young white girl forced to survive after being orphaned

Anne Shirley is a freckle-faced, red-haired girl, who grows up in an orphanage having lost her parents at a very early age. Anne is always cheerful and fun-loving despite being brought up without love or affection. When she turns 11, she is adopted by the old farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla. Anne starts her new life with Matthew and Marilla at a farm called "Green Gables", but actually the Cuthberts wanted a boy who could help with their work on the farm... Overcoming many hardships and meeting many friends and people, Anne grows up to be a strong-minded woman.

Anne heads to Charlottetown to attend accelerated classes as she continues to work towards her dream of being a school teacher. While there, she is forced to adapt quickly to her new surroundings and classmates as she navigates her way through her first school experience outside of her beloved Green Gables. Anne finds herself facing daunting choices for her future, the stirrings of romance, and tragedy unlike anything she's ever known. Meanwhile, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert contend with advancing age as they deal with financial challenges and creeping ailments.

With their father away as a chaplain in the Civil War, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy grow up with their mother in somewhat reduced circumstances. They are a close family who inevitably have their squabbles and tragedies. But the bond holds even when, later, male friends start to become a part of the household.

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Mary Lennox is born in India to wealthy British parents who never wanted her. When her parents suddenly die, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle. She meets her sickly cousin, and the two children find a wondrous secret garden lost in the grounds of Misselthwaite Manor.

A young British girl born and reared in India loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake. She is returned to England to live at her uncle's castle. Her uncle is very distant due to the loss of his wife ten years before. Neglected once again, she begins exploring the estate and discovers a garden that has been locked and forgotten. Aided by one of the servants' boys, she begins restoring the garden, and eventually discovers some other secrets of the manor.

Heidi, is an eight-year-old Swiss orphan who is given by her aunt to her mountain-dwelling grandfather. She is then stolen back by her aunt from her grandfather to live in the wealthy Sesemann household in Frankfurt, Germany as a companion to Klara, a sheltered, disabled girl in a wheelchair. Heidi is unhappy but makes the best of the situation, always longing for her grandfather.

Young Heidi is sent to live with her grandfather in the mountains where she discovers the liberty and the beauty of Swiss landscapes. Later when Heidi is forced to become a companion to a young invalid girl in a big town, she discovers just how much she misses the mountains, her grandfather, and her friend Peter.

Jack London's classic adventure story about the friendship developed between a Yukon gold hunter and the mixed dog-wolf he rescues from the hands of a man who mistreats him.

White Fang, part wold and part dog, is born in the wild where he spends his early months before becoming Grey Beaver's loyal and trusted dog. When the Indian is unable to trade his furs, he reluctantly accepts gold pieces from Beauty Smith in exchange for White Fang. Smith is an evil man who cages and torments White Fang so as to transform him into a hateful, fighting dog. Smith travels the Yukon staging dog fight and making substantial sums of money from White Fang's victories. After a particularly brutal fight in which White Fang is severely injured by a ferocious bull dog, an animal lover, Weedon Scott, stops the fight and carries White Fang off. White Fang recovers and becomes the Scott family pet.