An eco-critical story on friendship, survival and environmental pollution reminding us to keep trash out of the sea. Tally, a little Turtle, and her friend Ara, a red lobster, are swimming through the Pacific Ocean when they come upon some funnily-shaped, colorful objects floating by. What seems like a dream turns into a nightmare: Tally […]
This little story on environmental pollution follows Stanley – who is no ordinary jellyfish but a little plastic bag that was thrown into the ocean. Foregrounding the dangers for sea creatures who want to take a bite of Stanley, this story makes clear that plastic bags do not belong in the sea. As the story […]
This classic tale is based on a true story featuring the loyal and faithful dog Bobby: Over a hundred years ago in Edinburgh, the little Bobby would return for fourteen years, day by day, to his master’s graveside. His story is retold from the perspective of Tom and Becky, two children who are on a […]
A rhyming, eco-critical story about the relativity of prejudices and stereotypes, the importance of friendship and environmental protection: “This is a tale of a tiny snail and a great big, grey-blue humpback whale…”
A collection of Wilde’s tales of true beauty, the celebration of loyalty, selfless love, wit and aestheticism published in The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891). In “The Selfish Giant”, a giant chases children playing in his garden off and builds a high wall to keep them out. From […]
A prototypical poem of British Romanticism drawing upon the city-country-dichotomy. In Wordsworth’s famous poem, the speaker describes encountering a field of daffodils beside a lake. The overwhelming image of the dancing flowers will remain and spend “bliss and solitude” whenever the speaker feels “vacant” or in “pensive mood”.
Three verses verbalise the answer to the child’s question, while exploring the motif of cars as a symbol for the standard of living and environmental pollution.
A coming-of-age story about friendship, abilities and weaknesses, childhood and imagination. Winnie-the-Pooh is a honey-loving teddy bear who lives in the forest. There he experiences all kinds of adventures together with his friends: A piglet, an owl, a rabbit, a donkey, a kangaroo and a human boy named Christopher Robin.
A biographical novel on racism, colonialism, dispossession, loss, identity and the ‘Stolen Generations’. This personal account tells the story of three young Aboriginal girls: After they have been taken away from their parents, Molly, Daisy and Gracie manage to escape from the Moor River Native settlement – an internment camp for Aboriginal people. They set […]
A dystopian novel on social inequality, manipulative tendencies in the media and autocratic governments. In the trilogy’s first part, 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12, which is part of a post-apocalyptic society controlled by a brutal regime. On the Day of Reaping each district offers two teenagers as ‘tributes’ to participate in the Hunger […]
A story about religion, struggle for survival and the relativity of truth. Yann Martel’s Life of Pi follows a young man who survives a shipwreck in a lifeboat with a large Bengal tiger – resisting hunger, thirst, fear and loneliness for 227 days. Growing up in India as a son of a zookeeper, “Pi” Patel studies […]
This young adult fiction is the debut novel from the magical realist Harry Potter series. Harry is an orphan, living with his aunt and uncle and their son Dudley. He finds out that he is no ordinary boy at all, when on his 11th birthday he receives an invitation to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft […]
This award-winning childhood classic follows the life cycle of a very hungry caterpillar that hatches from a tiny egg and eventually transforms into a beautiful butterfly after eating quantities of food. The story, which was adapted and translated in more than 60 languages covers vocabulary related to different kinds of fruit and food, the days of the week and counting up […]
A rhyming story about a clever little mouse taking a stroll in the deep, dark woods. To evade the dangerous animals (fox, owl, snake) it meets there, the little mouse invents a monstrous friend …and finally meets the “Gruffalo”.
The Mr. Men and Little Miss series introduces different title characters and their dominant character traits to convey a simple moral lesson. Together the characters experience adventures – e.g. in London, where they are on a busy tour through the city exploring its sights, including Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and the Tower of London.
Jonathan London’s Froggy Series follows Froggy the little frog, an eternal optimist with big plans – always ready to embark on a new adventure. In “Froggy Goes to School” the reader accompanies the main character on his first day in new surroundings.
A collection of Australia’s ancient aboriginal legends, myth and tales. This book offers ten authentic stories about how the rainbow serpent created and populated the world with plants and creatures, why frogs croak, why the kangaroo has a pouch, and how the crocodile got its scales. The beautiful illustrations that support the stories are drawn […]
A witty, lighthearted short story about vanity, desire and competition that satirized the manners of the Edwardian upper class. Mrs. Packletide, an English aristocrat of the Edwardian era, wants to demonstrate her superiority to her social competitor Mrs. Bimberton and therefore plans to hunt a tiger. With the help of an entire village and a […]