Kevin Hawkes

A year in the life of a baby in Maine who is just like any other baby except that he is gigantic

In this cumulative tale, a host of Halloween spooks, including a cat, a witch, and a ghoul, are drawn to the tapping of a little girl's toe.

As they get older, several sisters decide that they must kidnap children and bring them to their secluded island home to help with the work of caring for an assortment of unusual sea creatures

A lion starts visiting the local library but runs into trouble as he tries to both obey the rules and help his librarian friend. Miss Merriweather, the head librarian, is very particular about rules in the library. No running allowed. And you must be quiet. But when a lion comes to the library one day, no one is sure what to do. There aren't any rules about lions in the library. And, as it turns out, this lion seems very well suited to library visiting....

A young English boy decides to establish a sanctuary for an assortment of ghosts when the homes they have haunted are replaced by highways and other modern "improvements."

Describes the need for sailors to be able to determine their position at sea and the efforts of John Harrison, an eighteenth century man who spent his life refining instruments to enable them to do this

Describes the life and work of Eratosthenes, the Greek geographer and astronomer who accurately measured the circumference of the Earth

A baby in Cincinnati whose first words are "ho ho ho" grows up to become Santa Claus

"The virtues of taking a break--and of being thankful--are extolled in the gentle story of a stubborn ox, an impatient farmer, and a day of rest. Long ago, in the hills near Jerusalem, lived a young ox. For six days each week, she and her owner would toil in the fields, and on the seventh day both would rest. Then it came to be that this young ox was sold. For six days, she toiled in her new owner's fields, and on the seventh day the farmer brought...

Halfdan Rassmussen was born in Copenhagen in 1915 and fought in the Danish resistance during the German occupation. This is a selection of his children's poetry translated into English