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.
Asia
Materials from Asia
Sumo Boy
Sumo Boy saves a girl from a bully using real sumo wrestling moves. When he hears a little girl’s cry of despair, he jumps to the rescue.
The Amazing Discoveries Of Ibn Sina

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.
In The Moonlight Mist: A Korean Tale

A good-hearted woodcutter finds a heavenly wife in this retelling of a Korean folk tale. One day in the forest, a woodcutter rescues an enchanted deer stalked by a hunter. In return for saving its life, the deer offers to make the woodcutter’s secret wish come true.
A Gift From The Sea (Hindi-English)

Rani spends a day at the beach and wants to take back a gift for her grandmother. She finds many things on the sand: a feather, a slipper, flowers, even a starfish.
The Brave Little Parrot

Because the brave little parrot does the thing that comes from its heart as it takes precious drops of water to the burning forest, things change in ways no one could imagine.
The Broken Tusk: Stories Of The Hindu God Ganesha

This collection of Hindu folktales for middle readers features stories about the god, Ganesha, who is easily recognized because of his elephant head. Krishnaswami introduces the stories by recalling her own introduction to Ganesha and goes on to offer a mythological context for the tales. Included among the tales are Ganesha’s Head, The Broken Tusk, and ‘Why Ganesha Never Married.
A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America

Focusing on the lives of immigrants to the USA from all over South Asia, this collection of essays challenges stereotypes by allowing women to speak in their own words. This provides insight into the reconstruction of immigrant patriarchy in the USA and the development of female resistence to this.
Tiptoe Tapirs

Tapir and Little Tapir are the quietest creatures in a very noisy jungle, but when a leopard is threatened by a hunter they teach him how to move with a very soft step, and the other animals follow suit.
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly

No longer content to lay eggs on command only to have them carted off to the market, a hen glimpses her future every morning through the barn doors, where the other animals roam free, and comes up with a plan to escape into the wild–and to hatch an egg of her own.