Clubs Books

What a terrific guide through the obstacles of life's financial hiways and biways! Written succinctly, intelligently and humorously--this book is a must have for women of all ages who are recognize the importance of understanding how to handle and plan our finances to achieve our life's goals--- while also getting us through the occassional bump in the road or traffic snarls that affect our money issues. Easy read and great maps/questionnaires help to keep us on track while having fun too! A man is not a plan -- and small steps lead to big success are positive themes throughout.

Mystified by money? Using a crystal ball to plan your retirement? Burdened with credit card debt? Lacking health insurance? Budgetless? With humor, charts, user-friendly quizzes, and common sense, this book will prod you into taking the small steps needed to get a grip on money. Your money. Earning it, keeping it, growing it. You'll find the scoop on a broad range of financial topics, sprinkled with quotes from the likes of Confucius, Dear Abby, Mark Twain, and Erma Bombeck. Discover ways to put brains and muscle into your personal money management. I found each chapter to be clear, motivating, specific. A great gift.

Flipped through this book looking for tips on getting out of debt and realized it would help me with all of my money issues. (In fact it made me aware that I had more money issues than I thought I did.) Thanks for a good solid guide that I can understand! These authors should do seminars too.

This book has a wealth of information from getting out of debt to amassing a personal fortune. It's easy to read format helps the reader access topics of personal interest quickly and effortlessly. Get this book if you need to take control of your finances or if you know someone who would benefit from financial help and support. It makes a great gift for the women in your life from mothers and daughters and sisters too.

This is a personal finance book you'll actually ENJOY reading!
It doesn't contain any get-rich-quick schemes, nor does it offer any unrealistic promises or guarantees.

What it does do is help you identify your own "money type" (how you use money in general), and then gives simple lessons on how to best improve what needs improving.

Easy? Not exactly. As I said, there are no quick-fixes offered here. The lessons take time and effort. But if you do them, they're sure to work, because they're based on good sense, and an understanding of how women relate to money issues.

Reviewer: Linda Painchaud

This is a really great book. I thought it was a cute club that Katie started. Faith is very pretty and is a really great Guardian Angel. I am excited to join the Precious Girls Club online.

Parents who are tired of all the racy dolls and toys that are being marketing to our young daughters will enjoy this book. A Little Bit of Faith is a refreshing book that encourages little girls to believe in themselves and the abilities that God gave them. When Katie, the main character, finds it hard to adjust to her new school, she finds her own solution to her problems instead of just feeling sorry for herself or expecting someone else to solve her problems.

The book is very well-written and there is just the right amount of illustrations throughout the book to encourage and engage a young reader. I enjoyed reading this book together with my first grader while my third grader enjoyed reading it by herself.

A Little Bit of Faith introduces The Precious Girls Club and my girls really like the playing on the new website www.preciousgirlsclub.com. The book even has a secret code that your daughter can use to unlock a special section of the site. As a mom, I like the site because unlike so many things today that are being sold to little girls, this site reinforces the idea that your character and actions are more important that outward appearances. I don't know about you, but I want my girls to stay as innocent as long as possible and this site is definitely age appropriate for little girls.

I see there is another book in the series available now and I look forward to sharing it with my daughters!

As a parent, I like this book. It's a cute story with nice pictures and there is a 'moral to the story'. From a child's perspective; my daughter has read it over and over and can't wait for us to get the next one. This is a great concept and the website is fun too.A Little Bit of Faith (Precious Girls' Club)

What a refreshing book to have on the market for the young ladies in our lives. As the title suggests, it takes a little bit of Faith. For my younger child the lack of pictures lost her interest, but for my older daughter, she LOVED it. She could so relate to being in a new town and not really having a lot of friends, but learning positive ways to deal with emotions. Thank you for this book that explains just how special our girls are in our lives.

Mom and 6 year old daughter:

After my older daughter read and enjoyed this book, I decided to try reading it to my 6 year old daughter. She is starting to read pretty well, but not into chapter books yet. She did try and pick this book up and read a page or two - and did pretty well! She enjoyed the pictures - they seemed to help her keep up with the story. The chapters were short enough we could read 1-2 chapters at a time. I know she liked the book because she was happy to remind me what had happened in the story so far each time we started reading again. She seemed to relate to the concept of a club and was happy when Katie had new friends at her club meeting. She also like the idea of the bracelet - she likes pretty, girly things! Overall my family has enjoyed sharing this book together.

I remember reading this book over and over and over when i was nine or ten. It was such a good book!! Although it wasn't as spooky as Stacey And The Haunted Masquerade(or whatever it was called)...

While helping Stacey move back into her house, Mallory finds an old diary about a girl namd Sophie, she used to lived here when it was the year of 1970 i think. So when the BSC goes up to the attic, they found a painting of Sophie!

This is a great book! My mother just bought it for me and I'm really caught up in it. It's sort of like a Babysitters club book(which it is, of course) and a ghost story. I don't usually read ghost stories (ocasionally I read Goosebump books) but the the Babysitter's club and a ghost story goes really well together. The first chapter is a bit boring but all in all it's one of the better Babysitter's Club books.

In Mallory and the Mystery Diary, Stacey and Mallory find a trunk. Stacey wants to throw away the trunk, but Mallory refuses. She takes it home and can't find the key to open the trunk. Finally, her younger brothers undo it. She reaches far in the trunk and finds a diary belonging to Sophie, a girl from 1894. I found this book interesting because I like mysteries and history. It was a fast read and had a good ending.

This book was great! It is about a diary Mallory finds in Stacey's attic. The diary was a girl called Sophie's in the 1800's. She told of how her mother had died at the birth of her baby brother. Her rich grandfather then hated her father and blamed him for stealing a painting he had of his daughter. The diary didn't say anything about who was the culprit, only that Sophie was sure it wasn't her father. Mallory then found the old man's confession about covering up the portrait and then went on to find the atchual painting. An exelent read.

In this book, Mallory finds that boys and gym are big bad things. The only good boys are her boyfriend and his brothers. But soon Mallory learns the truth about boys. And about gym.

I could relate to hating gym and being ridiculed but it was sooo funny when mal thought the hobarts were angels and learned the hard way that they were brats and her own brothers were the real angels. You have to read it to know what I mean, it's just sooo funny!!!

Mallory has never been a sports person. In fact, you could say gym is her least favorite subject. Nut now Mal's worst subject has turned into an absolute nightmare. Gym classs has gone co-ed.

I hated gym too so much, I was always clumsy myself and volleyball was a nightmare. I was always getting hit in the face just like mallory and it broke my glasses one time. I developed a phobia for big balls flying in my face ever since and I would be depressed after class because I wanted to impress them and do well, but it just wasn't my thing. And mallory's character spoke about myself.

I wish I had read this book when I was in jr high, because I can really identify with Mallory and what she goes through. I dropped out of P.E. in 8th grade because I couldn't take it anymore what was happening to me in our co-ed P.E. class. I wasn't the athletic type and was a klutz, and was harassed by the guys who would call me fat, etc. and it was a totally humiliating experience for me. I especially hated soccer, I just couldn't get it, and the guys took total advantage of this by slamming the ball into me ow!! They thought it was the funniest thing in the world to see me in pain. Like in Mal's situation, the school authorities couldn't understand why I'd refuse to go to P.E. Like Mal, I too was punished due to my failure to participate. By highschool I had a medical waiver so I didn't have to do P.E. at all. I was free! I don't think kids should have to suffer through P.E.; It is a dumb rule to have it as a requirement. What does it matter; it's not doing anything for your education...

Why do they even include the library in a mystery book? I like the souns of that, books being burned in the library.

This was the first and the best BSC book I have ever read. Mary Anne works at the local libary and gets in a mystery of fires in the building. In a brief line, Mary Anne mentions that "The Diary of Anne Frank" (aka: "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl") was a good book. I like the way the author mentions real books. This is the best BSC book for bookworms who love Mary Anne Spier.

I just love Mary Anne & her endearing sensitivity & her incredible courage! She's such a lovely, sensitive person with a strong character! It was a cute, funny opening scene in the beginning when Mary Anne is feeling depressed & watches a sad movie & cries & cries. Trouble is, she doesn't feel much better & goes to the BSC meeting with red, swollen eyes. Mary Anne gets involved in the readathon & THAT lifts her sadness. But, wow, when the fires in the library were happening, it was scary for her! She even has nightmares! Boy, were Mary Anne & Kristy heroes when they finally caught the firebug! Another cute, touching scene is when the librarians are giving out awards to the kids, Nicky Pike whistles when Mary Anne is recognized for her hard work & Mary Anne blushes a bright red! Then to top it off, Mary Anne ends up blubbering in front of everyone! It's so touching how she cries so easily.

When Mary Anne volunteeers to work for the Readathon[ a contest and if you win you get prizes], the library is getting scary. Because at the back door, Someone set a fire and Mrs. Kishi, Claudia's mom was so worried. Who setted that fire and why did he do it. If the Baby Sitters don't find out, Stoneybrook's biggest library may be lost.

Mary Anne volunteers to work at the Readathon (a contest for the little kids to read books for prizes and to get new books for the library) and then fires start being set off! Mary Anne and the rest of the members of the Baby-sitters Club decide to catch the person setting them off! Not only the BSC but Nicky Pike, BSC member Mallory Pike's brother, is helping too because some matches were found in his jacket pocket and he didn't put them there. So who would set fire to some books and why? Is it the protestors who want to ban some of the books? Is it one of the kids that doesn't want to be in the Readathon? Is it actually Nicky? You have to read the book to find out! I rated it 5 stars because it was well written and pretty fun to read. You probably won't guess who's setting off fires...but you will like the ending!

Very sad, but an honest depiction of a part of Guatemala that we were exposed to during our recent visit. The poverty seemed crippling, and children in work roles were very common.

I love this book. Working in a library, I've been happy to be able to show it to so many people. The hero has a hard life and a mother who doesn't love him. But he has a roof over his head at his grandmother's house, and a simple determination to work, to help, and to learn.

There's an indescribable feel to this book, almost a scent, different from any other book. It really is a masterpiece.

I am from Guatemala City and currently living in the US, I read this book with my daughter and she loved it, this book has helped me to explain some of my culture to her. She knows that "anyplace can be the most beautiful place in the world..."

I have read this book aloud to my first and second grade students for years. It is an excellent story, well told, with all the realities of a different culture in a different situation than USA children. However, it is painted with the strokes of deepest, realistic love that a family can have. This is a great story to teach and talk about the struggles of families everywhere, the world and it's differences, and the importance of character "no matter what". It is the book my second graders yearn to read on their own and therefore is a super motivator. It is rich in geography.

The story that I read was really snappy and cool. It's called The Most Beautiful Place in the World By Ann Cameron. There was a boy named Juan and his grandmother. There was also Juan's mom. It takes place in San Pablo, Guatamala. The problem is she leaves him for ever and his mom doesn't let him visit her. He really loves his mom after his dad left them.Some one would want to read this book because its really sad and who ever loves tragedy or not it's a really good book.I recommend this book to people of any age.

Never written a review before. Really enjoyed this book. It's real page turner with a surprise ending. Buy it!

Ms. Onu craftily weaves a tale of 3 Nigerian friends that is at once witty, engaging and evocative. While the characters are Nigerian, the issues they face are definitely universal. Invite a few friends to join you as you embark on the journey of Titi,Amaka and Mina.Together you'll discover the secrets to finding what every woman yearns for - love and security.

Okay, I bought this book because it was by a Nigerian author and I had read some excerpts. I also read the reviews and felt I owed it to myself to get a copy and boy oh boy was it ever the best decision I made. I am an avid reader but have not read in a while. I got this book and could not put it down. I read it front to cover in one day! What really intrigued me is that the stories of these ladies are not so disimilar from most of us. We have all at one point or the other been or encountered any one of these women. It is real but not condescending, truthful yet humorous, painful yet hopeful. Well I can go on and on, but seeing is believing, so get your own copy and buy a few for your girlfriends. Start a book club and let us discuss. And to the author, Ekene Onu, thank you for such a refereshing book. Please keep it coming, I look forward to reading more from you.

Let me start by saying i read ALOT of books. At least 1 or 2 a week. I won this book in a contest and it is unforgettable. I read it all in one sitting because i couldnt put it down. It was funny, full of drama, keep you at the edge of your seat anticipation. It was very well written and one of the best chick lit books i have ever read. Like the previous reviewer stated you will relate or know someone who reminds you of each of these characters. Naija babe or not you will love this book and if you pay enough attention learn some life lessons from it. Keep em coming !

Who said this book was just for women! The Mrs Club is a page turner that gives you a peek into the minds of three naija babes. I was struck by how much each character reminded me a bit of somepeople I know. As you read the book, you can relate to the various themes: Mother-daughter relationship, inter and intra-cultural nuances and life in the diaspora.
At the end of the book, you come away reminded that there is a little Mina, Amaka and Titi in every woman, and a little Dele, Obinna, and Jeffrey in every guy. Don't play, cos you might get played! Get a Copy!

Murder at the Carousel Club, July 13, 2008
By Chiquita Mullins Lee (Columbus, Ohio USA)

Barbara Fleming is a master of the set-up. She has a talent for unfolding a story and creating characters and scenarios that capture the imagination. We climb aboard the ride, our hunger whetted for the truth. Murder at the Carousel Club is her newest installment in the Matthew Alexander mystery series. Fleming weaves a third intriguing tale about homicide in Washington, D.C., where Detective Alexander again is elbow deep in crime.

Trouble comes courtesy of Junior Williams, a good-looking man who's used to getting his way. Junior's favorite haunt is the Carousel Club. Keeping it sassy is Suzy Evans, the Carousel's headliner, whose vocal stylings evoke comparisons to Sarah Vaughn. Suzy and Junior are having an affair. Most everyone knows this except Junior's daughter, Diane. Diane has an ongoing flirtation with Frank Porter, whose brother, Ken, owns the Carousel.

When she visits the club to say good bye to Frank, Diane is surprised to find Junior there, too. Junior, enraged about the relationship between sixteen year-old Diane and middle-aged Frank, loudly threatens to kill Frank. When Frank is found shot dead outside the club, and Junior lies unconscious in the parking lot, the sequence of events is obvious.

Or is it?

Detective Alexander quickly labels Junior the murderer. Junior's family insists he was too drunk to aim a gun. And what about charming, handsome Frank Porter? Was he really as popular as everyone said?

Round and round it goes. Just like a carousel. There are questions to ask. People to scrutinize. Memories to stir and resurrect.

Murder at the Carousel Club is a great read for steamy summer nights. Fleming deftly unravels a murder mystery and adds heaps of surprises. Here's to a hearty welcome, again, to Lt. Matthew Alexander. It's fun to have him back on the beat.

Barbara Fleming is a master of the set-up. She has a talent for unfolding a story and creating characters and scenarios that capture the imagination. We climb aboard the ride, our hunger whetted for the truth. Murder at the Carousel Club is her newest installment in the Matthew Alexander mystery series. Fleming weaves a third intriguing tale about homicide in Washington, D.C., where Detective Alexander again is elbow deep in crime.

Trouble comes courtesy of Junior Williams, a good-looking man who's used to getting his way. Junior's favorite haunt is the Carousel Club. Keeping it sassy is Suzy Evans, the Carousel's headliner, whose vocal stylings evoke comparisons to Sarah Vaughn. Suzy and Junior are having an affair. Most everyone knows this except Junior's daughter, Diane. Diane has an ongoing flirtation with Frank Porter, whose brother, Ken, owns the Carousel.

When she visits the club to say good bye to Frank, Diane is surprised to find Junior there, too. Junior, enraged about the relationship between sixteen year-old Diane and middle-aged Frank, loudly threatens to kill Frank. When Frank is found shot dead outside the club, and Junior lies unconscious in the parking lot, the sequence of events is obvious.

Or is it?

Detective Alexander quickly labels Junior the murderer. Junior's family insists he was too drunk to aim a gun. And what about charming, handsome Frank Porter? Was he really as popular as everyone said?

Round and round it goes. Just like a carousel. There are questions to ask. People to scrutinize. Memories to stir and resurrect.

Murder at the Carousel Club is a great read for steamy summer nights. Fleming deftly unravels a murder mystery and adds heaps of surprises. Here's to a hearty welcome, again, to Lt. Matthew Alexander. It's fun to have him back on the beat.

The riveted and suspense laden mystery, Murder at the Carousel Club so skillfully written by Barbara Fleming, proved to be a unique and refreshingly different kind of literary experience. It unveils, for the reader, social dynamics that are as educational as they are entertaining. These dynamics pulled my whole being into the mystery with intense curiosity, and just as forcefully, these dynamics provided an objective yet realistic prospective into the urban African American culture: the Black family; and very specifically... the constant threat (and frequent plight) of African American males in America today. Murder at the Carousel Club is a must read!

Murder at the Carousel Club is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Once I started reading it, I was hooked. It's not often that I find a writer who holds my interest from the beginning to the end of the book. The story and the characters in Murder at the Carousel Club were so believable; I could hardly wait to find out if the person charged with the murder actually did it. Although I live in Atlanta now, I used to live in Washington, D.C., so the setting and the place names were so familiar to me. I could just picture the scenes as the characters moved across the city landscape trying to solve the crime. I haven't read the author's previous books, but Murder at the Carousel Club was so entertaining, that I have made it a point to see if the other books are as good. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves reading a good mystery.

I recently read Barbara Fleming's new mystery novel Murder at the Carousel Club (Silver Maple Publications, 2008) and what a pleasure it was to read. Being a reader who searches for books that both hold my interest and entertain me at the same time, I savored every page of Murder at the Carousel Club. It is such a joy to finally find an author who knows how to tell a realistic, down-to-earth story in a fascinating way. Once I started reading, it was very hard to put the book down. I have read the two previous Matthew Alexander mysteries (Hot Stones, Cold Death (2001) and Murder on the Gold Coast (2005)) and enjoyed them as well, but I think Murder at the Carousel Club is the best mystery in the series to date.

In Murder at the Carousel Club, the playboy brother of the owner of the most exciting and popular night club in the District, the Carousel Club, is murdered in the parking lot of the club. The victim was shot in the head as he sat inside his expensive car. There are no witnesses to the murder and the primary suspect, who earlier that evening had threatened to kill the victim in front of everyone within earshot in the club, is found unconscious in the parking lot not far from the murder victim with no murder weapon. Barbara Fleming has written an intriguing, highly entertaining, hard-to-guess mystery that keeps you glued to your seat and flipping the pages of the novel as you keep reading and trying to guess how it all will turn out in the end. I loved the way she weaved images of the District, then and now, throughout the novel, especially, the descriptions of Anacostia which is on the cusp of being gentrified like the rest of the District.

I'm probably prejudiced because I was born when my parents lived in Anacostia in Washington, D.C.; but I think the author's evocation of the symbolism that Anacostia has held for D.C. residents over the years is very reminiscent of how my family and I experienced the community when I lived there as a child. Anacostia has always been the forgotten stepchild of the District, a beautiful but neglected gem across the river at the end of a very long bus route. In the 1970's when my mother used to ride the bus from where she worked at Hecht's department store on 7th Street to our home when I was a small child, she always complained that she got sick from the heat and fumes of the decrepit buses that were placed on the Anacostia routes--the worst buses in the District's fleet. She said that the District would have never sent buses like that on the northern routes up Connecticut or Wisconsin Avenues.

I hadn't thought about that in years, but as I was reading Murder at the Carousel Club, those wonderful old memories of Anacostia came flooding back. I remembered how my mother used to put me in my stroller when I was a toddler and take me for a walk down Nicholas Avenue to the five and dime on Good Hope Road and how much fun that had been. I remembered my mother taking me to the Smithsonian's Anacostia Neighborhood Museum in the old movie theater on Nicholas Avenue before it became Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue. Anacostia figures importantly in Murder at the Carousel Club although the plot is primarily centered in the Shaw community of Northwest D.C. where the Carousel Club moved after it was forced to leave Anacostia in the late seventies because of all the drug crime in the community at that time.

Of course Fourth District Police Headquarters is in Northwest as well and Matthew Alexander and his wife Carla have been residents of LeDroit Park in Northwest D.C. since the series began. Unlike the previous books, Murder at the Carousel Club takes a slight detour in that Detective Lieutenant Matthew Alexander and his partner Sergeant Jake Jackson get some uninvited help from a character that made a short but memorable appearance in Murder on the Gold Coast, Frederick Douglass Washington. Fred Washington was both an ex-convict who had spent seven years in Lorton Reformatory for drug trafficking and the uncle of the murder suspect Gary Washington in Murder on the Gold Coast and what a character he was. I think Barbara Fleming made a very wise decision when she reprised Fred Washington because he gives Lieutenant Alexander an able assist and some stiff competition in solving the Murder at the Carousel Club, a great book and a truly memorable story that is well worth your time and effort.

T.K. Washington, D.C.

I highly recommend this inspirational book to all. I delight in reading about the life that is around us that we do not normally observe. In many cases, the best fiction writers could not compete with nature.

*Nature a Day at a Time* delivers just that, a brief glimpse into common plants and animals while revealing how often overlooked wildlife in our everyday lives actually have strong connections to who we are and how we live. Each page unfolds the days of the year with a short introduction and drawing that illuminates the earwig and the praying mantis, rove beetles and crab grass, bladderwort and giant swallowtail.

Though this book may seem deceptively simple in its approach, it is actually a great way to start off your day as it will open up your eyes and your senses to the natural world that surrounds you - even if you live in a concrete jungle - which will lead you to your own daily discoveries of wildlife in your life. After 365 days of reading this book, you will find that you live in a whole new world.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Have yet to see a purple cow? How about a slithy trove? Despair no more. In this lovely book, Cathie Katz transforms the FAMILIAR into passing strange phenomena. Her secret? Attention to detail. Waving her "charming rod" of magnification over the common creatures of everyday life, she presents each one as a wish fit for the gods without sacrificing its connection to Earth and to us. Thanks to Cathie, we can now put away the shadows of childish imagination and embrace the sometimes frightening, always magical, fellow travelers of our own existence.

I will no longer walk by an insect, bird or plant without some new found knowledge and a willingness to share our surroundings. Kind of like living among people, there are some good traits and some irritaing traits but nevertheless we can exist in harmony. The illustrations are talent ladden enhanced by the whimisical little stick figure Larry. If you can read just a day at a time without longing to cancel all on the agenda you are ahead of me but for times when all we can squeeze in is one page our world will become brighter and more alive to us. So enjoy and let that spider make his web without that tidiness gene taking over.

Cathie Katz starts out writing about no-see-ums, crab grass and cricket-frogs and somehow ends up with human nature, life, the universe and everything.

Katz is a Melbourne Beach writer, naturalist and sea-bean expert who fields queries from beachcombers around the world as editor of "The Drifting Seed," a newsletter about sea beans (or more properly, rain-forest drift seeds.)

Her new book, "Nature, a Day at a Time: An Uncommon Look at Common Wildlife," contains 365 mini-essays about 365 forms of life, ranging from viruses to possums. Each day's entry begins and ends with a literary quote and features one of her illustrations. Like her writing, her detailed pen-and-ink drawings are a good balance of factuality and whimsy.

A simple format, but deceptively so. These entries are linked by some profound, half-submerged themes -- our kinship with the natural world, the way our personal nature can be found in daily nature around us, the fascinating natural processes going on immediately around us. And it is this kind of accessible natural world -- worms and viruses and backyard birds -- rather than Discovery Channel-style big and exotic wildlife -- that makes up the days in her book.

"Nature a Day at a Time" is a good year.

I read this book when I was younger as well and then had the pleasure of reading it to my daughter when she was young. Now I have a copy hidden away for her when she has her own children. It has become a family tradition and an enjoyable time spent reading it to your children. It also lets one relive the book as well.

I am a 60 year-old who never forgot this book. We traveled to Florida when I was 9 and stayed in many motels. Now my 1 year old grandson lives in California and I hope that when he is old enough for this book, motels will still exist!

I turned 58 today. I read this book MANY times as a child, when books were just about the only friends I had. To say that the memory of this book has stayed with me all these years should say something significant about the book. I was born and raised in Florida so it was very real to me. My father died when I was six, and that made it more real. I cannot recommend this book highly enough...5 stars is not enough. It definitely rates a 10. It is a book I want my great-nieces and nephews to read.

I first read this book my older sister had gotten through the weekly reader. I identified with the family in this story very much as I was the youngest in a family where the father had just died, younger than Betsy, the youngest in this family. I appreciated it very much because there are so many stories and often I felt pitied for being in a family where the father had died, and I saw these were normal kids having fun and just as smart, capable and full of average strenths and weaknesses as any other kid. I also liked the title very much as we lived in an apartment complex where pets likes cats and dogs weren't allowed. I think reading it helps people see this and realize kids are basically the same regardless of family circumstances.

I loved this book when I was a girl. I remember re-reading it several times. I liked the interactions between the kids and especially was intrigued by the little mystery. This is a wonderful book for both boys and girls.