Award Winning and Notable Children's Books PreK - 8

A singular, richly illustrated picture book biography of Bayard Rustin, the gay Black man behind the March on Washington of 1963, by the acclaimed authors of Unspeakable: the Tulsa Race Massacre and Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag.

A Caldecott-honor winning picture book biography of the mother of Emmett Till, and how she channeled grief over her son's death into a call to action for the civil rights movement.

Discover the inspiring story of the first black woman elected to Congress and to run for president in this picture book biography from a Newbery Honor-winning author and a Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning illustrator.

Water is the first medicine. It affects and connects us all. Water is sacred. My people talk of a black snake that will destroy the land, Spoil the water, wreck everything in its path. They foretold that it wouldn't come for many, many years. Now the black snake is here. Told from the perspective of a Native American child, this bold and lyrical picture book written by Ojibwe/Métis author Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Tlingit artist Michaela Goade is a powerful call to action to defend Earth's natural resources--inspired by the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and similar movements led by Indigenous tribes all across North America.

An inspiring picture book about how children can combine art and activism in their daily lives.

An affecting picture book from Tameka Fryer Brown and New York Times bestselling illustrator Nikkolas Smith (The 1619 Project Born on the Water) that challenges the meaning behind the still-waving Confederate flag through the friendship of two young girls who live across the street from each other.

Before Kip Tiernan came along, the US had no shelters for women. Here is the inspirational story of a singular woman and what her vision and compassion have brought to life.

Ida B. Wells was an educator, journalist, feminist, businesswoman, newspaper owner, public speaker, suffragist, civil rights activist, and women's club leader. She was a founder of the NAACP, the National Association of Colored Women, the Alpha Suffrage Club, and the Negro Fellowship League.

A powerful poem about Ona Judge's life and her self-emancipation from George Washington's household.

Celebrated author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Floyd Cooper provide a powerful look at the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in our nation's history.

A child reflects on the meaning of being Black in this moving and powerful anthem about a people, a culture, a history, and a legacy that lives on. Red is a rainbow color. Green sits next to blue. Yellow, orange, violet, indigo, They are rainbow colors, too, but... My color is black . . . And there's no BLACK in rainbows. From the wheels of a bicycle to the robe on Thurgood Marshall's back, Black surrounds our lives. It is a color to simply describe some of our favorite things, but it also evokes a deeper sentiment about the incredible people who helped change the world and a community that continues to grow and thrive.

From a young age, Marie Tharp wanted to be a scientist. In the mid-twentieth century, women were not welcome in the sciences, but Marie got a job in a laboratory at Cambridge University, New York. But then she faced another barrier: women were not allowed on the research ships (they were considered bad luck on boats). So instead, Marie mapped point after point and slowly revealed a deep rift valley in the ocean floor. She mapped the single largest geographic feature on the planet, all from her small, cramped office.

From a young age, Marie Tharp wanted to be a scientist. In the mid-twentieth century, women were not welcome in the sciences, but Marie got a job in a laboratory at Cambridge University, New York. But then she faced another barrier: women were not allowed on the research ships (they were considered bad luck on boats). So instead, Marie mapped point after point and slowly revealed a deep rift valley in the ocean floor. She mapped the single largest geographic feature on the planet, all from her small, cramped office.

A child reflects on the meaning of being Black in this moving and powerful anthem about a people, a culture, a history, and a legacy that lives on. Red is a rainbow color. Green sits next to blue. Yellow, orange, violet, indigo, They are rainbow colors, too, but... My color is black . . . And there's no BLACK in rainbows. From the wheels of a bicycle to the robe on Thurgood Marshall's back, Black surrounds our lives. It is a color to simply describe some of our favorite things, but it also evokes a deeper sentiment about the incredible people who helped change the world and a community that continues to grow and thrive.

A brilliant middle-grade survival story that traces a harrowing family secret back to the Holodomor, a terrible famine that devastated Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s.

A Latina teen spy goes undercover as a white girl to stop a white supremacist terrorist plot in a fast-paced middle-grade debut from a seasoned author of contemporary crime fiction.

New historical fiction from a Newbery Honor-winning author about how middle schooler Ariel Goldberg's life changes when her big sister elopes following the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision, and she's forced to grapple with both her family's prejudice and the antisemitism she experiences, as she defines her own beliefs.

A boy on the run. A girl determined to find him. A compelling fantasy looks at issues of privilege, protest, and justice. All light in Chattana is created by one man -- the Governor, who appeared after the Great Fire to bring peace and order to the city. For Pong, who was born in Namwon Prison, the magical lights represent freedom, and he dreams of the day he will be able to walk among them.

A boy on the run. A girl determined to find him. A compelling fantasy looks at issues of privilege, protest, and justice.

What if a school's mascot is seen as racist, but not by everyone? In this compelling middle-grade novel in verse, two best-selling BIPOC authors tackle this hot-button issue.

A coming-of-age novel about a girl finding her way to activism in the early years of the AIDS pandemic, from award-winning author Ami Polonsky.

From Ali Standish, award-winning author of The Ethan I Was Before, August Isle, How to Disappear Completely, and The Mending Summer, comes a captivating historical fiction middle grade novel about a boy on the home front in World War II who must solve the mystery of the disappearance of his best friend.

A splashy, contemporary middle grade graphic novel from bestselling comics creator Johnnie Christmas! Bree can't wait for her first day at her new middle school, Enith Brigitha, home to the Mighty Manatees--until she's stuck with the only elective that fits her schedule, the dreaded Swim 101. The thought of swimming makes Bree more than a little queasy, yet she's forced to dive headfirst into one of her greatest fears.

In 1857 India, 12-year-old Meera escapes a life she has no say in - and certain death on her husband's funeral pyre - only to end up a servant to a British general in the East India Company.

From the U.S.'s foremost Indigenous children's author comes a middle grade verse novel set during the COVID-19 pandemic, about a Wabanaki girl's quarantine on her grandparents' reservation and the local dog that becomes her best friend.

Who was at the forefront of women's right to vote? We know a few famous names, like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but what about so many others from diverse backgrounds--black, Asian, Latinx, Native American, and more--who helped lead the fight for suffrage? On the hundredth anniversary of the historic win for women's rights, it's time to celebrate the names and stories of the women whose stories have yet to be told. Gorgeous portraits accompany biographies of such fierce but forgotten women as Yankton Dakota Sioux writer and advocate Zitkála-Sá, Mary Eliza Church Terrell, who cofounded the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), and Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, who, at just sixteen years old, helped lead the biggest parade in history to promote the cause of suffrage.

Nine-year-old Betita knows she is a crane. Papi has told her the story, even before her family fled to Los Angeles to seek refuge from cartel wars in Mexico. The Aztecs came from a place called Aztlan, what is now the Southwest US, called the land of the cranes. They left Aztlan to establish their great city in the center of the universe-Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City. It was prophesized that their people would one day return to live among the cranes in their promised land. Papi tells Betita that they are cranes that have come home. Then one day, Betita's beloved father is arrested by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported to Mexico. Betita and her pregnant mother are left behind on their own, but soon they too are detained and must learn to survive in a family detention camp outside of Los Angeles. Even in cruel and inhumane conditions, Betita finds heart in her own poetry and in the community she and her mother find in the camp. The voices of her fellow asylum seekers fly above the hatred keeping them caged, but each day threatens to tear them down lower than they ever thought they could be. Will Betita and her family ever be whole again?

Who was at the forefront of women's right to vote? We know a few famous names, like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but what about so many others from diverse backgrounds--black, Asian, Latinx, Native American, and more--who helped lead the fight for suffrage? On the hundredth anniversary of the historic win for women's rights, it's time to celebrate the names and stories of the women whose stories have yet to be told. Gorgeous portraits accompany biographies of such fierce but forgotten women as Yankton Dakota Sioux writer and advocate Zitkála-Sá, Mary Eliza Church Terrell, who cofounded the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), and Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, who, at just sixteen years old, helped lead the biggest parade in history to promote the cause of suffrage.

Nine-year-old Betita knows she is a crane. Papi has told her the story, even before her family fled to Los Angeles to seek refuge from cartel wars in Mexico. The Aztecs came from a place called Aztlan, what is now the Southwest US, called the land of the cranes. They left Aztlan to establish their great city in the center of the universe-Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City. It was prophesized that their people would one day return to live among the cranes in their promised land. Papi tells Betita that they are cranes that have come home. Then one day, Betita's beloved father is arrested by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported to Mexico. Betita and her pregnant mother are left behind on their own, but soon they too are detained and must learn to survive in a family detention camp outside of Los Angeles. Even in cruel and inhumane conditions, Betita finds heart in her own poetry and in the community she and her mother find in the camp. The voices of her fellow asylum seekers fly above the hatred keeping them caged, but each day threatens to tear them down lower than they ever thought they could be. Will Betita and her family ever be whole again?

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.

When James started school his sister practically had to drag him there - he knew everything outside was more exciting than anything he'd find inside. Until his teacher taught him otherwise. 'We make our own light here,' Reverend Meachum told James. And through hard work, they did - until their school was shut down by a new law forbidding African American education in Missouri. Determined to continue teaching his students, Reverend Meachum decided to build a new school - a floating school in the Mississippi River, just outside the boundary of the unjust law.

Ella Mae is used to wearing her cousin's hand-me-down shoes--but when her latest pair is already too tight, she's thrilled at the chance to get new shoes. But at the shoe store, Ella Mae and her mother have to wait until there are no white customers to serve first. She doesn't get to try anything on, either--her mother traces her feet onto a sheet of paper, and the salesman brings them a pair he thinks will fit. Disappointed by her treatment, Ella Mae and her cousin Charlotte hatch a plan to help others in their community find better-fitting shoes without humiliation.

Almost 10 years before Brown vs. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California. An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, Mendez was denied enrollment to a "Whites only" school. Her parents took action by organizing the Hispanic community and filing a lawsuit in federal district court. Their success eventually brought an end to the era of segregated education in California.

The true story of the young immigrant who led the largest strike of women workers in U.S. history. This nonfiction picture book is an excellent choice to share during homeschooling, in particular for children ages 4 to 6. It's a fun way to learn to read and as a supplement for activity books for children. This picture book biography about Ukrainian immigrant Clara Lemlich tackles topics like activism and the U.S. garment industry.

Chloe and her friends won't play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually Maya stops coming to school. When Chloe's teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she'd shown a little kindness toward Maya.

For a long time, the people of Hargigo, a village in the tiny African country of Eritrea, were living without enough food for themselves and their animals. Then along came a scientist, Dr Gordon Sato, who helped to change their lives for the better. And it all started by planting some special mangrove trees. This fascinating story of environmental innovation is a celebration of creativity, hard work and the ability of one man to make a positive difference in the lives of many.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... Who wrote these words? And why? In 1883, Emma Lazarus, deeply moved by an influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe, wrote a sonnet that was to give voice to the Statue of Liberty. Originally a gift from France to celebrate our shared national struggles for liberty, the Statue, thanks to Emma's poem, slowly came to shape our hearts, defining us as a nation that welcomes and gives refuge to those who come to our shores.

Young Nasreen has not spoken a word to anyone since her parents disappeared. In despair, her grandmother risks everything to enroll Nasreen in a secret school for girls. Will a devoted teacher, a new friend, and the worlds she discovers in books be enough to draw Nasreen out of her shell of sadness? Based on a true story from Afghanistan, this inspiring book will touch readers deeply as it affirms both the life-changing power of education and the healing power of love.

Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Green Belt Movement, grew up in the highlands of Kenya, where fig trees cloaked the hills, fish filled the streams, and the people tended their bountiful gardens. But over many years, as more and more land was cleared, Kenya was transformed. When Wangari returned home from college in America, she found the village gardens dry, the people malnourished, and the trees gone. How could she alone bring back the trees and restore the gardens and the people?

When General George Washington is elected the first President of the United States, his wife chooses young Oney Judge, a house slave who works as a seamstress at Mount Vernon, to travel with her to the nation's capital in New York City as her personal maid. When the capital is moved to Philadelphia, the Washingtons and Oney move, too, and there Oney meets free blacks for the first time. At first Oney can't imagine being free - she depends on the Washingtons for food, warmth, and clothing. But then Mrs. Washington tells Oney that after her death she will be sent to live with Mrs. Washington's granddaughter. Oney is horrified because she knows it is likely that she will then be sold to a stranger - the worst fate she can imagine. Oney realizes she must run. One day she sees an opportunity and takes it, ending up in New Hampshire, where she lives the rest of her life, poor but free.

While she and her family are interned at Topaz Relocation Centre during World War II, Mari gradually adjusts as she enrols in an art class, makes a friend, plants sunflowers and waits for them to grow.

An illustrated account of mailman and civil rights leader Westley Wallace Law's role in the non-violent movement to desegregate Savannah, Georgia, in the 1960s.

Cesar Chavez is known as one of America's greatest civil rights leaders. When he led a 340-mile peaceful protest march through California, he ignited a cause and improved the lives of thousands of migrant farmworkers. But Cesar wasn't always a leader. As a boy, he was shy and teased at school. His family slaved in the fields for barely enough money to survive. Cesar knew things had to change, and he thought that--maybe--he could help change them. So he took charge. He spoke up. And an entire country listened.

Vietnam. A young American soldier waits for his enemy, rifle in hand, finger on the trigger. He is afraid to move and yet afraid not to move. Gunshots crackle in the still air. The soldier fires blindly into the distant trees at an unseen enemy. He crouches and waits -- heart pounding, tense and trembling, biting back tears. When will it all be over?

A brief biographical sketch of Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the greatest figures in the American civil rights movement.

Life is simple for Pedro -- he goes to school, does his homework and, most importantly, plays soccer. But when the soldiers come and take his friend Daniel's father away, things suddenly become much more complicated. Why, for instance, do Pedro's parents secretly listen to the radio every evening after dinner? And why does the government want Pedro and his classmates to write compositions about what their parents do in the evening?

On a cold gray morning in 1683, Molly Walsh sat on a stool tugging at the udder of an obstinate cow. When she spilled the milk, she was brought before the court for stealing. Because she could read, Molly escaped the typical punishment of death on the gallows. At the age of seventeen, the English dairymaid was exiled from her country and sentenced to work as an indentured servant in British Colonial America. Molly worked for a planter in Maryland for seven long years. Then she was given an ox hitched to a cart, some supplies-and her freedom. That a lone woman should stake land was unheard of. That she would marry an African slave was even more so. Yet Molly prospered, and with her husband Bannaky, she turned a one-room cabin in the wilderness into a thriving one hundred-acre farm. And one day she had the pleasure of writing her new grandson's name in her cherished Bible: Benjamin Banneker.

Returning to her own childhood for inspiration, Aliki has created an exceptional sixty-four-page book that presents Marianthe's story -- her present and her past. In Painted Words, Marianthe's paintings help her to become less of an outsider as she struggles to adjust to a new language and a new school. Under the guidance of her teacher, who understands that there is more than one way to tell a story, Mari makes pictures to illustrate the history of her family, and eventually begins to decipher the meaning of words. 1999 Award book

Take a journey through time with seven women who left their indelible imprints on the past. Their history is a story and more. They were farmers and artists and missionaries and storytellers. They fought many battles but never in any wars. They were devout and determined and tireless and beloved. They were brave beyond compare. 1998 Award book

Before Wilma Rudolph was five years old, polio had paralyzed her left leg. Everyone said she would never walk again. But Wilma refused to believe it. Not only would she walk again, she vowed, she'd run. And she did run--all the way to the Olympics, where she became the first American woman to earn three gold medals in a single olympiad. 1997 Award book

Mona's grandmother, her Sitti, lives in a small Palestinian village on the other side of the earth. Once, Mona went to visit her. The couldn't speak each other's language, so they made up their own. They learned about each other's worlds, and they discovered each other's secrets. Then it was time for Mona to go back home, back to the other side of the earth. But even though there were millions of miles and millions of people between them, they remained true neighbors forever. 1995 Award book

Littlechild draws on his Plains Cree background in this presentation of 17 of his full-color paintings that focus on Native American history. 1994 Award book

Cassie, who flew above New York in Tar Beach, soars into the sky once more. This time, she and her brother Be Be meet a train full of people, and Be Be joins them. But the train departs before Cassie can climb aboard. With Harriet Tubman as her guide, Cassie retraces the steps escaping slaves took on the real Underground Railroad and is finally reunited with her brother at the story's end. "Cassie learns her people's history well; so will readers of this impressive picture book. 1993 Award book

Nailed into a crate in the back of a truck, fifteen-year-old Maria, her older sister, Julia, their little brother, Oscar, and a boy named Tomas endure a terrifying and torturous journey across the U.S. border and then north to Chicago. There they struggle to find work-cleaning, sewing, washing dishes-always fearful of arrest and deportation back to the cruelties of El Salvador. 1992 Award book

The wisdom of peace and the absurdity of fighting are demonstrated in seventeen stories and poems by outstanding authors of today such as Jean Fritz, Milton Meltzer, and Nancy Willard, illustrated by famous illustrators such as Paul Zelinsky, the Dillons, and Maurice Sendak. 1991 Award book

A chronicle of the first black-controlled union, made up of Pullman porters, who after years of unfair labor practices staged a battle against a corporate giant resulting in a "David and Goliath" ending. 1990 Award book

The year is 1854, and Anthony Burns, a 20-year-old Virginia slave, has escaped to Boston. But according to the Fugitive Slave Act, a runaway can be captured in any free state, and Anthony is soon imprisoned. The antislavery forces in Massachusetts are outraged, but the federal government backs the Fugitive Slave Act, sparking riots in Boston and fueling the Abolitionist movement. 1989 Award book (tied with the next book)

Though pleased to be part of the "in" crowd at her new school, Ellen's growing awareness of her parents' social concerns, expressed in their support of the condemmed Rosenbergs, forces her to make a choice about what really matters in life. 1989 Award book

The story of the friendship between a black boy and a white boy in apartheid-ridden South Africa. 1988 Award book

When a mother discovers her small daughter and son have built a shelter to protect themselves from nuclear attact, she explains that grownups all over the world are working hard to make the world safe for children to grow up in. 1987 Award book

The Story of America's Peace Seekers While terrorists kill in pursuit of their goals, there are people whose goal is never to kill, no matter what the situation. Here, Milton Meltzer explores Americans long tradition of pacifism. From the Quakers of colonial times to the conscientious objectors of Vietnam, Americans have risked much to stand against violence in any and every form. First published in 1985, Ain't Gonna Study War No More is now fully updated and revised by the author. 1986 Award book

The biography of the twenty-one year-old German student who was put to death for her anti-Nazi activities with the underground group called the White Rose. 1985 Award book

Steve makes up stories about his brother's World War II exploits. 1984 Award book

August 6, 1945, 8:15 a.m. Hiroshima. Japan A little girl and her parents are eating breakfast, and then it happened. HIROSHIMA NO PIKA. This book is dedicated to the fervent hope the Flash will never happen again, anywhere. 1983 Award book

Twelve-year-old Binnie Howe, whose mother runs a boarding house in early nineteenth-century Lowell, Massachusetts, begins work in a textile mill and comes of age. 1982 Award book

A biography of the first woman elected to Congress, who spent the 92 years of her life as a leader for woman suffrage, a lobbyist, and a social reformer. 1981 Award book

A biography of the author's mother concentrating on her childhood in Turkey before the Turkish government deported its Armenian population. 1980 Award book

1st Edition With emphasis on the tribes in North America, uses the art and artifacts of various Indian cultures to illustrate events affecting their history from earliest times through 1973. 1979 Award book

"I can't remember when Barney's story began but all my life I'd heard this story about how a little girl and her father were going to hit it big one of these days....I knew more about race horses than I knew about myself -- I mean myself as a Chinese." Race horses aren't any help when Barney lands in the hospital and Casey is sent to live with Paw-Paw -- her maternal grandmother-in San Francisco's Chinatown. She's not prepared for the Chinese school, the crowds, the noise, the small room she has to share with Paw-Paw -- and she's not prepared for missing Barney. But Paw-Paw tells Casey about Jeanie, the mother Casey never knew, about her true Chinese name, and about the story of the family's owl charm. This shows Casey that being a child of the owl means that sometimes, like this ancestral owl spirit, you can feel like a stranger, trapped in the wrong place, in the wrong time, even in the wrong body. And as Casey begins to understand the intricacies of Chinatown and the people who become her friends, she realizes that this, Paw-Paw's home, Jeanie and Barney's home, is her home too. 1978 Award book

Six million-- a number impossible to visualize. Six million Jews were killed in Europe between the years 1933 and 1945. What can that number mean to us today? We can that number mean to us today? We are told never to forget the Holocaust, but how can we remember something so incomprehensible? We can think, not of the numbers, the statistics, but of the people. For the families torn apart, watching mothers, fathers, children disappear or be slaughtered, the numbers were agonizingly comprehensible. One. Two. Three. Often more. Here are the stories of thode people, recorded in letters and diaries, and in the memories of those who survived. Seen through their eyes, the horror becomes real. We cannot deny it--and we can never forget. 'Based on diaries, letters, songs, and history books, a moving account of Jewish suffering in Nazi Germany before and during World War II. 1977 Award book

An updated and redesigned edition of Eloise Greenfield's award-winning biography of Paul Robeson, who overcame racial discrimination to become an international entertainer and civil rights activist. Includes a new introduction and afterword by the author, focusing on Robeson's legacy. 1976 Award book

A small patch of dry Asian land called the Tiny Kingdom serves as the home for a community of poor farmers and fisherfolk. The land, as poor as its people, holds no gold, silver, or other riches. For this reason, no country has ever waged war against the Tiny Kingdom, and the people have lived in peace for 100 years. But when Princess Mat Mat, ruler of the Tiny Kingdom, meets with her advisers to plan a great peace celebration, they bring bad news. A large fleet of warships is sailing toward them and will attack their people in just two days. With no army, no forts, and no arsenal, how can the princess defend her country? Her wisdom testifies that the most heroic action does not win wars, but prevents them. Princess Mat Mat devises a plan that includes, as an unexpected ally, the moon. 1975 Award book

A young girl growing up in Spanish Harlem in the 1940's watches the secure world of her childhood years slowly erode away. 1974 Award book

Traces the history of research on race, showing how it both influenced and was influenced by the political and social significance of race in United States history. 1973 Award book

Community reaction toward a local school for black girls in 1833 makes a fourteen-year-old white orphan re-examine her feelings toward higher education, abolition, blacks, and the meaning of womanhood. 1972 Award book

A history of Hull House and the many social reforms it inspired serve as a background to a biography of the woman who dedicated her life to improving society. 1971 Award book

When the freighter on which they are traveling is torpedoed by a German submarine during World War II, a twelve-year-old white boy, blinded by a blow on the head, and an old Negro are stranded on a small desert island in the Caribbean where the boy acquires a new kind of vision, courage, and love from his old companion.

In June 1941, the Rudomin family is arrested by the Russians. They are accused of being capitalists, "enemies of the people." Forced from their home and friends in Vilna, Poland, they are herded into crowded cattle cars. Their destination: the endless steppe of Siberia. For five years, Esther and her family live in exile, weeding potato fields, working in the mines, and struggling to stay alive. But in the middle of hardship and oppression, the strength of their small family sustains them and gives them hope for the future. 1969 Award book

A tale of the tragedy of war: the story of a twelve-year-old orphaned beggar in occupied Italy, his daily search for food and for meaning in the life he witnesses, and the development of compassion and understanding that will help him survive. 1968 Award book

Tormented by taunts that her father is in prison, thirteen-year-old Queenie retaliates by causing a lot of trouble until she discovers something important about her father and herself. 1967 Award book

After his family moves to the suburbs, nine-year-old Berries Goodman finds another loner like himself, but then loses his best friend through prejudice. 1966 Award book

It describes the young boy Teffera, left in charge of his family's farm and sheep while his father was undergoing an operation. When a ferangi, an American, came to his small village to help teach new methods of caring for the sheep, Teffera had to decide whether he should accept this advice. His people had had substantial reason to mistrust the Westerners, and he was instilled with pride in own traditions, but on the other hand his flocks were dying. 1965 Award book

1964 Award book

A lion, a bird, a crocodile, a giraffe, a snake and an elephant all find themselves together in a dark cave as they seek refuge from the wild wind. 1963 Award book

Set in India, the book tells the story of 13-year-old Lalu and his 7-year-old sister Maya, who are on their way from Allahabad to Agra to seek help from doctors for Maya's grave eye disease, which is causing her to become blind. The journey to Agra is dusty, hot and exhausting, and at night the children are threatened by snakes and jackals. But the children keep their spirits up, because they have heard that the disease can be cured at the hospital in Agra. Along the way, they meet both good and bad people, and get an elephant ride. Ultimately, they reach their destination, and Maya is cured by European doctors. 1962 Award book

Raman Must Choose Between Using His Education To Move Beyond The Indian Hills Or Returning To His Home To Teach Others. 1961 Award book

Highlights Nobel Peace Prize winners. 1960 Award book

A young Tennessee mountain boy travels a difficult and dangerous path during the Civil War before he realizes the senseless waste of war and learns the true meaning of courage and tolerance. 1958 Award book

“Who had stolen the priceless blue gloxinia? How had it been taken from the experimental greenhouse? Many people coveted the plant, perhaps enough to resort to stealing, but only an employee of the nursery would have had access to it. The evidence pointed strongly to the young red-haired apprentice, Fridolin. Aloof and sullen, he did little to defend himself. But ten-year-old Annegret, daughter of the nursery owner, was not convinced of his guilt.” 1957 Award book

Book about slavery. 1956 Award book

a UNICEF book. 1955 Award book

A tale of a village, a custom, and a little boy. 1954 Award book

refreshing reminder to teachers and adults in general and a necessary foundation of the social education of a child, is the concept that other people are as important to themselves as the child is to himself--that people all over the world eat, talk, behave and think differently about things, but are essentially like you and me. 1953 Award book

Who was Harriet Tubman before she was Harriet? We know her today as Harriet Tubman, but in her lifetime she was called by many names. As General Tubman she was a Union spy. As Moses she led hundreds to freedom on the Underground Railroad. As Minty she was a slave whose spirit could not be broken. As Araminta she was a young girl whose father showed her the stars and the first steps on the path to freedom.

In 1847, a young African American girl named Sarah Roberts tried to attend a white school in Boston. After being forced out of the school because of her race, Sarah and her family fought for her right to have an equal education. It was the first case asking our legal system to outlaw separate schools. It was the first time an African-American lawyer worked in a supreme court. It was also the first time an African-American lawyer and a white lawyer teamed up to fight for justice. Three important steps forward. Although her court case was not victorious, Sarah's first steps paved the way for the changes that ultimately led to triumph in the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case more than a century later, and in countless other steps toward equality under the law.

Get to know celebrated Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg--in the first picture book about her life--as she proves that disagreeing does not make you disagreeable! Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has spent a lifetime disagreeing: disagreeing with inequality, arguing against unfair treatment, and standing up for what's right for people everywhere.

An elderly African American woman, en route to vote, remembers her family's tumultuous voting history in this picture book publishing in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As Lillian, a one-hundred-year-old African American woman, makes a "long haul up a steep hill" to her polling place, she sees more than trees and sky--she sees her family's history. She sees the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment and her great-grandfather voting for the first time. She sees her parents trying to register to vote. And she sees herself marching in a protest from Selma to Montgomery.

After Saya's mother is sent to an immigration detention center, Saya finds comfort in listening to her mother's warm greeting on their answering machine. To ease the distance between them while she's in jail, Mama begins sending Saya bedtime stories inspired by Haitian folklore on cassette tape. Moved by her mother's tales and her father's attempts to reunite their family, Saya writes a story of her own-one that just might bring her mother home for good.

In the 1930s, Lewis's dad, Lewis Michaux Sr., had an itch he needed to scratch--a book itch. How to scratch it? He started a bookstore in Harlem and named it the National Memorial African Bookstore. And as far as Lewis Michaux Jr. could tell, his father's bookstore was one of a kind. People from all over came to visit the store, even famous people--Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, and Langston Hughes, to name a few. In his father's bookstore people bought and read books, and they also learned from each other. People swapped and traded ideas and talked about how things could change. They came together here all because of his father's book itch. Read the story of how Lewis Michaux Sr. and his bookstore fostered new ideas and helped people stand up for what they believed in.

The dramatic story of neighbors in a small Danish fishing village who, during the Holocaust, shelter a Jewish family waiting to be ferried to safety in Sweden. It is 1943 in Nazi-occupied Denmark. Anett and her parents are hiding a Jewish woman and her son, Carl, in their cellar until a fishing boat can take them across the sound to neutral Sweden. The soldiers patrolling their street are growing suspicious, so Carl and his mama must make their way to the harbor despite a cloudy sky with no moon to guide them. Worried about their safety, Anett devises a clever and unusual plan for their safe passage to the harbor. Based on a true story.

Shooting at the Stars is the moving story of a young British soldier on the front lines during World War I who experiences an unforgettable Christmas Eve. In a letter home to his mother, he describes how, despite fierce fighting earlier from both sides, Allied and German soldiers ceased firing and came together on the battlefield to celebrate the holiday. They sang carols, exchanged gifts, and even lit Christmas trees. But as the holiday came to a close, they returned to their separate trenches to await orders for the war to begin again.

It only takes a few words to create change. When those people sing out, they can change the world. 'We Shall Overcome' is one of these songs. From its humble beginnings in America's era of slavery through to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and beyond, it has come to represent the fight for equality and freedom around the world.

Razia is excited when her grandfather tells her there's a school for girls being built in their Afghan village. At last, girls will have the same opportunity to be educated as boys. Every night I fell asleep dreaming about going to school like my brothers, she says. Her grandfather wants Razia to enroll in the school. He remembers a time, before the wars and the Taliban, when educated women in Afghanistan became doctors, government workers and journalists, and how this made families and the country stronger. Razia knows, however, that she will need permission from her father and her oldest brother, Aziz, in order to be allowed to attend the school. She begs her grandfather, ?Please, Baba gi, ask Baba and Aziz if I may go. I must go.' But will her grandfather's words be enough to convince the younger men of the value of an education for Razia?

Dolores is a teacher, a mother, and a friend. She wants to know why her students are too hungry to listen, why they don't have shoes to wear to school. Dolores is a warrior, an organizer, and a peacemaker. When she finds out that the farm workers in her community are poorly paid and working under dangerous conditions, she stands up for their rights. This is the story of Dolores Huerta and the extraordinary battle she waged to ensure fair and safe work places for migrant workers.

On August 28, 1963, a remarkable event took place--more than 250,000 people gathered in our nation's capital to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march began at the Washington Monument and ended with a rally at the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech, advocating racial harmony.

In this evocative collection of poems illustrated by beautiful handmade quilts, Anna Grossnickle Hines explores peace in all its various and sometimes surprising forms: from peace at home to peace on a worldwide scale to peace within oneself. Pondering the meaning of peace and its fleeting nature, this book compels each of us to discover and act upon peace ourselves.

When Alex spies a mule chomping on greens in a nearby garden, he can't help but ask about it. "Ol' Belle?" says Miz Pettway. "She can have all the collards she wants. She's earned it." And so begins the tale of an ordinary mule in Gee's Bend, Alabama, that played a singular part in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. When African-Americans in a poor community - inspired by a visit from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - defied local authorities who were trying to stop them from registering to vote, many got around a long, imposed detour on mule-drawn wagons. As Alex looks into the eyes of gentle Belle, he begins to understand a significant time in history in a very personal way.

It was February 1, 1960. They didn't need menus. Their order was simple. A doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side.

Ruth was so excited to take a trip in her family's new car! In the early 1950s, few African Americans could afford to buy cars, so this would be an adventure. But she soon found out that black travelers weren't treated very well in some towns. Many hotels and gas stations refused service to black people. Daddy was upset about something called Jim Crow laws . . . Finally, a friendly attendant at a gas station showed Ruth's family The Green Book. It listed all of the places that would welcome black travelers. With this guidebook--and the kindness of strangers--Ruth could finally make a safe journey from Chicago to her grandma's house in Alabama.

Born into slavery, Belle had to endure the cruelty of several masters before she escaped to freedom. But she knew she wouldn't really be free unless she was helping to end injustice. That's when she changed her name to Sojourner and began traveling across the country, demanding equal rights for black people and for women. Many people weren't ready for her message, but Sojourner was brave, and her truth was powerful. And slowly, but surely as Sojourner's step-stomp stride, America began to change.

The whole community comes together to help Sharonda and Mama build their house!

Bilingual English/Spanish. A bilingual biography of Pura Belpré, New York City's first Latina librarian. The winter of 1929 feels especially cold to cousins Hildamar and Santiago--they arrived in New York City from sunny Puerto Rico only months before. Their island home feels very far away indeed, especially with Three Kings' Day rapidly approaching. But then a magical thing happened. A visitor appears in their class, a gifted storyteller and librarian by the name of Pura Belpré. She opens the children's eyes to the public library and its potential to be the living, breathing heart of the community. The library, after all, belongs to everyone--whether you speak Spanish, English, or both.

WHEN BOMBS BEGIN TO FALL, Ali drowns out the sould of war with a pen. Like other children living in Baghdad, Ali loves soccer, music and dancing, but most of all, he loves the ancient art of calligraphy. When bombs begin to fall on his city, Ali turns to his pen, writing sweeping and gliding words to the silent music that drowns out the war all around him.

When author/illustrator Lita Judge found hundreds of tracings of feet in her grandmother's attic, she was intrigued and moved to share the story behind them. One Thousand Tracings tells that story. In the aftermath of World War II a family in America established contact with a family in Germany and to help them sent them supplies, including shoes. The German family was extremely grateful and asked if their American friends would help others in Europe. Soon shoe tracings from all over the continent started pouring in to the modest Midwest farm. The network of families helping from the U.S. started to grow so that ultimately hundreds of people on both sides of the Atlantic were touched by this remarkable process.

When Granny Judith asks twelve-year-old Christmas John to row Molly, cook's daughter, across the river from Kentucky to the Free State of Ohio, he's terrified. Bravely, he begins the first of many journeys. Each time he returns, Granny Judith asks what color clothing his passenger wore, for she's had a dream-vision and is making a quilt from squares of these "freedom colors." When there are only two squares left, she tells him, "Dream says we got to get ourselves over the river, 'cause the danger's gonna grow awful."

There is a river called Bok Chitto that cuts through Mississippi. In the days before the War Between the States, in the days before the Trail of Tears, Bok Chitto was a boundary. On one side of the river lived the Choctaws. On the other side lived the plantation owners and their slaves. If a slave escaped and made his way across Bok Chitto, the slave was free.

A bilingual collection of poetry by acclaimed Chicano poet Francisco X. Alarcón celebrating family, community, nature, and the positive power of dreams to shape our future.

It's the hottest, stickiest day of the summer. A fat-sun-in-the-sky day. An eating-ice-pops-on-the-porch day. And for Kishi and Renée, it's a best-friends-breakup day. Each girl sits on her own front porch, waiting for the other to apologize, even though they know they'll never speak to each other again, no matter how bored they get. But then the sounds of feet slapping the pavement and voices chanting double-dutch rhymes drift up the avenue, and neither one can resist going out in the street to play.

Everyone knows that kids from Chinatown don't go to the park when the kids from Little Italy are there. They're rough, they're big, and they don't like Chinese kids. That's okay-Henry doesn't like them, either. But what Henry does like are kites. He loves them. Even more, he loves to help his friend Grandfather Chin make them, and fly them over Chinatown and the park. But when Tony Guglione and his friends from Little Italy keep throwing rocks and destroying their beautiful creations, Henry and his friends decide enough is enough! In this touching story based on true 1920's events, two rival groups of children representing two different cultures come face to face, and when they do, they find they share much more than just the same sky.

The story of Sequoyah is the tale of an ordinary man with an extraordinary idea--to create a writing system for the Cherokee Indians and turn his people into a nation of readers and writers. The task he set for himself was daunting. Sequoyah knew no English and had no idea how to capture speech on paper. But slowly and painstakingly, ignoring the hoots and jibes of his neighbors and friends, he worked out a system that surprised the Cherokee Nation--and the world of the 1820s--with its beauty and simplicity.

It's senior year and Charlotte Locke has just transferred to a new high school. With no friends, a terrible math SAT score, and looming college application deadlines, the future starts to seem like a black hole. Then Amanda enters her orbit like a hot-pink meteor, offering Charlotte a ticket to popularity. Amanda is fearless, beautiful, and rich. As her new sidekick, Charlotte is brought into the elite clique of the debate team-and closer to Neal, the most perfect boy she has ever seen. Senior year is finally looking up. . . .or is it? The more things heat up between Charlotte and Neal, the more he wants to keep their relationship a secret. Is he ashamed? Meanwhile, Amanda is starting to act strangely competitive. Could Charlotte's new BFF be hiding something?

In December 1944, a young Jewish prisoner in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp heard the cries of 46 abandoned children. For the next four months, Luba Tryszynska managed to keep those children alive by providing food, shelter, and warm fires - and a mother's love. Hers is the story of an everyday hero who, faced with an overwhelming evil, inspired courage in her fellow prisoners.

Carlitos' mother is a janitor. Every night, he sleeps while his mother cleans in one of the skyscrapers in downtown L.A. When she comes home, she waves Carlitos off to school before she goes to sleep. One night, his mamá explains that she can't make enough money to support him and his abuelita the way they need unless she makes more money as a janitor. She and the other janitors have decided to go on strike. Will he support her and help her all he can? Of course, Carlitos wants to help but he cannot think of a way until his teacher, Miss Lopez, explains in class how her own grandfather had fought for better wages for farmworkers when he first came to the United States. Finally, Carlitos knows how he can show his mamá how proud he is of her. He and the other children in his class make posters and Carlitos joins the marchers with a very special sign for his mom!

Young Abekenile and all the villagers of Yao feel safe sheltered deep within the jungle. But word has now come that slavers are on their way! Abekenile looks to the women of her tribe: her mother, who comes up with a clever plan to fool the slavers, and a tribal elder, who stays behind to face the slavers, steadfast in her trust that the ancestor-spirits will watch over her. But as the villagers retreat within the forest, it is Abekenile who finds that she too has the bravery and daring to help her people stay safe and free.

A series of poems tells how two sisters help each other deal with life while their mother is working and their father has been sent to jail.

Without the yellow star to point them out, the Jews looked like any other Danes. For centuries, the Star of David was a symbol of Jewish pride. But during World War II, Nazis used the star to segregate and terrorize the Jewish people. Except in Denmark. When Nazi soldiers occupied his country, King Christian X of Denmark committed himself to keeping all Danes safe from harm, and the bravery of the Danes and their king during that dangerous time has inspired many legends. The most enduring is the legend of the yellow star, which symbolizes the loyalty and fearless spirit of the king and his people.

The daughter of a slave forms a gospel singing group and goes on tour to raise money to save Fisk University.

This beautifully designed book tells the story of a little girl named Sophie, who learns that it's okay to be angry. Everybody gets angry sometimes. For children, anger can be very upsetting. Parents, teachers, and children can talk about it. People do lots of different things when they get angry.

What would you do if the ant you were about to step on looked up and started talking? Would you stop and listen? What if your friends saw you hesitate? That's what happens in this funny, thought-provoking book. Originally a song by a father-daughter team, this conversation between two creatures, large and small, is bound to inspire important discussions. It might even answer that classic childhood question: To squish or not to squish? 1999 Honor book

This Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award-winning title celebrates African-American music by tracing the progression of black music from its traditional roots in Africa to contemporary hip hop. Full color. 1999 Honor book

Honor America-and Woodie Guthrie's 90th birthday-with this beautiful gift package. Featuring the complete lyrics and musical notation to the beloved anthem "This Land is Your Land," as well as a photo-essay about Woody, a note from his daughter Nora Guthrie, and a tribute by beloved folk singer Pete Seeger, this stunning book paints an unforgettable picture of our diverse land.Now an award-winning CD containing nine popular folk songs performed by Woody and Arlo Guthrie is bound into the book, making this a treasure for the whole family or classroom to share. 1999 Honor book

Presents brief descriptions of many different kinds of families, both traditional and non-traditional. 1998 Honor book

Illustrated by Dom Lee This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of Chiune Suguhara, the Japanese Schindler', who, with his family's encouragement, saved the lives of thousands of Polish Jews in World War II. Illustrated thoughout in full colour. Ages 6 - 10.' 1998 Honor book

Gogo, Thembi's great-grandmother, is so old that she never leaves the house. But when black South Africans win the vote the first time, she insists she and Thembi must go to the polling station. This story describes a milestone in South African history as seen through a child's eyes. 1997 Honor book

A little girl runs through the park noting differences between people, but surmising that we are all the same. "Straight hair, curly hair - different but the same!" "Big nose, little nose. Light skin, dark skin - different but the same!" Even with our differences, she chants, "Isn't it delightful bein' with you this way?" This poem reflects a perfect sentiment for our children living in this multicultural society. 1995 Honor book

After completing the stunning art for Soul Looks Back In Wonder, Tom Feelings approached stellar authors Maya Angelou, Margaret Walker, Walter Dean Myers, Lucille Clifton, among others. They wrote these inspired poems to pass on the heritage of strength, beauty, and creativity to today's African Americans--especially young people. 1994 Honor book

In this special Passover story, Larnel Moore, a young African-American boy, and Mrs. Katz, an elderly Jewish woman, develop an unusual friendship through their mutual concern for an abandoned cat named Tush. Together they explore the common themes of suffering and triumph in each of their cultures. 1993 Honor book

History has made me an African American. It is an Africa that I have come from, and an America that I have helped to create. Since they were first brought as captives to Virginia, the people who would become African Americans have struggled for freedom. Thousands fought for the rights of all Americans during the Revolutionary War, and for their own rights during the Civil War. On the battlefield, through education, and through their creative genius, they have worked toward one goal: that the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness be denied no one. Fired by the legacy of men and women like Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, Ida B. Wells, and George Latimer, the struggle continues today. 1992 Honor book

A moving depiction of the Japanese experience in 20th-century America, centered on the Japanese internment during WWII. Hamanaka has painted a 25-foot, five panel mural summarizing this experience--an artwork that's a complex, elegantly orchestrated blend of realistic portraits, caricatures and traditional symbols that recalls the social protest art of the '30s . . . 1991 Honor book

All over Rebecca's village everyone is talking about the bulldozers. She and her friends wonder if the government will really send bulldozers to destroy their homes to make way for a new whites-only town. The government says they must move and promises a modern new village -- but Rebecca's parents and her granny say this is their home and they will never leave.One day Rebecca sets out for school only to learn that her best friend's family has moved away in the middle of the night. The villagers who are left must take a brave stand, and Rebecca's family may be torn apart. Soon Rebecca and her family and friends find help from a surprising source -- and learn that the eyes of the entire world are on their tiny village. 1991 Honor book

Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated," Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family. Soon Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission to save Ellen's life. 1990 Honor book

In the aftermath of the Civil War, recently orphaned Will must start a new life and overcome his prejudices. Courage wears many faces... The Civil War may be over, but for twelve-year-old Will Page, the pain and bitterness haven't ended. How could they have, when the Yankees were responsible for the deaths of everyone in his entire immediate family? And now Will has to leave his comfortable home in the Shenandoah Valley and live with relatives he has never met, people struggling to eke out a living on their farm in the war-torn Virginia Piedmont. But the worst of it is that Will's uncle Jed had refused to fight for the Confederacy. At first, Will regards his uncle as a traitor--or at least a coward. But as they work side by side, Will begins to respect the man. And when he sees his uncle stand up for what he believes in, Will realizes that he must rethink his definition of honor and courage. 1990 Honor book

Anna and Grandma are planning a surprise for Dad's birthday. Dad thinks he has received all his presents, but Grandma stands up and gives him the best one of all: she reads aloud the stories that Anna has taught her. 1990 Honor book

QUESTIONS Sensitive and idealistic fifteen-year-old Kelly McAllister feels at odds with everyone around her. Her best friend has suddenly turned boy crazy. Her talented mother creates greeting card designs instead of real art, and her father never talks to her about anything except working hard and getting ahead. That's why Kelly becomes so involved in the plight of a homeless Vietnam vet who takes refuge in the library each day. Interviewing him began as a Social Studies project, but it takes on new meaning after her offers of food and friendship backfire into a real disaster.What had the war done to destroy this man? And what had it done to her own father, who had been to the same war ... and refuses to speak of it? 1989 Honor book

"Seven-year-old Juan lives in Guatemala, a place of stunning beauty and grim economic reality. Abandoned by his mother, Juan lives with his grandmother and shines shoes. He passionately wants to attend school, but fears Grandmother will say no. Finally gathering his courage, he is surprised when she not only agrees to send him to school but also chides him about the importance of standing up for himself. 1989 Honor book

Between the years 1933 and 1945, Adolf Hitler organized the Murder of six million Jews while the world looked on silently. But not all people stood back in fear. In every Nazioccupied Country, at every level of society, there were non-Jews who had the courage to resist. From the king of Denmark, refusing to force Jewish Danes to wear yellow stars, to the Dutch student, registering Jewish babies as Gentiles and hiding children in her home, a small number of people had the strength to reject the inhumanity they were ordered to support. Here are their stories: thrilling, terrifying, and most of all, inspiring. For in the horror that was the Holocaust, some human decency could still shine through. 1989 Honor book

When the young mouse Nicolas sets out across the great meadow alone in search of ripe red berries, he is grabbed up by the claws of a huge bird and carried high into the sky. But that is only the beginning of Nicolas's adventure. How he gets the berries he was hoping to find, and learns to trust the very creatures he thought were his enemies, makes this Leo Lionni fable one that young children will want to hear again and again. 1988 Honor book

Rosie and her family are caught up in the Arnot, Pennsylvania, mining strike of 1899-1900, led by the union organizer Mother Jones. 1988 Honor book

Brief text and illustrations by ten internationally well-known artists reveal a day in the lives of children in eight different countries showing the similarities and differences and emphasizing the commonality of humankind. 1987 Honor book

Examines the plight of Mayans who have fled the violent political situation in Guatemala and settled in a community in southern Florida. 1987 Honor book

A ten-year-old from Maine describes her trip to Russia at the invitation of Yuri Andropov after writing him a letter expressing her fears about a nuclear war. 1986 Honor book

During World War II a Jewish boy is left on his own for months in a ruined house in the Warsaw Ghetto, where he must learn all the tricks of survival under constantly life-threatening conditions. 1985 Honor book

"Rosa organizes her friends into the Oak Street Band in order to earn money her family needs because of her Grandma's illness....Community, family and personal triumphs converge, making unforgettable music for everyone." 1985 Honor book

Details the race between the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union for superiority in atomic weaponry since the inception of the Manhattan Project. 1983 Honor book

Young readers can begin to learn Serbo-Croatian, Swahili, Vietnamese, and eight other languages from around the world, because Charlotte Pomerantz deftly intersperses English with one other language in each of eleven different poems. The meaning of new words is absolutely clear through context or comparison. 1983 Honor book

"This dramatic sequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a powerful novel . . .capable of touching readers of any age." --The Christian Science Monitor. 1982 Honor book

Crossing over the border is a dangerous business... ...But Lupita must cross from Mexico to America. After her father dies in a fishing boat accident in the seas near their small Mexican village, Lupita's family is left in poverty. Lupita and her big brother, Salvador, must smuggle themselves into the United States to earn money to support their mother and young siblings. America is not the land of opportunity they had hoped. A new language, hard labor, and the constant threat of la migra -- the immigration police--make every day a difficult challenge. But for feisty Lupita, there is always hope for a better manana -- tomorrow. 1982 Honor book

In pre-World War II Germany, a young Danish boy gets involved with an anti-Nazi plot. 1981 Honor book

1981 Honor book

This powerful, fact-based story is seen through the eyes of Hidden Doe, a young Native American girl who grows to maturity during the 1840s, when the U.S. government forces her people to leave their homeland in Iowa and make the long and bitter journey to a Kansas reservation. As she comes of age during this painful time, Hidden Doe is counseled in the ways of her people by her courageous grandmother, and soon also grows to know a young man who will win her love. 1981 Honor book

A play that depicts Frederick Douglas overcoming his beginnings as a slave to becoming the first African American man to hold a diplomatic office. 1979 Honor book

Eleven-year-old Gilly has been stuck in more foster families than she can remember, and she's disliked them all. She has a reputation for being brash, brilliant, and completely unmanageable, and that's the way she likes it. So when she's sent to live with Mrs. Trotter and William Ernest--by far the strangest family yet--she knows it's only a temporary problem. Gilly decides to put her sharp mind to work and get out of there fast. She's determined to no longer be a foster kid. Before long she's devised an elaborate scheme to get her real mother to come rescue her. But unfortunately, the plan doesn't work out quite as she hoped it would....1979 Honor book

It's 1944 in New York City. Alan Silverman doesn't want to give up his stickball game for anyone-especially not for crazy-acting Naomi Kirshenbaum. But when he hears about her horrifying experience during the war in France, Alan changes his mind. Slowly, he struggles to befriend her, and one day-miraculously-she begins to trust him. Alan finds she is not only intelligent, but also fun to be with. But the scars of war are still very much with Naomi. 1978 Honor book

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie's story--Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect. 1977 Honor book

Moon Shadow was eight when he sailed from China to join his father Windrider in America. Windrider lived in San Francisco's Chinatown and worked in a laundry. Moon Shadow had never seen him. But he soon loved and respected this father, a man of genius, a man with a fabulous dream. And with Moon Shadow's help, Windrider was willing to endure the mockery of the other Chinese, the poverty, and the longing for his wife and his own country to make his dream come true. Inspired by the account of a Chinese immigrant who made a flying machine in 1909, Laurence Yep's historical novel beautifully portrays the rich traditions of the Chinese community as it made its way in a hostile new world. 1976 Honor book

In this beautifully-written first book by Mildred Taylor, Cassie loves to listen to the trees. But can she save the old forest from being turned into lumber? 1976 Honor book

A Newbery Medalist presents a gripping, thought-provoking story about life after a nuclear holocaust. 1976 Honor book

1975 Honor book

Young Tim Meeker is caught between his brother's patriotism and his father's Tory sympathies in this story of the American Revolution. 1975 Honor book

The struggle of the Mexican-American people. 1975 Honor book

The life of a thirteen-year-old Harlem black boy on his way to becoming a confirmed heroin addict is seen from his viewpoint and from that of several people around him. 1974 Honor book

The high profile Pacifists sketched by Lieberman (KR, 1972) are placed here in the more illuminating context of the American peace movement as it evolved from sectarian to secular, became intertwined with abolitionism, suffrage and economics and influenced nonviolent demonstrations for civil rights. 1974 Honor book

Nicole Nieman has never really thought about being Jewish. Now, with the Nazis occupying France, it is the only thing on her mind. An almost endless stream of refugees comes to stay at their house, and her parents wonder if they too ought to escape over the border to switzerland or take the chance and wait it out. Then one awful day Nicole comes home from school to find her parents and her sister gone. The Nazis who have taken them are still looking for her. Where can Nicole hide? And will she ever see her family again? 1974 Honor book

Annie de Leeuw was eight years old in 1940 when the Germans attacked Holland and marched into the town of Winterswijk where she lived. Annie was ten when, because she was Jewish and in great danger of being cap-tured by the invaders, she and her sister Sini had to leave their father, mother, and older sister Rachel to go into hiding in the upstairs room of a remote farmhouse.

Set in 1954, this compelling historical novel tells the story of a young girl's struggles and triumphs in the aftermath of World War II. The war is over, but the threat of communism and the Cold War loom over the United States. In Detroit, Michigan, twelve-year-old Marjorie Campbell struggles with the ups and downs of family life, dealing with her veteran father's unpredictable outbursts, keeping her mother's stash of banned library books a secret, and getting along with her new older "brother," the teenager her family took in after his veteran father's death. When a new girl from Germany transfers to Marjorie's class, Marjorie finds herself torn between befriending Inga and pleasing her best friend, Bernadette, by writing in a slam book that spreads rumors about Inga. Marjorie seems to be confronting enemies everywhere--at school, at the library, in her neighborhood, and even in the news. In all this turmoil, Marjorie tries to find her own voice and figure out what is right and who the real enemies actually are. Includes an author's note and bibliography.

This striking work of narrative nonfiction tells the true story of six-year-old Sachiko Yasui's survival of the Nagasaki atomic bomb on August 9, 1945, and the heartbreaking and lifelong aftermath. Having conducted extensive interviews with Sachiko Yasui, Caren Stelson chronicles Sachiko's trauma and loss as well as her long journey to find peace.

As the youngest marcher in the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Albama, Lynda Blackmon Lowery proved that young adults can be heroes. Jailed nine times before her fifteenth birthday, Lowery fought alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. for the rights of African-Americans. In this memoir, she shows today's young readers what it means to fight nonviolently (even when the police are using violence, as in the Bloody Sunday protest) and how it felt to be part of changing American history.

Before the Little Rock Nine, before Rosa Parks, before Martin Luther King Jr. and his March on Washington, there was Barbara Rose Johns, a teenager who used nonviolent civil disobedience to draw attention to her cause. In 1951, witnessing the unfair conditions in her racially segregated high school, Barbara Johns led a walkout-the first public protest of its kind demanding racial equality in the U.S.-jumpstarting the American civil rights movement. Ridiculed by the white superintendent and school board, local newspapers, and others, and even after a cross was burned on the school grounds, Barbara and her classmates held firm and did not give up. Her school's case went all the way to the Supreme Court and helped end segregation as part of Brown v. Board of Education. Barbara Johns grew up to become a librarian in the Philadelphia school system.

Ten-year-old Sugar lives on the River Road sugar plantation along the banks of the Mississippi. Slavery is over, but laboring in the fields all day doesn't make her feel very free. Thankfully, Sugar has a knack for finding her own fun, especially when she joins forces with forbidden friend Billy, the white plantation owner's son.

The inspiring story of one of the greatest moments in civil rights history seen through the eyes of four young people at the center of the action. The 1963 Birmingham Children?s March was a turning point in American history. In the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, the fight for civil rights lay in the hands of children like Audrey Hendricks, Wash Booker, James Stewart, and Arnetta Streeter. We?ve Got a Job tells the little-known story of the 4,000 black elementary, middle, and high school students who voluntarily went to jail between May 2 and May 11, 1963. The children succeeded where adults had failed in desegregating one of the most racially violent cities in America.

Sylvia never expected to be at the center of a landmark legal battle; all she wanted was to enroll in school. Aki never expected to be relocated to a Japanese internment camp in the Arizona desert; all she wanted was to stay on her family farm and finish the school year. The two girls certainly never expected to know each other, until their lives intersected in Southern California during a time when their country changed forever.  

A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours' walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya's in an astonishing and moving way.

Only 44 years ago in the U.S., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading a fight to win blacks the right to vote. Ground zero for the movement became Selma, Alabama. Award-winning author Elizabeth Partridge leads you straight into the chaotic, passionate, and deadly three months of protests that culminated in the landmark march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Focusing on the courageous children who faced terrifying violence in order to march alongside King, this is an inspiring look at their fight for the vote.

It is 1896. Cuba has fought three wars for independence and still is not free. People have been rounded up in reconcentration camps with too little food and too much illness. Rosa is a nurse, but she dares not go to the camps. So she turns hidden caves into hospitals for those who know how to find her. Black, white, Cuban, Spanish--Rosa does her best for everyone. Yet who can heal a country so torn apart by war?

Bayard Rustin dedicated his life to helping others--fighting injustices and discriminations--so that people could live as one. Protesting segregation long before there was a civil rights movement, he often was arrested for his beliefs and actions. As a nonviolent activist, Bayard made his mark working alongside many African American leaders, notably A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. As an organizer, Bayard was largely responsible for bringing people together to walk for freedom and jobs in Washington, D.C., on that memorable summer day, August 28, 1963.

After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on a Mojave Indian reservation, she becomes friends with a local Indian boy.

Can girls play softball? Can girls be school crossing guards? Can girls play basketball or ice hockey or soccer? Can girls become lawyers or doctors or engineers? Of course they can... today. But just a few decades ago, opportunities for girls were far more limited, not because they weren't capable of playing or didn't want to become doctors or lawyers, but because they weren't allowed to. Then quietly, in 1972, something momentous happened: Congress passed a law called "Title IX," forever changing the lives of American girls. Hundreds of determined lawmakers, teachers, parents, and athletes carefully plotted to ensure that the law was passed, protected, and enforced. Time and time again, they were pushed back by Þerce opposition. But as a result of their perseverance, millions of American girls can now play sports. Young women make up half of the nation's medical and law students, and star on the best basketball, soccer, and softball teams in the world. This small law made a huge difference.

An award-winning author chronicles the story of the women's suffrage movement in America, using compelling period photographs--including some never before published--to illustrate the vivid narrative.

We are the young people, We will not be broken! We demand freedom And say "Away with slavery In our land of Africa!" For almost fifty years apartheid forced the young people of South Africa to live apart as Blacks, Whites, Indians, and "Coloreds."

A war is raging in Afghanistan as a coalition of Western forces tries to oust the Taliban by bombing the country. Parvana's father has died, and her mother, sister and brother have gone to a faraway wedding, not knowing what has happened to the father. Parvana doesn't know where they are. She just knows she has to find them. She sets out alone, masquerading as a boy, her journey becoming more perilous as the bombs begin to fall. Making her way across the desolate Afghan countryside, she meets other children who are strays from the war. The children travel together because it is easier than being alone. And, as they forge their own family in the war zone that Afghanistan has become, their resilience, imagination and luck help them to survive.

Sade is slipping her English book into her schoolbag when her Mama screams. Two sharp cracks splinter the air. "Mama mi?" She whispers Twelve-year-old Sade's journalist father is a vocal critic of the corrupt government in Nigeria. When Sade's mother is murdered, her family sees in bloody detail the violent risks that come with exposing the truth. Her father arranges for Sade and her younger brother to be smuggled to their uncle in London for safety. On the streets of London, the plans fall apart and they are abandoned, passed from foster home to foster home. They try to contact their uncle but he is missing. Then they learn that their father has escaped to London to find them -- but he will be sent back to Nigeria, unless Sade can find a way to tell the world what happened to her family.

Esperanza thought she'd always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico--she'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home, & servants. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When their new life is threatened, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances--Mama's life and her own depend on it.

In November 1960, all of America watched as a tiny six-year-old black girl, surrounded by federal marshals, walked through a mob of screaming segregationists and into her school. An icon of the civil rights movement, Ruby Bridges chronicles each dramatic step of this pivotal event in history through her own words.

Set in a small Oregon town just after World War II, this is the powerful tale of a community shattered by its reaction to two young newcomers, Aki and Shazam -- told from twenty-one different points of view. 1999 Award book

Fourteen-year-old Liyana, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born. They face many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians. 1998 Award book

Inspired by her in-laws' recollections of working in coal country, Susan Campbell Bartoletti has gathered the voices of men, women, and children who immigrated to and worked in northeastern Pennsylvania at the turn of the century. The story that emerges is not just a story of long hours, little pay, and hazardous working conditions; it is also the uniquely American story of immigrant families working together to make a new life for themselves. It is a story of hardship and sacrifice, yet also of triumph and the fulfillment of hopes and dreams. 1997 Award book

During a drought, the Logan family shares its well water with all its neighbors, black and white alike. But David and Hammer find it hard to share with Charlie Simms, who torments them because they are black. 1996 Award book

Photobiography of early twentieth-century photographer and schoolteacher Lewis Hine, using his own work as illustrations. Hines's photographs of children at work were so devastating that they convinced the American people that Congress must pass child labor laws. 1995 Award book

In this inspiring collection of true stories, thirty African-Americans who were children or teenagers in the 1950s and 1960s talk about what it was like for them to fight segregation in the South-to sit in an all-white restaurant and demand to be served, to refuse to give up a seat at the front of the bus, to be among the first to integrate the public schools, and to face violence, arrest, and even death for the cause of freedom. 1994 Award book

Every Life Makes a Story Djo has a story: Once he was one of "Titid's boys," a vital member of Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide's election team, fighting to overthrow military dictatorship in Haiti. Now he is barely alive, the victim of a political firebombing. Jeremie has a story: Convent-educated Jeremie can climb out of the slums of Port-au-Prince. But she is torn between her mother's hopes and her own wishes for herself ... and for Haiti. Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide has a story: A dream of a new Haiti, one in which every person would have a decent life ... a house with a roof ... clean water to drink ... a good plate of rice and beans every day ... a field to work in. At Aristide's request, Djo tells his story to Jeremie -- for Titid believes in the power of all of their stories to make change. As Jeremie listens to Djo, and to her own heart, she knows that they will begin a new story, one that is all their own, together. 1993 Award book

Fred Korematsu liked listening to music on the radio, playing tennis, and hanging around with his friends--just like lots of other Americans. But everything changed when the United States went to war with Japan in 1941 and the government forced all people of Japanese ancestry to leave their homes on the West Coast and move to distant prison camps. This included Fred, whose parents had immigrated to the United States from Japan many years before. But Fred refused to go. He knew that what the government was doing was unfair. And when he got put in jail for resisting, he knew he couldn't give up.

It's Mississippi in the summer of 1955, and Rose Lee Carter can't wait to move north. But for now, she's living with her sharecropper grandparents on a white man's cotton plantation. Then, one town over, an African American boy, Emmett Till, is killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman. When Till's murderers are unjustly acquitted, Rose realizes that the South needs a change . . . and that she should be part of the movement.

Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some opportunities she doesn't really welcome, like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. Just because her mentor is black and graduated from the same high school doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone who needs help, someone people want to fix. Jade wants to speak, to create, to express her joys and sorrows, her pain and her hope. Maybe there are some things she could show other women about understanding the world and finding ways to be real, to make a difference.

In his signature eloquent prose, backed up by thorough research, Russell Freedman tells the story of Austrian-born Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie. They belonged to Hitler Youth as young children, but began to doubt the Nazi regime. As older students, the Scholls and a few friends formed the White Rose, a campaign of active resistance to Hitler and the Nazis. Risking imprisonment or even execution, the White Rose members distributed leaflets urging Germans to defy the Nazi government. Their belief that freedom was worth dying for will inspire young readers to stand up for what they believe in.

Growing up in the shadows cast by two world wars, Annabelle has lived a mostly quiet, steady life in her small Pennsylvania town. Until the day new student Betty Glengarry walks into her class. Betty quickly reveals herself to be cruel and manipulative, and while her bullying seems isolated at first, things quickly escalate, and reclusive World War I veteran Toby becomes a target of her attacks. While others have always seen Toby's strangeness, Annabelle knows only kindness. She will soon need to find the courage to stand as a lone voice of justice as tensions mount.

It's 1969, and the Apollo 11 mission is getting ready to go to the moon. But for half-black, half-Japanese Mimi, moving to a predominantly white Vermont town is enough to make her feel alien. Suddenly, Mimi's appearance is all anyone notices. She struggles to fit in with her classmates, even as she fights for her right to stand out by entering science competitions and joining Shop Class instead of Home Ec. And even though teachers and neighbors balk at her mixed-race family and her refusals to conform, Mimi's dreams of becoming an astronaut never fade-no matter how many times she's told no.

It's 1964, and Sunny's town is being invaded. Or at least that's what the adults of Greenwood, Mississippi, are saying. All Sunny knows is that people from up north are coming to help people register to vote. They're calling it Freedom Summer. Meanwhile, Sunny can't help but feel like her house is being invaded, too. She has a new stepmother, a new brother, and a new sister crowding her life, giving her little room to breathe.

Two of Katherine Erskine's favourite stories now in paperback! Life will never be the same for Red Porter. He's a kid growing up around black car grease, white fence paint, and the backward attitudes of the folks who live in his hometown, Rocky Gap, Virginia. Red's daddy, his idol, has just died, leaving Red and Mama with some hard decisions and a whole lot of doubt. Should they sell the Porter family business, a gas station, repair shop, and convenience store rolled into one, where the slogan - "Porter's: We Fix it Right!" - has been shouting the family's pride for as long as anyone can remember? With Daddy gone, everything's different. Through his friendship with Thomas, Beau, and Miss Georgia, Red starts to see there's a lot more than car motors and rusty fenders that need fixing in his world.

The year is 1867, the South has been defeated, and the American Civil War is over. But the conflict goes on. Yankees now patrol the streets of Richmond, Virginia, and its citizens, both black and white, are struggling to redefine their roles and relationships. By day, fourteen-year-old Shadrach apprentices with a tailor and sneaks off for reading lessons with Rachel, a freed slave, at her school for African-American children. By night he follows his older brother Jeremiah to the meetings of a group whose stated mission is to protect Confederate widows like their mother. But as the true murderous intentions of the group, now known as the Ku Klux Klan, are revealed, Shad finds himself trapped between old loyalties and what he knows is right.

In early 1968 the grisly on-the-job deaths of two African-American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, prompted an extended strike by that city's segregated force of trash collectors. Workers sought union protection, higher wages, improved safety, and the integration of their work force.

When Temple Grandin was born, her parents knew she was different. Years later she was diagnosed with autism. Temple's doctor recommended institutionalizing her, but her mother believed in her. Temple went to school instead. Today, Dr. Temple Grandin, a scientist and professor of animal science at Colorado State University, is an autism advocate and her world-changing career revolutionized the livestock industry.

Inspired by the author's childhood experience as a refugee--fleeing Vietnam after the fall of Saigon and immigrating to Alabama--this coming-of-age debut told in verse has been celebrated for its touching child's-eye view of family and immigration.

The story of America and African Americans is a story of hope and inspiration and unwavering courage. This is the story of the men, women, and children who toiled in the hot sun picking cotton for their masters; it's about the America ripped in two by Jim Crow laws; it's about the brothers and sisters of all colors who rallied against those who would dare bar a child from an education. It's a story of discrimination and broken promises, determination, and triumphs.

Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. She doesn't have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots of friends like the other kids on her street. But what she does have is Mama Ya-Ya, her fiercely loving caretaker, wise in the ways of the world and able to predict the future. So when Mama Ya-Ya's visions show a powerful hurricane--Katrina--fast approaching, it's up to Lanesha to call upon the hope and strength Mama Ya-Ya has given her to help them both survive the storm.

Racial bombings were so frequent in Birmingham that it became known as "Bombingham." Until September 15, 1963, these attacks had been threatening but not deadly. On that Sunday morning, however, a blast in the 16th Street Baptist Church ripped through the exterior wall and claimed the lives of four girls. The church was the ideal target for segregationists, as it was the rallying place for Birmingham's African American community, Martin Luther King, Jr., using it as his "headquarters" when he was in town to further the cause of desegregation and equal rights. Rather than triggering paralyzing fear, the bombing was the definitive act that guaranteed passage of the landmark 1964 civil rights legislation.

They had the right stuff. They defied the prejudices of the time. And they blazed a trail for generations of women to follow. What does it take to be an astronaut? Excellence at flying, courage, intelligence, resistance to stress, top physical shape -- any checklist would include these. But when America created NASA in 1958, there was another unspoken rule: you had to be a man. Here is the tale of thirteen women who proved that they were not only as tough as the toughest man but also brave enough to challenge the government. They were blocked by prejudice, jealousy, and the scrawled note of one of the most powerful men in Washington. But even though the Mercury 13 women did not make it into space, they did not lose, for their example empowered young women to take their place in the sky, piloting jets and commanding space capsules.

"When it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'" - Claudette Colvin On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff inBrowder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South.

Amani longs to be a shepherd like her beloved grandfather Sido, who has tended his flock for generations, grazing sheep on their family homestead near Hebron. Amani loves Sido many stories, especially one about a secret meadow called the Firdoos. But as outside forces begin to encroach upon this hotly contested land, Amani struggles to find suitable grazing for her family’s now-starving herd. While her father and brother take a more militant stance against the intruding forces, Amani and her new American friend Jonathan accidentally stumble upon the Firdoos and begin to realize there is more to life than fighting over these disputed regions. Amani learns a difficult lesson about just what it will take to live in harmony with those who threaten her family way of life.

Who was the real John Henry? The story of this legendary African-American figure has come down to us in so many songs, stories, and plays, that the facts are often lost. Historian Scott Nelson brings John Henry alive for young readers in his personal quest for the true story of the man behind the myth. Nelson presents the famous folk song as a mystery to be unraveled, identifying the embedded clues within the lyrics, which he examines to uncover many surprising truths.

"Naima is a talented painter of traditional alpana patterns, which Bangladeshi women and girls paint on their houses for special celebrations. But Naima is not satisfied just painting alpana. She wants to help earn money for her family, like her best friend, Saleem, does for his family. When Naima's rash effort to help puts her family deeper in debt, she draws on her resourceful nature and her talents to bravely save the day. Includes a glossary of Bangla words and an author's note about a changing Bangladesh and microfinance."

Eleven-year-old Elijah is the first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit. He's best known in his hometown as the boy who made a memorable impression on Frederick Douglass. But things change when a former slave steals money from Elijah's friend, who has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the South. Elijah embarks on a dangerous journey to America in pursuit of the thief, and he discovers firsthand the unimaginable horrors of the life his parents fled -- a life from which he'll always be free, if he can find the courage to get back home.

A poetic tribute to the victims of the racially motivated church bombing that served as a seminal event in the struggle for civil rights. In 1963, the eyes of the world were on Birmingham, Alabama, a flashpoint for the civil rights movement. Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the United States. Civil rights demonstrators were met with police dogs and water cannons. On Sunday, September 15, 1963, members of the Ku Klux Klan planted sticks of dynamite at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which served as a meeting place for civil rights organizers. The explosion killed four little girls. Their murders shocked the nation and turned the tide in the struggle for equality.

Freedman's book tells the dramatic stories of the heroes who stood up against segregation and Jim Crow laws in 1950s Alabama.  A master of succinct historical narratives, Freeman explains the contributions of and sacrifices made by Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin, who refused give up their seats, to Jo Ann Robinson, who began the boycott, to Martin Luther King, Jr., whose leadership was instrumental is carrying it through, and others.

1910. Pownal, Vermont. At 12, Grace and her best friend Arthur must leave school and go to work on their mothers looms in the mill. Grace's mother is the best worker, fast and powerful, and Grace desperately wants to help her. But she's left handed and doffing is a right-handed job. Graces every mistake costs her mother, and the family. She only feels capable on Sundays, when she and Arthur receive special lessons from their teacher. Together they write a secret letter to the Child Labor Board about underage children working in Pownal. A few weeks later a man with a camera shows up. It is the famous reformer Lewis Hine, undercover, collecting evidence for the Child Labor Board. Graces brief acquaintance with Hine and the photos he takes of her are a gift that changes her sense of herself, her future, and her family's future.

It is 1965, and twelve-year-old Emaline lives on a wheat farm in southern Saskatchewan. Her family has fallen apart. When her beloved dog, Prince, chased a hare into the path of the tractor, she chased after him, and her dad accidentally ran over her leg with the discer, leaving her with a long convalescence and a permanent disability. But perhaps the worst thing from Emaline's point of view is that in his grief and guilt, her father shot Prince and then left Emaline and her mother on their own. Despite the neighbors' disapproval, Emaline's mother hires Angus, a patient from the local mental hospital, to work their fields. Angus is a red-haired giant whom the local kids tease and call the gorilla. Though the small town's prejudice creates a cloud of suspicion around Angus that nearly results in tragedy, in the end he becomes a force for healing as Emaline comes to terms with her injury and the loss of her father.

In prose poetry and alternating voices, Marlene Carvell weaves a heartbreakingly beautiful story based on the real-life experiences of Native American children. Mattie and Sarah are two Mohawk sisters who are sent to an off-reservation school after the death of their mother. Subject to intimidation and corporal punishment, with little hope of contact with their father, the girls are taught menial tasks to prepare them for life as domestics. How Mattie and Sarah protect their culture, memories of their family life, and their love for each other makes for a powerful, unforgettable historical novel.

There is a lion in our village, and it is carrying away our children. At her father's funeral, Binti's grandmother utters the words that no one in Malawi wants to hear. Binti's father and her mother before him, dies of AIDS. Binti, her sister, and brother are separated and sent to the home of relatives who can barely tolerate their presence. Ostracized by their extended family, the orphans are treated like the lowest servants. With her brother far away and her sister wallowing in her own sorrow, Binti can hardly contain her rage. She, Binti Phirim, was once a child star of a popular radio program. Now she is scraping to survive. Binti always believed she was special, now she is nothing but a common AIDS orphan. Binti Phiri is not about to give up. Even as she clings to hope that her former life will be restored, she must face a greater challenge. If she and her brother and sister are to reunited, Binti Phiri will have to look outside herself and find a new way to be special.

"Not so long ago and not so far away, people with guns could take a family, burn a house and disappear, leaving a small child alone in the world." So begins the true story of Selavi, a small boy who finds himself on the streets of Haiti. Selavi finds other street children who share their food and a place to sleep with him. Together they proclaim a message of hope through murals and radio programs. Youme is an artist and activist who has worked with communities in Kenya, Japan, Haiti and Cuba to make art which honors personal and cultural wisdom. Edwidge Danticat, Haitian author, adds an essay to Selavi.

Revised and updated with new information, this Jane Adams award winner is an in-depth examination of the Emmett Till murder case, a catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement.   The kidnapping and violent murder of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 was and is a uniquely American tragedy. Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was visiting family in a small town in Mississippi, when he allegedly whistled at a white woman. Three days later, his brutally beaten body was found floating in the Tallahatchie River.  In clear, vivid detail Chris Crowe investigates the before-and-aftermath of Till's murder, as well as the dramatic trial and speedy acquittal of his white murderers, situating both in the context of the nascent Civil Rights Movement.

In a stunning nonfiction debut, award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson focuses on five immigrants' stories to reveal the triumphs and hardships of early 1900s immigrant life in New York. Acclaimed author Hopkinson recounts the lives of five immigrants to New York's Lower East Side through oral histories and engaging narrative. We hear Romanian-born Marcus Ravage's disappointment when his aunt pushes him outside to peddle chocolates on the street. And about the pickle cart lady who stored her pickles in a rat-infested basement. We read Rose Cohen's terrifying account of living through the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, and of Pauline Newman's struggles to learn English. But through it all, each one of these kids keeps working, keeps hoping, to achieve their own American dream.

Angel Morgan needs help. Daddy is in jail, and Mama has abandoned her and her little brother, leaving them with their great-grandmother. Grandma is aged and poor, and doesn't make any attempt to care for the children--that's left up to Angel, even though she is not yet twelve. The only bright spot in Angel's existence is the Star Man, a mysterious stranger who appears on clear nights and teaches her all about the stars and planets and constellations. "We'remade out of the same stuff as the stars," he tells her. Eventually, Grandma warms to the children and the three begin to cobble together a makeshift family. Then events in Angel's life take yet another downturn, and she must once again find a way to persevere.

Sun-hee and her older brother, Tae-yul, live in Korea with their parents. Because Korea is under Japanese occupation, the children study Japanese and speak it at school. Their own language, their flag, the folktales Uncle tells them—even their names—are all part of the Korean culture that is now forbidden. When World War II comes to Korea, Sun-hee is surprised that the Japanese expect their Korean subjects to fight on their side. But the greatest shock of all comes when Tae-yul enlists in the Japanese army in an attempt to protect Uncle, who is suspected of aiding the Korean resistance. Sun-hee stays behind, entrusted with the life-and-death secrets of a family at war.

Hey Tara, what's your mother tongue? Questions like this make fifteen-year-old Tara Mehta's blood boil, especially when asked by a teacher who ought to know better. Yes, her parents were raised in India, but Tara has lived in Ottawa her whole life - she's as Canadian as everybody else. There are much more important things than where her family came from. Jeff, for instance. He's the new guy with the blue eyes and a brain that actually works. But then she meets her grandmother for the first time. Dadiji fought with Gandhi in the Indian independence movement, and she's horrified to learn that her grandchildren know almost nothing about her heritage. Tara resents her grandmother's attitude until she learns how Dadiji came to join the fight for independence. Shocked and angered by the history that she's never been taught in school, Tara decides to tell Dadiji's story to her class. In the wake of the violently mixed reactions that follow, Tara comes to realize that most people need to expand their definition of what it means to be a "regular" Canadian - including herself.

We have a multitude of obstacles to overcome here. We'll begin. When LaVaughn was little, the obstacles in her life didn't seem so bad. If she had a fight with Myrtle or Annie, it would never last long. If she was mad at her mother, they made up by bedtime. School was simple. Boys were buddies. Everything made sense. But LaVaughn is fifteen and the obstacles aren't going away anymore. Big questions separate her from her friends. Her mother is distracted by a new man. School could slip away from her so easily. And the boy who's a miracle in her life acts just as if he's in love with her. Only he's not in love with her.

The Color of My Words explores the pain and poetry of discovering what it means to be part of a family, what it takes to find your voice and the means for it to be heard, and how it feels to write it all down.

The remarkable story of collective and individual acts of bravery and altruism. Photos, map, bibliography, index.

Twelve-year-old Alfa Merryfield, his older sister, and their grandmother struggle for rent money, food, and their dignity as they participate in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott in the summer of 1956.

"[In this] story of a young Ojibwa girl, Omakayas, living on an island in Lake Superior around 1847, Louise Erdrich is reversing the narrative perspective used in most children's stories about nineteenth-century Native Americans. Instead of looking out at 'them' as dangers or curiosities, Erdrich, drawing on her family's history, wants to tell about 'us', from the inside. The Birchbark House establishes its own ground, in the vicinity of Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' books."

By the early 1900s, nearly two million children were working in the United States. From the coal mines of Pennsylvania to the cotton mills of New England, children worked long hours every day under stunningly inhumane conditions. After years and years of oppression, children began to organize and make demands for better wages, fairer housing costs, and safer working environments. Some strikes led by young people were successful; some were not. Some strike stories are shocking, some are heartbreaking, and many are inspiring -- but all are a testimony to the strength of mind and spirit of the children who helped build American industry.

Chris Nicola lives on the Penacook Indian Reservation and goes to school in town. School is great, but at home the Penacook are divided over building a casino on a beautiful island Chris thinks of as his own. What can one sixth-grade boy do? 1999 Honor book

"In South Africa we are learning to heal through the telling of stories like these, for it is only through telling that we heal." -Archbishop Desmond Tutu Through powerful personal narratives and photographs, this remarkable book brings together twelve South African teenagers whose distinct voices illuminate their experiences under apartheid and the joyous yet challenging years of freedom since. In their own words, these teens reveal what it was like to grow up in a country bitterly divided by racial separation, violence, and poverty. Eighteen-year-old Bandile Mashinini tells of police breaking down his door night after night because of his family's outspoken resistance to apartheid. Sixteen-year-old Ricardo Thando Tollie speaks of living in a tin shack only a few miles from the elegant houses of white suburbs. And fifteen-year-old Leandra Jansen van Vuuren describes her isolated childhood as a white South African, taught only to fear and mistrust people with skin darker than her own. But here, too, are stories of hope; of a willingness to reach out, to forgive, and to heal. Although they speak with a diverse range of voices, experiences, and attitudes, these young people are united in the belief that the new South Africa will truly be different from the one they have known. Their lives stand testament to the power and resilience of the human spirit and to a country's ability to redefine itself. 1999 Honor book

Dorothea Lange chose to work as a photographer during a time when family was supposed to come first for a woman. Like so many women, she had a husband and children to take care of but no matter how hard she tried, family life could not substitute for the work she loved. Her passion was photographing people. During her career, Dorothea Lange captured some of the most desperate and beautiful faces America has seen in photographs. 1999 Honor book

After dark in a Mexican border town, a father holds open a hole in a wire fence as his wife and two small boys crawl through. So begins life in the United States for many people every day. And so begins this collection of twelve autobiographical stories by Santa Clara University professor Francisco Jiménez, who at the age of four illegally crossed the border with his family in 1947.

A Vietnamese girl plants six lima beans in a Cleveland vacant lot. Looking down on the immigrant-filled neighborhood, a Romanian woman watches suspiciously. A school janitor gets involved, then a Guatemalan family. Then muscle-bound Curtis, trying to win back Lateesha. Pregnant Maricela. Amir from India. A sense of community sprouts and spreads. 1998 Honor book

In 1939, ten-year-old Korinna Rehme becomes a member of her local Jungmaedel, a Nazi youth group. She believes that Hitler is helping the world by dealing with what he calls the Jewish problem. When Korinna discovers that her parents are secretly hiding Jews in their house and helping them to escape the city, she is shocked. And her loyalties are put to an extreme test when a neighbor tips off the Gestapo. 1997 Honor book

Elizabeth Freeman was a slave who sued her owner for her freedom in 1781--and won. Told from the perspective of Elizabeth's sister, Aissa, this is the story of courage, determination and love between two extraordinary sisters. 1997 Honor book

Fourteen-year-old Melanin Sun's comfortable, quiet life is shattered when his mother reveals she has fallen in love with a woman. 1996 Honor book

To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, fifty-eight writers and illustrators have donated prose, poetry, and artwork that deal with the proposition of peace - from the day-to-day issues of personal and community violence to international conflict. Some of the contributors are Leo and Diane Dillon, Walter Dean Myers, Kioko Mori, Katherine Paterson, Jerry Pinkney, Milton Meltzer, Paul Morin, and Wendell Minor. Children of today face the greatest challenge humanity has ever known: creating a world in which every man, woman, and child has the opportunity to live in peace. Throughout history, war has been the method of choice to resolve arguments over borders, injustices, ideologies, religions, and numerous other passionately held beliefs. The heroes of history have been the brave men and women who have risked their lives to fight their countries' battles. Events of the twentieth century have brought changes that now make going to war, for any reason, obsolete. The heroes of the twenty-first century will be men and women who find alternatives to war. These people are children today. 1996 Honor book

The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963. 1996 Honor book

In his old age Cezanne Pinto recalls his youth as a slave on a Virginia plantation and his escape to a new life in the North. 1995 Honor book

Twelve-year-old Marie is a leader among the popular black girls in Chauncey, Ohio, a prosperous black suburb. She isn't looking for a friend when Lena Bright, a white girl, appears in school. Yet they are drawn to each other because both have lost their mothers. And they know how to keep a secret. For Lena has a secret that is terrifying, and she's desperate to protect herself and her younger sister from their father. Marie must decide whether she can help Lena by keeping her secret...or by telling it. 1995 Honor book

The intriguing story of Eleanor Roosevelt traces the life of the former First Lady from her early childhood through the tumultuous years in the White House to her active role in the founding of the United Nations after World War II. 1994 Honor books

Based on Jacobs's autobiography, these "letters," written to lost relatives & friends, provide a look at what slavery meant for a young female in the mid-1800s. 1993 Honor book

When General George Washington is elected the first President of the United States, his wife chooses young Oney Judge, a house slave who works as a seamstress at Mount Vernon, to travel with her to the nation's capital in New York City as her personal maid. When the capital is moved to Philadelphia, the Washingtons and Oney move, too, and there Oney meets free blacks for the first time. At first Oney can't imagine being free - she depends on the Washingtons for food, warmth, and clothing. But then Mrs. Washington tells Oney that after her death she will be sent to live with Mrs. Washington's granddaughter. Oney is horrified because she knows it is likely that she will then be sold to a stranger - the worst fate she can imagine. Oney realizes she must run. One day she sees an opportunity and takes it, ending up in New Hampshire, where she lives the rest of her life, poor but free.

While she and her family are interned at Topaz Relocation Centre during World War II, Mari gradually adjusts as she enrols in an art class, makes a friend, plants sunflowers and waits for them to grow.

An illustrated account of mailman and civil rights leader Westley Wallace Law's role in the non-violent movement to desegregate Savannah, Georgia, in the 1960s.

Cesar Chavez is known as one of America's greatest civil rights leaders. When he led a 340-mile peaceful protest march through California, he ignited a cause and improved the lives of thousands of migrant farmworkers. But Cesar wasn't always a leader. As a boy, he was shy and teased at school. His family slaved in the fields for barely enough money to survive. Cesar knew things had to change, and he thought that--maybe--he could help change them. So he took charge. He spoke up. And an entire country listened.

Vietnam. A young American soldier waits for his enemy, rifle in hand, finger on the trigger. He is afraid to move and yet afraid not to move. Gunshots crackle in the still air. The soldier fires blindly into the distant trees at an unseen enemy. He crouches and waits -- heart pounding, tense and trembling, biting back tears. When will it all be over?

This picture book biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. brings his life and the profound nature of his message to young children through his own words.

Life is simple for Pedro -- he goes to school, does his homework and, most importantly, plays soccer. But when the soldiers come and take his friend Daniel's father away, things suddenly become much more complicated. Why, for instance, do Pedro's parents secretly listen to the radio every evening after dinner? And why does the government want Pedro and his classmates to write compositions about what their parents do in the evening?

On a cold gray morning in 1683, Molly Walsh sat on a stool tugging at the udder of an obstinate cow. When she spilled the milk, she was brought before the court for stealing. Because she could read, Molly escaped the typical punishment of death on the gallows. At the age of seventeen, the English dairymaid was exiled from her country and sentenced to work as an indentured servant in British Colonial America. Molly worked for a planter in Maryland for seven long years. Then she was given an ox hitched to a cart, some supplies-and her freedom. That a lone woman should stake land was unheard of. That she would marry an African slave was even more so. Yet Molly prospered, and with her husband Bannaky, she turned a one-room cabin in the wilderness into a thriving one hundred-acre farm. And one day she had the pleasure of writing her new grandson's name in her cherished Bible: Benjamin Banneker.

When author/illustrator Lita Judge found hundreds of tracings of feet in her grandmother's attic, she was intrigued and moved to share the story behind them. One Thousand Tracings tells that story. In the aftermath of World War II a family in America established contact with a family in Germany and to help them sent them supplies, including shoes. The German family was extremely grateful and asked if their American friends would help others in Europe. Soon shoe tracings from all over the continent started pouring in to the modest Midwest farm. The network of families helping from the U.S. started to grow so that ultimately hundreds of people on both sides of the Atlantic were touched by this remarkable process.

When Granny Judith asks twelve-year-old Christmas John to row Molly, cook's daughter, across the river from Kentucky to the Free State of Ohio, he's terrified. Bravely, he begins the first of many journeys. Each time he returns, Granny Judith asks what color clothing his passenger wore, for she's had a dream-vision and is making a quilt from squares of these "freedom colors." When there are only two squares left, she tells him, "Dream says we got to get ourselves over the river, 'cause the danger's gonna grow awful."

There is a river called Bok Chitto that cuts through Mississippi. In the days before the War Between the States, in the days before the Trail of Tears, Bok Chitto was a boundary. On one side of the river lived the Choctaws. On the other side lived the plantation owners and their slaves. If a slave escaped and made his way across Bok Chitto, the slave was free.

A bilingual collection of poetry by acclaimed Chicano poet Francisco X. Alarcón celebrating family, community, nature, and the positive power of dreams to shape our future.

It's the hottest, stickiest day of the summer. A fat-sun-in-the-sky day. An eating-ice-pops-on-the-porch day. And for Kishi and Renée, it's a best-friends-breakup day. Each girl sits on her own front porch, waiting for the other to apologize, even though they know they'll never speak to each other again, no matter how bored they get. But then the sounds of feet slapping the pavement and voices chanting double-dutch rhymes drift up the avenue, and neither one can resist going out in the street to play.

Everyone knows that kids from Chinatown don't go to the park when the kids from Little Italy are there. They're rough, they're big, and they don't like Chinese kids. That's okay-Henry doesn't like them, either. But what Henry does like are kites. He loves them. Even more, he loves to help his friend Grandfather Chin make them, and fly them over Chinatown and the park. But when Tony Guglione and his friends from Little Italy keep throwing rocks and destroying their beautiful creations, Henry and his friends decide enough is enough! In this touching story based on true 1920's events, two rival groups of children representing two different cultures come face to face, and when they do, they find they share much more than just the same sky.

The story of Sequoyah is the tale of an ordinary man with an extraordinary idea--to create a writing system for the Cherokee Indians and turn his people into a nation of readers and writers. The task he set for himself was daunting. Sequoyah knew no English and had no idea how to capture speech on paper. But slowly and painstakingly, ignoring the hoots and jibes of his neighbors and friends, he worked out a system that surprised the Cherokee Nation--and the world of the 1820s--with its beauty and simplicity.

It's senior year and Charlotte Locke has just transferred to a new high school. With no friends, a terrible math SAT score, and looming college application deadlines, the future starts to seem like a black hole. Then Amanda enters her orbit like a hot-pink meteor, offering Charlotte a ticket to popularity.

In December 1944, a young Jewish prisoner in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp heard the cries of 46 abandoned children. For the next four months, Luba Tryszynska managed to keep those children alive by providing food, shelter, and warm fires - and a mother's love. Hers is the story of an everyday hero who, faced with an overwhelming evil, inspired courage in her fellow prisoners.

Carlitos' mother is a janitor. Every night, he sleeps while his mother cleans in one of the skyscrapers in downtown L.A. When she comes home, she waves Carlitos off to school before she goes to sleep. One night, his mamá explains that she can't make enough money to support him and his abuelita the way they need unless she makes more money as a janitor. She and the other janitors have decided to go on strike. Will he support her and help her all he can? Of course, Carlitos wants to help but he cannot think of a way until his teacher, Miss Lopez, explains in class how her own grandfather had fought for better wages for farmworkers when he first came to the United States. Finally, Carlitos knows how he can show his mamá how proud he is of her. He and the other children in his class make posters and Carlitos joins the marchers with a very special sign for his mom!

Young Abekenile and all the villagers of Yao feel safe sheltered deep within the jungle. But word has now come that slavers are on their way! Abekenile looks to the women of her tribe: her mother, who comes up with a clever plan to fool the slavers, and a tribal elder, who stays behind to face the slavers, steadfast in her trust that the ancestor-spirits will watch over her. But as the villagers retreat within the forest, it is Abekenile who finds that she too has the bravery and daring to help her people stay safe and free.

A series of poems tells how two sisters help each other deal with life while their mother is working and their father has been sent to jail.

Without the yellow star to point them out, the Jews looked like any other Danes. For centuries, the Star of David was a symbol of Jewish pride. But during World War II, Nazis used the star to segregate and terrorize the Jewish people. Except in Denmark. When Nazi soldiers occupied his country, King Christian X of Denmark committed himself to keeping all Danes safe from harm, and the bravery of the Danes and their king during that dangerous time has inspired many legends. The most enduring is the legend of the yellow star, which symbolizes the loyalty and fearless spirit of the king and his people.

The daughter of a slave forms a gospel singing group and goes on tour to raise money to save Fisk University.

This beautifully designed book tells the story of a little girl named Sophie, who learns that it's okay to be angry. Everybody gets angry sometimes. For children, anger can be very upsetting. Parents, teachers, and children can talk about it. People do lots of different things when they get angry.

Bayard Rustin dedicated his life to helping others--fighting injustices and discriminations--so that people could live as one. Protesting segregation long before there was a civil rights movement, he often was arrested for his beliefs and actions. As a nonviolent activist, Bayard made his mark working alongside many African American leaders, notably A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr. As an organizer, Bayard was largely responsible for bringing people together to walk for freedom and jobs in Washington, D.C., on that memorable summer day, August 28, 1963.

After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on a Mojave Indian reservation, she becomes friends with a local Indian boy.

Can girls play softball? Can girls be school crossing guards? Can girls play basketball or ice hockey or soccer? Can girls become lawyers or doctors or engineers? Of course they can... today. But just a few decades ago, opportunities for girls were far more limited, not because they weren't capable of playing or didn't want to become doctors or lawyers, but because they weren't allowed to. Then quietly, in 1972, something momentous happened: Congress passed a law called "Title IX," forever changing the lives of American girls.

An award-winning author chronicles the story of the women's suffrage movement in America, using compelling period photographs--including some never before published--to illustrate the vivid narrative.

We are the young people, We will not be broken! We demand freedom And say "Away with slavery In our land of Africa!" For almost fifty years apartheid forced the young people of South Africa to live apart as Blacks, Whites, Indians, and "Coloreds."

A war is raging in Afghanistan as a coalition of Western forces tries to oust the Taliban by bombing the country. Parvana's father has died, and her mother, sister and brother have gone to a faraway wedding, not knowing what has happened to the father. Parvana doesn't know where they are. She just knows she has to find them. She sets out alone, masquerading as a boy, her journey becoming more perilous as the bombs begin to fall. Making her way across the desolate Afghan countryside, she meets other children who are strays from the war. The children travel together because it is easier than being alone. And, as they forge their own family in the war zone that Afghanistan has become, their resilience, imagination and luck help them to survive.

Sade is slipping her English book into her schoolbag when her Mama screams. Two sharp cracks splinter the air. "Mama mi?" She whispers Twelve-year-old Sade's journalist father is a vocal critic of the corrupt government in Nigeria. When Sade's mother is murdered, her family sees in bloody detail the violent risks that come with exposing the truth.

Esperanza thought she'd always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico--she'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home, & servants. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When their new life is threatened, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances--Mama's life and her own depend on it.

In November 1960, all of America watched as a tiny six-year-old black girl, surrounded by federal marshals, walked through a mob of screaming segregationists and into her school. An icon of the civil rights movement, Ruby Bridges chronicles each dramatic step of this pivotal event in history through her own words.

"Naima is a talented painter of traditional alpana patterns, which Bangladeshi women and girls paint on their houses for special celebrations. But Naima is not satisfied just painting alpana. She wants to help earn money for her family, like her best friend, Saleem, does for his family. When Naima's rash effort to help puts her family deeper in debt, she draws on her resourceful nature and her talents to bravely save the day. Includes a glossary of Bangla words and an author's note about a changing Bangladesh and microfinance."

The first child born into freedom in Buxton, Ontario, a settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit, Elijah is best known in his hometown as the boy who threw up on Frederick Douglass. Not on purpose, of course he was just a baby then! But things change when a former slave calling himself the Right Reverend Zephariah W. Connerly the Third steals money from Elijah's friend Mr. Leroy, who has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the South.

A poetic tribute to the victims of the racially motivated church bombing that served as a seminal event in the struggle for civil rights.

A riveting account of the civil rights boycott that changed history by the foremost author of history for young people.

1910, Pownal, Vermont. At 12, Grace and her best friend Arthur must leave school and go to work on their mothers looms in the mill. Grace's mother is the best worker, fast and powerful, and Grace desperately wants to help her. But she's left handed and doffing is a right-handed job.

It is 1965, and twelve-year-old Emaline lives on a wheat farm in southern Saskatchewan. Her family has fallen apart. When her beloved dog, Prince, chased a hare into the path of the tractor, she chased after him, and her dad accidentally ran over her leg with the discer, leaving her with a long convalescence and a permanent disability.

In prose poetry and alternating voices, Marlene Carvell weaves a heartbreakingly beautiful story based on the real-life experiences of Native American children. Mattie and Sarah are two Mohawk sisters who are sent to an off-reservation school after the death of their mother. Subject to intimidation and corporal punishment, with little hope of contact with their father, the girls are taught menial tasks to prepare them for life as domestics. How Mattie and Sarah protect their culture, memories of their family life, and their love for each other makes for a powerful, unforgettable historical novel.

There is a lion in our village, and it is carrying away our children. At her father's funeral, Binti's grandmother utters the words that no one in Malawi wants to hear. Binti's father and her mother before him, dies of AIDS.

"Not so long ago and not so far away, people with guns could take a family, burn a house and disappear, leaving a small child alone in the world." So begins the true story of Selavi, a small boy who finds himself on the streets of Haiti. Selavi finds other street children who share their food and a place to sleep with him.

Revised and updated with new information, this Jane Adams award winner is an in-depth examination of the Emmett Till murder case, a catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement. The kidnapping and violent murder of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 was and is a uniquely American tragedy.

In a stunning nonfiction debut, award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson focuses on five immigrants' stories to reveal the triumphs and hardships of early 1900s immigrant life in New York.

Angel Morgan needs help. Daddy is in jail, and Mama has abandoned her and her little brother, leaving them with their great-grandmother. Grandma is aged and poor, and doesn't make any attempt to care for the children--that's left up to Angel, even though she is not yet twelve. The only bright spot in Angel's existence is the Star Man, a mysterious stranger who appears on clear nights and teaches her all about the stars and planets and constellations.

Sun-hee and her older brother, Tae-yul, live in Korea with their parents. Because Korea is under Japanese occupation, the children study Japanese and speak it at school. Their own language, their flag, the folktales Uncle tells them—even their names—are all part of the Korean culture that is now forbidden. When World War II comes to Korea, Sun-hee is surprised that the Japanese expect their Korean subjects to fight on their side. But the greatest shock of all comes when Tae-yul enlists in the Japanese army in an attempt to protect Uncle, who is suspected of aiding the Korean resistance. Sun-hee stays behind, entrusted with the life-and-death secrets of a family at war.

Hey Tara, what's your mother tongue? Questions like this make fifteen-year-old Tara Mehta's blood boil, especially when asked by a teacher who ought to know better. Yes, her parents were raised in India, but Tara has lived in Ottawa her whole life - she's as Canadian as everybody else.

We have a multitude of obstacles to overcome here. We'll begin. When LaVaughn was little, the obstacles in her life didn't seem so bad. If she had a fight with Myrtle or Annie, it would never last long. If she was mad at her mother, they made up by bedtime. School was simple. Boys were buddies. Everything made sense. But LaVaughn is fifteen and the obstacles aren't going away anymore. Big questions separate her from her friends. Her mother is distracted by a new man. School could slip away from her so easily. And the boy who's a miracle in her life acts just as if he's in love with her. Only he's not in love with her.

The Color of My Words explores the pain and poetry of discovering what it means to be part of a family, what it takes to find your voice and the means for it to be heard, and how it feels to write it all down.

The remarkable story of collective and individual acts of bravery and altruism. Photos, map, bibliography, index.

Twelve-year-old Alfa Merryfield, his older sister, and their grandmother struggle for rent money, food, and their dignity as they participate in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott in the summer of 1956.

"[In this] story of a young Ojibwa girl, Omakayas, living on an island in Lake Superior around 1847, Louise Erdrich is reversing the narrative perspective used in most children's stories about nineteenth-century Native Americans. Instead of looking out at 'them' as dangers or curiosities, Erdrich, drawing on her family's history, wants to tell about 'us', from the inside.

By the early 1900s, nearly two million children were working in the United States. From the coal mines of Pennsylvania to the cotton mills of New England, children worked long hours every day under stunningly inhumane conditions. After years and years of oppression, children began to organize and make demands for better wages, fairer housing costs, and safer working environments.