These stories contain a wealth of wonderful characters and ideas, all with the colorful, dreamlike quality of the very best fairy tales. Illustrations.

    Unimaginably rich, invariably swathed in a magnificent purple dressing-gown, Uncle oversees a vast ramshackle castle full of friendly kooks while struggling to fend off the sneak attacks of the incorrigible (and ridiculous) Badfort Crowd. Each Uncle story introduces a new character from Uncle’s madcap world: Signor Guzman, careless keeper of the oil lakes; Noddy Ninety, an elderly train conductor and the oldest student of Dr. Lyre’s Select School for Young Gentlemen; the proprietors of Cheapman’s Store (where motorbikes are a halfpenny each) and Dearman’s Store (where the price of an old milk jug goes up daily); along with many others. But for every delightful friend of Uncle, there is a foe who is no less deliriously wicked. Luckily the misbegotten schemes of the Badfort Crowd are no match for Uncle’s superior wits. Quentin Blake’s quirky illustrations are the perfect complement to J.P. Martin’s stories, each one of a perfect length for bedtime reading. Lovers of Roald Dahl and William Steig will rejoice in Uncle’s wonderfully bizarre and happy world, where the good guys always come out on top, and once a year, everybody, good and bad, sits down together for an enormous Christmas feast.

    Another great Dick King Smith tale.

    Her selection of her favorite stories describes powerful—and sometimes exceedingly silly—monarchs, and commoners who are every bit their match; musicians and dancers who live for art rather than earthly reward; and a goldfish who wishes to “marry the Moon, surpass the Sun, and possess the World.”

    The author was one of the most popular children's writers of her time.

    Its contents range from the hilariously funny to the thought-provoking, from playground rhymes and nonsense verse to poems by favourite writers, classic and modern.Imaginative and entertaining, this is an inspiring first poetry anthology for children and grown-ups to share.

    Then, from every side, from under leaves and from behind rocks, creatures began to appear.To begin with, all the creatures were rather alike - they had no idea what they were going to become. Some wanted to become lions, so they practised being lions. But other creatures - including the whale, the elephant, the cat and the donkey - came about in different ways.There are eleven animal stories in this collection for younger children to enjoy. They are particularly suitable for reading aloud and Ted Hughes himself read them to his own children when they were young.Ted Hughes' classic text is accompanied by the beautiful illustrations of Jackie Morris to bring a lyrical and witty version of the creation myths.

    But when he turns up at the cottage to warm himself by the fire, they realise this is a very special scarecrow indeed.

    One of a series of top-quality fiction for schools, this is a collection of stories of a Lancashire childhood, of football in the streets, fishing, fighting and school, of growing up and looking for work, and of characters such as Spit Nolan the champion trolley-rider, and Sam Dalt the goalkeeper.

    He's madly sane and cleverly dotty. Professor Branestawm is the most absent-minded inventor you'll ever meet and no matter how hard he tries his brilliant ideas never seem to keep him out of crazy scrapes.

    Even his little sister can beat him at swimming. But Jack's uncle Parker has come up with a plan to make him and Zero shine: they'll pretend that Jack can tell the future! If only they could foresee what chaos the plan will cause.Helen Cresswell is the much-loved writer of over 40 children's books. She's the author of classics such as Lizzie Dripping as well as having adapted The Demon Headmaster for television. She has been runner-up for the Carnegie Medal four times.

    Instead, 11-year-old Willie must work in the coal mines of Cape Breton, hardly ever seeing the light of day. But with the help of Gem, a gentle pit pony, he discovers that things aren't always as bad as they seem. And a surprising event reveals that miracles can happen, even in a coal mine.

    A young boy becomes friends with the artist in the apartment upstairs and tries hard to understand when his friend commits suicide.

    An alternate cover for this isbn can be found here.After a shy and rather withdrawn eight-year-old begins receiving frightening supernatural images and messages, he learns about a family legacy which could be considered a curse or a rare gift.

    He tells wonderful stories about all the antiques, and his stories persuade the customers to buy the items he talks about, but everything he says is a pack of lies. Isn't it?The story of Ailsa and MCC is interwoven with the stories MCC tells the customers, which range from romances to adventure stories; from crime dramas to pirate stories; from stories set in modern-day Ireland to stories set in ancient China.