Readers Books

After solving the mystery of a nearby haunted castle, the Three Investigators have their second case. It's not as exciting, finding a missing parrot, except that the parrot stutters. But the case quickly goes from mundane to interesting, as they find that this case involves 7 birds, all taught to repeat a part of a riddle. And it soon becomes dangerous when they realize that others are interested in the whereabouts of the parrots, and will stop at nothing to get them, including kidnapping. The Three Investigators will need all their smarts and some luck to solve this mystery.

The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot has all the frights of The Secret of Terror Castle, but with a truly puzzling mystery to solve added in. The plot is extremely clever, and draws the reader in expertly with the riddle of the parrots. New investigative methods are introduced, sometimes with good results and sometimes not, but the genius of this series is apparent in this book. I loved it 30 years ago when I read it as a kid, and my son and I loved reading it now. Exciting and interesting enough to keep even reluctant readers coming back for more. And as others have commented, I definitely think there's potential for a movie here. (We managed to find the old Alfred Hitchcock version).

In this second book about the Three Investigators, Robert Arthur has exceeded the achievements of the first. Whereas The Secret of Terror Castle detailed the boys' attempt to prove their investigative powers, The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot relates the story of the boys' first real case. Having been charged with finding a missing parrot, they soon find themselves intimately involved in a search for a valuable work of art. The story is much fuller and more satisfying than that of the first book. Here we see the case evolve from a seemingly simple, far from dangerous search for a missing pet to an expanded search for seven mysterious parrots (the significance of which are not at first apparent) and finally to a race against an international art thief to acquire a lost masterpiece. Along the way, they face mysterious foreigners working against them, make sense of an enigmatic coded message, and ultimately triumph (albeit somewhat by accident). Admirably, they also go out of their way to generously help a young Mexican immigrant and his uncle establish a more comfortable life for themselves.

This is the Three Investigators at their finest. The mental acumen of Jupiter Jones is put to the test, and once again his mental prowess proves up to the task. For an adult such as myself, some of the obvious clues are not picked up on in as timely a fashion as I would expect, but one must remember that even Jupiter Jones, genius that he is, is only a lad. This book is an unqualified success, eminently enjoyable to both young and old alike. I feel just as I felt twenty years ago upon first reading these books--anxious to read about the boys' next case.

Even though this is only book # 2 of the 3I series, this is far and away the best book. I re-read it several years ago and I remember getting this adrenaline rush surging through me as the story progressed. It was one of the best young adult books I've ever read. I would re-read it, but I've since moved from my parents' house, where it's under lock and key.

Even if you're a Hardy Boys fan, give this book a whirl. Help yourself to the first book, too (Terror Castle). The rest of the series isn't nearly as charming as this one.

This book is the second in the series, following our introduction to the Three Investigators in "The Secret of Terror Castle." As we learned in the first book, the Three Investigators are Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews. Jupiter is the intelligent, sometimes inadvertently arrogant member of the group who has a tendency to be condescending. Pete Crenshaw is typically the muscle of the group. Pete is usually quite fearless. Bob Andrews, who begins the series with a broken leg, works at the library and handles records and research for the group.

In this story, the boys are investigating the case of a missing parrot at the request of Alfred Hitchcock. A friend of Mr. Hitchcock had recently purchased a parrot that stutters, and shortly after the purchase the parrot disappeared. The Three Investigators are on the case!

Initially, the boys, and perhaps the reader, might wonder whether this mystery is going to be interesting. Never fear. The boys soon encounter a renowned art thief and a suspicious fat man who threatens the boys. The three boys also discover that there are more parrots missing and that their mystery has compounded. The mystery deepens as the boys learn that a mysterious man trained the parrots and the parrots may be speaking a riddle that could lead to a treasure. This story has enough twists that many adults might find it entertaining.

Quite a few children's mystery book series have become classics. Most people are familiar with Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Tom Swift. Even the Boxcar Children are relatively well-known. However, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators were well-written books that offered an intelligent, interesting and more contemporary alternative to many of the earlier classic series. Many people recall the earlier series well, but the Three Investigators series, which Robert Arthur wrote and debuted in 1964, has, for now, largely been overshadowed by the other series and generally forgotten. Fortunately, all of these books are available either from Amazon or from other internet sources.

If you are looking for mystery books for children and you are looking for an alternative to the Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, I highly recommend the Three Investigator series.

Enjoy!

The Three Investigators series is MUST reading for all kids. As a teacher I encourage all of my students to delve into the adventures of Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews. None of my young readers has ever been disappointed!

This (the second book in the series) mystery is one of the best. It's a fast moving story that gives readers a lot of mystery and action. All the familiar Investigators charms are here: bad guys galore, red herrings, riddles and clues, chases, and the fun of the revelations in the last pages.

I strongly encourage anyone who reads (no matter their age) to pick up this series. It'll put a smile on your face and make you glad that you shut off the TV and dove into a book.

One of my favorite books...read it and I promise you will not be dissapointed...it's got an different end to the book which i think makes it even better. I bet you'll be reading it over and over and over and over and, well u get the point. Anyways I think I've read it at least 10 times it got me crying everytime...but then again I'm really emotional...so read it and see for yourself how good it is!!

This is my favorite Love Stories book, and one of my favorites EVER! The plot and ending is SOOOO unlike a lot of these books, the ones about random people falling in love. Its about Malory Hunter, a girl who is in the witness security pretection program with her family, who is being stalked by the Mafia. She meets Ben Hunter, and they fall in love. Malory wants to tell her secret, but doesn't want to put him in danger. So she decides not to tell. Until she finds out that her family may be moving again.... This book will stay with you FOREVER, and you'll NEVER forget it! The ending was realistic, not the usual ending, which only makes it better. I hope that there'll be a second book to this, one where Malory and ben meet up again....

This is one of my favorite books. I really felt for the characters. It is one of the best sit in the edge kind of series. The ending is a shocker, and you want ot read the book over and over again hoping that each time you read it the ending will change. This book deserves 10 stars but I could only go up to 5.

I love all of the Lov Stories becaus they are simple short romance novels that always end happily. But this one....well, it's was different. It actually made me cry, and I never get all sappy over books. But as I read this story, I started to think that I was Malory and that i was leaving Ben forever. I feel so bad for Malory. She is part of the iwtness protection program and can never people over or let anyone take pictures of her. She has to change her color of hair and wear contacts. Anyways, she moves to this strange town aftre a memebe rof the mob almost discovered her family in their last placement home. But here she is, brand-new and being made fun of becaus eof her out of date clothes and hair. But Ben is nice ot her, and his mom ends up being her music teacher and Malory happens to be a fantastic piano player. Well, Ben and Malory fall madly in love but....well, read this book and find out. Trust me, it's worth it. Also, read all of the LOve STories books. They are all very good-you won't be disappointed.

I really loved this book. It really makes you think about true love. After I read the part where Malory tells Ben her secret, I had to put the book down, I was crying so hard! The only thing I didn't like was the way the ending left you hanging. But, it still gets five stars!

This book is intended for graduate students of English who might need to acquire a reading knowledge of Old English for their studies, but who are not necessarily knowledgeable in Indo-European linguistics or familiar with archaic, highly inflected languages.

The author begins with a simplified but fairly comprehensive grammar of Old English which runs about 40 pages, and covers pronunciation; an explanation of gender, number, and case(s); the forms of the definite and relative articles; strong and weak verbs; adjectives; nouns; additional sections dealing with more advanced declensions/conjugations of nouns and verbs; and i-umlaut.

I read the grammar several times initially, and returned to re-read several times as I progressed through the readings, to review some of the concepts. As an earlier reviewer noted, you don't want to rush through the introductory grammar in your haste to get to the Old English texts; only confusion and frustration will ensue.

I should note in respect to pronunciation that Prof. Diamond uses distinctive symbols to denote palatalized C and G, which allows the beginner to avoid having to check the rules constantly to determine if a given C or G needs to be palatized in its environment within a word. This allows the student to pronounce Old English with confidence from the beginning, and I found that I quickly internalized the use of palatalized C and G using this method.

The readings are interesting and challenging. They are printed with Old English on the left- and Modern English on the right-hand page, allowing the student to plunge right into reading Old English without memorizing long vocabulary lists, with minimal flipping back to the glossary. The readings are graded, increasing in complexity of grammar and vocabulary as one progresses, and also incorporate fewer word-for-word translations as the student is guided into Old English poetry; this makes the student work harder on translations as he/she advances through the readings, and prevents excessive reliance on the Modern English.

There is a full glossary in the back, which includes all divergent verb and noun forms for the student's convenience. For example, it lists "seoles", the genitive singular of "seolh"; and "slog", the preterite singular of "slean". For a beginner, these situations might otherwise be nightmarish, trying to feverishly determine the infinitive of the verb or nominative singular of the noun, sufficient to look it up and find its meaning.

This book fulfilled my fondest hopes, allowing me to gain a reading knowledge and proper pronunciation of Old English in a relatively short period of time, and I highly recommend it.

This is the first Old English grammar I studied, nearly 25 years ago, and it remains perhaps the best one-volume introduction to Old English around. Concise, simple, and accessible, this text has both a reader and a grammar in one cover, containing selections from the major Old English poems and prose works.

The prose works include 'The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan', selections from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the preface by Alfred the Great to the medieval work on Pastoral Care by Pope Gregory. There are relatively few Old English prose works that have survived into the present day; there are even fewer authentically Old English pieces, as many Old English prose works are in fact translations of Latin pieces, and for some reason adapted their grammar to the Latin original rather than the Old English natural pattern.

The poetry exhibits the paired-verse pattern (although the translations accompanying them do not strive to keep the metrical pattern). The poetry include majors works such as Caedmon's Hymn, The Battle of Brunanburg, The Battle of Maldon, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, maxims, riddles, and other poems. There is no Beowulf contained here, nor any other heroic poems (such as Deor), as Diamond states that these are the most likely follow-up readings after one gains a grounding in Old English, and the poems contained here are often overlooked by students save for the most dedicated of scholars.

The texts here are normalised to Early West Saxon dialect, with a grammar very simplified; concepts are introduced that are directly useful for the texts contained herein. The glossary is similarly normalised, and cross-referenced for various verb forms and other vocabulary links such as prefixes and alternatives. In a remarkable insight on how students use texts, Diamond states that, for the purposes of this introductory text, notes have been eliminated, as students rarely refer to them anyway. The section on metrics introduces the five principle types of verses, as well as some minor variations.

Diamond includes a brief bibliography with dictionaries, grammars, commentaries and more; this is now somewhat out of date, but also shows the slow pace at which some aspects of Old English scholarship proceed, with references going back to volumes published in the late 1800s.

A very useful and fun text from which to learn!

I bought both Prof. Diamond's Old English Grammar and Prof. Baker's Introduction to Old English after checking them out from my local library. They are both excellent works, but I prefer Prof. Diamond's book for a couple of reasons.

First, although trivial, I have learned other inflected languages such as Greek and Latin and they always present noun declensions for the various cases in the following order: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, etc. Prof. Diamond presents noun declensions in the same way while Prof. Baker's book presents them in the order nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, etc. It throws me off just enough to be irritating when I am trying to memorize the case endings.

Second, as mentioned in other reviews, Prof. Diamond presents translations with each text. This makes it possible to learn a few words and them jump straight into the texts without having to guess whether or not you understood the various pieces.

Prof. Baker's book has its merits such as its companion website and its more detailed discussion of grammar, but I would recommend starting to learn Old English with Prof. Diamond's book.

One more point - if you are considering buying both keep in mind that many of the literary samples in both overlap so if you buy Prof. Baker's book you should buy it because you want a better understanding of grammar not because you want more samples of Old English.

I was lucky enough to take Old English, Old Norse and Beowulf in old English from Dr. Diamond at the University of Nevada, Reno. What a wonderful teacher... His book was a wonderful introduction to Old English.

A must for all Asatru Folk who need to learn Old English. The smart idea the writer has is to skip the Latin transations and to only use poems written in Old English, this way you learn the words as well as the grammer. Wyatt Kaldenberg

My 6 month old son enjoys this book. One evening, before bed, my husband called me into the room to show me that my son was pulling down the characters' hands to see their eyes! He enjoys Peek-a-boo with us, but I was really surprized to see him interact with the book like this. Of course he needs help to let go of the hands and not rip them, but I think I can say with certainty that he likes it!

My daughters loved this book. Both of them start to play peakaboo when I read this too them. They always laughted everytime I read the book.

I purchased this book for my son when he was about 10 months old and it's been a huge hit from the very beginning. His eyes light up when I ask him to get his "peek-a-boo" book. He loves to lift the hands to show who's hiding. It's a family favorite!

My son loves to play with the flaps on this book. There isn't much educational about the book, but he smiles when he opens the hands of each sesame street character. It is more of a fun book.

My 9 month old loves this book. He has a great time looking behind the flaps to play 'peek a boo.' I highly recommend!

I first heard of this book when I was in 5th grade (about 10-11 yrs. old)...I'm 28 now. My African-American teacher would read us stories from it. I remember enjoying the stories so much that I bought this book for my son about 2 yrs. ago. My son is almost 3 now & while he can't read yet, I know he will enjoy the stories as much as I have. This book comes with a CD & is narrated by the author & James Earl Jones...the narration was well done. I listened to the CD & I felt as if I had gone back in time. The narrators are so vivid & they really get your attention. The CD is definitely a plus & the book was well written. I really like that the stories have morals & life lessons that we can learn from. I recommend buying this version of the book because it comes with the CD. I also recommend this book for children 9 & up. This book would be a great addition to anyone's book collection. I hope my review is helpful.

I read this book when I was in elementary school and fell in love with it. Virginia Hamilton really captures the essence of West African story telling and transfers that essence into American form. As an educator and historian, the lessons in this book has stayed with me for well over 18 yrs and I suspect the lessons will remain with me forever. I recommend that this book is on the shelves of every African American family.

As a storyteller and folklorist/historian, it saddens me that so few children today know anything about the joys of hearing a good tale from a wise elder. In Black America in particular, generations of children (including my father, thank God) had the wonderful tales of Brer Rabbit, Little 8 John, Raw head & Bloody Bones, Wiley & The Hairy Man, and the People Who Could Fly (title story) told to them as today's children are familiar with Kim Possible and the Proud Family.

I bought this for my beloved niece when she was eight and pretty soon, she began entertaining the children of the neighborhood with these tales just as I did after listening to my dad and I still do during storytelling gigs today.

Virginia Hamilton (RIP) did a masterful work in leaving this beautiful legacy to a generation where it is fast disappearing. She does a good job in interpreting the likes of Wiley the Hairy man, Raw Head and Bloody Bones (the PC crowd occasionally complains about this being too scary for kids as well as Brer Rabbit-let these crybaby fools go ahead with that sickening Barney the Dinosaur and the care bears). The edition that I bought for my neice was before the CD with Miss Hamilton and voicemaster James Earl Jones came out, but I have younger neices and nephews (and hopefully my own children in the future) that I will certainly look out for this for.

Another reason why this collection is in such need is that often, African-American parents (rightfully) complain about the lack of wholesome entertainment for their children in particular. Unfortunately, most parents of today were not exposed to these stories as I was and this often leads to well-intentioned but foolish recent activities such as the NAACP here in Charleston (SC) complaining about the lack of Black Santa Clauses in the local malls. As Miss Hamilton and those of us raised in the folklore tradition know, we have enough good things of our own culture to pass down to children than to worry of the color of Santa Claus.

Buy this, reconnect with your children, and enjoy.

This book is a trifecta:

1. You get to hear the author read her own writing. If you want to hear Virginia Hamilton and James Earl Jones adding their own special lyrical beauty to the reading of these stories, then purchase this version. Considering that Ms. Hamilton died in 2002, this CD is a must have.

I think it is important for children to hear the author reading their own work. So if you can't get to a book reading by the author, this is the next best thing. And you get to hear it over and over again.

2. The illustrations are magical, delicate, and powerful. Every child (but especially black and white) in this nation should hear the stories in this book. Before they know color issues, they should get to know the beauty and dignity of brown skin. To hear the dignity, power, and humanity of their own heritage or that of someone elses, before a world of anger taints them.

3. At the end of each story is a brief history of the story: it's origin, and variations, and other facts that help the story to become more real and personal, especially for a child who wants to know more about their heritage. This will inspire them to ask questions and (if they're older) do research as it cause me to do.

I read this to my daughter, Rachel, and she really enjoyed it. She smiled throughout the entire book. She loved the animal folktales about Bruh Rabbit, and Bruh Fox. She trembled with delight at the reading of the scary tales. As for her mother, my favorite was the title tale, The People Could Fly. It was magical!

The Plain Reader is a collection of articles that once appeared in the magazine "Plain". Its authors are comprised of individuals with varying philosophies on the virtues of a simple life. Some articles are written by Quakers, Amish and Brethren. There are also articles by homesteaders, authors of several books, and others.

Since the authors come from so many different backgrounds, the articles aren't always compatible. For example, several of the articles are extremely anti-technology, anti-electricity, anti-competition, anti-public school education, etc., whereas others espouse the use of some of these things in moderation.

To me, extremism in any direction is the antithesis of simplicity, which, after all, is what this book is supposed to be about. Still, the book is correctly subtitled "Essays on Making a Simple Life" - it is essays by different people, with different backgrounds and different beliefs about what constitutes a simple life. It is an educational read, not only about simplicity, but also about how certain groups view the rest of the world.

Measure twice, cut once. This proverb is a sample of the master carpenter's wisdom, which I would not disregard. But there is perhaps even a better wisdom for such tasks.

I knew an uneducated man, formal education ended in the sixth grade, a good part of his youth behind a mule, and in his young manhood giving service under General McArthur in Pacific island warfare. I don't think he weighed 130 pounds dry at age 65. But he taught me an immense amount as a master carpenter in his late years, overlooking my efforts while working in his home shop, helping me directly to improve my own home and its furniture.

What Virgil taught me was, cut twice, first on scrap then on final. He kept a bucket of scrap pieces of wood ready to run through the table saw, jointer, or router, before running through the final production piece in the work.

There are delicate refinements which only the observant and humble souls initially acquire. When they share these with us, we are immensely blessed.

This selection of essays should be on the bedside table -- and read -- by everyone who claims to want to simplify their life. The truth is, many of us (Baby Boomers, Yuppies, BoBos et al) would like to live a simple life, provided we could still have all the amenities we've grown accustomed to -- cars (but nothing flashy), television (but not cable, of course), movies (art on film), designer clothes (but simple ones), gourmet food (we'll grow the herbs ourselves), computers/Internet access (well, it's just a modern typewriter/telephone and what a research tool!)

Savage and his friends claim that the techno life most of us lead is actually simpler than the lives they lead. In the techno life, we can do away with too much interaction with others. We separate ourselves with complications. We can live in virtual reality, paring down the complications (human beings) into abstracts. We can have friends around the world, although we might not know our neighbors names. We can amuse ourselves, filling our time with fantastic games, entertaining TV, music from around the world. What's wrong with that? It may be that life is so short, and we are spreading ourselves so thin, with all the possibilities at our finger tips, we may be missing real life completely.

They claim the simple life is actually the more complicated life, with all the mess and difficulties of living in a small community, having to rely on neighbors (who we might not even like) for help, raising our own foods, finding ways to entertain ourselves and our families that might involve planting, sewing, talking, writing, singing, and being in the moment (without the new agey spin to it).

Without lecturing, this collection of articles from The Plain Reader newspaper (subscribers are limited to 5,000 in order to keep it small and hand-made) motivates, illuminates and educates us.

Although the authors are generally Luddites, Quakers, Mennonites and other plain living folks, living sans TV, Nintendo, radio, daily newspapers, ownership of automobiles, etc., the articles are not judgmental of those of us still living in the consumer world. And let's be honest -- as much as we claim we want the simple life, here we are, you and I, writing and reading reviews, and buying books over the Internet! We're mentioned in the book, sympathetically.

In an interview with Jerry Mander, the Plain editor says, "..but I have never had anyone say to me, 'No, no get away from me. These issues aren't important to me. I like being a machine.' On the contrary, in every case where I've spoken heart-to-heart about my concerns, they've turned around and said, 'You know, I, too, have a real sense of unease about what I'm doing. I think I do watch too much television. I do feel controlled by it,' etc.

Now if I were to wag my finger at them, or organize activities to "wake them up," appealing to their minds, they would simply hold more tightly to their stake in the dominant culture. When I tell them my fears and failings, I've not had a single person fail to respond. And so I do believe this is how we're going to reach people. Our magazine reaches people by dissolving their fear, by encouraging others with what we're doing."

And so this book encourages us, with examples of what the plain folk, some once Bobos like thee and me, are doing. It almost pains me to read it, for I fall far short of the pure and simple thoughts in here. And yet there's hope -- I may not give up everything, but I can question, and make changes in how I live my life.

Mary Ann Laiser writes of The Media-Free Family; Bill Duesing has thoughts on "Leaving Money Behind; and Art Gish speaks of 'Food We Can Live With."

Even if you're not ready to leave it all behind, this is a wonderful book to read. So thought provoking, it may inspire you to question some of what you're doing, what you're allowing your children to do (I'm speaking to myself, here!) and how even small changes can be made. We bought one copy, but now we need more to pass along!

Can be read bit by bit, or at one sitting. Use a marker, or bookmarks. The woodcut illustrations by Mary Azarian are simple, but beautiful (better even than the cover.)

A wonderful view of the world without all the gadgets we think are necessary. A great way to live and belong in the world. As a Christian I think we could do without alot of the junk the world thinks we need. Thanks for a great book.

This is one of those days when I am feeling terribly blessed because I was able to buy a copy of The Plain Reader Essays on Making a Simple Life - Edited by Scott Savage. This is one of those books if you can find a copy I recommend you buy it. It is out of print, so I think the only places you can find a copy are via used books or small new booksellers who may have a copy stuck away somewhere.

So what makes this book a gem? Well, for one thing it is a series of articles on a variety of topics, written by a lot of simple living folks on subjects that those seeking or living a simple life will really appreciate. One might even say its a great book to have next to your bedside so you can read something short, and encouraging before going to sleep.

I found this book by literally crawling around on the floor of one of my favorite local bookstores. The title caught my attention and the front picture did me in. The Puppy Sister is an adorable read and very light-hearted. The story's easy to follow and the illustrations add the right touch to the story. The reading itself feels like it's somewhat for the younger set, but then again it's told from the point of veiw of an Aussie puppy.

For anybody who loves animals, I definatly suggest this book! It even serves as a good read-aloud book too!
If you happen to be a furre, you'll eat it up! :3

I read this book as a bedtime story to my son & I thought he'd never stop laughing & fall asleep! If you've never understood how a dog thinks, particularly an Australian Shepherd, this book is a must! I personally loved the description of how Aleasha (the puppy) couldn't stop herself from chewing things because her teeth just "itched" so badly! GREAT!!! I never thought of it that way! I raise Australian Shepherds & am going to be ordering a pile of these to go to my puppy's homes that have children.

I first read this book when i was 7 or 6 and throughly enjoyed it. Though when I read it very recently, I still found it good, but confusing at parts gramatically with the wording. It's about Nick, a boy who's always wanted a sister, and Aleasha, an aussie puppy who wants to be a girl. Overall, it was a pretty good book and I recommend it to people who enjoy a short, sweet story.

The Puppy Sister is a fantasy to be enjoyed by young or the young at heart. Alesha, a Aussie puppy doesn't understand why Nick (her owner)doesn't treat her like a person. Then, as she realizes that she isn't human, she decides that she can become a human. A true masterpice!

I have always loved reading, but when my first grade teacher gave me this book when i was six, I read a little of it, then put it down. It wasn't until six years later, I was browsing my book shelves filled with my childhood books that I found this book again. It was a school morning, but I picked it up anyways and started reading it. I couldn't put it down! Sure, it wasn't my reading level, but it was a sweet book, written in a way that makes you want to know what happens next. It's about a little boy named Nick who gets an Aussie puppy named Aleasha instead of his wish-a sister. Aleasha wants Nick to play with her like he would a real little girl, but he doesn't. So she comes up with a plan. She will turn into a human. What happens next? Read the book to find out, or read another review that theaches you more about it. Whatever!! But it's a really sweet book.

This is a well-researched and well-written report on a valuable addition to any health and energy regimen.

About the only book I could find on Rhodiola, Very informative. It is great read for anyone interested in using Rhodiola for Energy.

This book has a wonderful history of the plant and it was a terrific read. It made me want to go out and buy some Rhodiola to give it a try! The best thing you can say about a book is that it inspires you to take action of some kind.

I was very surprised that the book doesn't mention the Swedish Herbal institute brand, as this is the world's best selling and the only product in the Rhodiola category that has science behind it. (Evidently those Swedes put everything through human, double-blind placebo controlled trials in typical Swedish precision fashion). This book must have been written before this brand was in the USA.

Now that I've tried every single brand of Rhodiola, I wish that the authors had mentioned that there are great differences between them. I've found only two brands that are consistently good, and settled in on the Swedish Herbal Institute brand as my daily preference.

I loved the way that the authors separate this book into sections based on the health condition, so that you can browse the book and get good suggestions based upon whatever you have going on. All in all, a great read.

This book was most interesting and informative. I was already using Rhodiola, but now know multiple reasons and can recommend it to others.

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Our family enjoys this simple little (short) book with a play on words. Wonderful illustrations, good for 2-5 year olds.

We have several of Karma Wilson's books and this one is one of her best. My 6 1/2 year old son isn't a reader and it is tough to find books that he enjoys, but he loves this book. We take turns acting out different sections and doing funny voices for the different characters. My 2 year old daughter asks for it too and I find myself reading it over and over to them. My favorite part is that I enjoy reading it over and over again. It is very cute and very fun!

My nephew has several of the "Bear" books but for his 4th birthday I thought I would try something different. He loved this one! It got big laughs the first time through but I knew it was a hit when the next day after having it read to him many times he started pretending he was on a "Cattle Drive!"

Delightful experience for child and adult reader. The illustrations add to the fun.

Our family loves this book, about two crazy cows who steal farmer's keys and drive off to town. The illustrations are great, and we love the rhyming-it makes it so easy for my 3 year old daughter to "read" along with me when she sees the pictures. I bought extra copies to give to friends.

This book is very touching. It's about a young girl who's just moved to America and isn't sure if she'll survive or make friends. And that's until she meets Priscilla, a girl who befriends her and they become stuck together like glue. Readers of all ages will enjoy this short, fast-paced book.

The Secret Voice of Gina Zhang is one book that you cannot put down. All though in the beginning, it is sort of boring, once you get through a few chapters, you will not stop reading it until you finish.

This book deserved 200 stars. I loved it the from the moment i started reading it. It is masterful and wonderful. It is appropriate for a large range of ages (i would say from 8 to 15). The suspense is wonderful, and the ending is MARVELOUS! At the beginning, it may seem a bit dull, but if you read on to the 3 or 4th chapter, you will fall in love and not be able to put this book dowm. The plot is remarkable, and it always seems to have you waiting to see how this wonderfully creative girl will solve new problems. Read this book, and see how GREAT it really is for yourself.

"The Secret Voice of Gina Zhang" is an important book for children and adults alike to read. In America, we have so many cultures living side by side, it's important for us to attempt to understand one another. Dori Jones Yang successfully creates a book that is enjoyable, educational, and inspiring. I feel many people will enjoy this book because they can relate to, in one way or another, the main character Jinna. After moving to Seattle from China, Jinna (Gina as she is dubbed in English), finds herself unable to communicate in school. Not only can she not understand and speak English, but she finds herself unable to speak AT ALL. Soon after, Gina is befriended by another class outcast, Priscilla, and both children are able to overcome their anxieties and issues with the help of each other's friendship. This is an excellent, inspiring book. I hope to read more books by Dori Jones Yang in the future.

Dori Yang's ten years in Asia provide her with a rich treasury of Chinese customs. She brings a Chinese family to America and spins exciting yarns. Ms. Yang weaves a colorful tapestry of fantasy, reality, suspense-even desperation. Ultimately, frightening faces become warm and friendly. The language is appropriate and readable for students who need to learn English very quickly. It is an engaging book and important to all students especially to those struggling with our language.