ABC Books

I bought this for my 5-year-old daughter and she loves it. It has many classic children's science projects, like making a tornado using two soda bottles, and all of the projects use common materials and are easy to do. They are just right in length and complexity for her age.

This book was excellent. I searched many bookstores to find it. It was full of exciting science experiments that anyone can do. It can be used in a whole-language curriculum to teach science. I am very excited to use it this year with my kindergarten class. It will reinforce their learning of the ABC's and teach them the wonders of science! I would recommend this book to any early childhood teacher

This book is both entertaining and informative. There are very few childrens science books which can capture the attention of a 4 year old, and still relay meaningful science; this book does. All of the experiments have fun poems to go along with them, and there is additional information for more in-depth scientific thought at the back of the book. The experiments are fun and easy to do. Overall, it's an excellent first science book.

My five year old loves the idea of doing science experiments, so I have purchased three or four science books geared for kids her age. This is the best one that I have seen. The activities are fun and easy to do. Almost all of them require only materials that are readily available in the average household. Most take under half an hour from start to finish. The reason that I gave the book only four stars and not five is that the poems themselves are not great. Bottom line: the science experiments are terrific, but the book is not a great read.

I just went to the California Kindergarten Conference and saw this book presented. There is a poem and a science project for each letter of the alphabet. They are simple, hands-on experiments and very affordable for the K-1 teacher.

Fantastic book. I highly recommend it to children and adults alike. The author, Metaxas, is very skilled

We are really looking forward to giving this book to our nieces and nephews for Christmas. We think their parents will enjoy reading it too!

This is just the kind of book on Bible characters I've been looking for and could not, could not, could NOT find -- until now. It is funny and poignant and has incredible illustrations. Thank you Jim Harris and Eric Metaxas. I hope my kids like it as much as I think they will, but if they don't I'll be more than happy to enjoy it myself. Two thumbs up!

I gave this book as a gift to my baby nephew for his parents to read to him (and someday for him to read himself). The book is colorful, fun to read, and also teaches the A,B,Cs while getting across Christian values - a real winner amongst children's books. Since my mother, my sister-in-law, and I also enjoyed it - it is also for adults. A great find.

I like it so much I bought 10 ! If you are looking for a book for a child interested in letters, colours and learning this is it. The Bible has never been so interesting, the alphabet so inviting and your children will love the illustrations. I loved The Birthday ABC by that star Metaxas and this might be even better. My friends children will be getting these as presents as the birthdays roll by.

This is a delightful book with scientific information about the butterflies as well as a beautiful poem and close up photos of the letters of the alphabet on the butterflies' wings. Check out the author's posters, as well.

This is a beautiful work for anyone who loves butterflies. I often pick it up and browse its pages, admiring the beauty in nature. It can be read and reread numerous times. The photographs are wonderful, and the idea is ingenious!

I first thought this book was an alphabet book for young children, such as to help teach them the alphabet. This is more like a book that would be kept on a coffee table by an adult that adores butterflies. I still love it despite my misconception!

This is an amazing work. The author is actually a nature photographer who accidentially noticed that some patterns on butterfly's wings are shaped like letters of the English alphabet while looking at the wings under a microscope. He then took very close photographs of the "letters". He then went around the world hoping to find each of the 26 letters in our alphabet; this journey took 25 years. Now that is a labor of love!

The end result is this: on the left side of the page is a full color photo of the entire butterfly. One sentence describing butterflies with one of the words beginning with that letter of the alphabet is written in very poetic language that would be most appreciated by adults or anyone who enjoys poetry. Note that the featured letter is written in capital only and in script style so this is of no use to preschoolers who need to see both capital and lower case letters in PRINT. The name of the butterfly is then given. On the right side of the page is a huge photograph of the close up that shows the pattern on the wings that looks just like the featured letter of the alphabet.

Incredible! Interesting!

This would be of interest to anyone who is interested in butterflies. Possibly a good tool to show when introducing microscopes and what they can reveal and also when teaching about butterflies and science/nature.

This book is truely a great book for kids. Not only is it educational but it is also fun. Kids can try to find the letters that are hidden in the butterflys wings. They can take that and use it when they see butterflys around the yard. I'm an elementary education major in college and I would definitely use this in my future classroom for a unit on butterflys, and also just as a fun book. In the back of the book information is provided on all the butterflys and moths that are in the book.

it is so creative and amazing. what a wonderful view of how beautiful nature is.

My grandson enjoys pointing to the leters and having you name then.As I have said before he is a special needs child He will also point to the letters when you ask him to identiy them

This was a favorite when my little girl was a 1 yr old. I was so tired of the A/apple stuff like
in other books and this was refreshing and fun to add new words to my child's vocabulary.

We wore our first copy out!

Now that my son is just over 1 and loving books I decided to buy another copy. Highly recommend.

My 4 yr old still loves clifford, and I don't mind reading it (20 times a night sometimes).

This is an excellent first ABC book. I know because it's really helped my almost three-year-old son with his letters, both upper and lower case. Clifford the red dog is there on each Letter Page with a whole passel of pictures that start with the appropriate letter. For example on A our red dog hero is looking down on an accordion player an armadillo, an alligator, an anvil, an axe and more and so on through this terrific beginner's book. Mr. Bridwell's illustrations have kept my son captivated long enough to learn his ABCs and that is just what a book like this is supposed to do.

Jack Priest, Dad in Training

Both my 2 yr old and my 4 yr old love Clifford. He is so lovable! Once again this is a good book to go over with your child to help ABC recognition. Clifford is a good tool for learning both on TV and in books! Your children cannot help but LOVE HIM!

Dogs and kids go together like peanut butter and jelly. Thisbook is a fun way of introducing the alphabet to your child in a funformat!

ABC-CLIO's wonderful handbooks on world mythology offer in-depth explorations linking traditional cultural myths to insights on behavior and ideals, and Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is an essential reference for any high school to college-level collection with a Chinese studies program. From main sources of myths and their importance to Chinese society and psyche to a timeline of myths as they evolved through Chinese history and a survey of the myths and themes themselves, Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is a real winner.

ABC-CLIO's wonderful handbooks on world mythology offer in-depth explorations linking traditional cultural myths to insights on behavior and ideals, and Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is an essential reference for any high school to college-level collection with a Chinese studies program. From main sources of myths and their importance to Chinese society and psyche to a timeline of myths as they evolved through Chinese history and a survey of the myths and themes themselves, Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is a real winner.

ABC-CLIO's wonderful handbooks on world mythology offer in-depth explorations linking traditional cultural myths to insights on behavior and ideals, and Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is an essential reference for any high school to college-level collection with a Chinese studies program. From main sources of myths and their importance to Chinese society and psyche to a timeline of myths as they evolved through Chinese history and a survey of the myths and themes themselves, Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is a real winner.

ABC-CLIO's wonderful handbooks on world mythology offer in-depth explorations linking traditional cultural myths to insights on behavior and ideals, and Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is an essential reference for any high school to college-level collection with a Chinese studies program. From main sources of myths and their importance to Chinese society and psyche to a timeline of myths as they evolved through Chinese history and a survey of the myths and themes themselves, Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is a real winner.

ABC-CLIO's wonderful handbooks on world mythology offer in-depth explorations linking traditional cultural myths to insights on behavior and ideals, and Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is an essential reference for any high school to college-level collection with a Chinese studies program. From main sources of myths and their importance to Chinese society and psyche to a timeline of myths as they evolved through Chinese history and a survey of the myths and themes themselves, Handbook Of Chinese Mythology is a real winner.

This beautifully illustrated book introduces young children to the wonderful world of insects. I read it to my girls from a very young age and at age two they could identify pretty much every insect in there. They enjoy looking for bugs in their garden too. Children will enjoy the short descriptive text. The illustrations really make this book a delight.

My son loves this book. We talk about the different bugs on each page - he thinks they're so cool. The letters are a bit of an afterthought for him at this point. But it provides him some exposure, in a fun way, without sticking flashcards in his face.

We got this book for our four year old, bug obsessed son. He is thrilled with it, and we are so happy to have an ABC book that he'll actually pay attention to. The illustrations and bug facts are great, and I don't think our son realizes he's learning his letters. We also ordered the Butterfly ABC book (just for good measure), which is also wonderful.

This book was fantastic. It had a great deal of interesting information about 26 different bugs. The text was still simple enough for children of all ages to enjoy. My preschoolers loved it!

I bought this book for my son for his 4th birthday (he helped pick it out) and it is one of his favorite books. He has had it less than 6 months and can tell you what every bug is and something about it. If you have a bug lover its a great book.

I absolutely love this book. Whoever wrote that you can here Estelle's voice as you read it, you are REALLY correct. This book is extremely funny, and tells the truth. I wish she could have talked about her time in Torch Song Trilogy a little more though. However, my book is battered as well I have read this book SO many times!

I always tought that only the character Sophia was funny, but this book proves that Estelle is just as hilarious....

While reading this book you could hear Estelle Gettys voice while she's cracking jokes throughout. Thoroughly entertaining!

This book was fantabulous. Anything Estelle Getty does is automatically a classic.

If you're an avid fan of the Golden Girls, and by that I mean, know when it airs on Lifetime and are able to recite dialogue from the show, then this book is for you. It captures the essence of Estelle Getty, and what we loved about her fiesty character, Sophia. It's an easy read of observations, anecdotes. I've read this many a time...my copy's all battered, but every now and then, when I'm feeling sentimental or a little blue, I pick up this book and find myself feeling a whole lot better. It's comfortable and familiar.

This book is fun and educational! The rhyming prose is delightful and has wonderful pictures accompanying each letter of the alphabet. There are lots of objects in each picture that begin with the letter (except X and Z, but really, can you think of many items that start with those letters?)

We stumbled across this at the library (literally, the baby had thrown it on the floor). It must have been destiny!

This book is just plain fun. The text is funny and flows easily. Each letter has a creative rhyme and then pictures to go with it. BUT they've included lots of other pictures which start with the same letter so you can spend hours (we have) hunting through each picture trying to find everything. It's very similar to Graeme Base's Animalia, only his is much more 'artistically' detailed and this is more cartoonish. (I strongly recommend you check out Animalia too.)

What I like best about this book is that it works on so many levels. It's a fun read-aloud. It's fun to look at. My beginning readers (7-years-old) can look at the pictures and find all the 'extras'. My 3-year-old can find the ones listed in the rhymes. A great find for a fun family time. Thanks baby!!!

I use this book as part of circle time in the special ed class I teach. The kids are still completely hypnotised by it and some have it memorized from cover to cover. I've used it for six months to the point that the book is wearing out, but my kids still want to hear it everyday. Great choice for all kids and a must have for classrooms!

The collaborative effort of author Giles Andreae and illustrator Guy Parker-Rees, K Is For Kissing And A Cool Kangaroo is an ABC book that offers young readers ages 2 to 6 with a delightful and rhythmic text that covers all the letters of the alphabet. Filled from cover to cover with humor, cheerful illustrations, and vocabulary development, K Is For Kissing A Cool Kangaroo is a perfect addition to any family, preschool center, or kindergarten collection.

and big busy bumble bee below blossoming branch barely buzzes by beaver's blue balloon.

OK, OK. I am exaggerating. The balloon is red, not blue.

This book is another winning co-production by the gifted writer/illustrator team of "Giraffes Can't Dance." Cheerful, amusing, entertaining and educational in an unobtrusive way, it is a genuine pleasure for kids and parents.

Learning the letters of the alphabet has rarely been so much fun. Max's favorite is the letter "B" because he likes his dad to enact the slightly absurd drama of a bull in a boat who is rowing frantically to escape a grinning bumble bee about to pierce the balloon of a beaver who sits next to the bull. Add to that the third passenger in the boat, a phlegmatic bear munching on a banana, and you have the right stuff for a great bed-time story. Trust me.

Rivaling "B" in popularity is the letter "R" featuring a rabbit in a carrot-shaped racing machine, a raccoon riding a rocket-propelled scooter (any boy's dream!), a rolling robot, a running rhino and last not least a rat holding a rose. The rose is red. Just for the record.

For obvious reasons my favorite letters are K and L: "K is for kissing a cool kangaroo - L is for loving, like Daddy loves you."

Clifford Wright's Mediterranean Vegetables truly lives up to its title in offering more than two hundred delicious and inspiring recipes drawn from the such diverse Mediterranean bordering nations and regions as Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, North Africa, and the Middle East. From Umak od Hren sa Jabukom (Horseradish and Apple Sauce); Harisa (Hot Chile Paste); and Spinaci alla Genovese (Genoa-Style Spinach); to Yogurtin Salgam (Fried Turnips with Yogurt); Ardi shawki Maqli bi'l-Taratur (Fried Artichokes with Tartur Sauce); and Potage au Cresson (Watercress Soup); Mediterranean Vegetables is an ideal addition to the regional recipe cookbook shelves of anyone who enjoys culinary enhancements of daily meals or party menus.

Clifford Wright's Meiterranean Vegetables presents a complete collection of history, recipes and also growing information. Mr. Wright's historical insight and deep culinary knowledge gives the reader a view of the whole region and the connections between cultures. Particularly interesting are the contributions made by the arabic peoples to region that are usually ignored or given minor attention. For most there will be new flavors from old recipes.

Mediterranean vegetables range from eggplant and fava beans to lentils and swiss chard, and Clifford Wright's superbly presented vegetable book provides 200 recipes for using vegetables to maximum advantage. There are no color photos, but the dishes don't need much embellishment: just access to a range of fresh vegetables.

MEDITERRANEAN VEGETABLES is misnamed. Many of the vegetables Clifford Wright lists in his book are not native to the Mediterranean, but rather hail from the Western Hemisphere. I was slightly annoyed when I realized this as I am a gardener and naively thought this book would get back to some "original" foods, but it does not. However, that being said, the book does contain some rather good recipes, and unlike other books on the various cuisines of the area, this book contains a nice selection of dishes that include eggplant. I am an eggplant nut, so for that reason alone I'll keep the book. Not only does the book include 10 recipes with eggplant as the star, all the recipes are tasty--although some are a bit spicy and not all are low-cal (maybe none of them are).

There are plenty of other good vegetable dishes. I also fancy okra, and Wright has included a delicious recipe "Okra with Olive Oil" that uses pomegranate molassas. Another dish Wright describes as a "guiless dish from Apulia" is "Oven-baked Potatoes and Mushrooms" with portobello mushrooms and pecorino cheese.

Wright says he is not a vegetarian, so don't buy this book if you're opposed to animal products in your vegetables. However, if you're an "ovo-lacto" veggie, you might check it out.

Clifford Wright is one of the leading writers, along with Elizabeth David, Paula Wolfert and Claudia Roden, on the cuisines of the Mediterranian. He describes this volume as an expanded appendix to his monumental, award winning `A Mediterranean Feast'.

I believe this book would be of interest to anyone with more than the most minimal interests in food. At the very least, it is a highly accessible catalogue of good vegetable dishes. Although some dishes do contain meat, fish, or meat stocks, it can also serve as an excellent resource for enlivening vegetarian diets, as the author does minimize meat ingredients.

These types of books are not commonly written in English by British or American writers. It always seems to be the Germans and the French who write the great compendia volumes for various interests. Unfortunately, good German and French and Italian works like this are hard to come by, even at the local Borders or Barnes and Noble. So, I am immensely grateful that Wright has rescued us, at least in the specialized world of Mediterranean cuisine.

Some people may find issue with his selection of vegetables. Wright's strategy is to be as broad as possible, including both vegetables only found in the wild and vegetables which have been imported to the Mediterranean shores from the orient or from the new world. I am very happy with this choice, especially since entries indicate the most likely point of origin for each plant and it's current distribution. There is nothing more annoying than looking for an entry in a reference book, not finding it, and wondering why it was left off, out of laziness or because it did indeed fall outside the scope of the book. With this book, that question should never arise. I also endorse the vegetable classification done by commercial criteria rather than by scientific criteria. Who could imagine this book without the tomato! My only disappointment here was that mushrooms were all lumped together under a single heading. Culinarily, this makes some sense, as most mushrooms are interchangeable in dishes, but I have to believe the distribution and ethnic uses of morels is quite different from portobellos.

One of the great joys of the book is that it's emphasis is both culinary and scholarly, in that much material, such as scientific names and common names in many different languages is available here along with very useful recipes. One direction in which the book is not exhaustive is in the choice of recipes. For vegetables such as artichokes and tomatoes, only a small representative sample is included. Whole books could be dedicated to the dishes of these vegetables. What we find is interesting, tasty examples which may not be found elsewhere.

I find the culinary contents of this book to be truly amazing and of tremendous value in any foodie's library. Surprisingly, I find several problems in the more scholarly content of the book. There are at least two statements on artichokes I find very surprising. One is that the choke is edible and the second that the stalk of the choke is not eaten. I rely on the authority of Mario Batali to believe both of these statements is incorrect, at least for Italians, who, Mario reports, regularly buy artichokes with long stems, peel, cook, and eat them with the heart. Another statement says that white asparagus is actually normal green asparagus, blanched before it is picked. `Blanched' is simply the wrong word, as it indicates a brief heating in water. A better word may be `bleached', although that has misleading associations as well. The fact is that they are whitened by mounding soil around the stalks to keep them away from sunlight. No heat of chemical is involved. The book would have been well served by a really good copy editor. Well, all the blurbs on the back cover are from culinary stars. No Nobel laureates here.

That aside, this is a wonderfully useful book. I wish many more of this type from Wright and other English speaking authors.

This book is apparently going to re-printed in the US in fall 2008, for those who want a copy - they have pre-orders on the Random House webpage, so more than likely it will be available on Amazon as well in a few months. Not sure why the second book (Box of Delights) was released first - better known, I guess.

This is definitly one of my favorite books of all time. It's one the most imaginative and original books I've ever read and I'm surprised that it's out of print, especially with interest in children's fantasy at an all time high. It's as good as Harry Potter, if not better! It has everything you'd want in a book. Wicked governesses, pirates, witches, wizards, highway men, talking animals, king arthur, lost treasure. It's an exciting, wonderful, magical book which I totally recommend to all those out there looking for some good, original fantasy. It's a children's book but grownups will love it too. Unfortuntly The Midnight Folk isn't in print in the United States, but I ordered my copy from amazon.co.uk for a pretty cheap price, which is what I recommend anyone who wants a copy of it to do. There's also an equally wonderful sequel called The Box of Delights: When the Wolves Were Running, which I also recommend and which you an also obtain from amazon.co.uk.

The pre-cursor to John Masefield's children's classic "The Box of Delights", "The Midnight Folk" presents the excting and sometimes frightening story of young Kay Harker, who discovers his governess is actually a witch. In a time when quality children's literarure is at a low ebb, "The Midnight Folk" is wonderful work to capture the imagination of a child and instill in him or her a love of reading. I highly recommend this book and its sequel "The Box of Delights", which is also a faithful and enchanting BBC mini-series.

John Masefield perfectly combines fantasy, suspense, piracy, thievery, witchcraft, talking animals, and a little boy who does not enjoy conjugating Latin verbs into one of the most delightful children's books I have ever read. Some editions include a very nice afterward by Madeleine L'Engle. The main character is a young boy who is aided by Nibbins, the cat, in finding a treasure that was entrusted to an ancestor and lost. One of the great charms of the story is the boy pitting himself against a group of witches who want to find the treasure for themselves. Young Kay Harker wants to find the treasure and return it to the church that entrusted it to his ancestor. Anyway, it is a book worth finding and reading as an adult or a child.

Kay is an imaginative boy, often left alone by his governess to work through lessons (the nightmarish Latin conjugations as another reviewer recalled). He finds time to wander off and converse with his friend Nibbins the black cat. Nibbins keeps an eye on the estate, Kay's governess, and the gamekeeper, and has observed strange things. When the clock strikes midnight, people and animals change and Kay himself becomes a key element.

It's a perfect book for children with big imaginations and it has just an edge of darkness that makes it ultra satisfying (similar to Wolves of Willoughby chase in tone). With plenty of hair-raising midnight outings and traitors around every corner. The witches are both evil and beguiling and Kay's great, great granddaddy, the pirate, is a wicked yet entertaining man. Thoroughly enjoyable.

E. Nesbit wrote at the same time as Masefield, and you can see some similarities in themes. Both are wonderful children's authors and if you like one, chances are you will enjoy the other. Midnight Folk in many ways seems like a precursor to the writings of Roald Dahl's The Witches. One might find similarities in today's Lemony Snicket or Harry Potter series, though I find both of those series much easier to read and a bit glossy in an ADD quick-read fashion.

**Beware of abridged copies--language changes and "updates" that mess with the original language