Packard Reviews

We purchased this calendar/book set for our son when he was about 3 years old. He is just shy of 13 now and it is still a tradition to read this book before bed each night beginning on December 1st. When he was little and couldn't read, my husband and I took turns nightly reading to him. He has a very small tree in his room on his dresser where he would hang the book we read every night. Now that he is older, we still take turns reading every night (him included, of course). This calendar is a simple, yet meaningful way for the family to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ as well as count down the days until Christmas. My son will hand it down to his children one day and I will be purchasing one for my goddaughter who is just turning one. I highly recommend this!

We purchased this book several years ago and it has been the perfect thing to hold the interest of teenagers who have long ago lost interest in children's Advent calendars. The illustrations are child-like, not childish, rather like those of Tomie dePaolo, and the flow of the language is quite lovely. It helps our family to maintain our Advent and Christmas traditions even as our children mature. Also a great present for a family with pre-teen children.

We just finished reading the last little book and then hang it in the Christmas tree.
Our 3 1/2 year old daughter absolutely loved it and every morning was looking forward to read another little book.
It teaches the child the true spirit of Christmas and makes them understand the celebration of the birth of Baby Jesus.
I totally recommend it to anyone, even grown ups!

This book tells the toddlers about the characteristics of animals,not just dinosaur, like creast, horns, tails. The pictures of the books are very charming. Even my 30 months old son cannot read the words, he can tell the book just from the picture. It is amusing that a small child can read it himself. It is a great book for toddlers who are ready to read by themselves.

I had been trying to find a book my kindegartner could ready by himself, and this was one of few with large print and very simple text. There are a few words that are unusual, but they can be deciphered from the illustrations. He loves it. The story flows nicely from one page to the next, the illustrations match the text, and the book is even educational. It is not easy to find a book that is not only aimed at the very earliest readers but also captures the interest of an active youngster. This one did it. Now my son is interested in reading many new books. Highly recommended.

I bought this book when my son was three and read it to him. He has hundreds of books and recently rediscovered this one in a box. Now, five, he reads it to me. There are a few hard words but many are "sight" words right out of his Kindergarten lessons.

This is a book you can pick up when faced with the problem and make a decision. And it works for children and grown-up problems. A friend called me over to her house to help her decide if she needed to go to the hospital--she is 60--I am 55 ---she had fallen --we used this book to figure out what to do. We went to the hospital because she did have a broken bone. This is an easy to use reference and it is cute too!

I am a bit prejudiced when it comes to this hospital. Our daughter is an RN on 3-W.

I just love this book. It covers a lot of medical issues, both urgent and not-so-urgent. It helps you calm down in a crisis and it is not so overly wordy that you have to keep scanning to find what you're specifically looking for for advice. Not everything can be taken care of at home and they do not hesitate to tell you to seek emergency action. There's humor (ie. Colds, the Flu and the Great American Runny Nose - Your Basic Everyday Head Bonk), a suggested list of items for your medicine cabinet. There is a large range of ages involved, but most advice can be used by adults, too.

This is a GREAT baby shower or newborn gift. I've given several.

P. S. Our RN and her husband is expecting their 1st baby and our 1st grandbaby in June. She already has a copy and has given them as gifts to her side of in-laws and friends.

When a child actually does hurt themselves this book is easy to flip through and find what you need quickly. It gives you helpful suggestions on what to do and what warnings signs to look for that may indicate a trip to the ER or Dr's office.

A great reference for anyone who has not used digital imaging,very helpful,and informative for all applications required

We just bought a digital camera and were looking for different ways to use it when we came across this book. We got ideas that we never would have thought of otherwise. The directions are easy, the photos in the book are helpful and pretty.

I was looking for a book to help me figure out how to incorporate photographs in my volunteer work. Digital Imaging worked perfectly. The book is written just for me, no high tech mumbo jumbo. Loved the photos in the book, too.

I was in third grade when I stumbled upon my teacher's (Mrs. Smith) copy of this book in our classroom. It was the first time I had ever seen a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book. I was enthralled from the get go. As a young child, the ability to choose your path through the story made reading more immediately interactive (as video games purport to be today) and allowed someone (me) with a very low level of patience and attention span to learn to love to read. Above this, there is one very interesting fact about this book. There is an ending that cannot be reached by following the very foundational rules of the book. It must either be found on accident (by turning to the wrong page) or by systematically breaking down the book's paths and realizing one page has no connection to any of the others. It seems very elementary to anyone of any age and experience today, but it struck home to me then a very important lesson - follow your own path, break rules, don't accept anything as fact, dance to the beat of your own drum. Pretty empowering thing to learn from such a seemingly innocuous book huh?

I used to love these books as a kid, and even though invariably thought that those by Edward Packard were the best. This was my third favorite book, behind two other Edward Packard CYOA books Hyperspace and Survival At Sea. This book is only book in the series that also features a unique "special ending" that cannot be encountered through normal decision making. Can you stumble upon paradise?? Get the book to find out!

Recommended for anybody who enjoys the Choose Your Own Adventure genre, and especially for kids who enjoy science fiction.

The greatest book ever.

River of No Return, the best book of all time is my favorite book. This book is interesting because it's adventurous and intense. Another reason I enjoy this book is because it gives you a lot of choices.

I think that The River of No Return is my favorite book because it has a lot of choises. I like deciding which way to go. This book has a lot of adventure in it. I have read the book 4 times and each time it has a different outcome.

I read this book to my fourth grade class and they loved it! It is very exciting and engaging. They were glued to the edge of their seats and always complained when I stopped reading for the day.

A little boy had a set of tin soldiers that were made from a melted spoon. One soldier was missing a leg because there was not enough metal left over from the melted spoon.

Tossed aside by the boy, the one-legged soldier sees a paper cut out figure of a ballerina. She is poised on one leg and he feels an instant bond. He has found another one-legged toy and believes this to be love.

The steadfast tin soldier has a series of mishaps. He falls off the window sill into a stream. From there, he is transported to a rat infested sewer. He is swallowed by a fish and through an unlikely stroke of luck, winds up back in the boy's playroom with the other toys and the ballerina.

The ending is what gets to me every single time. A gust of wind lifts the paper ballerina up and she flutters into the fire place, winding up a charred heap of ashes. Devastated, the tin soldier joins her. The remaining metal that was once the tin soldier is a charred piece of heart shaped metal.

I still think this is a very sad story. The photographs really emphasize the feeling this story evokes.

I taught 1st grade for 4 years and all of the teachers in my grade passed this book around at Christmas to read to our class. I cried everytime I read it. It has a wonderful message and my kids in my classroom always loved it! I have now (finally) purchased my own copy of this book to read to my little girl. It is a classic and I know she will love it as much as I do. Every home should have this book to read at Christmastime.

This is a really good book. It has all the characteristic's that made the original a cherished and remembered fairy tale. It is a great gift for any young child, and can be enjoyed by adults too. It maintains the feel of the original tale, but is more like a poem. The art work on each page is beautiful, and the pictures are totally devine. I would recomend buying this for a different and fully enjoyable version of the original.

I recommend this book to my Masters students as the best guide to the real world of editing. It is not just about 'technical editing', but a first rate primer for editing generally. A perfect example of the author's 'can do'approach is The Half Hour edit on page 172. What can you do if you only have a script for 30 minutes before the courier arrives ? Most editors would throuw up their hands and say 'nothing'. Tarutz tells you ten useful (perhaps vital) steps you can accomplish in this time.

We have used a number of texts, but this one is without doubt the best

This book is an EXCELLENT resource for any technical writer! It is thorough, strategic, and full of practical tips. Of course, it is very well written.

This book is particularly useful in defining the role of your Technical Editor, but what I found useful was the way the author addressed the need for a technical editor. In many technical writing and documentation groups, a technical editor is not in place because they use peer edits instead. Peer edits are not as effective as a technical editor! This book addresses quantitative results of having or not having a technical editor and how to "sell" your management on adding a technical editor to your team.

I would recommend this book to writers, so that they may better understand the role of their editor. I would recommend this book to editors, so that they may better understand how to work with writers effectively. And I would recommend this book to any documentation manager or communications manager who is considering hiring a technical editor or trying to gain management approval for hiring a technical editor.

I remember this gamebook series from childhood, though I was never particularly good at them. "The Cave of Time" starts out with the reader finding a cave and deciding whether or not to enter it. From there, the reader travels back in time to the Ice Age, colonial America, the Dark Ages--even traveling ahead in time. There is no one ending or quest to this book, so you're not in a mad dash to win. In fact, there is no "winning" in here, just 40 possible endings to certain situations--some good, some fatal. Younger readers who like gamebooks will probably like this book/series, though there's not a lot of action.

Its not really about anything you get to be the character in the book and you half to make the decions.It takes place in a cave in a castle a ranch and it was a long time ago alot of years ago .my favorite part of the book was when these two guards draged me out of the chamber and put two spears at my back and just about killed me.I dont no what kind of people would like this book but i do recomend it because its a short, easy, and fun book to read .

I've read this book many times and think it's one of the best Choose Your Own Adventure Books ever written.

This is without a doubt my favorite book of the CYOA series. As an 11-year-old, the storyline was so bizarre and difficult to wrap my head around that it gave my brain a major workout. I would read this book over and over, and develop lots of new fantasies based on the scenarios from the book. On the other hand, this book is so esoteric that it might put some people off on the series, so I can't recommend it for everyone. You should get this book if you enjoy CYOA in general and have an open mind for exposing your mind to new and strange concepts. If you're getting this for a child, I'd wait until they are at least 8 or 9 years old, so that they at least have a foundation of learning they can use to understand the book.

I'm going to read the book once more now, and try again to figure out what the experience of being in the sixth dimension might be like...

"Hyperspace" is my favorite of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books I have read, and it definitely deserves to be brought back into print. Its highly self-referential storyline results in such delights as characters who know they're characters in a "Choose Your Own Adventure" story, and what surely must be the most surprising cameo in the series--an appearance by a certain person whose last name is that of an old model of car... This book is a true classic of the heyday of plot-your-own stories.

Edward Packard has just a little bit too much fun with Hyperspace, a minor classic. It's amazing that a "kiddie" book, albeit one soaked in self-referential post-modernism, remains an all-time favorite of mine.