Karen Heese followes in the footsteps of Phillis Renolds Naylor with this girl-and-her-dog tale showing us just what friendship means when a girl and a dog unite and would do almost anything to keep that friendship. The only downgrade was the pictures. It would have been much better to let the reader invison it themself.

I would like to recomend the book Sable to anyone who beleives in faith. A young girl named Tate Marshal gave up all hope of ever getting a dog. Tate's mother was terifyed of dogs since she had been tor up by a dog when she was young. One day a raggety old dog came to Tate.Tate named her Sable. If you want to figure out what happens you will have to read the rest of the book.

The girl has a friend that she cannot keep because it is getting into trouble. Karen Hesse writes about a girl who has a problem with love.

In this picture book Hesse explores death from a children's perspective. When Leah goes to visit her grandparents for the first time since her grandfather's death she feels incredibly sad without him. Gramma and Leah do their traditional things together but it is different without Poppy. Finally Leah and Gramma talk about it and she admits her fears about Gramma dying too. Leah learns from her grandmother that she can still live happily without Poppy and Leah falls asleep in Gramm's bed, with Gramm on one side of her and a picture of Poppy looking down on her from the other. This story is clear about loss and healing from losses and may help children understand their own grief.

its a great book to read although it's a heavy book,meaning it;s very depressing but fun to read I recomend any of Karen hesse books becuase shes a great Auther and my favorite auther also

once again, (OK it does not happen that often, otherwise we would stop trusting Amazon and shopping with them, would'nt we?) the description is not accurate : this version ISBN 1569945233, monterey media etc.... is an ADAPTATION of Dicken's novel by the St Charles PLayers, who record it with all due talent and spirit BUT as a play, in an "exciting Radio Theater style" quote, unquote.....

This is Charles Dickens' best christmas story. Only David Copperfield tops this story. Mr. Dickens teaches the reader that no matter how much money or position we have, no matter how important we feel, no matter how much cynicism we have, life will come right out in front of us with a big wham!! Tiny Tim is compassion, Mr. Cratchit is hope, Fizziwigg is happiness. And all these things are life at its best. A Christmas Carol is the true feeling and hope and love. Make this short story your hope.

The following review is for the version illustrated by William Geldart, not this version illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger. For some reason, Amazon mixed the two up.

This is it! These are the letters, words, sentences, paragraphs that made Christmas the celebration that it is today - the family parties, the feasts, the excitement, giving to the poor. Virtually every way we celebrate this magnificent Holiday (except the mall part!) comes from this book written by Charles Dickens.
First off, this is the unabridged version. Nothing added - nothing taken away. That's as it should be. (Unfortunately, as great as they may be, the movie versions truly do not do the book justice - although I must say the George C. Scott and Alistair Sim versions do come fairly close).
One thing that surprises me about this book is how few people I know that have have actually read it, but they've seen one version or another of the movie countless times! They don't seem to realize that when books are put to film, so much is taken out for length or for other reasons. A Christmas Carol is no different. In fact, if you watch all of the different movie versions available, you STILL would not get the complete book, even though each movie adds one thing or another from the original story that the others may not.
There are countless copies of this story available in various book form, but this particular version is probably one of the best that I have seen. The illustrations attempt in some part to keep in the same spirit as in Dickens' original. But the best, most interesting part of this version (besides the story itself) is all of the little facts, explanations, and trivia put into the margins throughout this book. They give the modern 21st century reader more of an understanding of what 19th century English life was like. A couple of examples: when Dickens writes of the Cratchit family taking their goose to the bakers to be cooked, I wondered why would any one take their food OUT to be cooked and then picked up later. This book explains that few poor people in this time period had ovens large enough to roast a good family sized bird. They were big enough to cook a small bit of meat and that was about it. In order to have one of those rare Holiday meals, they had to take it to the large baker's oven at an appointed time for cooking.
Another fact I did not know was that in the story, Scrooge's sister, Fan, was based on Dickens' actual sister in law, Mary Hogarth.
There are also a multitude of paintings, drawings, and sketches from Dickens' time showing his time. Now you can see, as accurately as one can considering there were no cameras, life of the rich, middle class, and poor as it actually was. There's a picture of Queen Victoria and her family celebrating Christmas. There is also a beautiful painting of a poor labourer's family Christmas celebration. There are sketches from the first edition of 'A Christmas Carol.'
If you plan on owning a copy of this most wonderful of all Christmas novels, this is the version to get.

This book was really unique because not only did it tell a creative story, it told one in a poem form. The free verse poems were really good. They made you imagine exactly what might've been going on like how Billie Jo felt after she couldn't play, how she loved the piano and longed to play and her excitement and sadness. It used descriptive, colorful, and very imaginative words so it could create a picture in your head. Plus, it displayed a lot of emotion and reflected the hard work, dedication, and devotion of the author. And besides, if you see the Newberry Medal, you have to assume it's good so why not read it and find out? All the events seemed so real and so did the characters. While some scenes displayed a lot of emotion and miserable feeling, the others displayed happiness and laughter. The book just made you want to keep on reading-nonstop! Well, it made me. It was one of the best books I ever read. I read one Newberry Medal book and it totally bombed, so I thought that maybe all the books with the Newberry Medal sign were similar to that. So I never, ever read one after the first one. And when I found out we were required to read Out of the Dust (a Newberry book) for English class, I wasn't exactly thrilled. In fact, I put off reading it for almost a week. Then I realized I had to read it, so I started on the first page. I continued, fascinated about how the author could use such brilliant words to describe such simple things. It really made you want to have met the author and ask on-going questions about how she could've come up with such a great story. And I could really relate to some of the events. Like how when Billie Jo's hand had been wounded and she couldn't play the piano. One time, my hands just hurt a lot. I wasn't injured or anything but every time I moved even a finger, all my bones would start aching. And the pain would then travel throughout my entire body. It only lasted for a day. I couldn't write-even thought I wished and wished and wished that I could. I had so many ideas in my head...so much to write about...so much to get down on paper. But life's cruel. I also couldn't go on the computer to chat online and e-mail people. And that's my life! Computer and Writing...the two things I definitely couldn't live without. So I felt Billie Jo's pain and heartache and longing because I too had experienced something similar to what she was in the story.

Out of the Dust is a touching story about Billy Jo. Billy Jo is a girl living in the dust bowl to a poor family. Dust has covered everything in her house. Her Father has become a stranger to her and her best friend, Livie has recently moved away. This book was sad to read about the things people had to go through. Overal, I enjoyed reading the book. The poems and the style of writing is a page turner.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse introduces young adults to a time in history that is often overshadowed by policis and economic failure: The Great Depression. Very few books, especially in the catagory of young adults, deals directly with the emotions, fears, and tragedies of a young girl living in Oklahoma during the era of the Dust Bowl. Hesse's character, Billie Jo, represents one child's life and although her tragedies and heartbereak are unique, she grants children a place in history. The poetic style, on the other hand, enables young adult readers to read and interpet each experience independently or to reflect upon them as a whole. While Billie Jo allows the reader to experience a part of history through the eyes of a child, Hesse's writing ability allows us to experience the dust bowl. Through her words we can invision the dust as its rolls across the land or feel the physical and emotion pain of a young girl whose life has been forever changed by death. As a student of history and english, I found the book, Out of the Dust, to be educational as well as enjoyable and stongly recommend it for students at the levels of young adults and beyond. I would hesitate introducing it to a younger audience because of the detail surrounding the mother's death and Billie Jo's injuries.

This is a wonderfully told story that deals with the love of family and hope through the eyes of a young girl and her siblings who are living in poverty with their mother. The three children are dealing with difficult problems-the younger brother has been accused of stealing, the younger sister is dealing with a learning disability of some kind, and the older sister desperately wants to fit in with more well-to-do and snobby girls at school. Pulling away from her family in her attempts to fit in the other girls, Mags is led to rediscover magic and possibilities. Over time and in response to a crisis I won't give away, Mags also learns to accept her sister's vision of magical hope and her brother's understanding of trust.

Karen Hesse has given our young people an insight into life aboard Endeavour during it's discoveries in the South Pacific. As a New Zealander i found the content of high interest, Hesse had me reaching for the atlas to see which of Cook's names had stood the test of time. The inclusion of comprehensive appendices added to the historical nature of this book with detailed records of Endeavours travels and crew.
There were occasions where the book lost it's momentum.
Great use of language which really helped set the scene.
I enjoyed reading something of historical value to New Zealand, there is a lack of such material available.