When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

Written by: Judith Kerr

Upper Elementary and Junior High Grades

"Nine-year-old Anna was too busy with schoolwork and friends in 1933 to take much notice of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in her native Germany. But when her father is suddenly, unaccountably missing, and her family flees Berlin in secrecy, Anna is forced to learn the skills needed to be a refugee and finds she's much more resilient than she thought."

Product Description

Online Resources:
http://www.remember.org/educate/moretta.html

My Place

My Place

Written by: Nadia Wheatley & Donna Rawlins

Elementary Grades

"My Place is a wonderfully intimate history of Australia starting in 1988 and going back 200 years to 1788. Young readers learn its history by being told the story of one particular place by the generations of Australian children who have lived there. Rich in detail, with maps that the successive generations of children have draw, My place could completely occupy a child (or an entire class of children). Nadia Wheatly is an historian and in collaboration with illustrator Donna Rawlins have successfully combined their mutual curiosity about the past to show the story of Australia as seen by children."

Publishers Description

Online Resources:
http://kcac.kennesaw.edu/classroom_resources/Xhullender.html

A Single Shard

A Single Shard

Written by: Linda Sue Park

Upper Elementary and Junior High Grades

"Set in 12th century Korea, this is the story of Tree-ear who lives under a bridge with his disabled older friend Crane-man. Tree-ear becomes fascinated with the potter's craft and longs to create celadon ceramics. However pottery is a trade passed on from father to son and Tree-ear is an orphan. He works long and hard hoping to become an apprentice."

Publishers Description

Online Resources:
http://eduscapes.com/newbery/02a.htm

Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain

Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain

Written by: Li Keng Wong

Junior High and High School Grades

"An elementary school teacher for 35 years tells about her family's journey to America, their interrogation at Angel Island, and the difficult life they faced in Oakland, CA, where her father ran an illegal lottery business. Paw Paw worked in Gold Mountain and sent money home. One day, the author, her two sisters, and their mother received a letter announcing that they would be returning with him after his next visit. The family studied the papers that he sent to prepare them for the difficult questions they would be asked upon their arrival. Particularly worrisome was the fact that Paw Paw wasn't allowed to bring his wife to America, so she would be posing as his sister. This memoir clearly shows the hardships, sacrifices, and eventual successes of the Chinese families who came to America during the Depression."

School Library Journal Review

Online Resources:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/asian-american/angel_island/

Tap Dancing on the Roof

Tap Dancing on the Roof
*2010-2011 Texas Bluebonnet Award*

Written by: Linda Sue Park
Illustrated by: Istavan Banyai

Elementary Grades

"A sijo, a traditional Korean verse form, has a fixed number of stressed syllables and a humorous or ironic twist at the end. Like haiku, sijo are brief and accessible, and the witty last line winds up each poem with a surprise. The verses in this book illuminate funny, unexpected, amazing aspects of the everyday--of breakfast, thunder and lightning, houseplants, tennis, freshly laundered socks. Carefully crafted and deceptively simple, Linda Sue Park's sijo are a pleasure to read and an irresistible invitation to experiment with an unfamiliar poetic form. Istvan Banyai's irrepressibly giddy and sophisticated illustrations add a one-of-a-kind luster to a book that is truly a gem."

Publishers Description

Online Resources:
http://suzyred.com/2010_Tap_Dancing_on_the_Roof.html

Sparrow Girl

Sparrow Girl

*2010-2011 Texas Bluebonnet Award*

Written by: Sara Pennypacker
Illustrated by: Yoko Tanaka

Elementary Grades

"Ming-Li looked up and tried to imagine the sky silent, empty of birds. It was a terrible thought. Her country's leader had called sparrows the enemy of the farmers--they were eating too much grain, he said. He announced a great "Sparrow War" to banish them from China, but Ming-Li did not want to chase the birds away.

As the people of her village gathered with firecrackers and gongs to scatter the sparrows, Ming-Li held her ears and watched in dismay. The birds were falling from the trees, frightened to death! Ming-Li knew she had to do something--even if she couldn't stop the noise. Quietly, she vowed to save as many sparrows as she could, one by one..."

Publishers Synopsis

Online Resources:
http://suzyred.com/2010_Sparrow_Girl.html
http://www.sarapennypacker.com/pennypacker-sparrow.htm

City Boy

City Boy

Written by: Jan Michael

Upper Elementary and Junior High Grades

"Samuel Sangala has grown up in urban areas in Malawi. His parents wanted nothing to do with those “ignorant” people in the bush, and they never returned to the rural valley where their families live. But after both his father and his beloved mother die of the “The Disease” (AIDS), Sam has to move to his aunt’s small, dark hut in a country village, where there is no electricity and no computer, and he is expected to share his stuff with his cousins. Readers will recognize from the start that Sam will eventually find a way to feel at home in his new community, but that predictability doesn’t detract from the story, which remains true to his viewpoint and shows, without condescension or sentimentality, the wrenching upheaval, the ravages of AIDS, and Samuel’s grief. Even as he longs for the technology he learned to rely on, he also recognizes that his parents lost a lot when they broke from their roots. Above all, he learns that the definition of “family” encompasses more than just relatives."

Booklist Review

Online Resources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/africa_malawi_village/html/1.stm