Education Books

With chilling, real-world events introducing each chapter, "Bullies & Bullying" hits home in its telling of circumstances that surround bullies, those being bullied, and those that witness the bullying.
Margaret Kohut gets to the heart of what drives these victims of bullying to take such ruthless action and what parents, school teachers, and fellow students can do to spot such behavior and stop it before it goes too far. She also expertly explains the differences between harmless teasing and bullying, which is essential when trying to identify the severity of a child's actions. For those who think bullying still exists just on the school play yard or in the hallways, Kohut sites the different types of bullying that exist today, including cyber-bullying.
In addition, she lists the signs and symptoms of a bullied child as well as the warning signs to know if your child is the one doing the bullying. She addresses each situation with sensitivity but drives home the harsh reality of this topic by offering case studies that delve deeper into the personal side.
Ultimately, the book leads to a discussion of what necessary steps need to be taken to bully-proof children. While communication is key, she notes that it takes everyone's participation to help raise a child, and everyone's role plays a critical part in their development.

After reading Margaret Kohut's, The Complete Guide to Understanding, Controlling, and Stopping Bullies & Bullying I feel awakened to a new wave of crime in the form of bullying. Its poignant excerpts serve as a reminder of how ignoring the danger that bully's pose all too often bring only tragedy and death to our doorstep. Inside its pages is a detailed explanation of how bullying occurs, what to look for, and how to prevent it. Having read this book I now feel better prepared to protect my own children, as well as how to stay vigilant against bullying of others children.

This book posits that recent school shootings such as the incidents at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech University were partially caused by society's tolerance of bullying. This book is full of case studies about people who have been bullied and people who have bullied others. I found these case studies to be a thought-provoking method for presenting the book's argument. The author does a very good job defining the types of bullying and suggesting new solutions to this ago-old problem.

As Margaret R. Kohut, author of The Complete Guide to Understanding, Controlling, and Stopping Bullies & Bullying notes; on April 6, 2007, Twenty-three-year-old Seung-Hui Cho opened fire at Virginia Tech, killing 32 students, wounding 25, and also taking his own life. An investigation of Cho's personal history revealed that he had suffered bullying in both middle and high school for a speech defect. On October 16, 2006, a 13-year-old Missouri girl named Megan Meier committed suicide after a neighbor--the mother of a schoolmate, who posed online as a boy--harassed and bullied Meier online, after initially gaining her trust. On April 20, 2000, teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold--whom Kohut included in her book's dedication--entered Columbine High school with assault weapons and homemade bombs. They killed 12 classmates, a teacher, and injured 18 other students before shooting and killing themselves.

Kohut opens her book by profiling two of these cases--the Columbine and Virginia Tech Massacres--as well as one additional case. She seems to suggest, without directly stating as such, that a history of being bullied contributed to the criminal behaviors of Cho, Harris, and Klebold. The suicide of Meier, as well as of Emmet Fralick, a fourteen-year-old who resided in Halifax, Nova Scotia, whom Kohut also mentions in her introduction, reveals other extreme and tragic potential results of bullying.

Kohut's credentials and professional experiences as a Correction Officer in an Adult and Juvenile Maximum Security Correction Facility, a Courtroom Bailiff, Bounty Hunter, Forensic Counselor, Addiction Therapist, as well as time spent in private practice as a Social Worker, all support the case she makes for bullying as a serious and dangerous cultural problem. Kohut also successfully provides relevant data to support this assertion. In this book, she articulately, systematically, and logically paints a comprehensive picture of bullying. In the first section, she includes clear definitions and types of bullying behavior, "red flags" to look for, as well as the price that everyone involved with bullying pays. Next, she details accessible yet sophisticated forensic profiles of bullies and their victims. She also dispels relevant myths. In Section three, Kohut offers solutions for parents, teachers, victims, and bystanders. Educators and Educational Administrators, as well as parents, will find her chapter on creating zero tolerance for School Bullying extremely useful. Moreover, Kohut also briefly addresses legal aspects of bullying. She concludes with an appendix of tools--including various "pledges" that students, teachers, parents, schools and communities can make--which supply opportunities of applications for adults and children alike.

The Complete Guide to Understanding, Controlling and Stopping Bullies and Bullying: A Complete Guide for Teachers and Parents by Margaret R. Kohut, MSW, is a powerful examination of an issue that is impacting every school in the world and has profoundly been felt in cities like Littleton, Colorado and Blacksburg, Virginia. More importantly, the book acknowledges that when bullying of children does occur those people often ignore it that youth are supposed to depend on for protection - teachers, parents and authority figures. Yet, because a prevailing philosophy exists that bullying is a part of childhood these individuals have grown accustomed to looking the other way, which Kohurt examines in relation to numerous cases in which the students that were bullied eventually seek retaliation, causing all of society to ask "why?" This book is highly recommended reading for anyone that works with children and that is interested in altering a child's life so that there will be no more retaliatory acts against bullies and those that appear to support them. Kohur uses her professional experience to examine the law, case studies related to bullying, the affects of bullying on children (short and long term), as well as the teacher and parental role in addressing bullies and aiding children that are their victims.

I represent a private, non-profit organization that provides evaluation and tutoring services for children K-8. We strongly believe in professional development in order to maintain a high level of competency in the field of education. When our teachers have an opening in their schedule, they select books like this to review, to reflect and to write a summary, which is submitted to me for review and professional credit. Our entire teaching staff has found this book to be a good resource.

As a new resource teacher for my school this was one of the better books I found to help me with real life solutions to teaching learning disabled children. This was a great book for explanations of various learning disabilities and set exercises to use in class for all age groups. I work mostly one on one, but found the activities and strategies easily adaptable for individual use.

I am a preservice teacher and am studying special education. I saw this book on Amazon and was intrigued by the low price. I was so surprised when I received it. It is a wonderful resource for anyone who works with students with LD. It covers the whole gambit from identification, to characteristics, to strategies. It really is a complete handbook and for the price you can't find a better deal. I have found this resource much more useful than my textbooks on LD that cost me upwards 70-80 dollars. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book!

I found this book to be useful and very informative concerning special education. It covered testing, laws, terms and definitions. I've been using it to study for the Praxis Special Ed exams and feel that I will be well prepared.

Very informative. Very good reference for those taking the alternative route to teaching certification. Contains practical scenarios on how theories in education are applied.

A clearly written book, which employs a simple language. Another beauty of the book is that all loose ends are tied up. As sentences unfold one will realize why a particular phrase was used earlier and so on. That makes a big difference for an engineering text book.

It is the best book that I know for fundamentals. Hence, it will be useful for years to come.

Must have for all embedded systems people.

Helped me in my undergrad (older version). Helped me when I gave subject GRE recently. Covered Pipelining superscalar, out-of-order execution processors, caching and secondary storage, combinational and sequential ckt review etc real well. No computer architecture book covered them all so clearly, and in one book.

This was the assigned text for my junior year computer engineering course on computer organization. I loved it. The explanations are clear, progress logically, and are clearly presented. I find myself picking it up from time to time, both to read the more advanced chapters out of personal interest and to look up details needed in more advanced coursework.

After reading this book do not believe you'll know everyting about computing , but you'll know more than others do.

I had a chance to recommend this to a colleague just last week. It is easily twice the price of the "competing" books on the market, but you get what you pay for. With this book plus (perhaps) a hands-on course in the microprocessor laboratory--interfacing various logic families to output devices, e.g., or whipping up a robot of limited capabilities--the student gains the ultimate understanding of what makes computer systems "tick," from the loftiest levels of software, through the details of instruction set implementation (microprogrammed control, prefetching, cycle-stealing DMA transfers) and even the detailed digital logic circuits that underlie the CPU.

I dare say the student who aces this course is all but prepared to build a simplistic CPU on his own--"simplistic" because, though the concepts can be understood quite completely, it's an intricate challenge. Notably, the book has kept pace with the times: while the PDP-11 instruction set is didactically wonderful--clear and easy and even sporting reasonable opcode mnemonics--you don't see lots of PDP or LSI (or, for that matter, VAX) minis floating around nowadays. So, HV&Z moved on to the 68000, the Power PC, perhaps even the Pentium in the latest (of five or six) editions. (Good move, gentlemen: you've actually done your homework rather than just changing "happy" to "glad" and reprinting with a new version number!)

I used this book as a junior, but (a) I went to Cooper Union, which operates at an extremely high intellectual level [let's put it this way: I took a number of graduate-level computer science electives--compilers, OS, etc.--taught by Bell Labs MTSs as a junior and senior; and some "doctoral" courses that I took at Case were--honest Injun--watered-down versions of similar courses I had taken at Cooper], and (b) I graduated more than twenty years ago, and requirements always creep downward: a few credits fewer, a few tangential courses eliminated, perhaps one fewer humanities elective necessary to matriculate, etc. By 2006 standards, I would reluctantly have to reclassify HV&Z as a postgraduate text.

(A little puzzle for the reader: we had to build--from NAND gates--a microcomputer featuring two three-bit registers, and my squad was the only one that implemented an "exchange registers" function that required only one cycle and used no auxiliary storage registers. How did we do it? Tick ... tick ... tick ... time's up! The circuitry compared corresponding bits from both registers. If they matched, it did nothing; if they differed, it flipped both! So, there was no literal "exchange" operation: rather, each was simultaneously reset to the value of the other.)

As we prepared for our oldest daughter's amputaion, I searched for something to help guide us along as a family. This work book is wonderful. Although my daughter was emotionally ready for her loss, Rick Ritter was able to better address some of what we may have missed prior to her surgery. I strongly recomend this book for anyone dealing with physical loss them selves or that of a loved one. Joi Warburton, Las Vegas, NV

After reading the other reviews I purchased this book. I have a degenerative muscle disease for which there is no treatment. Although I have coped fairly well up to this point, I was finding myself more and more isolated. As I answered the questions, I felt it would be better if I were going through this process with a professional. I answered as fully as I was able, but there doesn't seem to be any suggestions as to what to do with this information. The book suggests that you share your answers with three people. In my case that wasn't possible.I can see that it would be useful in conjunction with therapy. Without that professional input, the book left me hanging.

Reviewed by Christina Gonzalez, LMHC for Reader Views (5/06)

The author starts this very unique workbook with a compelling quote from Christopher Reeve, "So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable". This book is a way to help those who have found their dreams become impossible, find new ways to restructure their life, their ways of thinking and their ways of being in order to find ways to help their dreams become inevitable.

This book is oriented towards those who have experienced some type of a physical loss, whether from a disability, accident or including serious, chronic illnesses and pain. His examples range from people who have suffered knee injuries to quadriplegics, to individuals who have undergone a mastectomy from breast cancer to debilitating illnesses like muscular dystrophy. I would see value for individuals with ANY chronic health condition benefiting enormously from this book.

The author suggests that individuals who use this book consult with at least three people in their lives with whom they can share the results of the exercises which is very wise. The author takes the reader through a series of written exercises and anecdotes through six main chapters: Past and Future, Self Care and Support, Dealing with Loss: Feelings and Beliefs, Understanding Disability, Transforming Circumstance, and The Ongoing Process of Loss and Recovery. Each of these remain only questions and words on paper until the reader takes these questions and looks into their lives and then shares them with another.

As a therapist I will be recommending this book to my clients who are struggling with any chronic health issues. I would love to use this workbook with my clients in their therapy as well as suggest they share the information obtained about themselves with others in their lives. The author includes some excellent exercises to help the reader determine what people in their lives might be supportive to this process of recovery from physical loss and/or any chronic health condition.

The appendices include some excellent resources regarding therapeutic techniques and alternatives, suggested reading for coping with loss and disability, films on issues related to physical loss and disability, guidelines for watching films, and a listing of organizations and other resources that can help individuals coping with loss and disability.

As the mother of a child with Cerebral Palsy and as a psychotherapist myself, I found this book to be highly valuable for people dealing with any type of physical loss. As I mentioned above, just buying the book will not do anything. Filling out the exercises will help, but will not make a huge change. Filling out the exercise, following the author on the journey that he is leading the reader on and sharing with those close to the reader will make a great deal of difference. Some of the exercises I found helpful for those suffering from debilitating mental or emotional illnesses and even less acute health conditions such as asthma or others. This book is highly recommended to any individual who has suffered a physical loss and is still struggling to find their dreams. It would make a great gift from a supportive loved one who is also willing to make a stand to be there with the reader as they go through these exercises, and it would make an excellent aid to an individual who is currently seeing a therapist. I would not recommend this to someone who just wants to do the exercises randomly, haphazardly or in order to just keep their answers to themselves and not share them with another.

Rick Ritter, MSW, has created an easy-to-use resource to help people confront a life-changing illness or disability. He could simply give good advice, relying upon his experiences as a disabled veteran, a social worker, and a competitor in events for disabled athletes. Instead, he engages the reader in answering questions, gathering support, finding resources, and taking a completely positive approach to difficult situations.

I love the workbook format, because it forces the reader to begin thinking about and acting upon ways to continue with a life that has become altered. Of course, altered doesn't mean over. It just means different. Ritter avoids sugar-coating those differences or the emotional, social, and physical problems that accompany them. However, he ultimately provokes the reader into finding ways to deal with those obstacles.

Ritter ends with a brief but inspiring look at his life, followed by a variety of resources. I suggest his workbook as a great beginning for anyone facing physical loss or disability.

Rick Ritter has written a superb self-help workbook that will benefit readers who have suffered a physical loss or disability. Ritter has included 50 questions to be answered by the reader. He recommends these answers be shared with at least three other people. In responding to these questions, the reader is able to reflect on his or her disability or physical loss. The book engages the reader in discovering ways to deal with their physical loss. To those readers who have experienced such a loss, the workbook will provide a sense of empowerment to those still in grief or depression.

Ritter himself has experienced his own disability. As a social worker(MSW), he has had the opportunity to work with 100 people who have suffered a physical loss or disability. His workbook provides a roadmap for readers to follow to reach attainable goals.

Also included are interesting short stories of people he has worked with ranging from amputation, breast cancer, muscular dystrophy, AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, and quadriplegia. He recounts how these people were able to cope with their loss.

Having a disability or having suffered a physical loss doesn't necessarily lead to unhappiness. How one responds to that loss is what really matters. Rick also uses spirituality, support systems, and holistic methods as an approach to coping with the loss. Resiliency is crucial in facing any loss or disability.

As a mother of a son with cerebral palsy, I can see how this workbook could be very useful. He is now a happy young man working as an attorney. His disability didn't stop him from being productive. Also, having battled my own muscle disease along with rheumatoid arthritis, I found it helpful. As the daughter of a mother transfused with HIV contaminated blood, I can see how this workbook could have benefited her.

The resources included at the end of his book are certainly a bonus. He has listed helpful organizations, suggested reading, and films relating to physical loss and disability.

Rick Ritter has given his readers a wonderful gift. "Coping with Physical Loss and Disability" is an empowering book that will benefit many readers. I highly recommend this workbook. Thank you, Rick for caring. Your workbook will be appreciated by many people.

Nancy A. Draper (Author) A Burden of Silence: My Mother's Battle with AIDS

I love princeton review series. they are the best best best. I used this book sophmore year to prep for AP bio. I didn't read the whole textbook only up to chapter 25, but this book helped me get a 5. You need to know everything in this book to do well. learn all the diagrams and every vocab. good luck

I would recommend this book to anyone taking the test. I used it to study for the AP exam in 2006 and crammed 90% of the book the day before. I'm really happy with the result because I got a 5 from it. This was the only book I used.

This book is really great just like all of the other princeton review book. I took the AP test yesterday, and just want to point out to everyone that as long as you read this book and do the practice tests, you don't need anything else. It's a great book with great info and great everything. Even though there are some mistakes on the practice tests.

I basically paid $13 for a 5 on the AP Biology Exam.

At my school, there is no AP Biology course. Instead, there is simply an honors course. A few friends and I, enrolled in that course, decided that we would take the AP Biology Exam. We all bought this book and we all studied. People doubted us, as taking an AP test without the class is often a recipe for failure at our school. In the class, due to an adaptation in the schedule, we didn't even cover plants, protists, fungi, photosynthesis, or respiration. Most of the body systems were left up to us to study, as well.

Fast forward to July 1. Being impatient, I call AP to find my scores. I'm praying for a 3 in Biology, but lo and behold, a 5. How?

The book goes over everything. Every subject that the book could test for it covers. In addition, the tests help prepare for the same kind of questions. I didn't incur the same problems as another reviewer, who said there were incorrect answers, but all the answers are explained and I really did not have a problem. In any case, the AP exam doesn't ask for the correct answer; it asks for the best answer. This book even goes over the experiments, which we didn't even have a chance to do, and thus helped me do well on the essay section even though I hadn't ever done the experiment.

If you are taking the AP Biology Exam, buy this book. With a little bit of work and this book, getting a 5 really isn't too difficult.

I had a horrible AP bio teacher this past year and I pretty much had to study on my own to learn this stuff. I also bought the AP Bio Cliffs book, but I used that as a review after I finished each chapter in the Princeton one. The Princeton one gives great descriptions and teaches you in essay format, while the Cliffs just gives you bullet points, so the information doesn't quite flow as smoothly. Also, Princeton's "words to know" and quiz questions at the end of each chapter helped me so much! I scored a 4 on the test, which would have never happened had I not got this book!

I am really enjoying this book. It is full of information and covers just about every aspect of ceramics you can think of. I am teaching a youth ceramics class this summer and am looking forward to having this as a reference!

This is a great book for anyone who wants to work with clay. It is clearly written with prospective and actual studio potters in mind.

The book originally came out in 1992, and is now in its fourth edition. And, after mentioning some safety issues, it has plenty of instructional material on how to shape clay, and what tools to use. There are sections on hand building: pinching, coil building, and slab building. Then there's plenty about the technique of "throwing" clay on a potter's wheel, with nice sequences of photos. This takes plenty of skill and practice! As the author says, the wheel is very sensuous, rhythmic, and hypnotic. Peterson is always warning us to treat clay properly: if you attack it in one way and then hit it from another direction in the same place, you may find cracks there in firing, induced by the strains you imposed on it. It's simply wrong to overwork clay.

Still, many potters and artists like to produce many objects with the same overall shape. And that means making and using molds made from plaster, and making casting slips, so Peterson shows us quite a bit about these. After this comes a discussion of decoration. This involves artistry and visualization.

There is a good discussion of types of clays, and explanations of what earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain are. We're shown different types of clay bodies, including terra sigillata and raku (a process which requires a clay body that has some dirt mixed in with it to make it porous enough to avoid thermal shock). And there is a wonderful chapter on glazes. Following that, there is plenty about kilns and firing, including using cones, inconel tubes, and pyrometers to measure temperature.

A technical section explains how to do calculations on glazes, and there are charts of coefficients of expansion, data on frits, color charts of clay and glaze combinations, and much more.

There is a historical overview, which includes a discussion of the studio potter movement and the contributions to it from Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada. And we see some of the work of Maria Martinez and Lucy Lewis in Pueblo Indian ceramics. There is also an excellent portfolio of interesting works. I especially like some of the low-fire ones.

This is a very useful resource and I highly recommend it.

This is a large book chock full of information, and provides an in-depth survey of ceramics. There are many photographs about techniques and many illustrations of beautiful artistic ceramics pieces. Also it contains lots of technical information, tables, etc.

Since other reviews have covered the merits of this book quite well, I'll mention a few issues:

First, there are lots of sample photos of different clay bodies under different firings and different glaze colors and combinations, etc., but they are all *way too small* to really see the characteristics of each sample. Also sometimes there is a series of photos, e.g. throwing a pot, building a kiln, and when they are all arranged on the page, each one is too small (and many are b&w, from previous editions?) Otherwise the book is very well illustrated with a wide variety of work.

The glaze discussion does not cover the properties of glaze bases and coloring oxides much at all, which is something I would expect in a book of this comprehensiveness. It does spent some time on commercial fritted stains and Mayco glazes, which other books don't, and can be useful to some, especially for low-temp work. But if you really want to get into glazes, this is not the book.

For many advanced topics, she has just a mention that leaves me hungry for more. E.g. lusters she briefly mentions using and making, but Rhodes has a much more thorough discussion of making lusters. Paperclay is mentioned briefly but not enough to really tell me how to make it or use it. For many of the topics in the book, more detailed discussions are possible and likely available elsewhere. However she has assembled lots of brief mentions of different and experimental work that you might not encounter in other ceramics survey books, so it is useful for knowing what else I want to look into.

[This review pertains to the 4th edition, 2003.]

This book is an excellent reference for different levels of clay/ceramics work. It is a beautiful "coffee table book" as well.
It came in perfect condition.

If you are just learning, or are stuck in a rut, this book is a great reference for potters of all skill levels.

I was lucky enough to attend the author's workshop at the NCTE convention and then I bought the book. It is a dynamic resource and I use it regularly. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to set higher standards for their students.

Ms. Feber has thought of everything to help teachers assign book reports. Wow! I think the combination of a teacher's page and a project page with a rubric opens the door for success in reading fiction and non-fiction. The traditional book report has done more harm than good to inspire students to read. Ms.Feber shows that when assigned a hands-on project students respond and all the literary elements can be met. I like the book's wide appeal for teachers to use with all age students-elementary through high school.

I am teaching 5th grade this year, and I am always looking for new and different ideas to use as projects with books or stories. This is an excellent resource to have on hand. You do not have to do any work with this book, and that is the part I love more than anything! (As a teacher I have enought to do) Worth the money!!!

Jane Feber makes her debut as an author at long last with this great book of practical and fun activities for veteran and new teachers. An award winning and highly successful teacher, Jane shares her strategies for success. The book not only provides instructions and rubrics for the activities but schedules, suggestions for group interaction, classroom management tips, and very importantly, authentic pictures of the finished products. With the varied levels of today's students Jane has given us a book with activities to enable all students to achieve success. I have shared this book with numerous teachers and all have wanted a copy.

Creative Book Reports is full of kinesthetic activities to use in differentiating instruction in middle school, elementary, and even some high school classrooms. It is also good for parents to use during the summer to encourage students to respond to the books they are reading. Teachers can find something great to use for teaching higher order thinking skills and for developing a love of good literature. The teacher pages, illustrations, and rubrics make this book extremely user friendly. It is the best organized book of its type I have seen. The CD makes it a snap to adapt activities to your own situation. I will highly recommend this book to my own middle school language arts department and to the elementary teachers who take my university courses.

This book is wonderful and interesting and so hilarious. I laughed and and laughed some more.This girl was a shy girl in the first series but now its like wow,she was from a small town in Marietta, Ohio and then went to R.U University and came out of her shell.I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS AWESOME BOOK TO MY FRIENDS!':)

this book is awesome...it just continues the story from the first two books with its outrageous events that happen to Cindy...poor Cindy. i havent finished it yet and i don't want it to end but i want to see what happens too.

it was really a good book...although the whole skateboard thing and whips didn't really go it was like she was trying to be childish and sexy at then same time...but other than that i couldn't put it down.

TeensReadToo and everyone else here captured this third entry perfectly so let me just add: I didn't want this series to end!

What would holiday travel be without an Apostalina book along to keep me chuckling? A heck of lot less fun, that's what. I'd been eagerly awaiting another slice of Cindy/Meri smackdown, and this round sure did not disappoint. I wouldn't dream of spoiling anything, but trust me, if you think you know Meri (or Cindy), you ain't seen nothin' yet. Grab your shades, find a comfy couch, and bring a beverage, because you're going to enjoy the ride.

I'd been hearing GREAT things about this book, and couldn't wait to read it. Mary Pearson is a gifted, humorous writer who can successfuly blend serious topics into a light, fast-paced FUN book. David goes on a school field trip but a wrong turn lands him and his classmates in Heaven. Then it's up to David to debate his way out of this life and death situation. The ending was perfect!

Pearson's outstanding first novel is witty and clever. I couldn't put it down. From the first paragraph Pearson hooks the reader with punching detail, David's hip teen voice and an unconventional and amusing vision of both heaven and God, who sends David a series of notes on yellow paper offering assistance in the debate David has challenged him to. David refuses but finally reads one of "God's Journals," the book of Genesis, and find the strategy he needs to win his way back to life. The book is thought-provoking while entertaining, and respectful of God's power and love despite the unusual portrayal and humor.

"David v. God" is an excellent YA with a stunningly original plot. The book centers on a debate between a teenager who believes his time on Earth is not yet up, and God, who apparently feels it is. Past the boy's anger and denial, he comes to a different understanding of God and of what life means. Brava, Ms. Pearson, for this unique and entertaining novel!

David is the kind of student who is always clowning around. One day he takes it to far and is forced into joining the Speech and Debate club. After being in the club for a couple of days they go on a trip and get in a car crash and the whole club dies. When they go to heaven everyone sees a real nice scenery, but David and another girl, Marie don't see a thing. Marie is the president of the club and the biggest nerd at the school. They think they don't belong in heaven and should go back to earth. After a long discussion with God's assistant, they decide that David will face God in a debate. He debates to see if he can go back to earth. David knows nothing about debating, so he knows he can't do it without Marie. They try going to the library and reading some books God gave them but David and Marie just couldn't find any mistakes God has made. When the debate finally comes David doesn't have the slightest idea what to say. He has to think of something fast because his life and Marie's depend on this debate. I really liked this book because it was one person's point of view about what heaven would be like when you die. this book also shows that sometimes people aren't what they are made out to be. Marie was the biggest nerd, but when David finally spent time with her, he saw that she waqs the same as everyone else on the inside. These and many other qualities come together to make a very good book for people of all ages.

Every so often a book comes along that makes you laugh and makes you cry and after the last page has been turned makes you think. David V. God grabs you in the opening scene and doesn't let you go even long after you have finished it. I highly recommend this one for all ages.

Wilcox artfully narrates her experience as an apprentice for Bill Anthony, a famous book binder and conservator. She artfully interspeses observations about books she is restoring with phases of her life as an apprentice and other texts. She evokes the spirit of craftmanship, of taking many years, much time, and much patience to develop mastery of her craft. Great for book art students, art students, or those considering an apprenticeship of any kind. Of particular interest to those who've made books before, because they will understand vividly the technical descriptions of her project (thought these are accessible to the lay person as well).

This was a strange read, because the author continually expresses her surprise for certain techniques and methods of the book conservators craft as she discovers them during her early learning and apprenticeship. I find this odd, as I've done a bit of self-taught bookbinding, and have encountered most of this knowledge through reading, and that the author purports to be a reader and decent student.

An element I found annoying was the typesetting of the book. In general, I'm tolerant of these things, but, as this is a book on book arts and the author worked as a typesetter for some time, one would think that more attention would be paid to this. Specifically, there is only a word space (1/5 em) between sentences, not the age-old standard of 1/3 em (or even the 2 spaces that is acceptable giving 2/5 em). Also, the excerpts are set in too small a font, which contrasts poorly with the main text face. This detracts from the pleasure of reading a book, and should have been more carefully considered. I suspect the publisher is to blame, not the author.

The book also seems to lack a broadness to the characters; their personalities, life, and interests are confined to the conservation department. Although the book is clearly a loving tribute to a master book conservator, one doesn't really learn about the man (nor much about the author).

A practical person can read this book as an extended essay on how to approach an apprenticeship, and how to bind conservation texts. A spiritual person can add layers to the stories and extrapolate life lessons. Either way, the main character/author is extremely sympathetic character. Her teacher had amazing gifts, both as a conservator and as a teacher.

The book is deceptively short. Looks like a quick read, but was so meaty and detailed, I found myself reading it for several weeks in order to digest all the material carefully.

If your taste runs to the obscure, the "sleeper," I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

A Degree of Mastery tells the story of one woman's journey through the education and apprenticeship necessary to become a book preservationist. Annie Wilcox, a bright woman with an impressive past in the field of English and writing, begins to take an evening class in bookbinding at the University of Iowa taught by a world-reknowned preservationist, William Anthony. Little does she know that not more than two years later she will become the first female apprentice ever to study under the direct supervision and teaching of Bill Anthony, an honored position granted only to six others before her. Through her apprenticeship, Wilcox learns the art of preservation and the dire need for conservation in every library, but especially those libraries that house an archives, manuscript or rare books collection. Through Wilcox's autobiography, the reader learns the basic process and means by which book preservation becomes possible as well as the importance and value of conservation in today's libraries. It is a wonderful piece of literature well-worth your time.

Someone who knew that I was in the Interdisciplinary Book and Paper MFA program at Columbia College Chicago gave this memoir to me. It's a really nice read---especially since the bookbinding world is a small one, and everyone in it knows everyone else, as people travel around the country giving workshops. Always interesting to read about people who you've had as teachers. I found it very well written, an evocative and accurate depiction of an obscure art/craft/lifestyle choice, an illuminated window into a small, specialized world.