"Hanging by a String" offers a poignant rollercoaster ride of human emotions with rare candor and sincerity. It is a true, intimate recollection of one brave woman's battle with a debilitating disease, lupus. Marilyn Gibson's superb book grabs the reader during the introduction and won't let go. From experiments with non-traditional healing methods to multiple near-death experiences, she offers a ringside seat to intimate, painful episodes few people have endured. Her lucid writing style pampers the reader with a thesis of medical, religious, and technical concepts that inform without imposing the rigors of jargon and esotericism.

Gibson believes much about life, including disease, is governed by a lack in our souls. Pain forces us to analyze our actions in quest of the source of our suffering. Diagnosed with lupus erythematosus, she went on a spiritual journey - seeking a cure for a disease that attacked her kidneys and almost took her life. She spent seventeen years trying to cure herself, becoming an expert in the nuances of this and other related diseases.

Viewing music as a transcendent force, this accomplished violinist believes a strong constitution is needed to heal as well as make good music. Physical and emotional stress exacerbates the affects of a disease, leading to a search of the fathomable recesses of her soul for clues that might have triggered it. In the process, she decides if medicine isn't the solution, she will seek answers from a higher power. Triumphantly, her beliefs and commitment move her closer to those answers that may save her life. Her description of the hospital sessions is compelling; the reader can almost feel the pain from the medical devices.

Continuing to perform professionally in spite of the disease, Gibson travels around the nation, as well as abroad - remaining one step ahead of the inevitable. She discovers yoga, becomes a vegetarian; embracing ideals from a new counterculture to open her mind to new healing possibilities. She becomes convinced that lupus can be held at bay if she maintains pure habits. Unlike her mother who suffers with rheumatoid arthritis and believes in doctors and healing through drugs, Marilyn's faith has always been suspect. As her mother becomes progressively more disabled, it reinforces Marilyn's skepticism.

In spite of her quest for solutions, Gibson is diagnosed with life-threatening hemolytic anemia. The prescribed drugs simply delay her destiny. As she lies on a cold table in the emergency room, she feels her life force slipping away: "Suddenly, I found myself in another dimension. A glowing golden tunnel appeared in front of me. Far, far into the tunnel, almost as if at its distant openings, stood a man dressed in a splendid robe. A luminous white light emanated from behind his magnificent form. With a small smile on his barely intelligible features, he beckoned to me gently. There was a transcendent peace about him, yet I sensed incredible power. . . . As I slipped into the tunnel, he pulled me back. . . . I had survived my near-death experience."

After a failed marriage, Gibson finally finds her life's mate. She and husband Tim form a polarity; they are opposites. His pragmatic nature brings her closer to the very world she had wanted to leave. In spite of this new happiness, lupus flare-ups threaten this new security. She soon faces death again when her hemoglobin level registers around four, 36 points below normal. A transfusion is the only thing that can save her life.

Throughout the book, Gibson introduces concepts which, under the circumstances, may be regarded as the actions of a desperate person clinging to life. However, her attitude and candor illustrate that these actions are motivated by strong, often unconventional, beliefs: "My familiarity with Zen Buddhism defied logical explanation. Although I had never studied it, somehow I 'knew' the experience of satori. During an experience known as self-regression, I discovered I had been a Japanese man in another lifetime. Another such regression brought images of a former life as a silversmith in Colonial America . . . I knew that each past life was correct."

Gibson later encounters a death-threatening bout with spinal meningitis. Enveloped in an ice suit to control her skyrocketing temperature, she again is barely able to cling to the physical world. "Hallucinations crowded my vision as I floated through a pleasant, ethereal dimension. Returning to reality for a check on my body sent me back up to the stratosphere to escape my physical agony. Hours passed as I slipped in and out of consciousness. . . . As in my previous near-death experiences, it was more difficult to put on the mantle of physicality than to pull it off."

Throughout her ordeal, Gibson retains her innate love for music, and her profession as a concert violinist. "In particularly emotional times, music mingles with life like blood with tears. My violin was like a beautiful lover. I knew every inch of its dark brown varnish and sensual curves as well as I knew my own body. The sides reminded me of an Italian painting, or an ancient map, with snaking lines of age pointing to random destinations."

After spending excruciating, dehumanizing periods on dialysis machines, Gibson receives a gift of life - one that returns her life to normal. Robert, her 71-year-old father, donates one of his kidneys. Prior to the surgery, she makes a decision: "The mind will direct the body successfully if given a chance, but it must be guided to the correct results. My happy result hinges on unswerving faith."

She left the hospital eleven days after the transplant and has experienced no rejection problems. She resumed her music career, playing in such big shows as Shogun, Phantom of the Opera, and Miss Saigon. She also founded and leads a group, the Herrick Trio.

Today, Marilyn Gibson lives a normal life. She resides in New Jersey with her husband Tim Malosh, two parrots, three finches, a shar-pei, a pekingese, and three cats.

Wow! This is a life-changing, life-saving book that will help soooo many people! Marilyn's story of overcoming adversity in her courageous battle with lupus is a marvelous example for everyone. She exemplifies how we all can master the mind-body connection. The magic bullet for cure (any cure) exists within us, if we can only acknowledge the role of spirit in healing.

Marilyn's story will grip you from the very beginning. Her expertise in writing captures you through her entire book. It's as though you experience everything along with her--from the beginning to the end and back again. Her darkest nights of the soul embrace dialysis, kidney transplant, near death experiences, recovery, and new disease crises and finally cure through spiritual enlightenment, love and acceptance.

Here are some thought-provoking insights you won't want to miss:
. The most powerful healing force is Love.
. Each individual must take responsibility for his own healing.
. Self-hate, fear and guilt must be released for healing to happen.
. It is our destiny to heal ourselves.
. Our Love and creative works must be allowed to flow outward, unimpeded, or everything turns inward, and we create our own disease.

Don't miss the incredible healing message of this book!

Jean Krueger, Author of "WHY THE WEIGHT? DARE TO BE GREAT!" ISBN#: 0972208607

"Hanging by a String" is a many-faceted book which details the author's tumultuous life with lupus, from her first medical confirmation of the disease as a teenager through the several times that, were it not for fine doctors and her own spiritual strength and determination to live, the disease "should" have claimed her. I heartily recommend this well-written labor-of-love which Marilyn Gibson was uniquely qualified to pen.

The author makes bluntly clear at the beginning of the book that she does not believe health and disease to be mere circumstances of luck or genes, and is never timid or evasive about her belief in their spiritual and metaphysical origins, and thus in spiritual and metaphysical solutions. Indeed, lest there be any doubt in the reader's mind, the author makes her premise starkly clear in the first two sentences of the Introduction : "I believe that we choose what we need throughout life to address lack in our souls. This includes disease." This proclamation prepares the reader for often unexpected detours in a book that is far more than a history of one person's fight against a devastating and incurable disease.

While few people today would question the profound effect of state-of-mind in one's physical health, many readers (myself among them) will disagree with the extent to which the author attributes non-medical causes, cures, and indeed the very "reasons" for disease. Yet none of her premises were casually formed. In the course of decades of seeking answers to the origins and remedies for her disease, the author explores Buddhism and other transcendental disciplines, while never abandoning the Christianity with which she was raised. Without pre-judgment, every insight which is loving and beneficial is welcomed and assimilated. Not only her present life is scrutinized for clues to her disease, but also those of her parents and grandparents, and even of her own, previous lives.

Some readers may categorically dismiss such non-empirical observations as previous incarnations and spiritual explanations for disease. Even such a seemingly peripheral event as the manner in which she finds an apartment to share in New York City, is given an explanation which may seem mystical to some. I don't doubt her apartment story; yet even if I did, the straight-forward manner in which it is recounted would allow even the most ardent skeptic to accept it as her own history of herself, and to move forward from there. And although I, for one, did not accept as fact some historical paranormal phenomenon which Gibson cites, these details were nonetheless important in illustrating her literal and inner journey. She expresses her beliefs directly and clearly, without pre-judgment and without requiring the reader to concur.

Since the author is a concert violinist, along the way one gets a sense of the enormous love and passion that are prerequisites for any such monumental pursuit, all of which ultimately tie in to her central theme. She expresses beautifully the concept that for her to play the violin is as necessary as for her to breathe. Indeed, one gets a sense that the violin was part of her life-long cure. "My violin ... was like a beautiful lover. I knew every inch of its dark brown varnish and sensual curves as well as I knew my own body. The sides reminded me of an Italian painting, or an ancient map, with snaking lines of age pointing to random destinations."

In fact, in Gibson's book, as in her life, music assumes the role of a life energy unto itself. Readers, such as myself, for whom such a concept is utterly natural will find her story all the more accessible. Those who begin the book believing music to be the mere juxtaposition of aesthetically pleasing sounds will have that much more to learn from it. Just as music is, symbolically, a life unto itself, so is disease. In recounting several rhapsodic images dancing through her mind when near death and under debilitating drugs, the Disease symbolically takes on the guise of a demon, not merely a biological horror.

Perhaps the parts of the book which most affected me were the occasional unexpected phrases which succinctly convey our great fortune to be blessed with life and sharing this Earth. For example, one such jolting phrase comes when she is in the mountains of Aspen, too ill to truly partake of the miraculous splendor about her : "I felt like an alien who had beamed down into paradise." Equally jarring are the author's hospital recollections when near death, before a kidney transplant turned her life around : "In this distorted world, I lurked in the shadows. Here in the murky recesses of my new life underwater, everyone spoke without sound or meaning. The surface, where healthy people lived, was a place where my admission pass had just run out."

Ms. Gibson extols the Western medical tradition which repeatedly saved her life, while questioning whether it in itself may on another level contribute to disease. These opinions are never expressed as a lack of gratitude of Western medicine, but rather in an effort to improve it. And who else better equipped to compose such a chapter? The author struggled for decades against a hideous disease, and skimmed so close to death that the most subtle thought of acceptance on her part would have effected it. She has endured massive, risky surgery, experienced various hospitals and diverse medical systems, and suffered the excruciating, life-numbing side-effects of the medicines needed to cope with the disease. And all through it, she meticulously explored varied religions and philosophies, evaluating how they might benefit people's physical and spiritual health. Combine the author's rare combination of experiences, expertise, and spiritual quest with her obvious intellect and fine writing, and her book should command wide attention.

No book has better reminded me of our incomprehensible fortune of being alive on this wonderland we call Earth, and of the tragedy that any of us might squander it.

Tom Suarez

GBS wrote play with "approaching audiences as citizens capable of thought and prompting them to think imaginatively to some purpose" in mind, as Margery Morgan says. And there are plenty for one to think seriously about in Major Barbara.

The most interesting is his conviction that no money is untainted. That's interesting because it means the donations and public fundings the environmentalists take in come from no less than the evil polluters themselves, perhaps feeling, which GBS rightly agreed, as the Salvation Army would that they "...will take money from the Devil himself sooner than abandon the work of Salvation." But GBS also wrote in the preface that while he is okay to accept tainted money, "He must either share the world's guilt or go to another planet." From what I can gather from the preface and play, GBS believed money is the key to solve all the problems we have, hence his mentioning of Samuel Butler and his "constant sense of the importance of money," and his low opinion of Ruskin and Kroptokin, for whom, "law is consequence of the tendency of human beings to oppress fellow humans; it is reinforced by violence." Kropotkin also "provides evidence from the animal kingdom to prove that species which practices mutual aid multiply faster than others. Opposing all State power, he advocates the abolition of states, and of private property, and the transforming of humankind into a federation of mutual aid communities. According to him, capitalism cannot achieve full productivity, for it amis at maximum profits instead of production for human needs. All persons, including intellectuals, should practice manual labor. Goods should be distributed according to individual needs." (Guy de Mallac, The Widsom of Humankind by Leo Tolstoy.)

If GBS wasn't joking, then the following should be one of the most controversial ideas he raised in the preface to the play. I quote: "It would be far more sensible to put up with their vices...until they give more trouble than they are worth, at which point we should, with many apologies and expressions of sympathy and some generosity in complying with their last wishes, place them in the lethal chamber and get rid of them." Did he really mean that if you are a rapist once, you can be free and "put up with," but if you keep getting drunk (a vice), or slightly more seriously, stealing, you should be beheaded?

Shaw can be absolutely captivating even when he is being an evangelist for political philosophies that the twentieth century has proven to be nothing but vehicles for repression and mass murder (Communism - Shaw approved of Lenin even when the evidence showed him to be pure evil). This play-among his best (if you can see the movie with Rex Harrison, do not miss it)- has such brilliant dialogue and sparkling humor that it is easy to forget that one is being preached to. Shaw thinks human evil is due to socially deprived environments. Ergo, pour money into poor neighborhoods and social evils will vanish. Unfortunately for Shaw's argument, poverty and human evil are two different things entirely and only intersect occasionally and coincidently. The poor can be poor due to lack of opportunity or due to a culture of self-destructiveness (illegitmacy, drug/alcohol use, disdain for values that lead to achievement, disdain for skills that lead to steady employability). It is difficult to sustain an argument that the poor in the USA are so due to a lack of opportunity when recent immigrants have pretty much taken the available opportunities and ran with them, rapidly entering the middle classes within a generation of arriving here. Shaw simply cannot believe that anyone would choose to remain poor. Well, they can and do, when getting ahead means putting in 40+ hours a week, and not loafing all day on a street corner in an inebriated/stoned condition. Accepting that fact would have saved millions of lives that were sacrificed in the last century in the attempt to build a perfect "worker's paradise".
Leaving the silly premise behind the play aside, Shaw has crafted a startling piece of theatre and uses his magisterial command of the English language to amuse, provoke, and amaze the audience.

The playwright uncovers the debate about war and pacifism. Shaw also illuminates the poverty industry, and shows that all money is tainted. The play is a vehicle for a debate on philosophies, the burning issues of the day. Shaw shows that the audience can laugh and think, in the same play. Probably Britain's best known playwright, after Shakespeare, Shaw shines in Major Barbara

Virginia Woolf does such a wonderful job of revealing the many facets of an individual. In this book, she applies that task to couples in love. It is a marvel that she not only identifies the many nuances of a glance, a word, a movement, but that she also conveys them to the reader in a perfect sentence. This book, unlike some of her others, seems written to appeal to a broader audience. It is "easier" than some of her other fiction, but is by no means a bore for Woolf fans.

Here is an artist at work, painting the nuances of the heart, creating living people, reacting to the subtleties of mood, ambiance, the weather, and external perceptions that make up how we live and who we are. No matter what you think of these people, you have a chance to live with them and understand them, feel their conflicts, their love, and their pains. Virginia Woolf is the ballast that offsets all the one-book-wonder authors, the cynics, the nasty moderns, and those authors who have given up on anything positive in the world. Like Shakespeare, her work will live on long after so many others are forgotten. That's because she offers us art, hope, vision, and the truth about our humanity. It's all here in this book, if you choose to read it.

Woolf portrays the fascinations of self-discovery through relationships with other people, and she also looks into the intricacies of love--are we aware of love? What is the importance of love in a person's life? Does one need it to be happy? Taking a peek into the answers of these questions along with adding delightful humor that made me laugh out loud made this book terrific. The characters are interesting and you can choose for yourself whether or not you like them. I would definitely recommend this book--its many levels are enjoyable for all ages and both sexes!

I thought this book was outstanding. It really showed that anyone can make it. These women had to struggle against a powerful hospital and society's misconceptions about the role of nurses in health care. I was especially intrigued by the adventures Karon and Joy had as independent nurse practicioners. The book gave me a new respect for the nursing profession.

Police Wives strike out on an adventure in business as nurses and meet all kinds of people and solve all kinds of problems

These two nurses and friends were conserative educated nurses who were forced to fight the hospital establishment in order to be patient advocates. They created the first independent nursing practice in the US and became the first nurses ever called Nurse Practicioners. Their husbands played a large part -both were Chicago police officers. One owned a detective agency and the nurses also became investigators. This is a story of transformation of women, jobs, friendships etc. It gives all women a glimpse into the mystique of medicine, hospitals, psychiatric units, movie sets, nursing in an amusement park . These two women started with very different lives-one the mother of four-the other a determined career woman. An accident to one the pregnant one creates opportunities for them in their lives that they never expected and lead them to becoming entrepeneurs, speakers, businesswomen, leaders in nursing, nurses on movie sets and in amusement parks. They treat everyone from the penniless to the multimillionaires from the gold coast to the ghetto in their journey to advance their careers and themselves. One battles with her husband's alcoholism until he becomes a runner. This is a story of success, dreams and relationships. This is a non fiction novel if their were such a thing. It leads you into the homes of patients, doctor's offices,insurance companies, hospitals, occupational and corporate health and various other settings.They meet and treat movie stars, politicians and famous clergy. Their consultant doctor is a replica of "Dr Welby' with a playboy image. They are called modern day Joan of arcs and succeed in their case against a large metropolitan hospital and go on to write this book which was optioned for a tv movie of their characters. You can reach them as I did at 8l5-773-4497.

I've watched Michael Wallis grow as a writer and I wish he had written this book last instead of first. Now don't get me wrong, it's a rip-roarin' tale of a man with ambition and drive who built a gigantic company and fortune. But it's not the exhaustive, documented last work on Frank Phillips's life.

This is as near to an authorized biography as you can get. Wallis was given full access to all the recorded material on Phillips as well as to a great many people who actually knew the man and worked with him. It's a rollicking story.

Using fiction techniques of characterization Wallis shows us an eccentric, ambitious young man who evolves into a successful philanthropist -- and philanderer. Phillips gave tokens to the children of the community but overindulged and neglected his own son until he turned to alcohol. He was a man who appeared devoted to his family six months out of every year, then spent the rest of his time with his mistress in New York City.

He wasn't such a saint in business, either. He took over smaller companies to build his empire and almost fired a Vice President "Boots" Adams because he thought Adams was too ambitious for personal gain.

Legends about Phillips abound and Wallis has recorded them. There's a story, for example, of Phillips paying the mortgages of community churches and herein lies the weakness of this book. He doesn't say whether this generosity is documented or it's simply a tale told by sycophants, and he sure talked to plenty of them.

Wallis weakens his authority by neglecting to support his facts. He speculates. Without documentation it's impossible for the reader to separate fiction from fact. The writing style is that of fiction and that's all the more reason the reader needs to be able to tell what is real fact and what is speculation.

If what you want is an exciting story of the West and people who made great fortunes in the oil fields, you'll love this book. It's well written and well researched. If you want only fact, however, you'll have to write your own book.

Frank Phillips, "THE OIL MAN" is a little known multi millionaire who started with nothing but ambition, and made life pay off! If you like business biography, this is one of the best you'll ever read. I enjoyed totally. I am now rereading the book for the third time!

This book contains something for everyone. Action, adventure, power struggles, romance, money, geology, the wild west, the roaring twenties, family feuds and best of all...it's all true! Frank Phillips grew up a farm boy in Iowa, started a career as a barber and ended up an oil tycoon. This is an easy read and it is obvious that Wallis' research was very thorough. He almost leads you through a day to day account of Frank Phillips' life. And what a life it must have been. A true gambler, Frank Phillips' started with almost nothing, made a fortune then risked everything he had just to stay in the game. I can highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading. Wallis has brought together a complex man's world and gives the reader an insight rarely seen in biographical writing. He makes the stories come to life and links them all together superbly.

The Step Between is one in a series of novels about reluctant PI Carole Ann
Gibson. Carole Ann is a former Washington, DC Defense Trial Lawyer who left
her criminal law practice for a partnership in a security firm. Carole Ann's
partner is former DC homicide detective, Jake Graham. In her new role as
partner of GGI, Carole Ann reviews and writes contracts as well as takes
administrative control over some of the accounts.

The Step Between opens with Carole Ann and Jake accepting a case from the
city's richest man to find his missing daughter. After taking that case
things go awry for GGI. A routine surveillance job uncovers three corpses and
Jake's wife is kidnapped. Carole Ann and Jake are caught in a web of deceit,
lies, and murder and the only way out is through discovering the cause of the
problems.

The Step Between is action packed and will leave readers searching for the
rest of the Carole Ann Gibson mysteries.

Reviewed by Diane Marbury (HonestD)
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Once again, Penny Mickelbury has weaved a tale of suspense and intrigue that kept me turning pages. Carole Ann's struggle to accept the harsh realities of her past as she builds a new life through her business and budding(but fleeting in this book) relationship with Warren Forchette humanizes her even as she works to discover why CGI has been targeted by unknown perpetrators. Ms. Mickelbury portrays Carole Ann's vulnerabilities without making her appear wimpy or weak. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

Her associates and superiors considered Carole Ann Gibson a very good attorney when she abruptly placed her law degree in cold storage. Tired of the justice system's endless swinging doors, Carole Ann formed a partnership with Jake Graham. Their firm, Gibson, Graham International (GGI) provides investigative and security services. After nearly dying on their last case, Carole Ann vows never to place herself in that type of danger gain. However, she quickly finds her reneging on her personal promise when she and Jake take on two different clients whose cases converge into a nightmare that leaves everyone in peril.

DC wealthiest person, Richard Islington hires GGI to find his missing daughter, though every indication leads to the conclusion she voluntarily left on her own. At the same time, On Shore Manufacturing asks the team to make discreet inquiries into the company trying to take them over. On the surface, the two cases seem miles apart, but soon they merge in a way that leaves GGI under siege and its operatives in danger.

The first two Carole Ann Gibson mystery novels were enjoyable, well-written stories. However, the third entry, THE STEP BETWEEN, is such a superbly plotted tale, it makes its excellent predecessors seem pale by comparison. Penny Micklebury creates likable characters that will garner audience empathy and attention. The author fully develops the two prime subplots before merging them into a fabulous story line that seems to stay one step ahead of the reader. Ms. Micklebury is an artist who leaves her audience copiously satisfied yet salivating for more.

Harriet Klausner

I have read both of Hart D. Fisher's poetry books. They both kick you in the gut and spit on you. Packed full of imagery that stays with you for days. Otherwise, good stuff, buy it!

Hart D. Fisher is an amazing man. Hard to contemplate that at one time, he was happy. I find myself strangely drawn to his dark, melodic verse. Pity we can't all feel the torment that rips through his words like so many daggers of ice. I desperately need to read the first book; any endeavor by Fisher will recieve warm praise from me. I can't sleep after reading his work; I stay awake, waiting for the demons of poetry to claw at my throat and suck my life's breath.

poetry is a tough medium to work with, the most subjective perhaps of all the arts. fisher's poetry does not transcend that but rather shouts and writhes from it's own corner of a sad bleak world. people that have never seen the dark side of the zero may not relate but if you read poetry hoping to understand, if you like words chisled like an expensive sculpture stolen from a hidden museum, then this book will get in your bones and stay there.

"Under the Greenwood Tree" does not rank among Hardy's greatest novels, but it includes many moving moments and memorable characters. This first of the great series of Wessex novels introduces the reader to Hardy's beloved and changing countryside. The landscape and it's occupants are lovingly invoked, and the natural humour of the locals shines through.

In fact, the supporting characters are far more interesting than the hero and heroine. "Under the Greenwood Tree" is really a tale of young love, and although Hardy touchingly illustrates the yearning and naivete of his lovers, both characters remain at arm's length. This is particularly true of Fancy, the heroine, whose emotions do not become apparent until close to the tale's end.

Hardy would explore many of "Greenwood Tree's" themes more effectivly in later books, but this novel is more than just a warm-up act. The decline of English country life- one of Hardy's greatest themes- has never been as tellingly illustrated as in the sub-plot of the Mellstock Quire, and the contented, ironic ending rings as true as any of the fatalistic horrors to come.

The painter Poussin's famous title might stand as a rubric for this lovely book. Hardy views his cast of rustics through the prism of music: the old church stringed instruments choir is to be replaced with the spanking new organ. There is the added romantic interest of young musician Dave and the controversially female organist, Fancy Day.

This is a story of established customs breaking down through the interloper: a new vicar in town. Structurally divided into Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, it follows the natural rhythms of the earth and of society. Hardy revels in his descriptive powers.

Filled with nostalgia and that increasingly fashionable concept - "Englishness", and seasoned with wisdom and wit, this is truly fabulous - a mini-masterpice in a similar bag to, say, Mrs. Gaskell's "Cranford".

"Under the Greenwood Tree" was deservedly Hardy's own favourite among his novels.

This is one of my favorite Hardy novels! His vivid descriptions bring the rustic setting, characters, and customs to life. It's like peering through a window into a world gone by. The story weaves together love, social position, and the slow displacement of old traditions with modern conventions. A delightful read!

Children might be tempted to believe that there are Wish Granters floating about, if one can just find them! This fanciful tale is set in Victorian England--an era of gas jets, scullery maids and coal hobs. Four children (as in THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE) discover a special fire egg which hatches in their nursery fireplace. Then their mother purchases a Persian carpet, which provides the vehicle for Space (if not Time) Travel. It even responds to written commands and obeys instructions without a human pilot.

All this magical flying about in response to wishes reminds me of the cloak in THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE and Mary Norton's THE MAGIC BEDKNOB. Nesbit's style also reminds me of Beatrix Potter, with many asides, advice or explanations directed to the reader. The setting returns us to the ingenuous nursery days of AA Milne's stuffed animal world.

The story takes place around Christmas and the children wrestle with their consciences over moral issues concerning the unexplained acquisition of wealth, curios, toys and pets. How much to reveal to skeptical parents and how ethical it is to whisk unsuspecting adults away to a remote island or to allow rational people to assume they are insane or just dreaming. How can the siblings plus their baby brother (called the Lamb) ever return to the status quo, since they can only enjoy their carpet rides and conversations with the Phoenix in secret?

This book is too naive for the elementary kids of the 90's, but it would be a good selection to read aloud, one chapter a night before bedtime to younger children. The more you have read of Children's Literature, the more you will recognize from other books. This one may have been the inspiration for the others...!

"The Phoenix and the Carpet" is about four children who find a carpet and then a phoenix shows up and tells them it's a magic carpet. The children have many adventures with the phoenix and the carpet including many in other continents and a place where there can be no whooping coughs. At the end, the phoenix has to part from the children. I thought this was a great book not only because it had magic and it was JK Rowlings' favorite author; but also because it was a fun well-written book.

The phoenix in an ancient animal, or to be more exact - bird. It falls into the hands of five cute children, who takes a real good care of it. It also brings along a magic carpet, just like everyone would like to have at home. The phoenix, is very bright, and its presence sure makes things much more interesting and fun. Its one of the books I liked the best.

This fairy book has some wise philosophy about xenophobia and cruel leadership, but the charm is thin. Baum wrote it during the hiatus when he hoped he'd written his last Oz book. Fortunately, public demand defeated him.

Being a L.Frank Baum fan, I loved Sky Island. It is a enchanting book with the main characters as a charming little girl named Trot and a kind sailor-by name Capn' Bill. I loved this adventuras book, which involes a magic umbrella and a exciting run-in with some blularoos. I wont give the book away, but if your are thinking about giving this book to a child- (being 14 myself) I still love reading it, and its definetly worth the money and time.

Trot ,a young girl and her friends Cap'n Bill and Button Bright fly to Sky Island with a magic umbrella.There, they are made slaves by the Boolooroo of the Blues. Then they escape and go through the fog bank to the other side of the island, where the Pink People are going to throw them off the side of the island. Polychrome, the rainbow's daughter ,saves them.