Great!, 31 Oct 2008
Brought this for alot more than for sale here, from high street store. Grrrr! Anyway got to say Bruce is a legend and its a perfect crimbo present!

Bravo Bruce, 29 Oct 2008
I dont usually buy books that accompany a TV series or film, thinking of them as quite frivolous marketing ploys, however I was given this as a gift and have definitely reassessed my opinion.

The book is an insightful accompaniment to the show, delving deeper into the characters that we meet only briefly on screen.The photography provides candid shots of both Bruce,the landscape and the indigenous tribes he meets.

I would highly reccomend this book for anyone who has an interest in the enviroment and what is happening in the Amazon. It is also a great Christmas present for any fans of the charming Mr Parry!

Food for thought, 24 Oct 2008
This, perhaps unsurprisingly for followers of the series is an intelligent and thought provoking counterpart to the BBC series and another addition to the canon of admirable work Parry is undertaking. This is beautifully produced full of sumptuous photos but it does not shirk the harder issues tackled in the show. He has a knack of managing to raise awareness of all important issues without patronising or preaching. Buy. And buy Bruce's wonderful charity album too as well - might go some way to helping the human casualties of amazon exploitation - tribes.

Bruce rocks!, 10 Oct 2008
In his inimitable style Bruce is bringing attention to one of the biggest scandals in the modern world, no less than the destruction of the most important habitat on our planet. It's something our generation will go down in history for and nobody is doing anything to stop it. More power to Bruce for showing how even some of the people destroying the forest are just trying to survive. We won't begin to tackle this issue until we appreciate that there are no easy answers (if you want a good summary of why the Amazon and other environments are so precious I'm a big fan of Bruce's other book Serious Survival as well).

Great!, 31 Oct 2008
Brought this for alot more than for sale here, from high street store. Grrrr! Anyway got to say Bruce is a legend and its a perfect crimbo present!

Bravo Bruce, 29 Oct 2008
I dont usually buy books that accompany a TV series or film, thinking of them as quite frivolous marketing ploys, however I was given this as a gift and have definitely reassessed my opinion.

The book is an insightful accompaniment to the show, delving deeper into the characters that we meet only briefly on screen.The photography provides candid shots of both Bruce,the landscape and the indigenous tribes he meets.

I would highly reccomend this book for anyone who has an interest in the enviroment and what is happening in the Amazon. It is also a great Christmas present for any fans of the charming Mr Parry!

Food for thought, 24 Oct 2008
This, perhaps unsurprisingly for followers of the series is an intelligent and thought provoking counterpart to the BBC series and another addition to the canon of admirable work Parry is undertaking. This is beautifully produced full of sumptuous photos but it does not shirk the harder issues tackled in the show. He has a knack of managing to raise awareness of all important issues without patronising or preaching. Buy. And buy Bruce's wonderful charity album too as well - might go some way to helping the human casualties of amazon exploitation - tribes.

Bruce rocks!, 10 Oct 2008
In his inimitable style Bruce is bringing attention to one of the biggest scandals in the modern world, no less than the destruction of the most important habitat on our planet. It's something our generation will go down in history for and nobody is doing anything to stop it. More power to Bruce for showing how even some of the people destroying the forest are just trying to survive. We won't begin to tackle this issue until we appreciate that there are no easy answers (if you want a good summary of why the Amazon and other environments are so precious I'm a big fan of Bruce's other book Serious Survival as well).

Perfect for young siblings, 07 Nov 2008
This book has no words which means you have to discuss the pictures with your toddler. It is the perfect tool to open a discussion about what is going to happen when the baby comes home from the hospital and shows them that they will still have special time with you after the new arrival.

I loved this book, 18 Mar 2008
I bought this book on the strength of the other reviews and it did not disappoint. The illustrations are lovely, and I was delighted to see depictions of breastfeeding the new baby included.

A must buy for second time mums!, 17 Aug 2006
I thought this book was fab. I loved the idea that it has no words but very detailed pictures. You can chose to discuss what you like with your child. Its great to see mum breast-feeding the newborn. A really good buy and very tastefully done.

A great way to discuss a new arrival, 04 Jan 2006
I found the lovely pictures in this book great, I sat down with my three year old and through the pictures we were able to discuss what would happen once his baby brother was born. A great way to prepare young children for a new baby. My 3 yr old loved it so much he'd look at the book in bed and fall asleep with his head in the book :)

Just what the doctor ordered, 19 Oct 2005
Within a week of receiving the book, I think we have read the book over twenty times, and every time my daughter loves it, great service and value for money

Great!, 31 Oct 2008
Brought this for alot more than for sale here, from high street store. Grrrr! Anyway got to say Bruce is a legend and its a perfect crimbo present!

Bravo Bruce, 29 Oct 2008
I dont usually buy books that accompany a TV series or film, thinking of them as quite frivolous marketing ploys, however I was given this as a gift and have definitely reassessed my opinion.

The book is an insightful accompaniment to the show, delving deeper into the characters that we meet only briefly on screen.The photography provides candid shots of both Bruce,the landscape and the indigenous tribes he meets.

I would highly reccomend this book for anyone who has an interest in the enviroment and what is happening in the Amazon. It is also a great Christmas present for any fans of the charming Mr Parry!

Food for thought, 24 Oct 2008
This, perhaps unsurprisingly for followers of the series is an intelligent and thought provoking counterpart to the BBC series and another addition to the canon of admirable work Parry is undertaking. This is beautifully produced full of sumptuous photos but it does not shirk the harder issues tackled in the show. He has a knack of managing to raise awareness of all important issues without patronising or preaching. Buy. And buy Bruce's wonderful charity album too as well - might go some way to helping the human casualties of amazon exploitation - tribes.

Bruce rocks!, 10 Oct 2008
In his inimitable style Bruce is bringing attention to one of the biggest scandals in the modern world, no less than the destruction of the most important habitat on our planet. It's something our generation will go down in history for and nobody is doing anything to stop it. More power to Bruce for showing how even some of the people destroying the forest are just trying to survive. We won't begin to tackle this issue until we appreciate that there are no easy answers (if you want a good summary of why the Amazon and other environments are so precious I'm a big fan of Bruce's other book Serious Survival as well).

Perfect for young siblings, 07 Nov 2008
This book has no words which means you have to discuss the pictures with your toddler. It is the perfect tool to open a discussion about what is going to happen when the baby comes home from the hospital and shows them that they will still have special time with you after the new arrival.

I loved this book, 18 Mar 2008
I bought this book on the strength of the other reviews and it did not disappoint. The illustrations are lovely, and I was delighted to see depictions of breastfeeding the new baby included.

A must buy for second time mums!, 17 Aug 2006
I thought this book was fab. I loved the idea that it has no words but very detailed pictures. You can chose to discuss what you like with your child. Its great to see mum breast-feeding the newborn. A really good buy and very tastefully done.

A great way to discuss a new arrival, 04 Jan 2006
I found the lovely pictures in this book great, I sat down with my three year old and through the pictures we were able to discuss what would happen once his baby brother was born. A great way to prepare young children for a new baby. My 3 yr old loved it so much he'd look at the book in bed and fall asleep with his head in the book :)

Just what the doctor ordered, 19 Oct 2005
Within a week of receiving the book, I think we have read the book over twenty times, and every time my daughter loves it, great service and value for money

Every child should own it., 05 Oct 2008
I bought this book for all 3 of my children, my 4 God children and my children's school. It is beautifully illustrated and each of the human rights are worded so that children can understand them. It is the sort of book that you hope that if your children become parents, they will pass their copy onto their children. Some people have a family bible; I believe that this is as important if not more so.

Great!, 31 Oct 2008
Brought this for alot more than for sale here, from high street store. Grrrr! Anyway got to say Bruce is a legend and its a perfect crimbo present!

Bravo Bruce, 29 Oct 2008
I dont usually buy books that accompany a TV series or film, thinking of them as quite frivolous marketing ploys, however I was given this as a gift and have definitely reassessed my opinion.

The book is an insightful accompaniment to the show, delving deeper into the characters that we meet only briefly on screen.The photography provides candid shots of both Bruce,the landscape and the indigenous tribes he meets.

I would highly reccomend this book for anyone who has an interest in the enviroment and what is happening in the Amazon. It is also a great Christmas present for any fans of the charming Mr Parry!

Food for thought, 24 Oct 2008
This, perhaps unsurprisingly for followers of the series is an intelligent and thought provoking counterpart to the BBC series and another addition to the canon of admirable work Parry is undertaking. This is beautifully produced full of sumptuous photos but it does not shirk the harder issues tackled in the show. He has a knack of managing to raise awareness of all important issues without patronising or preaching. Buy. And buy Bruce's wonderful charity album too as well - might go some way to helping the human casualties of amazon exploitation - tribes.

Bruce rocks!, 10 Oct 2008
In his inimitable style Bruce is bringing attention to one of the biggest scandals in the modern world, no less than the destruction of the most important habitat on our planet. It's something our generation will go down in history for and nobody is doing anything to stop it. More power to Bruce for showing how even some of the people destroying the forest are just trying to survive. We won't begin to tackle this issue until we appreciate that there are no easy answers (if you want a good summary of why the Amazon and other environments are so precious I'm a big fan of Bruce's other book Serious Survival as well).

Perfect for young siblings, 07 Nov 2008
This book has no words which means you have to discuss the pictures with your toddler. It is the perfect tool to open a discussion about what is going to happen when the baby comes home from the hospital and shows them that they will still have special time with you after the new arrival.

I loved this book, 18 Mar 2008
I bought this book on the strength of the other reviews and it did not disappoint. The illustrations are lovely, and I was delighted to see depictions of breastfeeding the new baby included.

A must buy for second time mums!, 17 Aug 2006
I thought this book was fab. I loved the idea that it has no words but very detailed pictures. You can chose to discuss what you like with your child. Its great to see mum breast-feeding the newborn. A really good buy and very tastefully done.

A great way to discuss a new arrival, 04 Jan 2006
I found the lovely pictures in this book great, I sat down with my three year old and through the pictures we were able to discuss what would happen once his baby brother was born. A great way to prepare young children for a new baby. My 3 yr old loved it so much he'd look at the book in bed and fall asleep with his head in the book :)

Just what the doctor ordered, 19 Oct 2005
Within a week of receiving the book, I think we have read the book over twenty times, and every time my daughter loves it, great service and value for money

Every child should own it., 05 Oct 2008
I bought this book for all 3 of my children, my 4 God children and my children's school. It is beautifully illustrated and each of the human rights are worded so that children can understand them. It is the sort of book that you hope that if your children become parents, they will pass their copy onto their children. Some people have a family bible; I believe that this is as important if not more so.

Not a good investment in the future, 30 May 2008
Every time we depict unnecessary interventions in the childbearing process as routine eg in this case ultrasound scanning and leaving the home environment to give birth we are laying down a legacy which will cause trouble for our children.

It could be argued that these are a common feature of many young children's experience - and so indeed they are. However, we do not see contemporary books for this age group depicting parents smoking, drinking alcohol, hitting the child, all of which are also part of many young children's experience. We would rightly question their routine depiction, and the fact that we unthinkingly embrace the inclusion of routine but for most women unnecessary interventions shows how effective our brainwashing has been. But we do not need to do it to our children.

Good but needs one more page, 20 Jul 2007
I am 5 months pregnant and have been reading this book with my 3 year old. It's good that you make up your own words as I can add detail about anything she's been asking about the baby (such as can she help give the baby its breakfast). I am planning to breastfeed so I'm glad there are not too many pictures of bottles.

My one complaint is that the book ends with the child and father going to visit mother and new baby in hospital, there is no homecoming shown. It took us a day or two to work out why my daughter started saying "Mummy I think we should all live in our house together" and "I don't want to live here by myself". So now I end the last page by talking about how they will all go home together in their car.

Worth its weight ..., 15 Oct 2006
This book was so helpful. I didn't realize until afterwards what a big impact it had on our son. I didn't mention I was having a baby until a month or two before. I showed him the book a few times, talking about what was happening and emphazing the more relevant pages. He told my husband he was supposed to bring me a cup of tea! (while the mother puts her feet up) I think the book really helped him make sense of things. We 'read' the book an hour before I went off to the hospital. There is a picture of the father opening the car door for the mother and she's got a bag and the grandmother is at the door of the house with the boy. That is exactly what happened. He kept looking in the book as if to see that what happened was right or to see what happens next. What does happen next is the boy comes in with his father to visit the mother in the hospital. This book prepares young children for the excitement of shopping and decorating for a baby, the scan, the mother resting more, the mother going off to the hospital and the presence of the baby. It helps them make sense of it.

Waiting for baby, 03 Feb 2004
This book has proved to be an invaluable way of talking about the baby growing in mummy's tummy. Our two and a half year old amazed us by telling us what it was about and by using the illustrations to describe what was going on in our family. The simple illustration of 'the mummy having a scan' helped when we took him along to the hospital to see the baby 'on telly', as he really seemed to understand what was happening. This book has enabled our son to lead the conversation and to ask his own questions about the baby, although the picture of daddy helping to cook the dinner has left him somewhat mystified!!
A fantastic book that I couldn't rate any higher.

a well designed book for toddlers, 07 Nov 2003
I am impressed with this book. There are no words, but that lets us tailor the story for our daughter. The main character is indeterminant sex, so it will work with boys and girls.
There is plenty to look at in each picture and it is a very happy story.
This book has captured our daughter's imagination and I hope it prepares her for her upcoming big sisterhood.

Great!, 31 Oct 2008
Brought this for alot more than for sale here, from high street store. Grrrr! Anyway got to say Bruce is a legend and its a perfect crimbo present!

Bravo Bruce, 29 Oct 2008
I dont usually buy books that accompany a TV series or film, thinking of them as quite frivolous marketing ploys, however I was given this as a gift and have definitely reassessed my opinion.

The book is an insightful accompaniment to the show, delving deeper into the characters that we meet only briefly on screen.The photography provides candid shots of both Bruce,the landscape and the indigenous tribes he meets.

I would highly reccomend this book for anyone who has an interest in the enviroment and what is happening in the Amazon. It is also a great Christmas present for any fans of the charming Mr Parry!

Food for thought, 24 Oct 2008
This, perhaps unsurprisingly for followers of the series is an intelligent and thought provoking counterpart to the BBC series and another addition to the canon of admirable work Parry is undertaking. This is beautifully produced full of sumptuous photos but it does not shirk the harder issues tackled in the show. He has a knack of managing to raise awareness of all important issues without patronising or preaching. Buy. And buy Bruce's wonderful charity album too as well - might go some way to helping the human casualties of amazon exploitation - tribes.

Bruce rocks!, 10 Oct 2008
In his inimitable style Bruce is bringing attention to one of the biggest scandals in the modern world, no less than the destruction of the most important habitat on our planet. It's something our generation will go down in history for and nobody is doing anything to stop it. More power to Bruce for showing how even some of the people destroying the forest are just trying to survive. We won't begin to tackle this issue until we appreciate that there are no easy answers (if you want a good summary of why the Amazon and other environments are so precious I'm a big fan of Bruce's other book Serious Survival as well).

Perfect for young siblings, 07 Nov 2008
This book has no words which means you have to discuss the pictures with your toddler. It is the perfect tool to open a discussion about what is going to happen when the baby comes home from the hospital and shows them that they will still have special time with you after the new arrival.

I loved this book, 18 Mar 2008
I bought this book on the strength of the other reviews and it did not disappoint. The illustrations are lovely, and I was delighted to see depictions of breastfeeding the new baby included.

A must buy for second time mums!, 17 Aug 2006
I thought this book was fab. I loved the idea that it has no words but very detailed pictures. You can chose to discuss what you like with your child. Its great to see mum breast-feeding the newborn. A really good buy and very tastefully done.

A great way to discuss a new arrival, 04 Jan 2006
I found the lovely pictures in this book great, I sat down with my three year old and through the pictures we were able to discuss what would happen once his baby brother was born. A great way to prepare young children for a new baby. My 3 yr old loved it so much he'd look at the book in bed and fall asleep with his head in the book :)

Just what the doctor ordered, 19 Oct 2005
Within a week of receiving the book, I think we have read the book over twenty times, and every time my daughter loves it, great service and value for money

Every child should own it., 05 Oct 2008
I bought this book for all 3 of my children, my 4 God children and my children's school. It is beautifully illustrated and each of the human rights are worded so that children can understand them. It is the sort of book that you hope that if your children become parents, they will pass their copy onto their children. Some people have a family bible; I believe that this is as important if not more so.

Not a good investment in the future, 30 May 2008
Every time we depict unnecessary interventions in the childbearing process as routine eg in this case ultrasound scanning and leaving the home environment to give birth we are laying down a legacy which will cause trouble for our children.

It could be argued that these are a common feature of many young children's experience - and so indeed they are. However, we do not see contemporary books for this age group depicting parents smoking, drinking alcohol, hitting the child, all of which are also part of many young children's experience. We would rightly question their routine depiction, and the fact that we unthinkingly embrace the inclusion of routine but for most women unnecessary interventions shows how effective our brainwashing has been. But we do not need to do it to our children.

Good but needs one more page, 20 Jul 2007
I am 5 months pregnant and have been reading this book with my 3 year old. It's good that you make up your own words as I can add detail about anything she's been asking about the baby (such as can she help give the baby its breakfast). I am planning to breastfeed so I'm glad there are not too many pictures of bottles.

My one complaint is that the book ends with the child and father going to visit mother and new baby in hospital, there is no homecoming shown. It took us a day or two to work out why my daughter started saying "Mummy I think we should all live in our house together" and "I don't want to live here by myself". So now I end the last page by talking about how they will all go home together in their car.

Worth its weight ..., 15 Oct 2006
This book was so helpful. I didn't realize until afterwards what a big impact it had on our son. I didn't mention I was having a baby until a month or two before. I showed him the book a few times, talking about what was happening and emphazing the more relevant pages. He told my husband he was supposed to bring me a cup of tea! (while the mother puts her feet up) I think the book really helped him make sense of things. We 'read' the book an hour before I went off to the hospital. There is a picture of the father opening the car door for the mother and she's got a bag and the grandmother is at the door of the house with the boy. That is exactly what happened. He kept looking in the book as if to see that what happened was right or to see what happens next. What does happen next is the boy comes in with his father to visit the mother in the hospital. This book prepares young children for the excitement of shopping and decorating for a baby, the scan, the mother resting more, the mother going off to the hospital and the presence of the baby. It helps them make sense of it.

Waiting for baby, 03 Feb 2004
This book has proved to be an invaluable way of talking about the baby growing in mummy's tummy. Our two and a half year old amazed us by telling us what it was about and by using the illustrations to describe what was going on in our family. The simple illustration of 'the mummy having a scan' helped when we took him along to the hospital to see the baby 'on telly', as he really seemed to understand what was happening. This book has enabled our son to lead the conversation and to ask his own questions about the baby, although the picture of daddy helping to cook the dinner has left him somewhat mystified!!
A fantastic book that I couldn't rate any higher.

a well designed book for toddlers, 07 Nov 2003
I am impressed with this book. There are no words, but that lets us tailor the story for our daughter. The main character is indeterminant sex, so it will work with boys and girls.
There is plenty to look at in each picture and it is a very happy story.
This book has captured our daughter's imagination and I hope it prepares her for her upcoming big sisterhood.

Over-complicated, 19 Apr 2008
I found this book made geographical ideas more complicated which obviously is not what I bought the book for! I ended up buying another revision book (bbc bitesize) which was much easier to understand and use.
Also the jokes in this are awful!


Another CGP star, 02 Aug 2007
This is another great revision guide from CGP - full of light-hearted 'jokes' and puns that help to keep you going. As usual there is focus on what you really need to know, which helps if you have a geography teacher like mine who is in love with the subject and thinks we all are too, and also thinks he is preparing us all for doign a geography degree... The clear diagrams are great for understanding key ideas, and the cartoons help you remember stuff as well as being fun. The revision summaries are good for checking that you have absorbed everything. The only downside really is that only parts of the guide are relevant to my course - edexel A - so you have to keep checking whether you need to know that bit or not. But it is SOOO much clearer and easier to understand than the edexel textbook and revision book school gave me (Tomorrow's Geography) it's well worth it.

Better books out there, 04 Jan 2007
I bought this book along with Physics, Chemistry and Biology (which are amazing by the way) hoping that it would cut down a lot on faffing about during revision. While this would have been the case had i gone along with it, I found that this book is mising *so* much. Sure, it covers the gist of pretty much everything, but with a finickety (or at last, finickety for getting good marks in exams) subject like Geography, a revision guide or textbook needs to be comprehensive as well as concise (ok, somewhat of an oxymoron, but as you'll find out later it's not too much to ask). Case studies come up in the form of big mark questions on the exam and this book doesn't really provide any. Granted, there are lots of different syllabus' and its pretty tough for any one book to cover all of them without being the size of a hippopotamus. A book I would reccomend, however, is Understanding GCSE Geography by Heineman - particularly good for me as this is tailored to the specification A AQA course (which, surprise surprise is the one I'm doing). So, in short, my point is, save you tenner and don't get this book: buy one thats tailored to your course.

Surprisingly Good, 08 May 2005
I am currently studying for GCSE Geography and buying this book has summarised all that I need to know in adequate detail. The jokes are not good. The information includes examples of areas which are essential for the main exam.

a very good book, 20 Feb 2003
I am using this book to help me through my GCSE Geography and so far I have found that this book has been very helpful. It is well set out and makes revision more interesting !! (even if the jokes are poor !)

Children and parents will be amazed at what this interactive, talking globe can do. Touch the globe with the NearTouchTM pen and listen to what it tells you.

The world's most intelligent talking globe.

Learning about geography is magic!

Touch the Globe and learn amazing facts.

Instant pinpoint global identification of countries, continents, oceans and more!

Provides distance and flying times between two points.

Accurate information on population, currency, music, time of day and more!

Includes challenging learning games that everyone in the family can play.

Progressively helpful hints that lead to the correct answer. 8 Years +As learning aids go, they don't get much better than the Explorer Globe from LeapFrog. Touch the globe with the electronic pen included and it will spring to life, naming the country or ocean you've touched and giving you one or more of a number of facts--ocean depth (in feet and metres), country capital, population, land area, continent, even music (a rather eclectic mix!). Touch it again, and you'll get another nugget of information.

You can choose which information you want on precisely which area of the globe, from: name, capital, population, area, high point, money, music and continents/countries/states. The globe will also compare one place with another and tell you the distance in miles between them, if you touch two points in succession.

But the real potential of the globe lies in its game, "Eureka: a Game of Discovery". Touch the Eureka button, then choose from continents, countries, country capitals, states, state capitals or a free-for-all random round. Set the game going and you must find the points that the globe instructs you to find. You are running against the clock and the instructions and accompanying music become increasingly quicker as you progress. The multi-player option means healthy competition can be introduced and as you progress, you can choose between "tourist", "frequent flyer" and "globetrotter" levels, which become increasingly difficult.

The voice recording on the globe has an American accent but diction is clear and precise and in no way does this detract from the final product. This is a fast, furious and fun way to learn geography, (physical, human, political and economic as well as musical!) and though aimed at children, adults may be surprised at how healthy it is to do a little revision now and again. As well as being an effective learning aid, the globe can be a fun, family game. Simply superb and suitable for children aged 7 to 77! --Lucie Naylor

Great!, 31 Oct 2008
Brought this for alot more than for sale here, from high street store. Grrrr! Anyway got to say Bruce is a legend and its a perfect crimbo present!

Bravo Bruce, 29 Oct 2008
I dont usually buy books that accompany a TV series or film, thinking of them as quite frivolous marketing ploys, however I was given this as a gift and have definitely reassessed my opinion.

The book is an insightful accompaniment to the show, delving deeper into the characters that we meet only briefly on screen.The photography provides candid shots of both Bruce,the landscape and the indigenous tribes he meets.

I would highly reccomend this book for anyone who has an interest in the enviroment and what is happening in the Amazon. It is also a great Christmas present for any fans of the charming Mr Parry!

Food for thought, 24 Oct 2008
This, perhaps unsurprisingly for followers of the series is an intelligent and thought provoking counterpart to the BBC series and another addition to the canon of admirable work Parry is undertaking. This is beautifully produced full of sumptuous photos but it does not shirk the harder issues tackled in the show. He has a knack of managing to raise awareness of all important issues without patronising or preaching. Buy. And buy Bruce's wonderful charity album too as well - might go some way to helping the human casualties of amazon exploitation - tribes.

Bruce rocks!, 10 Oct 2008
In his inimitable style Bruce is bringing attention to one of the biggest scandals in the modern world, no less than the destruction of the most important habitat on our planet. It's something our generation will go down in history for and nobody is doing anything to stop it. More power to Bruce for showing how even some of the people destroying the forest are just trying to survive. We won't begin to tackle this issue until we appreciate that there are no easy answers (if you want a good summary of why the Amazon and other environments are so precious I'm a big fan of Bruce's other book Serious Survival as well).

Perfect for young siblings, 07 Nov 2008
This book has no words which means you have to discuss the pictures with your toddler. It is the perfect tool to open a discussion about what is going to happen when the baby comes home from the hospital and shows them that they will still have special time with you after the new arrival.

I loved this book, 18 Mar 2008
I bought this book on the strength of the other reviews and it did not disappoint. The illustrations are lovely, and I was delighted to see depictions of breastfeeding the new baby included.

A must buy for second time mums!, 17 Aug 2006
I thought this book was fab. I loved the idea that it has no words but very detailed pictures. You can chose to discuss what you like with your child. Its great to see mum breast-feeding the newborn. A really good buy and very tastefully done.

A great way to discuss a new arrival, 04 Jan 2006
I found the lovely pictures in this book great, I sat down with my three year old and through the pictures we were able to discuss what would happen once his baby brother was born. A great way to prepare young children for a new baby. My 3 yr old loved it so much he'd look at the book in bed and fall asleep with his head in the book :)

Just what the doctor ordered, 19 Oct 2005
Within a week of receiving the book, I think we have read the book over twenty times, and every time my daughter loves it, great service and value for money

Every child should own it., 05 Oct 2008
I bought this book for all 3 of my children, my 4 God children and my children's school. It is beautifully illustrated and each of the human rights are worded so that children can understand them. It is the sort of book that you hope that if your children become parents, they will pass their copy onto their children. Some people have a family bible; I believe that this is as important if not more so.

Not a good investment in the future, 30 May 2008
Every time we depict unnecessary interventions in the childbearing process as routine eg in this case ultrasound scanning and leaving the home environment to give birth we are laying down a legacy which will cause trouble for our children.

It could be argued that these are a common feature of many young children's experience - and so indeed they are. However, we do not see contemporary books for this age group depicting parents smoking, drinking alcohol, hitting the child, all of which are also part of many young children's experience. We would rightly question their routine depiction, and the fact that we unthinkingly embrace the inclusion of routine but for most women unnecessary interventions shows how effective our brainwashing has been. But we do not need to do it to our children.

Good but needs one more page, 20 Jul 2007
I am 5 months pregnant and have been reading this book with my 3 year old. It's good that you make up your own words as I can add detail about anything she's been asking about the baby (such as can she help give the baby its breakfast). I am planning to breastfeed so I'm glad there are not too many pictures of bottles.

My one complaint is that the book ends with the child and father going to visit mother and new baby in hospital, there is no homecoming shown. It took us a day or two to work out why my daughter started saying "Mummy I think we should all live in our house together" and "I don't want to live here by myself". So now I end the last page by talking about how they will all go home together in their car.

Worth its weight ..., 15 Oct 2006
This book was so helpful. I didn't realize until afterwards what a big impact it had on our son. I didn't mention I was having a baby until a month or two before. I showed him the book a few times, talking about what was happening and emphazing the more relevant pages. He told my husband he was supposed to bring me a cup of tea! (while the mother puts her feet up) I think the book really helped him make sense of things. We 'read' the book an hour before I went off to the hospital. There is a picture of the father opening the car door for the mother and she's got a bag and the grandmother is at the door of the house with the boy. That is exactly what happened. He kept looking in the book as if to see that what happened was right or to see what happens next. What does happen next is the boy comes in with his father to visit the mother in the hospital. This book prepares young children for the excitement of shopping and decorating for a baby, the scan, the mother resting more, the mother going off to the hospital and the presence of the baby. It helps them make sense of it.

Waiting for baby, 03 Feb 2004
This book has proved to be an invaluable way of talking about the baby growing in mummy's tummy. Our two and a half year old amazed us by telling us what it was about and by using the illustrations to describe what was going on in our family. The simple illustration of 'the mummy having a scan' helped when we took him along to the hospital to see the baby 'on telly', as he really seemed to understand what was happening. This book has enabled our son to lead the conversation and to ask his own questions about the baby, although the picture of daddy helping to cook the dinner has left him somewhat mystified!!
A fantastic book that I couldn't rate any higher.

a well designed book for toddlers, 07 Nov 2003
I am impressed with this book. There are no words, but that lets us tailor the story for our daughter. The main character is indeterminant sex, so it will work with boys and girls.
There is plenty to look at in each picture and it is a very happy story.
This book has captured our daughter's imagination and I hope it prepares her for her upcoming big sisterhood.

Over-complicated, 19 Apr 2008
I found this book made geographical ideas more complicated which obviously is not what I bought the book for! I ended up buying another revision book (bbc bitesize) which was much easier to understand and use.
Also the jokes in this are awful!


Another CGP star, 02 Aug 2007
This is another great revision guide from CGP - full of light-hearted 'jokes' and puns that help to keep you going. As usual there is focus on what you really need to know, which helps if you have a geography teacher like mine who is in love with the subject and thinks we all are too, and also thinks he is preparing us all for doign a geography degree... The clear diagrams are great for understanding key ideas, and the cartoons help you remember stuff as well as being fun. The revision summaries are good for checking that you have absorbed everything. The only downside really is that only parts of the guide are relevant to my course - edexel A - so you have to keep checking whether you need to know that bit or not. But it is SOOO much clearer and easier to understand than the edexel textbook and revision book school gave me (Tomorrow's Geography) it's well worth it.

Better books out there, 04 Jan 2007
I bought this book along with Physics, Chemistry and Biology (which are amazing by the way) hoping that it would cut down a lot on faffing about during revision. While this would have been the case had i gone along with it, I found that this book is mising *so* much. Sure, it covers the gist of pretty much everything, but with a finickety (or at last, finickety for getting good marks in exams) subject like Geography, a revision guide or textbook needs to be comprehensive as well as concise (ok, somewhat of an oxymoron, but as you'll find out later it's not too much to ask). Case studies come up in the form of big mark questions on the exam and this book doesn't really provide any. Granted, there are lots of different syllabus' and its pretty tough for any one book to cover all of them without being the size of a hippopotamus. A book I would reccomend, however, is Understanding GCSE Geography by Heineman - particularly good for me as this is tailored to the specification A AQA course (which, surprise surprise is the one I'm doing). So, in short, my point is, save you tenner and don't get this book: buy one thats tailored to your course.

Surprisingly Good, 08 May 2005
I am currently studying for GCSE Geography and buying this book has summarised all that I need to know in adequate detail. The jokes are not good. The information includes examples of areas which are essential for the main exam.

a very good book, 20 Feb 2003
I am using this book to help me through my GCSE Geography and so far I have found that this book has been very helpful. It is well set out and makes revision more interesting !! (even if the jokes are poor !)

Great idea. Shame it was broken!, 28 Dec 2007
This globe certainly is a fantastic idea. My seven year old was desparate for a globe for christmas, and this seemed the ideal choice as we would all be able to play with it together over the holiday. How dissapointing then when he opened it on Christmas morning and discovered that it was convinced that most of the northern hemisphere was the artic ocean! We are sendning it back (to Santa) for one more go.

Better Than School Geography, 23 Oct 2007
My 8 year old daughter knows more about countries and capitals than any 16/17 year old that babysits for us, a fun educational toy, would recommend it to any parent!!

Fantastic toy!, 22 Feb 2007
What a great toy! I bought one of these for my 6 year old son for christmas. He plays with it every single day.

The one we received is a different colour to the one pictured and features an Engish voice. My son really enjoys the quizzes - finding the capitals, oceans, countries etc before the time runs out. There are a few levels - fun for all ages, including adluts! The globe will also tell you facts about each country, and plays a song which is related to each country (not sure if these are accurate, but the kids like them)!

So, all-in-all, a great toy. It is expensive, but my son has literally played with it every single day since Christmas. So well worth the money. We are still on the set of demonstration batteries that came with the globe, so they last a long time, and it seems really well built.

A must have!, 27 Jan 2007
After considering conventional globes I am extremely pleased with The Explorer. There can be no better introduction to Geography for young children. It provides a huge amount of factual information and the inclusion of games in the form of timed tests of your knowledge have provided a lot of fun for both young children and those a little maturer in years (such as myself). The simple concept of the globe speaking provides the key to this excellent product. Children can learn at their own pace and simply hearing the correct pronunciation of some quite tricky words and place names can give the youngsters a head start when they progress onto the subject at school. All in all a great introduction and well worth the money.

Leapfrog Globe is an Excellent Purchase, 23 Jan 2007
Even though it is a little expensive, I feel that this purchase was money well spent. My children aged from 6 to 14 all love this toy and constantly fight over it. My youngest now knows her capital cities and countries better than I do. A brilliant, educational toy.

Great!, 31 Oct 2008
Brought this for alot more than for sale here, from high street store. Grrrr! Anyway got to say Bruce is a legend and its a perfect crimbo present!

Bravo Bruce, 29 Oct 2008
I dont usually buy books that accompany a TV series or film, thinking of them as quite frivolous marketing ploys, however I was given this as a gift and have definitely reassessed my opinion.

The book is an insightful accompaniment to the show, delving deeper into the characters that we meet only briefly on screen.The photography provides candid shots of both Bruce,the landscape and the indigenous tribes he meets.

I would highly reccomend this book for anyone who has an interest in the enviroment and what is happening in the Amazon. It is also a great Christmas present for any fans of the charming Mr Parry!

Food for thought, 24 Oct 2008
This, perhaps unsurprisingly for followers of the series is an intelligent and thought provoking counterpart to the BBC series and another addition to the canon of admirable work Parry is undertaking. This is beautifully produced full of sumptuous photos but it does not shirk the harder issues tackled in the show. He has a knack of managing to raise awareness of all important issues without patronising or preaching. Buy. And buy Bruce's wonderful charity album too as well - might go some way to helping the human casualties of amazon exploitation - tribes.

Bruce rocks!, 10 Oct 2008
In his inimitable style Bruce is bringing attention to one of the biggest scandals in the modern world, no less than the destruction of the most important habitat on our planet. It's something our generation will go down in history for and nobody is doing anything to stop it. More power to Bruce for showing how even some of the people destroying the forest are just trying to survive. We won't begin to tackle this issue until we appreciate that there are no easy answers (if you want a good summary of why the Amazon and other environments are so precious I'm a big fan of Bruce's other book Serious Survival as well).

Perfect for young siblings, 07 Nov 2008
This book has no words which means you have to discuss the pictures with your toddler. It is the perfect tool to open a discussion about what is going to happen when the baby comes home from the hospital and shows them that they will still have special time with you after the new arrival.

I loved this book, 18 Mar 2008
I bought this book on the strength of the other reviews and it did not disappoint. The illustrations are lovely, and I was delighted to see depictions of breastfeeding the new baby included.

A must buy for second time mums!, 17 Aug 2006
I thought this book was fab. I loved the idea that it has no words but very detailed pictures. You can chose to discuss what you like with your child. Its great to see mum breast-feeding the newborn. A really good buy and very tastefully done.

A great way to discuss a new arrival, 04 Jan 2006
I found the lovely pictures in this book great, I sat down with my three year old and through the pictures we were able to discuss what would happen once his baby brother was born. A great way to prepare young children for a new baby. My 3 yr old loved it so much he'd look at the book in bed and fall asleep with his head in the book :)

Just what the doctor ordered, 19 Oct 2005
Within a week of receiving the book, I think we have read the book over twenty times, and every time my daughter loves it, great service and value for money

Every child should own it., 05 Oct 2008
I bought this book for all 3 of my children, my 4 God children and my children's school. It is beautifully illustrated and each of the human rights are worded so that children can understand them. It is the sort of book that you hope that if your children become parents, they will pass their copy onto their children. Some people have a family bible; I believe that this is as important if not more so.

Not a good investment in the future, 30 May 2008
Every time we depict unnecessary interventions in the childbearing process as routine eg in this case ultrasound scanning and leaving the home environment to give birth we are laying down a legacy which will cause trouble for our children.

It could be argued that these are a common feature of many young children's experience - and so indeed they are. However, we do not see contemporary books for this age group depicting parents smoking, drinking alcohol, hitting the child, all of which are also part of many young children's experience. We would rightly question their routine depiction, and the fact that we unthinkingly embrace the inclusion of routine but for most women unnecessary interventions shows how effective our brainwashing has been. But we do not need to do it to our children.

Good but needs one more page, 20 Jul 2007
I am 5 months pregnant and have been reading this book with my 3 year old. It's good that you make up your own words as I can add detail about anything she's been asking about the baby (such as can she help give the baby its breakfast). I am planning to breastfeed so I'm glad there are not too many pictures of bottles.

My one complaint is that the book ends with the child and father going to visit mother and new baby in hospital, there is no homecoming shown. It took us a day or two to work out why my daughter started saying "Mummy I think we should all live in our house together" and "I don't want to live here by myself". So now I end the last page by talking about how they will all go home together in their car.

Worth its weight ..., 15 Oct 2006
This book was so helpful. I didn't realize until afterwards what a big impact it had on our son. I didn't mention I was having a baby until a month or two before. I showed him the book a few times, talking about what was happening and emphazing the more relevant pages. He told my husband he was supposed to bring me a cup of tea! (while the mother puts her feet up) I think the book really helped him make sense of things. We 'read' the book an hour before I went off to the hospital. There is a picture of the father opening the car door for the mother and she's got a bag and the grandmother is at the door of the house with the boy. That is exactly what happened. He kept looking in the book as if to see that what happened was right or to see what happens next. What does happen next is the boy comes in with his father to visit the mother in the hospital. This book prepares young children for the excitement of shopping and decorating for a baby, the scan, the mother resting more, the mother going off to the hospital and the presence of the baby. It helps them make sense of it.

Waiting for baby, 03 Feb 2004
This book has proved to be an invaluable way of talking about the baby growing in mummy's tummy. Our two and a half year old amazed us by telling us what it was about and by using the illustrations to describe what was going on in our family. The simple illustration of 'the mummy having a scan' helped when we took him along to the hospital to see the baby 'on telly', as he really seemed to understand what was happening. This book has enabled our son to lead the conversation and to ask his own questions about the baby, although the picture of daddy helping to cook the dinner has left him somewhat mystified!!
A fantastic book that I couldn't rate any higher.

a well designed book for toddlers, 07 Nov 2003
I am impressed with this book. There are no words, but that lets us tailor the story for our daughter. The main character is indeterminant sex, so it will work with boys and girls.
There is plenty to look at in each picture and it is a very happy story.
This book has captured our daughter's imagination and I hope it prepares her for her upcoming big sisterhood.

Over-complicated, 19 Apr 2008
I found this book made geographical ideas more complicated which obviously is not what I bought the book for! I ended up buying another revision book (bbc bitesize) which was much easier to understand and use.
Also the jokes in this are awful!


Another CGP star, 02 Aug 2007
This is another great revision guide from CGP - full of light-hearted 'jokes' and puns that help to keep you going. As usual there is focus on what you really need to know, which helps if you have a geography teacher like mine who is in love with the subject and thinks we all are too, and also thinks he is preparing us all for doign a geography degree... The clear diagrams are great for understanding key ideas, and the cartoons help you remember stuff as well as being fun. The revision summaries are good for checking that you have absorbed everything. The only downside really is that only parts of the guide are relevant to my course - edexel A - so you have to keep checking whether you need to know that bit or not. But it is SOOO much clearer and easier to understand than the edexel textbook and revision book school gave me (Tomorrow's Geography) it's well worth it.

Better books out there, 04 Jan 2007
I bought this book along with Physics, Chemistry and Biology (which are amazing by the way) hoping that it would cut down a lot on faffing about during revision. While this would have been the case had i gone along with it, I found that this book is mising *so* much. Sure, it covers the gist of pretty much everything, but with a finickety (or at last, finickety for getting good marks in exams) subject like Geography, a revision guide or textbook needs to be comprehensive as well as concise (ok, somewhat of an oxymoron, but as you'll find out later it's not too much to ask). Case studies come up in the form of big mark questions on the exam and this book doesn't really provide any. Granted, there are lots of different syllabus' and its pretty tough for any one book to cover all of them without being the size of a hippopotamus. A book I would reccomend, however, is Understanding GCSE Geography by Heineman - particularly good for me as this is tailored to the specification A AQA course (which, surprise surprise is the one I'm doing). So, in short, my point is, save you tenner and don't get this book: buy one thats tailored to your course.

Surprisingly Good, 08 May 2005
I am currently studying for GCSE Geography and buying this book has summarised all that I need to know in adequate detail. The jokes are not good. The information includes examples of areas which are essential for the main exam.

a very good book, 20 Feb 2003
I am using this book to help me through my GCSE Geography and so far I have found that this book has been very helpful. It is well set out and makes revision more interesting !! (even if the jokes are poor !)

Great idea. Shame it was broken!, 28 Dec 2007
This globe certainly is a fantastic idea. My seven year old was desparate for a globe for christmas, and this seemed the ideal choice as we would all be able to play with it together over the holiday. How dissapointing then when he opened it on Christmas morning and discovered that it was convinced that most of the northern hemisphere was the artic ocean! We are sendning it back (to Santa) for one more go.

Better Than School Geography, 23 Oct 2007
My 8 year old daughter knows more about countries and capitals than any 16/17 year old that babysits for us, a fun educational toy, would recommend it to any parent!!

Fantastic toy!, 22 Feb 2007
What a great toy! I bought one of these for my 6 year old son for christmas. He plays with it every single day.

The one we received is a different colour to the one pictured and features an Engish voice. My son really enjoys the quizzes - finding the capitals, oceans, countries etc before the time runs out. There are a few levels - fun for all ages, including adluts! The globe will also tell you facts about each country, and plays a song which is related to each country (not sure if these are accurate, but the kids like them)!

So, all-in-all, a great toy. It is expensive, but my son has literally played with it every single day since Christmas. So well worth the money. We are still on the set of demonstration batteries that came with the globe, so they last a long time, and it seems really well built.

A must have!, 27 Jan 2007
After considering conventional globes I am extremely pleased with The Explorer. There can be no better introduction to Geography for young children. It provides a huge amount of factual information and the inclusion of games in the form of timed tests of your knowledge have provided a lot of fun for both young children and those a little maturer in years (such as myself). The simple concept of the globe speaking provides the key to this excellent product. Children can learn at their own pace and simply hearing the correct pronunciation of some quite tricky words and place names can give the youngsters a head start when they progress onto the subject at school. All in all a great introduction and well worth the money.

Leapfrog Globe is an Excellent Purchase, 23 Jan 2007
Even though it is a little expensive, I feel that this purchase was money well spent. My children aged from 6 to 14 all love this toy and constantly fight over it. My youngest now knows her capital cities and countries better than I do. A brilliant, educational toy.

It's about the Truth, 08 Nov 2008
I don't know much about "Orient" or "Orientalism" and after all this book is not about what I thought it would be but as a History undergraduate student I found this book very revealing. It's about the necessity for searching for the Truth, without contenting yourself with superficial findings based not on the Truth itself but what it is convenient for you to call true.

Utter Drivel, 04 Apr 2008
I do not know how Americans view Islam but as an Englishman/European it seems to me that Said's views are so much poppycock.To make a couple of points in a limited space.

Of course we have a stereotypical view of Islam just as Islam has a stereotypical view of us - and these views are largely hostile .So what? For century after century Islam was an enormous threat to what might loosely be called Christendom. It shaped every aspect of European history and was directly responsible for Europes colonial empires. Up till around 1750 they were a dangerous direct competitor to our interests.Gibbon writing in the 1780s was the first to think that the danger had passed .On a local scale the threat lasted even longer - Barbary pirates ravaged the coast of England up till the 1830s carting off coastal villages into slavery and at even later dates on the west coast of Ireland and that was at the height of the British Empire ! .By a strange inversion left wing academics and Said have made Europeans and Americans see these things entirely from the point of view of Islam ie as uniquely a problem of western imperialism largely ignoring about a thousand years of history.

Common sense would suggest that as our knowledge of these societies grew in the 19th century so stereotypes would break down.Said says the opposite - they served to reinforce them. Common Sense is right - stereotypes did break down.He makes much of the fact that as a boy he saw these european pictures of the east and they bore no relation to the societies he knew.It never seems to occur to him that as a Palestinian/American he might not be seeing these pictures as a European sees them and a 19th century European at that. 19th century Europeans , for whom these pictures were intended , were preoccupied with the dehumanising and mechanising aspects of industrial society ,their own society, and used other societies to show up these concerns.European attitudes were complex and contradictory but they were not attempting to give an accurate view of oriental society as their viewers well understood. When Gauguin paints a picture of a naked Tahitian girl we dont think he is trying to justify French imperialism nor do we think that he is saying much about Tahiti. Naked Tahitian girls did not buy his paintings. He was saying a great deal however about 19th century France with its rigid stifling conventions compared with the natural grace of a simpler more primitive world. Said is himself guilty of a kind of mental colonialism.He assumes that he understands what these pictures are about and is going to tell us what they mean. But he does not understand them because he does not understand 19th century Europe and he gets it wrong.

Finally Said does not seem to understand that the British did not need to justify their oriental empire by regarding other societies as inferior and their rule as necessary to bring enlightenment to the natives. He assumes that, like the Roman Empire, it was acquired through conscious effort.Nothing could be further from the truth. The British Empire in India was acquired in a haphazard way through chance .They thought that as it had been delivered into their hands by fate they had as much right to be there as their Moghul predecessors. Early British colonialists simply adopted the customs of the dominant Muslim culture which they much admired.- even to the point of practising polygamy.It was only after the Indian mutiny in the late Victorian period when the British were forbidden to intermarry with the natives that they turned into a caste and thought that they had to justify their presence in the country by adopting spurious notions of superiority.

In short western attitudes to the orient mirror by and large oriental attitudes to the west - often confusing and contradictory. Americas particular support for Israel owes much to a particular sense of their own identity and is not shared by European countries. Said's thesis is in my view nonsense..



Said too much..?, 01 Feb 2008
Drawing upon the work of Michel Foucault, Edward Said claims that Western ideas of the `Orient' are not based upon objective facts but are created through academic and cultural `discourses' which serve to promote Western imperialism - often despite `liberal' intentions.

This mythical `East' is the antithesis of the West, a negative or inversion of the Occident, and is used to define both in binary opposition to each other and to facilitate the political and domination of the East.

However in order to demonstrate the existence of this `Orientalism' Said falls back on an equally stereotypical and monolithic `West' which he constructs entirely from the carefully selected writings of a handful of 19th Century middle-class, white, male English and French authors.

This tactic not only ignores or misrepresents a large body of Western authors sympathetic to the East and sensitive to differences within it, but also glosses over Western heterogenities of class, race, sex, religion and generation in order to manufacture a homogenous `Occident' devoid of differences.

Said is as guilty of *Occidentalism* as those he criticises are of *Orientalism*.

Said fails to provide any evidence that the `West' defines itself in binary opposition to a mythical `East' that Western scholars have created for just this purpose, he simply *manufactures* the kind of `West' necessary to explain the `East' that he himself has constructed from a very limited number of Western texts about the `Orient'.

He has created his own mythical `East' and `West' from a small number of secondary sources which he then projects onto others and thinks he has *discovered* rather than *invented*.


Well past its sell-by date, 14 Mar 2006
Books, however good or bad they are, can gather a momentum of their own once they become best-sellers. So it is with Orientalism. People will continue to read it because so many have read it. All the same it is time to touch base and say loud and clear that this is a very bad book. It is full of unjustified vitriol against people Said does not like. It is completely unscholarly in that Said has clearly not read some of the material about which he offers opinions. It is unreliable in that he gets many important facts wrong. It is animated by the idea that anyone who doesn't have the same political opinions as Said cannot possibly have anything useful to say. Finally, and perhaps worst of all, Said showed himself to be impervious to criticism and did not even both to correct clearly established errors. This is a work of great arrogance. The case for all of these points is made by Robert Irwin in For Lust of Knowing (2006). Anyone reading Said's book must also read Irwin if they want to have a balanced view.

An utterly outstanding book that demands reading, 14 Jan 2005
Few works are more deserving of the 'Modern Classic' label that Penguin has given this book. Perhaps it is only after nearly twenty year since its first publication that we are able to appreciate the prophetic and uniquely influential nature of Said's insights into the roots of the 'West's' antagonism towards the 'Orient'. For what is, in effect, little more than a book of literary criticism, the ramifications for all areas of scholarly research and investigation are remarkable. On a personal level it is a book that has profoundly affected both my political and academic outlook and forced a re-evaluation of my attitudes (and not just towards the Middle-East) and, more significantly, the underlying deceits or conspiracies of history on which they are founded. I urge every person in a position of power to study this canonical work. That it is hard reading does not detract from but adds to the power of the work; at every moment Said's intimidating (but inspiringly humanistic and humane) scholarship is in evidence and one can only marvel at his analytical dexterity. Those who see the book as repetative and hypocritically reductive have failed to grasp the true substance which is in the criticism and not primarily in the conclusions which are, for the most part, self-evident, as Said himself declares from the outset.
There will, I am sure, continue be numerous wilful misreadings of 'Orientalism' and that it continues to provoke such controversy is a testament to its brilliance. Ignore them and read it.

Great!, 31 Oct 2008
Brought this for alot more than for sale here, from high street store. Grrrr! Anyway got to say Bruce is a legend and its a perfect crimbo present!

Bravo Bruce, 29 Oct 2008
I dont usually buy books that accompany a TV series or film, thinking of them as quite frivolous marketing ploys, however I was given this as a gift and have definitely reassessed my opinion.

The book is an insightful accompaniment to the show, delving deeper into the characters that we meet only briefly on screen.The photography provides candid shots of both Bruce,the landscape and the indigenous tribes he meets.

I would highly reccomend this book for anyone who has an interest in the enviroment and what is happening in the Amazon. It is also a great Christmas present for any fans of the charming Mr Parry!

Food for thought, 24 Oct 2008
This, perhaps unsurprisingly for followers of the series is an intelligent and thought provoking counterpart to the BBC series and another addition to the canon of admirable work Parry is undertaking. This is beautifully produced full of sumptuous photos but it does not shirk the harder issues tackled in the show. He has a knack of managing to raise awareness of all important issues without patronising or preaching. Buy. And buy Bruce's wonderful charity album too as well - might go some way to helping the human casualties of amazon exploitation - tribes.

Bruce rocks!, 10 Oct 2008
In his inimitable style Bruce is bringing attention to one of the biggest scandals in the modern world, no less than the destruction of the most important habitat on our planet. It's something our generation will go down in history for and nobody is doing anything to stop it. More power to Bruce for showing how even some of the people destroying the forest are just trying to survive. We won't begin to tackle this issue until we appreciate that there are no easy answers (if you want a good summary of why the Amazon and other environments are so precious I'm a big fan of Bruce's other book Serious Survival as well).

Perfect for young siblings, 07 Nov 2008
This book has no words which means you have to discuss the pictures with your toddler. It is the perfect tool to open a discussion about what is going to happen when the baby comes home from the hospital and shows them that they will still have special time with you after the new arrival.

I loved this book, 18 Mar 2008
I bought this book on the strength of the other reviews and it did not disappoint. The illustrations are lovely, and I was delighted to see depictions of breastfeeding the new baby included.

A must buy for second time mums!, 17 Aug 2006
I thought this book was fab. I loved the idea that it has no words but very detailed pictures. You can chose to discuss what you like with your child. Its great to see mum breast-feeding the newborn. A really good buy and very tastefully done.

A great way to discuss a new arrival, 04 Jan 2006
I found the lovely pictures in this book great, I sat down with my three year old and through the pictures we were able to discuss what would happen once his baby brother was born. A great way to prepare young children for a new baby. My 3 yr old loved it so much he'd look at the book in bed and fall asleep with his head in the book :)

Just what the doctor ordered, 19 Oct 2005
Within a week of receiving the book, I think we have read the book over twenty times, and every time my daughter loves it, great service and value for money

Every child should own it., 05 Oct 2008
I bought this book for all 3 of my children, my 4 God children and my children's school. It is beautifully illustrated and each of the human rights are worded so that children can understand them. It is the sort of book that you hope that if your children become parents, they will pass their copy onto their children. Some people have a family bible; I believe that this is as important if not more so.

Not a good investment in the future, 30 May 2008
Every time we depict unnecessary interventions in the childbearing process as routine eg in this case ultrasound scanning and leaving the home environment to give birth we are laying down a legacy which will cause trouble for our children.

It could be argued that these are a common feature of many young children's experience - and so indeed they are. However, we do not see contemporary books for this age group depicting parents smoking, drinking alcohol, hitting the child, all of which are also part of many young children's experience. We would rightly question their routine depiction, and the fact that we unthinkingly embrace the inclusion of routine but for most women unnecessary interventions shows how effective our brainwashing has been. But we do not need to do it to our children.

Good but needs one more page, 20 Jul 2007
I am 5 months pregnant and have been reading this book with my 3 year old. It's good that you make up your own words as I can add detail about anything she's been asking about the baby (such as can she help give the baby its breakfast). I am planning to breastfeed so I'm glad there are not too many pictures of bottles.

My one complaint is that the book ends with the child and father going to visit mother and new baby in hospital, there is no homecoming shown. It took us a day or two to work out why my daughter started saying "Mummy I think we should all live in our house together" and "I don't want to live here by myself". So now I end the last page by talking about how they will all go home together in their car.

Worth its weight ..., 15 Oct 2006
This book was so helpful. I didn't realize until afterwards what a big impact it had on our son. I didn't mention I was having a baby until a month or two before. I showed him the book a few times, talking about what was happening and emphazing the more relevant pages. He told my husband he was supposed to bring me a cup of tea! (while the mother puts her feet up) I think the book really helped him make sense of things. We 'read' the book an hour before I went off to the hospital. There is a picture of the father opening the car door for the mother and she's got a bag and the grandmother is at the door of the house with the boy. That is exactly what happened. He kept looking in the book as if to see that what happened was right or to see what happens next. What does happen next is the boy comes in with his father to visit the mother in the hospital. This book prepares young children for the excitement of shopping and decorating for a baby, the scan, the mother resting more, the mother going off to the hospital and the presence of the baby. It helps them make sense of it.

Waiting for baby, 03 Feb 2004
This book has proved to be an invaluable way of talking about the baby growing in mummy's tummy. Our two and a half year old amazed us by telling us what it was about and by using the illustrations to describe what was going on in our family. The simple illustration of 'the mummy having a scan' helped when we took him along to the hospital to see the baby 'on telly', as he really seemed to understand what was happening. This book has enabled our son to lead the conversation and to ask his own questions about the baby, although the picture of daddy helping to cook the dinner has left him somewhat mystified!!
A fantastic book that I couldn't rate any higher.

a well designed book for toddlers, 07 Nov 2003
I am impressed with this book. There are no words, but that lets us tailor the story for our daughter. The main character is indeterminant sex, so it will work with boys and girls.
There is plenty to look at in each picture and it is a very happy story.
This book has captured our daughter's imagination and I hope it prepares her for her upcoming big sisterhood.

Over-complicated, 19 Apr 2008
I found this book made geographical ideas more complicated which obviously is not what I bought the book for! I ended up buying another revision book (bbc bitesize) which was much easier to understand and use.
Also the jokes in this are awful!


Another CGP star, 02 Aug 2007
This is another great revision guide from CGP - full of light-hearted 'jokes' and puns that help to keep you going. As usual there is focus on what you really need to know, which helps if you have a geography teacher like mine who is in love with the subject and thinks we all are too, and also thinks he is preparing us all for doign a geography degree... The clear diagrams are great for understanding key ideas, and the cartoons help you remember stuff as well as being fun. The revision summaries are good for checking that you have absorbed everything. The only downside really is that only parts of the guide are relevant to my course - edexel A - so you have to keep checking whether you need to know that bit or not. But it is SOOO much clearer and easier to understand than the edexel textbook and revision book school gave me (Tomorrow's Geography) it's well worth it.

Better books out there, 04 Jan 2007
I bought this book along with Physics, Chemistry and Biology (which are amazing by the way) hoping that it would cut down a lot on faffing about during revision. While this would have been the case had i gone along with it, I found that this book is mising *so* much. Sure, it covers the gist of pretty much everything, but with a finickety (or at last, finickety for getting good marks in exams) subject like Geography, a revision guide or textbook needs to be comprehensive as well as concise (ok, somewhat of an oxymoron, but as you'll find out later it's not too much to ask). Case studies come up in the form of big mark questions on the exam and this book doesn't really provide any. Granted, there are lots of different syllabus' and its pretty tough for any one book to cover all of them without being the size of a hippopotamus. A book I would reccomend, however, is Understanding GCSE Geography by Heineman - particularly good for me as this is tailored to the specification A AQA course (which, surprise surprise is the one I'm doing). So, in short, my point is, save you tenner and don't get this book: buy one thats tailored to your course.

Surprisingly Good, 08 May 2005
I am currently studying for GCSE Geography and buying this book has summarised all that I need to know in adequate detail. The jokes are not good. The information includes examples of areas which are essential for the main exam.

a very good book, 20 Feb 2003
I am using this book to help me through my GCSE Geography and so far I have found that this book has been very helpful. It is well set out and makes revision more interesting !! (even if the jokes are poor !)

Great idea. Shame it was broken!, 28 Dec 2007
This globe certainly is a fantastic idea. My seven year old was desparate for a globe for christmas, and this seemed the ideal choice as we would all be able to play with it together over the holiday. How dissapointing then when he opened it on Christmas morning and discovered that it was convinced that most of the northern hemisphere was the artic ocean! We are sendning it back (to Santa) for one more go.

Better Than School Geography, 23 Oct 2007
My 8 year old daughter knows more about countries and capitals than any 16/17 year old that babysits for us, a fun educational toy, would recommend it to any parent!!

Fantastic toy!, 22 Feb 2007
What a great toy! I bought one of these for my 6 year old son for christmas. He plays with it every single day.

The one we received is a different colour to the one pictured and features an Engish voice. My son really enjoys the quizzes - finding the capitals, oceans, countries etc before the time runs out. There are a few levels - fun for all ages, including adluts! The globe will also tell you facts about each country, and plays a song which is related to each country (not sure if these are accurate, but the kids like them)!

So, all-in-all, a great toy. It is expensive, but my son has literally played with it every single day since Christmas. So well worth the money. We are still on the set of demonstration batteries that came with the globe, so they last a long time, and it seems really well built.

A must have!, 27 Jan 2007
After considering conventional globes I am extremely pleased with The Explorer. There can be no better introduction to Geography for young children. It provides a huge amount of factual information and the inclusion of games in the form of timed tests of your knowledge have provided a lot of fun for both young children and those a little maturer in years (such as myself). The simple concept of the globe speaking provides the key to this excellent product. Children can learn at their own pace and simply hearing the correct pronunciation of some quite tricky words and place names can give the youngsters a head start when they progress onto the subject at school. All in all a great introduction and well worth the money.

Leapfrog Globe is an Excellent Purchase, 23 Jan 2007
Even though it is a little expensive, I feel that this purchase was money well spent. My children aged from 6 to 14 all love this toy and constantly fight over it. My youngest now knows her capital cities and countries better than I do. A brilliant, educational toy.

It's about the Truth, 08 Nov 2008
I don't know much about "Orient" or "Orientalism" and after all this book is not about what I thought it would be but as a History undergraduate student I found this book very revealing. It's about the necessity for searching for the Truth, without contenting yourself with superficial findings based not on the Truth itself but what it is convenient for you to call true.

Utter Drivel, 04 Apr 2008
I do not know how Americans view Islam but as an Englishman/European it seems to me that Said's views are so much poppycock.To make a couple of points in a limited space.

Of course we have a stereotypical view of Islam just as Islam has a stereotypical view of us - and these views are largely hostile .So what? For century after century Islam was an enormous threat to what might loosely be called Christendom. It shaped every aspect of European history and was directly responsible for Europes colonial empires. Up till around 1750 they were a dangerous direct competitor to our interests.Gibbon writing in the 1780s was the first to think that the danger had passed .On a local scale the threat lasted even longer - Barbary pirates ravaged the coast of England up till the 1830s carting off coastal villages into slavery and at even later dates on the west coast of Ireland and that was at the height of the British Empire ! .By a strange inversion left wing academics and Said have made Europeans and Americans see these things entirely from the point of view of Islam ie as uniquely a problem of western imperialism largely ignoring about a thousand years of history.

Common sense would suggest that as our knowledge of these societies grew in the 19th century so stereotypes would break down.Said says the opposite - they served to reinforce them. Common Sense is right - stereotypes did break down.He makes much of the fact that as a boy he saw these european pictures of the east and they bore no relation to the societies he knew.It never seems to occur to him that as a Palestinian/American he might not be seeing these pictures as a European sees them and a 19th century European at that. 19th century Europeans , for whom these pictures were intended , were preoccupied with the dehumanising and mechanising aspects of industrial society ,their own society, and used other societies to show up these concerns.European attitudes were complex and contradictory but they were not attempting to give an accurate view of oriental society as their viewers well understood. When Gauguin paints a picture of a naked Tahitian girl we dont think he is trying to justify French imperialism nor do we think that he is saying much about Tahiti. Naked Tahitian girls did not buy his paintings. He was saying a great deal however about 19th century France with its rigid stifling conventions compared with the natural grace of a simpler more primitive world. Said is himself guilty of a kind of mental colonialism.He assumes that he understands what these pictures are about and is going to tell us what they mean. But he does not understand them because he does not understand 19th century Europe and he gets it wrong.

Finally Said does not seem to understand that the British did not need to justify their oriental empire by regarding other societies as inferior and their rule as necessary to bring enlightenment to the natives. He assumes that, like the Roman Empire, it was acquired through conscious effort.Nothing could be further from the truth. The British Empire in India was acquired in a haphazard way through chance .They thought that as it had been delivered into their hands by fate they had as much right to be there as their Moghul predecessors. Early British colonialists simply adopted the customs of the dominant Muslim culture which they much admired.- even to the point of practising polygamy.It was only after the Indian mutiny in the late Victorian period when the British were forbidden to intermarry with the natives that they turned into a caste and thought that they had to justify their presence in the country by adopting spurious notions of superiority.

In short western attitudes to the orient mirror by and large oriental attitudes to the west - often confusing and contradictory. Americas particular support for Israel owes much to a particular sense of their own identity and is not shared by European countries. Said's thesis is in my view nonsense..



Said too much..?, 01 Feb 2008
Drawing upon the work of Michel Foucault, Edward Said claims that Western ideas of the `Orient' are not based upon objective facts but are created through academic and cultural `discourses' which serve to promote Western imperialism - often despite `liberal' intentions.

This mythical `East' is the antithesis of the West, a negative or inversion of the Occident, and is used to define both in binary opposition to each other and to facilitate the political and domination of the East.

However in order to demonstrate the existence of this `Orientalism' Said falls back on an equally stereotypical and monolithic `West' which he constructs entirely from the carefully selected writings of a handful of 19th Century middle-class, white, male English and French authors.

This tactic not only ignores or misrepresents a large body of Western authors sympathetic to the East and sensitive to differences within it, but also glosses over Western heterogenities of class, race, sex, religion and generation in order to manufacture a homogenous `Occident' devoid of differences.

Said is as guilty of *Occidentalism* as those he criticises are of *Orientalism*.

Said fails to provide any evidence that the `West' defines itself in binary opposition to a mythical `East' that Western scholars have created for just this purpose, he simply *manufactures* the kind of `West' necessary to explain the `East' that he himself has constructed from a very limited number of Western texts about the `Orient'.

He has created his own mythical `East' and `West' from a small number of secondary sources which he then projects onto others and thinks he has *discovered* rather than *invented*.


Well past its sell-by date, 14 Mar 2006
Books, however good or bad they are, can gather a momentum of their own once they become best-sellers. So it is with Orientalism. People will continue to read it because so many have read it. All the same it is time to touch base and say loud and clear that this is a very bad book. It is full of unjustified vitriol against people Said does not like. It is completely unscholarly in that Said has clearly not read some of the material about which he offers opinions. It is unreliable in that he gets many important facts wrong. It is animated by the idea that anyone who doesn't have the same political opinions as Said cannot possibly have anything useful to say. Finally, and perhaps worst of all, Said showed himself to be impervious to criticism and did not even both to correct clearly established errors. This is a work of great arrogance. The case for all of these points is made by Robert Irwin in For Lust of Knowing (2006). Anyone reading Said's book must also read Irwin if they want to have a balanced view.

An utterly outstanding book that demands reading, 14 Jan 2005
Few works are more deserving of the 'Modern Classic' label that Penguin has given this book. Perhaps it is only after nearly twenty year since its first publication that we are able to appreciate the prophetic and uniquely influential nature of Said's insights into the roots of the 'West's' antagonism towards the 'Orient'. For what is, in effect, little more than a book of literary criticism, the ramifications for all areas of scholarly research and investigation are remarkable. On a personal level it is a book that has profoundly affected both my political and academic outlook and forced a re-evaluation of my attitudes (and not just towards the Middle-East) and, more significantly, the underlying deceits or conspiracies of history on which they are founded. I urge every person in a position of power to study this canonical work. That it is hard reading does not detract from but adds to the power of the work; at every moment Said's intimidating (but inspiringly humanistic and humane) scholarship is in evidence and one can only marvel at his analytical dexterity. Those who see the book as repetative and hypocritically reductive have failed to grasp the true substance which is in the criticism and not primarily in the conclusions which are, for the most part, self-evident, as Said himself declares from the outset.
There will, I am sure, continue be numerous wilful misreadings of 'Orientalism' and that it continues to provoke such controversy is a testament to its brilliance. Ignore them and read it.

Correlating economic freedom with political freedom, as only Friedman could have!, 21 Sep 2008
This book, printed in various formats and languages, is some indication of the fact that Milton Friedman's arguments have not lost currency in the 21st century, even though many people hotly contest their rights and wrongs. The old master of economics hardly wastes time in triggering a debate by stating in the very first chapter: "History suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition."

Capitalism and Freedom has been derided, criticised and lauded in equal measure and for Friedmanites it remains the bible. Love him or hate him, the author himself was never one to shy away from controversy. In this book he has pened his thoughts on issues such as the control of money, fiscal policy, role of government in educating the masses, distribution of income, social welfare measures and alleviation of poverty, among others.

Some of his one-liners and thoughts here are hugely engaging. Despite being vehemently opposed to Government intervention in free market economies, he writes that "the existence of a free market does not of course eliminate the need for government. On the contrary, government is essential both as a forum for determining the rule of the game and as an umpire to interpret and enforce the rules decided on."

The book is also packed with what some might interpret as below the belt remarks, if not properly contextualised. For instance, he writes, "With respect to teachers' salaries .... Poor teachers are grossly overpaid and good teachers grossly underpaid. Salary schedules tend to be uniform and determined far more by seniority." (Chapter 6: Role of Education in Government).

Overall, Friedman has made a case for what he construed as competitive and constructive capitalism and I immensely enjoyed reading the Nobel laureate's thoughts. The longevity of his chain of thought is perhaps what makes this book a valuable reference point. That aside, it has been written is an easy to read format which still fans its popularity over forty years after the first edition went to press.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity - Incompatible Ideals?, 08 Jul 2008
I became vaguely aware of Milton Friedman in the 1980s, when he was often referred to as the favourite economic guru of Thatcher and Reagan, the founder of "monetarism" as a new school of economics. He was disliked by the left, and there were dark mutterings about his involvement with some of the less pleasant South American regimes of the period.

More recently I was referred to some excellent video clips of Milton Friedman on YouTube, and became interested in how his views fitted into economic thinking as a whole. I also became aware of economic libertarianism, expounded by such organisations as The Cato Institute (publishers of some of the sceptical volumes on man-made global warming theory, but with a much wider range of interests than that) and The Von Mises Institute, that seems to have quite an extreme view as to how limited the role of the state should be. Private justice, anyone?

Capital and Freedom was Friedman's seminal popular work, published in 1962 and based on a series of lectures that Friedman had delivered in