St Elmo was one of only three American works of literature to sell more than a million copies in the 19th century. Almost unknown today, it is the story of a wicked and evil man who is saved by the love of a virtuous woman. Augusta Evans owes Jane Austen some debt for the plot.

I bought this book right before I went to Japan, and the only time I read it was when I was on the plane. It is not an easy book to read. The book is split in half, one side is all Japanese, and the other half is all roma-ji. The main problem is that one side looks so nice with just Japanese characters, but the other side is just a mess. I learned to read and write the romanized characters differently, so it is confusing for me to try and read the roma-ji. Some of the translations feel a little bit strange to read as well. I don't know anybody who talks the way sentences are translated into English.

This book was first published in 1987, but if you look at it, it feels like it was made in the 60's. Don't waste your time with this book. It is just frustrating and you'll get annoyed flipping back and forth trying to learn.

I have used this book quite a bit and although I can't give it five stars because the phrases are a bit dated, It provides a good basis for the educational kanji. The book is divided into at least two sections. One has short stories or dialogs, the other has drill sentences. There are over 2000 drill sentences. They also provide the drill sentences in romaji and English. I like the book so much, I'm buying another copy.

I had to write a review about this book. I have been studying Japanese for 10 years, and I started with the series of books by Hamako Ito Chaplin and Eleanor Harz Jorden. This book should be used together with the other books in the series for the best results. I was writing in kanji after the first month of studying and I used very little Romaji using these teacher's methods. I was also speaking quite fleuntly within a years time. I recommend getting the tapes or CD's that accompany the other 3 books. Although, some of the sayings maybe out dated they are still used by many Japanese native speakers and are readily understood. This book is 2 volumes in one. The Japanese lessons are written in kanji and hiragana and katakana. There is a Romanized version of the text lesson, and vocabulary and grammer notes. Also included are Romanized versions of the drill sentences and an English translation of the drill sentences. This book is for the person who is seriously looking to become proficent in Japanese writing, reading and understanding grammer. What this book is not is a quick study of learning to read and write in Japanese during an 8~12 hour plane ride. If you are interested in learning to just recognize kanji for a quick trip to Japan there are other books written just for that purpose. The teachers who have written this book are teaching at Yale University. From using this book with their other textbooks I was able to recognize and write 5000 kanji (I also used a kanwajiten).So I really recommend this book as a great place to start when you are ready to begin writing and reading in Japanese.

It is a great book for toddlers to draw related things that they imagine when they see the scene and things in the page. But it's quite disappointed that there is only few pages for fun.

My son just loved this book so much, I've got to get one for my nephew! Ingenious to combine the love of reading with the imagination of creativity! My son is the biggest Elmo junkie, so this is right up his alley, (and at least he's no longer writing on the walls!)

After searching for a simple chalkboard for my son, I came across this wonderfully interactive book. My son loves to draw in the book long after Elmo's adventures are done! At two and a half, he's trying to copy the letters in the book on the boards.

Moon Over Lake Elmo is a novel that you have to read very carefully to fully appreciate it's contents. The book is not written in a sequence of events or narrated, it is composed of letters written from the main character to his daughter and of journal entries varying in dates from the 1950's to the 1990's. I think Steve Thayer does a good job of portraying an American family and all the problems they go through in fairly good detail. Millions of Americans come from broken homes as divorce is no longer as uncommon as it was in past times, so many readers can relate to these types of problems with relative ease. The fact that the book is written out of journal entries & letters gives the reader a very personal insight into what someone might go through in such a situation. It is a good read, in my opinion, and I would reccomend it.

Moon over lake elmo was a series of letters going through time and generations. Although placed sparatically throughout the book they told the story carefully and beautifully. It showed the difficulty with life. Surprisingly it didn't focus on the inter racial relationship too much. But it did show how violence and abuse can affect one's mind. Overall the book was very good.

I agree with the publisher's weekly's review. The book did lack details. But it made up with the realism that can come with using letters as a medium for communication. By reading these letters and journals we can get a sense of what these characters think. I like how this book was written.

i really liked the book moon over lake elmo. it goes into description of her life 1992, her fathers life from the time penny died till '92, and her grandfathers life in 1955. i enjoyed the diary entries from angela and her grandfather. the letters that steve wrote to angela were in full detail on how him and penny met, and what was going on in his life after penny died. it was kinda sad that her father left her with nana and how he didnt take her. over all the book is really good i couldnt put it down. if i had a choice i would read it again and i would request it to anyone!!!

My son is 16 months old. The flaps in this book are a little big, and there aren't enough of them for his taste. I think this book might be more appealing to younger childern. Also, I wished there were more photos of real babies under the flaps, and not of puppets.

You can't tell from the description, but this is a lift-the-flap book. It took my 18 month old less than 48 hours to rip out most of the flaps. The photos are clear and the pictures of Elmo are cute, of course. But there aren't a lot of other things in the pictures to use to help build vocabulary. As much as my daughter loves everything Elmo, I can't recommend this very highly.

I bought all four of these books for my 18-month old daughter and they were well worth it for her. She sits on the floor and just turn the pages, flips the flaps and says ooooh, baby, ball and other little words. If your child enjoys the Elmo's World series on Sesame Street, they will love these books.

Its not worth paying for that toy bar which looks cute on paper, but doesn't really work well in practice. He has had this since 6 months old, and it is very difficult/close to impossible for my now 17 mo old son to work anything except the black and white roller. So while he does love the big peek-a-boo and other flaps inside the book, even I find it hard to push the triangle squeaky or turn that green dial or push the blue square, the toy is built way too stiff!!! he has done fine with similar concept toys like his crib activity center, so it is not for lack of know-how or trying.
The flaps in elmo's lift and look around the corner or one of the other big sesame street flap books are much more educational and just as much fun.

This book doesn't have many flaps, and the Busy Baby Toy part of it has never interested my 11 month old. We've since bought other lift-the-flap books with much more success.

My 14-month old son has enjoyed this book since he was 9 months old, but the flaps have torn off and the cover has become torn as well already. The activity bar at the bottom doesn't interest him and it's difficult to make the parts spin, etc. The idea for the book is good, but I would buy a good sturdy board book for a kid this age.

This fuzzy-covered book lures you with Elmo's adorable round face on the cover, but has nothing to offer on the inside. I found nothing entertaining for my two-year old or my one-year old. Each page contains approximately one word. It's dumb.

Although I don't totally disagree with the above reviewer, rated this book highly because it is one of our 1 year-old'sfavorites. It is true that besides the cover, the book is only 8-10 pages long & pretty skimpy on story/content. However, if your young infant or early toddler already loves Sesame characters like ours (Elmo. Cookie, Ernie, etc.) they may love the very simple story and colorful pictures. And our son runs over to this book first, because of the great elmo cover.

Elmo Doolan though being a mouse was dull, and that mice in general were dull. Father Mouse knew what had brought that on; Dimblehauser, the grumbling cockroach with no real love for mice had. And the time had come, Father decided, for Elmo and his sister Midge to learn who the rodent family really was. But the encyclopedia yielded little to impress - fascinating detail about distant relitives, and not so fasinating comments on the habits of certain very close relitives. Someone who really knew mice ought to write a book - why not Father? As the Doolan family researched, Elmo searches for the most exciting story of all - The Golden Mouse. Little could be found on him; was he even real? In the outcome, Elmo makes the discovery of a lifetime, Father writes an extradinary book. Dimblehauser too finds what he wants most. Charming and well written, but doesn't really have much in the plot and point department, except lots of information about mice. Interesting, though. :-)

This is a very cute book, with legs attached, but it is really tiny - much smaller than I expected. It is a decent book for the price.

An adorable book for Elmo fans, this little chunky book allows you to remove a Valentine created by Elmo, and give it to several other Sesame Street regulars on each page.

It isn't a very substantial read, but for kids who are of the age that just like to look at the pictures and flip through the pages, it is colorful and fun.

My toddler loved this book UNTIL the Valentine got lost in the car! If you get this book, keep close tabs on the Valentine!