Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood

In this groundbreaking memoir set in Ramallah during the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, Ibtisam Barakat captures what it is like to be a child whose world is shattered by war. With candor and courage, she stitches together memories of her childhood: fear and confusion as bombs explode near her home and she is separated from her family; the harshness of life as a Palestinian refugee; her unexpected joy when she discovers Alef, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet. This is the beginning of her passionate connection to words, and as language becomes her refuge, allowing her to piece together the fragments of her world, it becomes her true home.

Featured in Volume II, Issue 2 of WOW Review.

Traitor

During the closing months of World War II, a fifteen-year-old German girl must decide whether or not to help an escaped Russian prisoner of war, despite the serious consequences if she does so.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 3, Issue 4

Dog Boy

Given to the Great FaterÃ‚ on the night of his birth, Boy is reared by a dog in a village whose people barely tolerate him, despite signs that he is favored, then travels far, striving to find his rightful place in the brutal world of humans.

Tanglewreck

Eleven-year-old Silver sets out to find the Timekeeper–a clock that controls time–and to protect it from falling into the hands of two people who want to use the device for their own nefarious ends.

Clay

The developing relationship between teenager Davie and a mysterious new boy in town morphs into something darker and more sinister when Davie learns firsthand of the boy’s supernatural powers.

Kampung Boy

Relates the life experiences, from birth to beginning boarding school, of a boy growing up on a rubber plantation in rural Malaysia.

The Book Thief

Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel — a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.

Awards
USBBY Honor Book

Take a closer look at The Book Thief as examined in WOW Review.

Markus + Diana

A moment of false bravado and some imaginative letters allow shy, anxiety-ridden, 13-year-old Markus to connect with a Hollywood star, but when she returns home to Norway she wants to meet the 36-year-old millionaire she believes him to be.

Over a Thousand Hills I Walk with You

Eight-year-old Jeanne was the only one of her family to survive the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Then a German family adopted her, and her adoptive mother now tells Jeanne’s story in a compelling fictionalized biography that stays true to the traumatized child’s bewildered viewpoint.

Featured in Volume I, Issue 4 of WOW Review.

Wintersmith

When witch-in-training Tiffany Aching accidentally interrupts the Dance of the Seasons and awakens the interest of the elemental spirit of Winter, she requires the help of the six-inch-high, sword-wielding, sheep-stealing Wee Free Men to put the seasons aright.

Worlds of Words

International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature

Young Adult (ages 14-18)