The genesis for "Ten Small Tales: Stories From Around the World" came when Canadian author Celia Barker Lottridge decided the time had come to get beyond the familiar childhood stories of Little Red Riding Hood, Chicken Little, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. So she began a search of stories from various sources around the world that had the same magical properties as our traditional favorites. The rest are ten stories for children ages 2-8 that may one day become new nursery classics, illustrated by Joanne Fitzgerald.

The Ten Tales are: (1) "Four Legs, Four Arms, One Head," the tale of the strange creature a tiger encounters in the jungle in this tale from Malaysia; (2) "The Fox and the Walking Stick," a Russian/Ukrainian tale which explains why one fox does not have a tail; (3) "The Great Big Enormous Rock," based on an Indonesian children's rhyme that teaches the value of teamwork; (4) "The Old-Fashioned Bed," that comes from a variety of sources, all having to do with what it takes to put a little boy to sleep in a strange bed; (5) "The One-Turnip Garden," another Russian tale also involving a family working together; (6) "The Little Mouse and Her Grandmother," based on a Chinese traditional rhyme involving an encounter with a candlestick; (7) "Little Monkey and the Bananas," from central Africa; (8) "The Little Boy Who Turned Himself into a Peanut," and had quite an adventure, is from the Congo; (9) "The Journey of Tiny Mouse," a Khanti fairy tale; and (10) "The Magic Drum," an encounter between an old woman and a jackal, based on a version of a story from India.

One of the interesting things about this collection is how Lottridge and Fitzgerald try to make these universal stories, where it is the story that becomes more important than the culture. These tales might not become classic nursery tales, but they certainly reflect the universal elements of the best of that story form. Besides, when you tell a little kid a story for the first time, they do not know if it is a certified "classic" or not; they simply know whether or not they want to hear it again. Most of these "Ten Small Tales" they will want to hear again. And again. And again. And . . .

If you teach kindergarten and you plant seeds with your class, then this is a book for you! Two children, one boy and one girl, plant a garden. They begin by planting one watermelon seed. They continue planting, two seeds, then three, all the way to ten. For each number, a different kind of seed is planted. When they examine the fruits of their labor, they find their yeild is ten times what they originally planted! This is a great book to reinforce counting by tens. Some of the vegetables are actually grouped into noticeable groups of ten. Color words and other adjectives are used to describe every fruit or vegetable in their harvest. This book is filled with concepts that are introduced in kindergarten and a great addition to my classroom library!

Sam and his father take a train to Alberta, Canada from Iowa farm. They have bought land, built a house, and developed the farm. Sam's mother, sister and younger brother join them in a couple of months. Describes what it is like to hoe on a farm in the middle of Alberta with no nearby neighbors and flat land everywhere.