My best friend introduced me to Deltora Quest a few months ago. Quickly attracted by the book I bought the rest of the Quest series the next day. I now read the books over and over. I heard of the new Deltora Shadowlands trilogy, and went to find out more.
A few questions came into my mind.
1.Is this just a cheap copy of the Quest series?
2.Is it going to be as action-packed and wit-burning as Quest?
3.Is the book going to have new or same characters?
I wanted to find out. But, not having access to interviews and technology, I bought and read the book. Two words. WOW!
I loved the book. It flowed and still had the same characters. It had new beasts and new challenges. And was definitely not a cheap copy. And it WAS action-packed. I mean, sword-flying, fists-swinging action. And yet, there was a sense of plan, and wits.
Many side characters were also interesting. Like Glock. Who was a strong warrior and just as stubborn to the end. And Jinks, the plump, stupid man who cares only for himself. And the Goblins. They were very good side characters. Their song still rings through my ears.
Above our land the tumult rages
Struggle echoes throught the ages
There the strife may never cease
But here below we dwell in peace
Where timeless tides swamp memory
Our sunless prison makes us free
The gem-glow lights our rocky walls
And dragons guard our shining halls.
Wonderful. And still the same old loved characters from before. Lief, the new king who is pressured to be safe and silent yet, he is still the reckless adventurer he always was. Barda, the big man who's brain was just as stong as his arms (and my favorite character). Jasmine, the witty, wise-cracking, quick jungle girl. Kree, the loyal raven. And Filli, the small gray fluff always on Jasmine's shoulder.
So, I guess I'm saying that the book is wonderful. I loved it and I hope you do too. It had many funny, exciting, and dangerous parts, and I loved it.

The Shadowlands series picks up where the Deltora Quest series left off. The same characters experience more adventure, excitement and danger as they are faced with another quest of good vs. evil. I really enjoyed the first series and am thrilled to see that Emily Rodda continued the captivating storyline.

Deltora may now be free of the Shadowlord, but there are thousands of their people trapped in the Shadowlands. The people left in Deltora are demanding a rescue mission, but King Lief knows that it is a suicide mission. The only hope of success lies in the magic of the Pirran Pipe - but the Pipe is long forgotten and is believed to be myth. Lief and his companions must face many new dangers and challenges if they are to free the lost people from the Shadowlands - but the Shadowlords has plans to stop them from succeeding.....

This first book in the new Deltora Shadowlands trilogy was excellent and had to be read in one sitting. Sometimes a second series is a bit boring because it's the same idea in a different place - that doesn't happen with this book! You have Lief and Jasmine from the other Deltora books, but there are other characters to meet too.

Like the first series, this series will appeal to boys and girls of all ages - including their parents. If you like magic, adventure, and danger then you will enjoy these books. It is best if you have read the Deltora Quest series first though - it will help explain the first part of this book.

Emily of Deep Valley was a sweet book. It was about Emily Webster and after she graduated from Deep Valley Highschool. Emily lived with her grandfather, a civil war veteran, in an old fashioned house across the slough. She goes to school with her own crowd and has some of the same teachers Betsy and Tacy had. Emily is one of those shy, sweet, and considerate charactures that every one loves. She gets you into the story with her longing to stay in highschool, and her longing to go to college. But she can do neither. She sees her friends come home for vacation from college. She finally decides to stop feeling sorry for herself and do something. She starts by putting her "hair up". This knocks off the whole story. As soon as the hair is up Cab Edwards, we know from the Betsy-Tacy series, begins to call on her and they go to dances together... I have one question though. When are they going to republish this wonderful book?

When Maud Hart Lovelace first wrote the "Betsy-Tacy" series, did she know how much so many people, from children to adults, would love them? The series has at least one book that anyone of any age can relate to. 10-year-olds will love "Over the big Hill," high-schoolers will love the books about when Betsy was attending Deep Valley High, etc. And it doesn't end there! Even if you're not the age that Betsy was in one of the books, you can still love all of them! Maud has a way of capturing real feelings and experiences--even bad ones--and turning them into works of art. The "Betsy-Tacy" series really is a work of art, even if it was painted with a pen, and not a paintbrush.

This book about an orphan in Minnesota living with her Grndfather is such an outstanding book that can be read over and over! This book is set in between 1910-1920, yet it still relates to modern living for teenagers. I won't ruin the story for you...read it on your own, and then tell it to your children!

This was a wonderful book about not giving up on the things you enjoy because of what someone else thinks! Emily learns that one persons rock is the next mans diamond. What makes us different makes us special!
Our favorite book = Matthew A.B.C. - same author

EMILY'S ART is the story about Emily, a first-grade girl who loves to paint. There is a colorful aura of joy around Emily as she paints with her heart, and she radiates a soft, pink glow when she paints a watercolor picture of her friend, Kelly. When Emily's class participates in a school-wide art contest, Emily chooses to enter a picture of her dog, Thor, with great big ears, "Because Thor hears everything." When all the first-grade pictures are judged in the art contest, Emily is heart-broken to see her beloved picture of Thor passed over because the judge hates dogs. Fortunately, Emily's friend, Kelly, and her teacher, Ms. Fair, show Emily how much they care about her, and the story ends with a class party to celebrate all the beautiful pictures the children made.

What makes this picture book so very special is the way that every illustration of Emily shows how she feels in body posture, facial expression, and her human energy field. When Emily is happy, soft colors of light shine around her head and shoulders. When Emily is sad, her head droops forward and she becomes transparent as her aura disappears. Every picture of her aura is delightfully different -- my favorite is the one where she is showing her friend, Kelly, how to draw a dinosaur and lots of bright colors surround her head, back, and arm!

This is a gorgeous watercolor picture book that shows how feelings look in the human energy field. I give it my highest recommendation!

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, the talent illustrator's best work to date, with an outstanding story. Faced with an art competition, Emily learns how seeing the world through your own eyes is better than any prize. My pick for the Caldecott award!!! Get it while it's still in first printing!

In The Genealogist's Companion & Sourcebook, genealogist Emily Croom presents the novice with a practical, effective, step-by-step instruction to the use of primary and secondary sources for genealogical research. Croom shows how to overcome such commonplace research obstacles as public records being lost to fire or flood which often frustrate family searchers. She shows how to use "cluster genealogy" effectively, as well as how to utilize church and funeral home records, government documents, court records, newspapers, and maps. To help illustrate her beyond-the-basics advice Croom employs bibliographies, case studies, appendices with census forms, a family group sheet, and information on major archives, libraries, lending libraries, and publishers. The Genealogist's Companion & Sourcebook is an invaluable addition to any personal or genealogical society reference shelf. Also highly recommended is Emily Croom's earlier guide: Unpuzzling Your Past: A Basic Guide To Genealogy.

I own all of her books and refer to them constantly! She offers the best information I've found on where and, especially, how to write for records. It's been my experience to find that other "how to" books all offer the addresses (which I can usually locate on the Internet anyway), but don't offer actual examples of the correspondence! Mrs. Croom does! I recently attended a local seminar where I had the opportunity to chat with her. She informed me that her next book will be coming out in the near future and it will focus on giving assistance with where to go when you've reached a brick wall in your research. I can't wait! Also, last but not least important, Mrs. Croom is a very nice lady!!

I bought this book when I first started doing genealogy, and I wouldn't be without it. It is a concise and thorough explanation of the basic research tools we all need to use. Even after having researched for several years, I find myself re-reading chapters to remind myself how to do particular things -- and I always "remember" some valuable information that I would have forgotten without this book. A bonus is that it is paperback and can be easily toted to the library or on research trips.

A friend and I have just started our personal shopping business. Thanks to Emily's book, we felt like a baby being led by the hand. This book helped us in so many ways.

Get Paid to Shop (tm) is a great personal shopping book! It was not only helpful, but also the personality Emily Lumpkin gave it made it fun to read. I read it in two nights and now I'm on my way. I actually started my personal shopping business idea before ordering the book and let me just say, I sure wish I had ordered her book first! I followed Lumpkin's directions step by step and already have my first client. Thanks to Emily Lumpkin for the information she made available. Her book has made my dream come true.

This book is a sheer joy. Emily Lumpkin's insights are both creative and useful. If you like to shop, this is a must-read. I've memorized it!

This book was amazing. I loved the way Louisa acts, and how differently Dee acts. Everyone should read this book because it really shows how it doesn't matter who or what they are, but you should always help them. This book is a perfect book, even if you absolutely hate ghost stories. READ THIS BOOK!!!

Dee is miserably lonely after the death of her mother. Her father, distraught after the death of his wife, sends his thirteen-year-old daughter to live with an aunt on a small New England island. Dee is even lonlier there, until she discovers she's not alone. The ghost of thirteen-year-old Louisa Lockwood, who died tragically in a fire a century ago, haunts the inn. She cannot join her family in the spirit world until she helps four of her surviving relatives. So Dee sets out to help Louisa find peace again. This was not a scary ghost story, make no mistake, although it was kinda suspenseful. It's a book more geared toward younger readers, but I enjoyed it.

I am a 26 year old mother of 3 kids, and am not too into reading scary books. Life is scary enough! This book is SO hard to put down! I started it at about 8:30 one night and finished it by 11:00. I wasn't scared, more like, intrigued by the goings-on in this book. Read it - however old you are - and I think you'll be glad you did.

I have several of the "If You Grew Up...." titles in my free-reading area of my sixth grade classroom. The George Washington title is one of the most-often chosen titles--probably because they are curious about our first president. This title also gives a good description of what life was like for the gentry class of Virginia in the 1740s-1760s. Students have been able to use the information to write comparison pieces about GW's life and their own. I highly recommend this title and the others in the series for both the literature and social studies classroom. Weak readers have a high interest in the subject matter; strong readers enjoy a quick read.

Although I don't have all the books in this series ("if you..."), the six that I have are so fun and interesting, that I intend to get them all asap. My three children (3-8), my husband and I LOVE them.

Outstanding look backwards in time to discover what it would have been like to grow up with George Washington. The book answers lots of questions; What kind of clothes would you wear?, What about the bathroom?, What did children do to have fun?, What would you learn in school? How did people carry their tabacco around?, Who made the laws for the colony? and many more... Loads of cheery illustrations cover the pages.

it isn't really like that. it's not just some disconcerting look into the underground of the east village full of drugs and sex and blah blah blah -- that's every other review. what's actually in this book is centred more around style than substance. ms. listfield writes powerfully, artistically, and honestly in these vignettes; she writes like comfort food. this is the kind of book where every line is the type of line you're prone to underlining or reading allowed to whoever will listen, the kind of sentences you want to carry along in your pocket for their brilliance. i recognised myself on every page.

all in all it's not the work of the century, but genuinely, genuintely worth the read.

... Every generation wants its twenties to be like Hemingway'stwenties in Paris, poor in pocket but rich in creative work, artist companions, great conversation and wine. Except on the lower east side of Manhattan in the 1980's, the artist part gets buried in drugs, booze, dancing 'til dawn in clubs. Love gets mangled in the partying, too. This is told brilliantly, unapologetically, in the voice of Sara who is resisting her family's call back to the suburbs, back to dependable, bland men and unexciting, secure jobs. Written in the time it portrays, just before AIDS changes everything, it is straightforward, not dripping with the irony of hindsight or regret. Above all, it is written with artistry, rendered in short cuts where every word is crafted, every word counts. It is of a particular time and place, but not dated. It is more honest than Bright Lights, Big City, more genuine than the recent retro film 200 Cigarettes.

Emily Listfield's "It Was Gonna Be Like Paris" was one of the first novels of the East Village in the days of its all-in-black post-punk art-scene glory... I first read this in the mid-1980s and I was thrilled and intrigued by the world she depicts... Listfield offers little cold vignettes of life in the punk world of artists, failed junkie musicians, and imminent violence and love... Her style is austere, cold, and clear. I was living in New Orleans when I first found this book, and I instantly gave copies to all my friends. We read it and spent a long spring and summer trying to live the novel in dance clubs and galleries in both New Orleans and Houston. The fact that this novel is out of print is a major indictment of Listfield's publishers. "It Was Gonna Be Like Paris" is a minor clasic, a small gem of a novel about a lost world and time... (Lohr Miller

This is a wonderful and amazing book on so many levels. I remember when I was trying to get ahold of this book there was an original printing that contained three huge wolumes, it was very expensive, then I saw that there was an updated version in one single volume. It's not easy to find a copy of this book but if you can get one check it out. Aside from listening to his music the only other true way to get to know this wonderful man and his family is through their letters to one another. Anderson does a wonderful job leaving the letters as they were written, and giving the reader helpful footnotes along the way. This book is very thorough and a great read. I would say it is for someone who wants a great deal of detail about mozart's life and times, in his words. I think this is in some ways better than a biography about Mozart, even though there are some great ones out there. This is the closet thing to an autobigraphy of mozart as there can ever be. Sadly, after the death of his father in 1787, Mozart lost his main contact, so we don't always know his day to day activities as we were able to get before then, especially the last three years or so of his life. But to read some of those letters to his wife constanza, or to puchberg, who was helping him again and again with his finances, to me are just heartbreaking. Why is it no one in his time was able to see this man as the unrivaled musical genius he really was??? Through this book we learn about his fears and flaws, his likes and dislikes and the things that were happening during each year of his life. The letters between Mzt and his father are very insightful, whether they are arguing with one another or praising one another. Even though this is a much longer and harder read than a biography might be, the author is the Mozart family, so there is really no way for the book to be biased as an author might tend to be in some areas. Have I said enough to convince you yet??? Go and get this book if you truly love Mozart and want to see him as he really was.

The letters make one feel present throughout Mozart's life. One sees Mozart as a human being,loving and pious but also sometimes mean and petty. I looked for this book for years ( I considered borrowing it from the library and "losing it") and finally found it through the publisher, St Martin Press.Good appendix and notes makes this an indispensible for the Mozart lover.

This is a much admired and beloved labor of love. Mozart wrote words like he wrote music: full of lively play and energy. His "naughty" letters to his cousin are especially wonderful! How do you translate a long string of nonsense syllables from German nonsense into equivalent English nonsense? Emily does it! And she handles the prolific scatological references in robust 18th century style (no Victorian gloves for Emily!) This should not be out of print, but it is. Please let me know if you find a copy.

In Mabel Takes A Sail, a friendly, energetic dog named Mabel embarks on a grand adventure when she and her family set off on a sailing trip around the island of Islesboro, Maine. Landlubber Maxine (the family's new dog) comes along for the ride and Mabel finds that she has her paws full as she tries to teach Maxine a thing or two about sailing and boating safety. Recommended for young readers, especially those who own pets and have access to sail boats, Emily Chetkowski's clever and entertaining story is aptly illustrated by the drawings of Dawn Peterson.

What a terrific book! I have owned and bred Tibetan Terriers for over 20 years and Emily has a real grip on the adventurous nature of this breed. Tibetan Terriers love their families and Emily has shown us how the family bond and the inquisitiveness which is inherent in the breed go together. As a social worker,I have used the previous Mabel Takes The Ferry book and have already planned how to incorporate the newest Mabel Story into my work with children. Thanks Emily!

Ms. Chetkowski has created a wonderful and whimsical sequal to her first book, "Maybel Takes a Ferry," which was equally enchanting for readers of all ages. This beautifully crafted second work, together with the return of the warm and personal artistic contributions of Ms. Dawn Peterson, invites one and all to join the Chetkowski family and take part in the lovable escapades of Maybel, the engaging and independent rascal star of story. I, for one feel as if I am already know and am part of the Chetkowski family. Perhaps during one of my sojourns along the beautiful Maine coast, I will actually run across Maybel and her human charges. Until then, I will anxiously wait for the third installment to come out. Hopefully, before another tourist season invades our coast!