Bean Books

I find this book to be inappropriate for the age level listed (ages 4-8). Not only do Ivy and Bean speak very disrespectfully toward and disobey their parents, but, most offensive of all, they take the Lord's name in vain. I have three children ages 4-8. I do not feel they are old enough to recognize they should not imitate the actions and words of Ivy and Bean.

My daughter loves all the Ivy & Bean stories. These are great characters. They teach an important lesson about friendship and how very different people can still be the best of friends.

The Killing Song by Don Bassingthwaite is the third, and final, book in The Dragon Below trilogy set in the world of Ebberon. In this book Mr. Bassingthwaite starts up right where he left off with the previous book The Grieving Tree. He follows the familiar characters of Singe, Geth and the rest of the gang. If you are considering reading this book, you really do need to read the other two the first being The Binding Stone and the second, as mentioned above, being The Grieving Tree. Only then can you fully understand the entire story.

When I reviewed the previous two books, I noted some things that I thought would have made the books better. Such as more character development, bring the characters from the 2-D cutouts that they seemed to be, and develop sub-plots to add to the books overall feel. Each of these were addressed in this book, but only very little. This book was frustrating for me to read, because I saw great potential for a very good story, but the lack of depth in the characters and how their situation was portrayed greatly lessened the effect this book had on me. Instead of caring about the characters and the outcome of the story, I was left with more of an "I wonder how this ends" type of attitude.

The characters in this book, and trilogy, for that matter all have good potential to be good memorable characters. Especially with a name like Singe, yet there is such little character development that once you move on to another book you forget about them. One very frustrating part for me was at the end of the book when two characters are talking about an issue that has traversed all three books and it is left as a `mystery'. If you truly wanted character development, this would have been a great opportunity to add something. Yet, when I look back on the book, the characters remain mere 2-Dimensional cut outs of other characters I have read about in the past. There is very little in the way of `newness' for the characters in this book.

The plot of this book is the culmination of the trilogy so I expected some big things. There is no longer another book to wait for, this is it. For the first two thirds of the book, I found myself wondering how this could possibly end, as I didn't see any type of resolutions occurring. So, once I got to the last third I felt very rushed as it seemed the author realized he had to finish the book, and trilogy. Now, don't take that the wrong way, there were pieces of the ending that made sense and fit the story very well. I just wish I didn't have to read about it at warp speed and feel like I missed something. I think this also plays into the idea that the characters were so forgettable that I didn't really feel like I had much vested interest in the outcome. That is another thing that frustrated me. The entire plot idea, of the song, of the Master of Silence etc is a very good idea. I just think the execution was not done as well as it could have been. There were also a couple times during this book that the characters would say something and it felt like the author was telling me, as the reader, "Hey, hey, this is important don't miss this." Personally, I don't like being `slapped' into remembering something. It's the author's job to get me to remember it, but making it interesting not just telling me.

Overall, I can't rate this book as anything other than average. Throughout this trilogy I was hoping things would progress and grow. Yet, I was disappointed to see that they remained the status quo and didn't veer far from what he had done before. Fans of Eberron should probably read this book to learn about the Master of Shadows and the Killing Song and a couple other tid bits of information, but casual fans may want to steer clear of this until you know for sure you want to invest some time and energy into the Eberron world.

The Killing Song is the third book in the Dragon Below Series by Don Bassingthwaite. The end of the saga finds the group of companions an a mission to stop the Dragon Dahmir from completing his mission to create slave minions out of Kalashtar for the Master of Silence.

The story picks up after Dahmir has successfully procured the ancient binding stones and has gone to the floating tower city of Sharn along with his mad servant Vennet. Dahmir has been punished by the master of Silence who has taken away his ability to take form as a human, leaving him only his dragon form, and that of a bird. It is in Sharn that Dahmir expects to kidnap a number of Kalashtar and complete his mission for his master.

The companions have split up with Geth the changeling,Orshok the Orc druid, and Ekhaas the Hobgoblin mystic heading to the Shadow marches to warn the Gatekeepers of Shadowmarch. The wizard Singe, Dandra the Kalashtar, Natrac the Orc, and Ashi the dragonmarked Bonetree hunter travel to Sharn to try and stop Dahmir.

The story thus alternates between the two groups of companions as they each try to accomplish their missions.

Don Bassingthwaite is a talented author however his talent for description and metaphor is not enough to overcome the relatively confusing storyline. The actual plot is simple enough, with the character missions fairly straightforward, but there are so many evil characters and plot devices, and then again those plot devices are hard to understand. Understandably, character development can be a rarity in these novels as the focus is on the action, but it was notably absent here. The characters are one dimensional and repetitive. I got tired of reading Geth exclaim "Grandfather Rat" and Dandra with "Light of Il yannah" as though these statements alone are enough to establish individual personalities.
I also found it fairly annoying that one of the big mysteries of Geth's past is dangled throughout the series and then left unexplained in the end.

All in all, the book has a decent pacing, well described scenes and a fair amount of imagination, but in the end this imagination may have been a little too overwrought.

Though it jumps around too much and isn't ordered or structured well, the book provides some very interesting information including historical poisonings, how our understanding of poisons developed, and how they are currently used still today for both good and bad purposes. The book is by no means comprehensive, and certainly not going to acquaint you with the universe of poisons as a whole, but provides a nice read you can pick up and put down to fill time as you're waiting for something.

This could have been a much better book if he'd picked a few topics and gone into great detail. Instead, he hoped about giving a tidbit here, a tidbit there and really pretty much leaving you hanging. There was a lot of interesting information, and the book got better as it went along, but overall it was poorly organized and executed. I think there are far better books on the topic, but this one had its amusing moments and I think someone very interested in the history of poison use would still find it worthwhile.

Here is a book that is designed to allow the reader to begin immediately programming JavaBeans. The combination of examples and source code in the text, as well as the accompanying CD allow the reader to develop sophisticated JavaBean applications quickly and easily. This book does an excellent job of explaining design concepts, methodologies, and uses for JavaBeans, as well as providing useful and appropriate tips and ideas for applications. The book explains the relationship of JavaBeans to different component Architectures, and problems associated possibly encountered within these environments. Some basic programming skills are required to adequately use this book, so it should be considered for an intermediate to advanced user level.

I wonder if the authors have actually compiled and run the codes. It simply won't work. Take Chapter 20 (RMI) as an example: 1. In class StockMarket, the line Quote q = (Quote)Naming.lookup("HelloServer"); should be Quote q = (Quote)Naming.lookup("///QuoteServer");

2. Class StockMarket should belong to package examples.ch20.bean, not package examples.chap20.bean;

I bought this book expecting it to be a detailed book about the Omaha Beach landings. Rather, the book was really a tour book designed for people planning on visiting Omaha Beach. There were some very good modern day pictures and the walking tours outlined in the book seemed like they would be very memorable, but this book is not for someone looking for a researched, historical book. The information in the book was general and it was not footnoted or referenced in anyway.

For someone looking for a serious and well researched book on the Omaha Beach landings, this book is not for you. For someone planning a trip to Omaha Beach or just looking for background information, this is a book for you.

This book has some very good info and pictures, but suffers from the fact that it is very short and very small. It measures a mere 6"X6". I bought it to read to a class, but I doubt they could even see it! Also, it is very short. There are nine photos with 1-2 sentences each. So basically nine page turns and you're done. It's extremely basic and appropriate for very young kids (2-5)only. Here is the entire text:
Page 1: Chocolate is made from cacao beans (photo of beans)
Page 2: First the cacao beans are cooked in ovens. The beans become very hot. (photo of oven)
Page 3: Then a machine grinds the beans (photo of machine)
Page 4: The beans become a thick paste. The paste is mixed with powdered milk and sugar. (photo of glass soup bowls of sugar, powdered milk and choc. paste)
Page 5: Machines mix everything together to make chocolate. The chocolate is very soft (photo of machine)
Page 6: The chocolate cools in pipes. When the chocolate is cooled it becomes thicker. (photo of pipes with choc. coming down)
Page 7: Now the choc. can be used to make candy. The choc. is put into molds to make candy bars. (photo of molds with choc.)
Page 8: The chocolate is cooled in the molds. As the chocolate cools, it hardens (photo of candy bars in molds)
Page 9: Chocolate can be used to make many different kinds of candy (photo of Kisss and bar)

That's it. So if you're looking for more in depth, check out a different book.

The book is well written and has good information about beans in general, but I was looking for a book with a lot of good recipes for bean stews, baked beans, bean soups, etc. It did have a number of recipes, but they were a bit odd and not really the type I wanted. They did look very healthful, though.

This is a very small boardbook, which tells the story of Bessie, her new Easter bonnet, and what happens in her family's jelly bean factory. The illustrations are cartoon-style rather than realistic and the storyline is very simple, but my toddler has loved the book from about age 1. It was her favorite bedtime story for many months. I quickly tired of the story but she could (and does!) hear it over and over and over.

ElsBeth is a young witch with very ordinary concerns, like that annoying boy in class, Robert. If she's not being taunted by Robert, her teacher, Ms. Finch, is determined to make her days unbearable. As Halloween approaches and the class prepares for holiday festivities, ElsBeth will be presented with a challenge above and beyond typical childhood trials.

Because of the excitement surrounding the upcoming Halloween pageant, no one seems to notice when all of the boys in the class mysteriously disappear. By the time their absence is realized, they've been gone far too long to be up to typical little boy mischief. As everyone in town heads out to search for the missing children, ElsBeth leads the girls in her class on a magical rescue mission.

The boys have gotten in over their heads in a quest for hidden pirate treasure. With the help of some enchanted friends, ElsBeth discovers her classmates' whereabouts in a hidden cave. Even more surprises await when she finds the boys are not alone in the cave.

Fairies, witches, toads, pirates, and Indians make up the character-driven cast of The Cape Cod Witch and the Pirate's Treasure by J Bean Palmer. The cast is part of an interesting cross between magic and reality. ElsBeth and her grandmother are both modern witches with roots in Earth magic and herbal medicine. They've also got that Sabrina the Teenage Witch flair with talking familiars and ancient spells.

ElsBeth sets an example for her classmates with her reverence of nature, encouraging them to consider how their actions affect creatures of the wild. This is an admirable quality to include in children's literature. Its influence likely stems from Palmer's career in Environmental Science.

The plot feels a bit hasty in spots, and some areas could use further explaining. For instance, there's really no explanation why Ms. Finch targets ElsBeth in class and constantly assumes she's causing trouble. The teacher seems to have a grudge against the innocent child for no reason at all. Her grandmother is aware of the problem, but doesn't think it warrants intervention.

Also, after ElsBeth saves the day and she's reflecting on what happened in the cave, she asks her friend Johnny what he meant by something he said. I've scoured the chapter over and over and cannot figure out what she was referring to, unless it's when Johnny tells her he knows she a witch. There's no other part of the story that indicates ElsBeth has concealed her identity, so it doesn't fit with the storyline. And if she is hiding her witch skills, why? Is there prejudice against witches in her town, or is it for other reasons? Johnny uses Indian sign language at one point to communicate to ElsBeth, but how does she understand him? Is this something she was taught by her grandmother, or can everyone interpret his signing?

Answers to these questions could enhance the story if included, creating a more three-dimensional world view. ElsBeth has a lot of potential. Palmer could really use her protagonist to introduce children to other cultures and bring greater understanding of nature spirituality. I was impressed with the way ElsBeth's grandmother utilized the shamanic revelations of her Native American friends to solve the problem. Unfortunately, her friends are presented as a bit disgruntled and hostile.

ElsBeth could be a very influential figure in children's literature. Her world could use some depth, but the foundation is solid. She's a strong witch with an enduring spirit who could tackle any number of problems. I can see many other magical characters being introduced in her tutelage. All the makings are present for an exciting children's book series.

Three stars because this game is fun, but it is a standard puzzle game. If you like puzzle games it does have its own little tricks to make it different, but is somewhat like Tetris Attack. A fun game but no need to get unless you want to complete your Sonic collection or are a big puzzle game fan.