Shepard Books

This product was as advertised: book and CD. This order arrived in a timely manner. Beware of other companies who send the book but not the CD.

We read a lot to my kids, so this book gives me a little break now and then and reads for me. The CD helped my 2-year old son follow along quite well without me telling him when to turn pages. The stories are cute and well read.

Both child and parent friendly. Nice pictures. 4 stories. Excellent! My godson and his siblings adore it!

This is some of the best money I ever spent. My soon-to-be three-year old son is absolutely addicted to this cd! He wants it in the playroom, in the car, at his friends' houses, in his bedroom when he's sleeping... I think we have listened to it almost non-stop since I purchased it over a month ago. He also asks to read the stories several times a day. He has even decided to change his birthday theme from trucks to Pooh.

My complaints about it are that, although the narrator's voice is quite soothing, all of the narration is done by the same person and there are no sound effects or music in the background. Also, there aren't chimes for turning the pages. And, beware...it takes at least 30 min. to read one of these very long stories! But this is my adult criticism. The set is obviously perfect to the ears of a little boy.

Maeterlinck wrote this history of occultism in the later part of his life, when the genius that had produced The Life of the Bee and the Blue Bird (not to mention the great plays of his early period) was extinct, but he remained as inquisitive as ever. The book attempts to present ancient Egyptian and Indian wisdom, followed by such miscellaneous movements as Gnosticism and Cabbalism and concluding with modern occultism, as making up a great tradition, preferable to the more familiar religions of the world. The attempt is utterly misconceived, and although Maeterlinck did his homework conscientiously, he lacked the necessary historical knowledge and the necessary critical acumen. Most of this book belongs to the faded, frankly tawdry world of Madame Blavatsky and her acolytes. Yet the book is redeemed by its final chapter, where Maeterlinck expresses his own religious philosophy more clearly than in any of his other writings. He argues that the utter unknowability of God justifies 'total agnosticism' but does not leave us there: for it implies God's infinitude, his infinitude in turn implies the truth of pantheism, while pantheism implies the immortality of all being and the perfectibility of the universe. After the farrago of miscellaneous and unreliable data in the earlier chapters, this is an like an ascent into pure air, as in Pelleas's emergence from the castle vaults in the third act of Maeterlinck's greatest play.

"The Great Secret, the only secret, is that all things are secret." Maurice Maeterlinck was an intellectual mystic, by which I mean he understood metaphysical concepts, and had no mystical experiences to base his writing on. Therefore his book is a work of reason rather than intuitive comprehension or revelation as is made plain by his praise for the Vedas as the height of philosophical speculation, a form of absolute agnosticism. For Maeterlinck, an initiate would be someone with the capacity to understand and appreciate a secret doctrine rather than someone familiar with the unknown dimensions of the mind and soul. For example, regarding visions, Maeterlinck is concerned that they contain no unconscious reminiscences of what has been read, "Most of the great mystics have had visions or intuitions of this kind spontaneously; but they do not possess any real interest unless it can be proven that they are experienced by mystics who are truly and absolutely illiterate." He must imagine that a vision is a metaphysical insight such as could be gleamed from a book on philosophy rather than an ineffable glimpse of the impersonal self's perspective. His mysticism is intellectual rather than experiential.

Maeterlinck seems most impressed by the realization that the cause of causes is unknowable. The secret doctrine whose revelation sealed forever the lips of the great initiates, the dread cry of occultist tradition, "Osiris is a dark god!" However there is some hint that he explored the unconscious in another book, "This subconscious self, this unfamiliar personality, which I have elsewhere called the Unknown Guest, which lives and acts on its own initiative, apart from the conscious life of the brain..".

The book does quote a metaphysical translation of Genesis by Fabre d'Olivet which is supposedly more accurate and impressive than the superficial and restricted version found in the Bible. He also describes some experiments concerning "odic emanations" which is some forgotten term for emanations or effluvia. However, the book appears most horribly dated concerning Tibetan Buddhism which is described ridiculously, "The convents and sanctuaries were explored; but nothing was found save the relics of the noblest religion ever known to mankind [Vedic doctrine], finally rotting and dwindling into puerile superstitions, mechanical prayer-wheels, and the most deplorable witchcraft."

This book and author were mentioned numerous times by Henry Miller in his writings. As a Henry Miller devotee, I try to seek out and read the books of his life. Some of them even become books of my life. I found The Great Secret to be a pretty interesting book. I have an ongoing interest in human spirituality and religion. There is a great deal of information in this book which must have been startling in 1922 but has less impact in 1999. It did provide me with some data on the earliest origin of the Hindu faith as well as facts on Egyptian mythology and others. I can not really say I buy it all hook, line and sinker but books of this nature do stimulate a lot of serious thought. It is easy to see why the cosmogonical eye of Henry Miller was so impressed. It did rouse a lot of philosophical musing in my mind as I waded through each chapter.

The author, Maurice Maeterlinck, is a Nobel laureate inliterature. He set himself the task of wading through all availableliterature on the occult or secret side of religion and spirituality. In "The Hymn to Brahman" of the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of the Hindus, he found a core insight the world was young enough and innocent enough to reveal. This scripture asks in the presence of this sacred and mysterious cosmos in which we live, "Who knows how it could have come about?" (my paraphrase). Then, it boldly asserts that only He who abides in mystery and brought it into being--only HE knows, and "Perhaps even He knows not." (my paraphrase).

The "Great Secret," therefore is that ALL religion is based on guesswork. At its best, it is erected on the pure recognition of the transcendent and SACRED mystery confronting all of us. At its worst, it is based on hearsay, desperate dogmatizing, and yes, even an abundant amount of fraud.

This core revelation is disclosed early in the book. The rest is a history of what arose on that foundation; including, for example, pantheism and the realization that the Mystery (God, if you please) resides in us as much as it does in the heavens.

A GREAT handbook to use when you have multi-generational workforce. An excellent tool for teachers to use to teach students what it takes to be the employee companies can't do without.

Highly recommended. A quick read. Uses great examples. Worth the time to read.

I've read a lot of career and jobhunting books lately, and this book was the least useful I've read so far. I found it written in an incredibly dry and humorless style, though the seriousness with which the author wrote some of his passages had me laughing.

Here's some gems:
"Professionalism also applies to what you talk about in front of customers. I was at a Nashville restaurant in March 2005 when the server asked how I was doing. I gave my standard response, "Better than I deserve! How are you?" He explained that he wasn't doing well because he was having trouble with his finances and was worried about the health of Pope John Paul II. The entertainment experience of eating out had just been reduced to zero for this meal. It was naïve of him to answer a rhetorical question. I might have felt a little empathy or at least identified with him if he told me he was worried that the Tennessee Titans might lose our starting quarterback or that lawmakers were trying to pass a state income tax again. The problem with his response regarding the Pope was that he was already on his deathbed and everyone knew it. It was sad but I came to the restaurant to be happy. The server just didn't get that. The ironic part was the comment about his finances. Tips are how servers make most of their income and I'm a generous tipper. He would have received a better tip from me than from most of his customers if he had just been a run-of-the-mill server. Whining about his finances hurt them even more by ensuring that he was getting a minimum tip from me no matter how good his service was. This turned out to be a moot point since he was as unprofessional in his service as he was in his behavior."

"My ninth-grade English teacher once asked for volunteers to help with the Junior/Senior prom. I raised my hand and asked, "What's in it for me?" I was never as humiliated as when I heard her answer. She looked straight at me and said in front of the entire class, "It's not about you Glenn. When you grow up, you'll learn that sometimes in life you have to do things for others out of a sense of duty. This is why young men volunteered to serve in Viet Nam and Korea." I still remember that look of disappointment and disgust in her eyes when I uttered those fateful words."

I think those quotes speak for themselves.

He also claims that PowerPoint is a program very few will use at work (ha!), and that people often try to drag down those who want to "work harder" by saying things like "there's more to life than work."

As stated in other reviews, the book is definitely common sense. And to be fair, there are some basic good points in there that workers often forget, like about how a job is not about you and the importance of working hard. But much of the advice sounds like it's being given by a traditionalist baby boomer that served in the military and expects everyone else to follow in line or expect failure. I found almost nothing in this book helpful or that I hadn't read somewhere else (and in much richer and better detail). If you find yourself nodding seriously and agreeing with the author after reading the above quotes, then you just might like this book.

I said inside this book that "It should be in the top drawer
of every employee's desk" and I meant every single word.

Matt Bacak
Author of Secrets of the Internet Millionaire Mind
and The Ultimate Lead Generation Plan

If you want to earn as much as you can earn, for the work you do -- if you want to be as valuable, indeed as indispensable, to your employer as you can be -- Glenn Shepard explains clearly and completely how and why. And how far. And every bit of it makes perfect sense.

If you've been told to work harder and sacrifice deeper -- but you find that you can't articulate the why and how -- and if you find that the lack of a clear understanding of why and how makes it somehow difficult for you to bring focus and motivation to your efforts to succeed in your employment -- then Glenn Shepard may have answered all your questions.

If you are discouraged by the chaos of the job market and you are seeking desperately to discover how to clearly distinguish yourself in a difficult environment -- the answer to your dilemma awaits your patient perusal in these readable 150 pages.

Mr. Shepard acknowledges that everything he's saying is common sense -- and frequently, book reviewers disdain explanations of common sense. But it's sensible, for lots of people, to have this common knowledge stated concisely and with a clear structure.

If you're trying to become employed -- or if you're already employed, and you're trying to maintain or improve your situation -- this excellent book may be just the turning point you need.

And Mr. Shepard enjoys good food and good service -- and there's nothing wrong with that.

I first read this book in 4th grade, i'm now 25 and i still love this book! I can't wait til my son and daughter can read it on their own. I hope they love it as much as i did!

I am a huge fan of Incognito and I remember listening to the books on tape as a young child. I have been trying to get a lock down on where I can get the tape again, but have had no luck. If anyone has any idea where I can find it, please let me know. Thanks.

This funny mosquito is a detective who solves crimes in all places. He gets stuck in STICKY situations and all of them get resolved. I read this book when I was 10 and I really recommend it for the ages between 8-14.

Are you interested in puns? Do you admire cleverness? Incognito Mosquito incorporates these qualities into each buggy case but needs your help to solve each mystery. Catch Incognito Mosquito before he flies again! Joel Barker, 11 years old

These are the original Pooh stories, poems and drawings bythereal author and illustrator, not the poor Disney imitation. Acceptno substitutes to these witty and unforgettable books.

I loved this book! It is great for the whole family to read. You could read it to your children for a bed time story book or just enjoy the wonderful storys and Illastrations for yourself. I found myself laughing every once in a while because of the adorable charcertord.

I read this book when I was 5 and I was amazed. Everyone has their favorite teddy-bear, their favorite toy. Most of us imagine that they have their own lives in which we cannot partake. Winnie-The Pooh offers a world of toys where the child gets to enjoy the world of its toys, where amazing things happen, and where your favorite teddy-bear is a hero.

Unfortunately, these days we only know this tale via Disney which makes it obscure and media-driven.

I recommend that you read the book, do not purchase any of Winnie-the Pooh paraphenalia, kick back and relieve the happiness of childhood as it was or could've been.

I have read this entire collection. It's really fascinating. Although I found it was a little hard for young children to stay focussed through out the whole story. It would be best for kids ages 5 and up.

I am not a cat person unless you count Garfield. He may just be a cartoon figure but to me "Garfield" is the coolest cat ever. Or so I thought until I read a little book called "Skeeter A Cat Tale". Skeeter has an attitude with a capital A. The poor misguided owner Lynne thinks she has the upper hand but when you read this book you will discover Skeeter is the one running the show.

I loved it when the Lynne tries to put a harness and leash on Skeeter. Since Lynne only had knowledge about dogs, I can understand why she might think what works for one, works for the other.

The book is mostly about Skeeter, but also includes some of the adventures of Lynne. One day Lynne is walking the shores of San Pedro, Calif when she found an elongated flexible cone or seedpod. Since her sister was taking a basketry course Lynne decided her sister might like to use some of the seapods. So Lynne looking up, saw that more of these littered the slope dropping from a tree at the edge of a cliff. Now climbing the cliff was easy, even gathering cones as she went. But when Lynne reached the top and turned around, she realized something. She was trapped. There was a chain link fence running along the top as far as she could see. So she abandoned her pride and skated down on her rear, blistering it in the fast descent and rubbing a noticeably-positioned hole in her clothing. It was one of those moments that ever one has encountered in their lives. It was a "Dear God, it's Lynne here and please don't let anyone see me making a fool of myslef". Thank goodness no one saw her as she stalked away with what little dignity she had left and the shreds of her jeans.

This is a fast read and reached me on a day when I really needed a good laugh. If you have had a bad day you need to buy this book and keep it on hand. Beleive me laughter is the best medicine.

This is a wonderful little book. Skeeter's adventures kept me entertained. It would make a lovely gift for anyone who likes cats.

A non-cat person myself, I still found myself smiling and nodding in understanding as Skeeter enlightened his human companion about life.

Skeeter is a stray kitten with questionable lineage and irreverent independence. His story is told in a series of letters from Lynne, Skeeter's equally independent "person" to friends back in Chicago after Lynne moves to California and brings Skeeter into her life.

For anyone who loves cats, as I do, Skeeter is a fun romp through the world of cat lovers and the cats who own them.

My 18 month old son loves the Winnie the Pooh stories and characters. His favourite is, of course, Tigger, and this new addition to his library is much loved. The text is large and quite basic - just explaining on one page, for example, that Tigger climbs a tree, and on the next page, that he can't climb back down again (uh oh!) which means it's a fast moving read. It's great that it's in the shape of Tigger, too. I believe there's also a Pooh Bear shaped one in the series, that I might purchase next time.

I just ordered this book for my 16 month old daughter and she loves it! She can easily turn the pages by herself and the story is short and simple so I can read it to her and it holds her attention. This is a wonderful book.

My 17 month old daughter chooses this book for us to read everyday. This is a short, simple book with appealing, classic illustrations. Perfect book for an active toddler. I highly recommend it!

I have a 2 year old book who loves these large board books because they are very inviting. The pages have large type with simple sentences. The pictures are Classic Pooh, not the Disney cutsey kind.

Nice illustrations and good sturdy touchables but the story might not entertain older toddlers. My one year old loves to "read" it herself and find the place to touch on each page. Seems like a disjointed edit of longer Pooh story.

This book is really great for little ones to touch as you read it to them or by themselves. I bought it for my 17 month old grandchild

This really is a high quality touch and feel book; they are usually so disappointing. There is a page with sticky honey, one with a shiny balloon and one with Christopher Robin's wellies (among others). My 10 month old really enjoys playing with it and the sensations are so distinct that I can't help but think he is learning from it. There is no story, but that is not to be expected from a touch and feel.

This is not the best touch-and-feel book out there, but it is very nice if you are a Pooh fan. It uses the original Shepherd illustrations, and includes some interesting textures (like "sticky"!) that you don't see in other touch-and-feel books. However, the touch spots are not very large, and my boys had trouble following the story. It was soon put aside in favor of Fuzzy Fuzzy Fuzzy by Boyton and the classic Pat the Bunny.

Jan Ormerod renders more than 101 snapshots of life with a small baby in his (her?) charming book, ``101 Things to Do with a Baby." The simple line drawings capture the intimacy of family life, the hundreds of small moments--from splashy baths and windy walks to flower-picking and laundry-sorting, that comprise family life. The tone of the pictures and text is endearing without being sentimental, and the characters--the big sister in particular--are treated with affection and humor. Both my baby and my "big girl" love this book, and have made it a favorite bed-time choice

With sweet, simple illustrations and few words, Jan Ormerod paints a beautiful portrait of a loving family. Big sister learns to help, share, and enjoy her new brother. The illustrations show an affectionate family in realistic, every-day situations; washing up, nap time, jogging with Mother, a visit from Grandma, a Saturday picknick, and more. I bought this book for myself before I had children because I thought it was so sweet. It is now a favorite of both my little ones.

The book incorporates many positive examples of how a family can integrate and include a new baby into its routine (i.e., the baby does not have to put a damper on the family time, as too many people think). Lots of images of big sister playing with the baby, and a variety of activities. My only negative impressions were the baby sleeping in a crib alone, and some of the pictures seem outdated (the baby & toddler strapped into the car via some harness contraption). But it does include babywearing, many father-child images, nursing, and an overall positive relationship with each member of the family. This would be a good book to read to the soon-to-be big brother or sister to help him/her adjust to the new arrival.

Ingenious! I am thrilled with the storyline. I plan to use this book in teaching character education or the rainforest.

This book is a gold mine of resources for teachers! The Adventures of Mouse Deer has classic folktale characteristics which lend perfectly for teaching this genre. The entertaining storyline is highly motivating for the most reluctant reader. The simple, yet exciting plot make it perfect for practicing retelling, sequence, cause and effect. Because this is a folktale from Malaysia and Indonesia, readers have an authentic reason (and interest!) for research and practicing nonfiction reading strategies and atlas/map-reading. The book has three "stories" which are the perfect length for small group reading. The downloadable scripts from Mr. Shephard's website are ideal for the Fluency Station post Guided Reading Group.

The Adventures of Mouse Deer: Tales of Indonesia and Malaysia is a retelling of some of South Asia's most popular folklore, about Mouse Deer, a creature who is small but brave and cunning - in many ways similar to the trickster fox of other mythologies, or Brer Rabbit of more contemporary children's literature. Simply narrated so that young people who are just graduating from picturebooks can easily follow the text, The Adventures of Mouse Deer is witty and steeped with the power of myth, as well as high-spirited determination. Black-and-white illustrations intersperse the text in this delightful introduction to an enduring legend.