It's easy to appreciate a garden exploding with colorful flowers and fragrances, but what do you do with a patch of ugly vegetables? Author/illustrator Grace Lin recalls such a garden in this charming and eloquent story. The neighbors' gardens look so much prettier and so much more inviting to the young gardener than the garden of "black-purple-green vines, fuzzy wrinkled leaves, prickly stems, and a few little yellow flowers" that she and her mother grow. Nevertheless, mother assures her that "these are better than flowers." Come harvest time, everyone agrees as those ugly Chinese vegetables become the tastiest, most aromatic soup they have ever known. As the neighborhood comes together to share flowers and ugly vegetable soup, the young gardener learns that regardless of appearances, everything has its own beauty and purpose.
Bread comes in many sizes, shapes, and colors. Read this book to explore a world of bread!
There are many different types of families. Who are the people in your family?
Hitchiti legend has it that hummingbirds ate fish. In this pourquoi American Indian tale, you'll hear an explanation of why hummingbirds dine only on nectar today.
Who is the best trickster in Japan? Let the games begin!
Can Kanchil, the little mouse deer, trick a few crafty crocodiles with giant teeth? This Malaysian trickster tale gives a humorous insight into the difference between right and wrong.
This is a Lakota Indian tale about Iktomi, a lazy trickster who cannot be bothered to hunt for himself. Instead, he plays tricks and steals rather than earn an honest living. Will Muskrat teach him a lesson?
In this Nigerian pourquoi tale, long ago people could take bites of the delicious sky whenever they wanted to. People gobbled and gobbled and gobbled the sky. Soon the sky had to make some changes.
A poor, hungry man has to pay for simply smelling soup! Here comes the wise Turkish folk hero Hodja to the rescue. What will he do to help?
In this delightful story of perseverance and survival from Russia, two frog sisters learn the truth of that old saying, "It ain't over til it's over," or, "The opera isn't over until the fat frog sinks."
In this story from India, a poor boy's dream of having a drum takes him on an unlikely journey of discovery. He meets several people who guide him along the way. In time, he learns to make his own "magic" in this world.
In this chain story from Cuba, Rooster learns that he needs a lot of help from his friends to get cleaned up in time for Heron's party. Then the real fun begins.
In this story from Peru, we meet a baker who is so stingy that he wants to charge people just for smelling his baked goods. When the baker takes his case to court, the wise judge decides to teach the greedy man a well-deserved lesson.
In this story from China, when a woodcutter finds a magic pot that makes two of everything that he puts inside of it, he thinks all of his troubles have disappeared! Or have his troubles merely doubled?
In this story, a farmer and his wife match wits with a large, mean-spirited ogre. If they cant outwit him, they will end up with no crops of their own to eat or sell. This whimsically drawn story is based on an old Swedish folktale.
Three brothers embark on separate journeys to different parts of the world to fulfill their father's dying wish. In their journeys, they visit distant lands, find curious treasures, and learn the true meaning of unselfish giving when they need to work together to save a life.
In Puerto Rico, there are many stories about Juan Bobo, a young man with a good heart, but little common sense. In this tale, Juan Bobo's mother tells him to take care of their pig while she goes to church. When the pig won't stop grunting, Juan Bobo decides that the pig must want to go to church as well.
Many years ago, the proudest animal in the jungle was not the peacock. The proudest animal was the tiger. In this timeless folktale from Vietnam, we see how Tiger's pride leads him to covet wisdom and, with the help of a wise farmer, earn his stripes.
When the head of a Buddhist monastery decides to pick a successor, he sends the young monks out to accomplish one task. The monks must each steal something, but they must steal in such a way that no one knows they have stolen.
In this story from India, a farmers three lazy sons don't want to work, they just want to make a lot of gold. When their mother tells them about gold buried in the field, they discover the value of a good day's work.
A big, bully lion is no match for our old friend - the Clever Monkey in this retelling of a classic story from West Africa.
When two greedy jungle cats discover a large piece of cheese, they can't decide how to divide it fairly. The clever monkey comes to their rescue. Or so they think. After reading this trickster tale from West Africa, you will think twice before asking a monkey for help.
In this classic story from China, we learn why the sun comes up in the morning and goes down at night. We also discover why a certain farm animal is there every morning to greet the sun.
In this trickster tale from Africa, Anansi learns the value of being a good host. He also learns the truth of the old saying, what goes around, comes around.
Anansi is invited to three parties and wants to attend them all. He gives each of his hosts a rope to tug, ties the other end around his own waist, and waits to be summoned when the food is served -- but when all of the food is ready at the same time, Anansi is caught in the middle!
