Little Parisa-Farsi, left alone after an earthquake demolishes her home of Bam, Iran. She doesn’t despair. She does what any little girl would do. She dances. She laughs. She shares. She reveals our common humanity.
The Earth Shook
Fiction
Fiction genre
The Perfume of Memory
When a disgruntled Grand Vizier causes the queen and her subjects to lose their memories, a perfume-maker named Rose helps them remember with the evocative scents she creates.
Azad’s Camel
In a big Arabian city, an orphan boy is forced to work as a camel jockey — a dangerous job he doesn’t like. But a new friendship and a magical escape into the desert are about to change his life.
Camel racing is a popular sport in the Gulf states of the Middle East, where child jockeys from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Mauritania, and Eritrea are used to ride the camels. Some impoverished families are persuaded to sell sons as young as five years old, who are taken away to be trained and often badly treated. Accidents are common, and when a little jockey falls off a racing camel, he can receive serious injuries. Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates have all banned the use of child jockeys and are returning children to their families so that they can go to school and live a normal life.
Elephant Dance
Grandfather tells many stories about his native India in answer to Ravi and Anjali’s questions, such as the tale of a procession of elephants on the feast of Divaali when he was a boy. This story includes facts about life in India, a list of cooking spices, and descriptions of Indian animals.
The Rattlebang Picnic
The McTavishes, their seven children, and Granny McTavish take their old rattlebang of a car on a picnic up Mt. Fogg and have an exciting adventure.
A Sword In Her Hand
A feast of a medieval adventure with a thoroughly modern heroine. As the murmur of prayers fills the icy room, mother and baby seem doomed. When the newborn finally struggles into the world, the Count of Flanders flees in a rage. The child is not the expected male heir — but a girl. Growing up under the disapproving eye of her heartless father, the strong-willed Marguerite instinctively learns to survive in the fierce and violent male world of the Middle Ages, with its pagan rituals and bloody fights to the death. When her father demands that she wed a man she detests, the young countess uses all her cunning to stop the marriage. The only thing she cannot conquer is the plague, which marches across the land killing thousands, including the man she loves. Based on a real character, this colorful story is told with sharp humor and is filled with dramatic intensity. The final scene in the book, in which Marguerite and her father engage in a savage sword fight, will remain engrained in readers’ memories.
The Carpet Boy’s Gift
Yearning for freedom and schooling for himself and the other children who toil in a carpet factory in Pakistan to repay loans from the factory owner to their parents, Nadeem is inspired by a former carpet boy named Iqbal Masih to lead the way.
This book has been included in WOW’s Kids Taking Action Booklist. For our current list, visit our Boolist page under Resources in the green navigation bar.
Anno’s Hat Tricks
Three children, Tom, Hannah, and Shadowchild, who represents the reader, are made to guess, using the concept of binary logic, the color of the hats on their heads.
The Fox
A red fox travels alone through the seasons of the year, wondering at life’s simple pleasures.
Ten Oni Drummers
One by one, ten tiny oni, Japanese goblin-like creatures, grow larger and larger as they beat their drums on the sand, chasing away bad dreams.