Young Adult Classics

One of the greatest of French novelists, Balzac, trained as a lawyer, was a great judge of human nature. In 1833 he conceived the idea of linking together his novels so that they would comprehend the whole society in a series of books. This plan eventually led to 90 novels and novellas (including more than 2,000 characters) that he called "The Human Comedy". Balzac's huge and ambitious plan drew a picture of the customs, atmosphere, and habits of the bourgeois France.

The CliffsNotes study guide on William Golding's Lord of the Flies supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, and critical commentaries, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand the work. This study guide was written with the assumption that you have read Lord of the Flies.

With renewed interest in Alexander Key's extraordinary 1968 novel, fans can dive into Escape to Witch Mountain as it was meant to be listened to. The powerful, thrilling story of Tony and Tia - twins joined by their paranormal gifts, on the run from evil forces that seek to suppress their forgotten pasts - is more gripping and relevant than ever.

The magic unfolds from the first lines of Water Rat's soliloquy about messing about in boats in this captivating version of Kenneth Grahame's classic. Although it's generally considered a children's book, get a copy for yourself as well as the child in your life, as you won't want to give this away. Ralph Cosham's performance is a study in characterization without over-dramatization. His Ratty is breezy and lighthearted, his Mole shy and considerate. His Badger sounds just like that gruff old man you once knew who had a heart of gold. And Toad - well, Toad is perfectly insufferable.

At last, Henry Huggins's father has promised to take him fishing, on one condition. Henry's dog, Ribsy, has been in all sorts of trouble lately, from running off with the neighbor's barbecue roast to stealing a policeman's lunch. To go on the fishing trip, Henry must keep Ribsy out of trouble -- no chasing cats, no digging up lawns...and no getting anywhere near little Ramona Quimby, the pest of Klickitat Street.

Flickan Maj föds 1945 i Göteborg. Vi får följa hennes uppväxt på västkusten genom ett föränderligt 1950-tal. Här ryms glädje och vemod liksom drömmar om Paris och poesiskrivande. Redan i de yngre åren känner hon sig lite utanför, ligger och tänker och umgås inte så värst mycket med sina jämnåriga. Men tillsammans med sin frejdiga väninna Birgitta får hon ändå vara med om en hel del. Snart börjar de spana på killar och tiden rullar fort mellan vänskapen, familjen, studierna och semestervikariatet på Göteborgs-Posten.

With an invasion of her country imminent, Tipper Schope is drawn into a mission to keep three important statues from falling into the enemy’s clutches. Her friend, the artist Bealomondore, helps her execute the plan, and along the way, he learns to brandish a sword rather than a paintbrush. As odd disappearances and a rash of volatile behavior sweep Chiril, no one is safe. A terrible danger has made his vicious presence known: the Grawl, a hunter unlike any creature encountered before.

Second star to the right and straight on until morning...that's one way to get to Neverneverland. The other is through this unique full-cast performance, presented in exciting Radio Theatre style.

An audiobook of the beloved children's adventure story first published by Doubleday & Co. in 1946.

The March sisters are among the most beloved characters in children's literature, and Little Men picks up the story of fiery, headstrong Jo where Good Wives left off. Intelligent, funny, perceptive, and genuinely touching, the novel is set at a rather unusual boarding school run by Jo and her husband, where the pupils are encouraged to pillow fight and keep pets. When the penniless but talented orphan Nat Blake shows up on her doorstep, Jo takes him in, and his arrival sets in motion a chain of events that will affect all their lives.

Two pink flamingos. A whole family of plaster skunks. Joe Burton's dad loves those tacky lawn ornaments. But then he brings home two ugly lawn gnomes. And that's when the trouble starts. Late at night, when everyone's asleep, someone's creeping in the garden. Whispering nasty things. Smashing melons. Squashing tomatoes. No way two dumb, old lawn ornaments could be causing all the trouble. Is there?

Here are American author Howard Pyle's exciting and hilarious tales of Robin Hood and his merry band of outlaws, who reigned over Sherwood Forest doing many good deeds for the poor - and deserved misdeeds to the pompous and haughty rich.

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.

W. H. Hudson was born in 1841 in Buenos Aires and seems to have been a sort of permanently displaced person. He moved to London in 1869 and wrote a series of remarkable books, most with a wilderness setting. In 1904, when he was 63, he focused on an Indian legend for Green Mansions, a memorable romance of the jungle for which he is now chiefly remembered. His epitaph reads, "He Loved Birds and Green Places and the Wind on the Heath, and Saw Brightness of the Skirts of God."

Washington Irving was an American author of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories, with his two most famous being "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip van Winkle".

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.

Did Mrs. Olinsky choose the four members of the sixth grade Academic Bowl Team, or did they choose her--and one another? Four stories-within-in-a-story, interspersed with the ongoing narrative of the team's triumphant march to the state championship, introduce each member of the team in his own her own voice, and bring the dynamics of the group into focus.

The story begins in a faraway corner of Oz, in the small country of Oogaboo. There Queen Ann Soforth musters an unlikely army and sets off to conquer the rest of Oz. Meanwhile, a girl from Oklahoma named Betsy Bobbin and her companion, Hank the mule, are shipwrecked and washed ashore in the Rose Kingdom, a magical land of talking roses. There they meet the Shaggy Man, who is on a quest to rescue his brother from the clutches of the evil Nome King.

Young Oxford tutor Theodore Gumbril has become thoroughly dismayed by the formality of college life and the staid British institutions of learning. An impetuous need for celebration, even rebellion, possesses him. He and his bohemian companions embark on wild and daring "bacchanalian" adventures that steer them resolutely away from stifling conventions of behavior. Antic Hay, first published in 1923, is one of Aldous Huxley's earlier novels, and like them is primarily a 'novel of ideas' involving conversations which disclose viewpoints rather than establish characters; its polemical theme unfolds against the backdrop of London's post-war nihilistic Bohemia. This is Huxley at his biting, brilliant best -- a novel, loud with derisive laughter, which satirically scoffs at all conventional morality and at stuffy people everywhere -- a novel that's always charged with excitement.

You are probably familiar with the popularized versions of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but have you ever heard the original, unabridged stories by Washington Irving? The skillfully written and colorful original tales have much more meaning and depth. In Rip Van Winkle Irving makes a profound social comment about the changes then happening in America.