Children Books

My daughter loved this book when she was younger. I bought it for my friends kids.

This book has proven to be a favorite book to read before bedtime, for both of my children. Perfect to get for a child between ages of 1 and 2.

My son loves listening to this book before bed at night. He is now 3 years old, and still loves to read this book along with other longer books, such as Green Eggs and Ham, or Bad Dog Marley. I have read this book to him so many times that I have it memorized " The sun has set not long ago...now everybody goes below...to take a bath in one big tub, with soap all over, scrub, scrub, scrub." It's a great book for bedtime, because in the end of the book all the characters go to bed. Nice way to get him to think about sleeping.

My grandchildren love this book and Mom or Dan have to read it every night.
They love the pictures and still ask questions of Mom or Dad. Will order more of Sandra's silly books in future.

My son received this for his first birthday, and since then it has become as staple at bedtime. It helps to aid the bedtime routine, and the tone of the book is right along with it!

I bought this as a gift for my nieces after receiving it as a gift myself. It is a wonderful message for kids, that they are special because of who they are, not because of what others think of them.

The book was delivered on time and fast. I am very satisfied with the book's condition.

I have given this book to almost everyone I know over the last 5 years. Everyone, of all ages, loves it! Almost everyone cries and hugs. It reaches into your heart and gives love on so many levels. Max Lucado explains God's love for all of us in such simple yet profound words. I gave this to a psychiatrist friend who says he reads it to all his patients. We all need to know God's love. BUY THIS BOOK!

This is one of my favorite childrens books! Great moral story about not caring what others think of you.

I agree with the other 150+ people who think this is an amazing book that every child and adult should own. It's definitely a "feel good" book. My children love it and so do I.

Suitable for newborns because of bright colors. Enjoyable for all pre-schoolers and perhaps above. Even adults. Interesting things are happening on every page. Many details catch your attention.

Children love this book. They will ask you to read it again and again. I love the fact it's oversized.

I ordered this book based on the reviews, and when I first introduced it to my son (at 18 months) he didn't go for it. But a year later, this is his favorite bedtime story! Granted, there are very few words in the story...but I think that's actually a good thing. I provide my own narrative based on the pictures, and I ask my son questions about what he sees as we go through the book. He really enjoys identifying the animals in the story, and his favorite thing is pointing out where the balloon is on every page. On the first page of the story, a balloon is released into the air. In subsequent pages, the balloon gets smaller and smaller as it floats away. It's a nice added bonus to this story. I really recommend this story!

My son loves this book. He really enjoys listening to the stories that his dad makes up about each animal. There aren't too many words, leaving you room to ad-lib it, which is fun! This is one of our many books we tend to read at night.

In this beautifully-illustrated bedtime book, the gorilla steals the key from the zookeeper, letting out all the animals, who follow the zookeeper home to bed.

The story is cute, but what I really loved about this book was the great illustrations. The colors pop out at you from the page and capture your attention.

This book is one of my new bedtime favorites! I can't wait to read it to my son.

Ten years ago while these books were being written, I was focusing on reading horror novels like Stephen King's Desperation. I saw a few Animorphs books lying around one day and thought to myself "Oh, how cute. Someone at our high school reads children's books." Then last Saturday I had some time to kill and was in the library. I saw the books again and said "Eh, why not." My first reaction was: whoa, this author really knows how to write. This book doesnt have any of the boring scenes that too many adventure story authors don't know how to get rid of.

I realized I needed to go somewhere private to allow the visual imagery of the books to really come at me full-force. So I took out four books, went home, and read them in one sitting. I'm amazed. I've never experienced "can't put it down" before. I've been going back every day I have free time to read more of the books. And even when I'm out doing other things I keep replaying the scenes in my head. I wish I'd picked up these books ten years ago.

My twin brother received this book of the series for our twelth birthday, whilst I received the second. Good gamble on my mother, for I was the one of the set that became hooked on the series. This was a marvelous introduction to a mostly stellar series."The Invasion" introduces five kids from various walks of life who may or may not be close to each other. An incident near the mall involving a UFO thrusts the kids into a done-but-still-fun adventure as they are given the ability to change into animals and fight body-snatching aliens. Good ol' fashioned sci-fi fun with a pleasant tween, modern twist. These early books had the best writing of the series, and K. A. Applegate carefully put in her original characters to mold them into the more developed characters they would become. "The Invasion" was the perfect introduction, with relationships, heartache, and good ol' alien slaughtering.

Five kids meet a good alien. He fights against bad aliens to save the Earth. And he gives them a special power to fight against invaders. The power can change them into animals. But does this power help them to fight against bad invaders?
I finished to read Animorphs book 1. This is a very fun book. It is no wonder that many my friends like this series. I almost couldn't stop reading it. But this book is little fat for one day reading for me. This book has 34,028 words. I took three days for finishing it.
This series has 54 books and the whole story had completed. The average word counts is about 30,000 words. This means you must read about 1.5 million words for complete this series. And some of my friends already completed it. Now I can see why they could continue to read this series. If you finished one book then you can not wait next.

Animorphs #1 the Invasion is a really, really great book. Now i'm reading all of the other books in the series. I'm on the third book,"The Encounter". Or at least I think that is what it is called. I even watch the show. I read this book about a year or two ago. Anyway, if you don't own this book, buy it and read it. If you do have this book and you haven't read it yet, then what are you waiting for? Start reading it right now. This is in my top 5 favorite books.

Note: This review pertains to the entire Animorphs series, rather than this specific book.

When I read most of the Animorph books several years ago, I thought it was very suspenseful and entertaining.

Now, as I look back, it seems that these books, although targeted at 4th-6th graders, have suprising depth, with often tenebrous themes concerning free will, sentimentalism, and morality.

We lost our dog last year after she gace us 14 1/2 wonderful years of her life. She was just a mutt. Her name was Dusty and she was part lab, shepherd, and chow. (Her tongue had spots on it.) She died in my husband's arms as he was taking her to the vet. She had had arthritis; but was never really very sick. When she died, my friend gave me a copy of "Dog Heaven." We loved it. Currently it is sitting on her chair along with her ashes, pictures, dog leash, and flowers. NO ONE WILL EVER SIT ON THAT CHAIR AGAIN! The book was very comforting; and I know that I have heard Dusty when she comes back to visit us! I have ordered several copies to have on hand to give my fiends when they lose their dog. I highly recommend "Dog Heaven" to anyone who has lost a dog!

If you ever had a beloved dog die, this is the book for you. It will make you cry, but they will be tears of comfort knowing your dog is now in a much better place. Yes indeed, Dogs do go to Heaven.

Great gift to others who may have lost their dog.
I put on the inside page "In Loving Memory of"... then the dogs name with the date and give them away to my friends when their dog dies. It is a great way to remember their pets.

Anyone who has been through the death of their canine companion will appreciate this book. I still can't read it without crying. I've given away at least a dozen copies, even to adults, and the reaction is always the same - "What an incredible book!" Rylant also has a Cat Heaven and it's equally as good for our friends with feline companions. There is hope that we will see them again!!

I'm not necessarily a cryer, but I can barely glance at the cover of this book without bawling. It's so gently, succinctly perfect a read for anybody who's lost a dog, but especially for those who view our canine friends as family members and have a tough time with the grief. If you're unable to cry this book will do the trick! And if you're already crying, the images and ideas offered in this book will ease your mind. It looks and reads like a children's book, but I think we adults tend to have a harder time with pet loss than the little ones do, so this is for all of us. A friend's ten-year old son, who'd received this when his pet died, told his mom he wanted to give it to me when I lost my twin dogs within six weeks of each other after 15 years with them. His gesture alone was a tear-jerker, and the book's healing properties amazed me. It's not all teary fare... this little bit made me laugh: "Every dog becomes a good dog in Dog Heaven." (Kind of made me forget about the couches and walls we lost during the training years!) It's such a wonderful book to have that when a friend or family member loses a pet I immediately order them a copy and send it off. Usually I paste a picture of the dog somewhere inside to really personalize it, and in our family ALL our dogs are pictured somewhere throughout. It's a great little memorial.

Our dog was not doing well last summer, so I searched for a book about dog heaven/rainbow bridge to read to my 4 1/2 year old so that she would be familiar with the concept when the eventual happened.
I found this book, and I'm so glad I did!

Took it out of the library and read it with her several times. When our beloved Lucy passed away in September, my daughter took it very well - I give most of the credit to this book. My in-laws dog passed last year and when we told my DD about Lucy, she was quiet, then asked if Lucy and Winston are together now in dog heaven and when we said yes, she was content.

Well, a couple of weeks ago my inlaws abruptly lost another of their dogs, when we told my daughter about it, she said that now he's in dog heaven with Lucy and Winston, eating all those doggie biscuits, etc. She remembered things about the book, and then asked me if we could get this book out of the library again to read.

I'm on Amazon today to buy several copies of the book - one for us, and one for my in-laws, and one to stash away to gift to a friend when it's needed.

A wonderfully comforting book, for adults as well as children, and the beautiful images really stay with you.

Highly recommended for all dog-lovers, no matter their age.
(I understand there is a Cat Heaven book as well, but I have not read that one yet.)

There's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. This is a masterpiece--a painfully funny, heartbreaking, stunning masterpiece. Period.

When my mom first started to get me interested in southern family sagas Pat Conroy was her first recommendation,Lords of Discipline was the first book by Conroy i read, and I couldn't put it down. In the weekend i read it i feel like i learned more about the author and the city of Charleston than i ever have with any other book. it's an amazing look into military life and the complexities that occur within ones self and people that you think you know.I would recommend Lords of Discipline to anyone!

like i said a little slow in the beggining and i though i wasn't going to like it. don't give up though...the story gets intense without too much "action" type stuff and it ended becoming one good read.

About half way thru this book and had to set it aside. I'll return to it later as it is a little too intense and the language is shocking.

I thought his books Beach Music and The Prince of Tides were much better. I could not put Beach Music down.

I received this book as a gift and was reluctant to read it as the subject matter was not of interest. I started to read it just to see what it might be like and was captured by the outstanding writing. It was just a joy to read and the characters will stay with me forever.

I was required to read this book in my high school psych class, as well as the sequel to it. It was a very captivating read, and the imagery really sticks with you. The teacher gave us a schedule of when we had to finish each chapter by, but I couldn't put the thing down.

This amazing true story is about a violent 6-year old. You will be amazed by the details of how her teacher--Torey Hayden--reaches out to this child with special needs. This book is a must for teachers and parents.

I was required to get this book for my special education training that I need for my master's. This book was very interesting. It showed the good and bad things Torey Hayden did in the course of serving this one child, Sheila. I could not put it down.

This story gave me tears of sadness and tears of joy. While it is heartbreaking to learn of all the abuse Sheila has endured, it is
heartwarming to know that SOMEONE took the time and effort to encourage her and to reach out to her. This book is a wonderful testament to the power of love and the human spirit.

I'm half-way through this book and I LOVE it so far!! I'm in school to become a teacher and we're reading this book. It has opened my eyes!!!

I remember my mother reading me this book when I was a child. Now I am reading it to my kids, and they LOVE it! I let them turn the pages, and they enjoy seeing how Grover tries to keep you from turning them. Because the closer you get to the end of the book, the closer you get to the "Monster"....

This was my sons favourite, I always had to read it to him in Grovers voice
and it is now the younger ones favourite as well !!!

It is so funny to watch Grover prepare, fall apart, prepare again, fall apart again etc., scared of the horrible monster he has heard is at the end of the book....only to find........himself!! It is a great, funny, fear calming book.

Who wasn't afraid of monsters in the dark as a child?

And this illustrates, it is all in ones imagination, so do not be afraid.
Grover is silly and cute all the while he is sooo very afraid, which is delightful to all .
Excellent book, it is a real classic.

When I was little this was my favorite book. We would read it over and over, and I would pretend I was struggling to turn the pages that Grover had tied, nailed, and bricked over.
So when we had a daughter, this was one of the first books I bought for her. At 2 years old the book sat on the shelves for a while, but she is 3 now, and I recently took it down again to read for her at bedtime. It is now a favorite, we read it every night. I read the pages, then she turns them to give poor old Grover a hard time.
One recommendation...this review is for the standard Little Golden Books version, which is great, but we also found a board book version in stores, so the hard pages are great when you have toddlers turning the pages for you every night. They can really 'struggle' against Grover's efforts without hurting the book.

I recently read The Monster at the End of This Book, by Lovable Furry Old Grover. I picked it up on a lark, figuring it would by a typical horror/thriller throwaway. It followed a pretty obvious course through the old cliches of the genre most of the way through, but the ending threw me for a shock that had me catatonic in existential malaise for weeks afterwards.

NOTE: DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT IT TO BE SPOILED!!!



When I found out that the monster in the book was indeed Grover I thought, "My god... it could be any of us." Yes that's right, the narrator of the book, the kindly and gentle guide through this thrill-ride, was indeed the monster of which he spoke.

This raised many, many questions. It seems from reflection that Grover himself was unaware that he was the monster. However, in the modern and postmodern likelihood of unreliable narration, it seems that it could just of easily been a clever deception by the monster, to lure the reader into his confidence before springing his trap. But the question remains. Does a monster know he is a monster? Or does his twisted logic somehow rationalize his monstrosity and allow it run rampant? Also, if this physically harmless appearance could harbor the monster of the book, doesn't that mean that anyone could be a monster? That "evil has no face" as they say?

Ultimately, it brought me to reflect that one may be a monster and not even be full conscious of the fact. That one may be revealed to be monstrous, but only at the end of a mysterious and terrible life of lies.

So it turns out that the "monster" is actually the protagonist which, while having shades of postmodern antihero angst that wil reverberate strongly with fans of, say, Kafka or Burroughs, really threw me for a loop as a kid.

My two year old, on the other hand, has no problem with this conceit, and wants me to read it to him regularly.

He'll understand how cruel this all is when he get a bit older.

Oh yes.

In the meantime, I'll read it for him over and over and over and over, and never get tired of it.

I don't read much, but I read this book a few months ago and I loved it. You get pulled right into the story then are carried away by the swift adventure. It's short, but don't worry because two more books follow this one! I haven't read the other two yet, but I will.

I'm 18 and I really enjoyed this book. I'm sure young adult readers would love it.

I really enjoyed this book! I think I enjoyed it more the further into it I got because I began to realize the scope of the book. Also, because it's a series, I wasn't sure how much of the book would be self-contained vs. continuous.
I adored the way the "fantasy world" and how Coville described the various landscapes. Ditto for the creatures of the fantasy world! From both known fantastical creatures (like unicorns) to some new (at least, I've never heard of them before), delightful creatures! I felt as though each character had a distinct personality - even if it took me a little bit to figure them out. And I felt invested in them all, which is a good feat for the book being only 150 pages.
That's really my only reason for the 4 stars instead of 5. There's really nothing wrong with the book that I can find to warrant only 4 stars - but for me, I'm used to more in-depth books with great detail to the plots. This was the only thing I wanted more of; I felt there was enough plot and character back-story that the book could have been expanded and delved into further. Though, perhaps that wasn't the author's intent - or it wasn't the intent of this book since it's a series.
However, I would think this a great book to start out for younger readers. And it's a delightful treat for those of us who adore fantasy books to read between tomes!

This is an amazing book it is number 2 in my top five favorite books. And I've read ALOT of books. This is an ideal book for ANYONE who LOVES unicorns, like me! If you get this book for some one be sure to get the second one to. Why? Becuse this one REALY gets you ready for the next one. When I finished it I had really wished that my teacher had the next one, but she didn't. I checked the school libray, but they didn't have it either! I haven't read the next one yet, but I am always keeping my eye out for it and now I've found it here! I hope you've liked my review
-an 11 year-old

Into the Land of the Unicorns is a grate book for people at or abuve a fourth grade reading Levle. Thier is nothing boring about it. I liked it so mutch that after 10 mins after I got it I had like three chapters finished. It is one of the best books I have ever read. I think this book deserves more than a five star rating. You should defently read it.

this book was written when i was born, and i love it! i love the unicorns and i am hoping to finish my own series called United Unicorns, i hope i can get it pubilshed

I purchased this book for my middle school daughter. Boy did it show how hard life was for early Americans traveling across the Oregon Trail. This book is a great way to show today's kids how easy they really have it!

Across the Wide Prairie (Oregon Trail) / 0-590-22651-7

I love Oregon Trail stories, probably as a remnant of my childhood obsession over the video game series of the same name. I couldn't wait to read this installment of the Dear America series; I read these as an adult, but try to review them as a prospective parent would, because I know that these are targeted as 'children' books.

The Good: The Dear America formula works very well here. The diary format is well-suited to a long journey, particularly realistic here as the main character sits down by the fire at the end of the evening to record the days' experiences. The day-to-day is gripping and never boring, as Hattie details the hardships of the trail (very realistically, I might add), various illnesses and weddings along the way, hazardous river crossings, genuine concerns over food and supplies, and other gripping details. The author tends to provide a 'fair and balanced' view of the world around the settlers, and treats American Indians with relative fairness (I would have liked a little more, but I'm picky) and somewhat lavishly handles the Mormon settlers to Utah as decent people looking for their niche in the world (this is more a 'religious tolerance' view than a dissection of polygamy - it IS a children's book, after all).

The Bad: The adults are morons. I realize this is a common trope of children's literature, but it made me want to scream. In specifics, the parents and friends of the author are all sensible, caring adults (so no worries that your child will become disrespectful after reading this), but in general the adults act so foolishly as to not deserve to make it to Oregon. To provide conflict, the author has provided us with an elderly couple plagued with grief-inflicted kleptomania. The adults are aware that the elderly woman is stealing supplies, clothes, and so on, but choose not to embarrass the poor woman in the name of 'Christian charity'. This is the modern American author failing to see things from a historical perspective - when a stranger steals your child's sweater and your cooking pot, that means that your child catches cold (and dies) and you don't eat that night. People didn't exactly own five of everything, and certainly not when travelling cross-country. Parents are also so insipidly stupid as to let their children play with guns and explosives, and several nameless children die as a result. Again, this is Bad Writing - I cannot imagine that the majority of parents didn't properly instruct their children in the handling of a dangerous and crucial tool like the family gun, or failing that, didn't at least make it clear that the gun was 'hands off!' (Think 'Little House on the Prairie', and you'll know what I mean). None of these bad points detract from the book as a fun and educational book for children, but as an adult reader, it may cause a wince or two on your part.

This is one of the best Dear America books. A young 13 year old Hattie Campbell travels with her family west on the Oregon Trail. She encounters numerous difficulties. She creates a soup out of local plants and accidentally includes Hemlock which kills several children, sees an accident which causes people to fall into a river while crossing along with several marriages, births and deaths. This book is well detailed and not as thin as some of the other books are. It is very good.

As a native Oregonian, the attraction of reading a diary of one who made the Oregon Trail journey was met with eager anticipation. Early on, the diary though very interesting, soon became a series of calamities that left the reader thinking, what else could this poor family possibly endure? As the journey continued, it became apparent that the author had taken great liberty and creative license to spice up this historical adventure. By the end of the diary it was discovered that this work was fiction, which resulted in great disappointment, leaving the reader feeling mislead. As a work of fiction based on possible Oregon Trail experiences, this book proves to be entertaining, however it is not a true diary.

It has been years since I have read this book. I can still, to this day, remember the effect this book had on me. I was eight or nine at the time. I remember reading the diary entries and feeling as if I were right there next to Hattie, walking in the dirt or the snow. I cried at times when something bad had happened to Hattie or the people around her. I felt compassion, and found myself wanting to reach into the book and help the people myself. I learned many things about life in that time period that I had never known. I had learned about pioneers in school, but I never imagined that it would be as hard or as rewarding of an experience for them to go through.

The book made an impact on me from page one. I highly recommend it.