Fiction Literature Books

This novel is far from what I expected.

I had listened to many of my friends judge Cathy and Heathcliff very harshly, and I went into the book expecting to explore the evilness of human nature. Instead, I found that Bronte broke barriers by producing two very real characters.

Cathy and Heathcliff's story explores the consequences to the character's decisions. Bronte does not gloss over the reasons for the decisions (money, greed, breeding, retaliation, etc), but those reasons play a minimal role. Instead, she chooses to show how a human reacts to a good/bad decision, and when life doesn't go his or her way.

My suggestion for reading Wuthering Heights is to place yourself in Cathy and Heathcliff's shoes and figure out if there was another choice for their behavior.

Although some of the plot elements seem preposterous today the story remains a great read. What a love story! A great tale of people sometimes setting in motion awful events due to their desire to do what they see as right in their own eyes. Recommended. Well-written.

Set on the moors, it is a pity that the Hound of the Baskervilles didn't get 'em. This would have saved a lot of characters a lot of grief. An orphan is taken in, and the problems start there as he grows up, has his own problems and inflicts them on others. The great detective has something to say about such places : "But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of country which makes the danger."

Heathcliff is a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man inside and out. His character makes this an interesting story. But it was a little tedious to read. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: none. Setting about 1775 to 1805 England. Published about 1847. Genre: obsessive historical romance.

(Like the curmudgeonly CAT in the COMIC...get it?)

Great old-style classic novel. One of Henry Miller's favorites; that's what attracted me to it.

I liked the style of the narrative, largely told through the reminiscences of the housekeeper Nelly. This is one dysfunctional family!

Like many novels from this period it's all about the interpersonal relationships; there isn't anything external happening to anyone here of any particular consequence. But the masterful storytelling and imaginings of the authoress really do make this a worthwhile and rewarding literary journey.

Read it! Classics rule!

Beware, this book has a lot of 19th century northern English dialect. It's just delightful to read but can be hard to understand. I love that stuff so I am really enjoying reading it. If you have seen the DVD North and South, you will love the book of course, but there are some interesting changes they made in the movie. The editor for this book is very good. Very good notes and explanations of some of the finer points. I love it. I will read this book again and again. It's a keeper.

I love this book! I think if you like Jane Austin and other classics you will enjoy this story. The movie made by BBC does not follow the book exactly but is a great film and a fairly good representation of the book.

The book was in great condition and came so quick! Gaskell does not let you down! I hope to buy the DVD soon.

I love the Norton Critical Edition because it contains so many secondary sources; from letters to contemporary criticism! That is useful to get a better understanding of this novel and its author. The footnotes are on the page and not somewhere in the back of the book, so it's a very easy to use edition. I'd recommed it for college use.

I was told by my sister that I just HAD to see the BBC miniseries "North and South" based on the book by Elizabeth Gaskell. I am here to repeat that advice but also to add that you don't want to stop there! As a big Jane Austen fan, I was surprised and ashamed to find that I had never heard of Elizabeth Gaskell. I really enjoyed her writing--the story behind "North and South" and the characters were excellent. I also learned so much about England during that time that I did not know.

I highly recommend the Norton Critical Edition of "North and South" as well. It provided helpful footnotes throughout the story and interesting letters and analysis following the conclusion of the novel. I also must again recommend the BBC miniseries...it was a fairly true adaptation, and the characters came to life! I really don't think you'll be disappointed either way--book or DVD!

Others have already been more eloquent in their descriptions of this novel than I have time to transcribe here from my neural attic. I happened across this book at a church fair and had (somehow) heard of the name Zola. I have frequently traveled to France and after brief scan of some of the pages, noting the French names, decided to shell over the 50 cents for it. I started reading and was impressed by the deep descriptive abilities Zola had at his disposal; describing Etienne's initial perusal of the maw of the coal mine in the early hours of the morning with the inclusion of such descriptions as to how he shifted some of his arm held belongings from arm to arm under his elbow uncomforably. I was hooked and read the whole thing in less than 5 hours in one afternoon after setting aside the time due to the impressive beginning I espied that night at the church where the lovely rapture began.

As usual, the characters more than make the story. Each person is important! What a breath of fresh air. Most authors shrink at such a daunting task; but Zola performs the trick as though he loved each human in the world so much that set out to find out everything about them. The delicious social interactions are interspersed with the young man "coming to age" with his philosophical ideas actually being forced to germinate and yield fruit (hence the title). His germination is only one of many you see in the story; and not every plant that germinates lives to bear fruit. Or even if it does, it may rot on the vine; the ending is not important. The possibility of changing what is, for the betterment of many is the ever sought after and seemingly unreachable goal....

I highly recommend this book. Enjoy! You'll find yourself wishing you could meet the people in this book. :)

This was my first read of Zola, an author who is FAR too unknown in the US. He captured, fully, the essence of a labor dispute. I've been around an industrial area my whole life, and have been through many strikes, plus have been the target of those who don't like you crossing their lines. Zola brought all this to life; he told it just as it really is. Incredible!

Germinal was the name of a new month (Feb.-March) created by the leaders of the French Revolution. Zola's novel is given this title. The novel is set in the 1860s dealing with the brutal, harsh, amoral, poverty stricken, violent and cruel world of a French mining town whose name is
"240.
The main character of the novel is Etienne Lantier who is a member of a family featuring in several of Zola's novels in his Roquet-Macquart series dealing with two families charted by the brilliant novelist.
During the novel the reader will become engrossed by the families who toil deep under the surface of the earth. The mine is a symbol of Moloch the rapacious idol who gorges itself on human flesh, lives and love.
The novel is not for the prudish. In its many pages you will be exposed to sex in all its varieties; scatological language; several murders; genital mutilation; several horrible deaths and a strike. You will even see cruelty to animals written with such heartbreaking realism that you will cry over the deaths of the horses Trumpet and Battle and the rabbit
Poland.
You will meet various political and social theories from Marxism to nihilism expressed through the eloquent voices of the characters. You will be invited into the tragic home of the Maheu family and discover there the unforgettable character of La Maheu the indomitable earth mother and her suffering and prepubescent daughter who falls in love with the stranger Etienne. Catherine and her two lovers Chaval and Etienne are indelibly printed in the mind's eye of this reviewer. Miners trapped deep within the earth in a disaster instigated by the anarchist Souvarine lead to scenes which are horrific in their impact.
Emile Zola was a reformer whose novel is a classic which is also a page turner. Each page bristles with his rage at injustice, cruelty and the clash between the classes in France.
What would Zola have thought of the bloody twentieth century of revolution in Russia, two horrible world wars and now in our own century the hell of Middle Eastern warfare and terrorism.?
Germinal reads as if it was written last week since it is alive with all the human emotions. It is one of the best books ever written and will always live. Vive la France! Vive Emile Zola!

As an aspiring author of regional fiction ("Suomalaiset: People of the Marsh" ISBN 0972005064)who was raised on liberal politics amidst the boom and bust of Minnesota's iron mines and timber industry, "Germinal's" featured protagonist, Etienne Lantier, strikes a chord with me. There is much about the American labor movement and the plight of American workers to be found in Etienne's story. Though conditions in our factories, mines, and in our forests have markedly improved since the days of children working the coal fields of West Virginia and the iron mines of the Mesabi Iron Range, Zola's prose and his social observations about wealth, capital, and the exploitation of the common man by those in power rings true in 21st century America. A beautifully translated work, succinctly direct, wonderfully cast, with prose that makes you sigh. One of my ten all time favorite novels.

Germinal is a damned good book. A page-turner. Engrossing. Illuminating, too. The proletariat/capitalist conflict is better portrayed here than in any other work of fiction I've come across. One gets a sense of the conditions--granting Zola a degree of literary embellishment--that led to trade unionism, socialism, communism, and anarchism. Zola sides with the workers, as you'd expect, but he is honest about his characters' motivations. They are presented as three-dimensional, not didactic dummies for Zola to ventriloquize through. Zola's characters are so fleshed-out, in fact, that the reader develops a rapport, an emotional investment, with them. Not all make it through the book alive and well, and this is another refreshing bit of truth from Zola. Life is full of calamity, pain, and senseless suffering, but it continues nevertheless. Zola presents this without typical Gallic pretension...a worthy achievement in and of itself. A definite classic.

I would recommend Njal's Saga as a primer on anarchy. Not the theoretical, Emma Goldman philosophical anarchy, but anarchy as it manifests itself "on the ground" as anthropologists like to phrase it.

Njal's Saga is a great piece of literature concerning how the early Norse settlers of Iceland, often themselves outlaws back in Norway, dealt with lawlessness. The main theme is stated by Njal himself. "With laws our nation will be built up." This sentiment is echoed by several other characters throughout the tale. Another saying, uttered by more than one person is, "The hand is soon sorry it has struck," and provides the awful counterbalance propelling the plot. For here we find a historic locale in which each man must execute justice and law for himself because medieval Iceland was a place of no central authority. Therefore, only men powerful enough themselves, or with enough powerful friends, could exact just retribution for injuries sustained by their neighbors. Men were driven by a warrior honor code that forced them to take up arms or lose face and the whole saga is full of a sense of dreadful irony of how just causes are perverted by resorting to violent solutions. This society is reminiscent of Odysseus' description of the cannibal Cyclops' society where each father is a law unto his wife and children and they meet in no just assemblies. The old Icelanders had their national assembly, the Althing, and while it could render decisions based upon law imported from Norway, it was left to the aggrieved individual to exact the sentence. Therefore, Gunnar of Hlidarende could ignore the sentence of outlawry and not leave the country and his enemies were therefore free to kill him in his home without fear of legal reprisal. Njal's Saga is an actual account of what anarchy is like in a remote society based upon powerful males trying to dominate all the land and people they could based on individual might and wit and prestige. The United States prides itself on being a nation of laws and not of men. Medieval Iceland was a settlement of contending personalities, each trying to adapt traditions from the old country to their individual benefit, with no central executive authority to carry out sentences in the name of the common good. So men pursued vengeance and blood begat blood as original justifications became obscured. In other words, traditions minus authority still equals anarchy. Read Njal's Saga and you can imagine the tragedy of being a law unto yourself.

Marc Ladewig
author of Odysseus: The Epic Myth of the Hero

This is one of the larger Icelandic sagas, and one of the best. It bears to keep in mind that being almost a thousand years old, if not older, the story doesn't read like the most thrilling of works, even with this excellent translation. The eponymous hero of the saga, Njal, is a type of hero not often seen in medieval literature, the sage. Njal is pacifistic in an Iceland rife with violence and chaos, giving the reader pause at the possible effect of Christian influences on the undertones within the story. Thankfully, the tale does not draw so decided a line for us. The story is truly epic in size, and has several fascinating - if not conflicting - lessons to tell. If you can be patient and work your way through this saga, you will feel rewarded and fulfilled by the end.

I recently became interested in Norse mythology, and after acquiring a number of books on the subject my interest spilled over into Norse, particularly Icelandic, sagas. I bought the hefty Penguin "The Sagas of Icelanders", and since all the reviewers for it lamented the exclusion (understandably, for space reasons) of Njal's Saga, I bought that separately, and I've just finished reading it.

I bought this translation, Cook's. There seemed to be two main choices, this or Magnus Magnusson's, and I noticed a few reviewers quite bluntly trashing Cook's translation, promoting Magnus's instead. I decided to start with Cook's anyway, figuring that, even if it was inferior to Magnusson's, I wouldn't know what I was missing, since I hadn't yet read Magusson's. Admittedly, I still haven't read Magnusson's translation, but I enjoyed Cook's translation very much and did not by any means think of it as lacking.

In fact, in Cook's notes on the translation presented in the book, he explains his motivation and justification for translating the saga the way he did, in a way that seems to anticipate the disfavor of his translation by loyal Magnusson fans:

"[This translation] differs from previous translations of Njal's Saga...in attempting to duplicate the sentence structure and spare vocabulary of the Icelandic text."

After giving a few examples of the stylistic eccentricities in which the saga was originally written and demonstrating how he attempted to reproduce them in his translation--even contrasting an excerpt of Magnusson's translation with his own--he goes on to say:

"It is hoped that the reader of this translation will accept--and even learn to enjoy--these and other efforts at fidelity, though they may seem strange at first. The intent has been to create a translation with the stylistic "feel" of the Icelandic original."

Clearly, Cook did not set out to create a dry, inferior translation; rather he set out to create a more stylistically faithful translation, even if it meant sacrificing some of the flare and drama to which we as modern readers are accustomed.

Regarding the story itself...what can one say? There is something immensely powerful about reading a piece of literature that was written over seven centuries ago and discovering that its author and the people about whom he wrote had many of the same thoughts, feelings, and problems that we do today. When a character responds emotionally to a situation, or feels frustrated because of a moral dilemma, we can still, despite the vast chasm of time separating us, so easily relate to him or her. Even the author's humor and wit are delightfully close to home. Stories such as Njal's Saga remind us that people from long ago and far away are just that: people. Just like us. In a popular culture that has a tendency to glorify the ephemeral, trendy Here and Now, it's a fact that's easy to forget.

Njal's Saga is an Icelandic saga by an unknown author, supposedly written around 1280 A.D. The story tells of an unending spiral of feuds and vengeance, leading eventually to the burning of a farmstead at Bergotha in Iceland, which killed the head of the household, Njal, his wife, and a number of his sons. There are several main characters. In the first half, a man named Gunnar, who is a great warrior and often champions underdogs in legal disputes, not infrequently by challenging the other party in the dispute to a duel, causing them to concede or settle rather than face him. Gunnar fought a notable fight against attackers who greatly outnumbered him, which is mentioned in a number of other sources and was apparently a true and famous event. The burning of Njal in his farm is also a historically documented event.

Eventually Gunnar is killed by a coalition of his enemies, and his death is then avenged by the sons of Njal (Gunnar and Njal were close friends), which leads to another escalating round of killings, that concludes with the burning of Njal and his farm.

The final section of the saga concerns the efforts of Kari, Njal's son-in-law and the only survivor of the attack on and burning of Njal's farm, to avenge the burning by tracking down and killing many of the members of the burning-party.

The saga is a powerful, building story, even by modern standards. It also provides much detail about legal proceedings in Iceland, particularly cases brought over killings, contains brief mentions of legendary Viking leader Ragnar Logbrod and several of this sons, and also contains a number of very detailed, vivid descriptions of combat as fought during the Viking period.

Njal's Saga is perhaps the single most important and best-known of the entire body of Icelandic saga literature. By turns a legal thriller, domestic drama, and violent revenge tragedy, Njal's Saga is far more complex and entertaining than most of the modern fiction that I've ever read.

Njal's Saga covers one of the most violent and tumultuous periods in European history in general and Norse history in particular. During Njal's long life the first Christian missionaries came to the island and, in 1000, the island voted to convert. Such a brief summation does no justice to the intense machinations involved and the often violent reactions of Icelanders and Christians alike.

But of even greater importance to Njal's story are the many feuds in which he became embroiled and which finally claimed his life. The overall arc of the stories is far too complex to be related here, but every victory that Njal achieves comes at a heavy cost of both money and blood. Throughout, the feuding, fighting, and legal episodes at the Althing are carefully recorded and uniformly exciting.

A word on the translation: Cook's translation of the saga has drawn a considerable amount of flak from fans of the more "contemporary" Magnusson translation, but such attacks are largely unfounded. Cook's aim in translating the saga was to accurately recreate the original Icelandic's terse, forthright, and completely unembellished style. Having read a number of other saga translations, I'd say this is a noble and, in this case, successful aim. This translation is exciting without catering to modern convention, something that speaks well for the power of the story regardless of translator.

My only word of warning about this book: don't put it down. If you're like me, you won't have a problem with this, but for casual readers the details of plot and the many, many characters will probably slip away should one take a casual approach to the Saga. That said, this book should draw you in and never once let go once you've begun.

Highly recommended.

I read some of the other reviews, and I think that you need to understand that Sally Stuart left out nothing!! Yes, she even listed the vanity publishers. You should never use a vanity publisher, but if you read each description, you can easily see that they are what they are. I am very happy that Sally list ALL the publishers, editors, etc. I would rather have them all in one book than finding out about one that isn't in the book that rips me off. Thank you Sally for not forgetting one reference!!!

This book is a must read for all Christian writers.

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This is the guidebook to have, if you are interested in the Christian publication market.
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The main categories of interest are publishers, agents, and periodicals.
Trying to pull these out of a general guide like WM or WH would take a lot more work. The agents list is buried under "Helps" and should be given a separate entry at the main indexing level.
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The resources are excellent. The other guidebooks should copy this approach. On the other hand, there is no "how to" or introductory writing information. That is good. It is available elsewhere and should not be duplicated especially in a useless watered down format as other guides do.
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Vanity press publishers are separated from traditional publishers.
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There is a very useful market analysis that tells the sub-genre/topic of books that are most published. Also the publishers are listed by size wrt the number of books they publish.
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There are entries for greeting cards and specialty markets such as software and games.
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There is a helps section that lists conferences, clubs, services and contests.
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The usual glossary and index are at the back.
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As with any similar guide, there are some E&Os. With the constant changes in the publishing industry always check the information and the current editors name before submitting a mss.
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With the CDRom, this book is worth buying if your writing is aimed at this marketplace. I would refer to WM or WH at the library. The online adjuncts to other guides have not proven useful in the past. but this CDRom makes the book worth owning.
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Sally Stuart is a jewel. She gives us almost too many ways to find where our appropriate market is!

I ordered this book having heard good things about it. There are many valuable references contained in this book. However, if you are a fledgling author looking for legitimate publishers, BEWARE. I found no less than three so-called publishers that were not publishers at all, but are at best vanity publishers, at worst, scammers who scam authors out of their own money. One of these publishers I had personal experience with and know it to be a complete scam, and to the author's credit, she wrote back to me saying that publisher would be removed from future additions. However, I didn't bother to communicate the other two "publishers" I found to be highly suspicious and just did a quick search on a popular web search only to find that my suspicions were correct. It makes me wonder how many other mistakes and unresearched links/publishers etc. are included in the book. So I strongly advise if you are searching for a vanity publisher or regular publisher, research your choices first. Simply because they appear on the pages of this resource does not mean it is a legitimate organization.

However, I will say overall the resource is very useful. Just do your checking!

I have always appreciated the depth of research and help Sally Stuart puts into these yearly market guides, and having the CD is an extra bonus. Having the current book is a must for any writer who wants to get published. Send out submissions to some of the many non-paying markets first; build up your list of published clips, and then you will have the credibility you need to get paid work.

I read the adult version of this book and really got a lot out of it. So much so that I felt compelled to buy this for my kids. My spouse and I read this to our kids and that was a good thing. Our oldest is 11 and we had to go slow and explain a lot of the thoughts and concepts in the book.

I'm not sure if our kids captured the exciting vision of hope that the author intended to convey, but it was a good family experience to read it to them.

I gave the book 4 stars because younger kids may have a harder time grasping the vision; therefore, I would now say that this book is more appropriately aimed at kids in their young teens although they may chafe at the "For Kids" tag on the cover. I should note that the content of this kid's version is totally solid and that I thoroughly enjoyed the adult version of this book as well.

When we found out my father in law was dying of pancreatic cancer, one of our main concerns was how to deal with it with our kids. This book was a great resource, especially for our introspective 11 year old. She was able to read it on her own and ponder the chapters. It gave her great comfort to know that because of Grandpa's faith in Christ, he has a promise of eternity in heaven - free from any more pain or suffering. She also like to read that heaven is going to be exciting and active - not a bunch of cloud-sitting and harp playing. In fact she said, "Now that I've learned more about what heaven will be like, I'm a little jealous that Grandpa gets to go so soon." I highly recommend for any family in a similar situation.

EXCELLENT PRODUCT!!! Randy Alcorn is an excellent and trustworthy writer with sterling integrity. He always delivers the best, life-changing materials. He is tried and true.

This book gives excellent, concise, understandable and sufficient information on key issues surrounding heaven. Great for kids and for those adults who might find Alcorn's original big volume on heaven a little too heavy.

HeavenEveryone should read this book, Christian or not. If you are a Christian, you will become more excited than ever to leave this earth and go to your new home. If you are not a Christian, you will be ready to give your life to God, so that you too, may go to HEAVEN!!! Everything that Mr. Alcorn writes is backed by scripture, so this is not a "made up" story. "Heaven" has given me more determination than ever to try to reach the unsaved.

These tales were collected from virtually every corner of the globe and some go far back into the reaches of antiquity. Bennett and his collaborators did a fine job of finding stories of universal, fairly non-controversial appeal that we can all cite without worrying about the inherent differences in religion or politics that might otherwise divide us. Segregated according to the principles being celebrated (Honesty, Courage, etc.) these fables and true life stories demonstrate virtues of conduct far too often left unstressed in our morally-undermined society.

I had this book when I was a little kid. I honestly think that by reading it, it changed how I viewed things as a child. Partially because of this book, when I was little I had strong feelings about responsiblity, kindness, courage, perserverance, and many of the other subjects illustrated in The Children's Book of Virtues. I loved reading it and the stories affected me greatly.

As a homeschool mother I am always looking for great stories for my almost 7 yo and my 2.5 yo. This book is part of the curriculum for Sonlight and it is fabulous. My daughter's favorite is about two brothers, one who doesn't let his "please" out of his mouth so the "please" jumps into the other brothers' mouth (which makes him say all his "pleases" twice). Eventually though, the "please-less" mouth wants his please back and his "please" is thrilled to be at home and allowed to get some fresh air. The stories are grouped by moral or attribute (compassion, courage, etc.). Both male and female main characters throughout the stories and the poems makes this book appropriate for both boys and girls. I highly, highly recommend this book, no qualms about it.

My children and I just adore this book. What a lovely collection of stories all heavily demonstrating solid virtues that are Biblically rooted, not worldly. My children, ages 5 and 4, request that several stories be read time and time again. This book will grow with us through the years; they are no where near growing out of it.

Bennett compiles the stories and poems in 4 categories: courage/perseverance, responsibility/work/self-discipline, compassion/faith, and honesty/loyalty/friendship. There is a nice selection in each category of 1 paged poems, to several paged stories. There is a solid virtue to be taken from every single work.

I recommend this book highly. Fill those little minds with things that are good, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable. Also recommended by the same author are The Children's Book of Faith and The Children's Book of Heroes. Both also have wonderful collections and wonderful illustrations.

I purchased this book and a few others in the series for my 4 ½ year old. My son is very intelligent for his age, yet some of the stories were a bit long and beyond his attention span and/or understanding. However, I am not disappointment as I am confident that in time, all the stories will be appropriate. I would recommend this book!

I gave it as a gift for Christmas, but looked through it briefly. It looked pretty interesting.

Another good exercise with my 84 year old dad who is losing his memory. He reads a loud "A Mistake". We talk about when he first noticed or experienced the "Mistake" and then we try to do something fun. Example: Popcycles. After we eat popcycles and thank the guy for the "Mistake". This is a great exercise.

Make no mistake; this is a well-made piece of work. The stories flow smoothly, and the illustrations are very nice. However, the facts just haven't been checked. It claims (incorrectly) that Coca-Cola was an accident, it states (falsely) that Cinderella originally wore fur slippers instead of glass, and it actually elaborates with no real evidence on the history of the brick. For these reasons, I don't recommend it; if you really enjoy it and want to, check everything at snopes.com, where facts are checked ruthlessly.

If you have a 10-15 years old, this is a nice book for him/her. This is not a history of technology book, it's more of an easy reading.
Additionally, if you don't live in the US, the book makes little sense, since it is full of American references both historically and in terms of customs. On the other hand, if the lucky child who's going to receive it as a gift is American, this is yet another good reason to read this book.

This book is both a useful resource and an enjoyable way to past a rainy day. Ideal for all age groups - preteens will love learning about 'famous' mistakes - teens will get interested in thinking of ones left out of the book and adults we be amazed.
Overall fun book.

When my son was a small boy he loved all the Richard Scarry books. Now that he is the father of a small boy, I was delighted to find Richard Scarry's Biggest Word Book Ever published as a giant board book.My grandson found the large size a bit intimidating at first, but now it is one of his favorite books.

we gave this to our four-year-old grandson. we then spent much of the days that followed reading and laughing at its contents (and learning some things too).

understatement: it was a huge hit. even if you have other scarrys -- and the content of this one does overlap the content of some other titles -- its format makes it special.

recommended without reservation!

my baby loves her biggest book- it's strong and covered with the pictures and words she loves, and for me, I grew up with Scarry, so I feel good about what she is learning.

We've had to buy another copy of this book as the first one had to be given away when we moved overseas. Our kids begged us to buy another one so our youngest child would not grow up without it!

I give this book about twice a year to little children learning to talk! I hear from their parents that it immediately becomes one of the favorites - and I find adults enjoy creative use of the book as well (eg:telling stories about the pictures, promoting imagination and self directed play) It's a sure winner, and Amazon price absolutely the best!