Originally released in the U.K. I bought this at Stitches East market without previewing it. The back cover says "3 and up." I think 4-8 is more realistic, many of the motions are not obvious. Love the illustrations, colors and characters (especially the bus queue). A little disappointed that the paper isn't heavier in a book intended for 3 year olds.

I bought the original book in the UK - the author is a close friend of mine, and it's so great to see how it's tranlated into the the US Market. Ruth is the most creative person I know, and there are so many bits of her family and personality in that book. I just love the colors and the quirky pop-ups. Keep going Ruth, can't wait to see the next book!

I absolutely love this book, but I'm a knitter so I could be biased! I picked this up at my local yarn shop, and immediately fell in love with it. I have a 3 year old daughter, and it is by far the book she asks for the most often. I found the pop-ups to be very sturdy. She especially loves the page where Grandma knits the dinner meal. It's very interactive. The illustrations are just gorgeous. I have bought several copies to give as gifts, and I also bought an extra one for me! I highly recommend this book!!

I found this in a Bennington, VT bookstore after my wife Andi pointed it out and bought it right away based on a warm description of how loving a cat could be, even moments after killing and gutting a grouse. Berkeley does a wonderful job of showing that duality of cats, of how at once they're incredibly close to us they are as well as being close to natural hunting machines. Warmly written, funny and touching, she also fills out the book with very well-researched scientific info on feral cats, and cat populations. A must-read if you're a cat person and owner.

This book is out of print and copyrighted 1987, but it's the only book I found with information regarding a feral cat colony. The author's experiences with the feral cats living around her Vermont home are a delightful insight into the person/cat relationship, and her interest, curiosity, and research regarding the realities of feral cat colonies is incredibly useful to me, as a lay person is just starting to trap, spay/neuter, and return strays and ferals in the Los Angeles area. A must-read!

I was hooked! I love cats, and all other felines for that matter, but fiction is more my range. This, however, is a great book! I LOVED IT!!! A must read! Yay! Heheh!

I want to take a moment here to thank Georgeanne Brennan. With her "Mediterranean Herb Cookbook" she has done us all a favor.

Being a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to cookbooks (at least the ones the library allows me to get my hands on), I must start by saying how spotty most cookbooks are. Rarely do you come across a book that can handle putting two good recipes on opposing pages, much less giving you consistent ones throughout.

Yet Mrs. Brennan has done just that--her Mediterranean Herb Cookbook is filled with consistently great recipes. Not only that, there are a whole lot of recipes to choose from. From entrees, breads, and salads to drinks, marinades and spice mixtures--this book has it all.

If this is not enough, Mrs. Brennan provides information about the herbs themselves--their characteristics, how to grow them, how to dry and store them. This book is packed with great stuff!

In a book so filled with treasures, it is hard to pick a favorite recipe. Yet I believe that the Rosemary-Walnut Flatbread, if it has not become a favorite, will at least become a staple in my repertoire. It is an excellent variant on traditional flatbread (I used black walnuts and it was amazing).

I give "The Mediterranean Herb Cookbook" my full recommendation.

Georgeanne Brennan lives a charmed life with homes in both the US and Provence, France. She teaches regional cooking in France, emphasizing what is in season. This cookbook celebrates all our favorite herbs: Lavender, Rosemary, Mint, Oregano, Thyme and more. Luscious recipes for every course and helpful instructions for making simple dishes elegant are indicative of Ms. Brennan's expertise.
Whether you want to serve a stylish main course like Halibut Kabobs with Winter Savory and Lemon or a fun sweet like Apple Crumble with Lavender, the four recipe sections--Small Dishes, Salads and Soups, Main Courses, Breads and Sweets, and Basic Herbal Recipes--will provide ample selections. In Basic Herbal Recipes, Herb Blends like herbs de Provence, Herb Butters, Sauces, Marinades, Beverages, Oils and Vinegars are included (over 50 recipes in this section alone).

Although this book is identified as a cookbook it contains much more than basic recipes. This book is targeted to the cook who not only wanders the supermarket aisles hoping to find fresh herbs but also the cook who grows his/her own herbs. Drawing the reader in with beautiful photographs this cookbook includes a section with a description of herbs divided into the categories of green herbs and woody herbs. I found the hints for what flavors the herb complements and how to prepare the herbs especially helpful. In addition to basic recipes for appetizers, main courses, and desserts, this cookbook also included a section for sauces, herb marinades, herb-flavored oil and vinegars, and beverages. The last part of the book is devoted to tips on growing herbs. This section provides a range of information - from ease of starting from seed to preferred growing conditions. This contains just the right amount of information for a cook to get started on an herb garden without overloading the reader with detailed gardening instructions.

This is the third in the romantic series about the American Revolution and the causes that led to it. In this volume, there are three marriages between a Rhode Island socialite and a British desserter, a sailor and a Williamsburg socialite, and a young widow and a New England post rider.

I love the relationship that forms with Yancey. I never put this book down once I started it. Kudos to the Illustrator again!

this is a particularly nice work of historical fiction. however, as good as the inside of the book is, the cover is truly the main draw. the beefcake on the front would make any woman drool with anticipation about what lies within-the book that is!

Dr. Deming called Dobyns and Crawford-Mason "the broadcasters and clarifiers of [his] message for a larger audience." Their book and PBS series Quality or Else introduced the general public to the Deming Management Method.

This book or one similar should be a required first reading for those interested in more than keeping quality records. It orients the reader to the true driving force behind quality movements--burning desire for customer satisfaction. Have a copy or two in your facility library and make sure your new employees read at least the first 4-5 chapters.

Drawing on their extensive work to produce the documentary "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?," the authors provide excellent examples of successes from quality focused organizations across the spectrum, including education and government. A good read for skeptics. A good motivator for those working through challenges.

The book Halinka by Mirjam Pressler is a good book. The main character is sixth-grader Halinka, who lives in a home for girls in Germany. She hates it there, and she has no friends because she thinks she doesn't need any. She wants to go live with her Aunt Lou, but she can't because Aunt Lou isn't married. Then she starts collecting money for the Mothers' Convalescent League. The person who collects the most money wins a prize. Halinka wants the prize to be a book, because she loves reading, especially Huckleberry Finn, which she reads over and over. Then, something amazing happens - Halinka becomes friends with a small girl named Renata, nicknamed Rena. She realizes that is good for a person to have a friend. What will happen to Halinka? To find out, read this book.

Halinka is a unique book about a girl who lives in a foster home in post WWII Germany. The twelve year old protagonist has a sensitive spirit, despite the many protective walls that have helped her survive a difficult childhood. We see how this cleaver girl manages to take care of her own needs, find hope where looks for it, and takes some huge risks to get what she wants. Most importantly, we see in detail the peeling away of Halinka's defenses, and the opening up of her heart. This is a fasinating book. The character development is subtle and very real. The inner-life of Halinka is vivid with emotion and the details of a pre-adolecent faced with many personal challenges. I recommend this book to all thoughtful and sensitive readers over age 12.

I read this book with my 13 year old daughter (adopted at age 11 from Russia.) Halinka's story so closely paralleled my daughter's that there were times she thought I was reading from a book of her own life. It sparked meaningful discussions and was an avenue for my daughter to share her feelings and experiences from her past. I would highly reccomend this book to children adopted at older ages from Eastern Europe. I also suggest that parents read this along with their children. Once I picked it up I couldn't put it down.

I'll Gather my Geese is an interesting look at the life of a woman living in the rugged Big Bend area of Texas. Adventure, hardship and danger could not dim Mrs. Stillwells spirit.

I met Hallie Stillwell in 1991 in Ft. Davis. I have camped in Big Bend and area, and her book told of her life around there - her early life, the dangers of the area, her marriage to Roy, her children, her ranchlife plus living back and forth from ranch to Marathon. It is an excellent account of Western life at that time - hot, dusty, busy, trying to survive, herding cattle, raising children, enjoying the land. She wrote well. It's easy to read though it jumps around some. She has a second book which I have not been able to locate. She died about the fall of '97, just short of her 100th birthday. Her ranch is still near Big Bend (about 45 miles south of Marathon and 20+ miles above the Rio Grande) and has a trailer park, general store, and an excellent museum.

The picture of Hallie and her cousins on the cover of "I'll gather my Geese" sold me on the book. What a bunch of sassy cowgirls! Hallie tells us in the preface that she never set out to write a masterpiece, but she did tell a very fine story of ranch life in the first part of the 19th century in the Big Bend area of Texas. Hallie's spirit is invincible, and her humorous anecdotes of ranch life kept me laughing. Hallie's family survived droughts, huge dust storms and the Great Depression. The story ends with Roy's death (Hallie's husband); as Hallie is about to give in and sell off all the cattle, the rains come. I am waiting for the publication of her next book on the next 50 years of her life "My Goose is Cooked". (...)

I am a huge Joan Crawford fan who is always looking for a great biography to read on her. Joan Crawford: A Biography By Bob Thomas is good and well written. it covers the basics & lets you in on the private life of Joan Crawford. But my only complaint was that it didn't spend enough time giving you the intimate details on what it was like for Joan to make cetain movies & her relationship w/ her co-stars. things any classic movie buff/fan wants to hear. it fills in the blanks & closes some gaps but i didn't feel like i was there or that i learned something new. i'm still looking for the difinative bio on Joan Crawford...any suggestions?

My favorite will always be Christina's book "Mommie Dearest", but this book gave a much more detailed background of Joan's childhood and early years in Hollywood, as well as her last years. I am surprised that someone so famous would have nothing to do but sit in her apartment all day and answer letters. You'd think someone like that would have so many friends and always have something planned every night.

I don't think someone that famous- and this refers to Joan in the 1950s and 60s- had to worry about being a "has-been". She already had an Oscar and everyone knew her name. She will ALWAYS be famous. A good comparison would probably be John Travolta. He has made some great classics ("Grease"), but his last couple of movies have been bombs. So what. He'll always be around.

I think Joan was a great friend to her peers, there's no doubt. Her treatment towards her children was horrific. This was no secret in Hollywood, either. Christina was no crybaby who wrote her book because she was disinherited. If someone brought it up to Joan to lighten up, they were asked to leave the house or told to mind their own business. No wonder Christopher kept running away!! And where's the logic in punishment with physcial harm because he tried to run away? That would just make him want to leave MORE.

I definitely recommend this, it's the best Joan biography to date.

I have been reading hollywood biographies for about 30 years, almost exclusively, and Joan is one of my favorites. This bio is the best I've ever read about her.

My Summary:
This book is about three boys, Chad, B.J. and Toad. They plan little crimes for practice. If they succeed in the practice, they will plan a big crime. Though originally they were not supposed to actually carry out the crime. They leave letters anonymously to their hated teacher MR. Patterson. The letters are demands for money . If he does not give them the money, they will give a letter to the school board sent from one of his Navy friends. It says that he cracks under pressure and he had a military background. This little joke is getting bigger and bigger. They are ruining this poor man's life and are committing some serious crimes. Will these kids get caught? What will the teacher do about it? Read this book to find out.

It is a pretty good book. Some language may not be appropriate for young readers.

This is a great book about 3 bored kids who want to put some excitement into their lives. They start doing little crimes, which get bigger, and bigger and bigger . . . Now it's way over their heads. The person who tells the story, who is one of the trio, isn't sure he likes whats going on. What would you do if you had to chose between friends, and what might ruin you forever.

I read this book when I was 11 years old. I'm 27 now. It stuck with me for so many years that I read it again as an adult.

Although the story might be a bit dated for the 90's, the author conveys a sense of morality, consequences and compassion. A great read for pre teens!

This is a smart book. Dealing with the quality gurus, their impact on post-war Japan and the subsequent quality movement(s) in the U.S., it's a must read for every worker, manager, and executive. Quality is a must in any business. The only drawback is that the authors need to update it.

Unlike many PBS companion volumes, Quality Or Else is not simply a chapter-by-chapter echoing of the television series. Each of the three one-hour televised episodes presents a completely different aspect of the need for quality in America. The series can best be described as topical, and the intent is clearly to inspire. The companion volume can better be described as historical and is intended to inform. Dobyns and Crawford-Mason have "decided to take a historical approach because, to the best of (their) knowledge, no one has ever written the history of the quality movement."

To those well versed in quality, and the need for it in their organization, Quality Or Else offers nothing new in its content. However, in its form, Quality Or Else offers a tool for communicating within the organization. For those of us who work in organizations where management has demonstrated their commitment to using the quality movement to change everything about how the organi! zation runs, this tool will not be needed. But for those of us working for management teams that are not yet striving for such grand levels of change, Quality Or Else can be used as an education vehicle.

For Quality Or Else has a single theme that permeates every aspect of the discussion: quality "isn't a matter of an adjustment here, a bit of fine tuning there; quality is a change in the structure and purpose of an organization, ... The only reason to do it is because it works." The continual emphasis is on the role of senior management in making quality happen; walking the talk. "With a quality program, the chief executive is still the chief executive, but he has a lot more help."

The emphasis on, and challenge to, managers is most obvious in the video presentations. The companion book offers a similar message but tends to hide some of it behind the extra details provided in the book that are less covered in the videos. This makes the videos a useful ! tool for planting the seeds with managers who are not ready! for many of the details and background.

For those who are ready for background, the book offers it. Much of the book echos statements and stories shown in the video, however two particular topics are extremely well covered in the book that were only briefly mentioned in the video.

In Teachers and Sensei (Chapter 3) Dobyns and Crawford- Mason offer an excellent cross-referencing discussion of the works and theories of Deming, Crosby, Juran, Feigenbaum, Ishikawa, and Taguchi. Their intent is to document the differences among these quality leaders while also illustrating that the qualities they share are far more significant than the areas where they disagree.

In describing attitudes towards defects, Deming and Juran advocate reduction while Crosby calls for elimination. To Crosby the cost-of-nonconformance is central to understanding an organization's needs, while to Deming the cost-of-nonconformance is unknowable. Juran's approach is described as "flexible" as ! opposed to the "dogmatic" approach of Deming. Crosby says that quality is "relatively easy,", Juran says it's "not revolutionary," yet Deming warns that it's "hard." These differences can seem significant to the beginner, yet synergism can be achieved at the intersections by those willing to adapt the best-of-the-best to their own organizations.

The second area in which the book version of Quality Or Else excels is in its description of The Baldrige Award (Chapter 8). Much has been written on the National Quality Award, and Dobyns and Crawford-Mason build on the same basic facts before going on to a discussion that has real impact in describing the need for personal motivation and commitment from management. They do an excellent job of describing the award as a process rather than a product; a means rather than an end.

The authors state in their conclusion that "of all the senior managers involved in quality (they) have intervie! wed since 1980, and there have been a lot of them, not one ! has ever said he wished he had not gotten involved with a quality system. To a man [regrettably, there were no women], each said it was the best and smartest thing he had ever done, and he only wished he'd done it sooner. Not one said it was easy."

The 186 interview subjects in Quality Or Else look like a social register of acknowledged quality experts and industry success stories. Quality Or Else, book or video, provides a clear and forceful message with a breadth and depth that could only have been possible with the level of effort that has been expended over an exhaustive two years. No manager can listen to the message, from the variety of sources that are used, without getting excited about quality. It's a tool we can use if our need is to get management moving.

Two graduate courses at RIT (Rochester, NY) in quality controls, taught by the same professor, required this book as a text in one of the courses. He was a stickler for statistics and the like. For him, because of my constant reference to the book and the main characters' directions of quality, especially W. Edwards Deming, he mentioned that he'd probably look for another text.

Deming's attitude towards tests and grades in the academic world parallel mine, for I am taking cross-disciplinary graduate courses at age 60 and have some background experiences in writing and publishing. This professor created a set of highly structured tests even demanding that students write at least three questions for each quiz and exam he gave. Those questions selected by him would give bonus points to the student. He would become angry and nearly explode when I harped on Deming's feelings, for the prof. used his name as a near idol of his with great respect for the man's abilities and guidance.

I would say for academics that the most damning statement in the book towards American education commences at the bottom of page 91: "There is an inherent difficulty in teaching a subject as amorphous as quality. Academics talk of "a discipline." What they mean is an area of specializaiton, and a graduate student who tries to dabble in more than one area of specialization will run into trouble from academics whose view of life is a good deal more narrow than life is. ... There have been successful interdisciplinary study programs recently in some US universityes, but they aren't the norm."

This book works well for getting American educated people out of the "box," if they are willing.

An additional superb book for academics and ALL MEN is the latest Fifth Edition, 1999, of Ashley Montagu's "The Natural Superiority of Women." This is a killer and is fodder for fire for a great many "men" with Eurocentric backgrounds!