Materials from the Americas
A rabbit and a squirrel are alone and lonely, each wishing for a friend. Obviously they’d be perfect friends for each other. But as they go through their day, they keep missing each other, each totally oblivious to the other’s presence. When they finally—and literally—bump into each other, each has found a friend at last. Young children will enjoy being smarter and more observant than these silly characters and will also rejoice at their success.
The northern lights shine, women gather to eat raw caribou meat and everyone could be family in this ode to small-town life in Nunavut, written in English and Inuktitut. Sisters Angnakuluk Friesen and Ippiksaut Friesen collaborate on this story about what it’s like to grow up in an Inuit community in Nunavut. Every line about the hometown in this book will have readers thinking about what makes their own hometowns unique. With strong social studies curriculum connections, Only in My Hometown introduces young readers to life in the Canadian North, as well as the Inuit language and culture.
Pandora lives alone, in a world of broken things. She makes herself a handsome home, but no one ever comes to visit. Then one day something falls from the sky . . . a bird with a broken wing. Little by little, Pandora helps the bird grow stronger. Little by little, the bird helps Pandora feel less lonely. The bird begins to fly again, and always comes back—bringing seeds and flowers and other small gifts. But then one day, it flies away and doesn’t return. Pandora is heartbroken. Until things begin to grow.
How does a fastidious old man with bowler, umbrella, suspenders, and a Salvador Dali mustache come to live on a deserted island? How does a boy come to live alone in an apparently deserted city? Are they separated by distance or by time? Does the man dream the boy? Does the boy dream the man? Is a blank paper in a floating bottle an invitation to imagine our futures? Is the man’s flying boat an encouragement to the boy to dream? Are the man and the boy the same person―the boy dwelling in the man’s memory? Is a message in a bottle the earthbound dreams of the elderly? Is a flying boat the unconstrained dreams of the young? This wordless, many-layered 80-page picture book invites all these interpretations and more. The intricately detailed illustrations reveal new wonders with each viewing
Most of us want to fly–even if we know we’re rooted to the ground. Especially if we know we’re rooted to the ground! So when a rabbit spots a bird soaring in beautiful, colorful loop-de-loops, a dream is born.
Three billy goats must outwit the big, ugly troll that lives under the bridge they have to cross on their way up the mountain.
Lou and her friends are BRAVE adventurers. They run FASTER than airplanes. They build MIGHTY fortresses. They rescue WILD animals. But one day, when they’re looking for a ship to play pirates in, Lou’s friend has an idea: Up there! The tree can be our ship! Ummm …says Lou.
The post office is closed, and that means it’s time for Mr. Postmouse and his family to take a vacation. Of course, he’ll need to bring along a few parcels a postmouse’s rounds are never done! As he and Mrs. Mouse, Milo, Lulu and Pip set off on an around-the-world tour. The scenes provide an introduction to the concepts of community and neighborhoods, as well as modes of transportation.
A leader among the Lakota during the 1860s, Chief Red Cloud deeply opposed white expansion into Native American territory. He rejected treaties from the U.S. government and instead united the warriors of the Lakota and nearby tribes, becoming the only Native American to win a war against the U.S. Army. Despite his military successes, Red Cloud recognized that continued conflict would only bring destruction to his people.
Colette can’t find something to talk about with the new kids in the neighborhood…so she invents a pet! Her fib quickly escalates, and suddenly her parakeet is a larger-than-life world-traveler named Marie Antoinette. Have her new friends figured out her secret? What will they do?