In 1835, a publishing firm asked McGuffey to create a series of graded Readers for primary-level students. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays, and speeches, and it is estimated that at least 120 million copies of McGuffey's Reader were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster’s Dictionary.

In 1835, a publishing firm asked McGuffey to create a series of graded Readers for primary level students. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays and speeches and it is estimated that at least 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960.

In 1835, a publishing firm asked McGuffey to create a series of graded Readers for primary level students. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays and speeches and it is estimated that at least 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960.

Born in 1800, William Holmes McGuffey had a remarkable ability to memorize, and could commit to mind entire books of the Bible. After becoming a teacher at the age of 14, classroom size was just one of several challenges faced by McGuffey. In many one-teacher schools, students - ages varied from six to twenty-one, and few textbooks existed. In 1835, a publishing firm asked McGuffey to create a series of graded Readers for primary level students. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays and speeches and it is estimated that at least 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960.

Elementary Geography was originally written by educator Charlotte Mason in the 1880s, yet this beloved book for elementary-aged students still garners attention today. Blue Sky Daisies brings you the same classic book, completely re-typeset in a pleasing and fresh format. Miss Mason’s conversational tone teaches children about their world, from its place in the solar system to their place in its lands. Elementary Geography also includes over a dozen poetry selections throughout the book, chosen by Miss Mason to complement the chapter topics.

When Jenny Wren learns that Peter Rabbit would like to know more about the four-footed friends who live in the Green Meadows and Green Forest, she recommends Old Mother Nature who is happy to teach him. She tells Peter about a range of creatures such as Arctic Hare and Antelope Jack, Flying Squirrel, Mountain Beaver, Pocket Gopher, Grasshopper Mouse, Silvery Bat, Mule Deer and Grizzly Bear. This absorbing book teaches children about the many forms of wildlife and the animals' relationships with one another.

First published in 1869, 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. Although it was commenced essentially as a children's book, it developed into something of a bildungsroman, which touches on more serious issues such as the difficulties faced by single-parent families, the death of a sibling, and fractured relationships.

Combined into one volume, this is the definitive collection of Tolkien's five acclaimed modern classic 'fairie' tales in the vein of The Hobbit, read by Derek Jacobi. The five tales are written with the same skill, quality and charm that made The Hobbit a classic. Largely overlooked because of their short lengths, they are joined here in one volume which reaffirms Tolkien's place as a master storyteller for listeners young and old.

Indoors are servants, meals, and furniture. There, too, is The Man of Wrath, her upright Teutonic husband, inspiring in Elizabeth a mixture of irritation, affection, and irreverence. But outside she can escape domestic routine, read favorite books, play with her three babies and garden to her heart's content. Through Elizabeth's eyes we watch the seasons, from May's "oasis of bird-cherries and greenery" to the time when "snow carpets her Pomeranian wilderness".

A collection of classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales, pulled from Margaret Hunt's 1884 translation. Including: The Little Brother and Little Sister", "Hansel and Gretel", "Oh, If I Could but Shiver!", "Dummling and the Three Feathers", "Little Snow-White", "Frederick and Catherine", "The Valiant Little Tailor", "Little Red-Cap", "The Golden Goose", "Bearskin", "Cinderella", "Faithful John", "The Water of Life", "Thumbling", "Briar Rose", and "The Six Swans," among others.

The Children's Book Of Christmas Stories is a wonderful assortment of 35 Christmas-themed tales that have been chosen by editor Asa Dickinson. Authors include Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Andersen, Susan Coolidge, and Elizabeth Harrison. Whether it is for children, or for family gatherings, everyone is sure to be captivated and enthralled!

This is a captivating, good-humored look at family life in a small farming community in Indiana in the early 1900s.

No one would accuse 11-year-old Caddie Woodlawn of being dainty and ladylike. In spite of her mother’s best efforts, Caddie is as wild as the wind, playing freely and rambunctiously with her two brothers in the Wisconsin backwoods. There are rafts to build and trees to climb and pranks to play. Caddie especially likes to watch her friend Indian John build birchbark canoes at the river. Every day seems wide with possibility - as wide as the frontier. But living on the edge of civilization has its risks, too....

The story opens on the first sledding day of the season, and all of the children in town are out in force. Our hero and heroine, 13-year-olds Jack Minot and Janey Pecq, go down a particularly treacherous run and are both seriously injured. Over the next year, Jack and Jill (as she is called) are nurtured back to health by their widowed mothers. As the seasons pass, we become intimately acquainted with not only Jack and Jill, but their group of friends.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm has delighted readers for over 100 years. Published in 1903, when girls were inevitably depicted as pretty, gentle and proper, Rebecca Rowena Randall burst onto the scene of children's literature. Sent to live with her prim and proper Aunt Miranda, who is expecting her much more demure sister, Rebecca is a "bird of a very different feather".

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness. Readily accessible by children, they present lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity that appeal to mature listeners as well. This collection of 18 tales includes "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Princess and the Pea", and "The Snow Queen".

This is a captivating, good-humored look at family life in a small farming community in Indiana in the early 1900s.

The story opens on the first sledding day of the season, and all of the children in town are out in force. Our hero and heroine, 13-year-olds Jack Minot and Janey Pecq, go down a particularly treacherous run and are both seriously injured. Over the next year, Jack and Jill (as she is called) are nurtured back to health by their widowed mothers. As the seasons pass, we become intimately acquainted with not only Jack and Jill, but their group of friends.

First published in 1869, 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. Although it was commenced essentially as a children's book, it developed into something of a bildungsroman, which touches on more serious issues such as the difficulties faced by single-parent families, the death of a sibling, and fractured relationships.

Good Poems includes poems about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendence. It features the work of classic poets, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost, as well as the work of contemporary greats such as Howard Nemerov, Charles Bukowski, Donald Hall, Billy Collins, Robert Bly, and Sharon Olds Good Poems includes poems about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendence.

Can young Hans Brinker win the silver skates that are the only hope of saving his family from ruin? Hans and his little sister Gretel live in Holland, a colorful and exciting country of windmills and great canals. Unfortunately, the Brinkers are very poor and their father is ill, and Hans wonders whether they'll survive the long, harsh winter. Then he finds out about an ice skating race, and the prize - a pair of shiny silver skates - that might help his family survive.

When Bev and Felix arrive at the King farm in Prince Edward Island, they have no idea of the adventures and memories in store for them. Is old Peg Bowen really a witch? What secrets does the neighbor keep hidden in his spare room? What if tomorrow is the end of the world? And what is in the old blue chest? Along with their cousins, they learn the value of work and play, the wisdom of proverbs, how to struggle with temptations and face their fears.

The sudden death of the father of the family results in the drastic reduction of the Careys' income and they must leave their comfortable home in Boston. Nancy Carey, the eldest, recalls a vacation in Maine when they all picnicked in the garden of a big, vacant house that her father loved. She discovers that the house is available, the rent is cheap, and persuades her mother that life in The Yellow House in Beulah, Maine is the perfect place to begin their new life.

The Doones are a clan of murdering thieves, and among their victims is John Ridd's father. The strong, noble Ridd determines to avenge his father's death; but his plans are complicated when he falls in love with one of the hated family - the beautiful Lorna. Lorna is promised against her will to another; and that other will not let her go lightly. Set amid the political turmoils of the late 17th century, Lorna Doone brings West Country history and legends alive with wonderfully imaginative fiction.

In 1697, Quebec is an island of French civilization perched on a bare gray rock amid a wilderness of trackless forests. For many of its settlers, Quebec is a place of exile, so remote that an entire winter passes without a word from home. But to 12-year-old Cécile Auclair, the rock is home, where even the formidable Governor Frontenac entertains children in his palace and beavers lie beside the lambs in a Christmas créche.

One of the best-known collections of W. B. Yeats' prose, The Celtic Twilight explores the old connection between the Irish people and the magical world of fairies. Yeats, by traveling the land in the early 20th century and talking to the common people about their experiences with the creatures, yielded a colorful overview of Celtic fairy folklore.

Since their first publication in 1812, Grimm's Fairy Tales have proven to be an enduring feature of Western literature. The stories have been translated into over 100 languages worldwide, and their influence has cast its spell on many film makers, as well. The stories were collected from traditional storytellers from around Germany, usually women, and the motivation to collect them grew out of the wave of romantic nationalism of the early 19th century.

Combined into one volume, this is the definitive collection of Tolkien's five acclaimed modern classic 'fairie' tales in the vein of The Hobbit, read by Derek Jacobi. The five tales are written with the same skill, quality and charm that made The Hobbit a classic. Largely overlooked because of their short lengths, they are joined here in one volume which reaffirms Tolkien's place as a master storyteller for listeners young and old.

On a farm in western Missouri, during the first half of the twentieth century, Matthew and Callie Soames create a life for themselves and raise four headstrong daughters. Jessica will break their hearts. Leonie will fall in love with the wrong man. Mary Jo will escape to New York. And wild child Mathy’s fate will be the family’s greatest tragedy. Over the decades they will love, deceive, comfort, forgive - and, ultimately, they will come to cherish all the more fiercely the bonds of love that hold the family together.

Cousin Phillis – a miniature masterpiece – is set in the 1840s, when the coming of the railway was changing the face of England, and quiet rural communities, coming into contact with the outside world, were changed forever. The story focuses on the effect these changes have on a naïve country girl, Phillis, as she encounters love, with all its pains and pleasures, for the first time.