Джин Литтл – лучшие книги

Обнадёживающая и светлая история особенной девочки Анны Зольтен, которая смогла увидеть мир и открыть ему своё сердце. Неловкой и медлительной Анне нелегко дается всё то, чему без труда учатся другие дети. Но когда Зольтены эмигрируют из нацистской Германии в Канаду, для Анны открывается новый мир: она попадает в специальную школу для слабовидящих детей, впервые в жизни учится с удовольствием, находит друзей и общий язык с собственной семьёй. Честная, пронзительно трогательная и, в конце концов, очень счастливая история девочки Анны помогает поверить в людей и взглянуть на мир по-новому. Книга Джин Литтл впервые выходит с иллюстрациями…

Семья маленькой Анны когда-то бежала из нацистской Германии в Канаду. Теперь Анне четырнадцать, и из класса для слабовидящих её переводят в обычную школу. Трудностей в старших классах хватает, но девочку ждут и победы, и радости, и новые друзья. Анну горячо поддерживает большая и дружная семья, особенно старший брат - Руди. Но на пороге Вторая мировая война, и Руди записывается в военно-морской флот, чтобы отдать долг приютившей их стране и внести свой вклад в борьбу с фашизмом.

Сэм и Алекс, две десятилетние девочки, случайно знакомятся в самолете. Обе летят в один и тот же город, обе должны провести лето у совершенно незнакомых людей, и обеим предстоящие каникулы не сулят ничего хорошего: тихоню Алекс, обожающую читать, ждут лошадиная ферма и верховые прогулки, а энергичную Сэм, мечтающую научиться ездить на лошади, - уютные вечера в обществе хозяйки книжного магазина. Тогда девочки придумывают отличный план: они поменяются местами, и унылые каникулы станут восхитительными.

When a frightened girl and boy arrive on the Twiss family’s doorstep, to escape the Blitz, Charlotte wonders how she will keep her war guests from missing their parents back home, or from cowering every time a plane flies overhead. Though the war is being waged across the Atlantic, Charlotte begins to feel its danger, as her brother George defies their parents and enlists in the Navy. After months of receiving letters from overseas, suddenly there is no word from him — has the unthinkable happened and George's ship been sunk by a German submarine?
Charlotte Twiss’s diary shows her innermost feelings about her life on the Canadian homefront, as she helps her war guests "settle in" and wonders whether her brother is safe from harm.

Scramble is a little otter who can't swim. At the beginning of the story, we find him in the middle of writing a list. It's his Can-do and Can't-do List. The Can't-do side just says 'Swimming'. One small word. But not being able to swim is a big deal for Scramble. It means he's teased by some of the riverbank animals. It means he feels left out when everyone else is in the water. And it means he spends hours and hours sitting on his own on the slippery rock wishing and wishing and wishing that he could. But something is going round in Scramble's head. Something his mummy has said. Something his older sister has said. 'You've got to start smallEL' And so, slowly, slowly, Scramble builds his confidence in the water - overcoming each new incremental goal that he sets himself. Until, finally, Scramble really can swim! At the heart of this gentle story about learning a new skill is the message of encouragement - something that is important for toddlers everywhere.

A picture book for very young children and their parents. In it, barnyard animal babies ask their mothers who they are and each of them is told that he or she is the sweetest one of all. The book ends with a human mother telling her little one the same thing. And getting a loving hug in response. The playful text should continue to delight both children and adults even after many readings.
The colourful illustrations by Marisol Sarrazin are endearing and filled with lively detail. Each will hold small readers spellbound.

Ten-year-old Min has had a long history of foster care since being abandoned in a public washroom at age three. When Min is dumped by her latest foster mother just before Christmas, Jess Hart, a former Children’s Aid doctor who knows min and sees past her hardened shell, decides to take her home for a couple of weeks to see how the two of them get along. Jess has long had thoughts of a becoming Min’s official foster mother, or even adopting her. On their way to find a Christmas tree, Min finds a young dog that’s near death and brings it home. As the dog’s timidness and distrust of people begins to lesson, Min realizes how much she has herself been “walling” people out. Min starts to open up, makes some new friends and event stands up to her old nemesis, the bullying and taunting Laird. This is a story of and abandoned dog helping and abandoned girl open her heart and let in a new family. Jean Little’s incredible gift for portraying emotion and creating real people shines in this touching novel.

Fiona comes from a large and loving family where she, her older sisters and her mother are all twins. But soon her loving family is torn apart as the Spanish flu is brought to Canada by soldiers returning from fighting overseas in World War I. Fiona turns to her diary, pouring out her fears as her sisters fall ill with the deadly disease. Will Fee lose those dear to her?

Three familiar animals are gathered at a stable in Bethlehem — a donkey, a lamb and a camel. With them are a no-nonsense Persian cat and a small, frightened dog. The animals miss the baby who was recently born there. To comfort one another, each tells the tale of how it came to be at the stable for the baby’s birth.

Seeing-eye pup, Shakespeare, conquered many fears in Rescue Pup. Now he is back, about to be matched up with a blind boy, ready to begin his working life. Tim is enraged by his blindness and wants nothing to do with a guide dog. But he is no match for Shakespeare.

Jean Little is one of Canada's most beloved writers for children. She is also blind and currently living with her third Seeing Eye dog. Three times, she has traveled to the Seeing Eye headquarters in New Jersey to train with a dog, first Zephyr, then Ritz and now Pippa. For years she has thought about writing a book about the training of a Seeing Eye dog. Now she has done it, but Shakespeare is not just any dog.

Forward, Shakespeare! is the second of two books in a series.
Book one is Rescue Pup.

On a flight from Vancouver to Toronto, two girls meet, forming an unlikely friendship. Tall, athletic Samantha is going to spend the summer with a family friend while her father is in South America. Alexis, a shy girl who likes books, is being sent to a horse farm to learn how to ride while her mother and stepfather are travelling in Australia.

By the time their flight lands in Toronto, the girls have hatched their plots. They’re going to trade places for the summer. After all, the people they’re going to visit have never met them, and their parents are far away and hard to contact. But will they manage to pull it off? For how long? And with what consequences?

Nell makes two wishes on her birthday, but the next day they show little sign of coming true. Everyone in her household is busy and wants her out from underfoot and no one is willing to help her find her lost cat. In the end she finds more than a cat and she makes her own wishes come true with the help of a row of tall, bright, smiling sunflowers.

Jean Little, one of Canada's most beloved authors, got the idea for The Birthday Girl from her grandma's first cousin. The Birthday Girl is her third book for Orca, following Birdie for Now and I Gave My Mom a Castle.

Shakespeare wriggled joyously and reared up to lick Tessa's chin. He expected even this girl to love him on sight. Everybody always had. But Tessa was not everybody. She parted her knees and let him slither to the floor.

Shakespeare is a Seeing Eye puppy. But before the time comes for him to train with a blind person, he must spend six months with a girl who has never learned to love. He does all he can to teach her, but the job places him in some dangerous situations and by the end of the story he has earned the title Rescue Pup.

Jean Little is one of Canada's most beloved writers for children. She is also blind and currently living with her third Seeing Eye dog. Three times she has traveled to the Seeing Eye headquarters in New Jersey to train with a dog, first Zephyr, then Ritz and now Pippa. For years she has thought about writing a book about the training of a guide dog puppy. Now she has done it, but Shakespeare is not just any dog. Jean is also the author of Birdie for Now (Orca, 2002) and I Gave My Mom a Castle (Orca, 2003).

Rescue Pup is the first of two books in a series.
Book two is Forward, Shakespeare!

"All good pets have fur.
Only strange pets have no fur."
Emma's brother, Max, wants a dog. But he can't have one because Emma is allergic to furry animals. With her birthday just a few days away, Emma decides that she would like a pet for a present. After a trip to the store, Emma finds the perfect nonfurry animal. Will Max like his sister's strange pet too?

Jean Little's heartening and subtly insightful tale about the ever-evolving relationship between siblings is underscored by Jennifer Plecas's captivating artwork.

It has been two long years since Eliza's beloved older brother, Hugo, went away to war. Caught up in his enthusiasm, she couldn't understand her parents' less-than-enthusiastic reaction. Now that her other brother, Jack, has also enlisted, she yearns for the safe return of both brothers. If only she had a friend that she could talk to about her feelings...

All of the animals boast to little Pippin the pig about the important gifts their great-grandparents gave to the special baby born in a stable long ago. When Pippin asks what the pigs gave, the animals scoff--what could a pig have given a holy child? Soon all of the animals learn that the most important gift of all is a caring heart. Full color.

Bad Guys

''I'm tired of telling Batman stories,'' I told my little brother.
''Just this once, can I tell you The Three Little Pigs?''

''No,'' he snapped.
''There's no bad guys in it.
I like bad guys.''

So much for you, Big Bad Wolf.

I Gave My Mom a Castle is a collection of poems about giving and receiving. This is Jean Little's first poetry collection since the still-beloved Hey World, Here I Am! was published fifteen years ago. Most are prose poems, mini stories, told by a wide cast of characters from toddlers to teens with an adult or two thrown in for good measure.

Jean Little knows the joys and pains of growing up in the twenty-first century. She writes about being a foster child, being ignored or controlled by a parent, being the eldest, being the youngest, being hurt - or helped - by a teacher, teaching a parrot to speak, all with love, humor and depth of perception.

Kady MacDonald Denton has won many awards for her illustrations. When presented with Jean Little's poems, she could not resist illustrating I Gave My Mom a Castle. Her sketches seem ready to jump off the page. They are a great pleasure to contemplate all on their own and perfectly complement Jean Little's writing.

We've all heard of the old lady who swallowed a fly, but what about the old laddie who swallowed a flea? Evidently, he had more eclectic tastes than his distant relative, bingeing on a diet that included piranha, 'possum, stork, wapiti, giraffe, and squid. Acclaimed author Jean Little breathes a fresh spirit into an old story, and Rose Cowles's wicked illustrations add a whole new life to this quirky retelling of the cherished old rhyme, "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly."

One minute she was not there and the next she had dashed in among them, her dangling leash sailing through the air after her. Her silky coat rippled in the breeze and she had incredible ears, black and tall, shaped like butterfly wings. Her feathery tail curled up over her back one minute, streamed out behind her the next and, a second later, tucked itself out of sight between her legs.

To Dickon, that tail shouted, "I want to be friends I'm running away I'm afraid."

He understood the little dog completely. He, too, had felt confused and desperate.

Dickon wasn't happy in his old home or his old school. He hopes that in his new neighborhood he will meet children who never knew his old, hyper self, who will like him for who he is now. And he hopes for a dog of his own. Dickon's mother calls him Birdie. She feeds him milk from a teddy bear mug. She worries if he's out of her sight for a moment and she knows how filthy and vicious dogs can be. Dickon is delighted to discover that the Humane Society is right on the other side of the fence behind the new house, but only by disobeying his mother will he ever get close to a real dog.