Nonfiction Books

Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful!! This book has been so helpful in my children's ministry at church.

This book is SO GREAT for teaching music and music themes at home. It works for any number of children, but it is best for a small group of about 3-6. I used it with only one, and it worked ok with some modification. Great variety of games that kids really enjoy playing!

Music is fun for play and doesn't always have to be taken so seriously. These well thought-out games are adaptible for so many different moods integrating the rhythum and beauty of auditory art into activity for kids.

This is a good book for music teachers to have, but don't expect to use all 101 games. Many are variations on a theme, are impratical in the classroom, or simply are not very musical. An example of this is a game where students have to act out the titles of songs, like Charades. Sure, it'd probably be fun, but it's hard to say what the students are actually learning about music from that. I'd say there's 10-15 games I think I might use - or leave for a sub to use. I also would modify most of them to make them more appropriate for a limited classroom space.

I am a music therapy student and I used this book in constructing activities for music classes at a summer camp. This book had so many ideas for activities with music materials and ideas that were easily adaptable to fit the groups' needs. I especially love that few of these games really have a single winner, so everyone gets to participate and enjoy. I would highly recommend this for music therapists and educators as well as anyone else looking for this type of game for children.

The Mom's Choice Awards® honors excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. An esteemed panel of judges includes education, media and other experts as well as parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, scientists and others. A sampling of the panel members includes: Dr. Twila C. Liggett, Ten-time Emmy-winner, professor and founder of Reading Rainbow; Julie Aigner-Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein and The Safe Side Project; Jodee Blanco, New York Times Best-Selling Author; LeAnn Thieman, Motivational speaker and coauthor of seven Chicken Soup For The Soul books; Florrie Binford-Kichler, Founder of Patria Press, Inc.- an award-winning independent publisher and Member of The Children's Book Council; Tara Paterson, Certified Parent Coach, and founder of The Just For Mom Foundation(tm) and the Mom's Choice Awards®. Parents and educators look for the Mom's Choice Awards® seal in selecting quality materials and products for children and families. This book has been honored by this distinguished award.

David Messing's charming and colorful illustrations are a perfect match for Carol McCloud's simple and inspiring picturebook for young readers. "Have You Filled A Bucket Today?: A Guide To Daily Happiness For Kids" provides a diversity of examples of how their acts of kindness, appreciation, and helpfulness will be emotionally satisfying and personally rewarding for both themselves and others. A beautifully crafted and award-winning picturebook , "Have You Filled A Bucket Today" is a wholesome, inspiring, wonderfully entertaining, and enthusiastically recommended addition to family, school, and community library collections.

I am a social worker and I not oly use this book in one on one counseling but use it in classroom presentations. The county I live in has also incorperated this book into it's ciriculum for every elementary school. It is a great way to teach kids about feelings, bullying and self esteem. We also use an actually bucket in the classrooms to make it an interactive learning tool.

I purchased this coloring book with the primary intention to develop my own designs for purses I am developing for my business - those with a 1960s-1970s flair. Yes, some are wild, as to be expected, others have a quality that can definitely be modified to fit my needs. Yet, I am also drawn to color them in and by first scanning the images (or I suppose get several more books), I can test color combinations to see what works. It is definitely fun, productive (for my business), and a stress reducer. Marty Noble's Coloring Book lines through Dover are of a higher quality in design and content (few, if any duplicates - interesting patterns - quality paper), but are printed on both sides of the paper. Yet when scanning, the paper is of high quality so the reverse image doesn't come through.

Therefore - great book for the creative designs (artists) and stress reducer (for the coloring book crowd...and it is growing...we are all becoming kids again!).

The designs are so pretty and it's so much fun to color this book!! It always comes out really nice! The only problem is the printing on both sides.... But it's ok, I use coloring pencils and it's just fine!
I'm really happy with it and I highly recommend!!!

I love to paint 'retro' 60's designs....there used to be a huge variety of cool paisley designes... this book really does not show nearly the variations that I expected, but would be fun it indeed you just were after something to color for meditation

I am also a grown up that likes to color. The Dover coloring books are really great and very well priced for a quality product. I happen to love the paisley designs - hard to get bored with these shapes. Dover coloring books rule!

It's absolutely amazing how every time you work on one of these images they come out different, perhaps reflecting your mood.

The Paisley Designs Coloring Book is so much creative fun, adults will adore it. Dover puts out some of the best publications like this. If you're stuck in the house on a rainy day, staying home sick from work, or just looking for some cool coloring fun -- I highly recommend this book!

This is a great book. I enjoy it thoroughly, and so does my 4.5 year old daughter. During the Olympics, she has asked for it every night. She loves finding out about the other children and looking at the pictures. It is one of the best multicultural books I have seen. It does not focus on other cultures as historical curiosities or emphasize their differences. Instead, it provides a snapshot of what each child's life is like (parents, home, school, friends, etc.). It shows what is different while emphasizing common everyday life vs. festivals and traditions. It sparks her curiosity (why does that girl paint her face and body, etc.). The book can't begin to answer those questions, but that's what the internet is for.

My 6 year old loves reading this book. It shows how children around the world dress, live, and play. It is interesting to see what other children like to do for fun, or what they like to eat. It is also teaching her about the different countries around the world.

This awesome book shows children around the world and what their everyday life is like (homes, schools, families, pets, friends, churches, food). Having a daughter adopted internationally,this book helps us learn more about her birth country and about all the children of the world. We've started giving this as birthday gifts to her friends.

I hope that all children can someday enjoy this book with their friends and caring adults. It makes real the lives of children all around the world - their hopes, their dreams, their families and their daily routines. It's a delight to see our similarities and a great lesson to learn about our differences. Thank you to the authors and publishers.

I purchased this book for my son Ben when he was 2 1/2 yrs. old. He is now 10 and my daughter Maria reads it continuously. This book is by far the best young children's awareness book about the differences and similarities between all children on this earth. I work for the YMCA and have purchased it for our summer camp so that the children coming to stay at Camp Silver Beach can learn more about the childhoods of the international counselors who are role models for them during the summer. At 2 1/2 years, my son knew the continents and could point out where "Ari or Celena" lived and tell me their favorite toys or food and point to the countries in which they live. This book is colorful and timeless expanding a child's view of the world and helping to instill the compassion we need to get along with all kinds of people.

As always Alan and Dave give us the straight data and the words directly from the mouths of the criminals. No wringing of hankies, no Chicken Little cries from PETA and none of the condescending, hysterical hyperbole from the Left.

Gun owners now have a clearly defined identity for the proverbial "They" who would remove our rights if allowed to do so.

Bear in mind that the people portrayed in this book have taken an oath to Protect and Defend the Constitution of the US.

The Constitution, not their dogma, not their party, and not their position. Self evidently not only are the failing that oath, but they're actively ignoring the oath and are seeking to destroy our Second Amendment rights.

I am new to the language and this book allows me to learn at a nice pace. My husband and I are taking beginning Spanish and this book is a great help.

I used this book with my class of 18 Latin students for a mini course in Spanish. In very little time, the students were able to understand, speak and read short paragraphs.

Since my students already had a language background, they had a head-start on the material.

This is a great book for a motivated learner with some grammar background.

The book advertises that you can learn Spanish in 15 easy lessons. For one thing, the lessons are quite long and dense, containing a lot of information to learn in just one lesson. Why not break up the information into shorter lessons that would be easier to digest?

Another frustrating thing about using this text is that it won't help you to speak in anytime soon. Isn't part of the fun and impetus in learning a foreign language conversing with others? You don't even get to the past tense until 200 pages into the book. Try conversing with someone and not using the past tense...it's frustrating and just doesn't work.
Also, my native-speaking tutor is constantly pointing out inaccuracies and unnatural language usage.

I've discovered the Madrigal book, and this has made learning fun and easy!

I began teaching a community enrichment class in Spanish and was looking for something less cumbersome in a textbook. After considering many different texts I chose Easy Spanish. This book is not overwhelming for most people having their first experience with Spanish and is very inexpensive. It lacks graphics which may account for the reasonable price but I was able to make up for that with handouts in class. Most people were interested in travel and this book is small enough to take along allowing for continued study; right when its needed most. I also like the organization, although its a little fast as regards grammer, it does allow people to develop some basic conversational skills quickly. All of the grammatical concepts and vocabulary are reintroduced in readings in the following chapters which provides great reinforcement and a sense of achievement.

Used this book in a Spanish course and it made the course enjoyable. Book was well organized and easy to follow. I would recommend this book for learning spanish quickly.

The book was very helpful and I got it in efficient time.

Good Book, good way to get ideeas for writing across to children.

Not only is this book chock full of sound advice, rationale, and examples (a good balance, too!), but Katie Wood Ray is a remarkable author herself and serves as a wonderful model as she writes about teaching writing. I read this book cover to cover during a pretty densely packed quarter at school and have gone back to it again and again as a rich resource.

If you are at all doubtful or confused how to conduct writers workshop with
younger (K and 1) students this book is for you. It outlines how to get started and sustain successful writing throughout the year. Book layout is easy to read (plenty of space in the margins for notes) and there are pictures along the way to clarify and inspire new great ideas in any classroom. A must read if you are in K or 1 for the first time or want to implement a writers workshop.

This is a great book to help k-2 teachers implement writing workshop in the classroom. It offers ideas on how to begin, units of study, and books to incorporate into your mini-lessons. I recommend this book to anyone venturing into the writing workshop approach to teaching writing to young children.

Our family has started a "family book club", which consists of my husband and I, my two adult daughters, and two school-age granddaughters. Our first book was "Sadako". It's a very quick read with a character that was easy to identify with.

Although the tale is sad, it opened a lot of discussion points with everyone joining in and asking questions. We followed the discussion (over cookies) with an origami paper-folding session - everyone making one or two paper cranes.

We'll all remember this story, and will remember little Sadako.Sadako 1000 Paper Cranes PMC 3.99 Promo (Puffin Modern Classics)

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
By Eleanor Coerr
Penguin Group
1977 first published by G.P. Putnam's Sons
1999 published by Penguin Group

3.3 Flesh Kincaid reading level
80 pages

Historical Fiction

Plot:
Sadako is an eleven-year-old Japanese girl who lives with her older brother, younger sister, younger brother and parents in Hiroshima, Japan. The story takes place in 1955 after World War II. Like all young children, Sadako attends school, helps her family with chores, and has a best friend at school. Sadako loves to run and is chosen to participate in a race at school. While running one day she feels slightly dizzy. Sadako has heard stories about children being getting sick from the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. She is too scared to tell anybody about being dizzy, so she keeps it a big secret. One day while running Sadako collapses. She is taken to the hospital and the doctors tell her she has leukemia.
While in the hospital, Sadako hears a legend from a friend that gives her hope of getting better. The legend says that if a person folds one thousand paper cranes out of paper they may be healed. Each day Sadako becomes sicker and sicker. However, she decides to fold one thousand origami cranes. Her brother helps her by hanging the cranes from the ceiling. Even though Sadako folds hundreds of cranes, she is unable to finish the project. She passes away having made only 648 cranes. Her friends from school hear her story and they fold the remaining cranes so that she is buried with one thousand paper cranes.

Review:
This book gave me lots of hope. I really loved to hear about Sadako and how she folded so many cranes. I wanted to believe that she would finish the paper cranes and she would get better. When she died in the ending it was very sad. Someone with so much hope and motivation doesn't deserve to die. The book also made me think a lot about why Sadako was sick in the first place. She was only two-years-old when the Americans dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, but she was still eventually killed from it. This book shows the long-lasting effects war has on a country and its people. It really makes you think twice about war.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was an easy read that I had a hard time putting down. Every chance I got I read this book! While it was sad in the end, it was great to hear about Sadako's life and how her friends finished her paper cranes for her. The plot was interesting and exciting. I really like the main character too. Sadako was a very brave, strong person that I wish I was more like. She woke up every day with the will to live and that gave me a lot of hope. I would recommend this book to anyone! It is a must read!!

The 4th graders in my school read this book in their regular reading classes, and so they were ready to have some great discussions in art class about the book. We used this as a starter for an origami crane project, and we are going to donate the cranes to a woman who is struggling to fight cancer. This a a wonderful story and the kids were really interested in learning more about WWII after reading this book.

For many years after the nuclear weapons that ended World War II were exploded over Japan, the radiation effects lingered to cause sickness and death. Sadako is a young girl who was an infant resident in Hiroshima when the explosion took place. She is a lively girl and a star on her school's track team.
Suddenly in 1954, she is struck by feelings of extreme weakness and is diagnosed with leukemia. This was before there were effective treatments against the disease and she goes into the hospital where the disease progresses rapidly and she dies.
She is taught how to make paper cranes, because according to the legend, she will recover if she makes 1,000 of them. Unfortunately, her illness strikes her so fast that she lacks the strength to complete the task. After her death, a peace memorial is made where people place thousands of paper cranes each year. There is a section at the end describing how to fold paper to make the cranes.
Based on a true story, this book has a simplistic compassion about the consequences of nuclear weapons. They kill people quickly and they kill them slowly and this reality must be considered when decisions are made regarding their role in the world.

This book was purchased for our 7 year old daughters first book club. It was an interesting book for them to read. They all enjoyed trying to make the paper cranes. It was a nice length of book for their first book club also.

Ah, EMS sold these for a short stint in the early 90s (1992 or so). This was such a great book for the beginning experimenter, in fact some topics have stuck in my mind and helped me on science topics i'll tackle later in life...e.g. noone in my AP chem class knew what 'agar' was!

I am 20 years old now and I still remember when I got this book and read it for the first time. It made science so cool and was a great way to show kids how science can be cool. I actually just found this book in a big stack and decided to look it up on Amazon. GREAT to hear they still sell it. I recommend this book to every kid!

Similar to a few other reviewers, I loved this book when I was a kid. This is a book I would recommend to any parent or child. I have nothing but fond memories of this book. I hadn't seen this book in years and I still remember being introduced to many fascinating subjects from this book.

Good experiments and examples. Amazing gadgets inside. Very well written for kids. Lot of real fun and educative time. A must for kids interesting on science.

Like another reviewer, I recently found this on my shelf and was curious to see whether it was in print. I'm 22 now and must've been around 8 when I got it.

I'm in University now, studying software engineering, and I have to say that this book really spurred my interest in science. It comes with so many cool things, a magnet, agar, diffraction grating, and a fresnel lens.

Highly recommend this to parents, aunts, and uncles looking for an awesome gift for a youngster in the family. The kid won't be disappointed once they get into it after expecting an action figure or video game.