A summer that promises to be eventful turns into something extra special when the four Melendy children become friends with the ophaned Mark Heron.

Tess of the dUrbervilles, by Thomas Hardy, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies...

When Reena, her little brother, Luke, and their parents first move to Maine, Reena doesn't know what to expect. She's ready for beaches, blueberries, and all the lobster she can eat. Instead, her parents "volunteer" Reena and Luke to work for an eccentric neighbor named Mrs. Falala, who has a pig named Paulie, a cat named China, a snake named Edna -- and that stubborn cow, Zora.

Step into the charming world of "Cranford" by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. This delightful novel invites you to a quaint English village, where the lives of its eccentric and endearing inhabitants are interwoven in a tapestry of humor, heartwarming moments, and social observations. Set in the early 19th century, the narrative unfolds through the eyes of Mary Smith, an outsider welcomed into the close-knit community. As she navigates the idiosyncrasies...

In the year before they become the orphans known as the Boxcar children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden live with their parents at Fair Meadow Farm, where, although times are hard, they take in a family who has been stranded in their car during a blizzard.

When New York City native Becket Branch moves to the country with her family to help run her grandmother's farm and store, she finds that new friends, hostile chickens, sour lemonade and mischief are only the beginnings of her new life.--

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils, Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the town's council...

Storyteller Garrison Keillor relates humorous anecdotes appropriate to each of the seasons.

Sadie isn't thrilled when her mother drags her from the city to live in the country town of Boort. But she soon starts making connections - connections with the country, with the past, with two boys, Lachie and Walter, and, most surprisingly, with the every-present crows. When Sadie is tumbled back in time to view a terrible crime, she is pulled into a strange mystery. Can Sadie, Walter and Lachie figure out a way to right old wrongs, or will they...

"Anne is marrying Gilbert Blythe! While she's deliriously happy to finally be with her version of Prince Charming, they'll be making a new home miles away, and she'll have to leave her beloved Avonlea. But Anne is always up for adventure, especially when she has Gilbert by her side"--Inside jacket.