Pacific Island Legends: Tales from Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia and Austrialia

Book Description

Written at the upper-elementary/middle school level, these stories are an enchanting sampling from islands that appear to some like "twinkling stars in the night sky" of the Pacific Ocean. Intended as a literary companion to Pacific Neighbors and Pacific Nations and Territories, these ancient legends add depth of culture to any study of the islands from which they spring. The stories in Pacific Island Legends are also indexed thematically, allowing students to investigate a cross-section of island lore, for example, by comparing creation myths throughout the Pacific. Beautifully illustrated with culturally appropriate wood cuts by Connie J. Adams, Pacific Island Legends is a window into an important but often overlooked part of the world.

Customer Reviews:

Recommended for students, scholars, and general readers........2000-04-06

The legends and folk lore embodied in the culture and values of Pacific island peoples are showcased in Pacific Island Legends, a single, easy to read volume that is beautifully illustrated with the woodcut images of Connie J. Adams. Educators Bo Flood, Beret Strong, and William Flood have successfully collaborated to present forty-four legends from all over the Pacific, serving to provide cultural access that will be appreciated by scholars and non-specialist general readers alike. Pacific Island Legends is a highly recommended addition to any personal, academic, or public library multicultural myth, legend and folklore reference collection.

Book Description

From the museums, exciting sporting events, and deep-dish pizzas of Chicago to the isolated cabins and historic bed-and-breakfast inns of Indiana's Amish country, this guide offers savvy tips for sightseeing and activities, complete with driving guides, scenic routes, plenty of easy-to-read maps, and a mileage chart.

Customer Reviews:

Not much to go on.......2004-09-23

This is indeed not your typical travel book. Poorly organized and very selective in terms of landmarks and points of interest. I was very frustrated by it.

Not your usual travel book!.......1999-10-13

This book not only gives advice on places to go in Indiana and Illinois -- it tells you so engagingly that it's fun to read! Well written, and unusually enlightening.

viva illinois!.......1999-09-15

loved the book! a must-have! riveting! esp. glad to see mention of Rancool, IL 61866.

...such a handsome photo of the authors.

can't wait for the next edition!

Book Description

John Dante is seventeen when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and he wants to fight for his country. Then he falls in love with Ginny Burton, who is against all war, and his beliefs are suddenly and unexpectedly questioned. But rather than be judged a traitor or a coward, he enlists. “Rylant’s story is heartbreaking in its honesty; her controlled, elegant prose lends poignancy to the story’s emotional depth. A love story, a coming-of-age tale, a book with a passionate anti-war message, I Had Seen Castles is not to be missed.”--Publishers Weekly

Customer Reviews:

Differing Opinions of War.......2007-07-03

When John is seventeen and living in Pittsburgh, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. He, like almost everyone else living in the United States at that time, is caught up in the hype of the war. Many of his classmates are joining the military as soon as possible, and John is anxious to get in line with them so he doesn't have to think of himself as a coward. His older sister is busy entertaining young men who are desperate for female company before they go away, possibly never to return again. John's father is a scientist and has gone off to California to work on new military technology, and John's mother is working in a factory making weapons.

Shortly before he plans on joining the army, John meets Ginny. She is a beautiful Irish girl who has moved with her family to Pittsburgh to take advantage of the abundance of jobs in the city. Ginny is the most amazing girl John has ever met, and the two of them are almost immediately inseparable. The big problem is that Ginny is completely against war and she hates the idea of John enlisting. He can't make her understand why joining is so important to him, and she can't make him understand why he is so against this war.

I liked the personal story of how one person dealt with World War II. I also liked that things didn't work out perfectly for John after the war; his romanticized idea of how things would be was completely incorrect.

I would have liked to have found out more what John's life was like after the war. There was a lot of time that was skipped in the book; most of the focus was on the time just before John went to war.

97 pages of dynamite!.......2006-02-19

It is amazing that this powerful book was only 97 pages long. I read it, enthralled, in under 2 hours. Compares to the Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck for its spare lyrical prose and great characterization. Do not miss this book!

Acid Reflux follows * the Cruel Interruption that is War*.......2006-01-12

How you feel about WAR isn't something you discuss often with your peers, is it? Not if you are an 8th or 9th grader? Not even if you are a high school junior, or an adult. Perhaps this review should be posted on Memorial Day 2006 to mark the last sixty years that should have been lived in Peace. "I Had Seen Castles" tells of John Dante, a boy who grew up building castles of blocks and peopled with knights . . . who became a youth fighting in the lands of castles . . . then later, he suffered alone , an aging ex-patriot who "could not stay in America because America had not suffered."

In this country you can hardly have lived your entire life in "peacetime." At some time you became aware that when people write or say *war* they are referring to WW II which involved our country from 1939, even though Congress did not declare war until after the Pearl Harbor bombing December 7, 1942. Through the years you add to a list of place names that choke you: Pearl Harbor, Dresden, Nagasaki, Rwanda, Darfur, Abu Ghraib. Like the 'acid reflux' widely talked about in commercials, these names continue to eat into the national psyche.

This haunting story is a radical departure from Cynthia Rylant's other titles, written primarily for children. It is a short story with untethered adolescence paired with the horrific realities of war. The author writes beautifully about the sustenance born out of Love. This is a small book to hold, handsomely designed. It will hold the uninterrupted attention of readers. It is also a book to read each year on a day set aside for remembering. Although it is a book for all generations, it seems especially appropriate for today's youth.

The poet Rilke described his emotional response to war with these words: "Only pain, and what can't be said." These words seem to come from the mind and pain of survivor Dante, who was no longer eighteen but burdened forever with memories from sixty years ago. (review by mcHAIKU)

One man's memories of wartime.......2005-10-29

"I Had Seen Castles," by Cynthia Rylant, is a short novel (97 pages) about World War II. The story is told by a first-person narrator, John Dante. John is a man in his late 60s who lives in Toronto. He recalls living with his family in Pittsburgh during the war, when he was a young man. He also remembers his intense relationship with a remarkable young woman named Ginny, and his decision to enlist in the military.

John's narrative is a war story, a love story, and a coming-of-age story. Through her characters Rylant offers a critical look at how war affects individuals, families, and an entire nation's culture. I especially liked her portrait of Ginny, a likeable young woman with a nonconformist streak. The book addresses such issues as wartime propaganda and stereotyping. The issue of courage is also a key theme. But this is a very human story, not a political tract. The tone of the book reminded me of "To Hell and Back," Audie Murphy's powerful WW2 memoir, which might make a good companion text.

"I Had Seen Castles" has a copyright date of 1993, and the copyright page gives 1995 as the date of the first Harcourt paperback edition. I must admit to being surprised to read these dates, because the book feels to me like a commentary on American society during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Perhaps this just demonstrates the accuracy of Rylant's psychological insights; I imagine the book will still feel relevant during some future period of war. This novel offers a compelling look at the home front during World War II, and paints a vivid, unsentimental portrait of Pittsburgh in that era. Written with a quiet but powerful passion, this is a beautiful and moving novel.

Love and loss during WWII.......2005-07-18

This thin volume packs an outsized emotional punch. Written in a memoir form, this is a first person acount of what it was like to come of age during World War II. While the narrator becomes a soldier, this isn't a book about the physical trials of war, but instead is a reflection on the psychic impact of going to war. We watch how the war impacts almost every aspect of his life, changing him irrevocably from an innocent boy to a cynical man who has seen too much pointless death and destruction. An emotionally charged view of the costs of war on the survivors, it should be required reading for anyone in a position to put these young soldiers in harms way.

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I Had Seen Castles
Cynthia Rylant
Manufacturer: Harcourt Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJAEEO

Average customer rating:

I Had Seen Castles
Cynthia Rylant
Manufacturer: Harcourt Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000KP8E26

Average customer rating:

I Had Seen Castles
Cynthia Rylant
Manufacturer: Harcourt Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJYWW4

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I Had Seen Castles
Cynthia Rylant
Manufacturer: Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NPDM5C

Average customer rating:

I Had Seen Castles
Cynthia Rylant
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJN7WK

Book Description

Dieses allgemein verständliche Buch eines weltbekannten Evolutionsbiologen gibt einen brilliant geschriebenen Überblick über die Auswirkungen der Evolutionsbiologie und Genforschung auf die menschliche Gesellschaft. Ausführlich analysiert und kommentiert der Autor insbesondere weit verbreitete falsche Vorstellungen, die oft das Verständnis von Biologie und Evolution behindern. Der Titel "Die Dreifachhelix" bezieht sich auf die drei Komponenten, die bei der Evolution eine Rolle spielen: Gen, Organismus, Umwelt. Alle wissenschaftlichen Interessierten, die sich mit politischen Fragen im Zusammenhang mit Genforschung befassen sowie Mathematiker und Informatiker, die sich in biologischen Fragen einarbeiten wollen, finden in dem Buch eine hervorragende Grundlage. "...das Nachdenken eines ganzen wissenschaftlichen Lebens über Genetik und Evolution ist in diesem kleinen, eleganten und Maßstäbe setzenden Buch konzentriert..."Nature Nov. 2000

Book Description

Creative Space summarizes and integrates the various up-to-date approaches of computational intelligence to knowledge and technology creation including the specific novel feature of utilizing the creative abilities of the human mind, such as tacit knowledge, emotions and instincts, and intuition. It analyzes several important approaches of this new paradigm such as the Shinayakana Systems Approach, the organizational knowledge creation theory, in particular SECI Spiral, and the Rational Theory of Intuition – resulting in the concept of Creative Space. This monograph presents and analyzes in detail this new concept together with its ontology – the list and meanings of the analyzed nodes of this space and of the character of transitions linking these nodes.

Book Description

Our hero confronts a large and varied cast, including Wackford Squeers, the fantastic ogre of a schoolmaster, and Vincent Crummles, the grandiloquent ham actor, on his comic and satirical adventures up and down the country. Punishing wickedness, befriending the helpless, strutting the stage, and falling in love, Nicholas shares some of his creator's energy and earnestness as he faces the pressing issues of early Victorian society.

Download Description

Around the central story of Nicholas Nickleby and the misfortunes of his family Dickens created some of his most wonderful characters: the muddle-headed Mrs. Nickleby, the gloriously theatrical Crummles, their protegee Miss Petowker, the pretentious Mantalinis, and the mindlessly cruel Squeers and his wife. Nicholas Nickleby's loose, haphazard progress harks back to the picaresque novels of the eighteenth century -- particularly those of Smollett and Fielding -- yet the novel's exuberant atmosphere of romance, adventure, and freedom is leavend by Dickens' awareness of social ills and financial and class insecurity.

Customer Reviews:

A Very Funny Dickens Novel.......2007-07-30

This is a very funny novel in some sections. Imagine an older Oliver Twist, about 19 or 20 or so, but handsome, and with a temper, and with a strong outgoing personality, and one who can act and do all kinds of things. He has lots of self confidence and a beautiful sister, and throw in an obnoxious and rich uncle and a dotty mother. Yes, it is very, very entertaining.

I bought the Wordsworth Classic version but would recommend the Penguin Classic version, and recommend that purchase highly. This is among Dickens's somewhat forgotten novel but still among his best. It is another masterpiece that brings together all of Dickens's writing skills with a great story. I would rate it slightly behind David Copperfield but it remains one of the most original and interesting of Dickens's novels somewhat on par with Oliver Twist.

As background information, I am in the process of reading most of Dickens's 22 novels and longer short stories, and set up a Listmania list. As a suggestion, avoid the Penguin Popular Classics with the plain green covers (I bought two). They fall apart and do not stand up to a read, especially books over 500 pages in length. The Regular Penguin Classics with the photo or painting on the front are excellent and some have maps and illustrations (drawings). The Wordsworth Classics are not as good, and some are illustrated.

A young Dickens at the age of 12 had the unenviable job of attaching labels 10 hours a day at the Warren's boot blacking factory. That experience shaped much of his writing career. Still in his teens he became a law clerk, then later in his twenties a journalist. The last job as a reporter led to the serialized writing of his novels. His works were social commentaries with larger than life characters, or colorful caricatures, living in the slums of London. He was a critic of poverty, social injustice, and the slow moving court system.

All of Dickens's experiences come together in his novels. The Pickwick Papers, his first novel, is mostly humorous. But the next one, Oliver Twist, is a dark novel set in the crime plagued streets of early 19th century London. Next in novel number three, he changes back to a more humorous novel which is the present work. This is a big novel, about 750 pages or so - but the pages fly by. The protagonists are Nicholas, who is almost 20, his sister Kate, a few years younger, and his uncle Ralph Nickleby. Their father has died and Nicholas and Kate come to London with their mother to seek aid from the wealthy uncle. The uncle finds them minimum paying jobs, and that creates a good story. It is a novel with many common features that we expect from Dickens with things such as a school where the children are beaten, but it has many funny parts and it is complicated by the uncle's financial dealings.

Having read many of Dickens's novels I still rate David Copperfield as best as a work of literature and rate Oliver Twist as close behind and a must read. The latter book was read by Queen Victoria and Karl Marx, and both enjoyed the read. The novel had a far reaching social impact. Nicholas Nickleby is another gem and well worth the read, but lacks the social bite of Oliver Twist, and lacks the enthusiasm of David Copperfield, but it is hilarious.

Dickens! Dickens!.......2006-12-29

Charles Dickens is my favorite author and this is another excellent story! I have all his books, and they are all well-written, entertaining and intellectual. I love how people are his subject and he is a master of words. Every person ought to read Dickens if only for the understanding of grammar you will receive.

Nicholas Nickleby: A Raucous Romp through Merrye Olde England!.......2006-10-02

Nicholas Nickleby was written in 1838-39 by Charles Dickens riding the crest of his monumental success from writing Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist. The lengthy novel is filled with memorble characters, an exciting plot and the incredible genius of England's greatest novelists.
The story concerns the adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (the least interesting character in the book!, his sister Kate and his fatuous and longwinded mother the widow Mrs. Nickleby.
Nicholas works for a time in the infamous Dotheboys Hall for boys in Yorkshire. The schoolmaster is the evil Wackford Squeers, his odious wife and his ugly daughter Fanny who becomes infatuated with Nicholas. it is here that we meet the pathetic mentally challenged lad Smike who is assisted by Nicholas and along with him leaves the horrid school.
One of the most hilarious parts of the book deals with the time NN spent with the Vincent Crummles theatrical company. Dickens loved the theatre and loved to act in amateur theatricals.
Katle Nickleby is employed at the Madame Mantalini milliery shop and becomes a companion to a wealthy and ridiculous woman. She is pursued romantically by the scoundrel Sir Mulberry Hawk.
Dickens draws a vivid portrait of corrupt evil in the wicked uncle Ralph Nickleby a usurer whose wiles and schemes for fortune pull the many threads of the plot into a well woven plot that has a crackerjack ending as secrets are revealed and all ends well for the Nickleby family.
This is still in many ways an work of growth for the budding novelists.
It resembles a picaresque novel of the eighteenth century in following Nicholas and Kate through many scenes and situations. The genius of the novel lies in Dickens peerless ability to draw memorable characters that will live in the reader's mind long after the complicated plot machinations are forgotten.
The Penguin Edition is excellently edited with copious notes and a learned introduction. The original illustrations by Hablot K. Browne
are also included (Phiz). This is a pageturner which will entertain you for hours. It is a good novel to begin with if you have not read Dickens.
The Dickens world is filled with all those marvelous characters which shall live as long as literature. Great.

Nicholas Nickleby.......2006-01-28

This book is best, out of all the Dickens books. If you should just read one of Dicken's, it should be this one.This captures all of the suspense that he creates in any of his books. I reccomend this boook to anyone who is looking for a long and satisfying read.

The moral and the immoral, guess who wins? .......2005-09-14

Money versus virture, poverty set against wealth, hero against the ills of society, plus the combined forces of the duty to family and bond between sister and brother. Any Dickens novel will bring you the perfection of character, the ordinary individual through thought and deed becomes the extraordinary

Throw in a sarcasm still alive today, mainly through the use of superlatives which over emphasize the importance of "Lord somebody" and deftly turn these titled aristocrats from dieties of fortune into over inflated balloons. Dickens, in a time of Victorian sensibility, turned to an arsenal of adjectives for dealing with the long engrained antediluvian British nobility. Exquisite descriptions allowing the reader to visit each character as if you were in the literal sense, sitting in their living rooms observing their lives right down to the tea kettle whistle.

All Dickens novels are loaded with the stuff of glory, but never too far fetched that he can't drive home the plight of the impoverished, the cycles of poverty and the deep suffering he witnesses daily in the streets of London. What better way to emphasize injustice than to contrast sick and orphaned children with rich old misers?

Comparing his observations on injustice, you will find it relevant today, in a different guise perhaps, from Lord Somebody and his buffoons in parliament to our corporate welfare state and over saturated market economy.

How does one survive a world as cruel as one directed by a corrupt guardian uncle in the money lending business? Only Nicholas Nickelby can answer that. With nothing but youth on his side and a good upbringing in the country, Nicholas learns his values will need to be tested at the risk of his own safety and reputation. As he defends his character and the honor of his family, not to mention saving a few lives of those much worse off than he, he gains enough good karma to last several lifetimes as he follows his heart to the wealth that awaits him like a holy grail. Like any hero, he sets off a chain reaction of good luck for his family and aquaintances, until the book exhausts itself in becoming one riotous, joyous celebration of life. As one last task,Nicholas with all his honor, attracts the only one thing he is missing, an equally flawless damsel to be rescued from a cruel, self centered father.

Unlike his later works, this one is brimming with sweet hyperbolic idealism and exageration, like youthful optimism, it does not carry the same intimate character intropsection he develops later.

It is worth it to settle into this novel to witness the sharp black and white juxtapose of the good character versus corrupt.
Whereas Dickens balanced this with gray areas between rich and poor in other novels, this work is direct, simple and explicit in it's quest for moral ground. Wealth matches wealth of spirit and Dickens can make it infectious with his keen observations of human behavior and his absolute dedication to matching his words to his heart.

Nicholas Nickleby: Parts 1 & 2 (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection)

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Nicholas Nickleby: Parts 1 & 2 (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection)
Charles Dickens
Manufacturer: Audio Book Contractors
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 1556858256

Nicholas Nickleby (Part 1 & 2) (The Anniversary Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens, 18 & 29)

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Nicholas Nickleby (Part 1 & 2) (The Anniversary Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens, 18 & 29)
Charles Dickens
Manufacturer: P. F. Collier & Son
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Product Description

These two books have beautiful illustrations in a red hardback binding with gold lettering. Beautiful turn of the century rendition of this classic tale.

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