Materials from the Americas
Exhausted from his labors, a man chopping down a great kapok tree in the Brazilian rain forest puts down his ax, and, as he sleeps, the animals who live in the tree plead with him not to destroy their world. “This modern fable with its urgent message contains an abundance of information.”–The Horn Book
Describes the culture and plight of the Waorani, an indigenous tribe of the Ecuadoran rain forest whose environment and way of life are threatened by the encroachment of the industrial world.
In 1841, Japan had been closed to the outside world for 250 years, and anyone who tried to return to the country after leaving it could be executed. So when the small fishing boat on which 14-year-old Manjiro was working was shipwrecked, he despaired of ever returning to his village. The captain of the American whaling ship that rescued Manjiro took a special interest in him, inviting him to come live in Massachusetts. There, Manjiro was treated like Captain Whitfield’s son, and he began to feel as though Massachusetts was his second home. Still, he never gave up his dream of finding a way to return to Japan and see his mother again. Watercolor illustrations bring to life the true story of a determined and resourceful young man whose intimate knowledge of two cultures later led him to play an important role in the opening of Japan to Western trade and ideas.
It is election time in Haiti, and bombs are going off in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. During a visit from her home in rural Haiti, Celiane Espérance and her mother are nearly killed. Looking at her country with new eyes, Celiane gains a fresh resolve to be reunited with her father in Brooklyn, New York. The harsh winter and concrete landscape of her new home are a shock to Celiane, who witnesses her parents’ struggle to earn a living, her brother’s uneasy adjustment to American society, and her own encounters with learning difficulties and school violence.
This story about ranch life on the Argentinean pampas is told in the voice of young Maria Cristina, who describes the activities as the seasons change. Mama buys the ranch during a hot and steamy January. The children go back to school in March, and during the cold and rainy July winter vacations, most of the calves are born. Finally, on a very hot Christmas Eve, a special gift arrives. The story, based on the author’s childhood, challenges stereotypes of this culture by depicting a woman as the buyer and owner of the ranch.
Shade, a young silverwing bat in search of his father, discovers a mysterious Human-made building containing a vast forest. Could his father be there? Home to thousands of bats, the indoor forest is warm as a summer night, teeming with insect food, and free from the tyranny of the deadly owls. But Shade and his friend Marina aren’t so sure this is paradise. Shade has seen Humans enter the forest and take away hundreds of sleeping bats for an unknown purpose. And where is Shade’s father? Before long Shade and Marina are on a perilous journey to the far southern jungle, where the vampire bat Goth rules as king of all the cannibal bats. Now Shade must use all his resourcefulness to find his father — and stop Goth from creating eternal night.
This is a companion to Kenneth Oppel’s Silverwing.
From the unparalleled Henrik Drescher comes a wickedly funny story about the perils of runaway rivalry (with a happy ending). McFig lives with his daughter, Rosie, in a lovely little cottage far away from anywhere big and important. One day, McFly and his son, Anton, buy the land next door. At first McFig and McFly hit it off big-time and build McFly a cottage modeled exactly after McFig’s house. But then the two start to add things onto their houses — a medieval tower, a second-story playroom and soon McFig and McFly are in a lifelong competition to be bigger and better than each other.
Describes the background and customs associated with some of the festivals of Central America.
The House of the Scorpion By Nancy Farmer is about Matthew who is a clone of El Patrón, a powerful drug lord of the land of Opium, which is located between the United States and Mexico. For six years, he has lived in a tiny cottage in the poppy fields with Celia, a kind and deeply religious servant woman who is charged with his care and safety. He knows little about his existence until he is discovered by a group of children playing in the fields and wonders why he isn’t like them. Though Matt has been spared the fate of most clones, who have their intelligence destroyed at birth, the evil inhabitants of El Patrón’s empire consider him a “beast” and an “eejit.” When El Patrón dies at the age of 146, fourteen-year-old Matt escapes Opium with the help of Celia and Tam Lin, his devoted bodyguard who wants to right his own wrongs. After a near misadventure in his escape, Matt makes his way back home and begins to rid the country of its evils.
Living with the use of one’s eyes can make imagining blindness difficult, but this innovative title invites readers to imagine living without sight through remarkable illustrations done with raised lines and descriptions of colors based on imagery. Braille letters accompany the illustrations and a full Braille alphabet offers sighted readers help reading along with their fingers. This extraordinary title gives young readers the ability to experience the world in a new way.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 3, Issue 1