Carving Books

This book is about this boy robert has like a sickness on his leg. Then a new girl comes to school her name is sinstine.then one day the princaple
said that you cant come to school the moms say that the sickness is contageous.He is so happy he takes the note then buts it in his back pocket.Then one day he told Sinstine about the tiger he had found in a cage.Sinstine told robert to let him go because the owner told him to feed the tiger.Then one day he let the tiger go. Thats all I want to tell you.

I started off by reading this little jewel to my second grade daughter. Before long, I found myself reading this by myself until the very end. I simply could not put it down! The next day I purchased book group copies for my eighth grade classroom. Di Camillo's writing is eloquent and engaging and her characters leap off the page as you find yourself pulled into their struggles. The Tiger Rising was simply magical. I strongly recommend it for parents, teachers and students who are invested in reading quality literature.

As an elementary school teacher, my students and I have truly enjoyed this book. The plot, characters, and setting are all so deep and interesting. My female students liked this book the best. I have used it in read alouds, small groups, and also for individual instruction times. My 4th graders and I give it 2 thumbs up!

I have to hand it to Kate DiCamillo for this one. After reading Because of Winn-Dixie I was expecting much of the same "fluff" that I found DiCamillo using to make Winn-Dixie the so called "perfect kids book." Nothing bad ever seems to happen, and if it does - fear not - it gets resolved and wrapped up with a neat little bow a few pages later . . . Welcome to the land of Make Believe (or California, whatever).

Much to my pleasant surprise, Tiger Rising is nothing like it's predecessor. Instead of "feel-good fluff," DiCamillo develops realistic emotions and experiences of two young distraught children who slowly (and intensely at times) find themselves reaching out to one another.

The characters have flaws, baggage (enough for a 777), and pure raw emotion that seems to reach out of the page and smack you in the face. DiCamillo isn't afraid to show the reader how this affects the characters, often quite painfully.

This isn't a fairytale, it's real life. There is a beautifully orchestrated climax and a conclusion of sorts - one, I found, that left me with a deepened sense of caring for the characters as many loose ends are still left untied and I was left to seriously contemplate how these experiences would impact their lives.

This is the story of two kids. One who has sorrow in his legs and one who is full of lightning-strike anger. Don't blame my wording here, that's the wording of one of the characters.

It's a southern story. The atmosphere is thick and hot and lazy. The grammar used by the characters makes me cringe. I know it's good to show kids books where the characters speak like they speak, but it goes against my grain.

There's good character development, but it only goes 1/3 of the way. Rob starts to deal with his sorrow: does that get rid of the sores on his legs? Does he learn to deal with bullies? Sistine is less angry... or is she? Does she learn to deal with her liar of a father?

And what the heck are the ramifications of the tiger?

I was left with so many questions... it would be a great story to use as a lesson on "what do you think happened?" kind of exposition. But for many readers, especially young readers, I think this would be frustrating. I didn't feel changed or involved by the book. Mostly, I thought it was OK, but nothing earth-shattering.

(*)>

Great book for beginners and experts with many ideas and tips Highly recommend it to others

I only did some pyrography when I was very young, and the patterns were already on the boards.

I found the beginner patterns to be more advanced, in my opinion. (However, I haven't burned the copied one on my board, as yet. If I find time, it's ready to go!)

I think I need something even more beginner oriented, as far as patterns go.

Overall, there is a LOT of GREAT information in this book that's helped me decide on a burner, wood types to use, etc.

I'm happy with the book.

A wonderful book that teaches a beginner so many things! I cannot wait to start working with it!!!

This is great. Wonderful step by step illustrations. I bought it for my 14 year old and he loves it.

A complete and detailed book, with a lot of necessary technical info and tutoring for beginners and advanced. Nice touch are the beautifull step by step examples you can make at the end of the book. If you plan to buy only one book on pyrography, this is it!

Great book! Pictures and written instructions both very helpful. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to get started learning to whittle.

If you are new to whittling (like me) this was a good book to get started on. Lots of things that you can make right away.

This is a lovely little book and written in a very charming humorous manner. Every page is packed with clear coloured photos. Each project is easy to follow and there are loads of ideas for adapting the basics so that you can make your own stuff. There are lots of little tips about being on the trail and camping too. I love it.

Little Book of Whittling is a good book, with a lot of very helpful information in it. it has some really fun projects in it that were quite simple to make. its a great book!

I went to a local wood hobby shop and looked at several carving/whittling books. This one looked good so I bought it on ebay and saved some $s.
I'm a total novice, so this book was perfect. Full of photographs that explain every step. No previous experience necessary. Tip: I've managed to cut myself a few times so I'm wearing gloves until my technique improves. A very relaxing pastime. Highly recommended. If you are wondering which beginners book to buy then buy this.

WONDERFULLY INSPIRING BOOK - I just LOVED it - have studied all the examples and will use them to try my own carvings and paintings on Aussie gourds.
THANKS for writing the book.
Melody Haskins (Downunder, in Australia)

I baught and loved the hard cover of this book. When I saw the paperback version with the fish gourd on the cover (a picture of a
different equily beautiful gourd apears on the hard cover version) I thought yahoo, David Mcfarlane wrote a new book,Gourd art 2. Boy was I wrong. Its the same book, a very good book but the same. Rookie mistake, live and learn.

Beyond the Basics Gourd Art is an excellent book, with exquisite photos, and diverse projects presented by several different artists. A must-have for gourd enthusiasts of all levels!

Great Book even for beginners, easy to follow steps allows creative people to quickly hone their gourd crafting skills.

I really liked this book and found it one of the best for gourd artists. There are so many styles, examples, techniques, designs and suggestions.

It is fabulous for the beginner through the expert. A definite book for your collection.

I bought both this and Volume 2. Returned Volume 1 and am not too thrilled with Volume 2. I have much better books on the same information which include easier to understand instructions, illustrations and certainly a much broader spectrum of challenges. Artfully illustrated but too limited in my opinion. It covers only one technique many time over. Volume 2 goes just a little beyond that! As a design instructor I used the art of "POP UP" as a tool for my students to use paper engineering to exercise their critical thinking skills. I would not have included either volume in my recommended reading for that purpose. It is more of a "cut and paste what is already provided" example of a very limited number of techniques.

If you like pop ups, and want to try different ones, this book is one to have! You can also buy more to cut up instead of cutting up the ones included in the book. There is also websites that you can find (search: Tunnel Book) and you will find a link to this book!

The perfect book for a beginner. As a bonus, the book itself has a fantastic design concept. It presents an example, then you can tear out a card with the pattern for that example, and when you finish, it has a pocket on the next page where you can store the card you just cut. Also, if you don't like cutting up your book, there is an order form for replacement cards. It's nice to see form follow function!!

the Pocket Paper Engineer book is very informative from tools that you'll need to templates for a variety of designs. The only negative i have is that i wish it wasn't on spiral for greater ease of removal of the templates.

Of the several how-to books I own on creating & designing pop-ups, this book disappointed me.
The vast majority is devoted to what is basically one pop-up technique, and the author gives numerous variations on that one type of pop-up as if each were entirely different. Yes, this book is simple & easy to use... great for those who want to play a bit -- or people who work with kids.
For true pop-up explorers however, pop-up mechanisms such as floating layers, scenery flats, boxes, etc. are not included in this book. To really dig into the subject of pop-ups and paper engineering, look elsewhere.

I love this book. I am an Elementary Education student at ECU; when I take this book into the classrooms, the children go crazy! They think the book is hilarious and I agree.

The pics were cute and my kids got a kick out of them, but the book was a flimsy paperback.

I love this author's books and have Food For Thought already. This How Are You Peeling? book is a step beyond the former because it goes beyond simply labeling and illustrating emotions. In elementary poetic rhyme, it asks questions of the reader and gives simple hypothetical scenarios to which the child can respond. (This author's books are fun to take to the grocery store with your young child. My child enjoyed matching the fruits and vegetables on the shelves to those photographed in the book.)

Love this book! Its hilarious, and discusses feelings in a way that doesn't intimidate most kids by being too serious. Reccomended.

I have two sons -- the younger is expressive and outgoing; the older is reserved, reserved, reserved. When we started reading this book, my younger son would mimic all the pictures, and without knowing the words, he would come up with the emotions. Now both boys do this -- figure out the emotions of the food and imagine conversations among them. We rarely read the text, which while funny and rhyming, doesn't excite me as much as what is coming out of my own children's mouths.

I find it extraordinary that this all came about through supermarket produce, but I'm not looking this gift horse in the mouth.

Buy it especially for the pages on jealousy, and shyness, and comforting one another, and what do you do when you're afraid of something. Also for the look of pride on the face of the "adult" pepper.

Two other great choices for emotions (especially for boys) are "I Love You Because You're You" by Liza Baker and "Llama Llama Red Pajama" by Anna Dewdney -- Llama Llama goes through impatience, frustration, tantrums, fear, and comfort.

This is a great book. I have always wanted to offer my customers top quality framed and matted photographs, but wasn't shure how to go about it. This book opened up a whole new world to me, and I bought some reasonably price tools and now I can frame and matt like a professional. This book is worth its' weight in gold.

Author writes from first hand experience and adds in good technical details. Good examples of using common tools and professional tools to create desired results. Many examples and pictures to show how to perform each step. Many areas of framing, matting, and hanging the art are covered. Many references to the best practices are included. Overall a very well written reference book. A great place to start, but include a lot of extra material so the intermediate framer will get a lot out of this book also.

This book focuses mostly on woodworking techniques and building picture frames, with a minimal amount on matting (using the Alto mat cutter), mounting, or aesthetics (choosing colors and proportions). Some modern methods of mounting (for instance, strip mounts in which no glue touches the artwork) aren't even mentioned here. This book might be useful if you want to focus on building picture frames, but for a more general introduction to the kind of framing I might do myself, including assembling frames, I found Logan's "Mat, Mount, and Frame It Yourself" more useful.

These questions are misleading - I ordered one book, and received and paid for two - I have sent emails complaining, and all I get back (weeks later) is this stupid email asking me to rate the book - which book? - where were you when I asked how I got two books? And how do I correct this? - but NO, instead you send me this idiotic questionaire about "the book" I received - is anybody there? Are you people there, or am I talking to a computer? You pretend to care, but it appears you are just robots - HOW DID I GET TWO BOOKS, AFTER ORDERING ONE, PAY FOR TWO and GET ZERO RESPONSE TO MY QUESTIONS?!! Your computer generated concern is phony - the books were fine, Amazon is suspect!

Treat this as an encyclopedia. There is a lot of good information in this book, but a lot more than you need to get going. I have only just finished wading through this thing (after six months) and would have been better off with a book 1/8 the size of this one. For a "How To" book, the author is way too verbose on his way to getting to the bottom line--if he ever does. Only because I am very good at puzzles was I able to pick out the things I really need and the best methods to complete anything - otherwise, you can get terribly confused. The author wastes a lot of time on "you could do this" and "some people do this" when the most helpful advice would be just to say, "Do this."

Don't take this as too harsh an indictment of the book. Afterall, I Learned Everything I Need to Know About Picture Framing from the book. There is A LOT of stuff in it. But I could have done, and you can do, without the exhaustive descriptions of differences between various manual, as well as, power tools. It's a hobby, I expect to spend some money...just tell me what do.

I was surprised to find that my son was interested in receiving this book from his wish list. I ordered it and found the techniques and pictures helpful for someone relatively new to the art of cooking. I'll wait to hear more from him to give my final appraisal.

This book has saved me alot of money! The author lets you know the knives that you really need, and how to use them safely. Following his advice: I started with the basics and bought as needed.

My order was entered, shipped and received within a week and it arrived in excellent condition. Am very pleased

This is an excellent reference book for those serious cooks, especially commercial chefs. Great guide for both left and right- handed cooks with different variations for the same cut.
The only bit that I am disappointed with is the section for sharpening knives, there are no illustrations for sharpening against steel rods or ceramic stone which should play an important role in knife skills - ensuring your knife is sharp!

`Knife Skills Illustrated' by cooking instructor, Peter Hertzmann, is eminently subtitled, `A User's Manual', as one could wish that such a book actually accompanied your one thousand dollar plus set of French, German, or Japanese knife sets, except that Professor Hertzmann makes the excellent case, along with almost everyone else who covers the subject, that you only really need three knife styles, the chef's knife, a pruning knife, and a serrated slicing knife.
Before buying this book, one must consider another volume, `The Professional Chef's Knife Kit' prepared by The Culinary Institute of America. The book has only 3/5 the pages of Hertzmann's volume, and costs five more dollars, list price, but it actually covers far more ground and may actually be preferable to Hertzmann if you already know your way around a chef's knife and cutting board.
Hertzmann's book is truly for the inexperienced amateur, in that he covers only the most basic techniques; however, he does this very, very well. Two aspects of the book may leave the professional or skilled amateur a bit impatient. The first is that all techniques are fully illustrated from the point of view of both a right-handed and a left-handed person. Thus, a lion's share of the book's 256 pages duplicate information. The second is that the sections on preparing vegetables often repeat the same techniques for produce where the methods are very similar, as with an onion and a shallot or a turnip and a potato.
This said, all the instruction Hertzmann gives us is very, very good. Coverage includes all the usual subjects, such as how to hone a knife, how to wash and store knives, how to use, wash, and care for cutting boards, and how to hold and handle knives safely. I may have been just a bit disappointed that the author did not cover knife sharpening in more detail, but I firmly agree with the author (and many others as well) that with expensive knives, this task is best done by a good professional. I am also just a bit surprised that Hertzmann does not give just a bit more attention to use of the Santoku design knife and the Chinese and Japanese style vegetable cleavers, especially as the author points out that his first real training was with Martin Yan, and that he used the Oriental style cleaver for many years before switching over to the European style chef's knife.
Even though much of the material is familiar to an experienced cook, I found a few tips which were so good to virtually be worth the cost of the book. High on that list is the better method for finding the best point on asparagus to cut off the woody ends. As I have often thought, the test snap method really wastes much good vegetable. Another rare and valuable piece of advice is the three different methods for dicing an onion, one of which is especially useful if you don't need to dice the entire vegetable.
In contrast, the CIA Knife Kit book goes far beyond Hertzmann in dealing with both far more different types of cuts such as rondelles, ripple cuts, gaufrettes, ribbons, Paysanne, Tourne, Fermiere and decorative cuts. The book also covers using a mandoline in great detail and gives far more detailed descriptions and photographs on techniques for washing, storing, and honing knives. And, most importantly, if you are willing to do it, precise information on how to sharpen knives using a whetstone. There is a fair amount of information in this book which an amateur may never use, but all of it is useful to both a professional and an amateur who is simply interested in how the professional does things. It is also important to point out that the material in this book does not appear in the big CIA book `The New Professional Chef'.
This book is perfect for the person who simply wants to be able to make Rachael Ray recipes in almost 30 minutes (Rachael can do it simply because she has all these skills). It is also a boon to people who like to cook efficiently, but don't know where to find these basic skills (and doesn't have the time to watch the collected 256 episodes of Alton Brown's `Good Eats' show. If you already have good knife skills, consider the CIA book instead.

This was my kids favorite bed time story for a long time. And I must admit one of my favorites too. Although watch out for the whisper/shout page at the end of the book, it is very easy to get the kids all riled up just before bed time. Great book, we often give it as a gift.

I got this book for my nephew's birthday (he was turning 3) and he really loved it. It's really something fun and different for kids and all the parents were even entertained by it! I have had a hard time finding these books in bookstores, so I'm glad I've been able to purchase them on Amazon. I would definitely recommend this book for the little ones.

I had a couple of the Saxton Freymann books hanging around the house from my teaching days (Dog Food and How Are You Peeling). My 4 year old twins found them one day and loved them. I ordered them Food for Thought for Christmas last year and it is still a highly requested bedtime book. I love looking at the pictures as much as they do! It is amazing how they accomplish this using only food items.

Another picture book from the creative minds of Elffers and Freymann. This one illustrates concepts (shapes and colors, numbers and letters, opposites) with big, bold, and colorful photos of fruits and vegetables carved and combined into expressive faces and adorable animals and scenes. Each page is a new puzzle: H for Hair is easily identified as a leek (you might have to explain 'leek' to a child), root end up, but what are the 'insects'? (blueberries with onionskin wings). The humor may occasionally go over a child's head (look at X for X-ray) but that doesn't matter, he will still love identifying the fruits and vegetables the characters are made of. This is a wonderful book for group reading, children are captivated by the colors and illustrations and the large format makes it easy to see even for the children toward the back of the group. If you've liked others in this series you won't want to miss this one.

It's got a little bit of everything--fruits & vegetables, colors, shapes, letters, animals, opposites. Even adults will say "how imaginative!"

This book is an excellent source of easy to understand information. The information is easy to follow but is also very specific and well written. I recommend this book to anyone buying colored stones even if it is already in jewelry.

This is an excellent book for a beginner such as I. It goes into detail on all aspects of gems, but not to such an extent that it would get boring. The color photographs are beautiful, and whet the appetite for more knowledge on the subject of gems. Highly recommended.

I have worn this one out. I need to pick up another copy. This is a MUST BUY!!!

This book is a must have for the beginner collector of gemstones. I refer to it practically everyday.

This book is a GREAT resource for gem buying. I'm hooked on the jewelry shows on TV and I think this book has given me the "edge" I need when purchasing gems.