But their summer proves more adventurous than he had hoped when headstrong Kate arrives, as together they share horseback races across the plains, country fairs and festivals, and a dangerous run-in with the gypsies.In vividly detailed scenes and beautiful illustrations, this Newbery Award-winning author presents an unforgettable world and characters who will be remembered forever.

    The heroine's grit and determination, backed by the support of her eccentric and loving family, offer an inspiring example of the struggles and rewards of following a dream."The book is one that horse lovers of every age cannot fail to enjoy."--"The New York Times""Humorous, charming, National Velvet is a little masterpiece."--"Time""Put on your not-to-be-missed list."--"The New Yorker"

    Long out of print, Children of the Northlights introduces readers young and old to siblings Lise and Lasse and to the captivating Sami people and culture of northern Scandinavia. At times mischievous and at others quite courageous, Lisa and Lasse, and their Sami culture, are brought brilliantly to life in the d’Aulaires’ illustrations.This remarkable sister and brother live at the very top of Norway—to Lise and Lasse, seemingly at the very top of the world. All bundled up against the polar winter in their coats of fur and furry shoes, they look at times like two little bears rolling in the snow. Beneath the bright dancing of the northern lights, we follow Lise and Lasse as they enjoy the long winter days and polar nights: playing pranks on their family, chasing and playing with their reindeer Silverside and Snowwhitedeer, skiing, taking hot saunas to stay clean, and staying warm while snowstorms rage across the land. Lise and Lasse hunker down in their warm tent and wait for the sun to return, which, of course, it always does. When the sun comes back in spring, it’s time to go to school in the village (which Lise and Lasse happily do only after instructing their dogs to take very good care of Silverside and Snowwhitedeer while they’re away).Inspired directly by a remarkable journey the d’Aulaires took to northern Europe and their time spent among the Sami, Children of the Northlights is a brightly illustrated portrait and celebration of the Sami people, culture, and snow-covered landscapes of the frozen north, from two of the twentieth century’s greatest storytellers.

    Downed twice, drops French spy, fights Aces and circuses. Biggles Flies East - Mistaken for traitor Brunow, Captain James suspects von Stalhein is spy chief El Shereef for Germany, and Sterne for Britain. Biggles in the Orient - Biggles leads his squad against Jap secret weapon downing all but two pilots on Calcutta to China run.

    This is the first time Molly has ever had fun and a warm family, which helps her finally feel she belongs somewhere.

    

    It is like domesticating a creature of the wild. The creature domesticated is a mood or impression; it is the poet's wonder, his discovery that what he has been looking at is unique. I dwell on the word domesticated, for the poem made for childhood has to be lived with more familiarly than the poem made for grown-up people; the mood or the impression has to be made completely domestic. The old nursery rhymes did this perfectly:Goosey-goosey gander, Where do you wander?Upstairs and downstairsAnd to my ladys chamber. Here the inquiring and exploring aimlessness which is goosiness in its essence is given in swift, bold strokes. And it is idle for us to exclaim that one does not enter into conversation with a goose one meets on a stairway, and that if one does he does not get such a well-worded answer. The wonder has been felt, the impression rendered; that wild, winged thing, the goose of all time, has been domesticated completely. In an enormous lot of verse intended for childhood there is a fault - it domesticates the domestic. Plates and clocks and pinafores are just plates and clocks and pinafores; the impression ofthem as unique things has not been rendered in arresting measures. The makers of them have not been aroused to a discovery as has one of the poets represented here by hearing how hens talk before they go to sleep:One of them moved, and, turned around, Her feathers made a ruffled sound,A ruffled sound, like a bushful of birds, And she said her little asking words. One of the merits of this collection is that it does not domesticate the domestic. Poetry exists that we may have an accompaniment to our thoughts - something rhythmical, liberated, of another dimension going along with our accustomed toil, pastime and distraction. At all periods of our lives we have need of this accompaniment; we have particular need of it, judging by the way we demand it then, in the period of infancy and childhood. Hence "Ring-a-ring-a-rosy" and "Oranges, oranges, four for a penny", and all the play-rhymes that children who have not been brought up in solitude know; hence the universality and immortality of Mother Goose's rhymes. Of course these are to be distinguished from poetry - Mother Goose's are rhymes merely. But they do for our unreflective days what high poetry should do for our reflective days - they make an accompaniment for the thoughts of childhood, they put alongside the active and practical lives of children the rhythmical, liberated accompaniment. There is a stage in our lives when knowledge of the world and types of human character have to come to us as a legend, as a piece of mythology, and it is natural and fitting that they should come to us in rhyme:The King was in his counting-house,Counting out his money, The Queen was in her parlorEating bread and honey. Kings and Queens should exist for us in this handsomeness and opulence before they exist for us as heads of states, and the rhyming way is surely the proper way of introduction to such personalities. Then, too, there is an oral stage in our lives when our minds are receptive to words, when words naturally take the form of rhymes, and when rhymes become a favorite possession. Rhymes that give some impression, that hold some mood, should be around us then - poems of the kind that can enter the mind of a child and remain one of its possessions...

    How or when or whence this strange bond between the two had its beginning, we do not know. The dog alone volunteers to be man's chum and serf.This is the story of a dog wrongfully branded as a killer, who never lost the trust and confidence of his master.Bart the dog is all dog. His creator has mastered in full the secrets of canine reason.