Natasha - aged 9
I think Leaping Beauty is a good book because it's fun and it makes silly jokes, and it has a lot of stories in it. I have not read anything else like it, but I think this is really good. My favorite story was Cinderelephant, it was the same thing as Cinderella, but different characters like Cinderella was an elephant and she wore glass pie plates on her feet! My next favorite story is So What and the Seven Giraffes. It is about an ape that had to go away from home because the evil stepmother wanted to kill him, and he found seven giraffes in a house and moved in with them.

Ruth Wein
I could not put this book down. It is simply enthralling. One was drawn into Li Cunxin's very being and the reader was and in my opinion part of the whole journey, the hunger, pain. joy and achievements of the author. \In addition we were so fortunate to have this remarkable and talented person as a member of the Australian Ballet. He was just so wonderful to watch. I was also fortunate to speak with Cunxin and had arranged that he would speak to a women's group about his remarkable journey from a village in China to the board room of a merchant bank and to the Melbourne Stock exchange.

This author is new to me. I just read about her in your latest newsletter & intend to try her series. I went on a search discover to the first book in the series and came across this website. It's not as personal as most authors' own websites, but it's better than nothing. http://www.groveatlantic.com/leon/author.htm

This website: http://www.phys.uni-paderborn.de/~stern/leon/ might help someone who wanted to start in the middle of the series.

Thanks for all you do!
Becky Wreyford

I received this message as an email from Becky but thinking it might be of interest to other visitors, am posting it here in the BookBrowse forums - Davina, BookBrowse.com

BookBrowse.com - Davina
I can understand the viewpoint of the visiting reviewers who say this book 'sucks', because if your reading experience has been with action orientated books that build to a dynamic conclusion with all the plot threads neatly tied together, you're probably going to think that not much really happens in this book and really, what's the point? - boy finds tiger, tells someone, gets in touch with his feelings, book ends - just when it looks like things are going to start 'happening'. But to my mind, as an adult reader, something very real has happened - to go into this in detail would give the story away so, all I can suggest is that if you're not sure about this one borrow it from a friend or the library - then you've got nothing to lose and a lot to gain!

If you like this book, I suggest Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay, Loser by Jerry Spinelli - both at BookBrowse, and Green Angel by Alice Hoffman.

As to whether it's credible to find a tiger in the middle of a wood, keep in mind the following summarized from an article published in The Week magazine in November 2003:

Americans own 7.3 million pet reptiles, including snakes and lizards, and 15,000 primates, mostly monkeys. There are now as many as 10,000 pet tigers in the U.S.—about twice the number of tigers left in the wild. At first. Tiger cubs are cute and playful, and their claws and teeth aren’t sharp enough to hurt a person. That changes quickly, though. Within three years, a tiger can reach 400 to 700 pounds and can kill with a single pounce. Pet tigers have fatally mauled at least nine people in the U.S. in the past five years. In addition to tigers, there are an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 other big cats in private hands.

Ninety percent of reptiles carry salmonella, causing 93,000 human infections each year. A similar percentage of the popular macaque monkeys carry herpes B and can transmit it through their saliva. Last summer, 72 people contracted monkey pox, a variant of smallpox, from pet prairie dogs, which caught the disease from a giant Gambian rat also headed for the pet market. By some estimates, only 10 percent of wild pets still live with their owners after two years. About 60 percent die within the first month of purchase.

BookBrowse.com - Davina
This is a delightful, engrossing story that educates as it entertains. A must read for anyone who enjoys historical fiction at its finest.

BookBrowse.com - Davina
The plot of The Gospel According To Larry may have a few holes, but the ideas and characterization more than make up for it.
This would make a great book for teen discussion - in school and outside. Indeed, if I was in charge of school curriculum I would recommend it as a must read - and discuss - title. Having said that some teens will no doubt consider the book to be pointless and Larry to be a loser. These would be the kids who've already been so indoctrinated with the desire to wear/own the new new brand that it's difficult for them to see that there could be a middle ground - somewhere between Larry's ascetic minimalism and today's buy buy buy mentality.

For a non-fiction look at branding try 'Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers' by Alissa Quart (2003) and 'No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies' by Naomi Klein (1999). Both should be available at any reasonable bookstore or library.

Thomas
I liked the first Eddie Dickens book because it was full of imagination. It's full of laughs too. I think it is a good book to read from about 8 years old to about 60. That may not be the limit for some people but is my personal opinion. I recomend it to teachers to read allowed in class for 3rd and 4th graders.
Thomas, aged 9

Davina - BookBrowse
Molly Moon by first time author Georgia Byng was published in the USA last week (May 2003), but the book has already taken the UK by storm, foreign rights have been sold to 24 countries and the movie rights have been bought by David Heyman (producer of Harry Potter).
So, what's all the fuss about?
What it's about is a ripping good yarn which some compare to Roald Dahl, Lemony Snicket or J.K. Rowling. Although ostensibly for 8-12 year olds, I thoughly enjoyed it, and read it in one evening - and am now reading it to our two children aged 7 and 9.
So, parents, aunts, uncles, godparents, grandparents - if I were you I'd hot foot it to your bookstore or library and pick up a copy today, and present it, post haste, to the children in your life.
As always, don't take my word for it - click on the excerpt link at the top of the page to read chapter one and decide for yourself.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown has taken the bestseller lists by storm in the last couple of weeks due to one of the most intense publicity pushes I've seen from any publisher in the past few years - but it is an excellent book so, in my opinion, they're right to do so! It probably seems to many visitors that Dan Brown has appeared out of nowhere, but in fact he's been plugging away as a writer for quite a few years. His first published book was Angels and Demons, which was one of BookBrowse's 'Favorite Books' in the year 2000 and, incidentally, also features Robert Langdon - the lead character from his latest book. You can browse excerpts from three of Dan's books, at BookBrowse.com, plus, reviews, book synopses, an author biography, two interviews and a reading guide for The Da Vinci Code.

http://www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm?page=author&authorID=226

--- Davina, BookBrowse.com

Anne Marie - and other interested visitors - to answer your question, the next book in the series is titled Armageddon and will be released on April 8th, 2003.
Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse LLC

Liam Hearn is a pseudonym for a relatively well known author of children's books. Click on the author link at the top of these reviews to learn more.

... Davina, BookBrowse.com

BookBrowse.com - Davina
Well worth reading, and especially recommended as a book club choice, particularly for mother-daughter book clubs, or for groups with connections to the military.

Davina - BookBrowse
This is a stunning book - both gripping and thought provoking. Carner writes with an ease and impact that belies the fact that this is her first published novel. She, and it, deserve a wide audience, no, not a wide audience, a huge audience. This book should be required reading by every judge, attorney and social worker in the country who has anything to do with children.

BookBrowse - Davina
The first few chapters of this book washed over me a little - it seemed to be following a similar course to a number of other books that I've read recently set in the deep south during pre-WWII years. However, as I got to know the characters and they, and hence the story, escaped from the claustrophobic small town of the early chapters, I found myself increasing hooked - reading avidly to the end.
In short, I highly recommend this first novel from Elyse Singleton.

BookBrowse.com - Davina
Hermux, mouse watchmaker, unintentional detective and all round 'good sort',  is off and running on another adventure in Michael Hoeye's follow up to his much acclaimed 'Time Stops For No Mouse'.  Teens and adults - don't be put off by the characters all being rodents, Hoeye's characters are eminently 'human' in all their quirks and foibles, and his humor is very sophisticated. This isn't to say that almost anyone over the age of about 9 wouldn't enjoy the book - they would - just that it is one of those wonderful books that
different age groups can read and appreciate at different levels.

BookBrowse.com - Davina
Silverman's memoir explores with unflinching detail how, as an adult, she came to equate sex with love, in a desperate and unconscious attempt to rationalize the fact that the only 'love' that she had ever received from the most important man in her childhood - her own father - was in the form of an incestuous relationship.
In my view, to write a memoir about one's childhood as a victim of incest (as Silverman did in her first book 'Because I remember Terror, Father, I Remember You') is an incredibly brave thing to do, but to write about how that effected her as an adult - leading her to become a sex addict - addicted to the high of dangerous encounters; and how she overcame her addiction, is incredibly courageous.

I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning about addiction. The pattern Silverman describes is similar with addicts of all stripes - whether their addiction be alcohol, drugs, food or whatever.

Gunta Krasts-Voutyras
Ursula Mandel's novel is a painting done with words. Since I was a child of ten in 1945 when WWII ended and played in the rubble of destroyed buildings, begged for food for my family and myself, was dressed in rags and never lost my will to live, this novel is very close to my heart. Uncannily Ursula Mandel tells this story as if she herself experienced the courage of Ruth, the old landlady's stern on the outside and devastated on the inside personality. Ruth's pride, her shyness to take food from Captain Whitman. This kind of pride comes of good breeding. Ruth's show of backbone to the Russian soldiers. Her description of the Russian brutality, which those of us who were there will never forget.

I shed tears while reading and devoured it in one sitting allowing all else to slide until I had read this novel. Thank you Ursula. Have bought two copies for my 44 and 46 year old children who have no clue and never will. Thank God. My note to them was: REQUIRED READING. I am sure I will buy many more copies to give as gifts. You are a very talented lady Ursula and you care about your family and your roots and your Mom, you have been unafraid to unravel the "knitting" to see where this leads you to. When I finished your novel I felt emotionally shook up for several hours and that is good. I must never forget!

This will help me do my small part in not allowing any other madman to destroy a whole generation. Thank you again Ursula. Am awaiting your next book.

Gunta Krasts-Voutyras
Former Displaced Person
Present Senior Citizen

From Norman I. Lee, III
An excellent book especially, for the student of Military History and Airpower. I have one comment; however, some of the charts from Jack Ryan Enterprises take away from the book's technical accuracy. For example, the chart on page 336 giving the number of aircraft in theatre has different aircraft represented but the picture labled an A-6 is actually an AV8 in flight. The same goes for many of the others.

Be warned - just because this is an eBook and you can read it on your Palm Pilot or computer, don't think that you can surreptitiously read a few pages while pretending to study your computer screen for the answer to some puzzling business question.

I took The Book of Counted Sorrows with me to a school PTA meeting with the intention of filling in a few slow minutes, but had to stop because I was in danger of breaking out into full scale hysteria. The poems themselves are good, but it's the introduction that is drop dead funny. In the intro Koontz details the horrifically funny history of the book before (and since) it came into his hands and the terrible fates of those who've attempted to read the whole book (he has conveniently left out a couple of the poems so that his gentle readers won't suffer the same fate).

Anyone who has read a book by Dean Koontz in the last decade or so probably remembers The Book of Counted Sorrows because he often quotes from it. Each year, thousands of people write asking about the book and where they can buy it. Risking his very life, Koontz relates the full tale to his readers.
This isn't just a book for Koontz aficionados - I have to admit that I'm not a great fan of the horror genre and therefore have not read many of Koontz' books - but I enjoyed this little book immensely.

Lastly, anyone who still wonders about the book's true authorship need only look at the copyright notice at the end of the excerpt!

--- Davina, BookBrowse.com

Curious Vinnie
You'll cry 'till you laugh!!! This is the book Shakespeare would have written if he wrote regular books instead of old plays and haikus. Koontz once again proves his mastery of the art that is uniquely his. Forget about buying any other book today; you only need this one. In fact, the letters that make up the words in this book make up at least 92% of all the words used in other books. Koontz uses only the best letters. And punctuation, you may ask? Well, Koontz is performing literary acrobatics here, throwing trained monkeys from every corner. As fresh as the Sunday funny papers, and as slippery as margarine at room temperature, this book has more surprizes than a bag of trail mix bought at an everything-for-a-buck store. This work is a true gift from Koontz to his fans that will surely be adapted for puppet theater very soon. Bravo, Mr. Koontz! (First published at BN.com, reproduced with the permission of BN)