Animals Books

A great introduction to musical terms and different species of frog. Fun, musical, magical.

Berkes masterfully integrates music and nature in this entertaining story. Thoroughly educational on all types of amphibians, as well as musical terminology. Berkes's excellent word choices and rhythmic language engrosses the reader while the outstanding watercolor illustrations captivate the mind. Although the reading level states K - 3rd grade, this high content book can be enlightening to all ages. As a high school educator, I have recommended this book to environmental science and music teachers. Considering the ending, I eagerly anticipate a sequel to this book.

It is evening time in the marsh and the rain has stopped. During the night the marsh comes alive in a symphony of singing frogs! Maestro frog jumps to the stage and the peepers and pig frogs, the leopard and wood frogs fill the night with song!
Children not only learn about frogs and nature but music theory as well!
In this delightful, rhyming book children thrill to the nightime orchestra Berkes creates so magically. It has a wonderful glossary in the back and Noreika's illustrastions are stunning.
A surefire hit for K through 3rd graders!

M.Murray, Librarian, Florida A wonderfully lyrical and educational learning tool!! For lovers of frogs and/or music everywhere!!

"The rain has stopped./Night is coming./The pond awakes with/quiet humming. // Maestro frog hops to the mound/As night begins to fill with sound./Peepers peep pe-ep, peep, peep./They have had a good day's sleep..." Lit by fireflies and stars "...twinkling to the tune/As they dance around the moon..." the concert begins. Frogs of all shapes and sizes join together to make music in the marsh. These are the beautiful, wondrous sounds that begin quietly and slowly at dusk, and build, louder and faster, as the night stretches on towards dawn..... Marianne Berkes' inspiring, lyrical text is rich in imagery and magic and is filled with energy, rhythm, rhyme, and marvelous sound effects. Robert Noreika's evocative watercolor illustrations dazzle, and together word and art bring the marsh and its inhabitants to life. Part nature book, part music book, Marsh Music includes a glossary of musical terms and informative descriptions of the eleven types of frogs we meet in the "orchestra". This is a lovely and engaging picture book, perfect for bedtime reading, that youngsters 4-8 definitely shouldn't miss. "But now it's dawn./The stars are gone./Maestro puts down his baton. // That's all my friends./It's time to go./Tonight there'll be/another show."

I enjoy reading this book not only to my 18 month old son but for myself.
At the moment he doesn't always sit for the whole book as it is a little long sometimes for a board book.
I feel this book encourages imagine and is simple enough for a toddler to understand!

This product was a wonderful addition to my teaching arsenal for animal adaptions. I gave the students an humerous start to thinking about the real life adaptions organism have that helps them survive.

I think this is a fun story with a good message at the end. It's funny to see the creature the chameleon winds up being toward the end - before he decides to be himself. I'd put this on the list of recommended Carle books.

My granddaughter loves this book. Like all of Eric Carle's books, it's a great story and the pictures are wonderful.

This text is an invaluable picture book for children learning how to read, how to enjoy reading and to learn about the joys and absurdities that life can bring. It is a humerous text that utilises excellent illustrations to represent the plot. The plot itself humerously intertwines fantasy with reality, ofcoarse it depends upon the child's imagination. A must for any child that enjoys playing with words and surreal ideas. The book's design is additionally unique in that is in an organisational folder style whereby children may select various imaginary creatures as they choose. I hope that others can share this wonderful picture book with all children they read to and/or with.

I was thrilled to find that the story of Modac has been written as a children's picture book. I read the book Modac to my fifth grade class and they sat enraptured. My small grandchildren listen just as intently to the picture book.When they are older, I'll read Modoc aloud to them too. There are many lessons woven in this story. The love between a boy and an elephant, courage, faith, perseverance, and keeping a promise. I promise you won't be disappointed when you choose this book.

Fabulous account of a true story interpreted from the novel, "Modoc", for children of all ages with beautiful illustrations and a condensed but still touching story.

This story alone is incredible. Add the beautiful illustrations, and you have a truly wonderful book! EXCELLENT! I can't say enough good things about it. Everyone should read this story! Highly recommended!

I just read this for the first time yesterday with my daughter.
This is an amazing story with beautiful illustrations by Ted Lewin.
A wonderful book!

This was a wonderful "trip" through the lives of the two main characters. It is so awesome, you have trouble believing everything that happens to both of them on their life journey. You will not be able to put this book down. My husband, who hardly ever reads, would not put it down until he was finished. It brought tears to his and my eyes. Can't say enough.

Great little book about Molly, the pony rescued after Hurricane Katrina, and fitted with a prosthesis after losing her leg from a dog attack. Inspiring and uplifting. Although written for children, this simple story complete with great pictures, will be an inspiration for anyone. Molly is the pony who would not quit and neither would those who came to her rescue. Not just for horse lovers, recommended for anyone in need of a lift.

I was a bit disappointed in this book, after reading news reports about the good work Molly is now doing with injured humans. As a whole this is a well written story about a mature pony with great pluck and stamina. However, in my opinion, not enough was said about the encouragement she gives to children and adults, civilians and military, in her visits.

Still, my 4 year old granddaughter insisted on having me read it to her three times in succession, when it arrived.

I bought this book for my 13 year old granddaughter who's passion is horses. She also lives in the southern part of Louisiana and experienced some affects of Katrina.
She would not put the book down until she finished it!!
Great learning tool also!!!

This book a terrific TRUE story that facinated my 9 year old grandaughter who loves horses. I bought it to read to my 5-6 year-olds in my preschool classroom and they all loved the story as well. Pictures are large, real photos that all the children wanted to look at over and over. Thank you for such a great story that led to a lot of good discussion about older people in resthomes, helping others, our responsibility to care for animals, determination and strength to make the best of a tough situation and outcomes that can almost make things better than they were before....not to mention the disasterous flood that preceeded this story.

Great book for kids. Shows a story of survival and purpose and how anyone can be "different" and have a strong purpose. I am an animal lover and fell in love with this horse and story.

Both of my daughters enjoyed this series. I read it aloud to my younger daughter, who often doesn't have the patience for anything longer than a picture book. And her sister, who was in 7th or 8th grade at the time and reads voraciously, borrowed the set and scarfed them down in an afternoon. So they might be a good fit for middle school reluctant readers, since they have a pretty easy reading level but are capable of holding the interest of an older girl.

But I agree with the other reviewer who said the book doesn't really stand alone. Plan on continuing into the rest of the series.

My 6 year-old daughter and I are reading the 2nd book at present of this amazing series. The characters that Duey creates have awesome depth. Little Heart is so full of care and empathy. It's so wonderful to read of such a young girl putting the needs of others before her own needs. Avamir and Moonsilver are equally wonderful. My daughter and I can't wait to make it through the whole series!

My daughter (that usually hates to read) read this whole series when she was about 10 or 11. We got them through the library one summer and she would put her name on the list to get the books (that were already checked out) because she wanted to read them in order. I am in the process of ordering the series for my son's classroom. I read the series as well and I think it is one of the best book series I've seen in a long time. It is a captivating and sweet story that makes you cheer for Heart.

This is the best book I have ever read. It is really short and easy. If you buy this book you should get the rest of the books in this series, too.

My daughter brought the first book of this series home from the library and really enjoyed it. We looked it up on-line and were very excited to see that there were a total of 8 books in the series. She got all of them and we have really enjoyed reading them together (she is 7). A very sweet story with lots of the things that little girls love.

When my son was three, he made me read this book to him so many times that even now, 22 years later, I know the entire thing by heart.

Kids love this book. Parents do, too, at least the first 10 or 12 thousand times they read it to the kids!

I adored this book as a kid (I'm in my 30s now). I haven't gotten my new copy yet, but I think there is a lesson about temperance at the end, but that's not what I recall: I just remember the sheer joy of more, more, more. With books that use so few and such simple words, it's often hard for an adult to distinguish the adequate from the great. Speaking for my very young self, I can tell you that this book is great.

This is my favorite children's book - it is especially fun to read out loud. It has a cute level of humor and I've even had a class of 3-year-olds laughing at it. A good learn to read book - but also a good story in general.

I love reading this book to my daughter (2 1/2). I got it when i was a small child and have held onto it as one of my favorites. It is quickly becoming her favorite as well...the story flows so well its really fun to read...my daughter likes to see how fast I can read it without messing up.

I love this book. It lends itself to many activities with monkeys or spaghetti.

Being a believer already that there is more to dogs then meets the naked eye, this book grabbed me by the heart and made me revisit each dog that has ever been in my life. I recommend this book to anyone who is open to learning about themselves and their canine friends.

I bought this book two days before I found the perfect dog at the local animal shelter. I started reading and I cried over the front of the book that tells the story of the man meeting at the gates of Heaven and asking for his faithful companion to enter with him. My dog jumped on the sofa next to me and licked my tears. I haven't been the same since. I can't recommend this book enough.

This book could be life-changing for those people who believe that animals have powers beyond the simple realm of their daily reality. I was most impressed with her writing, her worldly experiences and her genuineness. I actually went on her website and listened to a conference she had that had been taped. WOW. This is one dynamic human being with a heart as big as Texas. I love dogs--always have--and she captures something about them that even I hadn't given them credit for. It's definitely not an easy read, however and you must pause, put the book down and reflect on her ideas.

Jean Houston is one of the most remarkable figures in Humanistic Psychology and consciousness studies of the 20th and 21st century. This book is simply luminous and a great treasure. Anybody who seeks the spiritual path and/or adores four legged friends will love this book. The pictures of Jean and her dogs are also truly wonderful. Hats off to Jean and her brilliant and loyal canine friends.

Mystical Dogs: Animals As Guides To Our Inner Life by Jean Houston is about the transcendental value of animal companionship in general, and the love of dogs in particular. Indeed, our animal companions can be the starting point to a mystical gateway and an awakened consciousness. An absorbing saga of metaphysical enlightenment and abiding memories for beloved animal companions, Mystical Dogs is enthusiastically recommended reading for New Age animal lovers.

This book is full of several remedies for many different illnesses, problems, etc...
Highly recommended.

This book is absolutely awesome! It begins by explaining what alternative medicine is, why pets get sick, and making the switch from allopathic to holistic medicine. It also describes, from A to Z, common ailments and how various vets treat them. There are snippets about how pets treat themselves for certain diseases, when to call the vet, and anecdotes pertaining to the ailment. It also has an extensive alternative healing resource guide.

I am in the process of learning about holistic health care for my 2 lhasa apsos and have recently purchased a few books on the subject. I started one book and set it aside to finish later. I picked up "New Choices in Natural Healing for Dogs & Cats" and couldn't put it down until I was finished! I was so impressed with the layout of such a large amount of information. This book is chock-full of great information and it is presented in a terrific format giving the read first the "The Signs" of the condition, then "The Cause" and the "The Solutions". The solutions can be numerous with the author offering different suggestions and not seeming to be biased towards any one particular holistic remedy. Directions are very clear, concise, and easily understood. Some choices mentioned are natural diet (which seems to be the first and obvious step towards better health care for an animal), natural supplements, herbal remedies, vitamins, aroma-therapy, magnet therapy, accupressure with diagrams shown, and of course, recommendations to call your vet to assist in dosage. Although you feel there is alot to learn, the information is broken down so well, it is easy to retain alot of what you read in the first go around with this book. I am sure I will be picking it up time and time again while working to get my dogs in the best possible health. Also included are some behavior problems. I guarantee you will learn some new and valuable information!

A friend knew how my aging dog, Nina, was quite ill and that my family was not planning a second surgery, as she might not survive the operation and, besides, the mass on her liver had grown back in a year. She gave me a copy of this wonderful book, which gives options for health care. Impressed with the book, I ordered many copies and have given a copy to others who love their dogs and cats and want an option to drugs or surgery. Here it is! Nina's had extra time with her family and I have a new respect for natural healing, for pets and for people. You should buy several copies of "New Choices in Natural Healing for Dogs & Cats", so you may share the love.

Amy has written yet another good book for pet owners. As the trend in natural healing continues, good resources such as this book, The Natural Health Bible for Dogs & Cats, 8 Weeks to a Healthy Dog, and The Allergy Solution for Dogs serve as important sources of information for pet owners. Read this book and start learning how you can work with your doctor to keep your pet happy and healthy.

This is a must have for any owner or wanna-be owner of a Newf (or any dog for that matter)! Through the eyes of many different people you can pull together a true picture of what life with a Newfie can be, from the good to the sad to the ridiculous. The varying perspectives come together to show what wonderful, loyal, loving furballs these `Gentle Giants' are and how much they can add to your life. In addition, 90% of the profits made on this book are going to the Newfoundland Health Challenge for scientific research to benefit this beautiful breed. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll want to hug a Newfie! Congratulations and thank you Pat for putting it all together :)

This book is for anyone who's ever wanted a newfoundland dog! Know what your up against BEFORE you welcome one of these drool slinging, fur dropping, vacumn killing puppers into your life! 'Cause once you do, your done. Your life will no longer be your own, neither will your bank account, house, or anything else you used to hold in high esteem . This book will show you the ups and downs, the laughter and tears, and frighteningly, how much smarter they are than us!
Read this book to understand you are getting so much more than a "dog". You are getting a human in a dog suit, in other words a Newfoundland!

While readers of this book will enjoy the benefits of generous doses of laughter (and sometimes tears), Newfoundland dogs everywhere will benefit from the purchase of "Ninety-Nine Newfies." The author, Pat Seawell, is generously donating 90% of the book's profits to the Newfoundland Health Challenge, a trust run by the Newfoundland Club of America, which funds scientific research into Newfie health problems. So buy the book to bring joy to yourself and to bring improved health to our Newfoundland friends.

This book shows the true sides - all the wonderful traits that we grow to love. Including the stuff only a Newfie "parent" can appreciate!

Of course, with 4 of the stories being about my "grandpuppies", I had to have it on my bookshelf!

I ordered this book since I was soon to get a newfie pup. I am so glad I did. The book is filled with 99 different stories about 99 newfies. They are short reads that touch your heart. I just have to share the stories with whoever is around while I am reading it! It is a fun and inspiring book. Although there are no pictures ( I like to see photos of the dogs) it is still an excellent book.

The author of this book clearly loves olives. Like the author himself, I have come by my interest in them them rather late in life. This book has caught me up nicely in understanding about olives, their cultivation, and their cultural place in all the regions around the Mediterranean.

The fifth star is missing in my rating because many chapters left me with a vaguely depressed feeling about how traditional olive culture is fading under pressure from modern economic forces and the pervasive cheating that goes on in European Union agricultural subsidies. This sensation may have been another testament to the author's writing skill, but I found it unpleasant and it distracted from my enjoyment of the book. Nonetheless, I can recommend the book to anybody with an interest in olives and how things work behind the grocery store shelves.

This is a great book! I bought a copy while visiting an olive orchard in Australia. Anyone interested in developing an olive orchard would find this book useful. Excellent travel writing to boot! I've even planted my own kalamata olive tree after reading the book . I'm so inspired I might even buy a home press.

I'm gorging myself with olives: the fruit, the oil, this book. There are books you re-read years gone, but I found myself devouring clumps of this book just days after reading it in the conventional way. Mort Rosenblum could have given us an encyclopedic guide to the "noble fruit," but instead he follows his passions--and does first class journalistic digging--to press out the finest extra virgin essence of his subject. I also like the way Rosenblum writes, as much a friend as an authority. France, and its olive oils, comes first on the author's list, but he also does justice to subjects as disparate as the place of olives in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the promising growth of the high-end California olive oil industry, and even the seemingly bottomless corruption on the olive oil front in the European Community. Few effective journalists write with such literary flair, without seeming to try too hard. A winner.

Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com

_Olives_ by Mort Rosenblum is a well-written, witty, and engaging book on all things olive, thorough in its coverage. Rosenblum became an olive aficionado after acquiring five acres of land in the Provence region of France, site of an abandoned farmhouse and two hundred half-dead and heavily overgrown century-plus olive trees, long neglected. From that point on he became not only committed to bringing his trees back to life but on becoming an expert on olives in general, traveling throughout France, Israel, Palestine, Spain, Italy, Tunisia, Morocco, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, California, and Mexico to speak to olive growers, those who press olives for their oil, government regulators, those involved in marketing table olives and olive oil, chefs, and nutritional experts. Though not a cookbook, _Olives_ even includes cooking, buying, and storage tips as well as recipes for such fare as eliopitta (a Cypriot olive bread) and imam bayaldi (the name meaning "the imam fainted," supposedly reference to a long-ago reaction to this eggplant and olive oil dish).

The origins of the domestication of _Olea europaea_ are lost in the mists of prehistory. The olive, a close relation to the lilac and jasmine, was maintained in groves in Asia Minor as early as 6000 B.C. Greeks, Phoenicians, and Romans spread olives to Sicily, the Italian mainland, France, Spain, and North Africa. Spanish missionaries in the 1500s brought the olive to California and Mexico. Today there are 800 million olive trees in the world. Though found on six continents, 90% of them are found in the Mediterranean (Spain has the most).

Olives have long been an important fixture in Mediterranean history and religion. Golden carvings of olives decorated ancient Egyptian tombs. Greeks used so much olive oil to lubricate their athletes that they invented a curved blade, the strigil, to scrape it off. Saul, the first king of Israel, was crowned by rubbing oil into his forehead. In Hebrew, the root word for "messiah" comes from "unguent," meaning that the messiah when he arrives will be slathered in oil. The fuel referred to in the miracle of Hanukkah was olive oil. The Old and New Testaments refer to olive oil 140 times and the olive tree 100 times. The Romans had a separate stock market and merchant marine dedicated just to oil.

Rosenblum vividly showed that olive oil is a nuanced as wine. There are seven hundred cultivated varieties, or cultivars, with some grown for pressing, others for eating, ranging from cailletiers (favored in salade nicoise) to malissi (the standard tree of the West Bank) to the hardy, wilder Moroccan picholine to the famous Greek Kalamata. Oils vary a lot in taste, from syrupy yellow oils of southern Italy to thin green Tuscan oils with a peppery after bite to the spicy and light oil of the Siurana region of Spain. Acidity and taste vary due to local cultivators, the weather that year, the presence or absence of pests, when the olives are harvested, and how long they sit around before pressing (as fermentation drives up acidity).

There are regional differences in harvesting olives. In Israel, Palestine, and France, they "milk" trees, the pickers using their fingers and dropping olives into a basket or a net under the tree. "Whackers" - prevalent in Spain, Italy, and Greece - use sticks to hit the branches to dislodge olives, faster and not requiring ladders, but tougher on the trees.

The actual process of pressing olives is extremely well-covered, Rosenblum vividly describing the one favored in most olive-growing countries, the modern continuous system (which uses linked centrifuges to grind up pulp), often highly automated, and the traditional method of using a tower press, which is a very interesting device (though labor-intensive and on the decline outside of niche markets). There are considerable debates in the industry over exact methods, particularly on the use of water and its temperature.

Olives are big business; an industry producing about $10 billion a year as the world consumes nearly 2 million metric tons of olive oil each year. In some areas consumption is quite high; the average per capita consumption annually in Greece is five gallons of oil. Though Spain produces 37% of the world's oil compared to Italy's 19 % and Greece's 17%, it only has a 16% share of the American market (compared to Italy's 70% and Greece's 3%). Ten brands dominate the American domesticate market; most labels are small, sold only regionally or instead growers sell their olives to Italy to produced blended oils for export as a "Product of Italy" despite being grown perhaps in Tunisia, Greece, or Turkey. Rosenblum investigated the corruption that existed in the industry, from waning Mafia influence in Italy to adulterating olive oil with seed oil to cheating in some areas to gain EU agricultural subsidies.

Sales in olive oil have grown a great deal, particularly in the United States, thanks to a growing consensus on its healthfulness. Monounsaturated, olive oil drives out bad cholesterol without reducing the good. Rich in antioxidants, it has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer.

The author provided some valuable education to the consumer about oils. Extra-virgin for instance means that the amount of free fatty acids - mostly oleic acid - is below 1 percent, with the organoleptic properties (aroma, taste, and body) rating high. Virgin oil, rarely found for sale, has up to 2 percent acidity. Both are produced by "first-press" or "cold-press" methods. Plain olive oil, (or "pure"), is refined inferior oil used mainly for frying, treated with steam and chemicals and mixed with some better oil for a little flavor and aroma. Pomace oil comes from the first-press leavings, refined to bring it below the 3.5 percent acidity level that designates lamp oil, though often pomace is instead used to make soap (the oil for soap may have 40% acidity). "Lite" oil has the same number of calories (125 per tablespoon), simply being a refined olive oil with less extra virgin added, a clearer color, cheaper to make, and inferior.

This delightful book by an American journalist based in France is much more about the geopolitics, history, and economics of olive growing than about the culinary role of olives and it's oil. It is also much more about olive oil than it is about the fruit, especially since commerce in the oil dwarfs trade in the fruit. Aside from it's being especially well written, it benefits most from it's being written entirely from a first person point of view. Aside from references to selected European Union regulations and documents, all of the text relates conversations between the author and his subjects, the olive growing farmers of the Mediterranian and California. The story starts in the author's own home where he himself raises olives in a small farm in Provence, France. From there, the story travels to other Provencal olive groves, Italy, Spain, Morroco, Greece, and Israel / Palestine.

The book provides a wealth of information for your understanding of olives, olive growing, and the production of olive oil. The most interesting aspects of this story were the domination of olive oil commerce by Italian firms, in spite of the fact that Spain is the world's largest producer of olives and the differences between various methods of extracting oil and how these different processes may affect the quality of the oil.

This book is a very good read, especially for foodies. Just don't expect much information about the culinary and nutritional values of olive oil. There are other books dedicated to olive oil which cover this very well.