villages

Presents a bilingual story about the mayor of the noisy city of La Paz who institutes new laws forbidding all singing, but a brave little rooster decides he must sing, despite the progressively severe punishments he receives for continuing to crow. The silenced populace, invigorated by the rooster's bravery, ousts the tyrannical mayor and returns their city to its free and clamorous state.

"At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind--she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil. After Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa's new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows. And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa's stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or confinement in a convent. As danger circles nearer, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed--this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales"-- Provided by publisher.

Charlie describes his experiences living with his family in a small village in France.

Four old people recollect their adolescence in the German village of Devil's Moor and the unpleasant things that happened there.

Do?na Flor, a giant lady with a big heart, sets off to protect her neighbors from what they think is a dangerous animal, but soon discovers the tiny secret behind the huge noise.

Focusing on the village of Elton, in the English East Midlands, this book describes the food and housing of the peasants, the tension between them and the lord of the manor, and the place of the Church in their lives.

"The mayor of the noisy city of La Paz institutes new laws forbidding all singing, but a brave little rooster decides he must sing, despite the progressively severe punishments he receives for continuing to crow. The silenced populace, invigorated by the rooster's bravery, ousts the tyrannical mayor and returns their city to its free and clamorous state"--.

When the war between the Uplanders and Downlanders is over and Cam returns home, questions dog him, from how he lost an arm to why he was the only one of his fellow soldiers to survive, such that he must leave until his own suspicions are resolved.

Koji's village is like many others. They are poor, but everyone is doing okay. The children go to school. Study hard. Play soccer. Dream big. But boyhood ends quickly. Rebel forces enter the village. Boys are forced to line up. March. Train. Carry guns. Then kill.

In 1567, young Aphra is found in the marsh by two witches. They recognize her abilities in the dark arts immediately, but they are burned as witches before Aphra grows very old. Aphra finds companionship with the leper Long Lankin, but comes down with leprosy herself before being burned herself. Before she dies she casts a curse on her tormentors, and now, in 1962, sisters Cora and Mimi, last of that family line, find themselves trapped in an ancient house with a spirit bent on revenge.