Tom lives in the countryside in the mid 1800s, and he’s curious what is it like in the town, the city, and the world beyond? It’s all “work and more work,” everyone tells him. Determined to find out for himself, Tom sets off with a bit of bread and cheese in a bundle. He encounters crowded marketplaces, bustling wharves, and storms on the high seas.
In 1770, the slave Esperança Garcia bravely penned a letter to the governor of Piauí state, in Brazil, describing how she and her children were being mistreated and requesting permission to return to the farm where the rest of her family was living. Before she wrote her letter, Esperança Garcia lived on a cotton farm run by Jesuit priests, where she learned to read and write — a rare opportunity for a woman, especially a slave. But one day, she was separated from her husband and older children and taken with her two little ones to be a cook in the home of Captain Antonio Vieira de Couto, where she and the other slaves were beaten.
Combining history with culture, the ocean with exploration, and risk with triumph—this rich offering is the only picture book account of Thor Heyerdahl’s world-famous Kon-Tiki expedition, during which he sailed a raft 5,000 miles from the coast of South America to the islands of the South Pacific.
Every night when his parents turn off the light, strange creatures descend from the black space where the ceiling used to be . . . First comes one, then another, and then more and more. They stand all around him, staring, not saying a word. And then, worst of all, comes the dark, shapeless one that tells him, “I am what’s there before there is anything there . . .”
A young boy and his sister gather the ingredients and grind them up in a molcajete, just like their ancestors used to do, singing and dancing all the while. The children imagine that their ingredients are different parts of an orchestra, the tomatoes are bongos and kettledrums, the onion, a maraca, the cloves of garlic, trumpets and the cilantro, the conductor. They chop and then grind these ingredients in the molcajete, along with red chili peppers for the “hotness” that is so delicious, finally adding a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of salt. When they are finished, their mother warms tortillas and their father lays out plates, as the whole family, including the cat and dog, dance salsa in mouth-watering anticipation.
n a Jewish folktale retold in the author’s family, Abukacha, who has the largest feet in the world, has a new pair of shoes and tries to get rid of the old ones, only to find that is not as easy as he expects.
On the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, David Metzenthen asks, “What is the true meaning of remembering?” This is a powerful and moving picture book for older readers about the “one minute’s silence” observed in Australia on Remembrance Day, and what Gallipoli means to Australians in this context.
Meet Yak and Gnu. Two best friends who love to row and sing. But who will they meet on their journey down the river? This hilarious rhyming tale is full of adventurous animals and boats galore.
In rhyming text, Noni the pony and her friends, Dave Dog and Coco the cat, spend the day at the beach.
Alan loves animals, but the great cat house at the Bronx Zoo makes him sad. Follow the life of the man Time Magazine calls, “the Indiana Jones of wildlife conservation” as he searches for his voice and fulfills a promise to speak for animals, and people, who cannot speak for themselves.
Featured in WOW Review Volume IX, Issue 4.