Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
During the political strife and famine of the 1980s, two Ethiopian girls, one Christian and the other Jewish and blind, struggle to overcome many difficulties, including their prejudices about each other, as they make the dangerous journey out of Ethiopia.
Brimming with imagination and insight, this biography of reggae legend Bob Marley features soulful, sun-drenched paintings that transport young readers to Marley’s homeland of Jamaica, while uniquely perceptive poems bring to life his journey from boy to icon. Full color.
Hazel Louise Mull-Dare has a good life, but it’s so dull. With an adoring father who grants her every wish, a place in the Kensington School for the Daughters of Gentlemen, and no pressure to excel in anything whatsoever, her future looks primly predictable.But on the day of the Epsom Derby — June 4, 1913 — everything changes. A woman in a dark coat steps in front of the king’s horse, in protest at the injustice of denying women the vote. She dies days later, bringing further attention to the suffragist cause. Young Hazel is transfixed. And when her bold new friend Gloria convinces her to take on the cause, Hazel gets her first taste of rebellion.But doing so leads her into greater trouble than she could have ever imagined. Such great trouble that she is banished from London, all the way to where her family fortune originates — a sugar plantation in the Caribbean. There Hazel is forced to confront the dark secrets of her family — secrets that have festered, and a shame that lingers on.
A young Bangladeshi girl who helps support her family by working in a brickyard finds a way to make her dream of going to school and learning to read a reality.
Click here to read the Worlds of Words review.
This book has been included in WOW’s Kids Taking Action Booklist. For our current list, visit our Boolist page under Resources in the green navigation bar.
Young Nasreen has not spoken a word to anyone since her parents disappeared. In despair, her grandmother risks everything to enroll Nasreen in a secret school for girls. Will a devoted teacher, a new friend, and the worlds she discovers in books be enough to draw Nasreen out of her shell of sadness? Based on a true story from Afghanistan, this inspiring book will touch readers deeply as it affirms both the life-changing power of education and the healing power of love.
The Commander has lost his mother and one of his legs in the Iran-Iraq war. Now he spends most of his time alone in his room where he recreates the conflict with an imaginary enemy and soldiers, trying to avenge his losses. His father urges him to take off his artificial leg when he is at home, to join his uncles and aunties who have arrived for dinner. But when he does, he finds out that they are all about to go off to meet his “new mother.” Back in his room the imaginary war continues, and he confronts an enemy soldier who is also missing a limb. A battle seems inevitable until The Commander offers the enemy his artificial leg.
See the reviews at WOW Review, Volume 2, Issue 4 & Volume 5, Issue 3.
Adam and his family live comfortably in a compound with other foreigners who work in the Middle East. When war breaks out and all foreigners try to escape, Adam runs away in an effort to save his dog, which has been left behind. Alone and without resources in the desert, Adam meets Walid, an abused camel boy who has run away from his cruel masters. Together they struggle to bridge wide gulfs between their cultures and languages in order to survive. Ultimately both boys learn about true friendship.
The Boy and the Wall is a children’s book made and illustrated by youth at the Lajee Centre in the Aida Refugee Camp in the West Bank, telling the story of their everyday lives and struggles as refugees.
Click here to read the Worlds of Words Review.
She urged the horse on with a jerk at the reins. Judy went on a few steps and stopped again. The object stretched right across her path. It was close and clear now, and Greta gasped. Her very heart seemed to stop beating. For there, like a ghost risen out of the ice, lay a ship. A ship, of all things! A big schooner with three tall masts, all crusted with snow. What was it doing here? Slowly her mind filled with awful suspicion. She tried to put it aside, but it came back. At last she faced the truth.
The little mare had been lost all this time. Instead of crossing the ice, they had been wandering down the river, towards the open sea.
Constantly suffering from the cold, Sam makes his companion on the Arctic trail promise to cremate him when he dies, which the companion does–to his great surprise.