Books published by publisher SAGA Egmont

An utterly unique and accessible introduction to the ancient principles of Taoism with the world's favourite bear, Winnie-the-Pooh and his friend Piglet. Winnie-the-Pooh has a certain way about him, a way of doing things that has made him the world's most beloved bear, and Pooh's Way, as Benjamin Hoff brilliantly demonstrates, seems strangely close to the ancient Chinese principles of Taoism. And as for Piglet, he embodies the very important principle of Te, meaning Virtue of the Small. "It's hard to be brave,' said Piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're only a Very Small Animal."Rabbit, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said: "It is because you are a very small animal that you will be useful in the adventure before us."Benjamin Hoff's explanations of Taoism and Te through Pooh and Piglet show that this is not an ancient and remote philosophy but something that you can use, here and now. Beautifully illustrated by E H Shepard.

Allan Pinkerton, a Scotsman by birth and a barrel maker by trade, settled in Chicago in its infancy and founded the Pinkertons, the world's first detective agency. Though events associated with the agency after his death have tarnished the name, Pinkerton himself was one of the original human rights advocates. He was a dear friend to John Brown, an advisor to Abraham Lincoln, and 80 years ahead of his time in hiring female detectives. "The Expressman and the Detective" (1874) is Pinkerton's first attempt at putting his real life experiences into novel form. Though many later works attributed to Pinkerton are understood to have been ghostwritten, this is the work of the man the London Times calls "a man at once deeply admirable and quite obnoxious".

Thornton Waldo Burgess was a conservationist and author of children's stories. He loved the beauty of nature and its living creatures so much that he wrote about them for 50 years. By the time he retired, he had written more than 170 books. Many of his outdoor observations in nature were used as plots for his stories. In his first book, "Old Mother West Wind", published in 1910, the reader meets many of the characters found in later books and stories. These characters include Peter Rabbit, Jimmy Skunk, Sammy Jay, Bobby Raccoon, Joe Otter, Grandfather Frog, Billy Mink, Jerry Muskrat, Spotty the Turtle and of course, Old Mother West Wind and her Merry Little Breezes. Note to parents of very small children: in chapter 15, little Tommy Trout gets eaten by a pickerel.

"The Gods of Mars" is the second volume of the famous Barsoom series. It was first published in All Story as a five part serial in the issues for January May 1913. It was later published as a complete novel by A. C. McClurg in September, 1918. At the end of the first book, "A Princess of Mars", John Carter is unwillingly transported back to Earth. "The Gods of Mars" begins with his arrival back on Barsoom (Mars) after a ten year separation from his wife Dejah Thoris, his unborn child, and the Red Martian people of the nation of Helium, whom he has adopted as his own. Unfortunately, Carter materializes in the one place on Barsoom from which nobody is allowed to depart: the Valley Dor, which is the Barsoomian afterlife.

"The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver" is another in the long list of children's books by the conservationist Thornton W. Burgess. In this book, the industrious and clever Paddy Beaver, a newcomer to the Green Forest, has encounters with Sammy Jay, Jerry Muskrat, Ol' Man Coyote and other inhabitants of the Green Forest. Along the way, we learn how Paddy builds his dam and his house, and how he stores his food. We also learn little lessons about life, such as the importance of planning before doing, caring for Nature, trusting others, the benefits of working together and how wonderful it is to have a job one can sink one's teeth into.

"Sense and Sensibility" is a novel by Jane Austen, and was her first published work when it appeared in 1811 under the pseudonym "A Lady". A work of romantic fiction, "Sense and Sensibility" is set in southwest England between 1792 and 1797 and portrays the life and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. The novel follows the young ladies to their new home, a meagre cottage on a distant relative's property, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak. The philosophical resolution of the novel is ambiguous: the reader must decide whether sense and sensibility have truly merged. Jane Austen wrote the first draft of the novel in the form of a novel in letters (epistolary form) sometime around 1795 when she was about 19 years old and gave it the title "Elinor and Marianne". She later changed the form to a narrative and the title to "Sense and Sensibility". By changing the title, Austen added "philosophical depth" to what began as a sketch of two characters.