Learning Perl, Fourth Edition

Amazon.com

In this smooth, carefully paced course, a leading Perl trainer teaches you to program in the language that threatens to make C, sed, awk, and the Unix shell obsolete for many tasks. This book is the "official" guide for both formal (classroom) and informal learning. It is fully accessible to the novice programmer.

Book Description

Learning Perl, better known as "the Llama book", starts the programmer on the way to mastery. Written by three prominent members of the Perl community who each have several years of experience teaching Perl around the world, this edition has been updated to account for all the recent changes to the language up to Perl 5.8. Perl is the language for people who want to get work done. It started as a tool for Unix system administrators who needed something powerful for small tasks. Since then, Perl has blossomed into a full-featured programming language used for web programming, database manipulation, XML processing, and system administration--on practically all platforms--while remaining the favorite tool for the small daily tasks it was designed for. You might start using Perl because you need it, but you'll continue to use it because you love it. Informed by their years of success at teaching Perl as consultants, the authors have re-engineered the Llama to better match the pace and scope appropriate for readers getting started with Perl, while retaining the detailed discussion, thorough examples, and eclectic wit for which the Llama is famous. The book includes new exercises and solutions so you can practice what you've learned while it's still fresh in your mind. Here are just some of the topics covered:

Perl variable types
subroutines
file operations
regular expressions
text processing
strings and sorting
process management
using third party modules

If you ask Perl programmers today what book they relied on most when they were learning Perl, you'll find that an overwhelming majority will point to the Llama. With good reason. Other books may teach you to program in Perl, but this book will turn you into a Perl programmer.

Customer Reviews:

An introduction to Perl.......2007-10-05

This book is a gives a gentle introduction to Perll; by the time you have gone through this book, you would have touched on some very simple operations and common language idioms found in Perl. This is not a comprehensive guide; on the contrary the book is selective about covering only those constructs and issues that one is most likely to face early on in programming with Perl.

This does not collect any of the more powerful feature in Perl like Reference; Data Structures; Manipulating lists of list.

I would not recomend this book.

Get the second edition.......2007-10-05

I learned Perl from the second edition of this book a few years ago, and was very impressed. After a few years without writing a single line of Perl, I needed to learn it again, so I bought the most current version of this book, the fourth edition. I was not as impressed with the fourth edition, it seems that a lot of the more advanced, and useful, stuff has been moved out of this book into the intermediate book. This book is missing a lot of the features that makes Perl a productive language. I'd try a few online tutorials first and then see if the intermediate book would work. Or, if you can find an older edition give that a shot.

Great book.......2007-08-12

First of all, this book is only the beginning. It does teach the basics including arrays, scalars, functions and many other topics that are central to a basic understanding of Perl. It also coves regular expressions which aside from the great swatch of modules is one of Perl's greatest strengths.

Because of that and the teaching style this book earns the 5 star rating.

Toward the end it hints at some of the other 'required' topics such as references, modules and objects. After you've read this book get a copy of Intermediate Perl to read up on those topics.

Enjoyable Read.......2007-07-25

The first thing that stood out to me about the book was the humor of the authors. The footnotes were not only informative but also good ways to lighten the mood of the book.
However, the jokes do not take away from the content in any way - you will learn a lot from the llama book. I always recommend the llama to anyone who asks for a book to learn Perl.
Now, this isn't an introduction to programming, programming basics are assumed (which isn't much to ask). But that's another thing I liked about "Learning Perl" - the authors give you the information you need with no fluff. Everything is straight to the point and explained clearly & concisely.

Perfect introduction to Perl scripting.......2007-07-14

I learnt Perl scripting from the third edition of The Llama, and recently had cause to brush up my Perl for a new job, so I thought I'd check out the fourth edition. I'm pleased to say it's still an excellent work. If you want to use Perl as a scripting language, this may be all you need for your entire scripting career. Some basic programming knowledge might be helpful, but even a complete beginner could get something out of this.

The basics are covered well: strings, numbers, control structures, subroutines, arrays and hashes, and most importantly, reading and writing files, and the mighty regular expressions. In fact, I've not read a better treatment of regular expressions anywhere else. Everything is clearly explained and well-written. Basically, this is the gold standard against which all introductory books to a programming language should be judged.

However, this book makes no claim to covering all of Perl. At least the main text of the book doesn't. I don't know what happened with the blurb on the back of the book, but it mentions, among other things: threading, references, objects, modules and package implementation. Technically, these topics are indeed present, but only in that a paragraph each is devoted to them in Appendix B. You will certainly learn nothing of any value about them.

There are some other minor quibbles: you may find the constant Flintstones references tiring after a while. Also potentially wearing are the sometimes inane footnotes, which breaks the flow of the reading experience for little reward. On the other hand, I found them a lot less annoying in this edition, so perhaps I've just mellowed out in the intervening years. Finally, the last chapter does a very whistlestop tour of map, grep, exception handling with eval, and array and hash slicing. I've never found the 'cram a bunch of stuff we don't have time to talk about into one chapter' approach to be very useful, and it doesn't work here, either. Fortunately, apart from the slices, it's all covered again at slightly greater length in Intermediate Perl.

Speaking of Intermediate Perl, if you want to learn Perl as a general purpose language, rather than for short scripts, you need to go and read that one next. Many suggest that you can graduate onto The Camel straight after The Llama, but I strongly disagree -- I tried and failed miserably.

But as long as you bear in mind you're only getting half the Perl experience, this is still the book I would thrust into the hands of anyone looking to learn Perl.

Average customer rating:

A worthy (as expected) successor
Good follow up to the The Llama, but poorly organised
Good Book For Classroom Setting
Good, but not great
Good sequel to Learning Perl

Intermediate Perl
Randal L. Schwartz , Tom Phoenix , and brian d foy
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596102062

Book Description

Perl is a versatile, powerful programming language used in a variety of disciplines, ranging from system administration to web programming to database manipulation. One slogan of Perl is that it makes easy things easy and hard things possible. Intermediate Perl is about making the leap from the easy things to the hard ones.

Originally released in 2003 as Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules and revised and updated for Perl 5.8, this book offers a gentle but thorough introduction to intermediate programming in Perl. Written by the authors of the best-selling Learning Perl, it picks up where that book left off. Topics include:

Packages and namespaces
References and scoping
Manipulating complex data structures
Object-oriented programming
Writing and using modules
Testing Perl code
Contributing to CPAN

Following the successful format of Learning Perl, we designed each chapter in the book to be small enough to be read in just an hour or two, ending with a series of exercises to help you practice what you've learned. To use the book, you just need to be familiar with the material in Learning Perl and have ambition to go further.

Perl is a different language to different people. It is a quick scripting tool for some, and a fully-featured object-oriented language for others. It is used for everything from performing quick global replacements on text files, to crunching huge, complex sets of scientific data that take weeks to process. Perl is what you make of it. But regardless of what you use Perl for, this book helps you do it more effectively, efficiently, and elegantly.

Intermediate Perl is about learning to use Perl as a programming language, and not just a scripting language. This is the book that turns the Perl dabbler into the Perl programmer.

Customer Reviews:

A worthy (as expected) successor.......2007-10-09

Successors are not always as expected. In this case you do get from this trio of authors, who are classics in their own right, just what you expect. In my own case, I needed to get good at OO Perl and fast. In three days, I covered the major chapters thoroughly, went off to my interview and in the end was told, "hey, you really know your stuff". This book intends and does indeed follow well the Learning Perl classic. If you finished the meat of the classic, this is the dessert. You'll recognize the writing style and flavour. There are no surprises. In my opinion, another classic.

Good follow up to the The Llama, but poorly organised.......2007-07-14

If you've mastered The Llama, make haste to read this one. Even if you only want to do scripting with Perl, you'll eventually find you need data structures slightly more complicated than just flat arrays and hashes, and you need to know about references for that. While The Camel does contain a fair chunk of material on just this subject, it was a bit too much for me to digest after The Llama. If Intermediate Perl (aka The Alpaca) had been around for me to read, I would have had a much easier time.

Written in the same style as The Llama, this breeze through most of the rest of Perl, in particular: references, objects, packages and modules. These are the bits that you need to use Perl as a general purpose programming language, not just for scripting. In a similar pragmatic vein, it also covers how to use tools to build your own packages in the CPAN style, and there's a good chunk of material on using Test::More for unit tests. Probably the only thing missing is material on type globs and symbol tables, although hopefully, brian d foy's forthcoming Mastering Perl will fill in these gaps.

The bottom line is this is Llama part 2, and you need to read it if you want to have any hope of understanding anyone else's Perl. But I can't give it five stars. The major problem is that the material is not very well organised. At the chapter level, objects are sandwiched between modules and packages. It would have been far preferable to keep the module and package information together. As a result, the distinction between modules and packages is rather muddied, and the introduction of objects in the middle just makes things worse. Overall, I found the explanations to lack the clarity of the Llama.

A more minor complaint is that, while there are mercifully fewer annoying footnotes, the Gilligan's Island theme (if, like me, you had no exposure to this growing up, you might want to read the Wikipedia article first!) grates far sooner than the Flintstones flavour of the Llama.

That said, make this your second book on Perl. Then, _still_ don't read The Camel yet. Avail yourself of Perl Best Practices first.

Good Book For Classroom Setting.......2007-02-20

I picked up this book for a class that I was teaching at my office. The goal of the class was to train HTML/CSS/JavaScript and/or Java programmers to code in Perl since a large portion of our code base is written in Perl. Overall, I think that the book was a good choice for the class for a number of reasons.

First of all, the book is already written with a classroom setting in mind. The authors have used previous versions of the book, titled "Learning Perl Objects, References and Modules", for their own courses. This updated version benefits from all of the hours of empirical testing that it has received in the classroom. There are many thoughtful additions like having all of the chapters close to the same size. This allowed for me to assign a single chapter per session and know that I could comfortably fit the lecture and discussion of the chapter into a two-hour session. There are also exercises at the end of each chapter and answers for those exercises (with discussion) in an appendix.

This book is good for getting people just learning the language ready for the TMTOWTDI/TIMTOWTDI aspect of Perl. Take something simple like opening files... there are at least four 'standard' ways to do it. The book prepares you for all of the different versions of annoyances/features like this that show up in Perl code by walking through the evolution of the feature.

Another reason that I like this selection of book is that data files and code examples are actually available for download. I've been shocked that some of the programming books that I've gotten lately actually don't have this addition.

Finally, the course that I'm teaching is for people who probably already know how to program, at least a little, but they don't know Perl. I didn't want to drag them through all of the picky details of the language by starting with "Learning Perl" or something equivalent. This book has been a good choice for introducing programmers to Perl. I do have to stop occasionally and explain some fundamentals of the language, but not too often... maybe I just work with smart (or shy) people :)

Of course, the book isn't perfect. As odd as it seems, one of the biggest complaints that I get is over the Gilligan references that are used in all of the examples in the book. There is also some coverage of packaging modules for CPAN. This is useful, just not for the particular class that I'm teaching, so we skipped that chapter. Of course, both of these complaints are pretty weak.

In short, this is a good book, especially if you are doing a training session about Perl.

Good, but not great.......2007-02-15

I didn't like the storyline, but I did learn how to handle anonymous arrays better.

Good sequel to Learning Perl.......2007-01-27

The first edition of this book was "Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules". I never read that previous edition, so I can't comment on how that book stacks up against this new edition. This book is intended to pick up where Learning Perl left off. Its purpose is to show you how to use Perl to write larger more complex programs. As in Learning Perl, each chapter is small enough to read in an hour or so. Each chapter ends with a series of exercises to help you practice what you've just learned, and the answers are in the appendix for your reference. You don't have to know Unix to benefit from this book. Most everything in this book applies equally well to Windows ActivePerl from ActiveState and all other modern implementations of Perl. To use this book effectively, you just need to be familiar with the material in Learning Perl and have the ambition to go further. You should read this book from beginning to end, stopping to do the exercises as you go along. The following is the structure of the book:

Chapter 1, Introduction, just goes over what you should already know and how to use the book.

Chapter 2, Intermediate Foundations, introduces some intermediate-level Perl idioms used throughout the book. These are the things that typically set apart the beginning and intermediate Perl programmers.

Chapter 3, Using Modules, is about the building blocks for Perl programs. They provide reusable subroutines, variables, and even object-oriented classes. It also looks at the basics of using modules that others have already written.

Chapter 4 introduces references, which are the basis for complex data structures, object-oriented programming (OOP), and fancy subroutine magic. They're the magic that was added between Perl version 4 and version 5 to make it all possible. A Perl scalar variable holds a single value. An array holds an ordered list of one or more scalars. A hash holds a collection of scalars as values, keyed by other scalars. Although a scalar can be an arbitrary string, which allows complex data to be encoded into an array or hash, none of the three data types are well suited to complex data interrelationships. This is a job for the reference, which enables a level of redirection that allows the same code to operate on different sets of data.

Chapter 5, References and Scoping shows how to copy and pass around references like any other scalar. At any given time, Perl knows the number of references to a particular data item. Perl can also create references to anonymous data structures and create references automatically as needed to fulfill certain kinds of operations. This chapter look at copying references and how it affects scoping and memory usage.

Chapter 6, Manipulating Complex Data Structures, starts by using the debugger to examine complex data structures and then uses Data::Dumper to show the data under programmatic control. Next, you learn to store and retrieve complex data easily and quickly using Storable, and finally you wrap up with a review of grep and map and see how they apply to complex data.

Chapter 7, Subroutine References shows how to capture behavior as an anonymous subroutine that you create dynamically and execute later. In the same way that taking a reference to an array lets you have the same code work on different arrays at different times, taking a reference to a subroutine allows the same code to call different subroutines at different times. Also, references permit complex data structures. A reference to a subroutine allows a subroutine to effectively become part of that complex data structure

Chapter 8, Filehandle References, stores filehandles in scalar variables that you can easily pass around your program or store in data structures. You've seen arrays, hashes, and subroutines passed around in references, permitting a level of indirection to solve certain types of problems. We can also store filehandles in references to create new solutions to old problems.

Chapter 9, Practical Reference Tricks,looks at optimizing sorting and dealing with recursively defined data.

Chapter 10, Building Larger Programs, looks at how to break up a program into pieces and includes some of the concerns that arise when you put those pieces back together again, or when many people work together on the same program. You learn to build larger programs by separating code into separate files and namespaces.

Chapter 11, Introduction to Objects, shows how to work with classes, method calls, inheritance, and overriding.

Chapter 12, Objects with Data, shows how to add per-instance data, including constructors, getters, and setters.

Chapter 13, Object Destruction looks at an important topic: what happens when objects go away. When the last reference to a Perl data structure goes away, Perl automatically reclaims the memory of that data structure, including destroying any links to other data. Of course, that in turn may cause Perl to destroy other ("contained") structures as well.

Chapter 14, Some Advanced Object Topics, answers the questions "Do all objects inherit from a common class?" "What if a method is missing?" "What about multiple inheritance?" or "How can I tell what sort of object I have?" and other advanced questions pertaining to objects.

Chapter 15, Exporter, shows how to decide what to export and how to create your own import routines. In Chapter 3, you learned how to use modules, some of which pulled functions into the current namespace. Now you learn how to get your own modules to do that.

Chapter 16, Writing a Distribution, shows how to package a module for sharing, including portable installation instructions. In the previous chapter, you created a fictional Island::Plotting::Maps module and built the right support for Exporter so that we could include use Island::Plotting::Maps in a program. While the resulting .pm file was useful, it wasn't very practical. There is more work to do before you can share your work, whether that means simply installing it yourselves on another machine or giving it to someone else to use.

Chapter 17, Essential Testing, covers testing your code to ensure it does what you want it to do. As briefly described in Chapter 16, a distribution contains a testing facility that you can invoke from make test. This allows you to write and run tests during development and maintenance, and it also lets your end user verify that the module works in their environment. You should look at "Perl Testing: A Developer's Notebook" for in-depth coverage.

Chapter 18, Advanced Testing, gives you a taste of some of the more popular test modules. These modules are usually not part of the Perl standard distribution (unlike Test::More) and you'll need to install them yourself. You'll learn how to test complex aspects of code and also meta-code subjects such as documentation and test coverage.

Chapter 19, Contributing to CPAN, shows how you can contribute to the Perl community at large. The mechanism for sharing your work is called the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN), which has thousands of different modules.

I found this book to be a seamless continuation of "Learning Perl". Everything is explained very well and there are plenty of examples. It really is ideal for self study. Having the answers at the back of the book was helpful, too. There are not just a bunch of pieces of code as answers, but good explanations as to how and why you would take a particular path in solving an exercise. Highly recommended, especially to the self-taught.

Average customer rating:

Llama llama no-sleep-a-rama
My son's favorite book.
This book is terrific
Sweet Book
Kali Tarr

Llama, Llama Red Pajama

Manufacturer: Viking Juvenile
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0670059838

Book Description

Llama, Llama red pajama waiting, waiting for his mama. Mama isn't coming yet. Baby Llama starts to fret. In this infectious rhyming read-aloud, Baby Llama turns bedtime into an all-out llama drama! Tucked into bed by his mama, Baby Llama immediately starts worrying when she goes downstairs, and his soft whimpers turn to hollers when she doesn't come right back. But just in time, Mama returns to set things right. Children will relate to Baby Llama's need for comfort, as much as parents will appreciate Mama Llama's reassuring message.

Customer Reviews:

Llama llama no-sleep-a-rama.......2007-09-15

This is a fun book and certainly entertains my three children, but not nearly enough as me. Poor llama really doesn't want to go to bed and when llama's mama puts him to bed and goes to do some chores, llama becomes restless and finally throws a tantrum until mama comes back, calms him down and tucks him back into bed where he finally falls asleep. There are a few people who criticize this book for mama's abandonment of llama during bedtime. I totally disagree. This is what bedtime is like in my house for my three children (ages 8 1/2, 5 and 3). Unlike llama, they like to call me until I come back and give them another hug or kiss, or get out of bed and find any excuse to prolong the remaining minutes of their day. "Llama llama red pajama" strikes a chord with all four of us -- I can relate to the challenge of getting them to bed and they can relate to llama's desire to stay awake a bit longer.

My son's favorite book........2007-09-11

This was a book we randomly picked up in the library and had to renew about 3 times. Finally, I figured we needed to buy it so that the library could have their copy back. A fantastic, simple rhyme that any child who doesn't want to go to bed can relate to.

This book is terrific.......2007-09-10

This book is just too much! We got this book first from the library and now are purchasing it. My three and a half year old loves it! The rhyming verse and the adorable illustrations makes it enjoyable and I plan on buying the other llama llama book. We read this book anytime...not just at bedtime!

Sweet Book.......2007-08-07

We love this book. I bought it with my older two children in mind (then 4 and 2). They read it several times before their baby sister (15 months) heard the story and latched on to it. Now 18 months old we have been reading about Baby Llama twice a day - she won't nap or go to bed without a reading of little Llama. Now that little sister loves this book the older ones think its a "baby book" - all the same we love this book and would suggest it to anyone with 1-5 yr olds.

Kali Tarr.......2007-08-06

We got this book for our 22 month old son because his teacher at school recommended it to us. She said that he loved reading it at school. When I would pick him up he would run to the bookcase yelling "Llama, Llama!!" This is his favorite book and he actually reads the book with me now. We read it every day and most days numerous time. We have ordered more books by this author to that are just as good.

Average customer rating:

Fun to read and our kids love it
Love Lloyd the Llama
Love this book!
I know it by heart
Great little book!

Is Your Mama A Llama?
Deborah Guarino
Manufacturer: Scholastic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book

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ASIN: 0590259385

Amazon.com

The board book version of this popular recitation of animal characteristics is equally as delightful as other editions, with one key improvement: it's inedible. This robust reissue follows lovable Lloyd the llama on his quest to find out what percentage of the baby animal population has llamas for mamas. The rhymes are original and infectious, and the riddles are sure to have children shouting out the answers in anticipation of turning the page.

Youngsters often exhibit an insatiable appetite for adorable baby animals, and Is Your Mama a Llama provides plenty of fodder for fawning. Illustrator Steven Kellogg, however, manages to keep the pictures sweet without being saccharine. And rest assured, no matter how often your little one is compelled to kiss the critters, the sturdy board-book format will stand the test of time (and of course, slobber). (Ages 0 to 4)

Customer Reviews:

Fun to read and our kids love it.......2007-08-23

This is the third time we've bought this book (1 for each kid). The earlier two copies were worn out. That's how much they like it.

Love Lloyd the Llama.......2007-07-17

This is a wonderful book. It is a lot of fun to read aloud and has great rhymes. The pauses allow the child to fill in the end of the sentence (which is a rhyme). I read it in the classroom and my infant loves it as well!

Love this book! .......2007-07-13

Great book! Teaches about animals. Flows very well and fun to read aloud. Illustrations are not that colorful or clear for very young toddlers. But I still like them because they are different and gives the book character. It took my 15 month old toddler a few times to start liking this book. But now she loves it and sometimes brings it to me to read to her.

I know it by heart.......2007-06-25

A friend of my parents gave me this book as a baby shower gift because her son loved it, and after continuously putting away outgrown clothes and toys over the past year, this book has outlasted every other gift!

I've been reading this to my son almost every night since he was born, and he gets a huge grin on his face as soon as I read the first sentence: "Is your mama a llama?" The story follows a little llama as he asks each of his animal friends this question. The rhyming is creative but has an easy flow as you read, which makes it good for keeping a little one's attention as well as for learning how rhyming works as they get older. The illustrations are colorful and detailed (not just outlines). My son always reached up to touch the orange "sun" that appears on several pages, so I kept telling him what it was, and now that he's older he will touch it if I ask where the sun is. I can see that this will be a good book to "grow into" as I read the description of an animal and he can "guess" what it is before I turn the page.

This book is a very special part of our bedtime ritual. At this rate we'll wear it out before the next child comes, but I definitely plan to buy another copy!

Great little book!.......2007-04-11

We have kind of a family in-joke about llamas, so when I saw this book, I had to get it for our daughter. Since then, I'm so glad I did! She loves it, and I love reading it to her...the rhyme and rhythym are excellent, and the illustrations are classy and amusing. I love all the different animals, and the introduction to the different behaviors.
My daughter is one now, and she still enjoys this book; I imagine she will for years to come.

Llamas and Alpacas as a Metaphor for Life

Average customer rating:

Great pictures, flaky text
Coffee table book
Llamas & Alpacas as a Metapor for Life
Especially Good for Al Paca lovers just starting their trip.
A picture paints a thousand words

Llamas and Alpacas as a Metaphor for Life
Marty McGee Bennett
Manufacturer: Raccoon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0970991657

Book Description

For anyone who is fascinated by llamas and alpacas, this is the coffee table book for you! Charming stories throughout, accompanied by beautiful, color photographs. Read this book and you'll be instantly hooked on llamas and alpacas! A great gift for the camelid enthusiast in your life. Photography by Sandy Flanagan.

Customer Reviews:

Great pictures, flaky text.......2007-09-09

If you like, or know someone who likes llamas and alpacas, this is a good book with cute pictures on every other page. The other pages are text which is also cute at times, but basically filled with strange and new-age flakiness.

Coffee table book.......2007-03-29

This is a wonderful book, for all ages. If you are a llama owner, it is a very nice book to introduce them as animals to friends and family, who just might be puzzled as to why you find them as fun companions. It is chock full of great photos, and is written in an interesting manner. Since it is so full of pictures, it is a good one to have out on the coffee table for visitors to pick up and enjoy. Even though I have way too many books, this one will stay with me!

Llamas & Alpacas as a Metapor for Life.......2007-01-30

I purchased this book with my daughter in mind. She adores llamas and I am unable to find appropriate books for her age group. I thought we could enjoy this together but it is too "deep" for an eight year old, although she does love browsing through and looking at the fabulous pictures. I, on the other hand, loved the book and made many connections. How true the title is!!!!!! Animal lovers should read this book. It is an easy read and will make you laugh and ponder your own life's happenings.

Especially Good for Al Paca lovers just starting their trip........2005-03-07

I great insight into a very interesting Group of independent Animals.

The Pictures were great

A picture paints a thousand words.......2003-05-04

Why waste words when pictures say so many. Just turning the pages of this book gives you a warm and wonderful feeling about alpacas and llamas. A desire to touch one because they look so adorable.

I have three holiday cottages and in each I have a copy of this book on the coffee tables. Every week my guests tell me what a lovely book it is and how their children love to look at the photos. They then ask me if I will show them my own alpacas and llamas for real. As we walk around the fields they ask informed questions which they formulated from reading the copy of 'Llamas and Alpacas as a Metaphor for Life'. The feel of them then becomes a reality.

Book Description

Dora, Boots, and Diego have to take Baby Llama back to his home, and they need some help. Readers can use the magnets in this interactive book to complete the scenes. Then Dora and her friends can cross the stream, go through the waterfall, and more!

Customer Reviews:

GREAT BOOK SO MUCH FUN!!!.......2005-08-07

My kids 3 and 5 think this is the BEST Book!! Magenets stick well to!!! Great Value to!!

The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems

Average customer rating:

Cute!!
A must -have for your child's collection!
Outstanding!
Reading has NEVER been this much fun!

The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems
Mary Ann Hoberman
Manufacturer: Harcourt Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0152055711

Book Description

If you’re sleepy in the jungle
And you wish to find a pillow,
Take a friendly word of warning:
DO NOT USE AN ARMADILLO!

Covering everything from centipedes to whales, from swinging on swings to ice-skating in winter, from eating applesauce to celebrating birthdays, the delightful poems in this extensive collection convey the experiences of childhood with a fresh timelessness.

Customer Reviews:

Cute!!.......2007-08-16

This is a really cute book full of great poems for children. Some of them are written for just fun, but others evoke great imagery and thus great discussion with children. We really enjoy this book.

A must -have for your child's collection!.......2007-05-13

My toddler son and I are so pleased with this book. We discovered this treasure at our local library and just had to add it to our personal collection. The Llama Who Had No Pajama is a perfect way to introduce poetry prose into your little one's life. I could only locate the book in paperback and would prefer to have it in hardback, but apparently it is no longer published as such. This and Where the Sidewalk Ends are essential items for your child(ren)'s home library.

Outstanding!.......2003-03-21

We borrow a lot of books from the library, and not many stand out. But this one is a winner! My 4 year old and I love this one so much that I am going to buy a copy for us. It has wonderfully clever rhymes about topics that interest kids. I highly recommend it.

Reading has NEVER been this much fun!.......2000-12-29

Since first reading "The Seven Silly Eaters" about a year ago, I have become a Mary Ann Hoberman addict, and am thrilled to have recently added "The Llama Who Had No Pajama" to my growing collection. She is a master of silliness, and you and your children will laugh with delight at the poems in this collection. I bought my first copy for my first grade classroom, and have since bought a second copy for my four-year old. My first graders are eating this stuff up - we read some of them together, and they keep going back for more - some of them can even recite the title poem! (And it's long!) This is also a wonderful introduction to poetry for pre-schoolers - if you've got one, and have never really read any poetry with him/her, it's a great way to develop a love of reading, as well as rhyming ability which is a key to early reading development!

Average customer rating:

Nightmare Mountain
Excellent!
Byond 5 Stars!
a fabulous book
A Great Book

Nightmare Mountain
Peg Kehret
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0141306459

Book Description

As soon as Molly arrives at her aunt and uncle's ranch in rural Washington, things start to go very wrong. Her cousin hates her on sight. Her aunt falls into a mysterious coma. Then, left alone on the huge property, Molly and her cousin discover an intruder lurking in the barn! Armed and desperate, he drags them to the top of a nearby mountain--and triggers an avalanche with a gunshot. Can they make it down the mountain alive?

"A first-rate thriller...This satisfying novel will keep readers guessing until the end." --School Library Journal

* A Puffin Novel
* 176 pages
* Ages 8-12

Customer Reviews:

Nightmare Mountain.......2007-08-28

Nightmare Mountain is one of the best books I've ever read. If you like adventures, you'll love this book! I think almost everybody will love this book. This book has a lot of cliffhangers that keep you entertained. Just a warning, if you don't have lots of time to finish a few chapters, it will drive you crazy until you scream! Our third grade class read this book. Evertime we had to stop reading the whole class would go NOOOOOOOO, PLEASE CAN WE KEEP READING!!!! WE'RE BEGGING YOU!!!!!

Excellent!.......2006-05-22

I actually read this book way back in 1993 as a lad of thirteen. Then, about two or three years later I got an urge to read it again. Of course, that was back when internet access for us blind folks was little more than a pipedream, so there was no posting online reviews. Anyway, I was hooked from the beginning.
Twelve-year-old Molly Newman is looking forward to a relaxing vacation on her Aunt Karen's llama ranch. Though Molly and Uncle Phil had never met before, they hit it off immediately. But Glendon, Phil's distant son, seems to strongly dislike Molly for a reason he refuses to disclose. Within days of Molly's arrival, Aunt Karen becomes desperately ill, forcing Phil to stay with her at the hospital, leaving Molly and Glendon alone on the ranch. Glendon, of course, blames Molly for his stepmother's illness. It is at this time that Molly discovers that a valuable, pregnant llama has been stolen. From there, things only get worse as the thief catches Molly and Glendon snooping around the barn and abandons them on a mountainside immediately following a deadly avalanche. Abandond on the mountain and separated from her cousin, Molly embarks on a daring and dangerous effort to find and rescue Glendon before he freezes to death. In the process, she learns a shocking truth about the identity of their attacker and a disturbing secret from Glendon's past, and the reason for his inexplicable resentment towards her.
All in all, it's the perfect adventure story. It might even make a good movie.

Byond 5 Stars!.......2005-04-27

This is a must read. Every page is filled with adventure, suspence, and Glendon and Molly!
Summary: After Aunt Karen becomes ill with a coma, Molly and Glenden and to stay home at te ranch. Then a thief is lurking in the barn! He tried to kidnap them but Glenden ran. A gunshot triggerd an avalanch and burried them both. Molly saved herself and can't find Glenden. Can she save him before he dies?

a fabulous book.......2004-11-20

Nightmare Mountain

Nightmare Mountain is about a girl named Molly and her cousin Glendon that get kidnapped by Glendon's dad's brother. He takes them to the top of the nearest snowy mountain and leaves them there.Molly is a young girl who wants to make friends with her cousin but he doesn't want to.The story takes place on Molly's uncles farm and on the nearest snow covered mountain. The theme is that you should not dislike a person because you are jeolous of them. I liked the story because there was excitement in every chapter of the story.

A Great Book.......2004-08-04

I really like this book. It's about a girl named Molly who goes to stay at her aunt and uncle's llama ranch. But her cousin Glendon is ignoring her and being mean. Then her Aunt Karen gets really sick, and Glendon blames Molly. But Molly thinks that someone is trying to kill her. Then a valuable llama is stolen, and Molly and Glendon have to find the thief. A scary, dramatic mystery that I would strongly reccomend.

Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate: Multicultural Grassroots Development in the Andes and Amazon of Bolivia

Average customer rating:

A Not MIss
it makes you feel good!

Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate: Multicultural Grassroots Development in the Andes and Amazon of Bolivia
Kevin Healy
Manufacturer: University of Notre Dame Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0268013268

Customer Reviews:

A Not MIss.......2006-11-06

This is a valuable set of case studies on development projects that actually benefit the grassroots. Although set in Bolivia, many of the lessons apply to other parts of the developing world. The book is well written and would be a great text for a course in development studies.

it makes you feel good!.......2004-06-16

The intimate travel details and encounters with prospective project developers in Bolivia are revealed in this book. You read about the many projects that the IAF has sponsored, successful at times and not, it is great to know that these projects have been throughly researched by IAF employees.

It makes you feel good to see U.S. dollars go into super positive grassroots projects.

Book Description

LLAMA ON THE LAM is a fictional account of a true tale of a runaway llama that becomes the focus of a chase by the authorities assisted by five bright neighborhood youngsters. The chase and capture of the llama tightens the bond between three of the friends, one with Muscular Dystrophy. The captured llama is taken in by Horses' Haven, a Michigan animal rescue group located in South Lyon, Michigan.

One of the threesome, a boy named Alex, moves away leaving his friends behind. At about the same time, the owner of Whoop for Joy, a retired racehorse, decides to adopt the rescued llama as a buddy for the aging equine. (For fans of Whoop for Joy, the retired thoroughbred racehorse, the title character in Briggs-Bunting's first children's book, he joins the fun with the arrival of the "rescued" llama.) But the llama, ever a clever escape artist, once again manages to go on the lam precipitating an unexpected meeting between Alex and Beth, a neighbor girl who takes care of Whoop and the newly adopted llama.

What follows is a summer and fall filled with escapes and chases as Alex, Beth and occasionally Whoop, try to round-up the rascally critter. In the process Alex and Beth become close friends. But when Alex's friend with Muscular Dystrophy suffers a serious illness, a skeptical Alex must discover if the legends about llamas and wishes are true.

Customer Reviews:

Real life problems without the cliches.......2001-11-14

Briggs-Bunting's book tackles a lot of real-life problems faced by adolescents. She has the gift, however, of solving them without lecturing or resorting to silly cliches or predictability.
With "Llama," readers get warmth, sensitivity and lots of fun without the overdose of warm-fuzzies that so many youth writers peddle. The fact that the characters are based on the author's real-life friends (two-and-four-legged) adds to the charm.
Highly recommend this.

Lovable Llama.......2001-11-14

This entertaining yet educational story is a great read for all ages. The author does a wonderful job combining animals and people both young and old and spins quite a unique tale. I applaud Ms. Briggs-Bunting for her being able to tell a not only educational but also interesting story (a rarity for today's children's authors). Excellent!

A must read!.......2001-11-13

Llama on the Lam is a fabulous piece of children's literature. It is a heart warming tale about a cute llama and the adventures he has with a group of young kids. Though the book is aimed at children between the ages of 9 through 12, a person of any age will find it enjoyable. Young kids will relish the picturesque artwork, while young teens will be able to relate to the characters in the book. This is a must read for any child!

Lovable Llama tale touches heart.......2001-11-09

This is a story of a runaway llama and some kids who help capture it. It's a great story of friendship and there is humor in it, too.
I really enjoyed the fact there were different types of children in the story. One of the characters has Muscular Dystrophy, but he is protrayed as a real kid. In the author's note it tells the story of the real boy who is the model for the character.
The art is nice, too. The pictures of the llama are expecially good. He looks cute.

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