effect

D'Orso's book highlights some very serious issues regarding the conservation of the Galapagos. Some accounts are dramatic and perturbing, mostly so because given the unique and sensible nature of the islands, any disruption in them seems specially worthy of concern.

The problem I see with the book, however, is that the author shines a negative, unconstructive light on most every single subject that he mentions in a self-serving attempt to add to the impact of the book, even at the expense of loosing objectivity.

D'Orso's book is so unreasonably pessimistic on all fronts that one can't help but wonder why, if according to the D'Orso the present and, mostly, the future is so utterly bleak for the Galapagos Islands, have the islands repeatedly been deemed one of the best preserved natural parks in the world or one of the last remaining natural paradises in near pristine condition.

The author came to Ecuador during very difficult and trying times for the country. As an Ecuadorian, I readily admit that we are rough around the edges in many ways and that we have a long way to go on some fronts. We do. But D'Orso's journalism, it seems to me, is like going to the US during the LA riots, the ENRON debacle, the Marion Barry scandal, the Exxon Valdez spill, the O.J. soap opera, the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, etc. and passing all this as everyday America in a book called "Plundering Nation" This would be wrong, wouldn't it? But doing so with mockery and disdain, as D'Orso does, is even less correct !

The Galapagos islands face many threats and what's being done to protect them may not be ultimately sufficient on all accounts, so improvements are becessary. Better controls, more funding and more political compromise may be needed.

I do dare say, however, that the current state of the islands and the ongoing control and conservation efforts are a source more for optimism than the other way around.

In the past several years introduced animals have been eradicated from several islands, land tortoises, reproduced and bred in captivity, have been repatriated to many islands; marine iguanas have also been bred and repatriated to islands where they were disappearing (as is the case with Baltra Island). Quarantines and controls have been implemented, education efforts have been undertaken, migration bans have been enforced. Several laws which require strong political will have been enacted. The Galapagos have been declared a marine reserve, where industrial fishing is completely off-limits.

However, according to the author, the Galapagos are a place were con-men arrive to evade the law..., where there are rusted Toyota's for taxis...(I've been to the Galapagos some 8 times and have never seen a rusted Toyota passing as a taxi!), a place to which Ecuadorians "flee along with their families from Quito and Guayaquil were the streets are awash with poverty and crime and the air stinks of corruption and despair...", etc., I could go on and on with this.

One last quote from the book (as it very much describes the scornful spirit with which D'Orso's book was written): "With such riches, there seems to be no reason for this nation to be spiraling downward like the swirl in a flushing toilet..."

Bottom line: the book is important and helpful in many ways and rightly unsettling, but its very flawed too.

You know the Galapagos Islands. Darwin made them famous, of course, as a spark for his initial insights on evolution. The specks of land on the equator, off mainland Ecuador, have continued to perform as observatories for evolution. The tiny islands, burned by volcanoes and equatorial sun, have far more life than such an environment might seem able to support, but besides the famous and unusual bird species, there are hundreds of species of starfish, eighty species of spiders, and many others. If you watch TV documentaries or leaf through photo books, you get a flavor of just how rich and strange the life there is. You might know that the animals are so unused to humans that they have not learned to flee even hunters. You might have the idea that the deserted islands harbor but a few scientists and the ecotourists who come to see the unique offerings. _Plundering Paradise: The Hand of Man on the Galapagos Islands_ (HarperCollins) by Michael D'Orso offers a different view of the islands, specifically about one of its newest and most intrusive species. There are about 20,000 humans who make the Galapagos their home, or at least their workplace. They are not just scientists, but hoteliers, nightclub owners, poachers, beggars, religious proselytizers, law enforcers, and more. The title of this eye-opening book isn't a surprise; all these people are not doing the islands any good.

"These islands were simply not made for people," D'Orso writes, but he has interviewed a lot of them for this book to portray humans that are making a go of it anyway. Some of them are eccentric, some admirable, but the islands are few, and have desirable properties, and surpassing written law, the law of supply and demand holds sway (just as Darwin knew). Humans have a poor record of improving the lands they have inhabited everywhere, but D'Orso is withering in particular scorn for the corrupt Ecuadorian government, colloquially called "Absurdistan." Such an environment only encourages people to grab any profits they can, and makes impossible long range planning for conserving the islands' resources. Global agencies are reluctant to invest as they can predict how little money would make it to environmental improvement. There has been a proposal that the Galapagos should be under UN trusteeship; after all, it is one of those sites that requires little imagination to view as belonging to the heritage of all humans. From time to time someone suggests banning tourism. Neither proposal is likely to impress those who are currently gaining incomes from things as they stand.

D'Orso's book brings an important problem to light. It is written as an entertaining profile of different members of the human species who have washed ashore on Galapagos. There are the ex-hippie who has run a hotel there for thirty-five years, the German recluse, the park ranger who endangers himself by hunting poachers, the charmingly corrupt mayor, the Jehovah's Witness naturalist guide, and more. In describing their activities, he has given a human profile to the islands. It is a sad look, nonetheless. Market forces are no way to run an ecosystem.

Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 30, 2003

The Galápagos Islands have the honor of being the only sizable, habitable land mass to remain unpopulated into the 20th century. The islands' lower slopes and some of the smaller islets are a weird moonscape of ancient lava flows devoid of fresh water. Uphill, however, are permanent water sources and soil capable of supporting orange, papaya, and coconut trees, to say nothing of herds of cattle.

Despite these lush conditions, no community had attempted to live on the Galápagos until the publication in Germany in 1923 of a travel book called "Galápagos: World's End" that described the islands as a tropical paradise. A few eccentrics came to see for themselves. They have been coming ever since.

Michael D'Orso went to the Galápagos in 1999 to chronicle the unusual native fauna. Not the huge iguanas that dive into the surf to feed, the finches that obligingly speciate while ornithologists watch, or the vast colonies of blue-footed boobies. The animals that fascinate D'Orso are the more eccentric members of species of homo sapiens, a type in which the Galápagos abound.

Take the charmingly corrupt mayor, leader of the 20,000 mostly impoverished Ecuadorians who stretch the ecosystem of the archipelago well beyond its capacity. Mayor Sevilla is only 41, but he grew up on the islands before the advent of automobiles and electricity.

"We ate a lot of tortoises," D'Orso quotes him saying. "It was free meat, just roaming around. We didn't understand why people would want to protect the animals when God gave us the animals to eat. Even to this day, I feel this way." Which explains why the mayor lets poachers out of jail as fast as National Park Rangers arrest them.

Or take Godfrey Merlen, who stumbled onto the islands in 1970 as an aimless youth working as crew on a rich man's yacht. He stayed, hung around the research station, made himself useful to field scientists, and has become a well-published, highly respected biologist in his own right without ever leaving the islands or taking an advanced degree.

D'Orso keeps trying to drag his attention back to the project that brought him here: to write about the more colorful of the gringo inhabitants - the beachcombers, con artists, and barefoot philosophers. But instead, his attention keeps drifting to the real story of these islands in the 21st century. The world's educated elite prizes the Galápagos for their dramatic and unique biology. But they belong to one of the poorest, most overpopulated, and corrupt nations on earth.

"Banana republic" is an insufficiently scornful term to describe a political system that not long ago saw three presidencies within an hour. The trouble with Ecuador is nothing new in the world: A small number of very wealthy families manage the country for private profit.

These families allow the National Park to exist, but do not, for example, allow the rangers to stop commercial fishing in park waters. The boats take everything: tuna, sea cucumbers, coral, shark fins. (Not the whole shark. They cut the fins off and throw the creatures back to die. Fins fetch astonishing prices in China where shark fin soup is a traditional wedding-banquet delicacy.)

D'Orso's casually powerful storytelling draws us in to the grotesquely unequal struggle between a unique and fragile ecosystem and the humans bent on getting rich fast.

Not that the environment pays all of the costs. On the outer islands, beyond the reach of law, and far beyond the reach of any kind of medical care, hundreds of desperately poor men dive for sea cucumbers using antiquated, badly maintained scuba gear. No one records how many die every year. No one records the tonnage of sea cucumbers shipped illegally to China, which are bought by men foolish enough to believe that sea cucumbers are an aphrodisiac.

Nor is there indication that anyone with power in Ecuador cares, certainly not the legislator who represents the Islands in the national congress. The flat roof of her house is covered with illegally harvested sea cucumbers, curing in the sun. Part travelogue, part history, and part sociological study, D'Orso's story should help shed light on these exotic islands of corruption.

Diana Muir is the author of Bullough's Pond

The Press Effect suggests the media frames issues and candidates in a way that their future stories on the subjects will tend to fit neatly inside the pre-conceived box. Since the media is a follow-the-leader game, once a frame takes hold it doesn't let go very easily. Jamieson and Waldman use this theory mainly to explore the 2000 Election between Gore and Bush.

Gore's many misstatements through his political career led the press to frame him as dishonest. Bush's flubs through his short political career convinced the press to put him in the frame of unintelligent. The result were campaign stories that asked voters to choose between the smart, but untrustworthy Gore and the dumb but affable Bush. The examples of media coverage in the book support this theory pretty well.

Next the authors cite the examples of Gore's untruths and basically defend each one as a misunderstanding, leaving Gore as a more honest individual than painted by the media. As a reader, I anticipated the authors next explaining that Bush was actually a smarter man than he was given credit for, after all he has an MBA from Harvard. Instead the authors quote a New Yorker article where a reporter cites George W. Bush's average grades at Yale. This is was a surprise, because the story was unverified by Yale and it doesn't take into account that grades have much more to do with ambition and drive than intelligence. There was no attempt to give Bush the same credit that the authors spent giving Gore. An opportunity to support their main thesis was left on the floor, which gives one the feeling that the real purpose of the book is to defend Gore not shame the media. This same pattern is repeated when the authors discuss the Florida recount.

It's unfortunate that Jamieson and Waldman abandon the scholarly for the advocacy role because there is a lot of other research in the book that seems dead on. They bemoan that fact that reporters do a terrible job of verifying the evidence and drawing conclusions. Instead, the authors argue that the media play into the "he said, she said" game of political strategy. The story becomes about how the candidates disagree with each other on their positions more than the actual substance of those positions. They also state that the media loves to play psychologist when they should instead be playing fact-finder.

I found the basic theories in the book supported by good evidence. But the advocacy of Gore and the silence on Bush in the analysis sections detracted from the book's purported goal of exposing the media's laziness. I'm sure that the authors would say that they had no intention of propping up Gore, but parts of the book seem to strengthen the media frame on Bush which weakens the overall argument of the book. This is surprising since Bush could have been defended as easily as Gore.

Anyway, I think the authors do a fine job casting a spotlight on the media's "follow the leader" approach and that's enough recommend it despite my other misgivings.

Jamieson and Waldman offer a highly critical overview of media coverage, focusing on the 2000 Presidential election, but also touching on historical issues such as the Nixon Presidency and the Gulf of Tonkin incident. They are equally critical of the coverage given to Bush and Gore, in an impressive display of non-partisanship that is lacking in our media today. They encourage reporters to research the statements by candidates and to not simply accept the frame given to them by interested parties but to investigate and to put a truly fair and balanced frame around it. One issue that they note but could have gone into more detail on is that the media almost universally present issues as a for/against disagreement, whereas in reality there are often (I might argue almost always) more than two points of view on a given issue and the press ignores all but the two that are most easily reduced to sound bites.

One of the most bothersome things about journalism today is how frequently lies and distortions promulgated on all sides of the political spectrum, particularly the right side, become accepted as truth. To a large extent, as this book points out, this is the fault of journalists, whose primary job is, or should be, to discover and report the truth about important issues of the day. Democracy cannot function well if the public is constantly mislead. And simply presenting opposing views does not help the public determine the truth. Truth telling needs to be rewarded and deception needs to be punished. This is not happening now.

Real journalism is not about repeating the "spin" but finding the truth.

As the book says: "Reporters should help the public make sense of competing political arguments by defining terms, filling in needed information, assessing the accuracy of the evidence being offered, and relating the claims and counterclaims to the probable impact of the proposed policies on citizens and the country."

This can be hard work. It is much easier to focus on the "horse race" and personalities and that is why over 70% of elections stories in 2000 did not mention any issue at all.

This book should be required reading for all journalists and concerned citizens.

A thorough coverage of industry terminology, in an industry where terms are relentless being colored, reinvented and made anachronisms. However don't expect in-depth coverage of the mechanics of a given technique - there is simply no room for detail with this many terms to cover.

I've watched Karen put this book together over the course of the last year or so (even had a chance to give my 2cents on a couple of terms) and so I can hardly be called an Unbiased Reviewer. But now that it's done, I'd have to say that just about anybody who is involved with visual effects (which these days means just about any aspect of filmmaking in general) will find this book well worth owning. And even if you HAVE been in the industry for a long time, I guarantee that you'll be able to learn a few new things (or re-learn a few old things) after thumbing through this book.

Karen E. Goulekas has saved me quite some time with this book by providing a complete description for over 7,000 visual effects terms often referred to within the industry. In the past, I often had to search the net for certain terms and descriptions that had me baffled...but no more. For those of you who are considering buying this book, know that it isn't a book full of pictures (Although it does contain 32 pages of colour stills); It isn't a book detailing visual effects work in particular films; It is what is says - 'A comprehensive glossary of over 7,000 visual effects terms'. If this is what you're looking for, this book is for you.

As a beginner I found this book to be inadequate for my needs. There are 63 pages of nicely spiral bound(book lies flat) examples of various effects. That is to say... 63 pages of coloful rectangles with some comments about how to achieve a particular effect. It's sort of like reading the ingredients for a recipe but not telling you how to mix the ingredients or cook it.

I imagine that this book has some use to an experienced airbrusher but I suspect that once you have the experience the book is not very useful and is merely a nice 63 page of pretty rectangles.

This was not a good book for me.

Airbrush Artist's Pocket Palette

The Airbrush Artist's Pocket Palette is filled with wonderful techniques to create hundreds of effects and textures. I would not know how to create hair, skin, wood, metallic surfaces, stone or highlights with my airbrush without this book.

You will need to have some knowledge about color palettes and airbrushes to fully understand the techniques descibed in the book.

The book also contains several pieces of completed artwork. The techniques they used to create the paintings are described with the corresponding painting.

I have enjoyed this book since the day I bought it.

This book is a great read, and a bargain at 8 bucks. It gave me a great overall understanding about how effects and processors work in the studio. I had some previous knowledge on the subject, but had many questions answered by the book. I would recomend this book to anyone who wants to clarify their knowlege on the subject. Some topics included are: insert points, aux sends, eq for certain instruments, gates, compressors, and more. You can't afford to not buy this book.

Another great book from Paul White! Well written and valuable for the practising musician as well as the home studio recording entusiasts. A must to your pocket sized collection series.

Great introductory book for all home studio recordings and isbeneficial to all ameteur musicians.

I was a little disappointed when I got this book, because in Canada the title is "Decorating with Candles" and it its not a decorating book. But this book is fun! Its got lots of great candlemaking projects, from plain candles to more decorative ones for special occasions. The instructions are really simple. Alot of the materials are easily found in your house too (aside from the wax!) There are projects for your kitchen, for childrens' parties, for outside and for Christmas too! You can even make scented candles and different types of holders and sconces.

If you believe presentation is important and like to occasionally make your guests go "ooh" and "ahh," this is a great book for ideas. Most ideas aren't that complicated, but make a big impact. Not really for people who want to make candles, but really for people who have plain candles and want to gussy them up. Terrific, inspiring photos!

Some of the most elegant candle, floral and found object arrangements you could ask for. Easy candlemaking projects that yield major designer results.

While I enjoyed (and largely agreed with) Dr. Hobson's analysis of the brain-mind's activity in terms of the competing aminergic and cholinergic systems, I thought that he committed the fatal error that many general-audience authors in neuropsychology invariably seem to commit, namely using the latter half of a book to push upon the reader hastily-argued pet theories that would be inappropriate in a more academic literary effort. After describing his central insight of the complementary neurotransmitter systems, Hobson sketches out his own unoriginal solution to the m ind-body problem, takes pot-shots at less biologically-oriented branches of psychology, and offers a dogmatic two-page prosetylization on behalf of scientific humanism. The topics are, at best, peripheral to the central argument of the book; at worst, they display poor taste. Hobson seems to have composed the latter third of the book by elaborating on notes jotted in the back of his undergraduate lab notebooks. Since such side forays would be met more critically in a more academic setting, the rationale for Hobson's choice to include them in a general-readership book seems obvious. His poor opinion of his readers' intellectual abilities seems equally obvious, as evidenced by the low level of detail in all areas of the book.

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Emily Dickinson opens this book, appropriately:

"The Brain -- is wider than the Sky -- For -- put them side by side -- The one the other will contain With ease -- and You -- beside --

"The Brain is deeper than the sea -- For -- hold them -- Blue to Blue -- The one the other will absorb -- As Sponges -- Buckets -- do --

"The Brain is just the weight of God -- For -- Heft them -- Pound for Pound -- And they will differ -- if they do -- As Syllable from Sound -- "

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From the section titled "Principles of the Brain-Mind Paradigm", early in the book:

"Three fundamental principles make up the brain-mind paradigm. The first is that the brain-mind is a unified system. The brain and mind are inextricably linked: no brain, no mind. ...

"The second fundamental principle . . . is that there are three cardinal brain-mind states: waking, sleeping, and dreaming. These are the fundamental organizational units of the brain-mind. ...

"The third principle is that brain-mind states can be measured and manipulated, and thus understood. We have already seen that brain-mind states are controlled by a brain-within-the-brain, the aminergic-cholinergic system. This chemical system provides a solid link between neurology, psychology, and the psychiatric use of drugs."

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From the section titled "Managing Memory", not quite midway through the book:

"I believe, though I can't yet prove it, that the brain-mind traverses the states of non-REM and REM sleep in part to reinforce and reorganize memory. ...

"Though still speculation, there is mounting evidence that one of the reasons we need sleep at all is to permanently encode our memories. We sleep, and the past day's memories are reactivated as we dream, which changes their status; it advances them from short-term memory into long-term memory, perhaps by imposition of acetylcholine, which is omnipresent during sleep."

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From the section titled "It's Normal to be Abnormal", toward the end of the book:

"The sleep prescription I have given myself works only for me. You will have to do your own analysis to find a prescription for yourself. As you plot the outcome, don't be surprised by extremes. There is great variation in our nonconscious states; some people need very litle sleep, others need a great deal, and many people require more (even if just a little bit more) than the social world allows."

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This is truly a great book, carefully and thoughtfully written for the rest of us by a gifted working scientist.

I had to get my copy via an out-of-print book search (through a university book store), after I had read the library's copy. I paid $21 for a used copy of the paperback edition, which suggests that those who have copies are hanging onto them. A reprint edition would be very welcome indeed.

I have found Dr. Hobson's "The Chemistry of Conscious States" to be far more helpful than Candace Pert's "Molecules of Emotion". Thank you, Dr. Hobson!

Salmon , as a species , are no where near to being extinct, as this book would lead one to believe. Can we improve on the way we as U.S. Citizens treat our Environment? Certainly!!! Do we have the will to do it? Who Knows???

Joseph Cone's book, "A Common Fate: Endangered Salmon and the People of the Pacific Northwest," tells a story that combines over two hundred years of U.S. history with the prurient facts of salmon and political science. Cone, in unflinching detail, and with a flair for dramatic storytelling, chronicles the ins and outs of the on-going battle to save the Pacific Northwest salmon runs and their surrounding watersheds. The overview of the salmon issue this book provides is astounding. From all sides' viewpoints, from Gordon Reeves, a fish researcher and ecologist with the Pacific Northwest Research Station of the U.S. Forestry Service in 1988, to people like Mike Draper, spokesperson for The Western Council of Industrial Workers and Antone Minthorn, council chairman of the General Council of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Cone weaves a tale that can be described as nothing short of sordid. Elucidating the deceptions, feints and dodges of bureaucratic interests and what motivates them as well as he does the struggles, fears, and hopes of the environmental activists, Cone shows an in depth knowledge of both salmon biology and political policy, all the while moving his story throughout Pacific Northwest and salmon history. Flashback narratives back to the very beginning of Pacific Northwest history with the arrival of James Cook, Robert Grey, on through Lewis and Clark and John Jacob Astor provide a sense of historic perspective on the abundance and exploitation of this incredible fish. Cone chronicles the wasteful days of the Hapgood & Hume canneries, where, after a day's work, if the canners couldn't keep up with supply, hundreds of fish would be shoveled back into the water, wasted. He describes the migrant cannery fishermen and the disputes between gill-netters, those who used fish traps, and the canneries themselves, the strikes and violence associated with them as everyone struggles to take all they can in a living description of human economist Garrett Hardin's essay, "The Tragedy of the Commons." He describes with harrowing precision the two steps forward, one step back dance of environmental policy, as environmentalist minded scientists cross swords with policy makers and industrial advocates, as treaties and alliances are formed and broken again and again over the same ground year after year, decade after decade. He shows again and again the complexity of the issues, the difference between conservation and preservation, and the fact that thus far, in the struggle between fish and man, man has won time and time again, and that time for the Pacific Northwest salmon is running out. Though one review on the back of the book suggests that Cone offers up cooperation as the solution to the salmon crisis, in truth, "A Common Fate" illustrates the fallacy of cooperation between the two sides of industry and environment. The evidence he presents illustrates clearly that, as the industrialists call for a "balance" to be struck, in truth, the salmon are systematically being balanced out of existence. For anyone looking for a clear, concise overview of the issues surrounding the salmon crisis in an easy to read format, this book comes highly recommended.

This book covers many of the studies done on the salmon populations here in the Pacific Northwest. The information comes from many experts, who do not have a political or business agenda...people who truly care about the survival of all the ecosystems involved.

This is another excellent book in reaction to the satanic abuse and false memory hysteria that swept this country like a plague in 80s and early 90s. Written by a clinical psychologist who is a director of the False Memory Foundation, this book shows in detail how social workers, police and the courts helped to send innocent people to jail. In particular the indoctrination of the children is presented, step by ugly step, leaving no doubt about what really happened. A sad, sad chapter in American history gets another documentation. I am hoping that next we will have books on just why so many "well-meaning" people went astray and/or were led astray. I think the underlying guilt of parents with latch-key children projected onto others is a largely unexplored psychological factor. The American puritanical obsession with sex is another. The feminazi attack on men as well, of course. With this book it appears that the word has finally gotten around and the courts are beginning to throw out the tainted "evidence" and the counseling profession is beginning to see the error of its ways.

Campbell speaks with authority since it was his profession, although not him personally, that was a central part of the insanity. If the therapists had read the studies from their own journals they would have known that the sensational "recovered memories"of sexual abuse could only be highly suspect. One weakness of the book is Campbell's understandable reluctance to fully criticize these clinical psychologists. The truth is, not just some, but a significant portion of abuse counselors proved to be incompetent, mercenary and under educated. The harm done to patients and their families and friends by the worst of the therapists exceeds in some respects the harm done through the use of electric shock therapy and frontal lobotomies by witch doctors of a previous era.

Terence Campbell, a psychologist himself, delves deep into the muck of false accusations of child sexual abuse, the blame for which he lays squarely on the heads of those charged with interviewing children. It is very important to note that at no point does he say children should not be believed a priori, he only claims that current methods of interrogating children taint their testimony so the it is no longer useful.

Campbell would like nothing more than for this to change. He outlines his own method for interviewing children, and it is obvious that his technique would elicit far cleaner information than the usual methods.

Also suspect are claims of past abuse suffered as children, suddenly remembered by adults who claim to have "repressed" it.

That false memories can be created, he demonstrates by citing several objective studies, and I found them quite convincing. He further proves from objective studies that traumatic events are rarely forgotten. What's more, most of the case studies of "recovered memory" patients documented patients who had sought counseling for something other than lost time. In addition, many false memory patients recanted.

This is a much needed book. When people like Raymond Buckey spend five years in jail during a travesty of a trial, at the end of which he is acquitted, someone needs to stand up and cry "Foul!" I applaud Dr. Campbell for doing so.

This book speaks for the falsely accused so well that I plan on purchasing many copies to share with legislators, lawyers and others who need to know the how, why, and what's in reference to accusations of child sexual abuse. Terence Campbell pinpoints how these charges come about, who makes them and what should be done in order to correct the problem. Too many professionals (I use this word loosely) evaluate, investigate and use therapy through the use of "accentual perception." The see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. Many times when accusations come by way of professionals they don't consider whether or not it is true, they just go about proving that it is. Through the use of alternative hyposthesis, a non-biased attitude and changes in the laws that enact guidelines for the interviewing of children false accusations can be thwarted. There have already been some changes in the use area of repressed memories. Changes that were a long time in the making. This book is an excellent learning tool for those who have never been devastated by the misuse of the court system through false accusations and a comfort for those who have.

I'm a children's librarian. I bought this book for my library. I've read it to two groups and showed it to some of the children who come to the library everyday. I thought they would like it since Carle's other book The Very Quiet Cricket is so enormously popular. Their reaction has been thumbs down. The children like the chirping sound from the cricket book, but the click sound from this beetle book doesn't impress them. The dull "click, click" really pales in comparison to the lilting cricket chirp. We've had our copy of the beetle book for almost three months, and it's only been checked out once.

I think a teacher or parent might be able to encourage a child to enjoy the click beetle book by incorporating it into a discussion about bugs. Also, a child who is fascinated with bugs might enjoy it. However, for the average child, I recommend buying The Very Quiet Cricket instead of the Beetle book. For a child who already has and loves the cricket book, I recommend buying Carle's The Very Lonely Firefly, which has fireflies that light up. My library kids like to crawl under desks to enjoy that book in the dark.

This book is well-liked by my class of four and five year olds. The story is clear and engaging. My students especially enjoy opening to the back page to hear the beetle's CLICK!

The little click beetle repeatedly strives in the story to CLICK and flip over onto his feet, a feat shown to him by an older, wiser click beetle. He tries to show this new trick to a variety of other critters with no success. The critters encourage him to keep trying.

We used this story in class to discuss the importance of persistence and practice to learn something new. This book also sparked a discussion about being kind and respectful, as we talked about how things might have been different if the critters in the story had ridiculed the click beetle for his failure instead of encouraging him. You could challenge children to tell how the ending would have been different if the little click beetle hadn't mastered his CLICK at the right time at the end.

Definitely a classroom staple, along with most of Eric Carle's other titles.

I'm a Branch Manager of a Public Library and we have found that this book is very good for the children that comes over for school visits. It is so funny to be reading them the book and they start hearing the Beetle make it's sound they start looking around the room trying to find out where it is coming from then they cant believe that it came from the book. Every year when school starts back this is the book that i read to my Kindergarden classes. I suggest that everyone should get this book and watch the look on your childs face when you read this book to them.