When I studied poetry in school I didn't particularly like most of what we were assigned to read. And then I read Robert Service's poem The Shooting of Dan McGrew and discovered that I liked it. Next I read The Cremation of Sam McGee and decided that poetry could actually be fun. Eventually I read other poems by Robert Service and discovered that, although most were more serious than Dan McGrew and Sam McGee, they still appealed to me. In fact, thanks in large part to Service, I have now developed a taste for other poetry as well. Robert Service was an adventurer as well as a poet and his adventurer's perspective makes his poems particular appealing. If you're a fan of Robert Service this is a good collection of his work. If you haven't read him yet this is a good place to start. And if you think that you don't like poetry, maybe Service will help convert you as he did me.

This is an outstanding collection of great Robert Service Poetry, superbly illustrated.

Now in his seventies, Robert Dana draws upon his decades of life experience and a keen eye for the world around him to craft a poetry that is totally engaging, fearless, respectful, and occasionally inspiring. Sunlight Gospel: I'm here in this little/four-room, four-square/house, sitting it its/gospel of pal sunlight;/fog in the madrone, in/the pines, in the orange/roses of my neighbor's/garden; a wafer of sun/burning overhead/to break through; part/of the bare ghost of/an old orchard; four/apple trees--three/across the road in a/still-empty lot deep/in brown grass; two/dead, another half/dead, all their limbs/twisted wonderfully/and wrung by salt/winds off the bay;/only the one in my/tiny front yard,/leafy, bright with/tart, feral fruit.

In his eighth collection, master poet Robert Dana offers the "gospel of pale sunlight," and shows us "the patient/spaces each word makes/to keep the day in place." Surveying the scene from the aerie of his 70 years, sculpting everyday language to the metrics of the heart, Dana celebrates the rituals of daily life, reminding us in peril of forgetting that "everything we do/is a form of prayer." From his vantage point in the mundane-sacred, the poet perceives "God in the gar-/bage, in the stares of children,/the mouths of charlatans." Here's a poet at the top of his form, saying the beauty and poignancy of time distilled by the prism of a life.

It was about how two people struggle while in Louisiana City. They move to a bay and thier life is hard at firs. It showed how two people can find their place in life!

_Freedom Summer_ is a richly detailed account of a young white woman who participated in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's summer project in Mississippi in 1964. The text covers one incredibly intense summer from the basic training session in June to the Democratic Convention in August. I will assign this text in my Civil Rights Autobiography course next semester because, aside from being a clearly-written account of a chaotic time, it will answer some of the questions I know my students will have, such as: what was it like to be a Civil Rights worker? what was it like to be arrested and thrown in a Mississippi jail? what were the day to day activities of people working in the Movement? how were the workers received by the black and white communities? or how do you decide go enter Mississippi after you've just learned that three summer project workers have disappeared and are presumed dead?

The Greatest Summer Job in the Whole, Wide World is a charming story, filled with excellent characters placed in a glitzy setting. Cal, a naieve young man from Idaho, travels to Lake Tahoe for a summer job. A bright fellow, unaccustomed to the Nevada nightlife, he runs afoul of some shady characters, stumbles into some unusual situations, gender wise, and makes friends in the most unlikely places. Cal lacks wisdom, but the story teller doesn't. Told with humor by a savvy writer, this tale proved to be the most fun I've had reading a book in a long time. The writing is fresh, the content humoruous and the characters memorable. An excellent read!

This book was very interesting not only to residents of Knoxville,TN, but to anyone raised in the South. It is still very relavant to the present. No matter how much we as Blacks achieve we are still treated as less than a whole person. It is a must read for our young black generation. History is truly repeating itself.

This brilliantly realized tale is Heinlein's third-best novel (after THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS and STARSHIP TROOPERS, and ahead of DOUBLE STAR). And it's one of VERY few early Heinlein novels that stands the test of time.

It's not hard to see why. The plot itself is ingenious (I won't spoil it; read the other reviews if you want more information) and the characters are well-drawn (including and especially the cat, Petronius the Arbiter). And Heinlein isn't riding any of his hobby-horses; he's simply telling a story - which, Lord knows, he could do when he tried, even if he didn't try often enough.

Skip his later novels unless you want to watch a bunch of red-headed geniuses having sex with all their relatives. As of FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD and STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, something very odd and disturbing began to creep into Heinlein's work - something that eventually took over his novels at the expense of what had once been good storytelling.

But in DOOR, you'll meet Heinlein at his finest. Or close to it, anyway; read the four books I've listed and you'll have read the best he has to offer.

Actually I would rate this book a 10... I found this book to be one of Heinlein's best... This story uses time travel which is a concept I find personally interesting and intriguing.. This book also had strongly developed characters which you either loved or hated.. Heinlein tells this story so well I was surprised it did not win a Hugo award unlike his story "A moon is a harsh mistress" which I found not as enjoyable as this book.. If you like science fiction then you are going to love this book.. This book is interesting as it was written in 1957 and time travel was not a concept that was thought of much. The story takes place in the 70's where you meet our main character Daniel Boon Davis, Creator of Hired girl Inc. Daniel is a great inventor but a lousy business man who unfortunately partners up with a man named Miles who you think is Daniel's friend.. Little does Daniel know that Miles is teaming up with Daniel's fiance Belle and together they ruin him financially, spiritually and mentally... They also trick him to go into deep sleep where he will be out of their hair.. Little does Miles and Betty know that Daniel is awakened in the distant future of 2001 where time travel is invented and now possible.. So Daniel goes back to the 1970's and fixes the errors that Belle and Miles have caused him... If you like cats I shouldn't forget to mention Daniel's feline companion Petronius... He was Daniel's cat, partner and co-conspirator that had a helping hand with Daniel vindicating the life that his so called friends ruined..

I have never read Heinlein before, and this book was great. I am a big SF fan and the theory of time travel interests me. I first heard of the book when one of my classmates did a book project on it. The book begins in 1970. In the middle, it takes place in 2000-2001, comes back to 1970 and ends in 2001. The book's main character is Daniel Boone Davis. He is an aspiring inventor and is a founder of "Hired Girl, Inc." He owns a cat named Petronius the Arbiter. He is not a good business man, so his partner Miles Gentry is in charge of business. Somewhere along the lines they pick up a beutiful secretary, Belle Darkin, who become Dan's fiance. The betray him and get married, steal his inventions, and kick him out of the company. They drug him silly and trick him into taking "Cold Sleep", where he's cryogenicly frozen and asleep. Little do Belle and Miles know that the people of the year 2000 are capable of time travel I would definetly recommend this book to SF lovers around. Thanks.

I chose this book because one of my friends said that this book is kind of boring in the beginning, but gets more exciting as you go on. I also saw this movie which I thought was pretty good so I told myself that if the movie is good I should try the book. In this book I learned a couple of new words that became very useful to me. When I read this book I understood every part of the book that I felt I was actually standing at the scene watching everything happen.
I recommend this book to anybody who likes adventurous and surprising stories. This story is about a mouse named Mrs. Frisby. Mrs. Frisby's husband died one day, but she never knew how and where he died. Mrs. Frisby has to move to their summer home, but her youngest boy Timothy is very ill. She quickly goes to the doctor Mr. Ages for help. She gets the medicine, but Mr. Ages told her that she should go to the rosebush where the rats lived. On the next day she goes to the rats. First they don't let her in, but when she said that she was Mrs. Frisby they respected her like she was a queen. Slowly she found out that the rats were highly intelligent lab rats that ran away. Mrs. Frisby made a deal with them that if they help move her house she would help them.
My favorite part of the story is when Mrs. Frisby enters the rat's home and see that they had light bulbs, electricity, elevators, and even a library and school. The rats told her that when they were at the lab the scientists inject fluids into them which made them more intelligent and bigger. Only group A of the rat and the mouse group survived. They became so smart that they could read the instructions on the handle bar to open their cages. Slowly they got the tools they needed to get out of the lab through the air vents. Only two mice followed the rats and their names were Mr. Frisby and Mr. Ages.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nihm is one of the best books I ever read. Everything in this book is so specific. When you look in it you might think it looks hard, but it realy is not. I usualy hate reading chapter books, but this one is great. I realy recomend this book to you. In this book,Mrs.Frisby's son (Timothy) gets sick. Mrs.Frisby has to go to a doctor named Mr.Ages. Mr. Aages gives the medicin to Mrs. Frisby to make Timothy better. But when she gets home she finds out she has to move soon because Mr. Fitzgibbon (the ouner of the house) is going to plow their home. A lot of other exciting stuff happens in this book, but you have to find out yourself.

Mrs. Frisby's son Timothy is very sick and cannot be exposed to cold weather. Moving day is approaching soon and the mouse family cannot move with Timothy so sick. Mrs. Frisby desperately needs the help of the rats that live in the rosebush. Will they move her house and save her family before the farmer plows his field? This fantasy book ws a real page-turner, full of suspense and will capture the imagination and interest of its reader. A central theme of bravery is found throughout the book. Each of the main characters overcomes some fear for the good of others. The characters are so fully developed that you know exactly what they will do when faced with their individual dilemmas. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope that you do to.

When Samantha stays at Piney Point with her family, she never dreams what will happen. Her mother died many years ago, but she always loved to spend time at Piney Point with her friends just like Samantha. But when she finds her mother's old sketchbook, she becomes interested. Where did her mom draw all the pictures of Samantha and her father, who also died, when she was a baby? Trying to understand her past, Samantha and her two cousins go to Teardrop Island, the place where the mystery pictures were drawn. Their grandma forbids them to go, but they go anyway. But when they get stuck on the island, they get scared and realize they shouldn't have gone. I liked this book, but it was more of a little-kid book than I expected it to be!

This book is about Samantha going to Piney Point with her aunt,uncle,cousins,and Grandmary,and the admiral. On a rainy day Samantha and her cousins go up in the attic and discover her mother's sketch book. In it there's a map to Teardrop Island. One day Samantha and her cousins go to Teardrop Island. On their way there's a narrow passageway and there are rocks under the water they couldn't see. Once they got to the island, they went to go find the pretty waterfall and her mother's sketch book. They also had a picnic there. Then it starts to rain and they try to go find their canoe but they couldn't. They become stranded and the admiral sets out to find them but he hits his head and Samantha has to save the day.

it's about samantha going to a vacation with her two other friends, they go to where her parents died because it looked wonderful, when they tried to get home, they find out that the storm swept their canoe and now they here moans for help! the rest is up to you to read.

This book was chosin in a book club at my school as the next book to read. I thought when I first saw it that it was small so it would probably be pretty boring, but easy to read. After I had begun to read it I found that it was anything but boring. Many different things occur that are mysterious or hard to understand. After reading the book within a couple of hours I had a couple of questions that lingered in my mind about it, with several different answeres that I could think up. When we were all done my club hada group discussion and answered some of those questions. I reccomend this book just because it is so mysterious yet easy to read. ~4 stars~

Magnificent sights, sounds, smells, and emotions; all intertwined into one book, written in verse. A young male, one extremely eminent summer. Many different memories, some more outstanding than others.

Eugene, pushing his way through a summer in the 1930's in the book Frenchtown Summer by Robert Cormier.

A summer of new experiences: his first love, interesting conversations with friends, arguments with fiends, dealing with death, and the airplane, being the most outstanding. Throughout the story, Eugene complains of how he feels "like a ghost on Mechanic Street, transparent as rain..." especially to his father, who rarely paid attention to him. The airplane represents the stretch between him and his father contracting.

"First, a wink of color, orange, in the corner of my eyes, at the far end of an alley between two three-deckers." Eugene finally, vividly, describes (like the rest of the chapters) the airplane. "...I tossed my paper bag to the sidewalk and followed the flash of orange to a backyard where I saw, unbelievably, and airplane, orange, yes, with lightning streaks of white on the fuselage..." Eugene thinks that the airplane has landed in a back yard of someone in Frenchtown, but no one believes him. His father then mentions it, and Eugene is enthused by his father seeing it as well.

If looking from above into someone else's life from a different time period than today, not to mention the wonderful details of everything, from Eugene's new glasses, to his 'silent uncle' interests you then I would suggest Frenchtown Summer to you.

I decided to read this book for a young adult literature class and was quite pleased to read a unique piece of work from Robert Cormier. In comparison to other stories I have read, The Chocolate War and Heroes, Frenchtown Summer is not tell a dark story, but is intricately shadowed with secrets and tragedy.

The story follows a young 12-year old boy named Eugene during the summer of his first paper route. Eugene spends the summer in search of his identity (a common theme among many teens) and finds him self in need of approval from his father. Eugene also discovers a desire for adventure and through this learns deep secrets about his family.

Although this book was a quick read, it should be read several times as it written in poetic verse. The pages are open and allow for the imagination to visualize the story as it unfolds. I particularly enjoyed this story because Eugene reminded me somewhat of myself at that age. Frenchtown Summer was defiantly one of Robert's most unique stories.