The Girl with a Brave Heart


Rita Jahanforuz - 2013
    After showing kindness to a strange old woman, Shiraz receives the gift of beauty but her lazy and unkind stepsister, Nargues, suffers a less pleasant fate in this adaptation of the Grimm's fairy tale, Mother Hulda, reset in Tehran, Iran.

Paiute Princess: The Story of Sarah Winnemucca


Deborah Kogan Ray - 2012
    Sarah was smart and good at languages, so she was able to link the worlds. As she became older, this made her a great leader. Sarah used condemning letters, fiery speeches, and her autobiography, Life Among the Piutes, to provide detailed accounts of her people’s turmoil through years of starvation, unjust relocations, and violent attacks. With sweeping illustrations and extensive backmatter, including hand-drawn maps, a chronology, archival photographs, an author's notes, and additional resource information, Deborah Kogan Ray offers a remarkable look at an underrepresented historical figure.

Fannie Never Flinched: One Woman's Courage in the Struggle for American Labor Union Rights


Mary Cronk Farrell - 2016
    Fannie dreamed that America could achieve its ideals of equality and justice for all, and she sacrificed her life to help that dream come true. Fannie became a union activist, helping to create St. Louis, Missouri, Local 67 of the United Garment Workers of America. She traveled the nation and eventually gave her life, calling for fair wages and decent working and living conditions for workers in both the garment and mining industries. Her accomplishments live on today. This book includes an index, glossary, a timeline of unions in the United States, and endnotes.

Snow in Jerusalem


Deborah da Costa - 2001
    To each boy, the other's neighborhood is an alien land. And although neither boy knows it, both are caring for the same beautiful white stray cat.One day the boys follow the cat as she travels the winding streets and crosses the boundaries between the city's quarters. And on this journey something wonderful happens, as unexpected as a snowfall in Jerusalem.

Bird & Sugar Boy


Sofie Laguna - 2006
    I live with my dad who has a big tattoo that says Live to Ride. He is so strong he can lift up a car, but he can't tell me what he's thinking. Maybe he's thinking about my mother who shot through.Sugar Boy is my best friend. We hang around down at the river, in the bush tunnel, or beside the railway tracks riding our bikes fast enough to beat the train. There's only two of us, but we're the whole team.I don't know what would happen if I didn't have Sugar Boy . . .

City of Ghosts


Victoria Schwab - 2018
    But Cass herself can REALLY see ghosts. In fact, her best friend, Jacob, just happens to be one.When The Inspecters head to ultra-haunted Edinburgh, Scotland, for their new TV show, Cass—and Jacob—come along. In Scotland, Cass is surrounded by ghosts, not all of them friendly. Then she meets Lara, a girl who can also see the dead. But Lara tells Cassidy that as an In-betweener, their job is to send ghosts permanently beyond the Veil. Cass isn't sure about her new mission, but she does know the sinister Red Raven haunting the city doesn't belong in her world. Cassidy's powers will draw her into an epic fight that stretches through the worlds of the living and the dead, in order to save herself.

Chasing Freedom: The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, Inspired by Historical Facts


Nikki Grimes - 2015
    Anthony and Harriet Tubman, with breathtaking illustrations by Michele Wood!What if Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony sat down over tea to reminisce about their extraordinary lives? What would they recall of their triumphs and struggles as they fought to achieve civil rights for African Americans and equal rights for women? And what other historical figures played parts in their stories? These questions led Coretta Scott King Award winner Nikki Grimes to create CHASING FREEDOM, an engaging work of historical fiction about two of the nineteenth century's most powerful, and inspiring, American women. With breathtaking illustrations by Coretta Scott King Award winner Michele Wood, CHASING FREEDOM richly imagines the experiences of Tubman and Anthony, set against the backdrop of the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, and the Women's Suffrage Movement. Additional back matter invites curious young readers to further explore this period in history--and the larger-than-life figures who lived it.

Professor Gargoyle


Charles Gilman - 2012
    Display them on bookshelves—and then watch the cover characters morph into monsters as you pass by!Strange things are happening at Lovecraft Middle School. Rats are leaping from lockers. Students are disappearing. The school library is a labyrinth of secret corridors. And the science teacher is acting very, very peculiar. Robert Arthurt knew that seventh grade was going to be weird, but this is ridiculous!With the help of some unlikely new friends, Robert discovers there's more to Lovecraft Middle School than meets the eye. Can he uncover the secrets of the school before it's too late?

The Life of Mohammed: The Sira


Bill Warner - 2010
    He was an orphan who rose from poverty to become the first ruler of all of Arabia. He created a new religion, new methods of war and a new political system including a legal code, the Sharia. Mohammed was the world's greatest warrior. Today no one wages war in the name of Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon or any other military leader. However, every year many people die because of Mohammed. After 1400 years, Islam is more powerful than it has ever been. Mohammed said that one day all of the world would live under his rule of law.To understand Islam, you must know the life of Mohammed. Every Muslim's desire is to live a life identical to his. His every word and deed are the perfect model for being a Muslim. Every Muslim is a Mohammedan. The religion of Islam is not about worshiping Allah; it about worshiping Allah exactly as Mohammed did. This book is unique. It is concise, but it is completely authoritative. The reference system allows you to verify all information.

The Seven Keys of Balabad


Paul Haven - 2009
    And rumored hiding place of the grandest riches the world has ever known. Balabad is also the country Oliver Finch calls home ever since his father was reassigned to this dull, war-torn dust bowl.Each day runs into the next for Oliver until a 500-year-old sacred carpet is stolen. Then one of the few friends he has disappears. Oliver is determined to figure out what exactly is going on. But in order to do that he’ll have consult with a one-eyed warrior, track down the far-flung members of the Brotherhood, and unlock a centuries-old secret! Suddenly, life in Balabad for Oliver has become a whole lot more interesting . . . and dangerous.

It's All About Muhammad: A Biography of the World's Most Notorious Prophet


F.W. Burleigh - 2014
    It's about the man who composed the Koran.Author F. W. Burleigh draws on an academic, investigative, and literary background to bring forth this penetrating look at the man behind it all. Burleigh’s interest in Islam was sparked by the events of 9/11. The questions guiding his studies were, “Why do Muslims do what they do? Why is there so much violence connected with this religion?” After a line-by-line scrutiny of 20,000 pages of the original literature of Islam, the author gives his blunt assessment in the title: It’s All About Muhammad.The book is in three parts. The first 12 chapters explore the epileptic fits that convinced Muhammad that he was in communion with God, explain the Koran and why he composed it the way he did, and show the humble origin of the Kabah, which only attained its cubic shape in the year A.D. 605 with Muhammad as a member of the construction crew. The book shows the magma chamber of hatred that formed in him due to traumatic early-life experience and tracks the emergence of his psychopathic nature. It exposes how he modified ideas he took from Judaism and Christianity to suit his grandiose idea of himself as the "last and final prophet," his intolerance of Meccan polytheistic beliefs, and finally his declaration of war against "all and sundry" who refused to accept him and his religion.In the second part, Muhammad's magma chamber of hatred erupts on the world. The book shows the creation of his al-qaeda--his base of operations in Yathrib (Medina) where he fled after the Meccans decided they had to kill him, his conflict with the Jewish tribes of Yathrib after they refused to accept him as their prophet; his genocide of the Jews including the beheading of the men of an entire tribe; the assassination of his critics; the battles and raids and orgies of rape, plunder, and slaughter; and finally his conquest of Mecca. Like a dramatic arc, these 18 chapters form Act II of a script that is still being played out today.In the final part, Muhammad's ruthless conquest of all of Arabia is presented. This section also gives an account of his numerous wives and the expansion of his wars beyond the confines of the Arabian peninsula. One of the final chapters explores his claim that he will be the first to be resurrected on the day of resurrection and that he will assist Allah in determining who goes to heaven and who stays in hell--part of the "breathtaking nonsense" of what Muhammad claimed about himself, as the author phrases it.What Muhammad created continues to wreak havoc on the world. It follows the script he wrote fourteen centuries ago. It is not sufficient any longer merely to raise the alarm about Islam--an ideology of submission to the will of a psychologically deformed and spiritually grotesque man. What needs to accompany the alarm is a solution, and this book offers a solution: It is a matter of an aggressive, relentless, and unapologetic exposure of the truth about Muhammad in every graphic form possible, from illustrated books to docudramas to full-length feature films. With its 25 illustrations, It's All About Muhammad offers itself as an example of the approach.The truth about Muhammad is a powerful weapon of self-defense that people must take up to oppose and ultimately push back what he created. It is a weapon within the reach of everyone.

My Chinatown: One Year in Poems


Kam Mak - 2001
    Using extraordinarily beautiful paintings and moving poems, he shares a year of growing up in this small city within a city.My Chinatown explores a boy's first year in the United States—after emigrating from China—as he grows to love his new home in Chinatown through food, games, and the people surrounding him. Through Kam Mak's spare verse and richly detailed artwork, the streets of Chinatown come vividly alive. Included in Brightly.com's 2017 list of recommended diverse poetry picture books for kids.Chinatown—a place of dragons and dreams; fireflies and memoriesChinatown—full of wonder and magic; fireworks on New Year's Day and a delicious smell on every cornerChinatown—where every day brings something familiar and something wondrously new to a small boyChinatown—home?

Sami and the Time of the Troubles


Florence Parry Heide - 1992
    A ten-year-old Lebanese boy balances his life in a war-torn city.

The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq


Jeanette Winter - 2005
    For fourteen years, her library has been a meeting place for those who love books. Until now. Now war has come, and Alia fears that the library--along with the thirty thousand books within it--will be destroyed forever.In a war-stricken country where civilians--especially women--have little power, this true story about a librarian's struggle to save her community's priceless collection of books reminds us all how, throughout the world, the love of literature and the respect for knowledge know no boundaries. Illustrated by Jeanette Winter in bright acrylic and ink.Includes an author's note. *From the New York Times, July 27, 2003

The Brotherhood: America's Next Great Enemy


Erick Stakelbeck - 2013
    While we focus on al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah, it's actually the Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s oldest, most influential, and most anti-American Islamist group, that has become the preeminent voice and power in the Muslim world.Hiding behind a cloak of respectability and expensive Western suits, the Muslim Brotherhood is installing vehemently anti-American governments and power structures throughout the Middle East and the world, as we sit back and cheer for the "democracy" of the Arab Spring.In his new book, The Brotherhood: America’s Next Great Enemy, Erick Stakelbeck teaches us the frightening truth about this dangerous group, from his first-hand experiences investigating the Brotherhood for eleven years, interviewing its members and visiting its mosques and enclaves.In The Brotherhood, Stakelbeck:Reveals how the Obama administration has put the Brotherhood on the threshold of power at every turnExamines the alarming ramifications for America, Europe and Israel of the Brotherhood’s rapid riseWarns against the West’s—particularly the Left’s—shortsighted, naïve and deadly embrace of the Ikhwan andTraces the group from its violent roots to its current strategy of “stealth jihad”With Middle Eastern unrest only growing hotter, and saber-rattling at the West only growing louder, the Muslim Brotherhood’s growing global clout will remain on the front burner of American national security challenges. Revealing and disconcerting, The Brotherhood is a must-read for every American hoping to remain in a free America.