Category: Literature

  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving)
    $3.00

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity, especially during Halloween because of a character known as the Headless Horseman believed to be a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball in battle.

    About the Author: Washington Irving as an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820). Irving served as ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846. He made his literary debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle, written under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. He moved to England for the family business in 1815 where he achieved fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., serialized from 1819–20. He continued to publish regularly throughout his life, and he completed a five-volume biography of George Washington just eight months before his death at age 76 in Tarrytown, New York.

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  • A Modern Cinderella | Louis May Alcott
    $2.50

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: A Modern Cinderella is a collection of four short stories by Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women. Like her more famous novels, Alcott tells stories of young women interacting with people and events from the late 1800s. A great addition to the Alcott library of stories.

    About the Author: Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

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  • Lady Susan (Jane Austen)
    $2.50

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: Lady Susan is shortest and least known novel of Austen’s and was written in 1794 but not published until 1875 after her death. It is about the horrible flirt Lady Susan Vernon, a widow in her thirties who has an affair with a married man.

    About the Author: Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen’s plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favorable social standing and economic security.

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  • The Young Railroaders downloadable book
    The Young Railroaders
    $2.50

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    Story line: Three teen-age boys, trained as telegraphers, manage to get themselves in and out of a wide variety of harrowing circumstances. Using their knowledge of Morse code, the science of telegraphs, and the operation of railroads, the boys stir in native resourcefulness, quick-thinking, and when the occasion demands it, raw courage – to effect rescues, thwart thieves, and solve mysteries. 

    Excerpt from the book: “When, after school that afternoon, Alex Ward waved a good-by to his father, the Bixton station agent for the Middle Western, and set off up the track on the spring’s first fishing, he had little thought of exciting experiences ahead of him. Likewise, when two hours later a sudden heavy shower found him in the woods, with but three small fish, it was only with feelings of disappointment that he wound up his line and ran for the shelter. Scarcely had Alex reached the doorway of the deserted house when he was startled by a chorus of excited voices from the rear. He turned quickly to a window, and with a cry sprang back out of sight. Emerging from the woods, excitedly talking and gesticulating, was a party of foreigners who had been working on the track near Bixton, and in their midst, his hands bound behind him, was Hennessy, their foreman…”

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  • Autumn Leaves Rebus Story
    $1.00

    The resource, Autumn Leaves Story and Comprehension, has been designed for early learners! Those beginning to read will enjoy reading this ‘Autumn Leaves’ Story using the rebus picture key to help. After reading, the is a one page reading comprehension worksheet for the students to complete.

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  • Letters of a Woman Homesteader
    $2.00

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: The writer of the following letters which comprise this book is a young woman who lost her husband in a railroad accident and went to Denver to seek support for herself and her two-year-old daughter, Jerrine. Turning her hand to the nearest work, she went out by the day to work as a house cleaner and laundress. Later, seeking to better herself, she accepted employment as a housekeeper for a well-to-do Scottish cattleman, Mr. Stewart, who had taken up a quarter-section in Wyoming. The letters, written through several years to a former employer in Denver, tell of her new life in the new country. They are genuine letters, and are printed as written, except for occasional omissions and alterations of names. The letters begin in 1909, apparently right after a homestead act made it possible for the author, Elinore Pruitt Stewart, to claim a homestead of 160 acres in Wyoming. Ms. Stewart is a very resourceful woman as well as a wonderful story-teller. 

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  • Emma (Jane Austen)
    $2.50

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: Jane Austen was at the height of her artistic powers when she wrote Emma, the fourth and last of her works to be published during her lifetime. The novel is a lively comedy of manners populated by some of Austen’s most entertaining and memorable characters, and it showcases her technical skills as a mature and experimental writer.

    About the Author: Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen’s plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favorable social standing and economic security.

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  • The Story of a Common Soldier (Army Life in the Civil War)
    $3.00

    Leander Stillwell was typical of thousands of Northern boys who answered President Lincoln’s call for volunteers. In January 1862, only a few months past his 18th birthday, and only after he and his father had sowed the wheat, gathered the corn and cut the winter firewood, Stillwell left his family’s log cabin in the Jersey County backwoods of western Illinois and enlisted in Company D of the 61st Illinois Infantry Regiment. For three and a half years he served in the Western theater of operations as a noncommissioned officer before being mustered out as a lieutenant in September 1865. His first—and biggest—battle, Shiloh, was the one he remembered most vividly. He also took part in skirmishes in Tennessee and Arkansas, as well as the Siege of Vicksburg. In The Story of a Common Soldier Stillwell tells of his Army experiences, as critic H. L. Mencken observed admiringly in a review, “in plain, straightforward American, naked and unashamed, without any of the customary strutting and bawling.” Small for his age and given to taking solitary walks in the woods beyond the picket lines, Stillwell was nevertheless an enthusiastic and obedient soldier. “Just a little mortifying,” was Stillwell’s reaction when his regiment missed two battles because it had been left to guard a town in Tennessee. But, he hastened to add, “the common soldier can only obey orders, and stay where he is put, and doubtless it was all for the best.”

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  • The Pathfinder (Cooper)
    $2.50

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: It is the fourth novel Cooper wrote featuring Natty Bumppo, his fictitious frontier hero, and the third chronological episode of the Leatherstocking Tales. The Pathfinder shows Natty at his old trick of guiding tender damsels through the dangerous woods, and the siege at the blockhouse and the storm on Lake Ontario are considerably like other of Cooper’s sieges and storms. Natty, in this novel commonly called the Pathfinder, keeps in a hardy middle age his simple and honest nature, which is severely tested by his love for a nineteen year old young woman. She is a conventional heroine of romance. A certain soft amiability about her turns for a time all the thoughts of the scout to the world of domestic affections. More talkative than ever before, he reveals new mental and moral traits. With the same touch of realism which had kept Uncas and Cora apart in The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper separates these lovers, and sends Natty’s romantic interest to the arms of a younger suitor, restoring the hero to his home in the wilderness.

    About the Author: James Fenimore Cooper was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances draw a picture of frontier and American Indian life in the early American days which created a unique form of American literature.

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  • Beacon’s Second Reader
    $3.00

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    Excerpt from the book:
    In the Beacon Second Reader the author has chosen for his stories only those of recognized literary merit; and While it has been necessary to rearrange and sometimes rewrite them for the purpose of simplification, yet he has endeavored to retain the spirit which has served to endear these ancient tales to the children of all ages

     

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  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
    $2.50

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: It tells of a young girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre.

    About the Author: Lewis Carroll, was an English writer of world-famous children’s fiction, notably Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass. He was noted for his facility at word play, logic, and fantasy. The poems Jabberwocky and The Hunting of the Snark are classified in the genre of literary nonsense. He was also a mathematician, photographer, and Anglican deacon. (Lewis Carroll is a pen name – Given name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)

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  • The Pearl of Orrs Island (Stowe)
    $2.50

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: A heartwarming story of a young girl’s struggle to belong and fit in, in the face of adversity, and of her upbringing among strong women, grumpy fishermen, annoying gossips, sea captains, and the dreamlike, tempestuous landscape of Orr’s Island. THE PEARL OF ORR’S ISLAND is one of the forgotten — but not lost — masterpieces of American literature. It reflects Harriet Beecher Stowe’s awareness of the complexity of small-town society, her commitment to realism, and her fluency in the local language.

    About the Author:  Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. She came from the Beecher family, a famous religious family, and is best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which depicts the harsh conditions for enslaved African Americans. Stowe wrote 30 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential for both her writings and her public stances and debates on social issues of the day.

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  • Oldtown Fireside Stories (Stowe)
    $2.50

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: 15 charming short stories told by ole’ Sam Lawson to entertain Horace and Bill, two impressionable, curious and clever young boys of Oldtown (a fictional 1850’s New England village), during evenings gathered around the hearth, or roaming with Sam around the countryside. Stowe faithfully and masterfully captures many of the colloquial expressions, superstitions, beliefs, customs and habits of the period that have almost completely faded from modern American culture, as well as conveying many truths about the human condition that haven’t changed a bit.

    About the Author:  Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. She came from the Beecher family, a famous religious family, and is best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which depicts the harsh conditions for enslaved African Americans. Stowe wrote 30 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential for both her writings and her public stances and debates on social issues of the day.

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  • Jack and Jill | Louisa May Alcott
    $2.50

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: A Village Story by Louisa May Alcott, is a children’s book originally published in 1880. It takes place in a small New England town after the Civil War. The story of two good friends named Jack and Janey, Jack and Jill tells of the aftermath of a serious sledding accident.

    About the Author: Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

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  • Heidi (Spyri)
    $2.00

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature. We meet Heidi when she is 5, led up the mountain by her aunt who has raised the orphan but must leave now for a position in Frankfurt. In a mountain cottage overlooking the valley is Heidi’s grandfather, and there with him the girl’s sweet, free nature expands with the vista. When Heidi is taken from the mountains and nearly doesn’t make it back again, the most humorous as well as most heart-wringing scenes occur. All she learns during her absence from the mountain she brings back as seeds that will grow to benefit everyone around her.

    About the Author:  Johanna Louise was a Swiss-born author of novels, notably children’s stories, and is best known for her book Heidi. Born in Hirzel, a rural area in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, as a child she spent several summers near Chur in Graubünden, the setting she later would use in her novels.

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  • Little Men | Louisa May Alcott
    $2.50

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: The novel reprises characters from Little Women and is considered by some the second book of an unofficial Little Women trilogy, which is completed with Alcott’s 1886 novel Jo’s Boys, and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to “Little Men”. Little Men tells the story of Jo Bhaer and the children at Plumfield Estate School. The book was inspired by the death of Alcott’s brother-in-law, which reveals itself in one of the last chapters, when a beloved character from Little Women passes away.

    About the Author: Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

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  • Herman Melville – Biography & Literary Analysis
    $3.00

    Biography & Literary Analysis – Herman Melville
    397 pages

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  • Poems Teachers Ask For – Volume 1
    $3.00

    An anthology of poems by English and American poets including Drake, Longfellow, Bryant, Tennyson, Wolfe and many more.

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  • Jo’s Boys | Louisa May Alcott
    $2.50

    This is a downloadable copy of the book.
    About the book: The book mostly follows the lives of Plumfield boys who were introduced in Little Men, particularly Tommy, Emil, Demi, Nat, Dan, and Professor Bhaer and Jo’s sons Rob and Teddy, although the others make frequent appearances as well. The book takes place ten years after Little Men.

    About the Author: Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

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  • The Pumpkin Patch – Rebus Story, Comprehension & Shape Book
    $2.00

    The resource, The Pumpkin Patch – Rebus Story, Comprehension & Shape Book, has been designed for early learners! Those beginning to read will enjoy reading this ‘Pumpkin Patch Story’ and using the rebus picture key to help!

    After students read the story, there is one worksheet to test their comprehension. The final part of the resources is a cute, 3 page Pumpkin Shape Book.

    See suggested uses in description below.

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