Material appropriate for primary age groups
Describes an incident in the life of John Parker, a formerly enslaved person who became a successful businessman in Ripley, Ohio, and who repeatedly risked his life to help other slaves escape to freedom.
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books
The boy in this book is having trouble admitting – much less closing – the large gap between his aspirations and his everyday actions. This boy knows that when he’s older he will love his neighbor, but for now he’s all too happy to pick on his sister. This boy even knows that one day he will be given the Nobel Peace Prize: for standing up to bullies, helping the poor, protecting animals and the environment – for all his good deeds. But with his bold claims continually contrasted by pictures that tell a very different story, even this boy eventually has to admit it’s time to stop boasting and take the first step.
Featured in Volume I, Issue 1 of WOW Review.
A boy has a good time attending a fair with his grandmother in San Luis de La Paz, Mexico, as she teaches him Spanish words and phrases and he teaches her English.
Read more about Playing Loteria in Volume 1, Issue 3 of WOW Review: Reading Across Cultures.
This book has been included in WOW’s Language and Learning: Children’s and Young Adult Fiction Booklist. For our current list, visit our Booklist page under Resources in the green navigation bar.
Featured in August 2023’s WOW Dozen for books about Language Learning and Communication.
Artie was a happy little lion, and Julie was a happy little rabbit—until one day Julie was sent to the grassland to eat grass, and Artie was sent to the grassland to eat . . . rabbit! Distracted from their destinations, they both discover a delicious jellyberry patch. Driven by a sudden storm into a nearby cave, they become friends before they know they are meant to be enemies. Each returns home with a new friend, a tuft of each other’s fur as a keepsake, and a surprising story to tell their parents. A unique design adds depth to this clever tale—when Artie and Julie are apart their parallel stories are told on separate split pages, but when the two become friends the pages join together as well. Filled with playful art that adds a whimsical tone, this amusing story encourages young readers to overlook differences and demonstrates that fear should never be an obstacle to friendship.
Featured in Vol. I, Issue 4 of WOW Review.
Every Sunday Juanito helps his grandmother sell old clothes at the flea market. Romping from booth to booth among the rainbow-colored tents under the sun, Juanito and his friends fulfill Grandma’s vision of the flea market as a sharing community of friendly give and take. With every trade and barter, Juanito learns firsthand what it means to be a true rematero — a flea marketeer — and discovers that the value of community can never be measured in dollars.
Featured in Volume I, Issue 3 of WOW Review.
From award-winning picture book artist Michael Foreman comes the uplifting tale of a girl whose search for a lost puppy leads to some wondrous wildflowers — and a magical way to transform her barren village. In a bleak little village in Chile, Papa comes home from his day of selling metal scraps with a wonderful surprise for his daughter, Mia. It’s a puppy she names Poco, who follows the little girl everywhere — until one day, as puppies will do, Poco wanders away. As Mia searches for her pup, she finds herself all alone at the top of the highest mountain, where she gathers a clump of snow-white flowers to plant by her home. Soon Mia’s fragrant flowers have spread through the village and blanketed the once-ugly dump. Before long, she is selling her flowers in the city square, telling crowds of customers that “they come from the stars.” But wherever the flowers are, Mia is always reminded of Poco. Is it possible the flowers may bring back her beloved dog after all?
Take a closer look at Mia’s Story as examined in WOW Review.
Hallie discovers two runaway slaves hiding in Levi Coffin’s house and must choose between protecting herself and her family or helping the two strangers she’s only just met.
Carmen Agra Deedy delivers a deliciously inventive Cuban version of the beloved Martina folktale, complete with a dash of café cubano.
Martina the beautiful cockroach doesn t know coffee beans about love and marriage. That s where her Cuban family comes in. While some of the Cucarachas offer her gifts to make her more attractive, only Abuela, her grandmother, gives her something really useful: un consejo increible, some shocking advice.
You want me to do what? Martina gasps.
At first, Martina is skeptical of her Abuela s unorthodox suggestion, but when suitor after suitor fails The Coffee Test, she wonders if a little green cockroach can ever find true love. Soon, only the gardener Pérez, a tiny brown mouse, is left. But what will happen when Martina offers him café Cubano?
After reading this sweet and witty retelling of the Cuban folktale, you ll never look at a cockroach the same way again.
A tale of the transformative power of stories. Eight-year-old Tomas hates reading. He would much rather be clambering around his beloved mountains. But when his mother forces him to visit the library, he can’t help but listen to the enchanting tales the librarian spins as she sits on a lifelike wooden unicorn. When war comes to their village, it is Tomas’s newfound love of books that helps save the library’s holdings from destruction. Set against a backdrop of encroaching war, the book is an eloquent reminder of the power of storytelling to alter our lives.
While enjoying a full day of their favorite activities, a group of young penguins helps a baby seal that has been separated from her mother.