Jamela and her family go to shoe store for her birthday gift. Jamela loves what the store clerk shows, but Jamela’s mama picks the practical & comfortable shoes for her. Although Jamela gets disappointed, she decorates her new shoes with beads and sparkly bits. When Jamela shows her special shoes, her mother doesn’t show support for Jamela. Lily, Jamela’s neighbor, liked Jamela’s decorated shoes and they make decorated shoes together. Lily names them Jamela’s shoes. In the market, their shoes sold like hotcakes. Jamela got her share from Lily. On Jamela’s birthday, Jamela gets very special gift from her mother as a consequence of the ‘Jamela’s shoes’.
Picture Book
Home Now
A child dealing with loss while trying to find her place in a new home. An author’s note provides context for the plight of the many children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in Africa.
Jamela’s Dress
Jamela gets in trouble when she takes the expensive material intended for a new dress for Mama, parades it in the street, and allows it to become dirty and torn.
La La Rose
La La Rose, a young girl’s stuffed rabbit, gets lost in Luxembourg Gardens.
Crepes by Suzette
Suzette sells a variety of her crepes, or French pancakes, from the street cart she takes all over Paris. Includes a recipe, a short glossary of French words used, brief notes on Paris sites, and more.
Can You Greet the Whole Wide World?
This book ontroduces young readers to common phrases such as ‘good morning’, ‘thank you’, and ‘please’ in German, Hebrew, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Hindi, Chinese, Zulu, Japanese, Italian, French, and Portuguese.
Beatrice’s Goat
More than anything, Beatrice longs to be a schoolgirl. But in her small African village, only children who can afford uniforms and books can go to school. Beatrice knows that with six children to care for, her family is much too poor. But then Beatrice receives a wonderful gift from some people far away — a goat! Fat and sleek as a ripe mango, Mugisa (which means “luck”) gives milk that Beatrice can sell. With Mugisa’s help, it looks as if Beatrice’s dream may come true after all. Based on a true story about the work of Project Heifer.
Pino and the Signora’s Pasta
Tired of the pasta that the Signora brings him and the other cats of Rome every day, Pino sets out to sample other delicacies.
Where the Forest Meets the Sea
On a camping trip in an Australian rain forest with his father, a young boy thinks about the history of the plant and animal life around him and wonders about their future.
Super Grandpa
A 66-year-old grandfather named Gustaf Hakansson, barred from entering the 1000-mile Tour of Sweden because of his age, unofficially joins the bicycle race and, to the delight of his countrymen, emerges victorious.