Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
A sijo, a traditional Korean verse form, has a fixed number of stressed syllables and a humorous or ironic twist at the end. Like haiku, sijo are brief and accessible, and the witty last line winds up each poem with a surprise. The verses in this book illuminate funny, unexpected, amazing aspects of the everyday–of breakfast, thunder and lightning, houseplants, tennis, freshly laundered socks.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume VII, Issue 2
Third Sister in the Tao family, Ailin has watched her two older sisters go through the painful process of having their feet bound. In China in 1911, all the women of good families follow this ancient tradition. But Ailin loves to run away from her governess and play games with her male cousins. Knowing she will never run again once her feet are bound, Ailin rebels and refuses to follow this torturous tradition. As a result, however, the family of her intended husband breaks their marriage agreement. And as she enters adolescence, Ailin finds that her family is no longer willing to support her. Chinese society leaves few options for a single woman of good family, but with a bold conviction and an indomitable spirit, Ailin is determined to forge her own destiny. Her story is a tribute to all those women whose courage created new options for the generations who came after them.
n a world which has banned self-aware robots, Eager and his brilliant but headstrong nephew, Jonquil, come out of hiding to visit the Bell family, and soon become involved in the mysterious and dangerous events surrounding them and their friends.
A novel of mothers lost and found. Grainne’s Mom disappeared years ago when her parents were divorced, and Mom moved to the U.S. Now, bafflingly, she’s reappeared and wants to meet. To get out of the way of this mysterious reunion, Grainne’s half-brothers, Johnny and Tom, go with their mother, Sandra, on an “adventure holiday” in Finland. But before they’re more than a few days into the snowy north, the boys are separated from Sandra, taking impossible risks to save her life.
After her father’s sudden death, fourteen-year-old Rose Rives finds that sixteenth-century France is a dangerous place for women, when some greedy, vindictive men charge her mother and others with being witches.
For twelve-year-old Diego and his family, home is the San Sebastian Women’s Prison in Cochabamba, Bolivia. His parents farmed coca, a traditional Bolivian medicinal plant, until they got caught in the middle of the government’s war on drugs. Diego’s parents are locked up, but he can come and go to school, to the market to sell his mother’s hand-knitted goods, and to work as a “taxi,” running errands for other prisoners. But then his little sister runs away, earning his mother a heavy fine. The debt and dawning realization of his hopeless situation make him vulnerable to his friend Mando’s plan to make big money, fast. Soon, Diego is deep in the jungle, working as a virtual slave in an illegal cocaine operation. As his situation becomes more and more dangerous, he knows he must take a terrible risk if he ever wants to see his family again.
Provides comprehensive information on the geography, history, governmental structure, economy, cultural diversity, peoples, religion, and culture of Chad.
This history of Jerusalem from King David’s time to the present day introduces religions and cultures that have formed Jerusalem’s heritage.
Pip, the orphan, lives on an island in the middle of the fens at the Wickit monastery. Pip meets a living gargoyle, Perfect. The two become friends and embark on adventure.
Finding a seriously hurt dolphin in the Amazon near her small Colombian village and suspecting her stepfather of having wounded it, Carmenza nurses it back to health and turns to the wise old Indian Omar to appease its spirit.