The Island of Horses (New York Review Children's Collection) Review

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(More customer reviews)Everyone who loves children's books, no matter what your age, should snap up this novel while it is in print. The writing is superb, and the flavor of the western islands of Ireland is irresistable. Add to that the unbeatable combination of adventure, sailing, and horses, and you have a book no reader of any age can put down. Homeschoolers looking for books for teenagers that are fascinating, yet devoid of a lot of the less savory aspects of modern teen novels, take note.

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Chosen by the Sunday Times (London) as one of its 99 Best Books for ChildrenThe people of remote Inishrone, a few miles off the Connemara coast, know better than to go to the Island of Horses. Everyone has heard tales of men who have gone there and never come back. Yet one day young Pat Conroy and his friend Danny MacDonagh head off anyway, telling their parents that they are fishing for eels. On the island they find no ghosts but many mysteries, including a beautiful—and tame—black colt. But when they return home, with the colt in tow, they find themselves launched into a world of trouble. Before their adventure is over, the boys must brave rough seas and the murderous duplicity of a conniving horse trader, with only the advice of Pat's frail grandmother and their own good sense to guide them.A loving, clear-eyed portrait of rural Irish life, The Island of Horses is fraught with suspense and peopled with unforgettable individuals.

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D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths Review

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(More customer reviews)Several years ago my husband and I were disappointed to find that the d'Aulaire's book had gone out of print. (We wanted to be able to read it to our children.) We found a very used copy and bought it because, despite this copy's poor condition, the book was very hard to find. Now we will be able to replace it with a copy that is in one piece.
The stories are well researched and well told. The illustrations are great--if you are familiar with other works by the d'Aulaires you will know what I mean. This is a great Norse mythology for children.

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The Norse myths are some of the greatest stories of all time. Weird monsters, thoroughly human gods, elves and sprites and gnomes, with grim giants nursing ancient grudges lurking behind—the mysterious and entrancing world of Norse myth comes alive in these pages thanks to the spellbinding storytelling and spectacular pictures of the incomparable d'Aulairse. In this classic book, the art of the Caldecott Award—winning authors of d'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, a longtime favorite of children and parent, reaches one of its pinnacles. It offers a way into a world of fantasy and struggle and charm that has served as inspiration for Marvel Comics and the Lord of the Rings.

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The Crane (New York Review Children's Collection) Review

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(More customer reviews)I share the high esteem of the other reviewers. I would not describe the book as about war, though war occurs. The book started slowly but ripened to a lovely fullness in the end. I read it to my kids and they enjoyed it. More than anything I found it about duty and finding meaning and joy in the faithful accomplishment of one's lifework. When I must work on a weekend or at night, the kids seem to understand when I tell them, "I am the crane man!" This is a book that will be welcomed in the homes of all those whose lives are lived with a proud and joyous devotion to family, friends, and work. It brought to mind the sentiment at the end of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, "As the lively
and sparkling emotions of her early married live
cohered into an equable serenity, the finer movements
of her nature found scope in discovering to the
narrow-lived ones around her the secret (as she had
once learnt it) of making limited opportunities
endurable; which she deemed to consist in the cunning
enlargement, by a species of microscopic treatment, of
those minute forms of satisfaction that offer
themselves to everybody not in positive pain; which,
thus handled, have much of the same inspiring effect
upon life as wider interests cursorily embraced."


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In an ever-expanding city, one young man claims the job of his dreams, operator of the tallest crane around. Since others envy his position, he never leaves his crane, always eager for the day—and work—to begin.As the seasons pass, man and machine almost become one. "The crane was a giant with iron sinews, and the craneman was its heart." Then people begin to hoard their goods, grinning ravens multiply throughout the land, and war is at hand. But the craneman never falters, remaining at his post even when the land is flooded, ready for reconstruction to begin.

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