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Maria is afraid that her family will have to abandon their farm after their olive crop fails. Then one night she dreams of a beautiful and mysterious lady. Maria and her family plant seeds to grow oranges. Soon they have an amazing orange grove. Maria wonders who the beautiful lady that came to her in her dream is.
Tagged: Families, Fiction, Picture books, Spanish language
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Rabbit discovers the magic of the moon in this beautifully illustrated story.
“Moonlight slides like butter
skims through outer space
skims past stars and comets”
Tagged: Animals, Fiction, Moon, Picture books
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April Sinclair’s young adult novel tells the story of Stevie, a young black girl, living in Chicago in the late 60s/early 70s. Stevie has to deal with other people’s ignorance about race and sexuality as she comes into her own identity. Her mother wants her to use bleaching cremes to lighten her skin, but she’s becoming involved in the Afro-American Club at school and she begins to wear her hair natural. Stevie’s Grandma and her mama are strong influences on Stevie and she finds comfort with her Grandma and is often frustrated by her mama. This is a great book for adults, young adults, and teens.
Tagged: Coming-of-age, Families, Fiction, Friendship, LGBTQ, Racism, Sexuality
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Find the Green Stone is a story about a boy named Johnny who lives in a town where everyone has a glowing green stone. Johnny is distraught when he loses his stone and it takes the community coming together to help him for Johnny to realize he needs to find the love in his heart to get his glowing green stone back.
Tagged: Fiction, Picture books
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This novel explores the intimate friendship between friends Akilah and Victoria. Victoria suffers a tragedy that changes her life and her relationship with Akilah. This is an honest and accessible book that explores real-life problems.
Tagged: Coretta Scott King Book Award, Female genital mutilation, Fiction, Friendship
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Liesel Meminger lives with her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, in Munich, Germany. It’s 1939 and Liesel and her family are living under Nazi rule. Despite tremendous risk the Hubermanns house a Jewish man, Max. After Liesel endures her first tragedy books become a way of life for her. Zusak writes beautifully with hints of surrealism that make this story quite extraordinary.
“Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would smile at the beauty of destruction.”
Tagged: Fiction, Friendship, Nazi Germany
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This book is written as a prose poem that the tells the story of American jazz singer, Billie Holiday’s life. De Veaux writes,
“It was 1935.
American was in between wars.
Harlem was between jobs and riots.
Billie was between 20 and stardom.”
Tagged: Billie Holiday, Biography, Jazz, Non-fiction
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Sophie is a very artistic spider who is finally able to create her pièce de résistance as she reaches old age.
Tagged: Art, Fiction, Picture books
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Chuck Close created this beautiful autobiography complete with pages of mix and match self-portraits and a glossary of art terms. Close realized his love of art when he was very young. As a result of severe dyslexia, Close was labeled “dumb” and he also had a neuromuscular condition which prevented him from being physically active. The talented Close admits dedication to art saved his life. In this book Close talks about his process for creating his massive paintings and prints. To young artists Close says, “ease is the enemy of the artist. Go ahead and get yourself into trouble”
Tagged: Art, Autobiography, Faces, Non-fiction, Portraits