What do we love about fairy tales? How do they, along with Narnian and other fantasy stories, speak to us at any age? In the fictional voice of a grandmother writing to her granddaughter over the first twenty-five years of her life, Letters to Annie: A Grandmother’s Dreams of Fairy Tale Princesses, Princes, & Happily Ever After inspires us to live into our deepest life questions. With a wealth of spiritual and literary insights, these thirty-three letters leave us richer and more able to navigate the challenges, sorrows, and joys of life with wisdom, courage, and love.

Annie Leake Tuttle was born in Nova Scotia in 1839 and died there in 1934, yet her search for education and self-support took her far afield. During her life she filled important positions from Newfoundland to British Columbia, as an educator of teachers and as the matron of a Methodist rescue home for Chinese immigrant women who had worked as prostitutes. Her autobiography paints a vivid picture of the joys and hardships of growing up on a pioneer farm and documents her spiritual and educational quests and conquests. In addition, readers see the independence and strength of character that enable Annie Tuttle to take on family obligations that fall to an unmarried daughter and sister, and to meet the challenges of step-motherhood, the adjustments of aging and ultimately the prospect of death. Marilyn Färdig Whiteley gently frames Tuttle’s autobiography by placing it into social and historical context. She delineates the way in which Annie claimed her identity as she began to record her life story and demonstrates how her evangelical faith enabled her to show, in her narrative, that “One above” was always “working for the best,” helping her in the work she was intended to do. In The Life of Annie Leake Tuttle: Working for the Best, we find a rich collection of the writings of an articulate woman who shows herself to be both ordinary and extraordinary. It is a fascinating chronicle of the spiritual and secular life of an independent and spirited woman in early Canada.

Although he never achieved the renown of Ulysses S. Grant or Robert E. Lee, General Alexander Hays was one of the great military men of the Civil War. Born July 8, 1819, in Franklin, Pennsylvania, Hays graduated from West Point and served with distinction during the Mexican War. When the Civil War began a few years later, it was no surprise that Hays immediately volunteered and was given the initial rank of colonel with a later meritorious promotion to general. Hays was also known for his concern for his men, a fact that no doubt contributed to the acclaim which he received after his death on May 5, 1864, at the age of 44. From West Point to the Civil War, this biography takes a look at Hays's life, concentrating--with good cause--on his military career. Personal correspondence and contemporary sources are used to complete the picture of a complex man, devoted husband and father, and gifted and dedicated soldier.

This is a collection of all 12 'Action Annie' stories. Annie is an imaginative and very active seven-year-old whose mind and body is always on the go. She never seems to stop. Even as she sleeps, she is dreaming about the things she plans to do tomorrow. Annie is always thinking up new ideas and inventing things. There's a little bit of Annie in every child. Are you like Annie in any of her ways?

Annie O'Donnell left her native Galway for America in 1898, one of 15,175 Irish women who left that year; they far outnumbered the men, and most of them went into domestic service. She became friends with Jim Phelan on the ship to Philadelphia. He was a 22-year-old farmer from Co. Kilkenny who had run away from home during Sunday mass to join his uncle, a tilesetter in Indianapolis. Annie went to work as a children's nurse for the W. L. Mellon family of Pittsburgh. Her letters to Jim Phelan, published here for the first time, are a unique contribution to the growing literature on women's emigration: they provide a sustained three-year narrative of her life as a children's nurse. Annie O'Donnell had been well educated in Ireland and her letters are lively and enjoyable to read. Maureen Murphy has provided an introduction and notes to the letters.

"What is breathtakingly shown here, through accurate, cross-hatched watercolor paintings; excerpts from Sullivan’s correspondence to her former teacher; and concise and poetic language, is the woman’s patience and belief in the intelligence of her student to grasp the concepts of language," praised School Library Journal in a starred review. Author Deborah Hopkinson and illustrator Raul Colón present the story of Helen Keller in a fresh and original way that is perfect for young children. Focusing on the relationship between Helen and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, the book is interspersed with excerpts of Annie's letters home, written as she struggled with her angry, wild pupil. But slowly, with devotion and determination, Annie teaches Helen finger spelling and braille, letters, and sentences. As Helen comes to understand language and starts to communicate, she connects for the first time with her family and the world around her. The lyrical text and exquisite art will make this fascinating story a favorite with young readers. Children will also enjoy learning the Braille alphabet, which is embossed on the back cover of the jacket.

An engineer meets many females as he tackles challenging engineering assignments throughout the world, but is almost subdued by a relentless female who suffers mental illness which she claims was caused by his unrequited love.