Vans Books

After taking Bob's course and using this book, I have learned new ways to manage stress which has helped increase my overall life enjoyment. The book is easy to read, has pictures, and diagrams to help clarify different areas. He includes situations to further describe his points. I highly recommend this book for those who are stressed out or just interesting in learning new techniques.

I took the course from Bob, the author of Slow Down & Lighten Up, and to say that he has a firm grasp on how to teach others how to deal with life's stress, is an understatement. He is emphathetic to people's problems, but has a strong ability to help you with behavior modifications , instead of the much easier pity-party ways.He will help you to take these new tools and integrate them so that they become second-nature, instead of reverting back to one's own old and destructive patterns.I would highly recommend this book for anyone , not just those that have suffered from prolonged anxiety. Very helpful, Bob--you definitely get a 5 star!!!

I have read numerous books on Anxiety/Panic disorders. I found they were lengthy and time consuming. If you find yourself lacking in patience as well as time like me, you will find this book a gift from above. Bob Van Oosterhout has given all the tools you need, from understanding stress, how to restore and maintain balance and dealing with day to day situations. The entire book is rich in content and very well written. It will get you moving torwards success right away.

Thank goodness for Bob's book and his internet class. It has helped me through several stressful times. Without the knowledge from this book and his guidance I'm sure I would have blown up on many occassions. The best part of the book is the information on relaxing and letting go. You must practice these exercises regularly in order to become fully aware of how they help you.

Ask the average person to name a song by Duke Ellington and if you get a response it's apt to be 'uh, A-Train'. Wrong, since it has long been known that Strayhorn wrote it. But who wrote which parts of 'Black, Brown and Beige'? Unknown generally until now; Strayhorn wrote Beige; Ellington wrote Black and Brown.

All true fans of Duke Ellington know of Billie Strayhorn, but few know anything of his real contributions across half of the Dukes career. This book has gone back to the original manuscripts and studied the handwriting to see who wrote what parts. The results of these studies and massive other research provide a true look at the work of Strayhorn. This is not a biography; 'Lush Life : A Biography of Billy Strayhorn' by David Hajdu is a wonderful companion to this book. This book is musically oriented and has some discussions way over my head; none the less its a welcome addition to my library and one that I read non-stop. There is lots of fine data in apendicies as well.

Superb! Thank you, thank you, Walter Van De Leur.

After reading this book you will have a technical understanding of why Billy Strayhorn's music sounds so good and why Strayhorn needs to be recognized as one of the giants of American popular music. After having spent over 10 years performing in depth research and examining over 3,000 manuscripts Walter Van De Leur seperates Billy Strayhorn from Duke Ellington and analyzes how their musical styles differ. The book provides the reader with a technical dissection of a number of Strayhorn's and Ellington's music and gives, from a musicologist's point of view, the uniqueness of Strayhorn's music. Anecdotes about Strayhorn and Ellington are infrequent and instead Van De Leur provides a scholarly examination of one of the most important of American composers. However, Van De Leur can be eloquent in his examination of Strayhorn's work and this belies the love he has for his subject. Analyzing Strayhorn's Day Dream Van De Leur writes " The introspective Day Dream is less radical in its harmonic and melodic design, although chromatic chord relations again play an important role...On beat three this flat supertonic for the target proper, which now functions as the delay for the dominant E7, for A. Turning this pattern into a sequence, Strayhorn again liberates the music from its tonal gravity..." That last sentence says it all, Billy Strayhorn liberated music from its tonal gravity!

This book is a landmark is jazz scholarship. The way van de Leur mixes few biographical details, business forces, archival reserach and music analysis helps to better understand the art of Billy Strayhorn as a personal and individual composer and arranger. With a smooth literary style, van de Leur opens to us the gates of an unknown and underrated musical genius, and help us to distinguish the true from the false, the right authorship of compositions and arrangements and the way the Strayhorn musical style changed throught the years; more, it helps to distinguish him from Duke Ellington and to better understand Ellington, too. From;these pages, Strayhorn emerges as a major composer with a distinguished musical personality.
The four appendixes are one the most useful tools in jazz reseraches appeared in last years.
This book is a reference one for any jazz researcher or learned amateur. A masterpiece in scholarship, an enlightning effort in understanding a great musician and an enjoyable reading. A must.

There are not enough stars that can adequately rate this book. Van de Leur has given us the first truly thorough analysis of a composer of jazz (although Strayhorn was much more than a jazz composer). You do need some musical knowledge to understand what he is talking about, but his discussion and analyses of Strayhorn's music are clear, concise and well-reasoned. The appendices alone are worth the price of the book, where he lists every scrap of music currently known of Strayhorn's, where it is, when it was recorded, and what was played (in many cases, Ellington only used parts of Strayhorn's arrangements of pop tunes). The sheer amount of work it took to complete this project is startling and awe-inspriring.

For years we wondered what Strayhorn's real role was in the Ellington organization. Now we know without any doubt. Bravo Walter!!!!

A clever title and a very clever book. Wide ranging in scope, with many unusual insights. At the present bargain price it is a must have. Makes you think, and not in the usual way you think.

T.A.P. van Leeuwen, a teacher of mine, has written a book about all the different aspects of the swimming pool. TAP van Leeuwen manages to evoke new kinds of interesting emotions concerning water- and he manages to fill the pool with these emotions. After all, the pool, as he himself describes it, has no very interesting shape: it's just a floating boarding or a concrete hole-in-the-ground.

TAP van Leeuwen has made an excellent choice to show as much as possible in different media, all shattered around on the spread: notes next to the text next to pics. The very thorough and beautiful design of the book itself makes this possible- and points back to its archetype, the "Bauen in Frankreich"-book by Sigfried Giedion (a lifelong teacher for van Leeuwen). I liked very much the part about all the fifties-Hollywood-stars, sitting besides or floating atop of the water, in their expensive tweed costumes, afraid of the water and proud of their success (of owning a pool?). Let's all take a dive into the richness of this book, a book definitely not about architecture, only, architecture is the only housing into which these stories have a room.

Oceanomare of all feeling & thoughts connected with the pool, T.A.P. van Leeuwen, a teacher of mine, has written a book about all the different aspects of the swimming pool. TAP van Leeuwen manages to evoke new kinds of interesting emotions concerning water- and he manages to fill the pool with these emotions. After all, the pool, as he himself describes it, has no very interesting shape: it's just a floating boarding or a concrete hole-in-the-ground.

TAP van Leeuwen has made an excellent choice to show as much as possible in different media, all shattered around on the spread: notes next to the text next to pics. The very thorough and beautiful design of the book itself makes this possible- and points back to its archetype, the "Bauen in Frankreich"-book by Sigfried Giedion (a lifelong teacher for van Leeuwen). I liked very much the part about all the fifties-Hollywood-stars, sitting besides or floating atop of the water, in their expensive tweed costumes, afraid of the water and proud of their success (of owning a pool?). Let's all take a dive into the richness of this book, a book definitely not about architecture, only, architecture is the only housing into which these stories have a room.

This is the second in an anticipated series of four unorthodox books by a Dutch historian on architecture in relation to the classical elements: sky, water, fire and earth. The first volume, about the metaphysics of the American skyscraper, was published in 1988; while the third, which will focus on buildings destroyed by fire, is in preparation. This second volume, which is illustrated by more than 200 drawings, plans and vintage photographs, is a wonderful visual and verbal review of the origin and evolution of the domestic swimming pool, which is, as the author describes it, "the architectural outcome of man's desire to become one with the element of water, privately and free of danger." To swim in a hole in the backyard, he continues, "is a complex and curious activity, one that oscillates between joy and fear, between domination and submission, for the swimmer delivers himself with controlled abandonment to the forces of gravity, resulting in sensations of weight- and timelessness." This is a history of architecture, as exemplified by a single building type; while, at the same time, it is a rich, multi-faceted social history in which the behavior of humans toward water is shown in relation to religion, sex, art, psychology, engineering and architecture. (Copyright by Roy R. Behrens from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 15, No. 1, Autumn 1999.)

Buy the book and read it. You will not be disappointed.

Most books on strategy take the same predicable process-oriented view and don't have much new to offer. This book is remarkably different. Based on hard research of the fortune 500 over the last 50 years, including interviews with management to find out what worked, what didn't, and what they should have don't differently, Stall Points offers insights and actionable recommendations for improving strategic management for mid- to large size companies. There are also many small recommendations for where to focus energy and effort to get the biggest return and the trade-offs among the most common approaches.

A must read for business leaders, MBA, and Business School teachers.

Stall Points tells us to test our strategic assumptions if we want to avoid stalling. That in itself is remarkable advice at a time when risks seem to lurk everywhere -- it's a reminder that most big problems are under our control precisely because they're strategic.

Those strategic problems might involve abandoning a core business too soon or focusing exclusively on one too long despite disruptive threats. The point is that these strategic choices about where and when to compete explain the majority of stalls -- not uncontrollable bolts from the blue. I suspect even the sub-prime mortgage crisis will eventually be added to the long column of controllable business disasters.

Even more refreshing in Matt Olson's and Derek van Bever's book are the integrity of the method, the contrarian thesis, and the sobriety of the solutions.
-- The great advantage of the method is its avoidance of survivor bias, which, as Michael Raynor points out, ignores the riskiness of highly successful gambits.
-- The thesis that strategy matters is a much-needed corrective to all the books that write dismissively about strategy as if it reduced to execution, much as if goals could somehow reduce to facts.
-- And there are no zero-sum solutions in this book, like, say, investing in what would turn out to be the same data analysis system every other reader bought.

The book deserves to be read closely. It may even deserve an after-life. After all, one of the key development questions today is why micro-enterprises stall. One hopes to see authors Olson and van Bever wearing safari hats soon in the jungles of Colombia and the steppes of Kazakhstan finding out why the micro-enterprises on which depend the welfare of so many of the world's working poor stay micro.

While there are many reasons to recommend this book, three in particular deserve mention.

First, the authors' approach to the problem of achieving sustained growth is inherently empirical and comprehensive. This differentiates their work from virtually every other tome on growth in the marketplace. Most such volumes, no matter how well written, are inherently versions of "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" analysis. Alpha Company adopted strategy X. Alpha Company succeeded. If you adopt strategy X, you will also succeed. The problem with this line of analysis is obvious to any student of Aristotelian logic, and equally obvious to anyone who has run a business. High-level strategies do not necessarily transfer from one industry, market, or corporate culture to another. Further, even sound strategies often fail because of breakdowns in execution. It's less the specific strategy that creates success than it is exceptional implementation of any strategy. (The recent work of Bossidy and Charan is very instructive in this regard.)

In stark contrast, the authors have conducted a rigorous analysis of all companies represented in the Fortune 100 over the past 50 years (and a handful of equivalent companies from outside of the US and from private equity.) The cumulative weight of the evidence commands much more authority than another well-documented case study of Dell, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, or Starbucks.

Second, the book is relentlessly prescriptive. Having identified the most common root causes leading to growth stalls, the authors provide a substantial number of specific actions, tactics, and business practices that real companies have used to overcome them. (And per my first point above, as a manager one takes much more confidence in adopting those actions because the analysis behind them is thorough and comprehensive.) Further, many of those actions are not of the nature of expensive, cumbersome new initiatives. A number of the suggested activities could be easily integrated into most organizations' current strategic planning and review processes.

Finally, the book is exceptionally well-written. This attribute is near and dear to my heart. As a voracious reader of business literature, I am frequently dismayed by the quality of the prose embodied by this particular niche of our culture. Most authors in the trade fall into one of two equally sophomoric camps. The first is characterized by the worst sort of academic rhetoric and reads about as well as your average software manual. Assuming you can stay awake long enough to finish it, one finds it a tiresome, often fruitless exercise, to extract any real learning. The other camp, which may be more annoying, is the folksy style so in vogue with ex-CEO memoirs. "We shook things up, charged forward, made up a plan as we went along, and kicked a lot of butt on the way."

Olson and Van Bever are gifted students of business, but they are equally gifted writers. Their chapters, and indeed the entire book, have a readable cadence, with appropriate amounts of wit, and they never make the audience work an iota harder than necessary to understand their point. They also understand when to stop hammering that point home. Sometimes a simple sentence is sufficient; other times several paragraphs are necessary, and the authors seem to have an intuitive feel for the difference. I challenge you to read this volume and not find yourself enjoying the process as you learn something on the journey. Very few competitive volumes pass that test.

Why and how obsolete strategic assumptions can threaten sustainable growth

In this brilliant volume, Matthew Olson and Derek van Bever assert that "the assumptions a management team holds most dearly - has known so long or so well that they are no longer debated - pose the greatest danger to growth. In other words, it is not what you know that isn't so that will stop your growth run - more likely, it's what you know that's [begin italics] no longer so [end italics]." It is worth noting that assertions such as this one are based on the rigorous and extensive research Olson and van Bever conducted over a period of several years. For example, the material in Part I (The Growth Experience of Large Firms) is based on "a comprehensive quantitative analysis of more than five hundred companies that have numbered among the Fortune 100 across the pasty fifty years.

As for Part II (The Root Causes of Growth Stalls) they complement the quantitative analysis with "detailed case analysis of a subset of the Fortune 100 to determine why growth stalls occur." Then in Part III (Avoiding or Recovering from Growth Stalls), Olson and van Bever examine the controllability of stall points previously discussed that leads them to the implications of what they learned for executives: "you must continually articulate and stress-test the assumptions underlying your strategy because it is the assumptions that you believe most deeply or that you held true for the longest time that are likely to provide your undoing. You may think you are currently doing this, but the odds are that you are not, and it is an oversight that you suffer at your peril."

Olson and van Bever note several times throughout their narrative that it is common for an organization to stall, it is hard to see a stall coming, and it is extremely difficult to recover from a stall; also, that strategic myopia can occur at the highest executive levels even in organizations that are annually ranked among the most valuable, most highly admired, most profitable, etc. For example, 3M, American Express, Apple Computer, IBM, Rubbermaid, and Xerox. Of course, the degree of severity of consequences from a stall period varies from one organization to the next, as does the length of that period.

Many of those who are thinking about reading this book may well ask, "All well and good, indeed very interesting, but how specifically can this book help me and my own organization to avoid or recover from a stall period?" Hence the importance of the last of five appendices that provides a diagnostic test for senior managers to complete. Each respondent is asked to rate each of 50 "red flag warnings of an impending doom" in terms of having No Concern, Moderate Concern, or Substantial Concern about it. In my opinion, this diagnostic test (all by itself) is worth far more than the cost of the book. Olson and van Bever also offer five foundational recommendations (in the final chapter) for executive teams that find themselves struggling to recover top-line momentum, and briefly explain the importance of each:

1. Build consensus about the sources of weakness in your core business strategy between the top management team and "skip-level" management.

2. Confront the operational and/or business model challenges in your core business that you previously have avoided.

3. For even the closest of adjacency extensions, conduct a careful "gap analysis" to identify required changes to the core business model.

4. Examine opportunity for new business models early in the new product development process.

5. Exploit "privileged insight" into customers in building new growth platforms.

I appreciate the fact that after briefly identifying or suggesting a "what" (e.g. a challenge, question, problem, peril, or opportunity), Olson and van Bever devote the bulk of their attention to explaining the "how." For example,

How to recognize the limits of prudent growth
How to recognize a stall point
How to calculate the costs of a stall period
Why companies stall and how to avoid or recover from one
How to take into full account various strategic factors (e.g. "premium position captivity")
How to take into account various organization design factors (e.g. talent bench shortfall)

I also commend them on the provision of five appendices in which they identify the companies in their sample, explain their methodology, list case study companies for stall factor taxonomy (in business markets ranging from Asset-Intensive to Tech-Intensive), provide stall factor definitions, and then conclude with the aforementioned diagnostic test in Appendix 5.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill and David Robertson as well as Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, Edward Lawler's Talent: Making People Your Competitive Advantage, Jeffrey Pfeffer's What Were They Thinking?: Unconventional Wisdom About Management, and Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management co-authored by Pfeffer and Robert Sutton.

Young Bernard comes across an old and frail looking artist painting in New York's Central Park, and is entranced. He sits in the grass and watches the man as the canvas is transformed into the dazzling reflecting pool and surrounding area. "The Big Apple never looked better!" As the painter packs his things, Bernard introduces himself. "Where are you going?" Bernard asked. "To find another place that asks to be painted." And so Bernard joins him and takes Vincent all over New York City, to Harlem, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, Times Square, and Fifth Avenue... "Everywhere they went, Bernard watched as Vincent painted New York in bright and beautiful colors." Finally it is time for Vincent to leave New York and move on. But before he goes, he takes Bernard to see something very special on the second floor of the Museum Of Modern Art..... Neil Waldman has written a marvelous and inspiring fantasy that takes youngsters on a "Van Gogh" adventure through New York City. Mr Waldman's simple and gentle text takes a back seat to both his charming pen and ink story illustrations, and ingenious Van Gogh-styled, bold and bright New York scenes. Together word and art transports the reader on an evocative and entertaining journey with one of the great masters. Perfect for budding artists 4-8, The Starry Night is an engaging feast for the eyes; a portrait of the artist, his work and his unique style.

This is a fantastic book. Its the story of an African American child in NY city who falls in love with the paintings of Van Gough. The illustration and story are wonderful - my kid can't get enough of it, he's started drawing, and he actually asked me to go to a museum with him! This book is part of a good cause too: For every ten copies bought, the publisher gives one copy to inner city school kids in NY city! My kid adores this book, and its openned up his world. He's interested in art now, not just Pokemon and video games.

What a wonderful book! I have shared this book with many children. Their reaction is always the same: entranced by the stunning paintings of New York, curious about Vincent Van Gogh and eager to begin to draw and paint. I think this book will help kids to discover their creative potential. (And big kids - to age 90 - love it too!)

In his childhood the author was excited by the color and power of Van Gogh's paintings.In this book his painterly yearnings are poured into the character of a young New York boy. In Central Park Bernard encounters Van Gogh at his easel. He offers to show the painter some other 'amazing places'. Many paintings later Van Gogh has a farewell surprise for his young friend. They visit the MOMA gallery on 53rd Street and see "THE STARRY NIGHT" hung there.

When the artist disappears, Bernard determines to paint his own copy. The end papers of the book include some of the copies of the famous painting as imagined by the author-artist's own students.

The fantasy goes full circle as Neil Waldman's striking paintings are shared in tnis book to benefit the Children's Aid Society & N.Y.school children. Imaginations -- not all young! -- are fired up. Be sure to check all titles of Waldman, illustrator, and also read Joan Shaddox Isom's "The FIRST Starry Night."

This book is terrific, with a narrative that is well integrated with the math. As noted by previous reviewers, van Kampen does a particularly good job of spelling out the necessary conditions for using Langevin techniques. My only complaint: some of the derivations are fast-and-loose, with typos that lead to confusion.

Van Kampen's book is a must-have for anyone interested in stochastic processes. The presentation is masterful and there are numerous thought-provoking examples and exercises. The author's remarks on "abuse" of methods (such as the Langevin technique) are well worth understanding, even if one does not agree with him in all cases. The price is a bit steep which is unfortunate since this book is really ideal for advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

Van Kampen's book is a must-have for anyone interested in stochastic processes. The presentation is masterful and there are numerous thought-provoking examples and exercises. The author's remarks on "abuse" of methods (such as the Langevin technique) are well worth understanding, even if one does not agree with him in all cases. The price is a bit steep which is unfortunate since this book is really ideal for advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

Van Kampen is that rare book that has enormous utility while being very clear and readable. It is perfectly suitable for sitting down and reading; the ideas flow together in a seamless way. Yet if you need to use it as a reference, you can flip to the appropriate page and the ideas will still be clear! It's amazing to me how Van Kampen manages to have the topics of the book stand alone, yet be woven together in such a logical, and even pedagogical, way.

This book is recommended for anyone working in statistical physics and is a must for anyone studying nonequilibrium phenomena in chemisty or physics. Even moreso than Kubo's excellent book on nonequilbrium statistical mechanics, this is the most clear and complete volume.

This author has a unique ability to create in your mind's eye a colorful vision of what was an often hilarious and, most certainly, an odd and unusual father/son relationship that becomes even more bizarre with the unset of mental illness.
The level of detail remembered and conveyed to the reader allows you to live the experience as he grows to find his relationship with his father is not normal and continues deteriorating until it becomes almost unbearable. The writing style and structure of the book makes for a most enjoyable reading experience. Great writing, you won't be disappointed.

The gist of this book is about a son's relationship with his artist father, who is dealing with a progessive mental illness. I picked this book up because my father has alzheimers. What is unusual about this book is the writing style - it's coloful, dynamic and reflects the emotional states of both father and son, while enveloping the reader within the time period and maturity of the relationship. I couldn't put the book down, and I normally don't like books based on relationships. I again want to say that the writing style of the author is distinct and something that I quite enjoyed. It's analytical and expressive, but not flowery. I would highly recommend this book!

I bought this book thinking it would be a story about a painter..his life complete with struggles and challenges. You know, the ususal biography. Boy, was I surprised! Yes, the book is about a painter but instead of HIS struggles, the reader is taken on a journey into the life of the painter's family...particularly his son. I couldn't put the book down! The author's writing style (son) has a way of drawing you in and really "painting a picture" of how life was growing up in a household where his father and he could just not connect. AN ABSOLUTE MUST READ! I experienced many similarities with my own father and reading this book really helped comfort me knowing "I wasn't the only one."

The title alludes to oil painting, but the picture on the cover hints at the artist himself. Having taken many psychology classes in college 30 years ago, this book would have been welcomed reading. The dynamics between a father and son in dealing with mental illness is both captivating and educational. As the book progresses from a child to a man to a father, the writing style follows. Excellent reading!

I bought Summer Smarts along with another series called, Summer Bridge Activites. Both books support practice of school skills over the summer. I love how this book looks sort of like a coloring book. My son has enjoyed coloring the pages after he completes them. Unlike the other series I mentioned, this book also encourages critical thinking. My son and I have had great conversations while he was working on his pages. I think this is a great book for kids because it isn't too difficult or frustrating.

As a former second grade teacher, I found this book an excellent preparation for second graders. There are many concepts and skills that are normally taught in late first grade or in second grade. The pages are well presented and have a fun element to them. The book would be appropriate to use throughout the second grade year as some of the sections may be somewhat difficult for before the school year starts. I bought it for a child who will start second grade this year and he loved it. His comment was that it was "pretty easy".

This is a really cute workbook, filled with sweet illustrations and a diverse selection of excersises. The book starts with a section on "who am I" and continues with math excersises, easy science projects, geography quizes and language arts questionaires sprinkled randomly throughout the book. One of my favorite things about "Summer Smarts" is the reading selection. There are three main books to read through the summer with questions for your child to answer located at the back of the workbook. Other cute books are recomended throughout the workbook.

Having giving the book a glowing review I cannot say that my daughter agrees with me. She really dislikes worksheets in general and getting her to sit and do the excersises in this book has been next to impossible. The recomended reading is wonderful for reading to her, but they are far too difficult for her to read by herself. I purchased this book because she has been struggling in school and I thought this would help her keep from falling further behind this summer. I still recommend the book though, especially if you have the kind of child who enjoys working independantly. Like one of the other reviewers I agree that this book would be best for a child who is already doing well in school and who enjoys this sort of thing.

This book is perfect for a smart child waiting for second grade. It provides a chance to review basic skills needed in second grade without being boring or tiring. Other books of the same kind tend either to be too easy or to have too many exercises. A child who has worked hard needs some rest! This book also suggests titles for summer reading, which is great because summer reading are the ones that teach a child how nice it is to stop and read a book, and it also provides worksheets for four books. I would recommend this book to any student whose grades are C or above. For those children who are behind schedule, however, I would propose "Summer Bridge Activities" because it provides many more exercises.

I love this book....I think it teaches children to think before they act...a lesson they all need to be taught. Sometimes our actions have negative outcome, and sometimes that causes accidents......Children love these books....My daughter often refers to Quacker. She will remind me not to scare her!!! Way to Go Ricky great books....We Love them

Country singer Ricky Van Shelton tells a warm fable in this brightly illustrated effort. Quacker is a duck who likes to wag his tale like a dog. Told in rhymes this short story should hold the interest of even the youngest child. It presents a positive message of acceptance and brotherhood in a manner that will not be lost on small children. However, parents should be careful. This book's overall moral could be distorted by schools with a politically correct axe to grind. The message of acknowledging individual differences could be twisted into an endorsement of alternative lifestyles. That was clearly not the author's intent.

Each Ricky Van Shelton book contains humor and love. Mr. Van Shelton adds an important moral to each book. My wife's pre-K class at the public school loves all of the Quacker stories.

This is a great book, with the morals that I am happy to teach my children. I was a RVS fan already, but this book just makes me an even bigger fan!

Very worthwhile purchase for anyone who teaches math to intermediate students. The suggested activities are not found in any other math books I have seen and should help create math learners who are not "formula" driven.

Van de Walle breaks down problem based classrooms in an understandable format. This book really helps teachers hone their skills in hands on/problem based teaching for mathematics. There are lots of activities to help you teach your students. This book is a must have for 5-8 Mathematics teachers.

I like this book, I own both K-2 & 3-5. There's alot of overlap so I recommend which ever age group you would use it with more.

A professor recommended Van de Walle's books to me so I bought this one. This book explains how to teach math so that students build on existing knowledge, rather than learn sets of algorithms without understanding their meaning. It offers a range of specific lessons for all math topics for grades 5 - 8, it explains how to teach the same topics to diverse learners, how to teach to the standards. It comes with amazing templates that are downloadable. It shows you how to take advantage of your existing math textbook, supplementing it to make it more student-focused.