Children's Series Books Books

I grew up on a steady diet of the Chalet school series - now I want my daughter to do the same. This book is one of a series - like M&M'S - once you eat one, you have to devour all.

"Rivals" is unique in that it deals not only with the Chalet School Girls, but with a entire new group: the students of "Saints", a new school across the lake that competes with the Chalet School in every way. The Chalet School girls, including Joey Bettany, must learn to deal with girls from different backgrounds and with decidedly different ideas and attitudes from their own. Through trial and error, between staff as well as students, the Chalet School makes way for the newcomers. This book also plays on the early married life of the founder, Madge Bettany, and her often mentioned twin, Dick Bettany.

The chronicle of Jo's last year as a Chalet School girl. We experience with Jo what everybody feels at that certain stage in life the reluctance to grow up and leave behind a carefree childhood and to emerge from it as a responsible adult.

Jo's last year and she is made head girl, is given the responsibilities that she loathes and really has to pull up and leave behind childish antics. There are difficulties all around with Robin's illness and the middles worse than ever and all this calls for a responsible Jo who can take command of all the varied difficult situations that the term holds for her, Jo really has to grow up.

I loved this book because I could relate to it and sometimes I could see myself in Jo's place facing the "change" that at first seems so horrid yet is the mysterious doorway to the second stage of our lives.

A Gorgeous edition and a must read for all those who don't want to grow up.

This book is not just a great part of the chalet school series it is also great for educational purposes. Historical facts are spot on and still very valuable to the new generation.
Not to be missed - an essential edition to any Chalet School collection.

I simply love the Chalet School series and The Chalet School at War is my favourite book in the collection. The characters seem to come alive in the background of the Second World War. Besides the enchanting story ,The Chalet School at War is also very good as a resource for historical facts of the Europe in the blackout and rationing days. While reading it I felt as if I had been transported to England in the 1940's ,laughing and crying with the beloved Jo and the whole gang. If you like school stories or historical fiction dont miss this book because I bet you are going to love it! I think this book is aimed for kids 12 and up, but I think any child would enjoy it.

The Chalet School at Wat is my favourite book in the Chalet School series. The plot is really interesting and the characters seem to come alive while the Second World War changes the lives of everyone in the school. I think this book is not only a pleasant reading but it is also very informative. Its filled with historical information about how people lived during the war,in the years of blackouts and rationing. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys school stories or historical fiction. Even though it says in the amazon.com page that this book is aimed for children from 4-8 I think its rather wrong, I think this book is for kids 12 and up, but if parents wish to read it for the younger ones they will enjoy.

Chasing the King is an entertaining book that explores a variety of issues, which makes it fun for any reader. I am not a huge sports fan, but the descriptions really drew me in and I feel I know more about soccer/futebol now! The descriptions of the soccer games are vivid and exciting. The peak into teen-sports and the intensity was eye opening. Chasing the King also looks at family relationships, friendships, and aspects of teenage life I had forgotten about. A fun, interesting read--I highly recommend it for all readers.

This is a terrific book. If you or someone you know, really enjoys soccer, it is a good read. The sports sections are very well-written and engaging. The book also gives some interesting perspective into South American culture. Very entertaining and many lessons to be learned in this book, especially for the young athlete. A GOOOOOOOOOAL!

This is a terrific book. If you or someone you know, really enjoys soccer, it is a good read. The sports sections are very well-written and engaging. The book also gives some interesting perspective into South American culture. Very entertaining and many lessons to be learned in this book, especially for the young athlete. A GOOOAL!!!!

Chessie the Travelin' Man is a sensitive and wonderfully written book that details the amazing true story of a very special creature. My children love the illustrations in this book as well as the rhyming prose. This story is not only charming, it is filled with factual information about a rare and endangered species. I would reccommend it to any parent or educator!

Lovely book, all in rhymes which my 6 yr old son loved. Based on a true story about a manatee that somehow makes it up the northern atlantic coast two years in a row. He is tagged and followed. Includes gentle info about how manatees get hurt by boats, and how few there are left in the world. Beautifully illustrated, and received a Parent's Award. "Chessie" is for the Chesapeake Bay, which he entered on this first trip. Five stars because my son loved it so.

Lovely book, all in rhymes which my 6 yr old son loved. Based on a true story about a manatee that somehow makes it up the northern atlantic coast two years in a row. He is tagged and followed. Includes gentle info about how manatees get hurt by boats, and how few there are left in the world. Beautifully illustrated, and received a Parent's Award. "Chessie" is for the Chesapeake Bay, which he entered on this first trip. Five stars because my son loved it so.

I don't think I would have passed Ped's without this book. Its so easy to understand and it gives you 20 NCLEX questions for each chapter. Also the CD that comes with it has an EXTRA 30 questions for each chapter! Its a great book I recommend it to anyone in nursing school.

Good study aid! I love taking it with me to clinical. Its review questions, rationales, as well as course outlines are extremely helpful.

This text has been invaluable as an accessory study guide. I feel it would compliment any text book. The NCLEX questions are excellent and on target in helping to understand the various pediatric processes.

Hill is a wonderful writer, and this series just gets better and better. In this book we have a little bit of everything - greed, murder, police politics, and of course the guy who never lets any of that bother him in his efforts to solve mysteries - Andy Dalziel. Hill unfolds his plot like a wonderfully wrapped package - layer upon layer comes off until we get to the surprising ending! One thing about Reginald Hill - he is never predictable and every book is surprisingly different. Enough to keep me guessing, and continuing to read this wonderful series.

Hill is one of the top mystery writers. The world he has created in the Dalziel and Pascoe series is as real as Nero Wolfe's. The interplay between liberal, educated, and sexy Pascoe and gross, vulgar, and brilliant Dalziel is well observed and outrageously funny. Hill has a sly wit, often leading to laugh-out-loud outbursts that can be embarrassing in public places. Read the whole series, spend time with his characters.

I'm flabbergasted that nobody has chosen to review this book before. This is my first exposure to Mr. Hill's writing and I am impressed. Hill is an English writer of detective mystery fiction. This book is one in a series that revolves around the workings of a pair of policemen based in Northern England, one of whom is a Rabelaisian, dyed in the wool Yorkshireman, the other a University educated middle class everyman. Childs Play is a story that evolves around the entwined fates of two families and, of all things, a repressed homosexual cop. When a mystery man appears graveside to claim the heritance of a prodigal son, things quickly spin wildly out of control when he and another complete stranger are killed within a week of each other in apparently unrelated incidents. Complexity is added when an eager representative of a named party in the origingal deceased's will begins to cobble together an alliance in order to overturn the will, which makes any one of the interested parties a suspect in the murders. Dalziel and Pascoe work together to puzzle the pieces and solve this fine mystery in an ending that is sure to have you curling your toes in anticipation and suspense. I am giving this book five stars because it is truly well-written and the suspense becomes wonderfully excruciating as the author proceeds to weave a half-dozen seemingly disparate threads together into Gordian knot before cutting it. My only objections to Mr. Hill's story telling is his penchant for throwing in obscure high culture references that seem oddly out of place and his willingness to place extreme pressure upon his audience's suspension of disbelief. All in all though, this story will have you panting for more, I am quite sure.

Two important guides to weight and eating are presented in these excellent surveys by Frances Berg. Children And Teens Afraid To Eat (0-918532-55-8, ...) examines six major eating and weight problems, from undernutrition of teens to eating disorders and obesity, blending statistics with a survey of underlying social causes and the actions which need to be taken to help teens. Women Afraid To Eat (62-0, ....) documents the physical and psychological harm done by social images which focus on the detriments of eating. From fad diets to weight prejudices, this tells women how to break free of weight obsession.

Without a doubt, this book should be reading material for all parents before their first child is born.

We want to think our youth are active and healthy. During my years of teaching, I have been more and more disturbed at inactivity of our children, disruption of normal eating, and the amount of fat and sugar calories served in school lunch rooms.

The food the children who carry their lunch bring from home can be nourishing, but parents might be surprised if they watch their children eat. A child's lunch sack might have a good turkey sandwich with greens, two large cookies, a bar of candy, and a soft drink. The child almost always has the candy ond/or cookies at recess. When lunchtime comes, he often throws that good sandwich in the trash with the apple. The food he brought from home has now become two cookies, candy, and a soft drink.

During recess too many children are inactive. Day after day, we watched the same ones stand around talking all recess while they eat their candy or cookies. After observing this for a few years, we scheduled a quarter-mile run twice a week and a full mile on Friday for P. E. Also, three times a week we have exercises appropriate to the age groups. You'd be surprised how many look forward to all the activity once they get used to it. We think it also stimulates brain activity in the classroom.

On the other hand, there are the healthy, active children who might have a cookie at recess, then play hard. They eat their sandwich and apple at lunch and the cookies and are eaten or saved for after school. In these children's lunch boxes there is porbably no candy. What's happening here? Berg says studies show that parents that don't "bug" their children about eating, produce children who don't have hang-ups about eating.

Berg writes that research shows that family attitudes can play a big part in the future eating patterns of their children. When a healthy baby's hunger is satisfied, it will then stop drinking. Parents who "urge him to finish the bottle, disguise cereal with applesauce to get it down" and thus feel frustrated for fear the baby isn't eating enough, is teaching the infant that it's important to eat more than his body needs. All parents should read carefully and think about what Berg has to say.

A parent who "hesitates to let a chubby toddler have seconds, makes a preschooler stay at the table until she finishes her peas, insists that the child eat `two bites of each food,' or lectures a school-age child to get him to drink his milk...is overmanaging, and it teaches children to ignore their natural signals of hunger and satiety."

By allowing a child to listen and heed these natural signals, Berg tells us that this is an important way to begin the youngster on a lifetime of healthy eating patterns.

Americans serve too large portions. A friend of mine returned from a long vacation in England and remarked that she didn't see an overweight English person all the time she was there. I said I was surprised, I always thought Britons were gluttons. She said she did, too, but she didn't see any.

Berg tells why. "A Healthy Weight Journal subscriber in London sent me an article titled: `Portions all out of Proportion' that decried `America's elephantine cuisine.' The writer compares national foods: hot dogs (350 calories in the U.S. versus 150 calories in Britain), cookies (493 vs. 65), ice cream cone (625 vs.160), muffin (705 vs. 158), and a meal of steak and fries (2,060 vs. 730). Until recently, our very large muffins were called "jumbo muffins," the article notes, now they are simply `muffins.' " Apparently, we are the ones who have become the nation of gluttons.

Berg says that even some our food that is considered healthy, non-junk food is astoundingly high in calories. And the more a child above the age of 3 is served, the more he eats. Big portions promote over-eating. Berg says studies show that our school-age children are getting heavier every year. Younger and younger children are becoming anorexic to stay slim, an astounding number alternately diet and binge. These patterns used to be found among those high school age and older, now they appear among elementary children.

Berg says problems such as eating disorders, dysfunctional eating, undernutrition of teenage girls trying to be thin, hazardous weight loss, and size prejudice all are increasing. Surprisingly, all that can be prevented. The author, Francie Berg, when asked why she wrote this book, says she grows more and more concerned about the appalling research on children and youth eating problems. The true facts were there, but no one was telling those who need to know: our parents and teachers.

Now that she's telling us-we need to listen.

Berg's research is well done. Anyone who doubts what she writes, can read the studies for themselves as her sources are well documented.

Jeanie T.

To be overweight is to fail" . It sums up our society's attitude towards eating and body size today. This is a quote from 'AFRAID TO EAT: Children and Teens in Weight Crisis' by Frances M. Berg. While the book is a cultural commentary, it is also filled with practical advice on ways to prevent eating disorders, obesity, and dysfunctional eating.

The first step to help, is to help understand the roots of the problem. This book does that. It points out the many ways in which we are not nurturing our children, particularly our girls. We are a society that has become fatter and fatter, yet simultaneously bombards our kids with the message that they need to achieve a body size and shape that is biologically unsustainable for the majority of them. This may be the seed for eating disorders. How high levels of obesity and disordered eating and starving teens can coexist is explained. AFRAID TO EAT explores the many forces at play....cultural expectations, media, the role of family and athletics, peer pressure, and more. It explores the issue of size rejudice and lifestyle choices, both of which lead to eating disorders and obesity.

The second half of the book focuses on how to prevent eating disorders, how to make changes to promote normal eating where it doesn't exist, and how to intervene with childhood obesity. There are guidelines for healthy food choices, designs for new health approaches for families, how to include schools in prevention programs, and finally a call to action that challenges us to make changes in attitude (e.g. a greater appreciation for healthy lifestyles versus being thin), lifestyle (e.g. active living, improving phys ed programs in school), prevention (e.g. by promoting healthy attitudes and lifestyles and developing special prevention programs for schools and communities), health care (e.g. reduce size prejudice in health care, focus on improving health, not on ineffective weight loss) and knowledge ( e.g. improved communication to consumers, better education in medical school).

There is useful information in this book not only for a parent, but also for teachers and health care workers. Perhaps after reading it you can share it with your school nurse or phys ed teacher. I am sure you will find its approach not only informative but practical and useful. The word 'vitality' is used a lot in this book as it helps us focus eating away from dieting and size/shape obsession towards eating that promotes a healthy and 'vital' lifestyle.

I work as a professional nutritionist and see firsthand the consequences of the fear of eating. This book takes a big stab at addressing the revolutionary changes that need to be made in our personal and societal approaches towards eating. I recommend it to any who want to join in that revolution, or simply wish to help their own kids enjoy nutritious, guilt free eating for life.

In the years following the first publication of Orlando Patterson's novel it has become a classic, to the extent that it is now required reading in Jamaican secondary schools. Set in the shantytown slums of Kingston in the late nineteen fifties, Patterson's charcterizations of the people at the very bottom of Jamiacan society have great power -- as reggae star Dennis Brown once sang, their story is "the half that's never been told". Following a group of Jamaica's poorest, most humble "sufferers" in their search for deliverance, the author brings to life a Jamaica that is a universe away from most American images of the Caribbean as a beautiful beach with a happy reggae soundtrack. As someone who has visited Jamaica many times, I loved this this book and highly recommend it to anyone who would enjoy an unusual novel from a different cultural perspective, and/or those who may be interested in Jamaican/Caribbean culture and the roots of the rastafarian/black identity movement.

Orlando Patterson's Children of Sisyphus set the standard for social realism in Caribbean fiction. He does not romanticize the lives of the poor, nor does he damn them with neglect;rather, he gives their lives dignity.
This is the moral tightrope that all Third World writers face: the choice between compassion and brutal honesty. Patterson succeeds in this fine portrayal of the lives of the poor that is imbued with grace, despite their mean existence.

I read this book first in 1987, just when it was published. It?s almost 20 years later now and the book still lingers on my mind. I have recommended it to many people since. My piece of book is a lot of loose pages......I wonder if it?s a print mistake, but on the website it says the price is 99,- (!)US $ for it? No matter, if you have 99 $ and this is the nowadays price fi it.....buy it! It?s worthwhile and sooooooooooooooooooooo touching......it still moves me from deep within.

Fans of Richard Scary's wonderful children's books will adore Christmas Mice, and old favorite brought back for a newer generation to enjoy.

A sweet story and lovely illustrations bring the story to life.

One of those books that was a holiday favorite of both my children and myself. A simple and appealing story perfect for the 2 to 5 age group it remained popular with my kids for some time after that because of it's unique charm - not the least of which is Richard Scarry's wonderful illustrations.

I have been looking for books that I owned and loved as a child. I only have a few of the originals and I feel terrible that I didn't keep them all now that I have a brand new nephew. Thanks to Amazon.com I've been re-building my collection. This book "Christmas Mice" brings up lovely memories of two of my favorite subjects Christmas time and animals. The pictures are sweetly drawn by Richard Scarry who illustrated many books during the sixties that I was very fond of. His depictions of mice and bunnies are precious and heartwarming. And the story is nice too because Santa Claus doesn't forget even the tiniest of mice at Christmas time. I hope that my nephew will develop a love for art, family traditions and animals that will be influenced by this book.

The vicar goes off on his Summer holidays, and is replaced by a hip new curate who looks like a '70s uni student. He does yoga, makes a number of disturbingly hip changes to the old vestry, employs a rock band to accompany the choir, and gets a "real" cat to deal with the mice (he's mouse-phobic). Typical Church Mice pandemonium results.

There are some particularly wonderful details at the "Wortlethorpe Canine and Feline Resettlement Department" such as the treatment of the agressive cats ("cold baths twice daily until unaggressive") and the unfriendly dogs ("starve until friendly"), as well as a thrilling chase which culminates in the ruination of the official opening of the "Wortlethorpe Museum European Tea-Cosy and Muff Wing."

Check Amazon.co.uk to see if this book is currently in print.

This book, like all the the Church Mice series, is not to be missed. Rarely do my children and I become SO excited about a book as we did with this series and this book in particular. Oakley's illustrations are endlessly entertaining and we see something new each time we read this book. The picture wherein Sampson, the church cat, pretends to get rid of the mice is too funny for words. We stay up too late at night after reading this book at bedtime because we spend the next half hour talking about our favorite parts. Children and adults will enjoy this book.

The entire Church Mouse series is an absolute scream -- hilarious illustrations, great characters and plots -- though these are supposedly kids' books, adults will get the humor on a totally different level. this one, plus the christmas one, are two of the best