Material appropriate for primary age groups
This fun and fascinating treasury features all kinds of families and their lives together. Each spread showcases one aspect of home life from houses and holidays, to schools and pets, to feelings and family trees. A celebration of the diverse fabric of kith and kin the world over, The Great Big Book of Families is a great big treat for every family to share.
A child’s-eye view of London’s top attractions blends lively artwork with fascinating facts, and features a sweeping gatefold of the city skyline. London is calling! Come along on a mother-daughter day trip as they wend their way past the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, through Trafalgar Square, and on to Covent Garden. Listen closely and you might just learn a secret about the Whispering Gallery in Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Then it’s on to the Tower of London and the river Thames, where a fold-out surprise awaits. Readers will be enchanted by Salvatore Rubbino’s cheerful, sophisticated illustrations and abundant trivia about the one and only city of London.
A favorite back in print! A child discovers, in the old house and overgrown garden she passes every day, that wonders wait in secret. One day, on the way to the park, a little girl climbs the gate of an old yellow house. Although no one has lived there for a very long time, a little boy suddenly appears before her. “Come and play with me,” he beckons. He leads her through an enchanted garden, showing her all its marvelous inhabitants: a tiger playing with its cubs in the long grass, a dolphin leaping in the goldfish pond, a pelican roosting high in the apple tree. Then the mysterious boy is gone, the girl’s mother is calling, and all is as it was before. In this well-loved picture book, Blake Morrison and Helen Craig bring us to a place where, for a moment, magic is real.
Perhaps the most beloved of all Japanese folk tales is the story of Momotaro, the boy born from a peach. Momotaro’s expedition to the Land of the Demons, accompanied by his faithful companions, the Dog, the Monkey, and the Pheasant, is filled with fun and excitement for all young readers. One of five of the best-loved stories from Kodansha’s Children’s Classics series, printed in a smaller format with the original Japanese beside the English translation – and all with the same illustrations.
Hospitalized with the dreaded atom bomb disease, leukemia, a child in Hiroshima races against time to fold one thousand paper cranes to verify the legend that by doing so a sick person will become healthy.
After one last foray far from his home, an aging rabbit decides he prefers to rest in his own garden and let his children and grandchildren bring him good things to eat.
An old bamboo cutter finds a tiny child in the hollow of a bamboo stalk. Thus begins the beloved story of the Moon Princess, whose unearthly beauty brings her fame and would-be husbands from throughout the land, but whose destiny shines far off in the sky. The delicate color and detail of Kancho Oda’s illustrations, painted over half a century ago, create a mood of charm and mystery, admirably accompanied by the lilting verse of writer, translator, and lyricist Ralph F. McCarthy.
In a tale from the Ainu people of Japan, an elder is awakened one night by a fox who charges that the tribe is taking more than their fair share of salmon from the river.
Written by the mother-daughter team of Eriko and Anna Sato, this book introduces 109 kanji characters to children with poems and illustrations. It includes all the Japanese Government specified first grade level kanji characters and a sprinkling of simple second to sixth grade characters. The kanji are introduced in the context of 36 colorful paintings and poems by 14-year-old Anna Sato, herself a kanji learner. Each of the poems is presented in both Japanese and English, and all kanji are accompanied by furigana (small hiragana letters), stroke-order diagrams, sample vocabulary and boxes for writing practice.
Everyday Life introduces children to the vibrant world created by Shanghai’s Jinshan artists. From a watermelon harvest to an autumn festival to a child’s winter game, vivid, friendly peasant art brings everyday life in rural China into our lives. Simple, rhythmic poems, presented in English, Simplified Chinese, and Pinyin, beautifully accent each painting. Everyday Life’s colorful, bustling illustrations will capture a child’s imagination, while descriptive bilingual text invites English and Chinese readers to enjoy the sweetness of each page. ThingsAsian Kids presents a series of books introducing children to the beauty and wonder of Asia. Other ThingsAsian Kids books include My Mom is a Dragon and My Dad is a Boar, a whimsical introduction to Chinese paper cut art and the lunar calendar animals; Hiss! Pop! Boom! Celebrating Chinese New Year; and H is for Hong Kong, an international twist on the classic primer, featuring a lovely, hand-tinted cyanotype photograph.