Critical-Care Books

Full of questions and review that will help pass the CEN. I used only this book and passed the exam.

Full of questions and review that will help pass the CEN. I used only this book and passed the exam.

I've been reading Trollope's works, and coming across the Three Clerks, thought it might be as interesting and as exciting as the novels I had already read. Not so. Generally, Trollope takes his time at the beginning of his books, setting up characters, situations, locations -- so for about one hundred pages or less, you have a rather slow-paced, dull introduction. Then the suspense tends to emerge and the books become difficult to put down until the very satisfying (in most cases) ending. However, The Three Clerks lacks suspense. Partly, this is due to Trollope's negligence in fleshing out his characters; otherwise, it is the result of concentrating on his exposition on the civil service and less on his characters and their private situations. The book becomes Dickensian in some respects, and Dickens isn't exactly known for clarity or excitement. There being no suspense about the characters, and in fact no great interest in any of them, the book is more of an endurance test to read than a pleasure.

One problem could be that Trollope tries to handle too many characters. The Three Clerks of the title are Harry Norman, his best friend and eventually worst enemy Alaric Tudor (who steals his promotion and then his lady-love), and Alaric's cousin, the dissipated and indebted Charley Tudor. Of these young men, Harry Norman in his innocence, having much to learn about the ways of men, women and the world, would have been the most interesting to pursue, but Trollope concentrates on Alaric and his ambitions which eventually get him into a courtroom and jail -- though with a surprisingly light sentence for a man who swindles a client's fortune. The young men are matched to three young women, the Woodward sisters. Gertrude, the eldest, is cold-hearted and ambitious, and though Harry Norman loves her greatly, makes a heartless but intellectual decision to unite herself with Alaric, whose ambition she admires. She pays the price for this, but she does so in the typical female role, always viewing her husband as something near to a god, never blaming him for his failings and his crimes, and standing by her man through the trials that will follow for her and her children. Gertrude, like Alaric, gets her comeuppance, but she is also symbolic of the dependent woman of her time and often of our times, sticking to a man through all insult because the world has convinced her that not only can she not stand on her own, but she deserves no better than to be the support of a man whose ethics and behaviors are questionable. Linda, Gertrude's younger sister, who is loved and romanced but then dumped by Alaric, who cold-heartedly and ambitiously wants the oldest daughter rather than the one he professes to love, is like Harry Norman an interesting character who should have been explored but who gets little mention in the pages of the book. She is superceded by her baby sister, Katie, who falls for the useless rogue Charley and thus falls into an hysterical wasting-away that is so annoying that you almost wish . . . Well, never mind what you wish, but all six of these characters are dissatisfying and foolish, victims of their era and their stations in life. Add to that, we have Mrs. Woodward, mother to the three women, who is very nice but ineffectual and though having the opportunity to succeed, succumbs to being helpless without a man to take care of her. She is of no benefit to her daughters and actually far too negligent in her mothering of them, leading to the disasters and potential disasters in the book. Lesser characters include Undecimus Scott, the villian who leads Alaric astray, who is not as evil as he is expected to be but merely manipulative and conniving, essentially a bore. There is also Uncle Bat, a retired sea captain who makes a home with the Woodwards and generally drinks himself into a stupor. Or members of the civil service who both support or compete with Harry and Alaric in their rise in their careers. Everything ends well for Harry, at least, and Linda -- two good people get their just reward. Charley Tudor turns into a Trollope himself, writing stories for the literary magazines of his day, although the author reproduces his stories within the context of the book, which introduces just another method of dulling the pace and the action of the novel itself. Plenty of pages here to skim or skip, the book could have been half the size but still have retained the essence of the story -- on the other hand, if the author had only developed his characters and followed the important ones more closely, we could have had a finer novel of psychological and moral import.

Trollope covers broad range of life in this wonderfully amusing tale of three very diverse clerks and the career paths they take in Victorian England. He depicts them with depth and sympathy and you can't help feeling sorry for the plights their own follies bring upon them. Trollope knew the life he wrote about from his own eventful and long remembered career as a postal worker! Romance and vivid scene painting combine with social comentary to make Three Clerks a classic worth reading for pleasure as well as for the cultural history education it offers.

I don't completely agree that our kids "can't think," but I do think American culture has come to have an increasingly chaotic fabric and the author raises one very substantial point in that regard: the way we read affects the way we think about the material we are reading. The importance of reading is not just some archaic value, it sets the tone for education in general.

The way we engage written material does seem to me to be central to the kinds of questions we ask, and consequently the way we understand the material. When I browse a tree of documents on a website, I often seem to come away with a very different understanding of the content than when I read the same material in a book. Some of this may just be technological (taking margin notes is still difficult without a book, etc.). I suspect that there may be more to it, because the way we tend to use the web medium makes attention-grabbing more important than the organization of the material. We tend to organize web pages to keep our limited attention span engaged rather than to engage deep thinking about the material.

What we lose isn't obvious, because we tend to think of learning solely in terms of lists of facts. However deep thinking requires that we more actively engage the material, ask questions, follow up, criticize the arguments, and so on.

If you have benefitted as much from reading as I have, you will have no trouble finding the author's view congenial in its stress on reading for understanding and interpretation, and also disturbing in its implications for the way we are changing the way we read. At the very least, this book is itself very engaging and well-written and serves as a good example of why we should be taking the fundamentals and concepts of reading very seriously as new technologies begin to augment and replace it.

First impression--this guy loves life and can't wait to squeeze the juice out of every thought in each of the many books that he consumes. This book lacks focus and seems to cover a wide range of subjects all loosely under the umbrella of "reading education." I thought it was ironic that his editor told him to add more on the history of educational reform@mostly in the 20th century, because I would have thought the editor's job would have been to focus--not add more. It's like Kline is a renaissance man who can speak on any subject and relate a reading issue to any other subject in human culture. That said, I got a lot of good ideas from this book. I loved his chapter on the hunt for who authored Shakespeare's works. I even dreamed about who Shakespeare was the night after I read it. But my favorite part was his "phoneme" (different from phonics) system of learning to read. Wow! That gave me clarity on what is truly important in teaching early reading. I wish this book had come with his entire reading program!

not sure if these will help. Expected smoother cards. They look kind of cheap.

This is a good introductory text to paediatric emergency medicine. It has a very practical approach to assessing problems.The book does not cover paediatric basic or advanced life support.However, it has good coverage of other paediatric presentations.

This book is easy to follow and understand when it comes to attempting to understand the dynamics of the the critically ill patient. It presents information in an easy to read way makes you want to keep reading further.

Media attention to the fate of animals during disasters has increased considerably in recent years with more people showing an interest in helping with the animals. The question is, how should we help? This book addresses that question and more. It is an exceptional reference book, first for its compilation of information on animal management but also for its broad coverage of disasters in general and its presentation of the emergency management system. The 200 photographs, illustrations, and tables bring a wealth of objective information and emotional tone to the subject. Written for emergency management, animal care professionals, and volunteers, this book takes a transdisciplinary approach. The chapter, "Myths and Realities" clears away misguided notions about what happens to animals, preparing the reader for practical recommendations based on experience and systematic studies. From that point, the content covers the spectrum of disaster management: types of disasters, the consequences for animals, structure and function of emergency management, preventive measures, developing a response plan, animal evacuation, and management of animals and their owners during large-scale disasters. The emphasis is on preparation and protection rather than the overly romanticized and often less effective rescue.

If hurricanes or earthquakes are uncommon where you live, you may be thinking that preparing for animal care is unnecessary. On a wintry morning in March 1996, 1700 residents of Weyauwega, WI were evacuated when a train derailed and 19 propane tank cars caught fire. Hundreds of pets were left behind because owners didn't think they would be gone long. The evacuation lasted 18 days. Lack of an emergency plan incorporating animals resulted in a humanitarian and public information nightmare. Pet owners and humane groups begged and physically threatened emerency officials regarding pet rescue efforts. Much of this could have been avoided with basic preparation. You can do it. This book will help you.

A good book but it would be nice if there was a self test at the end of each section. Not happy with the method of placing a suspected spinal casualty on the board. If the board was placed one third above the head it would allow the casualty to be slide up and into the middle, instead of pushing the casualty across the board and compromising the spine.

Dahlberg, Moss and Pence have written this scholarly book to call attention to a crisis of thought in early childhood education. The book is meant to provoke critical thinking of all we know about early childhood education and to rally concerned citizens--parents, educators, policitians and community--to critical discussion.

This book explores early childhood philosophies, constructivist thinking, and cites early childhood "experiments" such as Reggio Emilia and the Stockholm Project. It challenges and inspires on a global level.

I read this book first as a graduate school text, then again as a refresher for my own views on early childhood education. It will be read again and again!

Great reference book. I bought it for helping me ,in learning how to scrub in open heart surgery. Nothing beats hands on and repetion, I was scrubing on my on after one month.