An excellent book for children and adults. It's a beautiful well told story about a little girl who turns from mean and bad tempered to sweet and happy. The moon rabbit shows her how to do this. The moral of this story reminds us all how we should really treat one another. Everyone should read this book at least once a year. If I could find more copies I would buy one for every child I know.

I have donated this book and others by Dr. Ikeda to my school's library. The illustrations by Brian Wildsmith are outstanding. The entire book itself is a work of art.

I don't know what book the person who didn't like this was reading, but it certainly wasn't "The Princess and the Moon." I love it and highly recommend it!

This book is a wonderful portrayal of nature and is a very good book for every child to read.

I have used The Cherry Tree in 4th and 5th grade inner-city classrooms for many years. Even though it is a picture book, upper elementary school children relate to the notion of hope and reconstruction thriving in an environment of loss and destruction. My students have been greatly moved by the final flowering of the cherry tree at the end of the story--a metaphor about the strength of the will to live.

After losing their father and their home during war - and while their mother is busy during the day struggling to earn a living for her young family - a young boy and his sister try to help an old man wrap a damaged cherry tree as protection against the winter cold, hoping that for the first time since the war started the tree will bloom again in the spring.

During the winter, animals find a home beneath the tree and finally spring brings a family of flowers around it, a comforting sign that renewal may also come to the war-torn village.

The great illustrations are by the renowned Brian Wildsmith, who many say contributed some of his best work in many years to this beautiful little book.

This is a wonderful little book for kids from 4-8 or so, but will also be enjoyed by adults as well. It teaches to never give up hope, for hope is life itself. It teaches that with hope, even the most horrible of circumstances can be overcome and we can find happiness in even the smallest pleasures in life.

Ancient Greece is part of our 6th grade Social Studies curriculum. My students looked forward to hearing a myth a day and were disappointed when I finished the book.

This book is great for short, easy-to-understand, fun, read alouds.

My daughter, too is enthralled by Geraldine McCaughrean's retelling of Greek myths. Her selections are the same stories I was told at a similar age and which I think whetted my taste for narrative and helped turn me into a lifelong reader. McCaughrean manages to get across the failings of her human and divine characters in a way that a child can understand, so the stories have wit and moral resonance in addition to plot. This book has us racing through the bedtime routine so we can read the next story together; I don't know of a better endorsement than that!

A great introduction to Greek Mythology for adults and 4+ yearolds that flows nicely from one story to the other incorporatingrecurring characters. Well arranged but stories are kept succinct without oversimplification. Cheerful illustrations avoid the gore from cutting heads off multitudinous mythical creatures. A worthwhile book for any complete children's library!

El Cid begins his life's journey as the nouveau riche aristocrat, Don Rodrigo de Vivar. He is constantly snubbed by the other aristocratic families, despite being the King's greatest knight, for you see, his family was only knighted a generation before! Finally after enduring floods of insults, Don Rodrigo reaches the limits of his patience and tugs upon a rival's beard. This unseemly behavior, so tame by today's standards, dooms the Don to exile in the land of the Godless Moors. There, the epic takes off as the Don becomes known as El Cid (the Lord) after conquering the Moorish regions for the King of Castile (his approach to trying to escape his sentence of exile). A must read! (Search carefully for this book as it is out of print and is often costly, tho it need not be so.)

The book is a gem! El Cid begins his life's journey as the nouveau riche aristocrat -- Don Rodrigo de Vivar. At first, he is constantly snubbed by the older aristocratic families of Castile, despite being the King's best knight, for you see, his family was only knighted a generation before.
Finally in a fit of controlled rage, he responds to the numerous insults of a rival by tugging upon the rival's beard. This unseemly behavior, so understated by today's standards, gets him banished to the land of the Godless Moors. There the epic takes off as he conquers the Moorish regions of Spain in order to regain his standing with the King. A must read!!(But look for it on other websites - it's cheaper!)

This is the tale of an epic quest of El Cid, the Spanish war hero!

I love this book. Daisaku Ikeda's children's books are some of my favorite children's books of all time.

Akiko and Hiroshi move to an new island because of their parents' work. They don't know anyone on the island and are terribly lonely until they meet Pablo, who shows them the tropics entrancing secrets, teaches them to paddle outrigger canoes, and shares the delights of the coral reefs.

However, suddenly, Pablo decides that his new friends are his enemy. He has asked his grandmother about the wreck in the local bay and learned that people from Akiko and Hiroshi's island attacked Pablo's island many years ago. Hiroshi then sets out on his own in a small canoe and, caught in a strong current, is rescued by Pablo. They then learn that their ancient ancestors all came from the same place, carried around the world by boat and realize that humanity is truly one large family.

World renowned illustrator Brian Wildsmith outdoes himself in splendid paintings of a lush tropical island, a luminous sky and the beautiful tropical sea.

Three children overcome age-old prejudices to discover the unique value of their individual lives and the eternal bonds of friendship that connect all humanity through a rescue from a storm at sea.

Brian Wildsmith works his color magic on the tropical seas and fishes that provide the setting for this tale.

A precious little children's story about two kids who care for birds, especially an injured swan, while their dad is away for the winter fishing. The supernatural "Snow Country Prince" is very grateful to them for their compassionate deeds; perhaps he's responsible for bringing Papa - who also becomes injured - back home safe and sound. This little book teaches the rewards of compassion and caring for others in need.

Renowned illustrator Brian Wildsmith's familiar hues, his beautiful creatures drawn against vivid impressionistic landscapes, is wonderfully showcased in this lovely little book.

"The Snow Country Prince" relates the story of a young boy and his sister in a fishing village in the snow country who care for an injured swan through the harsh winter, while their very ill father is being treated at a distant hospital. Through caring for the swan, the children awaken their compassionate spirit as well as a strong hope for their father's recovery. As the swan regains its strength, the children record its progress in drawings for their mother to take to their father in the hospital as encouragement.

"The Snow Country Prince" relates the story of a young boy and his sister in a fishing village in the snow country who care for an injured swan through the harsh winter, while their very ill father is being treated at a distant hospital.

Through caring for the swan, the children awaken their compassionate spirit as well as a strong hope for their father's recovery. As the swan regains its strength, the children record its progress in drawings for their mother to take to their father in the hospital as encouragement.

This book is a beatiful story related to Noah's Ark. The illustrations alone are worth the venture. Smaller children will need some of the text explained, however school-age children will delight in the mystical magic of unicorns and the reason behind their disappearance. Great idea for a gift.

This book was absolutely magnificent. Many people tell the story about Noah's Ark in a different way saying the unicorns would not listen when he called them and stayed playing. That story bothered me because unicorns would not do something silly like that. In this story, they started heading over but had to help the turtles who were too slow, the butterfly who stopped to admire her beauty in the water, and the monkeys who stayed playing and wouldn't listen when they were called. This was a wonderful book and I highly reccomend it to anyone who loves unicorns!

A magnificent, moving tale of the haunting legend, and ultimate fate, of the magical unicorns. The story is dramatically written and touching. My daughter and I read the story for the first time this Fall on a moonlit beach, which lent to the enchantment of the story. As the tale ensues, we found ourselves wanting to shout with Noah: "Unicorns, Unicorns!" The ending is achingly bittersweet, yet easier on the young ones than most tellings of this age-old tale, (especially those who still believe that they will someday see a Unicorn), and leaves you with a magical sense of wonder about what may truly lie within the frothy waves crashing onto the shore. Sophie Windham's watercolor illustrations are wonderful, and beautifully portrayed the magical world of the beloved Unicorn! Truly a tale to be shared young and old alike! Unforgettable! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Author Geraldine McCaughrean and illustrator Emma Chichester Clark previously worked together on "Greek Myths," which focuses on the heroes of classical mythology the way "Greek Gods and Goddesses" tells myths about the deities of Olympus. Consequently, you really should not have one book without the other.

The stories included in this volume cover (1) how the Olympians overthrew the Titans, (2) Hermes as a mischievous baby, (3) Phaeton's fatal ride in his father's chariot of the sun, (4) the birth of Dionysus, (5) the adventure of Dionysus and the pirates, (6) the birth of Athena, (7) how Hephaestus ended up marrying Aphrodite, (8) the story of Aretemis and Apollo, (9) the love story of Apollo and Hyacinthus, (10) the story of Halcyone and Ceyx, (11) how Prince Demo almost became immortal, (12) the Golden Apple of Eris and the abduction of Helen, (13) Cassandra, priestess of Troy, (14) the myth of Sisyphus, and (15) how the eyes of the Argus ended up on the peacock. As you can see, this is a nice collection of stories that covers various aspects of classical mythology. If anything, they show the gods and goddesses in a better light than other choices would have done.

Caughrean retells these ancient myths by keeping the plots simple and avoids lapsing into arcane language. You certainly get a sense of the oral tradition from which many of these myths sprung. Clark's watercolors, some of which are clearly classically influence, capture the charm of these stories. There is something enticing about the playful eyes she gives many of the characters that I really like. The strength of "Greek Gods and Goddesses" is that it is an excellent intermediate version of these classical myths, preparing them for reading Hamilton, Evslin or perhaps even a little Homer down the road.

I like this book for an introduction to Greek mythology. It tells only 15 stories, but each is lavishly illustrated and written with lively dialogue. The vocabulary is deep English, with words like halcyon, burnished, citadel, shyster, and masonry, so your child will need a dictionary nearby or you the parent can read aloud and explain. The titles and manner of telling help make these stories more accessible (understandable) than some other Greek mythologies.

Unlike most stories where the hero faces one evil person or group, The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean pits the hero, Haoyou, against two unassociated malevolent individuals. This exciting story takes place in 13th century China, where Di Chou, a sailor, kills Haoyou's father in the hopes of marrying his wife, Qing'an, and sets fire to Haoyou's house. At this point, Haoyou and his mother move into Haoyou's great uncle Bo's house. Bo forces Haoyou's mother to work in a drinking house, locked up in the cellar and away from sunlight for months at a time to pay for his gambling addiction.

Haoyou and his cousin, Mipeng, set out to stop Di Chou by sending him and his evil plans on a sea voyage. However, Haoyou must bribe the ship's crew to get them to take Di Chou on board. He agrees to be a wind tester - a dangerous job where Haoyou is strapped to a kite and propelled upwards into the wind to test to see if the ship's voyage will be successful.

Haoyou wanted so much for his mother to be saved from the man who killed his father that he found the courage to risk his own life. After a man in the crowd sees Haoyou's skill as a wind tester, he approaches Haoyou's great-uncle Bo to ask that Haoyou join the circus. Bo gives Haoyou and Mipeng to the circus in the hopes of them earning money for him to gamble away.

When Haoyou and Mipeng begin to earn money in the circus, Haoyou's uncle Bo is there, ready to take it away from them. Haoyou faces a difficult decision - should he be obedient and respect his elders as is correct in 13th century China, or go against everything he has been taught and save the money for his mother and himself?

This exciting and suspensful story about Haoyou's quest to save his mother from Di Chou and his own family is sure to keep you turning page after page.

So, who's worse--the guy who kills your father and then burns up your house and livelihood in order to get his paws on your beautiful mother, or the great uncle who is doing his best to sell off that beautiful mother to the killer? And what has Kublai Kahn got to do with this historic adventure story that poses the question to teenagers--What if you are taught to always obey your relatives and those relatives make the Dursleys look like Ozzy and Harriet?

Haoyou is the boy living this nightmare, adrift in a sea of tradition, obedience, and superstition, who takes the daring gamble of offering himself as a wind tester:

"...Again the crew tugged on the rope, to tilt it back into the face of the wind. Haoyou's head cracked against the matting, and the rope handles burned the skin off his palms. He could hear the fibers of the rope creaking under the strain, his ribs bending inward where the harness crossed his chest. Perhaps his kite would burst apart. Perhaps there would be no air at all to breathe at the top of the sky"

The key to this riveting story set in thirteenth century Cathay (China) is a strong, cunning, heroic female character--a distant relative named Mipeng. I was continually touched and astounded by her bravery and intelligence as well as her friendship and support of Haoyou. She is fiercely determined to strip that blindfold of obedience from his eyes.

"And all at once, as if fear were a cloud layer through which he had risen, Haoyou looked about him and saw the whole world beneath him. And it was his. Like a sliver shield daubed with blue and green, it throbbed, convex, complex, beautiful. He was a swimmer floating on the surface of an ocean, borne up by such a clarity of water that he could see each sunken treasure, each darting fish, each twist of coral down there in the unbreathing fathoms below. He, out of all its sluggish inhabitants, could breathe! He alone had mastery over this shining province so beautiful that it spangled red and black and green in front of his eyes."

It is also fascinating to get such a vivid taste, vision, and smell of the Cathay encountered by Marco Polo--from the grimy, oily seaside villages to the opulence of the aforementioned Mongol conqueror.

And it's a rare adventure story that could top that feeling McCaughrean gives us in THE KITE RIDER--of flying hundreds of feet in the air, over a land of long ago, anchored to Mother Earth by a kitestring.

Reminiscent of a spicier Lloyd Alexander, Geraldine McCaughrean weaves a spellbinding tale with bits of Celtic lore, excellent writing and amazing lead characters.

Phelim, a young boy living in post World War I Cornwall, lives with his emotionally abusive sister; his mother is dead, his father is simply gone. But Phelim's life takes an unexpected turn when a bunch of scraggly prehistoric dwarves and something called the Domovoy invade his house, pursued by the sinister Black Dog. They force Phelim out, saying that he is Jack O'Green and has to deal with the Stoor Worm.

Before long, Phelim encounters mad Sweeney, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars who lives in perpetual terror in the trees; the Obby Oss, a delightfully goofy specter; and Alexia, a shadowless apprentice witch who fled her courses in the Dark Arts. So Phelim, the Maiden, the Fool and the Horse all set out (Phelim only half-willingly) to destroy the Stoor Worm, who was wakened by the guns of the first world war. And the heat from the wakening Worm is causing strange things to hatch from stones, and roam throughout the British Isles. And Phelim will encounter soul-stealing merrows, the hideous Noonday Twister and the bloodthirsty cornwives, skinless nuckelavees, maddened human beings, and finally the monstrous Stoor Worm itself...

McCaughrean does an excellent job with his book; with the slightly clueless hero, magical and sharp-witted heroine, and a pair of odd but poignant sidekicks, it reminds me of Lloyd Alexander's books. She also, unlike most authors, harbors no romantic illusions about "Old Ways" and how mean they could be. She is unafraid to weave the spectacular and the everyday, with a few subtle comments on the human condition.

Her writing is extremely evocative, very descriptive as children's books go; she devotes more descriptions to the oddities like the Oss than to ordinary things like the reapers. The dialogue is also very believable. McCaughrean also adds new spins to old ideas, such as the faeries; these are not innocent little sprites, or Elf-like Sidhe. Readers won't forget these faeries in a hurry.

A darker, bittersweet feel permeates the later chapters, where Phelim loses his innocent mindset, glimpses what he is capable of, and does something that readers may initially condemn. However, I applaud Ms. McCaughrean for having him do that, simply because his remorseful response after the fact is admirable and very true. But while everyone makes mistakes, and his feelings are certainly understandable, she also makes no excuses for what he did or felt; there are consequences to no longer being "ever-good." This is extremely rare in books of any kind, and to see it in a kids' book is excellent.

By an author with less talent, Phelim might have been a real pain to read about; he spends over half the book denying that he is Jack O'Green, and often responding wrongly or needing to be helped out. But his confusion and fear (especially after seeing his shirt being washed by... well, you'll see) over the things that he has seen and what he is expected to do is well written and understandable. Alexia initially seems like a fairly ordinary character, but her traumatic past adds an extra dimension and strength to her. Same with Sweeney, who initially seems like he will be an entertaining character, but his fear and guilt make him almost a tragic figure. The Oss is simply fun in an overall serious adventure. You just can't get him down, and he remains a source of emotional support and entertainment.

A tight, fast-paced and immensely imaginative fantasy story, this is a great read for kids and adults alike.

This wonderful book is a scary magical adventure tale filled with excellent scholarship. It presents the Old Magic legends of Europe, the British Isles in particular, with accuracy and combines them with the every day life of the early 20th century to make a thrilling fantasy. Set in Cornwall following the Great War it follows the efforts, trials and successes of young Phelim who has been enlisted by a strange wildman, Mad Sweeney, a witch girl, and the 'Obby 'Oss to slay the gigantic, continent-sized Stoor Worm who is waking from her anicent slumber and will destroy the world. Why Phelim? Much to his own surprise Phelim is the living heir of Jack O'Green and a Chime Child to boot! This story is masterfully told with humor, suspense, dangerous thrills, and poignant insights into the sufferings and triumphs of human beings. It is colorful and evocative as well as beautifully thought-provoking. It is creative and filled with refreshingly "new" characters even though they are based on the actual legends of old. Geraldine McCaughrean is a renowned scholar on the subject of folklore and she has populated the pages of this book with myriad concepts and creatures from out of the dark and wild past. As she says by way of introduction, "All the creatures, dangers, legends, and magics described in this book were, until very recently, accepted as real and true by ordinary people living and working in a civilized and Christian Europe." Were a reader to investigate the various "creatures, dangers, legends, and magics" found within these pages more fully, perhaps on the Internet, a truly vast treasure trove of nearly forgotten lore would be opened before them. This book succeeds as a purely good yarn, as a coming-of-age story, as myth and legend, and as a very concise compendium of the beings and practices of the Old Magic. I highly, highly recommend it.

Fantasy fans will find a terrific tale and a thrilling reading in this audio version of "The Stones Are Hatching" by noted British author and myth historian Geraldine Mc Caughrean. Stage and film actor Christian Rodska imbues the frightening narrative with appropriate nuances, never resorting to overkill.

Our hero is not a barrel-chested Lancelot but a boy, Phelim Green, who very reluctantly finds himself in mortal combat with merciless enemies - the hatchlings of the dreaded Stoor Worm who would destroy the world.

For company and reinforcement Phelim has a unique trio - a Fool, a Maiden, and a Horse. It is only in following his destiny that Phelim discovers who he is and what he may be capable of accomplishing

Terror and heroism abound in this reading for all but the faint of heart.