Intermediate (ages 9-14)

Material appropriate for intermediate age groups

Danny Chung Sums It Up

Eleven-year-old Danny’s life is turned upside down when his Chinese grandmother comes to live with his family in England. Things get worse when Danny finds out he’ll have to share his room with her, and she took the top bunk! At first, Danny is frustrated that he can’t communicate with her because she doesn’t speak English—and because he’s on the verge of failing math and Nai Nai was actually a math champion back in the day. It just feels like he and his grandmother have nothing in common. His parents insist that Danny help out, so when he’s left to look after Nai Nai, he leaves her at the bingo hall for the day to get her off his back. But he soon discovers that not everyone there is as welcoming as he expected . . . Through the universal languages of math and art, Danny realizes he has more in common with his Nai Nai than he first thought. Filled with heart and humor, Danny Chung Sums It Up shows that traversing two cultures is possible and worth the effort, even if it’s not always easy.

It All Begins With Jelly Beans

Meg spends her days hoping no one thinks too hard about why she wears the same t-shirt and slippers to school every day. Luckily, the nurse’s office provides a welcome escape from classmates who don’t understand…and snacks when food runs out at home.

Riley knows fitting in at her new school would be a lot easier if her friends were more understanding of her type 1 diabetes. So she keeps her testing under wraps…and an emergency bag of jelly beans on hand.

When Meg and Riley end up together in the nurse’s office one day, both girls think they’ve worked each other out, but what if they’ve got it all wrong? On the brink of moving on to junior high, Riley and Meg must find the courage to discover who they really want to be. And maybe a bag of shared jelly beans will provide all the help they need.

Josephine Against The Sea

Eleven-year-old Josephine knows that no one is good enough for her daddy. That’s why she makes a habit of scaring his new girlfriends away. She’s desperate to make it onto her school’s cricket team because she’ll get to play her favorite sport AND use the cricket matches to distract Daddy from dating.
But when Coach Broomes announces that girls can’t try out for the team, the frustrated Josephine cuts into a powerful silk cotton tree and accidentally summons a bigger problem into her life . . .
The next day, Daddy brings home a new catch, a beautiful woman named Mariss. And unlike the other girlfriends, this one doesn’t scare easily. Josephine knows there’s something fishy about Mariss but she never expected her to be a vengeful sea creature eager to take her place as her father’s first love! Can Josephine convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save Daddy from Mariss’s clutches before it’s too late?

We Must Not Forget: Holocaust Stories Of Survival And Resistance

As World War II raged, millions of young Jewish people were caught up in the horrors of the Nazis’ Final Solution. Many readers know of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi state’s genocidal campaign against European Jews and others of so-called “inferior” races. Yet so many of the individual stories remain buried in time. Of those who endured the Holocaust, some were caught by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps, some hid right under Hitler’s nose, some were separated from their parents, some chose to fight back. Against all odds, some survived. They all have stories that must be told. They all have stories we must keep safe in our collective memory — by reminding them that heroism begins with the ordinary, everyday feat of showing compassion toward our fellow citizens.

Samira Surfs

Samira thinks of her life as before and after: before the burning and violence in her village in Burma, when she and her best friend would play in the fields, and after, when her family was forced to flee. There’s before the uncertain journey to Bangladesh by river, and after, when the river swallowed her nana and nani whole. And now, months after rebuilding a life in Bangladesh with her mama, baba, and brother, there’s before Samira saw the Bengali surfer girls of Cox’s Bazar, and after, when she decides she’ll become one.

Arab Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook

Award-winning writer and storyteller, Karim Alrawi, draws on his deep knowledge of Arab culture to create original stories that are a feast for young imaginations. Told with intriguing details, the tales take young readers on a delicious cultural journey and invite them to consider an Arab perspective. Each tale symbolically incorporates food and concludes with a traditional recipe, lovingly flavored with colorful folkloric illustrations, making this a literary banquet to savor with family and friends across generations time and again.

Horse Power: How Horses Changed The World

For thousands of years, horses and humans lived, worked, and played together, side by side. From the time they were first domesticated to the invention of the wheel, saddle, bit, and bridle; horses brought far-flung lands closer together at the speed of a gallop. Trade, agriculture, transportation, and more were expanded in new ways—all made possible by the power of the horse.
In dazzling spreads packed with maps, sidebars, and other hidden gems, explore the special connection between horses and humans. Discover how horses evolved and track their migration as they come to live on six continents. See the everyday jobs done by horses for centuries. And consider the profound changes that came about when gasoline-powered engines arrived on the scene.

Canciones: Of Federico Garcia Lorca (Spanish Edition)

Federico GarcÍa Lorca is one of Spain’s foremost cultural and literary figures. In 1927, he published his masterpiece Canciones, a volume of lyrical poetry. Tobias Tak transformed twenty of these poems into a series of richly detailed and inventive comics. This collection will appeal to lovers of visual art, graphic novels, and poetry, and aims to bring the colorful and atmospheric landscape of Lorca’s work to a new audience.

Orca Rescue!: The True Story Of An Orphaned Orca Named Springer

A captivating account of the only successful orca rescue and reunion in history told in first person by Donna Sandstrom, a citizen participant of the rescue.In 2002, a young orca was spotted alone in Puget Sound near Seattle — lost, underweight and 300 miles away from her home waters in Canada. Donna Sandstrom, an orca enthusiast in Seattle, eagerly joined the volunteer effort to help. Here she tells the riveting story, from identifying the orca as a missing calf named Springer; through making the decision to try to transport her home; to planning and organizing the trip; to, finally, releasing her near Vancouver Island, where Springer was reunited with her family.