Michael Morpurgo

In spite of a storm and with a bit of human help, a struggling but tenacious robin returns home to its mate. There it finds its Christmas bird cake and a watchful, caring young person to celebrate the reunion. Realistic illustrations chronicle the bird’s intense journey, appropriate for any time of the year.

In Hamelin town, the rich care only about themselves and so refuse to pay the piper who rids the town of the rats. The stirring (and happily resolved) tale is made fresh again.