This is a must-read for fans of Mr. Evans and it shall receive a place of honor in my library next to the "Christmas Box" series I own. Read and enjoy!

Well, a few years ago, I was on vacation in England, and was very pleasantly surprised to discover that Duncton Wood was still in print there. Not only that, but it was the first book in a series about the moles of Duncton, and all of them (according to the local reviews) were just as good as the first! Sad to say, I didn't take the opportunity to buy those books then, but I recently managed to get my hands on a copy of Duncton Wood through one of Amazon's European competitors. I'm only halfway through it now, but it's just as good the second time around.

This is as basic a story as you can get about good vs. evil, and there are very few who tell it better than Horwood. There are definite religious elements in this story (and, I assume, in the sequels as well), but who cares when the story is written this well?

I look forward to finishing Duncton Wood, and to getting my hands on the sequels. Unfortunately, Amazon apparently only deals with American publishers, so they can't get their hands on any of them - so this is a very blunt hint to the American publishing establishment: get off your duffs and get the American publishing rights to these books! If the reviews here are any indication, you'll more than make your money back (and earn the grateful thanks of the American reading public besides)!

This was her book that Mama (me!) had to read to her again and again and again. As soon as the last word was read on the last page, it was "Mama, please read it again!"

(how I miss those days, by the way!)

The book also has a powerful message about Love that children understand and cherish.

This is a wonderful book. No child should be without their own copy of "The Velveteen Rabbit."

The book tells the story of a toy, sawdust-filled rabbit who wishes with all his heart to become real. The message contained in this book is poignant, heart-warming and touching, and one that you will never foreget as long as you live. It is a story of beauty, wonder and love. Any child who misses out on "The Velveteen Rabbit" is missing out on one of life's greatest lessons. I cannot say enough good things about this wonderful, wonderful book and highly recommend it to children...and the grown-up child in all of us.

The Tracker chronicles the boyhood and amazing exploits in early life of Tom Brown-outdoorsman, conservationist, environmental activist and 'tracker' in the tradition of Apache Scouts of the American southwest. A tradition and way of life taught to him by his friend and adopted Apache Grandfather Stalking Wolf.

From their first meeting when Tom was seven years old a relationship and mentoring grew and forever altered an Irish-American boy growing up in the Pine Barrens area of southeast New Jersey. Tom gains training that will forever alter the way he looks at and relates to the world both physically and spiritually.

Tom Brown was always a bit different in his boyhood interests. While other New Jersey boys in the 1960s were eager to bicycle to vacant lots for baseball or touch football - Tom would lie on his stomach in his backyard for hours watching the coming and going of insects, or closely study the natural wonder locked in a wildflower's structure. His collection of animal skulls and other natural curios brought to 'show and tell' shocked his school teachers.

He felt alone and misunderstood completely until a chance meeting with Rick, a boy with similar interests that would make him Tom's best friend, cohort, and blood brother for life. Even more fantastic would be the relationship Tom would discover with Rick's 80-some year old Apache Grandfather Stalking Wolf. Grandfather, as both boys called him, would become their "coyote teacher" in the ways of the woods, the ways of the Scout-becoming one with the woods and even greater, the mystery of "the spirit that moves in all things".

From wild dog encounters, to playing in the midst of Army war games, the adventures these two boys encounter in their journey defies belief. Incredible true adventures from stalking and touching wild deer to boldly defending the New Jersey wilderness from those who would abuse her beauty. To tell more would rob you of the great thrill of reading this first book by Tom Brown. An excellent choice for anyone to read, especially, ESPECIALLY young adults.

This is the book I've used for years when reading this story to my own children, passing on Tasha Tudor and other illustrators. Why?

Although we can find the same poem and pay a lot more, with award winning illustrators, the illustrations provided by Douglas Gorsline are surely the best. They are quite colorful, and offer details little children love looking into...cats lie sleepily on the window sill, we see an overview of the town, the presents spilling from the open sack are intriguing and plentiful, and Jolly St. Nick is -- well, quite Jolly (as you can see by looking at the cover!)

The story is an "abridged version" - I'm not sure about other parents, but we read this on Christmas Eve, and we only have so much time and energy. Everything we remember from the classic poem by Clement Clarke Moore is in this version.

(From "'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse" to "He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!" In between we have everything, from the names of the eight tiny reindeer, to a belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly, including dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky".

In other words, don't be scared off by 'abridged'!)

Perhaps a hardcover edition might be more appropriate if you're giving a gift (unless you're giving to more than one child), but this book is one of the best offers we've found!

A classic done simply and inexpensively!

The lyrics are the same, from book to book, but the fanciful illustrations in this one are enough to engage adults and children as they read this book together.

The perfect gift for any family whose Christmas tradition includes reading this classic!

After having read the Starbuck serie (Civil War) from B. Cornwell, i had great expectations. To my great delight, the same feeling of plunging in the middle of an historical battlefield seized me after a few pages, making me forget about (every bloody thing I had to do in) my new house for a few hours.

SHARPE'S TIGER is the first in the serie (of about 12) in chronological order. Even though Mr. Cornwell does'nt write them this way, if you want to appreciate the historical flavor and Sharpe's career in Her Majesty's army, you want to read them chronologically.

The reader looking for nice fancy figures of speech will be left unsatisfied. Political correctness is also left in the closet. It is blunt, direct cannon-fodder daily life we are looking at and it is written that way

You may disrespect these incompetent officiers, having bought their grade, you will probably hate Sgt. Hakeswill, the potence saved maniac. you will feel pity for Mary and the destiny traced for her.

One thing is sure, we will all finish that book with the smell of gunpowder floating around us and a smile in the historical note about general Wellington

All rights reserved to The Reviewer Provided by courtesy to Amazon.com

PS- This book gave me two of my greatest ambitions- to visit India, which I have subsequently done with my latest girlfriend, and to drink three bottles of wine at one sitting, as Morris did, which I have just embarked on the process of achieving....

There are only two elements that need more attention: 1)There needs to be a little section within the first chapter which sumarizes the history of left-brain/right brain theories - as currently presented the authors assume that the readers are familiar with this debate. This addition would make it easier to to grasp the whole approach. Given the amount of theory swirling around the ADD topic, one needs more information on this subject to help make an assessment. (2) The programme for Spelling, Math, Speed Reading and so on is excellent but cries out to be presented in a more user-friendly, task-oriented format. As a trainer who has helped design sessions on management topics, which have to be alert to adult learning needs (and in this case you need to educate the parents as they try and help their children), I found myself itching to transform the exercises into a more structured format. However, I am a little hesitant since I am not a trained middle-school teacher.

A workbook would be a great companion piece. And would give a parent more material with which to practice the techniques of visual learning etc. It will definitely be a god-send for those parents who are unable to relocate to Colorado, stay in line for two years and pound on his door to ask him to tutor their kids!

Hope this feedback gets back to Mr Freed. I am sure its not the first request for a follow-up book!

Everyone is familiar with Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues. For some reason, The Mysterious Island is not read as widely. Yet, in my opinion, it is Verne's best and most rewarding novel.

The opening of Myserious Island reads a bit like a serious version of "Wizard of Oz." Cyrus, Pencroft, Herbert, and Gideon, and a dog named Neb make a daring escape from a Civil War prison in a balloon, but the balloon is blown way off course to an uncharted volcanic island. These men are worthy souls; Captain Cyrus is an inspiring leader, Pencroft, an earthy but hardworking sailor. Gideon is kind of a "everyman" -- observant, strong and resourceful and loving, and Herbert a young, knowlegeable naturalist. These men and their dog Neb conquer the island's challenges and make the very best out of their isolation on the small island. But are they prepared for the surprises the island has for them--and the ultimate surprise in the second half of the book. The suspense keeps the reader turning the pages through a great deal of descriptive information about nature, chemistry, physics and engineering. This is classic Verne and what really put the Science in Science Fiction.

One reason Mysterious Island may not have developed the strong audience of the other Verne novels is that there is so much detail and scientific discussion. That is rough going if you have little interest in such subjects. There are abridged versions that cut a lot of the description, but frankly, the science is what I love best about the book. How Cyrus and company make nitroglycerin and use it to reshape their island home is one of my favorite chapters in sci-fi literature.

If you liked Swiss Family Robinson as a child, you would surely enjoy Mysterious Island. It's one of Verne's best works and deserves to be read.

He kept coming to mind as I was reading this incredible book, as the characters, stranded on an island with absolutely nothing, accomplished such amazing feats as draining a lake, making a home, building a ship, making an elevator, and a great many other things. There is excitement, suspense (what IS going on on this mysterious island??), and wonderful, likeable characters. Not a real well-known Verne book, but fortunately still in print, and one of his best and most entertaining.

(Incidentally, if you want a children's version of the same story, try to find "A Long Vacation" by Jules Verne, which is extremely similar in plot, but with younger characters and for a younger audience - very charming!)

By the way, please do read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea first, if you have not already done so. Evidently, Verne assumed that everyone had when he wrote this novel.

Great reading!

Mention Jules Verne, and books that spring to mind are 20,000 Leagues, Around the World in 80 days, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Mysterious Island is one of his lesser known works, which is something of a mystery itself.

The book surpasses one's imagination and never fails to surprise. From the initial pages when Capt. Cyrus Harding and his friends decide to escape from a prison camp, the story seizes the complete attention of the reader, and unfolds at a pace and in a direction excelling Jules Verne's characteristic stories. The spirit and ingenuity of man is demonstrated in almost every page, as Cyrus and Co. find themselves marooned on a deserted island, and armed with only their wits, transform their desperate situation into a wonder world of science and technology. The reader is drawn into the adventure and finds himself trying to find solutions to the problems and obstacles that lie in plenty for the castaways, as Cyrus and his indomitable friends surmount myriad problems in their fight for survival. They are aided in their ventures by an uncanny and eerie source that remains a mystery until the very end.

This book cannot fail to fascinate and inspire awe in the mind of any reader. One begins to grasp the marvels and inventive genius behind the simple daily conveniences and devices that are normally taken for granted. The line between reality and fantasy is incredibly thin, and for sheer reading pleasure and boundless adventure, this book will never cease to please.

PS: The book has been adapted into a movie, which is one of the worst adaptations of any novel that I have ever had the misfortune of viewing. It is criminal to even mention the movie and the original work in the same breath.

Read this novel - for entertainment, for fresh words, for disarmingly beautiful story, and for restoration in the faith that we are a meaningful part of what was and, therefore, what will be.

MacArthur is portrayed as a brilliant innovator as exemplified by his masterful manuever in jumping from Hollandia to Leyte in World War II and of course the Inchon landing during the Korean War. The author by necessity tells the story of the U.S. Army's role in the Pacific during World War II mostly from the army's point of view. In that respect AMERICAN CAESAR serves as a useful adjunct to Samuel Eliot Morrison's HISTORY OF UNITED STATES NAVAL OPERATIONS IN WORLD WAR II.

Douglas MacArthur was perfectly bred for military leadership and his future historical role. The son of a Civil War recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor and Military Governor of the Philippines, Douglas MacArthur surpassed even his father's amazing military and historical accomplishments. Manchester argues that MacArthur had a unique genius for military operations, from his quick promotion at age 38 to the command of the Rainbow Division in World War I, to his campaigns in the Pacific and his bold invasion at Inchon in the Korean War. MacArthur's military capabilities conceivably saved thousands of American lives. Typically his military moves were cunning and daring, bypassing enemy strongpoints and leading to victories at lower costs in terms of lives than operations undertaken by his U.S. military contemporaries.

The book's title, American Caesar, uniquely describes MacArthur's career as the liberator of the Philippines and the Military administrator of Japan. Perhaps no other American in history has held the type of power that MacArthur held in Japan as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. Yet his immense power was wielded with grace and an understanding of the Japanese people and their culture. MacArthur's long service in Asia uniquely suited him to this role.

MacArthur's weaknesses which ultimately led to his downfall at the hands of President Truman are explored. MacArthur learned that great military exploits are often achieved by acting against the will or explicit instructions of his superiors. Combining this trait with an immense ego, MacArthur's showdown with President Truman was almost unavoidable. This led to his firing and a lasting feud with Truman that ultimately tarnished MacArthur's reputation despite his incredible career and service.

Manchester presents MacArthur as a complex figure full of contradictions. MacArthur is shown as a warrior who exposed himself to extreme danger, but was often derisively referred to as "Dugout Doug" when he vainly surrounded himself with luxurious surroundings in his headquarters. He instituted liberal democratic reforms in Japan, then became a hard line conservative spokesman in the United States. By illuminating these contradictions inherent in MacArthur's personality, William Manchester presents General Douglas MacArthur's long and eventful life in a book which makes interesting and exciting reading.