When Rebecca Rowena Randall goes to live with her spinster aunts in Riverboro, Rebecca's aunts find her to be more of a handful than they bargained for. But even more surprising than the transition of Rebecca into a well-mannered young lady are the effects that Rebecca has on her aunts' humdrum lives. Rebecca, with her wide dark eyes and spirit that no walls can contain, will change their lives -- and the lives of everyone she meets -- forever.

Mrs. Bird thought, as the Christmas music floated in upon her gentle sleep, that she had slipped into heaven with her new baby, and that angels were bidding them welcome. But the tiny bundle by her side stirred a little, though it was scarcely more than the ruffling of a feather; and she awoke, drew the baby closer, and listened to the voices outside brimming with joy:

"Carol, brothers, carol,
Carol joyfully,
Carol the good tidings,
Carol merrily "

"Why, my baby," whispered Mrs. Bird in soft surprise, "I had forgotten what day it was. You are a little Christmas child, and we will name you 'Carol' -- mother's little Christmas Carol "

Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923), author of such works as "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, " "Penelope's English Experiences, " and "A Village Stradivarius," was one of America's most popular writers of books for young people.

SUMMER MAGIC!

"When Captain Carey went on his long journey into the unknown and uncharted land, the rest of the Careys tried in vain for a few months to be still a family, and did not succeed at all. They clung as closely to one another as ever they could, but there was always a gap in the circle where father had been. The only thing to do was to remember father's pride and justify it, to recall his care for mother and take his place so far as might be; the only thing for all, as the months went on, was to be what mother called the three Bs -- brave, bright, and busy."

Can mother Nancy Carey find happy futures for her daughters Nancy and Kitty in turn-of-the-century Beulah, Maine?

Perhaps? But for certain, she finds some wonderful characters and sparkling moments of Gilded Age Girl-Power!

This heart-warming classic novel of a better time by the author of "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" was the basis for Disney's 1963 film "Summer Magic" with Hayley Mills.

FROEBEL'S GIFTS BY FATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN AND NCRA ARCHIBALD The i rue teacher is a student of human nature, and the student of human nature is the pupil of God. HORATIO STEEBINS BOSTON AND NEW YORK EOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY PEEPACE THE tliree little volumes on tLat Republic of Childhood, the kindergarten, of which this hand book, dealing with the gifts, forms the initial number, might well be called Chips from a Kin dergarten Workshop. They are the outcome of talks and conferences on Froebels educational principles with successive groups of earnest young women here, there, and everywhere, for fifteen years, and represent as much practical work at the bench as a carpenter could show in a similar length of time. They are the result of mutual give and take, of question and answer, of effort and experience, of the friction of minds against one another, of ideas struck out in the heat of argument, and of varied experience with many hundred little children of all nationalities and conditions. They are not theories, written in the seclusion of the study and if perchance they have the defects, so should they have the virtues, vi PREFACE too, of work corrected and revised at every step by the child in the midst. If It is objected that many things in them have been heard before, we can but say with Montaigne Truth and reason are common to every one, and are no more his who spake them first than his who spake them after. The various talks have been cut down here, enlarged there, condensed in one place, amplified in another, from year to year, as knowledge and experience have grown many of the ideas which they advocated in the beginning have been elimi nated, as being completely reversed by thepassage of time, and much new matter has been added as the kindergarten principle has developed. They are as much a growth as a coral reef, though the authors have little hope that they will be as enduring. The kindergarten of 1895 is not the kinder garten of 1880, for the science of education has made great strides in these past fifteen years. Many things which were held to be vital principles when we began our talks with kindergarten students, we now find were but lifeless methods after all. It is not that time has reversed the fundamental principles on which the kindergarten PBJSFACE vii rests, these are as true as trutli and as change less but the Interpretation of them has greatly changed and broadened with the passage of years, and many of the instrumentalities of education which Froebel devised are destined to further transformation in the future. For this reason, the last book on the kindergarten is sometimes the best book, since it naturally embodies the latest thought and discovery on the subject. These talks on the kindergarten have purposely been divested of a certain amount of technicality and detail, in the hope that they will thus reach not only kindergarten students, but the many mothers and teachers who really long to know what Froebels system of education is and what it aims to do. They will never of themselves make a kindergartner, and are not intended to do so but they certainly should shed some light on Froebel s theories, and establish a basis on which they can be worked out in the home and in the school. We shall attempt no defense of the kindergar ten here. It has passed the experimental stage It is no longer on trial for its life and no longer humbly begging, hat in hand, for a place to lay its head. As an educational idea, it is a recog viii PREFACE nized part of the great system of child-training and to say, in this year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, that one does not believe in the kindergarten is as if one said, I do not believe in electricity, or, I never saw much force in the law of gravitation...

Shirley Temple did a lot to make Rebecca famous when she won the world's heart in the movie we all remember. But the story is more than Temple, the film, or our memory of it: this is the tale of the little showgirl who, sent to the country to live with prim and proper relatives, is forbidden to do anything, well, showy.

But Rebecca has other ideas, of course, and you know she'll win over the hearts and minds of everyone who'll see her show. . . .

Certainly she won over Jack London. In 1904 he wrote to Wiggin herself: "May I thank you for Rebecca. . . ? I would have quested the wide world over to make her mine, only I was born too long ago and she was born but yesterday.... Why could she not have been my daughter? Why couldn't it have been I who bought the three hundred cakes of soap? Why, O, why?" And Mark Twain, too: he described "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" as "beautiful and warm and satisfying."

Eleven-year-old Rebecca Randall is quite a handful - and now she's leaving her beloved Sunnybrook Farm to live with her well-to-do elderly aunts and get an education. But they were expecting Rebecca's quiet, hard-working older sister instead. Can the bright-eyed and talkative girl win them over...especially her strict, rule-bound Aunt Miranda? Just as Rebecca's "grand spirit" charms everyone in the story, it will captivate readers, too. Abridged for easier reading and carefully rewritten, with "Classic Starts[trademark]", young readers can experience the wonder of timeless stories from an early age.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Few characters embody the spirit of Christmas more fully than Kate Douglas Wiggin's Carol Bird. This classic Christmas story by the author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm features a child as memorable and charitable as Dickens's Tiny Tim. Born on Christmas Day, Carol is the Bird family's special Christmas baby. As her tenth birthday approaches, declining health threatens young Carol's life. Her only concern, however, is for the happiness of the less fortunate neighbor children, for whom she plans an unforgettable holiday celebration. Since 1888 this bittersweet holiday classic has been cherished by generations of young readers, reminding them of the true nature of Christmas through a child's joyful and generous spirit.