Snoozie, Sunny, And So-So

A cat named Soozie doesn’t like to move very much, while Sunny, a dog, is afraid of the rain. They may be very different, but they are still best friends. One day, they meet a timid a dog who is feeling “so-so”. How will the two friends coax her into joining them for a birthday part? And how will it change their lives?

The Starling’s Song

Taking in all the beauty as he flies over the fields and forests, a Starling wants to sing an ode of the wonderful things he sees. Wanting to make sure he won’t forget anything, the Starling asks other birds to make lists of all the things he should remember.

Window

An imaginative visual narrative of the sights a young girl takes in as she walks home from school in the city. As she walks she wonders what might be going on behind the scenes of the windows she passes by on the way home. Her imagination knows no bounds as she envisions everything from a whale in a bathtub, vampires playing badminton, and even an indoor jungle! Finally readers venture through a window to find the girl at home in her own room, where the toys that surround her look strikingly familiar.

Dancing Hands: A Story Of Friendship In Filipino Sign Language

Sam is fascinated by her new neighbors and their ability to talk with their hands, and when she meets Mai, she starts to learn Filipino sign language so they can communicate.

Ellen Takes Flight: The Life of Astronaut Ellen Ochoa

A biography celebrating the life of astronaut, and former director of the Johnson Space Center, Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina in Space. Graduating at the top of her high school and college classes, thanks to encouragement from her mother, Ellen went on to study electrical engineering in graduate school. By age 30 she was an accomplished engineer and when NASA started to accept women and people of color into the astronaut program, Ellen soon embarked on a new career. Her first mission was on board the Discovery, the only woman aboard the space shuttle, making Ellen the first Latina to reach outer space.

The Astronaut With A Song For The Stars: The Story Of Dr. Ellen Ochoa (Amazing Scientists)

The incredible true story of Dr. Ellen Ochoa, American space pioneer and former director of the Johnson Space Center. The daughter of immigrants, Ellen always wanted to become a professional flutist while growing up. However, those dreams changed when she got to college and discovered engineering. While she was told that engineering was not a field of study for women, she did not let that deter her from her new dreams, which ultimately led to her becoming a NASA astronaut, and the first Hispanic woman to reach outer space.

El Español Es La Lengua De Mi Familia (Spanish Edition)

To prepare for his school’s Spanish spelling bee, a young boy asks his grandmother for help. There are words he still does not know how to spell. With this simple request, a door is opened for him to learn more about his grandmother’s story as she reveals how she was only allowed to speak English at school when she was a young girl. This story inspires him to study hard for the spelling bee so he can make his family proud. Inspired by the author’s memories of his grandmother’s stories told to him when he was a boy.

Stars Of The Night: The Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport

A moving and sensitively told true story of the 669 children who were rescued in Czechoslovakia from Nazi persecution right before the outbreak of World War II. Told from the collective perspective of the children, the story follows them as they journey from foster families during the war in England, to Prague where they have no success with finding their parents, then eventually to their connection with a British former stockbroker, Nicholas Winton, who played a vital part with bringing them to safety.

Game Of Freedom: Mestre Bimba And The Art Of Capoeira

An illuminating biography of Mestre Bimba, a capoeira player who used art in resistance to racial oppression, transforming a marginalized practice into a global sensation. Part art form, part martial arts, dance, music, acrobatics and spirituality, capoeira is difficult to not only to define, but declare where it originated from. It can be said, with certainty, that Brazil was the only country in the world where it was being played in the early 20th century, mainly by people of African decent.  The game was outlawed in 1890, just two years after Brazil abolished slavery, but by the early 1920s Mestre Bimba advocated for capoeira and the people who played it.

This book is part of the Worlds of Words Global Reading List for 2023/24.