Books like Mirette on the High Wire
By Emily Arnold McCully
For the kid who practices cartwheels until dark and won't stop asking to try the thing that looks impossible, Mirette is proof that persistence gets noticed. Elegant, hushed, and quietly thrilling, with the romance of old Paris rooftops.
An imaginary friend waits and waits to be chosen by a child, and when no one picks him, he does the unimaginable — he leaves his island to find his perfect match himself.
The smallest of twelve little girls living in a Paris house under Miss Clavel's care, one fearless girl isn't scared of tigers or mice — until one frightening night changes everything.
An aging donkey, dog, cat, and rooster, each cast off by masters who no longer want them, set out together for Bremen-Town to become street musicians and find a robbers' cabin standing in their way.
A boy afraid to go to school rides his grandfather's 1952 Ford time machine back through Big Papa's own frightening moments, hearing the same lesson each time: that's called being brave.
A bear cub finds a piano in the forest and, drawn back again and again, teaches himself to play beautiful music — then must choose between city fame and the friends who love him at home.
When every girl at the Paris boarding school falls sick on Christmas Eve, the smallest and bravest one stays well enough to take charge — and finds unexpected help from a magical rug-selling merchant.
A young boy visits his nana in the city and finds it loud, crowded, and frightening — until she sews him a special cape that helps him feel brave enough to see it as wonderful.
A young woman faces down a ferocious lion to save her father, then discovers he's a cursed prince — and must set out on a seven-year quest to free him from an enchantress's spell.
The Emperor's youngest daughter is so small and overlooked that no one notices her — until he is captured and locked away in a high tower, and only she can save him.
A jealous queen orders a princess killed for being more beautiful than her, but a hunter spares the girl, who finds refuge with seven dwarfs — until a poisoned apple nearly finishes what the queen started.
A poor woodcutter's two children, abandoned in the forest, discover a house made of bread, cakes, and candy — and the wicked witch who lives there has a taste for children.
A baby clown bounces off the circus train and lands in a lonely farmer's empty field, and the two unlikely companions spend a day together before the clown must find his way home.
