Wonderful thought pattern- not many pictures, and no scratch an sniff- but the information covered is great!

You can plan your fragrances by the time of day you will spend most of your time in the garden- Also by the distance you will be from the plantings...

I would not want to part with this one!

Anyone who has ever leaned into a bouquet of flowers and inhaled or strolled in a garden breathing deeply will appreciate this beautiful book. Bales offers novice and veteran gardeners alike a comprehensive volume on how to design, plant and maintain an aromatic oasis sure to delight the sense of smell year-round. Included is detailed information about roses, lilacs, peonies, jasmine, magnolias and much more. Planning to exercise your green thumb this summer? Then check out Bales' book.

When expert gardener Suzy Bales claims that you'll discover a whole new gardening world by just following your nose, you will. This is a charming book, filled with the author's own memories of her favorite fragrances such as lilacs and peonies and how one can design a garden built around the scents they love. She covers everything from planting to care to which plants work best in combination with the scented blooms you're working with. Bales also demonstrates how to bring the aroma of the garden indoors with imaginative ways to use cuttings from the garden in containers, sachets, even an easy way to force hyacinth bulbs with minimum fuss.

For anyone with a nose that knows, this book is truly a treasure.

This book was decent and also funny.When Song Lee brings in her frog to school and feeds it liver, Harry falls in love. They pass love notes in class. the give each other gifts. Harry's best friend Doug wants him to stop all the love stuff. Will Harry listen to his best friend? Well to find out read Horrible Harry's Secret.

I thought it was an awesome book. All those 6 characters put in one book makes it absolutely hysterical. I liked when Harry sends the letters to Song Lee--you can find the letter on page 9. My favorite character is Song Lee because she is different from Mary, and she likes Harry. You'll have to find out the rest....

When Song Lee brings a water frog to school, and Harry sees that Song Lee feeds it liver, Harry falls in love with Song Lee! Harry gives her a letter that says: Dear Song Lee Do you like me? a. a little b. some c. a lot d. None of the above I like you. Harry. Then, Song Lee writes a letter back. Harry looked sick. Song Lee had marked d- none of the above. Then, Sidney makes Harry mad, and Harry is going to punch Sidney in the schnozzlola. Song Lee's letter also said: Dear Harry, I will like you if you don't fight with Sidney. It is bad to fight. I know because my Grandfather Bong die in Korean war. Song Lee. Then, it starts to snow one morning and on the way to school, Harry and Doug throw snowballs and have a deadly snowdown. Then, as they race across the playground, a red foil present falls out of Harry's pocket. Then, the class is drawing a mural of the joy of the Christmas and Chanukah season. When Sidney and Harry team up and draw a graveyard. Then, Song Lee writes a new letter that said: Dear Harry Remember your a, b, c, d letter? My answer is c. Song Lee. Then, Harry gives Song Lee the gift and inside is a necklace of gold ribbon with five burnt- out Christmas tree lights. Then, everyone draws a picture of a friend with the things they like for a border. Doug and Ida are a team, and Song Lee, Harry, and Sidney are a team. Song Lee drew Sidney with sticking up hair and put a border of canary stickers and Tinkertoys. Sidney drew Harry with a moustache and a beard and horns. Harry drew Song Lee with a border of frogs, liver, and toothpicks around it. Then, Harry hasn't flashed his pearly whites. Then, Song Lee draws Bong and gives it to Harry but it doesn't make him happy. Then, Doug sees Harry drop out 2 dollars. Is Harry a thief? Sidney, Doug, and Song Lee have tried everything but nothing will work. Then, Harry tells them he ran into a wall and his 2 front teeth fell out and the 2 dollars was the money that the Tooth Fairy gave him. Then, Sidney, Doug, Song Lee, and Harry go to the donut place and buy donuts with Harry's money.

I really liked this book. It was a great book to read. Harry had a lot og imanginatioin and that is what I think made it a great book!

Harry always had a creative and vivid imagination, but now he is seeing purple people in the classroom! But the bad part is that he can only see these purple people. And so no one belives harry- not even Doug his best friend.But all of a sudden strange and unexplainable things are starting to happen in Harrys classroom 2B!Is Harry playing a trick, or are the purple people real.well you will half to find out. So read the book because it is a great mystersy book and wonderful book too. BY SAMMY

I enjoyed Horrible Harry and the Purple People by Suzy Kline. It was a great book because Harry is cool. I laughed at all the different things that happened to Harry and his friends at school. It was neat how Harry used the purple ruler and the teacher from the bee. The thing that happened was when Harry showed the purple br pouring grape juice over his friend's head. I'm sure glad it wasn't me!

A charming story of some very believable second graders and a trip to a theme park with a scary ride. When harry is afraid to ride it, Song Lee and Doug, the narrator, help to give their friend some courage. Meanwhile, another boy is making fun of him and a little girl wants nothing to do with him. The story shows how we all have fears that the support of our friends can help us to overcome. The characters do not have much time to develop, but are very real. Song Lee and her mother are Korean. Their dialogue is written with their accent to show diversity. This is a good book for middle second-graders and above to get used to the style of chapter books. Chapters are less than ten pages, with large type and always an illustration.

Why 4 stars?:
The bully character can get a little out of hand. I would have expected someone to step in and not let him torment Harry as much. Still, this is a good book that will serve as a good introduction to chapter books. The nice part about this series is a reader can start anywhere without missing too much.

Horrible Harry and the Drop of Doom by Suzy Kline is a good book. The main characters are Harry and Song Lee. It starts out when Sidney dares Harry to try the Drop of Doom, an amusement park ride. Harry realizes that it's an elevator ride and Harry hates elevators! Next the children go to Song Lee's house for a party. They go to an amusement park for fun. First they went to the haunted house. The ride stopped and a ghost popped out in their face. Then it blacked out, the ride turned on and they got out safely. The next ride was the Drop of Doom! Finally, Harry gets on with Song Lee. It starts going up and up. The elevator door opened up to show the whole amusement park. Then the door closed! Song Lee squeezed Harry's hand, and then AHHHH the Drop of Doom dropped fast down. Harry made it. I highly recommend Horrible Harry and the Drop of Doom by Suzy Kline. By reading this book Harry will teach you two valuable lessons. First, always face your fears no matter how scary they are. Second, never forget that your friends are there to help you.

Horrible Harry and the Drop of Doom

A Book Report By ...

I am writing a review of the book Horrible Harry and the Drop of Doom. This book is one in a series of 'horrible Harry' books. This one happens to be an adventure of sorts. It is also filled with action and funny at times too.

Horrible Harry and the Drop of Doom is a book that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, but it is written to be read by kids from ages seven to eleven. People who like action and adventure are sure the like this book. I will tell you a little about this book.

Harry, the main character, and his friends finish their second grade year by going to an amusement Park. Harry is dared by his enemy, Sidney, to ride a new ride called 'The Drop of Doom'. This story tells about Harry' s struggle to overcome his fears. It talks about the importance of friendship and the power of peer pressure. It certainly discusses many issues kids this age face now.

I give this book a high recommendation. It is sure to hold your attention until the very end. I give Horrible Harry and the Drop of Doom 'two thumbs up'

This book was kind of good. The reason I gave it four stars is because I think each chapter should follow each other instead of being different each time.

This book has four chapters. In the first chapter the class picked secret pals. In the second chapter the principal found a cigarette under a cafeteria table. After that the class drew posters about the bad effects of smoking. In the third chapter they read Charlotte's Web. They put cobwebs all over the school. In the last chapter Harry taught the class how to spike their hair. My favorite chapter is The Demonstration. Why? Because I would like to give a demonstration to my class. I think other kids my age will like this book because it has many funny parts.

Horrible Harry and the Green Slime by Suzy Kline

Have you ever been very horrible? Well, if you
have you should read this book. Horrible Harry and
the Green Slime by Suzy Kline will give you very
horrible ideas. Harry is putting slime into the
principles hair. I recommend this book to a reader
that can understand friendship and horrible things.

I am a big BIG fan of Suzy Spafford and her "Suzy's Zoo." Long-awaited by her fans, "Alphabetical Soup" is delightful. My children often choose this book for their bed-time story. What a terrific dream starter!

This book is fabulous. I have used it in classrooms at school with much success, and the children love the story and pictures. I love to open the book just to look at the pictures. The students enjoy hearing all of the different foods that fit with the letters of the alphabet.

The 2001 edition was published before the California Adventure actually opened. As such, the illustrations consist mainly of sketches. The book is considered the house tour book of Disney so it is seldom critical. Criticism is important when discussing the new California Adventure park. The California Adventure as it stands now is not worth the money. Even with the new attractions, even the biggest Disney addict will admit that there is not that much to see there and is not interesting. I was in a party of four adults and we felt that we were done after about two and a half hours there. The book tries to hype the new park but it really isn't worth paying a full ticket price for. The rest of the book dealing with Disneyland and surrounding area continues to be good and the information has been updated for 2001. The book could be a little more adventurous and print information about local favorite restaurants, not just the usual tourist traps (let's face it, every city has Rainforest Cafe, now).

Only problem with these books is that they are not complete in explaining the Disneyland resort. Plus, they do not give correct negative reports on lines and other problems.

I used the book to plan my family's first trip to Disneyland Resort. Lots of information on :best time to go, where to stay, info on admission options,description of rides/attractions/shopping, etc... it helped me plan what my family really wanted to see and answered all of my questions about Disneyland and California Adventure. There is also info on attractions outside of Anaheim that would be helpful. Very informative without strongly voiced opinions..

I think I Was So Mad, along with the other Mercer Mayer books, is a great book that kids can relate to and learn from. In this book, Little Critter espresses his feelings of frustration and of being angry in a way that most children do in at least one point of time in their life. I enjoyed reading Mercer Mayer books as a child and even now i can't help picking up one of these simple books to read when i see one.

"I was so Mad," by Mercer Mayer, is a well illustrated, seemingly creative book for children. It is significantly simple for young children to comprehend, and is inticing. It tells another tale of Little Critter, and follows the same format of previous childrens books written by Mercer Mayer. " I was so Mad," is fun for children because they can relate to being told no when wanting to do things Mom and/or Dad disagree with. Little Critter finds it difficult to accept that he can't help paint the house, or have frogs in the bathtub. Toward the end, he is so upset having been told no repeatedly, he packs up and announces he is running away. On the way out the door some friends stop by and ask if he would like to join them at the park for a game of baseball. He asks Mom, and for once she says yes. He decides that for now he will go play, and if he is still upset, he will run away the following day. It was well written with young children ages 2-4 in mind.

I Was So Mad. By Mercer Mayer. Golden Book, 1983. 24 pages.

Little critters are obviously no exception to the repeated "no" that children hear throughout a day, according to Mercer Mayer in his book "I Was So Mad." Little Critter never gets to do anything he wants-even tickling the goldfish and keeping frogs in the bathtub are off limits. His family finally makes him "so mad" that he decides to run away, until he is at last granted permission to play with his friends. Although illustrations take up a good deal of the white space in this Level 2 easy reader, the large, dark, typeface remains easy to follow. Repetitions of "I was so mad" and "No, you can't" help the young reader get through some of the more unfamiliar passages yet are not monotonous as they are an integral part of the plot. The adorable watercolor and ink illustrations follow the text closely, and serve as a tool for the child trying to decode what Little Critter is not allowed to do. This delightful book serves as a good foundation for the six to eight year old reader who is learning that there is meaning behind the text he reads. Children will easily relate to Little Critter's complaints and likely will recall similar experiences, bringing them even more enjoyment while reading. Undoubtedly, Little Critter will quickly become a favorite friend for the beginning reader.

I have read all four books in the Holdfast Chronicles. I have sometimes wondered what the world would be like in a matriarchal society where women made most of the decisions. Would women be as violent and war-like as men have been throughout history? I doubt it! However, the women in Ms. Charnas post-holocaust world are surprisingly like their former (male) masters. I prefer the utopian world of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "Herland". Neither worlds are particularly believable. But it is interesting to speculate.

First, I don't know if this book would have the same impact if you hadn't already read the preceding three. That said, this novel is one of the best I've ever read (as are its predecessors). The characters are rich and complex, filled with contradiction and capable of growth and change. The dynamics of the interactions between different groups of people are as intricate and convoluted as in real life. The world of the Holdfast--both its culture and ecology--is described in rich detail. The prose is so good that it is invisible. I was transported into the future world of the Holdfast and was never drawn back to the present by a clumsy bit of exposition. You won't like this book if you don't like character-driven novels, or if you think that strong women characters have to be perfect. The Free Fems and the New Free are far from perfect, but they are utterly human, and doing their best to create a new way to live from the ashes of the old. 4 thumbs up! I strongly recommend that you read the whole series: The Slave and the Free (2 books in one), The Furies, and The Conqueror's Child.

The Holdfast/Motherlines series reaches a triumphant conclusion with this fourth volume. Many authors might have ended with the third novel, THE FURIES, in which the Free Fems, with the help of the Riding Women, invade the Holdfast and overcome the men, their former masters. But the reversal of roles between masters and slaves is only the beginning. As the young heroine says in the epilogue of THE CONQUEROR'S CHILD, there are no real endings.

This final book focuses on the "next generation"; the warriors led by Alldera the Conqueror have won back their homeland, and now her followers must build a new society, where men and woman can live at peace together for the first time in centuries. The renegade male who returns from the wilderness to attack the female-ruled Holdfast proves to be an anachronism; so also, however, does Alldera, already in the process of growing into a legend. The major viewpoint character, Alldera's daughter Sorrel (NOT "adopted daughter"), flees the Grasslands for the Holdfast with a boy child she has taken under her protection. The narrative follows the structure of Dickens' BLEAK HOUSE and Bradley's HERITAGE OF HASTUR, alternating chapters told in the first person by Sorrel with third-person chapters focusing on various other characters, thus combining the advantages of both intimacy and breadth.

Given that men must be kept alive for breeding, must they remain forever prisoners or chattel? Can they ever be trusted? Can they learn to live with females as equals? Can both men and women forget old bitterness and hate? What will become of the new generation of male children? Ambiguous, multifaceted, lifelike characters work together toward answers. Even though there are no "real endings," Sorrel's epilogue ties up a number of loose ends to provide closure for the reader.

This is another of those seredipitous finds in the unsavory neighborhood's secondhand bookshops. Charnas, the writer, goes into meticulous detail on the characters, daily life, food, clothing, and problems of an earth after the great "Wasting", when the Ancients destroyed and polluted our planet, save in certain small strongholds, such as Holdfast. In the environs of Holdfast, girls and boys are raised separately, as kits and cubs. The cubs are brought up in the Boyhouse, not knowing mother or father, since the threat to the older men is that the younger men will rise up and try to cease power from their fathers. The girls are bred in kitpits, fighting for the measly portions of seaweed-derived food, and prepared to be slaves to the men. They speak their own "femspeech", soft and slurred and always deferring to the men, with such phrases as "please-you-master" thrown in at the end of all sentences and strict avoidance of the word "I". Our heroine Alldera manages to escape to the forbidden wild hinterlands, and stumbles about pregnant through uninhabited valleys and forests, until discovered by a band of women called the Riders, who live from their horses and grains. There she is rescued, gives birth to a girl, and becomes a rider herself, until conflicts arise in her loyalties. She ventures off to find the 'Free Fems", those slaves who escaped and who live banded together elsewhere in the hinterlands. She finds herself ill at ease there, too, and not accepted for her detached discomfort.

More I will not tell, but for a reader like me, who at heart knows we are all lonely souls passing through the universe, there is something addictively seductive in a story of a loner who flees from one trap of slavery to the next, thinking and analyzing as she goes, trying to decide what she really wants. Many good scifi books are in this vein of an explorer of strange civilizations not understanding how to find his/her own "happiness", how to fit in.

What makes it all more pertinent to us now in 2001 is that the book was written 25 years ago, at the height of the women's movement in the USA, and reeks of an antipathy towards men because of their power over women. Since another generation has been born since then without that chip on their shoulder (theoreti8cally!!!), it's almost historic to read this now. You can think later, how far have women come, really? Are things different than then? I think so, but that's another subject.

Excellent story, with only one caveat - odd names and many of them make the plot sometimes hard to follow. The author also has the traditional mindset to let the reader know if a woman is "goodlooking" or not, regardless if it's relevant to the story.

Amazing how the beauty question will never be laid to rest. Women will always have it tough in this regard, as aging Michael Douglas can lure young actresses to bed, wed them and breed 'em.

From page one I found this book fascinating. The idea of a future where men and women have absolutely no use for one another...unless to subjugate and procreate. Very thought provoking.

This volume is a reprint of the first two novels of Charnas's Holdfast series, *Walk to the End of the World* and *Motherlines*. Together, these two novels were awarded a Retrospective Tiptree Award in 1996 and at last they are back in print.

Charnas writes in a spare, calm style that sets off the strangeness of the plot and setting to great effect. All of the Holdfast books (the series is now complete after four volumes) take place in an indeterminately distant future after the world ecosystem has collapsed and nearly all humans have died, along with most large species of animals. The residents of the Holdfast are descendants of the lucky few who were able to hide out underground in secret government shelters and who emerged after "the Wasting" to found a new society. The men of the Holdfast think they know what caused the collapse of civilization: the influence of women. Now known as 'fems', women are drudges and breeders and are beaten or killed for the flimsiest of reasons or no reason at all.

The first book recounts the journey of three men and a fem to find the father of one of the men. The plot twists are completely unpredictable and harrowing. It left me shaken, but giddy with all that the author had attempted and succeeded at. The second book follows the fem out into the wilderness beyond the Holdfast, where she discovers an undreamt of society of women who breed horses and reproduce without need of men. She also discovers a group of escaped fems like herself. And all is not sweetness and light. These are wonderful books that address power relationships with a psychological realism and depth of thought that I haven't often seen. And they are founding texts of feminist sf.