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My first Chinese New Year
Katz, Karen
Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy New Year! A Chinese child is getting ready for the Chinese New Year by decorating the walls with red, making an alter to honor ancestors, getting a new dress to wear, and getting a haircut to start the new year off fresh and new. They eat a New Year Eve feast for good health and enjoy the New Year parade with lion dancers, drummers, and the dragon! Then, they wish each other Gung Hay Fat Choy!

The patchwork path: A quilt map to freedom
Stroud, Bettye
Hannah and her father are slaves who decide to escape to freedom. They use the patterns in the quilt made by her mother, who passed away, to follow the Underground Railroad.

The day gogo went to vote: South africa, 1994
Batezat Sisulu, Elinor
Thembi and her beloved great-grandmother, who has not left the house for many years, go together to vote on the momentous day when black South Africans are allowed to vote for the first time.

Through tsavo: A story of an east African savanna
Bull, Schuyla
Follows a herd of elephants, including a playful young calf, as it slowly makes its way to Tsavo National Park in Kenya to the Mzima River during a long, dry season.

Jubela
Kessler, Cristina
When a baby rhino leaves his mother, he must rely on his own resources to survive until he is adopted by an old female rhino.

The first bear in africa
Ichikawa, Satomi
The animals of the African savanna help Meto as he tries to return the toy bear left behind by a young tourist.

Home now
Beake, Lesley
How can Sieta feel happy with so many sad pictures inside her head? She remembers her real home far away over the mountains, her parents getting sick, and Aunty taking her to live in a new place she calls Home Now. There Sieta meets another orphan with memories like her own.


The heart of the lion
Watson, Pete
An American boy comes to understand and admire the rich culture and traditions of West Africa.

Bintou's braids
Diouf, Sylviane
When Bintou, a little girl living in West Africa, finally gets her wish for braids, she discovers that what she dreamed for has been hers all along.

Ogbo: Sharing life in an african village
Onyefulu, Ifeoma
Ogbo are a special part of village life in Nigeria, uniting children of the same age in a lifelong fellowship - a group with whom they celebrate festivals, share day-to-day chores, and face the challenges of growing up. A young girl named Obioma helps us understand what belonging to an ogbo means. Growing, working, and relaxing together, the ogbo weave the fabric of village life.


Africa brothers and sisters
Kroll, Virginia
At lunchtime Daddy and Jesse play their favorite game: a question and answer game about people who live in Africa and the ways in which they are connected to Jesse.

Turtle summer: A journal for my daughter
Monroe, Mary A.
A young mother writes a journal for her daughter. This scrapbook-journal explains the nesting cycle of loggerhead sea turtles and the natural life along the southeastern coast, including local shore birds, shells, and a sea turtle hospital.

Boundless grace
Hoffman, Mary
According to the stories Grace read, her family is not normal. Grace's father lives in Africa while she and her mother live in America. Grace visits her father to learn about his new family and the African culture in Gambia. Grace's visit to Africa helps her to understand that her family is normal.

Song of the boat
Graham, Lorenz
An African father and a son from West Africa build a boat from a special tree. They work together to find the perfect tree to use.

One odd day
Fisher, Doris//Sneed, Dani
A young boy awakens to find everything around him is モodd.ヤ He has one shoe, his shirt has three sleeves, and his dog has five legs. Things are crazy at school when he stares at a calendar with only odd days. Will his odd day end when he goes to bed that night?

Madoulina: A girl who wanted to go to school: A story from south africa
Bognomo, Joel Eboueme
Madoulina has dreams of becoming a doctor. She doesn't, however, go to school because her mother needs her to sell fritters in the marketplace to earn money. Madoulina meets her brother's new teacher, who convinces her mom to find a way to let her go to school.

Monkey for sale
Stanley, Sanna
Two little girls in Africa look forward to their village market day in the Congo. They must make wise choices for their spending. They make initial purchases, but later find a monkey they want to rescue. They creatively work together to find a solution.

Arijole
Mashiri, Pascal
Arijole's stepsisters are envious of her beauty. They do not want Arijole to be chosen as a wife in a nearby village, so the stepsisters turn her into a dog. When only Arijole (the dog) is left, a mother takes her home for her son to hunt. Soon they realize that Arijole is not a dog but a beautiful woman. She and Obondo are then married.

Thank you for me!
Bauer, Marion
Join in with this storybook rhyme about exploring the body parts and what they do! From your hands, to your feet, and from your ears to your nose, learn about body actions and senses through rhyme, alliteration and a fun steady beat!

Billy Twitters and his blue whale problem
Barnett, Mac
When Billy Twitters doesn't brush his teeth or finish his peas, his mother says we are going to buy you a whale. This does not worry Billy, because he knows how large blue whales are and he couldn't possibly have one delivered. To his surprise, one morning there is a blue whale sitting outside his house, and it is his responsibility. The whale causes problems at school because Billy's classmates pick him at gym. And it just gets worse: his parents give him the owner's manual for the whale. While feeding him, Billy realizes that when he's inside the whale, nobody's laughing and nobody's telling him what to do...so he decides to make himself at home!

The talking cloth
Mitchell, Rhonda
Aunt Phoebe has a collection of many wonderful things, each having an interesting story. The little girl's favorite thing is an adinkra cloth from Ghana. It has many colors and symbols to represent feelings, faith, power, and love.

Painted dreams
Williams, Karen Lynn
Ti Marie loves to paint, but her family is too poor to afford paint so she uses bricks, stones and charcoal. One day, as she is walking to the river, she sees Msie Antoine painting a snake and admires his art supplies. Later on in the night she decides to look through his trash to see if he has any left over supplies. She uses them to paint on the wall behind her family's place at the Haitian market. Find out how the people at the market react.

The village of round and square houses
Grifalconi, Ann
In a village in West Africa, women live in round houses and men live in square houses. After supper, grandmother tells a story about the origin of these houses aand how it is related to the rupturing of volcanic mountain, Naka.

I lost my tooth in africa
Diakite, Penda
Amina and her parents take a trip to Mali to visit family. On the way, Amina realizes that her tooth is loose! While visiting her father's family, Amina loses the tooth and places it under a calabash tree. She receives a hen and a rooster from the African Tooth Fairy.

The most important gift of all
Conway, David
Ama wants to honor her newborn baby brother with a special gift, as is the custom of the people in her village. When Grandma Sisi suggests the gift of love Ama sets off in search of this important present, but how will she know when she has found it? This story celebrates a young girl's discovery of the most important gift of all.

My painted house, my friendly chicken, and me
Angelou, Maya
Thandi, an eight-year-old Ndebele girl who lives in a village in South Africa with her mother, aunts, sisters, and mischievous younger brother, shares her secrets with her best friend, a chicken.

Loon chase
Diehl, Jean Heilprin
A boy discovers that his domesticated dog still has powerful instincts similar to animals in the wild. There is a surprise encounter between the dog and a mother loon: the bigger animal doesn't necessarily prevail. In his moment of wonder, the boy finally meets the loon himself.

The giraffe who was afraid of heights
Ufer, David A.
A giraffe suffers from the fear of heights. His parents worry about his safety and send him to the village doctor for treatment. Along the way he befriends a monkey who is afraid of climbing trees and a hippo who is afraid of water. A life-threatening event causes the three friends to face and overcome each of their fears.

Turtles in my sandbox
Curtis, Jennifer Keats
Imagine finding turtle eggs in your sandbox! When a mother diamondback terrapin lays eggs in a young girlメs sandbox, the girl becomes a モturtle-sitterヤ to help the babies safely hatch. She raises the teeny hatchlings until they become big enough to fend for themselves in the wild. Then, with the help of experts, she releases them. Along the way, she learns about these unique animals and that she has made an important contribution to their survival.

My dad has HIV
Alexander, Earl//Rudin, Sheila//Sejkora, Pam
The virus (called HIV) is explained in this gentle and descriptive story about a young girl whose father is living with HIV. The facts about the virus are described in a way that children can understand. The story helps children to know that a person with HIV can lead a normal life.

Enemy pie
Munson, Derek
When confronted with his first enemy, a young boy seeks help from his father. He hopes that enemy pie will get rid of his enemy but instead he gains something he never expected.

Amy unbounded: Belondweg blossoming
Hartman, Rachel
Through comic book style illustrations, Amy of Eddybrook Lodge encounters many exciting adventures with her best friend. During the summer between her ninth and tenth birthday, Amy and her friend learn many lessons about life. The most important ones are that love does not solve everything and even heroines sometimes need help.

How sitali learned a lesson
Mashiri, Pascal
As the oldest in his family Sitali is supposed to hunt and provide for his younger sisters. He learns a lesson about self-control and hard work after being made chief and then losing it all.

Wee and the wright brothers
Gaffney, Timothy
An educational story told from Wee the mouse's point of view, of how the Wright brothers succeeded in flight. Wee, an ambitious mouse, tells the story in a humorous yet detailed way of the historical Wright brothers and their flying machine.

Alphabet mystery
Wood, Aubrey
Charley's alphabet becomes worried when they learn that little x is missing. They set off on an adventure to find little x and experience a problem when they do.

Picnic
McCully, Emily Arnold
Have you ever been lost or disconnected by those you love? Little Bitty experiences those experiences when she accidentally falls out of the truck on the way to a family picnic. Will the mouse family successfully find Little Bitty?

Going home, coming home
Tran, Truong
Ami Chi is going on a trip to Vietnam with her parents. Not very happy, Ami Chi sees her grandmother and her uncle. Along the way she meets a girl named Thao at the market. Thao shows Ami Chi all around the market. Ami Chi finally goes back to her grandmother's house, where her parents are worried. Now with an appreciation for her other home, Vietnam, she goes back home to America.

A boy and his bunny
Bryan, Sean
One morning a boy wakes up to discover that he has found himself a new friend. Fred the bunny is on his head. The boy's mother is unsure about his new friend, but he assures her that he can accomplish many things with Fred on his head.

Bird, fly high.
Horacek, Petr
As the bird flies, flaps, hops, pecks, and tugs; she fetches food. For the bird and her little ones, it is breakfast time.

Little fur family
Brown, Margaret Wise
A father bear goes to work, and the younger bear goes exploring. He comes across many animals different from him. He comes home for dinner and bed.

Shi-shi-etko
Campbell, Nichola I.
Shi-shi-etko is a young Native American who will be leaving for residential school in a few days. Before she leaves, her family takes her on walks and canoe rides to learn about nature. She gathers all the information she can and adds them to her memories before leaving.

The promise quilt
Ransom, Candice
A little girl, living in the mountaintops of Virginia, wants to go to school. Her father promises to send her when she is old enough, but he goes off to fight in the civil war. During the war the school and books are burned. Find a special way to build a new school.

Hopper
Pfister, Marcus
A mother rabbit wakes up her baby rabbit to get ready for their day. The rabbits are surrounded by the brilliance of white snow. They encounter a few mishaps throughout the day during their quest for food.

Myrtle
Pearson, Tracey Campbell
Myrtle the mouse has a very happy life until Frances the bully moves in next door. The bully won't leave her and her brother alone, so myrtle refuses to play outside anymore. Myrtle's aunt from Africa convinces her to come back outside and arms her with a plan to stop the bully.

I kissed the baby
Murphy, Mary
A new baby duck arrives on the farm and everyone is making a fuss. They all tickle, kiss, sing, and feed the baby duck.

Big bad wolf
Marurel, Claire
Things aren't always what they seem. The villagers keep talking about a big, bad wolf and describe him. Their details are accurate, but skewed a little. The wolf has a family just like them and kisses his children good night after a run in the forest.

Just like new
Manson, Ainslie
It is a time of war and children in England won't have Christmas presents. A little girl's class decides to give gifts they love that are like new. The little girl unselfishly gives up her most cherished doll and inserts a note, and a girl from England becomes her pen pal after receiving the gift.

The spirit of tio fernando: A day of the dead story
Levy, Janice
Fernando, a little boy from Mexico, loses his favorite uncle. The family celebrates a holiday called Day of the Dead. Fernando must find the perfect gift to remember his uncle. What does he choose?