Room For A Little One

That cold winter's night, beneath the star's light, a Little One came for the world. The Story of Christmas is told through the animals' words and deeds making it accessible and full of child-appeal. It brings the Nativity to life and offers a universal message about kindness to all creatures. Every word is special in this simple, well-crafted book from master storyteller, Martin Waddell. Perfect for anyone wanting a more traditional retelling of the birth of Jesus for young children.

Kind Ox welcomes Old Dog, Stray Cat, Small Mouse, Tired Donkey, and finally the baby Jesus into his stable on the first Christmas night.

This favorite Christmas picture book is now available in a reduced size, padded board book with bright red foil on the cover to share the holiday cheer. Full color.

In this enchanting new book, one of the country's most celebrated storytellers has gathered together traditional tales that have their roots in the cold and long, dark nights of midwinter. Herein you will find magical accounts of the Legend of Tinsel, the Christmas Cat and the New Year's Bell, with a number of wintery riddles to unpick while enjoying the festive season and welcoming in the New Year. With so many folk tales intrinsically linked to ancient seasonal customs, there are a few included here relating to traditions such as the Ottery St Mary Tar Barrels (Devon), the Viking 'Up Helly Aa' (Shetland) and Tom Bawcock's Eve (Cornwall). This is a book to curl up with in front of an open fire on long winter nights and to share and retell over a steaming mug of mulled wine.

In this book, first published in 1970, Ruth L. Tongue has collected a number of county folk tales recorded by her from childhood onwards, from old people, village children and farm round-the-fire sessions. Many of the beliefs embodied in the gipsy and witchcraft tales are still in practice today among the travelling people and locally ‘gifted’ healers. The tales reveal a good deal of fairy lore, some tree lore, including ghostly trees like Crooker, and the ‘uncanny’ Black Dog makes his appearance in more than one tale. The collection includes several of the long fireside tales which would be told on succeeding evenings on winter nights round the kitchen fire, and rhozzums from various localities.

'The Home; Or, Life in Sweden' by Fredrika Bremer is a novel that takes readers into the lives of the Franks, a Swedish family in the 19th century. The story unfolds on a Sunday morning as Judge Frank and his wife Elise discuss remodeling their home to increase convenience, but it soon turns into a discussion on gender roles and societal norms. Join the Franks and their friends as they navigate the complexities of social expectations, relationships, and personal growth. Bremer's masterful writing brings her characters to life, providing readers with a glimpse into a world and time long past.

Winner of the prestigious Prix Medicis and a bestseller in France, My Big Apartment is a humorous and ironic look at the serious subject of growing up. Always accessible but never facile, Christian Oster's books tell of the endless human quest for love and equilibrium in the world. Oster's gift is to make this timeless theme new through deadpan humor, a slyly cerebral style, and a deeply ingrained sense of melancholy. Gavarine, the gentle but immature protagonist of My Big Apartment, is ambitious only in the search for love. When he loses the keys to his apartment, he loses much more than access to his home. Yet through a true comedy of errors Gavarine ends up finding everything he was looking for, in a way he could never have expected. Though My Big Apartment can be read purely as a wry romantic comedy, the language is unfailingly rich in implications; there is always more going on in this story than meets the eye. At once unapologetically sentimental and overtly intellectual, Oster's writing belongs to that particular strain of French literature in which seriousness and jest, or passion and the cerebral, fruitfully coexist without effort or contradiction.

The facts narrated here continue to be experienced by billions of people every night, as they have ever since antiquity. The difference now is that communication of these experiences is increasing with every year that passes, without the folkloric and mystical connotations which have been attached to them for thousands of years.