Sun, and its companion Portable Universe board book, Moon, are both beautifully designed, charming little books. They are each shaped like the celestial object they describe.

The story/illustrations inside describe the functions of the Sun: the sun is a star, the earth circles the sun, etc. I think this may be a bit abstract for a child's experience, and the rhymes are a little awkward - however, the appealing shape and color of the book may compensate for that.

Having had quite a lot of previous Walt Disney World experience, I was really disappointed with this book. I will say that the book looks nice and is laid out all right, but the content is awful. The book mentions attractions and shows that were long gone (I mean years) by it's release date in late 1998. One of Disney's major resort hotels isn't even named properly in the book. There is a big difference between Coronado Springs (correct) and Colorado Springs (wrong). Anyone who has even briefly visited the hotel can pick up on the southwest/Mayan/Aztec theme and should realize that the name Colorado Springs wouldn't make sense. I think if an author is claiming to be enough of an expert on something to write a guidebook, the basic facts should be right, which they are not. Virtually any other guidebook will give you better and more relevant information!

I was looking for a book that covered both Disney World and Universal. I visited DW in 1996 and wanted information about new stuff. I picked up the book at a Brick and Morder B&N and thought it seemed like the best choice.

It's not bad for a 1st time vister. But there are so many holes in the information. I used the web links that were mention in the first chapter like http://www.wdwinfo.com/ which has more info then the book.

They just say "Disney will have a 15 month Millenium Celiberation" no more info about it! That's what I wanted to know. I'm on Amazon today to order a better Disney World book. A good update and a better editor would make this an awsome buy. Big book for under $13, but no pictures like the offical guide and not a lot of inside information. Plus they didn't update for the millenium celibration. Or Islands of adventure in Universal. Just said there there was going to be one.

This book is full of money saving tips. It's fun to read and very informative!

I bought this book on the premise of showing me some of the little known facts of Walt Disney World. For example: The secrets about the names on the windows of mainstreet; the mysterious hoof prints leading to the Haunted Mansion; or hidden details that I know nothing about.

Unfortunately, after going on our trip, I found it was a water-down version of the far-superior Birnbaum's Guide to Disney World.

My suggestion? Stick with Mr. Birnbaum...I know I will.

This book was very helpful during our recent trip. I packed it in the backpack to carry in the theme park. I found it highly superior to the Birnbaum book on Disney because this one will tell which rides are worth missing and which are must see's. The Birnbaum book, being the "official" Disney book is just a little too rosy about everything. Hidden Orlando gives the real scoop. I loved the section on Sea World too.

...

Since most of the guides don't change much from year to year, I bought 2 new books for this trip... The Irreverent Guide and the Unoffical Guide by Bob Sehlinger. For extra money, the Unofficial Guide offers a whopping 524 more pages (768 vs. 244).

Both books offer the same "take" on WDW... An impartial, tell it like it is account of the happiest place on earth. The Unofficial Guide not only offers it's opinion, but almost always also offers reader comments about the various attractions/resorts/restuarants. The Unoffical Guide is also organized MUCH more efficiently, and it is very easy to go back and find information even without using the index. The Irreverent Guide is a mess that even an index doesn't help. The Irreverent guide also has some glaring errors; for example, it "reviews" both Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Dream Flight. IIRC, Buzz took over Dream Flight's space.

The key reason that I bought the Irreverent Guide was for the actual irreverence...which doesn't really exist.

In a nutshell, this is the worst WDW Guide that I have ever purchased...and then has a terrible price vs. content ration on top of it.

If you want to read the same old sugary sweet... about Disney, buy another guide book. The title says it all- irreverent. If you don't want to hear the negative things, don't buy the book. Contrary to the other reviews of this book, I really enjoyed it. It was helpful, hilarious, and a breath of fresh air. I used 3 other guide books for my trip which all gave the same exact info. This book gives you the real goods. I planned a very short stop-over in Orlando, and quite frankly the thought of trying to prioritize which of the hundreds of attractions to check out made me ill. Not only that, but I didn't want to waste my hard earned money only to be disappointed. Let's face it, Disney and Orlando are not cheap. This book let me know what to expect and helped me to make informed decisions. I never buy just one guide book- this was definitely a good supplement. I plan on seeing if there is an irreverent guide available for my next destination.

If you want to read the same old [information] about Disney, buy another guide book. The title says it all- irreverent. If you don't want to hear the negative things, don't buy the book. Contrary to the other reviews of this book, I really enjoyed it. It was helpful, hilarious, and a breath of fresh air. I used 3 other guide books for my trip which all gave the same exact info. This book gives you the real goods. I planned a very short stop-over in Orlando, and quite frankly the thought of trying to prioritize which of the hundreds of attractions to check out made me ill. Not only that, but I didn't want to waste my hard earned money only to be disappointed. Let's face it, Disney and Orlando are not cheap. This book let me know what to expect and helped me to make informed decisions. I never buy just one guide book- this was definitely a good supplement. I plan on seeing if there is an irreverent guide available for my next destination.

I looked at a few pages and gave up. If you want to read a bad book, buy this thing! If you want a good book, look for another writer 'cause it ain't Kevin Robinson!

Here this person goes again: Why would a person review if they only ready the first page ???
Unless *gasp* they didn't like the author, or what the author stood for. Pretty pathetic.
I would definitely agree this is not the best novel from Robinson, but review objectively, not brainlessly.

I haven't read this book and was trying to decide whether to purchase any of the Stick Foster mysteries, when I saw the review that seemed to think that having a detective in wheelchair is taking "PC" too far. HARDLY! People in wheelchairs do all kinds of things and it's about time we appeared in literature and other media! To make your main character disabled has nothing to do with PC. Maybe the author is in a wheelchair? What difference does it make if the character is too? Now, if ALL the characters were disabled, then that would a little much. Life is filled with diversity, why not our novels?

I just DUG THROUGH THE GARBAGE CAN to find the receipt so I can return this book. I usually like the Complete Idiot's Guides but this one was a real zero. When I got to the part that hinted that the Haunted Mansion was too intense for children under 8, I said, "That's it." Yuck. Do NOT buy this book. Spend your Disney Dollars on the Unofficial Guide or the Official Guide or DW with Kids but DO NOT buy this one!

This book was one step above useless.

A Walt Disney World vacation is a big investment. Stick with a quality guide when planning your WDW trip. Get a copy of Birnbaums Official Guide or Rita Aero's excellent guidebook. Anything less is risking disaster.

I would strongly recommend you spend the couple of extra bucks and buy Shelinger's Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. This book was slightly useful, but not nearly as much fun or as chock full o'info as the other.

You make a good point, except that I would caution you not to blame my publisher for 200 pages of padding; it was my fault, not theirs. Anyway, thanks for commenting; if you're willing to take the time to levy specific complaints, I'd be very interested. Jordan

When Jordan Orlando completed the initial draft of this story at the University of Chicago, it was a tight little story of roughly 200 pages. Add a New York publisher and several hundred pages of padding, and the story is somewhat less satisfying.

Not highly recommended, but the book has some nice pluses. First, I generally find that lift-the-flap books keep little ones interested when you are reading to children of different ages. The book also counts backwards rather than forwards. My mother-in-law, who sent the book, is a teacher and has said that children are unable to count backward from ten to one when they enter school. This book nicely counts down from 7 with 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 more egg to go. However, the language in the book is nothing to write home about: I could create a more compelling story line. So while the lessons of learning to count backward can be appreciated by an adult, the kids are disinterested in the text after only a few readings.

One hundred and fifty may seem like a lot of restaurants, but I was surprised at how many good restaurants were missing. Of course, a lot of good restaurants have opened since the publishing date in 1999, but I was surprised that some very established restaurants near my home in Winter Park were not included. Since the book seems to like every restaurant it reviews, perhaps only those restaurants considered good were included. "No-holds-barred" is not how I would describe it. The book also seems to have, for better or worse, a lot of Asian restaurants in it. Instead, I would recommend the Zagat's for Central Florida, which includes far more restaurants in the Orlando area, along with both the Atlantic and Gulf beaches. It covers more low-budget alternatives and it also includes far more warning rather than praise type reviews.

In my opinion the book is good. But not the best peace of literature i'v ever read. All in all i think that anyone looking for a good read should try this book.