This New York Times bestseller recounts the true story of the touching gift bestowed on the US by the Maasai people in the wake of the September 11 attacks. In June of 2002, a mere nine months since the September 11 attacks, a very unusual ceremony begins in a far-flung village in western Kenya. An American diplomat is surrounded by hundreds of Maasai people. A gift is about to be bestowed upon th ...

Curriculum Connections: Historical fiction, based on true events, biographical account; Susan B Anthony, point of view; Bessie Keith Pond- young girl main character, Story elements: setting; Berkley, California- 1896, Plot and character development, illustrations enhance meaning and tone, Conflict: man vs man, man vs society. Comprehension strategies; cause and effect relationships, author's purpo ...

Text and illustration combine to provide an engaging look at the characteristics and causes of blizzards.

A beautiful and lushly illustrated story of family, remembrance, and resiliency told entirely in dialogue between a grandfather and he is granddaughter. Unforgettable!

How does a man decide to ignore life-threatening consequences in order to attempt the rescue of others? When a hurricane batters and breaks not one tanker, but two in half the same night, it leaves 84 seaman at its mercy. Survival is against all odds, and this story's authors pay relentless attention to detail and perspective that places readers in the midst of split-second decisions that risk eve ...

The fast-paced story captures the desperation some families experienced when the Berlin Wall was erected. As the protagonist and her brother face critical decisions, readers will explore their own thinking and possible choices given the story's extraordinary circumstances. The result is a reading-based thrill ride.

A young Jewish boy recalls life in Hitler's Germany. Although Daniel is a fictitious character, his story was inspired by the real experiences of many of the more than one million children who died in the Holocaust.

A poem cycle that reads as a novel, this Newbery Medal winner tells the story of Billie Jo, a girl who struggles to help her family survive the dust bowl years of the Depression.

Little Charlie is but a 12-year-old sharecropper’s son. When his father dies, Charlie is bribed to join a cruel slave catcher on a mission to Dee-troit for two runaways. The journey is bitter, and the Cap’n he accompanies is evil, lying to everyone along the way. Charlie desperately needs the money but does not trust the Cap’n. On his journey Charlie learns of the brutal punishments for slav ...

Time travel enables an intergenerational friendship (and interesting family relationship) that will ultimately change both boys beyond their on-stage experiences. A beautiful story that celebrates family and grit! Note: “fart|farting” is used in describing a dog

Bell Kirby is an expert at systems, whether he’s designing the world’s most elaborate habitat for his pet chinchilla, re-creating Leonardo da Vinci’s greatest inventions in his garage, or avoiding Parker Hellickson, the most diabolical bully Village Green Elementary has ever seen. Since third grade, Parker has tormented Bell, who’s spent two long years devising a finely tuned system that k ...

On August 6 each year the people of Hiroshima, Japan, set paper lanterns afloat in the river as a remembrance to those killed by the bomb dropped there in 1945. Three school children, Kozo, Shun, and Nozomi are budding artists challenged by their teachers to create a display the children choose to call Hiroshima: Then and Now for their families and classmates. Over the summer they ask friends and ...

Snow Hill, Alabama 1937 sets the stage for conveying important complexities Brother, a privileged white boy experiences when befriending Champion Always Luckey, a black boy from Detroit. While the plot isn't necessarily compelling, the power of healing a racial divide is as portrayed here. An excellent springboard for timelining events of that period.

The author of the critically acclaimed SO FAR FROM THE BAMBOO GROVE continues her autobiography, describing the hardships, poverty, tragedies, and struggles of life for her and her two older siblings, living as refugees in post-World War II Japan.

Between 1854 and 1930, more than 200,000 orphaned or abandoned children were sent west on orphan trains. Warren alternates chapters about the history of the orphan trains with the story of Lee Nailling, who in 1926 rode an orphan train to Texas. Photos.

Call Across the Sea tells of Henny Sinding, a Danish girl who grew up piloting her father’s delivery boat across the inlet to the Baltic Sea. During the increasing NAZI occupation of 1943, she evades soldiers and distributes forbidden news while fearing for her Jewish neighbors. All of her skills and her courage will be needed to spirit Jewish families safely across the sea to Sweden. Her ingenu ...

This sweet story shows the compassion of one man and the impact small acts of kindness can have on an entire city. This book is full of photos from the pilot’s life and scanned letters written by himself and the children who adored him giving an excellent first hand account of the events. Readers are left teary eyed at the big and small sacrifices others were willing to make just so someone else ...

Miriam, a young Jewish girl, is forced to leave her parents and hide with strangers in the country during the German occupation of Holland.