Pay particular attention to "Releve", the story contributed by Patricia Wallace and her daughter. This story introduces us to Sydney Bryant, the private eye that Pat Wallace has featured in a terrific series for adults. The titles in the series include "Deadly Devotion" and "Blood Lies".

Other outstanding stories include those by Wendy Hornsby, Scott Turow, Stuart Kaminsky, and Sharyn McCrumb (and their collaborators). This is a book that parents can read and enjoy with their children. It might inspire them to collaborate on some mystery stories of their own!

I look forward to reading the companion volume, "Great Writers and Kids Write Spooky Stories". I

"When you think of a mystery, what comes to mind? A dark secret? An unsolved crime? A curious detective hunting for clues?"

The only mystery, the only secret, the only crime is how this anthology could be so easily overlooked. "Great Writers and Kids Write Mystery Stories" (1996) is a collection of stories written by some of today's greatest mystery authors in collaboration with their children and grandchildren. Jonathan Kellerman, Sharyn McCrumb, and Scott Turow are three of the thirteen award-winning writers that create wonderous whodunits with their offspring, ages 6 to adult.

While written at about the junior high/ middle school level, this complilation is enjoyable to all. The stories are five to several pages. Some are written with the child as the amateur detective, some are written as a type of psychological thriller.

The introduction serves as a "mini-lesson" on mystery writing. And, each story features a short personal introduction by the adult and child writing team on what it was like to collaborate on their included story. Other contributors include Barbara D'Amato, Ed Gorman, Stuart Kaminsky, Elizabeth Engstrom, and many others.

This book has the unique ability to be educational as well as entertaining. Those that enjoy this book may also enjoy the first volume as well: "Great Writers and Kids Write Spooky Stories" (1995).

This is not a book that will really explain breast cancer to children, although it certainly touches on key aspects such as how there will be bad days and how chemo makes hair fall out. What is does accomplish is to get out in the open the feelings and concerns children will have in this situation. For example, the first topic talks about "The Day My Family Found Out," and touches upon some of the things that happen on a traumatic day like that. Another chapter reassures children "You Can't Catch It," while several chapters talk about things you can do to help make things better. This book is aimed at children ages 5-8, and you can easily see how they might read this book and have suggestions as to what the family could be doing. The most important thing about "The Hope Tree" is that it is therapeutic as well as cathartic. Indeed, one of the goals of the book is that through open communication families can not just survive the cancer experience, but actually thrive.

Horses have to be among the best loved of all animals. This book is a celebration of these magnificent creatures.

This book is highly informative at a level readily understood by young readers.

We are given a comprehensive profile of all the main breeds. We learn about the life of a young foal, a horse's diet, and how to care for them.

The book contains beautiful illustrations, particularly on the many transparent overlays. In the scene of the equestrian jump, you have the horse coming towards you on one page and then there is a rear view on the next. You get a real sense of movement.

For the young zoologist we are shown who are the relatives of the horse. Most of us would know that the horse and the donkey are cousins but would you have guessed that the rhinoceros is part of the horse family?

These classy "First Discovery" books have both style and substance. They will appeal to children who enjoy pictorial qualities in a book. They will also appreciate and benefit from their factual content.

Most highly recommended. 5 out of 5.

The story is set on Christmas Eve in a large house filled with a human family and a family of mice, including small Brown Mouse who is so young he's never been in the people part of the house. The mice venture downstairs after midnight for "a long night of feasting and merrymaking" and return to their attic home at nearly dawn. The excitment, the sights, and the adventures they encounter make Brown Mouse's very first Christmas one he'll never forget.

The writing is marvelous. You can see, taste, and smell everything the author writes about. I think the story has so much more feeling to it than "... and all through the house, not a creature was stirring...". For instance, the description of the Christmas tree begins like this:

'A tall, tall tree all spicy and green hung with hundreds of twinkling, glittering things of all sorts...' and ends with 'and silvery light trembling on every branch, casting crisscross shadows on the ceiling . . .'

I think this is a delightful book, and I am so glad that it is still in print! I am even getting a copy for my mother, whose absolute favorite holiday is Christmas.

About 28 pages; darling pictures on every other page to hold your littlest one's attention.