Category: Children & Young Adult Reading

Top o' the World: A Once Upon a Time Tale

The Wishing Post grows right out of the ground at the Top of the World. Some very wise men with bald heads and long white beards say it isn’t a Wishing Post at all, and call it the North Pole, but Maida knows more about it than they do for she has been there and they haven’t....

Chapters

12. Chapter XII

“Fido, of course,” the Candy Kid and Jack-in-the-Box replied together; so the three hurried off to find Fido. They discovered him drinking pink lemonade through a straw, lazily...

9. Chapter IX

“Oh, I’m so cold and tired,” sighed Maida, rubbing her hands on the Bear’s furry coat to warm them. Jack-in-the-Box looked at her in surprise. “Cold?” he asked curiously. “What...

11. Chapter XI

It took them an hour to tell each other where they had been and what they did there, and where they were going and what they expected to do, and you may well believe Maida was g...

15. Chapter XV

The tropical climate did its work well. There wasn’t an iceberg left or a snowflake anywhere in sight. And when the Man with the Growly Voice took a nice swim in the warm water...

24. Chapter XXIV

It was Jack-in-the-Box who did it--her chum and playmate, Jack-in-the-Box, who had seen the wonderful change with great sorrow, and who first heard her cry for her childhood. Wi...

13. Chapter XIII

The unexpected enmity of the natives of Arcturia was very distressing to Maida, while her little friend Kokomo was filled with fear at the prospect before her. She clung to the...

23. Chapter XXIII

Maida was grown up. There was no doubt about that. She could go anywhere she liked--she could do anything she chose--but it occurred to her there wasn’t any place she wanted to...

7. Chapter VII

How would you like to meet Santa Claus face to face? How would you like him to hold you on his knee and tell you all about everything? How would you like him to show you all abo...

21. Chapter XXI

Think of it, Maida couldn’t have another wish for a year! “Do you mean to say,” she asked Billy, “that I will have to stay here in Illusia and be a little girl until next New Ye...

6. Chapter VI

Maida began to think the disconsolate lover was mistaken about finding the “Lady” soon. There seemed to be no sign of her. And they walked and walked and walked. At last, in the...

16. Chapter XVI

Of course Maida gave the alarm and the whole company came tumbling up the hatchway in a twinkling. The Disconsolate Lover manned the engine. The Man with the Growly Voice took t...

14. Chapter XIV

It grew colder and colder. Maida cried out to the Man with the Growly Voice and begged him to use one of the little tablets of condensed climate. But he called back and told her...

20. Chapter XX

Wasn’t it splendid! Her very first wish came true. Well, thank goodness, it wouldn’t be long until she was a young lady--still there was no hurry. She wasn’t sure just what kind...

2. Chapter II

If you stand with one hand on the Wishing Post, and think hard of what you would like most in all the world, your wish comes true. Isn’t that lovely? Sounds like a fairy tale, d...

10. Chapter X

On the edge of the Frozen Zone stands the City of Arcturia. You needn’t look for it in your geography, you won’t find it there; in fact, one of the men who wrote the “Geography”...

5. Chapter V

Well, it really looked as though they were. Both of them sat staring first at Maida, then at the Explorer; now and then flapping their wings and making a sort of noise like--jus...

3. Chapter III

And then she found herself--in bed--wasn’t that a shame. She had been so happy sitting on the knee of the Man with the Growly Voice, so interested in his stories, then that _som...

8. Chapter VIII

Well, it does make one feel bad to have playmates run away like that, and Maida was heartbroken. She could see the three capering over the ice and snow far, far away, having, oh...

19. Chapter XIX

You can readily understand Maida was not at all comfortable in that box. It was very dark inside and very stuffy and hot. The box jolted and swayed till it nearly made her seasi...

22. Chapter XXII

Well, of course, her plight was rather an odd one. It didn’t seem so out of the way for a little girl to be travelling about with all these strange creatures, but for a young la...

4. Chapter IV

They flew and flew and flew. Maida could look out of her window and see the lights in houses far beneath. By and by the sky turned gray, little streaks of silver began to appear...

18. Chapter XVIII

Of course Maida didn’t know what happened in the Plaza after she was packed in the box, and carted away, but she was told about it afterward by Jack-in-the-Box. Business being d...

17. Chapter XVII

Maida stared in astonishment, but the ugly old woman was Queen Aurora Borealis beyond a doubt. On her head she wore a great golden crown, and as Maida stared at her the same bli...

1. Chapter I

The Wishing Post grows right out of the ground at the Top of the World. Some very wise men with bald heads and long white beards say it isn’t a Wishing Post at all, and call it...