Marco Polo’s travels are recorded in a diary and scrapbook such as the great explorer might have kept.
Europe
Materials from Europe
Catherine, Called Birdy
The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.
Boxes For Katje
After a young Dutch girl writes to her new American friend in thanks for the care package sent after World War II, she begins to receive increasingly larger boxes.
The Thief Lord
Escaping the aunt who wants to adopt only one of them, two orphaned brothers run away from Hamburg to Venice, finding shelter with a gang of street children and their leader, the thirteen-year-old “Thief Lord,” while also eluding the detective hired to return them to Germany.
There’s A Hole In My Bucket
A retelling of a German folksong about a bear unable to water his flowers because every attempt to repair the hole in his bucket only leads to further problems.
Oliver
Paper-over-board novelty book with ribbon that shows Oliver the egg on one side and Oliver the chick on the other in penultimate spread. “Oliver was an egg. There was nothing he could do about it. He could roll to one side. He could roll to the other. He could even stand on his head. But he was simply an egg and that was that. Until one day, everything changed because miracles happen.”
A Gift From The Sea
Unaware of its eons-old history, a boy finds a rock and takes it home to a shelf beside his sea glass and starfish.
Idora
When the apartment building in which she lives is sold, Idora, a bored and lonely giraffe, decides to make a big change in her life.
I Didn’t Do My Homework Because…
How many excuses are there for not doing homework? Let us count the ways: Giant lizards invaded the neighborhood. Elves hid all the pencils. And then there was that problem with carnivorous plants. The excuses go on and on, each more absurd than the next and escalating to hilarious heights.
Paul Meets Bernadette
Paul is a fish who used to go around in circles. He made big circles and little circles. He circled from left to right and from right to left. He circled from top to bottom and from bottom to top. What else was there to do? Until one day Bernadette drops in and shows Paul that there is a whole world out there, right outside his bowl, with so many things to see. A banana-shaped boat! A blue elephant with a spoutlike trunk (be quiet when she’s feeding her babies)! A lovely lunetta butterfly, with tortoise-shell rims!