This book did a good job of telling about the different families of anurans, but there was very little practical information for the first time frog keeper. It isn't too bad of an investment, though, if you are trying to figure out what kind of frog you have.

This is a good picture book which the kids just love to look at over and over. It is also fairly comprehensive on the "how-to's" of raising all kinds of frogs.

This is a nice soft cover book my 12 year old loves it. It it easy for kids and adults to understand. Lots of great pictures and overall information!Its a very popular book I sell on my we page "Frogs and Amphibians". I own and use this book.it Covers many types of frogs and toads.

This is a great book to get you started in the hobby. This book is loaded with valuable information in an easy to read format with loads of pictures and examples. The basics are covered as well as a few of the more in depth topics. The chapters on breeding and hybernating are a little confusing and more information and ideas could have been added. The differences in the requirments needed by different species could have been covered also. This is a general care book. Nothing to fancy. If you want specifics buy a book on the species you are interested in.

This book is the first thing a potential turtle owner should buy before getting a turtle. It is inexpensive and loaded with the right information regarding the care of turtles, both aquatic and terrestrial species. The best part of the book is the section about which turtles make good pets for a first time owner and which turtles don't.

When I got my turtle, Tim, I didn't know a thing about turtles - so I got this book as well as did a ton of research online. This book has TONS of good information (and pictures) about how to care for and house turtles. My turtle is several years old now, and is very happy and healthy. I recommend this to anyone who is looking to get a pet turtle. The reality of turtle-keeping is that it is a LOT of work. Turtles are dirty, and even with high powered filters their tanks need constant cleaning. I didn't know what I was getting in to, but it's worth the effort! Turtles are wonderful pets, and this book will give you all the basic information you need to know.

This is, for anybody Catholic or non-Catholic who is interested in the Pope, a good read. But the book is flawed by a full jar of political intrigue. I would buy it, but for the story of the man, not the story of the CIA files on him.

Pope John Paul caught the world's attention with his work to end communism in Central Europe. I am not a Catholic, but I have the utmost regard for what this man has accomplished. The title of this book gives away the author's regard for him also. The Americans give credit for the fall of communism to former Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev, especially in the video series 'Biography of the Millennium' done by A&E, but without the Pope's knowledge of the Central Europeans it would have just been a dream of theirs. I read this book with a great deal of relief that it had been published during the Pope's lifetime. He would probably regard the historical oversight of his work with less frustration than many of his supporters.

This book, which uses the subject's life as a framework for reviewing events and political philosophies leading up to the millenium, has much to recommend it to the general reader..... One need not be intimidated by its size and scope; it's extremely readable and consistently fascinating. As a non-Catholic, I was surprised to learn how very complex and interesting this man Wojtyla is, and, like the movie "Titanic", the inside story of Poland's liberation is exciting, even though one pretty much already knows how it's going to turn out!.... I was also intrigued by the material in the book detailing the origins of the Pope's unpopular views on women and sex, and by the author's discussion of methods used by John Paul II in his struggle against Soviet tyranny as contrasted to those employed by our own government..... While I don't know whether I believe Kwitny's conclusions about the irresistible force of high moral courage -- will the Pope's methods work for the Dalai Lama against the Red Chinese without Star Wars waiting in the wings?? -- I certainly want to believe them, and the evidence marshalled in Man of the Century is both convincing and inspiring.

Frederick Rolfe styled himself Fr. Rolfe to write this book, to make it look as if he was a Priest. Rolfe himself failed to enter the RC priesthood, rather like Mr Rose/Hadrian (the hero)... and from there on, you can see from his life that Hadrian VII is really Rolfe's wish fulfilment... not only to become a priest, but a Pope! Like Hadrian/Rose, Rolfe was an oddball in real life.

Mr Rose is a reclusive, catty & bookish Englishman, who excels in verbosity and likes showing off his skills in Ancient Greek. Through a chain of coincidences, this autistic "hermit" ends up becoming a priest, and then Pope. He renames himself Hadrian as the last English Pope before him, Nicholas Breakspear, had. Once in power Hadrian takes two conflicting courses, first reforming the Vatican to become less worldly and selling off some of its treasures for charity, harmonising RC factions etc and secondly getting right into world politics... this novel was written before WWI so some of his solutions are a little quaint. He gets France and Russia "sorted out", and hands over most of the world to his native England (see end). Hadrian has a strong anti-socialist bent, but this book came about 8 years before the Bolshevik Revolution occurred.

The other characters are less appealing... least convincing is Jerry Sant, who is supposedly some kind of Scottish socialist, but who speaks neither like a Scot nor much like a socialist (devious or otherwise). Cardinal Ragna, who might be presumed to supply some decent opposition, is also a cardboard cutout.

Rolfe has an odd style of writing... for example he refuses to talk of people being "Scottish" or "Irish", but prefers talking of them as Pictish, Erse or Gaelic, or Keltic (with the K). Despite being a pompous quoter of Classical Greek (and more oddly not mentioning much Latin to go with it), he shows a great prejudice towards living languages of his country's neighbours. -

"England is the dominant race: her language is the language of all her colonies. Why a triplet of little conquered countries [Scotland, Ireland and Wales] should refuse to learn English - should be permitted to insist on their barbarous and unliterary languages, we could never understand. They are conquered countries annexed to their conqueror"

Rolfe evidently needed educating in this area. Gaelic monks taught the Anglo-Saxons how to read and write, and the Irish Free State began a mere six years after the book was written, but I digress. Here is a specimen of the book's style, which goes on and on, page after page -

"The Supreme Arbitrator provided the human race with scope and opportunity for energy. The provisions of the Epistle to princes were drawn up in the Form of Treaty dividing the world, til Midnight (G.T.) of December 31st (N.S.) of the year 2000 of the Fructiferous Incarnation of the Son of God into the Ninefold Kingdom, the American Republic, the Japanese Empire and the Roman Empire."

(This is his cabbalistic way of saying Hadrian handed over Africa and most of Asia to England "the Ninefold Kingdom", naturally, and had given Siberia to Japan. The Roman Empire he speaks of is Continental Europe controlled by the Kaiser.)

To the other reviews here, I'd like to mention Corvo's disconnection from the real world. He seems to believe that kings and popes still really ran the world like they did in 1300. His Hadrian VII persuades Europe to be carved into an Empire of the North, ruled by the King of Prussia, an Empire of the South, by the King of Italy. The American Republic, is given all of South America; the Japanese Empire, gets Siberia; and the rest of the world goes to the King of England. Uh, yeah.

This really is an astonishingly modern book. He shows in part a Church capable of corruption and deceit, but also shows a Church which has what we now call a preferential option toward the poor, and a Pope also works diligently for peace.

Here we have the hero, a poor, scholarly eccentric, who has been ill-treated by Church officials. His bishop did not like him and did not support his vocation to the priesthood, and told lies to boot. However, finally, a couple of bishops, one an Archbishop, look into his case and decide he has been dreadfully wronged. Rolfe delineates a structure of secrecy, deceit, and cover up. He did not anticipate the scandals of the cover-up of child abuse, but the structures of deceit are there, and one can still see them at work today.

Well, the old Archbishop, after much careful and challenging questioning, determines that our hero really does have a true vocation to the priesthoood, and that his studies were sufficient. He ordains him. It just turns out that the Archbishop has come back from a Papal Conclave which is in deadlock, unable to choose a new Pope. He returns to Rome with the new priest in his entourage, and lo and behold, it turns out that his ill-treatment and his case have been discussed. By the Holy Spirit, he is chosen Pope, much to his surprise. However, the Spirit no doubt gave him strength and he accepts the office, choosing the title of Hadrian VII.

Well, what kind of Pope is he? He first of all wants to be a Pope of the people, and so ensures his elections and first appearance is to the waiting crowds outside in the world. He likes going among the crowds, even though there is some danger of assassination, though he was not the traveller that J. P. II is. He insists on having his quarters built and decorated in a utilitarian way, eschewing grandeur. Having experienced poverty, he is very solicitous towards the poor and devotes a lot of Church resources towards ameliorating poverty. So, he anticipated the preferential option towards the poor.

Some have pointed out that his Pope has a great deal more influence in the world than any modern Pope has had, Hadrian VII showed himself as vitally interested in peace. Truly, the Pope would not be able to engineer a division of the world into spheres of influence for various favored powerful nations.

There is good and bad in the Church, and Rolfe's Hadrian VII sets out much of both.

Rolfe himself was quite an eccentric, and so is his Pope. The style is full of archaisms and wierd bits of learning, but Rolfe was theologically astute, too. His Hadrian is a very complex and facinating character, somewhat depressive, hard working, kind, and strange. This novel is so interesting I can forgive it a few faults. Some of it is a hoot.

The illustrations in this book are wonderful, but the descriptions are not very detailed, and the book does not give references. For example, it is said that a particular pope was highly critisized, but it doesn't say by whom or what was the pope's response -- if any -- to that criticism. (Nor does it cite any documents that critisize him.) It accuses another pope of "extensive" nepotism, without mentioning which members of his family he gave jobs to or even how many people the author means by "extensive" and again no references are given. I did not find the "rose colored glasses" nor apologist approach that another reviewer mentioned, but the lack of references made this book of limited, and questionable, value.

The papacy is one of the more interesting offices in the world - in essence the oldest democracy in the world. The pope, in spite of the notion that he is appointed by God, is elected by bishops, and as the book reveals, often with less-than-holy intentions. The biggest asset for this book is the illustrations of the popes, with the art reflecting the evolution of the religion and the European Renaissance. But the book is really more of a timeline of the office, rather than biographies of the indivdual pontiffs. Often, entire reigns are lumped together as a general trend in the papacy, and some popes earn no more than a quick mention of their ascention. Granted, many of them deserve no more, but for those curious as to the individual stories behind each Father, this book will come up lacking. Even some of the more sordid and disgraceful popes, like John XII or Alexander IV, are taken in stride in this chronicle, where the reader probably would have appreciated a bit more detail on the story. The history of the Throne of Peter is one of the more intriguing tales in European history, and to have them reported in this sterile manner doesn't do justice for those fascinated by the men under the mitres. But for those who want to see a general progresion of the office and its evolution from humble beginnings to corrupt demagogue to modern and politically inactive spiritual leader, this book is a good tool. Plus, in a genre and with a topic that is rarely the subject of unbiased scrutany, it has value in its objective portrayal of bizarre and often sacriligous history of the Holy See.

This book was a bit of a disappointment in that it was shorter than I expected. However the art is beautfiul the biographies are intriguing, and all the extra information they have included in tersm of myths about the papacy, church history, and various other insersts was really interesting.

I give this book three stars because it doesn't have too much action.It has a sabertooth tiger.A man calls himself the animal master he has the antlers of a raindeer and a mask of an owl.The anlers of the raindeer for speed and the mask of an owl for better sight.The characters arejack and Annie.They have to find m thing wich are different times to free Morgan of a spellcasted by Merlin.

I give this book four stars because it educates people of the life of a Neanderthal. I would give it five stars, but there's not much action. But, I think it also educates people about Ice Age wildlife, such as the wooly mammoth. The educational part also includes Neanderthal behavior and beliefs.

"Sunset of the Sabertooth" is truly a great learning book. Jack and Annie go to the time of the Ice Age, where they find the first humans on the planet, which are called Cro-Magnons. Jack and Annie are very cold, so they find a cave to stay in. But not for long, because there's a wet dog smell and snoring, which confirms that there's a cave bear in there! Well, read the rest for yourself. Also, if you want my opinion of the book, this is undoubtley one of Mrs. Osborne's best.

Also, there's something I want to tell all the people who read this book. On Encarta, I found out that the first Humans lived in the epoch that's the beginning of the Ice Age, namely the Pliestocene Epoch. I thought that it would be impossible for humans to live way back then, but this book showed me that Encarta was right, and gave me additional information. If you're doing research on the Ice Age, this will be a book you don't want to miss. Enjoy!

I did not like this book because it had the most boring mysteries I have ever read.Like most boring books,the kids go somewhere, find what there looking for and, in the case of this book, fly back on a horse with wings.They say boring things along the lines of "how did you learn to read and write?My opinion is that it is a very boring book.

"Hour Of The Olympics" is good because of the ways you learn about the Olympics, and the Olympic events, plus the legend of Pegasus, the flying horse. So amazing, I almost applauded so loud my neighborhood could hear me! Trust me, you can't miss out on this one.

"Hour Of The Olympics" is good because of the ways you learn about the Olympics, and the Olympic events, plus the legend of Pegasus, the flying horse. So amazing, I almost applauded so loud my neighborhood could hear me. Trust me, you can't miss out on this one.

This book emphasizes on the attitude of the popes towards the sex lives of their priests. Many popes were concerned with the celibacy of their priests and forbade marriage for priests. However, they used to sell them licenses for keeping mistresses. Usually, they were prepared to tolerate priests who kept incestuous relations with female relatives or raped women in the church. "When a woman fainted during confession and the priest seized the opportunity to rape her, the Inquisition found that this, technically, was not a case of soliciting." The pope's only concern was that priests would defile the sacrament when handling it afterwards.
The passages about the sex lives of the popes themselves are mainly based on hearsay. Cawthorne accuses several popes of incest with either their sisters or bastard daughters, like pope Alexander VI Borgia, who retired with his daughter to "an interior room and remained locked up together for more than an hour". In secret she gave birth to a baby that was hidden, but that doesn't prove that her father was the father. Many other popes seem to have had preferences for young boys, prostitutes or sex-and-food orgies in general.
Despite many unproven accusations, the book clearly shows that many popes were mainly concerned with their own pleasures and did not give a damn about Christian values. Anyway, the book is good reading stuff.

Perfectly easy written for the common reader. Whoever is an open minder or wonder about the teachings of the church should read this book. The Catholic church is going under a struggled to keep its believers and this book tells us why. The writer tells us about the influence Queens had over the popes and how poorly Popes were following the church's own rules (orgies,murder,money,same sex lovers...etc.) just to have the power the position of a Pope had. However, somethings have change within the church now our days. Priests are still longing for a normal sexual life while keeping their faith to God and their preaching, but since celibate is still a mayor rule for priests, they find themselves commiting crimes involving children and honest belivers. Nothing is being heard about orgies anymore or about homosexual popes or about queens ruling over popes. On the other hand, I must recognized the work the two privious Popes have done for the church and its integrity. I just hope that the next pope follows the truly believes of Jesus for the sake of us and reforms the Catholic church. I truly enjoyed this book because I was on guilt stage for being lesbian and not following the bible or attending mass. Now that I know I'm not worse than those popes, I feel more confident as to what to respond to anybody who says homosexualism is a sin. I recomend this book to everybody!

"Sex Lives of the Popes" reads fluidly and easily. Others may find that a weakness in the lack of endless "scholastic" efforts to document every work by reference to "previous scholars." Well, for the minority among us who are "academia," that may be of interest. But for the ordinary reader, there is sufficient substantiation, and the book retains its vitality instead of succumbing to mind-numbing scholarly endedavor. It's real, and revealing, and surely an anathema to all the scholars of the "Holy Mother Church," to which the work may lend a new meaning. If one isn't a hidebound statistician, or a blindly faithful Catholic Cleric, then this book will be a great source of wondrous information, with relevance to the religious events and practices of the past centuries as well as to the present day's less than presentable (reported and unreported) practices of many of the Church's selected clergical leaders. By all means, everyone should read this book, in the interests of presentation of all the facts, whether they agree with the book or not. For example, do you know why the new pope must sit on the "saddle" before he's confirmed by the Cardinals? And did you know that there was a female Pope? It's a great book. Rush out and read it.

This book is about two kids named Jack and Annie. One day a magic tree house sends them back to the Roman times to the Roman Empire. When they got there they feel a tremble. After that they knew there was a Volcano. They fought and saved the Roman Times.
I gave this book three stars because it shows Annie and Jack were determined. And it was easy to understand. I recommed it because it is a nice story and there is a good message.

I discovered these books in my work as a teacher of reading to 2nd grade students. And students just love them!
Let me start by saying this is an excellent series of books. The way that Mary Pope Osborne incorporates: science, social studies(history/geography) and many other important academic elements into her stories is phenomenal!
The stories are exciting and well written. They have a way of drawing kids in and keeping them wanting to turn pages.
In our guided reading groups we usually read a chapter or two per day and the students frequently beg me to read more! That is how much kids love these books! Isn't that refreshing?
This particular installment in the Magic Tree House series finds Jack and Annie traveling back to ancient Rome! They happen to land in Pompeii in A.D. 79 on the day that Mount Vesuvius erupts!
This book incorporates two very popular elements for young children: volcanos and magic. It is undeniable that young students are intrigued by the power of volacanos. They love to read about them and this particular book is a great way for them to start researching.
Jack and Annie's adventures never fail to thrill readers and keep them interested.
I highly recommend these books for students in early elementary school. They are excellent for students in 2nd grade. Enjoy!

The purpose of fantasy is to enable children (and adults) to experience what they never could in reality. Every child knows that no adult would send him to the vicinity of a rumbling volcano--which is exactly why they love stories in which things like that happen. Seeing make-believe heroes in danger and seeing them get out of it is one of the ways children learn to be brave and optimistic. If a 4-year-old loves these books, then he's getting something useful out of them. My 8-year-old loves them, and I will happily keep reading them to him as long as he wants!

All those fun stories that you grew up with as a kid are here in this book. The next time you complain about all these new legends on the Internet, remember we all told the one about the bloody hook attached to the car door. And you know that story about the roach eggs in the taco meat made your skin crawl, no pun intended. This book is too much fun and a good source for nostalgic reflection or for retelling to all those people who you just want to scare a little! ...

This book does not explore anything new in terms of presenting new Urban Legends. But, it does dramatize well known legends giving them a new flare. Very good book.

I laughed and laughed and laughed some more. My teenagers love this book, too (I think that's a first--Mom and the kids liking the same book!). Yeah, I've heard some of the stories before, but that doesn't make them any less funny. And the illustrations are a hoot, too. Good fun all around!