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To the millions of children and grown-ups who have loved a Rag Doll, the author dedicated these stories. Now listen as eight voices read to you Raggedy Ann's exciting adventures, as gentle and charming today, as they were when first published in 1918.Find out what is written on her candy heart, what was the gift the fairies brought, and all about Raggedy Ann's new sisters. (summary by Cori)...

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Children

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’s Children’s Short Works Collection 002: a collection of 10 short works for children in the public domain read by a variety of members.

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Children, Fairy tales

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Tom Playfair; Or Making a Start is a book by a Roman Catholic priest, originally published in 1890, and written for youth ages 9-12. The story opens with 10-year-old Tom Playfair being quite a handful for his well-meaning but soft-hearted aunt. (Tom's mother has died.) Mr. Playfair decides to ship his son off to St. Maure's boarding school — an all-boys academy run by Jesuits — to shape him up, as well as to help him make a good preparation for his upcoming First Communion. Tom is less than enthusiastic, but his adventures are just about to begin: life at St. Maure's will not be dull....

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Children

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Have you every read a bed time story to a child? Or had one read to you? Fun, isn't it? These 28 delightful, short, well written and whimsical stores by the famous storyteller Abby Phillips just beg to be read aloud by adults or children. With titles like THE REVENGE OF THE FIREFLIES and SALLIE HICKS'S FOREFINGER how can you go wrong? Turn on the nightlight, tuck 'em in, settle down in the rocking chair and ... enjoy. (Summary by phil chenevert)...

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Children

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Ozma of Oz was the third title in the Oz series by L. Frank Baum. In this book Dorothy is shipwrecked and lands on the shores of a fairy country that adjoins Oz, the land of Ev. There she meets Tiktok, a wind up mechanical man, a talking chicken, Billina, and Ozma, the girl ruler of Oz who is leading a quest to rescue the royal family of Ev from their captivity by the Nome King. Dorothy is also reunited with her old friends, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. Together the adventurers travel to the Nome King's underground kingdom and have many exciting adventures before returning to Oz, and for Dorothy, eventual return to her family in the civilized world. (description by Judy Bieber)...

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Children

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David and his father set out from their idyllic mountain home to go to meet family, but enroute, David's father, who is sick dies, and David is left stranded in a little farming town. No one can read his father's handwriting, and David doesn't know his last name. A stern farmer and his wife take David in, and learn more from him than they realize! David, who counts only the sunny hours of his life, soon touches all the people's lives he meets in his new life with his beautiful violin music and sunny disposition. Written by Mary Anderson...

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Children

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Tom Swift is an inventor, and these are his adventures. The locale is the little town of Shopton in upstate New York, near Lake Carlopa. While some of Tom's inventions are not well-founded in a scientific sense, others elaborated developments in the news and in popular magazines aimed at young science and invention enthusiasts. Presenting themselves as a forecast of future possibilities, they now and then hit close to the mark. Some predicted inventions that came true include photo telephones, vertical takeoff aircraft, aerial warships, giant cannons, and wizard cameras. However some other devices, such as magnetic silencers for motors, have not appeared yet. -adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline...

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Children, Teen/Young adult

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (published 1876) is a very well-known and popular story concerning American youth. Mark Twain's lively tale of the scrapes and adventures of boyhood is set in St. Petersburg, Missouri, where Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn have the kinds of adventures many boys can imagine: racing bugs during class, impressing girls, especially Becky Thatcher, with fights and stunts in the schoolyard, getting lost in a cave, and playing pirates on the Mississippi River. One of the most famous incidents in the book describes how Tom persuades his friends to do a boring, hateful chore for him: whitewashing (i.e., painting) a fence. This was the first novel to be written on a typewriter. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Children

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Thornton W. Burgess was a conservationist and prolific author of children's books. His gently humorous stories about the animals of the meadows and woods teach little lessons about getting along with others; they are perfect bedtime stories for small children. (Summary by Laurie Anne Walden)...

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Children

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Little Men (published 1871) is considered the second book of the Little Women trilogy written by Louisa May Alcott. (The book Good Wives (1869) was originally the sequel to the novel Little Women (1868), however those two novels are now usually published as a single volume.) The final book of the trilogy is Jo's Boys (1886). Little Men follows the life of Jo Bhaer and the students who live and learn at the Plumfield Estate School that she runs with her husband. The mischievous kids, whom she loves and cares for as her own, learn valuable lessons as they become proper gentlemen and ladies. We also get cameo appearances of almost all the characters found in the previous books, almost all of them happy and well. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Children

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What is REAL? asked the Rabbit one day... Written in 1922, The Velveteen Rabbit , or, How Toys Become Real is the tale of a sweet unassuming toy rabbit who questions what it is to live and to love. It was the first children's title written by Margery Williams (1881 - 1944), who had previously created only for adults. This story eclipsed all others, to become her most famous work, and an ever adored classic for all ages. (Summary written by Marlo Dianne) It was by a sort of accident that The Velveteen Rabbit became the beginning of all the stories I have written since…By thinking about toys and remembering toys, they suddenly become very much alive. Toys I had loved as a little girl--my almost forgotten Tubby, who was the rabbit, and Old Dobbin, the Skin Horse, and the toys my children had loved. -- Margery Williams...

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Children

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Five Little Peppers Midway is the joyous continuation of the Pepper family's story. A snooty cousin comes to stay with the Peppers, and yet even this can't dampen the joy the Pepper children feel about the wonderful prospect of Mamsie's upcoming wedding! (Summary by Mary Anderson)...

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Children

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Sara is brought to Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies by her father, Captain Crewe, because the climate in India doesn't agree with children. After several years as Miss Minchin's show pupil, news comes that Captain Crewe has died penniless, and left Sara destitute. Miss Minchin keeps her on as an unpaid drudge, until a mysterious benefactor comes to her aid. (Summary by Karen Savage)...

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Children

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The timeless story of the young orphan girl sent by accident to a brother and sister who had wanted a boy, Anne, with her vivid imagination and sensitive spirit, has enchanted readers for generations. (Summary by Karen Savage)...

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Children

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This is a short story about a shy, quiet little girl living in a big city. When her parents are offered the opportunity to take care of a house in the suburbs for the summer she meets another little girl in the house and they become playmates. (Introduction by Linda Andrus)...

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Children

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This children's book retells twelve of Shakespeare's most popular plays as stories for children. Each of the plays are rewritten as short stories or fairy tales suitable to keep the attention of child readers or listeners. The introduction of the book cites a child's ability and desire to become familiar with the works of Shakespeare as a stepping-stone toward a greater appreciation of the actual plays later in life. (Summary by timferreira)...

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Children

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Anne of Green Gables is about an orphan girl who is starving for a family to love her. Her big words and bright spirits take her through many toils, trials, and temptations. Her romantic schemes make it nearly to impossible for any day of her life to be ordinary. Anne Shirley who was once a poor orphan girl learns through the care of Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, to live, love, and learn. (Summary by Robinsgirl)...

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Children

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Pollyanna, now cured of her crippling spinal injury, and able to walk again, goes to live in Boston with Mrs. Carew, a heart-broken woman searching for her lost nephew. Her Aunt Polly goes abroad with her new Uncle, Dr. Chilton. While in Boston, Pollyanna meets new friends and has several interesting adventures... A startling change in Aunt Polly's and Pollyanna's circumstances require Pollyanna to come up with a workable solution. Pollyanna's solution brings all her new friends from Boston and her old friends in Beldingsville together. Pollyanna also discovers she has to make a choice. Who will win her heart? (Summary by Mary Anderson)...

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Children

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Understood Betsy is a 1916 novel for children by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. The story tells of Elizabeth Ann, a 9-year-old orphan who goes from a sheltered existence with her father's aunt Harriet and cousin Frances in the city, to living on a Vermont farm with her mother's family, the Putneys, whose child-rearing practices had always seemed suspect to Harriet and her daughter. In her new rural life, Elizabeth Ann comes to be nicknamed Betsy, and to find that many activities that Frances had always thought too demanding for a little girl are considered, by the Putney family, ordinary expectations for a child: walking to school alone, cooking, and having household duties to perform. The child thrives in her new environment, learning to make butter, boil maple syrup, and tend the animals. When Frances announces she is to be married and has come to save Elizabeth Ann from the dreaded Putney cousins, she is amazed to discover that the little girl is quite content to stay. The story ends after Frances has returned home, with Betsy, her aunt Abigail, uncle Henry, and cousin Ann sitting quietly and happily around the fireplace enjoying the k...

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Children

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The Master Key was one of Baum's earliest full length fantasy books for children, published in 1901 just one year after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The protagonist, Rob, while experimenting in his workshop, accidentally summons up an electrical fairy who presents him with electrical devices so advanced as to seem magical. His gifts include a flying contraption, a stun gun, and something resembling an omniscient portable TV set. Rob travels the world, rendering assistance to European heads of state and narrowly escaping disaster at the hands of “primitive” cannibals, Turks and Tatars, pirates, and evil scientists who try to steal his inventions. It's great fun, despite the occasional use of racial stereotypes that reflect the values of its time....

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Children