Central Kansas Library System

"Conflating her own childhood experiences with those of a celebrated Wagnerian soprano of her day, Willa Cather here introduces Thea Kronborg, a Scandinavian-American singer who rises from a one-story town in Colorado to the Metropolitan Opera House. Along the way she learns her own capacity for the rigorous demands of artistic excellence, and how few of her colleagues are willing to sacrifice ordinary vanities for exacting professional standards....

The novel "Little Dorrit", published originally between 1855 and 1857, is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society of the period. Much of Dickens' ire is focused upon the institutions of debtor's prisons-in which people who owed money were imprisoned, unable to work, until they have repaid their debts. The representative prison in this case is the Marshalsea where the author's own father had been imprisoned. Most of Dickens'...

A year in the life of two young girls growing up on the Wisconsin frontier, as they help their mother with the daily chores, enjoy their father's stories and singing, and share special occasions when they get together with relatives or neighbors.

Unwanted and unloved, Pollyanna Whittier comes to her aunt's home without a warm welcome. Pollyanna's irrepressible spirits make punishments seem like treats and her cheerfulness brings happiness to her aunt and other members of the community.

Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard, is a dramatic allegory telling the journey we each must take before having the ability to live on high places. Throughout the story, the emotions and struggles of our nature are personified. It is a story of endurance, persistence, and reliance on God, which has inspired millions of people to become sure-footed in their faith even when facing the rockiest of life's terrain. Much-Afraid had been in the service...

A Swiss orphan is heartbroken when she must leave her beloved grandfather and their happy home in the mountains to go to school and to care for an invalid girl in the city.

A young boy grows to manhood and old age experiencing the love and generosity of a tree which gives to him without thought of return.

Rudyard Kipling's beloved stories of the boy Mowgli, rescued and raised by tigers in the heart of the jungle. The tales feature such unforgettable creatures such as Bagheera, the graceful black panther; Baloo, the kindly brown bear; and Kaa, the snake with the hypnotic stare.

Emily Elizabeth describes the activities she enjoys with her very big, very red dog and how they take care of each other.

"A sinful act ruins the lives of three people, especially that of Hester Prynne, a young, beautiful, and dignified woman, who has conceived a child out of wedlock and receives a public punishment of having to wear a scarlet "A" on her clothing. Despite Hester's attempts through the years to distance herself from her past and repent for her sins, she continues to be rejected by society. A best-seller upon its publication in 1850, The Scarlet Letter's...