Merrie Haskell's middle-grade fantasy novel Princess Curse is an imaginative retelling of the fairy tales The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Beauty and the Beast.
A deadly plague rages through Aksum, and only one boy can uncover the traitor who spreads the disease and threatens to destroy the kingdomTelemakos, a descendant of both British and Aksumite rulers, has always been an outcast, but his resolve, loyalty, and bravery have never failed his royal heritage.
Ethel Calvert Phillips' "e;Little Sally Waters"e; charts the journey of a young girl navigating life's complexities against the backdrop of early 20th-century rural America.
Excerpt: "e;"e;YES, children, I will tell you the story of Aunt Milly's diamonds; and in telling about them, you must hear the tale of my own life almost, because one is so mixed up with the other that they can scarcely be separated.
1889 Civil War Story of Battle and Prison, of Peril and Escape - The incidents of the book are real ones, drawn in part from the writer's personal experiences and observations as a soldier of the Union during that war.
Excerpt: "e;Let that sugar-bowl alone, Posy,"e; said Tom, as Posy extracted a lump while they were waiting for Papa and Mamma to come down to breakfast "e;I'm not taking it for myself,"e; answered Posy, as plainly as the large lump in her mouth permitted her to speak; "e;I'm only just getting a lump for Dicky.
Excerpt: "e;My aim in this book on Mythology for young readers has been to give them solid knowledge on the subject, as far as it is advisable to go with im mature minds, based upon the most recent investigations of scholars, and to select the myths used in illustration of the plan, with a View to giving them interesting stories to read, which will, almost unconsciously to themselves, lay a firm foundation for the fascinating study of Comparative Mythology, should they wish to go more deeply into it in the future.
Excerpt: "e;Of these Fairy Tales told to children in the Australian bush, "e;The Magic Gun"e; and "e;The Underground River,"e; are original, but the others have been brought from the old country, not in book form, but in the memory of a lover of fairies and children.
Excerpt: "e;Sheldrick, returning, refreshed and exhilarated, from a spin with a friend who had brought down a racing car of forty horse-power and an enthusiasm to match, found his wife sitting in the same chair, in the same attitude, as it seemed to him, in which he had left her, in the bare, dull sitting-room of their quarters at the Pavilion Hotel, on the edge of Greymouth Links, from which starting point Sheldrick, in fulfilment of his recent engagement with the Aero Club of France, had arranged to take wing for Cherbourg, wind and weather permitting, on the morrow.
Little John lives a lifetime of adventure-from humble ferryman to legendary outlawJohn Little is strong enough to be a knight, but he knows he is destined to life as a thief.
Excerpt: "e;The writer of this little volume deems it only fair to forewarn his readers that he is not, and never has been, an inhabitant of that variegated region in creation commonly called "e;the sporting world.
Excerpt: "e;It was in a space in a thicket that he came into the world, in one of those little, hidden places in the wood which seem to be open on every side but which in fact are completely surrounded by foliage.
Compiled by an American missionary, West African Folk Tales by William H Barker is a delightful collection of folk tales from Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania and other countries along the west coast of Africa.
Excerpt: "e;Yes, it was surely the embodiment of feminine beauty-the dark, narrow-lidded eyes, wide apart-did you ever notice the terrible intelligence in the eyes of a portrait?
Excerpt: "e;In the very olden time there lived a semi-barbaric king, whose ideas, though somewhat polished and sharpened by the progressiveness of distant Latin neighbors, were still large, florid, and untrammeled, as became the half of him which was barbaric.