Customer Reviews (1)

A wonderful adaptation of Aesop's fable for early readers
I found the Read it! Readers series of books at our local library. The "Read-It! Readers" series of books begin with the Purple Level which presents basic topics and objects using high frequency words and simple language patterns. The Red Level books present familiar topics using common words and repeating sentence patterns. The Blue Level books present new ideas using a larger vocabulary and varied sentence structure. The Yellow Level presents more challenging ideas, a broad vocabulary, and wide variety in sentence structure.

The story and illustrations are interesting and visually pleasing respectively. The sentence structure is more varied and there are some advanced vocabulary. My 5-year-old daughter needed help with this book and we reviewed the vocabulary after reading. Overall, a good beginning reader to challenge young children with some elementary reading skills. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An illustrated retelling of a classic fairy tale, appropriate for intermediate readers
I found the Read it! Readers series of books at our local library. The "Read-It! Readers" series of books begin with the Purple Level which presents basic topics and objects using high frequency words and simple language patterns. The Red Level books present familiar topics using common words and repeating sentence patterns. The Blue Level books present new ideas using a larger vocabulary and varied sentence structure. The Yellow Level presents more challenging ideas, a broad vocabulary, and wide variety in sentence structure. The Green Level books present more complex ideas, a more advanced vocabulary, and more complex language structures.

The story and illustrations are interesting and visually pleasing respectively. The story here is an adaptation of Grimm's Fairy Tale. The sentence structure is more varied and there are some advanced vocabulary. My 5-year-old daughter needed extra help with this book and we reviewed the vocabulary after reading. Overall, a good beginning reader to challenge young children with some intermediate reading skills, especially those with an interest in classic fairy tales.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Retelling of Aesop's Fable, appropriate for intermediate readers
I found the Read it! Readers series of books at our local library. The "Read-It! Readers" series of books begin with the Purple Level which presents basic topics and objects using high frequency words and simple language patterns. The Red Level books present familiar topics using common words and repeating sentence patterns. The Blue Level books present new ideas using a larger vocabulary and varied sentence structure. The Yellow Level presents more challenging ideas, a broad vocabulary, and wide variety in sentence structure. The Green Level books present more complex ideas, a more advanced vocabulary, and more complex language structures.

The story and illustrations are interesting and visually pleasing respectively. The story here is an adaptation of Aesop's Fable. The sentence structure is more varied and there are some advanced vocabulary. My 5-year-old daughter needed extra help with this book and we reviewed the vocabulary after reading. Overall, a good beginning reader to challenge young children with some intermediate reading skills, especially those with an interest in classic fairy tales.

Cute short story
Good illustrations with a short story. Gets kids to think "things are easier said than done." ... Read more

Product Description
The Pied Piper pipes a village free of rats, and when the villagers refuse to pay him for the service he pipes away their children as well. ... Read more

Product Description
A boy the size of his father's thumb has a series of adventures, including stopping a pair of thieves, being swallowed by a cow, and tricking a wolf into bringing him back home. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A great story with a great meaning
This is a cute story to read to children.The pictures are wonderfully illustrated.It is a great way to show children what happens, when they don't tell the truth.Children want you to read it again and again. ... Read more

Product Description
American Freedom and Justice vs. The Tyrannies of theSeventeenth Century

The new government in central Europe, called the ConfederatedPrincipalities of Europe, was formed by an alliance between GustavusAdolphus, King of Sweden, and the West Virginians led by Mike Stearnswho were transplanted into 17th-century Germany by a mysterious cosmicaccident. The new regime is shaky. Outside its borders, the ThirtyYears War continues to rage. Within, it is beset by financial crisisas well as the political and social tensions between the democraticideals of the 20th-century Americans and the aristocracy whichcontinues to rule the roost in the CPE as everywhere in Europe.

Worst of all, the CPE has aroused the implacable hostility of CardinalRichelieu, the effective ruler of France. Richelieu has created theLeague of Ostend in order to strike at the weakest link in the CPE'sarmorits dependence on the Baltic as the lifeline between GustavAdolf's Sweden and the rest of his realm.

The greatest naval war in European history is about to erupt. Like itor not, Gustavus Adolphus will have to rely on Mike Stearns and thetechnical wizardry of his obstreperous Americans to save the King ofSweden from ruin.

Caught in the conflagration are two American diplomatic missionsabroad: Rebecca Stearns' mission to France and Holland, and theembassy which Mike Stearns sent to King Charles of England headed byhis sister Rita and Melissa Mailey. Rebecca finds herself trapped inwar-torn Amsterdam; Rita and Melissa, imprisoned in the Tower ofLondon.

And much as Mike wants to transport 20th-century values into war-torn17th-century Europe by Sweet Reason, still he finds comfort in thefact that Julie, who once trained to be an Olympic marksman, still hasher rifle... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (74)

Not as good as the first
Much longer than 1632 and drags on in the end.There is less substance and not as fun. Other than that it was good.

An up and down sequel
I disagree with some reviewers' comments that this book stands by itself. I don't think it is even close to doing so. If you haven't read 1632, you'll really be lost in this book. The main focus of this book is a looming war between Gustav Adolfus/the USoE forces and Spain/France/England/Denmark. Very little about that conflict is resolved in this book, and you ARE going to want to find out what happened. So if you only read this book, you'd miss the outstanding first book in the series that sets this book up, and you'd miss finding out the conclusion of most of 1633's plot lines.

There aren't many Cons to this book, but the main Con is a big one. Unless you are preternaturally fascinated with minutiae of 1600s history of Germany (and elsewhere in Europe), there are long stretches of this book that are boring and do nothing to advance the story. It is common for the authors to indulge in page after page of family histories, political theorizing, and historical what ifs when a paragraph or two would have served the average reader much better. I quickly learned that I could skim through these portions and miss absolutely nothing important to the various plot lines. Once I began to do that I started enjoying the book much more. If you happen to be more interested in that material, then there is more book for you to enjoy. I suspect that most readers will share my taste. 1632 was a riveting, fast paced book. The sections I mention of this nature in 1633 drag it to a stop over and over again.

Now for the Pros, and there are many of these. One of the main foci of 1633 is that the "down timers" have gotten their hands on history books and immediately seek to twist events in their favor. Some very interesting things happen in that light. The Americans continue to leverage the technological potentials to survive and help their allies ... and in some interesting and surprising ways.

Characters that you began to care about in 1632 continue to evolve, particularly the industrialist Simpson. A technology that you may have come to wonder about in the first book makes an important appearance here.

Unfortunately, some of the characters that interacted well together in 1632 are split up in 1633 and remain so for the entirety of the novel. This cuts down a bit on some of the entertaining personality interactions that made 1632 so fascinating. Hopefully these characters will get back together in the 3rd book so that we can regain that atmosphere.

I have started to read The Baltic War as of this review, and its tone is, at least at the start, much more like the far superior 1632. If that continues to be true, I think I'll eventually regard 1633 as a somewhat pedestrian but necessary bridge between 1632 and the rest of the series. It is a must read if you are interested in reading all or much of the series. There is not as much fun, excitement, or jaunty character interaction as in 1632, but there is fun and interest to be found.

Excellent alternate history
I am not a fan of alternate histories in general, but this one grabs and keeps my attention. I'm a hard-nosed engineer by trade and this series has relatively few technical and economic mistakes. The characters are real people, and know the difference between right and wrong. The authors do an excellent job portraying the characters from different points of view. A lot of the story is in comparing how the people of a 21st century West Virginia town interact with the surrounding 17th century German countryside in the middle of the 30 years war. I'm writing this review because it's not obvious which books carry the main story thread. The first (and best) novel is 1632, followed by this 1633 being reviewed, then 1634 The Baltic War. I am not as fond of the Galileo Affair because it is more politics and intrigue, and less action.

Great Idea, Great Execution.Very Entertaining
This series is one of those ideas that we've all had, what if we could go back in time....

1633 was decent.I could definitely tell that this was a 'collaboration' since Weber's style of writing is a little bit different from Flint's but I don't think most people will catch that.

I basically read this non-stop over two days.The only complaint I have is I was confused as all hell on which book was the 'sequel' to 1632.For Pete's sake guys, I almost just said to hell with it and stopped reading the series.I had to jump online to make heads or tails of what book was next.

Personally, Ring of Fire may be a good book, but I just don't want to waste time with filler short stories (that's just me).

Anyways, I liked 1633 though it seemed to have less action than 1632 but it was still enjoyable.I'm getting into the characters and look forward to 1634 which as near as I can tell, "The Baltic Wars" is the next book in the series.

Could you guys make it any more confusing?For crying out loud, we developed a number system a few thousand years ago for a reason.How about using it :)

Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, etc. etc.

A sequel that is setting the stage for a LOOOONNNNGGGG series!
1633 is the sequel to 1632. Not much of a surprise there if you know your numbers. However, we are looking at books here and this book (1633) is the sequel to the earlier one, although the text constantly talks of this book taking place two years after the first one. So, the authors may be arithmetically challenged. They also seem challenged on getting all the plot elements in place as this very long book (670+ pages) seems to drag on and on in the beginning. the pace picks up quite a bit in the last 100-150 pages as the expected battles take place. However, what does take place in the first 500 pages is many scenes that set the stage for many books to come.

Let's reprise a little here. The premise of 1632 was to look at what might happen when a small slice of 20th century America is transposed into the past and plunked down in the middle of the 30 years war in central Germany. 1632 was a fun romp with that in mind and of course, the technologically superior Americans managed to establish a mini-country that is organized on democratic lines. Duh! Now, two years later, what we find is that the mini-America is trying to initially remain independent and out of the fighting, but is immersed in the fighting between King Gustav of Sweden and Cardinal Richelieu of France. But it's not enough that they are on the side of King Gustav - they are trying to pull down the aristocratic society and create a modern democracy in Germany that predates the real emergence of this movement in the world by almost 250 years!

When you set yourself such a monumental task, it is no wonder that most of the fun is gone from this book. This also explains why we see some plot threads come about and then appear to fritter away to nothingness - presumeably to reappear on one of the promised future volumes. However, there is also a lot of stuff that should have been excised from this book. For instance, huge parts of the book discuss the politics of Grantville and then of the rest of Europe and many names are dropped in the process. While this is a testament to the historical research that the authors conducted, I am not sure that understanding the family relationships between this minor count and that minor duke is really moving this story forward. Another irritating aspect of this section is the constant proselytizing of how much better a world controled by unions is. On the other hand, in this book the "bad industrialist" is transformed into one of the most helpful and apolitical people who inhabit the book. Go figure?

The cover shows the front view of a huge warship, and the story talks about warships that will go up and down rivers (different for sure than the cover), however when the battle scenes erupt in the last few pages of the book, we see that the American Navy consists of three speedboats!? Huh? It was thrilling to read of the differences between the modern equipment battling the sailing ships, but eventually the readers has to start asking how can all that equipment still be functioning without the spport of the whole industrial world that was available in 20th or 21st century America?

Another part where you have to suspend your disbelief to a huge extent is the emphasis paid on how the other countries all manage to steal history books from Grantville and read them to see what the future will hold, and then take action to modify those futures. Of course, just the appearance of Grantville will have changed the future, but never mind that. What interests me is why the other countries choose to steal only history books and not focus on the technical and science books that would allow them to reduce the technological advantage that the Americans have? Doesn't seem to make much sense.

Anyway, I took off one star because of the dreary politics, the long drawn-out discussions of the philosophies and the utterly unbelievable passages (the Jewish woman who negotiates as an equal with Richelieu who at the end of the book starts swearing at a Rabbi while adopting a baby, etc.). I am interested in reading the next one in the series in the hopes that it goes back to the fun and games of the first one. ... Read more

Product Description
We all desire to feel God's presence in our lives throughout each day. These inspirational writings rekindle a spark deep within the heart and fan it into flame, giving the reader a burning desire for God.

Each divinely inspired passage contains a lesson or teaching experience applicable to everyday living. Organized in an easy-to-read format, the book includes the following collections:

Inspirational
Motivational or Self-Help
Life Experiences

Enjoy the penetrating and profound wisdom found within these pages while Rekindling God's Glorious Presence in your own life. ... Read more