Nonfiction Books

I found Todd Whitaker's, "What Great Principals Do Differently: Fifteen Things that Matter Most," to be an extremely helpful book. The book's easy to follow format provides practical advice for any new administrator to use. I found Whitaker's book to be a fast read, and I believe any principal or assistant principal can apply concepts from this book to their daily work. From getting the best performance from staff and students, to creating a positive climate in the building, Whitaker gives many practical pieces of advice. Whitaker's focus on teachers being key to school improvement is an obvious solution often overlooked. I would recommend any new principal reading this book.

If you have read "What Good Teachers Do Differently' or visa versa don't buy it. It is almost verbatim and a WASTE of money and time.

Great book, looking to venture into administration soon and was looking for literature to use with potential faculty and staff.

I could not put this book down. Out of all the educational leadership books I've read, this was a simple read with the most applicable suggestions. It is a resource that I can read over again and get more out of it.

I read his other book What Great Teachers Do differently and enjoyed it. It is a quick read and inspires conversation. As a result, I quickly purchased his other book. Unfortunately, most of the chapters were the same but where it read "teacher" in one book it read "principal" in this one. So obviously I was disappointed that I paid for the same book twice. Pick one book for sure. It is worth it. But not both.

I liked this one better than the boys' version because, for the most part, the tips in this book were more applicable to normal life. With the exception of surviving an alien invasion or a zombie attack.

Some of my favorites: keeping your shoes smalling fresh (I'll have to try this with my derby pads and skates), dealing with bullies, traveling light, studying for exams, eating with chopsticks, and basic ballet positions.

Great buy, my 10 year old daughter loves it, my son likes to read it, it's just a fun book all around!

A better title for this book would be
A girls guide on how to be an obnoxious, ignorant, stuck up brat.
Not only are today's younger girls becoming more superficial, misinformed, ignorant, and mindless, this book only reinforces it by providing a form of authority to support lousy behavior.
I read through this book and every page boggled my mind at how anyone would want their young daughters to read this kind of garbage.
Yes, this book is full of misinformation (the section on animals), tells girls to behave like stuck up snobs (celebrity page), and promotes irritating and obnoxious behavior (how to annoy people). So what does a girl gain from reading this? She doesn't become more educated, Doesn't become more informed, doesn't become smarter, doesn't get to think about anything, doesn't become better at anything.
Looks like anyone with any kind of idea can publish any lousy book nowadays and make money by taking advantage of people's apathy about everything.

The book was purchased for a 12 year old's birthday. The binding was amazing for this type of product: foil embossing, and counter-sunk as well. The tweener loved it and spent a lot of time with her mother going through it. I intend on looking into the rest of the series next year. Can you get much better than that?

I've been a daring girl since I was born. This book really moved me along. The ideas contained within are creative and fun for every girl! This book is for girls, everyone else should read the Adventures With Boys series, I did!

I bought this book to illustrate to my daughter the two different styles of eating, and particularly, the proper way to use a fork and knife using the Continental style of eating, which is far more elegant and efficient.

It does not have a single illustration for this. Far better to buy "Etiquette for Dummies" or "The Little Book of Etiquette" currently available from Amazon (December 2007).

Fabulous! While this book provides helpful information on everyday subjects like how to behave at a friend's house and the movie theater,it's best advice deals with the tough issues: visiting a dying (and scary) relative in the hospital, bumping into friends at a public birthday party that you weren't invited to and consoling a friend whose parent has died, to name a few.

Definitely worth the price for my eight-year-old daughter, who enjoys reading the book as much as I like her learning the appropriate responses to problems that we can't always anticipate.

The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know EverythingAs a positive psychologist and the author of a book intended to also help girls develop into fine human beings, knowing how to be true to themselves and yet versatile at adapting to changes and difficulties, I am thrilled to see another book that has a similar goal. My book, The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I know Everything gives girls the courage to share their feelings and concerns and to be proud of who they are, while facing growing up challenges. A Smart Gir's Guide to Manners, may appear to focus on the exterior, i.e. manners, but really is much truer to the inner self than one might expect. The book explains in simple language why the girl will benefit from manners, psychologically in terms of how she will feel inside and also socially, in terms of how manners will benefit her situations in life. Also, the book makes clear some of the blindspots that girls can get into and helps them out of them. For example, other people's moms are not invisible and should be talked to politely, when a girl plays or visits at someone else's home. I love the simple, yet clear style of this book and the examples of situations are very well done. This book just hits the spot! Thank you, Nancy Holyoke!

Give your child a handbook of the survival skills that she will need at school, the workplace and beyond! Yes, first impressions do count, but life situations frequently require tact and sensitivity that must be taught. Learn the wrong set of social behaviors, and you can be blocked from a world of sometimes life-changing opportunities to come.

A Smart Girl's Guide To Manners (American Girl Library) is a handbook of those survival skills that will give young ladies an excellent foothold in the social world that frequently requires more than they can offer based on instinct, alone.

Highly recommended!

American Girl has accomplished making books with about everything you ask about in it. it gives you great advice, and i don't think this book has JUST common sense because lots of girls out there wouldn't know some of this stuff. I think it's an awesome book and i think all the American Girl books are awesome.

Our girls grow up so fast! The times w/ them can slip away if we let it.This book helps bring that bond even closer between a mother and daughter.We take it in the car or hang out on the couch w/ it. The folks at American Girl have filled it w/ quizzes and questions that allow you to know your daughter on a deeper level. Our favorite pages so far are "What were you doing when you were your daughters age" and "What do you think you'll be doing when you are your mom's age?" They say to tear the pages out of the book and switch answers, these pages have become little treasures I know I'll pull out in years to come.It's also just plain fun! Full of recipes, bookmarks, and coupons, Just Mom and Me makes those mommy daughter times even more special.

not only do i love this book, but my 5 year old LOVES it too! he thinks it is fun and is eager to practice. it is not only great for practicing writing the letters but also is a tool for learning the lowercase letters. a must have for kids getting ready for kindergarten!

I was surprised to discover that the ONLY type of activity in this book is tracing letters and writing practice. My 4 3/4 year old needs some practice identifying lowercase letters, but isn't really into writing yet. Other workbooks we have done (cheaper ones from the drugstore) break up writing with other activities for variety. We'll save this one for later, until he's ready for writing practice. The quality of the book is excellent though, it has nice paper and is colorful.

My 4 year old son learned to write his capital letters last year, and he was ready to learn his lower case letters after starting preschool. He went through this book in 1 week. I never asked him to do his "fun book". He just went to his table and worked on it whenever he felt like it. He had so much fun looking at the great pictures---he didn't think of it as work. Now he just finished the Rhyming Words and Phrases book. Another great Kumon workbook! Highly recommend it!

These books are by far the BEST tools I have ever used for my preschool children. It teaches work ethic because they are simple and the children can work on them on there own after giving them instructions once. This is specific to my children who can not read yet. We set the timer for 20 minutes and that is our 'homework' time for my 2 & 4 year old. They love it and I'm teaching them to work independantly.

I can't get enough of these books!

I bought four Kumon workbooks for my 5 year old. This will be our first year homeschooling and I am totally thrilled. With all of the workbooks there are about sixteen full color pages and after that they are printed in two-color. They are all very well organized, incremental and simply laid out. The illustrations are great - they make the pages interesting but they don't get in the way of the work. Some children might not like how similar every page is to the next, however for my child this will be absolutely perfect! She likes being confident in what she is supposed to do and enjoys doing the same (or similar) thing over and over.
The one thing about this particular book that I don't like is that I don't think it has quite enough review work. It goes like this: two pages of a new letter for three letters, then two pages of review for those three letters. The ten pages of a-z review at the end. I think I'll photocopy the review pages to have her do over.
I love the book and am confident that it will work really well.

Steinbeck's Travels with Charley was his last book I believe. This is a memoir of John Steinbeck's drive from Long Island, New York to the tip of Maine to California and back to Long Island. Of course it's well written, as you'd expect from any Nobel Prize winner in Literature, but it also captures that turbulent time in the early 1960s when Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to achieve Civil Rights and Khrushchev was banging his shoe in the United Nations.

In Travels with Charley, Steinbeck is on a journey to discover if he still knows the country he memorializes in almost all of his other works. Steinbeck manages to express in this memoir of his journey through America a whole host of emotions that many of us still feel today, a conflicting love for our country and disgust with our countrymen, appreciation for our past and worries about what we have become. Like all of his best works, the writing is natural, warm, and often funny. This is a beautiful book that captures America, both the good and the bad, in it's pages.

(4.5 stars) When John Steinbeck obeys a life-long urge to drive from coast to coast in 1960, he little anticipates the variety of the "American experience." Beginning in Maine and traveling along the northern states through Wisconsin, the Badlands, Montana, and all places in between, to Washington and Oregon, Steinbeck then decides to visit his childhood community of Salinas, in northern California. After meeting with friends there, though many have died, he then drives southward through the length of California and then eastward through the southwest desert to Texas, Louisiana, and eventually up to Virginia before returning to New York.

Carrying the reader along with him as he reconstructs this journey for publication in 1962, Steinbeck observes people and human nature, being careful not to draw conclusions about an entire area based on the individuals he meets along the way. Often it is their reactions to Charley, his aging standard poodle, which stimulates their conversations and allows Steinbeck glimpses of their thinking and ways of life. From the terminally gloomy waitress in Maine to the evil-looking mechanic in Oregon (who turns out to be the kindest and most generous of men), Steinbeck explores attitudes toward life (and strangers). Steinbeck's high school buddy (who almost comes to blows with him) shows him that you really can't go home again, and "the cheerleaders" of New Orleans, a group of white-supremacist women who taunt and scream obscenities at a tiny black girl integrating one of their schools, shows him how much work the human race still has left to do.

As he travels in his truck with a house attached to its bed (a pre-camper invention), he notes the changing landscape, the disappearance of treasured aspects of the environment, and the growth of new trends--including the increasing popularity of the mobile home and the contemporary loss of "roots." He is genuinely frightened by the Badlands, until night falls, when it becomes beautiful. He adores Montana, and he hurries through the almost blank southwestern desert where he learns something new about shooting. Though Steinbeck gets tired of travel before the end of the trip, he still manages to record signal moments which resonate with the reader.

What elevates this book especially is the glimpses it gives of Steinbeck himself, a far more upbeat man than one would expect from novels like Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, and Grapes of Wrath. His observations of life in the early 1960s capture the country at pivotal moments of history--the time of Sen. John Kennedy and freedom rides. In this respect, Steinbeck creates a time capsule for future generations and a picture of himself that lovers of his writing will treasure. n Mary Whipple

Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition)
John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography

In this book, John Steinbeck shows patriotism at its best. He travels through the United States, and experiences all the beauties of this nation in a marvellous way. He shows no arrogance as he appreciates his homeland. Instead, he shows this nation's beauty and riches in an amicable way, and invites others to travel and experience the beauty of this nation. The hymn "America The Beautiful" comes to the reader's mind.

TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY gives us a chance to move to an up-close-and-personal position with the aloof, John Steinbeck, At the age of 60 in the fall of 1960. Steinbeck acquired a primitive pickup-style recreational vehicle, packed up a few belongings, and loaded his faithful poodle. He drove throughout the United States to reconnect with the inhabitants of the nation.

Like any other tourist who travels too far too fast, he was unable to see everything, and he skimmed over many details in his tale. He delineated some of his stops in sufficient detail. Most of the travel log is a glazed-over account.

Steinbeck wrote with the voice of a mature senior citizen, who was disappointed with much of what he saw in the nation. When I first read this book, I was in college. Now that I am in the age group of Steinbeck when he wrote it, I wonder what he would think of our nation today. He showed some of the good, such as the idyllic farms with friendly people, and some of the bad, such as people who were prejudiced and unkind. I believe if he could see our country today he would find something positive. He always expressed trust in the underlying goodness of our people.

BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT! If you have a child coming up on SAT's or even in middle or elementary school, this is the best book out there! It was recommended to us by a reading specialist. I love to read the book just to see if I can recall words. Love IT so BUY IT!

This is a fantastic book. I am in 6th grade and got this and loved it. I would reccommend this for grades 6th -- 11th. The way it works: first it shows the word, say "copious". Next, it shows the definition -- in this case, "abundant;plentiful". Underneath, it shows a link word. For "copious", the link word was "cup". An amusing cartoon strip follows, such as the one for "copious" which showed a grinning man proudly holding a massive cup of coffee. The caption read, "A COPIOUS CUP of coffee". Then, there are three good examples. At the end of every ten words, there's a review to make sure you understand. This book is wonderful, and I reccommend it to everyone! I loved it. In total, there are 290 words.

This book is a delight! Both this and it's sister version (Vocabulary Cartoons 2) are wonderful vocabulary builder starters before you drift off into harder works like "The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder." That book sounds easy enough, but it's actually geared towards 12th graders and beyond.

These books are wonderful for visual learners, although, others might get something out of them. Building your vocabulary is a process, but the time spent will be well rewarded. A strong vocabulary helps everything, including foreign language and math skills. As you delve into harder works, you'll be learning Latin and Greek roots which build excellent decoding skills for standardized tests.

These books are perfect for summer education. You want your kids to enjoy themselves, however, it doesn't hurt to move ahead academically either. These materials -- and ones like them -- are fun summer pleasure readers. And they'll learn something along the way. Adults will likely enjoy them too!

No one cares about your education more than you do. Fortunately, we live in the day and age where materials just keep getting better and better. So supplement, supplement, supplement. Have no fear: it can actually be fun. A+

this book was a simple, fun way to review vocab for SAT

This book has been one of my most valuable resources in my classroom. Each of my students owns a copy, and through class activities that incorporate the vocabulary into various literature lessons, I have seen results. One student recently took the SATs for the second time and reported a 210-point increase in his verbal score--an increase that he ascribes to this book. I highly recommend this resource to any literature teacher and college-bound student.

I'm not going to go on and on about how I analyzed this book and pretend like I'm an expert, but I will say that I loved it. I read it for a health and behavior class intended for exercise science majors. It is an excellent book for females to read and I know many females will be able to relate and feel comfort in Knapp's words, whether or not the reader herself is an alcoholic.

I loved this book. Caroline Knapp's description of why she drank rings true for casual drinkers as well as alcoholics. It is a wonderful memoir--well written and insightful.

This book was great. I am 24 and I think that it was for an older audience. A slow start, but once I was in the story I didn't want to put the book down. She writes her song and dace about alcoholism to help the reader out, but I don't think it would make someone put down their bottle. Though they might take a step back and look around and see that there could be a problem. I like that she still loved the drink even after all it did. She can make it seem that a classic working drunk like herself is not so bad, but towards the end it's all bad. Even if you go to work everyday, don't get a DUI, and pay your taxes. An eye opener on that respect.

While I read the book I felt hollow, like I was taking in the words but I felt nothing. It's not that I didn't understand what she was saying, the words just seemed devoid of the human aspect of dependency. I could have done without the first half of the book completely. It was tedious and I never connected with the author's plight. The second half was a little better for me. I saw a friend of mine in the second half and that helped a little...because I could put a human experience with the narrative. And that's what the book lacked. A feeling that someone, a caring human with feelings, was writing it. I never connected with the author no matter how much I wanted to understand her story. I felt like I was reading a weak story about someone written by a third person. It would have been a one-star if not for the second half.

What a powerful story! And according to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), half of all American families "have at least 1 or 2 active alcoholics in them". My family is one of them. And over 75% of the caseloads of therapists are problems that arise from living with alcoholism. Most of the people in A.A. have still-drinking alcoholics they go home to. The book that I use over and over, with my counseling clients is "Getting Them Sober". Getting Them Sober: You Can Help! (Getting Them Sober) It's sold over a million copies and endorsed by 'dear Abby' and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Harvard University's employee assistance program.....and has literally hundreds of effective solutions for sobriety and recovery. Most of my clients report that their family lives change for the better within days of reading this book.

10 year old daughter loves this cd, my 5 year old son yells no I don't want it. Speaker tells stories with key words such as "calm" "happy" "beautiful" "smart" she speaks slowly and calmly - I personally find it relaxing and I could fall asleep to it.

I bought this CD for my 6 year old son who was feeling excessively worried after a number of medical procedures. I am a psychotherapist and wanted to try something different. My son had an interesting reaction to it while he was stressed out-he thought it was, "too slow" and "boring" and wanted me to turn it off BUT: after a couple of minutes he said, "Mom, why do I feel so sleepy?" (!). I did too. It is soothing and on their level and I thought that it was relaxing. I only played it a that one time however, because he objected to it another time and fortunately, I have not really needed it. So mixed success-if you can get them to listen to it-it works!

We played this CD for the first time tonight as my 5-year-old was going to bed. Five-star results! Lately bedtime has been a zoo with her repeatedly getting out of bed and/or asking to be sat with until she falls asleep. Tonight I stayed with her for a couple of stories (the first one is a bit hokey), but then she stayed in bed and fell asleep before the CD was over. I am one relieved and hopeful mom.

I ordered this cd after reading the reviews, as my 6 year old twins were having trouble falling asleep. One of them was having a lot of anxiety as well, including irrational fears. We played a different track of the cd each night for about a week. At first the boys wiggled around, giggled and would not settled down. By about the 3rd night, they were getting into it and relaxing. They would go limp with relaxation as we listened to it in the dark. Our favorite track is the Good night caterpillar, which is followed by very relaxing music. The kids have fallen asleep so much easier than before. I even used the good night caterpillar in the middle of the night when one of the boys had a nightmare and was upset and agitated. He was able to fall right back asleep, without the usual requests to sleep in our bed.
My son with the anxiety problem has gotten much better. He no longer has worries about school or spiders, two things he used to obsess about. These CDs were worth their weight in gold as far as I'm concerned. We are all sleeping much better. We have only had these about a month and their has been such a significant improvement that we don't need to use them all the time. I think the kids are learning how to relax on their own. If your kids are struggling with sleeplessness or anxiety, don't hesitate to give these a try.

For my child, who has had sleep issues forever, and had alot of success with Indigo Dream: Garden of Wellness, this CD was disappointing. The stories and music were great....but for my child, the tone of the narrator did not create a calm feeling for her. She responded to the voice of the "Garden of Wellness" CD much better.

This book had everything we needed to go on a survival hike and camp. It had tons of good ideas, fun games, lists of what we needed, etc. I would highly recommend this book.

Some parts of this book are quite interesting in its ideas for activities. All the games described are basically hide & seek while making animal sounds. the recipes are easy and fun for kids, the packing list and common sense tips are straightforward, easy for kids to follow or read. the songs and stories are typical, been there, done that, nothing new. Illustrations are quirky and cute.
reccomend for the 1st time camper or if you want to give your kids something to read before the trip.

Camp Out! is full of creative and informative lessons and fun activities. Truly a unique book. Any kid from video game addict to natural born scout will find this book engaging! it contains kid-level explanations without talking down to kid-level. As an adult I enjoyed reading this book and felt the cartoons weren't too cutesy. Good for both boys and girls.

Camp out is great! It's filled with fascinating facts about the outdoors. I have enjoyed reading it with my children.

This is a great book that will spark many wonderful experiences with my daughter. For sure 5 stars!!
Major sections include activities, crafts, nature, and cooking. This was a logical organization, but as the father of a younger child I think it would have been nice to have some guidance and organization by age appropriateness.