Material appropriate for primary age groups
Working in a big house owned by two refined ladies to support her mother and brothers, a young scullery maid in early-twentieth-century England borrows books and dreams of a better life before saving her employers from a kitchen fire.
One night, young Anna’s mother takes her to the ballet, and everything is changed. So begins the journey of a girl who will one day grow up to be the most famous prima ballerina of all time, inspiring legions of dancers after her: the brave, the generous, the transcendently gifted Anna Pavlova.
When a young girl named Kikko realizes her father has forgotten the pie he was supposed to bring to Grandma’s house, she offers to try and catch him as he makes his way through the woods. She hurriedly follows her father’s footprints in the snow and happens upon a large house she has never seen before. Curious, Kikko peers through the window, when she is startled by a small lamb wearing a coat and carrying a purse. Even more surprising, the lamb speaks, asking her in a kind voice, Are you here for the tea party? Suddenly, Kikko realizes her trip through the woods has turned into something magical.
Kiyoshi’s love for making paper lanterns becomes a problem when it distracts him from learning the more practical farming skills taught to him by his father. Fascinated by dragonflies that hum in their rice paddy, Kiyoshi crafts a lantern that changes his destiny.
In this gently told picture book, a young girl is unhappy about having to leave the city for a family vacation on the Pacific Ocean (which she used to call the Specific Ocean). As the days pass, however, she is drawn to spend more time in and near the water, feeling moved by its beauty and rhythms. By the end of the vacation, the girl has grown to love the ocean and now feels reluctant to leave it behind. But as she soon realizes, it doesn’t ever have to leave her.
Bill just wanted someone to pass him the potatoes. Unfortunately, no one even noticed, not his mother, a very busy woman with an important job, not his father,a very important man with a busy job, not his very intelligent older brother, not even his very athletic little sister. If someone had noticed, the wonderful, terrible thing that happened might never have happened. But it did.
Mini finds a dog in the park wearing shoes but no collar and begs to keep him, but soon she realizes that whoever put the shoes on him loves the dog, as well.
Mr. Postmouse has loaded up his wagon and is ready to deliver the mail. From the lofty heights of the Birds’ tree houses to the inky depths of Mrs. Octopus’s ship, the intrepid letter carrier lets nothing stand in the way of his deliveries. This is an introduction to the postal system and an imaginative survey of different types of homes.
Born in Persia more than a thousand years ago, Ibn Sina was one of the greatest thinkers of his time — a philosopher, scientist and physician who made significant discoveries, especially in the field of medicine, and wrote more than one hundred books.
Tom lives in the countryside in the mid 1800s, and he’s curious what is it like in the town, the city, and the world beyond? It’s all “work and more work,” everyone tells him. Determined to find out for himself, Tom sets off with a bit of bread and cheese in a bundle. He encounters crowded marketplaces, bustling wharves, and storms on the high seas.