Materials from United States of America
Yuko’s grandmother remembers that when she was a little girl many years ago in Japan, her town’s beautiful temple bell was taken away to be used as scrap metal for the war effort. She thought she’d never see it again. After the war the bell was brought to America by a U. S. Navy crew who found it abandoned in a Japanese shipyard. Most amazing of all, the bell was later returned to Japan as a gesture of friendship between the former warring countries.
Young Matt is alone in the Maine wilderness awaiting his father’s return to their cabin when he is attacked by a swarm of bees. To his surprise, he is saved by an Indian chief and his grandson, Attean. The boys come to know each other, many months pass without a sign of Matt’s family. Then Attean asks Matt to join the Beaver tribe. Should Matt abandon his hopes for his father’s return and join his new family up north?
In a land of never-ending snow, Rufus Breeze and his mother must protect the family home from being seized by tyrant Bartholomew Tullock. His sister Madeline and her father, an inventor of fans that are now useless, join forces with a ne’er-do-well adventurer and his blue-haired terrier, hoping to make some money.
Relates, in Spanish and English, a telephone conversation in which young Estrellita, who has recently moved to Brooklyn, New York, tells her grandmother, who still lives in Puerto Rico, all about her adventures in and near Manhattan.
Text in English and Spanish.
“A social history of the Muslim world from the eighth through the mid-thirteenth century, with a focus on the religion of Islam”–Provided by publisher.
The fantastical tale of a young girl chasing her White Rabbit has delighted children since Lewis Carroll wrote it generations ago. Here his Wonderland shines anew, viewed through the looking glasses of two incomparable artists.
Mary Blair’s vibrant art helped shape the look of Walt Disney’s classic animated film. Collected in a picture book for the first time, her illustrations capture the essence of such memorable characters as the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter with stunning immediacy. Jon Scieszka’s captivating text celebrates all that is curious-and all that is nonsensical-about the world that holds Alice spellbound, from a deliciously absurd tea party to the spectacle of a kingdom of playing cards .
When thirteen-year-old Pia is sent to Hawaii’s leprosy settlement on Molokai Island in the 1860s, he chooses anger and self-reliance as his means of survival, but the faithful example of other villagers and one remarkable priest threaten to destroy his desire for revenge.
Featured in Volume I, Issue 3 of WOW Review.
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.
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.
Saturdays and Sundays are very special days for the child in this story. On Saturdays, she visits Grandma and Grandpa, who come from a European-American background, and on Sundays — los domingos — she visits Abuelito y Abuelita, who are Mexican-American. While the two sets of grandparents are different in many ways, they also have a great deal in common — in particular, their love for their granddaughter. While we follow our narrator to the circus and the pier, share stories from her grandparents’ pasts, and celebrate her birthday, the depth and joy of both cultures are conveyed in Spanish and English. This affirmation of both heritages will speak to all children who want to know more about their own families and ethnic backgrounds.
Awards
Americas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Commended