Granny Came Here On The Empire Windrush

Ava is asked to dress up as an inspirational figure for her school assembly, but who should she choose? Granny suggests famous familiar figures such as Winifred Atwell, Mary Seacole, and Rosa Parks, and tells Ava all about their fascinating histories, but Ava’s classmates have already claimed them and she must choose someone else. But who? When Ava finds a mysterious old suitcase and Granny shares her own history, and how she came to England on the Empire Windrush many years ago. She tells her story through the precious items that accompanied her on the original voyage, each one evoking a memory of home. As Ava listens to how Granny built a life for herself in England, determined to stay against the odds and despite overwhelming homesickness, and she realizes that there is a hero very close to home, her very own brave and beloved granny.

Catch Me If I Fall

Twins Ashleigh and Aiden have always promised to protect each other, but after an accident on a school trip, Aiden starts behaving strangely. Are they just growing apart, or is something more sinister going on?

Happy Birthday To Me

How does it feel to turn a year older? A child runs through a spectrum of emotions on the best day of the year, their birthday!

Two Green Birds

A child in Brazil experiences the beauty and wonder of the natural world, and comes to understand his role within it.

Waaa Waaa Goes Táwà

A fresh and funny look at a universal childhood problem by an emerging Nigerian talent.What parent or caregiver hasn’t wished to disappear when their usually delightful charge erupts with a volcanic tantrum? Somehow small kids manage to make their wishes known in the loudest way possible before they are able to talk. Tantrums are always unpredictable, happen at the worst time, and are often in public. On a walk, at the market, or getting new braids, Tawá is quick to cry “Waa Waa”for no apparent reason. The day becomes more and more exasperating for anyone near her. It’s not until bedtime when the exhausted grown ups treat Tawá to their own cries, that the surprised little noise maker is finally subdued.

I Will Swim Next Time

At first the big blue sea makes them feel small and scared. Then the child visits a lake and a river, and their fear of water gradually starts to ebb as curiosity begins to flow.

Cleaning Up

Jess finds a secret diary and imagines what it would be like to be a girl who has everything. Will she become so wrapped up in someone else’s life that she misses a chance to create her own? Jess cleans houses to save money for college, because her dad, unemployed and off the wagon yet again and has moved the two of them out of the city into a decrepit borrowed tent and trailer. Jess wavers between anger at her father and fear that poverty and addiction may be her fate, too, and she decides she will do whatever it takes to avoid it. She gets a gig cleaning a gorgeous country home and discovers the trashed bedroom of the teenaged daughter, Quinn. Jess wonders how a girl with a perfect life, private school, horseback riding and could have wrecked such a beautiful room. As she cleans, she finds troubling clues, including, tucked behind the bed, a diary.
Gradually Jess learns that Quinn’s life is not what it’s supposed to be. Jess begins to imagine becoming friends with Quinn, and when she begins to write down a new story for Quinn, she risks turning her back on the opportunities that are right in front of her new friends, new interests, a fresh beginning.

Mother Of Sharks

At la Playita del Condado in Puerto Rico, Meli meets a crab, Jaiba, who takes her on a dreamlike underwater adventure, teaches her about the importance of shark conservation, and reveals Meli’s ultimate destiny to become the Mother of Sharks.

Maggie Lou, Firefox (Maggie Lou, 1)

Maggie Lou’s grandpa doesn’t call her Firefox for nothing. She’s always finding ways to make life more interesting even if this means getting into big trouble. When her grandfather Moshôm finally agrees to teach her how to box, she decides that the rank odors, endless drills and teasing won’t stop her from wearing a tutu to the gym. Joining her father’s construction crew uncovers a surprising talent — besides learning how to use a broom and a great source of scrap wood to build a canine hotel for her dogs. And when she turns thirteen, she figures out an ingenious way to make some smokin’ good camouflage to wear on her first deer hunt, where she joins a long family tradition. Through it all she is surrounded by her big extended gumbo soup of a family, pestered by annoying younger siblings, and gently guided by her strong female relatives her mother, her kohkom and her ultra-cool cousin Jayda. “Keep taking up space,” Maggie’s mother says. “You’re only making room for the girls behind you.” A heroine for today, Maggie Lou discovers that with hard work and perseverance she can gain valuable new skills, without losing one iota of her irrepressible spirit.