Schools and Instruction Books

My wife paints aquarell pictures since many years and has made great headway. Her father was an artist and she inherited the talent and studied the rest from books.

By coincidence a friend lend her the above book and my wife is enthused about its contents. Its structure and the detailed guidance through the difficult world of waterpainting is unique. Also the preparedness of the author to share his knowledge with others.

Unfortunately the book is no longer availbale. We hope to still get ist from somewhere.

As a graduate student at Northwestern studying multicultural musics, this resource is really a valuable part of my continuing study. Every writer in this collection has some valid things to say about current issues in music education, and I find this book relevant to current practice in the field of music education, no matter what group you are teaching. Get it to develop some new perspective.

In A Secret Country expatriate journalist John Pilger tells the often untold, hard to swallow, stories which make up the Australian past and present. Some of the wide range of issues covered in this book include:

- The white invasion of Australia.
- Contemporary Indigenous Australian issues, including deaths in prison.
- The power plays between the wealthy in Australia and politicians and how politics in Australia is influenced for personal gain.
- The power plays between other nations (USA & UK) and Australia. Including how these nations have potentially changed politics in Australia for their gain.

My favourite is the section on how the CIA through their influences was able to oust a democratically elected government and replace it with a better behaved one. It should noted that this book often reads like other passionate, emotive rants. It is easy to find yourself being totally engrossed in the story and feeling like you need to take a step back, follow the books sources, or find other literature which supports the books premises.

For people looking for a darker alternate view on many still highly relevant issues in Australia I would thoroughly recommend this book.

A good reference for making lesson plans. Read it slowly, you might get bored with its pure print. If you are a new teacher, this booklet can guide you.

There were quite a few poems I did like. But overall, this collection was boring. I think she should stick to singing.

There are a few poems in this book which really touched me at the time that I read them. Others did not appeal to me at all. That's the great thing about poetry it either speaks to you or it does not. It is a very personal thing. I give Jewel credit for pouring her heart into her poems and then releasing them for the world to see, I do however prefer her music to her writing.

A Night without Armor by Jewel is an excellent and under-rated book of poems. Ok so she's not Shakespeare but most writers aren't. These poems have been highly-criticized in the past, and it's a shame that Jewel was unfairly mocked by critics and so-called fans. I got this collection of poems the first week it was released and I fell in love with the book instantly, the poems are sensual, seductive, sensitive, and incredibly funny as well. Some of my favorites are: The Bony Ribs of Adam, Sara Said, The Strip Parts 1 and 2, New Moon, Someone To Know Me, Christmas in Hawaii, Red Roof Inn, Boston, and You Are Not. So with that being said, get this great collection of poems by Jewel today.

Very well done! The expression drawn from deep within is very identifiable. I love it!

I found THAT book brilliant? Eye-opening? Of course I did, once upon a time. I am usually the exception to the rule. I like people who are usually reviled and I am drawn to other things that can be otherwise shunned or whatever else...maybe because I feel like I too am shunned or reviled.

Poetry can take on so many forms, so many incarnations. What one person finds incoherant, another might find powerful. There really are no limits to the styles of verse or subject matter, and not everybody has to understand or approve of it. While I might not get the same momentum that I found when I first began reading this book...the poems here are rather simple and sparse, with not much rhythm at all in the lines if any, I am still proud to have it in my library because it is a very personal body of work which is unique only to Jewel Kilcher's life experiences. She may not be up to par with the writing abilities of Emily Dickinson, Dylan Thomas or Sylvia Plath, but not many writers are.

Poetry, above any other form of writing, is an individual experience. Different people will have different reactions to it. I suggest you read it for yourself first before you decide to form an opinion of it.

This book is really good for beginners. It's a great help if you plan on doing fantasy manga or robot manga drawings. I got this book from the library and I enjoyed it. So now I am buying it. I would recomend buying this book. If you are under the age of 10, some pictures may be not be for there age group. But otherwise, a really great book!

I found the book very helpful for drawing anime style cartoon characters. I'm making an anime parody! This book is helpful on how to draw a manga character's head from many angles! The art isn't all very good the later volumes in the series have better art though. Overall it's okay!

I bought Manga Mania for my 12-year-old niece for Christmas as she's getting into Japanese cartoons (she's started watching Robotech!). I decided to thumb through this title before wrapping it up and was disturbed by chapter 7, "Drop-Dead-Gorgeous Manga Babes."

Hart's publishers state it's appropriate for 5th graders (10-year-olds) and up but I decided not to give my niece this book based on this chapter. The females are scantily clad and the descriptions that accompany them are explicit (e.g. "Her bathing suit is a great costume because it's skin tight and wet"). I know this is a part of the genre but I think the content is too suggestive for young teens.

I ultimately went for Hart's other title, "Anime Mania" which did a good job of describing illustration and character development without focusing so much on sexiness.

I am a huge fan of christopher hart;i have most of his books!The other books in the manga mania series are awesome!but this book was really bad the art was horrible except for maybe 5 pictures.I did not like the book and i regret buying it...So if you want a good manga book get another book by him like shoujo mania.Manga Mania Shoujo: How to Draw the Charming and Romantic Characters of Japanese Comics (Manga Mania)

MY SON LOVES THESE BOOKS. THEY GIVE HIM IDEAS HE NEVER THOUGHT OF. HE HAS TO TURN IN A SKETCH FROM HOME EVERY WEEK TO HIS ART TEACHER. THE BOOK MAKES IT EASIER FOR HIM TO FIND SOMETHING TO DRAW. WE ARE VERY PLEASED!!

Katy may not have purfect anime but she can teach you the basic's well. Dont go out and try to learn from the 'how to draw manga' series from Graphic-Sha if you an ABSOLUTE BEGINNER. That's for expert's. I know because when I wanted to try and draw manga I went to go get the Sha book's and I gave up because it was too hard. Untill I had one of my friend's tell me it was for intermediat and expert's.
The reason why most people give it a low-rating is because they are most likly above the stage of beginer's and basic's and this did. Anyway, after I got this book I got better after a day. But the reason why I give it a 4 out of 5 is because she use's blush to much.
Blush is for showing emotion like shyness or emberassment or even anger. She use's it willy-nilly like it's apart of their face or something! I mean come on , look at other manga and anime t.v show's and you can tell they dont blush in every sceen. She doesnt even tell you WHY you put blush. It's just there. But that's the only setback.
After you get good at this buy her other book 'How to draw more manga' and/or get the how to draw book's from sha. Only when you think you have mastered her book though.

If you're above the age of eight, this book is not for you. It shows you how to draw over-simplified figures that can hardly be called "manga." Well, it doesn't really "show you." Coope hardly gives you four steps for drawing a face, and it's difficult to imitate unless you know what you're doing. I guess I can't criticize too much, since this book is obviously aimed towards the younger crowd, like I said in my title.

Still, I don't recommend copying her style and attempting to create manga, because it actually doesn't look like the real thing, to be blunt. It's ridiculous. Each character has blush on top of their noses, and now that I brought up noses, the noses she draws are horribly small. Where is the collar bone on the neck? Even if you ignore the deformed facial features, how are you supposed to draw a side view of your manga characters Coope-style if the noses are so small?

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. Not really recommended.

~Lina-chan

This is not good for anyone above the age of twelve or thirteen. Explanations are incredibly simplistic, everything is colored with pencils, and it's quite a short book.

This might be good for someone who is just learning to draw, but does not go into depth of technique. Everything is very basic without much detail. Also, the author's finished drawings are not very good.

If your children are in any way serious about being good at drawing manga - or drawing, period - this is NOT the book to buy for them. I can only assume books like this come about because some clueless publisher has a 13 year old daughter who "draws anime", because this is not up to what any sane person would consider publishable "how-to-draw" book standards. Anatomy? Not important here, not even stylized anatomy. Proportions? What are these "pro-por-ti-ons" you speak of? This book sure doesn't know. It disturbs me that so many how-to-draw manga books are illustrated by people who, frankly, need one of these books themselves. Don't doom your children to hours of failure and frustration.

This book is absolutely awful. Look elsewhere.

This is THE single worst "How to Draw Manga" book I have ever seen. This girl is my age, and gets props for getting herself published, but, speaking as a fellow artist, I certainly hope that after the publication of this book she pursued further artistic training, because her own abilities as put forth in this book are sadly lacking. She demonstrates how to draw "anatomy" but fails to implement good Manga-style anatomy into her own demonstration images. While I can understand using the over-simplification of the style for young readers, it would be far better to start out learning the style from someone who offers a more accurate example of the art style.

I think this book would be better titled "How NOT to draw Manga". If you are an aspiring artist looking for solid tips on how to draw the manga style, don't bother with this book.

This is good for beginner and intermediate level artist. It will show you in a very simple way all the how-to's of pencilling. Good price also. It's part of three book set, Penciling, IOnking And Coloring comics - from DC comics

I just received this book and immediately went to chapter fourteen. After reading chapter fourteen first I have to say that it was worth the price of the book.

This is an outline book about drawing with a tilt towards comics art.

None of what is presented is outstanding from a student's perspective. this seems more like a showcase of the author, with a stiff 'cast in stone' tone.

Covers pretty standard stuff such as material, construction, anatomy, perspective, composition and so on.

Beats me why its called pencillig, unless you mean to say all art work begins with a pencil sketch. hardly any pencil sketch in the book.

There was once a fantastic correspondence course called the Famous Artists School course. Just a couple of pages on pencilling from that course is denser and more informative.

If we are looking at learning how to draw in general, and a bit focussed on comics art, 'How to draw comics the marvel way', is the book that sticks out in this category. Ofcourse there are some wonderful books to learn how to draw from .. Vilppu, Burne Hogarth, Kimon Nicholaides, Andrew Loomis to name a few.

In comics book production 'pencilling' has special meaning, it is not sketching or drawing. it is a process which takes you to just one teeny step away from what's called 'Inking'. It would contain all details such as action, form, light and shadow, minute details such as folds in clothes etc. It is in fact 'rendering' in pencil. not just thumbnailing, or story boarding, or conceptualizing, which one might be able to do with the help of this book.

Its so unusual to see such a technical subject being treated with indifference from an artist of repute and with an institution called DC's name in the title!.

This was a good book but it lacked the step by step workings of the title. It had alot of information but most it was what I was not looking for. This is a good book on the process of the comic book but not on how to go about doing it.

I was hoping that this book would be a more detailed guide to penciling. Most of the illustrations were inked, though. It also has a LOT of text, which makes it not so easy to sit and read while trying to actually draw. I would recommend the "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" over this book.

This another book with another great idea of how to instantly become familiar with where students are in the development of their writing. In theory, it seems like a great idea and resource if the teacher has the time to become very familiar with the process to identify the phases. I would like to be that teacher, but with so many other theories and requirements from the district it is would be time consuming to become to a practical phase theory expert, and be able to defend why I think a student is at that phase. As an early child teacher, I do appreciate that whatever phase a child may be in they are considered writers and tips are given to nudge them to the next phase. In part 2 of this book, Gentry takes a more political stance. One that assumes all of his readers are familiar with the reading debate in this country. The first half of the book is a good resource for primary teachers and the second half is good food for thought.

Richard Gentry's Breakthrough in Beggining Reading and Writing chronicles the writing process and has divided this process into phases 0-4. In hisbook, Gentry explains how to determine a young writer's phase, and appropriately support student writing growth from that point.Individualizing instruction based on strengths evident in writing samples.This book is written concisely and the phases described in an easy to understand manner.Also included are the author's views on phonics and invented spelling.

Gentry's book goes in-depth to define the Five-Phases of literacy development in children. He is detailed in his explanation of what a teacher should use as goals for each phase, the applications for each phase, and what to expect the child to produce in his/her reading and writing. While this book is detailed about the five phases, without a considerable background in early childhood literacy development, it may be difficult to translate the phases to actual student work. For this reason, as a teacher, I think it would be helpful to have more writing samples to support the Gentry's phases. In the latter half of his book, Gentry details his opinions about reading and writing development, connecting them to his Phase Theory. He also is explicit in his opinions on how children learn. Additionally, he addresses the crisis in today's schools with early literacy: "American education's lack of attention to closing the literacy gap before children enter kindergarten with universal preschool education is an egregious oversight." (p. 107) I would recommend this book for educators who have an established background in early literacy. It is an easy-read, and would benefit educators to help determine their students' phase of literacy development.

Breakthrough in Beginning Reading and Writing discusses Richard Gentry's Phase Theory which is the stages young readers and writers go through during their literacy development. This book is very informative but boring to read! However, I did appreciate his explanations and vignettes for each phase of a child's literacy development. Gentry also included a resourceful chart on page 69 that explains "precise definitions, identification of specific strategic operations for each level, and identification of expected guideposts for guided reading text levels" which is useful to match assessments and instruction for students in kindergarten and first grade (pg. 69). In chapter 7, Gentry provides examples of various children during each of his phases. This is particularly interesting if one is attempting to compare actual classroom work to his theory. Finally, this book concludes with Gentry's proposals for education in the 21st Century. He believes these three things to change in order to advance education in the 21st Century: 1. Overhaul teacher preparation programs to focus more on teaching reading and struggling readers; 2. The U.S. should provide universal preschool; and 3. The best teachers and administrators should be working in the worst schools.

In his book Breakthrough in Beginning Reading and Writing J. Richard Gentry presents his phase theory and the different phases that children progress through as they become accomplished writers. The first section of this book presents the different phases and the attributes that accompany each phase. For someone who is studying primary literacy for the first time or a teacher who is preparing to teach students who are primary learners this book could be extremely helpful. To understand what primary learners are able to do and where you should expect a student to advance in development this book is an excellent guide. One thing that I wish Gentry had done was to put a timeline of each phase. While he lets you know what the expectations of a student are for each phase and what a student in each phase should know he does not say how long a student should stay in each phase. While this may not seem like a big deal later in this book Gentry states the need for the earlies intervention possible. If I were only using his phase theory and this book to guide my instruction and interventions I would not know when I would need to intervene. A timeline for typical development would be helpful.

My daughter uses it and so far so good.
She just started to take lesson and 6 years old and able to read it herself.

I've been a Suzuki teacher for 12 years. I found that this CD is really out of tune and in many cases sloppy. It has one cool feature and that is it's Suzuki playing Suzuki and he was in his 80s (I think) when it was recorded. The two other CD's available, however, in some cases have lightning fast tempos. The new Midi CD-ROM seems to have solved that issue.

I have been taking a lesson from Suzuki method teacher, and this CD has been a great suppliment in my busy life. Just listening to this CD for 5-10 minutes a day ( during the commute or cooking time) has been helping me to understand what I need to work on. My daily practice time is avarage 15 minutes or so, but I have been making good enough progress because of this listening program.

Several people have commented on this recording sounding sharp. I suspect it has to do with different tuning standards. the standard tuning pitch here in the States is A 440, but in other parts of the world A 445 is often used. It would sound sharp by comparison, but is not necessarily "wrong".

It's really unfortunate that the performance on this CD does seem to sound too sharp as pointed out by a previous reviewer, who's a Suzuki teacher. Our violins (both mine and my daugther's) always sound quite a bit flatter than this CD after being tuned by my daughter's Suzuki teacher, who has perfect pitch. One time earlier on, I also tried tuning our violins w/ this CD as aid (thinking our violins had gone too flat), and the teacher thought they were oddly out of tune more than usual (or in an odd way I guess since they were sharp, not flat) -- well, she didn't really say so, but her facial expression and gesture said it all. :-) I never really brought this up w/ her before, but I think I will in our next lesson. And perhaps, I'll buy a different CD for this series as well -- maybe the David Nadien version as suggested elsewhere.