Materials from the Americas
In A Suitcase of Seaweed, an NYPL Best Book for the Teen Age originally published in 1996, Janet Wong explored issues of identity in sections defined as Korean Poems, Chinese Poems, and American Poems. In this new book, A SUITCASE OF SEAWEED & MORE, readers will find the original text plus new reflections, insights, and writing prompts accompanying each poem.
Featured in WOW Review Volume XIII, Issue 1
Fifteen-year-old Nina Perez is faced with a future she never expected. She must leave her Garden of Eden, her lush island home in Samana, Dominican Republic, when she’s sent by her mother to live with her brother, Darrio, in New York, to seek out a better life. As Nina searches for some glimpse of familiarity amid the urban and jarring world of Washington Heights, she learns to uncover her own strength and independence. She finds a way to grow, just like the orchids that blossom on her fire escape. And as she is confronted by ugly secrets about her brother’s business, she comes to understand the realities of life in this new place. But then she meets him—that tall, green-eyed boy—one that she can’t erase from her thoughts, who just might help her learn to see beauty in spite of tragedy.
Featured in WOW Review Volume XIII, Issue 1
In This Inspiring Sequel To The Pura Belpré Award–winning, “dazzling And Insightful” (bccb) I Lived On Butterfly Hill, Thirteen-year-old Celeste Marconi Returns Home To A Very Different Chile And Makes It Her Mission To Rebuild Her Community, And Find Those Who Are Still Missing. During Celeste Marconi’s Time In Maine, Thoughts Of The Brightly Colored Cafes And Salty Air Of Valparaíso, Chile, Carried Her Through Difficult, Homesick Days. Now, She’s Finally Returned Home To Find The Dictatorship Has Left Its Mark On Her Once Beautiful And Vibrant Community. Celeste Is Determined To Help Her Beloved Butterfly Hill Get Back To The Way It Was And To Encourage Her Neighbors To Fight To Regain What They’ve Lost. More Than Anything, Celeste Wishes She Could Bring Back Her Best Friend, Lucilla, Who Was One Of Many To Disappear During The Dictatorship. Celeste Tries To Piece Together What Happened, But It All Seems Too Big To Fix—until She Receives A Letter That Changes Everything. When Celeste Sets Off On Her Biggest Adventure Yet, She’ll Uncover More Heartbreaking Truths Of What Her Country Has Endured. But Every Small Victory Makes A Difference, And Even If Butterfly Hill Can Never Be What It Was, Moving Forward And Healing Can Make It Something Even Better.
The coins in Santiago’s hand are meant for the bus fare back to his abusive abuela’s house. Except he refuses to return; he won’t be missed. His future is uncertain until he meets the kind, maternal María Dolores and her young daughter, Alegría, who help Santiago decide what comes next: He will accompany them to el otro lado, the United States of America. They embark with little, just backpacks with water and a bit of food. To travel together will require trust from all parties, and Santiago is used to going it alone. None of the three travelers realizes that the journey through Mexico to the border is just the beginning of their story.
Santiago’s Road Home is a WOW Recommends: Book of the Month for December 2020.
Winning a national high-school geography competition should be the high point of Jomon’s life. So why does he find himself running through the streets of Georgetown, Guyana, later that same night ― so angry and desperate? Why does he heave his hard-won medal through the front window of a liquor store?
Why does a teenaged boy decide life is not worth living?
Arrested by police and detained in a jail cell, Jomon is jolted out of his suicidal thoughts by the sudden appearance of another teenaged boy ― who claims to be his great-great-grandfather …
Un espléndido e inspirador álbum ilustrado acerca de la vida de José Alberto Gutiérrez,
un recolector de basura de Bogotá, Colombia, que creó una biblioteca a partir de un libro que rescató de la basura mientras realizaba su ruta.
“One day, a woman will play in the National Hockey League. If no one prevents her,” said a twelve-year-old Manon Rhéaume. Manon always dreamed of playing hockey. So, when the team her father coached needed a goalie, five-year-old Manon begged for the chance to play. She didn’t care that she’d be the only girl in the entire league or that hockey was considered a “boys’ sport” in her hometown of Lac-Beauport, Quebec, Canada. All she cared about was the game. After her father gave her that first chance to play, she embarked on a spectacular, groundbreaking career in hockey.
With his cart full of treasures and big green hat, Charlie is a neighborhood fixture. When he finds a pie, he sets off to find the owner ― and helps some friends along the way.
Poignant and funny, this story is an ode to resourcefulness and the compassion that turns neighbors into friends. Charlie and his friends might not have much ― but they have each other.
Nine-year-old Betita and her parents fled Mexico after her uncle was killed by the cartels, and settled in Los Angeles seeking political asylum and safety in what her father calls Aztlan, the land of the cranes; but now they have been swept up by by the government’s Immigration Customs Enforcement, her father deported back to Mexico, and Betita and her mother confined in a family detention camp–Betita finds heart in her imagination and the picture poems her father taught her, but each day threatens to further tear her family apart.
Eleven-year-old Danny Monteverde believes in magic, he believes that the enchanted land of Rio Luna in his older sister’s favorite book is real, and most of all he believes that if he can find the way to Rio Luna he will find his sister Pili there, because he does not believe that his sister would run away from the group home where they lived and leave him behind; but after years of being passed from one foster family to another his faith begins to fade–until one day he finds a mysterious book in the library that contains a map to Rio Luna…and a way to find Pili.