Materials from the Americas
Fourteen-year-old Mateo and other Caribbean islanders face discrimination, segregation, and harsh working conditions when American recruiters lure them to the Panamanian rain forest in 1906 to build the great canal.
A scrappy eleven-year-old orphan works hard at his uncle’s tire repair shop and proves himself at work and in a bicycle race.
How music came to the world is the subject of this folktale dating to pre-Columbian times. Retells a Mexican legend in which the sky god and the wind god bring music from Sun’s house to the Earth.
Mickey’s birthday is coming and his parents cannot figure out what to do when he tells them that he wants something big, strong, smooth, sweet, warm, funny, and long-lasting.
Meet the Tweedles: Papa, Mama, daughter Frances and her brother, Francis. It’s the dawn of a new century—the twentieth century!—and the Tweedles have decided to buy a car. But no gas-guzzler for this modern family. Only an electric car will do for them. Frances is the only member of her eccentric family who is not delighted when Papa decides they need an electric car. She would rather read a book. Frances knows that cars go fast, which can only lead to trouble. She is even less impressed when the family takes possession of the car and faces ridicule from more conventional citizens with their noisy, dirty, gas-fueled machines. But when Mr. Hamm is unable to get to the hospital because his car has run out of gas, Frances saves the day—and falls in love with automobile travel at the same time. With humorous allusions to the twenty-first century—which is better? Gas or electric?
The Vole Brothers are back, funnier than ever!
In signature cinematic style, one half of the bickering, loveable duo finds himself at the mercy of a flying pigeon as it flap… flap… flaps by and then drops in, literally with a splat! You’ll want to keep your head covered as more and more splats start flying far and wide in this mischievous, universally funny story about keeping your eye on the sky… and on your up-to-no-good sibling.
As young readers journey into the natural world, they discover that numbers, patterns, shapes, and much more! These can be found in everyday plants and animals. In Shaping Up Summer, the final title in the Math in Nature series, nature comes to life to help children grasp concepts of geometry, symmetry, and spatial sense.
Imani, an African grasshopper, brings music to the new world when he travels aboard a slave ship.
Cousins Maya and Vincent are thrilled to be ring side at a lucha libre match. Kid Cyclone, the wrestling world’s favorite hero who also happens to be the kids’s beloved uncle, is facing off against a devil-masked opponent, El Diablo. No masked devil can beat my uncle. Not even the real devil himself, declares Maya. But the real devil doesn¿t take kindly to such disrespect, and soon Kid Cyclone finds himself fighting the most hellish challenger of all! Popular kids¿ book author Xavier Garza returns with another collection of stories featuring spooky characters from Mexican-American folklore. There¿s a witch that takes the shape of a snake in order to poison and punish those who disregard her warnings; green-skinned, red-eyed creatures called chupacabras that suck the blood from wild pigs, but would just as soon suck the blood from a human who has lost his way in the night; a young girl disfigured in a fire set by a scorned lover who gets her revenge as the Donkey Lady; and the Elmendorf Beast, said to have the head of a wolf with skin so thick it’s impervious to shotgun blasts.
Wanted: One amazing forever home for one amazing sixth grader.”My name is Gaby, and I’m looking for a home where I can invite my best friend over and have a warm breakfast a couple of times a week. Having the newest cell phone or fancy clothes isn’t important, but I’d like to have a cat that I can talk to when I’m home alone.” Gaby Ramirez Howard loves volunteering at the local animal shelter. She plays with the kittens, helps to obedience train the dogs, and writes adoption advertisements so that the strays who live there can find their forever homes: places where they’ll be loved and cared for, no matter what. Gaby has been feeling like a bit of a stray herself, lately. Her mother has recently been deported to Honduras and Gaby is stuck living with her inattentive dad. She’s confident that her mom will come home soon so that they can adopt Gaby’s favorite shelter cat together. When the cat’s original owners turn up at the shelter, however, Gaby worries that her plans for the perfect family are about to fall apart.