Tag Archives: Families

The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee

Twelve-year-old, special-needs student Candice, who lives in Queensland, Australia, is given a school assignment to write an alphabetical autobiography – one paragraph for each letter. But Candice is different and quirky and she loves the dictionary, so she decides to write a chapter for each letter. She knows herself and she has a lot to say. She tells about her struggling family, her friend Douglas Benson from Another Dimension, her teacher Miss Bamford, her religiously-confused pet fish, and her Rich Uncle Brian. She is on a mission to make everyone in her life happy and to understand her world. Candice is smart, optimistic, endearing, and self-diagnosed as weird. This first-person narrative is wonderfully funny and thought-provoking. mjw

Title: The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee
Author: Barry Jonsberg
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Copyright: 2014
Original Language: English
Original Title: My Life As The Alphabet
Original Publisher: Allen and Unwin, Australia
Original Copyright: 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4521-3351-5
Hardcover pages: 242
Age range: 10-13
Genre: Fiction
Book setting: Albright, Queensland, Australia
Author’s ethnicity: English
Author’s residence: Darwin, Australia
Awards: 2014 Children’s Book Council of Australia Honor Book, 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Children’s Fiction Awards Shortlist
Subjects: Australia, Autism, Families, Friendship, Parents

Cowgirl

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Gemma is a young teenager, who lives in a sad, run-down Welsh community named Bryn Mawr, where burglaries and muggings are common. Her dad is in prison and her mum has lost hope. Kate, the legendary Cowgirl, who lives out-of-town on her father’s dairy farm, is the school outcast. Gemma and Kate are thrown into an odd friendship. When Gemma learns that Kate’s beloved cows are due to be slaughtered, she concocts an unexpected plan, with the help of her no-nonsense grandmother, that changes the whole community. This refreshing and uplifting story is about everyone peacefully working together toward a common goal. mjw

Title: Cowgirl
Author: G.R Gemin
Publisher: Nosy Crow Ltd., London, England
Copyright: 2014
Original Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-85763-281-4
Paperback pages: 261
Age range: 9 up
Genre: Fiction
Book setting: South Wales
Author’s ethnicity: Welsh and Italian
Author’s residence: London and Italy
Awards: 2015 Carnegie Medal Nomination, 2015 UKLA Book Awards long list, 2015 Tir na n-Og Award (Welsh Book Council)
Subjects: Community, Cows, Dairy farming, Flute, Grandmothers, Hinduism, School, South Wales

Anna Hibiscus

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Anna Hibiscus (probably six-years-old) lives in Africa. Amazing Africa. She lives in an unnamed West African city with her extended family, which is so big that she cannot count them all. This is the traditional way in Africa. Yet her family is modern and interconnected. They text, e-mail, and travel internationally. Each of the four chapters tells a complete story. Anna vacations with her family; awaits the visit of Auntie Comfort, who lives in Canada; sells oranges on the street and learns an important lesson; and finds ice shavings in the freezer and is invited to spend Christmas in Canada where there is real snow. Sweet, black-and-white drawings provide fascinating details of African life and match the rhythm of the text. Contemporary urban African stories to share with young children are hard to find. Cheerful, humorous, and interesting, this story is the first in a series that offers a much-welcomed glimpse of this culture. The author and illustrator team has also created two brilliant picture books about Anna, mjw

Title: Anna Hibiscus
Author: Atinuke
Illustrator: Lauren Tobia
Publisher: Kane Miller, A division of EDC Publishing, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Copyright: 2010
Original Language: English
Original Publisher: Walker Books Ltd., London
Original Copyright: 2007
ISBN: 978-1-935279-73-0
Paperback pages: 112
Age range: 5-9
Genre: Chapter book, fiction
Book setting: Africa
Author’s ethnicity: Nigerian
Author’s residence: Wales
Illustrator’s ethnicity: British
Illustrator’s residence: England
Awards: 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award
Subjects: African culture, City and town life, Family life, Multi-generational, Nigeria, Responsibility, West Africa

Dance of the Banished

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Teenagers Zeynep and Ali, who live in the village of Harput in Anatolia and plan to marry, are separated in June of 1913. Ali finds passage to Canada in search of a better life, but when World War I breaks out, he is declared an enemy alien and sent to an internment camp. Zeynep is left behind to work in a hospital, where she is faced with the horrors of war, revolution, and genocide. Each writes a journal for the other. Ali writes a chronicle of life in an internment camp in Kapuckasing, Ontario. Zeynep writes an eyewitness account of the Armenian genocide from the point of view of the Alevi Kurds. They are always in each other’s thoughts and are finally reunited in August of 1916. Based on true events, this well-researched story of love, hope, and tenacity to survive includes maps, an Author’s Note, and archival photographs of Kapuskasing Internment Camp, circa 1915. mjw

Title: Dance of the Banished
Author: Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Publisher: Pajama Press, Canada
Copyright: 2014
Original Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-927485-65-1
Paperback pages: 234
Age range: 12 up
Genre: Historical fiction
Book setting: Anatolia, Turkey; Canada
Author’s ethnicity: Canadian and Ukrainian
Author’s residence: Ontario, Canada
Awards: 2008 Order of Princess Olha, Ukraine. Appointed to Canada’s First World War Internment Recognition Endowment Council
Subjects: Canadian history, Emigration, Immigration, Internment camps, Prejudice, Racism, World War I

To The Top End: Our Trip Across Australia

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Explore some of the most spectacular landscapes of Australia in this exciting adventure, told in the voice of the traveling kids. Start on the island of Tasmania with Tassie Devils and wombats. Travel on the ferry across Bass Strait to the Mainland, and then romp through the High Plains to the winding Murray River of the Riverland. Bike into the Flinders Ranges and fly in a homemade aeroplane over the Great Sandy Desert. Next, see dolphins, clownfish, and turtles in the cooling waters of the Great Barrier Reef and watch Uncle Kev eat green ants in the Daintree Rainforest Wilderness. And finally, sit down to a campfire feast on the coastal marshes of the Top End. Curly text that follows the landforms and funny detailed watercolor and ink drawings are packed with Aussie flora and fauna and hilarious visual and verbal jokes. Look for a soccer ball on each page and a map that highlights the trip on the endpapers. mjw

Title: To The Top End: Our Trip Across Australia
Author: Roland Harvey
Illustrator: Roland Harvey
Publisher: Allen and Unwin, Australia
Copyright: 2009
Original Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-74175-884-9
Hardcover pages: 32
Age range: 6-9
Genre: Picture book
Book setting: Australia
Author’s ethnicity: Australian
Author’s residence: Melbourne, Australia
Illustrator’s ethnicity: Australian
Illustrator’s residence: Melbourne, Australia
Awards: 2010 Children’s Book Council of Australia Short List
Subjects: Australia, Birds, Culture, Families, Geography, Maps, Oceania, Sea life, Travel, Vacation

Wanting Mor

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Jameela, a young Islamic girl who has a cleft lip, lives with her mother and father in a war-torn village in Afghanistan. When her beloved mother, Mor, dies suddenly, her father takes Jameela with him to Kabul to seek a new life. He turns to drugs and alcohol and marries a new wife who treats Jameela like a slave and urges him to abandon Jameela in Kabul’s busy marketplace. Through the kindness of strangers, Jameela is placed in an orphanage, where she goes to school, learns the power of an education, and has surgery on her deformed lip. This, together with her strong faith and memories of her mother, allows her to turn her life around. This touching story, rich in cultural content, is set in 2001 and is based on real incidents. The many Pushto and Arabic words in Jameela’s first-person narrative are explained in a helpful glossary. The author has a teaching guide and book talk/tutorial for this book on her website at http://www.rukhsanakhan.com mjw

Title: Wanting Mor
Author: Rukhsana Khan
Publisher: Groundwood Books
Copyright: 2010
Original Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-88899-862-0
Paperback pages: 192
Age range: 10-14
Genre: Fiction
Book setting: Kandahar, Kabul, Afghanistan
Author’s ethnicity: Pakistani
Author’s residence: Toronto, Canada
Awards: 2009 Middle East Book Award, 2010 United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) Outstanding International Books List
Subjects: Afghanistan, City and town life, Disabilities, Girls, Muslims, Orphanages, Taliban

My Father’s Arms Are A Boat

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A young boy, grieving and unable to sleep, crawls up into his father’s arms on a cold night. They talk about cutting down the spruce tree, if the red birds will get the bread he left for them, and why his mother will never wake up again. The boy finds truth in nature, his father’s love, and a warm fire. The writing in this tender story is expressive and poetic and the 3-D paper sculpture and ink illustrations are striking. Most of the images are black, white, and gray, with red birds and an orange fox. mjw

Title: My Father’s Arms Are A Boat
Author: Stein Erik Lunde
Illustrator: Oyvind Torseter
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books, Brooklyn, New York
Copyright: 2012
Original Language: Norwegian
Translator: Kari Dickson
Original Title: Eg Kan Ikkje Sove No
Original Publisher: Det Norske Samlaget
Original Copyright: 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59270-124-7
Hardcover pages: 40
Age range: 6 up
Genre: Picture book
Book setting: Scandinavia
Author’s ethnicity: Norwegian
Author’s residence: Norway
Illustrator’s ethnicity: Norwegian
Illustrator’s residence: Norway
Awards: 2014 Mildred L. Batchelder Honor, 2009 Norwegian Ministry’s Culture Prize for the Best Book for Children and Youth
Subjects: Death and dying, Fathers, Emotions and feelings, Sons

The Fastest Boy in the World

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Eleven-year-old Solomon loves to run and dreams of seeing his heroes, the 2012 London Olympics gold-medal-winning Ethiopian running team. He cannot believe it when his grandfather announces that he is going to take Solomon to Addis Ababa on the day of the team’s victory parade. On their visit, Solomon learns that his grandfather was a famous runner and also that he was a war hero who risked his life to save a friend. When his grandfather collapses, Solomon has to run the twenty miles from the city to his village for help. This easy-to-read, short novel, with black-and-white ink drawings, introduces young readers to a setting that is very different from the Western world. mjw

Title: The Fastest Boy in the World
Author: Elizabeth Laird
Illustrator: Peter Bailey
Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books, London
Copyright: 2014
Original Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-4472-6717-1
Paperback pages: 163
Age range: 7 up
Genre: Fiction
Book setting: Addis Ababa and Kidame, Ethiopia
Author’s ethnicity: British (born in New Zealand)
Author’s residence: U.K.
Illustrator’s ethnicity: British (born in India)
Illustrator’s residence: U.K.
Awards: 2015 Carnegie Medal nominee. Author has been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal five times
Subjects: Addis Ababa, Athletes, Ethiopia, Grandfathers, Olympics (London 2012), Running, Sports, Success

Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin

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Young Hana has signed up to play her violin in her school’s talent show, but she has only had three lessons. Her brothers tease her and suggest that she will be a disaster. Hana remembers her visit to her grandfather, Ojiichan, in Japan. He played Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Bach on his violin in the symphony orchestra in Kyoto. He also played songs about crows cawing, crickets chirping, and raindrops falling on oil-paper umbrellas. On the day of Hana’s performance, she plays her best (gambarunoyo) and surprises everyone – even herself. The beautiful illustrations, rendered in pencil and colored digitally, weave in special details and scenes from Japan. Music notes float through the air in this delightful story about determination and the importance of music. mjw

Title: Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin
Author: Chieri Uegaki
Illustrator: Qin Leng
Publisher: Kids Can Press Ltd., Toronto
Copyright: 2014
Original Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-894786-33-1
Hardcover pages: 32
Age range: 4-8
Genre: Picture book
Author’s ethnicity: Japanese
Author’s residence: Canada
Illustrator’s ethnicity: Chinese
Illustrator’s residence: Canada
Awards: 2015 USBBY Outstanding International Books Grades PreK-2, 2015 Ezra Jack Keats Book Award
Subjects: Creativity, Grandfathers, Japan, Language, Music, Perseverance, Talent shows, Stage fright, Violin

The Children of the King

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Just prior to the London Blitz, siblings fourteen-year-old Jeremy and twelve-year-old Cecily, along with their mother, are being evacuated northwards to their Uncle Peregrine’s Lancastrian mansion. Jeremy is angry because he wants to stay in London with his father to help the war effort. Cecily is spoiled and selfish, but somewhat likable. On the way, they pick up a younger, lower-class evacuee named May Bright who is thoughtful, tough, and wise beyond her years. Author Sonya Hartnett is a master of magical realism and of telling a story within a story. After dinner, Uncle Peregrine tells a tale related to the nearby ruined Snow Castle where the children have encountered two brothers (ghosts?), dressed in velvet jackets, who speak of spies. The tale is recognizable as the story of Richard III and his nephews, the Princes in the Tower. This complex and introspective narrative is beautifully written and reminiscent of C.S. Lewis. mjw

Title: The Children of the King
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Publisher: Candlewick Press, Somerville, Massachusetts
Copyright: 2014
Original Language: English
Original Publisher: Penguin, Australia
Original Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6735-1
Hardcover pages: 272
Age range: 10 up
Genre: Historical fiction
Book setting: English Countryside, north of London
Author’s ethnicity: Australian
Author’s residence: Australia
Awards: 2008 Astrid Lindgren Award
Subjects: Adventure, Bravery, Death, Duty, England, Evacuation, Great Britain, Nobility, Power, World War II

Malala Yousafzai: Warrior With Words

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When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, fifteen-year-old Malala spoke out. She began writing and speaking to everyone who would listen about her right to an education. She wanted to prove that peaceful words have power over violence. The Taliban responded by shooting her in the head as she sat in her school bus. She recovered with no injury to her brain. In 2012, she spoke at the United Nations on her sixteenth birthday and took her message – “Every child. Every country. Free school” – around the world. The author highlights Malala’s bright personality, her favorite color pink, and her love of books. Detailed cut-paper and photograph collage illustrations provide texture and color. Back matter includes important facts about Pakistan, a map, Internet resources on Pakistan, and information about the Malala Fund, the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up program, and other organizations where we can all work together to make girls’ education a true priority. This is an inspiring book for kids, but older readers will want to read Malala’s own story in I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, Little Brown and Company, 2013. On November 10, 2014, Malala was awarded the Nobel Prize. mjw

Title: Malala Yousafzai: Warrior With Words
Author: Karen Leggett Abouraya
Illustrator: L.C. Wheatley
Publisher: Star Walk Kids Media, New York
Copyright: 2014
Original Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-63083-316-9
Paperback pages: 36
Age range: 8-11
Genre: Nonfiction picture book
Book setting: Pakistan
Author’s ethnicity: American
Author’s residence: U.S.
Subjects: Biography, Education, Girls, History, Muslim teenagers, Pakistan, Taliban

Emil and the Detectives

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Young schoolboy, Emil Tischbein (Tabletoe in this translation) is excited about his first train ride alone. Pinned into his pocket is the money that he is taking to his grandmother. While Emil is asleep on the train, a mysterious man in a bowler hat steals the money and disappears. With the help of a local boy named Gustav (Gus) and a gang of young detectives, Emil tracks the clever thief through Berlin. The robber is finally arrested and Emil receives a reward of 100 marks. When asked what the moral of the story is, Emil’s grandmother replies “Don’t send cash – use traveler’s checks!” Eighteen delightful black-and-white illustrations make this tale of loyalty, courage, and teamwork come alive. This is Kastner’s best-known work and it is the only one of his pre-1945 books to escape Nazi burning. It has been translated into 59 languages. This edition, the third English translation, provides modernized, colloquial American slang. The story has been filmed several times, including a 1964 Disney adaptation. mjw

Title: Emil and the Detectives: A Novel for Children
Author: Erich Kastner
Illustrator: Walter Trier
Introduction: Maurice Sendak
Publisher: The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, New York
Copyright: 2014
Original Language: German
Translator: W. Martin
Original Title: Emil und die Detektive
Original Publisher: Williams and Co. Verlag, Berlin
Original Copyright: 1929
ISBN: 978-1-4683-0829-7
Paperback pages: 159
Age range: 8 up
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Book setting: Berlin
Author’s ethnicity: German
Author’s residence: Germany
Illustrator’s ethnicity: German
Illustrator’s residence: Germany
Translator’s residence: Chicago and Berlin
Awards: 1960 Hans Christian Andersen Award, 1968 Mildred L. Batchelder Award
Subjects: Berlin, Boys, Detectives, Germany, Mothers and sons, Mysteries, Robbers