Beginners Books

This book is probably one of the reasons I love to cook today. My mother got this book when I was in highschool and together we looked through the recipes and laughed till we hurt. Stayabed Stew was my favorite. My mom is gone now, but I have her copy and it keeps her near as I thumb through the (slightly) spattered pages. I learned to cook using this book, the Doubleday Cookbook and the Joy of Cooking.

I write cookbooks, and I collect cookbooks, and this is my hands-down favorite. Bracken writes incredibly well; she's both clear and very funny. The recipes are for real food the family will like. Bracken addresses all sorts of real-life food situations -- the family get-together, the casual gathering after the kids' soccer game, the late night snack, the potluck supper. She makes the valuable points that recipes are resilient, that you can and should go with your own tastes, cutting back or leaving out what you don't like, adding more of what you do. She demystifies cooking, something that is essential for the currently generation of young adults who grew up in non-cooking households.

And the food tastes good.

I openly admit that several of the recipes that have appeared in my cookbooks are adaptations (usually for nutritional purposes) of recipes I got from Peg Bracken. Imitation is definitely the sincerest form of flattery. I only hope to be as good a cookbook writer as she.

You want this book. You need this book. Buy this book now.

This book is extremely funny even if you enjoy cooking, as I do. Some of her recipes reflect the time in which the book was written (lots of canned food) but most of them are actually quite tasty. It's fun to read even if you never cook one of the recipes.

Here's a woman after my own heart: she hates to cook and is unashamed to admit this. The manner in which Miss Bracken admits is rife with humour and finesse ~ plus she tosses into the bargain 180 quick, easy, housewife tested recipes (this book was published in the '60s ~ 1960 to be exact) that anyone can make, even those hostile toward kitchen environs. Miss Bracken's wit is peppery (note the food connotation), vinegary (ditto), and her prose is salted (!) through with references to classic literature, tidbits of common sense advice, and slams at 'pop' psychology (as hilarious then as it remains today). Here's a sampling of (some of) what you're in for with this read: 'The Leftover, or Every Family Needs a Dog'; 'Spuds and Other Starches, or Ballast is a Girl's Best Friend'; 'Potluck Supper, or How to Bring Water For the Lemonade'; 'Luncheon for the Girls, or Wait Until You Taste Maybelle's Peanut Butter Aspic'. In between the pages of these chapters you'll find recipes for such tasties as: 'Skid Road Stroganoff', 'Sub Gum Yuk', 'Oddment', 'Old Faithful', and, appropo for the era, 'Beetniks' (a nifty way of fixing shredded pickled red beets). If you catch a whiff of the droll and acerbic, you are quite correct. Peg Bracken is a jewel. Very popular in the Sixties and Seventies, she also published an Appendix to 'The I Hate To Cook Book', plus several other books including 'The I Hate To Housekeep Book', 'A Window Over the Sink', 'I Try To Behave Myself' (etiquette), 'But I Wouldn't Have Missed It For The World' (travel), and 'On Getting Old For The First Time'. In all of these, she never misses a beat, her timing is impeccable. The sort of woman you'd love to have for a friend or neighbour, especially when one runs out of sugar and can't find the car keys. I highly recommend you begin your Bracken odyssey with this book, and see where it leads you. Enhanced by Hilary Knight's warm and witty line drawings.

The "I Hate to Cook", full of witty wisdom that goes far beyond the kitchen. This book is worth buying for its humor alone, but the common sense advice and cooking directions/recipes are a real prize whether you are a nouveau cook or a skilled chef.

I believe the first "I Hate to Cook Book" was published back in 1960. As a new bride, I bought my own version in 1965, along with Craig Claiborne's "Herb and Spice" cookbook. These two books have stood well in the test of time and formed a solid base for my own culinary adventures.

"I Hate to Cook", is my favorite gift for people who are getting married, moving into their first apartment or place ,going to college, or whatever; this book is "the bomb", as the younguns now say. Not only does, "I Hate to Cook" give good culinary advice but the recipes are quick, easy and delicious. I have made most of the recipes in this book and they all work and taste good.

Give someone you like or love the gift of laughter and success in the kitchen. You may reap a whole lifetime of cookies and pot roasts.

Frog and Toad where helpachful to eatchather.There storys where creatav.I like Frog best.He teaches Toad alot of things.Frog and Toad spend all year together.

Frog and Toad All Year continues in the delightful and thoughtful tradition of Arnold Lobel's books. It has stories for each season and as always they are deceptively simple but actually full of love, truth, good values, and humour. My daughter's, 3 and 5, love them.

Frog And Toad All Year


Hi, if you are a fan of Arnold Lobel's books, and you have not read Frog And Toad All Year, then you might want to read it.

If you like ice cream, then you should read page's 30-42. It is about Frog and Toad sitting by a pond Frog wishing for something sweet like ice cream. Toad thinks that is a great idea, so he gets some but before he can make it back it melts. They both go and get more ice cream. But instead of going back, they sit under a tree by the store. I like this chapter is because of the ice cream melting.

I liked this book because of the lessons like the lesson in chapter Ice Cream and the lesson is never travel with ice cream on a hot summer day.

If you are scared of being alone, well, you might pick Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel. Find out if Toad will ever learn how to be alone.

In the beginning, Toad was so nervous to be alone in the sled. So Frog was behind him. There was a big bump and Frog fell out. Toad was still on the sled. And he went by himself all the way to the bottom. Toad learned that being alone is not that bad, and you don't have to be scared.

If you like this book you might pick others in the series. There is Frog and Toad are Friends and Days with Frog and Toad.

I was at a wedding where the minister was a very good friend of both the bride and the groom. When it came to the part of the service where the minister imparts words of wisdom, he started to read the Frog and Toad story of "The Surprise." It is all about how one October when the leaves had fallen from the trees Frog decides to go to Toad's house to surprise his friend by raking up all the leaves on his lawn and Toad decides to go to Frog's house and do the same thing. The minister read the story, showing the surprised groom the pictures, and when he finished the story he explained how it was all about thinking of somebody else before you think of yourself. All I was thinking is that I have to get my hands on this story.

"The Surprise" is the fourth of the five stories that make up "Frog and Toad All Year," a Level 2 (Reading with help) "I Can Read Book." The stories begin and end with winter, starting off with "Down the Hill" as the two friends go sledding and end with "Christmas Eve." In between Toad finds that Spring is waiting around "The Corner" and buys some "Ice Cream" cones for he and his friend to enjoy, before it is time to rake the leaves. Lobel's stories have an exquisite simplicity that should really resonant with young readers. I know that frogs and toads are both amphibians, but I had to look up the biological differences: toads have brown skin that is dry and leathery because of convergent adaptation to drier climates and environments than frogs. So there is a reason why frogs are green and toads are brown. What that means to kids is not evidence of convergent adaptation, but rather than Frog and Toad are alike and yet different. In the end what is most important is that they are friends. Whether you think of yourself as a frog or a toad, you still need a friend and friendship is what these stories are all about.

"Frog and Toad All Year" was originally published in 1976, the fourth of Lobel's collections of stories about these characters. It follows "[[Frog and Toad Are Friends" (1970), "Frog and Toad Together" (1971), and comes before "Days with Frog and Toad." Each has five stories and if I think this one is the best it may just be because it was the first one I happened to read. If you have the soundtrack to "A Year with Frog and Toad," the musical adapted from Lobel's charming stories, you will find that three of these stories end up in Act II. "The Surprise" becomes "He'll Never Know," "Down the Hill" retains its title, and "Christmas Eve" becomes "Merry Almost Christmas." I mention all this because once your young reader reads one of these books they are going to want to read the rest, and when they find out that there are only four books you might need something else to keep them happy and the musical is out there to be enjoyed as well.

I purchased this book as a refresher course in German, and have found it both useful and charming. The organization of the book is very logical, the artwork is charming, and all in all, it is a bit like an actual visit to Germany. Well worth the money.

I bought this book a few months ago, I speak German already, I only needed help writing it.

The Dover books are some of the best to use when learning a new language. I bought the French version of this book a few years ago when brushing up on my high school French. So when the time came that I had finally decided to start learning the German language, this was the first book that I bought. I like the fact that this book is good for both beginners and intermediate learners. The book is a bit dated, but the basis of the book for teaching the language comes through. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is beginning the German language.

I have spent 3 months studying this book and am now reading 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear but in the original German text. I of course need a dictionary to do so but that is all I need to enjoy the novel without any trouble.
There is a Japanese maxim that says `practice beats theory' and this book is an excellent example of it, although as such one needs a little patience to finish it.

Patience in any case is what one needs to learn any foreign language and the numerous illustrations of the book are then one of its strengths to help one sustain the patience.
A movie critic once said a good movie is one that does not age. I believe this applies to illustrations as well. In fact, those in this book do not appear old at all, despite the fact that they must predate the year of my birth of 1954. They are as expressive as they are alive.

The many photographs in this book on the other hand do look old, what they depict as well as themselves. One of them even fails to convey the depth, which however only contributes to the overall charm that they possess. Some of them even appear magical to me, for example the one entitled WO DIE ZEIT STILL STEHT or NATIONALTRACHT.

Pictures however are not the only strength of this book.
It develops a consistent story around a pair of families, their introduction, their relation and their interaction, in a manner that encourages continuous reading.
Furthermore, this basic thread is interspersed with numerous funny short stories and even poems. They serve their purpose very well; they do make one laugh and they do make one appreciate the language the book is teaching.

I read every single page of this book and did all the exercises. If you follow my example, you should be able to be reading normal German books in three months.
This is such a fine book.

It's a simple, well thought out book that makes the reader learn through examples. The benefit is that it's not all memorization that you forget after 3 days of not studying it. Another good thing is that all parts of the lessons are separated in 3 : 1 line in german, 1 line in pseudo-english that makes you prononce the sentence in german and 1 line that is the translation.

Overall great book.

This was my first Magic Tree house book and I was really impressed. The story was well-done, and the concept of the tree house time machine reminded me of when I was a kid with a tree house in the woods with books strewn across its floor. In a way, many of us did or do have a tree house time machine to carry us away on wings of imagination, and I guess that's one of the reasons why these books are so popular. Osborne is a skillful writer, and I liked that she was realistic about the medieval culture that the siblings visited while still remaining a children's fantasy. Many young adult books set in medieval times shy away from the fact that civilization smelled horrible in those days and life was lived unhygienically by today's standards. A modern person entering the culture would be shocked by the smell, and most time-travel books ignore this, even the adult ones. But it adds to the suspension of disbelief that in this story, Jack and Annie notice such things.
I also learned things about Shakespeare and his era from this book, even though I've taken classes on the Bard in both highschool and college. Osborne includes facts in an unpatronizing way that really supplements the story. The extra facts listed in the back of the book are a great added bonus, and I'd be willing to bet that most kids read and remember them as well as the story.
I'll be ordering more of these great books next time my kid brings home the old Scholastic form for sure!

J. Lyon Layden
The Other Side of Yore

Mary Pope Osborne has found a way to make it enjoyable for young people to read. There is a series of her books which will keep the student spell bound for the next chapter book.

Stage Fright on a Summer Night happened in England, which is where I live. Jack and Annie got to see Shakespeare, which I like alot. They did one of my favorite shows, which is Midsummer Night's Dream. I really liked this book alot because it was the 15th one I read this summer. Magic Tree House books are great because they teach you about all different places, people and things. They are great adventures!

My 1st grader hates to put it down, he would rather read Magic Tree House books, than play video games. He even reads them to his class and explains the story for show and tell. In his kindergarten class the teacher would also let him read the Magic Tree House books out loud, not to give her a break, but to promote reading out loud. Great books!

I could write the same review for every "Magic Tree House" book. We were introduced to the series when my oldest son was 5, and just starting to read. We got the #1 book (the Dinosaur one) on audio when he was learning to read independently. Then he started to read the book along with the audio. Now, at 7, he is bound and determined to read every book in the series, in order, of course. He just finished this one. The words are fairly simple, so the series is great for kids ready to tackle chapter books - they won't get frustrated by having too many words they cannot sound out. They are all ten chaper books, with a little larger type and good line/paragraph spacing, making it easy for kids to keep their place. They all tell a little slice of history in a very interesting way. Everyone in the family learns something everytime.

This book is an excellent choice for the child or adult who is just gaining an interest in watching their back yard buddies! The book is color coded and so you can look up the bird by it's predominent color. It definitely narrows the field to the most common birds. We have really enjoyed this book!

A very colorful, well written review. I am very much a novice bird watcher but share the interest with my 5 year old grandaughter. She immediately scooped up the book and it is in her bike basket so that while she is riding in her neighborhood she can look up and identify her feathered friends. Has been a great tool to share with her.

Great ! This was a gift and it was the perfect for the bird watch beginners book. Now you can sit out in the back yard together watching the birds and naming all the little feathered friends we have attracted.
My husband loves his Book!
Great Bargin and experence.
Fast Delivery!

This book has pictures that are sharp, detailed and close. They are arranged by color, not species, and include the most common birds in the area. It is my third bird ID book and my new favorite. Have shown to other people and they love it, too!

Beautiful book. Good information. Very helpful to a new bird watcher.Gives common birds that everyone can find easily in their own back yard or local park. Gives a new birder confidence and practice in observing birds that they are familiar with. Another book that makes my grandson happy.

I was kinda suprised, I loved the ending but there are some things I was anticipating that never happened. I was waiting for Tal and Milla to start a romance, if you really read you'll notice that they really like each other and through the series go from hating each other to loving each other in a quiet unspoken way, they just never come out and admit it. The one thing that irritated me about this book was the freeing of the Spiritshadows, I thought that was a great twist and Andras and Odris were becoming good friends to Tal and Milla and then it is over for them. But this is still a great book and altogether a great series, I own all the books!

Tal and Milla have gone their separate ways. Milla is leading a battle inside the Castle. And Tal is trapped in the Hall of Nightmares by his nemesis, the shadowmaster who has declared himself to be the Most Violet, Sushin. Fashnek has trapped Adras, Tal's Spiritshadow, in a shadow bottle, and now Tal must face his fears in the Hall of Nightmares. He attempts what only a few have accomplished, controlling the Sunstones in the globe to make them open. He sighs, and Fashnek begins the nightmare machine. Meanwhile, Milla continues the Icecarl invasion of the Castle with a young Crone, Malen, Tal's witty Uncle Ebbit, an Icecarl Wilder, Jarek, and a few more, including Crow and the Freelies. Together they will embark on a quest that none of them will ever, ever forget.

I liked the part where Malen, Crow, Adras, Odris, and, of course, Tal, fight Sharrakor in Aenir, inside Old Khamsoul. The ending was a little sad, but the reader feels Tal's triumph. This entire series had its ups and downs, but I'd recommend the Seventh Tower Series to about anyone who would listen. It started out a little weaker than I had expected, but it finished better than many other stories that I have read. I hope you enjoy the series (or did enjoy it)!

THis will end up being a hodgepodge review of the entire series becuase each book blends into the other. The characters were strong and well portatryed, and the cultures were fairly believeable.

Thiss book is also perfectly fine without any 'romanctic' element. it doesn't need one. It's expected, but unnecesary, and probably would have mucked up the plot a bit.

I also enjoyed the many sides to the war. With the Icecarl, rebels and steadfast Chosens, Garth Nix pulls it off well, whereas other authors just might have made it confusing.

But i have one question? shoun't the seventh tower hae seven books? i searched for weeks at my local library before realizing, no there is no seventh book.

Every cloud has a silver lining, but how am i supposed to reach the silver? It's so high...
-qoute taken from a book of qoutes i recently found

I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Tal and Milla do not form a romance at any point in this series. In fact, I think the story is stronger for it.

It is often too easy to become distracted by the element of romance, to the point where whoever the main character is interested in becomes merely important as a love element. It is of course possible to have a story where there is romance that is very strengthening to the story and to the characterizations of both parties. That is often very important. But this tale breaks from the love-interest assumption, just as it breaks from many other genre assumptions.

Instead, both Tal and Milla experience a different kind of melding of souls. There is of course the joining of their shadows to the Storm Shepards Andras and Odris, and through this they feel a strange spiritual connection. But deeper than this is the sharing of societies that occurs between Tal and Milla. They each become an avatar of their society, yet also an outcast, while also absorbing qualities of each other's societies. They were then separated and pushed through more change, so that when they meet again, they are even more able to recognize the change in each other.

This kind sharing and learning is long overdue in the Dark World, and it is an experience that transcends gender; a romance in this situation would actually weaken the story, since then it would be more about the personal sharing that this boy and girl experience. Rather, the strength, indeed the whole point of this sharing, is that His People and Her People are being shared. The sharing has nothing to do with being a boy or girl, but with being a Person.

This also occurs, to a much lesser degree, with Tal and Crow, and with Milla and Malen. These secondary sharings, though, are more about Tal and Milla recognizing and dealing with other aspects of their own societies, demonstrated by the presence Crow and Malen; through these associations, both Tal and Milla must acknowledge and come to terms with a previously-assumed superiority that is not entirely appropriate, and with shame of personal failure (by the rules of their own societies), though it was a failure that has opened the door to growth, and so was vital to the health of the entire society.

Tal and Milla have gone their separate ways. Milla is leading a battle inside the Castle. And Tal is trapped in the Hall of Nightmares by his nemesis, the shadowmaster who has declared himself to be the Most Violet, Sushin. Fashnek has trapped Adras, Tal's Spiritshadow, in a shadow bottle, and now Tal must face his fears in the Hall of Nightmares. He attempts what only a few have accomplished, controlling the Sunstones in the globe to make them open. He sighs, and Fashnek begins the nightmare machine. Meanwhile, Milla continues the Icecarl invasion of the Castle with a young Crone, Malen, Tal's witty Uncle Ebbit, an Icecarl Wilder, Jarek, and a few more, including Crow and the Freelies. Together they will embark on a quest that none of them will ever, ever forget.

I liked the part where Malen, Crow, Adras, Odris, and, of course, Tal, fight Sharrakor in Aenir, inside Old Khamsoul. The ending was a little sad, but the reader feels Tal's triumph. This entire series had its ups and downs, but I'd recommend the Seventh Tower Series to about anyone who would listen. It started out a little weaker than I had expected, but it finished better than many other stories that I have read. I hope you enjoy the series (or did enjoy it)!

My 16 month old son loves this book. He started out pointing to the pics and I told him what they were. Now, I ask him to point to the items and he does it. I recommend this book for babies.

We've had this since he was still in utero and from the time he could crawl over to the bookshelf and pull out a book, it's been his favorite. He loves looking at all the pictures and having us say the word that goes with the picture. One of the advantages of a book this simple is that you can do a lot with it (what color is the jacket? Is the boy wearing a shirt? Where does a bear live? etc. etc.) We have several more books from the Priddy Books series and my son loves them all. They have helped him learn a ton of words and at almost 2, he has the language ability and vocabulary of a 3-year-old. Can't recommend this highly enough, or other books in the series (100 animals, My Big Word Book, etc.).

This book captures my 7-month-old's attention. There are lots of "real" babies...my son loves the "familiar faces." I like using the pictures of real things to practice sign language with the baby (colors, animals, baby activities like eating, bath time and meal time).

I have numerous picture word books but I feel this is the best one in my son's library. The pictures are clear, colorful, and large enough for my son to identify. He loves to touch the pages and will actually sit for this book.

My 12 month old daughter loves to read this book. She loves to point to the objects that I ask her to find. Great pictures. Very educational.

This was my favorite book as a little girl, and it is now my 4-year old son's favorite book. All of the stories are adorable, especially "The Journey".

ISBN 0064440133 - Based on the reading level, Mouse Tales is for 6-8 year olds, but I think younger children will enjoy it quite a bit, as well.

Papa tucks his seven boys into bed and promises them seven stories, so long as they promise to go right to sleep. Once they've promised, he starts with The Wishing Well... and tells the seven stories, ending with The Bath. His boys have all fallen asleep by then and Papa says good night.

The stories are all so short that just recapping them would be pretty much the same thing as retelling them! There are great possibilities within the very few pages of this book. With simple words and a fairly large font, the stories can be read by a child easily. He or she will find them fun and engaging. They can be read to a child by an adult, who might like to explain the deeper meanings of some of the stories (for instance why, once the mouse in The Wishing Well helped the well, all of her wishes came true). But, much to my surprise, there's a little Aesop's Fables feel to the stories, which might be one of the most unexpected ways to read this little book - as an adult! This isn't true for every story - if it is, I haven't found the message in the story of the mouse who wears out his feet and gets new ones. Still, all around a charming set of bedtime stories with nicely done illustrations that don't take up three-quarters of every page.

There are seven short tales, all involving mice, and bookended by a father mouse who is telling these stories to his children at bed time, one per child. The seven stories included are: The Wishing Well, Clouds, Very Tall Mouse and Very Short Mouse, The Mouse and the Winds, The Journey, The Old Mouse, and The Bath. Of the seven, my favorite is The Wishing Well as it takes an unusual and humorous approach to the usual wishing well story. The most disturbing of the stories is The Journey because it involves replacement feet. Knowing Sean, I think his favorite will be The Bath because of the absurd bath/flood the little mouse creates just to get clean.

This is a great book with seven short stories for kids. I have three kids and they love all of them.
I also bought this book because my grandmother used to have it and I loved to read it when I was a kid.

The cozy narrative of the mouse storyteller makes this great children's book shine. The seven stories are among Lobel's best, and this is the perfect fireside tale to tell to young mice who are not quite ready for bed.

J. Lyon Layden
The Other Side of Yore

I read this book as a child, and loved watching for the lighthouse as we drove along the HH Parkway. I'm delighted that the original version is back in print.

This is beautiful book with a fun story that my almost 4-year-old son really enjoys.

Anyone who loves lighthouses will love this book. I Love the way the author makes the Lighthouse, Bridge, and boats come to life as though they are talking to each other, and how important Lighthouses are to navigation.

This book is about the old and new working together for the good of all. The lighthouse is so proud that when a big bridge is built is feels to inadequate to do its job. In the end they both have an important place. Recommended for ages 5-7 years.

I was given this book by a friend at my shower. My little boy is now 2 1/2 and this book is in the regular rotation of stories. I chose to read this book to my sons class and gave each of them a copy for their libraries. It is a great story about how size doesn't matter and that even the littlest lighthouse has a very important job. Some fo the language is a bit dated, but otherwise, the story is current for today. By the way, we will be touring this little light house under the George Washington Bridge this coming Spring -as testament to its importance, it still stand there today.

I loved this book when I was little and seeing the cover now brings back many memories. I still have this book in my collection to share with my future children and I'm sure they'll enjoy it as well.

Great illustrations and a fun story. I always loved the house full of popcorn!

I love using this book to teach my class. And it provides the perfect opportunity for a popcorn party!

brings back memories of when my mom used to read this story to my little brother and I. The mini edition is VERY small - smaller than I thought it would be. but a great gift idea to go with something.... like a popcorn machine!!!! that is why i purchased these...i did popcorn themed gift baskets. Awesome!

I loved this book as a kid and have been searching libraries and used book stores for it so my own kids could enjoy it, too. Finally it has been reprinted and it is exactly the same story and illustrations. My kids love it.

One day my two year old daughter pulled this off her bookshelf (in Nana and Grandpa's house- so it must have belonged to me or my brother), and I remembered it immediately. Ever since (for a several months now!) we have been reading Popcorn before every nap and bedtime (and in between). Whenever we sit down to read, she always asks for "popcorn, popcorn!" It is a fairly short story and very cute, so I don't mind reading it again and again. The illustrations are simple, but entertaining and offer a lot to look at and talk about. I highly recommend this book. Later, she found another Frank Asch Bear Story (Sand Cake), and she loves that one too. But, Popcorn is still her favorite. I came online today to find more Frank Asch books, and I just had to rave about this one first!