Projects Books

This book is not only good for project managers but also an excellent read for developers. In the real world it is not uncommon that developers would confront a manager who likes to micromanage and everything the developers do have to be conform to something really bureaucracy and with little or no business sense or tech sense. In this book, the value of APM is well articulated in concise sentences. These sentences can be powerful tool when it is necessary for R&D people to discuss/argue with a manager about things like project plan/report, etc. There is also practical method of APM. I find this book very articulate and concise. Highly recommended.

This book is a thoroughly enjoyable read, from the emphasis on principles, the excellent job navigating the difficult territory of the line between prescribed process and anarchy, and the stages a team goes through as it embraces an agile style of development. I even thought that the hypothetical story added a nice element of repetition to each section that helped drive home the main points.

The one thing I would've liked was for this book to get off the fence and decide to be software-related. Almost every example is software related (except for the basketball analogy that got beaten to death...), but it goes out of the way not to specify software practices because this is about arbitrary project management. The book's in the "Agile Software Development Series" and the author is primarily a software consultant. I'd prefer it stuck to software rather than trying to go for broader appeal because there were several practice areas where detail was elided on that basis and could've really helped make the practices more concrete.

Also, it would've been nice to have a little grid mapping up common-day software development methodologies like Scrum, XP, FDD, and DSDM against the practices in the book. I tried to do it in my head, but once you get past 5x5, it's something that should've been provided.

I picked up Agile Project Management because I haven't done any agile projects in a while and wanted to update my knowledge to help with an upcoming project. I found the book a good combination of theory and practical activities that a project manager can use in an agile project. The book steps through each of the processes, explains the theory, then steps through tools that can be used for that process. I recommend this book for anyone new to agile project management, including experienced project managers looking to expand their toolkit.

This book is well-written and provides both a good explanation of agile software development and insights into how to manage such a project. My disappointment comes from fact that Highsmith emphasizes that one has to find the right people in order to succeed with this kind of project, and doesn't provide much info about how to identify the right people or how to train people with potential to work this way. Given the emphasis on the importance of the right team, more space in the book should be devoted to that aspect of management.

As someone who has managed large custom software projects and programs for 20 years, I was concerned that applying Agile to project management would simply mean burndown charts and the like. What I found in Highsmith's book is a perceptive understanding of how people think, feel and actually work on projects. Approaches that take human behavior into account, in my experience, are far more successful than those that don't.

The concepts covered here, if really absorbed and understood, can benefit any project. I found Chapter 7 to be the most valuable for my current product development team, and ordered copies of the book for all my managers.

It's a neat book.But I need to work at doing more stamps more often.

If you are interested in learning how to carve your own art rubber stamps then you need this book as well as The Weekend Crafter:Rubber stamp carving.

Both books provide clear cut instructions on how to carve your own stamps to make artistic and fun stamps that are one of a kind. But this book is much better of the two and I'd suggest this one if you can only buy one book on the subject of stamp carving.
The projects in this book are lovely, artistic and not cutesy or cookie cutter similar to everything out there. You will easily be able to begin carving right away with this book alone. Well worth the 15 bucks here on Amazon! I recommend it.
5 stars!

This book is my new stamp carving bible! The projects are inspiring and there are no hard to find tools required. Thanks to the detailed instructions carving a stamp from an eraser is easier than carving a pumpkin. A great book.

If you need some inspiration, I strongly advise reading this book. Before reading the book, I didn't understand and was very intimdated about carving. After reading Art Stamping Workshop, I am now carving and printmaking!! I also teach this form of art in various schools and art stores.

One of the reasons I advise my students and online members to read this book, is because it is both teachable and progressive. It is an excellent book to study for classes, workshops, and personal study. With each technique, Gloria Page teaches in a way that you are bound to understand, and you are not left in the dark or in confusion in any way.

In an online group that I host -Artists of the Round Table- we read this book from cover to cover, and tried each of the projects. "ALL" of the member LOVED it.....adults, as well as the children!!! Gloria Page was kind enough to make herself available during the workshop to answer any questions, and to give advise and commendation. What an "encouragement" this was to the members studying her book!

Loving author.....AWESOME book. A perfect combination!

Sincerely,
~Jacqueline F. Graham
President, Artists of the Round Table
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArtistsOfTheRoundTable/

I have always wanted to make my own art stamps but never knew how or where to begin. Thanks to Art Stamping Workshop, all of my questions have been answered! After reading this fabulous book, I was able to create a stamp from items I had around the house. Gloria's instructions are easy to follow and the photos clearly show how each step is supposed to look as you go along. Gloria Page makes stamp carving easy and FUN! The variety of projects in this book are different from anything I have seen in other stamping books and are easily adaptable to any style.

Based on the "Structural drama" we got a different option to see the incredible notes compiled after several interviews at Laramies' residents who was shock (as the rest of the world) for Matthew Shepards' case. I loved it.

The book was in excellent condition and was delivered even earlier than expected.Wonderful and smooth purchase.

Matthew Shepard was about two months short of his twenty-second birth when he was robbed, beaten, tied to a fence post and left to die in a rural area of Wyoming. The man who found him at first thought he was a scarecrow. Rushed to Poudre Valley Hospital at Fort Collins, he died on 12 October 1998--and when Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney were arrested for the crime they resorted to a defense known as "gay panic." Matthew Shepherd had propositioned them, they said, and they were so horrified that they killed him in response.

The gay community and numerous civil rights watchdog groups were outraged by the defense, and as more and more facts came to light it seemed that the crime was somewhat more complicated than Henderson and McKinney wanted the public to know. Witnesses stated that Henderson and McKinney had specifically targeted Shepherd because he was gay. After much legal wrangling, Henderson pled guilty and testified against McKinney, who was convicted; after still more legal wrangling, and at the request of Shepherd's parents, McKinney escaped the death penalty but has no chance of parole.

The case made headlines from end of the United States to the other and prompted numerous calls for Hate Crimes legislation, which had long been stalled both at the state and federal level. And in the midst of the confusion, chaos, and controversy, Moises Kaufman and the members of The Tectonic Theatre Project arrived on the scene, interviewing more than two hundred people about their thoughts and feelings on the case. These were shaped into THE LARAMIE PROJECT, a drama that debuted in 2000 and which has since shocked, impressed, and deeply moved audiences from coast to coast.

Playscripts are not really intended to be read; they are intended to be performed, and there can be a significant difference between how a script and how it plays. This is particularly true of THE LARAMIE PROJECT, which doesn't consist of scenes or acts but of "moments"--bits and pieces of monologue and dialogue and staging that non-play-readers will likely find difficult to envision. When performed, all those bits and pieces become like tiles in a mosaic: they may seem to mean different things individually, but when performed one right after another they become a unified whole.

Perhaps the single most impressive thing about THE LARAMIE PROJECT is its refusal to "take sides." The play presents its characters and their words with commenting in favor of them or against them; you are instead allowed to interpret for yourself. The result is uniquely powerful. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

We purchased this play because my son's High School principal decided not to allow the theater teacher to put it on at his school without even bothering to read the play before making this decision!!! Moreover, the principal essentially threatened to fire the teacher if the issue was pursued. We wanted to share this play with as many people as possible after that incident and so have been loaning it to friends, relatives, other teachers, anyone willing to read it. It is truly an important work, putting a human face on the people of Laramie, Wyoming. What happened there could happen anywhere, and we not only can't, but shouldn't, hide these difficult truths.

Like a quilt, each little piece of play is woven together beautifully. Some pieces are juxtaposed next to contrasting pieces, but step back -- the entire piece is a sight to see, and touch, and feel.

What a sad, revealing, fearful, fearless, exasperating and lovely work of theatre.

This truly is an American quilt -- the ugly, the bittersweet, the glorious.

Absolutely recommended for anyone mature enough to deal with a tragedy of hate.

Lottie's real name is Charlotte, but noone calls her that..... until this 'horrible' new teacher Mrs Beckworth arrives, and doesn't let her sit next to Lisa (who Lottie has saved the best place for), but makes poor Lottie sit next to that swot Jamie. Lottie hates Mrs Beckworth, and sends around humorous poems about trains and teases about Jamie. Lottie's teenage mum, Jo, is having problems with work but suddenly Mrs Beckworth gives the class a project. it is about the victorians and Lottie writes a diary about it. she buys Jamie, who comes her friend in the end, some postcards and everything but then Jo gets a nerdy man called Mark as a boyfriend because she babysits his son, Robin, who is small and shy and has a little stuffed robin toy that his mum made for him before she died. lottie lets him use her felt pens but he just draws a house and his mum and dad and himself. when Jo and Mark go on a love ride on a picnic where Robin is sick, Lottie sees them kissing and bullies poor robin until he runs away from home and then there is a search party because everyone is worried and he gets found and put in hospital and lottie makes him a cake and draws him pictures of birds. lottie suddenly feels bad and crys in her bathroom because she doesn't feel old and hates herself. she even needs the comfort of her old barbies, which are packed away in her drawer and she and jo used to dress them and drive them to posh parties to make them dance, and jo enjoyed this more than lottie! you should read these other books too:
Best Friends, Diamond girls, the bed and breakfast kid, sleepovers, the suitcase kid, the lottie project, clean break, the worry website, girls in love, girls out late, the dare game, the story of tracy beaker, vicky angel, cliffhanger, the illustrated mum and girls in tears, the cat mummy.
I have 56 jaqcueline wilson books because i am a major bookworm and book collector. i have read over 8 billion books in my 10 years of living, and so has my best friend.
so girls, get readin'!

This is such a fantastic book! It's about Charlie who lives with her mum Jo in a flat. Her mean teacher, Miss Beckworth wants the class to do a school project on the Victorians.
"Boring!" she thinks at first, but gradually she likes it more
and more. She writes a project and wants to keep it private.
Her project is about Lottie and how she copes with her frustrating life. First she's an ordinary eleven year old girl
living with her family in a cottage but then she has to leave school and get a job as a nursery maid. The children she looks after are such naughty little monkeys and she doesn't lke this job.
Stupid snooty swotty boy Jamie Edwards is so annoying to Charlie. YOU'VE GOT TO READ IT IT'S SUCH A BRILL BOOK!!!!
Don't call this book stupid. Honestly, don't. If you think it's
stupid, read "Best Friends" or "Vicky Angel" or "Girls in tears". THEY'RE the stupid books. OK, so that's all I want to say.

charlies life is really changing. Her teacher is mean, makes her sit next to Jamie Edwards,and assigns a "dreary" projecton the "dreary" victorian period. So charlie decides to create a diary for her project, and creates Lottie, a Victorian nurserymaid, and history comes to life.

charlies mom is also causing trouble in her life. Charlie thinks she has a boyfriend, and that can't happen!!!!!

i loved this book and how Charlie brought Lottie to life.
i would recamend this book to anyone.

~tara~

I have read many books from Jacqueline Wilson, and have admired her ability to express how kids feel, what they want. This is all true. Being a kid, i have lots of friends that match those in the story. This book, Lottie Project, is one of my favourite books she wrote. I know how it feels to be forced to write a project, but i have never wrote a project, that like Charlotte's, matches my own daily life.
In school, i have just learnt about the Victorians, and told my teacher, Miss Battram, about the book. She too admitts that it is a good book and should be added into the Victorian learning program for year 5 next year.
Everyone can see that Jacqueline Wilson has shown us how an 11year old girl's life can be similar to a maid in the Victorian times, and how they coped with it.
This book is really great for everyone to read, maybe single parents should take a peek in this book too as it will tell single parents how their child feels when they start dating someone else. then, they can talk it through with their child, so mistakes like in Lottie Project, that Charlotte Enright had to cope with, will not happen.
Furthermore, this book is very good to be used in Victorian sessions in school, seeing as the book is very funny, and still useful in teaching about a 11 year old girl's life in the Victorian times.
Rita Teo Bangkok Patana school, Thailand

This is definitely one of my favorite books. I guess sixth graders will enjoy it most, but parents will also enjoy it too. Jacqueline Wilson really knows how to get into the world of 11-year-olds.

Charlie Enright has a lot of problems at school. Her new teacher is strict and mean. She assigns the sixth-graders a Victorian project right at the beginning of the year. Also, she makes Charlie sit next to Jamie Edwards, which Charlie isn't sure she likes or hates.

She also is having problems with her friends. They have abandoned the 'We Hate Boys Club' and are now very interested in boys and not paying much attention to her.

And her home lifes not that wonderful either. Her single mother has just lost her job, but she finds another one quickly. It turns out that she has fallen in love with her boss and Charlie has got to stop her. Somehow. Someway.

Will Charlie's problems ever end? Read this great book to find out!

The Lunar Module (LM) is an incredibly complex engineering marvel that was used as a temporary home for 12 astronauts on the harsh lunar surface. It was also a landing vehicle and a launch vehicle. As an engineer by education and experience I find this vehicle breath taking.

It is fascinating to see the complexity of all of the systems on the LM. Extremely well illustrated, this book provides an excellent overview into the work that went into developing the vehicle. One can see by the sophistication of the LM that the training necessary for the astronauts to competently operate it was serious business. Even more amazing is that this is just the high level view of this marvel. Each of the systems: Radar, propulsions, life support, instrumentation (and more) have many more layers of complexity!

This book and Virtual Apollo about the command and service modules (also written by Scott Sullivan) are both worth the read for anyone interested in the space program or engineering marvels, or both!

Virtual Apollo: A Pictorial Essay of the Engineering and Construction of the Apollo Command and Service Modules: Apogee Books Space Series 30 (Apogee Books Space Series)

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

This book is how I'd like to see a lot of other aerospace subjects covered. It gives a vivid and easy to understand perspective of all the little ins and outs to the subject. The level of detail is unprecidented outside of an engineering office. The autor obviously has a love affair going on with autocad.

I always wondered what the heck is behind that flat panel on the back of the LM ascent stage. Now I know! And you could too if you buy this book.

This book is great! The renderings are very thorough. My one regret is that I wish there were more photographs of the items that were rendered. But this being the internet age, you can find most of those on the web!

"Virtual LM" provides a detailed pictorial explanation of the Apollo Lunar Module and its "baggage" - the ALSEP packages and Lunar Rover. Carefully drawn color-coded diagrams explain the structure and systems of the Lunar Module, showing detail from several different angles. If you have an engineering bent, and love (or need) to know how things work, this is the book for you. If you want an overview of the Lunar Module - this book gives you more detail than you will ever need to know.

The Apollo Lunar module was born from the concept that a single lunar vehicle would be too large for any rocket booster concepts at the time. A man named John Houbolt persued an idea that if 2 vehicles could rendezvous in lunar orbit vs. trying to build a complex lander and orbiter in Earth orbit, a single, smaller launch vehicle could do the mission.
NASA bought into the revolutionary idea in 1962, and the race to the Moon began in earnest.

Scott Sullivan has produced a beautiful testimony to the first manned spacecraft to land on the Moon. This book will be "must buy" for all the engineers that will build the new Orion Lunar Lander. Sullivan shows in beautiful illustrations what was put and where on this ungainly vehicle that was never designed to return people to Earth. His masterful use of pictures and text pulls back the foil, so to speak and lets the reader discover the simplicity that allowed the eagle to land. He shows the differences between each LM, and where they put the car!!!

An excellent companion to HBO's miniseries-"From the Earth to the Moon".

There are sometimes laments that we will never get a proper description of what it's really like to be in space until we send a poet. However, though NASA may not have sent a poet, it did send a painter. Al Bean had dabbled in the arts before and during his tenure as an astronaut, but when he retired he focused on becoming a painter and particularly on creating paintings that showed what it was really like to walk around on the surface of the Moon. This book contains many of those paintings.

The text, meanwhile, is yet another memoir by an Apollo astronaut, and if anything is rather on the terse side, with only brief bits leading up to the more extensive Apollo portion, and only a brief conclusion. It's interesting but doesn't stand out amongst the many other astronaut memoirs, except for the accompanying illustrations. Each chapter concludes with a dozen or so pages reproducing Bean's paintings, with Bean explaining the scene he was depicting and what he wanted to show. This makes this book a unique record of one man's trip to the Moon, and, I suppose, won't be matched until we actually do send a poet.

When you get Alan Bean, astronaut and amazing artist, with Andrew Chaikin, a tremendous writer, you have the recipe for one magnificent book. The artwork, of course, is the main ingredient and it never disappoints. Alan Bean has a unique talent and tells the tale of going to the Moon in his drawings. Even without the accompanying words, it is easy to lose oneself in the moment. I think there is a certain 'realness' that the photos dont have and I do not know how to adequately explain why.
At any rate, this is a wonderful book and any space fan should not hesitate to pick it up.

First, let me say that Alan Bean is one of the most articulate of the Apollo Astronauts who walked on the Moon. In addition to listening to the painter himself about his collective series of truly unique "Paintings from the Moon", you owe it to yourself to purchase a copy of the DVD, "For All Mankind". That DVD is reviewed elsewhere on this site, but it and this particular book full of Mr. Bean's paintings will likely become the most treasured additions to your collection of manned spaceflight memorabilia.

I also found the dramatic characterization of Alan Bean, and the exploits his Apollo 12 crewmates, depicted in Tom Hank's 1998 HBO miniseries "From the Earth To The Moon" to be one of the most entertaining espisodes of that facinating and truly outstanding TV production first telecast in 1998. This book was published in the same year and the two works complement each other very well, upstaging most of the other spaceflight documentaries which are somewhat lacking in humanistic content.

We are very fortunate to have had at least one Astronaut with additional interests other than just pure science and aerospace engineering, to share his extraordinary experiences while serving as a key member of the Apollo program.

The one and only thing missing from my copy of this book is Al Bean's personal autograph!

If you want to experience the moon through the eyes of an artist and an astronaut this book is for you! It is inspiring and educational. Highly recommeded!

If you have a strong interest in Space travel, and always wanted to talk to the Astronauts that went to the moon to ask them how it felt or what they were thinking as they walked on a planet other then earth, this is the book that will bring you to a time that has never been repeated. A time when man walked on the moon.

Mr. Bean's use of his fantastic artwork to describe a part of his life when he was a member of the elite few, chosen by NASA, to become the first to walk on the moon, is the closest you will get to actually being there.

It is a book of Mr. Beans paintings but also a trip thru the minds of some of our first Astronauts. If how space travel began interests you at all, I strongly recommend obtaining this book. It's a must have to any collector of Space Memorabilia.

I can write pages about how good this book is, but why when I can summarize it in one word. Excellent!

Peter's The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook is a must have for everybody who has read the original The Fifth Discipline or are in anyways interested on building learning organization.

In short, the book itself contains useful real life examples and tips & tricks on building learning organization. It really opens new point of views to see and solve problems. It has helped me at work and at personal life, it is 'more than asked I for'.

I recommend this book for anybody.

It seems to me that The Fifth Discipline (the previous publication of the series) is more attacting to me. The second book can be more precise and concise in content. Generally speaking I still like these two books as a foreign reader.

This book is a collection of theoretical summaries, reports, analyses, and strategies all quite useful to anyone interested in generating some thinking and action around change. The team of five writers (Peter Senge, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, Charlotte Roberts, and Art Kleiner) provide some original work, but also serve as editors to a vast quantity of material drawn from practitioners, theorists, and writers in the field of organizational improvement. According to Senge, "great teams are learning organizations - groups of people who, over time, enhance their capacity to create what they truly desire to create." (p.18) This book is really about creating and building great teams. The learning organization develops its ability to reflect on, discuss, question, and change its current and past practices. To do this, people and groups in the organization need to meaningfully pursue the study and practice of the five disciplines - personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking.

The learning organization - Senge's vision for the productive, competitive, and efficient institutions of the future - is in a continuous state of change. Four fundamental questions continuously serve to check and guide a group's learning and improvement (see page 49): (1) Do you continuously test your experiences? ("Are you willing to examine and challenge your sacred cows - not just during crises, but in good times?") (2) Are you producing knowledge? ("Knowledge, in this case, means the capacity for effective action.") (3) Is knowledge shared? ("Is it accessible to all of the organization's members?") (4) Is the learning relevant? ("Is this learning aimed at the organization's core purpose?") If these questions represent the organization's compass, the five disciplines are its map.

Each of the five disciplines is explained, and elaborated in its own lengthy section of the book. In the section on "Systems Thinking" (a set of practices and perspectives, which views all aspects of life as inter-related and playing a role in some larger system), the authors build on the idea of feedback loops (reinforcing and balancing) and introduce five systems archetypes. They are: "fixes that backfire", "limits to growth", "shifting the burden", "tragedy of the commons", and "accidental adversaries". In the section on "Personal Mastery", the authors argue that learning starts with each person. For organizations to learn and improve, people within the organization (perhaps starting with its core leadership) must learn to reflect on and become aware of their own core beliefs and visions. In "Mental Models", the authors argue that learning organizations need to explore the assumptions and attitudes, which guide their institutional directions, practices, and strategies. Articles on scenario planning, the ladder of inference, the left-hand column, and balancing inquiry and advocacy offer practical strategies to investigate our personal mental models as well as those of others in the organization. In "Shared Vision", the authors make the case for the stakeholders of an organization to continually adapt their vision ("an image of a desired future"), values ("how we get to travel to where we want to go"), purpose ("what the organization is here to do"), and goals ("milestones we expect to reach before too long"). The section offers many strategies and perspectives on how to move an organization toward continuous reflection. In "Team Learning", the authors rely mostly on the work of William Isaacs and others, and make a case for educating organization members in the processes and skills of dialogue and skillful discussion.

This book is enlightening and informative. It has already found a place on my shelf for essential reference books.

Peter M Serge, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook

To quote the first few paragraphs at beginning of book:

Among the tribes of northen Natal in South Africa, the most common greeting, equivalent to "hello" in English, is the expression: Sawu bona. It literally means, "I see you." If you are a member of the tribe, you might reply by saying Sikhona, "I am here." The order of the exchange is important: until you see me, I do not exist. It's as if, when you see me bring me into existence.

This meaning, implicit in the language, is part of the spirit of ubuntu, a frame of mind prevalent among native people in Africa below the Sahara. The word ubuntu stems from the folk saying Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu, which from Zulu, literally translates as: "A person is a person because of other people."


"I bow in honor and reverence that place within you where to the Universe resides, when you are in that place within you, and I am in that place within me, there is One." ~namaste


The five disciplines are at the CORE of a Learning Organization

1) Personal Mastery: expand your personal capacity and ability

2) Mental Models: see how our internal pictures of the world shape action and decision

3) Shared Vision: group commitment

4) Team Learning: group ability is greater than the sum of individual talents

5) System Thinking:


"When we try to bring about change in our societies, we are treated first with indifference, then with ridicule, then with abuse and then with oppression. And finally, the greatest challenge is thrown at us: We are treated with respect. This is the most dangerous stage." --A. T. Ariyaratne (Speech made at International Community Leadership Summit, Winrock, Arkansas, March 1983. This quote paraphrases and expands upon a well-known statement made by Mahatma Gandhi in his book Satyagraha in South Africa, 1982, 1979, Canon, Me.: Greenleaf books)


"An [organization] is not a machine but a living organism." --Ikujiro Nonaka /****
Fundamentals of epistemology: what is knowledge, the nature of knowledge, and what constitutes learning.
understanding is achieved after internalization.
Without experience, we cannot truly understand.
Internalization: transformation from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge, habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves.
Innovation is a process to capture, create, leverage, and retain knowledge.
What is your belief? A belief about images of the world - you may call it a mental model - is a very subjective thing

information is the flow of a message, while knowledge is created by accumulating information. Thus, information is a necessary medium or material for eliciting and constructing knowledge.

The second difference is that information is something passive. When we switch on a TV set, information comes regardless of my commitment. But knowledge comes from my belief, so it's more proactive.

And the organizational knowledge or intellectual infrastructure of an organization encourages its individual members to develop new knowledge through new experiences.

This dynamic process is the key to organizational knowledge creation - that is, socialization (from individual tacit knowledge to group tacit knowledge), externalization (from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge), combination (from separate explicit knowledge to systemic explicit knowledge), and internalization (from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge) [...].

[...]

Three Guiding Ideas

1) The Whole. When you are pointing a finger at the problems, notice how many fingers are pointing back at you. If you fixed the symptoms and ignore the root causes, the problems have not gone away. Another way to look at this is treat the person, not the disease. Of course treat the disease if the patient is dying, but know that the patient will get sick again because the "root causes" are stil there.

2) Community. The self is "a point of view." "The essence of being a person is being in a relationship [with] other people." You will not believe this, but each person before you is there for a reason. The reason this person is there at this moment is for you to learn something about yourself. If you ignore the person, do not ignore or forget the lesson.

3) Language. The map is not the territory. We cannot contain every bit of information that comes to us in the world, so we have to create a "map of the territory" and then refer to the map for our information. By changing a person's map, we change their reality. Language is the map, not the reality.

All the reviews written on this Amazon site for FIRST ART explain why this book is exceptionally good for toddlers, twos and other little guys. But what I like is that it also gives the adult in charge some clear hints for success as well as suggestions for easy prep and collection or selection of materials. This is the key to making things work for the little guys...if we are ready as adults with a clear idea of what's happening, we can make sure it is smooth and fun for the kids too. I also like how materials are very flexible: If you don't have cardboard, then use an old poster. If you don't have paint, use food coloring. If you don't have paper, use the evening newspaper. Many people whose kids are grown already know some of this (some, not all!!!), but if you're new to art with little ones, this is a life-saver. EXCELLENT!!

I wanted to thank all of the folks who have taken the time to review "First Art", a book of art projects and experiences for toddlers and two's. I've read every single review! How happy I am that this book is bringing great experiences to kids, and to their moms too. Thank you so very much to each of you for your wonderful reviews that remind me I am doing the right thing with my life!!!!
~ MaryAnn
w w w dot brightring dot com

I'm not very imaginative when it comes to "projects" for my kids (who are currently 3 and 1) so I love this book. I am thankful that there are people in the world with great ideas who share them in books. :P

First Art : Art Experiences for Toddlers and TwosI teach children 18 to 24 months great book with great ideas

I purchased this book so I could have more fun with my daughter, about a year and a half at the time of this review, and teach her a thing or two about creativity along the way. When I first got the book and read it, I LOVED it. There were tons of homemade recipes for saving money, ideas seemed relatively simple, yet fun, directions thorough... However, when I started implementing the ideas with my toddler, I slowly changed my mind.
I see a number of problems with this book:
Homemade recipes sound wonderful. You save money, you use ingredients you already have in your pantry, and you feel like such a handy supermom, what's not to love, right? Well, wrong...
First, the recipes often call for things I definitely don't have in my pantry, I was not even sure what some things were. For instance, cream of tartar. I wrote down a list of things I needed for a project and asked 3 employees at the store for it and all of them pointed me to tartar sauce. So, I had to go home empty-handed and do research online to find out what it was and why I needed it and where I could buy it, what I can substitute it for, etc. Most of the sources online seemed to indicate that it is something that used to be big in baking, but hardly ever needed now that we have baking powder. It'd be nice if the author provided some substitutions. I ended up using baking powder and it seemed to work alright. I later accidentally found cream of tartar in the spices section of my grocery store - and I looked in baking to no avail.
Another things is that a lot of recipes (80%, I'd say) call for tempera paint... If I'm going to buy paint, why buy tempera paint and mix it with stuff to make finger paints, might just as well buy finger paints - will probably end up cheaper. Same goes for, for example, a home-made blackboard. You need to buy the tape that has that chalkboard surface or chalkboard spray paint. Well, both are rather pricey, so it is almost as cheap to buy a ready-made chalkboard easel (not to mention much less trouble). Also, some recipes call for things like "an old grater you no longer use" (because you're going to be grating a bar of soap, for example) or "a big appliance box". I don't know if it's just me, but I think my Mom still uses the same grater she had when I was a year and a half and I don't buy big-screen TVs on a monthly basis... So, I don't really have all these lying around the house, nor is it always easy/cheap to find/buy one just when you want to try a project - often it really is easier and maybe even cheaper to just buy whatever it is you were going to make (case in point - beads).
Also, many recipes call for huge amounts of flour, salt, cornstarch, and food coloring. While those aren't that expensive in and of themselves (and food coloring CAN be), they add up! 4 cups of flour here, 4 cups of flour there, with a lot of these recipes not having the same shelf life as the store-bought equivalents. So, once again, the savings are questionable, even if we don't factor in the time we have to spend preparing stuff versus buying it ready-made.
The quality of projects.
My daughter is a pretty determined and focused toddler when she wants to be, but a lot of those projects are too contemplative to really keep her attention for more than 10 seconds. For instance, exploring the sounds and textures of a piece of foil or the much-favored by many feeley goop. My daughter was done exploring the sounds and textures of foil in 5 seconds and she did not want to explore the feeley goop at all after the initial try, so how was I supposed to make her realize that it has some unique qualities? The same goes for quite a number of projects that are meant to just "explore", but I realize that it is highly individual and there might be children out there who love those projects, just be aware that it is not automatic. Perhaps some of these activities would work well in a group, where children can feed off of each other's ideas and where interaction is already exciting enough, but for one child they can be a tad on a boring side and are over too quickly to be called an "activity".
Another thing in the projects I often have issues with is their messiness. The author does do a good job of outlining how to prep the working space, but with some projects, the colors will get splashed all over the place - it's toddlers we're talking about! I can cover a relatively large portion of the floor and the whole table, but I can't cover the walls and the ceiling... Not to mention that toddlers are known to run away in the middle of a project. So, unless you have a whole room you don't mind getting dirty and where you can contain your child (porch, sunroom, child-proof play room?), some of those projects will be just too much of a risky business to attempt in a nicer room. We live in a fully-carpeted apartment, and there is no way I'll be able to clean it up nicely if my child decides to have too much fun with one of the messier projects.
Finally, I find some "cooking" directions a little too sketchy. I have never made this thing before, I don't know what it should look and feel like, I actually ruined a couple of projects because I did something too soon or too late, even though I thought I was following the instructions religiously - there went 4 cups of flour and 2 cups of salt :-). Just so you don't think I'm a complete idiot, I do bake regularly and cook quite a bit too, and while sometimes my pizza dough made from scratch does turn out a little drier than I like, it is always edible, never a complete failure.
Overall, I'd say it's a good book with good ideas. If I were a kindergarten teacher, or had 2 or more kids of different ages, I'd probably rate this book better. But as a parent of only 1 child, I'd probably ever use only 1/3 of all the ideas of the book, with 2/3 being eliminated for one or several of the reasons mentioned above, which I find rather disappointing, since I am not paying only for the ideas I'm using...
Our favorite project so far? The bread. It did not taste spectacular (although was edible), but my daughter loved messing with the flour, watching it turn to dough, playing with the dough, etc.

This book is the best I have seen on enameling. Very informative on anything you need to know on the subject !! Cannot wait to purchase my suppies and get started !!!!

I've started enameling my Art Clay Silver pieces and needed an easy to follow guide, since my one enameling class gave me the basics but not enough to comfortably work on things in my studio without having a good reference book. "The Art of Enameling" has been great. It has sections on working with fine silver, which is a big help. The author writes well and the accompanying photos and tips are great. After reading through it, I feel a lot more comfortable and ready to tackle some projects.

This book is a comprehensive overview of most enameling techniques. It includes several projects with step-by-step instructions. This is a good resource book for beginning and intermediate enamelists.

I purchased this book for my daughter. She is an advanced metals major in college and was absolutely thrilled with this book. She was familiar with the work of the author and was very pleased to have detailed instruction as well as wonderful photographic examples of her work. If you are looking for great gift for an art major, you can't go wrong with this book.

I've owned this book since it was first published and learned much about the art from its pages. Last week I had the good fortune to take a week-long workshop with the author at the Revere Academy in San Francisco. We used the book as text and reference throughout a fantastic week of exploration. In person, Linda is every bit as informative and enthusiastic as her fine book would lead one to expect. For anyone who can't share the luck of those who have studied with her directly, this book is by far the most thorough, clearly written, beautifully illustrated enameling manual currently in print. If you want to learn The Art of Enameling, buy this book before any other!

I bought both 'The Buck Book' and 'The Joy of Origami'.
The illustrations in 'The Buck Book' were a lot more easy to follow than the directions/illustrations in 'The Joy of Origami' by Margaret Van Sicken.
In 'The Buck Book' there is an actual size dollar bill which makes it a lot easier to make the folds as you can line up the bill you are working on with the one in the book. I made all the folds after a lot of patience and practice. I am only a beginner origami folder. 'The Joy Of Origami' definitely leaves a lot to the imagination and I would not recommend it for a beginner.

I was hoping for a step-by-step detailed description of how to fold the dollar, instead I had to pass this book to my brother who is an expert in folding the buck to use this book. But even he found some of the directions difficult to understand. There also weren't that many ideas suggested in this book. There are more ideas for folding the buck online than offered in this book.

Having been at the beginner level of origami for many years--that is, I follow the ideas in the books and don't create my own--I have at least 30 books on subjects from origami boxes to modular (unit) origami to money origami. This is one of the best introductions to origami in general. Dollar bills are made of excellent paper with printing on them that helps you get oriented with the diagrams in the book. The projects make great gifts (and tips at restaurants, of course).

This book does not introduce you to the variety of "folds" (such as the outside-reverse fold and the rabbit fold) that are the vocabulary of the mainstream origami books, but eases you into the basics (including the inside-reverse fold without labeling it as such). You will enjoy the transition of your ordinary one-dollar bill into these little origami models, which are mostly three-dimensional (many origami books have you sweating and, 47 folds later, ending up with a flat two-dimensional depiction of some insect). Go to other books if this one inspires you to become an origamist. Or just stay here and have fun. And yes I know that insect origami seems to be viewed with a certain amount of reverence, but you get animals in this book also.

When you have folded your masterpiece, origami is fun in that you can unfold it and practice it again until you have it memorized, very useful for when you want to leave a "Dime-In-Ring" as a tip (this project will cost you $1.10--a bill and a dime).

I would not hand the book to a young child, as the activies probably work best with an adult helping those under 10 years old. The adult should have completed the model first.

I would recommend getting a bunch of new crisp bills from your bank. Ask the bank when they come in, as the book says they usually arrive around January. Just in case the US government has any plans to change the pattern on the one-dollar bill, that's another reason to hoard some of the old ones. However, bills that are fairly crisp but not necessarily brand new work very well, and you can find these regularly in change handed to you. When you receive nice crisp bills in change from a store, hand over a $5 bill and get five more crisp ones.

Lastly, as commented on already, the humor and the little facts about money are quite entertaining. Typical "Klutz book" excellence.

Happy folding.

Mike

PS Another book, also on an origami specialty but also for the serious beginner who wants to produce fun and useable projects is "Wings and Things: Origami That Flies."

Very cute book--fun for all ages, or for all ages of people with a little patience.

I got this for my 11 year old son. He already had some origami experience and really enjoyed it. He easily did the the first few projects, but had a little difficulty with the elephant and the peacock. After we looked at it closer, we were able to figure it out with little trouble. The book is very well written (and illustrated) and the projects are very clever. My son's main problem was that he was just using the pictures and wasn't taking the time to also read the directions. The spiral binding allows the book to lay flat while you work with the dollar. There are also fun facts included. All-in-all, it is entertaining and well worth the money. I only wish there had been a few more shapes to make.