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Noodles on a bicycle
Maclear, Kyo//Zhang, Gracey
Every morning, deliverymen carry tall bowls of noodles made from buckwheat flour to customers who love to eat them. The delivery from the sobaya chef to the customers is possible by talented bike riders who balance large towers of bowls on their shoulders while their other arms steady the bikes down crowded busy streets with potholes and city pedestrians and cars. Hungry customers wait because they know they will be so happy to eat the delicious noodles. The deliverymen are exhausted by the end of the long day of cycling for a living, but they too get to join their families in the feast. In a few short hours after a hot bath and sleep, the deliverymen start their routine again and again.

Wings of an eagle: The gold medal dreams of Billy Mills
Mills, Billy//Bowman, Donna Janell
Billy Mills tells his autobiographical story of being an Oglala Lakota from South Dakota and the different challenges he faced as a young boy. Billy's father tells him to dig deeper below the anger, the hurt, and self-pity after Billy's mother dies. Eventually Billy's father dies, but his father's words remain with him for the rest of his life during set backs that he experiences. After he is placed in a boarding school in Kansas, Billy takes up sports and works hard to make the track team. When Billy wins a scholarship to the University of Kansas, he faces segregation and racism as a Native American. When he joins the U.S. Marines, the doctor tells him he has borderline diabetes and hypoglycemia, but Billy perseveres and qualifies for the 1964 Olympics in the 10,000 meter race. Encouraged by what his father had once told him about having wings of an eagle, Billy goes on to win the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. Billy Mills's courage and hard work continues to break barriers and to inspire others.

Home in a lunchbox
Mo, Cherry
Jun moves from Hong Kong to America and has to learn new words to start school. Her mother helps her write a few words on her hand each day so she can transition into a new life. The best moment of the day is when Jun eats her favorite meal from her lunch box, which her mother has prepared. By the end of the first week of school, Jun has lived through the terrifying moments of being alone, laughed at, and lost in school activities. The breakthrough moment is when Jun shares her food with girls at school then her Mom has Jun's new classmates come over to eat at their house.

Flora's very windy day
Birdsall, Jeanne
Flora's mother tells Flora to take her brother outside after he manages to spill her paints on the floor. Flora warns her mother that it is windy outside but that doesn't change her mother's mind. Flora spends the time outside on an adventure with her brother. A dragonfly, sparrow, rainbow, raindrops, eagle, and moon participate in the windy experience until the wind blows them back home.

A girl like me
Johnson, Angela
Girls with African American heritage are excited to dream into their futures with visions of being themselves in different clothing, hats, and scarves in places that bring them joy and success. The happy girls are at the beach with nature, music, books, and balls empowered by their ideas and a sense of community.

My mei mei
Young, Ed
Antonia practices being a big sister before the family flies to China to get Jiang Hai, a younger sister. Antonia drew pictures of her sister while they waited for her to appear. When she did, Antonia noticed she was not walking, talking, playing, or interested in her. With time, the girls get real cats, watch movies, play board games, and music together. Within a couple years, they ask their parents for another Mei Mei.

My daddy is a cowboy
Seales, Stephanie
Daddy gets his daughter up early to ride horses because there aren't any cars or trucks to interfere with their together time. While riding horses together, Daddy tells cowboys stories as the sun starts to rise and the town begins to wake up. They ride their horses, Clover and Power, back to the ranch and then head home on the motorcycle. The favorite part of the morning was the "just us time!".

Chooch helped
Rogers, Andrea L.
In this Cherokee family, Chooch is Sissy's younger brother who is only two years old. The family speaks Cherokee words when painting, cooking, biking, playing music, fishing, and gardening. Sissy's parents yell at her for not understanding that Chooch is just trying to help. When Sissy learns that she is one of Chooch's most important teachers, she helps him learn how to make a pot out of clay.

Yatandou
Whelan, Gloria
A young Mali girl, Yatandou, is eight years old and sits with women in her village for three hours to pound sticks against the millet kernels to make one day's food. Yatandou takes her goat to graze. Her brother, Madou, goes into the thickets to bring back another goat lost from the village. He gets thorns on his clothes which Yatandou pulls off. Madou and their father work the onion fields in the scorching heat and blowing red sand. Mother makes two journeys to the well each day -- morning and night. On the eve of getting a machine to grind millet in the village, a woman comes from the city to teach the girls and the women. Father complains that the women will become idle. But Madou climbs the rocks and brings home a bag of bats from the caves. Mother makes bat stew for dinner, and Father is happy.

Jovita wore pants: The story of a Mexican freedom fighter
Salazar, Aida
Jovita is a brave young girl who joins the fight for religious freedom in Mexico during the Cristero War. Although girls are supposed to wear dresses and skirts, Jovita joins her brothers and father to become a revolutionary in so many ways. Jovita is a Mexican Freedom Fighter who fights dangerous battles against the government and eventually surrenders peacefully after fighting hard for six years. She is remembered by a song written in her honor.

The youngest marcher: The story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a young civil rights activist
Levinson, Cynthia
Audrey is a very confident and brave nine-year-old girl who knows all about segregation. She sees how others treat black people, and she wants to speak up and go to places like anybody else. After a church service, Audrey volunteers to go to jail to make a statement about freedom. Jail was quite hard, and the food was awful. After five days, Audrey is released to go home. Two months later, the City of Birmingham Alabama wipes segregation laws off the books. From then on, Audrey Faye Hendricks is known as the "Civil Rights Queen" and the youngest known marcher in the Children's March in May 1963. Audrey can now enjoy her ice cream at the parlor counter like everybody else.

Papa's magical water-jug clock
Trejo, Jesus
Papa is working today so Jesus tags along to help him with planting, cutting grass, and trimming trees. The family business works on Saturdays too so Jesus is in charge of filling Papa's big water jug. The two work around the neighborhood with all the tools rattling in the work van, stopping to work in 14 yards. Does the water hold out for them even though Jesus splashes some water on his face and gives water to some animals. Even though Jesus panics when the water is gone by 10:30 am, Papa explains that Jesus is still part of the family business. At the end of the day, Papa says "Time and water are precious. We don't want to waste them".

Do you remember?
Smith, Sydney
A boy and his mother trade memories while lying together on the bed. In the darkness of the night, they remember things of their past. The move from their house to an apartment with their belongings is part of their memory making. The boy asks his mother if the moments of remembering could also be a memory.

How do you spell unfair? MacNolia Cox and the national spelling bee
Weatherford, Carole Boston
In 1936, an eighth grader becomes the first African American to win the spelling bee in Akron, Ohio. MacNolia gets a military band send off to the National Spelling Bee in Washington DC with her mother. MacNolia learns about racism and discrimination when she crosses into Maryland and arrives in Washington. She and another black girl are seated away from the other spellers and their families. MacNolia spells word after word with a calm and focused performance. The judges throw a curveball to stump her and MacNolia is determined out. Her triumph is that folks now learn that African American students are as smart as anyone.

Lin's uncommon life
Shackelford, Scott//Castle, Emily
Elinor Ostrom, also known as Lin, worked "little by little, bit by bit, family by family" in order that the world could become a better place. Lin wanted to study the way that people could share resources because she believed that "so much good can be done on so many levels". Lin was discouraged from going to graduate school but she did and studied hard until she earned her PhD degree in political science. She wanted to create a research center where people could work together and ask hard questions. With her husband, they established the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at the University of Indiana. With their groundbreaking research, Elinor taught people how to share common resources around the world. She also earned the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences - the first woman to do so.

Fighting for yes! The story of disability rights activist Judith Heumann
Cocca-Leffler, Maryann
Judy Heumann always hears NO from a young age. She is not allowed to attend public school because she is in a wheelchair. Then after she goes to a special school with special education students, she attends college to become a teacher. But even the New York Board of Education says NO to her becoming a teacher after she earns her teaching degree. Judy joins several other disability rights activists to ensure Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 could be signed into federal law. Their work lays the foundation for the Americans with Disabilities Act. As a living advocate for herself and others, Judy tells her story of civil rights for which she fought tirelessly. By leading and working together with others to fix problems and make changes, disabled people now have less discrimination against them.

The legend of freedom hill
Altman, Linda Jacobs
A Jewish girl and an African American girl become friends during the Gold Rush in California when slavery was against the law. The two girls work together to save Miz Violet, a runaway slave, by searching for gold to buy her freedom from a slave catcher.

The dream quilt
Ryan, Celeste
Michael has bad dreams with many animals flooding his thoughts. A special quilt from the cedar chest is pulled out to play a game with his mother each night. A square from the quilt is chosen for sending a letter into dreamland. Michael's mother kisses him good night, and Michael has a wonderful dream. After Granny Rose comes to visit, Michael starts to dream in rainbows.


Where are my books?
Ohi, Debbie Ridpath
Spencer loves to read books every night at bedtime. He always puts the book back on the shelf before sleep. One morning, he noticed that his book was gone. A different book was missing the next day and the next day. Spencer finds his books being read by squirrels , so he helps them pick out their first book to read from his collection and also teaches them how to return books at the library so they can keep borrowing books to read. Spencer reads a book out loud to his sister and the squirrels - and everyone is happy.

Voice of freedom Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the civil rights movement
Weatherford, Carole Boston
No woman could be braver and have more courage than Fannie Lou Hamer. For the fearless fight that Fannie demonstrated as the "the country's number one freedom-fighting woman", we learn how her story written in themed prose serves as a chronicle of her life of civil rights. From being the last born of a large Mississippi family to being a speaker at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Fannie went on to cofound the National Women's Political Caucus. By learning that she had a right to vote, Fannie used her voice to advocate for voting rights for others.

My name is sangoel
Williams, Karen Lynn//Mohammed, Khadra
Sangoel feels homesick after leaving his Sudanese homeland where his father died in the war. With his mother and sister, Sangoel arrives to the United States to start a new life where they learn so many things about technology, escalators, cooking stoves, and televisions. With a clever use of writing in his new school classroom, Sangoel helps his teacher and classmates learn how to pronounce his name. He will always be a Sangoel just like "his father and grandfather and his father" before him in Africa.

You can't be too careful
Mello, Roger
The white rose starts a series of continuous storylines with deeper and deeper meanings and more and more people and animals contributing to the creative adventure of white rose escaping from her pen.

Back of the bus
Reynolds, Aaron
From the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, a young boy plays with his marble while sitting next to his mother. His mother tells the boy to stop the rolling marble and to tuck his marble inside and be quiet. This is the day that Rosa Parks sits in the front of the bus instead of the back of the bus with the boy and his mother. The boy knows his marble with its brown and golden shine in the sunlight is a symbol of change. No need to hide it no more.

Ruth and the green book
Ramsey, Calvin Alexander
Ruth and her parents drive from Chicago to Alabama to visit her grandma. Along the way, they saw signs that said "White Only" where they couldn't eat in the restaurants or use the bathroom inside. Ruth's mother had food packed for the trip, and they sang songs along the way to stay happy. They also visited a friend, Eddy, in Tennessee where Eddy and Ruth's daddy played music together. When the family drove into Georgia, a man explained "The Negro Motorist Green Book" which would list places in different states that would welcome black people who were traveling. Ruth and her family learns how to use the Green Book to find places to sleep, eat, shop, and get a haircut on their travels because Jim Crow laws were unfair and discriminatory against black people. When a 'tourist home' welcomes them for free, Ruth learns that it is important to help each other and treat others like a big family. After this lesson, she gives her Brown Bear to a little boy who was traveling away from home with his mother for the very first time. Ruth said that she no longer needed Brown Bear because she was too old now, then she told his mother about buying a Green Book for her travels.

Only passing through: The story of Sojourner Truth
Rockwell, Anne
A young woman named Isabella leads a strong and courageous life after being sold three times as a slave girl in the northeastern United States. After she is given a freedom day by a couple living nearby who knew of the 1827 New York law to set adults free, Isabella felt the "power of a nation" in court to win back her son who was unlawfully sold out of state. Isabella later heard God calling her to be a sojourner and spread her message about the value of freedom and what it had been like to be a slave. She would ask people "Is this any way to treat a human being"? Sojourner told her truth so well that she took the name Sojourner Truth and carried a white silk banner with the words "Proclaim Liberty" wherever she went.


Hello muddah, hello faddah! A letter from camp
Davis, Jack E.
On a rainy first day at Camp Granada, a young camper writes home to "Muddah" and "Faddah" to ask them to let him leave the difficult place. The lyrics of this camp song is a letter from camp with all the jokes aside.

Mel fell
Tabor, Corey R.
Mel leaves the nest with a sense of adventure and finds that the animals and birds and insects on the way down on his flight are all there when flying back up the tree. The descending flight takes him into the water for a kingfish which he carries back to the nest to feed his siblings.

My parents won't stop talking
Hunsinger, Emma & Walden, Tillie
Waiting is hard, and every kid knows it's not fun. Molly wants to go the park but her parents have started talking with the neighbors for a very long time.

My father's shop
Ichikawa, Satomi
Mustafa's father sells beautiful carpets from all over the world in his shop. One day, a small hole was discovered in one of the carpets so Mustafa asks his father for that rug to play with. In order to get it, Mustafa has to learn different languages from his father so he can make successful sales with the customers. As different foreign customers walk by the colorful carpet over Mustafa's body outside the shop, he crows like a rooster in different languages. He is excited to run back to the shop to tell his father that he can speak rooster in five languages. And all the tourists follow right behind Mustafa into his father's shop!

All-of-a-kind family hanukkah
Jenkins, Emily
Gertie, the youngest of five children, wants to help her mother cook for their family dinner on the first night of Hanukkah in New York City’s Lower East Side. After many attempts of trying to help in the busy kitchen, Gertie is sent to her room by her mother and is eventually called down for dinner by her dad. In order to get her to come downstairs, Gertie’s father asks for her helping to light the candles of the menorah for the first time and Gertie happily accepts the offer.

Lola loves stories
McQuinn, Anna
Lola and her dad go to the library on Saturdays to pick out books to read during the week. Every time Lola reads a book, she acts it out the next day. If she reads about building, she becomes a builder. If Lola reads a book about fairies, she becomes a fairy. What will Lola be next?

Santa from Cincinnati: How a little boy named Santa grew up to become the real thing
Barrett, Judi
Calus was born on Christmas Day at Cincinnati General Hospital, and as he grew up, he developed a love for toys. As a young boy, Calus began building toys with his dad and delivering them to other kids in his neighborhood on Christmas Eve. Soon, everyone wanted toys from Calus, and after going to college and meeting Claus, they moved to the North Pole and began manufacturing toys year-round.

Overground railroad
Cline-Ransome, Lesa
One day, Ruth Ellen and her family leave North Carolina to travel North to New York City, looking for a better life and a brighter future in a society without segregation. During their travels, Ruth Ellen read a book about Frederick Douglass's journey and how his experiences compared to hers. Despite these differences, both traveled in pursuit of a common goal.

The sea maidens of Japan
Bell, Lili
Kiyomi's mother, Okaasan, is an ama diver who harvests shellfish from the deep ocean in Japan. As a young girl, Kiyomi practices with her mom to become an ama diver, but she is very afraid of the sea. Kiyomi gains the strength to overcome this fear and become a diver when she swims with the star turtle, an animal she helped to save when it was born.

What happens next
Hughes, Susan
Bully B. makes a student feel uncomfortable at school by making fun of him and calling him mean names. This student goes home and acts like he is fine, but his mother is able to tell that this is not true and she suggests that her son talks to the bully. With this advice, he talks to Bully B. and expresses how her behavior makes him feel and explains how similar they actually are, ending their negative relationship.

Loose tooth
Schaefer, Lola
A young boy wakes up and realizes he has a loose tooth. He wiggles the tooth and shows his mom, dad, sister, brother, and dog, but it won't fall out. He tries to eat hard food or have his brother yank it out with a wrench, but the tooth finally comes out all on its own!

Bacteria Joe
Adler, Sigal
One night, a boy does not brush his teeth and eats chocolate before going to bed. Bacteria Joe comes along and begins eating away at any remaining sugars and sweets in the boy's mouth. After causing cracks to form in the boy's teeth, Bacteria Joe is finally washed away, and the boy promises his Mom that he will always brush his teeth twice a day in order to maintain a healthy smile and prevent tooth decay!

A toothbrush tale
Smith, Stacy
A little boy goes to sleep one night without brushing his teeth, and then he hears a song coming from his bathroom. When he goes to investigate the noise, he finds his toothbrush singing and dancing about why it is so important to brush his teeth every morning and night. Scared that he will develop cavities (or even worse, that his teeth might fall out), the little boy brushes his teeth well and continues to do so every day in order to keep a healthy smile!

The hard-times jar
Smothers, Ethel Footman
Emma is a book-loving girl whose parents are poor migrant workers. She decides to pick apples to add money to the hard-times jar. But this year, she attends school which happens to have a whole library of books. Emma's mom reminds her of something important when she eventually follows the rules.

Harmonica
Johnston, Tony
A young boy and his parents fill their home singing with the gramophone using music as a language of family love. When the Nazis invade Poland, the family is separated by adults and children into two concentration camps. The boy plays a harmonica his father gave him to bring back memories of this parents dancing to music by the composer Schubert. A commandant orders the boy to play his harmonica which he does, but not for the commandant. He tries to play loudly to comfort the starving people in the concentration camp.

Easy as pie
Best, Carl
Chef Jacob is known for his happy peach pie. Read the ingredients of his pie recipe and the baking rules that he learns from Chef Monty on television. Lots of sounds comes out of Chef Jacob's kitchen. By the end, Chef Jacob says: "P is for Pie and P is for Peach, and, of course, P is for Parents! Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad". Have fun celebrating this event with the whole family.

Vegetable dreams
Jeffers, Dawn
Erin dreams about having a garden. Her parents allow her to share a garden with her neighbor, Mr. Martinez. Erin cares for her garden everyday and enjoys eating and canning the fresh food with her family. She learns that she loves learning and the friendship developed with Mr. Martinez more than the vegetables themselves.

Sweet tooth
Palatini, Margie
Stewart has a sweet tooth that repeatedly gets him into trouble. Stewart tells his sweet tooth that it is time for him to be healthy. Stewart eats healthy and practices oral hygiene. Stewart then pulls out the "sweet tooth" and the tooth fairy visits.

What will you be, Sara Mee?
Avraham, Kate Aver
Cho, a young boy, wonders what his little sister Sara Mee will be? They celebrate Sara Mee's first birthday with a feast and music from Korea. Cho continues to try to figure out what his sister will be when she grows up.

Oliver's fruit salad
French, Vivian
Oliver wants to make fruit salad. He gets canned fruit from his grandpas and also from a market. Oliver helps his grandpa cut the fruit to make great food to enjoy!

My great big mama
Ka, Olivier
A little boy adores his mother for being large. After speculation from others, the mother decides to go on a diet. The son does the same. The two come to a conclusion to no longer diet and to enjoy food once again.

Tales for very picky eaters
Schneider, Josh
James battles his father on what to eat. James tries the disgusting broccoli, the smelly lasagna, repulsive milk, lumpy oatmeal, and slimy eggs. As James' father suggests very creative alternatives to the food that James doesn't like, he settles for the food that was offered to him originally.

The ugly vegetables
Lin, Grace
A young Chinese girl helps her mom plant Chinese vegetables. She initially compares her mom's "ugly" garden to those of her neighbor's garden. The two use lots of gardening tools to plant the seeds for vegetables. Her mom then cooks the vegetables and invites the other neighbors in to share the nutritious meal.