Realistic Fiction genre
“You have to be patient; beauty takes time.”While Minji’s mother visits her local salon, Minji creates a world of beauty all her own.An ode to the power of children’s imagination (and their parents’ patience), Minji’s Salon reminds readers that creativity and play are worldwide phenomena.
Each story depicts Mo’s problem, and his creative solution.
Carlos and his family are going home for Christmas across the border from California to Mexico. Mama and Papa are excited, but Carlos and his sisters are not so sure. To them, California is home now, even though they were born in Mexico. But as the family drives to their hometown through festive villages and sun-kissed landscapes, Carlos and his sisters discover there’s magic in their roots and that—whether in Mexico or California—home is where the heart is: with one’s family.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume VI, Issue 4
outside, the wind is howling. it is a monster shrieking to get inside. outside, the rain is a solid wall of water. everything is dark. everything is destroyed. everything is gone…. Everything except for the desperate courage of those who survive that terrifying night. After hours of cowering in the dark with no lights, no warmth, and the terrible noises of the rain and wind pounding on the walls, José walks out his front door and steps into a nightmare. But his nightmare has only begun as he and the few who are left in his small village start to pull their lives back together. Based on Hurricane Mitch’s devastation of Honduras in 1998, Terry Trueman’s powerful story is about a young boy’s fear and courage in the face of a force of nature too huge to even imagine.
A unique collection of contemporary Latin American stories. These tales represent a variety of countries and a wide range of voices. This anthology is a superb medley of Latin Anerica’s diverse cultures and literatures.
Noor lives in a country near the Arabian (Persian) Gulf. She’s looking forward to the festival known as Girgian that comes in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan. These middle days are known as the three whites, because they include the day of the full moon and day before and after. It’s when children, dressed in traditional clothes, go from house to house collecting treats from their neighbors.
Like other children living in Baghdad, Ali loves soccer, music and dancing, but most of all, he loves the ancient art of calligraphy. When bombs begin to fall on his city, Ali turns to his pen, writing sweeping and gliding words to the silent music that drowns out the war all around him.
What can you do when the people you love don’t think they love each other anymore? When one little girl learns that her grandparents are separating, it’s hard for her to understand. Grandpa explains that Grandma steals his chocolate pudding, and her favorite color is blue. Grandma says that Grandpa watches too much TV, and his favorite color is red. But when the little girl realizes they really do still love each other, she devises a plan she hopes will bring them back together. Perhaps blending two lives together can be just like knitting two colors together to make a beautiful scarf.
A poignant story about the difficulties of leaving everything behind and the friendships that help you get through it. Fleeing war-torn Kosovo, ten-year-old Drita and her family move to America with the dream of living a typical American life. But with this hope comes the struggle to adapt and fit in. How can Drita find her place at school and in her new neighborhood when she doesn’t speak any English? Meanwhile, Maxie and her group of fourth-grade friends are popular in their class, and make an effort to ignore Drita. So when their teacher puts Maxie and Drita together for a class project, things get off to a rocky start. But sometimes, when you least expect it, friendship can bloom and overcome even a vast cultural divide.
This book has been included in WOW’s Language and Learning: Children’s and Young Adult Fiction Booklist. For our current list, visit our Booklist page under Resources in the green navigation bar.
Three little Swedish boys want some butter for their bread, but the cow will give no milk because she has no fresh green grass, and there is no grass because the sun has not been shining. Snipp, Snapp, Snurr work hard to set things right.