A very comprehensive explanation of one of the best (if not the best) hand puppet manipulation systems in puppet theatre. Plenty of photos to guide and clear text.

This is a great book for people who want to teach classes on how to work with hand puppets or want to improve their own puppetry skills. The focus is on hands-on manipulation of the puppets. (I am going to use it as the basis of a workshop with a theatrical group.)

It gives an overall curriculum, well illustrated and explained, for making your puppets come alive. For example, it breaks the movements down into finger, wrist, and arm movements. It gives exercises for creating puppet voices, working with props, and improvisation.

I've been looking for a book like this: so many of them are just about making the puppets, or the overall setup of a puppet theater. This may be a one-of-a-kind. Puppets are actors, and this book is a great actor's manual!

This book is different from anything you will buy in a craft store. I loved it. There are techniques that are lost in the piles and piles of doileys and afghans that are seen everywhere today. If you like to work with small thread, you will love this book.

It also holds a lot of history in it, in that anyone who had a poor Irish Grandmother who made lace for the "rich neighbors", will see the reason "rich neighbors" wanted to buy if from her. The quality and beauty of the designs is a testiment to the talent and ingenuity of a people who only had something if they could make it out of nothing.

You will love this book even if you never use any of the designs.

This book is a history of Irish Crochet Lacemaking. It is easy to follow and has the finiest patterns I have seen for advanced projects. It is a very good learning tool. Highly recommended!!!!!

My dad read all of Thornton W. Burgess books to me as a child and now I read them to my daughter she loves them and I still love them myself. You cant go wrong reading any of his work. Wish there were more books like this today.

After 40 year, I just reread the series. By todays standards, the books are a little old fashioned, but manners & obedience never go out of style. Besides, kids learn alot about how different wild animals live.

Unlike the infamous ballet, the true tale of the Nutcracker Prince is a disturbing, allogorical tale about the cruelties of mankind. It is very harsh and sinister, yet at the same time is is a fantastical story that keeps you turning the next page. It is a bit wordy and you must remember this was written during German Romanticism which explains a lot for the style and content. It is both a children's bedtime story and a story for adults looking for something deep and meaningful. Hoffmann is just a genius and I wish for his works to become more well known.

"The Nutcracker was a great book. E.T.A. Hoffman had the right idea in mind when he wrote this short story. The plot was exciting. Marie and the Nutcrarker were the main charecters."

This is an excellent book on deep sea exploration! If you can find it, the hardcover version is definitely a keeper for future reference. In response to the review above...I believe that "Deep-Ocean Journeys" by Cindy Lee Van Dover is the paperback version of "Octopus's Garden" ("Deep-Ocean" is still available in-print). Also, if you enjoyed this book, read William Broad's "The Universe Below".

Too bad this book out of print! It is a neat little book on deep sea life, not just (but mainly) hydrothermal vent life. Very readable and while not too technical was very informative, with nice black and white illustrations. It added a very human touch to deep sea exploration, but was professional at the same time.

It is truly an amazing world beneath the surface of the sea, which by some counts makes up something like 97 percent of the biosphere of this planet. Great books help bring this alien but important realm to life. Recommended.

This is the George Herbert Palmer prose translation from the 1890's and is one of the best prose translations (or best translations period) of the ODYSSEY in English. It's, unfortunately, been unavailable for many years, but now Dover has brought out this extremely inexpensive edition. The Palmer translation is known for its faithfulness to the original Greek. You know when you are reading this translation that you are reading all of Homer's ODYSSEY. A faithful, literal prose translation like this is good to have to accompany an inspired translation into poetry like Pope or Chapman. This first sentence from Bk. 14: 'But from the harbor, up the rock path, along the woody country on the hills, Odysseus went to where Athene bade him seek...' is typical of the style. Spare and simple and rugged and bringing out the tone of nobility of this Homeric epic.

Amazing story of what one man will suffer simply to achieve their dream of returnig to their homeland. The translation is precise and clear, a story that I will always love.

I chose this book to use for reading instruction. The print is big and bold. Just the right number of words per page for a child starting chapter books. The book is easily decodable, with a very few sophosticated (but still decodable)words sprinkled in like undignified, contentment,conceit, to advance a childs vocabulary. Most important though, the story is really very entertaining. The reader quickly finds himself sympathizing with the poor hungry foxes. Granny has lots of important lessons to teach the younger fox about just how smart elders can be. A true delight.

A 1920 copyright book (with a few illustrations by Harrison Cady) presents charmingly told stories by a master storyteller. Reddy Fox learns many lessons in life from his Granny. Greed, humility, patience, selflessness, and other virtues and vices are revealed in timeless tales of the animals that inhabit the Green Meadow and Green Forest. There are 29 chapters, each about 6-7 pages long, in the Grosset & Dunlap edition. Each chapter begins with a short insightful poem. This is a good book to read to a 4-9 year old at bedtime. The pace of its stories are suitable for being read over several nights with chapters building upon prior events. As Granny Fox says, "It's what you do for others, Not what they do for you, That makes you feel so happy All through and through and through." - Cedric Richeson

This book is only about the size of a magazine but it tells how to buy, repair, finish, and copy quilts from the 1930's. There is a little history of the era and pictures of quilts made then too. For someone like me who inherited a trunk full of 30's vintage, unfinished quilts, it was s fountain of useful information.

Sara Nephew has focused on the craft of the American woman and explained what our grandmothers were doing. This helped me identify old quilt designs that I had inherited. She also gave great directions on saving a quilt, identifying fabrics, and basic problems with some unfinished quilts. I will keep this book handy for future reference.

A variety of celtic alphabets from the incredibly ornate to the classic simple calligraphy makes this a worthwhile resource for anyone working with celtic design. I can think of dozens of potential uses for mine...

This book contains, as the title implies, seven complete Celtic alphabets, one of which is a reproduction of a lettering style used in the book of Kells, another a plain Celtic style calligraphy, and five other sets, decorated with spirals, birds, hounds and a variety of Celtic knots. Many letters are printed in double or triplicate, only on one side, so they can be cutout for stenciling etc. without fear of ruining the letter, or other letters.

This review refers to "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge....

Get swept away to a world of dreams in this beautiful collection of Coleridge's best poetry.Open this book to any poem and you will immediatly be transported to fantastick worlds and mysterious voyages.You will find no need to get caught up in trying to anaylze, you'll just be caught up in his words.The reader can identify their own experiences within his works, and make their own interpertations.

Coleridge will stir your imagination with such great works as the adventurous and ghostly voyage of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"(in the entire 7 parts),the dream land of "Kubla Khan", and my personal favorite,the sadly unfinished other worldly fairy tale of "Christabel".

You'll find many others of his classic poetry that emcompasses both worlds of dreams and reality. "The Pain of Sleep", ""The Fruit Plucker" and "Time, Real and Imaginary" are examples of these.Other works included are "If I Had But Two Little Wings","Songs from 'Zapolya'", "Youth and Age", and the beautiful "Frost at Midnight", all stories of love and life.

There are many more wonderful writings to be found here and they are both ageless and to be enjoyed by any age. There are poems to be read aloud almost as songs.There are poems to read to yourself as well.

"He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."...
From"The Ancient Marnier"

A great gift for yourself or the poetry lover in your life...enjoy..Laurie

Coleridge is the only English Romantic poet I like, and Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the main reason. However, this collection also contains another long poem that is often overlooked--Christabel. This a very haunting poem which was unfortunately unfinished when Coleridge died. As for the rest of the selections, Kubla Khan is really the only short poem of the same quality as Rime of the Ancient Mariner.