| NUMBER ONE "How good Meg is! Come, Amy, let's do as they do. I'll help you with the hard words, and they'll explain things if we don't understand," whispered Beth, very much impressed by the pretty books and her sisters' example. "I'm glad mine is blue," said Amy. And then the rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned, and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting. |
| NUMBER TWO Mrs. Darling quivered and went to the window. It was securely fastened. She looked out, and the night was peppered with stars. They were crowding round the house, as if curious to see what was to take place there, but she did not notice this, nor that one or two of the smaller ones winked at her. Yet a nameless fear clutched at her heart and made her cry, "Oh, how I wish that I wasn't going to a party to-night!" Even Michael, already half asleep, knew that she was perturbed, and he asked, "Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights are lit?" "Nothing, precious," she said; "they are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children." She went from bed to bed singing enchantments over them, and little Michael flung his arms round her. "Mother," he cried, "I'm glad of you." They were the last words she was to hear from him for a long time. |
| NUMBER THREE 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" |
| NUMBER FOUR Finally he settled himself to read the final rule again. He had been trained, since earliest childhood, never to lie. It was an integral part of the learning of precise speech. Once, when he had been a Four, he had said, just prior to the midday meal at school, "I'm starving." Immediately he had been taken aside for a brief private lesson in language precision. He was not starving, it was pointed out. He was hungry. |
| NUMBER FIVE "I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." |
| NUMBER SIX "You may rrree-moof your vigs!" snarled The Grand High Witch. She had a peculiar way of speaking. There was some sort of a foreign accent there, something harsh and guttural, and she seemed to have trouble pronouncing the letter w. As well as that, she did something funny with the letter r. She would roll it round and round her mouth like a piece of hot pork-crackling before spitting it out. "Rrree-moof your vigs and get some fresh air into your spotty scalps!" she shouted . . |
| NUMBER SEVEN "I'm going to count to three," my mother told Fudge. "And then I want you to tell me which shoes you want. Ready? One . . . two . . . three . . . " Fudge sat up. "Like Pee-tah's!" he said. I smiled. I guess the kid really looks up to me. He even wants to wear the same kind of shoes. But everybody knows you can't buy loafers for such a little guy. |
| NUMBER EIGHT At school, Mrs. Dickens liked Paul's picture of the sailboat better than my picture of the invisible castle. At singing time she said I sang too loud. At counting time, she said I left out 16. Who needs 16? I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. |
| NUMBER NINE Sometimes they're hot little piggies, and sometimes they're cold little piggies. Sometimes they're clean little piggies, and sometimes they're dirty little piggies. Sometimes they're good little piggies, but not at bedtime. That's when they skip down my tummy, dance on my toes, then run and hide. |
| NUMBER TEN Freddy Jones throws a spitball. She curls her lip and breathes fire at him. Freddy's gone. There is just a little pile of ashes on his desk. "Talk about bad breath," giggles Eric Porter. She slithers over, unscrews his head, and puts it on the globe stand. |
| NUMBER ELEVEN Runny Babbit mot all guddy Makin' puddy mies, His wamma mashed him with the clothes And hung him out to dry. Toe Jurtle said, "What are you doin' So high agrove the bound?" Runny Babbit sinned and graid, "Oh, I'm just rangin' hound." |
| NUMBER TWELVE Once upon a time there was a little old woman and a little old man who lived together in a little old house. They were lonely. So the little old lady decided to make a man out of stinky cheese. She gave him a piece of bacon for a mouth and two olives for eyes and put him in the oven to cook. |
| NUMBER THIRTEEN A possum was a-scooting' and a-scramblin' and a-danglin'. That possum that was knockin' made a fool out of me! |
| NUMBER FOURTEEN "Oh no," he moaned. "'Volcano erupts, go back three spaces.'" The room became warm and started to shake a little. Molten lava poured from the fireplace opening. It hit the water on the floor and the room filled with steam. Judy rolled the dice and moved ahead. |
| NUMBER FIFTEEN Poor Ida, never knowing, hugged the changeling and she murmured: "How I love you." The ice thing only dripped and stared, and Ida mad knew goblins had been there. "They stole my sister away!" she cried, "To be a nasty goblin's bride!" Now Ida in a hurry snatched her Mama's yellow rain cloak, tucked her horn safe in a pocket, and made a serious mistake. |
| NUMBER SEVENTEEN That's enough, David! Go to your room! Settle down! Stop that this instant! Put your toys away! Not in the house, David! I said no, David! Davey, come here. Yes, David, I love you. |
| NUMBER SIXTEEN The moon was out and we saw some sheep. We saw some sheep take a walk in their sleep. By the light of the moon, by the light of a star, they walked all night from near to far. I would never walk. I would take a car. |
| NUMBER EIGHTEEN What a funny sight it is to see a brood of ducklings with a hen! --Listen to the story of Jemima Puddle-duck, who was annoyed because the farmer's wife would not let her hatch her own eggs. Her sister-in-law, Mrs. Rebeccah Puddle-duck, was perfectly willing to leave the hatching to some one else. "I have not the patience to sit on a nest for twenty-eight days; and no more have you, Jemima. You would let them go cold; you know you would!" "I wish to hatch them all by myself," quacked Jemima Puddle-duck. She tried to hide her eggs; but they were always found and carried off. Jemima Puddle-duck became quite desperate. She determined to make a nest right away from the farm. |
| NUMBER NINETEEN When you give her the bubbles, she'll probably ask you for a toy. You'll have to find your rubber duck. The duck will remind her of the farm where she was born. She might feel homesick and want to visit her family. She'll want you to come too. She'll look through your closet for a suitcase. Then she'll look under your bed. When she's under the bed, she'll find your old tap shoes. She'll try them on. She'll probably need something special to wear with them. |
| NUMBER TWENTY One winter morning Peter woke up and looked out the window. Snow had fallen during the night. It covered everything as far as he could see. After breakfast he put on his snowsuit and ran outside. The snow was piled up very high along the street to make a path for walking. |
| NUMBER TWENTY-ONE Ladies & Gentlemen! I see a song. I paint music. I hear color. I touch the rainbow, and the deep spring in the ground. My music talks. My colors dance. Come, listen, and let your imagination see your own song. |
| NUMBER TWENTY-TWO It all began when Ms. Fizzle showed our class a filmstrip about the human body. We knew trouble was about to start, because we knew Ms. Fizzle was the strangest teacher in the school. |
| NUMBER TWENTY-THREE In most ways, it was very much like any other tiny town. It had a Main Street lines with stores, houses with trees and gardens around them, a schoolhouse, about three hundred people, and some assorted cats and dogs. But there were no food stores in the town of Chewandswallow. They didn't need any. The sky supplied all the food they could possibly want. The only thing that was really different about Chewandswallow was its weather. It came three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Every thing that everyone ate came from the sky. |
| NUMBER TWENTY-FIVE After she finished she said, "When you come home, first I will look to see if you are safe and sound, but then I will look to see if you still have your snow-white mittens." So off Nicki went. And it wasn't long until one of his new mittens dropped in the snow and was left behind. |
| NUMBER TWENTY-FOUR She ate my homework, bit Grandma, clawed the curtains, damaged the dishes, endangered the goldfish, flooded the bathroom, grappled with guests, hurled hair balls at our heads, irritated the baby, jumped on the bed, knocked over the lamp, loitered . . . |
| NUMBER TWENTY-EIGHT Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory. |
| NUMBER TWENTY-SEVEN One evening there was a terrible storm, with thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down. It was really dreadful! Someone came knocking at the great gate, and the old king went to open it. There was a princess standing outside, but oh dear, she was in such a state, what with the rain and the terrible storm! Water was dripping from her hair and her clothes, running in at the toes of her shoes and out at the heels again. But she said she was a real princess. |
| NUMBER TWENTY-SIX As soon as Strega Nona was out of sight, Big Anthony went inside, pulled the pasta pot off the shelf and put it on the floor. "Now let's see if I can remember the words," said Big Anthony. And Big Anthony sang, Bubble bubble pasta pot Boil me some pasta, nice and hot I'm hungry and it's time to sup Boil enough pasta to fill me up. And sure enough, the pot bubbled and boiled and began to fill up with pasta. |
| ANSWERS: 1. Louisa May Alcott -- Little Women; 2. J.M. Barrie -- Peter Pan; 3. Lewis Carroll -- Through the Looking Glass; 4. Lois Lowry -- The Giver; 5. Robert Frost -- The Road Not Taken; 6. Roald Dahl -- The Witches; 7. Judy Blume -- Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing; 8. Judith Viorst -- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day; 9. Audrey Wood -- Piggies; 10. Mike Thaler -- Teacher From the Black Lagoon; 11. Shel Silverstein -- Runny Babbit; 12. Jon Scieszka -- The Stinky Cheese Man; 13. Nancy Van Laan -- Possum Come A-Knockin At Your Door; 14. Chris Van Allsburg -- Jumanji; 15. Maurice Sendak -- Outside Over There; 16. Dr. Seuss -- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; 17. David Shannon -- No, David!!; 18. Beatrix Potter -- The Tale of Jemima Puddle Duck; 19. Laura Numeroff -- If You Give A Pig a Pancake; 20. Ezra Jack Keats -- The Snowy Day; 21. Eric Carle -- I See a Song; 22. Joanna Cole -- The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body; 23. Judi Barrett -- Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs; 24. Nick Bruel -- Bad Kitty; 25. Jan Brett -- The Mitten; 26. Tomie de Paola -- Strega Nona; 27. Hans Christian Anderson -- The Princess and the Pea; 28. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; 29. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; 30. C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia; 31. E.B. White, Charlotte's Web; 32. Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book 2; 33. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; 34. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Rapunzel; 35. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie; 36. Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows |
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| NUMBER TWENTY-NINE It must a been close on to one o'clock when we got below the island at last, and the raft did seem to go mighty slow. If a boat was to come along we was going to take to the canoe and break for the Illinois shore; and it was well a boat didn't come, for we hadn't ever thought to put the gun in the canoe, or a fishing-line, or anything to eat. We was in ruther too much of a sweat to think of so many things. It warn't good judgment to put everything on the raft. |
| NUMBER THIRTY "We have come, Aslan." "Welcome, Peter, Son of Adam," said Aslan. "Welcome, Susan and Lucy, Daughters of Eve. Welcome, He-Beaver and She-Beaver." His voice was deep and rich and somehow took the fidgets out of them. They now felt glad and quiet and it didn't seem awkward to them to stand and say nothing. |
| NUMBER THIRTY-ONE There, in the center of the web, neatly woven in block letters, was a message. It said: SOME PIG! Lurvy felt weak. He brushed his hand across his eyes and stared harder ... |
| NUMBER THIRTY-TWO The Law of the Jungle -- which is by far the oldest law in the world -- has arranged for almost every kind of accident that may befall the Jungle People, till now its code is as perfect as time and custom can make it. You will remember that Mowgli spent a great part of his life in the Seeonee Wolf-Pack. learning the Law from Baloo, the Brown Bear; and it was Baloo who told him, when the boy grew impatient at the constant orders, that the Law was like the Giant Creeper, because it dropped across everyone's back and no one could escape. |
| NUMBER THIRTY-THREE Even with eyes protected by the green spectacles, Dorothy and her friends were at first dazzled by the brilliancy of the wonderful City. The streets were lined with beautiful houses all built of green marble and studded everywhere with sparkling emeralds. They walked over a pavement of the same green marble, and where the blocks were joined together were rows of emeralds, set closely, and glittering in the brightness of the sun. The window panes were of green glass; even the sky above the City had a green tint, and the rays of the sun were green. |
| NUMBER THIRTY-FOUR "How can you dare," said she, "descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!" "Ah," answered he, "I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat." |
| NUMBER THIRTY-FIVE All day long, every day, Laura and Mary were busy. When the dishes were washed and the beds made, there was always plenty to do and to see and to listen to. They hunted for birds' nests in the tall grass, and when they found them the mother birds squawked and scolded. Sometimes they touched a nest gently, and all in an instant a nest full of drowsiness became a nest full of wide-gaping beaks, hungrily squawking. Then the mother bird scolded like anything, and Mary and Laura quietly went away because they did not want to worry her too much. |
| NUMBER THIRTY-SIX "Hold up!" said an elderly rabbit at the gap. "Sixpence for the privilege of passing by the private road!" He was bowled over in an instant by the impatient and contemptuous Mole, who trotted along the side of the hedge, chaffing the other rabbits as they peeked hurriedly from their holes to see what the row was about. "Onion sauce! Onion sauce!" he remarked jeeringly, and was gone before they could think of a thoroughly satisfactory reply. They all started grumbling at each other. "How stupid you are -- why didn't you tell him -- " "Well why didn't you say -- " "You might have reminded him -- " and so on, in the usual way; but of course, it was then much too late, as is always the case. |