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Find early literacy tips and children's books on the Children's Blog. Discover your next great read on the Books Movies Music Blog. Dig into Nashville history with the Community History Blog. Listen to stories, history, and culture on NPL Podcasts. Please see this Note for Readers.

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A young man is determined to marry a princess. Will he be able to accomplish the King’s impossible tasks on his own, or will he need a bit of help from someone who wants him to succeed?

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Today’s author, Mary Lerner, had her 1916 story “Little Selves” published in the September issue of Atlantic Monthly and was chosen by editor Edward J. O’Brien for The Twenty Best American Short Stories of 1916, as well as the Best American Short Stories of the Century collection edited by John Updike and Katrina Kenison, published in 1999.

In his criticism of the story, O’Brien wrote: “Little Selves” by Mary Lerner is little more than a succession of dream pictures portrayed as they cross the consciousness of an old woman who has lived well and is dying happily.  But these pictures are so delicately woven, and so tenderly touched with beauty, that they will not easily be forgotten. I am tempted to say that a success such as this could not be repeated.  It is a happy accident.”
 

Naomi Shihab Nye's 1994 picture book, Sitti's Secrets, is about a young girl, Mona, and her Sitti, her grandmother, who lives in Palestine. This book captures the essence of the love that can persist despite being worlds apart. Mona remembers her visit to meet her Sitti, and the simple fun they shared together, although they did not share a language. Thirty years after the publication of this book, it is ever relevant. This beautiful read is just one of many children's books about Palestinian children and a tender longing feeling for one's distant homeland and loved ones. 

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A Clever duckling loans money to the King, who refuses to repay the loan. When Drakestail and his unusual friends seek repayment, how far will the king go to avoid paying what he owes?

Cover of picture book "The Ferris Wheel." Image has large goldfish floating in foreground above a ferris wheel set off in a rectangular stone arch. There are queues of people flanking each side of stone arch framing the ferris wheel. On the left hand side, there is boy with his mother. He is wearing a yellow raincoat. On the right hand side a girl is accompanied by her father. She wears red, and he carries a blue suitcase.

In the Turkish import The Ferris Wheel, the stories of a boy and a girl living in different parts of the world intertwine in an exceedingly moving and timely picture book.