The "Cornerstones of Freedom" series does an excellent job of providing in depth information about historical events for students in upper elementary or junior high school. "Valley Forge" starts with the American Army avoiding barely avoiding being annihilated at the Battle of Brandywine. In the brutal winter of 1777 the colonial army limped into Valley Forge a disorganized and low on supplies and morale. The two things R. Conrad Stein's book focuses on are the severe conditions the troops faced and how they were transformed into a more professional fighting force. Students will learn about not only the leadership shown by commanding general George Washington, but also the efforts by Nathanael Greene to provide better equipment and Baron Friedrich von Steuben to drill the troops in marching and shooting. The improvement was seen the following year at the Battle of Monmouth. This book is filled with paintings and etchings from the 18th and 19th centuries along with contemporary photographs of the National Park. One of the strengths of this book is that Stein often uses quotations from the ordinary soldiers and military leaders of the American army to flesh out the narrative. I found these quite effective in giving young readers a better sense of what things were like at Valley Forge.

As a genetics student, I found it incredibly interesting to look at historical figures and figure out why or why not they may have had a particular genetic disease. I think this book would be interesting for anyone who may want to learn more about genetic diseases because it makes it much more interesting knowing who these people are that the diseases may relate to. Robert Marion ties together historical, genetic, and social perspectives. He brings up speculative points such as how the person and the world might have been different if the historical figure had not had the disease, how the disease made them become that historical figure. It's a book that keeps you hooked like a mystery novel and is not too technical for anyone to read.

This lovely book, full beatiful photographs is a must for any one interested in American history and garden history in general. In fact it gives us Americans a garden history (slavery excluded) to be as proud of as the British are of theirs.
Lots of well researched interesting facts, useful advice, historical insight and pretty pictures make this book thoroughly enjoyable and I recomend it highly.

Lovely photos of some common and some uncommon areas of the city, and the printer seemed to care about quality!

What my (now 6 yo) daughter likes is a good story. She can learn anything if there is some dramatic action involved. This story of George Washington Carver's life is just the right length for a young student (kinder to 4th grade). It starts with the drama of the baby GWC being kidnapped and returned. The illustrations are bold and capture the flavor of the text. It's everything you want in a child's book, educational, morally inspiring, and yet a truly good to read story.

A charming glimpse of 18th century Mount Vernon through the eyes of a fictitious cat named Liberty. Captivating for children and adults.

Ferrie creates a refreshing, approachable, and exciting vehicle for examining the events and issues around the Battle of Yorktown. Unencumbered by patriotic propoganda, extremely well researched - reveals the issues and life as it truly was for those involved (on both sides and at all levels) in the struggle for American freedom. Highly recommended for elementary school and up!

This biography of the U.S.'s father figure was very informative, and gives equal attention to the important points of Washington's life. Flexner did a good job of highlighting the key parts of Washington's career: his war-time service, and his activities as President. This book does pass fairly quickly through Washington's childhood and adolescence, which I wished to have learned more about, but it is a 1 volume summation, so that should be expected. The author was very fair and objective in this book. While he sees Washington as having been an average, if not below average, soldier, Flexner does show Washington to have excelled in other areas such as leadership and management which became very critical to his success as President. So for anyone looking for a reasonably quick cover of Washington's public career, with a shorter background of his private life, I definitely recommend this book.

Flexner wrote this short work to make Washington's life accessible to people who don't have time to read the massive multi-volume work he did first. Washington is a truly great leader; he grows more impressive upon closer study and this book captures the highlights. A delightful biography.

...and if you do, you'll be forever grateful you did. Flexner is a wonderful writer. George Washington is a subject more than worthy of his talents. Flexner takes this man, someone reduced through the years to a stiff plaster saint, and shows the real human being. Amazingly, the portrait reveals someone entirely worthy of all the adulation his contemporaries heaped upon him. Washington had faults, including enormous pride, a terrible temper, a great yen for money. He became, worst of all to modern eyes, a slave owner. Yet despite all these things, Flexner's distillation of his four volume life shows that, in the creation of these United States, Washington truly was indespensable. Though America's list of so-called Founding Fathers is legion, filled with people of extraordinary talents, the American Revolution succeeded largely because of Washington. He managed, first, to keep an army in the field despite loss after loss and the essential apathy of the Continental Congress. At the close of the war, he single-handedly kept the army from taking over the civilian government, thereby sustaining the freedom and democracy in whose name the war had been fought. Because Washington lent his prestige, support, and presence to the constitutional convention, men of substance attended and managed in the face of great controversy to craft the amazingly flexible and inclusive document which is the basis of our nation. Because everyone knew Washtington must be the first president, the Constitution that resulted did not have a weakened executive branch, which would certainly have proven unworkable. The men who wrote the Constitution held deep antipathy for a strong executive--a king, in other words. But such was their trust in Washington--the only US President ever elected unanimously--that the executive branch was made an equal partner to the legislative. Washington was fully aware that, as the first President, his every act and gesture set precedents for the future; what is astonishing is that he felt unworthy for the task and humbled by the honor. What is astonishing in Flexner's book is how the author lets his readers inside the mind of the times so that we understand the politics and emotions and lofty ideals of that now-remote time, and can see and appreciate a great man in terms that still speak eloquently today.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a scary tall tale told in the quiet town of Sleepy Hollow. It all starts out when Ichabod Crane(an intelligent school teacher) goes to a party at the Van Tassel's house. At the party a mean guy named Brom Bones tells a scary tale, about a headless horseman from the Revolutionary War. It was told that he roamed the night looking for his head, which he lost in battle. That night Ichabod had to ride home, he was very frightened. Lets just say Ichabod was never seen again, the only thing found the next day was his hat.
The legend of Sleepy Hollow is a great thriller. You can tell the tale at night, when you have a sleepover, or around a campfire. The book has a good story line and can be easily followed. I hope you don't get too scared when you read about the Headless Horseman...

Will Moses' illustrated retelling of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow rivals Arthur Rackham's near century-old version as the best edition of the book ever published. The Rackham version, with its moody, archetypal illustrations, has the slight edge, as it contains Irving's full original text in addition to Rackham's spectacular artwork.

However, Moses's simplification of the narrative is masterfully executed, and the colorful, playful, and numerous paintings which adorn the book have a warm period charm of genuine Americana. Moses portrays the Hudson River Valley as a lush expansive valley not unlike the Garden of Eden on the first day of creation. Happy farmers, their wives and children, cows, geese, ducks and pigs frolic together amid fields of wheat and corn; galleons approach dramatically from the river; and the Catskill Mountains, sun, and sky suggested an infinite panorama and endless horizon full of promise.

The story tells us that the Dutch colonists were a superstitious lot, and that the Sleepy Hollow region itself was or seemed to be under a spell of some kind. The farmers and their wives suspected witchcraft; strange music was heard in the air; visions were seen; and the inhabitants themselves lived their lives in a kind of continuous dreamy revery. These tales and superstitions give rise to the legend of the headless horseman, said to be the ghost of a Hessian soldier who lost his head to a canon ball in the war, and now nightly prowling the region in search of it. Moses' nocturnal landscapes of the swamps, hills and the Old Dutch Cemetery under a bright harvest moon are particularly effective. Significantly, these stark, haunted landscapes do not violate the spirit of the book, but enrich its sense of wonder.

Moses' Ichabod is a cheerful but somewhat hapless fellow, confident and foolish in equal parts. His Katrina is a strong but innocent blond beauty, and a friend to children. Brom Bones is an appropriately square-shouldered, square-jawed hooligan, rowdy and full of mischief, if not absolute spite.

Anyone familiar with the tale knows that it is not a horror story but a folktale, a fireside spook story, and a 'legend' as Irving, writing here as Diedrich Knickerbocker, himself called it. This edition of the book is appropriate for children but is equally suitable for adults. Highly recommended.

Have you ever heard of the Headless Horseman? Have you ever heard the stories about him and how he attacks people in the woods? Have you ever wondered whether or not the story is real?

Find out for yourself by reading Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I enjoyed reading this book and i think anyone who has a liking for mysterious legends and superstitions should read this book beacause of the interesting legend the town believes in. There are few characters to keep track of and the story is not hard to follow. The book is long but the reading goes quickly.

The story is set in the late 18th century in a town in New York called Sleepy Hollow. The town believes in a legend of a headless horseman who rides through the woods at night anf attacks people. The main character is a man named Ichabod Crane who is a schoolteacher from Connecticut. He moves to Sleepy Hollow in search of work and ends up going from home to home working as a tutor. One of his students is 18 year old Katrina Van Tassel who comes from a wealthy family. Ichabod gets the idea that he will try to marry Katrina in order to obtain the family's wealth. However, Katrina's boyrfriend Abraham "Brom Bones" Brut has other plans for Ichabod. As the tension rises, Ichabod continues trying to win Katrina until a breathtaking surprise appearance by the town's legend creates as mysterious an ending as they come.

The book has many strengths and few weaknesses. The author manages to create a mood in the book that keeps you always on th edge of your seat waiting for the legend of the Headless Horseman to come into play. The story is simple and easy to follow but is still very interesting. The characters are developed well and have personalities that you can understand and relate to. One such character is Brom Bones who is easily seen as an arrogant egotist. The only weakness of the book was one based on my personal opinion. The end of the story leaves too much to be concluded for my liking.

All in all, this book was a great story. The author wrote the characters in such a way that you had definite feelings towards each one of them. Also, the story line was definitely not without surprise. But if you want to discover what surprises I am talking about then I suggest you read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

George Pelecanos introduces us to 2 new characters, Derek Strange and Terry Quinn. Both are ex-cops, but there the similarities end. Strange is in his 50's, is a private investigator and black, Quinn is in his late 20's, works in a second-hand bookstore and is white. This book is as much a commentary on racial tensions in today's society as it is a well-crafted thriller.

Strange and Quinn meet after Strange is hired to investigate the shooting of an off-duty black police officer by another policeman. The other policeman was Quinn. The two team up because Quinn would also like to know the truth as to what really happened that night, and is also keen to prove that he is not a racist.

A subplot involving a drug-dealing father and son team and their dealings with their suppliers and distributors keeps pace with the main story and inevitably mixes together in a happy union creating a sizzling finale of revenge and violence.

Once again, Pelecanos' characters are heavily influenced by music and have definite ideas on what is "good" or "bad". The use of music is a big indicator of the personalities of each character and is a very clever and unique means of characterisation.

Unlike some of Pelecanos' earlier characters, I found both Strange and Quinn to be strong, capable and (to a point) moral. Overall, they are likable men. This has led me to look forward to more books involving them. Right As Rain is a compelling mystery containing all the elements that has made Pelecanos books so popular: violence, drugs, music...and Washington D.C.

With Elmore Leonard, Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane writing blurbs on the book jacket, you know this guy can write a crime story with great characters and dialogue. It's set on the streets of D.C., different from what you see on Brokaw and Rather. Derek Strange, a retired black cop, is asked by Chris Wilson's mother to clear her son's name. He was a black off duty cop with a gun standing over a white guy when he was shot and killed by Terry Quinn, a white off duty cop.

Derek and Terry become buddies. The story reels in redneck Earl Boone and his dumb son Ray (Critter), a couple of dope smugglers, a few Colombians and Cherokee Coleman, a local hoopster of some note, good point guard but not good enough for the big time, who runs the drug operation.

When you cut to the chase, Terry's old partner Eugene Franklin was a bad guy and Chris Wilson was onto him. Strange figures things out, of course, there's some great action and the kind of not quite tied together ending that Pelecanos presents so well. The Metro Police don't know exactly what happened, but they have enough to give Chris Wilson the posthumous recognition he deserved. Derek and Terry go back to their separate day to day lives, but they'll be back in "Hell to Pay".

I thought both stories were great!

Oddly, no one from DC has thrown in their 2 cents on the latest Pelecanos book, so I guess I'll give it a shot. I've lived in DC for 20 years, my family is from here, and Pelecanos is only the second author I've come across who writes about the DC that I know and recognize (the other Edward Jones, check out his story collection "Lost in the City" if you can find it). In this new book, he steps away from his established characters Nick Stefanos and Dmitri Karras, and launches a new duo, black, middle-aged PI Derek Strange, and younger, white ex-cop Terry Quinn. Through them, and the story of Chris Wilson, an off-duty black cop shot by Quinn, Pelecanos displays the racial awkwardness and tension that pervades Washington, D.C. The central message of the book is that everyone, regardless of race, carries preconceptions with them about other groups. That doesn't make them racist-that term is reserved for those who carry hatred in their hearts.

Strange is hired to investigate the shooting of her son, Chris Wilson, leading him to Quinn, who works in a little used bookstore in Silver Spring (Like all the locations in the book, the store really exists, it's a few blocks from my office and I sometimes swing by on my lunch break). The two men fall into an uneasy partnership as this discover more about he events that led to Quinn's killing of Wilson. They make an engagingly effective odd couple as they verbally spar with one another about race, underneath their respective flaws, they're good men. At the same time, both men are struggling to make relationships work, Strange with his divorcee secretary, and Quinn with a Latina student/waitress. As with most of Pelecanos's men, they often make selfish or simply clumsy moves in looking for love. And like most of those same guys, they have well-defined tastes in music, cars, movies, and books.

Following the tone of Pelecanos's previous work, what is gradually revealed is a sordid tale of drugs and corruption, with some powerful drug pushers, and a few violent rednecks. All this unfolds in a world instantly recognizable to Washington natives, where drug dealers work in the open, neighborhoods revolve around local restaurants, and corruption has spread to even the upscale oases (the well-known high-end restaurant Red Sage being one example). As we have come to expect from Pelecanos, everything comes together in a cinematic violent climax offering some attempt at justice. If you've read and enjoyed previous books of his, you're likely to enjoy this one as well. It's got two great new characters, and is a bit more explicit in examining racism, but is otherwise very much in keeping with his previous work.