Book Description
Kids love to be funny! Every classroom or neighborhood has a kid whose greatest ambition is to make people laugh—and all kids love to laugh at the jokes and antics of their friends.
Funny Bones is designed to bring out the humor in every kid. For those who already have a comic streak, it provides wonderful new material for routines and scenes. For shyer children, it boosts self-confidence and a sense of fun. The first few chapters tackle the idea of comedy and what makes it funny, introducing famous comedians like Charlie Chaplin and Lily Tomlin and a variety of ways for young comics to create a trademark style. Later chapters offer hilarious improv games and valuable tips—for instance, don’t ask questions in improv routines, but instead make statements that other actors can build on. The book concludes with comedic scenes for young people and suggestions for comedic play that kids can perform.
Customer Reviews:
Ideal for birthday parties and budding comedians.......2002-06-08
Recommended for young people ages 9-12, Funny Bones by Lisa Bany-Winters (Director, Northlight Academy Children's Theater Program, Northlight Theater, Skokie, Illinois) is a 160 page book chock full of comedic activities young people ages 9 to 12 can try out, and range from learning how to tell a joke to improvisational games, to physical comedy, to short comedy scenes from classic plays for young actors, and more. Black and white illustrations add a special charm to this great ideas and reference book, ideal for birthday parties and budding comedians.
Product Description
Learn all about bones: what do they do, how they work, and why you would fall apart without them. Pairs a full-color illustrated book with an anatomically correct, custom-molded plastic human skeleton. Includes a display stand and case. Ages 7-12. Book: 64 pages and 3 3/4 x 8 14 inches. Package: 4 x 13 x 4 inches
Customer Reviews:
Fun Learning Tool.......2007-09-23
I am a homeschooling mom and I am always looking for fun ways to reinforce whatever we are learning. This year, while studying the systems of the human body, I ordered the Bones Book and Skeleton. My daughter had a great time putting the skeleton together while I quizzed her on the name of each bone. When completed, the skeleton can be proudly displayed in the plastic dome that is included in the kit, which keeps it handy for a quick review.
The book itself is not in depth enough to be used alone, but I was able to utilize it as a support tool. The skeleton, once assembled, is sturdy enough to be played with, body actions imitated, made to dance, etc.
Great educational project and visual aide.......2007-03-17
I bought this to use for studying anatomy and getting a really good visual concept of the bones and their relationship to each other. It has been fabulous for that. My 6-year old really enjoyed helping me put it together and seeing "what a person looks like inside", so it gave her a great introduction to anatomy as well. A few of the bones were stubborn to connect to each other and the clavicle bone pops out of place easily, but I still think it's a great value. I now use it in my BodyTalk practice as a visual aide with my clients.
Excellent for Hands-On Education.......2007-02-01
The Bones Book and Skeleton were just what we needed for a Science Project this semester. I recommend it highly.
Book Description
Creating computer games is challenging. It requires plenty of technical skill, dedication, and creativity. Ultimate Game Programming with DirectX teaches you how to combine your existing skills and dedication for playing games with some basic C++ programming skills to create your own games. Written for game development students, beginning game programmers, and C++ programmers wanting to learn game development, this book covers every part of the process. Throughout the book, you'll be creating a first-person shooter game called Stranded. Beginning with an introduction to Direct X and Direct3D graphics, you'll build the game engine and complete game chapter by chapter. You'll learn the fundamental graphical techniques, essential mathematics, collision detection, input device detection and response, sound playback, scene management, animation, and model/character loading and drawing. Once you've built this game, you can easily expand upon it and customize it to add your own unique features. You'll also have the foundational knowledge and skills you need to build your own games and take on new programming challenges. If you have basic C++ programming skills, a love for games, and a desire to create your own, you'll find what you need here. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN * The fundamentals of DirectX game development and Direct3D graphics * Foundational programming techniques that you can use for any game project * Essential mathematics and physics techniques * Basic graphics and animation techniques, including basic techniques include drawing basic shapes and objects, displaying images on top of surfaces, creating and displaying text to the screen, and learning how to work in 3D space. * Coverage of scene management topics rarely covered in books for C++ programmers and aspiring game programmers * A complete DirectX reference for game development, including the creation of a complete FPS game
Customer Reviews:
One to skip.......2007-09-29
Just to establish my own credentials - I'm a game developer with 5 published titles under my belt including Master of Orion 3, Kohan 2, Axis & Allies, and two Zoo Tycoon 2 games.
I was asked on very short notice to teach a Game Development class at a local college. So off I went to Borders to find a textbook. After some digging, this is what I picked out. The features that recommended it to me where that it included the source code, and over the course of the book it promised to build a fully functional game.
Here's what I found instead:
* I would guess from his terminology that the author has never worked at a game company. He just doesn't know the lingo - or he's worked somewhere so remote from my own experience that his lingo is completely different. Also, based on the quality of his code and the quality of the resulting game, he wouldn't survive a second at any game company out there. He wouldn't make it past the phone interview. If you are considering a career in game development, do NOT follow this person's example or you won't even get in the door.
* The code is the most horribly written I have ever seen. I would expect better out of anyone who has ever taken any sort of class on object oriented programming - or worked on any sort of project employing more than one person. The best way to describe it is poorly written C code written in C++. The spacing is non-standard. That variable names are horrible. For many of the programs, it's all in the main.cpp file. Global variables everywhere. Hardly any use of classes, and where they are used they are monolithic and poorly designed. Ugh.
* The book is frequently innaccurate. It needs an errata list badly - but if there is one, I haven't been able to find it. For example, in chapter 1 he tells you that you only need 1 line of code to enable z-buffering. After talking to colleagues and looking on the web, I was able to get this to work (I'm an AI guy, not a graphics guy) - but he was missing 4 of the 5 lines needed to make it happen.
* The book also tends to be incredibly light on details. It tells you the DirectX functions you need to call (mostly) and the specific values to plug in - but not what the functions do, or what the other possible values for their paramaters are, or how the parameters affect the output. The style of the writing is also incredibly informal - it sounds like something written by a 10th grader. Granted, if the quality of the content was solid I wouldn't care about this - but added to the poor content it makes the whole thing feel unprofessional.
* The quality of the final game is what I would expect out of a high school project (at best). The collision detection is horrifically buggy. The characters don't animate or move at all (although my understanding from looking at the book is that they're supposed to). The code won't compile under VS2005, only VS2003. It also won't run without a game controller plugged in to the computer - but it doesn't appear to actually use the game controller. He's been promising since the book came out to post the fixes for those last two problems on his web site, but I couldn't find them.
All in all, this book is an embarassment. I'm sorry I made my students spend the money on it - and now I'm scrambling to find material to teach my class, because this book hasn't delivered anything close to what it promised.
Huh?.......2006-12-06
Rather cryptic title I put for my review, but the book seems to follow the same route.
I purchased another book awhile back: Programming a Multiplayer FPS in DirectX - very well written and organized.
Ultimate Game Programming has a lot of "bugs". The program as you go along seems to fall apart, what is in the book isn't exactly the same as the code provided on the CD Rom. The author leaves out information as to what header files are required, where you should place some of your code. As said before the key failure is the difference in code from book and Rom.
Aside from the bad points. Good points. I do like the some code in the pages provided, even though I must realize it might be different on the Rom. Mainly because I'm using another book and this to help solidify my DirectX concepts.
So considering I have the Microsoft documentation, another book from the same publisher on programming in DirectX and now this, I have to really research and piece everything together.
The coding is really night and day too. The book by Vaughn Young, really sticks to appropriate coding practices, while this seems quickly written.
A very gook book.......2006-10-23
I am halfway through the book, and I think it is a good book. It has helped me so far by helping me to understand how a game engine is designed, organized and coded in general. Holistically looking, this book is more about organizing (code-wise) all programming aspects of computer game development. It won't teach you to design a perfect object model for making a game engine, but it uses object oriented concepts moderately to build a coherent one. I think this book raises the skill level of an elementary game engine developer to junior or intermediate level. Please notice that your programming knowledge in C++ must be already intermediate or at least beyond beginners. Comparatively, five star for this book is fair.
Well written and easy to follow.......2006-08-16
This book is excellent. It is technically well written and easy to follow. The Author is obviously very knowledgeable in game programming and DirectX.
Be CAREFUL If You Plan on Buying This Book.......2006-07-08
The Good :
- Well organized.
- Good examples.
- The TEXT is easy to read.
- The code can be complied, built, and run without
receiving errors.
The Bad :
- The code included on the CD-ROM doesn't always
match the code covered in the text. Sometimes
little changes have been made, but at other times
ENTIRE functions appear out of nowhere.
The Ugly :
- The author's coding practices and techniques are
HORRID. They are by far the worst that I have ever
come across in any computer science book that I
have ever read. His rare use of spaces makes the
code very difficult to read. Also, the names that
he gives his variables are nothing short of
ludicrous. Many of them make absolutely no sense.
In my experience, people who write code that is this hard to follow, have very little experience working with other programmers. This is a guy who has a computer information systems degree from DeVry and I'm guessing is only a hobbyist at best. Don't get me wrong, there are some good DirectX points made in this text, but the heart of any programming text is always the code.
Customer Reviews:
Finally Someone Mentions Native Californians.......2004-01-05
The whole history of the opression of Native Californians is not widely known or spoken of, even in California (I still hear that misbelief that the missions were good for the Indians occaisonally -- don't get me started0. And unfortunately, many times people aren't even aware that native peoples such as the Ohlone that figure into Owens' book still exist (they were, after all, declared extinct by anthropologists like Alfred Kroeber, which is extremely untrue). So I commend Owens for drawing upon the rich history of California in a way I have not seen many other authors do. Plenty of books rely on the premise of the wronged native -- most deal with horse-back riding Plains Indians with names like "Big Wolf" or "Two Eagles."
As for plot, and story, Owens scores here as well. I notice that many other reviewers found the plot line confusing, which in turn confuses me as I found it easy to follow. I even figured out that there were two...well, I don't want to spoil it for you. Owens also has good descriptions of the local scenery -- the redwoods forests of the Santa Cruz mountains as well as the juniper-pinyon forests of New Mexico - that come through as authentic to any who has ever walked in those places.
It's too bad Owens isn't still around producing works like these.
Surreal.......2002-01-14
After reading the novel Bone Game, a common reaction of many readers must be confusion. There are so many visions and dreams in this novel. These visions seem to occur independent of time and space, leading a reader used to highly structured "Western" novels to throw up their hands in futility. On reflection, however, several themes can be discerned from this confusing novel. One overarching theme seems to be the pervasive force of evil that manifests itself throughout the book. Louis Owens definitely has a grasp of criminal history. He has borrowed from real life events to construct his novel. Most of the events in Bone Game occur at the University of California, Santa Cruz where Cole McCurtain works as a professor. During the early 1970's Santa Cruz suffered through a crime wave when three serial killers committed crimes there.
Herbert William Mullin was, by anybody's account, a strange bean. A heavy user of LSD and a frequent pot smoker, Mullin eventually suffered a serious psychological collapse. He began hearing voices that commanded him to kill people in order to prevent earthquakes from destroying Southern California.
Edmund Kemper embarked on a sadistic rampage of murder and mayhem that culminated with his arrest in Pueblo, Colorado in April 1973. Kemper was a giant of a man, 6'9" tall and 280 pounds. Inside lurked a monster. Kemper despised women, especially his mother. When Kemper began to hunt women, his mother, a UCSC employee, inadvertently aided her son's murderous desires by providing him with a parking sticker for his car. This sticker allowed Kemper to lure young college co-eds to their deaths. After killing his victims, Kemper dismembered their bodies and decapitated them. Kemper buried one particular head in the yard outside his room, with the head facing towards the house so he could "talk" to his victim.
The third killer was John Linley Frazier. Frazier's spree was limited to a single event in 1970, when he torched the house of a local doctor. Frazier left a note at the crime scene expressing his outrage at the exploitation of the ecosystem and the rampant materialism prevalent in American society. When arrested, it was discovered that Frazier was a rabid ecologist and a practitioner of Tarot cards. Police believed that the murders Frazier committed might have been linked to the hippie culture movement that existed in the surrounding areas of Santa Cruz.
This lengthy description of madness is not an attempt to skirt discussion of Bone Game. Rather, Owens uses these real events to create fictional characters that adopt, and ultimately subvert, Indian culture. Can any reader look at the hulking figure of Paul Kantner and not see Ed Kemper? The murderer in Bone Game uses a car with a UCSC parking sticker to pick up one of his female victims. Kantner even murders his mother in the same way Kemper killed his mother. Paul also admits to burying the head of one of his victims so that it faces his room, allowing him to talk to the head. Again, this is the same thing that Kemper did.
Herbert Mullin and John Frazier are also represented in the story. Robert Malin, Cole's graduate assistant, seems to possess some of Mullin's attributes. Both Mullin and Malin (the names again share a similarity) engage in hallucinogenic experiences. Mullin takes acid and Malin takes part in the peyote ceremony. Mullin's experience with hallucinogens does not have the spiritual and healthy connotations of an Indian peyote ritual. Instead of receiving visions helpful and cleansing visions, Mullin's visions are nightmares of depravity that lead to murder. Even Robert does not share in the healthy experience of the ritual because he runs out before the ritual is finished. Robert talks about his "dreams" to kill, closely resembling Mullin's own sadistic visions. It is also important to point out that Malin seems to have adopted Mullin's fascination with earthquakes, as can be seen when he talks to Abby after he has abducted her.
Frazier's fascination with ecology and the prevention of materialistic consumption are both ideas that are closely associated with Indian values. In the hands of Frazier, they become twisted beyond recognition and turned into a reason for murder and destruction. The hippie culture that Frazier was immersed in also presents a problem. The hippie culture attempted to co-opt many Indian ideas, especially the concept of community. While this may seem to be a noble goal, in the hands of Whites it had a propensity to occasionally produce a John Frazier or a Charles Manson. The hippie culture that Frazier was a part of actually does makes an appearance in Bone Game, when Paul takes Abby to a place called Elfland. Elfland is a place where white students go to take part in wacky "New Age" rituals. These rituals are actually pathetic attempts by Whites to copy Indian ritual.
Another important event in Bone Game that illustrates the idea of subversion deals with the Indians themselves, as people. Luther and Hoey run into a gang of criminals who deal in a sort of Indian slavery. The evil committed against the Indians here is twofold: not only is an Indian abducted and denied dignity as a human being by Whites, the Whites have also turned Indian against Indian. One of the gang is an Indian who has nothing but contempt for his own people.
A weird book but worth reading if you like Indian literature.
Mysterious, surreal, almost incomprehensible.......2000-10-10
I ran across this book in my search for mysteries written by Native Americans. The jacket blurb and book reviews made it sound intriguing and worth picking up to read.
The story line weaves back and forth between murders set in present day California and Spanish Colonial times.
Owens prose is haunting; his images catch just at the edge of the reader's mind. Ok, one asks, is this happening today? Or 300 years ago? Is it real? (whatever that means.) Or just one of the protagonist's screwy dreams?
Frankly, I got exhausted trying to figure out where and when I was supposed to be. I fought my way through several hundred pages, searching for a plot I could hang on to. We finally got there, but by that time I had become bored with Cole - the angst-ridden, usually drunk, central character.
Maybe I'm just old fashioned - I like my mysteries to unfold in a more or less straight line. Too much poetry, imagery, and symbolism for my taste.
Haunting, surreal.......2000-07-10
I just happened to stumble upon this novel through a book club. I enjoyed every sentence of it! Owens blends Native American history, lore and custom with his characters' modern-day American concerns and fears. Cole McCurtain, teaching Indian Studies at Santa Cruz, finds that he is lonely, drinking far too much, and missing his family. His daughter, Abby, comes to stay with him at the same time that body parts start floating ashore. Cole is haunted by nightmares that seem to be telling him a story. He is also surrounded by a fascinating array of characters who fill the novel with humor, sarcasm and wisdom.
Owens' writing is first-rate. This is a chilling novel that, at the same time, is quite touching. I cared about what happened to the characters and had to keep reading to find out the next twist.
Real serial killings inspired this well-written tale........1997-01-30
Set in modern day Santa Cruz, Owens has constructed a fictional thriller based on events
in and around the infamous mission's domain. Troubled spirits mingle with malignant
minds as Native American professor Cole McCurtain finds himself and his
Choctaw family drawn into a story he has dreamed for many nights.
Find yourself drawn to Cole's wise young daughter Abby and his wise-cracking
cross-dressing Navajo friend Alex Yazzie. This literary novel is a great
thriller which provides lots of laughs and some sexy characters along the way.
Bone Game is the sequel to The Sharpest Sight, a mystery set many years earlier with
protagonist Cole McCurtain coming of age along the Salinas River. Another excellent
and very funny literary text that doubles as a sensational mystery
Book Description
The long-awaited return of the Bucephalas to the safety of the Cinque Ports is interrupted by a disastrous engagement in the Channel. The looming shape of a merchantman becalmed in fog presents an almost irresistible alllure. But for Harry Ludlow and his battle-weary crew, the pursuit of one last easy prize leads to a desperate fight.
Customer Reviews:
Intrigue and action, but little mystery and no brother.......2005-01-18
When privateersman Captain Harry Ludlow and his socialite brother James Ludlow return to Britain to find the fleets at Spithead and the Nore in mutiny, Harry assumes James will want to be in the middle of the action. James puts Harry in his place by informing him that Portsmouth is hardly the center of things and heads for London. I always found James a distraction, and probably enjoyed his time in London even more than he did.
Unlike some of the other books in this series, this one's less of a mystery and more of a spy novel. It further develops the impetuous and manipulative character of Harry Ludlow, and sees him negotiating with everyone: local smugglers, able seaman, through half the admiralty and even William Pitt himself. This installment also has more action, including a combined land/sea battle in a river with galleys and ships.
Like most of the other sea heroes (Alan Lewrie, Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey, in particular), Harry's luck on land is not what it is at sea. Although in this book, it could be argued Harry makes his own "luck" at sea and on land.
Read the first five of these books first. They tell one long story in episodes, much like other nautical fiction series. After Aubrey, Kydd and Hornblower, Harry Ludlow's my favorite sea officer. The novels move along with crisp dialogue and excellent nautical action. The fourth Thomas Paine Kydd book, "Mutiny", by Julian Stockwin, covers the same events from a rather different perspective, and I think gives a better perspective on the mutiny itself.
Book No. 6 in a series.......2004-04-09
This is novel No. 6 in a series about Privateersman Harry Ludlow. The author assumes you have read previous books in the series, as references are made to previous events without clearly explaining them. Most of the action takes place on land or aboard moored ships.
Much of the plot material has been used before. Patrick Obrien's novel "Post Captain" found Captain Aubrey in debt after his bank failed, and sent him on a quest for prize money to satisfy his debts. Various novels have included fictional accounts of the mutinies at Spithead and the Nore (See C. Northcote Parkinson's "The Fireship," Richard Woodman's "A King's Cutter," etc.), although this novel puts a different spin on the story.
This is a readable novel, although the hero comes across as a somewhat boneheaded fumbler at times, who gets his men killed to satisfy his quest for gold. It seems to alter history in some areas, e.g., I recall that a significant number of mutineers were hanged after the Nore Mutiny.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding read.......2005-01-08
Also an old favorite of mine. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to get more juice or joy out of their sports and/or adventures. I'm an endurance runner and when my running gets stale I pick up Bone Games and re-read it for a refresher on how to keep my running interesting and exciting. Anyone who enjoys sports, including hiking, running, climbing, adventure racing or whatever would get value out of this one. Anyone who enjoys a good adventure story would like it as well. It's well written, interesting, and therefore, easy and quick to read.
an old favourite.......2004-08-08
This book is an old favourite of mine. When I came across it on sale a few years ago in the Daedalus catalogue, I bought a bunch of copies to give to friends, mostly martial arts types. This book is not about martial arts per se, I can't help feeling that what Mr. Schultheis has to say is important to all martial artists and those involved with peak athletic performance. While mainly focused on high-risk sports and survival situations, I think most readers will be fascinated by his obsessive search for the consummate mind-set in which the seemingly impossible is accomplished with ease.
Schultheis is a runner and a climber, and when climbing in the Colorado Rockies, he had a bad fall which triggered a kind of peak experience. As he describes it: "Something happened on that descent, something I have tried to figure out ever since, so inexplicable and powerful it was. I found myself very simply doing impossible things: dozens, scores of them, as I climbed down Neva's lethal slopes. Shattered, in shock, I climbed with the impeccable sureness of a snow leopard, a mountain goat."
This experience sets the author off on a quest to find the key to this altered state of consciousness. And what a quest it is! He ranges from Shamanism to long-distance running, mountaineering in Nepal, Plains Indian vision quests, and survival at sea. He doesn't specifically deal with martial arts, but the state of consciousness he seeks is known by various terms such as "muga-mushin" and "heijoshin" in the Japanese Martial Arts. More recently Mihaly Cziksentmihaly has researched what he calls the "Flow" state and written extensively on it. While Schultheis doesnÂft seem to come to any firm conclusions, it's certainly not through a lack of effort, and it sure is fun being along for the ride.
Excellent.......2002-03-09
I found this book very intresting and would recommend it to anyone intrested in "the search for transcendence". The reading is easy and flows well.
Between Endorphin Addiction and The Will to Power.......2001-02-14
A mix between Brad Lewis' "Assault on Lake Casitas", Heart of Darkness, Walden and "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". Throw in some JOhn Muir and youre set. A kindred spirit of anyone who has ever found a balm for existential anxiety in testing the limits of the human body and spirit.
Spiritual/psychological analysis of extreme athletes........1998-12-17
Don't be deceived by the title. This book leaps beyond mere 'games' and instead zeroes in on a wide spectrum of outdoor adventurers. The author, Rob Schultheis, compares a wide spectrum of athletic psyches to himself, hoping to explain the lure to nature's most extreme challenges. His writing may stray from scientific methods, but his anecdotal and personal style is engaging and often based in Eastern philosophies. Overall, a solid collection of musings in a topic rarely navigated, sprinkled with harrowing accounts of unbelievable triumphs and near-misses.
Book Description
BONE WARS is a unique card game for up to 4 players, ages 10 and up. In BONE WARS, you are a paleontologist with only one goal - winning prestige at any cost. Collect dinosaur fossils while keeping bones out of the hands of your rivals. Build crowd-pleasing skeletons in your museum, and brutally expose your opponents' mistakes. Summon your loyal clique and fight for scientific immortality!
Customer Reviews:
Not just for scientists.......2006-07-18
The rules and game play are a little confusing at first, but once you have the rules down you'll want to play again. The game is based on the fact that in the past, palentologists sometimes made false claims about their discoveries in order to increase their prestige - and the goal, therefore, of this game is to win the most prestige points. Each player gets a "paleontologist" card that defines some additional aspect of game play for the game. For example, you might get an extra "bone" card each turn, or you might get an extra "event" card. Then, each player gets four bone cards and four event cards. You begin with the "field" phase, move on to the "museum" phase where you actually build your own skeletons, and then the "controversy" phase where you challenge others' skeletons. Games are neither too short nor too long, and once you understand all the various "sections" of game play, it's really pretty easy and fun. Also, easy to play with people you don't know well.
Average customer rating:
- DISAPPOINTING ADAPTATION OF A GREAT STORY
- halloween reading!
- Who is this book intended for?
|
Gonna Roll the Bones
David Wiesner
Manufacturer: Milk & Cookies Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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Sector 7 (Caldecott Honor Book)
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The Loathsome Dragon
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June 29, 1999
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Free Fall
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Hurricane
ASIN: 1596871768 |
Book Description
Joe Slattermill is about to experience a night he'll never forget. Tired of his decrepit house, he leaves his wife and mother behind and sets out for a night at The Boneyard. Joe has a knack for dice throwing and figures he can take on any opponent. But can he win when the stakes are raised, and it's his life he's gambling for? A classic fable in the tradition of The Devil and Daniel Webster.
Customer Reviews:
DISAPPOINTING ADAPTATION OF A GREAT STORY.......2004-11-20
"Gonna Roll the Bones" by Fritz Leiber is one of my favorites stories and when I learned that David Wiesner was adapting it into a picture book I had high expectations. After all, the idea was loaded with promise: Wiesner, winner of a Caldecott Honor Medal, is an extremely talented illustrator who has conjured up beautiful books with his precise, whimsical watercolors and seemed to be well suited to illuminating the dark magic and dense imagery found in this story.
Leiber's tale, "Gonna Roll the Bones", was first published in Harlan Ellison's watershed anthology DANGEROUS VISIONS and won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, is one of Leiber's best; a marvelous story of the Devil and a ne'er do well gambler (Joe Slattermill) rolling dice with Joe's soul as the wager. I won't spoil the tale's surprising and important pay off which has been excised right out of this book.
The abridgment of Leiber's story is the first problem with this book; all of the story's poetic language, subplots and evocative ambiance disappear in the condensed text. Of course, since the story is being adapted as a picture book, this abridgment would be acceptable if the imagery and mood of the lost prose were recreated by the illustrations. And, unfortunately, the style Mr. Wiesner has chosen to illustrate the story fall far short of this task.
The illustrations in the book are monochromatic drawings done in pencil on vellum to resemble old time sepia tones in a photo album. They're drawn in a sketchy linear style with little detail, minimal modeling and far too few darks that fail utterly to invoke the spooky magic of Fritz Leiber's prose.
In his afterward Mr. Wiesner tells us that he first adapted this story as his senior year project while a student a the Rhode Island School of Design as an "attempt to create a wordless picture book" because the story captivated him and he "was excited by the imagery which was so rich with detail and atmosphere." Sadly, these are the very things absent from this book and its illustrations.
Sorry, but I can't recommend this one.
halloween reading!.......2004-10-20
spooky, but not scary, this atmospheric picture book by david wiesner based on the well-known fritz leiber novella is a trick of the eye and a treat!
Who is this book intended for?.......2004-08-26
A man tired of his house and his family foes out to play craps at a place callee the boneyard in this dark fable. lThe illustrations progress from forboding to downright scarey. There is a lot of text for a picture book, and while the story is interesting and exciting, I am puzzled by the "Caldecott Medal" marketing. This book is not appropriate for young children because of the scarey pictures and long story.
Average customer rating:
- A Seience Expo Gold Mine or Just A Fun Project
|
T-Rex to Go: Build Your Own from Chicken Bones; Foolproof Instructions For Budding Paleontologists
Christopher McGowan
Manufacturer: Perennial Currents
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Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Make Your Own Dinosaur out of Chicken Bones: Foolproof Instructions for Budding Paleontologists
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The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time
ASIN: 0060952814 |
Book Description
The famous carnivore Tyrannosaurs Rex has fascinated humans for years. Now with simple explanations, easy-to-follow diagrams, and a few household items, you can turn the remains of your chicken supper into your own miniature--and frightening-model T. rex complete with teeth!
McGowan provides a wealth of information on dinosaur evolution and paleontological procedures, as well as delicious chicken recipes and step-by-step dinosaur-skeleton-building instructions, making this a book the whole family can enjoy.
Customer Reviews:
A Seience Expo Gold Mine or Just A Fun Project.......2000-10-19
McGowan's idiot-prof instructions proved themselves when me and some friends built this dinosaur in 7th grade. Although I am an avid model builder this was the first time I hade built a model made of things other than plastic. Surprizingly the chicken bones were easy to work with. We finished the model in about two months(working only one day a week). So if your looking to build an unusual model but this book!
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