Lily and Trooper are wonderfully developed characters, visually. The paintings are wonderful in each page-bright, cheerful, cartoon-like. Children will really love the pictures, but the drawings have to carry the book because the story is too simplistic, and doesn't really have that quality that engages a reader. Still, the entire season-series is enjoyable.

This is a friendly and simple board book with a few delightful surprises. First, the young reader (or audience) may not initially realize that main characters "Jane" and "Teddy" are the dolls of the titular "Lily" and "Willy." Second, after several gentle scenes where Willy's Teddy copies whatever Lily does with "Jane" ("Jane wants to climb a tree. Teddy too."), Teddy surprises us by not copying the nap that Lily gives Jane: ("Jane wants to take a nap. Bear NO!")

It's a nice indirect take on the difficulties of naptime and the individuality of toddlers. The soft colors and simply told story will be popular with very young toddlers, With only 12 thick pages and 22 different words, this board book may also appeal to the very early reader.

From the back ****** HER SECRET WISH ..... Lily Brody had eyes for the most handsom man in Sweet Springs, Texax --- Tyler Kincaide. But she was unable to speak and walk gracefully around him.
so when he asked her a matrimonial question, Lily was delighted... then insulted! How could she marry a man who didn't love her, a man who only wanted a nanny for his child?
Widower Tyler Kincaide never wanted to marry again. But he needed someone special to help raise his rambunctious daughter.
Lily Brody had morals, and yet Tyler couldn't understand her refusal of him. She got under his skin.
Tyler wanted to give her everything -- family, marriage... and his love. The question was, would she accept him? ******
Tyler's emotions kept getting in the way of his remaining alof -- Lily agreed to watch Bethann until she could find her aging uncle... the trouble was Lily made Tyler burn with ... frustration! He needed a woman ... he needed Lily.
This one I recommend for a great read.

There is a Jean-Luc Godard segment in one of those compilation films so popular in Europe during the 1960s. Imagine a high class brothel of the future -- located, as I recall, at an airport. The client requests an assignation and draws a prostitute who all but rapes him. He tries to open a conversation with her, but she is all action and no talk. The client protests to the management and draws another one who dresses in frills like a character from Jane Austen and recites romantic poetry. You've probably already guessed what happens: This one is all talk and no action.

I yield to no one in my admiration of Balzac, whom I consider one of the greatest story-tellers of all time. It is very obvious that the character of Madame Blanche-Henriette de Mortsauf meant something special to the author in his life: Her piety and fine-tuned sensibility, however, don't come across well in our time. Women who suffer endlessly and fritter their lives away in sighs tend to give rise to a frustrated "Oh, come off it already!"

The opposite of Mme de Mortsauf is the fascinating Arabelle, Marchionesse of Dudley, who conquers the narrator, Felix de Vandenesse, and keeps him in thrall with "caresses never before enjoyed by any man." Alas, Balzac uses the multi-talented Arabelle primarily as a warning to all Frenchmen how cold-hearted the British are. We are tantalized but far from fulfilled.

Call me a dirty old man, if you will, but I would rather that Balzac and Felix spent more time with Dudley and a whole lot less with Mme de Mortsauf. As it is, the latter dies horribly of her excessive sensibility, and Felix walks away from her grave resolved to live a life of which the angelic Mme de Mortsauf would have approved.

We all know that Balzac made no such resolution in his own life. Despite his monkish pretensions, the author spent all his life pursuing women. When, after a multi-year courtship, he finally snared his Countess, he died within a year.

It sounds as if I did not like LILY OF THE VALLEY. Far from it, I liked it a great deal; but do not see it as one of the author's more successful works. And yet, even at his worst, Balzac is better than most writers at their best, as when Felix muses "I loved an angel and a demon, equally beautiful, one of them adorned with all the virtues which hatred of our imperfections induces us to hurt; the other with all the vices which our selfishness prompts us to deify." Read it and judge for yourself.

When Officer Horn (aka Deputy Dog) catches Lily and her friends in the Girlz Only Club sneaking food to their bench in the commons and tells them they can't meet there anymore, Lily decides to step up and become an advocate. Citing examples like Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi and Rosa Parks, Lily sets out to end "injustice" around Cedar Hills Middle School.
But while Lily finds herself winning some victories over her teachers, she can't seem to win the battle against Officer Horn. But when a truly worthy cause arises, Lily can't seem to get anyone on her side. Has she gone to far this time?

Just when Lily Robbins is starting to get along with her sister Tessa, she has to leave for Camp Galilee with the Girlz. But the Girlz plans for a cabin of their own go awry when they discover that the counselors would not let them have a cabin together. Lily finds herself in a cabin with best friends Alexandria and Genevieve who look like models from a magazine, DJ, who becomes the outspoken leader of the group, and Maggie, who does nothing but talk incessantly and make Lily feel rotten. Lily goes through homesickeness, and it only gets worse when her friend Zooey is sent home with a severe allergic reaction to poison ivy. Lily herself attempts to contract the disease, but her attempts fail. The only highlight is the fact that Lily will get the chance to use a sailboat, but even that goes bad when Lily capsizes the boat from not follwing her instructor's directions. Lily finally has a talk with her counselor, Jackie, who helps Lily with her walk with God at camp. Lily learns, once again, about a servant's heart, and learns some more lessons from the Bible. I gave the book four stars because there is some sailing lingo that I did not understand and ended up skipping, because it confused me. But other than that this book is an excellent addition to the Lily series.

The Stuart saga began in Brittany, moved to Norfolk following the Norman conquest, and then to Scotland via that country's hereditary stewardship, but the consequential connection of the Stuarts with France starts with Sir John Stuart of Darnley. King Charles VII made him Constable of the Scottish Army in France and later created him Seigneur d'Aubigny in gratitude for his military successes against the English; he also was allowed to quarter his personal arms with those of France. Sir John's descendants became, at various times, the earls of Lennox and Richmond. And when the Stuart kings of Great Britain began their exile in 1688, where else had they to go but to their cousins in France? A well-written, well-documented history of a little-studied branch of an ancient family.

Ms.Beck's short stories deal with paranormal subjects such as life after death,the power of meditation,and ESP.I found at times that the writing was awkward and very dull and at other times it was captivating and flowing.The things she wrote about in her book are now commonly known about but at the time her subject matter was surely not broached too often and if written about,not with any factual basis.I've read many paranormal books and her theories seem to agree with what the experts in the field believe today.I think a lot of her wisdom came from travelling to places like India and China and picking up some of their spiritual beliefs.Most of the stuff we call "x-file"type occurences have been explained for years in Eastern religions.A highly recommended book.

My kids were interested and entertained by this book. They loved the illustrations and it gave them a great introduction to the art of Claude Monet.

This is a really nice little book, I was poking through it the other day. The description is lacking in one important detail however: this is designed for small children who are native speakers of Farsi, so that they can learn to read and write their mother tongue. If this is what you're looking for it's a fun little book.

Ibex Books, the source of this book is a wonderful little publisher and is well worth browsing their other tiles as well, in both English and Farsi. They also make some nice Bi-Lingual volumes.