Rating: 
Summary: Where's the chapter on gambling?
Review: I was looking for some Victorian essays on the virtues of gambling but there is not a word about this topic in Mr. Bennett's book. How am I going to teach my kids that gambling is good, holesome, God-approved fun if it's not in this book? I think the next version needs to contain a whole chapter dedicated to gambling. I know that Mr. Bennett is doing some serious research in this area anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointed
Review: Bennett really blew it with this book. Like him, I'm a hard-core gambler, and I came to this book expecting to get his thoughts, tips, tricks and scams for beating the house. Instead, he preeches on and on about morals and living a conservative family-oriented life. Where's the Bennett who gets into a Shy for 20 grand, pushes three or four times on the flats, then breaks the bank on a sweet pastpost parlay? Where's the Bennett who, after 78 straight hours of slotjockeying on quater pulls, would still have the energy to take three hookers up to his posh comped Atlantic City suite? What happened to you, Bill Bennett?
Rating: 
Summary: Very good-Great for ANYONE
Review: I thought that The Book of Virtues was extremely interesting, with a wide collection of moral stories that are good for all ages. Sources for the entries come from the Bible, Plato, Shakespere, Martin Luther King, and even fables. This book fascinates me, and I discover new things in it ever day. The morals are fantastic, and make me want to be a better person.
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Summary: A breath of fresh air in literature for the whole family
Review: This interesting book is a brilliant concoction of poems and writings that illustrate virtues and makes for great wholesome reading. Virtues such as self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship, work, courage, perserverance, honest, loyalty and faith come alive through narrative after narrative. It is excellent for character-building and will appeal to the whole family.
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Summary: More than Chicken Soup for the Human Soul
Review: One of my proudest moments regarding the release of my initial mystery novel occurred when I stepped into my neighborhood bookstore and found my book displayed on an endcap right inside the front door next to William Bennett's BOOK OF VIRTUES. I love Dr. Bennett's book, and I admire him for having the courage to pull this collection of stories from great literature, religious sources, and folklore together. The literary selections he has included in THE BOOK OF VIRTUES aim to provides examples of traditional values--values such as friendship, courage, and compassion. There is nothing wrong with those values in this cynical age, and I am most grateful William Bennett used his bully pulpit to draw attention to such important matters of human civilization.
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Summary: where else will they learn to be moral ?
Review: Forget for a moment the disputatious issue of whether morality is even possible without God, and consider church as simply a structured environment wherein figures of some learning and accepted authority address moral issues. Now ask yourself, if many of us don't go to church/synagogue/mosque anymore, and parents aren't in the home much anymore, and schools can't teach morality (because we've banned religion from them), then where do we expect our kids to learn morality ? Where is the structured environment in which they will be taught, by someone with at least a semblance of authority, the differences between right and wrong ? Of course, as threshhold measures we should do things like re-emphasize morality and ethics throughout the society, cut taxes sufficiently for at least one parent to stay home with the kids, use school choice to allow parents to avoid public schools, allow public schools to use religious-based moral instruction, etc. But in the meantime, Bill Bennett has created an invaluable tool for parents who want to create such a structure, a McGuffey Reader for the modern age, The Book of Virtues. The book is an anthology of classic stories, essays and poems on moral themes. In sections on : Self-Discipline Compassion Responsibility Friendship Work Courage Perseverance Honesty Loyalty Faith Bennett starts with pieces for young children and works up to selections for teens and even adults. The choices are drawn from a wide variety of sources, with everyone from Hilaire Belloc to Oscar Wilde, P. T. Barnum to Martin Luther King, Chuck Colson to James Baldwin, being represented. And the book is enormous, so you can dip in almost anywhere with a high likelihood you'll find something new or long forgotten and little danger of growing bored. I've frequently found myself searching out the other works of authors cited here, in fact, it was hearing Bennett discuss C. S. Lewis on Booknotes that made me look for and read the inestimable Abolition of Man. It is a curious thing to me that the Left has chosen to cede the field of morality to the Right. But if you look at comments about this book, or check out some of the alternatives that have been produced by liberal authors, the common theme seems to be that it is inappropriate to teach kids that there is only one, Judeo-Christian, version of morality, and that they should uinstead by taught that there are a whole range of choices that individuals can make when presented with ethical dilemmas, and each choice deserves an equal measure of respect. This is also the vision which prevails in the public schools these days, which teach that refusal to judge the actions of others is the mark of a well-rounded, worldly, compassionate citizen. In a moral climate in which they are increasingly taught that it is impossible, or at least inappropriate, to differentiate between "right" and "wrong", is it any wonder that each succeeding generation of children seems ever less capable of associating actions with consequences ? Though not sufficient to counteract these tendencies, only good parenting is truly sufficient, Bill Bennett's Book of Virtues is an effective start towards restoring traditional morality to the center of young peoples' educations. The premise of the collection--that right and wrong/good and evil exist in the abstract, that kids can be taught to recognize them, and that they can be instructed to choose the one over the other--is apparently now just a quaint conservative idea, but if it is one that you think might still have some value, you owe it to yourself and your family to get the book, read it, and talk about it. A moral education doesn't just happen, particularly not in the soiciety we've created for ourselves; parents have to take responsibility for seeing that their own kids learn what it means to be a virtuous human being and that they strive to be such. This book won't do it for you, but it can help. GRADE : A+
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Summary: For one and all, young & old, liberal or conservative...
Review: This book, without becoming bogged down in a sea of ideological or politcal debates, stands as a bright & shining moral beacon. A beacon for parents to use to guide and nuture their young with good, wholesome tales that teach a moral, and in a few cases,a couple of morals. Heck, every now and again I'll sit down and read a story or two - and I don't yet have any children! I think we all (of any age) may benefit occasionally, to be reminded of the morals and values that lie within this book.
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Summary: A simple and endearing guide for loving parents...
Review: I found this book to be an outstanding collection of fables, moral stories, and simplistic yet thought-provoking poetry....It rekindled the fondness of my youth, and gave me so much to pass on to my child through the molding of his morality and spirituality.....It is truly delightful!!! One note...For those that did not enjoy it please express yourself intelligently. Gag does not end in the letter e. <sigh> I find the dictionary to be the most useful of tools.
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Summary: Great stories compiled into one volume
Review: Bennett takes some of the most charming short stories and poems and puts them together in a book that is wonderful to pull off the shelf. (No need to read the whole book, just a story or two at a time.) Right now my 7-year-old daughter is in love with the book, and she loves to read stories before she goes to bed. I started to read to her from this books last year, and she just gets a kick out of the moral lessons she learns. From The Tortoise and the Hare to other familiar (as well as not-so-familiar) tales, this has to be a classic. I wonder if there is any chance Mr. Bennett would consider returning to public service?
Rating:
Summary: The book of virtues
Review: This book should be a standard read in schools all across this nation of ours. It would help to raise the responsibility factor of people. In other words people may stop blaming others for their own mistakes and take responsibility for their own actions.
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