Johanna Ward
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While playing in a gravel pit, five siblings-Robert, Anthea, Cyril, Jane and baby Lamb-unearth Psammead, a sand-fairy who has the ability to grant wishes. Unfortunately, the Psammead has been buried so long that his magic has grown rusty, and the children's wishes go humorously awry. When the children wish to be beautiful, their servants think them strangers and throw them out onto the street. When they wish for jewelry for their mother, all the jewelry...
2) Outcast
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Cast out because of his Roman birth by the Celtic tribe that raised him, fifteen-year-old Beric feels increasingly bitter isolation when, after reaching a Roman settlement, he is sold into slavery and sentenced to serve in a galley for the rest of his life.
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In completing Jane Austen's last novel, Julia Barrett has emerged with a literary treasure, holding true to the characters and theme designed by Ms. Austen. Set in the developing seaside town of Sanditon, it portrays a young woman from the countryside who is exposed to the sophistication and cynicism of resort life. Her name is Charlotte. With disarming charm and wit, she observes for us the array of quirky characters who reside in the booming resort-to-be....
4) Heidi
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Contains the complete text of the story of a young girl from the Swiss Alps whose life takes a dramatic turn when she must go to live in the city, leaving behind the people and the mountains she loves, with annotations providing background information on the history, geography, social customs, and the arts of the era.
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"We seek him here! we seek him there!
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere!
Is he in heaven? Is he in hell?
That demmed elusive Pimpernel?"
Sir Percy thought he left his enemy vanquished, humiliated, and debased in Calais.
Oh, how foolish he was.
Now Chauvelin is bent on revenge.
As punishment for letting the Scarlet Pimpernel escape the clutches of the French Republic, Chauvelin was demoted from the ranks of Robspierre's trusted...
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British journalist Stephen Sharkey escapes the trauma of covering the terrorist attacks on New York City to live in a country cottage and write a book about violence and the reporter's complicity in it, and learns, along with his former partner's widow, Kate Frobisher, that no place is completely safe.
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Alvina Houghton is bored by her little town, and feels trapped after her plans to elope with her lover falls through. Though she had previously dreamed of training as a nurse, Alvina is unsure what to do with her life. Alvina comes of age as her father, James, faces the failure of his business. She has a difficult relationship with her father. He is a man who never fully indulged in his passions, but has made eccentric financial decisions. In attempt...
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The Enchanted Castle (1907) is a children's fantasy novel by English writer Edith Nesbit. Using elements of magic and mystery familiar to readers of her beloved Bastable and Psammead Trilogies, Nesbit crafts a tale of wonder and adventure for children and adults alike.
While on a school holiday, children Jerry, Jimmy, and Kathy explore the open landscape of rural southwestern England. One day, they discover an immense country estate, designed like...
11) The Magic World
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The Magic World (1909) is a collection of twelve children's fantasy stories by English writer Edith Nesbit. Using elements of magic and mystery familiar to readers of her beloved Bastable and Psammead Trilogies, Nesbit crafts tales of wonder and adventure for children and adults alike.
In "The Cat-hood of Maurice," a young boy learns firsthand the consequences of mistreating the family cat. One day, Maurice attaches an empty sardine can to Lord...
12) I Will Repay
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I Will Repay was written by Baroness Emmuska Orczy and originally published in 1906, this is a sequel novel to the Scarlet Pimpernel. The second Pimpernel book written by Orczy, it comes chronologically third in the series, after Sir Percy Leads the Band and before The Elusive Pimpernel. The story starts in 1784, before the French revolution. Wealthy Paul Déroulède has offended the young Vicomte de Marny by speaking disrespectfully of his latest...
14) Cousin Bette
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Cousin Bette (1846) is a novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Part of Balzac's La Comédie humaine sequence, the novel is recognized as being the author's last fully-realized work, and features several characters who appear elsewhere throughout his legendary series. It has inspired several film and television adaptations, as well as earned comparisons to Shakespeare's Othello and Tolstoy's War and Peace.
The novel focuses on the life and exploits...
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When Scheherazade marries a ruthless king known for taking a new bride each night only to have his wife killed the next morning, she comes up with a clever plan to survive. Each night, she tells the king a story. And each morning, the king postpones her execution so he can hear how it ends. Scheherazade's stories continued for one thousand and one nights. The text was first translated from Arabic into English in the early eighteenth century. In the...
18) St. Peter's fair
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Lovely Emma Vernold takes Brother Cadfael into her confidence in the matter of the murder of her uncle, and Cadfael must rescue her from a terrible fate.
19) Broken Ground
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After living in America for many years, Kaethe Shalk returns to Berlin to search for the daughter she lost. Now in the metaphorical broken ground left by the demise of the Berlin Wall, she encounters the isolated parts of her past and present.
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The Song of Bernadette is considered one of the twentieth century's greatest novels of triumphant religious faith. How the book came to be written is itself an inspirational and even miraculous story. In 1940, famed Austrian author Franz Werfel and his wife were on a desperate flight from the Nazi invaders, whom Franz had publicly denounced. Repeatedly thwarted in their attempts to cross the French border, they found temporary refuge in Lourdes, home...