I thought this collection was ace! The one set in the museum was the best. It was kind of creepy and sad in parts but has a very interesting story and the end explains a lot. If you have kids, they will like this one too.

I did not like so much "M.C. Higgins the Great" which I thought was more for boys. I didn't read this one though so I don't know what it's about except for the first five pages.

For all your parents out there my Mom liked "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwiler" as well. If you liked reading you will like this even if you are any age at all.

I am still reading "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimth",

I also recomend "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit" in another book.

I just finshed Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. It was an ok book. It was an ok book because it was not a believable story. Another reason is because I do not like fairy tales. Rats were trained to read and write. A mouse helps a crow out of a trap. So if you like fantasy you will like this book. So go ask librarian for this book at your local libary.

I was delighted to find these three classic childrens books in one volume. I read these stories as a child and I wanted to be able to share them with my nieces and nephews. All three books teach life lessons while presenting a fun adventure. The Mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is an excellent story about two children who decide to run away from home and hide in a museum. The story can be read a chapter a night. It keeps the children interested and allows them see museums in a whole new light. My second favorite book in the collection is The Rats of Nimth. The book is so realistic and compelling, you forget the main characters are rodents. Finally, M.C. Higgens the Great.The main character is quirky, fun and has so many adventures! Truly, excellent stories to read aloud to your children or as a gift.

This is a fascinating book that I read as a child and recently reread (and purchased) as an adult. This book was one of the first I read of the 'fantasy' genre. It really sparked my interest in these types of books. I highly recommend it.

This is an excelent book,after a while you get sucked into another world where Justice,Thomas and Levi live.But after a while you might get lost in the strange plot.

It was a great book because I like science fiction. I recomend this book to people in grades 5-8.

Willie Bea is a spunky character, also called 'Will Bea" by Bay Brother. Willie Bea extremly dislikes her bratty cousin, Little. All she wants is to be liked by her rich aunt Lucy. But in the end she gets a lot more than she expected.

Mrs. Adair has produced a charming and illuminating volume of poems with a spiritual theme. Most are very personal and deeply evocative, and her voice is clearly one of strong and fulfilling belief in Christ. The brevity of the volume makes it a welcome read, again and again.

Virginia Hamilton takes her readers on an adventure-filled ride in The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl. This book was quite enjoyable because of the mix of fantastic, mythological, and historical content. My imagination was immediately captured by Pretty Pearl's "voice" in black dialect as she described her wonderful life as a god-child. The story begins when she comes down from Mount Highness in Africa to live among the humans and use the four special spirits given to her by her brother, John de Conquer, to help mankind. She witnesses the trials of the American slaves, tries to combat Hunger, and lives in Promise, a hidden place for Native Americans and escaped slaves. Younger readers will like Pearl's willingness to try to fix "adult things" and older readers will enjoy recognizing Hamilton's frequent distribution of historical figures throughout the story. We can all find something to identify with in this story because it emphasizes that though we may all look different, we are still the same in our needs and beliefs. The ending of the story surprised me and left me with a great respect for Hamilton's storytelling skills. I strongly recommend this book.

I am very sorry to say, that when I got to page 17, I was very bored with the book. It took me forever to read it because my mind kept wondering. I just put it down and started another book. AI couldn't read it any more

This story was one of the best stories I have every read. Even though the story is fiction it seems very realistic. The story was sad at points but I loved the book!

I loved this book it was hard for me to put it down, and it was also sad

Sometimes children can be unknowingly mean and brutal. Virginia Hamilton's characters seem real and natural. And how real and natural for children to tease and fear what they do not know. Hamilton's characters move smoothly from at first being fearful of Bluish to knowing her, understanding her illness, and becoming protective. Although not too many unexpected twists and turns, Bluish quickly draws you into a group of very likeable characters. "Girlfren'" Tuli is a hoot. Excellent reading for 5th or 6th grade.

"Bluish" is a novel by Virginia Hamilton, a prolific and multiple award-winning author of books for young readers. "Bluish" tells the story of Dreenie, a young girl who attends a magnet school in New York City with her brainy (but annoying) younger sister, Willie, and their eccentric friend Tuli. When a pale-skinned, apparently ill girl in a wheelchair joins her class, Dreenie is fascinated by her. The girl is nicknamed "Bluish" due to her bluish complexion. Dreenie begins a diary documenting her evolving relationship with Bluish.

"Bluish" is a gentle, moving novel about overcoming fear of someone who is different. The book is a hopeful celebration of childhood friendship. A nice touch is the fact that entries from Dreenie's journal are interspersed between the chapters of the novel. The book also offers an interesting perspective on the multicultural, multifaith world of NYC schoolkids; there's even a little primer on the celebration of Kwanzaa. Overall, an impressive effort from Hamilton.

This book is for middle school youngsters, 5th and 6th grade, although it would be appropriate for a precocious 4th grader and slower 7th grade readers. It is the story of three young girls who become friends after a very unlikely start. The title refers to the skin color of a sick young girl in the protagonist's Dreenie's class; a girl who is pale, weak and restricted to a wheelchair. All of the children, including Dreenie are afraid of the girl and try to avoid her. Later on it becomes clearer that most of them do not dislike her; instead they are afraid of her and the thought of sickness and dying.

Virginia Hamilton who has more than a few titles for young readers under her belt writes Bluish. Unlike some of her fantasy-based work, this is squarely set in contemporary New York with all the attendant urban problems we see on the news. For example, Dreenie almost jumps out of her skin while waiting for her father downstairs in their apartment building. Although she was warned not to go outside, she does just that, looking left and right for her father. Instead he comes in front of her and cautions her yet again that she has to look three ways: left, right and across. It isn't stated, but youngsters have received enough parental warnings and seen enough news shows about abduction to the author's point.

The book is written in a different type of style - it ping pongs back and forth between a journal format (Dreenie's diary) and a regular third person narrative style. While it was a bit unsettling for me as an adult to get used to the format, young people may not have as many preconceived notions of what a novel should look like. Dreenie has a younger sister she has to watch over every afternoon until her parents come home from work, again very realistic of today's world for many youngsters. The younger sister, Willie, of course irritates her big sister to no end, and makes matters worse by being an extremely bright and outspoken child. Every so often her resentment at being so responsible for her sister comes through, as it does in some of her later conversations with Natalie or "Bluish" as Dreenie calls her.

The second key figure in the friendship is Tuli, a bi-racial youngster who lives with her Grandmother and often pretends to be Spanish. Tuli is loud and energetic; highly observant of her surroundings and people and is often very needy. Sometimes so much so that Dreenie feels like she has yet another sibling to watch over. Dreenie feels as if Tuli tries to be too much a part of her family and should spend more time with her Grandmother.

Their teacher who tells them she has leukemia but is on the mend finally explains Natalie's illness. The disease requires that she rests a lot and that she sometimes vomits in class as a result of chemotherapy. Natalie is bi-racial as well with a black father and a Jewish mother who initially takes offense at her daughter's nickname, mistakenly thinking it is a crass put down of being black and Jewish. After she realizes the truth, she warms up to Dreenie and later on Natalie's family attends a Kawaanza celebration at Dreenie's house.

Natalie helps her classmates understand some Jewish traditions such as Hanukkah and brings a dreidel to class and teacher her classmates how to play the game. She also brings knitted caps to all of them saying she has lots of time resting in bed and knitting helps her pass the time. The caps are all bright and colorful and the children love them. The caps also bond them with Bluish who has to wear one all the time due the chemo-induced baldness.

This book will introduce children to a variety of "others." Sick children, the physically challenged, bi-racial youngsters and those from lower socio-economic classes. In one fell swoop, Hamilton poses a number of "isms" for young minds to grabble with, all the while writing about likeable young girls who are engaging but no goody two-shoes. Dreenie can be extremely impatient; Natalie can be aloof and sarcastic; Tuli can be narcissistic and childish. In short, they are real-life children who struggle with real issues facing young people today. Hamilton does not end with happily ever after. It is left open ended as to Natalie health. While she is steadily improving, its made clear she has a five-year window before the doctors will consider her in remission. Tuli remains poor and living with her Grandmother. Dreenie is more comfortable in her new school, but still wonders if she will truly be the intellectual equal of her younger sister. All in all, an enjoyable read that is believable and engaging.

The Bells of Christmas had some parts that were interesting. I would have liked to learn more about the father's handicap. However, it seemed like most of the book passed with Jason sitting by the National Road. Learning about the Road seemed to evoke the most interest from my fifth-grade class. One year of that was enough.

I thought the was very interesting and heart-warming.My favorite part was when Jason and his father went and waited for thier cousins to celebrate Christmas along the National Road.It shows how much love the family shows for each other. By Cynthia Santagata

I call this book an easy 'A' because its tha kind of book that your older English teacher will shove in your face as 'great' and if you give it a good book report then you will get an 'A'. This book might have been hot for kids in tha 1970s when it was written but getting through it today is like wading through a muddy swamp of outdated words and situations. Like two reviewers already said you wonder if it will ever end. I am a chubby kid of 14 and many of my friends are fat. I did not feel that the author knew anything about 'fat kids' at all and I also wondered if she really knew anything about homeless kids even in tha 1970s. Check out some books by Jess Mowry, Apollo, or Walter Dean Myers if you want what's on tha real today. This book seems like another one of those books written about kids but not really FOR kids if you know what I'm saying. And tha people who give book awards are not kids either. But if you can get through it out dying of terminal boredom you'll probably get that 'A'.

I really enjoyed Junior Brown, but all my preconceived notions were turned upside down. The villains were heros and the heros were villains. Thank you Virginia Hamilton for making me think about something I'd rather not: homeless children. The Buddy Clarks in this world are what it's all about!

I read the Planet of Junior Brown as a reading book for myeighth grade english class. My class read books while we were readingTo Kill a Mockingbird. The Planet of Junior Brown is a wonderfully written book. Despite the other reviews I have read I really was impressed with the characterization. Some people thought that the characters were shallow and didn't convey feeling and emotion. I heavily disagree. The thing I really liked about the book was how the two main characters were so unlike each other, both emotionally and physically. One character is always trying to teach the other something and they are both unwilling to learn it because it is so unlike them. Junior Brown is an obese black boy who is a an amazing piano player. His father doesn't live with him and his mother is very over protective. Junior isn't naive but he doesn't know much about the world around him. Junior's best and only friend, Buddy, is the exact opposite. Buddy Is a tall lanky black boy who has lived his life on the street. Buddy encourages Junior to try and become more independent and self reliant. However, Junior's other doesn't want to let go of Junior. She sees buddy as a threat to Junior. She thinks Buddy will harm him. Seeing as how her husband doesn't live with her it is easy to understand how she doesn't want to let go. Junior is all she has. It was very interesting to read To Kill a Mockingbird while I read this book. They had many things in common. In To Kill a Mockingbird scout encounters racism as a white person. In The Planet of Junior Brown Junior encounters racism as a black person. I thought it was interesting to see the same thing from two different angles. The plot of the story is very interesting. Although it has it's moments where it gets dull and you have to read the page over again it was pretty exiting. Virginia Hamilton was able to create multiple themes throughout the story. While reading the book there were moments where it was depressing, suspenseful, and moments of anger. Near the end of the story Junior starts seeing things and talking to people who aren't their. At the same time they have just been caught for not going to school. It was depressing to see how Buddy was worried about Junior. I imagined myself trying to help one of my friends who wasn't all their anymore. It was sad to think about.

All In all I was very happy to read The Planet of Junior Brown. It really made me realize how difficult life is for some people. Through this book I was able to reach a new understanding for people with mental problems, and a new respect for the people who help them everyday.