Teaching Books

I bought this book for the Math Methods class in my credential program. I think it will be a book I will use as a great resource when teaching Math. I highly recommend this book to any teacher that teaches or will teach math.

I have only worked with this book for a few weeks but am very pleased with what I am experiencing. There are numerous graphs, suggestions with ways to engage students, and internet links are available for teaching suggestions and math games.

This book clearly explains the material using visual supports like graphs and diagrams in bright colors. Internet sights for lesson suggestions, assessment and lesson reinforcing games. A great tool and a good resource that I plan to keep on hand.

My teacher hasn't even had us open the book yet. No assignments from it either. If we were not going to use the book i would have liked to know and saved my self $100. But I'm sure its a good book i just haven't used it.

This book is a great resource when planning lessons. I am a first-year Fifth Grade teacher and this book has proven invaluable to me when it comes to breaking down lessons into sequential activities. Another larger textbook was recommended to me, but comparatively, this book is concise and is very practical.

This was a required text for a M.Ed. class. The practices in this book are almost perfectly aligned with Massachusetts frameworks and the Connnected Math Project (CMP) text used by my district (Lowell). This book is very rich with lesson plan fodder and takes pains to explain the 'why' of CMP as well as the how. I'll be relying on this book for years to come.

As a teacher I have encountered many points of view as to what will work best in my classroom. This book presents specific strategies that have the data and research to support their consistent use in enhancing student achievement. For seasoned teachers, like myself, although the strategies are not necessarily new, it is good to know which of the myriad of tools we have acquired over the years actually work and have the data to prove it. An excellent "tune up" for the classroom. I will put this into action right away this year and I am glad I read it over the summer to help me reshape my instruction for the coming year.

The insights provided in this book guide and inspire the new teacher and the master teacher. The book left me excited about returning to school in the fall.

This is a very dry book with a lot of excellent ideas. Though hard to read, it is valid in what it presents.

I felt the book was an excellent read. I liked the way it segmented and summarized the classroom instruction methods. However, I did feel at times it went too deep into the research portion, when a nice short summary would have done the job. Also thought the charts used to document research findings could have been displayed better. Overall, as a non-teacher pursuing a teaching degree, it brought me up to speed on classroom instruction strategies.

This booklet provides vastly more instruction on the nitty-gritty of what teachers need in the classroom. Thank you!

This is a discussion of curriculum for the education of poor people. It is written by a man who made it his life mission to help the oppressed masses. While Freire no longer lives, his work continues in South America.
This book is an insight to Freire's thoughts.

Like the famous non-sense poem, the book feels like it ought to make sense, but it never does. As you read, you will have the feeling of impending meaning, and that in the next paragraph, or on the next page, or in the next chapter, everything will come together and you will have your moment of clarity. Never happens.

Whatever you think Paulo Freire means, you are wrong.

Over a year ago 24 of us decided to co-found the Earth Intelligence Network and begin producing public intelligence in the public interest. We quickly expanded the vision to include a Transpartisan Policy Institute and a Public Budget Office. Today, for free, any citizen can get a weekly report on "GLOBAL CHALLENGES: The Week in Review." Our free report is superior in multiple ways to the President's Daily Brief, which costs the taxpayer $1.2 billion per WEEK ($60 billion for secret intelligence, pro rated over 52 weeks).

Early on we realized that educating the five billion poor was both a non-negotiable first step, and "mission impossible" if we accepted the standard educational system that is part prison, part child care and part didactic dildo display (my lesson outline is bigger than yours).

Before I read this book, we had conceptualized a concept for educating the five billion poor "one cell call at a time," leveraging free cell phones and 100 million volunteers covering 183 languages, each using Telelanguage and Skype to be available on demand.

Now, with this book, and also Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage (Critical Perspectives Series), I feel we have struck the mother lode.

A few notes and then some other links.

+ Stark critique of the "banking" system of education that deposits knowledge without teaching critical thinking or how to create new knowledge.

+ Relevant to US, not just Third World.

+ It's about class, not race. Concentration of wealth above, poverty below.

+ The author illuminates for all of us "the humanizing voaction of the individual" and the "power of thought to negate accepted limits."

+ Modern education instills a culture of silence and lethargy. Friere's work instead inspires liberation, dignity, and the ability to change.

+ Illiterates are not stupid, they just cannot read. They *can* be empowered, taught, and energized orally.

+ Education is NOT neutral--it is either teaching for the benefit of the oppressors (producing docile factory workers) or for the benefit of the opprssed (liberating, empowering with individual volition).

+ Dehumanization is a historical reality.

+ False charity perpetuates dependenct.

+ Recognition of reality liberates BOTH the oppressed and the oppressor.

+ Oppressed must break free from "having is being" and learn that "being is enough."

+ The oppressed cannot be "granted" freedom, it must result from an interactive dialog that liberates both sides

+ Liberation and revolution or transformation for the good of all are essentially pedagogical missions with very high ethical content.

+ Humanizing pedagogy is the anti-thesis of propaganda, manipulation, and deceit.

+ "Co-intentional" education

+ Authentic thinking can only be realized in communication with another

+ Pyramical (one-way) education enslaves, circular (multi-way)education liberates

+ Any educational system that does not respect nor elicit the student's own worldview is culturally invasive

+ Education of the five billion poor must begin by LISTENING to them.

+ "Libertarian education" STARTS with the needs and views of those to be educated.

+ Communion and communication leads to cooperation and cultural synthesis.

A few links:
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism

This is a profound little book that makes a cogent argument for effective change in individual and social thought processes. It will change the way you think about oppression and what it actually is for those who are oppressed. This is a book for everyone but especially for those who want to make a change for the better in themselves and the society at large. A thought provoking and challenging book!

You will see how his idea is very influential in the educational discourse. Intrigued particularly by the Chapter 2, I would say that his revlutionary notion of education will be alive and well-adapted in the contemporary educational practices.

Freire wants to critisize the idea of narrative education in which teachers just impose students with plentiful information without encouraging them to think cirtically and to search for realilty, and students just listen passively, try to memorize, and repeat teacher's words and lessons accordingly. In fact, education should be to forster students' creativity, transformation ,and knowledge so that it helps them to become fully human being. In the ideology of oppression, teacher is the oppressor, and students are the oppressed. It means it is not neccessary for students to argue, ask questions, have their own position, and the roles of teacher are to preach students and to dominate their opinions. In other words, it is called the banking concept of education used by oppresors to change the mind of the oppressed in order to easily cotrol them. Conversely, the concept of liberian education entails deeper cooperation between teachers and students. Teachers and students can learn from each other because students must be seen as people who have prior knowlege and raise their opinions influencing teachers'.

Amazon was very honest about the condition of my book. It arrived in a timely fashion, and was in great condition. There was no writing or highlighting, just as they told me.

I am writing a review to help clarify what is shipped with the book. Some reviewers expressed discontent that Amazon does not include the Atlas. I received my order yesterday and it included the textbook, the Atlas, and the My A&P CD. This is the complete package and is the same as the package sold at the campus bookstore.

This book I guess looks like it will teach me if I read it. The book came just like I ordered it, and there was no surprises when I opened the book. I have yet to read anything from it, because classes have not yet started.

When I first recieved this book in the mail, I was suprised at just how big it was. Over the next couple of nights I looked over the book and I come to realize that this book is an absolute must have for any medical student. Such wonderful, detailed pictures that are going to be great when it comes time for review. I haven't started my class yet but I will post something later on for those that want to know how it went.

Haven't used the book yet. It was delivered promptly. Great condition. Very satisfied. Exactly what I wanted. Thank you Amazon!

I thought maybe I should borrow this newer version of the Barron's GRE from the library and see if there's a big difference between this and the 2006-2007 one. I was disappointed that all the materials including the practice exams were the same. I would not bother to get a newer version if you already have the 2006-2007.

I've never been moved to write a review before, but this book has influenced me to do so.

I hadn't taken a math class for five years before I took the GRE, so I was incredibly worried. On the diagnostic test I scored around a 400. Not so great. Thanks to this book, in less than two weeks I was able to boost my math score to a 680 when I took the real test. I'm sure I could've done even better, if I had started studying earlier!

The examples in the math section are clear and easy to follow, as are the explanations. The list of most common words in the verbal section is also a great asset, as many of the words I studied appeared as choices while taking the exam.

If you're rusty and need some fine tuning before taking the GRE, this is a great book to help you!

In preparing for the GRE, I used the Princeton Review book, Kaplan vocabulary flash cards, and the Barron's book. Of the three, I feel the Princeton Review was the most useful to overall test prep.

The Barron's book excels at vocabulary: their list of words is extremely large and pretty comprehensive from what I've seen. In addition, they break down roots and stems which makes taking an educated guess on a word you're unsure of or have never seen substantially easier.

I feel the math on the Barron's was much more comprehensive than it needed to be. Often, questions on the Barron's tests were on material that would not show up on the actual test. In addition, their data interpretation questions are plagued with poorly drawn graphs that make it hard to ascertain the values. I had to make approximate guesses on data questions that demanded exact answers simply because the graphs didn't provide adequate labels.

However, unless you are testing on paper, the practice paper tests really don't help much more than provide more practice questions. To get an understanding of the rhythm of a computer-adjusted test, you really need to take computer-adjusted ones! When you can't skip and have limited time, it's important to learn how much time to spend guessing and how important it is to ace the first third of the test. Where Barron's is weak is its lone computer-adjusted test. For this reason, I feel the Barron's book is less helpful than the Princeton Review. If I had to pick one book, I would get the PR because of those extra tests - they make all the difference.

In short, the Barron's will overprepare you for the math and provide a comprehensive word list. It's great at preparing you for specific questions. However, it doesn't do a very good job of preparing you to TAKE the test, which is the most important aspect of acing the GRE. For that, I would recommend another book, especially the Princeton Review's.

I bought this book about 9 months before I actually took my GRE. The paper practice sections and tests were very helpful however some of the explinations lacked. The math was more helpful than the vocabulary, I would recommend additional help in that area.

I had Barron's 2006 and I bought the 2009 one hoping that it would better prepare me for the GRE. The content of the book is EXACTLY the same as the older version. My suggestion is - save your money, buy older version - it's much cheaper and has 99.9% same contents (questions + reviews).

This product is by far the undisputed standard for learning how to read, write & speak arabic. I have purchased many others before buying this one, including 'teach yourself arabic' and 'living language complete arabic' but they fell far short of expectations.

The text is thorough and is filled with challenging and interesting exercises. The DVDs complement the text very well, and make the learning experience more interactive and interesting. The native speakers featured are excellent and the dialogues relevant. One of the best features of this course is the positioning of standard arabic alongside egyptian colloquial arabic. I found this especially helpful as over the years, I have developed a basic command of spoken egyptian arabic and had no idea what the standard equivalent was. This course has given me the ability to differentiate between both and switch accordingly depending on the situation.

I would recommend this course to anyone interested in learning arabic without hesitation. Other courses I have purchased in the past are far inferior and do not even compare to this one.

While I would say that you shouldn't try this on your own, in the context of the classroom, it's a very useful resource. It does not stand on its own in terms of learning material for everyday conversational use but it does not pretend to do so.

For those who would knock it, read the introduction. It is not shy about relating the amount of effort that must be put in to get an adequate result.

I have been a language teacher for 18 years and have been teaching Arabic with this book for the past three. First of all, I have to admit that this is appears to be the top-selling most-used book among the many colleges that are adding Arabic to their curriculum. The authors of the book appear to aware of modern teaching methods and have attempted to incorporate them into their book. The DVDs are, by far the most popular item. The storyline that is presented is popular with students, and there are a number of items which can be adaped for practice outside of class. That being said, there are a number of drawbacks to the book. The book lacks many of the visuals and varied practice exercises found in other language textbooks. It ends up being more of a series of grammar explanations with rote exercises to practice. The vocabulary and topics presented revolve around the stories from the DVDs. While this is good communicative methodology, the way in which it is done leaves the student somewhat limited with regard to vocabulary for other areas. I am using Ahlan wa Sahlan in my high school classes, and while that book does not have the glitzy multimedia materials, it appears to be somewhat more complete and balanced with regard to introducing topics. Either or these two books are probably some of the most popular and best choices available, but any student who has studied Spanish will immediately realize how far behind Arabic is with regard to contemporary materials.

Teachers of Arabic need to learn how to write books for westerners! This isn't bad for a "conversational" type learning tool, as long as you actually have the accompanying DVDs (you'll be institutionalized for insanity without them!), but this publication contains no relativity to standard applications of linguistic educational methods.
There are no structural standardizations of verbs, prepositions, rules, or structural contexts as such. This is a frustrating book for the advanced multi-linguist who immediately looks for verb ending sequences, sentence constructs and grammatical rules. This isn't to say that the books are devoid of rules, just not in a manner that the experienced language student would expect them...
It's not a badly organized tool for the traveling student who wants to advance with social speaking ability, but without proper grammatical constructs, you will not be able to advance without a teacher to clarify many aspects of structure that are absent!
If you want to learn to SPEAK Arabic, the DVDs enhance that aspect of the speaking process with specific linguistic applications and examples by native speakers...(apparently with Egyptian dialect?) Unfortunately, if you are trying to learn to speak gulf Arabic, your Kuwaiti and Iraqi friends are probably going to laugh at you!

Most of the points about this book's limitations have been made already (Harun ar-rashid's review for example) but I can't resist the urge to point out a few that I find particularly irritating.

--Vocabulary pages and the glossaries are right-justified. This means six inches between the beginning of the word in English on the left and the beginning of its counterpart in Arabic on the right. It's hard to scan across inches of white space between the words without rules under each line.

Vocab lists benefit from being narrow but in this book the words are as far apart as they can possibly get. I draw lines under each entry as a visual aid. Better to have the Arabic word in the left column, right-justified, and the English word in the right column, left justified. So they're back-to-back, as it were. Better still three columns, with the transliteration in the middle column. But...

--No transliteration. It's apparently a crutch that runs counter to the "see if you can figure it out" pedagogical principle the authors have embraced (the "coy" or "where's Waldo" methodology). But that gulf of white space in the vocab listings is a perfect place for a transliteration. I have a Japanese vocab book that does just that. Three columns: the word in English, the Japanese word in romaji, the word in kanji. All in about three inches horizontally. This is non-coy. It allows for different angles of attack. Some people (like me) prefer to get the pronunciation down before tackling the written word. I can memorize the words quickly given the aural cue of transliteration then armed with its sound and meaning, learn the written word. In other words providing the transliteration allows you to break the memorization down into more granular discrete tasks which you can then organize according to your learning style. Also the transliterations should be used within the English explanations of the grammar. Plunking individual words written in Arabic in the middle of English sentences is awkward and unnatural.

--Of course, it's ridiculous that you learn how to say "my maternal aunt is a translator at the United Nations" before you learn how to say "where is the bathroom". "Political science" before "I don't know", etc.

--Inconsistent written Arabic. On page 7 are three different representations of the word "feminine". On the next page is a fourth way. Look it up in the glossary and sure enough, a fifth way. Two ways I can deal with: vowelled first, unvowelled thereafter. No more, please.

--The typography is uninviting, primitive, hideous almost, as if produced using a typesetting system from the 1950s. The Arabic font is smudgy (shadda and hamza are sometimes just blurs), the page layout is atrocious (eg, the tables on pp 24-5).

Jane Wightwick's Easy Arabic Grammar explains the grammar in a much smaller, visually appealing presentation. After finding and puzzling through al-Kitaab's explanations I look at Wightwick for the concise version.

The most useful thing about al-Kitaab I think are the example sentences for the vocab words. But these sentences, which are spoken on the DVD, aren't in the book! They are, however, in the so-called Answer Key. Who knows why--they aren't "answers". They're examples, and useful ones, though of course no translation is provided. Hiding them untranslated in the answer key is in keeping with the "where's Waldo" methodology.

So, here's one way to extract some usefulness out of this beast. There's a CD of the MP3 version of all the files on the DVDs (not easy to find, naturally--it's in Amazon, do a search, same author). Get it, put the MP3s onto the computer, and rearrange them into playlists structured according to what you need. I have the vocab lists and their helpful example sentences in a separate playlist. I copy those sentences from the answer key onto separate sheets. Then on the iPod, put the playlist on repeat while reading the sentences. This is much easier to manage than the clumsy DVDs, and you can listen to them in the car.

Figuring out how to extract useful info from this book is a task in itself. The pity is, that the language is already hard enough, and a book like this makes it harder still.

Whether you're an avid outdoor parent or family, this is an important read. If active in nature and its various outlets, it will validate your commitment with your family. If not, it will serve as a primer and, certainly, important motivation to incorporate the natural world in your child's upbringing. Nature, albeit remarkably complex, can also be taken in with simplistic beauty. I would recommend, first, a read of Rachael Carson's "A Sense of Wonder." Then Louv's narrative will provide the road map. His book is destined to be tagged with "classic" if it hasn't already. I cannot imagine a more important book for a family library.

This may very well be one of the most important books I have read this year ... or the past few years.

I purchased "Last Child in the Woods" right after I heard Richard Louv interviewed on a local radio program. I was so moved by his message and impressed with the breadth of his knowledge and depth of experience. And it all translates well in the book.

"Last Child..." feels more like a conversation than a text(book). It's just that comfortable and open. Yet it very strikingly paints a picture of what is currently happening to children and our world as well as what may yet happen if nothing is done to reverse "nature deficit disorder". But, more importantly, there are also bright examples of hope and suggestions as to what we can do, as individuals and in larger groups, to cultivate appreciation of -- and cooperation with -- the natural world.

Anyone who wants to awaken a love of nature in their kids, or simply deepen their own nature walk, should give this inspiring book a chance.

I whole-heartedly recommend this important book. Richard Louv's book sparked a movement that had been simmering under the surface for some time -- with the rapid growth of technology in recent years, our children are spending less and less time outside.

I work with Green Hour, a campaign of the National Wildlife Federation, that aims to inspire parents to encourage their kids to turn off the computer, IPod and TV and GET OUTSIDE! Check out www.greenhour.org to find the tools you need as a parent to help fight nature deficit disorder.

Childhood obesity, ADHD, and basic developmental problems have been associated to this broken link with the outdoors.

The new edition is great -- there are ideas in the back for getting kids outdoors...

Anne Keisman
Green Hour

Louv claims that children spend less and less time outdoors because of parental fears, electronic toys and a variety of other reasons. He explains what the implications are for children and adults: attention problems, disconnectedness with the world, lower productivity. Louv makes the case for why and how parents, teachers and others should help children connect with nature. I really liked the book overall, although I felt like some of the chapters could have been more concise. The second addition has an appendix with a concise practical list of things parents can do.

I'm young enough that I still get called "kid" by my friends' parents, and when I saw the cover of this book in the store, with the kid holding a frog, I instantly felt like this book was about someone just like me. When I started reading, I felt so even more.

I've lived in forests and next to creeks all my life, but today, I look around at my friends and I see that most of my generation wasn't as lucky as me. They're all scared of bugs, (even moths!) they adamantly refuse to swim in the lake, (won't even touch salt water) they pick their way slowly and clumsily through the bushes trying not to touch anything... one friend brings an entire fold-out kitchen with her whenever we go camping. (At least she actually goes.) They call me "extreme", when all I did to become this way was catch some frogs, build some stick forts and flip over a few rocks to see what lived underneath.

It took the contrast of moving to the city to show me that there was a problem. I'm not a parental person, but looking around at my friends and peers and seeing them nature-handicapped.. it sucks. I don't want more people to have this problem. And though I haven't finished the book, every sentence has really resonated with me. This is extremely valuable information.
Kids have to know what frogs smell like, where to find snails and snakes, how to hop down a wet trail without getting muddy, or climb up a steep slope in the forest; they have to feed squirrels in the park and learn to fall down and not notice they've scraped their elbow. They should be learning to build things out of branches and leaves and rocks. They should be watching the animals. They need a secret place.

The memories I have of playing on the wilderness are some of the best I have. If they don't learn how now, they'll be too afraid to try later! And then Wall-E happens.

I wanted know is this product was suitable for my requirements. I needed a publication which would assist in my ability to converse in Spanish. As the verb conjugations in this language are complicated I needed something to refer to at any given time. I found this book most helpful because it helped me to bring back to mind things I had previously learned while living in Spain, which I started to learn late in life and therefore not so easy to retain. I recommend this publication and others in the series to anyone who is determined to continue using this language.

I would recommend this book along with Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions for any level learner of Spanish, but I'd advise you to have a little bit previous knowledge. It's really cheap, explains every important concept in a very simple way and includes lots of exercises to practice. I've been using this book since the summer after I finished my first year of Elementary Spanish at college. I think it was very useful, especially in my second year of Spanish when I still didn't understand many grammar concepts but was given a text book written entirely in Spanish. This workbook explains things very clearly in English, which is important for beginners. Now that I am close to fluent in Spanish, I still use this book now and again to look up things I'm fuzzy on, and I definitely plan to use it to help me as a Teaching Assistant for students next year.

Advancing within my present employment requires Spanish fluency. To achieve bi-lingual certification, I purchased various Spanish software programs. My progress remained slow. I began to believe that I had no hope of ever going beyond understanding a word or two from each sentence, and hoping I could manage something that made sense in reply.

Conjugating verbs was my greatest obstacle until I found this book. I can now reason out which tense to use, and which order to place the verb and subject in a sentence. I wish I had found this book sooner!

The book presents each rule in manageable segments, then gives excercizes to test the reader's understanding. The excercizes are excellent reinforcement. I write the answers on a separate piece of paper rather than in the book. Leaving the pages unmarked allows me to repeat sections that might have given me problems the first time, as well as review excercizes after I've moved on. I also made up my own flashcards and vocabulary lists using the verbs and supplemental vocabulary lists. The cards or lists are reviewed 20 minutes each day, using various mnemonic techniques which I learned elsewhere.

I now have a three prong approach to learning Spanish: the book for understanding grammar, lists and flashcards for expanding and testing vocabulary, software and TV to hear Spanish spoken by native speakers and to record my own voice in reply.

I am finally making progress! This book was worth every penny. IT WORKS!

This book was extremely helpful for me as you really need this kind of written practice in Spanish verbs if you are going to fully master the various conjugations (especially for me sitting a university paper in spanish).

I highly recommend it, it really helped me practice recalling the words out of my own head.

Use this book as a companion to whatever book/CD (grammar, vocab. Rosetta stone etc.) you are using to learn Spanish. I've finished the Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish volume 1, and know a little bit of Spanish now. But if you are a beginner-beginner, this book may not be right for you. Especially, it may be very challenging for a new student to translate English into Spanish. Every section ends with a "translation/traduccion" exercise. In the first unit, you have to translate a whole paragraph--about 10 sentences of English--into Spanish.

Example from the 1st Unit translation exercise: "Marcos lives in Montana. His mother works in a school where she teaches music and phys. ed. In the morning she plays the piano, sings, and practices with the band."

If you started Spanish yesterday or today and are able to translate this in Spanish, you are definitely a genius. Without finishing the Level 1 of the Rosetta Stone, I would never have been able to translate it.

This is a fantastic book with a lot of exercises. No question about it. But if you are a beginner-beginner, use this book as a companion (not as your primary source) to whatever CD/books you are using now.

This book has a lot of information not only on how to read the Bible, but also on its historical context (exegesis) and how it can apply to us today (harmenuetics.) This book has so much though that to read this book for all its worth requires a dictionary and time. If you want to learn about the Bible as well as how to read and understand it and have the time to go through it, then this book will be a great buy for you.

Great book that provides a great tool for how to get deeper into the Bible. It is easy to follow and fairly simple to see the points. They provide great examples from different passages with different translations. And using different examples on how to go through an exegesical study helps the reader to follow the process. Highly recommended.

Another book that was required for a course. Another book that would not otherwise have been purchased. Content was OK. It contained some helpful and insightful information.

The book is an excellent journey into the word of God and will get you pointed in the right direction. Many Christians do not study the word of God in the correct context and this book rectifies a long standing problem in the Evangelical community concerning the interpretation of Scripture. I was concerned about the author's pushing the TNIV as the translation of choice for serious study of the Bible. I would have preferred that they used the NRSV with the TNIV being a strong secondary translation for study. I did appreciate the fact that they encouraged the use of Bible dictonaries and commentaries to study scripture, but I felt that thay should have done a chapter on good study bibles that can aid in understanding the text. I did feel that they interjected their opinions too much in the book and gave us their pet peeves, couched in the language of exegesis and hermeneutics. In the same vein, they did debunk a few misinterpretations on some biblical passages and they allow for healthy dissent. The most important thing is to read the Bible and this book gives a good start.

The title says it all. If you want to read the Bible for all its worth, you, not only read the book, but have to have your own copy. I borrowed the book from the library and started digging into it. There were many valuable Bible verses provided to illustrate and support the important points of the author's view. In order to gain the most from the book, I would need to go through all of these references. Since I did not have the time to do this at one time, I would like to keep a copy on my book shelf. In this case, I would be able to refer to it whenever I need to. So, I decided to purchase my own copy. If you are serious about understanding the Bible, I highly recommend this book to you.

I thought this book was just OK. Much of the information was good and I will use it in our home. However, the examples they used in this book were outrageous. Who in this day and age is going to let their kid off to walk home. Also, allowing a child to determine whether they go to school or not is silly.

For the people reviewing this book who think it is cruel to children, or might lead to a drop in self-esteem, I suggest reading a study by a Dr. Dweck. It did a study on praising children, and the gist of the study is that children respond better to being told they are hard workers than being told they're smart. How does this relate to the book? Instead of constantly coddling your child, Love and Logic encourages you to put your confidence in their abilities, implying that you think they can work through their problems. This is great for self-esteem! Taking responsibility for yourself is a huge confidence builder (take it from someone whose mom was still making Dr. appointments for her at 21). Everyone fails. Letting your children make small mistakes ,and believe me, being cold all day because you didn't want to bring your coat is a SMALL mistake, helps them see that they can deal with the consequences of their failures/mistakes, making them more willing to try things. And for those who think Love and Logic doesn't offer good advice about parenting, keep in mind that this is a book about disciplining children. It specifically states in Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood to make sure your children enjoy being with you so that sending them to their rooms seems like a punishment. It also says to set a responsible example and take care of yourself, but that's about the extent of their off-disciplinarian parenting advice. It doesn't make it a bad book, just like you wouldn't consider a history text incomplete for not having math in it. I thought it was a great book and have had much success with it, as has my sister who introduced me to it. I recommend it to anyone I see struggling with their children.

My family is getting ready to adopt a special needs child and they were told to purchase this book along with the Martian Child movie. We purchased both of these items and they are very good to help in the thought processes behind a special needs child. The book shows a completely different way in bringing up children versus the old fashioned way. We have not finished the book yet but we are darn sure it is going to help.

There are a ton of "parenting" books available but this one is helping me a great deal. Good illustrations and easy to read; the logic makes sense and the love is there.

One of the co-authors of this book (Foster Cline, M.D.) is the psychiatrist whose "attachment therapy" resulted in deaths and torture of children. (See "Advocates for Children in Therapy" at http://www.childrenintherapy.org/.) My child -- now 20 and an honors student adored by family and friends -- had oppositional and destructive behavior with tantrums. My husband and I followed advice similar to that in this book, culminating when our son became suicidal at age 8. At that point my husband and I looked at each other with the simultaneous unspoken thought: "We can't keep treating him this way." We instead relied on our own sense of how far to go. Later, when I read, "The Explosive Child" by Ross Green, I said to myself, "This man has written a book describing how we decided to raise our son!" It was such a relief to read, "The Explosive Child." Our change in approach paid off -- and the medications finally were tweaked correctly, and guess what: his behavior changed overnight from awful to excellent. It wasn't that he didn't WANT to behave like others: it was that he COULDN'T. As soon as the medications allowed him to control his behavior and distorted perceptions, all the good parenting and modeling we had done kicked in immediately. "Love and Logic" is based on the belief that natural consequences are all that's needed -- but if your child has a brain disorder that causes a distorted view of what's happening, the consequences you would have to resort to would be torture.
It's MUCH MUCH better to understand the disorder and how it is distorting your child's thoughts and perceptions, and get it treated by a board-certified child psychiatrist. Also, read, "The Explosive Child." (By the way, our son has not taken any medications in three years. The medications bought him time to mature enough to be able to make use of cognitive-behavioral techniques to control his anxiety. I also think the medications may have allowed his brain to develop normally so that eventually he didn't need them.)