Most Popular Books by Gillian Avery

Pressured by his father to leave school for a career he doesn''t want, a nineteenth-century Manchester boy runs away and gains a new perspective on his future.

When P. T. Barnum decides to take Jumbo to America, Aunt Louisa and the Oxford children band together to save the animal and begin The Elephant War of England.

Geïllustreerde geschiedenis van meisjessscholen in Engeland. Aandacht voor nonnenscholen, kostscholen, vriendschappen, godsdienst, discipline, crises en het onderwijzend personeel.

Because of her naughtiness, Ellen is denied the privilege of seeing the Queen with her class, but she determines to see her on her own anyway.

When her latest guardian dies, a twelve-year-old English girl is relieved when a distant cousin offers her a home in Italy.

Contrasts the reality with the literary portrayal of the social conditions and daily life of various classes of Victorian people.

A social history of nineteenth century England and the United States as reflected in the biographies, diaries, and letters of contemporary people.

A SLEEPY WELSH VILLAGE IS THE SETTING FOR A VICTORIAN MYSTERY THAT HAS BEEN HIDDEN FOR YEARS.

A story set in Victorian times, of Mouldy, so called because her hair was like mouldy hay, who was dreamer and who thought how marvellous it would be if she could find a poor little orphan , so that she could take him home and mum could look after him. Her opportunity came on a school outing to a pantomime in Oxford, where she noticed a ragged boy outside the theatre and managed to smuggle him onto the train home and when she got home her mother was horrified. To bring home an orphan boy meant another mouth to feed and for Mouldy''s family, where there was not much money, this was bound to cause trouble.

Perforning fleas and Victorian bathrooms, curious games and extraordinary adventures, mysterious characters and outlandish fashions, are included in this miscellany. The author selected her material from old magazines, comics, catalogues and reminiscences, most of which she found in the Johnson Collection, now housed in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

In Behold the Child, Gillian Avery offers an engaging account of children''s literature in America from colonial times to the early twentieth century. Exploring a variety of social, cultural, and practical forces, Avery shows how the literature of the old world influenced that of the new and describes the emergence of uniquely American styles and themes in children''s books. Her topics include the early days of colonial publishing, the defenders and detractors of Mother Goose, the influence of Sunday schools and tract societies, the "chaste eroticism" of romantic fiction for young readers, and changing notions of American heroes and heroines.

Twelve-year-old Margaret hardly knows whether to look forward to a chance to mingle with the famous at her cousins'' country home, or dread the mess her brothers'' mischief will make of the situation.