I read this book when I was little and it is just as good when I re-read it recently. The story, and the title, is unusual but the illustrations by Quentin Blake make the story come alive.

An essential book for children and those who will always be young at heart

My 8 year old and 9 year old children love this book and the illustrations are perfect!! Hope to see more books from this author soon!!!

The second book in the Peter's neighborhood series. Peter and his friends hold a birthday party for Willie (the dachsund). The party quickly becomes chaotic, however, as the guests are a dog, cat, fish and parrot.

Willie's Game chronicles the life of Willie Mosconi, one of the greatest pool players in the history of the game. That in itself makes it a necessary edition to a billiard enthusiast's bookcase, but those interested in sports, competition, and prodigies will enjoy it too.

From learning to play by hitting potatoes around on the pool table, to winning tournaments for big money, to setting the world record for the most balls run (526), Mosconi did it all. He talks a lot in his autobiography what makes a good player, and about the difference between an apt technician and a champion.

As you'd expect, the personalities are colorful, especially when set against the background of early twentieth century America. Mosconi doesn't mince words about his impressions of and experiences with other pool notables. There's a lot of valuable pool history and anecdotes here.

If you can find this book, get it and enjoy it. It is a wonderful book about Mays, baseball, and the America in which he lived. It works as biography and baseball and history, delivering big in all ways.

Willie Mosconi, of course, was the greatest pool player of all time. He won 15 world titles in 17 years, hold the high-run record, and when 7 years old almost defeated the then legendary Ralph Greenleaf. But could Willie teach all that knowledge and experience to mere mortals like us?

The answer is "Yes." He explains with clear pictires all the fundamentals about stance, grip, and aim. He also gives good advice about speed of stroke and english. He provides initial strategic advice on how to play position and shot selection. He also has a nice selection of makeable trick shots at the end. My only criticism is the discussion of bank shots, which can only be described as flat out wrong. I know that he knew how to shoot them, but the description and diagram he uses are not how its done. For that, I am ashamed to say, I had to consult "Minnesota" nee "New York" Fats's book.

Other, more advanced books (such as those by Robert Byrne) have built on the solid information Willie provides. But I know of no other book I would recommend so highly as this one for the beginning player.

This book is definitely worth reading for people of all ages. Its contents are thought provoking and life changing. In this story, a wise woman intervenes in the lives of two very spoiled girls. They are spoiled in different ways, and come from very different backgrounds: one is a princess, and one is a shepherd's cherished daughter. The wise woman takes these girls and gives them a chance to change. It is exciting to read and find out who will change for the better.

Wyatt Water's collection of watercolors are vibrant representations of nostalgic city scapes in Jackson. His rainbow pallete is painted on location, giving each work a caught-in-time feel. A breif history of the subject is given for each picture. This book is a pleasure to open over and over again.

Accomplished writer Willie Morris was a lifelong dog-lover and cat-hater, an ailurophobe. Growing up in Mississippi, that was only way a Manly Man could be. In "My Cat Spit McGee", the author describes his conversion to an ailurophile, or cat-lover, an epiphany apparently of the same magnitude as that experienced by Saul of Tarsus (a.k.a. St. Paul) on the road to Damascus.

Through association with his second wife, JoAnne, and after a series of response-modifying events, the author finds a boon companion in Spit McGee, a shorthaired, all-white male cat with one blue and one gold eye. It's in this short book's - 141 pages, hardcover - second half that Willie describes both the understanding that develops between himself and his new feline pal, as well as the personalities of Spit and several other family cats that won him over.

If you're not an ailurophile, or not someone confronted by fickle circumstance with a forced conversion, there's no reason to even crack this book open. For myself, a cat-lover of long standing, this gentle and heartwarming story made me appreciate more than ever my calico buddy, Trouble. Willie died in 1999, leaving Spit behind. Since I'm 51 and Trouble is approaching 9, there is a good chance that my furry friend will predecease me. I will rue the coming of that day. I shall miss her terribly.

When we lost Willie Morris, we lost a man of singular emotional insight, compassion and universal wisdom, all of which is on display in this book. It is a journey through the last years of a life that took him to the heights of publishing as the youngest editor ever of Harper's magazine, to national acclaim for his courageous first book "North Toward Home", and often into conflict with those he held most dear.

"Spit" is a happy final journey that is shared with him by his delightful wife, the Cat Woman, and their valiant cat Spit. We see an old social warrior, a man of uncommon influence in the Great Republic of which he so often spoke, finally finding the ineffable pleasures of hearth and home.

It is a simple story told by a complex American hero in his own imitable style. It touched my heart and will always be one of the most treasured books on my shelves.

I say that because after reading this book I feel like I've come to know both Willie and Spit, as well as a few of his other great characters. As the author said, his loving, personal sketch of Spit is really much more, a drawing together of so many meaningful threads in his own eventful life. His travels with the large white cat are his way of sharing his family and social history with his best friend, and its a time for remebering too. Perhaps the most poignant moment in the story is Willie's image of his, and for a longer period, Spit's, waiting for the return of their beloved companion Harper, who never comes back. Now Spit is waiting again, peering out the door for Willie. Yet maybe its like Willie promised, if ever he gets to heaven, he's going to find Skip and all those relatives who went before him waiting to welcome him. Someday Spit with be united with him again, Willie believed that and I want to believe it too, for Willie and Spit and for all of us. On the last page of the book, Willie is holding the big cat on his lap and says to him, "Spitty, I love you." We chould all do that more often with the ones we care most about...this is a book about a cat and a special friendship, its a book of laughter and tears, its a book for everybody. I'm lucky to have known Willie Morris for just a moment, for far too short a time.

Mark Twain, the most globally recognised of the greatest American writers, comes closest to autobiography in this odd and fascinating book. This is the story of part of his life at least, and lays out much of his unique moral and political philosophy.

As a book, Life on the Mississippi lacks a truly coherent story line after the half-way point; it tells the story of Twain's training as a Mississippi steamboat pilot, then, when he returns to the river years later as a successful writer, it drops off into anecdotes as Twain travels down the great river, and can be a deadly bore for some readers.

But, oh, what a picture of Twain it draws! There are great tales of characters he meets along the river, told in his inimitably funny style, wonderful bits of his childhood - like the tale of his insomniac guilt and terror when the match he loans a drunk ends up causing the jail to burn down, killing the drunk - and insightful portraits of the towns and villages along the river.

This is a characteristically American book, about progress and independence as well as the greatest American river, written by this most characteristically American writer. It is a true classic (a thing Twain despised! He said, "Classics are books that everybody praises, but nobody reads."), a book that will remain a delight for the foreseeable future.

Life on the Mississippi is by far one of the most wonderful books ever written about the post Civil War era in America. Mark Twain takes the reader on a melancholy look at this period of time in history as you journey into the Mississippi of his youth, adulthood, and the people and the communities he knew so well. He conveys a miraculous picture of this lively river giving it the grandeur and prominence it deserves. He defines the river very much like a living organism with a power and personality all its own. As the book unfolds, he begins in his days when he grew up along the river and became a steam boat pilot, ending that career with the advent of the Civil War. Later he returns to the river after some twenty years and takes a journey as a writer from around St. Louis to New Orleans and back up the river into what is present day Minnesota. You learn about the different cultures along the river, its tributaries, as well as the remarkable people who become part of the forgotten history of our nation. Twain's anecdotes are sheer brilliance, and he has an incredible way of choosing just the right story to illustrate a particular point transporting the reader back into time as if it was the present day and you are standing beside Twain observing what he is seeing. His reflections of his times along the river and his descriptions of the people and places make this a true masterpiece of literature and I highly recommend it. I found myself only able to read short portions at a time, as I personally found the sheer beauty of the entire book was a work to be savored and digested rather than rapidly consumed as you would with any other book. As I poured through the book, I felt often as if I was traveling with Mark Twain as a companion along his charming and magnificent journey during a wonderful period of history.

In Life on the Mississippi, Twain recounts his river experiences from boyhood to riverboat captain and beyond. Encompassing the years surrounding the Civil War, this book is an excellent source of 19th-century Americana as well as an anthology of the mighty river itself. Replete with rascally rivermen, riparian hazards, deluge, catastrophe, and charm, Life on the Mississippi is another of Twain's stellar literary achievements.

Wit and wisdom are expected from Twain and this book does not disappoint. It is equally valuable for it's period descriptions of the larger river cities (New Orleans, St. Louis, St. Paul), as well as the small town people and places ranging the length of America's imposing central watershed.

The advent of railroads signalled the end of the Mississipi's grand age of riverboat traffic, but, never fear, Life on the Mississippi brings it back for the reader as only Samuel Clemens can. Highly recommended.