French

Croquette, a hungry orange cat, keeps stealing pastries from Monsieur Martin’s Paris bakery. Instead of getting angry, the baker offers him a daily croissant in exchange for keeping mice out of the flour cellar. The cat becomes the beloved “bakery cat.”

Nimbus, a little white cloud, is afraid of thunder and hides whenever storms come. A big cloud explains that thunder announces the rain that flowers, trees and rivers need. Next storm, Nimbus stays and happily waters a field of poppies.

Piquant the hedgehog loves hugs, but his spines poke everyone. Feeling lonely, he watches others cuddle. His friends knit him a soft wool scarf, wrap him up, and give him the biggest hug ever — no pokes.

A lion catches a little mouse but lets her go when she promises to help him someday. Later, the lion is trapped in a hunter’s net, and the mouse gnaws through the ropes to free him. A retelling of the classic fable: even the smallest friend can help.

Every night at midnight a silver train glides past Emma’s window. One night an owl conductor invites her aboard the Dream Train, with wagons of cotton-candy clouds, talking animals and a pool of stars. The last stop is her own bed.

Chloé finds a yellow umbrella in her grandfather’s attic that lifts her into the sky on a windy day. Flying over the town, she helps a boy whose kite is stuck on a chimney. Her grandfather explains the umbrella only flies for kind hearts.

Gaston the snail joins the garden race and everyone laughs at him. The grasshopper lands in a puddle, the ladybug stops to snack and the ant gets lost, while Gaston keeps going slowly and steadily — and crosses the finish line first.

Pablo the penguin is always cold, even in a hat, scarf and three pairs of socks. He sails north on an ice boat — which melts — to a sunny beach, but soon finds it far too hot. He returns home with a hot-water bottle and sleeps cozily with his family.

On Candlemas (la Chandeleur), Nathan’s family makes crêpes and Grandma explains the tradition of flipping a crêpe while holding a coin for good luck. His first tries land on the floor and the ceiling, but the third flips perfectly.

Gaspard, an old lighthouse on a Breton island, keeps shining every night even though few boats pass and the seagulls tease him. One foggy night his light guides a lost father and daughter safely back to harbor.