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These whimsical short stories offer fanciful answers to a dozen of childhood's favorite why and how questions. With their generous sprinkling of nonsense words as well as a delightfully rhythmic storytelling feel, they seem to have been written to be read aloud. (summary by rachelellen)...

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Animals

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Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book (1889) was a beautifully produced and illustrated edition of fairy tales that has become a classic. This was followed by many other collections of fairy tales, collectively known as Andrew Lang's Fairy Books. -Wikipedia...

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Children, Animals, Fairy tales

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Perhaps Edgar Allen Poe's most famous poem, the Raven is a macabre exploration of a man, his memories of Lenore, and the black bird that interrupts his studies on a dark December night, with tap-tap-tapping at his chamber door. (Summary by Hugh)...

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Animals, Poetry

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Baby's Own Aesop presents the fables as one-stanza limericks, each pictorially pointed by Walter Crane, the noted painter and illustrator. He apprenticed to master wood-engraver, William James Linton, who furnished the draft of the book's poems for Crane to edit. Baby's Own Aesop is available in a beautiful http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/SaveBook?bookid=crababy_00150086&lang=English facsimile edition of colored engravings from the International Children's Digital Library, with which your child can read along while listening to the recording. (Summary by Denny Sayers)...

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Children, Animals, Poetry

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This version of the classic tale of the three bears has a heroine named Golden Hair. The jolly bears, instead of chasing her away from their home, come to live with her at Grandmother's house. The recording can be enjoyed by itself, or you can read along with the Library of Congress facsimile version from the International Children’s Digital Library: http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/LinkToBook?bookid=denthre_00150032〈=English Here....

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Children, Animals, Fairy tales

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The Adventures of Reddy Fox is another in the series of children’s stories by conservationist Thornton W. Burgess. In this story, Reddy and Granny Fox must outsmart Farmer Brown’s Boy who is out to get Reddy for stealing his pet chicken. Along the way, Reddy encounters many of the citizens of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest and with him we learn little lessons about life such as: the perils of being a show off; the importance of using all of one’s senses; that it is a fine thing to show sympathy and kindness to others – even our enemies; and that the value of a grandmother’s wisdom is inestimable. We also learn that after you’ve stolen a boy’s pet chicken and he is coming your way with a gun, a shovel and a hound dog, it may be time to beat a hasty retreat. (Summary by John Lieder)...

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Children, Animals

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The Adventures of Paddy Beaver is another in the long list of children’s books by the conservationist, Thornton W. Burgess. In this book, the industrious and clever Paddy Beaver, a newcomer to the Green Forest, has encounters with Sammy Jay, Jerry Muskrat, Ol’ Man Coyote and other inhabitants of the Green Forest. Along the way, we learn how Paddy builds his dam and his house, and how he stores his food. We also learn little lessons about life, such as the importance of planning before doing, caring for Nature, trusting others, the benefits of working together and how wonderful it is to have a job one can sink one’s teeth into. (Summary by John Lieder.)...

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Children, Animals, Nature

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The Lost World is a 1912 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle concerning an expedition to a plateau (native name is Tepuyes) in South America (Venezuela) where prehistoric animals (dinosaurs and other extinct creatures) still survive. The character of Professor Challenger was introduced in this book. Interestingly, for a seminal work of dinosaur-related fiction, the reptiles only occupy a small portion of the narrative. Much more time is devoted to a war between early human hominids and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures....

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Adventure, Mystery, Short stories

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This classic children's book by Rudyard Kipling tells the story of Mowgli, a young boy raised by wolves: his escapades and adventures with his dear friends Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear, his capture by the Monkey-People, his attempt at reintegration into human society, and his ultimate triumph over the lame tiger Shere Khan. The account of Mowgli's adventures is followed by several short stories, including the tales of the brave white seal, Kotick, and the tenacious mongoose, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Packed with adventure and Jungle Law wisdom, this book has pervaded popular culture as the basis of many film and stage adaptations, including the popular Disney movie, and through its adoption as a motivational book by the Cub Scouts....

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Children, Animals, Adventure

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The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). It offered a modernist approach, discussing religion dispassionately as a cultural phenomenon, rather than from a theological perspective. Its thesis is that old religions were fertility cults that centered around the worship of, and periodic sacrifice of, a sacred king. This king was the incarnation of a dying and reviving god, a solar deity who underwent a mystic marriage to a goddess of the earth, who died at the harvest, and was reincarnated in the spring. Frazer claims that this legend is central to almost all of the world's mythologies. The germ for Frazer's thesis was the pre-Roman priest-king at the fane of Nemi, who was ritually murdered by his successor. While most of Frazer's theories (such as those on the nature of magic) have subsequently been exploded, his influence on contemporaneus European literature was immense. (From Wikipedia)...

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Religion