I don't know why this book didn't get more attention. If I had to choose one children's book as my favorite, this may well be it. And it's never failed me when I've read it for children either - each time, a hush comes over the room.

What's interesting to me about this book, it's one of the few children's books that don't have any 'children' characters. Basically, it's the story about a lonely woman finding a dog, but, like all great books, there's all kinds of other things put in on top of that - old age, death, the memory of good friends and the lesson that you have to be willing to risk and lose in order to love and be happy.

Cynthia Rylant has written a very special book here and I urge you to get this book. You will not be disappointed.

This is a funny story of an old woman who has outlived all her friends. She has big hair, cowboy boots and crazy clothes like Ms. Frizzle. The only thing she gives a name are objects like her car Betsey because they won't get old and die. She looks like she would be a fun friend and doesn't act old at all. She finally finds a shy brown pup to be her friend and must name him or leave him at the pound. I wish the old woman had a name. Read this book if you love Grandma stories or dogs.
PS It's not sad!

I have a passion for children's books - my 3 year old daughter is so indulged. I found The Old Woman who Named Things whilst browsing this Sunday afternoon and had tears well up in my eyes whilst reading it in the shop! What a perfect and so real evocation of an elderly person's fears, lonliness and subsequent eccentricities. I rushed it home to my daughter and have read it 3 times this evening. She loves it - was amused by the naming of objects - wants to do the same around our house - fell in love with the dog and was so sad for the lady when the dog became lost. She felt the old woman couldn't truly be friends with him until she "named" him. It was so nice too to have a book with an elderly "heroine". My only quibble would be that the term "outlived" is probably beyond most young children - I would have used "died" somewhere to make it clearer. I know its subtlety is lovely but I have had to stop and explain outlived each time anyway.

I used this book side-by-side with my Frommer's Portugal and found it to be a great complement. It excels at finding wonderful accommodations across the ENTIRE country. (My Frommer's book, I found, included only the most popular tourist spots, largely ignoring the Douro Valley, for example, which every traveler should see.) Each of the places we stayed was unique and spectacular, and many of them were not included in other travel guides. The regional itineraries were also very useful. While we didn't follow any of them to the letter but rather picked and choosed to suit our travel plans, the book pointed out lots of special points of interest, again not always mentioned in my Frommer's book. (Were it not for these itineraries, we undoubtedly would have missed seeing the medieval castle at Marvao, a highlight of our trip.)

For in-depth coverage of all of the regions of Portugal and lodging recommendations you can trust, this book is it.

This was my first time buying a Karen Brown guide, and it certainly won't be my last.

After digesting several other books on Portugal I received Karen Brown's book. Had I received her book first, I could have saved a lot of money and time because no other book comes anywhere close to providing the information and interest in visiting the places that she writes about. I cannot wait to read her other books. Wanted to have a vehicle there but was disuaded by the other publications. However, after reading her book I am anxious to rent a vehicle and visit all the wonderful adventures that she has written about. Sorry to say we only have 16 days this time, but rest assured we will return to finish the books descriptions of all the wonderful places. The web sites and phone numbers provided are extremely helpful; even moreso that the information provided by the state run tourism office. The encouragement to explore is there. Thanks once again for a wonderfully written guide book.

We used this book to plan are Honeymoon. Karen brown made it an enchanted time. She takes you onto the back roads of the country. from the best hotels to best roadside food. If you follow her leads you will find the real Portugal. Have a glass of Port for me!!!

In fact, she is one of the great leaders of all time. This is clear instantly to anyone who reads her story, told calmly and clearly,absent any self-aggrandizement or ego. Her role was that of countless women organizers such as Rosa Parks in Birmingham and Fannie Lou Hamer in Mississippi, almost the only female leaders' names we have from that Movement, and the barely-known student leader Anne Moody (whose moving autobiography, "Coming of Age in Mississippi" is another powerful document of that time) who actually risked their lives every day to do the monumentally hard,thankless,daily organizing work that persuaded Black people one by one throughout the South to risk their livelihoods, their housing and credit for basic food supplies at the local white landowner's grocery store, and their very lives, to come to a meeting, or register to vote, or take any first step to be involved in overthrowing America's apartheid regime, known as "Jim Crow" in areas where to join the NAACP meant being lynched. She matter-of-factly shows it to be a role largely unrewarded, unnoticed by the mass media, and never credited at all. Moreover, she had to fight every day, every week, every month, not to be thrown out of regular SCLC meetings by Dr. Ralph Abernathy, who resented her leadership status apparently for no other reason than that she was a woman, and enormously effective. Dr. King, in defending her place at the meeting, clearly knew he would have no crowds to march in front of at all were it not for women like Septima Clark.

I liked this book very much, although I really think they could have gotten more detailed. I would recommend this book to anyone doing a research project on women inventors. If you read it, you will definately have a better day, and get an 'a' on your project!

This book provides some good information on "off the beaten path" Inns and Bed and Breakfasts, and limited information on sites in and around major cities. The reader should be fore-warned that to conduct most of the included travel intineraries requires automobile transport. The book does reference the reader to a favored rental car company, but the details of renting a car and driving around Spain are left very sketchy (like which side of the road do they drive on?). I may try some of the sites included in the book on a third or fourth visit to Spain, but first I'd rather see the more famous tourism attractions, rather than see the "back country of Spain by car".

This book is exactly what it says it is, a guide to charming inns and itineraries in Spain. My family and I followed many of the recommendations and were delighted with the places we visited and the wonderful converted palaces, castles, medieval monasteries and manor houses where we stayed. Karen Brown's information is accurate and trustworthy and we were never disappointed. We plan to use her guide to Italy on our trip there next year.

According to the... review this book is good for all people who want to "bring a personal feel to the oral history" or something to that measure. That's not really true.

This book is great for teachers to use as a guide to conducting oral history projects with pre-teen and teenaged students. It's less helpful to adults who are working on lenthy book projects.

This program focuses on memorizing words through associating pictures and words. It does not really teach a strategy for decoding unfamiliar words.