Media Books

I love to read this book with the kids at school. I get a little teary every time I read it!

This book is simple enough for two-year-olds, but complex enough for much older children, or even adults.

The trick is that the words (only a sentence or so per page, and mostly of the format "Boris was ADJECTIVE. All pirates are ADJECTIVE") only barely sketch out the story - the rest is in the illustrations, or else has to be guessed at.

At the end of the book, we find that when Boris' parrot died "He cried and cried. All pirates cry. And so do I", a line that echoes in the mind.

Don't pass this one by.

This picture book illustrates that tough pirates can be tough and yet cry as well. Boris is the epitome of a tough pirate; he is swashbuckling, fierce, and he even looks the part. All that stands, but we learn about a new side of Boris with his favorite friend, his parrot. I would recommend this book for younger students to read themselves, or it would be great for the pre-K set as a read aloud. It's short enough for a quick bedtime story!

This book is wonderful. It uses the very popular theme of pirates to explain that having feelings is normal and that there is no weekness in tears. My six year old reads it everyday.

This is a wonderfully surprising book. Simple predictable text makes this book and easy read aloud to young children and interesting illustrations that capture the imagination. This book also deals with pirates and treasure, but also the loss of a pet, which most children can relate to, but in a simple way. My three-year-old loves this book and can spend 20 minutes just flipping through the pages. I definately recommend this book for children 3 and up.

It's one thing to have a great idea, but it's something else to take that idea and truly bring it to life - but that's just what Jennifer Bouani has done in this first book of the Future Business Leaders' Series. Tyler and His Solve-a-matic Machine wildly succeeds on two levels: entertaining its target audience of ages 9 to 12 with an excellent, fun fantasy adventure and offering its young readers a number of very sound lessons in the principles of entrepreneurship. If you're a parent, your child might not remember how to spell entrepreneur after reading this book, but he will be familiar with most of the basic concepts behind the term - and could very well be excited about the prospect of becoming an entrepreneur himself.

Tyler is an orphan who dreams of sailing around the world like his late father did. One night, while slogging his way through a homework assignment, he dreams up the idea of a machine to help him do all of his homework quickly. Then a strange voice leads him downtown to a magical high-rise building, where it reveals itself to be Sote, the Great Spirit of the Entrepreneurs. After hearing about entrepreneurship and its potential rewards, Tyler accepts Sote's challenge: get to the top of the hundred-floor building before sunrise if he really wants to realize his dream of having his very own boat.

Obviously, it's not as simple as just taking the elevator or stairs up to the top floor. The stairways are locked, different elevators in the building take you to different levels, and Tyler must find the keys to several special elevators. Along the way, he will also meet up with certain individuals and groups determined to stop him from succeeding.

Tyler's entrepreneurial quest basically takes him through the process of taking his idea of a Solve-a-matic Machine and turning it into an actual manufacturing business. Bouani came up with some really brilliant ways to illustrate the kinds of obstacles entrepreneurs must deal with in the real world- and that's really the key to the book's success and eminent readability. Even as your child is reading this entertaining fantasy adventure featuring all kinds of exotic locations and animals, he/she is actually learning how to take an idea and turn it into a marketable product by coming up with a design, assembling the necessary tools and resources for production, hiring and managing workers (including dealing with unions), setting prices and production levels, etc.

I have a degree in economics, so I know how boring this subject matter can be. Bouani deserves major kudos for taking such a potentially dry subject as entrepreneurship and communicating its basic principles in such a fun and entertaining way to younger readers. She actually gets kids excited about the prospects of becoming entrepreneurs themselves, and that's an amazing accomplishment. Similar books involving Tyler and his friends are forthcoming in the Future Business Leaders' Series, and I am sure they will build upon the strong foundation this first book has already established.

This is a fantasy adventure story for children between, say, 9 & 12. However, it isn't just a fantasy adventure story. It has the purpose of entertaining while it introduces children to the basic topics of becoming an entrepreurial businessperson. To an adult inured to the typical squishy values of much children's writing, the frankness of the pro-business ideas might seem jarring. However, it is unlikely the kids will have such feelings of strangeness.

Tyler is an lives in an orphanage and all he has of his father is a picture of him. I may have missed it, but I couldn't find any explanation of what happened to his mother. He ends up going through the floors of a very magic tall building and has to solve projects on each floor in order to get to the penthouse by the next morning to win his dream.

The projects do discuss topics that every entrepreneur will have to face, but not in a realistic way. That isn't the purpose of the book. It is a fantasy adventure and wants to start children thinking along certain lines. No one faults the squishy literature for presenting human relations in unrealistic ways. It is just that there is so much of it we have come to accept it.

However, this book seems to cover even union busting. Is that really a topic a nine year old will understand in any way? It might be that in some states the kind of behavior the adventurers engage is illegal in some states! I don't know.

Anyway, it is a fresh kind of story. I am not a person who reads a lot of children's literature so I don't know how the writing fits for its target audience. Even when I was a child, I didn't read children's literature. The language isn't beautiful or particularly enchanting. However, it does get its point across and that is probably more important to its goals.

This is a very inventive and brilliantly written book about a young orphaned boy who invents a machine to do his homework and embarks on an adventure in a fantasy sky-scraper where he meets all the people who he needs to start his own business. It is not only informative but encouraging for youth to know they can suceed in the world of business.

A great introduction for kids.

Seth J. Frantzman

Jennifer Bouani, Tyler and His Solve-a-Matic Machine (Bouje, 2006)

The idea of kids' books teaching libertarian values is one near and dear to my heart. Unfortunately, I've never actually found one that gets it entirely right; the author either softpedals the values and mixes in some of the usual left-leaning kids'-book malarkey or overstates the case and ends up writing something more polemic than kids' book. Tyler and His Solve-a-Matic Machine, however, is as close as I've found to a book that manages to keep its balance.

More than anything, it put me in mind of Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth in its writing style. Bouani, like Juster before her, creates an entirely believable character and then thrusts him into an entirely unbelievable situation (and for much the same reason). Tyler, our hero, is ten years old. Like most kids, he's not fond of homework, but unlike most kids, he's actually got some ideas in his head about a machine that will help. There are forces who are willing to help him build his machine, but first they must teach him the basics of being an entrepreneur.

First things first: let's get the bad stuff out of the way, and when I say "bad stuff," I mean two minor niggles. First, the font in which the book is typeset is non-standard, and can take a while to get used to, so be prepared. Second, if you're a unionist, prepare to be absolutely outraged. Tyler and his friends' solution to the problem of the striking union members is the kind of thing that got people killed in the seventies. (Needless to say, it's also the correct answer.) Some of the characters are less well-developed than I'd like, but the afterword states that this is the first book in a series; I'm certainly willing to give Bouani the benefit of the doubt that the characters will become more developed as time goes on. Why? Because, despite the fact that this book could have easily gone the way of the lecturing instruction manual (viz. The Girl Who Owned a City), Bouani realizes that, yes, there is a story to be told here, and that the lessons the book wants to impart are better related through the construct of the story. That puts her ahead of 95% (if not more) of those who write books like this already.

My biggest problem with the book was that I wanted more. Yeah, I know, it's the first in a series. This is why I don't normally read series until they're all out, because now I have to hunker down and start the interminable wait for the second book. However, while I'm waiting, I will recommend Tyler and His Solve-a-Matic Machine without hesitation; I've already given my copy to my daughter. ***

Young Tyler Sogno has big dreams - he would like to buy a big boat, and sail all around the world. But, being an orphan, and a bit of a slacker, he knows that his dreams will never come true. However, when a disembodied voice tells him that there is a path to that brighter future, Tyler sits up and take notice. The voice tells him that to make his dreams come true, he must become an entrepreneur! What does Tyler have to do to become an entrepreneur? He (and we) are about to find out!

This book is a wonderful lesson in capitalism, presented in the form of a story. I am tempted to say an allegorical story, but in fact few things are veiled here. This book teaches the young reader all about what it takes to become an entrepreneur, everything from coming up with a product, getting the patents, developing the plant, and hiring employees.

I must admit, I wish I had had this book a couple of years ago. For a high school class, my nephew and some other students were supposed to develop the idea for a business to place on an island. They came up with exporting coconut bikinis and monkey butlers. They understood so little about what running a business meant, and this book would have told them.

Overall, I think that this is a great book, one that should be required reading in all American schools! I give this book my highest recommendation.

Oops, I almost forgot to mention...I love the characters in this book, especially the monkey J.J. Junglehammock, Attorney at Law. He cracked me up!

This book is essential to any family with a core curriculum student. A must have!

Every parent should have these books for the grade school children. It's a great way to know if your school and/or child are keeping up with your childrens grade level. I used the book in the summer, prior to my childen entering the grade to make sure they were ready for their next school year.

Every parent should buy these books for their children. We bought the Fourth grade, second grade and Kindergarten and they are all fabulous. The kids find them very interesting and my husband and I even enjoy them. They are packed full of terrific information. Highly recommend. This is a book your child has to have.

I have been very pleased with this book. I love to get ideas out of it for our homeschool.

When I bought this book from Amazon, I knew it was a steal! My daughter has already been helped so much by its stories, activities, and short biographies of famous people. I plan to eventually buy all of the books in the Core Curriculum series. They're just like vitamins and vegetables, they're good for kids!

This gentle story, told in simple rhyme, shows animals in a stable getting ready for a special guest. The block-print art, rich in earth-tones, gives a humble and loving feel to the scene. Each animal does what it can to prepare the stable, and when Mary and Joseph arrive, the animals stand in hushed anticipation. The final page shows all the animals gathered around the new baby Jesus, saying, "Welcome, welcome to our house!" A perfect read-aloud for little ones.

My toddler class loved this book. They loved the repetition and every time I'd read the line "Who is coming to our house?" they'd yell Jesus!! It is a great story told from the animals' perspective and a wonderful addition to any preschooler's library!

A wonderful little board book for the little ones. Nice size for them to handle! The Christmas story from the viewpoint of the stable animals is special. The colors are eye catching. Highly recommended!

This book is a favorite for my two pre-school-aged children. We read it year-round.

The rhymes of the tale are engaging. (I love the oft repeated line: "Someone, someone," says Mouse.)

My only quibble with the book is the art work. It is not to my taste, though I think that that is more a matter of personal preference than anything else.

I am SO SICK of this book. I have to read it over and over and over again all day long. My daughter (17 months) will pull it from the bottom of a pile of books and bring it to me to read. On the final page she pats the baby's face and says "Baby. Baby." It's a very sweet little book and worth getting; your child will love it.

I use this book and also the author's AD cookbook daily to help with supporting our global Active Directory server infrastructure. This is an absolutely indispensable reference.

This book is a great resource covering a wide variety of interactions with Windows Servers. Whether you are new or experienced, this book is an invaluable tool.

We're a software engineering company, and I maintain our internal servers (6-7 servers) as well as provide customer support on our products. A lot of that involves asking for information from the customer - and this book helps in putting together scripts that I can send out that will send back information to us that avoids us asking to exchange 5 emails to get the same result. Anything that saves my time - and our customers time - is worthy of purchasing. Well done, well organised book - and the author returns emails!

This book is not one for beginners who don't know what they are doing and are looking for detailed explanations of topics. This is made purely for the admin who needs to get a job done, and quickly, and knows already what they are trying to accomplish. I really appreacieate all the scripting examples and also how Rob puts in some great building blocks for scripting (like how to redirect your output to an excel file rather than just the usual Wscript.Echo output that you can redirect to a text file or to stdout). Great Job Robbie!!

This book has a sound foundation for managing a windows 2003 server. The chapters are logically organized. I used some of the examples in the book to migrate some file shares in my network from unix to windows, the book was there for the rescue (the fact that the author has a solid windows/unix experience makes this book even more attractive). The solutions in this book include windows scripting, an area that is seldom talked about in windows literature. If you are serious about managing a windows 2003 server competently then you want to have this book in your arsenal.

As I started to read this book, I began highlighting Dr. Taylor's statements, until it quickly became apparent that I would be highlighting the entire book.

I found myself saying, "Yes, I get it now!" as Dr. Taylor explained how even good media can teach bad habits. Parents will feel empowered after reading this book to take a stand in the war being waged against our families.

Your Children Are Under Attack takes a frighteningly honest look at one of today's most dangerous social diseases: popular culture's battle for control of our children's hearts and minds. Dr. Taylor exposes the ugly war of greed that marketers and the media have been waging on our young, and the spell it has also cast over parents. Step-by step, with the skill of a researcher, the compassion of a wizened therapist, and the heart of a principled human being, he examines each of these unhealthy forces and shows us how to protect our children from this assault and its subsequent ruinous effect on our values. Well-written, poignant, and forceful, Dr. Taylor's work stands as a call to action that comes not a moment too soon. The first step every responsible parent should take to win back control of their children is to read Dr. Taylor's book.

Dr. Taylor identifies the true enemy that is after your child - and gives solid, practical advice on how to protect them from it. In the ever broadening spectrum of pop culture, if you don't have a careful hand in raising your kids, the media will gladly do it for you. Empowering, insightful and straight to the point, Dr. Taylor puts parenting back in the hands of where it belongs.

It was 1960 on the stage of "Bye Bye Birdie" when actor Paul Lynde, playing Mr. Henry McAfee, shouted out to his audience saying, "Kids! I don't know what's wrong with these kids today!"
Toward the end of his barrage, he finally asked, "Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way? What's the matter with kids today?"
Dr. Jim Taylor, in his book "Your Children are Under Attack: How Popular Culture is Destroying Your Kids' Values, and How You Can Protect Them," addresses this age-old question with an answer: popular culture is devastating our lives.
Video games, too much TV, corporate fraud, materialism, the inundation of information from the Internet, the unreasonable emphasis on physical attractiveness, plus the lack of physical activity leading to childhood obesity -- these are endangering our children and our culture.
Throughout the book, Taylor's theme never waivers. "The messages that American popular culture communicate to children today are in direct conflict with what is best for them," he writes. "Popular culture is now a truly counterproductive force in families' lives...."
Taylor believes that those who in past generations were institutional partners with parents such as the government, corporate America and even our schools have themselves given in to the illusory promises of instant gratification and the almighty "bottom line."
Parents are left standing alone between their children and millions of images from TV, DVDs, XBoxes, etc.
Taylor believes modern pressures lead to lazy parenting - raising children "in the most convenient way" because adults are exhausted and overwhelmed by the pace and impact of everyday life.
The message is grim, but Taylor offers hope. Taylor explains how families can make their values clear, communicate them to one another, and live discriminating lives aware yet distanced from the dangers of pop culture.
For example, he gives straight-forward language parents can use to guide their children toward making safe, sound decisions.
He also gives parents permission to say no to pop culture and to band together with those of like minds to create safe, nurturing environments for their families -- places that do not focus on self-serving ends but that foster compassion, confidence, and kindness.

Dr. Jim Taylor has written a book that needs to be written. Parents, teachers and interested individuals need to be aware as to what our Ameican culture is doing to our children and the values that are being propogated. Dr. Taylor exposes what messages the " media " are sending. Dr. Taylor shows what values corporations in America are esposing. He knows that greed, corruption, materialism and just plain stupidity are out there on our television sets, magazines and what values permeate our culture. Taylor knows what a steady diet of The Osbournes, Friends and of course Paris Hilton will do. We all need to be aware of the messages that are sent to our children on a daily basis and how these messages influence our kids and our culture. Instead of integrity, cleavage is respected in American society. Instead of honor and truth, mascara and designer jeans are extolled as being important. More than ever, parents need to work at discussing values, things of importance and integrity with their children. Parents who do want to help raise their children should read this. Teachers who want to understand the values of their students should read this. And lastly greedy, money hungry corporate American leaders should read this and understand what their crass commercialism is doing to America.

This is a great book!It is written in secret code and is very hard to understand.But it is still an excellent book with a good plot!

This is a great book!It is written in secret code and is very hard to understand.But it is still an excellent book with a good plot!

I read this book 2 years ago, and still I can not forget how good it was and how much it helped me understand there are other people out there going through the same things as I do and worse. I am now 14 years old, and couldn't image going through what Julian went through in this book, AFTER the death of my mother.

Although the book was kinda confusing in the beginning, I caught on. Deciphering each and every messaged coated with numbers and codes until I cracked each and everyone one of them and recorgnized them once I spotted them.

Author James M. Deem is without doubt the most amazing author I've ever read books from. Since this book, I look and look for his books and read them and never I repeat NEVER has he let me down. I think that everyone who reads his material should cherish it, and hold on to his thoughts [ they are amazing ] just as I have done, because he's simply...the best. <3 James!

-Ashley

Julian is an abused child. His mother is dead, his demented stepmother starves him and locks him in his room and makes him do all the chores in the house, and his father lets her. The story is told in diary form of Julian's three notebooks, or "Nbs" as he calls them. The notebooks are written in code so that if his father and stepmother should discover them, they would have difficulty reading. The reader also has difficulty at first, as it takes some detective work to decipher the code.

The thing I liked most about the book is Julian's strength of spirit. With the support of his English teacher and a classmate, he is able to get a job, run away, and make a new life for himself. When I looked at James Deem's website, it says the story is based on the author's own experiences. And you can tell. It's really good, though the code can be a bit annoying.

This book seriously defies the mind. When I picked up this book + read the 1st page I knew that it was going 2 B like no book that I have ever read. I had some knowledge of pager code before hand so it was not as difficult for me as it would B for someone who hadn't. I was intrigued w/ 16 y.o Julian who's life + everything in it couldn't be described as anything but [the underworld]. This book kept me turning page after page determined to find if he gets away 4rm his abusive parents or ever meets this "U" th@ he obsesses himself over.
This book is a puzzle and unraveling it is only half the fun. I recommend this book 2 everyone. I thought it was a great story + if u take the time 2 sit down + read it, I'm sure you will think the same thing 2.

I enjoy the adventure in all these books and particularly like the fact that there is a series of books and they have the same characters.

A famous writer is coming to Green Lawn, but after the writer doesn't show up for a book signing event in the Book Nook, Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose are worried.
Later in Dink's letter it says the the writer was probly kidnapped.
SO they started investingation, was the auther really kidnapped and by whom?
You need to read the book and find out!

My eight year old grandson is avid reader. He reads 2 years ahead of his grade level in school. I always think of books for my grandkids as gifts. When his birthday was coming, I came looking for books. I found this series. They are called the A-Z mysteries. I bought the first ten books A-J and they were such a success. He loves everyone of them. I am going to buy more of them to use as gifts for good report cards, etc. I think that books are the most important gift that you can give to a child and these books are great.

I like everything about the kidnapping stuff. I like Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose. I think the pictures should be in color.
It was a good mystery.

I wanted to get a beginner's chapter book for my almost 6-year-old daughter. I thought about Junie B. Jones or the Magic Tree House series, but I was turned off by Junie's poor grammar (or at least the author's attempt to make her sound like a "real" 6-year-old), and by the Magic Tree House's female character being "dreamy" while her brother was "logical". This book managed to avoid those caveats, while still being an entertaining read for my daughter. I wasn't sure at first if she could follow a chapter book on her own, with illustrations only appearing every 3 pages or so, so I read her the first two chapters last night. This morning, the first thing she reached for was that book. Instead of getting up and watching Saturday morning cartoons, she sat in bed, ate a banana, and finished her new book. I couldn't ask for anything better.

What a delightful book!! I read this book to my daughter and I read it every night, because I feel that this is a great book about being alone and friendship. I recommend it to all young children

I originally became acquainted with this magical tale when my son checked it out from the public library about 20 years ago. Both of us fell in love with this wonderfully-told imaginative story, and each of us has gifted it to many young friends and family members over the years. It goes without saying that the illustrations, too, are a delight.

My 4-year-old and I both love this book. Sweet story, but most importantly, the pictures are goregous!

My son's grandma recently brought this book home from the library and we fell in love with it. It is a sweet and magical story about friendship. It was written in 1969 so I am glad to hear they have reissued it. My son is 3 and just loves it. The illustrations and text are lovely and simple.

Every time people see Alexander they scream or chase him, but all he wants are a few crumbs. Willy, on the other hand, another mouse, is loved and cuddled and cared for. That's because Willy is a toy, a wind-up mouse.

Well, Willy (the toy) and Alexander (the real mouse) happen to meet and each tell about their lives: a happy one for Willy, a frightening and lonely one for Alexander.

Luckily, he thinks, Alexander finds that with the help of some magic from a lizard he, too, can become a happy and loved wind-up mouse. But just in time something shocking happens to make him change his mind about turning into another Willy: Something happens to Willy. (Suitable for preschool through the primary grades.)

A Non-Workbook, Non-Textbook Approach to Teaching Language Arts: Grades 4 Through 8 and Up

This is, quite simply, the best book I've ever seen for familiarizing small children with the numbers from 0 to 12 (not for teaching them to read, because there is no text). However, it needs an attentive adult to go through slowly with the child, inventing a story to correspond with the pictures. I doubt whether a child could get much from it if left to go through it alone.

On page 0 there is nothing -- just a snow-covered hillside. On page 1 there is one building, one adult, one child, one animal, one bird, etc. On page 2 there are two of everything, until, at page 12 there is a complete little village. The choice of 12 steps in the story is not accidental or arbitrary, but corresponds to the number of months in the year, so we start in the dead of winter, move to spring, summer, autumn and back to winter again.

the book is really pretty, there are just images so you can make up stories, it is unusually large for a book, great book I do recomment

My sons loved this quiet book and asked to count the items in the lovely illustrations endlessly. Anno includes a bit of whimsy on the final page if you are thorough in your counting!

I bought this "big" book to use in my Kindergarten classroom. There are abundant activities, found on the internet in an author search, for young children about counting, sequencing and comparing that can springboard from this excellent resource.

The book Anno's Counting Book is a great book for helping children with counting and learning basic math concepts. It helps with addition and subtraction as well as grouping items. The book starts at zero, which is one of few books that start with zero. This helps children grab the concept the zero is still a number even when there is nothing to count. The book goes all the way through the number 12. Children are also able to count the objects in the picture. Each object in that picture contains that number that is on the page.
The style of the book is very simple for young children. Each page contains one number. On that page there is only that specific number of items that children are able to participate and count along. On the left side of each page are counting blocks. The blocks can help children with their addition and subtraction by seeing how many blocks are missing or how many they have to add to make a certain number. On the right side of the page there is the written form of the number which helps children visually see what the number looks like. The illustrations in the book are also very colorful and detailed, but yet simple enough for the children to count the objects in the picture. As you go throughout the book, the pictures also change through the different seasons of the year.
The book Anno's Counting Book is a great wordless book for children who are just learning how to count. It helps with addition, subtraction, grouping items, and writing numbers.