Pardalita

Sixteen-year-old Raquel is living in a small town in Portugal, where she must learn to navigate the angst that often comes with being a teenager: her parent’s are divorced, her mother is always working and she doesn’t like her father’s new wife. After being suspended for cursing at a school aide, Raquel meets Pardalita, a gifted artist and senior at her school. As the two girls get to know each other Raquel soon falls in love.

Rise Up!

RISE UP! encourages young people to engage in peaceful protest and stand up for freedom. Photographs of protest posters from the last one hundred years celebrate the ongoing fight for gender equality, civil rights, LGBT rights, refugee and immigrant rights, peace, and the environment. Includes a chapter on youth protest. Developed in collaboration with Amnesty International.

Birdsong

When a young girl moves from the country to a small town, she feels lonely and out of place. But soon she meets an elderly woman next door, who shares her love of arts and crafts. Can the girl navigate the changing seasons and failing health of her new friend? Acclaimed author and artist Julie Flett’s textured images of birds, flowers, art, and landscapes bring vibrancy and warmth to this powerful story, which highlights the fulfillment of intergenerational relationships and shared passions.

Her Own Two Feet

Through her eyes, the moving story of a young Rwandan girl born with clubfeet and the risk she takes for the chance to walk on the bottoms of her feet for the first time.Rebeka Uwitonze was born in Rwanda with curled and twisted feet, which meant she had to crawl or be carried to get around. At nine years old, she gets an offer that could change her life. A doctor in the US might be able to turn her feet. But it means leaving her own family behind and going to America on her own.

Pie In The Sky

Knowing very little English, eleven-year-old Jingwen feels like an alien when his family immigrates to Australia, but copes with loneliness and the loss of his father by baking elaborate cakes.

The Red Piano

A beautiful and extraordinary account of international concert pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei’s hardships and triumphs while growing up during China’s Cultural Revolution, Stirring and inspiring, this picture book relates the story of a gifted young girl’s passion for the piano in a time of historic turmoil. During China’s Cultural Revolution a young girl is taken from her family and sent to a far-off labor camp. Forbidden to play the piano, she nevertheless finds a way of smuggling handwritten music into the camp and sneaking away at night to practice a piano in a secret location—until, one night, she is caught. Inspired by the amazing true story of international concert pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei, this acclaimed picture book poetically relates an astonishing story of perseverance set against a cataclysmic period of history.