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

Interactive
No Talking (Thorndike Press Large Print Literacy Bridge Series)
Published in Hardcover by Thorndike Press (2007-12-05)
Author: Andrew Clements
List price: $23.95
New price: $22.75
Used price: $37.95

Average review score:

No Talking Sparks Great Conversations
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-21
No Talking by Andrew Clements is a great book set in fifth grade where the students have challenged each other to a contest...boys versus girls. The rules of the contest are simple but can be very hard to follow. Students may talk at school only when an adult asks them a question, but then they can only answer using three words at a time. Students can not speak at home, on the playground, or in the lunchroom. The students keep track of their words and use the honor system to report them. When the principal demands that the contest must end, the students join together to silently face a new opponent in the competition. Clements does an excellent job of showing the voice of these students through their dialogues with one another. Their personalities shine through the pages.

Teachers will love the ideas and discussions that stem from this book. The book sparks conversations about peaceful ways to settle arguments like Mahatma Gandhi did in India. The teachers in the book complete many activities that allow students to follow the contest rules and still learn. One my favorites includes creating a story as a whole class where all students add to the story using only three words at a time. Students will love completing lessons that follow these from the book. It may even inspire a contest.

No Talking
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-22
"No Talking" is a realistic and entertaining book that describes a competition between the boys and girls at Laketon Elementary. Each team tries to go untill the end of the week without talking. Commotion occurs as a result of the silence. The teachers and the principle are getting annoyed by the constant silence to they decide to take action on the nonsense. Does the teachers stop the competition or do the children pull them into the fun? Read to find out!

Book Review: No Talking
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-28
Working in a public school, I am around children every day. Here are two facts that I feel I can state from experience:

1. Kids like to talk

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

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

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

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

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

a great book
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-14
No Talking is a good book about girls versus boys war with no talking. The war started when a boy did his report on India and he heard about this man who tried not talking to clear his head. This book has a good moral and teaches kids a good lesson. I would say third - 5th grade should read this.

"No Talking" deserves talking about!
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-04
This book, "No Talking", was pretty good, though when you read the breif explanation of the plot on the back of the book, it sounds better than it really is. It is also a short book, and I finished it in about 30 minutes despite its catagory: "chapter book". I thought it had a fairly nice plot, and it did teach a lot, but it also wasn't as funny or as great as it sounded. As I said, it was short with an alright plot.

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

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

Overall this was an okay book.

Interactive
Object-Process Methodology
Published in Hardcover by Springer (2002-08-26)
Author: Dov Dori
List price: $84.95
New price: $49.98
Used price: $49.97

Average review score:

Fascinating methodology of simplicity and usefulness
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2003-01-19
I have been fascinated by the simplicity and usefulness of the
Object-Process Methodology paradigm and approach expressed in the book. As a
researcher in Science Education I have been grappling with how to represent
complex, technology-enhanced educational systems that involve humans,
processes and educational artifacts. OPM and the OPCAT software enclosed
were very instrumental in enabling me to model and represent the "big
picture" of educational systems I developed. With OPM I was then able to
gradually refine portions of the system to any desired level of detail.
The applicability of OPM to IT-intensive educational systems is a testimony
to the generic nature of the methodology and to the fact that it is useful
in so many domains. The combination of a single simple graphical model that
generates natural language on the fly is really unique and valuable. I
wholeheartedly recommend the book to anyone interested in modeling complex
systems, be they of technological, economical, or social nature. The method
is straightforward, easy to learn even for non IT-professionals, and most
rewarding in terms of the quality and clarity of the resulting graphical and
textual model.

Object-Process Methodology (OPM)
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2003-02-03
This book describes how Object-Process Methodology (OPM) CASE can be used as a tool for generating complete system intent specifications by graphical object diagrams, precise semantic and syntactic language, and intuitive symbols, definitions and structures. As systems have become more complex, a prevalent problem in systems development has been the number of accruing errors. These errors can cause catastrophic failure in the worst-case in addition to intolerable schedule delays and cost overruns. Introducing errors as well as difficulty finding and successfully correcting them occurs because of the lack of proper analysis and design tools for complex system specifications. OPM has the attributes to mitigate against the possibility of system failure, providing comprehensive visibility for better schedule and cost control in product development. It enhances reuse of system modules, processes and software routines in different contexts, while reducing the chance of errors. OPM automatically generates intent specifications that are readily understood by both customers and product team members and are translatable to machine control subsystems. OPM is a holistic systems paradigm that extends the Object-Oriented (OO) paradigm and overcomes its major shortcomings by integrating system structure and behavior in a single integrated graphic and natural language model. OPM successfully tackles the task of development and lifecycle management of systems, products and projects. OPM is a significant extension of and a major departure from the OO approach. It incorporates the system static-structural and dynamic-procedural aspects into a single, unified model. Presented as a concise visual formalism by a set of Object-Process Diagrams (OPD set), it is automatically translated into a set of Object-Process Language (OPL) script, a subset of natural English. At the basis of the OPM philosophy is the observation that to faithfully and naturally analyze and design systems in any domain, processes, like objects, should be considered as stand-alone "things" (entities) that are not necessarily encapsulated within objects. This detachment and de-coupling of processes from objects emphasizes the duality and complementarity of objects and processes, and opens the door for structure-behavior unification. At any point in time, objects exist with some structure and state. This is the static aspect of the system. Processes affect objects by changing their states. This is the dynamic aspect of the system. System complexity is managed through a number of graphical scaling options: zooming into and out of processes, unfolding and folding objects, and expressing or suppressing object states. These mechanisms provide for selectively detailing a subset of things while still maintaining the high-level context of the details.

OPM provides a new framework for specifying design intents and capturing the complexity of hardware and software interaction. Through OPL, it is possible to translate the process into a machine executable code. In addition, OPM can capture the dynamic behavior of the hardware attributes and software states in a single integrated graphical and textual language that is understandable by domain experts who have no programming experience. These traits of OPM ease the development effort for evaluating the system reliability during the design stages. Simulation and testing protocols can be automatically generated though future extensions of OPM to reduce lengthy system verification efforts.
The main benefit of OPM is its ability to identify system objects, processes, and the relationships among them in a structured way. The resulting OPD set becomes an excellent framework for identifying how to implement structural and procedural improvements. The resulting OPL script provides a well-defined set of existing and future specifications for the system. The ability to freely switch from text to graphics and back is of great value to understanding the system as a whole with a single graphic and textual model, without the need to consult various models and carry out mental transformation among these various models.
Based on my personal experience, the following points highlight the benefits OPM can bring to the particular projects described in this paper.
1. OPM is an excellent way to represent daily activities, products, processes and other complex things
2. OPM has allowed representing the complete system with its various aspects in a single model. The model specifies the systems function, structure and behavior aspects without sacrificing clarity.
3. OPM can be used as a common language to exchange design among members of a team.
4. Since OPM design is visual and textual at the same time, it is easy to explain the design.
5. OPL is very easy to generate from OPD
6. OPM will be a good tool for documenting the existing processes and as ISO documentation.

OPM is an Excellent Methodology
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2005-04-29
I have used many methodologies over my career. Most of them are based around the object-oriented and structured design paradigms. I found out about OPM quite by accident about a year ago. I've been using it ever since. I have used it to model both hardware and software systems, as well as for business process modeling. It is an excellent methodology and I recommend it for anyone developing any kind of system.

One of the nice things about OPM is that it is easy: I was able to get a team "up-and-running" with the methodology in less than an hour of teaching them some basic concepts (try doing that with UML). Another feature is that you can use this for any type of project; you are not locked into a structured or object-oriented mindset like structured analysis or UML. OPM can handle both types of concepts with ease.

Finally, this methodology is fast. It is just easier and more intuitive to model in an OPM fashion. I've also found that others can comprehend the OPM models better than other methodologies too.

I used to be a UML advocate until I found OPM. I have found concepts that are difficult to model in UML are quite easy to model in OPM. It is just more flexible.

The book is really good by the way. It is very complete and gives plenty of good exammples. I congratulate Dov Dori and his team for providing something that all engineering disciplines can use to design their systems.

The way modeling ought to work
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2003-08-11
OPM is a methodology for modeling systems, technical as well as any other system. In the techical world it compares with UML. OPM is designed with consistant and simple notations, uses simple rules that when combined can be used to model any system (real or informational) to any level of complexity that is desired by the system architect. Also, it integrates object modeling and process modeling in one diagram (although you can still keep them separate if you wanted).

UML uses complex rules to model complex systems, something that is very difficult to make happen, therefore it is very difficult to learn and use. OPM uses simple rules and consistant notations to model complex systems. After simple introductions to the methology, we have been able to start using it in our organization. More powerful and far simpler then UML. The way UML should have been done long time ago.

OPM: Finally a universal tool for system architects
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2003-01-31
There is an eternal debate between system designers
and architects of software, products and large systems:
Is it ever possible to show structure (the arrangement
of objects) and system behavior (over time) in the same
representation? Dov Dori's book shows convincingly that it can
be done. Particularly powerful is the duality between
graphical system representation and natural language.
Also, the CD-ROM with OPCAT software allows one to follow
the examples in the book and apply OPM directly to a project.
The book is clearly written and will appeal to engineers,
computer scientists and software developers. A refreshing
contrast to the traditional way of looking a object-centered
systems architecting. This begs for more ... in terms of
connecting OPM to other tools such as Design Structure Matrices,
but also for representing highly complex systems over >2 levels
of decomposition.

Interactive
Premiere Pro 1.5 Hands-On Training
Published in Paperback by Peachpit Press (2005-04-02)
Author: Jeff Schell
List price: $44.99
New price: $26.05
Used price: $16.38

Average review score:

This book makes Premiere even clearer to understand.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-21
Since I have taken Final Cut Pro, I have found Premiere Pro to be more than a little intuitive. Every few months Premiere seems to update itself and I wanted to be able to keep up correctly and this book has done it. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to look at the included DVD. If the included DVD is anything like the easy to read, great pictures and the researchability of this book's contents, we all will be Premiere Pro 1.5 experts very soon.
I have enjoyed reading the book and implementing the procedures. If you want to learn Premiere Pro 1.5 from scratch on a professional level, this is your book to use to get you up to speed.

Superb Training
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-15
This is the best basic training book I have ever used. Schell and his editors have done an excellent job of providing the reader/user with precise hands on training. If you have Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 and install the included lesson examples, you are in for a immersive fascinating and at times funny learning experience.

Excellent Learning Tool
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-15
I knew absolutely nothing about Premiere Pro, and within hours I was on my way to creating video. The lessons are very easy to follow in step-by-step format with illustrations. The book also contains sidebars that go into greater depth on the information presented. I totally recommend this book as a first course in editing with Premiere Pro 1.5.

Fantastic introduction to Premiere Pro
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-26
I needed a way to cut together my commercial demo reel, but I didn't have the cash to drop at an editorial shop. So, I picked up Premiere Pro and this book. Within two weeks I'm well equipped to cut together my own reels for years to come.

The book is extremely well written and has a nice conversational tone throughout. The exercises were easy to understand, but are good building blocks for more complex projects.

I generally hate "teach yourself" books, but this one was a rare exception. I can't recommend it enough!

The ideal Self Paced Training Program for Premiere Pro 1.5
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-12-07
This is my second Hands on Training Book. The first one was very good but this is the best and is the one I was waiting for (This is my first experience with Premiere Pro). It is the ideal self teaching program for learning Premiere Pro 1.5 especially if you have not given the first steps in using the program. After reading the first four clear and easy chapters I could make my first video program. The readings are light and clear and when I start reading a new chapter, it's really difficult to stop reading, especially because you are fascinated with the exercises you are completing with excellent results.

Before ordering this book I ordered "Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 Studio Techniques" which is an excellent Reference Book, but not the most indicated book for a newbie self paced training program. If you have both books I think you will have the best of both worlds.

Interactive
Real Screenwriting: Strategies and Stories from the Trenches
Published in Hardcover by Course Technology PTR (2005-12-21)
Author: Ron Suppa
List price: $29.99
New price: $18.74
Used price: $18.75

Average review score:

A requisite for budding Screenwriters
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-09
Wow, this book is a terrific combination of writing academics, insight and personal agony experienced by a one time actor attorney, producer, writer and current UCLA professor. The dark text at the end of each lecture "from the trenches" imparts Ron's actual experiences with some very famous people and movies. It is priceless and makes this book a fascinating read. The last chapter recounts the "Real Rocky" story, and this alone makes the book worth the money. Ron keeps it interesting and by the end of the book you feel as if you've been through the mill with him.

Frank Nuciforo
Cambria, Ca

An excellent reference with great anecdotes
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-08-24
Suppa is giving out a lot of information in this book. It's like several books rolled into one. All the information is good except for the introduction/preface by Lew Hunter. Hunter must have been all wired up on some new drug, because his delivery is disjointed and unorganized.

There are a few minor issues such as Suppa referring to Steve McQueen's movie "Bullitt" as "Bullet." Come on, Ron.

Any screenwriter - even those already successful - needs REAL SCREENWRITING
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-23
Ron Suppa is a successful film producer and instructor: he's taught fine courses in the UK on the topic of screenwriting and here offers in book form the contents of his course, which packs tips with personal experiences and polish. REAL SCREENWRITING: STRATEGIES AND STORIES FORM THE TRENCHES covers everything from movie dialogue and spec teleplay plots to understanding the importance of the entertainment lawyer. Any screenwriter - even those already successful - needs REAL SCREENWRITING to hone and perfect skills.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

A Compulsory Purchase
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-04-15
If you are serious about fulfilling your dream to become a screenwriter and cannot attend Ron Suppa's classes at UCLA, it is compulsory you buy this book. It offers a rare blend of instructional criteria directly applicable to your work, with philosophical wisdom from Aristotle to David Mamet. Wondering how to define your characters or exacerbate your conflict? Accomplish that goal using his point by point "Strategies", or the plethora of easily relatable examples he gives from a treasure trove of cinematic masterpieces. Along the way you will be both entertained and impressed by his "From the Trenches" segments, priceless personal experience from a bona fide raconteur.

A magnesium flash...
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-12
As a film producer, commissioned/produced writer with BBC & Granada and with a current 12MIL project underway, I can only emphasise that reading Ron Suppa's latest book was like a magnesium flash of finally understanding what real screenwriting requires.

It's not just an enjoyable read but 'from the trenches' is I think - and I've pretty much read them all - the quintessential reference book for aspirant or crestfallen screenwriters - it is a remarkable compendium of searing truth, sage pearls and machine tools.

Anyway - as one writer who's pissed blood over honed drafts, to another - great f***ing book!

Interactive
Ribbit!: Flip and See Who Froggy Can Be
Published in Hardcover by HarperCollins (2007-08-01)
Author:
List price: $16.99
New price: $6.67
Used price: $2.57

Average review score:

A must have book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-04
This book is wonderful! We checked it out from the library - loved it so much that we ordered it right away. The kids get hours of enjoyment from changing "froggy." We take it in the van, to church, everywhere. It has a nice sturdy cover and the pages have held up to many hours of page turning. I hope they come out with other books!

Ribbit!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-26
This is a great book! It has a lot of character to it. We had the publishers at our school and they did a great job of telling about the book and how it came to be. I definitely would recommend!

Love this book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-07
I bought this book for my two-year-old son and he loves it - so does my seven-year-old son. I love that not only can you flip the pictures to make different frog characters - you also get different text. Very fun for kids - and adults!

Ingenious flip book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-15
Reviewed by Conner Aguren (age 3) and Mom for Reader Views (2/08)

"Ribbit! Flip and See Who Froggy Can Be" is just as the title suggests. The cleverly designed book dissects Froggy into three sections: eyes, mouth, and torso. Each section has a description that, when read together, makes a nifty rhyme. Over 400 combinations can be made.

"Did you like the book?"
"I liked it a whole lot!"
"Which froggy did your think was the funniest?"
"I liked the cowboy and fireman frog. The one with the beard was funny too. The one that is really, really, really funny is the one with the worm in its mouth. I like the one where he's a cowboy with his two guns."

Parent's comment:

Ingenious flip book. The unlimited combinations made for a lot of giggling and the rhymes were good. The graphics were excellent. "Ribbit! Flip and See Who Froggy Can Be" is a great book for helping expand the imagination.

Awesome!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-13
This is a beautiful hardcover book with divided pages inside that allow readers to create their own favorite froggy characters. Very creative and fun:-)

Interactive
Richard Scarry's Best Rainy Day Book Ever
Published in Paperback by Hamlyn young books (1995-05-04)
Author:
List price:
Used price: $3.84

Average review score:

This really is the Best Rainy Day Book, ever!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-21
Our children loved Richard Scarry when they were little, and they still do! This wonderful activity book is great for homeschooling families. The calendar and holiday pages are great for notebooking projects. Don't miss this one!

Great book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-28
I had this book as a child and loved it. So, this Christmas I bought three copies for each of the 7 year olds in my family. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did. I used it for many years when I was little.

Great activity book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-03
I have taught Kindergarten and never liked the use of activity books/sheets, etc... . My 4 yr old daughter loves busytown and asked for this when she saw it on Amazon. I bought it against my will only to find that it actually had some really nice things for her to do. It wasnt just filled with "practice" sheets; although there were some of those with tracing letters and numbers. It had a section for her to make a mobile, make a paper town and even had an assortment of national flags that she could decorate with. The ideas and projects are very traditional and most children dont get to do these kinds of projects or have ever heard of them. When she made the flags, other children that came to our home didnt even know that other countries had flags. She learned quite a bit from this book such as: flags to other countries, holiday pracitces, writing her letters and numbers, sequencing and patterning. There were pages that were just for coloring which she didnt have an interest in but I thought they were nice illustrations that most children would enjoy. Dot to dot was also in the book, as was making mothers day cards, fathers day cards, valentines day cards, and thank you cards which was nice to teach children to do after receiving something. There was also a place to make bookmarks, bookplates, and easter decorations (other holiday decorations too). Most of the projects, for my daughters age required me working with her as opposed to her working on her own, but it was enjoyable for me as well as Richard Scarry does a nice job with his writing and illustraions.

super duper! best $10 spent ever!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-28
This $10 book is way underpriced. There are pages and pages of stuff in this book and has really inspired our two year nine month old to entertain herself for hours, coloring, cutting, making paper airplanes, paper dolls, etc. Really well thought out, well designed. High quality drawings (authentic Scarry, not his estate's). I am tempted to buy another one and have our child start over again. It's been three months but she still has about one third of activities left. HIGHLY recommended.

Wonderful but Abridged!
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2006-08-26
Though this activity book is just wonderful and full of great crafting and learning acitivities, it is an abridged version of the book we loved when we were kids. The book, organized around the 12 number-it-yourself calendar pages, includes seasonal connect the dots, a paper village to color and build, paperdolls, paper airplanes to fold, greeting cards, Valentines, and bookmarks. The Christmas activities are missing altogether.

Interactive
Special Edition Using Macromedia Director 8.5 (Special Edition Using)
Published in Paperback by Que (2001-11-23)
Author: Gary Rosenzweig
List price: $49.99
New price: $11.07
Used price: $0.25

Average review score:

Top book for non-idiots
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2003-05-20
Gary has done an excellent job with this book. I came to Director with a programming background, and basically this book and Gary's Advanced Lingo for Games books have allowed me to do whatever I can imagine with Director. Doesn't treat you like an idiot. Clear. Understandable. Practical. Highly recommended, and I'm going to buy the MX version when it comes out.
David Downie

Learn Director 8.5 FAST !
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-12-19
Great book ! ( I just received my copy of Using Director 8.5 "Specialedition") It is really great for me since I haven't been using Director since version 5, and so much as changed !

I have been browsing through the book to get the missing or forgotten info I need to get our project up, and I have found almost every answer I need in the first 15 minutes !

I am confident this book will get me back up and running in no time, If you want to learn Director Fast, Buy this book !

Learn Director 8.5 FAST !
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2002-12-19
Great book ! ( I just received my copy of Using Director 8.5 "Specialedition") It is really great for me since I haven't been using Director since version 5, and so much as changed !
I have been browsing through the book to get the missing or forgotten info I need to get our project up, and I have found almost every answer I need in the first 15 minutes !

I am confident this book will get me back up and running in no time, If you want to learn Director Fast, Buy this book !

An Outpouring of Information
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2003-03-01
Weighing in at about one-thousands pages, this book has some of the best information for practical production techniques and getting things done in Director. Having compared it to a half dozen or so other books before purchasing, it was the only one to truly address Lingo in a serious way. There seems to be a hole in the market since a few Lingo specific books that had been available at one time (from O'Reilly and another from the defunct Hayden Press) are either out of date or out of print.

Though its a heavy application, most of director is not that hard to learn (being proficient and artistic is another matter). But taking it to the next level requires an understanding of Lingo and integrating it into the rest of the programs features for practical use. Mr. Rosenzweig has done this, and with great enthusiasm and love of subject. It is an excellent book and the most advanced one that I could find on the shelves last year.

The beginner should take heed that this may be overwhelming, for all others I highly recommend it.

SE Using Macromedia Director is an awesome book!!!
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2002-06-21
This book is probably the best book you will ever find on how to use Director. I read it without knowing anything about programming and i am pretty advanced now. If you feel that you are a really slow learner and/or you have no experience using a computer, don't try to learn anything about director. If, however, you are a motivated student, Gary Rozensweig will teach you from the ground up about this ultra-powerful program. For 36 dollars, it's almost a must. This book will also be great for advanced director users as a reference. get it quickly. The only drawback of this book is the fact that one of the most important appendices is almost totally missing(publishing error). There is a downloadable version of the appendix on QUE's site (HTML & PDF). Don't let this tiny glitch stop you from owning the best book on director out there!!!

Interactive
Wave Hello to Thomas! (Lift-and-Peek-a-Brd Books(TM))
Published in Board book by Random House Books for Young Readers (1993-03-09)
Author: W. Rev Awdry
List price: $4.99
New price: $1.68
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $10.00

Average review score:

Grandson's Favorite
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-14
My two year old grandson is totally in love with trains, especially Thomas and friends. He loves anything with trains. This was a perfect fit for him.

Great flap board book for little train lovers!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-28
The illustrations are interesting and lend themselve to questions and answers. The flaps are large and sturdy, and opening one actually changes the action in the picture.

Wave Hello to Thomas
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-08
My little girl's birthday gift arrived on time and in great shape. It also cost a lot less that it would have if I had gone to the mall AND I didn't have to drive. :-)

Great Value
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-25
This book was just right for the price. I bought it for my 2 yr. old boy because he loves Thomas and I needed to spend a few more dollars to save on shipping costs. The book has been a huge hit with him! He loves the flaps and that James is on one of the pages also.

Simple book with nice pictures
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2006-08-26
Thomas is our 2-yr old son's favorite thing right now so we got him a new Thomas book. "Wave Hello to Thomas" is a very simple book with nice pictures and fun flaps. After just a few weeks he has memorized the book and will sit happily "reading" and lifting the flaps. He even takes the book to bed with him.

Interactive
Adobe Premiere Pro 2 Hands-On Training
Published in Paperback by Peachpit Press (2006-04-30)
Author: Jeff Schell
List price: $49.99
New price: $28.95
Used price: $25.00

Average review score:

Very good tutorial book, not your typical long winded guide.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-11
I was looking to get a quick run on how Adobe Premiere Pro 2 works as I was familiar with other video packages. Not only was this manual easy to use in showing how to utilize many of the features of Adobe Premiere but it gave you ideas on how to set your workspace to maximize your editing efficiency.
I found I was able to skip to some chapters I wanted to learn more about first and ignore others that had characteristics similar to other programs I had used.

This is a good start to using the powerful features of this program. Now all I need is another book to help with the advanced image and sound editing for those videos that look grainy or have sound drops.

Learn to earn.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-07
Got the program? Need help to use it? This is probably the best reference. I rated it 4 stars because not all of the material is in the lesson. You will have to copy resource material to your computer.

Easy to learn stuff.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-01
Anyone would easily think that Adobe premiere pro would be such a hard thing to learn how to do. Thanks to Jeff Schell, that problem is over. With easy excercises, this book is the essential tool to help you understand how to use the problem much better. It teaches you the basic tools, guides, and shortcuts that can help you create your own masterpiece (whatever that may be). The book also includes the disc that helps you step by step to create a simple video. I highly recommend this book for those who definitly want to learn Premiere Pro. It's Good Stuff

Outstanding
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-20
A book that I can read and understand without breaking into a sweat.
It solved one of my big problems inside five minutes.
You will not regret buying this book.

Love it!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-10
I would rate myself at the intermediate level when it comes to editing. I was fairly new to Premiere Pro 2 (was using 6.5 before) when I purchased the book. There were some things I knew already that the book described but I didn't know a lot of the shortcuts. It also taught me a great deal about using all of the Audio features, so that was a huge bonus for me. All in all, I thought the book was great. It was easy to work through and follow. It also allows you to skip around throughout chapters easily.

Interactive
Apple Pro Training Series: Shake 4 (Apple Pro Training)
Published in Paperback by Peachpit Press (2005-11-04)
Author: Marco Paolini
List price: $54.99
New price: $25.00
Used price: $22.00

Average review score:

Excellent addition to the shake documentation
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-24
When PeachPit sent me this book to review I was already excited about it since Shake is something I've taken much interest in the last couple months. I'd already begun to amass all kinds of training resources on the topic and had even set out a schedule for which to execute the consumption of said resources. So receiving this book was much on point for me.

At the time of this review I had already worked my way through the Shake documentation (the first stop on my agenda) so I went into this with a rudimentary understanding of the application. I was pleased to discover that the writer of this book had taken that into consideration (and without even having to ask me!). They even state in the opening chapter that the book is not meant to replace the [free] documentation that comes with every Shake install but is aimed at enhancing what's already there. I found this to be accurate to some degree. After all, the basics must still be covered for those who were too [lazy/unaware/apathetic] towards the Shake documentation but for the most part every chapter enhanced its documentation counter-part rather nicely.

The second top notable feature of this book, in my opinion, is that you are supposedly adequately ready to take (and presumably pass) the Apple Pro Certification exam on Shake after completing the book. I say supposedly because I myself have not taken the exam and cannot speak on my preparedness. However, as some may know, the PeachPit book on Shake is the curriculum used in Apple Pro Training classes all over these great United States. This is also stated early in the book.

Other notable features of the book include a chapter relevant keyboard shortcuts matrix at the end of every chapter, high quality examples (some being clips from commercials you've seen on TV) for you, the student, to dig your fingers into in the labs, and pro level tips peppered throughout the book such as "always be sure auto-keyframe is enabled before rotoscoping (no one wants to roto for an hour only to find their work lost due to an oversight)" or "instead of color-matching in RGB, color-match each individual channel separately. it is much easier this way". The tips may seem basic but we all forget the basics sometimes so its great that they include this aspect of real-world protocols in a training book.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. This is notable because I went into it with high expectations, which is usually a situation ripe with potential for disappointment. It was a fun and easy read and clearly written by a seasoned professional (the Pro Training way). I felt like he was my mentor sometimes the way he addressed certain issues "they don't teach you in school" (mentioned earlier in this review). I do recommend, if you buy the book, to download the errata available from PeachPit's website. It will clear up some minor confusion from the few typos that appear in chapters 2 and 13.

---

About the reviewer: Ezra Peace is a narrative filmmaker based in New York. His credits include several feature length independent films and many independent short films as well as marketing and promotional work done in Miami and New York.

Shake 4
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-22
If you are Final Cut Pro editor as I am, and want to take a next level of your creations? Then get this book with the application software. Not only teach you for solid ground compositing also take you to the pro level.

Great guide but...
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-04
This is a great way to learn Shake because it guides you step by step. The thing is that you need to know theorical concepts about compositing or have enough experience in another compositing software so you fully understand what he says, because sometimes the terms are not explained, just the way to do it, so if you don't know a lot about this I suggest you to first learn a little about how compositing works.

Perfect
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-21
It is perfect for anybody wanting to learn shake. I bought the book with zero experiance and now i not only understand the program but I can relate nearly every "real" job to certain lessons in the book.

A great book, check out my Shake Support site
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2006-10-20
Marco, as always, has created another great Shake book. But as many of you know, Apple has recently stopped support of Shake. But thankfully they also reduced the price to nearly nothing making this powerful software available to everyone. But what do you do if you need support as a user? Check out [...]


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