Synopsis: This treasured historical satire, played out in two very different socioeconomic worlds of 16th-century England, centers around the lives of two boys born in London on the same day: Edward, Prince of Wales, and Tom Canty, a street beggar. During a chance encounter, the two realize they are identical and, as a lark, decide to exchange clothes and roles — a situation that briefly, but drastically, alters the lives of both youngsters.
The Prince, dressed in rags, wanders about the city's boisterous neighborhoods among the lower classes and endures a series of hardships; poor Tom, now living with the royals, is constantly filled with the dread of being discovered for who and what he really is.
Brimming with gentle humor and discerning social scrutiny, this timeless tale of transposed identities remains one of Twain's most popular and best-loved novels.

Synopsis: Dracula is one of the few horror books to be honored by inclusion in the Norton Critical Edition series. (The others are Frankenstein, The Turn of the Screw, Heart of Darkness, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Metamorphosis.) This 100th-anniversary edition includes not only the complete authoritative text of the novel with illuminating footnotes, but also four contextual essays, five reviews from the time of publication, five articles on dramatic and film variations, and seven selections from literary and academic criticism. Nina Auerbach of the University of Pennsylvania (author of Our Vampires, Ourselves) and horror scholar David J. Skal (author of Hollywood Gothic, The Monster Show, and Screams of Reason) are the editors of the volume. Especially fascinating are excerpts from materials that Bram Stoker consulted in his research for the book, and his working papers over the several years he was composing it. The selection of criticism includes essays on how Dracula deals with female sexuality, gender inversion, homoerotic elements, and Victorian fears of "reverse colonization" by politically turbulent Transylvania.

Synopsis: When preacher's boy Luke Bledsoe steps on a baseball field, he discovers he has real pitching talent. For once, he can be proud of being left-handed. But Reverend Bledsoe believes that the left side is the side of Satan and the baseball field is the Devil's playground. Luke has spent his whole life trying to please his father. Will he choose to give up the game he's come to love-or turn his back on his family?

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
1999 IRA Children's Book Award
A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book

Synopsis: After submitting his fouryear baseball diary for a senior project, Neil "Bull" Larsen's passion for baseball takes second place to his new perceptions on life, in a comingofage story by the author of Up Country. Reprint.

Synopsis: On their own... Frankie, Earl, and Angela aren't excited about spending the summer with Aunt Lula while their dad's away. But they have no idea just how bad it will be. When Lula disappears, the kids have no food, no money-- and no one to take care of them.

Someone has to take charge. Since Earl is the oldest, he feels responsible. His older cousin, Wayne, shows him how to steal bikes. It's a great way to make money, and Earl is desperate. But stealing bikes is not all Wayne does. And when he asks Earl to join him in a new money-making scheme, Earl is torn. It feels bad, but he needs the money. And no one is watching...

Synopsis: Barnaby, a kind, half-witted young man, joins the Gordon rioters to proudly carry their banner. Along the way we get to meet Barnaby's murderous father, the hangman Dennis, and the madcap Hugh. There are vivid scenes of pillage, battles and executions as well as myriad characters who are grim, romantic and humorous. Sixteen 90-minute cassettes and two 60's.

Synopsis: With an Introduction and Notes by Peter Merchant, Christchurch University College. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerful and sometimes violent novel of expectation, love, oppression, sin, religion and betrayal. It portrays the disintegration of the marriage of Helen Huntingdon, the mysterious tenant of the title, and her dissolute, alcoholic husband. Defying convention, Helen leaves her husband to protect their young son from his father's influence, and earns her own living as an artist. Whilst in hiding at Wildfell Hall, she encounters Gilbert Markham, who falls in love with her. On its first publication in 1848, Anne Brontë's second novel was criticised for being 'coarse' and 'brutal'. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall challenges the social conventions of the early nineteenth century in a strong defence of women's rights in the face of psychological abuse from their husbands. Anne Brontë's style is bold, naturalistic and passionate, and this novel, which her sister Charlotte considered 'an entire mistake', has earned her a position in English Literature in her own right.