Boston

The Orphan Seal is a wonderful book that presents a true story full of scientific information in such a way that is neither condescending nor too intellectual. I found it to have the right mix of storytelling charm and facts. A child interested in science will love it.

The ORPHAN SEAL is a wonderful book for everyone. This true story is written with warmth and caring. Each of my grandchildren will receive a copy of ORPHAN SEAL because it is an educational and fun book to read.

The Orphan Seal is a heartwarming and true story of a tiny harbor seal pup separated from his mother by an April storm on the coast of Maine. Washed up on the rocky shore, coastal residents saw the pup and reported him to the Seal Rescue Program at the New England Aquarium in Boston. Two of the Rescue Program scientists verified the seal was orphaned and took the sick, malnourished pup to the Aquarium's hospital. Veterinarians treated him and by September the pup (named Howler by the Aquarium staff) was ready to return to the sea and was successfully released off the coast of Cape Cod. The Orphan Seal is wonderfully illustrated by Dawn Peterson in perfect accompaniment to Fran Hodgkins' charming, engaging story for young readers ages 4 to 10 of a young seal named Howler and the good people responsible for his rescue.

Lots of guides give you advice and stuff to do in Boston. Some even get specific, offering fun suggestions for night owls, or museum lovers or history buffs. Finally, an easy-to-read, VERY helpful guide for PARENTS! We had a couple guides, but this was the only one we used. Plus, you can DEFINITELY tell that the author lived in and loves the city. Thumbs up all the way around. Waiting on the dog lover's guide next . . .

It's a cliche that everything is different once you have kids. But in the case of traveling, it is definitely true. Now that I have two toddlers, most of the traveling I do is right in the city where I was born and raised. That's why I want to recommend MacKinnon's book - to everyone, but especially to fellow Bostonians. With lots of interesting finds and sensible advice, MacKinnon makes bringing kids (even the youngest ones) into the city seem fun and manageable, whether you are flying into Logan or just taking the T. Some nice day trips are also included.

well written, ever mindful of the realities of travelling with children (and on a budget) and full of truly fun, interesting things for BOTH parents and kids to do. I especially appreciate the "best playgrounds in the area", because sometimes a good run-amuck is just what the doctor ordered, for everybody...

This book is excellent and captures children's imaginations. I used this book to enhance my Jazz History/Improvisation unit and the students couldn't stop asking me question about it. They all wanted to know if it was in the library. It provides a short, rhythmic, simplistic story of the journey of jazz from Africa to today. A definite MUST HAVE!

"This is Africa where rhythm abounds/and music springs from nature sounds,/played on a drum carved from a tree/that grew in a forest of ebony." From the African jungle and slave ships, to Harlem, New Orleans, and even today's rappers, Carole Boston Weatherford introduces the sound that jazz makes. Her lyrical and engaging rhyming text is full of energy, motion, and passion, and beautifully complemented by award winning illustrator, Eric Velzsquez's vibrant and expressive oil paintings. Together they've authored a powerful and evocative feast for the ears and eyes that traces the roots and development of this unique and totally American musical art form. Perfect for youngsters 4-8, "JAZZ is a downbeat born in our nation,/chords of struggle and jubilation,/bursting forth from hearts set free/in notes that echo history./This is the sound that jazz makes!"

This book's words string together like a song without themusic. The pictures on the pages make you engrossed in the pages, andit feels like you could reach out and grab these images. This is one book you should most definitely read.

Though I don't know him, Jerome Doolittle strikes me as someone who'd be a hoot to have a beer with-were both of us still drinking-and a bear to have as an enemy. And someone I'm extremely eager to keep reading.

Through his Tom Bethany character, a private investigator with no clear clientele, but an intense focus on righting wrongs, Doolittle lets readers know immediately-NO, NOW!-what's wrong with bureaucrats, lots of businessmen, some cops, lawyers and many others whose very existence makes others suffer. And, oh, yeah. Lots of Republicans.

Now, to be fair, he also tackles dopey Democrats and their occasional, in Doolittle's view, misdeeds. Jimmy Carter comes in for a regular swipe for having refused to allow the United States to participate in the 1980 Olympics because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. (Even as I write this, that move does seem to be rather dumb, and I like Jimmy Carter). But the Republicans really take a pounding, regularly and incisively, almost to the point of wincing, which I maybe, just might do if I could stop laughing and nodding in agreement. Not just any Republicans, mostly just the indicted ones.

While Doolittle is making clear his views, he works them very cleverly, though not stealthily, into the storyline of each of his books.

And, now, the storyline for Strangle Hold.

Tom Bethany is a low-key, somewhat paranoid but very human private investigator in Cambridge, Mass.

Bethany takes on a job investigating the death of Morty Limbach, who appears to have committed suicide. Limbach was the son of extremely rich parents, who think he was a total failure for having gone left in his politics. His main work in life was funding a group of troupe of actors, whose flaws as individuals is on display throughout the story.

Limbach may have been engaged in auto-erotica when he died, which helps feed the urge to cover up how he died. An insurance policy payoff worth a quarter of a million dollars rides on the determination of how he died.

Needless to say, Bethany figures out the case--it's murder--and who did it and why. Using a minimum of violence, though more is implied, he confronts and captures the bad guy.

The story moves along nicely, building in little subplots, painting character portraits and mixing in a nice blend of people, from the wife of a retired bishop, to a female med student with a string of boyfriends to a cop with a strong sense of duty to a girlfriend married to a late-blooming gay man. All are characters rather different from the usual folks found in crime stories. Bethany doesn't live in an aha-gotcha! world. He lives by his wits. It's Doolittle's writing and depiction of people that sell the story, because, after all, how interesting is one poor little rich guy whose parents didn't love him? We're sympathetic but heck, missing interns and dallying congressmen provide more exciting possibilities. His insight into people, their character flaws and their motivation, and his running social commentary, make the reading far too good to pass up.

If you're a Republican, you can still read this book, because after all, foibles are foibles, and you can shift them over in your brain to any number of Democrats if you'd prefer. I just happen to find them extra hilarious because his comments happen to target real people.

You have the wit, the wacky reasoning, the weird lifestyle. What more could you want? Oh. A mystery solved? That's done too. Well worth the read.

STRANGLEHOLD BY JEROME DOOLITTLE

The first novel to introduce Tom Bethany, a quirky, enigmantic PI, with a mysterious past, ex-Air America, Ex-CIA, ex-Harvard, and a Semi-Pro Wrestler, now acting as Left Wing Muscle. The character is very much like the Writer in background, and if you missed Doolittles books you are in for a suprise. They really predate the Lehane, Burke, Hiasson, Harlan Coben and Crais books, Very funny, ironic, Trageic but ultimately uplifting. Great Dialog, and very paranoid.

The story centres on Bethany being hired to check up on the mysterious death of a wealthy weirdo, who appears to have died in a bizzare sexual ritual, like the guy from INXS (Mike Hutchincene). The wills benefactor is the ACLU, wo are the sole benefactor form a weird Insurance policy, while lowlifes appear representing the familiy, and a house of wired misfit actors, and only Tom Bethany can uncover the truth behind the death.

Great Characters, I laughed out loud at ?The Hocker? one of the best. Do read as soon as possible. Like all his books catches you on Page one, and then the squeeze is on. Thankfully back in print.

Can't wait for the next novel. Please keep writing Kelly.

Kelly Dwyer makes a perfect example of how life really is. She shows the troubles of a young women trying to overcome the fears of everyday life. With the help of a ragged winged angel, who offers litle hope, Laura must discover the meaning of life the hard way. Living with the guilt of assisting her father to his death, she attempts to make a new life in the city which appears to be farthest away on the map. This novel shows the much deeper and terrible truth of life. I have read it three times, and each time I get a better idea of how wicked the world really is and not as perfect as we wish it to be. I would recommend this novel to people who are just starting out on their own. I myself am only 16 and already I am more aware of the things in life that real and true because of this novel.

Kelly Dwyer has written what I consider to be one of the most luminous and beautifully written books thatI have ever read. Actually, I have read it four times and I plan to reread it many times. It is the story I wish I had written. With poetry, grace and soul, she writes of a traumatized young woman, Laura Neuman, and her search for her past, herself and her spirituality. I only wish she would write another book soon. I found this story to be so beautiful and so well written that I have recommended it and given it as a present to everyone I can.

Tolly has returned to Green Knowe and his Grandmother full of excitement at being there once more, but an unhappy surprise lies in wait for him: the portrait of the children Toby, Alexander and Linnet is missing from the wall. It would seem a small loss but for the fact that its absence means that the children's spirits are also not present in the house.

Grandmother Oldknow explains the painting's loss due to poor finances, though soon sparks hope in Tolly for its return due to the tale of the missing treasure of Green Knowe (which he vows to find), and stories of another family ancestor: Susan Oldknow. Born to a vain mother, a kind but absent father, a spoilt older brother Sefton, and an overly pious grandmother, Susan knows her blindness is a terrible blow to the family's pride: "I can't take her into society, she'll never be married, and I'll have her *always*!" her mother laments when the sad truth is revealed.

Smothered by a good-hearted but utterly disillusioned Nanny, Susan is not allowed to do a thing on her own, till her Captain father brings back a gift from his travels that shocks the entire family: a West Indian boy named Jacob to keep her company. Their extraordinary friendship can only be describe through L. M. Boston's beautiful prose, as when the two meet:

"'Who is it Papa?' Susan asked. Jacob answered for himself, in a voice whose smallest half-utterance she was never afterwards to mistake for any other. 'It's me, Missy.'"

As with Tolly's previous summer in the house, the line between past and present blurs, and he once again interacts with the older inhabitants of the house, though this time in a far more influential manner, going so far as to actively participate in the stories his Grandmother tells him each night. While other time-travelling stories leave me completely cross-eyed, the "Green Knowe" stories treat it as something utterly natural, and thus so do the readers.

As a sequel to "Children of Green Knowe", this second part (also published as "Chimneys of Green Knowe") is undoubtably superior to its predecessor. Though I missed Toby, Alexander and Linnet, their part in the first story was as whimsical spirits - Susan and Jacob have a definite story assigned to them, and interact with Tolly in a more important way, stirring events into being on both sides of the centuries.

Lucy Boston creates a sophisticated commentary on prejudice that still rings true today in her use of blind Susan and West Indian Jacob. As she comments, blind people were either poor and beggars, or rich and had servants to live for them, and Susan was certainly of the latter group. As such, the poor girl often finds herself strapped to a chair with her doll tied to its arm, disliked by her grandmother who thinks her condition a judgement for her mother's vain lifestyle, and punished for fingering things. Boston's descriptions of blindness in both Susan's life: "things stuck out of space like icebergs out of the sea", and Tolly's experiments (he discovers feet are more useful than hands in such an instance) are evocatively written, and so imaginatively told that it won't simply be children so have their minds expanded.

Second is Jacob, whose place in the story is still whilst England allowed slavery. This book was first published in 1958, and I was both impressed by Boston's distaste for slavery, and refreshed by the lack of extreme political correctness that so often clogs books on the subject written today. Boston presents the Slave Trade as a simple factuality, that could be neither explained nor excused, but simply a reality.

Truly, the "Green Knowe" stories are among the lost masterpieces of children's literature. Do everyone in your family a favour and read them - the house, the characters, the situations, and the sublime use of language that Lucy Boston uses is unforgettable.

It's the spring immediately following the events of "The Children of Green Knowe," and young Tolly Oldknow returns to the ancient manor of his family to stay with his great-grandmother over the Easter break. He barely steps through the door when he senses that something is wrong--and how horribly wrong it is: his ghost-friends, Toby, Alexander, and Linnet, have accompanied their portrait on loan-out to an exhibition, and may never return, for Mrs. Oldknow is desperate for money to make repairs to the house and has been offered a high price for the picture. Tolly resolves to search for the long-lost jewels of Maria Oldknow, the stylish wife of his 18th-century ancestor, which disappeared when the grand "new annex" of the manor burned down in a suspicious fire in 1798. Yet he soon finds that ghosts still lurk in Green Knowe--or perhaps not ghosts at all, since his blind ancestress Susan and her young black companion Jacob lived far beyond the ages at which they manifest to him. As is often the case at this house, time becomes a half-meaningless concept, past and present blend and communicate, and Mrs. Oldknow's stories of Susan and Jacob, Susan's vain and flighty mother and spoiled older brother Sefton, her young tutor Jonathan Morley (who, years later, she married), and the sinister manservant Caxton seem to draw these Georgians even closer to Now. Tolly himself finds that his modern-day actions resonate into the past and that--in one memorable sequence--he can even travel back to it and help Susan and Jacob conceal a young poacher from Caxton in a secret tunnel he has discovered. And in the end, even before those stories lead him to the hiding place of the jewels, the portrait is returned, and in a beautiful closing scene we get a hint of the possibility that Susan and Jacob may come to know Toby and his sibs as Tolly does. A worthy sequel to the first book and nearly as good.

This is the second of the Green Knowe series. Tolly returns for easter vacation to find that the portrait of Toby, Alexander and Linnet is missing -- loaned out by his grandmother to a museum, possibly to be sold at the end of the exhibition because she needs money to mend the roof. Tolly is horrified, and then with the help of Susan and Jacob (Susan an ancestor of his from 1800) he learns about Green Knowe during their lifetime, and -- yes -- finds the treasure which was lost while they were living. Every bit as wonderful as the Children at Green Knowe. The next in the series is The River at Green Knowe.

This is a great booklet for seeing parts of Boston that are famous as well as more quiet areas. The maps help lots and the size is convenient to stow away as you do the walks. The photos spruce up the book.
It is endorsed by the ava which has a web site to list more walks

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AJ

Boston is a great city, and Walking Boston was a great book to accompany my fiancé and I on our trip. We completed several of the suggested walks, and found some quant cafes and historic buildings. Good maps too.

Boston is a great city, and Walking Boston was a great book to accompany my fiancé and I on our trip. We completed several of the suggested walks, and found some quant cafes and historic buildings. Good maps too.

"You Can't Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts" is the problem that confronts a young girl who is visiting the Boston museum with her brother and grandparents in this charming children's book from author Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman and artist Robin Preiss Glasser. So grandma volunteers to wait outside, with the balloon (which is green), while the others tour the museum. However, before the trio even gets inside, the balloon comes undone from grandma's wrist and sails away. However, grandma is not about to let the day be ruined and sets off in hot pursuit of the balloon, helped by a nice young man on a motorbike. While grandpa and the children tour the Museum of Fine Arts, grandma chases the balloon across Boston. In doing so, we get to see pretty much every major site in Boston, from Trinity Church and the Boston Common to Faneuil Hall, the Old North Church, and Fenway Park (the balloon manages to follow most of the Freedom Trail, but turns away from the U.S.S. Constituion and Bunker Hill Monument).

However, there is more fun to be had in this book. Scattered throughout the scenes are 33 past and present legends of Boston. My cocked hat is off to the person who can spot even half of the faces from history and today that artist Robin P. Glasser has put into these scenes of places around Boston. Larry Bird and Bill Russell I recognized (but I missed "Red" Auerbach), and I figured that was Paul Revere in front of the Paul Revere House, but I never would have known that was Michael Dukakis eating lunch at Durgin Park. Meanwhile, back at the Museum of Fine Arts, we see photographic reproductions of some of the famous painting to be found within, such as Rembrandt's "Artist in His Studio," Edward Hopper's "Drugstore," and John Singleton Copley's "Watson and the Shark" and "Paul Revere."

I saw most, but not all, of these sites on a trip through Boston last year so it was fun to be reminded of what I had seen and see some glimpses of what I had missed. I was not surprised to learn that Weitzman and Glasser had collaborated on a previous effort, "You Can't Take a Balloon Into The Metropolitan Museum" as well as the more recent "You Can't Take a Balloon Into The National Gallery." But this book is a green balloon and Boston and those books have a yellow balloon in New York City and an orange balloon in Washington, D.C., which are both completely different. I am not sure if readers who live outside of these three American metropolises could possible enjoy these books as much as natives. But certainly if you live in Boston this is a book that will remind you of the rich history and culture of Beantown. You can also think of it is a tour guide for kids.

The Preiss sisters are back and taking Boston by storm, or should I say balloon. As in their previous books, You Can't Take A Balloon Into The Metropolitan Museum and You Can't Take A Balloon Into The National Gallery, a little balloon carrying girl and her brother visit the Museum of Fine Arts with Grandma and Grandpa. Everyone knows you can't take a balloon inside, so Grandma does the honors and waits outside on the steps, holding the treasured balloon, while the others go in and take their tour. In no time, the balloon escapes, and the fun begins. As life imitates the famous artwork the little girl is observing inside, Grandma chases the balloon all over the city from the Boston Library, Trinity Church, Chinatown, and the Boston Harbor, to Faneuil Hall, the Old North Church, Fenway Park, and many other famous landmarks along the way. This hilarious, joyous, manic romp, will mesmerize youngsters with it's exuberant and engaging pen and ink illustrations, with just a little color used here and there to highlight the action, and includes thirty-three hidden famous Bostonians, sprinkled throughout the comic book-like pages, to find and learn more about. Part art book, history lesson and travel brochure, this is a creative and inventive tour of one of America's great cities, and includes a map of the balloon's route, an informative list of artwork seen in the museum, and biographical sketches of the hidden "faces from history." Perfect for kids of all ages, You Can't Take A Balloon Into The Museum Of Fine Arts is a wonderful addition to an already terrific series, and guarantees hours of clever and imaginative, page-turning fun.

Building on the enormous popularity of "You Can't Take A Balloon Into The Metropolitan Museum" and "You Can't Take A Balloon Into The National Gallery" Weitzman and Glasser now offer a fun, colorful peek at the Museum of Fine Arts while presenting an affirming grandparent/grandchild relationship.

Each full-color page bursts with vibrant energy as a little girl's balloon (not allowed inside the Museum) escapes her grandmother's grasp and soars away. Off we go, following the green orb through the streets of Boston. This chase is matched with the works of art the little girl is viewing.

There's a bit of history here, a bit of whimsy, and a lot of entertainment...

I read this book on a lovely summer afternoon, not wanting to put it down and lose any of the magic, and it was worth it. I fell in love with Dane, Dang, whatever-and enjoyed the experience immensely.

I enjoyed reading this book very much. It kept my interest and I couldn't wait to finish it to see what happed. A very good Romance Novel.

a clever sleuth with a wonderful cast of supporting characters; a fun mystery! Hope we get more from this author. A "cosy" mystery in a contemporary setting.

This is an amazing debut book by author Gail Farrelly. It will leave you laughing, crying, and on the edge of your seat. I couldn't put it down. I definately recommend this novel to all of you mystery lovers out here. I have been anticipating the release of Ms. Farrelly's newest books. Cheers to Gail Farrelly!