David changed his name to Ali Baba. When he did this he tried to turn ordinary things into big adventures. I thought it was a good book because it was silly. I think Johanna wrote this to teach the lesson that changing your name will not make you have adventures.

When David Bernstein decides to change his name to Ali Baba, weird and unusual things start to happen! He finds a robber's treasure in his apartment's basement, and much more! I say this book is wonderful, but sort of disappointing when Ali Baba finds out about the treasure. I think the point of this book is: Having a good imagination gives you adventures, not your name.

David changed his name to Ali Baba. He thought that an exciting name would give him exciting adventures. So he got into big trouble. I liked this story because Ali Baba has a big imagination. I learned that if you have an exciting name you still won't have an exciting life.

and that is why the reviews are ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC providing the reader an opportunity to get a better flavour of the writings, rather than the usually vague and enticing book jacket mini editorials.

Aphrodizzia is just such a book by master writer Richard Manton. The book is geared to Edwardian rather than Victorian erotic writing and as such has the tendency to take a third party view of the 'action' so to say, relishes both punishment, and invariably bondage, as part of the sex act. The fact that usually the females are unwilling participants seems to add to the spice and flavour of the Edwardian mentality.

The book is a series of letters between 'Jack' in Britain and 'Dolly' in Germany and their very private schools for young ladies of society. Both decide to send girls to each other for education and 'training' while Jack and Dolly correspond of the progress of the pupils. Suffice it to say that the girls are subjected to more than the cane on their bare bottoms.....

After having read and reviewed 'Deep South' and 'Bombay Bound' by Richard Manton, and having rated them as as 5 star books, I can't really say that I liked 'Aphrodizza' very much, BUT, then again this book wasn't written for me.

So, read the reviews of this book and you certainly should get a good idea of its content, style of writing, and if you would rate it as a 5 or 1 star special for your particular likes and dislikes.

Aphrodizzia is up there with The Blue Train, Elaine Cox, Deep South, and The Captive series. In other words, it is vintage Richard Manton.

It is skilfully told through a series of letters exchanged between aristocratic cousins, Jack and Dolly, who each have a bevvy of teenage girls to oversee. The emphasis in Aphrodizzia is on girls from northern Europe: Germany and Scandinavia, and how their special European self-possession and nonchalence is restructured with a good dose of English discipline and hypocrisy. There is little dialogue in Aphrodizzia, but there is much drama. The girls endure a series of awakenings, both sexual and disciplinary, and finish up on a slave island in the tropics.

OK, this is obsessional writing, but of what quality! It is smooth, poetic and repetitious. It produces a semi-hypnotic state that takes you deep into a dark fantasy world. But be warned! If female buttocks and bamboo canes are not at the centre of your universe, don't read any Manton. You won't get it. In Aphrodizzia Manton explores the complex and ambiguous relationship innocent girls have with their behinds. His writing circles around the moment when girls first realise their bottoms - the place where they are punished and where a certain rudeness takes place - is also a place of much sexual facination for men.

This book, like all of Manton's writing, is a powerful antidote to contemporary feminism. Don't we all know teenage girls similar to the characters in this book? Would the world not be better off if these girls were properly instructed in pleasing men, instead of wasting their time in academic classrooms? This work is one of Manton's best.

My son learned to read using Johanna Hurwitz's marvelous Russell/Riverside Kids series, and so we were very excited to begin Pee Wee's Tale. We were not disappointed! The animal story is a nice diversion from Hurwitz's more realistic fiction, but still has all of her markings as an author: humor, empathy and strong characterization. Yes, my son was concerned about the guinea pig's plight, and yes, the release of the guinea pig into the park raised an eyebrow...but it also incited some wonderful discussion about caring for pets and how animals adapt in the wild. Besides being an exciting and provocative chapter book for emergent readers, I think this would make a great classroom read-aloud, and I am giving it as a gift to my son's teacher! Also, don't miss Lexi's Tale, the sequel from a squirrely point of view!

"Share this with me. You'll like it. It's very sweet." are the last three sentences of this lovely chapter book for young readers, and I hope that many children and their parents will do just that.

It's a story of friendship between a naive housepet and a street-wise Central Park(New York City) rodent, exceptionally well written, with fun forays into poetry and sayings. Who could resist a squirrel with the philosophy, "a nut in the jaw is worth two in the paw?"

Add this to the CHARLOTTE'S WEB type of books children of all ages take into their hearts and share it with a child you love soon.

When an author sits down to write a book, she/he uses many elements: fact, memory and imagination. My book about PeeWee began with fact. I read an article in the New York Times telling of 45 guinea pigs set loose in Central Park because their owner faced eviction by his landlord. A few days later, a second story told that most were captured, sent to an animal shelter, and put up for adoption. Starting with that fact, I began to imagine what would happen to a single guinea pig that was not found. Memory came to play because I recalled the parents of two of my own children's friends. Both released pet kittens onto the city streets when their children were not home because they felt stressed and unable to continue the responsibility of pet ownership. As the owner of two pet cats myself, I was shocked when I heard what these parents had done. And finally, when I sat down to write about that little guinea pig, my imagination took over. Suddenly, the little guinea pig was looking at the newspaper scraps in his cage and discovering the mystery of the printer letter. His wise mother, who grew up in a first grade classroom, teaches him how to read. His reading skills together with his friendship with a street smart squirrel named Lexi helpt she hero of the fantasy survive.

Here is another news story that I have not written about: a few years ago, a crate of tropical parrots broken open at Kennedy Airport. The small green birds flew free and everyone predicted that they would soon die in the cold and hostile climate of the New York area. But as recently as a week ago, a cousin of mine who lives in Connecticut saw two dozen of these parrots in a local park. Somehow, they have adapted and continued to live and reproduce despite cold weather, snow, different vegetation and new enemies. Like human immigrants before them, they are learning to live and thrive here. It's my favorite kind of story - one with a happy ending.

The authors and publishers should be ashamed. Helen Kellers's life was NOT simply filled with "silence and darkness", as the authors write. She was a fighter for women's rights, including the right to vote. She denounced the murder of coal miners by John D. Rockefeller. She helped found the American Civil Liberties Union. She worked tirelessly for peace. She lived a long, full NOISY 88 years.

This book reduces her to a permanent teenager, and an image on a postage stamp. This book misinforms young people, and gives them a ridiculous idea of what Helen Keller was really all about.

I first read this book to my daughter when she was 5 years old, and she has been fascinated with Helen Keller ever since. We have read and reread this book numerous times, and she never loses interest. This led to buying other Helen Keller books and an interest in learning sign language. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a young child. It's a great book for getting a child interested in true stories/biographies!

I used this book with my second grade children in a unit on communications. They were fascinated by the story and learned a lot of new vocabulary words. The book's content was such that my children were able to try to imagine what it would be like to be deaf, blind, or both. The book was also a springboard for discussion on courage, perseverance, determination, and achieving goals, as it gave concrete examples of these abstract concepts. We also used the book to learn a little geography as we traced the path of Helen's travels on a map. It includes a picture of the Braille alphabet, which we used to write and "decode" messages, an exercise the kids loved! Contrary to the opinion of another reviewer, we really liked the artwork and the content. Obviously, I recommend this book.

Dede thought her life was the worst. Her parents were divorced, she has to wear headgear at night, she messes up her part in the school play, etc., etc. So she decides to take charge! She tries to get her shop teacher to notice her mother and she signs her mother up for a vegetable club to meet new people. But things don't turn out as she planned!