This was a good book in the Portraits of Little Women series. Ten-year-old Beth is sent a gift of new sheet music for the piano. The only problem is that she doesn't know who sent it to her. This book was very good.

Jo March is not happy when her Great-Aunt March asks her to befriend a blind girl named Pauline Wheeler. Tomboy Jo feels she has nothing in common with quiet Pauline, who is afraid of almost everything about the world around her. Yet when the two are caught together in a terrible snowstorm, their lives are changed in ways they never thought possible.

I must have read this book like 50 times when I was a kid. The main character Cass is this sweet girl who just can't seem to keep everyone's secrets from popping out of her mouth, causing her friends and family embarrassment and to be often angry with her. Her mother is a psychology student and devises a plan to help Cass keep her big mouth shut. Cass starts improving and everything is going smoothly until her jealous old friend Jennifer threatens to tell the whole school that Cass' new best friend Robin is adopted. Cass' new secret-keeping skills are put to the test as she learns when it's necessary to open your mouth and when discretion really is the better part of valor. Very fun & very real.

MEG MAKES A FRIEND was a great book. It is about a ten year old girl named Meg. Meg has been asked to sing in a wedding. But the groom's much younger sister, Julia, decides to play the wrong song (she will play the piano while Meg sings) and makes Meg sing the wrong song. So Meg is angry at Julia. But then Meg discovers why Julia acted the way she did, and that Julia is really very kind and is just sad because her brother is marrying, and the orphaned Julia, who has been raised by her brother, will be forgotten by her brother. This was a great book I highly reccomend.

I loved "The Pizza Puzzle". I read it for a book report for school, but I never realized how good it was just to read for pleasure! I hope Susan Beth Pfeffer writes a sequal to this great book.

This large "coffee table" size book is among the most beautifully produced on the art/craft of quilting as it presents detailed text and large photo representations of a selection of traditional and unique quilt masterpieces. A great book for both the crafter and collector.

Starring Peter and Leigh is a very good book as books go. It can teach you just how much people can appreciate you for just being yourself.

Despite the fact that I was disappointed with the ending of a Year Without Michael by Susan Beth Pfeffer, my overall opinion of the book is that it is an enthralling story of a family breaking apart. The problem was identified quickly, and from there the story flowed along with great suspense and anticipation. The plot was well developed and I could almost feel the tension of the characters forming. Overall, I was very much satisfied with the book- I hope there is a sequel to make a final ending! I would recommend this book to kids of a mature age- there is some harsh language and abuse, but it is mostly a good read that shouldn't been put aside.

I found this book when I was a freshman in highschool and we had to read SSR. Silent, sustained reading. I never thought that a book that I found in the school library could be so touching and change my outlook on life. This book is so inspiring and absolutely beautiful. It is thought-provoking and heart-breaking. I won't give away the end, but the ending definitely makes you think and makes your heart hurt. I saw a little bit of my own family in this story. Like the book says this book is about separating and coming together, breaking apart and becoming whole. I am now a sophmore in college, five years after reading this, and of all the books I've read (political science, government, and even To Kill a Mockingbird) this is still my favorite. Read it and you'll understand!

The book A year without Michael is one of the best books I've ever read. I'm not much into reading, but when my English teacher informed my class we'd have to read books this year to get a good grade, I chose to read A year without Michael. I literally couldn't put the book down. I would read every chance I got, even while some of my teachers were lecturing! The book was very suspenseful. Throughout the whole book you wonder what happened to Michael and the ending I thought was very surprising. I thought that the book was a very good reflection of the real life. Things like that really happen these days and I think Susan Beth Pfeffer showed all of us who haven't gone through a family member diapering what a family does go through and all the hard times they must overcome. The book also shows us how family members take their anger out on other family members by verbally abusing them and physically abusing them. I would recommend that everyone, even those like me who don't really like to read, read this book-You'll love it too!

Susan Beth Pfeffer's Twice Taken carries overtones of Caroline B. Cooney's The Face on the Milk Carton/Whatever Happened to Janie? and Norma Fox Mazer's Taking Terri Mueller, but it also carries a life of its own. The main thing that sets Twice Taken away from the other two books is that it is mostly about what happens after the discovery, not the actually getting to the truth. Brooke finds out very early that her father has kidnapped her and that her mother is still looking for her, the girl they call Amy Michelle Donovan. Pfeffer chooses to focus on what happens after her mother and stepfather take her back to live with them.

Twice Taken is told in the first person, which is fortunate because the reader would be having as big an identity crisis over Brooke/Amy as Brooke does if it were told in third. It's easy to see and understand Brooke's thoughts, but mostly Pfeffer does a good job of making us feel them. Most readers have never been in Brooke's situation, but they can relate strongly to jealous younger half-siblings, feeling left out, or being uncomfortable in a new school or situation.

Brooke goes through all the stages you'd expect of someone in that situation: at first, hatred of everything and everyone; then slowly trying to branch out at school, but failing because her story has been so sensationalized; trying to build a relationship with her half brother Tim, who was born after she was taken, and her half sister Holly, who was just a baby then; and mostly, trying to figure out how she feels about her mother. Hardest is her conflict with her parents: she is angry at the way her mother treats her, hovers, and slanders her father, but at the same time she's mad at her father for taking her and depriving her of the chance to get to know her mother.

One of the most likable characters, aside from Brooke, is her stepfather Mike. He's reasonable, patient, and a sensible stepfather to her, but at the same time his loyalties are of course with Brooke's mother. Tim and Holly are good foils: Holly is angry all the time and Tim is willing to accept his sister. At the same time, Holly's anger is understandable - her sister shows up after 11 years and gets all the attention, presents, a pet kitten, and a canopy bed.

Like Pfeffer's other novels, this one doesn't end happily. Brooke isn't allowed to go back to her father. She's still not comfortable at school, Holly still doesn't like her, and she's still not sure how to get to know her mother. At the same time, there is the final discussion between her and her mother, and the hope that they'll be able to have a relationship one day, one that isn't so forced. The best part is her mother's realization that she will have to accept and like Brooke, and not Amy, the lost child who has been missing for 11 years.

I read this book three time I was so impressed with it!! The stoy portrays the life of the teenage girl Brooke with a normal life.... until she notices her father's picture on the t.v. show, STILL MISSING. The mother of the child pictured on the screen was searching for her abducted daughter,.... Brooke. Brooke, realizing it was her father and herself pictured on the screen, nervously dials the 800 number. The parents of the missing child were astonished to find that Brooke was in fact, their long, lost daughter. This is the beginning of a story of a lifetime, condensed down into one book. I wish the story never ended!!!

In this 199 page book entitled Twice Taken, written by Susan Beth Pfeffer, sixteen year old, Amy Michelle Donovan (AKA) Brooke Eastman, has just found out that she was abducted out of her mothers custody by her father during one of his weekend visits when she was five years old. When deprived of a Saturday night out with her friends and the guy of her dreams she is stuck with baby-sitting two of the worst kids in the world. Without the ability of watching cable television she is obligated to watch network television against her own will. When tuning in on a show called Still Missing, she comes to find a picture of her father when he had a mustache and realized that the family on television was looking fro her. Not knowing what the consequences would be, she decides to call the 800 number at the bottom of the screen. Before she knows it she is answerig the door to a couple of police officers. Being escorted to the police station in the squad car she starts to doubt that she is actually Amy Michelle Donovan because she does not want to leave her father alone or get him into any legal troubles. Amy is left under the guardianship of Mrs. Markowitz, Amy's case worker, who put Amy into a foster home for the night until the morning, which was when she is supposed to meet her mother and step-father, Mr. and Mrs. Girard. Unable to speak to her father Amy starts to feel as if she does not know who she is anymore because of the two different lives that she is now living. As Amy Donovan is forced to live with her mother in Maryville, New Jersey, the Girards hometown, she must become accustomed to her new life style, which is differing in areas of family life to school to her grade level and to making new friends.

The important characters is Twice Taken are Amy Michelle Donovon (Brooke Eastman) who is trying to find her true self throughout the entire book. Other main characters are Mr. and Mrs. Girard, who are Amy's birth mother and step-father, whom have been looking for her for the past eleven years not knowing if she was dead or still alive. The final main character is Hal Eastman who is Amy's birth father and also the man who abducted her at the age of five. The one "golden line" that I wish that I had written is, "It's not a competition. I really think if you'd both give me the chance, I could love both of you." (Page 195) The reason that I wish that I could have written that sentence is because it is one of the only moments in the story that Amy actually gets a chance to express her feelings to her mother. She was able to express them without feeling as if she has to respect and watch out for every word that she says to her mother.

To me the cover of the book represent sixteen-year-old, Amy Michelle Donovan watching basic television and sighting the picture of her father on television hearing that she was abducted as a child and lied to for so many years. It shows her dialing the 800 number, which was being constantly shown at the bottom of her screen, calling the Still Missing hot-line. The title, Twice Taken, is symbolic to the way that she feels about her life. She describes being twice taken as first being kidnapped by her father as a child and second being abducted away from her father by her mother and step-father. By rating on this book is very high. If I were to give a score from one to ten: I would give it a ten plus. This story is full of suspense and keeps its reader under deep concentration. I would recommend this book to all of my peers because it is an interesting book to read for people who are into family values and the concept of family members sticking together.

This book was wonderful. It even had helpful lessons in it. I just wish that it was longer.

This was a nice story, but it was kind of dull and boring. It wasn't exciting and I like exciting books better. But it was a nice, old fashioned story. Still, it could be better.

This was aWonderfull book and I don't like no one has read this. I am 3 out of 4 girls and I am proud to have a family like this. Meg is right and proper while Jo is a tough character and Beth is quiet and sweet and Amy is gifted with her hands. I enjoyed this book because Meg is just like my sister and she admires her alot more than I can say for people who only read their books that are very well detailed. I think that this is way uncalled for. That is my opinon and my sisters stick by it to. So if you are smart and feel out of place read this book. I give this book 19 stars.

Sincerly, Beth,Meg,Jo and Amy