Stone Books

this is one of my childhood favorites and i always buy a copy for any child in my life. it's great, funny, sweet, cute, etc. although i've got mixed feelings about teaching your kid to lie at the end of it to not hurt grovers feelings...

I read this to a class of 2/3 year olds and a class of 3/4 year olds and the kids ggigled through the whole book. They answered Grovers questions and wanted it read again and again. This is very similar to the Monster at the End of the Book. I highly recommend this book.

This was one of my all-time, absolute FAVORITE books as a small child. It was so silly and such fun. It still makes me smile.

This is one of the best picture books, ever. Grover would like to play hide and seek with the listener, but he has very limited hiding options, as he is caught within the confines of the pages of the book you are holding. He tries everything from coloring the pages blue to making a lot of speech balloons to hide behind, but his presence is always obvious. He gets increasingly deperate to find a good hiding place as the listener outs him time after time. In the end, he resorts to begging the listener to pretend that he can't be found, and then thanks the listener joyously, ending with a warm "you are my best friend."

This book is so inventive and fun that it's unbelievable. By making the child an active participant in the game, there's not a moment when the listener will feel left out, and the empowerment of being able to find Grover again and again is immeasurable. In the end, the listener learns a lesson about how to make someone else happy, even if it means bending the rules of the game a little, which is a great thing to teach kids.

The illustrations are also terrific, featuring lots of cute details that make it seem like Grover is inhabiting the book (such as drawn tears and creases in the page).

This is a book that will bring you and your child closer together for hours of fun. I highly recommend it, along with Oscar's Book, Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum, and There's a Monster at the End of this Book (which also stars Grover).

I have been searching for this delightful book in children's stores for some time. I have five children and wore out two copies of this much loved book and I was thrilled to find it here! If you can try to imitate Grover's voice a bit when you read it to your child,it makes it even more special. The declaration at the end about the child being the reader's BEST FRIEND brought tears to my eyes almost everytime we read it.This book is a real TREASURE. I heartily encourage you to try this book out on your favorite,(or even troublesome child), and watch them melt as you tell them from the bottom of your heart,"You're my BEST FRIEND!"

Doctor Ichiro Irabu is one weird neurologist. With or without his patients' permission, he finds cures for their modern-day neurological woes (i.e., a man who finds relief from a mid-life crisis by sneaking into locked swimming pools at midnight, a man with an embarrassingly permanent erection, a model with the paranoiac fear of being stalked, a teenage boy's obsession with cell phone text-messaging). This is fun and delightfully easy reading which made me wish for more.

Award-winning Japanese author Hideo Okuda presents In The Pool, a wildly popular Japanese novel that has been successfully adapted to a major Japanese motion picture. "Doctor of Neurology" Ichiro Irabu is a therapist for the image-conscious and all too often mentally pressured people of Japan, and his odd methodology of sharing his patients' stress-related problems and making them much worse before they get better distinguishes him sharply from his colleagues. His patients include a man who suffers a constant and painful erection, a pretty young woman convinced that every man she meets on the street is a stalker, a high school student addicted to text messaging the "friends" he desperately craves, and a journalist terrified his house will burn down should he leave it. A deliciously twisted commentary on human neuroses, with wit and insight that translates seamlessly between cultures. Highly recommended.

In the Pool was a huge success upon its original Japanese release in 2002. The stories here have gone on to appear in movies and on TV since its release. In the Pool is a collection of episodes about one eccentric psychiatrist, Dr. Ichiro Irabu, the sole doctor in the lonely Neurology Dept. located in the basement of the Irabu Hospital (say, that's the same name as the doctor...). This is clever and rather hilarious collection is by former magazine editor Hideo Okuda, who credits manga as a major influence.

Five tales are told here, each one about a patient with a condition that cannot be treated by conventional methods, and each one a line on a laundry list of "ailments" that plague not only Japan, but human beings in general. Among the poor souls that find themselves consulting Dr. Irabu are a magazine editor who becomes obsessed with swimming, sacrificing work and family time to get in a few more laps; a just-over-the-hill car-show model who starts to believe every man she sees is stalking her; and high-school student so obsessed with text messaging on his cell phone, even a few moments of separation create panic and cold sweats.

Although each character begins as almost a caricature of him or herself, they develop into people we may recognize in our own lives, or even aspects of our own personality. The fun and humor of each story comes from not the ailment, but Dr. Irabu's unorthodox and unexpected avenues of treatment. Often the reader wonders if what Dr. Irabu is doing is even intended for the patients benefit, and simply his own. (The dubious injections given to each patient on each visit by Dr. Irabu's sexy female nurse give us a clue.) Though in the end of each tale some sort of resolution or recovery path is reached, whether this is by accident or by design becomes clearer as the reader finishes each story. Although each tale is written from the perspective of the patient, we get more and more hints as to what kind of person Dr. Irabu really is.

Translating humor from Japanese to English is one of the most difficult undertakings a translator can expect to take. Comedy is so different culture to culture, and having it make sense and seem natural in the translated language requires real talent, and that talent shows here is the seamless English creation by Giles Murray.

In the Pool is a fun and interesting splash, just slightly deeper than the surface suggests. Dr. Irabu's techniques and ideas collide with not only his profession, but his national culture, and although this isn't always comfortable for his patients, it makes for pure entertainment for his readers.

I had never heard of this author, and was given this book as a gift. What a delightful surprise! This collection of five short stories all share the same principal character - a wacky neurologist who works in the basement of a Tokyo hospital. Each story introduces a new patient, each with an unusual ailment, and follows their "treatment" with the doctor. The writing is crisp and funny, and I found myself busting into unexpected laughter throughout the book. My only disappointment was that there were just five stories. When I finished the book, I yearned for more! I hope that more books from this award winning author are translated into English, and marketed outside of Japan.

"In the Pool" is a deceptive book. From the bland cover and title, you are expecting something equally bland, maybe a bit of a quiet read to pass the time. Certainly not the perverse, hilarious and addicting book you are about to encounter. Just like the hapless patients at the Irabu General Hospital, you are suddenly pitched into a bizarre world where the inmates are running the asylum, nothing makes sense whatsoever, and then every so slowly, the bigger picture starts to become clear.

A series of five short stories, "In the Pool" follows the lives of five different patients, each suffering from some sort of psychological disorder. Kazuo Omori feels compelled to go swimming, and is willing to allow his job, marriage and morals disintegrate for the chance to sink into the blue security of the pool. Tetsuya Taguchi has an erection that just won't quit, making daily life impossible. Trade show model Hiromi Yasukawa is being haunted by an army of invisible stalkers, each one trying to catch a glimpse of her impossible beauty. Yuta Tsuda needs his cell phone the way an alcoholic needs booze. Taking it away from him causes massive spasms in mere seconds. Yoshio Iwamura knows that is obsessive compulsive fear of fire is my psychology, but can't stop himself from going home to check his apartment every few minutes. Each one of them finds there way into the helping hands of Ichiro Irabu, Doctor of Neurology, who seems more interested in joining their obsessions than helping.

Ichiro Irabu himself is a fantastically weird character. A fat, pasty middle-aged man, he has an erotic fixation on giving injections, and employs a sexy nurse who is a stand-offish exhibitionist. Stuffed down in the basement of the hospital, he is constantly complaining that they don't send him enough patients, and when they do it is always the lost causes. Together, Irabu and his nurse hold the stories together, being the only reoccurring characters, even though they are always just supporting actors at most.

Much of the philosophy of Irabu's style is based on the work of Dr. Morita Masatake, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud who taught that accepting your feelings was more important than trying to battle them. Or as Oscar Wilde put it, "the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it." This is were the deceptive part comes in. At first Irabu's solutions seem to cause more harm than help, as he pushes his patients deeper and deeper into their psychosis until they burn them out. There is a method to his madness.

The only small flaw in "In the Pool" is the translation. The translator calls Irabu a neurologist, although it is clear from the text that this should have been psychiatrist. The translation error is actually fixed later, and he is called a psychiatrist in the later stories.

This book was loaned to me and it was not what I expected. It was down to earth reading and I read the book in one sitting. The points brought out by the author were useful. I will be using this book as a resource to help others prepare for their interviews. What I liked most about the book was the way the author chose to write it. I felt comfortable as if I were speaking with a friend. The writing style is easy to read. I wish this was offered in audio format. When I returned the book I borrowed, I decided to purhase the book for myself. I like the humor and directness. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for employment. It gives a realistic view of what different people might be confronted with when seeking employment.

I have my own staffing firm. I have made this book a must read to all my clients who are seeking jobs. If they can't recite some of this book to me, I won't send them on a job interview. This book provides an advantage to all job seekers. I want to send the best prepared and sharpest candidates to job interviews.

William O'Kelley
President of O' Kelley's Job Source.

Give this book as a gift to a job seeker and you might have a friend for life. I carry this book in my porfolio to every interview. I have had this book for two weeks. However, since then I have gotten greater responses from my power resumes that I have learned to write. It's also amazing how many questions I get asked by hiring managers that are in this book. This book has actually prepared me for them.

There are some books you have for show, some to use as a paperweight.........However, this book is a must read! I found it easy to read and understand. This was a very entertaining book for a so called reference book. I am a co-op teacher at my high school and I make sure every student reads it before I send them out on an interview. it makes them better prepared and allows them to anticipate what might be asked. The better prepared and well balnced student I send out, the more students I can get placed in jobs. Thumbs up! So, it's been a win win situation for me.

I learned more in this book about interviewing and resume writing than I did in 4 years of high school or the thousands of dollars I paid for in college. I can clearly say, I was amazed at some of the ways hiring managers or HR people interview and what they look for in a resume or a job candidate.

This book is a great source of information and I can say that my recent job was based on some of the techniques I learned and applied from this book. The thing I also liked about it. It has sections for notes and was handy enough to carry to all my interviews as a quick reference.

...I wasn't expecting the craftsmanship of Sander's excellentTHE BALLAD OF BILLY BADASS AND THE ROSE OF TURKESTAN-- just some finewriting, good history and vividly drawn characters. Not too much to expect of a modern master. Holy smoke. This one ranks alongside any one of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman books, with the same unsparing observations of human nature and the intensely evoked sense of time and place, only in this case these are times and places that never existed-- in this alternate history, due to the Mongols having stayed on long enough to prolong the Dark Ages in Europe, the Arabs and Chinese colonized the New World. Slave ships creak across the Atlantic with their holds full of chained Anglo-Saxons-- .... The Aztec empire is still in place but beginning to crumble, due to circumstances a lot more complex than a handful of Spaniards with nothing to lose. And far in the west is a city by a blue bay, a civilized paradise of steep streets and endless possibilities: Fusang. This is the eventual goal of Finn of No Fixed Abode, whose indiscretion with the High King's daughter sets him on a journey out of Ireland and into a succession of frying pans followed by fires of varying deadly intensity. Hilarious, inventive, white-knuckle adventure and any number of surprises, not least of which is how Sanders can take a character who begins as a joke (and if you've ever seen John Wayne in THE CONQUEROR you'll understand) and make him come to real life, to the point where you regret his painful exit. The image of Coyote and Bat Man on hang gliders was pretty impressive too, and I can't think of any other writer who could make it plausible. Read the book and find out what I mean... Five stars at least. Yeeha!

Journey to Fusang is an alternate history where the Europeans and especially the English are considered and treated like the Africans of our timeline, and the world's big colonial powers are Arabs, Chinese and Aztecs.

The author, William Sanders, a Native American, is not only a talented writer but also an extremely well educated one. He is obviously extremely well read, and has a vicious sense of humour and and inclination to outrageous puns, but SUBTLE ones! Makes us re-think our own preconceptions and laugh at ourselves. So get yourself a copy of "Journerry to Fusang", it's amazing.

As a proud owner of the original printing of _Journey..._, I was delighted to find that it had been re-issued and doubly so that there was restored text. Sanders is a whiz at alternate histories, and his stepping-off-point of a Moorish domination of the West opens the door to (in one case, literal) flights of fancy. The main character is engaging, the situations are intriguing, and I had a ball all the way through. I freely admit that there were almost certainly cherished ideas and historical beliefs that he DIDN'T turn upside down, but I don't think I could name a one. If you like alternate takes on history, if you like good, solid, classic character-driven Science Fiction, you can't go wrong with _Journey to Fusang_. Indians and ninjas and Aztecs, oh MY!

I've read other stories by William Sanders and enjoyed them, so I thought I'd give this book a try. I'm glad that I did.

This is the story of Finn of No Fixed Abode, an Irish rogue who makes a journey of discovery across a strangely altered United States. Mr. Sanders is a master of alternate history, and has skillfully created a world where Europe never rose to prominence. Finn and his two companions, Yusef and Allred, travel across an America dominated by Arabs to the East and Chinese to the West. Along the way, Finn encounters ninjas, Apaches, Cossacks, and many strange and wonderful things. He learns about life, love, and friendship. Even more importantly, he has fun. And so did I. If you're looking to lose yourself in a comic adventure in a world that might have been, this is your book.

This novel was first published by Warner Questar in 1988, and I read it and liked it a lot then. I think I like it even more on rereading. This new edition, by the way, is a restored text: a few scenes have been added that were cut from the first edition. The story is told by an Irishman, Finn of No Fixed Abode, an appealing rascal who ends up on an Arabian slaver headed for North America, after his affair with the High King of Ireland's daughter bore too much fruit, as it were. In this timeline, the Mongols invaded Western Europe and stuck around for a while, and as a result Europe is a backwater and the world is dominated by Islam and China. The Eastern half of North American is nominally Islamic, and the Western portion (Fusang) is Chinese. Mexico is ruled by a still powerful Aztec empire. Finn joins up with a Jew, Yusuf, and an Englishman, Alfred, as well as (eventually) a gorgeous redhead named Maeve, and they wander uncertainly across America, encountering many dangers on the way, most especially a mad Cossack who wants to take over North America. The book is extremely funny and clever, with a well-resolved plot, and engaging characters. And despite the comic tone, it effectively portrays the horrors of war and slavery. Highly recommended.

"The issue comes down to ...competing paradigms. One is the myth that the Americas had been isolated from the historical world until Columbus broke the barrier in 1492. The other charts world patterns of trade, easily accommodating a Scandinavian expedition west from Vinland in 1362." ~ pg. 86

Alice Beck Kehoe's research sheds new light on the Kensington Runestone found in 1898. Was this stone really inscribed in 1362 or was it a hoax? All the evidence presented by Alice Beck Kehoe leads me to believe that it was real, although she presents both sides of the story.

It seems few of the experts who were consulted were willing to rock the boat and called it a hoax. Still the evidence in favor of it being valid is overwhelming. Page after page presents perfectly good reasons for an expedition in 1362. The story gets even more interesting when Alice Beck Kehoe uncovers evidence (1960 discovery by Helge Ingstad) of a Vinland in a fishing village called L'Anse aux Meadows.

"The site fit the landscape selected by Norse in Greenland and Iceland, and the low mounds resembled Norse ruins there." ~ pg. 24

While this book covers a wide range of topics one of the most interesting notes is about Cinderella's slippers that were made of "vair" (fur) not "verre" (glass). This book is easy to read in one sitting and I think you will find it to be quite entertaining.

~The Rebecca Review

I have to admit that Alice B. Kehoe is my mom. Be that as it may, her new book, "The Kensington Runestone," is one of the most thought-provoking books I've read in years. I also liked that the book is short - 80 pages - and readable in one evening.

Ask anyone the question, "Who discovered America?" and you'll be told that Columbus discovered America, in 1492. Then the English settled Jamestown in 1607, followed by the Pilgrims in Massachusetts in 1620. Right? Don't bet on it.

In 1898 a Minnesota farmer found a rock carved with Norse runes. Translated, it said that a party of 30 Swedes and Norwegians were on a trading journey. Ten men were murdered near the spot, apparently by hostile natives. Ten more of their party were waiting with their ships fourteen days away, on the sea. The inscription ended with "Hail Mary, deliver us from evil" and the year: 1362.

The stone was dismissed as a hoax for several reasons. First, no other archeological evidence existed showing that Norse had explored west of Greenland. Second, scholars said that the runes had grammatical errors, words not seen on other runes, and letters not seen on other runes or carved differently. Third, the farmer was Norwegian, suggesting that he'd faked the stone to promote Norwegians.

Geologists, however, found the weathering in the engraving to be hundreds of years old. And the geologists who interviewed the farmer agreed that he was an honest, intelligent, and respectable man. The farmer never sought money or publicity for his discovery.

The Kensington Runestone passed into obscurity, for nearly 100 years. Kehoe, professor emeritus of anthropology at Marquette University and the author of textbooks on North American Indians and four-field anthropology, has brought together recent research that sheds new light on the Kensington Runestone. One of her goals was to show that using all four fields of anthropology - linguistics, archaeology, physical anthropology, and cultural anthropology - can solve problems that examining only a single field can't.

Linguists now say that the "grammatical errors" in the Kensington Runestone are a dialect from a certain area of Sweden. The unknown runes and words have been found in previously unknown Old Swedish inscriptions.

In the 1960s, archeologists excavated a Norse village in Newfoundland, dated to around A.D. 1000. Kehoe describes the dedicated work over twenty years leading to this discovery. She also notes that archeologists excavate villages where people lived for generations. A party of 30 or 40 men traveling through a region would likely leave little or no evidence obvious hundreds of years later.

Kehoe also describes 14th-century Scandinavian politics. Let's see, the Black Death killed half the population, Norway and Sweden merged, along with a couple of Danish provinces, then Germans took over, a three-year-old boy became king, who later married a ten-year-old girl...OK, I can't keep it all straight. But a lot happened. The Norse lost their lucrative Russian fur trading routes. Kehoe suggests that the Norse may have remembered trading furs with the natives of "Vinland" (North America), and sent a party to explore reopening this area. She shows on a map that Minnesota is as far west of Norway as the Norse traded in Russia to the east. To men familiar with Russian rivers and forests, traveling in northeastern North America wouldn't have been difficult.

She then shows that Kensington, Minnesota, which is a poor area to farm, was an abundant area for hunter-gatherers. The site is a junction between three ecosystems, enabling inhabitants to enjoy a wide variety of food sources year round. More importantly for fur traders, a wide variety of fur-bearing animals are found nearby.

Kensington is also fourteen days journey from not one but two "seas": Duluth, on Lake Superior (easily reached from Newfoundland via the St. Lawrence River), and Hudson's Bay, via Winnipeg and Canadian rivers.

Kehoe then considers what was going on in North America in the 14th century. Cahokia (now St. Louis), then one of the largest cities in the world, collapsed, changing the political geography of the Midwest. And lots of other stuff happened, too much to list here.

All together, "The Kensington Runestone" convinced me that a party of Swedes and Norwegians traveled through Minnesota in 1362. The book also showed how narrow-minded "experts" can be when an anomaly challenges their conventional wisdom. Reading "The Kensington Runestone" is a thought-provoking way to spend an evening.

As an amateur historian who has been researching the Kensington Runestone (or KRS), a runic inscription that is an account of a Norse exploration to Minnesota 130 years before Columbus, I have been looking forward to reading Alice Kehoe's new book, The Kensington Runestone: Approaching a Research Question Holistically (Waveland Press). Kehoe is an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and it is from this field of science that she approaches the question of the Kensington Runestone.
As an anthropologist, Kehoe notes that she is "accustomed to taking a holistic view, encompassing data from archaeology, natural sciences, history and human behavior" (p1). Later she contineues in a similar vein: "[fellow anthropologist Guy] Gibbon and I, looking on as anthropologists familiar with the philosophy of science... see, on one hand, the intertia of mainstream science - the Runestone is a hoax 'everybody knows that' - and on the other hand, anomalies that press upon the accepted position. The range of data and interpetations, from geophysics to world history, calls for the anthropological perspective, weaving together hard science and humanities." (p15).

This book is liable to be a dissapointment for those seeking in depth analysis of specific contentious points regarding the Stone. Rather than focusing intently on the smallest detail, Kehoe steps back, looking at the case from a broader perspective. It is from this persepective that Kehoe finds the weight of evidence supports the claim that the Kensington Runestone is authentic.

Much of the book is spent in summary of the history and agruments regarding the Runestone. In this endeavor, Kehoe is both factual and objective. What she adds to the discussion is an examination of the reasoning behind the arguments. For instance, Kehoe notes that the pro-authenticty philologist Robert Hall was a student of the linguist Leonard Bloomfield, whose work concentrated on the phonetic aspects of the science. Hall used this backround to present the KRS as a document whose abberitions could be explained as a phonetic rendering of the dialect used by the expedition, as opposed to the more formal renderings of the literary record.

Kehoe also examines the historical record, and suggests that during the mid-14th century, Sweden might be looking to establish fur trading on the North American continent, beyond the control of the Hanse. The KRS inscription may have been the result of a failed mission to establish a base for such trade.

Kehoe also believes that the reason it is difficult for so many to accept the KRS as an authentic artifact, is that such acceptance requires a major paradigm shift. "Dropping the pardigm of a pristine New World outside of history until Columbus sailed to the world's edge jolts the structure of beliefs taught to Americans." (p86).
The Ingstad's discovery of the Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows has begun such a shift, and there is now an acceptance of early Norse in the Canadian arctic. However, the KRS goes far beyond that acceptable level in regards to the paradigm of non-contact between Europeans and North America.

Kehoe finds the Kensington Runestone an interesting study of science vs popular myth, and suggests that it presents a hypothesis which could produce interesting new research and discoveries. This well written and well researched book provides insight into the thought processes behind the opinions. It is highly reccomended for anyone with an intrest in the Runestone, but I would also reccomd it for those with an intrest in the scientific process and the conflict that arises when pardigms are assaulted.

This is a deeply persuasive and thought-provoking account of recent issues surrounding the controversial Kensington Runestone, including some fascinating new contributions from the world of linguistics and biology. This is no work of hokum, but a well argued document likely to lead to much classroom discussion over scientific method. Unexpectedly excellent!

The Kensington Runestone's tale is fantastic: a farmer unearths this headstone-sized artifact in a Minnesota farm field in 1898, and discovers mysterious runes carved into it with the date A.D. 1362, implying that Norse travelers journeyed an unbelievable distance inland from Newfoundland & planted the stone, 130 years before Columbus made landfall in the West Indies. Prior to this book, much of the writing on the Kensington Runestone has been dated, unscientific, and has treated the stone variously as a hoax, UFO-ish mystery, or object for advocacy. But Ms. Kehoe's 87 well-written pages treat the Kensington Runestone as a case study in critical thinking. An anthropologist noted for her North American Indian ethnographies, Ms. Kehoe presents the runestone's facts in the context of pre-Columbian European-North American history and trade economics. Once you read her broad, clear-eyed view -- incorporating archeology, anthropology, geology, Indian history, and economics -- the stone's authenticity suddenly becomes plausible, even likely, even to scientific skeptics like myself. Its authenticity rests not only on a recent geological examination of the stone and on newer learnings about early Swedish runes, but on the surprising economics and geographic scope of fur trading in the mid-14th century. If you want an intelligent eye-opener on the Kensington Runestone's story, I highly recommend this little book. And a good companion is the exhaustive scientific analysis of the stone and its runes, "The Kensington Rune Stone: Compelling New Evidence" (2005) available from its publisher.

No te dejes maltratar por miedo, cuate. AGARRA LA PIEDRA DEL VALOR EN ESTE LIBRO !

y nos metieron a una escuela...
Luego luego, hubo un niño más grande que me empezó a molestar y luego a pegar.
Mi mamá me preguntaba que por qué trapia moretones, y a mi me daba verguenza y no le decpía la verdad.
Pero como parece que las mamás se enteran de todo ( porque tuvo que ser ella.¿Quién mas ?) una tarde, luego de regresar de la escuela ( y ya no quería ir..palabrita ) me encontré este libro en mi almohada...
Los dibujos para iluminar estaban de pelos..¿Pero sabes que estaba más padre? TIENE RAYITAS ADENTRO PARA QUE TU TE PONGAS COMO EL MERO MERO DEL CUENTO... Y PONGAS AL MALO, AL QUE TE FRIEGA Y TE PEGA...
POs un día me armé de esta piedra del valor, y me le enfrenté al que me pegaba... Cuando me dio el primer moquete, me paré furioso y le pegué muchas veces hasta que lo hice chillar y prometer que ya no se iba a meter conmigo solo porque soy más chico!
A mi me chocan los pleitos:Lo perdoné y desde entonces ¡SOMOS LOS MEJORES AMIGOS !
No te dejes maltratar por miedo, cuate. AGARRA LA PIEDRA DEL VALOR EN ESTE LIBRO !

y hasta de High School..
Todos los chicos necesitan apoyo para protegerse de los mayorcitos abusivos...
Y ESE ES EL PROPÓSITO DE ESTE LIBRO!

Elementary School were THE WORST OF MY WHOLE LIFE!!1
Harrasas and beaten by a bigger BULLY !
I read this book, owned by my nephew... And felt amazed!
I could have avoided hell as a kid if I had had it...

Please, don't let your child suffer silently at school... I never told my parents! It's so EMBARRASING !
Just buy this book for him...
Do it, please

PARA NIÑOS ?
Este le enseña a las criaturas a enfrentarse ( no a puñetazos ) con el que abusa de su fuerza o de su posiciòn.

¡MARAVILLOSO !

Nosotros, los padres, tambièn aprendemos algunas lecciones con La Piedra del Valor

Pick this up if you are always at Menards, Home depot, or you just like to play with rocks, on a friday night. It did occur to me after I read this, that my friends may think that I am wierd, because I read a book about rocks and how to place rocks, all on a...you guessed it...FRIDAY NIGHT! LOL! I am not cool!

I love the full color pictures - it gave me all sorts of ideas. I just wished there were a few more pages on "How to do it" I'd recommend this book though for the price - it was awesome.

Beautiful book, well put together, LOTS of pictures. I especially liked the way the author covered different styles of stonework. I'm not a fan of very formal design and he included examples of more informal, earthy landscaping.

What beautiful and innovative designs this book has. My husband and I wanted to landscape much of our property with stone. We actually did more than planned because we were so impressed by much of the ideas in this book. A concern of ours was the price. Much of the simpler projects you find you can do yourself (such as the small retaining wall around the garden), which saved on additional labor costs. We were guided which stones to use, and stones that could be found around the property. For the work that was a bit more extensive we called in a professional and showed him from the book what we wanted. He was very much impressed with this book himself.

From single stone placements to walkways, patios and garden rooms, this book will provide you with endless ideas and inspiration. The instructions are thorough yet easy to follow. A must for a resplendent garden!

I am originally from Petoskey and my mother bought this book for my daughter (along with some Petoskey Stones) for her to learn a little about the history of the area and state stone. This is a great book for anyone, especially any Michigander! The illustrations are beautiful!

This book is informative whether for a child or an adult. Included this in a gift basket for an adult along with other products from the Petosky, MI area. Well received.

THIS BOOK WAS A SIMPLE FAMILY HISTORY STORY FROM THE TRUE STORY OF HOW THE PETOSKEY STONE CAME TO BE SO POPULAR IN THE STATE OF MICHIGAN . IT IS A LEGENDARY STORY WITH SOME INDIAN HISTORY TO IT ABOUT CHEIF PETOSKEY WHEN HE WAS YOUNG. GREAT FOR PEOPLE OF ALL AGES. ESPECIALLY FOR FAMILY MEMBERS NAMED PETOSKEY LIKE MYSELF TO LEARN A LITTLE SIMPLE HISTORY AND SOME HERITAGE INFORMATION. A GREAT BOOK FOR CHILDREN AS WELL AS ADULTS. CAN'T WAIT TO GET EDITION 2.

I just picked up my shiny new plastic-covered copy of The Legend of the Petoskey Stone from the library today (sorry Sleeping Bear Press & Amazon--no $$$ right now). I have to say that this is the first truly great entry in the "Legend of" Series. It is also my favorite of the stories.

Story is big here. Petoseygay's story is told with haunting beauty and a lyrical simplicity. And, unlike the Legend of Sleeping Bear (my previous favorite in the series), it will not cause clinical depression.

I also feel that Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen ($10 to the first person who can say this man's name five times fast) has done his best work of the series in this book. He not only sets up a distinct visual world for the story, he makes each illustration wonderful and unique. My favorite is the picture of "where bears walked beside the flowing waters."

My son exclaimed "I see the bear."

The Legend of the Petoskey Stone is the strongest entry yet in a very strong series. The great storytelling, beautiful images, and uplifting message are well worth the time spent reading. This reviewer hopes that Mrs. Wargin has many more "Legends of" left in her.

I give The Legend of the Petoskey Stone my highest recommendation.

In northern Michigan a town AND a rock are named for the Ottawa Indian chief, Petosegay. He was born in the late 1800s to a native princess & a French fur trader. His parents nurtured him in the wilderness & saw him thrive into manhood. Kathy-jo Wargin's story is one children will love to hear, and later read aloud because the descriptions of harmonious living in the wild, natural surroundings are so appealing. Her series of books about area folklore is a gift to readers everywhere.

"Nick" van Frankenbuyzen's paintings are strong and depict beautifully the life of the one named for "the rays of the rising sun." The stones around which the legend grew are truly unique and were formed from petrified coral millions of years ago . We are fortunate to have an author celebrating these legends - - a different kind of fantasy for children today. She also offers a bonus by adding a page of instructions for polishing the rocks you are lucky enough to find!

Reviewer mcHAIKU suggests that parents hunt for vacation destinations that allow their kids glimpses of history & their forebearers' courage, especially if they can hold in their hands lovely patterned Petoskey stones.

Sound familiar? Does what goes around -- come around
again? Are the malls the 21st century version of
the Roman baths? Are the Nascar racetracks the 21st
century version of the chariot races? Are our
football stadiums the 21st century version of the
Colosseum? This book does not present its themes
in these terms, but one cannot help but think about
these things as one reads it -- in tandem with reading
the Roman writers who satirized or caught in verse the
goings-on in their own times: Catullus, Martial,
Petronius, Juvenal.
Besides the "Introduction" by David S. Porter, there
are 3 large Parts to the division of the book. Part
I is titled: "Social Structures and Demography". Within
this section are informative and highly interesting essays
on "The Roman Family," "Elite Male Identity in the Roman
Empire," and "Roman Demography." Part II is titled:
"Religion." There is only one essay in this Part --
"Roman Religion: Ideas and Action." Part III is titled:
"Bread and Circuses" [the famous phrase used to describe
how the rulers and the "elite" kept the masses under their
control -- by giving them doles of food or by providing
them with mass entertainments to keep their minds off
the fact of their gruelling lives and that they did
not lead the "good life" that the "elites" were leading --
sound familiar?]. In this Part are the essays: "Feeding
the City: The Organization, Operation,and Scale of the
Supply System for Rome," "Amusing the Masses: Buildings
for Entertainment and Leisure in the Roman World," and
"Entertainers in the Roman World." Since our modern
era also seems to be so much into shallow entertainment
and pleasures, perhaps the titles of the subsections of
this last chapter will be intriguing: Actors and Athletes.
Chariot Racing.[the factions and their fans sound like
ancient Roman predecessors to the WWF and Nascar
fanatics...] Gladiators, Beast Hunts, and Executions.
[well, we haven't "progressed" in our tastes and
"sophistication" that far yet...but, who knows? ...]
All in all, this is a very interesting, insightful,
intriguing -- as well as provoking book. The
section that interested me the most was the one
on the Roman emphasis and hang-up on male identity -
what was considered manly, and what was not. It isn't,
as if that is one of the main obsessions in our own
times in the U.S. of A. , of course. And what are
all the "manly" types contributing to the betterment,
stability, and nobility of our present society and culture?
It gives one pause, for reflection.

First off, this book is a collection of seven very long essays by different experts. The essays deal with the minutest details of Roman life, ranging from religious practice to construction to gladiatorial combat and criminal execution. Not all essays are created equal, and there are two in here that I found rather dry, but perhaps that is because I couldn't care less about the specifics of amphitheater construction. The others were phenomenal, and even the "boring" ones contain excellent and useful information.

I read L,D,&E (as I have begun to call it) for an undergraduate class in Roman History and had to write a critical review-type paper about it. I have to say I actually enjoyed the assignment. The book was, overall, excellent. It features real-life "snapshots" of different aspects of Roman life, and unlike many books about Ancient Rome, it doesn't focus solely on the upper classes. It also doesn't spend any time discussing politics or history or "great men" of the times, so if you're looking for that, go elsewhere. This book is NOT an introduction to imperial Rome -- you'll need to have one of those under your belt already -- but it IS the most wonderful, complete, and readable supplementary material available. It really fills in the gaps and answers questions you didn't know you had, giving you a vastly more complete picture of Rome under the Emperors.

This book discusses aspects of Roman life that are frequently difficult to research... such as the kinds of toys Roman children enjoyed or the types of birth control that were popular. It covers such subjects as "feeding the city" and "entertaining the populace" as well as religion and other expected items. The work comprises a sweeping approach to "real life stuff" in a framework that is scholarly (with plenty of documentation) but highly entertaining. It's the kind of book I've been wanting to own for years.

Nothing further to add, but wanted to point out that this work is not as slanted politically correct as Encolp in his review above make it seem. The book is much more objective, all the pseudo-intellectual babbling is purely the reviewer's preferred conlcusions using the data in the book as a springboard. I just can't help wonder why he is so disturbed by so-called "manly types" (or what he means by that).

This is an interesting, well-written book that would be a good edition to the library of any student of Roman history as well as being a good resource for writers of historical fiction.

My nine year old daughter loves books about Tinkerbell and all her friends. She absolutely devours them as soon as I get them. What a boost for her imagination!

We own all of this series! Started reading them when my daughter was 4 (she just turned 5 now), and they are age appropriate. Not too scary and always a happy ending. One book only takes us about 4-5 nights worth of reading together. The longer ones are good too "Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg" and "Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand", but they are a little bit scarrier than the short books (more appropriate for ages 5-7 I would think).

Opinion: I liked this book more than The Trouble with Tink, but not as much as I liked Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg and Vidia and the Fairy Crown though. Lily is much better than I imagined her to be and so is her story. Lily's friend Iris is funny and sensitive, making the story have a deeper meaning than just what you're expecting. This made the sory mean more to me.

Summery: Lily is on a walk, she told her "friend" Iris she was looking for possum ferns just to get away from her. Although she does see a possum fern, she also finds a strange seed. Being a garden talent fairy, Lily can't help but plant it. Since Iris dosn't have a garden, Lily decides to let Iris help her out. But, although Lily and Iris would be heart broken to uproot the plant, they might not be able to help it. Although all the garden talent fairies are trying to defend her, Queen Clarion and the other fairies want it uprooted now! But, the garden talant fairies and Tinker Bell can't outnumber the rest of the fairies, so they might lose, especially if Vidia can help it. Vidia hates this "vile" plant. But is it really what they thought it was? This will ever puzzle them by the mysterious plants likeing and life cycle.

Reporter's Opinion: I thought that this was one of those books that you can't put down no matter what! I really couldn't put it down, so I read it all in one night! I was a really, really great book!

Summary: Lily is one of the best Garden-talent fairies in all of Pixie Hollow. When she was walking in the forest, she found a seed that she never heard of. She decided to plant it in her garden. The next day after she planted it, all of Pixie Hollow smelled bad because of it. The next day, it let off pink pollen that made everyone and everything in Pixie Hollow pink and sneeze. The fairies and sparrow men were about to cut it down, but Lily said to let it live one more day. That evening, it grew fruit. She tried it, and it was delicious. Lily told the fairies and sparrow men to try it, and they all loved it! After you pi a fruit, another one comes in it's place. Lily asked her Garden-talent fairy friend, Iris what kind of tree it was. Iris looked in her book and it was an Ever Tree. All of them were destroyed, but now they know that there is one left. Everyone comes to get fruit from it. It was a good plant after all!

I have read The trouble with Tink, the Berry battle and I think this one is my favorite of the 3!! all are great books though.
They have really done the Fairy series right with THESE books.
I loved the magic Fairy dust created, BUT they stepped up and just made it better! The characters are people you really connect with, and fall in love with. YOu gain a better understanding of the talents. They make sense and seem to have more of a purpose. The fairy world just got brighter.
If you were not a fan of Levine's fairy dust, I do reccomend giving these books a try. It is an improvement!
The illustrations are great too! with the Help of Disney artists, the pictures are a pure delight!