Intermediate (ages 9-14)

Material appropriate for intermediate age groups

Tulku

An attack in the dark, screams, burning huts…

Thirteen-year-old Theodore crouches under the trees. His father’s Mission has been destroyed. His father is dead. Theodore is on his own, fleeing the Chinese rebels of the Boxer uprising.

Then Mrs Jones appears. A botanist, Mrs Jones is a feisty, aging, good-hearted woman who has an amazing (and eye-opening) vocabulary and who adopts Theodore into her band of travellers. Fleeing bandits, the group enters Tibet, where they meet the old Lama who rules a monastery. But when the Lama says they have been drawn to him by destiny, and insists that Theodore, Mrs Jones, and her young Chinese courier Lung hold the clue to the birth of the long-awaited Tulku, or reincarnated spiritual master, there seems to be no escape…

Along The River

Bestselling Chinese American author Adeline Yen Mah weaves her authentic accounts of life in China into an absorbing novel about a Chinese girl and her vision of a previous life. After a fall, CC is whisked away to a hospital. As she drifts in and out of consciousness, she is haunted by vivid dreams that seem strange-yet somehow familiar. Thus begins CC’s emotional journey back to a privileged life lived eight hundred years ago during the Song dynasty. CC is the daughter of a wealthy and influential man, but she finds herself drawn to a poor orphan boy with a startling ability to capture the beauty of the natural world. As the relationship between these two young people deepens, the transforming power of art and romantic love comes into conflict with the immovable rules of Chinese society. This stunning fantasy adventure novel, inspired by Chinars”s most famous painting, Along the River at the Qing Ming Festival, tells the story of a friendship both tender and bold. CC’s remarkable journey reminds readers that though time moves on, art and love endure. From the Hardcover edition.

The Painted Wall And Other Strange Tales (Aesop Accolades (Awards))

Honor Book for the Society of School Librarians International’s Best Book Award – Language Arts, Grades K-6 Novels. Selected as one of four recipients of the 2004 Aesop Accolade. Selected by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association as one of the PSLA YA Top Forty Fiction Titles 2003. At about the time the Grimm Brothers were gathering their famous collection of folk stories and fairy tales in Europe, in China a similar collection of almost five hundred stories had just been compiled by the scholar Pu Sing-ling. Drawing on oral and written sources, he called his collection of the strange and wondrous Strange Tales from a Studio of Leisure. The fruits of his life’s work become immensely popular with storytellers who performed the stories in teahouses, where rapt audiences would sit for half a day drinking tea and listening to tales of ghosts, fox fairies, and other wonders. Almost unknown in the West, the stories are given new life in this important work by the masterful Michael Bedard.

The Lost Scrolls: Water (Avatar)

If you are reading this, you have uncovered one of the four hidden scrolls I have compiled about the world of Avatar. This scroll contains all of the knowledge that I have gathered so far about the Water Tribes — their history and culture and the great tales of their past and present. Katara recounts her discovery of the Avatar in the iceberg, Sokka remembers his childhood upon seeing their father’s old friend, and Aang tells of his lessons with the Waterbending master in the North. The scroll also contains information about Waterbending moves, Healers, Water tribe traditions, and much more. Keep this scroll safe, and share it only with those you trust. Beware, for there are many who wish to expose its secrets…

Kubla Khan

Always cast in a supporting role in the many books about Marco Polo, the great Kubla Khan now takes center stage in a splendid picture-book biography. He is a wonderful subject, Ã man who liked to live large, building the imperial city of Beijing from scratch, siring a hundred children, throwing birthday bashes for 40,000 guests. He ruled over the greatest empire of the time, one that was lightyears ahead of Western civilization in terms of the arts, sciences, and technology. With astonishingly beautiful and detailed illustrations by Robert Byrd and a clever text by Kathleen Krull, this portrait finally gives Kubla Khan his due.

Anno’s Twice Told Tales

This book presents two tales from the Brothers Grimm, combined with Mr. Fox’s highly unusual interpretations of them.