Realistic Fiction genre
Carnival is supposed to be a happy time, but Lily wishes it were over. Her family has been working on the gorgeous hummingbird costume for months, but it’s Lily’s big sister, Christine, who will wear it at the Children’s Carnival. Lily doesn’t want to wait till next year for her chance to jump up in costume.
When his father runs off with his girlfriend and his distraught mother is admitted to an institution, thirteen-year-old Rits goes to live with his uncle and tries to make the best of his unusual circumstances.
We are the young people, We will not be broken! For almost fifty years, apartheid forced the young people of South Africa to live apart as Blacks, Whites, Indians, and “Coloreds.” This unique and dramatic collection of stories—by native South African and Carnegie Medalist Beverley Naidoo—is about young people’s choices in a beautiful country made ugly by injustice. Each story is set in a different decade during the turbulent years from 1948 to 2000, and portrays powerful fictional characters who are caught up in very real and often disturbing events.
Marcelina’s father comes home from a trip to Manila with beautiful hand-made sleeping mats for each member of his large family, including the three daughters who died when they were very young.
The Mats first appeared as a short story in Philippine Magazine in 1938.
When a baby sister comes along, it seems she is just too little for anything! Will she ever be big enough to play? To whisper secrets? To eat kimchee? Will she always lie there? Scream for no reason? Be so helpless and little? When a baby sister is just too little to do anything, what’s her big sister to do but wait and wait and WAIT . . . and dream about what’s to come.
When relief workers bring used clothing to the refugee camp, everyone scrambles to grab whatever they can. Ten-year-old Lina is thrilled when she finds a sandal that fits her foot perfectly, until she sees that another girl has the matching shoe. Soon Lina and Feroza meet, each wearing one coveted sandal. Together they solve the problem of having four feet and two sandals. As the girls go about their routines – washing clothes in the river, waiting in long lines for water, and watching for their names to appear on the list to go to America – the sandals remind them that friendship is what is most important.
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.
Featured in Volume I, Issue 2 of WOW Review.
Sixteen-year-old Dylan Wallace is living on the streets not through any choice of his own, unlike some of the teenagers he meets in the same situation. He’s been cut loose by his unstable mother, and lost most contact with his two younger brothers. He has nothing but his backpack stuffed with a few precious belongings and the homeless kids he meets. At least he has his theories. No one can take those away from him. Like how every fourth person throws him spare change; how no one does anything for anyone without a price; and how he just might be able to find a place in this complicated world.
Lola gets to bring the class guinea pig, Bert, home over school vacation! She takes good care of Bert, but when she and Charlie build him a guinea pig run, he escapes. They hunt all over, and when they find him, they also discover a big surprise—lots of absolutely very adorable baby Berts! This new Charlie and Lola adventure will have readers giggling and wishing for a pet guinea pig of their very own.
Accustomed to his impoverished life in Bogota, Colombia, Juan Guillermo resents his family and is delighted when a visit to his wealthy grandmother introduces him to the comforts of money, but he learns a savage truth that puts his family in danger.
Seek life. Chache Lavi. That’s what Paulie’s uncle says they must do. But to seek life, Paulie and her family have to leave Haiti-the only home that Paulie has ever known. Since forever, Paulie has run in and out of the little houses nestled under the palms, smelling cocoa-bread and playing on the beach with her best friend Karyl. But now the little houses are gone. Their wood has been made into boats-boats used to escape Haiti.Paulie wants to stay and fight-to change Haiti into a better place to live. She wants to talk to the reporters and bravely tell the truth, like Karyl’s brother, Jean-Desir. But the macoutes come with their guns and knives to stop them. And they do something so terrible that Paulie must face the truth: before the soldiers come back, they must all leave-tonight, by sea.