Acts one and two of the play are set in Father Christmas’ house in Sweden and take place in that holiday season. Regrettably, Father Christmas has come down with the flu. How will he deliver the presents? His assistant Elf dreams of playing Father Christmas for one night but Mrs. Christmas and her husband don’t think it’s a good idea. Instead they place an ad for a substitute and a young man who had once replaced the Finnish Father Christmas shows up. Angry because the Christmases did not think he was responsible enough to deliver the presents, Elf plays a prank on the substitute by not putting all of the presents on the sleigh. Yet Father Christmas has no idea that this has happened until his replacement arrives to tell him that he is short a number of presents. After confronting him, Elf confesses that he ate all of the chocolates out of spite.
Act three may or may not be part of this play; it tells the story of Saint Nicholas, this mythical white-bearded gift-giving figure who entered our imagination in the form of Father Christmas or Santa. Act three can also be performed as an independent one-act play specifically for younger children.
The work also features the Christmas carol “We wish you a Merry Christmas” sung at the end of the play; a recipe for Mother Christmas Chocolate Cake and a few easy drawings for Christmas decorations. Production notes and a script are also included by the author as a source for stage performance, or for script reading in a classroom.
Review: If there is a character with whom we never get bored, that character is no doubt Father Christmas. With its twist on characters from the holiday season and its foreign setting, “Father Christmas has the Flu” may appeal to a wide audience. Both adults and children may be entertained by this charming play.

Deep in the jungle, a boy named Mowgli is raised by wolves. He grows up to share the dangerous and exciting lives of his many animal friends-and enemies. Sometimes the hunter, sometimes the hounted, Mowgli must learn to live by the law of the jungle-and the law of man. Regular adventures with his friends and enemies among the Jungle-People--cobras, panthers, bears, and tigers--hone this man-cub's strength and cleverness and whet every reader's imagination. Mowgli's story is interspersed with other tales of the jungle, such as "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," lending depth and diversity to our understanding of Kipling's India. In much the same way Mowgli is carried away by the Bandar-log monkeys, young readers will be caught up by the stories, swinging from page to page, breathless, thrilled, and terrified. No child should be allowed to grow up without reading The Jungle Books.

Written for Ralph Waldo Emerson's daughter, Ellen, when Alcott was 16, and first published in 1855, Flower Fables is a treasury of prosy fairy tales. Readers meet a cast of elves, fairies, brownies and sprites, sentient flowers, and other real and imagined characters. Thinly disguised morality lessons told in an over-upholstered style, they instruct the audience in the importance of various virtues. This book would make a good bedtime storybook, and like many tales of old, has good morals that children could take away with them perhaps without even realizing there was a lesson involved.

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826 - 1887) (AKA Dinah Craik, Dinah Maria Craik, Dinah Mulock Craik, and simply Miss Mulock or Mrs. Craik) English novelist and poet; Born Dinah Maria Mulock, the name under which her first works were published. She wrote poetry from an early age and helped her mother teach in a small school. To read Miss Mulock's fairy tales is to enter a fabulous world of dreams and visions, philosophy and passion. This landmark collection contains thirty-seven of Miss Mulock's finest stories in this genre The Fairy Book of Dinah Maria Mulock will challenge and enchant readers of all ages.

Doctor Dolittle--a 19th-century English physician--has never been one for worrying much. Even after his human patients desert him (when one too many sit on one of the doctor's unusual parlor pets), he manages to convert gracefully to animal medicine. Having mastered animal language along the way (with the help of his caustic yet amusing parrot, Polynesia), he has a good head start in his practice. Then, one cold, dark winter night, as the doctor and his pets sit around the fire, a message arrives, via sparrow, from Africa. A terrible epidemic has broken out among the monkeys, and Doctor Dolittle is the only one who can save them. The beneficent physician checks his money box--not a penny left. But the fate of Africa's ailing apes lays squarely on his shoulders.
And so begins the delightful, whimsical adventures that are still enthralling readers three quarters of a century after their original 1920 publication. Hugh Lofting, winner of the 1923 Newbery Medal for The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, has more than a knack for storytelling. His ability to imbue in his characters--human and animal--distinct, unique personalities is remarkable, and his respect for the rights of all who share the planet shines throughout. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter

The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859), were born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, in the German state of Hesse. Throughout their lives they remained close friends, and both studied law at Marburg University. Jacob was a pioneer in the study of German philology, and although Wilhelm's work was hampered by poor health the brothers collaborated in the creation of a German dictionary, not completed until a century after their deaths. But they were best (and universally) known for the collection of over two hundred folk tales they made from oral sources and published in two volumes of 'Nursery and Household Tales' in 1812 and 1814. Although their intention was to preserve such material as part of German cultural and literary history, and their collection was first published with scholarly notes and no illustration, the tales soon came into the possession of young readers. This was in part due to Edgar Taylor, who made the first English translation in 1823, selecting about fifty stories 'with the amusement of some young friends principally in view.' They have been an essential ingredient of children's reading ever since.

This charming series retells classic fairy tales with bright illustrations and a clever tone. The stories in the Little Pebbles series have been adapted for children today while respecting the richness and flavor of the original versions. The small size of the books and their warm, inviting illustrations will appeal to children, who will also love the game page at the end of each book and will want to read all the books in the series.
A poor shoemaker's shop is blessed with a nightly miracle: scraps of leather left on the worktable mysteriously become beautiful shoes that sell immediately the next day! When the shoemaker and his wife discover who has been bringing them good fortune, they show their gratitude by leaving a special Christmas gift.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the publication of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, master paper engineer Robert Sabuda has created a pop-up version of Dorothy's adventures in Oz that fans will find hard to resist. Modeling his depictions of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the rest after W. W. Denslow's original art, Sabuda adds a third dimension that would have rocked Denslow's--and Baum's--world. A rapidly spinning cyclone actually casts a breeze over the startled reader's face. Glorious red poppies wave seductively in a field. And the Emerald City positively glitters with green, especially when young readers try on the special tinted "Spectacles for You" provided in a pocket on the page. The abridged text, provided in minibooklets set onto each page, covers enough basics for the Oz novice, but we recommend a read-aloud of the original, as well, for all the glory and detail of Baum's fantastic tale. Sabuda's homage to the classic is truly spectacular; even purists will gasp in delight at the sight of the humbug wizard floating away in his shiny green, gold, and blue hot-air balloon. This great introduction to the story of Oz doubles as a fun collector's item

In this kinder, gentler version of the old French fairy tale, the poor cinderwench forgives her stepsisters in the end and gives them a home in her palace. This Cinderella is pretty, but not perfect, and instead of having the tiniest feet in the kingdom, she in fact has wide feet (which fit the glass slipper nonetheless). From the details of the ball gowns to the trees of jewels glittering at the palace, Susan Jeffers's glowing, imaginative artwork is breathtaking. Jeffers has illustrated many fairy tales, as well as the popular McDuff books. With pen and ink and brilliant colors, she creates paintings of exquisite detail and clarity, wonderfully showcased by this book's large format and abundant full-page illustrations. The magical transformation of Cinderella into a beautiful princess never fails to capture the imagination of young ones, and this lovely edition is sure to be a hit. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

The District of Columbia born Christopher Pearse Cranch attended Columbian College and Harvard Divinity School and briefly held a position as a Unitarian minister. Later, he pursued various occupations: a magazine editor, caricaturist, children's fantasy writer (the Huggermugger books), poet, translator, and landscape painter. The Last of the Huggermuggers is a Gulliver-like tale of a shipwrecked sailor on an island inhabited by two giants. Kobboltzo (1857), its sequel, deals with an evil dwarf living on the same island.

Clear plots, careful prose style, and bright, action-packed illustrations have catapulted Paul Galdone's takes on traditional tales to the top of teachers' and librarians' lists for decades. Galdone retold and illustrated many folk and fairy tales during his long career, including The Gingerbread Boy, The Little Red Hen, Puss in Boots, and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. His stories always have an exact picture-to-text match and a thoughtful distribution of text to illustration, making them excellent choices for reading aloud to a group of children.
This edition of the popular story of three porcine siblings and one wily wolf has endured for almost 30 years--the building of different kinds of houses, the wolf's various attempts to lure the smart pig from his brick house, and the satisfying denouement, where the wolf lands in the pot of boiling water as the main course for the pig's supper. Before children can understand a hilarious parody such as Jon Scieszka's The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, they should get a delicious, Galdone-style taste of the real McCoy. (Ages 3 to 6) --This text refers to the School & Library Binding edition.

The Jataka Tales might have originated hundreds of years ago, but today their main message - on how to live morally - is no less relevant. Jataka means "birth story." These are stories which chronicle the former incarnations of the hero, a Bodhisattva or Buddha-to-be, from the time he resolved to "live to benefit the world" until he became enlightened. Since he had made his vow of compassion ninety-one aeons ago, these tales describe incidents in both animal and human incarnations. Some relate the mistakes he made and point out the lessons learned; others dwell on acts of kindness and wisdom which, while furthering his attainment of the Virtues (Paramitas), helped and ennobled all those about him.