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A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s comedies. William Shakespeare uses language and the action of the characters to create a light-hearted story which has a happy ending. The following links might be helpful as teacher and student resources.

Don Quixote is one of the most famous of all novels, and with good reason. On one level, it is simply a really funny story. But, there is a great deal more to it, and I hope that some of your students, at least, are able to pick up on that!

Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland in 1817. In the South before the Civil War, it was against the law for a slave to learn to read and write. But a few, like Douglass, managed to learn. When Douglass was twenty-one, he escaped from slavery and made his way to Massachusetts, where he joined the abolitionist movement and began making powerful speeches against slavery.

Gulliver's Travels clearly appeals to children, but what should they learn from reading it? This teacher's manual begins with an introductory essay on Jonathan Swift's life and times that is designed to show Gulliver's Travels as part of the eighteenth century expression of reason and neoclassicism.

The adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are myths that were first told at the firesides of the Celts. Myths are traditional stories that people have passed on since the time when they did not have writing. Myths are used to teach lessons, explain mysteries, and entertain as well.

Not long after the new nation was born, Washington Irving created two characters who live on in the American imagination—Rip Van Winkle, an easygoing villager who sleeps for twenty years and wakes to a world turned upside-down; and, Ichabod Crane, a lanky schoolmaster who is pursued through Sleepy Hollow by a headless horseman.

The stories of Robin Hood are meant to accompany a history unit on the Middle Ages. Included here are some aids in linking the text to such a unit as well as ways to incorporate grammar, vocabulary, and writing assignments.

Robinson Crusoe is a rich, interesting book that should appeal to students' love of adventure while helping them develop the ability to analyze characters and themes. I wish you well in your study of it.

Sherlock Holmes is the most famous detective in fiction. Whether in books, television shows, or movies, Holmes—with his partner, Dr. Watson—brilliantly solves even the most puzzling crimes. With his keen powers of observation, his razor-sharp reasoning, and his vast knowledge, Holmes ensures that justice is done.

When young Jim Hawkins finds a treasure map, he stumbles into a thrilling adventure with cutthroat buccaneers. The pirate Long John Silver—devious, greedy and charming—at first befriends Jim but then takes him hostage. Treasure Island remains both a captivating coming-of-age story and the pattern for popular pirate adventures.