This is clearly one of the best Peanuts collections aout there. Not only does it provide many of the best works of the great one Charles M. Schulz, but it also provides some collections of the seldom seen forerunner of Peanuts "Lil' Folks" from the late 1940s, which are quite funny aside form the historical interest.

Like one of the other posters, I was introduced to this book when my 4th grade teacher (Mrs. Evelyn Smith, thank you wherever you are) would read a chapter apiece to us every day after lunch. We were awed into suspence, wondering if poor old Ribsy would ever find his way home. So I later bought the book and occasionally read it to my nephews and nieces nearly 30 years later. If you want your kids to love reading, I suggest that you buy this, read a chapter a night before bedtime, and soon they will want to read it themselves to find out what hapened next. May God Bless the memory of Bevery Cleary.

This is a very good early collection of stories done in the Gullah vernacular commonly found among Blacks in the Charleston SC-Savannah Ga. area. However, Gonzales did his job a bit too well in that his phonetic recitations of these tales are almost indecipherable to those not famimiar with the dialect. Folklorists may also be interested to know that some of these tales make reappearances in Joel Chandler Harris' "Uncle Remus" tales (which came out at around the same time, so it may be the other way around) and some forty years later in the collections of the Black folklorist Zora Neale Hurston. But either way, if you have the patience, give it a try. BUT BE WARNED-Once you get the flow of the dialougue, these stories were written from a very patronizing point of view in the early 1900s and the politically correct may want to take some heart medicine before reading this.

This movie is about as weak and unfunny as they come. Minime's character is brought to new lows (sorry, no pun intended) and does for midgets what "Birth of a Nation" did for Blacks. Filled with fourth-grade bathroom humor, unfunny gags, the nonacting of Beyonce (but hey, her scenes work with the sound down). Nah. The second Austin Powers film was not bad and the crude humor was at least mildly amusing. This time around, the crude humor is just crude!

The release of this book, which is a well-documented look at the interesting relationship between Martin Luther King and American Jews, is quite timely and appropriate. In these early days of the millennium, Black-Jewish relationships seem to currently be on the mend from the low points of the 1990s, and books like this may help in the recovery process. Also quite well written with some little known information and rarely-read speechs by MLK on Black-Jewish realtions.

This book is a good collection of Harris, Uncle Remus tales. Some of the posters have gone into the history of these tales, so no need to repeat that here. However, these tales are best taken in small doses, as Chandler's "Negro dialect" (as it was known at the time) is a bit much on the eyes of the modern reader (I'm an African-American from South Carolina myself and I had a lot of trouble trying to decipher some of this). But the illustrations are quite fitting and wonderful. So if you have a lot of patience and love some good stories, go for it.

This originally came out in the late 80s and could be looked upon as a typical fan bio for younger readers, but it's a tad more than that. It's a pretty good documentation of the early days of rap and Run-DMC's often overlooked role in literally bringing rap back from the dead, gaining fame as they did during an early low point in the genre in 1983. For those of us who were around during that period, this book will bring back good memories. For others, it's a good education.

The liner notes are an excellent look into the story of Joseph Saddler/Grandmaster Flash as well as that of the early days of rap music. It also pulls no punches as to the reasons for Flash's decline. But on the whole, this Cd's actual music collection is weak. Yes, it has some of his scratching techniques and features a few interesting interviews with some popuar New York street jams of the late 70s in the background. But these tunes featured in the mix are late 70s technopop that could easily be found elsewhere. There are two tantalizing snippets of Flash performing live at some street jams in 1979 and 1982, but these are all too brief, lasting for a few seconds apiece after fascinating starts. Perhaps a whole CD of one of Flash's live shows from this period (a'la the Cold Crush Bros. "Live in 82" or "Battle with the Fantastic Five") might be a better idea.

it is difficult to see how PP&M's tunes could not bring a smile to anyone's face (well, aside from the brutal parody "I Dig Rock and Roll Music"-folk's equivalent to rap music's "diss" records). Listen to "Leaving On a Jet Plane" (where the title of this review comes from), "500 Miles," "If I Had a Hammer," and my childhood favorite "Puff The Magic Dragon" and you are almost gurantted to feel warm all over with their sweet and gentle harmonies. So in case of the blues, listen to this CD and kiss your psychologist goodbye!

it is difficult to see how PP&M's tunes could not bring a smile to anyone's face (well, aside from the brutal parody "I Dig Rock and Roll Music"-folk's equivalent to rap music's "diss" records). Listen to "Leaving On a Jet Plane" (where the title of this review comes from), "500 Miles," "If I Had a Hammer," and my childhood favorite "Puff The Magic Dragon" and you are almost gurantted to feel warm all over with their sweet and gentle harmonies. So in case of the blues, listen to this CD and kiss your psychologist goodbye!