Young Adult Classics

Mary Lennox, a spoiled, ill-tempered, and unhealthy child, comes to live with her reclusive uncle in Misselthwaite Manor after the death of her parents. With the help of a robin, Mary finds the door to a secret garden, neglected and hidden for years. When she decides to restore the garden in secret, the story becomes a charming journey into the places of the heart, where faith restores health, flowers refresh the spirit, and the magic of the garden brings happiness to Mary.

Travelers visit many strange places. They see very many wonderful things. When they return home they tell wonderful stories about what they have seen. Thus begins Jonathan Swift’s immortal Lemuel Gulliver in his witty masterpiece, Gulliver’s Travels.

Joseph the Bellmaker is troubled. It has been four seasons since his warrior-mouse daughter, Mariel, and her companion, Dandin, set off from Redwall to fight evil in Mossflower. Nothing has been heard of them since. Then one night, in a dream, the legendary Martin the Warrior comes to the Bellmaker with a mysterious message. Clearly, Mariel and Dandin are in grave danger. Joseph and four Redwallers set off at once to aid them. As they push over land and sea, they cannot know the terrible threats they face: the impossible Foxwolf, Urgan Nagru, his mate Silvamord, and their army.

Randy and Oliver Melendy awake one morning full of gloom. Their brothers and sisters are away, the house seems forlorn and empty, and even Cuffy, their adored housekeeper, can't pick up their spirits. Will they have to face a long and lonely winter?

This is the second story in the Anne of Green Gables series. Skinny little red-haired Anne has changed into a pretty 16-year-old and is all grown up - well, sort of grown up. The story opens with Anne as a school teacher at Avonlea school. When Anne reached the school that first morning, she was confronted by prim rows of "shining morning faces". She had sat up until nearly midnight composing a speech which she had revised and improved painstakingly. It was a wonderful speech with fine ideas. And then, she couldn't remember it!

The fantastic land of Amara is recovering from years of war as well as from the spiritual apathy corroding the Amarans' hearts. With Kale and her father serving as dragon keepers for Paladin, the dragon populace has exploded. It's a peaceful, exciting time of rebuilding. And yet, an insidious, unseen evil lurks just beneath the surface of the idyllic countryside.

Transported to a new world, Ryan and his friends must figure out how to save their home city of Citadel while learning to survive in a game world where death is now all too real. But first, Ryan must keep his promise to Val Helena, and he sets out on a dangerous quest to the Vale of Sorrows to defeat the Shadow King. With an enemy 10 times stronger than a world boss, Ryan will have to do some serious leveling up as a Dodge Tank to be fit for task. But when he encounters a fellow gamer with an agenda of his own, Ryan finds his very life threatened by an enemy of his own making!

Step into a world of visions, philosophy, and passion in which dreamers, seekers, princesses, and wandering poets dwell. The 6 wonderful, romantic tales in this collection are reminiscent of ancient Oriental and German fairy tales. The selections, "The Poet," "The Flute Dream," "The Dwarf," "Faldum," "Ziegler," and "Dream of the Gods" were hand-picked by the narrator, legendary folk and rock musician Donovan.

Pride and Prejudice is a key title for the new Naxos AudioBooks series "Young Adult Classics". An abridged recording with music makes this Regency novel much more accessible to the 21st century young adult keen to get to grips with the classics. Pride and Prejudice is a leading title for "Young Adult Classics", being one of the pillars of English literature, and Jenny Agutter’s friendly reading bridges the gap between the films and the book.

The four Melendy children live with their father and Cuffy, their beloved housekeeper, in a worn but comfortable brownstone in New York City. There's thirteen-year-old Mona, who has decided to become an actress; twelve-year-old mischievous Rush; ten-year-old Randy who loves to dance and paint; and thoughtful Oliver, who is just six-years-old.

Welcome to Centerburg! Where you can win a hundred dollars by eating all the doughnuts you want; where houses are built in a day; and where a boy named Homer Price can foil four slick bandits using nothing but his wits and pet skunk. The comic genius of Robert McCloskey and his wry look at small-town America has kept readers and listeners in stitches for generations!

From Snuff: Vimes looked at the cover. The title was The World of Poo. When his wife was out of eyeshot he carefully leafed through it. Well, okay, you had to accept that the world had moved on and these days’ fairy stories were probably not going to be about twinkly little things with wings. As he turned page after page, it dawned on him that whomever had written this book, they certainly knew what would make kids like Young Sam laugh until they were nearly sick. The bit about sailing down the river almost made him smile.

World War I has ended, and the five All-of-a-Kind girls are growing up! The oldest, Ella, is a young lady with dreams of singing and dancing in the theater. But she also thinks of Jules, who is returning from the war, so marriage is in the air, as well. Suddenly, however, Ella is discovered by a Broadway talent scout, and it seems that she will have her chance at a theatrical career after all. Will Ella choose Jules or vaudeville? Here is another charming tale of the warm, caring family that fans have loved for years!

Following up on the classic children's novel The Saturdays, Elizabeth Enright continues the engaging tale of the Melendy family (Mona, Rush, Randy, Oliver, Father, and Cuffy, the housekeeper) and their move from an old brownstone in New York City to a charming house in the country. Called the Four-Story Mistake for its odd look and confused architectural history, the house offers the Melendys wonderful quirks and surprises.

Verona, Italy. Seventeen-year-old aspiring artist Romeo dreams of a quiet life with someone who loves him just as he is. But as the heir to the Montague family, he is expected to give up his "womanly" artistic pursuits and uphold the family honor—particularly in their centuries-old blood feud with a rival family, the Capulets. Worse still, he is also expected to marry a well-bred girl approved by his parents and produce heirs. But the more Romeo is forced to mingle with eligible maidens, the harder it is to keep his deepest secret: He only feels attracted to other boys.

Pirates, buried treasure, and action aplenty - that's what's served up in this fine story, mates, and kids will eat it up. After Jim Hawkins finds the map to a mysterious treasure, he sets sail in search of the fortune. Little does he realize, he's boarded a pirate ship, and that surprises and danger await him...including a meeting with the unforgettable Long John Silver.

They say the thirst of blood is like a madness - they must sate it. Even with their own kin. On the eve of her divining, the day she'll discover her fate, 17-year-old Lil and her twin sister, Kizzy, are captured and enslaved by the cruel Boyar Valcar, taken far away from their beloved traveller community. Forced to work in the harsh and unwelcoming castle kitchens, Lil is comforted when she meets Mira, a fellow slave who she feels drawn to in a way she doesn't understand.

This 1872 sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland finds Carroll's inquisitive heroine in a fantastic land where everything is reversed. Whereas the first book has the deck of cards as a theme, this book is loosely based on a game of chess, played on a giant chessboard with fields for squares. Alice encounters talking flowers, madcap kings and queens, and strange mythological characters when she becomes a pawn in a bizarre chess game.

In the narrator’s dream, Christian follows the advice of Evangelist and leaves the City of Destruction for the Celestial City. His travels include visits to many fascinating places, including the Hill of Difficulty, the Palace Beautiful, the Valley of Humiliation, Vanity Fair, and Doubting Castle. Along the way, he meets Worldly Wiseman, Goodwill, Hypocrite, Apollyon, Faithful, Mr. Talksalot, Hopeful, Simpleton, and a host of other colorful characters.

Hamlet, which dates from 1600-1601, is the first in Shakespeare's great series of four tragedies. In writing this extraordinary play, Shakespeare effectively re-invented tragedy after an interval of roughly 2,000 years - you would have to go back to the Greek dramatists of fifth century Athens to find anything of comparable depth and maturity. This production features the voice of Anton Lesser as Hamlet along with a full cast.