Born into slavery, Booker T. Washington is freed when he is nine years old. To help support his family, he then works as a salt packer, coal miner, and house servant. All the while, he longs to become educated and to educate others. Poverty, racism, and other obstacles stand in his way. Will he overcome them all, or will the many barriers prove stronger than his unwavering determination?

When a mysterious stranger with a scar on his cheek dies, young Jim Hawkins ends up with a mysterious map of an island. He imagines that he is off to a wonderful sea adventure that will lead to a huge treasure. But once he sets sail with Dr. Livesey and the one-legged Long John Silver, the dream turns out to include greed, mutiny, and murder. - Back cover. To help students experience the joys and benefits of reading, Townsend Press presents the Townsend...

"A stranger with a troubled past, Silas Marner is new to the town of Raveloe. He cares only for money, which he make by weaving cloth. Totally alone, shunned by everyone in town, Silas's only comfort is his pile of gold. But when the gold is stolen. Silas's world turns upside down. And little does he know that the crime is only one in a chain of events that will change is life forever."

The adventuresome young man, Robin of Locksley, doesn't have a worry in the world until one day when a drunken man working for the King shoots an arrow at him. Robin's aim is better, to his lasting regret, and he becomes an outlaw subject to capture and hanging. Before long, however, Robin attracts a hearty band of other outcasts to Sherwood Forest. Their only wish is to lead a free, merry existence while doing any kindness they can for the downtrodden....

The story of a young woman from Wisconsin who goes to Chicago, becomes an actress, marries and moves to New York, and when her husband loses his job, returns to the stage.

Diego de la Vega, the son of an aristocratic Spanish landowner and a Shoshone mother, returns to California from school in Spain to reclaim the hacienda on which he was raised and to seek justice for the weak and helpless.