In Japan, the ship The Jade Lotus takes a calico cat aboard for good luck, but the crew still runs into all kinds of trouble.
Intermediate (ages 9-14)
Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savanna
A member of the Maasai tribe of Kenya, Africa describes his life as he grew up in a northern village, traveled to America to attend college, and became an elementary school teacher in Virginia.
Nicholas
A collection of 19 escapades, the stories introduce the protagonist and his cohorts as they wreak havoc out of simple, everyday situations at school, on the playground, and at home. Pestering the substitute teacher, trying to adopt a lost dog, and quarreling over soccer positions only to find there isn’t even a ball.
Archer’s Quest
Twelve-year-old Kevin Kim helps Chu-mong, a legendary king of ancient Korea, return to his own time.
Seesaw Girl
Jade Blossom can never go beyond her family’s Inner court. Every girl from a good family in seventeenth-century Korea must stay at home and learn to sew and work in the kitchen to prepare her for her future life in her husband’s Inner Court. Jade has other interests. She longs to take trips to the mountains and the marketplace. Jade won’t stop thinking about the world beyond the high walls of her home.
Sister Shako and Kolo the Goat : Memories of My Childhood in Turkey
Sister Shako, an old woman whose family was killed in a vendetta, lives with her goats in eastern Turkey. She asks for shelter from Dalokay’s father who was the landlord of the village. The young boy’s friendship with the old woman flourishes with daily visits.
The Sound Of The Dragon’s Feet
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.
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.