Earth Books

This is a very useful book. It is not meant to be read, but to be used as a reference guide. It is just packed with useful growing information. Information can be looked up easily.

I have taught agriculture and worked in agriculture my entire life. This book encapsulates the growing information for crops very well.

Experienced growers would fare well to have this book on your desk of resource material. New growers will be milestones ahead to familiarize yourself with the information in this book.

This book covers every aspect, from starting from seed, soils, greenhouse and field production. Want to know how long it takes a particular crop to mature to harvest? Its here, along with hundreds of other useful tidbits.

Don't expect everything to be written in paragraphs. You have to be able to read and interpret simple charts and graphs.

If you put into practice even one tenth of the information contain in this book you will grow your garden or crops much better. You fare well to buy this book over many of the others with glossy nice to look at pictures. This is a book of facts with an abundance of information.

I recommend this book to anyone growing vegetables for gardening, hydroponic gardeners, or crop production.

Some years ago I used this book to build a very large farming company. I had no experience and little money but in 5 years I was farming 6000 acres of row crop. This book is fantastic. Eventually I had lots of AG engineers on staff, but this was the book that taught me how to monitor them. I recommend it to anyone, from a gardener to a an agribusinessman. It is wonderful and the current edition is great.

Very comprehensive but somewhat esoteric. This handbook is not for casual reading, but yields results for specific research. The more the book is consulted, one has a better understanding of how the information is presented. The handbook contains a wealth of material.

I give it five stars. This book, which contains a variety of information from a wide number of sources, is not a "how-to" book. Its information is mostly in table form, so the book's main use is as a reference. Some chapters, such as the one on water and irrigation, contain information I've never seen anywhere else, except in technical publications. The chapter contains line illustrations and descriptions that are accessible to the layman. The chapter on vegetable pests also contains (black and white) line illustrations of the insects. Rather than try to list all the information this book contains, I list the table of contents:

Preface

Part 1: Vegetables and the Vegetable Industry
Botanical Names of Vegetables
Names of Vegetables in Nine Languages
Vegetable Production Statistics
Consumption of Vegetables
Nutritional Composition of Vegetables
Selection of Vegetable Varieties

Part 2: Plant Growing and Greenhouse Vegetable Production
Transplant Production
Plant Growing Containers
Seeds and Seeding
Temperature and Time Requirements
Plant Growing Mixes
Soil Sterilization
Fertilizing Transplants
Plant Growing Problems
Hardening Transplants

Crop Production
Cultural Management
Carbon Dioxide Enrichment
Soilless Culture
Nutrient Solutions
Tissue Composition

Part 3: Field Planting
Temperatures for Vegetables
Scheduling Successive Plantings
Time Required for Seedling Emergence
Seed Requirements
Planting Rates for Large Seeds
Spacing of Vegetables
Precision Seeding
Seed Priming
Vegetative Propagation
Polyethylene Mulches
Row Covers
Windbreaks

Part 4: Soils and Fertilizers
Organic Matter
Soil-Improving Crops
Manures
Soil Texture
Soil Reaction
Salinity
Fertilizers
Fertilizer Conversion Factors
Nutrient Deficiencies
Micronutrients
Fertilizer Distributors

Part 5: Water and Irrigation
Water and Irrigation
Rooting of Vegetables
Soil Moisture
Surface Irrigation
Overhead irrigation
Drip or Trickle Irrigation
Water Quality

Part 6: Vegetable Pests and Problems
Air Pollution
Integrated Pest Management
Pesticide-Use Precautions
Equipment and Application
Nematodes
Diseases
Insects
Wildlife Control
Herbicides
Equipment and Application
Weed-Control Practices
Effectiveness and Longevity of Herbicides

Part 8: Harvesting and Storage
Predicting Harvest Dates and Yields
Cooling Vegetables
Storage Conditions
Chilling and Ethylene Injury
Vegetable Quality
U.S. Standards for Vegetables
Storage Sprout Inhibitors
Containers for Vegetables
Vegetable Marketing

Part 9: Seed Production and Storage
Seed Labels
Seed Germination Tests
Seed Purity and Germination Standards
Seed Production
Seed Yields
Seed Storage

Part 10: Appendix
Sources of Vegetable Information
Sources of Vegetable Seeds
Periodicals for Vegetable Growers
U.S. Units of Measurement
Conversion Factors for U.S. Units
Metric Units of Measurement
Conversion Factors for U.S. and Metric Units
Conversions for Rates of Application
Water and Soil Solution Conversion Factors
Heat and Energy Equivalents and Definitions

Index

First published in 1956, this handbook is an indispensable, up-to-date companion both in the field and in the marketplace. Topics include the vegetable industry, greenhouse vegetable production, soils and fertilizers, water, pests, weed control, harvesting, storage, and seed production. Packed with quick-access graphs, tables, charts, and line drawings, the 4th edition offers new information on drip irrigation, seed germination, plant tissue and sap testing, windbreaks, and weed management. It also gives advice on allowable pesticide and herbicide use and on the latest worker protection standards. The appendix contains sources of vegetable information, providers of vegetable seeds, periodicals for vegetable growers, and U.S. units of measurement and the metric conversion factors. A change from the spiral-bound 3rd edition is a sturdy, flexible cover to help hold pages flat.

This book is hands down the best gift for anyone that works with young children. The photography is very nicely done, and Sharifa does such a nice job addressing all of the important aspects of day to day life with young children. I love the Waldorf approach, but sometimes find it to be a little too up in the clouds. This book isn't like that. She paints a beautiful picture and inspires you to create the best environment possible for your children or the children in your care. Before you buy anything else related to waldorf parenting, try this one first.

This book is easy and interesting to read and full of helpful advice on Waldorf-style parenting. I love it and have recommended it to many parents of young children.

This book is a wonderful resource to own if you are a parent of young children, a nanny or preschool teacher, or a grandparent. I wish that I had had this book when my own children were small. Not only does it share developmental understanding about children, it gives actual activities with enough examples for the caregiver to implement. I was a preschool teacher and nanny for many years, and I am even familiar with many of the Waldorf ideas, but this book really makes the whole experience accessible! I learned so much!

I love the notes in the margins to help find information quickly, or as a reminder once you have read the book. It is a book that I could see going back to over and over. One of the ideas that I loved was the one about helping children through problems. Instead of telling them what to do, or talking about it with them, tell them a story using their toy animals and such, letting the protagonist animal have their same issue. That way they can see their own issue dramatized and they can take it in so much easier and with less stress. No lecturing...just a story. How's that for a great idea? (I know the Native Americans often problem solve with stories, but I could never figure out how to do it "naturally." Now I know!) And that's just ONE of the ideas.

The book also gives ideas for the day to day rhythms of family life, seasonal celebrations and birthdays. It reignited my respect for the magical essence of young children, and my passion to help them flourish!

This book is a keeper.

What a beautiful book, whether or not you are believers of the Waldorf philosophy on education (we are). My son is 4; I only wish I had read it much sooner to offer him some of the beautiful ways of the book. And I say some, because not all of it is for everyone - but take what makes sense. I am giving it as a gift to two friends who are just pregnant. I think if we all took a bit from this type of book it would be a much better world in which to raise children.

As a new mom (my son is now 1 year old), I was searching for information on how to raise a child in todays overly technological society. The first book about raising children that I read was "You Are Your Child's First Teacher," by Baldwin Dancy. I found this book to be very difficult to read, and I wanted more how to apply the information instead of so much theory.

The next book was "Beyond the Rainbow Bridge, Nurturing our Children from Birth to Seven," by Patterson, Bradley & Riordan. This was a great intro to Waldorf style parenting. It was a quick, easy read with a lot of good information, but again it left me wanting to know more about how to implement the ideas of fesivals & rhythms.

I finally purchased "Heaven on Earth" (recommended by a Waldorf kindergarten teacher at a parenting meeting I went to), and I finally found what I'm looking for. This book has the theory, talks about how children learn, is easy to read, and has all the how to information I was looking for. She gives the elements of festivals, then goes step by step through a few sample festivals, including a fall apple festival and an Easter festival (which I plan to do this year).

She talks about toys, gives sample stories to tell children at different ages, talks about discipline, rhythms, how to set up an indoor play space and how to set up an outdoor play space, how to incorporate children into your daily chores and much more.

It would be very difficult to incorporate everything she talks about in this book, but it's easy to pick and choose a few things you want to improve or change. I knew I wanted to do some annual festivals, but had no idea where to start. I love her ideas for children's birthdays, Christmas and Easter.

Perhaps the most important and useful feature of this book is the appendix. Here you can find websites and sources for children's natural toys & dolls, art & craft supplies, wool longjohns, cloth diapers, organic skin care and much more. She also includes a pattern to make a simple doll.

I would highly recommend this to any parent of children under the age of 7.

Heaven on Earth should be read by everyone! This may be an entertaining novel, but more importantly it is an introduction (or a reminder, depending upon where we are) as to how the universe works.

The author uses the story of a fictional island going through a civil war to show us how love (or lack of fear!) can cure the world. She creates interesting characters for whom we care. She also uses fine examples in not only war torn Eluria, but also in the modern day United States. These lessons tell us how our lives can be so much better by using our mind and our intuition in a way that most people don't know is possible, to create a reality that we deserve.

There are times when the story gets a little mushy for me (especially some of the sex scenes), but I don't hesitate to give this book 5 stars because of the lessons and messages it offers. Oh if only EVERYONE would read this book, our world would be a much more special place in which to live while we learn the lessons of this lifetime.

Kudos to Donna N. Murphy! Thank you for writing this very important novel.

Heaven on Earth is a wonderful novel. There are interesting characters, lots of action, and clever intersecting plots. It comes to life through the realistic, multi-dimensional characters and strikingly vivid descriptions. Having recently read Poisonwood Bible and King Leopold's Ghost, I found an especially strong connection with the island of Eluria. The deeper messages of Heaven on Earth were thoughtfully woven throughout and kept this reader both engaged in a fascinating novel and in reflection of how the messages apply to myself and to the broader universe. I recommend it as an engaging read for anyone.

Amazing book that reads like a novel but yet has deep spiritual content, with love and intrigue, and a happy ending!
A message of hope for humanity, perhaps we are growing up and recognizing that war is not a solution to any problem.
Fun, interesting, surprises, uplifting story

Heaven on Earth is a wonderful novel. There are interesting characters, lots of action, and clever intersecting plots. It comes to life through the realistic, multi-dimensional characters and strikingly vivid descriptions. Having recently read Poisonwood Bible and King Leopold's Ghost, I found an especially strong connection with the island of Eluria. The deeper messages of Heaven on Earth were thoughtfully woven throughout and kept this reader both engaged in a fascinating novel and in reflection of how the messages apply to myself and to the broader universe. I recommend it as an engaging read for anyone.

Heaven on Earth is an entertaining and lively story of an island nation in the midst of a civil war due to racial strife. The fast-paced narrative has romance and suspense, with clever plot twists you'll never see coming. I couldn't put it down; I had no idea what might happen next. In addition, the book has a thought provoking spiritual dimension. Donna presents the unique alternative of a spiritual intervention as a way to end the war and resolve the conflicts without a winning or losing side. Her unique alternative to the "business as usual" of going to war presents ideas for us all to live in peaceful harmony.

This book is a follow-up to the original How Come? book. The book is broken up into four main parts: questions about the earth, animals, the body, and how things are made. Each question is answered in just a few pages and includes cartoon pictures and fast facts. There is an index at the end of the book.

This is a great book to pick up and put down over and over. All questions were submitted by kids, which makes it appealing to young readers. The questions are common ones that kids are always asking, like why it looks like there is a man on the moon and why dogs bark. Now they can find the answers themselves! It is an easy reader and the pictures are really cute. Even older students would enjoy this book because it is long so it does not look like a children's book and it answers the types of questions that kids of all ages ask. This would be a nice book for a classroom where students could pick it up and look through it little by little.

...I bought How Come? Planet Earth for my Kids and I read an article every morning with my cereal. I love the kooky cartoons and the articles make me look like a genius to my kids! It will always come in handy to know that flys taste with their feet and humming birds have the most powerful muscles in the animal kingdom...MY ENTIRE FAMILY LOVES THIS BOOK!

I LOVED this book. It's not just for kids -- though I'm sure they'll enjoy it, as much as I did. The author's choice of subject matter is excellent, and she explores each subject at just the right depth. Her breezy and humorous writing style is a joy to read.

And it's educational, too! Although I have an advanced science degree, and have been a lifelong reader in various sciences, I found myself learning something new in each essay.

I strongly recommend "How Come? Planet Earth" to curious minds of any age.

My girls love this book. They got so excited about the facts the learned in this book. I even learned so new things. Fun for the entire family. We love it

This book is awesome. It is full of very interesting information about why things around us are the way they are. It has a section on the human body, one on animals, one on the earth itself, among others.
It is written with humor and wit. I learn (and laugh) a lot as I read to my child. It is so useful for him, too, satisfying his ingenious curiosity that is so precious of children. This is the BEST children's book I have come across so far and very highly recommend it.

I read this book when it was first published and always wanted to get a copy. I've read it again and it still makes me laugh. The homespun characters make me want to live in Centralia (at least for a while). The stories concerning the Indians get a little preachy but are only slightly annoying. For someone that wants to relax with a little light reading, this is well worth your time.

A classic, especially if you grew up in a little town in the Midwest. I keep re-ordering this book because I have to keep replacing it because I keep giving it away to everyone I meet that I know will love it. Unless you grew up in the big city, you know the people Roger Welsch writes about in this book, only you never realized how funny - or how endearing - they were. Or maybe you did, but you just didn't know how to tell other people about it. Roger does.

This is life and this is fun! Beautiful pictures of Great Plain - Small Village life written -so well!- by an expert.

Writing from a narrative center somewhere between Mark Twain and Garrison Keillor, author Roger Welsch memorializes the town and inhabitants of Centralia (aka Dannebrog, pop. 356), Nebraska, in what he calls "Bleaker County." Centralia itself is either the center of this windswept prairie state or the center of the universe, depending on who you ask in this small town. It's located not far north of the Platte River and its farmlands, and not far south of the Sandhills, with its population of cattle and cowboys. Life in Centralia gravitates toward the Town Tavern, where many of these story-essays take place, and we meet Welsch's fictionalized friends and neighbors: Lunchbox, Goose, Slick, Woodrow, and Cece -- the regulars. There are also his wife Lily, daughter Jenny, an Indian friend Cal, a kind-hearted bachelor uncle named Grover Bass, a film crew from public television in Lincoln, a mean cuss named Royal Cupp, a rip-tearing adventurer, Luke Bigelow, and many others.

Welsch has an appreciation for the quirky, cock-eyed, and audacious. Like an endlessly curious anthropologist, he's equally fascinated by the everyday and the out-of-the-ordinary. He's a humanist, romanticizing his characters even while he's treating them with tongue-in-cheek irony. He's also willing to show that they can stoop to the unforgivable, or that they do not share his appreciation for people from other ethnic backgrounds. There is a range of tones and sentiments in the book, from comic farce to tenderness and awe. My favorite essay, "Racing Horses at the Centralia Fourth of July," ranges across all three, as his young teenage daughter teams up with a burly cowboy to take second place in a relay race. I laughed and had tears in my eyes by the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and happily recommend it to anyone with an interest in small town life on the Plains. As a companion volume, I'd suggest the short stories of life in a rural Minnesota community in Kent Meyers' "Light in the Crossing."

In "It's Not the End of the Earth,..", Roger Welsch does an excellent job bringing out the humor of small town life by simply telling stories about his friends in Centralia, NE. He has a witty way of giving value to each of the members of this rural community bringing to light the peculiar habits and expressions that make them all unique, interesting, and memorable. I applaud Prof. Welsch's folkloric expose' of the kinds of everyday things that I used to laugh about with my dad - some of my favorite things.

This is near the top of the list as one of the greatest books pertaining to the theory of a possible post-crucifixion life of Jesus Christ. It's a classic. We are happy that it has been recently re-released (it was originally published in 1950) in 1998.

Maybe I'm different in that I knew much of this material already. Nonetheless, the biblical material is very well researched and presented, although the author does not always show that he had a copy of an apocryphal text (there have been a number of forgeries of the Gospel according to the Hebrews, for instance, but only fragments of the original text have been found). While I appreciate the author's Islamic beliefs, and while he reports his Quranic studies as thoroughly (often MORE thoroughly) as his Christian materials, the Islamic materials take up too much of the book. The title subject material is not even begun to be addressed until 2/3 of the book is over. Is the author writing to Islamic readers, Christian readers, scholars in general, or who? If he is addressing Christian readers, telling them how much more authoritative the Quran is than the Bible will hardly get them to keep reading... and if he is addressing Islamic readers, it sounds as though he is preaching to the choir. The biblical material that I did not have previous knowledge was astonishing, and I learned as much from his method of presentation as from the facts themselves. Well worth the read -- although non-Islamic readers will likely skip the long chapters on Quranic sources.

This book is a in depth research of the actual life of Jesus Christ; each and every fact is thoroughly researched and all sources are given. It is not a book for the faint hearted; the author Nasir Ahmad is a heavy weight intellectual who has used his thorough training as an advocate to leave no stone unturned, in his search for the truth. Had his name been 'Nigel Atkins' he would have received world wide recognition; unfortunately with an eastern sounding name; the literature pundits of the 'superior' west will discard him off as a 'coolie' to big for his boots. However the revelations are too strong and too convincing to remain in the closet for long. Once this work is recognised and acknowledged; the house of cards upon which western christianity is built will come tumbing down. This book is almost impossible to find in a public library or university library; yes it is indexed in the library catalogues; but inevitably you will find that the book has either 'been lost' or is on indefinite loan; so the only way to read it; is to purchase it. The revelations are not for the faint hearted.

This is perhaps the best and most thorough book on the subject of the post-crucifixion life of Jesus Christ.

Of course, the entire and comprehensive theory was first written by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in the year 1899, in his explosive work, Jesus in India . Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, a follower of Ghulam Ahmad's, expanded on Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's original work, Jesus in India, and it is simply a shame that Nazir Ahmad--who was once considered for the Nobel Prize--is not given recognition for this powerful work.

But, as Thundy states: "Those of us who have lived with Europeans in India and the West during the colonial period and after know that most of them as a rule carry the 'White Man's Burden' (Kipling) and the conception of the Orientals as 'lesser breeds without the law' (Macaulay); like colonial masters everywhere, they were not accustomed to consider the Easterners as their equals. As Radhakrishnan's observation cited earlier points out, in general, Western scholars, though fascinated by Eastern wisdom, have always found it hard to admit that the West could ever have borrowed anything of worth from the East or the East was ever equal or superior to the West in their cultural accomplishments." (Buddha and Christ: Nativity Stories and Indian Traditions,p. 10).

Aside from the *obvious* fear that this great work must invoke amongst Christians, one wonders whether or not traditional bias against Asia and Asian scholars might be part of the reason that this book is not given its due.

Long before Hassnain (1994), Kersten (1986), Kaiser (1978) and others who wrote about the theory of a post-crucifixion life of Jesus, Nazir Ahmad had thorougly explored this issue, and his book, in our view, is still unmatched. (Tomb Master)

"Jesus in Heaven on Earth" is a fascinating documentation of a nearly unknown tradition, but one which appears to be quite well documented. While including material which may not be the best evidence of the theory that Jesus survived the crucifixion and then traveled eastward, ultimately ending up in Kashmir (like the Gospel of Barnabas, which seems to be very late and not at all authentic), it at least draws attention to the fact that, yes, we Westerners almost never assume that any part of the world outside of our own knows anything (or at least anything "true") or might shed light on our own history. There's lots of information here, all of which is worth reading not only because it presents a very plausible theory of Jesus' life and death, but just because it awakens one's awareness of the other side of history.

This book not only gives a person a fresh perspective, it goes into detail HOW to begin anew - how to re-learn and re-live a common path and lifeway we all once walked. This is not a "dyed-in-the-wool" self help or new age book. The book shelves are lined with them. Anyone asking questions, and then questioning the resultant answers about their most basic belief systems will most likely renew their spiritual enthusiasm after reading this book. If you're a Seeker by nature, a questioner, this book will rejuvinate you. If you're living a lifestyle in the mainstream, and comfortable with what you know (or think you know), this book may challenge much of what you've been taught since you were a child. Especially re-assuring is the basis for the commonality we all share. Debunks the precept that Native Culture "primitivity" is inferior to the modern, civilized way of living. Outdoor enthusiasts will be challenged to view the world they love so much in a new light of Stewardship and Appreciation.

Many books have 10-20% useful information, padded with verbiage. This is a heart-touching book worth reading repeatedly- with 100% useful material, really more like 150%, because it is so good that as I grow, I go back and reread it. It is easy to read, and very profound. I got a B.A. in Anthropology, and all of my useful notes together do not equal what is in this book. This book, and Tad James' first book on Huna, are all I sought getting my BA, and didn't get. We don't know what healthy community is; we know only the pathology of the average. This describes the elements of healthy human living, of a healthy community. I paid to donate this book to 3 University libraries, so that other people, seeking as I was seeking, could find this. I didn't know this kind of high level awareness could be put in print. For my interests, I've never found a book even close to being as good as this one is.

It is somewhat difficult to enter the indigenous world of immediate experience and intuitive awareness from Western culture. Teaching it is even more difficult. Putting this transition in words, so people can read about it is even more difficult. Yet he does it. This book is the best book of its type, of the over 500 I have read. It is a book I go back to as I grow, because I find new ideas when I reread it, and this is not true of many books for me. If you have an interest in indigenous cultures- even European- and in expanding awareness, or in learning how shamanic indigenous cultures lived, this is a book well worth getting. I have personally given 10 copies away to relatives and friends. This is a treasure trove, a smorgasbord of useful ideas. Dover will, in my opinion, reprint this book, in another 30 years, because it is such a classic.

This book is really neat. I learn something new every time I read it, it's like it's layered, with something for every level. I will keep my copy of it as long as I live. In many other books, one finds cool tidbits, here and there. This guy gathered a lot of cool tidbits and put them in one place, with like almost no waste.

Western society is more and more fragmented. Indigenous cultures, before contact, weren't. This book is clearly written from the perspective of someone who has spent a lot of time among indigenous peoples. Really good books are such that you can read them several times, and get new insights each time. This book is like that, and I re-read it once a year, to get new insights. It has a lot of the heart of indigenous cultures. The heart of the problem is usually a problem of the heart, and this book is very useful for getting to the heart of issues. As a community organizer, student of minimal equipment wilderness survival, and even just human being trying to improve, I have used this book a lot. I have given at least 7 copies of this book to friends. I wish there were more books like this in print. It is really, really good. This is easily among the best 10 books I've read in my life.

This is the excellent book on Landscape Ecology. Instead of being an edited collection of research articles, this volume's chapters follow logically and treat the material comphrensively, while giving references at every turn to researchers books or articles. Monica, whose research publications are extensive, writes this introductory book well.

The images in this book are, however, in black and white. There is an accompanying CD of color plates, but they are no bigger then those in the text and are fairly useless. I was hoping she would have some data for her book's examples and perhaps even a whole project we might use in one of the current software tools.

Still this can't take away from the fact that this is the book I've been searching for. But a very "first" primer in this subject is a chapter written by Monica - "What is Landscape Ecology" for an 1998 Oxford "Ecology" text. You can download this for free. See item 76 of the publications page on Monica website ([...]).

One of the most comprehensive landscape ecology materials existing on the market nowadays. Ideal for landscape ecology beginners or for for anybody who wonders what fragmentation, ecological processes and patterns are.

This is an excellent book that intrigues the informed while explaining complex information in such a way that novice readers can follow along.

If the credentials of the authors didn't convince of the quality of this book, I'm not sure I can. I will say that I have read and re-read the book several times, and that it's a vital resource in our laboratory. From the various issues of scaling to what analyses do what, this book is an excellent resource of theories and technologies involved in Landscape Ecology.

I use this book as the recommended text for both undergraduate and graduate courses in landscape ecology. It has a useful synthesis of recent trends in the field and particularly good chapters on scale, landscape metrics and disturbance. The accompanying CD has jpeg versions of most of the figures, which is handy for preparing lectures, although the quality of some of the digital images from CD (especially graphs and line charts) isn't so great. The literature review is thorough without being overwhelming, so it's a good entry point into the professional literature in most areas of landscape ecology. My main criticism is that the writing style is somewhat dense; I didn't find it easy to read from cover to cover. People looking for a cursory introduction to the field may do better to start with an alternative text. As a teaching and reference text for landscape ecology, however, I think this book is the best available.

this book very important to who's want to understand better in photography. it is importatnt becuase to expousre correctly it must to understand behind

This book is an excellent resource for anybody interested in the nature of light involved phenomena and atmospheric optics.

Prior to reading this book, communicating a love of and appreciation for the outdoor experience of natural phenomena was often frustrating. This book has provided me with a new lexicon that helps me bridge the gap between intuition and the elementary physics of the first-hand viewing perspective. At times there are sections that are a bit of a slog (e.g. the revelation of the nuances of viewing a scene through pane vs. plate glass) but that criticism is more than balanced by many excellent observations and curious examinations of the changing relationships between the observer and the scene viewed. After reading this book, I have embarked on reviewing many of the photos that I have taken in my travels. I have been astonished by the number details that had escaped me (and for which I had zero appreciation) prior to reading Minnaert's book. One of the techniques I have used extensively is viewing inverted digital photographs of panoramic scenes reflected in water using image editing software. The fact that the reflected scene is viewed from the perspective of an underwater observer (buy the book for a full explanation) is a relevation that provided me with some good natured fun at the expense of disorienting a friend when I inverted a photograph of lake scene from a hiking (or SCUBA diving?) trip to Alaska.

This deeply perceptive book changes our own perceptions of all kinds of light and color events in the outdoors. You will never see the same way again outdoors. Some examples involve elementary optics (which explain the visual phenomena) but nearly all the 278 short chapters can be appreciated by the visually alert reader. My favorite examples include dappled light, rainbows (there are always two), and differences between relected and transmitted light in seeing leaves and grass. The Dover edition is fine; the Springer-Verlag edition is better with its excellent color photographs.

One of the most phenomenal books I've ever seen. This book describes and explains in very easily read prose, the complex visual phenomena of the natural world. It is almost a meditation on the natural world outdoors. I read it often not just as a reference. Be sure to read the introduction to the work. An excellent buy--I have purchased five copies over the years as gifts.

If only this book had been available 20 years ago when I first started homeschooling my 6 children! I am thankful it's available now so I can use it as curriculum for my last two homeschooled children.

When I first introduced it to my 11 and 13 year old daughters I told them I wanted them to give it a try and do one page a day. Later that night I went to check on them in their beds and found them under the covers with a flashlight! To my amazement they had their Man in The Map book and immediately started begging me to 'please' let them do more than one page a day! At the end of the school year I tested them to see what they had retained and they could rattle off the states and capitals without missing a beat! Now THAT is curriculum a homeschooling Mom can fall in love with! The knowledge they gained and retained will follow them throughout their life and be invaluable to them. This easy and fun to read book is colorful, accurate, and best of all it keeps the kids begging for more!



They jump out of bed in the morning excited about doing their schoolwork because this book makes it feel like fun and a special treat. Not only is it great for teaching geography but you can read it to a small child at bedtime just for fun. The 'Dr. Suess' like rhyming keeps them enthralled and entertained and makes a home in their memory. As a homeschooling Mom I look for the best curriculum I can find to enrich my children's education. As the President and Owner of a mid sized Publishing House I know what a quality book looks like and this one is exceptional. This is a book that will be handed down for generations in my family. There's nothing out there I can compare it to - but this is a book that people will try to imitate and compare books to for many years to come.

Over the Christmas holiday season, my sister brought her two sons down from the mountains. I don't get to see them very much, so it was a great time to see how much they had grown, what they had learned, and just to hang out with my nephews. We opened gifts, ate pie, and played in the snow. My sister's older boy - James - is turning out to be a real smart, inquisitive kid. He is always asking questions, wanting to know how something works, or why things are the way they are.

On the night before Christmas, after a big dinner and lots of family talk, I took James upstairs to read to him before bed. One of the books that I read was The Little Man In the Map by E. Andrew Martonyi and beautifully illustrated by Ed Olson. Boy what a great time James and I had reading this book.


Starting off in the all too familiar school classroom, the kids in the book are given the task of learning all the states by name and memorizing their place. Stuck with the task, the kids soon begin to visualize the states as things they can remember - Louisiana is a boot, Minnesota looks like a hat, and so on. Magically, as the kids place these states in order, they come to see a man inside the map who comes alive and teaches the kids about the rest of the states.

Written in rhyme, the book creates images for every state that are fun to look at and learn. After reading the book to James, he didn't want to go to sleep. No, another reading was in order! The same thing happened the next two nights; James wanted me to read The Little Man In the Map to him. He loved the character MinIow MisArkLou (the man in the map) and would list off the states that made him up.

I talked to my sister - now back up in the mountains - after New Years. James now knows all 50 states by heart. He is very proud of this fact, especially since he is the only one in his grade that knows them all. Thanks to E. Andrew Martonyi's great imagination and Ed Olson's lively illustrations, my nephew James is now the geography whiz of his class.

This is one of those books that kids love to read over and over again - all the while learning something very important. Every kid should have the opportunity to learn geography and the states this way: its fun, its easy, and it works.

++++++++++++++++
Great New Books
http://newgreatbooks.blogspot.com

This delightful book is an excellent addition to any classroom library. It is a fun way to help children learn the geography of the United States. My students truly enjoy reading, hearing, and viewing this rhyming book. Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana create the shape of "The Little Man in the Map". The beautiful illustrations add a whole new dimensions to this clever book. The author, Andrew Martonyi, kindly visited my school for as a part of our recent reading night. It was a memorable evening for all involved as we celebrated reading. I highly recommend The Little Man in the Map to everyone.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R22B4LTTTTTXER

The Little Man in the Map: With Clues to Remember all 50 States is a cheery, rhyming picturebook designed to teach young people to remember the names of all fifty American states. The cartoony illustrations and charming rhymes frame delightful visual and verbal mnemonics, and adults who have a hard time remembering all fifty states may find The Little Man in the Map useful too! "We'll start with Min in Minnesota / That's his giant hat. / The Iow comes from Iowa / The place his face is at. / This Mis we'll borrow from Missouri / That's his shirt so neat / The Ark we'll take from Arkansas / The pants that can't be beat. / The Lou is from Louisiana / That completes his name. / It also forms the boots he wears that finish out his frame. // Together they spell out his name: It's MinIow MisArkLou! / Remembering those states - all five - Is easy with that clue." Highly recommended, especially for children's library collections.