I have begun to use these Road to Reading books in my resource classroom and the students love them. They especially loved Hot Dog. Many of the words are on the state mandated word lists for K-2. The pictures are terrific and the story is interesting and funny to the kids. I thought it was great too-in fact we all fell in love with the little "Hot Dog".

This book was the first one our daughter (4) read by herself. It's pretty good and is at the level of the old "see spot run" books. It's about thirty pages and has nice color pictures.

Guess what? Stella's mum had just got married, Stella gets dumped at Evergreen. Shes not happy about it!!!
Things get worse! She accidently loses all off her hair, she has to share a Dorm with snobby Karen and Louise who are not nice they are stuck up. Then she has to go Swimming-lessons which she totally hates with Uncle pong! - How can she possibly survive?

I loved the book, "How to Survive Summer Camp". It was original, humorous, and right on the dot with feelings. I love all Jacqueline's books; right now my favourite is "Girls Out Late", which is the 3rd in the "Girls In Love" series for older readers. So, if you love a good book, read this, and all the others. Really! You wont be disappointed.

I would Highly recommend this book for children and adults alike.

This book is a joy to read either out loud to a child or to oneself. Carolyn Walsh skillfully evokes powerful sensory memories for the reader of growing up in a New England Town, and the joy and excitement that each new season brings. The illustrations are enchanting. I have found that this is a greatly appreciated gift for friends of all ages.

An excellent and very moving coming of age story. Ms Lyle's books are filled with marvelous imagery and snips of poetry as well as beautiful landscapes and natural scenes.

The characters are well drawn and memorable. First love and self discovery, as well as a search for one's place in the world are themes worthy of exploration.

I first read this book over 15 years ago as I was entering a troubled adolescence and I have cherished and re-read it many times since. The very simple but affecting story of Jessie, a tomboy looking for female role models and the meaning of true love. It's not just the plot, but the setting of the story, the late 50's/early 60's in rural Virginia that contributes to the tone and the feeling of the joy that Jessie has in just being alive. Many memorable scenes, like when she is riding topless on her bike on a sunny day and smelling the honeysuckle. Wonderful, wonderful book. Why is this out of print? I treasure my tattered paperback. Also check out her book "Fair Day and Another Step Begun" about a pregant young woman and her quest for the father of her baby. It's just as magical as "Barefoot." Unfortunately, it's also out of print.

Any reader who enjoys reading serial killer novels must read this book. The interaction between the killer and the reporter contains some of the best dialogue I have ever read in a book of this type. Their conversations are definitely up there with some of the interactions in Thomas Harris' Hanibal trilogy. The protagonsit, a reporter, has to deal with the dilemma between his job as a reporter and his role as a citizen. This conflict adds wonderful insight into his character and his relationships with the secondary cast. The book is a fairly quick read, but is well written and definitely gives the reader something that one is not acccustomed to in these types of books. This is the kind of book that you should be searching the used books stores for. It is the first Katzenbach book and it absolutely will not be my last.

This book was the first book I had read from Mr. Katzenback, and is still probably my favorite. I passed the book along to my parents, friends, etc. and they all loved it. I love the fact that Mr. Katzenbach has a newspaper reporter background, because his book reflect his talent in writing. I have read all of his works, and because I am a true mystery thriller buff, I prefer those to the last recent Harts war, because I am not a fan of military novels as much, but my husband and all of his male co workers thought the book magnificent, and I have yet to get my hands on it. Mr. Katenbach, if you are listening, do you have any new books coming out soon. I am hoping for something along the lines of Mean Season 2, or something like that, not because your writing isn't just as wonderful in every book, but I read 3 to 4 books a week, and I have become somewhat finicky on what I like to read! Trying to expand my horizons..but those mysteries and your villians are some of the best villians I have read about. If you do read this and could let me know where your heart is leading you to in your next book and when you might be writing another, I would be thrilled to know. What a gift you have, it is rare that my husband and I read the same material, but we both love good writers, and you are one of the few that we both love. On a personal note, at 40 I am now at home on permant disability because of illness so books are my lifeline, and when I see a new J. Katzenbach, it is such a thrill, like I won a little lottery, and the thicker the book the better. So for this one fan I hope a mystery, serial killer (isn't that terrible no accounting for taste) book is coming soon. For such a pacifist, my friends tease me about my taste in books. Oh well. Thanks for enhancing my life Jill Guenther 27892 Wakefield Rd Santa Clarita, CA 91384 661-257-2985 artnjill@earthlink.net

This book is a powerful reminder of a time we should never forget. In 1941 a German soldier Willy Georg went into the Warsaw Ghetto and took some pictures. Without meaning to he documented for history what life was like for the Jews in the Polish Ghetto before it was raised to the ground by the Nazis and most of its occupants massacred. Willy Georg is not a hero, he did nothing to help the people of the Ghetto, all he did was prove that they had existed at all. This book is tragic as it is magnificent. The accompanying text is concise and well written, showing the reader along with the photos how people lived and died in Warsaw during the early 1940s. This book should be on every library shelf and every school from Junior to High should have access to it. Sometimes pictures can speak louder than words and in this case it is more than true.

The origin of this book is in of itself remarkable. In the summer of 1941, Willie Georg (a German soldier stationed in Warsaw), was given a pass by his commanding officer that allowed him to enter the Warsaw Ghetto--a 1.36 square mile area into which 500,000 Jews had been packed. "There are some curious goings-on behind that wall," said the officer. "Take your [camera]...and bring back some photos of what you find." George did this, but the photographs he took have waited over five decades to see publication. Jewish scholar Rafael F. Scharf has collected these poignant, powerful images into a volume supplimented by excerpts from the diaries of Warsaw Ghetto Jews. The result is a book that brings the past to life with vivid and literally painful clarity. The Ghetto was deliberately created by the Nazis as a place for Jews to slowly died from hunger, cold and disease. (Georg's photos were taken a little less than a year before the death camps opened for large-scale business.) Every page is an portrait--in words or pictures--of people the reader knows almost certainly died before the war ended. It's impossible to look at these images without feeling a sense of loss on a purely human level. Old men, women, children, their faces gaunt with hunger, are seen still struggling to live a life of sorts, but it is clearly a struggle they are losing. IN THE WARSAW GHETTO is a reminder that every person who suffered and died under the Nazi regime was a fellow human being--that each and every one of those deaths was an ineffacable tragedy.

Having reread it a third time, notwithstanding anything, this is the greatest book of poetry ever written. Some of these poems, perhaps, need time to work their full effect on the psyche, but one such as "We Children" (below) can be loved, even by a child:

We played checkers
on the banisters
while our sun was bright
and petunias wound their way
upward on a string

By evening we gathered together
on the doorsteps
listening to ghost tales
or watching how stars blinked
and planets stood still

At night we put our board and me away
while flowers closed their blooms
and with phantoms raging in our heads
We shut our eyes
and slept as quiet moons.

Indian Summer Poems by Butler Brewton appeared several years (in 1997). I read it then and loved it and recently, I rediscovered it, read it again, and I find it to be a truly great work. These poems are extremely special. They strike me as classic. My impression upon reacquainting myself with them is that there is something timeless in their beauty. This book is truly a must for every lover of black literature. Mr. Brewton's poems seem drenched with the very essence of life. Here is a writer, who seems to have savored rich experiences, who has known many
facets of life, sadness, love and death. He is familiar with the seasons, with nature, the South, the requirements of survival and the relations between men, women and children. It was with apprehension of something truly brilliant being lost, that I read the comment that this book is almost out of print. I was eager to reread a stanza from a poem ("Cutting Down My First Tree") of his I have always remembered:

It was something like a scream,
The sound that ax made
Striking through the bark
To slice the raw wood beneath;

And when I was able
To wiggle the small blade out,
It was wet with living sap
That let me know that tree was growing,
Would have given fruit to keep the woods
alive;

But once you fell a tree
The next is easier than the first;
And I needed more than one
To quench my youth thirst;

I had not helped the woods
By cutting down that tree;
And I asked for forgiveness
On my guilty knees;

But that tree that took the fury
Of my first and thirsty blade
Left me preoccupied with the sound
That wet flesh made.

I picked this book up not knowing what it was and not sure if I would like it or not. After I finished the novel, I went back and re-read my favorite chapters. I enjoyed everything--the characters, the sense of place on the reservation, and the writing style.

Indian Summers ranks with Winter in the Blood as one of the finest examples of Native American literature yet written. The plot-threads flow together beautifully, echoing the best of what is done in the genre of urban fiction, yet transposing this technique onto the detailed world of a reservation. Gansworth is sure to become an important writer. One of the best first novels I've read in years.

After reading Annie Garrett's "After You", I went in search of other books set on the coast of Maine. Luckily, I happened to pick up this book by Amy Belding Brown at the library and absolutely loved it! The main character, Allison, is an endearing, down-to-earth individual who refuses to be true to her feelings after meeting the potential love of her life, Brent. Brent knows exactly how he feels for Allison the moment he meets her and tries his hardest to sweep her off her feet with his good looks and charm. Allison is also engaged to be married to the wealthy, handsome, yet controlling, Cabot. The descriptions of her intense emotions toward Brent are so vivid and romantic. The scenery description is also very pleasant. I will definately read this novel again!

The book starts out as Allison engaged to the so called perfect man. She goes to an island with Martha, a friend of hers. She meets a guy who gave up a promising career to have a simple life. The book is fantastic. Sparks shoot whenever they are together. She finds out what her fiance' is really like and things change.Amy Belding Brown is a great author. I want to read more of her books.

A great writer writing about great things - you'll feel like you're in the middle of the Sierra yourself. Endlessly enjoyable.

In a world brimming with wonderful volumes of the work of John Muir, here is the one edition in which you may find virtually everything you seek. To find it in such a handsome, handy, easy to negotiate book makes this a must for all lovers of Muir's writing. Eight inches tall by six wide and two inches thick, it is a durable and willing partner for excursions through the wilderness. Created for long life among library shelves and scholarly studies, this sleek little friend stows away quite comfortably in backpack or oversized coat pocket. Those who don't know Mr. Muir will meet the great lover of wildness (and perhaps history's most influential advocate of preservation) presented in a lovingly researched volume which includes informative notes on the evolution of Muir's field journal entries into published pieces, a chronology of his life and literary career, and all of the major writings for which he is known. A generous selection of his published essays and magazine articles reveal many previously unsuspected jewels of poetic prose. As a lifetime devotee of the works of Shakespeare, the Bible, and the immortal Scottish bard Robert Burns, Muir could recite extensive passages from all. Likewise, his writing breezes through the imagery and lessons drawn from these potent sources. Coffee table books brimming with Ansel Adams photography, biographies of Muir, and collections of his correspondence are all aspects of any comprehensive Muir collection. The words themselves, however, simple and elegantly bound, are where the journey might well begin.