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The sign in mendel's window
Phillips, Mildred
A small Jewish community is very trusting of a stranger who rents out half of Mendel's shop. But when the man returns to town with two policemen, will Mendel be charged with stealing?This closeknit community works together

The seven gods of luck
Kudler, David
Saohiko, Kenji, and their mother take a trip into town, to the market to sell their crafts and goods. They come across the famous Shrine of the Seven Gods of Luck.

The secret of the sachem's tree
Monjo, F.N.
The new king of England is going to take away its charter from a Puritan town in Connecticut. When the lights go out, the charter disappears, and the English can't take it.

The sea maidens of Japan
Bell, Lili
Kiyomi's mother, Okaasan, is an ama diver who harvests shellfish from the deep ocean in Japan. As a young girl, Kiyomi practices with her mom to become an ama diver, but she is very afraid of the sea. Kiyomi gains the strength to overcome this fear and become a diver when she swims with the star turtle, an animal she helped to save when it was born.

The school picnic
Steffy, Jan
Amish children have a full day of activities which start very early in the morning. After school, all the children and their parents go on a large picnic and have lots of fun.

The runaway wok
Compestine, Ying Chang
Ming lives in a poor family. He goes to the market to trade and receive food so he and his neighbors can share a Chinese new year feast. Instead of buying food, Ming chooses a magical wok. The wok rounds up the food and prized possessions of the rich to bring food to Ming's family and poor neighbors. Ming celebrates a wonderful new year, and he sells more woks to help other poor families.

The remarkable plant in apartment 4
Maestro, Giulio
Michael buys a plant from a man who says it will grow overnight. Amazingly, it does and takes up the whole apartment building. At first the neighbors do not like the plant, but eventually they come to enjoy their new life.

The red comb
Pico, Fernando
Vitita discovers a runaway slave under her porch. Vitita is determined to save the slave woman from the slave catcher. Vitita and sina Rosa furnish the woman with supplies through a mango tree. Vitita and sina Rosa come up with a plan to get the slave catcher out of town. After the slave catcher leaves, Vitita and sina Rosa introduce their new friend to the neighbors.

The rabbi and the twenty-nine witches
Hirsh, Marilyn
Once a month, when the moon is full, twenty-nine of the meanest, scariest, ugliest, wickedest witches that ever lived came out of the cave to terrify the villagers...until one day the wise rabbi invents a plan to rid his village of those wicked witches forever. The rabbi's clever plan works with hilarious results!

The pile of junk
Schlein, Miriam
An elderly lady, who lives by herself, decides to clean her house and get rid of all her junk. She puts all the junk outside. People walking by see her pile of junk and find something of use to them. Soon everything is gone and the old lady wonders where her pile of junk went.

The phone booth in Mr. Hirota's garden
Smith, Heather
Makio and his neighbor, Mr. Hirota, loved looking out at the ocean every morning while watching Makio’s father and Mr. Hirota’s daughter working. One day, a tsunami came and killed their family members, prompting Mr. Hirota to build a telephone booth as a way to cope with his grief. Soon after,  Makio and Mr. Hirota began speaking into a disconnected telephone while communicating with the loved ones they lost.

The perfect pancake
Kahl, Virginia
A Good Wife makes only one perfect pancake for each person in town until one day a beggar comes along and tricks her into cooking enough until everyone was satisfied.

The park bench
Takeshita, Fumiko
Describes a day in the park from a park bench's perspective. Written in English and Japanese.

The paperboy
Pilkey, Dav
While everyone else is still asleep, the paperboy is up making his rounds. He has to get up very early and get dressed, eat breakfast, and fold his papers. When he is finally done delivering his papers, he goes back to bed just when everyone else is getting up.

The paper dragon
Davol, Margueritte W.
Sui-Jen, the dragon, is awakened and begins to destroy everything. Mi Fei is the only person brave and wise enough to put the dragon back to sleep. Mi Fei needs courage, heroism, and wisdom to save his village from the dragon.

The owl scatterer
Norman, Howard
Owls overrun the village of Big Footprint Lake. Little does the town know that the old lonely man by the lake can help them. Jake scatters the owls and reminds the town of how useful he is!

The old ladies who liked cats
Greene, Carol
The order of the community is safe and secure until one night the mayor makes a law banning cats outside at night. Due to this, the community order is lost, and the town is invaded. The old ladies who liked cats point out the problem to the mayor who then lets the cats out at night so order can return.

The mushroom center disaster
Bodecker, N.M.
A beetle finds a home in a community of insects and small woodland creatures and makes many friends. One day the discarded remnants of a human's picnic makes a mess of their mushroom house neighborhood. Through a series of town meetings, the creatures come up with creative ways to use the rubbish to make a park.

The most important gift of all
Conway, David
Ama wants to honor her newborn baby brother with a special gift, as is the custom of the people in her village. When Grandma Sisi suggests the gift of love Ama sets off in search of this important present, but how will she know when she has found it? This story celebrates a young girl's discovery of the most important gift of all.

The moonbow of mr. b. bones
Lewis, J. Patrick
Mr. Bones is a peddler who sells all sorts of things,including sundrops and moonbows. The towns people always trust his products. One day, a boy tries to expose his wares as nonsense, but the boy is proved wrong.

The monster in the third dresser drawer
Smith, Janice Lee
In this collection of stories, Adam is very upset about his family's move to a new town.

The milkman
Cordsen, Carol Foskett
A milkman delivers eggs, milk and ice cream to various people in a small community. While on his route, he discovers a sign that says lost dog. He begins to look for the dog along the way.

The marshmallow incident
Barrett, Judi
The town of Right and the town of Left do not have anything to do with one another. Someone had even painted a yellow line that nobody ever dared cross. The Order of the Ambidextrous Knights of the Dotted Yellow Line, watch over the line as well as guarding their marshmallows. In June, the town of Right has their picnic, and someone accidentally trips over the yellow line. The knights immediately grab the closest ammunition: their marshmallows, and minutes later both towns are covered with marshmallows, until they realize how silly it was. The towns hold town meetings and no one could think of reasons why they should keep the yellow line. The two towns join together to wash the yellow line and socialize for the first time.

The market lady and the mango tree
Watson, Pete//Watson, Mary
The children in the village see many things they want to buy. However, they have no money, so they must wait until the mangos fall off the trees. Once mangos have fallen, anyone can eat them. A clever market lady tries to gather all the mangos so she can sell them.

The lost and found house
Cadnum, Michael
A moving truck and moving men load items from a boy's house until the house is empty. The boy and his parents feel differently as they leave and travel to their new house. The boy meets two children and hopes someday they will be his friends!

The lizard man of crabtree county
Nolan, Lucy
Join James Arthur on his adventure in uncovering the identity of the Lizard Man, who is supposedly causing an uproar in quiet Crabtree County. Is it really a frightening creature invading the community? Or is it a familiar face?

The little fireman
Brown, Margaret Wise
A small fireman and a large fireman attempt to fight fires of comparable dimensions to their size.

The little brass band
Brown, Margaret Wise
A band gathers on a trail, then go into a town to play for people. When they are finished, they slowly go their separate ways.

The little band
Sage, James
A diverse band of children march through a town, bringing enjoyment to the townspeople through their music.

The little auto
Lenski, Lois
Mr.Small maintains a little auto and goes for a drive. His drive starts in the country and continues through a town. After many adventures in his auto. Mr. Small returns to his garage.

The land of gray wolf
Locker, Thomas
Running Deer, a young Native American boy, helps fight the white settlers from taking over their native land. The white men kill many members of the tribe and take Running Deer and others to a reservation.

The itch book
Dragonwagon, Crescent
On a hot summer day in the Ozarks, the itch begins. It's an itch epidemic and no one can escape it. Finally, without even discussing it, the whole town shows up at King Creek for a social picnic full of cold, itch-freeing water.

The hunter
Geraghty, Paul
Jamina goes looking for honey in the bush with her grandfather. She hopes to see an elephant, but her grandfather tells her that it is not likely since the hunters have come. Jamina tells her grandfather that she wants to be a hunter. When she helps a little elephant whose mother was shot by hunters, she realizes she never wants to be a hunter.

The howling dog
Pearson, Tracey Campbell
A howling dog howls and barks all night until the entire town is awake. The howling dog is no longer lonely, so she stops howling and barking. The town goes back to sleep and so does the howling dog.

The house that jack built
Galdone, Paul
Jack's house is a lot more than just his house. Many animals and people have a connection to this seemingly simple house.

The haunted churchbell
Byfield, Barbara Ninde
A small town has a mystery to solve. The town's churchbell is haunted. With teamwork, the town solves the mystery and make a sad, lost hermit very happy.

The hallelujah flight
Bildner, Phil
James Banning fixes up an old plane to fly across the country from California to New York. James's courage and perseverance allows him to overcome many challenges during his 1932 trek across the United States (e.g., California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York).

The great trash bash
Leedy, Loreen
The mayor of Beaston tries to find out what is wrong with his city. He discovers that there is too much litter and trash. The community gets together and figures out ways to solve the problem.

The great fuzz frenzy
Stevens, Janet & Grummel, Susan Stevens
When a dog drops a tennis ball into a Prairie Dog hold, it travels down, down, down to their home. Once they've overcome their fear, the Prairie Dogs begin to collect the fuzz from the ball to adorn themselves. When word of this gets out, more prairie dogs come in search of fuzz, and a fight begins. The fight is ended by the largest of the Prairie Dogs, Big Bark, as he takes all of the fuzz to adorn himself. Just as the prairie dogs are about to get mad at Big Bark, Eagle swoops down and picks him up by the fuzz to carry him off. Big Bark then uses his loud bark to scare the eagle and protect the other prairie dogs.

The giant jam sandwich
Lord, John Vernon//Burroway, Janet
When 4 million wasps suddenly descend upon the town of Itching Down, the villagers decide something must be done. They set out to make a mountain sized loaf of bread for a jam sandwich that will hopefully capture the buzzing insects.

The giant apple
Scheffler, Ursel
Every year there is a festival where all the farmers bring their biggest vegetables. The same people win the prize for the biggest vegetables every year. The people of Appleville decide they will do everything possible to win. The next year they win the contest and have to eat apples all winter long because that is all they planted.

The gardener
Stewart, Sarah
Lydia takes a train to go live with her Uncle Jim who doesn't smile. Lydia uses flowers and plants to bring joy to everyone. She writes home to her mother, father, and grandmother to describe to new experiences.

The garden of happiness
Tamar, Erika
A multicultural community works together to clear out an empty lot and turn it into a garden. Marisol plants a sunflower seed in the garden, and watches how it grows and changes through the seasons, contributing to The Garden of Happiness.

The folks in the valley
Aylesworth, Jim
Using the Pennsylvania Dutch culture as a backdrop, this book uses a rhyme to teach the alphabet. For example, the letter E is represented by the rhyme Eggs are found under the fat red hens.

The feathered ogre
Lorenz, Lee
A terrible ogre comes to live at the edge of a peaceful kingdom. When he kidnaps the princess, a small piper volunteers to rescue her. In his efforts to do so, many secrets of the town are revealed and several spells are broken, allowing the people to live happily ever after.

The eensy-weensy spider
Hoberman, Mary Ann
Travel beyond the waterspout -- out into the garden, pond, brook, shoe store, and even the park with this determined spring-loving spider. Sing the all-time classic tune or just read with rhythm!This book will catch you in its colorful web and keep you on your toes as you advance beyond the traditional limits.

The drums of Noto Hanto
James, J. Alison
This true story tells the tale of a Japanese village defeating their enemy samurai. The villagers use their minds instead of weapons to scare the samurai. Wearing wild masks, setting fires on the beach, and playing the drums of Noto Hanto, kept the village safe.

The dinosaurs are back: And it's all your fault edward!
Hartmann, Wendy//Daly, Niki
Edward and his brother are going to bed when his brother starts talking about the rock under Edward's bed. He tries to scare Edward by telling him that it's really a dinosaur egg and that the dinosaurs are going to come back and terrorize the town. Edward's smarter than that though, and he turns the story around on his brother. Soon, his brother is too scared to sleep!

The deliverers of their country
Nesbit, Edith
Effie has something in her eye. It is a mysterious little dragon. Soon the whole country is invaded by dragons of all sizes. Effie and her brother Harry are the ones who discover how to get rid of all the dragons.

The day they put a tax on rainbows
Valentine, Johnny
In a magical land far away, there is a girl who has a magic ring which leads her to discover an undersea kingdom. In this kingdom, a boy who likes to feed birds comes face-to-face with a dragon. A king decides to put a tax on rainbows because his throne is lumpy. Throughout each of these adventures, lessons are learned.