Blake Books

This is an account of human existence up to about 20,000 years ago. It's meant for someone with a fairly serious interest in the subject, maybe doing a college course. There are many passages such as "The specimens include a lower jaw from Chenjiawo and a skull from Gongwangling, both in Lantian County; a partial skull and a fragmentary mandible from Lontangdong Cave in Hexian County; a fragmentary skullcap from a fissure deposit on Quizianshang Hill in Yiyuan County, two badly crushed partial skulls from a river deposit at Quayuangkekou in Yungxian County and ...."
Of course a lot of us have a serious interest, because human evolution is a hot topic. Hypothetical prehistories abound with evolutionary psychologists having their own set of ideas about what prehistoric life was like, and feminists such as Elaine Morgan in "The Descent of Woman" having opposite ideas, not to mention creationists, and Freud's "Totem and Taboo."
So how do we know who's a expert and who's a crackpot theorist? Is this an objective scientific study? Richard Klein seems to have a deep and wide knowledge of his field, including nuances of anatomy, osteology and archeological methods. He and Blake Edgar give clear and accurate descriptions of carbon and potassium-argon and other scientific dating techniques.
He does have his own particular theory; a theory that a biological change in the human brain about fifty thousand years ago produced a sudden breakthrough, but I was impressed by the fact that he only advances this as a tentative theory and addresses fairly the arguments against it. He's not just a man with his own axe to chip.

Who thought socioanthropology could be so interesting? This book answers the age old question of where humankind came from in a colorful way. It's structured chronologically and each chapter discusses a major era of human evolution in a succinct but sufficiently detailed way to stay informative. Also, Klein always leaves a few unanswered questions in each chapter, making this a page turner as the reader seeks the answers.

As other reviewers have noted, this book presents a very nice summary of the current (as of 2002) knowledge about the history of the hominid lineage(s). (I know I'm supposed to say "hominin." Can't bring myself to do it.) The title, however, promises a "bold new theory" about the apparent very rapid flowering of human cultures roughly 50K years ago, and I have two problems with the book in that regard. First, I think "theory" is too strong a word for Klein's idea, because a scientific theory should be a solid and testable explanation that takes account of all the known facts. Klein presents a plausible-sounding hypothesis -- that some sort of genetic change, probably concerning language functioning, took place 50K years ago in Africa, but he adduces little evidence to support that idea. A genetic change is a reasonable idea of what might have happened, but Klein admits he sees no way to test that idea. He just thinks it's the best explanation for the explosion of culture seen in the archeological record shortly after 50K. My second objection is more substantive: his hypothesis conflicts with the genetic and archeological evidence that human beings had spread over a very large part of the world, including all the way into Australia, well before 50K years ago. For his hypothesis to be correct, all those pre-50K humans would have to have been swept away by the new improved version, and the genetic evidence that is available shows nothing of the sort. (For a thorough exposition of the genetic evidence based on mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome, including much information about the times at which various important genetic events must have occurred, see Oppenheimer's "The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out Of Africa.") Either the other evidence about when modern humans spread across the globe is wrong (unlikely but not ridiculous, given the uncertainties of dating), or Klein's 50K genetic change is wrong. They can only be reconciled by reconciling the dates -- maybe Klein's hypothesized genetic change took place 30K or 40K years sooner than he thinks. That, however, would place the genetic change far before the great cultural explosion that Klein supposes it to have caused.

A book on human morfologic evolution
and ancient tools (stones).
A few words on culture precisely.
If you don�t want to read about
bones, stones, more bones and more
stones read instead "The Prehistory
of the Mind", by Steven Mithen.

Professor Klein and science editor Blake Edgar refer to "innovation" as the key to the great leap forward made by humans about 50,000 years ago. This was the beginning of human culture--the "dawn" as they call it. It wasn't a change in physiology--humans had been anatomically modern for something like 150,000 years. What changed was the wiring in the brain, or the chemistry in the brain or the linkage between the modules in the brain, or, as they express it, there was a "neurological shift"--at any rate, something that would never show up in a fossil.

This is Klein's theory and it is a persuasive one, albeit one that can never be proven--well, probably can never be proven. If under some ice sheet (as the planet continues to warm) we find a 100,000-year-old human intact, perhaps an examination of his or her brain and a comparison with the modern brain will give us the proof. Barring that very unlikely event, there is no way we can see what changed.

But it doesn't matter. Formal proof of Klein's conjecture (and of course, he is hardly the first to present such a theory) is unnecessary. We know from the behavioral changes that took place in something like a twinkling of an eye that humans beginning about 50,000 years ago were suddenly different. They had a culture that developed from the use of what might broadly be called symbolism. We can see this in the petroglyphs and cave art and artifacts that they left. We can also see it in the way they displaced the Neanderthals in Europe and left no trace of Homo erectus elsewhere in the world, and how quickly they spread to the far corners of the planet.

It is easy to see that they must have had symbolic language as well. Indeed, I think language really is the key to what happened, and this is Klein's point as well. The key idea is that "language is almost a kind of sixth sense, since it allows people to supplement their five primary senses with information drawn from the primary senses of others." (p. 146)

Today's mighty culture would be impossible without written language or some means of taking down and recording and maintaining human knowledge. Prior to written language this was done through an oral tradition handed down from one generation to the next. Myths, stories, poetry, ideas, information and methods were memorized and recited. Prior to that however, prior to the use of symbolic language, there would have been only a limited ability to pass ideas down from one generation to the next. It would have been difficult to even share some ideas with a contemporary. But once symbolic language developed, people could demonstrate events and things not present with others through the use of words--that is, symbols standing for the actual objects or events--nouns and verbs.

From a representation symbolically of something seen or something that happened, it was only a step to a representation of something never seen before--such as a net for catching birds or fish or a stampede of wildebeests over a cliff.

This is the innovation that Klein refers to. This is the difference between the Late Stone Age culture and the Middle Stone Age culture, between the Upper Paleolithic and the Mousterian. A human arm can throw a spear, but a human arm extended with a lance can throw the spear farther and with more force. People could travel only so far without water, but a people who carried water in skins or watertight baskets (not preserved in the fossil record obviously!) could travel much farther. Actually I imagine that the first truly modern humans carried soup--yes, soup with its sterile, boiled water--in skins on their backs!

What this book is about then is a close and detailed description of the progression from archaic humans to fully modern humans. It is a carefully constructed argument that shows that the change was not gradual, as some would have it, but abrupt. Whatever one may think about Gould and Eldredge's punctuated equilibrium, Klein makes it clear that in the case of human evolution, a key transformation--indeed THE key transformation--occurred quickly. The most persuasive part of their argument is that the "new" humans were able to not only dazzle us with their symbolic art, etc., they were able to grow their populations and thrive in places where humanoids had never survived before.

This book is also full of interesting information about archeology and anthropology, including how fossils are dated and theories developed. One of my favorite tidbits is this: the size of archaic human populations could be surmised by the size of tortoise bones! Since tortoises were relatively easy to catch, the biggest ones, "the most visible and the most meaty" would have been taken first. So as "the number of collectors increased, average tortoise size declined." (p. 166)

For many readers, the most interesting part of the book might be the distinction that Klein and Edgar make between Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens: "It doesn't follow that Neanderthals and modern humans couldn't interbreed or that they never did, but the DNA results strongly support fossil and archeological findings that if interbreeding occurred, it was rare...this inference, together with fossil evidence...justifies their assignment to...separate species..." (pp. 185-186)

This is not an easy book, but it is not unnecessarily difficult either. I think Klein and Edgar did a good job of treading that fine line between being too technical (and jargony) and not technical enough.

By the way, despite the sensational subtitle (which only appears on the cover), the authors scrupulously and wisely avoid using the word "consciousness" throughout, and nowhere do they speak of a "Big Bang of Human Consciousness."

I would recommend any Roald Dahl book for a child. Its definetly a fun way to learn to read.

haven't run into one of his children's books I didn't like...creative, engaging text, fun to read to children

The book is extremely light reading, and is just pure fun. Your children will love it.

All of Mr. Dahl's books are great! Wished we could meet him in person. Write more Mr. Dahl.

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me is both funny and serious at the same time. The Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company consists of a giraffe as the ladder, a pellican as the water bucket, a monkey doing the washing, and a kid named Billy as their manager. While they cleaning the Duke of Hampshire, they help catch a robber. This is Roald Dahl's 3rd best book!

Anyone who is a little nervous about having "the" conversation with your child will love this book. It goes back to the basics and is clear and straight forward.

Back in 1975, I came home from a sleep over at age 7 and announced to my mom that "I knew where babies came from"! After my mom picked herself up off the floor, she read this book to me! This book explains reproduction from how bees pollinate flowers, chickens, dogs and then of course humans make babies. The 2-D figures are shown with the internal and external parts of the reproductive system. It illustrates the sperm going through the birth canal on to the egg. The human reproductive organs are shown side by side and then it shows the male and female under the covers. After seeing the illustrations of the dogs in "the act" your child will make the connection without seeing the actual "act". This is THE PERFECT BOOK to explain sex to kids over the age of 6. By the way, lucky for me, Marie told me accurate information at our sleep over. She and I did not find "The Joy of Sex" book at her house until we were 10!

Yes, this is the book my mom read to me, and now the book I read to my 8 year old daughter. Of course, it still made both of us giggle to say the word "sperm" and to see the dogs & chickens "mating" but the progression from flowers to people is really great (OK, it was a little awkward when we got to "THE PAGE" and my daughter turned to me and said, "did YOU and PAPA do THAT?!?!) Now that we've got the basic "how to" covered, we're going through "The care and keeping of you, the body book for girls" and the two books together are a perfect complement. How Babies Are Made is a classic that I hope they will start printing again.

My mom got this book and read it to me for the first time (but certainly not the last!) when I was almost 2 years old, to help me understand the impending birth of my first little sister. I have always loved this book, and enjoyed re-reading it with my mom as I was growing up. When I first got pregnant, I wrote to my mom to see if she still had "our" copy of it. She did, and now I have it. I read it to my stepkids to help them understand about where the new member of their family was coming from. I read it to my first son to help him understand where his new little brother was coming from. I read it to his brother, just because it's something kids need to know. We have read it again and again over the years, and we'll probably be reading it again soon, as the topic recently came up again.

This book does a wonderful job of explaining a topic that generally causes a certain amount of discomfort in our society with great tact and understanding. It doesn't include details kids don't really need to know, but it goes into enough detail that they're not left wondering what's going on. The only criticism I have is that birth is presented as something that happens in a hospital, with bright lights and people in surgical masks and gloves seemingly pulling the baby out of a recumbent mother. As a homebirther, I know that this is not an accurate picture of birth, and wish that birth could have been presented in a more positive and more natural manner. However, I understand the cultural context in which the book was written, and I'm willing to overlook this one small flaw in what is otherwise still an excellent first book for kids about the subject of sexual reproduction after all these years. If you can only afford to buy one book for your young child about where babies come from, this is the one to get.

Recently the topic of explaining the birds and the bees came up with some mom friends..and i remembered the book my own mother gave me back around 1970 and checked here to see if it still exists...much to my delight and surprise i found it, and wanted to share my thoughts...now that i have my own 5yo who will benefit from this book.

Even though i am 43, i still remember the book and the illustrations..and the easy to understand wording on how babies are made..nothing 'secretive' or 'tantalizing' or anything like that...pretty cut and dry wording with engaging illustrations. i know another review mentioned it being a bit to graphic...these are paper doll cut out types of illustrations and i don't find them intimidating at all..it's not like there is an actual photograph of the inside of a woman's uterus ;-)
I give this book 5 stars and will be ordering my copy for my daughter soon.

I want to say I enjoyed this book, but that is not to say I enjoyed the misery that was the life of Richard Yates. After finishing this book, I was shocked to see that both the New York and Brooklyn libraries offered none of his books for borrowing.

There is one line I remember with amusement and sorrow from this biography. After Richard Yates tosses back a bunch of pills and finishes them off with a swig of hard liquor, he looks at his child and acknowledges, "This is what keeps your old daddy in business."

I laughed and I cried. Siouxie, Brooklyn

Blake Bailey's page-turning and deeply resonant biography of Richard Yates -- whose sad and lyrically tragic life made him painfully suited to the task of writing some of the most powerful and wrenching American fiction of the late 20th Century--is as captivating and memorable as any biography of a great writer you're likely to encounter. Not enough serious readers know Yates' ouevre, but thanks to Bailey, they can know the man, and they will never forget him.

Richard Yates is one of my five favorite novelists. Has been since the mid-80's when I discovered him. This biography is a must read if you're a Yates' fan or simply a fan of literary biographies. You'll admire the sheer willpower of Yates to wake up every morning to write. This is a man who lived to be a writer, and although however tragic his family life, loved his children deeply.

Well researched and thorough, although I am not sure how much the author really understands of the correlation between mental illness and alcoholism. Yates, who undeniably deserves more recognition that he received, lived a life as relentlessly grim as his characters - mental illness, addiction, poverty and loneliness. A man who had far more insight into his characters than himself, which is truly a tragedy, since his work was autobiographical.

Blake Bailey's "A Tragic Honesty" is a terrific, very readable biography that makes one appreciate an author who is rather hard for some of us to warm up to. That author is Richard Yates, the American novelist and short-story writer who was for a while considered the equal of Updike and Cheever, but who was then cruelly forgotten for years until a recent resurgence of interest. (As everyone now knows, he was the model for Elaine's father in the "Seinfeld" episode "The Jacket"; Larry David used to date one of Yates' daughters.) Yates is the bleakest of writers; sometimes he makes Dostoevsky look like Steve Martin. He thought that "uplift" in fiction was a lie, and that honesty required the direst possible interpretation of the human condition. He apparently felt trapped, and Bailey make you see why. Yates suffered from bipolar disorder aggravated by severe alcoholism. This one-two punch of dysfunction made him have breakdowns every couple of years and had him bouncing in and out of mental hospitals. These troubles derailed his career for much of the 1960's through the 1980's and cost him a couple of marriages, and he survived in painful poverty by scrounging a living as an nontenured university writing teacher. Anyone who has any remaining illusions about the writer's life being glamorous should have their eyes opened by this book. Even as a semi-celebrity Yates was very nearly a homeless person at times.

Bailey's tone is interesting. Although his sympathy clearly lies with Yates, Bailey writes with ironic detachment so the effect is frequently darkly humorous (probably this is the only way to make many of these events bearable to a reader.) It's like "A Tragic Honesty" is a lost Yates novel where we watch the protagonist stumble towards a preordained doom. I kept hoping that Yates would do things differently. As I read I compared him to his friend Kurt Vonnegut (which is probably unfair, but still.) They started out on similar career paths, teaching together at the famous Iowa writers workshop. And their world views were similarly dark. But Vonnegut leavened his with comedy, with exhilarating games with form and excursions into genres like science fiction and the New Journalism, things which were apparently beyond Yates. So Vonnegut (as he might have put it) ended up fabulously well-to-do, while Yates ended up with diddly-squat.

I've finished two of Yates' indisputable classics, Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade: A Novel. (That second, chilling book is practically autobiography as demonstrated by Bailey's book. Except for the switch of genders of the protagonist, it's Yates' life story.) "Revolutionary Road" lost the National Book Award to Walker Percy's The Moviegoer in 1962, and to tell you the truth I'm kind of glad. There's a place for hope in fiction, as Percy's work shows. But Yates paved the way for Raymond Carver and much of the best fiction of the past 30 years and that's something to be grateful for; and so is this excellent biography, written in poor Yates' blood.

ADHD & Me was amusing, interesting, and an enjoyable book to read. People don't realize the impact ADHD has on someone's life but Blake tells it like it is. My son has ADHD and Blake's story is so much like my son's.

Enjoyably insightful. More indepth than a lot of texts yet easy reading. Must reading for parents,teachers and disciplinarians of students with AHDH.

I recommend this book to anyone who has a child with ADHD or even PDD syndrome. Like many others who have placed their comments on this site, I wasn't looking for the medical version of what happens to kids with ADHD, I wanted to find out how a child was feels.

I felt very connected, while reading this and it has given me such an insight, that I finally feel like I can actually help my son. The stories were relatable, the solutions that Blake recommends are practical and age appropriate. The best part, it is written by someone who's been there, and came out the other side a success.

I provide therapy to children with ADHD and their families. This book is extremely helpful in allowing parents to understand why their children sometimes act the ways they do. It is also something that parents can read with their children so they communicate with one another about the symptoms of ADHD. This allows other children with ADHD to see that they are not alone in their experience and to understand that there is a reason why they feel they way they do.

This book is amazing, so much wisdom from someone so young and with a disability such as ADHD. Blake has become an inspiration to both me and my son who has ADHD and is struggling with social skills in school. I would highly recommend this book to all children, adults, teachers, parents who has someone with ADHD. For we already know what remarkable and speacial people we have.

I read this book in a day and a half. I hope the next book I read grabs me like this one did or I am going to be so disappointed. Picturing Joe was fun and the love story between them was awesone. The sex they had well let's say my husband loved the book too and he didn't read it. Loved it!

The story is about Trish who loved Joe as a teen. He hurt her and she left town. She returns 14 years later.

CAUTION SPOILERS: She still loves him but refuses to be honest about her feelings to herself as well as to him. Joe is a great guy. He never meant to hurt her. He still loves her and is patient with her. The major story line is Trish over-analyzing her feelings. She thinks wonderful things but never says them. She is afraid to express her love because she doesn't want to be hurt again. That does not make a good story for me. I was also annoyed that when another woman makes a pass at Joe, which he does not respond to, Trish gets upset and leaves him as if it were his fault. I do not recommend this book.

Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: eight. Setting: current day Eden and Indianapolis, Indiana. Copyright: 2007. Genre: contemporary romance.

A must read. I will not write a summary just my opinion. I can not express how much I fell in love with this book. It was perfect. I loved the characters. The plot was great and it was a very sexy read without going too far. It was very believable. I could not put it down. Wonderfully well written.

The previous reviewers have done a very good job describing the plot of this novel so I won't repeat it here.

I discovered Toni Blake about a year ago when I read and loved In Your Wildest Dreams. I quickly grabbed her other books wondering if that book was just a one-shot deal or if all her books were that good. And yes, all her books are that good, though until I read this book, I thought that In Your Wildest Dreams was my favorite book. However Tempt Me Tonight is now easily my favorite Toni Blake book.

Second chance at love books like this one can be tricky - can the author create a situation where the original reason for the breakup is understandable (as opposed to a situation where you think - if only these two would talk, there wouldn't be a problem). Also, can the author resolve the original problem so that it makes sense that these two are now together? Tempt Me Tonight is a success at both of these.

This is a pure romance novel. There's no mystery or villian - the hero isn't a Navy SEAL, spy, or what have you - he's just an auto mechanic. The heroine isn't anyone special just an attorney - an ordinary woman who's heart was broken by the hero when she was young. The author does a wonderful job describing each character's viewpoint and pain. The characters are so believable that you feel their heartache. And even Beverly, the woman at the root of the heartbreak, comes off as sympathetic. Not an easy thing to do.

This is one of those books that I read the last chapter over and over cause I just loved the ending. Tempt Me Tonight is a book that I can see myself reading again and again - it's just that good.

I'm on my third reading of this book and I can't get enough of it. It's hot and steamy, but I also enjoy the sweet romance of it. Joe is the ultimate hot guy and Trish is the sweet girl who's roots will always be in her home town. Once high school sweethearts ripped apart because of a huge mistake, now they are brought back together after she comes home and runs into him at the local bar. What follows is everything I love in a Toni Blake book. Of her books, this would have to be my favorite and I doubt I'll stop at three readings. And I'm also on the lookout for books written under Ms. Blake's pen name, Lacey Alexander. If these books are hot, I can't even imagine what those books are like!

This book is sooooooooo lame. It can start a discussion but they don't offer any new or interesting points of view. Women see good men............they just overlook lame, egotistical, broke, lazy, wanna-be players, etc. Real women recognize Real men.

Finally...somebody has said what I've wanted to say for a long time now! Good Men Do Exist! Thank You Chris and Aaron! This book is for every Woman looking for a Good Man and for every Man looking to have a lasting relationship with a Good Woman! Order your copy today and you won't be sorry you did!

This book clearly tells what's on the hearts of Good Men! If you're a single lady looking for a Good Man to spend the rest of your life with...THIS IS THE BEST ONE ON THE MARKET TODAY! It changed my way of thinking and it can do the same for you too! A MUST READ!

While I applaud the authors for trying to offer a different point of view and I did agree on the few characteristics they managed to put together for the definition of a good man, I must say those are the only positives I managed to identify. This book was a poorly written obviously unedited attempt at African American men to place the blame for their poor dating choices on ambitious women. I expected the book to focus more on positive growth than negative accusations. As an upwardly mobile woman, I am to believe my desires for success have pushed good men to settle and lower their expectations because I am not readily available for them. I would suggest the authors, single themselves, stop lowering their expectations because good women also exist.

If you feel you must read this book then borrow a copy.

Mr. Cokely and Mr. Blake please find yourselves an English professor to assist you with your re-release. If you wish this book to ever get picked up by a major publishing company, you must correct the many grammatical errors and misspellings found throughout the book.

Stop the press, we have a winner. WHY CAN'T YOU SEE ME? GOOD MEN DO EXIST! by Christopher J. Cokley and Aaron M. Blake is a must read guidebook to answering the ladies' ongoing question; where are the good men. The majority of the sisters think they understand men. However, the authors threw down on us sisters and believe me it was the best in your face literature I have ever enjoyed reading.

WHY CAN'T YOU SEE ME? GOOD MEN DO EXIST! is a self-help book that begins with the revolution of dating and the negativity we have about black males including but not limited to the dating outside your race centrum and the metamorphosis of the hip-hop generation. We have come a long way baby from the respectable male knocking on the door with flowers in hand to the assortment of thuggish type males who will blow the car horn yelling your name. Christopher J. Cokley and Aaron M. Blake very skillfully removed the myths that all men are alike and want only one thing from a relationship.

The book highlights that male and female interactions are to be reckoned with because present day attitudes dictate that we have gone beyond the reproach of establishing healthy romantic relationships. WHY CAN'T YOU SEE ME? GOOD MEN DO EXIST! outlines the areas that both male and female need to work on in order to establish a positive commitment with a good man and woman. The sexual revolution has made sex the number one priority between a man and a woman leaving behind education, job status, and financial stability. Therefore, good men have become invisible to the female because her new age definition of a relationship has changed over the years.

The authors' explanations are remarkable and detailed with in-depth research, which makes simple sense. Mr. Cokley and Mr. Blake have opened up doors of understanding about the black male's upbringing and becoming a man. Their priorities differ because of peer pressure and sometimes lack of male role models during the growth and development stages. Some women see them as mere males, fine, smooth talkers, GQ dressers, with money and perhaps a good job; fancy ride and skilled lovers. What I learned in WHY CAN'T YOU SEE ME? GOOD MEN DO EXIST! defines a different side of the black male that comes with mixed emotions and intelligence that reaps havoc with the myths of past and present.

I enjoyed this book because the authors didn't beat around the bush nor did they make excuses, they just presented the good man ideology in a nice package that you can either take or leave it. Mr. Cokley and Mr. Blake truly did their homework. They candidly describe the good man and how you can recognize him.
It is a wonderful page-turner because for once there is hope for seeking a good man, but it is also telling us sisters that we have some serious work to do on ourselves as well. In addition, the poetry selections gave even more depth and soul searching for the reader.

If you're wondering why you can't find a good man, I suggest you run to the store and purchase WHY CAN'T YOU SEE ME? GOOD MEN DO EXIST! You're in for a rude awakening and great insight that reveals it's not just the brother, but it could be you.

Reviewed by Kalaani
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

I am a special education teacher and this book has put many smiles on my students faces. It is one of our favorites. I'm still looking for the audio tape. If anyone know where I can find it please let me know.

Thanks,

Bugface

We had gotten this book from the library several times and finally I decided I had to buy it for my little boy. He thinks it's hilarious especially when I do the "Bee Bee Bird" noises in a funny voice. A book about a bird who has to learn to be considerate of the other animals.

I have been a nanny for 21 years and every time I start working with a new family the first book I give to a two years old child is this book and let me tell you, it is a hit, they love it and they will know by heart the words of the book, because they make me to read it to them before nap time and their parents will read it again to them before they go to bed, and all they long they will sing beebeebobby. The only thing is I wish the book could come in board book, will be easy for a toddler to carry it around.

My two year-old granddaughter is in love with this book! She first discovered this book at the library and requested it each time she visited. I decided that I should own one of her favorites to have at my house when she visited. The baby beebee bird is a cute story about sleeping and getting the days and nights mixed up. The illustrations are by Steven Kellogg, one of my favorites! His drawings have so much life and humor. The details on each page make for a great searching game, too. This is an all-time favorite! To my granddaughter it never gets old and to the reader it is a great time making the sounds of the zoo animals! Just the title is fun to say! This is a great time/read!

This book caught my eye when I was looking for a book for my grandson. I didn't realize that this was his favorite book. My daughter told me that they could only find this book in the library, so they kept renew it for over 3 months. So when he got the book as a gift, he right away started turning the pages and started making the noise of the Lion and the other zoo animals. He really loves this book.

This is a beautiful book full of colorful illustrations, which is always a major plus, most of which are by Quentin Blake. This has some of Roald Dahl's poetry (such as his hilarious fairy tale retellings), short stories, excerpts from his children's novels, recipes, letters from fans, and other nice little tidbits, like a sheet Dahl filled out about his birthday, favorite color, food, etc. I think this book is well worth the money, because I got this a few years ago and haven't grown out of it since!

The Roal Dahl Treasury is really great because aside from the extracts, it includes poems, letters, and true stories from Roald's past. An excellent book for all ages.

This book, like all other books of Rohld Dahl, is detailed, humorous, and just plain good. I spent 9 hours just sitting in a chair, reading this book, defanatly another fanatic book of Rolhd Dahl. I loved it. WOW!

I am nine and a half years old. I liked the variety of stories and poems, but I was frustrated at first because I thought I would be reading entire stories. Instead, I found that the Treasury included only chapters of some stories. Short stories, like the Enormous Crocodile, were entirely included.

This book left me searching for the complete works of Roald Dahl.

My daughters favorite author is Roald Dahl, but she was really frustrated when we got the book because it contains mostly excerpts from various books he has written. It would be much better if it had complete stories. We had to go out and buy the full versions of the stories. It is marketed as a complete treasury but falls short. The illustrations are neat.

Gorgeous poetry and illustrations by Blake. A must have for your library and a treasure to share with your children.

William Blake is known for some very mystical hard-to-understand poetry, but his "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" is very different from that other work. Here in beautiful, almost child-like simplicity, he describes happy things like childhood and purity, as well as the darker realities of corruption and disillusionment. These poems are always spiritual and lyrical, full of heart and soul. The style is simple, yes, but the words and metaphors are profound and so is the wisdom, like in "The Human Abstract":

Pity would be no more
If we did not make somebody poor;
And mercy no more could be
If all were as happy as we.

David Rehak
author of "Poems From My Bleeding Heart"

There are larger, more luxurious graphical editions of Blake's two most popular works but the Oxford SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE is perhaps the most affordable and convenient.

After a short introductory piece which makes the reader expect a pastoral mood, SONGS OF INNOCENCE opens with "The Shepherd", and the reader is immediately acquainted with Blake's style: deceptively simple, but filled with metaphor and allusion. Many of the poems speak of the solace of Christianity, but Blake shows a more universal and tolerant tranquility found through appreciation of simple human virtues. In "The Divine Image", he writes: "And all must love the human form, / in heathen, turk, or jew. / Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell, / there God is dwelling too."

Even within SONGS OF EXPERIENCE, the most pessimistic and cynical half, Blake maintains a his childlike style in order to bring the truth of human experience to anyone at all, young and old. In "A Poison Tree" he writes: "I was angry with my friend: / I told my wrath, my wrath did end. / I was angry with my foe: / I told it not, my wrath did grow", concisely summarising the effects of pride and ill-will on one's soul.

Blake was by profession an engraver, and his engravings for SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE are so closely bound to the text of the poems that a photocopy edition is really the only way to enjoy the poems as they were meant. In this paperback edition, the original engraving can be seen along side a typeset text, presented in a size large enough that the words can be relatively easily made out and, perhaps more importantly, the reader can see Blake's mythological characters. These personages, such as Urizen and Lothos, are key to understanding Blake's larger metaphysical work, for which the Songs present a good introduction.

This edition is especially valuable as it contains a photocopy of the engraving of "A Divine Image", a poem intended for SONGS OF EXPERIENCE which Blake subsequently left out because of its savage pessimism. The poem survives on an uncolored plate which is not found within many collections of the poet's work.

If you are intrigued by poets who transcend mere beautiful words to present a complete worldview, Blake is certainly worth reading. The Oxford Paperbacks edition is, in my opinion, the best place to get started with this deep and tricky, but fulfilling and fascinating poet.

Sorry, all, I'm not much of a poetry fan. I like "Tyger," "Garden of Love," and a few others, but I can't add to the scholarship on his verse.

I am, however, fascinated by his use of relief etching in creating these pages. It's a rare process even now, and was revealed to Blake in a vision (plus a lot of painstaking experimentation). It's the process by which he shaped each letter, reversed, in the printing plate, plus much of the 'illumination' on each page.

The preface is vague and the reproduced images are hard to read, but Blake printed the lettering and line work on each page, then hand-decorated with watercolors. The preface says that Blake went on to create color printing processes, but what they were or whether they're used here is not explicit. I tend to think not, unless a few pages were printed with one or two more plates to emphasize the dark areas. If these illustrations really are true size, then inking on the plate would have been tedious, imprecise, and would not have given the results seen here.

There's much to say about his illustration. That includes an odd conflict, between figures fully drawn even under clothing and the androgyny or sexlessness of so many, an ambiguity that appears in the poems as well. I'll leave that commentary to others, though. The thing that impresses me about these editions is their artistic intensity. Each individual copy of the book was printed and decorated on demand, for a specific buyer. Blake had full control of every part of the creation, the words, images, and reproduction.

It is a rare mind that can master visual and verbal arts, both, then the craft of creating the book that carries them. Perhaps I miss parts of the presentation, but I very much admire the parts that I understand. Four stars because better reproduction would have served his visual art and craft much better.

//wiredweird

These are Blake's most popular and accessible works, by far. The poems combined with the wonderful drawings make powerful and memorable statements that stay in your heart and mind. Several, such as "The Tyger", "The Chimney Sweeper", and "London", are very well known. Each of us has our own personal favorites and love turning to them again and again.

One of issues in buying an edition of these works is that they exist in a variety of colorings, and orders. I would recommend this edition for several reasons. The selection of the King's College Copy is one of the most uniformly delightful or the copies Blake (or his wife) colored. Also, the reproduction is of very high quality. Each plate is on a right hand page with the text in print on the left hand page (in case you have problem reading the plate). Even thought the book is in a large format, the plates are reproduced in their actual size (which is surprisingly modest).

There are also a dozen plates provided from other editions. However, I would recommend that you pick up other editions based on other copies. The variety of schemes Blake used in coloring the plates is quite interesting and, well, illuminating.

The second half of the book is commentary on the 54 plates of this copy. There is an introductory essay and a list of works cited in the commentary.

It really is a beautiful reproduction and a joy to have on my shelf.