General Books

Where the Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS - Model: 8771-2 Amazon Marketplace: 80 new & used starting at $7.47

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Baby-3 -> Bedtime & Dreaming
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Action & Adventure
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Classics by Age -> Ages 4-8

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 357 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Favorite Kid Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was my one of my favorite kid books that I loved! However, just seeing the cover again reminds me how it scared me a little. It didn't stop me from enjoying the story. I still have the tattered version in my store room.

I have purchased it as gifts too and the kids love it!

Merna

Pocket of Pearls: A 30-day pocket workbook to start hearing a softer voice inside of you!

Wild! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you want something really wild read the Adventures With Boys series! It's as good as this book!

This was my favorite as a child :) 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This one is a classic, of course. Chances are that you remember it from your own childhood, what more is there to say?

My nieces love this one. It's not too wordy, so it's great for very little children and for those nights where you really want everybody in bed five minutes ago! But the words that are there are perfectly selected, nothing is missing. Lyrical is the word I'd use.

And the story about Max having his time-out and repenting (or, for that matter, his mother changing her mind about her over-reaction) is one that most children can relate to, I think.

Editorial Review:

The 1964 Caldecott Medal Winner for the Most Distinguished Picture Book of the Year by Maurice Sendak. Brian O'Doherty of The New York Times said the Mr. Sendak's work "disguised in fantasy, springs from his earliest self, from the vagrant child that lurks in the heart of all of us."

Harold and the Purple Crayon 50th Anniversary Edition (Purple Crayon Books)

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperTrophy Amazon Marketplace: 88 new & used starting at $2.75

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Action & Adventure
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Classics by Age -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 147 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"One night, after thinking it over for some time, Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight." So begins this gentle story that shows just how far your imagination can take you. Armed only with an oversized purple crayon, young Harold draws himself a landscape full of beauty and excitement. But this is no hare-brained, impulsive flight of fantasy. Cherubic, round-headed Harold conducts his adventure with the utmost prudence, letting his imagination run free, but keeping his wits about him all the while. He takes the necessary purple-crayon precautions: drawing landmarks to ensure he won't get lost; sketching a boat when he finds himself in deep water; and creating a purple pie picnic when he feels the first pangs of hunger.

Crockett Johnson's understated tribute to the imagination was first published in 1955, and has been inspiring readers of all ages ever since. Harold's quiet but magical journey reminds us of the marvels the mind can create, and also gives us the wondrous sense that anything is possible. (Ages 4 to 8)

Goodnight Moon

Margaret Wise Brown

Amazon Price: $8.99 List Price: $8.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Crocodile Creek - Model: 8793-3 Amazon Marketplace: 223 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Baby-3 -> Bedtime & Dreaming
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Baby-3 -> Board Books
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Baby-3 -> Goodnight Moon

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 576 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

CullensAbcs.com Review of Goodnight Moon 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R177YYDVCG1WGD Cullen of CullensAbcs.com reviews this book and gives you ideas on how to interactively use the book with children. For more video book reviews, free children videos and activity idea videos for you visit the CullensAbcs.com website. At Facebook you can add Cullen Wood as a friend and become a FAN of Cullen's Abc's.

Silly, disjointed text, average illustrations 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I got the book for my 4 yr old and 2 yr old - but neither of them like it much. My husband and I don't like reading it either, and here's why:

The text is quite disjoint, like bits and pieces of other fairy tales and nursery rhymes put together. It seems like the author has just put down random things together - there's no rhyme (literally!) or reason for any of the pages. It does not flow lyrically.

The only interesting aspect is the black and white illustrations on some of the pages. This offers a striking contrast to the color illustrations. However, the whole book has not been put together well, and the quality of illustrations is just so-so. So the impact of the b&w is also pointless.

Compared to other wonderful books like the "Hungry Caterpillar" or "Ten Little Lady Bugs" or "The Firefly's First Flight" which we all really love, this book definitely is not worth having in the childrens' bookshelf.

I seem to be among the minority in disliking this book on Amazon - perhaps I am not seeing something that others are.. But hey! this is truly my opinion!

Editorial Review:

Beloved children's book by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd

The Important Book

Margaret Wise Brown

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperTrophy Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $2.93

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Baby-3 -> Basic Concepts -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Classics by Age -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"The important thing about rain is/ that it is wet./ It falls out of the sky,/ and it sounds like rain,/ and makes things shiny,/ and it does not taste like anything,/ and is the color of air./ But the important thing about rain is that it is wet."

Goodnight Moon creator Margaret Wise Brown's The Important Book is a deceptively simple exercise--taking familiar things like an apple, spoon, or shoe, and finding the most basic association with those things. The most important thing about an apple? It is round. A spoon? You eat with it. A shoe? You put your foot in it. But why, according to Brown, is the most important thing about grass "that it is green," while the most important thing about an apple is "that it is round"? Why is "that it is white" the most important thing about snow and a daisy? Whether or not you'd distill these things in the same way that the author does, Brown makes us think about the essence of everyday entities in new ways. The illustrations, by Caldecott Medal winner Leonard Weisgard (The Little Island), perform the same function--capturing the spoonness of spoons, the roundness of an apple, the motion of wind.

Happily, Brown went on to create the companion Another Important Book, about the importance of being one, two, three, four, five, and six years old--published for the first time in 1999 with fabulous artwork by Caldecott Honor artist Chris Raschka (Yo! Yes?). Both of Brown's "important books" will endure the test of time as fresh, thought-provoking ways to examine the world around us. (Click to see a sample spread. Text copyright renewed 1977 by Roberta Brown Rauch. Illustrations copyright renewed 1977 by Leonard Weisgard. Permission from HarperCollins Publishers.) (Preschool and older) --Karin Snelson

Guess How Much I Love You

Sam McBratney

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Candlewick - Model: 600136 Amazon Marketplace: 378 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Baby-3 -> Bedtime & Dreaming
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Baby-3 -> Guess How Much I Love You
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Baby-3 -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 288 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Adorable 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Adorable story and illustrations. A must have for any nursery. But very young children will lose interest in it pretty fast because of the amount of text on each page and the fact that the pictures are pretty much the same on every page, and not brightly colored and bold. So not a BABY book. But still, who can resist the title alone??? Mom loves it even if baby doesn't yet.

over 20 years later... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

and my mom and i still play this game. i am now 29 years old we still tell each other "i love you deeper than the ocean" its like our own private way of communicating by being able to draw back to a happy childhood memory.

Kid's always want to top their parents. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Kids look up to their parents so it's their nature to top them anyway they can. I remember when I became bigger then my dad when I was a freshman in highschool, that really excited me. This book plays on them theme in such a loving way. But of course, you will never top your parents love.

Editorial Review:

This sturdy board book for the youngest of children is a story of how Little Nutbrown Hare wants to show Big Nutbrown Hare how very much he loves him - but love as big as his is very hard to measure! Author: Sam McBratney Illustrator: Anita Jeram Publisher: Candlewick Press

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

Amazon Price: $4.99 List Price: $4.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Prestwick House Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $2.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Classics by Age -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( T ) -> Twain, Mark
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> Classics -> Twain, Mark

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 506 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Ole Huck 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

You'll notice pretty quickly when you pick this up that Huck doesn't spell too good and his grammar isn't so hot either. But if you look a little more closely, you find that he sure knows how to use the semi-colon, and his sentence structure is picture perfect. Mr. Twain may have decided that he was going to have some fun with his charming narrator, but he sure wasn't going to sacrifice good writing to do so.

The novel, as everyone knows, is a masterpiece, and works splendidly on every level. Plot, character development, theme; everything is here. Anybody reading this review has probably read the book several times and moreover has probably read about it a dozen more so it's pretty certain that my little review is not going to add much. I would, however, like to comment on something which struck me while reading it most recently, which is how richly it evokes middle America of the mid-nineteenth century. In other words, as well as being literature of the first rank, Huckleberry Finn also functions as a thorough and fascinating historical document of a time and place that every year sinks deeper and deeper into our collective memory.

Here he is describing Uncle Silas' place in Arkansas upon seeing it for the first time. "It was one of these one-horse cotton plantations and they all look alike. A rail fence round a two-acre yard; a stile made out of logs sawed off and up-ended in steps, like barrels of a different length, to climb over the fence with . . . some sickly grass-patches in the big yard, but mostly it was bare and smooth, like an old hat with the nap rubbed off; big double log house for the white folks--hewed logs with the chinks stopped up with mud or mortar, and these mud stripes been white-washed some time or another; round log-kitchen, with a big, broad open but roofed passage joining it to the house . . . hound asleep there in the sun; more hounds asleep round about . . . outside of the fence a garden and a watermelon patch; then the cottonfields begins, and after the fields the woods."

The first thing that strikes you about this is how . . . impoverished this all is, especially compared to how we live today. And this is a cotton-field owner with a number of slaves! But this was the south: rural, poor, hot, languid. Oh, yes, we are all familiar with the palatial southern mansion from novels like Gone With the Wind; I suspect that most of the South in the 1840s was closer to Huck's description than to Margaret Mitchell's.

Here's Huck's description of the town in which the King and Duke put on their first show: "The stores and houses was most all old, shackly, dried-up frame concerns that hadn't ever been painted; they was set up three or four feet above ground on stilts, so as to be out of reach of the water when the river was overflowed. The houses had little gardens around them, but they didn't seem to raise hardly anything in them but jimpson-weeds, and sunflowers, and ash-piles, and old curled up boots and shoes, and pieces of bottles, and rags, and played-out tinware . . . There was generly hogs in the garden, and people driving them out." Charming, eh? Of course, we in our modern twenty-first century aren't immune to such slovenliness. Sometimes, historical descriptions remind us that things don't change much.

Along with his brilliant observations of humanity and the human habitat the novel also contains breathtaking descriptions of nature, especially the Mississippi River. There's heavy timber on the Missouri side, mountains on the Illinois side, the lights of St. Louis: "We run nights, and laid up and hid daytimes; soon as night was most gone we stopped navigating and tied up--nearly always in the dead water under a towhead . . . Next we slid into the water and had a swim, so as to freshen up and cool off; then we sat down on the sandy bottom where the water was about knee-deep, and watched the daylight come. Not a sound anywhere--perfectly still--just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs a cluttering, maybe. The first thing you see, looking away over the water, was a kind of dull line--and that was the woods on t'other side." How wonderfully evocative this is; how it makes one ache to experience such things!

Again, the novel is so much more than this. I'm not going to bother with the theme and the plot and the characters--what else is there to say?--but I can not finish this without giving an example or two of the wonderful humor contained in here. Here's the charming Huck after sneaking into the circus under the tent: "I ain't opposed to spending money on circuses when there ain't no other way, but there ain't no use in wasting it on them." And when the King and the Duke run on hard times: "First they done a lecture on temperance, but they didn't make enough for them both to get drunk on. Then, in another village, they started a dancing-school; but they didn't know no more than how to dance than a kangaroo does, so the first prance they made the general public pranced in and pranced them out of town . . . "

Oh, how rich this is. Rich and funny and lovely and hilarious. Read it for the pure entertainment contained in here, if nothing else.

Editorial Review:

A seminal work of American Literature that still commands deep praise and still elicits controversy, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is essential to the understanding of the American soul. The recent discovery of the first half of Twain's manuscript, long thought lost, made front-page news. And this unprecedented edition, which contains for the first time omitted episodes and other variations present in the first half of the handwritten manuscript, as well as facsimile reproductions of thirty manuscript pages, is indispensable to a full understanding of the novel. The changes, deletions, and additions made in the first half of the manuscript indicate that Mark Twain frequently checked his impulse to write an even darker, more confrontational book than the one he finally published.

The Outsiders

S. E. Hinton

Amazon Price: $9.99 List Price: $9.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Puffin Amazon Marketplace: 136 new & used starting at $1.19

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Classics by Age -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Family Life -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1529 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Outsiders 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was an awesome book.....my son read it for school, and my two beagle's really enjoyed the school's copy, so I had to buy another one! :)

THE BEST BOOK EVER!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I LUV THE OUTSIDERS I MEAN WHO COULDNT?! PONYBOY IS AWESOME BUT NO-ONE BEATS MY DARRY. DARRY RUNS THE FAMILY AND IS TOTALLY AWESOME! SODAPOP IS THE BOMB ALONG WITH STEVE! THERE ALL AMAZING I MEAN IT! TIM SHEPARD AND CO. ROCK THEY CAN FIGHT AND SO CAN BUMBLY BOYS! WHEN THEY WON THE RUMBLE I NEARLY FELL OUT MY SEAT! AND POOR JOHNNY AND DALLY TWO OF THE BEST PEOPLE TO WALK THE DARK STREETS. MAN IF I WAS IN THAT STORY ID BE LIKE WORD AND GO DARRY ITS YA B-DAY WE GONNA PARTY LIKE ITS YA B-DAY GET SHAWTY OH OH! BUT SERIOUSLY IF YOUR LOOKIN FOR SOMETHIN TO PUMP YA UP THIS IS IT! SADNESS HAPPINESS AND A GANG OF COOL GOOD LOOKIN TUFF FIGHTIN BAD TO THE BONE HOODS WHO ARE LOOKIN FOR A WAY OUT HEAR YA GO! AND I ALMOST FORGOT- GO STEVE ROCK ON TWO-BIT AND RANDY DONT SWEAT IT! BOB IS FINE! STAY GOLD YALL STAY GOLD!

Editorial Review:

According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser. This classic, written by S. E. Hinton when she was 16 years old, is as profound today as it was when it was first published in 1967.

Number the Stars

Lois Lowry

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Laurel Leaf Amazon Marketplace: 78 new & used starting at $2.35

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> History & Historical Fiction -> Fiction -> Holocaust
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Classics by Age -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 706 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Run Away 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Struggling through the ravages of World War II, Annemarie, her family, and her best friend Ellen wait in hiding until the Nazis retreat and let Denmark free once more. This wonderful story "Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry, is about friendship, tragedy, and, love. It also integrates a lot of useful life lessons, such as: being brave and deciding what to do wisely.
This story really captured my attention because it made me inquire as I read along. It also gave me a perfect image of what Denmark was like during the Nazi invasion.
I recommend this story to children in the fourth grade or higher because it has strong vocabulary words that are worth learning.


By Teddy (soon to be in grade 5)

Editorial Review:

The evacuation of Jews from Nazi-held Denmark is one of the great untold stories of World War II. On September 29, 1943, word got out in Denmark that Jews were to be detained and then sent to the death camps. Within hours the Danish resistance, population and police arranged a small flotilla to herd 7,000 Jews to Sweden. Lois Lowry fictionalizes a true-story account to bring this courageous tale to life. She brings the experience to life through the eyes of 10-year-old Annemarie Johannesen, whose family harbors her best friend, Ellen Rosen, on the eve of the round-up and helps smuggles Ellen's family out of the country. Number the Stars won the 1990 Newbery Medal.

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Scott O'Dell

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Yearling Amazon Marketplace: 220 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Classics by Age -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Multicultural Stories -> Native North & South Americans

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 606 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Scott O'Dell won the Newbery Medal for Island of the Blue Dolphins in 1961, and in 1976 the Children's Literature Association named this riveting story one of the 10 best American children's books of the past 200 years. O'Dell was inspired by the real-life story of a 12-year-old American Indian girl, Karana. The author based his book on the life of this remarkable young woman who, during the evacuation of Ghalas-at (an island off the coast of California), jumped ship to stay with her young brother who had been abandoned on the island. He died shortly thereafter, and Karana fended for herself on the island for 18 years.

O'Dell tells the miraculous story of how Karana forages on land and in the ocean, clothes herself (in a green-cormorant skirt and an otter cape on special occasions), and secures shelter. Perhaps even more startlingly, she finds strength and serenity living alone on the island. This beautiful edition of Island of the Blue Dolphins is enriched with 12 full-page watercolor paintings by Ted Lewin, illustrator of more than 100 children's books, including Ali, Child of the Desert. A gripping story of battling wild dogs and sea elephants, this simply told, suspenseful tale of survival is also an uplifting adventure of the spirit. (Ages 9 to 12)

Pat the Bunny (Touch and Feel Book)

Dorothy Kunhardt

Amazon Price: $9.99 List Price: $9.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Golden Books Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $4.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Baby-3 -> Basic Concepts -> Sense & Sensation
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Baby-3 -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Animals -> Mice, Hamsters, Guinea Pigs & Squirrels -> Nonfiction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 150 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Classic Baby Book 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Pat the Bunny is the best first book to read to your baby. My daughter is fascinated by the bunny and the beard. If you receive two copies at your baby shower like I did, keep both because it will be loved to bits.

wonderful for reading to babies 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book should be read to every new baby ... I've read it a million times for my own children ... and presented it to new parents. It is a book the baby will love through the years!!

Pat the Bunny - Too Cute 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you're looking for a cute book that also stimulates the senses, this is the book for you and your children. A reader and activity book all in one.

Editorial Review:

"Judy can pat the bunny. Now you pat the bunny." This Golden Book paperback edition is written and illustrated by Dorothy Kunhardt and is one of our classic toddler books. In this beloved classic, Paul and Judy play peekaboo, smell flowers, look in the mirror, and, of course, pat the bunny! All eight activities in this timeless favorite will fascinate your little one. Includes one stuffed animal bunny! This is a classic book to say goodnight with at the end of the day.