Nonfiction Books

One of my all time favorite instructional tools ... the kids really remember adjectives based on this book!

I bought this book online because it was recommended as a good book to teach adjectives. While it had a multitude of adjectives, I found that it also reinforced the word stupid. While the word was used in the context of the sentence "They tell us that shows are stupid or funny," I hesitate in teaching my students that stupid is an acceptable word to use in any situation. Other then that, I found the book to be colorful, full of content and entertaining.

While the book is intended to introduce the concept of nouns, its use can also be extended to teach new vocabulary, rhyming, and classifying. The book is content-rich, and several readings and explanations may be needed.

My only quibble is that while the text (font and format) is cute, it is not very child-friendly.

This is a fun book to read. My son is 6 and he enjoys the delighful pictures along with its creativity. This has truly helped him better grasp the understanding of adjectives. Now when we discuss sentences and structure, he has many excellent references about adjectives.

Well worth the money!

My five year old daughter loves this book! Prosmitsky's colorful illustrations make it so much more fun learning the parts of speech. My daughter adores the illustrator's goofy pillow-like cats!

Wow! What a great book. I am THRILLED I got this book for my 4 and 5 year old. I order a ton of art supplies from discountschoolsupply dot com and now I have a structured and organized book of ideas! YAY! If you are on the fence, this is a beautiful book. Every page has gorgeous, colorful illustrations. The paper feels wonderful. Each project is laid out in a simple format and will make working with kids on these projects so pleasant. Usborne books are awesome - I am finding a solid product with every Usborne I buy. What a great brand!

This is an absolutely wonderful book packed with lots of different techniques and ideas. It's much better with a hard cover though. Worth the money.

This book has a great variety of projects using many different techniques and media. Full color photographs and explanations for each project make them easy to duplicate. Also, there are many pictures of other projects done using similar techniques. As a homeschooling parent of elementary-age students, I found this book to be a great addition to our art curriculum. I can teach art concepts and then find projects from this book to reinforce those concepts. I highly recommend this book.

This is a great book for techniques for art for all ages projects can be tailored for a variety of age groups.

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING! FULL OF GREAT ART IDEAS AND COMPLETE PROJECTS. VERY WELL ILLUSTRATED (ALL THE PAGES ARE IN FULL-COLOR) AND EASY TO READ. THE DIRECTIONS ARE CLEAR AND YOU CAN DESIGN YOUR OWN VERSION OF THE PROJECTS. MY DAUGHTER LOVES THIS BOOK AND I REALLY LOVE HER LITTLE "WOW!" FACE AFTER EACH PROJECT.

My children and I absolutely love this thesaurus! We didn't really use a thesaurus much until we started The Institute For Excellence in Writing student writing program. The only thesaurus we had was one I bought when I was in highschool. Most thesauruses don't help the children know which synonyms are good for their context or not. This one does an absolutley superb job! I am greatly impressed.
Now when we edit our work, we do it to everything not just writing class, and it is much more enjoyable. I don't have to hear "but it was in the thesaurus". There is a sentence for each set of common context synonyms to assist in choosing the correct synonym (or antonym).
As a homeschooling mom I have to say this is a must have reference tool, it adds so much clarity to such a vague concept for children. I like it so much we now have 2!

My 4th grader: It's easier to use, it's totally cool! The words are bigger. It tells you what words don't have synonyms so you don't go looking. (There are blocks called Word Groups. Words that are associated but not really synonyms are located throughout the book in blue blocks with descriptions. For example: if you look up lizard, instead of finding synonyms, you get a blue word group block with the words chameleon, gecko, gila monster, and iguana.)

My 2nd Grader: It separates them so you don't get mixed up so your teacher doesn't tell you your sentence is wrong.

This thesaurus is well laid out, concise, and age appropriate. It's a great addition to our homeschool resource library.

This book gives the children extensive instructions for using this book. It really maximizes what they get out of the it.

I am not happy at the book I received. the hard cover is upside down, and many pages inside have been cut. Many pages' page number have been cut off. The quality of the book is bad. I don't know how to return it, otherwise, I am going to return.

I am very unhappy about this order.

I bought the dictionary and thesaurus for our homeschool library. I love them both. At the front of the book a lesson in thesaurus use, as well as parts of speech and other helpful language arts tid bits can be found. When there are no true synonyms for a word it is explained in a highlighted "Word Group" box by the specific entry. My six year old can use this thesaurus, and she will continue to use it for quite some time. It is quite helpful and user friendly!

Example from book:

helpful adjective beneficial, handy, useful, valuable, practical, good, productive, constructive. My friend gave me some helpful advice. Antonyms: useless, worthless

Or

Word Group
Shoes are outer coverings for the human foot. Shoe is a general term sieht no true synonyms. Here are some common types of shoes:

athletic shoes, brogan, brogue, clodhopper, clog, flats, gym shoe, high heels, Loafers, mule, oxford, patent leather, pumps, running shoe, sabot, sandal, tennis shoe, wingtip, work shoe

I've been reading these books from book 1, I'm am a lover of Gossip girl and i always will be. This book is really great .

This novel of Gossip girl is such of not joking; seeing the remains of these old casts of the UES people are gone off to college and leaving their silver spoons behind, seeing the new cast of the UES people are done bit of lack for nonething; with the heated up secrets, blackmailing and the rest of it (that i can't tell it towards you on amazon.com) sounds bit of fest of heated up trouble for these young teens who's are rich and glams all over it without the tempted behind them, they could be ashamed of themselves by letting these pre-teens or teens girls reading it towards them.

Good morning, Upper East Siders! Gossip Girl here.

Oh yes. She's back. B and S and N and J and D and V have moved on (both figuratively and literally), but not to worry. Gossip Girl (who is she, anyway?) still has plenty of scandal to blog about.

There's a new family in town, the Carlyles, descendants of one of New York's finest socialites, Avery Carlyle. The mom, Edie, is kind of crazy --- you know, the artistic bohemian type. Her three kids are triplets: blond, beautiful wannabe-popular Avery, swimming hottie Owen, and bad girl brunette Baby. They have just relocated from Nantucket and are waiting to move into the spectacular townhouse owned by Avery Carlyle the First. In the meantime, they're living in the apartment that Blair Waldorf used to occupy, and Avery Carlyle the Second is having a heck of a time scraping that tacky Yale sticker off her medicine cabinet.

B and S have graduated, so there's a new queen bee around. Jacqueline, aka Jack, is one of the richest, most evil girls at Constance Billard, maybe even on the Upper East Side. Get on her bad side and she's sure to make your life hell -- which is exactly what she has planned for Avery. But Jack has a secret of her own, and if anyone learns it --- anyone like Avery --- her reign as queen could be over.

While Avery hopes to recover the popularity she didn't even have a chance to gain, Baby is trying to figure out ways to get kicked out of Constance Billard and sent back to Nantucket. Swearing in French is a good start, but it's leaving school in the middle of the day and hailing a cab to Port Authority that will really make people take notice.

Owen doesn't have to worry about his popularity. After all, he's hot. In Nantucket, he never had a lot of guy friends, so he's happy to befriend his swim teammate Rhys. All seems to be going well for Owen and Rhys (no, not that way) until Owen meets Rhys's girlfriend Kelsey. Funny how Kelsey looks exactly like this girl Kat who Owen had a summer fling with.

Summer might be over, but the Upper East Side is just starting to heat up. New York's richest prep schools are still as full of scandal and Prada as ever, and Gossip Girl is there to blog every minute of it with her usual acerbic wit. Avery and Jack are sure to be the best of enemies. Owen has only been in New York for a week, but he's already caught in a love triangle. And will hippie Baby ever fit in?

You know you love it.

--- Reviewed by Carlie Webber

Maybe this series just needs some time to really take off, but I didn't find this latest series quite as cattily addictive as the other ones were. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it a lot, it was a fun, light beachy read that followed a lot of the same types of storylines that I have come to expect.

But for some reason, it all felt less fresh than it did in the other Gossip Girl books. Like the author knew what had to happen for drama's sake and plodded through writing that storyline regardless of whether it felt real. When I read author interviews, they often say that the characters took on a life of their own and that they, the author, often didn't know how it was all going to turn out.

The lack of that unscripted freshness really did damage to this book, I think.

That said, I sound like I must not have enjoyed it, but I did. I read it in a couple days and it was nice having something light and fun to read. I liked having new characters to get to know and having them go to some familiar places.

It's just that after enjoying the other series so much for its newness and freshness, it is disappointing to find this one lacking sizzle. I'll probably buy the second one and see if it picks up, but if I feel the same about that I won't continue reading. I didn't like the manufactured feeling of the drama.

I am a 69-year-old man who is quite out of touch with the generation portrayed in this book. I have no idea how realistic the book is. I generally read only nonfiction and picked this book up thinking it was a satire on young adult books. Reading it from that perspective it was very enjoyable. There is a lot of humor in it, and a lot of humorous side comments. The author doesn't take herself or the contents very seriously.

To the extent it realistically portrays the young generation, I am shocked. I neither condemn nor praise their lifestyle, but if the book is realistic, it ought to be read by my generation, most of whom are probably as out-of-touch as I am.

5 senses: taste, hear, smell, see and "touch". I would rather the author had used the word "feel" instead of "touch".

[[ASIN:006445083X My Five Senses (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)]

My 4.5 year old pre-kindergarten girls loved this book. It was a great compliment to the week they spent exploring the five senses at school. I can see using this book repeatedly for several years to come.

This is a wonderful book for beginning readers that will introduce then to the concept of our five senses and how they make us aware of the world around us when used one at a time or in combinations.

Scientific concepts are simply explained for kindergarten or preschool children, who will most certainly be entranced by the lively illustrations.

This is the perfect book for reading to kids, and for kids to begin to learn to read. It is very well thought out, covers an excellent topic, has a seamless match between the words and the illustrations, and has a generous amount of repetition to learn the five senses. I like reading it to my kids, and my oldest spends some time reading it to herself and has some of the pages memorized.

My 5 year old son absolutely adores this book. He asks me to read it repeatedly, and has fun pointing out when he's using his senses just like the (adorably illustrated) child in Aliki's book does. It's a lively, fun introduction to an important scientific concept.

my class was pretty comprehensive so i never found a need to use this book other than the required taking notes after each chapter. It's all good though.

This book has been very frustrating to read. I have found many errors, for example "life-life" (I think they meant half-life?), and many other typos. The content is too general. I know it's suppose to be a "review" book, but I feel like they could have built on ideas a little more. The review questions at the end of each chapter address things that either don't come up until the following chapters, or that don't even come up at all. In addition, some of the answers to the multiple choice questions are wrong! Overall, this book is not worth the money. My advice would be to go to the collegeboard webiste a purchase a more qualified review book there.

I am a tutor for AP Env. Sci. Some of the text is poorly written. Some of the practice questions don't even make sense. The review material doesn't touch on some of the practice questions. I don't know if any of the other review books are any better, but this one leaves a lot of room for improvement. Maybe next year's will be better.

This book was well written, and has a good amount of visuals, which help a lot in understanding concepts in environmental science.
However good the book was, it didn't seem to reflect what was on the actual AP exam very well.
It claimed that pollution would be about 30% of the test, when really I only remember a handful questions on pollution. Also, not everything that was on the exam was covered.

So, it's good, but it didn't quite hit the mark for what the APES exam actually is and covers.

The book is fairly well written. Gets to the point quickly, but I wish it was organized a little better. I heard that the 2006 version is a little better because it has more information. I guess the 2007 version was cut shorter to get to the point more.

I bought this book for each of the kindergarten class students at my childrens' school and they all loved it. The teacher was very grateful and I've never seen so many children in awe over the wonderful pictures that this book has. I would recommend this book for any age child that wants to learn about God and Jesus Christ. Great Book!!!!!!

This is a great bible for older kids. My girls are enjoying reading it on their own.

I, too, am a child of the seventies. This Bible was my first book, the one I took to my bed for the stories and the beautiful pictures. It was a happy accident that my parents settled on this version, and the appeal it has for children cannot be overstated.
I homeschool my three children, who are as attached to their own copies as I was as a child. I've accumulated many Bibles, and have come across none as accessible as this version.
It is true that the pictorial representations are often inaccurate, as noted in other reviews. They are beautifully done, though, and present an opportunity to teach our kids other important lessons.

The Golden Children's Bible The service was excellent and the child receiving this book is well satisfied with it.

I've had this one since I was a child, 35 years ago. My 3 and 5 year old daughters love it. When I purchased other children's Bibles, they always asked me to read from the old one. Unfortunately it was falling apart, which prompted me to search it out. I was very pleased to discover it was back in print. The cover is different, but everything else is exactly the same.
The artwork in the book is the best of all the children's Bibles. It's very life like and I believe that is why my daughters love it so much.
I do however skip over some of the more gruesome parts when reading it. They don't need to know David cut off Goliaths head and carried it around with him.

This textbook is a gem if your desire is to review complex grammatical structures in Spanish only with thorough explanations and examples. I purchased this text many years ago from a university bookstore that I was visiting and immediately purchased it after browsing through some of chapters. The grammar review is complete with practice exercises and an answer key at the back of the book. The reading sections are interesting themes. Some writings are from famous Latin-American poets and authors. The reading sections also have comprehension exercises and vocabulary building sections. The textbook is ideal for advanced students who wish to review concepts that have already been studied and would be a suitable textbook for Intermediate students who wish to advance to the next level in their studies. Keep in mind the grammar topics are not exhaustive but covers traditionally difficult concepts in ten chapters. This text will surely clarify many common grammatical doubts for advance speakers and present some new concepts to Intermediate students.