13-year-old Muchoki and his younger sister, Jata, can barely recognize what's become of their lives. Only weeks ago they lived in a bustling Kenyan village, going to school, playing soccer with friends, and helping at their parents' store. But sudden political violence has killed their father and destroyed their home. Now, Muchoki, Jata, and their ailing mother live in a tent in an overcrowded refugee camp. By day, they try to fend off hunger and boredom. By night, their fears about the future are harder to keep at bay. Driven by both hope and desperation, Muchoki and Jata set off on what seems like an impossible journey: to walk hundreds of kilometers to find their last remaining family.

    She likes school, she likes her friends, and she yearns above all else to own a bicycle. Although WWII is raging elsewhere in the world, it hasn’t really impacted her life in B.C.Then on December 7, 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor…and everything changes.Suddenly a war of suspicion and prejudice is waged on the home front and Japanese-Canadians are completely stripped of their rights, their jobs and their homes. Mary is terrified when her family is torn apart and sent to various work camps, while she and her two sisters are sent, alone, to a primitive camp in B.C.’s interior. Here Mary spends the duration of the war, scared and uncertain of how it will all end.In Torn Apart, author Susan Aihoshi draws from the experiences of her own family during “The Uprooting” of the Japanese in B.C. during WWII. Through young Mary’s eyes, readers experience this regrettable time in Canadian history firsthand.

    He can't wait to experience all the school has to offer, especially science club and hopefully the soccer team; but when he arrives, his hopes are dashed. First-year scholarship students aren't allowed to join clubs or teams - and not only that, they have to earn their keep doing menial chores. At first Omar is dejected - but then he gets angry when he learns something even worse - the school deliberately "weeds out" kids like him by requiring them to get significantly higher grades than kids who can pay tuition, making it nearly impossible for scholarship students to graduate. It's a good thing that in his favorite class, he’s learned the importance of being stubbornly optimistic. So with the help of his tightknit new group of friends - and with the threat of expulsion looming over him - he sets out to do what seems impossible: change a rigged system.

    Can he escape? From multi-award-winning Ellie Crowe and Scott Peters.16-year-old Josh is thrilled to be a crew member aboard the mighty USS Indianapolis. But when a Japanese torpedo strikes in the middle of the night, it tears the warship in half. Josh is thrown from the deck and plunged deep into the black ocean. In horror, he watches the massive vessel begin its death plunge, threatening to pull him down with it. Josh is no swimmer. He's a baseball player from San Antonio, Texas. He's way out of his element. Soon, hundreds of sharks begin to circle. He's living his worst nightmare, but for how long? Can he survive without a lifeboat, food or water in a sea of countless hungry sharks? Every hour is a fight because if he gives up, he'll never make it home. But does he have what it takes to survive? With no rescue team in sight, can Josh ever hope to escape?On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed at 15 minutes past midnight. It sank in 12 minutes. The survivors spent four days fighting off the deadliest shark attacks in history.This is the 3rd children's book in the I Escaped Series about brave kids who face real-world challenges and find ways to escape. Sure to appeal to fans of books like I Survived by New York Times Bestseller Lauren Tarshis, stories about the Titanic, and readers of Alan Gratz.A study guide is available at bit.ly/sharkescapeAn adrenaline-charged tale of bravery and friendship during a terrible tragedy in American history.

    . . It's a glorious summer and Erin and Martha are both stuck at Oak Hill Home for the Elderly. Misunderstood and feeling ignored, they are equally frustrated by the situation. But as Erin learns to listen to Martha, she discovers some very important lessons about making her own voice heard.

    Mei-ling works after school, and her father holds down several jobs, in a frantic effort to come up with the head tax that will allow her mother and brother to come to Canada. They must have that money before the Exclusion Act bars any more Chinese from immigrating. Mei-ling cannot stop thinking about what will happen if they are unable to come up with the money to reunite their family?

    There are between 6 and 10 lessons.Activities in this lesson include Fill in the Blank, Multiple Choice, True and False, Comprehension, Encyclopedia Skills Activity, Journal Activity, Vocabulary, Sequencing, Handwriting, Main Idea, Prediction, ComparisonLiterature Skills Activities including: Main Character, Main Setting, Main Problem, Possible Solutions, Character Traits, Character Interaction, Cause and Effect, Description, Pyramid of Importance, Villain vs. Hero.Creative Writing Activities including: Letter, Fairy Tale, Mystery, Science Fiction, Fable, Dream or Nightmare, Tall Tale, Memoir, Newberry Award, A Different Ending.Writing Skills Activities including: Description, Expository, Dialogue, Process, Point of View, Persuasion, Compare and Contrast, Sequel, Climax and Plot Analysis.Poetry Skills Activities including: Couplet, Triplet, Quinzain, Haiku, Cinquain, Tanka, Diamanté, Lantern and Shape Poem.Create a Newspaper Layout Activities including: Editorial, Travel, Advice Column, Comics, Society News, Sports, Obituary, Weddings, Book Review, Want Ads, Word Search.Poster Board Activities including: Collage, Theater Poster, Wanted Poster, Coat of Arms, Story Quilt, Chalk Art, Silhouette, Board Game Construction, Door Sign, Jeopardy.We also offer an extended version of this unit which comes in a PDF format and offers Lapbook instructions, Hands on Art and Creative Art activities. If you purchase this unit study and let us know by sending us proof of purchase, we will download the extended version of this full unit with the additional activities in PDF version to you for $1 more.

    Josh just wants to run and hide. If only there were a club to help downtrodden eleven-year-olds escape their parents' ambitions! But since no such club exists, Josh has to invent one--he calls it Dunces Anonymous, and before he knows it, the membership is up to three.Magnolia and Wang help Josh lose the school presidential election, but that's just the beginning of the club's activities. Magnolia, pressured by her mom into trying out for the role of Juliet in the school's play, finds herself fending off the advances of an overly amorous Romeo. Wang's father has forced him to join the school chess club, but Wang desperately wants to take fencing lessons instead.As the three friends try to free Magnolia from the school play, liberate Wang from the chess club and get rid of horrible Stacey Hogarth, who has vowed to become the new president of Dunces Anonymous, they realize that they all have talents--if only their parents could see them.

    Does she have what it takes?

    Scorned by the father who was incapable of showing him affection and nearly consumed by the mean streets of Prince George’s County, Maryland, Carson did what no one else could: he saved himself. After joining the police force and building a family with his wife, Bunny, Carson is finally in control of his life in the enclave where African American wealth and privilege shares the same zip code with black American crime and tragedy. Both Carson and his wife have great careers and three beautiful children: Roslyn, Roseanne, and Juwan. Carson is a devoted father, determined not to be the father that Jimmy Blake was to him. But while Juwan’s astounding artistic talent is his father’s pride, the boy’s close relationship with classmate Will conjures up emotions and questions in Carson that threaten to spill over and poison the entire Blake family.And then, one night in March, nearing the end of a routine shift, Carson stops a young black man for speeding. He orders Paul Houston to exit the car and drop to his knees. But when Houston retrieves something from his waistband and turns to face Carson, three shots are fired, one man loses his life and two families are wrenched from everything that came before and hurled into the haunting future of everything that will come after. When it is revealed that Paul, a son of educators and a teacher in Southeast D.C., was only holding a cell phone, Carson’s carefully woven world begins to unravel.After is a penetrating work of discovery for a man whose life careens more than once off the edge of disaster. Golden’s astounding prose will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

    When aspiring photographer Dylan Moore is invited to join his best friend, Rohit Lal, on a family trip to India, he jumps at the chance to embark on an exciting journey just like their Lord of the Rings heroes, Frodo and Sam. But each boy comes to the trip with a problem: Rohit is desperate to convince his parents not to leave him behind in Mumbai to finish school, and Dylan is desperate to stay in India to prove himself as a photographer and to avoid his parents' constant fighting. Keeping their struggles to themselves threatens to tear the boys apart. But when disaster strikes, Dylan and Rohit realize they have to set aside their differences to navigate India safely, confront their family issues, and salvage their friendship.

    CREDIT CRUNCH THROWS LIBERTY PARFITT’S WORLD UPSIDE DOWNTaken away from the boarding school she loves, Liberty and her angry dad are forced to stay in a friend’s flat in a rough part of London where she finds herself in a school that’s locally known as ‘The Grave.' Without her best friend’s violin to play, Liberty feels as if her life couldn’t get any worse; then there’s the nasty Tyler boy and her dad’s depression and the gang by the canal… If only she had a mum, then things might be better – and what actually did happen to her mum? Well, there are the trunks in Dad’s bedroom and the violin on the bed and, once her curiosity is sparked, Liberty discovers a whole lot more about her past than she ever could have imagined.

    Theo, her lovable chocolate Lab, has been her faithful companion since she was born. But now, as a result of the Great Recession, Courtney's world is unraveling. Her father has been unemployed for a long time and the bank is about to foreclose on their home. Soon her family will be moving into an apartment that doesn't allow dogs. Heartbreakingly for Courtney that means Theo won't be able to come along. After unsuccessfully trying to find someone to take the old dog, Courtney's parents decide to take Theo to a no-kill animal shelter as a last resort. But when the day of reckoning arrives something completely unexpected occurs. It ends up leading Courtney on an extraordinary journey, which teaches her important life lessons and makes her understand that a dog's love is forever.

    Printz Honor Book, Lily wishes she could be like the other girls in her class. But how can she? As the only sensible person in her family, she never has time to hang out with friends. Someone has to stay home to look after her brother. Maybe she should fall in love! What could be less sensible that that? When her grandmother invites the whole family to a party, Lily cannot imagine how they will make it through the day. Her mother is always bringing home strange people. Lily doesn't even know her father . Her grandfather has disowned her brother. Her brother has a new girlfriend that no one has met. To top it all off, that day when her eye caught Daniel Steadman's just for a moment, she felt all woozy inside. If that was love, she isn't sure she likes the feeling. As the party approaches, all Lily can hope for is one whole and perfect day. Is it too much to ask?

    Hopeful to save one of her best friends, she joins the fight against the Capitol while finding solutions to her romantic dilemmas. Suzanne Collins implements elements of science fiction, romance, and action to craft a compelling conclusion to the highly rated trilogy. Read this all-encompassing review of "Mockingjay" first to get a complete overview of the book's style, plot, and characters. Explore the dark themes presented in "Mockingjay" while finding deeper meaning in Katniss' fight against a corrupted government. This expert review offers critical opinions and covers the book's positive and negative aspects. Despite the futuristic setting of "Mockingjay," Suzanne Collins employs deeper messages that are relevant to modern audiences. The good pacing and short yet poignant sentences make this novel accessible to teens as well as adults. Read how Katniss uses her survival instincts to fight for not only her own life but the lives of everyone in Panem. Sprinkled with hopeful moments, "Mockingjay" portrays a dark story that superbly wraps up the "Hunger Games" trilogy.