Lisa Trumbauer

One of my favorite visual guides to one of my favorite creatures. This book is clearly targeted for younger audiences wrapped by Wizards of the Coast to enhance D&D content instead of constituting as vampire literature. However, it does make a contribution to the vampire scene given the D&D has some original takes on the vampire while keeping much of the commonly accepted mythology intact. This book and me go a long way back and have history together. Serves as a moderately fun and quick show more introduction to vampires and their roles in the D&D universe- so don't expect anything historically accurate. It can be enjoyed by those who do not roleplay the game (like myself) and appreciated for what it is on its own. The art is excellent and has charming text to accompany it. It discusses vampire culture and practices, vampiric lifestyles, Strahd (D&D's Dracula), and other creatures like vampire dragons and blood fiends.It presents itself as a friendly travel companion instead of a colorless factual dictionary. show less

Another fantastic installment in the Practical guide series printed by the Wizards of the Coast as supplementary material for D&D players. These books have incredible art and entertaining facts and instructionals regarding these dragons. It's reminiscent of a pet ownership book and makes entering into and immersing with the lore easier. It'll get you thinking about what kind of dragon would suit you and perhaps you can even write your own story about it. This was a superb follow up to the show more widely popular 'Practical Guide to Dragons' that released before it. I don't play D&D but this book is a great fit into any dragon lover's library. show less

The best book in the Practical guide series printed by the Wizards of the Coast as supplementary material for D&D players. I remember picking this up in WalMart whenever they sold those books there back in HS. It covers the main dragons of the Chromatic (Evil) and Metallic (Benevolent) alignment. These books have incredible art and entertaining facts, stats and trivia regarding these dragons, like language, favorite treasures and even diagrams of their lair's structure. It allows one to show more immerse themselves in the lore quite easily. I don't play D&D but this book is a great fit into any dragon lover's library.

I also own the Vampire and Dragon Riding guide too! You can visit my reviews for my thoughts on those! show less

Why we measure is a fantastic book for emergent level readers that can be used in a guided reading setting. It is a non-fiction text that opens students up to the concept of measuring. It shows them where and how to measure certain items they see in their everyday lives. This book would be great for K-2 students as well as English language learners. I used this book on my second grade ESL student and the book brought up some fantastic conversation about what it means to measure something and show more why we measure certain items. The book has great large images that students can use as picture cues when they find themselves stuck on new vocabulary. I would not recommend using this book past second grade unless the learner is new to English. show less