This compelling novel will resonate for people everywhere who find their livelihood threatened by “Dollarmen” – property speculators advocating golf courses, high rises, shopping malls, and tourist attractions. In ‘Potiki’, one community’s response to attacks on their ancestral values and symbols provides moving affirmation of the relationship between land the the people who live on it.
Intermediate (ages 9-14)
Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly
No longer content to lay eggs on command only to have them carted off to the market, a hen glimpses her future every morning through the barn doors, where the other animals roam free, and comes up with a plan to escape into the wild–and to hatch an egg of her own.
The Bamboo Sword
In Japan in 1853, at the time of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry’s visit to Japan, Yoshi, a young Japanese boy who dreams of becoming a samurai one day, learns about America from Majiro and has adventures with Jack, a young cabin boy aboard one of the U.S. ships. Includes historical notes and glossary.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume VIII, Issue 1.
Echo
Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica–and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.
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See the review at WOW Review, Volume VIII, Issue 1.
Rain Reign
Struggling with Asperger’s, Rose shares a bond with her beloved dog, but when the dog goes missing during a storm, Rose is forced to confront the limits of her comfort levels, even if it means leaving her routines in order to search for her pet.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume VIII, Issue 1.
Elephant Man
Every night people swarm to a theater in London to see the Elephant Man, whose real name is Joseph Merrick. They scream in terror at the sight of him. But beneath Joseph’s shocking exterior, he longs for affection and understanding. Disfigured in childhood by a rare disease, Joseph is rejected by his family, bullied in the streets, and ridiculed at his job. While touring Europe with a freak show, he’s robbed and abandoned. Joseph seems to encounter misfortune at every turn, but eventually finds friendship with a kind doctor in England.
Blood Red Horse: Book One Of The De Granville Trilogy
A special horse named Hosanna changes the lives of two English brothers and those around them as they fight with King Richard I against Saladin’s armies during the Third Crusades.
The Beasts Of Clawstone Castle
While spending the summer with elderly relatives at Clawstone Castle in northern England, Madlyn and her brother Rollo, with the help of several ghosts, attempt to save the rare cattle that live on the castle grounds.
The Bromeliad Trilogy : Truckers, Diggers, And Wings
In a world whose seasons are defined by Christmas sales and Spring Fashions, hundreds of tiny nomes live in the corners and crannies of a human-run department store. They have made their homes beneath the floorboards for generations and no longer remember, or even believe in, life beyond the Store walls. Until the day a small band of nomes arrives at the Store from the Outside.
The Wee Free Men
A young witch-to-be named Tiffany teams up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue men, to rescue her baby brother and ward off a sinister invasion from Fairyland.