This book gives the student and teacher an opportunity to work with strenghts and weaknesses. The layout with readings and follow up for comprehnsion and grammmatical structure is supportive and informative.

I think that the book is extremely helpful. The only problem (so far) that I can't fix with this book is - How do I fix the rattle of the air ducts above the headliner with out butchering the headliner?

Thanks

I teach 2nd graders, and I feel that 4 SQUARE is one of the best graphic organizers out there. The books do go beyond just organizing. They detail 4 writing styles along with examples and activities to help the children understand.

Not only are my 2nd graders are able to write on topic, they produce 4 paragraph papers by the end of the year!

I have been pushing 4 Square in my building for years. This year other teachers finally started using it. Now they come up to me thanking me for suggesting it.

I came across National Public Radio many years ago just tooling around the FM dial. I found "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" and was hooked by the interview at the time, with Clint Eastwood. The questions were ones I would want to ask him. I was intrigued by this voice I have never heard before on radio, sophisticated, smart, smooth, curious, and down to earth. No commercial radio hype, none of the exaggeration for a big news story, not a celebrity exclusive. I've since heard this audio compilation of the the comedians interviewed on "Fresh Air laughs" and loved it. This isn't just a side splitting laugh a minute tape, it also brings you a realization that these are real people. The Bill Murray interview is so unlike his performer identity we all know that you have to listen to it carefully, because Terry brings out his humanity with her interview style. We get to listen to conversation that has substance and not just style. This is a tape you can sink your teeth into, it's that thick.

This book is a collection of essays dealing with man's struggle with self-annihilation in the twentieth century. The topics dealt with include nuclearism and nuclear war, the Holocaust, cults, suicide, and the Vietnam War. The author is concerned with how the "survivor" of such an attrocity, either as the persecuted or the persecutor (or somewhere in between), is able to link up with their former self and visualize a meaningful existence afterwards. The author understands immortality to be that sense of connectedness with others, with history, and with the great chain of being, that all individuals experience. And, the author questions how there can remain a sense of immortality given some of the horrors that have occurred and continue to occur (in the form of nuclear weapons). The author takes a definite anti-nuclear stance in the book, and he repeatedly stresses the importance of avoiding falling into the illusion that stockpiling nuclear weapons is the only way out of our current nuclear dilemma. The author also includes essays on the Holocaust, in particular on the Nazi doctors who contributed at Auschwitz. Here the author explains how these doctors came to confuse the roles of healing and killing, a slippery slope which is all too easy to slide down. In addition, the author discusses those Vietnam veterans who came home from the war with a profound sense of futility. Rather than seeing the war as meaningful, they came to feel that they were fighting in a war with no real purpose. The author discusses his sessions with various veterans and how they dealt with their ambivalent emotions towards the war.

Billie Sahley has done an exceptional Job in explaining how Amino Acids affect our moods, emotions, memory and Behavior. In GABA the Anxiety Amino Acid Learn How: 1. GABA and other Amino Acids Controls the "Stop" Switch" of Neurotransmitters that cause Anxiety and Panic Attacks. 2. How deficiencies of amino acids Begin and therfore cause anxiety, panic,hyper-activity, pain, depression and more. Learn the how Gaba, Tyrosine, Gletamine, Glycine, Phenylalanine, Taurine, Lysine and other Amino acids help feed the brain.

If you know anyone you care about that suffers from chronic Anexity, Depression, panic Attacks get them this book and a bottle of Gaba and you'll be their friend for life!!

The author takes us on a tour of gardens from a number of different cultures. He describes and explains the importance of color, values, beliefs, and spiritual factors in the design of gardens and in the selection of plants, colors and other factors. The book is loaded with interesting facts and insights. The photos are beautiful. It is book to be enjoyed one page at a time and well worth picking up many times to flip through the pages. Only fault is that the pages are packed with information and the relatively small size of the book results in a small font....so you'll need your reading glasses. Enjoy!!

This book contains letters written by German soldiers during World War I. Every writer in the book was killed in combat. The letters are, as one would expect, incredibly moving. They also contain some of the most graphic descriptions of battle I have ever read. Many of the letters talk about what war does to those who are religious, while others are just pragmatic attempts to convey the experience of battle to those back home. These letters are important because they show how people under such incredible stress are able to communicate something of value to those they love. I highly recommend this book. It is not sentimental and does not force you to draw conclusions; it simply makes you think about what would you do under the same circumstances. Excellent introduction by Jay Winter as well.

A striking compilation of original, lyrical love poetry by William Jay Smith, and impressively illustrated by Jacques Hnizdovsky's fantastic black-and-white woodcuts, The Girl In Glass is a moving, heartfelt compilation of verse. An ideal giftbook for poetry fanciers, The Girl In Glass features brief yet sensual, rhyming verse about love, sex, valentines, weddings, and the heart's desire. Night Music: The Dark air rushes by us like a cry,/Slowly the branches turn and twist and bend;/The stars, dim islands, sink into the sky,/Borne downward in a broad abyss of wind/That closes quietly to draw them under./The night's deep water swirls and mounts and falls;/Rain descends in irons, and the thunder/Cleaves the thick charged air within these walls.//Now through the darkness will a careful prow/With chart and compass gain a scheduled place;/Now hands will calmly bend above a brow,/Now lips will lower to a trembling face;/And love within the constant mounting crests/Will break with equal fury from our breasts.

Diamond and Plattner offer a valuable update from their 1993 book, now comprised of articles from the Journal of Democracy from 1990 through 1995. Anchored by a thorough introduction, the first section introduces the third wave of democratization, the new world disorder, and definitions and dangers of democracy. Articles on institutional choices debate the structural questions of democracy, with a broad perspective on presidential, parliamentary, constitutional and representative questions. A new section on civil society discusses an area to which political scientists are bringing renewed attention. Eight new chapters make up the cautiously optimistic section on the prospects for democracy.

A strength of this book as a teaching tool is that it offers both theory and comparative chapters. Several articles are broad-based, discussing paradoxes intrinsic to all democracies or the gap between democratic concepts and political realities, for example. Others are country- or region-specific, such as civil society in Russia or pluralism in the Arab world.

A second strength is the frequent intermixing of political, economic and cultural concerns. In many individual chapters and in the collection overall, the reader is reminded that institutions, currencies and mores do not exist or operate in vacuum. Rather, they influence and change each other -- and not always for the better. Chapters on technocratic economic emphasis in post-communist states and ethnic divisions and underdevelopment in Africa are particularly revealing.

By highlighting the research published in the Journal of Democracy, this volume offers educators a valuable collection for comparative and theoretical approaches to democratization. The readings prompted thoughtful debates among my students on the central issues. Such a fluid field depends upon regular updates, and this reviewer looks forward to using future editions. (January 2000)