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Samurai Shortstop is a wonderful, but underappreciated tale about a boy and his love for baseball. Toyo, a 14 year-old boy is faced to grow up faster than he ever wanted to when his uncle committed seppuku, legal suicide in Japan. Everything has changed since the French Revolution, and now there are no more samurais, but now there is baseball, Toyo's favorite sport.
He has just now started the most prestigious school in Tokyo, which means new friends, bullies, and many more problems. He tries out for baseball and starts learning the way of samurai from his father. Toyo and his father never really understood each other, and now that his uncle has died, Toyo only has his friends to help him.

Toyo is a very smart person, and becomes a very good leader. Throughout the book everything that happens helps him, although it doesn't look like it all the time. Toyo starts to put his skill in the art of bushido, samurai fighting style, into baseball. My favorite part of the book is when he fights the older kid instead of letting them beat him up. I would recommend this book to students from 7th grade and up.
--Malik McKenzie

This is a story of a boy named Toyo Shimada. The time is set in Tokyo, 1890. Toyo is sent to a boarding school of a very high caliber, but after he arrives he sees how the upperclassmen treat the first years. To fit in, he joins the baseball team, a sport he loves. He wants to be shortstop, but until he becomes a "man" to the upperclassmen he is stuck in the outfield. He is enraged, but nevertheless he pushes through the tormenting and refuses to quit the baseball team. The only problem is his father, who is still using the ways of the samurai, or worrier. Toyo's father does not want him to play, unless Toyo can convince him otherwise. Other than that, his father has decided to teach him the ways of the warrior, or bushido. At first Toyo does not understand any of his bushido lessons, or why he has to do them, but over the course of the book he learns to use his bushido skills.
This book reminds me of a book called Dairy Queen. The story was about a girl, and football, not baseball, but in the end she overcomes many obstacles just like Toyo. In both books, the main focus is overcoming anything that comes your way. They are both also about standing up to important figures in there lives. It happens to be that in both books that person is their dad. Alan Gratz has written an enthralling tale.
I enjoyed the book, although it does have some pretty gruesome scenes. I liked reading it because you always want to see what Toyo will do next, what the other characters are going to say, or do. It also tells you a lot about what school was like back then, in Japan. It is a lot different from Americans school, and the year it takes place in really makes a difference. Overall, this is a great book and you should pick it up sometimes if you are looking for a great read.

Let me start off by saying this is the best book I have read. It is a very exciting book that keeps your attention throughout. It starts off by the Emperer allowing Toyo's Uncle to commit seppuku (suicide) instead of being killed by the government. Samurai Shortstop has a great mix of baseball and culture. You get to read a baseball story but at the sametime learn about their culture and beliefs. Toyo attends Ichiko which is a very big school that consists of only boys.

Ichiko's baseball team is run by the players themselves and when Toyo and a couple other first years want to join the team the have to prove that they are worthy. Toyo's friend Futoshi makes the team as the right fielder but Toyo has a little trouble making the team because Ichiko already has a shortstop. But when their shortstop gets thrown off the team Toyo found himself starting at shortstop. Toyo's father teaches trys to teach him bushido which is code by which Samurai lived but Toyo has trouble understanding it. Not until the end of the book when he has to help with his father's seppuku does he fully understand bushido. This is a wonderful book because it keeps you off balance and never knowing what is going to happen!

Kyle Walmer
Mrs. Bains 3rd block

It's 1890 and you're in Tokyo, Japan. Between classes in the most prestigious high school in town and baseball practice, you learn the old ways--the ways of the samurai. That's Toyo Shimada's life and we get the pleasure of going along for the ride thanks to Alan Gratz's brilliant story telling.


Toyo suffers from familiar teen angst: a parent who doesn't understand him and friends who try to understand him, but often fail. It's the core of most teen stories, but Toyo's world is changing. Old Japan is dying and a new Japan is rising.


His father represents the old Japan. When the emperor reforms their ancient military system and requires all samurai to hang up their swords, Toyo's family is caught in the middle. The opening scene, where Toyo and his father assist Toyo's uncle in seppuku, ritual suicide, is so intense that you'll wonder if Toyo's just having a bad dream.


Even though Toyo's father isn't samurai in the traditional sense, he too decides he can't live in the new Japan. He expects Toyo to assist him in seppuku, when the time comes. First, he must teach Toyo the ways of bushido, the warrior's code.


Between lessons and baseball practice, Toyo learns to meditate and use a sword--and worries about his father. When the time comes, will he have the courage to do what has to be done? Baseball is his passion, and as applies bushido to baseball, he comes to terms with the changing world around him and begins his journey into manhood.


Samurai Shortstop is the story of Toyo's search for his own path in a time of social change and family turmoil. Toyo's personal struggle is one all teens can appreciate. He struggles with peer pressure, studies, and parental control and expectations. Nineteenth century Japan comes alive and provides the color and unexpected tension that every good story needs.

Samurai Shortstop is about a 16-year old Japanese boy, Toyo. Right from the first sentence of the book it really grabs your attention. Toyo's uncle is preparing to commit sepukku. This is considered an honorable way to kill yourself in Japan. The story draws you into the life of Toyo and helps you to understand his relationship with his father and learning the art of bushido. He goes off to a private boarding school where he learns how to stand up for himself and fight off the seniors who are out to torture the first years. I liked this book because it combines the sport of baseball along with Toyo's high school experience in Japan. If you want to read a book that is hard to put down and will keep you intrigued until the very last page, then this is the book for you.

I was so impressed by this work that I HAD to write a review of it.

This is probably the single most influential work I have in my library in terms of its affects on my everyday activities. I think it would be nearly impossible to listen to just one of these CD's without feeling a general improvement in the quality of your life.

I am a scientist myself (I am currently studying bio-engineering at UCLA) and Shinzen Young treats the subject of meditation in the most scientific manner I have yet encountered. This merger of science and meditation is what makes this volume so profound to me.

Most books will enlighten you about a particular subject: mathematics, psychology, philosophy, etc. etc,
THIS work will not only enlighten you about the particular subject of meditation ... but it will also totally change the way you move through the world.

Hear is my advice: Put your reading list aside.

Listen to The Science of Enlightenment, and when you get back to that reading list of yours(which won't be after too long... 16 hours of audio I think??) you WILL be a different person.

As you can see from the other reviewers this audio book is just astounding in its breadth and scope. I'm on my third listening to this one and realized it's one that I've not left a review on. It's expensive I know, but you do get what you pay for. He is speaking to some students who you can hear chuckle in the background every once in a while. So he has a sense of humor and it's not rehearsed. The subject matter of which he speaks and the information conveyed is very practical and relevant.

Meditation CD's, that need to be listen to a few times for the average person. A core value product to have, for the psychological well been of a person. It certainly as had a positive effect on myself. Very therapeutic.

This audio series is of extraordinary value to the western mind, not only in terms of presentation but in terms of perspective. The teachings that Shinzen Young expounds upon are subtle details that often times missed during meditative practice and philosophical understandings of Eastern religions.

The series is broken down into 14 CDs with 2 sessions per disc. Some of the CDs feature focused meditations which are approriately placed according to the teachings he has covered.

I have a long commute and listen to this series all the way to medical school. It is one of the most gripping audio series that I've ever owned - just recently I found myself at Shoprite's parking lot for over an hour, unwilling to leave my car until I had finished hearing the session.

Shinzen Young covers the most minute aspects of buddhist/hindu meditative teachings. The only failure of this series is to communicate that Buddha and his meditative practices come straight from Hinduism ( as Buddha was a Hindu himself ). The "Buddhist" concepts that Shinzen Young often talks about are spoken in Sanskrit - the ancient language of the Hindus in India. Shinzen Young failure to present that Buddhism is a DIRECT extension of Hinduism, only compounds the misconception that Buddhist teachings are somehow a unique derived from Buddha and not from its proper source - Hinduism.

This however, does not undermind the didactic value of the series. Shinzen Young makes very clear to logical and skeptical minds where Buddhist/Hindu philosophy stands. The meditative practices are extremely helpful in self-experientially confirming the words of Shinzen Young. One profound lesson that comes of this series is that everyone feels pain but not every one suffers. For those who need guidance in how to deal with the tumultous nature of life or seek that morsel of happiness that is forever elusive - you will not be let down by Shinzen Young.

I hesitated to get this at first. Mainly because I'd never heard of the author, Shinzen Young. But I was sufficiently intrigued by the title; the attainment of enlightenment being a lifelong interest. Several months ago, after listening to the audible sample, I decided to buy it. I'm so glad I did! Science of Enlightenment is an extraordinary, and life altering work.

I listened to Science of Enlightenment twice. Both times, I was delighted by the uplifted feeling I received while listening to it. I've come to understand through this audio book, that seasoned meditators are always in a state of meditation to varying degrees. It seems that the crystalline clarity and sheer power of Science of Enlightenment stems from the fact that the author is in a state of lucid meditation while speaking. Perhaps accounting for the inspired, positive energy I get from listening to it.

From searching on the internet, I discovered that Science of Enlightenment, and many other lectures by Shinzen Young, have never been put into a book form. In fact, the only book I was able to find is a new one on overcoming pain. So the probability of Shinzen Young doing aggressive, national book signing tours, at this point at least, seems unlikely. This non commercial approach makes his work all the more appealing and real.

I've read many books on the topic of meditation and enlightenment, and even practiced at a couple of Zendos in New York. Although these experiences were excellent, I still hadn't been able to get on a regular meditation schedule. Listening to Science of Enlightenment, gave me a deep understanding of meditation, enlightenment, religion and related topics. As a result, I've finally been meditating, which has profoundly impacted my life. I look forward to the extraordinary long term effects, which Young describes, after a few years of meditating.

A lot of it is common sense, but you won't notice it until you read about it.

Very practical, trustworthy, hand on insight. Gives you a lot to think about, and unfortunately also some "deja vu" experiences. Should be mandatory reading for all managers in companies doing well!

My favorite section of this entire book, and that is high praise indeed given my opinion of the rest, starts on page 200. Sheth mentions how academics are often criticized for existing in an ivory tower and how the accusation is false; the real inhabitants of an ivory tower are corporate CEOs and their immediate minions. It is the job of academics to interact with raw beginners and to do the best they can to teach their students the breadth and depth of skills needed to survive in their chosen profession. From the first day they step on a college campus, students are interacting with their professors; there are very few barriers between the student and the head of a department.
However, the executives at the highest levels of a corporation are much more sheltered, which is a significant part of the problem. Many fly on private jets, have their private elevator, washroom and cafeteria. So many of them interact with only a few of their employees and almost never with their customers. The information they receive is carefully filtered and in the most rigid of organizations, it is unthinkable that a line worker would ever exchange meaningful words with an executive.
Sheth also describes many of the other problems that good companies face, although I don't believe he is complete in his analysis of why companies fail. He is quite correct that many of the companies initially succeed largely due to luck and being in the right place at the right time. However, the eventual failure of so many companies is due to the creative destruction that is an inherent feature of capitalism. The advance of technology and social mores cannot be predicted or stopped; so many companies simply outlive their economically effective life. In my opinion, that point is not stressed enough.
Sheth is quite correct in pointing out that the greatest point of failure is when companies become "fat cats", content to bask in their success and believe that the good times will continue indefinitely. Or at least as long as the current executive team remains in their positions. He also commends companies who have the policy of term limits in executive positions. By rotating executives from position to position on a regular basis, no person has an opportunity to build a "protective silo", where it becomes more important to protect their executive turf than it is to advance the company.
Another very amusing point that I agree with; is when he points out that there is less of a cultural divide between Christians and Moslems than there is between engineers and marketing people in the same company. As a former software developer, I remember some of the very hostile barbs that went back and forth between the marketing people and the programmers. We spoke a different language, not only in how the product should be built, but we strongly, vehemently disagreed about what should be said to potential customers.
In conclusion, Sheth does an excellent job in describing the history of some of what used to be the most powerful companies on Earth. Now, many of those companies no longer exist, some are in serious trouble and the successful ones are nothing like they were when they were at the peak of their power. The common theme leading to their downfall was an inability to see or even acknowledge that the world associated with their products was changing. The first step in any attempt to keep your company from being added to the list of failures is to recognize that it is possible for yours to fail. Sheth drives that point home with an effectiveness that may make you wince and take an honest look at the state of the company you work for.

Never too late to learn more, even if you've been in the business for decades. I feel like translating this book into Korean language, provided that the author and publisher would agree.

During the early 1980s, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman penned a business classic named In Search of Excellence. In it, they cited 62 "excellent" companies. Many, including Sears, Xerox, IBM and Eastman Kodiak, have faced serious problems since.

Some recovered; some struggle to recover. Some are dead; others soon will be. Although the word "institution" implies permanence, Jagdish N. Sheth argues the average life span of a corporation is plummeting. The genius of Joseph Schumpeter's "Creative Destruction," is becoming widely understood.

The author, a business professor at Emory University, argues that companies that rise to the level of great often sow the seeds of their own destruction. He argues the following kernels soon blossom sapping the "great one's" potential:

1. Volume Obsession - rising costs and falling margins.
2. Denial - substituting myths, rituals and orthodoxy for vision and insight.
3. Arrogance - Need I say more?
4. Complacency - success breeds failure.
5. Competency Dependence - the curse of incumbency.
6. Competitive Myopia - a nearsighted competitive view.
7. Territorial Impulse - culture conflicts and turf wars.

The careful reader is forced to shine a light into every corner of his or her organization. Using insightful illustrations, Sheth urges business leaders to identify their self-destructive behaviors before they lead are destroyed. I particularly enjoyed the description of a company in his chapter on the Territorial Impulse described as "complex of 50-story office towers, connected only by common areas at the bottom and the top."

This is an entertaining and insightful book. Management and executives will ignore its lessons at their own peril.

I read this book quite some time ago. It is filled with 100's of positive affirmations to be used in almost any situation. I have used it to create personal change and would suggest it.

Donald Ryles PhD, CH
Author of Hidden Secrets of "Many, But One"

It's been a few months since I got the book. Currently I am using the scripts that are included in the book.

This review is to testify, that ones you do it with intent, focus and passion, the rewards are very obvious.

There are scripts covering virtually every area of your life. I give this book my highest recommendations as it helps me manage myself and to direct my thoughts.

You will have to take the time and to be passionate about it, but once you do, the pay-offs are enormous.

Positive self-talk just flat out works and this books provides explicit scripts to use. I've worn out two copies and I'm very disappointed that Amazon doesn't currently carry it in stock. This is one classic that will never be out of style.

This book, and its predecessor What To Say When You Talk ..., has been a godsend. It has helped raise my self esteem and my low moods. I spend about a half hour most days reading the affirmative essays in Part 2. This daily practice plus a half hour of meditation have done wonders for my emotional well being. I am almost completely convinced of the author's premise that we can undo our negative programming and live a more productive and enjoyable life by frequently reading the essays. This is a book I will treasure for life. I am giving copies to friends.

I was frustrated and depressed when I first picked up this book. I was jobless, flat broke, nearly homeless. "I can't do anything right. I should just quit. I should just kill myself."
In fact, I was suicidal.

With a little counselling and "The Self-Talk Solution" I was able to revolutionize my life. Dr. Helmstetter's book offers a practical method to change the patterns of your thinking: what you are saying to yourself, and to consciously take control of your mental thinking- and consequently your entire life. These are more than simple affirmations, or "postive thinking" - instead Dr. Helmstetter shows literally how to re-train your entire mental processes into powerful, enabling, patterns that you choose. What if you could re-program your thinking?

In the five years since discovering this book I picked up my life, got a job I love, found a loving relationship, went back to University and travelled to five countries in Asia. But really, the best part is how I now think about myself, I never again have to deal with the depression and low-esteem that previously plagued my life. I hope you will enjoy this book.

I think that this is the best book that i have ever read and now that i have read this one and the 1st one i have bought the next 2 books of the series.

This is one of those books that once you start it I say there is no stopping yourself, and I'm NOT a reader and I give this book a 5 star rating... WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



-Chicklet

I think that this is the best book that i have ever read and now that i have read this one and the 1st one i have bought the next 2 books of the series.

This is one of those books that once you start it I say there is no stopping yourself, and I'm NOT a reader and I give this book a 5 star rating... WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



-Chicklet

THE ATTACK OF THE TAGGER is a great book . Wendelin Van Draanen.
It has great words in it . The book is for 10 year olds and up.
The best part of the book is when Nolan is on the mystery.
My favorite character is Nolen because sometimes he can be funny or weird.
One funny thing he does is when he hides in the trash can to find someone.
The weird thing he did is when he looked in the trash for a clue.
He is hiding a secret from his parents that he is shedder man,a school hero.
You will enjoy this book if you like MYSTERYS.

When I was at a friend's house I was bored so I picked it up and started reading. It was soooo cute. I really want to read the other books in the series but my library doesn't have them. Even thought I'm not in second grade I really enjoyed this book! You should definitely read it!

People who like mysteries will find this book mysterious. Wendlin Van Draanen writes his second book, Attack of the Tagger! The main characters of this book are Nolan (A.K.A Shredderman), Nolan's parents,and Ryan Voss. The problems in Attack of the Tagger are when Nolan(A.K.A Shredderman)was trying to trap the tagger but the tagger was trying to pin the blame on Nolan(A.K.A Shredderman). The setting of this book takes place in Ceder Valley,California.

In the beginning of the story Nolan(A.K.A Shredderman) was spying in the bathroom at school and saw Carl Blanco, Manny Davis, A.J Penne, and Ryan Voss talking about the graffiti showing up on cars, and Nolan thought it was one of them doing it. Next,the police found more graffiti in the park at night and Nolan and his dad went to look. When Nolan got home he found out who the real person was, who was doing the graffiti. The closest person was Ryan Voss, the principal's son. To find out who really did the graffiti go to your nearest library or book store and get the book.

The theme in this book is don't damage other people's things. This book remindes me of graffiti writing on buildings or signs. Boys in 3rd-5th grade will love this book.

J.H. in Annapolis

When I was finished with the book I was already wishing to read the sequel of this book "Emilyn's Moon". When I read this I pictured myself on the Mountains and looking at the Island of Wales. I was all over this book 24/7. Rating this book I give a 5 out of 5. I sugest those who want a good but not long book read this! - Reader Nick age 10 permissioned by mom

This review is for all three books in Jenny Nimmo's Magician Trilogy (The Snow Spider, Emlyn's Moon, and The Chestnut Soldier).

Jenny Nimmo's writing style is very powerful, and her characters come to life as you read these books. The descriptions of locations (people's houses, the Welsh countryside, the town, the school) are so vivid that you can immediately picture yourself there. These books have a few scary parts, but the endings are very positive and satisfying.

These books are recommended for anyone who enjoys fantasy or Welsh mythology. Similar books include Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles.

I picked up this book for my [...]son since he was required to read something for 20-30 min twice/week in [...]it could be anything. At that pace, it took us a few months to get through it, but we were never disappointed in the book. It's written from the perspective of a child my son's age & the words were not too difficult for a young reader. Some of the parts dealing with loss are maybe too disturbing for some very young readers. The mystery & the discovery throughout the book kept our interest. We have now purchased & started the 2nd book in the series & will begin the 3rd book as soon as we are finished with it. Well worth the money of a hardcover edition, as it's a keeper.

Snow Spider by jenny nimmo is an fantasy book that I would recommend to any ages. The first thing that happens in the story is that Gwins sister gets lost in a storm,up in the mountain and she never returns.
One year later, Gwin had his birthday on the same day his sister dissapeared.Gwins grandmother gave Gwin some weird stuff like:a horse with a broken ear,a piece of seaweed and his sister's scarf that was found up on the mountain a couple of weeks after she was lost and much more.
At the weirdest time, he was told to throw them into the wind,and he would find something weird,so he did. that night Gwin found something so cool,but out of the ordinary. It was a spider. No original spider no,it was a snow spider. I wont tell you much more than that but i will tell you that,later in the story he gets a flute. When he starts to play it he hears something you might hear every day. But the things he hears is something from a different planet. It was little children voices screaming,playing,laughing and much more. Soon he sees his spider spinning a web all over his room,he then started to see a mysterious city with the little children in it.
When his grandmother finds out Gwin gave the stuff to the wind. She was so proud. The reason why she was so proud was that,she said that Gwin was a magician. Here are the clues that he would be a magician was: the birthday gifts,not something you would get for your birthday from grandma,the flute that flies into your open window and lands in your lap,and last,a spider shaped as a snow flake,white as snow and silky webs so silky and silver and sparkly.
Gwin is the type of boy you would call different to other people. He is very imaginative and different. His friends think of him as being weird and crazy. At first Gwin doesn't believe in the hole magician thing. His sister did but she didn't talk to him about it at all. Until Gwins grandma was telling stories to Gwin and made him wonder about things like that. When he got alittle bit older he would go to school and get books about it. thats my description about him. About Gwin.That was my description of the Snow Spider.

Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo is an exciting and courageous book I would recommend this to our age or an older age group because of the variety of words and sentances. In the beginning of this book you would find out that Gwyn's grandmother (called Nain) tells Gwyn about his ancestors who where magicians.
Then for his 9th birthday she gives him 5 gifts and tells him that if he gives them to the wind and gets something in return then he is a magician. Well it turns out that he is a magician. He gets a couple of cool things back like a snow spider who can spin silver picture webs. And a pipe so he can hear the the the sounds to the picture. He uses his power to do some really cool things! However you cant have a book without running into some problems right? Well in this book a couple of things happen like for example his spider Arianwen gets thrown into the sink because his mom doesn't like spiders so he has to use his powers to get her back.
One of the gifts is a broken horse, Nain tells Gwyn that he shouldn't give the horse to the wind but when he went to the mountain the wind took it from his hands and it released it to be a demand horse. Read the book to see if his powers can overcome the demand or if Gwyn will let his ancestors down!
The book takes place mostly near Gwyn's house. He goes up to the mountains a couple of times to let things go to the wind. He also goes to school, he goes to the Lloyds house, and he goes to his nains house. He says that nains house is like a library it is full of so many books. Gwyn however lives on a farm with cows and sheep. There aren't a lot of characters in this book but the main character would have to be Gwyn he is a 9 year old who is looking for adventure. Nain comes back and forth in the book but is his grandmother who gets attacked by the demand horse. She knows a lot about Gwyns ancestors so that's how Gwyn knows about every thing his ancestors did. I would also say that Bethan (his sister) plays a big part because the people in the web kidnapped her on his birthday a few years back and now that he is a magician he needs her so she comes back as Eirlys.
So read the book to find out if Gwyn defeats the demand horse of if the horse can out smart him and keep destroying the town!

My husband got a copy of this when he was younger, and we have it here at home and have read it to our 3 children countless times. It has great poems, and makes a great bedtime reading book since you can just read a short poem or two instead of a huge story book. Jack Pretlutsky is wonderfu, he is very clever and his poems are all so cute. I recommend everyone get a copy of this book! Its the top rated book in our house

My favorite book is Something Big Has Been Here by Jack Prelutsky. It is a very very funny book of poems. My favorite is "My Fish Can Ride a Bicycle." It is about a fish that can do almost everything. If you like funny books, you'll like this book.

I first read this book when I was about 10 years old (I'm now 22.) Though I haven't even laid eyes on this book in at least 6 or 7 years, I can still recite by memory several of the poems, including "Something Big Has Been Here", "The Early Worm" and "I Wave Goodbye When Butter Flies."

As a child I loved poems, but often felt Shel Silverstein's were too morbid (especially some of the drawings.) Though I'm a huge fan of his now, at the time Something Big Has Been Here was a wonderful, more mellow book of poems that really got me loving cleverly written poems.

The best thing about the book, in my opinion, is that even though it's written for children, it never talks down to them or oversimplifies emotions or actions. And it's funny enough that even adults can get a snicker or two.

This is an awesome book. The poems are very clever, funny and appealing to kids, along the lines of Shel Silverstein. The difference is the very sophisticated vocabulary that Prelutsky uses. I use a poem per week from this book for my remedial middle school students for oral reading fluency, plus I create our weekly vocabulary word list from words from the weekly poem.

This collection of Jack Prelutsky's silly and goofy poems is a must-have in any self-respecting poetry collection. The subjects of the poems range from mask-wearing earthworms to a room-trashing robot; from wishes to be bigger, to fishing in the desert. Children will laugh at the fearsome pirate "Captain Conniption," terror of the seas, who always obeys his mother. Many will sympathize with the longing of the boy in "My Brother is a Quarterback" who yearns to be a great athlete like his brother is.

"I Wave Goodbye When Butter Flies" is an excellent example of the oddities of the English language. The poem turns such common phrases as "pocket change" and "coffee break" on their ears and makes them into something new. There are subtle puns on condiments in "We're Fearless Flying Hotdogs" (can you find the one for saurkraut?). The emptyheadedly happy expressions on the five flying franks make the whole idea even funnier.

James Stevenson's line drawings accentuate the levity and absurdity of the poems. His artwork for "An Elephant is Hard to Hide" demonstrates even better than words the impossibility of stuffing an elephant into a dresser drawer. The expression of glee on the face of the boy reveling in "Mold, Mold" is identical to expressions seen in mud puddley schoolyards.

This volume is a treasure for both children and adults. It's a great way to spend some time laughing with a child (or by yourself).

My mom and I have truly enjoyed the Dr. Cheney Duvall, MD series. Gilbert & Lynn Morris are excellent writers. I started reading the series first. Then my mom started and she also couldn't put them down. The father/daughter team takes mystery and Christian fiction and puts the two together perfectly. We have already read the first book in The Inheritance series. I have already read the second book the The Inheritance series (I read it in 2 1/2 days, I couldn't put it down). I am now ready for book three to come in the summer of 2005. I would greatly recommend this series to anyone who likes Christian fiction and mystery!

I'll admit I was skeptical at first. While I read Christian fiction all the time and enjoy it, I'd never read a Christian historical fiction book that I really liked. My cousin highly recommended these books, so I thought I would give the first one a try. Of course I became hooked almost right away.

I liked the premise before I even started to read the book. A female doctor in the 1860's? Great premise! The book met and exceded any expectations I had for such a premise. As Dr. Cheney Duvall and her nurse, Shiloh Irons, travel from New York to Seattle with Asa Mercer and his hundred belles, they face danger and disease, along with more common shipboard problems. I was so disappointed when I finished this book, simply because I didn't have the next book in the series (Shadow of the Mountains) along, so I had to wait to start it.

Lynn and Gilbert Morris make a fantastic writing team. The plot is swift and intriguing. The characters are well fleshed-out and believeably, delightfully human. The dialogue is fun to read. All in all, this is a wonderfully well done book. Needless to say, not only do I love this book, but I love the others in the series that I have read so far. I definitely recommend this, even if you don't think Christian historical fiction is your thing.

This if one of my favorit books! I love the way the authers use details and facts. The story captures you, you'r filled with cheneys emotions and you can feel what she is feeling. This book is truley an insperation. I love this hole series, each book is even better than the last.

The Stars for a Light by Lynn and Gilbert Morris is the first book of the Cheney Duval, M.D. series which consists of 8 books and a subsequent series called the Inheritance. So far, that contains only 1 book.

Overall, this is a nice, entertaining book. The series is fun, too, although sometimes the adventures seem rather unrealistic. However, there are adventures, and they are exciting. This book/series has that, plus mystery and romance. I'm not a big fan of christian literature, but I did like these books. I reccomend it for people who like christian fiction or historical fiction.

The Stars for a Light tells the story of Cheney Duvall, a lady physician who struggles to become accepted in an all-male medical world. Other physcians look down on her, and patients don't trust a woman to doctor them. As a last resort, Cheney gets a job escorting/doctoring a group of women traveling by ship to California in order to add more women to the western population. Cheney brings along a nurse, who was reccomended by a friend. Mr. Shiloh Irons. He's an orphan, with his name coming from the crate marked Shiloh Ironworks in which he was found.

This unlikely pair (a female doctor and male nurse) travel to California with plenty of adventures to keep them busy, including Shiloh's hobby/second job of fighting, fires on board the ship, disease, and other excitements.

It is a good book. The characters are likeable and realistic, with their own particular traits. The dialogue is fun and the characters seem to work well with one another. It's well written and original, showing character development aplenty during the series. If you start on this, read it all. By the fourth book, you'll be hooked. I was.

I read this book years ago and am currently reading the followup series, Cheney and Shiloh: The Inheritance. Personally, I enjoyed this series (and still do) about the same time I was fascinated with Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman. Apparently I enjoy women doctors in the 19th century...??? Anyhow, this is a wonderful series, not only exceptionally stating the strength of a woman, but Godly views and relationships as well. Read this SERIES and you won't be sorry, I promise!

Horror, of horrors, it looks like Gussie Fink-Nottle may have finally broken off with Madeline Bassett and there is little or nothing that even Jeeves can do about it. Diets, steak and kidney pie, mute lutes. Add Spode who will take anybody who makes Madeline cry and tie them into a painful knot and you have the makings of a tragic ending for poor, poor Bertie. Or do you? Either way, there is tons of fun from the first page to the last and lots of twisted plot lines, weird happenings, and buckets of hard drinking.

This was the first Bertie and Jeeves' book I'd ever read. If you're interested in British humour, exquisite-snobbish language and witty puns, or in bizarre but classy situations, this is just the book for you. Wodehouse possessed this wonderful characteristic of balancing an unfortunate situation with a good dose of modest humour. The title says it all! Thoroughly recommendable.

What could the Nobel Prize for literature signify if PG Wodehouse not only didn't win one, but never made the short-list? Good grief. What other writer living or dead, in Nobel's own words, "help[s] dreamers, as they find it hard to get on in life."

Take STIFF UPPER LIP, JEEVES, for example. If you want to read a book that'll grab you by your lapels and hoist you out this mundane, dynamite-scarred world, try this one.

Crisp dialogue, intricate plotting, witty wordplay, amusing situations, and distinct characters make this book satisfying to read repeatedly. In fact, it is astonishing that STIFF UPPER LIP, JEEVES and many other Wodehouse creations seem just as fresh the second, third, and even seventh time around.

I would liken reading this book to drinking one of Jeeves's famous pick-me-ups "and their effect on a fellow who is hanging to life by a thread on the morning after." Wodehouse writes: "For perhaps the split part of a second nothing happens. It is as though all Nature waited breathless. Then, suddenly, it is as if the Last Trump had sounded and Judgment Day set in..."

If heaven's half as delightful as reading PG Wodehouse, (should I get there) I'll be in paradise.

Just as we believe some actors were born to play a certain role or a singer was born to sing a specific song, I'm convinced Jonathan Cecil was born to read P. G. Wodehouse. The British accented Cecil voice delightfully inhabits the personas of Jeeves, Bertie Wooster and sundry other characters with charm, humor, and distinction.

My first introduction to the talents of Cecil was with his stunning reading of "Jeeves and the Mating Season." Since that time no other voice will do for the born to the purple Bertie and his long suffering butler.

P.G. Wodehouse is quite another story. Obviously, one of the greatest humorists to ever take up pen his tongue-in-cheek take on the British upper classes is pure laugh provoking perfection. With "Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves" we find Bertie returning to Totleigh Towers, a place he had hoped never to see again as it is the domain of Sir Watkyn Bassett, who lined his pockets with fines he collected. Bassett's daughter, Madeline is always on the prowl and Bertie wants no part of her.

Fortunately, Madeline has fallen for and captured another - Gussie, a friend of Bertie's. Now, Madeline is not only a huntress but she is also passionate about changing her quarry to suit her own tastes. In this case, the word "taste" may be taken literally as she wants to change the meat loving Gussie into a vegetarian, which is where most of the trouble begins. Bertie, as usual, finds himself embroiled in this sticky situation.

Alas, once again it's left up to Jeeves to come to Bertie's aid.

Wodehouse has been dubbed a "comic genius;" Cecil is his full partner in this splendid reading. Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

This unabridged audio version of "Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves" was wonderfully read by Cecil. This is not my typically genre of book and I was pleasantly impressed and surprised by this book. I have not read the prior books in this series and had no problems following along so the priors are not a necessity. In a nutshell, this book is about a dim-witted Bertie and his attempt to keep from inadvertently becoming engaged to a sappy Madeline. The dry, British humor of this story is excellently portrayed by Cecil and I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a refreshing change of pace!

My face is a bit red. Matter of fact, I'm almost embarrassed to admit this. I am a lover of Western novels, but had never heard of Elmer Kelton. I have been visiting my daughter's (second home) ranch in Colorado and started doing some horseback riding - at the tender young age of 71! In connection with this I started a subscription to American Cowboy magazine, in which I found an article about Kelton. On my next visit to Barnes and Noble I looked for Kelton's books and lo and behold found a shelf full. I selected The Time it Never Rained as a trial read. I quickly discovered that I couldn't put the book down. I am now on a mission to read all of his works. Definitely five stars.

This is the first Kelton book I have read and the first fiction novel that I have read in decades. I felt like it was real to life and forgot it was fiction. I live there-West Texas, Panhandle. Surely there is a sequel. He left it open to finish out the lives of the major people involved, in at least one more book but ended this one as he should.

Elmer Kelton was rightfully honored with a number of awards for this thoughtful piece of work originally published in 1973. While it is about ranchers trying to survive in one of those long droughts that seem to come more and more frequent to the West and particularly the Southwest it is much more than a story of survival. The nearest community in the book is called Rio Seco and while it only exists in our mind's eye Kelton describes it well enough that it could be one of thousands such communities scattered across Texas and the West. What came to my mind as he described it is the movie from a number of years ago called, "The Last Picture Show". The book is a beautiful study of evolving and conflicting cultures on so many levels. Kelton does a fine job of laying out the past and showing the future of changes between Angelo and Hispanic to include the continuing question of undocumented immigrants. Another is the "old school" way of looking at things rather than the new way. One of the focal points of the book is the role that government aid plays in changing groups such as ranchers forever. The "hero" (and I'm sure he never considered himself a hero of any kind) of the book, Charlie Flagg refuses the aid and thereby creates tension for himself and others around him. What's amazing, and something to which I consider an honor, is that I was reared in a time and community to have known men just like Charlie Flagg. This book has been re-published several times and I can understand why. Really much of what you read in "The Time It Never Rained" is timeless while other parts provide a beautiful look to the middle of the last century in Texas. While it's considered a western it's far from a "shoot'em up". Other of his books go there but that's for another review.

This book is unlike any of Kelton's other works. The time setting is the 1950s and the seven-year drought we experienced during those years. The plot/theme is the end of the era of independence and freedom among cow men ... the time when they told themselves the drought forced them to sell themselves to the government to receive hay in return for their souls and their pasts.

I think of this book as a companion read to Abbey's, Brave Cowboy and McMurtry's, Hud (the book). All three writers were capturing a time and an attitude representing an end of an era when ranchers continued to curse the government out of habit while accepting welfare money as gracefully as the city poor they despised for doing so.

Kelton's book is as good as the other two, maybe better.

Being a Texan in Texas during the drought Elmer Kelton describes in The Time It Never Rained, he seems to write about it first hand. I remember the deluge that ended the drought, and it was the experience I remember. I worked at the San Angelo Standard-Times while Mr. Kelton did, and his day to day newspaper work was a preview to his books to come. He has West Texas nailed down to a T, and I love all his books. But this one especially strikes home.