I was a wandering son. I learned that the trajectory of life is not ordained like the flight of an arrow once released from the bow. Rather it is a voyage on a broad sea encountering tempests, doldrums, and unexpected beasts including ourselves; sometimes we sail with or against the wind, but we always need to stay true to our compass, committed to a worthy destination. We learn about life by setting challenging goals, trying difficult things, by getting dirty, and by failing. The story lies at the interface between dark & light, good & evil. We value tales that stretch the antipodes of the human experience and characters who reach beyond themselves.
This collection of short stories remains an elegant and much-loved classic. Although Kipling was the product of an imperial era, he had a profound understanding of India and he was able to capture the wonder of the land and its people in these memorable tales. The wonderful allegorical array of characters in the stories includes the brave & kind-hearted Mowgli (the man-cub), Akela the wolf and Gray Brother, Kaa the python, Bagheera the black panther, Baloo the bear, the Bandar-log monkeys, and, of course, Mowglis nemesis, the malevolent tiger, Shere Khan. These lovely tales remain timely & heartwarming to those of us, young and old.
Puffin Classics - the world's favourite stories - relaunched with exciting new covers.
The Jungle Book is a classic story of friendship between man and beast. Saved from the jaws of the evil tiger Shere Khan, young Mowgli is adopted by a wolf pack and taught the law of the jungle by lovable old Baloo the bear and Bhageera the panther. The adventures of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi the snake-fighting mongoose, little Toomai and the elephant's secret dance, and Kotick the white seal are all part of Mowgli's extraordinary journey with his animal friends.
The 1939 film starred Judy Garland, yet this book was the first of 14 Oz stories created by Baum. A brave heroine, dropped into a strange land by a swirling tornado, gathers together a bedraggled troupe of companions, a cowardly lion, a tin woodsman sans heart, and a scarecrow with brain fog. Together they confront bad and good witches, flying monkeys, singing dragoons, and sundry other antagonists in their journey to the “Emerald City”. There have been political & allegorical references to the yellow brick road and the “gold standard,” the populist movement, eastern industrialization, and scheming politicians. In the end, we learn that Dorothy (Everyman) had the power to click her (originally silver) slippers together and go home all along. It is a magical tale that continues to please.
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'"Come along, Toto," she said. "We will go to the Emerald City and ask the Great Oz how to get back to Kansas again."'
Swept away from her home in Kansas by a tornado, Dorothy and her dog Toto find themselves stranded in the fantastical Land of Oz. As instructed by the Good Witch of the North and the Munchkins, Dorothy sets off on the yellow brick road to try and find her way to the Emerald City and the Wizard of Oz, who can help her get home.…
My book is fantastical historical fiction about two characters who're wrestling with the monstrosity of their grief.
It takes you into London high society, where Ambrose tries to forget about how much he misses Bennett and how much he dreads becoming as cold as their Grandfather. It takes you to…
This is a lovely bildungsromantale about Bradbury as a young boy (Douglas Spaulding) growing up in the Midwest. It is infused with his sense of magic in the world and the wonder of everyday existence while learning that life is not all gentle and innocent. Bradbury dares to look in the shadows and talk about death. Doug’s grandmother dies at home surrounded by her family. Later, the aging Colonel asks an old friend in Mexico City to cradle the phone on the window sill and draws his last breath listening to the sounds of the street below. Bradbury entangles joy and grief in a weave that fits tight to the skin. This tale presages later works such as Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Illustrated Man, & Fahrenheit 451.
Dandelion Wine is a 1957 semi-autobiographical novel by Ray Bradbury, taking place in the summer of 1928 in the fictional town of Green Town, Illinois — a pseudonym for Bradbury's childhood home of Waukegan, Illinois. The novel developed from the short story "Dandelion Wine" which appeared in the June 1953 issue of Gourmet magazine.
This is a book that conjures up wonderful memories. T.H. White (not to be confused with E. B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web) was a gifted British Arthurian scholar. My father read a tattered copy to me as a young boy before going to sleep. Dad was a judge and could alter his voice and affect with the characters. He became Merlyn, the wizard and tutor, the young boy Wart, and the other characters in the tale. I was transformed with Wart in the hawks’ mews, became a perch and swam frantically to escape the hungry pike, became a wise badger, wild goose, ant, and owl…and learned with them all. Later Wart pulled the sword from the stone, and having learned compassion, perspective and leadership, became the great King Arthur.
Voyager Classics - timeless masterworks of science fiction and fantasy.
A beautiful clothbound edition of The Once and Future King, White's masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend.
T.H. White's masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend is an abiding classic. Here all five volumes that make up the story are published together in a single volume, as White himself always wished.
Here is King Arthur and his shining Camelot, beasts who talk and men who fly; knights, wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad; the masterpiece of fantasy by which all others are…
Captain James Heron First Into the Fray
by
Patrick G. Cox,
Captain Heron finds himself embroiled in a conflict that threatens to bring down the world order he is sworn to defend when a secretive Consortium seeks to undermine the World Treaty Organisation and the democracies it represents as he oversees the building and commissioning of a new starship.
Pullman has written an extraordinary trilogy. Pullman’s introduction quotes Milton’s Paradise Lost. All human souls have an animal daemon that can morph during childhood and adolescence but which becomes fixed in adulthood. The young heroine, Lyra, and her daemon, Pan, have riddles to unravel with a magical (truth-telling) “alethiometer” compass and are challenged to discern friend from foe in parallel worlds. Lyra’s parents, Lord Asriel and the captivating Marisa Coulter, represent opposing factions to Church authority and the essential nature of Dust. Lyra gains allies in the witches, Will Parry, the aeronaut Lee Scoresby and an armored bear, Lorek Byrnison. Religious critics called the work “atheism for kids”. Pullman responded, “Why don’t we trust readers?”
This special collection features all three titles in the award-winning trilogy: Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
Northern Lights Lyra Belacqua lives half-wild and carefree among the scholars of Jordan College, with her daemon familiar always by her side. But the arrival of her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, draws her to the heart of a terrible struggle - a struggle born of Gobblers and stolen children, witch clans and armoured bears.
The Subtle Knife Lyra finds herself in a shimmering, haunted otherworld - Cittagazze, where soul-eating Spectres stalk the streets…
Joseph Campbell said that the hero gets the adventure she/he is ready for. Gilly Wells is an adventuresome girl who aspires to run the Iditarod… with a team of cats. Inspired by the legend of the Norse goddess Freya she gathers a motley but devoted crew of felines in time for the race. With the help of animal daemons, an Athabaskan shaman, and a pouch of magic dust, she and her cats are transformed. In this epic journey honoring the transfer of life-saving diphtheria serum in the 1925 “Great Race of Mercy,” Gilly and her companions compete against the brutal weather, beasts of the wild, and nefarious competitors & the Wendigo. Credits: I was inspired by a talented illustrator, Elizabeth Alba, and some four-footed friends.
Ava Winston likes her life of routine in Lexington, Kentucky. Then a tornado blows it away. Ava is safe in the basement, but when she emerges, only one corner of her home stands. Rather than crumbling under the loss, she feels a load lifted. Maybe something beyond the familiar is…
Emmitt’s plans collapse when his wife, Mirai, suddenly backs out of purchasing their dream home. Disappointed, he’s surprised to discover her subtle pursuit of a life and career in Tokyo.
In his search for a meaningful life in Japan, and after quitting his job, he finds himself helping his mother-in-law…