Paid a hefty price for the Out of Date book, but my wife will definately love it. We own the "I Love My Daddy" book by the same Author as well and it is one of our child's favorite books!

My wife cried the first time she listened to me read this little gem of a book to my daughter. The heartwarming animation portays a little elephant expressing why it loves its mother. I Love My Mommy profoundly convicts every parent that true love can be shown through simple yet frequent acts of thoughtfulness. Also, the thick-cardboard pages are easy for our toddler to turn! Only a few bucks was a small price to pay for so many heart-warming smiles! We will definitely purchase I Love My Daddy and I Love My Teddy by Kate Gleeson.

Golden is clearly a very secularist Jew with little knowledge and no sensitivity for Jewish cultural-religious context. He has neglected rabbinical literature and doesn't even try to conjure up an image of what the "Jewish" context of Khazaria could have been like. I guess that's honesty, but the result is that it provides no deep insight into what this aspect of Khazar culture might have been like; or an important basis for discriminating between the huge (and valuable) amount of historical sources he brings down.

Peter Golden, a professor at Rutgers University, is an outstanding historian. His latest book is "An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples" (Otto Harrassowitz, 1992), which also contains some information about the Khazars. The Khazars are a Turkic people who ruled eastern Europe from about 650 to 1016 and converted to Judaism in the 9th century. At the height of their power, the Khazar Empire collected tribute from neighboring tribes such as Alans and the Volga Bulgars. The Khazars maintained a large professional army, consisting largely of Muslim Arsiya and pagan Slavs, and had many fortresses. The empire was ruled by two monarchs: the great kaghan and the bek. In volume 1 of "Khazar Studies" (1980), the following issues are discussed: (1) theories about the origins of the Khazars, (2) beginnings of the Khazar kaganate, (3) the fortress of Sarkel and the proto-Hungarians, (4) peoples who lived in Khazaria, (5) commerce in Khazaria, (6) Khazar words and names. The last section of this volume discusses at great length Khazarian terms such as "bek", "tarkhan", "tudun", and "il-teber", and names such as Chat Kasar and Chichek, but may be difficult to follow for people who are not too familiar with the subject. The rest of the book, however, is generally accessible to the educated reader. The dilligent reader will be rewarded with a wealth of interesting information about the Huns, Sabirs, Ko"k Turks, Bulgars, and Khazars. Volume 2 contains copies of numerous medieval Arabic, Hebrew, and other documents about Khazar history. English translations are not provided, however. Unfortunately, "Khazar Studies" has been out of print for a long time and will be difficult to find except through interlibrary loan.

Christopher Golden is an author you can trust. He is a great storyteller and has a clear, cinematic style to his work. This sequel to his first PROWLERS novel, follows young Jack Sawyer on his journey to destroy the menacing Prowlers; a race of shape-shifting werewolves that live among humans. Jack is guided by a deceased friend and others in the "Ghostlands". He has the ability to see the other side and tries to avenge their deaths by the prowlers. This time, Jack and Molly, follow a bloody trail to a small rural town where the Prowlers seem unusually active. A great read and an action packed horror thriller. I can't wait for the next in the series. Thank you Mr. Golden!

When Jack and Molly read on the Internet about some brutal deaths in the rural town of Buckton, Vermont, they suspect that Prowlers are responsible. Determined to uncover the truth, Jack and Molly head for Buckton. When the arrive, Jack, who has the ability to see and speak to ghosts, learns the a pack of Prowlers has been responsible for deaths in the area for decades. Jack and Molly are determined to stop the Prowlers, but in this small, close-knit town where everyone is suspicious of outsiders, it's going to be hard to figure out who's human and who's not. But Jack and Molly are determined to find the Pack before they kill again. Readers who enjoyed the first book in this series won't want to miss this one.

"Le Crabe aux Pinces d'Or" ("The Crab with the Golden Claws") has a simple beginning, when Milou goes scavenging in the rubbish and gets his muzzle stuck in a can of crabmeat. However, that crab of tin meat quickly leads our hero on a new adventure, which starts off rather horribly when Tintin is knocked unconscious aboard a mysterious ship and taken out to sea where the bad guys intend to send him to the bottom. Of course, Tintin leads a charmed life, which takes a major turn for the better when he comes across the ship's drunken captain, who introduces himself as Captain Haddock.

The rest, as they say is history, because this is the first of many aventures de Tintin where our hero is joined by the person who, along with Snowy, becomes his almost constant companion in the years to come. Even though this is the good captain in his rawest form, Hergé knew he was onto something with the emotional, blustering, cursing (in his own peculiar way) Haddock, who plays increasingly pivotal roles in the next Tintin adventures, "L'Etoile Mysterieuse" and "Le Secret de La Licorne." As for Milou, he does manage to find some of the biggest bones in his long career, so he is certainly a happy dog in this one.

"Le Crabe aux Pinces d'Or" takes Tintin and his companions from the perils of the high sea to the burning sands of the desert. Of course, all those cans of crab are not actually filled with crab. This 1941 story is a traditional exotic adventure for the intrepid reporter, filled with slapstick and narrow escapes in equal measure, which might indicate Hergé's desire to forget about what was happening in Europe at that point in history.

This Tintin is one of the best ever. A timeless plot mixed with humor and non-stop adventure. The french version is the best because french is Herge's first language and it is simple and easy to read (Im learning french now so I know!)

This is an adorable Halloween book. The Illustrations are beautiful and spooky - not too spooky for little kids! The text is clever and fun. I bought tons of copies for all the kids I know.

Although this is specifically a halloween book, I'll always keep it on hand for all my juvemile visitors. I was especially impressed with the illustrations which were done with precise attention to detail and more than a grain of humor.

Another book by the "archeological privateer" Barry Clifford, the oceanic excavator who found the wreck of Black Sam Bellamy's ship the Whydah in the sands off Cape Cod. His writing has improved since he wrote "Expedition Whydah," though he's still not a master with words. No matter, his subjects are always facinating enough I don't mind that the prose can be a bit clunky.

This one traces his team's discovery and exploration (underwritten by Max Kennedy, the BBC, and the Discovery Channel) of a wreck of an entire fleet of ships--5 French warships and two pirate ships the French fleet hired to assist them in warfare--on the reef of Los Aves off the coast of Venezuela. In a similar vein to the Whydah book, Clifford intersperses his text with photographs, maps, and drawings, and alternates the story of his expedition with history about the pirates involved in the wrecks.

In this case, he does the opposite of the Whydah story (which traced Sam Bellamy's rise to captainship and followed him until his demise), and instead follows the lives of the documented pirates who *survived* the massive wreck at Los Aves, among them a famous and ridiculously lucky mulatto captain named Laurens de Graff, and a New England pirate named Thomas Paine who later went on to return to his home and established himself as a powerful and corrupt politician (not the same Thomas Paine that wrote the "Common Sense" political publication, this was a few decades earlier). The historical portions of the text offer a lot of great insight into the piratical/buccanneer climate (political, economical, etc) of the mid- to late-17th c. in the Caribbean and Spanish Main.

Most interesting is the existance of a period map he brought with him, drawn by the leader of the shipwrecked fleet from shore where he survived the wreckage, outlining the positions of each wreck and labelling them by name--his accuracy was apparently quite high, so it functioned like a literal 'treasure map,' showing the explorers exactly where they would find the wrecks of which ships! There's not as much info on artifacts in this one, since they merely mapped and filmed the wrecks and haven't excavated yet (unknown if they will, in fact, due to most of the wreckage having become an integral part of the ecosystem of the reef by now), but there's a lot of really new discoveries on the research front (pub date on this is 2002) about the various pirates involved, most of whom are lesser known names (as opposed to the more "famous" pirates like Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, who came later...these were the pirates operating on the cusp of the Golden Age of Piracy).

So, if you want to read some detailed info about pirate captains of the pre-1700 era, this is a good book to check out!

Barry Clifford has written an interesting book on a fleet of French ships that were in pursuit of Dutch ships which led the French into the treacherous waters of the reef off of Las Aves Island near the coast of Venezuela in 1678. He states the wreckage of the French fleet on Las Aves was the beginning of some of the greatest pirate careers in history. British and French ships would attack Spanish ships as they returned to Spain after loading up on riches in the New World. Many pirates, Clifford states, met a brutal demise and he goes into detail in regard to a number of pirates to illustrate his point while one in particular, Thomas Paine (not the one of Common Sense fame), managed to retire and lead a somewhat respectable life. Clifford organized a team to visit the site in 1998 and locate the fleet for purposes of drawing and photographing whatever he may find of the remains. He was not interested in disturbing the reef by removing artifacts. Clifford goes into interesting detail on his team's visit to Las Aves as they go about doing their assigned work. Clifford alternates throughout the book covering piracy during the 1600's and his visit to the site during 1998. I took a chance on buying this book through the History Book Club not really knowing what I was getting. I found this book to be very worth while to read and it will have a permanent place in my library.

This boxed set can be enjoyed by all ages. It includes 2 blank Little Golden Books to create your own stories, 'The Poky Little Puppy' Little Golden Book, a stamp set, 4 colored pencils, letter stencils, and instructions. This set can provide hours of enjoyment for anyone to write and illustrate their very own Little Golden Book!

This is a wonderful product for kids and adults. I bought some for my son who is 6 to make. Thought they would be great keepsakes items for when Im old and grey. He is making one for his Dad for Fathers Day which is all about the things he does with Dad. I highly reccomend these as gifts or as keepsakes. What child wouldnt want to have a book he wrote and illustrated? Great price too. Dont forget grandma and grandpa. You can do them as a family project also. Be creative.

For a period of three decades Raymond Clary was San Francisco's most persistent defender of Golden Gate Park from those who sought to acquire the land for their exclusive use, to put up and expand buildings on the land, and to convert the land into money-making venues. Because his criticisms of park encroachers were caustic, witty and informed, it was to be expected that he incurred the wrath of those he rebuked. While Mr. Clary's sharp and eloquent voice has been stilled, despoilers of Golden Gate Park continue to clamor for buildings, museums, monuments, sports arenas, and facilities for special groups. The park needs defenders like Ray Clary to keep the land open, free and green for future generations. Though his books could benefit from condensation, they provide San Franciscans with instructions in the care of park environments it would be well for them to read and to heed.

The Making of Golden Gate Park is one work which must be a necessary reference; this says not only what a park was, or should be; but how it was set out in the beginning to be that special place in time. An interesting look at what created in sand had became a feature of the landscape of memories. Mr. Clary was a fantastic researcher with greater powers of understanding than even his public knew, envisioning how the park should look way into the future, many planners over the years borrowed his sentiments freely and grafted their public policy onto his outlines. One benefit being the Golden Gate Headlands National Park, an outgrowth of his promotion of open space for city-dwellers idea. Oddly enough, although he was praised by Herb Caen and much was done to preserve open-space, the main concept for conservation of this unique park as a very special and individual place aside from time has been consistantly resisted by every city and county functionary over the last 30-years!

If you wish to view the real New Orleans carnival celebration, take a look through this window opened by its legendary artist/historian, Henri Schindler. Schindler is a local icon, the touchstone of this unique cultural expression. Students of cultural and social history as well as art lovers and designers will share delight in Schindler's masterful recreation, through well-researched and entertaining text and beautiful color plates, of the "golden age" of the celebration--an oeuvre to which Schindler adds annually through his own designs for several of the old-line carnival organizations, thus keeping alive the artistic and cultural tradition of which he writes in this and his previous books. The reader comes to know, through the insights of a true "insider", the meaning and spirit of the "real" Carnival.

This book is exquisite.
In New Orleans, Mardi Gras as practiced by the faithfull is the high holy event of the year. Mr. Schindler has documented the aesthetic traditions of the rites in a series of beautiful books- this is the lastest and focuses on costume designs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The plates are all original drawings by the great designers of Carnivals' past (Mr. Schindler is the great designer of Carnivals present). New Orleans Mardi Gras is rooted in the aesthetic of 19th century Italian opera and this book has some truly surreal illustrations. Any Carnival faithfull, opera fan, theatre designer or just folks who love costume parties should love this book. It also stands as a serious work of art history- the talent and effort that go into mounting parades and tableaux balls in New Orleans get overlooked and all of Mr. Schindlers books on the subject document a rich history of artists and artisans who worked in the city and built its most revered tradition.

Schindler, himself a treasure-trove of history and lore of New Orleans' "golden age", shares through lucid and eloquent essays and stunning color plates the story of the evolution of the Carnival street pageant, from its beginnings in pre-Civil War affluence to the great depression of the 1930s. He weaves a tapestry of social, political and economic events through the warp of the lives of the great artists and artistic movements that shaped the unique street parades of the New Orleans Carnival. From the sadly anonymous creator of the 1858 Comus pageant memorialized in the London Illustrated News through the accomplishments of prolific Virginia Wilkinson Wilde and the remarkable Plauche family in the last century, Schindler offers a rich chronicle of the men and women who created a unique art form that provided mass public entertainment long before the invention of the motion picture projector and cathode ray tube. Those of us who have enjoyed his prior publications, Mardi Gras and Invitations of the Golden Age will delight in this latest addition to the multi-layered history of New Orleans' pre-Lenten celebration. Readers new to Schindler's magic will eagerly await his next opus.

Mardi Gras Treasures charts the specialty parade floats of Carnival in New Orleans from 1870-1930, examining classic and artistic themes and recreating original float designs in watercolor and lithographs. The author, Henri Schindler, has himself designed Mardi Gras parades and balls for some time: his striking full-color illustrations will appeal to a wide audience, from float designers to artists with a special interest in New Orleans works and history.