Theme: slavery

Never Forgotten

By Book Importer | Published: November 21, 2011

This gorgeous picture book by Newbery Honor winner Patricia C. McKissack and two-time Caldecott Medal-winning husband-and-wife team Leo and Diane Dillon is sure to become a treasured keepsake for African American families. Set in West Africa, here is a lyrical story-in-verse about a young black boy who is kidnapped and sold into slavery, which will [...]

Descriptors: Africa, Historical Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Mali, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: , , , » Leave a comment

African Beginnings

By Book Importer | Published: June 14, 2011

From the ancient kingdom of Kush, whose black pharaohs ruled Egypt for nearly a century, to the sixteenth-century empire of the Kongo, whose emperor was so powerful he was able to halt the trade in slaves for a number of years, the African continent rang with a series of glorious civilizations that have had a [...]

Descriptors: Africa, Benin, Egypt, Ghana, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Mali, Nonfiction, Picture Book, Zimbabwe » Other Themes: , , , , , » Leave a comment

Five Thousand Years of Slavery

By Book Importer | Published: February 14, 2011

When they were too impoverished to raise their families, ancient Sumerians sold their children into bondage. Slave women in Rome faced never-ending household drudgery. The ninth-century Zanj were transported from East Africa to work the salt marshes of Iraq. Cotton pickers worked under terrible duress in the American South.Ancient history? Tragically, no. In our time, [...]

Descriptors: Intermediate (ages 9-14), International, Nonfiction, Young Adult (ages 14-18) » Other Themes: , , , , » Leave a comment

Cry of the Giraffe

By Book Importer | Published: December 17, 2010

One girl’s harrowing trek from exile and slavery to hope in a new land — all based on a true story.In the early 1980s, thousands of Ethiopian Jews fled the civil unrest, famine and religious persecution of their native land in the hopes of being reunited in Yerusalem, their spiritual homeland, with its promises of [...]

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

The Walls Of Cartagena

By Book Importer | Published: October 1, 2009

Calepino was blessed with good fortune. After his mother died giving birth to him on a slave ship, he was taken in by a wealthy woman who gave him every advantage. Then on his thirteenth birthday, Father Pedro, a devout priest, asks Calepino to assist him with the slaves coming into Cartagena. Soon he’s fighting [...]

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

Voyage of the Snake Lady

By Yoo Kyung Sung | Published: December 1, 2008

Since the fall of Troy, Myrina has built the Moon Riders into a strong and potent band of warrior women. But the son of Achilles is bent on revenge, and the Moon Riders are displaced from their home and fighting for their lives. Plagued with slavery, storms, shipwreck, and strife, the Moon Riders must accept [...]

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

From Another World

By Yoo Kyung Sung | Published: December 1, 2008

Martin and his friends are helping their parents turn an old Brazilian coffee plantation into an inn. The children have a fun time helping to renovate the old place and they sleep in a shed that is being converted into a guest room. But one night they hear the sound of a young girl crying. [...]

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

Forest of the Pygmies

By Yoo Kyung Sung | Published: December 1, 2008

Alexander Cold and Nadia Santos reunite for their final adventure in Isabel Allende’s celebrated trilogy. This time they are heading to the blazing plains of Kenya, where Alex’s grandmother Kate is writing an article about the first elephant-led safaris in Africa. Days into the tour, a Catholic missionary approaches the camp in search of companions [...]

Descriptors: Africa, Fantasy, Kenya, Young Adult (ages 14-18) » Other Themes: , , , , , , , , , , » Leave a comment

Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti

By Yoo Kyung Sung | Published: December 1, 2008

Every Life Makes a Story Djo has a story: Once he was one of “Titid’s boys,” a vital member of Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s election team, fighting to overthrow military dictatorship in Haiti. Now he is barely alive, the victim of a political firebombing. Jeremie has a story: Convent-educated Jeremie can climb out of the slums [...]

Descriptors: Caribbean, Haiti, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult (ages 14-18) » Other Themes: , , , , , , , , » 2 Comments

The Penalty

By Rebecca Ballenger | Published: October 29, 2008

Paul Faustino, known as the best soccer journalist in the business, reluctantly investigates the disappearance of eighteen-year-old Ricardo, a soccer prodigy known as “El Brujito,” while in alternate chapters a slave in old San Juan becomes a powerful voodoo priest.

Descriptors: Intermediate (ages 9-14), Latin America, Mystery, Realistic Fiction » Other Themes: , , , , , , , , , » Leave a comment