A Dickens Christmas story is meant to be read in front of the fire with children gathered 'round. As configured in this particular ebook format you cannot do anything but sit in front of your screen and read ninety pages of nineteenth century prose. Not useful at all! This ebook would be far more usefull if, for example, you could copy or print it onto holiday paper. Since this story is in the public domain, blocking those options in this ebook is silly.

When Dickens was good, he was very very good. When he was bad, he was wordy and sappy and boring. Did you ever wonder why you never heard of the three stories in this book? Because they're so unremarkable! The title story is the best; i.e. it's the only one that's even readable. Do yourself a favor, don't read this book

This book is just what it says: Simply a bunch of alphabets. They are only usefull to typographers, not calligraphers.

I bought this book thinking that it would not only show the alphabets, but also give some other sort of information, more like a calligraphic instructional book. It is nothing but a dry, plain, book that shows pictures of very plain alphabets. Something you can get on the font list on your computer. I really don't know what use this book would serve.

What the text fails to mention is that this is NOT Jean-H-P Pouget's original illustrations, it is relatively new (and poor) pen drawings traced from the originals. Why? Because the original was strictly a pattern source book for jewelry, and most patterns seem to have been covered in faceted stones. These have now been redrawn as shapeless blobs in the motifs, and all details pretending to jewelry have been omitted. The result is ugly, style-less, and devoid of historical interest. Dover must have decided that the market was to narrow for a goldsmiths' guide, and tried to expand it to "Artists and Craftspeople" by redrawing the whole thing.
Maybe you can find some use for it if you need some very simple floral patterns to trace your woodcarving from, otherwise, stay clear. The poorest Dover book I've ever seen.

This isn't a book, it's a group of stickers. The drawings were realistic rather than the stylized type of drawings I'd have preferred for a children's book. Also, the names of the fish were all listed on the inside back cover rather than on or near each sticker.

Book doesn't have the number of illustrations nor are they of the quality found in the other Dover CD-ROM books. (Strange amazon does not list this with the other electronic clip art books.)

I read the book and it is the tackiest thing that I've ever seen. The charted designs are out of date and the colors are hidious.

As an activity book for children this coloring book is fine. It doesn't necessarily meet my requirements for teaching German. The pages each show a letter, a picture of something beginning with that letter in German and the printed German word for the item pictured.

Children too young to read were only interested in coloring the pictures. Even after reviewing the words and associating them with the pictures, coloring was the only reason they wanted to use the book.

Children that could read (ages 7-8)thought the book was "too young" for them and did not want to use the book.

This book is only the archival paisley reproduction plates. There is no history nor narrative. I thought that there would be some "discussion". If I realized that it was only the historic plates, I would not have purchased it.