Following Sterling's spectacularly successful launch of its children's classic novels (240,000 books in print to date), comes a dazzling new series: Classic Starts. The stories are abridged; the quality is complete. Classic Starts treats the world's beloved tales (and children) with the respect they deserve--all at an incomparable price.

"Tom Sawyer liked adventures, which means he was always getting in trouble." Searching for treasure, witnessing a murder, getting caught in a bat cave, tricking others into doing his work, running away with Huckleberry Finn--Tom...

Following Sterling's spectacularly successful launch of its children's classic novels (240,000 books in print to date), comes a dazzling new series: Classic Starts. The stories are abridged; the quality is complete. Classic Starts treats the world's beloved tales (and children) with the respect they deserve--all at an incomparable price.
Poor Sara Crewe. Once upon a time her beloved father pampered and adored her. But ever since he died, leaving her alone and penniless, she's been caught in the cruel clutches of Miss Minchin, the headmistress at the Select Seminary for...

We said there was no home like a raft. Other places do seem so cramped up and smotherybut you feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft. Sail down the Mississippi with Huck Finn and the runaway slave, Jim. Twain s beloved tale, with its folksy language, creates an indelible image of antebellum America with its sleepy river towns, con men, family feuds, and a variety of colorful characters.

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Half wolf, half dog, White Fang fully understands the cruelty of both nature and humans. After nearly starving to death during the frigid Arctic winter, he's taken in first by a man who -trains- him through constant whippings, and then by another who forces him to participate in vicious dogfights. Follow White Fang as he overcomes these obstacles and finally meets someone who offers him kindness and love.

A shipwreck. A sole survivor, stranded on a deserted island. What could be more appealing to children than Robinson Crusoe's amazing adventure? Set in the 17th century, and unfolding over a 30-year period, it offers plenty of suspense and everyday detail about how Crusoe manages to stay alive. Additionally, it paints a fascinating portrait of the age--including references to slavery and Europe's view of the "New World."

Mary Shelley s tragic story of a scientist who created a monster is perhaps even more compelling and meaningful today than when it was written nearly two centuries ago. From the bits and pieces of dead bodies, and the power of electricity, the brilliant Victor Frankenstein fashions a new form of lifeonly to discover, too late, the irreparable damage he has caused.

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A single personbut with two personalities: one that s noble and kind and another that s pure, repulsive evil. Robert Louis Stevenson s engrossing masterpiece about the dual nature of manand a good doctor whose thirst for knowledge has tragic consequencesserves up all the suspense and satisfying chills one expects from the best horror and science fiction."

When Heidi s Aunt Dete brings the orphaned girl to live with her grandfather, no one can imagine the bitter, solitary old man caring for a child. But, to everyone s surprise, the two grow to love each otherand Heidi blossoms in her new home. Johanna Spyri s charming storyand spirited heroinehave won children s hearts for more than a century."

Eleven-year-old Rebecca Randall is quite a handfuland now she s leaving her beloved Sunnybrook Farm to live with her well-to-do elderly aunts and get an education. But they were expecting Rebecca s quiet, hard-working older sister instead. Can the bright-eyed and talkative girl win them overespecially her strict, rule-bound Aunt Miranda? Just as Rebecca s grand spirit charms everyone in the story, it will captivate readers, too."

Since 1903, the escapades of Mole, his friend Water Rat, shy Badger, and Toad of Toad Hall have delighted children, and adults, too. Follow the winning foursome through the seasons as they sail the river, get lost in the Wild Wood, take off on a merry adventure in Toad s colorful carriage, and rescue Toad Hall from a band of nasty marauding weasels. "