Big Books

These books are great! I can remember 20 years ago when I was sitting on the floor of my 2nd grade class in Illinios, my teacher would read these books to us!!! They are really cute and I recommend them highly!!

Back in college I got a job as a summer janitor at the local elementary school. One of the things I had to do was clean up in the library. I took this time as an opportunity to catch up on some reading... in the form of the Mr. Men series. Mr. Tickle is a great book about a man who likes to tickle. If you like to laugh, this book is for you. If you like to tickle, this book is for you. If you are a mean spirited and grumpy person, perhaps you should try another book

But BARELY #2.... (Mr. Strong being #1). For a while this was #1 though. Mr. Tickle is the hilarious story of a tickle (you didn't know that there was such a thing as a tickle did you?) on an adventure though town causing mayhem by tickling everyone! This is also a trip though memory lane for daddy as I grew up in England reading Mr. Men books. My copy of Mr. Tickle looks like in went through a war zone, lol.
The best part of the book is the game my son invented by asking me to tickle him every time someone in the book gets tickled. And by the last page he's ran of the bed hiding and giggling. You'll understand if you've got the book, it's got a GREAT ending!
If your kids like Mr. Men books and you don't have Mr. Tickle, what are you waiting for????

Mr. Tickle makes you laugh WILLINGLY.

I know, I know. You are saying, "But I don't like to be tickled. And I don't want my children to feel that tickling is socially appropriate."

I had similar reservations before approaching Mr. Tickle, but I ordered it anyway. Mr. Tickle gets his just rewards, let me assure you, but in the meantime, he seduces readers into the world of Mr. Men. He does not just Tickle the people in his town. No, that is more...Sesame Street (The Tickler, The Man Who Starts with the Letter T, Volume 13, I think, of The Sesame Street Library).

Mr. Tickle helps the people of his town BOND TOGETHER. He is that slippery sort of antagonist who acts as a protagonist. Britain called for a hero, and Mr. Tickle answered the phone.

I loved reading this book to my grandchildren. Even my husband was listening and enjoyed hearing this cute story. I shared it with my neighbor and her grandchildren wanted her to reread it over and over. Little Miss Mischief mentions Mr. Tickle also in the story and a great follow-up book to go along with it. All of the Mr. Men books are great fun to read, and I will keep them on hand for any little one who will sit still to listen to me read it to them. I enjoy the stories as much as the children do.

Almost 2 year old daughter loves it!! We read it every night, along with "Mis amigos" by the same author.

My baby loves to look at this book. The artwork is clever and the story is great for repitition. This book is a great find.

My daughter loves this book. It goes with us, everywhere. She has memorized it at 2 years old. "the storms rage" has always been something I can dramatize when reading it. Now, she has her own way of emphasizing it. LOVE IT!

My 1-year old son LOVES this book. It's been one of his favorites since he first saw it. He wants to read it over and over, which helps to pass the time on car trips. He always laughs when the cow re-appears toward the end. Not many books hold his interest as much or get him as excited as this one!

I bought this book just for it's large print and short sentences. (ez reader). despite these two 'requisites', this is not just a baby book!
If you want to introduce your child to the 'flow' of eloquent vocabulary, this book should do it!
It is NOT a dumbed-down baby book. It is much more fun for me, as a parent, to read than any other baby book that I have met so far!
I can see why the baby's (in other reviews) prefer it!!
My six year old (learning to read) loves it, too.

The original cassette tape included the wonderful song "Carrot Stew" which was what really made the story so fabulous. Unfortunately, the CD does not have the song on it. What a shame. The song is so cute that we still sing it after 26 years! Someone needs to put it back in!! The fact that the song is not included should have been put in the product description. The book itself is great, but with the song, it's wonderful.

This gem is one of the Golden Book classics, first published 1952 and it's as delightful now as it was then. Besides, any book which describes a lion as "jolly as all get out" is sure to be one little readers will love.

when i was little this was my all time favorite book to read, or have my mother read to me. little did i know the author and i acutally share the same first name! i lost my copy of the book a few years ago and have been looking all over for it and i found it here on amazon and was so happy! I absoultely loved this book, it always made me smile.

this is so good of a book its fun to read and the lion is a sucker for carrot stew kids of all ages will love this book

What a wonderful and fun story this is. I love reading this book to my daughter and have read it to her in whole or part dozens of times. Since it is a joy to read and the story flows page to page, I don't mind reading it to her again and again even if she'll only sit still for a few pages (she's currently only 6 ½ months old).
While I understand that to make finding things easier books for children get categorized by age (and this one is in the 4 to 8) don't be misled into thinking that this book isn't suitable for babies or toddlers, they simply need someone to read it to them. I love this book and if she chews and tears the pages I'll gladly buy another.

This book is an absolute winner. Every little girl I give it to accepts it immediately as a firm favorite. It all started with my memories of not wanting to return it to the library. Modern little girls like to carry it about with them (Hoping that someone new will read it to them? As an opportunity to admire it in public? Because they can't bear the thought of being parted from it?) Who knows. All I know is that this is a great book.

My fiancee bought this book for my daughter and I was a little doubtful at first, but she loves it and knew it off by heart by the time she was 18 months old! we read it over and over again and she even says good bye, good bye, good bye, good bye to the tiger on the very last page. This was an excellent buy and I'm looking forward to my younger daughter reading it too.

I was a little unsure when a good friend insisted on buying this book for my then 16-month old daughter at a local book shop. Firstly, it wasn't cheap so I was afraid that it would be a waste if my daughter didn't like it and it wasn't a board book (although my daughter did have some paperback books, she had mostly board books at the time). However, my friend said that she'd loved the book as a child and her own 2-year old loved it as well. So, she got it...and I needn't have worried at all. My daughter loved it from the get-go and was willing to sit through the story at least twice at each sitting, which amazed me as it is not a short story. I decided to try another book by the same author - "Mog, the forgetful cat" and my daughter enjoys that too (it's an even longer read!). As an aside, I have found that the best books to get are the ones that you yourself remember reading as a child or ones that someone else you know remembers from their childhood. It's obviously left an impression and it'll do the same again.

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK! I'M BUYING A 2ND COPY TO HAVE A MINT CONDITION BOOK FOR LATER. OUR TODDLER WANTED THIS READ 7 TIMES IN A ROW UNTIL WE FINALLY SAID IT'S NAP TIME. IT'S NO SURPRISE OVER 3 MILLION COPIES HAVE BEEN SOLD!

It took me nearly twelve years to locate a hardbound copy of this book, and was well worth it. I remember this book vividly from my childhood. My mother read it to my sister and I on rainy days. It is the story of a girl named Sophie who is visited by a hungry tiger with a voracious appetite for tea and biscuits. He ends up eating everything in the cupboards to satisfy his appetite.

It is a sweet story that is easy to follow and read along with your mom, or if you are like me, read all by yourself now that you are an adult. It made me not only want to have a pet tiger, but it made me want to travel to Europe, where the book is set. Sadly, I still do not have a pet tiger, but I have traveled to Europe!

If you are lucky enough to find it in stock - snatch it up quick - they go really fast!

My in-laws gave this book to my 22-month-old son, who loves trucks, construction vehicles and machinery, and it became an instant favorite of his. They were a bit hesitant at first about buying the book because it's essentially a big commercial for Tonka products -- every truck and construction vehicle in the book (and there are many) has "TONKA" prominently written on it. That caveat aside, however, it _is_ a great book for kids who share my son's interests -- it shows the trucks in action and explains the name and uses of each. I also like the fact that it shows both women and men operating the trucks.

I bought this book for a 2 hour airplane flight with my almost 3 year old son. He's very active, and this book kept him more quiet than usual on the flight and a 3 hour car trip. Lots of text on each page - I recommend reading only the first sentence of each paragraph on the descriptions at first. Definitely a book that continues to grow with the child (read more text the more often you read the book).

My pre-schooler loves the illustrations and scope of the machines. But even he noticed that the equipment and illustrations in the farm section are incorrect --- a round baler doesn't make square bales; square bales are tied in the other direction; a self-propelled chopper is not used to put hay into windrows, nor is it a rake; and the machine used to load the hay -- well, we've never seen one used on a farm. Other section of the book are great. Obviously, the author and editor have never helped at haying time. I have a suggestion --- we're always short a few hands in June, and would be happy to provide some hands-on background.

My son has loved this book since he got it a year ago when he was 1.5 years old. I have found as time goes on he always finds new things to ask about - each page is packed with detail, but not so busy as to be a turnoff. This book has provoked alot of discussion about how houses are built, how roads are made, what happens on a farm etc. There is enough there to keep kids interested for a long time!!

This is my 2 y/o son's favorite book EVER! We have to read it every night and take it on all our overnight trips. Needless to say, even he has the text memorized. Yes, the Tonka logo shamelessly displayed on every truck is a bit much, but I've found this book to include the widest variety of trucks. These are displayed nicely in their appropriate "scenes", and the information on each truck's capabilities is a great learning tool. My son is so thrilled when we come across these machines at work in our day-to day life, and he couldn't wait to go to the State Fair. It's been the best money I've spent on a book for him yet, even though I wish we could skip it and perhaps read Stellaluna instead just one night.

The CEO of Seventh generation, Jeffrey Hollender, pens this book on responsible business. I came across this book because Seventh Generation recently decided to sell their wares through Target instead of Wal-Mart. Most small businesses would love to be courted by the Wal-Mart retailing giant but Jeffrey Hollender felt that Target agreed more with Seventh Generation. In this book, Jeffrey discusses his thoughts on running a responsible business.

The opening chapters were somewhat difficult to get through. Perhaps it just took several pages for me to get used to his prose?

The underlying message I felt was that having a socially responsible business is possible but will require a lot of work on everyone's part. Everyone is so connected to each other now. Perhaps an environmental conscious entrepreneur decides to open a chain of organic restaurants and ensures that farmers are paid a fair price. But what if the restaurant hires an exterminator that uses a toxin that ends up contaminating the soil for generations?

The idea is to have a closed-loop business model ... that leaves things in the same condition as when the company began. For example, think of the credo of camping sites. Moreover, the closed loop business model is more than just your business but includes your suppliers and customers. Specifically, there are hidden costs to disposal of things like electronics and the ubiquitous clear plastic bags. Of course, we every day consumers can throw them in the trash for someone else to deal with. But someone does deal with our trash and there are some real costs. The book gives a story of a putrid land in China where a lot of our electronic waste goes.

I have always loved companies that are transparent with their business models from a financial perspective. Transparency is about communicating to shareholders, consumers, and employees. Transparency is about being candid and introspective on dealings and reasoning for decisions.

There are a mixed bag of corporate stories mainly with Ben & Jerry Ice Cream (who is now part of Unilever) and Seventh Generation. There is of course some mention of Johnson and Johnson's Tylenol case and also on electronic companies like Hewlett Packard and Dell. There is some applause for British Petroleum for a decision to put no money to politics and Shell who compromised with Greenpeace on an issue in Africa.

Surprisingly this is a well thought out book that doesn't get hysterical. It's honest, transparent and I recommend it.

I found the book to be uplifting. It is nice to see this type of behavior being practiced. We have entered a time in our existence where we have to start thinking of how we operate as an industrialized country.

Chris Ortiz, author of 40+: Overtime Under Poor Leadership

As a professor management who is interested in corporations acting more responsibly, I have just begun to use this book in my senior strategic management course. Hollender is a thoughtful and insightful proponent of socially responsible business. Each chapter covers a specific characteristics of SRB (accountability, transparency, sustainability, etc.).

He recognizes that running a company using these principles is not easy but definitely worth it.

He covers most of the pioneers in the field (Roddick, Cohen, Anderson, Chouinard) and their struggles to live their corporate lives in a responsbile way.

I highly recommend it.


Dale Fitzgibbons

This review is an adaptation of my review published in Personnel Psychology, Winter 2004 issue.

As one of the pioneers in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement, Hollender is evangelical about promoting the implementation of CSR "in all of its forms." I'm not sure I know what he means by that. As he acknowledges, it's in the "mind of the beholder" because there's "no firm consensus" about what CSR means. I certainly can't criticize him for not pinning down the concept. Professor Ronald Sims (2003), in his own book on the subject for instance, has offered five different definitions. I think Hollender equates CSR with the idea of a triple-bottom line of responsibility and accountability for fulfilling what he thinks should be the financial, social, and environmental obligations of a corporation.
Margaret Mead once said in effect that social change always starts and can only start with a small group of people. The small group identified in the book as pioneers in the CSR movement include small business entrepreneurs like Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, socially responsible investment funds like the Calvert Social Investment Fund, and a host of advocacy groups or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like the activist group, Greenpeace, and the more reserved Businesses for Social Responsibility (BSR) that was conceived as sort of an alternative Chamber of Commerce.
The book gives an interesting account of the different ways in which these pioneers promote CSR among big corporations. One way, for instance, is non-confrontational and educative in trying to "bring big business [no matter how socially irresponsible] to the table and then move the table." For example, BSR works closely with big companies to promote a set of best practices that hopefully will not only further the CSR progress of those companies but also entice other companies not to be left behind. Another way is confrontational, involving pressure tactics and sometimes law suits. Greenpeace, for example, gradually succeeded in pressuring Royal Dutch Shell to choose a more environmentally responsible way to dispose of an obsolete oil storage tanker and loading platform in the North Sea.
As you can well imagine, the notion of CSR is controversial and fraught with issues. The authors clearly know that and for the most part deal with the issues relatively well in my opinion. I'll mention and discuss a few of the issues.
Perhaps the biggest issue is over what should be the legitimate purpose of business. Hollender, understandably, totally rejects what he considers to be the "hysterical" opinion of conservative economist Milton Friedman that CSR is "fundamentally subversive" and that the only legitimate responsibility of business is to make an honorable profit. To Hollender, CSR "in all of its forms" is the legitimate purpose. Thus a corporation that seeks to ameliorate public problems not of its own making is a more socially responsible company. He cites Coca Cola as an example of a company persuaded by activists to modify its operations in ways to further the prevention and treatment of AIDS among its employees and those of its bottlers and suppliers.
Three related issues are over who should be the public corporation's legitimate stakeholders, for what should it be held accountable, and over what period of time. To people in Friedman's camp, the issues are no-brainers. Shareholders are the only stakeholders, the corporation is only accountable for maximizing their wealth and doing so through legal means, and time is marked in quarterly returns. This view is basically that the conventional bottom line is the only one that must matter. To people like Hollender, the issues are also no-brainers. Absolutely everyone and everything, including the environment, along the company's long value chain from initial product resources to product disposal are the company's stakeholders, the company must be held accountable through full and transparent cost accounting to every one of those stakeholder interests, and time is marked in the long run. The conventional bottom line is thus immensely modified quantitatively and qualitatively.
I found the authors a bit lax in relying on several of their sources about one important matter bearing on those three issues. The sources were quoted as claiming that boards of directors have a statutory obligation to maximize shareholder wealth in the short term. I questioned that claim, and one of Hollender's spokespersons acknowledged that it was a mistaken claim. But this nevertheless doesn't negate the immense pressure CEO's are under to hit the numbers each quarter. This pressure comes primarily from institutional investors who might as well be surrogates for a statute. It takes a morally courageous CEO and a sustainable company to resist that kind of pressure. In an article featuring Hollender and Bill George, the recently retired CEO of Medtronic, the latter commented that he would say at every annual shareholder meeting that the company was "not in the business of maximizing shareholder value," and he believed he "got away with that because the results were so good" (Kelly, 2004).
Another related issue is over how much self-disclosure there should be of a firm's CSR performance. Hollender proposes full "transparency," yet acknowledges that it can make the company squirm, as his did, over risking the possibility that full disclosure may end up making the company legally liable for a product shortcoming that might not otherwise ever be known. He agonized, for example, that while one of his products was more "natural' than that of any of his competitors, he was sure some of his customers at least presumed that his product "was a bit better than it actually was." Not being a fanatically unrealistic CSR advocate, he decided to put a "product self-critique section" on his company's Web site instead of putting a disclaimer on the product's packaging. It's a compromise, yes, but far more responsible than the values held and practiced by a baby food maker I remember as once having been charged with diluting its product.
Another related issue is whether to take a public company private to escape Wall Street analysts and record-keeping requirements. More public companies are apparently going private, and Hollender himself is a case in point. He took his firm private, and that is what it still is today. He points to the private outfitter, Patagonia, as being able to take socially responsible actions much more easily than if it were traded on Wall Street.
Yet another issue addressed, and the last one of theirs I'll mention, is over whether a small, socially responsible company should "sell out" to a larger corporation. An advantage of doing so besides making a lot of money from the sale is the prospect of a responsible product being introduced to a much larger market. But a disadvantage is that the seller risks seeing its values and practices diminished if not overturned altogether by the larger corporation. The authors describe how Ben and Jerry initially felt they had negotiated a deal with Unilever, the buyer of their company, to preserve the values the two pioneers held dear, only to learn later of some actions taken by Unilever incompatible with the values.
The authors claim that the CSR movement has become a "contagious trend." I think that's a bit exaggerated, and the authors offer little hard data to back up their claim. I think it is true that CSR is becoming a more popular topic, but I suspect, and the authors acknowledge, that it lends itself to tokenism or lip service for the sake of appearances or reputation. That's why incidentally I chose to mention the authors' examples of Shell and Coke. Shell reportedly regards the North Sea experience positively and claims there is now "increasingly open and honest communication with the communities," yet we read recently that its two top executives were forced to resign after lying for several years about the company's oil reserves (see, e.g., Timmons, 2004). As for Coke, it's frequently in the news for its "cozy ties to strong arm dictators and rogue bottlers" and for other alleged wrongdoing (see, e.g., Klebnikov, 2003). I could also have mentioned wrongdoing by some of the other companies the authors cite as making progress of one kind or another in their CSR performance. My point is that with so much harmful wrongdoing being committed by public corporations, I would far prefer to see a relatively more restrained movement, one that "simply" calls for public corporations to operate "harmlessly." Achieving that standard would be a quantum leap from prevailing corporate behavior, and I think corporations should direct their resources to taking that leap and not diverting them to the solving of problems not of their own making or to giving guilt gifts through philanthropy or to offering isolated token efforts.
The book is intended for a wide audience, including business leaders, employees, and NGOs. I personally think it deserves to be on a best seller list and should be read by the CEO of every public corporation who has yet to decide where to position his or her company on the CSR spectrum. I also think all thoughtful citizens should read this book. It matters a lot.

REFERENCES

Kelly, M. (2004). Conversations with the masters: Two of the great CEOs talk about the pressures of managing with values. Business Ethics, 18, 4-5.

Klebnikov, P. (2003, December 22). Coke's sinful world. Forbes, 86-92.

Sims, RR. (2003). Ethics and corporate social responsibility: Why giants fall. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Timmons, H. (2004, March 04). Shell's top executive forced to step down. The New York Times.

Another leader of an iconic "green company", Jeffrey Hollender - founder and CEO of Seventh Generation (yes, I use their laundry detergent exclusively) discusses the challenges of running a business with high integrity and full disclosure. In particular, Hollender recounts Seventh Generation's stint as a publicly traded company and posits that public ownership inevitably leads to an erosion of core values by the pressures of the markets. He cites also the example of Ben and Jerry's take-over by Unilever. I personally believe that positive social change can be wrought through the public securities markets and that values driven investing is the most significant tool available.

I appreciate What Matters Most as a cautionary tale keeping me alert to some of the perils of my chosen approach (Socially Responsible Investing as a vehicle for change). I had the privilege of hearing Jeffrey Hollender speak at a Working Assets brown bag lunch lecture. He is a forceful presence and very inspiring in his forthrightness in answering questions probing the gray areas that an ethical company must struggle with.

P.S. A recent addition to my review: The Resources section at the back of the book is very well researched and thorough. It would be worth buying the book merely for that appendix.

awesome book very good to understand. a little beyond my daughter who is 5.5 years. But I got great ideas to make it easy for her

This is a great book to work with your child. You can personalize it and change it as they grow.
Barbara V

This is a really cute book for kids who worry. It is not real meaty but the concept is great. It helps them put worry into perspective and gives a scale to help prioritize worries.

I used this book with my barely 4 year old (developmentally normal) who has 'anger management' issues that originate with anxiety. There are pages in the book that we were able to write or draw pictures of how he felt. The scale of 1 (calm and safe) to 5 (out of control) was a concept that he grasped right away. He is getting better and better at recognizing when he's getting worried before he gets to a 5. If he does lose control and melts down, just the verbal cue "what number are you at" or asking him to calm down and try to get back to a 1 or 2, and he immediately starts to use his strategies - deep breathing, squeezing hands, thinking happy thoughts. I love this book.

I have bought and given several copies of this book. It helps give a language to feelings that might otherwise be hard to describe.

This is an oversized paperback that would work superbly in front of a classroom. The text is very simple, calling the reader to search for the body parts of a tiger: eyes, whiskers, tracks, etc. It also serves as a
fine introduction to art. The illustrations are richly stylized with
color, mood, texture and pattern.

As a parent of ten children (now grown) and a first grade teacher of 7 years now, I love this book-as do my students. It is colorful,encourages imaginative thinking and easy to follow. I use it for our animal unit as well as discussing story elements.

A tiger wonders why everything avoids him, and compares his body
to other creatures. We love this book for the extraordinary artwork, full of detail.

I have no children of my own but have been a nanny for 6 years. Of all the stories I've read . . . this is by far the best! I give it to every person I know with children! Thank you for such a wonderful story, such beautiful artwork and such wonderful sounds!

This is a true picture book-as the pictures tell the story beyond the words. The illustrations go the distance for story time reading, as well as working for up close inspection (be sure to look for that unconcerned snail on every page!). I just never tire of this book and its illustrations, and I have been a fan of it for six years. The illustration of carp, tiger, and jungle folliage provide visual saturation satisfaction. The simple repetitious rhymes are fun to say, they roll off the lips in a way not always found in rhyming text, with wonderful repeating sounds. The story message is sweet, loud and clear, yet subtle at the same time. Thank you for this gem, Mr. Baker!

I bought this book for my daughter who was having problems with a Bully Boss. I thought this book would give her some ideas an how to deal with a very stressful environment. She eventually transfered out of the department to another position and also got a raise. She is much happier now. I recommend this book to anyone who has to work under a Big Bad Boss.

I have recently received this book and am in the process of reviewing it. From what I have read thus far, it is very practical especially with my current job. I plan to share it with others.

This book is a godsend for people who have been targeted for workplace abuse by a bully boss. Whether you are just beginning to put a name to the nightmare you've been experiencing, or a little further in your recovery process and trying to figure out how to interview for a new job so you don't end up with a bully boss again, this gives real, practical help and valuable information.

I bought this book because it was recommended via the Washington Post. This book has been invaluable to me, especially in finding a new position in the IT industry. Ms. Haight gives you warning bells when you hear certain phrases coming out of a hiring managers mouth, and what questions to ask to be positive this person isn't going to be a devil of a manager for you. Buy this book because otherwise you might be going into (pun intended) a hell of a job!

Reviewed by William E. Cooper for Reader Views (8/06)

Have you ever had one of those bosses, one where you wonder where they came from or how they got where they are? We all have at one time or another. Well, here's a great book about how to recognize what they are and how to deal with or survive them. Ms. Haight describes 13 different types of poor boss, the characteristics of each, and some good strategies for the employees. As a retired Chief of Police, it was part of my job to ensure a great working environment, one where employees could grow and flourish. We succeeded, largely in part to the employees themselves and what they had and did contribute.

While it is unfortunate such a book needs to be written, Ms. Haight has done a remarkable job with her research and details. She gives her readers the insight to recognize which is which, then the alternatives available to them. The people who ought to read this book first are the bosses described in it. Failing that, it is a clear, articulate read, certainly to be read by virtually every employee.

Well done Ms. Haight.

Elephants can weigh up to 8 tons; their front teeth can be up to 3 meters in length and can weigh over 200 kg. And the African elephant has the largest earflaps of any animal in history. Lavers explains not only why their huge ears are the key to their curious shape but also to why rats are furry and why King Kong could never have climbed the Empire State Building. The elephant's ears, in case you are wondering, act as radiators, an important consideration if you are a lumbering giant baking under the tropical sun.
There is, Lavers's excellent book explains, method to every apparent anomaly in nature. Gazelles, for example, must be built not only to sprint but to dodge and weave as well. This is because cheetahs, which are renowned sprinters themselves, regard them as little more than mobile larders.
Dogs and wolves, on the other hand, are not great sprinters. Instead, they have great stamina and will wear down their prey by sheer perseversence and, well, doggedness. Lavers also explains such interesting things as why swans glide across the water, whereas vultures hop and ostriches cannot fly at all. He also shows how all of these different attributes go to give us the diversity of life on which we all ultimately depend.
This well written book book also explains why the furs of baby harp seals, mink, lynx, snowshoe hares and Arctic foxes are so much in demand but the pelt of a polar bear is not. Lavers also explains how the cubs of polar bears survive the harsh Arctic winter. Although polar cubs are tiny, blind and wet creatures, lacking in fur, fat and the ability to shiver, yet nature has provided the means for them to survive and become the world's biggest bear in some of the world's most inhospitable terrain. That is but one of Mother Nature's daily miracles that Lavers' book unlocks.
The Arizona based spadefoot toad provides another. It spends most of its life encased in cooling mud, emerging only when it rains to have unbridled sexual orgies, massive food binges, and to lay hosts of eggs. Once satiated and once it has ensured the regeneration of its species, it resubmerges itself in the desert's cooling mud.
The Saharan scimitar-horned oryx is a large antelope around two meters in length, which lives beneath the blazing Sahara sun. It never seeks shelter, it drinks very little water and yet it thrives by the judicious use of deep night time breathing, which generates sufficient moisture for it to live on. When the Indonesian based komodo dragon slashes its prey, its filthy fangs cause all kinds of infections, which eventually wear down the unfortunate deer or human it has ambushed. The dragon then saunters after its weakened prey and dines at its leisure.
Although hippos occasionally decapitate them by rolling them around in their mouths, crocodiles have been the undisputed king of the tropical world's freshwater systems for the last 65 million years. Because they are so perfectly adapted to their environment, the only enemy they must really fear is man, the great destroyer. Because we have introduced such ecological vandals as goats, rabbits, cats, rats and mice to fragile ecological systems like Australia and New Zealand, we have done more damage to the environment than anything else since the dinosaurs became extinct.
As well as being replete with fascinating examples such as these, Lavers' book is particularly recommended because its judicious combination of examples such as with an eminently readable style, shows how our own existence is ultimately entwined with the complex life styles of all of those other vreatures, both great and small.

Why Elephants Have Big Ears covers the basics of understanding life on earth, tackling the more obvious questions such as why elephants have evolved big ears and why there are so many birds. The answers to these and other questions take the form of explaining broad patterns of evolution in the animal world.

answers many evolutionary questions and brings up topics you probably hadn't even thought to ask about. incorporates a lot of paleontological evidence and focuses on the evolution of different groups of animals, as well as on specific species. repeatedly refers back to basic laws of physics to explain various adaptations.

readable in general, although sometimes the text is a little awkward and overly detailed and the footnotes could have been better integrated.

here's a complete rundown of the topics covered:
Ch.1: covers issues with the scaling of areas to volumes, how it affects an animal's leg shape, body size, head size, hair, etc.
Ch.2: the energy costs for cold vs. warm-blood, looks more closely at issues w/ body size
Ch.3: looks at theories about the evolution of warm-bloods
Ch.4: looks at theories about whether or not dinosaurs were cold or warm-blooded
Ch.5: adaptations for animals, including in the tundra and desert
Ch.6: why there are hardly any huge cold-bloods, except in unstable, infertile areas like Australia
Ch.7: why there are hardly any large mammals in freshwater regions, although they exist on land and in the ocean. looks at the success of crocodiles.
Ch.8: why there are many species of birds in general and why there aren't many species of large birds
Ch.9: the catastrophic events that happened when there was global warming and decrease of global biodiversity in a previous era

This book is an extended essay on the continuity of evolutionary trends. In it, Lavers examines the extremes of the animal world, the very large, the very small, animals that can withstand very hot climes or very cold ones, mammals that fly and birds that run. For each of these beasts, Lavers argues that their shape and special characteristics must have been the result of adaptation to their environment or ecological niche. He investigates not only why elephants have big ears (to cool down their enormous rotund bodies in hot climates), but also why we don't have elephant-sized lizards or birds (at least these days). Throughout the book, Lavers draws on results of research in paleontology. For example, he explains the two sides of the debate about whether dinosaurs were warm blooded, and what the implications would be for giant cold-blooded lizards. I, for one, never really cultivated an interest in dinosaurs before. But after reading this book, it's much more clear to me that the animals we see around us today are just one chapter in the overall life of the planet. The book is written in an informal style, without footnotes, but key sources are identified in endnotes at the back of the book, along with a bibliography containing hundreds of references.

Chris Lavers is a paleontologist who specializes in wildlife ecology. It is from this point of view that he presents some of the ideas and controversies of current evolutionary theory along with some of the excitement of recent discoveries and understandings in a popular and nontechnical manner. His readable text is aimed precisely at the educated nonspecialist, but without a hint of any dumbing down.

In the title chapter we learn that elephants pump the warm blood from the interior of their bodies to the array of tubes in their ears to dissipate excess body heat. From this consideration Lavers is led to a discussion of whether dinosaurs were warm blooded or not. The evidence he presents makes it clear to this observer that they were, but his cautious conclusion is that the case hasn't been proven quite yet. Lavers hints that the dinosaurs may have to be put in another category, perhaps somewhere between warm blooded and cold, or maybe even somewhere beyond. How about: "I'm hot-blooded, check it and see" (to reprise a rock lyric).

Lavers goes to considerable depth to demonstrate how much we can learn by combining evidence from the fossil record with what we know about the metabolism of animals and how their bodies work. Dinosaur anatomy, for example, strongly suggests a closer kinship with today's avian world than with the reptilian. Furthermore, the large size of many dinosaurs is inconsistent with cold-bloodedness. Reptiles can't get as big as a Brontosaurus because (for one thing) they would not be able to regulate their temperature. Lavers points out that all the really big animals on earth today, with the exception of the giant tortoises, Komodo dragons and some snakes--and they aren't really that big--are warm-blooded. He cites the arguments of Robert Bakker and others to conclude that T. Rex, for example, wouldn't have the metabolic power to run down prey if it were cold-blooded.

I found Lavers's discussion of the difference between non-oxygen-based metabolic reactions capable of "supercharged" bursts of short-lived energy typical of reptiles, and the sustainable aerobic reactions typical of mammals like dogs and humans very interesting. The quick bursts are those of the sprinter who is wasted after at most a few hundred yards, while the aerobic engine sustains the pace of the long distance runner. Also interesting is the material in the chapter "Life on the Edge" about how birds and mammals maintain their body temperatures in the climate extremes of the deserts and the polar regions of the earth. Lavers notes that in very cold places there are no reptiles.

In some of this I am reminded of the famous and splendid essay by J. B. S. Haldane, "On Being the Right Size," published many decades ago. Lavers presents the same kind of reasoned argument based on physiology and anatomy to demonstrate why animals are built the way they are and why it would be difficult for them to be constructed otherwise. One comes away from the reading with a sense of having learned something important and exciting, a sense of having acquired understanding, not merely a collection of facts.