United States

Materials from United States of America

Hello, America

The year is 1951 and eighteen-year-old Elli and her mother arrive in New York City. Finally they can leave behind bitter Holocaust memories and become real Americans! From office filing all day, to the challenge of night school, to interpreting the intentions of Alex, a handsome and persistent doctor, Elli soon finds learning English is only half as hard as “making it” in this new world. Against a backdrop of soda shops, skyscrapers, and subways, acclaimed author Livia Bitton-Jackson fuses old-world tradition and modern dreams, in this vivid kaleidoscope of immigrant America.

Wilderness

A novel of mothers lost and found. Grainne’s Mom disappeared years ago when her parents were divorced, and Mom moved to the U.S. Now, bafflingly, she’s reappeared and wants to meet. To get out of the way of this mysterious reunion, Grainne’s half-brothers, Johnny and Tom, go with their mother, Sandra, on an “adventure holiday” in Finland. But before they’re more than a few days into the snowy north, the boys are separated from Sandra, taking impossible risks to save her life.

Roadwork!

here are many big machines and busy people involved in building a road, and this picture book, with its rambunctious rhymes and noisy fun, follows them every step of the way, from clearing a pathway to rolling the tar to sweeping up at the end.

Robert H. Jackson: New Deal Lawyer, Supreme Court Justice, Nuremberg Prosecutor

This engaging biography of Jackson, a New Deal lawyer, Supreme Court Justice, and chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trial, details the personal journey of this extraordinary man who had never attended college nor earned a law degree.

Nim at Sea

This time Nim’s the fish-out-of-water as she stows away on a cruise ship to save her kidnapped sea lion friend. Accompanied by her likeable iguana, Fred, the island girl lands with a splash in Manhattan, on the run from a very Bad Guy, and on her way to reunite with her friend, cowardly adventure novelist Alex Rover.

How to Catch a Fish

Thirteen linked verses and handsome, mood-drenched paintings show how we catch fish–from New England to the Arctic, to Japan and Namibia and beyond. This lovely picturebook–about fishing, geography, people and customs, and the bond between parent and child fishing together–will appeal to everyone who’s cast a line in the water.

Roots and Wings

Grace’s grandmother has died, and she and her mother must travel back to the Cambodian community to give her a proper Cambodian funeral. Grace wants to use the trip to solve a few mysteries, like who her father was, why her mother and grandmother moved from St. Petersburg to Pennsylvania, where they’re the only Cambodians Grace has ever seen, and what Cambodian culture is really about. Embraced by her mother’s old friends, Grace feels both at home and lost, fascinated by the traditions she’s never known, but strangely judged by some members of the community.

Bindi Babes

Amber, Jazz, and Geena Dhillon, a.k.a. the Bindi Babes, are three fabulous sisters with a reputation for being the coolest, best-dressed girls at their school. But their classmates don’t know that the sisters miss their mom, who died a year ago. An interfering auntie from India invites herself into their household to cramp their style and soon the sisters’ pushover dad is saying no to designer clothes and expensive sneakers. There’s only one way to be rid of Auntie: marry her off to some unsuspecting guy. Will Amber, Jazz, and Geena find a man who can put up with Auntie before she completely ruins their lives? Or are Auntie’s new rules doomed to make the fabulous Dhillon sisters just average?

Cocoa Ice

A girl in Santo Domingo tells how cocoa is harvested during the late 1800s while at the same time her counterpart in Maine tells about the harvesting of ice.

Letters from Rifka

In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family’s flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others emigrate to America.