Books in the Essential Modern Classics series

The first of the Chrestomanci novels - full of magical adventure! Read by Tom Baker. Everybody says that Gwendolyn Chant is a gifted witch with astonishing powers, so it suits her enormously when she is taken to live in Chrestomanci Castle. Her brother Eric (better known as Cat) is not so keen, for he has no talent for magic at all. However, life with the great enchanter is not what either of them expects and sparks begin to fly!

When Milo finds an enormous package in his bedroom, he's delighted to have something to relieve his boredom with school. And when he opens it to find - as the label states - One Genuine Turnpike Tollbooth, he gets right into his pedal car and sets off through the Tollbooth and away on a magical journey!Milo's extraordinary voyage takes him into such places as the Land of Expectation, the Doldrums, the Mountains of Ignorance and the Castle in the Air. He meets the weirdest and most unexpected characters (such as Tock, the watchdog, the Gelatinous Giant, and the Threadbare Excuse, who mumbles the same thing over and over again), and, once home, can hardly wait to try out the Tollbooth again. But will it be still there when he gets back from school?This new edition of Norton Juster's classic story includes a special "e;Why You'll Love This Book"e; introduction by award-winning author, Diana Wynne Jones.

Read the story behind the beloved film - now available in Essential Modern Classics.In Prohibition-era New York City, Fat Sam runs one of the most popular speakeasies in town - but his rival Dandy Dan is trying to shut him down. It's up to the baby-faced Bugsy Malone to save the day...Packed with thrills and spills (and more than a few custard pies and splurge), this is a mobster story with a twist - the stars are kids!

A blind girl and a unicorn in a world where magic and reality merge together. Can Laura save the Wild Ones and take them to the safety of the Bright Wilderness?Laura is blind, but though she cannot see, she is an acutely perceptive child. As soon as she climbs onto the unicorn's back she is hurled into a wild and magical world. Though a contemporary child, living in a contemporary setting, Spellhorn and the Wild Ones see Laura as their leader and they know that only through Laura can they reach the safety of the Bright Wilderness. But can the unicorns lead Laura back home to her own world?Powerful and moving, a delicious blend of fantasy and reality.

Robert Nobel, the school pariah, triumphs over his own fears and the school bully, in this extraordinary tale of self-empowerment, legend and death.Robert is a boy who can do anything - or so old Edith Sorrel at the nursing home tells him. Robert doesn't think so, knowing as he does that he is the school geek.But something compels him to do what Edith asks - to visit old Chance House, where a boy once fell to his death from the top floor flat, to confront his fears and find some answers.Niker the bully thinks this is a great laugh. He challenges Robert to spend the night at Chance House with him - but there the balance of power changes, and it is Robert who proves to be the stronger.Niker feels threatened by the change - and when he finds out Robert's secret obsession, to make the dying Edith Sorrel a coat of feathers like in the old legend of the Firebird, he knows just how to wrest his old power back. But just how important is the coat of feathers? Could it really save Edith's life?

The author of children's classic 'Ballet Shoes' delights with a best-loved story of ice skating rivalry..."e;If you pass your inter-silver, I'll tell Aunt Claudia that I don't want to work with you any more."e;Harriet is told that she must take up ice-skating in order to improve her health. She isn't much good at it, until she meets Lalla Moore, a young skating star. Now Harriet is getting better and better on the ice, and Lalla doesn't like it. Does Harriet want to save their friendship more than she wants to skate?

Roland, Helen, Nicholas and David, four Manchester children, are led into Elidor, a twilight world almost destroyed by fear and darkness.