Rating: 
Summary: A pleasant surprise
Review: My mom got me this book for Christmas. I would've preferred a gift certificate or something. Whatever. I read it over winter break and kinda got into it. By the way, I don't agree with Julia. Flipping back to the glossary was my way of testing myself. I'd guess what the word meant and then check to see if I was right. And gimme a break. We're already studying for the SAT by reading the book. Exercises at the end of every chapter would've been overkill. And broken up the story, which was good. I sort of related to Will and what he was feeling (being bored in a small town, etc). Anyway, I'd recommend this to people. It can't hurt. It works better than stupid memorization (I actually dropped a vocab word while talking to my mom--she was impressed...whatever). It's a better way for people (like me) who prefer trig, calc or chemistry over English class to study.
Rating: 
Summary: Talent rises above adversity
Review: O.k. for those looking to buy the book for their kids, buy it. Now. I am a private tutor of high school kids of all ability levels and besides relearning a few choice forgotten words, I found the story engaging and Marantz well up to the challenge. This will work for kids of the academic version of little league psychos who have mastered the under 1500 guilt trip or anyone needing to break 1000. Buy it. The book teaches and entertains. Mission successful. Oh, Kaplan, DO NOT go away. You deserve chastisement (yep, it's in there) on two counts.
1. Your editing. The first 2/3 of the book feel like somebody did their best to geld the author and tack on the same phrases (can we have a word count on "laugh"?) in the place of inspired writing. There is clearly an external attempt to not trust the author and force the manuscript into something is for a 6th grade reading level with a lot of big words shoved in. Luckily you failed.
That's a serious accusation, and one I would not make were it not for the last 1/3 of the novel. All of it sudden it becomes a mature (but still kid-safe) book where Marantz pulls off some genuinely creepy moments, and affects the reader on a deeper level while keeping the stream of SAT vocab steady. Gone are extraneous phrases (characters are free to feel pain or fear without big neon arrows redundantly pointing at them) and only the quality remains. Read Marantz's bio again, and show a little trust. 2. On a similar theme, I would have loved to see a bit more of an effort for the writing community in general. He was serving two masters (well, three counting the orangutan editorial board) and pulled off a credible job. He lives in Los Angeles so with all of the major writers fairs and conferences going on, why is he not speaking? It's difficult enough to write for a target audience, let alone with additional constraints. Think of it this way: some of the best free-verse poets began as formalists; there's a lesson in his discipline. Forget the SAT kids for a moment, there are a lot of aspiring writers who could learn a great deal through his troubles. This would be an excellent text for college creative writing courses because of it's strengths and weaknesses. The production values of the book are excellent. Somebody must have cared. Now do yourselves (i.e. more sales), your author, and the writing community a favor.
Rating:
Summary: Not the greatest but still a fun way to learn ur vocab
Review: Ok The Ring of McAllister had a good plot to make sure you would keep on reading it (a sucky plot would mean that you won't learn any of the vocab). Hmmm but one problem was the fact that you hadta flip through the pages back and forth to find the meaning was annoying.... cuz sometimes i lost where i was in the story and also it interrupts the story which is very annoying but it still worked pretty well for me. I would recommend this to anyone hu gets sick of just reading through vocab lists and wants a new way of learning it that is entertaining as well as helpful.
Rating:
Summary: An effective concept that supersedes memorizing wordlists
Review: So finally Kaplan came out with their version of learning SAT vocabulary in context of a book. Like its similar counterparts,"Tooth and Nail" and Barron's "Simon's Saga", this book tries to help students learn vocaulary in a 'novel' way. I think learning words through reading is an effective way to build an great vocabulary and easier than memorizing word lists. The story is about a high-school student named Will who lives next to an abandoned mansion supposedly haunted by the town hero Algernon McAllister. Will had an incident involving the mansion when he was young and is terrified by the thought of it. Soon enough, a historian and his daughter move next door and strange events start happening. It up to Will and his new neighbor Laura to figure how the mystery of the mansion, and uncover the truth behind the recent chaos in their quiant town. The author effectively integrates the SAT words into the book and there is a glossary of all the words in the back. I enjoyed this book and learning the words in context , but I think Kaplan could of done a better job of instilling the words into the reader's mind. Like in Simon's Saga, at the end of each chapter every SAT word was defined and there were exercises involving the words. I think this really helped me learn words most effectively. But in "The Ring of McAllister" there are no excercises, and you have to flip back and forth to the glossary to look up words. This can be a pain after a while. Overall, I like the concept of this book, but I think it could of done a better job of making the reader remember the words with exercises and definitions right at the end of the chapter.
Rating:
Summary: A brillant way to learn SAT vocabulary
Review: This book was amazing. Ok, I admit, the beginning was a bit slow. But once you got into it, you just can not put it down. It's a captivating read that kept me at the edge of my seat. All the while, I was learning SAT vocabulary. It's like killing two birds with one stone!!! WOW
Rating:
Summary: Great idea!
Review: What a great idea it is to blend studying with fiction-reading! I bought this for my cousin who was taking the SAT and ended up reading it first. SAT words are used throughout the story. The context of use lets you pretty much guess the meaning of many of the words. The true acid test was if it helped my cousin on the SAT. She said that it worked better than blindly memorizing words. She also said she read the book a few times as a studying tool.
Rating:
Summary: Great idea!
Review: What a great idea it is to blend studying with fiction-reading! I bought this for my cousin who was taking the SAT and ended up reading it first. SAT words are used throughout the story. The context of use lets you pretty much guess the meaning of many of the words. The true acid test was if it helped my cousin on the SAT. She said that it worked better than blindly memorizing words. She also said she read the book a few times as a studying tool.
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