When Pollyanna’s father dies, she goes to live with her Aunt, Miss Polly Harrington. Miss Harrington likes doing good, but she doesn’t like children very much!
Pollyanna always tries to find the good in everything. She soon makes many different people in her new home feel happier. But is Miss Polly’s life going to change for better or worse after her niece arrives? And what happens to Pollyanna when she has a very bad accident?
In the first of these stories, Rip Van Winkle sleeps for over twenty years, and then wakes up to a world that he no longer understands. In the other story, Ichabod Crane, the school teacher, meets a headless rider in the middle of a dark night. These two classic tales of the supernatural by Washington Irving have been popular for nearly two hundred years.
King Shahriyar cannot trust women. Every afternoon he marries a wife, but the next morning he always kills her. One day, the Vizier cannot find any more wives for the King. What can he do?
‘I can be Shahriyar’s new wife!’ says Sheherazade, his older daughter. ‘God willing I can stay alive, and help the women of our country.’
But how can Sheherezade stay alive for a thousand and one nights? And does Shahriyar learn to trust women again in the end?
‘Come quickly, Dr Watson,’ says Mrs Hudson. ‘Sherlock Holmes is dying!’
Sherlock Holmes was trying to solve a murder. But now he has a terrible illness, and he is not his normal self. Can his friend Watson help him? Can the strange Mr Culverton Smith help him? Or will Sherlock Holmes die?
Sherlock Holmes needs rest so Dr Watson takes him to the country. They stay near Reigate. Everything is quiet here, isn’t it?
But thieves are working in the village – and then there is murder. ‘Can Mr Holmes help?’ asks the police inspector.
Sherlock Holmes never likes to rest. So yes, he can help. Can Holmes solve the puzzle?
Miss Mary Morstan has a strange story to tell.
Since her father disappeared, she has received a large pearl through the post on the same day, every year for six years. Who is sending them? And what about her father’s paper with the words ‘The Sign of Four’ written on it?
Holmes alone can solve these mysteries.
‘Help me,’ says Helen Stoner. ‘My sister died, and now I am going to die too.’
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson must answer the question of how Julia Stoner died, two years ago. If they cannot, then Helen Stoner will die too. But her house is very strange – and her stepfather, Dr Grimesby Roylott, is very angry and does not want Holmes there.
Who killed Julia, and how? And why did she say The speckled band!’ before she died?
Sinbad the sailor spends many years at sea. He visits strange countries, meets some strange people and some frightening animals. He is sometimes rich, sometimes poor… and always in danger. But all the time he is learning from his adventures, until finally he returns home to Baghdad, an older and wiser man.
‘Bring me something new and exciting. Bring me a BIG story!’ says Rosie’s editor at The Record newspaper.
And, when she leaves the office, Rosie does find a story. A story that is bigger than she expects. A story that takes her across Europe, into a dangerous world of art and art thieves.
Keawe buys a magic bottle that can give him anything he wants. He builds a beautiful house, falls in love with and marries Kokua, and is very happy.
But if you have the bottle and die, you go to hell – and when Keawe tries to get rid of the bottle, it comes back. He wants to sell it, but people are afraid.
Can Kokua find a way to help Keawe? Or will one of them go to hell in the end?
‘I want to fly later this year.’ ‘So it’s a race,’ laughs Lagari. ‘Yes,’ smiles Hezarfen. The time is the 1630s. Sultan Murat IV rules the Ottoman Empire. Two Istanbul brothers – Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi and Lagari Hasan – dream of flying. Which of them can be the first flying man? And what does the Sultan give to the winner of the race? Read this story and find the answers.
The Happy Prince is a beautiful golden statue high up on a column in the city. Everyone loves him.
He feels sad about the city’s poor people, but what can he do? He can’t leave his column. Then the swallow arrives, and helps the Happy Prince to do many good things.
But what about the swallow’s dream of flying to Egypt? And what does the Mayor do when the Happy Prince loses all his gold?
It’s a cold winter’s day, and a poor little girl can’t sell any of her matches to people in the street. She can’t go home with no money. But how can she stay warm? That 31st December, the little match girl sees rich people’s homes, Christmas trees, and wonderful things to eat. She remembers also her kind grandmother – now sadly dead. Can the New Year make things any better for the poor young girl?
‘It’s my garden,’ says the Giant. ‘People must understand. Nobody can play here – only me!’
So the children leave, and the Selfish Giant puts a wall around his garden. After that, it’s always winter there.
Later, the Giant feels sorry for a young boy in the snow. He knocks down the garden wall – and the children, and the spring, come back. But where is the young boy now? And how can the Giant find him again?
‘I love Owen’s skateboarding,’ Hannah thinks. ‘I want to jump and do tricks, too.’ When a skatepark opens near her house, Hannah is suddenly very interested in skateboarding. How do Mom, Dad, brother Evan, and cousin Justin feel about this? Who helps her? Who laughs at her? And who teaches her to be a true skateboarder in the end? This story has the answers.
‘What’s your job?’ Yukio asks.
‘I’m a sorcerer,’ the old man smiles, ‘And I need a young apprentice.’
One day, Yukio – a young boy from old Japan – leaves his sister in the country and looks for a job in the town. He finds interesting work there, as a sorcerer’s apprentice. But why must Yukio wait to learn magic? And what happens after he puts a spell on a broom when the sorcerer is away?
