Books like Baboushka and the Three Kings
By Ruth Robbins
For families who mark the quiet, searching side of the holiday season, this old Russian tale sits gently alongside the busier Christmas stories. Wintry, hushed, and reflective, with a folk-tale gravity.
A tree loves a boy so completely that she gives him her apples, her branches, and finally her trunk, asking nothing in return as he grows old.
A young girl in Pakistan wishes for a magic pencil to fix small things — the smell of garbage, an extra hour of sleep — then realizes the world needs bigger fixes, and she can work toward them herself.
A servant girl in her own home dreams of attending the royal ball, until a fairy godmother's magic gives her a gown, a coach, and one midnight deadline.
A girl living in a tent camp finds comfort in her only friend, a pebble that listens to her stories — until a frightened, lost little boy arrives and needs comfort too.
A sheltered prince leaves his palace, encounters suffering and death for the first time, and gives up his family and wealth to search for the truth of life — a journey that ends in enlightenment beneath a bodhi tree.
A lonely little girl finds a star that has fallen out of the sky and becomes its friend, but when the star grows sick, she must decide whether to let it go home.
A poor washerwoman on the island of Martinique uses her mother's magic wand to help her beloved goddaughter Cendrillon win the heart of a rich man's son.
A penniless orphan boy travels to London hoping to find his fortune, and it's his clever cat's rat-catching skill that changes both their lives forever.
A quiet meditation on the everyday moments — love and loss, hope and joy, wonder and mystery — that thread through every single life, shown through glowing art and spare text.
A young donkey finds a magic pebble that grants wishes, but a panicked wish during a scary encounter with a lion turns him into a rock — with no way to wish himself back.
Imprisoned with her family at a WWII incarceration camp, a young woman finds a small library and, in it, a quiet friendship with a man who checks out an armful of books every single day.
Scarred from tending the fire, a girl and her two beautiful but cruel sisters all try to win the hand of a rich, powerful Invisible Being — but only his sister's watchful gaze can tell who has truly seen him.
