Materials from Oceania
With no family and little support from his only ally, Miss Radinski, Ben knows that he will have to venture onto the dangerous streets alone to face the woolvs that no one believes exist. The exact nature of the danger is not identified and so the book is open to many different interpretations. Uses invented spelling.
Life was peaceful on the small Philippine island of Luzon. The men fished, the women cooked, the children played games, and the birds sang. Everyone knew it was time for bed when they heard the birds’ good-night song. Then Tuko arrived. Tuko, the gecko, bellowed his name five times every time he ate—day or night. Everyone was miserable from lack of sleep. That is, until Haribon the eagle devised a plan to trick Tuko into leaving for good.
Sam has always wanted a dog, but Jenny is a dog like no other. She has come from another world—a parallel world of mythology, where the whims of the gods decide the course of Destiny. Jenny fled in terror after her attempt to save the life of her first beloved boy interrupted the gods’ plans for a battle for control of the world. But now her escape threatens Sam’s world as well. So Jenny has to convince her motley pack of dog friends—tiny Pico, giant Gentleman Jim, slow-moving Boris, excitable Checkers, and nervous Flo—that it’s their destiny to restore the worlds to order before it’s too late. Norse mythology, a huge respect for the hearts and minds of dogs, and many dashes of humor combine to tell the tale of a grand, epic quest to save the world for humans, gods, and dogs.
A collection of short stories. As part of a public execution, a young boy forlornly helps to sing his sister down. A servant learns about grace and loyalty from a mistress who would rather dance with Gypsies than sit on her throne. A terrifying encounter with a demonic angel gives a young man the strength he needs to break free of his oppressor. On a bleak and dreary afternoon a gleeful shooting spree leads to tragedy for a desperate clown unable to escape his fate. Michael L Printz Honor Book Awards
This unusual first novel is based on true accounts of the imprisonment of American citizens in Japanese detention camps in the Philippines during World War II. Louise Keller travels with her missionary family to the Philippines on the eve of Pearl Harbor. At first the country seems like paradise, but soon Louise and her family are captured by the Japanese and forced to live in internment camps. An exciting and thought-provoking novel about human strength and weakness in wartime Jane Hertenstein will donate a portion of her royalties for this book to help build houses for residents of Smokey Mountain, a large garbage dump in Manila where hundreds of people live under scraps of metal and cardboard.
Bee can’t understand what her father sees in Jazzi. Ever since Bee’s mom died, she, her dad, and her two guinea pigs, Fifi and Lulu, have been getting along just fine. Now Bee is supposed to welcome Jazzi, with her bangled skirts and her rock-hard scones and her new way of looking at everything. Imagine how Bee feels when her dad invites Jazzi to move in! Life certainly gets more complicated, especially after Bee discovers that there is something big that Jazzi has not told Dad. Yet knowing the secret makes Bee see another side of Jazzi, one that oddly enough makes Bee more comfortable.
George lived alone with his grandmother and an empty place where his mother and father should be. One Friday on his way home from school, George visited the animal shelter. There, in the very last cage, was Jeremy, a dog who looked as lost and as lonely as George. When Jeremy goes home to live with George and his grandmother, their whole lives change, and they learn that when it comes to love, it’s quality not quantity that counts.
When twelve-year-old Garland Maddigan asks Timon and Eden where they have come from, she is overwhelmed by their answer: the future.In a post-apocalyptic time, Garland’s family’s traveling circus troop, Maddigan’s Fantasia, leaves the city of Solis once a year to perform and earn a living. However, this year Solis has given the Fantasia the crucial task of obtaining a new solar converter, the only power source in Solis, because the old one is failing. Misfortune finds the Fantasia in their travels, and Garland’s father dies in an attack by Road Rats. Then suddenly two mysterious boys, Timon and Eden, appear with their baby sister, claiming to be from the future — a world in which the Fantasia has failed in its mission and the evil Nennog has taken power. The boys have come to help the Fantasia, but danger has followed them across time. Can the Fantasia protect Timon and Eden, and succeed in their quest to save their world? Internationally renowned author Margaret Mahy spins a vivid tale of time travel, adventure, and magic that no reader will soon forget.
Morris the crocodile and his best friend, Billy, a tortoise, like nothing better than messing around at the waterhole with their animal friends. In five amusing stories, Morris and company do just what kids do during a hot summer —- perform ill-timed stunts on the diving board, get beaten in soccer by a team of moms, and see their wildebeest friends off on vacation (aka their annual migration). By turns wry and laugh-out-loud funny, Bob Graham’s whimsical waterhole gang pays tribute to the merriment and mishaps of young friendships everywhere.
Twins, Mokie and Bik, live on a boat docked somewhere in Australia. They are looked after by a nanny because their father is away at sea and their mother is an artist. Mokie and Bik are always underfoot or overboard. The twins play on the beach with their dog, help a fisherman unload his catch for the day, and enjoy energetic games of hopscotch on the deck of the boat.