Americas

Materials from the Americas

Macchu Picchu: The Story Of The Amazing Inkas And Their City In The Clouds (Wonders Of The World Book)

Was there ever a people like the Inkas?

Using slingshots, clubs and stone-tipped spears, this small Andean tribe conquered an area spanning 2,500 miles. Without the use of the wheel, they built a vast and sophisticated network of roads. Without an alphabet, they administered a population of ten million people. With the most primitive of tools, they built cities of stone.

Machu Picchu is as astonishing as its builders. Set in a remote, inaccessible area of the high Andes, this breathtaking city was never found by the Spanish Conquistadores. It is an untouched example of the genius of the Inkas.

Machu Picchu tells the story about the rise of the Inkas and the building of this great city. Award-winning author Elizabeth Mann has become justly famous for engrossing narratives that make distant worlds comprehensible and complex engineering feats accessible. In Machu Picchu, these talents are displayed to their fullest.

Amy Crehore’s paintings convey a fabulous world that seems at once intensely real and dream-like. Her luminous pallette is an Inka tapestry unfaded by time.

Wonders of the World series

The winner of numerous awards, this series is renowned for Elizabeth Mann’s ability to convey adventure and excitement while revealing technical information in engaging and easily understood language. The illustrations are lavishly realistic and accurate in detail but do not ignore the human element. Outstanding in the genre, these books are sure to bring even the most indifferent young reader into the worlds of history, geography, and architecture.

“One of the ten best non-fiction series for young readers.”
– Booklist

The Goldsmith’s Daughter

A bearer of doom, or a bringer of change? As the Aztec empire falls, one girl defies her destiny.In the golden city of Tenochtitlán, the people live in awe of Emperor Montezuma and in fear of blood-hungry gods. Under an ill-fated sky, a girl is born, facing a life of submission and domestic drudgery. But Itacate has a secret passion for goldwork, forbidden to women, and is forced to disguise her identity to protect herself and her family. When her city is shaken by Cortez’s invasion, Itacate challenges fate, culture, and faith by crafting golden statues — and pursuing the love of a man who should be her enemy. From the author of I AM APACHE comes a tale of clashing cultures, a rich and powerful depiction of Aztec life during the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

Conjuros Y Sortilegios (Spanish Edition)

Recetas para convertir a las niñas en ranas y a los niños en murciélagos, fórmulas para desaparecer o para convertirse en algún animal.

Pociones para volar, para leer el futuro y hasta para el amor, hacen parte de este útil manual para jóvenes aprendices de magos. Se garantiza que todo funciona? siempre y cuando las recetas se sigan al pie de la letra, sin mezclar ingredientes ni enredar las palabras mágicas.

La Ciudad De Las Bestias / City Of The Beasts

Alexander Cold, un joven de quince años, tiene la oportunidad de hacer el viaje de su vida. Dejando atrás a su familia y a su madre enferma, Alexander Cold se embarca con su temeraria abuela, reportera de International Geographic, en una peligrosa expedición al Amazonas. Su misión y la de sus compañeros de viaje — entre otros, un célebre antropólogo, un guía local y su hija Nadia, y un doctor — es documentar al legendario Yeti del Amazonas, más conocido, como “La Bestia.”

En el mundo oculto de la impenetrable selva tropical, Alexander descubre mucho más de lo que jamás se hubiese imaginado. Con la fuerza del jaguar, el animal tótem elegido por Alexander, y el águila, la guía espiritual de Nadia, ambos jóvenes se dejan guiar por la invisible gente de la neblina en una apasionante e inolvidable aventura que los Ileva al descubrimiento de . . .

En una deslumbrante novela de aventuras, la célebre escritora, Isabel Allende, Ileva a sus lectores por el misterioso sendero, de dos búsquedas personales en un viaje épico, Deno de realismo magico, al corazon del Amazonas.

El Tigre y El Rayo: The Jaguar and the Lightning

A folktale about a boasting jaguar who is humbled by lightning.

Bisa Bea, Bisa Bel (Spanish Edition)

Hacer limpieza general puede descubrirnos un mundo. En el cuarto de mi madre -cuenta Bel- había un armario, dentro del armario había un cajón, dentro del cajón había una caja, dentro de la caja había un sobre, dentro del sobre había un montón de retratos, dentro de un retrato estaba Bisa Bea. Y así, de la mano del pasado y del futuro, Bel vivirá su presente.

Ninez: Spanish Songs, Games, And Stories Of Childhood

More than forty verses, games and stories of Spanish childhood folklore have been collected by the author from research based largely on archival materials gathered by WPA writers in the 1930s and in current interviews. A number of the pieces can be traced directly to Spain and were brought to America by early explorers and settlers. They serve as a link between the old and new worlds–a way to retain cultural and historical memory and transmit it to succeeding generations. Many interesting variations have occurred over the centuries, always the way with true folklore, as children have played the games and the stories have been told and retold. Literal translations, rules for playing the games and music for some of them are included. Winner of the Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association.

La Tienda De Mamá Y Papá

In this evocative picture book, Mama, Papa, and six brothers and sisters live behind a fabric and thread store in downtown Guatemala City in the late 1950s. The narrator’s parents fled China during the Japanese invasion and, with a few neighbors, found refuge in Central America and opened their business. People come from all over to buy their bright fabrics and brilliant thread for weaving and making clothes. Author and artist Amelia Lau Carling depicts an almost magical kingdom where Chinese, Guatemalan, and Native cultures meet in harmony, where children can play and learn about all the different peoples who bring the city to vibrant life.