Americas

Materials from the Americas

Weekend Dad

This home is home because my dad is here, and it’s nothing like home because my mom isn’t here, thinks the boy in this story when he enters his dad’s new apartment for the first time. His dad moved out on Monday and now it’s Friday night, the start of his weekend with his dad. The boy and his dad follow their normal weekend routine — they eat eggs for breakfast, play cards and spend time at the park. And then they do the same things on Sunday. It is hard to say goodbye at the end of the weekend, but Dad gives his son a letter to remind him that, even if his dad can’t always be there, the boy is loved. Naseem Hrab has written a poignant yet hopeful story, strikingly illustrated in Frank Viva’s signature style, about what happens when parents separate, and the new reality of having two homes.

Sean Awesome: The Dog Next Door

Ms. Yellow and Mr. Wide is a wife and husband duo who created the Sean Awesome Series one cut-paper scene at a time. They live in the beautiful city of Vancouver and try very hard to be an awesome Mommy and Daddy to their real life son Sean. Inspired by her teaching experience and their own son, Ms. Yellow and Mr. Wide created Sean Awesome to share the joy and love of becoming a family. Ms. Yellow studied Literature and Education. She worked as an editor at WWD magazine. Later she spent many years working closely with children and parents as an Early Childhood Educator.

David Jumps In

It is David’s first day at his brand-new school. He doesn’t know anyone. At recess, he stands alone and watches the other children enjoying their activities on the playground, from practicing soccer moves and climbing monkey bars to playing hopscotch and daydreaming in the grass. Bundled deep inside David’s pocket is a string of rubber bands, knotted and ready for a game of elastic skip.

Canadian Women Now and Then: More than 100 Stories of Fearless Trailblazers

Canadian women have long been trailblazers, creating art, making discoveries and setting records – and often battling incredible odds and discrimination in the process. Here, award-winning children’s writer Elizabeth MacLeod presents biographies of more than one hundred of these remarkable women, from the famous, such as Margaret Atwood, to the lesser known, such as multi-award-winning mathematician Karen Yeats. There are stories of activists and architects, engineers and explorers, poets and politicians and so many more. Each category pairs a historical groundbreaker with a present-day woman making her mark in that same field. Included are stories of Indigenous women, immigrants, women with disabilities and women from the LGBTQ+ community. Together, they tell the story of Canada. And together they offer a vision of what’s possible, to inspire all children to blaze trails of their own.

The Boreal Forest: A Year In The World’s Largest Land Biome

The vast boreal forest spans a dozen countries in the northern regions like “a scarf around the neck of the world,” making it the planet’s largest land biome. Besides providing homes for a diversity of species, this spectacular forest is also vitally important to the planet: its trees clean our air, its wetlands clean our water and its existence plays an important role in slowing global climate change. In this beautifully written book, award-winning author L. E. Carmichael explores this special wilderness on a tour of the forest throughout the four seasons, from one country to another. Evocative watercolor and collage artwork by award-winning illustrator Josée Bisaillon provides a rare glimpse of one of the world’s most magnificent places.

The Honey Jar

The Honey Jar retells the ancient stories Rigoberta Menchú’s grandparents told her when she was a little girl, and we can imagine her listening to them by the fire at night. These Mayan tales include natural phenomena narratives and animal stories. The underworld, the sky, the sun and moon, plants, people, animals, gods, and demigods are all players in these vibrant stories. Enchanting images by Domi draw on the Mayan landscape and the rich visual vocabulary that can be found in the weavings and crafts for which the Maya are renowned.

The Owl and the Two Rabbits

When two rabbit sisters ignore their parents’ warnings and decide to play outside on the open tundra, a hungry owl soon spots them and decides they will make a delicious meal. As a chase ensues, the sisters must act quickly, using the owl’s own greed against him in order to get away. A traditional Inuit story and cautionary tale, this book presents a centuries-old narrative for a new generation of readers.

My Best Friend

A mysterious shadow walks the corridors. It goes from room to room, and sometimes leaves with someone in its arms, taking them to the land of dreams. Until one day a patient at the hospital―a young child―speaks to the shadow, offering it a drink of water. The child is fearful at first, but as he gets to know the shadow through their conversations, he realizes that she has feelings of her own. So begins a great friendship between an unlikely pair: a young child, and Death.

With A Star In My Hand: Rubén Darío, Poetry Hero

A novel in verse about the life and work of Ruben Dario, a Nicaraguan poet who started life as an abandoned child and grew to become the father of a new literary movement. Includes historical notes.