Materials from Europe
“Down on the farm of Poor Old Joe, the hens won’t lay and the crops won’t grow.” With the help of his instrument playing friends, Farmer Joe soon has the hens clucking, the pigs hoofing, and the cows mooing to a hillbilly music show. And now, “…down on the farm of Clever Old Joe, the hens all lay and the crops all grow.”
Zarafa is a beautiful and gentle giraffe. The ruler of Egypt offers her as a gift to the king of France. She sails up the Nile by felucca, crosses the sea by brigantine and walks the last five hundred miles to Paris. People love it. And they love her, meeting and greeting her along the way, cheering her on. Afterward, the grateful French king places Zarafa in his own royal garden, where all of Paris comes to visit and love her.
This is a prayer for a blueberry girl . . . A much-loved baby grows into a young woman: brave, adventurous, and lucky. Exploring, traveling, bathed in sunshine, surrounded by the wonders of the world. What every new parent or parent-to-be dreams of for her child, what every girl dreams of for herself. Let me go places that we\’ve never been, trust and delight in her youth. Nationally bestselling author Neil Gaiman wrote Blueberry Girl for a friend who was about to become the mother of a little girl. Here, he and beloved illustrator Charles Vess turn this deeply personal wish for a new daughter into a book that celebrates the glory of growing up: a perfect gift for girls embarking on all the journeys of life, for their parents, and for everyone who loves them. Give her all these and a little bit more, gifts for a blueberry girl.
Iliona never imagined that her sea voyage from Greece to Egypt would lead her to Rome. But when her ship is boarded by pirates, that’s where she ends up — as a slave. Separated from her brother, Apollo, Iliona is soon at the whim of her owners, and the chance of regaining freedom seems like a distant dream. But unlike her brother’s plight, Iliona’s life as a slave isn’t as bad as she feared: her new family provides clothing, food, and even schooling, and best of all, she is free to explore the wonders of Rome. S
From July 1942 until August 1944, a young Jewish teenager living in Holland kept a diary. Published for all the world to read many years after Anne herself died in a concentration camp, it chronicled the two years she and her family spent hiding from the Nazis. Here is a sensitive and thoughtful biography about one of the best-known victims of the Holocaust.
A former member of the underground Dutch resistance force against the Nazis recounts her two years of covert meetings, perilous deliveries, near-confrontations, and life sentencing while she was still a teenager.
Feisty Rose takes center stage as the highly original Casson family faces a long, hot summer. As usual, things are a bit chaotic. Eldest daughter Caddy is now engaged to darling Michael, and she’s not altogether sure she likes it. Saffy and Sarah are on a mission to find Saffy’s biological father (while cultivating hearts of stone). Indigo is cautiosly beginning a friendship with a reformed bully, who desparately wants to feel like part of the Casson family. Rose, while missing Tom (who none of them have heard from) dreadfully, enters into a life of petty crime, shoplifting small items until her misadventures nearly bring disaster. An accidental trip to London and a visit with Rose’s father lead to a startling revelation, but through it all Rose’s single-minded determination to find Tom remains as fierce as it is hopeless. Oris it?Hilary McKay has painted the fond mayhem of this delightul family with such humor, warmth, and authenticity that readers will fall in love with them all over again. Once you’ve visited the Casson household, you may never want to leave.
Kidnapped from a train station and taken to the distant planet of Galax-Arena, Joella, Peter, and Liane are forced to perform dangerous tasks as slaves to the alien Vexa, until Joella deduces that they are still on Earth.
When the beatings she receives from cruel Aunt Latimer get worse, Kazy decides to run away from home and take her little sister, Beth, with her. Although the country roads of seventeenth-century England are full of obvious and hidden dangers for two young girls, she has no choice–Beth has become a frightened shadow of her lively self. Kazy is determined to save her. The girls travel for a time with seemingly kind tinkers who soon betray them in exchange for reward money. Quick-thinking Kazy has the courage to keep going, but when Beth becomes seriously ill, Kazy faces disaster. She is desperate to do the right thing. But once you’ve run away, it’s impossible to go back…isn’t it?Margaret McAllister has created a thrilling tale that combines the suspense of The Perilous Gard with the kind of historical adventure loved by readers of The Midwife’s Apprentice. Filled with narrow escapes, hardships, and discomforts, this book also celebrates the joy of independence, the unexpected kindness of strangers, and the deep satisfaction that comes from relying on oneself.
A companion volume to Demons and Shadows, this collection of eleven stories of the unexplained includes the tale of a nosy schoolgirl who helps a desperate ghost right a wrong and that of an antique camera that holds the clue to an old crime.