Disney Books

I have a plan to travel Orlando this winter, and decided to buy a book about Orlando.

There were so many books about Orlando. Some gave very detailed information, but they were very thick and heavy.

The most important information you need for Orlando is which ride to visit, which parades to see, when to visit where, how to order all the attractions.

This book gives all these information about Orlando and light enough to carry during the trip.

The 2005 edition adds another 50 pages of info over the previous edition. Hotels, restaurants and admission prices can change rapidly in the area, so it's worthwhile to have the most recent guidebook.
I live in the area and count on the Fodor's to give the detail essential to a successful excursion with our visitors. There is soooo much to see at Disney and around the area that you will miss a lot if you don't have a good guidebook like this. I like the "Strategies" highlights that give the best times to visit certain attractions and the "Need a Break" inserts that clue you into quick, but satisfying snack places.
They also mark in the margin "Fodor's Choice" to help you find some of the best activities.

We were so excited about the book about Disney Concert Hall, and its accompanying CD, that we sent copies to several of our organist friends. They were thrilled with it!

It's only the Gehry Organ, but I like it. It is in the Walt Disney Concert Hall, in Los Angeles.

Yes, it is called, "a forest of pipes." Or a "log jam of pipes." Or "french fries." Or "a startling array of cockeyed organ pipes." And one detractor said that "it will set back organ building a hundred years."

In this book, we see photos of early study models, with metal pipes, then with a façade of straight but angled wooden pipes, and then with the trumpets at the top, and finally with the curved and angled wooden pipes and the trumpets below. The longer pipes are indeed wooden (and used as part of the façade), with pipes behind the façade being made of alloys of tin and lead.

We often measure the size of an organ by the number of pipes, or by the number of sets of pipes that produce a given timbre, called "ranks." These ranks are controlled by the organist using "stop controls" (generally tabs or knobs) at the keyboard.

Originally, the proposed cost was one million dollars. But Manuel Rosales pointed out that this would only be enough for a small organ, of about 25 ranks. Finally, a budget of 3 million dollars was agreed on. It took $999,509 just for the materials, shipping, and insurance. Anyway, the budget was used, and the result was a 4-manual organ with 72 stops, 109 ranks, and 6125 pipes, the longest being 32-feet (which has a frequency of 16 Hertz).

How does this compare with other pipe organs? I'll mention twelve others to compare it with to give you an idea. The organ I remember best is the one in MIT's Kresge auditorium, where I heard E. Power Biggs practice. That has 3 manuals and 41 stops.

What about other concert hall organs? The Dallas symphony orchestra has a 4-manual organ with 65 stops, 84 ranks and 4535 pipes. It was built a little before the Gehry organ. The Cooper Organ in Philadelphia's Kimmel Center is 4-manual, with 111 stops, 125 ranks, and 6938 pipes. It was built a little after the Gehry organ. The organ in Sydney's Opera House has 5 manuals with 131 stops, 205 ranks, and 10,154 pipes. The Royal Albert Hall organ in London has 4 manuals, 147 stops, 177 ranks, and 9997 pipes.

Other pipe organs are even bigger. The Los Angeles First Congregational Church organ has 5 manuals, 265 stops, 346 ranks and about 22,000 pipes. In Szeged, Hugary, the Fogalmi Templom organ is 5-manual with 171 stops and 9040 pipes. Washington DC's National Cathedral has a 4-manual organ with 155 stops, 186 ranks and 10,650 pipes. The Sydney Town Hall has a 5-manual organ with 126 stops, 160 ranks, and 8756 pipes and has a longest pipe of 64-feet. The Mormon Tabernacle organ, in Salt Lake City, has 5 manuals, 170 stops, 206 ranks and 11,623 pipes.

The very biggest organs are the 6-manual Wanamaker Grand Court Organ in Philadelphia (386 stops 461 ranks and 28,482 pipes) and the 7-manual Convention Hall Organ in Atlantic City (852 stops, 452 ranks, and 33,112 pipes, and with a 64-foot longest pipe).

In this book, we see comments from several of the people involved in producing this organ and first using it. Organist Cherry Rhodes calls it "an experience-and-a-half!" As she says, when you play on the upper console, the sound is "quite immediate." But when you play on the smaller remote console, on stage, there's a delay due to the distance that one has to take into account.

Anyway, she found the organ easy to use. In particular, she liked the sequencer button, that allows the organist to progress through the succession of registrations from the beginning to the end of the piece.

This book, by Jennifer Zobelein, is a fine tribute to a superb musical instrument.

"The Fox and the Hound" is a book based on the "Disney" cartoon "The Fox and the Hound." It's about a fox and a hound who become the best of friends, but there owners won't allow it. The age level for this book is 7-9 years of age. The lesson this book teaches is, friends help friends no matter what. Or, best friends are forever. I think this is a very cute book for children to read.

This is the cutest book.. I loved to read this when i was little! It is true too.. It is about a Fox and Hound who become best friends but their owners won't allow it.. It's sad because at the end they have to leave eachother, but they still are bestfriends! =)

"Freaked Out" is an awesome Lizzie McGuire book. It has two parts, like all the other ones, and it's great for reading around Halloween. Or even not around Halloween. Anyways, here's what I think of each part.

PART ONE----It starts out an ordinary morning until Lizzie finds out that there are lots of stains on her clothes--which should of been washed in last week's laundry. She knows of course it could mean one thing---Matt. Lizzie and Matt get into a huge fight, and before they know it--they've switched bodies! As if that isn't bad enough, there's school. School isn't bad, but being your sibling and going to THEIR school---well, that's bad. What can they do before Matt ruins Lizzie's life?

PART TWO----It's Fright Night and Lizzie's school and her parents say that Matt has to come with her. Miranda brought these skeletons from a holiday in Mexico called Day of the Dead. Kate was really mean to them and Miranda said that if she was mean to them than bad things would happen. Lizzie's turned into a zombie, Gordo turned into a burger buddy, and Matt turned into dust. What can Miranda and Kate do?

Overall, this is a GREAT book, especially for Halloween. Buy it if you love Lizzie McGuire!

This book is really really cool it's written in too parts

Part 1: Lizzie and Matt swicth bodys after shouting "I'll stay out of your life" at each other and don't know how to swicth back,when they go to school and Matt makes a show of Lizzie but chats up Ethan and gets at Kate. At Lizzie's new school Matt gets punished 4 somthing he didn't do so with the help of Melina and Lanny (Matt's friends) she tracks down the culprit.

Part 2: It's fright night at Lizzie school and Miranda brings skeltons from Mexico and tells everyone to treat them right, but Matt eats there tamale, Gordo says there stupit and Kate shoves them into a corner but then Matt dissapers, Gordo gets traps in a burger buddy and it smashes and they take over Lizzie 4 revange on Kate.

I think this is a brillent book. Buy it
Elizabeth (or Lizzie!)

This is the best "learning to read" series I've found. I believe it's better than the Clifford books (very disorganized imho) and the "Bob" books.

The books were engaging and interesting for my son. I found them to be extremely organized and the progression logical and effective. My son read this series, and "Level B" (Finding Nemo), and we saw DRAMATIC improvement in his reading in just a couple of months.

With many other books, my son would read the book once or twice and then recite the book more from memory than from 'reading.' After reading the Pixar books, he has an improved ability to 'sound out' words. This has led to an incredible improvement in his reading in general, not just his ability to read this book series. Interestingly, he spells better and his desire/ability to write has taken off.

This is only one person's experience, but I believe this is a great series. The other books are good, but I believe the Pixar books are definitively better.

My 4 year old loved these books. It gave him confidence to start reading the words he new with the characters he loves. Alot of first reading books have boring repetative subjects but here the stories are quite fun. We are looking forward to the finding nemo books in the same seris

This is a great companion book to "The Art of Hercules the Chaos of Creation" by Stephen Rebello and Jane Healy.

The lyrics of "Go the Distance" bring the illustrations beautifully to life.

It is in hardcover with a beautifully illustrated just jacket.

This is a great companion book to "The Art of Hercules the Chaos of Creation" by Stephen Rebello and Jane Healy.

The lyrics of "Go the Distance" bring the illustrations beautifully to life.

It is in hardcover with a beautifully illustrated just jacket.

Now, only if I could locate a copy!

I bought this book when I was in Disney Wolrd and being a budding Disney animater I thought it would be a great book. I was right. On my first attemped of drawinf goofy, it could have been drawn by a disney animater. A great book. It is a shame we can not give this book 6 stars because I would any day

This book is great to work with on a rainy day or when you are home sick. I actualy purchased this book when I was in Disneyland for my brothers Wedding (I paid full price, of course) and the book layed around the house for a while. Well one rainy Sunday afternoon I pulled out the book and a pad of papper and began to draw Goofy and Pluto it was great. I plan on purchasing more of these books (through amazon.com now of course), just this one book has created an exciting new hobbie for me I've always wanted to learn how to draw and I think Disney did a great job with these books.

I read this to my 14 month old daughter and she loved this book. The repetition of words really helped her remember the words. Every time I get to a certain page she knows what to say.

when i got this book i did read it with my 3 year old daughter once,then after that i let her read loud with me pointing at each words. within 4 days she's able to read the book by herself. the pictures are helpful and the repetitions of words makes her get familiarized with it. she loves it and wanted to read it evrynight to me.

When Ellie loses her class gum fridays, she decides to run for class president. This page turner will keep you coming back for more!

The Disney Girl Books are excellent books. I thought it was really nice. My favorite character is Ariel. She's the most like me. The Disney Girl books are about girls that are 8 and 9 years old who have something special. Each girl relates with a Disney princess. I think that's cool.

Love this book. My 3.5 y.o. daughter has really come to love the Disney Princesses. After the 50th time reading, seeing and hearing Cinderella in our house, these are a welcome addition to our collection. New stories with the characters that we know well. Some original stories, most adapted from "new adventure" stories of the various Disney princesses.

19 stories in all. Each story takes about 10 minutes to read to my daughter. Book is 1" thick and is rather heavy, at almost 3lbs. Silver leaf edges makes for a beautiful gift. Photos in the table of contents make it easy for children to pick their story.

Stories are written well and flow off the tongue easily. Also, I like that they're not overly cheesy (like this one: Beauties in Bloom (Pictureback(R))), moralistic stories. They're fluff, but they're decent fluff.

Includes 200 stickers in the back of the book (most rather tiny). If you don't want your child defacing their book by putting stickers in it, I'd suggest cutting them out with an X-acto knife before giving the book to a child. The only negative I have about this book is I think the publisher could have made the sticker pages a tearout.

Clean, easy-to read print. Good font and font size. Words and pictures don't overlap. Nice, colorful images represent the characters we've come to know and love. (Ever notice how some "Disney" stuff has character drawings that only vaguely look like the character from the movie? Well, these are done well.)

I recently purchased this at Ross Dress 4 Less for 5.99 but would pay the $10.87 that Amazon is charging today (on the day of posting).

This book is wonderfull...excellent quality and nice stories...My children love it as much as the rest of the collection!