EDC

My son is growing up in a bi-lingual household. We wanted a cute and simple baby book to read to him in Spanish. This book is perfect! He's 8 months old, so his attention span isn't very long. The sentences are short enough and the illustrations are simple yet colorful enough for him to enjoy reading it over and over again. I would highly recommend Al Agua Patos! and am searching for the rest in the series.

Our 3 year old daughter loves this book. It has great,colorful pictures and she needs to find a little yellow duck hiding on every page. So even if the cute simple story can't hold your little ones attention finding the duck might! The book also includes information for parents of new readers about phonics. It breaks down the easy words in this book into phonemes on the back of the cover.

This is a great book with really interesting ideas for growing plants! I really like the format, and the easy, step-by-step instructions and pictures. It is full of unique projects, and they would be great for science experiments about growing plants! One of my favorite projects in this book is growing alfalfa in the shapes of hearts, stars, or whatever shapes you can think of. I would definitely recommend this book for parents and teachers.

Most children like to play with words or learn new words for common things they already know in English. My 7 year old has a whole slew of such words that she likes to use, everything from the French word for "ridiculous" ("ridicule") to the Yiddish word "feh!", meaning "yuck" (a very satisfying and fun word to use). She has been curious about German words, but until I stumbled across this Usborne book, there was very little I could find that would keep her interest.

This book is excellent on a number of different levels. In addition to having over 500 common words in German (mostly nouns), the illustrations are detailed and exemplary. The words are laid out around a large, central illustration that covers one theme, like "der garten" (the garden), "das wohnzimmer" (the living room) or "der bauernhof" (the farm). The words themselves are illustrated with small pictures of the named objects, like "die kuh" for a cow, "die uhr" for a clock or "das T-shirt" for a you-know-what! These objects are used again in the large illustration, so part of the book's appeal is it's seek-and-find quality. Looking at the picture of the garage, can you find a match? A moth? A pail? How about "der schraubenschlussel" (a wrench)? They're actually trickier to find than you might think, so the book will maintain a child's interest after they grow tired of reading the German words.

The illustrations themselves are incredibly detailed, appearing to be made out of clay and material. A kindly grandfather is complete with white hair, bushy moustache and green checked shirt. A boy's hair is composed of individual strips of clay and the dog is seen running off with an ice cream cone in his mouth (that is, der hund with die eis in der mund). The people and children are multicultural and gender balanced. Clearly, it took untold hours to illustrate this work.

Parents and teachers should note this book is more of a reference than anything else. Children are not likely to sit down and read it cover to cover, nor will it teach you how to speak German-- just common nouns and numbers are in the book. There is an extensive vocabulary key in the back pages consisting of three columns: the German word, it's phonetic spelling/pronunciation and it's English meaning. There is also a short note explaining that German nouns (like French and Spanish) are female, male or neutral, hence the use of the words "der", "das" and "die", which all mean "the" in English.

Readers should also note that the English word for the object is NOT printed on the page with the object's German word, which is a bit of an oversight in my opinion. Children just learning to read English will have nothing IN English to read on any of the pages, and it's unlikely a beginning reader will attempt to tackle the pronunciation guide at the back. Also, at the top of each page is an object with a note like "such sechs cassetten", which is not translated. Only after a long time of looking through the book (and discovering the vocabulary hidden at the very back of the book) did I realize that this was encouraging the reader to "search for six cassettes" on the page. While there is the possibility that children may easily become frustrated with the long, multi-consonant spellings of German words like "wachsmalstifte" (crayon), a number of English and German words are the same, like "T-shirt", "kiwi", "hammer", "jeans" and "button", and a lot of everyday words are very similar to English words like "hund" (dog or hound) and "katze" (cat). This adds it's own search-and-find element of fun for older children who are fluent with English words.

The book will probably be the most useful for young children who are in bilingual German/English families. It has a place in a home or school library as a reference book or search-and-find game book, and hence I recommend it.

I am having to buy a second copy of this book. My 2 bilingual toddlers adore the book and have worn it out. The clay figures capture the attention of my children. The book has actually helped my husband brush up on some of the French words he has forgotten over the years. This book is a must for French students of all ages. We love it!

Don't let the grade level of this book fool you. It is a very valuable source of everyday words in French. Many of these words can't be found in French textbooks. The format is refreshingly different. Litchfield has created thousands of brightly colored clay figures that are photographed and used in various settings from la rue to la salle de bains. A must have for any French student from 1st grade to Graduate School.

Simon Duke has written an extensive review on the history of Europe's developments in defense integration. Having been attentive to detail, Duke explains the hisoty of European defense integration, as well as the current issues confronting Europen governments with regard to providing a common European defense, in a manner that may be easily understood by the less informed student of European security affairs. A "must read" for anyone interested in the future of the EU's CFSP in general and the European defense establishment in particular.