When Kay is lured from his home by the beautiful, cruel Snow Queen, his friend Gerda sets out on an epic journey to rescue him. As she searches, she encounters a series of strangers to whom she relays her plight. Charmed by her story and her innocence, each of them helps Gerda, so that at last she is able to find the Snow Queen’s icy palace. But at the end of her epic journey, will Gerda manage to set Kay free?
This fable of a young woman and a wild boy is a haunting meditation on the nature of love and loss. Maddy, an old lady now, arrives home one day to find a peculiar boy waiting for her. Over tea, she tells him the story of her life long ago, when she wished for her days to be as romantic and mysterious as a fairy tale. It was then that she fell painfully in love with a free spirit named Feather, who put aside his wild ways to live with her in a little cottage, conceived with her a child never to be born, and disappeared–leaving an inconsolable Maddy to follow after him on a fantastical journey across the sea. In a tale shortlisted for a 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize, Sonya Hartnett explores the mysteries of the heart, the sustaining power of memory and the ultimate consolation that comes to souls who live fully and fearlessly.
A collection of Jakaltek Mayan folktales, first told to the author by his mother and the elders of his Guatemalan village. They deal with the themes of creation, nature, mutual respect, and ethnic relations and conflicts. Told for the first time in English and illustrated with Mayan images, these stories and fables speak eloquently of an ancient culture, at once preserving its history and recreating its tradition.
Cinderella’s evil stepmother makes her cook and clean and dust and sweep until her arms ache and her head spins. But with a tap of her fairy godmother’s wand, the kind, mistreated beauty becomes a shimmering vision worthy of a prince.
One day a young girl named Feng Huang finds a phoenix feather that has fallen from the sky. When she tries to draw the magical bird and share her inspiration, no one is able to tell what it is. Luckily for Feng Huang, the Queen Phoenix sees her troubles and swoops down from the heavens to offer her help. A phoenix’s powers are not easily revealed, however, and Feng Huang embarks on a journey of thought, wonder, and self-discovery. Wisdom, Clear Sight, Equality, Generosity, and Right Judgment are worthy qualities indeed, but Feng Huang finds that they are only truly powerful when shared. Brilliant sweeps of plumage and flourishes of sparkles and stars accentuate award-winning artist Demi’s interpretation of one of the most intriguing and elegant creatures of ancient myth.
WHEN TOMAS AND HIS SON, Peter, settle in Chust as woodcutters, Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut, so they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn’t understand why his father has done this, nor why his father carries a long, battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know. But Tomas is a man with a past: a past that is tracking him with deadly intent, and when the dead of Chust begin to rise from their graves, both father and son must face a soulless enemy and a terrifying destiny.
A cruel and greedy king prizes a pearl necklace above all, but the kind-hearted young woman who becomes his wife gives the pearls away one by one to help the poor.
Tara is a dove. Before the flood, she brought messages back and forth between Noah and his family. Now she is confined to the small loft that Noah s grandson has built under the roof of the ark. For forty days and nights, Tara sits patiently in her loft, while outside thunder booms and rain pours down. One day Noah s grandson comes with a basket to take Tara to the deck of the arc. It s time for her to be a messenger bird again. If Tara returns to the arc, it will mean that Noah s house is still under water. If Tara doesn t return, it means she is waiting at home for the return of Noah and his family. Ruth Eitzen s gentle retelling of Noah, with endearing illustrations by Allan Eitzen, is perfect for young children.
The gourd containing the bow and arrow of the great departed hunter, Yayael, produces a torrent of water that becomes the world’s ocean.
The birds in the forests surrounding the Amazon River all have dark feathers until they decide to steal some colors from the Hummingbird.