question for Hyaku (the forum Senior Member)

[shotoblogger]

Hyaku,

On your Hyoho.com website, I notice the very long swords in the Choken Battojutsu Kageryu section. I was wondering if you could make some comments on tsuka length. There is a short article at http://www.bugei.com/LongTsuka.html suggesting that, historically, tsukas may have been longer than what is normally thought. I was going to dismiss the photos in this article as late-Edo anomalies until I noticed in Kanzan Sato's "The Japanese Sword: A Comprehensive Guide" a photo of a sword mounting from the Warring States period that has a very long tsuka.

What are the factors in tsuka length? Is it determined by ryu? by practitioner's preference? By a relationship to another measurement in the sword?

How was the tsuka length for modern swords and iaito determined?

Finally, are the bokken used in Hyoho Niten Ichiryu really as long as they look? Are your bokken design all simply based on the heirloom sword or is there a specification that is followed?

Sorry this is so long. Thank you very much for your time.

Yours,
Chris M.

[Hai_hai]

the forum Senior Member? There are a ton of Senior Members.

[Lloromannic]

Maybe it is to differentiate from bizarro-Hyaku

[Nishi]

the forum Senior Member? There are a ton of Senior Members.

Hai Hai is senior Therapist.

[Hyaku]

shottoblogger was just being polite and maybe he was looking at my age?

Maybe some of you kiddies have not heard that word yet?

Lloromannic: Just the sort of comment I would expect from a 16 year old. If you were my kid I'd clip your ear.

[Nanbanjin]

shottoblogger was just being polite and maybe he was looking at my age?

Maybe some of you kiddies have not heard that word yet?

Lloromannic: Just the sort of comment I would expect from a 16 year old. If you were my kid I'd clip your ear.

Lloromannic is a gifted linguist for a 16 year old, but he does have weird lover Wilde on his side.

[Hyaku]

Hyaku,

What are the factors in tsuka length? Is it determined by ryu? by practitioner's preference? By a relationship to another measurement in the sword?
Bit like a tailored suit. Its best usually make mock-up first.

The tsuka needs to be around a third of the length of the blade for balance. One handed cuts like kiriage are hard if the tsuka is too short. I would have said big tsuka help but as a lot dont do tameshigiri regularly not being part of a curriculum it's not so obvious.

At a battojutsu yudansha level small things like this matter. Sometimes at the end of a taikai we all attempt around ten mats using one chosen weapon for all with a short tsuka. Few do well.

There is a ryu factor too. Some insist that the bottom of the tsuka is gripped with the left hand. This makes sense from a point of view of leverage. Then again some insist that you should hold the tsuka in a way that you feel the nakago inside. As this does not come anywhere near the bottom of the tsuka this grip also makes sense considering good hasuji on a cut. It's not all competition but one millimeter nearer a decided 45 degree cut will win.

Also a bigger sori upsets the kensaki balance.


Finally, are the bokken used in Hyoho Niten Ichiryu really as long as they look? Are your bokken design all simply based on the heirloom sword or is there a specification that is followed?

Sorry this is so long. Thank you very much for your time.

Yours, Chris M.

We use the bokuto as new members initially then go straight to shinken.

But each waza has many permutations. I bit like kendo one could judge every situation to be different: In rising to cut kiriage with a fundamental cut has the opponent started to cut and how far advanced is that cut? Should we cut in between the legs, above the hip or just under the arm?

Its like a constant kae waza in Iai. So we are required to constantly practice technique variation. Also my Shihan had instructed me never to do basic fundamentals for embu (demo). Always use a variation as its Mongai fushutsu (Not to be taught outside). So for this reason I always use a longer bokuto to work on new variations. Mine is Yon shaku (2 metres)

[Lloromannic]

Lloromannic: Just the sort of comment I would expect from a 16 year old. If you were my kid I'd clip your ear.
Sorry. I'll do suburi as punishment.

Lloromannic is a gifted linguist for a 16 year old, but he does have weird lover Wilde on his side.
Wilde < Keats, Yeats, Shakespeare, Milton, Anne Rice, Danielle Steele, R.L. Stine, Tolkien, Musashi, bloke-who-wrote-the-Hagakure, J.K. Rowling, Tom Clancy and bizarro-Wilde. All at the same time.

[Kaoru]

Wilde < Keats, Yeats, Shakespeare, Milton, Anne Rice, Danielle Steele, R.L. Stine, Tolkien, Musashi, bloke-who-wrote-the-Hagakure, J.K. Rowling, Tom Clancy and bizarro-Wilde. All at the same time.
Que? :confused: I don't get it... What does this mean, and who the heck is bizzaro-Wilde? I didn't understand what you meant when you wrote "bizzaro-Hyaku" either. :confused:

Kaoru

[Lloromannic]

Que? :confused: I don't get it... What does this mean, and who the heck is bizzaro-Wilde? I didn't understand what you meant when you wrote "bizzaro-Hyaku" either. :confused:
Bizarro is not really a word (in English, in Spanish it means bizarre). However it is used as an adjective in books. The definition varies a lot depending on the writer. Some use it meaning a completely opposite version of something (such as for example a bad superman who wore red tights and blue underwear). Others use it as an eerily similar thing with fundamental differences. Often used to describe alternate worlds or universes like a world in which the sky was red and fish flew). I like the second one more. I used it in this way in both accounts. First to jokingly suggest there was an evil hyaku. Later to mean an also evil Oscar Wilde.
VBut you are a girl. So you probably thik Danielle Steele is better. :D :wink:
So I express that in my opinion Oscar Wilde < (is greater than) all the other authors I mentioned at the same time. Even against evil Wilde.

[Hyaku]

I seem to remember Oscar Wilde being convicted of buggery?

By the way suburi is just a warm up exercise. A bit of kakari-geiko without bogu was what I had in mind. :evil:

[Nanbanjin]

I seem to remember Oscar Wilde being convicted of buggery?

By the way suburi is just a warm up exercise. A bit of kakari-geiko without bogu was what I had in mind. :evil:

I think that strictly speaking Oscar Wilde was convicted of sodomy, not buggery.

The tragedy is that Wilde was only convicted and incarcerated after he took legal action to clear his good name.

I'm steering off thread again.

[Kaoru]

Bizarro is not really a word (in English, in Spanish it means bizarre). However it is used as an adjective in books. The definition varies a lot depending on the writer. Some use it meaning a completely opposite version of something (such as for example a bad superman who wore red tights and blue underwear). Others use it as an eerily similar thing with fundamental differences. Often used to describe alternate worlds or universes like a world in which the sky was red and fish flew). I like the second one more. I used it in this way in both accounts. First to jokingly suggest there was an evil hyaku. Later to mean an also evil Oscar Wilde.

Ohhhh... I get it now! Yeah, I knew it was Spanish for "bizzare." The hyphen threw me totally off, and I didn't know how to read it.

hahaha, an evil Hyaku huh? Maybe if he made you do a million suburi he might be. :D I don't know anything about Oscar Wilde other than his literary works.

VBut you are a girl. So you probably thik Danielle Steele is better. :D :wink:
So I express that in my opinion Oscar Wilde < (is greater than) all the other authors I mentioned at the same time. Even against evil Wilde.[/QUOTE]
Oh, ok. I see. :) Actually, hehe, I don't like Danielle Steele... Harry Potter rules! :D MUCH better than Wilde... :D hehehe, I got bored with his stuff. Anyway, Charlotte Bronte beats him by a mile if you wanna talk good literature! :D :D So does Steinbeck and Pearl S. Buck. Oh, and then there is Kawabata's stuff, which I love... Ok, I'll shut up now. I'm just a hopeless bookworm... I eat books. (So my parents think!) :D

Kaoru

[Kaoru]

I seem to remember Oscar Wilde being convicted of buggery?

Buggery?? :confused: What's that?


By the way suburi is just a warm up exercise. A bit of kakari-geiko without bogu was what I had in mind. :evil:
Oooo... That's evil! Owww... :D

Kaoru

[Kaoru]

I think that strictly speaking Oscar Wilde was convicted of sodomy, not buggery.

The tragedy is that Wilde was only convicted and incarcerated after he took legal action to clear his good name.

I'm steering off thread again.
Yeah, you sure are. Ugh... I don't think I wanted to know that. Unfortunately, I know what that is.

Kaoru

[Nanbanjin]

Bizarro is not really a word (in English, in Spanish it means bizarre). However it is used as an adjective in books. The definition varies a lot depending on the writer. Some use it meaning a completely opposite version of something (such as for example a bad superman who wore red tights and blue underwear). Others use it as an eerily similar thing with fundamental differences. Often used to describe alternate worlds or universes like a world in which the sky was red and fish flew). I like the second one more. I used it in this way in both accounts. First to jokingly suggest there was an evil hyaku. Later to mean an also evil Oscar Wilde.
VBut you are a girl. So you probably thik Danielle Steele is better. :D :wink:
So I express that in my opinion Oscar Wilde < (is greater than) all the other authors I mentioned at the same time. Even against evil Wilde.

You're quite a linguist but not much of a mathematician.

< - is less than.
> - is greater than.

That's how it works in Australia, but we're all upside down.

[nalogg]

the forum Senior Member? There are a ton of Senior Members.
Technically i'm a senior member too
although i've only been studying kendo for 4 months now
i think it's because of my number of posts... i just changed my avatar text

[shotoblogger]

Well, it's too bad this thread turned into an adolescent literary discussion. Anyone who groups together Lovecraft and Tolkien or Danielle Steele and Milton probably doesn't understand what they're reading, which would explain the affection for Wilde.

maybe he was looking at my age?
Not at all. I just don't know what "Hyaku" means, and I wanted to specify the forum member rather than a technique or school unknown to me.



Bit like a tailored suit. Its best usually make mock-up first.



The tsuka needs to be around a third of the length of the blade for balance. One handed cuts like kiriage are hard if the tsuka is too short. I would have said big tsuka help but as a lot dont do tameshigiri regularly not being part of a curriculum it's not so obvious.



At a battojutsu yudansha level small things like this matter. Sometimes at the end of a taikai we all attempt around ten mats using one chosen weapon for all with a short tsuka. Few do well.



There is a ryu factor too. Some insist that the bottom of the tsuka is gripped with the left hand. This makes sense from a point of view of leverage. Then again some insist that you should hold the tsuka in a way that you feel the nakago inside. As this does not come anywhere near the bottom of the tsuka this grip also makes sense considering good hasuji on a cut. It's not all competition but one millimeter nearer a decided 45 degree cut will win.



Also a bigger sori upsets the kensaki balance. I guess it's safe to say that for me studying iaido it probably doesn't matter that much. Interesting, though. Thanks. I don't really know anything about tameshigiri or cutting, but a few questions occur while reading this and your website:

(1) Do you know why tameshigiri did not become part of the kendo curriculum?

(2) Isn't good hasuji supposed to be perpendicular to the cutting surface (a 45 degree angle across a verticle mat isn't)? Do kendo cuts with a shinai differ from cuts with a real sword in this regard?

(3) If Tokugawa Tei-sun is 64.7cm, how did we end up with standard iaito that are 65cm and up? Is it because we are taller than the Tokugawa-era Japanese?

(4) When you say you attempt mats using a sword with short tsuka, do you mean diminutive or not as long as a longer tsuka?

(5) When you see a sword with a longer tsuka, does this necessarily mean that the tang of the blade is longer? Would mounting a shorter tang in a longer tsuka break off the tang?




We use the bokuto as new members initially then go straight to shinken.And on your Hyoho.com site, you write "At the bottom is a white oak bokuto in saya (Saya-tsuki-bokken) the one shown measures 3. 6 from kensaki to tsuba" Are "ken" and "to" interchangeable, or how does one determine which is the appropriate term to use?


Also, can you recommend any good readings in English on the analytical relationship between the physical sword and practice (of the type in your above post)? I have found books on sword collecting and instructional books for practice, but nothing that explains what you might call the physics of sword usage.


Finally, if you are the Caucasian featured on Hyoho.com, you are, if you don't mind my saying, rather large. Do your knees ever give you trouble in kendo or any other sword practice? I am 6 foot 260 lbs and have some knee discomfort. I am worried about accelerating my knee degeneration through kendo or iaido.

If you don't have time to answer all these, please don't feel obligated. Thanks.

-Chris

[Kaoru]

Actually, I forgot to put the quote I wanted. Sorry for a useless post.

Kaoru

[Lloromannic]

I must confess that yesterday I was rather intoxicated.
So apologies for any offences.

So: You're quite a linguist but not much of a mathematician.

< - is less than.
> - is greater than.

That's how it works in Australia, but we're all upside down.
It works that way everywhere but as I mentioned I was not thinkiing clearly.

I think that strictly speaking Oscar Wilde was convicted of sodomy, not buggery. Sodomy it was indeed.

Oh, ok. I see. :) Actually, hehe, I don't like Danielle Steele... Harry Potter rules! :D MUCH better than Wilde... :D hehehe, I got bored with his stuff. Anyway, Charlotte Bronte beats him by a mile if you wanna talk good literature! :D :D So does Steinbeck and Pearl S. Buck. Oh, and then there is Kawabata's stuff, which I love... Ok, I'll shut up now. I'm just a hopeless bookworm... I eat books. (So my parents think!) :D


I'm also a bookworm. And I think all the authors I put as being inferior to Wilde are brilliant (except for Stine, Clancy and Steele who are not writers. They are Gestalts). I liked Bronte and Steinbeck too.

Well, it's too bad this thread turned into an adolescent literary discussion. Anyone who groups together Lovecraft and Tolkien or Danielle Steele and Milton probably doesn't understand what they're reading, which would explain the affection for Wilde.
I apologise for derailing the thread. As for grouping all those authors together it was, shall we say, a bad case of mental diarrhea.

By the way suburi is just a warm up exercise. A bit of kakari-geiko without bogu was what I had in mind. :evil:
Hai! (T_T)

[Kaoru]

Well, it's too bad this thread turned into an adolescent literary discussion. Anyone who groups together Lovecraft and Tolkien or Danielle Steele and Milton probably doesn't understand what they're reading, which would explain the affection for Wilde.


Not at all. I just don't know what "Hyaku" means, and I wanted to specify the forum member rather than a technique or school unknown to me.


Oh well... It doesn't hurt to have a little bit of fun, does it? :) Yes, it was an odd list of authors, but who cares? It doesn't mean a person has no understanding of what they read just because the list was random. :) You can't decide something like that just by a list. If I gave you my list of favorite authors all mixed up, you'd be very surprised. Nobody here would have a list like mine. :) And, the same for each person.

Anyway, Hyaku means 100. It's definately not a ryu. :D And, yeah, that's him in the pic. He studies/teaches HNIR, studies Kage Ryu, and studies/teaches Kendo.(In case you wondered.) :)

Kaoru

[Hyaku]

Not at all. I just don't know what "Hyaku" means, and I wanted to specify the forum member rather than a technique or school unknown to me.
Hyaku = Hyakutake (That's what they call me)


(1) Do you know why tameshigiri did not become part of the kendo curriculum?

Because you can't cut with a shinai. (I am not being sarcastic) Up to now the Kendo renmei's attempts at adding more realism to Kendo have been in
making up Kata, the Bokuto Ni Yoru Kendo Kihon-waza Keiko-ho and of course Seiteigata Iaido.

Will they ever do it?. Nothing would surprise me. Sadly they have a penchant for making things up and calling it their own rather than respect the fact that there are already lots of old tried and tested fundamentals for iai, kenkujutsu and batto. Its "Sogo Budo". Budo for the masses.

(2) Isn't good hasuji supposed to be perpendicular to the cutting surface (a 45 degree angle across a verticle mat isn't)? Do kendo cuts with a shinai differ from cuts with a real sword in this regard?

Yes but with a shinai you can be successful with less accuracy. A bad cut will show on a target and on the weapon if it is really bad.

(3) If Tokugawa Tei-sun is 64.7cm, how did we end up with standard iaito that are 65cm and up? Is it because we are taller than the Tokugawa-era Japanese?

The law has been relaxed as we don't actually wear them in public now. That what was it? 2% of the population have gone. And of course no one enforces it.

(4) When you say you attempt mats using a sword with short tsuka, do you mean diminutive or not as long as a longer tsuka?

The thing is you dont get the leverage with an overall shorter weapon and its only those who really cut with the hips that do well.
[QUOTE=shotoblogger]
(5) When you see a sword with a longer tsuka, does this necessarily mean that the tang of the blade is longer? Would mounting a shorter tang in a longer tsuka break off the tang?

The whole weapon is proportionaly short. I doubt if the blade would snap at the tang. Generaly the smith makes the tang proportional to the blade but they have a lot of leeway. The thing is very few make them for cutting nowadays. Shinken for iai are nowhere near as meaty. A friend of mine who specializes makes really heavy cleaver type weapons. They do and did turn out quite a few and experiment with them too.

And on your Hyoho.com site, you write "At the bottom is a white oak bokuto in saya (Saya-tsuki-bokken) the one shown measures 3. 6 from kensaki to tsuba" Are "ken" and "to" interchangeable, or how does one determine which is the appropriate term to use?

Ken usually precedes a word if we describe the parts. But in general Ken means sword. "To" refers to Japanese sword. Some would say they are interchangeable but I have never heard of a Chinese weapon refered to as as "To".


Also, can you recommend any good readings in English on the analytical relationship between the physical sword and practice (of the type in your above post)? I have found books on sword collecting and instructional books for practice, but nothing that explains what you might call the physics of sword usage.

Sorry no I did my batto here in Japan. I would guess Toyama ryu or Nakamura ryu would be your best bet.


Finally, if you are the Caucasian featured on Hyoho.com, you are, if you don't mind my saying, rather large. Do your knees ever give you trouble in kendo or any other sword practice? I am 6 foot 260 lbs and have some knee discomfort. I am worried about accelerating my knee degeneration through kendo or iaido.
Yes I have had trouble with years of fumikomi and seizanobu in Iai fundamentals. My knees and legs are much stronger than they were. A lots in practice, practice.

Then again to me seiza is a daily lifestyle. There is a paper thin gap between my heels and backside when I sit. Also I wear neoprene knee pads to prevent injury. Sometimes a sorbothane heel pad if I do lots of fumikomi. Prevention is better than cure.

The weather helps me in Japan too. If it was freezing cold my legs would probably creak and groan. Its not just the knees. if you stand day after day with the same forward, same grip. Letting fifty big teenagers hit you over the head seven days a week? All sort of problems crop up. Compacted neck bones, fluid or dried out knee joints, deafness, abnomal muscle buildup etc. The good side: In Japan there is far more accent on going through fast and saves heads and knees from impact.

Western piledrivers are a menace. But if you only do few hours a week maybe its ok.

[shotoblogger]

Hyaku = Hyakutake (That's what they call me)Thanks, Hyaku. There's a comet by that name, too.
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/comets/Hyakutake.html


Because you can't cut with a shinai. (I am not being sarcastic) Up to now the Kendo renmei's attempts at adding more realism to Kendo have been in
making up Kata, the Bokuto Ni Yoru Kendo Kihon-waza Keiko-ho and of course Seiteigata Iaido.

Will they ever do it?. Nothing would surprise me. Sadly they have a penchant for making things up and calling it their own rather than respect the fact that there are already lots of old tried and tested fundamentals for iai, kenkujutsu and batto. Its "Sogo Budo". Budo for the masses.
You sound down on ZNKR. Do you believe their kendo has any value beyond fun? Do you teach kendo differently in your own dojo?

On a related note, do you ever do mental training like standing under waterfalls or fasting in HNIR?


Ken usually precedes a word if we describe the parts. But in general Ken means sword. "To" refers to Japanese sword. Some would say they are interchangeable but I have never heard of a Chinese weapon refered to as as "To".
A-ha! You know, I've been wondering about that for some time.


By the way, how did you get to where you are now, anyhow? To be able to go to one specific location in the whole world and work in higher education administration there seems rather difficult.

-Chris

[Hyaku]

You sound down on ZNKR. Do you believe their kendo has any value beyond fun? Do you teach kendo differently in your own dojo?
I think Kendo has a lot of value as a facet of the swords arts. But as a traditionalist I wish they would just use what we already have and draw on it rather than make stuff up. For example I see no point in bastardizing recognized waza from a Ryu.

No fun where I am. A team in Kyushu islands best eight and a cut-throat pace to get on that team and "win".

But Japanese people love conformity. You go to a meeting here and they will give you a text word for word of what will be said. They are not satisfied unless its done and written down. So we have manuals and if there is a problem its read the manual. I have attending quite a few referee and kata courses. Every answer given by our distinguished visiting teachers was to difficult questions was, "Emmm its not in the book" They like decided stuff even if it is made up. Also Kendo is a bit like little league here. Dads will encourage the kids and practice with them.

I would not want to put anybody off. Do the Kendo stick with it and enjoy it. In other countries roku/nanadan might make you famous. Here in Japan it can end up as a rather thankless job seven days a week and holidays.

On a related note, do you ever do mental training like standing under waterfalls or fasting in HNIR?
No never. But if Soke decided we should?

By the way, how did you get to where you are now, anyhow? To be able to go to one specific location in the whole world and work in higher education administration there seems rather difficult.
I worked at it. Passed few exams, have spent over 23 years in one city in the system. Older people in Japan are usually placed in a position of responsibility and the older you are the more you gate paid, the less you do. That's why I have so much time to waste online and when I say I am going to the dojo they say HAI. I'm near the end of this and a new beginning. I retire in eighteen months.

[Kaoru]

I'm also a bookworm. And I think all the authors I put as being inferior to Wilde are brilliant (except for Stine, Clancy and Steele who are not writers. They are Gestalts). I liked Bronte and Steinbeck too.

I don't like anything by those three authors. The others are good though. I never know which author I will think is best from week to week, so I'll just list some of my favorites lumped together, since each book and author is so different.

I like Charlotte Bronte, Steinbeck, P. Buck, Frances Hodges Burnett, Lloyd Alexander, James Herriot, Kawabata, Eoin Colfer, Tamora Pierce, Erik C. Haugaard, Philip Pullman, Poe and Katherine Patterson to name a few.


I apologise for derailing the thread. As for grouping all those authors together it was, shall we say, a bad case of mental diarrhea.

Ahahaha, now I am guilty of thread derailing... Ah well. Sorry minna-san. As for the authors grouped together, I just did the same thing. hehehe...

Kaoru

[shotoblogger]

a cut-throat pace
That's not fun?

Also Kendo is a bit like little league here. Dads will encourage the kids and practice with them.

I would not want to put anybody off. Do the Kendo stick with it and enjoy it.
Yes, it's true, I don't like doing Japanese little league, but I console myself by telling myself that this characteristic is an accident of chronology, much like myself.

That's why I have so much time to waste online and when I say I am going to the dojo they say HAI. I'm near the end of this and a new beginning. I retire in eighteen months.
Well, good luck to you, sir, in retirement. I hope you continue to have time to waste with us online. Your contributions here are appreciated as well as your Hyoho website. Thank you.

-Chris

[Lloromannic]

I don't like anything by those three authors. The others are good though. I never know which author I will think is best from week to week, so I'll just list some of my favorites lumped together, since each book and author is so different.

I like Charlotte Bronte, Steinbeck, P. Buck, Frances Hodges Burnett, Lloyd Alexander, James Herriot, Kawabata, Eoin Colfer, Tamora Pierce, Erik C. Haugaard, Philip Pullman, Poe and Katherine Patterson to name a few.
Phillip Pullman is probably my favourite modern author. The His Dark Materials books were specially good. I read all three for the firt time in a flight from Mexico City to Amsterdam. I don't know about Haugaard, Pierce or Patterson though. Some suggestions as to what to raead from them?

Ahahaha, now I am guilty of thread derailing... Ah well. Sorry minna-san. As for the authors grouped together, I just did the same thing. hehehe...

Should I make antother thread to stop debasing this one?

[Kaoru]

Phillip Pullman is probably my favourite modern author. The His Dark Materials books were specially good. I read all three for the firt time in a flight from Mexico City to Amsterdam. I don't know about Haugaard, Pierce or Patterson though. Some suggestions as to what to raead from them?

Yeah, his books are awesome. I haven't read that trilogy yet. I really want to! I've so far read "I was a Rat!", "Clockwork" and "The Fireworkmaker's Daughter." by him. All three were really good!

I've only read two of Haugaard's books so far. Both are well worth reading. They are "The Samurai's Tale" and the sequel, "The Boy and the Samurai." They are both historical fiction with real historical figures. I highly recommend these to read.

Tamora Pierce's books are fantasy. So far, of her books, I have read the "Protector of the Small" quartet. They are very intelligently written and are all a very good read. They are not short books. They are called "First Test" "Page" "Squire" and the last, "Lady Knight." She's written many books, but haven't managed to get a hold of her other books yet.

Patterson's books are interesting and some will leave you thinking for a long time. I've read most of her books.

She wrote three books set in old Japan(Forget which eras) that are really good:

"The Master Puppeteer"
"Of Nightengails that Weep"
"The Sign of the Chrsanthemum"

I really enjoyed these books! Then, the following are excellent:

"Jacob have I Loved"
"The Bridge to Terabithia"
"The Same Stuff as Stars"

She's written more than that, though.

I did forget to put Lois Lowry in my list. One the best authors is her, I think. Have you read "The Giver?" I just love her stuff. I've read her other books too. What else have you read?

So, those are some that I recommend.


Should I make antother thread to stop debasing this one?
hehehe, Yeah... That'd probably be a good idea. Otherwise, we are going to end up taking it over. :D

Kaoru

[Lloromannic]

hehehe, Yeah... That'd probably be a good idea. Otherwise, we are going to end up taking it over. :D

Kaoru
Done (hehehe,%20Yeah...%20That%27d%20probably%20be%20a% 20good%20idea.%20Otherwise,%20we%20are%20going%20t o%20end%20up%20taking%20it%20over.)