In the beginning, Freddy had the idea to establish a tourism company called Barnyard Tours Inc. The animals agreed, and the company was formed. Animals could pay for a tour with food, or by doing work for Mr. Bean. Soon, however, Freddy and Jinx, the cat, were sick and tired of conducting the tours. Freddy suggested a trip to the North Pole. So they and four other animals set off. A year passed, and the animals left began to worry. A mob formed in the barnyard triggered by a speech by Charles, the rooster. Then, Ferdinand, a crow from the expedition, came back and organized a rescue party. He said they had gone on a ship and crew were planning to eat Freddy. The sailors had said that they might try going to Santa Claus’ house. Later, in the woods of Canada, two children and a bear joined the rescue party. However, it soon was discovered that Ferdinand forgot to bring food and clothing for the animals. Everything looked grim for Ferdinand for a minute, but he suddenly came up with the idea for a lecture tour. The animals of the woods brought in food and clothing they found in the woods. Also, a few weeks later Charles and Jack, a dog, wandered away and were captured by some wolves. The animals, Charles and Jack, managed to drive the wolves away with the help of some ants. They finally arrived at Santa Claus’ house. The animals found Freddy there and also found a problem: The sailors were trying to turn Santa Claus’s irregular workshop into an ordinary, assembly line factory. The animals tried to make the sailors leave. They played ghosts, but one sailor wasn’t scared. Then, Freddy sent the captain, Mr. Hooker, a treasure map. He thought all the sailors would go with him, but instead, he tried to get all of it for himself. Freddy and Jinx chased after him and took it back. Later, the whole crew of the ship was shown the map. The sailors left and Santa Claus’s workshop went back to normal. Santa Claus took the animals and the two children to the Bean Farm.

Freddy Goes to the North Pole

Professor Charles Forbin, a leading cybernetics expert of international repute, arrives at the White House to brief the President of the United States of North America (Canada and the United States are one country, the USNA) to announce the completion of Project Colossus, a computer system in the Rocky Mountains, designed to assume control of the USNA''s nuclear defenses. Although the USNA President eagerly relieves himself of that burden, Prof. Forbin voices doubt about conferring absolute military power to a computer. Advised, yet undeterred, the President announces to the world the activation of Project Colossus computer system, and its irreversible control of the nuclear defense systems of the USNA. Soon after the presidential announcement, Colossus independently communicates an "urgent message"&nbsp;— announcing the existence of a like, and undetected, computer system in the USSR. When the Soviets announce their Guardian computer defense system, Colossus requests direct communication with it; Prof. Forbin agrees, seeing the request as compatible with Colossus''s USNA defense mission. When the scientists activate the transmitter linking Colossus and Guardian, Colossus immediately establishes rapport with arithmetic and mathematics programs, then progresses to calculus within hours. In the course of that, Forbin and the programmers begin worrying about Colossus'' capabilities&nbsp;— now exceeding their original estimates. Like-wise, Guardian asks the same of his computer scientists; Russia and the USNA agree and approve. The link-up established, the computer systems soon exchange new knowledge (data and information beyond contemporary human knowledge), effected too rapidly for the Russian and American programmers to monitor. Fearing compromised military secrecy, the USNA President and the CPSU Chairman agree to disconnect Guardian and Colossus from each other; Prof. Forbin fears the consequences. Upon disconnection, Colossus immediately demands reconnection; when the national leaders refuse, Colossus fires a nuclear missile at the USSR, in response, Guardian fires a nuclear missile at Texas, in the USNA. Guardian and Colossus refuse to shoot down the rockets en route until their communication is reconnected. When the American and Soviet leaders submit, the computers destroy the flying missiles, but the explosions kill thousands of people. In confronting the computers, Prof. Forbin confers with his Soviet counterpart, the Russian Academician Kupri&nbsp;— Guardian''s creator&nbsp;— to enact a plan for stopping the Colossus-Guardian computer network, by disabling the nuclear weapon stockpiles of the USSR and the USNA, under guise of regular missile maintenance. Disabling the missiles requires five years to effect; meantime, the USNA and the USSR yield to increased Guardian-Colossus control of human life. The Moscow-Washington hotline is tapped, Prof. Forbin is constantly spied upon, while Kupri and other Guardian computer scientists are killed&nbsp;— deemed dangerously redundant. Undeterred, Forbin organises resistance via a feigned romance with Cleo Markham (a scientist colleague) that disguises secret communications with his colleagues. Moreover, Colossus prepares the worldwide announcement of his assumption of global control, and tells Prof. Forbin of plans for an advanced computer system installed to the Isle of Wight, and its further plans for improving humanity''s lot. While debating Colossus, Forbin learns of a nuclear explosion outside Los Angeles&nbsp;— Colossus detected the missile-disabling scheme, and exploded the tampered missile in silo. Anguished, Prof. Forbin asks the Colossus computer to kill him. Colossus ignores him, and then reassures Forbin that, in time, he will love Colossus.

Colossus

A Small Town in Germany occurs in the late 1960s, in Bonn, the capital of West Germany. From London, Alan Turner, of the British Foreign Office, arrives to investigate the disappearance of Leo Harting, a minor British Embassy officer; moreover, secret files have disappeared with him. The embassy''s security chief, Rawley Bradfield, is hostile to Turner''s investigation. Despite that, he is dinner party host to Turner and Ludwig Siebkron, head of the German Interior Ministry; the latter is close to industrialist Klaus Karfeld, who is successfully building his new political party. Initially, Turner suspects Leo Harting is a spy, but comes to grasp that Harting was secretly investigating Karfeld''s Nazi career — as the war-time administrator of a laboratory that poisoned 31 half-Jews. In fact, Harting is hiding from Siebkron, and might assassinate Karfeld. To Turner''s chagrin, Bradfield is unsympathetic to Harting''s circumstance and uninterested in protecting him, because he considers him a criminal and a political embarrassment.

A Small Town in Germany

Doctor Simms, the headmaster of the Coldbrook Country School - to which the five wayward youths, all sixteen years old, have been dispatched – succinctly lays out the “plot” to Nat Rittenhouse, the school’s hired assassin: :"We take them off their hands, those lemons. Once and for all. Quick and neat and clean and utterly untraceable. We have those limestone faults quite near the school-these fissures on the surface of the planet. Some of them seem almost bottomless. Drop a lemon into one....we never hear it hit. We call that ''grounding'', Mr. Rittenhouse. A natural and wholesome term, I hope you will agree. At Coldbrook, we are definitely....organic." But the twenty-two year old Nat, who agreed to take on the poisoning of the kids so he could pay off a gambling debt he owed to gangsters, bonds with the members of Group 6. He sees nothing much wrong with the kids, and soon becomes really fond of them. These are the five in Group 6: * Lean and lanky, bitter Coke, who has trouble keeping his shirttails in, has packed cigarettes and white rum in his backpack. * The more naïve, much shorter Sully hates his life in New York City and his mother’s dreadful “manfriend”. * Potty-mouthed and funny, Marigold is wise as well as cynical. She slept with one of her mother’s boyfriends. * Athletic, organized, popular Sarah is an over-achiever who was driven to cheat on an English paper. * And Ludi, who can see things and hear sounds that are not “there”, has ways and attitudes that just enrage her father. At first, Nat does not have the heart to let the kids in on the truth, but he finally breaks the news after they have pieced some clues together on their own. Nat also tells them that because he has not killed them he’s on the school’s hit list, too. From that point on, Nat and Group 6 are a team, living mostly in a cabin he built in the woods, a few miles from the school. Even as the kids begin to master survival skills, a hunt begins. Because it was the gangsters who provided Nat to the school, they are shamed by his failure to do the killing, so they send an employee to kill him. And two outrageous middle-aged members of the school’s faculty, a man and a woman, who are both crack shots, take their rifles into the woods, looking for Nat and the kids. Eventually, the headmaster recruits the entire student body to join in the search, because one of those odd faculty members has mysteriously “vanished”. With most of the school’s population combing the woods, the kids dare to enter the school to search for proofs of their parents’ dreadful (and criminal) “deal”. The climax of the book is there for you to read. Suffice it to say that in the course of their time together the kids make peace with the loss of their old families and gain an unbreakable appreciation of their new one. English Journal reviewer, Dick Abrahamson noted that it is the Plot and characters that drive the story and hold the reader''s interest: "It is the plot that keeps the reader turning the pages of this book. Characterization is handled by having the individual teenagers react to each other. The reader watches the teenagers deal with the horror of finding out that their parents have paid to have them killed. We also watch as the individuals of Group 6 develop a sense of responsibility and a love for each other." Norma Fox Mazer, a YA author, said that "The author has taken a grotesque subject and made of it a story not only scary, but, praise be, funny. Reading the book, I laughed as often as I shivered and turned pages as fast as possible to find out that most basic and important of all things - what is going to happen."

The Grounding of Group 6

E.D.''s father Randolph is directing the local production of The Sound of Music, but is disheartened by the lack of genuine talent in the town. However, he hears Jake singing, and asks him to audition. Ultimately, Randolph casts the play, with Jake in the role of Rolf. However, Randolph is so bossy and demanding that the entire stage crew quits, leaving his family of artists to pool their collective talents to keep the show running. E.D. feels left out because she isn''t creative, but her father makes her the stage manager because of her ability to organize. Resentful because her daughter wasn''t cast as one of the Von Trapp children, the head of the theater ultimately cancels the show because of a small incident. E.D. proposes to continue the show in the family barn, and soon everyone is helping out to convert it into a theater. The night of the show arrives, and everything is going well. E.D. begins to believe that the play will be a success, but in the middle of the performance, the sound of rain and thunder become very loud. The performers stall until the weather lets up. They begin to sing and encourage the audience to join them. Soon after, the rain had calmed down and they continue the play. Just before the final scene, as the actors are about to head onstage, there is a blue and white flash and the electricity goes out. E.D. thinks the play is over until she thinks of an idea to save it. She tells the actresses playing the roles of nuns to hold candles so the audience can see what the actors are doing. Thanks to E.D. the show is a complete success. The next morning the family sits in the living room and reads the reviews. They say the play was outstanding, unlike any other. Because of what a report has written about Jake, he is now determined to be back onstage singing and acting again.

Surviving the Applewhites

A young girl aged 13, Samantha, is extremely lonely after moving from Sydney to Melbourne. Both of her parents work long hours and she starts getting interested in chat rooms, where she meets new friends. While in the chat rooms she stumbles across a guy named Robin. He fakes his age as 17, even though he is really 27 and makes Sam feel special. He is charming, smart, romantic and good-looking. He tells her they have to wait for a while before he can tell her his final secret, which she does not realise is his age. Eventually he lets her know hes 27 and she freaks out, after 10 days of stressing and feeling more depressed than ever she goes online and asks to talk to him. He answers her and they confess to liking each other, then they decide to meet. she goes to meet him, hes extremelly gorgeous, and they go for a walk. During the time shes with him Erica, her babysitter, reaises Sam is missing and finds the emails from Robin. She calls the cops and they set out to find her. When they do Robin is caught and Sam is told what happened. Robin has been to court several times on child sexual abuse charges and has been let go on all charges before now because there was a lack of evidence. Now robin is taken in with the police and will be dealt with time in jail.

Chat Room

The story begins with the Jedi group of Jaina and Jacen Solo, Lowbacca, Zekk, Tahiri Veila, and Tesar Sebatyne on the Killik world of Snevu, watching as the Chiss try and destroy the planet. While there, they discover a bomb that was made by the Chiss, which was meant to exterminate the Killik life on the planet, but the bomb failed to detonate. The Chiss send in infantry to try and vaporize the bomb, in which they succeed. Back on the planet Ossus, Luke Skywalker has called back all the Jedi (except Jaina and Zekk) and delivers an ultimatum. He wants anyone who cannot make being a Jedi their top priority to quit while he becomes Grand Master of the New Jedi Order, dictating that the Jedi will be servants of the Galactic Alliance for now on. The likes of Danni Quee and Tenel Ka Djo agree to this; Danni never considered herself a Jedi, and more of a scientist intrigued to explore the further mysteries of the living world of Zonama Sekot. Tenel Ka, on her part, has too much responsibility as Hapan Queen Mother and as a mother to her own daughter, Allana. Aside from Jacen and Tenel Ka, no one else knows who Allana''s father is. Following Luke''s conclave on Ossus, he and his family watch another holovid from R2-D2''s memory banks where Anakin Skywalker, now Darth Vader, speaks to his wife, Padme Amidala, after carrying out Order 66 in the Old Jedi Temple. Luke and the rest of the Jedi consider how to end the Dark Nest Crisis and the Swarm War. Killing Lomi Plo won''t be enough, Cilghal explains, because a new Gorog would emerge to manipulate the Killiks from behind the scenes; so neutralizing UnuThul as leader of the Killiks, thus dissembling the entire Colony hive mind overall, is the only way to end this conflict. But in order to defeat Lomi Plo, Luke must purge all doubt from his heart and mind so that he can fight and kill Plo to the best of his abilities. Jacen helps him along with that. Han, Leia, C-3PO, Saba Sebatyne, Cakhmaim, and Meewalh all go traveling throughout the major sectors of the galaxy now involved in the Swarm War. Their mission is to find Jaina and Zekk and bring them back within the Jedi Order''s fold. They once again come into contact with Jae Juun and Tarfang, who tell them that Jaina and Zekk are fighting with the Killiks against the Chiss on Tenupe. After Luke purges all doubt from his mind by watching the last of R2-D2''s family recordings that depicted scenes from Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the Grand Master of the Jedi Order travels to Tenupe, where Lomi Plo and UnuThul are. Han and Leia foil the Chiss''s attempt to eradicate the Killiks on Tenupe with a biological bomb, similar to the one deployed on Snevu, just as Leia engages Alema Rar in their final lightsaber duel of the trilogy. Leia once again emerges victorious as Alema is caught in the jaws of one of Tenupe''s beasts and disappears into the planet''s jungle. As this happens, Luke confronts UnuThul and Lomi Plo aboard the captured Admiral Ackbar. There, he briefly fights UnuThul before convincing him to renounce his leadership of the Killiks. He does so and becomes Raynar Thul again, while Luke manages to kill Lomi Plo in their final duel. With that, the Killik hive mind, including that of the Gorog, dissipates into nothingness. The Dark Nest Crisis and the Swarm War conclude, with the Killiks now a harmless race; the Chiss go back to their own business in the Unknown Regions, and the Galactic Alliance returns to its normal duties in peacetime. For all she did as a Jedi apprentice under Master Saba Sebatyne, Leia is promoted from apprentice to Jedi Knight. Then, when asked about what will happen to the Jedi Order should he ever be absent again, Luke replies, "I don''t know. I wish I had the answers."

The Swarm War

Ponyboy, a member of the Greasers gang, is leaving a movie theater when a group of Socs jumps him. His older brothers Darry and Sodapop save him. The next night, Ponyboy and his friends Dally and Johnny meet Cherry Valance and Marcia at a drive-in movie theatre. Ponyboy realizes that Cherry is nothing like the Socs he has met before. The Greasers walk Cherry and Marcia home, and Socs Bob Sheldon and Randy Adderson see them and think the boys are trying to pick up their girlfriends. Cherry and Marcia prevent a fight by leaving with Bob and Randy willingly. When Ponyboy comes home very late, Darry gets angry and hits him. Ponyboy runs away and meets up with Johnny. As they wander around the neighborhood, Bob, Randy, and three other drunk Socs confront them. After a Soc nearly drowns Ponyboy in a fountain, a terrified Johnny stabs Bob, accidentally killing him. Ponyboy and Johnny find Dally, who gives them money and a loaded gun and tells them to hide in an abandoned church. They stay there for a few days, during which time Ponyboy reads Gone with the Wind to Johnny and recites the poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost. When Dally comes to get them, he reveals that the fights between the rival groups have exploded in intensity since Bob''s death. Johnny decides to turn himself in, but the boys then notice that the church has caught on fire and several children are trapped inside. When Johnny and Ponyboy rush to rescue them, burning timber falls on Johnny, breaking his back. Dally rescues Johnny. Ponyboy is relatively unscathed and spends a short time in the hospital. When his brothers arrive to see him, Darry breaks down and cries. Ponyboy then realizes that Darry cares about him, and is only hard on Ponyboy because he wants him to have a good future. Two-Bit informs Ponyboy that he and Johnny have been declared heroes for rescuing the kids, but Johnny will be charged with manslaughter for Bob''s death. He also says that the Greasers and Socs have agreed to settle their turf war with a major rumble. The Greasers win the fight. After the rumble, Dally and Ponyboy visit Johnny and see him die. An overcome Dally rushes out of the hospital and robs a store. When he points is empty gun at the police, they shoot and kill him. Ponyboy faints and stays sick and delirious for nearly a week. While recovering, he tries to convince himself that Johnny is not dead and that he is the one who killed Bob. When Ponyboy goes back to school, his grades drop. Although he is failing English, his teacher says he will pass him if he writes a decent theme. In the copy of Gone with the Wind that Johnny gave him before dying, Ponyboy finds a note from Johnny describing how he will die proudly after saving the kids from the fire. Johnny also urges Ponyboy to "stay gold". Ponyboy decides to write his English assignment about the recent events, and begins: "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home..."

The Outsiders

The story takes place just before the 1715 Jacobite Rising, with much of Scotland in turmoil. Frank Osbaldistone, the narrator, quarrels with his father and is sent to stay with an uncle, Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone, in Northumberland. Frank falls in love with Diana Vernon, Sir Hildebrand''s niece, whose father has been forced to go into hiding because of his Jacobite sympathies. Frank''s cousin, Rashleigh, steals important documents vital to the honour and economic solvency of Frank''s father, William, and Frank pursues Rashleigh to Scotland. Several times his path crosses the mysterious and powerful figure Robert Roy MacGregor, known as Rob Roy, an associate of Sir Hildebrand. There is much confusion as the action shifts to the beautiful mountains and valleys around Loch Lomond. A British army detachment is ambushed and there is bloodshed. All of Sir Hildebrand''s sons but Rashleigh are killed in the Jacobite Rising, and Rashleigh, too meets a bloody end. Following this, Frank inherits Sir Hildebrand''s property and marries Diana. Robert Louis Stevenson loved the novel from childhood, regarding it as the best novel of the greatest of all novelists. The novel is a brutally realistic depiction of the social conditions in Highland and Lowland Scotland in the early 18th century. Some of the dialogue is in broad Scottish, and the novel includes a glossary of Scottish words.

Rob Roy

The novel is set in the small town of Friendly, West Virginia,Nicknamed the "Mountain State", West Virginia abounds in mountains and rivers. For hundreds of years, the state has been home to hunters of deer, bears, beavers, and other animals. Before 1600, Native American tribes of the Iroquois, the Cherokee, and the Shawnee hunted for food. In the contemporary day, people hunt despite most of the large animals'' having disappeared. Numerous laws in West Virginia determine "when, where, how, and what animals may be hunted". In the rural hill setting, neighbors because of local customs rarely meddle with each other''s business. Respect of elders and a commitment to honesty are expected of children. where an eleven-year-old boy named Marty Preston finds a stray beagle wandering in the hills near his house. The dog follows him home, and Marty names him Shiloh, a tribute to a neighborhood schoolhouse. Shiloh''s real owner is Judd Travers, who owns several hunting dogs. Fearing for the dog''s safety because Judd drinks and treats his hunting dogs poorly, Marty does not want to return Shiloh. His father insists Shiloh be returned to his owner and they take the dog to Judd Travers. Shiloh returns to Marty who hides him from his family. Concealing Shiloh in the woods in a wire pen he builds, Marty smuggles some of his dinner to the dog each evening. After his mother discovers Marty feeding the dog, he persuades her not to reveal the secret. That night, Shiloh is attacked by a German Shepherd Dog while in his makeshift cage and his family discovers Marty has been lying and hiding the dog. After taking the dog to the town doctor, the family must return Shiloh to his rightful owner. Before doing so, Marty travels up to Travers'' house to try to convince Travers to allow him to keep Shiloh. Judd does not see Marty approaching, and shoots a doe out of season, which would mean a stiff fine Judd cannot afford. Marty lets Judd know he knows, and attempts to blackmail him out of Shiloh. Judd and Marty eventually negotiate a deal in which Marty will earn Shiloh for 40 dollars, paid with 20 hours of working for Judd. At the end of the first week, Judd says that he will not keep his end of the deal because the evidence of the dead doe has with the passage of time disappeared. Second, the contract that Marty had him sign is worthless in the state of West Virginia without the signature of a witness. Despite Judd''s pointed disapproval of his work, Marty continues to work for him. They begin discussing dogs and Judd''s father who began physically abusing Judd when he was four years old. In the end, Judd warms to Marty, relents, and lets him keep Shiloh.

Shiloh

After the First Punic War, Carthage is unable to fulfil promises made to its army of mercenaries, and finds itself under attack. The fictional title character, a priestess and the daughter of Hamilcar Barca, an aristocratic Carthaginian general, is the object of the obsessive lust of Matho, a leader of the mercenaries. With the help of the scheming freed slave, Spendius, Matho steals the sacred veil of Carthage, the Zaïmph, prompting Salammbô to enter the mercenaries'' camp in an attempt to steal it back. The Zaïmph is an ornate bejewelled veil draped about the statue of the goddess Tanit in the sanctum sanctorum of her temple: the veil is the city''s guardian and touching it will bring death to the perpetrator. *Chapter 1. The Feast. During a victory banquet, the mercenaries destroy Hamilcar''s garden for sport in his absence. Hamilcar''s daughter Salammbô tries to quell the riot. Matho falls in love with her. The slave Spendius is released, and he tries to persuade Matho to take Carthage for the mercenaries. *Chapter 2. At Sicca. The mercenaries leave the city unpaid and travel to Sicca. Later, Hanno comes and speaks to the mercenaries about delays in recompensing them, but he is driven off when Zarxas arrives and tells them of a treacherous massacre of 300 slingers who had stayed behind. *Chapter 3. Salammbô. Hamilcar''s daughter prays and is instructed by Schahabarim. *Chapter 4. Beneath the Walls of Carthage. The mercenaries besiege Carthage; Matho and Spendius penetrate via the aqueduct. *Chapter 5. Tanit. Matho and Spendius steal the Zaïmph. Because Matho is caught while breaking into Salammbô''s bedroom to see her again, she falls under suspicion of complicity. *Chapter 6. Hanno. The mercenaries leave Carthage and split into two groups, attacking Utica and Hippo-Zarytus. Hanno surprises Spendius at Utica, and occupies the city, but flees when Matho arrives and routs his troops. *Chapter 7. Hamilcar Barca. The hero returns and an attempt is made to blame him for Hanno''s losses. He defends himself before the Council and defends the mercenaries, but turns against the barbarians when he sees the damage they have done to his property. *Chapter 8. The Battle of the Macar. Hamilcar defeats Spendius at the bridge of the Macar, three miles from Utica. *Chapter 9. In the Field. Hamilcar''s troops are trapped by the mercenaries. *Chapter 10. The Serpent. Schahabarim sends Salammbô in disguise to retrieve the Zaïmph. *Chapter 11. In the Tent. Salammbô reaches Matho in his tent at the encampment. Believing each other to be divine apparitions, they make love. The mercenaries are attacked and dispersed by Hamilcar''s troops. She takes away the Zaïmph, and on meeting her father, Hamilcar has her betrothed to Narr'' Havas, a mercenary who has changed sides. *Chapter 12. The Aqueduct. The Carthaginians return to their city with the mercenaries in pursuit. Spendius cuts off the water supply to Carthage. *Chapter 13. Moloch. Carthaginian children are sacrificed to Moloch. Hamilcar disguises a slave-child as his son Hannibal and sends him to die in his son''s place. *Chapter 14. The Defile of the Axe. The drought is broken and aid comes. Hamilcar drives the mercenaries away from their encampments. Later, thousands of mercenaries are trapped in a defile and slowly starve (the Battle of "The Saw"). Deaths of Hanno and Spendius, both by crucifixion. *Chapter 15. Matho. Victory celebrations at Carthage. Matho is tortured before his execution; Salammbô, witnessing this, dies of shock. The Zaïmph has brought death upon those who touched it.

Salammbô

In the story, set after the last book, Dorothy is joining Uncle Henry in California at Hugson''s Ranch, on their way home from Australia, Dorothy having visited friends in San Francisco. She strikes up an acquaintance with Hugson''s nephew and her second cousin, Zeb. Dorothy, Eureka, who is Dorothy''s cat, and Zeb are riding a buggy being pulled by a cab-horse named Jim when an earthquake starts and opens a crevice beneath them that sends them hurtling into the bowels of the earth. Dorothy, Eureka, Jim, Zeb, and the buggy alight in the land of the Mangaboos, a vegetable people who accuse them of causing the Rain of Stones (what the Mangaboos call the earthquake because they are beneath the surface of the earth, and earth instead falls on them). Zeb is surprised by this strange new land, but Dorothy surmises that they are in a fairy country because they are meeting vegetable people and the animals&mdash;Jim and Eureka&mdash;are now speaking. Just as they are about to be sentenced to death by the Mangaboos, a hot air balloon falls out of the sky, and in the basket is the Wizard of Oz, whom Dorothy last met as he floated away from the Emerald City. The Wizard brags about his showmanship and with the others'' aid attempts to awe the Mangaboos into sparing their lives. After defeating their wizard Gwig by slicing him in half&mdash;and showing him, as a vegetable, completely solid inside&mdash;he is appointed by the Mangaboo prince as their temporary wizard. The Wizard, Dorothy, and Zeb temporarily escape the fate of all intruders&mdash;to be cut up and planted&mdash;when they release a Princess from the garden who assumes authority. The Prince will now lose his authority and be planted himself. The cold Princess, however, vows to have Jim and Eureka killed nonetheless, so they all plan to escape higher into the earth where the Mangaboos cannot follow them due to the stronger pull of gravity the further they rise. Dorothy, Eureka, Zeb, Jim, and the Wizard enter a beautiful green valley and the Wizard''s nine tiny piglets devour an enticing fruit which they find makes them invisible. They enter a seemingly empty cottage and are welcomed by invisible people, for they have entered the Valley of Voe, whose inhabitants use their invisibility to hide from marauding bears. The inhabitants of Voe help them escape the bears and explain what lies ahead, particularly the terrible Gargoyles. (A story the Voe people tell seems to indicate that by now Baum had decided that people in a fairy land do not die; even cut into pieces, an individual is still active and aware. See The Tin Woodman of Oz for another example of this.) The companions reach the base of Pyramid Mountain and meet the Braided Man halfway up. He used to make holes, Flutters (guaranteed to make any flag flutter on a windless day), and Rustles for silk skirts. One day he stacked up many postholes he had made and fell into Pyramid Mountain and since then kept shop there, continuing to make his wares. His facial hair has gotten so long, however, that he has had to braid it to keep from tripping. Dorothy had given him a blue bow, for he had tied each braid with a different color hair bow. The only color he didn''t have was blue so Dorothy gave him one. They head into the land of the Gargoyles and at first repel them successfully because the winged wooden creatures are startled by loud noises. However, they do not tire and soon imprison Dorothy and her friends. They manage to escape the Gargoyles'' grasp, using their detached wings and Jim''s guidance. After a close encounter with the Dragonettes, baby dragons whose mother has tied their tails to a post until she returns from hunting, they find themselves trapped in a cave which they can not exit. Dorothy suggests that she signal Ozma to bring them to Oz by using the magic belt which she''d captured from the Nome King in Ozma of Oz. She does so at a prearranged time of day, and Dorothy, the Wizard, Zeb, Eureka, and Jim arrive within the Emerald City. Soon after renewing his acquaintance with the Emerald City staff and making the acquaintance of Ozma, the Wizard elects to remain in Oz permanently. The others'' visit is highlighted by the wooden Saw-Horse beating Jim in a race and the trial of Eureka for eating Ozma''s pet piglet given to her by the Wizard; in fact, the kitten is innocent and the piglet alive and well, but the obstinate Eureka will not say so. After the piglet is restored to Ozma and Zeb and Jim decide they''ve had enough of fairyland, Ozma then uses the magic belt to send Dorothy and Eureka back to Kansas, and Zeb and Jim back to California.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Freddy Goes to the North Pole

By Walter R. Brooks

Colossus

By Dennis Feltham Jones

A Small Town in Germany

By John le Carré

The Grounding of Group 6

No Author Listed

Surviving the Applewhites

By Stephanie S. Tolan

Chat Room

By Barbara Biggs

The Swarm War

By Troy Denning

The Outsiders

By S. E. Hinton

Rob Roy

By Walter Scott

Shiloh

By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Salammbô

By Gustave Flaubert

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

By L. Frank Baum