Materials from Europe
There’s nothing usual about what happens when favorite fairy tales are put together in a book, and the reader is asked to decide what happens next. It’s an entertaining and exciting adventure through the intermingled paths of a fairy tale maze.
Snipp, Snapp and Snurr were three little boys who lived in Sweden. They had blue eyes and yellow hair, and they looked very much alike.One summer, the boys went to the seashore with their nanny. Although they didn’t know how to swim, Snipp and Snapp decided to go ‘sailing’ in Nanny’s washtub. Luckily, Snurr ran and got help from their friend Nick. One thing was certain after that–it was time for the boys to learn to swim! It took many lessons and a lot of practice, but in time Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr proudly showed their parents their new skills–and then they even won a swimming contest!
In a risky plan to free her kidnapped lover, Oonagh cleverly solves the evil pirate king’s riddles, unites the princess Ethne with her lover, and invents sails.
Joe Jefferson is an ordinary schoolboy from ordinary Earth. At least, he was. But something strange happened when he was walking his dog, and now he’s Joe the Barbarian—fearless warrior-hero, summoned by Muddle Earth’s leading wizard to slay ogres, wrestle dragons, and bravely confront villains. Joe doesn’t feel much like a warrior-hero. But evil is stirring in the heart of Elfwood, and the people of Muddle Earth need help (although most of them don’t know it yet). Perhaps Joe Jefferson really is a hero after all. Actually, Muddle Earth’s only wizard. And he’s not very good. He doesn’t really look much like one either.
A tomten agrees to share his porridge with a hungry fox who in turn must not disturb the farm animals.
In school, Yuri is taught that the revolution liberated his country. He learns how the new leaders are always working for the greater good. But the truth is that life for his family and those around him is a brutal, poverty-stricken struggle. The government does nothing except punish those who protest. And one day, to his shock and horror, Yuri himself is branded an “enemy of the state” simply for dropping a few careless words.
In an author’s note, Anne Fine describes The Road of Bones as an adventure-escape story set in “a sort-of Russia, in a sort-of 1930s, under a Stalin-type leader.” This chilling political thriller follows the frantic footsteps of a teenager on the run, a criminal who hasn’t committed a crime, a young man on a path to discovering the truth about how far he will go in order to survive.
How does a money hat work? How does a stone make soup? Why doesn’t the hound catch the hare? Find the answers to all of these questions and more in this collection of short tales from past and present, near and far.
Like any young boy, Paolo becomes obsessed with what he can’t have — in his case, a violin. Hidden away in his parents’ room, it beckons the boy to release the music inside it. The music leads Paolo to a family secret, a story of World War II that changed the course of his parents’ lives. But once the truth is told, the family is reunited in a way no one had thought possible.
As Eastern Europe lurches toward chaos after the fall of communism, at last it seems possible to Letta that she and her grandfather will be able to visit his homeland, the tiny country Varina. Varina is presently split among three big neighbors, but why shouldn’t it be free? It has its own language and history, its own songs and dances, its own dogs and cheeses. Can Varina take its chance or must it go the tragic way of Bosnia and Croatia? Can one old man make any difference? And how can Letta help?
Across the world there are many an artist – But none so outrageous as Joe, the Fartiste.The Fartiste doesn’t sing, he doesn’t dance, and he doesn’t act. But that doesn’t stop him from taking the stage at Paris’s famed Moulin Rouge, where he performs his much-loved act for celebrities and royalty with the funniest talent of all. Joe is the man who has perfected the art of the fart.
Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer bring new wind to their mostly true story about “the man who made his pants dance,” which is perfectly matched with Boris Kulikov’s explosive art.