Hoffman Books

This is a colorful workbook with 64 pages of activities. The layout is very good for small children because it is not crowded. The book shows ages 3 thru 5, and Amazon has ages 4 thru 8. My opinion would be that this book is more appropriate for 3 to 4 year olds.

Activities include Math, Science, and Reading Readiness. Most of the activities require writing in the form of circling various items; drawing lines between items, or drawing lines down a path. The only real writing that is requested is for numbers. For example, the book asks for the child to write down how many baby ducks are in the picture. This request is a little odd because there is no practice writing exercises in this book. Apparently they are assuming that the child is learning this elsewhere.

Regarding the writing -- You can do what we did (since my son doesn't write at all), and just point at the items, and count them out loud etc., and not write anything. This approach means that you can reuse the book with another or the same child later on.

Science - There are a number of good activities. For example: matching momma animals to their babies; counting the number of legs on various animals; as well as graphing the answers. This latter is done by coloring a box for every animal counted. I rather like this exercise as it cleverly introduces the concept of `graphing' in a way children can relate to. Another thought provoking activity was distinguishing `living' from `non-living' things: an exercise that can easily led to conversation in the kitchen or out in the yard.

The only problem with the science area of the workbook is that there are so few pages of practice (4 or so); and in the case of living/non-living topic, there is no introduction so that you will have to explain first what living versus not living means.

Math -- There is more math practice in this book than science beginning with identification of the numbers from 0 to 9. [I also think that this book is somewhat unique in it's emphasis of zero.] This is done at first using a trail where the numbers are shown in sequence, and then by asking the child to circle one `farmer', two `cows', three `frogs', etc. on different pages.

This counting progression is broken up and made less monotonous by pages that deal with big-and-small, and shapes-and-colors. Finally, the concepts of `sets' are introduced. The book asks questions like which items `go' with another [bee and flower, for example' and which items are the same size.

Reading -- Finally, there is reading practice. The book works with pictures, letters, and words though we have to assume that most preschoolers using this book will not be reading. The book will however show an apple, and then show two other drawings such as a bunch of grapes and an alligator. It will ask which of the latter two -grapes or alligator-has the `ahh' A-sound.

Conclusion:
In general I would say that for 64 pages, this book provides a variety of tasks that most preschoolers can do. That's the good. On the negative side there is virtually no practice writing in this workbook and no `introduction' to any of these topics so that mom/dad or other caregiver will have to pick up the slack.

Four Stars. [B-]. This is a workbook SUPPLEMENT in my opinion. My son and I generally enjoyed doing these colorful pages, but it really cannot be considered a curriculum.

I bought this book in December, two weeks before graduation, without a job lined up and no idea how to get one. I followed the techniques described in Life After College and had 6 good job offers by January 16. It helped me figure out what kind of companies I would like the most and how to get their attention.

Shecky's Bar, Club and Lounge guides is one of the hippest nightlife guides I've ever read, and it saved my life on my trip to California. The reviews are short and funny, if not always accurate. Shecky's is like a good pal whose opinions you don't always agree with, but has enough on the ball that you listen to him anyway. It certainly will help keep you out of LA's worst bars, and may even help you find a favorite spot (where everybody knows your name). For all of this, the guide could be more comprehensive. It seems to me that there are plenty of good (and bad) spots that didn't make the book.

I enjoyed this book immensely. The author creates unique and engaging characters and manages to evoke the world of a turn-of-the-century Polish-Jewish shtetl with convincing realism mixed with wild flights of fantasy; i.e. a rabbi who believes he was a frog at the time of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. In addition, the author, Allan Hoffman, presents thought-provoking philosophical issues that his characters grapple with: the lure of socialism vs. the tra- ditions of religion, the ethics of saving the individual vs. preserving the community. The author deftly juggles his many characters in their numerous comic situations and manages to keep all his balls in the air. I look forward to the next installment in this projected series

Here is an unsettling little read, provided by the Council on Global Terrorism. It points out an increasing Islamist radicalisation. Not just in the Middle East, but also in the Muslim diaspora in the developed countries.

Topics including US homeland defense, against chemical, biological or nuclear attacks. Much has not been done. Maybe the surprise is that, as the current Administration is wont to say, there have been no terrorist attacks in the US since 2001. Not necessarily reassuring. For example, the Department of Homeland Security has yet to issue mandatory standards for chemical plants. It has been stymied in part by a lessening sense of urgency amongst many politicians and businesses. But a successful attack against a major plant in an urban region could see casualties surpassing Bhopal.

Happy reading!

This story has in it the original Y2K bug! Not technically a bug, but a genetically altered form of lepidoptera, which produces larval forms with a voracious appetite for tobacco in the field! The industry is wiped out, in this book, in spite of the wickedness of those in charge, and we have a tobacco-free world in the year 2000. It was a great fantasy, while it lasted!

The tall tale returns. Anecdotes, folklore, humor, social life, and customs wrapped in the skillful creation or re-telling by this college English professor. Ingham is a proven, delightful liar in the popular and academic Austin communities. Here she re-casts Texas traditional facts, folktales, and legends into sharp new molds. And to some outrageous success, the story-teller takes old Greek mythology (Persephone, Cupid, Psyche, etc) and reveals their Texan backgrounds.
Ingham draws some of her tales from J. Frank Dobie's Texas Folklore Society's publications, Southern traditions including Br'er Rabbit, and old historical stories of Cindy Ann Parker, Big Foot Wallace, Mollie Bailey, Goodnight & Loving, and Sam Bass.
The first lines of "The Coming of the Bluebonnet" reveals the spinner's skill as she neatly combines rhythm and rhyme, followed by other combinations of number, sound, and repetition. The tone is Andy Griffith folksy, by her preference.
These 28 stories refresh the old reader's response to these old stories. She's a welcome voice who should follow-up with other volumes. For instance, why not take Pecos Bill's family and give this 20th century tall tale a full-fleshed family of fantastic foibles and futures.
Recommended for readers, junior high to senior citizens, who enjoy a good laugh and even a cry as the short stories unfold.

"Theodore H. White and Journalism as Illusion" is a fascinating in-depth study of the life and times of Theodore H. White. Using the vast resources of the T. H. White archives at Harvard University, Joyce Hoffmann sets up White as the prime example of what she feels was wrong with journalism in the early Cold War era. She alternately uses the phrases "journalism of illusion" and "insider journalism" to describe White's writings. "Journalism of illusion" refers to the writings of those who, like White, were American patriots first and journalists second.

The best examples Hoffmann has of White as a "journalist of illusion" come from the early part of White's career when he was in China, writing about Chiang Kai-shek for Time magazine. White would routinely downplay his observations of Chiang's corruption and brutality, believing it was more important to portray Chiang as a hero, lest America's support for China should wane and China would fall to the Japanese or the communists. It was only after repeated exposure to the Chiang regime's brutality that White's illusions about Chiang began to change. By that time, however, the heroic image he and other journalists had created had already taken hold in America, and White found himself under extreme pressure to follow the line. Editors at Time censored his work, feeling that the change in White's opinion was due to his encounters with the Chinese communists. "Journalism of illusion" meant being an American patriot first, and telling the truth second. It also meant following the teachings of Time's Henry Luce, who believed in "enlightened journalism", and told White to report events not as they were, but as they should be. Hoffmann's critique of White as an "insider journalist" comes from various periods of White's life, but the best examples are from his time in France, and from the Kennedy years. White was a journalist who loved associating with those in power, which Hoffmann associates to White's upbringing in Boston's poor Jewish ghetto. Never surrounded by prosperity as a child, White seemed to gravitate toward the prosperous as an adult. Hoffmann believes that White's admiration for the rich and powerful, and his desire to be one, seriously colored his writings. White repeated engaged in journalistic practices that would be considered inappropriate by today's standards of integrity. In France, for example, White was commissioned to write a profile of diplomat David Bruce. When White was finished, he showed a copy of the write-up to Bruce, presumably for fact-checking purposes, but also to make sure that nothing White wrote would be considered insulting to Bruce or his wife. White would follow the same practice in his write-ups of the Kennedy administration. Most famously, he showed Bobby Kennedy copies of "Making of the President -- 1960" before its publication in order to get Kennedy's feedback. As an insider journalist, White loved having the ear of those in power, and being part of the decision-making process. He was careful that none of his writings insulted those he admired.

Hoffmann's book is a valuable resource for what it unveils about White's life. The examples of correspondence with administration figures, such as Robert F. Kennedy, illustrate how deeply White was allowed into the corridors of power. Several flaws, however, mar this book. One, for example, is that the reader is never quite sure why White was chosen to be the exemplar of "journalism of illusion" and "insider journalism." Hoffmann provides examples of many journalists of the time who engaged in myth making about the Kennedys. Walter Lippmann, for example, comes across as a virtual spokesman for the administration. Hoffmann also describes journalists who knew about the U-2 flights, or the activity in Vietnam, and decided to help the government cover-up these stories because of patriotism. Any number of them could have been chosen as examples of "journalism of illusion" or "insider journalism." Also, in China, why White was chosen to represent journalists making myths for Chiang is never elaborated. This is questionable, because White eventually repudiated Chiang while other journalists were still writing favorable pieces.

I must echo the reviewer in the journal "Reviews in American History" who was troubled by Hoffmann's seeming lack of definitions for journalistic "truth" and "integrity." Hoffmann was obviously troubled by the style of journalism exemplified by White, but she never gives her own impressions of what journalism is or should be. If her contention is that modern journalism has finally latched on to the absolute truth, then I must disagree with the entire premise of this book. Certainly "insider journalists" and "journalists of illusion" exist today as they did back then. That is probably not her contention. We, however, are left to speculate on Hoffmann's views of the "truth" and modern journalism, because they are simply not there. This is highly unfortunate.

Hoffmann's faults, however large, cannot totally discredit this book. It is an interesting look at one of America's most influential journalists. Her use of the White archives is exemplary. Her devotion to journalistic fact and fiction, or rather "truth" and "illusion," is unfortunately dubious. Camelot cannot be read as totally "truth" or "illusion." It had elements of both. Theodore H. White, consequently, may be forgiven of some of the charges Hoffmann levels against him. His work, while not completely true, is not the total mythical illusion that Hoffmann believes it to be.

I LOVE GIVING THIS FUNNY AND WELL DONE CALENDER AS A GIFT. IN MY INDUSTRY ( GARMENT) WHERE MANY PEOPLE PEPPER THEIR LANGUAGE WITH YIDDISH, THIS CALENDER IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED!

Through a Glass Darkly: Reflections on Personal Identity in Early America is an outstanding resource for entertainment and aquiring knowledge on a civilization that has been long overlooked and misrepresented. This book is for someone looking to better understand the relationship between early American settlers and Native American tribes. What ended in the massacre of the indigenous tribes, began with a peaceful relationship based on trade and commerce.