Natalie Babbitt

Jack Plank started out to be a pirate. His shipmates all liked him, and their ship, the Avarice, was certainly very beautiful. But after a while it was clear that he wasn't much good at plundering. He just didn't have the knack for it. So what to do? Jack did the only thing he could do-- he went ashore to look for another line of work. The town was called Saltwash, and he had a lot of helpful advice from the people in Mrs. DelFresno's boardinghouse. Somehow, though, each career he looked into seemed to have something wrong with it. And every night at dinner in the boardinghouse, he tried to explain why. For who would want to work where there might be a troll, or the danger of getting a crab caught in your beard? Or what about a music-loving crocodile? There were other things, too, that ran against every suggestion and took the wind out of his sails.

Fairy godmothers are supposed to set things right, but Elsie's fairy godmother sometimes sets things wrong. When she changes one Elsie into eight, the results make a mess for everyone, from Elsie's cat right on up to the Mayor.

A sequel to The Devil's Storybook. The further exploits of the Devil in his own realm and in the world above are recounted in ten more tales.

Relates the history of a self-made man, his dreams, achievements, peculiarities, and his relationships with his twin daughters and others in the small circle of friends and relatives around him.

When eleven-year-old Jenny goes to stay with her widowed grandmother who lives by the seaside, she learns a great deal about the nature of love and the ways of the sea.

When a 15-year-old girl discovers that her neighbors have a spring with water that prevents people from growing old, she learns a lesson in the cycle of life.

The new tutor at Goody Hall is pleased with his job but can't help feeling there is something peculiar about the household.

With his mother's help, Mylo discovers a way to conquer his fear of the dark.

The poetic son of a briney Cape Cod fisherman saves his father and their craft by reciting an ode to a shark.

The wisdom of peace and the absurdity of fighting are demonstrated in seventeen stories and poems by outstanding authors of today such as Jean Fritz, Milton Meltzer, and Nancy Willard, illustrated by famous illustrators such as Paul Zelinsky, the Dillons, and Maurice Sendak.