Books in Children's Collection series

Before Amelia Bedelia and the Stupids there were the Peterkins. The Peterkin Papers collects all of Lucretia Hale’s beloved tales of a thoroughly silly family.The Peterkin Papers record the antics of the most memorably and hopelessly bumbling of respectable American families. Confronted by the endless challenges of daily life, the Peterkins rise to every occasion with misguided aplomb: they sit out in the sun for hours and fail to go for a ride because they’ve forgotten to unhitch the horse, they play the piano from the porch through the parlor window because the movers left the keyboard turned that way, they decide to raise the ceiling to accommodate a too-tall Christmas tree. Only the timely intervention of their great and good friend, the Lady from Philadelphia, can be counted on to get the Peterkins out of their latest scrape.A classic of American children’s literature and a masterpiece of deadpan drollery, The Peterkin Papers restore our astonishment at the ordinary, finding a rich vein of humor and happy surprise in the mere fact of our surviving the trivialities and tribulations of family life.

A much-loved English novel reminiscent of The Secret GardenSomeone has dug up the private garden in the square and taken buckets of dirt, and Miss Angela Chesney of the Garden Committee is sure that a gang of boys from run-down Catford Street must be to blame. But Angela's sister Olivia isn't so sure. Olivia wonders why the neighborhood children—the “sparrows” she sometimes watches from the window of her house —have to be locked out of the garden. Don't they have a right to enjoy the place, too? But neither Angela nor Olivia has any idea what sent the neighborhood waif Lovejoy Mason and her few friends in search of “good, garden earth.” Still less do they imagine where their investigation of the incident will lead them—to a struggling restaurant, a bombed-out church, and at the heart of it all, a hidden garden.

Sheila Burnford, the author of The Incredible Journey, offers the spellbinding tale of a small dog caught up in the Second World War, and of the extraordinary life-transforming attachments he forms with the people he encounters in the course of a perilous passage from occupied France to besieged England.Nameless, Burnford’s hero first turns up as a performing dog, a poodle mix earning his keep as part of a gypsy caravan that is desperately fleeing the Nazi advance. Taken on ship by the Royal Navy, he is given the name of Ria and serves as the scruffy mascot to a boatload of sailors. Marooned in England in the midst of the Blitz, Ria rescues an old woman from the rubble of her bombed house, and finds himself unexpectedly transformed into Bel, the coiffed and pampered companion of her old age.Bel Ria is an exciting story about a compellingly real, completely believable dog. Readers of all sorts and ages will find in Bel Ria a companion to take to heart.

The famous Arden family treasure has been missing for generations, and the last members of the Arden line, Edred, Elfrida, and their Aunt Edith, have nothing to their names but the crumbling castle they live in. Just before his tenth birthday, Edred inherits the title of Lord Arden; he also learns that the missing fortune will be his if—and only if—he can find it before the turns ten. With no time to lose, Edred and Elfrida secure the help of a magical talking creature, the temperamental Mouldiwarp, who leads them on a treasure hunt through the ages. Together, brother and sister visit some of the most thrilling periods of history and test their wits against real witches, highwaymen, and renegades. They find plenty of adventure, but will they find the treasure before Edred’s birthday?

Harrison liked to hold his umbrella in the rain. He also held it in the sun.He found it very helpful in the snow. But most of all he loved to hold it open in the house. In fact, Harrison was the only child on his block to hold an open umbrella in his hand all the time. How his friends admired him! Then one rainy day, after the rain was over, all the children held umbrellas, and they, too, continued to hold the umbrellas open. They all found them useful in the sun, helpful in the snow, and loved them in the house. Complications? Of course! But that’s all part of the story.

Nine-year-old Karl Anders Nilsson is the unwelcome foster child of an uncaring couple. Lonely and neglected, he yearns for simple things, things that many children already have: a warm and loving home of his own, someone to share his sorrows and joys with, and most important, his real father. Then, on October 15, Karl simply disappears. Where has he gone? (Police are searching for him!) But Karl is far away from chilly Stockholm, in Farawayland, where he has found his father, who is none other than the king of that land. And now Karl faces a truly dangerous mission. Prophecies have foretold his coming for thousands of years. He, his new best friend Pompoo, and Miramis, his wonderful flying horse with a golden mane, must travel together into the darkness of Outer Land to do battle with Sir Kato, the cruel abductor of the children of Farawayland. Only a child of the royal blood can stop him...

“She saw: first, a square opening, about eight inches wide, in the lowest step…finally, she saw that there was a walnut shell, or half one, outside the nearest door…. She went to look at the shell—but looked with the greatest astonishment. There was a baby in it.” So ten-year-old Maria, the orphaned mistress of Malplaquet, discovers the secret of her deteriorating estate: On a deserted island at its far corner, in the temple long ago nicknamed Mistress Masham’s Repose, lives an entire community of people—“the People,” as they call themselves—all only inches tall. With the help of her only friend—the absurdly erudite Professor—Maria soon learns that this settlement is no less than the kingdom of Lilliput (first seen in Gulliver’s Travels) in exile. Safely hidden for centuries, the Lilliputians are at first endangered by Maria’s well-meaning but clumsy attempts to make their lives easier, but their situation grows truly ominous when they are discovered by Maria’s greedy guardians, who look at the People and see only a bundle of money.

Racehorse Publishing’s Quintessential Children’s Classics series is a collection of timeless children’s literature. Handsomely packaged and affordable, this new series aims to revitalize these enchanting works, and continue the tradition of sharing them with the next generation of readers.Flash back to your childhood. We all remember hearing the remarkable, rhyming tales from a mystery woman known only by the name “Mother Goose.” Having been reprinted hundreds of times and passed down from generation to generation, Mother Goose’s stories are some of the most popular children’s poetry in the world.Originally made popular in the 17th century, these rhymes were on the forefront of fairy tale literature, and are often cited as the beginning of the genre. Now, these nursery rhymes are made available again in this stunning re-packaging of the classic Volland edition. This edition includes over one hundred and ten of Mother Goose’s most famous nursery rhymes, a foreword, and full color illustrations on every page by renowned illustrator Frederick Richardson.

WHAT IS JUNKET?Junket is a delicious custard and a lovely dessert.But why is the old man with a red beard and red slippers eating such an enormous bowl of junket, and what could he possibly be thinking about while he feasts?That’s a good question! And one that the old man poses to the crowds and crowds of people that gather to watch him. In fact, almost everyone in the whole world wants to know the answer to this riddle.And only one little boy has the answer.This ingenious book of inspired nonsense was the very first from Dorothy Kunhardt, whose Pat the Bunny has delighted generations of young children.

Mystery in the Sand: The Alden family is spending sunny days at the shore and summer nights in the mobile home right on the beach! One morning Benny finds a gold necklace in the sand, and a search for its owner begins a trail of clues that leads to Tower House, the strange old mansion nearby. What will the Boxcar Children find there? Mystery Behind the Wall: The Aldens have found a mystery under their very own roof! When the children found an old journal behind the closet wall in the guest room, they never dreamed it would lead them on a search for valuable coins. What happened to the girl who wrote the journal — and what is she trying to tell them?Bus Station Mystery: The Aldens are bound for the Science and Hobby Fair, but when a bad storm hits, they’re forced to stay in the bus station. Before they know it, the Boxcar Children are in the middle of a mystery involving a polluted river, two strange boys, and a bus station manager who knows more than anyone suspects....

The Magic Pudding is a pie, except when it's something else, like a steak, or a jam donut, or an apple dumpling, or whatever its owner wants it to be. And it never runs out. No matter how many slices you cut, there's always something left over. It's magic.But the Magic Pudding is also alive. It walks and it talks and it's got a personality like no other. A meaner, sulkier, snider, snarlinger Pudding you've never met.So Bunyip Bluegum (the koala bear) finds out when he joins Barnacle Bill (the sailor) and Sam Sawnoff (the penguin bold) as members of the Noble Society of Pudding Owners, whose "members are required to wander along the roads, indulgin' in conversation, song and story, and eatin' at regular intervals from the Pudding." Wild and woolly, funny and outrageously fun, The Magic Pudding stands somewhere between Alice in Wonderland and The Stinky Cheese Man as one of the craziest books ever written for young readers.