Maybe this is a sight for sore eyes. Like everything in life, that depends on your perspective, whether you take the long or short view. Are you visionary? Or, are you one of those people who believe that we have no control over life, because things can change forever in the blink of an eye?

A mother duck's eggs hatch, but the biggest egg takes longer than all the others. A nosy neighbor opines that the egg looks like a turkey egg. When the egg finally hatches, Mother Duck is relieved to see that her newest son swims - he must not be a turkey - but as ducklings go, he's not very good looking. The unnamed ugly duckling lives an unpleasant life in the "duckyard" of the farm on which his family lives. With the notable exception of his mother, he is not only disparaged for his looks, he is often bullied and brutalized.

Long ago, in the Higher Realms, Alexikan, the Dark Prince of Malice, peacefully schemed to murder his dad with much glee and satisfaction. But one night, an old beggar woman came to the star palace of the Prince, and offered him a lily in return for shelter from the cold. The Prince sneered: he could clearly see that she was a Fay in disguise and mocked her for presuming that she could teach him some quaint moral lesson with her tricks. So the old woman up and punched him through dimensions, all the way to the Lower Realms. And there the Prince roams still, looking for a way home...

A woman wants a little child, and when she goes to a witch that's exactly what she gets. Thumbelina is borne of a kernel of barley-corn. Thumbelina lives with the woman who wished for her, with tiny possessions befitting her size. She is pretty and sings beautifully. But one night an ugly old toad steals into the home and sees in Thumbelina a bride for her even uglier son. (Who can only croak, though the mom can speak.) She snatches Thumbelina away from the only home she's known. Thumbelina is held captive on a lily pad in a marsh until some fish - who understand her plight - sever the lily pad, allowing it to float away. Thumbelina's praises are sung by the birds she passes, and she's befriended by a butterfly as she sails downriver on her lily pad boat.

"Lets play ‘Hide and Seek..." said the creepy little girl “But we are four.” barely mumbled a timid boy. “That number is considered an unlucky number in Chinese because it is nearly homophonous to the word 'death'. ” That’s how it all started. That’s how our nightmare began.

A couple walking and exploring a remote beach make a bizarre discovery that shakes their world. This story is a possibly chilling view of the future, a fresh look at the consequences of our attempts to avoid death.

A soldier's last thoughts as he lays on the battlefield.

Alice is sitting with her sister outdoors when she spies a White Rabbit with a pocket watch. Fascinated by the sight, she follows the rabbit down the hole. She falls for a long time, and finds herself in a long hallway full of doors. There is also a key on the table, which unlocks a tiny door; through this door, she spies a beautiful garden. She longs to get there, but the door is too small. Soon, she finds a drink with a note that asks her to drink it. There is later a cake with a note that tells her to eat; Alice uses both, but she cannot seem to get a handle on things, and is always either too large to get through the door or too small to reach the key.

David Copperfield is a fictional biography, describing the title character’s life. David narrates the novel himself. Some of the information in the novel is autobiographical and relates to Charles Dickens’s own life. David had a difficult life from the beginning. His father died before he was born. When David’s mother remarries, his stepfather is abusive and sends him off to a boarding school overseen by a cruel and abusive headmaster. One positive outcome of the school is that David makes two close friends. David’s mother dies when he is twelve, and his stepfather sends him off to live with the Micawber family in London and work in his stepfather’s warehouse. David is unhappy working at the warehouse and runs away to his Aunt Betsy. His aunt sends him to live with the Wickfield family and attend a school in Canterbury. Although he loves Agnes Wickfield, David ends up falling in love with Dora Spenlow, the daughter of an attorney who tutors David. The Wickfields’ law clerk, Uriah Heep, is revealed by David’s friends to be stealing from Mr. Wickfield. The Micawbers end up moving to Australia, while David becomes a writer. When Dora dies, David marries Agnes Wickfield.