I love this book. I wish I'd gotten it when my son was little! It provides great information about how to teach kids with DS to read, but also has great stories of real kids and their accomplishments. I'd recommend that anybody with a DS child buy the book early (when their baby is little), and read the first few chapters. It'll inspire them, mitigate some of the worries they have about their child's future, and introduce them to the important concept that although people with DS are generally slower to develop, their learning disabilities can be mitigated by teaching them in a way that is effective for the way they think (e.g., kids with DS are visual learners), rather than the "standard" way. My four year old has actually had better success with the Love and Learning videotapes and books than the flash card approach described in the book, but the principal is pretty much the same.

it is extremely helpful, in only 2 months my daughter at 6 years old was up to 30 site words without picture cues. (Her first attempt at actually reading) The book contains alot of helpful activities, simply spelled out in step by step directions for anyone to understand.

I have taught 5 children with down syndrome how to read, based on the information I recieved from this book. I work in the school district with children with DS and tutor them after school as well. I could never have had the success I have had without the information the author provides in this book.

You Shouldn't Have To Say Good-bye. This is a very good book. I think this book really shows you what it's like to lose someone you love the most. But at the same time it give you a message about loving your family, because you don't know when you're going to lose someone you love the most. I really like this book, this book helped me to understand that I am not the only one who lost my mother in the same situation. I was 14 years old when I lost my mother. I recommend this book it's sad, but at the same time it's a good and interesting book.

I REALY LOVED THIS BOOK BECAUSE THE AUTHOR WROTE ABOUT REALITY. A LOT OF PEOPLE LOSE THEIR LOVED ONES AND IT'S VERY HARD TO GET OVER IT. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOOK TO ALL READERS, ESPECIALLY TO SOMEONE WHO JUST LOST A LOVED ONE.IT MADE ME FEEL AS IF I WAS IN THE STORY. I FELT LIKE I WAS IN THE MAIN CHARACTER'S POSITION.

I read this book when it first came out and I was in the 5th Grade. Now, 15 years later I looked it up and found it again; it has stuck with me all this time. I know that when I read it (at age 10) it really made me put myself into the place of the main character and touched me so deeply I can still remember the title and the story today. I would definitely recommend this book to all readers.

The reviews state that THE BUTTERFLY has a target audience of ages 6-9 but I disagree! Polacco's lovely stories have appeal for all generations. Today is my daughter's birthday; she is a new 2nd grade teacher. My favorite gifts to her are six Patricia Polacco books. THE BUTTERFLY was written in honor of Polacco's great aunt, Marcelle Solliliage and her Aunt, Monique Gaw. Marcelle was part of the French underground and resistance during World War II. She bravely hid Jews in her home during the Nazi occupation. Monique was oblivious to these happenings until she met a young Jewish girl, Sevrine who happened to be hiding in the basement. A friendship developed that has endured many decades, right up to today! Polacco's exquisite story teaches the reader about true bravery, honor, and self-sacrifice (not to mention the history of a time not so long ago). How many of us would do today, as these valiant heroes have done many times in the past?

This book is based on a true story. It is about two girls; Monique and Sevrine, in which Sevrine and her family are trying to survive against the Nazis' attacks. Before Monique meets Sevrine, her best friend is Denise. This story takes place in France. Monsieur Marks, owner of the candystore, gets taken away by the Nazi soldiers. Monique asked her mother, Marcel Solliliage, why they took him away. Her mother tells her it is because he is a Jew. A night before all this happened, Monique claims she saw a ghost girl. Later, Monique finds out that Sevrine is the ghost girl and that she isn't really a ghost at all.
Monique asks here where she lives. Sevrine says that she lives here. Monique is puzzled by this because she lives there. Sevrine tells her that she is a Jew, so she has to hise from the Nazis. Sevrine tells her that she lives in the cellar in her house, and that Marcel Sollilage has been hiding her family for awhile. Since Monique found out that Sevrine lived in her house, she would have someone to come to her room at night to play with. She brought Sevrine things like soil and then one day, a butterfly. They both go to the window to let the butterfly go and their next-door neighbor, Monsieur Lendormy, saw them together. They thought that Sevrine and her family were in danger, so they went to go find and wake up Monique's mother.
Marcel tells them to put on as much layers on them as they could and had Sevrine's parents dressed up as a priest and a nun. A car pulls up that Sevrine is going to ride in. Monique gives Sevrine her cat, Pinoff and Sevrine gives her a gold chain with a gold Star of David on it. Will Sevrine and her family survive? Will Monique ever see Sevrine again? Read this great story if you want to find out what happens. I thought this book was great because it was based on a true story. It is a great story, that tells you about two little girls that come face to face with the Nazis, but still have faith that it will all be over soon.

Acquainting readers with holocaust history, The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco successfully maintains virtuosity to a war tale of sadness and tragedy while still exploring a delicate balance between the horrors of war and the childish innocence of two little girls cheerfully building a friendship. Based on the life experience of the author/illustrator's aunt Monique, the girl protagonist discovers that her family is hiding a Jewish family in her home.
Secretly meeting and playing together each night after the other members of the families sleep, Monique and Sevrine build a poetic friendship full of hope, happiness, and a childish energy that defies the boundaries between war cultures. After a neighbor catches sight of the girls playing too close to the window, the girls realize that the secret hiding place might be suspected. The plot races onward to an exciting climax as Monique and Sevrine must divulge not only their secret friendship but also the new danger to their parents. Escaping to a new hiding place, Sevrine's family is whisked away into the dark night of the unknown, while Monique hopes for her friend's safety. A symbolic butterfly fluttering through the French family's garden later assures Monique that her friend must be alive and safe. An author's note in the end pages assures readers that Sevrine did survive the holocaust-although her parents were not as fortunate.
The characters, while handled lightly in words, convey roundness in the authentic sense of emotions as they run the gamut of fear, comfort, hate, and love. Convincing as a memoir, The Butterfly successfully conveys the quiet strength of individuals amidst trial.
Perfect as a delicate and sophisticated handling of a cruel time in history, The Butterfly provides an appropriate way to dialogue with children about the uglier side of humanity-without crossing into the gruesome or blatantly shocking (although also true) stories of war that sometimes make war books inappropriate for younger children. The Butterfly provides allusions to war crimes that will be understood by older children while still providing an eye-opening tale of friendship to younger children. Targeting the age range of 6-9, The Butterfly adeptly provides insight into the beauty of life while describing life's fragility.
Known as the author/illustrator of numerous books including Pink and Say, Patricia Polacco's pencil and watercolor illustrations highlight the contrast between the cruel and the innocent. The dust jacket of the book is a perfect symbol of the juxtaposition between innocence and cruelty since the front side of the cover depicts irises, a butterfly, and a young girl with warm watercolor tones and delicate chiaroscuro while flipping the book over reveals a Nazi officer with a hard-set jaw and unseen eyes with a swastika banner depicted in harsh black, gray, and browns. Polacco's story is an important history while her illustrations make that history palatable and vivid to child and adult viewers. Experiencing The Butterfly means contemplating unsettling human history while savoring the security of friendship.

If you were given only one Goosebumps book to read, this should be it. It's about two kids who "haunt" their neighborhood, by howling behind bushes at neighbors and throwing rubber spiders in a boy's bedroom. But one night they decide to go a little further. There's a famous town attraction of a haunted house--it is haunted by the spirit of headless boy who got his head ripped off by a ghost! They've visited it a hundred times on tours. One night they decide to join the current tour group, and then wander off searching for the head of the headless boy. Do they find anything? Read this story and find out! This book is very exciting and adventurous--I recommend it to everyone!

This was the first Goosebumps book I read. It was so good. It was fun to read. I thought this book was very, very cool. I liked the ending because it was surprising. I thought the story was the best. Whenever I go to my school's library I will get Goosebumps. I am reading another one now! Keep up the good work, Mr.Stein. If you make another book I am sure it will be cool.

This is the best one! I reccomend this book to ANYONE. I have almost the whole series.I've had them for about 5 years and i'm just now starting to read them.I just got finished reading "The Beast From The East".Now i'm just starting on "Say Cheese And Die"."The Headless Ghost" is the BEST one!

The core plot of this book is a fun, entertaining romance. Seth is an understandably troubled hero and Pippa has some very real demons. I enjoyed the growing romantic chemistry between them.

The side plots are where this book stumbles. The story about his son works quite well and keeps this from being just another cookie-cutter book about a trouble boss saved by a charming assistant. What I found to be utterly gratuitous was the whole evil threats/bombing aspects. This seems to be a real trend in 1990's romances. It seems to be something of a cop-out when the really tough thing to write about is the growth of the relationship.

Bottom-line: A pleasant read but not a book I'll be keeping or lending to friends.

This was my first book by this author and I will definitley be going to pick up more.

Pippa had a positive outlook on everything even with all the demons she was fighting in her life. Her mother died of cancer, she lost her job, and she had an abusive boyfriend. Even with all that, she came out on top. She was humorous and loveable at the same time. Her relationship with Chad was heartwarming and I loved how she dealt with Seth!

Seth was a total recluse who didn't know what to make of this whirlwind that blew through his life and ruined his routine. He definitley desired her but he wasn't sure what else he felt for her.

The end of the book was thoroughly enjoyable and very satisfying. Do not miss this book!!

I loved this story. The characters are very believable with idiosyncrasies that make them just a little different from the mainstream story. I liked the humor that Pippa displays in almost every circumstance, yet her underlying distrust of men (with good reason) is seen in her relationship with Seth. With her unfailing humor she changes the attitude of almost all of the people who live in this little town especially Seth and his son Chad.

I can't wait to get my hands on more of her contempory stories.

Caught in Crystal provides a solid background for later happenings in Lyra. I was particularly impressed with the introduction of the 'gray cyrstals' that show up later in other books.

The plot moves quickly and introduces many interesting characters. My only complaint is that we don't get to delve deep enough into those characters. Definitely worth having, especially if you've already read other books in this world.

It seems that all the attention is always focused on Jordan, Goodkind, and other epic fantasy writers, and non-epic writers get overlooked.

Here's a great book that kept me intrigued and entertained from cover to cover.

I don't need epic-proportioned books. This one will do just fine.

Patricia C. Wrede is consistently and continually one of my favorite fantasy writers. In recent years, with the popularity of her light-hearted "Enchanted Forest Chronicles," many readers see her as an author that only writes for young adults. In truth, she is an adult fantasy writer first, although now many of her adult fantasy books are being marketed for (and enjoyed by) young adults.

*Caught in Crystal* is one of the novels in her "Lyra" series--a series of fantasy novels that all take place in the same world, although in different places and time periods of that world's history. All the books in this series are excellent novels that stand alone without the need for the other books to prop them up. Three other novels found in this fantasy world were republished together as *Shadows over Lyra*, and another book set in this world is *The Raven Ring*.

I like *Caught in Crystal* because of its strong characters and melancholy, but resigned, tone. It is one of her darker novels. Wrede is a master. Kayl is a character who must deal with aging...as well as going back on a quest to finish something that wasn't finished right the first time.

This is one of the mose beautiful books I have read. I love the verses and teh paraghraph that puts them in modern day terms of just explains teh meaning they had for the ancient people of that culture. A must for any one.

This book provides a perfect way to give yourself a nice morning ritual or meditation. It provides a daily poem or song on a variety of female dieties, along with a short reflection on how it is applied to daily life. I like that Monaghan includes Goddesses from a variety of cultures from all over the world. Her love of the feminine spirit definitely shines through. Another special feature is that you can use the index in a variety of ways. It has listings sorted by diety, or by subject matter, also by country, that way, you can find what you need when you have a specific purpose in mind. Highly recommended.

I have gone almost a full year (the complete book) with this book providing me with comfort, inspiration, and food for thought each day. I have another book which claims to offer Goddess inspirations in the same day by day format, but it doesn't touch this one, which obviously comes from a learned, thoughtful, spiritual, experienced writer. I read quotes from each book each day, but I save this one for last, because it is by far the best. The quote from a folk song or classical work followed by an insightful elaboration on the theme is always just enough - not too long, not too short. Thank you, Ms. Monaghan, for enriching my life each day.

I got this because I want to write medieval historicals and needed to know what people ate. This book gives a very good overview of foods available, how they were eaten, table manners, etc.; I just wish it went into just a little more detail. But that's not really what it's about; it's for presenting actual medieval recipes, and it certainly does give a lot of them with modern equivalents.

But what did people eat for breakfast? How widespread was corn or oats? What other kinds of grains were used? What were sub-regional specialties? How much was wine thinned with water? How long could a wine last in those days before it went bad? How often did people get food poisoning?

For what this book was written for, it's an excellent one. For a writer, it's a very good starting point.

This book is great. I went to a so called medieval banquet one semester. Besides the fact that it was pretty lame, the food stunk. (They gave no atmosphere to the whole thing. It was just a wretched overpriced meal.)

All they served was alcohol to drink. Neither my husband nor I drink, so we went dry the whole night. There were a few others like us. Then almost all of the dishes were made with alcohol. And I mean SOAKED in it. Not the kind of meals where most of the alcohol was cooked off. Then the main dish was a skimpy serving of oysters. Needless to say, our palates were not satiated.

Those fools really could have used this book. There are tons of MEAT recipes from chicken to hare. There are numerous soups that aren't made with beer. There are desserts besides rim soaked cake. Lo and behold, there is even almond milk for the non-alcoholic.

The front of the book has some menu suggestions and the back is great for the historian. There is a fair sized section with the recipes in the original language. It's fun to pick through the old wording.

This truly is a wonderful book and the recipes taste great. A must have for anyone who wants to put together a REAL medieval dinner.

I'm one of those people who "read cookbooks like novels". This is definitely a worthwhile read. And the recipes I've tried have been very good.

One of the spice blends that they give has become a staple in my kitchen, the "Sweet spices for many good and fine foods", which I love to use on salmon before cooking. I did make one change (which the authors note many sources recommending) to season "to the taste of the lord" (that's me) -- I changed the bay leaf to dried orange peel. Try it.

Another recipe I will definitely make again is the Asparagus with Saffron.

My one quibble is that the recipes are almost exclusively French or Italian, with very few from England, and none from any other culture. But, since the authors themselves hail from the first two countries, this is perhaps understandable.

I thought this was a good book, and very easy to read. I have a friend with lupus, and she is very much like the main lady in this book. It is good to see how other people deal with these things. I think the author knows how to touch the heart of people and that is a very special gift. I read this book, and Stolen Moments by Fisher, and both have helped me in a big way to understand my friend with this illness. Hope they find a cure for it soon. I would recommend this book for anyone dealing wtih any illness, personally or with someone they love.

Having Lupus I have been searching and searching for a book that truly expresses what I am going through. When I started reading Pumpkin I realized that I had found that book. I read the book in one sitting and am going to suggest it to my family. I am experiencing much of what Eileen went through, it's as if the book were about me personally. Patricia does a remarkable job conveying Eileen's thoughts although she did not have the disease herself. She really understood her daughter well and Eileen was so lucky for that. I would recommend this book for others who have Lupus as well as their family members.

I read this book as I have recently gotten involved with the Dorough Lupus Foundation which was set up after Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys lost his sister Caroline to Lupus.

This story is about Eileen and was written by her mother. Eileen fought hard against the effects of Lupus. Every setback that was thrown at her she fought against, and in the end, she lost. But her strength and perserverance moved me.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. Lupus is a disease that is not as widely known as others, but is very devastating. We need to to find a cure for this illness so no more people die from it.

If you're in a partnership, starting a business, or just looking for some inspiration to keep you focused on the direction you're going, then buy this book.

The illustrations and the background "thinking" that are added to the conversation truly give the reader a sense of understanding.

What I found to be the most interesting is how quickly the entire idea of TROT came together. Within a month of meeting, Mel and Bill had the ideas and the philosophy of TROT down. When it comes down to it, there was very little change from those initial conversations until the final product launched.

Mel & Patricia Zeigler are geniuses at creating raving fan businesses. They were the originators of the greatest store I've ever been in, Banana Republic. They sold it to the Gap and it is NOTHING like it's former self, which was reminescent of an Indiana Jones adventure complete with jungle headquarters and a jeep.

This book documents their next venture and details how they developed the business. It is like an adventure as you follow the letters to each other with new ideas.

If anything, I use this as a model for writing business plans. That's the biggest compliment I can give.

I have discovered Tea Mind! The tea is mine. It is now. It is hot. Oh evenness. Oh flow. Oh swallow of presence. I am a zentrepreneur!

I found a new appreciation for tea in fact before reading this book but now that I've read it I have further confirmed the splendor of this drink and I love coffee too! You have to read this book if you are curious about Tea Mind but you also have to read this book if you are passionate about ideas and need to bring these ideas into the execution stage. Also includes a real business plan - the one used to form 'The Republic;' a living example!

So much beyond the tea but the tea is enough! Check out their Web site and order their catalog then maybe order some tea and taste it to complete the tangibility of this company's birth.