Americas

Materials from the Americas

Isabel’s House of Butterflies

Outside her home in Michoacan, Mexico, grows eight-year-old Isabel’s greatest treasure: an oyamel tree. Every autumn, a miracle happens because Isabel’s tree is the wintering place for thousands upon thousands of monarch butterflies that migrate from the north. When they flutter down to roost, they transform Isabel’s tree into La casa de las mariposas–The House of Butterflies. But this wonder is in danger of disappearing forever. Isabel’s family is poor, and it has been a cruel, dry year for Papa’s meager crop of corn and beans. Soon, chopping down the tree to sell its wood may be the family’s only hope for survival. What will happen to the butterflies then?

Celebrate! In Central America

Describes the background and customs associated with some of the festivals of Central America.

Jade and Iron: Latin American Tales from Two Cultures

The part one of this anthology contains mythic tales from the native inhabitants explaining how the world came to be. There are warriors and princesses who turn into towering volcanoes, an opossum who steals fire for mankind, and a giant worm who drinks a river so people can find fish. The second part contains stories from the Europeans who came to the New World and is about people’s relationships with each other and with nature. There’s a mysterious woman magician who escapes from jail on a flying boat, horses the color of rainbows, and a jungle creature who enchants a young girl.

Porcupine

War-torn Afghanistan could not seem farther from Newfoundland, but it is about to change twelve-year-old tomboy Jack Cooper (or Jacqueline, as her mother insists on calling her) forever. When her father is killed in the war, she watches helplessly as her mother crumbles under sorrow and depression. Jack and her younger sister and brother, Tessa and Simon, end up across the country, living on a run-down farm in a small town on the Prairies with a great-grandmother they didn’t know existed. Worried that they will be abandoned again if Gran moves into a retirement home, Jack puts on a brave face and encourages Tessa and Simon to take on the challenges of their new life. In the process, she learns that families come in many different forms and that love, trust, and faith can build a home anywhere.

Hurricane: A Novel

outside, the wind is howling. it is a monster shrieking to get inside. outside, the rain is a solid wall of water. everything is dark. everything is destroyed. everything is gone…. Everything except for the desperate courage of those who survive that terrifying night. After hours of cowering in the dark with no lights, no warmth, and the terrible noises of the rain and wind pounding on the walls, José walks out his front door and steps into a nightmare. But his nightmare has only begun as he and the few who are left in his small village start to pull their lives back together. Based on Hurricane Mitch’s devastation of Honduras in 1998, Terry Trueman’s powerful story is about a young boy’s fear and courage in the face of a force of nature too huge to even imagine.

My Cousin Tamar Lives in Israel

A boy living in the United States describes differences in the way he and his family observe Jewish traditions, and the way his cousin and her family observe the same traditions in the Jewish homeland.

Being Muslim (Groundwork Guides)

Since 9/11, the world has been confronted with the most volatile facets of Islam with little explanation of how or why these controversial elements developed. Written by one of North America’s most honored journalists, Being Muslim presents an up-front and clear explanation of this complex and emotion-laden subject. Although the varying branches of Islam are analyzed and their history outlined, the real focus of the book is on the present. In speaking about and crossing political, cultural, and religious divisions, the author offers a unique perspective based on life in Canada, a country in which diverse groups of people have found a way to live in peace. Aimed at young adults, the book offers invaluable insight to readers of all ages, cultures, and religious traditions.

How to Catch a Fish

Thirteen linked verses and handsome, mood-drenched paintings show how we catch fish–from New England to the Arctic, to Japan and Namibia and beyond. This lovely picturebook–about fishing, geography, people and customs, and the bond between parent and child fishing together–will appeal to everyone who’s cast a line in the water.

Pay Dirt: The Search For Gold In British Columbia

They came from China and Australia, from Scotland, England and Wales, from across Canada and the United States. They came from one thing: Gold!

Some stayed forever; some gave up and left; others lost their lives. But as the more determined struggled into the heart of the new region, they dug roads, built cities and established businesses. And by the time it was all over, the new providence of British Columbia was formed.

Some struck it rich; many more did not. This is their story.