This book is an incredible way to learn a lot of history at the same time as you read an entertaining page turner. The story is set in late 17th Century Spain, the height of the Inquisition. A highborn secret Jew must balance his devotion to his religion which he knows very little about at the begining of the story against his pride in and sense of duty toward, his country and the Spanish royalty, his kinsmen.

This book, like most of the others in the Ruach Ami series, is filled with historical information, including an insider's view of the political factors that led to Spain's gut-wrenching and hopeless war against King Louis' powerful French legions. Unlike the others in the series however, this is made more realistic with a flawed protagonist. Gold's other books, while historically educational and entertaining, lack realism in that one side always represents 100% good, and the other is 100% evil. In this book, only chief antagonist, the evil confessor to the king, is solely bad. All of the other characters have positive and negative traits.

This book takes you on a ride with a proud and talented, and yet confused Spanish duke, through naval battles on the seas, bull fights in Pamplona, the haughty royal halls and portrays the intrigues and back stabbing that was so common to the monarch governments of yesteryear. It even visits the forbidding interrogation rooms and torture chambers of the inquisition.

In every way I can think of, this is an excellent book!

We have owned Midnight Feast for 4 years now (our
eldest child is 7), and we'll get quite a few more years use out of it. It's the story of a brother and sister (sister looks smaller, but is definetly in charge) who decide to pretend to be asleep so as to stay up for a midnight feast. The brother is sent to fetch all the necessaries (cookies and apples, aka pomegranites and lobsters, something to sit on etc.), while the sister waits for the princess to arrive. Girls will like it that they are in charge, boys will like the fantasies the little boy has whilst getting the supplies and mums will enjoy the ending (read it and see why).

For over a millennium, it's been axiomatic that Queen Jezebel was Evil -- and promiscuous. Even a casual reading of the Bible reveals that the latter accusation is unfounded. Now Janet Gaines tackles the task of resurrecting the Wicked Queen's reputation; no easy task after the hatchet job the Judeo-Christian patriarchy did on Jezebel's story.

MUSIC IN THE OLD BONES discusses the endless fascination Queen Jezebel holds and provides an interesting alternative to the usual verdict upon Jezebel's character. After a thorough background of Jezebel's story as seen through the window of biblical narrative, Gaines analyzes Queen Jezebel's enduring place in popular culture.

Gaines gives us an admirable overview of a woman whose chief crime was that she was a foreigner who ran afoul of the prophet Elijah. MUSIC IN THE OLD BONES is a fascinating, provocative work. It's essential reading for anyone interested in closer study of women in the biblical tradition, and for anyone who wants to reclaim women's history.

For anyone interested in the monarchs of England, this is a great picture book. Although this book does not go into detail of each monarch, it does give a brief description along with a photograph of the monarch. This book is divided into chapters starting with The Anglo-Saxons and Danes to The House of Windsor. Each of the Kings and Queens who reigned during those periods are featured in the perspective chapter. Each chapter also has a genealogy family tree which helps untangle the web of marriages and remarriages.

It is a good picture book to walk the reader through the over 1000 years of the English monarchy.

Daisy and Dan are twins who live near the High Forest. When they go walking in the woods one day, they meet some very strange people. These people turn out to be trees! As the two become friendly with the trees, they learn about the traditions from when there was more respect for the forest. Through each season they come to understand who is really a danger to whom, and become wrapped in the secret world of the tree kingdom. The story is enthralling and well written. You will never look at trees in quite the same way again.

I absolutely loved this book! I loved that it was a fairy tale, and I loved the story.

Christian is a boy that ran away from home and was adopted by a troll and his two dogs. He grows up admiring the princess marigold from across the river, and when he is 17 he starts coresponding with her.

Edric, the troll that adopted Christian, thinks that Christian should go and see the world, so Christian goes and takes a job at the castle. The night he arrives a banquet is being held in honour of princess Marigold's two suiters, neither of which she likes. Marigold and Christian finaly meet and fall in love, but before they can live happily ever after they have to foil the plans of Marigold's evil mother.

The animals around the misty Isles of Scotland get to tell this tale of adventure as escape of Bonnie Prince Charley through the Highlands in 1746. He's now a Scottish deerhound, beholding to Skye terrier Fora MacDonald. Robert Hutchinson and Rob Brown join forces to tell and illustrate the story beautifully. I especially liked the way Flora communicates with "free" animals who bravely come to her aid. Such a talented lady--she speaks otter, owl, porpoise, marten, and deer! A lovely, lyrical journey sure to delight parents and children alike.

My four year-old enjoys this book very much. It is an oversized paperback with simple drawings (simpler than the original books) but very enjoyable. Paddington causes mayhem at Buckingham Palace while going to meet the Queen - getting trapped in a suit of armour and scaring the servants, falling into a vat of the cook's marmalade glaze. The Queen takes it all in stride and at the end she and Paddington settle down to a chat over marmalade sandwiches. My daughter loves the Paddington books after first seeing the old British series (with stop-motion puppet Paddington) that Disney originally brought over from England many years ago. She finds the new, dubbed-into-American-accent Paddington cartoon a little confusing.

I worked in a daycare and this was one of the most popular books. As teachers we were requested to read it daily, but I never got tired of it. The wonderful pictures and funny storyline make this book just a great deal of fun! I recommend it highly for children and for parents!

What a delight! My professor read this book aloud to our (adult) class, and we were all on the edges of our seats. A great book to teach about predictions and how gossip (a little information is a dangerous thing)can be hurtful. Also a great book for encouraging children to read on their own to "see what happens" as well as encouraging them to begin writing. The illustrations are colorful and compliment the text.