United States

Materials from United States of America

Grandfather Counts

When Helen’s grandfather, Gong Gong, comes from China to live with her family, he’s shocked to find that none of his grandchildren speak Chinese. How will he communicate with them? At first he keeps to himself. Then one day he joins Helen to watch the trains. He starts counting the train cars in Chinese, and she repeats the words. Then Helen says the numbers in English. They continue to teach each other, and Helen even learns her Chinese name, which means “flower.” In this luminously illustrated intergenerational story, the devotion between a young girl and her grandfather helps them overcome barriers of age and language.

Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match / Marisol McDreonald No Combina

Marisol McDonald, a biracial, nonconformist, soccer-playing pirate-princess with brown skin and red hair, celebrates her uniqueness.

What’s He Doing Now?

When a young boy named Lewis finds out that his mother is going to have a baby, he is full of questions: What is the baby doing now? How does his mom feel with a baby growing inside her? When he touches her tummy, it feels like she swallowed a bunch of butterflies! When the baby has hiccups, it sounds like popcorn! Month by month, he becomes more and more curious about what the baby is doing inside his mother’s tummy.Lewis thinks that having a new baby around could be kind of neat… but a bit worrisome at the same time. He begins to wonder if the baby will like him, and becomes a little afraid that he is not special to his parents anymore. However, he soon discovers he has an important place in his family — and being a big brother is actually kind of fun! An ideal book for parents and children to share.

When Jo Louis Won The Title

Jo Louis dreads her first day in her new school because she is sure that the other children will make fun of her name. “This will be an effective prompt for many families and how-you-got-your-name stories, and many youngsters, especially reading with relatives, will appreciate the loving evocation of bonds to kin and history.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Five Flavors Of Dumb

Eighteen-year-old Piper becomes the manager for her classmates’ popular rock band, called Dumb, giving her the chance to prove her capabilities to her parents and others, if only she can get the band members to get along.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 4, Issue 2

Schneider Family Book Award

Crouching Tiger

A Chinese-American boy gains a new understanding of his Chinese grandfather in this celebratory story of family, martial arts, and the Chinese New Year. Vinson is very excited when his grandfather comes from China for a visit. When Grandpa practices tai chi in the garden, Vinson asks to learn, hoping it will be like kung fu, full of kicks and punches. But tai chi’s meditative postures are slow and still, and Vinson quickly gets bored. He can’t understand why Grandpa insists on calling him by his Chinese name, Ming Da, or why he has to wear a traditional Chinese jacket to the Chinese New Year parade. As the parade assembles, however, he notices the great respect given to his grandfather and the lion dancers under his training. And when Vinson is offered a role in the parade, he realizes that being part Chinese can be pretty cool—and is ready to start learning from his grandpa’s martial-arts mastery in earnest.

Kung Fooey

Fourth-grader Cal learns a lot about teasing and standing up for others when a weird new student joins his class, while Stella, the tenth-grader who lives with Cal’s family to help his mother, practices for her driving test.

Ghosts in the Fog

Few know the story of the Japanese invasion of Alaska during World War II–until now. This narrative nonfiction book for young adults tells the riveting story of how the Japanese invaded and occupied the Aleutian Islands in Alaska during World War II. This fascinating little-known piece of American history is told from the point of view of the American civilians who were captured and taken prisoner, along with the American and Japanese soldiers who fought in one of the bloodiest battles of hand-to-hand combat during the war. Complete with more than 80 photographs throughout and first person accounts of this extraordinary event.

Desert Angel

Fourteen-year-old Angel wakes up one morning at her desert trailer home to discover her mother has been murdered by a lowlife named Scotty, who has vanished. Angel has no water, no weapon, but she knows that Scotty, an expert tracker and hunter, will surface soon in order to eliminate her as a witness. She has to run, to disappear, if she is to survive and tell the world what happened. Her flight takes her through a harsh landscape to places she never expected to be, forcing her to trust others for the first time and strengthening her in ways she doesn’t even anticipate . . . until it’s time to take a stand.

La Intriga Del Limonero/ The Lemon Tree Caper

This second, bilingual short novel in the Mickey Rangel Mystery series for intermediate readers has Mickey tracking a lemon thief!