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Cool Classics    

Alcott, Louisa May.  Little Women.
Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women in nineteenth-century New England.

Andersen, H.C. Andersen's Fairy Tales.

Andersen wrote some of the most beloved tales of all time including "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Little Match Girl" and "The Emperor's New Clothes".

Babbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting
A family accidentally stumbles upon a spring with water endowing them with the gift of eternal life. Seventy years later, without having grown a day older, a young girl discovers them and learns their secret.

Barre, James. Peter Pan.
Peter Pan teaches Wendy and her brothers to fly to Never-Never Land, where they share some exciting adventures with Indians and Pirates.

Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
After a great cyclone transports her to the land of Oz, Dorothy must seek out the great Wizard in order to return to Kansas.

Bond, Nancy. A String in the Harp.
Relates what happens to three American children, unwillingly transplanted to Wales for one year, when one of them finds an ancient harp-tuning key that takes him back to the time of sixth-century bard Taliesin.

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre.
A tragic story of a passionate young heroine who falls in love with her tormented employer and the disaster that follows when they try to marry.

Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Little Lord Fauntleroy.
An American boy goes to live with his grandfather in England where he becomes heir to a title, estate, and fortune.

Burnett, Frances Hodgson. A Little Princess.
Sara Crewe, a pupil at Miss Minchin's London School, is left in poverty when her father dies, but is later rescued by a mysterious benefactor.

Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden.
Ten-year-old Mary comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors and discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.

Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
When a young girl falls down a rabbit hole, she discovers a strange and interesting world with fantastical, mad characters as she tries to find her way back home.

Defoe, Daniel. Robin Crusoe.
The diary of an Englishman shipwrecked for almost thirty years on a small isolated island where, using wit and industry, he manages to build a new life.

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist.
Follow the adventures of the orphan boy who is forced to practice thievery and live a life of crime in nineteenth-century London.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
It’s elementary—there’s no more intriguing detective than Sherlock Holmes, with his unequaled powers of deduction, and no better mysteries than the tricky ones that only he can solve. Here are some of the finest Holmes stories, recounted by his trusty friend and assistant, Dr. Watson.

George, Jean Craighead. Julie of the Wolves.
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.

Gilbreth. Cheaper by the Dozen.
What do you get when you put 12 lively kids together with a father who believes a family can be run like a factory and a mother who is his partner in everything except discipline? You get a hilarious tale of growing up.

Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Soldier.
Sheltering an escaped prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a twelve-year-old girl in Arkansas.

Kipling, Rudyard. The Jungle Book.
Presents the adventures of Mowgli, the "man-cub," abandoned as a baby by his parents and raised by the wolves in the wilds of the jungle.

London, Jack. Call of the Wild.
The adventures of an unusual dog, part St. Bernard, part Scotch Shepard, forcibly taken to Alaska where he eventually becomes the leader of a wolf pack.

Magorian, Michelle. Good Night, Mr. Tom.
A battered child learns to embrace life when he is adopted by an old man in the English countryside during the Second World War.

Montgomery, L.M.  Anne of Green Gables.
Anne, a mischievous, red-haired, eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.

Nesbit, E. The Railway Children.
When their father is framed and imprisoned, three children and their mother move to the country, where they prevent a train accident, befriend an old gentleman, and try not to quarrel.

Orczy, Emmuska. Scarlet Pimpernel.
During the French Revolution's reign of terror, the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel rescues helpless men, women, and children from their doom in this unique, wonderfully colorful adventure classic.

Patterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia.
The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.

Pyle, Howard. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.
The brave and bold outlaw, Robin Hood, and his merry band of followers roam through Sherwood Forest robbing the rich and aiding the poor.

Sewell, Anna. Black Beauty.
A horse in nineteenth-century England recounts his experiences with both good and bad masters.

Spyri, Johanna. Heidi.
A Swiss orphan is heartbroken when she must leave her beloved grandfather and their happy home in the mountains to go to school and to care for an invalid girl in the city.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island.
While going through the possessions of a deceased guest who owed them money, the mistress of the inn and her son find a treasure map that leads to a pirate fortune as well as great danger.

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. 
The voyages of an eighteenth-century Englishman who visits such strange places as Lilliput, where people are six inches tall, and Brobdingnag, a land of giants. 

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit.
The adventures of the well-to-do hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who lived happily in his comfortable home until a wandering wizard granted his wish.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
The adventures of a mischievous 19th-century boy in a Mississippi River town and his friends, Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher, as they run away from home, witness a murder, and find treasure in a cave.

Verne, Jules. Around the World in Eighty Days.
Chronicles the adventures of English gentleman Phileas Fogg and his manservant, Passepartout, on their journey around the world in the late nineteenth century.

Verne, Jules. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
The adventures of a French professor and his two companions as they sail above and below the world's oceans as prisoners on the fabulous electric submarine of the deranged Captain Nemo.

Voigt. Cynthia. Homecoming.
Abandoned by their mother, four children begin a search for a home and an identity.
**Read all the books in the Tillerman Family Cycle**

Webster, Jean.  Daddy-Long-Legs.

Orphaned Judy Abbot relates her college adventures in letters to the mysterious benefactor that she calls Daddy
-Long-Legs.

White, T.H.  Sword in the Stone.

At a medieval manor, Kay and Wart (later King Arthur) learn the attributes necessary for becoming a successful knight

Wyss, Johann David. The Swiss Family Robinson.
The fortunes of a shipwrecked family as they imaginatively adapt to life on an island with abundant animal and plant life.


Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart. 785 Centre Street, Newton, MA 02458. Tel. 617.244.4246
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