Educational Books

In my spare time, I am responsible for the ongoing success of the Madison, NJ LL Girls Softball program. Every spring, approximately 260 young ladies, from 7-16 years of age, play fastpitch softball. Thanks to the efforts of close to 100 volunteer coaches, our program gives the young ladies of our community the chance to learn to love a game they can play forever.

Following our spring program, 3 teams (14U, 12U, 10U) complete in summer tournaments and leagues. I've been coaching the 14U level for 15 years now. In the late spring, I received an email from Harley Rotbart telling me about his book. I read a few chapters online and thought this book might be a good learning tool for my summer softball team. I took a chance and ordered 16 copies.

You can imagine the look on my team's eyes when I handed out a book and reading assignment listing at our parents/players meeting. I created a reading list; with each player having 6 assigned chapters. I organized it so that before/after each game, everyone had to be ready to make a 1 minute presentation to the rest of the team. No one knew who I'd call on to present, so everyone had to do their reading. When I was asked "what happens if we aren't prepared when called on?", my answer was simple. "You'll enjoy that game from the bench. "

We made it through the entire book last summer. I asked my players if they'd be willing to write a book report I could post on Amazon. A few of them took me upon on the offer. Their comments on the book follow:

Did you enjoy reading this book this summer? Why?

I liked this book because it was a very clear and straight forward way to learn more about softball, or to teach those who did not know the difference from a softball and a football. Unlike a lot of books about sports that have a bunch of different sports smushed together, this one explains everything there is to know about softball in a chapter by chapter sequence, often comparing events in softball to real life events. Cara M. 2nd Base.

I enjoyed reading this book this summer because I enjoyed how the author related softball to real life. I really taught me a lot. Julianna V. Catcher.

Yes- It helped prepare me for each game and made me realize how every aspect of the game of softball is related to life. It really got me thinking. Mackenzie G. Pitcher, SS.

Was being prepared to talk about this book a good way to begin/end our games?

Being prepared to talk about this book before or after games was a good way to review how to act in real game situations. Cara M.

This book was a great way to open and close games. IT really got you to understand the topic thoroughly in order to present what you read to the team. Julianna V.

Yes, sometimes the chapters that were talked about were situations in the game we just played. Mackenzie G.

What one thing did you read that really surprised you?

One chapter that really surprised me was the one about "The perfect game". It talked about how a perfect game would be when the pitcher throws no bad pitches, only strikes. The thing that surprised me was that the book said how the catcher was just a part of the perfect pitches as the pitcher, due to all the signs she gives. Cara M.

One thing that surprised me was that everything talked about softball and it was all related to life. That surprised me that everything in the book had an impact on life. Julianna V.

The "from the dugout" section of each chapter really surprised me because I never really thought of how softball could relate to life. It made the game seem more than just a bunch of girls throwing balls around. Mackenzie G.

Would you recommend this book to other players/coaches?

I would recommend this book to players that want to improve their knowledge of the game, or anyone who just wants to know what is going on when they watch their daughter, friend, etc. Cara M.

Yes, I would recommend this book because not only does it teach you about softball, it teaches you about life. Julianna V.

Yes, it improves the player's game and is a good coaching tool. Mackenzie G.

Did you forgive your coach for giving you a summer reading assignment?

Even though I was very surprised coach gave us a summer reading assignment, it was really not a big deal, and I actually learned a lot. Cara M.

Yes, I do forgive my coach because I thought the summer reading I would be a drag, but I ended up learning a lot of life lessons from the book and really enjoyed it. Julianna V

Yes - it wasn't that bad. Mackenzie G.


I'll be buying 15 copies of this book every summer in the years ahead. I found this a great way to prepare the team for the game ahead or to finish up after the game was over. Sometimes its difficult for a coach to find the right things to say. Taking this approach put my players in charge of the pre/post game talks! It worked very well.

Dave Carver Madison NJ LL Softball

I actually bought 2 books. My son is 10 and he reads everying evening.
He reads out loud to me and I follow along in my book. We discuss every chapter (short). The book is well written. Any child that likes baseball will certainly enjoy all the baseball talk. And the way life's lessons are presented are so much better than I could try to explain to my son. He understands them. We are now referring back to the book in conversation. I can say remember what the book said about curve balls?
Sometimes life will throw you a curve ball. It is all in how you handle the situation. We have not finished the book yet, but when we do I will keep them handy and have my son refer back to certain chapters when life
can be sticky. I look forward every evening to sit down and read this book with him. I think it is awesome.

I discovered the perfect gift for a grandmother to give her baseball-playing grandkids. I don't know anything about bats or gloves, and I can't figure out any of the other paraphernalia my grandsons use when I watch their games. Until now, the best I could do was giving them a gift certificate to a sporting goods store. But, "The On Deck Circle of Life - 101 Lessons from the Dugout" is better than any gift certificate. If I made a list of everything I'd like my grandsons to grow up to become, the list would include most of the chapters of this book. I bought a copy of the book for myself, too - because the top half of every chapter is a little lesson in the game of baseball and helps me understand what the kids are doing out there. The bottom half of each chapter teaches kids how the game relates to the real world, so there's something in each chapter for grandparents, parents, and kids. I really like this part of Chapter 81, the "Home Field Advantage":

"As life challenges and confuses you, take comfort in, and take advantage of, your home field. Your parents and your brothers and sisters are your best friends, your most important teammates...No matter how bad the crisis, how afraid you feel, or how terrible you imagine the outcome, your family is your ultimate home field advantage. Find the comfort and stability of your familiar dugout and the friendly faces on the bleachers. You'll win many more games at home than on the road."

As parents, one of our goals is to teach our children how best to interact with their increasingly complex and sometimes unfriendly world. This book serves as a primer to both parent and child, using baseball rules as the platform. In its simplicity, it is an elegant guide to making our children better adults, and making us better parents. I loved Dr. Rotbart's book, and only hope to see more of his profound wisdom in future books. How I wish he could have been my parent! Thanks for educating me to the rules of baseball and life, all in one concise volume.

First off...I dearly love the game of baseball, have since I was 5 years old. Mr. Rotbart has shown me why the game has rooted itself to my inner core. These days, I've had to step back and look at the game from another view. I am a District Administrator for Little League Baseball in Arizona and oversee 18 leagues. After reading this book I purchased enough copies for the presidents of each league (plus some) in the hopes that these directors of our young athletes will do the same with their constituents. Nothing worthwhile in life is just handed to us, we must practice over and over so we are ready when it's our turn to make the right play or decision in our lives. This book teaches us as adults, as well as our children, how perfect practice makes perfect!

This book is a true student service for online learning and is a great step toward online student retention! It covers everything the online student would need to know in order to succeed in a self-paced, self-motivated, and technology dependant environment!!

I compared Online Student Skills and Strategies Handbook (Pearson Longman 2006) to E-Learning Companion A Student's Guide to Online Success (Houghton Mifflin 2005) in order to select a resourse to support distance learning. I found Online Student Skills and Strateiges Handbook much more useful, learner oriented and readily accessible. It includes large, clear screen captures to accompany step by step directions. It handles practical topics like using Rich Text Format (RTF), practicing netiquette, storing lessons in a binder, and submitting assignments. It also includes cross references to other relevant chapters in the handbook, and it includes other Internet resources for each chapter. In comparison, E-Learning seems too textbookish. While E-Learning has a useful glossary and index, Online Student Skills and Strategies has a glossary, index and Webliography.

This is a valuable resource for students interested in a successful on-line learning experience. The straightforward and practical examples should help guide everyone from novice to experienced.

I was very impressed with the format, content, attention to detail, step-by-step approach to help users work through technology, and the success-oriented focus of the text. The first chapter utilized an innovative and unique assessment to help users identify what they already know and what they will need to focus on to learn. The text is a well-designed and non-threatening resource for any online user.

I think this text is a practical and useful guide for both novice and experienced online students. The information is very well organized throughout with a couple great appendices containing websites and computer skill tips. The helpful screenshots and lay flat binding are a plus for use as you are working on the computer.

This childrens book illustrates a variety of typical situations that a peanut-allergic child might come across in his daily life. That in itself was helpful to my family, but we also liked the way the boy handles the situations. Hopefully, it gives my child an example of what he needs to say to people when he finds himself in a "peanut pickle". I also want our family and close friends to read this short book to help them understand the situations my child needs to avoid.

This is the story of a six year old boy called Ben and how he copes in various situations with his peanut allergy. Of all the books I have read on this subject, this one was my favorite. It is very thorough. Dealing with all of the ways peanuts or products containing nut traces may be offered to a child by well meaning adults or friends. The information is given is excellent and nothing is left out. My five year old loved it as it showed her how to say no. It describes other safe foods that a peanut allergic child can eat so it has a very upbeat and positive message for the allergic child. I often allow her friends to borrow a copy as an indirect way of informing their parents of my daughters dietary restrictions. It is a fun way to get life saving information across to caregivers and friends. Suitable for children aged four and up. There are more basic books on the market for younger children.

This is a great book for children to share with friends and family. Puts things into perspective for everyone. Thank you so much for writing this book. Awesome job! Great pictures too. We love this book. My son takes his book everywhere and wants to read to everyone. He is only 3.

I thought this book was absolutely fabulous. Having a toddler with the peanut allergy can be very frightening. The book actually goes through different scenarios that can be dangerous for kids with peanut allergies. It teaches kids, AND ADULTS, how to take precautions, in a cute, likable manner. I think I learned as much as my daughter, who absolutely loves this book. It made a great addition to the library at her Pre-School, as many kids enjoy it, even those without the Peanut Allergy. It helped us tremendously. WELL WORTH THE PURCHASE. Even if you have an older child with a newly diagnosed nut allergy, I would recommend purchasing it just to learn about cross-contact risks.

My four year old is severely allergic to peanuts. He understands his allergy, wears his MedAlert bracelet and knows to ask about ingredients if I am not around, but I think that he sometimes feels a bit different/left out.

We read this book, and he said - "Mommy, Where did you find a book about me??" He asked that I re-read it 3 times!

We brought the book into his daycare center (per his request) and he told his teachers that we had brought in a book "About Me and My Allergy" and that he wanted to share it with his class so that they understood that he is "just like them except for the peanuts".

A few days after the teacher read the book to the class, I had other parents tell me that their children were talking about the book and asking them questions about how to keem my son from getting sick again.

What a great book - I recommend it to everyone.

This is a very fun book, though most of the story is via illustrations due to the limitation of only using a ten word vocabulary.

I read this to my daughter once. Then I made ten flash cards and we practiced with them until she knew them backwards, forwards and upside down. Once she learned them, she was "allowed" to read the book all by herself and thus began the "backwards" tradition of her reading to me instead of me reading to her.

She is 25 today and a voracious reader, so this book worked! And it's *fun* to read!

As a toddler this was my favorite book (my parents tell me). Now that I am a parent, I looked to find this part of my childhood for my own toddler. It was difficult to come by, but worth the time spent searching. It is a very simple book (uses only 10 words as the series denotes), but simplicity is its strength. My toddler is quickly learning to say "pickle" and "popped" after only a few reads.

Again, a memory from childhood. This had to be one of the very first books i check out of the school library in kindergarten. I can't believe how hard it actually was to track down over the years, but again the internet and amazon save a collector again. This is a funny little story about a town and their king gathering pickles and piling them high, until suddenly they explode and a huge pond of pickle juice is made. It simple, easy to read, and you can have a heck of a lot of fun with it reading it to your kids...or if your board in the office. So please consider this book as a funny piece in a kids collection that could be passed down from generation to generation. There are other versions available of this book, including a 10-word reader series book, as well as the original scholastic hard back (and this paperback). there is also a paperback reissue available at some places online.

This was the very first book I ever checked out from the library at my school when I was in kindergarten. Make it the first book you child wants to read and hear every night. It is a ridiculously simple book, and utterly entertaining. Plot: Peter has to pick some pickles... Then fun and chaos ensues. The artwork nicely compliments the story and still makes me giggle to this day. Well worth any price you pay for it.

I don't know what it was exactly about this book, but I REALLY liked it as a kid and now I want to be able to share it with my twin boys (age 4). Wish I knew what happened to my copy! Definitely worth sharing with a whole new generation. LIVE ON PICKLE PICKLE PICKLE JUICE!! (ha ha)

Stephanie Pace Marshall takes the time, and makes the enormous effort, to describe the education system our children need now, and in the future.

This is a difficult and valuable task. Her work is based on 40 years of experience, including the creation and administration of the Illinois Math and Science Academy. Her ideas work - the challenge for us as readers is to think about how we are going to implement these ideas in our own schools and communities.

This is an extremely valuable book for anyone who wants to engage in the transformation of schools from their current model to one which will meet our needs for the future. It is especially valuable for educational leaders, administrators and school board members who guide our school systems. It is inspirational for the many of us who wish we knew what to do to help improve education.

However, it is not an easy read. It takes some effort to absorb Ms. Pace Marshall's new language for her ideas, but, it is worthwhile. I found myself taking notes, brainstorming with colleagues and thinking in new ways as I made my way through. I wish you an equally exciting read.

THE POWER TO TRANSFORM: Leadership That Brings Learning and Schooling to Life is a brilliant and compelling book -- must reading for anyone interested in transforming today's educational system into one that truly meets the needs of 21st century children and 21st century society.

Marshall points out that the model upon which most of today's schools are based reflects society's present priorities of practicality and immediate usefulness. Children are looked upon as beings with innate learning deficiencies, and the job of education is to fill their minds with facts and attitudes that will be useful in present-day society. This approach does not equip today's children for the world of tomorrow. As Marshall put it, "A world dominated by excessively competitive and acquiring minds who cannot think holistically, systemically, long term, and wisely is dangerous. ... Exploration, creativity, imagination, passion, wonder, and awe lie at the heart of life and learning. They must also be at the heart of schooling."

The remedy that Marshall proposes is to use the principles of living systems as design principles for creating a "new [educational] story" -- creating "learning communities" that are "naturally autonomous, open, creative, self-organizing, connected and adaptive." Rather that trying to pour dry facts into the heads of bored, disengaged children, the approach is to excite and enthusiastically engage them by having them explore real world issues and problems -- "problems that matter." In the process, the children gather the facts they need, and are receptive to learning new skills (reading, 'riting, 'rithmatic, and more) because they realize that they need these tools to analyze, solve, and report on the problems they care about.

"Great questions" are another focal point in Marshall's approach. She calls them "portals to a future of unknown possibilities." Her advice to students is "Ask questions that matter. Ask questions that make a difference. Ask questions you love so that as you live your life seeking the answers you will find joy." She lists 28 "big questions for deep learning" that relate to her four pillars of learning: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together.

Marshall stresses that this new approach does not abandon standards, formal curriculum, instruction, evaluation, measurement, or assessment. But old approaches to these matters have been transformed into ones that reflect the changed values which underlie the new schema.

This book is rich and deep, and almost every page had me saying, "Yes, yes, of course!" Marshall ends the book with the following call to action: "Please do not wait for others. Courage is the capacity to claim what we imagine. If you are carrying this new story in your heart, now is the time to step forward. There is a place in the world for your unique voice, and it carries a message that must be heard. Start anywhere, but begin the conversation, and tell the new story that brings learning and schooling to life."

In The Power to Transform, Stephanie Pace Marshall poses the question of what it will take to create a generative and life-affirming system of learning and schooling that liberates the goodness and genius of all children and invites and nurtures the power and creativity of the human spirit for the world. The question stirs deep and often latent passion in those of us who are devoting our professional lives to education. What would it take? How does one even begin to conceptualize the journey let alone chart a course toward such a vision? The Power to Transform offers those who are willing to look beyond the myriad of barriers to the possibility of a very different future.

Books on leadership for systemic reform typically offer direction for aligning and connecting the functions of school systems with visions that often speak eloquently to life-long learning, productive work, and global citizenship. Alignment and connection are complex and necessary steps but they do not go far enough. Marshall is dead on labeling the goal of much of what is characterized as reform and transformation as leading us to false proxies for learning--high scores on high stakes tests. As educators we know these limited snapshots are far from evidence of deep understanding, internal authority for learning, and the ability to apply learning in multiple contexts that are necessary to achieve these visions.

So what will it take? Direction, design, rich and compelling stories that offer evidence that such learning environments are possible, and evidence of success from students who have experienced this fundamentally different approach to learning and schooling. The Power to Transform presents a powerful argument for why leaders cannot accept false proxies for learning and offers an alternative future for learning and schooling that embraces the learning competencies needed to thrive in a complex, interdependent, and continuously changing world. Principles of design offer direction, not prescription, that allow for contextualizing processes and structures to operationalize the vision. Marshall draws heavily from two decades of experience in leading the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. She describes a learning journey where she and her staff are learning their way into creating a desired future. The stories of her students who have experienced a more generative and life-affirming system of learning at IMSA speak to thriving in schooling, work, and their commitment to work toward a more sustainable future for our world.

So many books on school leadership--haven't we all slogged our way through them?--are manifestos from those who tell us with great certainty and authority what we must "know": how to realign building resources, institute new management beliefs, and instrumentally refocus strategic goals. Again and again these books disappoint. They are unreal technical manuals that do not address the deep, dysfunctional paradigms that underlie our current educational system: that students are containable, defined units to be filled with knowledge, that competition and external prodding inspires profound learning, that learning itself is linear and predictable. Using narrative--the power of story--and her own experiences of being transformed through leading, Marshall proposes a new model of generative school learning based on abundance. (So little in our educational system is based on an assumption of abundance, the idea itself is almost startling.) Marshall says that instead of regarding the learner reductively and mechanistically, as we tend to in our day-to-day interactions and in larger educational policy, she invites us to rethink our work and learn to tell a new story about ourselves, one that reflects that:

Learning is shaped by personal purpose
Ability is multidimensional
Holistic engagement of all the learner's senses and feelings is essential for real inquiry (p. 81).

This doesn't sound like many high schools I visit every week, unfortunately, where learning by compulsion, fear, or threat are the veiled order of the day. My hope is that Marshall's book will find its way to many school leaders, those who are ready to look deeply into the fundamental assumptions that underlie their work and the structures of education in America. Especially useful is Marshall's table comparing "current reductive" educational ideas and a new "generative and personalized" vision of learning, teaching and curriculum (pp. 219-225). The table is a remarkably clear, concise analysis of what is, and what might be. Finally, Marshall offers some good words to live by, for any leader anywhere. In a letter to her grandchildren she reminds them that one's life is about:

Your integrity, not your position
Your voice, not your power
Your name, not your title
Your calling, not your career
Your legacy, not your success (p. 214).

I have these words up on the wall of my office, and I visit with them often. Marshall is wise, inspiring and refreshing.

Most education reform today consists of tinkering around the edges of an essentially broken model, of adding more of the same and, inexplicably, expecting things to get better. We are long overdue for a new vision. The Power to Transform provides exactly that.

Stephanie Pace Marshall's impassioned, deeply thoughtful and groundbreaking book on transformative leadership for schooling and learning is easily among the top five books on education currently in print, and the only one I know that gives readers a powerful vision for the future and for true systemic change. It is a guide for those who would lead a revolutionary movement to fundamentally transform American education, even from within their own schools.

Those who have read Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat understand the need for radical change in our nation's schools if the United States is to remain a creative and contributing society among world nations, equal to the challenges that lie ahead. To be successful in this new world, young people need different skills than preceding generations, an engaged relationship to learning (sorely lacking in today's often lackluster and out of touch schools) and ways to connect their capacities and interests to the work that needs doing in the world. Dr. Marshall has tapped the disconnect between what is and what needs to be in education in a powerful and compelling way, through story and through a well-reasoned argument for change. She also provides questions to guide that process at both the grass roots level and within the halls of power.

Endorsements by Howard Gardner, Parker Palmer, Margaret Wheatley and Robert Galvin speak to the importance of this book; it is truly a seminal work and a must read for anyone interested in making schools better for students, for teachers and for the world. I used The Power to Transform last year for a seminar I conduct at Northwestern University, and I plan to use it again this fall. The book was a huge success, and I'm looking forward to the rich conversations and practical school level applications it generates within my next seminar class. I cannot recommend it highly enough! And I love her letter to her grandchildren. I, too, have it up in my office and share it widely.

This author exemplifies the instruction methodologies she writes about in the Psychology of Learning for Instruction. As a graduate student using this as a textbook this semester, I have found it to be invaluable. I only wish that I had more time to mine the depths of her references and Reflective Questions and Activities at the end of each chapter!

I purchased this book for a class... arrived in brand new condition and prompt delivery.

Driscoll outlines various behavioral, psychological, and educational theories. Her focus on the applications and implications of learning theories is quite extensive.

I read this book while researching for information about transitioning young children. While I did not find this information, I was transfixed by the easy reading of this book about other early childhood programs. The author traveled all over, and described so many different stratagies that I feel are helpful to know. I tried to pick a favorite strategy that I would use, but I like them all so much I wish I worked at each place she described. It also included an exceptional child classroom, which I thought was touching. This author was unbiased, informative, and inquisitive. The book even offers a question sequence after each program so that it can really get you thinking. I will cherish this one for a long time.

I had the pleasure of being an online graduate student at Florida State University where Dr. Driscoll was teaching. Having Dr. Driscoll as an instructor, using her own book as a textbook for the course, was an invaluable experience for me. Anyone who needs a deeper understanding of cognitive learning theories need not look any further than this book. The logical formatting and presentation, the examples and explanations of theory from a variety of sources, makes this book a true gem, and one I still refer to, years after attending Dr. Driscoll's course.

Inspiring, I give it two thumbs up for offering a sane point of view about minimizing bully and violence in schools, while staying sensitive to the young people at the same time.

I also went to the Safe School Ambassador website and saw a 4-minute NBC Today Show clip about this program. The clip gives a good summary of the authors' point of view, and you also get to hear some unscripted responses from young people who have been through the program.

Every school administrator should take the time to read this valuable, well-researched guide to the problem and solutions to the issue of mistreatment in schools. The authors have made a strong case for student empowerment, and have given school personnel the practical tools to make their schools safer and more welcoming for everyone.

The most important aspect of this book is that the strategies suggested PREVENT mistreatment, thus changing the norms. As a facilitator of adults ordered by court to take anger management classes, I would like to see more of this taking place. That way we are up stream solving the problem rather than downstream picking up the bodies. I have shared much of the information in the book in parenting classes I led. Students found the information extremely useful. To my knowledge several of them did go back to their children's schools and obtained information on how the school was addressing bullying. It's the ripple effect. Take the time to read the book and then make a difference in your community. I'd love to work myself out of a job.

As the parent of a girl who was a mistreated in middle school, I have often wondered what can be done to bring about change for students like my daughter. I know from my own experience, that top down discipline does not provide for a safe school climate. If it did, my many calls to the school about how my daughter was being treated, would have brought about change.
What I have learned from this insightful, compelling book is that by empowering the students, we can build safer schools, from the inside-out, an obvious, and simple solution. Research based and well written, Safe School Ambassadors:Harnessing Student Power, is a must read for Professionals and Parents alike.

I have worked with young people for over 30 years as a theatre educator and drama therapist. The problem of schools being unsafe and uncivil places in which to learn is growing around the globe. In addition to providing a clear overview of the problem, I believe the authors express quite eloquently the key to the solution: youth empowerment. It is through relationship that young people develop their behavioral repertoire and, as is expressed in this book, "Outside-In" approaches that focus on rules, monitoring, and enforcement cannot effectively change the social norms that make it O.K. for students to mistreat each other. Kudos to the authors on creating such a valuable resource.

I am a current college student majoring in Biology. I often have lab reports and other write ups due in my biology classes. This book is one of the most useful tools for success in writing for Biology. It was the best book I invested in this semester.

My daugther is the one that uses this and she finds it very helpful to understanding the lessons.

I never buy anything unnecessary for my classes, it just creates unneeded clutter and stress for me. This book, however, takes the stress out of writing lab reports. It's on the pricey side, but it pays for itself. Even when I get stuck on writing a part of a report, I go back to this book and I find what I was doing wrong and/or how to go on. You can go through the different sections in the book to find something or you can refer to its very handy index at the back.

Jan Pechenik even gives examples for every part of your report (e.g., she lets you see what an introduction looks like, what a bibliography looks like, etc.). This book is for the neophytes, giving them the basics and also for the professional scientist, telling them how to format their papers for peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Ever since I've had this (I have the 5th edition, but I lost it, so I'm going to order this 6th edition...can't live without it!), it's really hard to get a bad grade on a lab report. I used to have problems with writing captions for my tables and figures, but now they actually are articulate without having my rambling tone embedded in there.

Every time I have to do a lab report, I use this book. No exceptions. Although I cannot comment on the other aspects of the book in (check out the "Look Inside!" Table of Contents), its guidance for writing lab reports is helpful to the utmost. Before this book, I made in the high 80s on my lab reports; now it is rare that I go below a 95. The book is full of what to do and, more importantly, what not to do. For example, never give purpose to evolution (I am paraphrasing, of course). Birds did not evolve flight to escape predators or to travel long distance; they evolved flight because a series of random DNA mutations turned forelimbs into wings, and that increased their survival rate. That is just one of numerous examples, and, best of all, all of the examples given are extremely relevant to college students because the material comes from college-level lab reports. Still, all of my biology professors have this book, in one edition or anther, on their shelves. This review refers to the 5th edition.

I've used this book since I was a freshman biology major. I'm now a Ph.D. student and I still reference this book. I've read other writing manuals designed for students in the sciences, but I've found that nothing is as clear and useful to students in the life sciences as this book.

i really love this book a lot. I read it only one day because i liked it so much. i love that is about real issues and about a kid around my age. But it's also amazing only 17 being on top of the drug game! now that's hard to find in real life. but i like that it's so realistic to make you feel that you're really there, and you're always hanging back on the last sentence to see what happens next. It's a book you don't ever want to put down. The author says this is her 1st novel, so i'm looking forward for more books to come from her.

I thought that this book was outstanding because of the honesty it had. I enjoyed reading about real life things and something that I could relate to because of the boy's age.

Ty Johnson knows how to survive in the real world, to take care of problems on the spot. He has everything in control and knows the way to run things. He's intelligent, patient, and skillful, everything he needs when he inherited his father's business. Everything is running smoothly for Ty and that's the way he wants it.

But then a series of struggles and obstacles ruins the way Ty does things. Not only does he have to take care of a competitor who wants to run him out of business, but he has to deal with school, the only thing his mother wants him to focus on. That could be especially difficult when a girl like none other, Alyse, enters his life and makes him feel happy for once. The hardest part is trying to hide from his mother, and almost everyone new he meets, that he is involved in dealing drugs, the business that Ty's mother hoped to forget after Ty's father went to prison for it.

Ty starts to question every action he does, from the moment he entered the business. With so many problems to handle, can Ty get through it all?

Allison van Diepen takes on a risky plot that so many teens have heard about, but never knew much about, and pulls the reader in. STREET PHARM is a true coming-of-age story that causes the reader to be at the edge of their seat, quickly turning pages, and in the end wanting more. A quick, fast-paced read that is necessary for all teens to read.

Reviewed by: Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen

"Street Pharm" is an excellent novel,especially for teenage males.It's
the gritty,powerful story of a young and very successful drug dealer who
decides to change his life.The book is violent and raw,but brilliantly
written with fully developed characters.It is an astonishing debut by
a talented new author.I can't wait to see what she does next!

I am adult who enjoys reading good teen lit and this book qualifies. While I did not really care for Ty in the beginning of the book, you can slowly see his progression into "the real world" and it is a joy to go through it with him.

I also liked the honest look at the street life and the fact that the author did not make it sound like a romantic thing.

The writing is good and the storyline goes at a steady stream. I would be interested in reading a second book in this series to find out how Ty and Alyse make on and how Ty deasl with his father.

The only thing that would have made this book better would have been if it had been a true story.

This is an enjoyable read.

A favorite at our center, we've lost it TWICE and have had to reorder!!
Beautiful text and pictures, a wonderful way to teach about the cycle of growing plants.

I love this book. I think it has beautiful illustrations and a sweet story line for younger children.

This is a great book for children. The story is wonderful. I will definitely use it is my Kindergarten classroom.

I loved the beautiful illustrations that are sure to be bright enough to catch even a young child's eye. I liked the simplicity and rythm of the text. I especially liked the child's viewpoint narrative and the cycle of life science that is woven into the story and the pictures. Above all I liked that the story celebrates one of life's simplest but grander pleasures.

Beautiful pictures. I read this book to my 3 & 4 year old sons.
They thought it was really neat so we planted a sunflower house that spring. Even my 9 yr old son wanted in on the project. It was a great way to introduce not only the wonders of the plant growth process but also the responsibilty of caring for things that grow.