Written for young people. grades 4-8, this is an interesting biography for Frances Hodgson Burnett fans of all ages. She was the Danielle Steel of her day, crossing the Atlantic 33 times. Her comings, goings, and divorces made front-page news in The New York Times and in other newspapers. This biography, which School Lihrary Journal says "reads like a good novel," offers many quotations from Frances and her friends, plus photos and illustrations from her books and plays. This review is written by the author--can you tell? For a slide-illustrated lecture call 561 965-4155

Library Journal's review of this guide: "Combining encyclopedic coverage of destinations with loads of practical information and atlas-type maps, the series illuminates the wonders of nature but emphasizes the peculiarity of a place's people and their folklore."

This was a great story, I felt as if I was a neighbor. Wonderful dialouge and characters for a first time novelist. When is her next book coming out?!!!

Like many people (too many people, perhaps) I grew up with The Wizard of Oz only in movie form. For many years I didn't even KNOW it was based on a book, and I certainly didn't know anything about its creator, L.F. Baum. Though I knew there were other books written by him in the Oz series, I had no idea, until reading this biography, that there were over TEN other books in the Oz series alone. I guess ya' learn something new every day...

L.F. Baum had a pleasant childhood peppered with some unhappy experiences and generally was in poor health. Like many creative people (especially in the early 20th century) he was considered a dreamer and would probably come to no good, squandering his life and his money away on frivolous things. Time has proven this to be fortunately incorrect.

One of the first males to be deeply involved with the women's' suffrage movement, he started his own newspaper as a young child, borrowing news from other papers and news sources and creating poems and puzzles for his readers. He went on to work newspapers most of his life, on and off, doing a wide variety of jobs, including selling axle grease. All during this time he continued to tell stories and write. Indeed, he was one of the first authors to write stories geared specifically to children, and could even be considered the father of the modern children's book.

"L. Frank Baum" is packed with details of this little known man and shows a tremendous amount of effort and attention on the part of the author. Anyone above, say, 5th grade could easily use this book alone as the sole source on his life and times. However, it should be noted that the writing is rather dense with information and could be considered uninteresting reading-for-pleasure material for students who are merely curious about his life. Though richly illustrated with photographs, posters and book excerpts from Baum's life and books, a good deal of these illustrations are very teeny-tiny, making the details difficult to see. They would be more effective if enlarged even by 25%.

There is an excellent chapter on "Oz and the Censors", which is offset by a whole chapter just about a months' vacation. This sort of disjointed discussion of Baum's life and overemphasis on certain details shows up every now and then, causing the reader to sometimes say, "huh?" or forcing one to reread for greater clarity.

As far as school-aged children go, I would fancy that this book would serve more as a resource for paper writing than for sheer enjoyment due to the volume of facts and the dryness of the text. Still, it's an excellent book, meticulously researched, and it sheds some very much-needed light on the man whose book was the basis for one of the best-known movies in 20th century America. When we all listen to admire Ms. Garland singing "Over the Rainbow", or cackle like the Wicked Witch of the West, or laugh at the antics of the Cowardly Lion, we should stop and remember the kind, gentle man who gave the filmmaking world the idea for these characters.

Well, definitely informative and helpful. Well-written. Text is accompanied by wonderful photos, but some of the info. is not always correct (just minor parts). It is not balanced either, sometimes they spend a chapter on a decade, other times a chapter for a five-week vacation...

Wonderful! It brought me into those little places in Baums life that made me feel like is friend. I love the photos (sometimes I think Groucho Marx copied Baum, hehe) and the text is excellent. If you love Oz, you just HAVE to read this book.

I found this book to be incredibly insightful in its identification of the subtle transition from friends to lovers. Dr. Glass recognizes the emotional significance and potential hazard when an individual stops functioning as a responder to their mate and become a responder to a close friend.

The running story of Laura, Rachel and Ralf the book outlines mirrors precisely my own set of circumstances. Unfortunately I didn't find this book until after my relationship had ended. However, its description of the course of events was right on target, right down to the terms that the affair partners used to justify their actions including calling their lover their soul mate. In my own particular circumstances I was in the role of Rachel; Dr. Glass' insights into the thoughts of the character of Rachel paralleled my own during the affair of my significant other. This book mapped the friendship to affair progression I watched my significant other go through.

More specifically Dr. Glass managed to capture and understand the miry tangle of emotions that a person feels when their spouse is involved in an affair. For months I have been looking for someone that could understand that I felt both betrayed and yet still loved my former spouse. The description of the nauseating, insomniating, complicated emotions the person who has been cheated on feels was exactly what I had been trying to express to family and friends.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has been involved in an affair personally or tangentially as well as for any couple interested in protecting and identifying risks to their relationship.

38 years of my husband's infidelity led me into the pages of this book. After reading almost every book available on the subject, I found this remarkable book by Dr. Shirley Glass. No one book will answer all questions, but this book gave me more reassurance and answered more questions than any other. It is the book that has kept me sane.

As I read this book, I kept saying to myself "this is us" or "yes, this is how I feel". NOT JUST FRIENDS gave me the words my exhausted brain could no longer form. It freed me from the pain of thinking I was wrong by needing details of the sordid relationship my husband had with a "colorful woman about town".

This book will be used for a long, long time. I am purchasing copies for friends and family so they can read it and avoid the heartache of infidelity.

Dr. Glass I thank you for your intelligent approach to this subject and your infinite wisdom.

I am a therapist in private practice in Columbia, Maryland. A significant portion of my clients are married couples who have experienced infidelity. Dr. Glass' book is the first book and tool that I have used that makes sense for individuals who have suffered the pain and trauma of infidelity. Her concept of the slippery slope rings true for all of the individuals I counsel who have been affected by the crisis of infidelity. Dr. Glass' book offers insight and tools on how to manage the aftermath of infidelity. One couple I worked with called me and told me that even the "other man" that the wife was involved with was reading the book!! This book is a must for everyone, and it has been a great assistance to me in my work. Dr. Glass is compassionate and reality based in her approach and gives hope to those who have been personally affected by infidelity. I assign this book as required reading to every person in a relationship that comes to see me for counseling. The book is outstanding and I highly recommend it.

The very short 1981 edition currently before me features black and white illustrations by Philip Gough, and was translated by Naomi Lewis.

There's been a trend lately for fantasy authors to take traditional fairy tales and retell them, either as novels (as in Mercedes Lackey's case, or Peggy Kerr's _The Wild Swans_) or short stories (Tanith Lee did this even before Terri Windling came along). Hans Christian Andersen's little gems *aren't* traditional folk tales - he did the work - but quite often serve to fuel such fires anyway.

The translator, Naomi Lewis, has included a brief introduction discussing Andersen's life and career, and a few pages of notes at the end of the book discussing the original publication and origins of each story herein.

"The Princess and the Pea", "Thumbelina", "The Emperor's New Clothes"

"The Little Mermaid" - If you're only familiar with the Disney version, I warn you that they discarded much of what makes this story truly great. When evaluating a translation of this story, a quick test is to check the last scene between the mermaid and her prince to see how well the translator captures the actions and feelings of the characters.

The youngest of the seven mer-princesses has always been more fascinated by her grandmother's tales of the world above than any of her sisters, but she has the longest to wait for her first trip to the surface on her fifteenth birthday. Since mer-folk turn into seafoam at the end of their 300 years of life and have no immortal souls, she is especially curious about her grandmother's tales of how humans, when they die, can rise into a higher world just as the merfolk rise to the ocean surface, but one the merfolk can never reach, save through a human's love. (Oscar Wilde once turned this upside-down in "The Fisherman and the Soul", a very good story in which a fisherman fell in love with a mermaid and magically cut himself free of his soul to join her in the sea.)

As each of the sisters in turn makes her first journey, we see the world through their eyes, and since each has a different temperament and their birthdays fall at different times of the year, each sees and seeks out different sights. But when the youngest princess' turn finally comes (her name is never given), she has experiences that even the 3rd sister (the most adventurous of the lot) never had: a prince's birthday celebration at sea is struck by a great storm, foundering his ship before her eyes.

"The Steadfast Tin Soldier" - A toy story.

"The Nightingale" - Try Lackey's _The Eagle and the Nightingales_.

"The Ugly Duckling"

"The Snow Queen" - Check out Joan D. Vinge's novel of the same name.

"The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep" - They're porcelain figures who have fallen in love, but when her grandfather arranges a marriage for her with a mahogany carving instead, they decide to run away together.

"The Happy Family" - One of Andersen's lesser-known stories, of a little family of snails who know that they're the most important people in the world. :)

"The Goblin at the Grocer's" - The poet rescued an old book of poetry from the grocer who was using it as scrap paper, and the household goblin took offense at what was said. But when he entered the poet's room to play him a spiteful trick, he got more than he bargained for.

"Dance, Dolly, Dance" - Very short story about a poem written for little Amalie and her dolls.

The cover of this book is beautiful, but like the old saying: "Don't judge a book by it's cover." I was disappointed that the book told of tales of "sea" related entities not just "mermaids". This book lacked the visual effect that I was hoping to obtain from a "fantasy" book. Unlike the exhilarating book, "Mermaids: Nymph of the Sea", A Treasury of Mermaid was lacking in graphics and story.