Kobane Calling: Greetings from Northern Syria

Autobiographical memoir of a young Italian cartoonist, writing and drawing under the nom-de-plume Zerocalcare, who volunteers with the Rojava Calling organization and heads into the Middle East to support and observe the Kurdish resistance in Syria as they struggle against the advancing forces of the Islamic State. He winds up in the small town of Mesher, near the Turkish-Syrian border as a journalist and aid worker, and from there he travels into Ayn al-Arab, a majority-Kurd town in the Rojava region of Syria. As he receives an education into the war from the Kurdish perspective, he meets the women fighting in the all-female Kurdish volunteer army (the Yekeineyen Parastina Jin, or Women’s Defense Units), struggling to simultaneously fight off the Islamic State even as they take strides for Kurdish independence and attempt a restructuring of traditional patriarchal Kurdish society.

A Voyage In The Clouds

In the year and a half since the flight of the first manned balloon in 1783, an Italian has flown, a Scot has flown, a woman has flown, even a sheep has flown. But no one has flown from one country to another. John Jeffries, an Englishman, and his pilot, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, a Frenchman, want to be the first. On January 7, 1785, they set out to cross the English Channel to France in a balloon. All seemed to be going fine, until Jeffries decides the balloon looks too fat and adjusts the air valvhow hard could it be? Too bad he drops the wrench over the side of the aerial car. With no way to adjust the valve, the balloon begins to sink. Jeffries and Blanchard throw as much as they can overboard until there is nothing left, not even their clothes. Luckily, they come up with a clever (and surprising) solution that saves the day. A VOYAGE IN THE CLOUDS from Matthew Olshan and Sophie Blackall is a journey that will keep kids laughing the whole way.

The Fox And The Wild

Fred is a city fox, but the city can be a scary place. It’s noisy, it’s smoky, and it’s often dangerous. One day, Fred sees a flock of birds flying over the rooftops. Where do they go? he wonders. When a bird tells him about the place called the wild, he decides to go in search of it. Will he find the wild? And what will happen if he does?

The Red Sash

This story centers on a young Metis (mixed blood) boy growing up outside Fort Williams, a major Canadian fur trading post linking northern and central Canada to the North West Trading Company in Montreal. The boy longs to become one of the voyagers, or fur traders, who wear red sashes as they travel the rivers of northern and central Canada. The Red Sash provides readers an authentic picture of life at a fur trading post in the early 1800s.

Fanny In France: Travel Adventures Of A Chefs Daughter, With Recipes

Fanny is a girl who knows a lot about food and cooking since she’s grown up in and around the famous restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. When Fanny’s mother, Alice Waters, the chef and owner of Chez Panisse, starts to watch her favorite old French movies, Fanny knows soon they’ll be packing their bags and traveling to France for a visit.

The Other Rabbit

In a world where everyone has a counterpart, Rabbit is searching for the Other Rabbit. He flies through the air, walks across the land, travels across the sea but still he cannot find him. Finally, he learns that the Other Rabbit is on another island and that the dragon who lives there won’t let him leave because he is afraid of being lonely. Rabbit comes up with the perfect solution and no one is lonely again.

Icebreaker

Petrel is an outcast on the ancient ship, an icebreaker, that has been following the same course for 300 years. In that time, the ship’s crew has forgotten its original purpose and broken into three warring tribes. Everyone has a tribe except Petrol. Nicknamed the Nothing Girl, Petrel has been ostracized ever since her parents were thrown overboard as punishment for a terrible crime.