The Dominican legend of the ciguapas, creatures who lived in underwater caves and whose feet were on backward so that humans couldn’t follow their footprints, is reinvented by Julia Alvarez. Although the ciguapas fear humans, Guapa, a bold and brave ciguapa, can’t help but be curious–especially about a boy she sees on the nights when she goes on the land to hunt for food. When she gets too close to his family and is discovered, she learns that some humans are kind. Even though she escapes unharmed and promises never to get too close to a human again, Guapa still sneaks over to the boy’s house some evenings, where she finds a warm pastelito in the pocket of his jacket on the clothesline.
Age
Catalog sorted by age group
Atariba and Niguayona: A Story from the Taino People of Puerto Rico
A Taino Indian legend about a young boy and his search for the healing caimoni tree.
El pececito mágico (Spanish Edition)
Description in Spanish: La indiecita Yaití, en uno de sus paseos cerca del río, conoce a un pececito muy especial. Y cuando un huracán destruye el yucayeque en el que vive con su familia, recibe la ayuda de su nuevo amigo, que no sólo le demuestra aprecio, sino que le revela un secreto gracias al cual los lectores sabrán por qué el pececito es mágico.
A Million Shades of Gray
A boy and his elephant escape into the jungle when the Viet Cong attack his village immediately after the Vietnam war. Includes a special note from the author.
World History Biographies: Mao Zedong: The Rebel Who Led A Revolution (Ng World History Biographies)
Born in Southern China in 1893, this farmer’s son would rule the world’s most populous country. The young Mao Zedong grew up in a world desperate to break with the ancient rules of the Qing dynasty. Mao challenged convention early in life, and was expelled from school. He joined China’s new Communist Party, and led China’s historic revolution. Hailed by many as a truly liberating hero, others demonized him as a brutal monster. This biography outlines the revolutionary life of the first leader of the People’s Republic of China and sets his march to power in the context of world history.
The Children of China
Before coming to Canada, while he was still an art teacher in Beijing, Song Nan Zhang traveled from Inner Mongolia east, south, and north to find and paint unusual scenes of Chinese family life.Here are the children who grow up in the saddle with their nomadic parents or become as agile as the mountain goats they tend. A boy plays chess on the ground with his shepherd grandfather. A teenager tends her father’s pottery shop. At festivals a child plays hide-and-seek, behind yellow parasols, and stilt dancers wait to compete.
Mao and Me: The Little Red Guard
Chen’s book tells his story of growing up during the Cultural Revolution (between 1966 and 1976) in China.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 3, Issue 2
Shanghai Messenger
A free-verse novel about eleven-year-old Xiao Mei’s visit with her extended family in China, where the Chinese-American girl finds many differences but also the similarities that bind a family together.
Mao Zedong (Twentieth-Century History Makers)
Tibet
This engaging series examines places around the globe where life is anything but serene.