The Silver Cup

It’s the year 1095, and fifteen-year-old Anna longs for a different life in her small German village. But as the seasons turn, the year proves anything but ordinary. Her beloved youngest cousin disappears, and another cousin, Martin, runs away to join a murderous army of renegade Crusaders. When Anna risks everything to rescue Leah, an orphaned Jewish girl whose only connection to her former life is a silver cup, the two girls forge a friendship that defies the intolerance of their time. Filling her story with fascinating period details, debut novelist Constance Leeds paints a rich, colorful picture of an eleventh-century life marked by courage, will, and most of all-hope.Winner of the 2008 IRA Children’s and Young Adult Book Award in the Intermediate Fiction Category.

A Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia

After their olive crop fails, Maria fears that her family will have to abandon their farm on the new island colony. Then, one night she dreams of a mysterious beautiful lady shrouded by trees with branches hung with hundreds of little suns. They are oranges like the ones Maria’s parents once ate in their homeland, Valencia, Spain. That very day Maria and her family plant the seeds that soon yield a magnificent orange grove and save the farm. But who was the mysterious lady who appeared in her dream and will Maria ever find her again?

Darkfright

Her island neighbors call her “Darkfright” because she is so afraid of the night. As darkness comes on, Darkfright does anything in her power to keep it away–she turns on all the lights and bustles around the house as if it were day. Then one night a fallen star crashed through her door, a star that needs care and mending, and ultimately to be replaced in the night sky. The broken star helped her see things differently.

Where Angels Glide at Dawn: New Stories from Latin America

A unique collection of contemporary Latin American stories. These tales represent a variety of countries and a wide range of voices. This anthology is a superb medley of Latin Anerica’s diverse cultures and literatures.

Nilo and the Tortoise (Dinofours)

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, near the Equator, lie the, Galapagos Islands- a tropical haven for sea lion, giants tortoises, and colorful birds. Nilo has visited these islands many times with his father. But when his father’s boat break down, the stranded boy encounters these amazing animals firsthand in an adventure he never forget. Although the island is familiar, the boy feels small and alone–especially after being chased by an angry sea lion. He finds some comfort, however, in the island’s birds and in a friendly giant tortoise that keeps him company until his father returns the next day.

Quetzal: Sacred Bird of the Forest

Dorothy Patent explores the many facets of this shimmering bird, from its illustrious past to its life cycle and daily existence in the wild. Accompanied by Neil Waldman’s luminous illustrations, this unique survey book examines an endangered animal that has a powerful symbolic meaning to a culture.

Blue like Friday

NOT EVERYONE SEES THE WORLD THROUGH THE SAME LENS.  From the author of Something Invisible comes this funny and poignant novel about the hues of friendship.Spunky Olivia and eccentric Hal are an unlikely pair. While Hal suffers from a neurological condition called synesthesia that causes him to associate things with colors, Olivia tends to see the world in black and white. Still, these two are friends through thick and thin, through rose-colored days and blue days, even when Hal’s plan to get rid of his mother’s boyfriend backfires by driving his mother away. Olivia’s honest, funny and always-opinionated voice tells this story with colorful perception.

Asphalt Angels

A raw, poignant story of a band of Brazilian street kids who survive — if they can — by their wits alone. Asphalt Angels centers around a boy named Alex, a street child of 13 in Brazil who has been kicked onto the city streets by his stepfather after his mother dies. He is alone and scared. This is the story of how he adapts to life in the streets with a group of other children. Hazards are everywhere: drug-dealing, theft, glue-sniffing, harassment, brutality, even murder. It is not easy steering clear of them, yet Alex manages to survive, eventually making a home with 14 other boys in a house, working in an office, and attending evening school. This story grew from the real-life drama the author observed while on assignment. In an afterword, she reports that some 10,000 children sleep in Rio’s streets, and many more roam them by day, victims of inadequate nutrition, education, and shelter, and prey to drugs and violence. Alex does exist, but under another name.