Books in Classics Series series

Nothing's more magical than going down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass with Alice. There, in worlds unlike any other ever created, conventional logic is turned upside down and wrong-way round to enchanting effect. Children will love reading Carroll's many humorous nonsense verses and meeting such unforgettable characters as the Mad Hatter, the Knave of Hearts who steals some tarts, and the grinning Cheshire Cat (in Alice in Wonderland) and Tweedledee, Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty, and the Jabberwock (in Through the Looking Glass).

From Wonderland to a special secret garden, these tales are magical! For the first time, five of our most popular Classic Starts titles are available in paperback, packaged and shrink-wrapped in a beautifully designed, sturdy slipcase. Each all-time favorite novel is expertly abridged for easy reading and filled with all the enchantment that made the original story so beloved. Included are: Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass, Black Beauty, A Little Princess, Little Women, and The Secret Garden.

When Rats, Lice and History appeared in 1935, Hans Zinsser was a highly regarded Harvard biologist who had never written about historical events. Although he had published under a pseudonym, virtually all of his previous writings had dealt with infections and immunity and had appeared either in medical and scientific journals or in book format. Today he is best remembered as the author of Rats, Lice, and History, which gone through multiple editions and remains a masterpiece of science writing for a general readership.To Zinsser, scientific research was high adventure and the investigation of infectious disease, a field of battle. Yet at the same time he maintained a love of literature and philosophy. His goal in Rats, Lice and History was to bring science, philosophy, and literature together to establish the importance of disease, and especially epidemic infectious disease, as a major force in human affairs. Zinsser cast his work as the "biography" of a disease. In his view, infectious disease simply represented an attempt of a living organism to survive. From a human perspective, an invading pathogen was abnormal; from the perspective of the pathogen it was perfectly normal.This book is devoted to a discussion of the biology of typhus and history of typhus fever in human affairs. Zinsser begins by pointing out that the louse was the constant companion of human beings. Under certain conditions–to wash or to change clothing–lice proliferated. The typhus pathogen was transmitted by rat fleas to human beings, who then transmitted it to other humans and in some strains from human to human.Rats, Lice and History is a tour de force. It combines Zinsser's expertise in biology with his broad knowledge of the humanities

There's plenty of excitement here to thrill any child! For the first time, five of our most popular Classic Starts titles are available in paperback, packaged and shrink-wrapped in a beautifully designed, sturdy slipcase. Each all-time favorite is expertly abridged for easy reading and filled with all the adventure and mystery that made the original story so beloved. Includes: The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Call of the Wild, and Treasure Island.

You might have called it a Spaldeen. You might have called it a pinky. Whatever its name, the pink rubber ball with the big bounce meant hours and hours of neighborhood fun. And in the fifth title that celebrates classic American games, the rubber ball is back-and bouncier than ever. Packaged with its own pinky, which begs to be played with the minute it's out of the box, The Pinky Ball Book & The Pinky Ball begins with the story of the little tennis ball that couldn't-pinkies were originally the naked insides of tennis balls considered not up to par and sold to city kids for 15 cents. It covers the lingo: roofer, chips, chops, Hindu, ham and eggs, skimming, and scroogie. The techniques: how to throw a fastball, slider, knuckler, and fluke; how to tape a broomstick for a simple bat without splinters; how to hit the ball with your hand, including zappers, slams, and slices. And then the games. Bouncing games: Tennessee, 1,2,3 O'Kerry, A My Name Is Alice, Act It Out. Catching games: Trigon, Hot Potato, Monkey in the Middle. Off the Wall games: Mimsy, Russian Seven, Handball, Kings. And the most classic of all, the street games: Stickball, Slapball, Hit the Penny, Spud, Flies Up, and I Declare War.

“We said there was no home like a raft. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery…but you feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” Sail down the Mississippi with Huck Finn and the runaway slave, Jim. Twain’s beloved tale, with its folksy language, creates an indelible image of antebellum America with its sleepy river towns, con men, family feuds, and a variety of colorful characters.

The high-spirited work of a young Dickens, The Pickwick Papers is the remarkable first novel that made its author famous and that has remained one of the best-known books in the world. In it the inimitable Samuel Pickwick, his well-fed body and unsinkable good spirits clad in tights and gaiters, sallies forth through the noisy streets of London and into the colorful country inns of rural England for a series of sparkling encounters with love and misadventure. From the wit of cockney bootblack Sam Weller to the unforgettable Fat Boy and rascals like the amorous Mr. Jingle and the unscrupulous lawyers Dodson and Fogg, The Pickwick Papers reels with joyous fantasy, infectious good humor, and a touch of the macabre—a classic work that G. K. Chesterton called “the great example of everything that made Dickens great…[a] supreme masterpiece.”