Family Life Classics

Since it first appeared in 1913, Pollyanna has become an enduring favorite with children. The tale of an orphan who maintains a strongly positive view of the world despite adversity has a strong affect on listeners of all ages, even in the 21st century - and especially when read with such warmth by Laura Lefkow.

"Der Mann von fünfzig Jahren" ist eine Erzählung aus "Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre". Ein Major wünscht sich die Vermählung seines Sohnes Flavio mit seiner Nichte Hilarie. Jedoch kommt heraus, dass Hilarie unsterblich in ihren Onkel verliebt ist. Zunächst schockiert, gibt sich der Major nach einer Weile ihrer Liebe hin, Flavio hingegen verliebt sich in eine Witwe. Die geplante Vermählung soll nun aufgelöst werden und alles scheint ein gutes Ende zu nehmen. Doch die Familienharmonie nimmt ein jähes Ende, als Flavios Geliebte zum ersten Mal auf den Major trifft.

Eleven-year-old Rebecca Randall is quite a handful - and now she’s leaving her beloved Sunnybrook Farm to live with her well-to-do elderly aunts and get an education. But they were expecting Rebecca’s quiet, hardworking older sister instead. Can the bright-eyed and talkative girl win them over...especially her strict, rule-bound Aunt Miranda? Just as Rebecca’s “grand spirit” charms everyone in the story, it will captivate listeners, too.

“To help mother”: that was the goal of each and every one of the five Pepper children. Yet even as “Mamsie” struggles hard to feed and educate her brood, she still manages to fill the house with joy. The adventures of this poor but loving family - Ben, Polly, Joel, Davie, and the adored youngest, Phronsie - have charmed young listeners for more than a century. Overflowing with warmth, suspense, and many delightful surprises, this classic remains as compelling as ever.

Pubblicato nel 1919, questo racconto lungo tratta di vocazione, fede, tentazione, e, soprattutto dell'impegno di una madre verso il figlio, prete. Il paesaggio, come sempre, se non è il protagonista, è comunque un coro ininterrotto ai conflitti dei personaggi.

When orphaned Mary Lennox arrives at Misselthwaite Manor, her uncle's estate, everybody said she was the most disagreeable looking child ever seen. Depressed and withdrawn, Mary stumbles upon an arched doorway into an overgrown garden. She later discovers her pampered invalid cousin, tucked away in a dark room. Soon a charming journey into the magical secret garden begins.

The time is mid-1970 in back country called Whisker Ridge. Eleven-year-old Meg Nightly runs away into Fennel Forest to escape her grieving father's abuses. When she gets lost, she experiences a magical awakening. But her father goes on the hunt for Meg, to bring her back. Will he prevail or will he succumb to the woods? Way of the Wild Wood is a story of love lost, redemption, and faith.

Hiding is Roo Fanshaw's special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment's notice. When her parents are murdered, it's her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life. As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn't believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing?

Caje Amis and his father are mountain folk, they live off the land and have few interactions with more sophisticated people. But at the onset of an especially harsh winter, the two take shelter with distant relatives. The adjustment to their new life is an easy one for Caje, but impossible for his father, and the elder Amis ends up abandoning his son and vanishing into the cold!

Maggie and Tom, brother and sister, try to save their livelihood as their parents flounder in the face of modernization. Maggie befriends the disabled son of a family rival in an attempt to build bridges, and Tom fights hard to reclaim the family property. Having drifted apart, they are brought back together in the novel's dramatic and moving conclusion.

Chris Brabson hates the Union troops. Yankee riders in the Tennessee mountains have stolen his family's newly harvested crops and their only horse. In spite of this, Chris' brother joins the Union army, and his parents refuse to take either side. But Chris has no doubts, he would fight for the Confederacy. The Perilous Road, a Newbery Honor book, powerfully illustrates the senseless waste of war and the true meaning of courage and tolerance.

Ethan Frome is a lonely farmer trying to make a living while also tending to his frigid, demanding and ungrateful wife Zeena. Hope enters Ethan's life of despair when his wife's cousin Mattie arrives to help. His life is transformed as he falls in love Mattie but their fate is doomed by the oppressive principles of that era.

If your best friend is named Huckleberry Finn, and there's a girl in your life named Becky Thatcher, a villain named Injun Joe, and you and your friends get into all kinds of mischief and adventures, then you must be that ever-lovin' charmer from Missouri, Tom Sawyer!

The Glass Menagerie is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on its author, his histrionic mother, and his mentally fragile sister, Laura.

The novelist who wrote THE GRAPES OF WRATH and the director who produced CRISIS AND LIGHTS OUT in Europe combined their superb talents to tell the story of the coming of modern medicine to the natives of Mexico. There have been several notable examples of this pen-camera method of narration, but...

Mr. Watson is a widowed and ailing clergyman with two sons and four daughters. The youngest daughter, Emma, the heroine of the story, has been brought up by a wealthy aunt and is consequently better educated and more refined than her sisters. But after her aunt contracted a foolish second marriage, Emma has been obliged to return to her father's house. There she is chagrined by the crude and reckless husband-hunting of two of her sisters, Penelope and Margaret.

Sometimes, the right perspective and the right question can make all the difference. When pursuing a dream or any type of creative work, it is easy to get stuck. What if your future self (who had already successfully completed the work) was there to guide you? Would that make a difference in how you view your current challenges, the questions you ask yourself, and the fears you are willing to face?

"The Test" is a short, powerful piece that describes a day in the life of a woman, whose past comes to haunt her just as she thinks she is settled and perfectly safe in her life. Faced with memories of long ago as well as considerations and responsibilities of today, she must make a difficult choice she knows will change her life and affect the lives of those around her.

Little Mary Lennox is a bad-tempered, disagreeable child. When her parents die in India, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle in a big, lonely, old house. There is nothing to do all day except walk in the gardens – and watch the robin flying over the high walls of the secret garden . . . which has been locked for ten years. And no one has the key. An Oxford Bookworms Library reader for learners of English, adapted from the Frances Hodgson Burnett original by Clare West.

In Bullerbü zu leben ist das Allerschönste auf der Welt, findet Lisa. Im ganzen Dorf gibt es nur drei Höfe, und Lisa, Lasse, Bosse, Inga, Britta und Ole spielen von früh bis spät. Die besten Tage sind natürlich, wenn Weihnachten ist und man Geburtstag hat. Aber auch sonst ist immer was los. Auf dem Heuboden schlafen, sich verkleiden, Großvater vorlesen und Hütten bauen macht in Bullerbü riesigen Spaß.