Science Nature Books

This book was a compelling read for me since: it is very new at this time; it investigates the origin of consciousness; and it seemed to have less scientific or religious fervor behind it. Plus the author has won a Pulitzer and seems to be a well respected professor teaching this topic. Having read it, I find Hofstadter to be a master at using analogy to elicit deep insight into every topic he presents. And he writes from his heart. You will learn much about the man behind the words. Which shows he is fully accountable for any bias or personal perspectives he may have. Although he clearly expresses his hope that you will share in his perceptions. I surely do.

Is the mind a separate entity from the body? If not, then where does it come from? These questions are not immediately apparent but ultimately they are the questions he has written this book to address. The entire first half is spent introducing the reader to some background information that is presented in seemingly random fashion. But expressed in an entertaining, beautifully descriptive and informative way.

There are many examples he uses to show the occurance of loops in everyday life. He starts with simple ones, like the toilet flush valve loop. Then more identifiable ones like looking into parallel mirrors which create what seems to be a corridor of forever repeating images. Or a microphone's feedback squeal when placed too close to the speaker. My favorite was his experiments with a camcorder pointed at the monitor. The crux of this background knowledge is his presentation of the work of Gödel - the only part of the book I found difficult to fathom. But this example shows how even mathematics creates loops, and has the incredible consequence of rendering logic inconclusive.

This background information provides a perspective of thought that serves to show that the mind actually creates itself! He proposes that the mind does not exist until it becomes self aware. Before that, we are just unconscious beings on the level of base animals. His ideas about the levels of mindfullness of animals and even insects is also quite interesting to me, since it is something that most of us have considered but rarely speak about. His compassion has prompted him to become a vegetarian, yet interestingly, he has absolutely no respect for mosquitos!

But then he goes on to explain how our consciousness evolves as it experiences itself, and the selfs of others. Adding another wrinkle to his theory to shows that there is cross-talk between 'souls' and that seeing others is key to seeing ourselves. He brings up quite a few other interesting topics and perspectives that explain his reasoning, all of which he presents with great skill.

As you read this, without the tremendous insight of Hofstader, I don't expect you to take my word for it. And of course, I wouldn't have either, before reading this book. But perhaps, if you read it, you will learn something about yourself that right now, seems absolutely impossible.

This book does a good job of explaining some very complex theories in a way the an average person can understand and get something out of. It's not quite on the level of Godel Escher Bach complexity wise, nor is it intended to be. In fact Hofstader says one of the reasons he wrote this book is that a lot of people who enjoyed GEB did not get the fundamental message of it.

Godel Escher Bach is a hard slog for the average person. I picked GEB up and put it down several times before reading this book. Reading and understanding I Am a Strange Loop has given me the motivation I need to complete GEB. Now I'm nearly finished with GEB, and I have a much better understanding of what is being illustrated.

The book can be a little tedious in spots, but it is necessary to get the message across. Of course, the message is complex enought that I cannot explain it in a short review. It does require reading the entire book, and it can change how you think.

The reason I rate this book 5 stars is because it makes the very important underpinnings of GEB much more accessible to a wider range of people. This is a very hard thing to do, but the author did a wonderful job of it.

...but I must say I'm moving through this book much faster than the last I read (The Shipping News), which suggests that it's more compelling somehow. In truth, however, I think I may be favorably inclined because I so-much enjoyed reading Hofstader's classics as a teen. This book is not bad, but somehow a bit melancholy. It could probably also be a bit tighter -- a little shorter. I'll try to remember to update this review once I finished the book. Happy reading.

I am 2/3 through the book and enjoying it immensely. It is consistently Douglas Hofstadter. It is the same style as GEB, and as I find out, the same style he has had since age 16. (There is an introduction consisting of a mind/thought paper Douglas wrote as a teenager.)

Do you know what consciousness is? It is a mirage. Just a giant symbol in your brain, like one big complicated word that points to itself. Douglas Hofstadter first had this insight when he was 16 years old and has been trying ever since to get into words that hang together. As other reviewers have pointed out, he probably hasn't succeeded. There are several problems I see with this ideas in the book, which is otherwise a sensitive autobiographical work. The first is how the central topic of Godel's theorem connects to consciousness. The theorem, which shows how self-reference can reveal an interesting fact about arithmetic from the "top down," doesn't by any number of analogies explain how consciousness has arisen from matter. Hofstadter very briefly says that DNA uses the same "Godel Trick" in its self-replication process, but then he stops short and returns to the nether world of metaphors and life experiences. I do feel that I gained a better conceptual understanding of the notion of "I," but here Godel's theorem was of no help.

The second problem I had with this book is the writing. He simply leaves out too much scientific information for the reader to feel confident in the many analogies he offers. By knowing a bit of evolution, formal logic, and Daniel Dennett's related positions, I could make much more sense of the book than what Hofstadter was giving me. Hofstadter may not be a "greedy reductionist" in fact, but he sure is in his writing.

The final problem I had with this books is the scope. At the end of the book, the author rushes to tidy up several problems of interest to the field of philosophy, from the old problem of free will to the recent fad of zombies. This seems stretched and out of place. He then extends himself to political topics such as capital punishment, war, and his grand finale, compassion, which I found completely gratuitous. He seems to think that once one adopts his view of consciousness, ethical values and political stances should fall out almost trivially. They don't. Unfortunately, these are probably the issues closest to Hofstadter's heart, and it pains me to see him gamble on such high chances of disagreement before the book is set down. I much rather see these in different books, say a popular science book and an autobiography. A popular science book needs to relate and convince, while an autobiography need only relate. By reaching so far as to claim, for example, that musical taste (e.g. Bach or Tupac) may be a measure of how conscious someone is, Hofstadter truly boxes himself into his own world.

"Mind of the Raven" is science accessible to the non-scientist.

This very interesting narrative describes a biologist's quest to figure out how ravens work - is their behavior innate, governed solely by genes, or do they have some sort of thinking process? Each field experiment answers some questions and raises others, leading to further experiments, some worked in the wild, and some with birds he raised in captivity.

Bernd Heinrich finds that these birds apparently have an intelligent approach to life: they can learn from experience and have the ability to deal with potential predators, to hide food from competitors, and to figure out puzzles.

The reader gets a fascinating look not only at the behavior and mind of ravens but also insight into how a biologist's mind works.

I originally got this book out of the library, but liked it so much I bought two to give as gifts.
Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

See others by the same author, for instance Bumblebee Economics

Heinrich is a fine scientist with a flexible mind who enjoys animals, nature and adventure. He also writes well. While Heinrich knows all the rules of producing successful journal articles, he is sensitive to the anecdote which can also be enlightening.

Ravens are an interesting subject because they are very bright, are a social animal, and enjoy play. They also have language mimicking capabilities just like parrots, but unfortunately, no one has tried to systematically teach ravens to understand and use human language as they have with parrots. This may be because they are not very easy to have as pets. In fact one of the most enjoyable chapters is Heinrich's account of a couple who actually keep a raven indoors as a pet, although the raven often accompanies them outside, untethered.

There are a few negatives, none of which should discourage anyone from reading this book. In the early chapters, it seemed to me that too much time was spent discussing investigations that turned out not to be very enlightening. For me ravens are not as likeable as some other animals: they are too devoted to expressing dominance, even when it doesn't seem to provide evolutionary advantages; for example, they will expend great effort to keep other birds from bathing, ultimately fruitlessly, and without any benefit to themselves. Finally, Heinrich is convinced that genetic evolution has resulted in the symbiosis between raven and wolf, when it seems to me that he cannot rule out cultural evolution; Heinrich himself notes Raven culture, and its importance is indicated by the fact that ravens don't mate for 3 or 4 years, even though they grow to adult size in a few weeks. During that 3-4 years, they are learning.

Very informative yet not too scientific. Contains many facts not commonly known about these intelligent birds. This book could change your mind about them.

I knew the raven had many interesting feature to them before I opened this book but after reading "mind of the raven" I will say I was amazed of both the research Bernd Heinrich has done and of this remarkable bird. Heinrich are presenting his findings about the ravens where he is taking the subject (the raven) seriously and simultaneously managed to make it attractive for people that have not specialize in beaks and feathers.

I agree with most reviewers that this book fascinates the reader with interesting science and anecdotes about ravens. There are countless facts and amusing information provided about the intelligence, behavior and antics of both wild and tame ravens. One of the more humorous sections was on vocal communication, particulary mimicking. Heinrich provides descriptions of captive ravens making perfect renditions of radio static, toilets flushing and a motorcycle being revved up. There was also a scientist in a national park who distictly heard several times: "Three, two, one, bcccchhhh", sounding as if coming from a speaker. This was acually a raven who was sufficiently impressed with the park rangers conducting avalanche control to repeat the count-down and sound of the explosion. Hilarious...
The experiments and observations the author describes of wild ravens in the forests of Maine, Alaska,the western states & elsewhere are also superbly written and provide insights into the interactions and cooperation of ravens with large (and dangerous) predators including Man.

Any library strong in animal reference studies, will find this an intriguing coverage surveying pet emotions and how they can contribute to better understanding. From joy to sorrow, THE EMOTIONAL LIVES OF ANIMALS uses the author's 35 years of experience studying social and communication patterns of animals to survey animal empathy. Chapters draw important connections between animal emotional lives and the purpose behind animal emotions.

Animals and emotions. It's a touchy subject. Most people can readily admit that most animals have primary (fight or flight) type reactions. However, opinions begin to change when researchers start discussing secondary emotions, like love, compassion, sadness, etc.

Anyone who has ever had a pet knows for a fact that their cat, dog, snake, etc has such emotions. We know for a fact that they have very distinct personalities and preferences. Yet, somehow the same people, find it difficult to believe that a chimpanzee, an elephant, a wolf, a magpie, or a fish might also be capable of something beyond primitive reactions.

The Emotional Lives of Animals gives accounts of animals displaying what would seem to be primary emotions. As one would expect, the author discusses big brained animals such as elephants, higher primates, whales, and dolphins. However, the most interesting studies look at unexpected animals such as fish to examine their capabilities.

The book has some very good points. However, the author repeats his ideas many times. I got about halfway through the first chapter and lost interest. I think the book could have been condensed, considerably.

I am founder of an animal rescue group in Pinehurst NC called Animal Advocates of Moore county.

I found the book to be excellent !!!!!

Maureen Burke-Horansky

Marc Bekoff has rattled more than a few cages in his long career as a cognitive ethologist, but that does not make what he has to say any less true. This book summarizes the case for recognizing the similarities we share with our non-human mammalian companions, and it does so with flair, as well as attention to scientific detail.

For scientists or simply science buffs, this book has plenty to satisfy, but it's not just for them. This book is more for the average American who has always sensed the truths of non-human emotional lives (or maybe even has not), but is curious about the science behind the facts.

I have long been fond of saying "a mammalian brain is a mammalian brain is a mammalian brain, whether it belongs to you, your cat or my horse." Marc Bekoff makes this same statement with much more clarity and deeper understanding.

This book should leave you with a greater respect for the lives of the non-humans we share this planet with, and a deeper understanding of the ways our experiences here are the same, rather than focusing on what's different. It turns out the similarities are greater than the differences!

But all the science aside, this is also a book filled with great stories of observations of scientists and laypeople alike that back up the studies. Stories like the one told by an e-mail friend of mine, who witnessed two young mice trapped, where one helped the other to recover rather than just seeking its own salvation (I wonder if humans would have had the same level of compassion!).

This book should change your life. If it doesn't then your mind must be very closed, indeed.

Brian Walker, Program Director Resilience Alliance and a scientist with the CSIRO. Canberra Australia, has, with the assistance of science writer David Salt, written the best and most straightforward work on ecological resilience entirely suitable for a wide audience of readers; activists, teachers, scientists from any number of disciplines, interested in gaining a familiarity with a study area that is of critical importance in this present world of catastrophe, forever changing with the calamitous onset of climate change and where stategies of adaptation are quite indequate mechanisms for survival in the white-water world we will have to navigate.

It is not a scientific treatise but a work from which all interested readers will benefit substantially no matter what their background or credentials. This is a twentyfirst century production coauthored with a skilled science writer and a model for any NGO or scientific group who wish to influence and inform policy makers with something they can readiliy understand.. Resilience capability and building such capacity is perhaps the best, but still uncertain, way to buffer social-ecological systems--your everyday environment--from unpredictable, disastrous events and accompanying change. Adaptation and models based on orthodox science are unfortunately inadequate to meet such crises. I recommend this book to any concerned person no matter their level of understanding. They will find something new and enlightening here.

A MUST read for environmentalists. And for business, community and anyone willing to adapt the thinking to their situation. Brian and David have done a superb job in translating resilience theory and its close ties to complex adaptive systems. I have been looking for a book to recommend to my clients and students and this is it. I would also strongly recommend that the 'old guard' sustainability brigade have a look at this. The strategies that sustainability largely pursues are unsustainable. Resilience thinking is a more accurate path for us to head toward something that resembles sustainability. Well done.

This is a gem of an educational book. Mixing case studies with elaborating chapters on key concepts, it's as a good a volume as I have found for teaching undergraduates, graduates, and practitioners (farmers, factory managers, investors) the core ideas needed to restore a sustainable social-ecological system.

Highlights for me:

+ Optemization is a false premise, simplifies complex systems we do not understand, with the result that we end up causing long-term damage.

+ Resilience thinking is systems thinking. I cannot help but think back to all of the excellent work in the 1970's and 1980's--the authors were simply a quarter century ahead of their time.

+ In a nut-shell, resilient system can absorb severe disturbance.

+ System resilience is affected by context, connections across scales of time and space, and current system state in relations to threshholds.

+ Fresh water, fisheries, and topsoil depletion are major failures.

+ Drivers of environmental degradation are poverty, willful excessive consumption, and lack of knowledge (from another book, I recall that changes to the Earth that used to take 10,000 years now take three, one reason we need real-time science).

+ Key concepts are threshholds and adaptive cycles. Adaptive cycles have four phases: Rapid Growth; Conservation; Release; and Reorganization.

+ Redundancy is NOT a dirty word (just as intelligence--decision support--should not be a dirty word within the United Nations)

+ Ecological networks cannot be understood nor nurtured with a tight linking and understanding of the social networks that interact with the ecological networks.

+ Subsidies are a form of social denial, as they subsidize unsustainable practices and prevent adaptation and change.

+ Lovely--absolutely lovely--chart on page 89 about time-scales of climate and natural disasters like major fires.

+ One size does not fit all--solutions for one social-ecological network, e.g. in the USA, will not be the same as for another, e.g. in Norway.

+ Diversity is the key to regeneration.

+ Governances must be able to see and act upon key intervention points.

+ A Resilient world would be characterized by:

1. Diversity
2. Ecological variables
3. Modularity
4. Acknowledgement of slow variables
5. Tight feedbacks
6. Social capital
7. Innovation
8. Overlap in governance
9. Ecosystem services

Within this small and very easy to absorb book one finds a great annotated bibliography of recommended readings, a fine reference section, and a very solid index.

Other books that come to mind as complements to this one (limited to ten links by Amazon):
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design
High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy
The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink

This book is Latour's actor network theory in another guise, with the physicalization of Kuhn's paradigm shift thrown in for good measure. It is a very interesting book on an emerging way to look at environmental crises (note, not the environmental crisis. We seriously need local knowledge and local experience to manage each individual ecosystem).

My major issues with this book are twofold. One is that it is not well written, though not altogether poorly written, you can simply tell when the science writer came in to jazz things up. Secondly, the authors spend a little too much time trying to convince the reader that resilience thinking is NEW, DIFFERENT, SUBVERSIVE, and the like. We get, on page 29, something that I just cannot stand: a little briefer than brief history of challenge to dogma. Galileo spoke out about the Copernican model (which was still perfect circles, Kepler had it right but Galileo ignored him) and the church shot him down. Darwin dared to say species change and the world exploded! Now, we, the humble new scientists bring you a new challenge to the dogma of ecology today. Give me a break! I would have thought a science writer on the team would have had the experience to leave out this trite nonsense. Just tell me about your idea and spare me the drama! Sorry, but poor history of science is a real pet peeve. :-)

But either way, this is still an important book that should be read by ecology students, politicians, resource managers, and anyone interested in new ideas. The case studies are really informative and clear, and the message is properly urgent

This is a great book. I've read several books on this topic, and so far, they have all had a similar issue: They are written by people who are scientists first, writers second. This book has two authors. One is a scientist and the other is a science writer. This made for a well put-together, understandable explanation of complex adaptive systems, which are what ecosystems are currently understood to be.

The authors have done a few things to make the book great. First, they have broken the topic down into a set of subtopics, with one chapter explaining each subtopic. At the end of each chapter is a summary of important points so it's clear what the authors are hoping you get out of the chapter. Each chapter is then followed by a case study that is used to illustrate the ideas just covered.

If you are looking for an introductory book on ecosystems and how humans affect their ability to maintain themselves, this is the book to read. The authors also provide several good resources at the end of the book if you would like to expand your knowledge further.

This is the new edition of a decent line of Biology books. The older edition (the one with the brown turtle) was pretty informative, and made most concepts pretty clear. Diagrams were helpful, and it got me through the class.

THIS EDITION IS NOT THE SAME. This edition contains none of he useful diagrams, none of the information, and seems like they took out half the knowledge found in the old edition. This book is so heavily edited that most students will be struggling, even if they're trying to learn. If a student doesn't care, they have no chance of passing with this book.

I received excellent service when I ordered this book online through Amazon. The service made it easier to obtain an item that would have taken much more time that I cannot spare. The item received was just as expected--in excellent condition. I would recommend this service to all. Amazon takes away the worries of difficulties/problems that could easily arise.

If you're a teacher wanting to buy this book, DON'T! It is so heavy, I would find any way I could not to have to shove the stupid thing in my backback. It does not explain things well,and it made freshman year accel. biology MISERABLE!

This book is no good, my students never bring it to class and never crack it open, yet they still manage to recieve mostly A's and B's. Paying somewhat attention in class could help you just as much if not more than reading this nuisance of a book!!!
If it wasn't for the superindendant of our school district this book would have found itself in the dumpster,(...)

At dunwoody high biology is very hard at least in my class. This book didn't make it any easer weighing in at 250lbs i would do whatever it took not to lug this thing to and from school. So I got the cd. I still have to carry the book to class and the cd stinks anyways. I also find the concepts a little uh poorly written. This book stinks. I'm hoping however to try and work around it and pull my grade up. I just hope the next class won't have to deal with that aweful book.

i love this book... used it for medical terminology class as well as physiology and anatomy.. great book... very well designed, ..you can easily and quickly find the subject matter you are looking for. It doesn't replace a full on anatomy textbook like Martini, but it is a great supplement.

The book is excellent for anyone who wants to learn the body systems and how they work. Very detailed illustrations make that easy and the language is simple enough for a novice. The only disappointment was the size of the book. I was hoping to get the coffee table size I saw in my chiropractor's office and instead got a very thick, heavy 5 x 7 size.

I truly love this book. It's small enough to take anywhere and it has all the information that one could need on the spot.

I bought this for a friend who loves things like this, but before I sent it off to him I took a look at it myself. I thought this was the perfect book for anybody that really wants details about what goes on inside ourselves. It has great full color diagrams and tons of information. A great pick!

Great book. For those who are just interested in anatomy will be perfect and should be enough, but medical students would rather use it as a wonderfully colored and easy to read supplement. It's small size, you can keep it in your purse and read anywhere. The best value of that book are colored photos and illustrations with detailed explanations that everybody will undurstand. I personally loved it.

I loved the ideas, concepts, and relationships explained in the text, however, I was disappointed with the design and layout of the book. Books in this series seem to be intended as quick, entertaining, and beautiful overviews of their respective topics. This book succeeds on the first two measures, but falls short of beautiful. Several of the illustration pages are black background with faint white artwork and small text - tough to read. Many of the illustrations have notations with text so small one needs a magnifying glass. Several of the concepts are presented with many small illustrations crowding the page instead of one illuminating example shown large. Overall, the book was not as pleasing as other excellent works in the series such as "Sacred Geometry" and "Platonic and Archimedian Solids."

"The Golden Section" discusses...and illustrates...the history, importance and wide-ranging presence of the "golden ratio". This is a very short book and is written in a style that plays text on one page against a graphical display on the opposing page.

Scott Olsen covers a lot of ground in a short space. One thing that I appreciated about this book was the clear identification of the symbols that typically represent the golden ratio: (1) "Fye", the greater ratio (approximately 1.62) and (2) "Fee", the lesser ratio (approximately 0.62)...the respective symbols are not shown here due to font constraints.

This is a good short introduction to the history, importance and relevance of a ratio.

Good price for the little tome (about 3.5" x 5". Lots of fun and useful information about the Golden Mean, Section, etc. The tiniest little coffee table book. Excellent value for sucha cool little book.

Having attended a workshop of the Golden Mean by Dr. Scott Olsen in the Detroit area winter 2007, we were all benefited by the well prepared studies on such a fascinating study. Workshop even included hands on demonstrations with many visual aids added to active discussions with questions and comments welcome.
Our group included several people with varied degrees of understanding of sacred geometry and rule of phi. Bringing the book home with me allowed me to go over the information with increased understanding of the subject. I recommend this book to all curious readers---the book presented in a way all will gain knowledge of such a gem of truth..............

One of the most famous and mysterious of numbers is pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. If you know some mathematics and work with logarithms, you know another important constant, e. Less well known is the number phi (the Greek symbol looks like a capital I superimposed on an o); it is in many ways simpler than the other two and is just as interesting. All you have to do is take a line segment of any length, and put a point on the line so that the point divides the line into a big segment and a little one, and so that the little segment is to the big segment as the big segment is to the line you started with. The section you made, and the connected mathematics and art, are described and illustrated in _The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secret_ (Walker Books) by Scott Olsen, which ought to get an award for the book with the greatest density of information in the smallest package. It has but 58 small pages, and half of those are taken up with illustrations (which are wonderfully selected ). But if you follow the pages, and have pencil, paper, and a calculator beside you, there are depths here that bigger books never touch.

It's not too interesting to put a point directly in the middle of a line. You get equal segments that way, or a ratio of one to one, or 1:1; and if a segment is 1, the whole line you bisected is 2, a ratio of 2:1. Plato knew, though, that that was one point that would divide the whole line into shorter and longer portions so that "the whole to the longer equals the longer to the shorter"; or if shorter is a, longer is b, and the whole is a + b, then a + b is to b as b is to a; in symbols, a + b : b as b : a, or a + b : b : a. The ratio is phi (pronounced "fye"). It's numerical equivalent is 1.6180339... (the ellipsis indicating its never-ending nature). There are plenty of surprising properties of this number, some of which you can find on your calculator. For instance, divide phi into one, and you get 0.6180339..., which is exactly one less than phi itself. If you square phi, you get 2.6180339..., which is exactly one more than phi itself. Phi shows up closely related to the Fibonacci Sequence, a series of numbers that shows up all over nature. Rectangles based on phi show up in architecture and art and even music.

"Because of its aesthetic qualities, embodied in its unique ability to relate the parts to the whole," writes Olsen, "golden ratios are used in the design of many modern household items." Credit cards, for instance, are very close to the 8 by 5 Fibonacci approximation of phi. Surely no one ever designed the first credit cards to reflect phi, but the ratio does seem to be inherently attractive. Olsen demonstrates that phi shows up in spirals of DNA, in human proportions, in icosahedrons, and so many other places. His handsome and accessible book is an exercise in an appealing numerology.

Let me note that it is a wordy book and that the symbolism is going to go right over the heads of your younger children. This is *definitely* a book for the older end of the 4-8 crowd, and maybe older still.

The answer as to "who is the stranger" is never clearly given, but it's clear, reading through the lines, that he's someone akin to Old Man Winter.

I really suggest you read this book, and possibly buy it.

This book has great pictures. The story is deep. I think little kids will like this book as well as adults.

This book is about a man who suddenly appeared on a road. He was invited by a family. They lived on a quiet farm. He was so awkward.
I don't think this book is a very good book. Wild animals came to him and they didn't care what he did to them. When I read this book, I thought he was an unknown alien. In autumn, the pumpkins grew very huge!
One day, when he climbed the highest hill on the Bailey farm, he looked to the north. The trees there were yellow and orange. But the Baileys' trees were green.
This book made me feel confused. He couldn't talk, or dress himself. He is one weird person.
If you think you like this book, read it, I rather say don't. Read this book if you think it is good. This book is easy to read. It might have difficult words in it. I would say that anybody can read this.

Chris VanAllsburg has created another literary masterpiece. He gives his reader the opportunity to think about the implications of fall never occurring. This is an excellent tool for teachers to use when teaching the concept of anthropomorphism. As always, the illustrations are magnificent!

Other reviewers have used the word "strange" to discribe this work. I think the words "haunting" and "mysterious," probably hit closer to the mark. At least they do for me. This is one of those works that will certainly make you think. More importantly, it will make, or should make, the young reader think. That is the key to the fascination of the text of this work. Beyond doubt, the illustrations are quite wonderful, even beautiful. I did note that some of the youth reviews here were not overly enthusiastic. I have found that many young people do indeed "get" the story, while others do not. Some simply do not have the capacity to wonder, to imagine. This is sort of sad in a way, but on the other hand, it is works such as this, that if read with an adult who does have that spark of wonder in them, might allow some of that wonder to rub off. I like a good fantasy and a good mystery, ergo, I liked this book and do recommend it. The art work and stark writing alone are worth it.