Nonfiction Books

This book should be in every school in the world! As the earth gets smaller, our children need to be taught where they will fit into the world. For them it is not just about where they will fit into thier tiny communiy. Their future will include all the earth's people as their community.
Author, David Smith, provides an in school program designed around his book.
He brings this global book to life for the children. You cannot help but wonder the impact his program and book will have on the future of our children and our world.

This book was great for my class. It really helped them to grasp the idea of people living differently then themselves. They are 4 - 6 years old so they did not understand all of it, but they enjoyed the idea of a global village.

This book takes all the global statistics with big numbers - millions, billions - and puts them in real human terms. By comparing the world to a village of 100 people, we all can understand our place in the world's many varied cultures, looking at religion, economics, education, energy use and more. It's also sobering for Americans to see their impact on the world. As a teacher, this is a great reference book for me. The bright, colorful illustrations are a visual delight.

I use this book in my AP Human Geography course for sophomore, junior, and senior high school students to help introduce them to the global perspective and unequal distribution. The concept of world population is difficult to grasp using numbers in the millions and billions of people and The Global Village concept brings the message into an comprehensible form. This is a must-have for the social studies classroom.

It's great concept with equally beautiful illustrations. Unfortunately, Smith says that a village of 100 today will be a village of 200 in just fifty years. He continues this pattern until he asserts that a village of 100 today will be a village of 1600 people in just 250 years. He is suggesting that world population will double 5 times in the next 250 years? That means that our world population of 6 billion today will soon be an astounding 96 billion! That's strange because the United Nations, Green Peace, and the World Health Organization all predict that world population will top out at about 10 billion in the next 200 years. That's not even one doubling of our current population. Where in the world did David J. Smith get the idea that the world population will double 5 times? More to the point, what is he doing filling the minds of children with these Draconian predictions. Unconscionable.

This book is all wisdom, from a mentor to a student/friend. It is written in such an eloquent style that it is almost poetic. It is a classic book inwhich I come back to over and over again. Get lost in the wisdom.

This is an enjoyable read. Ancient self-help for every man, not a dense philosophical treatise. Also, many opportunities to take a glimpse into the daily life of an ancient Roman; not so different from us, eh?

Stoicism has been much misunderstood, and the adjective "stoic," which loosely can be taken to mean bearing up under duress, is partly correct but does not do justice to one of the world's great philosophies. This Penguin volume presents a great selection from the letters of Seneca, which hits all the high points of the philosophy and captures Seneca's remarkable personality, which has made him a hit with the cognoscenti for 2,000 years. Few perhaps realize that the Stoics postulated a great commonwealth governed by law, or that they idealized democracy. Seneca mentions Solon the lawgiver as the creator of democracy and refers numerous times to the Roman Stoic saint, Cato, who strove mightily (and unsuccessfully) to preserve the Roman Republic.

Seneca, like other Stoics, has a doctrine of nature that is remarkably close to that of Emerson or modern American environmentalists. The wise man (sapiens) will never be bored when contemplating the simple things of nature. The natural beauty of the countryside and the healthful action of the waves can have a calming effect (although there's a memorable passage in which a storm causes terrible sea sickness). He also believed in the simple and strenuous life and the avoidance of luxury and decadence, and there are numerous passages in these letters to his disciple, Lucilius, which decry the ostentatious, self indulgent practices of his contemporaries. These are sentiments and ideas adopted by many in the modern world, including President Theodore Roosevelt. Seneca has no patience for philosophy as a word game or a practice of engaging in hair-splitting arguments for their own sake. He rather sees it as a practice or way of life that all those who seek the good should investigate and adopt. While the Stoics believed in democracy and republicanism, their doctrine of freedom is different from the modern idea of Liberty. Freedom was the ability to endure and pursue the good even under tyranny. While that may be admirable, modern commentators on liberty (such as Isaiah Berlin) have pointed out that defining down the range of one's actions is not a satisfactory solution to the problem of the absence of liberty in society or the world.

No stranger to power himself, Seneca virtually ruled Rome as tutor of the boy Nero--and yet he adopts a quite believable stance of simplicity and humility. It's a good bet these letters will still be found absorbing by readers for another 2,000 years.

Seneca was probably not the most original thinker of the Stoic school. His writing style was also not the most agreeable to many. However, Seneca has had a profound influence on many, many later writers. Pliny the Younger, St. Augustine, and Ralph Waldo Emerson all quote, and borrow from Seneca. With Marcus Aurelius, Seneca is one of the most accessible of the Stoics. He is also an invaluable source of information about Stoicism's rivals, Epicurus and his followers. This particular volume is also filled with very helpful notes, and it is a good place to start a journey with the stoics.

The letters in this book are full of nuggets of wisdom and quotable passages. Seneca isn't my favorite Stoic philosopher but this book is one of the easiest to read translations of an ancient text I have ever come across. It was worth adding to me library.

This book offers beautiful, short snippits of character building stories and pictures about boys all inspired by passaged from Proverbs. Having 4 sons myself, I've come to cherish the little sticky fingers and dandelion arrangements given to me over the years. This book allows you to snuggle with your little one and appreciate what God has given you while enjoying the beautiful pictures and wisdom of Authors Jim and Elizabeth George.

This book has beautiful pictures and a Bible verse which relates to each wise trait that is mentioned. It was a great purchase.

Incredible pictures! Excellent wisdom for young boys...reminds us of character qualities that are lost in this day and age for males!

My son is not even two yet and this is one of his favorites. I have read several "Proverbs" to him from the book every night for the past 6 months or so and now he asks for the book before nap time too! If I forget to read it to him before bed, he reminds me by saying "boys." The pictures are fabulous and because the proverbs are made into poems, it's appropriate for even very young little boys. I am thinking of buying a copy to take apart and frame some of the pictures (& poems) for his bedroom. If you're looking for a book that teaches great character, you've found it!

This is an outstanding books for little boys! I've given two: at each of my grandson's baby dedications. It has a place to write a special message to commemorate the date and occasion for giving, and I think it is a book that will truly grow up with the child and be a treasured keepsake. The illustrations are beautifully rendered in soft watercolors and has that old time look of little boys in days gone by. The values reinforced here (whether you are Christian or not) are what we all desire for our little men to learn so that they will grow up to be men of character. FIVE STARS!!!!!!!!

I use this book as a teaching tool. I show students the importance of protecting our Earth.

I used this book as an introduction to the Rain Forest for my 3rd graders and it got them interested in learning more. It is a great book as a lesson plan or in a classroom library. Kids seemed to read and reread this book more than any other.

This book is truly inspiring for anyone that does not believe in saving the rainforests. The Great Kapok Tree really tells you from all the animals point of view on how the rianforest is their home. This timeless children's book is not just for little children it is for all to learn a lesson from what could become of the future or what people are destroying. In this book there is one man who is told to chop down this very big and old Kapok tree. He starts to wack and chop. After a little bit the man is worn out so he desides to just sit and rest for a little bit, but the sounds of the rainforest lulls him to sleep. One by one animals that depend on trees or have homes there come down and talk to the man whispering and telling of how the rainforest will soon destroy all life on earth because of the oxygen that the trees give us. When the man wakes up he now has a choice, he cqn listen to what the animals said or what the other bigger man told him to do... To find out read The Great Kapok Tree by: Lynne Cherry.

Both my 4 year old boy and my 7 year old girl like this book and so do I. It's a great way to introduce them to many of the different types of animals you could find in a rainforest. Great pictures!

For centuries, man has abused nature and thoughtlessly destroyed forests without realizing the harm this causes. Only recently has the importance of trees become apparent, brought to light by those who value the life that trees provide. Lynne Cherry is one of these people; her gorgeously illustrated book teaches the importance of trees and the abundance that they give to nature and its creatures.

In this book, a man is hired to chop down a Kapok tree, one of the largest and most important in the entire forest. After just a few chops, the heat of the forest and the exertion of his efforts tire him out and he lies down to sleep. One by one, the different creatures of the forest creep over to him and whisper in his ear the importance of the tree, asking him to spare it and leave it to those who need it. By the time he wakes, his decision and his view of the forest are altered forever. This book is beautifully put together, both with illustrations and a story that's simply but powerfully written.

I've loved trees all my life and this lovely story teaches children the importance of taking care of nature and animals. I really can't believe one person's snooty comment that nature preservation is "not the job of children". First of all, children will not be children forever; they are the future and it is our responsibility to teach them how to take care of the environment if we want them to be responsible adults. Second of all, children CAN make a difference! If you go to Lynne Cherry's website, you'll see that a kid's organization convinced Mcdonald's to recycle their paper products.

I also disagree with the silly statement that the book puts animals above people. What it does is remind us that if we don't take care of nature, there will be no tomorrow for future generations. Besides, one of the "creatures" of the forest who whispered to the man while he was sleeping was a Native American who needed the tree, so the message of the book would be to put others ahead of yourself. I personally think it's refreshing to write a book that gives animals a voice since they're so often overlooked. This book is highly recommended!

Love the book! Great for kids. My son thinks the story is so funny!!

As a writer and a creator of children's stories, Dr. Seuss was absolutely brilliant; there is no doubt about that. But his childish view of of the Cold War, at his age, is unforgivable. Likening the difference between freedom and Communism to the difference between the location of butter on bread is frustrating, and demonstrates once again how our American celebrities are unbelievably idealistic and out of touch with the realities of the world.

This is what my 8 year old son got out of reading The Butter Battle Book and that you should always accept peoples differences. It is one of his favorite books and it is timeless.

Dr Seuss reaks of fun. I have never read a Dr Seuss book I didn't like!!

This is not appropriate book for young children. It's a bit violent with too much political undercurrents. The rhythm and rhyme are off as well. Choose another Seuss book.

I use this book in my Spanish class and find it to be a great level of difficulty. It's not too hard, not to easy. Great for Spanish II Honors classes. It would be a little hard for regular level.

I took Spanish 1 using another company's textbook. But I switched to use this book for level 2. I hated it imeediately. There are too many words for beginners that are throughout the book and worksheets that are certainly not on Level 2. There are many vocab words and phrases that should be learned a lot later in Spanish. I would love to return to the other company's textbook.

I was hoping for a book that focused on the people and their stories from the holocaust, but this read more like a dry college history book.

I had the opportunity to use Yehuda Bauer's book in a universtiy course on the history of the Holocaust two years ago. Now that I am a history teacher, I found myself looking for the text that I foolishly sold. In his book Bauer provides an overview of the Jewish people and then takes you through the the major events (WWI, the Weimar Republic, rise of Hitler)in history and how they contributed to the massacre of millions in the Holocaust. Bauer's chapter by chapter analysis of the events surrounding the Holocaust is the reason that I came back to look for the text. Whether you are interested in this era of history or are perhaps an educator about to teach it, you will find valuable information within this book to help you synthesize and present the information. I plan to use parts of this book in the World History class that I am teaching.

This review is based on the 1982 edition. This book traces the Holocaust from early anti-Jewish teachings, the emergence of racial anti-Semitism, the rise of Nazi ideology, the decision to murder the Jews, the implementation of the Holocaust, rescue attempts, Jewish resistance, theological and philosophical implications, etc. Bauer soundly repudiates any notion of the German death camps being erected in German-occupied Poland because of the presumed anti-Semitism of the local population (p. 210). It was simply a matter of practicality.

Bauer notes that more than half of prewar Polish Jews were nonreligious (p. 177). Hlond-like comments about "Jews-as-freethinkers" can be understood in this light.

To his credit, Bauer recognizes the essential difference between traditional Christian teachings about Jews and those of the later Nazis: "The term anti-Semitism was apparently first used by a racist ideologist in Germany, Wilhelm Marr, in 1878 and 1879...But in an increasingly secularized society in which there was no belief in Jesus, the question of who was responsible for his death seemed irrelevant. Marr, Duehring, de Lagarde, and the other racists, violently anti-Christian, saw Christianity--quite rightly, of course--as derived from Judaism and therefore utterly condemnable. They needed a `modern', `scientific' term, hygienic, neutral, that would not include the word Jew." (p. 43)

When elaborating on efforts of the German-occupied nations to warn the outside world about what was being done to the Jews, Bauer writes: "The Polish government-in-exile had been the first official body to lend unhesitating credence to the reports on planned mass murder. Since June [1942], they had been bombarding the Americans and the British with demands to recognize the facts and to do something about them." (p. 300)

Bauer touches on the Nazi genocides of non-Jews: "Three million Poles were murdered by the Nazis during the course of the war, by methods best defined as selective genocide. The Polish intelligentsia, the Catholic priesthood--especially in western Poland--and a large peasant population fell victim to the Nazi desire to eliminate the proud Polish nation. In contrast to other European nations, practically no political figure in Poland cooperated politically with the Nazis." (p. 286). Bauer doesn't mention the fact that the Germans were not in a position to murder many more Poles than they did because they needed Poles as forced laborers, and because it would've been too disruptive during wartime (see Peczkis Listmania: Forgotten Holocaust: Nazi Genocide of Poles).

Owing to the overview nature of this book, it has some obvious errors. For instance, Bauer dwells on the poverty of prewar Polish Jews (pp. 61-62). This was only true of a fraction of them. Despite measures taken to reduce Jewish economic dominance, the average Jew was still wealthier than the average Pole. Bauer's remarks about the AK (p. 265, 285) and the NSZ (p. 285) are untrue, and the latter are nothing more than a repetition of Communist propaganda (from Shmuel Krakowski (p. 367, Ref. 8), a Communist).

Yehuda Bauer is one of the most important historians of the 'Holocaust'. In this work he traces the history of the Jewish people. And he provides background historical explanation on the murder of over one - third of the Jewish people by the Nazis and their assistants. He writes with clarity and deep understanding of the subject.

IN FACT is an anthology of personal narrative stories. The stories are well-written and powerful for the first reading. The story about celestial navigation is my favorite.

But after reflection, the stories seem histrionic and melodramatic. Take the celestial navigation story for example. The writer packages the navigation as life & death magic that snatches the lost sailor away from boat killing rocks and shoals in the nick of time, but he had a GPS (satellite) locator in his pocket. The thrill isnt real. He was never in peril.

I dont care for Annie Dillard's commentary about the state of publishing. It may be true that young girls in New York City decide what all of us read, but enough good stuff gets into print inspite of them. Annie comes across as a bit of a wet blanket.

The stories are well-written and interesting, but the drama is inflated.

In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction is a triumphant statement about Lee Gutkind's original goals in 1993 for Creative Nonfiction, the journal. This collection of essays shows the depth explored in the journal in its first 11 years, and could also be considered a history of the genre's current incarnation.

Beginning with Annie Dillard's introduction, a collection of pearls of wisdom for young writers, In Fact takes readers on a sometimes-jolting ride through the creation and development of both the journal and the emerging genre. These essays explore the issue of exclusion from society, either because of one's personal actions ("Shunned" - Meredith Hall) the color of one's skin ("Looking at Emmett Till" - John Edgar Wideman), and the state of one's mind ("Three Spheres" - Lauren Slater, "Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain" - Floyd Skoot). The environment takes center stage in essays about endangered species and hunting ("Prayer Dogs" - Terry Tempest Williams, "Killing Wolves" - Sherry Simpson), and scientific matters are explored with a personal twist ("Adventures in Celestial Navigation" - Philip Gerard, "Chimera" - Gerald N. Callahan).

Families are typically considered the cornerstone of society, and their dynamics and histories are explored here as well ("An Album Quilt" - John McPhee, "Dinner at Uncle Boris's" - Charles Simic, "Being Brians" - Brian Doyle, "Leaving Babylon: A Walk Through the Jewish Divorce Ceremony" - Judyth Har-Even, "Joe Stopped By" - Andrei Codrescu, "In the Woods" - Leslie Rubinkowski, "Mixed-Blood Stew" - Jewell Parker Rhodes, "Why I Ride" - Jana Richman, "Delivering Lily" - Phillip Lopate).

Showing Gutkind's contention that creative nonfiction is related to journalism, at least in the goal of reportage, social issues often found in the news, and accounts related to former "front-page" material are represented as well ("The Brown Study" - Richard Rodriguez, "Finders Keepers: The Story of Joey Coyle" - Mark Bowden, "Notes from a Difficult Case" - Ruthann Robson, "Sa'm Pèdi" - Madison Smartt Bell, "Going Native" - Francine Prose). Finally, literature, and the writing process are explored ("Language at Play" - Diane Ackerman).

These terse classifications would suffice for general indices of these works, but they each have their own depth beyond the general subjects they explore. James Wolcott's theory (mentioned in Gutkind's Introduction) about the nature of creative nonfiction being too personal is decidedly false; these works offer much more than overly personal prose. Wolcott's declaration that Gutkind is "the Godfather behind creative nonfiction" is perhaps his only accurate comment made on the subject. In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction is an excellent cross-section of both the journal and the genre. It is a necessary volume for any writer, and for any reader who enjoys real stories.

This volume is a brilliant collection of extremely well written short stories. The subject matter varies with the author and the selected works are engaging. I enjoy creative non-fiction and find this collection is an excellent example of the genre. It also offers information about the authors and mentions the workshops, colleges and universities they attended. Many of the writers currently teach creative non-fiction writing at university level programs throughout the United States.

I love the book, thank-you. It also got to my university in time for the beginning of the semester. I was the only person that had it with such a low cost. Thank-you Amazon. You will be seeing me again.!

I ordered this book sight-unseen for a new course I'm offering in the spring. I wasn't disappointed. The writing is varied, often challenging and always compelling. I recommend this to anyone who wonders what creative nonfiction is all about.

A great resource to use in math. Wonderful story to keep students fully engaged with calculating math problems throughout the book.

Great math problem for multiplication. Great for showing multiplication of factors.

This picture book is easy to read, and presents two math concepts: the first is counting to ten. The second is factorials: If there are three kingdoms in two countries on one island, then how many kingdoms are there altogether?

Imagining some of the silly scenes (there are how many cupboards in how many rooms?) is a delight.

This book -- or at least the last half of it -- is best for kids who have been introduced to at least basic multiplication facts, but younger kids will enjoy counting and looking at the pictures even if the rest of it is over their heads. It is, therefore, a great book to read to your middle/upper-elementary student while younger siblings are looking on.

A wonderful way to introduce the concept of Factorials. Book can be used year six onwards. A must for any teacher and at least a class set for the school. It will enhance English language learning and fire up kids imagination. Just a wonderful book! What else can I say. Get hold of it and enjoy! Rama

'Nuff said.

This is an excellent way to learn Spanish. The CD's were easy to follow and to understand. Great to listen to while driving. After listening to them a few times, I went to the Dominican and was able to converse quite well with the staff at our Spanish-speaking resort.

I have read reviews which slam 'Spanish for Dummies' pretty hard. Maybe some of the criticism is justified. I don't know.
I personally like Spanish for Dummies but do not recommend you use it alone. The book and CD have too many learning gaps.
I give the program a four star because it is still worth the money if even it is used alone.
However, if you supplement this course with 'Behind the Wheel Spanish' 8 CDs and text, then I think I could increase the rating to a 5 Star when used together.
Why?
Because with 'Behind the Wheel' you learn to make easy but essential 'sentence bits' that according to author, every kid knows but most adults don't learn with most language courses.
With these small but useful sentences you begin instantly to communicate, adding, enhancing, and increasing your ability to speak and understand original Spanish. Like magic, naturally though.
At this point you can add Spanish for Dummies for a more thorough understanding of the language, a different approach, and more practice.
Much better together, but, if you only have enough money for one, start with Behind the Wheel.