Birthdays Books

This is a good message - but very expensive for what you get.
I was disappinted - it looked like a $ 2.50 phamplet rather
than a nice book.

This is a traditional bedtime story, with flaps and pull-outs. I've read it loads of times, but I'm still not tired of it. I think Emma is a brilliant children's author.
Georgina Lane.

I've had this little book many years. The hard cover makes it durable. It's a handy way to keep track of all the birthdays in your life, particularly if, like me, you're a bibliophile. At 3.5 X 5 inches, it's easy to stash in a desk, purse, pocket or on a shelf, and fits nicely in the hand while you're flipping through it. Each two page spread contains 6 dates, and each date is headed by a quote from the immortal bard we know and love. They often seem strangely appropriate for the people who's names end up on one the three lines alloted for listing birthdays on that day.

After running across this little 82-page booklet, I picked up several copies for the grandkids for summer reading. This is a delightful introduction to the 4th of July. This is short enough to hold a child's interest yet covers a good bit of information.

In A STAR-SPANGLED BIRTHDAY you'll find the words to patriotic songs such as Yankee Doodle and America, the Beautiful; poems such as Paul Revere's Ride, a brief history of 4th of July celebrations, Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" speech before the 1st Continental Congress, and it is all capped off with single paragraph biographies of each one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Older children will enjoy reading this for themselves and parents will enjoy reading this to the younger ones.

Monty Rainey
www.juntosociety.com

Here is a collection of monographs on the many aspects of Chinese history and language. Some chapters look far back, at the Shang kings of 3000 years ago, for example. This particular chapter resides mainly in archeology. While another chapter peers into a comparative analysis of prehistoric flutes in east Asia and Europe.

Many chapters, however, discuss the intricacies of written Chinese, as perhaps in deciphering manuscripts and inscriptions from centuries past, or in tracing the origin of some modern words from Archaic Chinese. While, as befitting a book on China, there are several chapters written entirely in Chinese.

The book is graced by introductory colour plates of traditional Chinese watercolours, painted in the last 10 years.

"For those Christians who may be troubled by the textual variety surrounding the Hebrew Bible, all I will say is don't worry! The same kind of variants and plurality we find in the DSS today, were around during the time of Jesus and the apostles -- and they did not hesitate to rely on the authority of Scripture." T. Williams


Hebrew Bible Studies:
Hebrew Bible Studies, may include Old Testament Hebrew, Israelite origins, religion & popular culture, Hebrew Biblical as first Christian Testament, text composition, functions of scriptural interpretation, Holy war texts among the Qumran scrolls, The Septuagint, etc. Those in this volume include biblical scrolls from the Judaean Desert; Qumran and the non-biblical scrolls from the Judaean Desert; and the Septuagint and other ancient versions. In line with Professor Ulrich's areas of scholarship and interest, thirty some essays, grouped in three sections: The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament; Qumran and the Non-Biblical Scrolls from the Judaean Desert; and the Septuagint and Other Ancient Versions.

Qumran Scrolls:
The collection of Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts discovered in the caves of the Dead Sea in the area of Khirbet Qumran, seven principal scrolls were discovered by Bedoins. Scrolls discovery was followed by an exhaustive exploration of the neighboring caves under the auspices of the Ècole Biblique et Archèologique of Jerusalem.
The manuscripts, written on papyrus and leather, number more than 600 in various states of preservation, are attributed to members of a previously unknown jewish brotherhood, the Essenes, is portrayted in the manuals of discipline as a model House of Israel, to prepare the way for the coming of the kingdom of God, as decklared by John the Baptist. Details of a final battle between the "sons of light" and the "sons of darkness" is given in the day of jugdement.

The Septuagint:
The Septuagint (abbr. LXX) is the main Greek translation of the Old Testament. Most New Testament writers seem to have quoted from some LXX version when using the Hebrew scripture (Only Testament, then). The Septuagint, in Koine Greek, became the canonical OT scripture of all Eastern Christians. Hence, to all students of the New testament, the LXX is an extremely important source of understanding the New Testament too.

Contributing Essays:
A lengthy scholarly effort to review this wide range of essays may be out of the scope of an Amazon reviewer, but a good first judgement could be rendered on the variety of the compelling essays of this volume, A book is first guessed by its contents.

- Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (w/biblical scrolls from the Judaean Desert)
- Myth, meta-narrative, and historical reconstruction
- Diaspora dangers, Diaspora dreams
- King Og's iron bed (Deut 3:11) - once again
- A new reconstruction of 4Q Samuel (24:16-22)
- How many vessels? : An examination of MT 1 Sam 2:14/4Q Sam (1 Sam 2:16)
- Samuel/Kings and Chronicles : book division and text composition
- Who is the Saddiq of Isaiah 57:1-2?
- Daniel outside the traditional Jewish canon
- Origen and the first Christian Testament
- The social configuration of the rabbi-disciple relationship
- Qumran and the non-biblical scrolls from the Judaean Desert
- Holy war texts among the Qumran scrolls
- Les manuscrits 4Q Juges
- "And he shall answer and say ... " - a little backlighting
- The time of the teacher : an old debate renewed
- Two "scientific" fictions : 'Book of Noah'& quotation of Jubilees
- The blessing of Judah (in 4Q252)
- Joseph at Qumran : in extending a tradition
- Creating community Halakhah
- To what end? : functions of scriptural interpretation in Qumran texts
- Septuagint and other ancient versions
- Rewritten Bible or imitatio? : the vestments of the high priest
- The use of computers in biblical research
- Faith, hope and interpretation : a lexical study of the Greek Psalter
- The Septuagint of Isaiah and the Hebrew text of Isaiah 2:22 & 36:7
- Edom - Adam in Ezekiel, in MT and in LXX
- Greek Jeremiah and the land of Azazel

A Sampler Essay:
J. Sanders paid tribute not only to Ulrich, but gave a testimonial to Ulrich's Septuagintal greatest advocate and scholar, Origen, whose Hexapla was dedicated to its recovery. Origen is linked with the earliest search and an alleged recovery of ancient Scrolls. Sanders essay is the most concise scholarly study, insightfully called: Origen and the first Christian Testament.

Editor Emanuel Tov:
Magnes Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University and Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls project for Oxford University Press, has provided scholars with masterful studies on the Hebrew Bible, and its textual criticism. Tov argues that in light of the discovery of the scrolls from the Judean desert the old framework of a threefold textual tradition in the Torah (Masoretic Text [MT], Samaritan, and Septuagint [LXX]), and a twofold tradition in the Prophets and Hagiographa (MT and LXX), needs to be set aside and a radically new approach to textual criticism is required. To reflect the current textual situation, Tov concentrates on the witnesses whose importance for textual criticism have stood the test of time. He claims that the MT, Samaritan, DSS, LXX, Targums, Peshitta, and Vulgate do not receive proper due attention.

A Tribute to E. Ulrich:
Ulrich (theology, U. of Notre Dame) is best known for editing a large percentage of the biblical manuscripts found in the Qumran caves. To celebrate his 65th birthday, friends and colleagues present him 25 essays on the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. This volume pays homage to Eugene Ulrich, Chief Editor of the Cave 4 Biblical Scrolls and a foremost expert on the Biblical Scrolls, the Canon of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, and the Septuagint, with contributions by many of his colleagues and former students. The volume includes a tribute to Eugene Ulrich and appended with a cumulative bibliography and several indices.

This a sweet little book that has the 3 good fairies pulling together a birthday party for Briar Rose/Aurora. Essentially, it is very close the same episode from the movie except without any hint of danger in the background. It's all cheerful and nice.

Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather try to make a cake and a dress but they only end up making a mess. That is, until they whip out their wands and make everything right.

Now, having said that, we come to the "Step into reading" part of the book.

Level 2 is supposed to be for children in the Preschool to Grade 1 age range. It is defined as "For children who recognize familiar words and sound out new words with help".

Well, in my opinion, they would need a whole lot of help. And the prime reason for this is that the book is written entirely in the past tense. My daughter (5), for example, can read simple primer materials: books such as the "Biscuit" series, or Margaret Hillert's primers. But she was entirely stymied by the use of past tense.

Examples:

She lived in the forest...
While she was gone, they planned...
Briar Rose was returning...

(So that she could read live but not lived.)

Four Stars. It's a nice book that I would buy again. The simple text makes it a good read-aloud that doesn't take much time. My only concern would be if you were thinking about using "Surprise for a Princess" as a primer. I would be afraid by the time they could read the text, that the story would be `beneath' their interest, i.e. their level of sophistication.

More text follows so you can judge for yourself:

"Let's have a party for Briar Rose," said Merryweather.
"With a cake!" said Fauna.
"And a dress fit for a princess," said Flora.
Flora began to make the dress.
She cut. She pinned. She trimmed.
Merryweather tried to help.
But the dress was a mess.

This book is very engaging for little ones. It has a fun story and works on learning how to count to 10 with fun illustrations. The "key" used to open the flaps is fun yet difficult for little hands to do. My kids love it and eventually they do learn how to make the key work.

The bright rhymes and whimsy make this, and all the Toad books, fun reading for little children and grown-ups alike. I took it to my book club and we really laughed at some of the applications to our own lives. As Toad aptly puts it, "We love to eat. We never say no. Anywhere, anytime we're ready to go."

With its clever, repetitive language and colorful illustrations, this has been a book that our family has read and re-read many times.