Nonfiction Books

In trying to compensate for my white trash/private school education, I found this book, as well as the science book "The Canon" by Natalie Angier extremely helpful.The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science

I read a lot of books. Some would say that I read too many. Over the years, I've read some really great stuff. But this is one of the few books that I truly fell in love with. As I was reading it, I found myself saying, "I love this book!" over and over again. It's a quick read, divided into short chapters that can be read in a matter of minutes -- so even someone with a short attention span can read a chapter in a single sitting. And it is written in such an easy-to-read style that it can be understood and enjoyed by readers of any age. It was written with young readers in mind; but it is so wonderfully written that adults will love it just as much as kids will. The writing style is beautiful. I wish I could write that well. Everything is made so clear and easy to understand that it's a delight to read. It's hard to believe that this book was originally written in German and translated into English. I don't know who deserves the higher praise, E.H. Gombrich, who wrote the original German text, or Caroline Mustill, who translated it into perfect English prose. But what impresses me even more than the writing style is the content. This is simply the best history book that I've ever read. It provides an overview of all of world history from prehistoric times to the 20th century (it was originally published in 1936, and covered events up to the aftermath of World War I; but this new edition contains a final chapter that gives a brief overview of the events from World War I to roughly the end of the Cold War). And it does a masterful job of capturing the "big picture" of world history without getting bogged down in the sort of details that no one but historians really care about (as many history texts do). After reading this book, you will have a good, basic understanding of the overall course of world history. And you'll enjoy every minute of it. Imagine a history text that is never dry or boring, that is never difficult to understand, that never bogs you down in useless details you don't care about, and that is actually a pleasure to read. THIS is that history text. I would recommend it for everyone: schoolchildren, college students, and adults. (And it would make the perfect gift for a young person. Anyone who is old enough to read, understand, and enjoy Harry Potter is old enough to read, understand, and enjoy E.H. Gombrich's "A Little History of the World" -- and it's a lot more educational.)

This is an amazing little book. I am a big fan of brevity. And this book takes the prize. Apart from providing a delicious overview of world history, this brilliant work contains fascinating trivia on every page. If you've ever wanted to know the answers to the following questions, this book will do it with elegance and grace. Why are the days of the week named the way they are (Sunday, Monday, etc.)? What is the story behind the Gordian Knot? How does the Chinese script work? How was the marathon race invented?

A quick, nearly pocket-sized history of the world. Clearly intended for children, but I enjoyed getting a refresher. I rate it three stars considering its uneven treatment of some pretty important facts (lots on Napoleon, but no mention of the Black Death of the 14th cen.?), and its need of a healthy dose of editing.

I bought this book, based on other reviews, with very little knowledge about history. The is the PERFECT book to learn about history. I'm not a big reader of books besides computer manuals, but now I'm intrigued enough to dive a little deeper into the past. When I got the book, I was going to take it one chapter at a time, but I couldn't put it down. It's an easy read. A lot of wars have been fought, lives sacrificed, people persecuted for their religion, and........well, you'll just have to read the book to find out. : )

This was a required purchase at my son's private school. He is in 5th grade, and this dictionary has proven to be a very valuable resource. The definitions are clear and concise. This dictionary is one that can grow along with him, instead of rebuying the next age appropriate resource. I expect that he will continue to use it for many years.

Fairly inclusive and readable print, but small enough to fit in a desk, locker or back pack. I've bought two; one for my daughter and my godson.

This is a great book for curious minds. I bought this for both my boys 8 and 5 and they love the facts and behind the scence information that they can read about. It is very colorful and keep the attention for long periods of time. Quality book for long road trips and learn at the same time.

I bought this as a christmas gift for my 9 year old nephew. He loved it! not only does it educate the kids but it's fun reading.

I bought this almanac as a gift for my 8.5-year-old grandaughter for Christmas, one of a dozen packages, and the least expensive. This is what she was most interested in. She read off-and-on for the next 3 to 4 hours that she was spent with me. Great!

I highly recommend this book. I have bought the world almanac for kids 4 years in a row and it is by far the most used book in the house. I have bought multiple copies for gifts as well each year and think every child should have one. It is full of fun, information and facts and is great for bedtime reading....

I bought this for my eager-to-learn niece because her grandpa reads the adult almanac all the time. It has 1-4 page sections on the same topics as the world almanac. Difference: it's in full-color displays like magazine pages. Very inviting and has the crucial info that a kid might want to use to answer questions such as "What's the capital of Tupalu?" Frankly, all the adults picked it up to flip through, too, because it draws in the reader. The reading/interest level is probably middle-to-late middle school.

I am a home schooling mother and got this inexpensive book for geography class. My children really like learning from it. It is quite informative and a great price!

I didn't realize that this would be a straight-forward dictionary of some geography terms, but that's what it is. My child never read it after flipping through once. It's very boring

We are homeschooling our 8yr old son. We wanted to make sure he had a good introduction to geography. As it turns out, He loves it! It's definitions are easy for him to grasp and there are drawings to describe each term. If geography knowledge is important in your home too, I suggest you get this book.

Being a glossary, this book is a dictionary of geography terms beginning with "archipelago" and ending with "zone". Definitions are short and incomplete, but enough for the target audience of 7-10 year olds. The illustrations are bold and colorful.

See also "Maps and Globes" by the same team for the same age group.

Geography is a fun subject because it is so visual. This book has fun, brightly colored pictures that illustrate basic geography words. I found this little gem at a library sale years ago and have used it to help prepare my chldren for our homeschool association geography bees. They love this book too!

Mejor libro que e leido hasta la fecha! Altamente recomendado! Te captiva ni ganas te dan de dejarlo de leer!

Until moment never get the book in my house, in my adress. Where is the book?????

This product was delivered to me before the expected delivery date, and it came in perfect condition!! Very pleased with the transaction!

Fabulous book! You will not be able to stop untill you finish the whole book. The main idea is very much like in Celestine Prophecy, The Secret, and What the bleep do we know. In short, it is about learning ones purpose in life, in finding ones way. When we live doing what we really want to do, we are living our Historia Personal. To know what to do, one only has to know what one desires to do, for through our desires we learn about our personal way, the point of our existence.

The books talks about the biggest lie of all: That human life is determined by destiny and there is nothing we can do to change it. Meanwhile we are the only ones who determines our destiny. There is no limit to what one can do. As young people we know exactly what we want and believe that everything is possible but as we get older we change our mind because every day we are hearing from people that this is not true.

I enjoyed the book greatly and highly recommend it to all

This book is like a treasure. Reading it leads to finding many of life's truths. It is a life changing experience, and I recommend everyone to read it! It is simple to read yet the lessons are deep. An accessible read for anyone, any age! A true classic!

Este libro es un tesoro. Leerlo trae el descubrimiento de muchas verdades de la vida. La experiencia te cambiara la vida, y recomendo que todos lo lean! Es facil leer, con enseñanzas profundas. Es un libro accesible para toda edad! Un verdadero clasico!

My son loves reading these books. It is a great way to get him interested in reading.

The release of Star Wars books for young people has always been related to a theatrical promotion. In a world that has a seen all six films, a new wave of DK Readers is much appreciated. It gives us comfort that even though the movies are finished, the Star Wars experience isn't completely 'done.' As the title suggests, "Ready, Set, Podrace!" looks into the world of podracing. Most of the book offers an overview of the sport. Topics include pilots, the racetrack, pit droids and some racers like Sebulba. The book finishes up by introducing the Boonta Eve event that Anakin Skywalker raced to win his emancipation. In this sense, a nice accompaniment would be "Anakin's Race for Freedom" and "Anakin's Pit Droid." In terms of the illustrations, the vast majority were lifted from "the Phantom Menace" film. While the pictures are high quality, the writing is also good. Key terms are introduced with accompanying pictures. These concepts are reviewed in the glossary. This new series has books for most levels of elementary readers. This title is best suited to readers on a second grade level. "Ready, Set, Podrace!" offers an exciting look into galaxy's most dangerous sport.

I purchased the level 1 part 1 traditional book and was happy with that purchase. However, I wanted to start learning the simplified characters and had seen the level 1, part 1 simplified first edition and liked THAT, so thought that the second edition would be fine....WRONG. The biggest complaint is that in the level 1, part 2, unlike part 1, the characters are entirely too small so that not only is recognition difficult but trying to write them out is almost impossible for the more complicated characters requiring 5 or more strokes.

Another pet peeve is that some chapters have cartoons that follow the dialogues, which is fine, but the characters in the cartoons are TRADITIONAL and NOT Simplified....! WHat's up with that?!

Additionally, I purchased the 4 cd's that accompany the book at a cost of almost $50 and they are of extremely poor quality. You can tell that someone has overlaped the original recordings and on top of that, in many cases, the additions do not follow the BOOK! There is additional vocabulary on the cd's for some chapters, and the vocabulary is NOT in the book! They clearly either rushed this second edition or did a very poor editing job.

I say check out OTHER resources before thinking about this book.

There seems to be some misunderstanding with the previous review. The Integrated Chinese has been created mainly for use in class. Therefore the supplementary vocabulary is intended for creative activities in the classroom. Compared to many textbooks the characters are written quite large and in the new edition the printing is much better and clearer than in the original edition.
Students can buy the character workbook to practise characters if they still find the characters too small. In the real word, chinese characters are written very small and students are gently eased into recognizing smaller sizes gradually.
The CDs are crisp and clear.
It is explained in the introduction that, contrary to other editions, students can find at the end of the book the alternative characters for many original documents included in the main body of the textbook.
Nowadays traditional characters are coming back in use in advertising and "chic" business premises in China and in Taiwan some companies do use simplified characters as logos. Young people on both sides of the straits are used to reading both sets of characters. Consequently authors of good textbooks do no think they should deny the knowledge of both traditional and simplified characters when most young and middle-aged Chinese speakers use them in their everyday lives

I brought this one to mission trip to Mexico. If you're a Spanish beginner and bible reader, this is fairly good. But it is big and heavy to carry around all the time, since it is 2 bibles together.

I found this Bible easier to read in Spanish than my Reina Valera version. I really enjoy it. The English text is not a word-for-word translation, but I find that I can pretty much understand which words mean what. I've consulted my dictionary a lot less than with my other Bible.

Great Bible for intermediate Spanish students who want to learn more Spanish by reading the Bible. For advanced students, the Reina Valera version may be more challenging.

A really good bible in English and Spanish. Verses are side by side for easy comparision and review. A small cross is on the front, which I did not see in the picture, but I just covered it with a sticker. Also, the glossary at the end of the bible is very thick and only in Spanish. It makes the Bible heavier and larger, but I guess it could come in handy. Overall, it is good and would be perfect if not for the cross and the thick glossary. Next time, I would buy a bilingual bible that was cross-free and without any additional page (glossary).

Good Bilingual Bible. Quality is reasonable for the price. The pages are crease-prone, but not enough to reject it. Good choice for a missionary to a Hispanic country.

I love the Bible. I am currently living in a Spanish speaking country and this is great help to me. Came in great condition and quickly.

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.

VERY DISAPPOINTING SEQUEL: This book regurgitates too much of the 1st book. Worth reading? Maybe! But borrow it from a library. You will be happy to return it & not have paid to purchase it.

This book didn't excite me as much as the original (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) but then again, I was a little kid when i read the first and now I am old and moldy so to speak. I think kids will still love this one! 4 stars!

Years ago, my kids had enjoyed the book "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". When I learned that there was a sequel, I immediately ordered it for my two young grandsons, along with the original. Both my husband and I were disappointed with the new book; it seemed downright silly and except for "grandpa" in the story, it didn't have too much to do with the original.

I was surprised to read all the negative reviews of this book so I had to submit my own. My son loves this book even more than the first (also one of his favorites). This one, like the first, has great illustrations, a great story, and never fails to get my little one giggling (even after reading it 100 times)!

I grew up loving the prequel Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, so I bought this book a while back to complete the collection. Upon reading it however, I was quite dissapointed...it is okay as a children's book, but as a sequel it wasn't up to par with the original. I felt that this book lacked the charm that the original had, though the message about sharing is nice I guess. All in all if you're going to buy the book based on the original, expect to be dissapointed...but if you're buying it for a kid's collection it's alright.