The Gardener is now our favorite book. My three sons love to look at the wonderful illustrations. I love to garden and I have enjoyed teaching them. My children love to hear the letters Lydia writes to her family, which tell the story. In today's world, letter writing is becoming a thing of the past. Most of all, we love the ending - showing the love Lydia and her uncle developed for each other. It makes me cry every time I read it.

This book has such an unexpected gut-level impact on everyone who reads it! I have read it aloud to people of all ages and there is never a dry eye in the room! Each of the short letters begins with a date which will be meaningful to anyone who lived through the depression. Oddly enough, disasters and hard times seem to bring out the best in people and this book sets out to show just how that is true. Lydia Grace Finch is such a universally loveable little character - she is unforgettable! The text and the illustrations are so perfectly suited to each other - they seem to have been created by the same person -but they aren't! (Just a "marriage of true minds" I guess.)The book gets at the heart of what a family can give a child even without money - what it means to be poor and what it means to be rich.
This is a lovely gift book for children or adults and I hope it stays in print for a long, long time!

"April showers bring May flowers." Sarah Stewart's The Gardener brings us the winsome story of a young flower lover, Lydia Grace Finch. Forced by the hard times of the Depression, Lydia leaves her family to go to the unfamiliar city to stay with her Uncle Jim, an unsmiling baker. While traveling by train, Lydia writes to Uncle Jim, admitting she knows nothing about baking, but a lot about gardening. In Lydia's subsequent letters to her Mama, Papa, and Grandma we discover just what Lydia thinks of the city, subdued Uncle Jim, and learning to bake bread. David Small's pen and ink drawings with their softly hued watercolor washes fill the large pages with detailed views of Lydia's adventure. Where in the big gray city can Lydia ever grow all the seeds and bulbs her Grandma sends her? Will Lydia ever coax a smile from Uncle Jim? Read Lydia's charming letters to find out how one determined slip of a girl brightens her city corner of the grim 1930's world.

Reading these reviews is amazing! I also read and reread this book countless times even into adulthood, and still read my copy when I go home to my mother's house. I'm 28 now and always related to Desiree and wanted such a summer for myself. I hope this book is put back into print. I always felt sort of silly and immature feeling like this was my favorite book in the world, because it's a juvenile book, but reading all these reviews makes me realize the book was powerful for young women.

I just finished the book today and oh my goodness...i loved it! well i don't know whether to like or hate the book, i wanna know more...i couldn't put it down, i read it less then 2 days and i am not much of a book reader. i am 16 yrs old and i think any young girl could relate to this story in some way. we all feel like desiree at times. she was so brave and i wish more than anything, i could hear more about what happened after she went home. i definitely recommend this book to any one who is or ever has been a young girl :) heck, even guys might like it!

When I was about 12 years old, my mother bought me a copy of this book. I instantly loved it! I couldn't stop loving it, it became my everything. For me it was sort of a bible. All the words in it, they could have been mine. I've always felt as an outsider, having a feeling of not fitting in. And although I wasn't as strong or brave as Desiree, I felt just like her. Misunderstood. I grew up and I didn't read it for many years. But for about a week ago when my younger sister asked me for a good book I instantly remembered "Walk through cold fire" and gave it to her. After she read it, I decided to read it again. And it all came back to me. I realized why I love writing so much, why I really want to become a writer.

I thought I was crazy loving this book so much. I've read it so many times, I even learned some pieces be heart. It still can touch me, just standing in my bookshelf. When I found those reviews, I realized I'm not crazy, I've just one of the few people who got a copy of this fantastic book. I've got a Swedish copy, but I would give almost everything to get a copy in English. And if someone knows if Cin Forshay-Lunsford have written anything else, please let me know! It's amazing how a book can change ones life. But I know this book have changed mine.

Lina from Sweden

Fearless Gaia is at it again. She's the teenage girl who enjoys beating up robbers and types of criminals 'as a hobby' in Central Park. Fearless fans know Gaia and how she seemingly has a bad taste of clothes and that she has feelings for Sam Moon. In Fearless #5 (kiss), Ella, the foster mom redhead who dresses up like Barbie negotiates with a doctor has some not-good-at-all plans for Gaia. Meanwhile, Gaia decides to runaway and has adventures with her friend Mary Moss. After all, isn't it Thankgiving there? In different chapters we read about potatoes and even get a recipe of Grandpa Fargo's delicious apple pie, the one Ed Fargo loves.

After all these adventures happen in the book, we soon find a beat-up Gaia wearing a ripped red dress and heels, with no money, and there's no good place to go. So she goes to Sam Moon's dorm in his University.

After reading many pages and some past Fearless books, Sam finally leaves the annoying brunette, Heather Gannis, who is foe of Gaia Moore. Sam goes to his dorm and finds the Fearless blonde Gaia sleeping in his bed.

Overall, I think this book is good. It has lots of thrills and surprises.

In this book, Gaia starts to get to be better friends w/ Mary., and Ella hires a man to kill Gaia. So after a fight w/ Ella before Thanksgiving, Gaia runs away, and is found by Mary. So she spends the night at her house, and has Thanksgiving diner w/ her family. But Gaia finds out about a secret about Mary, gets mad at her, and runs away from her house. She wants to get out of NYC so she buys a train ticket. While she is at the train station, she gets beat up trying to defend some hooker from her pimp. She passes out in the restroom, and the hooker steals her extra pair of clothes, all of her money, and her train ticket. Then the guy Ella hired to kill Gaia kills the hooker by mistake. When Gaia finally wakes up, she goes to Sam's dorm. What happens, read the book to find out.

In this book, Gaia starts to get to be better friends w/ Mary., and Ella hires a man to kill Gaia. So after a fight w/ Ella before Thanksgiving, Gaia runs away, and is found by Mary. So she spends the night at her house, and has Thanksgiving diner w/ her family. But Gaia finds out about a secret about Mary, gets mad at her, and runs away from her house. She wants to get out of NYC so she buys a train ticket. While she is at the train station, she gets beat up trying to defend some hooker from her pimp. She passes out in the restroom, and the hooker steals her extra pair of clothes, all of her money, and her train ticket. Then the guy Ella hired to kill Gaia kills the hooker by mistake. When Gaia finally wakes up, she goes to Sam's dorm. What happens, read the book to find out.

Clay's Quilt is a powerful novel lovingly and masterfully pieced from the lives of the residents of Free Creek, Kentucky. Whether working, playing, laughing, praying, driving, crying, singing, fighting, dancing, hollering, or loving, these people do it passionately and with every fiber of their beings; these people LIVE. As a result, the novel itself lives and breathes and makes a joyful noise through the voices of its people as well as through their music. House's prose is lyrical yet unsentimental, fiercely grounded in real, concrete, sensuous and intimate details of everyday life. As the novel follows Clay Sizemore's struggle to find his place in the world and to make peace with a tragic past, we witness his tender and ferocious love for family and friends, his awe and gratitude at finally finding true love with a fiddle player named Alma, and his determination to make a home and a life for himself and his new family. House's voice is true and Clay's Quilt is a book both joyous and haunting, a story whose characters stayed with me long after I finished reading.

Vividly poetic in its description of Appalachian natural resources, heartwarming and honest in its portrayal of people linked by their love for their environs and family, Clay's Quilt is in the top three on my "re-read often" list. In this debut novel, Silas House deftly stitches a search for understanding and love with picturesque Appalachia.

Clay Sizemore is a character any reader will quickly befriend, not only because of the tragedy of losing his mother, but because Clay is a loveable young man. House's prose places the reader, like a close friend, beside Clay. Whether Clay is at work in the coal mine, walking the mountainside, or partying at the local honky-tonk, we are there with him, feeling the grit of coal dust in our eyes, smelling the air on Free Mountain, or throwing down a whiskey with a beer chaser on a Saturday night.

There is something to be said when a reader can feel for a story's rogues. Even the villains and the socially challenged characters in Clay's Quilt are people with whom a reader will identify. House takes us into their hearts, to the places that hurt, to those hidden areas where malice and evil ferment, torment and eventually explode with terrible consequences.

Life, human and natural, pulsates through the veins of this story. Long after its first reading, "Clay's Quilt" will warm the reader.

"Clay's Quilt" sings, with a voice as mighty and true as that of the fiery honky-tonk singer, Evangeline, and as sweet and haunting as the music of the passionate and mysterious fiddler, Alma, who grace its pages. I realize that "quilt" is the defining metaphor here, but for me this book was like music - a richly textured, multi-faceted, and infinitely satisfying hymn to life at its utmost. This is an impressive first novel. The writer has created people that live and breathe, and a place so real that I wanted to get out a map of Eastern Kentucky and look it up. Clay Sizemore has only vague memories of the tragic event that brought him to his mother's sister's house on a freezing night over twenty years ago. His Aunt Easter and others in his mother's family have given him a warm, loving upbringing and he appreciates it but he's determined to find some answers about his mother and father. His concentration on the past, though, doesn't prevent him from living wholeheartedly in the present. Along with his family and friends, he loves and worships and fusses and fights with great enthusiasm. These people invest their all in life House's descriptions of the physical world are heart-stoppingly beautiful. His writing is lyrical, but not without bite. I can find very little wrong with this book's construction and pace. It starts with a mystery and builds toward resolution in an altogether satisfying way. I found it refreshing that House confines the preaching and explaining which some young writers can't seem to resist to the dialogue of his coming of age characters, where it's appropriate. Two small things about the book bothered me - the extensive use of dialect, which may be essential, but which I found distracting, and some misspelled words. One of the best things I can think of to say about any book is that it stays with you. This one does. I finished it days ago and I still think about Clay and Alma, and Dreama and Gabe and Anneth and Easter. And about Marguerite and Cake and Darry and Denzel and Evangeline and the others. Did I mention what wonderful names the people in Black Banks have? In the book, it is said of Clay's mother, Anneth, that "A person so full of life couldn't just up and die..." This book is full of life. I wish it wouldn't just up and end.

I truly enjoyed this book. Van Reid really captures the era. I felt a bond with the time and characters. I am currently reading his newest Mollie Peer. I hope that he continues on with the series and that others will discover Maine in the late 1800's. It is a refreshing break from the books that seem to populate the top 100. We need more authors like this.

Usually when authors are characterized as writing in "Dickensian Style" it means they are writing about an enormous cast of characters inhabiting the squalid streets of Victorian London. However, Dickens also had a lighter side, with The Pickwick Papers being his most lighthearted comedy. Van Reid has taken much of the flavor of The Pickwick Papers and moved it to Victorian Maine. Instead of Mr. Pickwick and his man-servant Sam Weller, we now have Mr. Walton and his servant Sundry Moss. Instead of the Pickwick Club, we have the Moosepath League. There is an adventurous journey, a little romance, and in the end the bad guys get their due.

What makes this novel stand out so much from other recent novels is how very likable Van Reid makes his characters. Whether clever or addle-pated, young or old, heroic or not-so-heroic, all the characters are jovial and fun to spend time with. They are polite, tell great stories, and smile a lot. I don't often give the highest rating, but I had such a good time visiting these people that they deserve no less than 5 stars.

What delightful, innocent, clever, adventure stories Van Reid writes. I picked up Cordelia Underwood because someone said it was reminiscent of John Irving's humor, but I found the characters more like Tolkein's hobbits - full of innocence and charm, bumbling into and solving problems, and we don't have to travel to Middle Earth to be a part of the adventure. (From Massachusetts, Maine is just a 2 hour drive!) I'm looking forward to hearing more about the Moosepath League (Molly Peers, the second book rates 5 stars too.)

This has got to be the best book I've ever read...and I've read Artemis Fowl, the Harry Potters, and the Lemony Snicket books. In a sense, it's Harry Potter without the magic. It focuses on Matt, a boy (or should I say clone?), living in the drug country of Opium. Because he is a clone, he is treated badly, because 'real' beings feel that he is inferior. He is raised by Celia, a slave, and is the clone of El Patron, the leader of Opium. He is also taken care of by Tam Lin, one of El Patron's bodyguards. He finds out that El Patron made him only to use his organs as transplants, and just in time he escapes to the country of Aztlan (present-day Mexico). There he is taken by an orphanage, and meets two new friends, Chacho and Fidelito. The three are moved to a plankton factory where they meet Ton-Ton. The keepers there treat them terribly, so they plan an escape plan to San Luis. They make it there, and Matt finds out that he is the actual leader of Opium, because El Patron has died. He goes back to Opium and finds out that everyone except for Celia, one of El Patrons other bodyguards, and Mr. Ortega, Matt's music teacher, had been killed. It's a gripping book just BEGGING for a sequel. Recommended to anyone who likes the Harry Potters and those kind of books.

The House of the Scorpion is what you would call a book 'beyond its time'. Not only is the setting a century from now, but the sensation of feeling as if you were in a time warp flying through the future (well not quite as expressive as the Jetsons') is accompanied with reading the book itself. Nancy Farmer gives the life story of a young 'boy' who is actually a clone of a 140+ year old drug lord named Matteo Alacran, (or El Patron as he is more locally called throughout the book) ruler of the country of Opium (an area within 'former' Mexico and the US). Of course, the clone is also given the same name as well (Matt). In the beginning, Matt was grown within a cow (yes cow) from DNA given from El Patron. Despite his old age, El Patron creates his clones as a way to help him live on through the use of a clone's organs once his own grow bad. However, clones usually have their brains destroyed so any form of rebellion would be prevented. As for El Patron, he does exactly the opposite. Instead, he gives his clones the lap of luxury to give them confidence until it's too late.
As a young boy, Matt is shielded from the outside world from his caretaker Celia, cook of El Patron's mansion. As time progresses, Matt is later discovered and winds up in the Big House (El Patron's house). From here on Matt begins his long journey of self discovery to find out who and what he really is. However, no journey goes without obstacles. Tom, a son of a US senator's wife (ok the wife cheated a little), terrorizes Matt's life by doing whatever possible to make his life a nighmare. Likewise, the entire estate of the Alacran's segregate Matt from itself for what Matt is. On the other hand, Maria, daughter of the US senator (no cheating this time) ends up being Matt's secret crush, that is despite some difficulties in the beginning. Tam Lin is another of Matt's favorites. Originally being a 'terrorist', he is one of El Patron's top bodyguards and becomes Matt's as well. Tam Lin teaches Matt of nature and survival as he (Matt) soon learns these techniques and lessons would come to great use in the near future (You'll have to read why...hey I can't tell everything :)]. Secret passages, hospitals, exploration, captivity, love, self-discovery, and an all out war of mind over body plus much more is what one would find in this guaranteed Farmer classic: The House of the Scorpion.

Other info:
Reading Level: Middle School +
Recommendations: Great for school reports and projects or just for fun!
Overall: Guaranteed to send shivers down the spine and tears in the end! Will keep you begging for more!

This book is the best book I've ever read I love how this book has everything. I was hooked the whole time it all starts out with this kid named Matteo Alacran who lives with a girl named Celia who live in a poppy field the size of 4 football fields combined Matteo (or matt) had been cut off from the world in which case he never played with kids the only thing he had was Celia who one day left for the market. 3 kids walked up to the house and asked him to play he couldn't answer knowing through the glass they couldn't here them so he grabbed a frying pan and took it through the window he ended up cutting his feet so one of the kids named Steven picked him up and brought him to the house where he found out he was one of the most hated creatures by man... a clone. He was kept in a room full of chicken litter and the only toys he had were old chicken bones his keeper (Rosa) who hated him more than anything. One day Celia was walking by and looked in his window in which case she saw he had been starved. Celia demanded the person who made matt come see what had happened turns out Matt's owner El Patron is one of the most powerful people in the world so he gave Matt the feast of his life but the creepy thing is that El Patron is 142 years old and in two days he's going to turn 143. But to Matt's surprise its also his birthday when he is turning 12 but then he try's to embarrass one of his best friends named Maria by making her give him one thing that would embarrass her beyond belief... a kiss. When she did it El Patron was overwhelmed with joy Matt finally realized he was beginning to be bossy but the only way he could calm down was music. In which case he demanded a music teacher everyone was so surprised because no one ever knew the El Patron had a musical side to him. Matt became the best music player in the house. One day Matt became curious when he was riding threw the poppy field with his best friend Tam Lin, Matt saw a person lying on the ground he asked Tam Lin what was wrong Tam Lin explained how that person was called an "Eejit" which is a person who can not think for themselves not even if it could save there own lifes.

The fantasy elements in this story are Matt being a clone they're being a man who is 143 yrs. And being so rich you have the best house and doctors in the world. I think this story's elements are just fine but I think there could have been more elements in this whole story which is 380 pages long I really do think if they added about 10 more fantasy elements then this book would be more popular then Harry Potter himself.

I read this book last year and i didn't think much of it. I am now reading it over, throughly, and found out it is one of the BEST books i've ever read! i'm not that much into horror books, but this is great! i can't wait to read another one of Pikes books!

I got hooked on Christopher Pike back when I was 13, but 6 years later I still read all his books religiously. He is one incredible writer. All his books are great, and especially this one, so trust me(and millions of other readers of Chris) and buy this book. You won't regret it. It's spellbindingly suspenseful and the ending is more than perfect.

So I picked up this book only because it was on my shelf, I had nothing better to do, and being the actress that I am, the title caught my eye. I'm so glad it did! This book was really great. I felt that all the charactors seemed real, like I almost new them. (Jeramie reminded me of about every boy that I know and love, and it didn't take me a long time to fall in love with him, but thats another story) I was impressed by Christopher Pike's ability to make the charactors so lifelike. Aside from that, it had great suspence, because at times, you think you know the solution, but Pike proves you wrong. This book has left me with the desire to read more books dealing with murder and mystery in the theater. A MUST READ FOR ALL HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA STUDENTS!

This is an excellent book that captures the ssence of sports cars, early sports car racing and life in general. The first time that I picked it up I intended to read for a few minutes before falling asleep -- 270 pages later I had to force myself to put it down at 2:00 A.M. -- I had to get up in three hours and go to work. This is the best book that I have ever read -- I've read my copy (a signed first edition) five times now. I even bought another copy to lend to friends and family.

Levy's strong treatise on the adventures of Buddy Polumbo and Company speaks volumes on life in the blue collar, Italian-American world of early 1950's North Jersey and its class struggle with the upper crust, and resonates with the efforts on an ambitious young man to break out and better himself. His mechanical talents and work ethic are merely the vehicles through which he strives to improve his lot and that of his loved ones. The central plot need not have been about sports car racing to be effective, but could have applied equally to athletics or any industrial enterprise. Notwithstanding the above, those who love racing and wish to understand its roots in America will find new inpiration for their passion in B.S. Levy's excellent book.

One wonders what an effective screen treatment this would make with Paul Newman in the role of an older Buddy Polumbo, reviewing the growth of Sports Car racing in America through flashback. You can almost hear the clanking of tools and cursing of Old Man Finzio in an open work bay of the Sinclair on a hot July afternoon as we fade to the first scene. A must read!

I loved this book. The author obviously lived through the era and tells his tale in a way that is very enjoyable. He describes the sights and smells of the scenes so well, you can close your eyes and feel like you're there. This book is written in the same casual style Burt uses in his monthly "British Car" magazine feature. I found myself laughing out loud on many occasions. I can't wait to read Montezuma's Ferrari. Hurry up with the third book, Burt!

This book was extremely fun to read, Wren is one of my favorite characters created by Sherwood Smith. Even though Crown Duel and Court Duel are my favorites, Wren's Quest is pretty good also. Get them together, it's worth it!

I have wren to the rescue , wren's war , and wren's quest over and over and over. I am an avid reader and I have a good memory for plot lines and stuff, but I just can't help myself! I'm 16 years old and I loved this book . I won't tell you the plot because you need to read it for yourself. I know that you are now thinking that I'm crazy, but I 'm not. this book was EXCELLENT reading and Sherwood Smith is an excellent author.What else can I say, read this book.

Who else can whip up a tale full of magic, mystery, secrets, romance, friendship, action, and adventure as well as Sherwood Smith can?

Wren is a delightful young teenager to read about, and her adventures are funny and magical which makes a great read. I usually like a good romance in books, and this book supplies it.

I can't wait for the next book by Sherwood Smith.

T.A. Barron's fourth book in the Lost Years of Merlin Epic, THE MIRROR OF MERLIN is one of my favorites in the series. Merlin loses his sword and he, Hallia, and the Ballymag leave into the Haunted Marsh to find it. The marsh ghouls, who are normally friendly, are now being controlled by an unknown force. They soon find a boy named Ector. The four find something that has been missing for a long time, and find the mirror. Ector tells Merlin that his master is on the other side to cure him from the bloodnoose. Who is his master? What will he do?
This exciting part of Merlin's lost years is adventurous and suspenseful. When reading this book, you can't read it a chapter at a time beacause it is very exciting. I really enjoyed THE MIRROR OF MERLIN because the end of each chapter leaves you wondering, what will happen next?

T.A. Barron's deepest and most harrowing novel of The Lost Years Of Merlin shines with wisdom and adventure, and it is impossible to put down. The Mirror Of Merlin continues the epic story that began with The Lost Years Of Merlin, The Seven Songs Of Merlin, and The Fires Of Merlin - and it is one not to be missed. When there is a strange disturbance in Fincayra, something too deep and dark to know, Merlin, joined by the deer woman he loves, Hallia, journeys to the Mirror deep in the Haunted Marsh, where the shadowy and unhelpful Marsh Ghouls reside. The Mirror, a mirror of deep magic and deep fears, is able to pull its looker through into a world of the future, an alternate reality both haunting and dangerous that just may doom its captor. And when Merlin finally does look through the Mirror, he finds someone he never expected to find, as well a grim prophecy that is locked in mystery - and the future he finds just may be the one he only saw in dreams...or nightmares. The Mirror Of Merlin is the gripping fourth novel in the five-book saga. Written extraordinarily and breathtakingly, just like the first three, it is poetic, deep, and wondrous.

In book 4, the young Merlin finds even more troubles and obsticals to overcome. Feeling overshadowed by his amazing destiny, Merlin has difficulty due to the feeling that his choices are not his own, because he is destined to do so many great things. Meanwhile, the young wizard and his companion Hallia, accompanied by a very nervous ballymag, must venture into the Haunted Marsh to recover his stolen sword. There he meets many fierosme obsticals, including the sorceress Nimue. During his stay in the marsh, in a fascinating way, Merlin discovers more about himself than he ever felt possible and learns to accept his destiny and know his choices as his own. A wonderful and exciting tale, The Mirror of Merlin leaves us breathless for the 5th book in the wonderful epic.