An early morning adventure out stealing horses leads to the tragic death of one boy and a resulting lifetime of guilt and isolation for his friend, in this moving tale about the painful loss of innocence and of traditional ways of life that are gone forever.

Mr. Brown was lonely and didn't have any friends, until a woodpecker made a nest in his hat. More and more birds started to make nests in his hat, and the hat magically grew to accommodate all the birds. Mr. Brown finally found some friends, but one day all the birds were gone. Mr. Brown got sad and then hibernated for winter. When he woke, his hat had grown into a tree with all his bird friends there.

A young bear cub, who is alone in the world, and Old Bear, who is grumpy and tired of living alone, meet and discover what they have been missing.

Follows a singing girl's fruitless search for a friend in her world, until one night when her song is finally heard by someone who understands.

"A masterful collection of stories that plumb the depths of everyday life to reveal the shifting tides and hidden undercurrents of ordinary relationships. In each of these twelve stories, small events have huge consequences."--

Familiar to listeners of National Public Radio, David Budbill is beloved by legions for straightforward poems dispatched from his hermitage on Judevine Mountain. Inspired by classical Chinese hermit poets, he follows tradition but cannot escape the complications and struggles of a modern solitary existence. Loneliness, aging and political outrage are addressed in poems that value honesty and simplicity and deplore pretension. For more than three decades,...

When Little Robot finds a creative solution to his lonliness he gets straight to work on shaping the perfect companion out of metal, and affectionately names him Little Dog.

Dragon is lonely so he goes looking for a friend and when an apple falls on his head he is convinced that he has found one; but at home Apple is quiet and unresponsive, and when a visit to the doctor only makes things worse, Dragon mourns the loss of his friend--until an apple tree grows where Apple is buried.

Alberto, the town's coffin maker, and Tito, a runaway boy, both lonely after suffering tragic losses, learn the power of friendship as they try to escape the shadows of their pasts.

All the fruits gather together and enjoy a rhyming party, but poor Orange feels left out because he does not rhyme with anything--until Apple invents a new word.