Twenty-three vignettes present Nong, a ten-year-old girl living in present-day Thailand, and the characters of her village as they slowly make the transition from rural poverty to western modernization.
Author: Kathy G. Short
Leona, A Love Story
In early nineteenth-century Mexico, sixteen-year-old Leona Vicario, loyal to Spain and engaged to a wealthy widower, comes to terms with her growing revolt against Spain’s harsh treatment of Mexicans and her love for a young revolutionary lawyer.
The Adventures Of Little Medouncho
One day little Medouncho the bear is misbehaving, and when his parents scold him, he determines to find his way home without them. He becomes lost, is drenched in a thunderstorm, and is finally rescued by the sun, who brings him home.
Katarina
During World War II in Slovakia, a young Jewish girl in hiding becomes a devout Catholic and is sustained by her belief that she will return home to her family as soon as the war ends.
Jamela’s Dress
Jamela gets in trouble when she takes the expensive material intended for a new dress for Mama, parades it in the street, and allows it to become dirty and torn.
Hidden Child
After more than fifty years of keeping his story to himself, the author details his experiences as a young Jewish child living in France during the 1940s where he had to shed his Jewish identity and name and depend on the kindness of strangers.
The Great Blue House
When its owners leave, a summer house comes alive with the sounds of a mouse nibbling crumbs in the fall, a cat taking shelter in the winter, and rain falling on the roof in the spring.
Gotta Go! Gotta Go!
Although she does not know why or how, a small creepy-crawly bug is certain that she must make her way to Mexico.
Girl Of Kosovo
Although Zana, an eleven-year-old Albanian girl, experiences the turmoil and violence of the 1999 conflict in her native Kosovo, she remembers her father’s admonition to not let her heart become filled with hate.
Friends Of The Heart: Amici Del Cuore
During a summer at her grandparents’ Italian seaside home, thirteen-year-old Lucrezia faces a changing relationship with her best friend Oliver and great personal tragedy.