Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a classic American children's novel that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her two stern aunts in the fictional village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's joy for life inspires her aunts, but she faces many trials in her young life, gaining wisdom and understanding. The novel opens with Rebecca's journey to Riverboro, to live with her two aunts, Miranda and Jane Sawyer. Until this time, she has lived on the family farm. Rebecca is the second eldest of seven children and her family is quite poor, so moving in with her aunts is a chance to improve her...

In 'The Romance of a Christmas Card' by Kate Douglas Wiggins, readers are transported into a heartwarming story of love and faith unfolding during the holiday season. Set in a quaint New England village, the novella follows the journey of a special Christmas card as it brings together unlikely companions and sparks hope in the most unexpected places. Wiggin's eloquent prose evokes a sense of nostalgia and sentimentality, capturing the essence of Christmas spirit and the power of human connection. The story's simplicity and charm make it a perfect read for cozy winter nights by the fireplace....

Timothy Jessup is a wise and sensitive 11 year old orphan boy. He has an inseparable friend, a beautiful and fiery toddler Gabriella, who is called Lady gay, and a faithful dog named Rags. They are forced to take care of themselves and Timothy takes the role of guardian for Lady Gay. Forces of circumstance bring the children to White Farm where they are, reluctantly and quite temporarily, taken in by two older women. During their stay at the farm, they are both dealing with anguishing issues from their past. Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923) was an American educator and author of children's...

The Goose Girl is a young lady who, in seek of the safe haven and a place to rest her thoughts, becomes a paying guest at a Thornycroft Farm, a small poultry farm near the Barbury Green village in Sussex. After a quarrel with her suitor and upset with her family, she jolts around charming Sussex roads and stumbles upon the village of Barbury Green. She finds a lodging at a Thornycroft Farm, and thought she is a paying visitor, she soon integrates into the household and begins shepherding the geese. During her three week adventure she keeps a diary and records amusing little anecdotes and some...

The story is about Carol Bird, a Christmas-born child, who as a young girl is unusually loving and generous, having a positive effect on everyone with whom she comes into contact. She is the youngest member of her family and has devoted older brothers. At about the age of 5, Carol contracts an unspecified illness (possibly tuberculosis), and, by the time she is 10, she is bedridden. The novel primarily involves Carol making plans for a Christmas celebration for the nine Ruggles children, a poor, working-class family living near the Birds. The book is a wistful moral tale about a saintly...

Rose o' the River tells the story of Rose Wiley, the prettiest girl in her little Maine village, who is the center of a typical circle of small town admirers, dangling them all but laying most carefully the chosen suitor Stephen Waterman. They become engaged, but she has doubts about farm life, having dreams of tasting city glamour, so when a neighbor's city-dwelling nephew begins paying his attentions to her she is drawn away from Stephen. The Old Peabody Pew is a charming Christmas story of the Dorcas Society in a small Maine town. This is a society, formed from the women in the community,...

"Das Weihnachtslied von Carol Bird" entführt die Lesenden in das ländliche Amerika des späten 19. Jahrhunderts, wo Familientreue, Wohltätigkeit und Hoffnung das besinnliche Weihnachtsfest prägen. Im Mittelpunkt steht Carol Bird, ein krankes, aber lebensfrohes Mädchen, das mit unerschütterlicher Güte ihre Familie und die Bedürftigen im Ort zusammenbringt. Wiggin verwebt realistische Schilderungen des Alltags mit poetischen Momenten innerer Einkehr und lässt Emotion und Spiritualität zu einer außergewöhnlichen Erzählkraft verschmelzen. So entsteht ein literarisches Kleinod, das...