Materials from the Americas
This contemporary story of the true friendship between two girls is set in Vancouver’s Commercial Drive neighborhood. Shu-Li’s parents run a local Chinese deli and much of the story revolves around food. There is a helpful compendium of recipes at the end of the book for kids to try out. Beautifully illustrated throughout with line drawings.
When Nadia arrives in Canada in 1950 with Marusia, the woman she calls mother, she is glad to finally be out of the displaced persons camp where she has lived for five years, but troubled by confused memories of World War II; she speaks Ukrainian, but she seems to remember living with a German Nazi family who called her by a different name. As she tries to settle into the Canadian-Ukrainian community of Brantford, she is haunted by one question: who is she, and where was she stolen from.
Shu-Li and Diego tells the story of how these two classmates meet the challenge of taking care of Baxter, a neighbor’s dog. The two friends face disaster when Baxter runs away and they have to break the news to its owner.
Lety Muñoz’s first language is Spanish, and she likes to take her time putting her words together. She loves volunteering at the Furry Friends Animal Shelter because the dogs and cats there don’t care if she can’t always find the right word. When the shelter needs a volunteer to write animal profiles, Lety jumps at the chance. But grumpy classmate Hunter also wants to write profiles — so now they have to work as a team. Hunter’s not much of a team player, though. He devises a secret competition to decide who will be the official shelter scribe. Whoever helps get their animals adopted the fastest wins. The loser scoops dog food. Lety reluctantly agrees, but she’s worried that if the shelter finds out about the contest, they’ll kick her out of the volunteer program. Then she’ll never be able to adopt Spike, her favorite dog at the shelter!
This book has been included in WOW’s Language and Learning: Children’s and Young Adult Fiction Booklist. For our current list, visit our Booklist page under Resources in the green navigation bar.
In early 1940s Los Angeles, Mexican Americans Marisela and Lorena work in canneries all day then jitterbug with sailors all night with their zoot suit wearing younger brother, Ray, as escort until the night racial violence leads to murder. Includes historical note.
A girl describes how each person in the family has hair that looks and acts different, Papa’s like a broom, Kiki’s like fur, and Mama’s with the sweet smell of bread before it’s baked.
A first Nations family goes on an outing to gather edible plants and mushrooms. The grandmother, Yayah, passes down her knowledge of the natural world to her young grandchild.
Based on true events, Dolphin SOS recounts the story of three dolphins trapped in an ice covered cove off the coast of Newfoundland. After the government fails to provide assistance, local children take matters into their owns hands in order to save the distressed dolphins.
Little Lobo, a Mexican American, and Bernabe, his dog, deliver supplies to vendors at the Mercado, a busy border town market.
As a child, Simon Jackson found navigating the world of the school playground difficult. He felt most at home in the woodlands, learning about and photographing wildlife. As a teenager, he became fascinated with spirit bears, a rare subspecies of black bear with creamy white fur. These elusive creatures were losing their habitat to deforestation, and Simon knew he had to do something to protect them. He decided he would become the voice for the spirit bears. But first, he would have to find his own.