Getting into trouble is much easier that getting out of it in George Layton's bestselling collection of funny, bittersweet stories about growing up in the Fifties.

    He’s picked out the biggest and best dogs from the books in the library—and he just knows he’s going to get one for his birthday. Ben is excited when the big day arrives, but he receives a picture of a dog instead of a real one! But the imagination can be a powerful thing, and when Ben puts his to work, his adventures really begin!

    Though it looks to most people like a white goat with a bump on its head, young Joe is certain it will make the dreams of his friends and neighbors come true—a reunion with his father in Africa, a steam press for a tailor shop, a ring for a girlfriend. Others may be skeptical of the unicorn’s magic, but with enough effort, Joe believes he can make it all real.

    The father is a dustman and the mother a washerwoman, but because they are poor the children find even greater opportunities for adventure in their ordinary lives.

    A small boat helps the evacuation from Dunkirk.

    After moving around to several towns in the UK, the family finally emigrates to Australia, but trouble still follows them there.

    This story is for children aged six to ninety plus.

    Despite opposition from parents and friends, they finally overcome all obstacles and win a drama competition. It is a tale of triumph over adversity.

    After a pelican mother is shot, Storm Boy rescues the three chicks, and nurses them back to health. He names them Mr Proud, Mr Ponder and Mr Percival. After he releases them, his favourite, Mr Percival, returns. The story then concentrates on the conflict between his lifestyle and the externally imposed requirement for him to attend a school, and the fate of the pelican.

    Mary and her younger brother Peter set out on foot, lost in the vast, hot Australian outback. They are saved by a chance meeting with an Aboriginal boy on walkabout, who teaches them to find food and water in the wilderness, but whom Mary can’t bring herself to trust. Though on the surface Walkabout is an adventure story, darker themes lie just beneath. Peter’s innocent friendship with the Aboriginal throws into relief Mary’s no longer childish anxiety, and together raise questions about how Aboriginal and Western culture can meet. And in the vivid descriptions of the natural world, we realize that this story—a deep fairy tale in the spirit of Adalbert Stifter’s Rock Crystal—must also be a story about the closeness of death and the power of nature.

    Ten-year-old Jenny's new foster mother dosen't live up to her expectations until Jenny discovers that there are more important things in life than lavish gifts and fancy homes.

    It stands in the shadows...dark, crumbling, and forbidding. At night, smoke curls from beneath its doors, and an old man toils in secret.ROOM OF TERRORInside, something is moving...tongues of luminous color lap against the glass...coiling and curling...begging to be released.DEVIL'S WORKThe old man stands before his creation. Silently he tends the fires that feed it...waiting for the right moment to unleash its power upon the world.

    Unrest is spreading among the peasants of Southern England, who are tired of the injustice they suffer at the hands of landlords. Rebellion is in the air, and life is about to change for man and dog.

    Twins Nicola and Lawrie arrive at their new school determined to do even better than their distinguished elder sisters, but things don't turn out quite as planned.

    At night the clock transports her to magical places.