I picked up this book, interested in some of the photographs on the front cover. Immediatley, when I opened it, I was drawn into the book. It had fabulous graphics and layout. I paged through first, reading little bits of information that interested me. That was really the extent of my experience with the book, until I recently sat down with it and decided the read through it all. I found it absoulutely intriguing. I read every "mini-biography" and after I was done, I went to find out more information about the amazing women I had just been introduced to. My curiousity lead me to fantatic discoveries, but what displeased me was the short extent of people that this book covered. Only briefly did it cover the suffragist movement, and other important events in AMERICAN WOMEN'S HISTORY. Although I know that Americans are not everything, we were pioneers in freeing women from cultural and social restrictions.
This was a great introduction to a broad topic. I reccommend it to young girls that do not realize the extent of what their great sex can do, but also to boys. I believe that they,too, should be introduced to the fact that men and women are equal. It doesn't cover everything, but it may lead you to great things.

I purchased this book as a Christmas gift for the youngest daughter of a friend of the family. I was looking for something I knew her mother would never buy her, something that would make her learn about women as unique and wonderful human creatures.

I stumbled across this book and was attracted to its magazine-style layout, with photos and blurbs in sidebars as well as a main, brief narrative on each of the diverse women profiled. It drew me in immediately - in fact before I wrapped it, I had read it myself! It also offers, in the sidebars, ways for girls to start imagining themselves in roles like those of the women written about, but without that cheesy condescending tone of voice that so many educational books written by adults for kids take.

The book offers women throughout history, many of whom may not be known to adults (!), who achieved much on their own. Artists, politicians, soldiers, writers, inventors and businesswomen all are represented. The text avoids serious revolutionaries, which is, I think, age-appropriate. The book is targeted for girls and boys ages 12-14, and it fits well within those age groups, using colorful layout and a conversational tone to talk about these "cool women."

This isn't the text to choose for your burdgeoning Socialist, as many of the women celebrated within its pages are female entrepreneurs and monarchs (all, arguably, quite rightly chosen by the editors). However, many of the stories also chronicle women who rise from adversity, giving it a real sense of balance. One might also argue that there is a smattering of racial and ethnic tokenism at work, but I choose to view it as merely an attempt to speak of at least one woman from each group as promotion of multiculturalism (of depth) rather than tokenism (for appearances only).

All in all, this book is an excellent tool for teaching young women about the valuable contributions their sisters before them made, and what they too can hope to accomplish. Highly recommended.

This book bridges the gap in educational books for young readers. It helps young girls specifically to understand that women have been achievers throughout history and in doing so can serve as inspiration for modern young women who may be short on confidence or direction. This book is a "must" for the 12-18 year age group, and adults like myself will also find it interesting and educational.

I really Liked this book for many reasons, one of the main reasons was that it was well writen, it was writen in such a way that I could really feel what was happening in the story. It was the kind of story where you could understand the events and the reasoning for the events was logical, and understandable not outrages like in many other books. I'm not going to say that nothing in the book was a little crazy because it's a fantsy and it has to have some wierder aspects, to me the wierd aspect was the rules of time travel and using the stair case. I would say it was truely one of them better books I've ever read.

I read this book when I was much younger, and it is still the most enchanting book I've ever read. Hemingway, Shakespeare... I've read them all, but this one's my favorite. I read it again and again and will give it to my children. I haven't found a writer who could better capture the exquisite tangibility of a moment of living better than Pam Conrad.

~*I have loved this book for sooo long. I read it in elementary school when I was in about 2nd grade, I've loved it ever since then. I think I re-checked the book out from the school library a million times. Theres just something about it thats really cool. Unfortunatley, for a while, I'd forgotten what the title was for sooo many years since I left elementary school, and hadn't been able to find the book again. All I had was the recollection of the story...and just to say how good I've always thought the book was, I'm 19 now, and I've spent the eight years since I left trying to find the book with no luck. I've been looking for it even more now because I am naming my daughter after Zoe, the main character, and I want to have it for her to read when she's old enough to, so that she knows where her name comes from. THAT is how much the book touched me as a child. Anyways, I completely recommend this book without a doubt, its been a long time since I've read it, but I still know that its one of THE favorite stories of my childhood. :-D*~

This book is super for helping organize the kitchen and has just enough comic relief to make it worth reading.

This book is to kitchen organizers what Websters is to writers. It is a classic. Of course I use this book's strategies in my own kitchen, but as well, I employ its kitchen layout plans at my job: I design kitchen renovations. This book is absolutely outstanding.

I found this once in a library in Texas - a nice change from most organizational books. Goes month by month, and gives a different focus idea for each month. Good ideas for getting motivated, but not too much nuts and bolts - get those from other books. This is for motivation and direction.

The funniest book I have ever read!! Time well spent for any side-tracked person! Excellent! All of Pam Young and Peggy Jones books are wonderful!

This is a very entertaining book, but I wouldn't want to cook (or eat) from it. While there are a couple of ok recipes, some of them are real stomach turners, e.g., cut up some Whoppers from burger king and mix with catsup, mustard & bbq sauce, put a puff pastry crust on it and bake. Scrape the condiments off the buns, toast and serve along with it. Puhlease!! Lots of this type of recipe--not nutritious cooking, not even appetizing. Did give it a couple of stars for entertainment value.

This book is not only entertaining reading from beginning to end, it is truly helpful in the kitchen. Sure there are a couple of recipes I don't care to try, but I've cooked most of them already and they've all been big hits. All the Ladies in my church group wanted the recipe for "La Pate". (Didn't give it to them) The "Crock Pot Baked Beans" went very fast at the last BBQ we attended. The "Blue Cheese Chicken Italiano" has turned into a family favorite and The "Chocolate Mousse" impressed several friends. Now people are inviting us over for dinner and requesting we bring certain dishes. This book is the sole reason my teenage son has started cooking! He cooked the "Wiener Schnitzel" for his grandparents and they loved it.

Pam Young and Peggy Jones have produced yet another wonderful book. This one, however, is less about organization and cleaning (although those are touched on) and more about producing good food when you're short on time. Their particular brand of humour makes this a great read for enjoyment even if you don't use the recipes -- although the recipes are great as well! Each recipe (with strange names like "Mucho Chicken Berserk" and "Aunt Peg's Five Bean Summit Meeting") includes approximate prep time, cooking time and number of servings as well as an often hilarious anecdote. Pam and Peggy focus on cooking in the real world. We don't always have the time to play Donna Reed and bake up a storm... we have to rely on Four Skor And Seventeen Pecan Pie and hope it tastes like scratch... and it usually does!

I hated reading this book, boring, dull, stupid, pointlessly depressing, and may I add HORRIBLE grammer is what this book is! I can't believe i actually WANTED to read this book. DO NOT READ IT!

Prairie Songs is written by Pam Conrad and illustrated by Darryl S. Zudeck. It was a 1985 Golden Kite Honor Book, and Best Books For Young Adults (ALA). It was also a 1986 IRA Children's Book Award Winner. It is about a family who lived in Nebraska and some of the hardships and joys that they experienced. New neighbors come into their ordinary prairie lives and they see many changes. Now they must teach the New York family of two the ways of the prairie. Mrs. Berryman is not used to having Indians just sneaking into her house and is terribly frightened but Louisa and her mother Clara help Mrs. Berryman to overcome her fear. Because she has many books, Mrs. Berryman agreed to give Louisa and her shy younger brother Lester reading lessons. When a man by the name of Solomon Butcher stopped by Louisa's house, he asked to take a picture of her family. Louisa was very anxious to see the picture but was told that it must be developed first and she could see it at the forth of July celebration. After Mrs. Berryman's baby died, she becomes full of despair, but the reading lessons, which Mrs. Berryman is teaching, seemed to help her in the tough life on the prairie. When Mr. Berryman must go along with Louisa's father J.T. and another neighbor Mr. Whitfield to help attend to a terrible train wreck, Mrs. Berryman must be left alone for a few days. During that time two Indians paid Mrs. Berryman and Louisa and her family a visit. This book takes some surprising turns and keeps you interested until the final page. I liked this book because I thought that it had a very good story line and it told me what life was like back then on the prairie.

Prairie Songs, written by Pam Conrad is an excellent book to read! I enjoyed this account of life on the Prairie. Louisa and her family live on the Nebraskan prairie. They are faced with the difficult day-to-day activities that people faced living on the prairie. When Dr. and Mrs. Berryman move to the prairie from New York City, Louisa is fascinated with Mrs. Berryman's (Emmeline) love for literature. Emmeline has a very difficult time making the transition from the city to the prairie. Louisa and Lester take lessons from Emmeline in return for Mrs. Dowing helping her with her laundry, etc. Louisa develops a love for literature, especially poetry and grows to love Emmeline even more. One night when Mr. Dowing and Dr. Berryman are away, Louisa and her family and Mrs. Berryman are invaded by Indians. Mrs. Berryman is incapable of remaining calm and finds herself outside in the dead of winter. As the story moves on, both families are faced with many difficulties. Indians, train wrecks, and not-so friendly neighbors make the story very exciting!

As a future teacher, I can see this book used in the classroom for discussing life on the prairie and what life was like at that time in history. The Indians in this book are not portrayed in a pleasant fashion. If you would like to use this book in your classroom, I would definitely discuss these issues prior to using with your class.

All in all, this book was very well written. I enjoyed it tremendously and would recommend it to anybody, not just children!

This is an interesting, even entertaining chronicle of how two first-class messies cleaned up their act. They describe how they gradually decided that their lifestyle was not working, and how they eventually reworked it to the point where they were giving advice to others. They show their very human side, as well as their basically warm personalities.

They have a card system for getting chores done, which probably would work for a lot of people. I now use and prefer to-do lists, but the card method is flexible. I used to use a similar system with sticky notes (less durable than cards) before I read this book, and they proved that for them and many others, it works.

As with a couple of other organizing books I've read, my main critique is that they don't allow sufficient time to do things. They apparently were stay-at-home moms who are not under the often stringent time constraints many others must deal with. If a job didn't get done one day, it could get done another. But the estimates for any task at any time, in my opinion, simply are too low. Can you clean a floor in 10 minutes? People are different, and have different sizes of homes and so forth, but I don't think I could do most chores (which also include errands to stores and so on) as fast as they can. Can you do a week's worth of grocery shopping, start to finish, in 45 minutes? Car to store to purchases to standing in line to loading to drive home to unload and put away?

If one takes the time estimates with grains of salt, the rest of the book is helpful, and since most readers won't be starting from the extreme situation that these sisters did, they won't have to exert themselves as much to dig out. Certainly worth a try.

I can't say enough about how great this book is. Not only is it very helpful, it is also the funniest book I have ever read. I will never forget reading it on the bus ride home one day and laughing so hard no sound would come out and tears streamed down my face (the other riders surely thought I was a lunatic). The stories of disorganized chaos really hit home. I got copies for friends and family members who all loved it as well. You gotta read it. I grew up in a similar household situation, where disorganization started in the genes and there wasn't enough strict parental disciplinarian action taken with my sisters and I to curb those impending procrastinational, chaotic habits I feared might be with me forever. Pam and Peggy pretty much sum it up when they say the other writers of regular "organizational" books often have no idea HOW bad it can get. This one is for those of us who are so disorganized to the extremes, it's hard to know where to start getting it together. It's so refreshing and inspiring to see two women who really came up with some great, creative techniques for organizing their lives, and I have definitely applied some of their methods which really work. Read it and you won't be sorry.

I thought I'd never laugh (or cry!) harder than I did when I read 'From Pigpen to Paradise' by the same authors- but this book is just wonderful! Pam Young and Peggy Jones have done it again! You get the feeling that they've been peeking in your windows, they're so connected with the chaos that's been going on in your life and home. They share helpful advice for those of us who weren't 'born organized' that will finally convince you that you, too, can have a warm, welcoming home that's a haven from the crazy world out there! The Sidetracked Sisters have been in our shoes and they've conquered the clutter. This book will assure you that you can, too! A 'must read' for anyone struggling with clutter and chaos!

I enjoyed Pregnant Too Soon: Adoption is an option because it came from the mothers themselves. Even though the book was about your option to choose adoption it wasn't 'coloring' your mind to just adoption. It spoke openly about the three options newly pregnant women face (keep, abort, adopt). Very touching stories from the mothers. Very insightful and helpful.

This is an excellent resource for children's librarians and teachers who always have children ask "what should I read next"? Listing books by subject and title, the authors then lead you through a list of other books that the child may be interested in reading after finishing one of them. Although a bit outdated, it is still an good resource tool for those who feel that children should read something other than only the newest books on the market.

This is pretty much the "prequel" to Get Your Act Together.... (aka GYAT). Most of the stories are repeats from Sidetracked Home Executives. If you have GYAT, skip on this one unless you are a real fan and/or find it at a yard sale cheap.

The best part of the book is the appendix, where they have pictures of the "cards" and how they look when done. You could do something similar on the computer, and even add cute graphics if you wanted to.

If you are a follower of Pam & Peggy's wisdom, you should own this book. It gives more detail of their quest for organization, as well as taking us on a hilarious journey on the way there! Peggy's description of Danny's unknowing adventure of washing his hair in Woolite is delightful, as is Pam's surprise wedding toward the end of the book. Their homespun wisdom and humor will endear the Sidetracked Sisters to you. Their focus of this book is getting your family involved in cleaning up at home, and the infraction game that they've invented for offenders sounds promising. My favorite part of the book is the ending which talks about how a home isn't a home without the support of your loved ones, no matter how messy or clean it may be.