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New Children's Books |
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Ella May lives on a plantation but she doesn’t
live in the great house. She is a slave. It’s
dark in the morning when Ella May heads to the
fields to pick cotton. And it’s sunset when she
comes home. But her day isn’t done, not yet.
Ella May still has important work to do. She’s
got to listen. Each night Ella May and her
friends, Bobby and Sue, listen outside the
windows of their master’s house. Acting as the
ears of their families, the children listen in
the hopes of gleaning information about their
fates and those of their loved ones. Who will be
sold? Who will stay? What is happening in the
rest of the country? The lives of slaves
depended on the whims and inclinations of their
owners. They had no control over the
circumstances of their daily lives or futures.
But they could dream. And when the promise of
freedom is spoken a, the children are the first
to hear it.
Eight-year-old Zulviya, her sister and her
cousin, her mother and her grandmother, and
their mothers and grandmothers before them…they
all belong to the loom. For generations the
women of Zulviya’s family have earned their
living by weaving rugs by hand. The rugs are
beautiful and valuable, and the women are proud
of their handiwork. But the work is hard. The
wool must be scrubbed clean, carded between wire
combs, and spun into thread, which must be dyed.
Once on the loom, the work is even more
laborious. It takes months to weave a rug, each
one of which contains hundreds of thousands of
knots. Before one workday has passed, Zulviya
will tie thousands of knots. As she sits at her
work, Zulviya weaves not one but two patterns.
She weaves a second pattern in her mind. There
she sees the green of the Afghani hills, the
bright blue of the nearby lake, and the vivid
orange of the setting sun. And Zulviya takes
comfort in the landscape in her mind. The
sights, sounds, and vibrant spirit of the
Turkoman people come alive in this story of one
day in the life of a young girl in Afghanistan.
It's the year 1900, the dawn of a new century for Verna and Carlie, whose mother died two years ago. They are headed to their new home-the grounds of an asylum for the mentally ill. Their father, a doctor, has been hired to treat its patients while the girls are under the strict and watchful eye of their aunt Maude. The towering asylum, the murmuring patients with their tormented pasts, the exquisite locked garden at the center of the grounds-Verna perceives forbidden mystery and enchantment everywhere. Even Aunt Maude's temper will not keep her from striking out on her own exciting adventures. But is Verna ready to confront all the secrets and emotions that have been locked within-even those of her own heart?
"When her father, a
well-known psychiatrist, accepts a position at a remote asylum in
northern Michigan, Verna is reluctant to leave their home, which holds
happy memories of her mother, who died two years earlier in 1898. Once
settled into their cozy new house on the asylum grounds, though, Verna
and her younger sister welcome their new life, particularly after the
arrival of their young maid, Eleanor. Although she is a melancholia
patient, Eleanor brings a warmth that contrasts sharply with the girls’
guardian, Aunt Maude, who can be “as menacing as a hornet’s nest.”
Tensions rise as Aunt Maude grows furiously jealous of the affection
Eleanor shares with the girls, who, in turn, plot to send Maude packing.
Descriptions of the sprawling, grand asylum and its mysteriously locked
wings may lead readers to suppose that they’ve begun a gothic novel.
They’ll quickly realize, though, that the evocative setting is a
backdrop to the sensitive, sometimes comedic family story filled with
character lessons for Verna and compassionate questions about mental
illness and its treatment."
"Peter Liebig can't wait
for summer. He's tired of classrooms, teachers, and the endless lectures
about the horrible Nazis. The war has been over for ten years, and
besides, his town of Rolfen, West Germany, has moved on nicely. Despite
its bombed-out church, it looks just as calm and pretty as ever. There
is money to be made at the beach, and there are whole days to spend with
Father at his job. And of course, there's soccer. Plenty for a
thirteen-year-old boy to look forward to. But when Peter stumbles across
a letter he was never meant to see, he unravels a troubling secret. Soon
he questions everything --- the town's peaceful nature, his parents'
stories about the war, and his own sense of belonging."
"When the police break
into Silvia's home in Buenos Aires in 1976 and drag her beloved older
brother, Eduardo, 17, to prison, Silvia is willing to risk anything to
save him, even dating the powerful general's son, Norberto. She dreads
the idea that Eduardo will become one of los Desaparecidos (the
Disappeared) prisoners who are never seen again. For his part, Eduardo
endures torture and worries that Silvia will also be arrested. In terse,
alternating present-tense narratives, the siblings talk to one another
and reveal their secret thoughts. Most moving are their family
memories....readers will be held by the recent history -- many of the
victims are still Disappeared -- and the teen voices personalize the
political cruelty and courage."
"Gr 7-10 - A story set in
Buenos Aires in the late 1970s. Despite its peaceful facade, Argentina
is rife with guerrilla warfare and run by malevolent generals. Told in
alternating chapters by two teenage siblings, the novel relates how one
young person decides to stand up for his political beliefs and ideals
.... The deftly handled voices of Silvia and Eduardo follow the
well-intentioned, but often grievous, mistakes of youth. Their
compelling tale is a chilling account of the manipulative power of
corruption."
"Part of the Tales of the
World fiction series, this picture book draws on seventeenth-century
Japanese history, traditional art, and haiku poetry to tell the story of
a young child on a 300-mile journey between the cities of Kyoto and Edo
(modern-day Tokyo). Yuki hates leaving her home in Kyoto, but when the
emperor summons her father, she and her mother must go, too, accompanied
by more than 1,000 carriers, Award-winning illustrator, Nascimbene stays
true to Yuki's childish perspective as she follows the family's journey
along the narrow path over the mountains and along the river and the
sea. Accompanying the simple prose narrative, are haiku, one or more on
each double-page spread, that express intense feelings in clear, casual
words: "Once outside the gate/ how will I find my way back? / Will home
disappear?" Children will recognize Yuki's longing, and then her joy
when she's able to stop looking back."
"...As Yuki's haiku acknowledge changes in the weather, the
topography, and her own moods, Yan Nascimbene's delicate watercolor
illustrations give readers visual images of the scenery, the inns and
villages on the route, and the long, long, line of carriers walking
ahead of her. ...The artist's flat washes and outlined shapes suggest
something of Hiroshige's woodcuts. The original art in Yuki won Nascimbe
a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators."
A PARADE OF SHADOWS tells one story and one lesson. It's 1907 and Julia Hamilton has talked her father into letting her accompany him on a secret mission for England's Foreign Service. They will journey to the Middle East: to Istanbul, Damascus, Palmyra and Alexandretta. Traveling with them is a young man from Oxford who supports the young Turks' efforts to overthrow the Sultan and his Ottoman Empire, a Turkish guide in the pay of the Sultan, a Frenchman who wished to acquire for France more than antiquities and a botanist whose collecting hides the biggest secret of all. There are sandstorms, travel of the Orient Express, Druse and Dervishes, a romance, a betrayal and a poisoning. There is also a lesson. You can trace today's headlines and much of today's violence in the Middle East to that time when greedy nations set out to grab for themselves their own bit of land. Turning the pages of a 1906 Baedeker's travel guide to Palestine and Syria I longed to joint those intrepid travelers. I used A PARADE OF SHADOWS to write my way there and to let others make the trip with me. When I set out I knew it would be an adventure. I didn't know it would be a lesson.
"Delivering a serious
indictment of European colonialism, Whelan supplies within her tale the
requisite background information to allow readers to sort through the
player' competing interests. Most importantly, she carries it off with a
whirl of intrigues, betrayals, attempted murder and of course, romance
that should render teen readers oblivious to the fact that they're also
getting a crash course in Middle Eastern history."
"This satisfying read
is a romantic adventure in the best tradition by a master of such
stories."
"Though it's an area
of the world with much history and culture, Julia's early concerns are
over what to pack and where she will wash her hair in the desert. The
carefree and romantic trip she had imagined turns into a life-changing
experience in a region in turmoil, with snakebites, a murder attempt,
spies, revolutionaries, conspiracy and passion. This engaging tale of
the Ottoman Empire prior to World War I teaches much history, mostly
through dialogue, and has clear historical lessons for today's readers
about greed and meddling in cultures without understanding them."
Yatandou lives in a Mali village with her family and neighbors. It is dry and dusty; the red sand is everywhere. And though she is only eight years old and would much rather play with her friend, Yantandou must sit with the women from her village and pound millet kernels. To grind enough millet for one day's food, the women must pound the kernels with their pounding sticks for three hours. It is hard work, especially when one is eight years old. As they work the women dream - they dream of a wonderful machine that can grind the millet and free them from their pounding sticks. But the machine will only come when the women have raised enough money to buy it. Yantandou must help raise money, even if it means parting with something she holds dear. Illustrations are by Peter Sylvada whose A SYMPHONY OF WHALES was named a 1999 New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book.
"Yatandou, the
eight-year-old narrator of this lyrical first volume in the Tales of the
World series, spends long days at work in her village in Mali. As she
pounds millet kernels with a stick, she daydreams about going to school,
where she might 'learn book secrets like my brother did' and about the
day the village women save up enough money to buy a machine to grind the
millet....The text is set on a rich brick-colored background that evokes
the ever-present sand ('the desert lives with us,' says Yatandou) and
that successfully counterpoints the luminosity of Sylvada's
impressionistic paintings."
"Sylvada's breathtaking
artwork, paired with Whelan's vivid, poetic prose, intensifies the
immediacy and emotion of Yatandou's first-person narrative and her
selfless, heartrending sacrifice."
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