Five refugees recount their courageous journeys to America and the unimaginable struggles that led them to flee their homelands in a powerful work from the author of Beyond Magenta and We Are Here to Stay.
In Search Of Safety: Voices Of Refugees
United States
Materials from United States of America
Beasts Of Prey
Sixteen-year-old indentured beastkeeper Koffi and seventeen-year-old warrior candidate Ekon forge an unusual alliance and venture into the Greater Jungle to hunt down a monster that has been menacing their city for a century. Includes author’s note.
Abuelita And I Make Flan
Anita helps her grandmother make flan for her grandfather’s birthday.
Kalamata’s Kitchen
A charming picture book champions teamwork, harmony, and creativity, and reminds us that sometimes the answers we’re looking for can be found in unexpected places.
When We Make It
Sarai uses verse to navigate the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn, questioning the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives.
!mira, Abuela! Ni, Elisi! / Look, Grandma!
Bo wants to find the perfect container to show off his traditional marbles for the Cherokee National Holiday in this exploration of volume and capacity.
Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story
Wampanoag children listen as their grandmother tells them the story about how Weeâchumun (the wise Corn) asked local Native Americans to show the newcomers how to grow food to yield a good harvest–Keepunumuk–in 1621. The Thanksgiving story that most Americans know celebrates the Pilgrims. But without members of the Wampanoag tribe who already lived on the land where the Pilgrims settled, the Pilgrims would never have made it through their first winter. And without Weeâchumun (corn), the Native people wouldn’t have helped.
Chronicles Of A Luchador
Jesse Baron, the son of the American Championship Wrestling star known as the Angel of Death, is about to graduate from high school. His parents expect him to attend the University of Texas and study mechanical engineering, something he’s not interested in. The young man knows he would be a natural at professional wrestling, and with his father’s help he might even reach the same level of fame and success.
But the Angel of Death, retired from the ACW and running a wrestling promotion and school, refuses to train his son for fear he will choose sports entertainment over a college degree. Jesse decides that once he gets settled at UT, he’s going to look for another place to wrestle. To keep his father from finding out, he’ll promote himself as a masked luchador from Oaxaca, Mexico, named Mascara de la Muerte. When no one will hire him, Jesse reluctantly considers joining a lucha libre organization, even though he doesn’t speak Spanish. Will the fans and his fellow wrestlers see him as a luchador-or just a gringo with a mask?
Echoes Of Grace
On the Texas-Mexico border, 18-year-old Grace’s relationship with her older sister Mercy is fractured when Mercy’s 2-year-old son dies in an accident, bringing to the surface old family traumas and literal ghosts as the family struggles to heal.
This book is featured in Season 1, Episode 6 of the WOW Reads podcast.
The Second Chance Of Benjamin Waterfalls
Benjamin Waterfalls comes from a broken home, and the quickest fix he’s found for his life is to fill that emptiness with stuff he steals and then sells. But he’s been caught one too many times, and when he appears before a tough judge, his mother proposes sending him to boot camp at the Ojibwe reservation where they used to live. Soon he is on his way to Grand Portage, Minnesota, to live with his father, the man Benny hasn’t seen in years. Not only is boot camp not what he expects, but his rehabilitation seems to be in the hands of the tribal leader’s daughter, who wears a mask. Why? Finding the answer to this and so many other questions prove tougher than any military style boot camp. Will answers be enough for Benny to turn his life around and embrace his second chance?