Really enjoyed it. Great for my nine-year old daughter who laughed a lot and liked that the writer didn't talk down to her. A message without getting beat over the head. First-rate.

Estranged Aunt Sally comes to babysit for Amanda, Melissa and Pee-Wee while their parents are in Paris, and then relates their hilarious, sometimes sad family history. A funny, bittersweet book about family and the good things, funny things, and sad things that can often happen. Horvath doesn't pull any punches when it comes to such topics as death or family feuds, and while not all the stories work, some transcend into something warm and wonderful. If you only read one story in this book, make sure it's the one about Fat Little Mean Girl -- her name alone makes the story worth reading!

[...]This book is fantasy and it has 136 pages.
This book takes place in Tenderly, Ohio. More specifically, it takes place in the Anderson house. (In the house the rooms that the characters are in, are the dining room and upstairs in the children’s rooms.) When the characters are upstairs, Aunt Sally is normally in between the children’s beds on a rocking chair telling them a story. The children are normally in their beds.
In this book, the parents want to take a vacation to Paris. They call Aunt Sally to come and watch the children. So when she comes she is carrying a book. The book has pictures in it. Every night Aunt Sally tells the children a story and shows them a picture to go along with the story.
I think this book was odd but I liked it. When I said it was odd I mean odd because of what happens in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read fantasy because if you like historical fiction or any other genre you won’t like this book. You won’t like it because it isn’t like any other genre. I would also recommend this book to anyone who is between the ages of eleven and fourteen because it is easy reading. This was a good book. I liked the book because I liked the events that happened in this book. The events were interesting. Since the book and its events were interesting it pulled you into the book.

The Trolls
Middleburgh, NY student

The novel that I just completed was The Trolls by Polly Harvath. Its copyright date is 1999. This book is fantasy and it has 136 pages.
This book takes place in Tenderly, Ohio. More specifically, it takes place in the Anderson house. (In the house the rooms that the characters are in, are the dining room and upstairs in the children's rooms.) When the characters are upstairs, Aunt Sally is normally in between the children's beds on a rocking chair telling them a story. The children are normally in their beds.
In this book, the parents want to take a vacation to Paris. They call Aunt Sally to come and watch the children. So when she comes she is carrying a book. The book has pictures in it. Every night Aunt Sally tells the children a story and shows them a picture to go along with the story.
I think this book was odd but I liked it. When I said it was odd I mean odd because of what happens in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read fantasy because if you like historical fiction or any other genre you won't like this book. You won't like it because it isn't like any other genre. I would also recommend this book to anyone who is between the ages of eleven and fourteen because it is easy reading. This was a good book. I liked the book because I liked the events that happened in this book. The events were interesting. Since the book and its events were interesting it pulled you into the book.

No More Cornflakes is about a girl Hortense, who has alot of problems in her life. First, her parents are acting like rabbits. Then, her mother is suddenly throwing up & she finds out it's because she's going o have a baby! Then her best one & only friend is leaving her for another girl named Doris. She has so many problems, how will she overcome them all?

this was a great book i thought. it is really funny and it all turns out that everything will be ok for hortense.

I really loved this book and think you should buy it. Of course, I'm married to the author, but that in no way colors my advice. It's a lovely book.

An Occasional Cow tells the story of Imogene, who lives in New York City but spends all her summers at camp. When her usual camp burns down, though, her parents are desperate to find a place to send her. Aunt Bobo's farm in Iowa is their answer.

In Iowa, Imogene meets her cousins: Josephine, March, Annie Mae, and Nathan. At first, there's some minor clashes between Josephine and Imogene, as the girls are quite similar. As the summer progresses, the group becomes fast friends and shares adventures. They spy on their neighbors, climb the laundry shute, and struggle to train their pigs to curtsey so they can win the annual pig talent show.

An Occasional Cow is light, pleasant fare. There isn't much plot, and what there is is far from compelling, but some of the characters are engaging, and the narrative moves swiftly. There are also touches of humor. Horvath often appears, in this book and in others, to be paying homage to Edward Eager's writing style (there are phrases in all of her books that are more or less direct quotes from Eager's work), so perhaps it isn't too surprising that Cow reads like an Eager book with the magic replaced by more mundane activities.

The book's most serious flaw is its lack of any conflict. Horvath tries, and then discards, one conflict after another, but she just doesn't seem to be comfortable having any of her characters struggle or fight. For example, Imogene doesn't like being sent to camp - she'd prefer to stay in New York - and she hates the idea of going to Iowa. With a set up like that, it seems likely that the story will feature either Imogene's attempts to teach her parents to let her stay home, or Imogene's gradual conversion to loving her summers away. In fact, neither thing happens, because by the end of the second chapter, Imogene is entirely happy and settled into the country, without having changed her general attitude towards her summers at all. The remainder of the conflicts are handled precisely the same way - they show up briefly and are fixed within 15 pages.

All in all, this book is a nice diversion, nothing more, but it might be pleasant for young readers who enjoy light and cheerful stories.

Occasional Cow is about this girl named Imogene. She always goes to camp but this year she can't, so she has to go to her aunt Bobo's house in Iowa. She has a hard time fitting in at first and then she gets to know them and starts playing with her cousins. She spies on their neighbor with them, with her new sunglasses. She is making the worlds longest gum wrapper chain. Her best friend is Eddie. I think you will like this book. I sure did.