A thoroughly disappointing book. Lovers of the Harry Potter series will be irritated by the superficial attempt to list every possible analogy to names or occurances; teachers will be hard-pressed to find any useful material here as a forum for discussion. Much tedious research has gone into this book but the 'exploration' is more one of turning over the pebbles than of getting out a spade and actually digging.
This is to be the first of a series of 'Sourcebooks for Exploring Young Adult Fiction' with a commentary on the Narnia Chronicles set to follow. Hopefully the publishers will avoid trivializing and torturing further works as they have done here and treat young readers' minds with greater respect.
My advice is simple. Don't bother to read this. But to help you make up your own mind here is an excerpt.

"Harry can also be regarded as a medieval crusader, draped in symbolic robes in quest of the Holy Grail. As a Seeker, Harry battles heretics during games of Quidditch. His accident symbolizes a fall from grace before he can rise again as a worthy spiritual leader. Avoiding the fate of Lot's wife who turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at Sodom, Harry leaves the Quidditch field with his face forward, avoiding glancing to either side. He also evades the basilisk's gaze."

Ick. I got this book a year ago or so as a gift and was pretty excited about it when I actually got it. It seemed to have all the right elements for a great gift. I'm a mythology geek who loves Harry Potter and well written companion guides to literature.
The entire book is so pretentiously written it was irritating and a lot of her correlations are total nonsense. Plus there were so many mistakes in her research that it lost all credibility. I find it hard to believe that anyone with a decent understanding in history, mythology, folklore and plain old Harry Potter could find this of much value. If they did, they'd see what poorly founded babble this is.

Umm, what about us? I read the reviews here and most of themcame from adults. I really liked this book. It helped me understandHarry Potter better and the connections really gave you something tothink about. You older people may not have liked this book, but theonly good reviews came from kids. No book is trash. That's what I'velearned. And I want to be an author when I grow up. Those who havealready grown up sometimes don't give books a chance. I'll admit- ittook me two weeks to get into Redwall. But what about the goodqualities of this book? There's a complete list of every singlecharacter in the first three books. I must have skipped over orforgotten lots of them! There are great discussion questions- I nowhave ideas for my website. And what about the vocabulary at the end ofeach chapter? I now know a lot more words than I did before. Adultswho have read this may have already known them. But kids haven'tlearned everything yet. And I like to learn.

This book offered relatively uninspired photographs and absolutely no technical data on the photographs featured.

This book is not about 'horsies and doggies', but rather contains photographs of these animals in everyday settings, typical of the artist's work. William Eggleston is one of the premier color photographers today, and has been challenging the art world since the mid 1960's with his MOMA exhibit. Previous exposure to his work would be helpful in understanding this book; people ignorant of the impact of his photographs might find them uninspired or boring.

Thomas Sullivan attempts to cover a broad array of social problems confronting American society. He addresses race, drugs, crime, social inequality, gender, and many other relevant issues. I found his assessment of these issues superficial often misapplying or incorrectly citing material referenced. His ideology is readily apparent, and throughout most of the book influences his discussion of the issues. Instead of taking an objective and critical look at our social problems, he embarked on a one-sided journey of his personal opinion. Unfortunately, I was required to use this book in a course on Social Issues. I am hopeful that anyone considering this book in the future will see this review and avoid it at all costs.

While Sullivan has some limitations, he does provide a broad paradigmatic presentation of social problems in the U.S. Even though many chapters cover topics in an abbreviated fashion, this text is a good tool for starting discussions on social problems. Given this arrangement, instructors can construct discussions either enhancing the material or taking a counter perspective.

As a generic decorating book, this one barely passes. As a book on stone and marble it fails. This book does not fulfill what should be its purpose; it neither inspires not instructs. I did not learn anything new about stone and marble after reading this book. Plus, I've seen better pictures in catelogs. I would skip this book.

Was expecting much more...not much I can say about it....except I sent it back....Still looking for a good "use of marble in the home book"...any suggestions?

The textbook does not have central focus and all the formulas are not explained properly. The explanations are overbroad and vague and do not focus on the most important stuff. I would not recommend this textbook to any student. The two stars I give is for the nice paper it is printed on.

The explanations in this book could be more concise for students who have other assignments to study and fulfill. Throughout all my years in reading mathematical textbooks, this one does not head straight-to-the-point. The author spends more time introducing the subject than explaining how one step is derived from another in the examples, which leaves the student to spend time figuring how one concept abruptly transitions into the next. Aside from that, the exercise questions sometimes do not relate to the examples given in the book.

I found this coffee-table-type volume to be chock-full of nice photographs, but disappointingly short on anything more than sketchy, wide-eyed text - e.g., "One may use 'remarkable,' 'exceptional,' or some other adjective to describe the Vincent Rapide Series C, and never be far from the truth." Uh-huh. The authors' priorities also seem skewed toward the trendy rather than the truly historical - e.g., a '73 Honda Trail 90 gets a full page photo, while the '55 Triumph Tiger 110 merits just a 2x3 shot of a strangely half-skirted rear wheel. (And where's the '37 Speed Twin?) In my opinion, Hugo Wilson's "Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle" and the Guggenheim Museum exhibit catalog book ("The Art of the Motorcycle") are better values.

I think it's quite a good book if you're into the technical parts about aircraft, however if you're into just the planes then it's not worth your while buying it. Overall I wasn't impressed.

If you want to get in shape, but have no idea how to do so and are too embarrassed to go to a gym, then this book is for you.

The book begins by having the reader take a self-assessment test wich is composed of a 1-mile walk/run, push-ups, and toe touch. Don't feel bad if you can't do any of the above, the book covers that situation. From there, in a user-friendly, color-coded format, the book helps you design a program that fits your needs.

I bought the book thinking it would help me design a weight-training program for myself. It isn't that advanced. All of the resistance training it contains can be performed sith just your body weight and some common household items (such as water bottles).

For a complete novice, this is where to begin. If, like me, you're a little more advanced, but want help in setting up a weight-lifting program, then I recommend Weight Training Steps to Success by Baechle and Groves.

We bought this book on the recommendation of our friends who traveled to Barbados with a previous edition. However, when we compared it with the book our friends had, we found it was quite different and not nearly as detailed and comprehensive. Searching on Amazon, we found that the author of the previous edition, Harry S. Pariser, had a new guide Explore Barbados. We bought that book and really found it useful. This is not a bad book, but we don't understand why it is called a "new edition!"

This book is unusually bad. I struggled to keep a straight face, and assumed that the author was just looking for a way to capitalize on 9/11 by quickly throwing together a book to sell.

This book's the paper that should clean my poo.

Synergies his core competencies, but unlike his oft-quoted UPS, does not deliver.

This book's the paper that should clean my poo.

Synergies his core competencies, but unlike his oft-quoted UPS, does not deliver.