Genre

Catalog sorted by genre

Wendy

In early twentieth-century London, before Wendy encounters Peter Pan, she is not the perfect girl her parents would like her to be. Intrepid, outspoken, and willful, she’s always getting into trouble. One evening, confined to the nursery by her horrible nanny, she sneaks out to spy on her parents’ glamorous parties. She sees her father kiss another woman and finds herself pulled into an adult world of mysteries and lies. What Wendy sees changes her life forever and triggers a series of confusing adventures as she tries to solve the mysteries that lie at the heart of her family. This compelling story re-creates the lifestyle of the privileged classes of the early twentieth century in the world that shaped Wendy’s life before she met Peter Pan.

Wildly Romantic: The English Romantic Poets: The Mad, the Bad, and the Dangerous

Meet the rebellious young poets who brought about a literary revolution. Rock stars may think they invented sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but the Romantic poets truly created the mold. In the early 1800s, poetry could land a person in jail. Those who tried to change the world through their poems risked notoriety—or courted it. Among the most subversive were a group of young writers known as the Romantics: Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Samuel Taylor Cole-ridge, William Wordsworth, and John Keats. These rebels believed poetry should express strong feelings in ordinary language, and their words changed literature forever.

Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates

On an island called Puerto Rico a boy named Roberto Clemente dreamed of nothing but winning at baseball. With no money–but plenty of determination–Clemente practiced on muddy fields with a glove made from a coffee sack. Little League became minor league, which turned into winter league and, finally, he made it to the major leagues! With lightning speed, towering home runs, and grand slams, Clemente introduced himself to America.

Feathers Like a Rainbow: An Amazon Indian Tale

The birds in the forests surrounding the Amazon River all have dark feathers until they decide to steal some colors from the Hummingbird.

Spirit of the Maya: A Boy Explores His People’s Mysterious Past

Kin, a 12-year-old Lacando boy living in a Mexican town, is descended from the ancient Maya. Wearing contemporary clothing yet sporting the style of long hair traditional to his people, he is clearly rooted in both the past and the present. After his grandfather shows him a book about Pacal, a Maya who became king in 615 A.D. when he was 12, Kin eagerly accompanies his father to the site of Pacal’s tomb. The boy “feels a twinge of sadness” watching his father sell his handmade replicas of Maya hunting arrows to tourists “at the gates of the great city that his ancestors once ruled.” Kin explores the Maya ruins and locates Pacal’s tomb, but afterwards he feels lonely and distant from his ancestors. Then, on the ride home, he has an improbably sudden change of attitude when he spies a statue of the king. All at once Kin realizes that he and Pacal are “brothers” and, for the first time in his life, Kin “knows how it feels to be a king.”

The Long Road

Although life is difficult in José’s Central American village, he enjoys playing football with his friends, sharing the large meals cooked by his aunts, and even going to school. But a civil war breaks out in his country. Outspoken people like his mother are in danger, so José and his mother must flee.The road north to make a new home is arduous and very long, but it is only the beginning of hard times. They face days of paperwork and nights in a hostel for refugees. Even when his mother finds work as an office cleaner, they must rely on a food bank.Slowly, the pieces of this new life begin to come together as José and his mother realize that they have finally arrived at the happy end of a very long road.