It is absolutely captivating, with pop-ups like you've never seen before! The artistry involved in bringing this much loved story to life has impressed everyone we've shown it to.... adults included, many of whom have asked for the details to order their own copies. A word of warning - this book is SO lovely that it's not the kind of thing you'll leave the kids to play with unsupervised!

Also worth noting that the text is a condensed version of the original L Frank Baum story - not the MGM movie version, and this makes it even more exciting for kids who have only seen the movie. Buy this book. Even if you don't have kids - our 3 girls just love it, and so do I!

I was introduced to them as a kid in Buffalo in the early '70s by my best friend's copy of "The Secret of Terror Castle." The first one I owned was a scholastic book services paperback of "The Mystery of the Green Ghost," and I can actually remember exactly where and when I received my first hardback, "The Mystery of the Talking Skull." Sadly, my set disappeared when my parents moved. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew are fine in their own way, but they were NEVER a match for Jupe, Pete, and Bob!

Any one of the books in this series is the perfect gift for a child these days -- it will capture their imagination and help infuse them with a lifelong love of reading. The writing and pacing is just right, there are funny and scary parts that any kid can relate to, and the characters are developed in a way that really makes them come to life. I know Alfred Hitchcock is gone from the new versions, but his presence in the original issues as a real person had us convinced that if we could only get to California we could find Rocky Beach and the Jones Salvage Yard! I don't know how many 3x5 cards we went through as we made business cards for our own detective agency!

Thanks, Random House!! I can't wait to give every book in the series to the kids in my life (and I'll have to get copies for myself, too). I'd love to see a re-issue in hardback of the old versions with Hitch in them, but I guess I'll just have to keep searching used book stores for those. It's sure great to see The Three Investigators back!

I highly recommend this series for young readers who dream of adventure and suspense. They invigorated my youth and helped interest me in reading and writing. I hope to God that there are more coming out!

And for those of us who remember Alfred Hitchcock, maybe Random House could put out a collectors series of the books as they were originally released - covers, illustrations and all. I would certainly snap them up!

Rotella has been showing golfers, even some of the better ones such as Nick Price and DL3 and Tom Kite and others. His approach is a down-to-earth one, which starts here with his first book, to let us know "we're not going to play perfect golf. So why get all hot and worked up when we don't?

Outstanding chapters I find in this are "fighting thru fear" and "what the third eye sees."

This and his other books will help any golfer with the mental game. I find the unique attribute about Dr. Bob's works are that his suggestions really do go to the course with you.

the seminal work on golf (and perhaps) sports psychology from Dr. Bob Rotella. The book works on a number of levels as follows: #1. as a rare and excellent guide on how to prepare oneself mentally for the game and how to remained focused during a match; #2. as a series of anecdotal chapters covering a number of the game's top name players and how they are using Rotella's straight forward and insightful techniques to play better golf; #3. as an instructional piece and #4. as a guide for getting the most out of your practises.

Any one of the above would make it good, all 4 in combination make it a must have for golfers at all levels.

(ps I'd also recommend as essential golf reading Jack Nicklaus's "Golf My Way," Tom Watson's "Getting It Up and Down from 40 Yards and In" and, of course, Harvey Penick's "Little Red Book)

Peters' book is the only guidebook I have ever read that is worth buying. It is geered towards educated, resourceful people contemplating graduate school and actually "tells you something you didn't already know."

In the course of investigating a homicide, Eve's career -- and therefore her entire sense of self -- is placed in jeopardy. Luckily, she's got Roarke. In this book, Eve's character becomes even more developed (you've got to admire her tenacity and her emerging soft side) and her relationship with Roarke is strengthened. Even the secondary characters are interesting and you're left wanting to learn more about them. Typically, Robb indulges her readers by slowly revealing glimpses into these "minor" characters in subsequent novels.

Even if you're not a Nora Roberts fan, you should give this series a chance. My husband would never read a novel by a romance author but I gave him "Naked in Death" (the first book in the series) and he's hooked. We're reading the books at the same time and can't read them quickly enough.

The killer has struck deep into the very soul of the citizens of 2059 New York. The brilliant surgical removal of the victim's heart terrorizes everyone. The police department assigns the investigation to Lieutenant Eve Dallas. Other individuals are murdered with an organ removed as if a professional medical practitioner performed the precise surgery, which is where Eve begins her inquiries.

Instead of progressing towards uncovering the identity of the culprit, Eve becomes the focus of an internal investigation. In her mind, Eve feels she has done nothing except irritate some individuals with connections in high places. As she tries to save her tottering career, Eve feels strongly that ethically she must continue to work towards stopping a serial killer.

J.D. Robb's futuristic police procedural series is one of the more highly regarded by sub-genre fans. Her latest entry, CONSPIRACY IN DEATH, is one of the better tales because the awesome author provides much insight into Eve's acrimonious past within one of the collections' better story lines. As usual, Eve's spouse Roarke adds much mystery, excitement, and romance to the book. However, this time, Ms. Robb uses Eve's past as part of a subplot that brilliantly blends into a terrific tale.

Harriet Klausner

Until I ran across The Girl with the Silver Eyes. To my third grade mind, it was painfully long, kind of hard to follow, but extremely interesting. It is the sole thing that piqued my interest in all things scifi.

Now, as a high school senior and avid science fiction fan, I reread The Girl with the Silver Eyes. For a child's book, it is extremely intriguing. It's science fiction and a suspenseful mystery all in one. It can most easily be compared to a junior version of The X-Files: weird, eerie, yet disturbingly accurate. However, when I was younger, I found the plot boring in many spots, not enough action. At the time, I merely blamed this on my youthful impatience. But even today, I still find the storyline a bit thick in parts, and nearly impossible to continue to the next page. For me to say that reading this book was an intellectual chore is not an exaggeration.

Any child reading this book will quickly lose patience with it, it has so many slow sections. Its surreal plot and wonderful scifi appeal is for the extremely patient only.

Don't expect any lofty language, but DO expect a few laughs and a wonderful romp.

Skeeve aspires to be a magician--not to learn arcane sorcery or become all powerful, but to become a better thief. He considers his master a bit impractical in his use of magic...if you are not profiting from it, what good is it? After conjuring a green-scaled demon, the old magician keels over dead, leaving Skeeve to deal with the demon himself.

The demon called Aahz, however, is merely a traveler from another "dimen"sion, called Perv. Do not dare under any circumstances call Aahz a Pervert. The denizens of Perv prefer "Pervect"; those who mis-speak tend to lose their lives.

Skeeve is from a backward dimension called Klah (residents are called Klahds, read "clods") where technology is back at the medieval level. Aahz has been everywhere and readers will enjoy many inside jokes from our own pop culture.

Another great feature of the books is the quote that begins each chapter, usually expounding on one of life's great truths. One of my favorites is from chapter 21: "One must deal openly and fairly with one's forces if maximum effectiveness is to be achieved." -- D. Vader

He kept coming to mind as I was reading this incredible book, as the characters, stranded on an island with absolutely nothing, accomplished such amazing feats as draining a lake, making a home, building a ship, making an elevator, and a great many other things. There is excitement, suspense (what IS going on on this mysterious island??), and wonderful, likeable characters. Not a real well-known Verne book, but fortunately still in print, and one of his best and most entertaining.

(Incidentally, if you want a children's version of the same story, try to find "A Long Vacation" by Jules Verne, which is extremely similar in plot, but with younger characters and for a younger audience - very charming!)

By the way, please do read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea first, if you have not already done so. Evidently, Verne assumed that everyone had when he wrote this novel.

Great reading!

Mention Jules Verne, and books that spring to mind are 20,000 Leagues, Around the World in 80 days, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Mysterious Island is one of his lesser known works, which is something of a mystery itself.

The book surpasses one's imagination and never fails to surprise. From the initial pages when Capt. Cyrus Harding and his friends decide to escape from a prison camp, the story seizes the complete attention of the reader, and unfolds at a pace and in a direction excelling Jules Verne's characteristic stories. The spirit and ingenuity of man is demonstrated in almost every page, as Cyrus and Co. find themselves marooned on a deserted island, and armed with only their wits, transform their desperate situation into a wonder world of science and technology. The reader is drawn into the adventure and finds himself trying to find solutions to the problems and obstacles that lie in plenty for the castaways, as Cyrus and his indomitable friends surmount myriad problems in their fight for survival. They are aided in their ventures by an uncanny and eerie source that remains a mystery until the very end.

This book cannot fail to fascinate and inspire awe in the mind of any reader. One begins to grasp the marvels and inventive genius behind the simple daily conveniences and devices that are normally taken for granted. The line between reality and fantasy is incredibly thin, and for sheer reading pleasure and boundless adventure, this book will never cease to please.

PS: The book has been adapted into a movie, which is one of the worst adaptations of any novel that I have ever had the misfortune of viewing. It is criminal to even mention the movie and the original work in the same breath.

This is one of the most inspiring books on filmmaking I've ever read--it depicts, in detail, all the ups and downs that went into making and selling EL MARIACHI, the $7000 sensation that opened doors for Rodriguez.

A lot of filmmakers argue that EL MARIACHI isn't a great film, that the story's kind of silly, that the version that most of us saw had $500,000 worth of post-production work added, and on and on.

But they're talking about it. It's 2003 and people are still talking about the amazing feat Rodriguez pulled off with this film. For $7000 of his own money, plus a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears, he got himself noticed and made a career out of his hobby. "Do what you love, then find someone who will pay you to do it."

This is a how-to manual for the basement movie-maker, written by a man who is excited about using movies to tell his stories: in this book, in the commentary tracks for his movies, in his Ten-Minute Film School installments, I have never once felt like Robert Rodriguez was bored with either his work or his achievements. The guy has fun, and his personality gets its fingerprints all over his work--if you can't enjoy yourself while watching a Rodriguez movie, you're expecting too much and thinking too hard.

This guy is not changing the face of American cinema: he wants all of US to change the face of American cinema, and this book is an open invitation to do just that.

Devour Rodriguez. Consume this book and engorge yourself on his DVDs. Chow down on special features on how he did it that also show YOU how to do it. If, after a week-long diet of Robert Rodriguez, you DON'T want to make your own movie IMMEDIATELY, seek a different destiny: making movies is not for you.