Sports and Hobbies Books

This is such a great product...perfect for using in the car. Klutz really does come up with the best ideas!

Want to occupy your 3-4 year old? Give him or her this book. The star shaped marker is perfect for chubby little hands, and has multiple colors, and the pictures are entertaining and easy for little ones to color. When was the last time the kids were allowed to color in a book? This is a GREAT gift or just a little past time, and once the book is done, the marker lives on to color again and again.

Grandaughter made some super pictures with these shapes. Easy to follow directions. Great book.

This book is great! It comes with a packet of zillions (over 200, it says) of precut foam pieces in a wide variety of colors and shapes, and a glue stick. The book has very little text, so it's fine for pre-readers. It's all colorful illustrations of different pictures a kid can make with the foam cutouts, sparking their imagination and showing them how to do it. Some of the illustrations are numbered steps showing how to make a particular picture, such as a simple car or a face. Most show a completed critter, vehicle, or whatever, but the illustrations are so clear that you can see what shapes were used to make each item.

On the child development front, it develops art intelligence - the ability to see how to portray a 3-dimensional object with a 2-dimensional picture; spatial reasoning (like Legos or jigsaw puzzles - how do parts fit together?); fine motor skills manipulating the small pieces; and the usual benefits of preschool crafts - the kid learns to use standard tools such as glue stick and paper. What I especially like, though, is that a preschooler can learn from it that books can teach us how to do something. He (she) can figure out for himself (herself) how to do something by looking at the illustrations even if (s)he's too young to read. If (s)he asks you how to make a lion, tell him (her) to go look it up in the book!

The age range is 4 and up, per the publisher. Amazon.com says 4-8. That looks right. The small pieces are a choking hazard for children under 3. A kid needs the intelligence and finger skills of a 4-year-old to fully enjoy this book, counting skills to follow numbered steps. Somewhat older kids would enjoy it, too, as long as they're at an age where they still enjoy this sort of arts and crafts - elementary school age - and don't mind a preschool book. I bought it for a Christmas gift for a 4 yr. old. Waiting for Christmas ....

This book is a delight, and an essential tool for Santa Fe parents and visitors. Every home should have one. It's a complete, clear, and enticing guide to the things children of all ages can enjoy in Santa Fe. It made me want to borrow friends' children or be a kid again, myself.

D.Potter

This is one of two great guidebooks written for parents to help them select places to visit and activities to include when they take their children to Santa Fe. Both this guide and "Santa Fe with Kids" provide basic information about the usual activities and attractions popular with children in Santa Fe: the Children's mMseum, Palace of the Governors, the Plaza, and lots of others. You can't go wrong with either of these.

This guide is a little more "scholarly" than the other. It begins with several pages of child-friendly facts about Santa Fe's history, and includes more activities related to the arts and culture.

Both guides describe fun day trips from Santa Fe, but this one includes a good bit of information on attractions and activities for children in Albuquerque (and Los Alamos) that is useful if you plan to spend time there as well.

Overall, this guide contains more information than the other (it's longer and a little more expensive) and it has a wonderful drawing of the Plaza on the cover. It does lack the information about child-friendly restaurants that the other guide provides.

Of course, if you are looking for a guide that is written for children rather than for parents--one that can be your child's own--I recommend I See Santa Fe! A Children's Guide and Coloring Book

-Lynn Michelsohn, author of Roswell, Your Travel Guide to the UFO Capital of the World!

Cobi Jones is the soccer player kids watch in the United States. He is their hero. This book will help the beginner through advanced increase their skills. The format of the book is very user friendly. First, the reader learns some valuable information about Cobi Jones, then he takes you step by step through all of soccer's skills. Mr. Jones goes over the rules of the game, then stresses the need for warming up and details some exercises to do just that. He also emphasizes fair play. Each chapter then discusses and demonstrates a soccer skill. Mr. Jones offers excellent graphics appropriate for kids, and gives tips to enhance the skill. To complete each chapter skill, the champion provides games for perfect practice. This book is a very personalized approach to soccer instruction derived from a book. A great gift and "personal coach" for soccer enthusiasts! An autographed practice ball is included!

I loved all the detailed soccer tips I could share with my kids when I coach their AYSO teams. Cobi is their favorite professional athelete and his instruction really influences my kids in a positive light both on and off the field.

Thomas Owens' Collecting Baseball Cards (1708-2) provides a primer on collecting, with color photos of cards and players supplementing the basics on how to start and value a collection.

It would be a shame to limit Thomas Owens' Collecting Baseball Cards to the young audience it was written for: many an adult collector will find this the perfect introduction to baseball cards, using easy language to explain how the cards are graded and what determines their value. Color photos throughout display vintage cards.

This is an essential resource when you are on the road. It has loads of juicy information on an incredible number of clubs. So many of them offer reciprocity to other club members so you can visit them on your travels. The colored illustrations of the club burgees are also useful when seeing other boats along the waterway. AND they seem to have the only listing of private signal flags in the world since Lloyds stopped publishing.

This is an essential resource for anyone who travels and enjoys visiting new clubs. It give information on lots of different clubs and whether they offer recipocity with your home club. So many do!

From the Her Website
... an enthusiastic collection of songs and stretches, short rhymes, calls and response, and other program fillers that young listeners will soon be happily chanting along with. ...A boon for beginning storytellers or storytime givers...contains examples of successful material to use with youngsters in a programming setting, whether in the public library, media center, or park district. Baltuck does an expert job of communicating her enthusiasm for her work, and the kids who contribute as singers and participators are clearly having a great time. Even if you already have Baltuck's print version of Crazy Gibberish in your collection, this cassette is not superfluous. It will contribute a bunch of crowd-pleasing songs and stretches to your repertoire, and it is certain to become a favorite among young listeners. - Storytelling Review

This book and the cassette of the same title are wonderfully entertaining for children of all ages. The author combines music and stories to capture your attention. My kids request this over and over and can sing along and tell the stories as we hear them on the cassette. We found these available at our local library and it would be well worth having our own copy. Enjoy!!

A great addition to any scrapbooker's collection!
When I first saw this book I was just amazed that I had finally found a book dedicated to vacation scrapbook pages. And after opening it, I was thrilled that it didn't disappoint like so many other scrapbook idea books I've seen in the past. Anyone needing great examples for vacation layouts should definitely pick up this book. While the book doesn't provide much in written tips and ideas it does provide pages upon pages of beautifully designed layouts. These pages will have your creative juices flowing in no time. Happy scrapping!

I was looking for ideas for pages because we are going to do a family reunion at Disney. This is a once in a lifetime event and I wanted to scrap it for the little ones. I took out so many books from the library and pages through dozens of books at the craft store. Then I came accross this gem.

Practically every layout begs to be re-defined for our pages. The book starts out with beach pages and has a particullarly nice "Cousins are Friends" page that will work quite nice for our expented family. The outings section is 90% Disney layouts, including what to do with your Epcot travels and Animal Kingdom. It also has a few Sea World layouts for that side trip. In the outdoor section it has camping pages that work well if you are staying at Ft Wildreness. Also a great spelunking section, which I have never seen before.

While I checked this book out from the library, I now want to buy a copy for my collection as it is a wonderful layout resourse. As a beginner I did not find the very short and basic layout directions to be too difficult. The book names the manufacturer of the items used and probably assumes you will be consulting the various directions or just using your own creativity to alter the layouts.

This is a terrific book about an important historical chess match. If you play chess, even if you don't have a great interest in these historical figures, the games are interesting and the author has gone to great pains to get all the information he possibly could relating to these players and these matches.

This is a hard back book, designed to last for years. It is well worth the price!

First of all, have you ever read ANYTHING on the Internet ... only to look for it later, and discover that it had been moved or deleted? (One of my 'pet peeves.') I don't know why anyone does this, much valuable material: chess games, book reviews, news items, etc; these are all deleted on a regular basis. (Please read on, you will see the relevance of this complaint later in this review.)

I have had this particular book for many months now ... all I can say is that there are literally hundreds of books that people have sent me over the last few years, and I need to do book reviews on all of them ... eventually.

Chess History: what is the perhaps the most important match of the last 250 years? Which match was one of the first to pit the top masters from two different countries that were considered to be the leading chess nations of that day? Which match was the FIRST to have all the moves of that event recorded for chess posterity?

The answer was the event of 1834, which was - in actuality - a series of matches between la Bourdonnais and McDonnell.

Morphy studied these matches, as did many other chess players of the 1800's. But for over 100 years, the regular player could not find a book on these games anywhere. In the last 20-30 years, chess databases contained all of the games, as did a few other sources ... but most of these were inaccessible to the average chess enthusiast. A permanent record of these games was long overdue.

Taylor Kingston did an excellent, if somewhat lengthy review, for Chess Cafe, (The authorized merchandise distributor for the U.S. Chess Federation.). However, even though I have searched for it diligently, I can see no trace of this review on their website. (It is archived on my web pages; you should be able to find it with any search engine.)

Should you study these games? Well, to be honest, the answer is yes and no. As an Original USCF LIFE-Master, the student might look at these games and they would appear to be a little crude. Of course, one must bear in mind that they were played almost 200 years ago - chess has advanced considerably since that time. Additionally, several reviewers have pointed out that the analysis in this book is not perfect, the assiduous player, aided by Fritz, (or any other chess program); will definitely find improvements in the play and the notes ... should he (or she) choose to do so.

Then why would you buy this book? I think that this question has more than one answer:
# 1.) It is the ONLY place where you can find ALL the games ... and the notes from dozens of different sources in one place. (The author gets an A+ for his research, I doubt if any pertinent source has been overlooked or missed.)
# 2.) I enjoy a chess game that has been diligently annotated; many times there are copious notes, especially in the more famous of these encounters.
# 3.) The average player, which means anyone rated below 1850, will definitely learn a great deal by diligent study of these historic clashes.
# 4.) Anyone who considers himself a serious student of chess history will definitely want this book; it is as thorough and as in-depth as anyone could hope for.

A small side note is that the author even found my web pages, and mentions them in a couple of places. (See the notes to game # 04 and game # 50.)

In the end, this is a fantastic book, it receives my highest recommendation. This is a beautiful hardback edition with a library binding, the highest quality paper, and top-notch editing. This is a volume that most chess players would be proud to own and place on their book-shelf. I conclude with a quote from Mr. Kingston's review: (this book) ... "must be considered the definitive work on this important event, and one of the best of its kind ever. It is a book that scholars will cherish, and that anyone with the least interest in the game's history will enjoy."

We bought this on a road trip, hoping to keep my five-year-old occupied. I didn't expect it to actually keep his attention as long as it did. He drew for HOURS, and the drawings he produced were amazingly close to the examples given. The paper roll lasts for a LONG time, especially since you can only draw on two or three inches at a time, and the illustrations are cute but simple enough to easily duplicate.

I recommend this highly - in fact, I've just ordered the Dog and Cat ones for this Christmas road trip we're taking!

This is another item from the cool "klutz" company that makes neat educational toys that are portable enough to go anywhere in a pocket. This helps you to improve your doodles, or scribble art, into better art. Also has a pencil and a note pad. Great stocking stuffer. My son keeps this in the back of my car, and it competes with Gameboy for his attention now. I also reccommend Ed Emberly's "Make a World", and "Big Green Drawing Book".