Mandy finds a family of hedgehogs and rescues them, but she and James have to trach them to live in the wild on their own again, without getting hurt.

The book's setting: The setting was at the town of Welford, in the very center of town.

Main characters: There were 6 hedgehogs: 1. Rosie was a mother of four whose leg was run over by a car. 2. Scout explored, and wandered, and was eaten by a badger. 3. Spike was the heaviest guy. Spike was named for his tail. It always went up like a spike. 4. Tiggy named for her clumsiness and size. 5. Speedy named for his incredible speed. He was the loudest of the lot. He helped Guy. 6. Guy was first found in a net farmer used for potting beans and plants. He was blind and was helped by Speedy. There were 3 children: 1. Mandy, a girl adopted by vets, has an interest in animals. She wanted to help the animals. She got all her knowledge from her parents. 2. James was Mandy's best friend. James' father, Mr. Hunter, was the very first to find Rosie and her babies and he almost put a pitchfork through her. 3. Claire found Guy, a blind hedgehog. Her father, a doctor, ran over Rosie's leg with his silver car. He turned his front yard into a hedgehogs' hotel.

Summary of the book: Rosie, a mother of four, was run over by a car. Her babies had to be nursed as well because if they were abandoned, they could be eaten by badgers and foxes. Then Guy was found. He was helped by Speedy, who followed him around, helping him, being his eyes, because Guy was blind. They were nursed by Mandy Hope, James Hunter and Claire McKay. There were four baby hedgehogs, but only three survived because Scout was eaten by a badger.

My personal reaction to the book: I think this book is sad, enjoyable and very well-written. It makes you really want to read on and on until you finish. But when you finish, you have this empty, hollow feeling. You got the hollow feeling because you've enjoyed the book so much. You really want to read on and on forever, but it always have an end. When it does end, you want more to read. I always like hedgehogs. I really like the hedgehogs in this story. I wish it wasn't so sad. It would be good if Scout wasn't killed. He was just wounded and he had to be nursed.

Hedgehogs in the Hall is a heart warming story about a young girl, Mandy, and her brother James. One day Mandy is outside and is putting some grass in the compost pile. Then a hedgehog pops its head out, and her little hedgehog kids do the same. The hedgehogs go in to the hall of Mandy's house and walk around. Then the mother hedgehog walks in to the street and a car is coming. The hedgehog was hit and was taken to a man from a clinic who helps the hedgehog's leg to heal. After the hedgehogs are all healed Mandy has an idea to make the hedgehogs safe from all roads and birds. Mandy and her brother think how to make a refuge for the hedgehogs. They talk to many people in the city. Almost everyone helps to make the refuge. After one week all of the work is done and the people have made a refuge for the hedgehog. Will it work? Or will all the hedgehogs die? I think the book is very good. If you like to read books that are similar to what happen in real life then it is a very good book for you. I like the little hedgehogs because they are very cute. I like the part when one of the hedgehogs is walking under a porch and it makes a funny little noise like a squeak. All around the book is very good and never gets boring. I would love to read the next four books because the author gives a lot of detail and good pictures. I wish the author would put more sounds in to her writing. I think this book should get a Newbery Award for a good detail and cliffhangers to the end.

I work as a DJ at a country radio station and I produce and host a weekly classic country program. I needed a book that provided a good bit of general information about a wide variety of singers and groups without a lot of useless information and what not -- this book has exceeded my expectations! As an "encyclopedia," this isn't something that you read cover-to-cover, but anyone who has ever belted-out a note of country music can be found with just the right amount of information. If you are looking for a country music reference book, this is it!

After hearing about this book, I was anxious to find it. I am pleased to report that it is indeed "the real deal" and not only met but exceeded my expectations. Well organized and easy to read, this encyclopedia provides just enough information in each entry to fill your plate. It is not too sketchy, nor too long in any areas (but I would have liked to read a bit more about Hank Williams and George Jones!) As an encyclopedia, it is not something you "read" per se, but rather "explore"...over and over. The names of familiar artists jump off the page and every scan can lead you to learn either something more about someone you know, or perhaps introduce you to someone or something totally new. Numerous illustrations (and it could use a few more)break up the mountain of text; the pictures provide enough rest for your eyes before scouring the pages for more well-researched documentation. This compilation is just awesome; the years of research have paid off in my humble opinion. What makes the book so wonderful is its scope -- suitable for a newcomer and also detailed and informative enough for the country music veteran. I highly recommend you buy at least two. One to enjoy as often as you want to and the other to offer as a special gift. Whoever you give this book to will NOT have another like it on the shelf. My "gift volume" will be going to my Dad as a tribute and thank-you for being weaned on the music that is country. If you love country music or think you want to, add this book to your library. There is enough interesting history and data collected here to satisfy even the largest musical appetite for the better part of year. ENJOY !!!

If it is possible to secure The Paris Review - Interview with writers published by Penguin through the 1970's and 80's

The Paris Review is the best literary magazine around (even though they've rejected all of my stories). But anyway, the interview and stories are top notch. I love the blend of unknown writers and famous writers. This issue is especially good, for it's a concept issue, "New British Writing." The forum is excellent, with each author asked to give their opinion on, of course, the state of "British" literature. Furthermore, George Plimpton is very inspiring. Just reading an issue wants to make you write better or start your own magazine.

If you want to test for your A.B. ticket, buy and read both of these books (1&2). They are the best I've seen or heard about. Some old sailors told me about them, I used them and passed.

Excellent sea adventure in the vane of Dana and Jack London's Sea Wolf. Light reading (some archaic terms). lots of action/adventure. Good kids book. Not PC at all. Lots of blood and gore. You know, real life stuff.

Hall has a powerful literary talent. His novel of harsh world of the Hundred Years War is fast paced and compelling as a piece of literature and utterly convincing as an historical description of medieval Europe at war.

I've always been fascinated by historical novels and there has been a distinct dearth of good ones recently. This one however, in my opinion, is on a par with the best of Shellabarger and Van Wyck Mason. The protagonist (Kemp) may possibly be less humble and more rebellious than a person of his birth would be expected to behave, and the behavior of the nobility less autocratic than they actually were, but all-in-all, it's a very good read.

I recommend it without reservation for those interested in this genre.

I found this book to be revealing and enlightening about one of my favorite singers. Nat King Cole had a voice like no other before or since. With his calm demeanor you'd never think that he endured so much hell in his life. No wonder he smoked as much as he did. This book is one of the best I've ever read about the life of Nat Cole, but like some of the previous reviewers, I found little errors, too. I also felt that it had a strong sympathetic bent towards Nat's widow Maria, as if she were the heroine of the story. That isn't any wonder; this book was written in full cooperation with the Cole family, so I'm sure Mrs. Cole would have had to come out of it looking good, or she wouldn't have cooperated. Also Epstein says that shortly before Cole died, that he and his wife reconciled after Nat's torrid love affair with a twenty year old chorus girl. According to many other sources, though, they never did reconcile their differences. But this is what Maria Cole wanted people to believe. But still this book is very interesting. It reads like a juicy novel, but it's better, because it's a true story. It's engaging and will definitely hold your attention. You will feel like you knew the man personally. For anyone who loves Nat and his music, this book is a must.

I finally got around to reading Nat King Cole, and like the previous reviewer, I, too, caught a few mistakes such as the one about Elvis. At least Mr. Epstein did have the family's approval to write this book, and to be interviewed by him as well. Like most baby boomers, I grew up listening to NKC's music but never really knew much about the man other than the fact that his wife's name is Maria, his daughter is Natalie Cole & that he died of lung cancer at age 45. This book enlightens us on Nat King Cole not just as a singer and musician but as a man. I really felt for the Cole family when they were subjected to prejudice while moving into their home in Hancock Park. I also felt anger while reading of how a group of radicals attacked NKC while performing onstage in Alabama, planning to kidnap him. Mr. Epstein also periodically mentions the warnings about cigarette smoking throughout the book, as it is heavy smoking(several packs a day)that eventually killed NKC. The book is still highly recommended for all fans of one of the greatest singers of romance, bar none.

This biography lets us view this gentleman and his music from his early days on the Chicago jazz circuit to mega star status as a pop singer, film and television artist. Daniel Mark Epstein, the author has been thorough in his research. We meet Maria and Natalie and a litany of Nat's friends, JFK, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Bobby Darin Buddy Greco and George Shearing. There is even an item about Marilyn Monroe. Nat's public image was one of poise and elegance. The author captures the hidden side of Nat's personal turmoil and anxiety. Nat died at age forty-five. So young, so talented, and very very unforgettable. I can still almost hear his trio and his smooth vocals crooning "Blue Velvet", "When Sunny Gets Blue" and of course, "Unforgettable". I liked this book. If you get a chance, listen to John Pizzarelli's version of "Straighten Up and Fly Right", a Nat King Cole favorite. It's on John's CD, "Dear Mr Cole." I liked this book and the CD

The early portion of this chronology is fascinating and offers a unique insight into urban government over the span of some 40 years culminating in a watershed event, the death of the old Mayor and the ascension of the new. The political insights were accute and could only have come from an insider. The cultural aspects of the early portion of the book are worth exploring as yet another insight into the Irish ascendency in politics, with a rather unusual twist of the WASP frontman.

The last twenty per cent of the book is a disappointment, filled as it is with percentages of wages, expenses and other numdane matters. It is not that the book is too long, it is that the writer apparently ran out of steam or information. He failed to capture the excitement that the new way of governing created and the innovations which the late Mayor Whalen inspired. Having attended the 18th First Night celebration last week, I have a deep appreciation of the revitalization of Albany that Mayor Whalen accomplished. Albany is alive and vibrant thanks to his initiatives, many of which go unrecognized in this effort.

Three hearty cheers for author Dan Button on his 85th birthday and the unveiling of his latest creation, a scholarly, well-researched and timely book on Tom Whalen, the 73rd Mayor of Albany.
"Take City Hall: Mayor Tom Whalen and the Transformation of New York's Capital to an 'All-American City'" deals with the vision and leadership of one man, Tom Whalen. His courageous and determined quest to transform Albany, the Capital of the Empire State, from the iron-fisted ways of a late-19th-Century political machine to the progressive "All-American City" of the 21st Century is presentated in a readable and enlightening manner.
Dan Button has accurately and without bias documented for all time the living accomplishments of Tom Whalen and his administration.
"Take City Hall" is a must read for all the citizens of America's Great Democracy.

Probably one of the first examples of journalistic fiction, Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year" is a pseudo-eyewitness account of the London plague of 1665. Writing this in 1722, Defoe casts himself into the role of his uncle whom he calls H.F. and who recounts the events in grisly detail but with magnanimous compassion. Aside from the prose, the book has a surprisingly modern edge in the way it combines facts about a sensationally dire historical event with "human interest" stories for personal appeal. It seems so factual that at times it's easy to forget that it's just a fictitious account of a real event.

The plague (H.F. writes) arrives by way of carriers from the European mainland and spreads quickly through the unsanitary, crowded city despite official preventive measures; the symptoms being black bruises, or "tokens," on the victims' bodies, resulting in fever, delirium, and usually death in a matter of days. The public effects of the plague are readily imaginable: dead-carts, mass burial pits, the stench of corpses not yet collected, enforced quarantines, efforts to escape to the countryside, paranoia and superstitions, quacks selling fake cures, etc. Through all these observations, H.F. remains a calm voice of reason in a city overtaken by panic and bedlam. By the time the plague has passed, purged partly by its own self-limiting behavior and partly by the Great Fire of the following year, the (notoriously inaccurate) Bills of Mortality indicate the total death toll to be about 68,000, but the actual number is probably more like 100,000 -- about a fifth of London's population.

Like Defoe's famous survivalist sketch "Robinson Crusoe," the book's palpable moralism is adequately camouflaged by the conviction of its narrative and the humanity of its narrator, a man who, like Crusoe, trusts God's providence to lead him through the hardships, come what may. What I like about this "Journal" is that its theme is more relevant than its narrow, dated subject matter suggests: levelheadedness in the face of catastrophe and the emergence of a stronger and wiser society.

Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year is an interesting volume that blends fact and fiction quite indiscriminately, as the author intended. It is easy to forget it is fiction as it reads as fact (and it seems likely there are enough actual facts strewn throughout as to enhance this perception). Defoe was less concerned about these issues concerning fiction and non-fiction than modern readers and writers and it is fascinating to see an example of the early beginnings of novel writing. The style could frustate some readers (there is virtually no attempt at characters and only small strands of a narrative per se) but the descriptions of a town in crisis were both gripping and fascinating. An unique volume.

When a subject is gruesome it attracts notoriety. Unfortunately, if it is real, it loses it. This story of the the affects of the Plague in London in 1665 should be required reading for all people of all civilized countries. How the Plague started, how its spread was covered up initially and why, how the government was forced to respond, what happened to the economy and the outlying regions - these things could happen any day in any year in any country. Look at the news archives of the spread of SARS, how the government in (I think) Indonesia enacted house quarantines, how the Chinese economy was distablized. This is a very real warning and will not lose its timeliness as long as people build cities and economies. He is not just describing what happened but giving us warning and ideas for how it can be handled better.