This book is so cool !!! It is very educational yet very good also, I would recommend this book to anyone out there.This book is a real page-turner.I also think this author has a lot of potential

This book was an excellent end to the Fire-us trilogy. If you want to read good fiction, read this series.
I read some parts in this book over and over again, and I still feel like I have to read it all over again because I missed so much (I'm a careful reader, so I couldn't miss that much). Still, if you want good science fiction, read this book!!!

I truly enjoyed the book and loved the illustrations by Rohmann, particularly those of the crow. In King Crow the role of the crow is both messenger and trickster. The wounded and blinded King Cormac, left for dead after a decisive battle with the evil King Bregant awakens to find a wounded crow asking for his help. The crow has an arrow in its wing from the battle. Cormac helps the crow and he, in turn, promises to repay Cormac's kindness. While the good king doubts the crow can do much for him, the crow assures him he will, just before Bregant's forces arrive to take Cormac prisoner. The crow arrives three times with news for Cormac in regards to Bregant, acting out his traditional role of messenger. The tidbits of news the crow delivers, however aren't vital pieces of intelligence concerning opposition of hidden troops yet loyal to Cormac or the like, rather they're seemingly insignificant scenes in which the crow finds the King Bregant. By adding a single, telling detail each time, the crow ensures that Cormac will sufficiently unnerve Bregant to the point that the provided visions lead to his deserved ("destined" even) fate. With the addition of these significant details, the crow enacts it's other traditional role, that of trickster. Rohmann's depiction of the crow is wonderful. His soft lines and use of colors make the otherwise dismal black of the crow's feathers seem warm and welcoming. Without forsaking the natural integrity of the crow, he successfully gives the crow expressions, varying from plaintive to conspirative, inquisitive and thoughtful, even concern. Once Armstrong has finished setting up the world and gets the story going, it flows well. The conversations between the crow and Cormac are well constructed. There's a sense of the fairy tale throughout the story and together with Rohmann's art it works well as a whole.

Pierre is a lazy, good-for-nothing--but not in his dreams! In a dream, anything is possible, and he becomes a circus star. When he discovers he wasn't dreaming after all, he is left with a lot to think about, and so is the reader. Maybe all of us can do more than we think we can!

A delightful tale told with vivid musical language. The sensory details draw you in, making you feel a part of the story. The bold, colorful illustrations are a delight for the eye.

This book is great. The words rhyme as you read along which makes it fun to read for young children. The pictures are bright and colorful and go along with the words on each page. The pictures make youngsters laugh. My 3-year old son memorized this book in 2 readings and now thinks he can read. Now he asks for new books to read all the time. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to get their children excited about reading.

The current polar explorer Ann Bancroft said she was first inspired to visit Antarctica after the breathtaking pictures and reports of Shackleton's attempts to cross that continent. As she attempts to become part of the first women's team to traverse Antarctica she is passing by Shackleton's Glacier and must be remembering his team and their efforts. The actual photographs of Shackleton's ship in the book Spirit of Endurance and the reproduction paintings of each adventure and challenge they faced draw the reader into the tale. Students are fascinated by the hardships the men encountered and endured. The decision regarding the fate of their sled dogs was as heartbreaking to the reader as it must have been to the men of Endurance. The remarkable heroism and perseverence of Shackleton and his crew is an inspiration to the adventurers in all of us.

Amelia Hornsby is a twelve-year-old schoolgirl living in Philadelphia in 1803. She soon plans to join her widowed father on the frontier in Pittsburgh, but in the meantime she's living with his friend, Dr. Rush. When she suspects a visitor of being a foreign spy, she writes to President Thomas Jefferson, who, to her surprise writes back, telling her that the visitor is his secretary Meriwether Lewis, who will soon lead an expedition to the Pacific coast with the help of William Clark. Even after Amelia goes to live in Pittsburgh, she continues to correspond with the President. This was a fascinating book, written in the form of letters between Amelia and President Jefferson, that reveals what life might have been like for an educated, inquisitive young girl in the early 1800s.

My sister was the one who got these books as a box set for her birthday, but I was the one who read the whole set back to front [this was the first box set which only included the first three books .... it was a while ago]. The Literature is about a grade six level, the stories closer to grade nine, but they DO give young women a first-person introduction to the major points of American History.

The first two stories pretty much follow the same premise, though under different circumstances [call it variations on a theme] ... a young girl of the McBride family meets a fellow, falls for him, almost doesn't get him, gets herself caught up in a major point of American History [for Bridie the Witch Hysteria, for Ann the Revolution etc] and you'll have to read them to find out how they end. The third book gave a good introduction to the two sides of the Civil War and would be a good jumping off point for getting a girl to maybe move into something a little more grown up [I moved quite promptly into Gone With The Wind and went from there]. Very well written for their age level, with a crisp yet discriptive voice. They're hard to put down once you pick them up.

So girls, instead of picking up a copy of your mother's Danielle Steel, pick up one of these books instead. And parents, if you want to give your daughter's a gift that she will both enjoy AND learn something from, please consider the Wild Rose Inn Series.

Ann of the Wild Rose Inn is a heartwarming story about finding true love and almost losing it. Roger is the british sailor Ann loved but couldn't have for the sake of her family. But in the end everything works out.

Ann MacKenzie lives in her family's inn in Marblehead, Massachusetts, just before the Revolutionary War. Ann and her twin brother, John, work at smuggling to defy the British, who are occupying Massachusetts. But Ann falls in love with a young British sailor. Will Ann be true to her country or her heart?

The tale of Ernest Shackleton and crew and their ill-fated South Pole expedition is an incredible one indeed. This version of that journey is spell-binding and certainly piques interest and anticipation. While Armstrong's "Shipwreck..." is basically an older children's book, it is great for adults as well. [Reviewer's note: The book "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing provides a much more detailed version of this journey.] The photographs are bountiful and certainly contribute to the eerie realism of the challenges faced by this crew, vividly relaying the desperation of their predicament.

I was disturbed, however, by the author's commentary in one of the photo captions (see page 38 of the September 2000 paperback edition) where she takes extreme journalistic liberty regarding the early-century comedy practice, "blackface". Armstrong's thinly-veiled 'mini' "civil rights" commentary there is totally unnecessary and unprofessional. Her assertion does, however, illustrate the ease at which historical revisionism exerts itself. Such journalistic hubris reminds me of what Wrangler (Jean Company)did a few years ago in a sales advertisement when they air-brushed the cigarettes from the mouths of cowboys in a well-known, c. 1800's historical portrait. While it benefited them (Wrangler)to use the rugged "realism" of these cowboys, the "realism" of the current times (ie., anti-smoking) was not allowed---selective "truth", if you will (a Stalinesque technique). Only the politically correct version of history allowed here!

From the first introductory word, this book had us. I read Armstrong's account to my 10-year-old son and we both loved it. I have to force him to go to bed at night, but for the time we read about Shackleton, I stayed up with him.

Not only is the book a true nonfiction page-turner, but it also made me very aware of my own softness before such, well, endurance. I can think of worse models for my son than these strong, determined, organized, and civil men. Only read it to your kids if you want the stars in their eyes to give guidance and force, to shine out in the night with old heroic force and English fortitude. After reading the book, I think I approve of those things despite the pompous high-born generals in ostrich plumes pictured from the war during those same years. It's worth your time -- and the time to read it with your 10-16 year old if you're not already too late.

And you're not.

The book Shipwreck at the bottom of the world is a very good book because it tells about the hardships Ernest Shackleton and his crew had to go through. This book tells their story in vivid detail and is very well written. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure and travel.

This book was very good, but in the beginning it was a little bit boring. Around the middle of the book, it started to improve. I liked this book, but I liked "Emily of the Wild Rose Inn" better. Now, that book got straight to the point. The Bridie book was good, but it was disappointing at the end. She could have stayed in Massachusetts and *TRY* to fit in. But I think she left because she couldn't stand the people of Mass. I won't blame her... Will Handy was infatuated with Bridie, she liked him too, but Will's old mother stopped him from leaving to Canada with Bridie. You know what though? I think they won't last, because she was so different from him. Overall, this was a good book. I recommend that you read it on a rainy day, since it's a depressing book. :)

10 years ago, Bridie MacKenzie's parents left her behind in Scotland to build a new life in Massachusetts Bay Colony, promising to send for her soon. But 10 long years went by before Bridie finaly came to Massachusetts, and she's no longer a child, no longer able to adapt to her surroundings as easily. But Massachusetts itself isn't so bad. It's the people there, the laws they made. Bridie is a Catholic, and in Massachusetts you can only be a Puritan. Can Bridie build a home for herself in the harsh new land, and keep her religion alive within herself? Or will she have to leave the family she was just reuinited with to find a home elsewhere, where she can be true to her religion?