“Frankie is entranced by the girl in the red skirt, the gypsy from Romania who speaks no English. It is a terrible shock to him when his neighbours on the estate react violently against Emilia’s people, and what’s worse is that it’s his mother leading the protest.”
So, you’ve been in trouble. Your -parents tell you they’re calling the bogeyman. You laugh. There’s no such thing!
Then—you hear a sharp knock. Standing at the door is the oldest man you have ever seen. It’s el Cucuy (coo-COO-ee)! With that big red ear, he hears everything!
In this cautionary tale, storyteller Joe Hayes tells about two girls who didn’t believe in el Cucuy until he snatched them up. Of course, the story has a happy ending.
This soon-to-be-classic picture book centers on a large, adoring family with a new baby to love. Rhyming couplets describe different scenes, each built around the simple human gesture of “reaching.” A new mother reaches up to hold her laughing baby aloft. Dad reaches over to tickle Baby’s toes as the family lounges on a picnic quilt. Grandparents, cousins and other family members reach out to play and cuddle with the growing child. The little one also gets to “reach,” using his arms and hands to explore the wonderful world around him as he grows from a baby into a curious toddler. It’s only a matter of time (Mom realizes wistfully) before he’s “reaching” for the stars.
A little bird waiting in his nest for his mother to bring back food is blown into the sky, nest and all, by a great wind. Will he be able to fly? Autumn is coming, and George sits in his little nest, not quite ready to learn to fly even though his mom says it is time to head south for the winter. But when a gust of wind swoops George and his nest out of the tree and onto the roof of a car, George is off whether he likes it or not! With his mom following along chirping encouragement, George must gain the confidence to fly before his nest blows away entirely.
As he grows more and more powerful, King Solomon forgets the lesson he learned from a wounded lioness.
A small but clever hare and a fierce leopard agree to share a house, but as the hare’s family grows, he realizes that he must find a way to get rid of his bad-tempered neighbor.
Nii Kwei lives in Accra, the capital of Ghana. He gets up at 6 o’clock every morning. He helps his sisters and brother tidy up the compound, then he eats a breakfast of coco (corn porridge), bread, fried eggs and a chocolate drink. At 7:30 he goes to school in a taxi. Later, on his way home, he goes to Abraham’s material store with his mother. He ends the day playing football with his cousins, back at the compound. This book is part of the series A Child’s Day, photographic information books concentrating on the daily lives and experiences of children in countries around the world, published in association with Oxfam.
It isn’t that Abby Carson can’t do her schoolwork, it’s just that she doesn’t like doing it. And that means she’s pretty much failing sixth grade. When a warning letter is sent home, Abby realizes that all her slacking off could cause her to be held back — for real! Unless she wants to repeat the sixth grade, she’ll have to meet some specific conditions, including taking on an extra-credit project: find a pen pal in a foreign country. Simple enough (even for a girl who hates homework).Abby’s first letter arrives at a small school in Afghanistan, and Sadeed Bayat is chosen to be her pen pal…. Well, kind of. He is the best writer, but he is also a boy, and in his village it is not appropriate for a boy to correspond with a girl. So his younger sister dictates and signs the letter. Until Sadeed decides what his sister is telling Abby isn’t what he’d like Abby to know.As letters flow back and forth between Illinois and Afghanistan, Abby and Sadeed discover that their letters are crossing more than an ocean. They are crossing a huge cultural divide and a minefield of different lifestyles and traditions. Their growing friendship is also becoming a growing problem for both communities, and some people are not happy. Suddenly things are not so simple.
When Abby moves with her family to Israel, she misses her grandmother and during the dry Israeli summer, she remembers the fun they used to have splashing in puddles together
After a perfect day together with Grandma—feeding koi in the pond, folding origami paper in the garden, eating a delicious dinner, and listening to the “night music” by the water—Yuki realizes too late that night has come. Waving goodbye to Grandma, Yuki knows she’ll have to be brave to make it home without anyone’s help. Even though Grandma wants her three pets to accompany Yuki home, Yuki sends them back, because she doesn’t want Grandma to be lonely.