Anna and Ivan, two young newlyweds, escape poverty and hardship in Ukraine to start a new life on the Canadian frontier. As they struggle to establish themselves, WWI breaks out and Ivan is taken prisoned as an enemy.
Intermediate (ages 9-14)
Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
The Crane
The blue-capped man who operates the crane is so attached to the machine that he never leaves it in war or in peace. Also translated by F. N. Monjo.
Dog Den Mystery
When someone steals an old boot, Jack doesn’t care. Then someone steals his squeaker bone. And his blanket. And Red’s ball. Now Jack DOES care. Who is the thief of Doggeroo?
The Acorn Eaters
An award-winning story by a Dutch author is set in the peasant country of Andalusia after the Spanish Civil War, when a poor youth struggles to help feed his family under the gun of the landowners.
Smiling For Strangers
During the war, fourteen-year-old Nina flees from her village in Yugoslavia, armed only with some letters and a photograph, to search for an old friend of her mother’s in England.
The Hidden Children
Twenty-five Holocaust survivors who spent the war years as children hiding from the Nazis–from those shielded by courageous strangers to those given refuge in convents and orphanages–share their memories.
The Ruins Of Gorlan
When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battleschool, he becomes the reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger.
The Gold-Threaded Dress
When Oy and her Thai American family move to a new neighborhood, her third-grade classmates tease and exclude her because she is different.
Snow Treasure
In 1940, when the Nazis reached their village, twelve-year-old Peter and his friends use their sleds to transport gold bullion to the secret harbor where Peter’s uncle keeps his ship ready to take the gold for safekeeping in the United States.
Angel On The Square
In 1913 Russia, twelve-year-old Katya eagerly anticipates leaving her St. Petersburg home to join her mother, a lady in waiting in the household of Tsar Nicholas II, but the ensuing years bring world war, revolution, and many changes to her life.