Reviews (68)

Great ending!!!!!!!!!
This book was absouluely wonderful and a great ending!!!!!!!! What else can I say??? I loved it! READ IT

A Fitting End!
As I read this, I could tell this was an entirely different chapter in the Baudelaire's lives than we'd previously been exposed to. Lemony Snicket made it rather clear that the questions we wanted answered wouldn't be answered and it would do no good to answer them. Though slightly disappointing, I think we're better off for it. This book drives the message of the entire series home, and is in so many ways an allegory to what we experience every day. I thought this book was more emotional and better written than all of the other books combined, and was pleased with the couple of things we DID find out, even though there are a million other questions left unanswered. To answer these questions would be to ruin this series and the entire point of these books, and though we thirst for answers, the truth is that answers to these questions would be disappointing and more mysterious than what we're left with.
The perfect ending to this series

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Subjects:  1. Action & Adventure - General    2. Brothers and sisters    3. Children's All Ages - Fiction - General    4. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction    5. Children: Grades 4-6    6. Family - Orphans & Foster Homes    7. Family - Siblings    8. Fiction    9. Humorous Stories    10. Islands    11. Juvenile Fiction    12. Orphans    13. Juvenile Fiction / Family / Siblings   

Reviews (8)

Simply Stunning
Sandman is such an obvious choice for reprinting in the Absolute format, I'm surprised DC took this long to think of it. Previous reviewers have hit all the right points: the full leather binding, the extra heftiness of the volume, the glorious new look to the color. Nothing seems held back. I'm already salivating over the future volumes. Here are some questions DC should consider answering: Will the final volume include the two Death series? Will any volume include the 7-page story that appeared in a DC Sampler, and was later reprinted in the Fables and Reflections HC?
Well worth your hard-earned cash!
Frankly, I've thought that most of the "Absolute" editions were overpriced and a little too self-aggrandizing. Sometimes a good comic book is just a good comic book. I think that's enough. It doesn't have to be a seminal moment in the history of Western literature.
Awesome!
I got mine in the mail yesterday and it was my first exposure to "Sandman".I loved it and will get the other volumes as well.
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Subjects:  1. Comics & Graphic Novels    2. Fantasy    3. Graphic Novels    4. Graphic Novels - Fantasy    5. Graphic Novels - Superheroes   

Reviews (12)

Looking forward to the next one...
There are some very interesting tidbits in this volume that clearly affect how I look at parts of the series and how the final book will turn out.This book made me look forward to the next one in the series.In the meantime I got two books in a new series - Why Some Cats are Rascals.Great reading!.

Collector's item or valuable clues?
If there's anyone on your gift list unlucky enough to own the entire series of unfortunate events, you may wish to inflict further adversity upon them by purchasing this additional volume for their collection.Not so much a book as a mystery contained between hard covers, this most attractively presented publication contains two folders, one with a large two-sided poster filled with clues, and a notebook containing correspondence exchanged between a guy named Lemony Snicket and what seems to be two people named Beatrice Baudelaire, one of whom claims to be a fourth Baudelaire sibling.The letters begin before The Bad Beginning and end sometime after The End.
Uh huh, Foggy Bottom used to refer to the State Dept.
Can this book be used as evidence in a court of law? IMO thats where this book is headed. The lawsuits are about to fly, the schism is expanding and soon there will be a lot of wealthy writers and entertainment stars weeping.
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Subjects:  1. Baudelaire, Beatrice (Fictitious character)    2. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction    3. Children: Grades 4-6    4. Family - Orphans & Foster Homes    5. Fiction    6. Humorous Stories    7. Juvenile Fiction    8. Letters    9. Mysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories    10. Juvenile Fiction / Family / Orphans & Foster Homes   

Features

• Box set

Subjects:  1. Action & Adventure - General    2. Brothers and sisters    3. Children's All Ages - Fiction - General    4. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction    5. Children: Grades 4-6    6. Family - Orphans & Foster Homes    7. Fiction    8. Humorous Stories    9. Juvenile Fiction    10. Orphans    11. Juvenile Fiction / Family / Orphans & Foster Homes   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (1150)

The politically correct shall inherit the earth
Mr. Bradbury's prophetic work has come to pass in the politically correct world of thought controlled by political expediency and special interests.
Thought provoking, but not amazing
What made me pick up this book in the first place was everyone's fixation on how "thought-provoking" and "different" it was. I read it, and found myself agreeing with some aspects, confused by others, and downright bored by some.
read me
Fahrenheit 451 is a read rich with a delicious story and social commentary.Guy Montag lives in a world made ironic because of the stark contrast to the way we wish our society was today.Firemen don't keep people safe from fires, they bust into houses starting fires.Scholars and professors live on the outside of society because of their love for books, philosophy, and sociology where in our world professors are on the inside and the ignorant majority are on the outside because of their lack of interest for the said disciplines.
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Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Literature - Classics / Criticism    3. Science Fiction    4. Science Fiction - General    5. Book burning    6. Censorship    7. Fantasy    8. Fiction    9. Fiction / Science Fiction / General    10. Science fiction, American   

Editorial Review

In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. With echoes of Read more

Reviews (2879)

Memories
I enjoyed the book The Giver By: Lois Lowry. The Giver is about a boy named Jonas who lives in a community that everything is the same. Jonas is selected to be the new reciever of memories, which is an extremely important job. The receiver of memories holds all of the memories of the past so the community doesn't have to bear them. As Jonas takes on these memories the excitement begins. I enjoyed the characters in the Giver because they were different and interesting. I loved the plot because it was exciting and suspenceful. The Giver is one of a triolgy of books. The second is called Gathering Blue and the last is The Messenger, they are all relitivily related.

The Giver
Lois Lowry's eye opening novel, The Giver, really does make you think, ''Is the grass greener on the other side?''
VHS Class Giver Review- Benton Wilson
The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is an excellent work of literature. It presents a stunning example of a futuristic, dystopian society where all facets of life are controlled by various rules and regulations in an easily readable format. Jonas, the novel's protagonist, is chosen by the council to become the successor to the Giver, a man whose job is to mentally store the collective memories of society. The book focuses on situations such as a society without individuality, the importance of choice, and how people react to finding out that the accepted truths of their world were at one point not the case. Ms. Lowry uses chilling imagery, such as the lack of color, the inability of most people to love, and the unemotional "release" of those who don't fit into the government's carefully laid out plans for a perfect society to establish a mood that, while somewhat bleak, is not entirely without hope. The story picks up as it progresses, shifting to a more tense, but still equally atmospheric, form. This tension is skillfully maintained until the story's conclusion. I would heartily recommend this story to all those who enjoy fictional works that focus on either individualism vs. society or potential visions of the future.
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Subjects:  1. Children's 12-Up - Fiction - Science Fiction    2. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    3. Juvenile Fiction    4. Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic    5. Science fiction    6. Social Issues - Values    7. Juvenile Fiction / Social Situations / General    8. Reading Group Guide   

Features

• Box set

Reviews (19)

A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Books a Series of Unfortunate Events are fun books to read. Even though they have sad things happen in them, I like to read them because they are adventurous and you never know what will happen next. An example of how I never know what will happen next is in the Austere Academy. I couldn't find out what Olaf's plan was until it happened. Lemony Snicket writes the Series of Unfortunate Events. The main characters are Violet, Klaus, Sunny, and Count Olaf. In the books a Series of Unfortunate Events Violet, Klaus, and Sunny's home has burned down killing their parents. Now Count Olaf is trying to steal the children's enormous fortune but luckily he always fails. So, if you are looking for adventurous books to read, The Series of Unfortunate Events is right for you.

A Series of Unfortunate Events
A series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket, is about 3 orphans living in a mischief life with a tragedy story of bad luck in thier lives. It begins with a story that the Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, that will never forget forever. While these children are at the beach, a friend of there's, Mr. Poe, comes to tell the Unfortunate news, their parent died in a fire. As Mr. Poe found a distance family, he found a strange , cruel, tall Count Olaf. And the Unfortunate begins.
Great Series
This is a must buy for any lover of the Lemony Snickett series. A terrific set of books, and much cheaper to buy as the "Horrendous Heap" then individually! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Family - Orphans & Foster Homes    2. Juvenile Fiction   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (466)

An interesting read
This book is rather strange. There is a very distinct writing style, and Camus paints a very vivid picture of everything that is going on.
a great read that makes you think.
this is the first piece of writing i have read from albert camus and i found it very interesting. the character meursault is a very indifferent character who seems to be very impartial when he hears of his mother's death and kind of continues to be static untill the the second half of the book. i do not want to give the book away as some of the others have, but i feel that no matter what one person does and no matter what ones perception is, it can never match the perception of others. one of my favorite lines in the story is when meursault is talking to the chaplain about seeking redemption through god because according th chaplain "it is not the human justice that matters but divine justice" and meursault's response was "it was the human justice that put me here". no matter what acts you commit, whether they be henous, incensitive or loving, one way or another you will be judged and upon that judgement will be your sentence. it was definitely an easy read that takes the readers on a ride into the thoughts of a man who accepts the one thing he can not change; his fate. "with this, i dont even have a chance to survive, not even a slim one".

Nobody Counts--Not Even Yourself
There are few opening lines in literature more famous than the ones that begin THE STRANGER: "Mamam died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from home: `Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.' That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday."These lines are spoken by Meursault, who is the protagonist and narrator.Albert Camus uses Meursault as a symbol of the nihilism that was then sweeping a Europe that was engulfed in a conflict that promised only a continuation of the death and destruction that began with the Blitzkrieg in 1939.In such times of chaos, there was a tendency for Europeans to grow used to the thought that the next breath could be their last.A corollary of that was that if you bought into that philosophy, you also insisted in living in the here and now. Tomorrow existed only as an intellectual curiosity. Yesterday existed only as a prelude for today. Meursault is the embodiment of a generation of conquered French who learned to accept without a blink even the previously emotionally shattering loss of one's mother.
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Subjects:  1. Adventure stories    2. Algeria    3. Classics    4. Fiction    5. Literary    6. Literature - Classics / Criticism    7. Literature: Classics    8. Murder    9. Fiction / Literary    10. Modern fiction   

Editorial Review

"Is it a fact--or have I dreamt it--that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?" If you, like Nathaniel Hawthorne, are kept up at night wondering about how things work--from electricity to can openers--then you and your favorite kids shouldn't be a moment longer without David Macaulay's Read more

Reviews (24)

Amazing Book for the Inquisitive.
This was one of my favorite books as a child, and is a great deal of the reason why I have such an interest in science.The explanations are well written for anyone to understand, and the diagrams really help the reader understand the science better.If you, like me, take things apart to find out how they work, this is the book for you.

Great book
The book was a gift. It helps in the learning process.
A Work of Art
"The Way Things Work" took almost three years to create. A cute and sometimes silly "Great Wooly Mammoth" makes his appearance throughout the book. The facial expressions and animal antics are at times very amusing.
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Subjects:  1. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Science    2. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    3. Juvenile Nonfiction    4. Popular works    5. Reference - General    6. Science & Nature - General    7. Technology    8. Technology (General)    9. Technology - How Things Work/Are Made    10. General science    11. Juvenile Nonfiction / Science & Technology / How Things Work    12. Technology & Applied Sciences   

Editorial Review

Reviews (189)

THE END IS NEAR! BE PREPARED!
Ahem. Has anyone noticed that one of the one-star reviews for this book burns Lemony Snicket and William Shakespeare at the same time? If I was you, L.S., be honored! "Oh, gee, you're categorizing me in the same place as one of the most revered and adored authors of all time?!! I think I'll take that as a compliment!" This book is the second best in the series so far, after The Slippery Slope.

The Penultimate Peril
The Penultimate Peril
They stole a cab!
Yep, thats what they did. The only noble person in the story, and they kicked him to the curb.
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Subjects:  1. Action & Adventure - General    2. Brothers and sisters    3. Children's All Ages - Fiction - General    4. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction    5. Children: Grades 4-6    6. Family - Orphans & Foster Homes    7. Family - Siblings    8. Fiction    9. Hotels, motels, etc.    10. Humorous Stories    11. Juvenile Fiction    12. Orphans    13. Juvenile Fiction / Family / Orphans & Foster Homes   

Editorial Review

Everyone in town thinks Meg Murry is volatile and dull-witted, and that her younger brother, Charles Wallace, is dumb. People are also saying that their physicist father has run off and left their brilliant scientist mother.Spurred on by these rumors and an unearthly stranger, the tesseract-touting Mrs Whatsit, Meg and Charles Wallace and their new friend Calvin O'Keefe embark on a perilous quest through space to find their father. In doing so, they must travel behind the shadow of an evil power that is darkening the cosmos, one planet at a time. This is no superhero tale, nor is it science fiction, although it shares elements of both. The travelers must rely on their individual and collective strengths, delving deep within themselves to find answers.Read more

Reviews (940)

Enjoyable by young and old alike!
The earth is surrounded by a sinister presence - a dark, foul fog that is the tool of an ultimate evil - whose ambition is to enslave the planet with the complete removal of free will. Three magical beings, Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which - witches, angels, demigods perhaps - appear to Margaret and Charles Wallace Murry and their friend, Calvin O'Keefe, to persuade them that it is their destiny to battle this evil on its own turf and to rescue Margaret and Charles Wallace's father. Dr Murry has been missing for some months and the kids learn that he has been captured by the evil while he was "tessering", traveling time and space in the course of his scientific research.
A Wrinkle in time
At first my teacher read it. She read the first chapter to us. It had me very excited to read on. So, this book taught me a lot. It kind of keeps you in suspence to.

Hated it.
It seems that people either love it or hate it andI belong to the latter category.How did this become a classic???Having forced myself to read to the end I'm not going to waste anymore time - just read the other 1-star reviews - poor kids forced by their teachers to read this over-rated garbage. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Children's 9-12 - Fiction - Fantasy    2. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction    3. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    4. Classics    5. Juvenile Fiction    6. Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic    7. Science fiction    8. Juvenile Fiction / Science Fiction, Fantasy, Magic   

Editorial Review

If you have never read anything by beloved fantasy writer Terry Brooks, take your chance with Read more

Reviews (26)

*3.5 stars*
I was somewhat dissapointed by this novel, brooks stated he would 'bridge' two wonderfully seperate series-word/void and shannara.
Bridging Word/Void with Shannara
Terry Brooks revisits the world of his greatest work: The Word and the Void. That original trilogy was set in a modern day United States where there are demons working for the Void trying to turn humans to acts of evil to twist the world to be a more violent, dangerous, and lost place. John Ross, a Knight of the Word, fought daily against visions of the future that he had to try to prevent. Ross's visions were of events that could happen in his own lifetime and for all of Ross's success, all he did was delay the inevitable. Armageddon's Children is set some eighty years after Angel Fire East and the world is a ruined place and things are only fixing to get worse. Pollution is out of control, a nuclear war occurred, the humans which are "safe" live in compounds (like Seattle's Safeco Field) warded off against the outside world. Those compounds are all under siege and they are falling day by day until there will be nowhere left to run or hide. In Seattle there are gangs of children calling themselves Tribes. Adults have failed them and street children are not allowed in Compounds so they must survive by becoming their own families and looking out for each other. Humans who had been caught outside for too long and who somehow survived drinking radioactive water and eating off of the poisoned land have mutated. This is our world, only broken. This could be our future.
This is not my idea of a trilogy...
I just finished this book a few minutes ago. The story is good, but I want to express my extreme frustration with the ending. A trilogy is a story told in three parts, NOT one third of a story that just stops and the reader has to wait a year for the next chapter. The books in Tolkien's Ring trilogy did not end with cliff hangers such as this. I have read every book Brooks has written. The other Word and Void books could stand alone.I am disapointed in the handling of this story so far.
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Subjects:  1. Fantasy    2. Fantasy - General    3. Fantasy fiction    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - Fantasy    6. Science Fiction And Fantasy    7. Fiction / Fantasy / General   

Editorial Review

"Monster" is what the prosecutor called 16-year-old Steve Harmon for his supposed role in the fatal shooting of a convenience-store owner. But was Steve really the lookout who gave the "all clear" to the murderer, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time? In this innovative novel by Walter Dean Myers, the reader becomes both juror and witness during the trial of Steve's life. To calm his nerves as he sits in the courtroom, aspiring filmmaker Steve chronicles the proceedings in movie script format.Interspersed throughout his screenplay are journal writings that provide insight into Steve's life before the murder and his feelings about being held in prison during the trial. "They take away your shoelaces and your belt so you can't kill yourself no matter how bad it is. I guess making you live is part of the punishment."Read more

Reviews (606)

Monster is scary, not in a great way
I found that the story was too fast paced for something as dramatic as a 16 year old boy on trial for murder.The settings changed too quickly at the beginning, and I found the plot kind of confusing.The plot though, was believable and realistic, and there was very little profanity, if any.The language was not coated with heavy accents, the closest it got was gangsta talk. The point of view was from Steve Harmon, and there was a fair share of the plot jumping around. The characters were very real, and you could really picture it in your mind.Sadly, I could not say this for much of this book.
Is He Truly A Monster?
I'm not going to say much about the text in the book except that it was well written and well thought out. The format of the book was nicely put, because it is easy to read when the words aren't crammed together on a small page, and I liked how it was written in a script format.
Amazon book review by Karen
Monster by Walter Dean Myers was an excellent book.This book was about Steve Harmon.He was accused of being part of a robbery during which Mr. Nesbit was murdered.The book really puts the reader inside Steve's mind and emotions; the reader really hopes that Steve gets off trial and is let go without any charges.
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Subjects:  1. African Americans    2. Children's 12-Up - Fiction - General    3. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    4. Fiction    5. Juvenile Fiction    6. Law & Crime    7. People & Places - United States - African-American    8. Prisons    9. Self-perception    10. Social Issues - General    11. Social Issues - Prejudice & Racism    12. Social Issues - Violence    13. Social Situations - Prejudice & Racism    14. Social Situations - Violence    15. Trials (Murder)    16. Juvenile Fiction / Social Situations / Prejudice & Racism    17. Reading Group Guide   

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 Johnnykills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels thesame 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. ... Read more

Reviews (1428)

my inspiration...
When I had to read THE OUTSIDERS in seventh grade, at first I was just like whatever because I thought it was going to be another boring book we had to read and why can't we ever get good books to read? But from the first chapter, that was it. I fell so hard I still haven't gotten up.
Battle Against The Socs - A Review By Izzy, age 11
A boy named Ponyboy, and his two brothers, Sodapop and Derry, turn into hoodlums when their parents die in a car crash. They join a group of hoods: Johnny, 2-Bit, Steve and Dally. They are in a battle against the Socs, who are spoiled and very rich. The Socs always jump the hoods (Greasers) when they are alone. They all have parts to play: Dally is the tough guy, 2-Bit is known for his switchblade, Steve is known to mess around a lot, Sodapop comforts people, Johnny is the pet of the gang, and Ponyboy is the youngest at the age of fourteen. There are two other gangs of greasers.
rockin book
I loved this book because you never know what is going to happen. Plus I think it's wierd that people would go into gangs. I feel sad for Johnny for dying saving other people. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Children's 12-Up - Literature - Classics    2. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    3. Classics    4. Family - General    5. Family life    6. Fiction    7. Gangs    8. Juvenile Fiction    9. Social Issues - Adolescence    10. Juvenile Fiction / Social Situations / Adolescence   

Reviews (738)

Evil inevitably appears
The year is 1943. War is raging across Eastern Europe and Northern Africa. Italy joins the battle, and so does Japan. Peace seems improbable. War is war, and its savage and horrific reality leaves tons of thousands of sodiers and civilians either dead or maimed for life.
"Classic" doesn't improve with age
Like many other readers and Amazon reviewers, this b