Children's Signature Editions

When Heidi's parents die and she can no longer live with her aunt, she must stay with her ill-tempered grandfather who lives alone in the Swiss Alps. The townspeople worry that such a young girl has been left with a bad-tempered hermit. But Heidi thrives in the mountains and loves living with her grandfather. She is happiest playing with the mountain goats, picking wildflowers, and making friends. Then Heidi is taken away to serve as a companion to a lonely woman. Will she ever get back to the people and the mountains she loves so much?   Johanna Spyri was born Johanna Louise Heusser on June 12, 1827, in Hirzel, Switzerland. In 1852, she married Swiss lawyer Bernhard Spyri and moved to Zurich, where she began to write stories about life in the country. Spyri's first novel was published in 1871. Although she wrote more than fifty stories before passing away in 1901, Johanna Spyri is best known for Heidi, the story of an orphan who goes to live with her grandfather on the mountain.

For most children, reading the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm is an essential experience when growing up. Grimm's Fairy Tales collects some of the best-known fairy and folk tales set down by the Brothers Grimm, including "Sleeping Beauty," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Hansel and Gretel," "The Frog-Prince," and "Rumpelstiltskin."        Jakob Ludwig Grimm and Wilhelm Karl Grimm were born in Hanau, Germany, in 1785 and 1786, respectively. The brothers were part of a family of nine children who lived in the countryside. When the father died suddenly, the harsh circumstances the family endured greatly influenced the way the brothers Grimm eventually interpreted and wrote their tales. At the University of Marburg to study law, the brothers Grimm developed a love of folk poetry. Their first volume of fairy tales (from which this book takes its content), Children's and Household Stories, was published in 1812. A collection of stories told to them by peasants and villagers, it was created as a collaborative effort: Jakob did the research behind the stories, and Wilhelm crafted these stories for children.

When the imaginative, outspoken orphan Anne Shirley arrives on Prince Edward Island, Matthew Cuthbert and his sister, Marilla, are surprised to say the least. After all, the Cuthberts had requested that the orphanage send a boy to help with the work around their farm. They certainly didn't bargain for talkative Anne's outlandish ideas and independent ways. Soon her high spirits win over Matthew and Marilla, even when these same traits lead Anne into mishap after mishap as she makes friends and discovers an exciting new life in the quirky town of Avonlea. Lucy Maude Montgomery (1874–1942) was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada, the setting for Anne of Green Gables. She left to attend college but returned to Prince Edward Island to teach. In 1911, she married the Reverend Ewan MacDonald. Anne ofGreen Gables, the first in a series of "Anne" books by Montgomery, was published in 1908 to immediate success and continues to be a perennial favorite.

Dorothy and her little dog Toto are swept away from their home in Kansas by a powerful tornado and dropped into an enchanting new land called Oz. To get home, the Witch of the North tells her she must follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and ask the mysterious Wizard of Oz for help. Along the way, she meets the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion, and together they embark on a strange and magical adventure.   L. Frank Baum was born in Chittenango, New York, on May 15, 1856. At the age of fifteen, Baum's father bought him a small printing press on which he and his brother soon produced their own newspaper, The Rose Lawn Home Journal. By his late teens, Baum had developed an interest in theater and was made the manager of his father's opera houses. He quickly took to playwriting, writing, and acting in his first major literary work, The Maid of Arran. Throughout the course of his career, Baum wrote more than eighty novels for children. He is best known for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its many sequels.

All children except one grow up.    In 1904, Peter Pan first flew across a London stage and into the bedroom of Wendy, John, and Michael Darling. Ever since, this perpetual youth has continued to delight children of all ages. Young readers will happily soar with him and his friends to enchanted Neverland, where they'll meet Tinkerbell, the Lost Boys, and Peter's famous nemesis, Captain Hook. It's a tale as ageless as its beloved hero. J. M. Barrie was born on May 9, 1860, in Kirriemuir, Scotland, the ninth of ten children. His older brother died when Barrie was only six years old, and it is said that his mother took comfort in the fact that he would "always remain a little boy," an idea that had a great impact on Barrie. At the age of thirteen, Barrie was sent away to boarding school, where he and his friends spent their time playing pirates. When he completed his schooling, he became a journalist, first in Nottingham and then in London, before turning to writing novels and plays. Barrie's most famous work, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, premiered on stage in 1904 and was turned into a novel in 1911.