Materials from France
the magical transformation of Cinderella from sooty serving girl to bejeweled princess never fails to enchant readers of all ages. Cinderella is someone we can admire for being true to herself, brave, and kind, and this timeless tale shows us how to become the best person we can be.
Loving the tales of her ancestors, who built a castle in the remote French mountains, Anise listens while her grandfather describes how their relatives were mistaken for dancing stones when seen by distant herdsmen.
Presents young readers with a journey back in time accompanied by the playwright Moliere as he provides a tour of seventeenth century Paris, discussing the everyday life of the people and visiting the famous landmarks of the city.
So goes the pronouncement of Cinderella’s fairy godmother as the ragged maiden, now magically transformed into a ravishing beauty, climbs into her magnificent coach and sets off for the prince’s ball.
With the help of her fairy godmother, a beautiful young woman mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters attends the palace ball where she meets the prince whom she marries.
Amidst light, shadow, and magic emerge the drama of a king’s decision, an angry thirteenth fairy, a prince undaunted by a wall of brambles, and a lovely princess, fast asleep. For at that moment, a thicket of briars grew tall and wide around her court and castle, enveloping it with mystery. A legend began to spread.
When the resourceful dog sets aside his brand-new book and drifts off to sleep, a curious little creature makes off with it. Polo follows in hot pursuit, setting the stage for a new series of adventures—into the sky, to a mysterious cloud made of cotton candy, through fun-house mirrors, on hot air balloons, across a desert and into the jungle.
Equipped with a backpack full of supplies, Polo sets off on a little boat–and on a series of delightful adventures that take him across (and under) the ocean, to an island and a frozen iceberg, to space and home again, with a world of magical encounters along the way. Polo’s journey is packed with incident and expression.
You can see it in the way the snowman’s eyes sparkle. Hear it in the voices of carolers echoing in the streets, and in the sounds of children trimming the tree. You can feel it in the warm fire dancing in the hearth. Meanwhile, the mother hen hushes her chicks, the pigs’ little tails curl in excitement, and the sheep nod knowingly as all wait in eager anticipation for a joyous Christmas surprise.
On July 29th 1914, the world’s peace was shattered as the artillery of the Austria-Hungary Empire began shelling the troops of the country to its south. What followed was like a row of falling dominoes as one European country after another rushed into war. Soon most of Europe was fighting in this calamitous war that could have been avoided. This was, of course, the First World War.
But who could have guessed that on December 25 the troops would openly defy their commanding officers by stopping the fighting and having a spontaneous celebration of Christmas with their “enemies”?