This was one of my favorites as a girl, and now my 3-year old son loves it too! He has an active imagination and just feeds off of great books like this. We had a new refrigerator delivered this year and my son was so excited to turn the box into a castle like "Christina Scatterina" (as he pronounces it). When I looked for the book on Amazon I was elated to find that there is a whole series of Christina books that I never knew about!

This book was so special to me as a little girl and I am now reading my worn out copy to my 3-year-old son, who loves it too! This year we had a new refrigerator delivered and my son couldn't wait to turn the huge box into a castle like "Christina Scatterina" (as he pronounces it). This is a must-have for your child if they love exploring their imagination. I went on Amazon to see about getting a new copy and was surprised to find that there is a whole series of Christina books!

Christina Katerina and The Box was a favorite of my son twenty years ago. Now that my grandson enjoys books, I wanted to share his uncle's favorite book with him. I was pleased to find it readily available on amazon. It is a book that stretches a child's imagination. Your children will want to read it over and over again.

If you're planning a detox, first read this book. There is a lot of wisdom, knowledge and scientific research in it that you will need and should know. This book is not just about body and colon cleansing. It's also about cleansing your mind and environment (personal care products, air,...). It's a book about cleansing your life !

Pure, clean water. Food grown in good earth without poison. Need a little extra help? Here, take this herb. Of course! How wonderfully simple! Eat food God made, the way He made it!

In modern life it's a bit easier said than done. Dr. Patricia helps us get a handle on what our options are. With an emphasis on simple choices and little shifts in attitude and life style Dr. Patricia gently shepherds us to gradually healthier and healthier lives.

Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald has a heart to relieve suffering and a profound knowledge of healing, both qualities burst forth from the pages of "The Detox Solution."

Written in a witty, conversational style, "The Detox Solution" can easily be read cover to cover to arm you with the basics. Then keep it with your cookbooks and use it as a reference.

Must be in every home.

This book and author are both wonderful. I had a chance to meet and listen to Dr. Fitzgerald recently. She has created a health guide that is easy to read, understand and touches on holistic health in a no-nonsense manner. Our acupuncture/day spa office reccommends this book to all of our clients as a comprehensive guide to achieving a higher state of wellness. You will read this over and over.

A fine Line. A book written by Constance D.Casserly has a great story line, it is very interesting and it keeps you wanting to read on and on. Its a story that was based somewhat in real life and it advices about what so many teen girls go through now a days.Maggi Garrity is the young adult in the story that in her short life has gone through he fathers death and now if dealing with an abusive boyfriend and on top of that the problems with her mom. but maggi soon realizes that its wrong for her to be going through this and she gets the confidence and the guts to get out of this relationship and get her life back in the right path. this story is trully heartbreaking and realistic that keeps you with a tear in your eye. By far one of the best stories I have read.

A Fine Line should be required in English classes throughout our country. Not only is it well written, but it sends an important message that all members of our society should be more aware of. This is the only book I have read that truly shows how difficult it is to deal with an abusive boyfriend. Not only does the main character have to deal with the relationship she has with her boyfriend, she is faced with more relationship problems with her mother. This book is by far the greatest I have read concerning dating because it shows the harsh realties that most other books don't. A Fine Line helps show the definition of healthy relationships, and bad ones. Maggie the main character in this book is just like any other teenage girl, and this goes to show that anyone can be abused. It helps because while reading this book it is easy to relate to what Maggie is experiencing. Although I have not been in an abusive relationship, I found myself feeling very deeply for her, and relating to some of the troubles with her mother. At the beginning of the book she debates on if she should tell her counselor or not about her boyfriend. I found myself completely understanding of her position, because I have acted in similar ways before. However, when Maggie decides not to, it just shows how isolated and scared she really feels because she can't go to anyone. Anyone can be in this situation, and it is nice to see that Maggie stays strong. When I first started reading this book, I had a hard time putting it down. A Fine Line deserves five stars at least. I recommend this book for all people, even adults, but especially young adults. Even if you are not experiencing an abusive relationship, by reading this book may be able to help someone you know, or perhaps yourself.

A Fine Line by Constance Casserly was one of the most intriguing books that I have ever read. It was one of those books that once you pick it up you cant put it down. The story is about a teenage girl named Maggie Garrity. Maggie's father died from a drunk driver when she was a junior in highschool. Maggie and her brother David had to deal with this tragedy with very little help from their mother whom they called "the ice queen". She has many things to worry about in her young adult life but her biggest problem is her abusive boyfriend Tom. Tom begins to hurt her physically and also follows her around everywhere. Every time he bruises her he tries to buy her forgiveness and her love. He gets angry if she does not spend each and every minute with him. She doesn't know what to do because she thinks she loves him, and she doesn't want to hurt him since he has had a hard life also. Maggie's grades dropped and she lost touch with alot of her friends. A boy named Tony who was like a brother to her helped her get through this struggle. Maggie never thought that Tom would go so far, but he did. This was also a very good lesson that every girl should learn from. The metaphors used in this book were remarkable and very well thought out.

Patricia McKillip wraps up her Riddlemaster trilogy in a manner that other current fantasy authors have yet to match. If the second book of a series tends to be the weakest, the last is the most likely to disappoint. Here, the trilogy gets even more amazing.

In the aftermath of Heir of Sea and Fire, Raederle and Morgan have been reunited in Anuin, where the dead are still roaming around, Deth has vanished, and Raederle is afraid to marry Morgan because of her fears of her own strange ancestry. Morgan brings a shipful of wraiths to his home of Hed, and confronts the family who sees that he is no longer as he once was.

And the lands of An are teetering on the edge of war, with shapechangers creeping through the land and the sinister Ghisteslwchlohm somehow at the middle of it. "There are men in it who have already died, who are still fighting, with their bodies possessed by nothing human." So Morgan and Raederle must go on the ultimate mission -- a mission that will take them to the heart and history of their world, the secret of the shape-changers and what they are, and what Morgan's secret destiny is...

McKillip doesn't falter for a moment in this book, the third of the series; she's never written doorstopper epics, but her books are some of the most outstanding fantasy in print. Her writing evolved even over the course of the trilogy, becoming more introspective and more spellbinding in its descriptions. She gives you only a hint of how something looks, but every sense about how it feels and how it is perceived by the characters.

Morgan and Raederle have both grown from the beginnings of their initial books. Morgan is now a more tormented, multidimensional person than the guy who hid a crown under his bed and got sour milk dumped on his head. He feels the weight of An on his shoulders, and experiences equal determination and fear. Raederle has also changed, since finding out about her mixed heritage and why she has her mysterious powers. In a way, this knowledge about her past balances out with Morgan's knowledge about his future destiny. She's not the usual fantasy girlfriend whose sole purpose is to provide the hero with some romance, but a strong and independent female character who acts as a vital part of the storyline.

The supporting characters are also amazing: Deth is his usual ambiguous self, where you can't be sure if he's working for or against Morgan. Rood is still delightful, but transformed into a more serious character. And we see more of Raederle's quirky father Mathom, Morgan's sister Tristan and brother Eliard, and various other faces from the past two books.

This is one of the few fantasy stories where you simply can't guess what is ahead. Questions and hints laid out in the previous two books are followed up on, and pretty much no threads are left dangling. You won't guess beforehand what Morgan's destiny is or what the shapechangers were, or even how they can be dealt with. You won't know what Deth's plans are until he reveals them, or whether he's a villain or a hero. As in real life, the answers are not laid on the table for everyone to see; what you see is not necessarily what is real, and what the hero thinks about a person is not necessarily what is true.

Unlike most fantasies, this book is not padded for extra length, given an enormous cast of characters or an overly complicated system of kingdoms and hierarchies. There are no stereotypical elements like elves, dwarves, gray-bearded wizards, or Dark Lords; only shapechangers and human beings. McKillip's magic is not the slam-bang-whizz-sparks-of-light type, but a subtle, strange, powerful kind.

The climax to one of the best fantasy stories since Lord of the Rings, and one of the best out there. A must-read.

An eloquent tale that has a life and spark of its own. Much can be learned within its pages for those fond of riddling and star dreaming. I read the last first by accident and spent seven years trying to trace back the riddle. I recommend this book to all. A great gift from a great writer.

The Riddlemaster triology is my favourite story ever. I can't count the number of times I have read it, immersing myself in the beauty of the language and characters, always hurting a little when I come to the end. I have actually printed out and framed the last paragraph of Book Three, because I think it is a piece of the most beautiful writing I have ever come across.

At 50 I'm still the fantasy freak in the house and found this book as enchanting and enjoyable as any I've read. My wife the murder mystery consumer was totally enthralled by the tale when searching for a diversion from her regular reading. We've both read the tale more than once and have made present to one of our nephews of a hard back version of the book, that's how much we liked it. When you finish reading this book you set it down with a feeling of satisfaction, that everything wrapped up quite nicely, and wonder if there will be another to follow.

I have had my copy of this book for over 10 years now. My mother read it to my younger siblings and me when I was a tweenage girl. I pick it up and read it every few years and have also read it to my son. He thought it was great, too.

It's a great, old-fashioned fairytale set in today's world. Be warned - It is not an everyone gets along in the end story. The ending ends as it should with everyone getting exactly what they deserve. It makes you wish that there was a little book dragon looking over your shoulder.

I would recommend this book to adults and children alike. It has a moral message that a child as young as 4 or 5 would get but has enough levels to keep everyone entertained.

I found this book as an adult, but I was totally enchanted, and it became the start of my collection of dragons. This rates with Anne McCaffrey's dragons--friendly dragons. This tale is so enjoyable, yet not predictable. Moral, but not preachy. And kids will love the good guy/bad guy tension.
This is a book every child (and most adults) should have the pleasure of having in their life.

After reading "Flanders" by Patricia Anthony, and loving it, I decided to read another of her books, and "God's Fires" was the one I found at the bookstore. The decision to purchase it is one that I will not regret, for it is a wonderful, and well-written, work of fiction. The year is 1662, and a feeble-minded but good-natured teenager reigns in Portugal, but the Inquisition actually rules. In a remote village strange sights appear, and an "acorn" crashes to earth, leaving two live, and one dead, "creatures". But what exactly are these beings, and what about the other signs and wonders appearing in the area? The Holy Office of the Church will get to the bottom of the mystery, or people will burn. This book shows the fine line between faith and fanaticism, courage and foolishness, and love and lust. The language is all that I had expected from the author of "Flanders", and the pure emotion of this book practically leaps off of the page at you. The Church, and certain clergymen, do not fare well in their portrayal, but then, the Church has much to apologise for concerning the Inquisition. As I said when I reviewed "Flanders", read this book!

A "star" falls from the sky near Quintas in Portugal during the days of the Inquisition and the town is shaken by rumours of miracles and an outbreak of blatant heresy---all of which we folk of the 20th century might instead leap to interpret in terms of a clash between modern science and our own popular UFO mythology, although of course our theologians and politicians would also find plenty to say. Likewise, Quintas becomes the focus of an urgent Holy Office investigation conducted by an incompatible, bickering team of harassed priests and secular lawyers whose views range from the skeptical to the credulous, the politically expedient to the mystical. The mentally retarded, adolescent King Afonso sets up camp near the fallen "acorn", convinced by telepathic dialogue with the damaged space-vessel's failing computer that God is granting him personal revelations about the nature of the universe. While the confused young king shocks the assembled clergy with his Galilean heresies, including a quaint though accurate (according to current astronomical tenets) description of the formation of the solar system, his brother Pedro mounts an efficient political coup and wrests the regency from Count Castelo Melhor. And two silent, passive, enigmatic aliens docilely allow themselves to be imprisoned, gazing upon their captors with huge, unfathomable black eyes. Imps, demons, angels, pygmies from Africa or Borneo, strange New World animals "catapulted" into Portugal by the Spanish foe in a fiendish plot to sow civil disorder?

Anthony's ruthless and provocative account of the imaginary happening provides a lucid demonstration of how the unprecedented and the mysterious can only be analyzed and (mis)understood in terms of the prevailing beliefs of the time---its religious and philosophical convictions, the state of its scientific knowledge, its political prejudices, its popular myths and superstitions.

But this is also a novel of great humanity, with a cast of well-drawn, sympathetic, and lifelike characters whose interplay is both tragic and exalting: the soul-searching Jesuit Manoel Pessoa, a rationalist without faith, who hopes at first to defuse the dangerous situation with a cursory proforma inquiry sparing the Quintans dire consequences; his lover Berenice, a herbalist of Jewish origin, who cures the town's sick and is shunned as a witch; the kindly old Franciscan Soares, who believes in the angels; the selfish and gluttonous Inquisitor-General Gomes, who overrides the tribunal with his authority to light the pyres; the tense mystic Bernardo; the enchantingly quixotic King Afonso. "God's Fires" is a story of passion and doomed lives written with insight, biting humour, and bitterness---a far larger book than its disguising science-fiction component would immediately suggest.

What a fine (if lengthy) novel. High themes and low farce combine in this genre-busting book. It ain't quite science fiction and it ain't quite historical fiction, but who cares? I would guess that fans of this book will enjoy "An Instance of the Fingerpost," and vice versa.

The concept rocks: write stories inspired by TV and movie heroes, but don't do it directly.

Much of the writing is equally good: obviously all these authors are excellent writers.

Some of the stories were compelling, some were mildly entertaining. None were awful.

However, this book is uneven. I have a hard time imagining that any one person would love all these stories. Some of the stories suffer from being so short, and others are just not that interesting.

I loved Moon Over Miranda and Mary Jo Putney's reworking of the King Arthur tale.

Five stars for concept and two of the stories. The other stories were all 3-star and 4-star in quality, so I'm averaging it all out to be four stars.

Get a copy of this anthology while you still can. You will NOT be a bit disappointed. Ten novellas from talented authors whose stories are inspired by TV and Movie heroes. What a kick! Regency, Western, Contemporary, Futuristic... They're all very well represented here. Stories and characters that will make you smile for days to come. Don't be put off by the mix of genres. This confirms that when written well, romance stories are timeless.

"In Our Dreams" is a unique collection of stories. While the authors use television/movie heroes as inspiration, they have managed to build on those images and make them uniquely their own. From Mary Jo Putney's twist on Arthurian legend to Courtney Henkes tongue-in-cheek take on mythic fantasy, I found myself eagerly turning the pages. This was a wonderful read with something to feed the romantic cravings of any reader. Whether your tastes run toward rugged Old West types or the cool elegance of the English Regency, there is something here for you.

This is a great book. I was transported into the 1970s in the Deep South. This book made me feel if I was with Katrina in everything she does. I hope Mrs.Hickman will keep writing books in this style because I thought it was better than her previous works. Keep it up Mrs. Hickman!

I loved this book! Taught writing, haunting prose, compelling characters all join together to make Katrina's Wings not just a fine read but a true experience. Dive in, take root, and soar. Patricia Hickman's book will stand the test of time. --Lisa Samson, author of The Church Ladies

Katrina and her quirky family are captured in all their vividness with the author's abundant use of poetry and imagery. The writing sings throughout. The scenes evoke images from writings such as Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson, but with the hope and faith of the Christian worldview washed all over. This book could be read again and again for sheer literary enjoyment.

This book gave a pretty clear description of the afterlife and offered several cases in which there was no other explanation.I myself had a supernatural experience while reading the book.

If you are grieving, please buy this book. I guarantee you will not put this book down.

I have recommended Love Beyond Life many, many times and will continue to do so. Its gentle treatment of the subject of after-death communications makes this book the perfect recommendation to someone who has just suffered a loss. It is also fascinating reading for someone who just wants to know more about ADC's.

If you are going to read one book on the subject, this is it.

For 25 years Industrial Light and Magic has woven magic into countless films, either subtle images through 'invisible' effects such as matte paintings or through eye-popping visuals that stand out vividly against the film backdrop. ILM has made it's mark on history, for not only have they been and still are the premiere effects house in Hollywood, they have innovated and invented more technology than any other studio, additionally they have won awards for the processing and compositing technology they have created. ILM had to be the best at special effects, because their flagship title - STAR WARS - demanded the best, because that's what Lucas wanted.

'Into the Digital Realm' isn't so much an abandonment of ILM of the traditional methods of special effects, rather a point of departure for the new technology and all of things that led up to it. Indeed, ILM's work on 'The Hunt For Red October' submarine work involved flying the submerged vessels from wires in a smoky room - effects do not get any more traditional than that. Released in 96, the book doesn't mention that Phantom Menace or even that the film is in production. It does have some revised images from the Star Wars special edition. As with the previous tome, this one is packed with hundreds of color photos, plus the same beautiful gate fold images.

If the center piece for the previous book was Star Wars, Digital Realms' focus is obviously Jurassic Park, because it was the first film to use CG on so large a scale, even more than Terminator 2, which ILM also did. Jurassic Park was also the test bed and showcase piece that convinced Lucas that computers had finally matured enough to bring what he had in mind to the screen for the new Star Wars films. More is the pity, because I came to loathe most of the aliens in the Phantom Menace. Digital Realm clearly explains in easy to understand terms how effects - both new and old - are accomplished, be it something as simple as making it appear as if buildings are actually much taller than they or having a velociraptor walk _behind_ a plant situated in the foreground. I have both of these wonderful books, and I strongly recommend them to anyone who is curious about ILM's history and the process of how effects are made.

An extraordinary book about an extraordinary company. You will know all you want to know about special effects wizardry. The book is well published, even watching its pictures is joyful.

If you want to know about special effects, this is the book. Simple as that.