Louisa May Alcott, most famous for her coming of age novel Little Women, wrote in a variety of genres to support her family, including humor. As a child of the famous education reformer Bronson Alcott, she was dragged along to take part in a communal living experiment spearheaded by her father and including such luminaries as Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Hawthorne. “Transcendental Wild Oats” is a satirical account of that tiny community’s first year, taking a tongue-in-cheek look at living an “ideal life.”

If you think you’re too small to help someone in need, just listen to how a tiny sparrow helps an abused dog.

Joseph Katz, writing under the pen name of Alexander Godin, immigrated to the United States from the Ukraine with his family in l922.  “My Dead Brother Comes to America” was published in 1934 and included as part of The Best Short Stories of the Century.  Written at a time of large European immigration to the United States, the story highlights the arrival of immigrants to America through Ellis Island. 

The fairy tales of the notorious Oscar Wilde are considered by many to be among his best writings. Today we consider two stories that fall somewhere in the area of fairy tales, love stories, children’s fables, and didactic tales for adults. We begin with “The Happy Prince,” a story about an unlikely friendship between a tiny bird and a beautiful statue.