Pressed into service as a canal woman, 10-year-old Emma finds ways to utilize her artistic gifts. Although it is a better existence than her strenuous job in the English silk mill, she feels guilty over the sister she left behind. Authentic details make this an engaging story–one that reveals the hardships of the mid-1800s when life for the poor in England was unrelentingly cruel. It is also a liberating tale as Emma draws on her inner strength to find her true calling.
Twenty-three vignettes present Nong, a ten-year-old girl living in present-day Thailand, and the characters of her village as they slowly make the transition from rural poverty to western modernization.
A short tale of a conversation between a fox and a mouse, as the mouse explains why the burrow he has been digging will keep him safe from the fox.
Shikari Shambu is a bumbling animal hunter who relies on sheer luck and coincidence to catch dangerous creatures, yet manages to convince the rest of the world of his great skill and valor.
During ‘murketiden,’ the dark months between September and March, a Norwegian girl and her family try to hasten the arrival of spring.
Aristan the magic spider befriends a group of unique and resourceful children.
When his class of underachievers is assigned to spend three torturous weeks taking care of their own ‘babies’ in the form of bags of flour, Simon makes amazing discoveries about himself while coming to terms with his long-absent father.
Sent by her mother to the edge of the Niger to gather rushes for the Ceremony of Beginnings, Nsia encounters many distractions, until the ancestors’ spirits guide her on her way to becoming a wise little woman.
Mexican folktales tell how flowers were named, how an old man outsmarted a tribe of chocolate-stealing warriors, and how a drink made from the aloe plant led to the marriage of a king and princess.
Unhappy about his baby sister’s illness and the chaos of moving into a dilapidated old house, Michael retreats to the garage and finds a mysterious stranger who is something like a bird and something like an angel.