Day of the Dead Books

Obviously by my username you can tell that I am a fan of all things zombie related. I own a sizeable collection of zombie/post apocalyptic literature, and my favorites tend to get reread several times over. Bowie Ibarra's Down The Road, and Down The Road: On The Last Day are two of the books that I have returned to recently. The stories are fast paced and action packed. The characters are people that you can relate to, not overly heroic and impossibly endowed with the abilities to fight off the undead. In actuality, his characters are very real and he portrays their weaknesses and fallability with skill.

Mr. Ibarra's descriptive writing helps you to envision the work like a movie being played in your mind. Yes, there are some sexual situations that seemed to take place at bizarre times, but then again many people do strange things while under extreme pressure. To me, the sex scenes only added to the story and helped to flesh out the relationships between key characters. I wasn't so keen on them in the first book, Down The Road. But in his second installment, Mr. Ibarra uses the sex scenes to their fullest potential, which helped to give you a sense of a character's psychology, and a deeper understanding of their motivation.

The gore was well written and vividly depicted. You could see the splashes of blood, you could feel the bones crunch, and you could smell the death within the story! The dialogue was very real. The author chose to have his characters speak like "Joe America", in other words, they were normal people using average everyday language. No eloquent speeches are made just before someone kicks it! (Like you often find in death scenes in the movies or other books!)

And of course, you find that conspiracy theories abound in this one! I am a fan of them, although I do not swallow everything, hook, line, and sinker. Mr. Ibarra gives you some food for thought, and it is written in a way that does not disrespect differing opinions. It is completely plausible that government as well as society might do things drastically different than policy might dictate under those conditions. Rules can and will get broken. People will take charge of their own destiny. And people in power will do whatever it takes to maintain their power, regardless of the cost. Look at what we've just been through in our own real world experience politically. I fully believe that corruption exists and that Big Brother considers us expendable. How many lives lost does it take before we realise that the Iraq war was completely unjustifiable? Well, the rest of the world realises, but our previous leader seemed to have his own agenda. I am thankful that he is finally out of office. But back to the review!

I personally do not care to read zombie books that aspire to be compared to Cormack McCarthy or another literary great. Not that Mr. Ibarra doesn't have the chops, no! I just prefer the horror stylings of his predecessors, like King, Koontz, Straub, and Barker. It is not necessary to think too hard while reading them, but to let the story wash over you and take you away for a little while. This is what Bowie Ibarra's books do for you. And it is why I keep coming back to them.

I own many, many horror books. Some are quite good, and some are real stinkers. By looking at them you can tell which are my favorites, not that you could see a picture of them here, but trust me when I say that I've bought a set of replacement copies of Mr. Ibarra's work because I have read them so many times they had become well worn. I look forward to reading his third installment, and any other title he may release. I'm pretty sure I'll have to purchase double the copies this time around as well! One for reading, and then one for reading again later on "down the road", HA! Pardon the pun!

Down The Road, and Down The Road: On The Last Day belong in everyone's zombie book collection. I cannot recommend them enough! Thanks for reading my review, I hope it was helpful.

Robin Eduardo aka "The Zombie Diva"

The book was good in all aspects of zombiedom. I have only one question. Does the author hate America?

With the exception that this writer is very paranoid of the government, I enjoyed this book. If i could be so bold as to say one small critical thing? There were so many characters I found it hard to keep track. Everytime I got to know someone the chapter would end and I would meet someone knew. This could only be me perhaps, as I have always liked the more tightknit groups like in a Romero movie. Three or four main characters works for me better than a slew of characters.
A fun book,and if you liked the author's first one, this one won't disapoint. J.H.

This is one of the best zombie books I have ever read, and I have read a few. Take a moment, order and read the thing, you will be glad you did. I cannot wait for more.

Much like the first Down the Road book, I really enjoyed The Last Day. It sticks to the simple, but effective zombie format, with a little bit of Tin Foil Hat paranoia thrown in to help move the story along.

The book is a fast read and the action is good. The gore is described well, and it turns out to be a very fun read.

The sex scenes, like in the first book, seem a little awkward and uneccessary, as if they were thrown in mostly for the author's enjoyment, but it's not enough of a negative to impact the story. Also, the story could've done with a few less characters, but that's just me nitpicking.

Both books are heavy on the NWO\Illuminati\Global Elite conspiracy theory, with the U.N. attempting to take control of the country. I don't neccessarily subscribe to those consipiracy theories, (I do know people who do), but I do find them wildly entertaining, so it only added to the story for me.

All in all, it's a fun read. If you enjoy Zombie fiction, than by all means, buy not just this book, but the first Down the Road book as well. You'll be glad you did.

Annie is working on a profile of the new New Haven police chief, Tony Rodriguez, for her paper when he is unceremoniously gunned down in front of a local theatre before she even manages to finish the article. He had seemed like a very `benign' fellow, and Annie is puzzled as to who would want him dead, so of course must begin to dig deeper.

Annie and her new boyfriend Vinnie the private investigator are on the outs after an argument at Christmas, but why is Vinnie's brother Rocco hanging around trying to get them back together? And what is his connection to a mysterious Hispanic girl who also seems tied in some way to a body that was found in the river--and to another body that is found in the trunk of Annie's beloved, battered Civic? And what is Annie's mother's role in the whole grand scheme of things?

Lots of questions, but Annie's a reporter and finding answers is what she does. Oh, and if you remember in my previous reviews of this series I mentioned the `animal' theme--the first book featured cows, the second one chickens. No pigs were found in this book...the theme animal here was...BEES! No, I'm not kidding...and it's an odd role they play, too.

This series has quickly become one of my favorites; I love Annie's brassy, sassy character (with Annie's propensity towards using four-letter words, this is definitely NOT a cozy!) and the secondary characters are also interesting, although Annie's menfolk don't seem to have much depth at this point--all they seem to do is smile enigmatically, kiss energetically and show up at the right time to ask, "Are you all right?" There is definitely some room for growth there. Heh.

There is a `torn between two lovers' element to this book, but for some reason it doesn't `bug' me as it does with some other books--and it SEEMS to be resolved at the end of the book. But then again, I thought it was resolved at the end of the last one too! WhatEVER! I enjoyed this entry in the series--and I'm looking forward to November and Shot Girl.

Annie Seymour is employed by the New Haven, Connecticut's newspaper, The New Haven Herald as a police reporter. She is following a lead after a body comes floating to the surface of the harbor. As she follows leads, she gets deeper and deeper into a scheme that is allowing illegal Mexican immigrants to gain fake green cards.

Annie has two ex's out there, Tom the police officer she quit seeing when she fell hard for Vinny, a private detective. Vinny and her relationship went south over their Christmas plans, and four months later, she still has not spoken to him. When Vinny's brother turns up to shadow her, telling her he is writing a novel about a female reporter and needs background, she finds it suspicious but lets him tag along in hopes of getting to see Vinny again.

As Annie learns more about what she should not know, she has trouble piecing her story together. The plot twists and turns and involves secondary characters that make this an amazingly well written mystery. Annie is complex and emotionally driven; she falls quickly into the plot and needs answers - when someone starts trying to hurt her, she just needs to know more before she can back off. Finding out her mother is involved makes it a more complex situation, and even though she knows it is a bad scene, she still keeps burrowing on.

This is a great read with just enough romance to keep romance readers happy. The mystery is fast paced, well developed and heart wrenching. This reader read this novel straight through, and enjoyed it immensely. Nothing prepared her for whom the villains were, they are complex characters who are not what they seem...

As part of the Annie Seymour Mystery series, this reader was intrigued, and will be searching out more of Karen E. Olson's novels. This is the third in the series, and there is a fourth due out in November 2008, nine months may be long a time to wait for a novel, but I suspect the fourth in this series, SHOT GIRL will be well worth the wait!


Review Courtesy of LoveRomancesandmore

Karen E. Olson's third book is an engaging fun read. I feel the stories are getting better and funnier. I won't repeat the comments on Annie, she is great. Loved the action in the New Haven Herald. Now, when is the next one coming out?

Laura Lippman is quoted in the cover blurb as saying that the author has "a wonderful sense of place." I agree. I lived in New Haven for a number of years, and had several pleasant little flashbacks to streets and restaurants and bookstores. However, that was all that was keeping me going. The plot is thin, ragged, and unengaging. I kept turning pages, thinking that soon I would begin to CARE about what was happening. I gave up on page 169. Didn't even care enough to cheat and read the ending. Lee Child (whose works I enjoy enormously) is quoted as saying, "Absolutely everything a first-rate crime novel should be." Shame on you, Lee.

I absolutely loved this book. Karen Olson takes her readers on a non-stop ride with great plot twists. And as exciting as the plot is, the book is truly centered on Annie Seymour herself - a winning combination of tough and vulnerable. There are wonderful sparks in terms of the romantic leads, as well, and intriguing details about life in New Haven.

Reading this gave me a much needed vacation. GREAT STUFF!

Pretty much like History of the Dead or WWZ, this book is a collection of survivors' accounts that describe their experience of having lived through the outbreak of the infection. It is an understatement to say that not a great deal of them makes it through... alive. But compared to the two previously listed books, this book has two main particularities:
- unity of time and place, ie, the outbreak is described by various people of the same town, at the same time.
- these accounts interfere -and are intertwined- with one another. It is sometimes difficult to spot, but each story is linked to another one in the book. Tiny details give out these links.

But what should have been a thorough analysis of people's reaction in front of such a catastrophe -precisely because of the unity in time and place- turns quickly into a tedious collection of accounts that, because of their lack of underlying message -be it political, social, cultural or else- sound hollow. Example? Well, if I have to sum up in as few words as possible what the book is about, I would say... uh... I would say... say... well, that's a book about people's reaction in front of a zombie-generating outbreak. Full stop. With WWZ? That's the illustration of mankind's adaptation against a termination threat, that's the shift of balance between poor nations' resistance methods and rich nations', that's... Well, the list goes endless. But since The Dead Walk Diaries is definitely NOT WWZ -or Day By Day Armageddon, for that matter- there's no confusion in the credit to give to this book. Just look at my mark above...

This book was pretty fun to read if you could overlook the typographical errors and didn't read to much into the actual events such as people writing until the very last moment before they're eaten. Also, the book was a bit short and I would have preferred more stories from people although I did like how some of the stories tied into eachother. If your looking for a masterpiece in zombie short story anthology than I would recommend "World War Z" by Max Brooks otherwise this was just fine.

This is an alright zombie book, nothing ground breaking. My only complaint is that the novel extremely short you can finish it in a few hours tops. I will be checking the page count before I purchese another title in this series ( I am sure there will be more).

The dead walk diaries was a fun quick little read. I enjoyed the different perspectives in each chapter. I have read a number of books about the walking dead and this was a pretty good read.

I love the zombie genre, and every once and a while I'll search the independent books on the subject in the hopes of finding another gem like "Day by Day Armageddon." After running across this book, I thought I'd take a chance and read it. To my chagrin, the first chapter dashed my hopes.

Let's start with the basics. If there was an editor to this book, he or she should be barred from ever working in the industry again as there are copious amounts of typos and printing mistakes. For example, you'll see "All ways" instead of "Always" and "three every days" instead of "every three days." If these were the only examples then I could see past them. Yet these just begin to list the litany of errors. Then we come to the grammatical mistakes. Typically one will find an extreme overuse of commas in independently produced books. While this work avoids that extreme, it unfortunately swings to the other side. It's almost as if the author decided, "You know, I'll just skip demarcating clauses or complete sentences. Who needs that bother?"

The stories themselves are on the same level as the editorial process. Several stories are diary entries. Although a few of these try to explain how the person had the time to laboriously write down his or thoughts, others assume that the individual simply refused to put the pen down until the zombies chomped his or her fingers off. The reader just needs to finish the first story to find such a wondrous example. Then comes the zombies themselves. Most stories depict them as following Romero rules, but others describe their movement patterns as fast or hurried. Lastly, the stories themselves are highly unoriginal. I had to force myself to finish the book. The only motivation I had for doing so wasn't to see if it got any better but was rather to discover how much worse it could get.

All in all, if you have absolutely nothing better to do with your time than to read an atrocious book, then I highly recommend "The Dead Walk Diaries." The only positive the book possesses is that at least it's very short, so your pain won't continue on for too long.

Couldn't make it past 20 or so pages. The murders just happened - no sense of menace or evil. Characters are just plain ridiculous i.e. when the beautiful ATF agent and the hardboiled, coming out of rehab early detective, have this blathering word spar over who's name is more weird or stupid or whatever it was. Like grade schoolers making fun of one another. Once that was over the detective "scampered" into the kitchen. I'm sorry I can't take a "scampering" detective seriously. Bambi scampers. Yuck - don't waste your money.

Suffice it to say, this is a very bad book.
It's poorly written. Attempts at humor are painful. It's pretentious. It's beneath anyone hired to teach English. Shame.

I found The Ascension, by Michael G. Cornelius something new for me. I do not usually read horror books,because they scare me , and this book did that. Once I started reading, all the images of the story came to life. At night some of the pages in the book were right with me. The story was fast moving, scary, funny, entrusting, and blood chilling. A great Novel to read again.

"The Ascension" by Michael G. Cornelius is truly a book that screams to be read. Following in the traditions of horror, suspense, and intrigue of such great authors as Dan Brown and Michael Crichton, "The Asension" takes readers on an extraordinary journey through fear and faith, leaving readers with a chill up their spines and a thirst for more.
His characters are well thought out and portrayed, each with distinct personalities and accompanying tribulations that reel you in right from the beginning. Det. Cal Evans and Agent Velvet Rabinowitz have fantastic chemistry for the perfect sleuth team, with just the right amount of sexual tension. The secondary characters, while doing a great job of supporting the story, are just as fascinating as their main counterparts leaving you to care about them just as much as Cal and Velvet.
The action and suspense most definitely keep readers on the edge of their Lazyboys, leaving them to stir at the slightest tap at the window and waking up the sleepy, dark hollows of their own fear. Cornelius does a great job in holding the suspense right to the end and leaves the reader with just one lingering question: "Has this evil truly ended, or is this just the beginning of something even more menacing?" And he definitely leaves room for an equally terrifying sequel...
Michael G. Cornelius is undeniably a writer to keep your eye on.

The premise for this book is extremely well conceived and based on historical events. More importantly, the story pulls you through the pages while scaring the pants off of you. Keeps you guessing until the end.

Clare Dudman's first novel for adults (she published a children's book in 1995) takes the form of a series of vignettes strung bead-like from the memory of her subject, German scientist Alfred Wegener (1880-1930). If Wegener's name isn't familiar to you it's because you don't have a geologist in your life: he is the father of modern plate tectonics. Though recognized today for his contributions, Wegener was derided during his lifetime for his theory of Continental Drift--that the earth's continents are not static but are constantly moving, and that their movement over billions of years can explain various geological and biological phenomena.

Channeling Wegener's voice, Dudman tells his story from childhood, through his days as a student, to adulthood, a full scientific and personal life that included the deaths of siblings, military service, marriage and children, repeated expeditions to the frozen reaches of Greenland, and ridicule at the hands of his scientific peers. Occasionally the older Wegener, the man telling the story, interjects to remark on his youthful pomposity, say, or to hint at future events. But for the most part one is allowed to lose oneself in the reading, which very often means finding yourself alongside Wegener on the Greenlandic ice, behind a sledge in minus 30 or 40 or 50 degrees, the white underfoot difficult to distinguish from the white above the horizon:

"I look no farther than the pony's hindquarters. To look any farther would be to see the bank of snow, appearing almost vertically in front of me. I don't want to see. I don't want to know. If I can just travel as far as the pony, if I can just do that. I look no farther. I celebrate each one of these small victories in silence, and then go on again. Sometimes I tell myself that when I reach that point just a little ahead of me we will stop and rest, or stop and make camp. But we don't. ... There is just more and more snow, more and more ice, and the only thing that changes is that sometimes it is deeper, sometimes softer, sometimes breaks away in pieces, and sometimes groans a little under foot or crunches. But it is all just snow. Or ice. Part of a slope that doesn't seem to end, just goes on and on, until my clothes are wet with effort."

When you walk away from this book what you're sure to take with you are Dudman's descriptions of ice, its different textures and temperatures and colors, rendered so vividly on the page you can almost feel its cold.

One Day the Ice Will Reveal All its Dead is not a straightforward account of a man, nor quite like anything I've read before. Often Dudman approaches the episodes of Wegener's life that she has elected to include obliquely, from some wholly unexpected angle. Here, for example, is Wegener during his days as an astronomy student at the University of Berlin, adding his corrections to the Alfonsine astronomical tables:

"It is a printed copy I hold now, a late edition, the famous Parisian one of 1545. The paper is cream, thick, wizened with age, and the printing is imperfect--some of the curved Latin letters have bled a little from their moulded fonts--for this is a new art, not yet properly mastered. The owners of these tables have made notes, and with time the ink has become a gentle sepia, unobtrusive, part of the book. I too am adding parts of myself to the pages: oils are leaking from the skin of my hands and molecules of fat are smearing themselves invisibly on its surface. Part of the book is also becoming part of me: some of the ink is leaching minutely from the paper and into my pores, and some of the grains of the paper are detaching themselves, floating into the air and being drawn irretrievably into my lungs. In these small ways we are blending together, the wizard and his book of spells."

It is of course always true to say that no two writers will get across the same piece of information in precisely the same way, but given an infinite number of writers instructed to describe Wegener at his astronomical computations, I can't imagine any producing a picture remotely like the one Dudman paints here.

My complaints about the book are few, and almost entirely unrelated to the writing itself. I found Dudman's final chapters slightly confusing, those in which she details Wegener's last, fatal expedition to Greenland. The explorer's movements might have been easier to follow, however, if a series of maps tracing Wegener's expeditions had been included in the book. I would also have appreciated the addition of a timeline and photographs. Perhaps these can be included in future editions.

Dudman has managed to blend the various aspects of Wegener the man--the scientist and explorer, sibling and son and husband and father--into a book that is equal parts science and poetry. The result is a startling accomplishment, and well worth the read.

[Disclaimer: I have come to know the author of One Day the Ice Will Reveal All its Dead virtually, through our respective blogs and by email. I hope that our acquaintance has not influenced my review of her book.]

Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)

German scientist Alfred Wegener, whose Continental Drift theory met with years of derision, is the focus of this lyrically told fictionalized biography. Known, if at all, for his theory on the continents, Wegener actually delved into more than one discipline and Dudman wisely chooses to show the totality of his life rather than focus on his major claim to semi-fame. In fact, his battle over the continents is less interesting than his several trips to the Greenland ice sheet.
As much biography as fiction, there isn't much in terms of narrative, the book simply follows Wegener through childhood, when scientific curiosity begins; young adulthood when his interests begin to focus; adulthood and its accompanying issues of marriage, fatherhood, World War I, and the introduction of his theory; and finally later adulthood where he battles for his theory against the many naysayers.
The language shifts easily between the poetic and the scientific, with the two sometime merging in some of the best passages of the book. The most "exciting" parts of the book, in terms of adventure, are the expeditions to Greenland, though I personally never found them more than interesting, certainly not as compelling or mythic as similar tales of Shackleton or Franklin. Once we leave Greenland behind and return to the fight over his theory, the book seems to lose some of its urgency. It's difficult to make scientific lectures, articles, and responses to articles particularly interesting but it's also hard to tell this part of the story without referring to such things. Things perk up a bit by the last trip to Greenland, which shifts into a more poetic stream of consciousness. By then though the book had admittedly started to drag a bit and I found myself wishing I could enjoy the writing a bit more without the accompanying sense of impatience. The close, however, is as moving as it is b beautiful.
Overall, though the book does lose some of its drive and interest, it remains well worth reading, somewhat for its subject matter but more for its characterization and its poetic depiction of the scientific imagination. Recommended.

Nowadays, the theory of plate tectonics is firmly grounded in fact. For example, from satellites in stable orbit and using lasers to bounce off them, the various continental plates can be measured moving relative to each other. But in the early 20th century, when Wegener proposed his theory, no such observations were possible. Existing evidence was far more tenuous.

Dudman attempts to recreate some of that controversy in this fictionalised biography. Based in part on actual biographies written by his wife and a colleague. Some of spirit of the scientific debates come through well in portions of this book. Personally, being a physicist, I would have wished for a more detailed fleshing out of the issues. But I realise that Dudman has to pitch the book to a wider audience.

To this ends, the book seems to drift [pun intended]. The travails of Wegener tromping in the snows of Greenland are told in a somewhat incoherent stream of consciousness style. No doubt, this is meant to reflect Wegener's state of mind, as told in the first person. But the meandering also happens where he describes his experiences with his family and friends, when not on expeditions. Frankly, I could not discern much of an interesting plot.

ONE DAY THE ICE is a poetic, fictionalized biography of early 20th century German scientist Alfred Wegener. As scientists go, Wegener is pretty obscure - I hadn't heard of him before reading this book. Trained in meteorology, Wegener made several grueling trips to arctic Greenland to conduct experiments. However, he did not limit his scientific curiosity to weather. His most important theory was continental drift, which was highly controversial at the time. The compelling need to defend his theory to skeptical geologists led to him leaving his family at age 49 for a final trip to Greenland.

Early on Dudman uses the analogy of beads on a string to describe memories and it's a very fitting analogy for the flow of the book. Written in first person, Wegener reminisces about his life - moving from one set of memories to another. Dudman captures everyday sweet and bittersweet moments of love, family and deep friendships; the driving force behind a scientific mind; the beautifully bleak and hostile landscape of Greenland; and the horrific chaos of war.

This is not a standard biography with comprehensive coverage of dates and names, and is also not a scientific discourse on continental drift and other theories. ONE DAY is instead an emotional portrait of a man driven to understand the workings of the world through science. Dudman does an excellent job of setting up the times and Wegener's narrative never rings false. At times I forgot that I was reading fiction because the style was so convincing.

Not a quick, easy read, but ultimately satisfying. This will mostly appeal to history/science buffs who want to peek into the mind of a early 1900s scientist.

The physicist who gave this book three stars wants the book to be something it isn't. It's not trying to be a biography of Wegener. If Dudman wanted to write a biography of Wegener, she would have. As it stands, she has instead written a poetic, wonderfully idiosyncratic and moving portrait of a life, complete with stunning adventure and complex relationships. By eschewing a traditional plot, Dudman has freed up her story and characters to be both more real and more immediate. Amazing work. One of my favorite novels of the past few years, right up there with Edward Carey's Observatory Mansions.

I grew up in Camdenton and was 12 (same age as Greg) when this happened. Billie Dyer was an evil kid I could never stand to be near him and I hope he is still in prison!

I am shocked that she is making a profit off the crimes of her children. It isn't necessary to gather extra pity almost thirty years after the deaths of her five children.

I read this book some twenty years ago, and it still amazes me how God can turn such a heartwrenching loss, into a beautiful testimony of strength and coping. This story was written with the inspiration of The Holy Spirit, especially when you consider this was Joy Swift's first attempt at writing. Why would she write of such a tragic experience? Because we are strengthened by the testimony of others.

This book was the best book i have ever read....Its so scary that it could happen.. and so scary cause it happened just a few miles away from where i live.. great book

This book is the best. I have read it a few years ago and it gave me the courage to write my book.
THANK YOU JOY

I was intially really excited after reading this book. But then after I started looking up the claims he makes in the book on FARMS and what not, there are a LOT of mistakes. A LOT. I was very disappointed. I think he got most of his information from Hugh Nibley and didn't research anything on his own. When reading this book you need to take all the info with a grain of salt and look up the information yourself to see if what he is saying is remotely plausible.

I thought this was a very good book, he summarizes much of the evidence for the LDS church into this book, very good read, I would highly recommend it to all members of the church, it is also very entertaining...only one thing is at times dosent tell the whole truth, for example he points out how the dead sea scrolls support the Isaiah in the Book of Mormon (which is true) but it also supports the Bibles translation of Isaiah, and other scrolls support neither...but it is a very good book!!!

Dennis K. Brown has packaged a summary of the evidences of the Lord's Church unlike any that I have yet found. Many fascinating LDS member-hosted websites exist, and there are a good number of excellent Nibley and Nibley-esque books out there as well, but no one has seemed to compile all of the bases of their testimony as succinctly as Brown. The chapter on Jesus Christ alone is worth the price of the book. It confronts the vast and significant differences that exist between the LDS view of the Savior and the views of our Christian brothers and sisters of other faiths. I highly recommend Evidences of the True Church for members and non-members alike.

This book was written by my mission president, so I admit bias. Nonetheless, it is the broadest and easiest to read of the books on evidence supporting the veracity of the Church that I have found. Because it is taken from talks given by the author, it does not go into great detail, but it will give you ideas for further research as he has annotated it well. I encourage you to buy this great guide to this exciting field!

This book is beautiful and peaceful. My children have read it over and over - the words are fun to read as an adult and the children love the way Felipa thinks and tries to solve her concerns. Felipa as a child character is smart, thoughtful, proactive and sentimental. After being a regular storytime book, we used this book when a family member died a few months ago as a way to make our children see that those we love are always with us. Peruvian culture that is represented in this book is subtle and respectful. I recommend this book.

This children's book tells the story of Felipa, who lives high up in the Andes Mountains. After her grandmother dies, she looks for her soul everywhere. She wanders so far away, her father has to come find her in a field. Her father assures her that her grandmother's soul will come to her on Día de los Muertos. Felipa waits eagerly for November to arrive, and celebrates the holiday, and says goodbye to her grandmother until next year. This book has a simple explanation of the holiday for younger readers for them to understand and be able to read on their own. It's illustrations are expressive, interesting, and provide much visual stimulation. This book doesn't get into too many details of the customs associated with Día de los Muertos, but is a good introduction.

I loved this book, it really captures the spirit of the holiday as celebrated in Latin America through the eyes of a child. The paintings are gorgeous and it has a great ending.

If you have been badly hurt-- abused, battered in or by childhood events, or by a nasty divorce, this book will speak to you. It spoke volumes to me... but then I know the author. I know what courage she had, even to write the book, let alone survive the life exeriences which inspired it!

It is readable and compelling, but i can't say hw it would have affected me if i was unaware of that which i knew of the life of the author. So, you will have to decide that for yourslelf. I do know there is evidence here that we can overcome searing pain and ugly events-- and the desire of others who should love us to hurt us. and what hurt is worse than that?

If you read this book you will be changed. I was.

this was a pretty good book. however, i am not too interested in the mexican war, so i was not very interested in some parts of the story line, but if u r interested in the mexican war, this book is definetly 4 u!