Travel Books

This book is beautifully produced, with a nice variety of types of homes presented.

I got this book so I could get some decorating ideas for my own house here in California. I found the book to be helpful in what I needed it for. It shows good interior design ideas for houses in Hawaii that could easily by used in other parts of the world. I love the Hawaiian styles and I am working on recreating them in my home.

This book transported me back to those years when I grew up in Hawaii and was exposed through friends and parties to so many of these kind of houses. I see Hawaii house decor being such an accumulation of all that is good about Hawaii - reflection of its spirit and early settlers and Hawaiian aspect. I live in New Zealand and decorate ALL my houses with a strong Hawaii/South Pacific/New Zealand flavor - this book has given me such inspiration for my next house. If you grew up in Hawaii or love the spirit of Hawaii this book is a must. I was thrilled when I received the book and as I am about to start a new adventure with a house I am going to incorporate so much of what I see and read in "The Hawaiian House Now" - It is not just a book with nice photos it is a book with some great information on all that is Hawaii.

I enjoyed this book very much. It was well written, well researched and contained a wealth of beautiful photographs. The author captured the beauty of simplicity. The Hawaiian House is a wonderful coffee table book.

Whether your style is contemporary, traditional, or eclectic this book has something for everyone. I've gone through it again and again, and each time I've seen something new or gotten an idea for something I can do in my own home.

This book and the references it makes, particularly to websites, will give you accurate and fun information about getting to the highest point in each of the fifty states. There is useful general information about hking, and each of fifty descriptions is excellent. If you buy the book and join the club, you will have something to do on vacations for years to come.

This is the second copy I have purchased as a gift. Also I have one that was a gift to me. The book is outstanding for the hiker/traveler. My copy is dog-eared from all the attention it gets. It is well organized and accurate in its descriptions and directions.

After thru-hiking the AT, my wife decided she wanted to go to the highest point in at least the continimerous 48 states (plus Hawaii as a reward). I bought a membership to the Highpointers Club and a copy of this book. We've used it to summit 13 states so far including easy drive-ups like Florida and Arkansas as well as challenges like Colorado (second highest point in the lower-48) and New Mexico.

While the book isn't a detailed hiking guide, it does contain information that is absolutely necessary to reach certain highpoints, especially those on private property. Additionally, the book contains a list of local highlights and interesting sites to see.

P.S. Our favorite highpoint, so far, is Kansas' Mount Sunflower!

Highpointing is a great way to see all 50 states and get a little exercise (or a LOT of exercise in some cases), and this book is the perfect guide. I have climbed 22 Highpoints and own 4 Highpointing books. I would definitely consider this my favorite of the 4. I would still recommend owning more than one Highpointing book, but like I said, this is definitely my favorite. This one also seems to be the quickest revised and the best kept up to date. Though I suppose you can always get updates on highpointing very easily off of www.highpointers.org.

Excellent guidebook. Provides everything you need in a few concise pages for each "mountain": Location, directions, summary statistics and comparisons, maps, alternate routes, nearby attractions, and human interest. The hiking distance and vertical elevation charts for each route are instantly helpful. The absence of errors is truly amazing for a book category that is continuously travel directions, distances, and routing. This book is so reliable that I have occasionally gone into the backcountry without procuring the mandatory real map. I own many dozens of mountain guidebooks--this may be the best for quick lookup of needed information! It is even a very convenient page size for fitting into a day pack. The authors have made these journeys a much simpler task compared to the days of the Frank Ashley book.

Strange, supernatural game playing beings are at the heart of this book. They like to play games on a very large scale, as in planet to planet, and are not particularly nice.

A young boy gets involved, and is made into one of the participants. He meets others, and they decide to do something about it, as well as running into the Flying Dutchman, the Wandering Jew and Prometheus.

I discovered this book a few years ago after my mom took me to a book store, and told me to get some books. It follows a twelve year old boy as he travels through other worlds in hopes of someday making it back home. The characters are great, and the plot is even better. I love how Diana Wynne Jones describes the other worlds/dimensions. It is a thought provoking book. the only problem i have with it is that at some points it's hard to follow, and it starts out a bit slow. Other than that, this book is fantastic and has become one of my favorites.

This is probably my favorite of Diana Wynne Jones' books, since her humor in the others can grate on me. The main character seems (to me)to be a fairly normal kid one or two centuries ago. (Of course, I'm an expert on neither normal kids nor that time period, so maybe I'm wrong.) That never gets too jarring; he adapts pretty well to almsot everything.

Concept

They (the villains of the book are refered to as Them, always in italics and capitals) are ancient and thouroghly weird demons playing continual games with entire worlds for their boards. People are their playing peices. However, if one of the "pieces" sees Them (not everyone can)They banish that person to another world. HTe person must switch worlds every time the Them playing that world make a move, so that they cannot make any changes to "play". If they get Home, to their own world, they can stop, but no one ever gets Home. Besides, time flows differently for Homward Bounders (world travlers)than for their worlds. A year passes for Jamie, but a century passes for his world. I was strongly reminded of Rip Van Winkle, and I wondered if Jones was thinking of that story, too.

The main characters (Jamie, Helen, and Joris, mostly Jamie) are all new Homeward Bounders. They haven't been away from Home long, and are still both fiercely angry at Them and hopeful to get home. Older Homeward Bounders have given up.
Jamie is fairly ordinary for his time period in England, but Helen and Joris are both really weird. Other Homeward Bounders are taken from mythology: Ahasuarus (the Wandering Jew) and the Flying Dutchman.

Other Characters:

Helen (proper name: Haras-uquara) is wacky. She comes from a world which is really nasty. Everyone there steals from everyone else, except the House of Uquar, where she grows up. (Uquar is their name for Prometheus, who taught them about Them before he was chained.) She has an odd ability to change one of her arms into anything she can think of- an elephant's trunk, or a Living Blade to fight Them with. (The living blade was the idea of Konstam, who will be mentioned with Joris. It is a weapon against demons.) Helen loves creepy things, like bones and rats and bugs. WHich is fun and wacky, espessially in a girl. She isn't the sort of nice and pretty girl in most stories- in fact she never shows her face unless to look at a rat or bug, prefering for some reason to keep it covered with her hair. She isn't a quantifiable character. I like her.

Joris is also significantly weird, but nto as fun. He is a slave and an apprentice demon hunter (until his eighteenth birthday, when his master will free him but he will stay a demon hunter). He is obsesssed with said master, Konstam Khan, one of a huge family of demon hunters led by a woman named Elsa Khan, who don't hold with slavery adn were somewhat ticked off at Konstam for having a slave. It can get to be a bit annoying (to Jamie and Helen more than to the reader) the way Joris keeps talking about Konstam, but it's not too big a thing. And both Joris and Konstam turn out to be useful in getting rid of THem.

Okay. The story is darker than most of Diana Jones' books; the characters are pretty ambivilent and flawed. The ending isn't really happily ever after for Jamie, because (in order to keep Them, once expelled from teh worlds, from coming back) Jamie must travel between worlds forever. He'll be able to visit his friends, but each time he'll be the same age, and they'll be older. He comes up with it himself, but it's not an easy ending. It's necessery, but I wish there was another way. Endings like that are good; they are realer somehow.

But it doesn't end badly. Prometheus is freed and can go home; the other Homeward Bounders can go home, if only to die. Which, for soem of them, would probably be a relief. Helen goes back to fix her world, which was so nasty in part because of Their games. It'll be hard work for her, but you get the impression she'll have fun. She claims she will, anyway.

I like this book a lot, and i appologize if my review was scattery.

A well-crafted book like this has literary merit long before most YA fiction was considered to be of much merit at all. The mythic background of this book is tremendously evocative to me. A former reviewer mentioned the Christ symbolism of one of the characters - this is simply false - the chained up nameless character is Prometheus, the bringer of fire to humanity.

Reflecting in the mood of the multiverse an odd and endearing British Empire view of the universe, the tropes of the "bounds", the conspiratorial THEM, the mythic depths, and the presence of a cosmic game, combined with the sombre mood of the plot - all of these give this book great merit as one of DWJ's strongest works.

You could say it's a collage of myths - that can be a good or a bad thing depending on whether like myself you have fallen in love with the mythic elements. I have read this book countless times since I was very small and still enjoy it, so this is my cheerful recommendation.

Jamie, an average boy living in 19th century London, stumbles upon his destiny at only 12 years old. He discovers a mysterious building known only as the Old Fort, and is punished for trespassing in a way he could not have even guessed. Jamie is captured by Them, robed spirits who 'play' the worlds like gameboards, and is whisked away to wander the thousands of worlds by traveling the Boundaries. He is gives only one hope, that if he finds his way home he may stay there and 'reenter play'. Jamie visits worlds of nomadic peoples, war, jungles, and even cannabilism. He eventually makes friends with Helen and Joris, other lost Homeward Boundaries with a bitter hatred of Them. This trio and other friends make a plan to overthrow Them once and for all to put the worlds back to normal... but will it be enough?
The Homeward Bounders was one of Dianna Wynne Jones' more serious novels, with discussions on hope, reality, friendship, and having a place to call home. I loved the creative multi-universe setting and the way the book grabs your attention and doesn't let go. The ending was anything but happily ever after, but satisfying all the same.

This book not only captures the true meaning of friendship; it defines how friendships are formed and enhanced by the great game of golf. Add Konik's deep appreciation for the Scots' gift of golf to the world and you have a work that is a great read and a must for all golfers from duffers to scratch players.

I have played played most of the courses mentioned in this very readable book. Their experiences brought back many fine memories.... To go to Scotland with good 'buds' and to see how golf is part of the basic fabic of everyday life there, really sums up the trips I have taken. It is the next best thing to actually going there. Also true to fact, is that there are really no bad links courses, just lesser known ones....

This read compares very favorably with books such as 'A season in Dornock' and should be read prior to any first time trip to Scotland / Ireland.

Magnificent. Personally, I have never played a round of golf, however, I was encouraged by a golfing buddy to read this book. When I finished the book, I called to thank him. This journey takes you beyond the beautiful courses of Scotland and into your own heart. Author Konik does a masterful job of conveying an introspective look into himself, his relationship with his friend, Don and ultimately an examination into the reader's own being. Incredible.

I'm a tennis man myself and only procured this fine book because I was so impressed by the author's other book, "Ella in Europe," which had me weeping tears of joy. Even though I didn't appreciate the golf descriptions in "In Search of Burningbush," I found the author's perspective on friendship and spiritualism to be a revelation. Before I read Mr. Konik's dog book, I was not aware of this man's writing talent. After reading "In Search of Burningbush," I feel confident in saying that he is one of the great writers working today.

What a fascinating, captivating read. Konik certainly has the gift of a talented wordsmith. Passion exudes from these pages of his desire for a true golf buddy, and it comes in form of physically strapped Don. Through this buddy, life in whole new dimensions is opened for Mike through golf excursion to Golf's Holy Ground.

Connections ensue about lovers, Shivas Irons, bravery, betting and many more.

The whirlwind tour that they have leaves one energized and somewhat mystically partaking in their great turf adventure fortnight in Scotland itself. So much remembered here connects with us readers. For this reviewer, golfing buddies habits which set one off, ala Don's smoking habits. One of my links buds, a psychologist takes his whole bag off the cart to hit a shot which couldn't require more than two, max three club choice. Or those encanted moments after multi-round experiences huddling and going through the scorecards as if they were travel slide shows.

This is just exceptional work. One I'll cherish and turn to again over time to make those connections again. Play on!

This book is an wonderful read. Graham Mackintosh somehow manages to convey the beauty, loneliness, danger, and culture of Baja in a way that is absolutely captivating. I have spent a fair amount of time in Baja myself working with the fishermen, and I thought his portrayals of these interesting folk was spot on and entertaining. I normally don't write reviews, but I could not put this book down, and good books are few and far between in my opinion! Besides being a great adventure story, this book has another side, which in a sense describes the author's spiritual awakening. He's not there, as are so many foreigners, to amuse himself in Baja as if it were a giant playground; rather he immerses himself in the land and the culture in a way that even most of the locals have failed to do!

Baja is a magical place that you simply can't appreciate from the comfort of your hotel room, RV, or (God forbid) your off-road vehicle. This book will hopefully inspire many people to seek out solitude in one of the last places in the world you can still find it.

This book was the perfect gift for my husband. He keeps talking about his dream of going in the desert, walking, exploring, being away from civilization for a while,... but he's never done it. This book author DID IT!

I have traveled many times down to Baja, his descriptions reflect my impression of the people and places.

Baja is an adventure, even if by air in your own airplane. Hopscotching from place to place on a peninsula that stretches almost a thousand miles south of California, is quick and efficient but, as always in a single engine aircraft, the prospect of an off field emergency landing is on the pilot's mind.

In Baja, where an arid, desolate landscape, and rugged mountains stretch endlessly below the wings and dry riverbeds host cactus and rattlesnakes, nature ups the ante. These inhospitable thoughts are a memory of my flying adventure to "The Baja" in October 1993, but they are nothing in comparison to Graham Mackintosh's incredible journey on foot following the coastline.

As luck would have it Graham was in Mulege (about midway down the eastern coast of Baja on the Sea of Cortez) and attended the well known Hotel Serenidad's pig roast fiesta with us on Saturday evening. In response to our questions, Graham (this was before I read the book) told us how ill-suited and inadequately prepared he was for his adventure. But his appearance belied an iron will, unyielding perseverance, and an indomitable spirit. It took two years to achieve his goal, then another two more to write the book. My fellow travellers and I sat in awe as he recounted his tale.

The inscription he wrote for me in my copy of the book shows his humility. He very generously referred to me as "A Fellow Baja Adventurer," but I know there is no comparison in our experiences. Thanks Graham, I wish you well. Is there a movie in the works?

I originally read this book several years back and now find myself periodically rereading it as its a spiritual journey packaged in a travel adventure. I dream of doing something like it however will probably not. If you like "cultural experiences" with the locals where you travel to you will love this book.

To those who are either considering moving to Italy or just going for vacation, this is the book for you. It provides not only the basic information, but also answers questions that you would not normally consider or even think of. It also provides valuable information about embassies/consulates, education, and every day life. Even as a seasoned traveler, I found this book very useful, as I plan my relocation to Italy. It is an asset to any traveler's library.

This book is great because it gives you things from an American perspective. I've lived in Italy before on a study abroad program, so I was familiar with some things, but the lists of contact information alone are enough reason to buy this book. It covers everything from student visas to getting dual citizenship and from teaching ESL to starting your own business. A must read for anyone thinking about moving to Italy.

I moved to Italy to live, study and work, taking with me this book as the ultimate resource for an American looking to make a life there. Unfortunately, I did not find it to be the exhaustive guide I had hoped.
Not only did it brush the surface on important questions any American moving abroad would have (such as those addressing legal requirements, getting proper paperwork and visas to stay, finding work, etc.), I found it to actually contradict itself in the discussion of some important subjects.

I am afraid that whole-heartedly trusting this book to help you navigate through some of the legal implications of moving to Italy may result in much frustration. I also found the helpful lists (compilations of schools and universities, English-speaking organizations, etc.) to be less-than-comprehensive. These lists mainly focus on the big cities and American-draws (Rome, Florence and Milan).

This book is fine as a starter guide to help you to begin to plan, but it is not "everything you need to know."

This book arrived today, and I have read most of it already-- absolutely wonderful! It addresses answers to 98% of my questions, as well as issues I hadn't even thought about. There are also useful addresses and resources, as well as basic, but necessary tips, including how to convert measurements (for butter, sugar and clothing!), saints' days, and everyday etiquette (don't walk around your hosts' house barefoot!). How can someone who doesn't speak much Italian find a job? Which visa is actually right for you and what's the process? How do you prepare for your Italian job interview/write your resume? What's the garbage tax? What if you need emergency medical care? How do you get covered by Italy's public health care system? What is the proper way to go shopping in Italy? I've spent several months living/studying/traveling in Europe before, and I wish I had access to this book earlier. Full of tips, tricks, and tools to make you a successful individual in Italy (and beyond). Go eat some pasta and read up!

This book is literally a goldmine of useful information. I had no idea that the university system began at different times then the university system in the States... no wonder I didn't meet any cute Italian boys until two months into my stay! Hehe. But beyond that, I would recommend this book to anyone who, like myself, dreams of one day calling Italia home. I went through some of the avenues listed in the book (i.e., post-graduate study abroad, mingling with the locals, etc.) before even knowing this book existed, so the authors must be doing something right!

Interesting way of looking at things can give fresh ideas and thin book was a great read.

Almost every book I've read about the hospitality industry (or "management" books in general) are boring. This dude has some style and flair. Just read "MYOB" on vacation in November 2002, and was impressed with the detail and the ideas Sullivan shares in the book. This guy is obviously in the biz. He covers marketing, service, selling, team, etc and while some of it is too basic for me, it served as a reminder for my younger managers. Best part is whether the idea was new or old you can use it right away. There's a lot of graphics and the layout pretty cool. It'll be a key tool for keeping a temperamnetal restaurant team together. I wish there's been more on Team Meetings and E-learning, but he refers you to his website for that information and it's free there, so that's worked out well. I've been running chain restaurants for 12 years and this is the best book on the basics of managing hospitality; that I've seen, anyway. I gave my 3 other managers copies for Christmas. The price is great for the amount of info you get in return. Anyway, that's my 2 cents on it.

MYOB: The heart and Soul of Hospitality is Jim Sullivan's new book, addressing the keys to Restaurant Customer Service-- from an experienced pro. Jim's humorous approach to a subject dear to any restaurateur or service person's heart is an easy read.

Heavy on specific examples and tips of ways you can change your service to improve service, sales, and profitability, MYOB is a primer for doing a service business right in the competitive 2000's. As numbers of eateries increase in the US and abroad, the key differentiation will be service received and Customers' value perception.

Sullivan combines a variety of methods that will energize salespeople in your operation.

I've recommended this book to people in other Service businesses, too, since it is so insightful into the service delivery. My friends in grocery, hotel management, retail sales, etc. have all purchased the book and gleaned successful selling/service tips from it.

If you're in a service business, this could be a MUST READ this year!

HOSPITALITY MUST READ! MYOB is written from the front-line operator perspective with Jim's passionate voice calling to that person inside. The person inside is the one that started in the Hospitality business and remembers how fun the "rush" is and all the special ingredients that led to choice of this industry.

I recently visited with Jim during one of his dynamic seminars at the Toronto, HOST EX - Restaurant Expo. I immediately ordered his book via Amazon.com and I just finished reading it! I couldn't put it down - I read it again - cover to cover! What a joy. Today - I am purchasing 8 copies for my Interns at Penn State. Jim - thanks for the continuous inspiration!

Although my 20 month old is too young to understand the story he definately relaxes from the calm that this book brings to me as we read it together. Beautiful illustrations too.

I checked this out of the library and read it when I was 4 and have loved it ever since. It's one of those "must-have" books. It's a children's book but adults can enjoy it as well. The idea of the book is very sophistocated but can be easily understood by kids due to the simple language and color artwork.

I asked friends who practices Buddhism about any books that they could recommend that I could gift to a young friend who lost a companion very unexpectedly. Although they said that the content does not strictly follow Buddhist principles they suggested it with rave reviews. I was intrigued by the delicate simple manner of the story and noticed an interesting element in the illustrations ( read it to discover for yourself!)The story seems to soften the sadness of losing a loved one, reminds the reader of how dying is a part of living and raises hope that there is life after. It also beautifully narrates how fulfilling and rich a simple life can be. The illustrations are soft and enchanting like the story and the ending is all embracing....

I LOVE this book. My 10 year old LOVES it as well. We both had big smiles in our hearts after reading it. This book is about reincarnation and the connection we have with ourselves.

~Shauna Schoenborn

Gorgeous illustrations and a truly beautiful story make this book a rare treasure in Children's literature. A valuable addition to the book collection of Buddhist parented children. Explains the process of death and rebirth/reincarnation in a gentle and interesting way. Not weird at all and so suitable for children of non-Buddhist background as well as it provides an valuable insight as to how Buddhism/other belief systems explain death and the afterlife.

I love Gordon Korman's books. They are clean, fun and thrillingly funny. This, however is one of my favorites. I especially recommend it for all my neices and nephews who are just getting into reading. I still read it about once every year or so. Trust me and buy the thing, you won't regret it

Gordon Korman has delivered to us an astounding amount of unforgettable books which I will reread forever, I Want to Go Home!, Who is Bugs Potter?, and the Bruno and Boots series really do stick in your mind after you read them, they are classics. However, No Coins, Please, falls of short of the line I've expected him to meet. First of all, the counsellors are unbearable dull. Even though we spend much more time with them than with the counsellors in "I Want to Go Home!" they are much more boring and predictable than even the minor counsellors in "I Want to Go Home!". Similarly, the other children just aren't as interesting or noteworthy. The humour isn't really there, and as for the schemes, well, the extra prank Korman put on his website as a joke is more noteworthy.

So what's my point? If you want to read a great Korman book, get a MacDonald Hall book, I Want to Go Home, or Who is Bugs Potter?, and leave this one until you don't have any left.

This book is great. It's funny and very very intresting. It's very specific, and describes the characters very well. You should read this book!!!

This book was a favorite of mine while growing up. I first read it in grade school and continued to read through middle school and high school. It's one of the childhood books I've kept as an adult!

The "Ambulance" gang is great -- going from city to city ... a summer camp on wheels! Artie, the main character, is a true shyster, but you absolutely love him.

As a kid, I was intrigued by and a bit envious of the Canadian kid who could sell people attack jelly, open a club called the "Pretzel" in Denver and still manage to elude the FBI.

Get a copy of this book -- you won't be disappointed!

I first read this book years ago when I was a kid and totally fell in love with it. I remember having to take care not to read it in public because I kept laughing too loudly! I have since read it many times and still enjoy it just as much, even as an adult. Gordon Korman creates a world and characters so real that you wish his books were ten times as long.

The story is about Artie Geller an 11 year with a very special talent - he is the world's best entrepreneur. He joins five other 11 year olds and tour counsellors Rob and Dennis on a road trip from Canada to Los Angeles. Along the way he comes up with numerous highly successful (and highly hilarious) money making schemes and before long has his whole tour bus (the "Ambulance") involved. The characters are so likeable and the adventures so much fun, you'll wish there really was a "juniortours" and that you could go along on the ride!

In my honest opinion Gordon Korman's "No Coins, Please", "I want to Go Home", "Don't Care High", "Semester in the life of a Garbage Bag" and the two "Bugs Potter" books are MUST reads for anyone (young or old, boy or girl) who loves a good laugh and a book you can't put down. The Bruno and Boots series are also definitely worth a read if you can get hold of them.

I highly recommend "No Coins, Please" - you will not regret buying it!

Pale Phoenix is a wonderful book. so detailed and well written that you can see your self there with the main characters. enchanting and a joy to read. i first discovered it 6 years ago at the local library and ive been rereading it(and i dont like to reread books *nods*). adios

This was a great book. The author kept you in suspense until you figured out what was going on. It is about a girl named Miranda and her parents. They take in an orphan named Abby. It was going okay, and then Miranda realized there was something weird about Abby. Then she started searching Abby's past.

This is another fine example of Kathryn Reiss's writing. I think it was a great book. I read atleast 4 times because I loved it so much. I really hope Kathryn Reiss becomes well-known. She has a great imagination and sense of literature. This classic tale about a pheonix rising from the ashes is a great story for young and older people to enjoy. I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

The only way that you will reall you will really understand this book fully is if you read the first book, Time Windows. The basic plot is that a girl , Miranda has a very great life with her parents and neighbors in her small Northeastern town until they take in this orphan named Abby to live with them. Miranda and Abby do not get along a weel and things change for Miranda. She beginds to start uncovering Abby's amazing past and helping her deal with it. If you read this book you will really benefit from it becuase, if you read anymore books by this author, the character Abby appears in many of them breifly.

This story is so suspenseful, that I was kept on the edge of my seat the entire time! This time-travel book, involves a young, thirteen-year-old girl by the name of Abby Chandler, who mysteriously and magically escapes a horrific fire, in which her family was killed. Abby does not know it, but a small, magical, stone flute carved in the shape of a phoenix, given to her by a Native American woman, Willow, saved Abby from dying in the fire with her family. But the flute did not only save Abby's life, it also threw her ahead in time by at least three hundred years! One second Abby was living in the colonial era, and the next second she was in a field of snow, without any knowledge of the buildings and houses around her.

Eventually Abby crosses paths with a young, fifteen-year-old girl, Mandy Browne, of Massachusetts. Unknown to both girls, but the day these two meet is the day Abby is rescued from her seemingly inevitable fate of living forever.

Mandy discovers there is something about this girl that isn't right. Whenever Mandy hears Abby hysterically crying, she goes to her room, but Abby is not there. What is even more strange, is that Mandy's parents do not hear Abby's wretched crying. In addition, Mandy discovers pictures of Abby's dating back hundreds of years. The strange thing is though, is that in all of the pictures there is a girl who is the splitting image of Abby, with the exception of clothes from each time period.

Twice, Mandy confronts her parents about Abby's crying, and twice Abby somehow returns back to her room, denying all of it, to which Mandy's parents take sides with Abby. Abby now knows that Mandy can unquestionably hear her crying when she has traveled back to her home of ruins. Since no one else has been able to hear her crying when she has been there, she decides to tell Mandy what really happened to her. Shocked and surprisingly moved by Abby's story, Mandy has no idea what to say and she is left speechless. Abby thinks that because Mandy can hear her crying, she will be able to help Abby save her family.

The rest is up to you to figure out what happens to the two girls. I loved this book and I know that anyone who reads it will too!