I met this book volunteering in my daughter's 3rd grade class. I was so impressed with how this lays out clear examples of various writing topics that I bought a book for at home. This book will last her into high school and beyond. I highly recommend it.

This is a superb book if you have an aspiring writer or just a child who likes to use words. It is laid out in a cute, fun and easy to read style. The pictures are delightful! Even if your child is a bit resistant to reading this book, the pictures will engage him or her.

You and your child will find such helpful information. He'll learn how to pick a subject and how to proofread a final draft. This book isn't just for the aspiriting author but is also wonderful to use in elementary school to get those papers done!

Your child will learn how to start a journal (a terrific way of expressing oneself), write a poem, (riddle or play) or write a fantasy story. He will also learn how to get ready to take a test with some test taking skills.

There is a section on how to use capital letters and punctuation and finally full color maps, an historical time-line and the metric system.

Other helpful sections in the book include helping your child manage his time, writing a speech. The one negative is that there is a section on using the card catelogue in the library. This book was written in 1995 and although many schools still use them, children are learning to look up books through the computer.

I definitely recommend this book to have in your home to help your child with his writing skills or to inspire the budding author. If you are a teacher this is a great book to have in the classroom.

This book is about a man named Gary Paulsen and all of the dogs he has owned that have had an effect on his life. Each chapter is about a different dog, and what it did to make the dog special to Gary.
Because I am a "dog lover" I thought this book was great. It is written very well and I think it was worth reading. I like how it is about all different kinds of dogs, each dog has different personality and a different story. It's pretty exciting to read because you're always wondering what the next dog is going to do, whether it is saving someone's life or just making someone smile. Until you read My Life In Dog Years you probably won't realise the impact our pets or animals can have on our lives. There is an amazing relationship that we have with our pets and this book captures that.
I recommend My Life In Dog Years to only people who truly love dogs. If you are not a "dog person" then I highly doubt you would enjoy this book. My Life In Dogs Years is written at a 6th grade level, but it is read by all different ages. It is a great book and if you love dogs then I guarantee you will love this book.

Gary Paulsen has owned many great dogs over the years, and each dog has its own special characteristics and abilities, in their own special way. Throughout the book, different dogs help, protect, and make Paulsen laugh during his bad times. Among some of the dogs were Cookie, the sled dog who saved his life; Snowball his favorite friend that he owned as a little boy in the Philippines; Ike, his mysterious hunting dog, who would never follow Paulsen home. Instead he would wait until the next day when Paulsen went to hunt, and he would be right by his side. One of my favorite parts of the book was the little twist about where Ike was always going, and why he didn't follow Paulsen home. Dirk was Paulsens K-9 bodyguard. Although he was small, don't let him fool you, he would take on any challenge that would lye in his path. Josh is a brilliant Border collie that Paulsen still owns to this day. Josh was more human than dog. When Paulsen would talk to him, he would not only listen, but in a way he would talk back. Josh has great talent, and is always watching out for everyone. My Life in Dog Years is definitely a five-star book. Paulsen used great imagery that you can relate to in your own life experiences. It was the perfect length book, that was not to long, not too short. It was a very detailed book that made you want to keep reading until you were finished. This book will make you laugh and make you cry. My favorite dog was probably Josh because of how smart he is, and how fast that learns things. All of the dogs were great companions, and had a close relationship with Paulsen. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves dogs, or is just looking for a good read.

This is a really great book. The dogs in the book are all really interesting in their own way. It made me sad when each chapter came to an end. I got to know each dog Gary Paulsen had, and had a lot of fun.I especially liked Josh, the last and smartest dog. This is a funny read. If you like dogs, you'll love this book!

I read and reviewed the book The Cage by Ruth M. Sender. It is about a young girl who spent ger childhood hiding and living in Nazi slave labor camps. This book tells how she suffered and srtuggled to stay alive during the Holocaust. It tells you what it was like for adults and children during this horrible period of time. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very descriptive and realistic. I always felt like I was in the story instead of just reading it. I always had trouble just reading a few pages because it was so interesting. This book is the kind you never want to put down. Its a real page turner. I gave this book five stars and if you read it you will too. You will like this book if you like books about the Holocaust. A book similar to this is the book Cild of the holocaust by Jack Kuper. This boy also hid from the Nazis during the Holocaust. So read this book. I promise you will enjoy it!

The book the "The Cage" by Ruth Minsky Sender is an amazing story about the Holocaust. The story starts out with the main character, Riva, waking up in a cold sweat because of a nightmare she had about the Holocaust. While talking to her curious daughter who wants to know why the Holocaust happened she finds herself back in Lodz, Poland in 1939. Riva is the oldest child with three younger brothers. Her father died of a disease but she has a strong, loving Mama. The Jews of Poland during this time are being round up by the Nazis and brought to the ghetto. The ghetto gates are shut tight and Riva and her family like many others are trapped in this cage. Thousands of Jewish families are herded into the ghetto where there is no work, hunger, and disease. In the ghetto, Riva's younger brother, Laibele, contracts tuberculosis. In September, 1942 the Nazis are inside the ghetto taking away the sick, the old, as well as the children. Riva's mother decides to hide Laibele and suprisingly enough he is not found, however the Nazis take away Mama to a concentration camp. "I hear Mama's voice, filled with hope. A world full of people will not be silent. We will not perish in vain. She was so sure. But she perished, and the world was silent." Riva now has to be strong for her brothers' sake, for Mama, and for herself. She is determined to survive and won't let the Nazis destroy her hope. People around Riva look to her for support and hope. She lost her family to the Nazis, but she won't let them take her either physically or spiritually. I think this book is extremely well written. It keeps the reader wanting to know what will happen next. The writing is a fast paced read. I believe the story shows the truth and essence of the Holocaust. I would recommend this book to middle school students because of the issues described and because of its excellent style.

I recommend this novel to everyone. Fulled with suspense and intrigue, it really kept my interst. I was not expecting this to happen. I had to choose a novel to read for a book report for English class. I picked this one beacuse I have read other books about the Holocaust and have found them interesting. After reading this novel, I have discovered that it is unlike any other novel about the Holocaust. I learned much more about the Holocaust and recieved much more insight into this topic from this book than from any other one. This novel is about Riva, a young girl living in a ghetto during WWII. Although it is a sad topic, I enjoyed learning about life in a ghetto. It was very interesting to learn how the characters could survive day to day in such horrible conditions. Riva survives the loss of her brother and mother and a deportation to a concentration camp. She becomes a mother to her young brothers. All these trials and tribulations make Riva a much stronger person. Through out the book, I felt her stong will and motivation contributed to her character. I grew to love Riva and felt as if I was part of her family. I felt depressed if something bad happened to her and happy when she had success. I recommend this book because you can clearly witness the change and growth, both postive and negative, in one character due to the Holocaust.

This is a fine beginner's chess book. The target age (I'm guessing, since the book doesn't say) is about 9-12. The book takes the beginner all the way from introducing the pieces and how they move to some example games, including the beautiful Morphy/Duke of Brunswick game. The very last chapter provides information on how to locate a chess club, and encouragement to join.

Snyder uses algebraic notation throughout, which is an important point to check. He does explain descriptive notation at the end, for readers who look through older books.

The book is well structured, with general guidelines for the opening preceding an introduction to the Ruy Lopez. He also briefly covers the Giuoco Piano, and there are sections on the Sicilian and the Queen's Indian and Nimzo-Indian defenses. The information is at just the right level for a beginner; taking just one or two lines, with few digressions, but explaining the reasoning behind the moves. There are excellent sections on basics such as the use of rooks, king and pawn endgames and the use of opposition, and basic checkmating positions such as back-rank mate.

The only caution I'd add is not to buy this book for a child younger than eight or nine. It's for someone who is mature enough to stick through the first couple of chapters, up to where it gets fun. My daughter, who is about to turn five, has been pestering me to teach her chess, since she sees me enjoying it. Since she's not old enough yet to understand strategy or really tactics either I have had to invent little games involving just a couple of pieces to get her familiar with the moves--e.g. spending several lessons showing her how to checkmate me with two rooks. What I need is help with inventing fun ways to learn these things. This book doesn't provide that--it's a little dry till you actually get to the chessboard , which doesn't happen for fifty pages.

However, I don't know of a better book for kids to learn from. With an enthusiastic adult to help, I think this book can really deliver the goods.

This is the best book I have seen that introduces chess to kids in the age 8-14 range (it is also a great book for adults!). The lessons are clear and easy to understand. The writer makes learning fun!

This is truely a readable guide for the beginner. As a novice wishing to learn basics and move on to entry introduction to openings, tactics,and concepts of the end game, you won't go wrong with Robert Snyder's easy to read style and discription of chess moves.A must read book for the novice before moving onto advanced strategies and concepts.

Are you into a book filled with murder and suspense on the high seas? Then you will love The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by award winning author Avi. Hello! We are four seventh grade students that have just completed The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and we are here to rate it. The saga begins with Charlotte Doyle, a thirteen year old girl. She is to sail from England to Rhode Island where her family is living. She will sail on the Seahawk, a ship her wealthy father owns. However, the two families scheduled to accompany Charlotte on her voyage were forced to cancel. So now, Charlotte is onboard alone with a notorious captain and an abnormal and downtrodden crew. To make matters worse, Charlotte has learned that, although he treated her very nicely, the captain is cruel and the crew detests him. Who will Charlotte side with, the vindictive crew or the infamous captain? Will Charlotte survive this grueling voyage on the massive ship? To find out, you will have to read this prominent book. Overall, we thought the book was well-written and detailed. If this book appeals to you, we feel you should give it a try.

A few years ago my mother suggested this book to me because it was a Newbery Honor. I thought, "It's about ships. Boring." But recently I gave it another chance. I couldn't stop reading! Charlotte Doyle, a teenage girl, sailed on a transatlantic voyage in 1832. Caught between a treacherous captain and a mutinous crew, she had to decide where her loyalties lay. She underwent a remarkable transformation on the way. Nearly every page is fraught with adventure. There was so much excitement, especially at the end. The main part I didn't like was that the sailors were so fickle, unable to decide whether or not to be loyal friends to Charlotte. Only Zachariah, an old black cook, stood by her the whole time. The friendship between them was beautiful. Overall, I highly reccomend this book, and I don't give great reccomendations lightly.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is a splendid book. It was full of mystery and supense and for that it keep me reading. The book is about a girl, Charlotte, that is traveling home since school has let out. Once she is on the boat she immediatly makes friends with a shiphand, Zachariah, who sort of takes it upon himself that she needs protection while traveling unsupervised. Soon after the departure of the Seahawk, the crew and the Captain have a certain chaos abord the ship that Chalotte has no choice of going the opposite way and is put in the middle of things. This book is a great experiance for readers because it has a certain quality about wanting to read ahead and find out who did what and how something turns out. I personally didn't want to put it down for fear I would forget about what was happening, but I don't think that I could really forget the book. The characters in it had many aspects to them, for instance you could think something about a character and they would turn out to be the total opposite of what you were originally thinking about them.This book is for the audience that enjoy reading, mysteries, and just a good thriller.

I just havta say, the new cover for the book doesn't look very appealing and I think the cover that was on the edition I read was much better but that's besides the point.
This book was WONDERFUL. There is no judgement and it is full of honest truths. Anne at first appears to be unlikeable but once deep into the book, you feel for her very much. The different situations that the other pregnant girls went through were also very well described and written. Considering this is Ruth Pennebaker's debut novel, I am much in awe of her writing talent and look forward to reading her other novels.
Even though you've probably read other synopsises of the story, my version is: An unwed pregnant teenager is pregnant in a time when she shouldn't be: the late 60s. Abortion is still illegal and her family is in no way accepting of her predicment. She is sent to a home where girls of the same age and in the same situation are sent. The book takes us through the pregnancy months and we watch Anne's situation change and her own self grow and change.
This book is NOT sterotypical and I urge you to read it!

I think Ruth Pennebaker, the author of Don't Think Twice, did a good job portraying a pregnant teenager's experience. She even enphasized how people reacted to something like that from back in the sixties, which is when the story took place. It was a great book.
Anne is a seventeen-year-old teenager who pregnant after meeting who she was the love of her life. Her family couldn't bare the embarrassment of having a young pregnant daughter so they sent her away to an unwed mother's home. The setting of the book mostly took place in Texas at the home Anne was sent to. She spent most of her pregnancy there till the time she gave birth. Her life changed a lot at the home. Her horomones were raging and she had a different out look on everything. She really had time to evaluate herself and the people around her. Anne spent most of her time around the girls in the home. She learns about their experiences. While reading the book you see Anne and the girls learn what it's like to be out casts. They have to wear fake wedding rings to pose as married women and have people stare at them as if they were aliens, because they have to travel in a group. Throughout the book Annehas to make the decision of whether or not to give up her baby for adoption. If you think about it, giving up something that spent nine months in you is hard, so the ending is definitely something to look foward to.
In the book Anne lashes out on people when she's in her moods. It's one of those stories where you laugh out loud when she pokes fun at her airhead sister, but you want to cry when one of the girls tells her story about how she was raped. It is a book filled with many emotions and it has a good moral as well. I would recommend it to everyone.

I think Ruth Pennebaker, the author of Don't Think Twice, did a good job portraying a pregnant teenager's experience. She emphasized how people reacted to something like that from back in the sixties, which is when the story took place. It was a great book. Anne is a seventeen-year-old teenager who got pregnant after meeting who she thought was the love of her life. Her family couldn't bare the embarrassment of having a young pregnant daughter so they sent her to an unwed mother's home. The setting of the book mostly took place in Texas at this home Anne was in. She spent most of her pregnancy there till the time she gave birth. Her life changed a lot at the home. Her hormones were raging and she had a different out look on everything. She really had time to evaluate herself and the people around her. Anne spent most of her time around the girls in the home. She learns about experiences. While reading the book you see Anne and the girls learn what it's like to be out casts. They have to wear fake wedding ring to pose as married women and have people stare at them as if they were aliens. Throughout the book Anne has to make a decision of whether or not to give up her baby for adoption. If you think about it giving up something that spent nine months in you is hard, so the ending is definitely something to look forward to.
It's funny to read how Anne lashes out on people when she's in her moods. It's one of those stories where you laugh out loud to yourself when she pokes fun at her airhead sister, but you want to cry when one of the girls tells her story about how she was raped. It is a book filled with many emotions and it has a good moral as well. I would recommend it to everyone.

Ruth Rendell is one the living stars of modern British detective fiction. But she is also, in other books, the direct continuator of Dickens with a social and highly psychological inspiration.

In this book, the main heroin is completely trapped by life. At first by her mother. Then by the mansion her mother is in love with. Then by her first love-at-first-sight boyfriend.

The book is the full story of this imprisonment and how she will manage to get free. The ending is absolutely unpredictable and it comes after the heroin has cajoled and caressed all other possible exits, either partial, total or just thE continuation of her mother's life and obsession.

What is best in this book is the way the story is told. We are constantly shifting from the time when the story is told, to the past and even the distant past. The tortuous line enables us to enjoy every single chapter as a whole and then the book as an absolutely clever construction that does not reveal us the end before the last three pages.

A must also for those who are interested in the psychology of women in our age of their liberation. It is very well done and very finely analyzed.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Along with Tree of Hands, this is my favorite work by Ruth Rendell. She is such a gifted novelist and talented writer. The first time through this book, I was totally captivated by the artistry of her presentation and the intriguing-ness of the plot. I can't believe that one professional reviewer found it slow. I was totally gripped as the story progeressed and completely unsure about what would happen. I feared the worst and thought the whole thing had been set up brilliantly. Everything about this was great in my opinion: the mystery, the characterizations, the captivating setting. I've reread it just to see the artistry. There's much here of the passion of physical love and how parents can hurt their children and the resilience of a gifted human spirit. The characterizations are real and not contrived. This is so much better than just about any other mystery writer, it's in a class of it's own. Fine and moving literature.

Along with Tree of Hands, this is my favorite work by Ruth Rendell. She is such a gifted novelist and talented writer. The first time through this book, I was totally captivated by the artistry of her presentation and the intriguing-ness of the plot. I can't believe that one professional reviewer found it slow. I was totally gripped as the story progeressed and totally unsure about what would happen. I feared the worst and thought the whole thing had been set up brilliantly. Everything about this was great in my opinion: the mystery, the characterizations, the captivating setting. I've reread it just to see the artistry. There's much here of the passion of physical love and how parents can hurt their children and the resilience of a gifted human spirit. I loved it.

This books starts off good, but even the author gets confused with all the time travel going on. The bottom line is...if Lucy and Jamie were Sara's great-grandchildren, then they could not possibly have existed at the same time that Sara's grave existed...This is only one of the several inconsistencies in the book. The book would've been much better if the author could have kept up with the story line.

I first ran across Ms. Barber's story in my middle school library - in 1972. I was 12 years old. Almost 30 years later some of the story's images linger yet, subtly influencing choices I make. I've finally found and purchased my very own copy of The Ghosts - and it's probably one of the best gifts I've given myself in a long time. Lucy and Jamie started me thinking about Past, Present, and Future in ways that most of the kids in my class couldn't quite grasp at that time, not to mention how to look at things from other points of view - small lessons at the time that became whole way of thinking for me even now.

I'm so happy to have found this book, to be able to bring this piece of my past into my present and hopefully into my nephew's future.

Our fifth-grade teacher read this book in a few chapters at a time when I was in school, and it captivated me; I've remembered details of this story when others have long slipped into obscurity. Now, twenty-three years later, I'm so glad to have found it again. It's been frustrating looking for a book called 'The Ghosts'--so general, and yet I never knew the author. You'll find this book draws you into its eerie mysteries, that you'll care about the characters and the outcome a great deal, that you'll step into the action yourself. I highly recommend it.

Woodsong is an autobiography of Gary Paulsen's life in Minnesota and in a dog-sled race in Alaska. Gary trained dogs to trap and to race. He had many adventures with his dogs. He starts off by trapping in Minnesota with his dogs. After an encounter with the death of a deer that got chased down by wolves, he decides trapping is cruel and he will not trap anymore. He enters a race in Alaska called the Iditarod. It is a long cold race across Alaska. He trains his dogs by running in Minnesota. In the race he encounters many obstacles; running in -20 degree weather, falling down a 30 foot frozen waterfall, bears eating his food and long runs through mountain passes. In the end of the book Gary finishes the race. Although not in first, he learns great lessons of life.

Wood Song is about A man who loves his dogs and adventures. He was living in the woods when the beavers over-populated, so he borrowed his friend's dogsled and some dogs and then he set up a couple hundred mile trapline for beavers.He loved it, and very soon he got good at it, and the huge Alaskian race, called the Iditaron, was coming soon so he entered it, and that lead to a whole new part of the adventurous stoy. I liked this book, because of all the detail that Gary put into it. He did a great job, You could almost see what was happening as you read it. This book strikes the imagination of readers of all ages. I give it 5 stars and 2 thumbs way way up!

Woodsong told me winter isn't just for presents on Christmas Day and we aren't supposed to stay indoors all the time during winter. Winter is to be experienced, because it's a wonderful experience, maybe the best experience in your whole life. I give this book five stars because this book had action! Plus, this book is true so Wood Song is even better. Gary Paulsen learns about dogs, bears, hawks, and life. Gary Paulsen, the author, and I have something in common, we train dogs! Gary trained dogs in this true book, Woodsong, and I am training my dog now. My dog, Pepsi, is a wild dog and she runs away. I recommend this book to nine-year-olds and up because there is blood in this true story. Some parts are sad and some are funny, but it will help you appreciate winter, dogs, and life.