When Jamaican-born Thulani hears Mr. Dunleavy talk about his pastoral homeland, Thulani wants nothing more than to escape the old man's ramblings. Clearly, he is unimpressed by the sentimentality; he loves his manic neighborhood in Brooklyn far too much. It is not until the end of Rita Williams-Garcia's Every Time a Rainbow Dies that Thulani appreciates his heritage enough to return to the island and make peace with his estranged father. This sensitively crafted, coming-of-age story infuses the eccentric culture of Jamaican-Americans with the universality of becoming an adult.

One morning while on his rooftop, taking care of his pet birds, Thulani sees a girl being raped on the street below. After attempting to help her, he returns to the scene of the attack where he finds the skirt that was torn from her body. Rather than returning it to her, Thulani takes it back to his bedroom and pins it to his wall as a reminder of the mysterious girl who now captivates his thoughts. Little by little, he learns more about her'her name (Ysa), her ambition (fashion school), her background (Haitian). The precarious relationship the two adolescents form provides both of them with a safe environment to grow and to heal.

The language is as colorful and exotic as a tropical carnival itself. Williams-Garcia artfully compares the stolen skirt to 'a hundred golden eyes of the peacock' (21). The image comes full-circle when Thulani finally folds the skirt away. 'He laid Ysa's skirt on his bed and folded it in half, fourths, then eights, turning the gold and turquoise on the wrong side. Even so, he could still see her eyes before him, opening and closing, opening and closing, opening and closing'' (166).

The relationship between Thulani and Ysa is treated with depth. Williams-Garcia never gives in to unconvincing dialogue or too-pat answers. Instead, she realistically depicts the elliptical conversations and uncertainty that characterize high school romances. Although the novel is beautifully written, the graphic nature of the rape scene in chapter one and the bedroom scene in chapter seventeen makes the novel appropriate only for mature readers. While the reading age is listed as grades nine through twelve, parents or teachers of children on the younger side of that spectrum would do well to approach this book carefully. But for those readers who can handle the candid nature of Every Time a Rainbow Dies, Williams-Garcia has written a story that is sometimes tender, sometimes edgy, but always touching and true.

This is a beautifully written book about two teenagers going through some tough times. 16-year-old Thulani lost his mother 3 years ago without even being able to say goodbye. Since then, he has lived in the grudging hospitality of his brother and sister-in-law, who want to "man him up" and have him conform to their ideas of what he should be doing in his life. He spends most of his time tending his pigeons on the roof of the Brooklyn brownstone where he lives. The pigeons are his only interest in life . . . until one day, he hears a scream. Down on the street, a girl is being brutally raped. He yells at the rapists to stop and runs to help the girl (You like him already at this point). He takes her home, but finds that he is obsessed with the girl, whose name is Ysa.

I just loved this book. It wasn't the type of book where you are turning pages quickly, waiting to see how it will end. Rather, Williams Garcia's poetic writing and fully-realized characters give you the feeling of people you know. You just want to move in and stay there a long time.

Every Time A Rainbow Dies is about a young boy who isn't really interested in school as much as he's interested in a girl named Ysa. This boy's name is Thulani. One day while he was letting his birds out he heard a girl scream. She was being raped in the alley below him. He panicked and didn't know what to do, so he went down there and scared them away. He took her back to her home and was nearly beat down by her aunt. He thought about her constantly, and tried to find out if she went to his school or a different school. He finally found out where she went and met up with her. He would take the bus with her to her school, but she didn't want to become and "item" with him. They got together finally, and she got accepted to college for the arts.

I like the book because it showed how far someone would go for love. Thulani always knew he would get the girl, so he never gave up. That requires a great deal of determintion and strive. Even though she was hesitant at first, he got her and he knew they were perfect for each other. I also liked the book because it was very realistic. It wasn't just a fantasy.

My favorite part of the book was when Thulani was talking to Ysa and they saw the rapist's mother. That was shoking how Ysa just burst out into emotions and broke down. That was also the time when Ysa and Thulani got together. Since Thulani stuck up for her and was there for her, she knew he could be trusting and responsible. I liked this part because it starts off as a bad situation, but ends up like a fairy tale.

Nicely done. It is difficullt to find good books that teach the virtues of faith without being heavy handed. I would have liked a few more faith stories from non-Christian traditions. My seven year old is enjoying it.

I found this book just incredible. The stories are just wonderful for teaching the children valuable lessons and virtues. It's hard to explain the book, other than that my kids enjoyed hearing them, I enjoyed reading them, and the lessons in the stories challenge both child and parent alike.

This beautiful, gently written and illustrated book will certainly appeal to all ages. It is a delightful presentation of Christianity and, I think, provides a gentle overview of Christian concepts. Young readers will especially appreciate the illustrations. This book is an excellent teaching tool and a good way to form conversations regarding to Christian faiths. It is a treasure and a wonderful part of any family. I really love this book.

The second collection from Mark Waid's run on JLA continues to improve upon the mess Grant Morrison made of the series. As in "JLA: Tower of Babel", these stories focus on both the individual and the team. Waid brings a human interest to the JLA, whereas Grant Morrison just brought action and chaos. Through Waid, we get to know the characters (Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Plastic Man and Martian Manhunter) both inside and out. No more are the massive team-ups from Morrison's run. These stories are tight and stream-lined. They're more about friendship than saving the world.

Half of this book follows the aftermath of Tower of Babel
(wherein Batman 'betrays' the rest of the League) and the other half deals with one component of that 'betrayal'; the necessity of harboring a 'secret identity'.
After expelling Batman via a 4-3 vote, the JLA finds itself split like Repubs and Democrats; mistrust and petty sniping abound. Finally Supes and Bats have a heart-to-heart that is one of the best stories featuring these two together that has ever been done. If Frank Miller's "Return of the Dark Knight" was about the abject difference between these two, JLA #50 points out the similarities. From there we go to another storyline, where the membership is split up again, although in a totally different way. I won't give away details, suffice it to say it's an Alan Moore-esque study into the inner stress having a "secret identity" can create. It's gets a little complicated and overwrought, but hell, the entire JLA series from ish #1 to The Obsidian Age has been complicated and overwrought, so what the hey. A necessary companion piece to Tower of Babel.

I liked the story line of this book. We all wonder what if you met your alter ego? It catches the flavor of what happens when there is a break up or split. It is worth the price

I was engrossed in Temples from beginning to end. It had a different appeal to it. It made me want more!

This book was pretty good but could have been a little longer

Temples is great reading. I'm a person who rarely finds the time to read books. However, once I picked up the book Temples by Vincent Williams I could not put it down. It was great to see characters and surroundings reminiscent of my own. Finally, an interesting depiction of hip hop culture without exaggerating the characters.

I first read this book while I was in Junior High ( many years ago) and it's still on my bookshelf. I drag it out and reread it every so often because it's a fascinating, well written, really captivating story with a lot of historical detail and well developed charactors. It's one of those books you can read in one or two sittings because you are so drawn in and involved.
The only thing I did not like was the author's negitive portrayal of British Withchcraft, I've met British Witches and know they are not the evil cat sacrificing folks depicted in the story. But I will forgive the author for this blunder, since there is so much ignorance out there and he was working with the limited information available at the time the book was written.
Overall, it was a great read and a great story.When I was a kid, I was just cativated by the description of an ancient old house way out in the country that you had to reach by land rover, still available in our modern world. It was like a trip into another world.

i love this book so much. i used to read it every week and i never got bored with it. its rilly well written and it end with a cliffhnger that will leave you asking "what next?" its a book based on some facts but mostly from his imagination. and will takes advantage of the situation and he seems to make most of the things from his mind and uses those to get in trouble. i love this book!!!!!

I'm 33 and I STILL remember this book 20 years later. I enjoyed reading the other reviews to reaquaint myself with the plot (of which I had absolutely No memory, but hey, it was 20 years ago). What I did remember was the atmosphere. This story is so well done it stays with you. A phenomenal read!

This book and the whole collection of blueprints are the best sources for USMLE step 2, they are a killing combination with Crush the boards, they are easy-reading and cover the most high yield stuff, also use a good source of questions and practice a LOT, this is the secret to mastering the USMLE.If you want to practice clinical vignettes, the Underground clinical vignettes are great for this. I got an amazing score in the step 2 thanks to these books. Good luck !

If you're a librarian serving first year med students who need to create case histories for hypothetical patients, you'll love this book. Blueprints in Medicine contains the information the students need, usually at a level they can comprehend (with the aid of a dictionary), and contains very little "excess" information.

This book helped me rock Step 2. It may be inappropriate for Step 3, but for Step 2 it's very good. If you want concise review of relevant, high-yield topics in internal medicine, look no further. Helps for 3rd year rotations too.

Since I have read a lot of praises about this book I bought it and was astonished to find out that the font size is so small that I have needed a good magnifying glass to have been able to read it. Its other disadvantage is that it's lacking the English-Latin part, so what then, if someone needs to translate from English to Latin s/he should buy another dictionary. It's not a good bargain and I would not recommend it to anyone.

I ordered this dictionary after reading the reviews. I agree with the reviewer from Little Rock; the dictionary is very useful and contains a wealth of information on Latin words. It has been a great help for me in translating poets like Martial and Statius. I have difficulty understanding why the reviewer from Israel did not know this was a Latin to English only dictionary; the title clearly explains the purpose of this book. Also, the entries are a standard dictionary size font; they are not unusually small. Unless you want to buy a copy of the Oxford Latin Dictionary... then this dictionary will suit the needs of translating from Latin into English.

As a teacher of Latin for over 30 years, I highly recommend this dictionary. It is the most complete resource for the money available!! Since serious scholars do not need English to Latin transfers, this should not be a concern. Not only are the number of English meanings for Latin words of large and complete extent, but there are quotations from ancient writers to support how the Latin is used in context. My students from grades 7 through graduate school have used this dictionary with success. The only better one is the large Lewis-Short hardback dictionary.

once again, (OK it does not happen that often, otherwise we would stop trusting Amazon and shopping with them, would'nt we?) the description is not accurate : this version ISBN 1569945233, monterey media etc.... is an ADAPTATION of Dicken's novel by the St Charles PLayers, who record it with all due talent and spirit BUT as a play, in an "exciting Radio Theater style" quote, unquote.....

This is Charles Dickens' best christmas story. Only David Copperfield tops this story. Mr. Dickens teaches the reader that no matter how much money or position we have, no matter how important we feel, no matter how much cynicism we have, life will come right out in front of us with a big wham!! Tiny Tim is compassion, Mr. Cratchit is hope, Fizziwigg is happiness. And all these things are life at its best. A Christmas Carol is the true feeling and hope and love. Make this short story your hope.

The following review is for the version illustrated by William Geldart, not this version illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger. For some reason, Amazon mixed the two up.

This is it! These are the letters, words, sentences, paragraphs that made Christmas the celebration that it is today - the family parties, the feasts, the excitement, giving to the poor. Virtually every way we celebrate this magnificent Holiday (except the mall part!) comes from this book written by Charles Dickens.
First off, this is the unabridged version. Nothing added - nothing taken away. That's as it should be. (Unfortunately, as great as they may be, the movie versions truly do not do the book justice - although I must say the George C. Scott and Alistair Sim versions do come fairly close).
One thing that surprises me about this book is how few people I know that have have actually read it, but they've seen one version or another of the movie countless times! They don't seem to realize that when books are put to film, so much is taken out for length or for other reasons. A Christmas Carol is no different. In fact, if you watch all of the different movie versions available, you STILL would not get the complete book, even though each movie adds one thing or another from the original story that the others may not.
There are countless copies of this story available in various book form, but this particular version is probably one of the best that I have seen. The illustrations attempt in some part to keep in the same spirit as in Dickens' original. But the best, most interesting part of this version (besides the story itself) is all of the little facts, explanations, and trivia put into the margins throughout this book. They give the modern 21st century reader more of an understanding of what 19th century English life was like. A couple of examples: when Dickens writes of the Cratchit family taking their goose to the bakers to be cooked, I wondered why would any one take their food OUT to be cooked and then picked up later. This book explains that few poor people in this time period had ovens large enough to roast a good family sized bird. They were big enough to cook a small bit of meat and that was about it. In order to have one of those rare Holiday meals, they had to take it to the large baker's oven at an appointed time for cooking.
Another fact I did not know was that in the story, Scrooge's sister, Fan, was based on Dickens' actual sister in law, Mary Hogarth.
There are also a multitude of paintings, drawings, and sketches from Dickens' time showing his time. Now you can see, as accurately as one can considering there were no cameras, life of the rich, middle class, and poor as it actually was. There's a picture of Queen Victoria and her family celebrating Christmas. There is also a beautiful painting of a poor labourer's family Christmas celebration. There are sketches from the first edition of 'A Christmas Carol.'
If you plan on owning a copy of this most wonderful of all Christmas novels, this is the version to get.

This book is one of the best ever so far. Its filled with emotion, love, and courage. Jess and Christian really love each other and then what a drastic ending! I was like OH MY GOSH!!!!! I cried at the end so hard when she said I won this for Christian the bravest man I ever knew. It showed how much she truly loved him. This is one of Kate's best yet, but what a TEARJERKER!!!!

This book is an excellent conclusion to the Rivalries mini-series. The plot is a "West Side Story" type thing, but with a touch of originality. I love the reality of it - the guys' macho attitudes when they're as a group etc. This book made me cry, it's written so well. The plot is believable and written with such conviction that it is all quite moving. One of the best SVH books ever.

One of my favorites, it's the kind of book that leaves you crying through out the story but smiling at the end, the author makes the characters seem very real that you can't help but feel their loss and cry their tears. Jessica and Christian would've been great together, that is, if the author hadn't gone a killed the poor guy, but i guess that's what makes SweetValley books special, they don't always have a happy ending which makes it seem more like real life. If i could give it a ten thumbs-up i would. Definitely deserves 5 stars.

Maybe Lila is being framed for the fire, but she certainly is guilty when it comes to her unprofessional relationship with Steven.

Part of Fowler Crest has burned down in a fire- and too much evidence against Lila is starting to look suspicious. Since her parents are away with no way to contact them, Lila becomes vulnerable, looking at Steven as a knight in shining armor when Steven is supposed to be investigating the case. How could Steven become so attracted to spoiled Lila, even if she is so seemingly helpless?

Okay, so that was a dumb little fling between them, but the book was exciting. Aren't most of the SVH books? When so much evidence started pointing at Lila, I almost believed she was guilty. Maybe that's a little farfetched, but it didn't look to good for her.

If you're looking for an in depth, soul searching book, perhaps this book isn't too well suited for your needs, but if you're like me and have enjoyed reading this series, read this one too! It's full of excitement and action!

This book is a great book and I recommend it. It is a little weird that Lila and Steven get together though. And it leaves you thirsty for more!

I thought this book was really great. It was interesting and I loved it. I knew Lila and Steven would get together sometime, and I was shocked to discover my guess was right when I saw this book.