This is a pleasant rhyming book about how to hide a hippo:

"If you should sneak a hippo home, you'll find she's hard to hide. Her head is huge! Her bottom's big! Her middle's very wide."

...and so on.

The cover of the book has plastic eyes with moveable pupils and little felt ears. The pages are die cut to resemble teeth and the center page is drawn to look like the hippo's open mouth. You can pinch the binding to make the hippo open and close her mouth.

My ten month old daughter enjoys turning the pages and seeing the hippo chomp.

There are other books in the "Chomper" series which are designed in a similar fashion to resemble a bear, a tiger and a dinosaur.

It was a required reading in my Hist. of Ling. course, but I would've read it on my own a couple times over anyway. Landmarks I&II are great additions to my linguistics library. Easy to follow commentary and summaries ~ not too much, not too little!

This book offered an interesting look into how men and women communicate. It covered topics such as "women's language", "man made language", how men and women tell stories and some of the theories on why men and women talk differently. This book also analyzed previous studies done on language and gender. It was somewhat hard to read some parts of this book because I was not completely familiar with some of the terms. However, I would recomend this book to someone who wants to analyze the relationships between men and women.

Popular belief holds that during the Middle Ages sex was avoided like the plague --another medieval staple-- and all human energies went to glorify God. This "Life of Christina" is able to both support part of the popular belief and, at the same time, undermine it, leaving the reader with a strange sense of wonder at such a talented and resourceful woman who, with her work and example, contributed to the solid establishment of a social paradigm that would become dominant for the next 800 years and that would be so detrimental to women.

Christina, whose given name was Theodora, chose many paths in her life. She chose her name, chose to remain a virgin, chose not to marry any man, and chose to stick to her decisions. This is not the story of a girl who is forced into a convent and must sacrifice her terrenal love to obey her family. Christina is literally hounded by her parents because they want her to marry. Her mother will eventually not care if there is a marriage as long as Christina has sex with somebody. Since Christina refuses, such act would have to be rape, but mom is just fine with that, too. The smart girl will prove to be quite a match for Ralph Flambard, a cad who attempts to seduce her; for Burthred, her hapless betrothed; and for mom and dad. Even the prior Fredebertus will not be able to disuade her from remaining a virgin. This story is, then, very much in line with the popular view of the Middle Ages: virginity at all costs and service to God. But Christina is continuosly penalized precisely for wanting those two things. Everybody else around her wants her to marry, and her mother just wants her to have sex and get it over with.

Christina triumphs and accomplishes her goals, which is not a surprise after you have read the back cover comment and the excellent, if lengthy, Introduction. What strikes me as sad, though, is that Christina, a very determined and intelligent woman, assists in perpetuating, with her example, the ideas that with the guidance of the Church will become established wisdom and, in many cases, dogma: sex is bad, abstinence is good, God loves virgins, desire is the way to the devil, and the perfect place for women is a cloister where they can be kept safe from the dangers and temptations of the world. Even if Christina's "relationship" with Christ is, for her, a very sexual one, this does not lessen the effect of her overall message: she has chosen to become a recluse, remain a virgin, and thus serve God, as if those options were, by necessity compatible and mutually supportive. True, in her time the options available to women were very limited, but she uses her wits and her resources toward a rebellion that will just contribute to the identification of sex with sin. We may get the nuances and endearing contradictions today, but this hagiography served one purpose in her day, and for centuries after her death: to show Christina as an example for other girls and women to follow. In this way, her book and example helped cement misogyny in a world that was already leaning in that direction, tilted by the intellectual and apostolical inputs of, among others, Aristotle, Saint Paul, and Saint Augustine. By being a rebel whose cause is to renounce sex and live as a recluse, Christina is not really helping widen the horizons for other women and, thus, not helping humanity in the end. The saddest part is that she truly believes she is doing God's work.

This University of Toronto Press Edition, edited and translated by C.H. Talbot, has good footnotes in the Introduction, a helpful map of Christina's environs, and the Latin text on the even-numbered pages. You may disagree with my opinions, but I think everybody interested in the Middle Ages will find this a very well-edited, useful, and peculiar work. Read it and reach your own conclusions.

I recently visted Martha's Vineyard and wanted something to share with friends and family that would be as vivid as my memories of the homes and scenery I experienced on my visit to the Island. This book was it! The author and photographer not only captured the color, texture and scenery of the Island but the history and ambiance as well. A perfect memory of a beautiful stay to share with friends and family. P.S. I only wish Jackie O's house was included.

This book is a great ocean book for anyone who loves ocean. Anyone who wants to learn about the tectonic plates, or different ways that an island nation grows, this book is good for it. Its and excellent research book. This book is awesome. It tells tyou the highest mountain, and the biggest mountain. This is an ocean type person's book.

This book does an excellent job of explaining how lean or Toyota Production System (TPS) cells are designed. It covers all of the principles and has many examples. If you are designing work cells or need to understand their design, this is a book you should read and keep handy.

I like this book but then again i don't. The reason why i like it is because of the way that Selena just wanted to see how everything was happening instead of minding her busniess. i am just like Selena. I am always nebby. I vdon't like thebook because i think Noah's mom shouldn't of been allergic to rabbits. Instead of school, i think Noah should have hid them somewhere else, like the library or in his garage. Somewhere his mom wouldn't go or look. I would tell a friend about this book. I think that this relates to text to text because i have read a book just like this one. I forget the name of it though.

Punjabi Identity: Continuity and Change is a collection of papers presented at the 13th European Conference of Modern South Asian Studies. Although the conference was held in France, the book reflects the UK-centric nature of current European research on the Punjab and Punjabis: only one contributor, CNRS Research Director Denis Matringe, is based outside the British Isles. Nonetheless, in issues addressed if not contributors' geography, this is a wide-ranging attempt to 'promote an integrated study of the "three Punjabs"' (p.1) of pre-independence, India and Pakistan, and the diaspora.

The book begins with two studies of colonialism's impact on Punjab. First is co-editor Ian Talbot's 'State, Society and Identity: The British Punjab, 1875-1937', an examination of the conflict between urban and rural political traditions in Punjab in which he succinctly describes the surprising success of the latter in resisting the torrent of modernising tendencies unleashed by the British, at least until faced by developments from outside the state during the Second World War. British and European influences are seen to have received a happier welcome in Matringe's 'Punjabi Lyricism and Sikh Reformism: Bhai Vir Singh's Poetry in the 1920s'. Here, the author reveals how local poets created a Punjab 'dripping with love and mysticism...[despite the] explosions of communal and political violence' (p.52) more commonly recorded-and therefore remembered-by the political authorities of the day.

The next five essays take up post-independence developments in a partitioned Punjab. In 'Pakistan or Punjabistan: Crisis of National Identity', Yunas Samad argues that the creation of the former was accompanied by the establishment of a still seemingly unshakable Punjabi hegemony. However, in the following essay, 'Punjabis in Sind: Identity and Power', Sarah Armstrong is at pains to point out that Punjabi identity in Sind is qualitatively different and must be understood as a mix of both Punjabi culture and, typically, resistance to local pro-Sindhi policies. The book's focus then shifts to East (Indian) Punjab. In 'Re-examining the Punjab Problem', co-editor Gurharpal Singh focuses on 'Sikh ethno-nationalism' (p.118) as a means of understanding the 1980s' outbreak of violence in Punjab. As such, he continues, India itself is best understood as an 'ethnic democracy in which 'hegemonic control and [violent] control is exercised over ethnic and religious minorities...' (p.122). Both Joyce Pettigrew and Shinder Singh Thandi then delve deeper into the actors involved in the recent violence afflicting Punjab. In 'The State and Local Groupings in the Sikh Rural Areas, Post-1984', Pettigrew reveals that most militant groups' concentration on vertical rather than horizontal loyalties and associations condemned them to isolation and eventual demise. In 'Counterinsurgency and Political Violence in Punjab, 1980-94', Thandi argues that only by returning to attempts at political and socio-economic rather than militaristic solutions will lasting peace be achieved in the region.

The concluding two essays look outside South Asia to the Punjabi diaspora. In 'Interrogating Identity: Cultural Translation, Writing, and Subaltern Politics', Arvind-pal Singh uses the experience of this particular diaspora to illustrate our need to 'rethink the colonial experience in a radically different way: namely in terms of what remains unthought in the process of cultural translation-indeed of translation as an interpretive process-given that language is the site of production of culture as a text' (pp.223-224). This is followed by 'The 1990s: A Time to Separate British Punjabi and British Kashmiri Identity', a study by Nasreen Ali, Pat Ellis and Zafar Khan which argues for just what the title suggests; the need for British policy-makers and others to differentiate between these two immigrant groups and, thus, the perception and treatment of their respective needs and agenda.

Most collections of essays stand or fall on the editor's critical faculties of selection. Many such works are too often self-selecting, a round-up of papers only tenuously related to one another, published together quickly and cheaply by contributors keen to get into print and publishers hopeful of catching readers of the latest trend. On the other hand, many readers are too often dissatisfied if virtually every article in a collection does not appear relevant to their particular area of interest.

Happily, Punjabi Identity is mostly successful in avoiding the pitfalls listed above. This reader found virtually every article strong enough to stand on its own and together-with one or two exceptions-helpful in trying to understand how the divergent historical experiences, competing religious traditions and geographical differences of Punjabis both 'home and away' are all contributory parts of a common contemporary Punjabi identity. As such, the book succeeds in it stated aim of promoting an integrated study of the 'three Punjabs'.

Yet, just what Punjabi identity is (or may be argued to include) remains unanswered, and this collection would have benefited greatly from a concluding overview/exposition by co-editors Singh and Talbot. Nonetheless, students and scholars of this highly visible and vitally important community, both in South Asia and around the world, will find reading Punjabi Identity a rewarding experience.

This marvelous book is a blend of adventure story, scientific diary, and ethnographic study. The author, Tahoe Talbot Washburn, accompanied her husband, Lincoln Washburn, to the Canadian Arctic in 1938-1941, helping him do his graduate field work in the glacial geology of the region. The author was a keen observer of native people and their way of life. She recorded what we now see in retrospect as the waning years of a nomadic way of life for the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Prior to World War II, many Inuit roamed freely across the high Arctic, camping in snow houses (igloos) constructed along the trail at the end of the day. The Canadian Arctic Inuit were still essentially nomads; they did not live in or visit permanent settlements, except for a few important events each year. Accordingly, governmental authorities and missionaries had to go on expeditions to meet with the Inuit. Soon after the war, this pattern changed dramatically, and seemingly irrevocably, towards a more settled way of life. This book is made all the more fascinating because it provides many glimpses into a way of life perched on the cusp of radical change. The Washburns were much more than casual visitors to the Canadian Arctic. They lived there for months at a time, including one extended stay from August, 1940 to February, 1941. They spent precious little time indoors, preferring to move about the Arctic islands, hiking, boating, camping, and dog-sledding in winter. The scientific aim of this multi-year project was to determine the extent of regional glaciation in the late Pleistocene, a much-debated topic of that day. By collecting marine fossils and mapping traces of glacial scouring in bedrock, Lincoln Washburn was able to begin the process of reconstructing the extent of ice sheets during the last glaciation. This thesis project marked the beginning of his long and illustrious career in glacial geology. However, geologic research is only incidental to this book. It brought the Washburns to Arctic Canada, but once there, they fell in love with the land and its people. Both Lincoln and Tahoe relished the arduous Arctic lifestyle, where physical endurance and mental acuity often make the difference between survival and death. They marveled at the ingenuity, patience, and sense of humor that seemed to sustain the Inuit through manifold hardships. Tahoe Washburn spent many months emulating the role of Inuit women, including daily food preparation (for both people and sled dogs), sewing of leather garments, and hide preparation (including chewing caribou hides to soften them). Although limited by not understanding the Inuit language, she learned by observation. Her Native companions appreciated her efforts to follow their ways, and took the time to teach her many skills that few outsiders ever learned. The book is richly illustrated, with 107 photos and six maps. Although the material in the book was taken from diaries, it has been well-edited, never becoming dull or repetitive. I heartily recommend this book to readers interested in the natural history and ethnography of the Arctic.

Review published in Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, Vol. 31, No. 4. Copyright: Regents of the University of Colorado