Materials from the Americas
Based on a true events, this inspiring picture book tells the story of an American family who establishes contact with a German family after World War II and sends them a package of much-needed supplies, including shoes.
As her father prepares for a trip back to his childhood home in Ethiopia, Desta begins to worry. Where does her father truly belong–in the village of his youth or here in America with her? What was growing up in Ethiopia like? And will her father’s love for his family be enough to bridge these two worlds and bring him back to her?
Emily is a Jewish girl from the suburbs of New York, end of story. Her mother has family in Puerto Rico, but Emily has never had any contact with them–not until she’s forced to go to the Caribbean for her grandmother’s funeral. Pampered Emily wants nothing to do with her Puerto Rican heritage– until a very special person shows her that that uncovering her roots is like discovering a secret part of her own heart.
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.
Receiving the yearly birthday gift from his grandmother has become David’s living nightmare. The “surprise” she always has for him never varies. How can he stop this never-ending flow of stiff, white, scratchy shirts — “perfect gentlemen” shirts that make him squirm and pull and shift and twitch? David closes his eyes and imagines a long line of shirts — one for every year of his life — stretching on forever. Then suddenly, without really intending to, he has done the unthinkable. “DAVID!” his mother screams. And when David opens his eyes, there are his mother, his father, and his bubbie staring at him. The shirt is no longer in his hands. He has thrown it out the window! Now it is out on the street, in the jaws of his dog, and the very merry chase is on. Bitingly funny and keenly observed, My New Shirt is graphically presented as a photo album commemorating David’s desperate act of liberation from a family tradition badly in need of a change.
In 1919, Alice McLerran’s grandfather and his family spent a year on a homestead outside of Yuma, Arizona, trying to turn a desert mesa into farmland–and a shack into a home. Funny, moving and filled with fascinating period detail, this is an affectionate account of that year. Full color.
This book examines the history, geography, society, economy, and culture of Puerto Rico.
Culca longs to dive, but girls on her native island take care of the men. The divers are essential to the survival of the village as the pearls and shells they gather are used for trading. All is not well, however. When Spanish ships full of gold sink in a storm, the village divers are taken to recover the treasure, and Culca must use her nimble wits and unflagging bravery to save her brother’s life. Culca comes through as a strong female voice.
When Ambrosia gives her Uncle Nacho a new hat, he tries to get rid of his old one, but to no avail. No matter what he does, the pesky hat keeps coming back to him. This classic folktale from the Puppet Workshop of Nicaraguan National Television, vividly illustrated by Mira Reisberg and presented in a bilingual edition, is a parable about the difficulties of making changes and shaking off old habits. The book includes an account of the origins of the story.
This book explores the geography, history, government, economy, people, and culture of Cuba.