Schools Books

Professor Richard L. Rubenstein introduced me to this book.

Documented meticulously.

Substantiated understanding of the process of mass murder.

Definitely one of those must read books.

I was reading a work by Christopher Browning recently and he stated how just as many historians were starting to realize the functionalist understanding of the Shoah, Hilberg refined it to a even more nuanced level. Always dilligent, deeper and a step ahead. I had read many books on the subject prior to this one, and frankly had put of buying it because of the price, yet don't regret the purchase one bit. Too many historians use the prhase "magnum opus" when refering to this work and frankly I agree 100%

Hilberg's brilliant and dispassionate treatment of attempts throughout history to destroy the Jews sets a new standard for scholarship and for the historical analysis of emotionally charge subjects. Through his own efficient analytic framework of precedents, antecedents, and scope of organization, Hilberg gives us a lucid formula for both understanding and explaining the subtext, context, and pretext of the 1500-year old continuously running saga of anti-Semitism. The effect is to place the reader in the cockpit of the planners of one of the worst disasters known to man, the holocaust of World War-II. But more importantly, he also provides us with all the necessary facts that go with, and that load his framework.

The context of the holocaust is 1500 years of progressive improvements in ways of addressing the so-called "Jewish problem (or threat)," and corresponding Jewish cultural adaptations to these improved attempts to annihilate them. The improvements have ranged from failed attempts by Catholics to convert Jews into Christians, to expelling them from Europe, to Hitler's creation of a bureaucracy of industrialized death to implement his "final solution." (The author summarizes this progression as conversion, expulsion, and annihilation.)

The subtext of anti-Semitism ostensibly has always been about the "predatory Jewish character" but in fact has been about fears, fears of cultural, religious and ethnic differences and about independence from ordinary orthodoxy. It is precisely these fears that are the most easily serviceable, and most easily ignited into action during times of stress. They are best facilitated through hatred -- especially when guided by a catalyst of evil, ignorance, demagoguery, or demented and corrupt leaders. Inexorably they pass through a process of condoned and sanctioned violence to collective murder. (Fear of Jewish independence and failure to accept the Christian Jesus as their religious messiah and savior have throughout history served as one of the key subtexts of anti-Semitism).

Just as the pattern that serves as the subtext for anti-Semitism is generalizable to other forms of chauvinism, racism and hatred, so too is the pretext: The target is first demonized, dehumanized and vilified; and then disenfranchised, hounded and spatially as well socially segregated. This process of dehumanization then leads logically to, and serves as justification and collective psychological cover for, committing criminal acts against the targeted groups -- including mass industrialized murder. (Jewish religious idolatry, and ethnic character flaws, i.e. their predatory business acumen and slipperiness, their fear of honest work, etc. has throughout history served as the pretext for justifying criminal acts against Jews).

This book puts to rest the popular "magic bullet theory" of the holocaust: that explaining Hitler explains everything anyone would ever need to know about the holocaust. It does not. The anti-Semitic pressures along fault lines leading up to the holocaust had been building up for more than 1500 years. It was these pressures and not Hitler that bear the primary responsibility for the holocaust. Hitler just happened to be the demented catalyst that sparked an anti-Semitic eruption at a time when a demoralized German people needed a tonic for restoring their national pride.

Five Stars.

One of the best books I have ever read about the holocaust. A serious research and it is indeed a great contribution for the studies on this horrible moment of the history of mankind!

The text I read (three volume hard cover) is the definitive work on the Holocaust. It profiles all aspects of a demonic criminal conspiracy, as well as the practical planning and ultimate consequences.

I urge all to read Hilberg. It is the standard work.

I have always wanted to paint & draw but never knew or learned the techniques. This book has everything. What brushes to use what kind of paper, what kind of pencils to use, how to make your own frames, how to use color pencils, etc. The book is paperback as indicated above, and it has great pictures and is enough depth for a beginner (like myself.) Highly recommended!

This book has great information on a lot of topics! I use it in a few ways. As a practicing and selling artist, and it's a good place for ideas, inspirations and technique brush-ups. I also teach community art classes and it's great when I need project ideas, or even need to refresh myself or teach myself techniques for a certain class. This would also be a great book for a budding artist looking for an area of concentration.

This book is a great book for children and adults who want a basic introduction to art mediums. DK always does a good job of describing and it is an enjoyable read.

DK books are always a "best buy" when it comes to bringing clear, concise information on how to do almost anything.

The book is in wonderful shape! My daughter needed it for a college class so the price helped her out a lot. I am an art teacher and was very impressed with it. I told her when she is finished with it she needn't pay me back...just give ME the book.

my mom read it to me and i liked it alot.
it mad me laugh.
i like charlie becuz that is my name.

I get great pleasure reading good children's books. "Don't Bug Me" is a sweet, humorous, thoughtful book, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Parents will enjoy this as much as their kids. Although it is about Bugs, that proverbially school project, (and we all had one like it), I found there is allot more to it. As I read about Megan and her brother, Alexander, and their sibling rivalry, it reminded me of my own childhood. I especially enjoyed the friendship that grew between Megan and Charlie. I was impressed by the author's ability to demonstrate a healthy way to solve a disagreement between Megan and her parents. It is very subtle lesson, kids might miss it, but it is very constructive.
And the bug storyline is so clever, honest, thoughtful and funny, who knew there was so much to know about bugs! The entire family can enjoy the story together.

This book is about Megan trying to collect bugs for her project. She is being "bugged" by that and a boy at school named Charlie who is causing trouble for her. Oh yeah and her brother Alexander who buries her bugs really "bugs" her too. In this novel Belinda, Megan's friend believes that Charlie likes Megan, but is that true? You'll have to fid out in this high-speed funny book. The book really got me glued to the pages, I hope it also will do the same thing for anyone else who reads this great book.

I really liked this book. I didn't like I would like it, because I think bugs are ikky. But Megan and Charlie and Alexander were such cool chraratrers that I kept reading even tho when Takmika caught the roach it made me shudder. I liked how Charlie told Alexander why we should study bugs. I liked how Alexander told Charlie that bugs were ok and why he liked them. We can learn from bugs and we can learn from each other. I liked Charlie's present to Megan at the end. I wonder if Megan and Chalrile will be freinds when they get older? Oh yeah, I liked it when everybgdy was trhowing soup around at lucnh trying to get the bug out of Rita's soup.

I think that every one should read don't bug me even sixth graders. I read it in 2 days that is how much i liked it. so make sure you read Don't Bug Me!! By Pam Zollman My favorite part is here is the part....

Belinda laughed."You named it?"
"I name all my bugs," Tamika said
"So how are you going to kill it?" i asked.
"in the freezer,"she said "Ijust can't do it any other way."
Please help my friend out and buy this book. believe me you will laugh..

This is a beautiful story and the illustrations are top-notch. Ella is a sweet little elephant who engages young readers. I recommend the whole series, particularly this one and Ella Sets the Stage. My six year old son returns to these books over and over again.

This is a very cute story and I look forward to reading it to my daughter.

I really love the "Ella" series... The books are nice and sweet, and presents a marvelously imagined, self-contained world that will strongly appeal to little kids. It has a similar feel to the "Curious George" and "Babar" books, except without all the weird, disturbing undertones that make those classics a bit troublesome. A great choice for some fun books that you don't have to worry about. (ReadThatAgain)

I have a five and a seven year old and they love everything ELLA. The best part is, so do I. This story, as well as ELLA TAKES THE CAKE is a gem. The message really resonates with both my children and me...I get teary at the end. So many children's books are just silly or entertaining. This one is both but also very literary. I love the allusion to the golden rule and the lesson about staying true to yourself. The illustrations are gorgeous, too! I highly reccommend this book.

Originally, my daughter borrowed this book from the library. She likes elephants and thought Ella was cute. We fell in love with Ella and her story, so we purchased our own copy...well Santa Claus did. My girls are 4 & 6, they both love the story.

Hello Perspective Buyer
I have found that this is a great book. I have been away from school quite some time and needed a refresher course on my Grammar. This book corrects you as you go, giving you the drive to continue on with yes i got it. I will use it to enhance my skills.

Thanks Ron C

I bought the 2200 series first with the answer book with test and I passed them all with flying colors. So I decided to go for the 2600 and passed that as well with flying colors. After that I decided to buy this book and continue, however, I did not do so well with the test as I would've liked. This is still a great book and I only wish that I could write the author a positive review on it; but I think he might be deceased by now. I truly recommend this book, but you must buy the tests with answer key. Don't cheat!!!

I used an earlier edition of this classic textbook in Junior High 28 years ago, and it is EXCELLENT. What makes it unique is the layout which actually resembles a computer based training format with instant feedback. I only wish more instructional books utilized this format. You WILL master english grammer with this book.

You can start anywhere, literally anywhere. Just open the book at any page and go; truly, it is that easy. I came across this book when taking an English Upgrade course in writing at the University of Toronto back in the 1970's - subjunctives, subordinate clauses, adverb clauses, appositives, punctuation, and on, and on, and on ... . My marks went from C's to A's.
The book eventually fell apart in my hands from the constant use and reuse as I referred to it when I needed it. I referred back to it all the time, simply because some of the topics are, to some extent, obscure and not easy to remember without constantly using them. Is your boss picking on you because you can't write? Are feeling out of the game because you can't get a handle on English grammar? - get the book (and use the book) and get your boss of your back and maybe impress your boss's boss as well.
I just ordered a new one, because my wife speaks English as a second language, and she will have no trouble using it what so ever.
It is a gem, a prize, and a wonder.
sincerely

This is the best book on sentence structure ever. I wish I had this book when I was in school. I read alot of books on grammar and they never work for me. I usually forgot what I read after a day or two. I am an electrical engineer. Math and science are always my best subject while english is my worse.

This book show me how to combine simple sentences into compound and complex sentence. How to add adverb and adjective clause into the sentence to make it more meaningful. It show you the same example in many different ways. It is like doing algebra.

This book use a scientific approach. You will learn sentence structure and remember it for the rest of your life.

The book contains three introductory biographical essays by Hass, that help to place the masters in a historical context and help to understand the development of their styles.

so refreshing to learn
many Issa's haiku
were quite bad

It also contains several poetic prose fragments by all three poets that put their haiku in context of their journeys and events from their lives. The last part of the book includes fragments of Kyorai's "Conversations with Basho." It is always a treat for me to be provided with some insights about an artistic process. Needless to say, the book is full of pearls, diamonds and snowflakes. Translations (or their "versions," as Haas would say) are exquisite and very poetic; it was enough for me to read a few to feel inspired. A truly a marvelous book.

I love this collection of haiku. I've marked several favorites with Post-It flags and thumb through it often. I recommend it to anyone, especially people who are knew to haiku, because it includes a variety of themes and the poems were all written by true masters of the art. It's simply wonderful.

I am new to haiku and was looking for a few books to give me an idea of the traditional haiku. The translations in some books made me think that haiku is not for me. However, this book is amazing. Not only does the editor select the most representative of Basho, Buson, and Issa, but the translations make poetic sense. There is additional material, such as a short biography on each poet and some exerpts of their prose (such as Issa's "A Year of My Life" and coversations with Basho). Five stars without hestitation.

I fully believe in the translating philosophy that poems should be rendered in the most contemporary language possible. Translating archaic language with archaic equivalents doesn't necessarily convey what it was like for contemporary audiences of the originals to read and experience them.

And that is what I like most about this collection. Robert Hass decided to use contemporary language for these haiku, and in this case, his contemporary language: American English. The haiku are highly readable and accessible. I've read criticisms to the contrary, namely that he loses the tone of the originals and takes some liberties with meaning. While I think it may be helpful to point this out, I don't think it is fair criticism, per se. There had to be a compromise, and Robert Hass consciously made a decision and consistently stuck to his preferred style. These aren't academic translations, and thank goodness. As a result, we have fresh translations of wonderful classics.

I bought this book over ten years ago on the recommendation of a professor. At the time, I was translating haiku from Japanese, and he suggested I take a look at Robert Hass' style of translating. It was timely advice for a fledgling translator. Hass' haiku renderings sometimes stray a little too much from the original meanings to satisfy the needs of scholars, but they are always clear, always graceful, and- after ten years of continually returning to the book- always fresh. I think part of the success of these translations comes from their colloquial language. There is nothing awkward about them, nothing in the language to draw attention to it as a translation. And aren't the best translations like that?-- unobtrusive, inconspicuous, almost like dopplegangers of the original. I believe so, and I believe these translations will have quite a long shelf life.

I wanted a book to review information I had learned in school but since faded over time. This is such a book.

A collegue recommended me this book for the citizenship interview. It has just the right level of detail (with fun cartoons) that I was looking for. Unlike most history books, this one seems to be fairly unbiased in its choice of words. Glad to add this book to my reference collection.

Given as a gift. Got a thank you note so she must like and or use it.

This is an excellent book for immigrants to study for US citizenship tests. I would highly recommend it. It is not too childish and it goes to the core of what you should know.
I am very glad I purchased it.

I teach at a special education high school and in any one class my students' reading levels range from Kinder-12th grade, so it is extremely tough to find things that will encompass as many levels of learning at once. I am happy to say that this book does that, and the students really jumped right on to use it!

This book is right to the point, and is great for teaching students how to take notes. It has amazing spacing and large type that allows easier reading for students with reading disabilities. The fantastic use of color allows the reader to visualize a change in topic so that they may know that they are onto something new.

I would LOVE for this series to be modified into textbooks, with resources such as computer programs to enhance learning for visual and audio learners.

I DO NOT love the fact that it puts the grade level in BIG BOLD WORDS on the cover. That means that my 18 year old student is liable to tell me, "I'm not going to look at some middle school book. I'm in high school."

I think this was my favorite volume in the series so far. The first two were fun and entertaining, but in this one the plot becomes thicker, more complicated, and we start to see glimpses of a rich backstory behind the characters Grandma Ben and Thorn. People who liked the first two books will be sure to like this one, too.

This is my 1st Graphic Novel that I have read. Jeff Smith is a great author and illustrator. The words along with the pictures tell a great story. Jeff uses many story elements in his book Eyes of the storm. His plot has several conflicts in it. He uses mainly person-against-person, with it being the Bone cousins and village people against the rat creatures. Jeff Smith uses flashbacks and foreshadowing in dreams to let Thorn know what her past was like. He uses cliff hangers to make the story more suspenseful. Amongst all of this, Jeff Smith knows how to lighten the atmosphere by putting humor in the right places. This book kept me wanting more. I can't wait to get a hold of the next volume. This will not be my last graphic novel that I read.

The Bone books are the gratest comics I have Ever read

check em' out ;)

This book I just read is about a boy named Bone. Bone's friend started a cow race, and convinced everyone to bet on a cow that didn't even exist. So now they have to wash dishes at a bar to pay back what they destroyed. They have weird dreams about their past. So they spend days trying to figure out what their dreams were about. There are furry creatures in the woods trying to kill them.
Bone was the main character in the story he is the coolest and funniest in the book. There grandma reminds me of my grandma from when I was 3. She told me that there as no such thing as ghosts. I figured out that there was such thing as ghosts when I was 5. My favorite part in the story is when Bone realized that their dreams where real. If you like comic books then you will like the Bone series. This book was made to be read by kids 11 and older.

These books are fantastic! I have two 7yr old boys that cry if I don't read this book to them at night.

Parents:
Imagine using, I won't read to you tonight if you don't stop right now, and it works...that's how good this series is. At first I thought the book might be a little too scary for them but they were hooked and it wasn't until book 4 that I had to consider sensoring some of the language (things like "idiot"). Any book that brings kids back to the well again and again is worth purchasing.

I must admit that I had never even heard of this series until a month or so ago (I'm nearly 45). I hate that I missed out on these as a kid, but the kid in me is greatly enjoying them now. They are a joy to read.

The only negative that I see is the fact that so much time has passed since these books were written, some of the vocabulary and vernacular present in the books will be unfamiliar or have a much different meaning to kids of today. However, the gentle humor and the life lessons present throughout the Freddy series are ageless, and well worth your money and your children's time. Highly recommended.

Originally published in 1928, this is the first of about a dozen children's books starring Freddy, a clever young pig with a taste for adventure. If you are looking for books for little kids that aren't too scary, too violent or laden with issues such as peer pressure,etc., this is a very good option. The story is a little slow-moving, but it's still clever and engaging, and other than a little bit of sexism (a barnyard rooster in henpecked by his wife) this holds up remarkably well for a story written before the Great Depression. Lots of different animals make up the cast, so if you are reading it aloud, there are good opportunities for doing different voices, etc. And, if you liked this first book, there are plenty more to follow. (Joe Sixpack)

In grammar school,"FREDDY" books were my favorites. I then graduated to Sherlock Holmes. I still love both "detectives"! Lucky you! All the books are available. I used to wait impatiently for each new one!

This is book 1 of the Freddy series (note that it was not originally published with this title, and Freddy is not as much the focus as in later books). These stories of the adventures of the intelligent and sociable animals on the Bean farm are beautifully written, and have some dramatic tension but nothing over the top (no Moms are killed in these stories, unlike Disney's favorite ploy...). The stories introduce some wonderfully adult concepts (like politics, banking, running a business) with well-crafted characters that will broaden a child's understanding of what makes people tick.

In 1955 I was eight, and the eldest of three brothers. My mother couldn't go to the grocery store with all of us so she'd drop me off at the children's room at the West Hartford, CT, public library, and pick me up on the way home. It was there that I discovered Freddy, and that pig spoke my language! It was Freddy, his wonderful compatriots on the Bean farm, and their fabulous adventures, that started me out right. Freddy Goes to Florida is the first of the series, and is where I recommend starting your own adventures with Freddy the Pig. Hats off to Overlook Press for re-publishing these books in their original look.

This book is really a great book. I couldn't stop reading it. This is a good book because it tells you what its like for a divorced parent to get married again. It tells about the struggles and the ups and downs of a parent getting remarried. I liked this book because it was very well written

"To Have and to Hold" is a very good Madison Finn book. I really enjoyed it, and had to keep reading. I finished it in three days! This book is mainly about Maddie's dad getting married with Stephanie, in Texas! Madison doesn't want to leave Phinnie, her friends, and her mom. And then, Maddie finds out that she has to do a reading in front of a hundred people! Meanwhile, back home, something very bad happens to Fiona's father, and Maddie wishes she could be back home. Maddie doesn't want to meet Stephanie's huge Texas family.....especially a Posion Ivy like cousin. Will Maddie get through this wedding? What about everybody back home?

This is the BEST Madison finn book EVER! Madison;s dad and Stephanie are getting married! And Madison is a little overwhelmed, and then, she is asked to go and be a bridesmaid in Texas! So she turns to Bigwheels for advice, then, Fiona's dad has a heart attack, and is in the hospital! Will this wedding turn out okay, or will this New Yorker get more than what she can Have and to Hold?

Summer Vacation is on and Madison's dad drops a bombshell. He is got engaged to his girlfriend, Steph and they are getting married in two weeks. Plus, they want Madison to be junior maid of honour and recite a poem at the wedding. Dad says that there will only be 30 people at the wedding. Then Steph's mom gets carried away with the guest list. Before long the wedding goes to 300 hundred people and about five different affairs. How is madison going to survive?

Madison Finn is back! And in a whole new, exciting way. On the first page, the book just sucks you in, wanting you to read more. It begins with Maddie's Dad announcing his engagement to his long-time girlfriend, Stephanie. Suddenly, Madison's world turns topsy turvy, and she's become part of the wedding rush. As if her Dad getting married wasn't enough...it's going to be far away from home...in Texas! Think things can't get any worse? Well, it does. Stephanie's niece, Tiff, acts like a total spoiled brat towards Maddie. Will Madison's luck change? Or will this whole ordeal turn out a disaster...just like Madison thinks it will? Find out in 'To Have and to Hold'.