Wallace Books

Reading this novel was often like looking at an impressionist's painting. It's incredibly rich in scenic description, character nuances and, most importantly, mood setting tone. Wallace Stegner lives on through his writing and we shall all be richer for this reading experience. This novel, while focused on a socially turbulent era (late 1960s), is timeless. Generational and political conflict, as well as the matters of preservation and development, life and death, and the persistence of human crisis will always be relevant topics.

And so we have the characters portrayed in All the Little Live Things. Joe Allston, the narrator, is much like a diarist recording his keen and colorful observations from his five-acre hideout in glorious California. With his wife Ruth at this side, together they grieve the loss of their 37-year-old son, and try to fit in as key players in their new community. Meanwhile, a freethinking, anti-establishment sort named Jim Peck squats on Allston's property--first with permission--however, Peck takes extreme liberties. Joe's distain for him (and his beard!) is the focus of much of the novel, and it leads him to come to terms with his feelings toward his son. Meanwhile, there's another neighbor, a young woman named Marian, who helps enable Joe to come to terms with his feelings about both life and death.

This is the most beautifully written novel I've read all year. Highly recommend for those who appreciate fine, sensory-based literature.

Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club.

I was so disappointed in the quality of the paper and print that I returned this book. A big part of the enjoyment of a new book for me is the physical quality of the product. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's other works and was disappointed not to read this one.

All the Live Little Things began the golden era of Wallace Stegner's writing career. Finding the right voice in a first person narrative, he followed this beautiful novel with Angle of Repose, The Spectator Bird and Crossing to Safety; all are highly acclaimed.
In All the Live Little Things Stegner brings to the page a great deal of raw material from his life. The character of Marian was a composite of friends who had died of cancer, Peck was a composite of the 60s "beatnik", which in real life caused Stegner to retire from teaching and devote his time fully to writing. The callousness of Dave Weld's bulldozing on virgin land reflected the author's long term concern for the environment. His beautiful description of nature throughout the novel, and use of nature as a learning tool, expressed his life-long love and dedication to the American West. Even Joe and Ruth Allston were drawn from the real life marriage of Wallace and Mary Stegner. This matrimonial understanding and bliss is reflected in the opening page of the recently published "Selected Letters of Wallace Stegner":
What does more to stay us and keep our backbones stiff while the
world reels than the sense that we are linked with someone who
listens and understand and so in some way completes us?

All the Live Little Things flows beautifully. It has rich, well written characters that keep the novel moving towards a bittersweet conclusion. I did not believe the plot was forced or took unnatural turns; rather it followed the characters as they thrashed about with their struggles, sins and destinies, all seen through the eyes of the flawed but wise Joe Allston. As the character says near the story's conclusion: "There is no way to step off the treadmill. It is all treadmill."

Stegner once wrote that "In fiction I think we should have no agenda but to tell the truth." All the Live Little Things does draw heavily from the truths of Stegner's life in the 1960s, but it also holds its own as a thoughtfully written fictitious story of pain, hope, resignation, acceptance, and other qualities that mark the human condition.

just a note for everyone
the hippie in the book was actually based on Ken Kesey

This is my third Stegner novel including Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety. All the Little Live Things has a more 'elemental' style than the other 2 novels. It is compact and extremely logical. There is not a throwaway sentence in the book. For anyone looking for deeper, relevant background reading - I suggest these pre-requisities prior to reading Little Live Things: Shakespears 'The Tempest' - where the literarary figures of 'Calaban (i.e., Peck)' and 'Prospero' are introduced. I would have been quite lost without having first read Tempest. Another great book that I think provides the 'mythological basis' for Little Live Things is Joseph Campbell's 'Pathways to Bliss'. In Campbell's book I learned the basic philosohpy of Jainism - which is the foundation for Marian Catlin's character as well as the title of the book. You get a better sense of the Joe Allison's heroic struggle as he confront his personal demons (personified by Peck)living deep in the gully across the 'spritual bridge' that he cannot bring himself to go across. Quite a hero's journey indeed.

I read this book over, and over and over...I have memorized the opening and closing lines to this book, along with everything in between. Something magical happens within these pages, even if some details or concepts are far-fetched. At seven years old - so what?! And almost 20 years later I still say so what. This book inspired me to start writing my own books at such an early age because the story that played out in my head while reading this was so vivid and real I wanted to create that same vision. My younger sister soon snagged this book from me and she too read it many times over. I had to mask the whole book back together with tape and secure loose pages because it was used so much it fell apart. I still have my original copy of this but it looks like something found in an ancient riun so I just purchased another copy on Amazon. Trust me, this book is worth it. Growing up I loved horses and longed for a girl to admire. The romance is just right for the age group. There is adventure at every turn of the page. I am going to preserve my newest copy for the kids I hope to one day have. Buy yours before they are gone forever! You or your kids will read it over again and again.

This book is my favorite book ever! You need to read this book, It has Adventure, Danger, and Romance!!! Its such a good book. I picked this book up when I was 10. I loved it! Now im 13 and I still fall in love with it more and more every time I read it! Bill Wallice NEEDS to right a sequel to this book, I want to know what happens! Does David and Amanda get married or do they go on another adventure that comes in there lives!? What does Amanda say to Philip? What happens to Potlicker? Bill Wallice I need to know what happens! PLEASE make a sequel! and you need to read this book! If you read this book trust me you wont regret it!

I read this book first when I was about 9 and have read it many, many times since. I even have a hankering to read it again right now and I'm 19 years old and in college! It's is a beautiful and subtle romance, but, even more than that, it is a journey of discovery. I really identified with Amanda's changed feeling towards a place because i experienced the same sort of "traumatic" move and uprooting from what i was used to. I think that this book is not only a good read for those who are younger than 12 but also for anyone who loves a fun, happy, well told tale that puts life in a good light. My mother read it more than once and loved it as well. This book is for the young and romantic at heart.

If you like the Wild West, adventure, romance, or all three, this is the book to read. I read my first copy so many times it's falling apart. I had to go buy a new one! It has to be my favorite book in the world. Read it once and you're hooked for life. Take my word and buy it. Belive me-- you won't regret you did.

I was eight when I first grabbed this book in my schools library. 11 years later I'm still wishing to go back and read this book in between my Dragonlance novels. I think that in itself is a testement to how fantastic Buffalo Gal is. Once you've read it, age doesn't matter. It is a classic that stays with you always.

They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind--

--from William Carlos Williams's
Spring and All (1923)

Looking at Sandro Botticelli (1444-1510)'s Birth Of Venus (ca. 1482), one can actually feel the fresh and fragrant breeze, the golden light, the bounty; the Italian painter is approaching 40 when he paints this. Reading Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)'s "The Paltry Nude Starts On A Spring Voyage" from Harmonium (1923), one senses a mind utterly quirky, brisk, assured; the American poet is in his early 40's.

This collection lacks 22 poems which appeared in "The Palm at the End of the Mind", Holly Stevens carefully edited selection highly approved of by Harold Bloom. Missing are "Of Mere Being", "A Child Asleep in Its Own Life" and "For an Old Woman in a Wig" to name but three. It leaves out the added lines of "The Man Whose Pharynx Was Bad". It lacks an index of first lines. If you're going to buy a book of Stevens' poems spend the extra $10 and get the magnificent Library of America "Collected Poetry and Prose" which contains EVERYTHING, is a huge bargain and will keep you occupied for the rest of your life. Or possibly get Holly Stevens "The Palm at the End of the Mind" which eliminates a lot of lesser poems which could confuse a newcomer to Stevens. The Vintage people have thrown this together without much thought. It's better than nothing, but the other two books I have named are the one's to get.

"Her terrace was the sand/And the palms and the twilight" -- and those are only the first two lines. Dipping into surrealism and imbued with spirituality, his poetry is compiled into "The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens," which includes seven compilations of his work.

Over his lifetime, Stevens wrote several books of poetry, but his exquisite poems are best taken by themselves: the lush grandeur of "Sunday Morning," the hymnlike "Le Monocle De Mon Oncle," and the humid grittiness of "O Florida, Venereal Soil." He takes multiple looks at "Thirteen Ways of Looking At A Blackbird," and the lush "Six Significant Landscapes."

In other poems, Stevens dips into outright surrealism, like in the delicate "Tattoo" ("There are filaments of your eyes/On the surface of the water/And in the edges of the snow"), and also adds a meditative bent into "The Snow Man" ("For the listener, who listens in the snow,/And, nothing himself, beholds/Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is").

If nothing else, Stevens' poetry can be read just because it is exquisitely beautiful. He lavished details all over almost every poem he wrote, and gave many of them the quality of a dream. His descriptions are simply written, but brilliantly laid out: "When my dream was near the moon,/The white folds of its gown/Filled with yellow light."

His style tends to be a bit on the ornate side -- Stevens freely uses the more exotic terms -- such as "opalescence," "pendentives" and "muleteers" -- wrapped up in complex verse, sometimes with a rhyme scheme and sometimes free-form. And lush detail is added to many of his poems, with descriptions of the moon, sun, plants and lighting, along with dazzling descriptions of the colors.

But his writing is more than beautiful. Stevens' work often poses questions about death, life, religion, and art, taking the conventional and turning it on its head. His belief in the importance of his art is reflected in poems like "Not Ideas About The Thing But The Thing Itself," which ends with the portentous lines: "Surrounded by its choral rings,/Still far away. It was like/A new knowledge of reality."

Wallace Stevens is one of the most unique poets of the 20th century, and the sprawling "Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens" is a wonderful read.

Stevens is for me the great American poet of the twentieth century.
His music is the supreme music of poetry . Not since Keats is there anyone as rich in the most elaborate kind of longworded poetry.
His metaphysical meanderings may confuse but somehow find themselves justified by the memorableness of the great lines- and again the music.
No one comes close to him in the kind of deep and complicated beauty he presents- and again the music.
The meanings he makes are musical meanings, and the sounds of his lines sing in us ever more strongly , the more we read and reread.
Stevens is the kind of poet we want to memorize and always have with us inside, so wherever we go , we can stop and to ourselves recite lines of beauty in joy.
I may be wrong but I simply hear his poetry as the greatest America has had in the twentieth century - though lesser than Whitman and Dickinson.

Wallace Stevens is my favorite poet. This collection was prepared late in his life and is in a sense definitive, though the excellent Library of America collection is to be preferred as including a number of additional poems (including the controversial long poem "Owl's Clover"), as well as alternate versions of some poems, juvenilia, and also Stevens's essays.

Stevens is known, it seems to me, in two separate ways. In the popular sense, he is known for a series of remarkable early poems, in most cases not terribly long, notable for striking images and quite beautiful prosody. Of these poems the most famous is surely "Sunday Morning" -- other examples are "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird", "Peter Quince at the Clavier", "Sea Surface Full of Clouds", "Tea at the Palaz of Hoon", "The Emperor of Ice Cream", "The Idea of Order at Key West", "Of Modern Poetry". The great bulk of these come from his first collection, Harmonium, and indeed from the
first edition of Harmonium, published in 1923. These were certainly my favorite among his poems on first reading. And they remain favorites.

But his critical reputation rests strikingly on a completely different set of poems, all later than those mentioned above. (Though it must be acknowledged that at least "Sunday Morning" and "The Idea of Order at Key West" as well as two early long poems, "The Comedian as the Letter C" and "The Monocle de Mon Oncle", are in general highly regarded critically. And that most of his early work is certainly treated with respect.)

I think it's fair to say that "late Stevens" begins with "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction", perhaps his most highly regarded work. Of course the terms "late" and "early" are odd
applied to Stevens. His first successful poems appeared in 1915
(including "Sunday Morning"), when he was 36. He was 44 when the first edition of Harmonium came out. That's pretty late for "early"! And by the 1942 publication of "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction" he was 63. Indeed, his production from 1942 through his death in 1955 was remarkable: two major collections each with several long poems as well as at least another full collection worth of late poems, some included in this _Collected Poems_ but quite a few more not collected until after his death.

What to say about late Stevens? The most obvious adjective is
"austere". But that doesn't always apply -- he could also be quite playful. However, there is never the lushness of a "Sunday Morning" or "Sea Surface Full of Clouds" in the late works. The sentences tend to extraordinary length, but the internal rhythms are involving. The poems are all quite philosophical, much concerned with the importance of poetry, the nature of reality versus perceptions of reality, and, perhaps more simply, with growing old. (A Stevens theme, to be sure, that can be traced at least back to "The Monocle de Mon Oncle".)

So: Stevens is an impossibly wonderful, remarkable, poet, either early or late. His lush and imagist early work remains a delight, and his philosophically involving late work rewards rereading and concentration. He is a poet to whom you can return again and again, and he will always be new.

To me, there is so much in Gaston Leroux's "Phantom of the Opera" that isn't said/explored that inspires so many dreams/stories. "Letters to Erik" picks up where GL's story "ends" and was just wonderful to read, well worth the $$$ IMO. R is still whiny and distrustful, Christine still has much growing up to do and separated from Erik, does some deep soul searching on her strange relationship with him. As the story opens, she has been unable to return to Erik after his publicized death to place the ring on his finger at his request. Tormented with grief, Christine puts her feelings and thoughts to pen in letters "to Erik", the only way she feels she can connect with him. I'll reveal no more here, the story unfurls wonderfully, such a delight to read. I will say there is a surprise at the end that I didn't see coming that I am sure readers will truly enjoy! An Wallace did a great job; this is a story I plan on enjoying over and over, BRAVA!

Letters to Erik is a beautiful Story. I love the concept of the story - and it is a nice continuing story of the original book. The story is a nice read. I love the way that it ended. I will add this one to my collection of favorites.

I am so particular about what Phantom books to read - this one is "fluff" but I dearly loved it! Just a nice happy story - thoroughly enjoyed it-thanks to Author for such a nice story.

I'm a long-time fan of Leroux's original novel, and this is the first other published book about Erik and Christine that I've ever read: it went far beyond my better expectations! The author is clearly a great knower of the original work, and her tale gives it the conclusion I always wished by both mantaining the main characters themselves, while making them grow and mature, in the case of Christine. The style of writing is nice and flooding, while enriched the operas original quotes well-used, and even the most apparently excessive and unbelievable plot-twists and coincidence just give to it a XIXth novel feeling. I particulary loved the author's telling of Erik's life, all of it well in the boundaries of what Leroux told us, and yet enriched, made more real, more alive... a great read! Only flaw in my personal opinion is that, well... it ended too soon: I wish I could have read a whole description of Erik and Christine's life together.

Being a Phantom Phanatic I loved everything about this book. The love that Christine had for Erik was beautiful and the same goes for Erik's love for Christine. I have read a lot of Phantom of the Opera books and I put this one up with Jody Leisure Minton. This is a book that I would read again and again as I have with Jody's book. This is truly a five star book.

This book was a very good book. There are plenty of times when I got confused, like about who told on Emily. All of my questions were answered later in the book. It was a great suspense novel.

I first read this book as a child in elementary school. I have since then read it at least once a year. BTW I am 30 and still enjoy it. A must have for any child.

It is hard to overstate how much excitement Angela Lansbury brings to the reading of this mystery book for children. Suffice it to say that at age 52 I enjoyed listening to it as much as my daughter, and would have purchased twenty more had they been available. The text by Barbara Brooks Wallace is also very well done, and very accessible for children's vocabulary while remaining exciting enough for an adult to enjoy without becoming bored. I highly recommend both the book and the audiobook for parents of both good readers and readers who need something a little spicier to get them interested and involved in the story. It concerns a young girl who has lost her parents and goes to live with an aunt in San Francisco. The trials and tribulations to which Emily Lucock is subject make up the the plot of the story, but the author is able to build both mystery and suspense into the telling. The audiobook format is especially terrific because of Lansbury's wonderful technique for building drama and suspense.

When I first saw the cover of this book I thought it would be one of those trashy, dull mysteries (Who stole the peppermint candy from the christmas feast?!?) then I saw the sequal, with it's pretty, intresting cover, and began to reconsider buying the first one (if only so I could understand the sequal). I started to read it and was amazed. It has an amazing plot, and is definatly one of the best books I have ever read, and I've read a lot of books. It is completely Dickensian without the slow-moving plot, and hard to understand language that most children find boring and discouraging. It is a wonderful Victorian Melodrama! I LOVE THIS BOOK!

A bowl of lovely red and white peppermints waits on a table in the parlor . . . but the residents of Sugar Hill Hall are not allowed to touch them. That image sticks with me after finishing the final pages of Ms. Wallace's delightful adventure tale of a young orphan and the dire situation she finds herself in. This Victorian story of dramatic suspense is a perfect story for young readers just starting to break into longer fiction and craving something with adventure and intrigue.

Young Emily Luccock has recently lost her parents, and she is now going to live with her Aunt and Uncle Twice at Sugar Hill Hall, a fine mansion in San Francisco. Emily remembers her visits to see her Aunt and Uncle fondly and is looking forward to seeing them again. But something has gone terribly wrong. Aunt Twice has become a timid woman forced to be a servant in her own home, and Uncle Twice is nowhere to be found. The entirety of Sugar Hill appears to be under the thumb of the icy and forbidding Mrs. Meeching, and Emily is made a virtual slave, working in the kitchen and cleaning the rooms of the despairing old men and women who reside in the rooms of the house. But young Emily is not about to give up without a fight. She's determined to bring sunshine back to Sugar Hill and to discover what has happened to Uncle Twice. With the help of Kipper, a redheaded boy from town, Emily pits herself against the frightful Mrs. Meeching, and all the secrets hidden in Sugar Hill Hall. Ms. Wallace has provided a rousing adventure story that kicks off from the first page and never slows down until the satisfying ending. The story elements aren't particularly original, but the author uses them to good effect with engaging writing that makes us care about our heroes and hate the villains as the story progresses. Emily, for all her apparent fragility, proves herself to be tough in spirit, and to have a caring heart for the plight of others. She's likeable without being overly sweet or too plucky. Kipper adds to the flavor and fun with his cheerful commentary and use of street slang.

While the story has its dark elements: murder, betrayal, cruelty, Emily and Kipper's adventure doesn't become too frightening either. The story remains just scary and exciting enough for enjoyment of 9-12 year olds, but doesn't become gory or chilling. The book itself is a short read--those who enjoy such books as A Series of Unfortunate Events and want more of the type would probably find this title to their liking. It's also a good recommendation for young readers who want something with action and adventure, but require something without any fantasy or supernatural elements to it. If I have any complaints about the story, its that I felt the secrets unraveled a bit too quickly and all at once towards the end of the story. After wondering for so long what is going on and what happened to Uncle Twice, readers are provided the answers in short order--just in time for the final confrontations. Despite this, I found myself enjoying the entire story--and I particularly liked how the element of peppermints framed the tale. For those who enjoy this stand-alone adventure, Ms. Wallace has written a follow up story with the further adventures of Emily Luccock titled The Perils of the Peppermints. Readers might also want to check out The Half a Moon Inn by Paul Fleischman and the Illyrian Adventure by Lloyd Alexander.

Happy Reading! Shanshad ^_^

Can there be any truth to the concepts expressed in this book originaly published in the early 1900"s? I read it a while back and still find myself thinking about the alternative theories expressed in the book ... and recycled in a thousand and one personal motivation books since.

Don't be fooled, this book is difficult to read and comprehend. However, for those willing to tread the waters of early 1900s writing styles, the message in this book is wonderful and can potentially change your life.

If you are interested in the money aspect of the law of attraction, you may also want to read "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill and "The 17 Principles of Creating Wealth" by Phillip Collinsworth.

Wattles' philosopy is New Thought, popular at the turn of the 19th century. It is really just wishful thinking or magical thinking. It doesn't work. Just because you think something doesn't make it come true, and you should be glad, because some people think very unpleasant things. You aren't Harry Potter, and magical thinking won't get you what you want in life. As for Monism or the theory that God is in everything, that would mean that God also exists in evil things, which would mean that God is not all good, so Monism cannot be true. This is just an early self-help book that seeks to empower people who feel powerless by telling them they can get anything they want if they just think about it hard enough and long enough. It's a waste of your time. Wattles wrote the same thing about health, and he died at about age 51. If he had lived to be 100 in good health and been a multimillionaire himself, he theories would be more credible. In fact, one of the people Wattles criticized as being "competitive", John D. Rockefeller, did live to be 98 and was a multmillionaire, so who are you going to believe?

This book if followed exactly how written can change your life forever with huge positive results. I suggest reading with a very open mind.

The "Thinking Stuff" which Wallace Wattles declares, permeates the universe really caught my attention. The noted theologian, Emanuel Swedenborg refers to this "Thinking Stuff" as the Divine Wisdom in the book Divine Love and Wisdom, (published in Amsterdam in 1763).

I agree with the premise of Wattles book and as I reflect upon my life I can see where the Lord has indeed blessed me in ways I had desired.

This book is incredible. Anything you need to know is in this book. If it doesn't go into detail on a specific subject, it gives you resources to look up to further your search. Funny, interesting, and helpful, this book is completely highlighted-up and is my ultimate resource guide!

...just because "it's for dummies." I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence.

Anyway, this book is a good resource for someone who is considering a career in acting, or a move to Hollywood, and has no clue. The character in my book, Trott Felipe, could have used a book like this before he made the trek from Iowa to Hollywood in his Astro Van. Unfortunately, he's a fictional character, and this book didn't exist in the version of Hollywood I wrote about.

Very informative, well written book. Extremely helpful for the Novice actor, for someone just starting out (Acting classes, extras etc.). Covers everything you need to know to start looking into developing this exciting career. Many topics, easily & clearly set-out. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the Industry, including well established actors, as it could still help with pin-point information and ideas, that may be not known or forgotten over time. Don't give it a second thought about purchasing this book!

I picked this book up at the library and read it in less than a day. It is entertaining and informative, making sure to write effectively yet simply, so that anyone could pick up the book and understand it fully.

If you are an aspiring actor, this book will give you vital information, and will inspire you and encourage you to reach for your goals.

A must read!

THIS IS A GOOD STARTED FOR THE INEXPERIECED. BUT AN EXPERIENCED ACTOR LIKE MYSELF WILL ALREADY BE MUCH BEYOND THIS, WHICH IS WHY I AM WRITING MY OWN BOOK ON MARKETING FOR ACTORS.
JAY MADHAV

This was a really good book. I really enjoyed it. This was my first 100 pager.

Bill Wallace's book, Watchdog and the Coyotes, was an outstanding and very hilarous. He thinks about how dogs would act in certian situations. I like it because of all the humor.

This book is about a dog, Sweetie, becoming a watchdog, through training by his friends Poky and Red. While they're training they get attacked by coyotes. What are they going to do?

Bill Wallace tries to get out the message that even animals can have feeings too. You should treat animals as you would want to be treated.

This book will bring you all the way down the field. A dog named Sweetie is a watch dog. One day when Sweetie`s cool, nice owner is not around somebody breaks in the house. Sweetie just sits there when the terrible, bad rober steals all the furture. Sweetie gets yelled at because he didn`t do anything what so ever to stop the rober. Do you want to know what happens to Sweetie........ well I can`t tell you! Read on to find out what will happen to the scared dog Sweetie.

Critic:Sara

The book I just finished was Watch Dog And The Coyotes. It is an exciting book because something happens when you least expect it. Once Sweetie's master comes out of no where and saves Sweetie's life from the coyotes.
This book is about a dog named Sweetie. He is a watch dog who just watches. He has two dog neighbors. One is a small beagle named Poky. On the other side is an old Irish setter. His name is Red because his fur is red. One night, coyotes come to steal their food! They need to find a way to get rid of them, fast!
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes dogs or just wants to read a good book.

This book was really cute, in a funny way. I highly recommend it!

My mom bought this book for my son several years ago at a small bookshop. It has been one of our favorites ever since. My son has enjoyed it from 4 years old to 11 and now his 3 and 4 year old brother and sister are enjoying it. This is one of the best. It is geology with a slight spritual undertone - I think anyway! I wish this book was available new to give as gifts.

as someone working with geologists and geology as a career, i found earthsteps to be a fun way to introduce this subject to children. most children are not exposed to earth science, so a book of this calibur should be a part of all elementary school libraries.

This is a very colorful and educational book for kids. It's a fun way for children to learn about geology!

*Earthsteps: A Rock's Journey Through Time* is one of those rare children's books that an adult can also enjoy reading over and over. The illustrations complement the thoughtful and intelligent text, making it a journey to enjoy and to learn from at the same time. My 14 year old read it eagerly, as did my 11 year old. I expected that because they are both voracious readers who have a geologist father, but what I was delighted by was the excited interest of the 5 through 9 year olds to whom I read it at the school where I substitute teach regularly. I highly recommend this fine work to everyone.

I enthusiastically recommend this book! Who knew that the journey of a rock through time was dramatic AND fascinating? When was the last time you considered how a simple rock came to be? This story is as educational as it is entertaining to the children who have read it in my home. I had a five-year-old guest for the weekend, and THIS is the book she wanted out of all the books in my library. She was drawn to this rock and cared what happened to it. It was fun for her to "find" the rock in every beautiful illustration. Every time I read it to the younger children, I learn a little more, too!

Hello my name is Buddy Locatelli. I live in Fla. And i have the pleasure of riding in a taxi to south beach and the driver was a retired Boston police officer by the name of Billy Crowley. We had a conversation and on the way i asked him why he moved to Fla. He told me that he co-authored a book with a writer by the name of Brian Wallace of S.Boston about a Boston gangster named phil cresta, and after the book came out for publication they signed a movie deal with 20th century fox. After 2 yrs and 2 screenwriters hired they finally got a screenplay, but at the last minute on the last option the movie was not picked up. He had an extra copy of the book in his taxi and i read the book and was amazed about the crime scene in the Boston area. The book jumped out at me and i could not put it down. I read the book in one night I can see why 20th century fox signed it up it should be a movie.

This is the best book I have ever read. I read it cover to cover. I could not put it down. It was fascinating, well written and riveting from start to finish. This should defintely be made into a movie. Maybe DeNiro could play Cresta!

Very well done. Will make a great movie too.

Very enjoyable. I agree with other reviewers about its
contents. My vote to play Phil Cresta in a movie is
Robert Di Nero. Looking forward to the movie.

A lot of fun to read. You can't help but laugh at a lot of these true-crime stories. You just can't make this stuff up. This book would make a great movie.