Short Family

A Christmas Carol is undoubtedly the most famous supernatural story in English. However, it was not the only supernatural story of the season that Charles Dickens wrote. In Victorian England, Christmas was the time to explore the supernatural in stories, and Charles Dickens was one of the best at it. Included in this volume are a full-cast dramatization of A Christmas Carol, plus three more of Dickens' best stories of the season.

The goings-on in a Welsh village in the 1950's as seen through the eyes of Jenny, a 10-year-old schoolgirl. This short story is about Mary, a 15-year-old girl with a dimple, and how Jenny the 10-year-old narrator believes that everything that happens to Mary is due to her provocative dimple.

All older people want to do... is feel alive again. Sometimes, it takes an angel. Welcome to an eighteen year old one. A friend of mine.

One of the most popular pieces in the author's Main Travelled Roads collection was "The Return of a Private", a story that certainly rings true today. A soldier returns home only to find that his experiences have changed things forever.

On a dark and stormy night, three strangers seek shelter at a young girl's christening party. Thomas Hardy was an English poet, novelist, and short story writer. He is famous for his depictions of Wessex, an imaginary county. Many of his stories also reflected his sense of the tragedy in human life.

These are some of the stories of Manorsfields' residents, their relatives and their caregivers. There is humor, poignancy, even romance, but above all they demonstrate that life is very often stranger than fiction.

In her people-smart way, Kimberly Willis Holt introduces us to a Louisiana family: touching, lyrical, and always intriguing, their stories reveal the powerful connections between four generations. The journey begins in 1939 with Rose, who moves with her mother and siblings from rural Texas to live with their estranged grandfather in the Louisiana bayou.

One of the earliest creative approaches to feminist literature, this sinister horror story tells of a woman's mental anguish and unconscious struggle with conformity in a society that generally viewed women as weak and hysterical creatures unable to think for themselves. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), a prominent American feminist, paved the way for other authors like Sylvia Plath and Alice Walker. She suffered mental illness during her life and ultimately committed suicide.

"What's Happened to Me?": Sarah finds herself in a strange place, and she can recall only one thing - her name. A young man, Heath de Charon, explains to Sarah that he found her unconscious on the grounds of his family's estate and has been caring for her. "When the Clock Chimes": Drake Iverson lands a summer job on Sandstone Mountain. There are no computers; he has to do all the work by hand in a large leather-bound book. He doesn't mind, as long as he can be near Gina, who is pretty and kind. "The Mysteries of Chance": Dylan Sorenson offers his help to a girl who seems to be in distress.

Children's author, A. Daniels, introduces you to Anna. Anna is an 8-year-old girl who spends every weekend with her father. The narrator invites you to come along and see how Anna spends time with her dad. There are questions and answers at the end of this story. This will allow the child to test their knowledge.

The stories in Thomas Pierce’s Hall of Small Mammals take place at the confluence of the commonplace and the cosmic, the intimate and the infinite. A fossil-hunter, a comedian, a hot- air balloon pilot, parents and children, believers and nonbelievers, the people in these stories are struggling to understand the absurdity and the magnitude of what it means to exist in a family, to exist in the world.

Zauberhaft und geheimnisvoll ist Astrid Lindgrens Märchenwelt. Petra und Peter, zwei Kinder so groß wie Puppen, tauchen plötzlich in der Schule auf...

A galactic trade union uses a laboratory-created disease on an alien race - causing the creatures to produce a rare xenon gas when close to death. A charity run by a ghoul is preying on children for financial gain, and more. And the dead must face an inner truth about the living before moving on. This short story collection spans from dark fantasy to science fiction. One character discovers an evil disguised as a promise of hope. Another wishes to remain in the mortal world for perhaps the wrong reason. And a criminal’s past finally catches up to him. Together, the stories form a complete thematic arc.

Take treasure in a magic holiday. Rediscover the best things life has to offer. Prepare to enjoy a story that is really about you and those most precious to you. This is part of the original Jack the Dog: And His Boy, which tells the entire saga from beginning to end. Many of the stories have touched audiences for years; now available in audiobook form.

Every family has issues. In Filipino families sometimes those issues stretch across oceans and involve multiple generations. Small Packages is a short story detailing how decisions made in one generation, affect those in the next. Sometimes those decisions are tragic. But like many, we hope they are positive and filled with love.

Eleanor is in such a rush to move away from her parents that she allows an imperious realtor to rush her to close on the too-good-to-be-true home without an inspection. Shortly after the house becomes legally hers - with every cent and all of her pride and future tied up in the property - the giant rats show themselves. In the yard, in the kitchen, on her daughter's bed.

A cynical Hollywood moviemaker confronts his dead wife’s lover and abruptly realizes the depth of his own passion. As his parents’ marriage disintegrates, a precocious fifth-grader distracts himself with meditations on baseball, spaghetti, and his place in the universe. And in the title story, an elderly nun enters a college creative writing class and plays havoc with its tidy notions of fact and fiction. The Whore’s Child is further proof that Russo is one of the finest writers we have.

The recipient of the Journey Prize and Edna Staebler Award, Heather Birrell made a splash in the literary world with her first collection, I Know You Are But What Am I? In Mad Hope, Birrell employs her keen insight into the human condition to present tales featuring a complex array of characters, including a gay man caring for a friend and a science teacher faced with a shocking request.

A neighbour is taken ill in the middle of the night; the folk who live on Bevans Road turn out to find out what will happen to Charlie. Jenny, unable to sleep, joins her mother outside and listens to the conversations taking place around them.

Russo's characters in these four expansive stories bear little similarity to the blue-collar citizens we're familiar with from many of his novels. In "Horseman", a professor confronts a young plagiarist as well as her own weaknesses as the Thanksgiving holiday looms closer and closer: "And after that, who knew?" In "Intervention", a realtor facing an ominous medical prognosis finds himself in his father's shadow while he presses forward - or not.