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International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature

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WOW is committed to creating an international network of people who share the vision of bringing books and children together, thereby opening windows on the world. We encourage thoughtful dialogue around international literature so that children can reflect on their own cultural experience and connect to the experience of others across the globe.

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International Collection of Children's and Adolescent Literature
College of Education
University of Arizona

1430 East Second Street
Tucson, AZ 85721
Phone: (520) 621-9340
email: wow@email.arizona.edu
Open Reading Hours: Monday through Friday – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday – 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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South Africa

Materials from South Africa

What’s Cooking, Jamela?

Jamela is responsible for fattening up the chicken intended for Christmas dinner, but instead she gives it a name and makes it her friend.

Published: 2001, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Tags: celebration, chicken, Christmas, Friend, Resistance
Categories: AfricaAfrica, Picture BookAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9)Africa, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic FictionAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic Fiction, South Africa

Where’s Jamela?

When Mama gets a new job and a new house, everyone is excited about moving except Jamela who likes her old house just fine.

Published: 2004,
Tags: Family, moving
Categories: AfricaAfrica, Picture BookAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9)Africa, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic FictionAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic Fiction, South Africa

Zulu Dog

In post-apartheid South Africa, a Zulu boy keeps secrets from his family as he cares for an injured dog and befriends the daughter of a white farmer.

Published: 2002,
Tags: Concentration camps, Holocaust survivors, World War II
Categories: AfricaAfrica, FictionAfrica, Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14)Africa, Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14), South Africa

Desert December

A South African boy makes a long journey through the desert to join his parents in a mining village, reaching them on Christmas Day and seeing his new baby sister.

Published: 1992,
Tags: baby, Christmas, Gift, Travel
Categories: AfricaAfrica, Picture BookAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9)Africa, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic FictionAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic Fiction, South Africa

All the Magic in the World

The children who play in the street laugh at the odd-job man Joseph for picking up string and other junk, until he shows them that magic can be found in even the simplest of things.

Published: 1993,
Tags: perceptions
Categories: AfricaAfrica, Picture BookAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9)Africa, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic FictionAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic Fiction, South Africa

The Middle Of Somewhere: A Story Of South Africa

Nine-year-old Rebecca and her family, living in a South African village for black people, are threatened with forced removal to a bleak, distant development, to make room for a new suburb for whites.

Published: 1990,
Tags: Childhood
Categories: AfricaAfrica, FictionAfrica, Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14)Africa, Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14), South Africa

Welcome To Zanzibar Road

After moving into the house on Zanzibar Road that her neighbors helped her build, Mama Jumbo decides to share it with Little Chico.

Published: 2006,
Tags: Bedtime, Mice, Mothers and sons
Categories: AfricaAfrica, FictionAfrica, Fiction, Primary (ages 6-9)Africa, Fiction, Primary (ages 6-9), South Africa

Straw Sense

Goolam-Habib, a young boy who is new to a village surrounded by strawberry fields and who doesn’t speak, befriends an old man making a straw-filled doll, and soon the old man helps the boy find himself.

Published: 1993,
Tags: doll, Friendship, Loneliness
Categories: AfricaAfrica, Picture BookAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9)Africa, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic FictionAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic Fiction, South Africa

Jafta: The Homecoming

A young black South African boy describes his feelings about his father’s return from working in the city.

Published: 1994,
Tags: Family, father and child, reunion
Categories: AfricaAfrica, Picture BookAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9)Africa, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic FictionAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic Fiction, South Africa

The Dove

A visiting dove provides the answer to Grandmother Maloko’s financial problems when floodwaters destroy her crops and she must rely on the sale of her homemade jewelry.

Published: 1993,
Tags: Birds, flood, Grandmother, natural disaster
Categories: AfricaAfrica, Picture BookAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9)Africa, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic FictionAfrica, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic Fiction, South Africa

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