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The Tale Of Paddy Ahern

THERE ONCE WAS a lad named Paddy Ahern who trod the green hills of Limerick, Ireland, offering to help farmers with their chores in return for food and lodging.

The Pedestrians

EACH TIME HELGA Estby looked over her shoulder, the big cat was there. Crossing Wyoming’s Red Desert on foot, in the dust and heat of August 1896, was tough.

The Magic Gifts

A Basque Folk Tale

The Dragon's Scales

“THREE YEARS I'VE been waiting, when Torquil promised he’d return them in three days. I’m not waiting three more days to get back what’s mine!” The dragon punctuated his remarks with a smoky snort and a lashing tail.

The Water Bucketre

A Chinese Folk Tale.

Between The Pages

One rainy night, while alone in the castle library with her talking gargoyle, Marcus, Princess Audrey finds a book with the odd title Finding Angel. Meanwhile, in modern times, a girl named Angel is celebrating her thirteenth birthday.

Swim Buddies

I LEAN OVER the side of the catamaran and peer into the crystal blue water. This is my last chance, I think.

The Bushwhackers

I CAN’T ABIDE living one more day in this pigpen!” I groaned and rolled out of bed to pull on my dress.

As American as Appleless Pie!

NOTHING IS MORE American than the humble apple pie. There’s even an old saying to prove it: “as American as apple pie.” So it may come as a surprise that many early settlers who forged the trails of our expanding nation were often without apples to make this most American of desserts. As pioneers headed west in pursuit of territory and gold, they had to leave many things behind, including apples. Not only did life on the trail make fresh fruit like apples hard to carry and keep, apple trees were native only to the east coast, which made finding apples in the West nearly impossible.

The Man Who Built A Better Leg

THE CIVIL WAR was only a few weeks old when seven hundred and fifty Confederate recruits gathered in the fields around Philippi, Virginia. It was early June 1861, and as yet there had been no real battles. The men had eagerly volunteered, but most had no training as soldiers. Their only weapons were the ones they brought from home— old-fashioned flintlock muskets, cap and ball pistols, and a few shotguns.

Adel Of Acadia

ADEL HERZBERG LIVED in a tiny seaside village called Peggy’s Cove in Acadia.

Madam C. J. Walker

MADAM C. J. WALKER began her life as Sarah Breedlove. The fifth of six children, she was born on December 23, 1867, two years after the end of the American Civil War. 

April Rose In Charge

One summer evening, when her mother is going to a town meeting and her sister is out babysitting, twelve-year-old April Rose is left to bring in the sheep from the upper pasture by herself.

Savitri, Princess Of India

A Tale From the Mahabharata.

The Mothers Of Mother's Day

HOW DOES YOUR family celebrate Mother’s Day? Do you bring Mom breakfast in bed?

Two Destinies

Two Destinies

Born To Fight

In the Middle  of a moonlit night, a young mare gives birth to a foal in the stable of a medieval castle.

Percy Plumb, Cowboy

PART TWOPercy Plumb has always wanted to be a cowboy like his great-uncle Radcliffe. He loves stories about the Old West and wranglers named Dusty and Smokey Joe. He daydreams about riding the range on a flashy pinto with one blue eye and one brown eye, or maybe a quick, coal-black mustang.Instead of a cowpoke, though, he’s a librarian in the town of Mayfair, which boasts a broad green park, a Main Street of shops and cafés, and one remaining farm: Treadwell’s Dairy with its pastures of spotted cows.One day Miss Peabody from the Humane Society posts a flier in the library. “WANTED: A Loving Home for Bob,” reads the poster. Percy peers at the photo of a horse who has gotten his face too close to the camera. His nose looks very large, and on that nose is a big white spot like a headlight. Percy’s thoughts begin to dwell less on books and more on Bob.Several weeks later Miss Peabody returns. No one has adopted the horse, and the Humane Society can’t afford to keep him any longer. “But what will happen to Bob?” Percy asks. Miss Peabody hesitates. “I’d rather not say,” she admits. To his surprise, Percy blurts out that he has a shed and a meadow behind his bungalow. Bob could stay there. Miss Peabody squeals with delight, and after that, things happen quickly. Bob is to be delivered Saturday morning.

Charlie Noble And Mate

THERE WAS ONCE a sea captain named Charlie Noble who had a reputation for neatness.

Nobody's Cat

On a quiet, tree-lined street in New York City lives a stray tabby cat.

Stony Faces

Some gargoyles are weird and scary, others are funny. But all gargoyles spit!

Launching Rockets

The Story of Robert H. Goddard

The Bushwhackers

Papa’s off fighting for the Yankees when Bill Wilson and his gang of Missouri bushwhackers descend upon the McBrides. Mama, Aunt Lula, and Josey watch helplessly as the men ransack the farmhouse. Bill grabs Josey’s school lunchpail but flings it away when he discovers it’s full of snapping crawdads. Josey had planned to put a big ol’ crawdad in her sister Dora’s bed. When two of the bushwhackers pour some of Mama’s molasses into a ceramic pot they found in the yard, Josey’s eyes almost pop out of her head. The pot is the slop jar Dora has been using to relieve herself while laid up with a bad cold. Josey, disgusted at having to empty it, had purposely left the pot in the yard so Dora would have to use the outdoor privy.

The Weeping Lass At The Dancing Place

OUTSIDE MANY A Scottish village, where the crossroads meet, there will be a level bit of ground lying in one of the triangles made by the intersection of the roads.

Listening To The Body

The woman was rushed to Necker Hospital in Paris.

The Inside Name

OUTSIDE, I AM called FelipeAlonso. But inside, I have a secret name. 

The Great Grasshopper Mystery

SCORCHING WINDS RIPPLED through the sea of brown grass as Tom and his pony drove the family’s small herd of cattle onto the prairie to graze. Tom’s father had gone into town that morning, leaving the ten-year-old in charge of the herd. Fences were rare on the Kansas frontier, and it was Tom’s job to keep the family’scattle from scattering over the vast grassland.

John Snow And The Broad Street Pump On The Trail Of An Epidemic

BRITISH DOCTOR JOHN Snow couldn’t convince other doctors and scientists that cholera, a deadly disease, was spread when people drank contaminated water— until a mother washed her baby’s diapers in a town well in 1854 and touched off an epidemic that killed 616 people.

Tamitha And The Dragon

TAMITHA WAS ALREADY high in the air by the time she realized a dragon had snatched her. She’d been moseying along the road, making up a poem about pasta in her head, when the creature swooped down from the clouds, all bulging red muscles and sharp scales. The dragon flapped his enormous batwings, wrapped his bronze claws around her, and took off into the sky before Tamitha could think of a word that rhymed with“linguine.”

The Adventures Of Wise Hodja

HOW MANY STARS are in the sky? Where is the center of the world? These are questions that people have asked since they first looked at the earth and the sky.