J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan

"Of course Peter had been trifling with them, for no one can fly unless fairy dust has been blown on him...he blew some on each of them, with the most superb results. 'Now just wiggle your shoulders this way,' he said, 'and let go.'"


"'I wish I had a pretty house,
The littlest ever seen,
With funny little red walls
And roof of mossy green..."


"...about this time Peter invented, with Wendy's help, a new game that fascinated him enormously...It consisted in pretending not to have adventures...To see Peter doing nothing on a stool was a great sight; he could not help looking solemn at such times, to sit still seemed to him such a comic thing to do."



This book is published by Charles Scribner's Sons/Macmillan Publishing Co. It's a visitor to White Rabbit's shelf from The Berkeley Public Library.
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Margaret Hodges' Saint George and the Dragon

"In the days when monsters and giants and fairy folk lived in England, a noble
knight was riding across a plain..."


"He wore heavy armor and carried an ancient silver shield marked with a red cross. It was dented with the blows of many battles fought long ago by other brave knights."

"The knight on horseback fiercely rode at the dragon with all his might."

"When the tale ended the king said, 'Never did living man sail through such a sea of deadly dangers. Since you are now safely come to rest ashore, stay here and lived happily ever after.'"



Stories Love Pictures

Frank R. Stockton's The Griffin and the Minor Canon

"Over the great door of an old, old church, which stood in a quiet town of a faraway land, there was carved in stone the figure of a large griffin...a great many plans were proposed to prevent the Griffin from coming into the town...someone said it would be a good thing to destroy the stone image so that the Griffin would have no excuse for entering the town..."

"...When the Griffin found that the Minor Canon had left town, he seemed sorry, but showed no disposition to go and look for him...The griffin now thought that he ought to visit the sick and the poor; and he began to go about the town for that purpose. The effect upon the sick was miraculous. All, except those who were very ill indeed, jumped from their beds when they heard he was coming, and declared themselves quite well."

Edward Lear's The Scroobious Pip

"At last they said to the fox, 'By far
You're the wisest beast. You know you are!
Go close to the Scroobious Pip and say,
Tell us all about yourself we pray--
For as yet we can't make out in the least
If you're fish or insect, or bird or beast.'
The Scroobious Pip looked vaguely round
and sang these words with a rumbling sound,
'Chippetty flip! Flippety Chip!
My only name is the Scroobious Pip!'"


Stories Love Pictures

Seven Tales by H.C. Andersen

"Far out in the forest stood the most charming little fir tree. It had plenty of room to grow in, lots of sunshine, and all the fresh air it wanted, and it was surrounded on all sides by tall, sturdy comrades, pine trees as well as firs..."



"But this particular little fir tree was so anxious to grow up that it gave no thought to the warm sunshine or fresh air; and it paid no attention to the merry chatter of the children who came into the woods looking for wild strawberries or blackberries..."



Stories Love Pictures

J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

"Poor little Peter Pan! he sat down and cried, and even then he did not know that, for a bird, he was sitting on his wrong part. It is a blessing that he did not know, for otherwise he would have lost faith in his power to fly...the reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings."



"It was to the island that Peter now flew to put his strange case before old Solomon Caw...

'How many of your toes are thumbs?' said Solomon a little cruelly, and Peter saw to his consternation, that all his toes were fingers.

The shock was so great that it drove away his cold...

'I suppose,' said Peter huskily, 'I suppose I can still fly?'

You see he had lost faith.

'Poor little half-and-half!' said Solomon who was not really hard-hearted, 'you will never be able to fly again, not even on windy days. You must live here on the island always.'"



"You see he had no one to tell him how children really play, for the fairies are all more or less in hiding until dusk, and so know nothing, and though the birds pretend that they could tell him a great deal, when the time for telling came, it was wonderful how little they really knew."

Stories Love Pictures

Margaret Mahy's The Bridge Builder

"We played where bridges were being born, running around piles of sand and shingle, bags of cement and bars of reinforced steel. Concrete mixers would turn, winches would wind, piles would be driven and decking cast. Slowly, as we watched and played, a bridge would appear and people could cross over..."

This story is part of a short collection of 9 tales published by Delacorte Press and is a visitor to White Rabbit's book-shelf from the Berkeley Public Library.

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Margaret Mahy's Ultra-Voilet Catastrophe!

"Ultra violet catastrophe," murmured the great-uncle to himself.
"What does that mean?" Asked Sally boldly.
"It's the sound I say it for, not the meaning," Great-Uncle Magus explained. "Some people say 'Goodness Gracious.' That doesn't mean much--they say it for the sound. But I like to say something that sounds even better and more important."
"Words usually mean some real thing," said Sally carefuly. "For instance, I say 'Horrible Stumper' and it means tree pirate..."

Margaret Mahy's The Wind Between the Stars

"One day, when Phoebe was small, her old Granny came in shaking her head and saying,
"The wind's blowing from right between the stars tonight." Little Phoebe stopped playing
and listened to the wind. It sounded big enough to snatch up the hills in its right hand and
the moon in its left, and to carry them away for always...."




Stories love pictures.