Books in Wordsworth Children's Classics series

With an Introduction by Stuart Hutchinson. Who could read the programme for the excursion without longing to make one of the party? So Mark Twain acclaims his voyage from New York City to Europe and the Holy Land in June 1867. His adventures produced The Innocents Abroad, a book so funny and provocative it made him an international star for the rest of his life. He was making his first responses to the Old World - to Paris, Milan, Florence, Venice, Pompeii, Constantinople, Sebastopol, Balaklava, Damascus, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem. For the first time he was seeing the great paintings and sculptures of the Old Masters . He responded with wonder and amazement, but also with exasperation, irritation, disbelief. Above all he displayed the great energy of his humour, more explosive for us now than for his beguiled contemporaries.

The two American classics here together in one volume, "Little Men" and "Jo's Boys", are worthy sequels to "Little Women", one of the best-loved children's stories of all time, and its continuation, "Good Wives". In "Little Men", Louisa May Alcott takes up the story of the everyday dramas and exploits of the naughty but easy-going boys at Plumfield, now a boarding-school run by Professor Bhaer and his lovable madcap wife Jo, the most fiery and free-spirited of the four March sisters. "Jo's Boys" revisits the one-time members of that 'wilderness of boys' ten years later when they are making their ways in the world with varying degrees of triumph and disaster.

With an Introduction by Alex Dolby Jules Verne (1828-1905) is internationally famous as the author of a distinctive series of adventure stories describing new travel technologies which opened up the world and provided means to escape from it. The collective enthusiasm of generations of readers of his extraordinary voyages was a key factor in the rise of modern science fiction. In The Mysterious Island a group of men escape imprisonment during the American Civil War by stealing a balloon. Blown across the world, they are air-wrecked on a remote desert island. In a manner reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe, the men apply their scientific knowledge and technical skill to exploit the island s bountiful resources, eventually constructing a sophisticated society in miniature. The book is also an intriguing mystery story, for the island has a secret...

ANTHONY HOPEWhile on holiday in Ruritania, Rudolf Rassendyll finds that his extraordinary resemblance to the King leads him into a realm of wild adventure. The sinister Rupert of Hentzau enmeshes him in a plot to depose the King, he encounters die lovely Princess Flavia, finds his honour at stake and his life in deadly peril.All who read this enduring tale of high adventure will understand why the fictional kingdom of Ruritania has entered into the popular imagination.

Motherless Sara Crewe was sent home from India to school at Miss Minchin's. Her father was immensely rich and she became show pupil - a little princess. Then her father dies and his wealth disappears, and Sara has to learn to cope with her changed circumstances. Her strong character enables her to fight successfully against her new-found poverty and the scorn of her fellows.

With an Introduction and Notes by Karl Ashley Smith, University of St Andrews Mr Dombey is a man obsessed with his firm. His son is groomed from birth to take his place within it, despite his visionary eccentricity and declining health. But Dombey also has a daughter, whose unfailing love for her father goes unreturned. 'Girls' said Mr Dombey, 'have nothing to do with Dombey and Son'. When Walter Gay, a young clerk in her father's office, rescues her from a bewildering experience in the streets of London, his unforgettable friends believe he is well on his way to receiving her hand in marriage and inheriting the company. It is to be a very different type of story.

This novel, written when Dickens was only 25 years old, immediately brought him immense popularity. Presenting a host of now-classic characters in a series of adventures, it displays the richness of his skills of characterization and description.Mr Samuel Pickwick is general chairman of the Pickwick Club, whose members - Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass, and Nathaniel Winkle - form a society to report their adventures and observations. From these reports emerge the rascal Jingle and his servant, Job Trotter, Mr Wardle in his hospitable Dingley Dell, the engaging Sam Weller, the greedy drunkard Stiggins, and many more of Dickens's best-loved characters.

Pollyanna #1 and Pollyanna #2 (Pollyanna Grows Up), by Eleanor H. Porter, are both included in this edition and are timeless, classic children's stories about the power of positivity and how profoundly it affects others. Pollyanna (Pollyanna book 1) Pollyanna Whittier has had a difficult life. Her mother died when she was little and all she's ever known is poverty. Then sadly, at the age of 11 her father passes away, leaving her an orphan. But this story isn't one about sadness! It's about overcoming the hard parts of life by thinking positively. Years before Pollyanna's father died, he gave her a gift in the form of a game; The Glad Game. This game, or rather philosophy, comes in handy in the new town she finds herself in, living as an orphan with her ill-tempered aunt in the city of Beldingsville. Pollyanna's exuberance and positivity affect everyone who meets her, and she spreads joy and love wherever she goes. Soon tragedy strikes and Pollyanna finds her optimistic attitude tested, and she must learn to find happiness again. Pollyanna Grows Up, Pollyanna book 2 In Pollyanna Grows Up, the only sequel written by Eleanor H. Porter herself, Pollyanna finds that despite overcoming the health issues that she faced in the original Pollyanna, adulthood brings fresh challenges to conquer. This Pollyanna sequel is told in two halves; the first part takes place about two years after the first book and the second half of the story races forward several years to follow a young 20-something year-old Pollyanna. Readers get to visit with beloved, familiar characters such as Aunt Polly, Dr. Chilton and Jimmy Bean. This story involves loss and hardship but largely focuses on love and growing up. The heart of this sequel remains consistent with the first, in that there is always something to be glad about. Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up brings us a strong and admirable heroine, despite the modern, infamous use of the character s name to describe those who utilize false positivity or phony optimism. Pollyanna is able to change her circumstances, and the circumstances of those around her, by practicing being glad. Positivity is contagious and that lesson is still as relevant for young children today as it was in 1913 when this story was first published and flew off the shelves, the year leading up to WWI. This book is great for: YOUNG READERSFOSTER FAMILIES AND FOSTER KIDSCHILDREN AND KIDS WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED LOSSREADING ALOUD TOGETHERCHILDREN IN PHYSICAL THERAPY OR WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES

This edition contains Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking Glass. It is illustrated throughout by Sir John Tenniel, whose drawings for the books add so much to the enjoyment of them. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen and the White Rabbit all make their appearances, and are now familiar figures in writing, conversation and idiom. So too, are Carroll's delightful verses such as The Walrus and the Carpenter and the inspired jargon of that masterly Wordsworthian parody, The Jabberwocky.

With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Pamela Bickley, The Godolphin and Latymer School, formerly of Royal Holloway, University of London The Last Man is Mary Shelley's apocalyptic fantasy of the end of human civilisation. Set in the late twenty-first century, the novel unfolds a sombre and pessimistic vision of mankind confronting inevitable destruction. Interwoven with her futuristic theme, Mary Shelley incorporates idealised portraits of Shelley and Byron, yet rejects Romanticism and its faith in art and nature. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) was the only daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and the radical philosopher William Godwin. Her mother died ten days after her birth and the young child was educated through contact with her father's intellectual circle and her own reading. She met Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1812; they eloped in July 1814. In the summer of 1816 she began her first and most famous novel, Frankenstein. Three of her children died in early infancy and in 1822 her husband was drowned. Mary returned to England with her surviving son and wrote novels, short stories and accounts of her travels; she was the first editor of P.B.Shelley's poetry and verse.