Little Blue and Little Yellow are best friends, but one day they can’t find each other. When they finally do, they give each other such a big hug that they turn green! How they find their true colors again concludes a wonderfully satisfying story told with colorful pieces of torn paper and very few words.
Italy
Materials from Italy
Brave Donatella and the Jasmine Thief
The jasmine plant was Duke Cosimo de Medici’s most treasured possession and he went to great pains to keep it all for himself. When the gardener Antonio clips a sprig of the forbidden jasmine for his love, he is sent to prison. Now brave Donatella, Antonio’s beloved, is his only hope for freedom. Antonio and Donatella flee the wrath of Duke Cosimo de Medici, and they use that rare plant to make a fresh start.
An Extraordinary Egg
Jessica the frog befriends the animal that hatches from an egg she brought home, thinking it is a chicken.
Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse
Everyone loves Willy the wind-up mouse, while Alexander the real mouse is chased away with brooms and mousetraps. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be loved and cuddled, thinks Alexander, and he wants to be just like him until he discovers that Willy is to be thrown away.
Inch by Inch
To keep from being eaten, an inchworm measures a robin’s tail, a flamingo’s neck, a toucan’s beak, a heron’s legs, and a nightingale’s song.
Nicolas, Where Have You Been?
When the young mouse Nicolas sets out across the great meadow alone in search of ripe red berries, he is grabbed up by the claws of a huge bird and carried high into the sky. But that is only the beginning of Nicolas’s adventure. How he gets the berries he was hoping to find, and learns to trust the very creatures he thought were his enemies, makes this Leo Lionni fable one that young children will want to hear again and again.
Six Crows
While a farmer tends his field of wheat, six hungry crows watch and wait in a nearby tree. When the wheat ripens, the farmer builds a scarecrow to frighten them off, but these ingenious crows are not so easily scared. An owl helps the farmer and the crows reach a compromise over the rights to the wheat crop.
Christopher: The Holy Giant
As Reprobus carries a child across a river one stormy night, the boy gets heavier and heavier until Reprobus feels he is carrying the world on his shoulders–thus goes the legend of the name Christ-bearer, or Christopher.
Olivia Goes to Venice
On a family vacation in Venice, Olivia indulges in gelato, rides in a gondola, and finds the perfect souvenir.
Galileo’s Treasure Box
While Galileo sleeps, his young daughter Virginia, later known as Maria Celeste, explores his study and discovers some of the tools he uses in his scientific experiments.