Home and Family Books

This book is the second in the series about the kids in a neighborhood in Florida (see "Crossing Jordan" for list). The main character is real preteen dealing with the uncertainty of the foster care system. It is a book about a girl who not only survives, but also builds a life for herself and thrives among an unlikely family. She is a character full of life and determination. A great read for 4th grade through beginning high school! This book is full of North Florida local color (the real Florida away from the glow of Disney World). I know because it is set in our town and she captures it to a T with all of its fun and quirkiness! It makes a great read aloud! My son begs me to read more each night!!

I love the characters in this book. They have flaws and virtues and could all realistically exist in the pretend neighborhood of Anna Casey's world. (which is loosely based on a a very real neighborhood that is located a few blocks from the school where I am a media specialist.) Many of the students that have already read, "Crossing Jordan," eagerly read this second novel of Adrian Fogelin and enjoy it very much. Not only because they recognize characters from the first book, but because there is much adventure and character driven
comedy in this book as well.
I have always felt that the cover of this book did not reflect the quality of the story within. I noticed that the cover has been changed--but it is still a cover to attract elementary school girls--while there is much in this story to interest both elementary and middle school boys as well. I'd like to see the Vietnam vet portrayed with a wooded scene and the two main characters hiding from him on the cover. This book is well written and entertaining and still deserves a more intriguing cover.

This book was one of the best books I have ever read! In this book Anna and her friend Eb are living with a foster parent named Ms. Dupree and they are trying to fit into her environment! Other events also make this book interesting! This was such a good book I could not stop reading it!In the end Anna learns her place in the world!

Brilliant!!! Rabbi Shlomo Riskin shares his insights of Judaism's meaningful and humane family rituals with the reader.

This has been a wonderful addition to Shabbat's in our home. It is full of insight and wisdom. We enjoy using this as part of our family Shabbat Celebrations.

This collection of songs and prayers for the Jewish home is collected and annotated by one of the great Jewish teachers of our day, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin the communal Rabbi of Efrat. Rabbi Riskin's teachings about the importance of the Jewish family table in Jewish life are also presented in his very moving and special 'Haggadah'.
This collection should add to the 'Oneg' around the Shabbat table.

Rarely do I find a character in a novel I adore as much as Trinka Daniels, whose mother takes the eleven year old girl to a little house on Pockettown Road and leaves her to survive by her own devices while the mother tries to wangle a marriage proposal from a man who has made it plain he "don't want no kids." She promises Trinka that it won't be long until she is able to convince the boyfriend to change his mind, and then they will all be one happy family.
I am fascinated by Trinka's creation of a family for herself from her surroundings and the people she encounters. She has an indomitable spirit and an ability she isn't even aware of to bring about victories in others who are totally without self confidence.
The author has an incredible knack for creating unique characters and putting them in unique situations, and I look forward to many more books filled with many more of them. Thank you, Alison Winfree Pickrell!

The author draws us into an unusual combination of an old woman's faith in the Scriptures, and an abandoned child's faith in her own imagination and resourcefulness. There is something for everyone - action, suspense, a solid moral to be learned, fears to overcome, good versus evil, innocent humor, memories of love, and even garter belt revelations! The book is a quick, creative read and leaves the reader hopeful for the future of the characters.

This book is unlike any I've ever read. Trinka's (and Ms. Pickrell's) imagination is phenomenal. Ms. Pickrell's ability to evoke the reader's senses immediately placed me in my grandmother's orderly home. The symbolism of the Ugly Duckling was apt, and the ending was surprising, not predictable like so many books.

"Once I opened 'At the Eleventh Hour,' I found it hard to put down. I looked forward to returning to it each evening, and when I finished there was sadness for me in saying goodbye to both Susan and her mom. I see the book as a chapter in a mindful life and I look forward to the sequel."
Lisa Grinnell
Kusinara
Center for Conscious Living & Aging
Gila, NM

At The Eleventh Hour: Caring For My Dying Mother is author Susan Stone's own story, when the cancer diagnosis of her mother caused her to interrupt her life in a Buddhist monastery to cope with the reality of her mother's impending death. Closeness, loss, sadness and renewal are the hallmarks of this introspective yet warm book. Written with strength, poignant memory, and keen awareness of karma, At The Eleventh Hour is singularly affirming and highly recommended reading for students of Buddhism with respect to issues of death and dying, as well as anyone attempting to cope with the aging and infirmities of their parent's final days.

The book is a lot like the old, only with updated information, and more things have been added to it.

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.

This is simply the best reference book for self sufficient country living ever, bar none. From building to growing to conserving to preserving to raising animals to cooking... recreation, knitting, herbs, knots, quilting, cider, canoeing, candle making, soaps, blacksmithing, not to mention beer and wine making; and everything in between and extending from both ends - this book has it all. The table of contents only touches on what's contained. If you can think of it, this book probably has it. It is *the* encyclopedia of living the "basics."

At the end of the movie adaptation of H.G.Wells classic "The Time Machine", the main character escapes to the future where humanity has forgotten all basic knowledge and skills. The friends that he leaves behind discover that he has taken only three books with him, and we're left to wonderingly consider which three - and which three we might bring. This book would be one of my three. After all, what culture could survive long without beer, smoked meats, cheese and wine?

This recording is so fun! It has sound effects and different voices for each character. It makes it seem like you are watching a movie in your mind. I think kids would really enjoy this version, I sure did!

This is a review mainly of the unabridged recording of "The Bad Beginning" read by Tim Curry, with an interview of Lemony Snicket by Leonard C. Marcus. And the song "Scream and Run Away preformed by the Gothic Archies. This is also a review of the hardback book .

Initial listening of this book brought horror and disgust (which in this case means repugnance.) Determined to finish the story despite the author's constant warnings, I must say that I became enamored of his style.

There are several pluses to listening to the recording. The pace of the recording helps keep you going when you would have set the book aside. The absence of the books illustrations by Bret Helquist allowed you to imagine a more sinister Count Olaf and a cuter, yet with a tad of tomboy, Violet. Now the significant plus is the unmistakable voice of Tim Curry of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Oscar" (1991 as Dr. Poole) fame. His interpretation of the voices gave just as much panache to the characters as Lemony's writing.

Not in the book, but as additions to the recording are two significant items that help with the understanding of the story, where it came from and where it is going. First is an interview with the author. It covers many of the standard questions asked in an interview; the answers and the communication style is some what unique and a little over the top. Also there is a recording of a song that Mr. Snicket says is played by the Baudelaire memorial orchestra; I have since found that it was realy preformed by the Gothic Archies, written by Gay and Loud.

I do not want to give away the plot however I can tell you that at one point they are forced to eat "boiled chicken, boiled, potatoes and `blanched'- here means `boiled'- string beans"

I downloaded this book from Audible. My sons and I listened to it in the car and finished the whole thing in one day. When we went on errands, they even asked if they could stay in the car and listen while I did what I had to do.

We loved it!! It was silly, educational, and entertaining all at once, with suspense thrown in. The boys' favorite character is Sunny, while I rather like Violet.

Especially engaging was the multicast recording. We have since missed this in the subsequent Lemony Snicket audiobooks.

I want to warn those who have seen the SOUE film: Expect something different in the books. The film combined three books, and not very well. The books have much more substance.

My daughter loves reading and reads everything, including small print on cereal boxes, so recently I had to deal with an issue of trying to help her go through the ocean of books and find the best ones.
This book is so far the best guide I found, very well organized - by age group, genre and subject; it includes short synopsys for each book, notes to parents and further reading recommendations. I am glad I found it and I would recommend it to every parent - whether their kids love the books or love to hate them.

When I first saw this book, I just knew I would love it. I am a HUGE reader, and there's no way I hate to read. But I liked this book anyway. You will find 125 books in here, which will appeal to reluctant readers. I've read several of the books featured in this book, and I've thoroughly enjoyed every single one of them. There are several parts to the book: books for 5-8 years old, books for 7-10 years old, books for 8-12 years old, and books for ages 10 and up. Each book featured has a picture, an exerpt from the book, a summery of the book, reasons why the book would appeal to reluctant readers, who might like it, types of illustrations, and so much more. There are even more reccomended books in the back. This is truly a fantastic resource, whethere you hate to read or not.

My 10 year old daughter "thinks" she hates to read. She has read several of the suggested books & has loved them. Her school requires her to read so many books, of her choice, every grading period. Before receiving this book, she would start reading a book & then stop saying that the book was boring. This is a must-get for any child who "thinks" they hate to read

As background material for this book, the reader is referred to "The Scientist in the Crib" (Dr. Gopnik, et al; Perrenial, 2001). It offers a fresh and detailed evaluation of the language acquisition process by infants. At about 6 months of age, a critical change seems to occur. The specific pronunciation patterns of the language(s) heard begin to be retained in a very focused manner. Also see "The Monday Tape" (The Snow Water Corporation) at Akilo.com for more insight into this process. This audio tape, one of a series, provides multilingual speech patterns for infants. These tapes are available exclusively through Amazon.com (not available in stores). It appears that they should help an infant (birth to age 2) gain good pronunciation skills for many widely used languages.

I recently read this book during my pregnancy, having read other books like, "What to expect when you're expecting", and the Mayo Clinic Guide, and this was the best book out of all of the books I have read. I found it well-organized, concise, easy to understand, and extremely informative. I highly recommend it to any expectant mother or father!

This is a great baby book (and I'm not just biased because I'm one of the baby models in it!). There are plenty of helpful facts and ideas, as well as a lot of useful how-to.

The BFG is the Big Friendly Giant whose values get him in a heap of trouble among bigger and not-so-friendly giants. My kids LOVE this story that we originally borrowed from the library. When I saw amazon's great price, I had to buy 2. One for us and one to gift away. Roald Dahl is at his best here and as a teacher, I enjoyed pondering the potential geography lesson applications from this story. No matter why you buy it the book is loaded with teachable moments and lots of heart.

I gave this to my 7 year old grandson so he could listen to it before we went to a children's theater to see The Big Friendly Giant. He loved listening to the 4 hours of story, and because he knew the story and all the characters, the play really came alive for him. The actual book is above his reading level, so the tape was a good way for him to hear the story.

This CD is great! The reader does an awesome job with the voices of different characters. The book is wonderful. The two are combined, here, for great entertainment.

I also made several recipes from the cookbook within the first week, and my entire family was impressed with the results. The food was easy to prepare and turned out tasting fantastic. The fact that it's healthy is a great bonus. In fact, it tastes too good to be healthy.

I just bought this book a few days ago, and I've already prepared several recipes. They were terrific! The recipes are easy to follow, and most do not contain expensive or hard to find ingredients. Each recipe also includes a nutritional breakdown of calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, fiber and protein. This book is a must have for health conscious cooks!

I have too many cookbooks! This one is the one I go to most often. Nearly all of the recipes are so tasty and easy! The cornflake breading isn't so great, but otherwise, ingredients are easy to come by! Lot's of pictures make this book even nicer. One of my favorites is the Turkey Marsala.