It's the first day of school, Nick Kramer walked up on the school grounds and sees his worst enemy, Augie. Nick walks up to Augie. They both get ready to give each other a putdown, when someone caught their attention, the new girl, Jennifer. Augie made a bet with Nick that Jennifer would ask him to the vice-versa dance and not Nick. The person, who Jennifer doesn't ask, has to dance around on the basketball court at half time and wear a tutu. Nick finds out Jennifer is in a class called Childcare 101. So Nick signs up for it too. Little did he know he would have to really babysit for the class. I thought this book was good. It kept me reading. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to babysit and do exciting things. Who will Jennifer ask to the vice-versa dance? Check out the exciting book by James Howe called "The New Nick Kramer, or My Life as a Babysitter" to find out.

The genre of this book is fiction.
I think this book is directed towards 10-12 year olds, because it takes place in an upper school, but it isn't that hard to read.
James Howe likes to write about many important characters that change the main character's life. He also gives a lot of good detail when he describes the characters feelings and settings. He also gives you a clear picture of settings and where the character is in his or her life.
This is the plot: Nick Kramer makes a bet with the grade bully, Mitch Buckley. The first one of them to get asked to the Visa-Versa dance by the most popular girl in school, Jennifer Edwards, wins! The loser? He has to dance in front of the whole school, alone and wearing a tutu!
Nick tries to change himself so Jennifer would notice him, by taking a babysitting class, changing his 'look' and becoming a 'sensitive' guy. Will this new act change the way Jennifer looks at Nick? In this book I learned that even if something looks great outside it might not be great inside.

A well set out book of ancient greek grammar. Contains most necessary paradigms, and also a lot about various grammatical constructions. Because of its limited size, it does not go into much detail with the grammar points but for someone starting or continuing on with Ancient Greek (inc NT Greek) this is a very handy reference to have. Also contains some useful appendices and an extremely limited Greek-English, English-Greek dictionary. This book is a lot easier to understand than a lot of the old books, eg. Goodwin, Smyth. Also a lot cheaper here than what I paid for it (although shipping to Oz would have cost a bit).

I'm very impressed with this grammar. Morwood makes no claims that he is replacing Smyth's grammar for breadth. Instead, the Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek sets out in a very consise and clear manner various paradigms and rules. I particularly appreciate the VERY good verb section - not only providing paradigms for the regular conjugations and types of verbs, but also giving the principle parts of the 100 most common irregular verbs. For someone (like myself) who can never seem to remember all of the irregular verbs that seem to pop up in translations FAR too often, this grammar will become a favorite resource. My only complaint -- I'm sure that my grammar skills have declined as a result of relying upon this book rather than my memory during translations.

This book would be very helpful for a child Genny's age who'sparents are going through a divorce. She believes there is some wayshe and her brothers can change her parents.

I thought this book was very helpful to life's changes.
Especially, for kids like me. Sometimes it is hard for a kid to accept a change. But it's O.K. written by L.B.

After Pete's father died, Pete was sent to live with his best friend, Rootie. It is then that he discovers why he and his father had to constantly move around from place to place, always hiding when his father was alive. Pete suddenly finds himself in the middle of his father's secret. Now the same people that were after his father are after Pete. And the only people Pete can turn to are his two best friends, Rootie and Mooshy. No one else can be trusted...

A great thriller to any one who likes mysterys!!
NOT ONCE GETS BORING!!!
This is the best book Ive ever read!!
If you like mysterys READ THIS BOOK

If your looking for a great book that is going to teach you a leason as you read it than this is the book for you. The book tells a story of a family who is treated like trash because of their economical problems. If you decide to read this book than you will find how one of the children in this family has had enough of being treated like trash. And how his efforts to bring his family out of the gutters pitifully fails.

This book is very nice. You can certainly learn something from this book. James Lincoln Collier did write this book neatly. I would recommand this book to anyone who like lifestories especially about a childs life story.

Flexner vividly recounts Hamiltons life and career through age 26. This reads like Dickens writing history - from Hamilton's miserable, impoverished home life until age 10, his teenage life in his adopted country, (America), his career in the Continental Army, his love for Elizabeth Schuyler.

Flexner Brings the young Hamilton to life through his letters and actions in the revolution. This book has a vividness that is remarkable. The famous and not so famous participants in the story come to life also - George Washington, The Marquis de Lafayette, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, etc.

This book has been criticized for being overly "psycological". This aspect is not over done. Simply put, this is a great story - well told, well researched. Highly recommended.

In the bibliography of this book Mr. Flexner wrote that he felt that the real Hamilton had become obscured through the years through the writings of people who were either too fawning or too critical, depending on their political biases. Mr. Flexner therefore tried to get back to original sources as much as possible. Reading quotations from Hamilton's correspondence is one of the great pleasures of this book. But there are many things that make this book special. The author has a smooth, easy-to-read style. I have read elsewhere, in connection with one of Mr. Flexner's volumes on George Washington, someone complaining that the style is stilted or "old-fashioned." I heartily disagree with that criticism. Mr. Flexner was born in 1908 and this book was first published when the author was 70, but there is nothing "old-fashioned" about the prose. The style is actually quite modern. Another thing I enjoyed about the book was that the author went into the psychiatric reasons for Hamilton's sometimes aggressive and impulsive behavior, but he did so in a reasonable manner. You didn't feel as though you were being bludgeoned with analytical arguments but Mr. Flexner "gently" gave some commonsense and logical reasons for why Hamilton behaved the way he did e.g.-the stigma of his illegitimate birth, his mother's irresponsible behavior, being brought up in the West Indies and being left to basically fend for himself at an early age, etc.

I also enjoyed the way Mr. Flexner concentrated on Hamilton's service as aide-de-camp to George Washington during the Revolutionary War. There is a lot of interesting military history here, dealing with the battles fought on Long Island and in Trenton and Princeton and Monmouth, as well as Yorktown. There are wonderful gems of information, such as Washington's propensity to lose his temper amongst his close aides, when he wasn't on "public view" and felt that he could "let his hair down" a bit. Other interesting scenes include: at the Battle of Princeton where a patriot cannonball went through the window of Princeton college and slammed into a portrait of George II that was hanging on the wall, "decapitating" the king. (The patriots took the portrait down and "repaired" it by having an artist paint a scene with George Washington in it!); The Battle of Trenton, where the patriot army celebrated by drinking up the liquor the Hessians had left behind. Washington wanted to pursue the Hessians but was forced to give up on the idea as his men were in no shape to do anymore fighting!; Finally, in the section dealing with the Battle of Yorktown, Mr. Flexner mentions that shortly before the battle word had spread that a British force, led by Benedict Arnold no less, had been so upset by the strong resistance they had encountered in trying to take a fortress in New London, Connecticut, that the British had executed the men who had wanted to surrender to them when the fighting was over. The patriot army at Yorktown wanted to get revenge on the British and Washington had to give a speech before the battle that he basically didn't want his men to "lower themselves" to that level. If British troops wanted to surrender the surrender should be accepted and they should be taken prisoner. The troops did obey Washington's directive...

On a final note, I felt Mr. Flexner was very fair in this book. The author looked at Hamilton from all angles and praised the good things about him- his intelligence and hard work and sincere interest in doing what he felt was good for the future of the country- but also criticized his sometimes rash and impulsive behavior, and the author didn't gloss over Hamilton's general disdain for humanity!

This was a really excellent book and well-worth your time.

This is my favorite among the Collier brothers' books. This has been a successful book for me to hand to many (usually boys) reluctant readers. Young readers can relate to Tim Meeker's conscience telling him to do "what's right" and his desire to be like his big brother Sam. Conflict over the Revolutionary War(which is just beginning at the start of the book) brings emotional confrontations to the Meeker household. Most readers can sympathize with Tim as he watches his family torn apart by the question of loyalty to the King or to the colonists. Tim just wants to be loyal to his family, and he wishes Sam would too. This novel is an easy read and is an enthralling read with its taps into the violence of this war. Readers are so involved by the end of the novel that they want to pick up another of the Collier brothers' historical fiction. And as the authors say, if they said there was two-feet of snow in January of 1778, then it really happened. This is realistic historical fiction throughout. One of the authors does the research & the other does the creative writing to complete this package. This is a great literary addition to any history class. If you like this one, I suggest also reading Bloody Country & The Winter Hero, both by the same authors.

My Brother Sam is dead by James and Christopher Collier, is an exciting thriller that will have you anxious to read more. The setting starts in the small town of Redding Ridge, Connecticut, in the early 1800's where the bloody battles of the Revolutionary War don't come. The main characters are Sam and Tim Meeker and their parents. Sam is a young man that has brown hair and brown eyes, and Tim is a teenager that has blond hair and blue eyes. Also their parents own a tavern.
Tim Meeker is caught in the middle of the Revolutionary War. Tim's brother, Sam, is fighting the British for the Rebels and Tim's dad is a Tory (loyalist), but still against war. Tim doesn't know which side to be on. Tim has to make an important decision that could change his life forever. The reader will enjoy this book because of its suspense, excitement, and adventure. To find out what happens read My Brother Sam is Dead.

Sam Meeker is off to fight in the Revolutionary War on the American's side. His family are Tories and they live in Redding Ridge. His father is outraged by Sam's decision, but cannot stop him. This leaves his younger brother, Tim, and his mother ad father to work in the tavern and tend to the crops. Life is not easy with the war going on, but is manageable. Sam pays visits to Redding often.
British and American troops march into Redding frequently. This does not interfere with the Meeker family. Until, one night Sam was paying a visit to his family. He saw that the cows were being stolen, so he went outside to stop them. The men captured Sam...Find out what happens when you read "My Brother Sam is Dead." If you like historical fiction this is the book for you!

The unnamed narrator of this book is a black boy, living in the south after the Civil War. The boy's father, a sharecropper, struggles to support his family, but can't always provide for their needs. When he comes home with an entire ham, the family is suspicious, and no one is surprised when the police come looking for him. The police lead away the father, in the process shooting and wounding his coon dog, Sounder.

Nobody expects that Sounder will survive, the same as most would doubt the boy's survival in such an existence of poverty and despair. Yet the dog does survive, and so does the boy. Both display a resilience made all the more amazing by the deprivation of their backgrounds.

The boy, who visits his father in prison, meets a kindly teacher who becomes a sort of foster father. The boy learns to read and write, tools he needs to become empowered and to escape his desperate situation. While Armstrong doesn't give any false hope -- we know that the boy will face many more difficulties -- he makes the book a testament to the power of the human spirit to overcome despair and, ultimately, to triumph.

This childrens book by William Howard Armstrong digs into the life of a young black boy, his father and their dog, Sounder. It is set in the old south and details the struggles of an African American family of this time. The usual struggles for this family are getting food and staying warm until one terriable night that changes the family forever. The father is taken to jail and Sounder is wounded in the struggle. From that night on the boys life is faced with even more struggles to survive, as he is hoisted to the head of the house. He worries about his fathers well being, which sends him onn many adventures looking for him. Through all of the bad the boy does manage to find the good in all occasions.
This would be a great read for fourth to eighth grade students. It is a truthful and detailed insight into the history of the African-American race.

Imagine yourself with little food and money. Your dad has just been taken away to serve time for stealing food to feed you and your brothers and sisters. Your loyal dog get shot trying to save your dad from the men taking him to prison. Well, these are some of the things a young boy must overcome in Sounder by William H. Armstrong. "Where did you first get Sounder?" The boy asked. "I never got him. He came to me along the road when he wasn't more than a pup." In this book Sounder, a coon dog, who has a bark and loyalty to his master that is unmatchable, must face many hardships in the course of his lifetime. With his gallant bark and great loyalty you would think that he would belong to the best people in the world but he belongs to a family of African American sharecroppers who have little to offer him. This was great and you should read this book and find out what happens.

One of the most famous science fiction books to date is H. G. Wells' classic War of the Worlds, which has become national paranoia in the late 30's with Orson Welles over the radio. And later in the 50's become a national hit with the movie goers. Well, neither the radio broadcast or movie rendition really took the book to its letter by letter copy, but rather improvised like most non-literal entertainers. The book begins with suspicion, suspense and wonder as a meteor passes the sky without any real notice to anyone. While the book is told in the perspective of the scientist (whose name I cant seem to recall at the moment), later, somewhere after the mid-point the gears switch and we learn what the scientists brother is doing elsewhere. For the majority of the book, once the aliens have control over the earth, which is within the first 4 chapters, things calm down and become a bit stale. Only after we come back to the scientist from the brothers story, things pick up, but mind you, they pick up slowly. I am happy I got the chance to read this book, but was a little dissapointed in how the story unfolded which is why I gave this book 4 stars. Nonetheless, certainly a required reading for science fiction fans, and even now, amongst those persuing literature.

"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own...." Thus begins The War of the Worlds, written by science-fiction mastermind H. G. Wells, who brought you other incredible novels, such as The Time Machine.

This suspenseful story of Martians invading Earth is full of surprises. The narrator tells of his encounters with the powerful Martians and their stunning technologically advanced weapons and machines, which range from iron-melting heat rays to death serving war machines.

This novel has its ups and downs. One down is that the author sometimes describes the surroundings too much. But, the book does have the eerieness of a suspenseful book, keeping you on the edge of your seat, wondering what will happen next. Will mankind survive? Will the invading Martians take over the Earth? Will the Martians destroy the Earth? Find out when you read the spectacular book, The War of the Worlds.

This is the book that got me interested in Science-Fiction in the first place, and i've never really read anything else that has drawn me in in quite the same way. It is along with two other H.G. Wells books (The Invisible Man, The Time Machine) quite possibly the blueprints for everything else that followed. For me the only apocolyptic books that came even come close to War Of The Worlds, are The Stand and The Day Of The Triffids.

It works on a number of levels. You can read it as a novel about a Martian Invasion and it works, or you can reads it as a political commentary on the British empire and it still works. It also gives you a pretty good account of life and attitudes in England a century ago.

Quite simply in my humble opinion it is the best piece of literature written in the last 150 years. Now if only Hollywood would make a proper adaption of it. One set in England in the 1890's and with proper tripod fighting machines.

I've seen some reviews that criticize the book for being too stream of consciousness and others for not being s.o.c. enough. The fact is, for the most part it's not s.o.c. at all. (See the Chicago Manual of Style, 10.45-10.47 and note the example they give...Joyce knew how to write s.o.c.). A better word for A Portrait is impressionistic. Joyce is more concerned with giving the reader an impression of Stephen's experience than with emptying the contents of his head. What's confusing is the style mirrors the way Stephen interprets his experiences at the time, according to the level of his mental development.

When Stephen is a baby, you get only what comes in through the five senses. When he is a young boy, you get the experience refracted through a prism of many things: his illness (for those who've read Ulysses, here is the beginning of Stephen's hydrophobia - "How cold and slimy the water had been! A fellow had once seen a big rat jump into the scum."), his poor eyesight, the radically mixed signals he's been given about religion and politics (the Christmas meal), his unfair punishment, and maybe most important of all, his father's unusual expressions (growing up with phrases like, "There's more cunning in one of those warts on his bald head than in a pack of jack foxes" how could this kid become anything but a writer?)

It is crucial to understand that Stephen's experiences are being given a certain inflection in this way when you come to the middle of the book and the sermon. You have to remember that Stephen has been far from a good Catholic boy. Among other things, he's been visting the brothels! The sermon hits him with a special intensity, so much so that it changes his life forever. Before it he's completely absorbed in the physical: food, sex, etc. After it he becomes just as absorbed in the spiritual/aesthetic world. It's the sermon that really puts him on the track to becoming an artist. One reviewer called the sermon overwrought. Well, of course it's overwrought. That's the whole point. Read it with your sense of humor turned on and keep in mind that you're getting the sermon the way you get everything else in the book: through Stephen.

After Stephen decides he doesn't want to be a priest, the idea of becoming an artist really starts to take hold. And when he sees the girl on the beach, his life is set for good. That scene has to be one of the most beautiful in all of literature. After that, Stephen develops his theory of esthetics with the help of Aristotle and Aquinas and we find ourselves moving from one conversation to another not unlike in Plato (each conversation with the appropriate inflection of college boy pomposity). In the end, Stephen asks his "father" to support him as he goes into the real world to create something. I like to think that this is an echo of the very first line in the book. The father, in one of many senses, is the moocow story. The story gave birth to Stephen's imagination and now it's the son's turn to create.

This is such a rich and beautiful book. I suppose it's possible for people to "get it" and still not like it, but I really think if you read and re-read, and maybe do a little research, the book will open up to you the way it did to me.

"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is James Joyce's autobiographical novel, first appeared in book form in 1916. After over 80 years it is still read and studied all over the world highlighting the place it has received in literature. It portrays the early and teenage life of Stephen Dedalus. This is the same character who later appears in 'Ulysses' (1922) as a matured adult.

Joyce walks us through the life of Stephen Dedalus in five stages written in a third-person narrative. Anyone interested in Joyce's intellectual, spiritual and physical journey of life should read this great classic which is the prelude to 'Ulysses', one of the best novels ever written in the 20th centaury.

As Ezra Pound correctly predicted 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' would "remain a permanent part of English literature" for centuries similar to the place 'Ulysses' has reached in literature.

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN does not so much solicit deep thoughts and great emotions so much as it wrings them out of the reader. To finish this book is not to feel uplifted and encouraged for Stephen Dedalus, but to feel that at least he has made progress and knows enough of his strengths and weaknesses that he may make something of himself. Is this not possibly where we are left at the end of all great coming-of-age novels?

Joyce takes us through five stages of Stephen's youth. As a boy in 1890's Dublin he hears his father arguing that Irish nationalism has been sold out by the Catholic clergy. Soon Stephen's hands are "crumpling" beneath the paddle of an unjust priest. He becomes a leader in his class, an intellectual in a world where many believe: "If we are a priestridden race we ought to be proud of it. They are the apple of God's eye." Later Joyce spends eleven inimitable pages on these apples explaining in colorfully exhaustive detail what it would be like to be baked in a hellpie (for God is loving but God's justice is harsh). Five pages on the physical tortures of the eternal fire, and six more after a break about the mental tortures--Dante himself would be impressed. Fear of hell scares Stephen sufficiently enough to repent from his teenage brothel-frequenting phase. He goes to rather interesting extremes of devotion, even considering the priesthood as a vocation. But his questioning nature is even too intellectual for the jesuits and he discovers another path for himself at and after college.

Joyce writes poetic, often urgent prose: "To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to create life out of life!" becomes one of Stephen's clarion calls. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN should be read by anyone looking for one of the best tales of intellectual, physical and spiritual awakening we have. Its beauty is best savored slowly. The rhythms might be difficult to pick up at first, but it really won't take very long until you will have a hard time putting the book down.