This is the story of Valentine Michael Smith (a.k.a. Mike), the Man from Mars. He is child of missing colonists, raised by Martians. He is brought to Earth but because of his odd innocence the Federation keeps him hidden. Nurse Gillian or Jill Boardman sneaks in to see him, befriends him, and becomes his first water brother.
Jill helps Mike escape to the compound of opinionated doctor, lawyer, and author Jubal Harshaw. They learn that Mike has unusual psi powers. Mikes tries to “grok” humanity, and gets a confused notion of what religion is. After his safety is assured Mike visits a Fosterite Tabernacle of the unconventional Church of the New Revelation.
Mike and Jill go out in the world to increase Mike’s education. They join a carnival where they meet tattooed lady Patricia Paiwonski who handles snakes. Later Mike and his growing circle of friends found an unusual church to teach his ideas and the Martian language, the Nest of which is a commune that practices nudity and free love.
Author
Robert Anson Heinlein was a Prolific American writer, one of the grand masters of science fiction with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. Heinlein produced during his career fifty novels and collections of short stories. Heinlein admired highly motivated men of action – like Howard Hawks in his movies – and attacked religious hypocrisy and corporate power games. His later works, in which his right-wing views mixed with fast-moving stories and fascination with the paranormal, earned him the reputation of being a militarist, even a “fascist”. However, a number of his book gained cult status among members of the counterculture.

Initially titled “Paul Morel,” Sons and Lovers, published in 1913, is D. H. Lawrence’s third novel. It was his first successful novel and arguably his most popular.

The first part of the novel focuses on Mrs. Morel and her unhappy marriage to a drinking miner. She has many arguments with her husband, some of which have painful results: on separate occasions, she is locked out of the house and hit in the head with a drawer. Estranged from her husband, Mrs. Morel takes comfort in her four children, especially her sons. Her oldest son, William, is her favorite, and she is very upset when he takes a job in London and moves away from the family. When William sickens and dies a few years later, she is crushed, not even noticing the rest of her children until she almost loses Paul, her second son, as well. From that point on, Paul becomes the focus of her life, and the two seem to live for each other.

Paul falls in love with Miriam Leivers, who lives on a farm not too far from the Morel family. They carry on a very intimate, but purely platonic, relationship for many years. Mrs. Morel does not approve of Miriam, and this may be the main reason that Paul does not marry her. He constantly wavers in his feelings toward her.

Paul meets Clara Dawes, a suffragette who is separated from her husband, through Miriam. As he becomes closer with Clara and they begin to discuss his relationship with Miriam, she tells him that he should consider consummating their love and he returns to Miriam to see how she feels.

Paul and Miriam sleep together and are briefly happy, but shortly afterward Paul decides that he does not want to marry Miriam, and so he breaks off with her. She still feels that his soul belongs to her, and, in part agrees reluctantly. He realizes that he loves his mother most, however.

After breaking off his relationship with Miriam, Paul begins to spend more time with Clara and they begin an extremely passionate affair. However, she does not want to divorce her husband Baxter, and so they can never be married. Paul’s mother falls ill and he devotes much of his time to caring for her. When she finally dies, he is broken-hearted and, after a final plea from Miriam, goes off alone at the end of the novel.

Book
John Steinbeck’s last, unfinished written work, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, was posthumously published in 1976. More powerful than any of Merlin’s spells, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights has enthralled and delighted generations of readers fascinated by chivalry, magic, and the unforgettable drama of medieval times. In part, Steinbeck set out to retell the exploits of the Knights of the Roundtable so that his sons could enjoy reading about them as much as he had enjoyed the stories growing up. Like much of his other work, Steinbeck’s King Arthur is characterized by the author’s stark, simple style and detailed characterization. The story offers a different, more nuanced perspective of the love triangle between King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot.
Author
Howard Pyle was born on March 5, 1853 in Wilmington, Delaware. From the time he was a very small boy he loved pictures, especially the pictures in storybooks. Among his favorites were Grimm’s German Fairy Tales and Arabian Nights. At the age of twenty-one, Pyle began to contribute illustrations and fables to St. Nicholas magazine and later went on to write and illustrate books for children. His first was The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood in 1883. Many more books followed, including Pepper and Salt; or, Seasoning for Young Folk, Otto of the Silver Hand, Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates, and The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. He also taught illustration at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia and later set up his own art school in Wilmington. He died on November 9, 1911, in Florence, Italy.

Summary:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is about a young boy, Huck, in search of freedom and adventure. The shores of the Mississippi River provide the backdrop for the entire book.

Huck is kidnapped by Pap, his drunken father. Huck finally escapes from the deserted house in the woods and finds a canoe to shove off down the river. Instead of going back to the widow’s house, he decides to run away. He is sick of all of the confinement and civilization that the window enforces upon him. He comes across Jim, Miss Watson’s slave, and together, they spend nights and days journeying down the river, both in search of freedom.

While traveling on a raft down the river, Huck and Jim have many adventures and during many long talks, become best of friends. They find a house with a dead man. They end up stealing many things from the house. They find a wrecked ship, and go on it, only to be mixed up with murderers. They get away with money and some other goods. They get separated from each other in the heavy fog, but eventually find each other. A steamboat crashes into their raft and Jim and Huck are separated again. Huck has a run-in with the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, two families at war with each other. He is reunited with Jim shortly after this. Then, they meet the King and the Duke, and get into a good deal of trouble performing plays.

The King and the Duke pretend to be Peter Wilks’ long lost brothers from England and try to steal all of the money left behind in his will. They escape before they are caught. Huck finally gets rid of them, but is left to search for Jim, who gets sold by the King. He ends up at Tom Sawyer’s Aunt Sally’s house, where Tom and Huck rescue Jim.
Through all of the adventures down the river, Huck learns a variety of life lessons and improves as a person. He develops a conscience and truly feels for humanity. The complexity of his character is enhanced by his ability to relate so easily with nature and the river.

Alice is very bored and sleepy while sitting with her older sister outside, until she sees a White Rabbit looking at his watch and talking to himself. She follows the Rabbit down a very deep rabbit hole and ends up far beneath the ground in a hall with a tiny locked door that leads to a beautiful garden. She eats and drinks things that make her change in size, but she is still unable to get through the door into the garden.
Alice finds the Rabbit’s house and grows huge after drinking a strange liquid. Alice then comes across a Caterpillar smoking a hookah. The Caterpillar informs Alice that eating one side of the mushroom he is sitting on will make her larger but eating the other side will make her smaller. Alice is still trying to become the right size to get into the garden.
She comes to a house in the woods, where a Duchess, her ugly baby, her hostile Cook, and her Cheshire Cat reside. The kitchen is full of pepper and dishes which were hurled in anger. Alice tries to save the baby from this environment, but the baby soon turns into a pig, so she is forced to let it go.
In the garden she comes across three gardeners painting white roses red. Suddenly the Queen and her entourage of playing cards appear. The Queen invites Alice to play croquet, and Alice joins a very strange game. She soon learns that the Duchess is to be executed.
The Duchess is brought from prison to settle matters and begins talking with Alice about the moral of everything. The Queen then decides Alice should go meet the Mock Turtle; she is escorted by the Gryphon. Alice learns the Mock Turtle’s history and sees a dance called the Lobster Quadrille. Alice again tries to recite poetry with little success.
The Gryphon whisks Alice back to court when they hear that the trial is beginning. The Knave of Hearts is on trial for stealing the Queen’s tarts. Alice is excited to be in court and to hear the testimony of the Hatter and the Cook. Alice herself is called to testify after she has inexplicably grown larger again. Alice is impertinent and the King orders her to leave the court, but she refuses. She is outraged by the unfairness of the court’s proceedings and provokes the Queen to order her execution. Alice tells the court that they’re nothing but a pack of cards, and they rise up and attack her.
At this point, Alice realizes that she has been asleep for a long time in her sister’s lap. She tells her sister about the events of her marvelous dream and then goes in to tea. Her sister is captivated by the dream and imagines Alice as a grown woman who will still have a child-like sense of wonder.

O liver Twist is born in a workhouse in 1830s England. His mother, whose name no one knows, is found on the street and dies just after Oliver’s birth. Oliver spends the first nine years of his life in a badly run home for young orphans and then is transferred to a workhouse for adults. Oliver attacks Noah Claypole and incurs the Sowerberry for making disparaging comments about his mother. Desperate, Oliver runs away at dawn and travels toward London.
Outside London, Oliver, meets Jack Dawkins, a boy his own age. Jack offers him shelter and takes him to his benefactor Fagin; career criminal trains orphan boys to pick pockets for him. After a few days of training, Oliver is sent on a pick pocketing mission with two other boys. When he sees them swipe a handkerchief from an elderly gentleman, Oliver is horrified and runs off. He is caught by Mr. Brownlow, the man whose handkerchief was stolen, takes the feverish Oliver to his home and nurses him back to health. Mr. Brownlow is struck by Oliver’s resemblance to a portrait of a young woman that hangs in his house. Bill Sikes and his lover Nancy in Fagin’s gang capture Oliver and return him to Fagin.

Fagin sends Oliver to assist Sikes in a burglary. He is shot by a servant and escapes, is taken in by the women Mrs. Maylie and her beautiful adopted niece Rose. They grow fond of Oliver, and he spends an idyllic summer with them. Fagin and a mysterious man named Monks are set on recapturing Oliver. , Nancy meets secretly with Rose and informs her of Fagin’s designs, but a member of Fagin’s gang overhears the conversation. When word of Nancy’s disclosure reaches Sikes, he brutally murders Nancy. Pursued by his guilty conscience and an angry mob, he inadvertently hangs himself while trying to escape.
Mr. Brownlow, with whom the Maylies have reunited Oliver, confronts Monks and wrings the truth about Oliver’s parentage from him. It is revealed that Monks is Oliver’s half brotherMr. Brownlow forces Monks to sign over Oliver’s share to Oliver. Fagin is hung for his crimes. Finally, Mr. Brownlow adopts Oliver, and they and the Maylies retire to a blissful existence in the countryside.

Summary:
The story is told in the first person by Jim Hawkins, whose mother kept the Admiral Benbow Inn, and who shared in the adventures from start to finish. An old sea dog comes to this peaceful inn one day, apparently intending to finish his life there. He hires Jim to keep a watch out for other sailors, but despite all precautions, he is hunted out and served with the black spot that means death. Jim and his mother barely escape death when Blind Pew, Black Dog, and other pirates descend on the inn in search of the sea dog’s papers. Jim snatches up a packet of papers to square the sailor’s debt, when they were forced to retreat from the inn. The packet contains a map showing the location of the pirate Flint’s buried treasure, which Jim, Doctor Livesey, and Squire Trelawney determine to find. Fitting out a ship, they hire hands and set out on their adventure.
Unfortunately, their crew includes one-legged Long John Silver, a pirate also in search of the treasure, and a number of his confederates. Jim, hidden in an apple barrel, overhears the plans of the crew to mutiny, and he warns his comrades. The battle between the pirates and Jim’s party is an exciting and bloody one, taking place both on the island and aboard ship. Jim escapes from the ship, discovers the marooned sailor, Ben Gunn, who has already found and cached the treasure, and finally the victors get safely aboard the ship with the treasure.

Author:
Stevenson’s first novel, Treasure Island, was published in 1883, followed by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and Kidnapped (1886). Stevenson’s work was highly popular and he received great critical acclaim. Stevenson wrote a great deal, completing two of his finest novellas, “The Beach of Falesa” and “The Ebb Tide”, two novels, The Wrecker and Catriona, the short stories “The Bottle Imp,” “The Isle of voices,” and “The Waif Woman.” He also published short works under the title “Fables”.