Best Selling Books by Philippa Pearce

"Tom is not prepared for what is about to happen when he hears the grandfather clock strike thirteen. Outside the back door is a garden, which everyone tells him does not exist."--Page 4 de la couverture.

This literacy programme for juniors offers fiction, poetry and non-fiction reading and writing materials for shared, guided and group reading and writing, and teaching materials. "Comets" should capture the imagination of more able pupils, and software integrates ICT with literacy teaching.

Ben longed for a dog. His grandfather had promised him a dog for his birthday, but the promise was kept in an unusual way.

Two English boys, David and Adam, spend the summer canoeing on the River Say and, with just an old riddle for a clue, try to find a treasure hidden along its banks by one of Adam''s ancestors.

When a tombstone with her father''s name suddenly disappears from the graveyard, Kate, an English school girl, witnesses the unraveling of a mystery surrounding the death of her father.

A collection of thirty-seven stories by the author previously published in magazines or books, including tales of animals, ghosts, and everyday life.

What is it like to be a fly on the wall in our neighbours'' houses? With these eight gently humorous stories, Philippa Pearce lifts the lid from the neighbours'' houses and shows us the lives within.

Bet reads a passage from a book in a meadow and discovers a mole is listening. The mole is 300 years old and able to speak ; he is the Little Gentleman in Black Velvet.

Clopinet, lame son of Normandy peasants in the late 18th century, escapes from his apprenticeship to a cruel tailor, and lives a Robinson Crusoe life on the wild cliffs. His affinity with the seabirds and his careful observation of them lead to him becoming a famous ornithologist.

For saving the life of one of the green people, Jack is blessed with the love and knowledge of a squirrel-wife.

Sid, Peggy and Amy adore the two gerbils, Bubble and Squeak, but their mother detests them. A major family battle results, and it''s clear life is never going to be quite the same again. But after a near fatal encounter between Bubble and Ginger the cat, Mrs Sparrow begins to see that life with 2 gerbils might not be so bad after all.

Set before the first First World War, this book tells the story of Tom, Laura, Hugh, and Margaret, whose home is the great house, Charlecote, set in the Warwickshire countryside. Despite their privileged background, the children are not always happy - their parents are stern and Tom is sent away to boarding school. But when the holidays come, everything changes and the four of them have many adventures together in the vast grounds of the house. BLOriginally published in 1968, this is a welcome reissue of a book which ''movingly shows the close bond between the "upper class" children and servants in a great house, when both feared and suffered the hand of authority.'' (20th Century Children''s Writers)

A collection of nine stories about animals, including a lion who goes to school, a lonely horse in search of adventure, and a mouse trying to avoid a mousetrap.

Amy is going on her own to stay with her grandmother for three nights and takes her three best things. As each night passes, she feels dreadfully homesick but then she remembers her three best things. One by one they magically come to life and transport her back home where she can see everything is well. But on the third night her house is deserted and Amy is distraught and unconsolable. However, she soon learns it is because her mother was missing her so much that she has come to visit - and there she is to reassure and comfort Amy.

When the zoo is unable to keep a miniature elephant, Emily and her parents make a home for it and its monkey friend in their lovely meadow with a river running by.

A collection of stories, both haunting and mysterious, created from everyday life and ordinary things. The author also wrote Tom''s Midnight Garden, The Way to Sattin Shore and What the Neighbours Did and Other Stories.

A boy who loses his dog meets a mysterious stranger and has a surprising adventure in an enchanting tale from a stellar author-illustrator team. When Till’s beloved dog slips its leash on their daily romp, the boy goes to bed in despair. But he wakes to meet Mr. Finder, an odd little man from his dream, who offers to help him retrieve the frisky pup. Together Till and Finder question some likely witnesses: a heron, a mole, a riddling cat, and two obliging old ladies, Miss Gammer and Miss Mousy. But Finder is a peculiar figure, given to disappearing suddenly, and Till starts to wonder: Can he be trusted? Part detective story, part fairy tale, A Finder’s Magic has mystery, darkness and light, and all the emotional truth that is a hallmark of Philippa Pearce’s writing.

Mrs Cockle is taken on an amazing adventure when her unhappy cat runs away from her London home, but when she finds him again they share a happy new life by the sea.

While playing in the river, two cousins discover a live mussel and decide to keep it as a pet.

Philippa Pearce takes ordinary incidents and objects of everyday life and invests them with a power that overwhelms, threatens and disturbs.