Europe

Materials from Europe

Lewis Clowns Around

Poor Lewis hates being a puffin. His brother Harris is great at catching fish, flying and doing puffin things, but Lewis just doesn’t fit in. He longs for a different life, far away from the crashing waves and tall cliffs of the Firth of Forth. Lewis finds the answer, and heads off to the circus to become a clown. He meets many incredible creatures: Carla Koala, Zorro the Highwire Cat, the Flying Blue Monkeys and Daredevil Pat. But when his act goes terribly wrong, can Lewis overcome his fears, find some confidence and save the day? A charming and hilarious rhyming picture book about a young misfit puffin who learns that it’s okay to be different.

The Gingerbread Boy

A folk tale classic by Paul Galdone, in a beautiful gift edition with gold foil accents. See if you can keep up with the Gingerbread Boy as he outruns a little old woman, a cow, and even a field full of mowers. With lively illustrations full of spunk and humor, this classic retelling takes readers on an adventure-packed ride with one of literature’s most beloved characters.

Irena’s Jars Of Secrets

Irena Sendler, born to a Polish Catholic family, was raised to respect people of all backgrounds and to help those in need. She became a social worker; and after the German army occupied Poland during World War II, Irena knew she had to help the sick and the starving Jews who were imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. She began by smuggling food, clothing and medicine into the ghetto, then turned to smuggling children out of the ghetto. Using false papers and creative means of escape, and at great personal risk, Irena helped rescue Jewish children and hides them in safe surroundings. Hoping to reunite families after the war, Irena kept lists of the Children’s identities.

Motivated by conscience and armed with compassion and a belief in human dignity, Irena Sendler confronted an enormous moral challenge and proved to the world that an ordinary person can accomplish deeds of extraordinary courage.

Little Fairy Can’t Sleep

Faith, the little fairy, can’t get to sleep. It’s a lovely summer’s night and magic is in the air, so she flies off to see who else is still awake. Faith meets a mother fox and her young cubs, who can’t get to sleep, an elf father whose children can’t get to sleep, and the sandman who is filling sacks with magic dust to help children everywhere get to sleep. Finally the little fairy meets a moth-fairy prince who takes her to the source of the night’s magic – a wonderful Midsummer Night’s party – where she dances until she is so tired that she finally falls asleep.This magical, dreamlike tale makes perfect bedtime reading.

Magic Wool

Activities with unspun sheep’s wool, also known as magic wool, offer a wide range of creative possibilities for both children and adults. In this book Dagmar Schmidt and Freya Jaffke combine their talents and experience, and show how to create beautiful pictures, as well as table-top scenes featuring figures and animals. They explain the process of carding and dyeing unspun wool to make ‘magic wool’. They focus on making pictures with wool, including scenes from several well-known fairy tales and festivals, before showing how to make simple dolls and animals, building up to an entire nativity scene. Detailed instructions, diagrams and colour photographs are provided throughout.

Magic Wool Fairies

Unspun sheep’s wool, also known as magic wool, is a warm vibrant material, perfect for making these beautiful soft figures. Christine Schafer includes detailed instructions on making fairies and angels for every occasion: flower fairies for a seasonal nature table, fairies for birthday celebrations, guardian angels to watch over a crib and, of course, a range of Christmas angels. This book includes step-by-step instructions, colour photographs and diagrams which clearly show the reader the basics for making simple figures, progressing to detailed instructions for making more elaborate versions.

Milon and the Lion

Young slave Milon starts his journey at home in Athens. When he sets sail on a ship bound for Italy his adventures really begin. He narrowly escapes with his life in Pompei as the great volcano Vesuvius erupts and destroys the town; he experiences the colourful life of the metropolis of Alexandria in Egypt, and he faces a battle for life and death in the Colosseum in Rome. When he meets a small community of Christians in Rome, he finally gains his freedom and finds a purpose in life. At the centre of the story is Milon’s relationship with a wounded lion who he bravely helps. Will the lion remember him and return the favour when Milon faces death at the hands of the mighty Roman emperors?

City of Wind

In the third installment of the Century Quartet, Italian author P. D. Baccalario continues the mystery that will take four cities and four extraordinary kids to solve.

PARIS, JUNE 20

When new information turns up about the Star of Stone, the object they found in New York, Mistral, Elettra, Harvey, and Sheng meet again in Paris. Harvey brings the stone to show to his dad’s archaeologist friend. And it turns out that the friend knows much more about the kids’ quest than they could have imagined. She gives them a clock that once belonged to Napoléon, and she tells them that if they can figure out how it works, it will lead them to another object of power. The clock sends the kids all over Paris, through old churches and forgotten museum exhibits, in search of an artifact linked to the Egyptian goddess Isis. But a woman with a penchant for venomous snakes and carnivorous plants—and her vast network of spies—is watching their every move.

Crusade in Jeans

Fifteen-year-old Dolf uses a prototype time machine and gets stuck in the Middle Ages. Trying to find his way back to the twentieth century, he joins a children’s crusade of almost ten thousand children on their way to the Holy Land. Dolf helps the children defy the terrible mountains, conquer disease and fight evil knights. Slowly, Dolf begins to realize that the real danger does not lurk behind the next mountaintop, but rather within the crusade itself.