If your looking for a great book that is going to teach you a leason as you read it than this is the book for you. The book tells a story of a family who is treated like trash because of their economical problems. If you decide to read this book than you will find how one of the children in this family has had enough of being treated like trash. And how his efforts to bring his family out of the gutters pitifully fails.

This book is very nice. You can certainly learn something from this book. James Lincoln Collier did write this book neatly. I would recommand this book to anyone who like lifestories especially about a childs life story.

This is one of Simak's best--the story of a man who lives quietly in an isolated part of Wisconsin and manages a transportation depot for an interstellar civilization of which Earth is not a part. Now Earth is in serious danger of a nuclear war, and at the same time, the interstellar society is experiencing a crisis of the spirit. Simak offers highly imaginative descriptions of aliens and their culture, and intersperses them with a loving appreciation of the natural world. The writing style is slow-paced and a little downbeat, reminiscent of Edgar Pangborn (author of the fine A Mirror for Observers), but even so, well worth the read.

This is one of the best short novels (around 200 pages) that the science fiction genre has to offer. Simak tells the tale of Enoch Wallace, a man with the responsibility of galatic travel weighing on his shoulders. Enoch is a wonderful character because he remains so very human when faced with the knowledge and understanding of alien culture and philosophies. Simak keeps the story short and simple which is good. I can't imagine this story unfolding into an epic novel like Dune. I rated this one four stars because I think the author has done better work. "City" by Simak was an astonishing collection of chronological short stories and altogether a better piece of writing. But, nevertheless, read "Way Station." It doesn't take long and it is well worth it.

Possibly the finest SF novel---ever! My brother and I have dicussed this book many times. This, with todays technology, would be great to see on the big screen. Not for it's special effects, they would be secondary, but for the story. It is such a shame this book is out of print because so many Sci-Fi fans are being deprived, unless they are lucky enough to have someone tell them about it, of a true masterpiece of science fiction. Simak peaks your interest from the very start, then puts you on an emotional roller coaster that really never ends. This book is clever, exciting, thought-provoking, and most of all, fun! I actually have a hardback(stays on the shelf) and two paperback copies. The first one is so worn, I retired it and the other one will soon gain the same status. What does this tell you? Find a copy (more than one if possible) and experience one of the greatest Sci-Fi books ever written.

Germinal, like many works grouped together as examples of literary naturalism, is not a novel one generally reads for enjoyment. It portrays the dark and oppressive world of 19th c. French coal miners and their attempt to free themselves through political awakening. The main character, Etienne, whips the miners into a socialist frenzy, leading them to strike against the company. As events unfold, Etienne begins to care less about the everyday details of the miners' existence and more about larger issues of socialism, anarchy, and world revolution. Etienne leaves the book a student of politics who has graduated. The miners return to their jobs -- with the hint that they will rise again. Germinal alludes to the works of Marx and Darwin, but detailed knowledge of those works is not required to get the point. The events are dark, sometimes base, and sometimes brutal. This is a book to be read, pondered, and (hopefully) discussed rowdily over beer. Start it and stick with it. It is not a particularly hard read, but it is a classic work that is not for wimps. Recommended.

Why do we have labor laws? Why do we accept nuclear energy and the oil industry? Why did the rich countries become so prosperous? "Germinal" shows you why. Often considered Zola's greatest work, it is indeed a truly epic story skilfully blended with penetrating political and economic analysis, not least of the mixture of motives that push people to stand up for their rights or those of others. Take John Steinbeck's "The Grapes Of Wrath", multiply it by ten or twenty and you won't even come close to this book. Deeply moving, shocking, but ultimately uplifting, for in the wreckage of the miners' crushing defeat after their strike Zola, for once, offers a glimmer of hope. Better to have fought and lost than to have done nothing. The seeds of a new, fairer world have been sown. And one day........

Germinal is generally considered the greatest of Emile Zola's twenty novel Rougon-Macquart cycle. Of these, Germinal is the most concerned with the daily life of the working poor. Set in the mid 1860's, the novel's protaganist Etienne Lantier is hungry and homeless, wandering the French countryside, looking for work. He stumbles upon village 240, the home of a coal mine, La Voreteux. He quickly gets a job in the depths of the mine, experiencing the backbreaking work of toiling hundreds of feet below the earth. He is befriended by a local family and they all lament the constant work required to earn just enough to slowly starve. Fired up by Marxist ideology, he convinces the miners to strike for a pay raise. The remainder of the novel tells the story of the strike and its effect on the workers, managers, owners and shareholders.
Zola weaves a strong plot line along with a multitude of characters. The hallmark of this novel is the wealth of people who populate the pages. The miners are not the noble poor but men and women who live day to day, cruel in some ways, generous in others. The managers are owners are not evil, greedy men but complex characters who in some ways envy the freedom of the miners from conventional morality.
As with most Zola novels, don't expect a happy ending. But the reader can expect to be transported to a world and a way of life almost unimaginable for its brutality and bleakness. Like other great works of literature, the novel explores the thoughts and actions of people who suffer the daily indignities of poverty and injustice. Germinal is different however because the thoughts and actions are not noble and the consequences of their actions are felt by all. I would strongly recommend Germinal as one of the major novels of the 19th century but one that transcends time and place. The issues evoked in the novel regarding labor versus capital are just as relevant to today's world.

If you're reading a novel which endeavors to link the lives of a Midwestern family in the late-1970s, World War II-era homefront politics, and Walt Disney, then you're going to want someone competent at the helm. On a superficial level, Richard Powers must be the man, since he's got a genius grant from the MacArthur foundation. Furthermore, he's adroitly constructed even grander Novels of Ideas like Galatea 2.2 and The Gold Bug Variations. His name inevitably comes up when critics are discussing the important young writers responsible for narrating our foray into the next millennium, along with William T. Vollman, David Foster Wallace, and Rick Moody-the "tall white male writers," as Wallace once put it.

But it took me a while to see what makes Prisoner's Dilemma the sprawling, history-rewriting novel of ideas it's been hailed as. For the first fifty pages or so, it reads like a comfortably traditional family novel reminiscent of Anne Tyler-which it is, on one of its multiple planes. But then Powers starts throwing in pseudo-factual flashbacks to the forties, with Walt Disney making wartime propaganda films (which he actually did, though not in the scope this novel suggests) and young Eddie Hobson (Sr.'s) eventual appearance in this surreal historical thread.

In less capable hands, Prisoner's Dilemma would probably come off as very, very formulaic, and just plain all-been-done-before boring. What rescues it? Well, for one, Powers' prose is beautiful and compelling. This alone should save the novel from complete damnation. The language during the italicized wartime passages is omniscient and confident, assuring us we're in capable hands as we struggle to understand-via Artie, via Eddie Sr., via ... Mickey Mouse?-the monstrosity that was the Great War. The language during the chapters set in 1978 is, by comparison, rather objective, but it still has plenty of intrusive third-person commentary inserted, lending an existential lushness to such simple acts as setting the table or playing catch in the backyard. This refusal to take for granted the mundane characterizes Powers' treatment of the Hobsons' dilemma, and, in turn, Eddie Sr.'s life. The mysterious illness that ravages Eddie and confounds his family is a physical manifestation of the ongoing battle within Eddie-a relentless tension between the Big Picture and the plight of the individual. The universal struggle to understand how one little person can matter in the midst of an incomprehensibly vast cosmos-a dilemma we all experience at some point-is magnified and played out continually in Eddie to such an extent that it precludes his ability to function adequately in the "outside" world.

The question of how humanity copes with the mounting onslaught of technological chaos is addressed repeatedly throughout Powers' narrative. During World War II, Powers recognizes that one of the greatest curative forces for Americans dealing with the war was, as it still is today, entertainment. In this case, the salve is Mickey Mouse and the whole Disney enterprise, enjoying its original heyday during the late thirties and early forties. Whole chapters are devoted to the role Disney played in the war, especially in the plight of the thousands of Japanese Americans interred Stateside. More generally, Powers describes Disney's function as a very early incarnation of the white noise in which we swaddle ourselves, in an attempt to keep out the horror we know is occurring out there: "[Mickey Mouse's] immense popularity must come from our learning, in a few years, how to ignore things that would have frozen previous generations with total horror" (98). Personified, as it is here, by such a congenial persona as Mickey Mouse and the rest of his Disney pals, it's hard to see how white noise could be all that bad. And Powers makes it clear that our relationship to the noise is ambivalent. We need it, and as much as we might decry it in attempts to elevate ourselves to more enlightened planes of world-awareness, we like taking refuge in Disney movies, or any incarnation of the entertainment noise we prefer. If the escapist quality of entertainment blossomed with Disney, and continued to grow throughout the seventies, when Artie is speaking, we in 2001 hardly need to be reminded how powerful and pervasive a mixed blessing it is now. Think of the samizdat in Infinite Jest that entertains its viewers into comas. Or, more immediately, consider the ways in which our country will-and already has-use pop culture as a psychological salve for the trauma of September 11.

At the urging of many friends, I finally picked up a novel by Richard Powers; I will never regret the long hours I spent reading and digesting The Prisoner's Dilemma. Although the plot is not as tightly-woven or as compact as I hoped, that is my only real (but minor) complaint about this book. Powers weaves an amazing tale that is both grandiose and haunting. The most skillful aspect of The Prisoner's Dilemna is the way in which Powers accurately represents the relationships between siblings. Having several siblings myself, I appreciate the delicacy with which Powers approaches these characters. Of course, the fact that the novel's plot and theme are virtual mind-trips is also a pleasing touch. This is an entertaining, thought-provoking, emotional, intellectual, and creative piece of fiction. I hope that the rest of his novels are as good or better than this; those I will be happy to give a full five stars!

Taking its title (and part of its story) from the well known group dynamics exercise of the same name, this novel asks us to examine what extreme individualism and self-sufficiency has done to our modern world. It beautifully examines the disintegration of one man as he recognizes the limits of personal initiative and education and the corrosive effect this disintegration has on his family. In a time when our so-called leaders play to our basest and most selfish instincts, this novel asks us to see the real need we have to be able trust each other and work cooperatively for the common good. Powers delivers this message in a fascinating and cleverly written work with complex characters with which we can identify and about whom we care. This is a book well worth reading.

Vincent Price stars in three shorts all based on Edgar Allen Poe stories. This was the first of the Roger Corman - Poe films I ever saw and it left an impact on me. Morella is the opening story and I feel it is the best and the one that is most like the rest of Corman's Poe films. Price is good at riding on the edge insanity while livng in a cob web covered house with his dead wife louning in a back room waiting to rise. Peter Lorre shows up in the Black Cat which is a combination of that story and the Cask of Amontillado. This entry is one of those horror - comedies that is very similiar to Corman's Raven. Price and Lorre both have some fine moments in this film including the dream sequence where Lorre's head is being tossed around like a ball. The Case of M.Valdemar comes last and this one has Basil Rathbone doing scientific experiments with Vincent Price with the expected ghastly results. Price has to were some gooey make-up in this one that was hot when they put it on. Price does great at playing a victim in these three different stories and there are some good people in the supporting cast. This one has the standards you expect in one of Corman's - Poe films, we have castles, corpses and killings.

Directed by the venerable king of quality low-budget filmmaking, Roger Corman, and scripted by the prolific and popular SF and horror writer Richard Matheson, TALES OF TERROR is comprised of three vignettes based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. The incomparable Vincent Price stars in all three, with Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone each co-starring (separately, alas) in one of the others. Any knowledgeable horror fans should be nearly euphoric after reading the credentials behind this flick--and they won't be disappointed!

The first story is based on Poe's "Morella," but Corman and Matheson take great liberties to make the tale darker and scarier than the original. Unfortunately, the altered plot and its resolution (?) are a bit hard to follow, and it is therefore the weaker of the three plays.

The second--and best!--vignette, "The Black Cat" is actually a composite of Poe's story of the same name and his "The Cask of Amontillado." Peter Lorre hilariously hams it up as the cuckolded Montresor Herringbone, and Vincent Price is also a riot as Herringbone's nemesis, Fortunato. In spite of the humor, however, there are still plenty of chills when Lorre builds a wall around his "problems."

The final vignette, based on Poe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," features the wonderful Basil Rathbone as the hypnotist who uses his powers to put the titular character, Valdemar (portrayed by Price), in a sort of limbo between life and death. Again, Corman and Matheson have taken liberties with the original story (e.g., making the hypnotist malevolent and self-serving), but this time it's to great effect, as Rathbone makes a delightfully devilish villain. The make-up job on Price in the final scene is pretty creepy, too, in spite of the film's low-budget effects. Good old-fashioned frights in this one.

The DVD edition of TALES OF TERROR is short on extras (trailer only)--it would've been great to have a Corman commentary on this one, which many of the other MGM releases of Corman's films DO have--but seeing this film in widescreen makes it well worth the reasonable cost. A worthy addition to any fan of classic horror.

Mention Roger Corman's 1962 "Tales of Terror" and you immediately think of Vincent Price teaming up with Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone. But for me this film owes as much to writer Richard Matheson, who adapted four Poe stories into three film vignettes. "Morella" is another one of those dark family secret stories. The title character (Leona Gage) had died in childbirth 26 years before, cursing her baby daughter. When Leonora (Maggie Pierce) comes home suffering from a fatal disease, she discovers her father Locke (Price) has been keeping mom's mummified corpse in his bedroom. "The Black Cat" also works in elements of Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." Montressor Herringbone (Lorre) finds out his wfie Annabel (Joyce Jameson) is having an affair with Fortunato Lucresi (Price), a rather foppish wine connoisseur. Unexpectedly funny because of the comic performances of the two stars, the story is this sequence inspired Corman to make "The Raven." Finally, "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," an elderly man (Vindent) whose dying days have been eased in part because of a hypnotist, Carmichael (Rathbone), whos wants to hypnotize Valdemar at the moment of death. The experiemnt succeeds, after a fashion, but Carmichael refuses to release Valdemar until his wife Helene (Debra Paget) agrees to marry him.

"Tales of Terror" is noteworthy for two particular impacts it had on horror films. The first was the emergence of anthology films that followed in its wake, such as "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" and "Black Sabbath." The second was the revival of interest in former movie stars at American International, which would soon add Boris Karloff to their roster. The stand out segment of this film is certainly "The Black Cat," with Lorre and Price showing marvelous comic timing. Lorre takes such perverse glee in walling up his wife and Price, plus there is nothing like the macabre politeness of movie villains . There is something transcendent about watching these old Hollywood pros have fun with taking these roles so seriously, so to speak.

I've given this book a middle rating because I'm not sure what category of reader is its intended target. It mentions "first time filmmakers" but few start at that point. If it's aimed at the rank beginner who's trying to find a handhold, I'd rate it lower. If it's aimed at those who are knee-deep in the process, or is meant to supplement instruction, I might rate it higher.

As someone just beginning to look into digital filmmaking, I bought this book along with Digital Filmmaking 101. I'm glad I bought DF 101. Digital Video, on the other hand, is destined to be donated to my local and impoverished library. Another book-buying lesson learned.

I don't think of it as a really bad book, or an unbalanced book, and if I were more familiar with digital video I might appreciate it more--or less, depending on how correct the information is. As it is, I finished reading it and felt as if I'd gained little "stick to the ribs" information from it. The chapters after chapter 7 seemed especially unsuited to the beginner.

It may be that the book tries to cover too much territory. Obviously, shooting a movie--even with DV--is a complex process where a lot can go wrong. Making a book complex (not necessarily detailed) isn't likely to work well with the person new to the process, especially if the editing isn't up to par.

I suspect the approach taken by DF 101, combined with further reading on various elements of the craft, will serve most of those readers better.

The book comes with a CD, the contents of which are unknown to me, as it appeared to be lightly scuffed and was unreadable in four CD-ROMs, even after cleaning. Hopefully an isolated case.

Ably edited by Scott Smith, the IFILM Digital Video Filmmaker's Handbook is a complete "how-to" instructional guide for digital filmmaking and covers all creative and technical aspects of pre-production, lighting, digital video, editing, post-production, distribution and exhibition. An essential, core title for personal, professional and film school library collections, The IFILM Digital Video Filmmaker's Handbook is enhanced with an accompanying and invaluable DVD of filmmaking resources.

I have ordered many books from Amazon in the past, but this is the first review I have written. After reading the poor review of Maxie Collier's IFILM Digital Video Filmmaker's Handbook, I had to offer my feedback.

I have purchased and read dozens of books about digital filmmaking and low budget filmmaking and Collier's book is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive. The book covers everything from film basics to an excellent explantion of digital production and post production technology and technics. I learned alot just reading the very informative glossary.

I have to agree with the review below that it is not the best edited book but the writing is excellent. I was impressed with the personal and inspiring tone of the book. Unlike one of the other digital filmmaking book I recently read (Digital Moviemaking by Scott Billups), this book is a great read. And, Collier's book cost less and comes with a DVD. (The DVD was kind of boring, but it has some real handy production forms on it that you can print out on your computer.)

While I'm a fan of other filmmaking books such as Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices (Rick Schmidt's classic), Collier's book covers digital technology far more thoroughly. If there is a better digital filmmaking book available, somebody PLEASE let me know the title and I'll order that one as well. Otherwise, the IFILM Digital Video Filmmaker's Handbooks gets my vote.

In my 8th grade English class I had to read My Brother Sam Is Dead as a reguired historical fiction book. I read the book in class as well as out of class on my own time. My Brother Sam Is Dead takes place during the Revolutionary War in a little town called Redding. Tim, a teenager, is telling the reader his feelings of the war and how the war affected him. I think teh author choose to tell the story through Tim because he was torn between being a Loyalist like his father or a Patriot like his older brother Sam. Tim's father doesn't think that his family shoyuld be involved in the war and Sam thinks it's his duty to fight for his country. Irony, was what made the book My Brother Sam Is Dead interesting. A good example is when Tim finds out his father had died on a British Jail Ship. This was unexpected because he was a Loyalist and he died on British Jail Ship. I expected him to die on a Patriot Jail Ship. Once you read what happens, your like I didn't expect that to happen. The same thing happens to Sam at the end of the book, but in a different way. In My Brother Sam Is Dead there were three main conflicts. The conflicts were personal, political, and character. Tim was the character withthe personal conflict. He was trying to decide whether to be a Patriot or a Loyalist. Tim knew his father had his reasons for being a Loyalist and so did his brother Sam. Tim wanted to be like his father, but also wanted to be like his brother Sam. The next big conflict was the political one. England and The Colonies were fighting over who got to run The Colonies. England thought they should get to run them because they had founded The Colonies. The people living in The Colonies thought they should get to run The Colonies because they lived there and didnt' believe in England's rule. The last conflict was between Sam and his father. This kind of conflict is called a character conflict. Sam wanted to go to war and fight an the Patriot side, while his father didn't think he should fight in the war. Sam's father was also a Loyalist so he didn't believe in anyhting the Patriots did or thought was right. In the book My Brother Sam Is Dead there were many great parts that I enjoyed. One part of the book that really got me interested was when Tim and his father were ambushed on their way to Verplex Point to trade the cattle for supplies they needed for their tavern in Redding. An other part was when Tim finds out Sam took his father's only gun, Brown Bess, when Sam's father specifically told Sam not too. If I had to pick a theme for the book it would most likely be "Everything happens for a reason." To me, it was like everything that happened to Tim changed the way he lived, acted or even thought. My Brother Sam Is Dead was full of suspense all the way through the book. I could hardly put the book down since I started reading it. I also read a historical fiction book called, One Thousand White Women. It was great too! One Thousand White Women was written in a journal form and I liked that format better than the traditional story form of My Brother Sam is Dead. I hope you enjoy both of these books as much as I did.

My Brother Sam Is Dead,by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier is the most exciting book I have ever read.I love to read about history and I learned a lot about history from this book.
It's 1775 and the Revolutionary War is about to begain.In a Tory town called Redding there is a family with two children named Sam and Tim.Sam is 16 years old and going to a college named Yale.He is a soldier for the Patriots,but his father is on the British side.
I loved reading this book.It was interesting and sad at the same time. I could not believe how much of the book was actually true.I felt surprised because it was so sad.I felt like I knew what the charactors felt like.In the beginning I didn't want to read the book,but when I started I didn't want to stop.I don't like reading about killing,but it got so interesting I just kept reading.Finally in the middle of the book it got really interesting.
The book discribes how brave all the soldiers really were.They would get killed just to save their country.I don't think I would be that brave to do something like that just to save my country.I would like to read another book about the Revolutionary War soon.

In 1775, Tim Meeker was 12 years old and was living in a family owned tavern in Redding. Sam, his older brother decided to join the Rebel Troops, even though the rest of his family was Tory. When Life,Tim's father,was making his annual trip to Verplank's Point Sam was not able to go so father had to take Tim instead. They went to get supplies when a gang of cowboys took father on a prison ship to die and he does. This leaves Tim and his mother to take care of the tavern. Meanwhile prices are going sky high. People have little food as it is because of the war. The war is getting closer to Redding. The British are coming into Redding and killing all of the Rebels. Mother refuses to accept all that is happening right around her.

When Sam is in town he visited his family. When cattle thieves steal cattle Sam is framed for it. The General sentences him to death. He was shot about a month later. It amazes us that he was killed for something he did not even do.This can't be justice.

I first read this book 4 years ago, and found it so brilliant that I immediately started reading it again when I had read the last page. Since then, however, I've read several other books on the subject, and through the great books of Hastings, D'Este and Keegan I've gained a far better understanding of the D-Day landings and all the problems the Allies faced. Compared to these books, "D-Day" is, to put it mildly, of very dubious quality.

Ambrose's first major mistake is his ridiculous claim that men born and raised in democracies will always fight better than men from countries ruled by dictators. Although this would've been nice, it's far from the truth. The Soviets, Germans and Japanese were all exceptionally hard and fanatical soldiers, known to fight to the very last man, and without doubt better soldiers than, say, the Americans, Brits or Canadians. This is perfectly clear to most professional historians, but Ambrose deliberately ignores historical facts if they don't match his political views.
Ambrose's simple(and idiotic, one might add) conclusion is that since Germany lost the war, the Americans and Brits were better soldiers. Little attention is paid to the fact that by 1944, the flower of German youth had already been wiped out in the great slaughterhouse known as "The Eastern Front," and that lack of fuel had made the German Panzer Units quite useless in offensive operations.

The Germans aren't the only ones who are victims of Ambrose's subjective approach to the war. The Brits are, quite wrongly, characterized as over-cautios pessimists, as poor soldiers and nearly as a burden to his "glorious Americans." To support this ridiculous claim, Ambrose makes use of two witness-accounts, from Montgomery and "many Germans I have spoken with" respectively. Montgomery is quoted as saying that his men weren't really killers(a statement made during the Italian campaign) while the Germans, according to Ambrose, "were surprised by how often the British would surrender as soon as they got the chance to do so." This is, of course, pure rubbish. First of all, Montgomery regarded his men as some of the toughest soldiers in the world(his tribute to the British soldier in his memoirs confirms this), and his statement that his men weren't killers are taken completely out of context.
His German source is even more unreliable, as the Germans for some reason or the other, always regarded the British soldier as better than the American. If this view was mistaken or not is a another discussion, but the fact is that the British were respected and even admired by the Germans until the end of the war.

To conclude, this book is totally useless as a serious account of D-Day. Yet, Ambrose is a very good story-teller, and the interviews with Allied and German veterans are very interesting.
Therefore, I would advice the reader to enjoy the first-hand accounts, but to ignore the rest of the book.

I loved this book. I have rarely read such an informative and 'on the beach' account of the d-day landings. There are a huge number of personal accounts and experiences of people who were actually there. Its actually very interesting to note how many small details the film Saving private Ryan apparently took from this book (e.g. Cross of david on the back of a Rangers tunic, Brooklyn, NY.)

However after reading most of Stephen E. Ambrose's work an overiding theme occurs. Acording to Ambrose, the second world war was entirely won by the American nation. Despite several years of war before the US became involved, Ambrose consistantly portraits all non-American allied forces as bumbling fools. I really feel that Ambrose is an amazing historian who really needs to let go his bias and accept that no single nation was capable of winning the war.

All up one of the best accounts of D-Day I've ever read but please Stephen, relax, America was essential in winning the war, but they didn't do it alone, and the rest of the world survived several years before the US got involved. What can I say, Theres no US in team.

D-Day was the most important day in this century if we didn't succeed in destroying the nazi hold on France we might not be living in the same world we live in now. It all depended on regular human beings, sent onto the bloodsoaked sands of Omaha, right into heavy German fire from up the hills. They (the U.S. Soldiers) picked themselves up under streneous weight from their soaked gear and made their way up the hill to take the beach. Stephen Ambrose collected oral histories from those that fought the battle that would turn the tide of World War II. From the harsh training to the miserable weather that delayed the launch, to the invasion itself, Mr. Ambrose tells the mens stories through their eyes, and it's harrowing to hear these men tell about how they survived such a traumatic experiance such as this, watching their friends being slaughtered in front of them.But they proceeded nonetheless. Mr. Ambrose did a great job with this book to commemorate these soldiers for their hardships and bravery in the face of an unrelenting enemy. He makes us remember these soldiers and what it was like on the field of battle and all the harshness of losing friends in battle. This a must read for anyone who likes to read about the soldiers of war.

War Comes To Willy Freeman is a wonderful book if you like learning about the American Revolution. This book takes place in New York. Willy Freeman is the main character. Her father goes to fight the awful British. After reading this book I wouldn't want my dad going to war. Her mother was taken by the British and Willy doesn't know where she is. This book tells about the hardships Willy Freeman has to go through. The reason I didn't give this book 5 stars, was because I wanted to know what happened afterwards. I recommened this book to people who like adventure.

WAR COMES TO WILLY FREEMAN is a very interesting and detailed book.If you want to learn about the Revolutonary War, this is your book.Willy Freeman is having hardships in her small town of Grotown. Her dad (a patriot)has fought in the bloody battle which took place at Fort Griswalt.Her mom has been taken away by the British as a prisoner.Now Willy is all alone.This book doesn't just keep you on the edge of your seat, it practicly makes you fall off of your seat. I think this book is a 5* book.I higly recommend this book to any one who likes action and adventure. You should read it!

War comes to Willy freeman
Willy Freeman it is a great bookit has a lot of actionand alot of shocking parts and exciment. Willy is a boy name but Willy is a girl. There was a war going on in Gorton. Willy wasin it with her dad and her dad got killed. And the british took her mom dut you have to read it to find outthe rest. And Willy is a strong person and brave to fight her battles. How dose Willy find her mom? Read the book it will give you some more infomation about the war.

Boom! The water sounded as it crashed up against the boat. Splash! Was the sound made when Birdseye, Daniel's best friend, fell into the water and drowned. These were some of the things that I could reflect on and think about as I sat upon my bed or in one of my classes. Jump Ship to Freedom is what I would call a four-star book. There was so much action and excitement! I just loved it. This book was written by James Lincoln and Christopher Collier. A company known as Collier& Collier.

The genre of this book is historical fiction. It is about a 14 year old boy slave named Daniel who stole his dead father's soldier's notes back from his master. He is going to be sold in the West Indies for doing so. His master takes him on a ship to sell him but they encounter many problems and end up going to New York. Daniel runs away from his master and meets two of his father's friends who decide to take him to Philadelphia with them. One of the men dies and Daniel ends up going to Philadelphia alone to keep a promise that he made to a now dead man. This is just a summary of a great book that I think everyone should read.

The main character of the book was Daniel. He reminds me of my mom because he keeps promises, knows what he has to do, and is brave. I could really understand how Daniel feels because of how alike my mother and he are. I learned from this book that to get where you want to go there will always be a struggle.

In this book I could see everything so clearly, I felt like I was there standing over everyone and everything. Watching and listening like some kind of U.S.A. spy. I liked everything about this book! I could feel Daniel's pain when his master slapped him on his face and his sadness when Mr. Fatherscreft died on their long trip to Philadelphia. Reading this book was great! I enjoyed reading the way that the characters talked and being able to know exactly how and what Daniel thought and felt about what was happening to him at the young age of 14. I liked meeting and encountering many different people and personalities. I have never read a book that I have felt so alive and there in other than this one.

The book Jump Ship to Freedom is about an African-American boy named Daniel Arabus who goes on a mission to buy himself and his mother freedom from the Ivers family. Daniel's dead father earned enough soldiers notes in the Revolutionary War to buy them free, but Mrs. Ivers took the notes from their family! After Daniel steals them back, he is sent on the ship Junius Brutus to be sold as a slave. The rest of the book is about how Daniel manages to give a message to his state's Congress representative and buy himself free. I enjoyed this book because it had many adventures, showed the character's feelings and what things were like in the time when the story took place. I recommend for you to read Jump Ship to Freedom. If you do read it, I hope you like the book as much as I did!

"Help there is a fire!" Mrs. Ivers said. Daniel Arabus sneeks into Mrs. Ivers room and steels his fathers soldiers notes. Daniel Arabus is a black slave boy who wants to buy his mom and his freedom. When Mr. Ivers takes Daniel on the Junius Brutus(Captian Ivers' boat)he has to get to New York to give his fathers soldiers notes to Mr. Johnson so he can but his family free. The problem is he is a fugitive slave and doesn't know if the notes are worth anything. This book is probably the best book I have ever read. It is a good book because Daniel is clever enough to even get the notes. The book just wows me so much I can't explain it! I hope that James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier keep writing amazing books like Jump Ship to Freedom.