If you like to drive, read this book. If you like nature, read this book. If you like to look at the pictures, read this book. This book and $20 for a tank of gas has become my favorite wedding/etc. present for friends. A wonderful coverage of the roads, the state they wind through and the minds of the authors and photojournalists.

That master of accurate wolf storytelling, Jean Craighead George, has presented a fine picture book. Sadly, it is out-of-print, and I have to read it by checking it out from my local library. The story concerns a young wolf named Roko, who is injured during his pack's hunt and is left, helpless and dying, on an Alaskan ridge. Many Arctic animals come wanting to feast on Roko's remains when he is dead--an arctic fox, a snowy owl, a bear, ravens--thus, children not only learn about the many species of animal life in this seemingly barren, desolate land, but they also learn about ecology, how everything is connected in the natural world, and how death can really be a part of life. The ending shows how loyal wolves are to one another, when Roko's leader helps him to survive. The black and white ink drawings are nothing spectacular, but they do excellently accent the simplicity and poetry of Ms. George's words.

This is the best book I have ever read! I am 13 years old, and have read the book twice. Gene Stratton Porter is a great writer, and has wonderful concepts. Freckles is a great roll model for boys and girls alike, and is so humble! He will not let the "Swamp Angel" marry him, because he has only one hand, is an orphan, and has no knowledge of "honerable birth" which he thinks is very important. I think anyone who has read this book will agree with me, that this is a wonderful book. If you liked this book, you will also like "A Girl of the Limberlost" the sequel to "Freckles". From 1 to 10, I give this book an 11!

My father was born in 1906, in 1910 his father died, and he was sent to be raised by an Aunt and Uncle. While he was there he was horribly injured, and never returned home. He found and read "Freckles" during this exile, and felt very strong empathy for this loney young man, raised separate from his birth family, maimed ,and sure no woman would ever love him, as he was. He learned many of the important lessons of life from this classic book, honesty, perserverence, hard work and most of all, that there is a wonderful woman waiting somewhere that would judge him, not by his scarred body, but by what is in his heart. It was always his favorite, as it shall always be mine.

Suffering from the "unfairness of life" a young man makes choices. Abandoned at birth with only one arm, Freckles chooses to love....and love He does! He finds the world about him the object of his intense love. He finds the people about him worthy of love. Finally, he finds himself not worthy to love one special girl and is surprised in the end with her response. We are led into a magical world where love is not yet tarnished with selfishness. A joy to read again and again and a very special foundation to preteen and teen training in love.

Frightful is the third book of the series My Side of the Mountain. In the begining Sams sister Alice frees Frightful from mean people. She is lost trying to find Sam Gribly. She is hunting for food when all a sudden a male falcon shows off by swooping upside down and touching her talons. She mates with him{Chup} who had a mate because three nestlings are in the nest. Lady,Duchess and Drum. Two males and one female. Then they grow up and try to hunt by themselves by practicing on Frightful and Chup. They can not handle them practicing on them so they both sleep in two different places. Later on in the story it is migrating season so all the birds went southward to a warmer place so they could survive with food. Frightful did not migreate because she had stayed with Sam the whole year round in the same places. She has no food so she goes to find her hunting pal who is a dog named Mole. She gets to the house but no dog no owner. She flies to a house she sees and lands nearby and sees Mole coming towards the steps bleeding and limping. She sees food he usualy shared but he snarled at her. Frightful saw Duchess by the house. Two men who probably caught Duchess came outside with a net they captured birds showed them to people and hurt the bids after. The net was to capture, and they were going to capture Frightful. They captured Frightful and went in the house Frightful wiggle until she was free at last. She saw a nearby telephone wire and landed on it to purch she got shocked and burned. She fell all the way down to the grouned. An nice man came by saw Frightful and picked her up. Her feathers were burnt on the edges and she was shocked. The man held her. Frightful was dead. This is not the end so the peolple who read this you will need to read the rest of Frightful's Mountain

I liked this book a lot. In order to like it you have got to read My Side of the Mountain and then On the Far Side of the Mountain. The book starts with Sam Gribley releasing his falcon because he figured out that it is illegal to harbor falcons. This book is about how Sam's falcon, Frightful learns to survive in the wild and this book also has background on falcons. A must for nature lovers.

The third book in Jean Craighead Georges series begining with MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTIAN, followed by ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOUNTIAN, is just as encapturing as her other books.

Sam Gribly is a boy who grows up living off the land, and Frightul is his trained peregrine falcon who will always stay close to his heart. Sam learns that it is illegal to harbor an endangered bird of prey, and Frightful is taken by two men posing as state game wardens. However, they are really bird kidmappers. Fortunately Alice, Sam's sister, soons finds and frees Fightful. But Frightful isn't prepared to be a wild bird. She has never had to feed herself, does not know how to mate, brood chicks, or migrate in the winter. Can she survive the many dangers that await her in the wild, esspecially power lines? Will she ever be reunited with Sam? If this sounds interesting to you, then read all about her exciting adventures and find out what happens in the end!

In my personal view I thought this was a pretty good book. Ialso read the the first one(MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN)last year. Ithought it was better then the sequel. This book had a lot ofinformation on the wilderness in it. If I ever got stuck in the woods I would think back to when I read these two fine books. It gave you instruction on how to make a sling to hunt for food with. The book also gave information on how to make traps to [catch] various animals. I thought it was interesting when it talked about falconry and gave you descriptions of plants you could eat and couldnt eat. There were times during this book where I couldnt put it down. there were also times in the book where I wanted to put it down. The book was about a boy named Sam who lives in the mountains with his sister Alice and of course his Perigrene falcon named frightful. When Sam was outside a conservation officer came and took frightful because Perigrene Falcons are almost extinct. He is devasted. Frightful is the one who caught almost all of his food. Later in the day he thinks his sister ran away. That day was not his day. ...While trying to find Alice he is also trying to get Frightful back at the same time. There are all types of adventures in the book while trying to find Frightful and Alice you will have to read the book to find out the ending. If you read My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet you will love this book.

Sam Gribley is a teenager who loves nature and the adventures of living in the wilderness. he ran away from home to live in the Catskill Mountains, which he loves. About two years later his sister Alice comes to visit him and she decides to stay with him because she likes the mountains. Sam lives in a tree house. He has a falcon named Frightful.
They are living their life great until one day Frightful was confiscated or taken way because he was an endangered animal. Sam depended on Frightfull for and comfort. Also, Alice runs away. Sam gets worried so his friend Banbo and him search for her.
This is a great book if you are looking for an exciting book about the wilderness. I liked it because each ending of a chapter left me hanging and the chapters were all exciting. You should read The Far Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighhead George.

ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN is the sequel to the Newbery Honor Book, MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. Jean Craighead George waited 30 years before writing this sequel, mostly under the pressure of her beloved readers. The sequel is just as good, if not better, then the original. It continues the story of Sam Gribley's adventure when he ran away to live off of the land in the Catskill Mountains. This is the story of both Sam and his independent younger sister, Alice, who has joined him in her own treehouse nearby. The story is based on his life after his falcon Frightful has been confiscated by a conservation officer and his sister disappears. Sam leaves his home and a searches for his sister with the help of his friend Bando.

George's children books are the best that I have read on survival and the outdoors. I have read them several times and have shared them with many of my students. Just reading them makes me want to escape on a camping trip to the mountains.

I bought this book, expecting the best. He uses ingredients that are hard to find in a major metropolitan area (Boston). Oh, but once you find the ingredients, the recipes produce wonderful results. I tried the Rice Paper shrimp and herb rolls, with 5 minute dipping sauce. It was a case of a dish being more than a sum of its parts. The man is a culinary genius. It was one of very few recipes where I couldn't picture the taste before I bit into it. I can't wait to try more of these recipes.

Jean-Georges has quite an accomplishment with this work--conveying his talent at achieving complex flavors in recipes with a minimum of ingredients and clear instruction. Of the many chef-authored cookbooks I own, this one stands out as one from a talented chef who understands cooking and ingredients. Though works from Gotham City Grill or Jeremiah Tower yield great food, they don't allow you to cook it on a weeknight after work. Jean-George is different. Cornish Game hen with herb-bread stuffing is such a recipe as is the outstanding fresh pea pancake. Both require a minimum of ingredients and preparation and give an abundance of flavor and sophistication. Halibut with sherry sauce sounds pedestrian but, despite its paucity of ingredients, has a sophisticated taste beyond compare. All of the ingredients are readily found in a reasonable supermarket and will not send you to a food encyclopedia. A great book.

Jean-Georges has done it again! This and "Simple Cuisine" are the two most-used cookbooks in my large collection. Everyone is always so impressed by the flavor combinations, and refuses to believe that I haven't slaved for days in the kitchen! I can't stop eating the Sticky Rice Wrapped in Banana Leaves (which is great w/o the banana leaves, too, by the way). And the Soup of Red Fruits is a delicious way to end a meal. The crab salad bound in tomate a la francaise is a winner....Come to think of it, every recipe I've ever tried from one of Vongerichten's cookbooks has turned out perfectly. Sure, my plating might not be up to the standards of the color photos, but the flavors are the same as in Vongerichten's restaurants. This book is worth the price just for the recipe for the curry spice blend. Even if you don't think you have the skills for "gourmet cooking" you can use the recipes in this book.

A chance meeting with a university professor in NY years ago caused me to ask the question of what was it really, really like to exist in a place of complete insanity; where you were placed at risk of death at every moment, where every act, every gesture could be your last. What sort of social structure could possibly evolve in such indescrible conditions where inmate sometimes turned on inmate for a crust of bread. And yet in this dark chaos an order did evolve. The inmates organized themselves to such an extent that they ultimately rose up in rebellion, overpowering their opressors and a small number actually escaped.

I have read numerous books on the Holocaust but none of those prepared me for Steiner's superb work. Many of the works I've read concerned Auschwitz. Frankly, I never focused on Treblinka. As there is a relatively large number of Auschwitz survivors, I suspect scholars tend to focus on them. As far as Treblinka survivors go... there were only 75. Steiner's descriptions are so overwhelming; his imagery so clear and lucid that you can see in your own mind, the acts of brutality and barbarism, as well as small acts of kindness as if you are actually there. I found myself cringing at the blows of the clubs and the slash of the whips. And yet he takes pains to describe acts of heroism one can hardly imagine. You see how exposure to this inhumanity affects the inmates. Some degenerate while others work at mostly futile individual escape attempts in order to warn the remaining Jews of what ultimately lies in wait at the railhead at Treblinka Station.

This is strong stuff and is not for everyone. This is not a book that compiles statistics but rather paints a searing description of day-to-day life with the inmates, their struggles to make it another day, their planning and finally their courageous attempt to escape.

If you make it through this book, read Kogon's "The Theory and Practice of Hell" and then the next time you see "ethnic cleansing" taking place in some remote venue such as the Balkans, Rawanda or Timor ask yourself just how far we've really come and how easily we've learned to mouth the words "never again".

I have a morbid facsination with the Holocaust and Holocaust literature so I picked up Treblinka. I was not prepared for what was in it, how it would make me feel. I couldn't put it down. For two days I lived and breathed Treblinka, for two days I was beaten, starved, tortured, I saw my family gassed, I saw my fellow inmates hang themselves because death was better than this hell on earth. For two days I was an inmate of Treblinka because Jean-Francois Steiner put me there. Treblinka is quite possibly the most important piece of Holocaust literature ever written. It is non-fiction but it reads like a novel. It told me more about the death camps and Nazi regime than all of the books I have read combined. The most amazing thing about Treblinka though was the psychology behind it all. It gave answer to my question: Why did they not revolt before this? Why did they simply allow themselves to be led to death? On the third day I rose from the bottom of the abyss, I revolted, I left Treblinka along with 700 Jews, survivors of hell. I left but I didn't escape, no one escapes Treblinka. Like how Treblinka will always hold it's prisoners, Treblinka will always hold it's readers in it's mental grasp.

Treblinka is an incredible recreation of the human elements of the Holocaust. It portrays real, historical people who as innocent victims and against all odds, not only stayed alive but were able to organize a suicidal uprising, with the sole objective being the successful escape and survival of just One human being, in order to bear witness and testify to the hell and death of the infamous Treblinka. As a historian of the Holocaust I'm certain that this is the most important literary piece that one could find. This book will shock and infuriate you, but ultimately you will find it to be about hope and life. It is a must read for anyone who wants to be an additional witness to the most horrific chapter in the history of our world! This is one of those rare treasures that is truly capable of positively influencing one's life!

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was so exciting but also used many interesting facts about crows and their lives. This was a very emotional story with sad happy and funny parts. This book reflects on Jean Craighead Georges life. I would definitley give THE CRY OF THE CROW a high rating!

The Cry of the Crow is a great book that others would enjoy reading. It has many interesting facts about crows. I learned that crows could talk if words were imitated over and over. This book has a wonderful theme that others could learn from. The main character learns her lesson in the end. Overall,the Cry of the Crow is a terrific book.

The cry of the crow is a great book when you are looking for good education and alot about crows and there habits. Every day Mandy has to wake up to dieing crows and she feeds nina terrance a baby crow she found in the forestone day. I would really hope you would like the book.

-Jacob

My Side of the Mountain defines the definition of true courage and bravery. This story is about a teenage boy who journeys to the Catskill Mountains to get away from his problems at home. Without any knowledge of surviving in the wilderness, Sam gets a few supplies and heads for the mountains. At first he suffers and barely stays alive, but after a few months he adjusts to the cold climate and all the life threatening situations and roughs it out. While in the wilderness, he experiences many emotional changes. Eversince he is isolated from other inteligent forms of life, Sam does what he can to stay entertained so he makes friends with a falcon which finds in an abandoned nest. Sam raises his bird, Frightful, and trains him to hunt and to be a good companion. An incident in the book was when he gets caught up in a tragic winter storm where he is almost hit with pneumonia, but with his strong will he manages to build a fire in the nick of time and saves his own life. My Side of the Mountain is truely a great novel which touches your heart and makes the reader think "what is going to happen next." I reccomend this book greatly and feel that this book is a good book to reead in your free time. I think who ever reads this book will enjoy it greatly.

I can recall my fourth grade teacher reading this book to our class. We all loved it! I was especially drawn to the idea of a boy running away from home and the family that didn't understand to live in the mountains of upstate New York. He hollows out a large tree and makes a house out of it, with a deerskin for a door. Now, as an elementary education major, we read a lot of children's literature and do the same projects we would have our students do. I was just as excited to revisit this classic at 21 as I was at 11.

Sam Gribley moves out to the country to live off the land. He has ideals and is a true naturist. However, he cannot escape being noticed. He gets lonely and befriends badgers, raccoons and even a baby falcon that he trains to catch food for him. An occasional run-in with humans is inevitable though. There comes a point when Sam is unable to live alone anymore and begins to crave human attention once again.

This is a good book about survival in the woods, and the pressures that every young-adolescent will go through. The discussion starter questions are endless. The big drawback for me was the ending, which I will not reveal you to now. Still, it is worth reading even though you may be a let down in the last 2 pages.

Why 4 stars?: While I do feel it is a good book that deserves a place in every intermediate classroom library, there are a few drawbacks. The book is a little bit dated and the end is frustrating. However, it is entertaining and appeals to the sense of adventure and mischief that is found in all of us.

My Side Of The Mountain, written by Jean Craighead George is the best book I have ever read. It is about a boy named Sam who is tired of living in the small, crowded apartment in the heart of New York City. He decides to run away and live in the woods, but it is a little harder surviving than he expects. I chose this book because I love adventure and Jean Craighead George is an excellent author. My Side Of The Mountain has everything you want in an excellent book; great content, spell-binding moments, humor, and suspense. You never want to stop reading this book because it ends its chapters in a very critical way. I like the characters in this book because they are unusual and exciting. Every character is very different from ordinary people today. This book has such great detail that it feels like you are right beside Sam the whole way. The only thing negative about the book is that it is not very realistic. He does amazing things that are nearly impossible. He makes a house out of the inside of a tree in just a week or two and he even discovers how to make flour, sugar, and pancakes out of acorns. All and all this was a great book. It even won the Newbery Honor Award, although I think it should have won every single book award that ever existed.

Our book group read Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George. We think this book is appropriate for grades 3-5. This book's genre is fiction based on the real world issue of spotted owls. It's tone is a light story about a serious issue. The stroy takes place on the Pacific Coast of Northern California. The story's main charactar is Borden,the kid who found an owl and named it Bardy. He found the owl when he was hunting spotted owls. Bardy is a young spotted owlet that Borden mistakes as a Barred Owl because he doesn't have his spots yet. Leon is Borden's dad. He is a logger who lost his job because the government made them stop because the spotted owls are at the edge of extinction. He used to hate spotted owls but Bardy imprinted on him. We liked this because it taught us many facts about owls. We also liked it because it talks about a friendship between Leon and Bardy. We recommend this to people who like owls. We give it 3 and a half stars because it is a little slow and steady.

I liked the book, There's An Owl In The Shower, because it is funny and shows it's expression. Children and adults of all ages would enjoy it. It is about a boy and his family, and an owl. Borden, a character in the book, hates spotted owls because they "stole" his dad's job. When Borden finds a spooted owls that has no stots yet he takes it home to take care of it. When you read the book you'll find out what happens to the boy, his family, and the owl. You'll enjoy the book if you enjoy nature.

This book is about a boy, his father, and a spotted owl. The boy, Borden, hates spotted owls. They made his dad lose a job at a logging company. But one day, he finds a lost, hungry little owlet, and, thinking it's a barred owl, takes him home and gets him healthy again. It isn't until the owl gets totally hooked on them that they find out what kind of owl he is. Can Borden pick up enough courage to tell his dad that the barred owl he has learned to love is really a spotted owl, the kind he hates? If you want to learn more about owls in a fun story, read this book, "There's an Owl in the Shower." I tell you, you're gonna love it!