Materials from the Americas
In this moving true story, Kao Kalia Yang shares her experiences as a Hmong refugee child navigating life at home and school in America while carrying the weight of her selective mutism.
The Rock In My Throat is the WOW Recommends Book of the Month for December 2024.
The Rock In My Throat is featured in WOW Review Volume XVII, Issue 3.
When 12-year-old Summer visits her family on a reservation in Alberta, Canada, she begins experiencing vivid dreams of running away from a residential school like the one her grandfather attended as a child and learns about unmarked children’s graves, prompting her to seek answers about her community’s painful past.
This book is featured in Season 3, Episode 2 of the WOW Reads podcast.
This book is the WOW Recommends: Book of the Month for April 2025.
Carmencita does not like eating mangoes, but her grandmother shows her how to appreciate the fruit using the five senses.
A picturebook biography of environmental scientist and activist Nicole Hernandez Hammer, who was recognized by former First Lady Michelle Obama at the 2015 State of the Union address for her efforts to educate people about climate change and its disproportionate impact on communities of color.
This book is part of the Worlds of Words Global Reading List for 2023/24.
From the copper canyons of Mexico her swift footsteps echo. Clip clap, clip clap. Experience a 60-mile run with Indigenous athlete Lorena Ramirez, who captured the world’s attention when she won an ultramarathon in Mexico wearing a skirt and rubber sandals — the traditional clothes of the Rarámuri, the light-footed people.
This book is part of the Worlds of Words Global Reading List for 2023/24.
Featured in WOW Review Volume XVIII, Issue 1.
Intricate cut-paper illustrations incorporating Pacific Northwest motifs accompany this original story of the Tlingit princess Kchokeen, who is rescued from drowning by a guardian spirit that later enables her to summon a great wave and save her people from hostile strangers.
“Parents put their young child to sleep with the help of some music and dancing”–
As a young boy, Sebastiao Salgado loved exploring his parents’ farm in the forests of Brazil, always dreaming of what might lie beyond his view. When he went away to school, he met Lelia, who showed him how to use a camera. As he looked through the lens, Sebastiao realized he could use photography to capture how the world fits together.
Sebastiao used his pictures to tell the stories of people who might not otherwise be seen. But after witnessing too much destruction, he put away his camera and returned to his childhood home. The land was in ruins.
So Sebastiao and Lelia decided to rebuild the rainforest and photograph the beauty of the world to save it. Through art and activism, they would show that everyone was responsible for caring for the planet and that hope endures if we take action.
This book is part of the Worlds of Words Global Reading List for 2023/24.
A grandmother assures her granddaughter that her love will always surround the young girl, even when she is no longer physically present.