In this book Herb serves up various, nutritious dishes including "Grand-Ma-Ma-Flora's Spaghetti Sandwich," "Herb's Chili Con 'No' Carne," "Herb's 'Those Amazing Potatoes,'" "The King's Favorite Veggie-Burger," "Herb's Radical Dragon-Salsa," "Chocolate Banana Walnut Bread" and "Herb's Simple Strawberry Slush."

Each recipe contains easy-to-follow directions and tips as well as a fun introduction about the recipe. Some safety rules are also included at the beginning of the book. While the recipes contained in this book are for vegetarians, several of the recipes contain no ingredients from animals and many other recipes could be easily modified for a vegan diet. –Reviewed by Glenn Perrett
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Seeing your parents angry, being scolded can be scary! People laughing at you & you don't know why - ah, I've known that one!

A good book to raise the subject of scary things, probably not one to read just before bed, however! Perhaps after a particularly trying day at school. Or just before Halloween! Or when something scary happens in your family's life.

This is a collection of Pinkwater novels that have been out of print for years (the original copyrights on these range from 1978 to 1982), but not out of mind. Alan Mendelsohn, in particular, seems to be well-loved and is often mentioned as a favorite of the younger set. I'm glad to finally have this opportunity to read it, for it is indeed a fun book, full of exceedingly strange twists and turns. You aren't sure if Alan is from Mars, or if he's just playing, and then you are sure, and then you aren't. It's Philip K. Dick lite, but it's fun.

Slaves of Spiegel and The Last Guru are much more simple (I would even think that they are meant for less mature readers than for the other three in this book), but like the best children's literature, they have something for everyone. I chuckled through Slaves of Spiegel, finding the contest quite amusing, especially the description of some of the delicacies concocted in the name of food, and I thought the satire, while obvious, in The Last Guru quite effective.

The Snarkout Boys resembles Alan Mendelsohn in its convoluted plot, but it seems much more grounded in reality, if a particularly eccentric reality, at least until the last quarter of the book. Its depiction of high school is stiletto sharp, but nothing as cutting as in Young Adult Novel. All the books have a jaundiced view of school, noting the common problems of cliques, moribund teachers, and the energy of youth (yes, that last is a problem--hey, you didn't think, as a teacher, that I would side totally for the kids, did you?). All of these novels were fun, and I would recommend them to your local dissident youth.

He kept coming to mind as I was reading this incredible book, as the characters, stranded on an island with absolutely nothing, accomplished such amazing feats as draining a lake, making a home, building a ship, making an elevator, and a great many other things. There is excitement, suspense (what IS going on on this mysterious island??), and wonderful, likeable characters. Not a real well-known Verne book, but fortunately still in print, and one of his best and most entertaining.

(Incidentally, if you want a children's version of the same story, try to find "A Long Vacation" by Jules Verne, which is extremely similar in plot, but with younger characters and for a younger audience - very charming!)

By the way, please do read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea first, if you have not already done so. Evidently, Verne assumed that everyone had when he wrote this novel.

Great reading!

Mention Jules Verne, and books that spring to mind are 20,000 Leagues, Around the World in 80 days, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Mysterious Island is one of his lesser known works, which is something of a mystery itself.

The book surpasses one's imagination and never fails to surprise. From the initial pages when Capt. Cyrus Harding and his friends decide to escape from a prison camp, the story seizes the complete attention of the reader, and unfolds at a pace and in a direction excelling Jules Verne's characteristic stories. The spirit and ingenuity of man is demonstrated in almost every page, as Cyrus and Co. find themselves marooned on a deserted island, and armed with only their wits, transform their desperate situation into a wonder world of science and technology. The reader is drawn into the adventure and finds himself trying to find solutions to the problems and obstacles that lie in plenty for the castaways, as Cyrus and his indomitable friends surmount myriad problems in their fight for survival. They are aided in their ventures by an uncanny and eerie source that remains a mystery until the very end.

This book cannot fail to fascinate and inspire awe in the mind of any reader. One begins to grasp the marvels and inventive genius behind the simple daily conveniences and devices that are normally taken for granted. The line between reality and fantasy is incredibly thin, and for sheer reading pleasure and boundless adventure, this book will never cease to please.

PS: The book has been adapted into a movie, which is one of the worst adaptations of any novel that I have ever had the misfortune of viewing. It is criminal to even mention the movie and the original work in the same breath.

As I grew older, I started to learn all of the puns and double meanings strewn throughout the book. I still loved the adventure story, but now I began realizing that the book was very funny as well.

During some move or other, I lost the book, but now I look forward to buying it when I have kids and rediscovering the world Norton Juster painted in the Phantom Tollbooth with them.

Milo is a kid with no opinion about anything. He never likes what he is doing, but sees no point in doing anything else. As he says, "It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time. There's nothing for me to do, nowhere I'd care to go, and hardly anything worth seeing." One day he receives a strange package containing one genuine tollbooth, one set of instructions, and one road map. Expecting this to be just a dumb activity, Milo puts the tollbooth together and drives through it in a small electric car. He travels through a strange land to a city called Dictionopolis, on the way picking up the Watch dog Tock, who has a watch for a body. Once in Dictionopolis, Milo, Tock, and their newfound friend the watchdog and the Humbug are caught up in a quest to save the princesses Rhyme and Reason and restore order to the world. On the way he meets strange people like the Whether Man ("for after all it's more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be") and Alec Bings who sees the other side of things and is born in the air and grows down to the ground. Milo and his newfound friends Tock the watchdog and the Humbug are caught up in a quest to save the princesses Rhyme and Reason and restore order to the world.

Norton Juster does a great job making The Phantom Tollbooth enjoyable and humorous. He combines clever puns and real pieces of literature and math to make an extremely interesting story.

" I read [The Phantom Tollbooth] first when I was 10. I still have the book report I wrote, which began 'This is the best book ever.'" --Anna Quindlen, The New York Times

"A classic... Humorous, full of warmth and real invention." --The New Yorker

I rate this book 10/10 stars.