Alfred Nobel was the man who founded what became known as The Nobel Prizes. Nobel also invented dynamite, becoming very wealthy from his invention. Saddened by its use for harmful destruction, Nobel left his fortune to create yearly prizes for those who have rendered the greatest services to mankind.

No matter where she goes, or how big she grows, Wanjikũ knows her name. In the lush Kenyan countryside, a young Gikũyũ girl helps her grandmother with daily tasks. Here, as she tends to the cows, carries water, and plays in the fruit trees and sugarcane, she is called Wanjikũ. On the busy city streets of Nairobi, where she goes to school, she is called by her English name, Catherine. But at home with Wangarĩ, the maid who cooks and cares for her, she is again Wanjikũ. All grown up in boarding school, Catherine is the leader of her class, surrounded by friends from different cultural backgrounds. But at night, when she gathers with her fellow Gikũyũ sisters to speak her mother tongue, she is Wanjikũ once more. Gloriously illustrated, alive with the joie de vivre of girlhood, and based on the author’s own beloved childhood memories, Wanjikũ, Child of Mine is an ode to the heritage that walks alongside us, and a love song for the sisters we make on the journey.

It’s the morning of Tet, and Mai can’t wait to celebrate at her beloved grandmother’s home. With the perfect dress: a poofy, sparkly Cinderella dress that makes Mai look like the movie star she dreams of being! But when Mai’s father suggests that she wears an áo dài, a traditional Vietnamese outfit, to her Ba Noi’s party, Mai is disappointed. Stars don’t wear áo dài, she thinks. Then Ba tells her the story of a true star, her very own Ba Noi, who sewed beautiful, highly sought after áo dài in Vietnam and brought her magic with her when she immigrated to the United States. So maybe stars wear áo dài after all! But how can Ba Noi know what Mai’s wearing when Ba Noi is losing her eyesight? Ba tells her every áo dài is sewn with love, and the beauty of love is that you don’t need to see it to know it’s here.

Once, on an alligator shaped island in the middle of a wide sea, there lived a little girl who loved maps and dreamed of one day knowing other places. In another part of the world, at the mouth of a wide bay, there lived an old man who in his youth dreamed of sailing the world and making friends in foreign lands. When these two strangers connect through a message in a bottle, their communication inspires a visit that forges a lasting friendship, which expands both their worlds.

Eloísa loves music, but with her family too poor to buy a radio, she can only hear it when rhythms and melodies drift through her open window. Birds and cats raise their voices in daily choruses, and songs from a neighbor’s radio travel through the air. On the street below, children shake maracas and beat a steady rhythm on bongo drums and a lute, a cowbell, and un güiro round out the orchestra. The sounds of her neighborhood are music enough for Eloísa, but when Mamá gets sick and the family can’t afford medicine, can la música soothe her the way it’s always comforted Eloísa?

This almost wordless picture book set in the dawn of human life imagines how art and storytelling were born from the power of one young girl’s observation.

The candles are lit, the food is prepared, and the sweet smell of copal floats in the air on Día de Muertos. Built with love and dedication, the family ofrenda stands with pride. As everyone gathers to share in this ritual, each element added to the ofrenda is infused with significance-from the sugar skulls placed with care on top of the embroidered cloth to the golden petals that guide the way. Told after the style of the English nursery rhyme, The House That Jack Built. The Ofrenda That We Built invites readers to learn about and celebrate the Day of the Dead by joining in the building of a family ofrenda. With warmth and brightness, this gorgeously illustrated book is a joyful ode to family traditions, bonds that transcend time, and the memory of loved ones who have passed but who we continue to remember.

The Seminoles are known as the people who never surrendered. As White settlers continued to encroach on their land, the Seminoles moved farther and farther into the Florida Everglades and adapted to their new environment with their hard work and ingenuity. And after defending their land in three Seminole wars, they never signed a formal peace treaty with the United States.

Sumi’s mother can speak two languages, Malayalam and English. And she can switch between them at the speed of sound: one language when talking to Sumi’s grandmother, another when she addresses the cashier. Sometimes with Sumi she speaks a combination of both. Could it be she possesses a superpower? With awe and curiosity, young Sumi recounts the story of her mother’s migration from India and how she came to acquire two tongues, now woven together like fine cloth.

A young boy who loves the Brazilian martial art of capoeira drums up his courage for a moving-up ceremony in this vibrant and inspiring book about never losing one’s inner spirit.