If you haven't ever been a reader and you don't think any book will interest you enough to read it--pick up a Stephanie Grace Whitson book. Go to Nebraska and step into the life of Karyn Ritter. Stephanie Grace Whitson can take you into Karyn's life and you actually wish you were there. Stephanie Grace Whitson brought Karyn Ritter into my heart with her book Karyn's Memory Box. Everyone in the world could learn alot from Karyn and Mikal Ritter as well as all the characters in all the Stephanie Grace Whitson books. Stephanie has a little bit of scripture at the begining of each chapter and you may understand it in one way but after you read the chapter it shines a whole different light on that piece of scripture. Stephanie Grace Whitson has a way of using scripture and the characters in a story to move you spiritualy. If Karyn can endure all she did and still enjoy life-anyone can! I have read Karyn's Memory Box and every other Stephanie Grace Whitson Book and I can't wait for the next! Enjoy them--I did!

Stephanie Whitson has done it again--told a wonderful, historically accurate story with a a great romantic story woven in. The ending will leave your heart aflutter.

I have every book Stephanie has written and everyone has been fantastic. Karyn's Memory Box is a very heartwarming story and is about Karyn's faith in God during the hard times. It is a mixture of romance, dispair, heartach, and patience. An excellent read!

Fifteen-year-old Caitlin's entire world falls apart when she recieves the news that her father has died in a shipwreck. Caitlin's older sister, Rebecca, decides the best thing for the two of them to do is to move west to Nebraska, where Rebecca is to marry a man she has never even met. But from the day they arrive in Nebraska and Caitlin meets Rebecca's husband-to-be, she knows this is going to be harder than she ever imagine. Caitlin and Nate fall in love immediatley, but Nate is determined to remain honorable and marry Rebecca, as he promised to do. Living in the same house as Nate is sheer torture for Caitlin, especially after Nate and Rebecca marry and Rebecca becomes pregnant. Although she eventually resigns herself to never having Nate, a terrible tragedy gives them a chance to be together, paving the way for an ending that is both happy and sad (with an especially ironic twist in the end). I wish this book hadn't gone out of print, because it's a wonderful book for teenage girls who love historical romances, like myself (although I was actually quite young, only eleven, when I read it years ago).

soooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooood

It was lovely, I can't take it of my hand. You should read this one

DANDELIONS is a very moving story. It does an excellent job in describing the struggles and bravery of a pioneer family. Although it doesn't detail why the family had to leave Illinois (their home), it does show readers that even back then parents may not have always agreed on family issues. Through the dialogue in the story it is apparent that the family wants their apprehensive, pregnanat mother to be happy, and they strive to make her so. The painted illustrations by Shed were very true-to-life and warm; they establish the setting and mood of each page. Further, the pictures helped define the characters by showing emotion through facial expressions and body language. Of course, those factors contributed in reinforcing the text. Despite the fact that the artwork has a warm fuzz to it (almost giving a surrealistic feel), attention to detail was definitely established, giving the story realism and life.

This beautifully illustrated(Greg Shed) picture book tells the story of a pioneer family settling in the Mid-West. Mama, Papa and their two daughters, Zoe and Rebecca have left the security of home in Illinois to settle on the Prairie. Papa and Zoe make a pact that they will help Mama feel better about living on the Prairie. After Zoe and her sister plant a patch of dandelions on the roof of their sod house, Mama agrees that their family is hardy and will bloom just as the dandelions are sure to do. This book, told from Zoe's viewpoint, is a touching recount of the feelings of the sodbusters. Would be very useful for primary teachers and media specialists in the mid-west states.

My third grade class read Dandelions as a large group. We loved the pictures and the characters.It was very interesting learning about the way families settled the land. We decided that the book was showing us that families are like dandelions and they both grow with love and caring.

Writing from a narrative center somewhere between Mark Twain and Garrison Keillor, author Roger Welsch memorializes the town and inhabitants of Centralia (aka Dannebrog, pop. 356), Nebraska, in what he calls "Bleaker County." Centralia itself is either the center of this windswept prairie state or the center of the universe, depending on who you ask in this small town. It's located not far north of the Platte River and its farmlands, and not far south of the Sandhills, with its population of cattle and cowboys. Life in Centralia gravitates toward the Town Tavern, where many of these story-essays take place, and we meet Welsch's fictionalized friends and neighbors: Lunchbox, Goose, Slick, Woodrow, and Cece -- the regulars. There are also his wife Lily, daughter Jenny, an Indian friend Cal, a kind-hearted bachelor uncle named Grover Bass, a film crew from public television in Lincoln, a mean cuss named Royal Cupp, a rip-tearing adventurer, Luke Bigelow, and many others.

Welsch has an appreciation for the quirky, cock-eyed, and audacious. Like an endlessly curious anthropologist, he's equally fascinated by the everyday and the out-of-the-ordinary. He's a humanist, romanticizing his characters even while he's treating them with tongue-in-cheek irony. He's also willing to show that they can stoop to the unforgivable, or that they do not share his appreciation for people from other ethnic backgrounds. There is a range of tones and sentiments in the book, from comic farce to tenderness and awe. My favorite essay, "Racing Horses at the Centralia Fourth of July," ranges across all three, as his young teenage daughter teams up with a burly cowboy to take second place in a relay race. I laughed and had tears in my eyes by the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and happily recommend it to anyone with an interest in small town life on the Plains. As a companion volume, I'd suggest the short stories of life in a rural Minnesota community in Kent Meyers' "Light in the Crossing."

This is life and this is fun! Beautiful pictures of Great Plain - Small Village life written -so well!- by an expert.

In "It's Not the End of the Earth,..", Roger Welsch does an excellent job bringing out the humor of small town life by simply telling stories about his friends in Centralia, NE. He has a witty way of giving value to each of the members of this rural community bringing to light the peculiar habits and expressions that make them all unique, interesting, and memorable. I applaud Prof. Welsch's folkloric expose' of the kinds of everyday things that I used to laugh about with my dad - some of my favorite things.

This book is a wonderful book that not many people come across. I checked it out at the library, and book of few Due Dates during the last four years, maybe 11 times previous to mine. I just happened to run across this book when researching 1800's Nebraska. It looked like a good book, so I checked it out and read it. I read it in three days, with limited reading time. This is a great book about an 11 year old girl who is crossing from the harsh times of the 1890's to a great time of modern inventions. She is about to meet "the end of the world" (1900) which reminds me much of our meeting "the end of the world" in 2000. Through the centeries, people have changed and life has become more complex, but life is just the same in picking up a great book telling of life from over 100 years ago.

Oh I love this book. I was looking through books that other people read that also liked this book. I read this book a while ago so I might be wrong in some parts. I think Evan Tucker's parents died so we went to live with his aunt and uncle. Cassie his cousin helps him in Blue Hill, Nebraska. I remember that at the end Evan's teacher writes him a letter with this on it: Mr. Evan Tucker c/o Cassie Tucker Blue Hill, Nebraska I thought that was so cute. I love to read love stories but this isn't one. I think that Evan shouldn't be Cassie's cousin so at the end they can fall in love. That's what I think so read this book and don't yell at me if I'm wrong in my review or what I think Evan and Cassie should or shouldn't be.

Cassie Tucker is the only daughter of a preacher in 1899 Nebraska. She does have two brothers, one older, one younger, but she wants a sister. So she's dissapointed when she hears her cousin, fourteen year old Evan, is coming to live with the Tuckers. Through a fall of changes, and an unexpected blizzard that nearly claims Evan's life, Cassie comes to accept him as a part of the family. This novel of a farm girl at the turn of the twentieth century is meaningful today, as we face the upcoming start of the twenty first century.

I read that Stark thought "The Jugger" was his worst book. I disagree. I think I see where he's coming from, though. This story and book are out of character for Parker. He actually has to explain himself a couple of times and his enemies are outside of his world. So, it's a bit different from the previous books. I think, however, that this is the best plotted since the first book. I really enjoyed the novel and it could easily stand alone outside of the series. I hope "The Seventh" comes back in print soon.

Joe Sheer, a fine old man, retired safecracker (jugger), has been Parker's contact man for years. Parker receives a disquieting letter from Joe and wonders if he is getting a little old for the job. Parker decides to pay him a visit, not to present a gold watch, but perhaps to help Joe along to his eternal rest. The usually overly careful Parker flies to Sagamore, Nebraska to have a hands-on visit with Joe using his clean-as-a whistle alias, Charles Willis.

Picture Smalltown U.S.A. Friendly folks, picket fences, nicely clipped lawns, tree shaded lots, porch swings, and you have Sagamore. Now picture deadly purposeful Parker strolling down the sidewalks. Neither one of them are quite ready for the other. Alas for Parker, there is no heist this time, Joe is already dead, and the local and state police are taking far too much interest in Charles Willis. Parker has to put his superb planning abilities in high gear to settle the natives, and solve the mystery of Joe's alleged buried fortune. Parker's sole interest in this is to get Charles Willis back to Miami unknown and uninvestigated.

This is a fine Parker outing where Parker is the only one in Sagamore with good sense, and with much exasperation has to lead the law to the truth. To get the job done, a few homicides happen, and a left over lady with "the eyes of a pickpocket and the mouth of a whore" helps him out. "The Jugger" is best read after you have read a couple other Parker novels for background. For all other Parker aficionados, this is choice.

Talk about waking from a coma. The Jugger begins confusingly - good confusingly, that is - with Parker in a hotel room in a small town in Nebraska. There's a dead guy in the obituary column, an annoying guy hanging around Parker, a cop outside. Everyone knows more than the reader at this stage, but nobody really knows anything. Turns out after a few chapters that the dead guy is the titular Jugger - a locks man who knew too much about Parker. The annoying guy and the cop think the dead guy knew something else - like where his life's earnings are hidden. Parker needs to make sure no one else knows what the dead guy really knew.
The story unfolds piece by piece, and Parker responds in the only way imaginable for one of fiction's most amoral characters.
Tough, very tight.

It is a wonderful book. How did it not get more attention?
The writing perhaps needs more detail and needs to be tightened up a bit, but there are some great lines, such as the dog "is free to wander anywhere on the farm
a sniff leads her" and some great characters. It's a fantastic tribute to the sisterhood of womanhood and to feminine links to the earth and has a wealth of ideas to
discuss (Is the missile supposed to be symbolic?).

I think that this book was really exciting and interesting. There like mysteries in the letters that "Hope" reads. It really got my attention while i read the first pages. When i started reading this book i actually didn't want to stop. I would recommend this book to other people.

The book, Holding Up the Earth, was about a girl, Hope, whose mother died when Hope was six. She went to seven foster families before she went to a lady's named Sarah. This is about how Hope overcomes her mother's death, and learns to live with Sarah. I think that this book is well written,because about every other chapter the author has a diary or a journal explaning what has happened at the farm where they live in the past. I think that this helps you better understand the book. I would recommend this book to someone who likes Realistic Fiction. As far as age groups go I would recommend this book to children ten and up because there are words that younger children probably shouldn't be reading. If you love books that will lift your spirits this is the one for you!

I had to read it twice to get it because it switches back and forth from present to past. It's a brilliant story; one that reaches out to you. It's one of those books where you say you will only read 2 chapters and save the rest for tomorrow and you ending reading the rest of the book. I think this would make a great movie.

This was my favorite childhood book. It inspired me to want to become a paleontologist. I find the study of dinosaurs fascinating. I am now 18 and just re-read it recently. I was just as intrigued with it now as when I was an 8-year-old child. A beautiful book that everyone should read.

Julis Creath, now Julia Summerwaite, is taking her grandchildren through a history museum when she remembers her young life when her brother was alive. Julia tells the story to her grandchildren of when her brother got dinoasaur bone finding fever. I really like this book. It leads you from one page to another, not even realizing you're turning the page. Daniel, Julis's brother, finds dinoasaur bones, but has trouble with a greedy paleontologist that is trying to take the bones for himself. During the commotion Daniel gets hit by lighting and is killed. Then Daniel's pa takes over. Julia also has a little something to show her grandchildren in the museum.

The book Gratefully Yours brings the thoughts of a stubborn New York City tenement orphan into the wide and open prairie of Nebraska. This books main character, Hattie, is charming and loving. She learns the jobs of a farm girl, and keeps her knowledge from New York. I give this book 4 stars because of a suprise ending that I didn't like, but some people might.

I had to read this book for my Children's Literature class (I'm going to be an elementary teacher) and I loved it. I will definately use it in my classroom. It's a great way to introduce or review my Orphan Train unit :)

I loved the book! It was soooooo exciting! It is about a girl named Hattie who was an orphan and eventually got adopted by a farmer whose wife was sick. I think everyone should read this book. Some parts may be sad though.

Joel's work is extraordinary and will be appreciated by even those who have never set foot in the state of Nebraska. It will definitely make you want to visit, though!

Joel Sartore has captured the subtle essence of why so many Nebraskans that leave the state eventually come home to roost. Unbeknownst to most residents as they grow up, a strong imprinting slowly takes place. As Joel explains, the unique sense of family, community, place, and weather, all contribute to this phenomenon. Joel's photographs are a collection of these innocent but pervasive features of life in Nebraska. If you have ever struggled to describe Nebraska to a person who has never visited the state, this book is for you. It will crystalize your thoughts.

Fabulous, a must buy for transplanted nebraskans and residents alike.