Charming Novels of Classic Heroines


Book Description

Prepare to see the world through new eyes: This inspirational collection offers up a healthy dose of optimism with five classic coming-of-age stories. Featuring the youthful adventures of some of fiction’s most beloved heroines, this collection—which includes Pollyanna, The Secret Garden, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm—proves that, while growing up can be hard, the right attitude makes anything and everything possible. Though the young ladies in these stories hail from all over the world and all walks of life, they share a common truth: In an ever changing world, the journey from childhood to adulthood can be full of challenges, especially for girls. But as Pollyanna finds happiness in every situation, Mary Lennox coaxes her garden to thrive, the March sisters navigate the pitfalls of love and loss, Anne Shirley conquers the hearts of Avonlea, and Rebecca Randall inspires her family with joy, each iconic character changes her life—and the lives of everyone around them—for the better with hopeful, persistent optimism. The inspiration for numerous treasured film and TV adaptations, including Netflix’s Anne with an E, these timeless tales have captured the imaginations and hearts of generations of readers. Now collected in one delightful volume, these classic children’s novels will charm and enchant as their spirited heroines embark on the eye-opening adventure of growing up.




By the Book


Book Description

"A teen obsessed with 19th century literature tries to cull advice on life and love from her favorite classic heroines to disastrous results--especially when she falls for the school's resident lothario"--




Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm


Book Description

Step through the golden gates of childhood in Kate Douglas Wiggin’s classic, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Eleven-year-old Rebecca is leaving Sunnybrook Farm to live with her spinster aunts and become the educated daughter her family needs. Her aunts resent her father, who left behind nothing for his wife and seven children but a forty-eight-dollar mortgage. When Rebecca climbs out of the stagecoach with her pink parasol, wide-eyed and nervous about her new life, she is quickly met with the strict rules of Aunt Miranda, who has no patience for the antics of a rambunctious child. With her winning nature and lively demeanor, Rebecca becomes the young woman no one expected her to be. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.




Pollyanna


Book Description

The timeless children’s story about a young orphan whose sunny outlook and effervescent spirit transform a Vermont town Alone in her big house in Beldingsville, Vermont, Miss Polly welcomes neither friends nor companions of any sort. And so when a letter arrives notifying her that her orphaned niece Pollyanna has been sent east to live with her, the cantankerous Miss Polly braces for her cherished calm to be shattered. Pollyanna seems to have little to be grateful for, especially when her aunt sends her to live in the stuffy attic of her stuffy manor. But rather than sulk over her humble accommodations, Pollyanna rejoices in the marvelous view that her attic window affords. She calls her positive attitude the “glad game,” a trick her father taught her to make the best of any situation. As she introduces the glad game to the downtrodden residents of Beldingsville, Pollyanna begins to rejuvenate the small New England town, proving that optimism and a good-hearted disposition can bring joy to anyone—maybe even stubborn, ornery Miss Polly . . . This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.




Anne of Avonlea


Book Description

In this sequel to children’s classic Anne of Green Gables, the spirited young heroine starts on her path to adulthood as a schoolteacher. Having earned her teaching license at Queen’s Academy, sixteen-year-old Anne Shirley is ready to begin her new role as an instructor at the Avonlea school, not far from Green Gables farm. But is she ready for the responsibilities of young adulthood? Together with her old friends Gilbert Blythe and Diana Barry, Anne starts the Avonlea Village Improvement Society—only to discover that good intentions don’t always go according to plan. Meanwhile, Marilla Cuthbert, who took Anne in as a freckle-faced orphan, now finds herself caring for a pair of young twins who couldn’t be more opposite from each other. When Anne isn’t at school or lending Marilla a helping hand, she’s contending with her difficult new neighbor and his foul-mouthed parrot, getting overly involved in other people’s romances, and hoping that one day she’ll get to go to college. Since Anne of Green Gables was first published in 1908, L. M. Montgomery’s novels featuring the irrepressible Anne Shirley have delighted readers of all ages and inspired numerous adaptions, including the beloved Netflix series Anne with an E.




Anne of the Island


Book Description

In the third Anne of Green Gables novel, the beloved heroine goes off to college—but discovers her true desires lie closer to home. After two years of teaching at the Avonlea school, Anne Shirley is ready to explore new horizons. Along with her dear friend Gilbert Blythe, she enrolls in Redmond College in Kingsport, Nova Scotia, to pursue her dream of higher education. Anne soon finds herself thrust on the adventure of a lifetime, pursuing her bachelor’s degree and setting up house with two of her female classmates. But when Gilbert suddenly proposes marriage, Anne is taken aback . . . and she turns him down. Anne always thought she would fall in love with someone tall, dark, and mysterious—someone like Roy Gardner, a Redmond student who showers her with romantic attention. As her friends back in Avonlea start to marry and settle down, Anne comes to realize that Roy is not the man for her after all. But when Gilbert is struck with typhoid fever, will she be too late to let him know how she truly feels? Since Anne of Green Gables was first published in 1908, L. M. Montgomery’s novels featuring the irrepressible Anne Shirley have delighted readers of all ages and inspired numerous adaptions, including the beloved Netflix series Anne with an E.




Behind a Mask


Book Description

An early novel of gothic thrills and chills from the beloved author of Little Women. One of four stories written under the penname A. M. Barnard, Behind a Mask was originally published in 1866 for a young adult audience. Set in Victorian-era Britain, it follows the machinations of Jean Muir, a governess hired by the Coventry family to care for their sixteen-year-old daughter. Winning the confidence of the clan proves easy for Jean, though she does raise some suspicion. And rightly so. Behind closed doors—and beneath her brilliant disguise—Jean reveals her true identity: a cunning and ambitious actress whose goal is nothing less than securing the Coventry family’s estate and fortune for herself. “The stories proceed from title to thrilling conclusion at a swift pace. Real page‐turners, they would be called today, their spareness the more admirable because the author, who was paid by the column, nevertheless restrained herself from long descriptions of sunrises and sunsets. Indeed, she is completely uninterested in weather of any sort, unless it is necessary to bring on a dramatic chill or a bit of enervating heat. She cares for character, the more vivid the better. If many of her character‐establishing phrases were clichés of their time they were deftly handled, and, in any event, they seem a welcome change from the clichés of our time.” —The New York Times on Louisa May Alcott’s A. M. Barnard Tales




An Old-Fashioned Girl


Book Description

A country girl heads to the city in this novel from the author of Little Women: “Louisa May Alcott makes episodic and virtuous narratives engaging” (The Literary Omnivore). When fourteen-year-old Polly Milton visits her friend Fanny Shaw and Fanny’s wealthy family, she is soon overwhelmed by their fast-paced and fashionable urban life. Although she is teased for her country upbringing, Polly nevertheless endears herself to the Shaw family with her modest demeanor and kind heart. Six years later, Polly returns to the city as a music teacher. Though her friendship with Fanny has never waned, she is shocked to learn the Shaws are on the brink of financial ruin. With Polly’s unwavering support, the Shaw family will be guided to a more meaningful life. “People always like to read of kindly self-sacrifice, and sweetness, and purity, and naturalness; and this is what Polly is, and what her character teaches in a friendly and unobtrusive way to everybody about her. The story thus mirrors the reader’s good-will in her well-doing, and that is perhaps what, more than any other thing, makes it so charming and comfortable.” —The Atlantic




Veronica


Book Description

A finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, here is an evocative novel about female friendship in the glittering 1980s. One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years Alison and Veronica meet amid the nocturnal glamour of 1980s New York: One is a young model stumbling away from the wreck of her career, the other an eccentric middle-aged office temp. Over the next twenty years their friendship will encompass narcissism and tenderness, exploitation and self-sacrifice, love and mortality. Moving seamlessly from present and past, casting a fierce yet compassionate eye on two eras and their fixations, the result is a work of timeless depth and moral power.




Without Words


Book Description

Bounty hunter Bret Sterling kills Rufus Petty, thief and murderer, less than ten feet away from a frightened, half-starved woman. Rufus should have surrendered. The woman should have kin to help her. But Rufus went down shooting, and the woman has no one. Bret figures by the time he finds a safe place to leave Hassie Petty, he'll earn the five hundred dollar reward several times over. Hassie doesn't mourn Rufus, but the loss of the ten dollars he promised her for supplies is a different matter. The bounty hunter gives her nothing, takes everything, ties the body on one horse and orders her on another. Afraid if she defies him, he'll tie her down tighter than Rufus, Hassie mounts up and follows the icy-eyed killer. Mismatched in every way, the sterling man and petty woman travel the West together, hunting thieves, deserters, and murderers. Wary traveling companions, friends and partners, lovers, Bret and Hassie must decide what they want, what they need, and the price they're willing to pay for love.