Children Anthology

"Children of the Bedtime Machine”, a story by Robert McCammon, was originally published in the 2012 anthology Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury.

Eloise hasn't quite figured out how to move on after the death of her son, Eddie. She makes good money, buys a new apartment, learns the piano, engages in an office flirtation, but nothing seems to brighten her days quite like the occasional letter from one of her accounting clients, Ed B. When, after months of correspondence, Ed invites Eloise to his country home for a visit, she finds herself overwhelmed by the "Eddies" of her life - the one she lost, the one she writes to, and the one she's eternally searching for.

"Years later," Donald Davis remember of his childhood," I came to realize that when you come from a long-dammed-up Scots-Irish gene pool it is an okay thing to wish for something, but it is not an OK thing to get it."

Alan Bennett reads The Owl and the Pussy-Cat and Other Nonsense Rhymes by Edward Lear. The poems and limericks include "The Daddy Long-Legs and the Fly", "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat", "The Duck and the Kangaroo", "The Table and the Chair", "The Broom, the Shovel, the Poker and the Tongs", "Mr and Mrs Discobbolos", "The Nutcrackers and the Sugar Tongs", "The Two Old Bachelors", "The Pobble Who Has No Toes", "The Jumblies", "The Dog with a Luminous Nose", and many more.

From the world’s favourite author, David Walliams–ten cautionary tales and a delightfully dreadful cast of characters. Are you ready to meet the World’s Worst Children? Five beastly boys and five gruesome girls!

Millions of young listeners have loved the World's Worst Children tales. Now they will revel in this delightfully dreadful collection of the most gruesome grown-ups ever: The World's Worst Teachers. Think your teachers are bad? Wait till you meet this lot. These 10 tales of the world's most splendidly sinister teachers will have you running for the school gates. Dr Dread teaches science and is half man, half monster. Watch out for the ghastly Miss Seethe. She is always furious and she's on a detention rampage.

Stranded aliens seek out Earth's most intelligent species. (Hint: It's not us.) A bully discovers the meaning of "spatial displacement." Two girls find out why you should never annoy a witch. When a swarm of sneaking, slashing, scurrying ninja weenies invades their neighborhood, a boy and his best friend find a way to fight back. Here are 33 hilarious and harrowing stories that will scare you, make you laugh, or see the world in a whole new way. Find out where David got the idea for each story at the end of the book. Don't be a weenie. Listen to these stories. If you dare!

A collection of killer stories from some of today's hottest crime fiction writers, edited by grandmaster and #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child. Killer Year is a group of thirteen authors whose first novels were published in the year 2007. Now, each member of this widely-praised organization has written a story with his or her own unique twist on the world of crime.

From the award-winning author of Hidden Talents, two remarkable short-story collections - Kidzilla and The Witch's Monkey - together for the first time. Plus several brand-new stories. Each hilarious and harrowing. A substitute teacher finds out she has some monsters for students. A group of kids attempts a levitation trick with hair-raising results. A neighborhood is so boring the grown-ups are turning into...well...you know. And dozens more.

Love and marriage. Children and family. Death and grief. Life touches everyone the same. But living under lockdown, it changes us alone. In these ten beautifully moving short stories written mostly over the last year, Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle paints a collective portrait of our strange times.

Our greatest fears are brought to life in this collection of spine-chilling tales. An ordinary round of the Lava Game turns terrifying. An old lodge for loggers is haunted by a miserable ghost. A boy thinks he's home alone until he finds evidence someone else is there with him.

From the phenomenal number-one best seller David Walliams comes another collection of more hilariously horrible children! Just when you thought it was safe to go back to your bookshelf, 10 more horrendously hilarious stories about the absolute worst children ever! From 10-year-old Hank and his endless pranks on his poor, long-suffering family to Tandy and her titanic tantrums, this brand-new collection is the perfect companion to World's Worst Children books 1 and 2 and an ideal gift for the worst children in your life!

Newly re-mastered for digital formats, this is the definitive recording of Hans Christian Andersen's six best-loved stories. Narrator Diane Wolkstein, the artistic director of the Hans Christian Andersen Center in New York City, tells Andersen stories throughout the world. She is the author of 23 award-winning books of folklore and has been honored by the National Storytelling Network as a recipient of its coveted Circle of Excellence Award, a designation reserved for America's best living storytellers.

A grieving mother makes a spreadsheet of everyone she’s lost. Elsewhere, a professor develops a troubled intimacy with her hairdresser. And every year, a restless woman receives an email from a strange man twice her age and several states away. In Yiyun Li’s stories, people strive for an ordinary existence until doing so becomes unsustainable, until the surface cracks and the grand mysterious forces—death, violence, estrangement—come to light. And even everyday life is laden with meaning, studded with indelible details.

This reissue of the 1919 classic combines the immortal stories from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey into one glorious saga of heroism and magical adventure. Beloved by generations, Padraic Colum's masterful retelling of these epic adventures is remarkably fresh, consistently spellbinding, and unmatched for its richness and poetry.

Young children live with awe and wonder as their daily companions. But as they grow, worries often crowd out wonder. Knowing this, how can parents strengthen their kids' love for the world so it sticks around for the long haul? Thankfully, parents have at their fingertips a miracle vaccine - one that can boost their kids' immunity to the world's distractions: stories. Well-chosen stories connect us with others, even those on the other side of the globe.

From the heart of the Appalachian Mountains come these folktales and folk rhymes for young children. In this recording of timeless children's tales, Davis, one of our most gifted storytellers, weaves for a new generation the same tales his grandmother told him as he sat in her lap so many years ago.

This collection of spine-chilling stories is sure to scare you silly. A movie about alien invasion transforms into real life. A hunt in a snowy forest suddenly turns dangerous when a monster appears. A great-aunt comes back from the dead, just in time for a little girl's birthday party.

Sevastiano Cantarelli can barely believe Amy Taylor is real. After the lifetime of betrayal he’s experienced, her surprising sweetness is the ultimate threat to his cynical worldview! Unwrapping her innocence was a gift he couldn’t forget...but one he knows it wouldn’t be fair to repeat. Their encounter left Amy exhilarated - and wanted for the first time. She knows that walking away from the commanding Italian is the safest way to keep her heart intact. Yet it’s the one thing she can’t do...because she’s pregnant with Sevastiano’s twins!

A boy discovers the answer to one of the great urban mysteries: Why are pigeons always pooping in parks? A second-grade class learns why they should always be nice to their math teacher. An ancient predator uses the internet to search out its prey. A young girl and her little brother escape a campfire weenie only to encounter something even more terrifying: a troop of Girl Scouts singing campfire songs.