Miller Books

This book is so hilarious, even as an adult I found myself laughing out loud to Winnie the witch's antics. I plan on reading this book to my kindergarteners around Halloween time. I can't wait to see their reaction!

It's a wonderful book. Every parent that has a child who needs glasses should have it. It's funny and like the previous book on winnie the illustations are just as funny. My son doesn't need glasses but we enjoyed it just the same. Pure enjoyment.

I read this book to my kids (3, 5 and 7) and they loved it. The story is funny and the pictures are wonderful. It's a very silly story and tons of fun. A must have for all home libraries

Winnie the Witch has long been a family bedtime favourite in our house and my 4 year old and I were pleased to see Korky Paul's wonderfully zany illustrations of Winnie's latest exploits. As with the original book he guffawed at her outrageous exploits and Valerie Thomas' storyline.

This book has been helpful in getting writing going. Not intimidating and for all ages to use.

I know this book was written for teachers, but as a newspaper columnist, I am often asked to conduct writing workshops for adults and teens who want to become writers. Not only do DiPrince and Thurston give hundreds of prompts for on-the-spot writing exercises, many of which help the writer practice and identify good writing techniques, but they also give 50 examples of how to get started writing in "the real world," which is what most adults in these workshops want. For years I'd done my own research and shared my own experiences concerning good places to start out writing, but this list tops anything I ever did on my own. Also, as a substitute teacher, I sometimes find I have dead time to fill and these prompts are fabulous both as fillers and as full lessons for those times teachers leave no plans. There's something in here to cover all bases and as the title implies, this book provides exercise all areas of the brain.

Teaching students to write used to be so boring. I can remember my teachers in school saying, "Be creative!" but I was never really taught how to do that. I am now a teacher and am faced with the challenge of teaching students to be creative. Yoga for the Brain is a great addition to my writing program in that it gives the student something to base their creativity. For example one entry is "What has been a hard lesson for you to learn?" What a great idea to think about! This is not your typical sentence starter book.

Yoga for the Brain is a wonderful tool for teachers of writing. I use this book daily, along with Unjournaling, as journal prompts for my 6th grade students. They laugh, talk, and really get the imagination going! My kids no longer whine when it is journal time...they actually remind ME to do it! Great book to buy!

The adults live in a grey world, one day a family visit the zoo and the girl sees the colors of an animal and follows him. Then the girl enters into the world of the animals and everything becomes in colors... it is a wonderful book!

http://www.suzyleebooks.com/books/zoo/

American publishers, by and large, move with the speed of pure, refined molasses when it comes to introducing U.S. audiences to foreign picture books. Considering the scads of remarkable books available all over the world, it's a crying shame that more than 95% of what we see on the American picture book market tends to be of the homegrown variety. Don't expect this situation to get better any time soon either. With cries proclaiming that picture books are no longer profitable, I wouldn't be any too surprised if publishers decide to play it "safe" for the next few years. Maybe that's why I like Kane/Miller so much. Far from limiting their scope, they do everything in their power to bring this country some eclectic, fun, and funny titles from a variety of different regions. Take Korea. You may have read a Korean picture book once or twice in your life. I myself am rather fond of, "While We Were Out" Ho Baek Lee (who is South Korean). But while we might be able to rustle up some Korean-American writers, books straight out of that general vicinity are not entirely common. "The Zoo", by Suzy Lee ends up all the sweeter then as a result. Not only is it a visually stimulating lark but it also happens to be one of the more creative picture books you're likely to get your hands on this coming season.

A child is going to the zoo with her mom and dad. Sadly, there isn't much to see in the uniformly empty cages. So as the older members of the family strain to catch even a glimpse of a bear on Bear Hill, the little girl follows a wayward peacock. Immediately the bird leads her to a multi-colored landscape where the child plays gleefully amongst watering holes, long-necked giraffes, and (in a burst of flight) even the sky itself. The parents are in a panic, but soon find their little one sleeping peacefully on one of the zoo's many benches. Was it real or just a dream? The answer is left to the reader. One thing everyone can agree on though, "I love the zoo. It's very exciting. Mom and Dad think so too."

The feel of the book took me back to my childhood. I lived during the heyday of foreign language children's programming, where animated shorts from all over the world would sometimes play on basic cable. Reading "The Zoo" is a similar experience. Everything in the book is easy to understand with a straightforward plot. Yet at the same time, it feels different from the roughly 2 billion based-in-Brooklyn storybooks currently out there. The signs are in Korean. The people are all Korean. The feel of the narrative, scope of the vision, and subject matter (which I doubt any American writer could get away with here) is foreign to our senses.

The cover says it all. You go to the zoo and what do you get a ton of? Empty cages. It's very interesting, but this book actually requires that you remove the dust jacket to get the whole story. Take off the dust jacket and the empty cage on the cover wraps around to reveal an escaping gorilla on the endpapers making good his escape. Turn to the back of the book and the gorilla is back in his cage tenderly holding a hot pink shoe. The shoe, actually, is a testament to Lee's playful sense of humor. Sharp-eyed readers will be able to detect the exact moment when the little girl's shoe falls and into what pair of hands it lands. Better still is the fact that she is not seen wearing a second shoe for half of the book, playing with the sense of what is real and what is make-believe here. Sadly, for all its cleverness and (dare I say) necessity, the cover may turn off potential purchasers. Empty cages that make a point are all well and good, but if a browsing patron isn't interested in reading the book through they may discount the drab gray packaging too soon.

As for the art, it balances the monochrome blue-gray dreariness of mundane everyday life with the sparkle, color, and flash of the animal kingdom. The first official two page spread shows the family entering the zoo, with the only visible color appearing on the girl's flushed cheeks and a peacock sitting high above. While the text reads off a seemingly mundane list of places visited, the girl and her peacock friend are easily identifiable by the splotches of bright shades and hues adorning them. You can also spot the girl via the bird-shaped balloon that hangs above her. That balloon goes on a kind of journey of its own, as it happens, and it's well worth rereading the book to discover where it goes. Lee never drops a single detail, and in the midst of raucous colors, fine drawing, and panache there's a current of realism beneath it all. When the parents discover that their daughter is missing, distraught doesn't even cover what they're feeling. She may be having a wonderful time with the animals, but reflected in the hippo's watering hole is the face of every parents' deepest fear.

Is it for all parents? Oh lordy begordy, no. Wish it were the case, but you're undoubtedly going to get a couple here and there that see this book as a story where it's okay to run away from your parents in a public space. Obviously, every child that reads this book isn't going to be instantly swept up in the notion of going walkabout on the next family outing would lead to adventure. Still, it's hard to brush the image of the girls' parents running as fast as possible through the empty zoo in a blind panic. Personally, I think the book identifies how wonderful freedom feels to a child. You're forever under someone's protection. How cool would it be then to transfer that protection to the wild and wacky animals in the zoo? Add in the amazing details, good storytelling, and smart art and there's very little left to gripe about.

Frankly, I see no reason why a person couldn't pair this book easily alongside Peggy Rathmann's, "Goodnight, Gorilla", for an entirely zoo-oriented bedtime series. There's a lot of sleeping and animalian mischief going on in both of these titles. "The Zoo" is going to be one of those books that catches on purely through word-of-mouth. As smart and funny as it is, American consumers will need to know about it from a reliable source before giving themselves over to its purchase. Trust me then when I tell you that this one's a keeper. Subtle without being so understated as to alienate its child readers, this book feels like a silent film where the narrator sits next to you, quietly telling you the story. Rare and wonderful.

Suzy Lee's The Zoo is a picture book in which the words only tell a small part of the story. A young girl visits the zoo, apparently in Korea, with her parents. The text, a few words per page, gives a simple recounting of events. "We visited the aviary, and then the gorillas", etc. But behind the scenes, two parallel adventures occur.

The initial scenes are very detailed, and drawn mostly in shades of gray. The only comes from a peacock, wandering loose about the zoo. The animal cages seem oddly deserted, with the inhabitants not to be found. And then the little girl wanders off, following the peacock into a world of color.

Alternating pages show the increasingly frantic parents, still in gray, looking for their missing daughter. Meanwhile, the daughter plays with the animals, loose in some sort of idyllic forest scene. The scenes with the girl and the animals are clearly not real, but reflect every child's wish-fulfillment. Getting sprayed by an elephant. Sliding down the neck of a giraffe, into the waiting arms of a gorilla. Soaring with the birds. Smiling, playful animals everywhere you look. In the end, the relieved parents find the girl, fast asleep on a bench, dreaming about the animals.

Both sets of illustrations reward close study. The "real world" scenes are pencil sketches in muted colors, with, in a few cases, cut-out paper dolls apparently overlaid on the page. They are filled with realistic details, like the face mask worn by the balloon seller on the first page, and the spilled trash here and there on the ground inside the zoo. The people represent a wide spectrum of humanity, from snooty woman with backpack, to fighting young boys, to coy teenage girls, to parents with cameras, teacher with students, and smiling, pig-nosed sisters. Only our young heroine displays a splash of color in her cheeks.

The animal scenes, by contrast, are awash with color, deceptively crude colored pencil sketches of smiling animals. The trees in the background sometimes look like origami, made from brightly colored paper. The grass and sky bear the marks of heavy scribbling, to fill in the background. There's no strict adherence to the "right colors" either. The elephants are shaded with purple and green. The trees have orange, pink and purple branches. The bear is brown, overlaid with a touch of blue. The colored pages look, in short, like something that a kid (albeit a very talented kid) would draw.

The parallel tales are linked. As the parents run past the empty aviary, their daughter is flying through the sky with the birds. The animals are missing from all of the realistic scenes, as though, just perhaps, they might really be off visiting the girl's imagination.

This is a book for any child who loves animals, and thinks that zoos are paradise. It's also a book for any parent who has temporarily misplaced a child - the parents' fear is palpable (and, happily, relieved by the end of the story). All in all, it's an unexpected and rewarding adventure.

This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on March 14, 2007.

I love Kane/Miller, a publishing house that specializes in reprinting foreign titles. I especially love discovering that parents overseas are as neurotic as myself. When I first had my son, my family dispensed such loving advice as, "try to remember where you put the baby."

So I had great empathy for the couple in this book, who are merely a backdrop to the little girl who narrates. It's really two stories: the girl's version, told in words, and the "reality" we see in clashing sets of pictures.

Lee uses colored pencils, graph paper and cut paper collage to give us the crowded zoo on a clear, autumn day. Everything's gray or slate, except for a lovely peacock in brilliant blues and purples. Uh-oh. Guess who's eye roves? The little girl's!

And our eye follows the stream of color too, throughout drawings with depth and perspective that nonetheless remain uncluttered and clear.

In the little girl's version, she's having a fun day looking at animals. In the gray reality, she's off chasing that bird, lurching into a rainbow-colored series of pencil sketches as the girl frolics with various animals. She's fully immersed in fantasy, or is she? Meanwhile, it takes gray, dull Daddy a couple pages to notice he's holding only a balloon where a little girl's hand should be. Whoops.

Lee then cuts back and forth between the two adventures: the girl's and her frantic parents. Been there, done that, had the heart attack. If this doesn't make you chuckle knowingly, you don't have kids.

Este libro tiene la tecnica para que te caiga en las manos EL BOLETO A UNA SEGUNDA Y DURADERA LUNA DE MIEL
PRUEBENLO AMIGOS

AUNQUE YA HABIA COMPROBADO EL RESULTADO DEL OTRO LIBRO DE PETER MILLER !
Este libro tiene la tecnica para que te caiga en las manos EL BOLETO A UNA SEGUNDA Y DURADERA LUNA DE MIEL

PRUEBENLO AMIGOS

problemas de pareja y para aumentar la cercanìa y la comprensiòn!

This very fine book has been in print in one form or another since the early-to-mid 1980s. Not many music books remain in print that long, but this is an exceptional collection of model solos in the urban blues style.

The book is quite popular with music teachers (as evidenced by the other reviews) and it is enjoyable and productive for students as well. The book is aimed at the ambitious early intermediate student, and a few of the solos will challenge an intermediate guitarist.

There are 25 full-length solos in the book, each written in notation and tablature, and each recorded note-for-note on the accompanying CD. The band on the CD is excellent. There are five solos in C, five in G, five in D, five in A, and five in E. The solos are played to standard blues progressions, meaning that they may be "plugged in" to similar blues progressions that are found in many, many songs.

The solos sound exactly like the solos heard on real blues records. They are varied and performed with taste, authenticity, and feeling. You can hear why the author was a columnist for Living Blues Magazine and why his work has received consistently high reviews in a number of guitar magazines.

Great book, highly recommended.

I wish all music instruction books were written in this format. The song tabs just go from one page to the next without a bunch of talking/writing in between, and the song numbers in the book actually match the song numbers on the cd...what a rare and unique idea! Of course, none of that would matter if the material were bad, but that's not the case, the solos are great - quite diverse too. There is a lot of helpful information in this book: theory, writing your own solos, a guide to blues styles and artists,etc. - but it's all in it's own section of the book, not sprinkled throughout the book here and there making it impossible to find. As a full time guitar instructor I would just like to say "great job", "great blues solos" and "great, easy to use format". Thanks.

The author of this book, Larry McCabe, is re-releasing books that have gone out of print for one reason or another. This particular book is an old friend. After I received it, I went into my library and found a copy. It has been in print in one form or another for 25 years. Most instruction books don't last anywhere near that long. First, this book (as the author warns) is not for beginners. You need to be familiar with the movable blues scales we all use. If you are playing out, and feel comfortable with the whole neck, get this book. The style of lead is closer to Gatemouth Brown and Freddie King than anyone else. If you don't know who these men are, buy their CDs. You are in for a treat. Please read the author's introduction. There is a lot of good info there. The Tab system is the older style. It should take about 30 seconds to adjust. It's actually easier to read than the current form. If you consider yourself a Rock guitarist instead of Blues, you really could use this book. If you use these solos as a "how to", instead of just memorizing them, they will give you some new weapons. You know, for scaring the heck out of other guitarists.

Lots of great advice clearly culled from a great deal of experience working with the best. The book is clearly organized, concise and easy to carry, all of which make it worth reading through and carrying as a coaching tool. If you're shooting for successful sales, here are 365 "triggers" that will really help you set up the sales, negotiate, close and follow through. Understanding principles and strategies is great, but worth little without application. This book is an easy way to get help with both.

I can't believe there is so much useful information packed into one small, highly readable book. While it very effectively covers the entire sales process from probing to closing, the section on negotiating alone makes this book worth its weight in gold. I return to it time and again.

Anne,

I have a very important sales meeting this afternoon. I have been in sales for nearly 5 years and I have had tremendous success without much formal training. On a couple of appointments with my national sales manager, he noticed that my style was very shiny but not polished. He had asked me to read various "how to" sales books.

I have just finished reading your book "365 Sales Tips for Winning Business". In my opinion, it was the easiest most informative sales books I have ever read. I am going into my meeting this afternoon with much more ammunition than i have ever had. My confidence level has increased very dramatically. I wish to thank you ahead of time, I know i will close this customer today.

sincerely

Tony Scheirer

A remarkable book treating an array of marginal art forms, and minor styles and movements, which like Foucault at his best, lays before the reader a wealth of recondite historical but materials; but ultimately leaves him to draw his own conclusions as to their ultimately significance, the ways they displace the order of the known. An excellent companion to Derrida's brilliant but challenging The Truth in Painting, Baltrusaitis' texts furnish an abundance of examples - akin to the various but far fewer grotesques contained in TIP - which warrant and illustrate Derrida's broad critique of Kant's insistence up detachment and disinterest as conditions necessary for the possibility of any formalist aesthetics.

The greatest philosopher of the 20th century gives us a proof of his incredible talent.

An erudite study of abberation and anomalous phenomena by one of the founders of Russian Symbolism. Baltrusaitis was a Russian-Lithuanian poet, but he also, like Andre Breton, could write important non-fiction studies. The book is beautiful, very finely made, and the reproductions are high quality. Several dozen plates are from abberations found in nature studies: of faces in marble, a bit like the recent finding of the Madonna in a grill cheese sandwich. I don't have the book with me now but it is a good experience to see a copy of this book. It is a bit like having a very fine work of art, or being in a rare book collector's house.

This book is a "must read" for working actors, drama teachers and students. This book explains acting's essence; all else is mere technique!

This is a quite marvelous new acting text that provides a wealth of exercises meant to focus the acting task squarely on the actor's intellect. Miller defines good acting as being believable and telling the best possible story (hence the title). His focus is on the actor taking circumstances and situations into account and then rendering acting choices that will be interesting and compelling. This is a liberating approach, in that it gives beginning students a bench mark from which to evaluate thier work. As a devotee of Robert Cohen's Acting One for many years, I am impressed how this book takes that bare bones approach (Goal, Obstacle, Tactic, Expectation) and really expands upon it. Students are not just responsible for determining goal, but they must tell a story as well. This places an enormous responsiblity on the actor (some HS teachers might think too much), but it is eminantly workable and pragmatic within the context of scene and character work. To his credit, Miller is taking his technique on the road. He is currently holding workshops, sponsored by the Educational Theater Association, where he spends a weekend with interested High School acting teachers actually working on the exercises in the book. Having just attended the one in Atlanta this past September, I can say that what may seem too simple on the page, comes to vibrant life in the workshop. I highly recommend it to HS teachers. Since the workshop I have been able to meld the best of Cohen, with many of the exercises that Miller provides. My students have never been more engaged and challenged with the acting process. Even if you don't adopt the book for your classroom, this is a must read for every HS acting teacher (and college profs would do well by it, as well). It also includes valuable information about the audition process and how to succeed as a professional actor.

As he promises Miller delivers an "articulation of craft that is simple, direct, immediate and broadly applicable." What he doesn't state is just how refreshing and relieving it is to finally have a clear and practical textbook on acting. Miller punctures the mystique surrounding actors and what they do and how they do it. He reaffirms that acting is indeed a craft with a learnable set of skills. Acting then becomes possible for anyone willing to devote the time and effort into mastering its skills. Good acting is no longer the domain of an elite few who magically possess talent. The biggest obstacle I find facing my students is not a lack of talent but a confusion about and an unwillingness to pursue mastery of the skills of craft. I find most textbooks on acting either too theoretical or confusing in their attempts to articulate craft. By clearly defining the skills and suggesting practical exercises to master them, Miller has given the student some solid footing for their journey toward mastery. Another strength of Miller's book is its enpowerment of the actor. Too often the model I see in production is the actor who comes to rehearsal and waits for the director to tell her what to do and how to do it. This totally undermines the potential strength of the collaborative process. Miller's dictum that it is the actor's responsibility to help tell the story in the most potent way possible re-establishes the potential strength of the collaborative relationship. Actors can then offer the director several choices for a moment or a scene. This enriches the production and makes the actor's job much more exciting and creative. Students will appreciate Miller's detailed guidance on audtioning and rehearsing.Again he offers very clear and practical models for these processes. His closing chapters on the "business" are honest and wise. I am using THE ACTOR AS STORYTELLER as a required text in all my acting classes. It combines good solid acting values and techniques and presents them with a simplicity and clarity that will heighten the skill of any actor who practices them. I highly recommend this text.

I loved this book. Miller takes us on a journey from his wacky childhood adventures to the dark side of life and back. Never a dull moment!

Since I know the author, I'm not sure how objective I can be. However, after reading Barbara's review, I think I can do it. Hank Miller is a renaissance man and reading his book makes me realize how he arrived at that point. It really is experiences in life that shape us. Hank has grown into his and beyond. He is one of those guys who has stretched himself into his own idenity despite, as Barbara says, having to get past being the "son of a legend." If you like memoirs which I do, my favorite reading in fact, this is the one. And, I especially think that for someone who has not been in the military or associated with those who have, this book is an excellent choice to learn what the insiders know. With an American culture where fewer and fewer have served, The Admiral's Son, is a gateway to knowledge. What the book couldn't do justice too is the author's tenacity for life, his own willingness to share his experiences and to attempt to stretch those that cross his path.

Following in the steps of a Naval legend can't be easy. The author's anecdotes reveal the toll it takes being a child of a hero. The childhood descriptions of life in Opp, Alabama are wonderful--the food, the smells, the freedom. Watching a free spirit being shaped into someone else's mold isn't. The high school high jinks at base schools in the Western Pacific go on a bit too long for my tastes...but it's plenty naughty. Auburn University must have been fun. The chapter on Naval aviator school, the inside jokes, the danger, the ambivalence is all very interesting. It was a different time and a different place. Families take many forms and this book showed me how Miller and his buddies formed their own close knit groups as places and times changed. The book is lavishly illustrated by photographs taken by Miller himself. . .perhaps to save himself. I'm glad Miller became an pilot in the 1960's. I'm thankful for the old workhorse, the Spad. I'm glad people still serve their country. I am sorry that we did not meet on neutral sail. The Vietnam War continues to haunt the men and women who fought it, and the lost loves they left behind.

Original breakthrough research that crosses the barriers of anthropology, theology, psychology and cross-cultural views of the dying process and beyond. Dr. Miller is a gifter writer and researcher who provides the entree for both the skeptic and the inquisitive to explore the most profound issues that we will all eventually confront. She accomplishes accomplishes her goal while providing the reader with extraordinary insights into alternative perceptions of life and after death. I could not put this inspirational book down until I read the final words, "we can only imagine."

After Death is a book that can offer not only solace but meaning to anyone facing death, their own or that of a loved one. We are used to thinking of dying as an unalterably lonely experience, but with this book as a companion it need not be. There is great comfort in discovering the depth and range of how our fellow humans imagine, understand, and, in some cultures, even know the after-death.

As important as the content, to me, is the author's voice-a voice of great warmth, compassion, and intelligence. As one reads this book, one feels more and more deeply the sense of human kinship in this journey-a profound antidote to loneliness and fear. I found this to be a truly transformative work.

This readable, page turner engages the reader from the start in asking the fundamental question of life, what begins after death? The author is widely traveled and well-versed in comparative religions and belief systems. Written in an anecdotal and open style, the author states no positions but offers different views from Native American philosophies to Brazilian religious beliefs. A must read for anyone with the smallest sense of curiosity about how our global neighbors wrestle with the place/voyage after death. Great gift for New Agers to seniors to skeptics and saints