A fictionalized biography of a heroic young man born into slavery in 1814 and determined against all odds to be free. With the history of slaveowners abusing their women slaves reflected in his pale face, Henry Bibb could pass for white. Raised together with the...
With the adorably acclaimed Ponyo now out in theaters nationwide with its dubbed all-star Hollywood cast (Miley Cyrus' little sister? one of the Jonas Brothers?), a whole new young audience is enjoying the latest from anime maestro Hayao Miyazaki, creator of the spectacularly successful My Neighbor...
That the book opens with a three-page list of characters seems a bit daunting ...
Just in time for back-to-school, Lisa Yee (of the fabulous Millicent/Stanford/Emily trilogy) debuts her latest middle grade novel about two best friends who suddenly find each other on opposing sides ...
Two young mice, out "on a cold, lonely night," meet a mysterious older mouse who leads them to a magical place where "departed loves ones" appear to remind the two adventurers that they will never be alone. "They're not truly gone, but watch over you...
Guadalupe Rivera Marín grew up inspiring her legendary artist father, the Mexican muralist and sculptor Diego Rivera. Marin chooses some of her favorite works by her father – including a few for which she sat as his model – and shares both memories and lessons of...
Since the 1980s, Chinese writers determined to bear witness to the atrocities of Mao’s Communist regime have bypassed censorship by writing “documentary literature,” blurring the lines between fiction and nonfiction. Drawing on 100-plus interviews, Xianhui Yang’s 13 thinly disguised stories chronicle the brutality of the Jiabiangou...
The final installment in the three-volume manwha that began with The Color of Earth and The Color of Water, follows Ewha, now a lovely young woman, and her still-young mother, as both wait for their respective missing lovers. Ewha's Duksam flees the wrath of his...
If you see a book cover with the name Dai Sijie on it, read the book. Dai's delightful 2001 debut, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, about two young boys who discover a love for literature while sequestered in a re-education camp during Mao's Cultural Revolution,...
Based on actual tragic event in a remote Indian coalmine in 2001, Badahur – an ex-director in the Indian Ministry of Coal until 2006 – makes his literary debut with a scathing insider's look at the tainted coal industry. Badahur recounts the multifaceted layers of the...
I have to confess that had my teenaged daughter not handed me the book and said, "it's great, I loved it," I probably wouldn't have finished this latest title from Justina Chen Headley whose debut, Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies), remains...
Referred to on the front flap as "highly autobiographical," this slim story proves to be an addictive quick read. The protagonist Amélie (who is not so unlike the author Amélie) returns to Japan where she was born to Belgian parents and spent part of her...
Whenever my kids start singing "Crazy Kiya Re," still one of their favorite songs after multiple trips to India, I find myself having to leave the room. Since reading the 14-story anthology Delhi Noir, I can't disassociate the Bollywood hit from the police officer who...
Logizomechanophobia: the fear of computers. That would be me! Of course, none of the four 12-year-old protagonists in this chuckling read suffer from such fears (young 'uns these days are all so wired!), but they do each have their own quirky phobias. As every chapter...
Out on the Kenyan grasslands, millions of animals will take turns grazing on the lush greenery after the rainy season during their great migration from neighboring Tanzania. First the zebra will eat only the very top of the grass, followed by the wildebeest who will...
Husband-and-wife author/illustrators, Ted Lewin and Betsy Lewin, who also happen to both be individual Caldecott Honor winners, travel the world in search of adventure. Their latest book together combines the experiences of two trips to Mysore, India in 1997 and 1998 during which they came up close...
The Vietnam War undoubtedly remains one of the most confusing, hotly-debated events of world history. Decades later, the war's legacy cannot be accurately measured, much less fully understood. Just in time for back-to-school, the first-ever graphic version – 140 pages of black-and-white-drawings – of the complicated war...
Born in Los Angeles to a Scotch-Irish American mother, Leonie Gilmour, and a missing Japanese father, the young boy who would grow up to be Isamu Noguchi moved as toddler to Japan to join his estranged father. When Gilmour realized that the older Noguchi already had...
Told in the three alternating voices of a Chinese mother and her two Chinese American daughters, Fan Wu's second novel weaves a family tapestry filled with the multiple layers of intermixed cultures and generations. Mary, once Guo-Mei, now lives comfortably in Silicon Valley with her American-born...
Every mother and daughter needs to share this book. Actually, every woman should have a copy of it. Given the incredible success of Eve Ensler's revolutionary play, The Vagina Monologues, "the menstruation monologues" are the natural next step! Of course, this funny, touching, memorable collection could...
