I love books that combine beautiful artwork with rich text. This is a winner in my mind! The words and pictures in this book make you feel like you're right there in the canoe, feeling and seeing all that the author describes. A dreamy little ride I'll enjoy taking again and again!

Opening this book is like getting into a canoe, taking up a paddle & gliding out into the beauty of a small lake for a day of peace & pleasure where the water & sky are one. Where neighborly deer, heron, mallards, foxes & raccoons come down to the water. A wonderful gift!

This book takes the reader on a canoe ride across a lake where many animals and types of fish are encountered. Paulens's word choices are excellent. It has excellent color illustrations and is highly recommended for 3rd and 4th graders.

As I close my eyes I feel like I'm in the the cave with Willam "Little Bear" Tucker and Sarah. We're trying to escape these crooks who want to kill us with there guns. I really like this book beacause it has so many adventures within the Sacremento Mountain Range. If I was Sarah or William I would be so scared of these two crooks. But if William wasn't that smart they probaly would have been killed. I think that it doesn't matter what age you are. It also doesn't matter if you are a guy or girl, it matters if you like adventure.

Caves are no place to play around in as Will and Sarah soon find out. Good action and adventure in dark winding passages underground. The next best thing to being there is reading about it. Buy this book! For another great book about underground stories try, Steward's "Tales of Dirt, Danger, and Darkness."

This book had me bursting out in laughter, some of the accounts are simply hilarious!! And other times, it's so heartwarming that I start to sniffle a bit... wow, talk about an emotional roller-coaster. Then again, I go through the same thing whenever I watch the Animal Planet channel.

Seriously though, besides being a great joy to read this book also contains a wealth of tips and information on traveling with your canine friends. I have 3 of such friends, it'll take quite a bit of planning to be able to go on a road trip with all of them one of these days, but you can bet that I'll be re-reading this book before I do so!

Like the previous reviewer said, you gotta LOVE dogs to appreciate this book. If you are one of those that regard them as merely animals, and nothing else, then you won't understand half the things that the writers are trying to convey.

If you love dogs -- I mean *really* love dogs -- and would take them anywhere you travel or while sitting on a park bench in some foreign city would go out of your to pet a stranger's dog, then I highly recommend this book to you. Editor Christine Hunsicker has pulled together some of the most touching, amusing, and disturbing non-fiction writing about traveling with dogs. I also highly recommend it as a gift to give to anyone you know who really loves dogs.

My name's Hunter. I'm 7 years old and I've read 18 Gary Paulsen books. Here are my 3 favorites of the books I've read: Amos Gets Famous, Amos's Killer Concert Caper, and Cowpokes and Desperadoes. I'm going to read all Gary Paulsen's books! Isn't that Amazing!

This is the only book I have read more than once and will read again......this is not a book about cheating or breaking rules but is truly a remarkable book on how to get out of the rat race and live a life of meaning and purpose and away from materialistic ideals.....I only wish that I could truly follow in his footsteps and make that change.....as his situation gave him no choice in the beginning but to sell everything and start with nothing, in the end he became truly rich in mind, spirit and home and all that really counts.

ReadingKam Sawyer
Book ReviewSept. 30, 2002
Curse of the Ruins

Imagine a fast-paced adventure story about three kids who try to find their dad who is lost on a New Mexico ruin. They have to escape danger from bad guys who want to find a secret map, which their dad left them. Their lives are in danger. They make friends with some local kids and get some help from an Indian who seems to often appear out of nowhere. Can they find their dad, or will the bad guys catch them first?
Gary Paulsen's Curse of the Ruins is set in modern day New Mexico. It begins with a brother, Sam, his thirteen-year-old twin sister, Katie and their cousin Shala arriving at the airport in San Marcos. Sam and Katie's father is an anthropologist, who has been studying the ancient, cliff dwellers, Indians who built their villages high up on cliff walls. The three kids begin to get suspicious, when he isn't there to meet them and here the adventure begins.
First a thief grabs Katie's bag and disappears. When she yells for help, she finds out that the police are not on her side. Instead the kids find a neighborhood boy, Pepe, who knows all the local hideaways and can answer any of their questions "for a small fee". He finds out that the thieves are still looking for something from the Katie and he warns the kids, "they won't stop until they find it".
When the kids figure out that they have always been carrying a secret map, they use it to try to find their dad. They went to the ruins of the ancient cliff dwellers, where they narrowly escaped the thieves who had tied up their dad. Everybody was relieved to find their dad safe and sound. They gathered together at the police station for food, drinks and chats.
I liked the adventure of this story and recommend it to other middle school kids. It will hold their interest because the main characters are in their age group and they are in many exciting adventures. This dialogue from Curse of the Ruins gives the feel of the risks they face:
"These are very bad men, senor. It is possible they work for the Cartel, a powerful drug mafia located in Central America. The talk is they are searching for something valuable which they believe you have." The look on Pepe's face turned grim. "And I am worried they will stop at nothing to get their hands on it." Parts in the book are fun because of how far fetched they were.

The book "Dunc and Amos Go to the Dogs" is a great book. If you have read any of his other books you will love this one. It is about Amos and his dog (which he thinks is no ones best friend) gets in a quarrel with a dogknapping scheme that goes wrong. And he has to find his dog which is not his best friend in the whole world. It is a good book because i like mysteries and if you read this book you will too. This is the best book that i have ever read and if you love mystery/suspence you'll love "Dunc and Amos books."

Amos, a young boy and his friend Dunc, were going gliding. Their glider went far up in the air, and far out in the country, landing in a river. Then, Milt, a guy from a nearby cave, by the river, kidnapped Dunc and Amos. They tried to leave many times, but Milt was too smart. This book was a good book. It had a good setting, in the woods, and water, next to a cave. The plot held great suspense: the boys would almost get out of the cave, and then you would think they were going to escape, only to have Milt catch them. The one fault I find with the book is that the story was too short!

Dunc's Undercover Christmas was a great book! Dunc has a very accident prone friend, Amos, who is desperately in love with a girl who doesn't even know he's alive! Dunc, Amos and Amos's cousin, TJ are in the mall Christmas shopping when a crime is committed. Dunc started a case to find the shoplifter. He suspects a disappearing Santa that only Amos can see. They are determined to find the shoplifting Santa.

This is a sort of wierd book, especially coming from Gary Paulsen. It's a lot like something out of a dream, because you've got flying and near death experiences and fountains of youth all compressed into less than (I think) 100 pages. Andy is a teenage boy who goes to live with his grandpa who has all sorts of nifty gadgets, like a jet pack and a couple of really cool nonleathal guns, giving rise to the best line of the book: "What are you going to do? Shoot me with your bannana?"
Trevor