Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

The Power of One	Customer Rating:
This book is one of the inspirational and incredible reads one will ever find. After having read is numerous times I am still coming back for more and will soon have to purchase a new copy.

Above and Beyond	Customer Rating:
This is an excellent book which I was not able to purchase locally to send to my daughter in Omaha, Ne. It was, unfortunately, lost in transit and I was not able to trace it through the Omaha post office. I contacted Amazon and they sent another copy to my daughter at no further cost to me.Thank you for a great book and the great service. Both my daughter and I are impressed.

200 More Pages???

Customer Rating:

I used to mock people who would say "I wish there were another 200 pages." For the first time in my life, after reading this book, I find myself making this assertion. I was pleased to find out Courtenay wrote a sequel, but a bit dismayed to discover it is 900 pages. My only negatve feedback: Peekay was, at times, too flawless and predictable. However, I'm quite sure Courenay intended it so...after all, it is a semi-memoir of his own life, except that Peekay responded to the situations in ways that Courtenay wished he himself would have.

Inspiring

Customer Rating:

I just happened upon this book at the bookstore, one of the employees highly recommended it to me. It was magical; the writing was to me reminiscient of the works of Mark Twain. I am a history buff so the fact that it it takes place in South Africa during World War II was a plus to me. The only (slight) criticism I have is that it is a very long book (500+ pages) and I have a bit of ADD. This does not stop me from giving this book five stars.

I Usually Don't Write Reviews ...

Customer Rating:

However, this book is WELL worth every minute it may take you read it. I've had the book for several months and finally opened it last week. After reading "The Power of One", if you don't laugh, cry, tremble, smile, hit something, or hug something, you are inhuman. This is by far one of the most heartwarming and heartwrenchingly beautiful books I have ever read. By the way, if you are thinking about getting the movie after reading this book, this is what the movie description says: "The Power of One is an intriguing story of a young English boy named P.K. and his passion for changing the world. Growing up he suffered as the only English boy in an Afrikaans school. Soon orphaned, he was placed in the care of a German national named Professor von Vollensteen (a.k.a. "Doc"), a friend of his grandfather. Doc develops P.K.'s piano talent and P.K. becomes "assistant gardener" in Doc's cactus garden. It is not long after WWII begins that Doc is placed in prison for failure to register with the English government as a foreigner. P.K. makes frequent visits and meets Geel Piet, an inmate, who teaches him to box. Geel Piet spreads the myth of the Rainmaker, the one who brings peace to all of the tribes. P.K. is cast in the light of this myth. After the war P.K. attends an English private school where he continues to box. He meets a young girl, Maria, with whom he falls in love. Her father, Professor Daniel Marais, is a leader of the Nationalist Party of South Africa. The two fight to teach the natives English as P.K.'s popularity grows via the myth. Maria is killed. P.K. looses focus until he sees the success of his language school among the tribes. He and Guideon Duma continue the work in hopes of building a better future for Africa." WHAT?!? P.K? Orphaned? The Rainmaker? Where is the Judge? Or Grandpa Chook? Where is the Crystal Cave? Where is Morrie? Where are the mines? Where is the dream of "Welterweight Champion of the World", not to mention Hoppie? I suppose you can't blame Hollywood for making such a botchery of a book like this. There is no possible way it could EVER be felt on screen the way it is with words. However, it is unforgivable that PEEKAY (Not P.K.) was not known as the Tadpole Angel. I suppose that if you've never read the book, the movie would be standard Hollywood fluff, with all the political, cutsie, hero-that-changes-the-world, love story type stuff that people seem to go for. Which is also the reason I prefer to read and this is one book I will read again and again and again.