Peter Watt Books

Even though Mr. Watt is relatively new he is simply one of the best historic novelists currently in print. Cry of the Curlew, the first book of a trilogy, which will have at least four novels, tells a multi-phase story of mid-1800 Australia with a thorough portrayal of characters and clear definitions of the Australian life styles. The challenges presented are very similar to those faced by tough settlers in the US during the same time period. His characters are real and his vivid depictions of Australia life result in the reader believing that he is an actual eye witness to the story. Only Wilbur Smith's talent can equate to that exhibited by Mr. Watt in this series of novels.
For those who want to get an understanding of the life and times of the 1800's Australian settlers while enjoying an excellently portrayed story, this book and its published sequels of Shadow of the Osprey and Flight of the Eagle are an absolute must.

A can not put down story of two families in early Australia.
This book is part one of a trilogy. We need to get this book and the succeeding books on the shelves of our book stores here in the USA.

This is a brilliant novel ,of historical Colonial Australia.His style of story telling sweeps you away to watch events unfold so realisticlly in your mind, like you are watching a movie in your head.Its so real you feel a part of it.All events are interwoven like an expert weaver . The very atmosphere soaks through your viens and draws you close into the action.An eye opener on the history of Colonial Australia.I am now reading his second novel Shadow of the Osprey and look forward to his third.This book certainly captures the imagination and if you like books like this , then DON"T MISS THIS.You won't be disappointed .Believe me I wasn't

These books are terrific. We have Castle, Volcano, Earthquake, Transportation. They are all well illustrated and well written. We have kids of different ages. They are all interested, from age 2 to teens and adults. Very few books are like that.

We got this for our five year old son and he asked us to read it again and again. As we approach his sixth birthday, I noticed that he had gotten in out when he woke up early and was just buried in it for about an hour. He can answer questions about castle building and historical references, and incorporates what he learns from the book when he's building sand castles and legos.

This book is an excellent example on how interdisciplinary studies are a great good to the field of Biblical Studies. It is done without any religious bias and focuses on the text itself rather than its implications to the Church.

This book examines how patterns shown in modern sociolinguistic studies can be applied to the ancients as well. The information is in a very organized manner and extensive appendices are very helpful if you wish to look specifically at one part of the text.

The book helps show the good in the continuing trend to apply linguistics to the realm of Biblical Studies. This is something that anyone who is trying to study Luke and Acts with any textual emphasis should read.

If you can get a hold of this book, please do because it looks at many interesting sociolinguistic issues. It also does this without compromising the fact that this is both a linguistic text and a religious document.

Dickens is considered a genius in the area of the macabre. And it makes one consider whether genius is born to one or developed/influenced at an early age. In any case, his classic stories will never be forgotten.

This collection includes all of Dickens's 20 ghost stories which include: Captain Murderer and the Devil's Bargain; The Lawyer and the Ghost; The Queer Chair; The Ghosts of the Mail; A Madman's Manuscript; The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton; Baron Koeldwethout's Apparition; A Christmas Carol; The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain; A Child's Dream of a Star; Christmas Ghosts; To Be Read At Dusk; The Ghost Chamber; The Haunted House; Mr. Testator's Visitation; The Trial for Murder; The Signal Man; Four Ghost Stories; The Portrait Painter's Story; and Well Authenticated Rappings.

I was never a huge fan of yesterday's classics. Sometimes they come off boring to me; who knows, maybe I don't have the intellectual ability or patience to read anything published before 1920. But after reading this collection from front to back I truley understood why Charles Dickens is considered by some to be a literary genius. Scary, Witty, Clownish, Entertaining. You can't go wrong, especially with characters like CAPTAIN MURDERER, who has kept fresh within my imagintation over handfuls of years and piles of novels, as one of the most devious fiends.

Normally, I am not a big fan of Westerns, either novels or movies (or TV series or even really non-fiction works either), but I couldn't resist this book. This almost 400 page work details exhaustively any Western term, definition, piece of equipment, animal, plant, or slang you could ever want to have defined.

Some examples? Sure! Many slang terms are defined. Above my huckleberry means basically out of one's control. A granger was a settler or farmer, as opposed to a cattleman. A soiled dove is a prostitute. A grub pile is cooked food; a meal. A mockey is a wild mare.

Watts details more than fun to read slang though. He has some fairly extensive definitions as well. You learn that the term ghost town was probably never even used in the 19th century for instance. There is a nice map and defintion for cattle trail, showing the route of the Chisolm Trial, the Shreveport Trail, and others. There is more cattle and horse related terms than you ever imagine, from entries on castration to hot-bloods to peggers to under-bits. There is an extensive discussion of stampedes, particularly on how they relate to writers of fact and fiction.

Many defintions are accompanied by 19th century style illustrations or rarely photographs, often showing equipment such as pole fences, chuck wagons, soddies, and mantillas and animals and plants such as elks, prickly pears, heelers, grizzly bears, and burros.

So if you have even a slight interest in the Old West, rattle your hocks and get this book! It's a mother lode of terminology, fits for fans of the history of the Old West or of novels and movies set in it.

Peter Watts' stated purpose was to create a guide for the readers of Western Americana - to identify the words and phrases used in the Old West during the period 1850-1900. He furnishes the "how" and "why" of standard range words such as: roping, brands, saddles, trail drives, and so forth.

Watts faced several obstacles in the preparation of this book. A major obstacle was separating words, which originated in the writings and communications of the twentieth century, from those which were actually used on the western frontier. Watts freely admits he wasn't always successful in separating genuine words from admixed and adulterated words.

Another problem was the discovery that 19th century records, diaries, et. al., listing eyewitness' accounts of historical events, contained an abundance of misspelled or inaccurate words and phrases. Watts offers little help in proper pronunciation because there is no way of knowing how some words were pronounced by people long dead. In their lifetimes, the western pioneers heard various colloquialisms, sometimes incorrectly, and often mangled words and their meaning when making conversation or when keeping diaries and other records.

Another factor was the polygot population inherent on the American frontier. Anglo- Saxons brought English and Celtic words to the United States, some of which were further influenced by the speech and pronunciation used by Africans, Spaniards, and people of French descent. Gold seekers from Europe, American Indians, Metis, Dutch, Swedes, Swiss, and many other races also contributed to the words and phrases used throughout the Old West.

Cattle range words generally originated with the Mexican vaquero. These words were changed, twisted, and combined with English by the American Cowboy into the range language often used today. Language grows healthy and powerful with the infusion of words from the various strata of a society and this held true in frontier America. Watts contends the educated class causes a language to lose its rich taste, its contact with all the people, and its very means of renewal unless lower class words are continually being added.

This book is incomplete but not by design. It was an impossible task to capture every frontier word and phrase; however, Watts has done an admirable job under the circumstances. He used reliable sources such as Andy Adams and Ramon Adams, used a number of dictionaries, and read the works of western fiction writers Wister, Haycox, Grey, L'Amour, Short, et al., in order to identify crucial words used in the Old West.

This is a pretty good book which will prove of immediate value to readers interested in Western Americana. Watts' book is as complete and as accurate as time and circumstances have allowed.

This book (along with others in the Straightforward Science Series) is incredibly informative and exciting. On every other page, there are practical ways to bring the subject matter to life. Unlike other books, the content is presented in a way that you read straight through. Many books have a paragraph here and there and seem unconnected, not so with this book. The books are very colorful, interesting and informative. Best science series that I've read.

I think this book was very descriptive and a well writen book. Its perfet for research for anything and my kids loved it. They read it for a week then they asked if there was a nether "Forces and Movement" out that they could read! Thanks, Jeremy Lacocque

This book (along with others in the Straightforward Science Series) is incredibly informative and exciting. It on every other page, there are practical ways to bring the subject matter to life. The books are very colorful, interesting and informative. Best science series that I've read.

The Straightforward Science, Color and Light is just what I've been looking for in an affordable trade book on the topic. It covers all the main concepts of the properties of light with good illustrations and presentation of essential vocabulary.

This book is a wonderful introduction for people of all ages who want to learn about world folk art traditions and puppetry and who want to make puppets of their own.

While geared toward a younger reader, it is full of concise, engaging writing that explains the cultural and historical backgrounds of various kinds of puppets from around the world. It also gives quick and easy directions for making similar puppets on your own. The book features a wide array of puppet types (including rod, shadow and hand puppets) and covers puppet traditions from Poland to Tunisia, from Japan to India. The visual format is extrememly eye-pleasing with lots of colorful photos of world puppets and illustrations on how to make them. Alongside the photos of the actual world puppetry samples are small images of the home-made versions made made according to the book's instructions. My compliments to the editors of this delightful book!

The book would be ideal as a gift to an artistic child; as a guide for parents who want to do creative activities at home with their kids; for the artist who wants to dabble in puppetry; or for the educator who wishes to teach art, world history, and/or cultural diversity. And, it goes without saying, it is an absolute delight for the general reader who adores puppetry!

Of all the puppet books I've seen (I am a former manager of a state-wide artist-in-residence program for a professional puppet theater, so I've seen many!) this book ranks at the top of the heap. All I can say is, "Buy it, buy it, buy it!" You won't be sorry you did!

The book World Craft Puppets by Meryl Doney (USA: Franklin Watts 1995) is a wonderful resource for multicultural arts and culture. With just a few paragraphs, the historical and cultural background of each puppet is joined with pictures of both the authentic original puppet and the modified version made for teaching a class.

The background behind the various puppets is concise but informative, especially in how it illustrates how one culture influences another. For instance, the Italian puppet "Punch" made his way over to Britain via traveling shows, where his appearance and character were adopted by the English. He did change from a marionette to a hand puppet, however. Another example are the versions of "jumping jacks" in Poland and India. The Polish version has a different character on each side, expanding the use of the puppet and the way the story can be told. The Indian version is often painted on bamboo paper and the joints are tied with tiny strings. Still another comparison is between the Indonesian shadow puppets that tell stories of their culture (with shows sometimes lasting the entire night!) and the Greek and Turkish shadow puppets that are used to perform stories that are more comedy-based and use a lot of color.

There are many other puppets covered, of which I made a descriptive list for myself. These include Burmese marionettes, Chinese hand puppets, Japanese and Indonesian rod puppets, Indian string puppets, Greek and Indonesian shadow puppets, and more. In Mali and Tunisia, for example, the puppets are carved wood with few movable parts. These puppets teach history, values, and culture-based stories. I recommend this easy-to-read, culture-rich text.

We cancelled our Christmas trip to Buenos Aires at the last minute due to the rioting there and we had 2 days to come up with another plan. We went through the Time Out city guides (as they have been terrific for previous trips to Naples, Edinburgh and Venice)and Lisbon seemed like the perfect place for a 4 day trip out of New York City. We immediately got to work using this guide to pick the hotel and create a simple and groovy 4 day itinerary of museums, restaurants and sights. The guide was so easy to use, it has well detailed maps and all the described places are given clear map references. Unlike the case with many other guide's hotel reviews, the hotel we picked was exactly as they described it.
The guide is also great if you enjoy exploring the newer and more modern parts of European cities (the Guggenheim isn't the only modern architecture worth seeing on the Iberian Penninsuala). We visited the former site of the Expo 98 and it was fascinating and exciting with many examples of world class architecture.
The gay and lesbian section was also very accurate and insightful.
I think these city guides suit openminded and adventurous travellers who are willing to visit places in a slightly left of center way and mix with all different types of people.

This new edition came out just in time for our July 2001 trip to Lisbon, and we found it to be the best guidebook out of the few we purchased. The city maps are great, the recommendations are right on, and the trips out of town section is a great bonus. This book was a great resource to find beyond the tourist track activities, sights and restaurants, with honest opinions.

A great plus is that the book is small enough to easily slip into a travel bag and tote with you around town. Bravo!

This little good gives the story of tree conservation, it history and the history of some of the men who who helped develope our forestry programs. The old photographs are great and the text goes quite well with them. This is a great starter book for the youner kids, and the adult reader will pick up all sort of facts. recommend this one highly.