Books in Top 100 Children's Classics series

Filled with beautiful color illustrations, these three tenderhearted tales by a Caldecott honoree offer enchanting glimpses of foreign cultures.Little Big-Bye-and-Bye unfolds in a pueblo of the American Southwest, where an Indian boy longs for a pony. When he meets a stranger and his burro, the boy's pluck and daring help make his dream come true.Choo-Me-Shoo carries readers off to the Arctic Circle to meet an Eskimo family. The clan's adventures include getting stranded on an iceberg, making friends with a polar bear cub, catching fish through the ice, and encountering a ship in search of the North Pole.Rum-Tum-Tummy recounts the comeuppance of a naughty elephant whose ego is even bigger than his insatiable appetite. He spanks a warthog, rolls a hippo downhill, and performs other unkind pranks—but when he gets into trouble, the other animals rally to his rescue.

Voted Top in 100 Books for Children - The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children's novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862–63 as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. It was written as part satire in support of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species. The book was extremely popular in England, and was a mainstay of British children's literature for many decades, but eventually fell out of favour in part due to its prejudices against Irish, Jews, Americans, and the poor. The protagonist is Tom, a young chimney sweep, who falls into a river after encountering an upper-class girl named Ellie and being chased out of her house. There he drowns and is transformed into a "water baby", as he is told by a caddisfly—an insect that sheds its skin—and begins his moral education. The story is thematically concerned with Christian redemption, though Kingsley also uses the book to argue that England treats its poor badly, and to question child labour, among other themes. Tom embarks on a series of adventures and lessons, and enjoys the community of other water babies once he proves himself a moral creature. The major spiritual leaders in his new world are the fairies Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby (a reference to the Golden Rule), Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, and Mother Carey. Weekly, Tom is allowed the company of Ellie, who did not drown after he did. Grimes, his old master, drowns as well, and in his final adventure, Tom travels to the end of the world to attempt to help the man where he is being punished for his misdeeds. Tom helps Grimes to find repentance, and Grimes will be given a second chance if he can successfully perform a final penance. By proving his willingness to do things he does not like, if they are the right things to do, Tom earns himself a return to human form, and becomes "a great man of science" who "can plan railways, and steam-engines, and electric telegraphs, and rifled guns, and so forth". He and Ellie are united, although the book claims that they never marry.

Generations of children and adults have thrilled to the adventures of Uncle Wiggily Longears, the gentleman rabbit. These heartwarming tales from a century ago recount Uncle Wiggily's devotion to helping children and animals—and himself—out of perilous scrapes. The wise old rabbit saves the day, using a combination of wit, sincerity, positive thinking, and other timeless virtues.This beautiful keepsake edition features 19 of Uncle Wiggily's most popular exploits, all accompanied by vivid colorful versions of the original illustrations. The two-color images have been given new life with wonderfully vibrant tones that add to the fun of Uncle Wiggily's adventures. Join the old gentleman rabbit's family circle—including Sammie and Susie Littletail, the bunny children; the puppies Jackie and Peetie Bow-Wow; and Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boys—for fun in their forest home. And when Dr. Possum advises Uncle Wiggily to travel, you, too, can come along to discover other fields and forests and meet new friends.

A treasure for readers and book lovers of all ages, this dazzling children's alphabet is graced by the work of Edmund Dulac, a preeminent twentieth-century illustrator. Dulac provides a limerick for each letter of the alphabet, in addition to twenty-four related illustrations of people and animals in whimsical situations.Dulac possessed an endearing gift for caricature, and his use of jewel-toned, glowing colors adds vivid life to these fantasy images. A facsimile of an extremely valuable 1906 edition, this volume faithfully re-creates the original publication's luminous splendor.

When eight-year-old Tistou is sent home from school, his parents decide that he wall learn from real life instead, and where better to start than gardening? With Moustache the dreamy gardener, Tistou discovers a remarkable gift—that he has green thumbs! Everything he touches sprouts beautiful plants. Now Tistou has lots to do. With the power of flowers, he can change everything—prisons, slums, hospitals...even war. A witty, charming, and wise tale about an unlikely guerrilla gardener, Tistou is a French children's classic that ranks with The Little Prince and The Man who Planted Trees. (Ages 7–11)

Remy is found abandoned as a baby in Paris by Barberin. a stonemason whose wife welcomes the little boy lovingly. But when Remy is only eight years old, Barberin sells him to Vitalis, a traveling singer. Vitalis becomes Remy’s guide, teaching him to survive by playing the harp in market squares. He performs in villages and towns throughout France with Joli-Cœur, a monkey, and three friendly dogs named Capi, Zerbino, and Dolce. After many adventures and trials, working as a street musician and as a miner and gardener―even spending time in prison―Remy discovers almost too late who he really is. The truth about his birth and why he had been abandoned is finally revealed, and Remy can look forward to a happy and secure future.Nobody’s Child is a heart-warming and moving children’s classic by the French writer Hector Malot (1830-1907). First published as Sans Famille in 1878, the story has been a favorite for generations and was filmed and adapted for television many times.This translation is by Beatrys Lockie, who worked as a Steiner Kindergarten teacher and has lectured widely on early-years education. She is a storyteller who loves telling Nobody’s Child, which has become popular in Waldorf schools.

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909 — the first woman to be so honored — Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) was a gifted storyteller whose writings were often tinged with the supernatural and rooted in the sagas and legends of her homeland.She secured her reputation as a children's-book author with The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, long considered a masterpiece of children's literature. Written at the request of Swedish school authorities and first published in 1906, it is the enchanting and remarkably original tale of Nils Holgersson, a mischievous boy of 14 who is changed by an elf into a tiny being able to understand the speech of birds and animals.Brilliantly weaving fact and fiction into a breathtaking and beautiful fable, the story recounts Nils's adventures as he is transported over the countryside on the back of a goose. From this vantage point, Nils witnesses a host of events that provide young readers with an abundance of information about nature, geography, folklore, animal life, and more.Reset in easy-to-read type and enhanced with 10 new illustrations, this inexpensive, unabridged edition will bring new generations of readers under the magical spell of a timeless classic.

An Idealized Middle Ages, a world filled with violent tests of courage, clamorous and raging battle, adventurous quests, and yearning love of knight and damsel unfolds for the reader. This volume invites you to enter the medieval world of knightly legend and chivalric lore. This deluxe Children’s Classic edition of King Arthur is produced with high-quality, leatherlike binding with gold stamping, full-color covers, colored endpapers with a book nameplate. Some of the other titles in this series include: Anne of Green Gables, Black Beauty, Little Women, The Secret Garden and Treasure Island.

Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales are like exquisite jewels, drawing from us gasps of recognition and delight. Andersen created intriguing and unique characters — a tin soldier with only one leg but a big heart, a beetle nestled deep in a horse’s mane but harboring high aspirations. Each one of us at some time, has been touched by one of Andersen’s Fairy Tales. Here you’ll find his classic tales such as: The Mermaid, Thumbelina, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and The Ugly Duckling, 38 of your favorite tales in all. This deluxe Children’s Classic edition is produced with high-quality, leatherlike binding with gold stamping, full-color covers, colored endpapers with a book nameplate. Some of the other titles in this series include: Anne of Green Gables, Black Beauty, Heidi, King Arthur and His Knights and The Secret Garden.

G. A. Henty (1832–1903) wrote vastly popular, carefully researched books about fictional youngsters who lived during critical periods of history. In this exciting volume, he provides a thrilling glimpse of the struggle between Great Britain and Spain for supremacy of the high seas, as seen through the eyes of a sixteenth-century teenager, Ned Hearne.Along with three friends, young Ned is swept up in one adventure after another as he accompanies the daring English mariner Francis Drake on amazing voyages of discovery across the Pacific. An eyewitness to the great naval battle between the English fleet and the Spanish Armada, Ned has firsthand views of England's rise as the world's most powerful sea-going nation. A rousing, old-fashioned tale of ruthless life on the high seas, Under Drake's Flag introduces today's young readers to one of yesteryear's most widely read authors — a writer whose many talents earned him the title Prince of Storytellers.