Finding a seriously hurt dolphin in the Amazon near her small Colombian village and suspecting her stepfather of having wounded it, Carmenza nurses it back to health and turns to the wise old Indian Omar to appease its spirit.
Americas
Materials from the Americas
The Remembering Stone
A surprising journey of self-discover. In early fall, the blackbirds creak like rusty wheels behind our apartment. “One day I will return like you,” my mother tells the birds. “But for now, you go. Que les vaya bien. Safe journey.” Ana doesn’t understand the pull of this faraway place until one night she puts her favorite thing, a stone spit from the volcanoes of Costa Rica, underneath her pillow. She imagines herself a blackbird flying to this country her mother longs to see again. This evocative picture book with its striking, bold art celebrates the importance of hope, dreams, and cultural roots, and will have special resonance for all thos who find themselves at the crossroads of two cultures.
Tonight, by Sea
Seek life. Chache Lavi. That’s what Paulie’s uncle says they must do. But to seek life, Paulie and her family have to leave Haiti-the only home that Paulie has ever known. Since forever, Paulie has run in and out of the little houses nestled under the palms, smelling cocoa-bread and playing on the beach with her best friend Karyl. But now the little houses are gone. Their wood has been made into boats-boats used to escape Haiti.Paulie wants to stay and fight-to change Haiti into a better place to live. She wants to talk to the reporters and bravely tell the truth, like Karyl’s brother, Jean-Desir. But the macoutes come with their guns and knives to stop them. And they do something so terrible that Paulie must face the truth: before the soldiers come back, they must all leave-tonight, by sea.
Bringing the Boy Home
As two Takunami youths approach their thirteenth birthdays, Luka reaches the culmination of his mother’s training for the tribe’s manhood test while Tirio, raised in Miami, Florida, by his adoptive mother, feels called to begin preparations to prove himself during his upcoming visit to the Amazon rain forest where he was born.
A Bicycle For Rosaura
Senora Amelia loves animals. In this lively and cheery story from Venezuela, you will see to what lengths she will go in order to grant her handsome hen Rosaura a birthday wish. The delicate colored pencil drawings lend warmth and charm to this tale. Their color and light precisely portray the sense of place–a small town in Venezuela.
Mcfig and Mcfly: A Tale of Jealousy, Revenge, and Death (with a Happy Ending)
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.
Bravo, Tavo!
Tavo, named for his father Gustavo, plays basketball so much that his sneakers are worn out. His father is too worried about the drought afflicting their small village to focus on replacing them. Gustavo thinks he can solve the water shortage, but the other villagers say he’s crazy. Tavo puts aside basketball to help prove his father right. In return, something miraculous happens to his sneakers, and he’s the hero of the next game. Did the magic come from his shoes, or was it in his heart all along? Brian Meunier’s outstanding storytelling makes this a captivating read-aloud, while Perky Edgerton’s extraordinary paintings make it a visual treat.
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.
Nina Bonita
This story deals with a sensitive subject in a sensitive way on the theme of “Black is beautiful.” A little white rabbit asks a girl about the secret that will make him black–an introduction to genetics.
Hello, America
The year is 1951 and eighteen-year-old Elli and her mother arrive in New York City. Finally they can leave behind bitter Holocaust memories and become real Americans! From office filing all day, to the challenge of night school, to interpreting the intentions of Alex, a handsome and persistent doctor, Elli soon finds learning English is only half as hard as “making it” in this new world. Against a backdrop of soda shops, skyscrapers, and subways, acclaimed author Livia Bitton-Jackson fuses old-world tradition and modern dreams, in this vivid kaleidoscope of immigrant America.