This history of modern China covers the origins, founding, and development of the country’s Communist regime and examines the forces that are pushing the country–nuclear power and the home of a fifth of the world’s population–toward change.
Young Adult (ages 14-18)
Material appropriate for young adults
The Tale Of The Unknown Island
A moving and eloquent fable from the 1998 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature offers a unique blend of love and philosophy as a man petitions a boat from the king, finds a crew to volunteer, and sets sail to find an unknown island.
The Fetch
After exploring a sea chest full of runes and a journal belonging to his deceased grandfather, fifteen-year-old Sky summons the old man’s ghost, who teaches him how to travel through time and space.
Malka
In the winter of 1943, a Polish physician and her older daughter make a dangerous and arduous trek to Hungary while seven-year-old Malka, who they were forced to leave behind when she became ill, fends for herself in a ghetto.
Ak
When a military coup occurs in the constantly war-torn fictional African country of Nagala, teenage Paul is forced to flee into the open countryside to avoid enemy soldiers who seek his life.
Understanding The Holy Land
Complete with maps and photographs, a guide provides a comprehensive review of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a review of the area’s history, its people, significant past and present events, and definitions of commonly used terms.
Bound
In a novel based on Chinese Cinderella tales, fourteen-year-old stepchild Xing-Xing endures a life of neglect and servitude, as her stepmother cruelly mutilates her own child’s feet so that she alone might marry well.
Web Of Lies
Giving in to pressure to join a violent gang in London, twelve-year-old Femi is caught acting as a drug courier and confesses to the police, endangering his family’s request for asylum when Femi’s gang attempts to kill his family in retaliation.
Tapestry Of Hope: Holocaust Writing For Young People
Offers poetry, drama, prose, and personal narratives addressing different aspects of the Holocaust, with topics ranging from the struggle to hide from the Nazis to life after the Holocaust. Also edited by Irene N. Watts.
Pirate Curse
In a place similar to the 1706 Caribbean, two fourteen-year-old ‘polliwogs’–humans who can walk on water–rely on a mysterious figure known as the Ghost Trader and a band of pirates to help them escape from the evil that is chasing them.