Street

Why any kid would read that Harry Potter nonsense when great children's literature like this is available is beyond me. Hopefully, Amazon will get more copies of this in time for summer. It makes great beach reading.

This book has helped me redefine what great children's sports literature is all about. I mean Matt Christopher is great, but this guy Smith is better at fusing both gripping action and emotional depth. My only question is where does he get those character names from. I mean, they all sound like a bunch criminals or losers.

See You Next Wednesday

Altars in The Street is one of the best books I've read in a long time, because it demonstrates what can be done to counter the degradation crime and drug abuse bring to a city neighborhood. I found the book very hard to put down--not only because it reveals the workings of an inner city neighborhood, but also due to the autobiographical account of one family's courage in staying put on their street despite often overwhelming adversity. Melody Chavis shows how all available resources could be marshalled to try to restore a peaceful, caring environment for families and children of different races and economic backgrounds. Whether this completely succeeded or not, the book shows in a practical way how a sense of community and neighbor helping neighbor work to maintain a safe and viable place to live--wherever one may be.

Chavis' book is one of the few to literally draw tears from my eyes. It is a beautiful life story of one woman's difference in both race and spirituality, and her ability to make a difference by them. I truly believe that if word of mouth could only get around, it is deserving of the NY Times Bestseller. This book should be read as a novel, as well as a handbook on how to make a differnce in the world...in society...in your life.

This is fantastic Christmas tale (although I would read it anytime of the year) about a mysterious and elusive Newfoundland dog who saves a disabled man in a snowstorm and then disappears on his way. I agree with the other reviewer that it is certainly a real "tearjerker" but in a wonderful "power of miracles" way. The most compelling thing about the book is that the text depicts the story of the man's family awaiting his arrival on Christmas Eve, while the pictures show what is actually happening to him on this dangerous, stormy night. The art is fantastic and I find new details during every reading. My thanks to author, Frances Ward Weller, and illustrator, Robert J. Blake, for such a fabulous work.

My five year-old daughter likes to pick out books that make mommy cry "happy tears"-- and this is one of them. Beautiful illustrations tell the story of Uncle Ambrose struggling home through a harsh storm on Christmas Eve, while the text tells the story of the concerned young neice waiting at home for his return. Uncle Ambrose's miraculous rescue inspires hope and belief in the miracle of Christmas. After drying our tears we read it again and again, watching the illustrations to find that someone watching over Uncle Ambrose.

This is a really good book. It's not really creepy or scary, but it's a good read.
This girl and her friend go into this cave. Her friend gets bitten by white worms and can't stand sunlight.He sorta turns into a zombie. These people in the cave who have been bitten and explode if exposed sunlight want him and the girl to join them forever! Read it, its hard to find but read it.

I have never read anything by Stine, but my son asked me to read this with him. Was I surprised! It was wonderful. The cover may trun parents off, but the story line is outstanding. The book made me cry at the end, and the characters are wonderful. I was expecting a mundane story line, but it was not at all. I was intrigued by the plot.

This is a wide ranging look at Sherlock Holmes' life from childhood until the end. It provides a totally fresh insight and is a must for every Sherlockian. But they might not like Mitchelson's meticulously researched, but controversial, conclusions.

Mitchelson's study of the life of Sherlock Holmes is no work of fantasy; based fair and square on the facts, as related by Dr Watson and other Holmes critics and commentators, the result is a cracking good yarn that pulls up the accepted beliefs about Holmes and takes a good look at the roots. Holmes' unhappy childhood, dependence on drugs, and criminal activities are examined in depth, leaving the reader in no doubt that our preconceptions of Holmes, and his portrayal in the media, are very wide of the mark. To read this book is to challenge one's faith in the great detective's ability... but it is an important document, too, since it exonnerates several "crime lords" and "criminal masterminds" of the late Victorian period. I thoroughly recommend this book to any serious Sherlock Holmes fan. Chapter seven, especially, is breathtaking.

The greatest praise I can give this book is that as someone who is not an educator, this book is surprisingly interesting and a very enjoyable read. It works both as a critique of the school systems in this country (and their failures) and as a quasi-novel of one very compassionate woman's struggle with the difficulties of teaching in a sometimes impossible environment.

Whether Basic Needs has anything to offer you obviously depends on who you are. But whereas books like Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities will outrage some and spur them to either imagine new ways of fixing an educational system that, despite what many say is better than what we had 50 years ago, still is not enough when students start hopeful and end homeless, or to throw money at that system and hope someone will do something useful with it, Landsman's book focuses your attention differently, in ways that are simultaneously more specific and just as broad.

Landsman writes about one specific group of kids during one school year, about kids who were already slipping through the cracks. The apparent lack of complete success in helping these children, coupled with incremental, inconsistent but spirit-raising breakthroughs, may leave you with needs you didn't know you had. It may remind those who have seen The Year of Living Dangerously of Linda Hunt's words to Mel Gibson, something along the lines of "You can't help everyone, you can only help those fate puts in front of you." Landsman makes you more willing to watch what's in your path, perhaps even to range further off of it to see if anyone needs help. And despite the subject matter, it warms, somehow. I wish I was still reading it.

This is about as close as you'd want to come to seeing Sherlock Holmes investigating the theft of the Mona Lisa (because Basil is a bit more fun, and the history of the Mousa Lisa is more interesting).

This book is worth picking up, just for the sake of the story of how the Mousa Lisa came to be painted (I won't spoil it for you by trying to summarize it here, but it's touching). Someone has managed to substitute a forgery for the real Mousa Lisa, and the substitution was detected only due to the zeal of a visiting art expert. Basil and Dawson have been called in to track down and recover the painting, but of course things are more complicated than they seem...

Basil of Baker Street is back again! I'm a 12 year old girl who just loves this book. This one leds Basil and Dawson to Mexico to find the stolen Mousa Lisa! And it ends up were Ratigan, Basil's worst enemy, has kidnapped, or should I say mousenapped, Dawson!! Basil has to go threw thick and thin to solve this case

I really liked this book because I like books about detectives. This is about a mouse detective who gets lessons from Sherlock Holmes.Like Sherlock Holmes, Basil has an assistant and together they go on lots of adventures solving cases.I couldn't put this book down I liked it so much. It wasn't too scary but it was never boring.

Basil is the Sherlock Holmes of the Mouse World. His friend and associate Dr. Dawson narrates the story. Mrs. Judson is their mousekeeper. The mouse detective has learned his sleuthing skills by listening to Sherlock Holmes tell Dr. Watson how he solved his cases. Basil takes notes in shortpaw. Basil and Dr. Dawson live in the mouse village Holmestead in the cellar at 221B Baker St. In this book Basil solves the kidnapping of the mouse twins Angela and Agatha. Children will enjoy this book, and grown-up Sherlockians will appreciate it even more. It is charmingly illustrated. If you like "Basil of Baker Street," there are four delightful sequels.