ThinkHilary

This is yet another book on the importance of sharing. Rocky, the dog and main character, is not willing to share anything! When reading this aloud it is quite important to be very impassioned (just like Rocky!) about not sharing, especially when you get to the line, "I DO NOT CARE! I WILL NOT SHARE!" that is repeated very often. Some of the kids that I read this aloud to even stamped their feet when we got to that line and it was very fun I have to admit! It added even more drama!When Rocky didn't want to do his chores but rather "share" them (as in get help with them from other family members) he didn't find any takers because he would never share when times were good. Lesson learned! As board book plots go this is rather good! Great for ages 2-4 years.

"Binkness" and "Gollieness" are words that have now actively entered my vocabulary. Bink and Gollie are best friends despite being very different. What they have in common: the need for speed on skates, a deep love of pancakes, and their love for each other. What they don't have in common would be everything else! They are absolute polar opposites and I love that despite their differences they are *best* friends. Gollie is tall, a little uptight, and lives in a modern, posh tree house by herself. Bink is short, not at all uptight, and has pots of peanut butter on shelves in her cozy cottage. She lives right at the bottom of Gollie's treehouse. Bink also lives alone and I love these little girls who almost live magically without adults! However, they always have one another for company.The illustrations are marvelous and the ever fantastic Kate DiCamillo who (whom? I could never get that right!) I adore co-wrote it so it's very, very good! A Theodore Seuss Geisel Award winner to boot!Is it a reader or a chapter book? Good question! It is neither as previous reviewers have pointed out. Bink and Gollie are beyond categories. However, if I have to put it somewhere I would put it in Chapter Books because of the vocabulary. That being said, I have read on goodreads that children as young as four love to have adults read this to them multiple times. I also think that the illustrations tell a lot of the story. So, with a little explanation, you are good to go to read this to a younger child. Maybe they could try reading some of the easier parts depending on the reader of course!I bought this for myself (blush) beacuse I *had* to. You must go and get this book. Put it on your ASAP list, ASAP!

I'm related to the author so I'm a bit biased! However, I find that it lacks a Native American perspective. This could be because the author's ancestors came on the Mayflower and he was very proud of that fact!Overall, if it is coupled with another picture book that tells the other side of the story more it would be a nice edition to any collection. It is basically informative and the illustrations are very nice.

I read this as part of an observation project for a course in human development. Not being a parent myself, I was surprised at the amount of general truths that did apply to the little girl who was the subject of my report. It must be difficult to generalize about so many individual children, but some insights that were offered were really very helpful. I found the generalizations made about children by body type a bit odd, but other than that this series of books is so spot on. My own mother was baffled with my behavior when I was seven. I was collecting money, and she thought, "Oh no, I've raised a materialistic kid!" Well, no she didn't! My Mom bought Your Seven-Year-Old. After reading it she discovered that seven-year-olds collect things. That's just part of being seven I guess! This series of books is also great for picking out toys that are age appropriate. Also, it provides a list of book interests that your child might have at the age it addresses. There are also some pages of information of how you can best help your child at this age to really blossom!

Love, love, love, love this nonfiction book about an Irish-American couple who move back to the old country. Highly recommended and possibly out of print...Abebooks here I come! I gave my copy to the library and now I want it back! Great fun to read.

This was the big hit of storytime last week! Of course, last week I had an all girl audience. There was much discussion over which princess had the best dress, and some confusion over *why* the main character can karate chop, dive into a mote, and so on but the other princesses couldn't or didn't know how. Still, the last scene wherein our unusual karate-chopping, skateboarding princess saves the day made up for all of that. It's truly amazing to watch a group of little girls look at a picture of a princess who is getting praise, glory, and a parade just for her! They all just had this look about them that truly nothing better could *ever* happen to you than that! All in all, this had a high little girl approval rating. Also, I had fun reading it aloud! The words, "Zip! Zup! Zoom!" were used in a nicely repetitive way to describe the movements of our action oriented princess! By the end of the story, we were all saying, "Zip! Zup! Zoom!" together! Great fun!

This is a story of a mouse who loves a giraffe but she is soooo tall and he is soooo little. Will he ever be able to show her that he loves her? Lots of stacking of things to increase his height leads up to the gratifying ending. A fine book anytime of year, but especially good as a Valentine's Day gift to a little one! It has pop up elements that enhance the interactive experience of the book. Besides that it shows that truly you are never too little to love! Which is very true!

I've heard so much about this series that I really need to finally buckle down and read this!Junie B. really sells well which is why I've not taken the time I should have to sit down and read this early series.

This book has been on my "to read" list for a long time now-actually a really long time now!Have you ever gone to the grocery store for some "real" food such as bread, rice, etc. and just didn't get there right away because you stopped in the candy, soda, danish section first? You were distracted by the glitz, the glam of sugar! This is true of books too. This book will be a wonderful book to read, I just know it! It will be the bread, the rice of reading. I've stayed too long in the candy section of reading-candy on top of the danish with the soda in the other hand! Ah, how tempting a good piece of short fiction is! The "get-away-from-it-all" of a paperback mystery is wonderful! It's lovely, but I know that I could use more non fiction in my life and so look forward to reading this soon.

Brilliant. Quite simply an easily overlooked author because she is a religious author. She is both a very great writer, and poet (this is her volume of poetry) and in her poetry I believe ahead of her time. A fair warning is that she is a truth-teller. I believe that to be truthful with yourself and truthful with others is a very important thing. Caryll tells truths that pierce the soul, and yet free the heart to be more capable of embracing wisdom.I found her goodreads page without a date of birth or death. There was nothing written about her life, and so I wrote it (with a brilliant editor of course, my mom the religious writer!). Caryll is an extraordinary person to meet on the page. She is a true eccentric, and that is what I like about her most. She offers no apologies for her life or the way she lived it. She is simply Caryll.How very brave she was!

I am done with this book in one fantastic day of reading that almost left me blind...but there was chocolate to go along with the impending blindness. Also, there was loads of adventure! I can't say very much about this book as I don't want to ruin it for anyone else, but I will say that I am very glad I read it. What I learned from this series of books is that, darn it, we should all carry around a seabag with the necessities of life and a shiv because you just never know what will happen to you. Well, at least if you're Jacky Faber you don't! Still, I can't imagine myself with a shiv. Maybe I could just have the bag!

It's so very hard not to write too much because I don't want to give anything away to my friends who are already planning to read this! I will write that L.A. Meyer keeps up his series without missing a beat. Everything fantastic is still there, and it only gets better. Someone really needs to make a movie out of these books, and then we would truly see some fantastic lady pirate hats finally make their way to the big screen. This would better enable me or anyone to dress up as Jacky Faber for Halloween. All that be in agreement hoist yer hooks in the air and shout, "Arrr!" All those opposed can take that long walk off a short plank!

I am still rather well...waiting...for the author to really incorporate Sherlock Holmes into Christianity. So, I'll keep reading!

This was THE book-the book that got me reading!

I have only really gotten to know this book as an adult and I have to say that for me sometimes just thinking about it helps my day. We all have days when we get frustrated with life. Or parts of life that seem out of control, jobs that seem hard, days when if there is just one more thing that gets on your last nerve you just might get a bit miffed. However, these are the times I then remember Sara. I remember how, in spite of what a classist book this is, it really does remind you that who you are is not the social status you are assigned to by life and by your circumstances. It's not the things I own that make me a wonderful person or that make anyone wonderful for that matter. It's how we treat others. That's the real lesson to be learned I think. Whenever I have an especially bad day and I'm just ready to pack it all in I recall Sara Crewe. I remember that what made her a princess was not her status or her money for all these things sometimes change. Yet a good heart in a person is really what makes that person someone who we would want to, no, *need* to say to, "I know you by heart. You are inside my heart."That is the sort of person I want to be. I want to know people by heart. Surprisingly, it's sometimes on those bad days that if I just make the effort to act more like Sara than I usually would then those are the times that I am most rewarded for it. For on that bad day there usually was a person who really needed a smile, there was the person who just badly needed someone to listen to them, or talk with them. Sometimes it's the people who lash out most who most need us to be noble in response. Either it seems to help them or it disarms them. Usually I find the first to be more common. A smile really is all it takes sometimes. That's hard to muster on some days, but those random acts of kindness that cost nothing really do sometimes make all the difference to the people we come in contact with.Of course if one day someone wanted to redecorate my room while I'm asleep-that I have issues with!My favorite part of the book has more to do with the feeling of thoughts that come from the heart than any one scene in particular. It's a nice thought that there can be a set of good willed people in this world and by their very willingness to be so are in a class by themselves! I am lucky to know so many of them and to count them my friends.

Am ever in the process of reading this book and I have always loved George Mac Donald's writing but just can't seem to get through it-I know it was a huge impact on the writing of C.S. Lewis but still...still trying to finish it!