The author, Lois Duncan, has brought out the characters in this book, giving each of them unique traits. Lois Duncan has written yet another mystery novel that is filled with suspense and excitement. The story opens up with Rachel a seventeen-year-old girl remembering a summer when a strange incident happens. Her cousin Julia comes to live with them. Julia ruins Rachel's life and plans to take over. Julia starts by stealing her boyfriends and her girlfriends. During this story Rachel tries to convince her family and friends that Julia is bad. But of course her family does not believe her.
As Duncan travels the characters through the book she brings them through all of her troubles. I thought this book was great and I hope you will want to read it too.

I first read SUMMER OF FEAR in high school and found it to be the first book I couldn't put down, actually reading it all the way through in one sitting! Lois Duncan takes typical teenage angst and self-conscious paranoia and spins them together in a web of horror and mystery.

Rachel is the number one priority of her family until her cousin Julia (parents recently deceased) moves in. The two bond as sisters at first, but when Julia begins to receive all the attention, Rachel's jealousy kicks into high gear. The spin here is when "accidents" and deaths become common place. Rachel suspects Julia to be responsible, but the jealousy Rachel's family has witnessed lend them to believe Rachel is just looking for attention, leaving her to discover her "cousin's" evil secrets and legacy.

A great suspense novel I still reread occasionally. Check out the movie starring a teenaged Linda Blair as "Rachel" and Fran (The Nanny) Drescher as her best friend!

I have to admit that when I first looked at this book, I only got it because I had to. But when I started reading it, I immediately got hooked in the book's intriguing plot. Raechel is looking foward to another great summer, but the death of her aunt and uncle cut plans short. Raechel's cousin Julia is now coming to live with her. At first, the two girls bond like sisters, but soon Julia starts getting a lot of attention, and Raechel gets suspicious. Everyone, including Peter, Raechel's shy brother, falls in love with the beautiful cousin. Soon, Raechel's parents even believe that she is jealous, and ignore her pleas. Determined, Raechel does her research, and digs into Julia's past. But does she really want to know?

The moral of the book is that persistence pays off in the long run. Even with nobody to believe her, Raechel overcomes the odds and cuts Julia's plan off at the knees. If she had stopped trying, she, and everyone else in her family, could find themselves in a problem that they cannot get out of.

This is a great book that I am sure I will read many more times. I never thought of myself as a Duncan fan, but now I will definitely look into some of her many other works. I hope you enjoy the read.

With no previous experience in using Dreamweaver(DW) and some knowledge of HTML, I went out to look for some DW books. After reading several pages of this book, I discovered that the results you can produce and the skills you can gain was simply AMAZING.

I was able to create, modify & design, really, really brilliant and professional web designs by the time I completed the first 2 chapters. This book gives you:

-Step-by-step instructions

-Screenshots of almost every step

-Tutorial in easy-to-follow beginner language

-Professional design techniques: like how to optimize webpage design, how to make websites easy to navigate, etc.

-Professional editable graphics: the CD contains editable image files you can either use for your own websites or for you to learn how to create similarly optimized images that's small in size so that they load faster.

-Links to websites that exploit DW's tools to create cutting-edge web designs which can help/inspire you as you go on to design your own websites. Some of the sites recommended have free tutorials.

-An extremely good book. I was turned non-user/beginner to advanced in 12 projects for about [price]. Some people pay thousands for web design training and still cannot come close to producing professional looking sites like the ones I was able to create JUST by reading this book. It's worth every penny.

And if you think you need to learn CascadingStyleSheets(CSS), DynamicHTML(DHTML) or Javascript before reading this book, let me tell you that you'll be wasting time and money. With HTML knowledge, I was able to pick up knowledge in CSS on my own through the Hands-On projects of this book. And because you'll be using Macromedia's DW & Fireworks software, you don't need to know Javascript/DHTML at all to be able to create high-impact websites.

The CD does NOT contain Dreamweaver4 30-day-trial software.

From the moment I picked up Dreamweaver 4 Magic and began to flick through the pages, I new this was going to be a book I'd find immensely useful. Al Sparber and friends take us through some of the more popular dynamic interface effects found on the Web today, as well as a number of cutting edge techniques we'll be finding on the Web tomorrow. Each chapter takes you through a technique step-by-step, and is supported with screen captures when necessary. I was pleased to see that the book wasn't either picture or word biased, but rather struck an excellent balance between detailed explanations and supporting visual material. Dreamweaver 4 Magic even comes with a CD-ROM containing some custom Dreamweaver extensions, designed to support the tutorials in the book. Highly recommended.

This is a really good book on interface design and on incorporating more advanced DW features, like template and style sheet features, into your standard design structure. It is probably best used by intermediate to advanced level users. I've been using DW for about six months and the complexity of the book is just right because it opens up a world of functionality in DW that I sort of had a vague idea of, but which is really fleshed out by Sparber et al. The manner in which the "fleshing out" occurs is "good" because the author sort of presents techniques that lead up to the final project in well-contained procedural modules. It's not like a whole bunch of different techniques are mushed together; in this book you can definitely tell what's responsible for causing what effect.

The precision of the instructions is crucial because it's easy to get lost in Dreamweaver. The book is very explicit in making sure that you do not get lost on the path along the way. Most of the more complex or less obvious steps are repeated or reinforced by screen caps of the DW interface. My only complaint really is that the text is a bit small. I think if they had bumped it up a couple of points, or made the typeface bolder, text would have been more easily read. Other than that, the layout is spacious and visually-appealing -- it is overall a very beautifully designed book -- and there is extensive detail on each page, meaning, the authors get down to business. The composite style is sort of like Lynda Weiman's but with turbocharge. It takes about 4 to 5 hours to get through each project, not including referencing DW Help to clarify new concepts. The projects themselves are useful because they present interface set-ups you would certainly use for conventional web sites. The CD has a browser enabled section that presents the final page designs and its a good interactive way to flip through the projects and see what you like or don't like.

In counterpoint to what one review mentioned below regarding the CD, and the replication of similar effects in Homesite as in DW, first, I don't agree that the CD is just to inflate the price of the book. The book isn't cheap but you don't feel the cost of the book isn't justified in this case, because this book has such depth. I don't think most web designers have the level of virtuosity in wielding DW that Sparber and the other authors of this book have, much less would be willing to show you how to use it for less than $2000 in a w/e course. The CD actually has little bloat. The project files are well structured and the extensions are used in the projects rather than just thrown in there to fill up disk space. I suppose I could download files from the Internet and unzip them, then virus test them, and then place them somewhere on my hard drive. I could do all that -- but I don't FEEEL like it. The CD more or less just installs everything for you. Saves time. Secondly, while you probably could replicate the projects this book presents using raw HTML in Homesite, the whole idea of DW is that you don't have to, so I don't understand the "you could do this whole thing in Homesite, you know" argument, because its not relevant in the context of a book that uses DW. As for forcing you to learn HTML, you could always split the screen in DW and see how the code directly affects the graphical layout. Last I heard, most people receive information best visually. I can't remember the last time I recognized a picture of my dog Spot as a series of binary digits. I'd rather do the site in DW first then tweak the details in HTML afterwards, and then use DW to mass produce. Saves time and frustration, as does this book.

This book is highly recommended for above-newbie level DW users.
*****

This book is quite arguably the best book I have ever read. Brashares is a fantastic author, and her use of language brought vivid imagery to the entire book. I have read a lot of books, including all of the Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings, etc., and i'm not quite sure, but I think this book is the best of them. I laughed, and cried. Each of the four girls has very distinct personalities and problems, and each brings a certain something to the book. It is very hard not be be drawn into this book, and to feel the characters' emotions. I would strongly recommend this book to any girl between the ages of 13 and 18.

This book, and its author, is incredible. The fact that it is a sequel doesn't take away from its coolness. I'm fifteen and I loved the way I could identify with these 4 girls problems, because, once again, they do have them (who doesn't?).
Tibby is at a college filmaking camp and is forced to make hard decisions about who she is and who she wants to be, Bridget has not recovered from the ordeal she went through last summer and decides to head south to rediscover "Bee" and reaquaint herself with her past, Lena decided during the winter to extricate herself from Kostos but she has second thoughts and deals with painful decisions made by her and others that are close to her, and Carmen, becomes jealous of her mother's new interest in dating, see how she deals with it this time...
For anyone who hasn't read the first book, read it! and then read this one, you won't be sorry, its a long book, but it won't take too long to finish because you won't be able to put it down!

After reading the 1st book, (The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants)I knew the second book would be just as good. And I guessed well because it was awesome. Just the perfect book for teens, most everyone can relate. The stories were intriguing and I always wanted to know what happened next. Ann Brashares lays out the book in awesome form by switching between the characters every 2-4 pages so you are always left on somewhat of a cliffhanger. The story in which Lena stays home missing Kostos, Bridget travels to Alabama to visit her grandmother, Carmen experiences trouble with her mother and where Libby encounters her true instincts and feelings at a film camp are truly great. I defenitly would recommend this book to all teens and adults alike and I would give it higher scores than a 5 if I could. I would however recommend that people read the 1st book before this one but come to think of it, who hasn't read the 1st book yet? Pick up this book and read away a great adventure!

I really like this book so I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars. Below I'm going to explain what I like and didn't like about the book.

At the beginning of the book I really liked how Shiloh always followed Marty around and tried to become friends. Shiloh would follow Marty across the bridge and to his house when he went outside. When Marty got to know Shiloh really well he would feed and take care of Shiloh. Marty did this because he knew that Judd didn't take care of his hunting dogs very well.

In the middle of the book I liked how Marty comes up with many ways to earn money so he can buy Shiloh from Judd. Marty thinks about collecting alumnium cans, recycling glass bottles, baby sitting or delivering catalogs. But finally he decides to work for Judd. At Judd's house Marty has to do all the chores to earn enough money to buy Shiloh.

By the time I got to the end of the story there were somethings I didn't like. For example, when Judd threatened to shoot Shiloh because he wasn't a very good hunting dog. There were also some parts of the book that were confusing. Finally, I didn't like it when Shiloh was caught in the hunting trap.

Wow, this is a fantastic book. Shiloh was well-written by Phyllis Reynols Naylor. This book good for any age, go to your library and get Shiloh. This book takes place up in the hills of Friendly, West Virginia. The two main characters are Shiloh a mistreated hunting beagle with ticks and fleasand a caring, loving boy named Marty. Mart's mom is a homemaker and Marty's dad is a mail carrier. It all started when Marty went up in the hills for a walk, when he spots Shiloh. He tries to get Shiloh's attention but he can't until Marty whistles and then the dog follows him. They stay together for a while and they soon fall in love with each other. Sadly, this mistreated and abused dog belongs to Judd Travers. He a has a bad temper and he abuses his dogs. Marty lies to his parents and friends and says that he gave back the dog but he didn't and he is also sneeking food for Shiloh. Soon enough his mom finds out what he has been doing. She makes Marty bring Shiloh back to his real owner. When Martt sees what Judd does to Shiloh he wants to take Shiloh away from him and make him regret what he did to the dogs that he owns. I will leave the ending for you to find out.

Shiloh, what a great book! The reason I like the book Shiloh was because 1, I like dogs. 2, I like stories that when you stop reading, you think about what might happen next.

This book was about a boy named Marty who found a beagle dog. He later found out that hte dog belonged to a person named Judd Travers. He would kick his dogs'! So, Marty decided to hide the dog. Later, Judd goes looking around for his dog. But when Judd asked Marty about his dog, he had to lie to keep Shiloh[Thats the name Marty gave the beagle.] dog in hiding.

Shiloh was one of the best books I've ever read. That's why I've rated it with 5 stars. Will Judd Travers ever get his dog back? I'm not going to be a spoil-sport, and tell. That means you can ask a friend. Or you can save your breath, and just read the book!

This is a book about a boy and his dog. They are trying to catch some monkeys. It is difficult for him because the monkeys are too smart for him. He tries to catch them many different ways. The monkeys out smart every time. His grandpa tries to help him but it's no use. This books genre is adventure. The author puts a boy, his dog, and his grandpa in two of his stories. The and his dog go down in the river bottoms and try to catch some monkeys. They try with a net, some traps, and they try to be friends, but fail them all. One night they had a bad thunder storm. The next day the boy and his dog found the monkeys all sick and wet. They got a bunch of money for catching the monkeys. You should read this book if you like adventurous funny stories. So sometime when you're board read this book.

Jay Berry Lee, age 14, lives on a farm in the Ozarks. One day, he and his dog, Rowdy, find a poster saying that a circus train crashed and all the monkeys are loose! There is a huge reward for the monkeys, so Jay decides to hunt those monkeys down. Jay has many adventures with the monkeys, because these are no dumb monkeys. These are specially trained circus monkeys, and they have a really smart leader. Jay tries traps and nets, but neither of those work. The monkeys manage to outsmart him and get him in trouble every time. Then there is a huge storm, which changes everything. Jay has a dilemma, though. If he gets the reward money, will he use it to buy himself a horse, or will he give it to his sister to fix her crippled leg?

This book was so cute. I read it on an airplane, and when I got to Montreal, I didn't want to go out and sightsee because I was busy reading this great book. The characters are so deep in this book; you can tell exactly what Jay is feeling and thinking, and you really get to love him. The story is very original, and extremely well written. I have read this book so many times, and I love it more each time. It is funny and loveable, but not shallow at all. This sounds cliche, but it's a real heartwarming story.

I thought that Summer Of The Monkeys was the best book that I have ever read. I would give it five stars because the author gives you a lot of description and leaves you hanging wondering what is going to happen. He write the book so once you start you can't stop. In the book Jay Berry is hunting for monkeys that have escaped from the circus. The monkeys are so smart that they know what he is going to try to do to trap them. The monkeys are constantly wrecking his traps and his ideas. There is a reward for who ever catches the monkeys. The only thing he wants to buy with the reward is a pony and .22 (a gun). The reward is two hundred dollars. His sister has a disabled leg that she can't use, and it cost two hundred dollars to fix. His grandparents and parents think that it is more important to pay for her. He continues to hunt for the monkeys so that he can get the money. The more he hunts the more trouble the monkeys get him into. I do think it is the best book I have ever read. I think the author does a great job at leaving you hanging. Wilson Rawls' other great book is Where The Red Fern Grows. It is also a great book just like this one! I would highly recommend Summer Of The Monkeys to you.

Laura Fairly is the innocent, the young, sheltered, Victorian maiden who abides by her departed father's wishes. On his deathbed, he bids her to marry Sir Percival Glyde. Enter villainy. The grasping, frightened, short-tempered Sir Percival insists on a speedy wedding. He handily dispatches any obstacles thrown up in his path; he is damned and determined to wed Laura--and her fortune. But Laura has a sister, Marian, a strong-willed, independent, fiercely loyal sister who at first champions the marriage and then recoils once she realizes the true nature of Sir Percival. The man is a monster. And Marian will do anything to protect her sister. Heroism, and then some. There is also another, a drawing master named Walter Hartright, commissioned to teach Laura and Marian the fine art of watercolors. He falls in love with Laura, and she with him--before her marriage to Sir Percival. The drama should be obvious.

But what of the title? Who is the Woman in White? Her chance meeting with Walter Hartright on the road to London provides the catalyst upon which the entire narrative turns. She is at once and both the key and the puzzle. She is a victim. She is a harbinger. She scares Sir Percival out of his wits.

This book offers vivid portrayals of Victorian England, its mannerisms, its wardrobe, its inhibitions, its attitude. This book eerily reflects our own time, our own angst, in the 21st century. Once you read it, you'll know what I mean. Deception has no age.

P.S. Whatever you do, don't turn your back on Count Fosco!

Laura Fairly is the innocent, the young, sheltered, Victorian maiden who abides by her departed father's wishes. On his deathbed, he bids her to marry Sir Percival Glyde. Enter villainy. The grasping, frightened, short-tempered Sir Percival insists on a speedy wedding. He handily dispatches any obstacles thrown up in his path; he is damned and determined to wed Laura--and her fortune. But Laura has a sister, Marian, a strong-willed, independent, fiercely loyal sister who at first champions the marriage and then recoils once she realizes the true nature of Sir Percival. The man is a monster. And Marian will do anything to protect her sister. Heroism, and then some. There is also another, a drawing master named Walter Hartright, commissioned to teach Laura and Marian the fine art of watercolors. He falls in love with Laura, and she with him--before her marriage to Sir Percival. The drama should be obvious.

But what of the title? Who is the Woman in White? Her chance meeting with Walter Hartright on the road to London provides the catalyst upon which the entire narrative turns. She is at once and both the key and the puzzle. She is a victim. She is a harbinger. She scares Sir Percival out of his wits.

This book offers vivid portrayals of Victorian England, its mannerisms, its wardrobe, its inhibitions, its attitude. This book eerily reflects our own time, our own angst, in the 21st century. Once you read it, you'll know what I mean. Deception has no age.

P.S. Whatever you do, don't turn your back on Count Fosco!

Laura Fairly is the innocent, the young, sheltered, Victorian maiden who abides by her departed father's wishes. On his deathbed, he bids her to marry Sir Percival Glyde. Enter villainy. The grasping, frightened, short-tempered Sir Percival insists on a speedy wedding. He handily dispatches any obstacles thrown up in his path; he is damned and determined to wed Laura--and her fortune. But Laura has a sister, Marian, a strong-willed, independent, fiercely loyal sister who at first champions the marriage and then recoils once she realizes the true nature of Sir Percival. The man is a monster. And Marian will do anything to protect her sister. Heroism, and then some. There is also another, a drawing master named Walter Hartright, commissioned to teach Laura and Marian the fine art of watercolors. He falls in love with Laura, and she with him--before her marriage to Sir Percival. The drama should be obvious.

But what of the title? Who is the Woman in White? Her chance meeting with Walter Hartright on the road to London provides the catalyst upon which the entire narrative turns. She is at once and both the key and the puzzle. She is a victim. She is a harbinger. She scares Sir Percival out of his wits.

This book offers vivid portrayals of Victorian England, its mannerisms, its wardrobe, its inhibitions, its attitude. This book eerily reflects our own time, our own angst, in the 21st century. Once you read it, you'll know what I mean. Deception has no age.

P.S. Whatever you do, don't turn your back on Count Fosco!

I read this book recently and it is one of the best horror novels I ever read.The horror situations in this book are as simple as they are scary.Remember that scene when Duane is walking to the town and the rendering truck passes him on the road? Suddenly truck turns itself around and tries to run him over. That is the greatest horror scene ever!it happens during broad daylight,while the sun is shining and birds singing.that's what horror should be:writer must bring death and fear into the most sacred things of everyday life: your basement, your house and your living room.Castles and dark, stormy nights are naive and stupid!Simmons understands that.Beside this, book is never boring. Something is constantly going on.Unfortunately, as the end comes near, book becomes more and more naive(I mean people, zombies are walking around town, people dissapear and die, but nobody notices that except of the bunch of kids?)but still it's a great book. P.S. did you notice how simply is the mood in the novel created? No Stephen King's loooooooooooong descriptions BUT THE MOOD IS STILL THERE!

After reading the first couple of plodding Hyperion books I almost didn't bother with Summer. That would have been a terrible mistake. I have read this book so many times I am into my third(or fourth) copy. The story is rather standard horror, and handled by a lesser author (King?) would have been marginal at best. The characterization, and the "feel" elevate it beyond any other novel of its' type though. It takes me back to my youth and creates an atmosphere so strong it is almost impossible not to BE there and even tougher to come back. To explain the power of the prose is tough but I can see by the other reviews that it is pretty much a universal experience when reading this book. The only two bad points? Simmons seems to have peaked in his style with this book. Nothing else he has written even approaches the telling of this tale. Next would be the fact that this book is "hard to find" while most of the cookie cutter crap from King and Koontz sells like mad. If this story had Kings name on it it would have been one of the best sellers of all time. I hope they never make a movie of it because it would have to be three hours long, have a hundred million dollar budget, and they still would never capture the power of the prose which makes this story matter.

I first read "Summer of Night" back when it was originally published in 1991 and was scared by it - I went on to read other Dan Simmons and loved "Children of the Night", "Lovedeath" and especially one of his short stories, "Iverson's Pits" which also scared me, but "Summer of Night is definitely his masterpiece. With the recent publication of the sequel, "A Winter Haunting", also quite spooky but a much quicker read, I had to go back and revisit Elm Haven, Illinois, circa 1960, and found it to be as scary as I remembered it! The Soldier, Duane and the combine, Father Cavanaugh, Old Central, the "thing" under the bed...shivers!! By all means, read this book if you enjoy well-written horror - it's similar to King's "It" or, in a lesser way, McCammon's "A Boy's Life". Wonderful and horrifying!!

HARRIS AND ME is a book by Gary Paulsen about a boy with parents that are drunks. Over the summer the boy goes to his cousin Harris's house in the country. When he gets there he thinks it won't be fun because there is alot of hard work. The narrator and Harris make a motorized bike and fight a rooster named Ernie.
Harris is always swearing and when he does he gets smacked by Glenice. Another thing they do is go to the movies and when they get home they do the things that were in the movies. At the end of the summer when it was time to go the narrator didn't want to go. He felt like they were his brothes sisters and parents. If you like funny books you should read this.

A Review by Beau

My book was about a kid with a very dysfunctional family that where drunks. He goes to move in with his uncle but he is crazy. Later on he moves in with his second uncle's family the Larsons. That is where he meets the family, Knut (the father), Clair (his wife), glen's the daughter and Harris the youngest. Harris and the main character work hard on the farm but they play hard also. The main character always gets pressured into harrises ideas that always get them into trouble. Thought the summer the boys get into lots of trouble and have many adventures.

I liked this book a lot. It was fun to read about the boys and all the crazy things they did. The way this book was written made it easy to read and it flowed very well. This book was very exciting and made me want to read more and more. Almost all of the ideas Harris had turned out with somebody getting hurt or getting into trouble. The author of this book described the situations very good and made the funny parts have a picture in your head. This book was very funny and made me laugh wile reading it. The vocabulary in this book was easy and there were no words that I didn't understand. The characters came to life in you're head. The more you read this book the more you learned about the characters.

I would recommend this book to anybody. This book was very funny and made me laugh out loud. I liked reading this book and I think most other people would like it as well.

The book, Harris And Me, is an intresting book full of surprises and laughs. It's about a boy who moves from his home of drunken parents and runs into his cousin Harris. Harris is a kid who loves adventure always gets into trouble. He and Harris do wild things together such as, jump off the loft onto a horse's back, shoot a real shot gun and ride a horse at the same time. Harris even went to the bathroom on an electric fence for "dourty pictures." The funny part is every time Harris and the narrator do something stupid, Harris get a slap in the back of the head. This book is also about the narrator trying to fit in at the farm. Finally, one day he sees carvings of the family and he's a carving too. It made him feel like part of the family. That is all about the book, Harris And Me.

This is a story called Caddie Woodlawn. It's time period is 1864. This story is about a young girl named Caddie. She's got a big family. One day a man called "The Circuit Rider" finds out that Caddie is not being a lady and is being a tomboy so her father does a test and allows her to be a tomboy with her brothers, Tom and Warren. Later in the book people say they were in a war with the Indians so everyone got their guns and got ready. Read the story to find out what happens!

I think the author wrote this book, Caddie Woodlawn to compare a young girls life in 1864 to a young girls life in 2002, now. It also shows what jobs they had to do and how to act.

I like this story because it really shows you what they did. I also really like this story because it's very exciting and if you think some things going to happen then it wont because it's always a surprise so I kept reading because I couldn't stop.

Caddie Woodlawn is a fun and exciting story about an adventurous young girl during the pioneer days. Caddie is a very mischevious, at times and is often seen as a tomboy. As a young girl, her family had moved from Boston to Wisconsin, and she was very sick at the time. Her father had asked to "try an experiment" with Caddie and let her run wild with her brothers. His "experiment" worked and she quickly gained her health back.

Although Caddie is a girl, that does not stop her from going on many adventures with her two brothers. Throughout the story, their adventures keep the readers interested, and if you read closely enough, you can almost feel that you are inside the story watching them.

I truly enjoyed this book. It was very humourous, exciting, interesting, and yet it seemed quite lifelike. This story does a very good job showing its readers how life may have been like during those times, since it was based on the story of the writer's grandmother. Overall, I think the book is a very easy-to-read story and is suitable for readers of all ages.

In 1864, Caddie Woodlawn was eleven, and as a wild little tomboy as ever ran the woods of western Wisconsin. A girl who would rather hunt than sew, rather plow than bake. She was the despair of her mother and of her elder sister Clara. But her father watched her with a little shine of pride in his eyes, and her brother's accepted her as one of them without a question. Caddie and her six brothers and sisters went through many adventures together.

This prize-winning book about Caddie's adventures on the frontier a century agao seem like just today, and most of them really happened to the auther, the granddaughter of the real Caddie Woodlawn. She based the book on true stories of pioneer days, that she heard her grandmother tell.

Caddie Woodlawn is a book you would want to take home for the whole family. This is perfect for any kind of tomboy ever teased.Adventurous kind of people will really enjoy the mischief these kids can really make. Everyone should own a copy of Caddie Woodlawn. This is ONE book that you will be able to read over and over again. No matter what age you are, you will never get tired of Caddie Woodlawn.

I like to compare this reading experience to riding a bicylce for the first time. At first, I found it difficult to enjoy, but as I continued reading the intriguing characters and plot became more entertaining. The more you get into it, the harder it is to put down. Armageddon Summer was interesting to read, and the depth of the characters were exciting to discover.
This book holds the strange exciting story of two young teenagers who are forced against their will to follow a religious cult to the top of a mountain. When Jed's dad and Marina's mother become Believers of Beelson's flock, the children have to leave their home and friends to join the rest of the believers on the top of Mount Weeupcut. Jed is a nonbeliever and feels like he's surrounded by crazy people. Marina wants to believe but doesn't know if it's really in her heart. The teens are strangers at first, but soon meet and eventually fall in love. Other supporting characters bring life to the story as well. For instance, the insanely believable Reverand Beelson. You want to hate him, but can't because he makes you believe that he really cares about all of his followers. You almost think that maybe the world really is coming to an end and it's scary because there really are cult leaders out there like that. It's too real. Jed's father and Marina's mother seem so naive to be caught up in all of this. But it's interesting to analyze their personalities and see how they change throughout the story.
Armageddon Summer takes place mostly outdoors on the top of Mount Weeupcut. The surroundings are mountainous timber country. Many animals are around, but none of which live in the camp. The believers are fenced in a perimeter so they do not get to explore the rest of the mountain. Each day, chores are assigned that keep the follower's busy. The only time they are indoors really is to eat during a designated time or sleeping in tents at night. They are far from the hustle and bustle of large cities. It seems so peaceful and beautiful. Especially at night when Jed takes the oppurtunity to star gaze.
The chapters were fun to follow, going back and forth between characters so that you know what's going through both of their heads'. The newsletters and radio interview added a unique style to the writing that I found to be quite effective. The actual content of this story didn't really grab me until half way through. I found it interesting but couldn't really get into it until Marina and Jed actually met. I think I'm a hopeless romantic which would explain that. And any oddball like myslef could appreciate a strange story of a religious cult and the end of the world. I'm not even a religious person myself, and I found the story to be quite entertaining as well as educational. I found it fun to try and read deeper into the context for more clues of what would happen next and where the story would take me. Although, it was a serious book containing real issues of torn families and personal trials and tribulations, a light sense of humor made it not so depressing to read.
I did get off to a slow start with reading this one. I felt that the authors, Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville, could have grabbed me a little more in the beginning instead of starting off slow to build it's way up. However, I did stick with it and found that the story was rich with adventure, and passion, and love. The end of one chapter left you with suspense and anticipation to go on and read the next. Once I concentrated more on what was going on and tried to get in deeper, I started to really enjoy it. Despite a weak ending, and slow start, Armageddon Summer was an interesting find if nothing else. However the beginning and end are supposed to be something to be remembered. You should go out with a bang and start with an attention getting chapter or two. The book itself was fun and easy to read. All in all, my feelings toward Armageddon Summer are good. I've read better books, but this is definitely one that you will remember for being unique.

On July 27, 2000, the world as we know it will end, or at least that's what two young teenagers have been told. Brought along with their parents on the road to the end of the world, Jed and Marina are sharing the same unique experience: preparing for Armageddon.

According to Reverend Beelson, the person that started the Armageddon scare, the 144 "Believers", or the people that will live through the end of the world, must live on a mountaintop where they will be saved from God's wrath. This means that they will live in tents and eat canned food until the world beneath them is destroyed.

Jed and Marina must both decide weather or not they believe this. While they are making up their mind, they have to share the workload of creating a camp for these people and try to put up with their parents' hopefully temporary insanity.

This was a fun and easy book to read. The authors to a great job of giving the reader two different perspectives of the same strange ordeal. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story, no matter what age. It's quick and easy to get through and won't take up too much of your time, and it's very entertaining.

I've just completed reading this book! When I first read the plot, I was eager to go ahead and read the rest of the book. What an exciting plot! The story was told from two people's point of view in short, alternating chapters. That was my favorite element of the story. If you got bored of one person, the next person's story was only a page or two away. One was a 13 year old girl named Marina and the other a boy named Jed. The basic plot was that these kids' parents belonged to a new faith called the "Believers." The Believers believe that the world will END on July 27, 2000. Only a couple of weeks away! They believe that at the termination of the world, the earth will go up in flames and everything will burn and die. Everyone- except for the Believers- because they'll be safe on Mount Weeupcut. ONLY 144 Believers can be saved on the mountain...and their duty would be to save the earth when the fire was gone. While waiting for the end of the world, the Believers prepared for what was to happen. Armageddon Summer was a truly suspenseful novel. I was begging for the end the entire time, would the world actually end as the believers thought? Would everything burn up EXCEPT for the mountain they were on? Jed and Marina, the ones telling the story, had so much in common and had very similar reasons for "being" a Believer and for being on the mountain. The ending of the book, (which of course I wouldn't share with you!) was okay. It's hard to explain... it was predictable, yet I was suprised- and I was disappointed. I think there could have been a better ending,.. after all, that's the whole point of reading the whole rest of the book! With the year 2000 coming up in less than 2 months, there has been a lot of talk and controversy about the end of the world. A lot of faiths have said what needs to be done and when. This book compiles a lot of faiths and beliefs together to come up with some new faith- The Believers. This story was, for the most part, realalistic- and it could actually happen. So, here's a question- will the world really end? Find out when you read this book! :)