A tongue-in-cheek retelling of a favorite folktale follows the adventures of Donkey, Dog, Cat, and Rooster, four worn-out farm animals who seek their fortunes as musicians and find a comfortable robber’s den in the woods.
Europe
Materials from Europe
Hercules: The Man, the Myth, the Hero
Based on the Greek myth, here the legendary Greek hero Hercules recounts his daring adventures. Award-winning children’s book author Kathryn Lasky takes readers on a tour of Hercules’ incredible life, from his prodigious infancy, through his twelve labors, and ending with his heroic ascent to Mount Olympus.
The Princess and the Pig
There’s been a terrible mix-up in the royal nursery. Priscilla the princess has accidentally switched places with Pigmella, the farmer’s new piglet. The kindly farmer and his wife believe it’s the work of a good witch, while the ill-tempered king and queen blame the bad witch-after all, this happens in fairy tales all the time! While Priscilla grows up on the farm, poor yet very happy, things don’t turn out quite so well for Pigmella. Kissing a frog has done wonders before, but will it work for a pig?
Charles Dickens: England’s Most Captivating Storyteller
See the world of Charles Dickens spring to life in his fascinating notebook. Excerpts from his personal letters, guides to his major works, and enthralling facts about his life and times—including Dickens’s own amazing rags-to-riches story—are accompanied by fascinating new illustrations, drawings from the original books, and photographs from the period.
Chilly Milly Moo
While the other cows are enjoying the sun and making plenty of milk, Milly Moo is too hot to make a drop but when the temperature falls, Milly Moo shows the farmer and the rest of the herd what she can do.
Grace at Christmas
When her grandmother takes in a stranded family at Christmas, Grace is reluctant to share her favorite holiday with strangers, even though the visiting family includes a “real live ballerina.”
Across the Barricades
Kevin is Catholic. Sadie is Protestant. In Belfast they are supposed to be enemies – so what chance do they have when they fall in love?
Kevin and Sadie both know their relationship is dangerous. In these terrifying times in Belfast no Catholic boy and Protestant girl go out together without resentment and even violence flaring up around them. So what will happen if they insist on seeing each other?
The Last Musketeer
In Paris with his parents to sell family heirlooms, fourteen-year-old Greg Rich suddenly finds himself four hundred years in the past, and is aided by boys who will one day be known as “The Three Musketeers.”
Get Happy
Simple, rhyming text urges the reader to be happy by making such choices as teasing less and tickling more, or groaning less and giggling more.
Hansel and Gretel
It’s a tale as timeless as storytelling itself: two children, lost in the woods, stumble upon a candy house that isn’t all that it seems. From Hansel’s trail of bread crumbs to Gretel’s ingenious triumph over the witch, the details of this familiar fairy tale enchant children year after year. Now, in an update on her classic retelling, Caldecott Honor winner and New York Timesbestseller Susan Jeffers brings Hansel and Gretelto life for a new generation.