German

Mimi, a hungry orange cat, keeps stealing pretzels from Mr. Huber’s bakery. Instead of getting angry, he offers her a daily pretzel in exchange for keeping mice out of the flour cellar. She becomes the beloved “bakery cat.”

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

Emma makes a moon-and-stars lantern for the St. Martin’s Day lantern parade and learns how St. Martin shared his cloak. During the parade, her classmate Jonas’s candle goes out, and Emma helps him relight it. Two lights glow side by side.

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

An old apple tree gives blossoms to the bees, shade to walkers and apples to the children. During a harsh winter, the birds, squirrels and children it helped keep it warm. The next spring it blooms more beautifully than ever.

Wolfi is a wolf who wants to be kind, but every fairy-tale character runs from him. When the seven little goats’ roof collapses under snow, he spends the night fixing it. The goats thank him, and the tale of the kind wolf spreads through the forest.

Bip, a street-sweeping robot in a concrete city, discovers a yellow flower between paving stones and waters it. Fascinated by the flower and a visiting bee, he plants seeds every night until an empty lot becomes a garden for the whole neighborhood.

Mia waits up for the Tooth Fairy and finds her under the bed with a cold and a heavy sack of teeth. Mia lends her a toy truck and a scarf, and in the morning finds a shiny coin and a thank-you note.

For his birthday, Ben takes a hot-air balloon ride with his grandfather over tiny houses, toy-like cows and the mountains. An eagle flies beside them and Grandpa shares his childhood dream of flying. They land in a flower meadow at sunset.

Gigi is the tallest giraffe in the savanna but is secretly afraid of heights. When a baby elephant gets lost in the tall grass, she takes a deep breath, looks far into the distance and spots him by the lake — discovering her courage.