This is a good book to read if one is trying to learn about the people involved in the formation of the state of Colorado. Ms. Bueler's in-depth chapters about mining and the building of the railroads can help one understand what type of people came to Colorado and how they survived and thrived. A person with an interest in those two areas of history would not be disappointed in the book. Anyone looking for a wider variety of characters in Colorado's history, however, would be better off trying a different book.

Colorado's Colorful Characters by Gladys R. Bueler provides the reader with a truly fascinating picture of the lives of pioneers, miners, con artists, mountain men, dreamers, and more, all of whom contributed to making Colorado what it is today. Black-and-white photographs, a comprehensive chronology, and most of all, a wide range of amazing anecdotal tales makes Colorado's Colorful Characters an engaging read offering a dash of zesty flavor to a proud state's history.

Gladys Taber presents a delightful and informative history of her life with her personal pets and as a breeder of cocker spaniels and Irish setters. Her first childhood pet, an Irish setter, was a reluctant gift from her father who had offered a diamond ring as a reward for good grades in school. Gladys preferred a dog and continued to lavish love and devotion on her dogs and cats throughout her life. Gladys Taber is a marvelous author who takes you back to a simpler time and makes the reader feel that they are there watching a beautiful sunset, smelling spicy aromas from her kitchen or watching her Irish setter run across the lawn at dusk. She gives very practical advice about the care of dogs and the steps involved for those who are interested in training and showing their pets. I grew to love her writing style from her other books and greatly enjoyed this one.

In The First chapter of "Especially Dogs" Gladys Taber tells us about her first Dog, Timmie, and because of her vivid and heart-tugging descriptions Timmie is still alive and resting his head on the laps of readers after more than fifty years.

This book is an very good anthology of hispanic writers from the 1800's to the present. It contains short stories, essays and poetry. In it's pages it includes essays from José Martí and Simón Bolivar. In the short stories categories, it includes writers like Rulfo, Alejo Carpentier,and Rosario Ferré. It also has some poems by José Martí and Gertrudis López de Avellaneda. This book is a great source for class or a great addition to your personal library.

In my upper level Spanish college class, I used this book last semester, and am using it again this semester. It is a wonderful book, with short stories and poems written by the best authors in Spanish literature. The questions at the end of each work help the reader to understand the meaning of each story, as well as to delve deeper into the Latino/Castillian culture. More difficult or unusual vocabulary words are footnoted at the bottom of each page. I highly recommend this book. It will be especially enjoyed by a native speaker or anyone fairly fluent in Spanish.

Well, before I read this installment in the Mandie series, I stumbled across a review which gave away the ending. That kind of spoiled it for me, but I decided to read it anyway. It was a good mystery, with Mandie returning to school, fresh from an eventful summer break. Mysterious things begin happening, including a jar of molasses in Mandie's bag and some of Miss Prudence's files in Mandie's room. With Snowball escaping again and causing trouble, all fingers point to Mandie as the culprit. But who is behind all the mysterious happenings? April Snow again? Or someone else, someone we'd never expect...?... I'm not telling!

Hi! I'm 14, and my name is Virginia Sulpy. I consider myself a sort of expert at critiquing Mandie books, since I have read every single one of them at least 5 times. This book is very good, and provides quite a bit of mystery. Someone is doing awful things, like putting the headmistress's private files about the school in Mandie's and her friend's room. Mandie gets caught a few times putting them back, and she even gets suspended. One of the mysterious things that is going on is that her grandmother is not home, which is unusual. It turns out that she had been looking for Hilda, a deranged girl who Mandie found. Then to stir things up even more, the students at the school are planning to protest against the potential buyers of the school. Thier plans are cut short by the news of President McKinley, who was shot. This story is very realistic, and the author has had a field day of desciption. Looking at the other books in the series, this one does not tend to stick in your mind. However, don't pass this one by!!! THANK YOU, MRS LEPPARD! Keep it up!

A very good book. Mandie has learned that she will be allowed to visit President Taft, if Grandmother goes with her. She goes with her, and meets up with Joe, Sally, and Uncle Ned. Mandie and her friends enjoy exporing the White House. But, her explorations take a mysterious turn when Mandie believes she sees George Washington! She begins to see him again, and thinks she hears a mysterious plan! The truth is very unusual, and a rather let down after all the suspense. It is still a good Mandie Book, so be sure to read it!

This is a marvelous book about when Mandie visits the WhiteHouse. It is very mysterious and thrilling! I'm sure that anyone whobought this book would absolutely love it! It is one of my favorite books. It is sure to be a favorite with anyone who likes Mandie or any other kind of Mystery book!

Que suerte! What luck! We are so glad we came across this book and the others in Gladys Rosa-Mendoza's series. The author does a nice job of introducing basic English and Spanish vocabulary words in an interesting way. My son enjoys listening and looking at the colorful drawings and trying to repeat the words. All in all it's a nice addition to our children's bilingual collection. Gracias Amazon for providing these great teaching tools!!!!

It amazes me to hear my grandson and granddaughter using the Spanish words from this volume and the others in the author's bilingual series. I guess that is the best tribute to the quality of the books in the series--they reach and they teach. The books are thoughtfully put together and have great visual appeal. Lots of fun for the grandkids (and for me) as we learn.

This is an o.k. book. It easily captivates your attention and keeps it this way until the end, but it(like most Mandie books) makes her sound and act older than her age which forms my opinion. This Mandie book tells of 13 year-old Mandie's visit to Joe in Swain country, where she used to live. While visiting her old home she(Mandie) and Joe see someone looking out a window. Determined to found out who, Mandie and Joe are swept into four mysteries: 1. Who is writing on the school blackboard? 2. Who is shooting at Mandies old house? 3. Who is in her(Mandie's) old house? 4. What is going on between the schoolteacher and the widow? Are the mysteries tied together? Find out for yourself. There was some stuff that I didn't agree with, but overall it is a pretty good book.

After solving a mystery at school, Mandie is allowed to visit with her old friend Joe Woodard and check up on her fathers house. While there, she stumbles upon a mystery (as usual). Someone seems to be shooting at her fathers house! And someone is hiding inside! But who? They won't answer the door. As if that isn't a mystery enough someone is sneaking into the schoolhouse and leaving messages on the blackboard. Soon Joe's dog diaasapears, and it seems like he and Mandie are being followed around by a crazy man as they search for her. I think some of the best Mandie Books take place when she is outside of school, and this is no exception.

I love Mandie! These books are great. This is my favorite. Mandie always gets in trouble somehow or another, but she also always gets out of it. I won't say why i like this book so much, but it is great! I recomend reading some of the other books first, but this book is a must! -Marlena

The Yangs' translation of A Dream of Red Mansions is extremely accurate. That's about the best thing I can say about it.
Unlike David Hawkes and John Minford's masterful translation, which can stand on its own as a work of literature, this edition reads like...well, like a translation. The prose is flat, the puns of the original are translated literally, rather than being approximated as in the Hawkes-Minford version, and on the whole, the flavour of the original Chinese text is missing.
A person trying to read the original Chinese text of A Dream of Red Mansions might find this translation useful to keep at hand for a side-by-side comparison. The translators of this edition take fewer liberties with jokes, puns, and poems than Hawkes and Minford. (I should stress that when Hawkes and Minford deviate from the original text, it is only in minor and inconsequential ways, and is always in service of the text.) The Yangs failed to realise, apparently, that being faithful to the precise words of a book isn't necessarily the same as being faithful to the spirit.

If you want to know the history of Qing dynasty of China, read it;
If you want to learn decent Chinese, you must read it;
If you want to enjoy the great Chinese culture, you defenitely must read it;

The translation is also the best one I have ever seen. But if you try to read the original Chinese edition,maybe you will be more agreed on what I recommended.

If you want to know the true Chinese culture and society, you must read it!! The greatest book I have ever read. Although Cao Xueqin is not so famous as Shakespear or Charls Dickens in the western world, but I would say his masterpiece-A dream of red mansions-is among the greatest works of the world. Try to read the original Chinese edition, but if you can't, so this book is great for you to improve your Chinese to a very high,very decent level-although this maybe takes you a long long time and much much effort, but believe in yourselves!

I thoroughly enjoy the Mandie series, but this book was a real disappointment. The story concerns the building of the Cherokee hospital and Mandie and her friends are trying to discover who is sabotaging the project. The learning lessons Mandie must discover are again good here.

I had some major problems, though. The book (unlike the others) has a overwhelming condescension theme toward the Cherokees: the white people must come in to solve the mystery and the Cherokees sit around wringing their hands. Also, Mandie's parents let their daughter get away with all of her misdeeds, disobedience, and whining and let her run around with dangerous terrorists in the neighborhood. Sound like normal, rational parents? Last, the mystery is obvious and insults the meanest intelligence, especially that the adult characters cannot figure it out.

Overall, this book is a necessary tie-in for the rest of the series, but not up to the caliber of the other Mandie books.

This was a rather interesting Mandie Book. In this one, thegold Mandie and her friends found is being used to build the hospitalfor the Cherokees. Mandie wants to see how the project is coming along, but nothing is done! It turns out that the builders work all day, and a night watchman keeps an eye on it after dark. But continually, the watchman is beaten up, gagged, and someone tears all the walls down. Who could be doing this? No one knows, because the watchman is continually beaten up. Mandie decides to figure it out, but in the meantime, Joe gets kidnapped! Then she and Sallie do. They do solve the mystery, though. Is it Ts'ani? I'll never tell...

This was a rather interesting Mandie Book. In this one, the gold Mandie and her friends found is being used to build the hospital for the Cherokees. Mandie wants to see how the project is coming along, but nothing is done! It turns out that the builders work all day, and a night watchman keeps an eye on it after dark. But continually, the watchman is beaten up, gagged, and someone tears all the walls down. Who could be doing this? No one knows, because the watchman is continually beaten up. Mandie decides to figure it out, but in the meantime, Joe gets kidnapped! Then she and Sallie do. They do solve the mystery, though. Is it Ts'ani? I'll never tell...

I was disapionted with the end of the book. All through the story the group makes lots of trips to the church and finds things that don't add up. At the end they find the person by chance, and he explains every thing. All they needed to do through the whole story was find the person who did it. Leppard sounded as though she didn't plan ahead so she fixed it all up at the end.

I thought this book didn't really seem like a mystery. It had a good plot, but the author didn't seem to work a lot of suspense into it. When obstacles occured, my heart didn't start beating with fear, or anything like that. It was just, generaly, not very interesting. But, still read it to keep relevant with the series. The Church bells begin to ring thirteen times at Midnight. Mandie and her friends decide to investigate, but they don't really find anything. After a while they solve the mystery. It sounds interesting and suspensful, but it isn't.

This book was very good and suspenseful. Mandie and Celia are staying at Grandmother Taft's house while there is an epidemic going around. Someone or something is ringing the bells and extra time at each other. The townspeople are blaming the bells on all the sickness that is going around. What can Mandie and her friends do before things get out of hand?