Malala, A Brave Girl From Pakistan/Iqbal, A Brave Boy From Pakistan

One country: Pakistan. Two children: Iqbal Masih and Malala Yousafzai. Each was unafraid to speak out. He, against inhumane child slavery in the carpet trade. She, for the right of girls to attend school. Both were shot by those who disagreed with them—he in 1995, she in 2012. Iqbal was killed instantly; Malala miraculously survived and continues to speak out around the world. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her work.

Dojo Daycare

One morning, six young ninjas are dropped off at Dojo Daycare. As soon as their ninja moms and ninja dads have left: KABOOM! KAPOW! The ninja boys and girls kick, push, punch, and quickly turn the place upside down in a full-blown ninja riot. Try as he might, the hapless master can’t control the children, and the disaster plays out through lunchtime and story time.

A New Day

This classic, much-loved board book without text leads young children through the rhythms of the day. The fun, simple illustrations show children doing everyday activities such as getting up, having breakfast, feeding the ducks, making lunch, playing and enjoying a bedtime story. This chunky book is perfect for little hands, and children will love to spot the detail in each picture.

Africa Is My Home

“Sarah Margru Kinson, as she came to be known, was only nine years old when she was taken from her home in Africa and brought to Cuba, where she and fifty-two other captives, including three other children, were sold and taken aboard the Amistad. The Africans revolted and took over the ship, but were later captured and put on trial, a trial that went all way to the Supreme Court and was argued in the Africans’ favor by John Quincy Adams, allowing them to return home to Africa. Here is that extraordinary story as told by one of those children. A fictionalized account.”–Jacket flap.

Haiti My Country: Poems by Haitian Schoolchildren

For several months, Quebec illustrator Roge prepared a series of portraits of Haitian children. Students of Camp Perrin wrote that accompanying poems, which create, with flowing consistency, Haiti My Country. These teenaged poets use the Haitian landscape as their easel. The nature that envelops them is quite clearly their main subject. While misery often storms through Haiti in the form of earthquakes, cyclones, or floods, these young men and women see their surrounding nature as assurance for a joyful, confident future.

Merlin

In flight from the magic visions that plague him, Merlin falls into the hands of the wodewose–wild folk who, according to legend, live in the company of wolves and devour children. But far from being wild, the wodewose are an enormous family of the unwanted, the abandoned, and the homeless. For once Merlin has found a place where an orphan like himself belongs.

This is the third book in  the “Young Merlin Trilogy.”

The Web

Jenny loves Violet-Anne, her great-grandmother, and her wonderful house, but Violet is getting old now…A beautifully written and illustrated story for young children about aging and loss, and the joy of living whether young or old.

Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story

This fascinating picture book biography tells the childhood story of Buffalo Bird Woman, a Hidatsa Indian born around 1839. Through her true story, readers will learn what it was like to be part of this Native American community that lived along the Missouri River in the Dakotas, a society that depended more on agriculture for food and survival than on hunting. Children will relate to Buffalo Bird Girl’s routine of chores and playing with friends, and they will also be captivated by her lifestyle and the dangers that came with it.
Using as a resource the works of Gilbert L. Wilson, who met Buffalo Bird Woman and transcribed her life’s story in the early 20th century, award-winning author-illustrator S. D. Nelson has captured the spirit of Buffalo Bird Girl and her lost way of life. The book includes a historical timeline.

The Unfortunate Son

Luc, a youth born with one ear and raised by a drunken father in fifteenth-century France, finds a better home with fisherman Pons, his sister Mattie, and their ward Beatrice, the daughter of a disgraced knight, and even after being kidnapped and sold into slavery in Africa, he remains remarkably fortunate.