Left to proper: Barbies in India; Maya softball gamers in Mexico; strolling on a frozen fountain within the mountains of Pakistan, the place efforts are underway to revive the traditional artwork of glacier mating.

Anushree Bhatter for NPR, Bénédicte Desrus; Diaa Hadid/NPR

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Anushree Bhatter for NPR, Bénédicte Desrus; Diaa Hadid/NPR

Are you searching for a superb learn for the top of the 12 months?

We editors have a couple of suggestions. These have been amongst our favourite tales of the 12 months, even when they did not rack up mega web page views.

It’s at all times just a little mysterious why a fantastic story does not get the adore it deserves — possibly the subjects weren’t high of thoughts. Maybe the headline might have been stronger.

Or possibly the story posted at a time when internet audiences have been distracted by breaking information or bruising climate or Taylor Swift.

Here are seven of our favourite underappreciated gems from 2023 — and in case the headlines aren’t sufficient to win you over, we have given you a pattern of every story’s (hopefully) attractive prose and a photograph or two for good measure.

Elephants are a menace for these 6th graders in Botswana. Then they went on a safari

Fortune (standing) is commonly quiet and reserved. But on the safari drive in Botswana his shyness provides method to pleasure as quickly as he begins recognizing the animals.

Nurith Aizenman/NPR

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Nurith Aizenman/NPR

Fortune (standing) is commonly quiet and reserved. But on the safari drive in Botswana his shyness provides method to pleasure as quickly as he begins recognizing the animals.

Nurith Aizenman/NPR

“What is the safe thing to do when you see an elephant?” the information asks.

“Don’t run!” says Mogalakwe.

“Stand like a statue?” says Lorato.

“Yeah, stand still. Don’t run,” he solutions.

Soon after, the children get to place that recommendation into apply after they pull as much as a waterhole for a lollipop break.

Suddenly an enormous elephant ambles over … and begins to drink.

A glacier baby is born: Mating glaciers to replace water lost to climate change

A view of the Pakistani territory of Baltistan from the heights of the mountain above the village of Chunda, the place the traditional ritual of glacier mating is being revived. The patches of white within the foreground are snow and water. The patches of silver within the distance are clouds that shroud the peaks of most mountains in Baltistan.

Diaa Hadid/NPR

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Diaa Hadid/NPR

A view of the Pakistani territory of Baltistan from the heights of the mountain above the village of Chunda, the place the traditional ritual of glacier mating is being revived. The patches of white within the foreground are snow and water. The patches of silver within the distance are clouds that shroud the peaks of most mountains in Baltistan.

Diaa Hadid/NPR

A farmer and a village chief in Pakistan’s highlands determined it was time to attempt to make a glacier child.

This historic ritual that requires mixing chunks of white glaciers, which residents imagine are feminine, and black or brown glaciers (whose colour comes from rock particles), which residents imagine are male.

Folks imagine that combining the chunks will spark the creation of a new child glacier that can in the end develop large enough to function a water supply for farmers.

A man dressed as a tsetse fly came to a soccer game. And he definitely had a goal

Don’t fear, this six-foot-tall tsetse fly did not chew anybody. He was a part of a efficiency to show Malawians about stopping sleeping illness.

Hannah Bialic

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Hannah Bialic

Don’t fear, this six-foot-tall tsetse fly did not chew anybody. He was a part of a efficiency to show Malawians about stopping sleeping illness.

Hannah Bialic

The first time Nicola Veitch went to a soccer sport, she danced on the sphere in a white lab coat alongside a colleague inside a large tsetse fly costume. Most of the followers on the sport in Malawi applauded. Some have been baffled.

My grandma in Wuhan is philosophical about COVID, life and her favorite topic: death

My grandpa Yeye and grandma Nainai. After they each caught COVID final December when China abruptly lifted its restrictions, my grandparents have felt considerably weaker. Their morning walks now encompass extra resting than strolling. To my grandparents, the virus ought to’ve been a dying sentence. However, they have been nonetheless kicking and cooking on my display screen on a video name earlier this 12 months.

Laura Gao for NPR

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Laura Gao for NPR

My grandpa Yeye and grandma Nainai. After they each caught COVID final December when China abruptly lifted its restrictions, my grandparents have felt considerably weaker. Their morning walks now encompass extra resting than strolling. To my grandparents, the virus ought to’ve been a dying sentence. However, they have been nonetheless kicking and cooking on my display screen on a video name earlier this 12 months.

Laura Gao for NPR

In 2020, the graphic artist and memoirist Laura Gao, who was born in Wuhan however got here to the U.S. together with her household when she was a woman, wrote a couple of journey she had deliberate to her birthplace to see her beloved grandparents. COVID prompted her to cancel the journey. We puzzled — how are her grandparents now faring? She checked in her together with her grandma by way of WeChat, and illustrated the wealthy converasation that adopted.

Women Maya softballers brush off machismo insults to become Mexican superstars

Damari Yasuri Balam Canul, 24, a participant of The Amazonas of Yaxunah, catching the ball throughout apply on the native subject in Yaxunah, Yucatán, Mexico on June 26, 2023.

Bénédicte Desrus

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Bénédicte Desrus

Damari Yasuri Balam Canul, 24, a participant of The Amazonas of Yaxunah, catching the ball throughout apply on the native subject in Yaxunah, Yucatán, Mexico on June 26, 2023.

Bénédicte Desrus

At bat, Mariela Beatriz Pacheco Pech, 31, a participant on The Amazonas of Yaxunah, has her eye on the ball.

Bénédicte Desrus

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Bénédicte Desrus

At bat, Mariela Beatriz Pacheco Pech, 31, a participant on The Amazonas of Yaxunah, has her eye on the ball.

Bénédicte Desrus

Barefoot and draped within the colourful embroidery of conventional Maya huipil garb, 20-year-old Sitlali Yovana Poot Dzib steps as much as the plate, wiggling her bat overhead as she faces the pitch. The subject is uneven and affected by stones whereas searing 100-degree warmth scorches the soles of her toes. Nevertheless, she swivels on her toes, digging into the grime for grip and ignoring jeers from the away crowd, and sends the ball hovering.

Poot is the captain of Las Amazonas de Yaxunah, an indigenous, all-female softball workforce well-known all through Mexico.

Barbie in India: A skin color debate, a poignant poem, baked in a cake

Vichitra Rajasingh had 80 Barbies as a child. Living in a small city at a time when there wasn’t a lot leisure, she says Barbie was a supply of limitless creativeness. At the bakery she now runs, she bakes about half-a-dozen Barbie truffles per week. She says the dolls remind her of her grandmother, who handed away at age 87 in January and who used to shock her by stitching outfits for her dolls.

Anushree Bhatter for NPR

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Anushree Bhatter for NPR

Vichitra Rajasingh had 80 Barbies as a child. Living in a small city at a time when there wasn’t a lot leisure, she says Barbie was a supply of limitless creativeness. At the bakery she now runs, she bakes about half-a-dozen Barbie truffles per week. She says the dolls remind her of her grandmother, who handed away at age 87 in January and who used to shock her by stitching outfits for her dolls.

Anushree Bhatter for NPR

She’s considered one of India’s greatest Barbie followers. When Vichitra Rajasingh was rising up, household and buddies helped her construct her assortment of Barbie dolls till she had virtually 80 of them. The mermaid Barbie and scuba-diving Barbie have been her favorites. All her Barbies have been blond. She says she did not just like the Indian ethnic ones that got here on the native market. And pores and skin tone is among the causes that in India, Barbie has a much more sophisticated legacy.

Memories of my mom are wrapped up in her saris

Rhitu Chatterjee of NPR (left), cherishes the recollections wrapped up on this sari, which belonged to her mom, Manju Chatterjee. Rhitu started carrying the sari after her mom’s dying. She says it takes her no less than quarter-hour to drape the garment however her mother might drape it in 5 minutes.

Rhitu Chatterjee

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Rhitu Chatterjee

Rhitu Chatterjee of NPR (left), cherishes the recollections wrapped up on this sari, which belonged to her mom, Manju Chatterjee. Rhitu started carrying the sari after her mom’s dying. She says it takes her no less than quarter-hour to drape the garment however her mother might drape it in 5 minutes.

Rhitu Chatterjee

My first affiliation with the sari was with my mom, my aunts and my grandmas, who wore saris each single day of their grownup lives. To me, the sari is synonymous with their love, heat and the security of their embrace. Perhaps that is why saris are handed on to family members.

When my mom died, I inherited a lot of her saris. The relaxation I gave to my aunts, cousins and my mom’s closest buddies. So it is a garment that ties you to probably the most cherished girls in your life.