Materials from the Americas
Matt and Bibi unravel a pattern to discover a lost city. The Zills are visiting Peru to study the mysterious lost city of Quwi when Matt and Bibi stumble into an adventure. With only each other, their faithful dog Riley, and an unusual ancient relic to guide them, the twins must use their understanding of patterns and sequences to locate the lost city—and the way back.
In the Chinese opera, men traditionally sing both male and female parts. Wei Lim’s father, Ba, however, usually plays masculine characters and sings in a deep bass voice. But Wei’s grandfather played female roles, and has secretly taught Wei to sing these difficult parts. When the New World’s entertainments begin to cause a shrinking audience for the opera company, Ba is forced to play female characters.
Why does everyone seem so scared? That’s what the new boy in town, Rex Norton-Norton, aka Rex Zero, wonders as he rides his bike through Ottawa’s streets. Is it spies? Kidnappers? Or is it because of the shadowy creature some say is stalking Adams Park? One thing is certain in this summer of 1962 as the Cold War heats up: nothing is quite what it seems. What’s a boy to do? If his name is Rex Zero and he has a bike he calls “Diablo,” five wild and funny siblings, an alpha dog named Kincho, a basement bomb shelter built of old Punch magazines, and a mind that turns everything inside out, he’s bound to come up with an amazing idea.
The setting is Sri Lanka, 1980, and it is the season of monsoons. Fourteen-year-old Amrith is caught up in the life of the cheerful, well-to-do household in which he is being raised by his vibrant Auntie Bundle and kindly Uncle Lucky. He tries not to think of his life “before,” when his doting mother was still alive. Amrith’s holiday plans seem unpromising: he wants to appear in his school’s production of Othello and he is learning to type at Uncle Lucky’s tropical fish business. Then, like an unexpected monsoon, his cousin arrives from Canada and Amrith’s ordered life is storm-tossed. He finds himself falling in love with the Canadian boy. Othello, with its powerful theme of disastrous jealousy, is the backdrop to the drama in which Amrith finds himself immersed.
Every day, Angelina dreams of her home in Jamaica and imagines she is there, until her mother finds a wonderful way to convince her that New York is now their home.
Discusses the childhood of Diego Rivera and how it influenced his art.
The tales of the youngest survivors of disasters–teenage coal miners trapped deep below the surface of the earth in Springhill, Nova Scotia; children who ran to escape the poisonous exploding gases spewing from Mont Pelee on the island of Martinique; youngsters who rode the roofs of their homes in Pennsylvania’s roaring Johnstown flood and other survival stories.
Life becomes more interesting for Ananka Fishbein when, at the age of twelve, she discovers an underground room in the park across from her New York City apartment and meets a mysterious girl called Kiki Strike who claims that she too wants to explore the subterranean world.
A story of a girl, Julia Burgos, born into a humble Puerto Rican family in 1914. With beautiful illustrations, it re-creates the time in which she grew up, and narrates how Julia Burgos became one of Puerto Rico’s and Latin America’s most beloved poets.
Provides comprehensive information on the geography, history, governmental structure, economy, cultural diversity, peoples, religion and culture of Haiti