I Books

This book is darling and fun to read with a kindergartener/first grader. If you like the other "Fancy Nancy" books, then you'll be pleased with this one. You can't beat the price.

This book is a good self-reading story with a fun character my second grader can relate to.

My daughter loves Fancy Nancy books. I think the character is cute and perfect for little girls. This is a starter book, but I figured she could pass it on to younger friends and get them started on Fancy Nancy after she reads it.

My five year old daughter enjoys listening to Fancy Nancy and recites pages and those 'fancy words' throughout her day.

She's charming...and you can't help but love her. How cute it was that she thought she had finally met a real French person...oh well, Paris, Texas isn't very close to the Riveria, but as the book says, she did make a new friend, and that's a good thing too.

This is what I thought Secrets of a former fat girl would be from
all the good reviews. This is a much better book in that the author
shares her story AND...unlike lisa delany's book tells you how she
did it. Bravo Kim!

It really doesn't. This book tells how much easier it can be once you set you mind to it. It's mostly willpower and sticking to a plan. This is as good as any of the others out there.

To the author of this book, I just want to say a big thank you for being so honest with us.

I bought into the low carb craze, starting with a popular food combining plan, then to Atkins. I know these plans work for some, but not for me. I started suffering from severe fatigue, chronic mood swings that were hard to control (this from being so darn tired all the time), never lost weight, but what was my breaking point was when I started having irregular heart beats, my arms would tingle and go numb, my hands would swell and icth (that, and being on bi-polar meds when I knew something else was wrong). Turns out I was reacting to Splenda. I thought I was having heart attacks! Scared me to death! Then I realized, how do you low carb if you can't use sugar subs, when the whole point of the diet is to be sugar free. Well, a light bulb went off and something clicked. We think low fat diets are bad because they emphasise replacing fat with sugars and chemically enhanced foods, so low carbers won't touch low fat stuff because of the hidden sugars and chemicals, yet they will eat low carb stuff with chemical sweeteners, this makes no sense!
At that point, now that I will never touch a artificial sweetener in my life, I needed to learn how to balance foods so I can eat real foods, including fat and sugar, to be healthy and lose weight, and this book did that for me. It makes so much sense. It is hard to learn portion control, to eat only when hungry and to stop when full, not stuffed, but everyday it gets easier and easier. I do make good choices over bad (whole grains over processed, fruit over desserts, etc, but now that I eat from all food groups, I get full with less food, something I never experienced with low carb.

Its nice to be free of the "diets". All the money spent on diet cookbooks and special ingredients never did anything for me, but taking the advice of this book has done a lot, and it cost me nothing more than the cover price. No specialty ingredients, no plan to follow or lists of foods I can eat or need to avoid, just good old fashioned common sense.

Thank you!!! I wish more people could read this book. Especially all those suffering from 1 diet to the next.
And by the way, since I have stopped doing low carb and eat like a real person, no more mood swings. Gone, all of them, and no more fatigue! I'm able to work out daily now and live my life, something that seemed so out of reach just 2 months ago.

I'm done with dieting for good!!!!!! I can't believe how I've overlooked this common sense approach. I can't beleive how I've been fooled. This book deserves to be right up there with the best of them. It's not gimicky and it's not starvation and it's not eating a million pounds of bacon. It's just good advice to be had. If everyone would stop and open their eyes like this book advises, there would be NO overweight people in America! Time to wake up, everyone! And, no, there is no simple plan in this book, it just tells you to eat what you want but don't gorge!!! That's the problem, we can't stop feeding our faces or having an immese fear of starvation, just like she says. I'm just so glad I found it. I'm serious. If you want to lose weight, like I did, read this book. If you're happy being fat, skip it cause her advice WON'T sit well if you're in denial!!!

The thing I liked about this book was that it wasn't just about losing weight, it had lots of social commentary--my favorite being the whole "it's genetics" routine. The author really hits upon some major hot spots within the book and takes on cooperations who help make us all "fat".

Sure, the program is relatitevly easy and does seem to work--oddly enough, who would think that eating less could contribute to weight loss? But the real reason to read this book is the comments on the weight loss industry. I have to totally agree and say that the diet industry doesn't want any of us any thinner. If they did, wouldn't a few of their diets work?

All in all, this is a good book not only because the program can actually help people to lose weight, but because it might even open a few eyes and ears. Just thinking about all the things that conspire to make us eat more and more makes me sick. Therefore, I am very glad I read this book.

Nicely done Pete. It will hang, deservedly, on its' own nail next to my Farmers Almanac.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found myself laughing out loud during many of the chapters. It was funny, witty, charming and impossible to put down. I am now anxiously waiting to read about the 'second half of an average man's life'. Thanks for the entertainment!

I really enjoyed the book and could not put it down. Pete is incredibly witty and honest. I laughed out loud several times. The book is an extraordinary account of an "average man's life." Congratulations to Pete--the book is awesome.

What a great read...I laughed hard and cried harder. So many of us say we want to do things in our life...but to say you want to write a book for your dad and have it published and actually go through with it.....awesome!! I never put it down and enjoyed every page. I would highly recommend this book to all!! Thanks Pete for a great read!!

I found this book to be thoughtful, moving and entertaining. The author takes you right out of your own mundane existence and places you into his own unique view of life as he knows it. And oh yeah I peed my pants laughing. OMG I LMAO! FANTASTIC!

Excellent book with truly dramatic descriptions of WW1 flying and ground wars and their impacts on British class structure.

Like most others I know of who have read Derek Robinson's novels of British fliers in WWI and WWII, I think him far and away the best writer on the subject. With relentless humor and realism he gets us to imagine what it was like to be pretty certain you were going to die there, just unsure when.

And he is unsparing of staff leadership that didn't have a clue. In Robinson's war, you fly to kill people--neither more nor less--or die yourself.

I like this novel of the 1918 campaigns a bit less well than the hard-to-find Hornet's Sting about the early war, 1915, in which the humor, suitable to the absurd reality really works. But I like it better than his best known and very good WWII book about the RAF in the Battle of Britain stripped of myth, A Piece of Cake. It is a shame that his books aren't more easily available.

It is still the same today...and probably always will be.
Retired USAF Pilot (220 combat missions per war)

This is a stunning book. Wonderful characters, biting humour. This would make an absolutely stunning film provided it wasnt made by an American studio, and just left unadulterated. I even started to draft a stage version when I was at school because I thought the strength of the characters could come across without even being able to realise the aerial combat sequences. Its hard not to think of ourselves in terms of the youngsters posted to the squadron, and revile in the northern cynisism of Major Woolley, but as the story unfold, you start to see the cracks in his veneer and how very hard he is trying too get the message across to his young charges, they are here not to survive, but to kill. Like the "municipal rat catcher".
They went into combat in what were basically powered kites, structural failure was common, often pilots went into action with less than 10 hours flying experience. No time to train at the front, just the hope that as "anti-Woolley" Biggles used to say, "if you survice your first couple of trips, you might survive a week, if you get to a month, then you have a chance of becoming a bigger danger to the hun than you are to yourself."
Ask youself that if you were to go into combat, what sort of leader would you like? Hopefully, you will never have to, but read this book and remember those who did.

_Goshawk Squadron_ tells the story of a WWI squadron of pilots in the winter and spring of 1918. Robinson is ruthless in the treatment of his characters, tragic death following tragic death as both replacements and old hands fall from the sky as part of the randomness and unpredictability of war. This, and Robinson's portrayal of daily life within the squadron are its strong points. Each character struggles to cope with the stress and uncertainty of their job, compounded by the hard and heavy-handed leadership of the protagonist, Major Woolley - an anti-hero whose training methods are unconventional but effective.

Perhaps it is because the book is over thirty-years old, but many of the characters have become cliched: Woolley, for example is seen in film again and again (from the Dirty Dozen to the Die-Hard franchise); even some of the pilots are stereotypical (the fire-and-brimstone son of missionaries, the simple country bumpkin, the blue-blooded aristocrat unaccustomed to being treated with disdain and disrespect by the stern, common-man commanding officer ...) I also had difficulty keeping track of characters - partially because so many of them arrived to the squadron before they were killed, but partially because in only a few instances was there any remarkable feature that made them memorable or distinguishable from the others. This, of course, could be intentional, as Woolley himself doesn't expect any of them to live beyond the next three months.

Even with these shortcomings, though, I give the book four stars. Through Wooley, Robinson strips the veneer of "honor", "fairplay" and "sportsmanship" from combat, instead emphasizing what war really is: cold-blooded killing in as quick and efficient a manner as possible. He also shows the helplessness men underfire feel, and his descriptions of aerial combat are among the best I've read.

Best book on CM (based most on symplectic formulation). Extremely clear if one has enough patience to follow exactly the author's way and to work out the proposed stimulating problems. Contains an original way of introducing differential forms, integration of differential forms and homology/De Rahm's thm.: you fully get in the subject in few pages ! The first part does not make use of symplectic formalism but is also quite original and stimulating. The level is last yr. undergr. 1st yr. graduate. Very useful if used with E. ott (Chaos in Dynamical Systems) for studying nonlinear dynamics.

This book is an excellent introduction to the world of classical physics for NON-PHYSICISTS. While some physicists will no doubt find it accessible, there is considerable reduction of physical concepts in order to get to the heart of the ideas underlying the formalism. Also, the material goes beyond what most physicists (non-theoreticians) will find practical.

He focuses largely on a geometric presentation, in the language of differential geometry, symplectic geometry, differential forms, Riemannian manifolds and includes a large amount of algebraic necessities. This is not a cookbook for learning how to solve classical mechanics, nor is it a math book per se, but it is a wonderful collection of introductions to a vast amount of useful mathematical formalism that permeates the physical literature. I would strongly recommend it to someone needing a thorough supplementary mechanics text, one that relies on very little physical insight and focuses on the geometric and algebraic structures underlying them.

The chapters are very well self-contained for the most part so you can skip to topics you find more appealing without feeling lost. Also, his presentation style is very clever, in case you're a fan of quick thinking and novel presentations (who isn't?).

The prerequisites are familiarity with somewhat advanced calculus and "mathematical maturity". Basic knowledge of group theory would also make it an easier read.

Extremely stimulating, uses Galileo to motivate Newton's laws instead of postulating them. Treatment of Bertrand's theorem is beautiful, but contains one error (took me 2 years before I realized where..). However, I know of only one physicist who successully worked out all the missing steps and taught from this book. I know mathematicians who have cursed it. I used/use it for inspiration. The treatment of Liouville's integrability theorem, I found too abstract, found the old version in Whittaker's Analytical Dynamics to be clearer (Arnol'd might laugh sarcastically at this claim!)--for an interesting variation, but more from the standpoint of continuous groups, see the treatment in ch. 16 of my Classical Mechanics (Cambridge, 1997). In my text I do not restrict the discussion of integrability/nonintegrability to Hamiltonian systems but include driven dissipative systems as well. Another strength of Arnol'd: his discussion of caustics, useful for the study of galaxy formation (as I later learned while doing work in cosmology). Also, I learned from Arnol'd that Poisson brackets are not restricted to canonical systems (see also my ch. 15). I guess that every researcher in nonlinear dynamics should study Arnol'd's books, he's the 'alte Hasse' in the field.

The book is full of little enjoyable details (jewels). Arnold is one of the few mathematicians which approaches problems with a very geometric point of view. In his interview with S.H. Lui he mentions how algebraic picture has dominated the research in mathematics and how he has tried to counter that. One can see the trace of his ingenuity all over this book. What some may call as handwaving in math circles is indeed called as physical (or geometric) intuition in physics community and is being actively encouraged.

The chapters on oscillations (chap. 5) and perturbation theory (chap. 10) are very instructive. For example, parametric resonance is discussed concisely in chapter 5 which you won't be able to find it anywhere else. where can you learn about "Arnold's tongues" better than in Arnold's book?

There are so many appendices at the end of the book. They are often very specialized and I don't recommend you to read them on your first read.

In conclusion, I recommend this book to any physics graduate student. In fact, I hope one day it will be used as a text book for courses in classical mechanics.

I have to admit that I haven't thoroughly read through this text. But judging from the first 10 pages, there is a lot of mathematical handwaving. In contrast, foundations of mechanics (hereafter FOM) is far superior in that it provides all the necessary background beyond calculus and linear algebra to the reader, and is logically consistent so far in my reading. I want to mention that there are certainly complete and excellent texts out there on functional analysis, differential geometry, and topology, but many texts include way more stuff than you would want to know. In particular, it is my humble opinion that once you get to a certain point of knowledgeability of a subject like algebraic topology, you have enough of a taste for it that to learn more of the subject would only help if you were to go into research. Therefore a book like FOM provides a concise and practical treatment of those various advanced mathematics topics.

I like how Mr. Braun stuck up for Jake when he tricked Barry Dunn and his friends. Jake's friend's Josh and Andy got in there and were as loyal as friends get to the very end. I think this book is excellent! At first I thought it was a true story! You did a great job Todd Strasser! ...

It's the bomb! I like this book because the gym teacher is always sticking up for Jake and tells Jake to stick up for Billy Dunn. The book is funny in how they switch bodies. I like the explosion; it was how they switched bodies. It is really neat. Justin Kelley, Grade 4.

Mr. Braun, the new gym teacher, has the biggest muscles anyone has ever seen. After another freak accident with the DITS, Jake Sherman switches bodies with Mr. Braun. Jake has switched with his geeky science teacher before, but this time he actually likes who he switched bodies with. Jake really wants to stay Mr. Braun forever. But there's a problem. Those huge muscles are causing him to be a real idiot.

This is one of the best HELP! I'm Trapped books, but not the best. There were more funny parts than not funny parts. What was strange about this book was that Jake used his gym teacher powers to be really mean--especially to his friends. I guess Jake thought that he would be Mr. Braun forever and could do whatever he wanted. Anyway, this is a great book if you're looking for a short and funny read. I read it an hour.

I love reading children's books. I love the most to read books with original plots that are unthinkable, yet innocent.

This book qualifies. The story line is so outrageoous, there is no way you will be able to guess what will happen next. And Todd Strasser is VERY FUNNY.

You won't regret reading this book!!

--George Stancliffe

Very Good! Very funny! I think the way Todd Strasser made it so reasonable for kids is great. He made it so funny and easy to understand, that it is reasonable for anyone. I think this book is one of the best books I have ever read in my life. This book is about a 12 year old boy, Jake, who has 2 best friends, Josh and Andy, who like to fool around and get in trouble. But when Jake switches bodies with his new big muscular gym teacher, it can get worse and it can get funny. The best part was when the gym teacher's girlfriend went out with Jake instead of Bruno(the gym teacher)! I really enjoyed this book and so will you.

The Hunting of the Snark is a whacky piece of poetical silliness by Lewis Caroll. Complete nonsense, no-one knows what a Snark is, or why Snark hunters hunt it, or why anyone would want to become a Snark hunter to start with. Anyway, the poem is definitely amusing at times with some of the humour he slips in.

The Hunting of the Snark seems to be a very, very short imitation of The Canterbury Tales. The first chapter (titled a fit) introduces all of the occupations of all the different people going on a journey. However, instead of going on a general pilgrimage and telling tales along the way, their trip is very specific to hunting.

The Baker actually attempts to tell a story, but the Bellman (who leads the group) says there's no time for storytelling. They have to catch the Snark before nightfall.

Along with the Bellman and Baker, a Banker, a Bonnet-maker, a Butcher, a Boots, a Billiard-maker, a Barrister, a Broker, and a Beaver tag along to hunt for the Snark. The Beaver is afraid of getting cut by the Butcher, so he puts on a dagger-proof coat and talks to the Banker about buying an insurance policy.

The Beaver is involved in a hilarious scene with the Butcher later, when the two attempt to compute sums. But perhaps the funniest scene of the entire book is in the Barrister's dream when the Snark declares sentence on a pig, only to find out the pig has been dead long before the trial even began.

I'd highly recommend this short poem for Carroll fans, even though it's not big enough to contain but a small portion of what's to be found in the Alice books.

I have read a great deal of nonsense in the past, but this was by far the best nonsense that I have ever read. There is no point, no meaning, no sense, and no boringness. It is a delightful poem (which is well written and very fun to read aloud) about a crew on a ship hunting a snark. The crew includes a captain who only rings a bell, a beaver, a cook who only cooks beavers (the beaver and the cook did not get along well), a man afraid that the snark would turn into a boojum and make him disappear, etc. As you can tell, this makes for an insanely silly poem. The subtitle is rather fitting, as my sides were definitely hurting from laughter when I was done. Well done Mr. Carroll.

Overall grade: A+

Nonsense poems can easily miss the mark
Yet, this masterpiece has that spark.

"How do you kill a _____?", you ask
To find the answer was the hunters' task.

"What was their fate?", you wonder
Did they ever catch their elusive plunder?

A paragon of haunting Carollian lore
Be in no doubt that you'll finish wanting more.

This poem is just great!

First, this one of the most delightful pieces of writing that ever appeared in (more or less) English. It succeeds as a sustained exercise in illogic. I am sure that only a mathematical logician like Dodgson could possibly have pulled it off - only someone with such deep understanding of reason could master unreason so completely.

Second, Martin Gardner's commentary adds depth and background to the reading. Gardner explains terms that are now obsolete, but also adds his own analysis and a rich history of the Snark phenomenon. It should be no surprise that Gardner is still best known as the long-time editor of Scientific American's column on Mathematical Games, a mathematician himself.

I can't add much to the scholarship or praise that already surrounds this incredible poem. I would like to point out, however, that most non-native English speakers are unfamiliar with this poem. Many of them have only ever seen the serious side of the English language, and have never seen English at play. I consider this short work to be the ideal introduction to the very best of English-language nonsense.

//wiredweird

When life give you lemons - make lemonade. Now how many times have you heard that cliche when your way looks rough? But, even when you add plenty of sugar, it can still zing your taste buds, and make your lips pucker. Well, have you ever seen a purple sweet potato? They are from the same family as the orange shaded variety, except the flesh is a lavender hue. Sounds kinda exotic, doesn't it? And, the purple tuber is sweeter than the regular one. So now when your way looks rough, say to yourself - When life gives you an ordinary sweet potato, add a little food coloring and make purple sweet potato pie.

"I Almost Missed...My Life" begins with what I'm going to call an ordinary beginning. You see, the author experienced some trials in her life, which are really no different from what a lot of women in the 21st century have had to face. At the age of thirty-one, she had two children, who had different fathers, and she wanted to divorce her third husband. What did she do in this familiar scenario? She took the knowledge that she had (an orange sweet potato), and combined it with the teachings of Anthony Robbins, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, the Dalai Lama and more (the food coloring), to result in a life filled with fun, excitement, passion, love and success (the exotic purple sweet potato pie).

Debra Russell jots down her recipe with 52 ingredients, which can be added to your dish of life. After stirring, there's a "Give It A Go" assignment, to help bring out the flavor. She also encourages the reader to start journaling for increased success, and to start your own recipe. I recommend "I Almost Missed...My Life: How to Breakthrough To the Life You Really Want" to those who want to color the ordinariness of their lives into something new - well maybe not exotic, but definitely in a different pigment.

"I Almost Missed My Life" contains 52 short (2 page) chapters that can best be described as instructional, self-help guidance on things you can do to change your life into the E Ticket life you would like to have. The E Ticket reference is used in the book and accurately represents the author's purpose with the book. Several years ago if you went to Disney World you would purchase a packet of tickets that contained A, B, C, D, and E tickets. The most popular, most exciting rides were E Ticket rides. My memories as a child include a trip to Disney World where we purchased one of these books of tickets. One thing I recall is that the A and B ticket rides were ones that I was not interested in and only rode them because I had a ticket that was no good for anything else. Many people seem to live their lives that way - life has dealt them a book of A and B tickets and so that is the limit of what they can ride. The purpose of the book is to change your life from an A or B Ticket ride to an E Ticket journey.

Each week you can take one of the chapters and focus on it for that week. Chapters include encouragement and direction on such things as "Practice Outcome Thinking", "Trust and Follow your Knowing", "Treasure and Nurture Your Friends", "Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously", "Listen", "Let Go of Regrets", "Be the Change You Want To See", and "Be Grateful". This is an excellent and recommended book for people seeking an organized plan for changing their life.

Problems in reaching success in your professional or personal life? Would you like to see what was wrong in your life and see all clearly in perspective? So, read this book and find your answers. To reach our objectives, we need first to identify, and then break our self-imposed internal barriers. The author makes the reader to explore common attitudes and wrong assumptions that continuously prevent people in reaching their goals. Russell opens doors, and in a simple way, empowers the reader. This book is a beautiful trip breaking barriers, that goes from procrastination and struggle to a successful life in all aspects. Highly recommended, and a good gift for a friend.
Jorge O. Corti MD, MPH

This woman is a living example of going from zero to a hundred on the success scale.

I liked how she is succinct and humorous - Russell specifically lays out what anyone can do to accomplish more and get more satisfaction out of life.

If some habitual thinking holds you back, you will be well-served to enjoy I Almost Missed My Life.

Debra Russell shares her life story, tips, and motivations on how to live a better life in her self-help book, I ALMOST MISSED MY LIFE, DON'T MISS YOURS: 52 SECRETS TO MORE SUCCESS, FUN & FULFILLMENT. Russell shares how she went from being a three timed divorced single mom and welfare recipient to a happy, successful entrepreneur and motivational speaker.

Russell shares 52 of her secrets, one for every week in a year, with the reader. Many of the suggestions are common sense knowledge, but it is reiterated in a way that makes it seem fresh and new. Some of the suggestions that I found most helpful were, keeping a journal, being optimistic, and surrounding yourself with positive people.

I ALMOST MISSED MY LIFE, DON'T MISS YOURS: 52 SECRETS TO MORE SUCCESS, FUN & FULFILLMENT is an inspirational story of one woman's determination to find happiness and to share her findings with others. The "secrets" offered are generic enough to work for everyone, but the author adds a special "Give It A Go" section at the end of each tip to help the reader make it their own. In addition to Russell's suggestions, the book is enhanced with several motivational quotes and statements. This book is a wonderful self-help for people who know that they need a change in their lives, but just need a little extra guidance.

Reviewed by Latoya Carter-Qawiyy
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

This book is about when the British soldiers came over to Lexington, Massachusetts. The British soldiers started a war. Sam is a boy who becomes a Minute Man, like his dad. In a battle, the British soldiers kill 8 people, and hurt Sam's friend, John.
But in the next battle, Sam gets to shoot the British soldiers. He used to be scared, but then he becomes angry.
I really liked this book. I think other boys would like it, and maybe some girls, too.

This book helps children understand what the Minutemen did for the British. It gives explainations that young children can understand. It also keeps their attention in wondering what is going to happen next. Characters are great. My son was able to visualize himself as being Sam. Wonderful book.

My eight-year old son has been reading Sam The Minuteman for several years. He loves the book so much. Although the reading doesn't challenge him anymore, he continues to check it out at our Public Library time and time again. I am glad that he has chosen a good wholesome book as one of his favorites. I have gotten this copy for him as a Christmas Gift. Hopefully, he will continue to enjoy it and pass it on to his children. Good reading material is getting increasingly more difficult to find for 4-6 graders.

When young Sam grabs his gun to enter The Battle of Lexington alongside his father, young readers won't help but wonder: What's going to happen to him? This central, suspenseful question is just one of the mature thematic elements encountered in Sam the Minuteman, a lean, accurate, and surprisingly contemplative historical narrative of the American Revolution's opening days. Benchley slips in key events and characters (the anonymous first shot, British Redcoats, Captain Parker, guerilla warfare) that may encourage young history enthusiasts to uncover the other stories behind Sam. Most provocatively, Benchley takes Sam on a hell-bent ("I'll shoot [the British soldiers]--every one!") revenge quest against his protective mother's pleas. This sub-plot alone may spark deep dialogue usually encountered in higher-level books.

Lobel, of Frog and Toad lore, illustrates with a smoky yet highly detailed pencil, and inks in a sparse amount of red and shades of ocher. His limited media and autumn palette connote the era's harsh agrarian lifestyle, and the stark "do-or-die" mentality of the colonists. Benchley douses his prose with rich poetic metaphors, describing the warring British troops as "a bright river of red," and deadly bullets that "buzzed about like bees."

The ending is abrupt, but Benchley's intention is to extend the conversation beyond the book's pages; quite likely to George the Drummer Boy, the companion piece to this book written from a British boy's perspective during the revolution.

In plain language, and with just a bit of humor, prolific author Nathaniel Benchley (son of the great humorist Robert) and the equally experienced Arnold Lobel tell the story of the beginnings of the American Revolution, as seen through the eyes of a young boy. On the night of Paul Revere's famous ride, Sam accompanies his father to the village green. The pensive faces of the Minutemen and the monochrome and two-toned drawings of Lobel build tension as they await the possible arrival of the British. Finally, they hear the "TRAMP TRAMP TRAMP" of the British soldiers-the "lobsterbacks": "Over the hill and past the tavern came the soldiers! They came on and on and on." At close range, the British kill eight men (they're shown lying on the ground), and wound Sam's friend John in the leg. "'Sam!' John cried. `I'm hit.' John held his leg and fell down."

Soon after, the British attack again. Sam joins his father, despite his mother's loud protest. This time the Minutemen shoot back from behind trees and rocks. Benchley's dramatic narrative continues: "No one knew it then, but that day was the start of the American Revolution." Lobel shows the Minutemen's strain, the families' agony, and the fatigue of Sam and others.

Although a simply told story intended for young readers, Benchley and Lobel convey some of the key elements that went into the eventual American victory. Perhaps a little violent for the younger audiences, this is a realistic story with the look and feeling of an archetypal children's book.

I thought I would take a moment to compliment Charlotte Hayes on her book. This book is well written, organized, easy to read and easy to comprehend. More importantly, this book refocused my attention on my well-being. Sticking to a regimen has made me feel better both physically and emotionally. Having more energy makes life brighter.

Thanks to Charlotte for selflessly taking the time to write the book for my betterment. I will definitely recommend this book to my local Diabetes Society.

I have really enjoyed following the advice given in this very common-sense and well written book. The author's down to earth approach encouraged me to follow her guidance, and I have now adopted many of her suggestions into my daily life. I feel my circulation is improving each week! Thank you Ms. Hayes, you have really motivated me !!

This book was laying on the reading table at my Dr.'s office waiting room. After scanning it, I ordered my own copy. The book points out so many really simple ways to increase the amount of excercise I can get on a daily basis-----in the course of routine activities. And I notice the difference in my overall feeling of wellbeing, and increased stability in my blood test numbers.

Robert Parker Atlanta, GA

Charlotte Hayes presents the virtues and importance of exercise in a very thorough yet simplified format. The primary theme she emphasizes is to "stay active". Forget the quick fix solution and make a commitment to a long term lifestyle change. Lifestyle changes are paramount to staying fit, not strenuous exertion. She offers practical suggestions for incorporating exercise into day to day activities. Set achievable goals and build on them. The basic principals of exercise are the solution to most health problems. An extremely well written book.

As both a physician and a diabetic, I found this book offers reminders of basic nutrition principles(often forgotten...even by doctors) and many clever ways to incorporate more valuable exercise into my daily life. It's a "neat" little book.

John J. Bodine, M.D. Hampton Bay, NY