Americas

Materials from the Americas

No Babysitters Allowed

Hopscotch is a very brave bunny—except when his parents go out and Mrs. Honeybunch comes to stay. She wants to play, but Hopscotch would much rather be alone in his special NO BABYSITTERS ALLOWED fort . . . that is, until he hears Mrs. Honeybunch reading his books all wrong. But explaining the right way to tell the stories would mean leaving his fort, and Hopscotch isn’t sure he’s brave enough for that. This sweetly funny story about separation anxiety will provide ample reassurance to young children (and their worried parents) facing babysitter night.

Roberto’s Trip to the Top

Breathtaking vistas and bustling scenes await a boy and his uncle when they ride the teleférico to the top of a mountain in Venezuela. Today was the day! Finally it is time for Roberto to take his well-earned trip on the teleférico to the top of El Ávila, the mountain overlooking his village. Since Papá has to work, Tío Antonio will go with his nephew, who makes sure to pack his camera so he can share the sights with Papá. Up, up, up, the cable car goes, over gasp-inducing ravines, to an exciting new world of vendors, animals, and a spectacular view of Caracas below. Featuring lively illustrations and interwoven with Spanish words that are translated in a glossary at the end, here is a warmhearted tale of a little boy’s first big adventure without his parents.

One Small Step

It’s 1969, and thirteen-year-old Scott is doing all the things that normal boys do — and also flying airplanes with his Air Force flight instructor father. When Scott successfully crash-lands a training plane, NASA takes notice. They hope to recruit him for their top-secret space program, which will launch a test flight to the moon before the first lunar landing. This craft was intended to be piloted by chimps, but one chimp had to be dismissed, and now they need a quick substitute — who better than a boy aviator?

Soon Scott is on his way to the NASA training facility. There he’s surprised to discover just how clever and competent the chimps are — they’re able to control the flight simulators like regular astronauts do. The chimps are more like humans than Scott ever imagined, so why, then, did one of them go crazy? Is there something about this mission that NASA isn’t telling him?

G-forces collide with government secrets as Scott races to prepare for his journey to the moon. Brimming with nonstop action and adventure, this is the story of a courageous young man who dares to follow his dream.

Colors! Colores!

Noted Mexican poet Jorge Luján and South Africa’s illustrious illustrator Piet Grobler have teamed up again to produce this exquisite celebration of color. As day turns into night, young readers see fleeting, evocative glimpses of the qualities inherent in a range of colors. An antelope and a group of children are pictured inhabiting this delicate world. This bilingual book presents a gorgeous vision of a planet in which nature, words, and the rising and setting of the sun and the moon exist in harmony.

Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach

Scaredy Squirrel doesn’t like crowds so he doesn’t go to the beach, he builds his own. However, something is missing so he needs to go to the real beach and retrieve it.

My Ocean: A Novel of Cuba

After his grandparents emigrate, 12-year-old Enrique heads for the ocean, a source of comfort and solace. Why did they flee Cuba, leaving Enrique and his mother behind? Should they go, too? If not, will they, like so many others, be seen as disloyal? The sea has no answers for the boy. As the years pass, Enrique is invited to become a Pioneer, a special honor that bodes well for his future, but it means he’s forbidden from reading the letters his grandparents send home. Enrique wants to belong, to show that he’s deserving of the honor, and once again, he seeks the ocean’s solace. Once again, the ocean has no easy answers. Still, life goes on. There are games with his friends, swimming expeditions, girls to hang out with. And always, there’s the ocean, a place he can go in good times and bad as he tries to make sense of what the future holds for him, his family, and many other Cubans.

Celebrating the Hero

Camilia Draper, an American teenager still feeling guilt and loss about her mother’s death, travels to her mother’s birthplace in Colombia for a ceremony celebrating her famous grandfather, about whom she will learn some disquieting and revelatory facts.

Wild Orchid

Shortlisted for Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book of the Year Award 2007 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award nominee 2007 Saskatchewan Young Readers’ Choice Willow Awards nominee Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice Starred Selection White Pine nominee, 2007 McNally Robinson announced that Wild Orchid was one of the top five best selling books in Saskatechewan in 2006. Taylor Jane Simon is 18 years old and spending the summer with her mother in Prince Albert National Park. The holiday has been planned so Taylor’s mother can spend time with her latest boyfriend, Danny, and work in the pizza restaurant near the park that Danny runs. Taylor would just as soon stay at home in Saskatoon, but because she suffers from an autistic condition called Asperger’s Syndrome, she can’t stay on her own. Taylor’s mother encourages her daughter to explore the park’s possibilities on her own. For Taylor, whose life experience has been seriously limited, this means facing the test of meeting new people who work in the park’s nature center – and facing it alone. Summer also holds out the possibility of finding her own boyfriend, though Taylor isn’t quite sure what that may involve. What she discovers will change her life forever. Written as an epistolary novel, Wild Orchid is frank but optimistic, literal yet innocent. A courageous wit attends Taylor’s gradual emergence as her own person, and the reader will find the exploration of Taylor’s mind a revealing and heartwarming encounter.