Each study guide includes essays, an in-depth chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quiz. Study guides are available in PDF format.
If You Come Softly is a young-adult novel by American author Jacqueline Woodson. It was initially published in 1998 and later in 2006 by Speak Publishers. Set in New York, Elisha and Jeremiah are both students attending Percy Academy. The school...
Weetzie Bat is a teenage novel written by American author Francesca Lia Block and was first published by HarperCollins in 1989. The book is the first in her Dangerous Angels series, and was followed by Witch Baby in 1991.
The book follows the...
Homecoming is a YA novel published by Cynthia Voigt in 1981. It is the work which introduced the family at the heart of what would come to be known collectively as the Tillerman Cycle. This a series of seven books Voigt published between 1981 and...
First published in 1978, A Swiftly Tilting Planet is the third book in the science fiction Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle. The first book in the series is A Wrinkle in Time. A Swiftly Tilting Planet begins ten years after the last events in A...
Forever is a teen novel written by American author Judy Blume and was first published by Bradbury Press in 1975. The book has been received controversially since its publication, and has appeared on the American Library Association list of the 100...
Alice Childress' A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich was published in 1973. Set in the ghettos of Harlem, New York, the novel was written for young adults. It follows a thirteen-year-old teenage boy named Benjie who struggles with things no...
Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando stands as one of those works of literature that could not be fully appreciated in its time because it appears to have been written specifically for a future zeitgeist. Issues explored in the novel on the subject of...
"When I Die I Want Your Hands On My Eyes" is a poem by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. It is technically titled ‘‘Sonnet LXXXIX’’ and originally appeared in the poet's 1959 collection, One Hundred Love Sonnets. As the title of that collection suggests,...
"Lessons of the War I: Naming of Parts" is a poem by British journalist, translator, and poet Henry Reed, written during Reed's experience training as a military translator in Japan during World War II. It was published in the New Statesman and...
Seedfolks is a children’s novella written by Paul Fleischman and illustrated by Judy Peterson. The novella was published in 1997. In the novella, a culturally diverse group of residents in the Gibb Street area of Cleveland, Ohio, come together to...
“Mid-Term Break” is a poem by Seamus Heaney, first published in his debut collection Death of a Naturalist in 1966. The poem reflects on experiences from Heaney's own life. In 1953, when the poet was just fourteen years old, his little brother...
The Path of Daggers is a fantasy novel written by American author Robert Jordan, and was first published by Tor Books on October 20, 1998. The book is the eighth in his Wheel of Time series and was preceded by A Crown of Swords (1996).
The book...
A Crown of Swords (which really sounds like it should be a book in the Game of Thrones series, doesn't it?) is the seventh entry in Robert Jordan’s wildly successful fantasy novel series collectively known as The Wheel of Time. It was published in...
Lord of Chaos is an epic fantasy novel written by American author Robert Jordan and was first published and released by Tor Books on October 15, 1994. The book is the sixth in the Wheel of Time series and was preceded by the New York Times...
Originally published in 1993 by Tor Books, The Fires of Heaven is the fifth of fourteen books in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series. The fantasy novel focuses on Couladin Rand Al'thor, who leads several Aiel clans after being recognized as...
The fourth book in The Wheel of Time series, The Shadow Rising is a fantasy novel by American author Robert Jordan. The book follows the story of main character and protagonist Rand al'Thor after he proves himself to be the Dragon Reborn.
The...
“The Dragon Reborn” is the third book in a long fourteen-book series called “The Wheel of Times”. It is a fantasy series enveloping extensive world-building, a huge number of characters and a fascinating magic system.
The third book follows Rand...
“The Great Hunt” is the second book in the long “Wheel of Time” series, a series that influenced many modern fantasy writers, with classic tropes and characters and intricate magic world. It was written by James Oliver Rigney Jr. under the pen...
“The Eye of the World” is the first book in a long-running series with an extensive fantasy world-building and intricate magic system. The first novel follows a group of friends, Rand, Perrin and Egwene, and their fight to survive after their home...
Liza of Lambeth is the first novel published by Somerset Maugham. Maugham would go on from this humble beginning to stake a claim for himself as one of the most commercial popular writers of 20th century. Though never exactly a darling of the...
The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham is a novel detailing a narrative about an English surgeon, Arthur Burdon. The characters and settings of the story are based on real people and scenes. The story begins with Arthur traveling to Paris to visit...
“The Fall of Edward Bernard” by William Somerset Maugham is a story based on the differences between Eastern and Western cultures. The story involves two childhood friends who fall in love with the same girl. Edward Bernard and Bateman Hunter are...
“Red” is a short story which appears in Somerset Maugham’s 1921 collection titled The Trembling of a Leaf. The unifying element of that collection—aside from the usual suspects about which Maugham writes—is the setting. All of the stories feature...
