Family Life Classics

Zauberhaft und geheimnisvoll ist Astrid Lindgrens Märchenwelt. Petra und Peter, zwei Kinder so groß wie Puppen, tauchen plötzlich in der Schule auf...

Beloved and bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith lends his delightful touch to EMMA, the next book in The Austen Project.Prepare to meet a young woman who thinks she knows everything.Fresh from university, Emma Woodhouse triumphantly arrives home in Norfolk ready to embark on adult life with a splash.

Few winter stories are more affecting than Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Written in 1848, and strictly speaking a New Year's Eve story, it showed so clearly then, as it does now, that the Christmas holidays do not represent fireside, food, and presents for all. This story never fails to move, yet it somehow avoids serious sentimentality.

When Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and their baby brother go digging in the gravel pit, the last thing they expect to find is a Psammead - an ancient Sand-fairy! Having a Sand-fairy for a pet means having one wish granted each day. But the children don't realize all the trouble wishes can cause... The five children find a cantankerous sand fairy, a psammead, in a gravel pit. Every day 'It' will grant each of them a wish that lasts until sunset, often with disastrous consequences.

The Spraggs, a wealthy family of Midwesterners, are visiting New York City to marry off their beautiful daughter Undine. While Undine's beauty catches the attention of several high-society men, she finds it difficult to fit in with the old-money social circles that rule New York. When she finally marries Ralph Marvell, she embraces a life full of frivolities, which eventually leads to her tumultuous demise.

William Dorrit has been a resident of the Marshalsea debtors prison for so many years that he has gained the nickname "The Father of the Marshalsea". However, his suffering is eased by his close bond with youngest daughter Amy, or "Little Dorrit". The dashing Arthur Clennam, returning to London after many years in China, enters their lives and the Dorrits' fortunes begin to rise and fall. A biting satirical work on the shortcomings of 19th-century government and society.

Pubblicato a Zurigo nel 1880, Heidi è un tipico romanzo di formazione la cui protagonista, rimasta orfana in tenera età, viene affidata da una zia alle cure del nonno paterno, il burbero e misantropo Zio dell'Alpe che si è ritirato a vivere in una baita alpina. Tra le alpi svizzere la bambina cresce libera e spensierata fino al giorno in cui la zia viene a riprenderla per affidarla ad una ricca famiglia di Francoforte la cui figlia, Clara, è immobilizzata su di una sedia a rotelle. Le bambine diventano subito molto amiche.

In this epic, mythical debut novel, a newly-wed couple escapes the busy confusion of their homeland for a distant and almost-uninhabited lakeshore. They plan to live there simply, to fish the lake, to trap the nearby woods, and build a house upon the dirt between where they can raise a family. But as their every pregnancy fails, the child-obsessed husband begins to rage at this new world: the song-spun objects somehow created by his wife’s beautiful singing voice, the giant and sentient bear that rules the beasts of the woods, the second moon weighing down the fabric of their starless sky, and the labyrinth of memory dug into the earth beneath their house.

Il romanzo narra la storia di una famiglia di pescatori che vive e lavora ad Aci Trezza, un piccolo paese siciliano nei pressi di Catania...

Heidi, a five-year-old orphan girl, is sent to live with her grandfather up in the mountains of Dorfli after her Aunt Dete receives a job offer in the city. Enchanted by the old man and his jaded attitude towards the villagers and God, Heidi wins him over with her enthusiasm and love. When her aunt returns, she insists Heidi go to live with a wealthy family in Frankfurt. Disappointed to leave her grandfather and her friend, Peter, Heidi reluctantly agrees.

Elizabeth Bennet is a pickpocket, and she first meets Mr. Darcy when she tries to steal his watch. Mr. Darcy has never met a young woman like Elizabeth Bennet. She is intelligent and pretty, and she has her own opinions. Against his better judgement, he finds himself falling madly in love with her. Mr. Darcy and the Pickpocket is based on Jane Austen’s iconic lovers, with a fun twist – Elizabeth comes from a crime family and considers herself like Robin Hood. Yes, she is a thief, but she wants to help the poor. She thinks most wealthy men are arrogant and selfish, so how can she fall in...

When Donahue walks out, Dr. Chloe McGuire's marriage implodes. He teaches her humiliation. When a passionate friendship blooms with Dr. Zakia Kigamba during their medical rounds through Kenya, she learns resilience. The Kinship Of All Creatures tells the story of Dr. Chloe McGuire, a genetics researcher at Cornell University. She goes to Kenya as a delegate to the conference of the United Nations Decade for Women, where each distinct face, every glowing shape comes together in a happening, an encounter, an explosion of euphoria. Though diverse in their goals and how they could reach them, ...

On the far northwest coast of Tasmania at Cape Grimm lies the isolated and idiosyncratic community of Skye, which practises a religion that reveres the imagination. One clear evening in 1992 all the inhabitants enter the church hall, where they are locked in and burned alive. They have been persuaded to do this by a young man called Caleb Mean - also known as El Nino, the Christ Child.

Seventeen years after falling from a stolen car into a remote northern town, Billie Jean Fontaine is still an outsider. She may follow the stifling rules of this odd place, but no one will forget that she came from elsewhere. When Billie Jean vanishes one cold October night in her bare feet and track suit with only her truck keys, those closest to her begin a frantic search. Her daughter, Pony, a girl struggling against being a teen in the middle of nowhere; her killer dog to whom she cannot tell a lie; her husband, The Heavy, a man haunted by his past; and more....

Meet Eve, who has departed from her 30-year career to become a Free Spirit, Sally, who has waved goodbye to her indifferent husband and two grown-up children, and Anastasia: defiantly independent narrow-boat-dweller, suddenly vulnerable as she awaits a life-saving operation. Inexperienced and ill-equipped, Sally and Eve embark upon a journey through the canals of England, guided by the remote and unsympathetic Anastasia.

As Jason enters fourth grade, he begins to think girls are okay, until he gets caught in a tricky rating game. Meanwhile Edward, now in first grade, is trying hard to keep his eyes open when he swings at the softball, to laugh instead of cry in the spooky neighborhood haunted house, and to keep cool when his pet rat, Spike, has a litter of tiny pink babies.

When Mr. Gruber shows Paddington an outdoor painting exhibition he is inspired to take up a new hobby… After attending an Outside Exhibition, Paddington is inspired to take up painting himself. He gets busy with his own paints and holds his own exhibition, but is discouraged by the problems of self-portraiture – forgetting what he looks like in the mirror! Then a mystery art collector buys up his entire works. This is just the boost he needs, and he’s soon busily trying his first family portrait!

Sumérgete en la cautivadora historia de amor y desilusión de Frédéric Moreau en 'La educación sentimental' de Gustave Flaubert. En esta emocionante novela, acompañarás a Frédéric en su búsqueda por encontrar su lugar en el mundo y reconciliarse con su amor imposible por Madame Arnoux. Pero su camino no será fácil, ya que deberá sortear los obstáculos que la sociedad francesa del siglo XIX le presenta, incluyendo la política y la corrupción.

Eleven-year-old Rebecca Randall is quite a handful - and now she’s leaving her beloved Sunnybrook Farm to live with her well-to-do elderly aunts and get an education. But they were expecting Rebecca’s quiet, hardworking older sister instead. Can the bright-eyed and talkative girl win them over...especially her strict, rule-bound Aunt Miranda? Just as Rebecca’s “grand spirit” charms everyone in the story, it will captivate listeners, too.

"What happens when an irresistible force encounters an immovable object?" The ancient paradox becomes a real-life problem when a woman, whose wealth and influence are matched only by her arrogance and violent temper, encounters someone with the strength of character to rival her own. It is bad enough that this new, formidable foe is a mere girl. But to make matters worse, she also happens to be the great lady's only granddaughter.