Sixteen-year-old Jacklin Bates (aka “Jack”) believes the only way to soar beyond her life is to drop out of school and move in with her free-spirited sister, Trudy. But Jack quickly discovers her sister isn’t the same person she used to be. And when Jack loses her job and the boy she loves breaks her heart, she becomes desperate for distractions.
When talented, dedicated fourteen-year-old Georgia Slade becomes a student in an elite Toronto ballet academy, her confusing feelings toward one of her teachers lead to disaster.
In this unique collection of short stories, the small events of daily life reveal big themes—love and friendship, youth and growing up, success and failure. Calling on his own experiences of growing up in California’s Central Valley, poet Gary Soto brings to life the joys and pains of young people everywhere. The smart, tough, vulnerable kids in these stories are Latino, but their dreams and desires belong to all of us.
An insightful collection of stories and poems about Muslim children from a variety of backgrounds focuses on the celebration of holidays and practices of Islam, and includes nonfiction sidebars that explain the Arabic words and religious terminology.
While competing on a reality television show being filmed at her English high school, shy and bookish Jennifer James records her experiences in her diary.
Visit a rug factory in India to see how children weave beautiful rugs.
In early nineteenth-century Mexico, sixteen-year-old Leona Vicario, loyal to Spain and engaged to a wealthy widower, comes to terms with her growing revolt against Spain’s harsh treatment of Mexicans and her love for a young revolutionary lawyer.
Ten-year-old Dolphin is determined to stay with her family, no matter what, but when her sister goes to live with her newly-discovered father, sending their mother further into manic-depression, Dolphin’s life takes a turn for the better.
Fifteen-year-old Sookan adjusts to life in the refugee village in Pusan but continues to hope that the civil war will end and her family will be reunited in Seoul. Sequel to Year of impossible goodbyes.
When a wild duck decides to make her nesting place in the Mitsui Office Park in downtown Tokyo, a news photographer becomes the duck’s devoted protector.