I was teaching a unit on birds in my elementary classroom and came across this book at the library. I immediately purchased my own copy. The illustrations are wonderful! The author uses an interesting story to tell how birds came to build their nests. The magpies are the "teaching" birds and the others are trying to learn how to build a nest. Just as children do - many of them listen to the first part of the directions and off they go because "they know what they're doing." Most of the birds listen to only part of the instructions, therefore, there are many different kinds of nests being built. This can lead into a terrific discussion of the types of nests that you might have seen. You'll have to read the book to find out about those lazy cowbirds and cuckoos. Anyone who wants to know more about birds and their nests will treasure this delightful book.

this book was great. I really enjoyed reading it. I especially liked how they introduced Cindy as the new character. She makes a good new addition to the series. I hope the books with her will be as good as the ones with Sam nad Ashleigh. Anyway, I'd recommend this book to anyone so don't hesitated to pick this book up in the bookstore.

At first when I found out that this book would be about a different character, I didn't want to read it. I mean, Samantha has been my favorite character and I loved how she finally got her own horse Shining. I was also finally starting to get into reading about Mandy. All I wanted was to read more about Samantha and Shining. I knew that once the character switched, Samantha would pretty much be out of the picture. But then I read it and it was really good. It of course was about an orphan that Samantha finds in the barn one night. Samantha fights to keep her at Whitebrook. Samantha's Dad and Beth finally get married, which I knew was going to happen sometime. I was a little disappointed that nothing really happened with Shining, I mean she's probably my second favorite horse in the series (Pride being my favorite). Samantha and Tor had some problems with their relationship which I thought was very realistic. I thought their relationship was going to turn out being exactly like Ashleigh and Mike's. You know, Mike was her first and only boyfriend, everything was perfect between them, and they got married. I'm glad it wasn't that simple with Samantha and Tor. I was glad that Mandy and Yvonne were in it too. I've always liked how nice Samantha was to Mandy. Anyway, the basics of it are that everyone fights for Cindy(The orphan) to stay. It really isn't much about the horses, which I didn't like. I did like the book overall though. I definitly would give it 5 stars!

This one was really good. I had been meaning to buy it for awhile, but for some reason I didn't. I am now very glad that I did because it is one of the best in the series.

This is one of the emotional books. I could completely sympathize with Samantha when Angelique is trying to take Tor away. I almost cried when they took Cindy away.

I love this series, it is one of the best I have ever read. I have read the majority of the books.

This is such a good book, I seriously reccommend it!!