Title: Elementary Korean (with audio CD)
Author: Ross King, Ph.D. and Jae-Hoon Yeon, Ph.D.
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Tuttle Publishing
Pages: 409
ISBN: 0-8048-3614-0
Price: $69.37
Publishing Date: 2000
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This textbook on the Korean language is accompanied by an audio CD featuring native speakers pronouncing the book’s oral exercises correctly. Korean is a member of the Ural-Altaic language group—most closely related to Hungarian and Finnish. Although influenced by the Chinese language and culture, Korean is quite different. First, it is not a tonal language like Chinese. It has one of the most accurate phonetic writing systems in the world. It is not an easy language; for instance, it has different levels of honorifics in many of its verbs.
This text is definitely meant to accompany human instruction. It is not intended as a Berlitz method listen-to-phrases-on-a-tape kind of book. It would have been nice to see the writing system addressed in the first lesson as opposed to the third—especially when the writing system is used right from the first in the book. It was good in how it made comparisons between South and North Korean language ideosyncracies. Unfortunately I did not see it addressing the mixing of Ps & Bs and Ts & Ds and other dialectic differences between the Seoul region and points south of there. There were no cultural or historic references that sometimes make a language easier to understand. As it stands, we had to rate this text three hearts.
Title: Illustrating Nature: Right-Brain Art In a Left-Brain World
Author: Irene Brady
Illustrator: Irene Brady
Publisher and/or Distributor: Nature Works Press
Pages: 162
ISBN: 0-915965-08-9
Price: $25.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This is a superbly rendered art book that can be used to teach graphic arts techniques and concepts to people of all ages. The author is a highly accomplished nature artist who has illustrated for museums and national magazines. She provides drawing exercises that incorporate both hemispheres of the brain. This would be an excellent school or home-school text, as well as an excellent self-help guide to budding artists. We rated it five hearts.
Title: Over in the Ocean in a Coral Reef
Author: Marianne Berkes
Illustrator: Jeanette Canyon
Publisher and/or Distributor: Dawn Publications
Pages: 32
ISBN: 1-58469-062-3 paperback/1-58469-063-1 hardback
Price: $8.95
Publishing Date: 2004
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This is a cute rhyming store about life around a coral reef. It’s also a counting book, a music book, and a science book. On top of all that, it has absolutely amazing illustrations that are formed completely out of colored clays. This is a very impressive project and also a very effective one. We rated it five hearts.
Title: Are You A Snail?
Author: Judy Allen
Illustrator: Trudy Humphries
Publisher and/or Distributor: Kingfisher
Pages: 32
ISBN: 0-7534-5604-4
Price: $4.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This is an excellent pre-school science picture book focused on how snails live. It includes how they get around, what they eat, who and what are dangerous to them, and how they live through the winter. The book is crammed with interesting facts and the pictures are well done and informative. We rated it four hearts.
Title: My Teacher Rides a Harley: Enhancing K-5 Literacy through Songwriting with accompanying CD
Author: Gary Dulabaum
Illustrator: Micheal Tonn
Publisher and/or Distributor: Maupin House
Pages: 118
ISBN: 0-929895-56-8
Price: $23.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
My Teacher Rides a Harley is an excellent teaching resource which demonstrates teaching the love of reading through the use of music and student generated song lyrics. This is a cross-discipline approach to reading education. As a professional storyteller, musician, and licensed music teacher, this reviewer found Gary's approach to be both wonderfully wacky and effective. This book is filled with humorous observations of teachers and students and practical exercises using music to develop an interest in reading. The author focuses and knows what works and what doesn't. He has used and taught these techniques in schools throughout the US. The CD is professional quality and both demonstrates sing-a-longs and how-to's. We rated this a solid four hearts.
Title: The Platiquemos FSI Language Program: Spanish Basic Course Level 1
Author:
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Lucas Language Productions / Multilinual Books
Pages: 199
ISBN: 15821-4182-7
Price: $
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This is an updated version of the Spanish instruction endorsed by the US Foreign Service Institute. This first unit of eight is a combination of an easily understood text and eight excellent CDs with eighteen voices of native speakers who are language professors at the Cuernavaca Language School. The instruction is easy to follow and the aural examples are authentic to the Mexico/Central/South American region. It includes typical songs from the region as well The fact that this is the course used by our State Department for their language training needs says it all. We heartily endorse this program and rate it five hearts.
Title: Release the Butterfly: A Manifesto for Change in the Studio
Author: Robert Murray Diefendorf
Illustrator: Samantha Wall
Publisher and/or Distributor: Butterfly Press
Publisher Website: www.releasethebutterfly.com
Pages: 117
ISBN: 0-9729887-0-X
Price: $15
Publishing Date: Summer 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
This is a groundbreaking book on piano, music, and life pedagogy! One could say it is a Zen approach to music; however, that would not be wholly true. It goes way beyond Zen, including both Eastern and Western approaches and tools for better teaching and living. It is not a book on how to teach better technique or interpretation, but how to get in touch with one's student, one's self, and most importantly, the music. The author stresses throughout the need to still one's own anxieties and seek out the student's.
Release the Butterfly should be read by all teachers and their students. He uses many real-life examples from his own experience and other giants in the music education and performance fields. Having been a guitar teacher for several years, I recognized both the good and the not so good aspects to teacher/student relationships in the studio, which the author points out. We rated this book five hearts.
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Title: The Prize
Author: M. LaCourt
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: American Book Publishing
Publisher Website: www.american-book.com
Pages: 288
ISBN: 1-58982-066-5
Price: $22
Publishing Date: March 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating:
The Prize is a multifaceted book. On one hand, it is an interesting novel along the lines of The Philadelphia Experiment. On the other hand, it is a teaching vehicle of the dynamics of co-dependent relationships which center around bullies. A wealthy man was constantly picked on as a youth until his antagonists got out of hand, leaving him bloody and broken. Their ringleader ended up with probation and some life-changing experiences that eventually steered him into the Priesthood. The wealthy young man became more wealthy and highly respected. The story begins with an ironical meeting between the two in their post-middle-aged years. They become friends and decide to create an experiment in the social dynamics of young, inner-city high schoolers. Ten kids chosen at random are offered a year's free education in a privately tutored environment. If they can obey all the social rules and standards for one year, they will all receive a prize of $500,000 each for their college educations. If just one of them breaks a rule, no one will get the prize. What happens when most of the rules are broken?
The story is filled with wonderful twists and turns. The author has captured the dialogue and characterizations of the troubled youth in a superlative manner. This is an excellent teaching tool. I would but it on the same level as Holes in its appeal to both the teaching and the young adult communities. The development of the relationships is done in a wonderfully ironic fashion. We rated this book a very high four hearts.
Title: Scoring A Great Internship
Author: Ellen Rubinstein
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Natavi Guides
Distributor Website: www.ipgbook.com
Pages: 112
ISBN: 0-9719392-8-4
Price: $6.95
Publishing Date: 2002
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5
This is a down to earth guidebook for students and by students for getting internship experiences that matter. It's a quick and easy read with excellent practical explanations and suggestions for getting just the right kind of intern experience for you. This is one of several books in a series called Students Helping Students. They are written and edited by top students and recent grads. More can be seen at www.studentshelpingstudents.com . I found the information valid and plan to hand this book off to my youngest daughter who is a sophomore at Kansas State University. An endorsement doesn't get any better than that. We rated this guide five hearts.
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Title: Blues Guitar Chords and Accompaniment
Author: Yoichi Arakawa
Illustrator: Frank Foster
Publisher and/or Distributor: Six Strings Music Publishing
Publisher Website: www.sixstringsmusicpub.com
Pages: 128
ISBN: 1-891370-12-X
Price: $15.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 3
This instruction manual took me back a few years. To understand the blues, one must know its roots. The author does an excellent job of bringing the student up from basic stylings through more complex modern ones. I especially liked how he included material for both flat pickers and finger pickers. His boogie patterns were ones I played as a teenager in the early 1960s; he showed the progression to heavy metal power chords; and his jazz blues are patterns I play today. This is a comprehensive teaching aid. It could be enhanced by an accompanying demo CD, but it is still well worth the price. We rated it a high three hearts.
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Title: Jazz Guitar Chords and Accompaniment
Author: Yoichi Arakawa
Illustrator: Frank Foster
Publisher and/or Distributor: Six Strings Music Publishing
Publisher Website: www.sixstringsmusicpub.com
Pages: 128
ISBN: 1-891370-09-X
Price: $15.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 3
This is a great step-up instruction manual for intermediate guitarists. Jazz guitar can easily be differentiated from folk or rock guitar in its richness of harmony and chord structure complexities. The author builds step-by-step from basic to complex. He includes an excellent music theory section to explain how chords can become more complex. His exercises provide both structure and the freedom to experiment. This latter aspect is important if the student is to develop his own voice or style. I especially was pleased to find a number of bossa nova examples of Brazilian jazz, which is known for combining rich harmonies with complex rhythm structures.
It is hoped that future editions of this book might contain an accompanying CD, which could demonstrate some of the exercises and rhythms. Guitarists who do not come from an instrumental background tend to have problems sight-reading. CDs help with examples so they can begin to equate what they hear with what they see in the music. We rated this book three hearts mostly because it has a highly specialized market niche. The material itself is quite good.
Title: The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book
Author: Guy Bailey
Illustrator: Cynthia Wilson
Publisher and/or Distributor: Educators Press
Publisher Website: www.educatorspress.com
Pages: 193
ISBN: 0-9669727-4-0
Price: $19.95
Publishing Date: March 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 Hearts
Many states require some sort of physical education program in the public schools. How are homeschoolers supposed to comply with these requirements? Is a family jog enough, or should you go for motor skills development? This resource provides a wide variety of sports-based games that can be played cheaply and without a lot of space. Most importantly, the activities look fun. Physical education shouldn't have to be arduous. Why can't it be enjoyable? The author, a highly experienced phys ed teacher, has put together a delightful resource for homeschooling families. We rated it four hearts.
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Title: Teaching the Youngest Writers: A Practical Guide
Author: Marcia S. Freeman
Illustrator: Marcia S. Freeman
Publisher and/or Distributor: Maupin House
Publisher Website: www.maupinhouse.com
Pages: 142
ISBN: 0-929895-26-6
Price: $19.95
Publishing Date: 2003
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 Hearts
This is an ideal resource for elementary teachers and parents who home-school. It shows, step-by-step, how to develop young students from emerging writers into elaborative writers. It includes suggestions on how to set up your classroom; schedule and organize writing workshops; model craft techniques; teach students how to critique one another; and teach young writers to revise and edit. The author, a writing-education consultant, provides both instructions and examples of what to expect from your students at their various stages of development. We rated this handbook four hearts.
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Title: Advanced Guitar Workbooks
Author: Bruce Arnold
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Muse Eek
Publisher Website: www.muse-eek.com
Pages:
ISBN:
Price: $
Publishing Date:
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 Hearts
The author, a gifted jazz and funk guitarist and musical educator, was gracious enough to send me four workbooks designed for the advanced guitarist:
Comping Styles for Guitar Vol 2 Funk
Music Theory Workbook for Guitar Vol 2
Chord Workbook for Guitar Vol 2
Guitar Clinic
All of them were superlative. Like many guitarists, I learned to play with the Mel Bay series of student manuals. They were OK, but extremely outdated. This series of guitar workbooks by Mr. Arnold are well written and illustrated. More importantly, they are more "with-it" and oriented toward the adult or more advanced student. The author cuts to the bottom line of what is needed to play innovative solos and accompaniments on the modern music scene. His techniques teaching is excellent, providing the scales, runs, chord voicings, and rhythm patterns of today. As a guitar teacher and a part-time professional guitarist, I found many useful bits of information for both myself and my older students. I rate his advanced workbooks five hearts.
Title: The Character Education Handbook
Author: Anne C. Dotson and Karen D. Wisart
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Character Press
Publisher Website: www.teachingcharacter.com
Pages: 158
ISBN: 0-9704838-4-8
Price: $ 29.95
Publishing Date: 2001
Reader: Allan Lechner
Rating: 4
The authors' goal in this book is to provide a template that the reader can use to develop a character education program in a school. The steps of the program are clear and easy to follow. One of the steps of the character education program is positive modeling by the administration, teachers, and staff. The authors state that character education should be started early and that parents have more influence on the character of their children than anyone else. The authors have identified a problem with the statement, that being, some parents don't know how to install good character in their children. I agree with the authors' point of view that character education is an idea whose time has come, but I disagree that it should become the responsibility of the school.
I think the authors' expectations are unrealistic. Teachers are already overloaded with lesson plan preparation, teaching class, being available before and after school to help students, and making accommodations for special education students who have individual education plans and students who have Section 504 plans. There should have been more detail and examples of team building. Team development is critical to gaining consensus when plan to introduce something new. The mechanics of the Character Education Program lends is self for the implementation of any new program, not just character education. We rated this book four hearts.
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Title: Muse Eek Guitar Instruction Series
Author: Bruce Arnold
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Muse Eek Publishing Company
Publisher Website: www.muse-eek.com
Pages:
ISBN: 1890944904/0964863219/0964863243
Price: $19.95/31.50/31.50
Publishing Date: late 1990s to 2001
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4
Bruce Arnold is an accomplished jazz guitarist and educator. I reviewed three of his instruction books: 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist; Chord Workbook for Guitar; and Music Theory Workbook for Guitar. I also listened to an incredible jazz music album he provided for my listening pleasure. As a player, he is awesome. As a writer of instruction manuals, he is very good for the more advanced student. I compared his books with the Mel Bay series, which I use for my students (and on which I learned). His go into much more depth than those I'm accustomed to. Ideally, I would introduce his material after a couple of months.
I am eager to see some of the other books he has in his series of over thirty instructional manuals. I believe depth is the best term to describe what this educator has to offer. He takes on some of the more difficult aspects for guitarists and digs deeply into the subject material. I would have killed to have manuals like these when I was in college. I rated these manuals four hearts.
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Title: Musical Spanish
Author: Stacey Tipton
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: The Musical Linguist
Publisher Website: www.musicalspanish.com
Pages: 112
ISBN: 0-9706829-0-5
Price: $ 29.99
Publishing Date: 2000
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5
Musical Spanish is a combination language manual and an interactive/musical CD for teaching Spanish. The author uses very cleanly pronounced pop Spanish songs to assist in teaching the language. The music makes the instructional material appealing. More importantly, music is well known to open up the brain to language assimilation (proven by the Bulgarians in the 1970s and the Canadians in the 1980s). This package is compatible with both Mac and PC environments and is very professionally done. As a degreed singer in the German, Italian, and Latin languages, this reviewer found the transition to Spanish to be smooth and interesting. The subtleties of correct pronunciation came through very well. The author does an excellent job of building on the foundations laid out by these delightful songs to develop a solid approach to language learning. We rated this curricula supplement a solid five hearts.
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Title: Compass Point Books
Author:
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Compass Point Books
Publisher Website: www.compasspointbooks.com
Pages:
ISBN:
Price: $
Publishing Date:
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5
Imagine suddenly receiving out of nowhere over a hundred books for review by the same publisher. That is exactly what happened to us. At first I was a little perturbed because there was no way we could review all these books in a timely fashion. Fortunately they were children's educational support books. I quickly began to scan various ones in several different thematic collections. Wow, I was blown away. I called their customer service line and discovered that yes, they had intended to send me all four boxes and that they had been in business only four years. Double WOW!
Bound in library strength bindings, for the most part, there are several series of books supporting K-6 grades in areas of biographies, geography, history, social studies, science, reading, and numerous other areas, including accelerated reading. Their pictures and photos sparkle, their texts are interesting and understandable, kids can really relate to them. If you are a home schooler, teacher/curricula administrator, or a children's librarian, you need to check out this company. As a past teacher and adjunct professor, I must say these are very well done curricula support books. We rate the company five hearts.
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TITLE: From Homeschool to College and Work
AUTHOR: Alison McKee
ILLUSTRATOR: N/A
PUBLISHER: Bittersweet House (Madison, WI)
PUBLISHER WEBSITE: N/A
PAGES: 94
ISBN: 0-9657806-1-9
PRICE: $11.95 (softcover)
PUBLISHING DATE: first printing 1997; revised 1998; most recent printing 2002
READER: Laura Joy Francis
RATING: 4
Alison McKee speaks with the voice of experience as she walks the reader through the procedure of helping a homeschooler apply for college or a job. The question-and-answer format and her direct and personable writing style makes this technical information very readable.
Alison begins by covering the challenging process of documenting learning experiences and compiling these experiences into an intelligent portfolio that clearly and accurately portrays the student's knowledge and abilities. She then answers questions about high school diplomas, standardized testing, and challenges with colleges and universities that may not be familiar with portfolios, by sharing experiences and tips that will help the homeschool student evaluate the best course of action.
A series of appendices contains form letters, a resumé, excerpts from a successful college portfolio, and samples of other documents that are necessary in the college or job application process. Then to polish off this useful work, Alison provides a selective listing of the most valuable resources available, including books, magazines, videos, websites, organizations, and correspondence schools.
Teen-aged homeschoolers and their parents will find this well-organized and clearly-written guidebook indispensable. Homeschool parents would be wise to read this book early on so they can determine what forms of education documentation will be most useful when their children reach college age. We rated this book four hearts.
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TITLE: The Reading Lesson
AUTHOR: Michael Levin & Charan Langton
ILLUSTRATOR: Barbara Zeiring & John Atkinson
PUBLISHER: Mountcastle Company (San Ramon, CA)
PUBLISHER WEBSITE: www.readinglesson.com
PAGES: 444
ISBN: 0-913063-02-9
PRICE: $29.95 (softcover, without CD)
PUBLISHING DATE: 2000
READER: Laura Joy Francis
RATING: 5
The Reading Lesson takes the basic form of How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, slows down the pace, and simplifies the concepts. Each lesson begins by introducing a few new letters or sound combinations. Then the reader builds competence and confidence by working through a slow, steady progression of practice sounds, practice words, matching games, short phrases, and stories.
Simple symbols are used to clarify potentially confusing pronunciation as new words are introduced. The reader is slowly weaned from these cues once a word has been read many times. Delightful line drawings of animals and objects illustrate stories and provide mnemonic sound cues as letters are presented. Punctuation, capitalization, and sight words are gradually worked in, and the print size steadily decreases as the difficulty of words increases.
This low-frustration reading program is particularly geared for children 4 to 7 years old and older children with reading challenges. We rated this book five hearts.
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Title: Legacy of the Blue Heron: Living With Learning Disabilities
Author: Harry Sylvester
Illustrator: Laura Chapman
Publisher and/or Distributor: Oxton House Publishers, Farmington ME
Publisher Website: www.oxtonhouse.com
Pages: 190
ISBN:1-881929-20-5
Price: $14.95
Publishing Date: August, 2002
Reader: Allan Lechner
Rating: 4
The National Institute of Mental Health's definition of Learning Disabilities is "A disorder that affects people's ability to either interpret what they see and hear or to link information from different parts of the brain". The author had a learning disability when he was growing up and going to school in 1937. However, the term learning disabilities had not been identified and defined at the time he was in school. His story tells us how he was treated by the faculty, staff, and students as he progresses through elementary school, to high school, and through college. He provides the reader with some of the strategies he used to not only cope in school but succeed. His story then moves on to his adult life and tells of the strategies he used to be successful in his business ventures. It is important to note that Mr. Sylvester has dedicated part of his life working as a public speaker and establishing and running support groups for people with learning disabilities. The last portion of his book is devoted to determining strategies and accommodations people with learning disabilities can take.
I agree with the author that people with learning disabilities need to understand that they can take control of their lives. They must change themselves, because you can't change other people if they don't want to change. As a learning disabilities teacher, one of the first things I taught my students was that they had to be their own advocate. Fortunately today we have special educations laws to help people with learning disabilities. Each student in special education has his/her own individual education plan (IEP) that states what accommodations are to be made for the student. The author also talks about inclusion. I agree with him here also when he says full inclusion is not the correct path to follow. It is up to the parent, student, faculty, and staff to determine what each students least restrictive environment is, not just to throw a student in the general education classroom and let him/her sink or swim. This book is a must read for adults with learning disabilities, parents with children with learning disabilities, and faculty who teach in the general education classroom. We rated this book four hearts.
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