Massachusetts Books

We are new kayakers, in our fifties, and have our own kayaks. We read this book cover to cover before setting out on our first expedition. The book not only details each trip with clear maps, but also tells you when to launch according to the tides, what to look for in weather reports, parking and prices, and clear maps. Since we are new, this information made us feel prepared and safe. The authors' natural history and beautifully illustrated birds and marine life helped us identify what we were seeing. Our first trip to Barnstable Harbor was a delight! We knew when and where to put in and how long a trip it would be. We tasted Sea Pickle, walked on the dunes and were prepared to watch out for motor boats. We identified egrets and saw a great blue heron. This is a great guide, not only for paddling, but as a nature guide as well. We keep it in our waterproof bag with the binoculars they recommend having on board. It also has a wonderful resource appendix for shopping or getting more information. This book is worth the low cost investment.

Passing Time's time pasting took only one night! In that time W. D. Ehrhart flashed me back to '70, 68, 69, 71, and the nitexmasarclights of '72, Ho ho ho chi minhnity returns with both laughter and extreme anger! Ah! The ying and yang of it to me who calls Bill and old old dear friend whom I had never availed myself to his insight and wit like I did last night with Passing Time! Five stars *****, but never too soon to be a new motion picture. Of an old e-6 hippy from Perkasie, Pa, who graduated from Swarthmore College and worked at sea like all "Old Salt" gyrenes who went a few places, saw a few things and still live to tell about it in all speldid details from the heart. Perspicatious (if that can be now a new adjective!) jvb

The author has done something quit different in regards to a social history book.He gives a smooth chronological history of Deerfield through stories,but adds in the five why's of why did people pass down,save and write about their history.Deerfield's history was not really that exciting except for a few brief battles during ,King Philips War and Queen Annes War,but that didn't stop the residents from telling and re-telling their stories.I've always been a fan of Deerfield, both visiting and reading about the tales,this book just makes the place a little more special. Again, well worth the price of admission.

I bought this to use in my 6th grade reading classroom. It is excellent to use to teach reading skills such as main idea, author's purpose, or summarizing. I put it in a center and students have 10 minutes to use the book for an assignment. Since it is at a lower reading level, students have success in building skills to use in higher level texts.

This book is a good addition to the grade 1-6 classroom library.

When I was a child what we learned about Paul Revere came from a few lines in our American history books and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem about his famous midnight ride. There is also the painting by Grant Wood that made an impression on me, but I only stumbled across that in one of my father's art books, which I would think is atypical for somebody in elementary school. However, all of those sources put together are not as engaging, and probably not as informative, as this story of "Paul Revere's Ride" written by Shana Corey and illustrated by Chris O'Leary.

Paul Revere did more than ride to warn the minutemen that the British were coming, and Corey and O'Leary work in lots of details that will appeal to young readers. Revere was a silversmith and while he made buckles, bowls, teapots, and trays it is the chain he made for someone's pet squirrel that serves as the first illustration in the book. From that engaging start young readers learn that Revere was also a dentist who made false teeth out of hippo tusks. After that we learn that at night Revere went out to meetings of the Sons of Liberty and find out about the Boston Tea Party and the events that led to the British marching on Concord and Lexington to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock, two key colonial leaders.

The rest of the book tells the story of Revere's midnight ride, adding details that will particularly appeal to young children, and then covering what happened to Revere afterwards, ending with how Longfellow's poem, written in 1860, finally made him famous. The only fault on content that I find in the book is that while it mentions the name of Robert Newman, the man who would hang the one or two lanterns in the steeple of Christ Church (known today as Old North Church), it does not mention William Dawes, another Son of Liberty rider who actually left Boston by the southern route across Boston Neck to warn Adams and Hancock a half hour before Dr. Joseph Warren asked Revere to make his journey. If you ever do the Freedom Trail in Boston (highly recommended), you can visit the graves of Revere at the Old Granary burying ground (when Adams, Hancock and the victims of the Boston Massacre are also buried) and Dawes at the cemetery at King's Chapel.

This is a Step 3 book in the Step into Reading series, which is the Reading on Your Own level, appropriate to Grades 1-3 (these grade levels are only guides since children learning to read can progress through these steps at their own speed regardless of grade). If you child is comfortable tackling new words and likes to read on their own then they are ready for Step 3, which provides engaging characters, easy-to-follow plots, and popular topics, as "Paul Revere's Ride" amply proves. In helping children take their first steps towards independent reading there are also Step into Reading Sticker Books, Step into Reading Math Readers, Step into Reading Writer-In Readers, Step into Reading Phonic Readers, and Step into Reading Phonics First Steps. So there is a complete literacy program available.

This series is excellent for teaching my ESOL students to read English while allowing them to continue to learn American History with their peers. Paul Revere's Ride is a great example of the series. It is a comprehensive graphic novel which tells a good story and includes some details which were unknown to me. I highly recommend this series.

Prior to reading this book, I'd not known much about the Northern Irish problem--just that there was one. Shillue has opened my eyes to the culture and the deep-seated and intractable issues at play here. She perfectly captures the warmth, natural intelligence and enormous humor of these people. One comes to know and appreciate people on both sides of the divide and realize how difficult this situation will be to reconcile. A wonderful place to begin learning more about this culture and issue.

It's 1846 and you find yourself in Concord, Massachusetts. Who's there? And what's it like to live there? Those questions and more are answered by Paul Brooks in this fine book. He uses a humanities approach to uncover the history of culture, politics, education, literacy, and women's lives in this one particular area of New England. And you won't run into just the usual familiar families -- the Emersons, Hawthornes, Thoreaus, and Alcotts -- but will learn of other folks of Concord as well: farmer George Minott, lawyer Samuel Hoar, doctor Josiah Bartlett, and constable Sam Staples, to name a few. One chapter is devoted entirely to the operation of Brook Farm, a utopian community founded by Dr. George Ripley that was beginning to struggle by the year in question. Photos of key people and period illustrations augment the very readable text. If you like pre-Civil War American history or are enamored with any of the authors mentioned above, pick this title up at the nearest used bookstore. You won't be disappointed.

This is a book whose time has come! Never before has such an interesting set of essays on American print culture been collected in one place. It was a stroke of genius to supplement it with a CD-ROM. In this way the book in itself is a testament to the amazing journeys American print culture has taken!

The editors have done a terrific job of ensuring readability and compatibility throughout the essays included here. At [money], it's not exactly a steal, but still worth every penny. Destined to become the benchmark against which all other books on the topic are measured.

Every vegetarian society should have one of these in theirlibrary. If you thought vegetarianism started with PeterSinger or even Henry Salt, think again. The ancient Greeks have already said it all: the health argument, the ethics argument, the religious argument, they're all there. If you're a vegetarian and you really want to know why, this is where you start, not Animal Liberation or Animal Rights. Instead, take Dombrowski's advice and look up Porphyry's On Abstinence, which you can also order from Amazon Books!