The time spent with her “revolutionary” tutor opens 10-year-old Sasha’s eyes to more of life in turn-of-the-century Russia than her somewhat sheltered existence had previously allowed her to experience.
Intermediate (ages 9-14)
Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
Broken Moon
When her little brother is kidnapped and taken from Pakistan to race camels in the desert, eighteen-year-old Nadira overcomes her own past abuse and, dressed as a boy and armed with knowledge of the powerful storytelling of the legendary Scheherazade, is determined to find and rescue him.
The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley
Riley is born happy, and in his short life, is never anything else. Human beings, on the other hand, are never happy. They want to be someone else, somewhere else, looking like something else.
When I Was Little Like You
Mary Malbunka shares her stories of playing with friends, building cubby houses, climbing trees, collecting sugar bag digging for honey ants, hunting for lizards, and learning about the seasons, animals and plants, she creates a vivid picture of a truly Australian childhood in which country-ngurra-is life itself.
Samsara Dog
Dog lived each life as it came, until he learned the most important lesson of all. Based on Buddhist concepts of Samsara and Nirvana, it tells a story about love, life, death and dying.
Poor Little Witch Girl
Eleven-year-old Verbena thinks her hereditary witchcraft is a curse that will keep her from having a normal life and marriage one day, but her mother and grandmother, who help tell the story, are eager to start her training.
House Of The Red Fish
Over a year after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and the arrest of Tomi’s father and grandfather, Tomi and his friends, battling anti-Japanese-American sentiment in Hawaii, try to find a way to salvage his father’s sunken fishing boat. 1943, one year after the end of Under the Blood-Red Sun, Tomi’s Papa and Grandpa are still under arrest, and the paradise of Hawaii now lives in fear-waiting for another attack, while trying to recover from Pearl Harbor. As a Japanese American, Tomi and his family have new enemies everywhere, vigilantes who suspect all Japanese. Tomi finds hope in his goal of raising Papa’s fishing boat, sunk in the canal by the Army on the day of the attack. To Tomi, raising Papa’s boat is a sign of faith that Papa and Grandpa will return. It’s an impossible task, but Tomi is determined. For just as he now has new enemies, his struggle to raise the boat brings unexpected allies and friends.
Weird Stuff
Brian Hobble isn’t much of a writer—he’s more of a soccer player. (And sometimes he’s not much of a soccer player either!) But one day he borrows a pink Easyflow pen from Nathan Lumsdyke, during his favorite author’s school visit, and suddenly he can’t stop writing. Unfortunately for Brian, the pen only writes flowery, embarrassing love stories, even in his science test. Brian can’t wait to give the weird pen back…until he realizes Cassandra Wyman is a lot more interested in writing than she is in soccer.
The Silver Donkey
In France during World War I, four French children learn about honesty, loyalty, and courage from an English army deserter who tells them a series of stories related to his small, silver donkey charm.
First published in Australia.
Tales Of Don Quixote
Never one to lose faith in his conviction that he is a knight from the books of chivalry, Don Quixote is up off his sickbed and back upon his faithful steed, Rocinante. At his side, the long suffering squire, Sancho Panza, endures the rigors of his station, as his master sets out to right wrongs, defend the weak and on this final sally, disenchant his Lady Fair Dulcinea.