Science Nature Books

David took his own life in 2004 at the age of 38. His twin brother died a couple of years before (maybe) also of a suicide. The story of David did not end well, as much as we hoped it would.

This was an interesting book in that it told the story of the tragic childhood of David Reimer in addition to summarizing the background of John Money's theoretical underpinnings of his belief in early childhood reconstructive surgery. The fact that Reimer's childhood was being described as a total success by John Money when in fact the reality of the situation was the exact opposite is pretty shocking. Amazing how unethical this guy was. Your archetypal mad scientist.

Anyone who looked through a serious book on sex and gender in the 1970s was bound to come across the landmark John/Joan case. It seemed to indicate that children's sense of their sex (i.e., whether they were boys or girls) was soft and malleable. Counterintuitive and Marxian as that sounds now, it was presented as enlightened, forward-looking thinking.

By the time John Colapinto published his expose of the John/Joan case in Rolling Stone in 1997, the jig was already up. Intersex advocates were loudly complaining that they had been mutiliated and tinkered with. The weight of evidence now suggested that for most people, one's mental sex was as fixed at birth as one's physical form.

This book expanded on the original article by naming the actual principals in the tale and describing John/Joan's long and grueling experience of being a Johns Hopkins guinea pig: the transcontinental trips to the doctor once or twice a year, the psychological bullying, the constant reminder that you are some sort of freak.

The article and the book are both heavily biased against John Money, the eminent New Zealander who supervised the experiment, and suspiciously eager to believe any scurrilous tales that his colleagues might offer (e.g., that Money had sexual relations with some of his students; the implication is that this sort of behavior is transgressive to an extreme, seldom encountered among academics and sex researchers!). To which I say--well, whether John Money was good or evil, he accomplished his main objective, which was to push back the frontiers of ignorance about sexual identity. We can now feel fairly confident in saying that you cannot just change someone's sex, willy-nilly, and force the mind to go along. More pertinently, if a child who appears to be female insists that she/he is really a boy, that child should not be regarded as delusional.

Overall, the basic narrative of the Reimer family is not credible, and this is the basic weakness of the book. After all those trips to Baltimore, and the crushing awareness that "she" was some sort of sexual freak, Brenda/David Reimer certainly had some inkling of the truth long before she was 13. At the very least, Brenda and her twin brother must have had many intimate chats while they were growing up; surely there were some wild but accurate guesses in there. And it is inconceivable that the Reimer parents would never have alluded to Brenda's "accident." They probably discussed openly it all the time when the twins were two or three, the same way grown-ups often undress in front of their toddlers, regarding them as no more impressionable or sentient than the kitty-cat.

The death of both twins a few years ago (one by overdose, the other by suicide) suggests that the family dynamics were far more messed up than we knew. I got the idea (from the book) that the twins were seriously lacking in ambition, social skills, and other incentives to get on in life. This is disturbing for me to contemplate, since it makes me wonder if the John/Joan experiment might have had a different outcome in a happier, less dysfunctional family. Would Brenda have adapted better, perhaps as a tomboy? Would she have decided to remain a girl if she'd been happier socially, with more friends and an intellectually stimulating envrionment? Perhaps not. But the sad dynamics of the Reimer family are an annoying variable, making me sometimes wonder whether the John/Joan case teaches us anything useful.

Wow!!! What a read, my friend Phil was raised as a girl for the first 25 years of his life and even after so many therpists, years of counselling & several operations to re-correct "himself" he still feels more comfortable keeping his long hair and still deliberates whether he can ever make that leap and have his breast implants removed. I am so glad I have found this book, now Phil my friend I truly have an insight into what life has dealt you. I only wish I could give this book 6 stars.

Horrifying story of a little baby boy, who suffered, firstly, during a circumcision accident and then every day of his life as he is forced to live as a girl.
The description of his treatment and the treatment of his brother at the hands of the supervising doctor is beyond horrific. To show small children pornography and to make them simular sex with each other just curdled my mind. And the total lack of listening to the patient is truely unbelievable that it was permitted for so long.
The book is well written and a realy page turner. Your heart goes out to the boy and his family and you can't help but looking at the photos in the middle. Don't be afraid that the book may be too dry, it is written with the lay person in mind. Sympathetic to David and the choices his parents made in 1967.
A must read and extremely thought provoking.

Alexandra Morton's book, "Listening to Whales" is a fantastic story of how she came to study and love dolphins and killer whales. Morton grabs the reader's attention from the beginning by telling of her childhood and how she came to love animals and research. She was first intrerested in frogs, then snakes, then moved onto dolphins and eventually to killer whales. Morton's story of how she started her career was fascinating, and all about meeting the right people at the right times. She started slow but her passion willingness to learn kept her going. After years of tedious work, Morton finally landed a job at Marineland where her first job was to study the sounds that dolphins make. By using a hydrophone, Morton was able to listen to the dolphins, but there were many problems in her studies. One problem was that the dolphins were too fast for her to write cooresponding notes, and also, she wasn't able to figure out which dolphin was making which noise. Two killer whales that also happened to be in Marineland started Morton's true interest on killer whales.
Morton's career has let her listen to these killer whales, witness a birth, and uncover habits of these creatures that no one at first believed. Morton then goes into the wild to listen to and observe these beauties in their natural habitats. Morton continues to study killer whales in the wild and learns a lot from listening to these whales communicate.
I really enjoyed reading this book. I thought it was interesting that Morton gave a lot of information on her personal life and background and told the readers of how she started her career. I thought the way she opened the book got the reader's attention from the start and built up her ethos. The only weakness to the book I'd say is that it is a little slow at the beginning. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about killer whales, or anyone who wants to hear the story of how a young, animal loving girl, grew up to be a wonderful scientist. This is story is one of "following your dreams". Morton did what she loved and knew she wanted to do, even when discouraged by others. Aspiring scientists and whale lovers would love this book.

The book, Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us, is a spellbinding story of a woman's stuggle through life as she relentlessly studies killer whales. She brings us with her through her life's work of note taking and photo identification of the whales as she raises children, survives as a single mom in the wilderness, and falls in love. Alexandra Morton also teaches us of our human errors and our insensitive treatment of nature, as we do whatever is needed to fill our own pockets with more money, acting naive to how it is affecting the world around us. I especially enjoyed the peace and serenity of the novel. The setting and the whales themselves calms the nerves. I think it makes us all somewhat jealous of life outside of busy streets and many people. However, like with all autobiographies, the author can not control what has already happened, which makes the story move slow at the times when not a lot happened in the author's life. I would definitely recommend this novel, especially to anyone wishing to learn about whales and to anyone who loves reading about the serene and complexity of nature.

The novel "Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us" tells Alexandra Morton's story of how she dedicated her life to studying marine mammals, in particular killer whales, in captivity and in the wild. In addition, it describes the struggles she encountered along the way, such as caring for her young son on her own. After finishing this novel, the reader feels like she is an expert on killer whales, due to the clear descriptions Morton gives on the lifestyle, habits, and traits of the species. I felt that for the parts of the novel when Morton described her life aside from the whales, though, that she skipped over details, making it seem like events occurring over a long period of time were instead occurring over a matter of a few days. I would definitely recommend this book, especially to anyone interested in learning about killer whales and how important it is for people to protect their species.

Listening to Whales is a wonderful story of a woman's life in the wild and the beautiful creatures she has devoted her life to. This auto-biography of the life of Alex Morten follows her journey through studying dolphin noises to captive dolphins to captive orcas and finally spending 25 years in the wilderness off the western coast of Canada studying killer whales in the wild. This story is so powerful and definitely shows us how important and intelligent these creatures are. Aside from retelling the moving story of how the whales thrived in those empty waters to completely leaving the same land with the coming of fish farms, this novel teaches the reader so much about this whale species, their culture and their environment. This is a must read for anyone interested in the preservation of the once pristine waters that are home to the killer whales and other marine animals--such as dolphins, porpoises, salmon, seals and otters--and for anyone who finds these beautiful and smart animals at all intriguing. Morton will make any reader fall in love with orcas as she takes the readers out on the waters in her boat, watching the whales live, play, love, and die. The end of the novel becomes more of a commentary on the industries--fish farming in particular--that destroy natural ecosystems. Morton leaves the touching story of her whales as they leave the once peaceful waters near her home, and throws a lot of political jargon at the reader. Though what she has to say is quite shocking, and definitely will leave the reader understanding the terrible effects of such an industry, the constant barrage of numbers and statistics that Morton uses to get her point across can become quite tiresome. However, it makes the final beautiful pages of this novel all the more emotionally touching. This book is amazing, and will definitely leave any reader feeling the same love that Morton does towards killer whales.

'Listening to Whales' was a touching story of how a women's life was enchanted through her passion for marine life. We follow the author, Alexandra Morton, through her life and career- which often go hand in hand- as she evolved as a marine scientist and a woman devoted to her love: the orcas. We are taken from her first job as an acoustics expert in Marineland to her more profound passion which is to examine the killer whales in their natural habitat; the open ocean. This book was not only captivating, but as I read through it I learned so many fun facts about orcas and dolphins and the life of a marine enthusiast.
My favorite aspect of the book was the way she explained how her extreme passion for orcas came to be. I loved learning about how her love for marine life evolved from her love of frogs and grew from there. I find it so fascinating that as a small child something like loving frogs has evolved for decades and turned into her fulltime career. It proved how dedicated she has been to her work for so long and how there is constantly so much more to learn. I loved how she dedicated her young life to follow her dream, and this story showed how far you can come if you are persistent and dedicated.
There wasn't any specific part of the book I didn't like. It was a story of this brilliant woman's dreams and stories, I don't think anyone is to say there was something wrong with it; it's an unedited, unchangeable story of her life. I think she had a good balance of her life-stories and experiences and her knowledge and history of her life with the whales. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in marine life or anyone who has a passion that they want to persue. It's a very inspiring story, which makes the book good for almost anyone.

I live on the beach and have always wondered why there is so much garbage and why there seems to be more now than 10 years ago. This not only explains it all, but provides photographs and maps that make it all make sense. I know this is geared to a younger audience, but who has the patience to wade through volumes just to find out why our coastlines are so full of trash? Why we can't stay on top of it and why we continue to find dead sea life on the shores. What we are doing to our environment is horrible, but this book puts it into a quick read. I have a hotel and every guests manages to read this book. I would make it the equivalent of watching a documentary on the subject - a little entertaining and a lot of knowledge in a couple of hours. It's great coffee table conversation too.

While published for children, 'Tracking Trash' is definitely readable by all, and is especially poignant for anyone who thinks that trash/litter just eventually disappears. The discovery of a floating garbage dump in the ocean the size of Alaska attests to the contrary. A few years ago I had a sudden realization myself at how dependent we are on plastics. Look around you right now: What isn't made of plastic? It's astounding. Two facts that will stick with me: No organism on earth can digest plastic, and plastic doesn't naturally break down into anything - except smaller pieces of plastic.

This book seems to be geared towards junior high kids and not adults. Large print big color photos. It goes into explaining what a container van is. I thought it would have more scientific data and less fluff. A good book for the younger crowd.

TRACKING TRASH by Loree Griffin Burns is a trip to a different world -- our oceans. The author won a well-earned Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for this work of non-fiction that's as transporting as any novel. My kids - 5 and 10 - were entranced as I read out loud about huge cargo spills of sneakers and bath toys, where the items washed up on beaches all over the world, and what it taught scientists about ocean currents. They were horrified -- and so was I -- by stories of "ghost nets" that are abandoned in the seas to become garbage magnets and death traps for wildlife. This is an important book that teaches stewardship without ever feeling preachy, and it's well-deserving of the honors it's receiving.

"Mr. Thompson calls the waiter, orders steak and baked potater
But he leaves the bone & gristle & he never eats the skins.
Then the bus boy comes & takes it, with a cough contaminates it
As he puts it in a can with coffee grounds & sardine tins.
Then the truck comes by on Friday & carts it all away
And a thousand trucks just like it are converging on the bay."

Perhaps the dumping of garbage into the bay is not quite as blatant today as it was back in 1969 when Bill Steele wrote his eco-ditty, "Garbage," but it seems that today's never-ending flow of plastic garbage into the oceans is of more dire and destructive consequence to the oceans' long-term survival than anything they've previously faced. This is one of the conclusions to be drawn from the fascinating and important TRACKING TRASH: FLOTSAM, JETSAM, AND THE SCIENCE OF OCEAN MOTION.

Who knew that beachcombers kept meticulous logs of their finds or that they actually held conventions? Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who began his widely-publicized work with ocean currents and tracking trash when his mom asked him to figure out why hundreds of sneakers had begun washing up on beaches near Seattle, has uncovered significant clues through his ongoing communications with beachcombers. We learn in TRACKING TRASH that there are slight changes year to year in the oceans' currents and that projections of those current flows is now a well-refined science whose origins harken back to scientific work by Benjamin Franklin.

The first part of TRACKING TRASH is especially entertaining to read. Huge cargo containers periodically fall from enormous cargo ships in big storms. The cargo gets loose and takes off with the currents. Many readers will be amused by the thought of eighty thousand Nike sneakers drifting eastward in the currents, of twenty-nine thousand rubber duckies and froggies bobbing merrily along, or of five million LEGO pieces breaking loose in the middle of the Atlantic. But the incidents of lost cargo are a drop in the bucket; they're less than one-fifth of the problem. The remainder, the more serious story, is of large quantities of garbage -- so much of it plastic-based -- getting flushed out of rivers and bays into the sea.

Having fond memories of creating "whirlpools" with friends in little backyard swimming pools, it is not surprising to learn that when a stream of indestructible plastic garbage is continually dumped into the ocean, it will eventually come together in a big bobbing mass surrounded by circulating currents. What is impressive (or, more likely, alarming and depressing) is that a so-called Garbage Patch in the Pacific is now as big as the state of Alaska and estimated to be composed of the accumulation of six BILLION pounds of plastic this, plastic that, and plastic everything else.

"What happens to this plastic trash during the decades it floats around the Garbage Patch? Not much, because plastic is one of the most indestructible materials on the planet. This is one of the reasons we find it so useful. Plastic is found in everything, from the toys we play with to the plates we eat from, the cars we drive, and even the clothes we wear.
"Unfortunately, the very property that makes plastic a useful material for all these items makes it virtually impossible to get rid of. There is no organism anywhere on the planet that can digest plastic. A long exposure to sunshine, wind,, and waves will eventually break plastic objects into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic, but those small pieces are still made entirely of indestructible, indigestible plastic.

And when birds and marine mammals get mixed up with all of this plastic they die.

"Bottle caps and disposable lighters are seen in the carcasses of sea birds found on beaches from Hawaii to Washington. Apparently the birds are mistaking floating plastic for food. Many of these birds die of starvation because the plastic filling their stomachs can be neither digested nor excreted. Discarded fishing nets and other fishing gear can tangle and drown fish, sea turtles, seals, and other animals. Experts now estimate that the number of marine mammals in the Pacific Ocean that die each year due to plastic ingestion and net entanglement approaches 100,000."

This particular passage in the well-illustrated book is accentuated with a photo of a dead, rotting bird complete with the fifty-nine plastic pieces that were stuck in its gut.

The immediate solution? Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. If plastic bags are so indestructible, then I shouldn't take one unless I'm going to reuse it numerous times and then recycle it. Long term, there is no question that big changes must be made in terms of manufacturing and consuming so much petroleum-based plastic stuff.

"There's nothing left to watch & there's nothing left to touch
There's nothing left to walk upon & nothing left to talk upon
And nothing left to see & nothing left to be but Garbage!"

As with other books I've read in the Scientists in the Field series, TRACKING TRASH reveals the profiled scientists to be pretty cool people with extremely interesting jobs. It'll definitely inspire interest by readers in science.

I love the books of David Wiesner, they are imaginative and fun. He has amazing talent. Even as an adult I enjoy looking back through his books, just to admire the gorgeous scenes. It's a classic for any children's book collection.

I bought this book and the first night we were to read it, it was read 4 times over and my son still did not want to put it down. The illustrations tell a wonderful imaginative wacky tale of frogs flying into a suburb and having their "night out". We can create the length of the story by spending only as much time as my son wants on each page, taking either seconds or several minutes, since there are no words to read.
I liked it and I know my son loved it. A nice "out of the box" story.

My son is now 15 and he STILL remembers this book from when he was four or five. It was a huge favorite then and it still is now. I just sent a copy to a good friend with little boys who are sure to enjoy as much as mine did. This is a great book for the imagination and one that kids never tire of -- so many interpretations.

My son is 2 1/2 and we took this book out of the library three weeks ago. He loves this book, and wants it read to him before bed and at nap times. It does not give him bad dreams like some reviewers suggest will happen with little ones. He thinks the frogs flying through the air is so funny. Because there are so few words we make up our own stories as we go, and get a lot of laughs that way. He also loves to "read" the book to himself pointing out things he knows as he flips the pages. I dread having to take it back to the library and will be buying our own copy.

This is a beautifully done work. The story is made up of entirely pictures, beautifully done pictures, with great detail and haunting coloring. There are no words. In this case, to be quite frank, words simply are not needed. The story begins at dusk on Tuesday evening. The setting is a local pond. The frogs are all out setting on their lilly pads getting ready to do what frog in ponds have done for aeons. Then it happens. The magic begings. One by one, then in greater numbers, the lilly pads take off and begin flying, taking their frogs with them. What follows is a wonderful, surrealistic journey through the country side and small down. Each encounter, be it animal or human, is hilarious, from a bird to a Gramma setting in her chair and beyond. There are many adventures and many encounters. Still, no words!

This is one of those stories that is an ideal one to curl up with the little one, and go through it, page by page. Take the trip with the frogs! Now do be warned, the adult will actually have to (gasp) think, particularly with the younger ones, as the story needs to be filled in and discussed. What I like about this is that I can read it ten, twenty, thirty times, and come up with as many different versions of the story as numbers of reads. It simply never gets old. Now I note that some reviewers felt that this book may give their child night mares. I cannot imagine such a thing, but each parent knows their child (or should, anyway) and if they feel this will damage the little one in any way, well, they probably should not read it.

The art work in this one is of the highest quality. The author, no doubt, has a wonderful imagination and it show though with each turn of the page. The color and details are a treat to the eye and not only will the child enjoy the pictures, but amost any adult will also. I love the way this one ends too. The author takes us to the next Tuesday evening, about dusk, and.....well, you really need to read this one for your self.\

I cannot recommend this one highly enough.

It is very sad that certain groups who proclaim themselves Christians have decided that people are to believe in either God or in science, but one cannot believe both. As a Christian, this book insults my intelligence as it requires me to ignore basic scientific principles and explore and question the nature of things around me. We go to school to learn, to create questions and support our decisions with facts. This book won't allow for critical thinking.
On a more basic level, this book attacks evolution rather than providing an explanation for creationism so at the end of the book the reader "knows" that evolution is supposedly wrong, but doesn't know why creationism is right.
Christians can believe in both evolution and God, the two are not mutually exclusive and this book creates more confusion and questions then it clarifies.

I was given this book when I was a kid: thus began my early indoctrination into Creationism and, eventually, my slow crawl out of it. It's full of shallow or incorrect arguments against Evolution, and does much to create a foundation of pseudo-science for your child. It teaches hostility against other beliefs rather than sound reasoning for oneself.

It's hard to figure out whom to trust in this world, and I can understand the fear of many Christian parents that anything teaching Evolution is going to be no less biased or dogmatic than a Creationist text.

I'd urge you, then, to try a curriculum based on an exploration of science's origins. Read Francis Bacon together, or Galileo himself. Even Darwin. There are good and approachable ways to tackle these great books together with your kids, jointly discussing what the scientific method is, what its limitations are, and what its merits are.

Discuss this and, by all means, discuss what you believe about the origin of the Universe. But if you do it this way, you'll be preparing your child to honestly and ably evaluate truth through his whole life, rather than teaching him a flimsy, antagonistic, and divisive platform of propaganda.

Other reviewers have commented enough on the content of the book. I reccomend it to parents, encourage them to sift through it, do further study, and to teach their children the errors of The Theory of Evelution, using this book as a tool. To Evelotionists, all I have to say is this: When scientists discovered that the Universe is expandinding (early 1900's), this proved that the Universe was not eternal, but had a beginning. The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that things go from order to disorder - NOT from chaos to order, as The Thoery of Evelution requires.

Although this book is written on probably a junior high/high school level, as an adult who has never really tackled this subject, this is a great place to begin if you've wanted to explore the whole issue of creation vs. evolution.

This book takes you through the evidence found in astrology, biology, geology and paleontology to show that the Theory of Evolution is just that - a theory. The author discusses the origin of the universe, earth's uniqueness in our solar system, dinosaurs, the Great Flood, the fossil record and much more. This is not a contentious book by any means. Lawrence Richards simply takes you through the evidence piece by piece to show that "it couldn't just happen." Though he obviously believes in creation, he approaches each piece of evidence in an objective manner and lets you come to the natural conclusion based on the evidence at hand.

I did not give this book 5 stars as the repetition at the end of each chapter gets a little old after a while, but that would be a good thing for students reading it. Also, he doesn't give any footnotes to support his argument. I find his arguments to be logical and convincing, but I would be more convinced with footnotes showing me where he came up with his facts.

Still, I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to explore the real facts of creation vs. evolution. Parents should read this so that they know how to combat the theories that their kids are being taught as fact in public schools. I'm really not sure how anyone could read this book from cover to cover and still believe in evolution. It certainly would require a lot of faith.

In order for a book to be trustworthy, it has to be based on solid facts. However, this book starts off with blatant errors in even the most basic science and then goes downhill from there. At some point, your children will become educated enough to see those errors. And then what will happen? Will they start to question the conclusion that God and His Son do indeed exist? Find a better book. :)

Some errors in this book:

Page 8 - There are exactly 1029 visible stars.
answer - With good eyesight, as many as 6000 stars are visible.

Page 8 - Galileo's 1609 work was done "about 300 years ago."
answer - This book was copyrighted nearly 400 years after 1609.

Page 8 - Galileo invented the telescope in 1609.
answer - Hans Lippershey invented the telescope in 1608.

Page 8 - Galileo saw exactly 3,310 stars.
answer - Galileo saw many more than 6,000 stars.

Page 9 - Alpha Centauri is the nearest star.
answer - Proxima Centauri is the nearest star.

Page 14 - The "bouncing universe" theory was not even a theory.
answer - It was a theory, even though it was proven false.

Page 15 - Pulsars send out bursts of energy.
answer - Pulsars send out steady streams of energy.

Page 17 - The planetary orbits are circles.
answer - The planetary orbits are ellipses.

Page 22 - The law of entropy tells us the planets are dead.
answer - Only by sending probes can we know what is happening.

Page 27 - The Earth isn't going to lose her moon.
answer - The Moon is moving 4 cm farther away each year.

Page 28 - Tjeered van Andel is an oceanographer.
answer - His first name is spelled "Tjeerd."

Page 31 - Two parts oxygen with one part hydrogen yields water.
answer - One part oxygen with two parts hydrogen yield water.

Do I really need to continue?

With copious footnotes referring to a great number of scholarly articles, Smith's book could be a University course study guide. EHG is a must read for anyone wishing to learn about Israel's early religions.

See my review of The Memoirs of God. This is the same.

This book is chock full of excellent references to both biblical and non-biblical texts. The combined references make a convincing case that the Isrealite tradition was originally steeped in the early canaanite polytheism. Smith's book would be an excellent reference but is not itself a satisfying read. Smith frequently sites verses in books as old as Psalms (written in the 11th century bce? Smith doesn't say) in the same paragraph with verses in books as new as the Talmud (written in the 3rd centry ce?). That is, he gives us no historical context to understand how people in the time the Psalms were writen would have understood the polytheistic references vs. how poeple in the time when the Talmud began to form would have understood polytheistic references.

A large percentage of the pages have only a few lines of text with small-print reference notes, albeit good ones, occupying the remainder of the page. Smith supplies ample biblical references throughout this book, often dozens in a single paragraph, but he rarely includes any quotes from the references. The reader has to look them up if he is to understand the argument.

This is a fantastic synthesis of 20th Century scholarship on the religion of Israel in the period of the Judges and early monarchy. The Smith surveys the literature and provides his own theory of the the relationship between Israelite religion and that of other Canaanites. (One thing you will learn is that contrary to the way the situation is portrayed in the Bible, there is little to distinguish between the Israelites and Canaanites.) It deals with the issue of monolatry versus monotheism, did God have a wife?, are there various names of God in the Bible because originally they stories were about different gods?, and what of the ritual and cult in early Israelite religion.

Smith definitely draws heavily on the scholarship of Frank Moore Cross, Jr. and Marvin H. Pope, and their students, such as John Day (e.g., Molech: a god of human sacrifice in the Old Testament) and W.R. Garr (e.g., Dialect Geography of Syria-Palestine: 1100-586BC).

The book is extremely well footnoted, making it valuable even if you don't buy all his arguments.

excellent disclosure of the evolution of the understanding of God in early Israelite history. book assumes a high degree of previous knowledge of early Israelite history within an historical / critical understanding of biblical studies. If you are a "literalist," save your money ... you won't like it!

While the book has plenty to offer, there are many activities that require "every day items in your household" that just are not found in mine. Consequently for my 3 and 5 year old this is my least favorite book. I consider it a good addition to a few others I have and it is fun to pick out things to do each season, but if you can't afford to buy several books, don't make this your only pick. Please note the key words are in the title "more than 600". With that many you are bound to find something for the occasion. The book is easy to read, is well organized and has good instructions.

Although I had trouble finding some of the materials in my household, I had most of them because we homeschool. The book says that most of the materials can be found in a typical classroom, but they are not always commonly found at home....however most of them are not too expensive to buy, especially if you get other parents together and do it as a group. Overall though, I found this to be an excellent book for preschoolers.