Böcker av Elspeth Bragdon

Bleak Island, where Ann Marsh lived, was a wind-swept, solitary place, but it had everything that can make an island wonderful for a little girl. There were beaches to explore, and the ever-changing sea to look at, and there was the lighthouse of which Ann's father was the keeper. From the top of the tower Ann thought she could see the entire world!Then one day the Coast Guard boat brought a small, frightened stranger to Bleak Island: nine-year-old Betsy Gates had come alone all the way from Ohio to stay with her grandmother. Everything on the island seemed strange to the child, who had lived all her life in a city and had supposed the rest of the world to be made up of apartment houses and stores. Ann quickly made up her mind that Betsy was like "a summer person's little girl"- she didn't belong; she didn't know anything.Gradually the two girls learned to understand the differences in each other's worlds and became best friends. And the delightful relationship between the grownups and the children is one of the nicest parts of this classic New England story. Includes drawings in line by Marjorie Torrey.

Everyone in Cranberry Cove, Maine, took it for granted that school "away" followed the sixth grade. There was no further schooling available in the little seacoast village.But when twelve-year-old Minta, at the end of the spring term, came face to face with the dismal prospect of going away to school that very fall -- in Hardwick, all of ten miles away! -- she was rebelliou. She NEVER wanted to leave the place and the people she loved so dearly; and she was especially troubled by a little nibbling fear that her place at home might be taken by the new baby her mother and father were expecting in September.Mr. and Mrs. Stanley understood their daughter, and couldn't have been more affectionate and reassuring; and old Auntie Joe, who lived with them, showed just the right mixture of common sense and sympathy. So by the time the "summer people" began to arrive, Minta was ready -- almost -- to forget her troubles. It was such fun to have her friends from Boston, Lucy and Jane, back again! No day was long enough, however, for all the things they found to do together: helping Bud Fernald to haul lobster traps, camping out on an offshore island, dressing up for the Firemen's Ball, and -- best of all -- playing wonderful games of make-believe in a secret cave.It was partly through the "rescue" of the cave's mysterious inhabitant that Minta learned a great deal about people, and about what growing up really means. And by the end of a wonderfully eventful summer she had come to understand, too, that even with its occasional troubles, life is "full of wonderful good things."