Beautiful photos illustrate Muffy's lifestory... The price guide in back is invaluable to the vanderbear collector. A MUST HAVE book if you collect Muffy!

This book, is great and informative if you like Muffy Vanderbear. It includes just about all the outfits, except the newest ones. You gotta get this book if you love Muffy Vanderbear, family, and friends!

If you love Muffy this book is a must have! Included are photos of the past and present members of the Vanderbear family (and friends too!). This is a great source for clear photos of Vanderbears which cannot be seen well in the Muffy Club photo album (also of course a must have.) In addition there is a great deal of valuable information on variations in Muffy over the years as well as interesting historical facts about the Vanderbears. Definitely a must for Muffy collectors!

As a preschool teacher, I look for books that actively engage young children and are able to pull them in to the story. This book certainly does that. Children quickly pick up the rhythym of the story. They relate to the characters. In our preschool, we have a teddy bear that we send home with the children, along with a copy of the book. The children love to be able to "read" the story to their family. They then "write" a story about the bear's adventure while at their home. This book is a perfect link for this activity. Parents and children alike love this story. Thank you Dorothy Butler for a wonderful story!

My almost-two-year-old really enjoys this book. The pictures are very bright and colorful, the situations familiar. The different "lists" for each scenario are engagingly highlighted, and each list is made up from a master group, stimulating young minds to remember what has been used more than once, and in what situations. The pictures of each activity also can serve as a kind of "where's waldo?" game, where your child can find the brown bear. Very lyrical sound, pleasant to read, which is good, because in my house, its requested more than once.

This book was reviewed in a graduate course in reading that I was taking. My Brown Bear Barney is a predictable print book. Such books are excellent in the very early stages of reading. Children memorize the book as you read it over and over and over again. Repetition the very thing our adult mind questions, children ask for repetition that they need. They learn to "read" you the book even when the book is not there. This stage of memorization is the first stage of reading. The child then moves to recognizing the words. For example, "Is this word 'bear'?" So both kindergarten teachers and parents can use this book. It is good to have a half dozen of these predictable print books at home. (Look up: Sue William "I Went Walking".)

This is a wonderful book about a family living and enjoying the natural world around them. I envy them. For a while, a person can escape their hectic, city living,and enjoy the life the author is sharing with us. I highly recommend it!

The gorgeous imagery of the West is what makes this so incredibly amazing. There are lightning storms, hail, floods, fires, grizzly bears, guns--even murder and intrigue. Who knew there was so much going on in Montana? I highly recommend this beautifully written book.

This is a must book for every reader that loves wildlife and nature. I felt like I was visiting an old friend by the way it is written. The way some of the wildlife are described gives the feeling of a personel relationship with them, such as the grizzly crippled by a gunshot.

The descriptions of what it is like to live in such a place could be right out of our country's past years ago.

The author does an excellent job of expressing her feelings about the natural world that surrounded her in this unusual place...a place so few have visited but so many dream about.

The way she described how the scientist conduct their field research to monitor the grizzly, wolf, mountain lion, and coyote gives us a view into their scientific world, but on a personal point of view with some very humorous stories.

If you've never been to a semi-remote place surrounded by beautiful mountains, variety of wildlife, or interesting people, buy this book and it will take you there.

My 3 year old daughter (who is a big panda fan!)loves this book. The illustrations are beautiful - so bright and vivid. It teaches about opposites, how Panda Big and Panda Small are different. But in the end they have something important in common. I definitely recommend this one!!

I really like the way this book reads. My daughter loves it. We read this book often and we talk about the other animals in the book, what the differences are in the Big Panda and the Little Panda and how we are similar to them. The illustrations are also wonderful! I think any active mind would get a kick out of this book.

This book has very colorful illustrations and delightfully teaches toddlers about opposites. My daughter loves to hear it over and over.

I bought this book for my son when he was 1 1/2 years old, if that. He loved it and knew every word by the time he was two. It's really simple and sweet. Charming, but I always wondered why the mother left her toddler alone in the tub. Seemed pretty negligent, but Bill loved it and it was the beginning of his learning to read at an early age. I'll never forget it. "Wanna read Pat take bath!" It's a keeper.

As a child I LOVED this book, (and still do). A charming book! Every child 0-100 should own a copy is this short, yet sweet book!

i've loved this book as a toddler, and i still love it as a teen. this is truly a classic. forget david copperfield and sense and sensiblility. this is a real book.

I worked for Bill and Morris on Kodiak around the same time as the author. I went to visit Morris a few years ago and he gave me a copy of this book. He said it was close to the real thing. Since Bill told most of the stories and Bill was a real story teller, some things may have been a little em-BILL-ished so to speak. If you have ever sat in a hunting camp telling stories around a wood stove at night then you know what I mean. The parts of the book that were told to the author by Morris are dead on the mark. Morris didn't talk much and when he did he told it like it was. The book describes pretty well what it was like to hunt with Bill and Morris on Kodiak Island. It was hard, cold, wet, tireing work most of the time. I loved it. I would do it again if I had the chance. I read the book as I know most of the guys that worked for P&T do, just to bring back memories of how it was.

I was so enthralled with this book that I could imagine setting out on a hunt with the brown bear men. I was transported back to a time that can never again be. A time when fair chase and hard work were what a hunt was about. The character of these men is such that today it is hard to imagine finding anyone like that. I only wish I could have experienced the era these men lived in. A GREAT book.

I found this book to be really informative about the ways of the brown bear on Kodiak Island. These two men are truly great men of conservation ecology. The book is easy reading and keeps you interested throughout the book, craving more information about the bears and the lives of these men. I would recomend this book to anyone interested in bears or Kodiak Island.

I bought this book for my brother for Christmas. After he opened it, it went around the whole house and everyone loved the pictures. This is a great coffee table book and one that can be enjoyed over and over.

Simply a great gift book for anyone who loves wild places, adventure, the absurdity of life, and a good laugh.

If you know anyone who loves a new coffee table book every once in a while, or simply loves photography, this is a great gift! It portrays so many natural ironies that make your mind wonder and wander...so who couldn't appreciate it!?

My 20 month old son loves this book! We've had it for almost a year and he still reads it over and over again. Before, he loved watching me pull out the inner cards, but he is now able to do it by himself. It's like having a brand new toy. We are buying another since this one has seen it's better days.

My 11 month old loves to look at this book. It has simple pictures that are bright and colorful. We have fun going through this book with all of it's interactive pages. This book teachs kids the difference between up and down, few and many, over and under, big and little. We love watching "Tigger's" tale grow from being short to very long. The words are simple for a young reader also. This book is excellent for any young toddler to start reading with. We hope that you have as much fun reading with Pooh and all of his friends as we do.

My 8 month old baby loves books and this one is her absolute favorite - she sits and "reads" it forever! She will dig through her toy basket to find it - It is a great interactive book!

and I would wish for three more books as outstanding as "The Shadow of the Bear." This is a book to savor, to read while curled up in bed till the early hours of dawn. A mysterious encounter with Bear lures loyal sisters Blanche and Rose from their sheltered lives into a world of danger and deceit. The teens become cloaked in Bear's shadow--but is it a shadow of protection . . . or peril?

Set in modern New York City, this is nonetheless a timeless tale, woven with a theme about recognizing the value of right and wrong--choosing right even when it goes against the grain of popularity. You won't find preaching in these pages. Noble ideas come through naturally, along with heart-thumping suspense that builds to a dynamic climax and a satisfying ending. You also won't find typical characters. Rose's spirit and Blanche's pensiveness complement each other. While parents will approve of the heroines, teens won't find them dull or "goody-goody"; they will readily identify with and admire them.

In the book's Acknowledgements, Ms. Doman herself calls "Shadow of the Bear" an "odd" story--and indeed it is, in the most delightfully intriguing sense of the word. Yes, the title includes "shadow," but the story sparkles with excitement and even romance; it shines in this contemporary world with all the charm of a fairy tale.

I recommend this book to everyone--not just as a reader, but as an author. If my debut novel, "Past Suspicion" (a young adult suspense novel due out later this summer by Publish America), is enjoyed in any way like "Shadow of the Bear," I'll be elated, for it is along similar lines that I strive to write, crafting a visionary novel offering a compelling story that champions faith and hope in an often chaotic world.

By now the following should be obvious: "The Shadow of the Bear" is a book to read and reread. In short, to treasure. I hear Ms. Doman is working on sequels . . . my wishes are coming true!

Blanche and Rose are two teenage sisters who have recently moved to New York City after living a secluded childhood in the country. The perky and social Rose adjusts well to the big-city Catholic high school - making lots of friends and even being invited to the Senior Prom by the most popular boy in school. Blanche, on the other hand, more nervous and shy by nature, is incessantly teased by her schoolmates and struggles with her own internal fears about life.

Despite Blanche's objections, Rose and their mother (who was recently widowed) befriend a scruffy (dread-locked) transient, "Bear", who spent time in Juvenile Hall for drug possession.

A page-turning adventure and mystery unfold in which appearances are not always what they seem and the two sisters grow in faith, friendship and determination.

In the background of the story whirl a myriad of ideas about life, love, courage, fear, reality, death and much more that teenagers (and adults too) struggle with. But in the end the reader walks away with a sense of hope and that, yes, life is difficult and many bad things can happen, but even so God is in charge and the truth will come out in the end if we don't give up.

If the average person on the street today were asked how they would define "a fairy tale", I think they would describe a story in which "perfect" people had certain adventures, but in the end lived happily ever after. Unfortunately our modern ideas of fairy tales come largely from animated Disney movies of the past 50 years.

"The Shadow of the Bear" is based on the classic fairy tale "Snow White and Rose Red". Yet it is nothing like our common idea of a fairy tale because our modern definition is flawed. Reading this book, might, in fact, enhance your idea of what a fairy tale is.

Previously published as "Snow White and Rose Red: A Modern Fairy Tale," this is a wonderful, gritty retelling of an otherwise-uninteresting fairy tale. This is a real-as-life story about true love and courage, with a dash of crime and religion in there to balance it all out.

High-school students Blanche and Rose once lived in luxury in the country, but since the death of their father they live in a slushy city with their overworked mother. At their new school, they are generally ignored or abused, especially Blanche, who frequently has dizzy spells.

The girls are, at first, less than thrilled when their mother brings a homeless young man called "Bear" home. Despite their apprehension, soon they become close friends with him, based on a mutual love of poetry and jokes. But after a disastrous prom night where Bear is thrown out of the dance and Rose is intimidated by a would-be seducer, the girls find themselves in a potentially deadly struggle with a ruthless man -- with a grudge against Bear and the mysterious boy called "Fish."

Regina Doman manages to triumph in this book is several areas. Though there are essential religious themes woven into the plotline, there is no irritating sanctimonious air to the book. The two heroines aren't goody-goodies loved for their virtues, but mocked for them. And it's not exactly squeaky-clean either: there are themes such as child abandonment, homelessness, assault and attempted murder, heart trouble, and Rose's boyfriend pressuring her for sex. However, Doman is never less than tasteful, and her handling of these is in sync with the vein of Roman Catholic beliefs that runs through the novel.

Blanche and Rose are another good accomplishment. Rather than being carbon copies of one another, as siblings in many books are, the two girls have strengths and weaknesses that complement each other. Bear is a gentle giant who loves poetry and swing dancing; he proves to be a character like an onion, that is gradually unpeeled. And Fish is my personal favorite, a cocky wise-cracker who doesn't let any situation (including attempted murder) keep him down for too long.

One of the few "real life" fairy tale retellings that works. "Shadow of the Bear" is an enchanting love story with a pulse-pounding storyline and likeable characters.