Family Classics

Pauline, Petrova, and Posy love their quiet life together. They are orphans who have been raised as sisters, and when their new family needs money, the girls want to help. They decide to join the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training to earn their keep. Each girl works hard following her dream. Pauline is destined for the movies. Posy is a born dancer. And Petrova? She finds she'd rather be a pilot than perform a pirouette.

Austen’s heroine Elizabeth Bennet deals with the issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Austen at her wittiest.

A witty retelling of a well-known fairy tale features the adventures of two children who are abandoned in the forest and lured into the clutches of a witch by her confection cottage. By the creator of the George and Martha series.

It’s Christmas Eve in New Chapel, Indiana. But this night will be anything but silent in a brand new Flower Shop Mystery Novella from New York Times bestselling author of Moss Hysteria and Yews With Caution. After being hired to deliver poinsettias to Churchill’s department store in downtown New Chapel, feisty flower shop owner Abby Knight finds herself mixed up in the disappearance of everyone’s favorite Santa Claus, Mr. Churchill himself. Promising Churchill’s daughter that the legendary Christmas Eve celebration will not go on without her father, Abby must recruit her whole staff...

Ever since Paddington started working in the garden, it's been a bit quieter in the Brown household. But with Paddington around, things never stay quiet for long. From a paw-sticking toffee disaster to a slight scorching of Father Christmas' beard, Paddington brings a splash of adventure to every day.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as a gifted and original writer. When Quoyle, a 36-year-old, third rate newspaperman, learns that his two-timing wife has abandoned him and their two daughters, he returns to his ancestral home on the Newfoundland coast, to rebuild his life. We also recommend Proulx's, Accordion Crimes.

When Sara Stanley, the Story Girl, returns to Carlisle to spend the winter with the King family, she comes up with a great idea. To help them through the dreary months ahead, she, Felicity, Cecily, and Dan will publish a magazine. From “Personals” to “Fashion Notes,” from the etiquette column to its stories of the most interesting happenings in Carlisle, Our Magazine quickly becomes the most entertaining publication anyone in town has ever read.

In the early years of our country, a poor school teacher, Justin Morgan, receives a horse and her tiny colt in payment for some work. He wishes he had been given money instead. Hoping that he might sell both horses for a fair price, he asks his student, Joel, to break in the colt. To his surprise, young Joel soon discovers that this small, brown creature has special abilities: "Bub" can pull more than a team of oxen, and he can run faster than a racehorse.

Summer, 1947. Kate Herrick, a war widow, returns to her childhood home for a final visit before the house is sold. But Rose Cottage is not the idyllic paradise she remembers from her youth and someone has been there before her. As Kate uncovers an old secret that haunts the home she thought she knew, she is forced to confront a dark truth from her own past.... Beyond the weedy garden with its riot of rose bushes, nothing had changed. And someone was crossing the bridge to approach the garden gate. Someone I knew well....

Meet the Stevens family as they prepare to embark on their yearly holiday to the coast of England. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens first made the trip to Bognor Regis on their honeymoon, and the tradition has continued ever since. They stay in the same guesthouse and follow the same carefully honed schedule - now accompanied by their three children, 20-year-old Mary, 17-year-old Dick, and little brother Ernie.

Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian is the unforgettable story of young Willie Beech, evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of the Second World War. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the unlikely care of grumpy old Tom Oakley. But then his new-found happiness is shattered by a summons from his mother to come back to London. As the weeks pass by, Tom begins to worry when William doesn't answer his letters, so he goes to London to find him, and there makes a terrible discovery.

This collection includes the remastered Online Stage productions of Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys as well as Comic Tragedies by Jo & Meg. Little Women is the story of four sisters growing up against the background of the American Civil War. Alcott wrote the book at the urging of the publisher, Thomas Niles, who was seeking a story about girls that would have popular appeal.

It's 1953 and 11-year-old Penny dreams of a summer of butter pecan ice cream, swimming, and baseball. But nothing's that easy in Penny's family. For starters, she can't go swimming because her mother's afraid she'll catch polio at the pool. To make matters worse, her favorite uncle is living in a car. Her Nonny cries every time her father's name is mentioned. And the two sides of her family aren?t speaking to each other!

Emily longs to attend Queen's Academy to earn her teaching license, but her tradition-bound relatives at New Moon refuse unless she lives with her disliked Aunt Ruth and gives up writing fiction. Emily reluctantly agrees and is surprised to find that her powers of storytelling continue to develop despite her family's rules. Through a series of adventures, she is furnished with materials to write stories and poems, and she begins to see romantic possibilities bloom.

Swept off course by a raging storm, a Swiss pastor, his wife, and their four young sons are shipwrecked on an uncharted tropical island. Thus begins the classic story of survival and adventure that has fired the imaginations of readers since it first appeared in 1812. With optimism and boundless enthusiasm, the Robinson family undertakes the extraordinary task of constructing a home for themselves and exploring the primitive island filled with strange and beautiful creatures and exotic fruits and plants.

New adventures lie ahead as Anne Shirley packs her bags, waves good-bye to childhood, and heads for Redmond College. With old friend Prissy Grant waiting in the bustling city of Kingsport and frivolous new pal Philippa Gordon at her side, Anne tucks her memories of rural Avonlea away and discovers life on her own terms, filled with surprises...including a marriage proposal from the worst fellow imaginable.

Texas in the early 1900s, its inhabitants still traveling by horseback and barely familiar with the telephone, was on the cusp of an oil boom that, unbeknownst to its residents, would spark a period of dramatic changes and economic growth. In the midst of this transformative time in Southern history, two unforgettable characters emerge and find their fates irrevocably intertwined.

Jules Verne achieved a triumph when his imagination, fired by Rudolph Wyss’ The Swiss Family Robinson was impelled to carry the story a step farther in The Castaways of the Flag. An island was ever his spiritual home; and no one was ever happier upon one. The Castaways of the Flag is a satisfactory sequel to The Swiss Family Robinson because it is the production of Jules Verne, an original genius, set in motion by Rudolph Wyss. Wherever The Swiss Family Robinson is heard, The Castaways of the Flag should also be heard.

Emily Starr, a young orphan girl growing up in the town of New Moon, acclimates to her new surroundings and gets to know the other children around her. An avid writer, Emily works hard to hone her skills and also learns more about the skills of her newfound friends.

Emily Starr is now seventeen years old and a high school graduate. With her newfound freedom, she grows as a writer and waits day in and day out for the return of her friend Teddy Kent, who went on to continue his education away from the town of New Moon. As her life unfurls, Emily is faced with heartache and newfound opportunities.