These are children's books with a lot of action and dialogue-- perfect, easy reading for the non-native speaker, well and carefully translated...

I found it great! I'm taking French currently and although I had to ask my dad for a lot of the words, I found it funny! Great translation, and as usual, the best book. Read the English version before you read others to get the real J.K. Rowling. But still a great substitution for non-English speakers.

Harry Potter is with his uncle, aunt, and cousin, who he hates so much, he would give almost anything to get out of there when his Aunt Marge comes to vist with her pit bull-Ripper. He loses control over his magic, and blows her up. Harry is on the run, but not for long. The Ministry of Magic finds him, and acts like they are thankful to find him, alive, and he soon finds out why.First, a strange dog scares him, and Harry almost gets killed. He is being treated very weired, until he finds out why. The infamous prisoner of Azakban, the wizard prison, has escaped and is after him. Harry is not safe anywhere, even at his school, Hogwarts. This book has an ending that you will never guess and is funny, with a lot of mystery in it. It is one of the best books that I have ever read in my life and I think that you will love it too!

Reading this book wasn't just fun, but it really helped me in my French. I learned more in reading it than I have in all of my classes combined. There are some little changes in it, but that is because of the language difference and my over-reading the English version led me to know its wording too well. Still, that only made it more fun. I'd recommend this to any French student.

I bought the French translation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for my son who began his first year of French this year in Middle School. It has been great fun and encouragement for him. His teacher found it fun as well, reading short excerpts from it to the French class. Everyone loves Harry!

I never really liked to read. It was just too boring. Reading all those pages that had no effect on me. Then I heard about Harry Potter. Everyone really liked it. I wanted to see what the big deal was. I read the first book. I thought to myself how imaginative it was. The creatures, the characters, and the plot. They were all like a puzzle fit perfectly together. It made my mind run wild. I had to read the second book. I went through that like a person going after 1 billion dollars. It was so amazing. The third book was next. That was better than the first and second books. Finally the forth. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. That was the best of all. My favorite character is Ron. He reminds me of me. All except the looks. I look a lot better than him. This book is filled with creativity, mystery, fantasy, and love. All in one. Thats why I got hooked on all these things.

Then, Harry and the Weasley's go to the train station. Then they say goodbye to everyonne and get on the bus. They meet their new teacher and their best (not) friend, Malfred. Their is a special game instead of quidditch this year and only people over 18 years of age can enter to win. Three schools are coming to play but only 3 people, one from each school, can play. Harry plays. But he's not 18 so a lot of people get mad. I won't tell you what else happens, so get the book and read it!

I gave this a 5 'cause this is a grat book and it lets out your imagination!

Alles, das ich über das Buch sagen kann, ist, daß ich es liebte, und ich glaube, daß es sehr wert Leseversuch es ist.

Chances are if your thinking on buying this book in German, you've probably already read the Englsih version, so I won't bog you down with any lengthy opinion on the story itself except to say it is a modern classic, full of mystery and suspense that can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike.

Foreign language versions of English novels are notoriously difficult to translate, largely due to the high number of English words which have no exact translation in say, German or French. But on the whole, this was an exceptionally translated peice, with no major blunders sticking out (the Spanish version is full of them) The most obvious chnage is of "Hermione" to "Hermine" Perhaps Hermione would feel strange to pronounce to a native German speaker, not sure on that one.

A lot of people will tell you Spanish and French are far easier to learn than German. I found German more fun to learn, most people who say it is a difficult, technical language do not know that English and German belong in the same group of languages (Germanic) French, Spanish and Italian are in a completely different group (Romantic) So to brush up on language skills, or just to have fun reading a novel in another language, HP is probably the most fun and easy to understand novel on the market.

This translation of Harry Potter pulled even this native speaker of English along almost as well as the original book, and I would recommend it for anyone who's had a couple of years of German as a skill and vocabulary builder. If you're struggling with Goethe or Thomas Mann, you need something that will show you that German can be fun to read, and this book will do the trick nicely. I suppose once could carp at a few things here and there, but this translation is so superior to the French translation that I wouldn't waste my time doing that, except to mention that Hermione's name has for some reason been changed to Hermine. If you get stuck, at least the trot's readily available!

I am reviewing the book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The author of this book is J.K Rowling. I thought this book was very interesting. It all starts out when Harry's parents were killed by Voldemort. They said that Sirius Black betrayed Harry's father by being Lord Voldemort's spy. Harry hears about this and wants to go and kill him. His friend Hagrid is losing the case against his animal Buckbeak. Harry, Ron, and Hemione go to Hagrid's house the day of the execution, but he tells them to go back to Hogwarts. On their way back, Ron gets stuck on the Whooping Willow, the tree. To Harry and Hermione's surprise, theyfind Black in there. Read this book to find out what Black has to say and do about what he is being accused of.

I LOVED this book I already read it twice in English and I've tooken spanish for 7 years as well but even if you don't know spanish you can still understand whats going on in the book if you've already read it in English J.K.Rowling has written another wonderful book taking you to the 3rd exciting & mysterious year of Hogwarts so kick back! and enjoy this EXCELLENT book by J.K.Rowling.

Now Harry is a third grade! When he escapes from his uncleshouse for a problem with the family he starts to lives in the LeakyCauldron for a while, there he gets to know that a killer and friend of Voldemort is chasing him. Everybody tries to protect him but when he starts to go to school he gets to know that he's not the real murderer .Also Harry get to know much about his parents. They have a new dark arts professor, is professor Lupin, he have a big secret but also is the best professor since Harry is there and helps he to fight the dementors, creatures that originally lives in Azkaban, the jail of the warloks. They goes to Hogwarts to protect the students from the murderer .

This book is just so neat! It can be used as a toy or decoration! The book opens to form a circle with a lot of the Hogwarts rooms featured in GREAT DETAIL. It's an interesting alternative to reading all about Harry Potter and Hogwarts School, you can actually see another visual representation of what J.K. Rowling invented. It would make a great/unique present for the Harry Potter fan in your life.

I have read these books and they are exciting for me.They are too good and I want to read the next book fast. I can't wait to read it.

Hello my name is nathalia. I love this movie and Im reading the books,I dont speak english soo im reading the book in espanich.Im going to buy the books are in english but I thing Harry Potter is a good book.My mother said this book is important because when the children read it the now what is the magic.I think is a good book because when I haved 6 years old(now I have 12)my mother said me all we do is magic ex:the rain is magic and when we are crying... and the magic is a part of our life.MY father is going to buy me
all the books of H.P I want to talk with daniel radcliffe because I want to ask him some questions about the movie and I want to now how is him.I think H.p is the best book in the world.good bye! thank for read this.

I am a college student and I must say that this was a favorite among the books I read as a child, and it is a great book to read to young children, especially at the beginning of their school year. It has many morals, and many lessons that can be learned such as appreciating your teacher, respecting him/her and knowing how to behave in a classroom. It is a great book to use, especially for new teacher and substitute teachers. It has a great plot and children love it!

The kids in sweet Miss Nelson's class are rude and obnoxious, until a mean substitute replaces her. By the time Miss Nelson returns, they have learned to show their appreciation by behaving well. A great moral, certainly, but hardly sugar-coated: the children's misbehavior and the substitute's grouchiness are outrageous and delightful. This book is one of the most engaging I've ever read to my kids(ages 4-7)and a great success with my ADD child who normally has a hard time sitting through a story. It provides a great platform for inferencing and theory of mind work.

It's about a teacher named "Miss Nelson" that has a lack of control of her class and chooses other tactics to sway the children into obedience and homework. Miss Nelson decides to disguise herself in an elaborate witchs' costume (complete with the wig,nose and don't forget the chin implant). Miss Nelson is now THE infamous substitute teacher, "Viola Swamp". She snaps the kids into shape quick and just when everyone, including the town inspector, is about to give up all hopes of recovering the beloved Miss Nelson she shows up as if nothing had happened with a well kept secret her and Viola only share. The town inspector is now searching for "Viola Swamp". This book was a favorite of mine, first read to me by my first grade teacher and has stuck with me enough to recently purchase a copy to read to my five year old son. He loves it! His favorite character in the book is Viola Swamp. It's perfect for children and teachers alike!

This excellent novel by Eric L. Harry is one of the finest and most exciting books I have ever read.

The book details the events of WW3 in minute detail. The author has obviously conducted meticulous research into both the circumstances of the novel and the large amount of military equipment and terms used throughout the book.

The author relates, with chilling realism, the events which caused the conflict, Russia being forced to deploy nuclear weapons against a surgeing Chinese army and by accidant, missiles raining down on the United States.

The book is also extremely well written, with a fast paced style which has the reader gripped to the page. Also, the characters Mr Harry creates are entirley realistic, people which the reader can relate to.

In conclusion, this book is an extremley well written, thrilling, realistic and successful Third World War novel which I would recommend to absolutley anyone, especially those interested in warfare and state of the art military equipment.

If you're a Clancy fan, you should get to know and like Eric Harry. This book is tough to find, out of print, but worth it if you can lay your hands on it. I stumbled upon Harry's Invasion book--which was an excellent US-China war yarn set on US soil---interesting twist I havent' seen in most of this genra. While I previously felt Clancy's Red Storm Rising was the best war drama thriller I'd found, I took a chance on Arc Light and was rewarded in spades---order it used and count yourself lucky. After reading Clancy and War Day (Whitley Streiber), I thought the bar was set high but Harry paints a vivid picture of WWIII---whereas most novels are set in post-apocalyptic 'picking up the pieces' stages, Harry paints the picture for us as events are happening. Better still, it happens at the right pace---not too fast, not too slow---a steady diet of suspence, intrigue, and action. While Clancy would have spent 500 pages building up to the action we're all wanting to experience, Harry puts you right into it in the first 50 pages without jeopardizing character development or sacrificing story---truly a rare and splendid gift to be able to achieve. A GREAT read----the first 250 pages flow like water---you'll wish the story didn't end...

This is one of the most intense, entertaining books I have ever read. From the very start you are drawn into a maelstrom of violence and intrigue. "Arc Light" isn't non-stop combat though, it is also a very smart thriller. Harry does a superb job of painting the political side of war, and the effect it has a real people. By way of comparison, this book ranks beside "Red Storm Rising" as one of the great techno-thrillers of all time.

Unfortunately, it is no longer in print, but if you can get your hands on a copy, don't hesitate, BUY IT!

This book has all the memory techniques that are typically taught in memory courses and other memory books. Even if they are sometimes introduced by other names, all of the techniques are variants and combinations of word-substitution (mostly used for foreign words, but also people's names and words that can't easily be pictured), link, peg, loci (sometimes called Roman Room technique) and phonetic (letter for number substitution) systems. The book is mostly re-hashed information that has been presented earlier (even by Lorayne himself), but the writing style makes it a book worth keeping.

The real strength of this book over others of its kind is the dialog between Lucas and Lorayne. They are fun to read and almost never get boring. There are anecdotes to at the beginning of most chapters and spread throughout the book.

Personally, I found Kenneth Higbee's "Your Memory" a better book, it's more complete a reference and gives much more of the why of memory rather than just the how of remembering. Depending on your needs, you might like this book more, it's got more examples on how to use the systems it introduces and is much lighter and a little less dry, although Higbee's book is very readable.

As with every other memory book, the techniques take time to learn and take considerable effort, but work very well. For a book on memory techniques, this book doesn't dissapoint.

Well, it was a very OLD edition of the memory book, cira 1976. But back in 1976 I did memorize the ENTIRE BRI bar exam course book, a huge outline of the law. No kidding, I could recite the entire outline, using a slight modification of Harry Lorraine's techniques. As a fellow law student said while I was giving a demonstration, "it's a trick!" Exactly, it is a trick. Memorizing doesn't help you UNDERSTAND what you are reciting. But you won't forget it, short term. The other caveat is, having memorized it, you do have to PRACTICE recalling it. Lorraine's techniques, at least circa 1976, didn't result in immediate storage into long-term memory. That requires recalling the information repeatedly. Also, the techniques themselves require practice, just as developing any other skill does. The work is only justified if you have a need to memorize a little data often, or a lot of data at least occasionally.

Harry Lorayne, a master magician and card entertainer, is also one of the world's leading memory experts. "The Memory Book" will change your life, literally. In the book, Lorayne describes in detail several memory techniques that, with a little practice, will have you remembering virtually anything you want. Among the techniques, the three I use the most are the Link, Substitute Words, and the Peg. The Link is used to remember any number of items, such as 20 objects, etc. The Peg is used to remember any number of objects in order. Using a phonetic type alphabet for numbers, that is, assigning a consonant sound for each number, Lorayne shows how to memorize numbers easily. The techniques really do work. Frankly, I've never spent so little for something that has changed my life so much. One testimonial is in order: I am a professional teacher. The first day of class I use one of Lorayne's techniques in my class that allows everyone in the classroom, including me, to remember the name of everyone else in the classroom. And it takes less than 20 minutes. The systems work. The only minor quibble I have with the book is that after reading this book, I also read widely in the area of memory improvement. Other books have used the identical techniques to improve memory, so I'm confused as to how much of Lorayne's techniques originated with him, or were borrowed from the literature. This minor point aside, you really do need to have this book on your "READ" list. A real treasure.

This beautiful book was in my family as a hard cover edition for many years and was a Christmas Eve tradition for my four sons when they were growing up. It's poor battered body disappeared some time after the last of my little ones went off into the adult world. I am so delighted to see it back again, though this time as a nicely affordable soft cover. Clement C. Moore's enchanting story poem already provides an atmosphere filled with warmth and joyful expectation and with the addition of Tasha Tudor's quaint, nostalgic water-colors from an antique New England the Christmas magic is complete!
The winter landscapes fill our senses and Tasha's own gray tabby cat and Welsh Corgi welcome us into this charming world.
Tasha's Santa that you will meet in this book has been portrayed as the poem describes him...a right jolly old elf. He's not that much larger than the corgi and his team really consists of eight "tiny" reindeer. His pointy ears and his Eskimo mukluks add to the delightful ambiance of the book. He dances with the toys and with the happy animals and we can truly believe it will be a happy Christmas for all.
I hope this book becomes a Christmas Eve tradition for many, many more families.

We have an inexpensive paperback version (see our reviews) of this classic poem, and we said that's enough for us. That was before we looked through this beautifully illustrated (by Bruce Whatley) edition of The Night Before Christmas.

The lyrics are the same, from book to book, but the fanciful illustrations in this one are enough to engage adults and children as they read this book together.

The perfect gift for any family whose Christmas tradition includes reading this classic!

I discovered this book 31 years ago, for my daughter and it is still loved by all the family. The illustrations are wonderful, warm, charming and delightful and bring a special meaning to the story. We still read it to all the young children on Christmas Eve and for adults we read the story and pass a grab bag gift every time the word THE is mentioned. It would not be Christmas without this book. It is magical.

"There is little to be satisfied in reading this book"?? I couldn't disagree more. Bleak House left a profound impression on me, and was so utterly satisfying a reading experience that I wanted it never to end. I've read it twice over the years and look forward to reading it again. Definitely my favorite novel.

I don't know what the previous reviewer's demands are when reading a novel, but mine are these: the story must create its world - whatever and wherever that world might be - and make me BELIEVE it. If the novelist cannot create that world in my mind, and convince me of its truths, they've wasted my time (style doesn't matter - it can be clean and spare like Orwell or verbose like Dickens, because any style can work in the hands of someone who knows how to use it). Many novels fail this test, but Bleak House is not one of them.

Bleak House succeeds in creating a wonderfully dark and complex spider web of a world. On the surface it's unfamiliar: Victorian London and the court of Chancery - obviously no one alive today knows that world first hand. And yet as you read it you know it to be real: the deviousness, the longing, the secrets, the bureaucracy, the overblown egos, the unfairness of it all. Wait a minute... could that be because all those things still exist today?

But it's not all doom and gloom. It also has Dickens's many shades of humor: silliness, word play, comic dialogue, preposterous characters with mocking names, and of course a constant satirical edge. It also has anger and passion and tenderness.

I will grant one thing: if you don't love reading enough to get into the flow of Dickens's sentences, you'll probably feel like the previous reviewer that "...it goes on and on, in interminable detail and description...". It's a different dance rhythm folks, but well worth getting used to. If you have to, work your way up to it. Don't start with a biggie like Bleak House, start with one of his wonderful short pieces such as A Christmas Carol.

Dickens was a gifted storyteller and Bleak House is his masterpiece. If you love to dive into a book, read and enjoy this gem!

After years without picking up a novel by Dickens (memories of starchy classes at school), I decided to plunge into "Bleak House", a novel that had been sitting on my bookshelf for about ten years, waiting to be read. Although I found it heavy going at first, mainly because the style is so unfamiliar to modern readers, after about ten pages I was swept up and carried off, unable to put the hefty tome down until I had finished it. This book is a definite classic. The sheer scope of the tale, the wit of the satire (which could still be applied to many legal proceedings today) and the believable characters gripped me up until the magnificent conclusion. One particularly striking thing is the "cinematic" aspect of certain chapters as they switch between different angles, building up to a pitch that leaves the reader breathless. I can't recommend "Bleak House" too highly. And I won't wait so long before reading more Dickens novels.

This is the second book by Dickens I have read so far, but it will not be the last. "Bleak House" is long, tightly plotted, wonderfully descriptive, and full of memorable characters. Dickens has written a vast story centered on the Jarndyce inheritance, and masterly manages the switches between third person omniscient narrator and first person limited narrator. His main character Esther never quite convinces me of her all-around goodness, but the novel is so well-written that I just took Esther as she was described and ran along with the story. In this book a poor boy (Jo) will be literally chased from places of refuge and thus provide Dickens with one of his most powerful ways to indict a system that was particularly cruel to children. Mr. Skimpole, pretending not to be interested in money; Mr. Jarndyce, generous and good; Richard, stupid and blind; the memorable Dedlocks, and My Lady Dedlock's secret being uncovered by the sinister Mr. Tulkinghorn; Mrs. Jellyby and her telescopic philanthropy; the Ironmaster described in Chapter 28, presenting quite a different view of industralization than that shown by Dickens in his next work, "Hard Times." Here is a veritable cosmos of people, neighbors, friends, enemies, lovers, rivals, sinners, and saints, and Dickens proves himself a true master at describing their lives and the environment they dwell in. There are landmark chapters: Chapter One must be the best description of a dismal city under attack by dismal weather and tightly tied by perfectly dismal laws, where the Lord Chancellor sits eternally in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Chapter 32 has one of the eeriest scenes ever written, with suspicious smoke, greasy and reeking, as a prelude to a grisly discovery. Chapter 47 is when Jo cannot "move along" anymore. This Norton Critical is perhaps the best edition of "Bleak House" so far: the footnotes help a lot, and the two Introductions are key to understanding the Law system at the time the action takes place, plus Dickens' interest in this particular topic. To round everything off, read also the criticism of our contemporaries, as well as that of Dickens' time. "Bleak House" is a long, complex novel that opens a window for us to another world. It is never boring and, appearances to the contrary, is not bleak. Enjoy.