Americas

Materials from the Americas

Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story

Wampanoag children listen as their grandmother tells them the story about how Weeâchumun (the wise Corn) asked local Native Americans to show the newcomers how to grow food to yield a good harvest–Keepunumuk–in 1621. The Thanksgiving story that most Americans know celebrates the Pilgrims. But without members of the Wampanoag tribe who already lived on the land where the Pilgrims settled, the Pilgrims would never have made it through their first winter. And without Weeâchumun (corn), the Native people wouldn’t have helped.

Vincent Ventura And The Curse Of The Weeping Woman / Vincent Ventura Y La Maldición De La Llorona

“Vincent Ventura, monster fighter extraordinaire, can’t believe the house at 666 Duende Street has attracted yet another creepy creature! In fact, this time there are several unusual beings, including two boys who disappear and reappear-are they ghosts?!? And the lady in white with fiery glowing eyes who calls out for them? Is she … La Llorona?!? And who is the other young woman? The next day at school, Vincent and his cousins Bobby and Michelle meet a new substitute teacher, Ms. Malin Che, who just moved into the haunted house. What is her connection to La Llorona and the unusual children? At least this time, the kids have new friends to help solve the mystery: Sayer, who they helped in a previous battle with trolls, or duendes, and Zulema, a witch owl who was the target of evil witches. As the relationship between Vincent and Zulema evolves, becoming more complex and exciting, so too does the current case! Two new beings turn up: a hideous figure dressed as a Mexican cowboy whose face is devoid of flesh and a second spooky woman! Ms. Che, a Latin American folklore expert, tells them about el Charro Negro and the weeping women collectively called Cihuateteos. This bilingual book for intermediate readers, the fourth installment in Garza’s Monster Fighter Mystery series, follows the nail-biting battle for the souls of two boys! Will Vincent and his friends be able to save them from the monsters’ clutches?!

The Mystery Of The Monarchs: How Kids, Teachers, And Butterfly Fans Helped Fred And Norah Urquhart Track The Great Monarch Migration

Young Fred Urquhart was fascinated by insects, especially his favorite, the monarch butterfly. He wondered where monarchs spent the winter. No one knew. After he became an bug scientist, Fred and his wife, Norah, tagged hundreds of butterflies, hoping to solve the mystery of the monarchs. But they soon discovered that they needed help. They started a “butterfly family,” a community of children, teachers, and nature enthusiasts from three countries, Canada, the United States and Mexico, to answer the question: Where do the monarchs go?

The Mystery of the Monarchs was the WOW Recommends: Book of the Month for June 2023.

The Gilded Ones #2: The Merciless Ones

The second book in the series, The Merciless Ones follows Deka after she’s freed the goddesses of Otera and discovered who she really is…but war is waging across the kingdom, and the real battle has only just begun. For there is a dark force growing in Otera—a merciless power that Deka and her army must stop.

Yet hidden secrets threaten to destroy everything Deka has known. And with her own gifts changing, Deka must discover if she holds the key to saving Otera… or if she might be its greatest threat.

Saving Earth: Climate Change And The Fight For Our Future

A timely and important illustrated nonfiction guide for middle grade readers about the history of our fight against climate change, and how young people today can rise to action.

Notebook Keeper

After traveling to Tijuana, Mexico, Noemi and her mother are denied entry at the border and must find the refugee in charge of the notebook, an unofficial ledger of those waiting to cross into the United States. Includes author’s note.

The Notebook Keeper was featured in the WOW Currents The Power of Home: Promise or Uncertainty? Part II.

The Sky We Shared

Set during WWII and told in alternating voices, Nellie, a young Oregonian and survivor of a balloon bomb sent over by the Japanese, strives to understand how the war has torn her community apart and created prejudice against Japanese-Americans, while across the ocean, as part of her nationalist duty, Tamiko helps create the balloon bombs, but in her struggle to survive hunger and starvation, Tamiko muddles her way through her anger against the United States for the war.