Frustrated by his life of near-poverty and the unreliability of his divorced, drunken father, thirteen-year-old Scott throws himself into a science project raising clams to restock the bay of his Maine village....
A single parent is suddenly called to serve in the Persian Gulf War.In early August 1990, eleven-year-old Jasmyn Williams is shocked when her mother, a member of the Army Reserve, is called to active service. Within thirty-six hours, she is gone. Jas...
Junebug is set to leave all his old problems behind when his family moves from the projects to a better neighborhood. But new problems crop up when he runs into school bullies and has trouble making new friends. His younger sister, Tasha, quickly fit...
"Best friend macaws Billy and Emma share a cage at the zoo . . . A simple, appealing animal story and language well-suited to beginning readers. Hale's bright, cartoonish watercolors emphasize the birds' beauty and personalities, as well as the d...
Junebug hasn't seen his friend Robert since the family moved from their housing project in May. It's Labor Day weekend, reunion time, and Mama, Tasha, Harriet, and Junebug are off to the beach. Robert is there, but so is Trevor, another boy from the ...
"An artfully told story . . . The history, the land, and the determination of a band of refugees to care for each other are vividly evoked in this important work." -- Starred review, Kirkus ReviewsIn the dry spring of 1999, eleven-year-old Stephen Ma...
The story of a girl whose mother has a chronic illnessBeanie's mom used to be a lot of fun. She still is, when she pretends to be the amazing fortune-teller, Madame Squidley. But Beanie knows it's a strain. Mrs. Kingsley has been sick for months, and...
The quandary of the illegal immigrant
Linda Berati, an eighth grader in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, knows that her parents are Albanian and her little sister American. But what is she? And how did she get to New York? Her parents evade her questions,...
"I won't share 'cuz it's not fair!" is nine-year-old Isabella Speedwalker-Juarez's motto. It's all because she's stuck in a room with her toddler brother, Dozer. Mom says Izzy has to adapt to Granny's tiny trailer,...
For as long as thirteen-year-old Azad can remember, the Islamic Republic of Iran, where he lives in the predominantly Kurdish town of Sardasht, has been at war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and his country has been a harsh society full of spies, secret...
Rayanne Sunipass has grown up on Two Rivers Island in Maine. That is where the Penobscot, the People of the Dawn, have always lived. Then when Ray is nine, her father leaves the family. Soon after, Ray and her mother must move away, to a town off the...
Alice Mead is the author of many notable books about children displaced by modern wars: Girl of Kosovo, Dawn and Dusk, plus award-winner, Junebug. Here she tells the story of Tutsi orphan trapped outside the border of Rwanda in 1993. With Neema's Lit...
Fourteen-year old Adem, an Albanian boy, lives in Serb-occupied Kosovo. Adem hates existing in a constant state of terror. Every week, friends and family are beaten, teargassed, and killed. The Albanians are helpless, and even passive resistance can ...
A child's perspective on war. In 1998 the Serb military intensifies its efforts to expel Albanians from Kosovo. Ethnic cleansing forces many families to seek safety in the surrounding hills and mountains. The Kosovo Liberation Army fights back guerri...