Fiction genre
Seventh-grader Joe López, a promising artist, stands up to a bully and survives, thanks to his Grandpa Jesse’s advice about “la lucha.” A bilingual flip book with Garza’s black and white sketches depicting bullies, heroes, and the roosters that Joe loves to draw.
Twelve-year-old Brine Seaborne is a girl with a past if only she could remember what it is. Found alone in a rowboat as a child, clutching a shard of the rare starshell needed for spell-casting, she’s spent the past years keeping house for an irritable magician and his obnoxious apprentice, Peter.
The invasion begins at night, with German cruisers slipping into harbor, and soon the Nazis occupy all of Norway. They station soldiers throughout the country. They institute martial rule. And at Vemork, an industrial fortress high above a dizzying gorge, they gain access to an essential ingredient for the weapon that could end World War II: Hitler’s very own nuclear bomb.
On the day the tsunami strikes, Kai loses nearly everyone and everything he cares about. But a trip to New York to meet kids whose lives were changed by 9/11 gives him new hope and the chance to look for his estranged American father. Visiting Ground Zero on its tenth anniversary, Kai learns that the only way to make something good come out of disaster is to return and rebuild.
Ten-year-old Silo Zyco doesn’t know much about his relatives — his father was a mysterious stranger, and the rest of the Zycos were killed in a disaster involving a terrible wave and lots of mud. All he has inherited is a family reputation for thieving, and webbed feet. But Silo, last of the Zycos, does have one thing that others envy. He can see things. Things that will happen in the future.
Twelve-year-old Jaime makes the treacherous and life-changing journey from his home in Guatemala to live with his older brother in the United States.
This book was reviewed in Volume XI, Issue 1 of WOW Review: Reading Across Cultures.
Mexican-American Stef Soto is hoping to break free from her overprotective parents and embarrassing reputation from her family’s taco truck business, but she soon learns that family, friendship, and the taco truck are important and wonderful parts of her life.
Less than forty-eight hours after twelve-year-old Chris sets off on a sailing trip down the Alaskan coast with his uncle, their boat sinks. The only survivors are Chris and a boy named Frank, who hates Chris immediately. Chris and Frank have no radio, no flares, no food. Suddenly, they’ve got to forage, fish, and scavenge the shore for supplies. Chris likes the company of a curious, friendly raven more than he likes the prickly Frank. But the boys have to get along if they want to survive.
Sharkey is a Sunker–he was born on a fortunate tide, and everyone in the giant submersible Rampart knows it. The trouble is his life is based on a lie. He’s been a fake hero for years, but when tragedy strikes, he must become a real one. And he has no idea how to go about it.
Evelyn is both aghast and fascinated when a new boy comes to grade five and tells everyone his name is Queen. Queen wears shiny gym shorts and wants to organize a chess/environment club. His father plays weird loud music and has tattoos.