Thirteen-year-old Boli lives in a small pueblo near Mexico City, a landscape destroyed by drug crime, and when his parents leave town and are not heard from, Boli hopes to inspire a luchador to help him find them.
Playing For The Devil’s Fire
Fiction
Fiction genre
Red Ink
When her mother is knocked down and killed by a London bus, 15-year-old Melon Fouraki is left with no family worth mentioning. Her mother, Maria, never did introduce Melon to a “living, breathing” father. The indomitable Auntie Aphrodite, meanwhile, is hundreds of miles away on a farm in Crete and is unlikely to be jumping on a plane and coming to London anytime soon.
Listen To The Moon
lfie lives off the coast of England. Merry lives in New York City. Until Merry and her mother set sail on the Lusitania for England, where Merry’s father is recuperating from a war injury. People told them not to go, hearing rumors that the Lusitania might be carrying munitions. But they are desperate to be reunited with Merry’s father. Alfie and his father find a lost girl in an abandoned house on a small island. The girl doesn’t speak, except to say what sounds like “Lucy.” Alfie’s mother nurses her back to health. The others in the village suspect the unthinkable: Lucy is actually German―an enemy―because she’s found with a blanket with a German tag.
Momotaro
Twelve-year-old Xander discovers and learns to use the fantastic powers that are his birthright in order to save his father. Based on Japanese mythology.
Talking Leaves
Thirteen-year-old Uwohali has not seen his father, Sequoyah, for many years. So when Sequoyah returns to the village, Uwohali is eager to reconnect. Sequoyah is a genius and his strange markings are actually an alphabet representing the sounds of the Cherokee language.
Featured in WOW Review Volume X, Issue 1.
The Knot Impossible
Rufkin meets Nissy in a murky salvage yard, and a small boy who can only say “Help!,” and starts with them on a magical adventure.
Bronze and Sunflower
When Sunflower, a young city girl, moves to the countryside, she grows to love the reed marsh lands – the endlessly flowing river, the friendly buffalo with their strong backs and shiny round heads, the sky that stretches on and on in its vastness. However, the days are long, and the little girl is lonely. Then she meets Bronze, who, unable to speak, is ostracized by the other village boys. Soon the pair are inseparable, and when Bronze’s family agree to take Sunflower in, it seems that fate has brought him the sister he has always longed for. But life in Damaidi is hard, and Bronze’s family can barely afford to feed themselves.
Hans Christian Andersen Award
This book is a focus book for August 2017’s My Take/Your Take and a WOW Recommends: Book of the Month selection for December 2017.
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel
Zomorod (Cindy) Yousefzadeh is the new kid on the block. It’s the late 1970s, and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes U.S. headlines with protests, revolution, and finally the taking of American hostages. Nothing can distract Cindy from the anti-Iran sentiments that creep way too close to home.
What Elephants Know
When the king’s government threatens to close the stable, Nandu, now twelve, searches for a way to save his family and community. A risky plan could be the answer. But to succeed, they’ll need a great tusker. The future is in Nandu’s hands as he sets out to find a bull elephant and bring him back to the Borderlands.
What Elephants Know is a WOW Recommends: Book of the Month for July 2016.
Sea Change
Follows a young boy who is reluctantly sent to spend the summer in a remote part of Nova Scotia. As the summer wears on, the hero forges solid friendships with other kids in the small fishing community and is changed forever by the experience