It unexpectedly arrived. It brushed passed someone in the street. It weaves its way in and out of people on the street. It catches people completely unawares. But what is this It? They call It happiness! In this outstanding book, award-winning illustrator and author Beatrice Alemagna captures the pure pleasure of embracing the small things in life. Following in the footsteps of A Lion in Paris, the striking and poignant illustrations bring this sensitive story to life.
As a child in Pakistan, Malala made a wish for a magic pencil. She would use it to make everyone happy, to erase the smell of garbage from her city, to sleep an extra hour in the morning. But as she grew older, Malala saw that there were more important things to wish for. She saw a world that needed fixing. And even if she never found a magic pencil, Malala realized that she could still work hard every day to make her wishes come true.
Featured in WOW Review Volume XII, Issue 2
Ancient Night combines many short stories from the oral tradition, like the one of the bunny and the possum, as well as the invented rivalry between the two that serves to tell the story of what happens at night behind the maize: the adventures of a hard-working bunny and an audacious possum that come and go through the field, making the moon change its appearance and the night transform into day. This silent album is inspired in the complex and monumental Middle American thinking, which conceives the origin of things in a dual way; due to this, the also illustrator of The well of the mice represents multiple dualities, like the day and night, life and death, down and up, darkness and light, among others that when putting them with their opposite they maintain the balance.
After Smoot the shadow comes unstuck from his boy, he has a wild time that inspires other shadows to live out their dreams.
Padma Venkatraman’s inspiring story of a young girl’s struggle to regain her passion and find a new peace is told lyrically through verse that captures the beauty and mystery of India and the ancient bharatanatyam dance form. This is a stunning novel about spiritual awakening, the power of art, and above all, the courage and resilience of the human spirit. Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.
A fictionalized account of how the composer Saint-Seans concieved of and wrote Danse Macabre.
Students in grade 5/6 at Springvale Elementary, Halifax, have written and illustrated a book to address a variety of world issues in a positive manner. They wished to raise awareness about problems faced by kids all over the world by imagining what it would be like if the problems didn’t exist. All messages and illustrations depict positive images that send a message of hope and provide concrete ways for readers to take action to celebrate and improve our world wordby word.
From Jonas Salk to Steven Spielberg, the subjects of these biographical-inspired poems invented something, said something, stood for something, did something, changed something. They dared to dream. Thirty of our nation’s most prestigious poets focus their creative vision on people who not only changed their own lives, but the lives of people all over the world.
A little girl’s smile as she skips down the street in New York inspires a neighbor to send cookies to her grandson in Mexico, and the good will soon spreads around the world.
This book has been included in WOW’s Kids Taking Action Booklist. For our current list, visit our Boolist page under Resources in the green navigation bar.
Lyrical descriptions, a lush historical backdrop, and colorful artwork tell the story behind Antonio Vivaldi’s composition of The Four Seasons. He is inspired by his talented and determined students, young girl musicians at a Venetian orphanage. Together, they bring Vivaldi’s masterpiece to life.