Park Books

Ms. Kerins is a well known herbalist. Her book is informative, with easy herbal recipes & marvelous historical herbal prints.
For those interested in useing herbs, knowing where to purchase reputable seeds & plants this book is a winner !

Anyone interested in herbs and their uses for cooking will find "A Celebration of Herbs" a welcome addition to their personal library. The book opens with a short history of the Huntington Herb Garden. A section follows this on learning how to use herbs when cooking and includes a specific eight-step program. In addition to specific recipes, part of the point of the book is to teach the reader how to use herbs to enhance their own recipes.

Some of the divisions in the book include herb butters, sauces, pestos, salsas, marinades, appetizers, salads, salad dressings, soups, breads, pasta, pizza, vegetables, side dishes, main courses, desserts, jams, jellies, and beverages. Near the end is a table of herb names, descriptions, cultivation notes, culinary uses and comments that is extremely helpful when looking for something specific. The last piece of the book contains information on herb sources. For those interested in using various herbs to spice up, add zest, or otherwise improve their recipes this is an excellent book.

Featuring more than 200 recipes, A Celebration Of Herbs: Recipes From The Huntington Herb Garden is the culinary collaboration of Huntington Library volunteers, staff, and scholars under the skillful editorship of herb expert Shirley Kerins and Peggy Park Bernal. Featuring a full range of dishes from appetizers, salads, side dishes, soups and breads, to entrees, preserves, desserts, and beverages, A Celebration Of Herbs is enhanced with excerpts and illustrations drawn from the Huntington Library's collection of rare herbals and botanical books from the 15th to the 18th century. A Celebration Of Herbs is an elegant, unique, and enthusiastically recommended addition to personal, professional, and community library Cookbook Collections.

So much more than a cook's tool, this treasury is a welcome delight --- a well conceived, beautifully illustrated resoruce that's part cookbook, part history book. We thought we knew all there was to know about herbs: rosemary, dill, sage and sometimes tarragon. What we learned will serve us well, especially in those things we serve up in the kitchen. Released by the folks at the Huntington Library and Art Gallery in California, the book includes information on growing herbs, mail sources on where to buy fresh and dried herbs, and, of course, recipes --- brpken down by type, such as appetizers, main courses, jams and jellies, breads, beverages --- that will send you zooming to the nearest [store]. The stunning color illustrations are from Elizabeth Blackwell's 1737 book, "A Curious Herbal," a gem that's housed in the Huntington's rare book department. A celebration, indeed!

A Celebration of Herbs is a cookbook that pairs herbs with the right foods in the most tantalizing ways. Compiled by long-time herb enthusiast Shirley Kerins from recipes submitted by the staff of the world-famous Huntington Gardens, this high-quality book enriches our souls as well as our palates by offering us interesting and pertinent information on the herbs we are cooking with.

Especially helpful for beginning herb users is the chapter on "Learning to Use Herbs in Cooking." In this chapter, Ms. Kerins has outlined her "Eight-Step Program for Learning to Cook With Herbs" that is sure to make cooking with herbs a snap!

Growing tips abound and one would expect no less, since Ms. Kerins was the curator of the Huntington Herb Gardens for over 20 years. The traditional recipe categories are there, of course, but they are generously salted with helpful tidbits and historical information as one would expect from someone who has lovingly tended herbs for so many years. 

A real treat is the reproduction of 24 color drawings from Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal, published in 1737. One of the 60 known copies of this two-volume gem is housed in the Huntington's rare book room. 

This book is sure to become a classic worthy of the world class traditions of the Huntington.

Looking for a book about "coming out" as a lesbian, as an artist?
"Egret" cuts between the competitive art worlds of Manhattan and the Hamptons. The undercurrent of sensitivity to "East End" environmental issues adds to the reader's enjoyment. This is one good read -- for the beach, or for all year 'round!

This is an excellent book. It has well drawn characters who draw you into the story. It tells a different kind of story that keeps you reading until the end. The end is a little rushed, but the book overall is a terrific read.

Do you want to be titilated; do you want to be turned on; do you want to read a book you can't put down? Read Egret! Imagin being a young niave midwesterner. Image you're lovely , you're talented, and you're a lesbian! Than you're Jodi.

Jodi moves to NYC to find a place in the art world. What she finds are passions both painful and wonderful. She experiences conflect and acceptance in the gay world. And what about her art? You absolutely must read to find out.

I enjoyed all the desciptions of the Hamptons. I felt like I'd really been there. Also I felt like I was living in New York City, but away from the glamor that tourists know. I could really sympathize with Jodi as she was trying to find her true feelings personally and professionally. Having suffered so much as an artist, it was interesting to follow her journey.

Do you want to be titilated; do you want to be turned on; do you want to read a book you can't put down? Read Egret! Imagin being a young niave midwesterner. Image you're lovely , you're talented, and you're a lesbian! Than you're Jodi.

Jodi moves to NYC to find a place in the art world. What she finds are passions both painful and wonderful. She experiences conflect and acceptance in the gay world. And what about her art? You absolutely must read to find out.

You will love the precise but beautifully informative ideas in this particular edition on Orlando.

I do recommend getting a basic Fodor's or Frommer's for your trip and supplement it with Top 10 Orlando. This book catagorizes the sights and gives the top 10 for each. Categories include: golf courses, places to cool off, festivals, high end restaurants, dinner shows, hip clubs, ways to have fun on the cheap, family restaurants, etc.
Each listing has a short description plus the address, phone and sometimes the hours.
Within the theme parks, it lists the top ten attractions so you can make the most of your time. Really a handy little book (fits easily into a purse or camera bag).
With so much to see in the Orlando/Kissimmee area, this helps you prioritize your visit.

I am really glad I bought this book. I also purchased The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2008 and Beyond Disney. The latter 2 are Huge books (one of them being over 800 pages of info) full of more info than I can possibly dig into.
This book is great because it is short and to the point telling you the top 10 attractions in many different catergories. I suggest getting this book on top of your Frommers or Unofficial guide as it will help you know what you want to research in the other books.
While there is not a lot of details in this book about each place, it is best used as a guide to figure out what you want to research more into. It also has some really nice fold out laminated maps on the cover which will be so helpful to bring with on our vacation.

This travel guide combines the right amount of Theme parks with classic Orlando. The top 10 attractions covered are primarily theme parks but then when region by region is broken down you can really see the various areas to explore in Orlando. From downtown Orlando to Cape Canaveral there are lots of fun and cheap things that can be done outside of Disney and Universal. This is a great start to planning any trip. If you are just going for the theme parks than I would use a different book but if you want to see it all this is the one to get.

DK is noted for it's thorough and colorful books.
This book catagorizes the sights and gives the top 10 for each. Categories include: golf courses, places to cool off, festivals, high end restaurants, dinner shows, hip clubs, ways to have fun on the cheap, family restaurants, etc.
Each listing has a short description plus the address, phone and sometimes the hours. I do recommend getting a basic Fodor's or Frommer's for your trip and supplement it with Top 10 Orlando.
Within the theme parks, it lists the top ten attractions so you can make the most of your time. Really a handy little book (fits easily into a purse or camera bag).
With so much to see in the Orlando/Kissimmee area, this helps you prioritize your visit.

A family in a Korean village in the 19th century try to keep a tradition of being firekeepers. A firekeeper is a man who climbs a mountain every night and lights a bonfire to assure the royal palace that invaders are not near. If the fire is not lit, soldiers are sent to defend the sea shore. Korea had a history of invasion, especially by Japan and felt it needed to keep a guard on the sea. The first firekeeper would keep an eye on the sea by day and light a fire by night. Then another villager on another mountain would light a fire by succession until the fires could be seen by a guard at the palace. This was done more than a 100 years in Korea. In this story a young boy helps his father with his job after a crisis and carries on the family's tradition.

Perhaps for centuries, the royal court of Korea kept infomred of invading forces and problems in it eight provinces through a series of bonfires lit from one hilltop to the next. In this story, a young boy and his father live in a seacoast village on the first line of defense for the bonfires. Each night, the boy's father lights a bonfire which is seen by hilltop after hilltop all the way back to the king. But when he in injured, his son must light the fire. But would it not be better to not light it, so that some excitement and soldiers will come to the village? Or does reponsibility win out?

I don't know why I feel this way, but you'd think there would be a lot of Newbery winning children's authors who'd switch their focus from time to time to picture books. And yet, this is not the case. In fact, it's rather rare for someone of Lunda Sue Park's stature to go about writing for children younger than her usual fare. It's almost as if she's slumming. But Park (who won the Newbery for "A Single Shard") has discovered what most winners fail to realize. That a picture book can be every bit as morally complex and intricate as a 230-some page novel. All it takes is excellent writing and an illustrator who knows their stuff. Which makes, "The Firekeeper's Son" a perfect example of a picture book that does everything right and ends up wowing the reader with its intensity.

Sang-hee lives in a small, unassuming, and peaceful village in Korea. One day, his father informs him that their little space is infinitely important (a fact that Sang-hee has a bit of difficulty believing). But his father is absolutely correct. Located beside the sea and just next to the first of a row of mountains, it understood that in the event of a seaward attack by Korea's enemies, this village is the first line of defense. That is why, every night, Sang-hee's father climbs the nearby mountain and lights a fire that can be seen for miles. Then, someone on the next mountain will see that fire and light their own. This continues all the way to the king's palace where, if the king sees the last mountain lit, he'll know that all is well. Of course, if the fire is not lit, the king would immediately send his soldiers out to battle with the enemy. Now this system has gone on for generations, but Sang-hee is not content. He would love to see the king's glorious soldiers more than anything else in the world. Then, one night, his father hurts his ankle while climbing up the mountain. Sang-hee is given the task of lighting the fire himself, but as he nears the pile of dried twigs he thinks about how much he'd like to see a soldier up close. And the hot coals are slowly burning out...

The book weighs an individual's personal wants and fantasies against the greater good of the whole, and does so beautifully. You completely understand Sang-hee's dilemma. On the one hand, there's the fact that not lighting the fire would be a callous lie. On the other hand, "Maybe there is a soldier who would be glad for a chance to visit the sea". Park's story is based on factual information, as she mentions in her Author's Note. However, the system by which bonfires informed the king of potential attacks was, in real life, far more complex than the one featured here. As Park herself mentions, "additional fires could be lit to convey further information, so the court would know not only which province was facing danger but things like the size of the enemy forces and how well armed they were!". She provides additional resources for further reading.

It was a real stroke of luck that Park was paired with illustrator Julie Downing too. Downing plays with lush watercolors and pastels that perfectly convey not only the cool blue nights Sang-hee must run through, but also the glow of the slowly dying coals and eventual hot orange flames. If you look on the cover of the book, you can see dream soldiers fighting in the fire and the bright orange flickers reflected in the black of Sang-hee's eyes. Downing's images are the perfect compliment to Park's deeply rich story.

As historical fiction picture books go, this one has to be one of the most beautiful on record. If you'd like a picture book that lures those sometimes hard to interest boy readers, but is just as doggone interesting to the girls of the world, this book's a safe bet. It's beautiful to look at and remarkably complex to contemplate. Art in the purest sense.

Linda Sue Park's The Firekeeper's Son is a picture book that tells of life in a Korean village several hundred years ago. At that time fires were lit as signals that all was well. It is an exciting story the pits a young boys dreams for excitement against his duty and responsibility. Julie Downing's illustrations showing traditional Korean village life really bring the past alive.

Set in Korea, some time in the nineteenth century, a young boy discovers the great responsibility of lighting the bonfires. When Sang Hee and his mother see that his father has not yet lit the bonfire, and see that there is no enemy coming from the sea, the boy takes up a responsibility that has been in the family for generations. He follows the path up the mountain to find his father injured and unable to climb the mountain. His internal conflict is against the temptation of satisfying his curiosity of soldiers versus responsibility. Good judgment outweighs his selfishness and the bonfire is lit. The systematic communication sends the message to the palace that the kingdom is peaceful. Park is an accomplished writer. The narrative is moving and interesting. The radiant colors of Julie Downing are well crafted.

Have browsed a number of books that say they cover this information, but none do it as well as this one. Everything you need is there. A wonderful resourse for anyone camping/RVing in Florida.
Scotty

I sell rv's and give this book as a gift. I hear how great it is all of the time. I have used books like this for years, they are very accurate.

I was pleased to find this book which gives quite a bit more detail than the huge regional campground books (Woodall's, etc.). Looking up some campgrounds that we'd already tried (Lazy Days and St. Augustine), I could see it captures the character of the place and lets you know what to expect.
This will be invaluable for us as we explore Florida with our motorhome.

Please be sure to look and ask for the fourth edition of the book, released in fall 2007. The book has been completely updated and revised. Look for the blue cover and the Moon imprint!

All best,
Marilyn A. Moore
author
Florida Camping

As indicated by other reviewers, the Foghorn series of campground guides is not without flaws. Even so, we know of no directories which do a better job of addressing campground aesthetics than these wonderful guides. In our experience, the look and feel of a campground is often the single greatest factor influencing the quality of a camping experience . . . and the factor totally ignored by nearly all other campground guides.

There are a number of directories which rate facilities, provide directions, tell you how to make reservations and give you an idea of the cost for a night's stay in a specific campground. This series gives similar basic information and then goes beyond that. The Foghorn guides actually give you a feel of what it is like to stay in a specific campground - a bit of a narrative description and a "scenic beauty rating" for each campground plus information about nearby recreation opportunities. We like that a lot.

Have we found instances where we liked a campground more or less than the book's author? Of course. Tastes differ and things change over time. Even so, we would rather have an admittedly subjective rating of a campground's intangibles than to have nothing to go on but a recitation of facts and figures.

Are the Foghorn Outdoors guides the only ones we use? No. But they are ALWAYS the first place we turn when selecting a destination campground.

This is a wonderful book, chock full of amazing photos and lots of interesting information. If you remember the Highlands, then don't hesitate to buy this volume. It's informative, entertaining, and will bring back tons of memories. Kudos to Mr. Garner for this labor of love!

Doug Garner really knows his history of this amusement park. His photos and artifacts
are amazing! A true believer in the joy of the amusement park! Highly recommend.
tons of photos!
Debra

This book was fantastic. It brought back so many memories of spending fun times in the 1960's at the Forest Park Highlands Amusement Park in St. Louis, Mo. I highley recommend it for anyone who was lucky enough to experience the rides at this great park.

What a delightful read! Doug Garner takes us on a nostalgic ride through Forest Park Highlands' by-gone days as page after page explodes with amusement park Americana. Doug's vivid descriptions and extraordinary photographs bring back the wonderfully delicious smell of cotton candy, french fries, and hot dogs; the piercing shrieks of pure joy; and the thrilling roar of the roller coasters which permeated the air on those memorable hot summer days in St. Louis. Amusement park aficionados everywhere will relive the excitement of yesteryear in this informative and entertaining depiction of the birth and death of one of America's great parks. Kudos to Doug Garner for this comprehensive tribute to St. Louis' most famous park!

A lot of us familiar with Doug Garner's expertise have been waiting for years and years for him to finally get to do the book he wanted to do on the Highlands. As expected, he's produced a simply terrific photo book packed with information and details only he would know and that rarity--captions which go beyond just describing the photos to bring them to life and offer rich background information. It's all done with style and verve and for dessert he throws in West End Heights, Suburban Garden, Westlake Park and Chain of Rocks Fun Fair. I have waited all my life to see photos of Suburban Garden, as I grew up a five minute walk from the place, or what little was left of it. Arcadia has come a long way from its early efforts and this book will sell big with anyone who loves St. Louis history, amusement parks, roller coasters or quality bookmaking. Congratulations, Doug!

A masterful guide to the Gettysburg battlefield. I took several books on my trip to Gettysburg earlier this year but this was the only one I carried on the battlefield. It is organized around the tour stops, but also contains several side trips to lesser known areas, and simply tells you all you need to know about the events in that area at the time of the battle. It contains several maps and the directions it provides to areas on the battlefield are concise and easy to follow. If you wish to seriously tour Gettysburg National Park, this book is essential.

I recently took a trip to Gettysburg (my 3rd) and carried this tour guide for the 1st time. It is far and away the best experience I've had seeing the battlefield. It follows the battle chronologically and offers several sites and insights not offered on the audio tours available at the local shops. Many of the stops are multifaceted. At several points the stops feature 7 to 10 asides which often involve only a minor shift in position to point out various phases of the battle. It includes a side trip to the cavalry field which I've never run into on the audio tours. The driving directions are easy to follow but do veer from the order of the Military Park brochure and the audio tours to give greater detail to the battle. The book says to allow for 6 hours-it's more like 10 hours to give time for exploring beyond some of the "stand here and turn left" instructions. 11 hours total if you include a break for lunch. We started at nine on one morning, toured until about 4 with a break for lunch and finished the following day. Sites included on the audio and Park tours tend to start getting crowded from 11 to 3, so this will add to the tour time depending on time of year and crowd. To sum it all up and paraphrase a popular commercial-when going on a tour of Gettysburg-"Don't leave home without it!"

I grew up near Gettysburg & have been there numerous times. I just spent 2 days there with this book on the battlefield--this book made the battle crystal clear! I ran out of time exploring the battlefield (it takes more than the 6 hours described in the book--my only criticism). This book brings the battle to life and explains the terrain like never before. I learned a lot about the battle that I never knew and many components of the battle came into focus in new and exciting ways. In particular, this book does a good job on overviews of each day and with it's clear directions, leads the reader through each stop--I really felt as if I had an expert by my side explaining all the facets of each aspect of the battle. Along the way, everything was just as the book described. The maps were excellent & it's nicely complimented with various portraits of leaders, common soldiers, etc. The guide brings the 3 days together as a cohesive whole. This is the book to get if you're going to visit Gettysburg; forget all the others.

I now live near Chickamauga and I plan on getting their book on that battle!

An excellent, well-written guidebook and the best I've seen on the subject. I carried this book on my first visit to Gettysburg in Spring 2001, and it greatly enhanced the experience. The directions are clear and up to date, and the text is precise and detailed enough to be compelling without trying to be an exhaustive treatment of every minute detail. If used as a companion to an actual visit, I would strongly recommend reading the book in advance of your visit, then bringing it with you for reference. There are only a few very minor faults I might find with this guidebook. On the maps, it would be helpful to have present-day landmarks indicated in some way to help with orientation. Also, the book suggests the full tour can be completed in six hours, but in my experience to make all the stops and fully enjoy it you'd need at least a full day, or preferably two. You'll want to leave some time for reflection at such places as McPherson's Ridge, Little Round Top, the High Water Mark, and others to think about the enormity of what occurred on that ground.

Read this book and you'll come away with a good working knowledge of the three-day battle. Highly recommended!

I've lived and/or worked in Gettysburg for almost twenty-five years, and I've been on the battlefield hundreds of times. But I can honestly say that I never really had a good appreciation for what happened there until I got my hands on Grimsley's and Simpson's guide. It's completely user-friendly.

For each of the places it highlights, the guide includes:

(1) Driving instructions to each site.

(2) An extremely useful orientation section telling you what's on your left, on your right, in front of you, etc. (For example, for Barlow's Knoll, the Orientation is this: "As you face west, the town of Gettysburg is due left of you; Oak Ridge and Oak Hill are straight ahead, as is Carlisle Road in the middle distance.") For those battlefield visitors who don't think to bring a compass with them, this kind of information is worth its weight in gold.

(3) An historical description of what actually happened during the battle at the site.

(4) A "Vignette," which provides one or two eyewitness accounts pertinent to the site.

(5) A tactical analysis of what happened at the site.

The maps are excellent, the layout of the text is convenient and easy to follow, and there's an informative appendix on "Organization, Weapons, and Tactics." Moreover, the East and South Cavalry Battles are included in the guidebook, and the description of Farnsworth's deadly charge in the latter is the best I've ever read.

Highly recommended for both the beginner and the seasoned Gburg afficionado.

By the way, for those who don't know it, co-author Mark Grimsley's The Hard Hand of War (1997) really is one of the best books on the Civil War written.

"A Gilgamesh Play for Teen Readers" is a GREAT teaching resource! I've taught seventh grade social studies ancient history for a number of years, and this play exactly fits the bill! Written for teens, this play tells the classic story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu in language that middleschoolers can understand and learn from. Sumerian culture and history are embedded so subtly, that students won't realize how much they've learned!

For teachers, this book offers reading within the content areas, excellent higher level thinking questions, and enough open-ended questions to lead students to write at a deeper level than simple lecture would lend itself to. Students become engaged with the material, are active participants in learning, and become engaged and proactive learners through this play.

I hope the author writes more plays like this, his talent and understanding of middle schoolers certainly shines through! This is the same author as the book "Teacher Under Construction", a how-to book on teaching at this level. I highly recommend this book to all teachers, public, private, and home-schools, who work with students in this study.

Who knew ancient history could be so fun?

Just finished (3 days) using this play with 8th graders. The kids enjoyed the play (though the 'surprise' ending was considered a bit too cute for them), while I was impressed with the many (many) insightful and analytical questions provided after each 'tablet'.

Also helpful to the teacher are the lists of topics which could lend themselves to a week's worth of class discussion. I would recommend 1-2 days using the 'Sumer-vocabulary' to prepare the students. About 3 days is right for reading aloud the play, although I had tryouts (kids loved this). There are too many questions to assign them all, but I had the kids do about a third of them.

Writing lends itself to predicting outcomes, reflecting, analysis, and (as mentioned) much topical discussion.

There is a dearth of performable material on Mesopotamia, and this whole book is very good. I just wish it were less expensive so that we could buy a classroom set instead of having to copy the script (legal, I hope!).

In short, I was amazed at how thoroughly this little book covered the stories, traditions, vocabulary, inventions, names, and parallel mythology of ancient Mesopotamia.

Anyone teaching ancient history, especially the Sumerian culture, understands that the story of Gilgamesh is one of the first and greatest stories every told. But there are few teaching models which teens will enjoy as much as this performable play which covers most of the story without exposing younger teens to the sometimes inappropriate aspects of the epic.

The book includes a wonderfully helpful vocabulary of ancient Sumerian terms, as well as a (very) short history of the background of the story.
The finest inclusion is a long list of themes in the Gilgamesh story. Teachers can take these to infinite lesson-applications.

Teens learn best by doing--not by lecture--and although this is more of a reading of roles than actual performing, nevertheless, it is an excellent treatment of this wonderful story of friendship, pride, humility, and death.

This book is nicely done in an 8 by 11 format, which made it easy for my high schoolers to follow the script in class. I have to say that even though it is listed for teen readers, it might be a little more middle school oriented. The script--though an excellent adaptation of the Gilgamesh story--appeared to be a little trite for older kids.

The play begins in a Sumerian classroom, and the setting is not a part of the Gilgamesh story. Only about halfway through does the actual Gilgamesh Epic begin. This is actually a nice touch, by giving students a more thorough exposure to Sumerian customs. The ending is a nice touch, reverting back to the setting.

The play is nice, but to be honest, the reflective questions at the end of the chapters are the strength of this little booklet. If you are teaching Sumerian life, they are probing, analytical, and insightful.

Since there's really nothing to compare this to, I guess I'd say it's excellent. It certainly is the finest adaptation of the Gilgamesh story which can `safely' be used in a public school classroom.

When I read "A Gilgamesh Play for Teen Readers," I became jealous of today's middle-schoolers. I don't recall there being, when I was their age, anything both as fun and as informative as this play is. Dr. Parks has written a fast-paced entertainment that's also a masterpiece of education. While playing a variety of vivid and well-drawn characters, the students will learn, not only the main points of oldest epic poem still in existence, but also the heart of the world's first civilization.

In his play Dr. Parks does something brilliant and unexpected. He doesn't just retell the story of Gilgamesh; he sets it within a larger story in which all kinds of Sumerians go about their everyday lives of study, work, and play. Thus, the actors and the audience don't just relive the mythical friendship of Gilgmesh and Enkidu, and its tragic outcome at the hands of the jealous goddess Inanna, but they also see how the epic reflects the lives of the Sumerians who imagined it, and what it meant to them.

Beyond the play itself, Dr. Parks has filled his compact book with a number of valuable resources. His introduction gives an overview of Sumerian civilization and a summary of its greatest story, as well as a comprehensive list of themes and topics that one can teach from the play. Some of the scenes (or "tablets") of the play end in lists of questions that challenge the students to reach a deeper level of understanding of what they've acted. Finally, there's a "Sumer-cabulary" that clearly explains key terms highlighted in the play.

Too often, students miss the lessons of history because they're taught dully and dryly. Students who benefit from "A Gilgamesh Play for Teen Readers" will retain history's lessons as these come to life around them and become part of them.

This was a present prior to a trip to Alaska. It is beautifully done.. pictures are magnificent.. subject matter is perfect.. written material is well done. I could not praise it more or recommend it more highly. Even if you are not going to Glacier Bay.. it is a wonderful book to own.

Purchased this book to help prepare me for my first trip to Alaska. The photographs are wonderful. I only hope that I see Alaska as beautifully as the photographer has.

We just came back from kayaking for a week in Glacier Bay and this boook captures the place and the experience beautifully! A "must have" book if you've been there to relive the experience or just to feel like you've been there without leaving home. A great book!

We went to Glacier Bay in August 2001 and I can truthfully say that Mr. Kelley's photo's captured what we saw. We never got as close to the brown bear and we didn't see a hoary marmot, but, hey, we're not professionals and we were just there for a week. The glacier shots are so perfect; just open your freezer, put on some warm clothes, look at those photos and save yourself a few thousand dollars in air-fare, etc.

My family has a summer cabin on the outskirts of Glacier Bay National Park, and I have seen the park from both air and water. The book catches every image of Glacier Bay a human being would ever want to see. Those who view this book and then visit the park might even be disappointed, because the park and landscape is so overwhelming that you often get so caught up in the enormity of the country rather than the small elements that form the picture. Anyways, yes, the pictures are fantastic. But even better are the essays. Sherry Simpson is one of the most over-looked yet talented writers in the modern world. The essays she wrote for this book are truly amazing. For more works by Sherry Simpson, pick up a copy of Alaska magazine sometime, she writes for it, and you MUST read "The Way Winter Comes" which is a collection of Alaska stories that are anything but mundane.

My son loves this series, it really makes him want to read and that is wonderful.

Another great series of books for RL Stine. These keep kids attention and have them coming back for more. If you are trying to get your kids into Chapter books, then get these. They are entertaining and funny and most of them if not all are worth AR points. They are a fun read, so good your little will probably have it read before the end of the day. That is a great accomplishment for a child to read a chapter book in less than a day. These are super funny, cool, and entertaining and all the kids LOVE them.

If you're looking for a book that will make you laugh out loud, then The Great Smelling Bee is for you! Bernie Bridges and his "rotten" classmates are in trouble up to their eyes with Headmaster Upchuck again. This time it involves Bernie's pets his parents sent to school for him to watch. How do you hide an odiferous dog and talkative parrot? Find out in this hilarious adventure by R.L. Stine.

My 8 yr old son loves these books... and I love to get hard back books for a great price! We are working on getting the whole series!

This is the second book in a new series from beloved children's author R. L. Stine of Goosebumps fame. Bernie Bridges has a problem. His residential school does not allow any pets and his dog and parrot have arrived. How will he keep them hidden from view? A quick thinker, Bernie enrolls his dog in school. But the dog received his nickname of Gassy for a good reason and this causes all kinds of problems. The Great Smelling Bee will appeal to most school kids between 8 and 12 years of age. A departure from the Goosebumps style it is a good read filled with descriptions of the gross and messy stuff children that age like to read about while still providing an interesting story with plenty of twists and turns. This book should appeal strongly to boys where other books often fail.