Provides a comprehensive look at the world of snakes through a presentation of the many types found around the world–reviewing their similarities, differences, and unique abilities.
Nonfiction
Nonfiction genre
The Bite of the Mango
The astounding story of one girl’s journey from war victim to UNICEF Special Representative. As a child in a small rural village in Sierra Leone, Mariatu Kamara lived peacefully surrounded by family and friends. Rumors of rebel attacks were no more than a distant worry. But when 12-year-old Mariatu set out for a neighboring village, she never arrived. Heavily armed rebel soldiers, many no older than children themselves, attacked and tortured Mariatu. During this brutal act of senseless violence they cut off both her hands. Stumbling through the countryside, Mariatu miraculously survived. The sweet taste of a mango, her first food after the attack, reaffirmed her desire to live, but the challenge of clutching the fruit in her bloodied arms reinforced the grim new reality that stood before her. With no parents or living adult to support her and living in a refugee camp, she turned to begging in the streets of Freetown. In this gripping and heartbreaking true story, Mariatu shares with readers the details of the brutal attack, its aftermath and her eventual arrival in Toronto. There she began to pull together the pieces of her broken life with courage, astonishing resilience and hope.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 3, Issue 4
Africans Thought of It
The ingenuity of African peoples from ancient times to today. Did you know that aloe vera — now found in countless products, including sunscreens and soaps — was first used by Africans? They ground it into powder and used it to treat burns and other skin conditions, and hunters used it to disguise their scent from animals. They also used the nutritious oil from the fruit of the oil palm tree in everything from cooking to medicines to wine. And the marimba, better known to us as the xylophone, is believed to have originated 700 years ago in Mali. Other unique African innovations include the technique of banana leaf art and using horns — and hairdos! — to communicate important messages. Africans Thought of It features descriptive photos and information-packed text that is divided into sections, including: Agriculture Food Medicine Music Architecture Games and Sports. This fourth book in Annick’s We Thought of It series takes readers on a fascinating journey across the world’s second largest continent to discover how aspects of its culture have spread around the globe.
Terezin
Through inmates’ own voices and artwork, Terezin explores the lives of Jewish people in one of the most infamous of the Nazi transit camps. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany turned the small town of Terezin, Czechoslovakia, into a ghetto, and then into a transit camp for thousands of Jewish people. It was a “show” camp, where inmates were forced to use their artistic talents to fool the world about the truth of gas chambers and horrific living conditions for imprisoned Jews. Here is their story, told through the firsthand accounts of those who were there. In this accessible, meticulously researched book, Ruth Thomson allows the inmates to speak for themselves through secret diary entries, artwork, and excerpts from memoirs and recordings narrated after the war. Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust is a moving portrait that shows the strength of the human will to endure, to create, and to survive.
Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto
This is the only biography for children about the remarkable Holocaust heroine Irena Sendler, who smuggled over 400 children out of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Kindergarten Day USA and China
Readers spend a school day with two kindergarten classes in this flip-me-over book. One side tells the story of a class from Schenectady, New York, and the other side tells of a class from Beijing, China. As the day progresses, clocks show the time in the USA and in China, noting that its daytime on one side of the world and nighttime on the other. Discover the differences and similarities between these two countries as the classes participate in activities such as reading stories, drawing pictures, eating lunch, playing at recess, and solving problems.
Russian Girl: Life in an Old Russian Town
Text and photographs describe the life of a nine-year-old girl and her family in the small Russian city of Suzdal.
Bhutan
“Provides comprehensive information on the geography, history, wildlife, governmental structure, economy, cultural diversity, peoples, religion, and culture of Bhutan.”–Provided by publisher.
Bahrain
The highly regarded Cultures of the World series celebrates the diversity of other cultures in this fully updated and expanded edition.
The Dreamer
A fictionalized biography of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who grew up a painfully shy child, ridiculed by his overbearing father, but who became one of the most widely-read poets in the world.