House

I read this book to my toddler, Emily, and she loves it. Great rhyming verses. It is a great addition to our "Emily" collection.

My infant, Emily, received this as a baby gift. It is so adorable (even for a child not named Emily!). The rhymes and story are whimsical, but the message, really, is that life is all about how you look at things. I plan to read this book with her throughout her childhood. And I will definitely be giving this darling book as a baby gift in the future.

This book is my daughter, Emily's, favorite book. It has been a bedtime regular since she was 2.(she is now 6) The wonderful poetic pace increases the excitement as Emily's house becomes filled with animals and more and more noise. My children love making the animal noises and sharing in Emily's frustration. It is an excellent participatory book. I am now purchasing a new copy as ours has lost it's cover from so much use.

This is by far the best quilting book in my collection. It features gorgeous patterns, and excellent instructions. This book also features outlines of the cutting templates you will need. This book is so detailed that you can pick up this book and complete the quilt without requiring outside references. The only difficult thing about this book is picking the pattern you will make as they are all so beautiful. An excellent blend of piece quilting and applique quilting patterns.

This is my favorite quilt book to date. It's full sized patterns and clear pictures make them easy to make and create excitement each time I look through it.

This is one of the best quilting books I have .A large selection of older styles.

the ingredients in all of Donna Hay's books are simple but the flavors collide perfectly. Just looking at the photographs is inspiring enough to start cooking. I own 2 of her books and am now addicted to getting the full series because i know that each book pays particular attention to quality.

I bought both The New Cook and Entertaining during the same month due to the interesting food pairings and fusion of different ethinic cooking styles. I have not been dissapointed. Most of the recipes are extremely simple to make yet real crowd pleasers! (I feel confident enought with this cookbook to make a recipe without taste-testing it first - not many cookbooks inspire me to do this!) I am an avid cook (mostly vegetarian, some seafood.) The variety and richness of the flavors in this book continually inpsire my desire to create in the kitchen, and i really enjoy just browsing through it to learn about interesting food pairings and unusual combinations. If you'd like a little food adventure, this one's for you!

I was an average 'throw it together - if it's edible, good enough' cook. Then my brother (an excellent cook) gave me this book for Christams. I was truly inspired with the photography (every recipe is beautifully presented), so much so that I now take pride in producing chic, simple dishes that are simply delicious. If you consider cooking a chore and need inspiration, this book is a must!

Cousins Kinsey & Sarah share summer days creating fairy houses, boats & learning about the great migration of the Monarch Butterflies.

Illustrated in Monet-like drawings in various shades from cheery pastels to deep night dark, which carry over through each page, the adventures of the two cousins will enchant young readers everywhere.

Rebeccasreads highly recommends FAIRY FLIGHT as a fun book while being educational, with hidden messages & crafty ideas. It should be on every grandmother's gift list!

A beautifully illustrated hardcover book for children "Fairy Flight" is a delight to read. Written for the under age 10 market it celebrates the imagination of children. In the book Kinsey and Sarah are cousins and friends who moved away from each other. During a visit to Sarah's house in California the children use their imagination to build fairy habitats. During this imaginative play they notice some monarch butterfly caterpillars. Sarah shares her knowledge of these butterflies with Kinsey who takes a few caterpillars back home along with some milkweed to keep them fed. Eventually they become butterflies and join all the other monarchs in their flight to California for the winter. Throughout the book there is a thread of childhood magic and their belief in fairies. "Fairy Flight" is a recommended read for young children who are sure to relate to the fantasy and enjoy the detail of the vivid illustrations.

Deftly written and superbly illustrated by Tracy Kane, Fairy Flight is a simply joyous fantasy picture book for young readers ages 4 to 9 about Sarah and Kinsey, two cousins who delight in summer days pondering the miraculous ability of monarch butterflies to migrate, while raising these majestic insects from caterpillars to Monarch butterflies. A thoroughly cheery tale, Fairy Flight is imbued with a genuine awe at the wondrous, fairy-like complexities within these tiny, intrinsically beautiful insects.

When it comes to home repairs, I am all thumbs. I've had leaky faucets and toilets for years. Patching drywall, fixing locks, and replacing glass in windows used to require a call for professional help. Until I bought this book. It contains easy to follow, step by step directions with terrific pictures. I've saved hundreds of dollars since purchasing it. Simply terrific!

I'm on my fourth copy of this book. Mine tend to vanish like the morning dew juat as my neighbors begin their spring garage cleanup. . . My bro-in-law has one as well, but he insists that the fact that my name is written in indelible SHARPIE marker on the front is just a tribute to me and my helpful nature. . . This book has more helpful hints in introduction than most do in the first 5 chapters. And it just goes on and aon and on!

With actual real life applications for stuff you'll find lying around your garage (from old buckets to wire to old useless hose), this book is a true boon for anyone looking to clean up their act (and their garage) and make the time they have to spend on projects less of a fight to just keep the cords straight!

I highly recommend this book for anyone that knows they own at least 4 tape measures, but can't find one to save their lives!

Well worth the cost, and as well constructed as the book is, it will last a lifetime!

I recieved my first Readers Digest Helpful Hints five years ago.

I was so impressed, I got copies for my two sons and son-in-law.

It is something I would not want to be without.

It really does have helpful hints found nowhere else.

I thank you for Readers Digest Helpful Hints.

Sam Mallett

Doty divides his subject matter into five categories: 1. Cabinents, Closets, & Shelves; 2. Around the House; 3. The Workshop; 4. Sports, Toys, and Entertainment; and 5. The Great Outdoors. Each section contains from six to seventeen individual projects, 60 some odd projects in all.

The projects are set forth in a series of wordless cartoon panels. The first panels state the problem, and the final panels present a simple, easily "engineered" solution to the problem.

The cartoons are well drawn and amusing. The step-by-step directions are understandable and within the capacities of the most inept hammer-mechanic. You can follow the directions exactly, or you can let your imagination soar as you adapt the projects to your specific needs.

What a cool book! The problem is presented in a cartoon. For instance.. (I have six kids, this is my favorite)... a woman sorting through laundry to wash, trying to separate the colors. Laundry is all over the floor in front of the machine.

The solution: A frame is built which holds six little trash bins, stacked up one on top of the other, so clothes can be sorted into them by color, without taking up much floor space at all. Then the woman is shown, emptying the whites into the washer - no mess!

No words are used but the methods of creating these little organizational solutions are very simple to understand.

I am not a handyman (or handywoman) at all, but I really felt these concepts were clear, and we have used several of the solutions presented.

Other little gems in this book are: drawing paper dispenser, making a 2-pole closet, creating a nice organizer for rakes, shovels and the like, a neat little stand for roller blades, a ball stacker that goes on the back of a door, and even a baby bottle rack.

Every project is simple to do and easy to understand.

I recommend this book for any large family! Some of us just need to have every organizational tool we can get our hands on!!

Many of these items are very useful around the home;they are easy to do, especially for a person like myself who is mechanically declined. There is a nice variety for people of all ages and skill levels.

My husband and I got this book to make an inset board ("Good Neighbor" design) fence. Unlike the 25 other books I reviewed, this book explained EVERYTHING. Which nails (wood, fence design, hardware, etc.) are available and which work best in which application. The instructions for the fence were VERY clear. The book contained excellent descriptions and drawings for each stage of building our fence and gate. It also contained many lovely photos for inspiration. We needed no other explanation in building our fence but this book. Having never built a fence before we were finished in a weekend!

This is exactly the book that I was looking for. Lots of pictures, good writeup on how to get out there and do it. Nice section on fence repair. No seond thoughts on this one.

This book is excellent. It contains lots of ideas along with explanations and instructions. We built a great-looking fence in the front yard with no experience. We will use this wonderful reference again and again.

I am amazed at the facts and descriptions in this book, all which make so much sense. In this book, we are priviledged to find that our life can be so good and so easy, if we will only go by what we learn hear to be true. By taking the ancient and spirtual art of candle lighting, and putting it together with the ancient and proven art of Feng Shui, we find that we can become the best we can - in an environment that is conducive to us doing just that. It all just makes so much sense - and it works!

I have read other books pertaining to Feng Shui and about lighting candles. None of the other books come close in providing the information like Tina Ketch's book Feng Shui Candle Lighting. Her indepth information and knowledge far succeed's where other authors fail to assist you in your everyday living. I never leave home without this book and I am always telling and teaching other individuals about how Tina's book out does other books about Feng Shui and Candle Lighting. HATS OFF TO TINA! WELL RESEARCHED AND INFORMATIVE!

Feng Shui Candle Lighting is the most advantageous book of our time. It opens up a whole new world of possibilities by combining two ancient, proven arts of self-improvement and self-motivation. It, also, provides the reader with the tools necessary to help keep others from interfering and/or standing in your way. It uses ancient art and common sense, spirituality and reality to help you create that which we all want, and some find hard to attain. If you're tired of beating your head against that proverbial wall, then MOVE THE WALL! Get this book and learn to LIVE and LIVE WELL!

This book is absolutely wonderful! Paula has created beautiful arrangements in this book. Every page contains yet another arrangement to take your breath away. Not only that, but Paula makes her creations available for all of us to try. The information and history about each flower is also extremely interesting.

Whether you're a lover of flowers or of beautiful photography (of which I am both), this book is definitely worth buying.

British florist Paula Pryke and photographer Kevin Summers have produced a stunning book of floral designs which is well worth owning. Amateur and professional floral designers alike will be charmed by the quality and variety of the photographs as well as the very readable and informative text. This book is a must-have for arrangers interested in new ideas.

The chapters center on specific flowers (e.g. orchids, gerbera daisies, roses) which is a unique approach.

The book would make a lovely coffee table book for those who just enjoy beautiful floral design photography. For those of us who take floral arranging seriously, it is an inspiration.

I have been reading and buying floral design books for years. Paula Pryke is the most creative imaginative artist I have ever seen in this field. And she shares all of her creative ideas and techniques with the reader. If I pick up this book and start reading it I cannot put it down! I lent both of her books Flowers Flowers! and Flair with Flowers to a friend who said the same thing! There is a flood of new floral decorating books out there and none of them can come close to these two books!

First of all, I must admit that I had never heard of the Franklin Report
until a real-estate broker colleague of mine
was talking about giving copies to all of her clients. At the time, I needed
to find an architect for a large project, soinquired about the book. Since
then, it has taught me a lot about the home services buisiness. I've really
found theFranklin Report to be an amazing tool that saves me time,
aggravation and in the end -- money. The book givesme all the research and

information that I would otherwise have to go and spend hours digging for. I
once called anarchitect whose name I overheard at the office to renovate my
townhouse and I was so embarassed to find out hewas a modernist and
basically scoffed at the traditional design I wanted! Now, I've put together
a list of the book'shighest rated traditional architects and interviewed
them all. In the end, I got the best quality for the budget I
hadanticipated -- thanks to the Franklin Report. Now my friends want to know
how I know so much about the business -- so I quietly tell them my industry
knowledge came from The Franklin Report.

I bought the Franklin Report originally for the same reason I subscribe to Architectural Digest and House Beautiful. I like to keep current on the big names in interior design even though I'm not about to do a two million dollar apartment. What I've found, in addition to bringing me the most informed and comprehensive round up of decorators, is that this book includes much more functional business that I need to use all the time. Most important is that these companies, used by the best ID's in town, are totally accessible to you and me. It really is the first place I feel I've found a credible stable of usually suspect trades. Plumbers, air conditioning guys, painters -- I've found them all with eye-popping results. So while I may not be hiring the fanciest decorator in town to redo my home, I certainly can find some startlingly professional and nice people to improve it at rational prices. My only criticism is I wish they had more categories. I need a good roofer!

For those of us who choose not to buzz around the social circles of Chicago's Gold Coast co-op's and North Shore newcomer's groups, it's nice to know there's a resource to get some juicy word of mouth recommendations without mind-numbing cocktail-speak. The Franklin Report is just that, a who's who power list of the city's decorators, contractors, electricians and other what the book deems "home service providers." It's not only a useful tool that blows the yellow pages out of the water and makes your dentist's sister's yoga instructor's on the side-furniture restoration business a non-call, but its an enormously entertaining read. Anytime an industry gets sized up and ranked, especially with the egos involved in design and the notoriously insulated, fragmented building industry, it's a hoot. The reviews are concise, on target and written with a certain restrained tongue in cheek, reminiscent of Zagat's, which this publication is surely trying to emulate. It's a more complicated subject, but I think they pull it off at The Franklin Report. If anything else, it's a must have for anyone doing a home remodel or who just wants to know the right names to drop at the next
cocktail party.

Elaine R.
Lake Forest, IL