Personally, I loved this book. Poor Talley falling for the bad boy. come on, girls, you know the old story. You say no, your heart says yes, you fight it it til you give in. It's love, it's life. It's crazy. It's real. It raises many new questions also in the readers mind about the skin their in, the life they lead, the lovers they have . . . . If you were Talley, you would fall to for the David with charms until you grow up and see the true thing-Victor Davis in this case-to be for you. :))

i found this book, to be a good read. i just didn't like how Teely felt under David's charm so quick.

This book is a wonderfully written book. Its realsim is astonishing.I recommend this book highly.

I'm puzzled as to why IN THE BEGINNING is listed by Amazon as a children's book! Perhaps a child would enjoy the astounding pictures, but it would be only a very advanced child who could read or understand the impact of this examination of the religious beliefs of other cultures. It's the perfect book for cultural anthropology students or mythology buffs. It would certainly tweak the curiosity of readers who wonder about the origins of religion.
I found it a book that led me into more exploration into a fascinating field.

This is the perfect book to introduce readers of all ages to the creation myths of different religons and cultures. In these days when the teaching of evolution and modern cosmology are controversial, this book provides valuable perspective on the way different people have accounted for the earth and its inhabitants. It should be required reading for all public school administrators, and would be a valuable addition to any school (or home) library.

When I made the discovery of Mrs. Adair's poetry by her first
volume Ants on the melon, I quickly turned to her third release Living on fire, only to find the high expectations set by that first installment to be confirmed. Virginia Hamilton Adair provides a wonderful celebration of the joys and tragedies of her life. She reflects on love in its many guises, music, old age, her own blindness, the Mojave, the Mississippi (or Nature in general), the transcience of things and DGA (her late husband Douglass Graybill Adair), once again with the wonderful clarity and directness which characterized Ants on the melon.

It's difficult to pick a favourite. But I certainly loved it how she makes fun of her Victorian fellow-poet Robert Browning and composer Eric Satie (her fine humour is never absent). Especially touching are her poems about love. And I think those about her blindness are heartwrenching, as well as the more darker poems in the DGA section. Though she's wonderfully tender and funny in the joyous poems which celebrate her love for her late husband.

Virginia Hamilton Adair indeed lives on fire and by her poetry she lights fires.

The third book by V. H. Adair is in the style of her first, 'Ants on the Melon'. The solar eclipse on the cover is evocative of the light verse of sheet music of the early 20th century , masking the alternative light and dark verse inside. The reader is drawn into the humorous couplings of guinea pigs, to be left viewing their corpses strewn along the street. The seduction continues in V. H. Adair's verse, and the reader is never disappointed.

This book is great! I've read it 4 times and recommended to everyone that loves children's books. It brought back childhood memories of the big dust storms we once had. The writing of Virginia Hamilton, as always, is superb. The characters were real to me and the illustration allowed each character to dance through out the story. I loved Lindy's character. I've recommanded the book to others because of it's down to earth discription of how things were. I remember playing in gullies like the one the garden was planted in. Each of us have out childhood memories. We lived in the dry dusty country of West Texas. Thank you for the opprotunity of being able to tell others how much I loved this book. The reason I found this is because I wanted to buy one to show my grandchildren how it was in the dust bowl days.

An excellent collection of stories of early African Americans, Many Thousand Gone begins with the first slaves arriving in the United States in 1619 and goes through the close of the Civil War and the end of slavery. Each chapter relates an easy to read account of people who represent the events surrounding slavery, particularly during the 1800s. Accounts of escapes along the Underground Railroad are included as well as the stories of individuals who played a significant part of black history. These include Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Soujourner Truth, and many others. All in all, this book was a joy to read and very informative.

New Daughters Of The Oracle: The Return Of Female Prophetic Power In Our Time is drawn from Virginia Adair's worldwide trip to learn as much as she could about people, especially women, who profess to be psychic. Filled with condensed interviews, exotic practices, and human experience in such varied nations as Italy, England, Hong Kong, Greece, and much more, Highly recommended for women's studies, metaphysical studies, and alternative medicine reading lists and reference collections, New Daughters Of The Oracle is an eye-opening look at the intercultural belief in human psychic powers and those who claim to practice this gift.

This excellent biography of the great Paul Robeson chronicles his life as the son of a runaway slave beginning in the 1890s to his disappearance from public life in the early 1960s. This book is wonderful for reluctant readers because it is interesting AND easy to read.

The wide time span covered by Paul's life covers many of the most tumultous years in American history. This book covers many important historical and personal themes such as hypocracy of the federal government (democracy in the 1910s-1950s) and society, search for acceptance as an individual and performer, desire and struggle for social justice, and hatred and opposition to fascism.

Paul's activist stance is a wonderful example for all young readers, no matter their ethnicity. His life was lived to the fullest, and his legacy is an important one in African-American history specifically and American history generally.

This bio is a great way to introduce young readers to the strange times of McCarthyism and how these times affected individuals such as Mr. Robeson. It is also a wonderful way to introduce young and old readers to a positive role model who was actively seeking positive changes in our federal government and our global community.

Paul Robeson's life story is a great way to show readers the importance of keeping an open mind and keeping open opportunities to make new friends, despite the consequences (Paul's relationship with communist Russia).

Read on!

Sweet Clara's aunt teachers her how to sew and she makes a quilt. She and young Jack leave because they were slaves, but you are going to have to find out if they make it to freedom or not. I liked this book. It was very interesting and I learned about history. I think you will like it too.

Sweet Clara and the Freedom QuiltThis wonderful book``Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt'' was by Deborah Hopkinson. The Publisher is by Alfred A. Knope. The illustrator is James Ransome. There are 15 pages and the intended audience is 7-11 for kids to read.
Sweet Clara was a very brave girl. She really wants to get back to her mother. Sometimes I like to make quilts just like Clara. I like it when Clara starts making the freedom quilt.But I do not like it when Young Jack escapes too see Sweet Clara.
I did like the book ,because it was freeing the slaves.

Sweet Clara is taken from her momma and sent to work as a field hand for Home Plantation. The work is hard and Clara dreams of going back to her momma. Lucky for Clara, Aunt Rachel teaches her how to sew, which means being a seamstress at the Big House. There she hears for the first time other slaves talking about the Underground Railroad that can carry them to freedom. But without a map of where to go, runaways fall prey to "paterollers." Then Clara gets the idea that a quilt could serve as a map to freedom once it is completed. Gathering information about the Railroad as she collects scraps of fabric to make her quilt, Clara dreams of the day it will be finished and she can travel the road to freedom with her loved ones.

Deborah Hopkinson's story assumes young readers already know about what slavery meant in the United States in the years before the Civil War. The focus on "Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt" is on the inventiveness and courage of a young girl in helping her people wind their way to freedom. What I like best about James Ransome's paintings are the evocative looks he always captures on Sweet Clara's face, which help tell the story as much as Hopkinson's words. This is an excellent book for young students to learn more about the Underground Railroad and the quest for freedom.

I read this to my daughter, Rachel, and she really enjoyed it. She smiled throughout the entire book. She loved the animal folktales about Bruh Rabbit, and Bruh Fox. She trembled with delight at the reading of the scary tales. As for her mother, my favorite was the title tale, The People Could Fly. It was magical!

I read this book as a child. The lessons that I learned from it have lasted well into my young adult, I am now 23 years old. The illustrations are first rate. This book should be a literary standard for all children books. Anyone with a child needs to have this in their children's personal library.

Fascinating folktales from an African-American perspective, this work evokes memories of the strength of a people to find magic, wonder, and spirituality in a time when oppression was the norm. Miss Hamilton, along with illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon, has produced a work of timeless importance. One of the few books that I can't keep on the shelves of my classroom, it is an essential for every teacher or person interested in exposing children to a wealth of literature.

I'm a literary dilletante and I admit it. I picked up this book because of its swell cover and title.

Upon skimming it in the bookstore, I was hooked. Poems about life, without sappy metaphor or tricky construction. Good earthy, practical poetry. Such breadth of matter, such depth of understanding. I felt that I'd met a poet of substance.

Let's leave it at this, Adair nudged me into reading more poetry, more often.

Virginia Hamilton Adair was raised in an environment which seemed truly perfect for a (budding) poet. She was born as the daughter of Robert Browning Hamilton (a poet himself). Her parents suffused her with poetry and gave her loving encouragement. Though for certain reasons she began only to publish them as a book collection in her eighties.

And I for one am very glad to have discovered her! Mrs. Adair doesn't mince words and speaks in a direct, assured and clear voice, so no mannerisms here. She takes a refreshing and intelligent look at things. I do love her fine and wicked humour.

These poems cover a wide range of subjects. The experience of a long life is distilled here. Heartwrenching are many of the poems in the Exit Amor section, because in 1968 her husband committed suicide. Her grief and despair found it's voice in her poetry (One Ordinary Evening, Dark Lines, The Ruin, Exit Amor, The Year After or Coronach).

So try out Ants on the Melon and you'll discover a wonderful poet!

It's always unfair to compare one writer to another, but if you love Emily Dickinson, then Adair's book is for you. Succinct, masterful use of the language. I loved this collection. Buy it!