William Nicholson's "The Wind Singer" tells the story of Kestrel and Bowman Hath, a twin sister and brother who live in the city of Aramanth. Aramanth is a joyless city, divided into color-coded districts, with White being the best and Gray the worst. Families are ranked based on the results of yearly examinations, and everyone is told to strive harder, reach higher, and better themselves.

Kestrel gets fed up and publicly insults the High Examiners, the Emperor, and the whole way of life in Aramanth. This puts her whole family in danger, and she, Bowman and Mumpo (a hapless boy in their class at school) go on a quest to find the voice of the Wind Singer, a strange contraption at the heart of Aramanth, which has been silent for hundreds of years. Meanwhile, their parents are fighting for their dignity and freedom in Aramanth.

The book is a wonderful fantasy, very inventive. In addition to the thoroughly unpleasant culture of Aramanth, we meet the mud people who live under the city, the Baraka and Chaka who travel the desert plains in great wheeled ships, the disturbing "old children," and the unstoppable Zars, who serve as the army of the Morah, an evil being who holds the voice of the Wind Singer. Unfortunately, the later stages of the quest, once Kestrel, Bowman and Mumpo leave the plains, are not nearly as detailed and absorbing as the first two thirds of the book.

"The Wind Singer" is a lovely, fun book, which manages to deliver a message without beating readers over the head. Though it's the first book of a trilogy, it stands very well on its own, leaving only a few dangling hints unresolved. However, it's aimed at people between 8 and 12 years old; adults and teens should adjust their expectations accordingly.

The wind singer is a wonderful book filled with adventure, suspense, and imagination. If you liked Harry Potter, or The Lord of the Rings, there's a good chance you'll like this book, too. Kestrel, a strong individual, is unhappy with the perfect, orderly society in which she lives. The wind singer, a peculiar struture that was supposed to at one time sing and bring peace and harmony to the people of Aramanth, has always been a special interest of Kestrel's. But the wind singer's voice was given to the evil Morah long ago in exchange for his army of Zars to leave Aramanth. Armed with courage and determination, Kestrel, her brother Bowman, and a classmate named Mumpo, must bring the voice back in order to restore happiness and equality to their home and its people.

The Wind Singer takes you into a world where anything can happen. It's about Kestrel and Bowman, twins, that can secretly somehow talk to eachother through their heads. It is also about Mumpo, who is a drooly geek with a big secret. They live in Amarath and it is not how they want it to be. They set out on a seemingly endless journey to fix their community. They meet friendly foes and evil villains along the way. Will they conquer their goal while still conquering their fears? Will they stay together and find knew friends and meet somepeople that they thought they would never see again? Will a legendary story turn out to become true? Read The Wind Singer and find out the misteries and excitment of this thrilling book that you won't be able to put down.

I'm sorry to see that this delightful, albeit different, book is out of stock. I would never expect it to be a best seller. Nonetheless, the imaginative story and interesting art work are worth a look.

Peter Sis has blended a little fact with a lot of fiction to create this fascinating story about Arctic explorer and folk hero, Jan Welzl. Born in Eastern Europe, Welzl travelled north looking for adventure and was saved from near death by Eskimos who nursed him back to health and taught him everything they knew about living and surviving in the harsh arctic climate. But when gold is found and the outside world arrives, Welzl worries that his trusting friends will lose their peaceful way of life..... Peter Sis has written a charming and enchanting story that's sure to capture all youngsters' imaginations and send them soaring. His quiet, idealistic, understated text is only outdone by his amazing evocative artwork which mixes maps, panoramas, pictographs and storyboards and children will be mesmerized by their intricacy and detail. With a prologue and epilogue to help fill in both the fact and fancy of the story, A Small Tall Tale From The Far Far North is perfect for youngsters 8-12 and is a captivating story that begs to be read again and again.

He is a brightful storyteller. This story is about Native Alaskan Eskimos in Alaska. I'm not sure where it takes place Alaska. I have probally read this book about a gazillion times! It's such a good book. He is an imaginitive person. I love his books. His ideas are so....so different from all other the authors. I wish I could own ALL of his books.

This book is about two children that go back in time when summond to help their ansester that lived over 100 years back. They are asked to go to the 13th Floor and there they go back in time. This is a really cute book. The plot is easy to flow yet not totally predictable. It's easy to read and I think you will really enjoy this. I think it is better than Sid Fleischman's other book, The Whipping Boy.

This book was a great book. Its about these two kids who find out there is a thirteenth floor on an old building. When they enter they find themselves fighting pirates and the boy finds himself trying his best to help his sister who has been accused of being a witch! This book always pushed me to turn the page. It is an easy reader but fun to read.

I liked this book because it is sort of a mystery and history book. This book is about two kids who owe money because their parents were poor and owed money but they died. When the kids, Bud and his older sister Liz, get a telephone message from a person who works on a 13th floor of a building, they think it is a prank. When his sister goes to work and doesn't come back, Bud thinks that she when to the 13th floor. When he opens the door to the 13th floor, he finds himself on a ship with an ancestor! Bud figures out that he traveled 300 years back in time! From there it goes on from Bud learning about a ship to Liz saving the ancestor who called them from accusement of witchcraft. I am not going to tell you the rest of the story. You are going to have to read it!!!

Hey! i loved this book! When i bought it, i couldn't stop reading it! i lent it to my friend and she and i can't stop talking about it. The book is the second book of a Trilogy, called The Wind on Fire. Throughout this book, as well as the first one, we follow twins Bowman and Kestrel, who are as similar as they are differet. They are very close. At the begining of this book, The Mastery invades Armamanth destroying the city and enslaving it's people. Kestrel avoides this capturing and watches as her family is led off with the rest. She leaves her city still burning, and follows as the Mastery leads her people away. She vows to follow them and avenge the death of so many of her people, so she follows as they march. She eventually finds a caravan of people going to the Mastery to wed their princess to the Master's son. The book takes you back and forth through the eyes of both Bowman the slave and Kestrel the avenger, and tells their tales. It is a very good read, i recomend it! It is amazing how close Bowman and Kestrel remain throughout their seperation. they both long for each other in such a way it's amazing. I love the characters and the faith they heve in eachother. Just an overall good read!

The day I bought this book I sat down on the couch and read for the rest of the day. William Nicholson's Slaves of the Mastery isn't just a book for children and teens. It deals with mature issues such as slavery and violence. If you read The Wind Singer and didn't like it enough to read the sequel, reconsider, because this book is so much better. Kestrel, Bowman and Mumpo are unique, appealing characters and there is always a new spin on the story. As for me, I'm anxiously awaiting the third book in the trilogy. Read this book- you won't regret it!

Slaves of the Mastery was a great follow-up on Kestrel and Bowman Hath who are 15-year-old twins that can speak with each other telepathicly. One day at dawn the people of the Mastery come and enslave the people of Aramanth. They burn down the whole city and for the first time Kestrel and Bowman are seperated sot they can't talk to each other with their minds. Bowman goes with the rest of his people to Mastery to be a slave while Kestrel follows her people planning to avenge the people of the Mastery. While following her people she runs in to the Johdila (Sisi) who is the Princess that has to marry Ortiz, the son of the Master. The book goes back and forth between Kestrel and Bowman and how they plan to avenge the Mastery and free the slaves.
This book was great. I could not put it down. Like the Harry Potter books when I finished I got mad because the third one wasn't out yet. I do have to admit that I really didn't like the first couple of chapters, but after that I couldn't stop reading. It kept me on the edge of my seat 85% of the time. This book isn't just for kids I'd suggest this book to people of all ages.

This book is a wonderful ending to the brilliant trilogy William Nicholson has written. The characters are createed with so much history, they seem real. The whole story has a depth to it that I have never encountered before, not even in Lord of the Rings or the Robrt Jordan trilogy. As you read, questions pop up into your mind, but it is almost garaunteed that if you don't get an answer right away, you will come up with one on your own by the time you finish the book. My only complaint is that it is so short!

Ok im only 13 years old and it wasnt a struggle to read at all. I cant write very good rewievs, so make sure you read all the other ones written by intelligent and extremely helpful people. I just want to say if you are thinking of buying this book go RIGHT AHEAD! i guarantee you will not be dissapointed. The characters are all brilliant. I have written books myself but i have never got so involved witht he characters emotions and feelings before. It even made me cry- which i dont often do. I keep reading it again and again and again. Im still not bored of it just sad that it's ended.I rate this book a well deserved 5 out of 5! It is extremely gripping, adventurous and jam packed with stuff. PLEASE read it, especially if you have read the other two in the trilogy. If you like teen books like artemis fowl, his dark materials ect you will LOVE this. It is even better! The ending isn't absolutely great as it is a bit soppy but who cares??? Its... its... its...amazing! INGENIOUS!!!

This is an excellent book. It has no weaknesses and proves to be an excellent sequel to the other two books in the trilogy; The Winsinger. Slaves of the Mastery. Anyone that enjoyed these two books would enjoy this one. The characters are very realistic and you can relate to some of their dilemmas. It is a great book for all ages even though it says it is for the younger reader. It is just as enjoyable for adults. It is very easy to understand and i couldn't put the book down, i was literally glued to it. Even though it is 340+ pages, it is exceptional.

Two of kids' most exciting themes -- loose teeth and international travel! -- are delightfully captured in this sophisticated book by Peter Sis. Madlenka's tooth sends her on a journey through her multi-cultural neighbourhood, visiting shopkeeper friends from Asia, France, Latin America, and beyond.

Though the thrill of the loose tooth seems to disappear into the background somewhat through all her marvellous adventures, it comes back with a bang in the terrific "surprise" ending. This book perplexed my kids (5 and 6) somewhat initially; they were expecting a story about the tooth. But they enjoyed the easy-going, "world beat" plot tremendously nevertheless, particularly the detailed illustrations of the shopkeepers' home cultures, delightfully woven around the facing pages.

I'd highly recommended this book for urban families or anyone who wants their kids to know we're not alone on this big crowded planet.

Whether it be for children or adults, Madlenka has sent us a message that everyone has something to offer. Everyone will fall in love with little Madlenka who looks at the world through innocent eyes. Although the story is centered around a child who has a loose tooth, the real story is about the richness of all the people in her neighborhood. As Madlenka journeys through her neighborhood, the reader journeys from Italy to Latin America. Peter Sis' illustrations are marvelous in that they add background information that the text does not provide. Although the illustrations have almost too much information embedded in them, the story still falls into place. In addition, Peter Sis does a remarkable job of illustrating a child's world from a spot on the planet to a spot in a city to Madlenka standing in her neighborhood. Excluding the text within the illustrations, the vocabulary and text size are appropriate for the intended age level. When deciding whether to share this book with children, the decision should be simple if you are considerate of what they have to offer.

Since opinions abound here on Amazon, I shall give my own on this item that I purchased directly through Amazon due to the rave reviews.

A six year old boy whom I know well, calls Madlenka "The Blue Book" since the illistrations seem to hover around the blue/grey spectrum, and that is what stands out in his head... not the story so much as the monotone of the illustrations.

The absolute excitement of a loose tooth is not lost on children, and Madlenka's travels are indeed fanciful and fun. This is an interesting and insightful book that will most likely appeal more to the adults who read it than to the children who are lucky enough to have adults who read to them.

Tibet: Through the Red Box is an entrancing and beautiful book. However, it is one of the new subgenre of "children's books for adults" - it may look like a picture book, but it is *not* suitable for young children.

Tibet is very like Maus: A Survivor's Tale, the award-winning graphic novel that bears only superficial resemblance to a standard graphic novel. In Tibet, as in Maus, a son tells his father's story - and what a story it is. Peter Sis' father was a documentary filmmaker who was hired by the Chinese to make a documentary about the building of a bridge in a remote province - and instead ended up losing his crew and witnessing the taking of Tibet.

Sis does a remarkable job of transmitting to the reader his father's love of Tibet and its mysteries and magic. Using tales his father told him, he creates an image of a dream land, a fantasy land, where weird and wonderful things happen. It's impossible not to love Sis' vision of Tibet - and therefore, impossible not to be sad that the Chinese take it.

I've said that the book is not for children, and I stand by that. However, I do believe that a child who is 6 or older could enjoy this book, provided it was read to him by an adult, and provided that that adult could cushion and explain some of the harder truths, not to mention some of the blending of fantasy and fact.

Peter Sis' father's story is incredible, and the book is marvelous. Any adult who loves books or history would love Tibet: Through the Red Box.

Tibet: Through the Red Box by Peter Sis is a book that I would recommend to almost anybody. Its beautiful and very unique illustrations keep the interest of the reader to the very end, and the many short but magical tales about the palace with thousands of rooms, the messenger adorned with bells who brought his letters to the depths of the forests etc. are so enchanting yet poignant too. All the stories of his father's encounter in Tibet arouses our interests about Tibet and the hidden magics in it.

A bonus of this book is that it contains hidden messages that can be discovered by the careful and attentive reader, on technology and its devastation and the thin line between fact and fiction.

Be warned, if you have no intentions to visit Tibet in the future or be greatly tempted to, do not read this book. It is so enchanting that you could not resist a visit there yourself.

"Tibet" is an artistic triumph from Sis, whose illustrations have always been wonderful. This book, however, is a highly personal tale that he seeks to tell, and it is a rather complex and mystical one - for this reason I recommend it more for adults, though there's no harm in reading it to your child if you think it will go over (just don't be surprised if they don't appreciate it as you do.) I say the tale is complex, because the plot has many layers. Sis himself is a child in Cold War Europe, whose father disappears. The father then returns, saying he had been sent to make documentary films in Tibet. His memories are contained in a red box, which Sis does not open until later in life. These memories tell of tales both possible (meeting the Dalai Lama, Chinese takeover of Tibet) and exxaggerated (mythical cities, wild adventures, etc.) The overall tone of the book is not a political one, but a spiritual one. Having taken us through a dazzling series of illustrated mandalas and different colored rooms, Sis concludes that he isn't really sure what went on with his father in Tibet, and whether it was all a mystical dream on the part of his father or on the part of himself. It's difficult to explain all this, but I hope you get the picture as to how sophisticated the book really is. It will merit careful revisiting by adults, and its beautiful, stylized artwork and haunting mysticism will render rich rewards.

My three year old son loves dragons, but they also scare him sometimes too. This book is one of his favorites because the poems are fun (like "Nasty little dragonsong" and "I have a dozen dragons", to name a couple) and the illustrations are not scary at all. We enjoy looking at the pictures and he loves to hear the poems. In fact, the poem called "I am boom!" the thunder dragon has made him a little less frightened of thunderstorms. We just say "There's that old boom again!" and he settles down, whenever thunder is rolling overhead. If your child is interested in dragons, this is a great edition to your library. Lovely illustrations and fun-to-read poems.

I took a chance on Jack Prelutsky's gifted poetry and read this book to my son's 2nd Grade class, instead of a run-of-the-mill story. The children were enthralled. They really longed for the world to have dragons again, real or otherwise. Never mind that some of the vocabulary was a bit sophisticated for them (My Dragon's Been Disconsolate), they wanted to hear every poem, not just those I'd selected for them. My son returns to the book to gaze at Peter Sis' whimsical illustrations and read the poetry over again every so often. I peek over his shoulder each time!

We love, love, love this book! The wordplay and the humor are such fun for our primary grade age son and for the parents, too. I find that the poems have insinuated themselves into my brain without my even trying to memorize them -- but I consider that to be a good thing, because these poems are such fun. My son finds "Boom" -- the poem and the illustration -- to be scary and we usually have to skip that one. His favorites are the one about the nasty little dragon and the dragon in my computer; my favorite is the title poem.

I must say, however, that the dragons in the illustrations are not at all the way I picture them, so I found the illustrations disappointing.

Talking With Artists volume.3

This book is pretty interesting. It is about artists who share what they like to draw and about their lives. They are asked questions such as, "Do you have any kids or pets?" The illustrators show some of pictures that they drew when they were children. They also show how the children illustrators got their inspiration to draw.

I liked this book because it was neat to see how good some of the kids are at drawing and then to see them draw as they are older. Also that was cool it showed how to draw pictures in the back of the book. I recommend this book to people who are just stating to draw and people that want to read an interesting book.

I got this book at the library for my children, but I think I enjoyed it as much as they did! (I plan to buy a copy of my own!) Instead of a cool, impersonal presentation of artists and their work, this book provides a refreshingly personal view. The artists talk about their childhoods, how they spend their days (the answers are fun & honest!), their families, and best of all, they give us peeks inside their studios. I don't know about you, but I love seeing inside of an artist's private workspace! It's like a glimpse inside his/her mind.
The styles of the artists are very diverse and they use many different techniques that kids and adults alike would like to try out. I highly recommend this book!

I love L'Engle's writing. Particularly "The Time Quartet." Each book, while exploring time and space and spiritual battles between good and evil, has also been creative throughout. Yes, "Many Waters" starts off with a fresh idea and setting. I loved getting to know Meg's brothers, the twins. I enjoyed the descriptions of the seraphim and nephilim, and the clear connections to angels and fallen angels. I also thought L'Engle handled the adolescent struggles of the boys in a mature way.

The problem for me was that the story became tedious. The conflict was minimal, compared to previous books, and the main thing I looked forward to was the coming of the many waters, the description of the great flood as told of in biblical accounts.

But it never came. L'Engle wimped out on her one trump card. She refused to play the card and truly open a past world to us. In this, I was sorely disappointed. She has the ability and the imagination to do amazing things. Yet, here she left me high and dry. I recommend the book as a part of the series, but alone it is far from my favorite.

Again, Madeleine L'Engle puts forth yet another triumph. Many Waters is a unique heart warming story that almost all can relate to and enjoy. However, this tale is no children's story. L'engle fills the adventure of Sandy and Dennys Murry with romance, rich vocabulary, Biblical stories and theories, and more adult criteria. Indeed, it would not be wise to read this book and not be accustomed to the story of Noah's Arc. For the correct audience this book is perfection! Many Waters takes its readers on aventures almost unthinkable by the average human mind. L'Engle, again, displays her brilliance and absolutely perfect imagination.

This is an amazing book. I loved it. I would recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy. It is a sequel to A Wrinkle in Time. This book is about Sandy and Dennys Murry. They "think" they are the ordinary people in the Murry family and compared to the rest of the family, they are. One day when they came home from school they went into their mother and father's lab to get the hot cocoa. Their father had a new experiment in the lab and they started to press buttons and make wishes. After they left the lab they saw the "Do Not Enter, Experiment in Progress" sign on the door, but they were too late. They are transported to a time and place that they do not know. If you read it you can find out where and when they were transported to. They meet some terrible and some lovely people. They have many new friends that they don't want to leave, but unfortunately have to. This book has everything a book should have. Fantasy, mystery, horror, suspense, romance, and history. This is a book for everyone.