Product Description
Sing and enjoy this summer camp favorite. Inspired to make some music of your own? Flip to the back of the book for a great music making activity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

FUN BOOK!
Absolutely LOVE this book!It goes almost perfectly with the song, which makes it a GREAT teaching aid.I've used this book & song with Pre-K (4 year olds) through 2nd grade.It's fun & interactive for the children, adding motions to the words.The children also find it fun to "read" the portions that are repeated.The illustrations in this book (and others from the same artist) are really FUN & especially creative!

Book with a growing pattern.
This book depicting a traditional children's song is also a good book for introducing growing patterns.The only draw back is that the illustrations sometimes are not as clear as I would like, making counting the groupings of ants difficult on some pages. It would pair nicely with a flannel board depiction of the growing pattern. ... Read more

Product Description
The "ant" and the "peacock" stand for two puzzles in Darwinism--altruism and sexual selection. How can natural selection favor those, such as the worker ant, that renounce tooth and claw in favor of the public-spirited ways of the commune? And how can "peacocks"--flamboyant, ornamental and apparently useless--be tolerated by the grimly economical Darwinian reaper? Helena Cronin has a deep understanding of today's answers to these riddles and their roots in the nineteenth century; the analysis is new and exciting and the explanations lucid and compelling. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Most Beautiful Rule the Bird World, Can That Be in Humans?
Peacocks are the most flamboyand and ornamental birds.The male peacock's tail is an extravanganza: bizarre, and exaggerated, while the white felame is less beautiful and mores 'sensibly dressed.'For a special occasion, I purchased a bright blue and white whirt with the appearance of peacock feathers.It was lovely but, after two wearing, I went back to the mall and also purchased the 'dull' brown, yellow and green identical skirt in the muted colors.Can you imagine, it was appreciated more by the viewers than the brighter one?Darwin had it right with his theroy that females prefer to mate with the best-ornamental males.Over evolutionary time, males develop ever-more exaggerated, immoderate flamboyance.All male birds are the brighter ones, even ducks.

What was the selective force that had brought such fine-tuning of choosing a mate, if not the visual discrimination of birds?He conceived the idea of the peacock's tail as a product of female choise was 'an awful stretcher.'But his prediction proved true; thus, a happy ending to the peacock's tale.

One thing about ants are they don't have to worry about appearances.They aren't very pretty so who can tell the difference; they are busy, hard workers who live in communes, and have multiple partners to propetuate the species.

Ms. Cronin's thesis on humans is that women choose men who can give them handsome sons to propugate the theory of selective evolution.In my case, it's always been the male who did the choosing, and the beautiful females (no matter how dumb) have the advantage over the not-so-pretty girls.For some reason, however, the most important men tend to have plainer wifes first, the younger beauties in their old age.

She discusses human altruism by comparing Wallace, Huxley, Spenser and othre with Darwin and his moral views as to natural history.Nature can be most cruel to the kindest, most compassionate humans and bless the selfish, arrogant maco men as they do the choosing in today's world.Can you call it really 'mating' or power of lust to allow today's attractive men to make the overtures?

Young girls are certainly advertising their wares with their middles and belly buttons showing and the see-through camisoles they wear in public is a form of indecency.At the rodeo, some girls showed their rear sections with the short shorts and midriff tops and didn't have good-looking bodies, but t he men looked anyway.This in-depth study of Darwinism and its antagonists is done in an intellectual way by Ms. Cronin who has a Ph.D and taught at University of Oxford and the Philosophy Department at the London School of Economics.

The cover picture is "Peacock and Peahen with a Red Cardinal in a Classical Landscape" by Tobias Stranover which hangs in the London Gallery and the Bridgeman Art Library.

A gentle detonator
This comprehensive and engrossing study examines two major elements of evolution: the role of ornamenation in various species, and the presence of altruism in a nature deemed "red in tooth and claw."Cronin focuses throughout the book on the contrasting views of Charles Darwin and his co-founder of evolution by natural selection, Albert Russell Wallace.Darwin appended his earlier ideas outlined in The Origin of Species inThe Descent of Man.In that later work, he enalrged on the idea of "sexual selection."He postulated that many evolutionary traits which appear as maladaptive to survival are actually derived from reproductive pressures.The issue of female choice among many species was a difficult idea to sell - Wallace never accepted it.He retained what Cronin deems "natural selection by
good sense," devoid of esthetics.

Cronin chronicles the history of sexual selection with craft and precision.Her writing is unambiguous, providing excellent insights into many aspects of evolutionary thinking.As she develops her theme, she aknowledges her debt to Dawkin's work on the influence of genes manifesting as guides to adaptation.Cronin adds a new term in describing the merging of Mendelian genetics and Darwin's gradualist concept - "modern Darwism". She carefully explains how natural selection operates at the genetic level to achieve a "trade-off" of costs and benefits to arrive at selected traits.In this analysis, Cronin gently but firmly applies Darwinian implements to show how critics of modern Darwinism have misled themselves in seeking "alternative" answers to adapation.The have been asking the wrong questions!

This view was hotly challenged by paleontologist Stephen Gould in a now-famous essay.He viewed with horror Cronin's application of gene selection as a definitive evolutionary process.He made a wide-ranging critique which attempted to refute applying any facets of animal behaviour to humans.The review touched off the [mostly] trans-Atlantic dispute over how adaptation actually works.It was the Sarajevo of the "Darwin Wars" between Gould and Dawkins, perhaps best summarized by Daniel Dennet.Cronin's use of evidence should have forestalled that conflict.Cronin's skills in applying essentials to explain adaptations are unimpeachable and her skillful prose only enhances the value of this work.It will stand for a long time as a landmark work in evolutionary studies.

Interesting History of Two Troublesome Issues in Darwinism
Dr. Cronin presents a philosophical history of the questions of sexual selection (as exemplified by the peacock in the title) and altruism (the ant), from the time of Darwin until today. She explains the background tothe debate (or lack thereof) among Darwin's contemporaries and successors,which is sometimes difficult to understand with the gene based view ofnatural selection we have today. It is fascinating reading for the informedperson, but the academic tone may be off putting to the casual reader. Dr.Cronin presupposes a fairly detailed knowledge of modern evolutionarytheory, and the layperson may want to read some introduction such asDawkins' books first. ... Read more

Product Description
Ages 6 to 12 years. Watching an ant carry a crumb across a sidewalk holds great fascination for children. Children will certainly be eager to read more about this industrious insect in this book. The fascinating text is accompanied by full-colour images and illustrations, which help describe: an ant's body; it's habitat; the stages of ant metamorphosis: egg, larva, pupa, and adult; the roles of workers, males, and queens in the colony; the importance of ants to the environment. ... Read more

Product Description
Tarzan in his wanderings in unknown Africa comes to a great thorn forest, impenetrable, according to native belief, and shunned because it is the abode of evil spirits. The undaunted Tarzan, however, finds a way through the awful thorns and emerges into an amazingly fertile country. Here he discovers a race of pigmies about eighteen inches high, fairly advanced in civilization and living in vast community houses resembling ant hills. Tarzan see many curious things, and has numerous startling adventures. From ERBville Press. ... Read more

Product Description
A small red ant finds a delicious crumb in a Mexican cornfieldbut is afraid that she's not strong enough to move it herself. She goes from one creature to the next, looking for help, and is surprised to discover who is the strongest of all. "A satisfying Mexican version of the rock-scissors-paper fable, accompanied by simple but expressive pictures." -- School Library Journal ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

used for summer reading
I purchased this book to go with the theme of summer reading which was to catch the reading bug. We read the book out loud to 15 k-5 graders and they thought the bookwas cute. I would recommend the book highly to kids.

ITANT BAD!
THIS WAS ON THE SUMMER READ CHOICES LIST SO WE GAVE IT A READ!
ITS AN EASY CUTE ENOUGH BOOK! NOT A MUST HAVE BUT JUST SOMETHING
FAST TO READ TOGETHER! (it had a funny part which the boys enjoyed)

The little red ant and the great big crumb
Great resource for unit on ants to teach ESL for pk-k.

the little red ant.
Once upon a time, there was a little red ant,she was the only one who was different from her family.she was more shorter than her family members,her red color was more darker than the rest of the family members.One day she was looking for food,for the winter,so she can put her food in her small house.sudenly,she found a big crumb of cake,she was surprise and wonder that she wanted to take home,but there was a problem, she was too little to carry, then she was looking for help with the rest of the animals from that place, but no one help her.But she never give up and she found a alligator,that was trying to eat her,and she scape and she said that she can carry that big crumb of cake,and she did,and she knew that no matter how small she was, you never have to give up.

Great kids book!
Nicely written and beautifully illustrated children's fable. Everything you want in a children's book. I'm giving it to my grandaughter! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A superhero of all proportions
Ant-Man may be one of the most underrated superheroes, but this tiny dynamo can sure pack a punch.With 36 tales to astonish, there are enough episodes in Volume #1 to delight any reader who loves well-written stories penned by Stan Lee and brilliantly illustrated storyboards inked by Jack Kirby, Don Heck, and Steve Ditko to name a few.Scientist, Henry Pym has discovered a serum that enables him to shrink to the size of an ant.A technical genious, Henry devises a helmet so that he may communicate with the ants, thus forming a multitude of allies.What better way to compliment a superhero than to give him a partner, Janet a.k.a. The Wasp.Later Henry discovers that his invention can also enable him to double his normal height and become twelve feet tall, and...Giant-Man is born.How's that for two superheroes wrapped into one!

This is the ideal coffee table book that can be picked up over and over again and be enjoyed.

Antman rules
Used to own a comic book shop.This brought back all the memories and the reason I got into comics in the first place.Poor kids today have too much with the internet/ video games etc.The black and white stories just punched that idea home.Imagination is a wonderful thing....let yours run wild...highly recomeended.

Ant-Man Flashback
This is a perfect collection for the Marvel collector or even just someone who wants to rekindle the old childhood memories of reading comic books. Ant-Man is my favorite super hero in the Marvel universe, learn how he becomes Ant-Man and then into Giant-Man(two completly different angles eh?). The issues go right up before his Avengers adventures. Theres about 30 comics in total wich is a bargin at this price.

The Astonishing Ant Man
Scientist Henry Pym creates a potion which can shrink any object down to microscopic size as well as a potion to reverse the effect. He decides to test the potion on himself and finds that he has shrunk to insect like size, but is unable to get the growth potion due to his size. He depends on the ants to help him get back to his lab and grow back to normal. This was a one shot feature from Tales to Astonish #27. Lee and Kirby on a roll with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the like returned Pym in issue 35 as an ongoing hero Ant-Man. The character went through many transformations throughout his TAS run such as acquiring a partner in Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp, but most signifigantly becoming Giant-Man in issue 49.

Obviously the Ant-Man/Giant-Man character was not one of the more successful characters from the House of Ideas in the 60's. You can continually keep on seeing Lee, Kirby, and Heck trying to make modifications on the character throughout the book. The villains here can't compare to the Doctor Dooms, Green Goblins, Leaders, and the like used in the other books. Here we are just saddles with lame adversaries such as the Egghead, Eraser, Porcupine, and in my opinion the most moronic continous villain in a book, the Human Top (whose numerous appearances told you that the bullpen was running out of ideas for this character). Granted the Black Knight looked like a good villain, but was best used later in the Avengers. The better issues in the book are the ones where he and the Wasp battle Spider-Man and the Hulk, as well as a fight with Attuma. Backing up many of the issues are tales told by the Wasp to a group of teens with some moral at the end. When the Hulk shared the book with High Pockets in issue 60, the end of those tales came and issue 69 marked the end of Giant Man in TOA as Namor took his slot the next issue. Giant-Man and the Wasp later returned to the Avengers and was best suited in that role as a team member. My opinion of reading this volume was that many early issues of the Avengers referenced battles from these tales and here was a decent way to find out what happened, but this volume is far from spectacular.

The Little Superhero that Couldn't
Henry Pym holds the ignominious title of being the first Silver Age Marvel Comics character who failed (actually the Hulk was the first series to end, but he has since returned in a big way).Frankly, it isn't hard to see why as Pym seemed utterly average compared to the other interesting, archetype-busting characters in the Marvel Universe.Pym was another independently wealthy super-genius in multiple scientific fields who had a state-of-the-art crime lab and a dull, square-jawed professorial personality.He lacked any of the pathos-inducing handicaps or traits that made Iron Man or Daredevil stand out.Although this is probably due to the fact that he was actually created in a pre-Silver Age, early 60's story in a Twilight Zone-esque, sci-fi anthology series (Tales to Astonish #27, also included).

As such, the early Ant-Man tales come across as an ongoing battle for writers Stan Lee and his brother Larry to make Pym more interesting.This led to the introduction of the Wasp (Janet van Dyne), joining the Avengers, constant costume changes and power additions (enter Giant-Man), and a tacked-on backstory about Pym's first wife who was murdered by communists, none of which really worked for me.The endeavour definitely was not helped by the seriously underwhelming Rogue's Gallery.There was Egghead (a totally average mad scientist), Porcupine (a disgruntled engineer in a battlesuit, kind of like the Beetle only pointy), and the Human Top (a high rpm mutant who would get a less goofy name and costume later in the Avengers as Whirlwind).Those are pretty much the only ones worth mentioning by name.There was also a cross-dressing commie spy, a guy with a magic trumpet, a South American dictator with a horned hat who liked to run into things, and a guy who could command others with his voice (just like Daredevil's Purple Man, except that he wasn't purple).

One reviewer said that he liked Hank and Janet's Nick-and-Nora style bantering, which does make for some good dialogue, but those looking for that sort of thing would be better served with the Fantastic Four.I felt that Hank was more belittling and coarse than Reed Richards and Janet acted more like a whining spoiled shrew than Sue Storm.Once again, the Ant-Man comics just seemed to be overshadowed on all sides from its other neighbors in the Marvel world.

I know I've sounded completely negative so far, but the truth is that I would still recommend The Essential Ant-Man to all fellow fans of classic Marvel comics.Ant-Man is no less a part of Marvel's storied Silver Age history and features stellar artwork by Jack "King" Kirby and Don Heck.Every issue of Tales to Astonish that Pym headlined (many of which are near impossible to find these days) is collected in one comprehensive and inexpensive Essential volume.As much as I love the Essentials, the Astonishing Ant-Man is less of a must-have than most (X-Men #1 and FF #3 are my all time favorites) but perhaps I'm being unfair.For only $15, all other true believers are free to see for themselves. ... Read more

Product Description
The complex social behaviors of ants have been much studied by science, and computer scientists are now finding that these behavior patterns can provide models for solving difficult combinatorial optimization problems. The attempt to develop algorithms inspired by one aspect of ant behavior, the ability to find what computer scientists would call shortest paths, has become the field of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), the most successful and widely recognized algorithmic technique based on ant behavior. This book presents an overview of this rapidly growing field, from its theoretical inception to practical applications, including descriptions of many available ACO algorithms and their uses.The book first describes the translation of observed ant behavior into working optimization algorithms. The ant colony metaheuristic is then introduced and viewed in the general context of combinatorial optimization. This is followed by a detailed description and guide to all major ACO algorithms and a report on current theoretical findings. The book surveys ACO applications now in use, including routing, assignment, scheduling, subset, machine learning, and bioinformatics problems. AntNet, an ACO algorithm designed for the network routing problem, is described in detail. The authors conclude by summarizing the progress in the field and outlining future research directions. Each chapter ends with bibliographic material, bullet points setting out important ideas covered in the chapter, and exercises. Ant Colony Optimization will be of interest to academic and industry researchers, graduate students, and practitioners who wish to learn how to implement ACO algorithms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Disjointed writing by academics who are not educators
You have to get to page 99 to find an explanation of how to implement the algorithm. That explanation is much like the preceding material. A meandering outpouring of facts without much regard for consistency or clarity and an unnecessary tendency to over complicate. Caters to the research community at the expense of clarity to the student.

The authors need to explain the algorithm first in clear and simple terms - then they can talk about optimizations!!! There is no point telling me how to optimize something you haven't fully explained.

The consequence of the approach in this book is that finding out useful practical information becomes ordeal by treasure hunt. For example. Try finding an explanation for the derivation of the parameter for pheromome update. There's a nice greek symbol for it and it's between 0 and 1 but er..... thats it.

If these guys are professors I pity their students.

The gift of ants to mathematicians
Ant Colony Optimization focuses on the fact that ants foraging for food will quickly form a trail that is the shortest possible ditance betwen the food and home.Rach ant follows the scent trail laid on a path by previous travelers and adds its own pheromone to the scent, both going and coming.With a choice, ants tend to follow the strongest scent. Of a pioneer pair, the one choosing the shortest path will make the round trip before the other.Each pheromone trace evaporates in time, but an ant's antenna can detetct the slightest trace. That is a simplification of the introductory chapters of the book.The "pheromone trail" scheme is used to devise "artificial ant" which then takes part in the comnstruction of powerful ant algorithms for solving intractable problems such as the classical "Traveling Salesman" and other routing problems.The book is a complete text for a college course, with a large bibliography and many internal references to sources on the Internet.It is well written, with pseudo code showing how each algorithm can form computer programs. I can't evaluate the difficulty, but for me the math in later chapters is above my reach, but gratifying, nevertheless.

searching for the basic algorithms
The central idea in the book is to analyse what evolution has provided us. In the form of ants being able to find the shortest path over terrain. This ability has inspired the research described herein.

The book can be read as a fascinating deconstructionist approach to observing and manipulating ant colonies. By trying to look under the observations to discern the fundamental algorithms at work. And then to apply these to such longstanding contexts as the Travelling Salesman Problem.

The intelligence and wisdom of ants
Being an ant isn't very complex, but it's a daily fight for life. The losers in that fight don't count, but the winners get to vote.

That is the basis of ant colony optimization. There are many parts to the idea, all of them very simple. First, there are many routes to the goal (food, if you're an ant) - some are better, some worse, you don't know which are which in advance, and the answer may change over time. Second, it's a random search. If you find any answer at all, no matter how convoluted, you get to vote on your route. Third, there are many other ants, all voting. Any leg of a trip that is heavily followed must be part of a good route, and gets many votes. There are details, but that's about it.

Chapters 1-3 are the most readable, and convey the basic spirit of the family of algorithms. Ch. 4-6 will drag a bit, for the general reader, but go into significant detail about the ant algorithm and specific applications.

Ch. 7 ends the book with a warm, informal discussion of the algorithm's history and some delightful variations. Dorigo, the principal author and founder of the ant school, uses this chapter to express his pure joy at having found such a wonderful thing, and at the similar approaches that others have also found.

The approach has some real limits. For example, it can solve only problems that look like finding the shortest route. The good news is that a wide range of unlikely problems can all be cast in these terms. The better news is that, given the many variations available, some form of the 'stigmergic' approach will probably solve any problem in that range. Best of all, though, is the sheer cleverness and the sincere appreciation expressed by the authors.

Nature is economical, but a brilliant problem solver. This is written by someone who as able to listen in on one of the lessons.

//wiredweird

A comprehensive and very readable introduction
Fifteen years after the elegant double-bridge experiments by Deneubourg et al. that formed the basis of the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm, Marco Dorigo, the inventor of ACO, and Thomas Stützle, an expert on stochastic local search methods, have pooled their knowledge to summarize the current state of the art.
This book gives a well paced introduction to ACO, describes its use in various optimization problems and gives interesting examples of its applications in industry. Explanations are clear and concise and, with the exception of a few well defined technical terms, free of scientific jargon. It is a pleasure to read for everyone with an interest in optimization theory. However, if you are looking for a book that celebrates the beauty of nature's problem solving capabilities, you are better of with "Swarm Intelligence" or Flake's "Computational Beauty of Nature". The initial idea of ACO may be bio-inspired, but this book has a crystal clear focus of the computational considerations in optimization theory. ... Read more

Product Description
All adventure, all action, for all ages! Join Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Hulk as they team up against the fiercest obstacles and most dangerous villains they've ever encountered. Featuring Dr. Strange, Ant-Man, and The Mighty Thor. Collects Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #5-8. ... Read more

Product Description
Examines the physical characteristics, life cycle, and natural habitat of various types of ants. ... Read more

Product Description
This richly illustrated book, created to accompany the traveling exhibition of the same name, provides a fascinating critical overview of Ant Farm, the radical architecture collective that brought us Cadillac Ranch, Media Burn, and The Eternal Frame. Established by several young renegade architects in 1968, Ant Farm was a collaborative art and design group eager to bring to its practice a revolutionary spirit more consistent with the times. Its vision encompassed creations for a nomadic lifestyle, including inflatable structures and radical environments that culminated in projects such as the organically appointed House of the Century and the unrealized aquatic edifice The Dolphin Embassy. Ant Farm 1968-1978 explores the sweeping career of this inspired and inspiring visionary collective as its architectural projects broadened to embrace a range of undertakings that challenged the visual architecture of image, icon, and power.
Constance Lewallen provides an in-depth, anecdotally rich interview with founding members Chip Lord, Doug Michels, and Curtis Schreier. An essay by Michael Sorkin gives the multivalent cultural context for Ant Farm's radical architecture. Steve Seid takes a comprehensive look at Ant Farm's influential videotapes. Caroline Maniaque's "Searching for Energy" details the group's inflatable structures in relationship to contemporaneous architects working in a similar vein. The catalog also includes a substantial excerpt from Chip Lord's 1976 meditation on car culture, with a new epilogue; a graphically playful timeline recounting Ant Farm's essential art projects; and a rich montage of images and ephemera capturing the humor, originality, and prescience of this feisty enterprise.
A joint publication with the Berkeley Art Museum ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fantastic book
This book is full of great pictures documenting the complete Ant Farm collection of works.Original design sketches and interviews with the artists offer a lot of insight into the art group Ant Farm.I may be a bit biased since I study this kind of art, but I think someone could enjoy this book even if they know little to nothing about Ant Farm.In my opinion, its worth every penny. ... Read more

Product Description
Few insects are more important than bees, wasps, and ants. They maintain the garden’s biological balance, fertilize vegetables, fruits, and flowers, and recycle nutrients within the soil. It’s no exaggeration to say that a garden can’t be understood without an understanding of its insects.

Bees, Wasps, and Ants explores the importance of the Hymenoptera and explains how gardeners can encourage (or discourage) them in the garden. Part One includes a summary of their biology and a tour of what role they play in each part of the garden. Part Two takes a closer look at the individual groups within the family, including sawflies, horntails, woodwasps, parasitic wasps, predatory wasps, bees, and ants.

Bees, Wasps, and Ants is sure to persuade even the most insectphobic reader to invite these fascinating creatures into their gardens.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great introduction to a feared and misunderstood group of insects
I absolutely love this book and find it to be a most valuable guide to a much-feared group of insects. As a shutterbug new to macro photography of insects, I have become immersed in a world most people ignore unless they are frightened by an aggressive Hymenopteran. The photos in this book are first rate and have helped me with identification of my own tiny subjects. As the author points out, this is not a field guide per se, but a sound introduction to the natural history and biology of these insects.Their roles in nature are complex and fascinating. This book is aimed at serious students of insect life and garden enthusiasts. The writing is clear albeit somewhat technical at times, which is to be expected as it is a science book. The author is especially good on the Parasitoid Wasps, the main focus of his own professional work in the field. If you enjoy above average science books and have an interest in gardening or insect photography you should get yourself a copy of this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Rockets have power. They rise and roar. This rocket's waiting, ready to soar.Rockets carry astronauts with cool, white suits oxygen helmets and gravity boots. Blast off with more out-of-this-world couplets! This time it is machines that fly.In bright and bold illustrations that are as witty as the text, the animal crew roars and whizzes into outer space. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Very Cute!
I got six of these for gifts, everyone loved it! I kept one for my child also, and he really like it too. :)

Toddler son loves it
My three year old son loves the books in this series, especially the Terrific Trains!The rhymes are easy enough that with multiple readings he can even "read" it to me!A great book for toddlers learning to talk.

3, 2, 1 Blast OFF
You want a happy little 3 year old who like Rockets~~~Get this book.I have to read it every night before bed as he holds Buzz Light Year!!Wonderful book that teaches them very easily what rockets do, and easy reading.

Great Simple Book for Little Astronauts
My Son is 2 and a half, he loves this book, it has great pictures and has a nice simple story to read to them. bigger kids will find this an easy to read book. I cant wait to get more from this series:)

Roaring Rockets is a big hit with my 3 year old grandson
This is an excellent book for a 3+ year old child. My grandson loved it. I had to read this book to him (he asked for it by name) every night for a week; sometimes he asked that I read it to him two times in a row.

He now knows what a Lunar Lander is and he knows there is no gravity in space.

I highly recommend this book.

Eugene ... Read more

Product Description
All Rookie Readers actively engage young readers, encouraging language development, building fluency, and promoting independent reading. By targeting a skill, like learning about repetitive text, young readers are building fundamental reading skills with the help of fun, lively, colorfully illustrated stories. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

If I Were an Ant
Great pictures and perspective. Nice addition to a thematic unit on ants for a classroom teacher or parent. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (3)

The Ants Go Marching
A fun song and book to use with elementary children.Children love rhyming songs and this one is a great one to sing and read.You can act out the song with a classroom of students.To extend the activity, have children create their own marching song using a different animal. (dogs, cats, giraffes, etc.)They can also illustrate their own texts to create a personal picture book.

excellent book and cdI
I purchased this book and cd for my grandsons, ages 13 and 26 months. They absolutely love it! I was not surprised, having previously purchased the "Fire Truck" book and cd. I don't expect them to follow along on their own. I turn the pages of the book as we go. Great choice for kids who love books and music. Very worth the money.

Speed Marching
my daughters had difficulty turning the pages fast enough to keep up with the CD. They enjoyed the Book and CD though and overall i think its a fun set but be warned the Ants can only go marching so many times in a Minivan before they disapear.. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Intro to Ants
Very inviting book about ants. Each left page has two easy to read sentences with a lot of open space. For example, "Ants are about the size of a sunflower seed. Ants have six legs." Each right page is a close up of an ant or ants. There is a glossary, short bibliography, index, and publisher updated web links. Karen Woodworth Roman, Children's Science Book Review ... Read more

Product Description

"Every year, one funny book seems to stand out from all the others. This year, it's Do Ants Have [Assholes]?…a rip-roaring parody"
Spectator

Product Description
Countless ants transport and deposit seeds and therebyinfluence the survival, death, and evolution of many plant species. Inhigher plants, seed dispersal by ants (myrmecochory) has appeared manytimes independently in different lineages. More than 3000 plantspecies are known to utilize ant assistance to be planted.Myrmecochory is a very interesting and rather enigmatic form ofmutualistic ant-plant associations. This phenomenon is extremelycomplex, because there are hundreds of ant species connected withhundreds of plant species. This book effectively combines a thoroughapproach to investigating morphological and physiological adaptationsof plants with elegant field experiments on the behaviour of ants.This monograph is a first attempt at collecting information aboutmorphology, ecology and phenology of ants and plants from oneecosystem. The book gives readers a panoramic view of the hidden,poorly-known interrelations not only between pairs of ants and plantspecies, but also between species communities in the ecosystem. Theauthors have considered not just one aspect of animal-plantrelationships, but have tried to show them in all their complexity.Some aspects of the ant-plant interactions described in the book maybe of interest to botanists, others to zoologists or ecologists, butthe entire work is an excellent example of the marriage of thesebiological disciplines. ... Read more

Product Description

Walter Tschinkel's passion for fire ants has been stoked by over thirty years of exploring the rhythm and drama of Solenopsis invicta's biology. Since South American fire ants arrived in Mobile, Alabama, in the 1940s, they have spread to become one of the most reviled pests in the Sunbelt.

In Fire Ants Tschinkel provides not just an encyclopedic overview of S. invicta--how they found colonies, construct and defend their nests, forage and distribute food, struggle among themselves for primacy, and even relocate entire colonies--but a lively account of how research is done, how science establishes facts, and the pleasures and problems of a scientific career.

Between chapters detailed enough for experts but readily accessible to any educated reader, "interludes" provide vivid verbal images of the world of fire ants and the people who study them. Early chapters describe the several failed, and heavily politically influenced, eradication campaigns, and later ones the remarkable spread of S. invicta's "polygyne" form, in which nests harbor multiple queens and colonies reproduce by "budding." The reader learns much about ants, the practice of science, and humans' role in the fire ant's North American success.

Customer Reviews (5)

an interesting omission
I wrote the first academic book dedicated to the subject of fire ants, published by Texas A&M University Press back in 2000, and wonder why that volume doesn't appear in the References.Does anyone think they know why that might have happened?

A Blockbuster of a Novel
A technical book on fire ants is not really my thing. I'm a physicist living in country too cold for fire ants. But my son is doing a senior research project with fire ants and he started gushing about this book. Impressed that anything could make him put down his texting cell phone for a minute, I had a look.

This is, hands down, the best technical book I have ever read. Not only does Tschinkel move you through the story of fire ants with a pacing that more resembles a blockbuster novel than a biological textbook, he is very, very funny. I know for a fact I have laughed out loud more reading this book than I did for many a supposedly "humorous" book.

It is a rare writer who can compel a mostly disinterested reader to stay with him through nearly 700 pages of technical information. Looking back, I can't believe he did it. Yet he did, and I am grateful for the experience. I know a WHOLE lot more about fire ants than I ever dreamed I would want to know. And I can't wait for the sequel.

Walter Gets It.
Very few humans, accept for some aboriginal communities, respect earth's natural processes. Walter gets it. It is us humans, who want to exploite the earth to our benefit that is throwing the planet out of balance. Dr. Walt realizes that fire ants have learned to thrive on our disturbances of the ecosystem. Anyone who is willing to take the time to write a 750+ page large format, fine print book on such a hated insect must be respected. What a phenomenal composition. Take a chance on this book.

Excellent, Hard to put down text.
Not only is the author, Walter Tschinkel, an expert on Fire
Ants he is a skillful writer.His ability to spinkle humor
in every chapter makes the book enjoyable even to the non-
scientific reader.He will expell many false claims of the
Fire Ant menace and enlighten the reader with facts gathered
from over 30 years of observations and experiments. The text
documents the larger problems caused when uniformed political
groups try to fix a problem they don't understand. This book
should me mandatory reading for all environmentalist!
Bill Denni

An Admirable and Admiring Scientific Tribute
Southerners hate fire ants.Let alone that they are convinced that fire ants ruin land and ravage gardens: fire ants hurt.Anyone stung by just one knows that they deserve their name, but so often people are not stung by just one, but by a cluster.So it is alarming to find a southerner who ardently feels another way about the creatures."I love fire ants," is the first sentence in chapter one of _The Fire Ants_ (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press) by Walter R. Tschinkel, who says he has written it for "professional biologists and for people still open-minded enough to be intrigued, charmed, or fascinated by the many results of biological research on fire ants."Besides, the stings aren't so bad.He cites the Pain Rating Scale of Justin O. Schmidt, a venom specialist.Bullet ants get a 4+ rating ("like walking over flaming charcoal with a three inch nail imbedded in your heel") but fire ants muster only a 1.2 ("Like walking across a shag carpet and reaching for a light switch."I think he understates!)People who are allergic to stings of insects must beware, but even thousands of stings don't do any real damage: "Inebriated persons using a fire-ant 'bed' have sustained over 5000 fire-ant stings without signs of general toxicity (other than that of alcohol)."That sort of writing is typical of the amused, light touch that Tschinkel has brought to a 700 page, three pound volume which Edward O. Wilson declares in the foreword "a masterpiece".(Wilson was responsible, in 1962, for steering Tschinkel from biochemistry and organic chemistry to his current studies.)

There is much more to the fire ant than just the sting, and it is hard to imagine that this volume has left anything out, except for all the research that there is still to do about still-mysterious details.Fire ants were imported accidentally from South America between 1933 and 1942.They moved out concentrically from Mobile, and there is a famous map of their expanding range as the years went by, but it wasn't just a simple matter of expansive growth by a species that liked the new real estate.They had help from the same vector that brought them to the United States, the humans which Tschinkel says fire ants must regard as benevolent gods.Distant foci of infestation were established "when obliging nurserymen unwittingly gave rides to hitchhiking fire ants."Fire ants would have had trouble crossing the desert, for instance, without our help, and so they got to California.There are lovely essays on the behavior of ant researchers interspersed among the more numerous and scientifically dense chapters.It is really rather astonishing all that Tschinkel and his fellows have been able to ask the ants experimentally and get them to reply.They have used remarkable techniques, such as tagging individual ants permanently with little wire belts around their waists: "Tying a wire around an ant's waist is simple, at least in principle."

Tschinkel is often confronted by people who want him to tell them how to get rid of the ants.If you have a hypersensitive member of the family, yes, it might be time for poison baits, he suggests, but otherwise he advises simply leaving them alone.After all, he says, they don't do any harm.Now, anyone who has been stung by these critters might question that, but Tschinkel provides ample data to show that there is little demonstrable harm done by fire ants, and even some good; Louisiana sugarcane farmers, for instance, recognize that fire ants go after sugarcane borers and thus improve crop yields.There have been efforts, waves of chlordane and Mirex, that humans have used to eliminate the ants, and when that failed, just to control their spread, and when that failed, there was nothing for the humans to do but give up.The Ant Wars were "a complex brew of science, politics, journalistic hyperbole, public hysteria, and legal maneuvering" and the humans lost.Fire ants will be around for at least as long as we keep making them at home, it seems, and in reading this impressive volume, it is hard not to admire the sophisticated ways they have evolved to keep themselves going.Even if you have no chance of becoming a myrmecologist yourself, you will find it hard not to admire the cleverness and hard work of the researchers devoted to them.Tschinkel's volume is a beautiful monument to fire ants and to science. ... Read more

Product Description
New from the author of the Judy Moody series -- a winsome duo makes a picture-book debut Ant was getting antsy. . . .
Only a few hours left till Cricket's costume party. "What can we be for the dress-up party?" she asked her friend Honey Bee.With a little creativity and a lot of elbow grease, Ant and Honey Bee finally make a perfect, two-things-that-go-together pair of costumes for Cricket's big party. But then -- plip, plip, plip, PLIP! -- it starts to rain, and by the time they arrive, the proud pair looks more like a matching set of soggy sad sacks. Maybe, though, if they put their heads together, the quick-thinking friends can turn their mushy mess into a smashing success. What a pair! Introducing Ant and Honey Bee -- fast friends, co-costume-conspirators, and stars of a delightful new story by author Megan McDonald and illustrator G. Brian Karas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

great fall, halloween story!
Great story for the young and school age child about working together, keep trying, invention, halloween, dress-up. Very cute pictures and a fair amount of reading on every page. Bee and ant need to come up with a costume and every year they go as a pair. This year they struggle to come up with a really cool costume. But it all works out in the end. Very nicely done.

hilarious! laugh out loud funny for parents too!
Love this book! So funny, it makes us laugh out loud, along with our son. ... Read more

Product Description
When Max's little brother, Adam, gets an ant colony for his birthday, suddenly he is a big authority on ants, and Max is determined to bring Adam down a few pegs. Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

SuperBook
I am 11 years old and I read a book called Chocolate Covered Ants. It is really funny.
The best part is when one of the boys explodes ants in the microwave. He goes to school and he asks his friends to try the chocolate covered ants. When they do that they got in trouble and they had to eat some more. I also thought it was funny when the ants get loose in the bed, and he comes screaming down the hallway.

ChoclateCoverd Ants Review
In Chocolate Covered Ants the main characters are Max and Adam. The story is about Max and Adam making a bet about chocolate covered ants.
In Chocolate Covered Ants Max, Adam's older brother, makes a bet with Adam.The bet is that Max says there are such things as chocolate covered ants, but Adam doesn't believe him, who will win?
I think the book was gross when Max ate chocolate covered ants! It was gross when Adam ate antsin his ice cream. It was also gross when Max made chocolate covered ants. If you like to read gross books read Chocolate Covered Ants.

Chocolate Covered Ants Review
Chocolate Covered Ants takes place in Max's home town in U.S.A. Most of the story takes place in Max's and Adam's home and the school. Max and Adam who are brothers make a bet that people really eat chocolate covered ants.

Chocolate Covered Ants is about Max and his brother Adam and how Adam gets ants and an ant colony. Max makes a bet with Adam that people eat chocolate covered ants. Max tricks Adam into eating chocolate covered ants and almost wins the bet.

I liked this book because it is funny. My favorite part was when Mr. Milken makes Max and Max's friend eat chocolate covered ants. Another funny part is where Adam names his ants. My second favorite part is where Max eats ants from the microwave. I really liked this book I hope you will too.

Chocolate Covered Ants Review
Chocolate Covered Ants takes place in the home and school of two brothers. The main characters are Max and Adam. The story is about Adam who does not believe people eat chocolate covered ants.
Adam has a birthday and gets an ant colony from his aunt. Max makes a bet with Adam that people eat chocolate covered ants. Then when Adam gets his ants he starts to keep Max out of his room. Max goes out to get some of his own ants. Max's friend Larry hears about the bet and tells their mom then the bet is over.
I thought Chocolate Covered Ants was a funny book becauseMax and Adam fight for no big reason. Adam puts ants in Max's bed when he is sleeping. Another funny part was when Larry said, "I have chocolate covered ants". The other reason the book was funny was when Max and Adam's mom finds out about the bet of who can eat the chocolate covered ants. If you like funny books than this is the right book for you.

Chocolate Covered Ants Review
I've never had an ant farm, but Stephen Manes writes like you have one. This story takes place somewhere in America. The main characters are Max , Adam, Mom and Larry. Max and Adam are brothers. The story is about Max and Adam making a bet with each other that they can get someone to eat chocolate covered ants.

This story goes on telling about the problems Max and Adam get into while they are both trying to win the bet.

This book made me laugh when Max made home-made ants with a chocolate bar. It was also funny when Mr. Millens told Max and Larry to eat chocolate ants in front of the whole entire class. Also, it was funnywhen Larry found the can of chocolate ants after the whole bet was done. ... Read more