Everyone knows Robert Louis Stevenson; everyone has at least one of the myriad books of his poetry. There are some stunningly illustrated collections of his poetry out now, notably two by Thomas Kincaide, among others. But how many of us have actually read all or most of his work? I'm guilty as charged.

This smaller, quieter version of Stevenson's poetry helped me finally, actually read all the Garden poetry. True, the illustrations are spare, but delightfully accurate. My children (7 and 10) were not as mesmerized by this book as they are by others with fanciful graphics, illustrations and larger type to accompany the poetry.

Still, this small book found its way into my purse to be used for waiting moments, e.g. at the orthodontist, doctor, and also to my bedside, where it's shear diminutive size did not dissuade me from reading "for only a minute or two." And within Stevenson's words and language lie the ferment of creative pictures. I liked to have my children close their eyes while I read short poems to 'force' them to use only their mind's eye.

I thoroughly enjoyed the adventures, moods, and images Stevenson conjures and at long last can understand why his poetry remains so classic.

When I was younger, well 5 actually, I had the chicken pox. This was one of my mom's favorite books. The words in the poetry just soothed me. It seemed like the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, knew exactly what I was going through.

You can't forget about the little toy soldiers (a poem) at your feet because when you are sick for days, you can imagine all kinds of things in your mind. The curtains billow like sails, the bedpost is your anchor. I sat there in bed and just floated away with the fun of having someone to share my illness. It seemed like a had a friend right there with me.

I loved the pictures too. The little kids are old fashioned and it made me laugh because the boys wore silly clothes, but they fit the time period, my mom said.

I love this book and keep it by my bed when I need to be relaxed.

Hayley Cohen

Most everyone knows that Robert Louis Stevenson was sickly, both as a child and as an adult, and the happy result for the reading public was his nearly feverish flights of imagination. Here, in an edition of his classic "A Child's Garden of Verses," that fever is complemented in spades by the fantastical illustrations of English artist Joanna Isles.

Isles uses an arsenal of utterly frivolous flowers, borders, insects, birds, kings and queens, fairies, and more to expand upon the imagination exhibited in Stevenson's poems. The children in these pictures are depicted as being in charge, being at one with their environment, and being delighted to be alive.

Some of the illustrations hint at the influence of artists more famed than Isles (Henri Rousseau appears to be a special favorite of hers--see the illustration for "The Unseen Playmate," in which a boy lies down in weeds that might have sprung from the edge of Rousseau's painting "The Dream"). Using both primary colors and pastels, Isles creates a world within the world of Stevenson's verse. The marriage of the two is a happy one.

This was the first Jack Reacher novel I've read. I'm not really sure whether it's the recent discussion of Child and Reacher on the Dorothyl listserv or the fact that the book was sent to me as an ARC and I felt like I had to read it, but I just never warmed up to the character. Or maybe it's because I'm coming to it mid-series (I'm one of those readers who likes to start at the beginning and read in order).

Whatever the case, I can see the point of those who complain that Reacher is something of a superhero. No one could take the constant abuse he does. He swims in the freezing ocean. He beats up steroid-enhanced bad guys. He kills dozens of faceless, cardboard bad guys. The thing I was most bothered by is his cold-bloodedness. Sure, the bad guys in the book are really bad guys, but Reacher could give Richard Stark's Parker a run for his money in the emotionless, steely-determination department. He doesn't seem to care--he's a killing machine--and that got old. I was especially bothered by the way he does away with the main bad guy, who had escaped his wrath ten years previously--with a slowly-inserted, razor-sharp chisel to the head! Yuck! Maybe the guy deserved it (he's drawn as a very, very bad guy in the book), but Reacher shouldn't be enjoying it.

At one point in the book, Reacher quotes Nietzsche--"whatever doesn't destroy us, makes us stronger." I think he needs to review the quote (also Nietzsche?) about how, when you're chasing monsters, you'd better be careful not to become one yourself. I guess it was the whole casualness with which the violence is handled that bothered me about the book, and I'm not someone who shies away from violence or from dark books. I don't think I'll be reading more in this series. A disappointment.

Readers would not go wrong in reading Child's back-list, but Persuader stands on its own, as do all the Jack Reacher novels. That's because Reacher is a character without a lot of baggage-literally. He has no home, no car, no family and not much more than the clothes on his back. No, he's not a derelict scrounging around in the garbage cans, rather he is ex-Military Police who just chooses to travel light and sees where life takes him. Usually that involves an adventure with a lot of shooting bad guys. Belief has to be suspended occasionally because no one could possibly get into as much trouble as Reacher does. Each Reacher novel is set in a new location with a new cast of supporting characters.

The first eighteen pages of Persuader have so much action, I was wondering if I was reading the climax instead of the first chapter. Inevitably, the pace has to slow down. There are some moments that drag, but overall it's a page-turning book. One quibble I have with the book, is that the continuity is broken by a back-story that dispersed throughout the present day story. The back-story just did not transition well. I was often lost for several paragraphs until I realized that the scenes took place ten years ago. It would have been better go give the past story it's own page and italicize it so the reader knows it is separate from the main story. Another problem is that the book veers off into the implausible one time too many for me.

Being a Lee Child fan I wanted to give Persuader 4 stars because I did enjoy it, but in the end just felt that this was not one of Child's best books.

Lee Child's seventh Jack Reacher novel "Persuader" is an intense story of revenge and intrigue told in the first person.

Former MP Reacher is the ultimate lonewolf...a taciturn, resourceful, powerful presence.

In "Persuader" he teams up with an "off the books" DEA undercover operation.

The sting to get Reacher inside the target's base that opens the book is explosive and sets the pace for a high velocity, breakneck plot.

Busting a drug import business is the DEA's goal (it turns out that it is far more destructive than drugs); Reacher's is to put an end to someone he thought killed ten years earlier. We learn his motive via an insightful backstory.

Hunter and prey stalk one another in this suspenseful, deftly plotted compressed time period window.

As usual, Lee Child makes the most of a limited cast by making all characters three dimensional, including the ruthless villains.

Reacher's credo is "Never forgive, never forget." Lee Child makes Reacher impossible to forget.

I ordered this book for my fundamentalist parents to help them "justify" my divorce. I felt that I needed to read before I past it on to them. I believe the book offered an insight to what they must be thinking and feeling. Above all, it says what I could not say to them.... "Love me, anyway!" The author was compassionate, understanding and dealt with real-life situations. She did not get into negative specifics but continually stated to love your child and show that love in positive, non-confrontal ways. I'm sending this book to my parents!

My four year old boy, anthony, absolutely loves his "Benjy Book". I would recommend it to any parent of a kid under six.

A book with lively characters, with a strong story line, with fans of "The Golden Compass," with lots of fun British slang---what more could you ask for?

"Child X" is a well-written book, although the story line seemed a bit predictable to me. I could tell what was coming with the divorce, when the main character just couldn't understand why her dad was gone. But I must say, there was a great twist at the end (that I won't give away!) that surprized me and a happy ending after all. Jules is a character with a lot of spunk and a cheeky British vocabulary, which makes the book fun to read and balances out the predicibility factor.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book--just not to older teens who will see through the plot right away.

"Couch Potato Kids" is a good start for parents who want to take a more active role in their children's lives. It, however, does not go into enough depth on resources for parents such as Turn Off the TV dot-com, home school/parenting assocations and other resources for parents trying to find alternatives to the influence of television.

This book is full of great, original ideas for teaching gifted kids at home. There's helpful information for determining whether and how your child is gifted, but for me, the most useful part was the language arts exercises themselves. There is a wide range of ideas, writing topics, and suggestions for projects -- they all lend themselves very well to adaptation for different skill levels and learning styles. It's been a great resource and is my favorite supplement to the English textbooks we use with our kids.

I have been caught in between being too strict and being very lenient and I think my kids were getting very mixed messages. This book finds a middle ground which allows us to have healthy, loving children who are polite and disciplned. Instead of swinging from one extreme to another, grab this book and give it a try.

I'm attracted to Lee Child's novels because of the hardboiled and self-contained nature of his hero, Jack Reacher. After almost two decades as a military cop in the U.S. Army, Jack now wanders the U.S. with only the clothes on his back - no car, no charge cards - and a penchant for crossing paths with assorted villains. Very soon, the reader begins to feel sorry for the Bad Guys.

Reacher is so unpolished that one sometimes wonders how he reached officer grade O-4 (Major), which would imply managing a wardrobe, knotting a tie, and displaying minimal social skills in the officers' mess and at the CO's annual Christmas party. It's not that Jack is a Neanderthal; he just doesn't care to run with the rest of the lemmings anymore.

In WITHOUT FAIL, M.E. Froelich, who heads the Secret Service protection detail for the newly elected Vice President, Brook Armstrong, hires Reacher to audit the security of the new Veep's protective screen. Froelich is also the ex-girlfriend of Jack's dead brother. After finding holes through which a potential assassin could drive a monster SUV, Reacher learns why the Service really wants his help. The VP is receiving credible death threats. And it may be an inside job.

I would've awarded WITHOUT FAIL at least one more star had it not been a Jack Reacher adventure. But it is, and here our prickly protagonist has to play well with others: Froelich, her boss Stuyvesant, FBI guy Bannon, and a colleague from Reacher's old Army days, ex-Sergeant Frances Neagley. Reacher's talent for punitive violence is severely curtailed compared to past episodes, revealing itself only at the very beginning and the very end. In between, Jack is reduced to being a consultant, even to the point of wearing a suit. Say it ain't so, Lee!

The most interesting character is Neagley, now employed by a civilian security firm. She's ostensibly more deadly at physical combat than Reacher himself, and he admits to being afraid of her skills. So, the reader waits, hoping she'll unleash some mayhem. In the meantime, we learn that Frances, while being a little in love with her old military boss, has a severe dislike of being touched due to some unspecified trauma in her past. Unfortunately, Neagley remains mostly a cipher, and the entertainment value of her character is left pretty much unexploited. Perhaps she'll appear in a future Reacher novel. Better still, the author should give her a series of her own.

I hope the next Reacher thriller is JACK IS BACK. With a vengeance.

When the newly elected Vice President's life is threatened, the Secret Service runs to nomadic soldier-of-fortune Jack Reacher (Echo Burning, 2001, etc.) in this razor-sharp update of The Day of the Jackal and In the Line of Fire that's begging to be filmed. Why Reacher? Because M.E. Froelich, head of the VP's protection team, was once a colleague and lover of his late brother Joe, who'd impressed her with tales of Jack's derring-do as an Army MP. Now Froelich and her Brooks Brothers-tailored boss Stuyvesant have been receiving a series of anonymous messages threatening the life of North Dakota Senator/Vice President-elect Brook Armstrong. Since the threats may be coming from within the Secret Service's own ranks-if they aren't, it's hard to see how they've been getting delivered-they can't afford an internal investigation. Hence the call to Reacher, who wastes no time in hooking up with his old friend Frances Neagley, another Army vet turned private eye, first to see whether he can figure out a way to assassinate Armstrong, then to head off whoever else is trying. It's Reacher's matter-of-fact gift to think of everything, from the most likely position a sniper would assume at Armstrong's Thanksgiving visit to a homeless shelter to the telltale punctuation of one of the threats, and to pluck helpers from the tiny cast who can fill the remaining gaps because they aren't idiots or stooges. And it's Child's gift to keep tightening the screws, even when nothing's happening except the arrival of a series of unsigned letters, and to convey a sense of the blank impossibility of guarding any public figure from danger day after highly exposed day, and the dedication and heroism of the agents who take on this daunting job. Relentlessly suspenseful and unexpectedly timely: just the thing for Dick Cheney's bedside reading wherever he's keeping himself these days. Book-of-the-Month Club/Literary Guild/Mystery Guild selection; author tour

So far, author Child has yet to deliver anything less than a riveting book. Without Fail gives us Reacher in the ultimate urban setting: the heart of the Secret Service in DC. What would, in less capable hands, have been a deadly dull tale of a highly experienced outsider brought in to help the woman in charge of the detail protecting the vice president-elect is, in Child's hands, a fascinating study of how seemingly innocuous pieces of evidence lead from point to point until the reason behind the threats and assassination attempts is revealed.

Writing in the spare, tight prose that has become synonymous with Reacher's character--this man who owns almost nothing, lives anywhere, but is not emotionally unencumbered--the plot builds in pitch until it hits a crescendo, literally in the middle of nowhere. Reacher and his associate, Frances Neagley, (former military associate he has called upon for assistance on this job) work together like the proverbial well-oiled machine, and it is pure pleasure to witness how they think, how they deduce, how they calculate odds, risks, plans of action.

The author allows the behavior of the primary characters to reveal their inner lives, rather than wasting precious narrative time (and flow) on attempts to explain them from the outside-in. Final words, a half-written letter, the touch of one hand on another all have great import as a result.

This is a fine book. Most highly recommended.

I'm a big fan of Lee Child. His first book, "Killing Floor", was an excellent read. His second novel, although not as good as his first, was still a book I couldn't put down until I had finished it. However, on reading his third book, I was extremely disapointed to find that Lee Child seem's to have gone all "Hollywood" and "mainstream" in that he seems to be reaching for the female readership at the expense of his loyal male following, whom his first two books were aimed at.

Jack Reacher is Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. A Charles Bronson or Arnold Swarzennegger. Alas just as Swarzenegger sold out in order to reach the female audience with his kiddie films etc, Lee Childs has turned parts of his third book into a slushy, soppy romance. Not only do we have the obliqitory "Hollywood" sex scenes but the excitement and anticipation of this action thriller stops and starts because action hero Jack Reacher can't stop thinking about his girlfriend whom he falls in love with. This is extremely disapointing. It really spoils the book and dilutes the main character.

In the first book Jack Reacher was a "John Rambo", a drifter with no emotional attachments wandering from town to town trying to make some sense of his life and his past. In this book, Lee Child has lost his sense of direction with his character.

I hope that Lee child doesn't start borrowing his mother's bedtime reading otherwise Jack Reacher might start changing nappies, denying his masculinity and want to search for his feminine side. Worse, I fear that Lee Child may turn into a male version of Babara Cartland.

of readers, because I think that Tripwire represents an evolution of Child's storytelling, and is better than his first two novels. Of course, that is probably because I'm a woman who wanted to see Dirty Harry evolve, as well....nevertheless, here's what I thought of Tripwire...

"Tripwire" is the third outing for Lee Child's Jack Reacher, and the first in which the much-decorated soldier finally appears to want to put down roots in his post-military
saga.

Lee Child cures most of his writing style issues in his story of a brutal and sadistic villain, Hook Hobie, and his way of life following his unlikely escape from a firestorm in Vietnam.
Hobie is a devastating foe, and his willingness to kill and pursue pain in order to cover up his past knows no bounds. His motivation, once his identity is known to Reacher, is still a mystery, that remains so until the end of the book. Caught in the crossfire is Reacher's former commander, Garber, and through his death both Reacher and Garber's daughter Jodie are caught up in the killing fields of Hobie's need for cover. The situation is made more complex by the military regime's need to also continue the cover up, but for different reasons. Reacher's reaction to Jodie is a central force in the novel,
His feelings for her go back fifteen years. This might be the central lynchpin that has Child turning his future story line around from Reacher the wanderer to Reacher, the same investigative force in civilian life as he was in the military.

Child, whose willingness to describe savagery and weaponry in detail in past novels, does not change his focus, but does change the level of detailed description, in a positive way.
His eye for the upstate New York landscape and the level of descriptiveness he uses in his setting in Tripwire much improve the plot. It's a big plot, with great flashback sequences to Vietnam and to the early days of Reacher & Jodie's relationship, and interesting and well-researched detail into the counterfeit currency trade.

Lee Child scores big and leaves the reader anxious for his next Reacher novel, "Running Blind."
Enjoy.

I have now read all of Lee Child's books thus far, and am looking forward to the next one. In Tripwire, Jack Reacher has bummed around the country long enough to need to earn a little spending money. He is happily uncommitted and digging swimming pools in Key West, Florida when a private investigator comes looking for him. A short time after he stumbled across Jack in a bar, the investigator is killed. Jack returns to New York looking for anwers to the questions of who had hired the guy to find him; what they wanted to know; and why was he killed. His old mentor's daughter, Jodie was the one looking for him, and he locates her as she is attending the funeral of her father. Her father had been involved in an investigation that was leading into a military coverup when he had a heart attack and died. He had been trying to help two old people find out what had happened to their son in Viet Nam. Jack takes on the job of completing the search, the suspense builds as he gets closer to the bad guy, and we are introduced to the long time love he has had for Jodie who was way to young for him back when he was in the military. The new twist in this book happens when Jodie's father leaves his house along with all the resulting responsibilities to Jack in his will. Will he have to give up his life of anominity and drifting as the spirit moves him? It's a great read.