Travel Books

Mountain climbing has always had a last frontier quality. The race to the North and South Poles ended in the early 1900's, Africa and South America were explored by the 1930's, leaving the Himalayan Mountains as the last challenge for adventure. Mr. Isserman and Mr. Weaver has written a comprehensive history of the conquests of the world's highest peaks. Starting from the competitive nationalist expeditions of this century to the solo attempts of today, the book is clearly written and well-researched, with over 100 pages of documentation and notes. The reader can read as a follow-up Maurice Herzog's "Annapurna" (1952), an epic tale of the French harrowing attempt to be the first to conquest a Himalayan peak.

I have spent many hours with Jack and Annie.These books are so interesting and my favorite one is number 14.I have almost completed the whole series.I have been reading them for 2 years.I wish I could live in the magic tree house too.I love Magic tree house.

This is an excellent series to interest struggling readers in beginning chapter books. The series also has an educator's activity guide that is helpful.

The Magic Tree House series is a great stepping stone between picture books and chapter books. Most books written for a pre-k listening level take place in a realistic setting, like school. Not so with the magic tree house, it takes Jack and Anne throughout time and space: from the time of the dinosaurs to the future when men have colonized the moon. The books are exciting to read: Jack and Anne are often in real danger, though you know they will always make it back home. These books are also available in an audio format. I recommend reading at least the first four books. If you, the adult reader, gets bored, try playing the audio versions.

I also think this box set makes a great birthday present for 4 and 5 year olds. At first the child can be read aloud to, and when they start reading, they can use it as an early reader.

The audio version of these books (read aloud by the author) is also worthwhile.

Pros: Fine for read aloud. Exciting stories for young (K-1st) grade children who are ready for chapter books.

Cons: Serious grammar and usage problems that may rub off on the children's own writing. Poorly-developed plotlines with not enough "meat" for the age level of children they are meant to target.

I have used these books as read-aloud for my two children. Currently I am reading them aloud at nighttime to our daughter, age six. Our daughter reads on a second-grade level, however, and has started reading these books independently, only coming to me for help with words she cannot sound out.

I didn't mind the grammar and phrasing problems when using these books strictly as read aloud, because I could correct the problems on my own as I read. However, Mary Pope Osborn seems to really enjoy the use of incomplete sentences, particularly those starting with "and". As a former second grade teacher this really, really gives me a nervous twitch in my eye! This is only the most egregious and obvious of the grammar and phrasing problems that, for whatever reason, go unnoticed by Ms. Osborn's editors and by Ms. Osborn herself.

I won't go ahead and give specific examples, since this has been well covered by previous reviewers. However, I do want to add my voice to the voices of those parents and educators who worry that this modeling of incorrect grammar may well rub off on young fans of the series. When I was teaching second grade, the students would have been expected to catch and then edit these type of mistakes out of their Writer's Workshop stories by about mid-January. I certainly expect a published author to be able to have as much respect for grammar and readability as my second grade students! I can respect an author's "style" to a degree, but I do believe that an author of children's literature should at least use correct grammar rather than "dumbing down" the sentences in what I suspect is a misguided attempt to make them easier for the children to read. (Children are smarter -- and better educated -- than you think, Ms. Osborn!)

On a positive note, the stories do keep our daughter engaged and excited, as they did our son when he was her age. However, the plots are extremely simplistic, bare bones, just plain not well developed. The actual reading level appears to be that of an average late first to second grade reader, yet my experience is that second graders expect a bit more "meat" to their stories. I know that by late second grade our son had, for example, moved on to the Chronicles of Narnia. The Magic Tree House set is, in my opinion, excellent for read aloud for kindergarten and first grade readers and perhaps as independent reading for first graders, struggling second graders, or those children who have problems with attention span. However, the teacher or parent of any independent reader will have to take care that Ms. Pope's writing style does not negatively impact the emerging writing skills of the child.

In short... Ms. Osborn, please correct your grammar!

I have mixed feelings about this series. My children (boys 5 & 3) love the books. They are easy enough for the younger one to follow, but exciting enough that the older one isn't bored. My biggest problem with them is the grammar. I would never let my children read these books themselves because I would never want them to think that the writing is correct. Luckily, by reading them aloud I can correct the mistakes without them even realizing it. Seriously though, the grammar is so poor that had not all the books been that way I would have assumed it was just something wrong with the printing machine. The author literally does not know what constitutes a sentence and she has no concept of the comma. Here are just a few examples (all found a single page no less!!):
1. "Let's leave the scroll on floor. And go," he said.

2. They walked together. Across the room. To the glowing gold box.

3. They stopped in front of the box. And they peered inside.

In all those cases she created fragment sentences instead of one regular sentence. She does this all the time. I think it was either in the first book or the second that I couldn't find a single page that didn't have a grammatical error. Both the author and the publisher should be ashamed of themselves.

I'm a big fan of Paul Theroux. I like both his fiction and his travel books. Having read the Great Railway Bazaar years ago, I reread it to refresh my memory before I read Ghost Train. Paul shows a bit of sentimentality on this trip, but it is not overdone or maudlin in any way. He's trying to reconnect with his past and his youth, taking stock of his life. He's does so in such a successful way. The chapter on Burma broke my heart: Paul's generosity and humanity shone through in his effort to turn one life around. The most memorable chapters for me are of his travels through Japan. I'm also a big fan of Haruki Murakami; so, what an added value to the book to hear Murakami expound on Japan and Japanese modernity! Paul is also a perceptive observer and reader of literature. There are several books that he mentioned throughout his travels that I will soon purchase and read. I cannot say enough good things about Paul Theroux. I'm eagerly awaiting his next book, and so should you. He is one of our our most underrated writers in America.

If what Paul Theroux mentions in the rest of his book is as far from fact as the part he writes on Vietnam and Cambodia; then this book should be in the fiction section of book stores.

Hanoi was never daily bombed by B52s for years on end as he states. Pot Pol and his reign of terror can not in any way be compared with the American Anti-Terroist Effort by any right headed thinking individual, as he states.

I think Paul Theroux should have quit writting when he became senile. This book is long, it is tedious and it a misrepresentation of fact. For the first time in my long life I will throw a book into the trash can.

Anyone who enjoyed Paul Theroux's "The Great Raiway Bazaar" will find this book a faszinating read.In his attempt to retrace the train journey he undertook more than 30 years ago we learn about the great changes Europe and Asia have undergone ,and the changes he himself experienced in that time.His great curiosity and eye for detail make him the most interesting and -in my opinion -the greatest travel writer today ,and the most literary.His candid comments about himself,other writers and the world around him add delicious spice and made me wish this book would have no ending.

If you want a book about how to travel by train, skip this one.

If you want a book about what you'll discover about yourself if you revisit old haunts, you may find this book intriguing enough to propel you back to your former hangouts and to review your memories . . . both painful and pleasant.

If you enjoy literary pilgrimages, you'll enjoy several entertaining moments.

If you want keen insights into nations you haven't visited, you won't find enough to warrant reading the book.

If you want a book of great writing, you will probably be disappointed. Mr. Theroux will wow you now and then with brilliant passages . . . particularly in the beginning and end . . . but mostly it's plain vanilla writing.

Why then did I like the book a lot? Mr. Theroux reminded me of a fresh way to look at the world, a way that I used to employ quite often.

Let me explain. When I was growing up, my father worked for the Santa Fe Railway and our family had a pass for free travel from California to Illinois. Most of our long trips were by train. In college, I also traveled across the United States several times to save a few pennies. During those trips, I grew to appreciate places that you never see from an airplane or an interstate highway. Railway travel allowed me to meet many memorable people and to have experiences I otherwise wouldn't have had.

Writers live solitary lives, often more so when they are in a crowd. Railway travel is a buffer between the writer and the world that allows the writer to venture out amongst everyone in a comfortable way. I realized that leaving the writer's cocoon more often is good for the writer and the writer's readers.

Mr. Theroux is generous in sharing his observations during his much earlier trip along a similar route, as well as his feelings as his marriage fell apart. Those perspectives make the observations much more powerful and interesting. He is most comfortable talking about places and times in terms of other authors and conversing with authors. I found those interludes to be particularly intriguing.

Although I didn't learn enough to make me want to organize a particular kind of trip to any of these places, I did gain a sense of how a writer might react to each of the locales. From those observations, I think I know which of these places I would like to visit and which ones not. That aspect was a pleasant surprise.

I was fascinated by the differences in national character demonstrated among the ordinary people he met, most moving in his description of the forgiveness of the Vietnamese people towards ordinary Americans. As he traveled around, people in one country would be happy and enjoying life, while in the next country misery existed regardless of material comforts. As a result, I read the book very slowly. I needed time to digest what he said about each country before I could go on to the next one. To me, that's a sign of good writing: He made me think a lot.

Like many travelers, Mr. Theroux likes to report on some things more than others. I wasn't quite sure why he gives such an encyclopedic description about the sex trade in each nation, but perhaps as a man traveling alone that stood out more than the helpfulness of ordinary people. I could have done with less of that element. I also didn't enjoy his angry dismissal of anyone who is a missionary. What is that all about?

I was especially intrigued to realize that you can get to know people better during a train trip than during other casual contacts in travel. I plan to take advantage of that during my future trips.

All aboard for more understanding!

i picked up this book because as a reprise of his first book, The Great Railway Bazaar, it happened to take in many countries that i had visited in a seven week trip across Asia from Bucharest in summer 2007. I was deeply saddened by what i read especially in his comments on Budapest, Hungary and Romania. He seened to set our to say as many ugly surface things as he possible could about his journey which began in March 2006...and he dismissed both countries in a few awful pages choosing to see only the tawdry, corrupt, and dirty aspects. He continues in this vein and comes across as very condescending in everything. he almost seems to have gotten too old to travel, as he kvetches like an old man at everything...while intermittently dropping into first-class travel and luxury hotels which rarely show the real face of the countries he is visiting. Throughout the book, which i struggle to finish, he seems obsessed about sex-for-sale as if this is some important barometer of the places he visits. Altogether, a huge disappointment and not a book to be recommended. Interestingly, i have been concurrently reading another 'travel' book, 'River Town..Two Years on the Yangste' by Peter Hessler which is about his two years as a TEFL Peace Corps Volunteer in China. This book is very good and completely un-condescending as the author describes his struggles to learn the language and to really understand China and the Chinese. it is such a welcome relief to read this after struggling with Theroux's bile-driven offering.

This is a very interesting book if you are interested in American or Local history. There are good stories behind why states have such different borders. Good for school children, goes beyond what they learn in public school.

This work has the rare ability to pull you in to the minutiae of boundary agreements, disagreements, and just plain mistakes that characterize the present lines of all 50 states. I did not know that the little jog Virginia takes at the Tennessee border was the result of a mistake by a surveyor, or that Wisconsin and Michigan, to this day, dispute the ownership of a wedge of land tucked away in the north woods of each state. Or that Illinois has a border 60 miles north of Chicago to accomodate canals that were never built, or that Maryland was the result after all the states around it had taken their bite of what its founders thought of as its original grant of land. The author has set out in interesting detail many of the foibles, errors, and, yes, great Congressional foresight, in setting the states up as functioning entities, while at the same time presenting his information in short descriptions. There is copious use of maps for each state that make following along with the development of each boundry an easy task. I reccomend this book for anyone, historian or not.

There is a lot of useful information in this slim volume, but the omissions I know about without so much as cracking open a book indicate to me that the author didn't really do enough research to justify his grandiose title.

I enjoyed learning such things as how a small valley was transferred from Massachusetts to New York hundreds of years after their borders were presumably set. Indeed, I wondered why Arizona didn't seek to cede the isolated and ungovernable Colorado City, home of alleged polygamists, to Utah on the same basis. It was also interesting to learn about how some lines were mis-surveyed, though Stein could have gone into further depth as to why in some cases courts would allow this to continue.

Given that nearly every school child knows about the Mason-Dixon line, it would have seemed natural for Stein to cover their work in far more detail than he did.

But what really bugged me is that he totally missed a number of interesting issues relating to borders. For example, there was an arbitration between the U.S. and Canada over the border between Alaska and British Columbia in the panhandle region. This makes for interesting history, the idea that our border was subject to a vote of six people, three from each country. Stein doesn't mention it at all. There was a war called the Pig War, commemorated by a National Historic Site, over British and American claims to the San Juan and Gulf Islands off Washington. And why does the border, which follows the 49th parallel even to include a tiny, noncontiguous area called Point Roberts, suddenly head southward so that Vancouver Island isn't split between the U.S. and Canada? Not a word from Stein. Finally, Isle Royale, the largest island in Lake Superior, is (a) in the United States, not Canada; and (b) in Michigan, not Minnesota, to which it is far closer. Why? Not a word from Stein.

If these things, all of at least as much interest as the questions Stein does ask in his book, are not covered, what others of which I am unaware are not covered as well?

This is a splendid book shipped promptly and well-packaged. I have bought four copies now. One for me and three for gifts. A good read for young and old.[ASIN:0061431389 How the States Got Their Shapes]]

Our library just got this book in, and it bothers me that the promotion of this book includes the falsehood that this is the first book to tackle how the states got their shapes... Just nine years ago, there was the book The Shape of the Nation-Why the States are Shaped Like That by Jim Feldman, which is arguably a better book and with better resources/references/footnotes. You might like to poke around a bit to see what else is out there (such as Mr. Feldman's book) before you invest the money and reading-time in this book.

I read about 100 pages of this book and am not enjoying it at all. For me it is close to torture to read--boring, dry, and like reading a dictionary. I am going to relegate it to bathroom reading just in case I might get to finish it some day.

I found the factual data on each state very interesting (population breakdown, general age of people in that state, state capital, etc.), so in that respect the book is good. Therefore, I expected each story to be as good as the facts of the state, written in an engaging manner, and imparting a general idea of what most of the state is about. However, this is not the case at all. The stories are written by different writers, but seem like they were written by one author. The stories are so incredibly boring and do not provide any useful history except for that writer's diary. Each story only provides a glimpse of what it was like for that writer to live in that state at a certain point in their life. One writer talks about bumper sticks on the cars in that state, another writer talks about their purchase of a house and the crappy neighborhood they live in, etc. In addition, except for the centerfold, the book is void of pictures so the reader is unable to get a break from the drudgery.

The stories were so abundant and so far removed from the quality of the fact sheets that I had to rate this two stars even though other reviewers rated the book higher. It is definitely not a history book and certainly not a book I can curl up with.

This is a useful reference book about each of the 50 states in the union by journalists and novelists who lived in these states. I enjoyed Cristina Henriquez's interesting account of Texas, and Jhampa Lahiri's essay on Rhode Island. Jonathan Franzen describes an imaginary interview with the state of New York, which is outlandish. Essays on South Dakota and Michigan could have been better.

I lived in several states that includes; Massachusetts, California, Colorado, New Jersey, North Carolina and West Virginia, I thought the authors could have provided a little more info about these states. There are some interesting facts and figures given at the end of the book; cigarette consumption, breastfeeding rate (as if someone is interested in this statistics!), suicide rate, toothlessness (how amazing for authors to find a statistics about this!), military enlistment, etc.

1. How the States Got Their Shapes
2. A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.)
3. Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do
4. Rand McNally 2009 The Road Atlas Large Scale: United States (Rand Mcnally Large Scale Road Atlas USA)
5. National Geographic Road Atlas - Adventure Edition

In the 1930s and 1940s, the U.S. government gave many unemployed writers work writing travel guides for each of the States. The guides were not only excellent reference works, they were very well written. In an attempt to recreate the fine work done so many years ago, editors Weiland and Wilsey recruited fifty writers to contribute a chapter to State By State. The result is nothing like the original project, but it's fascinating all the same.


As with any anthology, some of these essays are better than others. I read about half and skimmed the other half. I enjoyed the essays about states I have lived in (California, Nevada, Hawaii, Maryland, Texas) and I enjoyed the essays by favorite authors (David Rakoff, Susan Orlean, Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell).

About halfway through, I noticed a pattern. I found myself skimming the essays by the writers who seemed determined to write about the less attractive aspects of their state. While I hadn't thought of myself as a rose-colored glasses sort, I know how marvelous it feels to return to a place you like, even if you didn't realize how much you like it until you left. On the other hand, the longer you stay in one place, the more time you have to discover its every flaw. Some of the writers here seemed to have reached that point.

However, most of the writers, while acknowledging the unpleasant aspects of their states, found that there was a lot to brag about. I especially enjoyed the graphic essays by Joe Sacco and Alison Bechdel. It's been a long time since I read comic books, and these essays have convinced me to check out the graphic novel section on my next bookstore visit. Or maybe I'll start out by reading this year's Best of American Comics anthology.

It's difficult to characterize the book as a whole, because each writer treated the assignment differently. Some tried to echo the WPA guides and included lots of history. Some wrote memories of growing up in the state. Others wrote about a recent trip to the state or just made something up entirely, as in Jonathan Franzen's case.

I understand that Powell's Books has collaborated on a companion DVD for State By State, but that is not included with this book.

As I suspect most will when they first pick up this book, I turned to the state I know best. There I found no reference to anything I remember about the state where I grew up. It was much more interesting. I grew up in Jackson County Missouri. All of the "Missouri" chapter is about the changes in St. Louis during the last 20 years or so invigorated by a growing community of refugees from Bosnia. The editor/publisher of a Bosnian language newspaper said "St. Louis, after New York City, was like being let out of prison" He reflects on his experience as a visitor in Hannibal, comparing the presence everywhere of Mark Twain in a town where he and his brother went broke as newspaper producers and had to leave in order to survive. This chapter gave me a glimpse of a new Missouri.

The book is organized alphabetically for each state plus an afterword for the District of Columbia. (What! no Puerto Rico, no American Samoa?) There is a series of ranking tables at the back with lots of interesting information. Check out table 23 which justifies the insulting story of why the Toothbrush is not called a Teethbrush--it was invented in West Virginia. Each chapter is written by a different author, with a different point of view. The unifiying theme I found was an effort to convey the flavor and character of the state.

Louisiana explores ghosts stirred up by Hurricane Katrina. Iowa informs of the relationships between Mexican immigrants from a land where corn was god to Iowa where it is an industry. South Carolina tells me about the gentry of Charleston. "Merrily wallowed in being dismissed as Whiskeypalians. . . . the annual Rockville regatta--a boat race so notorious for its decadent onshore parties that the one sure mark of being a naive outsider was showing up with a sailboat." New York is fictional interview by a journalist with the persona of New York. The interviewer has to filter through a publicist, attorney, historian, geologist before finally entering the presence of the actual New York, a celebrity who vaguely recalls the past and knows money really makes the world go round.

All in all, this book has no connection to the guidebooks from AAA. It reminded me more of travel observations of Alexis Tocqueville in early America.

This book reveals and informs of a special America people today. Tremendous variety, boundless hope for the future, a love of a past enriched by scoundrels and nobility.

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America by Matt Weiland, Sean Wilsey; was interesting however it was not a history, or text book. This is not what I expected. To me it was good if your not lookng for true history and want high lighted information on each state. It is like reading cliff notes on this great country. The book was well researched so you can find the history if you do your own seaching.

I would use this as a travel guide and nothing more.

In my opinion, the greatest novel ever written. Slaughterhouse-Five examines war, free will, and time. Vonnegut had the ability to send chills down your spine. R.I.P. (So it goes.)

This is a book I'd always put off reading because of the title. I couldn't figure out what it meant, and it sounded too weird for me. In fact it is more literal than I imagined: it refers to five army personnel who survive the bombing of Dresden by taking shelter in a slaughterhouse.
It must have seemed a very clever book back when it was written, some 40 years ago now, but all the time-travel and general avant-garde story-telling is so mainstream today that it hardly registers.
In other words, the impact has lessened, and it's probably even dated a little. I don't want to be too harsh, though. This is a very powerful work, and once you know for sure that the author's own experiences were the catalyst, you can't fail to be moved as the novel moves towards its astonishing climax. It's also very witty and laugh-out-loud funny in many places.

The book jumps all over the place in a captivating way. I wouldn't necessarily call it SF though.

Slaughterhouse Five is the sad tale of Allied firebombing of Dresden, Germany during the Second World War. The Dresden bombing caused nearly the same number of deaths as the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.

This novel is based on Kurt Vonnegut's own war experience and took him over two decades to finish it. Vonnegut is actually present as one of the characters; he was the constant cynical narrator who makes all deaths equivalent with his comment:" so it goes".
Interestingly, the novel was published during the Vietnam War, a war where technology was again used against nonmilitary targets in an unjust war.
Through the protagonist Billy Pilgrim, we are taken on a sad journey through the scarring traumatic horrors that war inflicts on both sides for generations to follow.

Sarcastically, Vonnegut used the Tralfamadorians, who are aliens shaped as toilet plungers, to demonstrate the linear progression of time as opposed to all moments existing simultaneously. Through the Tralfamadorians, free will is also presented as the ultimate illusion; Beginning with Billy's childhood, free will is a repeated theme throughout the novel.

Slaughterhouse-five, a remarkable novel that condemns war along with any bureaucratic attitudes that attempt to glorify war and its heroes, while ignoring its destructiveness and horrors.

Made In Hero: The War for Soap

Vonnegut joked that he didn't know if people read his books after high school. With that in mind, trying to get re-acquainted with SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE can bring up a vague feeling of dread. Like a lot of people who love this book, I first read it when I was an unsuspecting teenager. I loved the prospect of a planet Tralfalmadore. The creatures who live there aren't bothered by things--not bombs, not hunger, not crowds, and least of all, history--although Billy Pilgrim is plagued by them all.

That's because unlike Pilgrim (a fumbling soldier and an Earthling), the Tralfalmadoreans don't believe in free will. They don't even believe in Time. They claim it's all in our minds. To help us understand this, they compare Time to bugs trapped in amber. At any given point, "here we are, ...trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why."

Upon getting sucked into the Tralfalmadoreans' flying saucer, Billy Pilgrim is compelled to relinquish his Earthling traits of free will and time stuckness. This is a mixed blessing mainly because he gets to relive the horrors of a prisoner of war train in Germany, and subsequently, the carpet bombing of Dresden. So it goes.

Beside the absurd and hilarious parts, there profound moments in this book. They tend to involve violence. In the German prison camp, a guard takes offense at a remark uttered by one of the American soldiers--and roughs him up. The prisoner is stunned, having intended no harm by what he said. Likely, though, it implied self-pity. Rising from the ground with two teeth missing, the boy asks, "Why me?" Shoving him back into the prisoner ranks, the guard replies, "Vy you? Vy anybody?"

Along with the raging humanity, Vonnegut offers self-mockery to spare. A bit turns up in the fictitious, embittered science fiction writer, Kilgore Trout. By happy coincidence, Trout lives in the same home town as Billy Pilgrim--one of his most avid fans. The problem is that the literary hero is a hack. "His prose was frightful. Only his ideas were good."

SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE is still best read with a dose of innocence, at least enough to appreciate a name like Montana Wildhack (the porn star). But it's good to know I can re-read Slaughterhouse Five and still manage to laugh. It's the Tralfalmadorean spell. Time passes, and doesn't. The glob of amber is real.

I love the time travel genre and was eager to read this book. As I approached the end of the book, I began to realize that there was no way the loose ends were going to be wrapped up in time. Sure enough, the ending was about as lame as it gets. I felt a little cheated, but most of the book was pretty good. I won't put in a spoiler, but don't expect too much.

At the beginning the novel is well written and you'll be interested in the story. By half book you'll read how is the future and the problems Matt have there, here is when the story starts being dull and it keeps that way till the end. Of course nobody can tell us how will be the future but I don't think it will be as JH wrote it here.

Great story and a quick read. I found myself not wanting to put it down as I was dying to see what trouble was next and how it ends. I have never read work by this author: he will certainly be added to my favorites. A must for lovers of time stories.

A few too many open ends. There are interesting points, such as mildly explaining some futuristic aspects. The time travel possibility was interesting and belieavable, though as to why only his could was a mystery. I can buy random error, though I see a couple other reviewers could not. Could have been much better with a little more explanation of what was fully going on instead of the slow moving build up it creates that never quite get resolved.

Also, the main character is difficult to identify with, due to being a beer guzzling, drug using, MIT student. It's really just personal preference, but I tend to feel that if you're into science then you should at least follow some of its proven recommendations. These being adequate sleep, exercise, non-drug use, reasoning out decisions, etc, which amazingly the main character does all entirely backwards. Again, just personal preference, but very difficult for me to identify with to fully enjoy.

The story was mildly interesting though the characters were shallow and two-dimensional. While the author introduces ideas and lines of thought that have great potential, he drops them and leaves you unsatisfied. Whether it's laziness or perhaps he can't be bothered with exploring the realm of "What if?", I can't decide. And why does the author hate Christians so much? Reads almost like an atheist manifesto. My time machine shows this book sitting on the bargain shelf in the near future. 75% off.

My sons (8yo and 11yo) both enjoyed this book, and I enjoyed reading it to them. The story had a lot of neat "jumping off points" into discussions about the original story of Icarus, space travel, Einsteinian physics, etc. The pictures were great as well.

If I didn't have kids to read it to, I probably would not have picked it up, though I understand Greene's other book, "The Elegant Universe," is more suited for adults looking for a good non-fiction physics read.

This is an excellent rework of the ancient story of Icarus and Daedalus. There is very little science in this; but after introducing them to the old tale, mixing in some Einstein and special relativity, then reading about the new Icarus, my 7th grade science class was amazed.

Greene does a great job and the illustrations are beautiful. Suitable for small children too.

Highly recommended.

Great short book. For kids? Yes. For adults? Yes, if young at heart. A timeless tale of a young rebel going to a black hole, and wrangling with time. He survives, but Einstein and his laws twist up life. Enjoy the story. Encounter some science. See things differently.

Icarus at the Edge of Time

Marvellous by its simplicity, the lack of other images than the fotos from space and its astonishing conclusion.

I bought this book for a young man of 12 who is not a great reader, but is a genius when it comes to math and science. The big ideas in this book and the main character in this book, a young man himself, appeal to my young friend. He greatly enjoyed this book. He does not, generally, read for fun. Once he picked this book up, he couldn't put it down and he enjoyed it greatly! The length and formatting of the text made it a package he could digest, even though he does not read a lot. I highly recommend this book for these reasons and also the fact that it is just a beautifully written and illustrated book that is bound in a very appealing manner. It also is a great way to re-package and introduce young minds to a classic Greek myth: The Tale of Icarus. This book also had my young friend reading further about Icarus and other Western mythology online, on his own!

Kids of all ages love these books,both boys and girls find this series of stories fun and enjoyable.

my son really likes these books, the shipping was fast and easy. just click and read. no need to spend gas money when you can shop with ease at home.

They are wonderful. My six year old twins are fascinated. We read two chapters to them a night and they are transfixed. The parents and the children in this house highly recommend this series!

Mary Pope Osborne is such a talented writer. I really like her books. I wonder how she got her ideas...

This Magic Tree House Boxed Set has proven to be a wonderful past time for my granddaughter. She reads every evening before bed and it's a time to quiet down and prepare for sleep!! She loves her Magic Tree House books and I intend to get her the rest of the series very soon. The books are just the perfect length with lots of thrills. Your kids will love them.