Until Someone Listens

In this heart wrenching, autobiographical story, Estela Juarez’s letters take her from the local news all the way to the national stage, where she discovers the power in her words and pledges to keep using her voice until her family and others like hers are together again.

Featured in WOW Review Volume XVI, Issue 2.

Kapaemahu

Four individuals of dual male and female spirit bring their healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii, where they are beloved for their gentle ways and miraculous cures and where they imbue four giant boulders with their powers.

This book is the WOW Recommends for May 2024.

Why?: A Timeless Story Told Without Words

Frog is enjoying a peaceful afternoon with a flower he’s picked, when a jealous mouse decides he’d like it for himself. Mouse takes it by force, but frog has reinforcements. Before long the confrontation escalates into a full-scale war. At the end of it will anyone remember why they fought so fiercely?

Alice Nizzy Nazzy

When Manuela’s sheep are stolen, she has to go to Alice Nizzy Nazzy’s talking road-runner-footed adobe house and try to get the witch to give the flock back, in a Southwestern version of the Baba Yaga story.

The Blue Bird’s Palace

Natasha lives a simple life with her father, but when she is granted a wish and makes the selfish choice to live in a palace, the guardian of the Blue Forest transforms her into a blue bird and she learns to be grateful and share.

Imagine!

“From the unique voice of Bruno Tognolini, the most beloved children’s poet in Italy today, come these 24 “rhymes of hope to shout together”: a musical rhythmic chant that gives voice to the wishes and hopes of all children. From the biggest dreams of peace, solidarity between people, the protection of nature, to the smallest and most intimate dreams, which are no less heartfelt”–

Notebook Keeper

After traveling to Tijuana, Mexico, Noemi and her mother are denied entry at the border and must find the refugee in charge of the notebook, an unofficial ledger of those waiting to cross into the United States. Includes author’s note.

The Notebook Keeper was featured in the WOW Currents The Power of Home: Promise or Uncertainty? Part II.

Rainbow Hands

When a young boy paints his nails with his mom’s nail polish, he discovers the most important thing of all: the magic of being his true self.

As the long late summer day stretches ahead of them, a young boy eagerly looks forward to his favorite time—painting-your-nails time. He know that when he dips into those magical bottles of nail polish, he will discover a color to express his every mood and feeling. Purple is the color of magic and mystery. White is the color of endless possibilities. At times, his papa frowns and says, “What have you done to your nails?” At other times, he says, “Why don’t you paint on paper instead?” But the little boy knows that painting his nails makes his hands look beautiful.

This color-filled story celebrates the joy of finding out who you are and embracing the courage to be yourself.

Loujain Dreams Of Sunflowers

A courageous girl follows her dream of learning to fly in this beautifully illustrated story inspired by formerly imprisoned human rights activist Loujain Al-Hathloul, perfect for Malala’s Magic Pencil fans. Inspired by co-author Lina Al-Hathloul’s sister, formerly imprisoned Saudi women’s rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Loujain Al-Hathloul, who led the successful campaign to lift Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving, this gorgeously illustrated story is lyrical and uplifting.

Loujain watches her beloved baba attach his feather wings and fly each morning, but her own dreams of flying face a big obstacle: only boys, not girls, are allowed to fly in her country. Yet despite the taunts of her classmates, she is determined to learn to do it-especially because Loujain loves colors, and only by flying will she be able to see the color-filled field of sunflowers her baba has told her about. Eventually, Loujain’s impossible dream becomes reality-inspiring other girls to dare to learn to fly.