"Abraham Lincoln: President of a Divided Country" by Carol Greene calls itself "A Rookie Biography," and indeed it is an excellent first choice for very young students to read to find out about our 16th President. Greene covers all of the major events in both Lincoln's public and private life, and I was quite impressed with how she goes beyond the basic biographical information to get into some of the issues of the time. This book might be written in simple words but it does attempt to give young readers a sense of some pretty complex issues. This book is full of over 50 illustrations, including photographs from Lincoln's lifetime as well as today, along with etchings, paintings, political broadsides and such, which depict the key events and people in Lincoln's life. For many young readers their lifelong fascination with Abraham Lincoln is going to begin with this wonderful little book. Other Rookie Biographies look at Beethoven, Columbus, Franklin, King, Lee and Pocahontas.

This book was very interesting, and astounding. I never knew so many things about our 16th presisent. You learn what happened to him as a boy, a young man, his, and mary todds romance, his children, and his great reign. Most of the information about him that I know now came from this book. This book may not be thick, but it has a lot of information in it.

This slim book provides a very thorough and scholarly, yet slyly humorous, and beautifully written summary of what modern biological and behavioral scientists have discovered about the American Bison and how they live their lives. The author has distilled decades of his own and others' research into a concise yet engaging account of what it's really like to be a bison. I found it a joy to read and suspect that it's one of, if not the, best book ever written about these fascinating and important animals. If you've always been attracted to bison, have wanted to read one book telling the most about them, and are not daunted by wading through a little science clearly presented, then this is probably the book for you.

Most of us grew up with cats or dogs as animal companions. Those who lived on farms had animals of wider acquaintance. Dale F. Lott was the grandson of the superintendent of the National Bison Range in Western Montana, and his father worked on the range as well. He writes, "I first encountered bison not as symbols of the West, the squandering of a natural resource, or a conservation triumph. They were simply the animals I had seen most often when I was a young child - enthralling in and of themselves." He went on to get his doctorate in biology, studying the huge animals he had grown up with. In _American Bison: A Natural History_ (University of California Press), he sums up the basics of bison. Thirty years of teaching seem to have given him an admirable power of storytelling, and his book is not only good for encompassing all the necessary natural history of the species, but also for his expression of personal encounters and feelings for the beasts.

In every chapter, Lott describes with no slight awe how well tuned evolution made these animals for their world, a world which is no longer. The peculiar bison profile, for instance, the huge mound above the forelegs, the hanging head, and the skinny rump, equips them for quick motion around the front feet "on which they pirouette on the sod like a hockey player on ice". A bull has to be able to pivot and twist to protect his own flanks and to dig a horn into the flank of an opponent. He says of the surprisingly complicated system of rumination, by which bison carry around bacteria to break down grass for their future digestion, "It's so sophisticated that neither bison nor biologists would be likely to think of it, yet it was achieved by the perfectly purposeless, aimless, and automatic process of natural selection." Lott has spent a good deal of time in what is left of the wild, watching these animals, and he reports on the complicated negotiations and social systems they have developed. He has written not just of bison, but of the prairie itself, how it came to be, and how the bison, rather than just being predators of grass, kept the grass vibrant through the centuries before they were ranged in. Part of the story has to be that the grasslands are no longer home to bison, and that the paying grasses we put on them are taking away the soil the bison helped build up. Bison are in small herds, with a risk of inbreeding, or being domesticated, with a risk of losing their complex wild behavior.

The worrisome future of bison is not the theme of this book, though. Throughout Lott shows an engaging eagerness to describe anything he has seen in his prairie fieldwork. Cowbirds, for instance, used to be buffalo birds, roaming the plains with the bison and thus unable to stick around long enough to raise a family. They can now stick around non-roaming cows, which do a sufficient job of stirring up insects for them to eat, but they still don't raise their own families; they still deposit their eggs in the nests of some other species which gets tricked to raising cowbirds instead of real progeny. Prairie dog towns are favored by bison, as both animals like closely cropped grass. The bison wallow around and damage the tunnels, but they also "bring something to the party... Of course, buffalo chips don't produce a fertilizer as quickly as, say Miracle-Gro, so the bison are a little like a dinner guest bringing a bottle of wine so new it must be aged a few years to be palatable." Ferrets, wolves, and grizzlies wander through these pages, too. It is an evocative book, beautifully written, by someone who loves these magnificent and forlorn beasts and is obviously eager for the reader to get to know them, too.

Before you entrust your precious children to a babysitter, have them read this book. It is an indispensable and practical guide for babysitters.

The highlight of this book is the "Record & Logbook" in the back that you can write on with a water soluble ink pen. That will allow you to make changes as needed. It contains an area for:

Household Objects - Where to find the basics.
Around the House - How to turn off gas, water, electricity, etc.
Entertainment - Games, songs, toys, stories, TV, videos.
Feeding & Mealtimes - allergies
Comforting a Child if they are hurt, upset, fighting, misbehaving.
Bedtime Routines - Favorite items, where spare sheets and pajamas are.
Medical Notes - In case of Emergency.
Emergencies - Contact Numbers.

Frankly, I think writing this stuff down is fine, but walking a babysitter through the house and showing them where everything is seems more practical and maybe this can just be a section to help remind the babysitter of the important things they need to remember.

The contents include:

Guide to Babysitting: A section for babysitters and parents. This section is helpful as it addresses the concerns of both the parents and a new babysitter.
Baby & Child Care: The basics of how to pick up a baby, carry a baby, dress children, help a toddler, deal with potty training, washing, feeding, giving a bottle, ending arguments, bedtime, games kids like.

Home Safety & First Aid: Keeping the home safe, preventing injuries, bath time, fire, a sick child, childhood illness, aches and pains, First Aid, First Aid Kit, nosebleeds, cuts and abrasions, removing splinters, stings, burns, head injury, bleeding, shock, fractures, sprains, seizures, breathing and choking.

Record Book - discussed above

I think this book is one every parent should read especially for the First Aid section. The clear step-by-step photographs demonstrate all the key baby care and first aid techniques.

Quite Helpful

This book is really good. It teaches you how to change diapers and things like that. It gives you step-by-step instructions for everything. There is even a first-aid section.

The book Barnyard Song is a great book to read as an adult and to read to my three year son. I love the way the book flows. The animals in this book develop the barnyard flu that they catch from a fly. Then the doctor and his nurse come buy and give check out the barnyard animals and give them farmer some medicine. During the time of the flu the barnyard song just doesn't sound right. Once the animals get the medicine and they all get themselves to feeling better---then the barnyard song starts sounding great. THis is a great book to read to a group of children! My child carries the book around and loves to look at the pictures also!

Barnyard Song is a great book for reading out loud. My grandchildren always pick this book as the one to read first. You get into the rhythm of it and the words just flow. It's fun.

I *love* this book- the story of the grumpy kitty who is momentarily displaced in his little girl's life by a new teddy bear. Teaches sharing and tolerance, and the art is wonderful. I've given copies to most of the new moms I know, plus reserved a copy for myself.

This book will appeal to cat and teddy lovers as well as children. The message of rivalry is simple and plain enough for even young children to understand. It is a delightful book with wonderful art work.

Greene is a master of the short essay. He's a particularly good book reviewer, with tastes ranging from Rider Haggard to Henry James. He is, in fact, particularly fine on James, which is somewhat surprising, since at first glance they wouldn't seem to have much in common. They both, however, were deeply concerned with the craft of fiction, and it is that interest in craftmanship, more so than Greene's political or religious views, which dominates these essays.

Greene is one of the true modern masters. One of our most cinematic writers, he is exceptionally gifted at forcing vivid images into the reader's mind. This art is just as potent in the essay as it is in the novel. Like few other writers, he can appeal with equal success to the popular and academic imagination.

This is a great book, it has many drawings not just by the author but by other artists. The pictures are clear and very large so you can see all the details. Every page has a drawing and tells what colors were used and how they were applyed. I think this book Is excellent but is aimed more for the serious artist.

As a beginner with the colored pencil medium I have been working with flowers as my main subjects. With my love of the flowers,plants,and trees,I was naturally pulled towards wanting to put my hand to the drawing of flowers. A friend of mine who knew of my interest,gave me Gary Greene's wonderful book. Not only was I thrilled by seeing the works of truly accomplished colored pencil artists, but I was inspired by the instruction and care that went into the writing and illustration of this book.

It has not only become a teaching guide for me but,it has also become an inspiration to make me work harder to learn more about this wonderful, dynamic art medium. (And, I use the word work lightly, what a joy!)

A fscinating semi-biographical account by the author of The Death of Adam, and Science, Ideology and World View. Many theoretical biologists take umbrage at the suggestion they might actually be philosophers with a hidden metaphysical agenda. John Greene has always attempted eloquently to disabuse the Darwinist of his presumptions in this regard. The history of Darwinism is important to study in order to understand the disguised ideological context in which its fallacies of evolutionary mechanism (amidst its triumphs of evolutionary fact)became fixed rigidly in place. Like a prophecy of the philosopher Kant Darwinism promptly ran afoul of the 'Big Three', divinity, soul, and free will, taking positions that are legitimate as dialectical explorations, if they are hypotheses, but illegitimate if they are taken as rigid axioms, or established foundations.

In "Debating Darwin", John C. Greene displays an impressive knowledge of intellectual history in regards to science and evolution's relationship and non-relationship to Western tradition. The format of the book is also impressive for someone who dares to "debate" Darwin. He publishes letters of correspondence with two eminent scientists (Theodosius Dobzhansky and Ernst Mayr). The debates between Green and the two scientists are assertive and friendly. Some of the people who submit reviews to Amazon could learn about civilized debate from these three great men. By their example, we can learn to disagree without becoming disagreeable. Greene's main thesis is: "One would like to feel optimistic about the scientistic mythology that has grown up around the theory of evolution, but it is hard to do so. The myth is intellectually dishonest, employing teleological and vitalistic figures of speech to describe processes that are advertised as "mechanistic" and pretending to derive from evolutionary biology values that stem from classical, Judaeo-Christian, and Enlightenment sources." p. 43. In his book, Mr. Greene defends this viewpoint consistently and brilliantly. Dobzhansky and Mayr give as good as they get, but as Greene is the author, he of course takes the last word. Greene makes some interesting quotes from various scholars such as Balfour and pan-psychist Sewall Wright. One gets the feeling that Greene agrees with Wright that our consciousness is the most knowable of all our experiences and science is a secondary sort of knowledge. It is interesting to speculate as to what Greene would have to say about Daniel C. Dennet. Mr. Greene seems unmoved by Max Ernst's theory of emergence. I assume Mr. Greene would have been equally unimpressed by Dennet's ideas about "cranes". Greene seems to be impressed by the writings of theologian Paul Tillich, which Dennet dismisses as being full of "bombastic recapitulation", and I could only imagine Greene, unconcerned by "sky-hooks", would wonder on what "Ground of Being" the "cranes" rested. At any rate, I can only speculate that Mr. Greene would be unimpressed by "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" Chapters 16 and 17 where Dennet deals with Morality. Greene would probably persist in the idea that no value system could be derived from or accounted by evolutionary theory. More ever, it seems that Greene would be unconvinced that consciousness could be explained from any scientific materialistic and/or mechanistic theory. One could be concerned that Greene seems to ignore the pre-Darwin social contract philosophers (Hobbes, Rousseau, and Locke) who seem to anticipate some very materialistic basis for ethics that could be construed as consistent with Darwinism. This is my first book by John C. Greene. I have to give this book 5 stars because it is so educational, clear and decent. By giving this book such a high rating, I am not saying Mr. Greene won the debate. I am saying he has conveyed a great deal of valuable information. He also brought up important issues in evolutionary thought that should lead to a greater clarity as to what evolutionary science is and is not and as to whether evolutionary scientists are illegitimately going beyond science, in the name of science, into realms which belong to philosophy and religion. If you are at all interested in evolution, at least get this book to read Chapter 2, the letters, and the conclusion. John C. Greene is a gentleman,a scholar, and a plausible debater.

This is a very important book, and a reprint edition would be welcome indeed. I have found it to be fascinating.

Take the following passage (pp. 168-169) from the chapter titled "Methodology", for example:

'Many of the annotations in Keynes MS 58 and at least some of the processes derive from John de Monte Snyders' "The Metamorphosis of the Planets". Snyders wrote other works, and apparently all of them were published in Latin or in German, but "The Metamorphosis of the Planets" had only German editions and seems to have existed in English translation only in manuscript. Newton somewhere acquired a copy of it and made a complete, carefully written transcript of it which included an elaborate title-page and a detailed symbolic frontispiece. Newton also numbered the pages and even the lines, for easy reference. By handwriting, Newton's transcript probably dates from early in the 1670s.

'Newton's autograph transcript of Snyder's work was one of the items that so horrified Sir David Brewster when he went through Newton's papers in the middle of the nineteenth century, it will be recalled. And truly it is a distressing document to read, being a complicated allegory that rambles on through thirty-one chapters. The whole comprises sixty-four pages, and in Newton's small early handwriting that is a substantial amount of material. Very little of it is couched in rationalistic language.

'Nevertheless, Brewster would perhaps not have been so horrified had he looked a litle further and seen what Newton did with the material. For the essence of Newton's approach to Snyders was exactly the same as that which he used in the interpretation of prophecy: a rational, matter-of-fact analysis aimed at finding the true "significations" of Snyders' allegorical figures and their actions. The only variation in method in the case of this alchemical study was that Newton, instead of checking his "significations" against actual historical events as in the case of prophecy, in alchemy checked them against experimental results.

'So that it may be seen just how great a distance Newton had to travel to get from Snyders to the laboratory, one passage in which Snyders treats of the eagle and scepter of Jupiter (or Jove) will be given here. . .'

If you have any interest in Sir Isaac Newton or in the early history of experimental chemistry, Dr. Dobbs' study is an essential part of your reading, well worth tracking down.

Was Newton an alchemist?

When John Maynard Keynes purchased a trunkful of Sir Isaac Newton's private papers at a Sotheby's auction early in this century, he was shocked to find out how much time and effort Newton had spent in alchemical pursuits. This book explores why Newton did so.

Keynes' reaction after reading Newton's alchemical notes was to label him "the last of the magicians".

Similarly embarrassed by alchemical writings in Sir Isaac's own hand they found among his papers, Newton's Enlightenment-era biographers had suppressed mention of his work in alchemy--or dismissed it as a recreation, pursued as a diversion from his "real" work in establishing the foundations of modern mathematical physics.

They all missed the point of Newton's alchemical work, because they only saw it through the lenses of their own eras. They projected the effects of the great man's discoveries backward into the years before the discoveries, when he and his contemporaries struggled to find ANY conceptual keys that would fit the locks of physical reality. Keynes and the biographers simply forgot that "the past is a different country: they do things differently there."

Dr. Dobbs' carefully researched study goes a long way toward correcting these misunderstandings of Newton. She explores Newton's extensive alchemical experiments in the historical context of his own era, and shows how this research influenced key elements in his discovery of testable physical laws.

In the last lecture of his 1964 series on "The Character of Physical Law", Caltech physicist Richard Feynman described what it takes to seek new such laws:

"...The truth always turns out to be simpler than you thought. What we need is imagination, but imagination in a terrible strait-jacket. We have to find a new view of the world that has to agree with everything that is known, but disagree in its predictions somewhere. . . . And in that disagreement it must agree with nature. If you can find any other view of the world which agrees over the entire range where things have already been observed, but disagrees somewhere else, you have made a great discovery. ...A new idea is extremely difficult to think of. It takes a fantastic imagination."

Newton had both that fantastic imagination and the incredible discipline it took to put it into Feynman's strait-jacket. As Dr. Dobbs shows in her book, his fine-grained experimental investigation of the claims of alchemy developed both his amazing powers of concentration and the broad range of ideas to try that he could bring to bear on a problem.

While Newton may well have been disappointed by his years of intense alchemical research, it was still an important part of the rigorous intellectual regimen he set for himself in pursuing verifiable truths. His alchemical studies fed his imagination fruitful ideas to be tried in his other areas of research. He tested some of these ideas mathematically against accurate observations and experimental results reported by Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, and changed the way we view the world forever. Read this book carefully, and you'll have a better understanding of how--and why--he did it.

-dubhghall

It is a really good book! Constance C. Green is a really good author. A Girl Called AL is one of my favorite books. I felt like I know AL. It is the best book ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I read and reread this book so many times as a "preteen"........the characters are wonderful and lovable, hilarious...I am sorry to see that the sequels to this are no longer in print...what a shame. This is an excellent, absorbing book for younger adolescents.