gear

Gears! Gears! Gears!��� Beginner's Building Set
$29.95
I gave this to my 3-year old grandson for his birthday. He played with it for over an hour and has since, according to his mom, continued to be fascinated with it. I recommend that future customers read reviews and follow the advice that the Beginner's Set is the best for children under 5 years. My grandson is not yet able to grasp the building capabilities of this toy, but enjoys stacking the gears like Legos, and spinning them by hand on their base. His mom is thrilled that other sets can be bought to add as he grows (I'm already thinking about the spinning monkeys for Christmas!)
Super toy! Wish it came with more than one handle to spin the gears.

Quercetti Georello Kaleido Gears, 55 pieces
$24.99
Buyer beware - the item pictured is for an older 52 piece version, NOT the 55 piece version which is being sold here through Amazon. Personally, I find the newer version much less attractive and as such I am returning the item.

Learning Resources Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin' Monkeys
$44.99
I bought this for my 4 year old who loves gears very much. We planned to read the instruction together and build it together. Then we found out right away that it is impossible for him to put together or take apart any "tree trunk" because you need to have a lot of muscle to do so. Sometimes I found it hard myself. He can put gears on once the frame work is set up. And he seems to enjoy spinning the gears. But if you plan to buy your kid a toy and hope he will go away and build it, forget it. This is not the one. Buy lego instead.

People of the Nightland (North America's Forgotten Past)
$7.99
I heartily recommend these books subject to the following caveats.

Gear, man and wife, like J. K. Rowling, have succeeded admirably in creating an alternate universe and inhabiting it with very complex and interesting people. Unlike Rowling the Gears represent their literary universe as not only reasonable but perhaps a likely representation of life as it existed on the North American continent in ages past. In large, especially in details of culture, reconstruction of social relations, interpretation of climatic and geologic effects, etc. they have done a fine job. In a couple of areas they overstep reasonable limits but always maintain their narrative excellence.

In the Gears' cosmology, men and spirits inhabit the universe and there is significant inter-penetration between the two. Rowling treats magic as fantasy. The Gears treat it as a fact of life. If the story lines had confined themselves to how the ancient Native Americans thought in terms of spiritual beings, how they attributed natural phenomena to their moods and actions, and how they sought to placate or enlist them, there would be no room for criticism. No one doubts the spiritualism of the ancient tribes. The problem, at least for me, was that these works do not stop there. In these stories, the spirits live, show themselves and interact with, enlist and use, the characters in the story. They are not portrayed as fantasy, i.e. Lord of the Rings, but as possible representations of actual historical events.

Further, the characters and tribes of this book are essentially modern in their humanity. That is not to say that ancient peoples were sub-human or that they did not inherently face life with the same emotions, the same wonder, the same fear, etc. as we. However, it is one thing to be inherently human in potential, and another to have that potential realized. In these books the people converse in abstract terms and at deep levels with a bountiful and complete vocabulary at their disposal. It is difficult to believe that an ancient pre-literary, pre-historic people could have a conversation of such complexity and subtlety as do the characters in this story.

Still the books grab the reader's attention and the plot line compels interest. We enter into a world where the god Raven Hunter is in competition with his brother Wolf Dreamer and the sphere of their conflict is the circumstance and life of the people. Of the two books I have read, each is built on this central theme and each works out its progress under a sense of deterministic ultimacy. The gods will have their way though men and women play their parts. Good requires evil to be in balance. Torture has its place and its necessity though not to be considered as a positive good. It is simply the way things are.

All this being said, these stories are well worth reading. The detail and representation of ancient cultures and artifacts are always delighting the reader and the story line... well, .... it's the stuff of legends.