I believe that The Fall of Freddie the Leaf is an excellent book for children dealing with the death of a loved one. Honestly I haven't read the book in 9 years but I remember it well. When I was 10 years old my father was dying of colon cancer. The day my mother told my siblings and I (aged at the time 5, 8, 10, and 12) that my father wouldn't make it she read us the book. I still remember the book and how it helped us to understand why our daddy had to leave us. I would recommend this book to anyone with children who are facing the death of someone close to them. It was very memorable obviously because I still remember it to this day and give it a lot of credit in helping us to understand death.

I used this book with a boy a worked with a few years ago. He was 9 at the time, and a close relative had died. Before a colleague showed me the book, I struggled to find the right words to comfort him with, to no avail. The experience was a first hand confrontation with the fact that our culture generally has a great deal of difficulty dealing with the issue of death. Of all the books I've read that attempt to help us deal with this problem, this one is the best.

This simply, poignant story about the changing of the seasons gave me a bridge to talk to the child and helped him make sense of his loss. The language is simple enough for even a young child to understand. The pictures are gorgeous. It helped him cope with and understand his loss. As well, he was inspired to read the story to his classmates (this is a boy who previously hated reading) and it created a "teachable moment" for the whole group.

This book is one that I would reccommend to anyone who is in contact with children. It would be an excellent addition to your personal library because it makes talking about a difficult, painful subject a great deal easier.

I recently lost a very dear friend and was not dealing with my grief very well. Another friend loaned me her copy of The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: A Story of Life for All Ages. She assured me that it would help, and it did. The book is simply simple and gracefully puts into perspective the inevitablity of death. I have since purchased several copies that I have sent to friends and family who've grieved loved ones. You will love the soothing illustrations and tender language of this book!!

Wise Child, and is a unique and magical story by Monica Furlong. I can't begin to explain the way it affected me through its glorious array of descriptions and distinctive characters and colorful plot. Wise Child is about a very young girl who's mother, Maeve the Fair, abandoned her to persue other endeavors and who's sea faring father, Finbar, is away. She is therefore left in the care of the 'medicine' woman Juniper. Through the care of Juniper, Wise Child learns the holistic uses of plants and herbs and becomes one with nature and magic. Unfortunetly, Maeve the Fair returns, and Wise Child is forced to make the desicion between living an affluent life with her evil sorceress mother or stay with her new found friend Juniper. When she makes the wrong desicion, she finds herself in terrible trouble. I would definitely suggest this story to anybody, as I have found it wonderfully magical and imaginitive!

I'm fourteen, and an extremely avid reader, and I read this book when I was eight, I think. To this day it remains one of my favorites. This book is about a young girl in Scotland, nicknamed "Wise Child" by her peers because of her big dark eyes. Her father is away at sea, her mother left when she was very young, and her grandmother dies. With no one who will take care of her, the one person who volunteers is "Juniper", the village doran(witch is a vulgar word). Wise Child is afraid because of the rumors about the young woman, but has no choice. Wise Child learns about herbs, "spells" and becoming part of the world. She also has some trouble with the village priest, Fillan, who believes Juniper is evil, and with her mother, a harmful Doran. I would recommend this to anyone of any age, for it's a classic tale of fantasy and frustrations.

This is one of my all time favorite books for children or adults! Each time I read it, I am filled with peace, hope and a yearning for the simple, good life that Wise Child and Juniper share. The book, though not particularly long, is full of wonderfully well developed characters whom you come to care about. It is at once both adventurous and educational (it takes place in a 12th century Scottish village) and conveys a reminder of our inherent connection to each other, to nature and to the cosmos.
Adults and children 10 years and older will love it - guaranteed!

Now don't get me wrong--I enjoy Leo Laporte, and love "The Screen Savers," his nightly TechTV show. His shameless yet forgivable shilling of this book on his show made me rush out and buy it. Unfortunately, I probably should have glanced through it first.

There's a wealth of interesting tips in here (from beginning to geek), but as with all tips, there's only a handful I'll use (granted, those were pretty good). The "day by day" almanac format gives you a hint, tip, troubleshooting technique, problem-solver, or fun fact for every day of the year. There's tips for both PC and Mac users (I'm a Mac user), but there isn't one for *each* format every day, so some days I'm left high-and-dry...that's no matter, I can skim ahead; I'm not going to wait *all year* to read the book. But I do have the feeling that I've paid for a whole book and only getting half the use out of it.

Less useful are the "This day in computer history" tidbits that pad out each day. Interesting, maybe, but not what I buy a computer help book for. These smacked of padding the book and would have been more fun in a different format ("Leo's Page-a-Day Computer History Calendar"?).

My biggest complaint is that the tips are arranged rather randomly. Although some build on previous tips, there's no sense of continuity. Although the book is well-indexed to find subjects, this is *not* a general help manual--such a book would have been divided into different sections on specific topics. Leo *might* have overcome this by indicating "theme weeks"--this whole week, PC users will learn about such-and-such, Mac users will learn another things...etc.

Okay, to be fair: this is a fun to read book, and Leo's friendly and matter-of-fact style is most welcome in today's tech book world. I'm definitely on board for his next book, but I'm going to be grading him for format next time. This one gets five stars for Leo's writing style and range, but three stars for the hard-for-practical-use and seemingly random day-by-day format of the book: I'll average those out to four stars.

Leo Laporte does a great job each night hosting a show called the Screen Savers, on Tech TV. Now he has also done a great job writing a book. Poor Leo's Almanac is basically a calendar, with something useful written for each day. There could be a windows tip, a technology quiz, a mac tip, or just about everything. There is also handy reminders on backing up your data (something I need to do a lot more of). Leo writes in a very understandable way. Even though I think this book would be best for the newbie/novice computer user, anybody could really benefit from the information. I've ordered a copy to give to a family member that is just getting started in computers, with this book anybody can become a "geek."

"Poor Leo's 2002 Computer Almanac" is filled with tips and useful information in an easy to read almanac. Not only for beginners, this book written by the popular host of "The Screen Savers" on Tech TV, contains daily tips and brief essays about some of the most frequently asked topics concerning "Personal Confusers," as Leo likes to call them!

Having hosted TV shows like "Call for Help," an hour long TV program devoted to "newbies" and computers, and "The Screen Savers," a daily 90 minute live TV show for the more advanced computer and technology enthusiast, Leo has condensed his vast knowledge and expertise into an easy to read format of daily advice and tips.

Mac and Linux are covered, but mostly this book is for someone who has a PC and wants to demystify the computer experience and become more confident in using it. Leo covers a lot of ground in this book, and even delves into more "geeky" topics from time to time, like installing Linux; but if your Mom or GrandMOM just got a computer, this book will certainly help them become more adept at mastering the computer.

From a series of new offerings by Tech Tv and Cue Publishing, this is the book to get! For the more advanced user, the How-To videos are a more in-depth guide to building your own computer etc., but of the many books just published, this one is, by far, the most entertaining and useful.

Yeager is an amazing man, and this is an amazing book. It opens with a 'hook', an exciting passage from flying the X-1 that leaves you hanging and entices you to read the book. But once you get into it, no literary techniques are needed to keep you reading. He is just an amazing man, ergo, so is this autobiography.

The sections on his childhood are mercifully short; no one is reading the book to know what he did as a child. The WWII fighter pilot sections were a very pleasant suprise. I knew he was an ace, but I didn't know about his escape through France when he was downed, or about how he became an ace-in-a-day.

The sections on the breaking the sound barrier are just filled with details, insight, and excitement. This is the best part of the book.

The latter sections of the book continue with his exploits in Germany, Korea, Vietnam, and space school are interesting. The book tales off a little at the end with his description of Pakistan, but even this boring chapter is more exciting than most people's lives (so who am I to criticize!)

You won't be sorry...this is a great read.

The word around the campfire is that Chuck Yeager is real SOB. Fortunately, I heard this long after I'd read this book and decided he was anything but. I still question this "SOB" assessment. General Yeager signs books, answers fan mail and cracks great jokes. This is the Chuck Yeager that comes across in the pages of this book, which is undoubtedly one of the best aviation yarns ever written.

Yeager had a way of being at the right place at the right time. Those places and times form the heart of this book, and the heart of the golden age of aviation itself. If there is a person most qualified to tell the story of how America transitioned from piston-fired aircraft into the supersonic jet age, Chuck is that person. Told in a loose, casual manner, the story whizzes along at mach speed, slowing only to allow "other voices" (friends, family, comrades) to further illustrate Chuck's highly adventurous life.

The book can be very funny, as when Yeager describes "topping" a tree with his WWII trainer's wingtip; it can be suspenseful, as when Yeager and others describe his nearly fatal flight beyond Mach 2. And the book can be sad, as when he illustrates the dangers of flight testing by revealing that streets at Edwards Air Force Base were named after fallen test pilots. Of course, it's all old news now - some of the lore has even decayed into clichés. But the magic of this book is that the moment you pick it up and start reading, it all seems new again.

Yeager bashers always seem to miss what this book hits on so well; it's not the things he did, it's the way he did them. This isn't the story of a war ace turned arrogant test pilot; this is the story of a country boy who inadvertently made a name for himself merely by doing what came naturally to him. We should all be so lucky.

Yeager personafied the WWII generation, the finest ever produced by America. His humble description of his amazing life is inspiring to all and incredible to those with a love of aviation. Besides his own history, he chronicles the life of several other people, such as lady pilots Pancho Barnes and Jackie Cochran, who also lived lives that read like movie scripts. A book that has to be read several times to be fully appreciated. Also check out "The First and the Last", by Adolf Galland, for an equally unusual true account by a great aviator and leader. Farron Dacus, Irving, Texas.

As the other reviewers have already stated, this is an action packed adventure of a young man fleeing the Nazis. Leo fled from his native Vienna, to Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France,and Switzerland. In this book, he describes the Austrians as welcome participants in the Holocaust and not as the victims. Austrians treat themselves as the first victims of Hitler's aggression rather than the willing helpers of Hitler. As he fled, other nations tried to avoid Hitler's refugees. No one welcomed the outcasts from the Hitler regime.
One comment about the nature of this book. Most of the victims did not know what was going to happen when they embarked on the train journey to the camps. Leo states it in the narrative. I don't think even he knew, other than the future was bleak. It lessens the story narrative as he pictures the death that awaits these people. This should have been told at the end.
This is a great book to read. It shows the suffering of the Jews and those who opposed Hitler.

A fantastic story told by the man for whom it was a reality Leo Bretholz set out to write a book, not because he is a bookwriter, but because he has a story to tell. His childhood in Vienna, living the holocaust as a life event, loss, danger and the exhileration of escape and survival unfold with the suspense one usually expects from a fictional thriller. The thing that makes this book important it that it is the truth. Highly recommended for those interested in this period of history, and equally as a good read for for everybody.

full of surprises, turnes and twists is this true story of World War 11. My heart pounded as I read Leo's harrowing tale of escape. It is with both pleasure and pride to say that I personally know this man. He has been a friend of my family for many years. I never knew the true extent of what he had to endure just to survive until I read this book.

What a wonderful teacher Mr. Buscaglia was! This book should be read by every human on earth -- maybe then we would all have more humanity and love and peace. Not to mention the fact that it teaches us to love ourselves because of who we are and he teaches us to learn about US and each other! WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL! GO HUG SOMEONE TODAY! Thank you for keeping this magnificent man's books in publish!

Leo Buscaglia is my new "best author" and for a good reason.His phylosophy on life-embracing love,learning and living-has changed my entire perspective on my life and the way I see myself and others.It is amazing to me how he focuses on the "small things" like hugs and smiles to brighten up ones life as opposed to the more complicated suggestions of others. I know his "teachings" work first hand,having experienced them at my work place where everone read the book.His advice created a little heaven for me at that time of my life and I still continue to live what I learned and "teach" it to others. My most valuable lesson was to learn to forgive my (and other's) imperfections.

lIVING, lOVING AND lEARNING IS A MUST-READ BOOK FOR EVERYONE. IT CONVEYS THE MOST INSPIRING WORDS TO THE HEARTS THAT NEED HEALING, STRENGTH AND COURAGE. AFTER READING THE MESSAGES CONVEYED BY ONE OF THE GREAT AUTHORS LEO BUSCAGLIA, LIVING, LOVING AND LEARNING TAUGHT ME AND CONTINUALLY TEACHES ME TO VALUE LIFE AND ITS CREATOR, HOW TO ACHIEVE INNER PEACE AND LOVE, AS WELL GIVING IT AWAY THAT OTHERS MAY RICHLY BLESSED BY IT. READING THE BOOK AND IMPARTING IT TO SOMEONE IS LIKE BUYING IT FOR THEM. EACH OF THE WORDS IN EVERY MESSAGES PICTURES OUT THE INSPIRATIONAL TOUCH OF THE MOST HIGH THAT USES THE AUTHOR TO EXTEND PEOPLE'S LIVES BY TEACHING THEM TO BE COURAGIOUS, AS WELL AS BRAVING THE STORMS OF LIFE BY BELIEVING IN ITS BEAUTY AND GOODNESS, AND LEARNING FROM ITS PAINS AND SHORTCOMINGS. TRULY, LIVING, LOVING AND LEARNING IS A TWO-THUMBS UP BOOK.

I've read this book over and over again, and every time I find something new. I have bad allergies and serious asthma and I need to have all the facts. Allergy-Free Gardening by Thomas Ogren is full of facts, full of important material you really can't find anywhere else. I read everything I can get my hands on about allergies and I like to garden too, so this book is perfect for me. I like the way everything is arranged in the book, very easy to use. The plants are all allergy ranked on a one to ten scale (where one is best and ten is worst) and this makes plant selection clear and simple. Ogren's writing is excellent, always interesting and cleanly expressed. Many years of research went into the writing of this fine reference book, and it shows. The book covers a very wide range of landscape and garden plants, and includes plants from the tropics to Alaska. All the plants are climate zone ranked, cultural garden tips are given freely, and there is much advice on how to find actual allergy-free plants. These allergy-free plants, it turns out, are usually female plants, since they don't produce pollen. There are pollen-free trees, bushes, vines, flowers, and even lawns. The exact names of the best plants are all in this neat book and when I go to the nursery I always take my copy with me. One of the best books I own!!

Finally, an alternative to massive drug-therapy for folks with pollen allergies! Allergy-Free Gardening is a radical book, full of the valuable information allergy-sufferers need to excercise control over their immediate environment, the most likely cause of pollen allergies (unless you live in Tucson, where the city planted fruitless mulberry trees whose highly-allergenic pollen makes it impossible for some to go outside).

Ogren includes a comprehensive listing of plants and gives each an OPALS (Ogren Plant Allergy Scale) rating, so the informed gardener can now plant wisely and avoid plants that make people sick. OPALS is being used by the US Dept. of Agriculture in cities throughout the country-we can hope that with this new information, Recreation and Parks departments can begin making informed choices about what to plant in public areas so the likes of the Tucson fiasco is never repeated.

It's an indespensible guide for any allergy-sufferer who loves to garden, any gardener whose children or family suffer from pollen allergies, and should be required reading for all landscape architects. A real find!

Allergy-Free Gardening is an unusual new book, one that breaks new ground in an important way. I am an experienced gardener and I especially like the way this book is arranged. Everything is easy to find, perfectly understandable, and makes good sense. I find that the plant-allergy scale in particular makes this book highly useful. The author of this book, Ogren, has done a huge amount of work, and it shows. Surprising to me too, was the author's use of numerous interesting antidotes about different plants. This is a very well crafted book and everyone I've show it to has also been impressed. I would recommend this book to anyone with any interest in plants, gardening, and, or, allergy. The advice here will be invaluable in reducing allergies in cities big and small, and most of all, in the actual yards of the people who are smart enough to buy this book.

Only a very few people are capable of combining science fiction and fantasy, and even fewer can make it something that captures you as this book does.

The book starts off with a young woman on a planetary anthropological mission, on a world called Andrecia. Andrecia is medieval and primitive, and in no way capable of handling the knowledge that advanced, spacefaring societies exist beyond their world.

But the heroine, Elana, soon becomes involved in a plot concerning the potential invasion of Andrecia. But it is near-impossible for her to save the Andrecians, superstitious and magic-believers, from an invasion.

Nearby is also a medical guy, Jarel, who feels remorse at the intentions of the Exploration Corps. They do not consider the population of Andrecia to be sentient and worthy of their notice, and promise to bring destruction down on Andrecia. There is also the son of an Andrecian woodcutter named Georyn, who identifies Elana as the Enchantress of the Stars. He believes that she has come for the purpose of testing him, if he can defeat a fearsome dragon in the forests.

This clash of the sophisticated and the simple is well-drawn and almost saddening at times. Georyn's faith in Elana's "magic" is truly touching, without making him appear ignorant or dumb. Elana is an excellent, intelligent heroine who captures your sympathy and does not let go. Her struggles with integrity and truth do not transcend the reader, but are ones that you feel as much as she does.

Too often in books there is a clash between magic and science, but in this particular book there is no clash. Perhaps that is partly due to the writing style -- half the magic seems to be in the otherworldly descriptions, interspersed with more grounded prose in the right places. (And Engdahl definitely knows how to write a beginning that will suck you in) Though some things like "Imperial Corps" and "Federation" imply a pseudo-Star-Trekkian space opera, this is none of the kind. This is a thoughtful work, filled with intelligent questions that will stimulate as it entertains.

This goes on the shelf beside Tolkien and the Riddlemaster trilogy.

In her novel Enchantress from the Stars, Sylvia Louise Engdahl combines science fiction and fantasy to weave together an intricate plot and tell an entertaining and interesting story. The time in which this story takes place is not clear. When the book begins, it seems as if Engdahl is writing of the future. As the story progresses, it seems as if she is writing of the past. In the end of the book, the two times intertwine so that it seems as if time does not exist at all.

The plot is set on the planet of Andrecia, home to a poverty-stricken, primitive society in which the people live in small rural villages and are governed by a monarchy. In one of the poor Andrecian villages, at the edge of the dreaded Enchanted Forest, lives a woodcutter with his four sons, all of whom dream of better, brighter futures. While the three eldest brothers wish for power, gold, and treasure, the youngest, Georyn, wants only wisdom equal to that of his King. Thus, when word travels to them that the person who slays the dragon inhabiting the Enchanted Forest will receive from the King whatever reward he desires, all four brothers are eager to set out at once. However, the dragon is actually a giant machine, or rockchewer, built by a far more technologically-advanced society, the Imperials. The Imperials, who are planning to take over the planet, have created the rockchewer to clear the land so they can build a colony. As the Andrecians appear one by one to Òslay the dragon,Ó they are paralyzed by the ImperialÕs stun-guns, making them defenseless captives.

Another society of people, even more advanced than the Imperials, is determined to stop them from taking over the planet. Elana and Evrek, two teenagers, and ElanaÕs father journey to Andrecia to help the native Andrecians revolt against the Imperials and scare them off the planet. ElanaÕs people have the unique ability to move objects with their minds and to communicate telepathically. As a result, Georyn and his brothers believe Elana to be an Enchantress. Through many tests and a developing friendship, she teaches Georyn how to control the movement of objects and prepares him for his face-off with the dragon.

"Enchantress From the Stars" is an engrossing book that keeps the reader on their toes from the very first chapter. Weaving together two different genres allows Engdahl to interest readers of all kinds. "Enchantress" is not only a story about dragons and spaceships, it is also about testing the true strength of love. A definite must read!

What do you do when you get a glowing recommendation for an obscure book by an unprolific author you've never heard of? Well, if you're like me, you react skeptically, yet with fascination. So I jumped at the chance to get "Enchantress from the Stars", knowing it was rare. It's one thing to read a book *knowing* it will be good and it turns out so. It's something more special to go into a book with no expectations and to be totally blown away by it. That was what happened to me when reading this book. The lines of science fiction and fantasy blur here thanks to some very clever storytelling. It all takes place on the planet of Andrecia, the natives of which are analogous to those of Mediaeval Europe. Their planet is being invaded by a scientifically-oriented spacefaring culture. A small number of field agents from a culture further advanced than either of the aforementioned (and posessing psychic and telekinetic powers) arrives with intent to get the invaders to leave the planet to the natives. They go about this by telling a young native man named Georyn and his brother that they are sorcerers and that they will endow them with special powers that will make the invaders leave. The story goes beyond the standard "good vs. evil" plotlines in such stories, and posesses a refreshing sense of humanity that reminds me slightly of Ursula Le Guin. To say this is an excellent book doesn't begin to describe its majesty and emotional power.

I'm an extremely picky avid reader, and especially adore fantasy. Sabriel tell sof a girl, and a father who gets taken by a the Dead. She must becom ea necromancer, of sorts. While others use their powerful bells to bring the dead up, she must become the Abhorsen, and keep the dead down. She must venture off into the Old Kingdom to save her father, and the kingdom from Kerrigor. She meets a prince, frozen as a block of wood for two centuries.
This novel's plot winds like rope. It has a classic quest plot, but with countless twists. Nix's charecters seem so real! When a charecter falls, you can practically feel the pain. When a charecter cries, tears roll down your face. I especially love Mogget, a Free Magic being bound by a red collar in the shape of a cat. To find out more, READ IT!!
It's a must have book, filled with magic, dark deeds, dark charecters, and even a little bit of love mixed in. Lireal is the sequel, and Abhorsen is coming out in 2003, cannot wait!!!

We've all read stories starring the tough girl, out to kick the world head over tail kind of character. Sadly, these characters all too often have nothing better to do with their time than to wander around playing hero. Don't get me wrong- I love books with female heroines. But sometimes you get that feeling that they lack- well- heart. All too often the tough girl stance gets taken a little too far. Which is why I love this book. Sabriel is entirely human- a young woman who has her own goals, her own life, and who manages to uphold her values without ever giving in. Yet staunchness does not make the character; Sabriel's basic humanity is what lets her reach out and touch you from within her paper world. She gets angry, she gets even. She loves Touchstone, hates the evil that has invaded the Kingdom, treasures her father, respects Mogget. . . . It is almost a relief to 'meet' a character with such basic reasons. Don't get me wrong; there's nothing elemental about Sabriel. She has her reasons for doing what she does, and Gareth Nix does an exceptional job of writing within the female Psyche. I have, on occassion, run into those few and far between writers whose opposite sex characters behave nothing like real people, and have always regretted the experience. Okay- anyway, I found Nix's characters to be richly portrayed, human, rational, and logical. Better still was his world- on one side, a person might have a life much like ours. On the other you have a place where magic still thrives, and the great charters rule the land. The tension is nicely played out, the book climaxes nicely, and the end is resolved fairly satisfactorially. I certainly would not quibble with the concept of a sequel- In fact, for a book this good, I can only hope that at some point Nix returns and writes a sequel- either about Sabriel or about one of the Abhorsens before her; maybe the story of her father or the woman who built the paperwings. One can only hope.

Don't be misled by my title - I am an avid Harry Potter fan. But for crying out loud, why does IT get all the attenton when absolute JEWELS like "Sabriel" are around?

This book is AMAZING. As 170odd people have said already it's about a 18-year-old girl named Sabriel who has to destroy Kerrigor and free her father, the Abhorsen - except it might be HER turn to be Abhorsen!

Reading past reviews people say that she's a very typical teenage girl, and I agree. She is normal (as it goes) enough to symphathize with but weilds EXTRAORDINARY power. PS The charter mark-stuff is AWESOME! I wish Nix had explained that in greater detail.

So this book is a must-read for all you fantasy people out there. Others like it are His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman), any thing by Tamora Pierce, and of course MY books when they come out, which I HOPE is soon. Also, duxrox.

Alex "Skinnybones" Frankovitch is a memerable character from one of my favorite books as a young adult. Barbra Park delivers a story about a young boy who feels out of place and uses humor as a defense. This book still makes me laugh out loud, and I think children of all ages can relate to Alex because he is the underdog that always see to get himself into some kind of trouble. I am studying to be an elementary teacher and I planning on reading this book to my class because I know I will enjoy it as much as they will!

This book was great! Everybody should read this book. My teacher read it to me in third grade. The whole class always laughed and always wanted the teacher to read more. The book is about a boy named Alex. He always lies, is a terrible baseball player, and always gets himself into terrible messes. Then, there is the jerk, T.J. who is a great baseball player. Everybody thinks he is all that and he is always picking on Alex about his size and what a bad baseball player he is. Read this book! I would reccomend it to anyone!

I throughly enjoyed reading this book to my class this year. I laughed the entire time, so did they! It's great for any age, I've used it in both fourth and second grades and it's always a bit hit! This book takes a look at the lighter side of being the underdog as a kid. Skinnybones/Alex is a thrill a minute and Park uses everyday words and phrases that keep everyone rolling! This makes it REAL easy to "get into character" while reading, that's part of why it's so well liked, kids love watching adults act like nuts every once in a while. I highly recommend this one!