B Books

I read this years ago when I was in Junior High. I am so glad they are reprinting it. As I remember I was the only one who bothered to read it and I felt as if I had found a treasure. This is a great gift for a boy that he will remember for life. I look forward to reading it again myself.

I was thirty when I picked up this book and I can tell you truely it was one of the best reads I have ever had.

The story is compelling, the characters are real and it just works on every level.

Fathers out there, are you looking for a good series for your sons to read? Then this is it. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the girls but I just think boys will get very valuable lessons from this book about courage, comraderie and how adversity builds character.

Buy this series!!

My mother gave my my copy of this book when I was about [...]. I thought it was really cool because my grandfather wrote it -- no kidding, I really am Paul L. Anderson's grandson.

Then I read it, and I discovered just what a wonderful story it is. Mandorix is a credible hero, and as the first-person narrator he weaves a tale at once compelling and educational. Along with the companion volumes in Anderson's Roman Life and Times series, this book motivated me to study Latin, a pursuit I still enjoy some 50 years after I first read of Gaius Iulius Caesar and Dumnorix, of Quintus Rufus and Carnifex, of the foppish Quintus Cicero and his magnificent stand against Ambiorix.

Hmm, I think it's probably about time for me to read it again. If you haven't yet read it, you could order it today and be reading it by this time next week.

With the Eagles was a great book, and it was great because this past school year we learned about Latin, Rome, Etc. The book takes place in B.C. 54. It's about Mandorix, an Aeduan, whose parents were killed, and his brother ans sister killed or enslaved. He joins Caesar's army and rises through the ranks gaining respect and the friendship of the lowest decurion to even the great Caesar. There are some great battle narrations, diagrams of roman bases, and tons of latin words and phrases. Have a good time reading it!

My father and uncle had this book when they were children, and my father gave it to me when I was in junior high school. It tells the story of a young man whose family was killed by bandits and is left alone in the world. He joins the Roman Legion, serves under Julius Caesar, and has exciting adventures. I reread it many, many times. In the story, virtue (including courage, industriousness, and resourcefulness) is rewarded, which gives it an uplifting message. I recommend the book highly: not only does it have a good story, but the author had researched the ancient Romans extensively and it goes a wonderful job of presenting history and Roman life in a palatable fashion.

Fortunately, this is but one book of a series! (The series is called Roman Life and Times, and some of the other books have been reissued-I believe "Swords in the North" is now available in paperback.)

Thomas B. Costain is one of the most readable of historians because he firstly draws on an awareness, gained in his years as a novelist, of the necessity on the part of a writer to above all reach out to his reader. An even greater praise might be this: Costain is also one of the most intelligent historians I've ever had the good fortune to read.

This is Costain's second volume in his well-rounded four-book history of England during the rule of its most storied dynasty, the Plantagenets. Here, in just under four-hundred pages, Costain concentrates on the events of the thirteenth-century reign of Henry III, who came to the throne in 1216, and who passed away forty-six years later in the autumn of 1272. Beginning his story during the regency of the great and good William Marshal, "right hand man" of four monarchs, and ending it shortly after Prince Edward's crushing of the baronial revolt led by Simon de Montfort, Costain makes the interesting case that the thirteenth-century was perhaps the grandest and most glorious if not in the whole of English history, then undeniably that in the era of the Plantagenets.

This was the first volume I've read so far in the quartet, but it won't be the last.

Costain gives his usual rousing treatment to a period not widely treated.

Costain's entire four-volume history of the Plantagenets, "The Pageant of England," is the reason I became a historian and history teacher. I had liked history before, but I'd never before read history that read like a novel. He brought these figures to life in a way that lit a fire that still burns brightly. In short, an excellent history, which I re-read every few years--especially The Magnificent Century!

I have read this book so many times I have worn out my copy, in paperback. I would and do recommend the book to anyone anyone who wants to start learning the history of England and the Middle Ages. The Late Mr Costain brought the people to life, which was a rare gift, he also being a novelist knew how to tell a tale, both are great for generating an interest in history. He leaves a great foundation for a student to build a knowledge of history on.

I first read these books 20 years ago, and the opportunity to purchase them in a new edition is the thrill of the year for me. Costain makes the period come alive, with all its heroes, villains, and bystanders. While many of Costain's opinions and conclusions are somewhat dated by more recent research, there is no more delightful reading experience amongst modern histories of the middle ages.

Just what I was looking for. I have already taken a college level astronomy class. I use this book for additional information now, together with Extreme Stars, when I observe in my telescope. Too bad I can't be in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere at the same time.

Jim Kaler has written a real little gem in this book. It selects 100 of the most interesting stars and gives a "biography" of each. His style is engaging and readable. The author seems to have intended the audience to be amateur astronomers, but I have found it quite useful for students in both secondary school and the university. I have always told my students that "stars are like people, if you examine them closely, all of them are strange in some way", and this book highlights some of the more interesting ones. Along the way, a fair bit of astronomical information is also imparted, but in a way that flows naturally with the stories. The book has good production quality. This is a fairly short book, very approachable for students who might be science shy. I think this is the best one that Jim has done so far. My only quibble is that he left out RU Cam, which should have been given a place in this collection.

This well-written book is a bit of information overload. Kaler presents a good variety of stars in his top 100 picks, and writes enthusiastically about each one. In addition, many of the illustrations are excellent. Though it may be difficult to remember much of the information presented (over one month after reading it, I've retained practically nothing), the overall impression that will stay with you is that there are tremendous differences between stars. This impression is not entirely accurate; the vast majority of stars are out there are on the main sequence and exhibit very similar characteristics. But there are quite a few oddballs, or extremes, that have a completely different behavior. Kaler has chosen most of his hundred out of this group.

This book made good lunchtime reading for me, and my interest never really flagged. But reading details about a hundred stars is a lot of information to take in, and I think my patience would have worn thin with any more. Perhaps a better approach would have been to cover only thirty stars, but write more on each one. Kaler makes his selections based on some outstanding feature of that star: location in the sky, intrinsic brightness, size, peculiar spectral feature, etc.

Recommended for astronomy buffs and for the layman with a bent to science.

I was not a big fan of Kaler's until this book. I had read his "Extreme Stars" -- very difficult to follow with his writing style, but still a good book. I begged the library to order this one, which they did. Very impressive -- I was enthralled. He discusses each star with true passion and on a level the ordinary amateur astronomer can understand. If someone can get me excited looking at a boring 5th magnitude 51 Pegasii, then he's done a good job :) --- he has. Excellent illustrations to boot! Buy this book - you won't be disappointed.

Update: January 2004 - after 3 times checking it out from the library -- decided it was too good of a reference book to pass up and ordered from Amazon.com at discounted price! A true gem - I will observe outside, then use this to enrich my knowledge of some of the stars I've looked at afterwards. All the "biggies" are here - Arcturus, Sirius, Capella, Vega, Betelguese, and some other obscure ones -- but all so well chosen that it's hard to argue with his 100 picks! I wish he'd write another on his next top 100. I am also half through his "Little Book of Stars" and recommend that too! Will write a review on that when I am finished. Bottomline: Buy this book - you won't be disappointed if you are an astronomy buff.

This book has spectacular views of major stars/ clusters.
The 3 brightest stars of the Southern Hemisphere are depicted.
These stars are Sirius, Canopus and Alpha Centauri.
Important scientific rule structures are explained. i.e.
The apparent magnitude of a star is a function of distance.
In addition, Absolute Magnitude and Color are proportional to
temperature. Important statistics are provided for stars: i.e.

Blue-White Stars have 32-50 illumination with Ionized Helium.

Infrared stars are 1000 degrees with prominent methane bands.

Stars with > 10 solar masses--are exploding stars

Ag Dra has powerful eruptions. Celestial Harp is approximately
880 Light Years with a 2600 times the sun luminosity.

This work is a virtual treasure-chest of scientific facts and
data about stars. It is perfect for a school science project.
The book is written for a large constituency of readers. i.e.
Astronomers, scientists, general audiences, teachers,
museum administrators and many others.

My daughter loved this book, we read it also every night when we first got it. It was extremely educational but still very entertaining at the same time. She's 5 so she asks a lot (I mean a lot) of questions while we read the book which was very good. We really enjoyed this book.

Surprisingly, this book held the attention of both my 3 & 4 year old boys. They request to have it read to them over and over again and then we spend time reviewing the various scenarios of when it is appropriate to call 911. Little Pamela is someone they can connect with as she is impatient, eager to help, and quick at learning a responsible behavior.

Absolutely fun, colorful, and still managed to convey the importance of 911. My children especially liked Pamela's "whacky" hair from playing in the leaves.

Great tool for me to use during storytimes when promoting safety. This is a great tool when doing PR's for our EMS service. It helps in getting the information on not just dialing 911. It tells the children they need to know the address they are at and what their telephone number is. The illustrator is great. The children love to look for meow-man. I like the peace sign the EMT's are giving Martin. Thanks to the author and illustrator.

This book was great for teaching my son about calling 911 without scaring him with all kinds of terrible accidents. The character was engaging and the illustrations lots of fun. The book facilitated a great discussion about learning our address and telephone number, which he now spouts at every opportunity! Thanks to the author and illustrator from this mom.

This is by far the best treatment of this subject that I have seen.

I bought this book on Amazon a week ago, and I find it to be one of the most well writen books on the B-2 and the origins of the stealth program. Paying alot of money for another book about stealth wouldn't be wise, since this book is the best of all of them.

I worked on R&D for this bomber, but security regulations made it impossible to gather some of the information found in this book.
It is comprehensive and well researched.
It filled in a lot of the gaps for me.
Anyone interested in the newer aircraft technology would enjoy it.

As an old Boeing Engineer, I worked on INS among other items for the 747 in the sixties,and have since followed
all new designs for as well commercial as military aircraft. And am still thrilled to se the developments in designs as well as systems which havetaken place since then.

Bill Sweetman, one of the great aviation writers of our time, has finally shed light on the most mysterious aircraft of our time: The B-2 Spirit. I read Bill Sweetman's original B-2 book, which consisted mainly of conjecture (it was written around 1989), and the new "Inside the Stealth Bomber" is a welcome and timely followup.

For the first time, a concise history of the B-2's origin and development is presented. Bill also gives a good account of B-2 operations, which is quite relevant now that the aircraft has seen action in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

Another first is the photographs of the B-2 weapons bay, which had previously been off-limits to photographers. The pictures in this book, like those in all Sweetman books, are quite rare and very gorgeous in their full color glory.

Of all the books on the B-2 out there, this is the definitive one. It is an excellent aviation reference, and it is also easy and enjoyable to read. Check out "Inside the Stealth Bomber" as soon as possible.

This has become a very useful tool for my adult Sunday School preparations.

It is packed with loads of information not only in the form of Biblical commentary but also in terms of information about people, places, things, and events in the Bible. Also, while Bromiley tends to be on the Evangelical side of things in terms of exegesis (he's from Fuller after all, as are some of his co-editors, one of whom is from Wycliffe), he at least mentions the many interpretations that various passages of scripture have (including neo-orthodox and liberal). He also provides numerous, though at times cryptically short, references for those with the desire to look them up in a good reference library.

One criticism I have is his writting style, particularly in some of the exegetical sections, is a little terse, and more explaination of the Hebrew/Greek would be helpful.

Beware of the new cut-price printing of this set being offered various places for $99.99. The ads say you are saving $180.00, but it's not the same product. The cheap version has a cheap glued binding and no dustjackets. These books are too thick and heavy to be bound that way. With mine, the picture pages in the center just cracked loose and fell out. A 200-page novel that will be read once can have any kind of binding, but heavy reference books that will be used repeatedly are a different story. What looks like a super deal on eBay or Amazon Market is likely to be the cheapo version.

Earlier printings are available used for about the same price, with dust jackets and some of them (not all) have a far-superior sewn binding. It's nice not to worry about pages coming loose, and to have a book that lays open flat. The ISBN does not tell you what you are getting. For example, the May 1993 reprint of Vol 4 has a sewn binding, but the otherwise identical November 1988 printing does not. Maybe there were complaints about the earlier printing coming apart, I have no idea. I don't know whether the set Amazon sells for $176.40 has a sewn or glued binding; my advice is to call Eerdmans and find out before buying. The text is always identical, as long as it's the "Fully Revised" version; I believe the last volume, Vol 4, was first issued in its fully revised version in 1988, the other volumes earlier than that. The first printings of fully revised Vol 4 have 1211 pages, later printings have 1240. The difference is a set of errata pages, which you can photocopy from a library.

As a pastor, I find the ISBE a wonderful tool, not only for study but for ideas. Material from articles on subjects like "peace" or "conscience" provide information and insights not available elsewhere.

The ISBE contributors represent various evangelical positions. The set often includes articles that are barely evangelical, contributors frequently holding to inspiration but not inerrancy. Though I find myself more conservative than many of the contributors, I find the insights invaluable and the thinking scholarly. There's not a lot of the same old same old surface info, but depth and even some original thinking.

Highly reommended for students of the Word, with a note of caution to those of us on the conservative end of evangelicalism.

Great reference material on any and every subject you can think of in the Bible. This is definitly worth the price, if you're a serious Bible student, having this comprehensive work on your bookshelf would be an invaluable asset!

Highly Recomended!

This is an increadible resource for any serious studant of the Word of God. I bought research both this and The Anchor Bible Dictionary. Both are Well done. Though this one, to my delight, is written from a more Conservative stance. If you appricatiate folks like Chuck Swindall, John MacArthur, Tony Evans as I do, you will enjoy this work. I WOULD HOW EVER HIGHLY RECCOMEND THE DIGITAL VERSION. The folks at Logos really got it right. One reviewer above mention compuer being hard on the eyes. To that I say increase the font, which you can not do on the printed version. I like the elecronic version as a siminary student when i quote from the book and copy and paste it to my paper it carries over the footnotes for me. What a Godsend.

The theory of Kolmogorov complexity attempts to define randomness in terms of the complexity of the program used to compute it. The authors give an excellent overview of this theory, and even discuss some of its philosophical ramifications, but they are always careful to distinguish between mathematical rigor and philosophical speculation. And, interestingly, the authors choose to discuss information theory in physics and the somewhat radical idea of reversible computation. The theory of Kolmogorov complexity is slowly making its way into applications, these being coding theory and computational intelligence, and network performance optimization, and this book serves as a fine reference for those readers interested in these applications. Some of the main points of the book I found interesting include: 1. A very condensed but effective discussion of Turing machines and effective computability. 2. The historical motivation for defining randomness and its defintiion using Kolmogorov complexity. 3. The discussion of coding theory and its relation to information theory. The Shannon-Fano code is discussed, along with prefix codes, Kraft's inequality, the noiseless coding theorem, and universal codes for infinite source word sets. 4. The treatment of algorithmic complexity. The authors stress that the information content of an object must be intrinsic and independent of the means of description. 5. The discussion of the explicit universal randomness test. 6. The discussion (in an exercise) of whether a probabilistic machine can perform a task that is impossible on a deterministic machine. 7. The notion of incompressibility of strings. 8. The discussion of randomness in the Diophantine equations; it is shown that the set of indices of the Diophantine equations with infinitely many different solutions is not recursively enumerable; with the initial segment of length n in the characteristic sequence having Kolmogorov complexity n. 9. The discussion on algorithmic probability, especially the test for randomness by martingales. 10. The Solomonoff theory of prediction and its ability to solve the problem of induction. 11. The treatment of Pac-learning and the resultant formalization of Occam's razor. 12. The discussion of compact routing; the optimal space to represent routing schemes in communication networks on the average for all static networks. 13. Computational complexity and its connection to resource-bounded complexity. 14. The notion of logical depth, i.e. the time required by a universal computer to compute the object from its compressed original description. 15. The connection between algorithmic complexity and Shannon's entropy. 16. The discussion on reversible computation, i.e. logically reversible computers that do not dissipate heat. 17. The treatment of information distance, i.e. for two strings, the minimal quantity of information sufficient to translate from one to the other.

This was the second-hardest book I ever read. Honestly, it took me years and years to get through it. I even had to buy a 2nd copy, because I kept getting frustrated and throwing the first copy across the room until it was destroyed. So yes, this book requires a substantial effort to read.

But the payback!! I've gotten more return on investment from this book than from any other book I've ever read. If you dilligently read and master this book, you will be able to analyze and solve problems your collegues just can't.

The basic idea behind Kolmogorov complexity is straighforward: a good measure of the complexity of an object is the length of the shortest computer program which will construct that object. From this basic idea an amazing variety of insights and powerful techniques have been developed, and this book is quite comprehensive in cataloging and explaining them.

For computer scientists and working programmers, probably the most useful result of Kolmogorov complexity would be the "Incompressibility Method", which is a powerful technique for the analysis of the runtime of algorithms. Typically, it is relatively easy to figure out what the best case or the worst case runtime of an algorithm is. Until now, it was hard to calculate the average runtime of an algorithm, because it usually involved a tricky counting problem, to enumerate all possible runs of the the algorithm and summing over them. The incompressibility method eliminates the need for doing these complicated enumerations, by letting you perform the analysis on a single run of the algorithm which is guarunteed to be representative of the average runtime of the algorithm. If you program for a living like I do, this will give you an edge, because if you can accurately predict that the worst-case runtimes almost never happen, you can usually simplify and streamline your programs by optimizing it for the average case. If your competitors are wasting time optimizing for a worst case which almost never happens--at the expense of _not_ optimizing for the average case, you win bigtime.

For philosophers of science and AI/knowledge representation folks, the most useful results of Kolmogorov complexity are probably the contributions of Kolmogorov complexity to Baysianism. To be a Baysian is to follow a two step process: (STEP 1) for every possible sentence, assign to it a number between 0 and 1 which represents how certain you are that that sentence is true. This initial assignment should be a probability distribution over all possible sentences. It should be a "good" probability distrubution, but of course it won't be perfect, since you don't know everything. (STEP 2) when confronted with new evidence, e.g. an observation, update your current "good" degrees of belief by using Bayes' law, to yield a new "better" set of degrees of belief.

The Baysians always had a good story for Step 2--just use Bayes law. But until now, they were mostly hand-waving on Step 1--what would constitude a "good" initial probability distribution? There were many proposals (e.g. maximum entropy) but all proposals had benefits and drawbacks. What Kolmogorov complexity provides is the so-called "universal" distribution, which is guarunteed to be a "good" initial distirbution. This book devotes much time to explaining and exploring this, and shows how previous techniques, like maximum entropy, minimum description length, etc all can be seen as computable approximations to the (unfortunately uncomputable) universal distribution. This really gives a nice framework for evalutating and formulating good prior distributions.

After remarking on how hard this book was to read, I should emphasize that this is not due to bad writing on the part of the authors! Indeed, after throwing the book across the room, I was always drawn back by Li & Vitanyi's most engaging writing style to pick the book back up, dust it off, and have another go at it. If it were not for their wonderul ability to expain a very complicated subject matter, I never would have gotten through it.

An unsung hero of this book is Peter Gacs, who wrote a set of lecture notes which really could be considered to be an Urtext for this book. If you tackle this book, I highly recommend that you also get ahold of these notes, because it is sometimes very useful, when trying to puzzle out a difficult argument, to get another description/explaination of it from a different point of view. These notes are available on the web, just google for "Lecture note on descriptional complexity and randomness" by Peter Gacs.

If you're up to the challange, then buy this book, dilligently read it, swear at it--then swear by it.

This is one of the best-written mathematical texts I've read. It builds up the theory from basic principles, and illustrates it with numerous examples and applications. A definitive work.

The book provides all the tools needed for a productive use of the theory. Written by leading experts in the field, the book is both a fascinating introduction as well as a comprehensive reference for experts.

The authors are careful to place the development of the theory in its historical context, give a face to the main players in the field and explore frictions with other lines of thought. But the main storyline is the mathematical world of Kolmogorov complexity. Neccessary background knowledge is provided, most proofs are given and the open problems are presented. Most chapters are more or less self sufficient, making it possible to skip those that are of less relevance to you. In the later chapters much thought is given to the different fields of application.

A third edition is in the making which will include recent advances. But since the authors make new discoveries available on the web, the present edition will continue for a long time to hold a prominent place in the book shelves of many computer scientist.

to understand it. This book is intended for serious students of computer science or those who have some similar training - it is definitely set up as a textbook. However, that being said, if you have the background the authors' delivery is fist-class and very clear.

The reviews below give more than enough information so I won't belabour the Kolmogorov complexity here. Suffice it to say you won't find the subject detailed more fully in any other reference work in existence today.

However, this book does need to be revised and updated. There has been a lot of development in the field and the sections overviewing Solomonoff's work, in particular, could be expanded. Also, I found it hard to believe that nothing about the 'philosophical' importance of the whole induction question - this is at the core of many very important questions and should not be treated trivially.

There should also be some overview of two other areas that, in combination with the theory outlined in this text, are starting to form the nexus of a "new kind of science" (definitely not Wolfram's pathetic attempt). I refer to some information regarding non-classical logical systems as well as anticipatory computing systems. Both will, I predict, become core areas in addition to extensions to Kolmogorov/Chaitin complexity in the future.

All textbooks should be as clear and concise as this example.

I read this book in one go. Once I started, I just could not put it down. Besides giving the reader a great inside look behind the scene of the 1972 tour madness of the Rolling Stones, the author also provieds us with an excellent snapshot of the political and social situation in the USA during the early seventies. Of course, you get all the juicy details of groupies, drugs and playboy bunnies - but you also get a feel for how depressing at times the isolation of a major tour can be. You should definitely buy this book, if you love Rock'n'Roll, no matter if you are a Rolling Stones fan or not !

I think I know this book by heart. I can still recite the tour cities and dates. And... ahem, ahem, I really believe the reason they got Keith out of jail in Warwick, RI was not because of "the show must go on" (please!), but because Keith would've started heroin withdrawl. Get it?

This could easily be subtitled "Fear and Loathing on the Concert Trail." A fantastic book that features intelligent writing and an unsentimental look at the cast of characters that accompanied the Rolling Stones on their tour of America in '72. I just finished re-reading it and I still think its the best look at life on the road. Highly recommended even if you're not a stones fan.

I purchased and read this book when it was first published in the 1970s. It is a no-holds barred account of a rock band at its creative and decadent zenith during the legendary 1972 tour of America. Greenfield intersperses his blow-by-blow description of life on the road with vignettes of the interesting and off-beat fans and groupies that swirl around the vortex of the world's greatest rock and roll band. Particularly interesting is the drama surrounding the arrest of Keith Richards at a Boston airport prior to a concert, the scramble to get him out of jail thanks to the intervention of the mayor of Boston, and Keith's triumphant return to the stage. This is a Stones legend and this book tells it like you are there. Well-written and informative, I think I may just re-read this classic for the Nth time. A must for any Stones fan's bookshelf.

Full of casual sex and violence, this is a salacious account of life on the road with the Rolling Stones. Greenfield excels at nailing personalities and describing the fishbowl the band lived in. The Stones begin the tour in a vulnerable state of mind, scared that their glory days are behind them. Their braggadocio picks up considerably as the tour progresses. Near the end we have 16 year old girls doing "favors", beatings are given to anyone who steps out of line, groupies being filmed "in action" (despite Bill Wyman's 10 yr old kid hanging around!) for that infamous tour movie who's title I can't even mention here. Plenty of cruel nihilism. Oh well, I didn't read this expecting a nursery rhyme! This book delivers, warts and all.

My 2nd grader does not like to read. I bought these cds to encourage the reading process. Just starting in chapter books this year has been a huge change from simple picture books. Reading the books along with the cds has helped the books seem more interesting and easier to get to the end without getting distracted.

We bought the entire Junie B book collection when we were on holiday in the States last year as they are very difficult to buy in Australia. It was so exciting to find that they were available on cd! Lana Quintal reads them so, so well. My two kids (aged 6 and 8) love them so much that we've had to stop them listening to them at bedtime (which was why we bought them!) as they weren't getting to sleep! Too busy listening (and giggling!). The only slightly annoying thing is that you have to change cd's half way through stories. Not a big thing, just a little inconvenient is all. We have a 10 hour car trip coming up in a few weeks, and I know that we are going to be relying heavily on these to keep us sane!

My seven year old daughter and I just love listening to Junie B. Jones. We usually do this on the way to school in the morning and we are always laughing by the time we get there. Great way to start out a morning!

Me and my kids love to listen to the stories of Junie B. in the car or at home. Great narration. It will make you laugh!

Picked up our first CD at Wendy's. We've been hooked ever since. My kids love listening in the car. Great item.

This fantastic collection of poems explains the structure for many poetic forms, providing examples of each. My fourth grader read it through and found it fascinating and inspiring. She is now writing her own poetry. I also found the book educational and interesting. A superb book.

This book was a lot of fun to read to my students and really helped conjure up some creativity in them!

I bought this book for the children's section of my library. My niece loves it! It has sparked her interest in poetry so much that she is not only writing her own using the rules taught in the book for each form but she is also seeking out forms not included in the book! She has discovered that Tyger Tyger by William Blake is her favorite poem. I could not be more pleased with this book.

Every year Poetry Month comes along and every year there are children's librarians like myself who shudder at its approach. Poetry. It's not something that every person in the world is going to appreciate right off the bat. So, if you're like myself, you get out a bunch of poetry books, put them in an area labeled "POETRY MONTH SELECTIONS" and then desperately search the internet for further poetry-related activities you can hold in your branch. This year I decided I'd try to do some poetry with the homeschooler bookgroup I run. What I really wanted was to show the kids lots of books with different kinds of poetic styles in them. A collection of poetic forms, if you will. I couldn't find anything perfect, however, so I just chalked it up to there being too few useful poetry books for kids in this world. Then I attended the Children's Book Committee annual breakfast at the Bank Street College of Education. And the winner of the 2005 Claudia Lewis Award, as it happened, was "A Kick In the Head", as selected by Paul B. Janeczko. I was curious so I picked it up. And right then and there it hit me that THIS was the book I'd been so desperately searching for all this time. It's a truly interesting collection of poetic forms done in such a way that kids will not only understand them, but want to write some of their own. After I recovered from the shock I returned to my library and sure enough, lo and behold, there was the book sitting perkily on my shelf where it had always been. So parents, educators, and librarians, heed my warning. Discover "A Kick In the Head" for your own Poetry Months before it's too late. Don't make the same mistake I did.

The book contains twenty-nine different poetic forms. Everything from your basic haikus and limericks to triolets, aubades, and pantoums. There are blues poems and clerihews, and even the rare riddle poem or two. Janeczko has culled the most amusing and child-friendly versions of these forms possible, and it works. For example, take the villanelle. You might not think it lends itself naturally to a child's reading, but then you see how cleverly Joan Bransfield Graham has created, "Is There a Villain In Your Villanelle?". And into this lively jumble we throw Chris Raschka's brightly colored mixed-media extravaganza. The result is a high-energy introduction to poetry in all its wild and wooly forms. A lovely amalgamation to say the least.

None of this is to say that there wasn't an odd choice or two. For the "found poem", Janeczko reprints Georgia Heard's, "The Paper Trail". The poem is a beautiful list of different kinds of writing, and it soon becomes clear that these are the scraps of paper and floated to the ground when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11. No mention of 9/11 is ever made, but you'd have to be pretty dense not to get the St. Paul's Cathedral reference. Fans of that old Cat Stevens song, "Morning Has Broken", will see it listed under the "aubade" section. And I, for one, had no idea that poem/song was written originally by classic children's author Eleanor Farjeon. Go figure.

I'm not normally a Raschka fan, by the way. Something about his images, I find off-putting. But I did enjoy a lot of what the artist decided to do here. For the "senryu" poem, for example, he was able to construct a month old cheese sandwich using only paper fibers of various orange, yellow, green (bleck!), and cream-colored shades. And if you think he had an easy job of this book then YOU try making an illustration for Shakespeare's "Sonnet Number Twelve". Even worse, make a picture for a poem imitating "Sonnet Number Twelve". It's doubly hard. So a tip of the hat to Raschka's efforts.

Now people are going to wonder what ages to hand this book to. I say, all. Obviously some of the poems, like the sonnets, aren't going to charm very small ones. But kids who like silly limericks or tankas that begin with words like, "Fish guts" will find their favorites in this selection. As for older kids, this book is useful well into high school. At that point the students will start appreciating the difficulty behind some of the more elaborate poems. A lovely addition to every library and I dare say a necessary one. No poetry section is complete without this book.

This book is a wonderful tool if you are teaching poetry. It describes many different types of poetry with an example and a simple explanation. Very colorful pictures.