This book is about a boy named Bobby who is very much overweight. He always gets made fun of. He hates the summmer because that's when people wear the least amount of close and he is very self conscious about his body. He hates the fact that he can't cover himself up in sweaters and jackets because the weather is too warm. He gets a summer job at a man named Dr. Khan's house. He has to do lawn work all summer and is constantly afraid that he is going to be beat up by a boy who has problems and thinks the only way to feel better is to try to beat up Bobby. I found this book very interesting and I found that it was very hard to put down because I couldn't wait to see what happened next! I would recommend this book to anyone because I feel that anyone could enjoy this book no matter what their interests in books are.

This book is fabulous. It is packed with humor, sad scenes and it really makes you think. I could never set this book down once I got started. When you read it you almost feel like you are Bobby. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a funny, true-life kind of book!
It is summer time and everybody is happy. No school, and having fun is what summer is all about. This is what everyone thinks, except Bobby Marks.
When everybody is having fun swimming and wearing shorts Bobby is not. He will not wear shorts or tank top shirts and he will not go swimming all because he does not want anyone to see how fat he is.
Everything is going wrong. Bobby's best friend Joanie moves away and his dad is constantly nagging at him and telling him "Find a job! Stop sitting around and eating all day!"
Finally Bobby does find a job, mowing Dr. Kahn's lawn. Dr. Kahn is a rich man who is always pressuring Bobby. Bobby has everything he dosen't want, heat, enemies, fat, and no best friend. Could all of this change and make Bobby really like summer and look forward to the next, or could it go on like the worst thing in the world and never stop? If you read this book I guarantee you will find the answer and really enjoy it.

I'm a resident in the Levittown School District, Long Island, New York. This book has been on the school's reading list, up till now. Apparently one parent in the district is unhappy with the book and asked the Superintendent of schools, Dr. Herman Sirois to remove it from the list. He broke under the pressure of this one women and immediately removed "One Fat Summer" from the list. My curiousity is peaked. Now I am going to read this book to see what the big fuss is. I can't get a copy in my area because everyone else must have gotten the same idea. Students and parents tell me that the book is really good. I'm working on finding a copy of this book so I can read it and write a review. Will I agree with this one parent - that this book isn't fit for our school's reading list? Or, will I agree with those who put "One Fat Summer" on the reading list? The fact of the matter is that one person's taste in books shouldn't determine what the majority of us read. Great, Good , or Fair the book "One Fat Summer" will be back on the reading list in September.

They call themselves the Four Souls: Noah, Nadia, Ethan, and Julian. They are four extraordinary sixth graders, possessing both brilliant minds and precocious insights into human behavior. They are the kinds of students that teachers feel lucky to encounter a few times during a career -- and Mrs. Olinski teaches all four during the same year! She recognizes their talent without exactly knowing why.

The four students form an incredible friendship centered around the ritual of Saturday tea, and, later, on an academic bowl team coached by Mrs. Olinski.

The book, which won a Newbery medal, had received some criticism for portraying twelve year olds with adult characteristics. It's true that their vocabulary and especially their insights boggle the mind. But I'd like to think that people like the Four Souls really exist, and, more importantly, that all children have flashes of brilliance that align them with the characters of this book.

The author's ingenious use of structure results in a perfectly balanced book, in which each of the children is given equal voice. These four people emerge from the sometimes ugly world of middle school, and, partially helped by and partially helping their teacher, they create of world of their own, where loyalty, creativity, and unusual thinking are the keys to happiness and self-discovery.

Noah, Nadia, Ethan and Julian started out as sixth grade classmates, but evolved into The Souls. Each Year,Mrs. Olinsky, the sixth grade teacher chooses as four person academic bowl team. This team competes in the grade and if they win they go on to compete in other competitions. Together this team accomplished wonderful things, such as winning the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade competitions. Nobody knew why they were chosen, and Mrs. Olinsky, the teacher, doesnt exactly know why she chose them either. So, fate brought them together to create a wonderful friendship that will last a lifetime and this shows through an extraordinary story of sucess of a team, calss, school and friends. In my opinion Noah is the most interesting character in this story. He likes to write in calligraphy, and enjoys spending time with relatives. At times he also complains about his family. Noah tells the long story of how he was the best man at the wedding of his grandparents' friends. I enjoyed reading about each of the diverse characters. The View from Saturday can appeal to a wide spread of people because of the interesting plot and way it is written. Many people have loved reading this book as you can see because it has won many awards, and I think E.L. Knonigsburg is a fantastidc author.

Nadia Diamondstein, Julian Singh, Ethan Potter, and Noah Gershom were "just kids" without one another. The first character is Nadia, the owner of an exceptionally smart dog and whose grandfather gets married over the summer. Julian, a stranger from England who knows magic and has a father who starts a Bed and Breakfast. Next in line is Ethan, the quiet child whose grandmother weds Nadia's grandfather. And Noah is the unlikely best man at the wedding, who always has a plan.
Together, however, the sixth graders formed The Souls, a tea partying, academic-quiz bowl playing, calligraphy-writing foursome who overcomes all odds to evolve into their true selves.
I loved this book. The View from Saturday was an amazing combination of well-written humor and an intricately woven plot line. This book was made for all people to read, it is a heartwarming tale that makes you want to go out and do something good for this crazy world.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed "On Mystic Lake" & "Angel Falls", both of which I would rate with 5 stars, I had high expectations of "Summer Island". Instead, I found this book to be rather schmaltzy with a predictable ending.

Mother and Daughter are estranged for several years. Mother is a high-profile radio personality. Daughter is down in her luck. Mother gets injured in a car accident soon after her career goes down the tubes. Mother and Daughter spend a week together at the family's summer home breaking the ice and revealing their true colors and feelings to one another. In the mean time, Daughter's first love is nearby at his summer home spending the last few days with his dying brother. The outcome of Daughter's & estranged boyfriend's relationship is predictable, too.

I gave this book 2 stars because of the heartfelt storyline between the two brothers. But overall, I felt the characters were right out of Soap Opera Digest.

Enjoyable story with characters that are so real. I love every book I've ever read by this author because she is such a great adjective artist that I feel the surroundings that she describes as well as the people in the story. This book is about a woman that starts her young life married to a man she thinks she can help and lets him have the excuse of being a war veteran to explain why he's not-quite-the-man he could be. Nora isn't the perfect mother that she wanted to be and her one daughter, Ruby, rubs salt in that wound any chance she gets. This story is so relatable for any family member because we all have done things while raising our children or to our spouse that hind-sight would've saved a lot of hurt feelings. I certainly think this is a wonderful book to read and I guaranty will be enjoyed. The setting of Summer Island is so refreshing and peaceful---a great place for Eric to be as well as Nora and Dean and Ruby; all for their own special needs.

Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite authors, and she once again delivers the kind of book I expect from her. Summer Island is the story of Nora Bridge, and her decision to leave her husband and children. The repercussions of that action are the basis for this book. Nora has become a radio personality, famous for her advice on love and family relationships. But her world come crumbling down when her past is revealed.
Kristin Hannah obviously loves the Pacific North West and her descriptions of the San Juan Islands is beautiful. She has a way of making you empathize with her characters even when you don't agree with what they are doing. Her depiction of the two Bridge daughters, Ruby and Caroline, and their very different reaction to their mother's betrayal rings true. I enjoyed the way she portrays sibling love in the two sister's, and the two Sloan brother's, whose lives are central to the Bridge family.
This book made me laugh, made me cry and made me think about my own family and their place in my life. I recommend it to all Kristin Hannah fans.

In my opinion the is a heart-wrenching, though provoking book for mature readers. Usally I don't read dramas but when i picked it up I couldn't put it down. The main character Patty Bergan really becomes a part of you. This book focuses on love and hate set in World War II in a swall town in Arkansas. Patty has just turned twelve. She is a young Jewish girl who is nelected by her parents and alone until she meet an excaped, German prisoner of war from a compound near by named Anton. Even though this is set during wartime America this book remindes us who read that there is good amoung evil, and that even in the darkness, there is light. For a lot of people this book can be somewhat painful because of the victimization of children-- wheater the brutality is physical or emotional. Anton excapes from the local prison and Patty, knowing the rick, helps him to hide. She lived with perpetual fear of maternal rejection and redicule-of her vicious, child-beating fatherand of coming in a poor second place to her pretty, petted sister. She also knew the rick of her norrow-minded Arkansas town opposing her humanitarian treatment of an excaped German prisoner of war. Patty learns to look at Anton, not as Nazi, but as a frightened young man. Patty knows that if anyone were to find out her life would be over, but cannot overcome the power of love. With Anton, Patty finds the love she has longed for and the appreciation her parents never gave her. Such a friendship can be dangerous. In Green's scenario of paranoia and government promoted prejudice, there is no room for compassion or the budding of a romance. Even pure friendship is tained by vicious minds. The ending was sudden and shattering. I would recomend this book to anyone.

The summer of my German soldier takes place in Arkansas, during WWII. The story is about a girl named Patty who feels that her parents are mean and cruel to her because they don't appreciate anything she does for them. The only person who she can find acceptance in is her housekeeper, Ruth. Patty's small town in Jekingsville, becomes the site of a POW camp for German soldiers, and one day the soldiers are allowed to visit her father's department store to purchase some hats. Patty, who was working that day, met one of the German soldiers named Anton Reiker. Soon after, Anton escaped from the prison camp and hid out at Patty's house in her abandoned attic. Later her family found out what Patty has been up to.
If one of the characters were to run into trouble it would be Patty. In the book Patty makes wrong choices that get her in alot of trouble. Knowing that she is Jewish she's not allowed to talk to any of the German soldiers that come to her hometown. She disobeys and does it anyway. she helps the German soldier that escaped from the prison camp. Later in the story the FBI catches up to what Patty has been up to. Her hometown then turns against her and calls her a trader and sees her as a bad person.
My favorite character in the story is Patty Bergen. But, if I were in her place I don't think I would have done the same thing she did by helping the German prisoner who escaped the campsite. For example, it's like me hiding out Bin Laddin in my attic. I could never turn my back on my country and help him. Patty is a twelve-year old brave girl who takes the risk of hiding out a German prisoner. Her parents always brush her off to the side. Patty feels left out in her family kind of like an outcast. I can kind of understand were Patty is coming from for her to help that German soldier. Since her mother or father doesn't pay any attention to her she feels like she needs someone to talk to or any one that has interest in her and would care about her. She obviously doesn't care who it is because she starts talking to a German prisoner and he's in his twenty's. The thing that I like about her is that she's a good-hearted person.
If I were to relate to any of the characters, I think it would be Patty. I had an experience kind of similar to what Patty went through. My parents always told my sisters and me we weren't allowed to have a boyfriend until we were eighteen-years old. I was the one who disobeyed my parents. When I was about thirteen-years old I had a boyfriend anyway. I would lie to my parents about where I was going or whom I was going with. After a while I felt guilty, and I felt like I had to confess. I waited to long to tell them and they ended up finding out. After that it took me a while to earn my trust back from them. So I think it's best for parents to be open with their children. Don't tell your kids you can't do this, you can't go there, or you can't hang out with a certain person because they don't like them. Later in life their parents will realize they should not tell their kids "no" just for the heck of it or just to be strict. I could see who was a bad person to hang out with, or a bad place to go.
I enjoyed reading this book, but it took me a couple of chapters to get into it. I had a favorite part and a least favorite part. My favorite part was when Patty met the German soldier at her father's department store and supplied him with a place to stay, clothes, and food. My least favorite part of the story was when Patty's father beat her because he didn't like her friend Freddy. I don't think children should get beaten by their parents, especially a young twelve-year old. I could see if it was a little kid getting disciplined, but spanked on the hand.
I think I would recommend this book for someone else to read. It's a good book. The kind of person I recommend to read this book is a girl or boy who enjoys reading romantic stories.

I just read "Summer of My German Soldier", by Bette Greene. I thought that this was a really terrific book. It is the story of Patty Bergen, a Jewish girl in the South during WWII, who makes friends with a Nazi soldier. She makes friends with him because she her parents are mean to her and she wants companionship and love. This was a wonderful book with characters so real that I could feel what they were feeling and think what they were thinking. After reading "Summer of My German Soldier", I had tons of questions about the book and about the author. I wanted to know if any of it was based on a true story. I also wondered if Bette Greene's life influenced her to write the book in any way. So I did some research on the internet, and I found out that there's a webpage about the author and the book! It's at bettegreene.com and it has tons of useful and interesting information. Plus, you can email Bette Greene about her books! I recommend that you read this book and look at the website to get answers to the questions I know you'll have.

I read "I know what you did last summer" by Lois Duncan. This book is about a girl named Julie James. Who was involved in hit and run freak accident with her three friends Helen, Barry, and Ray. This car accident caused the death of a pedestrian on a bicycle, or so they thought.
Julie has dealt with the guilt of not saying anything to the police or anybody else about what she knows. She decided to try and push the memory out of her life because of a pact that Barry made the four of them make, saying that they swear to never mention the incident again. Julie was trying to get her life back together until one day when she got a letter in the mail saying "I know what you did last summer." From then on the four friends continually got harassed about the situation by an unknown someone. To find out what happens you have to read the book.
I think this was a good book. I would recommend it to people who like suspense and excitement.

I've read several Lois Duncan books and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" is by far the most surprising and suspenseful of them all. I have once watched the movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer" a while back and remember it to be hardly interesting. The book version however, was much more appealing to the mind than the movie was. The book has the same basic as the movie did with the same four main characters, Julie, Helen, Ray and Barry. It starts out the same with a car accident with a stranger in the beginning that comes back to haunt them the next summer, with threats and later into more killings and suspense than the movie had to offer. The entire story leaves you hanging on the tip of your chair from suspense at its finest. The ending was different from what I had originally expected and I'm sure other readers of this book feel the same. I recommend all mystery/horror and Lois Duncan readers to read this book if they have the time and interest in this type of book or are a fan of Lois Duncan's workings. I rate this book with 5 stars because of my high level of interest and concern throughout the entire book.

First of all I wanted to say that this book is nothing like the movie. It had the same basic plot, but thats about it. As many movies that are based on books, the book is a lot better. This story is about four teens who accidentely hit a kid riding his bike while they were drunk and speeding, they did as much as they could to cover up the murder, but one year later one of the teens gets a note that says "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER." Next, the person that wrote the note starts blackmailing them by leaving newspaper articles about the hit and run, and pictures of them standing by the kid after the acident. Eventually he begins threatening them. The teens know that they need to find out who knows what they did, before they are either found out by police, or even worse killed by the blackmailer. This book is very suspenseful and it has a lot of twists in the plot. Its a must read for fans of any book fan.

After reading TIGANA, I decided to read the first book in this acclaimed series. I did manage to read the whole book, which is one good thing, because the really bad books I stop reading as soon as they get boring. In short, the book does keep your attention. I think most of this is due to the book's originality. Sure, the OTHER WORLD apart from OUR WORLD may not be so original--Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber comes to mind--but there are other parts that ARE original. The hunter in the wild fields. The overall storyline about five young ones going to a world they don't understand. The summer tree itself. One thing that I noticed was that Kay used FAR too many commas in this book. Some sentences, sorta look, like this. In the end, this is only a mediocre fantasy novel, especially when compared to the works being cranked out by such heavy-hitters as Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, and George R. R. Martin.

The Summer Tree is the first book in The Fionavar Tapestry series (continuing with The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road).

At Loren Silvercloak the mage's bidding, Kevin, Kim, Jennifer, Paul and Dave, five University students from Toronto, 'cross' into the Kingdom of Fionavar, the First of all Worlds, to help him in an oncoming war against Rakoth the Unraveller, and thus fulfil their destinies.

Like the five heroes, the reader is teleported into a land of magic and fantasy which the author only describes little by little. Although certainly used as a stylistic device, this sometimes makes it hard to understand the ins and outs of certain characters' actions. In the same vein, I also found the few sex scenes somewhat a bit out of place and unpoetic. Anyway, looking back upon it, I realize these were just details.

And indeed, as you turn the pages and learn more about the people and history of Fionavar and about the role the heroes have to play in it, the book really turns out to be enthralling and hard to put down. I particularly enjoyed the third part, where Dave is taken in by a tribe of hunters called the Dalrei, and learns about their customs and rites, to finally risk his own life for them.

Although at first I was a bit sceptical about the mixing of today's world with fantasy, in the end I really liked this book a lot and I'm looking forward to reading the next two. So don't let the first 150 pages or so get you down and read on, it's definitely worth it!

I've read many - at least a thousand, certainly - fantasy books, and The Summer Tree (and the entire trilogy) is simply one of the very best. The 'Fionavar Tapestry' is so painstakingly crafted that it must have been a labor of love (and probably a first book), and I can never understand why I don't hear far more about it.

The language is frequently lyrical, far above the usual standard for fantasy writing; "words more strung with fire", to use one of Kay's own phrases, than any but the likes of, say, Bradbury's. The whole really IS a tapestry; a complex and intricate interweaving of different characters, plot strands, and fantasy elements. And so tightly and carefully woven that it's unbelievable - half a sentence in one book can subtly foreshadow a major event in another book three hundred pages later - yet it's never slow, as I'd expect given all the connections and resonances. You just don't normally find this level of plaited storytelling, even in the endless 300 pound series.

Obviously I was blown away by this trilogy - will probably read it every few years for life - but many of the Amazon reviews were negative and I'd like to address some of the comments. First, a number of the reviewers seemed to be giving Kay low marks mostly because he hadn't written some other book. For instance, some would have preferred a book in which all the characters came from the one world, not some from Fionavar and some from earth. Or some would have preferred a book that was more like Tolkien, or less like Tolkien, etc. I'd say that these are simply valid alternate choices as to the form, and he should be judged on the job he did, not downgraded because he didn't write another book entirely.

A few reviewers thought the plot cliche or even PREDICTABLE. I'll just flat-out claim that noone could have predicted his plot; it was simply too complex and detailed. It could only be honestly considered cliche or predictable if you simplify it to the level of Good vs. Evil; who's going to win? If that's the criterion then many, if not most, fantasy books just fail.

I do agree with some reviewers that it seemed like the 'earthlings' adapted amazingly well to an entirely new existence on another world and seemed to cut loose of their pasts with almost no remorse. Though I'd almost bet that Kay had that all worked out in his mind, not enough justification made it into the pages of the books. He did give us a few reasons(and hints)to think that some of the 'earthlings' had no strong personal ties back home, and that the one who did frequently thought about that tie, (his father), but I too think that he could have fleshed that out more.

And I agree that the two female main characters weren't
delineated well enough at the beginning. At first it was hard to really tell them apart, (though after a critical event in one of their lives that problem was taken care of).

There are some smaller imperfections as well, but compared to the vast majority of fantasy books out there...!

The summer of the swans

This book is a good book, it was written by Besty Byars. She wanted to pot some problems of teenagers into it. So the people can change their bad life into a happy life.
The book is about a girl called Sara, she has feelings that change the hole time. Like her
orange sneakers. First she likes them then one second to another she hates them.
She has a little brother called Charlie. He is mental ill he cant speak. Wants he gets lost in the woods and Aunt Willy that is watching the children becomes panic. Sara goes searching for Charlie. On the way Joe Mellby comes along. She can remember him as the stealer of Charlies watch, so she ignores Joe. In the end Charlie gets found and Sara realises that Joe did not steal Charlie's watch. Joe takes Sara to a party. Sins then Sara starts to like life again. I think summer of the swans is a good book. You should read it, and enjoy.

Have you ever felt like you want to fly away? Besty Byars' Summer of the Swans is about 14 year old Sara Godfrey who is having the worst summer of her life. She is sick of her bossy aunt, beautiful sister, and mute little brother. This unforgetable summer will show Sara what she can't take for granted. Young adults who like realistic fiction would enjoy this book.
Summer of the Swans is perfect for young adults because it is about a young adult. Everyone can relate to Sara in some way. She shows responsiblility by taking care of her mentally hadicapped brother, Charlie. Insecurity comes out when she says, "She is a hundred times prettier than me." Yet through all her trails courage and heart shine through.
Throughout the pages of this book lay small puzzel pieces of emotion. When all these are put together, or read, they make a image of a strong love that bonds a bother and sister together. Some parts are very extrem such as,"A wild joy overtook her and she jumped up and down on the bare earth and she felt that she could crush the whole hill just by jumping if she wanted to. Then some parts are more subtule and factual.
This book is very easy to understand and dosen't take long to read. In the beging of the story Sara is a girl trying to figure things out. She constnly cries over simple matters a her big feet or her skinny legs. As the story progreess she learns about herself. By the time you reach the end Charlie has helped her learn what she really needs.
Summer of the Swans is a great book that young adults will enjoy.

"The Summer of the Swans" is about the day when Sara Godfrey's mentally handicapped brother Charlie disappears after visiting the swans at the lake. Nobody is sure what happened to him, but everyone expects the worst because it's not typical for Charlie to have run off alone.

Sara feels responsible for losing her brother since she's the closest to him. Aunt Willie also blames herself because she had promised Sara and Charlie's dead mother she would protect him--and now he's gone.

Soon a search party gathers and everyone begins to look for the missing ten-year-old.

Even though "The Summer of the Swans" is primarily about the search for Charlie, Sara's family life begins to open up and we discover the different relationships she has with her simple younger brother Charlie, her overbearing aunt Willie, her older sister Wanda, and her remote father.

The recommended age group for this book is 8 - 12, but I would recommend it to anyone who has a mentally handicapped family member or can somehow relate with the story. It's easy reading and moves along rather quickly--the chapters are short and there are a few illustrations by Ted CoConis.

"The Summer of the Swans" won the Newbery Award in 1971. The book was later made into a TV movie in 1974 (aka "Sara's Summer of the Swans"), which I never saw because it was made before I was born.

I also recommend reading "The Falcon's Wing" by Dawna Lisa Buchanan (mentally handicapped family member).

Prodigal Summer is 444 pages in length.That's not to say the book isn't worth reading. There are three stories here that eventually blend themelves together. The story takes place in southern Appalachia.The first characters are a wildlife biologist and her coyote hunting/ drifter boyfriend who form a unusual alliance. The second group of characters are a widowed farmers wife and her cold in laws who are trying to figure one another out. And then there are Nannie & Garnett. Two elderly feuding neighbors who have totally opposite views on life and who constantly debate about, pesticides, god, and the world in general. The book tells a story of human nature and nature itself. There are constant themes that deal with the issues of enviromentalism and preservation.I personally loved nannie & garnett. The two feuding elderly neighbors. Especially the part in the book when Garnett has an encounter with a turtle. This isn't a book for everyone.However those who have a deep love and appreciation for the enviroment, should enjoy this book. Barbara Kingsolver has been able to take a serious issue and form it into a enjoyable read.

This book will go on my must read list. I have already given it out to numerous friends, and alerted others to its delights. Kingsolver, who is a favorite author anyway, has written a well-researched and loving tale about the lives of three people in an Appalachian community. She weaves the stories together in overlaying chapters: the "Predator" chapters follow Deanna, a park ranger in the mountains who is tracking coyotes; the "Moth Love" chapters follow Lusa, a half Jewish/half Palestinian entomologist who has married a farm boy; and the "Old Chestnuts" chapters follow Garnett, an eighty-year-old scientist/farmer who is still trying to bring back the American Chestnut tree, and is in constant conflict with his next door neighbor, Nanny Rawley (an aging feminist organic farmer).

The author manages to bring together varying points of view about the community, the ecological fabric (that touches all of them and eventually brings families, lovers and neighbors together) and about sheer personal growth and development. Her research is so complete that I found I learned a great deal more about how fragile our natural world is and how much we as human beings have to do with that fragility and its continued survival. Her characters are believable, and they struggle with their hearts in a variety of ways - all eventually reaching for what is right for them. I suppose that was what I so loved about the book. So many people make life decisions to suit others or per what others might like or think. Kingsolver's characters tackle the life questions and finally decide what is best for them, which is almost always the hardest route to take. This was a sexy, funny, tender, and all around tremendously rich and satisfying novel.

Oh to be inside the mind of Barbara Kingsolver. Her creative genius blows me away everytime! This book had a little of everything I love to read about. Deep and intricate human relationships, a great love of nature and her creatures, and how it all mixes together. . .three story lines interwoven into a thought provoking and heart warming tale. There's Nanny Rawley, an aging earth mother with a heart of gold and a sharp mind, who both aggravates and fascinates her neighbor Garrett Walker. . .a elderly straight laced gentleman...Deanna Wolfe, an off beat forest ranger who has left civilization in favor of the natural world, and manages to have a pivotal romance out in the middle of no where, and Lusa, a well educated entomologist who falls in love with a farmer and leaves her city life for Zebulon County. So, how do all these characters blend together? Seamlessly. . .one of the best books I've ever read. Uplifting, profound and highly entertaining!! Kingsolver makes these characters real.

Call it courage is a well thought out book. It is about a boy name Mafatu. His mother died in the sea because she did not listen to the fishermen's warnings to her. His homeland called him a coward because he was afraid of the sea. So when he was feed up with the teasing he left to prove himself worthy and gain respect from his father. You will have to read the book to find out what happens to Mafatu during his journey. I would recommend this book to people that love the sea. Keep in mind that about 2 chapters out of 5 are about the time he was in the sea. But it was adventurous. You used for shadowing to guess what would happen. One thing I did not like about the book was that the boy always won his battles. He needs defeat to so he does not think he can win every battle or obstacle he comes to.

I like the book Call It Courage because it was about a boy named Mafatu and his way of life . It also told about how Mafatu had courage and how he was brave and strong after his mother was taken by the sea. This book was full of adventure.

The best part of the book was when Mafatu found the statue on the forbidden island. He was walking through the woods and was surprised to find this statue in the middle of nowhere.

The two story elements that were the most vivid were the theme and the characters. The theme was cconguering your fear. Mafatu needed to face his fears of survive on his own. He was successful throughout the story. The author did a good job of describing Mafatu and the people he met. I was able to see in my mind what each person looked like.

Call it Courage is about a young boy named Mafatu. Mafatu is afraid of the sea because it killed his mother. He is always made fun of by the other Polynesian boys his age. Eventually, he decides to sail away. Mafatu lands on a cannibalistic island. He escapes the cannibals and returns home a courageous boy. I read this book at school and thought it was great. The only problem was all of the foreign words, most of which were not explained. Otherwise, this was an awesome book and I thoroughly encourage you to read this it. You will not be disappointed!

Preston's work on the Boxer rebellion was illuminating as well as enjoyable to read. She provided great details from the Western Legation's point of view, and did an excellent job reconstructing their experience during the seige of Peking. Drawing a bit heavily from diaries and unofficial documents, she provided great insight to the inner workings of the embassies, as well as the Manchu government officials that dealt with the legations.

She also did a fine job of putting the event into the larger context of international relations. The first combined international force is described in great detail, as the Russian, Japanese, American, French, German and British sides are given ample inspection. It was interesting to see how each side viewed the other, even if the views were taken mostly from the US and English accounts.

What she also portrays too well is the misunderstanding and mystery surrounding the ruling Manchus. The empress Dowager is not given a complex personality; she is portrayed as a manipulative dragon lady, and this may be due to the lack of real documentation about her. However, a greater attempt to analyze and humanize the chinese side would have made this book much better. There is little detail about the suffering chinese christians or the disgruntled chinese populace who supports the Boxers.

As it is, I would like to have given this book 3.5 stars, since it was a good read and pretty insightful but not comprehensive enough. But it is still a fair attempt to anaylze this important event in Chinese history.

I would have to agree to some of the previous comments made about some this book. It is definitively a well-written account of the Boxer Rebellion but as seen through the eyes of the Western participants only. You will not find many Chinese accounts of the siege and fighting undertaken by the Boxers in this story.

Having said that I still found this book a delight to read once it got into the actual siege and relief operations. I found the first few chapters a bit slow but after that the narrative just flowed along with some great stories and accounts from the people who experienced this upheaval.

The story was well written and presented and it was easy to stay up into the early morning reading the book. The author supplied a number of maps to assist the reader in following the action and movements of the forces involved. She also supplied a great number of (small) black & white photographs taken at the time.

Some of the stories were excellent and I found some of the personal accounts truly amazing and very interesting. This is a book that may not suit the historian looking for a detailed account of the fighting but I am sure that most people who enjoy history will find this book a treat.

The story of Bishop Auguste Favier and his flock of Christians holding out at Peitang with a small detachment of Italian and French soldiers was great. The stories of what happened to a number of Missionaries and their families in the countryside were told in context to the situation as a whole.

Even though the book presents mainly the Western version of events I found that the author present her story in a fair and impartial manner. What happened to the Chinese Christians was not forgotten in the story but the book does concentrate on the Westerners. The chapter dealing with what happened after the siege was lifted was very illuminating and some facets of the interaction between the different foreign powers were very absorbing. I enjoyed a number of the quotes provided by the author and one that I found amusing was:

"I sent my servant (Chinese) on a message. He was robbed by a Russian, buggered by a Frenchman, killed by a German. In my dismay, I made complaint to a British officer. He looked at me, put his eye-glass into his eye, and said, 'Was he really? What a bore! '".

This is a good yarn, an enjoyable history and a decent story, well worth the effort to sit down and read.

Diana Preston's book of the Boxer Rebellion is a great read-it is worthwhile, I would guess, for scholars or academics who want to learn about the Boxer Rebellion in a more detailed manner or for those who simply want to read a great, entertaining and enthralling story about real-life heroism and danger in the dying turn-of-the-century oriental Chinese Empire.

For those students of history interested solely on pure information of the Boxer Rebellion, this is your book. For some, it may be a quick read because of the large print and numerous use of pictures, but it is undoubtedly a premiere source one can use if learning about not only the Boxer Rebellion, but also how miserable conditions were for the common citizen in China-so miserable that they would blame droughts, famines, floods and all manner of natural disasters on Chinese Christians and railroads. The horrible living conditions in which most Chinese lived in under Q'ing(Manchurian) dynastic rule are also described, and the cramped cityscapes of Peking(Beijing) and Tientsin(Tianjin) displayed in the many pictures of the cities demonstrate the common man's woes.

And for any interested in fast-paced, exciting and entertaining history, this book reads better than most fiction novels. There is never a moment of boredom in the book and the fact that it all happened makes the book all the better. Read the book and see for yourself!