My sister was the one who got these books as a box set for her birthday, but I was the one who read the whole set back to front [this was the first box set which only included the first three books .... it was a while ago]. The Literature is about a grade six level, the stories closer to grade nine, but they DO give young women a first-person introduction to the major points of American History.

The first two stories pretty much follow the same premise, though under different circumstances [call it variations on a theme] ... a young girl of the McBride family meets a fellow, falls for him, almost doesn't get him, gets herself caught up in a major point of American History [for Bridie the Witch Hysteria, for Ann the Revolution etc] and you'll have to read them to find out how they end. The third book gave a good introduction to the two sides of the Civil War and would be a good jumping off point for getting a girl to maybe move into something a little more grown up [I moved quite promptly into Gone With The Wind and went from there]. Very well written for their age level, with a crisp yet discriptive voice. They're hard to put down once you pick them up.

So girls, instead of picking up a copy of your mother's Danielle Steel, pick up one of these books instead. And parents, if you want to give your daughter's a gift that she will both enjoy AND learn something from, please consider the Wild Rose Inn Series.

Ann of the Wild Rose Inn is a heartwarming story about finding true love and almost losing it. Roger is the british sailor Ann loved but couldn't have for the sake of her family. But in the end everything works out.

Ann MacKenzie lives in her family's inn in Marblehead, Massachusetts, just before the Revolutionary War. Ann and her twin brother, John, work at smuggling to defy the British, who are occupying Massachusetts. But Ann falls in love with a young British sailor. Will Ann be true to her country or her heart?

This book reminded me of the poster in my high school principal's office, of Albert Einstein and how he didn't talk until age three, didn't read until age 11, kicked out of school at age etc. etc. If empowerment is the word of the decade, then this book belongs in the shopping basket of parents of "LD" kids, educators, therapists, child psychologists et al. Thought-provoking is an understatement- highly readable and "user-friendly."

This is a great book. It is based on facts- studies, observations, etc. It is not an academic book that you might read if you were going to school. It is written for the parent, the person who takes care of children, the average every day person who is curious about how children learn and what can be done to encourage the learning. It is easily read and easily understood.

I particularly like that it doesn't stress pushing your child to learn more, learn faster, work harder. It just suggests ways that anyone around children can gently children learn.

Well worth reading.
Enjoy.

It is a wonderful guide for parents who are worried about the children's education in a career oriented, competitive world; looking for their child to grow naturaly, healthy in spirit, mind and body; but to also willing help the child in her development participating actively in their education. A child is a natural genius, it is up to the parents to discover all the wonderful potential she has unveiled. I do not want my daughter to be what I want her to be, I want her to disscover it by herself, and I would like to provide her with as much opportunities as possible to widen her choices.

Teachers and Homeschoolers, the whole series are excellent material. Styled more like your grade-school texts of the 60's and 70's, but written to be read and the photos are more personal, unlike most material aimed at 3rd-5th graders. For homeschoolers, these are perfect; each one is a chapter in history; a minimum of 3 weeks for each, the glossary is slim but there are plenty of words throughout to make up your own. Use the internet and the library to supplement.

The cover photograph of the markers of where Custer and his troopers fell on "Last Stand Hill" at the Little Bighorn Battlefield is a great choice because what makes the battlefield unique are all those white markers, scattered across several acres. Unlike other national parks established at battlefields, such as Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, at the Little Bighorn you get a visual sense for the battle. The largest group of markers is on Last Stand Hill, just below the monument on top of the mass grave of the troopers of the 7th Calvary.

Beyond the cover photograph the strength of R. Conrad Stein's juvenile history of "The Battle of the Little Bighorn" is how the battle is put in historical perspective. Stein's perspective is that the battle represents the only time the Indians successfully defended their homeland against white settlement. Stein relates how the search for gold in the Black Hills put the prospectors and miners on a collision course with the Lakota tribes, making war on the Great Plains inevitable. The campaign of 1876 and the Battle at Rosebud Creek set the stage for what happened to Custer at the Little Bighorn. The battle itself is sketched out in terms of the major elements and my only reservations about this book are that Stein pretty much takes it easy on Custer. It was his standard tactic to attack a village and start killing the women and children to make the braves surrender; this was what he was trying to do that day only he had grossly underestimated the size of the village he was attacking. Stein relates how Custer was considered a hero and does nothing to seriously challenge that idea in this volume.

The aftermath of the battle is covered in only a couple of paragraphs and Stein ends with the observation that whatever the two sides might think about the battle, they both agree the battlefield is a sacred site because of all those who lost their lives. This book is illustrated with not only contemporary color photographs of the battlefield, but historic photos and illustrations of the participants and the battle. Like all of the volumes in the Cornerstones of Freedom series this is an excellent place for teachers and students alike to find out more details about key events in American History that go well beyond what little can be found in your standard textbook. You should also check out "It Is A Good Die to Die: Indian Eyewitnesses Tell the Story of the Battle of the Little Bighorn."

I loved reading this book. It was so imformative and inturesting. It made me want to learn more about the battle of little big horn, and I hope to read more of R.Conrad Stien's work in the future

This book was very helpful in planning my trip to Great Britain. With it as a guide, I was able to rent a flat next door to the Abbey Road Studios, used by the Beatles to produce so many wonderful albums. It was a terrific experience for my son, who is a rabid Beatles fan. We just happened to arrive on the 30th anniversary of the Abbey Road album.

Further on into our trip, we stayed at a wonderful little cottage in Banchory, Scotland. I recommend this book. It was a terrific experience, and the people who are listed in the book are very helpful. I was able to pay for the entire trip before I left Utah, thus eliminating major money worries. The only fault I found was that the tariffs were about 20% higher than listed in the book. Ouch!

I will be using this book again for my trip to Scotland next year.

I recently stayed at Duck Barn in Telscombe, Sussex. The cottage was as described and delightful. I recently wrote to Gale Armstrong to see if there was a more up-to-date edition of the book but the letter-addressed to a box number-was returned. Help, publishers,whats available now?

We used this book to find a cottage. The author had described the cottage we rented well and we were very pleased to have found a place that was both comfortable and interesting.

This book is used by most serious LBH writers and researchers as a very valuable reference. Just check the bibliographies of the most respected and thorough histories of the battle, and you will find Walter Camp's notes there. Reason enough that this book be on your shelf if you're a Custer/LBH buff. There is a wealth of information in these pages, especially the footnotes (which are often lengthy). Too bad Walter Camp died before he had a chance to put all his research together in his planned book. There are interviews with officers, enlisted men, white and Indian Army scouts and the Sioux/Cheyenne themselves. There are so many it becomes hard to keep them separate in one's mind, but that's a good thing.

His summation at the end tends to place him in the "Custer crowd" in that he did not feel Custer disobeyed Terry's orders, and that Custer acted appropriately with the information available to him at the time, although he does feel Custer fragmented his forces too much before the battle. One has to give his opinion great weight because he talked firsthand to more of the survivors of the LBH than anyone else.

Walter Camp had the great fortune and drive to visit the critical sites of the old west and seek out and interview actual participants and witnesses. Unfortunately, Camp did not survive to put his great efforts into a book but Hammer does the next best thing possible by organizing Camp's would be book and providing editorial commentary to fill in the gaps. Hammer collects Camp's material on the Little Bighorn and every page is full of interesting information. My favorite parts of the book are references to participants other than the main characters such as Peter Thompson and other members of Custer's separate battalion that survived because their horses broke down prior to the descent into Medicine trail Coulee. Hammer does an excellent job of providing clarification of the participants or writings of Camp in the footnotes so that you almost have all your questions answered by Hammer. A delightful book without harsh judgment offered by Camp and a great collection of readable material. It must have been frustrating to have first person interviews with participants when their stories clashed, were foggy or perhaps grandiose such as Thompson's alleged view of the valley as Custer descended to the river. Camp not only interviewed troopers but also Custer's scouts and Sioux and Cheyenne participants. Camp did a lot not to just record history but to locate historical sites in the remote West like Slim Buttes that without his timely intervention may have otherwise been lost to history. The only unfortunate aspect of the book is that there isn't more material and that Camp's health failed before he could draw his own conclusions. He also had the greatest vacation hobby, exploring and researching the old west before it was very old.

I read Mr. Camp's classic account of the Little Big Horn several years ago. It remains on my shelf as one of the very best books on the battle. It was well written, detailed and colorful enough for any follower of the Custer's trail. I highly recommend this book, which I read just prior to visiting the Custer battlefield on the 106th anniversary. Not to be overlooked or missed.

I love to cook, and my family loves to eat, but we don't always have time for that! Nick Stellino has a wonderful repertoire of quick pasta dishes, for which we usually have the ingredients on hand(or can come close enough). These aren't your typical spaghetti and meatballs pastas, but interesting, exciting, alternatives that my whole family enjoys (I have 4 kids from 8 to 15). I can't live without this book, and his others!

After watching Nick's program on PBS, I was dying to try some of these mouth-watering recipies. Fortunately, this book is a gift that keeps on giving! Some of the recipies require more preparation time, but they are very simple and easy to follow. So far, I have yet to try a bad recipie. Some of the combinations of ingredients are very unique, but have incredible bursts of flavors. It is a must-have for those who love Italian and Sicilian cooking!

I just seen Nick at a recent cooking demo and he explained that when he wanted to write this book he spoke with his publisher and said that if he could have "full say" in this book he would do it for half the going rate! He was that passionate about every aspect of this book. The recipes are simple and wonderful, the stories are heartwarming. Nick Stellino... great chef, even greater person. Grazie molto Nick!

John

The price is right for this well-indexed, well-organized reference. It boasts 3,000 entries and all are in a logical context. The print is adequately sized and the margins are wide. There are no annotations, which would have been helpful.

My problem with the book is the selection of quotes. Many famous quotes do not appear, and some very obscure ones do. It could be the authors wanted to stay off the beaten track, and draw attention to the less familiar. The result is quotes you don't particularly want to quote. It seems as if a computerized word-search was done, and this was the outcome.

Surprisingly, there are not too many Shakespearian Quotation Dictionaries available. If you wish to have such a reference, you will not find many alternatives. I would give Arden's a lukewarm recommendation in that it could fulfill a need, and there are not many choices.

THE ARDEN DICTIONARY OF SHAKESPEARE QUOTATIONS. Compiled by Jane Armstrong. 396 pp. London : Thomson Learning, 2000 (1999).

The present compilation contains 3000 quotations, both well-known and lesser-known, from Shakespeare's plays and poems. The quotations vary in length from short sentences such as "For he was great of heart," through to longer passages such as Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be or not to be," which can run to almost a page or more. Most quotations, however, are quite short, and many consist only of "a strikingly expressed thought or resonant phrase" such as "Do you smell a fault?"

Speaker, addressee, and act/scene/line references are keyed to the Arden Shakespeare series, and some are followed by brief annotations which help clarify the context. The book is rounded out with a 4-page Life of Shakespeare; a 12-page Glossary; an extensive 45-page Keyword Index; and an Index of References to Plays.

In her Preface, Editor Jane Armstrong writes that, as in "the 'commonplace books' in which Shakespeare's contemporaries recorded memorable extracts from their reading," her book has been organized by topic - e.g., ABSENCE, DESIRES, GUILT, HASTE, LOVE - since she feels that this "often clearly reveals the concentration round a subject in a particular play; and ... sometimes shows ideas recurring through Shakespeare's work, either in similar form or in a progression from the more straightforwardly expressed to the increasingly complex and embedded" (pp. xi-xii).

The book, in other words, has been designed to serve a twofold purpose - primarily as a commonplace book or compilation of themes, and only secondarily as a dictionary - and because it contains only 3000 quotations readers are occasionally not going to find what they may be looking for.

I was surprised, for example, to discover that a key line from 'Titus Andronicus' - "When will this fearful slumber have an end?" - has not been included. In fact, SLUMBER doesn't even appear as a topic, since the single line containing it has been subsumed under SLEEP. I was also, until I carefully read Armstrong's Preface, surpised to find that, although there are twenty "heart" quotations, HEART itself does not appear as a topic.

To locate the line "For he was great of heart," which has been included under the topic NOBILITY, you will have to search the Keyword Index. In other words, if you are searching for a particular line you should FIRST CHECK THE KEYWORD INDEX, since the book has not been arranged as a dictionary of words but as a commonplace book of topics or themes, and a more accurate (and less misleading) title for it would have been 'The Arden Commonplace Book of Shakespeare Quotations' or 'The Arden Dictionary of Shakespeare's Themes.'

A truly complete 'dictionary' that would perfectly satisfy all readers and in which we would all find all of our favorite passages and lines could of course only take the form of a rearrangement of Shakespeare's complete works, something clearly impracticable in a handy-sized book of just 396 pages.

Within its limits, and given its aims, I've found that in use the Arden compilation is an interesting book that does a fairly good job on the whole. Many of my favorite lines are there, though others aren't, but in compensation I've been guided to interesting new lines and have enjoyed exploring certain themes. The main frustration I've encountered is that many passages seem too truncated, and I would have liked to have seen more of the poetic context. But this of course would have meant a much larger book.

The book is bound in a decorative glossy wrapper, stitched, well-printed on good thin paper, and is quite a handsome production. As a small 8vo in size (8 by 5 inches) it's not too big, has a nice look and feel to it, and is easy to consult and read. Although it isn't perfect (what is?), I'd say it's a useful (though occasionally frustrating) reference that will also provide interesting browsing material for the Shakespeare enthusiast.

In sum, this is a book with many attractive features, but don't expect to find everything you look for in it : only a Complete Shakespeare or perhaps something like the Schmidt Lexicon could provide that. And to avoid the possibility of confusion, don't forget to read Jane Armstrong's Preface, in which she makes it perfectly clear that this book is _not_ primarily a dictionary of words. It's intended to be something more interesting!

This is a very unusually well-chosen, well-structured, and well-indexed book of Shakespeare quotation; and, speaking of something more intangible, it is also a very inspired book of Shakespeare quotation. For example, I picked this book up to find quotes that could in any way be associated with a very poetic and esoteric subject, looked up a basic word associated with my subject and found right off six or seven very interesting quotes. Quotes that don't look like they'd make it into a run-of-the-mill collection. It's like the editor, Jane Armstrong, has given Shakespeare's inspiration and genius the benefit of the doubt and included his lines that carry much more meaning and mystery than what their basic subject heading might indicate. In other words she has included lines that may have seemed too elliptic in the construction of their thought or too mysterious within their general subject for other compilers to have included them. As books of quotations go this one is very practical and unusually interesting.

Few children's books are enduring enough to earn a spot in our home bookshelf, but this bright, clever tale by Carey Armstrong-Ellis is a candidate. The story of Prudy, a young girl who obsessively collects anything and everything, moves at a brisk pace. The prose is sharp, the story inventful, and the illustrations are superb. It's fun to read about all the oddball items Prudy gathers and keeps, but without these first-rate illustrations, this might be just an average book. With them, you and your kids will find a pleasant diversion just checking out all the objects, drawings, animals, plants, etc. the spill all over the pages.

Prudy's collecting is way out of hand, driving her parents crazy. And when her little sister starts her own collections, things look dire. But then, the final straw, so to speak, occurs when Prudy tries to add to a gum wrapper to her already bulging closet.

So she confronts her collecting problem creatively, culminating with the creation of the Prudy Museum of Indescribable Wonderment. But Prudy still has this little problem. . .

I'm not sure how well this book will stand up to repeated readings, but better than most I suspect. Enjoy.

While Prudy's Problem is ostensibly a children's book, it is quite entertaining for adults as well. The illustrations of Prudy and her amazing collections are witty and often laugh-out-loud funny. Prudy's single-minded obsession with collecting may remind you of someone in your life who has a similiar quirk. Our five-year-old daughter has asked for Prudy nightly for several weeks as an addition to other stories before bed. If you put Prudy on your bookshelf, beware -- you may want to begin collecting children's literature.

This book made me laugh. I recognised myself and many others in Prudy's dilemma. Her curiosity and her parents' patience are a winning combination. I have read this book to several children and have heard other parents say that their children thoroughly enjoyed the story and the delightfully detailed pictures. I own a shop and, because of the fabulous illustrations, have sold several copies to adults with no children. Armstrong-Ellis has written and illustrated a lovely first book. I look forward to more from her.

The most available edition of the Autobiography of HWA (1980's) is not, in fact, an Autobiography. It was edited after his death, and so should have been correctly called a Biography.
That said, the edits and choice of photographs reflect a specific bias on the part of the editor(s) concerning how they saw HWA, as opposed to how he saw himself.
The edition to find, if you can, is the one published by the WCG in 1973, while Armstrong was still alive.

As a young man who grew up in Worldwide Church of God, this offers a fantastic story about the man who founded a church that, regretfully, did not heed his lessons. He was not perfect, and there are many who can blast his own personal decisions, but in terms of major doctrine (Sabbath, Holy Days, Nature of God, etc) he was dead on. This is a must read for anyone who really wants to find the truth about Herbert W. Armstrong and how he came to be the guiding light of Sabbitarianism.

Herbert W. Armstrong is the most famous Sabbatarian Christian of all time.

His early years were full of success and failures until he was beaten down.

He was then challenged to prove that God existed. Then he was challenged to prove Sunday is the Christian Sabbath. He proved the former, but was defeated on the latter. He then converted to a Sabbath keeping church where he became a minister and elder in the Church.

Later, he founded the Radio Church of God in Oregon. He never dreamed of building a Church but realized his commission was to preach Biblical truth to as many as he could. He challenged us all to prove whether our traditions and beliefs are of God or of man.

As the work grew, the church changed its name to the Worldwide Church of God. The WCG published the Plain Truth Magazine and many booklets that were given to any who asked. The WCG also produced one of the most successful religious programs of all time - The World Tomorrow, without a request from the public for funding.

A very unusual success story.

Armstrong gives many memoriable examples of what has worked in his life and what has failed, lessons that we can apply to our own that will enable us to live happier and more abundant lives.

Althought the opinions of Custer and life with the calvary are viewed through (very) rosy glasses, Mrs. G.A. Custer is a witty and prolific writer. She also gives little-known insight into everyday happenings in life on the prairie and how women survived the journey. Particularly interesting are the dynamics of relationships between women when living literally in the middle of nowhere, surviving the harshest of climates, with few friends, the same friends, for extended times. Also interesting is the relationship between people of color and the white soldiers. Custer is an enigma, and readers should read this book but also others ("Son of the Morning Star" is the best thus far) to get a glimpse at the man. Libby Custer falls into poetic verse at times, but this can be refreshing - there are not many writings of women in these times available.

This is really a question insteadof a review. I have a copy of Boots and Saddles written by Elizabeth B. Custer. The copyright is 1885, by Harper & Brothers. The first page has a note wrote on it "To my friend Richard Dec 25th 1890 then a signature of the giver M L Malis ? Would you know anything about this particular book?

There are so few well written and personally lived books about the people of the northern great plains, but this is one of them. Mrs. Custer gives intimate details of life in the cavalry and the Dakotas of a time now gone.
She tells of blizzards, heat, insects, dangers and people in a most readable way that draws the reader in. This is a special book that speaks to the plainsman's heart.