Books like Nana in the City
By Lauren Castillo
For the kid who clings a little tighter in noisy, unfamiliar places, this is a gentle reminder that courage can be handed to you by someone who loves you. Tender, cozy, and quietly reassuring, with a warm city glow.
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 young girl is separated from her mother at the last moment and must sail to America alone, only to discover the address for her family in New York has smudged into illegible ink.
A city kid worries that Santa can't visit her apartment building — no chimney, no room on the block for a sleigh and eight reindeer — until her family and community show her the Christmas spirit finds a way.
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.
A boardinghouse girl in nineteenth-century Paris spots a quiet stranger walking on air across the courtyard and begs him to teach her — not knowing he's a once-famous wire-walker now gripped by fear.
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.
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.
When a beloved baby blanket grows frazzled and worn, a boy's grandfather keeps transforming it into something new — until the day there's nothing left to remake.
A great-grandson wanders through his grandfather's topiary garden, where hedges shaped like a farmboy, a soldier, and a chickenpox-covered kid retell a whole lifetime one memory at a time.
A grandfather leads his three grandchildren up to the attic, pulls out his old bowler hat and tap shoes, and shows them the vaudeville song-and-dance act he once performed on stage.
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.
