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The Velveteen Rabbit is heartwrenchingly beautiful. The Rabbit who yearns to be Real and whose love for the boy was unconditional is both imaginative and sad. I cannot read this book without a lump coming to my throat and being transported to simpler days when the love of a toy was the greatest thing in the whole world.
This is a book with an ending that is mixed, that touches on the ambiguity of life and loss. But there is also hope of a new beginning. And I think children can understand that and grow from it.
I cherish this book deeply.
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Then - while browsing at a book store - I found it . . ."Get Fuzzy: The Dog is Not a Toy (House Rule #4)," Darby Conley's first book. Yes Virginia. . .there is a Santa Claus!
If you haven't met Bucky, Satchel and Rob yet, this book is a great introduction to the threesome. Bucky the cat is so irritating, he's lovable. Satchel, the mixed breed canine, has a heart of gold and gives everyone - even Bucky - the benefit of the doubt. Their human, Rob, is the glue that holds everything together.
In no time at all you'll be believing the three are real and you'll wish they lived next door to you. Don't miss this opportunity to laugh out loud.
I cannot compare this strip to "Bloom Country" because I have never even heard of that strip. I can say, though, that I believe, although the strip follows a familiar genre (single guy, sarcastic cat and dumb dog), the majority of the jokes and gags are original and funny. I don't think the strip is trying to be like or better than Calvin & Hobbes, Garfield, etc. Each strip is unique and enjoyable in its own way. I would think that Get Fuzzy is edgier than Garfield and is more mature than Calvin & Hobbes. If you enjoy either of those strips, though, you'll probably enjoy this book and the strip. I love all three myself.
Also, a lot of people enjoy this strip because they can relate to the animal's behavior. If you have a cat or dog, you might see glimpses of your own pet in the characters, as many others have. (I happen to believe that Bucky looks a lot like my siamese brat... er, cat, who also has a "fang.")
So, if you're not sure yet about buying the book, why don't you just check out the strip a few times to see if you like it? It's available online at comics.com .
If you've just "sort of" enjoyed this strip in your paper or online, then this book really pulls it all together. I was extremely pleased to learn the origins of "Smacky", Bucky's best friend in the whole wide world. If you're a big fan of the strip, then you probably already have the book, so I'm preaching to the choir.
All-in-all: very funny.
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Old Black, the book, was a bigger book than it seemed. I counted about 35 characters counting Sam the Rodesian ridgeback dog, and, of course, Old Black himself. Not one character escapes my mind's eye. I knew them every one. Even the reporter, Paul Hardesty, was memorable, and had only a cameo (but important) appearance. Oscar and Ruby, I fell for them hard. Salt of the earth. And how I cried when ... but read it yourself. I could see why the author took that route, it was a big step up the ladder to adulthood for Jim. It took me a long time to read the whole scene because I had a hard time seeing anything.
The author truly introduced every character. And that isn't so often the case.
There was some extravagant adventure in this story, but I never once had to suspend disbelief. Old Black the horse was not overplayed into a super horse, either. Nor was that wonderful little boy Jim. And wasn't Alexandra something? Uncle Harry was right, she's a little princess. And speaking of Uncle Harry and Aunt Hazel, everybody who knows someone who has a loved one with Alzheimer's should get a copy of this book. I know in my heart that Jim's therapy would be beneficial.
There are some real heartbreaking scenes and events in this book. And some funny ones too. I thought I'd die laughing over Mr. Mehlman's "theoretical last days." And the incident involving the snake in the bathroom. My husband came in to see what I was laughing about. I told him I had been bitten by the fabled laughing snake. (Of course, he didn't get it until HE read the book.)Wasn't Harry's reaction something a man with a good sense of humor would come out with? And I can understand Matt and Jim laughing themselves sick.
I finished Old Black, lay back on the pillow and relished it a while, then started right back on page 1.
I loved the old black couple, the Jacksons, who lived on the lane to the Bradley's little weekend ranch, and was truly touched by the genuine friendship between that couple and the Bradley family. All of the characters in the story, and there are quite a few, come vividly to life. You never have to think back and ask yourself, "Now just who is this walking on stage?" You know every one of them as if you had known them a long time.
The chapters involving the visit of Jim's Aunt Hazel and Uncle Harry are precious. Aunt Hazel has Alzheimer's disease and Uncle Harry is allowing her condition to get to him. It took the intuitive therapeutic interaction of a boy with compassion for his ailing aunt to show Uncle Har! ry, by examples, how to mitigate her suffering, how to lift her spirits. There was hilarity galore in those chapters, much of it at Aunt Hazel's expense, but it was never once in bad taste.
The rescue of Sheriff Martinez in the woods by Jim and Old Black, which consumed several chapters, was an endless stream of excitement that continued to escalate right up to the very last page of chapter 24. It was a tough job for both the boy and his horse that almost proved to be impossible, but every bit of it was entirely credible.
Old Black is a beautiful piece of creative writing. The story moved. It had a start, a middle, and definitely an ending, an ending that swept along through several chapters in such a rewarding way for the reader. Briggs never takes the writer's easy way out of a single scene or event, but works his plot with fascinating detail and excellent execution. The story was a fine blend of happiness, sadness, tragedy, and humor. Every aspect of the ending was perf! ect -- all the little loose ends that had collected along t! he way were neatly tied up in the most satisfying ways one could imagine -- even better than I ever imagined.
Without giving away the REAL treat at the very end, I will say I loved the way the jealousy toward Jim by the boy on the flashy horse was disposed of. That scene was a magnificent stroke! Then there is a very nice vignette involving that same boy at the very end that had best be left for the joy of reading it first hand. At that last horse show in the Astroarena, I swear I could hear the bawling, cackli! ng, mooing, crowing, grunting . . . of the animals, I was aware of the constant announcements over the loudspeakers, I smelled every aroma of the place, saw and heard the hay carts buzzing around, felt the presence of the activity going on all about -- I was THERE!
Old Black is a fairly long book --387 pages of text -- but I flew through it way too fast to suit me. We should be able to give an extra star to special books for appearances. This one is a beauty, with a nice oil painting for the cover, a pretty full-color map of "Old Black Territory" on the front and back endpapers, and at least five dozen gorgeous illutrations, which is why I presume the book was printed on such fine paper.
When you buy Old Black, you may as well buy two and get it over with. You'll just HAVE to let certain friends read it, and you'll sure not want to part with your own special copy.
(This review was provided by the reader, who does not have a computer, to the publisher for sending on to amazon.com.)
Buck Jones: a rodeo cowboy who becomes seriously ill and must get rid of his beloved horse. I liked Buck a lot, and so did his friends in the story. He raised Old Black from a colt and only became a rodeo star after Old Black came on the scene as his roping horse. The day he got rid of his beloved pal was a heart-rending scene.
Small things impressed me. The arrival at the Bradley's farm with Jim's new horse -- he so wanted to show him off to the old black couple down the lane, but he had to wait. Things to do on the farm. Getting on the horse took some imagination for 10-year-old Jim Bradley, but he solved THAT! Then got an extension for his stirrup. Small things, but so important to the story.
Jim's first real horse show was an adventure for me. The hospitality suite he and his mother came upon, and got acquainted with the Robertsons and their daughters. Jim's performance in that western riding class was beautiful, as written.
I adored little Alexandra Meridith, her father. Her grandparents, Oscar and Ruby, were fine old people, and dearly loved by that little boy.
The series of chapters dealing with the rescue of the sheriff out in the woods was as stirring and exciting as could be. And it reeked of realism. That long episode was brought to a perfect conclusion, even if some concerns still were left dangling. But they were wrapped up later.
The funeral of a black lady was a fine piece of descriptive writing, touching.
The ending of the story was purely satisfying. The indignant lady in the stands was a good, good touch. How she finally came around to applaud Old Black after accusing him of hurting her daughters chances in the class. The unlikely but understandable award to Old Black. Then, something I can't tell because it would ruin the ending for readers, but it was just exactly what should have happened. Even if it caught be completely by surprise.
A great story.
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This book is, first and foremost, a celebration of the comic strip. It is a work of art in its own right. All the cartoons in the book are photographed from either their original drawings, or directly from the newspapers. The reader can see the artistic details that Schultz has used in creating each frame in photos of the originals. And the use of the original strips, with their rough paper and newsprint lines, brings back the joy of reading the comics for the first time in the funnies. The Sunday comics are complete with the little color dots that created the color images. There are literally hundreds of comic strips, both daily and Sunday, in this book, and they give a good overview of Schultz's long career.
There are many photos of Schultz's doodles and rough sketches, of his desk and his artist's tools, early cartoons 'Sparky' sold to the Saturday Evening Post, early drawings of certain characters, some of which pre-date 'Peanuts' itself. One can actually see the characters develop, artistically and as human beings. Interspersed with the cartoons are textual explanations and stories about Schultz and his characters, including many insightful comments by Charles Schultz himself about the evolution and personalities of his characters. Also included are photos of early Peanuts toys and dolls, and even these are photographed lovingly and with attention to detail and shadow.
This is a magical book, and any Peanuts fan would love it and treasure it. It is a book one can return to over and over to enjoy. Leave it lying around the living room where everybody can enjoy it and relive the joy Charles Schultz and the Peanuts gang gave us for over fifty years. Better yet, introduce a new generation of kids to the strip. The Peanuts gang is a microcosm of us, and reading it reveals much about ourselves and helps us to look on life with tenderness and humor.
Buy this book, read it, and share it. It would make a wonderful present as well. It is the best Peanuts book to date.
This book "Peanuts: The Art of Charles Schulz" is focused primarily on those early days of Peanuts, with most of the material from the first ten years of the strip (the 1950's). The strips are photographed from Schulz's archives and there are many strips I have never seen before (and I've seen just about every one that was published). You even get to see the long forgotten Charlotte Braun, who was in the strip for a short period around 1954 and had the fussbudget personality later assumed by Lucy. Fascinating. You see Lucy, Linus and Schroeder as babies. You see Charlie Brown with a huge head (much bigger in proportion to his body than you are used to seeing). And you see Snoopy as basically just a dog before he assumed his own thoughts and imagination.
There is also a lot of sketches and strips from the pre-Peanuts days (Lil Folks) that can really give you insight into how Peanuts eventually came to be. This has never been done to any great extent is any Peanuts book that I have seen.
The strips are terrific and the style of the presentation is very pleasant to look at as well. This book is laid out more as an art book than as a collection of comic strips. And it is very well done at that. It's better than just about all the books that were issued every five years to celebrate landmark years for Peanuts (25th anniversary, 30th, etc.)
This book is a must for any hardcore Peanuts fan who wants to see how this tremendous icon of American culture for the last half of the 20th century got its start.
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4/16/02 Arvin
I really liked the book Matilda because the author that wrote this book wrote lots and lots of details in the book that you could imagine the picture of what it would be like. Also I like this book because the girl in the story is very determined to study.
In this story, a little girl lives with two mean parents who are upsets with watching T.V including their son. But not Matilda! She wants to read and study. So when in the morning Matilda's mom goes out to play bingo and her dad goes to his business with her brother going to school, Matilda goes to the library to read.
One day Matilda goes to school and meets a wonderful teacher. Miss Honey! But not only does Matilda meet a nice teacher, but also Matilda finds out something about her that no one else can do. Magic! Matilda uses her ability on her real enemy The Trunchbull.
Through reading this book, I have learned a valuable lesson. The father of Matilda loved to earn money so he cheated on the people, and his cars were cheap and would break down very fast. That was lying. I learned not to lie because Matilda's father got in trouble and ran away. Another lesson I learned was to not give up! When Matilda meets the mean principle, Matilda didn't stop standing up for herself and did not give up.
Read this trilling story to walk through the adventures with Matilda! It will never get off your hands until you are finished reading this book. I loved this book and I think you will too!
Like all of Roald Dahl's books, this was a breeze and delight to read, filled with lots of mature humor and fun games. The book was made into a movie in 1996, and although I never saw it, I'd encourage anyone who plans to watch it to read the book first. Generally, Dahl's books outshine the movie version. Highly recommended for 8 to 12+ year-olds.
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Incidents follows the "true story" (its authenticity is doubted in some places) of Linda [Jacobs uses a pseudonym] who is born into the shackles of slavery and yearns for freedom. She lives with a depraved slave master who dehumanizes her, and a mistress who mistreats her. As the novel progresses, Linda becomes increasingly starved of freedom and resolves to escape, but Linda finds that even escaping presents its problems.
But Incidents is more than just a gripping narration of one woman's crusade for freedom, and is rather an organized attack on Slavery, intended to convince even the most apathetic of northerners. And in this too, Incidents succeeds. The writing is clear, and Jacobs' use of rhetorical strategy to preserve integrity is astonishing.
Well written, convincing, entertaining, Incidents is an amazing book.
This true story of Harriet Jacobs, a 19th century slave, is absolutely mind-blowing. Ms. Jacobs spent 7 years of her life living in what was literally a wooden box in the rafters of her grandmother's shed. She was waiting for the perfect moment to escape to the North and bring her children out of slavery. From her perch in the shed she could look out onto the street and watch her children play and hear them talk about how much they missed their mother and wished to see her again (they had no idea she was in hiding). Jacobs even went so far as to send letters to her vicious master to make him believe that she was really in the Northern states.
Sure everyone learns about slavery in school, but we only get the narrow and highly shortened version of what it was to live in slavery. This book is an emotional account of slavery in all its brutality and what it was like to live in fear every moment of every day. Jacobs is a perfect portrait of an unbreakable spirit.
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Honestly, I cannot believe that this book is not required reading in high schools and universities. This is the kind of book that gets young people to reading!!! Young people are going to be running governments in just a few years and they need to know how people FEEL who live these events...
Wake up world! We must understand the history of these conflicts before we can stop them!!!
After reading this book, I felt compelled to buy everything by this author and I am starting PRINCESS when I finish this review.
I now have a new "favorite" author, JEAN SASSON.
Thank you Jean for this extremely compelling book... I encourage every one who reads this review to buy this book, absorb this book. You will be glad that you did...
Jean Sasson in this book has surpassed in excellence all her previous books; so if the Sultana Trilogy was an International best seller, this book should be a MEGA best seller.
I, as an Arab sided with the Jews in their plight throughout the book
And wept for the Palestinians.
Jean Sasson was able to turn our feelings the way she did for one simple reason , she is a humanitarian , a wonderful person that looks beyond hatred and pores her true feelings and emotions deep
into the stream of humanity. Her ability to do this was coupled with an excellent ability to interweave fiction with true history . I wish more Americans, Arabs and Jews thought the way Ms. Sasson thinks. We would have less venom, hatred and wars in this world that is practically going into pieces at this very moment.
The book is so real , that you live with the characters ( Arabs and Jews )as if they were made of flesh and blood. During my University years in the American university in Beirut during the 70's, I had many friends and classmates that lives in areas close to Shatilla camp. Some had connections with Palestinian Resistance Groups, as a result of which I know Shatilla very well. The book took me back 20 years to those narrow streets , reviving a memory I never thought would be revived . The description lacked one thing only , the odors of the place, only because it was written on paper.
I give the book a million stars , and not just 5 .
M. N. Al-Askari
There can be no basis for terroristic acts to achieve one's ends and the few that perform these acts hurt so much the cause that much greater numbers of Palestinians would rather achieve through peaceful means. I can tell that Jean must have associated with and spent a lot of time with people on both sides of this issue. This book ought to be the first textbook used in educational classes trying to study their dissention.