"For generations, children around the world have come of age with Louisa May Alcott's March girls: hardworking eldest sister Meg, headstrong, impulsive Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. With their father away at war, and their loving mother Marmee working to support the family, the four sisters have to rely on one another for support as they endure the hardships of wartime and poverty. We witness the sisters growing up and figuring out what role...

When a mysterious stranger with a scar on his cheek dies, young Jim Hawkins ends up with a mysterious map of an island. He imagines that he is off to a wonderful sea adventure that will lead to a huge treasure. But once he sets sail with Dr. Livesey and the one-legged Long John Silver, the dream turns out to include greed, mutiny, and murder. - Back cover. To help students experience the joys and benefits of reading, Townsend Press presents the Townsend...

The classic story of a boy who makes his own rules and the small Missouri town where he and his friends experience the adventures of a lifetime. Filled with schoolyard pranks, buried treasures, spooky caves, secret gangs, and grave robbers, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is entertainment of the highest order. The clever schemes of its eponymous hero--from tricking his friends into completing his chores to sneaking into his own funeral--are the stuff...

"Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert are looking to adopt a boy to help out on their farm - so when the orphanage delivers a red-haired eleven-year-old girl named Anne instead, they are determined to fix the mistake. However, as Anne's vibrant character and vivid imagination brighten up their home, the Cuthberts soon realise Anne must stay at Green Gables. The inimitable Anne Shirley is fanciful, talkative and dramatic, and this charming novel describing...

"From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six,...

"F. Scott Fitzgerald's captivating classic is available now in a striking, new edition with illustrations of iconic scenes from the novel. Hailed as one of the Great American Novels, The Great Gatsby delves into the dark corners of the Jazz Age to tell a tragic tale of obsession, love, and the gritty underbelly of the American Dream. Through the eyes of unassuming narrator Nick Carraway, the story follows the enigmatic Jay Gatsby as he chases the...

A young man's quest for eternal youth and beauty ends in scandal, depravity and death. Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The picture of Dorian Gray was a...

"The Call of the Wild is a novel by Jack London published in 1903. The story is set in the Yukon during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush--a period when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The novel's central character is a dog named Buck, a domesticated dog living at a ranch in the Santa Clara valley of California as the story opens. Stolen from his home and sold into the brutal existence of an Alaskan sled dog, he reverts to atavistic traits. Buck...

It's Christmastime in London, and overworked Bob Cratchit and his family, including poorly Tiny Tim, find joy and cheer even in poverty. Meanwhile Bob's boss, the selfish, miserly old Ebenezer Scrooge, is deeply bitter about the festive season. However, when Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, the error of his ways is revealed with haunting clarity. Dickens's timeless classic, which has popularised phrases...

"Great Expectations is among the most masterful of Charles Dickens's novels. Displaying extraordinary tragicomic range, Dickens blends an atmosphere of brooding violence and guilt with sharp and often disturbing humor to create a drama charged with the thrilling intensity of a detective story and the poignancy of a spiritual autobiography. Much of the novel's power comes from Dickens's unequaled skill at making even the most wildly eccentric of characters...