This volume contains stories, poems, myths, and facts about lots of different birds, intended for teaching children. It is divided into nine parts, each covering a different type of bird.

A treasure trove of more than two hundred poems, this gem of an anthology compiled by Mary E Burt is indeed a most valuable set of poems to read or listen to. Published in 1904, Poems Every Child Should Know contains some well-loved verses like Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Lewis Carroll's delightful parody Father William, Felicia Hemans' deeply-moving Casablanca and other favorites. It also has lesser-known but equally beautiful pieces like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Arrow and The Song, Robert Browning's The Incident of the French Camp, Eugene Field's nonsense lyrics Wynken, Blynken and Nod and a host of other wonderful verses...

Jack the Giant-Killer, Tom Thumb, Goldilocks and The Three Bears, Henny Penny, Dick Whittington, The Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood and a host of immortal characters are found in this delightful collection of English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. The book made its first appearance in 1890 and has remained a firm favorite with both young and old ever since. Fairy tales have traditionally emanated from France and Germany. The famous compilations by La Fontaine and the Brothers Grimm have overshadowed children's literature for centuries...

A collection of my favorite short children's stories and rhymes.

Cat Tales is the first of a series of kid-friendly collections of animal stories and non-fiction. There’ll be one or two grade-school-level texts on the animal, with eight-nine fiction works. Source for these is Project Gutenberg.

The Lords of the Housetops reveals the cat through the creative lenses of 13 authors. Consequently, this carefully chosen collection of stories is as complex, charismatic and clever as a cat.

Barks and Purrs is a collection of seven episodes in the lives of Toby-Dog, a French Bulldog, and Kiki-the-Demure, a Maltese cat, living in a comfortable household. The episodes cover a hot afternoon, a train ride, and what happened when dinner was late or their mistress was ill. We hear about the first fire in autumn, a heavy storm, and about a visitor in the household.Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette-Willy was throughout her life a controversial French novelist. She published around 50 novels; the best known is “Gigi”.

The title of this book quotes its object. To tell something of night hunting, and especially to suggest how the ever necessary dog can best be selected, trained, maintained and utilized, is the consideration of first importance. To round out the subject all forms of hunting will receive some notice, and the various breeds of dogs will be so far dealt with, that their value and usefulness in their given fields may be determined. Best of all, the contents of this volume are based on the opinions and declarations of men who have had years of experience in the matters on which they presume to write.(Extracted from the Introduction)

Zip, a little fox terrier, lives in the town of Maplewood in the house of his owner, Dr. Elsworth. Each day when Dr. Elsworth drives his carriage to visit his patients, Zip goes along with him so that he can keep the doctor company and, most importantly, visit with the other animals in the town. Zip likes to find out all the latest news so that he can tell it to his best friend, Tabby the cat, who also lives with Dr. Elsworth. However, he also finds himself getting into mischief, whether it's trying to solve a burglary, sneaking fried chicken from a picnic, getting stuck in a stovepipe or fighting with Peter-Kins the monkey. Zip is one dog who never has a dull day.

If you have read any accounts of adventure in Africa, you will know that travelers never mention animals of any kind that are gifted with the faculty of speech, or gazelles that are overseers for native princes, or hares that eat flesh. No, indeed; only the native-born know of these; and, judging by the immense and rapid strides civilization is making in those parts, it will not be long before such wonderful specimens of zoölogy will be as extinct as the ichthyosaurus, dinornis, and other poor creatures who never dreamed of the awful names that would be applied to them when they were too long dead to show their resentment...

Delightful fables, collected by a devotee of Indian lore, recounts many of the legends told to him by tribal members, among them intriguing explanations of "Why the Chipmunk's Back is Striped," "How the Otter Skin Became Great Medicine," "How the Man Found His Mate," and "Why Blackfeet Never Kill Mice."

Charles Sternberg was an American fossil collector and paleontologist. He was active in both fields from 1876 to 1928, and collected fossils for private collectors as well as for international museums. This book is part travelogue, part paleontology, and part historical narrative of life on the open prairie. In it, Sternberg tells of his early interest in fossil hunting as a boy, and scientific expeditions from his first in 1876 to one for the Munich Museum in 1901. - Summary by Ava

The People Who Wanted To Live in Caves. This little book takes us back to the time when our ancestors lived, or wanted to live, in caves. Unfortunately the caves of that time were mostly used by large animals like the Sabre Toothed Tiger and bears who could easily kill and eat our ancestors. Thus the subtitle of this book is The Age of Combat. This book, aimed at children, tries to show how certain things could have taken place to enable our species to eke out a living alongside the much stronger beasts, such as why we wanted to live in caves; the hazards and rewards of living in caves; the taming of fire; and how early tools were invented...

The Living Animals of the Natural world, subtitled "a popular Natural History", proposed to present the most updated version of the wonders of the Animal World in a new and clearer form. It used photography instead of the traditional illustrations of the life of beasts, birds, fishes, insects, corals, and the subjects photographed were obtained from every part of the world, many of them from the most distant islands of the Southern Ocean, the great barrier reef of Australia, the New Zealand hills, the Indian jungle, the South African veldt, and the rivers of British Columbia...

Sharp Eyes, the Silver Fox is another tale of adventure that follows a young silver fox from his birth in the woods of England, through training by his parents in how to survive, to some rather bad mistakes he makes leading to his capture and being placed in a zoo.

This is another in the Kneeland Animal Stories by Richard Barnum. Follow the many adventures of the little Chunky Hippo from his home in Africa to the circus. - Summary by Larry Wilson

Although David Alec Wilson is best known for his writings about Thomas Carlyle, he was a Scottish civil servant who spent much time in India. This collection of stories draw from those experiences, where tales of tigers, leopards, crocodiles, elephants and monkeys are part of the cultural fabric. These range from short vignettes to several multi-part stories, all sure to entertain. - Summary by Larry Wilson

David Cory is the author of more than 40 childrens books. This book is in his series of Puss in Boots, Jr. The roots of the legend of Puss in Boots seems to go back to Italian folklore. These books are written for younger readers, about second grade and up, hence the "junior" designation - Summary by Larry Wilson

Toto is the littlest beaver in his family and in the pond. He has much to experience and learn as he experiences the world and has adventures. A fun children's story that has many animals all chipping in to make life interesting for the newest beaver. - Summary by phil chenevert

Old Joe was the biggest, fightingest, craftiest coon in the Creeping Hills. No one had ever been able to catch him; not even Precious Sue, a bluetick hound peerless in tracking down coons. But Harky felt that this autumn the hunting would be different. Old Joe was in for trouble. Precious Sue had a pup who looked like a natural-born coon hunter. With his web-footed paws he was as skillful in the water as any coon. And on land, Duckfoot had a nose that beat every other hound hollow. Harky had a few troubles of his own...

This is a story on the circus animal series by Richard Barnum. Follow adventures of Shaggo, The Mighty Buffalo from prairie to circus life. - Summary by Larry Wilson

Winkie is a girl woodchuck that is always up for any adventure. And she and her sister Blinky have a lot of them as they scurry through the forest with their friends looking for things to eat and to have fun with. Winkie is not called the wily woodchuck for no reason; she manages to evade trouble most times but not all and those times makes us hold our breath wondering if Winkie will manage to grow up to be a big woodchuck at all. - Summary by phil chenevert

Birds, Illustrated by Color Photography was a monthly publication of the Nature Study Publishing Company of Chicago. It includes short poems, anecdotes and factual descriptions of birds with accompanying color plates. The magazine was published from 1898-1907 under the various titles, "Birds," "Birds and all Nature," "Nature and Art" and "Birds and Nature." Later issues were expanded to include animals, plants, etc. Summary by J. M. Smallheer

Soon after his arrival to the lovely, cool summer escape of Devering Farm, Bonnie Prince Fetlar knows his new home will be a good one. Set in the mountainous Canadian countryside, the farm is a nurturing home for children and a safe-haven for animals both domestic and wild. But Prince Fetlar is a wise Shetland pony, and senses that the place is not without mysterious secrets. From saving the life of the beautiful "White Phantom" to solving the mystery regarding his boy owner's lost mother, there is never a dull moment for the small horse with a big heart. Additional proof-listening by Jessie Wang

Birds, Illustrated by Color Photography was a monthly publication of the Nature Study Publishing Company of Chicago. It includes short poems, anecdotes and factual descriptions of birds with accompanying color plates. The magazine was published from 1898-1907 under the various titles, "Birds," "Birds and all Nature," "Nature and Art" and "Birds and Nature." Later issues were expanded to include animals, plants, etc. Summary by J. M. Smallheer

Book I Grouping of animals and the parts of the human body. Book II Different parts of red-blooded animals. Book III Internal organs. Book IV Animals without blood . Books V & VI Animal reproduction. Book VII Human reproduction. Book VIII Habits . Book IX Social behavior. Book X Dealing with barrenness in women was excluded from the translation of D'Arcy Thompson for being spurious so the translation of the Clergyman Richard Cresswell is used instead. Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson was a biologist, mathematician and classicist who also wrote On Growth and Form which discusses the mathematical patterns and structures formed in plants and animals.

The American Bee Journal is the “oldest bee paper in America established in 1861 devoted to scientific bee-culture and the production and sale of pure honey. Published every Wednesday, by Thomas G. Newman, Editor and Proprietor” In this volume are short articles and correspondence on a variety of topics from Extracting Bees to Raspberry as a Honey Plant. - Summary by Larry Wilson

Follow, “A Very Small Bunny Has a Very Big Adventure” as Nibble Rabbit romps through the clover patch and into the woods where he founds the other woodland creatures including Doctor Muskrat, Chatter Squirrel, Hooter the Owl, and Silvertip the Fox. This is part of the “Told at Twilight Stories” by John Breck - Summary by Larry Wilson

Roger North, son of Dudley North, 4th Baron North, was a successful member of the bar and later member of parliament. But he had wide ranging interests from architecture to music. He has an avid collector of books and is best known as the biographer of the North family. Here we sample his interest in raising fish. He presents fifteen short sketches of esculent fish, and a longer essay as "A Discourse of Fish and Fish Ponds." - Summary by Larry Wilson

In the seventh volume of the Twilight Animal series, we meet Buster the Bear, a cub who lives in a cave the woods with his mother. After an encounter with an unfriendly forest animal, he gets lost and captured, and has some marvelous adventures with humans. Will he make it back to the forest, or will he end up somewhere else?

This volume displays the romance of birds in beautiful prose and dialog in simple language for children and adults alike. Written by a mother and son team of naturalists, chapters describe various aspects of the life and habits of birds highlighting specific birds from owls to hummingbirds. From the introduction: “Seek the children, little book: Bid them love the bird's retreat . . . Bid them find their secrets out, How to understand their words.” - Summary by Larry Wilson

You get to choose what you want to read! So long as the source is Public Domain for you, any short story or chapter that tells of legends, heroes, myths, or ancient lore, is welcome. We are looking for representations of many different cultures within each collection. If you have questions of whether a source is Public Domain for you , I recommend asking about that in this project's discussion before you begin recording. Simply post the question with a link to the source you've found. :) Limit of 2 sections per reader in a given Myths & Legends collection. - Summary by Lynette Caulkins