This is a book that I don't mind reading over and over (I have a 22-month old, so believe me, this is important!). From fun text ("Boing! Boing! They bounced up and down. Whoosh! Swoosh! They flew through the air-- Crash! --into the cuckoo clock.) to wonderfully detailed and humorous illustrations, this book is a winner.

Few children's stories are more affecting than those concerning mother and child. Add to that scenario an adorable baby duck, and you have a sure winner. Such is the case with Martin Waddell's latest.

When tiny Webster J. Duck became restless he tapped on his eggshell with his beak. Crack went the shell and Webster got his first glimpse of a very large world. But Webster was puzzled because he didn't see his mother, and he thought that all baby ducks had a mother. He quacked and quacked, but she didn't come so he set off to find her.

In his search he found friends with wiggly tails, and wool for coats. Webster was sure none of them were his mother. Of course, the story has a happy ending, and is reassuring to young ears. It's a warm, fuzzy reminder that mother's love them and are nearby.

Sophie's Snail, one of several "Sophie" books by Dick King-Smith of Babe fame is back in print after an American hiatus. Sophie, a non-traditional British girl wants to grow up to be a lady farmer. The rough and tumble Sophie who's hair looks like "went through a hedgerow backwards" is a girl who knows her own mind. Sophie's antics are wholesome and humorous. She loves mud, jeans, farm animals and following closely in her older brothers' footsteps. She abhors pretense, dolls and personal hygeine. The presence of a kindred spirited elderly aunt gives the limited series a delightful continuing story line filled with British wit and ultimately a poignant sense of growing up. I also found the series to be a great early chapter book series for the reader that has gone beyond picture books and likes the satisfaction of reading a well read shorter chapter book.

This was a very charming book about a young girl who aspires to be a farmer. She keeps herds of insects as practice and is saving to buy a cow named blossom, two hens named April and May, a pony named Shorty and a pig named Measels. I think that this was a wonderful book about a determined child with a large imagination, and you should buy it for the determined child with a large imagination in your life.

An excellent book for a younger but talented reader. My 6 year old daughter loves the "Sophie books". She is an advanced reader and it is good to find a book of the right level that also has subject material of interest to her. Fun for adults to read at bedtime too.

I first discovered this book when I was in junior high school and enjoyed the way the author blended relatively ordinary youth experiences of cruelty, ostracism, gang-type bonding, and petty misbehavior with a disturbing representation of historical fact. Marshall, the callous but popular young star of a middle school production of "Sweeney Todd", becomes the channel of the play's evil, robbing the students around him of self-respect, fostering suspicion, and creating fear, much as his Victorian-slum counterparts did in days past. The handling of the narrator's relationship with Marshall and with the insecure and unattractive Ann is realistic and well-resolved, and the tension is effectively built, a series of innocuous clues leading to the supernatural conclusion. If the book has any weakness, it is the rather hasty and hey-presto ending, which technically satisfies but does not really do justice to the lengthy buildup.

This is an extremely brief overview of the term "ideology." But in these few pages, David McLellan manages to trace the concept as it was interpreted by many different people and schools of thought from Marx and Marxists to structuralists and postmodernists. Usually, "ideology" is a word used very liberally without much thought given to its meaning, but McLellan shows us the political meanings and intricate history that lie behind it.

Paddy's Pot of Gold is not just about a leprechaun in Ireland; it's about the endearing friendship that developes between a young girl and a very old leprechaun. It reminds me, in many ways, of the very special friendship between a grandparent and a grandchild and how that special love goes on beyond death. It's excellent!

A satisfying explanation of a well-known mystery--but I won't spoil it by telling you which one. All the main characters are charmingly written (my favorites are the grumpy old grandpa and Angus, the little boy who is always ready to eat) and I loved how King-Smith described what the water horse was thinking. This book leaves you with a good feeling.

P.S. If you're a Pokemon fan--I wonder if this is where they got the idea for Lapras?!?

I Liked This Book.Once You Open You'll Like It From The Very Beginning. Dick-King Smith Did Good.I Liked The Illistrations It Is Funny.So If Your A Good Reader Go To Your Local Library And Check Out The Water Horse

When Kirstie finds an egg on the beach, she takes it home. It hatches in her bathtub. It turns out to be a kelpie or better known as the Water Horse. They keep it in a goldfish pond and feed it fish when it gets to big they move it to a big loch. When the Water Horse gets to big for the loch they don't know what to do!! what will happen to the Water Horse??!? Read this book to find out the rest of this fun, exciting story!!!