James Rumford
1) Rain school
Author
Language
English
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Description
The children arrive on the first day of school and build a mud structure to be their classroom for the next nine months until the rainy season comes and washes it all away.
Author
Language
English
Description
While walking through a forest of sequoias, a father tells his family the story of the tree's namesake. Sequoyah was a Cherokee man who invented a system of writing for his people. His neighbors feared the symbols he wrote and burned down his home. All of his work was lost, but, still determined, he tried another approach. The Cherokee people finally accepted the written language after Sequoyah taught his six-year-old daughter to read.
12) Tiger and turtle
Author
Language
English
Description
When a tiger and a turtle both want a flower that has fallen to the ground, they argue over it until a fight breaks out between them.
Author
Language
English
Description
A fable about a group of animals which strives to bring the perfect present to the Indian raja-king's birthday party. Discusses how the numerals we use originated in India. Who hasn't gone to a birthday party and had "present envy"? Who hasn't felt the pride of thinking of just the right gift, only to find out that someone else has thought of a better one? Who hasn't had to learn the hard way that the greatest gift of all is friendship? This is the...
15) The cloudmakers
Author
Language
English
Description
A Chinese grandfather and his grandson who are captured by the Arab army barter for their freedom by demonstrating the art of papermaking.
16) Mūsīqá al-ḥurūf
Author
Language
Arabic
Description
As bombs and missiles fall on Baghdad in 2003, a young boy uses the art of calligraphy to distance himself from the horror of war.