This book reads like a middle school level with some grammar errors
596268
This book reads like a middle school level with some grammar errors.  There is more technical information than I was interested in.  I thought is was going to tell more about his character development, which it did touch on.  But overall, still interesting.
1661540
They're not kidding about the idiot part.  There is some interesting information in this book, but the writing is about a fifth grade level and I don't think they had an editor.  Some paragraphs read like a poorly composed rough draft from an undergrad student.  I'm not exaggerating just to be harsh.  Do a little more searching and get a book or two by a better author.
4819578
This author needs a good editor.  There are typos and editing mistakes throughout the book. For example, here's a sentence from page 423: "Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Bugatti, and Ferrari are prestigious names in the history of car making." These are silly mistakes that are expected in early drafts, not in the final version. Occasionally there are small syntax errors that draw attention to themselves, making the book uncomfortable for a native speaker of English to read. An editor or English teacher could have fixed these problems quite easily. Overall, the writing is rambling, redundant and poorly organized. The author could have cut out 100 pages without losing any information. It is typical for him to say the same simple thing ten different ways in order to fill a chapter. At the same time, he sometimes mentions events or concepts that should be (briefly) explained, but without explaining them. He often makes opinionated statements without providing references to support them. If one of the chapters from this book had been submitted as a term paper in a school where this book is being used, it would have received a C at best. Much better books can by found right here on Amazon by using "modern Italy" or "Italian history" as search terms.
4170929
I found this book to be rather amateurishly written, with spelling and grammatical errors. While there were some interesting cases I had never heard about before, it reads like a high school book report.
4475664
I wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I felt the grammar problems really ruined it. I think that if this book was professionally edited it could be pretty good, but there are a lot of structural and basic sentence problems.
3001222
I, too am attractedby the suspense here, but I doubt that I will be able to finish the book.  My 9th graders would have their papers returned as unacceptable for the number of basic grammatical errors in this book.  "should have went" (several times)  REALLY?? This author needs an editor whose knowledge of spelling and grammar is a lot better.  One can excuse some things as typos, but that is not the case here.  The book has good ideas, but it is HORRIBLY written.
3722493
This book has the potential to be an excellent story.  I enjoyed the plot and the characters. I especially like how Cali saved Willow and sent Jennie back home to her family.  And of course I liked Blackhawk and Cali, Smilingeyes and Snowman (could there be a better name for him?)  But the poor grammar, spelling, syntax and wordiness drew my attention away from character development and progression of the story.  If this book was carefully edited and rewritten to tighten up the dialogue and descriptions, as well as to check the grammar and spelling, it could be an excellent book.  Halfway through the book I was trying to decide if I really wanted to finish it because these issues were such a distraction to me.  I did finish it, but will probably delete from my Kindle because I won't read it again.
7059
I really wanted to like this book, and the concepts really appeal to me (technology, startup companies, and the Asian setting). However I could not get past the terrible grammar that seems to be prevalent throughout this book. Whenever I sat down to read I was annoyed at the obvious lack of proof-reading.

Examples:
"Why not visiting China and seeing it with my own eyes?"
"How will I ever pay you for these dream?"
"And third, I seat in the board of many companies"
"Its set of artists copes all charts, across all genres."

The writing style and grammatical errors make this book too difficult to enjoy. Perhaps some people aren't bothered by this, but it bothered me. After four attempts to get into this book I gave up.

UPDATE BASED ON REVISED EDITION:
The revised edition is quite an improvement, and is definitely readable. But in many cases the dialog feels forced and a bit unnatural. It is a reasonable story, but the conclusion seemed both sudden and lacking the finesse of an experienced author. But as I said previously, I really like the concepts.
2869422
I almost put this book down after reading just a few sentences. There were too many basic grammatical errors and far too many misspellings. It is not good for the children to see all those mistakes. They get the impression that spelling and grammar are not important when writing. I must decline from recommending this book.

Gaston Sanders, Author
1779880
So I just finished reading this and my eyes are still smarting from errors in the text, periods misplaced, quote marks missing is the most common, quote marks misplaced, spelling or word errors like flue instead of flu or by instead of bye. And the text language? If it needs to have another paragraph to explain the text shorthand then just write it out correctly. Readers don't need to see "meet med garden" to have the next sentence say they are meeting at the meditation garden. The storyline was ok, the wolves and witch world description/explanation wasn't very smooth and some things were repeated a little too precisely ie the sentence seemed copy pasted from earlier in the book. Some of the characters were not as detailed as they could have been, physical descriptions of everyone but the main character and the two girls were not reinforced through out the book, and really all I remember about Stella is that her hair is short, curly and her skin is a "beautiful cafe au lait" and she has a short waist...sometimes the storyline is a little clunky. Otherwise I think the writer needs practice so maybe the next books will be better written and edited for errors.
328707
The imaginative premise of this book was fun, and I really enjoyed that. However, on another level, it had certain elements that kept taking me out of the moment. Incorrect grammar that should have been caught in editing and the formatting for the Kindle edition were distracting. Thought changes indicated by a dash were the exact same as the dash between compunded words which caused me to have to re-read many parts to understand what was happening. Time and location changes within a chapter had literally no space between paragraphing, again causing me to have to re-read to understand that a change had occured with no indications. Also, childish names and too many child-like creations in the imagined world created a book that felt that it was written for young adult fiction, but the themes were clearly meant for an older audience with more life experience and culture understanding. I would like to see more from this author, but with a better editor.
4146677
I bought this book to improve my reading skills, but it has a lot of grammar mistake, writing as she is talking, Even some words does not make any sense. This book makes me fell like a first grade student's writing.
4311181
Pros: Fine for read aloud.  Exciting stories for young (K-1st) grade children who are ready for chapter books.

Cons: Serious grammar and usage problems that may rub off on the children's own writing.  Poorly-developed plotlines with not enough "meat" for the age level of children they are meant to target.

I have used these books as read-aloud for my two children.  Currently I am reading them aloud at nighttime to our daughter, age six. Our daughter reads on a second-grade level, however, and has started reading these books independently, only coming to me for help with words she cannot sound out.

I didn't mind the grammar and phrasing problems when using these books strictly as read aloud, because I could correct the problems on my own as I read.  However, Mary Pope Osborn seems to really enjoy the use of incomplete sentences, particularly those starting with "and".  As a former second grade teacher this really, really gives me a nervous twitch in my eye!  This is only the most egregious and obvious of the grammar and phrasing problems that, for whatever reason, go unnoticed by Ms. Osborn's editors and by Ms. Osborn herself.

I won't go ahead and give specific examples, since this has been well covered by previous reviewers.  However, I do want to add my voice to the voices of those parents and educators who worry that this modeling of incorrect grammar may well rub off on young fans of the series.  When I was teaching second grade, the students would have been expected to catch and then edit these type of mistakes out of their Writer's Workshop stories by about mid-January.  I certainly expect a published author to be able to have as much respect for grammar and readability as my second grade students!  I can respect an author's "style" to a degree, but I do believe that an author of children's literature should at least use correct grammar rather than "dumbing down" the sentences in what I suspect is a misguided attempt to make them easier for the children to read.  (Children are smarter -- and better educated -- than you think, Ms. Osborn!)

On a positive note, the stories do keep our daughter engaged and excited, as they did our son when he was her age.  However, the plots are extremely simplistic, bare bones, just plain not well developed.  The actual reading level appears to be that of an average late first to second grade reader, yet my experience is that second graders expect a bit more "meat" to their stories.  I know that by late second grade our son had, for example, moved on to the Chronicles of Narnia.  The Magic Tree House set is, in my opinion, excellent for read aloud for kindergarten and first grade readers and perhaps as independent reading for first graders, struggling second graders, or those children who have problems with attention span.  However, the teacher or parent of any independent reader will have to take care that Ms. Pope's writing style does not negatively impact the emerging writing skills of the child.

In short... Ms. Osborn, please correct your grammar!
1643015
I found that the overall plot wasn't bad, a little repetative in themes though. One of the big problems is the grammar and lack of commas. I looked up the publisher and found out its a self publisher which explains the lack of editing which would've really helped this book. I think its an alright read. Ive read much better but also much worse if you can get past the lack of editing.
1463575
The story is intriguing, if far fetched, and the dialogue between the friends is believable. However the writing is stilted and choppy, awkward and clumsy. It seemed as if it was written by a highschooler, which made some of the sex scenes uncomfortable to read, thinking of a 15-year-old writing them. The book also needs some serious editing - everywhere there should not have been an apostrophe, there was  one (they had some beer's), and when an apostrophe was required, there wasn't one. There was little punctuation (commas make a difference!), lots of run-on sentences that I had to read two or three times to understand, and the requisite their/there mistake. I'd actually like to know how the story continues (this was part1 of a series , not standalone), but it's not worth paying for. Classes or a writer's  circle could benefit this author immensely.
36519
I liked that this story has MCs whose ages are over 35 and that it deals with the vagaries of dating, but the story could have been much better. It really needs an editor! Misplaced punctuation, incomplete sentences, incorrect grammar, and just poor writing plague the reader throughout the story, including stupid homonym mistakes such as using perimeter where parameter should have been used. It could have been a contender...
583640
The storyline was good enough, though I felt like it wandered from subject to subject a bit too much.  It also spelled out a lot of details that didn't matter and only served to slow things down.

But then there were the grammar errors.  Oh, the errors.  The author needs to learn the proper usage of "its" vs. "it's" and pay more attention to punctuation and things of that nature.  Seeing basic writing errors in a published story really pulls you out of the moment and ruins the experience.  I've noticed this in every book of the series, and I don't understand how the books managed to get published with so many errors in place.