MO

What I love best about Sandra Boynton's board books is that they are fun for both my son to hear and for me to read. Our long-time favorite was "Moo Baa LALALA" - at 17 months, my son could recite every one of the animal sounds (well, except the pig). The only down-side of this set is the "Doggies" book. My husband and I hid this one because we detested reading it - all the barking, howling, whining, arfing, and woofing was tiresome.

This is a wonderful series of books that enables toddlers to "read" at a very young age. The humor is ageless, and I always give this set as a gift to first-time parents, to ensure that they know about Boynton's books. Although I love them all, I have a special fondness for "Doggies" which must be read with expression to be enjoyed! Trying to manipulate those barks is great fun.

My daughter's personal favorite is "But Not tThe Hippopotamus", my son loves "Moo, Baa, La La La", and we all giggle at "Blue Hat, Green Hat".

Although my kids have outgrown board books (at 13 and 17) we have never put away the Boynton books, as we enjoy going back to them for the respite and pleasure they continue to afford all of us! (Yes, the kids admit that they still love these books! )

Set yourself free, and enjoy!

When our oldest (now 6) was 3 months old we happened upon Moo, Baa, La La La, bought it and we are now, two kids later on our fourth copy! We of course bought more and more Boynton books, and just got Philadelphia Chickens for the girls as a Christmas gift! (It includes a CD of songs- it's GREAT!) I found that whatever topics we had Boynton books on, like colors and types of clothing (Blue Hat, Green Hat), animal sounds (Moo, Baa, La La La), parts of the body (Horns to Toes), my daughters knew very early. Boynton book are funny, have bright and engaging graphics, and educational value! But, the greatest thing about her books is that not only will your kids love them, but you will love them! They are my favorite books to read to them too! And my kids didn't grow out of them as quickly as most of the board books. In fact, when my oldest was learning to read we used them and she now reads them to her baby sister. In my opinion, I think that Sandra Boynton is on the same level of skill and talent as Dr. Suess.
I have purchased at least one Boynton book for every baby shower I have gone to in the past five years, and I hope that everyone will discover how wonderful these books are.

THIS BITTER EARTH is a beautifully written book and it is as brilliant as the song Etta James sings on her LP, Blue Gardenia. I love Bernice McFadden. She has a clever approach when telling a story. I read SUGAR and loved it and the sequel is just as profound. I am glad she told us more about JJ Taylor and brought back Lappy Clayton. She had to bring Lappy back to make the story complete. Bernice weaved a slendid web that attached everything to everyone.

If you thought Sugar was good, wait till you read This Bitter Earth. Mrs. McFadden has a very unique way of making the pieces of a quilt come together. All of the questions that you had after Sugar are answered in This Bitter Earth. I reccommend this to everyone who loved Sugar. A must read for all book lovers.

Black Book Club

Ms. McFadden's sequel to "Sugar" is as intriguing and captivating as her other books. I read "Sugar", "Loving Donovan" and just finished reading "This Bitter Earth". I am a huge fan of her work. This story, as with the others, grab your attention and will not let go until the very end. I am amazed how she is able to hold her reader with such confidence and vivid details. This is definitely a book to read and it will have you thinking about the characters long after the last page is turned. She walks in the shoes of every character with such honesty and authenticity...it's superb. You find out Sugar's past, present and future in this book. It really pulled the pieces together from "Sugar". Kudos for another well written book!

V. Alexandria "If Walls Could Talk" I would say the book started off slow. Once I got to the murder, the process of elimination was suspenseful, the plot took off and I could not wait to put aside my daily responsibilities, so that I could finish the book. I am not a mystery lover, but after reading "If Walls Could Talk" I am persuaded that V. Alexandria is on his way to many more great mystery novels. As a writer myself, I realize that Vincent Alexandria has much to offer us as readers and writers, I realize mystery novels requires much work and imagination. Toward the end of the book, I felt like I had been seduced into a world that was sad, yet complete. I was moved by Seirra, and Joe's character, that they would take on a responsibility to raise her mother's child, and I think Joe's relationship with Seirra should have been a little more intimate, and Joe's relationship with the late Raymond should have been more descriptive so that, toward the end, I would have appreciated them raising that child together. Over all, I was Thrilled.

Bravo to Vincent Alexandria for the suspense filled mystery novel "If Walls Could Talk". This book is a must read. This book combines romance, mystery and humor in a unique way. There are times when you are on the edge of your seat anticipating the next scene and there are times when you are laughing so hard from the dialog between the characters! If Walls Could Talk is an exciting mystery novel that should be read by all.

WOW!!! What can one say, If Walls Could Talk-what an amazing story. I was able to start the book late one afternoon, and was unable to put it down. Not since I read Chester Himes' Cotton Comes to Harlem, can I remember being sucked into a story of this nature.

Many words come to mind; Superb! Outstanding and Excellent are but a few. Vincent Alexander is truly a natural wordsmith. Taking the English language, and sculpting a timeless masterpiece. I found the book to be immensely captivating, from beginning to end, word for word, line for line, page for page; in fact it was as if I was watching an actual movie. A fluent, intriguing, intelligent plot, the twist and the turns were magnificent. I am truly lost for words to praise this work.

If Walls Could Talk, encompass all the hallmarks of a national best-seller and, a Hollywood blockbuster: murder, seduction, intrigue, sophistication, comedy and romance, together with an enchanting hero, who rides of into the sunset.

If Walls Could Talk, truly Bravura!

This is a good book. It has pictures of about 70 locations in St.Louis then and now. Old pictures are from mid-19th century to mid-20th century. It would have been more interesting if a smaller period (may be a decade) in the past was selected and the pictures during that period were compared with now. Also, many of the new pictures are not taken at the same angle as the old ones, so some pictures don't give a good comparison. You can't adjust the old pictures, but the new ones could have been definitely adjusted. Historical narrations of some of the pictures are interesting, but more of that could have been added. All in all, a good book to be placed on the coffee table.

This book is well put together and provides a beautiful and informative look at the history of St. Louis. It sits on my coffee table and is a great conversation piece. I have bought this book for a few of my relatives and all of them would agree that this is a wonderful book. It is a must have for any St. Louis resident, yet it offers a unique look at St. Louis for anyone who wants to see how the city has changed over the years.

As a lifelong resident of St. Louis who was wary of being downtown except for Cardinals baseball games, I and many others like me are just now discovering what a historic gem our downtown are truly is.

After picking up the "walking tour of downtown" book published by Charles Brennan a year or so ago, I began to appreciate the beautiful buildings that are being renovated for lofts and condos. Hungry to learn more, I found a brilliant web site called builtstlouis.net with synopses of many downtown structures. I highly recommend that site to anyone interested in the history of downtown St. Louis.

Finding that site simply made me more curious about downtown, so I turned to Amazon.com, and found this spectacular book that helps put things into perspective when comparing the way St. Louis was at the turn of the 20th century compared to how it appears today. Much of the grand history of St. Louis still exists, and I urge anyone wanting to know more to buy this book.

In this emotionally charged debut novel, Zelda Lockhart takes us on a journey through the eyes of a little girl named Odessa as she deals with the consequences of generational curses in her family. In FIFTH BORN, Odessa is the fifth of eight children in the dysfunctional Blackburn family. She experiences so much abuse that it is hard to understand how the child is able to function at all. Loni and Bernice head the Blackburn family. Loni is the alcoholic and abusive father with some deep-seated jealousies concerning his brother. Bernice is abused by Loni and is portrayed as a non-caring mother that doesn't bat an eye at what she knows is happening to Odessa and then later blames her for it. Odessa feels that the only people who show her any real love is her grandmother who dies in the beginning and uncle Leland who is killed in "self-defense." As Odessa searches through Grandmama's things, she finds a note in a Bible that leads her on a journey that will uncover secrets buried long ago and changes the course of her life forever.

Ms. Lockhart has written a great book that allows the reader to feel the emotional trauma that Odessa experiences as the result of psychological, physical and sexual abuse in her home. I found myself on an emotional roller coaster, as I dealt with the pain and obvious suffering this little girl endured. I could've reached into the pages and delivered a knockout punch to Bernice for allowing and participating in brutalizing an innocent little girl. Lockhart did an excellent job with the characters and capturing perfectly the African-American life of the deep South in the 70's. Being from the South myself and remembering, I was transported back in time when dad was called "Deddy" and you only whispered about the family down the road where incest and physical abuse was prevalent. This was truly a moving experience and well worth it in Lockhart's freshman effort.

Reviewed by Brenda M. Lisbon
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

I knew I was in for an intense journey by the book cover and the book blurb, but I had no idea how much this story would take me up and refuse to let me go.

It has been a while since I experienced such agony for a character while reading a book. The last time I can recall was when I was reading "Push" by Sapphire. Then, as now, I wanted life to get better for the main character with every paragraph I read. I wanted all the 'bad' people to go away and for the love she so deserved, to arrive. But "Fifth Born" is no fairytale. It's the story of a little black girl name Odessa and the horrors of her family's past. A past that makes her an innocent victim, but too, a past that will ultimately set her free.

Ms. Lockhart had written a stunning debut. I finished the book an hour ago and I am still breathless by it. A thousand times I wanted to reach into the pages and rescue Odessa. I wanted to do away with her 'deddy' and shake up her mother. I wanted to bring back her dead grandmother, the only person whom she felt really loved her. This is what a great book does--it makes you reaction strongly and intensely. Ms. Lockhart had crafted an intimate, heartbreaking story, one that I will not soon forget.

Margaret Johnson-Hodge
Author of "True Lies"

Odessa is an innocent three-year-old girl. She is the fifth born of eight children. Bernice, Odessa's mom does not care about her. Loni, her dad, is an alcolholic, abusive, and arrogant person. Elizabeth, Odessa's grandmother, the only person who loved her passed away. Loni, with out any consideration decides to sexual abuse his daughter for the first time. Bernice, being aware of the incident, kept quiet. Mom tries to convince Odessa that nothing wrong had happened. Bernice has an affair with Leland, her brother-in-law. Loni murders his brother when he finds out. Odessa and her mom also keep this secret. Later on, Odessa finds out from her own cousin, Gretal, that Loni had also abused her. Afterwards, Odessa being a little older, cannot handle the situation at home. She runs away. Whith out knowing it, she ends up near her unknown aunt's house. She also finds out form her aunt that Loni abused her.
This is a very attractive novel. It is very descriptive. Most important of all, it draws the reader's attention. It makes me want to keep turning the pages anxiously to find out more about it.

Mo Hayder, The Treatment (Dell, 2001)

The last page of The Treatment, Mo Hayder's second (and, according to interviews, final) Jack Caffery novel, is likely to leave readers screaming in frustration. It wouldn't surprise me to find out she'd been abducted by some crazed male version of Stephen King's Annie Wilkes and held against her will until she promises a third novel tying up the loose ends left at the conclusion of this book. We are an impatient lot, we mystery readers, and we don't want the questions left unanswered. More fool us. The end of The Treatment, as with the whole latter half of the book, is wonderfully written, a cracking good mystery that does her debut novel, Birdman, justice. Unfortunately, it's prefaced by the first half, which does nothing much justice.

The book starts slow. Did I mention slow? I mean slow. Proust could have given Hayder some pacing lessons in the opening chapters. We are reintroduced to Jack Caffery, just about a year after the events in the final pages of Birdman. He's still Jack Caffery, jaded, not sleeping well, far too thin for his own good, unable to figure out how to make a relationship work, and completely obsessed with his job. his time, his job involves figuring out what happened to a child who was abducted from his home after the abductor had stayed in the house for three days. Readers of Birdman will recognize that this is ground Jack Caffery will not want to tread. (There is also, in the opening chapters, a piece of misdirection that is blatant, after one finishes the book, and very badly handled. A few points off for lack of editing.) We then spend the next hundred fifty pages or so getting to know the principals and a few ancillary characters; while character development is never a bad thing, it's as if the plot slows to a crawl while we get to know the folks, and then takes off again in a rocket halfway through. Credit goes, though, to the fact that it does take off again.

Readers of Birdman will want to pick this one up to close the book on the unanswered questions left from that novel (and really, when it comes right down to it, you know, deep in your gut, the answers to those questions left at the end of The Treatment); those who have not yet been introduced to Hayder will definitely want to go with Birdman first. *** ½

In the heat of the London summer, Mr and Mrs Peach are discovered imprisoned in their house in Brockwell Park. They have been bound and beaten and their son is missing. Jack Caffery is to investigate but the similarities to events in his own past make it difficult for him to consider this new crime with the necessary detachment. A nightmare is about to begin...
This novel by Mo Hayder is truly intense, even horrifying at times and certainly unforgettable, though nothing for the faint hearted!

I read Birdman first. I couldn't put it down and thought it was a thrill ride through the entire book. Before I finished it, I ordered The Treatment so I could further the ride. I agree with the other reviewers that The Treatment is slow to start. I think it's because Mo Hayder wanted people that hadn't read Birdman to be able to have some background on Jack, so it was a bit lagging to us that wanted to hurry up and get on with the rest of the ride. If you can get through the first half of the book, the rest is just "a loss for words" a non stop heart pounding, emotional ride. I finished The Treatment last night and was so upset I wanted to scream. I surely was touched emotionally through this whole book. I know I will never forget this book or it's story as long as I live. No other book has bothered me as much as these two have. I sure hope Mo Hayder writes a third book. I really felt connected to the people in these books and don't want it to end. I could see their faces and feel their pain and emotions while reading. What a ride.After reading these books, I looked for her website to write her about my reactions and thank her. All I could find was a website that is in the making "mohayder.net" . I hope she gets that site up and running soon with a message board. I'm sure it will be rewarding for her to see how many fans she has out there that are waiting for a THIRD book.
These books will change you. I give them both a 5 even though the second book was slow to start,, the rest of the book, you will never forget!
Thank you Mo Hayder! Please continue onto a THIRD!

I've read some of Shirley Kennett's other works, and found them enjoyable, but I really had to suspend some disbelief for Chameleon. Two grown adults go up against a 12-year-old child and almost don't take him down? I've seen the same plot except the killer was an older adult, more plausable for thwarting police. It was still a good read, but I didn't really go for the child-as-a-killer plot. Might have worked well with an adult, and the killer certainly did have the proper childhood to become a killer later on in life. But at his age, it just didn't gel with me.
I'm not saying don't read it, because it's not bad. Suspend your skepticism and go for it.

A great combination of suspense, action, and exciting investigative techniques. The characters PJ Gray and Leo Schultz are vivid, real people. Kennett makes the twelve-year-old villain not only plausible but so scary that I practically held my breath whenever he was around. There are some great virtual reality scenes in this book, but they are so well conveyed that even if you don't know computers, you can understand and appreciate them. I couldn't put this book down once I started reading it. I'm going to go back and read the first couple of books in the series because I care about the characters and I want to know how they first met.

Talk about ripped from the headlines. This book deals with juvenile violence, and I swear the author must be psychic because this book has been out in hardcover since last year but it forecasted current happenings. The story centers on a young sociopath (Ever wonder where those 30 year old serial killers come from? Well, here's one in the making.) who has created a world for himself inside his computer that is more comfortable for him than the real world. Then he starts to get them confused, real vs. fantasy. As Kennett develops this, it is 100% plausible and chilling to the bone. Not only does this book have a great villain, it also has investigators that are real people I can identify with, especially PJ Gray. I can hardly wait for the next book in this series so I can find out where the relationship between PJ and Schultz is going. If there's a relationship at all!! What Kennett has got here is a hard-boiled romantic suspense, something completely new, something for those of us who find Mary Higgins Clark a piece of fluff. I couldn't put the book down, especially the last 50 or 60 pages. I read this book in the series first, but now I'm going back for the others. I've got to find out how PJ and Schultz met for the first time, and what they thought of each other then.

In a novel which is as powerfully sensuous as Suskind's Perfume and as imaginatively tasty as Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate, Averill finds his own voice, creating a unique and thoughtful coming-of-age story which, while rich in imagery, is remarkably simple and direct in its message. Food is life here, and the preparation of food and the ingredients one uses reflect the attitudes and spirit with which one approaches life and relationships.

Weston Hingler is the son of two cooks with totally different viewpoints. His father, Robert Hingler, owns the Tsil Café, where he uses robust, New World ingredients and spicy chiles and seasonings to bring the heat of southwestern cuisine to Kansas City. His mother, Maria Tito Hingler, part Italian, is a caterer who uses cultivated, Old World ingredients in a more subtle and traditional way. Stubbornly independent and wildly passionate, Robert and Maria communicate best when talking about food, marching to different drummers in the conduct of their personal lives, thereby creating innumerable challenges for their growing son. As Weston grows up, exposed to both cuisines and working, at various times, for both his parents, he must decide who he is, where he fits, who his parents really are, where each of them really comes from, and, ultimately, who he will become.

Filled with recipes which go way beyond anything most of us have ever imagined (and which, according to the acknowledgments, have actually been tested!), the book is hugely fun to read, even for someone who might not have a great deal of interest in cooking. I'll take a pass on the Dog Tamal, Roasted Maguey Worms, and Guinea Pig Stuffed with Marigolds, but I do understand why they were so important to Robert, and the Crab Cakes with Pineapple-Mango Salsa and the Jicama Salad sound absolutely delicious. This is a delightful novel, intriguing on all its many levels, and full of new insights into how and why we are what we eat.

Midway through Secrets of the Tsil Cafe, the protaganist, Wes Hingler, wakes to find his beloved dog, When Available, has died in his sleep. The dog is quietly buried, in a simple family ritual, in the garden where most of the spices and vegetables for the Tsil cafe are grown.

"We didn't eat him, Wes," says Wes' father, the cook and proprietor of the the titled restaurant, pointing to a joke about the dog's name. "But as he becomes earth, and as we live off this small patch of earth we've made ours, he will nourish us in his death as he did in his life."

And here, briefly, is the crux of the novel, which uses food as a metaphor for life -- the blending and mixing of spices and ingredients that make it interesting or bland. And as in life, there are comings and goings, births and deaths, tragedies and triums to remind us of our own place in the world.

Thomas Fox Averill creates characters you connect with. His story has been almost universally described by reviewers as a "coming of age" tale, which I guess is technically true.

Yet more importantly, it is a book about life, as told through young Wes' eyes, and it points at all the traditions, secrets and passions that run through a family. Scattered throughout are recipes -- which I have not yet challenged -- along with brief descriptions of the ingredients. And we're given engaging histories of the New World meats, vegetables, spices and fruits that appear throughout Averill's engaging little book.

This is a book that quietly draws you into its pages, keeps you there for a few hours, and when you leave, you are as satisfied and as filled as any of the customers of the Tsil Cafe, and just as eager for another entree.

Here's another good one I lapped for the month of
June...This one is a feast for the Stomach and the
Soul.

The product of a cross-cultural family obsessed with
food, Weston Tito begins his story by saying he was a
seed in his parents' kitchens‹plural in both cases.
Weston's mother is Italian and works the successful
catering business BuenAppeTito upstairs; downstairs,
his father, who is fixated on cooking only indigenous
foods "Santa Fe style" (they live in Kansas City),
runs the Tsil Cafe, a restaurant as it is
tear-inducingly spicy. Wes' crib and later his cot are
literally in his mother's kitchen (in the cabinets,
for a while), and she teaches him her "vocabulary,"
the names of foods, by letting him taste them. His
father refuses him entry into his own obsessive
domain, almost a holy order, until he can claim to
enjoy such un-childlike flavors as habanero and
anchovy. After that, like a knight's apprentice, he is
allowed to help slice and chop ingredients -- carry
his own sword, in effect.

One of the points of contention between Wes'
hot-blooded parents is the local restaurant critic, an
old admirer of his mother's. Nevertheless, the critic,
who acts first as a teeter-totter between the two
adults, ultimately becomes a sort of bridge, giving
Wes his first opportunity to critique -- to see the
food of both parents objectively -- and start to
develop his own concept of food.

Over the years, Wes absorbs a rich stew of influences
and emotions from his mixed-ethnic family, along with
the various Mexican employees of the cafe who serve as
surrogate relatives and even a Native American
graduate student who takes him foraging for cactus and
cattails and invites him to a corn dance. Ultimately,
he will even marry the critic's female successor.

So pervasive is food in this coming-of-age novel that
the recipes become a reflection of life's shifting
flavors in Averill's kitchen novel. The almost

magic-realism intensity of the flavor descriptions and
the author's habit of dropping in dictionary
definitions of various terms such as "turkey,"
"mescal" and "maple" re-emphasizes the native quality
of the ingredients. The narrator's entire life is
lived in the study, anecdotal and later academic, of
foods; ultimately he will become a chef as well,
melding his parents' Old World and New World cuisines
into a One-World cuisine.

A great fascinating read!!

My children (ages 2&4) adore this book. The text is a bit boring, but they look forward to the last page. They also have a tendency to leave it open, and the batteries have been replaced twice in the last 5 months -- (it takes 4 batteries that retail for $2-3 each, and I've only been able to find them at one electronics store). This seems to be too much maintenance for a children's book -- especially given that we enjoy Eric Carle's "no-maintenance" books just as much or more.

The Very Lonely Firefly is a good book. This firefly is in search for another. He shines his light to attract others but can never find anyone. This book keeps you in suspense. He always finds a light but...It's never a firefly. To find out the ending of this book read The Very Lonley Firefly!

This is an information book about a lonely firefly searching for other fireflies. The search leads him to other sources of light such as light, candle, and flashlight. The text may be a little weak but that is what gives you time to add science discussion or what we feel like when we are feeling lonely. The last page is the best and sparks in those little eyes makes it all worthwhile!

We have not ever been to a Three Dog Bakery, but we have seen their show on TV. I bought a copy of this book and ended up giving it to my neighbor's daughter who loved it so much, it made me go out and buy another copy! This book has many recipes you can make or bake at home for your dogs. My two dogs, McBeth (a yorkie) and Dolly (a pointer/mix?) loved the things I made for them. Plus they were EASY to make!!!!!! It was full of cute cartoons and trivia bits too, which make it interesting.

I've only made one recipe, the Carob muffins, but they were super easy & my dog, a pug & his cousin, a Min Pin loved them.

The rest of the recipes appear to be just as easy.

As far as the person's comments about the raisins...they are only harmful to dogs in large quantities.

Wonderful book with huge, delicious and attractive pictures to keep you flippin! Simple step by step instructions and ingredients that has made every Sunday a family bake-a-cookie day!

My Jack 'Rascal' loves everything in it! From pancakes to biscuits to German Shepherd pies!

If you cannot get your dog to a Three Dog Cafe, this cook book will bring them to you! I've recently invested in my own mixing bowls, measuring cups, baking trays etc! Every Sunday afternoon has become a great treat for my baby poochie!