As a second grade teacher I am always looking for new books that my children have not yet heard. This past week I was fortunate enough to have a guest parent reader share a book that has made it to my "Top 10 Favorite Children's Books" list. It was the story of The Lonesome Tree. My students and I were immediately intrigued by the unique shape of the book. My students and I sat silently staring at the book as each page, written in verse, was read to us. I knew right then and there that this book would be enjoyed by all. When nineteen 7 and 8 years olds can sit still for a book, on a Friday, a week from Christmas, you know you have a winner! This book is a must have for all parents, children, teachers and classrooms. Not only a great story, but a lesson learned for all. "Sometimes things don't work out as we may have wished, but everything happens for a reason. In the end our true gifts will be shared with all" Enjoy this book, with your children, or by yourself, for many years to come

As I walked down the aisle, the unusual shape of the book caught my eye. I stopped and picked it up. After reading just the first few pages, I knew it was a book I wanted to have for my son...for myself...for my classroom. I purchased the book without even finishing it. I read it cover to cover when I got home and knew I had made the right decision. It was a book to cherish. Everyone feels inadequate at some point. This shows that there may be a different plan for each of us. Every one of us has something unique to offer the world. Some are caught up in trying to measure up to someone else's standard. The Lonesome Pine makes an important discovery as will the reader/listener. Be prepared to be moved. This is a MUST HAVE book. Give yourself and others you love an incredible treat...the book and CD. Hear Jane West tell the tale. Invite her into your home and hearts. You will see and hear the hours of love she put into Lonesome Pine and treasure it for years to come.

The Lonesome Pine was a wonderful and loving Christmas story. I felt it was written very well with great colorful illustrations. The story was worded in such a way that it was fun to read it aloud. I read the book to a young child about 6 years old and she enjoyed it. The story was unique in the way that normally these types of books, right before Christmas would have a happy ending. well Christmas came and went and the poor pine was still left unsold. The recycling was done very cleverly and you felt the experience the pine tree went through as it went through the mill. When our hero became a Christmas story put on the shelf for someone else to buy was a wonderful ending. The story has a great message for children and adults alike. We are all here for a reason and we may be suprised in what that reason will be.

this book was wonderful . i really enjoy fantasy and this was one of the best fantasy books ive read . i could not want for the sequal it kept me handing . i love this book and ive read it 8 times !

"Sister Light, Sister Dark" and its sequel, "White Jenna," hold places of honor on my bookshelves.

The story is about Jenna, a thrice-orphaned girl of the Dales (a fictional region) being raised by followers of Great Alta, the Goddess. These women--mostly unwanted daughters of local peasants--train for years to call up their "dark sisters." Jenna, who was born with completely white hair, may be the Anna foretold in prophecy.

Stuff happens.

Interspersed among the actual narrative chapters are ballads and myths of the Dales, as well as a pretentious contemporary historian's interpretation of the events of the story. Through his impeccable application of scientific method to historical research, he manages to get just about everything completely wrong. It's hilarious.

The third volume in this trilogy, "The One-Armed Queen," was a disappointment to me. While it was a good book in its own right, to me it didn't feel related to the other two--it worked on its own, but it was not part of the series. It concerns Jenna's one-armed adopted daughter Scillia, who seemed much less interesting than Jenna. Oh, well.

I highly recommend the first two books.

With everything this book has, it leaves me dying to find the seque!!! If you read this book, be sure to read the other books by Jane Yolen, especially the Dragon's Blood series!!!

5ive. Awesome. 5ives official Book. They're all the same!!!! :)~ C'mon gals, you know you love the lads!!!! Now c'mon and get up and buy this great book on the best brit "lad-band" ever!!!

This book gives all the information on 5ive, The Neighbours From Hell, you ever wanted to know. Filled with loads of fantastic pictures and their views on the world, this has to be the best biography ever! So, go and buy it, it's brill!!!!!

Hi i'm kate. Basically i think the book is excellent it kept my reading for ages. Five are a wicked band and i love their music. But to make things better they are different from other bands and good looking too. I just want to say............. 5ive are the best band ever and my bedroom is coverd and my school books to in pictures of them and even lyrics.

I love to read cookbooks, and I credit Jane Brody for that! My mother gave me this book years ago when I was trying to eat healthier and it worked. The information on nutrition in the beginning of the book is excellent and I have referred to it again and again. When I got married to a man who would almost rather eat dirt than eat "healthy" food, I won him over with recipes from this book. Now my kids love them, too. I can't say enough good things about Jane Brody - I also have her "Good Food Gourmet" - another triumph and a staple in my kitchen.

I first bought this book about 12 years ago and together with Brody's subsequent book, Good Food Gourmet, it is the very core of my cooking repetoire. My mother was truly a gourmet cook, so I know great food. Brody's recipes easily combine excellent taste with nutritional value. There is no loss of flavor or meal satisfaction here!! In fact, I find that other meals are too heavy and actually prefer to eat a home-cooked Brody meal over most other versions. I particularly like her contributions to ethnic food, and my favorites are Lemon Chicken with Bulgar, Vegetable Lasagna, and Hot and Sour Soup.

I have been feeling guilty about replacing my paperbook books, which are literally in tatters, with the relatively expensive hardcover versions. Yet in reading prior reviews, other people have done exactly that! How many other cookbooks actually require replacement anyway?

Having Jane Brody's cookbooks is like being a member of an elite club. Once you own them, you realize that you know more than most people. Brody is a master. Do not miss out on this and other fine books by Brody.

Three years ago I decided to get healthy: change the way I eat, exercise, live. Jane Brody's Good Food Book was given to me as a gift and has been part of my life ever since. Her recipes are delicious. She uses lots of herbs and substitutes bad stuff in traditional recipes with good stuff. It's real cooking for real life.

Essays by poets vary widely in scope. Some seek to portray the "revolutionary" nature of the poet's ideas. Others get lost in craft or in the needless pedantry concerning schools of poetics. Jane Hirshfield instead presents the coherent well-written prose of a synthesist. The result provides an effective rumination upon the "mind" (or "spirit") of poetry.

Ms. Hirshfield uses literary and religious allusion freely, but this is no glib new age-ish miracle cure about the artist's "mystic journey". Instead, she uses the symbols of faith and skepticism as a rich metaphoric base to try to explore the goal and inner working of the effort to write a poem.

This work does not pretend to be some Quran of poetics, complete unto itself or changeless. Instead, the author surveys her task like a visitor to the crater of diamonds park, hunting for something shining among the crystal.

What I like about this book is that for all its rich allusion and reflections on symbolism, it's an accesible, affirming and non-saccharine take on why we are poets, and what it means to us.

My only quibble with her work is that the influence of eastern thought on the western American poets comes through much more clearly than the effect of the American experience on these same poets.In the poetry I read, Sandburg, Millay, and Forche spring from very different places with radically different voices, and yet each has an "American" tone that is unmistakable. It's not a matter of "nationalism" per se, but a matter of history and the lasting impression of the American experience. It's not a fault of the book at all, but a perspective I missed.

I think this is a great book to own for anyone who has pondered the "big questions" of poetry--what does it mean? why do I write?
In the abstract, an essay on poetic philosophy sounds filled with dull pretension. This book is anything but dull.

As a professor once said to me, "Puzzles are fun to put together, equations exist to be solved, mysteries are simply our guides to awe."

I unabashadly admit that Jane Hirschfield's book attracted my attention because 1)I've grown increasingly interested in essays about poetry and 2) because I've lately been somewhat obsessed with the number 9 - finding it's way into my own poems more than once. So, what a wonderful surprise - to find this slow, satisfying read of a book unlocking so many gates for me - to things like increased appreciation for the connections between poetry and spirituality, new admiration for ancient Asian poets I'd never known anything about before, and consequently more about the joys of translation.

The dramatic denouement came surprisingly at the end for this reviewer - as she explored again the area of living on the liminal edge. There is so much - so much the other reviewers have all ready praised and recognized. I'm eager - now - to read some of Jane's poetry.

It was especially enjoyable to read "NG" in tandem with "Soulmates" by Thomas Moore, "Poetic Medicine" by John Fox, and David Whyte's "The Heart Aroused."

To the reviewer who queried about the mystery of the "Nine Gates" - it is a curious thing that the title phrase does not receive one reference in the entire book. It seems there might have only been one outside reference - perhaps on the cover or in the preface - alluding to the nine essays themselves to be the nine gates. Someone had to come up with a concrete answer I suppose. For me, this is associated with another fellow reviewer's comment, that roughly read, "The book itself is a poem." Ah, that could be a lead. And of course, there is the hint regarding Memnosyne, mother of muses . . . A lovely mystery that might introduce us to awe.

Valuable and enjoyable not only for its insights to poetry, but because the writing itself is beautiful--lyric, poetic prose. Essays are lessons, and philosophical discussions, that teach in the best ways: directly, and by example.

Okay, so I read this book as an adult, but it didn't take long for some of the magic of childhood to come creeping back to me through the pages. This is a children's story the way they used to make 'em, full of whimsy, magic, and good deeds. Follow the Jolly Mon on a delightful yet purposeful journey, spreading happiness as he goes. The illustrations are beautiful and capture the vivid colors of the Carribbean and a child's imagination. This is a great book for kids of all ages. Just be prepared to smile, because once the Jolly Mon has passed your way, it'll be impossible not to.

I ordered this for my niece, I read it and it is wonderful! I will be puchasing another copy for my child as well. This book takes your imagination far away to Bananaland where things are peaceful and happy! If only the real world could be so wonderful. This tale will delight readers of all ages! Buffett has done a great job with his awesome imagination! All of his books are a breath of fresh air for the weary mind. He should write more than he does! And Lambert Davis did a great job with his colorful images, you felt like Bananaland was real!

I fell in love with this book years ago and couldn't wait to pass it on to my children.I picked it up recently and my 6 year old wants me to read it every day. She has been a parakeet since birth (in utero even) and loves everything that Jimmy sings and writes.

this book was one i read as a young boy in ohio. i checked it out from the bookmobile, and i have never forgotten it. the sci-fi style was vaguely like l'engle, which i read much later, but i have never stopped looking for a copy. amazon could not find me a copy, but i refuse to give up hope. i strongly suggest it for any child who finds himself even a little ahead of his classmates in school. it reminds us we are not alone, though we may be geniuses and geeks.

This sequel to The Diamond in the Window is one of my favorite books. I haven't been able to read it for several years because my library no longer has a copy, it's out of print and the price even for ex-library copies is out of sight!! Jane Langton is a wonderful writer and everyone should have the opportunity to read the entire series.

I read this book ages ago as a child and loved it. Spooky and funny and surprisingly insightful. It's funny, this book is a sequel to the Diamond in the Window, but I'd never even heard of the Diamond in the Window until I started looking for a copy of The Swing in the Summerhouse on Amazon. I've since bought a copy of the Diamond...and now I want a copy of The Swing...

Jane Austen's classic novel PRIDE AND PREJUDICE begins with the oft-repeated line, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Paula Marantz Cohen lets her readers know, right on the opening page, that she is of a similar mind. "Take it from me," the book opens, "A nice widower with a comfortable living can be nudged into settling down by a not-so-young woman who plays her cards right." Her debut novel, JANE AUSTEN IN BOCA, takes the action and gentle intrigue of Jane Austen's 18th century country gentry and schleps them all the way to a Jewish "retirement club" in Boca Raton, Florida. In this club, dogs wear embroidered jackets because in Boca "many dog owners feel their pets should be entitled to enjoy an accessory now and then." It is a sweet and gentle look into the lives and loves of some pretty hilarious senior citizens. I'm way under 70 and about as WASP-y as they come, but I still liked it.

The central plot of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE concerns the very British Bennet family's attempts to marry off their five daughters and all the subterfuge and machinations contained therein. The first two-thirds of Cohen's book borrows fairly heavily from Austen's classic. All the main characters are here. Elizabeth Bennet is now Flo Kliman, a retired University of Chicago librarian, while Elizabeth's sister Jane shows up as May Newman, a softhearted widow. Mrs. Bennet is turned into May's daughter-in-law Carol, a woman who "was constantly striving to improve the lives of those around her, whether they liked it or not." Carol believes May is depressed and needs some companionship, preferably of the Jewish widower variety. She, like Mrs. Bennet, hopes to help her mother-in-law snag a live one, whether May likes it or not.

The man for whom Carol sets her cap (a turquoise sequined cap, I'm sure) is Norman Grafstein, a fellow Boca resident and acquaintance from back home. The courtship of these two septuagenarians is, of course, not a smooth road --- nor is the improbable but inevitable romance that develops between May's friend Flo and Norman's friend Stan, the Elizabeth and Darcy of the book. In a portrayal of retired life that is neither overly sentimental nor tragic, Cohen allows her characters to be real people who enjoy and embrace life. The men, especially, view their retirement as a second youth. Feel free to insert your own Viagra joke here. The women form remarkably close friendships with each other --- and at times, it sounds more like they are all kids away at summer camp than in their "twilight years."

Like Jane Austen, Cohen has a flair for observations and dry humor. Carol, who is a force of nature, is seen by May as "the incarnation of a good fairy in the guise of a suburban yenta." On noticing another friend's "unusually extensive cleavage," Flo thinks, "breasts, beyond the age of forty-five, she took to be assets best kept under cover. Flo was distinctly in the minority among her peers in Boca Raton, however, where cleavage was as common as Bermuda shorts and often worn with them." Cohen's story is much less pointed than Austen's. Her characters may be fools, but they are well-meaning fools. The plot moves quickly, as one might expect with a novel that weighs in at only 258 pages, but one has plenty of time to get to know the characters and to root for them as they find much deserved happiness.

In EMMA, another of Jane Austen's classics, she writes, "Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced and the inconvenience is often considerable." Cohen must have taken this advice to heart, as the reader will probably see the end coming a mile away. It may be predictable and fluffy, but JANE AUSTEN IN BOCA is satisfying, like a nice chewy bagel or maybe some mandelbrot or some kugel or a sweet piece of rugelach. Maybe my next book should be a cookbook.

--- Reviewed by Shannon Bloomstran

This is a rare book in modern fiction. It has an elusive element that many authors seek but few attain: it has charm.

Jane Austen in Boca is a Pride and Prejudice novel set in a modern-day Jewish retirement residence in Boca Raton. Unlike many efforts to borrow Jane Austen's plot lines, this book successfully translates the plot into its setting. The characters are witty, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, but always interesting. Even though I knew perfectly well how it had to come out, I read as though I were in a genuine state of suspense. In other words, the book lured me into its world and into the minds of its characters with enormous success. If only life were really like this!

This book is a delightful read. It is elegantly written and beautifully paced. Without Jane Austen's acerbity, it was nonetheless both compelling and comedic (in the classical sense of the term). I look forward to more fiction from this author.

It is obvious this book was written by an English professor. How refreshing! It is a hoot - very, very entertaining. I can tell a book will be good when I start casting for the movie in my mind (Rita Moreno as Lila, Bea Arthur or Olympia Dukakis as Flo and Sally Field with aging make-up as May, although we could re-think the May casting). This is a vacation read (or in my case a week-end read, as I couldn't put it down). Buy the book! Let's encourage Professor Cohen to write again. I'd hate to lose sight of these delightful ladies.

I picked up this book because the cover caught my attention. I was looking for mystery, excitement, danger with a native american flavor. I could not believe my luck. I read this book in a couple of days on the train, during lunch and late at night. I loved the lead character Jane Whitefield--she's badd!!! I think Jane Whitefield would make an excellent TV series. This was my first Thomas Perry novel and I plan to read Vanishing Act next. This book is a real treasure.

Jane Whitefield comes to us a fully developed character as only Kate Shugak of the Dana Stabenow has before. The action starts (explodes?) from page 1. I was settled to read a chapter or 2 before bed as is my wont but ended up putting this book down at the back cover just in time to shower for work. I read incessantly and have rarely found a book of this caliber and unlike so many other authors, the series maintains the standard. Looking forward to the new one Jan 2000!!!

The first three Jane Whitefield books are the classiest alternative to Tony Hillerman's "Navajo mysteries." Nobody is more fun to read about than Jane Whitefield. She's clever, she's beautiful, she's seriously dangerous to bad guys.

Like that Holmes guy, she's been so popular that Perry tried unsuccessfully to get shet of her for three novels. And maybe she will "rise from the dead" once more. Meantime, there are three good novels (*Vanishing Act,* *Dance for the Dead*, *Shadow Woman*) and two better-than-average-but-kind-of-half-hearted ones (*Face-Changers,* *Blood Money*). In each of the last three books, Jane promises her husband that she will stop now. Perry's done two novels since *Blood Money*, and it looks like Jane's last retirement took. What a shame.

In *Dance for the Dead*, the action begins on page one, and by page five Jane has fought her way through a gauntlet and five or six key people are dead. From this dazzling start, it's a wild ride of switched identities, super-killers, and Jane's mysto/techno woodlore that brings us, breathless, to a celebration on the Seneca rez. On the way we meet a woman we learn to love almost as much as we do Jane.

Wow. Read this book.

My first introduction to the Born Free books when I was a child learning to read in school. And what a great introduction to reading it was. The story of Elsa and the Adamsons who saved her life as a cub along with her sisters and raised her brought me into a world of wanting to be there with all the animals and see Africa. This seemed to be treated more as a children's book in my time than an adult book. The idea of the book was to teach people the importance of environmental conservation awareness. The first book, tells Elsa's early life from a cub raised by Joy and George Adamson and their pet rock hyrax, Pati. Joy is Elsa's surrogate mom and with great pains to teach Elsa the skills to survive in the wild. With lots of work Joy did it with success that Elsa was capable of living in the wild again. They released her near her birthplace and hoping Elsa would find and connect with her pride-in which she did. There is the tragedy not long afterward I had read this amazing story that Elsa had died in the Kenya bush of disease. Something of life that I learned early in my life that it was reality in the wilds of Africa or anywhere for that matter. But the cycle of life lives on in Elsa's pride. Still another grim incident ended the lives of Joy and George Adamson. Both were found murdered.

Joy Adamson has left behind a legacy of these fascinating books that moves us to treat our world with respect and have a better understanding between human-animal relationship. Joy Adamson before her death had also written, 'Living Free: Elsa and her Cubs' and 'Forever Free: Elsa's Pride.' Her family extended even further across the grasslands of Africa as she tells about them in her other books, 'The Spotted Sphinx' (about Pippa the Cheetah), 'Pippa's Challenge,' 'Pippa: The Cheetah and her Cubs,' 'Queen of Shaba: The Story of an African Leopard,' and 'Friends of the Forest.' Joy Adamson's book 'Peoples of Kenya' reflects upon the life of the Kenyan people, her concern for the people welfare there and their struggles to make an existence in a harsh, beautiful land. If you want to know more about Joy Adamson read her autobiography, 'The Searching Spirit.'

In the late fifties gifted painter Joy Adamson and her husband game warden George took three female lions cubs into their care (their mother had been killed by mistake). Having three young rambunctious lions around proved a bit too much. And after much heartbreak the Adamsons decided to send Elsa's sisters to a Zoo and keep only her. So Elsa was raised and eventually after several difficulties succesfully rehabilitated back into the wild, but her bond with the Adamsons wasn't broken. This is truly a classic book of friendship between humans and animals. Tenderly and delightfully written. I loved Elsa's interactions with the Adamsons and other animals. She's a very convincing ambassador for love between the species. And the many picures are endearing and indeed a delight to behold. The sequels Living free and Forever free show us how Elsa and her cubs got further on, and I loved them just as much. As for the Adamsons their experiences with Elsa would lead them to a life of rehabiliating the big cats back into the wild.

"Roooaarrr!" The ferocious lioness roared like thunder as the tiny bullet pierced through its thick golden hair. After the lioness fell to the rocky ground, a soft, almost scared, whimper rose from the deadly awkward silence. The lioness had had a cub. What should Joy Adamson do? Leave the cub on it's own where it could die easily in one night alone? Joy Ademson, the author of this book, Born Free, opened up a new wild door in my reading. She opened up a door into a room filled with real life problems, adventures, and emotions. This wasn't like any other book I'd read before. It was as if I was there, raising the tiny cub myself. I extremely loved this book. You'll read it in a flash, I did, and I'm not even a good reader. If you are an animal freak, you'll enjoy the little adventures this book fills in your head. Even if you're not an animal freak... well I didn't think I was either, until now.