empathy

The Duel: A Story About Peace

An international award-winning picture book with increasingly detailed water-color art begins as a story about quarrels and conflicts, but is, above all, about making and finding peace. Loosely based on the duel scene from War & Peace, this story will help spark conversations about what can happen when you turn away from violence. Two men argue in a distant and cold country. Words pierce and injure their hearts. In order to resolve the problem once and for all, two men decide to fight a duel. They start back to back, each one counting a hundred paces before turning to shoot.1, 2, 3, 4 . . . There they go, walking away. So many steps separating them. 5, 6, 7, 8. . . .

One keeps walking, and walking, and walking some more, and his surroundings become more animated and vibrant, each page burgeoning with color and activity, circuses and marching bands and more. But what, he wonders, is the other one thinking? What lies ahead for them both? How far do you go before your anger dissipates and you crave the company of a friend? A story with a suprising turn of events, The Duel will help young readers see what can happen when you choose to turn away from violence and in the direction of curiosity and friendship and an open heart.

The Duel is featured in WOW Review Volume XVII, Issue 3.

The Tale Of The Tiny Man

There was once a tiny man. One day, at the first sign of Spring, he decided to pin a note to a tree that said FRIEND WANTED. Then he sat down on the step to wait. After ten days, he woke to find a cold nose in his hand. Beside him was a big dog with a beautiful curve in its tail. The tiny man had made a friend at last. They play and walk and laugh every day. But then the girl in the polka dot dress comes to the step. The little man watches as the dog put his soft muzzle into the girl’s hand and worries that he has lost his only friend.

Drawn Across Borders: True Stories Of Human Migration

Resisting his own urge to walk away, award-winning artist George Butler took his sketchbook and made, over the course of a decade, a series of remarkable pen-and-ink and watercolor portraits in war zones, refugee camps, and on the move. While he worked, his subjects—migrants and refugees in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia—shared their stories. Theirs are the human stories behind the headlines that tell of fleeing poverty, disaster, and war, and of venturing into the unknown in search of jobs, education, and security. Whether sketching by the hospital bed of a ten-year-old Syrian boy who survived an airstrike, drawing the doll of a little Palestinian girl with big questions, or talking with a Masai herdsman forced to abandon his rural Kenyan home for the Kibera slums, George Butler turns reflective art and sensitive reportage into an eloquent cry for understanding and empathy. Taken together and elegantly packaged, his beautiful portraits form a moving testament to our shared humanity—and the universal urge for safety and a better life.

Ojalá Supieras/ I Wish You Knew

Un cuento oportuno y conmovedor sobre la incertidumbre que siente una joven cuando deportan a su padre―y la empatía que crece cuando compartimos y nos escuchamos unos a los otros.
A timely and moving tale about the uncertainty a young woman feels when her father is deported and the empathy that grows when we share and listen to each other.

The Cot In The Living Room

Night after night, a young girl watches her mami set up a cot in the living room for guests in their Washington Heights apartment, like Raquel (who’s boring) and Edgardo (who gets crumbs everywhere). She resents that they get the entire living room with a view of the George Washington Bridge, while all she gets is a tiny bedroom with a view of her sister (who snores). Until one night when no one comes, and it’s finally her chance! But as it turns out, sleeping on the cot in the living room isn’t all she thought it would be.

The Moose Of Ewenki

When a Mongolian elder named Gree Shrek hunts a female moose by mistake, her young calf is left behind. Saddened by her loss, Gree Shrek names the calf Xiao Han (“Little Moose”) and the moose and man form an authentic attachment. Xiao Han accompanies Gree Shrek as the hunter-gatherer herds reindeer, sets up camp, forages for food in the forest, and visits his peoples’ village, where many fun adventures happen. But as the little moose grows bigger, Gree Shrek knows he must return his companion to the forest. Richly detailed, painterly illustrations by Chinese fine artist Jiu’er bring authenticity and beauty to this thoughtful book, which illuminates the traditional and vanishing way of life for the Ewenki peoples of Inner Mongolia.