It is so wonderful to see that Elizabeth von Arnim's books are being reprinted. I find it difficult to pick a favorite, because all her books are delightful. This book is wonderful because it is so full of humor. I laughed out loud at some scenes! How Elizabeth "escapes" from different groups of people on Rugen and her descriptions of them make fun reading. I hope this and other books by Elizabeth that are being reprinted will spark a whole new generation of fans. She is a writer who doesn't deserve to be forgotten.

I do not really like the early Tintin adventures where there is a lot of slapstick and every other page our intrepid reporter hero is either holding a gun or having somebody hold a gun on him or taking away the gun that someone is holding on him and then turning the gun back on that someone. However, "Die Schwarze Insel" (The German Edition of "The Black Island") is certainly the epitome of this particular type of Tim (the Germans are one of the few who insist on changing Tintin's name in translation) adventure. Hergé really pours it on pretty much from start to finish. This might be slapstick but it is nonstop slapstick from Tim trying to stop Schulze and Schultze from arresting him to Struppi getting the better of a gorilla (but not a spider). I have reason to believe that Tim might end up unconscious more often in "Die Schwarze Insel" than all of his other adventures combined.

The beginning of the adventure is simple enough. Tim sees a plane land with engine trouble. Noticing it is an unregistered plane he offers to help and is immediately shot (do not worry, the bullet only grazes his ribs). Of course as soon as he is out of the hospital Tim wants to get to the bottom of this mystery but it is hard to collect clues when people are trying to kill you every other page. Whatever the connection is, it eludes Tim for most of the book, but eventually enough becomes clear for our hero learn that he must go to Die Schwarze Insel for all the piece to finally fall together.

As you can tell from the cover illustration of "Die Schwarze Insel" Tintin gets to wear a kilt, not to mention a bonnie bonnet as the titular piece of property happens to be in Scotland. You also get the fun of translating dialogue with a Scottish accent. We know how to do this in the translated English, but then there is the wonder of how such a thing is done when you are writing in the original French or the translated German. Ye can nae tell me it be an easy bit of business tae do, laddie. That fact alone makes looking over a translated version worth the effort.

This might not be the best Tintin adventure given some of the epic two-parters we have read and there are certainly funnier sequences to be found down the road in individual adventures, but all things considered "Die Schwarze Insel" deserves the honor of being the funniest of all of Hergé stories.

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This book is awesome for reports and general history. It gives a complete overview on Alcatraz. It even gives some information on prisoners. It has precisly 46 pictures. Most of them splendid pictures of Alcatraz. You want a good Alcatraz book, get (read) this.

This is a great book for anyone interested in what life was like on Alcatraz from an insider's perspective. Mr. Gregory served as a prison guard on Alcatraz and explains in detail the daily routines of the prisoners and guards. He writes very directly about the various jobs he had while there and what life was like. He adds a very human aspect to the people in his book while writing very "matter of factly." I was engaged by the book and did not want to put it down at times. Having read other books on Alcatraz and having been there, this book told me an insider's perspective that I had never felt I'd had before. I recommend it highly to anyone who has even the slightest interest in what Alcatraz was really like.

Every time I read about the history of Native Americans I tend to get very angry. This was the case when I read this book. The author wrote an honest account of what happened before, during and after the occupation of Alcatraz and again it is a story of injustice. Well written.

As a fourth grade teacher in the central California foothills, I am always looking for nonfiction titles with high interest for my classroom. A friend bought this book from Barry Tessman's widow and I immediately ordered a copy. We study Explorers and Geographers as part of our 4th grade curriculum and this book leads into a great discussion about modern day exploring. Pictures and maps are easy to read, text and font grade-appropriate, natural history and wildlife pictures very appealing.

In the 1920's General Billy Mitchell declared the Aleutian Islands were the jumping off place for an Americanm attack on Japan. At the same time, the Japanese were sending spies into the Aleutians to "check it out" for their own agenda.

The book ALEUTIAN HEADACHE provides fascinating narrative and pictures about the American buildup in Alaska's Aleutian Islands in the face of aggressive Japanese expansion throughout the Pacific.

Details here of the Japanese seizure of American soil in Alaska and the deadly allied attacks that expelled them. Includes the American air raid that bombed the Japanese on Kiska Island with beer and Coke bottles, when the bottles hit the earth they smashed showering the Japanese occupants with shards of glass.

Book also includes little known accounts of the U.S. Navy - Japanese Navy ship-to-ship fighting (without aircraft) in Bering Sea.

Major chapter on Dutch Harbor bombed.

Attu, Aggatu and Kiska seized by the Japanese.

The Kiska Blitz--"Get Kiska Back"!

American liberation of Attu a ghastly affair

Japanese secretly escape from Kiska thus Americna invasion forces shooting at their own (American) buddies.

Special chapter: How the Japanese did it?

Dozens of rare photographs, maps and charts prepared especially for this book, appendices, bibliography for those who want to know more, Index.

Recommended for those who want to know about the "shooting" war of 1942-1943 on Ameriocan soil

Includes illustrated chapter on how the American soldiers in those frozen Aleutian Islands sent and received their mail by the Army Post Office (APO) system. Role of Japanese-Americans during the Battle of Attu.

This book has everything you could possibly want to know about Eleventh Air Force and Alaska during World War II. Well written, informative, and packed with tons of photographs. This book is a must-read for all military personnel stationed in Alaska. I highly recommend it...