Books like Rechenka's Eggs
By Patricia Polacco
For the kid who already knows that broken things sometimes make room for something even better, this is a quiet reminder that caring for someone in need always comes back around. gentle, folkloric, and warm, with a hushed sense of wonder around Easter and old Moscow.
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 strolls down Market Street from A to Z, buying a gift from each shopkeeper — who are dressed head-to-toe in exactly what they sell, from gloves to oranges to wigs.
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.
A small boy is invited to tea at the palace and always asks the same question — may he bring a friend? — and each time, a surprising animal guest shows up beautifully behaved.
A tiny snail longing to see the world hitches a ride on a humpback whale's tail, and together they sail to icebergs and volcanoes — until the whale gets stranded and needs the smallest friend to save her.
After an owl attack knocks a baby fruit bat from her mother's grasp, she lands in a bird's nest and is raised alongside three baby birds, learning to live by their rules — until she finds her way back to her own kind.
An overworked girl named Blanche shows kindness to a strange old witch-woman and follows her into a world of two-headed cows and dancing rabbits, where talking eggs offer a choice that will test her heart.
A lion wanders into the library one day, and since there aren't any rules against lions, he stays — quiet-footed, story-hour pillow, rule-follower — until an emergency forces him to break the one rule that matters.
A lion finds an injured bird in his garden after its flock flies south without it, and quietly takes it in, tending to it through the changing seasons.
A pair of cardinals build their home in a beloved evergreen tree, but when the tree is suddenly taken away, one bird must find his way back to the other across a great distance.
A beloved zoo lion, adored daily by townspeople who greet him with treats and kind words, finds his door open and sets out to politely return the visits — with unexpected results.
A little girl waits eagerly for a new hat from her favorite aunt, but when it arrives plain and ordinary, she sets out to make it beautiful herself.
