Maine Books

If you prefer to journey off the beaten path, this is the book for you. Beyond the well-drawn characters and engrossing plot, the author draws you into the land so strongly that you can feel the weave of the ancient hills and valleys that knit northern Maine's most remote communities.

I picked up this book and could not put it down. Amy's story, and the parallel and intermingling stories, were funny and poignant, but it was the subflooring of Maine's rural culture that lent this book its solid foundation and its human appeal. Read it if you want a rare and special look into real lives, defined by real communities, that still exist today but are rapidly and sadly evaporating.

Very highly recommended.

I read this book in short bursts so that I could savor the characters. What fun. To really get the most from this book, I recommend reading The Funeral Makers first.

For the unabridged flavor of northern Maine, Cathie Pelletier delivers. I've read three of her books so far, and they've all been good. For a good story, I recommend them strongly.

This is the second book I've read by Cathie Pelletier and the story keeps getting better. The Funeral Maker being the first of the trilogy, I can't wait to read the third. These caracters just won't quit. What a great read when you just want to relax and have a good laugh. I will definitely read every book by this author and I dare say if you read one, you're hooked. Keep them coming.

What a way to spend the evening, sitting in a comfy chair with this book. It was especially good since I'd also read The Funeral Makers. I'm not going to stop until I've read all of Cathie Pelletier's books--it was a New Year's resolution.

This is one of my favorite books ever...I fell in love with the Nodd's Ridge series about 10 years ago and devoured all of the books and still wish there were more! The characters are so well-crafted and inter-twined throughout generations, its compelling. There is also an element of mystery to Tabitha King's books (especially Caretakers and the Trap) that makes the stories of Nodd's Ridge even more interesting. I just picked up "Candles Burning", but I have to admit, I am eager for more from this series. I can never put down her books! I wish she would write more!

Pearl Dickenson inherits the home and land of her great-uncle Joe, who she never had the chance to meet. On the spur of the moment, while taking care of Uncle Joe's funeral arrangements, Pearl decides to live in his house rather than sell it. Even though Pearl is "from away" she fits in with many of the inhabitants of the small Maine town. All of sudden, after three years of having no gentlemen friends, there are two men on the horizon. The two are very different from one another, but both have a lot to offer Pearl--and both have their own troubled pasts.

PEARL is not a fast-paced action-packed read. It is a novel of setting and character, a slice-of-life story that lets the reader live in small town Maine for a while. The characters are funny and real, and Pearl is so likable that one has to keep reading and share her life. Tabitha King doesn't fool around with sex issues, either: she faces them head-on, and most of the love scenes are poetic while retaining their reality. The author has some interesting things to say about sex, love, friendship, family, and caring, but never says them in a preachy, intrusive way. PEARL is a smooth, leisurely, thought-provoking read.

Kimberly Borrowdale Under the Covers Book Reviews

Now here's a writer who knows how to write an engrossing story with real character development. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the prequel, "The Book of Reuben". Tabitha King invited the reader to meet an unusual yet very interesting group of people. Mrs. King's descriptive and clear narrative style is such a welcome change to other interracial romance stories that I've read. She really made the reader feel that they were a part of her characters lives and as a reader one really wanted to know about their lives in Nodd's Ridge, Maine. I think Reuben Styles is one of the most sexiest, sweet, vulnerable and yet strong males I've ever been introduced to and he and Pearl were meant for each other. I fell in love with him myself. Pearl was a woman of purpose and very captivating. No one was larger than life, breathtakingly beautiful or facing horrific or outrageous challenges. Just living life was challenging enough. Simplicity goes a long way and I as a reader appreciate simplicity. I couldn't put it down. It is an interracial love story but, the romance is treated realistically and maturely and the interracial love story is not the only important story being told. Nothing unbelievable, sophomoric or just plain annoying was any where in this book. It's become one of my favorites and I'm so glad it was recommended to me. You really should meet Reuben, Pearl and all the other inhabitants of Nodd's Ridge, Maine.

This book is so rich and engrossing. This is one of my books that I always go back to periodically. It is also the second book I've looked up only to find out that it is out of print or stock. Please look for it, buy it, read and enjoy.

From chapter one, this book hooks you into the life and loves of Pearl, an amazing person, but with human frailties. One can identify with her and you find yourself rooting for her throughout. Which of the men in her life will she choose? Or will she lose them both? The characters are interesting and believable. Pearl is enigmatic, as is the book. It has been, undoubtedly, one of the best books i have read in a long time. It was my first Tabitha King book, but certainly won't be my last. A very satisfying read.

I loved Sauci Churchill's urban child in "Running Down Division Street". Now, thanks to "A Red Fin", I've met the adult, sifting through larger mysteries, a voice rich with lyrical phrasing steeped in ironies and twists, tender, wise and unassuming, tangible as a fresh catch. Here is a life savored despite losses and fears familiar to us all, the "stranglehold (that) could take a wall down". Her poems take us to Guadalupe, Croatia, Jamaica, a Berkeley roommate, a "composite" of husbands ("Lived with a man/ seventeen years/ didn't know till/ the day he left/ he didn't like Sundays"), cancer's "night terrors" after "surgery's unnatural sleep", "Aunt Iris' Wedding", and much more. "The Red Fin" will linger in your mind.

Here we have a second book of poems by Sauci S. Churchill.

Like her first, it is from a small house, and I am troubled by its "Currently Unavailable" status, since it has just been published. If, as has been recently noted, more than 50% of books are sold by giant chains, who have no room for these small books of poetry, how are we to find them, enjoy them? I had thought that Amazon would continue as a supplier of offbeat, non-mainstream books, but perhaps not . . . Too bad.

As to the book itself, it is another volume of the spare but meaningful poems by this author.

The images stay with you:

"My father and mother were linked like the teeth of a zipper"

and

(On cancer): "It is not the ending but an overlong third act...

prey swaddled like babies
awaiting the hungry spider"

and

"Dusk fiils the room
as sand fills a bottle"

The elegance of expression is simply beautiful, and as you ponder it, it will make you return to read again.

I hope for more, and that they REMAIN AVAILBLE.

A Red Fin by Sauci Churchill is in turn moving, illuminating, intriguing, and amusing. One feels the full weight of a bottomless well of raw, inchoate emotion behind poems like "Duct to the Heart." The poet's struggle to invent language capable of rendering that volatile substrata of feeling that underlies her experience and our own is palpable. Sauci Churchill, in her unique, understated way not only refuses to turn away from the dark, perplexing aspects of human experience--individual, cultural, and historical--but she testifies to the imagination's capacity for finding "new ways to enter" the light in poems like "Red Cherries in a Crystal Bowl." This is a book to cherish. Use it as a lantern in a disheartening moment or as a mirror in a moment of joy.

The best thing about "A Red Fin" is the revisitation opportunity it presents for continuing reflection and enjoyment.

These new poems are stunning, and a fitting addition to those in "Running Down Division Street. They are both personal and universally meaningful.

This book blew me away! If ever a book needs to be republished, this is the one. It opens the hurting world of Christian women who are being abused by their husbands unlike any other I have ever read. I ordered as many of them as I could find on the internet and gave them away. The thing I found the most insightful is that it is written in first person and, as such, reveals the innermost thoughts and reasonings of the abused wife and mother. I cried through many pages. The ending, though, is positive and shows the way out of a terrible situation.

This book gives you the perspective of an abused wife who is a very deeply devoted Christian who believes that all the faults in her marriage are related to her own failings, never wanting to admit that they could also be attributed to her husband. Having known women like this, I could easily identify with Sadie as she struggles to placate her husband and still maintain some semblance of a personal identity. The effect of their hidden family life on the children is sad and disturbing, especially when you read about how the husband was abused as a child--the cycle is just continuing on & on. The secondary story about a missing child and Sadie's developing friendship with the mother is interesting a provides an nice counterpoint to the situation at home.

Sadieýs Song is a page-turning, heart wrenching, inspiring book that grabs you from the beginning and doesnýt let go. Thereýs a murder in town and another child is missing. Sadieýs husband has always been controlling and mean, but things are getting worse. Sad, tired and defeated, with five children and no help, how will Sadie survive the tribulations life has tossed at her? And who murdered the children? The book made me sad and it made me cry with happiness at the end. This is a wonderful, book with depth and meaning. Linda Hall is a fantastic writer.

Ms. Hall weaves a tight, exciting, and suspenseful tale from the first page. Written in the first person, Sadie's Song, artfully puts the reader into Sadie's head as she goes about "this little life of mine" as she refers to it. Sadie lives with an abusive husband and five kids and the insurmountable task of looking like the happy, contented wife of a godly husband. The signs of abuse are all around her, from her comments about hoping dinner will come out just the way Troy likes it to a son who sits under furniture and growls. A missing child, mysterious music that only Sadie seems to hear, and a friend with enough secrets of her own, will keep the reader turning pages. I loved reading this book and wondered as I neared the end how everything would be wrapped up in the few remaining pages.

If I thought Bette Nordberg's "Serenity Bay" was a fast-pace suspense, this one is catchy from the go - another one difficult to put down! We need a wider range to rate these books - one to five stars just isn't enough.

The writer, I'm sure, has a real feel of what having five small children would be like - the busy schedule and the constant interruptions, the whining and fighting. Sometimes, it probably would be tempting and easier to just give in to their tantrums. That would take care of the issue for the short term but it would cause a problem in the long run.

Sadie is just such a mother in this story with a grouchy husband who is one way in front of church members but totally different with his family. He's mean-tempered but that's not all. Sadie has a nagging feeling about her husband's involvement in something but she doesn't know if and who to talk to about this - afterall, it's just a feeling - maybe just a coincidence. Then she finds out something else and that "coincidence" is looking more like a reality and less like a "feeling".

Molly-Jane-Bryson is on Ambrose Island,and her Oldest friend (Ruby) finds a "SEAl" on the beach. This child is a seal in a discise-like thing. With Molly's little brother Douglas who calls them "SELZ", they have a nice adventure. You must read this Book..... SEAL CHILD by Sylvia Peck

This is one of those rare childrens books that doesn't fade when you go back to it. I read this book for the first time when I was 10 years old, I'm in my twenties now and it still holds up. Each of Peck's characters has amazing depth -especially for a childrens book- and they become your friend upon reading. All the scenes are described so clearly I have memories from this book as if I lived it myself. Reading the book again is like returning home after a trip.

The book also gives a good message. It gently teaches about humans being responsible for nature and the world around us, as well as teaching important lessons about friendship that we can all use hearing again.

I would recommend this book highly. It's out of print but there are plenty of used copies around to be bought.

Molly Bryson is a twelve-year-old girl who's spending vacation at Ambrose Island. While there, she makes a friend-Meara. The following year, when their family visits the island once again, Molly finds out that Meara has a secret that may break their friendship apart.

i love this book soo very much. it has an un-ending glimmer of magic that captivates you and makes you want to keep reading. it has a quality many books don't have, re-read-ability. i have read this book un-countable times and i love it more and more, it doesn't get dull, it keeps on shining, i recommend this book to anyone who can read, your SURE to love it. {i apologize for the miss spelled words :) }

this was an incredible book of two innocent girls, and one who turns out not to be human. I got this book five years ago, and i am 19 now and still love it. It is truly a timeless classic!!

`The Arrows Cookbook' combines 156 recipes from the four seasons of the highly regarded coastal Maine restaurant with a experienced amateur gardener's recommendations on planting and running a large southern Maine vegetable garden for the restaurant. The book embodies the familiar mantra of using fresh, seasonal, local ingredients fortified by giving you the information you need to grow fresh, local ingredients. This is the special slant the book offers, as no publisher has yet gotten the chutzpah to charge $40 for a book without trying to give the reader something extra.

The tone of the book is heavily oriented to their rural Maine terroir in style and content. In Maine, the seasons play a much greater role in daily life than they do in California or even in Manhattan. Therefore, the book's attitude toward its product has neither the mystical reverence of Paul Bertolli or Alice Waters nor the high maintenance, high craftsmanship of Daniel Boulud or Eric Rippert. Even though there is considerable respect for ingredients and home brewed food making here in both the gardening in the Spring and Summer and ham curing done in the Winter. There is also no evidence of high tech houte cuisine (there are no prep or cook times or difficulties ascribed to the recipes) or of Napa Valley chic wine recommendations. This is Maine! This is boiled lobsters, boiled meat, and wild apple country.

The asking price of $0.26 a recipe is a relatively high price for the average cookbook. Many very good books average out at $0.10 to $0.20 a recipe, list. What would make you willing to pay the extra toll for this book aside from the celebrity status of the venue?

1. The recipes are good, simple preparations. Of the 156, there are:
Appetizers 27
Salads 22
Main Courses 26 11 of which are for seafood
Sauces 21
Side Dishes 36
Desserts 24

The relatively high proportion of appetizers, salads, and side dishes to main courses is explained by the fact that the menu is different for each of the four seasons, based on what produce is available in that season. There are few or no tomato dishes in Spring and few strawberry dishes in Winter. The up side to this picture is that this book is a very good source for seasonal salads, appetizers, and side dishes. If one's limited cookbook budget was aimed at either seasonally or vegetarianism, this is a very good book. The attention to edible flowers is especially noteworthy.

2. The gardening information is fairly complete for the straightforward vegetable garden. Its primary value is inspirational and getting one started in the right directions. A good bibliography of gardening texts is included. The supplementary books are needed, because these authors are amateurs. I found at least one botanical mistake, but it wasn't serious. The book's value drops off the further you live from the Southern Maine growing zone and the less space you have available to grow stuff. The greatest value of this part of the book is the inspiration it can give to save money by growing your own. I believe the frugality of restaurant operations and the way they treat their prima materia is one of the most useful inspirations for home chefs. The growing of herbs alone in a Manhattan apartment can probably save someone over $100 a year with a commensurate improvement in their cuisine. Check out the price of fresh basil the next time you are in the tomato aisle of your megamart.

The photographs in this book are very gratefully limited to special sections and are of a reasonable quality. I have given up assigning demerits for photos, which have the center of a plate in focus and the front and back out of focus. All are about the food. No sous chefs hamming it up for the camera. Very commendable. One regret I have about the photography is that the book gives special attention to a very large arrangement at the restaurant entrance which changes at least seasonally, yet they give not a single photo of this great work, even after giving a detailed description of how to construct one. There are also many small black and white photos related to the text, but with no caption. Occasionally disorienting. Lastly, I miss a few more photos of their extensive garden and greenhouse(s). I start to get the sense that, like Emeril's recent cookbook, this book is aimed at being an elaborate advertisement for the restaurant.

This is good and more than commonly useful book. At a discounted price of $30 or less, I recommend it.

When I need to plan a dinner for friends that are not foodies this is the first cookbook I choose. The recipes are delicious, easy to prepare and are not over the top. Every recipe has been meticulously checked and all have proven to be delicious. The book helps capture the feel of eating at the restaurant. The seasonality of the book's organization helps us northern new englanders plan an appropriate meal.

This book is a must have. The recipes are fun and easy to prepare. When my family goes to their restaurant we are always treated as family. So many of the recipes are great that I can't even pick a single one as my favorite. What really puts this book into the next level is the way that they use seasonal ingredients. A must have.

As both a cook and a gardener, this cookbook is a treat. Oganized by season, the recipes use fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables found in the garden and at the farmer's market. There are ambitious recipes that call for a lot of time and preparation, as well as extremely simple fare. The book also gives hints and instructions for everything from freezing berries and shucking oysters to building raised beds; even providing advice on whether or not to buy a greenhouse! You can plant the authors' "10 veggies that let you have a life," and then use their recipes to create such dishes as Red and Golden Beet Salad or the very simple Ginger-Roasted Parsnips. Armed with my seed catalogs and Frasier and Gaier's cookbook for inspiration and ideas (not to mention a slice of Super-Moist Apple Cake and a cup of coffee), I am looking forward to planning my garden for 2004. I can hardly wait until next year's harvest!

Anyone who's ever visited Arrows Restaurant in Ogunquit, Maine, knows the owners are sticklers for exquisite detail. From the views of the lush and meticulous one-acre garden out the freshly painted farmhouse windows, to the seasonal food artfully arranged on the plate, the experience is a treat for the eye as well as the palate. With the garden full of flowers, herbs, vegetables and heirloom tomatoes for inspiration, the food is creative and bursting with bright and subtle flavors.

The owners' first book reflects this with a balanced presentation of recipes, gardening advice and personal details. Organized seasonally, the authors showcase Maine staples such as lobster, Maine shrimp and cod and halibut, fiddleheads and blueberries. But the fiddleheads come served in brown butter with Bundnerfleisch, a German cured beef (you could also substitute prosciutto or smoked salmon); the lobster comes in an Asparagus Soup with Lobster, Morels and Chervil, and the lobster salad is served, not with mayonnaise, but with Tomato-Tarragon Vinaigrette.

The authors cross cultures freely and do not mind a little extra effort for a spectacular result. The skewers for the Chinese-inspired Grilled Lamb Brochettes on Basil Skewers with Spicy Basil-Cilantro Marinade, for instance, are basil stems left to dry over the winter.

Each chapter opens with a short essay on the season and state of the garden (which provides 90 percent of the restaurant's produce) and business, then moves on to feature appetizers, main and side dishes, sauces and desserts. Recipes are prefaced with short, useful notes on growing (even in Maine, "tomatillos grow like weeds"), selecting (the best piece of bluefin tuna, for instance), variations, accompaniments, and cooking tips.

Interspersed with the recipes are short gardening pieces - how to grow tomatoes or peppers, growing and using herbs, watering with soaker hoses, using up zucchini, making the most of a small space, edible flowers, saving seeds and lots more.

But the food is what Arrows veterans are looking for here. For a tantalizing taste of summer, try a Sweet and Sour Fennel Salad or a simple plate of Marinated Tomatoes or a Sugar Snap Pea and Rock Shrimp Salad. Then maybe some Maine Sweet Clams with Risotto and Arugula, or Grilled Rib-Eye Steak with Herbs and Caramelized Onions. Accompanied perhaps by some Thai-Style Corn-on-the-Cob (soaked in coconut milk, grilled), or Yam and Leek Gratin, and your own Onion and Rosemary Focaccia. Topped off with Cinnamon Basil Shortcakes with Peaches or Blueberry Ice Cream or Steamed Raspberry Pudding.

This is an attractive, personable, conversational book, as much fun to cook from as to browse. The recipes are not difficult, though some are time consuming and many feature ingredients you can find, but not necessarily at the local supermarket (but isn't a new discovery half the fun?). A delightful book and a kitchen inspiration.

Well written and amazing to read. Author captured the moment and took you there. Book was flooded with facts.

I would highly recommend this book, it is not only for the history buffs.
If you do enjoy history, you will love the author's details.

I very good book that gives the reader an interesting twist on what was believed to be gospel. The author's research is convincing.

An awesome book....definitely a different view .... a must read for anyone seeking to truely understand Benedict Arnold's story.

Who would have thought that what was assumed by the average student of American history to be an open and shut case against Benedict Arnold could be brought into question. And, furthermore, to do so with such detailed facts woven into a rather gripping novel format. Mr. WIlczak has laid out a compelling case that Arnold was not a traitor but a collaborator with George Washington to ultimately fool the British. This book could be the basis of an excellent movie.

This book expresses a thoroughly researched, fresh approach to one of history's most infamous legends. When I began to read the book I felt my feelings regarding Benedict Arnold could not be swayed. The author, however, through meticulous use of timeline, documented fact, and letters of many of the involved, opened my eyes to the possibility that Arnold may have been the protaganist in a great scheme to free the colonies and help create the United States. I highly recommend this book to anyone who seeks the truth instead of the commonly handed down history stories we have been fed since childhood. AAAAA+++++

I first found this book (or should I say it found me) in a cool little bookshop in Washington DC in 2000. The title immediately grabbed me and I knew I had to read it. I was even more pleased with the book than I had guessed I'd be!

I believe this would fall into the genre of Magical Realism (but not 100% sure.) The novel is divinely inspired and reminded me at times of Toni Morrison's "Beloved" (which is definitely a much larger gem). Here the focus is on healing the past hurts, and having faith. Very much goddess/pagan oriented in my opinion, but has absolutely no religious doctrine in it and should appeal to many. All the characters are women, but I did not have a problem or objection being a man and reading this. Very enjoyable.

At first I wasn't sure what to make of this book, but after I realized that Ms. Gideon was writing a tale of fantasy, I was able to allow her message to reach deep into a part of me. This book is a story about overcoming the obstacles of the past: our mother's struggles, our fears, and the memories that come down to us from generation to generation which keep us from being truly human. This is a parable,teaching us that it is better to live than to give up, that it is possible to overcome the things that kept us down in the past, and that it is necessary to forgive what others have done to us. Only in forgiving and loving can we be free. A great book!

This is the most amazing book of it's kind that I've ever read. It truly puts womanhood into words that I have never heard before. This book is a great story that one MUST detach themselves to reality to read, that's what makes it so great! My mother gave me this book and I put off reading it for the longest time because I just didn't think I would be interested. But now, I have all my girlfriends and their mothers reading it. Understand that it is not for everyone, as those who cannot manage to detach themselves from reality will not understand a story that gives us a talking house, a clever river, and three travelers that reminded me of the sun, the moon, and the stars! Oh, but Gideon's writing style is so beautiful and so descriptive that you can taste the food and smell the flowers as you read!

I picked up this book at a clearance sale and it has become one of my favorites. I am a great lover of fantasy works which force the reader to bring in interpretations and knowledge which they possess, so this novel was ideal for me. Gideon describes the intensely emotional bonds between women (mother/daughter, friend/friend) in a poetic and beautiful way. Told in an enchanting style of exposing only bits and pieces of the characters' stories, as is how we remember as humans, the reader weaves through the sorrow, elation and everyday life of the women in the novel. The reader becomes immersed in a world of talking houses, giddy rivers, thousand year old women, and a young girl who swallows the moon. The characters display great emotions as they tell the story of generations of pain and healing.

Melanie Gideon's The Girl Who Swallowed The Moon is one of my favorite books. Gorgeous prose style and brilliant interpretation of the Persephone/Demeter story combine to create a powerful story about mothers and daughters, and the strength of women. A tangible spirituality, a rejoicing in both the mundane and the extraordinary. I woke from this book feeling alive, refreshed, and hopeful. All women should read this book. (Men are also encouraged.) :)

This is a very enjoyable audiobook. The author's kind words and gentle spirit clearly come through in her own words. Her slice-of-life memoir is very inspiring. Despite the strong language present in her story, the message is clearly Christian.

I really liked this book. It is poingnant, truthful and helpful to those dealing with grief and sorrow.

As a chaplain in a large hospital, I can thoroughly relate to the author's mesmerizing stories. I absolutely love this audio book. It was given to me as a gift and I am totally enthralled by the power of her stories. I cannot wait to get in my car and listen over and over again. Her stories touch me at a very deep place; she is able to articulate the many stories of life with humor as well as throught the use of vivid description. Powerfully, the author speaks about the things of life that touch all of us...love, loss, growth, surrender, pain and joy. The author is truly gifted.

This honest, touching, funny audiobook bears witness to the ordinary and extraordinary in our lives. Having Kate read it herself brings a great quality to it. Whether you are curious about life in Maine and the Warden Service, wondering about the meaning of life, working through your own personal losses, or just wanting a good book, I high recommend this audiobook as one that you will not want to hear come to an end.

I thought this was just a delight. I've recently moved and I've got a much longer commute that I'm getting used to and I grew to look forward to the drive just so I could hear Kate's voice and more of her story. I have to say (Kate, I know you'll laugh if you read this) that sometimes her voice reminds me SO much of Linus' voice on Charlie Brown Christmas when Linus tells the story of Christmas and that's comforting too. I was raised Christian but I'm not normally comfortable with Christianity at all and I still get a little rigid when I hear the J and L words though I'm getting better with the G word (you'll figure it out) so picking this to listen to surprised me too. But the title really caught me and then her warm face in her warm sweater with her warm mug pulled me in. And it turned out she's so straight and real, the stories interesting, heart-breaking, funny and more that I just loved it. She talks about her husband's death and the depth of the grief it brought which would be very helpful to anyone whose had a big loss. It made me feel like I could handle the next big source of grief alot more gracefully...I loved her talking about crying while ordering pizza. It's not a holy roller type of book, she does talk about her religion but it's gentle. How can you not like a reverend who collects jokes "about religious stuff" and proceeds to tell you one?? Kate, thank you for sharing your life.

This book reminds me of Hemingway. Mr. Garnache draws you in and keeps you spellbound without using an overabundance of adjectives which is so common these days. This book is just as delightful to reread as it was to read the first time. The ending, while at first giving you goose bumps, leaves you enraptured. Mr. Garnache posses a true sense of people, which he in turn uses in developing his "characters". This book is a perfect read for anyone who loves to curl up with a book and just enjoy the time they spend as the story comes to life. Enjoy, I did!!!

This is a great story and has a super ending. You would enjoy it if you were 8 or 80.

It was such a pleasure to curl up with a book that didn't force one to have to sleep with the lights on! Using photographs instead of drawings put you on the "inside" where you could smell the saltwater, feel the branches scratch your arms, and you may even feel it necessary to swat at insects that seem to come at you from the underbrush. Best of all is that children will end up wanting to be creative and independent without being rude or hateful. It hasn't been since Aesop's Fables that the reader encounters so many ". . .and the moral of the story is. . ."

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Killer Monument. Anyone who is familiar with the area will find it very interesting. Reference is made to actual places and events and anyone interested in learning a bit of folklore will enjoy it. The ending is SUPER! If you ever vacationed in Maine you want to read this book.

An exciting story utterly devoid of vulgarity. A refreshing read that well expressed a sense of morality and fair play without being preachy. I especially liked the way the hero and heroine reasoned things out -- as equals -- through their conversations. It's the sort of relationship I hope my daughter finds in real life!