Theme: Hardship

An Elephant in the Garden

By Book Importer | Published: January 11, 2012

Lizzie and Karl’s mother is a zoo keeper; the family has become attached to an orphaned elephant named Marlene, who will be destroyed as a precautionary measure so she and the other animals don’t run wild should the zoo be hit by bombs. The family persuades the zoo director to let Marlene stay in their [...]

Descriptors: Europe, Germany, Historical Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14) » Other Themes: , , , , , , , » Leave a comment

The Perfect Wizard: Hans Christian Andersen

By Book Importer | Published: June 9, 2011

A biography of the famous Danish writer of fairy tales, interspersed with excerpts from his stories.

Descriptors: Biography, Denmark, Europe, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: , , » Leave a comment

Mei Ling in China City

By Book Importer | Published: October 1, 2009

Based on a true story of events during World War II in China City, a 12-year-old Chinese American girl named Mei Ling Lee was separated from her best friend Yayeko Akiyama when she and her family were interned in the Manzanar War Relocation Center. By writing letters to each other, both young girls recounted their [...]

Descriptors: China, Historical Fiction, Japan, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: , , , , , , , , , » Leave a comment

Brave Deeds: How One Family Saved Many People from the Nazis

By Book Importer | Published: October 1, 2009

When Holland was under Nazi rule, the Dutch lived extremely harsh lives. Thousands were in hiding, especially Jews who had managed to escape transport to the death camps. Frans Braal and his wife Mies took in anyone in need of help — Jews, children whose parents could no longer look after them, resistance fighters, and [...]

Descriptors: Biography, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Netherlands » Other Themes: , , , , , , , » Leave a comment

Against the Storm

By Book Importer | Published: October 1, 2009

When Mehmet and his family leave their small Turkish village to seek a better life in Ankara, they find themselves living in poverty, but an encounter with a streetwise orphan and his own determination give Mehmet the courage to find a way out.

Descriptors: Realistic Fiction, Turkey, Young Adult (ages 14-18) » Other Themes: , , , , , , , » Leave a comment

The Darkest Evening

By Book Importer | Published: October 1, 2009

Jake’s life is turned upside down when his father gets caught up in the Socialist fervor washing over their Finnish mining community in Minnesota. His father decides to move their family to a new, Finnish state inside the Soviet Union, a change that fills Jake with dread. Where his father dreams of creating a worker’s [...]

Descriptors: Finland, Historical Fiction, Russia, United States of America » Other Themes: , , , , , , , , » Leave a comment

Stones in Water

By Book Importer | Published: October 1, 2009

The day Roberto and his friend Samuele are rounded up by German soldiers and put on a train marks both a beginning and an end. The boys have now become part of the war, providing forced labor for the Nazis at various work camps deep inside German territory. And it’s the ending to all they’ve [...]

Descriptors: Germany, Historical Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Italy, Russia » Other Themes: , , , , , , » Leave a comment

Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story

By Book Importer | Published: October 1, 2009

By the time WWII ended in Europe, the Blumenthal family–Marion, her brother Albert, and their parents–had lived in a succession of refugee, transit, and prison camps for more than six years, not only surviving but staying together. This memoir is written in spare, powerful prose that vividly depicts the endless degradation and humiliation suffered by [...]

Descriptors: Biography, Germany, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Netherlands » Other Themes: , , , , , , , , , » 1 Comment

Wildflower Girl

By Book Importer | Published: October 1, 2009

Thirteen-year-old Peggy O’Driscoll, left orphaned and homeless by the Great Famine of the 1840s, leaves Ireland to seek her fortune in America.

Descriptors: Historical Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Ireland, United States of America » Other Themes: , , , , , , , » Leave a comment

Beneath My Mother’s Feet

By Book Importer | Published: October 1, 2009

“Our lives will always be in the hands of our mothers, whether we like it or not.” Nazia doesn’t mind when her friends tease and call her a good beti, a dutiful daughter. Growing up in a working-class family in Karachi, Pakistan, Nazia knows that obedience is the least she can give to her mother, [...]

Descriptors: Database, Fiction, Pakistan, Young Adult (ages 14-18) » Other Themes: , , , , , » Leave a comment