Books like The Lion & the Mouse
By Jerry Pinkney
For the kid who's certain that being small doesn't mean being unimportant, this wordless fable makes the case with nothing but pictures. Quiet, sweeping, golden-lit — more hush than roar.
A lonely boy and a bluebird form an unlikely friendship, told entirely without words — until the bird risks everything to save him from harm.
On a snowy night, a girl finds a lost wolf cub while she herself is far from home, and the two must find a way back together.
During the Syrian Civil War, an ambulance driver stays behind in Aleppo when his neighbors flee, and finds himself feeding and comforting the many cats they left behind.
A Black girl named Clover is told it isn't safe to cross the fence separating her side of town from the white side where Anna lives — so the two girls find a way to be together anyway, by sitting on top of it.
A shimmering fish must choose between keeping his new friends' approval or standing up for a lonely striped fish left out of the group — right as a hungry shark appears.
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 gentle pony too plain for the beautiful horses inside the walled city ends up the only one who can save its children when the bridge breaks in half.
A discarded robot with a broken heart gives shelter to an exhausted bluebird in the empty space where his heart used to be, and carries her south with the last of his failing strength.
A shy mountain boy walks miles to a village school each day and is shunned as an outcast for years — until a new teacher, Mr. Isobe, finally notices what makes him remarkable.
A mouse dentist and his wife treat animals of all kinds for toothaches — with one strict rule against dangerous creatures — until a fox in agony forces them to break it.
After a hunter kills his mother, a young elephant flees to the city, where a kindly old woman takes him in — then he returns to the great forest with his cousins Celeste and Arthur to become King of the Elephants.
A mistreated girl mocked as Sootface by her cruel older sisters sets off to try her luck with a warrior who can only be seen by someone with a kind, honest heart.
