Product Description
The text of this Norton Critical Edition isbased, with typesetting errors corrected, on the first U.S. edition (1876), the mostauthoritative of the editions published in Twain’s lifetime.“Backgrounds and Contexts”provides students with the standard sourcematerials often cited by critics—Twain’s stories of Good and Bad Boys, his Boy’s Manuscript, hiscorrespondence with William Dean Howells, andhis 1870 letter to Will Bowen. This section also includes lesser-known but valuable contextualmaterials, among them Twain’s journalisticdescription of school exercise and thediscussion of Perry Davis’ Pain Killer and other nineteenth-century nostrums.

“Criticism”includes interpretations by William DeanHowells, Hamlin L. Hill, Judith Fetterley, Alan Gribben, Glenn Hendler, Carter Revard, and Susan R. Gannon.

A Chronology and SelectedBibliography are also included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (380)

My Thoughts on Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is about Tom sawyer and his best friend, Huckleberry Finn's adventures. The setting in this book takes place in various places including caves, school, church, and the graveyard. The time period is in the early 1800's. The protagonists are tom sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Injun Joe and Muff are the antagonists. The major plot of this book was that he saw Injun Joe kill the doctor while they were grave robbing. The rising action of this book was when they went into the mansion, and go to the graveyard. The climax to me was when they witness the murder,go through the cave, and they find Joe.

The style of this book was full of adventure and a lot of exciting moments. The point of view was in 3rd Person. The painting of the fence was one of my favorite parts of this book. The theme of this book to me is to see what the perspective on school, feelings, imagination, adventure, and life in the eyes of a young teen. I thought this book was pretty likable and would rate it 3 stars. Me being a fan of science fiction this was somewhat boring. I really like the whole fairytale idea. This book is definitely worth reading though.

Tom Sawyer Hear It Read IT
My son loved the story and especially enjoys reading along with the CD.I like the CD component as it increases reading speed over time.We try to puchase as many read alongs as possible as we are often on the road. Our family enjoys good literature and it is a great way to introduce children to classics prior to high school where they will be reading unabridged versions of these stories on their own!

read
Book was good shipping was not great paid extra and did not come any faster

Funny and enjoyable
Mark Twain sure knows how to write funny stories - and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is filled with them.My main criticism with the book is that there is no cohesive story.Instead there are several stories that are not connected to each other at all.The non-connected stories are funny, but there is no relation between them.It isn't until the book reaches the end where Twain begins to craft a cohesive storyline.It's definitely filled with some hilarious moments and great characters (Tom, Aunt Polly, and Huck), but as a whole I wouldn't classify this as a classic work of literature.For that you would have to read Twain's masterpiece "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

Scam
I was planning a trip with my 5 children and we were excited to listen to the tapes.
It was a disaster. Some of the tapes were broken and others were taped over with pop music.
I could not wait to throw them away.
I will never buy used from Amazan again. ... Read more

Product Description
The art of creating animation is the ability to generate believable characters that have emotion and life. Regardless of your medium good animation comes from the application of solid fundamentals and an extensive body of knowledge. Inspired 3D Character Animation provides you with a comprehensive set of processes and procedures to animating characters in the digital environment. By taking a close look at the day to day activities and practices of veteran film, commercial, and game animators, readers are provided with a look into the processes necessary to implement these ideas into the world of 3D computer graphics software. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Animation book
I like housing works bookstore cafe, it's beautiful. They were very quick with me. The send was fantastic, I recommend them.

Better than other reviews here would lead you to believe ...
I'm a bit surprised at the bad rap this book has gotten in earlier user reviews.Suggesting to "just read the manual that came with the software" is preposterous -- these comments are often made by people who think that knowing how to set keyframes in a piece of software makes them GOOD animators, and nothing could be further from the truth.A thorough understanding of how the body moves, how the mind thinks, how external forces affect the body, and other sometimes slippery subjects are critical aspects of the good animator's toolset.

While there are no earth-shattering revelations in this book (how many could there be when the animation industry is over 90 years old), the topics discussed in these pages, often illustrated with short exercises, make a good launching pad for people wanting to go from someone who knows how to make a character move, to someone who knows how to make a character come alive.

The book does a good job of relating traditional animation concepts to the 3D medium, and several of the interviews are enlightening.As a college animation instructor and professional computer animator, I find satisfaction in opening this book in my classroom to point out that artists from celebrated studios such as Industrial Light & Magic and Sony Pictures Imageworks are saying the same things that I am telling my students.My Advanced 3D Animation students spend several weeks reading chapters from this book and applying the information through mini-assignments, which I hope lead them to realize all that they must consider in bringing a character to life.This book is not designed to teach something new to the computer animation veteran -- instead, it fulfills its purpose of showing intermediate to advanced level students of animation a path that they need to take in becoming successful character animators.

While the price of this book is a bit steep, there are several pieces of advice that should be in any character animator's mantra.The information can lead to a big payoff if you really absorb it.

Great Reference for character animation in 3D
I bought both Inspired 3D Character Setup and 3D Character Animation books 2 years ago now, and I still refer to them on a regular basis - to the point that they are literally falling apart. I am doing post-graduate studies in 3D animation and specifically I am focusing on traditional 2D skills and how they can be utilised and/or adapted in the 3D workspace. For me, this book has been an invaluable source of reference, and it reminds me that I really must keep an open mind about animation production methods and procedures and encourage and accept helpful criticism from my peers - otherwise you get stuck in your ways and don't grow. I especially enjoy the interviews, because I really like to hear first-hand industry experience from experts, but I must say that ALL of the content has been relevant and helpful to me.
One criticism that I have read about the inspired series is that the pages are too wide, but I actually like them like this because the book will stay open on the desk so that you don't have to hold the pages down with something.
Yes, I think I would prefer that a CD was provided with the book, and yes, I think it was a bit expensive, but I definitely got plenty of practical, helpful advice from it - much more than many other books which are supposedly addressing 3D character animation.

A few tips that are ok but overall worse 3d book i've read
This is probably the worse 3d book i've ever read. It tries to meld in traditional 2d animation and 3d together but it's attempt fails. The author admits to not really relating figure drawing to his line of work while all the interviews with the animators swear by it. Gesture drawing the figure is the primary fundamentals of animation according to the best animation schools, best 3d studios, and best animators in the industry. I do however respect the artist for being a stop motion animator. Also the tutorials are too concise. If you're not too familiar with the Maya interface and langauge then you'll be very frustrated. The interviews are so lame where the author leads into Q&A and answering his own questions and fulfilling his own answers.

I'm glad i checked mine out at the library. Save your money and look for a Maya book with better reviews.

Too pricy for the information
This book is definitely got a few good articles, but the price makes it absolutely overrated and not worth. ... Read more

Product Description
This book investigates the causes and consequences of congressional attacks on the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the extent of public support for judicial independence constitutes the practical limit of judicial independence. First, the book presents a historical overview of Court-curbing proposals in Congress. Then, building on interviews with Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, and judicial and legislative staffers, as well as existing research, the book theorizes that congressional attacks are driven by public discontent with the Court. From this theoretical model, predictions are derived about the decision to engage in Court-curbing and judicial responsiveness to Court-curbing activity in Congress. The Limits of Judicial Independence draws on illustrative archival evidence, systematic analysis of an original dataset of Court-curbing proposals introduced in Congress from 1877 onward, and judicial decisions. This evidence demonstrates that Court-curbing is driven primarily by public opposition to the Court, and that the Court responds to those proposals by engaging in self-restraint and moderating its decisions. ... Read more

Product Description
Not nostalgia transports us here, but the sweet pulse of "vanished ephemerae", love of the Voyage, the illumination, and "throbbing rituals" of a life lived always inside poetry. Tom Clark's prodigious archive of memory trembles on the edge of a teetering universe, calls us back toward the imagination of Reverdy, Vallejo, Ungaretti as witness to the power and thrust and ethos of language. "The universe is strange, the universe is dangerous, the universe doesn't answer the phone." Indeed. But Clark does answer here for all us dreamers. -Anne Waldman I read At the Fair driving through the vertiginous rock castles of Utah on the way to Moab, and it hit me like a gong in perfect synch with the incredible landscape. Memory, time, and the suffering of puny humans who resonate nonetheless with beauty, are indelible in this work; it is majestic, profound, and smart. For a language-user that's about the utmost. You can read this in a cave and you'll know grandeur. -Andrei Codrescu ... Read more