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A series of topic books that introduce infants to the world of science. Using simple experiments and accessible information, these books develop children's experiences of the world into a real sense of scientific discovery with simple language and clear and colourful illustrations. ... Read more

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Text and drawings describe the physical characteristics, habits, and habitat of insects and other animals without a backbone. ... Read more

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This anthology of garden poetry, featuring creepy-crawlies, sunshine and snowdrops, owls and squirrels, and many other aspects of nature, includes poems by John Agard, Tony Bradman, Judith Nicholls and others, and is illustrated by Alan Baker. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

True to life
In my busy life (...), I often find it difficult to find books that cater for both my personal tastes and my reading level. Fortunately, Fransesca has come up with a rip-snorter of a read that I just couldn't put down.
I would recommned this for anyone with a deep interest in slugs or just a passing fancy. ... Read more

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When the Humans in the House decide to tidy up and revamp their garden, St Juniper's is thrown into a panic. The Naughty Fairies have to think of a way to stop them or their school may be in danger.But when their plan works a little too well, the Naughty Fairies have yet another crisis they need to work their way out of... ... Read more

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Retired schoolteacher Donna Galbreath loves her community of Cedar Harbor, Washington, but it's changing. That fact is brought home to Donna when, digging clams one morning, she finds the body of water board chairman Lyle Corrigan. Then, after she and Lyle's widow are attacked, Donna begins to investigate. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Nicely Done
While digging for clams, Donna Galbreath stumbles across the body of Lyle Corrigan. He had plenty of enemies that wanted to kill him and Donna doesn't trust the abilities of local police chief Billy Donniker to solve the case so she starts investigating the murder herself. Add in a second murder and a couple of attempted, near fatal poisonings and Donna has her hands full. She believes the deaths may have links to the past, but when she gets too close to the truth, she has to be careful or she may become a victim herself.

"Donna Rose and the Slug War" is an enjoyable cozy mystery. The book is written in the first person and Donna Rose is a great, if somewhat acerbic heroine. She says exactly what is on her mind and doesn't care if people like what she has to say. Still, she is likable, especially in her relationship with her daughter Roberta who is separated from her husband. Her relationship with next door neighbor Cyrus Bates makes for some of the funniest moments in the book (including the slug war of the title) and author Norma Tadlock Johnson deserves a lot of credit for letting readers decide for themselves whether or not Donna Rose dislikes Cyrus as much as she says she does. Johnson also does a good job in depicting the other characters in the novel and depicting small town life. The mystery itself is well written and the unmasking of the murderer will not doubt sadden readers when the motive is revealed.

"Donna Rose and the Slug War" is nicely done.

4.5 Stars : Donna Rose and the Slug War -- a fun sparring sleuth
Donna Rose and the Slug War is a fun light-hearted mystery read with a firebrand elderly sleuth. Donna Galbreath shakes up this small town with her attitude, the feud with her neighbor, and her probing questions.Donna Galbreath stumbles discovers a body of Lyle Corrigan while digging for clams. She is not able to trust the local police chief Billy Donniker. He wasn't that smart when she taught him in 6th grade and from the looks of his investigation, time and adulthood do not cast him in a better light. The danger escalates as a resident disappears, Lyle's wife is poisoned, and Donna Rose receives a mysterious package of lemon cookies. Who is behind the attack? All sorts of secrets are uncovered: the politics of the local waterboard has people pitted against one another, past family, business and social secrets are coming to light. If that wasn't enough for her to deal with, Donna's daughter shows up on her doorstep with a problem and her neighbor causes problems.

Donna Galbreath is a retired school teacher and she is one bad girl with an attitude despite her age! How can I describe this opposite of Jessica Fletcher? Donna is an agitator, a firebrand, cantankerous, an inciter, a mischief-maker (oh, the slug war!), one big nuisance, a smart aleck and a couple of other words too. This sleuth is not your stereotype of a nice elderly retired school teacher at all! This sleuth is a reader's delight.

The title alone draws readers to this mystery. In the beginning, readers will not believe this woman and want to continue reading just to see what crazy thing she will do next. As the mystery develops, readers will be drawn to her character more and more. Donna's character develops during the story and becomes more multi-dimensional but still keeps her spunk.Donna's feud with neighbor Cyrus makes this an enjoyable mystery read. Through him, the reader discovers her firebrand, eccentric character. Through him, the reader also sees a slightly different side of her as the two are drawn together to solve the mystery. Donna's character grows on the reader increasingly as Donna and Cyrus challenge each other. As a teacher, Donna has some insights into adults she taught that makes this mystery an interesting read to ponder afterwards. How well do teachers really know their students --- then and when they turn into adults?

fun small town cozy
In Cedar harbor, Washington, retired school teacher Donna Galbreath enjoys working her garden and clam digging at the nearby beach.Though a member of the water board, she detests the meetings and thinks her fellow associates are a collection of idiots especially her next door neighbor cranky Cyrus Bates.Donna's favorite pastime is slinging slugs from her property onto that owned by Cyrus.

While walking the beach early one morning, Donna finds the murdered body of Lyle Corrigan, owner of Corrigan Hardware and chair of the Water Board.She calls the police.Chief Billy Donniker, who was in Donna's sixth grade class and was an idiot than and now is a bigger moron, accompanied by Jake Santorini investigates the crime scene.Not long afterward, Donna without thinking of the consequences of her action interferes with the case by failing to inform the police that she recognized a newcomer as Lyle's daughter.Unable to stay out of the investigation, Donna and Cyrus go sleuthing, seeking who had an economic reason to commit murder, but they also finds a link to sexual abuse incidents from two decades ago. The slug war between the sleuths leads to new catapult equipment.

This small town cozy is a fun tale due to the wonderful cast that makes for a fine story.The who-done-it (official and amateur) sometimes takes a back seat to the antics of the residents of Cedar Harbor.Fans who appreciate a warm comfy murder mystery with limited action beyond slug droppings will enjoy the teaming of natural enemies Donna and Cyrus seeking to learn who killed Lyle.

Harriet Klausner
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With the dot-com bubble in full swing, one high-flying software tycoon in Cambridge, Mass., can't quite decide if the man he shot to death really has taken up residence in his body, or if he's just plain gonzo crazy. Or maybe there's a something even stranger going on, as he discovers when he meets and falls in love with the beautiful and mysterious Serena, who seems to have a similar problem. According to her, it all has to do with an obscure science fiction novel written by an enigmatic German physicist in the 1930s, not long before he perished in a Nazi death camp. She, like many others, believes the book isn't a novel at all, but an instruction manuel. ... Read more

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"Read and Learn" is a collection of non-fiction books that helps young readers discover and understand the world around them,and provides a bridge from the Foundation Stage into Key Stage 1. "Ooey-gooey Animals" introduces six different animals that have a combination of features that are both fascinating and repellent to many small children. It explores the life processes of each animal, including movement, feeding, growth and reproduction and the environment in which they live. Chapter headings are designed as child-friendly questions to help children focus and learn. ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Slugs," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Slugs in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Slugs when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Slugs, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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The adventures of the Mablesden family, their television-loving dog Hairy, and their ancient, obstinate little white car Slug. ... Read more

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Slinky is a loveable slug who has many friends. He lives on his own at the bottom of a beautiful garden and gets up to all sorts of things.Slinky will take you on a wonderful journey and tell you all about his exciting adventures, and mishaps, along the way.The first story is "Introducing Slinky". A short look at Slinky to show you what he is all about and the type of things he can get up to.The second story, "Slinky's Garden Adventure", will follow Slinky as he really is. Here, you will also meet one of his many friends in Wally the Worm.Join the two of them in this hilarious story as Slinky swims, slides and eats his way through the garden. ... Read more

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IF KNOWLEDGE WAS POWER, CECIL ADAMS WOULD RULE THE WORLD!

It's true! For the past twenty-five years, in his books and weekly newspaper column, world-history genius Cecil Adams has been patiently explaining to the Teeming Millions how the world works. He answered questions such as how do porcupines mate, what exactly does Barney Rubble do for a living, and where is Einstein's brain? His answers changed your life. Or at least settled a bet with a loved one. But surely, you are thinking, all the salient facts of the universe have been ascertained by now. Ha! Get a load of the mysteries The Master explores in this landmark volume:

 ¸  If Teflon is such a nonsticky substance, how do they get it to stick to the pan?
 ¸  Is the Great Cabal implanting microchips in our brains?
 ¸  Do fluorescent lights cause cataracts?
 ¸  What do Scotsmen wear under those kilts?
 ¸  Can some people extinguish street lamps by force of their bodily emanations?
 ¸  Is the U.S. Government really hiding alien spaceships?Amazon.com Review
Cecil Adams has been giving the straight dope to thousands ofbizarre and inane questions, in his books and weekly newspaper column,for 25 years now. His most recent opus, The Straight Dope TellsAll, is as addictively fascinating, sarcastic, and informative ashis previous efforts. If you're a Straight Dope enthusiast fromway back, you know how joyous an occasion a new Straight Dopeis. And if you're a Straight Dope virgin, it's time to beinitiated into Adams's scholarly yet snide approach to the triviaquestions that torment his readership into seeking his help. Whereelse are questions like "Does 'kimosabe' actually mean 'chickenguano?'" and "Must the pet rabbit chew one's t-shirt to keep fromdying of overgrown teeth?" actually see the light of newsprint andreceive an answer. Just perusing the index is good entertainment. Aquick glance at "S" shows "Sabbath, why Christians celebrate on Sundayrather than Saturday," sex: anal, and "gay bowel syndrome,""shivering, following urination," "singing nun, fate of," "smileyface, inventor of," "smoking, whether more WWII veterans were killedby that than combat," and "sound of tree, if falls in woods." How onecould resist a line-up like that, is a question even Cecil would beunable to resolve satisfactorily. --Stephanie Gold ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

All killer, some filler
I love The Straight Dope, and I have to say that there are parts of this book that were so entertaining that I found myself thinking, "This is probably my favorite collection of these columns"--certain especially funny questions, particularly acerbic polemics, et cetera.
This book addresses who invented the yellow happy face symbol, takes a very skeptical look at the infamous Roswell Incident, explores why the KKK burns crosses, discusses sex in space, whether people's personal magnetism can short out street lights, and if rabbits' teeth can grow to the point that they can no longer use them to eat.
So there are a lot of cool parts in here...but there were other parts as well.
There's no question that this book is entertaining and engaging, but it's also got a lot more filler in it than any of the previous volumes: lengthy transcriptions of chatroom conversations, not-so-insightful reader responses, and a kind of un-Cecil-Adams-like laziness about answering the questions that I'd never noticed before.For instance: he often just posts a question on an online message board and then tells us what people said.His whole omniscience schtick seems to falter here.
And then there's the book's size: it's pretty slight compared to most of the earlier ones, and some of the topics start to feel as if you've already read them in earlier volumes.
But whatever.These books are great, better than any other trivia books I can think of, and even as I wrote the above complaints, I was wishing that he'd hurry up and put out Volume 6.It's been almost eight years already since the last book!
Also, I'd love to see the short-lived TV show on DVD.I'd buy that for sure.

Another book of Uncle Cecil's collection
Yet another book from him...
If you havent heard about Cecil Adams then let me tell you he's one of the most eccentric "personages" ever existed... he claims to know everything about everything and cannot be mistaken... a bit arrogant sometimes he comes again to make mankind a favour and take us all from profound ignorance...
Good book for trivia fans...
Warning: expect to read almost anything imaginable here on these pages... it's true!

Maybe there's a limit....
I've always enjoyed Cecil and have, over the years, purchased his first four books. And it's true--each volume is a bit less fascinating than the previous. It really seems that the most familiar, universal, andentertaining imponderables were addressed in the earlier volumes. Odd, butseemingly true. Still, keep going Cecil!

more Cecil, less fanmail please
Cecil Adams' work rarely fails to satisfy, but this fourth compilation by him contains too much email garbage from AOL users.it's obvious these are online junkies who have far too much time on their hands.so in short: Cecil is great but the junkmail sucks.

Cecil sells out?
I was as excited as the next Straight Dope fan when this book came in the mail, but was quickly disappointed.Much of the book is taken up by reprintings of newsgroup witticisms or reader comments, and Cecil's answersseem to lack that familiar "zing".Still an interestingresource, and slightly entertaining, but there's too much other junk tosort through to get to it. ... Read more

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Provides a basic introduction to slugs, including their habitat, diet, and physical features. ... Read more

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