An African folktale follows the son of a chief who must make his way in the world with only a sackful of kola nuts and the help of some creatures that he has treated with kindness.
Age
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Halala Means Welcome: A Book Of Zulu Words (Jump At The Sun)
Introduces words in Zulu, a “musical language with unusual clicking sounds” while following the activities of a boy at home in South Africa.
The Song Of The Whales
Michael’s grandfather has a secret—a secret that’s almost too strange to share . . . When Michael moves to Israel, he leaves loneliness behind and steps into the light of his grandfather’s magic. Like a sorcerer’s apprentice, Michael learns how to blur the lines between dreams and reality when his grandfather hands down the most precious of gifts—a gift that allows Michael passage into his grandfather’s dreams. Written with a quiet simplicity that wins the reader over at once Uri Orlev writes in a style so sure and yet so unassuming that it is certain to linger in reader’s minds long after turning the last page.
Shooting Kabul
Escaping from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the summer of 2001, eleven-year-old Fadi and his family immigrate to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Fadi schemes to return to the Pakistani refugee camp where his little sister was accidentally left behind.
The Seven Keys Of Balabad
Welcome to Balabad, birthplace of the international secret society known as the Brotherhood of Arachosia. And rumored hiding place of the grandest riches the world has ever known. Balabad is also the country Oliver Finch calls home ever since his father was reassigned to this dull, war-torn dust bowl.Each day runs into the next for Oliver until a 500-year-old sacred carpet is stolen. Then one of the few friends he has disappears. Oliver is determined to figure out what exactly is going on. But in order to do that he’ll have consult with a one-eyed warrior, track down the far-flung members of the Brotherhood, and unlock a centuries-old secret! Suddenly, life in Balabad for Oliver has become a whole lot more interesting . . . and dangerous.
The Importance of Wings
Although she longs to be an all-American girl, Roxanne, a timid, Israeli-born thirteen-year-old who idolizes Wonder Woman, begins to see things differently when the supremely confident Liat, also from Israel, moves into the “cursed house” next door and they become friends.
A Stone In My Hand
Living in a Palestinian community in Gaza City during 1988-89–the year of the Infitada–an 11-year-old boy must come to terms with the violence and terrorism that surrounds his life as it affects her family and her surrounding.
Extra Credit
It isn’t that Abby Carson can’t do her schoolwork, it’s just that she doesn’t like doing it. And that means she’s pretty much failing sixth grade. When a warning letter is sent home, Abby realizes that all her slacking off could cause her to be held back — for real! Unless she wants to repeat the sixth grade, she’ll have to meet some specific conditions, including taking on an extra-credit project: find a pen pal in a foreign country. Simple enough (even for a girl who hates homework).Abby’s first letter arrives at a small school in Afghanistan, and Sadeed Bayat is chosen to be her pen pal…. Well, kind of. He is the best writer, but he is also a boy, and in his village it is not appropriate for a boy to correspond with a girl. So his younger sister dictates and signs the letter. Until Sadeed decides what his sister is telling Abby isn’t what he’d like Abby to know.As letters flow back and forth between Illinois and Afghanistan, Abby and Sadeed discover that their letters are crossing more than an ocean. They are crossing a huge cultural divide and a minefield of different lifestyles and traditions. Their growing friendship is also becoming a growing problem for both communities, and some people are not happy. Suddenly things are not so simple.
Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak
Deborah Ellis’s enormously popular Breadwinner trilogy recounted the experiences of children living in Afghanistan; now Ellis turns her attention to the young people of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After visiting the region to conduct interviews, she presents their stories here in their own words. Twelve-year-old Nora, eleven-year-old Mohammad, and many others speak directly about their lives – which prove to be both ordinary and extraordinary: They argue with their siblings. They hate spinach. They have wishes for the future. Yet they have also seen their homes destroyed and families killed, and live amidst constant upheaval and violence.This simple, telling book allows young readers everywhere to see that the children caught in this conflict are just like them – but living far more difficult and dangerous lives. Without taking sides, it presents an unblinking portrait of children victimized by the endless struggle around them.
Pea Boy and Other Stories from Iran
Retells folktales and fables from Iran, including the story of a mouse and a cockroach who fell in love, a foolish weaver’s apprentice, and a boy with the head of a chickpea.