Un couple âgé regrette de ne pas avoir eu d'enfant. Ils en viennent à souhaiter un enfant, peu importe sa taille, même s'il n'est « pas plus grand que le pouce », ou qu'un objet de taille identique, et l'enfant naît. On lui donne alors le nom de Tom Pouce. Sa petite taille ne l'empêche pas de vivre de grandes aventures...Où l'on s'aperçoit très vite que sa très petite taille est un handicap tout à fait relatif, car Tom Pouce est particulièrement rusé, malin, et arrive à se sortir de situations périlleuses en faisant appel à son intelligence et à son sens de la répartie. Ce conte populaire fascine les enfants depuis des siècles, car outre ses multiples petits dangers et grands rebondissements, sa morale est intemporelle et universelle : qu'importe ce que la nature a fait de nous à la naissance, petit, malingre, grand, à lunettes, différent de la majorité des autres, ou que sais je encore, libre à nous de compenser cela par la ruse et l'intelligence, qui sont des armes bien supérieures, à y bien regarder. Ce conte est interprété par Fabienne Prost, pour la plus grande joie des petits et des grands.
Un bonhomme de neige ne connaît rien du monde ; comment le pourrait-il ? Son fidèle ami le chien tente de partager sa sagesse. Mais voilà que le bonhomme tombe amoureux, et de la façon la plus désespérée : le poêle qui luit derrière la vitre, et duquel il ne pourra jamais se rapprocher... Entre-temps, arrive le dégel qui lentement le fond. Ce conte rare et mélancolique est l'un des chef-d'oeuvres d'Andersen, certainement sa pièce la plus personnelle et la plus touchante. Il est interprété par Fabienne Prost, dont la voix douce emporte l'imagination des petits et des grands.
Sara is brought to Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies by her father, Captain Crewe, because the climate in India doesn't agree with children. After several years as Miss Minchin's show pupil, news comes that Captain Crewe has died penniless, and left Sara destitute. Miss Minchin keeps her on as an unpaid drudge, until a mysterious benefactor comes to her aid. (Summary by Karen Savage)
'Off with her head!' yells the Queen of Hearts, one of the many peculiar creatures Alice encounters after falling down a rabbit hole and into an absurd fantasy world of Mad Tea Parties, nonsensical trials, and talking animals. Published In 1865, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland became an instant success, and author Lewis Carroll broke ground with his unique take on children‘s stories: Instead of the overly simplistic and sometimes dry tales that characterized the genre in the Victorian age, Carroll introduced a book that didn‘t look down on its audience, and one that – to this day – is enjoyed by children and adults alike. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into 176 languages, and adapted to the screen close to 20 times, most notably by Tim Burton in the 2010 feature film that saw Mia Wasikowska as Alice and Helena Bonham Carter as the unforgettable Queen of Hearts.
Once again, Alice finds herself in a peculiar place. In this sequel to `Alice Adventures in Wonderland‘, Alice has climbed through a mirror and arrived in a world in which everything is reversed, like a reflection – including logic. It makes for another absurdly funny story full of wonder and snark that, like the first book, never talks down to its young audience. The popular Tim Burton movie, `Alice in Wonderland‘ (2010), starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway, to name is few, is loosely based on both this and the previous novel. In some ways, `Through the Looking-glass and What Alice Found There‘ (1871) has had an even bigger impact on today‘s popular culture than the first book.
'True courage is in facing danger when you are afraid...' Dorothy is in a bit of a pickle. Her house has been swept away in a vicious tornado with just herself and her dog inside, and when she walks out the front door again, she finds that she is not in Kansas anymore. She is in the mysterious lands of Oz. Along with her new friends, a scarecrow, a tin man, and a lion, she sets out to find the Wizard, who is said to know how to get her home. But the Wicked Witch of the West has other plans for her. Inspired in part by 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', `The Wonderful Wizard of Oz‘ (1900) is one of the most beloved children‘s books of all time. It is highly associated with the iconic 1939 movie adaptation staring Judy Garland in which she sings the Oscar-winning song 'Over the Rainbow'.
Good news for those who found themselves missing the original heroine of Oz in the second book because in `Ozma of Oz‘ (1907), Dorothy is back! Traveling to Australia with her uncle, Dorothy is once again caught up in a natural disaster – a huge storm at sea that separates her from her uncle. She washes ashore in the land of Ev, a fairyland that has recently lost its royal family, and Dorothy is once more entangled in the conflicts of a foreign place. Not everything is new however, as Dorothy unites with old friends and places. Along with the previous novel in the Oz series, `Ozma of Oz‘ was adapted into a movie, `Return to Oz‘ in 1985, featuring Fairuza Balk as Dorothy.
'Roads,' observed the shaggy man, 'don't go anywhere. They stay in one place, so folks can walk on them.'A shaggy-looking man, imaginatively called Shaggy Man, asks Dorothy for directions to Butterfield, but the two of them end up getting lost on their way and decide to proceed to Oz instead. For once not chased by danger, they arrive just in time for Princess Ozma‘s birthday party where a great assortment of colourful characters awaits. The 1939 movie, `The Wizard of Oz‘ starring Judy Garland, perfectly told the story of a little girl‘s first adventure, but the story did not end then. `The Road to Oz‘ (1909), L. Frank Baum‘s fifth book in the series, celebrates the lands of Oz in the best way possible.
'There is no doubt they intend to kill us as dead as possible in a short time,' said the Wizard.
'As dead as poss'ble would be pretty dead, wouldn't it?' asked Dorothy.' During an earthquake in California Dorothy and her friends are swallowed up by cracks in the earth and find themselves in a whole new land – the Land of Mangaboos. The Mangaboos are a vegetable people, and they accuse Dorothy and her friends of causing the earthquake and sentence them to death. The 1939 movie, `The Wizard of Oz‘ starring Judy Garland, perfectly told the story of a little girl‘s first adventure, but the story of Oz and Dorothy far from ended then. With his trademark inventions on display, author L. Frank Baum delivers another imaginative and delightful book in the Oz series, though many will agree that this fourth one is darker and more troubling than its predecessors.
Whatever happened in the lands of Oz after Dorothy left? In this sequel to the `The Wonderful Wizard of Oz‘, we meet a young boy named Tip, who, unlike Dorothy, has grown up in this magical place. He is under the care (though that is a relative term) of the witch Mombi, but escapes her evil clutches just in time before she turns him in to a statue. Traveling through Oz, Tip meets a bunch of whimsical creatures (some of whom we know already) who join him on an adventurous journey that will conclude in satisfying ways no one will see coming. Loved even more, by many, than its predecessor, `The Marvelous Land of Oz‘ (1904) has been adapted into a stage play and in comic book form by Marvel several times.
'To-morrow I will begin, thought Katy.' Twelve-year-old Katy Carr desperately wants to be good. But being a wild and hot-headed tomboy, it seems so much easier to start being good tomorrow than it does today. Even when her kind and patient invalid cousin comes to visit, Katy‘s resolution to change only lasts a few hours. But soon she will have much more in common with her cousin than she wished and it will confine her to her room perhaps forever. Will it make her finally able to uphold her promise? Author Susan Coolidge‘s `What Katy did‘ (1872) was published by the same publisher as `Little Women‘ by Louisa May Alcott, and speaks to the same audience of people who enjoy well-written girl characters. The most recent film adaptation saw Alison Pill, Michael Cera and Megan Follows (`Anne of Green Gables‘), and the book has made its mark on popular culture too, lending its name to a The Libertines song and two episodes of the hit show `Lost‘.
Three young girls wander into an enchanted forest at meet a fairy woman, who is bored with her perfect, immortal life. She convinces them to turn her into a human and decides to become a prince because boys have more fun. His/her new existence exploring the surrounding kingdoms is fast and adventurous from the get-go. What unfolds in an interesting story of problems solved by a woman‘s mind in the luxury of a man‘s body. `The Enchanted Island of Yew` (1903) was written by L. Frank Baum, the author of `The Wonderful Wizard of Oz‘, but is separate from the Oz series. This story clearly comes from the same imagination, however, with the added bonus of some interesting gender-bender elements.
