Intermediate (ages 9-14)

Material appropriate for intermediate age groups

Cesar Chavez

Who was César Chávez? Here, an essay and photographs restore this man to his place in American history.The real César Chávez got lost in the hoopla. Many think he was a Mexican boxer. Young people think he’s that guy on the stamp or that statue in the park. No wonder it’s difficult, especially for our young people, to understand his human complexities and the struggles to which he gave his life.Esteemed Latin American scholar and writer Ilan Stavans, supported by more than forty photographs from archival collections at the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, restores this man’s humanity so that readers can understand his struggles as a labor organizer and civil rights activist for farm workers. The book discusses his growing up and his family; his comadre Dolores Huerta, who stood with him from the beginning; his relationship with Dr. King and other activists in the broader struggles for civil rights for all people of color; and his insistence on being an activist for the rights of farm workers when so much media attention was given to the civil rights activists in the cities.Ilan Stavans is a nationally respected Jewish Latino writer and scholar. His story “Morirse está en hebreo” was made into the award-winning movie My Mexican Shivah, produced by John Sayles. His books include An Organizer’s Tale (Penguin Classics, 2008), Dictionary Days (Graywolf Press), The Disappearance (TriQuarterly), and Resurrecting Hebrew (Random House). Stavans has received numerous awards, among them a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Jewish Book Award, the Latino Book Award, and Chile’s Presidential Medal. He is a professor in Latin American culture at Amherst College.

Star in the Forest

After eleven-year-old Zitlally’s father is deported to Mexico, she takes refuge in her trailer park’s forest of rusted car parts, where she befriends a spunky neighbor and finds a stray dog that she nurses back to health and believes she must keep safe so.

Strange Parents

This compelling novel about immigration for intermediate readers details the difficulties encountered by children separated from their parents

Heat

Michael Arroyo has a dream of pitching in the Little League World Series, and a pitching arm that throws serious heat. But that firepower is nothing compared to the heat Michael faces in his day-to-day life. Newly orphaned after his father led the family’s escape from Cuba, Michael has no one to watch out for him except his older brother Carlos, who is only 17, and if Social Services hears of the boys situation, they will be separated in the foster care system-or even worse, sent back to Cuba. So the boys their best to carry on alone, dodging bills and anyone who asks to many questions. Until, that is, someone questions how a 12-year-old boy could possibly throw with as much power as Michael Arroyo throws and Michael has no way to prove his age, no birth certificate, and no parent to fight for his cause. Suddenly Michael’s secret world is blown wide open-and he discovers that family can come from the most unexpected sources. A baseball and coming-of-age story worth cheering for, culminating in a dream come true for any boy: Michaelm poor orphan of the Bronx, NY, steps onto the most hallowed of spaces-the Yankee stadium pitching mound.

From Another World

Martin and his friends are helping their parents turn an old Brazilian coffee plantation into an inn. The children have a fun time helping to renovate the old place and they sleep in a shed that is being converted into a guest room. But one night they hear the sound of a young girl crying. Gradually, the ghost of a slave girl from the late 1800s named Rosario appears to them. Rosario tells them the story of her life and in doing so reveals the danger and instability that existed in Brazil after slavery ended. Though not the best at writing, Martin promises Rosario to record her story in the form of a book. Though the experience of slavery seems remote to Martin and his friends, by the time they\’ve heard Rosario\’s story, the evil of slavery is made painfully clear. Ana Maria Machado’s deft storytelling skills and social conscience come together in this powerfully moving book that explores the history and impact of slavery.

La Ciudad De Las Bestias / City Of The Beasts

Alexander Cold, un joven de quince años, tiene la oportunidad de hacer el viaje de su vida. Dejando atrás a su familia y a su madre enferma, Alexander Cold se embarca con su temeraria abuela, reportera de International Geographic, en una peligrosa expedición al Amazonas. Su misión y la de sus compañeros de viaje — entre otros, un célebre antropólogo, un guía local y su hija Nadia, y un doctor — es documentar al legendario Yeti del Amazonas, más conocido, como “La Bestia.”

En el mundo oculto de la impenetrable selva tropical, Alexander descubre mucho más de lo que jamás se hubiese imaginado. Con la fuerza del jaguar, el animal tótem elegido por Alexander, y el águila, la guía espiritual de Nadia, ambos jóvenes se dejan guiar por la invisible gente de la neblina en una apasionante e inolvidable aventura que los Ileva al descubrimiento de . . .

En una deslumbrante novela de aventuras, la célebre escritora, Isabel Allende, Ileva a sus lectores por el misterioso sendero, de dos búsquedas personales en un viaje épico, Deno de realismo magico, al corazon del Amazonas.