Ferguson Books

My son was attracted to this book as it is about helicopters. I was sorry I bought it. First, there are stickers that you are supposed to put on the pages. I let him do it his way, putting things where he wanted. Otherwise I would have been too much of a dictator, saying "no--put this there", etc. As you read the text you realize that the stickers only have one "right" place and if there is one in the wrong place the text does not even make sense. For example, the vegetables sticker is supposed to go in the helicopter's net but my son put it on the loading dock instead (which makes sense). The stickers don't stick well and my son has taken it upon himself to peel them away bit by bit, when he played with it by himself, so the book looks horrible with parts of stickers in some places. The story is nothing special and is actually quite silly. The helicopter lands down on top of a parade float onto a flat and empty base of glue (silly). He sticks to the glue and needs help getting out. The helicopters go around doing different deliveries and it ends with Budgie getting washed off as he is sticky with glue and smelly from delivering fish. This is one for the trash bin. I think this may have been related to a TV show as there is something on the back cover to indicate this but we've never seen the show itself. This is the kind of book that may appeal to the child becuase it is a familiar TV character but the book is of inferior writing and a low entertainment value.

I just graduated with a major in PR. This books lists 88 jobs in advertsing and PR. However, it is out of date. In the PR industry there are: bloggers, web site developers and other internet position. This books lists NONE of them. In advertising, some positions (like print traffic manager) are almost non-existant. This book needs to REMOVE old 1990's job titles and ADD the jobs that firms are hiring for in the 2000's. This review is for the 2006 version of the book (4th ed). I think the author has gotten lazy and needs to do a complete overhall. This book may be of use if you are looking for a job in PRINT advertising, but most advertising agencies seem to want a person with good design skills and not just newspaper print. This book NEVER lists web skills or HTML that many employers seek today. Sad.

I'm not saying this as someone with little exposure to poetry. I have an MFA in creative writing, and this book serves as an inspiration to any promising poet. The inspiration is: if this author can be published, ANYONE can be published.

The verse is clunky at best. It's just bad. I received the book as a gift to read with my kids, and I can't do it. I've tried several times to go back and see if another poem might be readable, but the meter of the poetry is so haphazzard that it really is nearly impossible to read aloud. Some of the pictures are nice to look at... but not nice enough that it makes me want to revisit any of the poems. I am not trying to trash this author, as much as I'm trying to compell people not to waste their money on something that really does not have much potential for family reading enjoyment. Sorry... but this stuff is just horrible.

I had to purchase this material for a class which was extremely boring but somewhat thought provoking in the end it wasn't worth the money or the class time so much more could've come out of the this piece. I would rather sell this book back to amazon.com if I can

This particular book was not worth the money spent. It's nothing but bits & pieces of already printed information, which
have appeared in other Halle Berry books. A true Halle Berry fan
will not learn anything new about this very talented actress.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. If you really want to purchase this
book, get it used

i like to read full or enough informations about biofiltration or bioscrubber processes to removal of hydrogen sulfide (or other odorous compounds) from waste water

Sarah Ferguson's books are not very readable for American Children. They all have "British" adjectives or adverbs. I found them difficult to read to my granddaughter. She had stop me to explain what the "British" words meant. If Lady Sarah Ferguson were not a royal, she'd never get a book deal.

good clear concise explanations ,clear pictures and fast delivery many thanks keith.

I was hoping for a comprehensive step-by-step process with deep insights that should come from a company (RS Means) that is publishing other books in their 65th editions. Instead this books is merely a collection of tables like Installation time for chalk boards and dimensions of wide flange shapes.
Huge disappointment. I am certain that I will never use this book.

Of Joseph Smith's translation of the Egyptian papyri, Ferguson wrote the following in the late 1960s when the papyri were located:

"Nibley's Era articles on the Book of Abraham aren't worth a tinker--first, because he is not impartial, being the commissioned and paid defender of the faith. Second, because he could not, he dared not, he did not, face the true issue: 'Could Joseph Smith translate Egyptian?'"

Here are a few criticisms of Ferguson's "One Shepherd, One Fold," written before he lost his faith. The title of Ferguson's first chapter is amusing, "Voyage from Israel to Guatemala, 557 BC." Ferguson attempts to link the Maya to the Book of Mormon Hebrews," but if anything is this life is clear, it is that the native Maya living in Guatemala today could serve as models for the ancient kings depicted on the stela (upright stone monuments). In fact, side-by-side photos of modern Maya standing by the carvings are often found in reputable books on the Maya.

Go to Guatemala and look at your waiter. He will often look like the figures seen in archaeology books. It is most disgraceful for any writer on the subject not to point this out. Mormon writers are apparently blind to this reality.

Ferguson has several comparisons of Old World carvings with those of the New World, but these similarities are no longer seen as evidence of contact. Ferguson shows, for example, two Egyptians from 1100 BC and compares them to two Maya from 600 AD (page 111).

Both sets of figures are wearing feline-skin clothes (from a leopard in Egypt and a jaguar in mesoamerica). What is this supposed to prove? Only that people in both areas used animal skins for clothing. And that by sifting through thousands of artifacts in both areas, you will find similarities (but be sure to ignore the overwhelming differences).

The two pictures offered by Ferguson also show writing (Maya writing has now been translated and is not related to Egyptian or any other Old World language--see Michael Coe, "Breaking the Maya Code." Also, the art of the Egyptians is completely different than that of the Maya.

As for such picture "evidence" that used to be in the Book of Mormon, it is refuted by the fact that the pictures were removed after some 20 years in the 1960s and 1970s. If it was valid and true, then why was it removed? Because it was bogus--including Milton R. Hunter's "horse" on the Temple of the Wall Panels at Chichen Itza. This Book of Mormon horse turned out to be a damaged portion of a mythical jaguar-serpent (the feather was its head).

One page 228, Ferguson has Well's Jakeman's "Tree of Life Stone" from Izapa, Mexico. This claim was discredited by Mormons, themselves, a few years ago. First, Jakeman's drawing is highly inaccurate, and second, the so-called tree is actually a stylized crocodile (you can see its eye), and there are other crocodile trees (dragon trees) at Izapa that Jakeman deliberately ignored. Jakeman's claim has pretty much disappeared from Mormon writings on archaeology because it proved to be such an embarrassment to the church (Jakeman's methodology was roundly criticized--see "Journal of Book of Mormon Studies," vol. 8, no. 1, 1999, the whole issue devoted to distancing Mormons from Jakeman's claim).

In short, time has not been kind to the claims of Jakeman, Ferguson, Cheesman, Hunter and other writers on the subject of "Archaeology and the Book of Mormon."

On page 263, Ferguson wrote: "The important thing now is to continue the digging at an accelerated pace in order to find more inscriptions dating to Book-of-Mormon times. Eventually we should find deciperable inscriptions in modified (reformed) Egyptian, in a modified or pure Hebrew or in cuneiform, referring to some unique person, place or event in the Book of Mormon" (this was written in 1958--fifty years ago), and yes the inscriptions have now been decipered, but, alas, they talk about "18 rabbit" and other pagan kings in a pagan and blood-letting religion).

Your comments--positive or negative--are appreciated. Thanks.
See my other reviews of Mormon books. For more details of Ferguson's lost faith, see my review of his "Archaeology and the Book of Mormon."