IT IS A REALLY GOOD BOOK BECAUSE YOU CAN'T PUT THE BOOK DOWN!
WHEN SAMANTHA IS SAD YOU FEEL SORRY FOR HER THAT SHE FEELS THAT WAY. I LOVE IT. I WISH THERE WAS MORE TO THE STORY!!!!!

Since her mom passed away seven years ago, Samantha has taken care of her dad, helping with every household chore from bill baying to assuring that her dad takes his allergy medicine. Their comfortable routine has recently been interrupted, however, by her dad's new marriage. Suddenly Samantha does not feel so needed, and she resents her stepmother's intrusion in her life almost as much as she resents being shipped off for the summer to her new step-grandma's. But her grandma and the island where she spends the summer turn out quiet unexpectedly as she meets new friends, especially Jason, the cute kayaking instructor. Unfortunately, there's a secret game that could threaten Samantha's new love.

The second of a series targeting teen girls, ISLAND GIRL scores a direct hit with this audience. Author Lori Stacy deftly captures the struggles and triumphs of changing family dynamics as well as the turmoil of young love. As Samantha gains insight and maturity, she moves from a self-consciousness and resentment to a strong young woman in control of her destiny. A delightfully entertaining read, ISLAND GIRL comes very highly recommended.

Finally, an author creates a bad guy that you can at the same time hate and feel very sorry for. It appears to be a very hard thing to but this author did it.
A moving read with an emotional ending. A great pre-historic tale.

A fast-moving adventure story.

Places in the heart of Harry Belafonte are captured in this charming book which reflects the beauty of the land of his birth, his island in the sun, Jamaica. White sands, lush colorful flora, lovely images match the lyrics of a song made famous by Mr Belafonte years ago. Children will embrace the pictures and follow the words with laughter. Their parents will remember swaying to lilting calypso rhythms. The next time you are at a baseball or basketball game and you hear a clear distinct "Day-O!", and find yourself and the entire crowd singing right back- -- remember you're responding to none other than this author, Harry Belafonte. That's his voice. So "Come Mr Tallyman- tally me banana- daylight come and me wan' go home."

Read this as a book or sing it as a song. This beloved calypso song leads reluctant readers to read as they sing. The illustrations are as bright and atractive as the lyrics. I keep a basket of "Sing Alouds" next to my reading chair. They lift my spirits as well as those of my students. I only wish more of the spirited songs Harry Belefonte introduced to us in the 1960's were available for me to share with my students.

Giftus John continues to "Sing" like a true Island man. As I read his poems, I was taken on a journey back home - to Dominica. The art and richness of the collection is a treasure. I strongly encourage the purchase and enjoyment of "The Island Man Sings His Song." It captures with authenticity, the essence of what Dominicans experience at home and abroad. This is definitely one of Giftus' best works.

This is trully a masterpeice. This is by far one of Giftus' greatest works. The poems took me back to my youthful days growing up in Salisbury. It brought back fun memories of listening and sharing stories, and riddles under clear moonlight skies. "The Island Man Sings His Song" is as real as I remember. For those who forgot or did not have the uniques opportunity to experience life in Dominica, "The Island Man SIngs His Song" takes you there. It is a great educational tool. I highly recommend it.

i agree w/ the first review. iI read almost the books in the adventure series @ library back when i was an exchange student in UK. This serious kept me company all night & i kept go back to library for the next book every another days. I hope that Amazon.com will carry both complete series. Enid Blyton is really wonderful Author. Im sure if u read his books u'll luv him too

Enid Blyton is wonderful. I read all the books in the adventure series, and the Secret Seven series. I am buying those books for my nieces. I read them when I was in school, in Spanish and I remember that it was so hard to put them aside. A must buy for children and helps with their imagination. I very strongly recommend both series. It will be nice if Amazon will carry both complete series.

"Island of the Ogres", is a fictional novel by Lensey Namioka. Namioka was born in Beijing, China. Namioka attended Radcliffe College and University of California, Berkley. She now resides in Seattle, Washington. This novel, which was published in 1989, takes place in 16th century Japan. Namioka, in the jacket of the novel, claims that she wrote this novel for herself. Namioka says, "I wrote the kind of story I enjoy reading myself. Maybe I write these books because I never really grew up."

"Island of the Ogres" is a clear, well thought out, easy to read, good vs. evil story. However, it has many twists and turns along the way. The novel has everything in it to make it an enjoyable entertaining story to read. The novel is a story of legendary heroes, grotesque villians, and a love story. However, more than anything else, "Island of the Ogres", is a detective story. Throughout the entire novel we a constantly shown things and given clues as to what is "really" going on, on the island. Things that seemed rather unimportant and useless when they were first mentioned. However, at the end of the novel , those clues are clearly defined as the mystery of the island unravels. And then the reader realizes that those items were not trivial, they were key elements to the story that were well placed by Namioka.

The story begins with the Hero of the novel, Itoh Kajiro, on his way from mainland Japan to a small island, (the island has no name, it is simply called "the island"), a short distance away. Kajiro is a Ronin, an unemployed Samurai. Kajiro has been unemployed for so long his abilities and reflexes as a warrior have become slow, and he has taken up being an alcoholic as a hobby. However, for the first time in a long time he has found work. He is hired by the Chamberlain to the ruling family, on a short term basis, to go to the island and investigate the loyality of the Garrison Commander on the island. This is a secret mission and Kajiro is not allowed to divulge his true intentions of going to the island to anybody.

When Kajiro arrives on the island he is greeted by a viscious animal running at him. Kajiro pulls out his sword to defend himself against the animal. However, a girl of 17 comes out of nowhere and kicks Kajiro is the shins. She is yelling and screaming at him, he then realizes why, it is not a viscious animal at all but here pet, a very large strong housecat. The cat is named Raiko, after a famous 10th century warrior. Soon there is a great storm. Kajiro, the girl and the boatman that brought him to the island quickly seek shelter in the home of a friendly, local fisherman. The fisherman introduces himself to the boatman and to Kajiro. Then, due to a mistaken identity the boatman introduces Kajiro an Konishi Zenta, a legendary Samurai. Kajiro knowing that he is on a secret mission, decides to use the identity of Zenta to his advantage and plays along. The fisherman tells Kajiro, now using the name Zenta, the story of the ogres that are terrorizing the island. He tells Kajiro that there have been reports of missing dogs and chickens, all of which are said to have been taken by ogres.

Shortly there after there is a knock at the door. It is Gorobei, a high ranking officer on the island. He attempts to take the Kajiro and the boatman into immediate custody. The young girl steps out to confront the guards taking her, now friends, into custody. The girl is then identified as Lady Yuri, sister-in-law of the Garrison commander. Gorobei explains that all visitors must report immediately Garrison Mansion for questioning before they are allowed to remain on the island. He goes on to say that the former Daimyo, old lord and provincial ruler, has been exiled to the island by his son, the new Daimyo. Therefore in the interest of security all visitors must check into the Garrison for questioning.

Kajiro and the boatman go to the Garrison Mansion. They meet the island Commander, and his wife, Lady Sada. When Kajiro is introduced as Zenta, Lady Sada laughs at first, but then accepts him as Zenta. Due to their previous conversation in the fishermans' house Yuri tells her brother-in-law and sister that Zenta came to the island to stop the ogres that have been plauging the island for the past few weeks. Kajiro uses this cover story as a way of accomplishing his mission of observing the garrison commander and as a way to help the people at the same time. It is a chance for him to feel like a real Saurai again.

This was the setup for the rest of the novel. The remaing part of the story consists of Kajiro and lady Yuri building their relationship with each other. A plot to free and restore the former Daimyo to power. The secret of the mysterious guest of Lady Sada. The mystery behind the ogres. And what happens when the real Zenta is introduced.

I really enjoyed every aspect of this novel. This would be a great story for a small child to have read to them or for an adult just interested in a good book. The book keeps you guessing as to what is going on and makes you interested in the welfare of the characters. All and all, "Island of the Ogres" is one of the most entertaining books I have read in a long time.

This is Lensey Namioka's first novel, and I think she's done anoutstanding job. The story is about a ronin, or unemployed samurai,sent to spy on the governor of an island. He finds himself caught in a case of mistaken identity - the locals believe him to be a samurai of legendary status - while discovering something very eerie going on nightly near an Abbey by the shore. A wilful girl, dangerous samurais, stealthy traitors, fat cats, and of course ogres also turn up in this enchantingly spun tale. I'd compare this book to a decadent chocolate - sweet, dense, and delightfully, ever-so-slightly dark. There's also a properly chilling element to it. All in all, it's a wonderfully original book, with many plot twists and complex character relations. Spectacular!

I read the first book that this volume contains on a short trip to Brussels. The images in the book captivated me more than the images around on the little holiday. I was sitting there in the Grand Square in Belgium, designed to be the most beautiful square in Europe, wanting to be in every moment where Sacks was. Everything in this book is put to the page with such elegance and beauty that I kept ranting about it to my girlfriend (to her annoyance). With some slight similarities to Douglas Adams' "Last Chance To See", this is one of the most wonderful books I've read in ages.

Oliver Sacks describes, in beautiful depth, his childhood love of islands and his fascination with, in particular, the ancient cycad trees. He embarks on a expedition to the islands of the Pacific in order to research two extraordinary phenomena - a population which is largely achromatopic (colour-blind) and an island on which the causes of a mysterious paralysis have eluded scientists for decades. At the same time, he reveals his innate biophilia - an appreciation of life and the living world - which he believes is present to some degree in all men. He expresses this sentiment in many ways - in his sympathy towards his patients and his efforts to understand both their afflictions and their culture, and in his vivid description of the tropical plant and marine life which he beholds around him. The book contains a large section of well-researched footnotes, which indicate Oliver Sacks' extensive knowledge on the history and anthropology of these isolated populations. For all those with, as the author might say, even a slight degree of biophilia, this book should provide an interesting and informative account of the curious evolution of life on these islands of the Pacific.

I like books that count on the reader's intelligence and here's one. Many stories intersect along the pages, but as the author rather focuses on the traces left by events in the narrator's mind than on events themselves, the book reaches beyond the sum of its tales to undertake a meaningful questioning of reality's status, i.e. the notions which support our sense of identity and allow us to interact with the world. Of course the narrator, curator in Paris's Jardin des Plantes, is a good "no action heroe" and so doomed to search life's touchstone in the archives of knowledge -often as dusty as amazing! And one of his most enjoyable features is that he hardly states directly what he feels-confusion, love, boredom, jealousy, desire, fear, disgust. Instead he lets the reader recover and develop this emotions through his notes on natural curiosities -the mammal's sexual behavior, the birds's ability to imitate one another, the plant's properties and sensitive reactions- and his comments on human artifacts: music, art, literature. As the reading goes on, all this loose facts weave a very personal causality and thus a true novel -ironic and moving- takes shape in each reader's mind.

Subtle, ironic, sharp, tender, philosophical, funny, intelligent, melancholic... this novel is a rare delight. The ghosts and the living, irrevocably intertwined inside a Natural History Museum, show us everything we long for, everything we flee from. With delicacy and wit, Frémon explores our intimate relationship with art, literature, music and, above all, with our own emotions, to make us rediscover our being in the world.

"Island of the Human Heart" is the Canadian title for "Kite Strings of the Southern Cross", the US title. If you're interested in reading reviews and sample chapters from this book, please click in "Kite Strings of the Southern Cross". It's a fabulous and true travel story of a young woman in Fiji. From her sultry warm nights on the shores of Fiji, she takes us around the world with her tales of hilarious and often harrowing adventures. Not only is it impossible to put down for its stories alone, it's also beautifully and lyrically written. It's the best travel book I've read since Robyn Davidson's "Tracks".

This book has all the great ingredients to keep one turning the pages: exotic travel, humour, and romance. Laurie Gough captures the feel of different countries as she travels the world, while also keeping a great sense of the ridiculous and the sublime.

In ISLAND OF THE SUN, co-authored with Erik Jendresen, Alberto Villoldo relates his Peruvian odyssey in search of his teacher, Don Antonio. ISLAND OF THE SUN is a dramatic, poetic adventure -- a profound exercise in suspending ones disbelief, in expecting the unexpected, in stretching the imagination, and in shattering the boundaries of consciousness. In short, it gives a glimpse into the mind of a shaman. It has been said that to know and understand a shaman, one must become a shaman. Villoldo has become a shaman. His story is a captivating articulation of his journey into the unknown; its imagery, vivid and enchanting - "the Sun glistened in playful white sparkles of light on the green waters. I listened to the cicada hiss, the high-pitched cacophony of the birds and the insects, the whir and hiss and chatter and hum that bounced off its surface and filled the clearing with music."

Villoldo sees his mission as that of translating the ancient psychology and truths contained in the Medicine Wheel of the Incas into a Western framework - into a psychology of the sacred. He sees the Medicine Wheel as providing a neurological map for the evolution and transformation of our species by accessing the state of consciousness that informs life. He sees the Medicine Wheel as offering a path through which we can override the oftentimes violent survival mechanisms of our primitive limbic brain.

Villoldo presents the symbolic imagery of the archetypal energies contained in the Medicine Wheel. In the South (serpent), we confront and shed the past like a serpent sheds its skin. In the West (jaguar), we overcome fear and death. By experiencing ourselves as conscious energy, death loses its sting and becomes but a doorway to one of infinite phases in eternity. In the North (hummingbird), we experience the knowledge and wisdom of the ancients. We access a sea of consciousness as vast as time itself. In the East (eagle), we experience a transcendent, comprehensive, vision of what we have learned. We share our story with the world as caretakers of the earth. That, he says, is our return home.

The psychology of the ancients is based on direct shamanic experience in different domains of consciousness. Its approach -- of experience and exploration -- is from the inside out; its goal -- to know, understand, and be in harmony with the forces of Nature. In Villoldo's experience, that approach requires a new state of mind - one that allows but is not distracted by subjective experiences. The skills required come naturally in the process of "serving experiences." He explains that when one's intent is in harmony with the experience, it is served. Otherwise, it is just an experience.

In shamanic awareness, Villoldo experienced innumerable altered states of reality by shifting his perspective to unaccustomed dimensions. The most profound, for me, was his experiencing the integrity of a multisensory dream body awareness in which everything was reflected within him. He described it as like being a champagne bubble with all images of life reflected upon its inner surface. As his teacher later pointed out, in that, everything was reflected but the seer himself, for the seer is invisible.

Purity of intention is the key to shamanic exploration. Abandoning preconceptions is necessary and essential. To master the stillness required in the dream body, Villoldo says that one learns how to be conscious without being self-conscious. Through purity of intention, it is said to be possible to enter a realm beyond dreaming -- a wondrous, rich dimension of magnificent power and splendor. Maintaining purity of intention is the challenge.

Shamans of Peru practiced an alchemy of the soul. They were said to be able to influence the past as well as the future because they understood the relationship between time and light. It is said that in becoming light (an Inca, a Child of the Sun), time was dissolved. Shamans knew that time doesn't fly only in straight lines like an arrow - it also turns like a wheel. When those two kinds of time intersect, says Villoldo, that is sacred, ritual time -- one can influence the past and summon destiny from the future. The challenge is not to let knowledge of the future influence present actions or intent. Therefore, the shaman must be able to keep a secret from himself.

Villoldo's teacher, Don Antonio, points out that in all the great cultures developed north of the equator, God is a descending god -- the Divine comes from the heavens and descends to the Earth. For the Incas, the only great culture to develop south of the equator, the god-force is ascending -- it "rises from Earth to the heavens like the golden corn." Antonio envisions the new caretakers of the Earth as coming from the northern hemisphere. ( A prophecy of hope and perhaps even a vote of confidence, I think, for those of us in the northern hemisphere.)

Villoldo points out the paradox of psychology -- that when we study the human mind, it is the mind studying itself. He adds that modern science has failed to identify the psyche or subject of this study. The mind continues to evade us. From his extensive laboratory research as a psychologist and his inquiries as a medical anthropologist, Villoldo testifies that mind cannot be derived from the neurology of the human brain. He believes that psychology is like physics in that the act of studying the psyche alters it . Villoldo strongly believes that now is the time for humankind to turn consciousness on itself and step into a grander consciousness in the evolution of mankind. He sees the path of the shaman as giving us clues for this process of exploration, discovery, realization, and transformation. He sees the path of the shaman as offering hope for a better world and a new humanity.

This is a great tale, and fairly accurate and instructive. The Western world is sorely lacking in instruction about the non rational, can't put your tongue on it realities of which the author speaks. While what I know of Peruvian shamanism is very small compared to the author's knowledge and direct experience, I suggest that this effort to capture End Journeys is both admirable and riveting. I have used FOUR WINDS as a guide to non ordinary reality since my discovery of it as a legitimate map; my work in the Celtic otherworld supports what the author here describes in terms of the Peruvian landscapes of non ordinary reality. But personally, from a shamanic perspective, I want more of Antonio's accurate and real mentoring, and less of the neophyte journeyer's somewhat predictable story line. As a tale, the book is not as finely crafted as FOUR WINDS either. Nonetheless, a great read, but just not as instructive or as easy to read as I found FOUR WINDS. /D.L. Smith 12/12/98