12.28.07
Posted in Childrens, Picture Books, Psychology at 2:02 am by Rosepixie
This is actually a really good book about friendship and related issues for really young kids. It discusses a wide range of topics intelligently and simply with clear, simple illustrations. The examples include all types of children (even a number of handicapped ones) and speaks very respectfully of childhood friendship issues. Even the endpapers are helpful with kid suggestions for how to be and not be a friend! This is simply a wonderfully done book and I’m extremely impressed!
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11.10.07
Posted in Biography at 3:34 am by Rosepixie
I really enjoyed this book a lot. It gave a good sense of the time period and of Houdini and his organization. It’s interesting how much of what we know about him is little more than legend. Houdini was certainly an interesting man. I actually found his wife even more interesting. I’d love to read an actual biography of her, but I’ve never heard of one. Do any exist? If not, one should!
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Posted in Biography at 2:39 am by Rosepixie
So far I’m enjoying this. I kind of wonder why this was specifically published as a book for children since it reads more like an adult book that happens to be perfectly appropriate for children. The art especially isn’t typical of children’s books. It really feels like the authors simply told their story with little real regard for the age for their eventual audience. And that’s good.
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10.29.07
Posted in Role Playing Games at 12:29 am by Rosepixie
Ok, how on earth did WOTC manage to miss that “attack roll” was used wrong in the example sentence in the glossary? I mean, seriously, you’d think someone would have caught that one before it went to print! Besides that, the glossary and sample character sheet were pretty good. Astrid is probably the most under-equipped PC I’ve ever seen, though! I really hope the rest of her party has made up for equipment deficiencies.
This was a fun book, though. It really well conveyed the joy that can be found in gaming! The discussions of why to play and the basics of how were really well written. This book is funny and a love of fun to read! I would definitely recommend it to people and I should really do a proper review of it sometime.
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10.26.07
Posted in Role Playing Games at 8:39 am by Rosepixie
Shelly’s certainly got the whole elf thing down. I loved the description of her game with her non-gamer friends! I’m so glad that it went well, Michael and I were a bit worried there for a while. The D&D themed menu was pretty funny too. It almost made me want to make some of that stuff and host a party or something. Maybe I’ll make one of the recipes for snacks on a gaming Sunday sometime! We’ll see!
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Posted in Beginning Readers, Paleontology at 5:27 am by Rosepixie
This is a great basic beginning reader about dinosaurs. It explains how to pronounce the names of each dinosaur (very important for readers just beginning to sound things out) and gives basic information about them. It’s all very simple, but great for kids who want to read about Dinosaurs when most books on the topic are going to be way too difficult for them to read on their own. I was quite pleased with the whole thing!
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10.24.07
Posted in Role Playing Games at 1:55 am by Rosepixie
“Penguin” makes the best code word! Actually, having code words for various situations is a pretty good idea. The problem is if the code needs to get past a party member (like theirs did) it’s difficult to prepare ahead of time. The list of the ten most useful spells was really well done and quite funny. The sidebars in this book are often the best part! They tend to be witty and fun and well-placed within the book. Michael and I are both enjoying this book a lot!
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10.22.07
Posted in Role Playing Games at 12:43 am by Rosepixie
This book is a blast to read! It’s clever and generally has just got an awesome sense of humor. I’ve taken to reading it out loud to Michael and his reactions to the whole thing are almost the best part! He is really enjoying the book too, in fact it makes him laugh a lot, but it’s also really good at making his GM vein throb. Now I know all sorts of in-game ways to drive him nuts when he’s GMing that never occurred to me before! Thanks, Shelly!
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10.20.07
Posted in Role Playing Games at 12:04 am by Rosepixie
The chapter on how to build a character was pretty funny. I did think that the race quiz was much better than the class quiz, though. And you can play an evil character, so it seemed strange that she basically said you couldn’t. It’s roleplaying! Of course you can be evil! You can be anything! That’s part of the appeal! I guess I just don’t see a point in skipping those alignment choices just because they are uncommon or might be prohibited in some games! Cover everything, but maybe qualify those ones with “some GM’s don’t allow player characters to be evil” or something. Otherwise it was a good overview of character building!
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10.17.07
Posted in Role Playing Games at 1:38 am by Rosepixie
Shelly Mazzanoble’s writing is really good. She has a great voice and her writing is just a hoot to read. She does a pretty good job of touching on the prevailing stereotypes and misconceptions about both D&D and general roleplaying. Her discussion of how women have spent their whole lives roleplaying and gaming in general is really good. If we could get more normal women who don’t think of themselves as the type to ever try this sort of thing to read this, we may find attitudes about gaming changing and maybe even more women who want to try playing themselves. This is a fun book and could open some doors, but I don’t know how to get it into the hands where it would really be new.
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