Interactive Books

wow, the set of fabled lands books are brilliant, they transport you into a whole new enchanted world where anything is possible. I would well recomend these books to everyone. I just want to know what happend to the last six in the series?, i,ve been looking for them everywhere!

The best solo RPG game ever!
These books create the most amazing fantasy world.
They allow you to roam about how you want to.
It was planned that enough of these books would be released to cover the map that is contained in each of this series.
However, I heard, that they charged too little for each book (in England I think they were just £5 or £6!!) so they couldn't finish the series for financial reasons!
An absolute shame - I do anything for the last few books!!

I strongly reccomend this wonderful roleplaying game. Absolutely non-lynear storyline, many different characters to start your game with and many mini-quests in the global quest.

I have been playing the Quest for more than 3 years, and it was a pity that only 6 books have been published. This is the most astounding Role Playing Games I have ever played. Specially for people who do not of RPG games on computers. I wish that Jamie Thomson and Dave Morris become aware of this and please publish the remaining 6 books.The descriptions in the book for places, characters and actions are so good that I have abandoned to play Fighting Fantasy Series. Best of all, for all readers, is that the adventure is unlimited and you can go back and forth.

wow, the set of fabled land books are brilliant, they transport you into a whole new world where anything is possible. I would well recomend this book to those of you who like to escape for a few hours into a land of fiction. I would just like to know what happend to the last 6 books in the series?, i,ve been looking for them everywhere!

If you are a seasoned sales person/manager who knows the pain of too many Nos or no answer proposals, this is your book. This is a fitting up to date replacement for the New Solution Selling. Marx has been there, dione that and got all the T-shirts,. It is a pure sales book which happily ignores completely the need for nurturing etc. But for pure in the trenches, gut feel selling this is the book. I took a while to read it as the title put me off. But boy was I was mistaken. Marx could have been listening in on many Rocket Builders consults wrto sales and the buyer's journey. He is so bang on. Some insights:

* The salesperson gains power by empowering the buyer.
* Selling is tough but so is buying today.
* Your prospects want to buy, why would you be invited.
* Contracting is essential to set and maintain buyer expectations.
* What is the buyer doing to move the sale forward?
* Use half baked/straw man ideas before you present the maximum idea
* Use progress reports to show how far you have come
* A critical path details where you are going.
* There is no correlation between a rapid turnaround of a proposal and a good sale. None.

This is a salesman's/manager's must buy book.

Its been a good reading so far. Interesting points of view. I'll keep reading it for sure.

I can't speak for every industry but it's dead on for the media industry. When we look at the diminishing number of clients or prospects that have a solid respect for what we do, many of the answers (the little things) are in this book.

I don't hide the fact that I go against the grain in my search to improve procedures and systems to super serve clients while strengthening a company's bottom line. In that quest, a book called, "Close Like The Pros" by Steve Marx, had an impact on me. It's the closest strategy that I have found to date that I totally agree with in terms of real and realistic sales. "Close Like The Pros" is not a sales style, but rather a sales strategy for sales professionals who already understand why and how you should focus on customer needs. The book explains that providing the focus, power, and direction for the sale are important points to make during the sale. Oftentimes, management forces their own sales style on other members of their team and loses focus of the common goals to fill the client's needs while generating revenue for your company.

It's clear that Steve Marx has a sales training company because he provides a useful resource for the employee-focused manager. Those who live by partnership creation realize that it takes a great deal of work to provide that training and teach that skill to others. As an effective tool for the sales staff you want to educate and inspire, "Close Like the Pros" tells it like it is with clear, easy-to-follow examples. The book also includes easy and precise "how-to's" and encourages the exploration of the sales process in steps that permit growth. For the sales person who welcomes the opportunity to become even better, and for the manager who would appreciate an effective format for addressing the subject with new life, "Close Like the Pros" sets the stage for discussion in an active and energetic manner. I don't think there's any doubt that interactive selling is effective - "Close Like the Pros" will boost your own enthusiasm and renew your skills, whether you manage a staff of sales individuals or sell directly yourself. I've heard it said that 90% of all jobs are sales in one way or another. This book benefits people in every field because the ability to interact, to sell our product, or ourselves, is part of life as we know it.

I love this book. It's great for a party craft (as I first used it) or for sending/making cards.

I remember this book from when I was a kid. My 4YO loved it when he got this book. We've recently given it as gifts with a stamp pad. I would highly recommend it,since kids can make adorable pictures with little effort.

I used this book for 400 Girl Scouts at a day camp. The fingerprint animals and people worked for all ages and the girls loved to try new things from the book. Thanks for all the great fingerprint ideas. :)

I was not familiar with this book before I bought it; however, it was recommended by the teachers of the students for which this and several other Ed Emberley books were purchased. From the thank yous I have received, this book was a real hit! It is used in a Native American Mission School with great enthusiasm and even better results. What more could you ask for?

I used samples made from the book for a kid's craft at our library. The kid's and myself had a lot of fun.

This book is one of the best books I have read on Flash 5 techniques. I actually felt like I learned something after reading this book and going through their exercises. It answered questions I have always had when an animation did not work. He pretty much goes step by step with every exercise. He makes it easy to reread what you messed up on so you can do it again. Definitly a great teacher. If you are like myself and don't want to spend thousand's of dollars on a one or two day course learning the fundamentals of Flash 5, this book will definitly satisfy your needs.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough! It is simply the easiest
and best book out there for designers who wish to learn flash, bar none.
I started out knowing nothing about Flash 5 and created a great game
based on the old 50's Invaders from Mars movie, that everybody raves
about. Artists and graphic designers are usually not programmers, and
nearly all books about Flash are for programmers and are very hard for
us artists to crack into.

If I were to write a book for computer graphic design, I would use Mr.
Kaldahl's EZ Flash 5 as my blueprint to follow.

When I first received this book, I started my first project. I started getting excited because I was actually creating with flash! That is pretty much where the excitment ends.
This book is great for total beginners...which I was...but once you are done with the VERY SIMPLE projects, you really have no more than a beginners knowledge of flash.
That is why I am back at it again, trying to find another flash book to help me through my next stage which is putting MY ideas into creation.
See, the book didn't really help me learn to do the things I am interested in doing with flash. I don't care how to make a ball roll across the screen...if you know what I mean.

I strongly suggest for those of you who really want to learn how to use Flash, to buy this book. This book serves as a "beginner cookbook"! Last Fall, I took Flash 5 course by Brad Kaldahl and his book is excellent! In his introduction, he states:

"If you have never worked with Flash you will appreciate the easy to use, short, step by step projects. Rather than describing each palette and menu item and giving an explanation of what they do, you will learn by doing. From the second chapter on, you will be quickly producing exciting web content.

As an educator I designed this text because there are no book that tell you where you should start and provide a logical, easy to understand, progression for learning Flash. Both my students and I agree that the most enjoyable way to learn complex software is with short projects that show cool, fun, interesting technigues that can be used (or modified) immediately."

Authors who plan to write books on graphic design, animation or 3-D models should follow his example!

Be warned. Experienced users of other graphics software packages, looking to jump into Flash may find this book a little simple and repetitive. Having said that, let me also say that this book was exactly what I needed to get started. As a long time Photoshop/Illustrator/Pagemaker user, I was anxious to learn more about Flash and it's capabilities. I had even tried a couple of times to get through the provided lessons/tutorials, without actually retaining much.

The simple projects in this book allowed me to approach the otherwise non-intuitive Flash interface in a way that, while sometimes sophmoric, was at least not intimidating. In fact, rather than feeling dumb (as I sometimes do when reading instructional graphics books) this one actually made me feel pretty smart.

Take that for what it's worth. For the reader's reference, I consider myself to be of average intelligence. So I would say that the target audience for this book is somewhere slightly below average. Which, in this case, was just what I needed to get my feet wet. Having finished the book, I would not consider myself a Flash Master, but I think I've got the basics pretty well down. Now if I could just find a good intermediate level text....

you cannot go wrong w/ david carter "bug" books. i buy every one i can and my kids are getting too old for them. GREAT gifts

when are you going to mail this book ? or email me a phone # so i can talk to some one abouit this book.

I was happy to find the Bugs pop-up book, because my own children loved them, and now I am buying them for grandchildren. The books are fun and a delight for children, but probably too fragile for children under 3. The pop-ups are creative and clever, and there is a bit of a story line to the books, too.

My 16 month old son has only recently begun to sit still for books, but this was the first one that he paid rapt attention to, beginning to end. He brings it over for me to read it to him frequently. He has learned which way to pull the different flaps and tabs (they are different on different pages). Perhaps it's not the sturdiest of books, but for amount of pulling and yanking it has had, it has lasted far better than several other pop-up type books we have. We read it all the time, and he still hasn't tired of it. I will be getting him some others in the "bugs" series (he loves Chanukah Bugs, too), since they hold his attention so well! The bugs are cute, also.

I bought this book for my two 1/2 yr old. She loved all popup style books. But this book you have to be careful with. Each page had a different style of pull out, pop up. But the paper is very thin and tears easily. Not for a child to look through them selfs. Even as an adult I have to be very gentle with it.

The product came to my attention during the Christmas Season.
I could not be happier with my decision to purchase it.
I have read it twice and I cannot count how many times my wife has read it.

If you are familiar with this song and realize that it was written by Mark Lowry then having this book also written by him and him performing the song is just great. He puts as much thought in this book as is in the song. They go hand in hand.

The words to this song is the story of the real Christmas. Such a talented man is Mark Lowry. I understand that it is the only song he ever wrote...with one like this one, who needs another one!

I bought this for myself and then went back and ordered more for Christmas gifts. Everyone who received it has commented on the story and the music. It is also a special treat for me to listen to every Christmas season. I just love it.

This CD and book is THE most beautiful and meaningful gift I've ever received. My husband heard the song on the radio and went searching for it at music store where he found the Mark Lowry book/CD. I couldn't stop crying the first time I heard it. To read the birth of Christ through the eyes of His mother, the most Holy Theotokos, brings a new perspective to this great and holy holiday. I encourage everyone reading this review to purchase one for yourself and one for someone you love.

My 8 yr old loves the ology books. He received this one as a birthday gift and was pleasantly surprised to find the quill in the back of the book. Apparently he has wanted one since he saw Harry Potter... The quill has a ball point pen inserted in it, so that you can write without the mess of Indian Ink.

As to the stories in the book. They are great as usual. He likes that the stories or explanations are short. He doesn't have to read an entire book to get the information. For him Pirateology is still his favorite, but this is a really good book too.

My wife and I enjoyed these books as much as the kids! They were huge hits as Christmas gifts. Great way to get kids interested in ancient history/mythology. Try the other -ology books too!

My daughter received this book as a gift and loved it. Although it gives shortened versions of different greek myths, it is a great book to get children interested in them. The pop up Pandora's Box was a big hit with my four year old and she loved all the different objects that she could interact with. The storyline in the margins made for a great bedtime story and she was excited to see how the book started to turn to gold after he was given the gift of King Midas.

This Ology book is so packed with great info and interesting activities my daughter couldn't put it down. a definite good buy!

I really like Greek mythology and have read some books on it,so for anyone who is thinking of buying the book Mythology,I recommend also buying books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series,by Rick Riordan. They are about a boy who discovers his father is a Greek god and the adventures he has. As for Mythology, I think it is a great source for information on the ancient Greeks, and highly recommend it.

Ella, age 9

If you want to understand programming the Flash Communication Server and it's capabilities this is a good place to start.

Although I'm using Flash Media Server 2, this book is still highly relevant as not much has changed. The core objects and language is the same so I would not hesitate to recommend it for anyone looking to use FMS.

This book is all about the design of applications using Macromedia's Flash Communication Server MX. FCS MX enables the building of media-rich web applications by taking care of the basic tasks required in the networking of the applications. Thus, you can focus on the application itself rather than worrying about low-level communication details.

Since this book is concerned with situations where multiple Flash applications will be executing on the same server simultaneously, there is going to be considerable effort involved in coordinating events, which is addressed by this book. You should already have FCS installed and running on your server and you should also have Flash MX available on the client. The following is description of the book by chapter:

Chapter 1, Introducing the Flash Communication Server - Acts as an introduction to FCS and an overview of the whole book.

Chapter 2, Communication Components - How the FlashCom communication components encapsulate commonly needed features such as chat, video recording and playback, bandwidth control,and user configuration. These components implement many basic building blocks for your application.

Chapter 3, Managing Connections - This chapter covers connections in more depth past the SimpleConnect component, including how to write custom code to handle various changes in the connection status as well as different errors.

Chapter 4, Applications, Instances, and Server-Side ActionScript - This chapter describes how to write Server-Side ActionScript and work with the objects that control application instances and the Flash movies that connect to them.

Chapter 5, Managing Streams - Offers a somewhat oversimplified but complete example that shows the basic steps in publishing one live stream and subscribing to a second.

Chapter 6, Camera and Microphone - This chapter explains how to use both the Microphone and Camera classes to record live streams. These classes are at the heart of most communication applications involving multimedia.

Chapter 7, Media Preparation and Delivery - This chapter covers many details for compressing and streaming audio and video.

Chapter 8, Shared Objects - This chapter starts an entirely new subject - shared objects, which provide a mechanism for the transmission of data between client and server.

Chapter 9, Remote Methods - This chapter also shows how to broadcast method calls to every movie and application instance connected to a shared object or stream, or send them to and from individual movies using RMI.

Chapter 10, Server Management API - Discusses the Server Management API and its applications, including monitoring a FlashCom Server, gathering statistics on application instances, and managing the log streams.

Chapter 11, Flash Remoting - Demonstrates how Flash Remoting can be used to add data connectivity to FlashCom applications. Flash Remoting can access web services, server-side scripts, CGI applications, XML files, or the local filesystem with the help of an application server such as ColdFusion.

Chapter 12, ColdFusion MX and FlashCom - Teaches some specifics involved in using Flash Remoting with ColdFusion MX and FlashCom. There are some practical working examples shown that demonstrate how you can leverage the benefits of Flash Remoting in conjunction with FlashCom.

Chapter 13, Building Communication Components - This is the first step in building complete applications, and is demonstrated through an extensive example.

Chapter 14, Understanding the Macromedia Component Framework - How to modify an existing component and how to create a new one. Also discusses server-side framework code and its core features and data structures.

Chapter 15, Application Design Patterns and Best Practices - Describes some of the best practices available to application developers. This chapter provides some useful design options, patterns, and best practices that will help you build better applications.

Chapter 16, Building Scalable Applications - Deals with building multi-instance and multiserver applications that don't bog down as the number of client connections increases.

Chapter 17, Network Performance, Latency, Concurrency - Traditional network design issues affect FCS also.

Chapter 18, Securing Applications - Specifically this chapter examines the three A's of security - Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting.

Excellent book, stuffed of examples very well explained, easy to read and to understand, essential for who desires initiate or even though to profound itself studies on FlashCom.
Obligator reference in projects involving FlashCom, either for fast consultations and advanced tasks.
Excellent approach of subjects as Design patterns and security, yonder a perfect demonstration about audio, video and much more.

If you're a developer looking into real-time server communication using Adobe Flash, this book is a must-have. It guides you thru various levels of application development in an easy to understand format, and provides well documented pieces of code to assist you in the learning process of putting together your project:

Topics covered include:

- learning about components and how to use them
- establishing and managing client connections
- publishing live and recorded streams
- local communication with clients
- remote communication with outside applications

The book also shows how to build and integrate your own custom components, and how to scale your application using the components that you've created. Other highlights include information on how to use shared objects and server management API, as well as ways to improve both design and performance.

super funny. We took this out at the library. Laughed so hard. My kids begged me to buy it. Which I did. On Amazon. Wonderful.

FANTASTIC!! This is an excellent book with loads of humor. My 4, 5 and 7 year old all like this story. It is laugh out loud funny. At story time the kids BEG me to turn the page to see what will happen next even as the illustrator "Ned" is pleading for a delay. I have read this to both the Kindergarten and the first grade and they love it! A terrific gift for any reader or story time person. NO REGRETS!

It is just enough of a silly book to put a smile on my face while previewing it for my nieces (6 and 4). Both really got a kick out of it,and were really enjoying the whole premise of it. It encourages kids to really scour the pictures to see what is different, and you see something different every time you read it. It is such a great unusual story. I would really recommend this book.

She begs to turn the pages each time the narrator cautions the reader to slow down and not turn the pages so fast!! She couldn't wait to take it to day care when it was her turn for stories.

I love that the princess, after failed attempts by various princes, gets the gumption to rescue herself. Then she saves the prince and the king. It is goofy and no real feminist would go for it for a few reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the princess was locked up and forced to bake for a greedy man.

It is useful to talk to the kids about how the king fooled the prince into building the moat, etc.

This book is an great choice for a short read aloud. The illustrations tell the "story" behind the story and children (and adults!) will be waiting to see what will happen next! It's perfect for children ages 5-10, but I have also used it with middle school students as an intro to a fairy tale unit.

what if everyone knew your name in the book i could connect to it. i ask other people to help me make my decisions but they dont fuully make my dcisions for me. haley is 15 and she moved to hilsdale new jersey and go's to hillsdale high.she hengs out with the most popular girls in school and lives next door to her crush. she goes through her upe and downs/ but she's getting every bodys attention after she changes and she's getting reese's attention too. who knows! the main idea of this book is when your choosing your choices it's like making choices for what you would do and you woul face the concequences. the scene that i most reemember from the book is when haley goes to coco's house and they (coco and whitney) want to give her a makeover. when they're finished with her whitney says she looks hot and from then on she has a sanse of style and everyone knows her name.

This was a GREAT book. Okay, so actually, you get to choose your story so i guess anyone can say it's a great book. I mean who deosn't love to choose what happens?

I guess its not that fantastic, but it's original, which I love. So many people these days have similar books. Ugh! It's a great book and it's definitely worth the money because you can read it over and over and over. It's like 4 books in one! Haven't read the next book, but I can't wait!

;)

I loved this book! It was interesting and fun to read. I really liked the way you got to choose what the main character does. I would recommened this book to someone who is 11 years old or older and someone who is ready for an adventure. This book is worth your time and money.
-Taylor, 12

The book What If... Everyone Knew Your Name by Liz Ruckdescel and Sara James was a realistic fiction novel about a girl who's family takes a road trip, moving from the Golden State of California to the Garden State of New Jersey. She moves to a new school called Hillsdale High and needs to know how she can fit in.
Haley Miller, the 15 year old going into a public school for the first time is scared and ready to be friends with anyone she can. While she wishes she didn't ever move, she meets a neighbor whom she thinks is very god looking. She befriends him and others while the story takes its twists and turns.
I really liked this book because of the way it was, how you got to choose what she did. It really makes you feel as if its you living in the book, not Haley. The book takes you through the up and downs of high school and you get to control everything; her friends, her grades, her love life, her future. You don't know how it will turn out either, so that makes it suspenseful, just like real life because you never know what life will throw at you next. For all you know in the book, Haley could be invited to the next big party, and make a bad decision and drink, or you could have her not take the drink and it turns out the stud she's looking at, doesn't like alcohol either.
I really enjoyed this book and I can't wait to read the other one like it called "What If... All the Boys Wanted You." It sounds just as interesting as the first one they wrote and I can't wait to see what that book throws at Haley this time.
I strongly recommend this book for any teen who likes books that will take them through the happy, and not so happy parts of high school. Some of these things in the book can really teach you some stuff you can use in real life, like many novels about teens. So if you are into real life situations, I defiantly recommend this book to you. It was a great read, and I couldn't put it down until I finished it.

WHAT IF...EVERYONE KNEW YOUR NAME is an interesting idea. It's a lot like those Choose Your Own Adventure books you read as a kid. The story is about Haley, a fairly average fifteen-year-old girl who has just moved to suburban New Jersey and is starting at her first public high school. She starts out average, so that the reader can pretty much choose everything that happens to her as the story goes on.

You make every little decision for her, even the ones that seem really minor, like riding the bus to school or getting a ride from her father. You decide who she wants to be friends with and what crowd she wants to be a part of. You decide everything about her.

While an interesting idea, and fairly well-written, this book isn't for everyone. If you're all about finding out what will happen, this book might not be for you, because you decide what happens. It's a cool concept, though, and a fun read, especially since you can read it more than once, with a different story and outcome. The characters aren't particularly three-dimensional, but I guess they have to be simple enough so that it is believable that they would make any one of the very different choices you choose from. This book is fun, but not a must-read.

Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce