International

The Journey: Stories of Migration

Newbery Medalist Cynthia Rylant joins naturalist painter Lambert Davis to create a vibrant picture book that follow the migratory journeys of some magnificent creatures: locusts, gray whales, American silver eels, monarch butterflies, caribou, and terns. Rylant’s lively, poetic prose and Davis’ exquisite, dramatic paintings offer an awe-inspiring look at the animal world and the outstanding tests of endurance and strength that the animals have undergone for centuries, and which continue to cycle on and inspire us today.

My Village

My Village is a beautiful collection featuring nursery rhymes and verses from around the world: New Zealand, China, Australia, Norway, Ireland, Tonga, Jamaica, Japan, Zimbabwe, Fiji, Indonesia, Denmark, Iran, Germany, Samoa, Switzerland, Russia, Brazil, France, Holland, Iceland, and India. Readers delight in quirky, touching, and funny verses from the 22 different countries, brought vividly to life by the appealingly fresh artwork from exciting young illustrator Mique Moriuchi, who captures each verse with a uniquely beautiful and child’s-eye focus. Danielle Wright has included some familiar rhymes along with others that are less well known. Internationally acclaimed poet and former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen introduces the collection, discussing the origins of nursery rhymes as well as reviewing some of his favorites. Also endorsed by the International Youth Library, this book is an essential addition to any school or library.

Sacred Stories

Sacred Stories is a priceless collection of thirty-five spellbinding stories from distinctive backgrounds and faiths.  Author Marilyn McFarlane takes you on a respectful, engaging, and educational journey through seven major belief systems:

Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Native American, Sacred Earth.

Enhanced by beautiful illustrations and intriguing facts, Sacred Stories draws from a rich storehouse of history, tradition, and symbols of humanity’s deepest needs and longings.  Each captivating story and illustration brings to life the key tenets of a particular belief system, from creation myths to miraculous visions, from gods and goddesses to the Golden Rule.  Appealing to young and old alike, Sacred Stories will expand your understanding of human spirituality in all its wonder.

Gangs

Street gangs have exploded in popularity worldwide. Tattoos, baggy pants, tagging, gangsta style clothes — this unspoken threat is always just around the corner in most of the world’s major cities. In search of a sense of identity and belonging that their world has denied them, young people are pushed into gangs by a witch’s brew of violence, guns, drugs, racism, poverty, families under pressure, and ever-widening slums. Gangs exposes the roots of the problem, from the bidonvilles of France to the favelas of Brazil. It offers a startling analysis of the complicity of the adult world, as well as hard-hitting reforms that might just undermine the appeal of gang life. Most of all, it shows that we fail to understand gangs at our peril.

The Maid of the North

The Maid of the North weaves together tales about a woman’s right to freedom of will and choice. In this collection of mostly nineteenth-century folk and fairy tales, Ethel Johnston Phelps’s heroines successfully portray women as being spirited, courageous and smart. This type of heroine is not easily found in most collections; in most traditional folk and fairy tales we encounter women are portrayed as being good, obedient, submissive, and, of course, beautiful. These women—and girls—are resourceful; they take action to solve a problem and use cleverness or shrewd common sense to solve the dilemmas they face.

The tales themselves are part of an oral tradition that document a generation according to the values of the time. Phelps has given these older tales a fresh, contemporary retelling for a new generation of readers, young and old. She shapes each story—adding or omitting details—to reflect her sense of a feminist folk or fairy tale.

The twenty-one tales collected represent a wide variety of countries; approximately seventeen ethnic cultures from North America to Europe to Asia tell a story in which women play a leading or crucial role in the story.