Schools Books

A word first about how I came to buy the book. I have been dancing about five years, Israeli folk, not ballet. Folk dancing is a great way to stay fit, but in my classes at least, there is little emphasis on low impact preparation: warm-up, flexibility and strengthening. Ballet, specifically work at the barre and "on the floor," is great for that.

I bought the book thinking I would exercise at home. The book can serve for that, but it is far more centered on getting you into class. The authors emphasize that, yes, to be a professional dancer you have to start young, but ballet has tangible benefits no matter what age you start. It is written to make you aware that there are a lot of schools that have adult classes and to get you over the threshold. It spends a good deal of time talking away all the reasons why you think you can't do this. It talks in a straightforward, no-nonsense way about what to expect: dress, shoes, typical class programs. Some schools hold more to ritual than others: it spends some time on class etiquette. And since ballet is "in French," it has a chapter on "language": the different positions - feet and hands - and movements, from stage one (plie, tendu), to more complex (battement tendu jete, rond de jambe), with careful guidance to how they are done.

The Joffrey is known for its professional program, but it also takes its adult beginners very seriously. As I mentioned, I did not buy the book expecting to take classes, but the Joffrey is walking distance from my home in New York, and one of the two authors, Dena Simone Moss, teaches adult elementary.

I would add my vote to my teacher's view, hers formed over long experience, that to get into ballet you really do need to be in class. The individual positions and movements, those in beginning class at least, are not physically difficult, but there are countless ways to head just a little off the rails. It needs a mature eye.

I'm 37 yo and for the first time in my life have started ballet. I always wanted to as a child (parents couldn't afford it), was too interested in travel/dinner/fun in my twenty's, but now in my 30's I want to do something that helps me grow as a person so there's no better time than the present. This book is so informative. It includes photos of "non-child" students, what to wear to class, what to do/not do if you have former injuries, etc., expectations (your's and instructor's) PERFECT!

Most books on ballet are either dictionaries of terminology or else they are intended to be read by young children and teenagers. Ballet fit fills in a void in the literature for those of us who started dancing late, already have some kind of career, and do it for the sheer love of it. I wish there were more books for adult beginner dancers.

Ballet is one of the best workouts a person can get. It promotes good posture, flexibility, coordination, strength, grace, and balance at the same time bringing out one of the most artful forms of expression through dance. There is a recent trend of people wanting less grinding forms of fitness such as weight lifting and aerobics. This has caused a serge in popularity in workouts such as Pilates and Yoga in adults. This has also brought interest in means of working out that are both beneficial to your health and fun to do; thus the rising popularity of adult ballet classes.

A few years ago adult ballet classes were very rare. It was considered inane because there really was no hope in becoming professional when starting as an adult. However, there is a new movement of adults whose goal is not to become the professional ballet dancers but turning to it for the sheer fitness benefits. This book is perfect for the types of people just mentioned. There is a certain amount of anxiety and hesitation, however, when entering the world of ballet for the first time as an adult. Ballet is very structured and detailed and this can be a huge turn-off for someone who's not acquainted to this. This book takes all of that anxiety out for you. It tells you everything you need to know so you are completely prepared for your first class. It goes over how to buy your fist pair of ballet slippers; how to get the correct size and fit. It tells you the proper attire. It goes over all the basic foot and arm positions, correct form, and all the terminology. It also has wonderful pictures so you can see just what the positions are supposed to look like. It tells you what to expect the structure of the class to be like.

Now, I actually took ballet for several years when I was younger, but quit my sophomore year of high school. I'm now 26 years old and have had a child, so I was a bit apprehensive to even think about going back into ballet. This book was a great refresher and gave me the courage to get back on my toes again.

The book was somewhat of a disappointment due to the fact that I had already started ballet when I bought it. I had also already found out a lot of useful information on the internet. The target group of the book is adults THINKING of starting talking up ballet. The "Ballet fit" at the end was mostly a brief summary of what excercised that can be expected from a ballet class. Many of the movements are difficult to understand since there weren't enough amount of illustrating pictures. The pictures that are there are surely beautiful, but unfortunately, they have mostly used a pre-pro student in the center of focus and NOT real adult beginners (they are placed at the back). Which really doesn't give you any indication of how far an adult beginner can reach.
If you are going to buy the book, do it for the right reason: As a motivation for starting classes and NOT a technical instruction book or ballet work-out book!

We found this little wandering good feeling in a library in 1967. The whole family loved it, from the adults all the way down to 4 year old me. The Brute Family's daily feeding of Stick and Stone Stew and Sand and Gravel Porridge became part of our family's vernacular. It still makes me giggle to say the phrases. I was absolutely delighted to find the book again - time had erased the book title and author, but I decided to google "sand and gravel" and voila! I caught that lost happy feeling and ordered my books on line! Enjoy!!!

This book is so simple and sweet. It's pure poetry. I love Russell Hoban, and this is definitely a must if you enjoy the Frances books. Baby Brute finds a "litte wandering lost good feeling" in a field of daisies and she puts it in her tiny pocket. How wonderful.

The Little Brute family lives a miserable existence...even has to eat sand and gravel porridge...but something wonderful happens and the family
undergoes a magical transformation...this book is so well written it will be a family favorite for years to come..Every mother can relate to Mama Brute who stays home to "bang the pots, thump the furniture, and scold the baby."

This book was one of my absolute favorites as a child so I just purchased it for my children who also love it. I'm hoping that it will be one of their favorites when they are adults remembering fond memories of reading books with Mom and Dad. A great message about manners and attitude! You have to love Russell Hoban's books.

Every child wonders why certain peers are mean. This book paints the story of those unhappy families, with unhappy children, and offers the grand hope they may change! Among the Brute family, parents and children suffer a self-perpetuating attitude malignancy until a solitary "good feeling" enters the picture. When everyone gives "being nice" a try things change quickly and permanently for the better.

I WISH this book was required reading in EVERY school in America. The book shows that each and every child can be a catalyst for kindness. Fathers and Mothers aren't happy when they aren't providing for their children. Children aren't happy when their parents are miserable. Its a vicious circle. And, happy kids in every school will recognize the Brute families they encounter. However, the Hobans' message to TRY BEING NICE as a platform for uplifting and contagious change works for the Brutes, who stage a quick turn-around! One's living conditions are as much about one's attitude as about conditions.

I bet the Brutes (I mean the Nices) even planted a flower or two next to their doorstep ... together!

I love the message in this book, that even when Little Gorilla isn't little anymore, everybody still loves him.

I'm meh on the illustrations - they're not my favorite style, but that's rarely my priority anyway :) The color choices seem odd to me, but really, I don't pay that much attention myself.

On good days, I like that the book has a nice, calm pace. On other days, I'm frustrated that it takes so long to get *absolutely nowhere*. I know it's a board book, but it's a book about birthdays, not bedtimes - you'd expect a little more action in it.

And most of all, it doesn't really engage my nieces, and never has. When we read it, it's because I choose to read it for a change, they never do.

what is there to not love about this book? there aren't too many words & the pictures are so cute that there are plenty of things to have a conversation with my baby about. (You know, like, "Look at that butterfly! Is it pretty?" or "Do you see how much hippo loves gorila? She's taking him to the bananas. Do you see the bananas?") The story is warm & cute & it's a great birthday gift! Thanks to the person who gave it to us!

This was one our favorite childhood books. When I saw it on Amazon it brought back so many wonderful memories. My brother especially liked this book. My sister is having a baby and would really appreciate this book from our childhood. We're all in our thirties too!

My daughter loves this book. The illustrations are wonderful and the easy to follow text is great.

I bought Little Gorilla on a whim because my son loves gorillas and at the time it was the cheapest board book on the shelf. I had no idea that it would soon become one of his favorite books as well as one that he would soon commit to memory.

Little Gorilla is a delightful tale of a young gorilla who is loved by "just about everyone in the great green forest". When he suddenly begins to grow (and grow), he finds that everyone still loves him. This simple little tale may not seem like much at first, but as my son approached his second birthday I could tell that the book offered an additional measure of reassurance that even though he was becoming a big boy, his family and friends would still love him.

I worried briefly that the authors unusual artistic style might not appeal to my son (aside from the title character these animals aren't what you'd consider "cute"), but he took to it right away, and after repeated readings (too many to count) he was able to supply some of the words to the story if I left a line unfinished. At this point he can almost recite the whole thing. Fortunately so can I. Even when the book is nowhere close, reciting this story is all but guaranteed to soothe most tantrums and crying fits, and does wonders to calm him before bedtime.

Little Gorilla gets this parent's highest recommendation. It's perfect for children between 1 and 3, and is perfect for expecting parents as well.

This powerful work is at once inspiring, frustrating and captivating. Kozol draws the reader into a world called Mott Haven that is filled with substance, love, service and hope. He poignantly describes the lives of children while blasting the manner in which we have chosen to deal with our most needy sectors of society. Kozol's gifted and powerful storytelling reminds us of several truths:

1. Segregation is potentially a bigger problem today than ever. White flight, private schools, school choice, home-schooling, virtual schools and lack of equitable access to technology are widening the gap.
2. Inequities in education must be addressed with the underlying belief that every child has the potential to achieve his/her dreams. Society must be responsible and held accountable for creating conditions ensuring that this occurs.
3. Teachers and students must all be able to work and learn in optimum conditions that safeguard and ensure dignity.
4. Although children appear to be resilient, we must protect their innocence, ensure they have the chance to dream and be inspired by their eternal optimism and hope. The real heroes of today are those who spend time with our children, listening to and nurturing their dreams.
5. We spend too much on our prison system and must figure out a way to divert that funding to education and healthcare so we can be proactive rather than reactive.

Kozol manages to convey the realities of inner city education by illuminating the complexities behind the daily challenges facing teachers and parents. His manner of connecting the problems to the institutions and practices that society has created to deal with those who do not "fit the system" provides a wake-up call to all of us who are working to make a difference in the lives of children. Kozol shows us that the system we have created is nurturing itself instead of helping people to break out of the vicious cycle characterized by lack of quality education, health care, meaningful work opportunities and dignity. We can no longer ignore the problems in the inner cities of America, not just because it makes economic sense but because it makes human sense to individually develop our most precious resources - our children. Community leaders, parents, educators, and corporate leaders should put this compelling book on the top of their "must read" list.

In Ordinary Resurrections, Jonathan Kozol deviates from his usual "gloves off" attack of the issues facing minority children. Instead of building the case against the inequitable system with facts and figures, as he has in previous work, he has chosen the subtle but effective approach of a storyteller. He paints a very descriptive portrait of the victims of continued segregation and racism that may inspire those in positions of influence to make more compassionate decisions regarding the lives of the children they serve.

Things that scream out to me from Kozol's book(s):

1) Incarceration vs. Education (do the math!)
The incarceration industry is thriving on blind public support. If taxpayers knew they were paying on the average ten to twenty times more to incarcerate supposed perpetrators of victimless crimes than it would cost to educate them, I'd bet they might even overlook their racist fears. The corporate/federal mentality that chooses to decide early on what these children will bring to the economy seems to prefer them as a product in this system versus potential contributors to something greater.

2) Resilience (despite our conditional "help")
In their innocent naiveté the children neglected by the system remain courageous, hopeful, and resilient. This resilience may diminish as they weather the inequities of the system that oppresses them, but it is often the attribute that enables them to succeed regardless of our preaching and teaching. Just imagine what heights they might reach if they continued to be nurtured as they are by the caring individuals in their lives now.

3) Compassion (essential)
As a beneficiary of white male privilege his reflections from the other side of the gap are poignant and insightful lessons for those of us too far removed from the reality that exists in many of our cities. Even after this racial inequity is acknowledged it is difficult for most of us to express empathy in ways that ring genuine. Kozol does! He is trusted and welcomed by the culture and community he strives to serve. His stories reflect a model for learning and practicing compassion which, in my opinion, may be the single most important factor in saving ourselves from extinction. Kozol repeatedly demonstrates the importance
of compassion in his work. Listen to him!

4) Racism, segregation, inequality (market view politics)
Racism is institutionalized in the United States despite the hope segregation was ending that the civil rights movements of the sixties inspired. "Kids notice that no politicians talk about this. They hear the politicians saying, "We're gonna have tougher standards in your separate-but-not-equal schools. We're gonna raise the bar of academic discipline in your separate-but-not-equal schools." But nobody says we're going to make them less separate and more equal. Nobody says that." - Kozol interview in Education World

5) Toxic environments (no one to litigate)
AIDS, asthma, drugs, violence, toxic pollution, poverty, malnutrition, lack of medical attention, apartheid economics, and neglect are common elements in the environment Kozol's children try to survive in. Basic needs must be satisfied before we can expect children to be receptive to that which we would have them learn. Kozol is issuing a wake-up call to the complacent masses that are either unaware or in denial that this situation is serious and threatens all of us socially, emotionally, and economically.

In my opinion, implications for educators that may be gleaned from Kozol's book include:
* The extreme importance of compassion in all aspects of dealing with children.
* Recognition that before we talk about diversity we need to spend a lot more
time in the conversation about racism.
* Locking people up is not rehabilitation and in the long run is socially,
emotionally, spiritually, and economically disastrous. Break the cycle of incarceration!

The Bronx has a long history. I'm always bumping into middle-aged and elderly professionals from the Bronx. Their mothers scrubbed floors; they went to City University. They now live in million-dollar condos in Manhattan. The ghetto is a conveyor belt for those who make up their minds to sacrifice their youth for future gain. Today's Bronx looks very much as Kozol describes. The very young are cute and inspiring, I suppose, but there must be a reason he leaves out the teens and their older brothers and sisters. The modern ghetto doesn't put a premium on discipline and learning. Kozol feeds into the victimology, seeing the community suffering from the failures of others to "do" right by them. Teachers know, however, that much would be improved if parents would simply make their children go to bed on time. Crime would be halved if kids were told to come in by 9. Early immigrants left the Bronx for the affluent suburbs, having devoted themselves to their children's education. Today it is rare indeed to meet a parent who has even one book in the house. Funding won't make up for this basic poverty of values.

Ordinary Resurrections is one of the most important books I've ever read and one of the most poignantly beautiful. It is an absolute must read for everyone who cares about children, the wide disparity in economic opportunity in the U.S., and who dares to hope for our future. Kozol movingly brings to life in his first-hand descriptive account the lives and conditions in their own words of children and their families who have been deliberately neglected, ignored, hidden away. This true story of their hope, strength, resilience, and beauty testifies to the dominance of the human spirit in the face of unspeakable abuse by government at every level and all systems that have failed them.

Jonathan Kozal has taken away the protective myth that America's school children are all treated equally, with dignity and given unvarying opportunities. In his latest book, ORDINARY RESURRECTIONS, Kozal's readers get a glimpse into a reality that replaces equal value with present day segregation to children of the poor. Although many in power would like to ignore the disgrace of how our underprivileged students are educationally treated in areas such as Mott Haven, New York, Kozal's first hand account of such inequality calls for a recognition and reformation of America's priorities. Told in the children's words, this book contributes awareness to the desperate need for compassion to and knowledge of the struggles of many American youth. The facts are both shocking and compelling, and will challenge the values one holds to necessitate action on our children's behalf. As Kozal states, the reality is that "...there are few areas in which the value we attribute to a child's life may be so clearly measured as in the decisions that we make about the money we believe it's worth investing in the education of one person's child as opposed to that of someone else's child." Once read, ORDINARY RESURRECTIONS destroys the bliss of ignorance. One is faced with the decision to powerfully act or despairingly ignore.

I purchased this for use at home as we home-educate our children. I thought this would help me to brush up on my grammar skills, but my kids immediately picked this book up and started using it on their own. It is very user friendly - an easy read for any age, and a great review for middle and high school students. My 14 yr old uses it as a reference when she is writing. Highly recommended!

Painless Grammar is completely different from any typical grammar stuff! We tend to label grammar as boring, but I noticed something totally different from what we learned at school; it doesn't involve any dull and/or old-fashioned structures at all. What really intrigued me was the last chapter dealing with how to e-mail! Actually, I like that chapter best in this book. That was the least I'd expected! Facial expressions and abbreviations drew my attention because both of them are expressed differently from Japanese. I think using them sometimes helps you enjoy e-mailing your friends. Of course, I know too much use of them confuses readers, though. I bet dealing with e-mail is a down-to-earth and up-to-date approach to attract readers!

Read and then keep at your desk within arms reach when you write. This book is perfect for those grammar stumpers.

Even though this book is geared for the 6th-8th grade student, it offers sound advice in a clear, easy-to-understand style. Who needs a grammar book that's full of long, linguistical answer that no one can understand. If I'm stumped by a grammar question, I don't hesitate to pick up this fun reference tool.
Karen Reddick, author of Grammar Done Right!

Before ordering this book I've read many reviews. Those reviews helped me a lot to make the right decision. This book is just amazing for sharping your English grammar skill. You polish your English by learning little details. I'm a Junior in High School. I thought that my level of English grammar is pretty high, but till I started reading ''Painless Grammar" with all these small, tiny detail. My dad, is educated 52 years old teacher, who is a bookworm! Even he found this book very exciting. So right now, when I start to read this book he is always next to me. The book is written with good humor and explanations to every aspect of the grammar. I read 10-15 min. per day, that's enough.

I think this book should be a "hand book" for every single person, no matter how old you are. Folks, don't even hesitate! Just go for it, buy it, and have pleaser by reading "Painless Grammar."

The story line follows the traditional but captures the cajun language and lifestyle well. The pictures are great and I love the characters. The book arrived timely and it was in perfect condition.

This is my absolut favorite story ever written!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My 2 1/2 year old loves just as much as I do!I bought extra copies and sent it to every child in my family! It's become an instant classic.
It's especially fun if you read it with a creole accent which isn't that hard to do since they put a glossary in the front of the book on how to pronounce many of the words. Funny! Funny! Funny!

I love reading this book to my 6 year-old boys, and they love to hear it. The rhythm of the writing, and the very clever story, makes this book a real joy, and very funny. Look for their other books, too.

This book is a huge hit. My 4 year old loves me to read it to her. I have entertained guests at our house by reading it too. So much fun!

One sentence into this book and even the not-keen-on-bedtime-readers will find themselves lending life & voice to Artell's characters in this whimsical updated romp of a fairy tale. What fun! The drawings are superb, but it is the story that shines here. You will find yourself speaking cajun almost as if you were born to it. At least that's what you'll tell your friends, when you recommend this book to them to dazzle their own children.

This book totally sucked me into a world I knew nothing about. So vividly written I was practically hung over after Jeremy Prescott's party. Real, gritty, and sweet.

This book showed me that changing is not always easy. Nick is a great character and i love that he's trying to leave his past and start a new life and especially with the girl he loves, Kris. And i was so happy wen he finally told her that he loved her and all. It gave me the point of view of a guy in love. I rarely read books like this one. Plus the title made me want to read it too by the way. So its a cool book and everyone will like it just like i do. I recommend others to read it cuz its a great book and ull love nick and rute for him.

This book is great for ppl of all ages. It gives you a look at what's underneath the preppy private-school world. It takes you to a place of parties, drugs, casual, sex, and gangs. Nick is trying to change his old habbits after a bad accident with one of his friends. Yet still in this crazy world he manages to fall for his best friend. And when her brother becomes a gang target he finds himself in the middle of it all. Jake Coburn creates a world full of lies, drama, danger, and suspense. Although it was short, it is a book that will leave you in thought. It Makes you think about the lives of the privileged while also creating a dramatic Manhatten theme.

This book is about a boy named Nick who was part of a former prep-school gang. Nick and his friend have every advantage: expensive clothes and beautiful apartments. But underneath the private-school education lies the chiling gang world filled with drinking, heavy drugs, and graffiti. Nick tries to put his past beind him and pay more attention to his best friend Kris whom he is secretly in love with. But when Kris's younger brother becomes a gang target, Nick decides to help him even if he had to risk his own life.

I really like this book because it really happens in life and the author witnessed New York's teenagers form some of the most vicious gangs in Manhattan. This book has some very vivid fights and it shows what goes on in a gang and i thougth that was kind of interesting.

I would recommend this book to anyone that likes realistic-fiction, some action, likes to know what really goes on in gangs and how gangs are started. If you decide to read it. I hope you like it.

This book is basically telling you that if you start getting in trouble there is alwasy someone out there that pulls you back on you feet. I guess their sort of like your guardian angel and that was what Kris was portyrayed as.

As a former prep-school kid myself I was compelled to read Coburn's novel to see if it lived up to the truth about the secret (or not so secret) lives of New York city teens--and it did. This book kept me reading, and reading until I was disappointed to have reached the end. I would recommend it too both teens and not teens anymore.

I am having to buy this book a second time because we have lost our precious first copy and my 2 1/2 year old BEGS for it CONSTANTLY. He simply cannot get enough of this book. It's his absolute favorite. He loves the rollicking rhythm and rhyme. It really has a rock-n-roll reading beat to it, and my son loves repeat some of the musical words such as "Booma lacka, Booma lacka Whack! Whack! Whack!" He loves the illustrations of the dinosaurs, since he's big into dinosaurs at the moment. But even if your child is not into dinosaurs, he/she will love hearing this book or reading this book aloud. And I have to admit, because the book flows off the tongue with such entertaining, dancy rhythms, both my husband and I LOVE to read this book to our son. It's so important when you're a parent, to buy books you yourself can stand to read over and over and over to your child, and not get bored. "Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp" is one book I enjoy reading to my son EVERY TIME.

This is one of my son's favorite books. He's a huge dinosaur lover and I remember reading him this book all the time...still brings it out now and then. If you have a dinosaur lover, you'll love this book.

My 5 yr. old son bought this book with his allowance as one of the "recommendations" from Amazon. I love reading it to him as much as he loves having it read to him. He's a HUGE dinosaur fan and loves to rhyme so this book is right up his alley. We highly recommend it!!

A good picture book to read to a 9-month old who doesn't want to sit still is hard to find, but this book is fantastic. The book just reads so fluently like you can't keep up with turning the pages!! Both the words and the pictures are so lively, bright and fun ... it totally absorbs you into the dinosaur stomp:-)

We first found this book at the library and found ourselves checking it out time and time again. My daughter is two and a half, though she first fell in love with this book right around the time she turned two. After months of checking it out, I decided it was time to buy our own copy.

It's full of clever rhymes and ideas about dinosaurs and lots of dinosaur identification in a fun way. The pictures are great and the words are even better. Boys and girls alike would enjoy this. My daughter knows all the words to it now, but I still enjoy reading it to her frequently.

have a problem with using words like "brilliant", "masterful" and "intelligent." But willing apply all words to this brilliant book, masterfully research and intelligently told.

The author gives a very full and complete treatise on Brown versus the Board of Education, but of greater interest, he writes of all the history that lead up to the ruling.

An exceptional book chronicling an extremely important issue in our country's history.

This is certainly the best book ever written -- the best book that ever will be written -- about race, law and American society. It is a remarkably insightful history and one of the most stunning existing examples of narrative journalism. It is a masterpiece.

I'm a fan of nonfiction works and this easily moved to my top 5 favorite books. When I was growing up there were no courses on the contributions blacks made to America. There was no black history month. And I was cheated. I'm a 50+ white woman who lived through desegregation and had no clue that it was a struggle. I honestly don't remember a time when my elementary classes were all white but they must have been. I do remember clearly when my elementary class stopped being all white. That was when Richard Harris became my Batman buddy. On the aftenoons following the show we would go to the neighborhood soda shop and have a coke and discuss all the action of the previous evening's show and check for new Batman bubble gum cards with the intensity that only 5th graders can bring to such an important endeavor. It felt normal to chat Batman with Richard; and I'm so sorry for all the children that had such a dumb practice as segregation rob them of those moments.

This book read like a thiriller for me. Couldn't put it down. Underlined and highlighted parts. Read other sections out loud to my husband and to some friends at work. This is American history. Everyone should have the opportunity to learn about the value of education, the value of varied experiences and the perseverance to acquire the rights that should never have been denied to the black people. It's made me hungry to know more and I'll be keeping my eye out for other works by Kluger. Excellent author.

I just finished this book, A Simple Justice, and it is fantastic. It's the story of Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, which is the landmark Supreme Court case that desegregated compulsory public schools in America. But it's so much more than that. After reading this book, I felt almost ashamed of my previous ignorance to the struggles and condition of black america at the hands of almost everyone else in the country. It is comprehensive in its scope and perspicacious in its analysis, sparing no feelings on either (or rather, any) side. I believe myself to be, for the most part, a judicious man when it comes to philosophical or sociological observations, but Kluger was able to open my eyes to angles I had previously missed on issues I thought I had resolved long ago. So if you're not too scared of big books, this one's worth the time.

Long a mainstay of every 1L's pre-law school summer reading list, SIMPLE JUSTICE is more than a retelling of the tortured history of the landmark cases now known collectively as Brown v. Board of Ed. It is more than a retelling of the agonizing struggles of both gifted and ordinary people---black and white and every other---to reverse the four centuries of racial disparagement that make up the ugliest of all underpinnings of the American Experiment. What SIMPLE JUSTICE is, is an exhaustive sociological history of race relations in the United States to the 1950s.

It is a book every American should read. The endemic quality of racism in the American psyche is so overwhelming that it is easy to lose the human element. SIMPLE JUSTICE restores that element with sensitive, intelligent writing, exhaustive and documented research, and a tone which is pitch perfect, strident when need be, reasoned and thoughtful throughout. Ultimately optimistic, SIMPLE JUSTICE will renew your belief in the American system even while tempering it.

In it's retelling of nightmarish incident after nightmarish incident (the explosive and hideous lynchings are often easier to understand than the equally hideous and more subtle segregation and caricaturing that endured for, it seems, ever), SIMPLE JUSTICE shows us an America riven by its view of itself as a noble nation being eaten by the canker in its soul.

Although many Americans now consider race discrimination passe, it is not so hard to see the continuation of a pattern of violence toward blacks and the denigration of the black experience, even today. And yet, there is more, for not only are Black Americans denigrated, but White Americans as well, both suffering because this nation is only a fraction of what it might othewise be.

SIMPLE JUSTICE is a crucial Civics lesson. Read it to learn. Read it to know. Read it. Read it again.

sophie the spider goes out into the world to do something great, to create a masterpiece. she settles herself in this boarding house and attempts to help out the people who live there, but none of them accept her gifts and scream at the sight of her. sophie eventually finds a new mother who doesn't scream at the sight of her, but welcomes her. the mother is poor though and sophie sees an old blanket covering the mother's baby. sophie decides to make a new blanket for the baby, her masterpiece. the pictures are beautiful and the story touching. a great addition to the bookshelf.

A friend of mine purchased it for her niece and wanted my opinion. I'll admit that I not a huge fan of children (single, 25 year-old here) or kid paraphernalia, but this is an amazing book! I've gotten copies for several people I know who are having a baby and everyone loves it. Such a sweet story that still gets me a little choked up.

"...Sophie is not just a spider, she's an artist". With just this beginning sentence we are introduced to the very caring character of Sophie, a house-hold spider who sews the most beautiful webs in spider history. When Sophie becomes a mature spider, she decides to go out into the world and share her talents with everyone she meets. However, the world does not want Sophie to share her talents wit them and after consistence swats and shooing, Sophie decides that she's had enough. Yet, one day she meets a young woman who is expecting a baby. She is very poor and has nothing to cover her baby with when he is born. Sophie, now old and frail, feels that she can still do some good for this woman. So she musters up all her strength and begins to make the young woman and her baby a blanket... a masterpiece... a gift of love.

I recommend this to anyone who has a fear of spiders or is trying to teach more compassion to their children related to any subject. Beautifully illustrated and a very touching story.

I absolutely LOVED this beautiful story. Warning: For the sentimental at heart, like myself, it packs a bit of a punch near the end. I wasn't prepared and found myself choking up while reading it alound and my little one looking up at me in confusion... But that is what makes it such a lovely story and it's never to soon to teach children about selfless love, such as Sophie's!