Although E. Nesbit regarded her poetry as her most important work, it is her children's books (written 'to keep the house going') that ensured her lasting fame and which are still enjoyed with such affection today. Her readers have their oen favourites, but the film version of THE RAILWAY CHILDREN, with Jenny Agutter as Roberta, the eldest daughter of the...

A brilliantly funny collection of poems involving everyone's favourite anti-hero Dave Dirt, the extraordinary afternoon of a prawn and the mysterious tale of Zoe's earrings. Witty, touching and clever - this is a classic collection from the irreverent Kit Wright. ...

These classic tales of Awful Warnings about the consequences of Bad Behaviour are among the best of comic verse ever written for children. 'Designed for the Admonition of children between the ages of eight and fourteen years', they were first published in 1907; though such eccentricity as Henry King's chewing string may no longer be a common misdemeanour, the humour...

First published as a serial in YOUNG FOLKS between May and July 1886 and now reprinted in an Everyman edition on the centenary of Stevenson's death. KIDNAPPED is an adventure story that has become the model for any thriller of escape and suspense. Set in 1751, the flight of David Balfour and Alan Breck across the Highlands of Scotland is...

A Russian ballet company comes to town with a production of COPPELIA and Louisa just has to see it. But first she has to scrape the ticket money together through lots of get-rich-schemes. By the time she's got enough disaster strikes - the show's sold out! But with a little help from her guardian-angel neighbour, Mrs Posnansky, Weezer finds herself...

A brilliantly funny collection of poems involving everyone's favourite anti-hero Dave Dirt, the extraordinary afternoon of a prawn and the mysterious tale of Zoe's earrings. Witty, touching and clever - this is a classic collection from the irreverent Kit Wright. ...

The famous stage-designer Ivan Bilibin was a self-taught artist who was lucky enough to be offered the commission of a lifetime at the very start of his career. In 1899 the Department for the Production of State Documents asked this young Russian artist to illustrate a series of fairy tales, a task that took him four years to complete and...

This collection of eight French contes collected by Charles Perrault in the last decade of the seventeenth century, contains perhaps the most famous fairy stories of all time - 'Cinderella', 'The Sleeping Beauty', 'Puss in Boots', 'Blue Beard' and of couse the eponymous 'Little Red Riding Hood'. It quickly became the standard version of stories on these themes, was translated...

Just two years after the extraordinarily successful publication of LITTLE WOMEN and GOOD WIVES, Louisa Alcott's brother-in-law died, leaving two sons. She immediately decided to write a sequel to provide for her sister and nephews, and LITTLE MEN, published in 1871, became a tribute to her father's theories of education. The story is set in Plumfield, a school run by...

Master storyteller Roald Dahl is by far the most popular children's writer of the late twentieth century, and The BFG (the Big Friendly Giant), recently adapted for the stage with great success, is set to become a claasic of its period (it was first published in 1982) This story of a vegetarian giant who disapproves of eating children has all...

Jo can't bear the attitude of peole around her: the teacher who wants to help but can't face the truth that Jo's half black (not just half-white); Straker, the bully who torments and follows her; and most of all, her mum, who refuses to talk about the past and allow Jo to find out about her real dad. That's why...

Some of the best-loved stories in the world. Originating in Persia, India and Arabia, they were the daily entertainment of the common people. In this edition they are retold especially for children. this collection includes the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, Ali Baby and the Forty Thieves and the Tale of the Hunchback. ...

Katy Carr can hardly believe it when she is invited to spend a whole year in Europe with Mrs Ashe and Amy. Although a year seems like a long time away from her beloved family, living in the small American town of Burnet, Katy embarks enthusiastically on her greatest adventure. This charming story, first published in 1886, is the third...