Nonfiction Books

I bought this cookbook along with a couple others for my 3 boys. I was hoping to get each of them involved with some of the cooking in the house. I wanted them to learn some basic things that they will be able to take with them as they get older. So far, they have each enjoyed their evenings picking out the meal they want to make and preparing it. Their ages are 10, 7 & 5. My oldest can pretty much make the recipes by himself with a few questions about the recipe. The other two need a little more help. Overall this is a great cookbook for the beginner offering a decent selection of meals, snacks and desserts. Pictures are great and the instructions fairly easy to follow for the older ones.

I bought this for my 10 yr. old son for Christmas. He loves to cook. He was excited to get his own cookbook. The recipes are great, the whole family enjoys them. It is well laid out and is very informative. A great learning cookbook with very colorful and entertaining pictures. Definitely not boring. I really like the ring binder, the book lies flat when opened making it easier for him to use. I am very happy with my purchace and so is he. It arrived quickly and in good condition. Thanks Amazon.com!!

My 8 yr old Grand-Daughter just loves to cook. I bought her this cookbook (as well as an apron!) for Christmas. Already she has prepared supper for us twice! Such a cute cookbook for kids and its from Better Homes and Gardens test kitchen!

My kids are now at the age they are interested in learning how to cook this book has grown up recipes to make in a kid friendly fun way. Plus fun healthy snack ideas.

I gave this kid's cookbook only three stars because the recipes contained within rely too often on packaged/prepared food ingredients (canned soup, crackers, refrigerated dough, etc). I cook real food from whole-food ingredients and want my children to learn this way of cooking as well. The recipes that use whole foods are fine and kid appropriate.

This dictionary is excellent for students learning the basic vocabulary of the Spanish language. However, the dictionary does not contain any slang terms or expressions.

It is one of the best dictionaries I have ever used, since I don't use my native language often enough, I forget some words, so now I am able to look them up and see the right word/spelling/use.

This book was okay. It had a lot of interesting parts, but way more boring parts. It has a lot of interesting parts like when Mr. Maxwell gave Mark a permission slip to go to something called A Week In The Woods. I wondered what was going to happen to Mark in A Week In The Woods. The boring part is about 100 pages long. That is why it is more boring than good. It is really boring when Mark escapes from Mr. Maxwell's truck and then Mr. Maxwell is looking for Mark, and then Mark is trying to run away from Mr. Maxwell, but then decides to find Mr. Maxwell, and then it's like 40 more pages until they meet up. When you are reading the boring part, you will wonder when will this be over! I would say it's an okay book to buy if you love Andrew Clements' books.

a good book about a rich kid learning how not to make snap judgements.
relly it is for sure a do reader

My 11-year-old just finished this and declared it the best Andrew Clements book of all! Having enjoyed so many of his books, this was high praise for her to give.

My students in summer school extended school year thought this was great! We listened to the book on CD to help with comprehension and fluency. They loved learning about camping, the woods and friendships. It was great to show them different people and their interactions.

Mark Chelmsley had just moved to New Hampshire, where he would have to attend Hardy Elementary. At the school, A Week in the Woods was a beloved tradition and Mr. Maxwell was in charge. On the trip, Mark almost got suspended and wondered off into the woods. Will Mark and Mr. Maxwell be able to work together to save each other's lives?

A Week in the Woods is full of twists and turns. If you are looking for an adventure packed novel, than this book is for you. Also, children from 9 to 13 should probably read this fantastic story. I definitely liked the sections of the book that made me feel as if I could not stop reading! A Week in the Woods is an incredible novel that everybody should read!

Para todos aquellos que sufren de pensamientos negativos, para aquellos que viven pensando en el fracaso este libro les podra ensenar como ver el mundo desde otra punto de vista. Muy bueno para sacarse de la mente todo lo negativo que acada segundo llega a nuestras vidas y sobre todo para levantarse el auto estima. se los recomiendo 100%, una verdadera joya que no debe faltar en su colecion.

He leido algunos libros sobre La Ley de Atraccion, este es uno de los mas practicos con ejemplos significativos que he leido, Camilo Cruz se enfoca en el poder de la mente, su funcionamiento y como esta atrae cosas a nuestras vidas. Todos planteamientos estan basados en cosas que vemos en la vida cotidiana lo que lo hace muy real, sencillo y practico

Estoy muy agradecida con el Dr. Cruz por mostrarme con su libro una manera mas positiva de ver la vida, es fabuloso, sin duda lo recomiendo, se convirtio en mi libro inseparable. Muchas gracias

Es un libro muy realistico. Esta muy sercano a lo que es la vida diaria, con respecto a lo que se refiere a la Ley de La atraccion. Su contenido realmente da pautas para mejorar nuestrtas vidas con un enfoque en lo que hemos venido haciendo con nuestra realidad y como cambiarla para hacerla mejor.

Si lo que buscas es encontrar unas líneas que cambien casi por arte de magia tu vida en un momento difícil de ésta - siento decirte que- no es este el libro que buscas. Es más, si encuentras uno así, avísame!

De este modo, lejos de todo el ámbito paranormal o mágico que alguien podría esperar, el libro lo que sí que es, es interesante como pocos; combinando la pscología con un punto de vista más científico de cómo trabaja la mente humana, y con un toque de sentido común y racionalidad del que a menudo nos olvidamos.. todo orientado a invitarnos a pensar de una forma positiva, para atraer nosotros mismos las oportunidades que deseamos.
Desde luego que es un libro muy interesante y que merece la pena leer.

I bought this for my 4 yr old son. I don't think it is worth the money. There are many many better books out there.

I bought this book for my 5 year old son. He was having a difficult time writing some of his letters. This book has really helped him out a lot. Within a week after receiving this book, he was writing most of the letters all by himself without the help of the book.

This book takes the student step by step through the handwriting process. It gives just enough practice for the student so that he or she is not overwhelmed and enjoys success!

I started using "Handwriting Without Tears: Letters and Numbers for Me" when my left-handed daughter was 4 years old. I appreciated the little memory aids to help us work on correct letter formation together. (To make a lower case t, start at the top, slide down, bump against the line, then cross it.) She tends to reverse letters, perhaps because she is a lefty, so the "Where Do You Start Your Letters?" song and use of the starting corner help her remember how to write them correctly.

My child has been exposed to this product in school. The letters and numbers are not standard. They are not the proper size and shape. There is no reason to start children out teaching them a non-standard font. This is confusing for our child and at some point, some teacher is going to tell them they are making the letters incorrectly. The uppercase Y is just plain wrong. Other letters are half the normal width - examples - B, D. Some look huge in comparison with the rest - examples - K, H. The number 2 and 6 are misshapen. Children should be taught the correct and standard methods from the beginning. This program is irresponsible.

There ain't too many ex-pat chicks out there forging their own way in foreign countries. To do this successfully like our heroine Sally Jay Gorce did, one must have inner toughness and a bit of zanyness. It has been said somewhere that female ex-pats have a freewheeling love life; to do this successfully one must have innate degage (one of my favorite French words from The Dud Avocado. It means detachment). Sally Jay's handling of ole European dog, Teddy, is classic ex-pat chick behavior: use 'em and abuse 'em. Here are some of my favorite Sally Jayisms:


1. I travel light so I can make my getaway.
2. I was merely a disinterested spectator at the Banquet of Life.
3. Mentally I was already over the hills and far away.
4. I am totally incomprehensible to everyone, including myself.
5. I reflected wearily that it is not easy to be a Woman in these stirring times.
6. I suppose I rather am an intellectual.
7. It was typical of my lunacy...
8. The vehemence of my moral indignation surprised me. Was I beginning to have standards, principles and scruples?? What would I do with them and how much were they going to get in my way?
9. One of the many many many things that fascinate me about myself....
10. Why can't everyone just change countries with everyone else?
11. I was a long way from St. Louis. My past was receding a little too rapidly.
12. I don't believe in looking where I am going.
13. I feel i should draw the line soon. I'd like to, only I don't know how. To tell the truth, I've never drawn it.
14. I, suddenly, had been around once too often.

So there you go. Witticisms for the girl on the go. Most of these bon mots came from Part One, my favorite section of the novel. It is rather telling that Sally has a male middle name: it mirrors some of her (above) male attitudes and viewpoints.

Thanks to The New York Review of Books, this relevant gem has been revived.
The ageless battle of Yin and Yang in a feminine framework is pleasantly portrayed by the author.

First, let me say this book is written very well. It's a fluid read, and the descriptions of Paris and the bistro regulars are so vivid I felt I'd been there. Many of the observations of human nature are dead on the money.

That being said,in this age of Turner Classics and cable TV, I felt like I was seeing a re-run. What must have been a unique read in the 50's is now a bit of same old, same old. Holly Golightly redux.

Sally Jay Gorse, the heroine, is -- as one character describes Americans -- an avocado of a girl: "a hard-center with a tender meat surround, all wrapped up in a shiny casing...and so green - so eternally green."

I, too, found Sally had a hard center which today we'd characterize as shallow and narcissistic. She's self-involved, opportunistic, dissolute, aimless, bored, loose, and unsophisticated in the ways of human behavior. Trading on her good looks alone, her tender insides are only activated when her narcissism is thwarted. I couldn't really like her, although I tried, nor could I identify with her.

If you need to revisit Paris in the 50's, this is your book...or you could watch American in Paris on TNT.

Too many books are weak lemonade; a few, straight bourbon with no chaser. Elaine Dundy's "The Dud Volcano" is a bottle of chilled Champagne: invigorating, light, irresistibly sippible. Its picaresque heroine, Sally Jay Gorce, is no prude, though certainly no whore. She's a hoot: a fully realized character whose narrative voice immediately grabbed my attention and never let go until the very last (hilarious) word. I've no idea if Paris in the 1950s was anything as the book describes, but Ms. Dundy makes me believe that it was.

"The Dud Avocado" may not be a great book, but it's a very good one: a bubbly comedy of manners when one's mind is ready to escape to a different place and era close enough to our own to be both recognizable and adventurous. And with Sally as your guide, the excursion is never, ever dull.

I am glad that The Dud Avocado has hit the popularity mark again, if it ever lost it. This was a very fun read, and I was tempted to start over from the beginning the second I read the last word. I will definitely be reading it again soon. I would go into specifics about what I like about the book, but there's so much great stuff, and I am known to go on forever about these things. So, rather than give a detailed description, I would just highly recommend others to read it for themselves. This book does not disappoint!

We live on 10 acres and have wondered what birds make certain calls. These CDs teach you how to learn the calls and songs in a fun way. (Who knew there was a difference in a song and a call?) We found out that we had birds we didn't know we had because we had never seen them, but after learning their songs, we started looking and have seen brightly colored orioles and indigo buntings. You would think you could see a brightly colored orange bird, but knowing what to look for is a great help. The way the author teaches is with easy to remember tricks. It is a great teaching device for kids too. There are lots of hints on how to best use the CD's too. Even knowing just a few songs makes you more aware of the sounds around you. The other night I heard "who cooks for you? who cooks for you all?" I went and woke my daughter up and asked, what bird says that? She knew right off it was a Barred Owl and got up to come hear it in person. Awesome CDs. We also bought "More Birding by Ear" but haven't had time to listen to it yet. They even have a list of songs at the end so you can see if you remember what you learned. The songs are also grouped by type to help you remember them. Similar sounding songs are also placed next to each other so that it makes it easier to tell the difference between them. There was a lot of thought put into making this such a great product and it is well worth it! I am not an audio learner, but even I am getting better at ID'ing birds by their sounds.

If you're looking to learn how to recognize birds just by sounds, then this is it. These CD's are excellent. I would recommend them for both beginner and expert alike. I have been birding since High School and am now 37 and learned about a lot of birds that I had heard but hadn't seen. I finished these CD's and am now working on More birding by ear(the second set of this series). It's amazing the birds you recognize as you are just walking down the street or in the woods. To be able to hear a bird in the distance and know what it is is great feeling.

Excellent recordings and presentation make learning bird songs easy. Highly reccomend. Combined with excellent service from Amazon made this a satisfying purchase.

I'm a new birder, and I have found this series really helpful. I even recognized a few birds by sound before seeing them, thanks to this series. I also gave a copy to a friend who is visually impaired, and she's enjoying it too.

This program is logically thought out and executed unlike another disk I bought (Bird Song Ear Training Guide by John Feith). Bird calls are classed by types, e.g. the most common woodpeckers are grouped together, and then explained. After the explanation, the bird call is repeated again so one can analyze the key elements of the calls. This was not done in the Feith CD.
I live next to a park that is a large tract of land that is untouched. When a tree goes down, it stays down and rots, as would happen in nature. This is not a manicured park. There are a wealth of bird calls within the park and although I can't see them, I can certainly hear them. I wanted to identify them by their calls and I will be able to with these disks. I bought another CD that I thought would help that is mentioned above, but was sorely disappointed.
If you are like me and want to be able to recognize birds by their calls, then this is the work for you.

Fantastic story, great for these turbulent times. Also recommend The Great Hippo Migration, fiction, for kids. William James Reece.

Bought this book for my wife for christmas. She heard the story on the news and really wanted to know the whole story.

The well-written book portrays a heart-warming story about friendship. Mzee's love and guidance, along with Owen's resilience, proves that Science can't always explain what brings species together. The book contains factual material, as partially told by the general manager of Haller Park, Dr. Paula Kahumbu. Photographer Peter Greste brings this story to life with his photos that capture all the main events leading to the remarkable friendship of Owen and Mzee. Further, they capture the amazing bond the two share. The pictures do a well job of telling the story. The vocabulary of the story is geared towards an average intermediate reading level, and can easily be modified to tend to a younger audience's level of understanding. Following the story are maps with facts about Kenya and Malindi, as well as facts on hippopotami and aldabra tortoises. The last section of the book also further discusses the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. Lastly, this wonderful addition includes websites where teachers and parents can download discussion guides and take a virtual visit of Haller Park. This is a must for any parent and/or teacher to share with students of all ages.

The story of Mzee and Owen is a beautifully written story of two friends. The message of friendship and the bond of love shared between two souls makes this a must read for all ages.

I purchased this book after hearing something about their story. I believe it is intended to be a children's book, but I enjoyed the story and the pictures of the two together. It's a touching story of two misplaced creatures bonding together - gives you warm fuzzies. I pass it around to others who might enjoy reading it as a "pick me up". It is always returned with a smile.

my 3.5 yo daughter loves this book and has memorized almost every fact in the book!

I put this book in my 4 year old sons Easter Basket, and it was his favorite part of the basket. He loves it and has learned SO much from reading it. Not only is it a great book for this age, it teaches so much in a really easy format that is easy to retain. We love it.

I have a 5 yr old that loves anything to do with space. I got older (adult) books from the library about the solar system and he learned tons of info. When we got this book he was excited but he didn't end up learning anything new. The book mostly talks about the relationship of the planets to the sun, their order, if they're hot or cold. They grouped the planets together stating which ones were hot or cold but didn't individually talk the planets other than saying you can see Mars early in the evening and Earth is the life planet.

My son is obsessed with planets. This text is good and the artwork is nice. But a new edition needs to come out to explain that Pluto is no longer considered a planet. We have to read the book and then explain that to him afterwards.

This is an excellent overview of our solar system. It has great engaging illustrations with enough little "gems" to find on every page (Shrodinger's Cat for instance). This book introduces young children to a more detaialed look at our Solar System and with specific facts about each planet.

As other reviewers have noted, the book is thematic. The illustrations included allow the parent/ teacher to point out "real world" uses of scientific knowledge (math, physics, etc.). There is one page that includes "footnotes" for the captions on the oppostie page. This is useful in teaching younger children such concepts for later reading.

As a home educator to my 4 year old son, I found the craft ideas especially beneficial in that it provides you with specific details on how to enhance the learning of these concepts with a couple of simple hands-on projects using materials easily found around your house. This material is easily adapted for older kids, although it may not include enough specific details for the older end of the age spectrum.

This book is currently banned in Australia and New Zealand. It has not been in the past and, hopefully, it will resume availability status in the not too distant future. One should be able to determine in this advanced historical part of history, particularly at mature age, to be able to buy and read whatever is relevant to them. Censorship goes too far in this instance. Ignorance is not necessarily bliss! For those that seek answers, this may answer some very important questions for them.

This is the only book of its kind that I've read that is so thoroughly researched. It's a pretty comprehensive study of the various ways there are to end one's life. And each method is rated in many categories including effectiveness, ease of obtaining the required materials, painlessness, etc. Near the end of the book there is a good description of how to obtain the best drug (in Mexico) and includes very helpful pictures of the products. I can seriously see cutting the pictures out and showing them to a clerk in Mexico who might otherwise not be able to figure out what I was looking for (because of language difficulties). However, you pay a stiff price to get this information in paperback form ($35.),there is a lot of scientific "padding" to fill out the pages and that is why I gave it four stars instead of five. However, it is the only game in town at this time as far as I know so I'm glad that I have it in my library in spite of the high cost.

I am only in my 30's and not ready to leave this place just yet(if I can help it). Knowing that I have this book is such peace of mind for me and my boyfriend because should anything happen I want to control MY outcome. The book gives you alternatives on how to end it and gives you the information you need to be able to make sure you don't make mistakes. This is much better than trying something and have it go horribly wrong.
I REALLY THINK EUTHANASIA SHOULD BE LEGAL.