Materials from the Americas
Twelve-year-olds Barana and Abby come together to solve a sea turtle egg poaching mystery plaguing Barana’s Honduran coastal village, and learn the true meaning of friendship, courage and community along the way.
This book is part of the Worlds of Words Global Reading List for 2023/24.
“With one poem for each child, this collection explores the hopes of the thirty-four children disappeared and killed during Augusto Pinochet’s regime in Chile.” Niños: poems for the lost children of Chile uses poetry to bring Chilean history to young children.
David Bowles, Traci Sorell, and others present poems about young activists who speak up to fight global climate change.
When Brazilian American twins Lia and Luís receive a jigsaw puzzle from their grandmother, they must quickly solve it to figure out its secret message.
The true story of John Meyers and Charles Bender, who in 1911 became the first two Native American pro baseball players to face off in a World Series, teaches important lessons about resilience, doing what you love in the face of injustice, and the fight for Native American representation in sports.
Caught in the cross hairs of gang violence, seventeen-year old fashion designer, Maya, and her mother set off on a perilous journey from Guatemala City to the US-Mexico border.
As two ocelots attempt to cross the United States-Mexico border, they face obstacles that drive home the catastrophic effects of a wall on the plants and animals of the border–and the many benefits of keeping the border barrier-free.
Aniana del Mar belongs in the water like a dolphin belongs to the sea. But she and Papi keep her swim practices and meets hidden from Mami, who has never recovered from losing someone she loves to the water years ago. That is, until the day Ani’s stiffness and swollen joints mean she can no longer get out of bed, and Ani is forced to reveal just how important swimming is to her. Mami forbids her from returning to the water but Ani and her doctor believe that swimming along with medication will help Ani manage her disease. What follows is the journey of a girl who must grieve who she once was in order to rise like the tide and become the young woman she is meant to be. Aniana Del Mar Jumps In is a poignant story about chronic illness and disability, the secrets between mothers and daughters, the harm we do to the ones we love the most—and all the triumphs, big and small, that keep us afloat.
“When Destiny was found by the Sloth Institute in Costa Rica, she was sick, thin, and one of her eyes was closed and not working. The Sloth Institute took her in and introduced her to other sloths as she started to recover. She never regained the use of her one eye, but that didn’t stop Destiny from hanging out with her new buddies, or getting healthier and stronger. Last August, Destiny was fitted for her tracking collar and released back into the wild. This inspiring story not only encourages kids to be determined like Destiny, but it also shows them the importance of being kind to those who may look different than us”–
If I Go Missing is a graphic novel based on a letter written by 14 year old Brianna Jonnie to the Winnipeg Police Service. This graphic novel begins with a quote from the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the right of Indigenous women and children to be free from all forms of violence and discrimination. Citing statistics and information on murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, this is an open letter to understand how missing people are treated differently especially Indigenous women and girls by society and men and boys in particular. It is also a call on police services, media and communities to exhaust all efforts to find Indigenous girls and to do this as soon as possible because it is not about the colour of one’s skin, socio-economic status, or legal guardianship but details that humanize those who go missing that matters.