The setting of the story was in Texas present day. The main characters in the book were Saha,Brian,and Claudia. My favorite character was Claudia because she was so helpful .My favorite part of the book was when Claudia was happy with her sister and they stopped fighting and Brian was happy too.I recommend this book to people 13 years old to 15 years because it was very exciting and people can see different ways to stop fighting.

CANNONBALLS AND COURAGE is the bicentennial history of Port Gibson, Mississippi. The author interviewed many present day residents of the city, and the resulting work is a combination history and optimistic outlook for the future. This work also covers the controversial subject of the civil rights era and the 1960s boycott of white owned business, a subject not touched on in earlier histories. The book is richly illustrated, with photographs on almost every page.

What I liked most about this book is that it takes you right to the point from the very beginning. It's scary, with horrific southern diorama. So, if you don't read carefully you will definitely miss out. This book mysteriously changes like the weather just like "MISS MARY WEATHER" !!!!

"MISS OPHELIA" was a wonderfully written book. It was easy to picture the house Belly lived in, the field in which she and her best friend played and traded secrets, and the pesky little boy she met that most fateful summer. I especially liked Uncle Willie . . . he was a hoot! Great job, Ms. Smith! Member of Circle of Friends Book Club II.

Miss Ophelia is a wonderful, well written coming of age story about young Isabella Henderson aka Belly. When you're eleven years old you still look forward to summers spent hanging out with friends, swimming and staying up late trying to hear snippets of grown folks conversations. Unfortunately, Belly wouldn't have the luxury of learning to swim from her best friend, 13 year old Teeny who is pregnant and being sent away to have her baby. Rather than spending a lonely summer in her rural, small hometown of Lambertville, Va, Belly decides to visit her Aunt Rachel and Uncle Avery for a few weeks. A visit, Belly wasn't initially looking forward to until she heard that she would be able to take piano lessons from Miss Ophelia. Miss Ophelia is a childhood friend of Belly's Mother and Belly is hoping that she will learn somethings about her mom from Miss Ophelia. Miss Ophelia and Belly do become friends and it is during their friendship that Belly learns that Uncle Avery is having an affair with her piano teacher. What ensues after that is much more than Belly bargained for and forces Belly to grow up quicker than she anticipated.

Miss Ophelia by Mary Burnett Smith is an enchanting and intriguing debut novel. The storyline has a superb plot, awesome characterization, wonderful pacing and vivid imagery. The characters are engaging and memorable including the secondary characters. Who can forget Uncle Willie! What a delightful character full of wisdom and insightful lessons. Everyone should know an Uncle Willie. Miss Ophelia was a sad, sweet and funny read filled with humor, subtlety and sensitivity. I enjoyed this book immensely and especially liked that it was told in the voice of eleven year old Belly. It's a wonderful story that provides great insight into small town living and family secrets....as seen through the eyes of a child.

This book hit me where the heart is!!! The characters: Belly, Willie, Miss Janie, Miss Rachel, Mama, Uncle Avery, Miss Pheenie, And of course, the lovely and dearest of all, Miss Ophelia. When I first got into the book,( first quarter of the book),It primarily focused on teen pregnancy and the main character (Belly's) best friend, Teenie getting sent away to get "rid of her problem", which hurt Isabel Anderson/Walker.
The way the book portrays Miss Opelia, and her warm and kind personality was so well-written, that in the end, I cried, thinking about the True love that could never be, between...
Oh!!!!! Youre just going to have to read the book and see why most of these people(including myself, of course) rated this book 5 stars.

What a wonderfully easy book to read/sing with your students. This song also has a hand jive to go with it, but it is not located in the book. The melody isn't located there as well. A quick search on the internet will clue you in on both of those. A great book to read/sing with your students in the regular classroom or in the music classroom. I highly recommend.

My daughter is 2 years old and enjoys the rhymes in this book. She has started to repeat some of them. Wonderful illustrations.

I use this in the music classes that I teach. The kids love the part that everyone knows, but the authors have taken it a few steps further by adding additional verses. The verses are charming and make a great addition to this already established children's classic. The illustrations are hysterical and subtle. Make sure that you take time to examine them closely!

I thought this was a very good book, and I am going to read lots more of this series. I like the character of Mary Anne and she is very kind to help Jenny to get happy again. I would recommend this book to a lot of people.

Story kind of amusing, yet poignant. Kind Mary Anne seems to be the only one who understands why Jenny acts so fussy for a four-year-old. Touching how Mary Anne worries about Jenny, especially when Jenny's own parents don't seem to understand her & pour a lot of attention into baby Andrea. The book was kind of funny in that Mary Anne goes through a lot with Jenny, especially when Jenny turns messy & makes a HUGE mess of peanut butter in the kitchen, testing even Mary Anne's patience. Another cute scene which also reflects Mary Anne's gritty, honest humility is when the other kids reject Jenny openly from their games & Mary Anne is startled to notice that Jenny doesn't seem hurt or upset, then thinks, "if it had been me, I would have turned bright red & burst into tears." Typical Mary Anne humility! I'm past my teen years now & I read this book a while back, but I sometimes re-read Mary Anne's books & as I'm reading, I sometimes forget that Mary Anne is still a child in this series; her mind seems so...grown up & mature. I love how perceptive she is & sees beyond the superficial facts of behavior & understands why people behave in certain ways. Mary Anne's truly enchanting & unlike any other character I've read about.

This was one of the best BSC books yet!! Jenny P. is shown in a new view. Before she was always the favorite and spoiled child. Now Andrea seemms to have taken over Jenny's plaace as the princess. She doesn't know how to deal with this. She tries to attract attention by being Miss Perfect. Mary Anne sees that Jenny is hurting inside and decides to show Jenny that her parents still love her. This was a very good book and I know every sibling has felt the same way Jenny has.

Canterbury, Connecticut 1832-
Thirteen-year old Mary Harris is growing up in a time period of the beginnings of the underground railroad and the start of the friction between blacks and whites before the Civil War. When Mary's sister, Sarah, becomes the first African-American girl to be admitted to an exclusive Canterbury female seminary, controversy arrises which provokes Miss Carandall, the head of the seminary,to turn the Paine Mansion into an all female colored school. As the situation escalates and gains national publicity, Mary is fighting for a cause she beleives to be true. The turmoil on the outside of the seminary is nothing compared to the tension and dividing that is taking place within. Based on the true story of the first school for black girls in Connecticut, if you like good, raw historical fiction you'll love this book! Although somewhat slow in parts Ann Rinaldi improvises, depicting this brief period of history-the personalities, and the passion behind causes. I gave this book four stars because the topic was extremely interesting and entertaining, but not like some of Rinaldi's other edge-of-your- seat, page-turning, thrillers. The book was still incredibly well-written and thought provoking.

This book is deep.I don't know any other way to describe it. I almost cried while I was reading it, I wanted to scream with, anger, and most of all I felt sorry for Mary, to have a father that doesn't believe in controversy, and to be surronded people who don't understand her. Her father I think was just uhhhh, he was as blind as a mouse. And really to have your own father believe a rumor against his own daughters word! I agree with Mary I to would live with Charles and Mariah, then work at the mills to get money. Now Julia and Mary have experience the same pain but I thinkMary's was more excruciating, because to have you own father issuing the pain. I liked this book, and like I said it was deep.

it was an excellent example of historical fiction

As a Southern transplant and lover of Southern food and cookbooks, I was a little dissapointed in this book. Miss Bobo's Boarding House has a long and wonderful reputation and though I would like to, I have not had the pleasure of dining at the establishment. The book contains a ton of history, photographs and memoriblia as well as several wonderful recipes. I was little put off though at the number of recipes that called for Jack Daniels whiskey. I realize that the Boarding House is now owned by the distillery, but to label this as the authentic cookbook of Miss Mary Bobo's legend seems a little odd as Miss Marry never served a drop of liquor on the premises. All in all, the recipies and stories are fine, it just seems that if they wanted to sell a Jack Daniels cookbook then they should have titled it as such and not used the appeal of a Southern legend to sell books.

Earlier write-ups about Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House Cookbook intrigued me so I added it to my collection. Reading through it brought back memories of dishes I hadn't thought about -- much less made -- since my Georgia childhood. Then I started preparing them! I could swear that Miss Mary and my mother must have been bosom buddies, maybe even swapped recipes over a pitcher of homemade lemonade. From Southern Iced Tea to Sweet Deviled Eggs and Country Sausage and Gravy on Baking Powder Biscuits and from REAL Cream of Tomato Soup to Best Fruit Salad, the tastes of rich (read lots of cream and butter!)Southern food once again overwhelmed me. Not that every dish was cholesterol-laden -- try the sweet-sour mouth-tingling pleasure of Fresh Tomato Hash or vinegary Garden Fresh Cucumber Salad, for example. The breads are terrific -- and the main yeast one, Country Loaf Bread, adapted easily to the bread machine, producing a light, tasty, "mile-high" loaf. Fresh Zucchini Bread makes great toast and Our Favorite Raisin Bread, lightly glazed, was perfect with Cheese Soup and that wonderful fruit salad. The sauced Boarding House Meat Loaf pleased everyone, as did Our Famous Pork Ribs, Salmon Loaf, Southern Fried Catfish (AND Chicken, of course)and such beloved side dishes as Yankee Limas, Macaroni and Cheese, Southern Corn Pie and Creole Grits (even my grits-despising Minnesota-bred husband had seconds, Summer Squash Casserole and Our Best Baked Beans. Have only started to re-visit the delights of Southern desserts, sampling Old South Butter Cups and Fresh Strawberry Pie -- more to come! Obviously we can't continue at this rate with daily excursions into this wealth of memories and calories, but I plan to highlight at least one dinner a week with such! With thanks from a Southern California gal with happily-renewed memories of an earlier time and place!

I have actually had the opportunity to visit Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House. The only problem I had was that I visited in August and the first available time for a reservation was in December. Everyone in Lynchburg had nothing but wonderful things to say about the Boarding House and the food that is served there. So the next best thing to being able to eat there was to buy Miss Bobo's cookbook. The dish that my family and friends like the best is the Tenderloin Tips. I serve the beef up with a big heap of mashed potatoes and there is total silence because everyone is just enjoying the flavor of the food. I am ordering a copy for a dear friend of mine who is a true southern belle. I cannot wait to present her with her very own copy. The recipes are very easy to follow and you do not have to be a gourmet chef to use any of them. Another neat thing about this cookbook is the wonderful stories and pictures that are included. Miss Bobo had a very interesting life with many interesting visitors. Any American history buff of the 1880's to 1980's would really enjoy reading just the stories.

It looks as if I'm going to be in the minority with my opinion of this book but, in short, I loathed it. I didn't find the story remotely funny and, in fact, I found that the way the heroine was portrayed was tantamount to mocking the afflicted. The hero's treatment of the heroine made me wish that she'd find someone else.

Add to that the anachronisms and the simply unbelievable events, and I can safely say that I will never ever again read anything by Mary Kingsley.

I know, she's not really been anywhere, but for the past few years, the author has been busily writing great mysteries, historical romances and the occasional Regency novel under a different name. Her own, in fact. And while I can honestly say I admire her books no matter which name they're published under, for me, there is an undeniable attraction to her Mary Kingsley books. This one is no exception.

Chloe Russell is not the ordinary Regency miss; her interests lie entirely elsewhere than the usual round of gossip and at-homes and Almack's. In addition to a wonderful brain and considerable artistic talent, she feels she has also been blessed with two left feet, leading to the embarrassing appelation of Miss Bumblebroth. And of course, she is a considerable heiress.

Orphaned at a rather young age, Chloe has been brought up with an older brother, and a pair of cousins. Her brother married the girl cousin, leaving the boy to grow into a man of questionable taste and habits. One of his favorite things to do is tease Chloe, by far the youngest of the batch, thus adding to her already developed sense of clumsiness.

And, now living as she must with her brother and sister-in-law in London, Chloe is devastated by the news that an arranged marriage is at her threshold, planned years ago by the two fathers. Of course, she's heard of Michael, Viscount Lyndon, heir to the Earl of Grantham. Who hasn't? Why, he's one of the premier Corinthians of the day! Superbly athletic in every venue, grace personified, and she's to marry him?

Well, yes, it appears so, and almost before she knows it, Chloe has become Michael's bride. Their journey of discovery is a enticing one for the reader, and not quite the usual marriage of convenience story. Layer by layer, Ms. Kingsley expertly unveils her two slightly-wounded characters, allowing them to comfort and discover each other by turns. Throughout these first months of their marriage, they will learn the values that will keep them in good stead for many years to come; trust, loyalty, and above all-love.

This is truly a scrumptious book! Enjoy it for yourself.

This is one of the sweetest and most tender love stories I've ever read. Chloe is awkward and outspoken, Michael is confident and self-assured. He needs her money and she needs a husband. But the love that grows in their marriage is breathtaking. He is unfailingly kind to her and shows her the greatest affection and tenderness. She is completely in love with him. This book doesn't follow the usual romance book formula. It is simply a love story about two charming people who help one another through difficulties and find a trememdous love along the way. This book is definitely a keeper!

Did any other readers of this poetically written daydream notice that while the white people in it sometimes pushed the borders of eccentricity, the black people were straight out of Margaret Mitchell fantasy land? They don't quite chuckle and shuffle, but darned near. The climax is reached in that never-never train ride. Which is more unbelievable--that although the train was segregated, this brave young woman was allowed to escort her quivering protege unchallenged into the dining car, or that the daughter of a doctor was as fawningly grateful as Ms. Landon recalls? Ms. Landon writes a well-turned sentence. And I suppose one must envy her her memory, for its golden, if bogus, glow.

This is a lovely little book that makes you long for days gone by. I am an avid cookbook collector and currently intrigued with evertything Southern from the food to the mannerisms to the hospitality, so naturally this book appealed to me. After reading a breif excerpt about Miss Lady in "Southern Living" magazine, I ordered the book immedeately. The only dissapointment was the breifness of the book, I finished it in one afternoon. That could be because Ms. Landon had wonderful characters to write about and she is an enchanting storyteller. Her recollections of her upscale Southern upbringing are as priceless as the recipies that Henretta passed on. I have tried several of them; the Grapefruit Salad with Roquefort Dressing and the Creamed Spinach and Artichoke Hearts are both especially good. The recipies are fine, however, Ms. Landon's graceful prose is what makes this book a worthwhile read.

Ms. Landon's book is wonderful. I am a Georgian who likesto write, read and cook. This book inspired me and brought back memories and stories from my now-deceased granny! I read it in one day and I hated to see it end. I hope Ms. Landon writes another, and another. It's a keepsake and i can't wait to recreate these recipes. I plan to give it to some of my friends for Christmas,