Average customer rating:
- This reads like a 16 year old wrote it...
- Hmmmm......
- A book that you just have to finish once you pick it up
- A First Effort
- Astounding
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In the Forests of the Night
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Manufacturer: Laurel Leaf
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Hawksong: The Kiesha'ra: Volume One (Kiesha'ra)
ASIN: 0440228166
Release Date: 2000-05-09 |
Amazon.com
Three-hundred-year-old Risika looks darn good for her age. Thanks to her "blood mother," a vampire named Ather who turned Risika (nee Rachel) into one of the undead back in 1684, she will always look as fresh as a 17-year-old. Now Risika is a world weary night stalker who sleeps in Concord, Massachusetts, by day and prowls New York City by night, in search of fresh blood to slake her inhuman thirst. One of the benefits of living such a long life has been discovering that most of the popular myths about vampires are not true: "Holy water and crosses do not bother me... and silver does not burn me. If someone hammered a stake through my heart, I suppose I would die, but I do not play with humans, stakes or mallets." In fact, there is little in the mortal world that surprises Risika anymore, until she returns from a hunt one night to find a black rose on her pillow--the same flower she was given on the eve of her mortal death. Knowing that the rose is a taunt from Aubrey, a vampire she believes murdered her human brother, Risika decides to confront her nemesis. In a bloody battle with Aubrey, Risika finally unearths her brother's true fate.
While the plot of this vampire tale may not stand out from the fanged masses of the genre, what does stand out is the fact that the author is 14 years old. Teen horror fans of Anne Rice and L.J. Smith will surely want to experience for themselves how In the Forests of the Night stacks up to their favorite adult titles--and will be especially interested in seeing how one of their young peers plies the writing trade. (Ages 12 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert
Book Description
I was born to the name of Rachel Weatere in the year 1684, more than three hundred years ago.
The one who changed me named me Risika, and Risika I became, though I never asked what it meant. I continue to call myself Risika, even though I was transformed into what I am against my will.
By day, Risika sleeps in a shaded room in Concord, Massachusetts. By night, she hunts the streets of New York City. She is used to being alone.
But now someone is following Risika. Someone has left her a black rose, the same sort of rose that sealed her fate three hundred years ago.
Three hundred years ago Risika had a family -- a brother and a sister who loved her. Three hundred years ago she was human.
Now she is a vampire, a powerful one. And her past has come back to torment her.
This atmospheric, haunting tale marks the stunning debut of a promising young novelist.
Customer Reviews:
This reads like a 16 year old wrote it..........2007-10-02
...which is a compliment, I suppose, considering she was 13 when it was penned. It's actually quite impressive for such a young woman, but the sheer wall of angst, the repetitive use of such overdone terms as good, evil and innocence, not to mention 300 year old creatures who react like high school students when approached with conflict...well, suffice it to say that the high rating this novel has received overall leaves me baffled. The tone, conflict and resolution call out the author's adolescence. I suspect in time, as she gets more life experience, she will be quite good at the craft, but for now? Not so much.
If you are in high school yourself, this might be a good read. Otherwise, skip it. There's plenty of YA lit of high enough caliber to appeal to adult sensibilities. On the plus side, this is an extremely short book, so you won't waste too much of your life if you feel the need to actually complete it.
Hmmmm.............2007-05-21
This is a unique book. It's unique in an obvious way in that it's only about 150 pages. It's also unique in that it delves into vampire world without getting sexually explicit (which I appreciated). Now, because it was so short, the book did lack some depth. With that said, I still found it to be quite captivating. A good read by a promising young author, this book is certainly worth your time.
A book that you just have to finish once you pick it up .......2007-05-05
A thrilling experence that you just want to read over and over again and you feel like you're right there watching the action in your own mind. I borowed it from my teacher for a week and I read it about six times.
-Adam Slavik
A First Effort.......2007-03-22
This is the story of a vampire, living today in Concord, Massachusetts. She wasn't always a vampire, though. Back in the sixteen hundreds, she was a real teenaged human being named Rachel, living with her father, younger sister Lynette, and twin brother Alexander. Alexander had been trying to tell her that there were evil things in the world that might try to hurt her, but Rachel ignored him, despite the fact that he seemed to have strange powers himself. Shortly after that, Rachel was transformed into a vampire and given the name Risika.
Risika has been living the life of a vampire for centuries, but still isn't quite satisfied with what she is. She had a hard time adjusting to the lifestyle and being able to kill humans without guilt. She still seeks vengeance for the death of her twin brother at the hands of Aubrey, another vampire who was there when Rachel was transformed. Now the time seems to be drawing near--Aubrey is challenging her and causing her the anger that may lead to her challenging him. But there is a surprise in store for Risika, something she would never expect.
I liked how this book challenged the basic myths about vampires, making them seem more realistic. The writing, though, was simplistic. I saw the surprise at the end coming, but I didn't think it seemed plausible. It didn't fit into the rest of the story.
Astounding.......2007-02-06
This book is yet again another divine book written by the one and only Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. Of course , it is filled with vampires and Witches and mysterys. Aubrey is a popular charactor in some of her other books that is in this book although, the great thing is although some of the charactors and events are similar or close to her other books you do not have to read them in order to understand whats going on in this particular story.
I also need to single out how well she brought in Charactors. She gives them such a personality that I fell in love with some and hated others.
This book had tons and tons of action and Mystery
No matter what kind of reader you are or what , the plot is so amazing that you have got to read it.
Book Description
By moonlight in the quiet forest, a young boy and his family decorate their favorite tree with popcorn, apples, tangerines, and sunflower-seed balls as a gift for the animals of the woods. “Sure to become a Christmas favorite, this beautifully illustrated story of a family’s unusual tradition brings to life the true spirit of Christmas.”--American Bookseller
Customer Reviews:
A Peaceful Holiday Tale.......2004-08-18
This lovely book is a favorite at any time of the year, though it centers around one family's Christmas Eve tradition. My kids have asked if we can start decorating a tree in the woods, too! The illustrations are gorgeous (Ted Rand is one of our favorites) and the writing makes you slow down and savor the unfolding of this simple, but sweet story.
A winter tale.......2003-10-29
I'm an elementary ed. major and this book is also good to read to kids who don't celebrate Christmas because although the family decorates a tree there isn't any mention of a particular hoilday. The title even lends to this fact.
Neat Christmas Story About Family and Traditions.......2000-12-14
This is a neat story about a family's Christmas tradition. Every year, they troop out into the forrest to decorate their night tree, a living pine Christmas tree. The night tree is festooned with edible decorations. After the family enjoys the magic of the decorated tree, they depart, knowing that the friendly critters who inhabit the woods will enjoy the decorations as a Christmas time snack.
The book introduces an interesting family "tradition" and teaches the concept of tradition as well as doing for others (the gifts of food for the animals). It is a warm story that brings smiles to young faces.
fantastic story.......1999-01-04
I'm a 3rd grade teacher and my kids loved the setting and language of the story. It was an excellant book to enhance future writings about holiday traditions.
A wonderful Christmas story.......1998-01-30
As I read this book I felt a part of the family as they went to visit their Christmas tree. I loved the warm feeling it gave me. I read it to my adult friends at a small Christmas gathering and they loved it also.
Customer Reviews:
Those who can, do...........2006-08-30
those who can't teach. Mr. Hall should stick to his classroom. This book was terrible. It started out with back story, came to the present, slipped into back story before page 70 and I gave up. The characters were flat and uninteresting, I didn't believe for a minute they were real people. There was zero chemistry between Charlotte and Parker and their daughter was a cliche. Much was made in the beginning about Charlotte ability to read faces and then...just disappeared. I almost quite reading on page 16 when Charlie Mears meets Charlotte Monroe! HELLO! There are millions of names out there - try to get some that are different from one another! This guy teaches writing? I'm glad I don't live in Florida!
Another solid effort from James Hall.......2006-01-28
With Forests of the Night, James Hall takes a break from his series of Thorn novels. This book follows Miami cop Charlotte Monroe, a woman with an exceptional ability to read other people. One day she returns from work to find her husband Parker chatting with a young Cherokee named Jacob Panther. Charlotte quickly identifies him as one of the FBI's most wanted, but before she can do much, he gets away and goes into hiding.
The bombshell of having this man in her house is followed by an even bigger one from Parker: Panther is apparently his son from a teenage romance. Parker, a criminal defense lawyer by trade, refuses to accept Panther's guilt, leading to a major conflict with Charlotte. In the middle is their sixteen year old, schizophrenic daughter who has run away in search of Panther.
Indeed, there is more to Panther's story than is initially presented, and it's all linked to an event that took place back in 1838 and is described in the prologue. (There is one historical error in this prologue, as Andrew Jackson is referred to as president; actually it was Martin Van Buren.) It is Charlotte's role to find out what this link is, even as she acts to get her daughter home.
This is a very good, well-written crime novel, although a little atypical for Hall. In most Hall books, the villain is a rather off-beat character who is warped in a unique way. In this book, the villain is a bit plainer and actually remains faceless through most of the story. Also, although Hall's books are never comic (unlike fellow Florida writer Carl Hiaasen), there usually is a touch of humor that this book doesn't have. That is not to say this book is flawed, but it is just a little different from other Hall books. However, whether you've read Hall or not, this book should not disappoint.
Incredibly bad........2006-01-23
I can make this short; it was awful. There wasn't a single character about which I cared; the plot was just plain absurd and the ending silly. I kept reading to learn more about Charlotte's talent, which isn't employed in the story until the very end by which time I was no longer interested.
Basic premise is flawed, which was distracting for me.......2006-01-07
If you don't give it too much thought, you'll probably really enjoy this thriller. Others have already adequately covered the basic plot, so I'll skip that exercise.
The author made one serious mistake, which for me detracted from an otherwise good story. Namely, he had a genetic defect being passed on from father to son, though it involves a defective "X" chromosome ("Fragile X"). As almost anyone knows, the father can only donate an "X" chromosome to a daughter (otherwise, if he donates a "Y" rather than an "X" chromosome, he ends up with a son). If he can't pass on an "X" chromosome to a son, then he obviously can't pass on a genetic defect linked to the "X" chromosome to a son either. Since this error affects the entire plot, I can only give this book 3 stars (I would have given it 4 otherwise).
Aside from that, I found the story to be rather enjoyable, although not really what I would call a page-turner until it got toward the end.
A COMPLEX, FASCINATING BOOK.......2005-12-31
This was an excellent book. I love how we are given seemingly irrelevent information, which is made clear and all fits together by the end of the book. The dialogue is real, which is something i find lacking in many of these suspense novels today. The storyline is complex and interesting, and makes for a great read.
(It would make an awesome movie, too)
Book Description
Someone is always awake in the forest - and someone else is always asleep! Some animals are alert in daytime and sleep at night. Others are alert at night, and are sleepyheads during the day. You can
Flip this book to flip from day to night - and back again! And when you do, be sure to count the animals you see.
Customer Reviews:
A Grandma's Review.......2007-07-18
This book is excellent. I am a grandma who lives in the woods. I was tired of reading books to my grandchildren about farm animals. So I purchased every board book on forest animals that I could find on-line. Forest Bright, Forest Night is the best book of all my purchases.
Top notch.......2007-04-09
What a wonderful book. So much to explore in the beautiful illustrations. You read. You count. You learn. You spy out hidden animals and numbers. More than a storybook it is an engaging adventure. Gave it as a gift to a preschooler. Intend to give it to several more.
A must for every class library. Effectively integrates reading, math and science.
Educational, creative book with warm interestingly unique pictures........2006-10-12
This is a highly unique story that adults and children will both enjoy. Forest day depicts animals and their young in their habitats (while other animals that live and flourish in the forest night are sleeping in the same picture underneath) during the daylight hours for the first 11 pages of the book. The next pages compares forest day animals with others and gives factual information about them. The fun part about this book is that you have to turn the book upside down and around to read about forest night. The forest night animals are now awake and living in the moons light and the day time animals are sleeping underneath them. Utterly amazing illustrations with details of foot prints, younglings, nature and colors lead to a terrific story accompanied with rhyme, rhythm and fun words.
Average customer rating:
- Great illustrations
- Doesn't stink
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The Bravest of the Brave
Shutta Crum
Manufacturer: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Dougal The Garbage Dump Bear
ASIN: 0375826378
Release Date: 2005-01-11 |
Book Description
Late one day I hurried home,
Stepping through the wood alone.
It was deep and dim; I could barely see.
But I thought brave thoughts to comfort me.
A Young Skunk heads home through the woods—alone. Or maybe not…
Could there be robbers, or pirates, or ghosts, or trappers in the woods? And is our hero brave enough to keep away?
With bouncy rhymes, charming art, a subtle counting theme, and a surprise ending, this story will entertain and reassure any child who’s ever been afraid.
Customer Reviews:
Great illustrations.......2006-05-27
Beginning with the cover, this book is great for pre-schoolers. The lead character is adorable, the story is cute and the illustrations are the best. It's entertaining and with each picture there are things to talk about with the child.
Doesn't stink.......2005-05-07
A cute story that follows a little skunk as he bravely counts his way through the deep, dark forest from "1 masked face" to "10 stars" twinkling while he sleeps.
The rhyming text is a bit repetitive but will make it easy for beginning readers and will make a good audience participation book for story times. The title-based plot is lost a little through the second half of the story, but the story still flows nicely.
Accompanying illustrations are cute and the animals are expressive. Even though the skunk is brave in the face of his fears, there are no scary illustrations to turn youngsters off.
Counting and numbers one through ten are covered and often use unusual items.
Book Description
She was light. He was darkness. She believed in everything good. He believed in nothing at all.
Despite their differences, Cypress Bernard and Drake Benedict needed each other. Though she found the legendary warlock impossibly arrogant -- and darkly irresistible -- Cypress had to rely on his powers to save her beloved hometown. And though Drake found the earthy beauty a bit naive, he soon learned the extent of the danger they were both in . . . Because evil in Stagwater was laying claim to his soul, even as Cypress's magic charm warmed his icy heart, demanding that he believe in her, in light . . . in their love.
The Circle:Four friends, four magical gifts, four loves to last eternally.
Customer Reviews:
Worth the hunt.......2004-12-22
Provocative, interesting, delightful, this book was worth hunting for. A must read for paranormal romance lovers. This couple spell HOT, but enough light moments to make you laugh, groan and giggle. Really this is a keeper.
Pretty Good :).......2003-06-27
I love paranormal romances and even though the DreamScapes series is cancelled this is a pretty good book. The Author created a unique world where the forces of evil and good are pushed and a dark man must overcome his issues to love Cypess (the main female). Though I must say *don't confuse this book w/ real witchcraft, Wicca or anything else!!* I know Wicca and though this book talks about Wiccan thing the author kinda fantacized them- but that is to be expected- it being a "fantasy" book. So all in all 4 stars... :)
Great interracial romance!.......2003-01-28
You don't find this type of book with Harlequin often, so this was a delightful suprise. There is magic and the passion between Cypress and Drake was hot. This is one of my favorite books this year.
Amazon.com
That The Illustrated Man has remained in print since being published in 1951 is fair testimony to the universal appeal of Ray Bradbury's work. Only his second collection (the first was Dark Carnival, later reworked into The October Country), it is a marvelous, if mostly dark, quilt of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In an ingenious framework to open and close the book, Bradbury presents himself as a nameless narrator who meets the Illustrated Man--a wanderer whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos. What's even more remarkable, and increasingly disturbing, is that the illustrations are themselves magically alive, and each proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge. Or "Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship. Or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens have discovered a most logical ally--our own children. Even though most were written in the 1940s and 1950s, these 18 classic stories will be just as chillingly effective 50 years from now. --Stanley Wiater
Book Description
He was a riot of rockets and fountains and people, in such intricate detail and color that you could bear the voiced murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.
The Illustrated Man
Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. A peerless American storyteller, his oeuvre has been celebrated for decades--from The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury --a collection of tales that breathe and move, animated by sharp, intaken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin--visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body.
The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast, empty space of stars and blackness ... the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere ... the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets.
Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.
He was a riot of rockets and fountains and people, in such intricate detail and color that you could hear the voices murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.
Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. A peerless American storyteller, his oeuvre has been celebrated for decades--from The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
THE ILLUSTRATED MAN is classic Bradbury--a collection of tales that breathe and move, animated by sharp, intaken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin--visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body.
The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast, empty space of stars and blackness...the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere...the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Ray Bradbury's THE ILLUSTRATEDMAN is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.
Customer Reviews:
Novel? I Think Not!.......2007-09-20
There seems to be one misconception running through a lot of these reviews. The misconception is that The Illustrated Man should be viewed as a novel. It IS NOT a novel. I repeat: NOT A NOVEL. The Illustrated Man is an excellent work of literature, but it is a collection of loose stories. Even those who say that the stories have a loose theme are not stressing the point enough, it seems. The stories are barely tied together at all.
The stories themselves are superb, and classic Bradbury. Among the best are The Veldt, about technology and what can go wrong with it; Zero Hour, about an innocent game that may not be so innocent; Marionettes, INC., a classic sci-fi story also about the misuse of technology; The Long Rain, a psychological roller coaster through the future of mankind; and No Particular Night or Morning, a wonderful philosophical story about space and what it can do to a man's mind.
Again, you should view these stories as ones in a short story collection, not a full novel. But they are essential Bradbury and essential science fiction, like most of his works of literature.
Mixed quality, including some uninspired stories but also some brilliant pieces. Recommend on the basis of the good stories.......2007-09-07
One hot summer day, our narrator meets the Illustrated Man. When the man strips off his stifling long sleeves, he reveals the Illustrations, which decorate every inch of his bare skin. But, as he warns the narrator, they are more than Illustrations: at night, they come to life, change, and spell out stories. That night, the narrator watches these stories--and each becomes a short story in Bradbury's collection. From living houses to ever-raining Venus to the Martian invasion of the commercialized Earth, these often-harrowing science fiction stories range on all topics and all skill levels. Some of the stories are incredible and haunting; others are bulky or uninspired. It is a mixed bag and not as good as some of Bradbury's other collections, but the framing of the Illustrated Man and the golden nuggets sprinkled within make it an imaginative and worthwhile read. Tentatively recommended.
It is particularly difficult to review short story collections because quality can and does vary from story to story, making it hard to summarize and judge the book as a whole. The median quality of this book is not exceptional, and it is not my favorite of Bradbury's short story collections (that would be The Machineries of Joy and The Martian Chronicles, which is not quite a short story collection but is close). The reason for this is simple: some of the stories are uninspiring--neither harrowing or scientific, they're vaguely satirical but without cutting witticism, making them instead simply bland. These uninspiring short stories drag down the overall quality of the book.
Some of the other stories, however, and the framing of the Illustrated Man, are simply brilliant. For me, these include The Veldt, The Man, The Long Rain, The Rocket Man, and Zero Hour, and make up about half of the stories in the book. They range from incredible concepts to haunting ideas to wistful, more personal stories, and are all written in Bradbury's clear, precise, honest prose.
I recommend The Illustrated Man on the basis of these outstanding stories. As a whole, the collection is a bit wanting, but taken individually, there are definitely some stories worth reading. Fans of Bradbury's writing will especially enjoy this book, and the short-story format makes it accessible to all readers. And when it is good--it is very, very good.
Hardcore Bradbury Fans Only.......2007-08-12
If you are not a die-hard Bradbury fan do not waste your time with this book. It is pretty much a campy (ie. rockets, space, mars, etc.) collection of space stories. There are a few stories here with interesting views and/or concepts, but for the most part it's a poorly written, redundant, and slow paced book.
If you are going to read Bradbury for the first time or are new to his writing I would recommend "Fahrenheit 451".
Fun reading and good story-telling.......2007-06-05
Bradbury is a good story teller, though a lot more compelling in a earlier time when one is young. Some of the stories are first rate because they deal with the timeless themes of human nature. The Veldt (the first story in the collection) is the best in the book and I was moved as well by "The Rocket Man", a story about grief and loss beautiful in its simplicity. Also, the device of the Illustrated Man still works on a second read and is a stroke of inspiration.
Some of the stories are not good literature from a writing or character development perspective, but are extremely clever and fun -- neat ideas that would make (or have made) great Twilight Zone stories. My favorite is the time traveler story.
One story (No Particular Night or Morning) is deeply philosophical in nature. The character portrayal is not convincing but the philocophical idea of space travelers who are compelled to question their own existence is about as good and interesting an exposition of a philsophical issue as you'll ever find.
Many stories are clunkers, I'm afraid -- the situations are usually interesting but the characters are wooden and not believable.
Also fascinating is how science ficition ages with time. The vision of the future tells us more about the past than anything else. No one seems to have foreseen cell phones, the internet, and the communications/information revolution (although Arthur C. Clarke in Childhood's End comes close). You can harldy fault Bradbury for this, but it's interesting how the futurists simply extrapolate their current world into the future -- i.e., brute machines are the rage in 1950, so they imagine even better, more brutish machines in the future.
For all his limitations as a writer, Bradbury has written some classic stories that I would include in a literary anthology for this period. I therefore recommend that you read or re-read this book.
solid.......2007-03-16
Very diverse feel here, some scifi, some general fiction and fantasy. The stories are evenly well done.
Book Description
Influenced by Genet and Fugard, Koltes' plays combined an underworld mythology with a vision of the harsh realities of life at the end of the 20th century in order to pioneer a new and dynamic style of dramatic writing.
Bernard-Marie Koltes was born in 1948. Living variously in New York and Paris, he became one of the most challenging and innovative playwrights of his generation. He died in 1989.
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