Toys and Games Books

This a must have for any doll collector of modern dolls. There are over 50 doll artists mentioned with a brief history of their work. For each artist mentioned there is at least one photo of their dolls. There also is The World's Most Beautiful Dolls Volume II as a great follow-up edition.

This is a great resource for all language arts teachers who are looking for extra help with teaching writing. I love to use these for lessons or quick activities when our class has a little extra time before the period ends. Also a great book to have handy for substitutes. Easy to use and full of great ideas!

Ever wanted to know how to set up an effective permanent center in your classroom. This great book gives you the why, how and what to get it done with organization and structure. I've used this book for 2 years in teacher workshops. It is a valuable resource! BUY IT, practice it's ideas and be rewarded by an increase in student invovlement in reading!

Personally, I really don't like the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card games, I think Pokemon is way better. But I was reading a Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga Episode in an issue of Shonen Power! and the Manga is great! Anzu is my favorite character! It's really sweet that she likes the one Yugi, but not the kid one. Hahaha! So, DONT PLAY YU- GI- OH! READ IT!

This deck is fabulous for aggressive players who like to use dinosaurs and dragons!

I love books about the backwaters of American popular culture so I was pleased to get a copy of Leslie Singer's affectionate look at ray guns of the past. The hundred color photos in this nicely presented book will provoke plenty of nostalgia for those who grew up with Buck Rogers. Mr Singer's favorite is the Atomic Disintergrator (page 18) but my favorite is the space car (page 48) streamline curves straight out of the New York World's Fair in 1939, though it was made by Wannatoys in the fifties. Not a gun but it looks so good Singer included it anyway!

If you are really into the subject have a look at: Ray Gun by Eugene Metcalf and Frank Maresca, plenty of excellent color photos, including a quite stunning gun (page 101) from sixties England, the Space Outlaw Gun. There is also a selection of film posters and boxes the guns came in. Both books have a useful bibliography and 'Ray Gun' even lists web sites.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover

This is my second favourite in the series after Book 6.Splendid book,still addictive and brilliant!

Did not come with the Dust Cover but was in excellent shape and came on time.

After reading the first book and diving headfirst into this one (like I did) you notice how the story itself is so well put together because it's like there was never a seperation. This starts where book 1 left off. And unlike book 1, where you can tell the main focus of the story was to develop who it is you're reading about and get planted into their lives, this book begins the slow yet ultimately satisfying dark plunge that the series as a whole is going to take.

During and after reading this you will come to understand that the rollercoaster of friendship, magic, prophacies, and ressurecting evil wizards is shaping up to be one hell of a ride.

A wonderful sequel to "Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone". The first book introduced the reader to the world of wizardry. While Ms. Rowling's debut work was filled with wonderment, suspense and gee-whiz fun, the second installment is a little darker. It also answers a few questions which remained dangling at the end of The Sorcerer's Stone. In addition, colorful, new characters are introduced; some of the familiar characters are fleshed out more; and fresh mysteries pertaining to the whole Hogwarts' realm make this book an extremely entertaining read for all ages. Read the books in sequence and enjoy the ride. My guess is that Ms. Rowling's series still will be popular long after all of us are dead and buried.

I've just read this book for the 2nd time realizing how much I had forgotten. The movie follows this book closely but the book is always better. This book like the first starts off pulling you in the minute the Weasley's break him out. I enjoyed the suspense/mystery of this book as to who is the heir of Slyterin. Time doesn't feel rushed in the book as it did in the movie. I loved this book and read it quickly, a real page turner. I will read this book again. It's excellent for kids and adults.

Hatchet is one of Gary Paulsen's finest works. I think his goal was to establish a great young adult novel that is easy to become immersed in. He looks to create a book that is enjoyable and also has a lot of useful information about life in the wilderness.
Paulsen, a writer from Minneapolis, writes young adult novels usually about nature. He has written over 200 books, short stories, magazine articles, and plays. He enjoys dog sled racing and has participated in many Iditarod races.
Brian Robeson is trapped in the Canadian wilderness with nothing more than the clothes on his back and a hatchet, given to him by his divorced mother before his trip. He crashes from a bush plane after the pilot has a heart attack and the plane runs out of fuel. He is forced to eat whatever he can find, which includes fish, turtle eggs, wild berries, and a few birds. Isolated from any outside help, Brian must find out on his own by making fire by hitting flint with more flint and other survival tactics. Many dangers seem to get in Brian's way as he tries to get by until he can be rescued. Among these dangers, Brian must face a porcupine, a moose, and even a tornado. Will he survive the elements and get rescued or will the wilderness be too much for him to handle?
I feel that Gary Paulsen has achieved his goal with flying colors. You could read this book over and over again and still find inspiration from it. Hatchet sparked the mind with exciting conflicts and kept me entertained from cover to cover. I felt that Hatchet has a certain special touch that no other writer could compare. If you are ever stuck in the wilderness, do not look for a survival guide, look for Hatchet. It will teach you more about the wild than most guides out there.

It was slightly better than I expected, though still pretty uninteresting with large gaps filled with nothing but boredom. (Comparable to Deathly Hallow's camping scenes) However, I did like Gary Paulson's narration style quite a bit, it came off as very natural and conversational. The one thing that bothered me about the narration was the repetition. There were lots of ideas that were repeated for no apparent reason ("He would have to find something to eat. Before he did anything else, he would have to have something to eat." (57)) This is neither realistic nor simplistic, and just ends up annoying the reader tremendously. I also thought that Brian was not a very consistent character, sometimes showing traits of a boy well beyond his age, and sometimes acting like a five year old would. Brian's repetitive TV/movie related realizations were really getting irksome as well. I suppose it's just hard to relate to this book and some of the things Brian had to do to survive simply due to the fact that I've never been placed in such a situation, so it's very hard to relate. I did not like the convenience of the emergency kit at the end, and the fact that there was no resolution about The Secret was probably the most irritating part of all--why mention it in the first place if you won't solve it?

I've been on the biggest reading kick of my life here lately and I've been a bit nostalgic as well, so when I decided to re-read some of the books from my grade school years, I chose "Hatchet" first based on its inspirational tale of one lone pre-teen boy's survival.

Brian Robeson is a 13-year old boy on his way to visit his father up north. At the peak of summer, he boards a Cessna 406 in Hampton, NY bound for oil fields in Canada where his father is working as a mechanical engineer. The Cessa carries with it oil drilling cargo but before they can reach their destination, the pilot unexpectedly has a heart attack and dies at the wheel, leaving Brian to land the plane all by himself. Miraculously surviving the crash, he is now faced with trying to survive in the Canadian wildnerness with what little he has in wits and supplies. He will later realize that his mother, despite his anger toward her for his parents' sudden and vicious divorce, saved his life when she gave him a rubber-handled hatchet just before his departure. It would prove to be one of two preeminant tools that kept him alive for a total of fifty-four days before he was rescued.

I can remember reading this book back in elementary school but never really appreciating the story. I am so glad I revisited this tale, for now I truly appreciate the power of the story and the power of Brian's will to survive. During his nearly two-month exile, Brian is subjected to the unmerciful climate, swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitos, dangerous wildlife (moose, black bears) and truly WORKING for his meals. In the process of his survival, he becomes incredibly innovative and learns how to trap swarms of fish at a time for easy meals. He quickly tires of fish and soon moves on to bigger game, figuring out how to trap and kill native grouse through trial and error. Paulsen even has Brian dying a metaphorical death and being reborn, the rigmarole of everyday tasks in order to survive creating in Brian a champion and expert in the hunter-gatherer sense.

Most important was Brian's power of positive thinking, a thing drilled into him from a former English teacher named Perpich. As he assesses everything in his possession that he can use toward things like trapping/hunting and shelter, another mantra from Perpich enters his head, that second of his two tools that would ultimately keep him alive: "You are your most valuable asset. Don't forget that. You are the most valuable thing you have." (pg. 51)

Much of how Brian adapts and excels at his primitive way of life can remind one of the 2000 film "Castaway" in which the marooned Chuck Noland (played by Tom Hanks) at first clumsily and not without many mistakes learns to survive on his own; by the end he is extremely resourceful, expertly spearing fish, building a raft and making fires with the greatest of ease.

Bottom line: "Hatchet" is a classic coming-of-age tale that teaches perseverence, the power of mind over matter and the irrepressibility of the human spirit. I hope that this book is a part of schools's curriculums for many years to come and I certainly plan to share this story with my children as they come of age.

Of course, like many of the reviewers, I had to read this for school. And it has turned out to be one of my most favorite books of all times! I LOVE this book!

If you do not like wilderness, don't read it

If you do not like very vivid detail and description, don't read it

If you do not like to believe that a child at the age of 13-14 could survive on their own, don't read it.......

I've read almost all of the 1 star reviews and a lot sound like they came from really immature people, or people who don't like really good descriptions of things (ie the repitition in the book)

I for one really appreciated the detail that Gary put into the book. It really makes the story come to life. I went on to read the sequels, and while not QUITE as good, they are still good. I would recommend this to any child that has a very vivid imagination

I was pre-reading this book for my 10-year-old who enjoys adventure stories (along the lines of "My Side of the Mountain") and was glad that I did. Some of the content of this book is NOT appropriate for this age -- for example, when the boy recalls the details of witnessing his mother engaged in an adulterous passionate kiss with her lover, which became "the Secret" his father did not know about. I'm not saying it is a bad book for an appropriately aged reader -- but I do want to warn parents looking for an innocent adventure story for their children -- this is not it.

After I visited the building in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family had to hide during WWII, I finally decided to read her famous diary for myself. And I have to say: I was impressed. The book works very well on a variety of levels:

As History
This is an important historical witness of how the daily life of a teenager was restricted and finally squashed by the Nazi regime in Amsterdam. The humanity of Anne's daily thoughts - free-flowing and turbulent - make for a stark contrast to Hitler's cold machinery of might and control. Anne does not embody a perfect human but a real human. She becomes the face for all the faceless who were sucked into a totalitarian system.

As Literature
Considering that the diary is written by a thirteen to fifteen year-old, it is incredibly well written. The Nazis have deprived the world of a witty, pensive and creative writer.

As Psychology
Anne's diary is filled with insights into human nature. Her reflections on herself and her fellow humans are detailed and instructive, sometimes consciously so and sometimes unconsciously by eloquently voicing the feelings of someone her age.

As Child Education
This is an important book both for teenagers and parents. Anne's honesty about her feelings, development (physical and otherwise), problems and joys might help teenagers to deal better with their own development - and parents might be moved by Anne to more sympathy for that age group.

In short, this is essential reading, and ideal when discussing the Holocaust and the Second World War with a young teenager.

Shipping took longer than expected but the book was in new condition as was stated

I've read this book ten times and it never gets old. Every young adult should read this!

This is truly one of the greatest books ever written. As a reader reads this book, he will see a young girl blossoming into a phenomenal young woman. All in the confines of her family's "Secret Annexe", while in hiding from the Gestapo, and to keep from being captured, and sent to a concentration camp.

As I read this book, I felt Anne Frank was speaking to me. I felt her anger, her rebellion, and laughed when she would tell a joke, or say something harsh about another member of the "Secret Annexe". Her words, so eloquently written, will touch anybody who reads them, and this book will become one that they will never forget, as it has with me. As I read her diary, and connected with Anne, I felt a depressing feeling, because I knew that at one point her diary entries would suddenly stop, and there would be no fitting ending for this masterpiece.

With that said, what Anne Frank has left for us is a memorable diary, which encompasses what she went through. The hunger, and horrible conditions that she, and many Jews were put through is a testament to how cruel, intolerant, and unjustifiably evil humanity can be.

I recommend this book to anybody who likes to read, and even to those who don't.

As a young adult I had read articles on the book. I knew the story. I saw the movie made from the book. However, I had never read the book itself.
The experience of reading the words of Anne as she lived for two year in hiding with her family, and others in hiding, was entirely different than just knowing the story. Reading another persons personal words as they were living the life that inspired them to write is a most intimate experience.
In my adult life I am glad to have had the experience of actually reading Anne Frank's words. I recommend the reading of this book to young and mature persons who wish to understand what transpired in our world history on an intimate level.

This is one of the all time favorites to add to your children's library. It is an especially great selection to read to children at bedtime. A wonderful selection for children having difficulty going to sleep at night.

The Christmas Edition
This was a bedtime favorite of my children. Now our oldest is about to have her own child (its a boy). So I bought a parcel of books for the baby. When Kimberly saw this book, tears sprang in her eyes remembering me reading this to her while she sat on my lap. In a few more months someone new will be in her arms on her lap, and she will be reading this book to him.

My Mom and Dad used to read this to me every night growing up and I bought it for my God daughter because it is one of the most memorable books from my childhood.
Such a great children's book. Should be a part of every child's bedtime story time

I've only read this book a couple of times to my young son, but plan to read more once he gets older. The book is very simple and more of a short story. If you wanted to make it a litte longer for your child then you could point things out in the story like, "See the bunny" to make it longer. I really like the book though and I'm excited to use it as a bed time story. It is a recommended book after all.

According to my mom I loved this book when I was a baby. She thinks that the one I had was all color and more vibrant than this edition. Half of the pages of this new edition are black and white. Very uninspiring. Out of 100+ books that my 17 month old son has, this is his least favorite. I read it to him a few times but his eyes seemed to glaze over with boredom (in a way it's actually kind of cool to see him discriminate between good and bad "literature"). Now it is gathering dust.