Resources Books

not finished yet ..... need more time for something like this ...
have only briefly leafed ... that's how i gave it the three stars..

Christine Durst and Michael Haaren did an excellent job of presenting the major points of what it takes to become a Virtual Assistant. Their approach was very practical and hands on; and yet, potential pitfalls were also listed and discussed. Overall, their advice was sound and realistic regarding what it takes to be successful in this field.

If anyone is seriously thinking about becoming a VA, then this book is a "must read"!

This is a wonderful book for the aspiring Virtual Assistant. The authors go into great detail on all aspects of running your own VA business, and their insight is timely and comprehensive. In particular, you'll enjoy the extensive chapter on marketing, which details various ways that a VA can capture the greatest share of the marketplace. I highly recommend this book as a must-read and a resource to reference throughout the start-up phase of your business.

90% of what this book covers appears in countless other books for small and home based businesses. And, I'm not so sure that the other 10% is really so revolutionary because the concept of working remotely has been around for several decades now. The authors outstanding accomplishment seems to be giving what they believe to be a revolutionary new job category a catchy name. Still, if you've been living on a distant planet, you may find their mention of the basic components, requirements and legalese of starting a business helpful.

If you could only buy one book about owning your own VA business, I would highly recommend this one! As there are multiple books on the subject in the marketplace right now, I would still highly recommend this one. This is the ONLY book you will ever need - well, maybe one on accounting principles if you don't know any & have no money to hire an accountant! But this book tells you EVERYTHING you need to know, & the questions it asks (or asks you to ask yourself) & the skills assessment it has gets you THINKING about the actual undertaking of starting your own business. Even if you just read it cover to cover (which I also highly recommend) and never do anything else, you will forever think more concretely about owning a business. It's a true eye-opener.

My mother-in-law lent me this book after I expressed an interst in raising chickens. We also heat with wood, so the woodstove, wood splitting and heat capability from the wood section was very interesting, and informative. I can't wait to read more!!

Well maybe not exactly nigh, and maybe not exactly the end...but certainly some changes are lurching our way as the current economic meltdown rains on our way-complicated, stressed-out, nature-deficient parade. Skyhorse called it right by calling this book back into print--and under editor Abigail Gehring's guiding hand the book has been enriched with new graphics and some new content (including internet referrals to information sources.)
Reading this book opens a window into a lifestyle that you've been missing at the core of your being...and opens the door to get you into it.

Until I checked this book out of the library, I had rarely given a thought to getting "back to basics," that is learning how to be more self-sufficient. After I read the book, I soon bought it, because it opened my eyes to the many ways that I am almost entirely dependent upon others for my basic needs. "Back to Basics" is a helpful guide for those who want to get away from it all and live totally independently on a farm, and even those like myself that live in town, but that want to become more self-sufficient, and less dependent on expensive fossil fuels and foods that someone else has raised or grown.

"Back to Basics" is a colorful, easy-to-understand encyclopedia of basic skills. There are hundreds of color photos, and most lessons are laid out step-by-step, making the concepts very easy to learn. The book is divided into six basic parts:

I. Land: Buying It - Building on it (how to choose land, build a home, develop a water supply, create a sauna, etc)

II. Energy from Wood, Water, Wind, and Sun (making your home more efficient, how to use wind energy, setting up a solar-powered house, etc)

III. Raising Your Own Vegetables, Fruit, and Livestock (how to properly grow all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and grains, how to farm fish, beekeeping, butchering an animal, etc)

IV. Enjoying Your Harvest Year Round (canning, preserving all kinds of foods, making cheese and wine, etc)

V. Skills and Crafts for House and Homestead (making natural dyes, weaving, woodworking, stenciling, soapmaking, making homemade perfumes, etc)

VI. Recreation at Home and in the Wild (camping, canoeing, kayaking, celebrating holidays, etc)

This book definitely has the potential to help all of us live more self-sufficiently, learning to do the things that our grandparents probably learned growing up. However, one possible drawback is that becoming self-sufficient takes a lot of work, and in the case of switching your home over to some type of alternative energy, a lot of money as well. Most readers are probably not going to have the land, time, and money to make some of the more significant changes suggested. However, the book still offers a lot for the rest of us, and at the least, educates us as to what it takes to live in a self-sufficient manner. Another possible drawback is that the book tries to squeeze a lot of information into 456 pages. This means that while you are getting a very concise, and surprisingly detailed, overview, you may need to consult more detailed sources if you need more help than what the book offers.

Overall, this is an interesting and useful book that offers practical ways to become more self-sufficient, something that is highly relevant in these times of rising energy and food prices. My family has already used some of the ideas, starting our first garden this year.

This is a classic on pre-oil skills of the 19th century. It is becoming an important work again. But the latest edition of it is published by Skyhorse Publishing

This book was published twice by Reader's Digest when there wasn't much demand for it. Skyhorse Publishing took it over and made enough "significant changes" to establish their own copyright over it. But the changes are just different pictures and rearranged pages!

This book is just about to come into its own due to the demise of oil and the Dollar. These are skills the general population must relearn. But the pre-oil generations are all gone.

I read this book mostly because I work in the field of Adoption and wanted to see the account of the long term effects of FAS. My heart aches for the family. I feel the book itself was poorly edited but I still couldn't put it down.

The patience and compassion of the writer, Katherine Norgard, for her son and for others makes this a book that can teach us all about the value of forgiveness.

Hard to Place: A Crime of Alcohol is the true story of Kathy Norgard's effort to save her adopted son, John, from the death penalty. This powerful, painful, and beautiful book is a must-read for all direct practice and administrative social workers. Kathy's carefully crafted narrative provides powerful insights into the foster care system, the adoption process, fetal alcohol syndrome, the criminal justice system, and love. Kathy writes from her heart--and her story will touch your heart.
Cathy Busha, MSW

Dr. Katherine Norgard's book, HARD TO PLACE: A CRIME OF ALCOHOL, is both hard to read and hard to put down. It is a page-turning mystery story, and a heart-rending saga of a family torn apart by one of the most insidious of diseases: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). Hardly a sentient being exists who does not know someone addicted to or suffering the effects of, alcohol abuse. Nearly every family in America is affected in one degree or another by the problem, as Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon will attest, but it is FAS that leaves irreparable and permanent devastation in its wake.
Dr. Norgard chronicles with a depth of honesty, pain and compassion one professional woman's struggle with the results of FAS and the crimes it engendered. How this plays out in the life of her family and community keeps the reader up until all hours of the night.
While she is a personal friend, Kathy Norgard's struggle as a clinical psychologist and a parent to deal with the horror of FAS in her adopted son that I came to have the highest regard for her. Her skill as a writer draws the reader into the tragedy on page one and does not let go until the final sentence.
The sheer humanity of the author's response to her son's murder of two innocent people that lands him on Death Row awakens in the reader the utmost compassion for this mother's harrowing experience and its effects upon her family and friends. As she puts it, it became an endless battle to "make sense of the senseless" that engages the reader so profoundly.
HARD TO PLACE should not be missed by anyone interested in the health and well-being of children born to a mother who is tempted to drink alcohol while pregnant, and to anyone interested in the effects upon society of the death penalty. Other issues surface as one reads this moving account that any nation and society should deal with in compassion if it is to be known as "a nation under God".

The Rev. Christine Geer, Episcopal Priest
Crested Butte, Colorado

Dr. Norgard's moving personal story of her struggles to help her adopted son, both before and after he ends on death row, is strongly recommended for a variety of readers. It is important for professionals working with those diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and their families and is even more important as a message to women who may become pregnant about the dangers of drinking alcohol. The book also provides insight for those concerned with the issue of capital punishment. On a broader level, Hard to Place is a powerful and inspiring account of how an individual can respond to a tragedy by taking effective action that will help her own family while also potentially helping many others.

Every company has those take-them-or-leave-them dead end employees - but then there are those employees who are truly special, and who make the company run as it should. "Love 'Em Or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay" is a guide for managers to making sure they keep these star employees happy and productive, so one's company can stay happy and productive. With countless tips to keeping the cream of the crop producing for your crop, "Love 'Em Or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay" is an essential read for any manager and for community library business collections.

Well worth the purchase. In addition to sound "theory" provides very practical application. If you subscribe to the concept that BEING BRILLIANT AT THE BASICS will get you to the next level, this books is clearly for you. We bought one for all our HR Managers around the country whereby they can utilize the practical application ideas as bet fit their facility.

As a busy professional, it's easy to fall into the trap of tending to the task and not so much the relationship. This book brings me back to that important balance. Chapter six, "Family", was extremely useful and helped me understand that employees have needs that, many times, surpass their pay check. I was better able to work with an employee who had special family needs. This book is filled with practical, relevant, and usable advice on keeping employees engaged. This book is an essential read for leaders today. If you care about developing your people you will understand them better after reading LOVE 'EM or LOSE 'EM.

In any economy, the ability for managers to engage talent is a mainstay, yet few know how to do it. Love 'Em or Lose 'Em teaches `em how. It is practical and down-to-earth, providing leaders, at all levels, ideas which they can implement TODAY. This quick read is chalk full of anecdotes and suggestions that are low to no cost, leaving managers with no more excuses. More business books should take their cue from Love `Em - no wading through troves of mind-numbing theory. It is friendly, approachable, and to the point.
Debra Bogowitz, Accelerated HR Solutions Group

Unlike the hundreds of management books out there that can be rather philosophical and academic on how to create a productive work environment (with many of the concepts capable of being covered in three, not three hundred, pages), this book focuses on 26 strategies with countless practical actions under each strategy that a manager can take to make the work environment (read: "people") highly productive.

Best yet, the authors' strategies for employee engagement and subsequent retention don't cost big bucks to implement. And if you haven't figured out how much payroll dollars you lose by disengaged employees who ultimately leave, you're missing a big chance at improving your bottom line.

If there was ever a phenomenal return for money spent, it's in implementing Love 'Em or Lose 'Em's s6 strategies. But that means you have to first invest in the book! Buy it!

Remember the fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty presented her with 'gifts' when she was born.....

A great baby present with lots of hopes and dreams for the child.

This was given to me as a baby shower gift for my daughter. It is one of our favorite books and I now give it out as a newborn gift to friends and family. The messages are powerful and simple. It is not a long book so it's perfect for bedtime.

This book is an awesome gift! It is a wonderful story that teaches children of all ages many important virtues and lessons!

This is a beautiful book about the wonderful gifts of birth! I have given this as a "new baby" gift to several of my friends, and they absolutely love the book. The illustrations and the words are done in a beautiful way. I highly recommend this as a great baby gift!

Every parent/grandparent needs this book and then every child needs to have it read to him/her over and over again so that he can know how very special the day is that he was born. This book celebrates the child's arrival to the family and helps to foster characteristics that should be a birthright to all children.

As a Marine veteran, this book gave alot of good ideas. The authors tell you different aspect of how the Marine Corps is ran and they explain why the Marines do this and how to implement it into the business world.

It's a good book. There are a lot of leadership techniques in here that can be applied. There is also a lot of information about the Marines, which is interesting. For a leadership book, I could have used less information about the Marines and more about leadership in business, but it's good for what it is.
One thing, the chapter on women dealt with sexual harrassment, mostly. I think that with everything women deal with (lower pay, glass ceiling, family life, etc) there could have been more info on women and less on sexual harrassment. That could have been a seperate chapter.

Semper Fi does a good job of relating the organizational and cultural strengths of the Marine Corps to successful essentials for corporate America. The beginning of the book emphasizes the importance of recruiting and maintaining the enthusiasm and energy or new hires. The book keeps it focus on sharing the attributes of the Marine Corps' organizational attributes contributing to its success rather than organizing around what corporate America needs and how the Marine Corps has solved those problems. Strongly recommended for HR professionals and managers leading large organizations. Always a good book for former Marines although some may remember a few details of Marine life differently.

Want to develop sound leadership and solid loyalty? This book clears up many of the misconceptions of USMC training and brings the same form of positive supportive leadership into the civilian and business world. Leadership is more than just telling people what to do. Leadership is established by being in the front lines with all your "troops". It's you're willingness to get your shoes just as dirty as anyone else's while providing an example of being out in front and at the same time making sure that everyone is up there with you. You, the leader, are the example! It is extremely well-written and should be in any top sensei's [martial arts instructor's] book collection. Dan Carrison is one of my Black Belts. I recommend this book to all my black belts!

In case you want to know how this 175,000 strong force is led/managed to live up to the "Send the Marines" legend, you will be largely satisfied. Many unique features, including the Buddy System (two friends get recruited, trained, and deployed together), Tour of Duty (a Marine can opt to remain or transfer several times during the enlistment period of four years), the strong emphasis on quality HR and recruiters, the "Crucible" (the 54 sleepless hours of hellish training with only one meal), the need for an officer/NCO to be better in all aspects (esp physically) than his fellow men till his retirement and so on are vividly discussed. However, I am obliged to comment that the successful principles of USMC are not readily applicable to the commercial world, primarily because, as per pg 123, "Unlike the Marine Corps, the workplace environment is not one of self sacrifice. Employees are motivated much more by self interest than by the collective good and are not shy about asking, "Why did he or she get this assignment and not me?" Anyway, this is definitely a good read. Highly recommended!

Below please find my most favorite passages for your reference:-

One of the legends every NCO has heard tells of a young officer who did not return an enlisted man's salute - and was subsequently ordered by the renowned Marine general Chesty Puller to stand there and salute the nervous private one hundred times. pg 66

The "monkey experiment" is a classic laboratory experiment that illustrates exactly what the Marines try to avoid - the thoughtless passing from one group to another of a learned tradition. Six monkeys were put into a cage in which bananas were suspended by chains...when a monkey pulled on the bananas, the entire group received a shower of cold water. It didnt take long for the six monkeys to learn that the bananas were to be left alone. A new monkey was then introduced into the group, while one of the original monkeys were removed. Of course, the newcomer saw the bananas and thought it was in monkey paradise. But, as it climbed upward, the five remaining original monkeys would actually prevent it from reaching the bananas.....Other newcomers were introduced, for each one, a monkey from the original group was removed.....Soon, none of the original group was left in the cage, yet the bananas were undisturbed - by monkeys who had never felt the cold shower themselves and who did not know why the bananas were to be left alone. pg 115

Today, teams of recruits clash in the pugil stick circle so that one learns not to just fight for himself but for his buddy as well. If his buddies are "killed", the remaining recruit must defend himself against multiple attackers, who close in intelligently, as a team. Thus teamwork is taught while defending and attacking. pg 130

If a manager has not called his own customer service desk in a week, then he has no idea how many times the phone will ring before it is answered, how politely the customer will be greeted, how willingly that customer will be helped and then thanked. pg 171

p.s. Semper Fidelis (Always Faihtful), the motto of USMC, is an indication of how much value is placed upon the virtue of loyalty.

5 stars for this magnificent family book! Why? I have to very inquisitive daughters who ask many questions. Of course many relate to the natural world, more specifically insects and animals. When the inevitable questions come I say "C'mon let's check the book". We check this book often and have spent hours going through the pictures. What greater way to spend time with your kids,than learning together. The pictures are beautiful, the information is concise and interesting. A truly great book for the family, for browsing, and the coffee table. Great value! I also recommend D.K. publishing's HUMAN. Another amazing book.

Great! Very detailed information but not too lengthy. Nice for quick reference. Clear photographs. It's a thick book with lots of information but it is very organized. Not just about basic animals but nearly every known animals in the world and the areas they live in. I would recommended it for kids, teens, and adults alike.

This is the book I've been looking for- tons of information and beautiful pictures. I highly recommend.

This book is filled with incredible pictures. It also contains topical infromation on different animals. The book is broken into sections that allows the reader to look up information easily. DK gives us another high quality informative book. A must have for lovers of animals!

Overall a great valve for the money. Pictures are clear and all in color. Explaines well the breakdown of species. For a book at this price it cannot be beat, but there are some items that I think should have been included. The first is the average life span of the species. It's mentioned for very few animals but it always facinates me to realize how long or short some of these animals live for. Another puzzling exclusion from the book is that humans are not included ... unless humans are not considered part of the Animal Kingdom. Puzzling choice not to include humans.

More than a book, this "How-To Guide" will help you hire GREAT people - every time. Hire With Your Head teaches you how to define, locate, attract, interview, assess, negotiate, and close A-players. The concepts contained in Hire With Your Head give our organization a strategic advantage over our competition. Understanding Adler's concepts are mandatory for our entire recruiting team. You can't go wrong with this book... order it today!

Ryan Cook, SPHR
VP Recruitment Operations
Sparqpoint Solutions

Hiring with your Head is an excellent resource for new recruiters and veteran recruiters as well. For me this book gives me the big picture of the recruiting process. We may be doing some of the steps correctly but if wee can not see the big picture of how it all works together you are very likely wasting time. The performance base hiring process has helped me adjust my own interviewing and I am already seeing results. It has been fascinating to see how it really works.
Mandy Calvert
Executive Recruiter
Premier Executive Solutions

Yes, I have been a big fan of Lou Adler, I have registered to his website and they always have interesting articles and web casts.

The book was detailed, well written and very informative. I have many years recruiting experience and his book was very welcoming. A good to have book.


Thanks for the continuous support Mr. Adler!

If you have the opportunity to attend his webcasts, please do so.. He is a definite leader in his profession.

Thank you Lou Adler. Hire with your Head is a great resource for recruiting. This book not only explains why you need to use performance-based hiring but it tells you HOW to follow through with implementing the process. This book is going to be an excellent tool for me to utilize in coaching my hiring managers to help me create accurate job requirements based on Performance Profiles. Hire with your Head is a great resource for any person involved in the hiring and screening of potential employees. I just wish someone gave me the book earlier in my career!

Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-Based Hiring to Build Great Teams
Fairly new to recruiting, this book is a must have for all hiring managers. It is an invaluable tool for any individual given the great responsibility of hiring for any organization.

Wow this book is well written and an eye opener. It should be read by all americans. Big oil is using the government to cheat the people.

I felt the book was well documented and the point that the US is being held hostage by the foreign oil producers. The money made by the Islamic Oil producers is being used to destroy the United States through its economy. We have oil and alternate sources of energy and we should be using them.

I was recently sent a preview copy of an upcoming publication, "Energy Victory," written by Robert Zubrin. The book attempts to layout a plan for America to break free of its oil addiction ­ a path that, he claims, current US Policy will never achieve. Although the book's main focus is on energy solutions, Zubrin does spend a significant amount on time on the genealogy of terror, America's tumultuous relationship with OPEC and debunking myths.

Having not paid much attention to the history of terrorism (although I would argue that Americans, should spend more time learning about this), I found this section interesting. It brings to light a little more urgency for Americans to find solutions to replace oil that is purchased from the volatile Middle East - an area that is obviously not friendly to Americans.

So what are the solutions, sensei? Renewable fuels such as ethanol and methanol. Before you start arguing that ethanol is not a solution because it has less energy, this is not true. Ethanol has a positive net energy. Updated in 2004, the most definitive analysis (by USDA) concludes that for every 100 BTUs used to grow corn and process it into ethanol, 167 BTUs of ethanol is produced. In other words, ethanol generates 67 percent more energy than it takes to produce. Zubrin explains that the misinformation has been fueled by ethanol detractor David Pimentel, in conjunction with Tad Patzek, whose research is so out of date and scientifically unsound that his own university, Cornell University, discredits the research.

As ethanol is gaining traction, with the support of the Big Three, especially GM in bringing Flex-Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) to market, and more than 50 percent of American's fuel being blended with some percentage of ethanol, and more than 1300 E85 stations across the U.S., Zubrin says that many people are not happy with the developments. "Not everyone is happy with this development, of course, and the reasons are plain to see. The 4.9 billion gallons of US ethanol produced in 2006 took ten billion dollars away from the oil cartel. Thus it is hardly surprising to find the ethanol program regularly denounced by journalistic hired guns and other business analysts associated with oil industry funded think tanks, as well as by ideological libertarians whose sensibilities it offends." Ha, take that!

Zubrin continues in his book to layout long­term plan for reducing America's energy dependence on foreign oil using an "alcohol economy," and spends some time ruminating about how the world can help defeat global warming while simultaneously reducing fossil fuel use. Interestingly enough, he supports raising all countries' Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which may come at the short-term expense of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, but over time, as fossil fuels are phased out, greenhouse gas emissions would decrease.

This is not a lighthearted reading for those who want the top line view of an issue. This is a very technical book (scientific terms, chemical equations, etc.) that delves fairly deep into each topic he covers but there are moments of humor that keep the book moving. Ultimately, I liken Energy Victory to the famous 1776 book, Common Sense, by Thomas Paine. Paine authored the first book on freedom from British rule, and Zubrin has authored the book on freedom from foreign oil.

For more reviews like this go to [...]

Brilliant ideas for solving the recurring energy crises once and for all! Must-read for every American, especially politicians. Thank you Mr. Zubrin!

A serious book calls for a serious review and I will try to provide that. Zubrin covers a lot of ground so I will take this by chapter. First, the author has a PhD in nuclear engineering so he knows the science. The first two chapters provide the rationale for his campaign to replace petroleum with methanol, and to a lesser degree ethanol. The book was written a year ago and the effects of food crop diversion to ethanol have now emphasized the negatives of ethanol. Methanol is made from non-food, non-sugar, sources and is a better compound for fuel. The first five chapters provide his argument that Saudi Arabia is an enemy funding terrorism and the Wahhabi heresy of Islam. He makes good points but is a bit more excited than I would be. Another review makes the point that China will still be buying oil from the Saudis no matter what we do. Still, the price will fall as methanol, nuclear fission and fusion technology provide alternatives.

Chapter 6 tells the story of flex-fuel technology and the remarkable life story of Roberta Nichols, a woman engineer who succeeded in adapting alcohol to motor fuel and doing it cheaply. She was a great pioneer and died too young to see her accomplishments recognized. Chapter 7 tells the story of several politically supported alternatives and explains why they are not practical. One section of this chapter tells the story of a professor whose poorly done research survives as a major argument against ethanol as a practical alternative to petroleum. There is a good deal of technology in this chapter but it is well explained.

Chapter 8 discusses the potential for under-developed countries to benefit from a change to alcohol-based energy production. Methanol can be made from agricultural waste products and offers these societies a future that cannot occur if poor countries are beholden to the OPEC oil cartel. There is some economics and politics in this chapter but I agree with it all. Chapter 9 discusses the Brazilian experience, in which Brazil has freed itself from dependence on OPEC oil. An issue of Time magazine from this spring has a feature story that misrepresents the Brazilian experience so it would be good for those interested to read this as an antidote to the lies of what Zubrin calls the "Malthusians," those who do not want us to solve the problem. They prefer a smaller population, no matter how that goal is achieved. Al Gore is the most prominent member of this group.

Chapter 10 is almost the best part of the book as he describes the true role of CO2 and global warming. He shows the present levels of CO2 are actually rather low when compared to previous epochs, such as the Holocene Maximum, a warm period when humans emerged from Africa and spread across the globe. He does warn that CO2 will become a problem as other societies move to an economic model similar to ours. As they prosper, their CO2 production will rise and that does constitute a risk for the planet. That risk will be reduced and eliminated by the suggestions made in the book.

Chapter 11 goes on to discus other forms of energy, especially the promise of nuclear fusion which, once harnessed, will ensure the future of the human race for millions of years. This is his field and he knows it thoroughly.

Chapter 12 is a well-done discussion of the role of the petroleum engine in the history of the 20th century, from the "Miracle of the Marne" in 1914, when a French division was rushed into battle in a thousand Parisian taxicabs, to the origins of World War II. Chapter 13 finishes up with a summary of the history of Islam and the plans of the Wahhabis to conquer the world and establish a new caliphate to replace the Ottoman Empire.

This is a serious book with a lot of information, some of it rather technical for someone who never studied chemistry. His opinions on political issues are strong and, at times, a bit intemperate. The fusion program has been mishandled. The ethanol lobby has distorted the market, for example maintaining tariffs on Brazilian ethanol that would otherwise lower the price for American drivers.

He is absolutely right on the big issues. We need to get off our addiction to middle eastern oil. He does not get into the production of oil in our own territory and I want to know more about that. I have ordered another book to do so. Bacterial engineering to produce oil and other carbon compounds, as Craig Venter and others plan to do, is not covered. This is a big field and there is a lot of misinformation. This book is a big help and should be read by anyone seeking information on alternatives. I'm not sure methanol is the only answer but it is a big piece of it and this is the place to learn about it.

I picked this book up at a Scholastic book fair ten years ago, when I was in the third grade, and I absolutely loved it. This series and the Animorph series were my group of friends far-and-away favorites. I recommend this book to any young readers - it is enthralling. If you want to get your kids into fantasy, get them this book!

I don't really like realistic fiction, as many mysteries are. My reading teacher is making us read mysteries now, and I only really like sci fi and fantasy. Now, I can read a fantasy and fit in the requirements for the book.
I haven't read these books yet, but i am sure I will love them based on the reviews. I loved books apparently like them such as Pendragon (by DJ MacHale) and Eragon (by Christopher Paolini).

I read the first book...forever ago...in my small local public library. I fell in love with it. Then, on a whim, I searched for it to see if any of the new books had come out. Strangely over the years, they had! I think I'm going to go order some of the used books since they are all long out of print.

I totally suggest the book to any young reader. ...

I have read the first four books recently, and I am in love with them! My favorite characters are Pixle and the Unicorns- they are wonderful! Dondar is my favorite world because of the Unicorns and Dragons, and I love all of the magical trials they go through. These books are sooo incredible, and everyone should read them!

When I first looked at this book I thought it would be strange but when I started to read it I was transported to another dimenion. I was amazed by the story and how it was described. The way he wrote it made it seem as if you were traveling along with them and fighting by their side. I highly recommend this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!