Theme: social condition

Teens in Russia

By Book Importer | Published: April 17, 2012

The Russian Federation has been an independent country since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. For Russian teenagers, this change has presented many opportunities. At school, teens are learning about a history that the communist government tried to hide. In their free time, they are learning to express themselves in ways their parents [...]

Descriptors: Europe, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Nonfiction, Russia » Other Themes: , , » Leave a comment

Beyond Bullets: A Photo Journal of Afganistan

By Book Importer | Published: October 26, 2011

Award-winning photographer Rafal Gerszak spent a year embedded with the American military in Afghanistan, where he used his camera to document everyday life in the war-torn country. While there, he developed a deep affection for the land and its people, and he later returned on his own. Despite the dangers around him, he continued taking [...]

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

In the Shadow of the Lamp

By Book Importer | Published: September 19, 2011

Sixteen-year-old Molly Fraser works as a nurse with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War to earn a salary to help her family survive in nineteenth-century England.

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

Water Ghost

By Book Importer | Published: February 14, 2011

In China in the 1940s, ten-year-old Ying sells her handmade bamboo chicken fences to make money to attend a school camping trip, but no one understands why she instead uses her earnings to buy a dead hen from the grandmother of a drowned classmate.

Descriptors: Asia, China, Historical Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: , , , , , , , » Leave a comment

Torina’s World: A Child’s Life in Madagascar

By Book Importer | Published: December 17, 2010

The children in Madagascar rejoice in life’s natural gifts–singing, working in the fields, helping their parents, and playing with lizards. Divided into three sections: “We Live!”, “We Grow!” and “We Feel!”,Torina’s World: A Child’s Life in Madagascar offers a glimpse into daily life in a Malagasy village and encourages children in Western culturesw to examine [...]

Descriptors: Africa, Nonfiction, Primary (ages 6-9), Republic of Madagascar » Other Themes: , , , » Leave a comment

Plots and Players

By Yoo Kyung Sung | Published: December 1, 2008

Robin, Philip, and Frances, exiled Portuguese Jews secretly practicing their faith in intolerant sixteenth-century London, fight against the poison of prejudice in trying to save the life of Queen Elizabeth’s Jewish doctor.

Descriptors: England (UK), Historical Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Portugal » Other Themes: , , , , » Comments closed

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

By Yoo Kyung Sung | Published: December 1, 2008

This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.What is war like through the eyes of [...]

Descriptors: Biography, Sierra Leone, Young Adult (ages 14-18) » Other Themes: , , , , , » 2 Comments

Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hope

By Yoo Kyung Sung | Published: December 1, 2008

We are the young people, We will not be broken! For almost fifty years, apartheid forced the young people of South Africa to live apart as Blacks, Whites, Indians, and “Coloreds.” This unique and dramatic collection of stories—by native South African and Carnegie Medalist Beverley Naidoo—is about young people’s choices in a beautiful country made [...]

Descriptors: Intermediate (ages 9-14), Realistic Fiction, South Africa » Other Themes: , , , , » Leave a comment

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain

By Yoo Kyung Sung | Published: December 1, 2008

Peter Sis draws us into the world that shaped him–Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. World War II had ended, and the Germans had left, but Czechoslovakia was still an occupied country, this time by the Russians. As tensions between Eastern Europe and the free world intensified, borders to the West were fortified with fences and [...]

Descriptors: Biography, Czech Republic, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Picture Book » Other Themes: , , , , , , , , , , , » Leave a comment