To Life is the story of what happened to Riva when the concentration camp she spent years in was finally liberated.

Honestly, The Cage was infinetely more interesting to me than this book was, but The Cage is without a doubt the best book I've ever read. To Life is not uninteresting by any means, however.

The struggles Riva must go through are heart-wrenching. It really makes a person appreciate the life they have. When something good finally happens for Riva, the reader feels happy for her because she's been through so much. If you're going to read this book, you've just got to read The Cage first.

This book, about a girl named Riva who survived the holocaust and rebuilt her life, was an amazing memoir by Ruth Minsky Sender. It showed how hard the holocaust was. I was so impressed with how well written this book is. Ruth Minsky Sender's story really inspires me. This was an excellent book.

This is a really good book.The Cage, the book that came befor this book, was really good but this one is better. It tells of what happened after Riva's concentration camp is liberated. It tells of the hardships that Riva has trying to find family...This is a great novel and its a good book to read if you loved The Cage.

This book has an interesting storyline, but there was no suspense or action, really. A quite good read for Hardy Boys fans

This book was great! I think solar cars are our future so it provides information on the topic. There was a lot of action. I think this book was great!

I really enjoyed "Second-Best Bride" In fact I've read it several times. It's refreshing to read ficton that challenges me as well as entertains. Miss P, The Lamb children, and Meg Shaw were interesting characters that I could relate to. I'm looking forward to reading more of Ruth Glover's books.

Like the rest of the Wildrose series, Glover introduces new characters and blends them with the familiar ones in the Canadian bush town of Wildrose. Meg has always lived in the shadow of her beautiful, more outgoing sister Marlys. As she watches Marlys toy with the emotions of homesteader Royce Ferguson, she realizes that Marlys actually has no intention of marrying him and moving to the wilderness of Wildrose. Meg, who knows that she will be happy even among the hard life and simplicity of Wildrose, eventually comes up with a plan to mend Royce's broken heart and to get out from under her sister's shadow. Meanwhile, back in Wildrose, "old maid" Miss P struggles with the fact that she is alone and has no family. As she takes care of many of the Wildrose citizens in some form or another, she eventually realizes that God has a plan for her and that some families are not necessarily made up of traditional parents and children. Back in Toronto, the Lamb family struggles physically and financially to be able to join their father in Wildrose, only to find tragedy awaiting when they arrive. For the Lambs, Miss P, and Meg, faith becomes reality as they strive to live out what they believe that God has intended for them. Second-Best Bride is a thoroughly enjoyable book about faith, love, and families.

I chose this book because my older sister suggested it to me. When i first heard the name of the book, i thought it would be a good book. When i saw the cover, it wasnt as appealing as the title. It was only the title and a picture of a doll. While I got into the book, i realized that the cover was a portion of the story. After i figured that out, I started to think that the cover was very clever.

The main character of this book is Meg Redding. Meg is the kind of girl that you would call an outcast. She doesnt have many friends, and she is very unpopular at school. Meg loves mysteries and solving them. When she was invited to the murder game she was very excited. Meg is a very unsecure girl, and she is afraid of upperclass bullies.

I enjoyed reading this book. It drew me in, like i was one of the detectives in the story. It gave me great details and clues in solving the murder. I especially liked how the book made me want to read more and more and not stop. This book had a lot of cliffhangers that contributed to my continuous reading. Overall, this is a book very worth reading.

EVEN IF I WASNT FORCED TO READ THIS BOOK, I THINK THAT IT WOULD HAVE CAUGHT MY EYE. THERE ARE MANY SUSPECTS TO CHOOSE FROM, BUT THEY ALL HAVE A REASON TO KILL. TO FIGURE OUT THE MURDERER, YOU NEED SOME GREAT DECECTIVE SKILL.

THE BOOK IS ABOUT SOME CHILDREN THAT HAVE A BIRTHDAY PARTY AND HAVE A SCAVANGER HUNT AND STRANGE THINGS START TO HAPPEN. A FEW CHARACTERS GET KILLED AND YOU HAVE TO READ THE WHOLE BOOK TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENES IN THE END

I was surprised by this little excellent book! A young boy named Sparrowhawk is born with tremendous power but has no training or discipline to handle it. He is taken by the Wizard Ogion to be trained but, Sparrowhawk, impatient to use his skills asks to be sent to the Island of Roke to the famous Wizard School.
There he encounters other boys with skills like his own. He comes to face his own weaknesses and greed for power when a classmate whom he hates dares him to cast a spell he is forbidden to do. This results in a tragedy and Sparrowhawk's near fatal injury. Upon recovery, he vows to change his ways and right what he has done.
Although this book was recommended for ages eleven and up, it is by no means a book for young adults only. It has some very profound life lessons that adults will identify with. I loved the fantasy world that Le Guin creates. Her writing is taut, suspenseful and imaginative. The premise that the power of a word can change a relationship or destiny is brilliant. The story stresses balance and equilibrium in life in that each action effects all as we are all from one source.
Wizard of Earthsea is a totally engrossing and vivid fantasy tale.

Let me start off by saying that it's very sad people dislike this book just because they heard it's of the same caliber as Tolkien's work and it turned out it wasn't. Ursula Le-Guin is a good author but even good authors have a hard time when they're compared to Tolkien. Was Tchaikovsky a lousy composer just because he wasn't "as good as Beethoven"? (whatever that means) Was Lev Landau stupid just because he wasn't "as smart as" Einstein? Mind you, Le-Guin's world lacks the depth of Tolkien's, but whatever she lacks in completeness she makes up for in compelling plot and characters. Ok, so much for my penny philosophy.

I've read the Earthsea novels when I was a kid and have re-read them later on as an adult, and can say that, while I have no special affection for the fantasy genre, these books still stand out as being special. Le-Guin's choice of plot and characters makes this book very unique - instead of grand wizards and epic battles, she chooses a "real life" wizard and tells his story. Instead of the usual "end-of-the-world" theme she chooses his personal battle against a shadow that haunts him - due to his own actions. This book will never become a Hollywood production (thank heavens!), simply because there isn't enough eye-candy in it. That's one of the things I like about it. I am also very fond of Le-Guin's writing style, but that's a more personal choice.

If you feel fantasy books are all about knights in armor and robed wizards and flying dragons speaking Shakespearean English and going around saving the world (or destroying it), give this book a try, it might surprise you (for the better, I hope ... ).

I picked up this book when I had nothing else to read. My mom had read it ages ago,when she was really into fantasy and reccomended it to me. I could not put it down.It was complex,magical,and at many points exciting.Le Guin developed and amazing culture ,yet she did not go too far ,like other authors (David Eddings). I adored how Le Guin put an anti-racist thing in,very slyly.The Kargs ,had pale skin,and a good deal of Earthsea didn't(the Kargs are "evil").This book made simple classes of wizardry ,which in most books would be amazingly boring,was extremely interesting.Most of the boring parts were when the character was bored,not when you for some reason were supposed to be interested. I have to say ,besides Ged,my favorite character was the otak.So cute ,yet so loyal.Le Guin can make little things wonderful. Alright,I suppose I'll need to go to the plot now.Ged ,a young sheephearder on the island called Gont,discovers that he is a wizard.He is sent to the Isle of Roke to train.Soon he becomes powerful,but while trying to summon a dead spirit ,he unleashes a shadow upon Earthsea.That Shadow is after him.

The book, Ishi: Last of His Tribe, by Theodora Kroebar is a well written book, which deeply describes the life of a Yana Indian. The Yana are one of the last Native America Indian Tribes left in America. She uses great adjectives and indian words to help the readers understand. People who are intrigued by Native Americans, wars, teenage lives, and the true cruelty of human beings will be interested in reading Ishi. Ishi is a young Yana indian boy, on the verge of manhood, getting ready for the responsibilities of having to feed and fend for his family who have supported Ishi his whole life, and have a family of his own. A group of white poeple come to the lands of the Yana and try to capture the land that has belonged to Yana tribes for centuries. The white poeple slaughter the Yana tribes unmercifully, and take the land for themselves. Ishi has to watch the people he has grown up with his whole existance and the ways of his people be demolished, and he is left alone in the world. Ishi teaches people who read it a part of American history which is normally not talked about or read about. The book uses the non-fiction happenings of the Yana and adds fictional situations and turns Ishi into a beautiful story of hate and overcoming obstacles. As I read the book, I felt mixed emotions. I felt proud at being able to identify with Ishi. Ishi was the last of his people, he really did not have much to life for, and no one was left that he could relate to. Everyone feels alone and outcast at some point in their lives, and this book helps people understand and relate to Ishi and how he feels. He was a truthful, deep, spititual person and he was plucked from his life and tossed into a world which was strange and new to him. If any of the readers have ever had to move from one town to another, they know what Ishi is feeling. I also felt hatered towards how the white men ignorantly destroyed this peaceful tribe's way of life without even feeling remorse for their actions. It is horrible how the just slaughtered the tribe, with 'fire sticks' and scalped the Yana for money. It is repulsing how the white men treated the Yana and all the Native Americans, who were on this continent before us and had been living respectably and peacefully, and had such a deep understanding of the land and how to treat it and use it wisely. Ishi was easy to comprehend, with the wordings of Theodora Kroeber. Everyone in America should know about what happened to the innocent Yana tribes and the innocent Yana people, such as Ishi, and see American history for what it really is, and what it really was and what the invading, torturous, white man and his government did to begin the longest war in history (500 years) against the peaceful, loving, spiritual NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN.

I've read this historical novel aloud to both "regular" fifth graders and to Special Education children. All of them have become entranced with Kroeber's wonderful descriptions of day-to-day Yahi life, and with Ishi's tragic story. The fact that Ishi was a real person made it even more tangible to them. This story is undoubtedly romanticized, but it describes life as it probably really was for a small surviving group of California Indians during the encroachment of the "Saldu" (foreigners). They try valiantly to retain the vestiges of their very complex culture, but tragedy inevitibly ensues. The majority of the book describes Ishi's life before he personally came in contact with the White people he has feared and from whom he has hidden during most of his life. It's difficult to find books that accurately describe Native American life pre-contact, in a way that is understandable to young children. I highly recommend this book, especially if you can tie in some of the recent controversy about Ishi's brain, which was removed from his body for study after his death (against his explicit wishes) and was only recently repatriated to Native California people. It's a great lead-in for a discussion about Native People's rights in modern America.
Karen Garcia

I first decided to read this book because I was named after Ishi, and I wanted to find out why. When I finally read Kroeber's novel, I was struck with a mixed sense of pride at being able to identify with such an honest, spiritual, and kind-hearted man; disgust at how ignorantly and inexcusably the white man in power treated Ishi's people, and hence has continued to treat Native Americans throughout this country; and awe at the beauty and grace with which Kroeber writes. I am also a high school English teacher in a rural New England town. I teach this novel, and am continually struck by its ability to speak to teenagers who, for the most part, are not aware of this component of American history. Though the novel is partly fictional, as we cannot truly know, for instance, the conversations that Ishi had in the "watgurwa" with his elders as a teenage boy, Kroeber reveals to us a story based on very real, and very human, events. We read about the unwavering respect for the natural world that is so inherent in Yahi culture, and so lacking in modern American culture. We see Ishi's growth from a boy to a man as he takes on the important reponsibilities of feeding and protecting his family. We also watch as innocent Yahi are killed with the white man's "firesticks" so that their scalps can be cut off and exchanged for money. Every American citizen should know what happened to Ishi and his people; for it is American history at its best, and, unfortunately, at its worst.

Both Sides Now by Ruth Pennebaker, is the story of a 15 years old girl named Liza who is a sophomore in high school. This book states all the problem's she's encountering in her personal life, all the way from her mom fighting breast cancer to how much she despises the cafeteria food. She expresses a lot of her internal thoughts which gives us a great over view of her personality. In some cases this book was so surprising i had to go read over, because I couldn't believe what I was reading. I think this book was writen for a teen age girl, because it seems like this book could relate a lot to the problems that a teen age girl would encounter. I don't think a guy could find much intrest in ths book, so I would recomend this book to any girl who is intrested in a good story.

The book Both Sides Now is a great book! It is definitely one of the best books I have read! The story centers on Liza, a teenage girl, and her mother, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. This story is a story of hope and courage that should relate to us all.
I liked this book because it showed how and illness effects everyone in the family. I especially like the way Liza put her life back together when it fell apart. I think that everyone should read this inspiring book. It can help you realize the difference between giving up and moving on.

Liza, at fifteen, is no typical teenager. She jogs, studies hard and gets straight A's, is very responsible, and doesn't drink or smoke. She's nothing like her mother Rebecca, who spent two years working on a novel she couldn't publish. But then everything changes when Rebecca's breast cancer, thought cured, reasserts itself. Within a month Liza flunks driver's ed because she can't concentrate, gets into huge trouble when she forgets to read a school newspaper article before publishing it, and gets drunk with a boyfriend. Her family is all torn apart with worry over Rebecca, who may not survive her cancer.

All of the story is written in the first person present tense, like Ruth Pennebaker's other two novels. Most of it is from Liza's point of view, but there are some interesting vignettes narrated by Rebecca. The doctors cut off both her breasts trying to stop the cancer. Then they decided to do a stem-cell transplant, a very extreme treatment that keeps you on the brink of death for weeks. It almost kills a person, but it might just save their life.

At that time Liza overhears her parents fighting. "I haven't stopped hoping," Rebecca says. "I'm just hoping for something else not." Some time later she tells her children that she's decided not to have the stem-cell transplant. It's not worth it, she says. The story ends there, leaving it up to the reader to decide whether or not Rebecca survives her cancer. At the back of the book you discover that Ruth Pennebaker is a cancer survivor too.

It was a fine book, though I liked the other two better. My favorite character was Liza's best friend Rory, a "slut" who's slept with eleven guys since entering high school. You can see how Rory's slutishness is really a result of underlying insecurity, but the wholeschool condemns her. All of the characters were well-drawn. I would recommend.

Interesting in a sort of historical way, but even to me (a food-literature junkie) it was a chore to finish.

Jean-Marie Gallois, the hero of this delicious novel, is a young sauce stirrer who aspires to win his high bonnet, the towering white toque that is the mark of achievement of every top chef. After a famous voluptuary swoons over the bitter-chocolate-scented sauce he ladles on her roast goose he is thrown into a three-star kitchen for the most brutal of trainings. Jean will win his high bonnet and the royal bearing that accompanies it - but not until he's had many outrageous adventures, both in the kitchen and out

I started to devour this book, then, afraid to get to the end too soon, I began to pace myself---in order to savor the feast thoroughly. Idwal Jones's prose is totally intoxicating--his descriptions of tastes, textures, perfumes are so vivid you can almost taste the rich sauces, smell the aroma of roasting meat, get drunk on the wines. This is not a novel of events, so much as sensations. Yet all the characters are alive and convincing. Anyone who truly connects with food and its pleasures will be ravished. Makes Proust's madeleine seem poor fare.

This short book tells a story about a young girl faced with many problems in life. She is going through a hard time in her life as her parents just divorced. Like any other person, they think that it is their fault that his or her parents divorced. Sarah( the young girl) would live with her mother after the divorce was final. Her mother and her did not get along as well as her father and her did. Sarah could relate to her father on a more fun and serious note. Sarah was a young teenage girl who liked to fight for her rights about things that were going on in life, such as fighting off the death penalties of innocent people. Sarah's best friend was busy with her alcoholic mother and her suicidal sister. She hardly had time to hang out with Sarah. Sarah learned that the unconditional love her father had given to her was all she need to get on in life.
I liked the book because I could relate to it myself. Most teenager's parents are divorced or having problems at home. Conditions of love tells that it is not at all your fault that the divorced. The Book also was a bit boring in some parts when all she ( Sarah) did was talk and explain how she felt. Other wise it was great and really showed an outside view on things.
posted May 16 2002

This book was very interesting.I found it hard to follow the book would jump from Sara's Mom and Grandmother and her Father to her best friend's problem with her family and also to the boy she loved.Once I understood what was happening I thought it was good but not great.The book is really funny and has some explict words and thoughts.If you like that kinda thing then you would love the book.When I started the book it was very hard to put down because well most teenagers think about some scenes in the book.The book is very funny and realistic.I recommend to all teenagers.

The story didn't really have a major conflict in it. It was subtle; generally it was about Sarah's learning the truth about her father, and about her drifting apart from her best friend. I would have liked to know more about Madeleine, but all in all it was a great book. It had a wistful tone to it throughout the entire story. Sarah's relationship with Ellie reminded me of mine with my former best friend, though our break was nowhere near as gentle. Not much actually happened in the story, but that's not a problem if the characters are good enough, which they were.

I think this story is pretty stupid. I picked it up thinking it would be good and it wasn't. It is not. Sara is absolutely horrible to her little sister. She makes way too much mischeif. But you can understand why she says some of the things she says. I would not recommend this book unless you like books that scare you and make you check ahead to let you know whether things will be all right.

Mrs. Sherwood, who is Emily's (narrator) mother and some of us agree: Sara Slater is a bad influence. The girls are 12, and Sara teaches Emily how to smoke. Sara teaches her to trick Sara's little sister. And when Emily stands up to her bad influence, they fight. And Emily's a good child. Sara's just a bad influence for all 12-year-old girls who may read this.

I read this when I was somewhere between 10 and 12 years old, and I absolutely loved it! I could relate to this too, because I had a friend like Sara growing up. She wasn't perfect, a little rough around the edges and we had some fights, but in the end she was a true friend, like the Sara in the book.