Junie B. Jones is a mischievous little girl who is learning the lessons of life. Our family has enjoyed each book in this series. We can't wait to see what she's up to next. The Junie B. Jones series is a great first chapter book series for beginning readers. My children have sometimes balked at reading time, but when it's a Junie B. Jones book, they read it from cover to cover without stopping. In this book, Junie B. is finally graduating from kindergarten. The lessons learned in this book are obedience...the consequence of not obeying, and also friendship and loyalty. The children are given white graduation caps and gowns and told not to play in them. Junie B.'s mother even puts hers on top of the refrigerator so Junie B. cannot play with them. Of course, a mischievous little girl such as Junie B. cannot help herself and devises a way to get the gown down. The gown becomes soiled and Junie B. must find a way to cover it up. I thought it was a great book, though I think she kind of got of the hook this time. I took the book to school and read it to the second graders there. They loved it too. They think Junie B. Jones is a hoot!

This book was about how Junie B. (Don't forget the B!) was getting ready for graduation from Kindergarten. ...And she got popular because she accidentally got purple drops on her cap and gown, so everyone else drew colored polka dots on their gowns.

I liked this because Junie B. is very funny. I liked this book as much as "Junie B and the Stinky Smelly Bus" and I think other kids would like to read it too.

Mom's Note: "This was the first Junie B. book that I have read with my daughter (she read another one in school) and it was absolutely adorable. Ms. Park captures the essence of a kindergartener by telling the story in the first-person, from little Junie B's perspective and she does a wonderful job. It really sounds like a Kindergartener is telling the story, which makes it all the more enjoyable. I'm looking forward to reading more of these with my daughter!"

When a mishap (that only Junie B. would be capable of) threatens to ruin the hilarious character's kindergarten graduation, Junie B. knows just how to handle it! If only she knew she could be making it even worse...
Junie B. just can't resist wearing her new white graduation grown for her stuffed animals! Then she gets thirsty and pours herself and her toys some grape juice. When her stuffed animals don't exactly swallow it, things go wrong... And her graduation gown could be ruined! Junie B. knows how to fix it, though!
Enjoy this hilarious story!

Invest with a teacher in this thought-provoking, moving story of a young girl who knew what it meant to deal with death, disappointment, heartache, and pain at a young age, but still managed to uses life's obstacles as stepping stones to life's goals, learning most of life's lessons through the school of hard knocks. Magnolia: A Wilting Flower ISBN # 1-59129-430-4 provides the reader with a glimpse of how Barbara J. Robinson came to be the teacher and the person she is today. Not one to let life's disappointments keep her down for long, Barbara learned early that giving up was not an option. Magnolia: A Wilting Flower is an excellent tool for the school and library markets and Young Adults, a heart-warming piece of literature that will have the reader laughing at times and crying at others, emotionally moving the reader as he experiences life in a small Southern town set in America's Antique City, Ponchatoula, Louisiana, where the author recounts her school days, losing her father when she was only four years old on a cold Christmas Day, peer pressure, and the reason she is not a cigarette smoker today among many other interesting episodes among siblings, and attending her first dance, a sock hop, in the gym where Pistol Pete once played basketball and where the movie Pistol Pete was actually filmed, the same school which turned out the teacher she is today. Barbara's passion for reading and writing provides young people with inspiration and encourages them to read and write more on their own. This autobiographical, mainstream novel recounts how her love for both was formed at an early age, and it is this passion that Barbara brings to her classroom and students of today which inspire, encourage, and motivate them. Michael Levy Author of Invest with a Genius What is the Point? Renowned Guest Speaker on Finance, Wellness, and Inspiration Appearing on Radio and TV in the United States and the UK...

This Southern memoir takes the reader on a life's journey, the author's. Set in the Strawberry Capital of the World and American's Antique City, Ponchatoula, LA, the book recounts the author's childhood and schooldays from losing her father at four years old on Christmas Day to coming of age and dealing with the trials and tribulations of life without a father. Humorous at times, it will also evoke emotions to the point of tears. This is the story of one gutsy little girl who learned through the school of hard knocks, but never gave up and kept on keeping on. Share her heartache, pains, coming-of-age struggles, and growing-up pains. Though raised on fairy tales, Magnolia soon learns that life itself is indeed no fairy tale and makes a vow not to raise her own daughters solely on fairy tales because she wants them to be prepared for the real world. This little girl turned teacher turned writer has a story to tell well worth listening to. I really enjoyed this book and can't wait for the sequel so I can journey with Magnolia through her lifetime of adventures.

Life's Lessons Learned the Hard Way
Gary Roen
Florida (6/9/2003)
Reviewer Gary Roen reviewed MAGNOLIA: A WILTING FLOWER, and reviews
ran in the March issue of Senior Beat and in the April Senior paper in Daytona.
MAGNOLIA: A WILTING FLOWER by Barbara J. Robinson (Publish America $$
201 pages) is a very touching story of a girl's coming of age. Her hard life will either
make or break her. At a young age she has to deal with the death of her father and
later her mother's remarriage. One thing that kept her going was her father's belief
to have a good life, you had to have a good education. "Somewhere along the hard
row that Magnolia seemed to have to hoe, she had learned how important reading
and writing skills were for a good education and future, though, she actually had no
idea, at the time, just how important those skills would really become to her
someday . . . . Magnolia still had many of life's lessons left to learn, and sadly, she
would learn a lot of them the hard way."

I love this book! It reminds me of summer, when mom had to beg us kids to come inside after a long day of imaginary play in our 'pine-tree village'. What fun we had creating homes, shops, schools, using rocks, pinecones and anything else we could find to make our little village like home. This book is so similar I could just eat it up! It tells the tale (a true one at that) of a group of children who create their own village with rocks and boxes (get it? Roxaboxen?). The thing I love about this book are the illustrations---simple, yet beautiful, and of course the wonderful story of how the children used their imagination and creativity to create a timeless adventure. In this day of gameboys and computer games, this book is a refreshing change of pace. My four year old loves this book as much as I do, and we can't wait to create our own Roxaboxen this summer. Buy this book for your kids...or yourself! You won't regret it!

The sky in Arizona is like looking into God's eyes. In its quiet way, this powerful book takes us directly into the realm of imagination and play that resourceful children inhabit. There is a cozy, dreamy drift to the tale, which describes the imaginary town of Roxaboxen, and the activities of the children who created and peopled it. The real gift of this book is how it illuminates that magical realm's fundamental importance to the spirit of both children and adults. Not one of the children from Roxaboxen ever forgot about it; it stayed with them for life. And it should for us all. Barbara Cooney works wonders with colorful, evocative illustrations that are even more beautiful and touching than those in Mrs. Rumphius. This marvelous book demonstrates that the best children's literature is equally enjoyable and valuable for adults.

This book reminds me of when I was little and how my brother and sister and my neighbors and I would set up our own town. We had a jail and a market and a toy store and a gas station and we would use our bikes for our cars.
This book allows children to make up their own towns and rules on how they would like it to be. It allows their imagination to wander.
The story is based on the author's mother's childhood. Roxaboxen is a real place on the corner of Second Avenue and Eighth Street, in Yuma, Arizona. The author was able to write this story by getting information from diaries, memories from relatives, and letter and maps frm inhabitants of Roxaboxon.
I would highly recommend this book!

I have not read this book in a long time and have been searching for it. I think it is an excellent piece of literature that isn't read enough. When I was in 4rth grade my teacher read it to the class. It has been one of my favorite books since! This book brings to my mind the story of A Little Princess! I think that Peppermints in the Parlor is alot like A Little Princess in many different ways. One way they are alike is that both young girls are orphaned(or so they think). Both are treated poorly and still are very polite-like girls. I enjoyed the personalities of the characters as much as the plot which was truly amazing. It is a book that is still read to the students in my old teachers class today because it is something you can learn from and enjoy. Read it, you won't regret it!

"Peppermints in the Parlor" is one of those books you never forget. The characters creep into your heart, curl up there, and won't leave. Emily, the little girl who finds herself in frightening and inexplicable distress at the beginning of the book, has become more like a real little girl to me each time I've read the book. In fact, she becomes more like ME every time I read her story. Last summer some people in Alexandria, Virginia, produced the novel as a musical and I realized after seeing the characters on the stage that the book is so vivid it really needs no dramatization (although the musical version was a lot of fun and I liked the songs.) I can hear the characters talking as I read. I have favorite scenes that are fresh every time I read them: an incident regarding a tea bag that never fails to shock me; the day when a kitten arrives at Sugarhill Hall bringing with it tremendous hope for the old people. I feel bad for Emily and the other characters as they struggle with the miseries at the beautiful old house, but I know that things will work out in the end just as I would have them do. I'm looking forward to the audio version.

I must say that it has been many years since I first read Peppermints in the Parlor, but I remember my sixth grade teacher assigning us this book and I became so attached to it that I sat down and read the entire book in one day! And for me that was an extremely big deal because I had never really liked to read. Now I liked To Kill A Mockingbird, A Brave New World, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but out of all the books I read in school I must say that this was by far the one book that stood out the most to me! Even if you're not a kid this book will thoroughly entertain you! This book was the first to spark my interest in reading and I always keep searching for books that can entertain me the way that this one did. While my taste in reading material has matured as I've gotten older, this book has stayed at the top of my favorites list. Once you read this book you will understand just why it changed my outlook on reading, it was the first book that I found to be fun!!!

My copy of "The Garden Primer" is worn, tattered, and never on the shelf with the rest of my gardening books. I refer to Barbara's sage advice for everything. It's has allowed me to try new plants, techniques, and garden designs - all without feeling I don't know what I'm doing. It's like having a master gardener watching over you.

Be forewarned though - she writes most (if not all) of her gardening experience from a Connecticut/zone 5 background. Those in the desert regions of Arizona may find most her advice useless.

Buy it - you'll never need another gardening book again.

As a novice gardener, this is the first book I've found that covers all my questions - from staking raspberries to planning a shade garden - in detailed but not tecnical lanquage. If I could only have one gardening book (my husband wishes) this would be it.

I find this book (for I keep it close at hand) a very readable source of basics as well as practical advice. It answers questions for the beginning gardener that may seem obvious to someone who has learned gardening at the side of a master gardener. In fact, it is a bit like learning gardening at the elbow of the gardener as she lovingly and expertly tends her plants: from mulching, to staking, to figuring out whether to compost or not.

This popular children's book tells the story of a number of soldiers who build and set up a cannon that drummer Hoff fires off. The words have a distinct rhyme and cadence that appeals to children. I've discovered that the book is often hard to find in the library. Little fingers keep picking it up! The book was illustrated by Ed Emberley and it won the 1968 Caldecott Medal for best illustrations in a children's book. The woodcuts are beautiful.

This is probably the best "read aloud" book you will find. The story is about soldiers building a cannon and the name of each character ryhmes with the job he undertakes in the project (Drummer Hoff fired it off). The Illustrations are so colorful, detailed, and unusual each character takes on his own personality without saying anything. Our hero remains however, the silent, solitary Drummer Hoff, waiting throughout to do his duty. Children will love to hear it read, learn to read it themselves, and then read it aloud to you. Wonderful.

Well, I probably cannot praise this book enough. I was first introduced to this book when my daughter was in kindergarten. I could not tell you how many times she checked this book out of the library. So many, in fact, the entire family was tired of reading it to her. But still, whenever I mention it to her, she smiles. And my son makes it into a game. Who can remember the lines? I think we've actually added soldiers to the story. The rhythm and rhyme of the story is just perfect. The illustrations are beautiful. They are so vivid and bright. This goes down as a classic for our family.

and food, you will love this book. Even if you never make any of the recipes in this book it is a joy to read Wilder's passages in this book and then read the cookbook author tell you about these old fashion foods.

I've been a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan for practically my whole life and am now delighted to be reading the whole series aloud to my young daughter who loves the books as much as I. My friend told me about this cookbook and we purchased it - it is WONDERFUL!

I read the whole thing cover to cover - it is just fascinating. The author writes in a very readable, extremely interesting style. I love having all the recipes for the meals mentioned throughout the Little House books and I *love* reading the history included in this cookbook. It adds such depth and perspective to our readings of the LIW books. [This book is as much a history text as it is a cookbook - and it does great justice to both genres!]

My daughter and I have made several of the recipes from the book so far and they have all been delicious, if not exactly health conscious. :) I haven't been able to bring myself to buy Lard, but we have delighted in making some of the same foods Laura ate. My daughter is learning a HUGE amount about history through these experiences.

Buying this book is the best money I've spent in years!

I hope that you will be as impressed with this book as I was. I was taken away with all of the background information on the preparing, cooking, and serving of food in this book. It has some very good recipes in this, as well as great documentation on the life during the time where Laura grew up. The book is also well illustrated. This has been the most impressive cookbook for children that I have seen to date in terms of extra information that goes with the cookbook. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a book for their favorite Little House on the Prarie fan. This book would also be excellent for a scout troup wanting to do something a little historical. A definate must!

Serannelle's mystery has an interesting main character at least, a homeless woman, a desperate junkie, who is, of course, the main suspect. Other than that bit of originality, this is nothing but trite tripe.

As far as the Venice PD is concerned, the murder of lowlife dealer ``Flower George'' Mancini is a clear case of AVA, NHI- -``a****** versus a******, no human involved.'' So it's no big deal when Mancini's daughter Munch, the chief suspect in his killing, gives Sgt. Mace St. John the slip and disappears into the San Fernando Valley. But when the gun that shot Mancini is linked to a grisly series of dismemberments, Mace wishes he'd paid closer attention to Munch's moves while he had the chance. Even though he squeezes some personal details of her horrible life (her father got her hooked and repeatedly sold her for drugs) out of her attractive probation officer, he has no way of tracing her to Happy Jack's Auto Repair, where she's working as a lippy mechanic and assiduously building the new paper trail that'll bury her old identity for good. While Mace is wrestling with his own father's problems, he has no compassion or understanding for others.

I would be interested in seeing another story with Munch, but Mace St. John can take a hike.

Author Barbara Saranella's first novel, NO HUMAN INVOLVED, is an exceptional debut. In it, we have "Munch" Mancini, a street wise, world weary, over-the-top-cynical ex-prostitute and recovering heroin addict, hiding from both a brutal biker and Mace St. John, the latter a street wise and world weary cop investigating a series of murders in the Los Angeles of the 70's. Munch is a prime suspect in one of the slayings. She's also a crackerjack auto mechanic, a skill she utilizes to bring in a paycheck while she lies low. As for Mace, he lives in a lovingly restored, 1927-vintage Pullman car parked on a spur of unused Southern Pacific track in an unprepossessing part of town.

In so many works of this genre, the author attempts to create sympathetic characters, apparently using some arcane formula that only results in very two-dimensional personae. I can't tell you how many crime thrillers I've finished not caring one iota about the story's hero(es). Somehow, in her first time out, Saranella manages to transcend this trap, creating in Munch and Mace people I cared about from the very first page. This is so refreshing!

The plot of NO HUMAN INVOLVED is revealed to the reader in a manner as smooth and sharp as a scalpel's incision lays open the inside of a cadaver during an autopsy. There's even a bit of humor and pathos along the way in Mace's relationship with a new girlfriend, and with his aging father, the latter suffering a mental deterioration following several strokes. The manner in which Mace acquires two dogs near the book's conclusion is particularly amusing. The story's end involves a satisfying plot twist.

Judging from subsequent releases by the same author, Munch is to be the central character in a continuing series. Bravo! I, for one, immediately added Saranella's two latest books to my Wish List.

I didn't enjoy the 70s, and if I'd picked up earler that this story was set in 1977 urban Southern California, I probably would have given it a pass. A fortunate mistake.

Not that Seranella makes me feel nostalgic. If anything, she paints a bleaker picture than I remember. An asphalt lanscape, populated with self-satisfied, bigoted Angelenos, burned out junkies, cynical cops... And yet she forces us to acknowledge a certain strange beauty in this landscape, where strangers, or even enemies, casually help each other out, or a tough garage owner starts a garden in his parking lot, because he can't bear to uproot a struggling tree.

Then there's a cop who ignores orders to stop working on a horrifying serial murder -- but still finds time to look after an aging father and restore the old Pullman rail car he lifes in.

And most of all there's Munch. Junkie, prostitute, thief. The useless scum referred to in the title? Yes and no. Because she's also a genius -- a wizard at fixing cars, a savant who drinks up the contents of books the way ordinary people drink water. The best parts of this book are about her struggles. With addiction -- which she imagines to be an alter ego, whispering in her ear, "just a taste". With a life stacked against her. With an appalling sense of herself, that horrifying personal dissociation you see in survivors of abuse. And in the end, she's the one who saves the day with a momentous, heroic act.

As a plus size woman who sews in self defense, it is great to be able to find a book that takes into consideration the things that happen when we sit down or move. It is really hard to find a pattern that fits right, this book helps you to figure out how to fix the problems. As the sewing site guide on bellaonline, I have read alot of the sewing books on the market and this one is GREAT! I recommend it to the sewers out there that are having problems fitting things right for their bodies.

This book is a masterpiece of practical information for those who would sew for any size person. Barbara Deckert has geared it to the "plus size" person, but the information it contains about line, design, fabric selection, equipment for sewing, and pattern alteration is applicable to anybody. The book has many very useful illustrations of various body shapes and the way various styles will look on them, along with suggestions for modifying garment styles to make them the most attractive on those shapes. Her attitude about clothing is that it should be enjoyable to wear. She doesn't advocate stuffing the plus size body into a drab gray box, and the pictures of her and her models that the book contains demonstrates that bold, attractive colors can be worn to great advantage on it. Her section about fabric selection, both fiber content and design contains a wealth of information about the way to expect various materials to behave, along with practical guidance for selection of certain fabrics for some things and not for others. She dmystefies the arena of sewing tools, stating which are essential and which are not, along with tips such as "Don't use bright, contrasting colors (for tailor's tacks) because some threads may crock, or bleed color onto the fabric, or small fiber pieces from colored thread can stick to and discolor light fabrics." The book is totally understandable and practical. Barbara devotes a large part of the book to pattern alteration for figure irregularities. This section contains a wealth of illustrations for changing the shape of purchased patterns to accommodate various physical differences, whether they relate to size or asymmetry. Her understanding of the way the body tissues behave and change shape from standing to sitting and the way for the sewer to allow for these changes sets this book strikingly above the general run of sewing books. I would heartily recommendd this book to ANYONE who sews, whether for plus size or not.

I read this book from start to finish, almost without stopping. Ms. Deckert tells us how to make designs more flattering by adding simple trim, moving or enlarging a pocket, or even modifying the lines of the pattern. She tells us how to choose the fabric and patterns that are comfortable and fashionable and explains how to keep these from being mutually exclusive. She then tells us how to measure ourselves and fit the pattern to our bodies (not some size 4 model), and how to fit the basted garment, thus correcting even more problems. It's worth the price of the book for her detailed description, with pictures, of how to correct many specific fitting problems. I am now confident that I can fix the sleeve on the last dress I made, which pulls in front. After reading her chapter on design elements, I think I'll add some trim to the neckline as well. We all know many of her design suggestions and fitting solutions, but she pulls it all together in one book and shows us how to look fabulous.

It's a funny story at times. It's a sad story at times. It has the feeling of living right there on the street with the characters. All kinds of middle life struggles going on. Trying to stay fit as a 20 year old, midlife pregnancy, a husband that can't seem to talk to his wife because of his grief, an elderly eccentric neighbor, and on and on. Don't miss the chance to read this book............It's fantastic!!!!

This book was one of the best I have read in a while. I highly recommend the book to anyone who likes to read a good love story with a little detective work within the plot. The author began the story with developing the characters and lives of the main character, Emily,her husband,Doug, and Emily's friends,Kay,John, and Celeste. Emily and her husband lost their son years before the story begins and their relationship has deteriorated to almost nothing. There are several stories going on within the book having to do with the different characters concerning one person's husband and other characters' children. Basically, the story is about the saddness and the happiness of this life. It is about a people dropping as far as they can go and then reveiling their strength to develop a new life and be happy.

This was the first book I've read by this author but it certainly won't be the last. I love how this book made me think about the people who mean the most in my own life. The saddest part of this book was when I reached the last page because I had come to know the characters so well that I didn't want the story to end.