The historic pictures in this book provide the reader with a look back 100-200 years ago to see what life was like in this rivertown. Captions provide an education about Hyde Park,its residents, and some of the history of the Hudson Valley.

"If I were your Mother" is a great book for mothers to share with their daughters. In the story, a little girl explains how she'd treat her mother if her mom were her daughter. The daughter realizes that the thing that matters the most to her is the love that her mother gives to her daughter. The illustrations are in fun colors and convey the soft, loving message of the book. I really like the book!

It's really a great book. I was really into reading only Nancy Drew mysteries, but seeing the cover, i decieded to buy it. It really got me hooked on nancy Drew "Files". Nanacy goes for a magic show along with George and Ned, but the show ends early due to fire. Sabotage is clear...and Nancy investigates, while Ned & george also get hurt in the Park ride. Adriana Polidori, the owner of the park, inheirited it from her uncle, who Myseriously died...so you can understand thatit somehow fits into the mystery. Adriana is Carson's client and also a date. Ned gets hurt in the process, nancy and ned get into danger. But the wrap up is great. If your still thinking go and get this book. It's absolutely out of the world!!

Thank you to Laura and Godfrey for capturing a piece of history that might have been otherwise been lost forever. These pictures and this story have an amazing lesson for all of us... that even the poorest of us can have rich blessings of friends, family and an extended network of community that can be more important than our physical surroundings. To all of us who have an influence over the shaping of bricks and mortar in communities, this book is a wonderful caution that we MUST NOT overlook the importance of community relationships in our zealousness to improve the physical conditions of the neighborhood. This is a delicate balance that must be preserved lest our community revatilization efforts be in vain.

This book, like any other Wally McDoogle book, is hilarious! Wally visits his uncle in California, to find him a rich, famous stunt actor who has his own theme park!!! The trouble starts when Wally gets his shoelace stuck in the baggage claim belt, then the endless mishaps continue. Wally begins to admire his uncle more than his father and begins to think of his dad as a "plain, ordinary, loser". The story ends when Wally discovers that, although cool, his uncle does not care about him enough to turn his jetski around to rescue him when he is drowning. Wally's dad, however, comes through and ends up helping Wally stay above water long enough for help to come. It teaches that true heros are the ones that love you enough to risk their lives for you.

I have read the draft of this book, and it is undoubtedly one of the most revealing, enlightening and entertaining writings on modern gay life in Israel. A must not only for readers interested in gay culture, but for anyone who wants to know more about young people - gay or straight - in modern Israel. The book comprises of a tapestry of interviews, whose translation artfully captures all layers of spoken Hebrew. These are complemented by the authors comments and shrewd observations, making it an accurate and up-to-date survey of modern Israel. Enthusiastically recommended!

Indian Country, God's Country is a freelance expose of development histories of selected national parks and Indian reservations, including Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Reservation, The Badlands and Pine Ridge, Mesa Verde and the Utes, Grand Canyon and the Havasupai and Death Valley and the Shoshone. Obtaining information from a variety of sources including personal visits and interviews as well as research, author Burn ham traces beginnings of the National Park Service, Congressional attempts to mainstream Indian expansion of the parks frequently at the cost of reservation land, and the parks as they are seen today from both tribal representatives and government employees, superintendents and rangers. It is a series of tales rife with conflict. The few successes are carefully described as "hard-won compromises that have given tribes more autonomy and greater cultural recognition in recent years, while highlighting stubborn conflicts that continue to mark relations between tribes and parks (cover flap)." Of all the sites explored, Burnham is most optimistic about the seed of justice sprouting in Death Valley, ironically. The Shoshone with spokesperson Pauline Esteves has reinstituted interest in use of the Shoshone language and also learned to use publicity and other strategies to encourage sovereignty and empowerment of the Timbisha. "From the Sun Tours transportation contract at Glacier to the Shoshone claim for a land base at Death Valley to the Havasupai struggle for land in the Grand Canyon to the Oglala fight for development in the Badlands, the Park Service has never surrendered anything in disputes over Indian land without a protracted struggle (p. 309)." There are many unanswered questions on both sides. There is no doubt that continued bargaining will ensue. The power of a book like Indian Country, God's Country is the light it sheds on the ongoing struggle, in all its complex history.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

INfoThink is a book I would highly recommend to anyone who needs to find and use good information in today's working environments. The seventeen articulate and knowledgeable people Park has interviewed provide their different perspectives (their "infothink") on how they gather and convert information to action.

As a computer teacher, I know that this book is valuable because it deals with information content, not just information technology. It provides insights into methodologies and processes that professionals use to make their decisions

Peter Harnik had his own reasons having to do with population densities for determining which 25 cities to choose for description in his book. Many theoretical books about landscape architecture or public recreation discuss city parks in a summary manner, as, for example, "The Politics of Park Design," by Galen Crantz, but they do not focus on individual parks nor draw their conclusions from close observations. Harnik chose landscape architect Joe Brown, EDAW, Inc., to write the introduction. This was not a wise choice for though Brown is complimentary, he is anxious to justify his own work which he describes as belonging to a "smart park" concept, which to him means the opposite of what Frederick Law Olmsted and his associates were doing in creating "pastoral" parks. It may be inevitable for landscape architects to believe that anybody but themselves is out of touch with the times, but such is not Harnik's view. He claims that administrators and politicians have made mistakes when they failed to heed the advice of the pioneer planners of this country's most famous city parks. Tellingly, it is the 19th century parks designed by Olmsted and followers, such as Central Park (New York), Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Franklin Park (Boston), Jackson Park (Chicago), Forest Park (St. Louis) and Golden Gate Park (San Francisco) that today evoke the most praise from park enthusiasts.

"Inside City Parks" is an invaluable resource for anybody interested in contemporary parks. It highlights common problems, such as underfunding, crime, vandalism, dogs, mountain bicycles, cars, parking lots, crosspark expressways, buildings and the sometimes willful, sometimes unconscious destruction wrought by the homeless which, in city after city, have become nuisances to a number of park visitors.

Harnik tries to maintain a neutral stance in his survey of cities. He does not question the practices of park departments though he is critical of politicians, such as Mayor Rudolph Guiliani (New York City) and Mayor Wille Brown (San Francisco). Conversely, Mayor Ray Flynn (Boston) and Richard Daley (Chicago) get high marks for their support of old and new park activities. Harnik gives the blemish to Chicago's famous Lake Shore Parks by the unsightly McCormick Place Exposition Center passing mention, claiming the creation of 16 acres of new park land will mitigate the Center's massive expansion. He concentrates on what park departments are doing. Since what they are doing is anticipating the future, it is not clear what will happen next. Will the city parks get their appropriations, hire the right managers, appease conflicting park users, generate support? Will the Hudson River Park, the Bronx Greenway, a Harbor Islands Park and Greenway over Boston's now building underground highway, the conversion of Meigs Field Airport into Chicago's Northerly Island Park, or San Francisco's 1,480-acre Presidio Park --- a national park and thus not part of Harnik's study (though hard to ignore) --- become assets promoting recreation and business?

While not suggesting that anyone solution is applicable to all park systems, Harnik favors exploiting all avenues for park support . . . grants, bond issues, taxes, donations, fees for services, private and commercial sponsorship. He describes how the Urban Land Institute, the Trust for Public Land, park conservancies, business improvement districts and similar organizations have stepped in to acquire park land or to protect lands which are in danger of slipping away. The influence of Jane Jacobs, one of the three people to whom Harnik dedicated his book and the author of "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," may be detected in Harnik's comments favoring multiple use parks, such as a contemplated 123-acre park on the site of a former USX South Works Steel Mill in Chicago or the 1.7-acre Post Office Square Park in Boston that replaced a run-down garage with automobile parking and a park with outdoor cafe, fountains, sculptures, movable chairs and landscaping on top.

Since it does not conform with the Bureau of Census 1998 population estimates, Harnik's choice of cities may show his partiality for some cities. His ordering of parks within the three density classifications --- high, medium and low --- may indicate a personal bias rather than a formal rating system: New York City, first in the high, Detroit first in the medium, and San Diego first in the low. If the book is the start of a continuing study, perhaps Harnik will cover missing cities later.

It may be that some of Harnik's statistics are suspect. There is an abundance of them from lists of cities profiting from developer impact fees, to tables showing total parks and open spaces by acres in cities, to the number of public swimming pools per 100,000 city residents. Park Departments may exaggerate their figures to show that they are best in one way or another. To say that a city has so many acres of park land may not be true. Is it "dedicated" park land that cannot be taken away except by vote of the people? Is it "open space" that can be seen but not visited? Is it a view point, a play field, a school lot, a community center, or an abandoned lot that is used temporarily for gardens or play courts? Is it, in the case of Houston, a 10,534-acre flood-control facility leased by Houston from the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers and equipped with sports fields, trails, restrooms and picnic tables that is periodically inundated by 10,000 acres of water? This is not to say that Harnik's figures are not important as indications of how a city is developing or how it compares with others. It is, however, a caution that statistical information can change over time or when different methods of evaluation are employed.

Despite these cavils, park lovers in the cities covered, including Philadelphia, Miami, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Cincinnati, Portland, Oregon, Denver, Phoenix, Tampa and Kansas City, and in those no less important cities that are not, including San Antonio, San Jose, Jacksonville, Columbus, El Paso, Memphis, Milwaukee, Austin, Washington, Nashville and Charlotte, should read "Inside City Parks" because it shows the weaknesses and strengths of today's park systems and indicates means to make them better.

As I was writing in my journal with the informational
facts about Death Valley,it's amazing how the Geologists
knew the formation of the National Park.Those people knew
where and how Death Valley was created.Not only by land
and sea,even God himself made Death Valley a beautiful
place.Yet,there are some parts that were deserted that
made Death Valley forbidden,and mysterious.There is more
to Death Valley that were undiscovered,I get the feeling
that it should be televised and to be discovered.