Beginners Books

This books is wonderful! I am using it in small groups at work and the kids absolutely cannot get enough of this book. I bought all titles in the series! Great for paired reading among siblings, parents and children, and friends!

Our students really love all the books in this series. They frequently choose them to read to each other during free choice time. I would really recommend this book to other teachers as a great source for oral reading practice!

My seven year-old grandson introduced me to Mary Ann Hoberman's work. He loved reading to and with me. I'm a volunteer reading tutor and I use her books to teach first graders to read. They love it.

I highly recommend the books by Mary Ann Hoberman to excited kids about reading.

Judith Hays

I love Mary Anne Hoberman's "The Cozy Book", it is always a great bedtime story. So, when I found this title on Amazon, I couldn't resist. My son is 7 and enjoys reading, so this was perfect for us; he reads to me, I read to him, and we read the last verse together. The stories are cute and short, good if you only have a few minutes at the end of the day. The emphasis on reading is an added bonus.

This is a light book that contains short stories. The stories are cute and quirky, fun to read. Our 7 year old collects books and this one is one of her many favorites. We bought this book for a gift. We have the larger version. We take turns reading together, I read a verse and she reads one. Our daughter started reading before age 5 and I know it's because we read to her every day and just before she went to bed.

My daughter is supposed to be reading chapter books but she can't get into them so doesn't finish them. On our last library visit, I asked for help from the librarian. She said, "She just hasn't found the right book yet." This was one of the 'books' she suggested because it was audio. "Judy Blume is great and this should help spark her interest." So we got it. Well, not only did it spark her interest, it sparked mine as well! We enjoyed listening to it together in the car and even at home. One of the things I enjoy most about it is it stays centered around Sheila's thoughts/point of view and it is very entertaining and funny. The slumber party on disc three made us laugh hysterically. I never thought I'd ever try audio books but this was a great idea and now my daughter is checking out chapter books and reading them, thanks to this!

BOTTOM LINE: If you have a reluctant reader, get this fun, entertaining audio book and see if it doesn't spark your child's interest in reading!

I read this book to my second grade class, and they thoroughly enjoyed it. I have always preferred Beverly Cleary, but this book may be winning me back to the ranks of Blume.

Sheila is a very funny protaganist. Her constant desire to be popular, adored and liked by everyone fit in perfect with the children. That's exactly the way the kids here at this school work. The book was very funny, I loved the sleepover where the girls secretly shared their opinions of each other. The class laughed and laughed.

I loved that not every question was answered. The book left you to figure out the next chapter. Very nice story, perfect for "summer" reading.

I loved this book as a kid and I still love it now!! It was great to read it again and share in this girl's view of the world and the things that scare her and how she overcomes them!!

This was my all time favorite book as a kid. I still will recall parts of it in relation to my life now (im 39) . My daughter is finally eight and I cant wait for her to read it. Love this book, I could not have made it through childhood without Judy Blume and this book.,

My fourth grade teacher read this book to my class over a course of several Friday afternoons. It was the second Judy Blume book she read to us, the first being, "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing". I was introduced to Sheila Tubman in "Tales", and then we got a chance to really get to know her.

Sheila sounds a lot like me at ten, trying to figure out where I fit in and trying to appear "perfect". Unlike Sheila however, I loved dogs, loved to swim, and I had to kill spiders for my sister, who was deathly afraid of them. I thought Blume dealt with Sheila's story with a lot of love and humor and sensitivity. By the end of the story, Sheila soon learns that when she really puts her mind to facing her fears, they're not as bad as it seems. This is an important lesson for us all and the younger you can get it, the better off you'll be.

Since the fourth grade, which was over twenty years ago, I have read many of Judy Blume's books and have enjoyed all of them immensely. I'd recommend this book for boys and girls alike. If anything, it'll make you grab your side and laugh. :)

Series book. The large, readable print makes this good for children to read.

Summary
Frog and Toad are friends who share life together. I love the "To Do List," which includes "Wake up." Lobel wrote and illustrated more than 70 books. This book received a Newberry Honor Award.

Illustrations
I love the fresh and pleasant green and brown pictures, as did my children.

When Frog and Toad saw a snake, the snake said, "Hi,lunch!" Frog and Toad ran away.
Toad made cookies and Frog said, "They got will power." Toad made a list then when he got to Frog's house, Toad said, "We have to take a walk." They went on a walk. Suddenly, Toad's list blew away.

My daughter's nursery is decked out in Frogs, so the discovery of these books made them books we had to consider. They are fun and the illustrations are grest. At eleven months she is too young to read them herself, but we read them to her - and she enjoys them. The stories are simple with a central theme - do good for others, treat your friends with respect, help your firends when they need help, laugh, and aporach life with adventure. These are great virtues to instill in young minds. If the books were made in cardboard stock, Teah would be even more happy with them - as it is she frequently grabs one of them when it's time for her bedtime story - and great bedtime stories they are. By the time she starts to read she will know the stories by heart, but that's ok - fond memeories of bedtime stories like these should help her build a lifelong interest in reading on her own.

The Frog and Toad books were favorites of my daughters when they were young. I often give them to young friends, and was very happy to share them most recently with my two year old grandson

Learn the value of friendship with one of the most delightful duos in all of children's storytelling! Perfect bedtime stories or beginner's reading books, kids love the animorphed amphibians and funny adventures. Buy one and you'll have to get them all!

J. Lyon Layden
The Other Side of Yore

This book is great. Isela has put together many techniques new to the looming community. She shows you how to loom knit and make it look as if you have needle knitted the item and why it turns out that way. I had never known before this how to do a true knit or purl stitch on a loom.How can you do cables? How do you increases or decreases?Socks? All of this is in there. Only the e-wrap was ever explained before. She gives you all the tools you need here to translate regular knitting patterns and gives looming terminology. If you want to learn to knit by using these looms or other looms on the market pick up this book.
This looming craft is knitting in the round but it can also be used to make flat panals for making other items. She explains that with pictures in this book. This also was her first publication. Book number 2 is about to be released with even more patterns.(May 2008) It is a primer that gets your imagination flowing, she has spawned a whole group of non knitters to try to knit and do it successfully and some are even going further with chart reading and becoming pattern writers themselves. Caution: looming is addictive once you learn these basics.The sky is the limit.I highly recommend this book to new and old loomers out there.

I watched someone on a loom at my local craft store and I picked up a set for myself. I made a few scarves and hats. When you're ready to make the next step into how to use your looms to make things a little more complicated but not overwhelming, this is a good book for that step. I'm very pleased with this book. I would recommend it to a friend.

I only had made hats and scarves on my knifty knitter until I bought this book. This book is very comprehensive. It gives you a little history of loom knitting, the different types of looms, different types and gauges of yarn, and gives you a list of tools you need and tells specifically what they are used for. It has instructions for starting and finishing your knitted projects, picking up a dropped stitch, joining flat panels together, adding stitches, decreasing stitches, and pretty much anything else you might need to know to create things on your looms. I love the variety of patterns! And all the instructions are very easy to follow... with lots of pictures and drawn diagrams. I recommend this book to anyone who is stuck just making scarves and hats on their knifty knitter!

This book has a lot of great proyects on diferent types of looms.
You really have to get it! :)
From shals and scarfs, to hats and socks to wear on everyday. :)

Great book!

I would recommend this book to anyone who is starting loom knitting. The book is well written with lots of photos. Good for visual learner like me. There is a very cute childs hat that I have already made. Very easy to follow the directions and it shows you the basic stitches so you can make new patterns on your own. Even has a felting section.

My 81 year old mother is an avid fan of all Jan Karon's novels including the Mitford Cookbook & Patches of Godlight (all purchased from Amazon). I purchased "Miss Fannie's Hat" from Amazon to give her even though it is really a children's book. The message the book contains is ageless and worth a read, no matter how young or old you are! It is a beautifully illustrated book and one we intend giving to the first great-granddaughter to be born into the family. Regards Glenda from South Australia.

The theme of this book - that we are truly happiest when we give away that which we value most in order to help others, and that we get back what we give away ten times over - touches me each time I read this!

This is an adorable book that is a must for every little girl. It is my daughter's favorite. We have given it as a gift several times. The story is so personal and beautiful. We love to give voices to all the people which makes it even more real. The story is so lovely and the ending is a delight that makes us smile and cry with joy everytime we read it. A perfect story. Thank you!

My granddaughter loved the story and especially following it up with the reuseable stickers and storyboard. She still talks about Miss Fanny every time she puts on a hat for dress-ups.

My grandkids love this book. It teaches the spirit of giving.

We're from a large family and the images and descriptions of the family reunion really touched home. I've given it to two different sets of nieces and nephews, and hope they'll have the same great stories to tell about our family that Cynthia Rylant relates.

I bought this book to use for a discussion about how authors can paint pictures with their words. My first graders loved this book and we were able to talk about our favorite parts in the book and all the children can relate because they have either gone to visit relatives or relatives have come to visit them. They loved the pictures and the story!

I love this book, especially for kids with big families. As an adult from a big family it is equally fun to read. This account of the journey and the visit at the relatives' house is written from a refreshingly honest child's point of view. A completely delightful read-to book. I bought a copy for all my kids with children.

This story is about some
family members from Virginia came down to some other relatives that lived
far away and the family from Virginia was staying for a couple of weeks. They finished with eating, playing, and hugging. At the end of the story, the family from Virginia goes back to their house, and wait `til next summer.

I liked this book because the book was about family time and this book will be good for any kid at anytime.

Can be the inspiration for many writing ideas- character sketches of family members, preparing for guests, positives and negatives of having company, missing those who live far away, family traditions, what do you all do when you get together, etc.

I use it for a writing springboard for my 4th grade class.

I purchased this book based on its recommendations, and I'm not sorry I did. It's been 25+ years since I touched a sewing machine, and this book definitely helped take the fright away. Perfect for new seamstresses of all ages.

I have the Rip It! book and love it. I just got this book for my niece for christmas. She wants to learn how to sew and I know this is the best book out there for her. It's very easy to understand and comes with patterns for her to learn with. I'm also getting her a sewing machine from www.sewfastseweasy.com
I love giving! She is going to be so thrilled!

I bought this book for my daughter and she has taken to sewing extremely fast. She's so proud of what she makes. Her enthusiasm for sewing now is almost too much for me to keep up with. This book was was easy for her to understand and the illustrations were very clear. She's been playing around with reconstructing her clothes so I'm thinking of getting her the Rip It book as well. I'm happy to see her involved in a positive hobby that she truly enjoys and gets satisfaction from.

I just bought this book because I wanted to delve into sewing a little more. I knew how to sew but I didn't know much about sewing techniques or terms or sewing notions and how to use them. This book was very easy to understand and explains everything I need to know about sewing and using notions and patterns. It's now my sewing bible! If I get stuck on something I grab my sew fast sew easy book.

The book is great it even comes with patterns. The book is easy to understand and has lots of detail. I would definatly recommend it.

As a special education teacher, I would like to think that I have a keen eye for books that can hold my student's interests while meeting their diverse needs. The Game Maker Apprentice does that and more. The only negative comment I have heard about this book from a student is that it does not cover modern three dimensional game programming. My response, you have to learn how to crawl and walk before you can run.
Game Maker Apprentice achieves its goals masterfully, and I will continue to use it to teach game programming with my students.

I have started using the Game Maker's Apprentice book and it is well written and has easy to follow directions. I am sure I will enjoy creating games with it.

This book, and the accompanying software, provide a FUN way to create some games. I used this book with four teenagers (ages 12-17) and they had a blast! I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about how games work, while having fun at the same time.

My ten year old daughter asked for a book that will allow her to create games with Game Maker. I found this book, ordered it, and gave it to her several weeks ago. She's been deeply involved in the book since, and really likes it. She is now asking to take a class that will teach her Object Oriented Programming so she can actually create the objects!
This is a good book, and I recommend it for budding young developers. JAL

I downloaded Game Maker 7.0 and read its manual prior to purchasing this book.

My hope was that it would fill in the "holes" not explained by the program manual.

First, the good.

The book gives an excellent explanation of program logic and keeps things simple and effective for any experience level.

I also liked the fact that you could read the book and see examples without actually completing the tutorials.

I especially liked the way the book would demonstrate a particular game tutorial with an easy-to-read flow chart.

So if you didn't understand the Game Maker's manual this book IS for you.

Here is where my 3.5 star rating comes in.

I paid about $25 for the book to go beyond the program manual.

The book had a couple of the tutorials that were listed on Yo-Yo games web site. I don't like the idea of paying for something that is provided for free. However, it gave a better explanation of Game Maker's interface.

Although you can make a fully functioning game without programming, I was hoping for more guidance on Game Maker Language (GML), which you will need in fine tuning games created with Game Maker.

I was also hoping for more variety in the tutorials. Not everyone may want to make an action oriented game. For example, I wanted to make a little board game, but that isn't discussed in the book. Hopefully, it will be covered in the next edition or another book.

I still recommend the book, but make sure you are getting it for the right reasons. Review the PDF file and sample text carefully looking at the table of contents and index. You might be able to accomplish your goals by reading Game Maker's manual and looking through the forums.

This cleverly written concept (counting and poetry) book combined with the most beautiful illustrations makes this a must have for any home library. Before they can even read, children will enjoy have this story read to them while they look at the vivid pictures and try to count all the bugs to match the story. Opportunities to increase vocabulary are bountiful with the creative and broad use of vocabulary within the rhyming plot. The ending shows a great character building lesson to get to know someone before making a judgement. Just perfect!

Very cute story. I bought my niece the Fisher-Price tea party set and bought this book to go with it. The story is short but the pictures are adorable and very colorful. I would recommend this book. My niece is 1 1/2, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone over 3.

We've been reading this to our little guy since he was three months old, if even that, and he was glued to it from the start, easily his favorite book, still, at nearly 13 months. Great color, great rhythm, and lots of fun bugs! :)

The "Miss Spider" books are pretty easy reads. Nice stories, wonderfully bright, and imaginatively styled illustrations!

My 3 year old is a little concerned with spiders in general and I think by giving a sweet personality to a spider, it helps to take the edge off of the spiders we may find in the house and in nature.

The artwork in this book will keep any child interested. It took my daughter a few reads to get into the story and she still prefers Miss Spider's New Car, but we read this book often.

This is a wonderful story for girls. Read it aloud, savor it, laugh and even cry over it.Whatever you do, though, just get it! You'll be glad you did.

I had never heard of this book until it was listed in the AmblesideOnline curriculum. We checked it out and my girls fell in love with it. I finally bought them their own copy and they treasure it. We read it again, and now they argue over who owns it, and who gets to keep it for their own children.
Great read!

Understood Betsy" was one of my favorite books from childhood and I was happy to see that it was available from Amazon. Even though it was first published in 1917, it is very contemporary in it's message about the importance of gaining self-esteem through accomplishment. In this day and age when parents tend to hover and worry over every small concern, this book show how Betsy, when sent to a farm to live, became a very confident and happy child due to the adults in her life who let her stretch her wings. Many of the ways in which these adults gave her a new life are very subtle but moving. Highly recommended for mid-elementary girls.

The book came in exactly the described condition and the delivery was prompt. I definitely recommend this seller.

I was introduced to this book by a friend while staying at their vacation home on Lake Champlain in Vermont. It had rained most of the stay and I had exhausted my own supply of books and was wandering through their dusty library shelves when the dame of the home entered and knowing that I am an avid reader, recommended this book. She is a woman in her 70's and said that to this day she reads the book about once a year. I was instantly smitten and spent the next day and a half reading constantly, much to the chagrine of my husband who could not believe that I took the book in the tub, on the boat, to bed, and to a hidden spot in the servant's quarters in the attic to finally finish the text.

The writing is easy and eloquent. The story is funny and simple. I love how Ms. Fisher gives us the ability to see what's going on in Betsy's mind and the haughty-taughty little gal is a hoot! I found myself wishing I was 12 and had just read the book. I know I would put on the character and emulate the old-fashioned principles idealized in this quaint story!