News and Media Books

Just as good as the movie!!! Great book! I recommend it for any reader!

The Perfect Man by Jenny Markas is an exhilarating story of friendship and romance.
The book takes place in a Brookland apartment. Two girls and their mom have been moving from one town to another since Holly, the oldest daughter, was born. When they end up in Brookland, they embark on a wild adventure. Jean (their mom) meets a guy named Lenny, who is a real ditz. When they go on their first date, Holly decides to make up the perfect man, Ben. Holly sends fake e-mails, IM's, letters, and even phone calls to Jean from Adam (her friend`s) house just to make Jean happy. When the plan comes crashing down, Holly has to go to drastic measures to set things right, that's where it gets exciting!
We give this book 4 **** .It was fantastic, and we would recommend it to all our friends.

If you like reading books about romance, then you should read
THE PERFECT MAN by Gina Wendklos.
A girl name Holly Hamilton is tired of moving every time her mom gets dumped. Holly has a perfect plan for her to get an imaginary secret admirer. She borrowed her friend Zoë's charming Uncle Ben. Does mom find out who her secret admirer? Do you think Jean finds out who it really is?
We recommend this books to all our friends because it could be one of your friends or your family that gets tired of moving.
BY Samantha and Devon

My favorite book is The Perfect Man. I think that girls should read it!
The ages i would give is 10-14 or maybe 8-14. I realy think that this book is really amazing and it shows alot about a girls life. I recomend this book to Only Girls!

I own this movie novel, the movie, and the soundtrack and I love them all. The movie is heartwarming and the movie novelization captures its beauty and wit and puts it all into one story. The Perfect Man is a wonderful Hilary Duff movie and will leave you disgusted or happy (depends on whether or not you like the movie). This movie novelization has every part of the movie in its pages, and has some scenes not seen in the movie. This is a quick read, me finishing it in about 3 hours (depends on how fast you read). This is a fun movie novel that will leave you the same way as you finished watching the movie (my grade: A-). If you haven't seen the movie, I would highly recommend it! Heather and Hilary are perfect mother-and-daughter in this heart warming movie.

Hope you Enjoy! If you liked this, you may like
1. Just My Luck movie novelization
2. A Cinderella Story movie novelization
AND
3. The Bend it Like Beckham movie novelization

Jordan
Overall grade* A
Oh, and if you saw the trailer and wondered what the song that is in it is called, it is "Waiting on the sun" performed by Sixpence none the richer. Great song!

Have you ever thought of a cow in a cat's point of view? Well in the book Upchuck and the Rotten Willy you will find a lot of things in a cats point of view. In Chuck` s point of view if you haven't eaten spaghetti you haven't lived.
Have you ever just sat on a fence all morning telling jokes? Just hanging out with friends. If not, Chuck will tell you all about it. In this book at times I think Chuck talks and thinks like a person. He thinks about things that most people wouldn't thing twice about.
This book is really funny in the first part of the story when the 2 friends (Tom & Chuck) make fun of the dogs at the park. "Why are dogs noses so flat?" " From chasing parked cars."
If you like animals, horsing around, or if you like spaghetti this is the right book for YOU!

If you like animal books this is the book for you it is adventerous, funny, sad, and loveable! It is the most wonderful book I have ever read you have to read it, it is so exciting you'll not want to put this book down it is so good! Yuo'll also want to read it over and over again it is just so good I can not explain how good it is it just is so good!

If you looove animals like me you'll love Upchuck and the rotten Willy. Know here a little about it. Well, let's see THeres these two cat's who have adventures, but one cat moves away and so chuck makes friends with a dog. It also made me cry but in a good way.READ this book if you like excitment, adventure, and love- Upchuck and the Rotten Willy!

If you like animal books this is the book for you. It is adventerous, funny, sad, and loveable! It is the most wonderful book I have ever read. You have to read it; it is so exciting you'll not want to put this book down! You'll also want to read it over and over again.

My 8 1/2 year old got this book and asked me to read it to him every night. I also fell in love with this book and it was so well written. I am now going to get all of the sequels to this book as a special surprise for Christmas. A story of friendship and sharing life together, it warmed our hearts. The book also kept us both in stitches. We would read paragraphs over and over just to get a good laugh! It was wonderful time together laughing and learning about what life as a cat would be. I loved the parts where the cats would make fun of the dogs.

I own this well informed book that gives you a motivational read to lead a healthier life. It provides some proven strategies to live by. As a cookbook author myself, I've found this book compares similar to my writing of recipes that are low in fat and high in fiber, finding some tasty and delicious recipes in this book that will add variety to anyone's diet. Recipes that are lowfat with added fiber and a section to help you cook with whole grains and where to buy them.There's even a section of muscle toning exercises to help one become a fat burner at all times. Having had health problems in the past this book has been an inspiration to pursue better health in my own life. With a bad back, I find the lower back muscle toning and stretches soothing to my aching back.

Finally, a diet book that makes sense! Low Fat Living has all the usual advice and bean recipes, but with a difference. It's about developing a skill set designed for long term success -- even we're ony adding one skill at a time. From sleeping patterns and mindset to the oils on our pantry shelves this is a book that acknowledges that readers have lives beyond what they eat. Indeed, this is a healthy food book about LIVING -- not another FAT-IS-THE-ENEMY militant diet plan that made me despair "How am I ever going to follow this?" Plus the recipes are delicious.

Book was in excellent condition and arrived ahead of predicted schedule. Would buy from this seller again.

My only complaint with this book is its title, "Low Fat Living." It goes far beyond that. This is really the "whole mind, whole body" approach to weight control and more. This book seems to be a collection of everything that the authors could find that contributes to weight loss, organized in an interesting and integrative manner. I particularly loved the study that showed that people watching television burn up fewer calories than people sitting and watching a blank screen. As a woman at age 53, I was wondering if I could ever again shed pounds. My old approaches didn't work. The one thing that I knew was that people who successfuly do lose weight and keep it off do so through making life-style changes and they tailor what they do to their own bodies. This book enabled me to have a comprehensive understanding of what those changes needed to be concerning (1) nutrition, (2) exercise (including simply increasing motion), (3) water, (4) sleep, and (5) stress management. To my surprise, stress management has actually been the most challenging-and perhaps the most rewarding. I am no longer in the "diet" mentallity. I am now concentrating on making the small changes--trying this and that until I find ways that appeal to me and that I can sustain--and these are adding up to large changes that affect not just my weight, but my general health. Through this process and over several months, I am finding that my body and mind are changing in what they want. It is like my whole system is resetting to different standards. I'm beginning to actually be drawn to vegetables and whole grains, walking the dog, and skipping TV. Who'd'a thunk?

This is a good dieting book but the two apple recipes I tried, were gag-awful.

I'm beginning to realize that George Gissing is an author who is relatively unknown by the general public but who is frequently studied/referenced by academics. The main reason why I think this is true (and this relates to the book at hand) is that Gissing himself had more of an academic temperament than a writing temperament. He was very adept at analyzing the world around him and commenting on it to a point of depressing realism, but he wasn't a storyteller. In fact, he struggled with creating enough storylines in order to support himself. Thus, while his books give impressive looks at Victorian life, they don't always leave a reader fully satisfied.

Why do I say this so confidently? Well, as Gissing was particularly self-aware and as he was particularly oppressed when writing "New Grub Street," in this novel he writes about what it's like to be a writer in London in the 1880's and 1890's. He essentially writes about his own life and those he find around him, all of whom are trying to make a living on writing.

Gissings seems to portray himself through the main character, Reardon. When the story opens, Reardon is struggling. His sophisticated wife is getting fed up with their impoverished lifestyle and with her husband's inability to write decent material. Reardon, a sensitive soul, is floundering under mounting pressure and stress. He is torn between his desire to write sophisticated, meaningful material and the public demand for "fluff." The more stressed laid on him, the less he is able to create and stick with any plausible fiction novel. He becomes more and more fererish and unable to work, and he is devastated as he loses his wife's love and respect.

Around this central character Reardon, Gissing builds a very full and weighty cast of characters. A small sampling of these characters are:
- The embittered, older column writer/reviewer, Yule, whose temperament has made so many enemies during his career that he is still laboring hard to support his small family at the end of his life.
- Yule's daugher, Marion, who is very clever but who is also very vulnerable. Her education has made her too good for many positions and marriages but her lack of money makes her a poor match for the educated class.
- Reardon's friend Milvain, who is an ambitious young man who has no problem writing exactly what the masses want. He knows his talents, he knows the market, and he knows his stuff won't last for posterity. But he is determined to live a comfortable life, make a strategic marriage and become a semi-respected man.
- Biffen, another friend of Reardon's, sympathizes most with Reardon's situation and condition. Two peas in a pod, these men spend long hours discuss meter, prose and ancient poetry.

I found myself continually amazed at Gissing's amazing ability to get into the head of many individuals in his large cast and to see how the world makes sense through each's eyes. Gissing also provides us with a wealth of information about the Victorian publishing scene. It was amazing to read that writers and publishers then were struggling with the same issues writers and publishers are struggling with today.

Additionally, Gissing gives you an unglorified look at poverty and the impoverished educated class of London at that time. While Dickens' works on the poor is idyllic and sentimental, Gissing simply relates the life he has known. There is nothing exceptional or amazing, and Gissing seems to argue that poverty takes character out of a man rather then build up a man's character.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating piece...though perhaps a slow read. For those interested in publishing, writing, realistic portrayals of Victorian England, or other such topics, this is a fantastic work.

Poor Gissing! I suspect his miserable, self-destructive life fuelled his wonderful novels much as (we now know) Dickens's traumatic "blacking-factory" experience explains so much of the nightmare world of those gargantuan fictions. Gissing greatly admired Dickens, and like Dostoyevsky, seems to have appreciated the grim side of Dickens most. Not much humor in Gissing; but there is the same shabby poetry one used to see in Bloomsbury back in the 1960s. The same wonderful appreciation of futile, obsessive scholarly lives. Gissing is a great poet and sometimes a rather fine moralist. His pictures of London rival those of the Master (Dickens --and Dore). Don't miss him. Start with "Workers in the Dawn" and "The Nether World"--his passion more than compensates for his crudities. Remember: he was also a very accomplished classicist--more of a scholar than any other major Victorian novelist! A not insignificant fact.

George Gissing's 1891 novel, "New Grub Street," is likely one of the most depressing books I've ever read. Certainly, in its descriptions of literary life, be it in publishing, or in my own realm of graduate scholarship, the situations, truths, and lives Gissing portrays are still all too relevant. "New Grub Street" itself points to the timelessness of Gissing's portrayals - as Grub Street was synonymous, even in the eighteenth century with the disrepute of hack writing, and the ignominy of having to make a living by authorship. One of Gissing's primary laments throughout the novel is that the life of the mind is of necessity one which is socially isolating and potentially devastating to any kind of relationships, familial or otherwise. "New Grub Street" gives us a world where friendship is never far from enmity, where love is never far from the most bitter kinds of hatred.

The anti-heroes of "New Grub Street" are presented to us as the novel begins - Jasper Milvain is a young, if somewhat impoverished, but highly ambitious man, eager to be a figure of influence in literary society at whatever cost. His friend, Edwin Reardon, on the other hand, was brought up on the classics, and toils away in obscurity, determined to gain fame and reputation through meaningful, psychological, and strictly literary fiction. Family matters beset the two - Jasper has two younger sisters to look out for, and Edwin has a beautiful and intelligent wife, who has become expectant of Edwin's potential fame. Throw into the mix Miss Marian Yule, daughter of a declining author of criticism, whose own reputation was never fully realized, and who has indentured his daughter to literary servitude, and we have a pretty list of discontented and anxious people struggling in the cut-throat literary marketplace of London.

Money is of supreme importance in "New Grub Street," and it would be pointless to write a review without making note of it. As always, the literary life is one which is not remunerative for the mass of people who engage upon it, and this causes no end of strife in the novel. As Milvain points out, the paradox of making money in the literary world is that one must have a well-known reputation in order to make money from one's labours. At the same time, one must have money in order to move in circles where one's reputation may be made. This is the center of the novel's difficulties - should one or must one sacrifice principles of strictly literary fame and pander to a vulgar audience in order to simply survive? The question is one in which Reardon finds the greatest challenges to his marriage, his self-esteem, and even his very existence. For Jasper Milvain and his sisters, as well as for Alfred and Marian Yule, there is no question that the needs of subsistence outweigh most other considerations.

"New Grub Street" profoundly questions the relevance of classic literature and high culture to the great mass of people, and by proxy, to the nation itself. For England, which propagated its sense of international importance throughout the nineteenth century by encouraging the study of English literature in its colonial holdings, the matter becomes one of great significance. The careers of Miss Dora Milvain and Mr. Whelpdale, easily the novel's two most charming, endearing, and sympathetic characters, attempt to illustrate the ways in which modern literature may be profitable to both the individual who writes it and the audiences towards which they aim. They may be considered the moral centers of the novel, and redeem Gissing's work from being entirely fatalistic.

"New Grub Street" is a novel that will haunt me for quite some time. As a "man of letters" myself, I can only hope that the novel will serve as an object lesson, and one to which I may turn in hope and despair. The novel is well written, its characters and situations drawn in a very realistic and often sympathetic way. Like the ill-fated "ignobly decent" novel of Mr. Biffen's, "Mr. Bailey, Grocer," "New Grub Street" may seem less like a novel, and more like a series of rambling biographical sketches, but they are indelible and lasting sketches of literary lives as they were in the original Grub Street, still yet in Gissing's time, and as they continue to-day. Very highly recommended.

I found Jasper Milvain, the "alarmingly modern young man," to be the most interesting character in Gissing's New Grub Street for a number of reasons, the most significant of which is that he evinces what can only be considered a modernist's consciousness in his approach to writing. That is, while it soon becomes clear to the reader that Milvain represents the antithesis of what Edwin Reardon personifies-i.e., the work of literature as an emanation of author's native genius-and thus one of the intercalated plots of the novel involves the incremental success of Milvain as a modern man of letters, and the concomitant gradual abjection of Reardon. In a manner of speaking, then, Milvain and Reardon's fates emerge from a common source, namely some sea change in the reading public's (the consumer's) preferences and tendencies.

Milvain identifies as vulgar the most lucrative market for the product of the man of letter's labor. The vulgarians, or "quarter educated," drive the market (479), and since they have been determined to desire nothing more than chatty ephemera, they have successfully opened an insuperable gulf between material success in writing and artistic success. Reardon's psychologically penetrating novels just aren't in demand. Therefore, there emerges quite an interesting conceptual shift within the nascent hegemony of the quarter-educated as established by their purchasing power: what was once considered healthy artistic integrity has transmuted into a peculiar kind of petit bourgeois hubris, if, in the new paradigm, the writer is more an artisan than an artist. Therefore, Reardon's artistically-compromised and padded three-volume novel, written with no other end in mind than to pander to the vulgar reader, nonetheless achieves only modest success because, the fact that it is indistinguishable from countless other similar works glutting the market aside, his novel is infected from his irrepressible integrity, and thus his novel becomes a strange sort of counterfeit, a psychological narrative masquerading as a popular novel. Reardon thus becomes a sort of Coriolanus among writers.

Milvain, on the other hand, is a sort of Henry Ford among writers; he reveals his particular genius when offering advice to his sister Maud about how to write religious works for juveniles: "I tell you, writing is a business. Get together half-a-dozen fair specimens of the Sunday school prize; study them; discover the essential points of such a composition; hit upon new attractions; then go to work methodically, so many pages a day" (13). In other words, Jasper has managed to streamline and to mechanize the writing process. He studies previous works, abstracts formulae from them, isolates the elements of these formulae, and then deploys and rearranges these elements to give his own writing a patina of originality. By treating writing as an exercise in manipulating formulae, Jasper exchanges "authenticity" (whatever that word means anymore) for the convenience and efficiency of not having to grapple with his own potentially mutable and recalcitrant genius. Jasper did not invent writing, just as Ford did not invent the automobile. But like Ford did with automobile manufacture, Milvain discovers those aspects of writing that lend themselves to mechanical reproduction. Thus he is able to capitalize on his time and effort, and effectively becomes the very machine Reardon believes himself to be but never actually becomes because of his lingering notions of artistic integrity (352).

Also of interest is the fact that Albert Yule is a sort of synthesis of Milvain and Reardon. Like Milvain, Yule attempts to streamline his own literary production by delegating some of the labor to his daughter Marian. However, like Reardon, Yule clings to the superannuated notion of the necessary individuality of writing: "[h]is failings, obvious enough, were the results of a strong and somewhat pedantic individuality ceaselessly at conflict with unpropitious circumstances" (38). In other words, Yule fails to recognize the obsolescence of the lone, learned genius within the realm of literary production. A market of vulgarians who demand occasional literary confections simply does not expect Works of individual genius. Moreover, even if they were in demand, works of individual genius are too ponderously inefficient to keep pace with the rate at which they are consumed. Therefore, Yule straddles the either/or proposition personified by Reardon and Milvain: One may preserve his artistic integrity and write "for the ages"--hence Yule, Biffen, and Reardon's fetishization of Shakespeare, Coleridge and authors of classical antiquity--and starve in the process, or one may write "for the moment" and actually turn a respectable profit.

The shadow of Charles Darwin indeed looms large over the events and characters of New Grub Street. The growth market brought about by the advent of the "quarter-educated" vulgar class, and their discretionary income coupled with their callow aesthetic sensibilities and truncated attention spans, represents a nascent economic, if not ecological niche, for certain social creatures to occupy. However, it's not simply a matter of being able to adapt one's skills to the tastes of these consumers. One must also be a prodigious enough writer to keep pace with an equally prodigious rate of consumption. Individuals like Milvain and Whelpdale are adequately adapted to this niche in that they satisfy the demands of this niche in terms of both content and output. Reardon panders to the vulgar taste only grudgingly and after long resistance and thereby cannot meet the production demands of this niche. Biffen absolutely refuses to pander at all. Alfred Yule does attempt to pander, but his mode of literary production is too inefficient to meet production demands, and he is also largely ignorant of vulgar literary taste. While more in touch with the vulgar reader than her father, Marian Yule is as inefficient in her literary production as her father. Therefore, each of the characters named above are equally maladaptive, albeit for various reasons, and thus their extinction by the novel's end strikes the reader as somehow inevitable. Whereas Milvain and Reardon's widow Amy are left to come together as the triumphant niche occupants and thus reproduce themselves in their offspring, should they decide to produce any.

I recently read New Grub Street, and I must say I was stunned by how much I enjoyed it. Gissing's prose and characterization hold up remarkably well. He's sort of an urban Hardy, though far more accessible to today's reader. I'd recommend this to any serious reader. Oh, and this novel is ripe for adaptation. A BBC miniseries would be great.

Small Miracles is a very very good book. All the pages are filled with very special, interesting stories about small miracles that happen to ordinary people. When you open the pages you will experience the magic of a good story and reading.

This is a wonderful heartwarming collection of short inspirational stories written from a Christian and Jewish perspective. I usually read a few right before going to bed and find that they put me in a happy and hopeful mood. If you need a lift beyond your circumstances, this book helps you look for the small miracles in your life.

Small Miracles is a very very good book. All the pages are filled with very special, interesting stories about small miracles that happen to ordinary people. When you open the pages you will experience the magic of a good story and reading.

I keep buying and rebuying this book because I am constantly giving my copy away as a gift and therefore need to replace it. This book is especially meaningful to me because I was reading it at a time of my life when I was brought closer to someone by what I believed to have been a miracle. The matter is very personal and without going into the details, (no, it was not a potential romance, I am happily married) I will allow as how the hoped for miracle, so far, has not panned out. However, reading these tales of people brought closer together has been uplifting and this book has carried me through some emotional moments in my own life. I recommend this to all people who have a spiritual and sensitive side to their personalities.

I love the Small Miracles Books. I keep buying and rebuying this book because I am constantly giving my copy away as a gift and therefore need to replace it. This book is especially meaningful to me because I was reading it at a time that I was giving up on miracles and optimism. However, this book has been uplifting. I know can realize that small miracles exsist in everyday life and there is always a reason to keepsmiling. I recommend this series to everyone. I have been inspired by Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal. There work seeps out inspiration and devotion to believe. Each time I read a story a warm feeling of love engulfs me. I know believe in small miracles again. I feel as if this line of books took me from being in a negative slump to being optimistic again. I highly recemmend this book:) The personal message I have recieved is "Keepsmiling and Love Life!"

This book is brill as it is all about helping each other. In this story the real teen van comes to MK and A's school.Ashley thinks she is going to win the fashion shoot they shot(so 1 pupil can have a chance to be in the mag! When Ashley goes to winners board she realises it is not herself who won but someone totally different!What is she going to do?

I liked this book because it shows that you should never thinkthat you (Ashley) can win. But even though Mary Kate got picked shewas nice and shared the spotlight with her sister.

In another 2 of a Kind book that reminds me of Sweet Valley Twins,a scout visits Mary-Kate and Ashley's school to choose a one-time model to appear in Real Teen magazine.Ashley couldn't be more excited!She starts turning up at school in sparkly dresses and high-heels.Mary-Kate thinks modelling is silly and playfully teases Ashley over her love of it.There is surprise in both girls when it is Mary-Kate who is chosen as the new Real Teen.Ashley begs Mary-Kate to swap places with her,but after MAry-Kate is conjoled into agreeing ,she starts to regret it.

I would give this book 6 *s(stars) if I could. It is entrancing and funny at the same time.

TWO OF A KIND My sister the super model Reviewed By: Brenda Adams from Tennessee

I give this book five stars because it's a great book about two paternal twin girls. The twins and their best friend, Jennifer Dealber where interested in modeling. The twins both had different opinions on why they wanted to tryout for the modeling contest. With the help of their father, they were able to proceed in the contest. They encountered a few problems but over came them. The reader, will find themselves caught up in the story. Readers of all ages will really enjoy this very cool book!

Loved it, loved it, loved it. I am not a teenager anymore but I still loved it. I could relate. I read it in one evening and wished that there was book 2 to read. Please keep writing these great, funny books.

Finally! My 3rd-grade daughter used to dread reading, and the first book "Matt the Brat" got her hooked! This is the first time she has wished that there were more books in a series. Carol Weston, please write more!!

I LOVED this book. it was great. all of the Melanie Martin books are great. In this one she goes with her parents to Spain. her dad has business in Spain to do so her mom used frequent flyer miles to have the whole family go with him. In Spain Melanie's mom meets up with her old boyfriend Antonio. When there. melanie falls for Antonio's son Miguel. In this book many adventures come in with love between Melanie and Miguel. Also surprisling Matt the Brat helps out to keep Melanie and Miguel alone or gives Melanie tips, like when Miguel's cousin comes and Melanie thought it was Miguel's girlfriend. This book was great and I'd recommend it for all ahges.

I bought this book from amazon.com and read it the day it came. It's so sweet to see Melanie in love! Stocked with bullfights, fireworks and of course, ROMANCE, this book rocks! It's almost like being in Europe yourself! This book is a must-read!

The Martin family band together for a two-week Spring break vacation as seen through the eyes of 11-year-old Melanie. Readers join Melanie through the pain and confusion of first love as she fills her senses with the compelling Spanish landscape. This is an amusing linguistic travel adventure written in diary format. Because the author phonetically spells the Spanish words Melanie learns, I found myself saying some of the words aloud and learning quite a few things along the way. An appendix of all the foreign words Ms. Weston used would have been an added benefit to the book. With Love From Spain, Melanie Martin will make you want to take your kids on a European adventure of your own, no matter where you live in the world! The potential for this book is it's "that's me" value for Tweeners making the transition beyond being big kids.

I was wondering what my wife and kids could do this summer that wouldn't break the budget. Boy am I glad I found this book. Great customer service too. Thanks for the ideas!

My granddaughter is with me during part of the summer. When the books arrived, she was almost six.
We found some interesting things to do. I monitor her tv and computer viewing. So when she got bored and it was not tv time, she would say: get the book! And we always found some fun things to do.

This book is great for days when your board. You need almost nothing to to all the activities. We use it much more than our other craft books! You must by it!

I tripped across this book at my local library and I am here looking for my own copy, as we are limited on how long we keep it. I brutally removed the kids from their TV addiction, and the transition has been difficult on the older ones especially. This book has been my salvation. The prereader like to pick out things by picture, my beginner read has no problem understanding the direction and my toddler and teen get involved too. We have used this to fill the huge void of television and to stave of the "mom I am bored..." routine. This is a small book it fits in my purse and we take it with us everywhere. Breaking the index down by activity type means I can have a Doctor's waiting room idea or a park idea up in running in 2 minutes. The materials list is in the margin for easy access and all the material are everyday every house items, half of which are in my purse any way... This book is a keeper!

This book was recommended in the book Living the Simple Life. I'm so glad I took the time to get it. It's a wonderful resource for busy families looking to spend some quality time together. So turn that TV off and buy this book. Encourages you and your child's imagination and they learn through playing with simple things around the house and the bonus is that by not watching that TV, you've spent memorable time with each other...what could be better?

I picked up this book after my dog died, and I was feeling really lousy and depressed. My heart was warmed by these tales submitted by ordinary folks just like me. This book put a smile on my face. It also will remind you to be thankful for what you have, which will make you feel good no matter what. The stories will not disappoint. Often they seem like made up miracles, but they are all true! The authors found people with uplifting tales from daily life, proving that truth is more inspirational than fiction! If you are feeling down this is the book for you, it helped me immensely!

I personally have not read the entire book because I purchased it for my sister as one of her christmas gifts but the stories are both comforting and encouraging a good book for those in the snow belt to curl up with a nice hot cup of cocoa and read by the fireplace

With a new introduction and several new stories, A Cup of Comfort Classic Edition will bring joy and inspiration to another decade of readers. This is the book that started the Cup of Comfort series, and it is as good as it was years ago when first published. The stories are so varied- some funny, some warm, some sad, yet all carrying a message of hope and inspiration. You can read the book from cover to cover when feeling blue, or pick it up and read a story a day - either way your spirits will be lifted when reading the words in this classic book about real people who experience miracles or the simple joy of human compassion and kindness.

For me, there is no better medicine than a cup of chamomile or orange ginger tea and a book of inspirational stories. So it is with A Cup of Comfort : Stories that warm your heart, lift your spirit, and enrich your life. This book, slices of life of those, who stop and honor what still matters in this country, the commonality and wonder of the human spirit.

Some of the stories are several pages long and others like Lynn Ruth Miller's Sing Your Song, is only two pages long, yet packs a powerful message of perseverance. The Crying Chair by May Marcia Lee Norwood tells of a teacher's compassion for her students' need to express their pain and The Lady in the Blue Dress by Edie Scher is a testament to the power of faith.

This book is by my bed and I indulge myself in one of the stories several times a week and promises to be a mainstay in my collection of inspirational reading. I applaud the editor, Colleen Sell for her vision for the Cup of Comfort concept and the Adams Media Corporation for believing in it, which has branched into a series. There is also A Cup of Comfort for Friends and the upcoming A Cup of Comfort Cookbook and A Cup of Comfort for Women of which I am proud to be a contributor.

Boy, talk about timely books! A Cup of Comfort is what this nation needs to heal. I picked up this book and couldn't stop reading. The stories are truely amazing! It is in times like these that we need a pick me up and this is a cup we acan all share. I was particularly impressed with The Lady in the Blue Dress by Edie Scher and Crossing Paths by Jamie D'Antoni. These stories show that anything can happen if you are open to the possiblities. I hope to see more from these two ladies...they are very talented and have a good grasp on storytelling. I would recommend this book to everyone!

This is a good book to talk about getting sick, seeing a doctor, taking x-ray and going to the hospital. Not a lot of words, but the pictures say it all. It describes how Franklin noticed a crack on his shell, then went to see the doctor and found out he needed a surgery. Then it shows him telling his friends about his upcoming surgery, then going to the hospital for admission, then to his private room, then surgery, recover..

The most amazing part is how much detail it gets into. For example, Franklin has to go to the x-ray room by himself (he was allowed to take his stuff animal), with his parents waiting outside. Also before he went into surgery room, he had to say goodbye to his parents, etc.

My son was going in for same day surgery, and this was a nice way to reiterate what we had already seen on our tour. The end part where the turtle is LEFT by his parents overnight probably can be omitted, but so can so many other things in books these days. Overall, a nice and non offending book, even for a family who doesn't normally use characters such as these in their normal book libary.

I got this book for my child who was about to have surgery for the first time. It helped my child relate to what was going to be happening. I would definitely recommend this book

This book was a great help to prepare my 4 year old daughter for surgery. Once she was at the hospital, everything was known and already seen in the book and she had fun.. I highly recommend it to relieve the anxiety before a surgery

This book was great for my six year old preparing to go to the hospital.It was really important for him to realize that it is okay to be scared,that it is part of the whole experience,you just need to talk about it.