Showing titles in Literature & Fiction

Sarah Crewe is treated like a princess at Miss Minchin's boarding school - until her father dies, leaving her peniless. Now she must struggle as a servant to evil Miss Minchin, but the intellgent, kind-hearted girl never loses hope. From her garrett, she soon makes friends and finds incredible adventures. And good will and imagination ultimately triumph by this book's glorious ending. This beloved classic has been continuously in publication since 1905. Experienced Shakespearean actress Wanda McCaddon captures all the drama of Sarah Crewe's adventures as well as the accents of Miss Minchin, the scullery maid, and Sarah herself.

Whether performing his original tales or retelling an old classic, Bill Harley is one of the liveliest acts going in storytelling for kids. You'll hear a story about a little girl named Sarah as well as Harley's take on what might happen if a kid stayed up all night (something he never got to do as a child) and his version of the old English folktale "Fox's Sack."

Set in faraway India and the Aleutians, the animals and humans who inhabit Kipling's Jungle Books have been children's favorites for generations. Book I introduces the black panther Bagheera, the lame and evil tiger Shere Khan, the rock python Kaa, the brown bear Baloo who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle, the man cub Mowgli who lives with the wolves, Toomai of the elephants, and many others.

This collection of traditional Lakota stories is dedicated to children of all nations and races. The stories are a giveaway, a way of returning the gift of the stories preserved by Lakota elders and grandparents to pass on the traditions and perspectives of their people. These stories, usually told on winter evenings, are intended to teach proper behavior or a moral lesson, but without the narrow moralizing of many familiar fables.

Everybody knows an Aunt Edith - picky, disagreeable, animal-hating, who couldn't possibly ever have been a kid herself. Well, if you know that Tricky is Jack's escape-artist hamster, you can just imagine the fun in the story "Aunt Edith Meets Tricky." This is just one example of the potential for silliness loaded in this engaging collection, in which master storyteller and songster Bill Harley presents originals, as well as his own, unique takes on old favorites. Others include "Wacka Wacka Woo," "Soap Soap," "Is Not, Is Too," "Tara and the Magic Sack," and "Aiken Drum."

From the oldest "Cinderella" story in the world to a tale of a boy who lived among seals, storyteller Rafe Martin delivers imaginative and impressive tales that will delight the whole family. He presents his award-winning children's picture books, which originally developed from his performances. "The Rough-Face Girl," an ancient Algonquin Indian tale, may have been brought back to France by fur traders, where it became "Cinderella." "Foolish Rabbit," Martin's first children's book, is based on a 3,000-year-old story from India about facing fear, while "The Boy Who Lived with the Seals" is a longer version of a Native American tale about following our own visions. Finally, the evocative "The Boy Who Loved Mammoths" grew out of Martin's childhood wishes, dreams, and memories.

It's Lizzy's favorite holiday...Christmas! And this year, a very special surprise awaits Lizzy and her best friends, Eric and Petunia - a fantastic journey to the North Pole to visit Santa's workshop. This delightful story is read by actress Betty White.

Originally written as a protest against cruelty and ill treatment of horses, this compassionate tale has captured the imagination of generations of children. The saga begins with Black Beauty as a young thoroughbred in a stable with his beloved Squire Gordon, who is forced to sell the horse, beginning a tragic but exciting journey. The sweet-tempered horse must deal with broken knees, narrow escapes from disaster, and the drudgery of pulling a London cab for a cruel owner.

Full of eerie elegance and the underlying mysterious spirit of Japanese culture, these four Japanese ghost stories are performed by award-winning author and storyteller Rafe Martin in his engaging and inimitable style. The collection begins with "The Boy Who Drew Cats", a tale about the power of faith in one's own creativity, and continues with "Kogi", a dream vision in which the listener becomes a whale.

Pato is just a stuffed dinosaur, but he hopes that by emulating the giving and loving nature of Santa Claus, he'll become real. Can he do enough good deeds to make his wish a reality? This heartwarming story teaches us all to follow our dreams.

Are you tired of the traditional passive (or evil) female folktale characters? Doug Lipman has unearthed and reassembled 5 tales of women - but none of them are the hand-wringing variety. The heroines take command of their lives in entertaining and engaging ways. These tales come from all over the world, including Iraq, Poland, Vietnam, South Africa, and Spain. The collection includes "The Chicken Woman," "The Woman Who Saved the City," "The Clever Wife of Vietnam," "The One with the Star on Her Forehead" (more commonly known to Westerners as "Snow White" but with an unexpected twist), and "La Muerta: Godmother Death."

Here are some of the most enchanting fairy stories of all time. The Brothers Grimm conjure up a world of fantasy, hope and good fortune where the princess meets and marries the right prince (even if he once was a frog), and where the cruel witch, the arrogant wife and the greedy wolf get their comeuppance.

Five tales which range from the jungles of India to the frozen emptiness of the North... In all of them, Kipling's extraordinary powers of description and ability to identify with human aspiration and animal survival are vividly shown. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi must battle with Nag, the cobra, in his territory; Toomai has a unique glimpse of the elephant world, Kotick, the White Seal, searches for sanctuary, while Kotuko has to find food for his starving Eskimo village. Above all, Kipling's love of life in all its variety shines through.

Alice's adventures, funny, inventive, and disturbing, have fascinated and delighted children and adults alike since their publication. The fantasy worlds in which she finds herself introduce her to characters as varied and well-known as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, and the Cheshire Cat.

Robin Hood, one of the great legends of England, lives again in this re-telling of the famous story. Dressed in Lincoln green, with his longbow never far from his hands, he moves through Sherwood Forest, with the help of his companions Little John, Will Scarlett, Friar Tuck, and Lady Marion, righting wrongs done by the Sheriff of Nottingham and his mysterious sister, the Prioress.

Now Anne is sixteen and a half and is about to start teaching at the very same school she hefself attended. Those of you who know Anne will realise that she has always been delighfully, accident prone, falling into scrapes because of her plans and adventures.

In the grotesque bell-ringer Quasimodo, Victor Hugo created one of the most vivid characters in classic fiction. Quasimodo's doomed love for the beautiful gipsy girl Esmeralda is an example of the traditional love theme of beauty and the beast. Yet, set against the massive background of Notre Dame de Paris and interwoven with the sacred and secular life of medieval France, it takes on a larger perspective.

There was once a time, nearly four thousand years ago, when the tall towers of a city called Troy reached gleaming into the sky; when its proud king fought against an invading army in a desperate siege.

Alice is back in her room, stroking her cats - but not for long. Slipping through the Looking-Glass, she meets another wild collection of fantasy characters including the Red and White Kings and Queens, Tweedledum and Tweedledee and is entertained by the poems "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter."

Eleven-year old orphan Anne Shirley has red hair, a vivid imagination and cannot stop talking. Quite a shock for old Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert who wanted a boy to help them on the farm... Anne is soon the talk of the town with her funny ways and endless adventures, but it is not long before she has won the hearts of everyone. This classic story is set in Canada at the beginning of the 20th century and is one of the most enduring favorites of children's literature.