Readers Books

Recently I was reminded of this awesome book, which I loved to have read to me when I was a young child. I'm so excited to share it with my new niece and nephew! Wonderful story line of determination, and emphasis that one can be whatever one chooses to be.

This book was handed down to us from other family members who read it to their kids years ago. We loved it as much as they did and ended up buying a copy to give to our school. Highly recommended.

my daughter enjoyed this book when she was small. so much so that it looked very well used now my granddaughter is enjoying the book and it fast becoming her favorite book to read

Even though it isn't a "funny" book, I find myself utterly amused
with the pictures. The story is simple and charming.
The book is a classic in my eyes, and very special to me. I hope it will be for you too.

My daughter (she's six) just finished reading this book herself, out loud to me at bedtime. It took her four or five nights to read the three short chapters.

In the middle of the book, when Pickles the cat has a small triumph, she said "it makes me cry!" and at the end she said "I wish it just kept going". I felt so glad for her to have the experience of what it's like to read a good book - these are the feelings that make one a real book lover for life!

Like another recent reviewer I thought the pictures a little crude but the cats were remarkably cat-like; there was no effort to make them cute or cuddley. Yet, perhaps because of that simplicity, Pickles invokes a strong sense of feeling/identification as the he "grows" into a better cat through the three short chapters.

I think this was the perfect book for my daughter to read at this time. Just challenging enough, a great story and illustrations that work very well with the story. I'm also am glad to find a good children's book that's NOT about a boy (though Pickles IS a "he"); I'm sure all parents with daughters know that the vast majority of kid's books are about boy hero (yes I know there are some excellent exceptions) so a wonderful book that's not about a boy is a great find.

Every once in a while someone is affected by cancer or a sickness. This book Guardian of Angels by Lurlene McDaniel shows how problems can affect a family. A young girl named Darcy fears that her mother won't get better because she hasn't been well since she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has been constantly in and out of the hospital. Darcy's mother has great hope that she will be better in no time. Darcy has to trust her mother and she has to try to keep her life moving along just like it was before her mother became sick.

The family is soon overwhelmed with Darcy's sister, Adel, getting married and her mother being sick. After the wedding Adel is planning on moving to Germany and this is when Darcy and their father need her the most.

Will Darcy's mother ever get better and will her family ever be the same again? Find out by reading Garden of Angels by Lurlene McDaniel.

Garden of Angels is a wonderful book about a girl named Darcy who's mother gets a rude a-waking by cancer. As her family and friends help Darcy's mother with her illness, Darcy meets a boy named Jason, who helps Darcy face reilty. But can Darcy's mother live and fight this cancer or will medial science fail her. The most needed question to be answer is: Are the Angels watching over Darcy and her family?

Lurlene McDaniel is one of my most favorite authors, and this book is by far one of the most inspiring books you could ever read. It's about a girl whose beloved mother gets struck with breast cancer, and her world is never the same again.

McDaniel writes with such flair that you can hardly bring yourself to put the book down. The ending is very sad, but also leaves you with a feeling of hope. This book teaches us that while we may not get to choose what happens to us, we do get to choose how we respond. This book reveals that people don't always get what they deserve, whether they be good or bad.

If you haven't read this book yet, then I highly recommend you read it. You won't be disappointed.

Some parts of this book were excellent. I loved the whole story, until I got to the epolouge. Why did Jason have to die? And why is Darcey living in the mountains? Although the epolouge isn't the best, and the story is rather predictable (mom dies, Jason liked Darcey all along, Connors would develop) it was an all in all good book. I would recomend it to anyone who wants to know Lurlene a little bit more.

After Darcy Quinlin finds out her mother has breast cancer, she is deeply saddened and in disbelief. She is also loosing her sister, Adel, to Barry Sorensen, a soldier in Vietnam. Above all that, there is J.T. who pushes her around especially when she falls hard for Pastor Jim's brother-in-law, Jason, who just moved to Connors. Darcy needs comfort and someone to talk to about boys, feelings, and school problems and her mother can't be that person. Neither can Adel because she is moving far away with Barry. Her mother did leave a beautiful garden that Darcy takes care of and it helps her through her many situations now and to come.
I liked this book because it was different from other Lurlene McDaniel books. In this book the girl doesn't have cancer, like in many other books, it's her mother. Also, this book is set in the 1970's during the Vietnam War.
I would recommend this book to teenage girls who like sad, loving stories or like other Lurlene McDaniel books.

As a professional certified coach, I love this book and use it as a resource in the programs I facilitate on leadership development and business coaching. Tom has such BIG HEART and through this book he provides a wonderful road map on how managers and leaders can begin to create more high performance work teams.

This will become one of your go-to books re: the coaching process. I know it's one of mine! Incredible insights as well as lots of advice, tricks, tips, etc. A must buy for coaches, or those who aspire to become coaches.

In this three-part relational guide for the development of "a performance-focused, feedback-rich organization", consultant Tom Crane offers the reader his insights on three aspects of transformational coaching; the model, the coach, and the culture. The unifying theme, the heart drives relationships, and relationships drive performance, is evidenced by the title of the book and the statement, "If you chose to incorporate any of the practices described, pay attention to how your relationships are enriched and your results are enhanced."

The 'model' part is a three-phase methodology for coaching; starting with connecting, preparing, and establishing expectations (the Foundation); progressing into exploring and issues identification (the Learning Loop); continuing with options, commitment, and follow-up (Forwarding The Action.) The 'coach' element is an introspective piece including communications and style. The 'culture' part covers both `what it is' and seven principles for creating the change.

From reading the book, it is easy to see that Crane believes in intrinsic motivation and in people. He uses a most wonderful term, "positive regard," for how a coach or leader might look upon those they work with. I could not agree more with this sentiment. If you share this feeling, this is a book worth the read, as it gives wonderful guidance for how to bring out the best in people.

Dennis DeWilde, author of
"The Performance Connection"

Tom Crane goes to the true essence of coaching. He developed a comprehensive coaching method to transform knowledge into performance and action into results. A must read not only for coaches, but also for managers and leaders.

This book does have some good background information about coaching. It is pretty dry though. If you want to learn about coaching, take an accredited coaching certification program. I did, and this was one of our required reads. It happened to be my least favorite and gave me very little practical information to use during a coaching session. If you want to read an inspiring, empowering book, read Breaking the Rules by Kurt Wright.

I read the whole series. I loved it, though it's not my favorite series by Tamora Pierce. I've read almost all her books, and she's my favorite author. I think it's awsome that Diane has wild magic. I've always wanted to talk to animals, and turn into one. The wierd freaky part though, is that even though Diane and Numair fall in love (and eventual get married in The Daughter of the Lioness series) they're almost 20 yrs apart!! i still loved the books though. i love all of Tammy's books.

This book includes characters from other bops by Pierce, including King Jonathan, Queen Thayet, and Alanna. The book focuses on the 13 year old orphan girl named Daine. Daine is found and hired by a worker of the king. She is hired for her way with animals, but no one yet knows that she has a special magic, not that of the Gift, Wild Magic.
As Daine learns new ways to communicate with animals and strengthens he r powers with the help of her mentor, she faces more challenging tasks and the death of her animal friends in war. As Daine learns more she begins to believe that by being around the animals she alters them making them smart and unnatural. She overcomes this fear and is able to save the kingdom on many occasions.
After all of meddling in wars the gods decide that she causes chaos and is forced to choose, life with her mom and dad in the Realms of gods.
This book is a fantasy filled with thrill, suspense, and a sense of an alternate reality. I recommend it for getting away from everything else and any one that even partially enjoys fantasy.

This series is great!! I was unable to put either one of them down for a second! I have read this series many times over!! Worth buying!

i love all of the tamora pierce books> pierce"s books < especially the immortals quartet< are really really good> i like the immortals quartet because it tell about daine> many of her books are about tortall and refer to wonderful charactors like daine> if you"ve never read pierce"s books< you should> tamora pierce is my favorite author

Again some of the best books I have ever read!! Another good quartet after the Song of the Lioness Quartet! (The next ones, Kel's and Aliane'a are good too! Protector of the Small and The Lioness's Daughter) Daine's enchanting life and her "Wild Magic" powers bring her to a most interesting learning experience along with her teacher Numair Saliman (formally Arram Draper). These books are so very good!

I found the first series series (The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches) by accident, looking for interesting books for my kids to read. I couldn't put the book down and we now fight over who's going to read first.

I have read all the other books and I think they're great! This one is especially action packed, exciting, and creative. Great characters. I love the way Robert Stanek breathes new life into fantasy. Would recommend for both boy and girls of all ages...even parents!

This book tells the story of the men of the kingdoms and elves of the reaches. It is the story of Vilmos who has a secret gift of magic, Adrina a princess from a dying land, and Seth a great warrior who is trying to save his people and the world. In this story, Prince Valam Alder has traveled to the lands of the elves to try to stop a war, but meanwhile war starts in his own lands, and everyone he cares about is caught in the middle. This book combines combat, suspense, magic, hidden love and more into an adventure-filled and exciting book.

In the Service of Dragons II is the second book of the Dragon series. The book begins with the regal funeral for a fallen king and heads quickly into turmoil as the enemy lays siege to Imtal itself. I was left wanting more with every turn of the fight. Meanwhile, across the great sea, Valam, his fellow kingdomers, and Seth make their way to Leklorall, the capital of East Reach and where Seth will be received with ceremony and joy.

If you haven't read the Kingdoms and Dragons books yet, do yourself a huge favor and start. This isn't a Tolkien wannabe, though there are obvious parallels. Robert Stanek offers a vastly different vision of what a magical world populated with elves, humans and many other peoples is like. In Tolkien's world, the alliances between peoples is what saves the day, in Stanek's world, the alliances of old have shattered, men and elves were more often foes than friends, and the world was once ruled by dragons and titans.

This is a phenominally great series and a must read!

This is a great book. I read all kinds of books and this one is very near the top. I would venture as far as to compare Robert Stanek to J.R.R. Tolkien.

In the Service of Dragons contains some of the most powerful scenes I've ever read, especially the sweeping, epic scenes. It swept me away, and this second book was no less powerful in its imagery. The author doesn't let you miss a moment of the action, and it only gets more intense as the story goes along.

The mighty titans and great eagles have returned from the ancient past and contineu to work to stop the darkness. Noman, the mysterious keeper of the City of the Sky, has seen the signs and he is gathering those who can stop the darkness. Meanwhile the Great Kingdom is in turmoil with the heir to the throne gone across the sea to battle a distant enemy when another enemy has returned closer to home.

I bought this book and then read it in print it is so great! The time starts flying, flying right from the start. If you like scifi/fantasy like I do you will love this book too. The best book for any Eragon, Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings fan to read!! It's not Tolkien, but it is very good!!

Jake Jr.

I recently did a make-over party and handed these out as favors. Thought this would get the kids off to a good start on their summer reading program. The kids loved them and the story is very thought provoking. Shows kindness to others.

My kids have all Judy Moody and Stink books. They love them, and I know for the fact that they help kids who struggle with reading in 3rd grade. They are easy to read and have a good story, are funny and appealing to that age group. A must have!

This book was good. My favorite part was when she hits the teacher's elbow. That made me laugh!

judy moody always wants to be in the news paper or on tv. judys cat won the pet contest and she finnaly was in the news paper.she was happy after all of that.when judy got home she looked in the news paper.she said thats a get picture of me and my cat.

i liked this book because stink was funny by selling moon dust.

the thing i dont like this book was judy always wined.

I thought this book was a bomb! You have got to read this book. If you are a Judy Moody fan and you read this book you will like it very much.The main thing that happens is Judy Moody is trying to get famous.

Ce livre est un chef-d'oeuvre que l'on déguste du début à la fin et que l'on apprécie de plus en plus à chaque relecture. J'adore Boris Vian et l'aurait marié sans même y penser après avoir lu ce qui coule de sa plume. Les mondes qu'il crée sont fascinants, et celui-ci est le plus beau de tous.

Ce livre est un chef-d'oeuvre que l'on déguste du début à la fin et que l'on apprécie de plus en plus à chaque relecture. J'adore Boris Vian et l'aurait marié sans même y penser après avoir lu ce qui coule de sa plume. Les mondes qu'il crée sont fascinants, et celui-ci est le plus beau de tous.

L'Ecume des Jours (or, John Sturrock's translation, Foam of the days) tells us a story of Colin and Chloé and their love.
Of love that - however pure, serene and (perhaps) unbelievable it may appear to our everyday eye - is very much innocent. Like the one that, at least some of us, have always wished to experience.
The whole story has, unfortunatelly, a tragical end. But then, it wouldn't be one of the nicest books I have ever read. Only to express myself better through similarity, it is Jamiroquai's "Falling" that makes me think of Collin's falling in love with Chloé - except that Collin's love is 'returned' - they both love each other dearly and very much.
The whole story is divided in two parts - two worlds where love stays the same (even grows!) only the encompassing world undergo (terrible) changes. It's the careless world of Colin's and Chloe's love before they get married, full of warmness that only two suns may produce, and of the world after their wedding. The moment they say final yes at their wedding, Chloe gets ill and the whole preceding atmosphere suddenly changes from "happy" to "gloomy." As I said, the love stays, even gets greater, but the whole story then leads to an inevitable tragical end...
In Vian's own words it's a history that is "...entirely true as I made it up from the beginning to the very end." ["...entierement vraie, puisque je l'ai imaginée d'un bout a l'autre"] I would not quite say it is wholly made up although it's only my opinion. Yes, the story is a bit unreal, perhaps exaggerated, but I think it needs to be in order to let us feel and (hopefully) realize, that as 'panta rei' (as Time flows by) we should pauper our friendships and, when being loved and loving ourselves, then we should love sincerely and happily.

This brilliant work of fiction, akin to a fairy-tale, combines science-fiction, surrealism, absurdism, lyricism...
One of the highlights of post-war French litterature, it has become somewhat of a cult favourite for teenagers, as it relates the lives of yound adults who refuse to accept the responsabilities of adulthood, preferring to live according to principles eerily similar to those held by hippies, refusing to temper idealism with the demands of reality.

It is a pity that Boris Vian has no name recognition in the anglo-saxon world. Much to blame is probably the uniqueness of his language and unconventional writing approach. This refreshing tale encompasses youth, love and the fleeting aspect of all that is precious in life.

Marley is a great book about a dog. He is crazy but still very cute. He is not obedient at all and when he's in public he is very naughty. This book goes from the beginning of Marley's life to when he gets really old. Marley is a golden retriever. He is so big that everyone is scared of him. When anyone walks into the house Marley dashes up to them and jumps up on them. This book is so good I couldn't put it down. These are some of the reasons I liked the book:

1. The book has to do with animals being treated fairly and I like that.
2. It taught me how much a dog can connect with its owner. It was touching.
3. The book was thick but I couldn't get enough!

There is just one thing that made me sad. I won't tell you what it was but I will say that it was so sad I actually cried. I hope this review helps you decide if this book is for you or not.

(Review written by Tysha)

This book is excellent for dog lovers. It spans the gambit from laughter to tears. A MUST READ!

In this condensed version of John Grogan's best-selling Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog, the author has written an adapted version of his life and times with his Labrador Retriever, Marley, that's perfect for younger readers.

Having read and fully enjoyed Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog when it was first released, I was a little anxious to see how Mr. Grogan would handle a shorter, easier-to-read version for the middle-grade set. Fortunately, MARLEY: A DOG LIKE NO OTHER is a fun, vibrant, and compelling read that even older elementary school students will enjoy.

When John and his wife, Jenny, first pick Marley out from a litter of pure-blood Labradors, they have no idea that their small bundle of fur with the big paws and blocky head will eventually turn into a 97-pound drool-machine full of nerves, excitement, and limitless energy. This short story (196 pages) is a testament to the trials, tribulations, and ultimate loyalty of a dog who ended up starring in a feature film.

Marley is the type of dog that you love, despite his flaws (and there are many!), and even the youngest of readers will be overjoyed to read about the trouble that he finds himself in on a daily basis. And, I admit, I shed a few tears towards the end of this book, but they were well worth it, because Marley was worth it.

One great benefit of this version of Marley's story are the numerous full-color photographs that the author has included. This addition alone makes MARLEY: A DOG LIKE NO OTHER an asset to your home library.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

Loved the book --it made me laugh, smile, cry. I bought three -- two were gifts and one for myself, which I also loaned to all my dog loving friends.

Purchased as a gift. Have received good feed-back from the recipient, who, by the way, is a Marley fan.

I purchased this book for my Grandson. Mike Mulligan was one of my favorite stories. It brings back great memories, plus there are the other stories which I didn't know of when I was a child.

If you have young sons, this is a great book to have. I have 4 sons and they have all loved the books "Katy & the Big Snow" and "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" My other copies were so worn, I had to order a new one for my 4th son. It's great to have these 4 stories together.

This is a very good book. It is nice to have all the stories combined in one hardcover book.

These stories are timeless. Sure the cars and truck (and steam shovels) are dated, but your young kids will love the stories. The Little House and Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel are must reads. This book helps to fill those nights when you need a story that's just a bit longer, a little richer in plot. The illustrations are simple, but truly enhance the story. These stories will entertain you and your child for many story-times to come.

It is a great book and I sent it to Tim Dexter in Minnesota, he has a grandson now and his grandson will have his 1st birthday in March of 2008.

Out of the hundreds, if not thousands, of books I read during my childhood (I was a pretty big bookworm!), this is one of the one's I clearly remember reading. It is a very sweet book, which even as an adult brings a tear to my eye to just think about.

This book is an excellent read, not only for kids who can relate to the death of a grandparent or a loved one, but for all children who are just starting to learn about death. It's a great way to introduce the topic. I had it as a kid, and recently bought a new copy. It is one of my most beloved childhood books. The illustrations are great, too--I don't know how kids would feel about them today, considering all the technology we have now in terms of graphics, but I remember being really intrigued by all the little details in the drawings (in the late 1970s/early 1980s).

Tomie dePaola's Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs is a tenderly written story about the death of loved ones and the beautiful memories they leave behind. The story is multigenerational seen through the sweet lens of childhood eyes. The illustations are charming and the tale will make you laugh and cry.

We were looking for a book to help prepare our 4-year old daughter for the death of her grandmother from Cancer. This book was recommended to us. We first checked it out from the library and had to renew. It helped us start the discussion of death with our daughter. She related to Tomie being 4 and his love for his Nana's. We bought this book because she did not want to return it to the library. She is so happy to have her very own copy.

I had read this book several years ago so when my 87 yr old mother died last month, I bought a new Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs book for my grandson who is 10 yrs old. He told me that he will keep that book forever because it was so sweet and means everything to him now that his great-Nana is gone to heaven.