In Jumangi, Chris Van Allsburg details the story of Peter and Judy's afternoon. Through his words and pictures, he describes their eventful afternoon. On a boring afternoon, these two siblings are left alone. Before their parents leave, the two children are warned not to disorganize the house. However, once the children find an interesting board game, their once boring and uneventful afternoon becomes full of action and a bit of chaos. In this picture book, the author, who is also the illustrator uses black and white illustrations that are full of depth. Through his descriptive words and pictures, one can clearly witness the children's afternoon. The simple, yet detailed illustrations add to the characters, sets the setting, and mood. Jumanji's award winning illustrations are unique and add to the concept of fantasy in the book. Many children will enjoy this story or anyone who has experienced a boring afternoon or played an imaginative board game. The book may be slightly scary for younger children, but will encompass the attention of older readers. This book takes the reader along with the children on a wonderful adventure. JUMANJI!

Jumanji is a story about a board game.The main characters are Alan,Sarah,Peter and Judy.The story starts off in Brantford New Hampshire,in 1869.In the beginning two young boys are riding through the forest.Finally they reach a spot where they bury a box.100 years later,a 12 old boy called Alan Parrish finds the box after being chased by some bullies.He decided to take the box home.At home when he was about to open the box,his friend Sarah came over.Together they open the box.Inside they found a board game called Jumanji.They decided to play it.Unfortunatly Alan got trapped in the Jungle.Then the story goes on to say what happens in the future.I won't say what happens next because i don't want to ruin the story for you but it's a really good book yo read!

I am a student of West Virginia State College, currently taking a class on Children's Literature. Mr. Samples (A Wonderful Teacher) has instructed us to review a Caldecott winner and write our thoughts on it. I read this book after seeing the movie and, of course, it is quite different. I thoroughly enjoyed this book because of the differences and its speedy nature. I believe that children of various ages would enjoy this book because of the quick adventure and excellent illustrations. I would recommend this book to anyone for a classic family reading time, classroom reading, or bedtime story!

I used and liked the Sybex books by Todd Lammle to study for my CCNA so naturally I started with this book when I decided I wanted to get my CCNP. The book has alot of good technical information but was not good prep for the test. I knew the book inside and out and was doing extremely well on the sample questions/scenarios. I felt completely lost during the test and was suprised to find that I had actually passed. This book has emphasis on the wrong areas and leaves some things out completely. I usually don't take the time to write reviews but I dislike this book strongly.

Todd Lammle's BSCI book was probably the first one to cover Cisco's new BSCI 640-901 exam with the inclusion of a chapter in ISIS. However be warned, the chapter on ISIS in Lammle's book does not cover a lot of areas that Cisco could bring up in the exam. Cisco published an addendum to the BSCN book by Catherine Pacquet on their web site a while back. You would be well advised to study that ISIS chapter. (It is 104 pages long!). You will find for instance that there is more to the ISIS backbone area than you read about in Lammle's book. Also the challenge questions in Lammle's book are likely to lull you into a false sense of security. The Boson tests will prepare you better for the BSCI exam. Having said that, I like Lammle's clear presentation of topics, especially the way he presents typed in commands and device outputs. I find these are much clearer than the equivalents in the Cisco Press BSCN and BSCI books. You may want to browse this book before making the final decision to buy.

I found the BSCI exam the hardest of the 4 and without this book I am not sure I would have passed. The Author (who I found out is mostly Carl Timm) did a great job teaching the information - not just the test - I found the questions in the back to be tough - real tough - probably tougher than the actual exam. BUT - if you can answer them you are in.

Don't memorize test questions - follow the book - pay attention to what the author is telling you and you are in. But you better know the information. Find a good sim or some equipment to play on and get THIS book.

I passed my last test today and I am stoked - So I thought I would share the credit some.

CCIE - here I come.

It is an interesting book focusing mainly on Anakin's emotions. It also gives additional details from Anakin's perspective.It is a good book but has a few flaws as some details which should have been there are excluded. The descriptions given by Anakin is similar to what any nine year old would think if they had the same experience.It is told in the first person as it's a journal and Anakin narrates his story to the reader. However it can be confusing at times and a few scenes from the movie are left out.Over all it is an enjoyable book and I recommend that you get a copy soon as possible if you have an appetite for science fiction or a fan of Star Wars who is not too hardcore.

This told about what happened in the new Star Wars movie, Episode I, through a journal by nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker. I reccomend this book if you liked the movie. It expands on his character and is a fun book to read.

The book I read was Star Wars Episode 1 Journal, by Todd Strasser. This book is about a boy named Anakin Skywalker who was a slave on a planet called Tatooine. One day a warrior called a Jedi appeared and told him he was to be a Jedi too. Before Anakin could be trained to be a Jedi he must prove himself first. Anakin proves himself and is set free from slavery for training to be a Jedi.
My favorite part in the book was the thirteenth chapter called "The Battle." It was about how Anakin had hid in a starfighter, but accidentaly engaged himself in a war. Anakin was just looking for a safe place to hide during the battle and accidentaly took off into nother battle in space. Anakin had no idea what he was doing. Unaware of what he was doing, he faught off most fighter and distroyed the enemy's control base.
I enjoyed this book alot. It was very discriptive and had a great story line. I chose this book when I was a Star Wars fan, but I never took the time to read it until now. I am glad I read this book and I think you shoud read it too if you like Star Wars.

This follow up to Top Secret Recipes is also fantastic. Recipes from products around the country, laced with interesting history about the products! The recipes are simple, fun, and when you take a bite of that little thing you made yourself, wow!

Cinnabons, Snapple, and more! There are many candy bars to make, but they require a heavy duty mixer for the caramel and nougat. This book is inexpensive, and has great recipes ...

I also recommend very, very highly, Top Secret Restaurant Recipes, also by Todd Wilbur.

easy to read and understand recipes. I wish there would have been more food establishments recipes oposed to candy, etc.

I really enjoyed the first book so I figured I was bound to enjoy the second book and yes, I did. Although this book had more cookies and candy than regular meals, I truly enjoyed it and tried some of the recipes like the Arby's Sauce and Nabisco's Nutter Butter cookies. (No, I didn't make the silly peanut shape. Yes, they tasted just like the real thing.) I see that some reviewers were hoping for more main course stuff which Todd Wilbur supplied in his Top Secret Restaurant Recipes. If you are looking for snack stuff, this book is great and up your alley. If you are looking for main courses, you won't enjoy this book as much.

This is a very good book, but I was somewhat disappointed with it. The problem is the title, which is misleading. It should have been called "A Modern Interpretations of Some Great Economists". There are no new ideas, nor really any new interpretations of old ideas. Another possibility, to apply these ideas to contemporary situations, is done very superficially and with none of the wit and imagination the author uses in their exposition. As a professional economist, I did not find the book very useful. What the book is, is a very good introduction to the history of economic thought. If some day I give an economics course, in particular to non-economists, this book will provide its basis. The witty and light way in which some of the greatest ideas in economics are presented is very appealing. With a book such as this, the countless students who hate the subject of economics will see that it is a living and human endeavor. My congratulations to the author although I suggest he change the title.

I enjoyed this book. Todd Buchholz gives his readers a good, well-written introduction to most of the major schools of economics. His portraits of the "dead economists" who launched and powered these various schools are excellent, as are his summaries of each of these schools. (Fortunately, not all of Buchholz's "dead economists" are dead: Ronald Coase, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Robert Lucas, among others, are thankfully still alive.)

I will recommend this book to non-economists who ask me for an accessible introduction to economic analysis.

Only a few nits are worth picking. One is that, from time to time, Buchholz mentions an interesting fact without providing a reference. For example, in his chapter on Public Choice economic, he illustrates the reality and size of pork-barrel politics by reporting the finding of an (unnamed) researcher who "calculated that for the price of the $200 billion highway bill [enacted by Congress in 1998], the U.S. could literally pave the streets with gold (gold-plating, that is)." I wanted to check out this study, but could find no citation to it.

Another nit is that, again in his chapter on Public Choice economics, he should have introduced his readers to the term, and concept, of rent-seeking.

A third (and really small) nit is that he mistakenly reports that Thomas Sargent shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in economics with Robert Lucas. Not so. Sargent is not, at least yet, a Nobel laureate.

Especially nice are (1) Buchholz's exploration of Keynes's attitude toward government, (2) his explanation of the deepest problems with Marxian economics, and (3) his very able treatment of rational-expectations economics. But please don't read this paragraph as suggesting that Buchholz performs well only in these areas. Again, from beginning to end, this is a very sound and very useful effort.

The first time I read this distinguished work by Buchholz, I began the book having half forgotten the economics which I took at college level, and ended the book self-congratulating myself for picking up most of what I had forgotten. When I re-read the book, this time the economic theories that I was taught in a post-graduate course still fresh in my mind, I was in awe with the brilliance and clarity with which Buchholz explains the insights of economic theories without compromising the insight and depth of difficult concepts. As economics comes increasingly under the grips of ever more esoteric mathematics, Buchholz shows the path toward a refreshing style of describing economic behaviors, sans mathematica, without compromising the dazzling insights elucidated by gurus from Adam Smith through Alfred Marshall, John Maynard Keynes to present day giants in the field (e.g. Coase, Friedman, Buchanan). While Buchholz clearly intended the book for the layman, it is actually an introductory economics text par excellence.

This book is a great way to create some pretty close "secret recipes." I have enjoyed many of the recipes and the history lessons. There is to much emphasis on how to stack the condiments on a burger the correct way for my tastes, but my kids have enjoyed not buying out to see how close that we can come to "the real thing." This has has saved money and added some quality family time. Laure'

This book is a absolute must have for those of you that love to experiment in the kitchen. Its totally exciting to create these cloned treats, but more so to see if any one can tell the difference. I've tried Mrs.Fields Chocolate Chip Cookies,Hostess Twinkies, the Twix bars,and the Snickers bars. They taste the same as their original siblings. But what makes this book really great is the short historys of the recipes. It so interesting to read how they came about!

I collect cookbooks. I have everything from THE JOY OF COOKING, THE I HATE TO COOK BOOK and everything in between. This is a gem! The recipes in this book don't always taste like the product they are modeled on, but they come very close.

The KFC cole slaw recipe is great. But here's a hint. Mix up a double batch of the dressing and put it in a squeeze bottle. Then run how much every cabbage and carrots you want for the slaw needed and add the how much of the dressing you like.

It is a great book, and while I haven't (and won't) tried them all -lets face it, if I want a Big Mac, I'll go to McDonalds- I have ordered the other books in he series.

This was when it was issued an excellent reference for Pern, but it has since been very dated by the publication of books such as Masterharper of Pern and Skies of Pern. And the information in it is extremely shallow compared to some of the excellent wesites that are available online. I would be delighted if Jody Lynn Nye and Annne McCaffrey would sit down and incorporate some of the work Pern fans have been doing in the interim years and make this a truly authoritative Pern reference book.

I found this book good reading, for the most part. Like any "instructional" type companion book for a series, it can be dry at times...but it's still a good read! I found out some things that the series books had left out, or didn't explain too thouroughly. The illustrations were really great, too! My perception of just how big Ramoth was definitely changed after I read this book! All in all...not bad, if you're a McCaffrey/Pern fan. Worth buying!

Do you love Anne McCaffrey's Pern books? Did you ever wonder exactly what a bubbly pie was or how klah really tastes? Want the recipe? It's all in this book. I took this home and kicked my family out of the kitchen for hours. Klah is fabulous if you like coffee, cinnamon, and chocolate. Do you want to know what the Rukbat system looks like? There's a map of Rukbat here. And what are those bloody threads made of anyway? And how do the dragonriders predict where they'll fall next? It's all right here in this cover-to-cover learning experience

If you want to learn about the new OSX operating system and how to use a Macintosh, this is the book for you. It begins with using the interface, such as trashcan, and advances to basic troubleshooting of the OSX and classic operating systems.

On the other hand, if you are familiar with Mac OS pre-X you are already familiar with the majority of this book. Its advanced OSX sections simply give a cursory treatment of the operating system.

In my case I was hoping for much more advanced information about the new operating system. From what I read, either I am far more fluent with OSX and Unix than I thought or this book is intended for a different reader.

Todd Stauffer's Mastering Mac OS X Second Edition is a worthy addition to any OS X user's personal library. Updated with lots of new information for OS X 10.2 "Jaguar," this book (hereafter referred to as MMOSX2 to save my fingers) covers the waterfront for the intermediate and advanced user. While the back cover bills the book as suitable for users of all levels, I think that the raw Macintosh novice would find this book a bit intimidating, with the section Macintosh essentials being swamped by the huge amount of more advanced topics.

Stauffer is exceptionally thorough, with the 804 pages of text covering almost every facet of Mac OS X theory and practice. Rather than recite the various sections from the Table of Contents, you can be assured that almost any question an advanced or power user may have is covered. While not targeted at the hard-core, extreme geek, MMOSX2 does have a good basic introduction to the Unix underpinnings of OS X. Part V Advanced Mac OS X topics spans 100+ pages, and held my attention for page after page.

To my mind, the best sections in MMOSX2 are those on networking and cross-platform operations, as well as the two new chapters on troubleshooting system-level problems and typical OS X problems and solutions. Stauffer provides a well-rounded discussion of these topics, which are not often well served by other general-purpose OS X book, especially the troubleshooting sections.

Unfortunately, MMOSX2 was a bit hard to read, with text just a bit small for my 46 year-old eyes. While a larger type size would have caused the book to balloon to an even greater page count and greater weight, I would have preferred a larger type size. MMOSX2 is not alone, as other "boat-anchor" books often sacrifice readability for portability. Perhaps the publishers should begin to bundle a pair of cheap bifocals with any book over 500 pages.

Mastering Mac OS X Second Edition is clearly a reference book. Stauffer's style is a bit dry, to put it politely, and MMOSX2 will not keep you up into the night, unless you are using it while troubleshooting an OS X problem. But this book is clearly worth buying for its comprehensive collection of OS X information; you'll have all you need in one place on your bookshelf.

MacMice Rating: 4.5 out of 5

I'm quite surprised at the reviews written by M Lapham and macgizmo, both of which seem to be unrealistic in their expectations.

Mac OS X is a brand new operating system. Even those who have been experts on the Mac OS for years are basically "starting over." (In fact, even if you have a decent UNIX background like I do, it's still different enough from other implementations that you have to learn the "OS X way.") What this means is that ANY thorough book on OS X needs to start at a basic level and then progress to more advanced levels. "Mastering Mac OS X" is 800 pages long, and covers almost anything that a new or experienced user could want or need in order to use Mac OS X on a daily basis. At the very least, for some more advanced topics, the reader is given enough information so that they can then find other sources of more advanced information (mostly administration-level UNIX stuff). Given that books dedicated to UNIX administration are unable to cover every topic in 1000 pages, it's unrealistic to think that this book would be able to cover every advanced topic, plus teach new users where to start, in 800.

As for what IS in the book, as Don Levy said, it's very clear and readable, with great illustrations. It covers everything from the most basic tasks to troubleshooting and administration, and explains things in a way so that both Mac OS veterans and those new to the Mac OS can understand. It goes into more detail than any of the other OS X books out as of July 2001, and is organized so that you can read it straight through or pick and choose your topics. And Mr. Levy is also right about the index -- for those of us who are a bit more advanced, having a thorough index is vital, and this one is very well done.

I've recommended this book to many people. While it's not an advanced book for a UNIX power user or administrator (I don't think there is one of those for Mac OS X right now), it does what the title says: helps users Master Mac OS X.

This is the collection of the first 5 Spawn comics. What can i say? The're great! They make a fascinating read, and even though it's a comic, it gives you the feel as if you're reading a novel. It's not your typical comic and definetaly worth it for both comic fans and non comic fans.

Out of all the mainstream comics on the market today - superman, spiderman, batman, etc. - Spawn is certainly the best. The main thing contributing to this is the realism of Spawn, that he has a very dark human nature and he shows you that it's okay not to be perfect. The art also compliments the story. Detailed, Gothic, and with a dark style all it's own, each page is vibrantly alive.

I grew up reading comic books and have always had a fondness
for them. Spawn is stylish and cool. I love it's darness and
the moral ambiguity; the anguish and emotion that is portrayed.
Of course the fact that Spawn kicks tail helps. To comment
on someone else's review where they protested about TM
commercializing Spawn and making a ton of money - who cares??
If I came up with something this good I would expect to be
well compensated as well. If it wasn't any good people wouldn't
be willing to pay for it now would they??

Enjoy!! Spawn is good stuff

THINK LIKE A GENIUS is the single simplest thing I have read which allows us to understand the ways in which we ordinary folks may be like geniuses. It's not saying that anyone can be a genius --that takes a special kind of "what" in the brain, but it is saying we can use the "how" that great thinkers often use. The "how" of great ideas is creativity -- not a mystical gift bestowed on a few, but a human survival skill that most of us never bother to really develop. Or, to be fair, which school and corporate life, etc., beats down until our creativity is like a whipped dog -- not willing to come out of the shadow. The way Siler writes is deceptively simple -- a sort of DUMMIES GUIDE TO THE BRAIN -- but things like intelligence and creativity are pretty difficult to describe -- in technical or any other terms. The bottom line is that he makes sense and this is a book that will wake you up.

At the heart of genius thinking is the process that Todd Siler has defined as Metaphorming. It's the process of transferring and transforming new meanings and associations from one object or idea to another.

The process of Connection, Discovery, Invention and Application is at the core of genius thinking. It is both simple and common sense, to the extent that some may discount its true power. However, to do this is to reject a very powerful concept - anyone is capable of genius thinking.

Emerson said "Common sense is genius in its everyday clothes". This is what gave me the insight that everyone has the potential to Think Like a Genius, if we only knew how. This book shows you how.

Todd Siler is an world recognized artist who couldn't satisfactorily answer his own questions about how our minds --specifically our imaginations --work. So he ended up doing brain research at MIT and getting their first ever interdisciplinary doctorate. His work revealed that though geniuses all excel in different areas, they often use the same mental processes and approaches. His insights into peak performance and creativity are not only easy to absorb, they really make sense. Also, even if you think you cannot possibly think like a genius (you may surprise yourself!)along the way to thinking at higher intensity there are numerous side benefits: faster integration of lots of disparate information (i.e. information overload);enhanced memory; greater inventiveness and perspective. I found that it gave me two instant jump-starts on frustrating problems (one of them was a writer's block...) Deceptively simple and easy to read, this is a very intelligent little book.