The big old oak in the farmer's field was many things to many people. The children of Dimpole had played under the great tree for many generations. The farmer himself was fond of telling tales of ancient murders and hidden treasure under its branches. When an officious pillar of the community decides to take offense to the lurid tales, she plans a parade and public gathering at the tree.

At the same time, two neighborhood boys plan revenge on a local bully under the tree. Two shy adults gradually find some common ground, and the possibility of love. And an Indian swami sees the tree in a dream, and begins a pilgrimage. All come together under the beautiful old tree, with a surprising twist to the ending.

This little book is beautifully written, with clean, rhythmic prose. It begins with deceptive simplicity, but ties its many story lines together with a satisfying and poetic beauty that brings Louis Sachar's "Holes" to mind.

I bought this book for my daughter, but, once I began reading - and laughing - I had to continue to the warmly enjoyable end. This is very readable for all ages.

Jigg's Drug Store is full of cats, and has a leaky roof. The people who reside in the town of APplesap think that Jigg's dancing cats are under a spell and when the drug dtore threatens to close down they couldn't be happier. That is, all except for Melba who must decide weather to face her fears and fight for her store or if she should leave it alone and loose her sanctuary.

What a colorful story! I was thrilled by this story the first time I read it yhears ago. It is funny and endearing and teaches the shy readers that they need to stand up for what they think is right despite their own fears.

I got this book out of the library, and I loved it! It is a really funny story for all ages, especially if you like cats! This book is sure to make you smile! Five stars!!!

This is one of the best books I ever read. Jiggs drug store is about to go out of buisness but the dancing cats saved it. She described the charactors very well. This story all fits together so you can understand it. i recomend it to good booker likers. I think EVERY one would like it! This book is very exiting and has lots of surprises. It is sad in some parts but has a happy ending. it's a fun book!

In The Lost Flower Children, A mystery is unravelled when 2 unexpecting children are sent to there Aunt Miny's house. When the kids read the story too many things look familiar in the pictures. Follow through this mysterious mystery and be suprised! I reccomend this to people between the ages of 8-12.

I enjoyed this fanciful, dreamy, and yet extremely "down to earth" story at least as much or more than Taylor's Newbury Honor book, Afternoon of the Elves, and felt this one deserved a similar honor. As usual, Taylor does a superb job of towing the line between reality and fantasy, lacing ordinary experiences with little hints of magic that seem so natural and believable that it makes you think twice. Satomi Ichikawa's wistful sketches also provide a perfect compliment to the text. This is a charming book for lovers of gardens or of fairy tales, for imaginative young adults, and for people of all ages who still want to believe in a bit of magic.

I read this book last night, having merely picked it up to see if my daughter would like it. I couldn't put it down. The style is so gentle, and much like the books I read in my own childhood, rather than those stories which feel so forced to demonstrate how cool they are in order to interest today's children. I imagine many very normal girls will be very interested by the excellent style of the writer, by the story of the flower fairies which takes place in a summer garden, and by the genuine love and emotion which is generated by the interaction between the main characters.

The story is about two sisters whose mother has just died. The older one is able to admit to herself how lonely she feels for her mother. Yet she is also able to sacrifice her own need to grieve in order to care for her younger sister whose response to loss has been to obey rigid self-imposed routines and to contol her life in a way her mother's death would bely, by keeping outsiders strictly out of her life. The girls spend a summer with an elderly aunt and pursue an old mystery they read about in one of the books in the aunt's ancient home. Much of the action is spent in a wildly unkempt but magical and charming garden, and the girls' journey from grief to a more peaceful acceptance of their loss is a somewhat magical journey. The story gives a very positive role to the elderly aunt whose home they spend the summer visiting, and also paints a beautiful picture of sisterly support and love.

It's an absolute treasure of a book and I highly recommend it.

A Message from the Match Girl was about a nine year old boy whose mother died when he was a baby. As the boy gets older he starts to hear his mother speaking to him but he can't hear her too well. Then his grandma gives him a picture of him when he was a baby. The picture was taken in the park beside a statue of The Little Match Girl.So the little boy decides to go there. Then he starts finding clues and the story gets very weird.

Nine year old Walter Kew has no recollection of his mother who died when he was a baby. However he is almost positive that she is sending him secret messages softly through her ghost voice. As time moves on slowly she speaks more clearly and leads him to the Little Match Girl statue in the park. There he finds little trinkets by the statues feet, which makes him believe that the Little Match Girl has secrets about who his mother and he really are. However, with his extraordinary imagination and some help from the cat, Juliette, he makes an amazing discovery.

A well written book by a great author, A Message From a the Match Girl was awarded the Best Book Of the Year by the School Library Journal. This book is really good for people grades 5-7. It's suspenseful and a fast moving book. I like how it keeps me wondering what's going to happen next. Whoever reads it, will love it if they like juicy mysteries. I would rate this book as a 8 out of 10 because of how fast it moves.

A Message From The Match Girl is about a boy named Walter Kew,who thinks he can understand his mom in heaven. He was found in a dish at his grandma's house. Georgina and Poco, Walters best friends, think his mom is the waitress at the park's restaurant and that she's not dead. When the waitress leaves he can't understand his mom any more. One by one Walter finds his baby teasures at the foot of the Little Match Girl's statue.
Someone recommended this book to me. I would definitely recommend this book to you. It is an exellent book and its full of mysteries. I like how it keeps me wondering what's going to happen next.

The Art of Keeping Cool is about a story of a young boy named Robert, who used to live on a farm with his mother and sister while his father was at war. His mother, however is unable to keep the farm running with little help, and moves to a town called Sachem's Head in Rhode Island. They end up moving next door to his grandparents, and over time, becomes friends with his cousin, Elliot.
The story is rather quite dull at times and slow moving. It quickly lost my intrest, but at times caught my attention. The story does have very little suspense, such as the mystry of the families past and the mysterious man Abel Hoffman, but The Art Of Keeping Cool was good, but not the best novel I have read, so I awarded this book 3 stars.

Do you want to read an exciting, spellbinding, spectacular, page-turner that will hold you so tightly that you won't be able to put it down? Well, here it is, The Art of Keeping Cool! This is a story about two boys. One of them, Robert, whose dad is a fighter pilot, moved to his cousin, Elliot's house. Elliot is very good at art. Then he meets a German artist who everybody thinks is a spy, even Robert. That changes when the artist, Abel Hoffman, tells the kids a story about himself and gives them a painting. This story is a lot like Don't You Know there's a war on? by Avi because it has the same basic theme. Readers from ages seven to 121 that like exciting, page-turners will love this book. The Art of Keeping Cool is such a good, awesome, rocking book. You just have to read it!

This book is GREAT!!! It isn't really about being cool. That is just the title. It is about a boy who moved to the east coast with his cousin. It is during World War 2. A German artist moves in...that means trouble. Read the book and find out what happens.....

I loved this book! It was magical! Whenever Angela was happy, I was happy, and I understood her feelings.

The Gold Dust Letters is a very exciting and magical book. Palaria, the main character, is a fairy and leaves golden dust on letters that she writes to three girls. The girls try to see her during their sleepovers. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

This was such a good book, I couldn't put it down. The blend of magic and reality was so awesome. When nine-year-old Angela felt so happy when she "saw" Pilaria, I almost felt the same way. My favorite scene in this magical book was the banquet in the kitchen, it was sooooo beautiful and mystical, even though it seemed the kitchen had transformed when it was really decorated, it didn't matter for that night. If you love magic stuff, get this book!

I checked this book out because I am very much into kids' fantasy, and I wanted to read about elves. Unfortunately, I was wrong. FORTUNATELY, I found a wonderful book.

This book is about Hillary, who is jolted from her comfortable, easy upper-class surroundings by the class oddity, a girl called Sara-Kate who says that there are elves living in her overgrown backyard. Even though her snobby parents are clearly uneasy with this new friendship, Hillary comes to see Sara-Kate--and soon discovers a sad, and all too realistic, secret that her friend has been keeping.

This is not a fantasy book. Rather, it is the journey of two young girls, one who is secure, and one who is frightened and alone, but hides it under the guise of her own little world. It's a sad, sweet story, one that every kid should check out.

When I say this book I thought it would be a fantasy book but when i started reading it I found out it wasn't fantasy it was a story about the friendship of two girls, Sara-Kate and Hillary, Sara-Kate an unpopular girl who is afraid and Hillary who is more popular. they become friends because sara-Kate says she has Elves in her backyard and even though many rumours about Sara-Kate are going around and many people keep telling hillary to stop being her friend there friendship still sticks together!!

This book is one of the best book i ever read and i reccomend it to everyone!!

This book was a wonderful story that had me dreaming about it every night. Nine year-old Hillery Loxanne is invited over her next-door neighbor's house to play. Sounds like an ordinary day, right? Well it's not so normal when you live next to the weirdest
girl,or family in town.Sara-Kate Colonne is the eleven year-old who lives with her mom who is "always sick".A tiny, delicate village is found in Sara-Kate's junky over grown yard.Who could have made it? Sara-Kate believs it's elves.There's nothing special about her,but maybe the elves saw something that maybe Hillery could see to in Sara-Kate.This book will have you dreaming about enchanting and thrilling things that will have you fall in love with this book just as I have.

Archie is 11, and his sensitive brother Oggie is 6. Their parents recently divorced and now they go back and forth between preoccupied Mom's house and hotheaded Dad's house. In their menacing new neighborhood they have to deal with mean kids and criminals, but Archie distracts Oggie as much as he can by telling him a fantastic story of the Mysterious Mole People, who live underground and mercilessly try to right the wrongs of the above-world.

Things turn even more scary when Archie tries to get Oggie's stolen wallet back from a neighborhood gang, but the brothers count on each other and have inventive ways of coping with their situations. This YA novel was dark for my tastes, but people do live this way and the two boys' ability to adjust and grow stronger will reassure and encourage a lot of kids.

Writers of all ages will enjoy Archie's perceptive observations on writing. Divorced parents should read it too, to learn how to keep their own concerns from blinding them to their children's needs.

Although it has been a long time since I have read this book, for some reason it has stayed in my mind where other fantasy books have failed to. I thought it was your average, okay kind of book throughout most of the story, but when I reached the end, I really liked it. Probably what touched me were the implications found there, and often I have thought of the last pages of this story.

Two sisters (Mary and Elsie) take violin lessons from Miss Fitch. Mary struggles, but Elsie plays beautifully. Suddenly, Elsie stops taking lessons and sells her violin in favor of an expensive pen set. She has her own reasons. She had discovered a picture of Miss Fitch in the library in a book about WWII. It showed her carrying a baby while she was being shamefully carted down a French street. She had fallen in love with and had a baby with a German'the enemy. Elise wanted nothing to do with her. One night, Miss Fitch revealed the entire story. It was one of love and tragedy, crossing racial and national barriers. Eventually Elsie takes her back as her teacher.
It was enjoyable, but slow. Well, that's not entirely true. It starts off very slowly and continues that way until Miss Fitch starts her story. Then the action picks up, but just when you really start to get into it, it ends. I don't know, but I think she could have included a bit more detail and content. I just don't see this book holding the interest of an entire class of children for very long. It could definitely be used in the classroom in a history lesson as a way to get kids to learn a little about WWII without realizing it J. All in all, I enjoyed the story, but I don't know if children would get much out of it.