Nonfiction Books

I love this book and always give it as a baby gift to new parents. But I sorely miss the older version with the beautiful mural style paintings as illustrations. The newer "cartoony" pictures don't do justice to the text.

My son and I read this as a part of homeschooling. The thing I like most about it, is that it has questions throughout the story. This is most helpful in making sure my son understands the story we are talking about. The stories are not even 5 minutes long, so his attention is never lost.

If I had a dime for every time words like "die" "kill" "dead", etc. appear in this, I'd have a hefty chunk of change. Little toddlers don't understand death, and to hear about it repeatedly here is shameful. For instance, when David brought the ark into Jersulaem, rather than focusing on David's love for God, the "brilliant" author informs us that if anyone looks in the ark, they'd die. Does a toddler need to know that detail?

Also, some of the grammar is just embarrassing: Pharoah "has very much money" etc. Oh, and the word "bad"? It's in there about a million times, too.

After reading this Bible to my two small children daily for a couple of years, I couldn't take it any more, and we bought a new one. Talk about "bad." Skip This version!!!

This isn't our kids only Bible story book, and the stories pale compared to other books. The stories lack detail, context, and are plain boring. Simply put, you can't tell every story in six or eight sentences.

For example, the story of "David and Goliath":
"A giant has come to fight against God's people. The giant's name is Goliath. All the men of Israel have run away from him. They are afraid to fight him because he is so big but David is not afraid. David knows that God will help him. David does not have a gun but he has a slingshot. Do you see it in his hand? He takes some stones and uses his slingshot to throw a stone at the giant. The stone hits the giant in the head and the great Goliath falls over dead.

- What is the giant's name?
- What did David hit him with?
- Why were all the other people afraid of Goliath?"

That's all to that story. For ages four and up, look somewhere else.

I like this Bible - each Bible story is a two page spread - left side is the story, right side is a picture. After each story are a couple questions for reading comprehension, as well as to make your child think about what they've just heard.

Unfortunately, the book isn't really set up for much handling by little ones. After a few times of being picked up by the cover (like just the back cover for example), the whole insides tore off the hardback cover and there's no way to put it back together again.

I bought this book to help provide me tips on raising my daughter. I found the book to be very applicable to both my daughter and my son. In fact, I would even say that it's a good book for not only fathers but for both parents. It is very conservative which I personally like and carries a traditional approach towards raising daughters. I found it helpful, insightful and very encouraging. I would consider going through the book in a parent Bible Study since there are questions at the end of each chapter. I found the book very practical as well.

I bought this for my son who has 2 daughters. I have read it myself and was very impressed with the excellent practical advice that Michael Farris has for fathers. This book is not for the timid, he gives fathers lots of authority but much responsibility in raising godly daughters. Liz

I am an adoptive Father of a (now) 6 year old girl and in the two years since she and her brothers moved in I started to realize how completely lost I was. As I watched her grow and be shaped by the world around us I knew I needed some good, solid, real-world advice. Knowing that the author has raised/is raising 6 Daughters went a long way towards meeting that, "real-world" criteria!

Addressing a vast number of areas - some you'd expect, (helping to create positive friendships, communication), and others you wouldn't, (being politically aware/active) - he serves up doses of both common sense and sometimes surprising advice.

Although at 6 my Daughter is still a bit too young for some of what I read, I feel I will be a better Father for having read this book. I intend to keep it around and go back to it for gentle reminders as I need them.

We used this book with 36 dads and ran the study for 7 weeks. This book is great for group studies because it has questions at the end of each chapter and great practical help for dads. Thanks for a good work.

I picked up this book because I was a soon to be father. I finished it because I was amazed with how fascist the author is. He homeschooled his children (which is fine), but he hand picked their friends. He chose his daughters' boyfriends from young men that worked for him, and if I remember correctly each daughter married their first boyfriend. I'm sure his daughters are happy, but he has raised submissive robots. Quiet scarry actually. This is called: "How a Man Prepares His Daughter for Life". I'm not sure how many people are wealthy lawyers turned politicians, but I'm assuming most do not share this man's wealth of resources and I'm hoping even fewer share his ideology of total control.

I love this book. I had doubts because there was no pictures online, but I read a review and decided to risk it. I'm so happy I did. The book has a place for a school photo each year, 2 pockets to put reportcards and art work, plus it has spaces for pictures of friends and spots for the child to write in their school information, age, and other answers to different questions depending on the grade (ex- if they like to color, to what they would like to achieve the following year.) This book will save the momories for a life time without the hours of scrapbooking. Perfect for the busy Mom or Dad!

**The book is bounded, but you may need to keep an eye on any little ones who want to flip though the book. My daughter pulled the first page out by trying to unclip a pin I had added. Im not sure how she managed to do this so quickly because the pages are fairly thick.

We didn't know what School Memory album was until my wife's cousin in Canada mentioned to her. I purchased 4 albums for our grand niece in Sasktchewan, Canada. When we received it was a pleasant surpise. The album was well organized with space for class photos, events, other important activities. After seeing the album, we ordered 2 more for our 5 and 2 year grandsons.I hope they will share thier school memories with others. I recommend this product to parents and grands parents to give it to their children and grand children.

I have to admit, I had my doubts about ordering "School Memory Album" for my grandson who just entered K. Being there are no pictures or description, I researched via the internet and was able to find a site showing one picture of the inside at Teacher Resources. I just received the album and am thrilled! The album is: hard cover spiral bound, first page "this album belongs to", second page has family tree, and the following pages starting with grade K has two pages with one double pocket to keep all the treasured memories to come! First page of each grade has area for school, teacher, picture, height, and signature. The higher grades vary with the information, but at the same time has more then enough room for whatever information you would like to add. The pages are colorful yet very pleasing to the eye. This album was exactly what I was looking for and highly recommend for keeping memories of these cherished years! Although, I purchased for my grandson, would be excellent for a girl as well. Not to hesitate making this purchase!

I was so happily surprised when I got this school memory album. I have a different one for my daughter and it pales in comparison. I love the large (full 8.5x11) pockets to keep special school work and art work in. There are fun places to journal and the graphics are great. I will for sure get this same one for my other 2 kids. The only thing I do wish it had was a place for pre-school...but this is only K-6. Still...love it!

Whether you want a monolingual English dictionary to help expand the vocabulary of your intermediate or advanced ESL students, or you want to help a struggling beginning Chinese student make a link from their language to English, or you have five different language groups in the class and want to discuss with them the items in a kitchen or fruits or vegetables, the Oxford Picture Dictionary can be a great help. Since the subject-numbering for the pages in all versions of the dictionary are the same, all language groups can listen to the English pronunciation and read the same word in their own language without searching for the right page.
The indivisual students or the teacher needs to help control the rate that the oral words are introduced. Using Pause/Play on the computer for independent or group study or having the teacher or assistant read to the group are both possible. An Advance button on the computer would be much easier than Play/Pause. Maybe there is such a thing, just need to know.
A more accesable list of all the languages included in this publication would be useful. I can find most, but I never know if I've found them all. Over all, this is an extremely useful publication.

This well-structured and nicely illustrated English/Spanish dictionary is a good resource which could easily have been made excellent. Where it comes up short is the lack of bilingual coverage for many entries.

Though the product description does flag the fact that the dictionary's purpose is to "meet the needs of today's English language learners," the layout of the dictionary gives the impression that it is for English speakers learning Spanish as the initial entries are given in English. However, many examples -- most notably the practice exercises -- are given in English only. This could prove frustrating for those wanting learn or expand their Spanish with it or vice versa.

I have been teaching French, Spanish and ESL for many years. I have tried every teaching tool I could find. I can honestly say, this book is the best language tool ever! My students take this book with them everywhere they go and they are the ones who started calling this their "bible."

Apr 5, 2008: Has all sorts of practical vocabulary for everyday situations: household vocabulary, garden care vocabulary, medical vocabulary and many other situations. Would be valuable to communicate with Spanish speaking employees who may have limited literacy, because it is a picture book aimed at adult immigrants. Has lots of words for tools, car repair and furniture that you don't get in high school textbooks.

I am an English as a Second Language Instructor. Every time we use the class set of Oxford Picture Dictionaries my students always want to purchase them. I get a lot of requests for these. I see the students using them all of the time. It increases their knowledge of English & their confidence. I highly recommend it for anyone learning English or Spanish!

I love these books. It is really helping my toddler to understand what not to do.

My 28 month old loves the books in this series, and we have unfortunately needed them. He related to the pictures of the injured and offended, and it has really helped his behavior. This one focuses a lot more on what feet should do, more so than the Teeth Are Not For Biting does with the teeth, which is good and bad.

Great book if your toddler has been kicking lately. Teaches good behavior as well as phrases that you can use to stop bad behavior. Highly recommend this book.
Beth

Bought this for my one twin who likes to kick. I think he is getting the point :-)

We bought this book for our 19-month-old daughter when she hit and bit another child at school. At the time, she used to kick me when I changed her diaper, and her daycare had a copy of this book, so I bought it, along with "Hands Are Not For Hitting" and "Teeth are Not For Biting."

All three books are great. They are very simple, straightforward, with pictures and language toddlers can understand. The repetitive phrases like "Ouch, Kicking Hurts," and "Feet are not for kicking people," are phrases my daughter has remembered, and that we have adopted in our house in the event that she hits or kicks, as many kids this age tend to do from time-to-time.

Our daughter just turned two and still loves to read these books and has retained the lessons therein. It's a great series.

Side Note: The "Hands Are Not For Hitting" that we ordered here from Amazon is NOT a board book, and it's language is a little more advanced for a very young toddler, but you can "customize" the language and your little one will still love it!

I love how this book places you in the world of current events of George Washington's life. it really gives a wonderful perspective on the historical events of the time.

The World Of Columbus and Sons was the first Foster book I've read. I really thought it interesting. George Washington's World is a much better book than The World Of Columus and Sons. Why? I can't explain. I'm not so intersted in Columbus as I am with Washington. Now, this book is really helping me (George Washington's World) since I'm in a middle of doing a research report on Martha Washington, George Washington's wife. George Washington's World talks quite a bit about Martha Washington so that really helps me.

I must admit, when I was growing up, I hated American history above all else. In comparison with British history or world history, it seemed so boring...all facts and no fun. Well, this book will make you enjoy eating your cultural veggies. First of all, the authors took the trouble to include the trivial details about the "players" that make them human and interesting. Also, because of Ms. Foster's unique panoramic approach to history, you are better able to understand the environment that made our heroes and villians what they became. Although this book is considered a children's book, I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone over the age of 10 or so. The text will certainly not bore you, I promise!

My son needed this book for school and we received in time for school. Great service!

I bought this book for my 5 year old son. He is a die hard dinosaur fan. He loves it. The pictures in it are magnificent! The information is in laymens terms. You don't have to be a scientist to understand the content. There are tons of dinosaur pictures. Definately one of my sons favorite dino books!

I bought this book for my son, and he LOVES it. It has so much information and great pictures it keeps him busy for hours!

See all my reviews of dinosaur books.

"National Geographic Dinosaurs" is aimed perfectly at the new student (aged 8-12). It's illustrations are vivid and the information is well-pitched. The only problem is this book was originally published in 1999 so feathers don't appear on dinosaurs like Therizinosaurus or the dromeosaurs. This edition was reprinted in 2006, and unfortunately there are still no feathers.


At almost 200 pages in length, there are thicker books. However, with 120 pages dedicated to dinosaur profiles, there are enough dinosaurs to satisfy the new student.

Typically, there are a series of chapters that provide a context, followed by the dinosaur profiles. "Nat Geo Dinosaurs" contextual chapters include 'What is a Dinosaur?'; 'The Age of the Dinosaurs' - info on the Mesezoic era and other creatures - marine and flying; 'Dinosaur Sites'- key fossil sites; 'Discovering Dinosaurs'; 'Reconstructing Dinosaurs'; 'Dinosaur biology and behaviour'; 'How they Lived' - maternal instincts, hunting and fighting, arms and armor, diet, size and weight, movement; 'Classification' with flowcharts. Overall, these chapters hold-up reasonably well with other similar books, especially the classification pages. After the profiles there are chapters on extinction and dinosaur films.

The book then goes into genus profiles (usually of one page per dinosaur, sometimes two) of the bird-hipped dinosaurs for 50 pages then the lizard-hipped dinosaurs for another 60 pages. Each of these pages contains a Fact File with a grid showing the size of the dinosaur against a 6 foot man. Included in the Fact File is: Genus; Classification; Length; Weight; (When it) Lived; and where it was found (with a world map). Also included is a colour illustration of the dinosaur in a profile pose. The information is generally 3 to 4 paragraphs long and is very basic science. Normally there is information on distinguishing features and some comparison with cousins. Unfortunately, single dinosaurs are not covered in detail; it is only the genus - so if you are looking on the Tyrannosaurus page, you wont find anything on each of the tyrannosaurs (like Albertosaurus or Tarbosaurus). What you get is pretty much T.rex disguised as a generalised tyrannosaur.

Where I really think the book falls down is in it's interpretations of dinosaur behaviour and adaptations. There is quite a lot of information presented as fact when it is pure speculation. Also, there isn't any balance in arguments. For example, the profile on Carnotaurus states when mentioning its short snout 'that it could have got twisted and bent, particularly in struggles with large animals' suggsting that 'Cartnotaurus did not often attack animals of the same size or larger than itself, as its skull could not withstand such forces'. This is only providing one side of the argument (and the weaker side at that). There is currently strong debate about the diet of Carnotaurus due to the argument of how strong its jaws actually were, and whether it hunted in packs. I prefer information that is more balanced like the more accurate "The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia" by David Burnie. The information in "Nat Geo Dinosaur", however, is way more realistic than Gee and Rays "A Field Guide to Dinosaurs", but not as adequate as Parker's "Dinosaurus" which has individual species profiled.

Overall, I do "The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia" by David Burnie over this book due to its superior information, and perhaps "A Field Guide to Dinosaurs" by Gee as the illustrations are more up to date.

We bought this for my five year old nephew who LOVES dinosaurs. He can read pretty well on his own and has enjoyed flipping through this book, reading and looking at the pictures. My husband also thought this book was awesome and wished he had had more time before Christmas to read this book before wrapping it up for our nephew!

I bought this for my grandchildren for Christmas and they loved looking through it. Beautiful pic's and fun to read together.

Love the adorable fairies in this book. Lovely drawings, appropriate for myself and my young daughter.

True to form, this is another great book of Cicely's artwork. It's a favorite coloring book of my little girls!

I am not much on coloring books and would rather give a child a blank piece of paper and tell them to "create." But this coloring book is so much more. Full of magical fairies and pictures originally created by Cicely Mary Baker, this book helps children imagine the world of fairies. Lovely!

This is a perfectly lovely coloring book for your children. The
fairy pictures are beautiful and it is made just for fun.

My daughters and niece play together frequently. They are ages four, five, and seven. I bought extra books because they all wanted to color in the first one. I didn't think this would hold the seven year olds interest, but it has. The fairies are beautiful, just like Cicely Mary Barker's artwork, and there is a lot of variety. I like the idea of the alphabet book combined with coloring, even though the girls have long since learned their letters. They were not, however, familiar with all of the flowers, so this has been a learning tool too. Great fun and highly recommended for a variety of ages of girls.