Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE
Anne Shirley is an eleven-year-old orphan who has hung on determinedly to an optimistic spirit and a wildly creative imagination through her early deprivations. She erupts into the lives of aging brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a girl instead of the boy they had sent for. Thus begins a story of transformation for all three; indeed the whole rural community of Avonlea comes under Anne's influence in some way.
We see her grow from a girl to a young woman of sixteen, making her mistakes, and not always learning from them. Intelligent, hot-headed as her own red hair, unwilling to take a moral truth as read until she works it out for herself, she must also face grief and loss and learn the true meaning of love.
Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
This collection of over forty of Andersen’s most popular stories includes: The Mermaid, The Real Princess, The Red Shoes, The Little Match Girl, The Snow Queen, The Tinder Box, The Ugly Duckling and many more.
It is delightfully illustrated in black-and white by those remarkable brothers, Charles, Thomas and William Heath Robinson.
Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking-Glass the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, containing the famous illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. No greater books for children have ever been written.
The simple language, dreamlike atmosphere, and fantastical characters are as appealing to young readers today as ever they were. Meanwhile, however, these apparently simple stories have become recognised as adult masterpieces, and extraordinary experiments, years ahead of their time, in Modernism and Surrealism.
Through wordplay, parody and logical and philosophical puzzles, Lewis Carroll engenders a variety of sub-texts, teasing, ominous or melancholy. For all the surface playfulness there is meaning everywhere. The author reveals himself in glimpses.
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
The magical Peter Pan comes to the night nursery of the Darling children, Wendy, John and Michael. He teaches them to fly, then takes them through the sky to Never-Never Land, where they find Red Indians, Wolves, Mermaids and... Pirates.
The leader of the pirates is the sinister Captain Hook. His hand was bitten off by a crocodile, who, as Captain Hook explains 'liked me arm so much that he has followed me ever since, licking his lips for the rest of me'. After lots of adventures, the story reaches its exciting climax as Peter, Wendy and the children do battle with Captain Hook and his band.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Little Prince is a beloved modern fable by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, first published in 1943 and now enjoyed by readers of all ages around the world.
When a pilot crashes in the Sahara Desert, he meets a mysterious little prince who has travelled from a tiny asteroid. Through their conversations and the prince’s encounters on his journey, the story gently explores friendship, love, loneliness, imagination and the often puzzling ways of adults.
Featuring Saint-Exupéry’s own charming illustrations, this timeless tale blends fantasy with thoughtful reflections on life, creating a story that can be enjoyed differently by both children and adults.
