever (or even never) been through similar experiences that the author describes, it brings shivers up the spine with the descriptive imagery and his obvious intimacy with the Mattole. I highly recommend this book.

The book is a first-person account telling the story of a group of people who have dedicated themselves to rehabbing a river, a watershed, and saving some special strains of wild Pacific salmon stock. They decided to use salmon-hatchery technology (and other procedures) as a way to learn from the native salmon, rather than to introduce non-native species to their river. Freeman House is a truly impressive thinker and writer. His engaging intelligence is not just wide and deep, like a rockclimber his awareness gets into some unfamiliar and little-explored crevices of life - nature and human nature. House and his cohorts are questers who may ultimately discover something as important as did William Harvey or Sir Albert Howard. I'm tempted to call the book a riveting read, but the experience is warmer than that metaphor implies. It's hopeful. A strangely wise book.

From "Totem Salmon - Life Lessons from Another Species" by Freeman House -

"My straining senses slow down the sound so that each of its parts can be heard separately. A hiss, barely perceptible, as the fish muscles itself right out of its living medium; silence like a dozen monks pausing too long between the strophes of a chant as the creature arcs through the dangerous air; a crash as of a basketball going through a plate glass window as he or she returns to the velvet embrace of the water; and then a thousand tiny bells struck once only as the shards of water fall and the surface of the stream regains its viscous integrity."

"I flick on my headlamp and the whole backwater pool seems to leap toward me. The silver streak that crosses the enclosure in an instant is a flash of lightning within my skull, one which heals the wound that has separated me from this moment -- from any moment. The encounter is so perfectly complex, timeless, and reciprocal that it takes on an objective reality of its own. I am able to walk around it as if it were a block of carved stone. If my feelings could be reduced to a chemical formula, the experience would be a clear solution made up of equal parts of dumb wonder and clean exhilaration, colored through with a sense of abiding dread. I could write a book about it."

And here it is.

The Mattole River, where this story takes place, flows from the northwestern tip of California's Mendocino County, first a dozen miles northeast and then about sixty miles northwest through remote rural Humboldt County to its mouth at Petrolia. What keeps the river from reaching the Pacific Ocean any sooner is the King Range rising precipitously from the "Lost Coast", a stretch of beach frequented only by hikers and the occasional small plane.

Getting to the Mattole from the freeway is at least an hour's drive on winding country roads. This area, like much of Humboldt County, was logged in the fifties and sixties, and in the late sixties and seventies a substantial portion of it was sold to urban refugees, "reinhabitants". Over the next three decades, quite a few of them committed to the task of restoring the watershed to health. Two of these were David Simpson and Freeman House who together conceived and founded the Mattole Watershed Salmon Support Group. "Totem Salmon" tells the story of this work.

Salmon are an indicator species. Their health, as a population, closely tracks the health of the watershed to which they return. If you want to know how well a river valley is doing in the Pacific Northwest, look at the salmon runs, if there are any left. The principal enemy of the salmon is silt, produced by erosion usually from badly built roads and culverts, and from logging. Salmon need clean gravel in the streambed for eggs to survive and hatch. Well forested valleys with little erosion provide the best stream habitat for hatching and rearing salmon.

In 1950, before logging, it is recalled by the older Mattole valley residents, that, when they were running, "you could walk across the river on the backs of the salmon". In 1980, before restoration work began, the runs were down to perhaps 200 fish. More, those fish were the last wild salmon run in the state.

Looking back after reading the book, one could see the first phrase, "I am alone...", as a key to the work. Rooted in an explicit sense of self, spiraling out through sensory subtleties of immediate nature, to the larger cultural complexities, Mr. House melds what are usually seen as distinct worlds into a coherent portrait of a personal and multi-species reality. Like the salmon traversing the several worlds of ocean, river, air and creek, the personal, philosophical, cultural, historical, administrative, ecological, and cosmic threads are finely woven into a narrative yielding a shimmering presence of spirit and nature.

The book is a deeply enjoyable memoir of a long personal relationship with salmon. Along the way we see the history of the Euro-American relationship with this species, and that of the Native-American people who were here managing these watersheds long before. We learn of the state and federal administrative context of salmon management and the history of our, first, ignorance, and then, study of the anadromous species and their rivers. In clear and moving images, and with affection and humor, we see the people on the Mattole River who have joined hands for eighteen years to rescue this last wild run of salmon from extinction. Lastly we see the hopeful results and the tenuous circumstances of their work.

We might expect it to be a text for salmon restoration, and while the specifics are there they are widely scattered throughout the book. More attention is given to the wider question of how we got here, and how we can get through this to a more wholesome, rooted, and appreciative life in our particular place. If it is a text -- and Mr. House would say it is not -- it is a meta-instructional one, showing a way to become a people who will do the right thing for the watershed and thus for the salmon. The personal explorations in the book demonstrate by example the message beneath the text: by immersing ourselves in the reality of our local valley we can rescue both the health of our watersheds and our sense of ourselves. In the end, we see that they are the same journey; the salmon reflect to us our understanding of self and place.

The epilogue quotes Paul Schell, Mayor of Seattle, "Ironically, as we work to save the salmon, it may turn out that the salmon save us."

Naysayers may decry WHAT THE PARROT TOLD ALICE as propaganda for young minds, you can't go wrong when you've got Dr. Seuss as a trailblazer for kids' eco-fiction. The beginning reminds one of "Brother Bear". A young man is transformed into a parrot to atone for a crime against nature. The young man-turned-parrot ends up, Lorax-style, in the home of Alice Smith, a preteen who, although bright, has no idea of the environmental devastation her species, namely humans, wreaks upon tropical birds and rainforests. While the book and its sequel present grim and what this reviewer thinks of as exaggerated portraits of man's inhumanity to the whole universe, the book also provides an imaginative gateway to thinking about the future of life on this planet as we know it...and as we want it to be...straight from the parrot's mouth, right to our hearts.

I learned that if there is something really great in the world you should not destroy it. Other kids should read this book because it has great expressions and it's a fun book to read...S.S. (age 8)

It all began in the year 1966, in the Solomon Islands. Manao was 12 years old and had cut down the biggest tree in the forest. This was a huge sin. As punishment, the tribe's magician pronounced that Manao's spirit would inhabit the body of a parrot. During his life as a parrot, he would have a few magical abilities and he would have a special gift that must be used wisely. He would be able to speak his thoughts to ONE human being. Manao would deliver a message about the importance of balance and harmony among life.

Thirty years later...

Bo Parrot "Bobo" chose to speak with Alice, the young girl in the family that kept him as a pet. Bobo could make himself into other types of birds for Alice to talk to and learn from. Bobo told Alice the cruel way in which he came to be with her family. Then he turned into a Goffin's cockatoo, a Spix's macaw, a gray parrot, and several other types of birds. Each bird told Alice where they were from originally and how humans' greed ruined their lives.

***** This book is a perfect way for teens and pre-teens to become aware of species that are in danger of extinction and how to help make sure such atrocities never happen again. In fact, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each book goes toward acquisition of wildlife habitat. So it not only teaches those who read it, but just by purchasing it the reader helps the environment!

The author did a wonderful job of creating Alice, which many kids will be able to relate to. Each bird is like a short story and each story is intertwined with a larger tale. Excellent! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

I'm not a kid. But this book about endangered birds, and the practices by humans that are behind it, is an engaging and interesting read for parents also. Buy it, and read it with your kids.

What the Parrot Told Alice can be read by young children (age 8-10) as an early-reader chapter book and by older children (through middle school) as an environmental learning tool. The story is well-written with excellent characters that all children love. And it combines good reading with scientific learning - just perfect for elementary and middle school children...The Science Spiders(TM) Newsletter.

I picked up a copy of this book at the 2007 Hawai'i Conservation Conference, where author David Helvarg was a keynote speaker. Helvarg is president of the Blue Frontier Campaign, an ocean advocacy group.

50 Ways to Save the Ocean is a book with a mission. That mission is to convince the reader that:

1. The oceans are in trouble and need your help.

2. There are things each person can do to assist in the conservation of our oceanic resources, even if you live in Kansas.

Most of the ideas are good, and I appreciate that Helvarg went beyond the "donate money to..." strategies that most Americans get in their weekly mail solicitations (although he encourages you to donate money to a variety of causes and organizations). He promotes activism: volunteering, writing, and lobbying. He notes the power of consumerism in affecting how the ocean's resources are exploited ("follow the money").

I found that I do about 3/4 of the actions he recommends. The question is, how does this information get into the hands of those who are not already involved in ocean protection issues?

This is an excellent book to help teach your family about caring for our oceans! The ideas and illustrations are fantastic to read with kids. Almost all of the suggestions can be accomplished as a family, too. Going to the beach, going on a whale-watching trip, visiting tide pools, eating healthy and sustainable seafood, etc., are all great family activities! This book makes it easy to get your whole family together and interested in saving our oceans. Also really helpful in giving extra meaning to family activities, as everything can be prefaced with an interesting suggestion from this book. It will certainly also improve your kids' self-esteem, knowing they are helping the environment. On top of that, it is a great read!

If you saw An Inconvenient Truth and are wondering what you and your family can do about global warming, take a look at 50 Ways to Save the Ocean. It will help you through the thicket with lots of practical and yes, simple, ways each of us can participate in saving our planet.

Fifty Ways To Save The Ocean by environmental activist David Helvarg (founder of Blue Frontier) is an informed introduction to the innovative ways anyone can use to help preserve Earth's oceans and aquatic-life. Expertly guiding readers through diverse ways to effectively contribute to bettering the condition the great oceans, Fifty Ways To Save The Ocean provides a keen understanding of which fish should not be eaten and which species are endangered or could impact adversely human health; how to save energy and how that might help out the seas; proper diving, surfing, and tide pool equipment; support for local marine education; and keeping an ocean-friendly aquarium. Fifty Ways To Save The Ocean is enthusiastically recommended reading, especially for environmentalists hoping to do their part in contributing to the best health of Mother Earth's oceanic environments.

This book is truly an excellent resource for those of us that are concerned about the well-being of our environment but feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the world's enviromental issues. Here is a book that gives us all really practical, realistic, and fantastic ways to help save our oceans! I absolutely loved this book, and had so much fun doing many of the suggestions (especially going to an aquarium, eating organic foods, going surfing with my kids, and maintaining an ocean-friendly driveway). All of the suggestions are not only informative but also very easy to do and fun!