I have owned pet rats for quite a long time, but never considered training them. When I got my newest rat, I ordered this book on-line with high hopes. After reading the book cover to cover I was bitterly disappointed to see that it had little information on how to train your rat to do anything interesting. This book covers every possible thing one could want to know about caring for pet rats, and for that it is a good book. But to be titled: Training Your Pet Rat, and then almost no info on training, well, I can not recommend this book to anyone interested in learning how to train you pet rat.

BUY this book BEFORE you get rats. Everything you need to know is covered in this book, for beginners. Everything from cages, bedding, toys and much more is explained in a simple and fun way. I understand how some people were disapointed in the training aspect, but honestly I think what you need to know is covered. Training is basic, how far you want to take it is all up to the amount of time you put in.

I now have my army of rats getting my mail, mowing the lawn, doing the laundry, cooking dinner and answering my email. This book is GREAT!

The only drawback being my wife left me and the folks at PETA have been eyeballing my house. Luckily, I have also attack trained my ratties in various martial arts disciplines.

Being a huge fan of Eric Carle and a kindergarten teacher, I was fairly disappointed with this book....it needs words! The only words found in the book are in two speech bubbles. At one time, these pictures were published in a Big Book that included text entitled "Will You Be My Friend?". Early readers need simple text they can follow - not just pictures.

A bit too repetitive, but I like the idea of looking for a friend.

As always, Eric Carle's books are well illustrated. This book presents illustrations that draw in any young reader to the adventure. The text is simple and understandable to the young mind. The story line serves as a useful tool to discuss issues of "same and different" with your child. However, it is not of the same caliber as Carle's other books such as the Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear...

I recommend this book as part of any child's library, but if your finances are limited, purchase the other two books mentioned.

Lots of beautiful, glossy, color pictures of mice being mice--if you don't own them before buying this book you'll want to become a mouse owner. Other than that, the content is extremely basic. The first 15 pages (without pictures, it might be 4 pages of text) are an introduction to the mouse at a very basic level. The next 15 pages covers a range of different rodents (lemmings, moles, voles) that are of little relevance to those who own or breed fancy mice. The information in the rest of the book (take this example "feed your mice well but do not overfeed") is probably useful information for anyone who has no previous experience with rodents but is at an extremely basic level. There is very little detailed information, there are information gaps (for instance, I don't believe there is anything in the book on sexing mice--or determining the difference between male and female--something any first-time owner would find to be critical information). And there is some misleading information as well (pictures of mice on pine bedding--something that is harmful for them) while the book specifically recommends "softwood" beddings (such as pine and cedar). In short, the pictures are entertaining but the information in this book is not sufficient for any new mouse owner and anyone who has owned a mouse previously will find no new information in it and some obviously wrong details.

This book should get 1 billion Stars

Should Be Ten Stars It Is So Goo

Nathan Prefer's book on General Douglas MacArthur's "hopping" campaigns in Western New Guinea in 1944 is a well-crafted and detailed account of the twin difficulties encountered by U.S. Army combat units in carrying out MacArthur's strategic directives: The appalling New Guinea jungle terrain and the highly audacious tactics and tenacity of the Imperial Japanese Army. I found Prefer's portraits of MacArthur and one of his subordinates, Lieutenant General Robert Eichelberger, very revealing. Prefer details MacArthur's penchant for regularly issuing communiques announcing the successful completion of battles while they were still being hotly contested. MacArthur is also portrayed as being largely indifferent to the physical hardships endured by U.S. Army infantrymen in New Guinea (MacArthur never visited the front lines in order to gain a feel for the combat conditions and only visited secured battlefields and islands once the fighting was "officially" over). MacArthur's subordinate, Eichelberger, is portrayed by Prefer as the consummate general - a tough, no-nonsense officer who regularly visited the front lines and also kept his soldiers' ("my lads," as Eichelberger called them) best interests at heart. Nathan Prefer also reveals that MacArthur's treatment of the Australian Army soldiers under his command was no better, despite the fact that at the outset of the New Guinea campaign in 1942 it was Australian Army militia and regular Australian Army soldiers who fought the Imperial Japanese Army on New Guinea's Kokoda Trail and eventually pushed them back over the Owen Stanley mountain range, thereby saving New Guinea and allowing MacArthur to begin his "hopping" campaigns in Western New Guinea. MacArthur's New Guinea campaign was as bloody as any campaign in the Pacific - despite MacArthur's claim that he was economical with his soldiers' lives. Prefer's excellent work pays a long-overdue tribute to the valor, courage and tenacity of the U.S. Army officers and men under MacArthur's command who fought in, and won, the New Guinea campaign.

This book isn't about MacArthur. It is about the men and the battles for dominance of the Papua New Guinean northern coastline. The author's anti-MacArthur's bias really shows through in this book and he takes pains to show that MacArthur did not contribute significantly to winning this campaign. The Marines did. The MacArthurian legend has been clearly dented here as well as in other books. I found such a stance unwarranted as clearly, another title for the book could have well been chosen.

This is a three star book if you are looking for exciting action in heraldic William Manchester prose; it is at the same time a five star military account of the New Guinea campaign as directed by General MacArthur from behind the scenes. - The author provides a good account of the military action that occured in New Guinea. He provides a division-by-division, batallion-by-batallion, company-by-company account of the American forces as well as the same sort of detailed account of the Japanese forces (the Japanese in italics, which is very helpful). This is a well written military account and sticks to the subject. The author tends to stay away from individual G.I. stories, and creates instead within the reader the feelings of the entire batallion, company, or other combat group, American or Japanese. When the author decides to stray from his account, he tends to put little "boxes" off to the side with such periferal information. Photos are good. Maps are adequate. As for being biased against MacArthur, the author criticizes MacArthur, but does not really criticize any more so than other contemporary military history authors. Prefer answers the questions you may have had of the New Guinea campaign. To be absolutely thorough, Prefer also provides an Orders of Battle section in great depth. A good readable book and good reference material.

If your child isn't already afraid of monsters, DO NOT read this book. I had a perfectly ordinary 3 year old. Then we bought this book. Now he is scared to death of going to bed at night, afraid of monsters. Once the sun goes down and it gets dark outside, the panic begins. Again, he exhibited none of this behavior before reading this book. All of the characters in this book believe in and are afraid of monsters under the bed, goblins in the closet, etc. Even the Ferocious Beast is afraid of a mouse. What this book teaches children is to be afraid... a lesson I'd never want to teach my child. Now it's too late.

Maggie is a resourceful little girl who plays in Nowhere Land with her friends Hamilton Hocks and the Ferocious Beast. Written and drawn by mother and son team Betty and Michael Paraskevas, this trio is quite charming. The friendship between Beast and Hamilton is sometimes on shaky ground, but Maggie unites them all with her affectionate diplomacy and problem solving skills.

In this story, the Beast is embarrassed to tell his friends his secret .... he is afraid of something. Maggie and Hamilton run down a list of things that scare them -- ghosts, goblins, aliens, sea monsters, etc. -- and each time they must admit that they have never actually seen one of these creatures. Finally the Beast reveals that he is afraid of mice, which amuses his two companions until he retorts, "At least I've seen one. And there's one next to you right now." In the next frame, Hamilton and Maggie are screeching and running around as the friendly little mouse scampers off, and this always gets our toddler laughing. While I've had the same experience as another reviewer, of having my child frightened by a book or show meant to ward off fear, we did not have that experience with this book. It is funny and enjoyable.

The author uses a vocabulary surprisingly and pleasantly varied for this age-group. The end pages feature a map of Nowhere Land and the storybook illustrations are bright and colorful. This is a fun read for preschoolers and young children (and their caregivers).

What I like best about the book is that it centers on helping children get over fears by showing them that it's only in their minds, and they can choose to alter the feeling into, surprisingly, nothing. It takes a special writer and illustrator to be to do that on a child's level. What I love about children's books is that they are simple, yet very profound--less is more, and Betty and Mickeys' book is a fine example of that.

This book provides some info. on chins but after reading I was disappointed with how some parts of the book were so false. Chinchillas are not nearly as neurotic as what the author states. They arn't as alarmed by other household animals either. I currently have six chinchillas, four of which were bred recently. My chins live right next to my canary's and their singing doesn't disturb the chins sleeping habit at all! Yes, chins are semidemosticated but they are not nearly as untame as what the author states. I know this for a fact because after several months of training on a rodent harness my Chile can travel anywhere with me. Of course you can't walk him like a dog but every time I put the harness on him he dosen't figit at all, and after awhile of getting use to being outside he has come to enjoy our little outings. If anyone is thinking of buying this book, you should probably do a bit more shopping, you should also talk to pet store owners, vets, or any one with a chin. to get a first hand telling of what life with a chin. is really like, which for me has been a wonderful experience!

I shuddered when I saw the back cover with the picture of the chinchilla eating corn. According to the breeder from whom I bought our chinchilla, CORN CAN CAUSE FATAL BLOATING IN CHINCHILLAS. I even saw the painful effects of corn on a female chinchilla (she had to be euthenized). Most of the information in the book is solid, but the book lost credibility with me on this issue.

This book caught my eye at the pet store I work at. Having kept Chinchillas myself, I was very impressed with how thorough yet short the book is. The book is extremely accurate and detailed with regard to husbandry and makes potential keepers examine their ablities to keep such a beast. I have noticed that many people believe the book to be pessimistic, but in reality that makes the chin keeping experience more magical. The author, unlike many, puts all of the cards on the table and leaves the chinchilla owner with very few suprises. In animal keeping, suprises are not always great. Chinchillas can be difficult pets to keep, but the author, in the spirit of all honesty shows both the good and bad of chin keeping. In the many, many years that I have kept exotic animals and chinchillas this is by far the best book that I have found. I truly wish that this book had been available to me the day I first brought my little boy Cheech home, it would have definately made our life together less hectic and allowed me better to understand his needs and strange, strange habits. This is a must have for anyone who is considering a chinchilla as a companion, already keeps one or who just wants to know a little more about the crazy creatures.

This is a cute book with a math lesson intertwined, but not much of a plot. We being with 20 guinea pigs on a boat, ten fall off and the math problem of (20-10) is in large type across the page, we turn the page to discover the answer of 10. We then continue to subtract one at a time until there are no more guinea pigs left. The problems are written on one 2-page spread, while the answers on the next leaving time for children to speculate and figure out the answer. The numbers are written large and clearly with the characters even interacting with them. The correct number of guinea pigs is also present and it is evident how many, and which one is being subtraction.

This book has served me well as a good introduction to subtraction in my kindergarten class. I would recommend it for that purpose and for children to peruse on their own, but it is not meant for story-time.

Why 3 stars?: The book serves its purpose well and the drawings are cute and entertaining. However, the minus and equal signs can be hard to see and the page design makes the story discontinuous.

My 3 year old son loves books, and this one is a favorite. He loves the names of all the characters, and enjoys talking about their antics as they leave the scene one by one. This is a book that has a lot of activity, and it presents a pretty easily grasped concept of subtraction. My son isn't quite ready for math yet, but the exposure is great. I can't imagine why a child wouldn't have fun with this one.

This book is the best I've found for introducing your child to subtraction without letting him know you're teaching him something. (If you have a child who thinks he knows it all or thinks school is where you learn and home is where you play, this is very important.) The book is especially good for helping a child see that you can subtract by counting back, not just by taking some away and then counting to see how many are left, which takes longer. And besides that, the illustrations are whimsical and colorful. My daughters find the pictures very endearing and like the guinea pigs' names. Having already read "One Guinea Pig Is Not Enough," they enjoyed seeing further adventures of the mischievous guinea pigs in this book.

I bought this book thinking that I'd learn something new, but was very disapointed. The author gives you some info about the topics he's interested in, but fails to give you info about other things. For example, he goes on and on about building your own cages ect., but tells you very little about guinea pig breeding in the chapter he titled "Practical Breeding". Like someone else mentioned, he did right "hamster" instead of guinea pig at one part, which realy bothered me! He also has a lot of unrelated pictures and sometimes put the same picture twice! There are very nice pictures but most of them were of the same breeds (or same guinea pigs), which isn't helpful for those who want to learn about the many different guinea pig breeds. I think this is a very incomplete book. I'm new to guinea pigs, but this book told me very little I hadn't or couldn't have found out about online. I recommend basic reaserch or buying a different book if you want to find out about all aspects of cavies [guinea pigs]. If you still want to buy this book, you can buy mine because I'm going to sell it.

For a book with an ASPCA seal of approval, I was very disappointed. The pictures showed guinea pigs on wire bottom cages (very back for their little feet), recommended cedar shavings (another no no) and on pg38 captioned a picture of a guinea pig "The more unique the color variety of your hamster..." It advised housing mutliple cavies in separate cages (this is a herd animal...please) Returned the book in 24 hours. Baron's is a better choice any day.

This book is great I found most of my information with it.It tells you every thing you need to know about raiseing a Guinea Pig.I recommend it to anyone who wants to own a Guinea Pig.

Too little informaton. Does not discuss any type of information on guinea pig diseass, how to bath your pig, or buying the perfect cage. A quick read, not worth the price I paid for it.

Those of you who want to learn about guinea pigs and how to care for them in detail, I'm afraid that this book is not suitable for you. The contents are too brief. Despite that, the pictures are very clear (and there are lots of them!) I feel that this book will be perfect for young children who are learning to care for their cavies as the language is simple to understand.

All About Your Guinea Pig is an excellent resource for the new Guinea Pig Owner. The information on caring for your new pet is clear and concise. There are excellent Photos on sexing your Guinea Pig. This Resource covers care and feeding, breeds, the sex of your Guinea Pig and much more

I'm not normally this picky about kids' books, but this book rubbed me the wrong way. First of all, this is a book for toddlers/pre-schoolers, so what's up with Lola's parents leaving her with a babysitter who's not even in the house? Not to mention a babysitter that Lola doesn't seem to like much. Also, I know lots of people sleep w/ their kids, but we don't. I don't like the ending where Lola climbs in bed with her parents. Our son gets plenty of cuddling during the day; I really don't want him picking up the idea that he should try sleeping with us (we've tried it -- he takes up 2/3 of a king-sized bed!). But, my son loved Lola (especially the part where she sleeps upside down), so I edited the book to make it acceptable. I ripped out the last few pages, and covered over the offensive parts of the text with labels where I wrote my own, more acceptable text. The drawings are really great, I'll give the book that. You'll notice I didn't complain about my son getting the idea to make a mess of the house while building a cuddle island...that's because he already knows that trick. :-)

Only being familiar with this book and Norac's "I Love You This Much", Lola is a creative, loving hampster with a wonderfully infectious personality. I highly recommend the story for all parents and children to share. The "Cuddle Island" also provides a rainly afternoon activity for my own child and his playmates. UNFORTUNATELY, I was gravely DISTURBED upon seeing the illustration of the cartoon character near the beginning of the book. The character depicted in this illustration appears to be evil and holding a GUN. I'm sure Mr. Dubois could have drawn something else to show the lack of "cuddle" in his cartoon character. I find myself skipping the page when I get to it so my son does not see it. With the amount of tragedy surrounding guns in these times, it is a tragedy in itself to see a gun in the middle of a BEAUTIFULLY CREATIVE children's book. I would love to rate this book with 5+ stars, but find myself ethically unable.

If hamsters stood on their heads they would look just like Lola does in this book! Yes, this book is too cute to live, but the illustrations are great, and "Cuddle Island" is a pretty conceptual idea for a toddler hamster to create. Very imaginative. I plan using it for a Valentine's Day gift. If you love over-the-top lovey-dovey hamster families, this is definitely one to add to your collection. You won't want to leave your hamsters alone in the house after reading this book though--it would break your heart.