Overview

This delightful collection of thirteen children's classic stories features Alice in Wonderland*, The Bell, A Christmas Carol, Cinderella*, Emily of New Moon, The Little Match Girl, The Little Mermaid, Little Red Riding Hood, Scourge of the Desert**, The Secret Garden, Sleeping Beauty*, Snow White*, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. *Awarded Gold (full-cast dramatization) - HEAR Now: The Audio Fiction and Arts Festival** International Radio Festival Winner

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9781094189635

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George Zarr is an award-winning audio dramatist currently based in Chicago. He is the producer, writer, director, and composer of the Hans Christian Andersen musical The Bell, the four-part comedy Hurry! Hurry! It's Almost Christmas, the mystery collection Dark of the Moon Inn, and the Western comedy musical serial Hoofbeats in My Heart, all four available from Blackstone Publishing. Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark, in 1805. At the age of 14 he went to Copenhagen to become an actor. He failed and instead went back to school, where he was very unhappy. He published his first book, an account of a walking trip, in 1829. From then on he wrote many books, finding his true voice in his original fairy stories, which often had their basis in his life. He died in 1875. Lucy Maud Montgomery was one of the most famous Canadian writers of the twentieth century. She is best known for her books for young adults, particularly Anne of Green Gables and its six sequels chronicling the adventures of Anne Shirley, a feisty but sentimental orphan who is adopted by elderly foster parents. In her lifetime, Lucy published 20 novels and some 500 short stories and poems. Her writing, rich in imagination and full of lessons in optimism, brought her international fame and remains popular today. Lucy was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada, in 1874. Soon after her mother died (when Lucy was just two), her father remarried and moved away. He left Lucy to be raised by her maternal grandparents in Cavendish. The isolation of this small town combined with the strict discipline of her grandparents led to an unhappy childhood. Lucy was an avid reader and writer at an early age. She published her first poem in a local paper at the age of fifteen. She studied literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, then returned to Cavendish to take care of her grandmother, worked at a local post office, and became a schoolteacher. While caring for her grandmother, she wrote Anne of Green Gables. Several publishers rejected the book before it was finally accepted, and it became a bestseller. Eventually, it was made into a musical, a television movie, and a television series. Lucy later married a minister and moved to Ontario, where she died in 1942. Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), was the pen name of Oxford mathematician, logician, photographer, and author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. At age twenty he received a studentship at Christ Church and was appointed a lecturer in mathematics. Though shy, Dodgson enjoyed creating delightful stories for children. His world-famous works include the novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and the poems The Hunting of the Snark and Jabberwocky. Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born in Manchester. She had a very poor upbringing and used to escape from the horror of her surroundings by writing stories. In 1865 her family emigrated to the USA where she married and became the successful author of many children's books including The Secret Garden, A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy. Charles Perrault (1628-1703) was a French author and intellectual. Known as a founding writer of the fairy tale genre, he rewrote numerous folk tales, including Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Blue Beard, and Puss in Boots. His stories, which continue to enjoy worldwide acclaim, have been adapted to opera, ballet, theater, and film. Lyman Frank Baum (1856 - 1919) was an American author, actor, and independent filmmaker best known as the creator, along with illustrator W. W. Denslow, of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, one of the most popular books in American children's literature. He wrote thirteen Oz sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and scores of other works; 55 novels, 82 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts, as well as many miscellaneous writings. Charles Dickens (1812-70) is one of the most recognized celebrities of English literature. His many books include Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol. Jacob Grimm and his brother, Wilhelm, are most famous for their classical collections of folk songs and folktales, especially Children's and Household Tales, which is generally known as Grimm's Fairy Tales. Stories such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty have been retold countless times, but the Brothers Grimm first wrote them down. In their collaboration, Wilhelm selected and arranged the stories, while Jacob, who was more interested in language and philology, was responsible for the scholarly work. Jacob was born in Hanau, Germany, in 1785. His father, who was educated in law and served as a town clerk, died when Jacob was young. His mother, Dorothea, struggled to pay the education of the children. With financial help from Dorothea's sister, Jacob and Wilhelm were sent to Kasel to attend the Lyzeum. Jacob then studied law at Marburg. He worked from 1816 to 1829 as a librarian at Kasel, where his brother served as a secretary. Between 1821 and 1822, the brothers raised extra money by collecting three volumes of folktales. With these publications they wanted to show that Germans shared a similar culture and to advocate the unification process of the small independent kingdoms and principalities. In 1829, the brothers moved to Gottingen, where Jacob became librarian and Wilhelm became assistant librarian. In 1835, Wilhelm was appointed professor, but they were dismissed two years later for protesting against the abrogation of the Hanover constitution by King Ernest Augustus. In 1840, the brothers accepted an invitation from the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV, to go to Berlin. There, as members of the Royal Academy of Sciences, they lectured at the university. In 1841 they became professors at the University of Berlin, and worked with their most ambitious enterprise, the Deutsches Worterbuch, a large German dictionary. Its first volume appeared in 1854. The work, which totaled sixteen volumes, was finished in the 1960s. The Grimms made major contributions in many fields, notably in the studies of heroic myth and of ancient religion and law. They worked very close, even after Wilhelm married in 1825. Jacob remained unmarried. Wilhelm died of infection in Berlin on December 16, 1859, and Jacob four years later on September 20, 1863. Megan Follows is a Canadian actress who comes from a showbiz family. She has done many commercials and has appeared theatrical productions of Romeo and Juliet, Seven Lears: The Pursuit of the Good, and others. She has won two Gemini Awards for her work. Barbara Rosenblat is a multi-award-winning voice actor for audiobooks. She has also appeared in film, television, and theater, both in London's West End and on Broadway. Georgia Lee Schultz is an ATC Seneca Award nominee for Best Leading Actress and has played the lead in Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre's productions of Alice In Wonderland, Snow White, and Cinderella.

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