Nonfiction

Nonfiction genre

Sugar Changed the World

When this award-winning husband-and-wife team discovered that they each had sugar in their family history, they were inspired to trace the globe-spanning story of the sweet substance and to seek out the voices of those who led bitter sugar lives. The trail ran like a bright band from religious ceremonies in India to Europe’s Middle Ages, then on to Columbus, who brought the first cane cuttings to the Americas. Sugar was the substance that drove the bloody slave trade and caused the loss of countless lives but it also planted the seeds of revolution that led to freedom in the American colonies, Haiti, and France. With songs, oral histories, maps, and over 80 archival illustrations, here is the story of how one product allows us to see the grand currents of world history in new ways. Time line, source notes, bibliography, index.

Birthdays in Many Cultures (Life Around The World)

From homes and clothes to school and family, life is different all around the world. Culture makes us who we are. Grass-roofed huts, blue jeans, and ceremonial clothing are all a part of culture. Each striking photograph is accompanied by a world map that shows where it was taken.

From Then To Now

Just 50,000 years ago, our hunter-gatherer ancestors ventured off the African Savannah and into the wider world. Now, our technology reaches far out into the cosmos. How did we get to where we are today? With lively text and colorful illustrations,From Then to Now explains how individual societies struggled to find their own paths, despite war, disease, slavery, natural disasters, and the relentless growth of human knowledge. From Hammurabi to Henry Ford, from Incan couriers to the Internet, from the Taj Mahal to the Eiffel Tower, from Marco Polo to Martin Luther King, from Cleopatra to Catherine the Great, from boiled haggis to fried tarantulas this is no less than the story of humanity. It’s the story of how we grew apart over all those years of migration and division, and how as we recognize our common heritage and our often mixed ancestry we can come together. An index, maps, and notes make this a must-have reference, as well as a delight to read and to discuss. From Then to Now is bound to create a generation of history buffs!

Blue Chameleon

Chameleon can turn himself into anything and appear to fit in anywhere, but it seems that neither the swirly snail, the green grasshopper nor the striped sock want to be friends. Will he ever find someone to talk to? Someone just like him? With a subtle and witty interplay between words and illustrations this introduction to colors and shapes (and chameleons!) is sure to delight kids of all ages.

My First Japanese Kanji Book

Written by the mother-daughter team of Eriko and Anna Sato, this book introduces 109 kanji characters to children with poems and illustrations. It includes all the Japanese Government specified first grade level kanji characters and a sprinkling of simple second to sixth grade characters. The kanji are introduced in the context of 36 colorful paintings and poems by 14-year-old Anna Sato, herself a kanji learner. Each of the poems is presented in both Japanese and English, and all kanji are accompanied by furigana (small hiragana letters), stroke-order diagrams, sample vocabulary and boxes for writing practice.

My Little Book of Chinese Words

Presents an introduction to Chinese writing, with each word accompanied by a pronunciation guide to the Chinese word, and its English translation.