Does anybody remember the old reading books they used to pass out in elementary school? It was a big, fat, textbook sized chunk of awesomeness that the teachers handed out every year, along with math and language books. The reading books were stuffed full of poems — mostly boring — and stories an...
I grew up with this book and have loved it all my life, so it’s hard for me to tell how well it’s aged. I can say that it was a lot of fun to reread in the Harry Potter era. A few pages in, I started checking “hero” characteristics off in my mind.Here. Take this handy quiz – maybe you have what i...
A smart little robot scheduled to be destroyed escapes from the robot factory. He has many adventures and is adopted by a human family.
The story of the last bear in the world who wants to destroy mankind because man killed his entire species for sport. A boy defies the advice of his elders to seek out the bear and communicate with it.
A talking river otter escapes from captivity, experiences perilous adventures with some cruel humans, and resolves the problems of various troubled people and animals.
The rest of the world paid little attention to him, and both his name and his work have long been forgotten. But I’ll always remember what he said and did. Trees, he wanted people to know, are sensitive and have feelings just as all other living things have. When hurt, they are subject to shock, ...
The entire cabinet swung outward, disclosing a narrow passageway and a dimly lighted flight of stairs leading upward. “This isn’t supposed to be a secret doorway,” she said. “It’s just a space saver until the new wing is finished. You can see it from the top of the stairs—but don’t open the outer...
It would have made everything much easier. But with all the air escaping at once, it was like being shot from a gun. In a twinkling Sprockets was blown nearly a mile. His first thought was for Rivets. “Jump!” he called over his radio. “The saucer will pick us up.” He couldn’t hear his voice excep...
The car, though a sportster, was much larger and heavier than the one he had been allowed to use so briefly, and he sat so low in the bucket seat that he was unable to make out the side of the road. The only thing to do, he realized, was to hug the mountainside on his left, and pray. The rain inc...
It would not lie flat until he had placed the book at the upper edge and a pair of earthenware mugs at the lower corners. The others crowded around, and Nurse Jackson lifted Charlie Pill from the wheelchair so he could have a better view of it. “Why, it’s a crazy map of some kind,” Charlie Pill m...
It was nearly dark by the time the truck rolled into the lane. Big Butch, the huge clumpy robot who took care of Commander Brown, had been watching for it all afternoon. Butch, wearing a kitchen apron and a chef’s cap, should have been doing a hundred other things—but how can you keep your mind o...
The dog raced around him, barking furiously. Sprockets was dimly aware of the barking dog and, finally, of two figures approaching in the night. Although his brain was awake, it wasn’t able to do much more than add long columns of large imaginary numbers, full of sevens and nines, just to keep it...
He rolled over and raised up on one elbow, rubbing his eyes while he sniffed the drifting aroma of breakfast bacon. Sunlight, slanting through the window, touched the carved back of the sassafras chair, making the yellow wood gleam like gold. The chair seemed almost alive. In fact, it was actuall...
In his tiny prison he could only guess the time, for no clock struck the hour and no star was visible in the overcast sky. The darkness would have been absolute save for the feeble glow of light coming from the area of the administration building. He had been given neither food nor water since le...