Both of my Grandmothers quilted, but no other family members seem to believe in the magic of a homemade quilt. I purchased this book for my three preschool daughters. Little did I know what a powerful read aloud opportunity this is. You get: children helping without complaining, a girl who wants to go to school to learn to make her mark, a history lesson, unselfishness, strangers helping one another, and quilting, all in one book! I wept reading this sweet lesson to my children the first time, and every time since.

This is an excellent book to explain the feelings of the Civil War to a child in a way that they will understand. The story was easily readable for my five year old son and the illustrations added to the overall feeling of the story. We have read this book several times since purchasing it, and my children never tire of hearing the story. If your family likes to explore Civil War History, you should make this a part of your library. It not only teaches how the young girl and her brother felt about their families involvement in the war, but it told a story of how they helped to pull their community together after the war to keep a promise made to young Addie by her father before he went off to fight.

Enjoyable for ages 6-12. (A read-to-me book for younger readers.) The text is understandable, interesting and accompanied by photos or drawings on almost every page.

True stories of children--southern, northern, black and white--provide an excellent understanding of the impact of the war on children and adults.

Unlike some other childrens' civil war books that I have seen, there are no curse words here! I would highly recommend this title for individuals, school libraries, and church libraries.

a library director

The last entry in Ransom's fantastic Kobie series. (Ransom was once quoted as saying her brain stops at 15 and that she is a grown-up by default.) Here Kobie suffers tonsilitis, embarrases herself in fromt of a cute teacher, has to deal with the likes of Sandy Robertson and an unlikely new crush. For the initiated, you know how good this series is. For the unititated, boy do I envy you for getting to read this for the first time.

Although I am a senior adult, I thoroughly enjoyed this biography. I often preread books that I wish to share with my grandchildren. I had often wondered how Maria had come to the convent in the first place and this book takes one back to her early beginnings before that point and then leads one on from there. The book is a fast and enjoyable read. I recommend it heartily!

This was the best book I have read! Howard sister Jacqueline and Sharon are fighting about Russ, the cute boy.

My seven-year-old daughter and I read together almost every night. In the past two years, no book (besides the Old Testament) has been her selection more than When the Whippoorwill Calls. The Blue Ridge family it depicts finds out the federal government is buying up their mountain to make way for the Blue Ridge Parkway. In the process, the seven-year-old protagonist learns a lesson of hope from the example of her father, who struggles with, but in the end adapts to, their move to the flatlands. The beauty of the story, though, is in its language. Like the mountain people she writes about, Ms. Ransom has a gift for expressing complicated sentiment in simple and concrete ways. After a number of readings, it dawned on me that I was reading good poetry. I should mention that the lllustrations are lovely and the layout of the pages is attractive and interesting.

Ever since receiving this book, I have read it four times. The intensity, excitement, romance, and adventure made this book very hard to put down. Her fairy tale story is one every girl dreams of. I highly recommend this and other books in the Sunfire Books Collection.

I have never been a romance reader, but I picked up this book because I love history, and hoped the book would be interesting. I loved the book, and feel it is a wonderful story for young women to read. It was many years ago when I read the sunfire series, but was hoping to find them so that our library could order them. The sunfire books are great stories and teach a fascinating history lesson as well!

I've made it a mission in my life to read as many Sunfire books as possible. I started reading them when I was in my teens, and I practically carried them everywhere! The first one I read was Josie, but Amanda is one of my all time favorites! It's too bad that I didn't collect them when I was growing up, since the books have become a big part of my childhood. If this book has interested others, I suggest reading a more "grown-up" novel titled, "Rebecca".

I read this book when it was first published, which was soon after Bob Ballard had discovered the Titanic's resting place. "Nicole" sparked a fascination with the Titanic that I still have today (don't get me started on the movie). I was a big fan of the Sunfire series (I guess I still am :D), and I felt Candice Ransom's books were usually the best of the bunch. However, I think "Nicole" was the only book where I so completely disagreed with the heroine's final choice of beaus! Not that there was anything wrong with Karl, but...Price was witty, insightful, charming, intelligent, cute, wealthy; he had a brave, adventurous spirit (a baronet running away from home!) - who could resist that?! (Not I, which is why I gave this only 4 stars!)

I hope Scholastic (or whoever now owns the Sunfire rights) reprints these titles. These books are what sparked my love of American history. I hope they do the same for millions of young women.

This is an excellent story. I really like the historical accuracy that the author captured regarding the events and people on the Titanic. Every character is unique and proves his or her strength throughout the journey to survive.

I liked it a lot, I think I liked it so much because it was about the Titanic. I love SUNFIRE books, don't get me wrong, but this one was special. I also liked Amanda because it was based on a real thing. This book is about a girl whos mother is a snob and pretends that she's Nicoles sister and wants her to marry a rich guy but Nicole fell in love with Karl the handsome immigrant who has a bratty sister who hates Nicole, but later on Nicole and her become friends. Then the Titanic is sinking! What will happen? Read it and see!

This is an excellent book and I was very sad when I heard that it was not being published any more.

This is a story about a girl who has to go to a diffrent school than her best friend Gretchen. Gretchen got into an accident last year and had to repeat a grade. That means that the girl has to go to the high school all alone. Then there is a girl named Sandy who is always following her a round. The girl wants to ditch her so she can be in the popular group, but she feels that she can't because Sandy has scoliosis. Then in home economics another girl named Jennet begins to bother, threaten and harras the girls. What will happen?

It is a travesty that the "Kobie" books are out of print! I adored reading about Kobie, and strongly feel that the few books that featured her were among the most underrated of the young adult genre in the 80s.

Like one of the other reviewers here, I am also nearly 25. Though Kobie was a little older than me (I was maybe in 5th grade when I first read about her high school adventures) she spoke of universal awkwardness. Kobie was funny and genuine, and there was nothing condescending about her. It was smart, sensitive reading. She felt like an old friend. If I have a daughter someday, hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on the Kobie books for her, as my copies fell apart a while ago. So what if she won't understand the references to Van Halen and the "cool" 80s styles? She'll have hours of good literary company.

I LOVED the Kobie Roberts books (Almost Ten and a Half, Going on Twelve, Thirteen, Fourten and Holding, Fifteen at Last)....Kobie was so cool in that she wasn't perfect...She was funny.. I wish there had been a "Sweet Sixteen" book in the 'series' as well...I'm almost 25 now, but I plan on keeping my Kobie books...

Amber Cantrell was excited about starting third grade. She thought she would be the most popular girl with the prettiest name and the longest hair. Then she meets a new girl named Delight Walkfield. I liked this book because it showed you could have more than one friend. It also taught you that you should get to know new people before you judge people.

One of my 4th grade students loved this book because there is a lot of action, likeable characters, and it reminded her of her own experiences.

I like the book Who Needs Third Grade because a girl named Amber quits third grade and at the end someone gets another best friend. Two girls named Amber and Mindy get in a fight because Amber is jealous about a new girl in their class with whom Mindy wants to be best friends. Than Amber cuts off the new girls hair. Find out if Amber and Mindy become friend again by reading the book Who Needs Third Grade. The moral is to apologize to even people you hate.