"Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life...But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep...They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that...he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum"--P. [4] of cover.

This Applause edtiion allows the reader and student to look beyond the scholarly reading text to the more sensuous, more collaborative, more malleable performance text which emerges in conjunction with the commentary and notes. Readers and students are faced with real theatrical choices in each speech as the editors point out the challenges and opportunities to the actor and director at each juncture. Readers will not only discover an enlivened Shakespeare,...

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. .

Fern is a young farm girl who rescues the runt, Wilbur. Wilbur the pig is saved from certain death and Fern visits him every day at her Uncle Homer's farm. But it's Wilbur's friendship with Charlotte the spider that ultimately saves him from the "smoke house." Charlotte's talent for weaving praiseworthy words about Wilbur into her web turns the Zuckerman farm into a tourist attraction.

Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan, uses his skill at controlling natural forces to cause the shipwreck of his old opponents, forcing them to seek refuge on the island where he and his daughter Miranda have been living in exile, and setting the stage for Miranda to fall in love with Ferdinand, the prince of Naples. Includes explanatory notes, plot summaries, critical essay, and illustrations.

Great Expectations is at once a superbly constructed novel of spellbinding mastery and a profound examination of moral values. Here, some of Dickens's most memorable characters come to play their part in a story whose title itself reflects the deep irony that shaped Dickens's searching reappraisal of the Victorian middle class.

Hotshot rookie race car Lightning McQueen is living life in the fast lane until he hits a detour on his way to the most important race of his life. Stranded in Radiator Springs, a forgotten town on old Route 66, he meets a variety of quirky characters who help him discover that there's more to life than trophies and fame.

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character

Experience a fantastic world of breathtaking action in Disney's hilarious new movie CHICKEN LITTLE. It's the perfect family film, raves Scott Mantz of Access Hollywood. When the sky really is falling and sanity has flown the coop, who will rise to save the day? Together with his hysterical band of misfit friends, Chicken Little must hatch a plan to save the planet from alien invasion and prove that the world's biggest hero is a little chicken. Overflowing...

Taken from the gods as a newborn and adopted on earth, Hercules is just an awkward pillar of strength trying to fit in. What he wants most is to impress his father Zeus. When Hercules discovers Hades' sinister plot to take over Mount Olympus, he goes from zero to hero and, with the help of his pals Pegasus and Phil, discovers that real strength comes from the heart!