Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is one of my favorite Authors, I adore the Alice series and I enjoy this series as well. But I think that there should be more girl guy relationships going on here if you know what I mean...Anyways I recommend this series and any other Phyllis Reynolds Naylor book because she truely is one of the only amazing authors who writes stories that teens and children can relate to. If you haven't read any of her works of genius than I suggest you start with this series...

The Hatford boys said they would treat them like sisters, but who said you have to be nice to sisters? The Hatford boys play many tricks on the Malloy girls, but they do not work why? The girls no what is coming. How do they no cookies and brownies do the trick. Caroline the actress of the Malloy family gets to be in a play. But so thing happens. A blizzard comes and the boys and girls are alon together worring about there parents. In this book you will not no what is coming next. That is why I call it the best book of the Millenium.

I happened upon Ms. Naylor's books through a book club and the titles sounded interesting. After reading the first 4 books aloud to my fourth grade students, I just had to buy this 6th book online! The pranks that the kids do to each other in this book continue to be filled with imagination. Thankfully, no one gets hurt because no serious harm is ever committed. If you want to understand pre-teens, this series is one to purchase!

What an experience! If you live within 100 miles of San Fransico and have children go straight to the project section in the back of the book. You and you children will have an unbelievable experience living a fantasy inside the book. It really lets you imagination take off! (even for us adults). The Flying Ferry Boat was an absolute pleasure to read and I highly recommend it to all families.

We read this book before we went to San Francisco. We loved the tall tale and appreciated the wonderful activities suggested. I would recommend this book to any family planning to visit the Bay Area.The facts concerning San Francisco Bay are correct and it was fun to think about what parts of the story were true and what parts were fantasy.

This was a terrific book to read before our family visited San Francisco. We loved visiting the places suggested and had a wonderful time imagining the characters in the various spots.

this book offers a great 'perspective on the past' but i have been unable to find a site on the internet that deals specifically with material in this text book.

aren't history books fascinating to read?
especially one that presents its information as clearly as this. The book isn't organized by exact time; it's organized by periods of time : i.e. renaissance, reformation, absolutism, etc. This is one of those books where you don't need a teacher to learn stuff. In my history class, we more or less were forced to go through it with a fine comb, or fail all tests. Though the teacher was kind of pushing the line between honors class and pure torture, those who did read it well got A's.

I found this book to give me exactly what I needed, a general overview of World History. It was very easy reading and it kept me glued to the pages. I wanted to read more and more. I do, however, agree if you want more in depth material you will need to go to another history book.

Fernand Braudel is thought by many to be the greatest historian of the 20th Century. MEMORY AND THE MEDITERRANEAN certainly supports this contention, as it reveals a comprehensive understanding of a complex area over many thousands of years. Published after his death, M&M was originally written in the 1960s, although much of the text was updated before Braudel's death in 1985. Roselyne de Ayala and Paule Braudel edited the text published in 2001. Furthermore, Françoise Galtier, Chief Curator in the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquties at the Louvre and Jean-Louis Huot, Professor at the University of Paris read sections of the book and provided comments concerning current thinking on various issues (footnoted in an appendix).

I found Braudel's book extremely well written and easy to read (translation by Siân Reynolds). I think anyone with a keen interest in this area and period could follow this narrative. I have a personal interest in goddess-centered religions, so I was very pleased to see that Braudel covered this topic throughout his narrative. In addition, the book contains a nice section of photographs of "Images of Religion" with numerous examples of female goddesses. For those interested in technological issues, the book includes a nice photographic section showing various sailing vessels. A good but not perfect section of maps has been added at the back of the book. There are some technical errors (page numbers of illustrations, etc. incorrectly noted), but I suggest the editors examined content, not publication niceties (copy editing just ain't what it used to be!!). Because Braudel covers the Middle East from the Neolithic period to the Romans, his book nicely complements Bernard Lewis' HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST which covers the past 2,000 years, beginning with the Romans and is also relatively easy to follow.

Whether he intended to or not (and I believe he did), Braudel makes the case that s/he who is uninformed about the history of the Mediterranean is badly informed indeed Although he covers many aspects of the Mediterranean past, Braudel's major focus is the Levant and Greece and their interaction. Over several millennia, hundreds of civilizations formed and dissolved in this ancient and tortured land. Apparently, warring parties and/or outsiders never learned to leave well enough alone. None of the conquerors left a lasting impression, not even the Greeks who held the Levant for thousands of years.

I enjoyed this book because Braudel wrote with the confidence of one who understood his subject well. Although he does not spend a great deal of time on any single person or group, he provides numerous citations for those who wish to follow up on various aspects of his discussion. I think the book provides an excellent overview of a complex place and is a must for anyone seeking the big picture of past times and an understanding of the current predicament in the Middle East..

Other reviewers have addressed the subject matter, I'd add that his approach might have as much to do with how enjoyable this book is as the material he covers. This book (and I'm assuming, his others) isn't just a recounting of the lives of major figures, retellings of major battles, etc - i.e. history as he tells it isn't just a trivial-pursuit collection of dramatic events.

Instead, he is careful to put historical change in the context of how it actually happens - usually gradual developments over long periods of time, the slow social transformations that take place, with context always playing a large role. Braudel does a good job conveying this, and it makes the truly dramatic events that much more significant.

I also had the feeling that he was being very honest with the reader, pointing out the places where there is contention among historians or archaeologists, and not wasting our time with differing viewpoints when when there's general agreement.

Fernand Braudel was one of the gurus of Mediterranean history. Many of the themes he pioneered in his classic book, "The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II" (1949?), he later applied to the history of the world in general, themes like the overlapping of civilizations and geography's relationship to history. "Memory and the Mediterranean" is a manuscript he set aside and never finished. In it, he explores some of the above themes in ancient times.

Starting with the prehistoric period and finishing with Rome, this is a strictly social history. It says hardly anything about politics or important people, which has been covered elsewhere. (If you're looking for a book about Antony and Cleopatra, this is not for you.) Instead, Braudel analyzes two things: the relationship between ancient Mediterranean societies and their physical surroundings, and the basic unity of those societies as identifiably "Mediterranean". What is it that makes a society Mediterranean, Braudel asks. What do all Mediterranean societies have in common? His famous theory that the Mediterranean world is all basically one is still controversial, but he argues it well.

Additionally, his writing style is fluid and he keeps the reader interested in the subject. Recommended.

This book presents scholarly arguments in favor of the thesis that the Book of Mormon is an "ancient book," i.e., not a hoax. It certainly evidences a higher respect for scholarship than most anti-mormon rants.

I believe this book wasn't written to prove the book of mormon is true, I think the book of mormon proves itself. However, This book is widely directed to those interested in finding evidence for its ancient origins. It is a scholarly directed book and although the essays are persuasive, the introduction of evidence is entirely objective. I'll continue my search for the truth, and this book will be read and re-read throughout my lifetime.

This is a solid piece of work, parts of which are even quite impressive. There is a great deal of Mormon scholarship being generated in recent years, and very few outsiders -- emphatically including anti-Mormon critics -- seem even to be aware of it. This book is a reasonably good place to get a sample of that scholarship.

This is the fourth installment in Reynolds's five part Hemingway biography. During this period Hemingway lived mostly in Key West. He wrote his first non-fiction bullfight book, Death in the Afternoon, To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bell Tolls. He also spent a lot of time in latter part of this decade as a journalist covering the Spanish Civil War. He meets the journalist Martha Gellhorn in Key West and begins the relationship that will break up his second marriage.

Reynolds does a good job here but it is not as good as the two previous installments. There is much less detail given here compared to those books especially with regards to Hemingway's thoughts and state of mind while writing the books of this period. The other books had a nearly page by page account of what the great man was doing and thinking while he wrote The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. This is noticeably lacking here. The account of the writing of For Whom the Bell Tolls is especially curt. That book, which is regarded as Hemingway's masterpiece, doesn't get the attention Reynolds gave to earlier works. I read somewhere that Hemingway contacted his publisher Charles Scribner during the writing of For Whom the Bell Tolls, telling him that one of the Spanish Civil War short stories he was writing had taken off in his mind and that he already had written 40,000 words. This information is nowhere to be found here. Instead there are gossipy details of the relationship with Gellhorn and the unkind treatment Hemingway's second wife, Pauline, received at the end of their marriage.

There is a long account of Hemingway's first African safari which I found uninteresting. Reynolds stresses his subject's need to recreate the "summer people" of his youth, the group of friends that would gather at Walloon Lake in Michigan every summer of Hemingway's boyhood. Reynolds's tries to force every single relationship to fit this "summer people" thesis even when it is less than apt. There is overlong attention given to hunting trips and less attention to the actual writing than I would have liked. Reynolds has a disturbing tendency here to introduce a new person into Hemingway's life story without much explanation of how they came to meet and what caused them to be friendly. On several occasions a new friend will enter Hemingway's life and without any explanation immediately become the center around which the narrative revolves. This is unsettling and made me page back on several occasions looking for the first appearance of this person. Overall, a poor follow up to the previous books in this series.

Though this is the fourth of a five book series, and the first I chose to read, I had no trouble keeping up. You could argue that Hemingway the man was more interesting than his fiction and Reynolds goes a pretty good distance to show why. Hemingway takes his first safari, catches Marlin in Key West and fights in the Spanish Civil War, and switches women before the end of the decade.

Reynolds paints a fairly descriptive portrait of Hemingway, but also reminds us of other current events as the decade unfolds. Hemingway begins the decade mostly apolitical, but he is very critical of the New Deal Programs he sees running in his hometown of Key West Florida. In 1936 he likens President Roosevelt's plan to socialism, but his support two years later of antifascist guerrillas in the Spanish Civil War allies him with downright communists.

It was also interesting to watch Hemingway's friendships crumble. Reynolds describes how Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sherwood Anderson went their separate ways from Papa for various reasons, but mostly because Hemingway was an explosive character. His larger than life dominating personality coupled with his fatigue for certain personality types doomed a great deal of one-time friendships.

What I like mostly of Reynolds work is that he likes Hemingway a great deal, and this comes through, despite Papa's many flaws.

Hemingway: The 1930s is the fourth installment in Mr. Reynold's series; he does not "dump you into the story midstream." Anyone with even a little knowledge of Hemingway is familiar with this series and knows that Mr. Reynolds is THE Hemingway biographer. My advice - do at least a little research before expressing an opinion.

At last, a sequel to the epic story of modules A1-4, Scourge of the Slavelords! I was so excited to see this finally make it into print that I bought 7 copies. A brand new Greyhawk adventure, based on the modules of old, but an entirely new experience, with no rehashing! How long had I been waiting for this? The enthusiasm wore off a bit as I plowed through the module's 128 pages. I haven't had a chance to play this adventure yet, but I have a few reservations about the experience. The adventure begins well. The humanoid clans of the Pomarj, scattered into chaos once again by the heroic depredations of the adventurers of 20 years ago (A1-4), have once again been reunited by a Slavelord - this time, it is the grim, charismatic Turrosh, a half-orc princeling who shows ingenious savagery as both lord and conqueror. The dreaded yellow sails, not seen on any armada for years, have once again become the symbol of death and slavery throughout the Wild Coast, and even as far as the Nyr Dyv. It's time for a new generation of heroes to put an end to the menace! Things get a little sticky as the scenario continues. A bit more reading reveals that this isn't really a heavily-scripted adventure; actually, it's more of a sourcebook with detailed encounter keys. The PCs are given no single incentive to go from point A to point B - and although the work is impressive for its non-linearity, a bit of frustration sets in as the DM realizes that at least 10 hours of preparation will be required (after the preliminary reading) to make this adventure come to life. But don't let that throw you off! The more you read, the more you realize that the book is set up so that it can be perfectly customized to your campaign. Even better, it gives exhaustive, detailed, and imaginative settings, many of which are famous and well-known to long-time wanderers of Greyhawk: Hardby, Elredd, Highport (at last!), and more are revealed for the first time with well-planned encounters and many pages of lore. What's mostly lacking is the dungeon crawls - there's a few slaver outposts highlighted, but the book's pages are mostly spent detailing the settings of the adventures, rather than detailing the adventures themselves. One of the most impressive aspects of the sourcebook is the great ideas. We're treated to the ruined, shipwreck-dotted coastal village of Cantona, whose non-Euclidean angles and magical wardings prevent summonings and teleportation; the Yellow Tooth Kobolds of the Pomarj, who create makeshift floating villages with which to harass the unwary; the Temple District of Highport, where we get to read about the intriguing worshippers of Vecna, Iuz, Incabulos, and more; and the return of Stalman Klim, with his insidious plots to spread the Cult of the Earth Dragon throughout the heartlands of the Flanaess. The final "dungeon," the Temple of the Earth Dragon, is creative, fun, intense, and well-planned; but, this section is abysmally short. The hopeful DM is left with the idea that someone cackled, threw a handful of ingenious ideas into a cauldron, and then... forgot to stoke up the fire. If you're looking for flashing blades, sizzling spells, and piratical scenes of mayhem and drama, you'll likely be disappointed. But if you want an outstanding sourcebook that provides lavish detail on some of the most eternally mysterious corners of Greyhawk (which happen to be very close to the Free City itself), you'll find Slavers to be an excellent resource, with the seeds of many potential adventures. May it live long and free!

Don't pick up Slavers expecting a quick, easy-to-run module. It's not. But it can be much, much more. In fact, Slavers can serve as the basis for one of the most epic Greyhawk adventures you'll ever run.

For me, Greyhawk stands out as a campaign world for several reasons: the influence of history, great villains, and strong plot development (though not necessarily resolution). Slavers has all three. It starts with the background of the Slavelords, relating the role they have played in events throughout the Flanaess. We learn what motivates them and what they hope to achieve. They are greedy, ruthless, power-hungry, and above all, smart -- the perfect ingredients for memorable villains. As this story of intrigue develops, the players will discover plots within plots that go deeper than they ever imagined.

Apart from the adventure outline, Slavers holds its own as a sourcebook for the lands immediately surrounding Greyhawk. You'll find a detailed description of the Free City of Dyvers -- including its geography, government, economy, prominent citizens and more. Blackthorn, the humanoid lair hidden deep within the Gnarley Forest, is finally revealed. Slavers also does an incredible job of bringing Pomarj cities such as Highport to life, offering a realistic picture of how thousands of humans, orcs and others manage to co-exist.

Crafting this exhaustive material into a campaign will take some work. (Chances are, you'll spend a couple nights just reading through it all.) But it's definitely worth the effort. Slavers represents one of the best releases put out by Wizards of the Coast for D&D.

At once I was pleased to find that several of the original Slavelords had survived and had rebuilt the organization. This super module provides enough action and plot to put together an entire Greyhawk campaign for characters that are roughly 3rd or 4th level. It also provides plenty of side adventure hooks and ideas to keep the action going and to come in and out of the campaign to keep things fresh. Several key towns and cities are described to provide locales for action and to act as bases of operations. Several slave lords are familiar and several are new. The story will take the characters on a ride across several parts of Greyhawk during their quest and serves as a good means of "jumping" in to the setting. All in all this is an excellent module that should provide players and DM's with many sessions of thrills and action.

The module details four of the five Star Cairns, which is somewhat disappointing since this seemed like a missed opportunity to present the lost fifth Star Cairn. Instead, the four known Star Cairns with their current inhabitants are listed while the fifth is apparently still missing.

While the inhabitants vary widely, the floor plans for the four Cairns are essentially identical and this appears likely to take some of the fun out of exploring a new Cairn, players will already know where the chambers, stairs and halls lead after seeing any one of the Cairns. There are some common magical features and creatures as well, players and DMs alike will probably find themselves saying things like "Hm, the kitchen should be that way and that's where we will find the mephits...", there could have been more variety between the Cairns. This can be a major drawback if you don't run a WoG campaign or wanted to run the Cairns as four separate dungeons, the DM is restricted to a unifying theme and it is all but impossible to pass the Cairns off as unrelated dungeon crawls, something for which they are probably best suited.

Plotting and story lines are quite thin and the Cairns apparently operate wholly independently of one another with only a few general suggestions for the DM in how these NPCs might be incorporated into the campaign as a whole. This again is a missed opportunity since three of the four Cairns have inhabitants that could be developed into major NPCs or centers of power and it seems unlikely that such potentially powerful groups could dwell within a few miles of each other with practically no interaction or interest in the others. The golem Cairn was rather neat, but is probably a one-time dungeon crawl while the necromancer Cairn was fairly unimpressive as it doesn't seem very workable as written. The doppleganger and beholder Cairns were among the best of the lot, but too many details were left unanswered about these creatures and their often far-ranging activities.

Though the Cairns were supposedly built by powerful wizards, the use of permanent magical effects was a bit overdone and there is the definite feeling that a group that explored all four Cairns in succession would rapidly grow bored with the identical layouts and features. While the history of the Star Cairns was rather interesting, the background material is a bit sloppy and some of the information directly conflicts with previously published Greyhawk material, for example an ancient wizard is referred to as serving the Malachite Throne some two centuries before the throne was created and the small-scale map changes the location of some previously established places of renown. I really wanted to like this product, but nagging problems like these were just a little too frequent to recommend the product as anything more than mediocre.

The latest from TSR/WOTC is The Star Cairns first in a series of modules designed for TSR's reborn World of Greyhawk called The Lost Tombs Series.

Adventurers are tapped to discover the secret of a newly rediscovered series of crypts. But all is not as it seems.

This module is perfect for beginning DMs as well as grizzled veteran DMs. The beauty lies in the perfect mix of detail and vaguery. The module is detailed enough for new DMs to base a beginning campaign on and broad enough to be woven into an established campaign: the hallmark of GreyHawk itself.

All in all Star Cairns is a quality product and Sean Reynolds is a rising star to be watched.

After trying out Sea of Blood as a new DM (played for years as a character) and deeply disliking the way the story went, this is wonderful. It gives the novice DM all the info. necessary to run a dungeon the players like (isn't that what it's all about?) as well as having fun yourself and learning how to be a better DM. Very enjoyable story. Exploring all 5 Cairns was fun.

I thought this book was an ok reading book. I am in 8th grade and I thought it was a little young for me. It could have been better.

The Night Cry is one of the best books I have ever read!! It is about a young girl and her father. The girl's father gets a job and she has to stay alone for a week. Some unexpecting things happen when she is there. She winds up trying to rescue a small boy that was kidnapped out of his own room. I chose this book because I like horses and on the cover there was a horse. My favorite character was the Grandma because she was funny and mysterious. Everyone in town thought she was crazy. The best part was when the girl was in the barn trying to find out a way to rescue the boy. She finally busted out of the barn on the horse. I liked that part because she hadn't ridden the horse since her brother got kicked off and was killed. The only bad thing about this book is that it is very predictable. Otherwise it was very good!!

For all you readers out there,i would lik eot tell you a short summary of the book Night Cry by Phliss Reynolds Naylor.Night Cry is a book about a very bravy little girl who gets over a big fear of hers,the girl uncovers a mystery whils overcoming her fear of a horse who killed her younger brother.she is remarkablely brave.the girl also betrays a kidnapper to whitch she does not know kidnaps Jason Cory a son a of a famous actor.but this also is a tragic heroic story.I inspire all you readers out there that is into tragic mystery storys to read this book it is terrific.(at first I did not think I would like it because Iam not much of a reader but i really enjoyed it.)

I work with 5th and 6th graders, who can not sit still for abook read their grade level--not even Harry Potter. Because this book introduces the concept of a fairly sophisticated vocabulary word, "serendipity", it was a hit with the 11 and 12 year olds. They were able to learn from the book's delightful examples what serendiptiy means. Because the text per page is short, they could listen, even those students whose attention spans are not long. A welcome book for most collections. Highly recommended.

Our family truly loved this book, and immediately recognised the delightful style of illustrator, Peter Reynolds! Reading this made me go back 40 years, and recall my own "serendipitiest" moment... that of riding my first two-wheeler, with my dad running along beside me, and holding the back of the bike for balance... sailing down the street, glancing back..... with the realization that my dad had let go WAY back at the beginning of the ride! This story will bring a serendipity moment to all who read it. We've all had them! Thanks Toby and Peter for reminding us!

This is an amazing book. It has quickly taken its place as one of my daughter's favorites (she particularly likes to say "serendipity"!). I would thoroughly recommend this book to any parent who is looking for that rare children's book that is as enjoyable to read aloud as it is for a child to hear.