Theme: Hardship

A Company of Fools

By Rebecca Ballenger | Published: October 29, 2008

Before Micah came to St. Luc’s, he knew how to beg, how to steal, and how to run from a beating. He did not know how to comb his hair, walk in line when he felt like running, or obey anyone’s whim but his own. He was a stranger in a strange land. If it [...]

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

A Swift Pure Cry

By Rebecca Ballenger | Published: October 29, 2008

Ireland 1984.After Shell’s mother dies, her obsessively religious father descends into alcoholic mourning and Shell is left to care for her younger brother and sister. Her only release from the harshness of everyday life comes from her budding spiritual friendship with a naive young priest, and most importantly, her developing relationship with childhood friend, Declan, [...]

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

Disguised: A Wartime Memoir

By Rebecca Ballenger | Published: October 29, 2008

Here is the true story of a girl who posed as a boy during World War II — and dared to speak up for her fellow prisoners of war.With the Japanese army poised to invade their Indonesian island in 1942, Rita la Fontaine’s family knew that they and the other Dutch and Dutch-Indonesian residents would [...]

Descriptors: Biography, Indonesia, Japan, Young Adult (ages 14-18) » Other Themes: , , , , , , » Leave a comment

The Breadwinner

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

Because the Taliban rulers of Kabul, Afghanistan, impose strict limitations on women’s freedom and behavior, eleven-year-old Parvana must disguise herself as a boy so that her family can survive after her father’s arrest.

Descriptors: Afghanistan, Asia, Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14) » Other Themes: , , , , » 2 Comments

Along the Tracks

By Kathy G. Short | Published: March 14, 2007

When the train that he is on is bombed, Yankele, a young Polish refugee from the Nazi invasion, is separated from his mother and wanders along the tracks, braving hardship and danger, as he searches for his family.

Descriptors: Historical Fiction, Poland, Russia, Young Adult (ages 14-18) » Other Themes: , , , , , , , » Comments closed