I have purchased this book for five children in my life, it is the favorite of all. It's lesson is one of love and affection, and that it is ok to kiss your dad when everyone is looking.

One of the best books available to show children you are never too old for kisses.

My children have been raised as family members of the United States Marine Corps... Their Papa is gone quite a bit. This little story has had a special place in our hearts as the encouragement it has given for our children to continue to value affection from their Papa without embarrassement....Even at 3rd and 4th grade, at Millington Central Elementary School, they would kiss in the hallway as they took different routes to their own classes... it did not matter who looked or what they said because "kissing is for everybody"

We loved this book! One of our favorite things to do in the winter is build a fire, drink hot chocolate and read. We discovered this book by accident, and have found it an enchanting book, one that a 7-year-old can read to his mother. The illustrations have inspired our own attempts at this type of artwork, and a lot of fund daydreaming about "snowrabbits" nibbling at carrots! A delight for any young one (and their mother!).

This book is an absolutely charming tale of sharing winter experiences with a child. The paper cutting artwork is beatiful and unique. It causes the pages to come alive. This book is a delight for adults and children.

I think the text and illustrations were very well intergrated and, therefore, this book reflected the highest level of quality. Incredible inventiveness on the part of the author in regard to presentation of pages, readability, color and composition.

Speaking Globally: Effective Presentations Across International And Cultural Boundaries by speech specialist and communication consultant is a straightforward and effectively presented instructional guide to improving one's speeches and presentations, especially when communicating to an audience from a dramatically different culture. From guidelines expressly useful for helping female speakers get taken seriously, to avoiding common and embarrassing communication pitfalls, to designing a truly "go-getter" motivational speech, Speaking Globally is first-rate and very highly recommended reading for business travelers and international speakers.

Elizabeth Urech's Speaking Globally is both informative and entertaining. Vivid examples and clear explanations enable you to easily understand and remember concepts. Best of all this book inspires you to seek opportunities to test your speaking skills. As a former MBA student and someone who occasionally introduces guest speakers, leads meetings and presents material, I only wish I would have read it sooner.

-- Linda Beadling

If you ever have a need to conduct business with people from other countries, this book could help you. It is full of helpful facts and tips for speakers who must cross the cultural barriers to good communication. Not only is it loaded with good practical information (such as how to make a toast at dinner in Finland), it is easily read because of the clear writing style and humor. I keep a copy by my phone as a quick reference before calling my contacts around the world. I highly recommend it as essential reading for anyone who must deal with business people around the world.

Elizabeth Urech obviously knows what she is writing about and it shows in her prose. Reading this book is like having the best advice, support (and encouragement) from a coach before approaching what is for most people one of the most nerve-wracking, unsettling, scary things in the world..public speaking. Read it and you will be better prepared, more confident, and no doubt more successful.

A guide to the basics of stonework that concentrates on the most common projects: retaining walls, stone fences, foundations and steps, and then adds a bit more for the adventuresome: a fireplace, an arched bridge and a moon gate. A good book for the do-it-yourselfer or to learn what to look for in working with a professional stone mason.

As a beginner I found the book easy to read, understandable, and a great asset for my beginning projects. The only thing I would like added to this book was some colored photos of Mr. McRaven's work. Also the descriptions of types of rocks would have helped if there where colored photos. For example, when I started to gather my stones together for my project I realized Mr McRaven's comments on being OK to mix types of stone is not universal. Mixing stone is an art and requires experience with an eye on color.

Also more photos, in color, of good work verses bad work would help beginners like me visualize what my goal should be. I feel I wasted time doing and undoing my stonework.

However, this is still a book for any stoneworker's library.

Compared to other how-to books in the category, McRaven makes the reader feel very capable of completing the projects without "dumbing down" the material. Let's face it- stonework is somewhat intimidating. By adding some easy jobs like the stone birdbath-fountain, you can build confidence for bigger things. I'm ready for spring!!

The collaborative editorial effort of David Travis, Elizabeth Siegel, Keith F. Davis, Taken By Design: Photographs From The Institute Of Design, 1937-1971 is the Art Institute of Chicago exhibition catalog which was a jointly published project with the University of Chicago Press. Showcasing the photography that arose out of The Institute of Design during some three and a half decades, Taken By Design chronicles and documents a fascinating sidebar in the history of American photography. Enhanced with essays, articles, biographical sketches, course curricula, and more, Taken By Design is a welcome, original, and highly recommended contribution to personal, professional, and academic Photography historical reference and resource collections and reading lists.

Much more than a catalog

This book is not just a catalog of the show now at San Francisco's MOMA. It is a rich source that chronicles the evolution of the Chicago Institute of Design (ID) and its photography program. With 6 written essays and articles, biographies, course curricula, and other background it places the ID's photographers rightfully in the middle of the late twentieth century art revolution.

The writing is authoritative, revealing and thought provoking. Some is understandably enthusiastic, by authors named Moholy-Nagy and Siegel, some is analytical/critical, illuminating the difficulties and disagreements that resolved themselves into a program like no other. Any student of photography or modern art must know about this controversial and audacious adventure that was spun off from the Bauhaus by Moholy-Nagy, Arthur Siegel and the other subjects of this chronicle.

The authors explore some of these subjects. Why was the this such an important project and why was it controversial? What effect has it had? What does it teach us today? These are important questions simply because a large number of prominent and influential students passed through it.

No serious collection of late 20th century photographs can be without 20 or so of the prints from this group. Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Ken Josephson, Ray Metzker, Linda Connor, Arthur Siegel, Art Sinsabaugh and many others all studied and taught there. Many went on the teach at places like R.I. School of Design, San Francisco Art Institute and many places in between. The influence of this group is much more extensive than its size and longevity would suggest.

At a time when the "giants" of the medium were devoted to "pure" photography, Moholy-Nagy appeared from Europe and proposed that photography be treated as a tool of graphic design. Light, texture, volume, rhythm, contrast and other elements were worth studying for their own sake in order to apply the unique strengths of photography to the art of design.

They produced something akin to Jazz. Painters like Motherwell, Johns, Rauschenberg were producing strikingly similar imagery. Paul Strand, Man Ray, Lartigue, Rodschenko and a many others had explored the same issues. The Bauhaus and the Chicago ID were an attempt to formalize the earlier experiments. Strand, Weegee, Winogrand, Blumenfeld and others contributed to the ID at various times.

The ID photographers showed how purely graphic aspects of the medium could be used to express a vision, used to dig subtle meaning from the mundane, used to reveal things in synthetic abstract that weren't visible. They expanded and elevated their medium in a very short, intense time. There is little in today's published graphics not already in the photographs of the students in this show.

An unintended consequence of this book is to have produced a key to much of abstract expressionist painting, and modern poetry. The photograph always contains an insistent link to "reality" that seems more obvious than it is in a painting, but it is no less a subject of the painter than the photographer. This show might be the trigger that makes other modern artists accessible to some people. I've recommended this book to some art teachers for this reason.

I have long been a fan of the work that came out of the Institute of Design from the 1940s-1960s. It was a highly creative and experimental time and environment. After fleeing Nazi Germany in the late 1930s, many Bauhaus design and photography educators set up shop in Chicago. They started a new school and a new method of teaching photography that emphasized experimenting with abtract forms and understanding the process of imagery through intense creative study. Lazlo Moholy-Nagy was the driving force for the early successes, along with Gyorgy Kepes and Nathan Lerner. After Maholy-Nagy died, Harry Callahan took over the job as photography head, and moved away slightly from the early experimentation period by trying to challenge his students into creating their own thesis statements. Some of the other artists that also attended or participated in this important school were Barbara Crane, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Joseph Jachna, Kenneth Josephson, Arthur Siegel, & many others.

The book in in conjunction with the exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago of the same title. The exhibition should not be missed if you are in the Chicago area, but if you cannot make it to the exhibition (which closes May 12, 2002), this book is a great representation of the exhibits masterpieces. Inside are hundreds of fine-art images from ID, along with interviews, quotes, in-depth commentaries, and a lot of really great candids of the artists. It is really worth it. And I would certainly suggest buying this book at Amazon...

If you have any interest in modern art or photography, this book is a fantastic history lesson on the impact of these innovators on the entire possibilities of the medium. The Institute of Design helped shape photography into an art form of its own, and to push the boundaries of the medium at the same time. What a great time it must have been!

What a great idea for a book! It teaches kids to accept others and at the same time they learn the facts about Cerebral Palsy.

You can do anything if you try hard enough. This book is great because it shows that even if you are challenged there is a way you can meet your goals. Just like kids at my school that are in wheel chairs still do p.e. and everything else.

It's a great book!

Very interesting to learn about other people's disabilities. Easy to read.

This book is the first I have come across that teaches Chinese characters by helping the reader to understand how they are formed. Other books plunge right into the presentation of characters that must be memorized, quickly overwhelming the reader.

In this book you will understand the logic behind the evolution of the characters, the use of radicals in compound characters, the composition of multiple character words, interpretation of characters in context, and how to correctly write these characters yourself. Elizabeth Scurfield explains the rules behind stroke order and gives many examples as the characters progress from simple to more complex. Each unit builds logically on the preceding unit, so learning is gradual and easy.

If you are just beginning to learn Chinese writing, I couldn't recommend this book more highly. You will need to look elsewhere to learn the spoken language, not much help here (although Elizabeth Scurfield does have another very good book that teaches both reading and speaking Mandarin). Once you have mastered the material in this book, you will need to find a more advanced book if you wish to become proficient. This truly is just a beginning - but a very good one.

This book is really fantastic. It shows you the basics for the chinese script origin and gives you a basic understanding of the written language by associating it with everyday situations. Through the numerous examples from real chinese setrtings it teaches you how to guess a possible meaning for a character by noticing its background (e.g. if it is on a restaurant menu, airport lounge information etc.) and compounds. This is particularily important for the everyday traveller to China who doesn't have the time to learn a lot of characters but has the basic intelligence to associate a character with its possible meaning. It also has a very practical pronounciation guide and a guide to chinese computer input methods at the end of the book but unfortunately doesn't give the pinyin for all the characters that are presented in the book.

I am a beginner to learning Chinese and I find this book an excellent guide to understanding chinese characters, its components and why. I recommend this book to anyone who wish to be able to recognize and read chinese characters. The author has provided an excellent description regarding the radicals and phonetic components of chinese characters.

I like very much this small booklet "There's Magic" written by Diane Elizabeth Lawrence. Yes, because the small poems are like flashes of light, full of joy and optimism. They pick up the best sides of every event, of every thing she touches, and open your eyes to something different. Great sensibility and drops of serenity. I am hungry every day to suck a sip from "There's Magic", to gather the better part of my daily life.

Angelo Di Berardino, The Vatican.

"There's Magic"reminded me through its tiny little bursts of smiles how very much we miss appreciating the taken for granted things in life. A touch of sunshine,babies,ice cream,flowers,bunnies all touch our ahhh yes moments. "Magic" is a feel good,great to be alive elixer. A perfect pick me up. Diane Lawrence gives good hugs.

Anyone who has had a child, been in love, appreciated life will love this book of poems. It makes you stop and think about all the special, simple and wonderful things in the world that we forget to appreciate. It is a book that is nice to have in your home, so you can pick it up when you need to put a smile on your face.

I highly recommend, “There’s Magic” by Diane Elizabeth Lawrence.

This book is wonderful on so amy levels. First of all, it is a wonderful reference for fencers to see where it all began. It is also a wondeful book of you have a desire to read and want to be able to speak and understand old ELizabethan English. There are also many wonderful woodcuts showing costuming of the period. It is a great book to have in ones library.

This is not a modern re-telling or history book. It's not even re-typed - just a facsimile reprint of three fencing manuals of the Renaissance. If you want to know how it was really done, this is the place. It's real.

But don't assume you'll have an easy read. Saviolo is not writing in his native language, and it shows. He doesn't describe motions very well, and occasionally appears to leave out a foot move in a long sequence. Di Grassi never wrote in English. This manual is a sixteenth century English translation of his Italian manual. People who deride the "negative campaigning" of today will get quite a surprise when they read Silver's virulent contempt for the rapier and the foreigners who teach it.

There is also the language issue. Yes, it's written in English, but sixteenth century English doesn't always mean what you think it does. Saviolo tells you to come on guard with your right wrist against your knee, your right foot against your opponent's right foot, and your point against his face. Obviously, something has been lost in four centuries. In this case, it's the fact that "against" meant "opposite or across from", not "touching". You are now armed against one problem, but it's still not the language you think it is. (Hint: an Oxford English Dictionary is a very useful companion volume.)

Also, don't assume you can do this in modern fencing. The blades were longer and heavier, and they don't work like modern fencing weapons. Furthermore, these are very basic lessons. We know that the advanced moves were jealously guarded, and not written in books.

With all the difficulties, this book remains essential - it's a direct link to the fighting methods of the Elizabethan fencers. Di Grassi is the easiest to follow. Saviolo is particularly helpful for research, because he spends some time explaining why he does things differently form others, thereby documenting both styles and explaining the thinking process of fencing masters. Silver prefers the short sword to the rapier, and shows us that the Renaissance held many different views.

This books stands alone -- there is just no commercially available substitute.

Your stage combat will look better, your re-enactments will be more real, your understanding of the sword will be sharper.

This book is a facsimile of three fencing manuals of the XVI century covering two major traditions: the rapier techniques, mainly italian but also used in Spain and Portugal at the time; and the short-sword techniques, probably british in origin.

The time in which these manuals were published was crucial: there was a gradual transition from the medieval sword techniques to the renaissance rapier ones. At the time (and long afterwards) the french schools of fencing were not existent and the main flow was latin: two of the manuals were written by italians and the swords used in latin countries were rapidly evolving from medieval sword towards the rapier. Those were times of frequent wars and of deadly clashes involving different cultures and ways of fighting. Very different from the later "civilized" duels between long-haired make-uped "gentlemen" which originated the french schools of fencing from which our childish fencing appeared.

This work is the real thing! It shows the experience of three sword masters, in a time where expertise was gained by fighting often and staying alive doing it, and mastery was achieved by recognition from a world where everyone was a swordsman ready to challenge such a person just to get fame.

Forget for a moment modern sword-"play" and read this book about real swordsmanship!

What I like the most about this book is that Mary Thunder tells us all about her mistakes that she made walking this path. It is a very honnest book and the writer shows us what it means to be a Human Being.Even when we are a Spiritual Person, she shows us we are not perfect. A very personal book, I could not stop reading so I finished it at once. There is a lot of funny stories in there.

It is highly uncommon to find an humble visionary, but that is exactly what you will find in this book, coupled with a witty and sharp perspective that strikes home to us all. A real Native American Medicine Woman's life adventure, coupled with a good dash of her own teaching for those of you who are wanting to learn. A New-Age must for all who are seeking a way to reach beyond what you can see, into what you know is really there!!!

With this book ,Mary Thunder reawakens the heart. Her life is a model of endurance and faith ,in addition,her training as a Lakota warrior is the kee that opens the doors of awareness.