Readers Books

The first word that came to mind when I reached the end of her book was 'wonderful' !!!
I'm not sure what I was expecting when I began to read the story. Perhaps, I was thinking that it would be more of a historical summary of the Dust Bowl years. The story did educate us on the facts, but it did it in a way that was entertaining and enjoyable.
As I read about Tressa and the hardships that her family endured, I felt as if I were there with them. Rosemary has a way of writing that draws her audience into the story. The characters in "The Green Coat" emphasize the courage and determination that is deep inside most people; an inner strength that can rise up and be held like an unbreakable shield when things seem almost unbearable. I applaud the way that Rosemary emphasized the undying faith that Tressa had by weaving it throughout the story. I will never be able to make a pot of homemade soup again without remembering the 'prayer pot'. "The Green Coat" is well written, educational, and entertaining.

Sincerely,

Joan L. Kelly

I bought this for my granddaughter to read during the summer. She loved it.She is an avid reader and I chose this for history.

"The Green Coat", by Rosemary McDunn, is an inspiring, heartwarming story that takes place during the Dust Bowl era. The reader automatically falls in love with twelve year-old Tressa, who struggles to understand and cope with the devastation that has separated her from her family and the place she calls home. During her journey, she learns to appreciate the simple pleasures of life and embrace the unexpected friendships she encounters along the way. McDunn's vivid descriptions and imaginative language allow the reader to accompany Tressa through these unforgettable times of hope and hardship. "The Green Coat" is truly sensational; a definite must-read to be enjoyed by all ages.

I read "The Green Coat" in a couple of tear filled hours. While it is not a lengthily book it says more in it's few pages about real faith in action then we could glean from many weeks of a Bible study about faith. In the midst of a crisis many people can not get beyond asking 'Why would God allow this to happen?' The answer is on page 104 of this book (or 105 of the revised version).

We were never promised life would be easy but we have been promised that faith in God will see us through, bring comfort and work to our good. This book shows how faith in God did exactly that for seven real people through their different heart wrenching situations. This story based on a time in the life of the author's Mother is real life faith in action.

We think we have gained so much today with our modern advances, technology, knowledge and "stuff" but in reading this book about real people in extremely tough times I see clearly how much we have lost. The author helps the reader understand that time of our country's history without going into a long description. We see so clearly through this great story how important relationships are for everyone's good. Unfortunately we are too busy to support, nurture and enjoy other people as we should.

Another truth seen clearly is that we are not training our children from a young age about the importance of hard work and skills they will need as adults to care for themselves and others. Instead they are learning that life is meant to be about fun, sports and tv. What will become of them if life gets very hard in the future as so many times in history it has?

One of the most fantastic ways to teach children about history is through the art of storytelling. Topics which may appear dry and uninteresting in a textbook can truly come to life if they are conveyed with character and style.

The Green Coat: A Tale from the Dust Bowl Years is doubly successful as a work of fiction in that it instructs about an important period in our country's history while sharing a story that is both heartwarming and inspirational. This novel by first time author and Michigan educator Rosemary McDunn will appeal to a broad audience ranging from middle school readers to adults.

Set in the 1930s in the Great Plains state of North Dakota, The Green Coat introduces us in its earliest pages to twelve year old Tressa Bauer. Hailing from the humble farming town of Dazey, Tressa appears to be a bit of a "Daddy's girl". What her family lacks in financial resources, they seem to make up for in familial bonds.

But shortly after the celebration of her twelfth birthday, Tressa is forced to deal with some very grown up news - owing to losses suffered from a lingering drought, her parents are on the verge of losing the family farm. As auctioneers eventually sell all of their land and property, Tressa's parents are forced to make a horrible decision in order to survive.

Tressa and her older brother Will, the two youngest of the four Bauer siblings, are sent to live in the home of Doctor Heileman near Fargo, ninety miles from the place her parents have found jobs and temporary shelter. Upon her arrival in the Heileman home, Tressa must deal with her new reality. In exchange for their room and board, Tressa and Will become domestic servants in a formerly genteel home that has been ravaged by dust storms. Tressa quickly realizes that the mentally ill Mrs. Heileman is unable to cope with her domestic duties or care for her two year old son, Ben. In addition, Tressa must contend with Claire, the Heileman's daughter who is near Tressa's age but is unkind to her from the start. Tressa longs for nothing more than to leave this place and be reunited with her parents.

"I didn't sleep that night. I swayed between silent fits of rage and fear gripped me so hard that my breathing became labored. Why would God do this to us? I wondered. Ma always said God had a plan. What kind of cruel plan is this?"

While readers of all ages will be drawn to the storyline and personalities presented in The Green Coat, teachers of middle school readers should specifically consider using the text to compliment language arts and social studies curricula. Author McDunn, an experienced educator, has provided an excellent educational resource at the conclusion of the book. For each chapter, a broad cross section of vocabulary words and relevant reflection and discussion questions are provided. An additional section looks at effective tools of figurative language and provides a "treasure hunt" for young readers to spot examples of this literary technique.

A quite stream of spirituality runs throughout The Green Coat as Tressa develops an active prayer life, calling on God to help her overcome what she feels are insurmountable obstacles. Ultimately, Tressa learns to draw on her own reserves of strength to endure and ultimately triumph in her newfound circumstances. What follows is a wonderful coming of age tale where life lessons are learned, tragedies are overcome, and lifelong friendships are forged. The relationships at the center of The Green Coat, those between Tressa and her brother Will and between the two siblings and a young married couple also in great need of healing, make this book a wonderful journey. Along the way, readers young and old will learn about customs and circumstances in a part of our history that differ greatly from today's world. For its wonderful character development, compelling plot, and attention to historical detail, I give The Green Coat my highest recommendation.

Wonderful ways to make reading and cooking with parents FUN! There are many great thing to cook or mix to make the reading even more exciting.

I was surprised by this cookbook. My son brought it home from school and we used it to combine reading and cooking. He had fun reading the recipe titles and helping me cook the recipes. But, what really sold me on this cookbook, was that the recipes were healthy - many times cookbooks for cooking with kids are high in sugar and fat so that the kids will "like" the end product. However, this cookbook has great tasting recipes that are also healthy.

I work with children all the time. The book itself they didn't find as fun as I did, but they have enjoyed a few of the recipes. I enjoyed the whole thing. The recipes aren't always great, but with a little bit of tweaking they were great.

Since starting school, my 5 year old son, who has only celebrated Channuka, asked, "Who is this Santa Claus guy and why doesn't he come to my house?". We needed to start a family tradition that would make Christmas day a special one for him too. After watching the original cartoon version of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas", we sat down to a delicious Who Feast. What fun! This will be just the first of hopefully many years of a delicious and meaningful tradition.

We have big plans to read each of our Dr. Suess books and create their respective treats.

This book was fantasticly fun! The recipes are inventive and imaginary following right along with the Dr. Suess theme. Each recipe comes with a quote directly from a character or scene in a variety of the Dr. Suess books. It's great for the aspiring cook in your household with recipes that are simple, attainable, and a little quirky.

As other reviewers have said, this is a terrific dictionary for serious students of German. Words are given detailed definitions together with explanations of how to use them and example sentences. Usually this gives much more precise information than would be possible with a translation, and it is also very nice to think entirely in German. This book is one of my most valued possessions. I had to get a new copy because my previous copy was so tattered.

Now I would like to add a couple of points to what other reviewers have said.

First, there is also a very nice software version (unfortunately using Windows). This makes searching a lot faster. In addition, it has a really cool feature called "Pop-Up Search". When this is enabled, if you are reading any German text on your computer, you can right-click on a word, and the dictionary entry will appear in a bubble.

Second, although this dictionary is pretty big, there are many German words which are not in there. (Indeed, German has more or less infinitely many words, since you can keep sticking words and prefixes together to make bigger and bigger compounds...) So as a backup you might also want to have a really big translation dictionary, such as Collins Unabridged --- or if you are advanced enough to use it, a real German dictionary such as Duden.

Conclusion: I recommend using this dictionary as soon as you know enough German to be able to use it. Look words up in here first, and if you can't obtain the information you need, then try a big translation dictionary.

Langenscheidt's Deutsch als Fremdsprache (German as a foreign language) dictionary is an excellent reference for the student of German. I bought mine during my time at the University of Heidelberg and found it immensely helpful, and still do as an aid to keeping my German in tune.

The dictionary has over 66,000 references. The definitions cover not only the basic meaning of the words, but also situational usage, idiomatic expressions, and all the standard dictionary fare of pronunciation and part of speech. Also included are many illustrations, often used to point out differences between kinds--for example, under the entry "Schusswaffen" or "firearms," is an illustration showing the differnce between rifle, revolver, and pistol, with the appropriate German vocabulary. Browsing the entries and illustrations can actually become addictive, as reading one entry will send you to another, expanding and reinforcing your vocabulary.

Not only is this dictionary more precise than even the best dual-language dictionaries, the detailed definitions will help the speaker understand both how and when the various words are best used.

Highly recommended.

I have found this dictionary to be invaluable to my pursuit of fluency in German. Building a proper vocabulary in German, independent of one's own primary language, is important to being able to fully learn another language. I am now able to read, speak and write German without the labor of translating from English into German and vice versa. I recommend this dictionary coupled with reading simple texts at first such as children's books starting from a young age level up to an adult level with many intermediate levels in-between as one progresses. I lost my first copy that I bought in Germany several years ago and recently I bought a replacement online. I have not looked through a German-English dictionary in the last few years, and I'll never again search through one.

I have found this dictionary to be invaluable to my pursuit of fluency in German. Building a proper vocabulary in German independent of one's own primary language is important to being able to fully learn another language. I am now able to read, speak and write German without the labor of translating from English into German and vice versa. I recommend this dictionary coupled with reading simple texts at first such as children's books starting from a young age level up to an adult level with many intermediate levels in-between as one progresses. I lost my first copy that I bought in Germany several years ago and recently I bought a replacement online. I have not looked through a German-English dictionary in the last few years, and I'll never again search through one.

This dictionary is the perfect supplement to a bilingual German dictionary. It contains explanatory, easy-to-understand definitions for some 66,000 German words. Each entry contains the part of speech (and gender, for nouns), pronunciation where nonstandard, conjugation (verbs) or declination (nouns), a clear definition, and often examples, related phrases, synonyms, antonyms, and other helpful data. This is extremely useful for those speaking German as a foreign language. A word of warning: this dictionary, of course, should only be used by those with at least intermediate proficiency in German, as the dictionary is monolingual-German.

This book is so much fun to read. It has such a wonderful rhythm and the artwork is gorgeous.

Very easy to read particularly as a bedtime story. My toddler has the refrain "Pittery, pattery, skittery, scattery ZIP round the corner came Zachary Quack" completely memorized. Very nicely illustrated as well.

My 2 boys love this book and all the Hairy Maclary books! This one is just SO cute! They are even starting to read along with me. Highly recommended!

Hairy is at it again and cuter than ever---anything in this series is great!!

I spend a lot of time reading kids books. This one is my favorite. Kids love it too!!

I love the entire hairy Maclary series. Very entertaining! My kids love it when I read it with a Scottish accent.

From the minute my 2 year old little boy saw the cover he fell in love with the book! He immediately learned the cute names of all of the dogs and the book is very exciting to him. We highly recommend this for a fun book.

another great kids book for kids, beautifully illustrated, great fun with hilarious rhymes which kids remember easily.

In this adventure Hairy McClary is given a bone by the butcher, but if followed home by his friends, Hercules Morse, Muffin Mclay, Bitzer Maloney, Bottomley Potts and Schnitzel von Krum - Hairy has to walk home in such a way to prevent his friends from getting the bone

Good way of describing big, small, and other concepts to kids. They can see why the dogs gradually get filtered out as Hairy takes the long way home.

Good fun for under 5 years - start reading young and they love them - learning to read them themselves. These also come in toddler style books which is good if you are intending these for an under 2 year old.

Here is another enjoyable episode from the life of the perky little dog called Hairy Maclary.
He has a friend, the butcher, who gives him a bone.
The rhyming text takes over the story of the envy of his friends whose names are listed. Children with other books in this series will recognize them immediately both from their descriptive names and the artwork which brings out the individual breed characteristics. This list decreases as the group moves around the town and encounters different obstacles.
All of this reflects observed doggy behaviour and hazards. It will be with great satisfaction that all small readers see Hairy Maclary get home able to keep and enjoy his bone.

This is a wonderful sequel to HAIRY MACLARY FROM DONALDSON'S DAIRY. In the first book we had Hairy going out for a walk and being joined by five other dogs one by one. This book starts with Hairy at the butcher shop where he receives a great big bone. As he sets out to return to Donaldson's Dairy we see five familiar noses poking out from behind a shop. Soon the five dogs are following Hairy hoping for a chance at the bone. But when ducking through an old billboard Hercules Morse (as big as a horse) gets stuck. You can see where this is going as Hairy continues his journey home.

A wonderful book told with a lilting rhyme and meter that makes it perfect for reading out loud. Hairy and his friends are the stars of a vast array of books that have long been almost unheard of here in the States. Well Hairy and friends are making inroads here and I for one welcome the canine (and feline) invasion. If you have not had a chance to read Lynley Dodd you have been missing something.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1BGCQ5HUKM86W Handbag FriendsThe Handbag Friend movie clip! Gives you a sense of the fun and laughter and joy packed inside this adventure storybook--and how children up to 6 or 7 once they see it, just can't stop watching it, singing the song and wanting to hear or read the story.

This lovely book does double duty as both a picture book with vibrant illustrations, and a story book with 64 pages and several chapters. You can read it in one sitting to an older child, or break it up over several readings with a younger one.

Handbag Friends looks like a handbag on the outside (complete with sturdy carrying handle that will stand up to a 4 year-old's attentions), but opens up to a wide panorama of colorful illustrations on the inside.

Follow the six distinct, lovable animal characters (the handbag friends) on their journey through fanciful locations (planet pink handbag and the place of dangerful terribleness, to name only two) as they save the world and find out where handbags really come from. A treat for the imagination! Comic and ironic references make this book as fun for the adult reader as the child he/she reads to.

Note: Don't let the book's pink color fool you! It is just as appropriate for boys as for girls. One of the Handbag Friends, Harry, is "strong and cool, and brave," and he saves the day with his decisive leadership.

Here's another winner that isn't appropriate for library lending, but is perfect for parents with kids. The 'handbag friends' live in a handbag, and this handbag-shaped book explores their lives and how they came to live inside a handbag. Enter Plant Pink Handbag, where baby handbags are kidnapped and the world is very different. Reluctant young readers will find in this an encouraging, different kind (and shape) of storybook, complete with pink plastic tote handle.

The story opens with the Handbag Song which I would be happy to sing for you but I think the Handbag Friends themselves would do a better job. Please watch it here.. but be warned its been stuck in my head since I watched this! I'm actually considering naming my puppy Pinky Winky Winky Woo after hearing this!! *laugh*

Handbag Friends is filled with silliness, sparkles, and all things pink! For any of you girls out there that has experienced a five year old girl full of sugar and on a glitter high you know exactly what I mean.

The story takes place Far Far Away where all the ladies in the land adopt baby pink handbags to carry around all their things. Then one day an evil meanie handbag, Clasp, pursenaps all the handbags and keeps them captive on the once happy (and very pink) Planet Pink Handbag. This leaves the Handbag friends homeless and very sad, so off they go on a mission to rescue the baby pink handbags!

This leaves me to my favorite part of the story and Connor will demonstrate for us :

"I'm going to eat you... with my MOUTH!" See Connor's rendition of the bad evil gross purple handbag trying to eat the handbag friends!

I'm not going to tell you what happens but I will tell you the entire story leaves you wanting more. That is if you love sparkles, pink, moon horses, pink, fairy cakes, and silly songs!

I really really really really truely positively absoultely must have a Moon Horse of my very own.. Sally & Sue wherever you found them can you please bring me one? Please pretty sparkles ponies please?

This would be the perfect present for any little girl in your life (or even big little girls like me!). The people at the grocery store already think I'm completely insane as I was caught singing the Handbag song all over the store. *shrug*

No girl I know...especially those under 10. My two-year-old granddaughter was immediately captivated by the book and wanted it read to her every night at bedtime. It's got everything...cute characters, a not-too-scarey villain, and a singalong theme song even the most muscially challenged can manage. What fun to carry it with you, too, in its chic packaging! A winner.

Felicity "Honey" Harper arrives back at Chesnut Hill with a HUGE weight on her shoulders. The soft-spoken Brit has a twin brother, Sam, struggling with luekemia, and she hasn't told ANY of her best friends, not even Dylan, one of her roomates. Her parents told her that she needed to relax, but she can't!

Meanwhile, Lynsey Harrison's clone, Patience Duvall, has a new Connemera pony named Moonlight Minuet (Minnie). To get "a pony with good bloodlines" on the Jr. Jumping Team, Lynsey has Patience exersizing Minnie in extreme conditions Minnie can't handle.

Then, Minnie is cornered with leg injuries, and Honey helps take care of Minnie, even though she's not supposed to. But Patience doesn't care anyway-does she?

If to make matters worse, Sam gets really sick and is in the ICU! And Mal, Dylan, and Lani find out about him? Will Honey find away to keep Sam a secret, help Minnie get better, and visit her sick brother in the hospital? You have to READ this!

I had rerad the Heartland series and when I foung out Lauren Brooke was coming out with a new series I knew I had to get it. The books are about 4 girls who are all from different backgrounds yet they are the best of friends. They all have an enemy named Lynsey who has a top class pony and iis a total snob. The books show how they deal with tuff decisions andget throug life just being friends. Their love of horses is also especially noticed in this book. so if you love horses you should definitaly read this book!

This book was about a girl named Lani Hernandez, and some of her friends that all attend Chesnut Hill Boarding School. They are just coming back from Christmas Break to start a new semaster, but about two weeks into the quarter she gets a letter from her parents threatening to transfer her to another school in California if she did not get her grades up. If you have read any of the other books in this series, you know that Chesnut Hill has grades 7 and up for young riders who ride jumping horses. Throughout this book, Lani has to learn to balance out her studies, Horseback riding, and planning out a huge charity event all while convincing her parents that Chesnut Hill is the right school for her.


A couple of the reasons I liked this book was because first off I ride western horses, so I can relate to the horseback riding and the charity event. Another reason was because the author gave a lot of description and details, so it gave me a very good picture in my mind.


One of the only things I didn't like about this book was how short it was because I liked it so much that I wanted it to keep going.


I've read other books in the series that were all as good as this book! They are all about four girls, but each book has one of them specifically as the main character.


My over all opinion was that I really liked this book and it is worth reading again! I would recomend this book to mostly girls because Chesnut Hill is a all girls school, so all the main characters are girls. Over all I'd give this book a five star!

This book was filled w. excitment ever since u opened the first couple of pages. When Lani is being forced to leave b/c of her grades she tries hard to get them up and overwhelms herself. A stress related riding crash and excuses not to get back onto her favorite pony cause a dispute among friends. When Lani shows her dad that she really belongs by putting together a rodeo day fundraiser w/ a famous pro rodeo star to give money to a charity. Will it ever work? This book kept u on the edge of your seat constantly flipping the pages:-)

Honey has a twin brother, Sam, but it takes a picture following out of her photo-album and Dylan picking it up for her to tell Dylan, Lani, and Malory that she has a twin. Or she wouldn't have said anything. It all takes place after Thanksgiving break and but during break Honey had learned horrifing news about Sam. Who was sick for over a year and just when they were thinking he was going to get better the same illness came back. After Sam goes to the hospital Honey is even more determined not to tell her friends about Sam's illness. I'm not much for crying but when Honey was talking to her parents about how keeping her apart from Sam when he's in the hospital or at home was making her worry even more about her brother and how he's doing my eyes kept tearing up and I had to blink a lot so I could keep on reading. I suggest you read it, it's full of brotherly-sisterly love and hope, but LOL, you should read it as the series goes after the first two books: #1 The New Class and #2 Making Strides.

Another one of our family favorites from the series. We especially like the humor in Snow Glory and the story of the Kittens. We have nearly all the Henry & Mudge stories. This one is on our top 5 list.

These are such wonderful books about a boy named Henry and the frienship that he shares with his big 180 pound dog Mudge. Nice Illustrations and easy to understand stories. They are great books and my 9 year old nephew loved these when he was in second grade. I bought some of these for him when he was 7. Now my son Ramon who is 7 loves them too.

In Henry and Mudge in Puddle Trouble you'll see how kids sometimes don't listen to their parents even when they want to. When Henry doesn't listen to his mother's advice about the Morning Glory will he able to fix the problems it causes? Find out why listening to your parents is important when you read this book. If you are the kind of kid who doesn't listen to your mom then this is the book for you. Check out other books in the Henry and Mudge series like Henry and Mudge and the Best Test.

my son needed to read by himself. his teacher told me to get him the henry and mudge books. he really likes to read these

This book is great!!! I think one of your children would give it 5 stars. The kittens are very cute.

I purchased this book for my daughter when she was two. It was one of her absolute favorite books. She is now six and still asks us to read it to her once in awhile. My son is four and he loves it! It is such a great book and the illustrations are wonderful!

This is the greatest book for grandmas. My grandson loves it and this is our special book that we read together every night he is with me. After we are done reading he tells me how many kisses he wants!

My 18 month old daughter loves this story and so do I. It's such a sweet bedtime story that I love to read it to her. She's really into animals so this story is great for her since it focuses on animals getting ready to go to sleep. I always love to cuddle and give her lots of kisses throughout the story.

This book should be in every toddlers collection. Counting, rhyming, and animals, can't get much better than that! After counting to ten with animals, a girl says she want 100 kisses, one in each curl. A boy tells his mom he wants a million, then it asks how many kisses do you (your child) want tonight. My daughter loves to tell me, and then get her number of kisses!

I have purchased several of these books for expectant mothers to make sure as many children and parents as possible have a chance to share in the fun and loving theme of this book. I have five grandchildren and this is one of their favorites....as well as mine.

this was a favorite of mine as a kid; fun and easy to read for kids.

My first grader loves reading this book! Easy words and repetitive phrases make learning to read more fun and quickly builds self esteem!
--Vicki Landes, author of "Europe For The Senses - A Photographic Journal"

This children's book is wickedly funny, and a pleasure to read aloud. The intracacies of "I never said you said I was..." make the book as interesting for adults as it is for children. I read this one aloud to all my friends, because it is simply too good a book to keep on a shelf collecting dust!

I actually still have my 1962 Hardcover edition and wouldn't part with it for the world! My children even love it. It is 64 pages, but is very easy to read. (My 5 year old can read it too!)

I loved this book as a kid and was thrilled that my six-year-old niece enjoyed it enough for repetitive reading (I still don't mind reading it over and over). The main character is endearing and the text is funny and fast-paced. I keep it on my bookshelf with my childhood classics and keepsakes.