Mountain Girl complains that her family is poor. They sit at a ramshakle table they made themselves as the family discusses what they do have and discover that they are wealthy beyond belief. They have sunsets, eagles, mountins, etc. A good reminder of what is really important.

Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor is an entertaining book. It tells why and how rocks can be useful. This book tells you what to do with and how to use rocks. The illustrations are also as excellent as the writing.

After reading this book to my fifth grade students they all find their our favorite rock and value it among their most prized possesions. The reverence and care that they shower upon their rock is unbelievable. Only Byrd Baylor could inspire that kind of compassion through such simple prose.

I am a senior who volunteers in a local elementary school helping the science teacher one morning a week with whatever she needs. (I also volunteer in the main branch of our county library.) In anticipation of a unit on rocks, she handed me a book list and asked me to check out as many as I could find. "Everybody Needs a Rock" touched me so much, I told her I was going to buy one for each of my 2 grandchildren. She said, if I was ordering, she wanted a copy also to permanently keep in her classroom. Today I ordered 3 copies and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she ended up ordering ANOTHER one for HER grandchild! It's just a beautiful, simple, charming book with lovely illustrations. There's nothing more to say. See it for yourself.

My husband and I purchased this book because we are always searching for good books to read to our nine grandchildren..they have loved the Byrd Baylor books. "Hawk, I am Your Brother" is education and sensitive to being quiet and watching to learn. It is an easy read for all ages of our grandchildren, ages 18 years old to 9 years old. No matter the age they loved being read to, especially by Grandpa. They already watch TV that does nothing for their imagination or originality. We have found the local bookstores thin on Baylor books. :(

HAWK I'M YOUR BROTHER is a touching story of how a child learns that there are some things in life which cannot be achieved by enslaving that which holds the knowledge you seek but rather to understand the secret of this special freedom is how you will treat and respect the needs of the wild creature who holds the answers to your quest.. that to be trapped and held against its will is not the best way for the creature to teach what it knows. Each time I read it I understand Rudy's need to keep the hawk and the Hawk's need to be free and how Rudy comes to undertand the simplistic belief that to really be one with any creature it cannot be enslaved, it must be set free. By learning and letting go, Rudy can truly be as the hawk. Free.

this is a good example on how to start your life and how to face it

This book for children shows how so many different peoples and cultures (from American Indians to African tribes to ancient Egyptians) have greeted the rising Sun with songs and praise. This book, illustrated by Peter Parnall, was a 1979 Caldecott Honor book (i.e., a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children.

I am an elementary school teacher. Byrd Baylor has helped me teach reading, and loving to read, to first through fourth grades. It seems the more reluctant readers are most easily hooked!
Each school morning in September, I read The Way To Start A Day to my class. By the end of September, children are saying the words with me. Soon, kids volunteer to read the book, alone, or in pairs, depending on their abilities.
The children take extra copies from the classroom book baskets, and read them to their families. They are surprised at how many of the words they can read. But the book has become so familiar to them, it doesn't surprise me at all!
The Way To Start A Day flies off the school library shelves, and Byrd Baylor becomes a favorite author to my students. They innovate on the text, writing stories, poems, picture books, and more.
Peter Parnall's illustrations are as captivating as Baylor's lyrical text, and as fascinating to children as "Where's Waldo?"!
I love this book!