Showing results by publisher "MuseumAudiobooks.com" in Literature & Fiction

Edith Nesbit (Edith Bland,1858-1924) was an English author and poet. She authored or collaborated on more than 60 books of fiction for children, many of which have been adapted for film and television. She wrote tales of fantasy, magic, and misadventure in which children in normal circumstances are faced with extraordinary characters or events.

Alice's Adventures Under Ground was the original story written by Lewis Carroll. He later revised the manuscript, which would become the famous Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was a novelist, short story writer and poet. The novel Little Women (1868) remains a beloved classic of children’s literature today. Loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters, the narrative follows the lives of the four March sisters, chronicling their passage from childhood to womanhood. "Cousin Tribulation's Story" is a short story about a family who wake up on Christmas morning to a sumptuous breakfast. Then they hear of an immigrant family with a sick mother who have nothing to eat.

Little Women is a novel by the short story writer and novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), who was also an abolitionist and a feminist. Little Women was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869 and is still a popular children's novel. The setting is an imaginary household based on her own residence in Massachusetts, while the characters are modeled on the author and her sisters. The story takes place during the Civil War. The narrative chronicles the lives of the four March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy - from childhood to motherhood.

Baron Trump's Marvelous Underground Journey by Ingersoll Lockwood was published in 1893. The novel recounts the adventures of the German boy Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Von Troomp, who goes by the name "Baron Trump", and his dog Bulger, as they discover fantastic underground civilizations, offend the natives, escape from their involvements, and repeat this pattern until arriving back home at Castle Trump.

Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book tell the story of the boy Mowgli who was raised by wolves. Set in a forest in India, the narratives promotes the ideas of law, freedom, respect, and obedience. Besides Mowgli, all the characters are animals or human archetypes in animal form, like Sher Khan the huge tiger, Baloo the sleepy brown bear, Bagheera the cunning black panther, and Kaa the python. The Second Jungle Book contains five stories about Mowgli and three unrelated pieces.

A Child's Garden of Verses is a children’s poetry work by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, containing poems with themes of childhood, illness, play, and solitude.

"The Happy Prince" is a short story by Oscar Wilde, about a swallow and a statue. The swallow who remained behind when his flock flew to Africa for the winter, befriends a golden and bejewelled statue of a prince. Witnessing the poverty and suffering in the city, the statue asks the swallow to take his jewels and use them to help the poor. One by the swallow takes the gemstones, and ultimately also the gold plating, stripping the statue bare. But because it waited so long, it succumbs to the cold of winter.

The Princess and the Pea is the story of a prince who wishes to marry a princess but is having difficulty finding a suitable wife. One night a young woman who claims to be a princess arrives at the palace, so the prince's mother decides to test their unexpected guest by placing a pea under her bed, covered by 20 feather mattresses. In the morning, the guest tells her hosts that she had a sleepless night, kept awake by something hard in the bed. So the two are married because only a real princess would be sensitive enough to feel a pea through so much bedding.

Grahame’s classic is a charming satirical tale of a young shepherd boy discovering a dragon on the Downs. Besides the literature loving dragon, it has a reasonable St George and tolerant townspeople. The brilliant conversations stand out for their arresting wit.

American Indian Fairytales is a collection of Native American folklore retold for children and young adults. Margaret Compton (1852-1903) drew on authentic lore from a wide selection of regions. The tales include "The Story-Teller Himself", "Snowbird and the Water-Tiger", "The Coyote or Prairie Wolf", and "How Mad Buffalo Fought the Thunder-Bird".

First published in 1895, it contains five stories about Mowgli and three unrelated pieces. Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves, is older and wiser but still learns more of life and survival in the Indian jungle, in the company of well-known characters like Baloo the brown bear and Bagheera the black panther.

A Little Princess tells the story of Sara Crewe, a brilliant and imaginative student at a Select Seminary for Young Ladies. When her father dies, Sara becomes a pauper, forced to live in the attic and work as a servant. She faces adversity with stoic optimism, which leads her out of the dire circumstances. The narrative demonstrates the value of kindness over cleverness, the importance of giving freely and respecting others, no matter their station in life.

The Frances Hodgson Burnett Collection includes book one, The Secret Garden (1911), the narrative of a child's journey into maturity, with themes of hope, healing, and redemption. Book two, A Little Princess (1905), tells the story of Sara Crewe, whose father dies and leaves her penniless. Making the best of the situation, she eventually triumphs. Book three, Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), is the story of a poor little boy from New York City who is called to England to become a member of the nobility.

Kipling's Jungle Book remains popular and has seen many adaptations to film and other media. Besides the boy Mowgli, all the characters are animals or rather human archetypes in animal form. The stories, set in a forest in India, have themes like abandonment followed by fostering, and promotes the ideas of law and freedom, respect and obedience. Even critics of Kipling's supposed imperialism admit to the extraordinary power of his storytelling.

This classic of children's literature tells the story of a child's journey into maturity. Although an engaging children’s story, The Secret Garden is on a par with any classic novel. The narrative includes themes of hope, healing, and redemption with charming moments of myth, mystery, and symbolism. The authentic portrayal of the emotions and experiences of childhood is impressive.

Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886) is the first children's novel by the English American author Frances Hodgson Burnett. It tells the story of Cedric Errol, an impoverished American boy who is unexpectedly transplanted into the English aristocracy when he inherits the title Lord Fauntleroy.

When Jenny Wren learns that Peter Rabbit would like to know more about the four-footed friends who live in the Green Meadows and Green Forest, she recommends Old Mother Nature who is happy to teach him. She tells Peter about a range of creatures such as Arctic Hare and Antelope Jack, Flying Squirrel, Mountain Beaver, Pocket Gopher, Grasshopper Mouse, Silvery Bat, Mule Deer and Grizzly Bear. This absorbing book teaches children about the many forms of wildlife and the animals' relationships with one another.

In the short story The Girl Who Owned a Bear, Jane Gladys Brown’s mother leaves her in the care of Nora the maid when she goes shopping. While Nora is busy in the pantry, Jane Gladys works on her embroidery, until a mysterious little man arrives and gives her a large book titled Thingamajigs. When she opens it, the pictures come to life and appear in the room, including a monkey, a donkey, a leopard and a bear. When her mother returns, all of them jump back into the book.

Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901) was a prolific English novelist. The Little Duke, the first of her historical tales for children, was published in 1854. The main character is Richard Duke of Normandy, the great grandfather of William the Conqueror. The first part concentrates on Richard's failings, their punishment, and his reform, and the second part on his virtues. At the beginning of the tale, Richard is a boy of eight who becomes duke when his father dies in 943 AD. His overlord King Louis brings the boy to the French court where his life seems to be in peril.