Book picks similar to
Cowboy on the Steppes by Song Nan Zhang


china
history
history-4-it-modern-read-aloud
young-adult

Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter


Adeline Yen Mah - 1999
    Adeline's affluent, powerful family considers her bad luck after her mother dies giving birth to her. Life does not get any easier when her father remarries. She and her siblings are subjected to the disdain of her stepmother, while her stepbrother and stepsister are spoiled. Although Adeline wins prizes at school, they are not enough to compensate for what she really yearns for -- the love and understanding of her family.Following the success of the critically acclaimed adult bestseller Falling Leaves, this memoir is a moving telling of the classic Cinderella story, with Adeline Yen Mah providing her own courageous voice.

The China Coin


Allan Baillie - 1991
    Allan Baillie's masterpiece – an exciting journey into China set against the background of Tiananmen Square.

Red Scarf Girl


Ji-li Jiang - 1997
    But it's also the year that China's leader, Mao Ze-dong, launches the Cultural Revolution—and Ji-li's world begins to fall apart. Over the next few years, people who were once her friends and neighbors turn on her and her family, forcing them to live in constant terror of arrest. And when Ji-li's father is finally imprisoned, she faces the most difficult dilemma of her life.

Emmy's Journey (Two Feather's Legacy Book 2)


Lila M Beckham - 2015
    Determined to do exactly what she sets her mind to, she explores the mountains and valleys around her home with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a keen eye that misses nothing. When her mother dies, Emmaline, Emmy for short, is thrust into the mystical, spiritual world of her mother’s native peoples, the Tsalagi, better known as the Cherokee. Given the power of observation and shape shifting by her immortal g-great-grandfather Two Feathers, who is the keeper of the Sacred Fire’s Ashes, Emmy is told that she must carry on her mother’s duties and is charged with the task of becoming the family “Ka no he ha Ka no Ge sdi,” the Storyteller. She is supposed to remember and pass down her family’s history and tell about their ancestors. As Emmy grows older and matures, her explorations become more advanced. She discovers a hidden path that takes her beyond an ancient willow tree to a layer of the world that at first seems much like her own, but she soon discovers that it is quite different… When she stays longer than allowed a mortal, she discovers that her grandfather can travel between space and time and communicate with all peoples between the layers of her world. Emmy’s Journey is a voyage through time and into the mysterious spiritual and mystical realms of the Cherokees and a world that most never knows exists.

Bound Feet & Western Dress


Pang-Mei Natasha Chang - 1996
    Growing up in the perilous years between the fall of the last emperor and the Communist Revolution, Chang Yu-i's life is marked by a series of rebellions: her refusal as a child to let her mother bind her feet, her scandalous divorce, and her rise to Vice President of China's first women's bank in her later years.In the alternating voices of two generations, this dual memoir brings together a deeply textured portrait of a woman's life in China with the very American story of Yu-i's brilliant and assimilated grandniece, struggling with her own search for identity and belonging. Written in pitch-perfect prose and alive with detail, Bound Feet and Western Dress is the story of independent women struggling to emerge from centuries of customs and duty.

Mao's Last Dancer


Li Cunxin - 2003
    In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice.THE BASIS FOR A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

Children's Book: How to Be a Superhero (A Fun Illustrated Children's Picture Book; Perfect Bedtime Story)


Rachel Yu - 2011
    It’s the perfect bedtime story for the entire family to enjoy. Teen author, Rachel Yu, is residing happily ever after, in her own Castle of Brilliance. Another quality children picture book from the father and daughter team of Michael and Rachel Yu.

War Horse


Steven Spielberg - 2011
    One of the great stories of friendship and war, the successful novel War Horse not only inspired the award-winning stage play, but also inspired one of the great directors in film history to commit his talent, vision, and resources to make this extraordinary movie, which was shot in the countryside of England."I first fell in love with the story of War Horse because I was moved by the relationship between a boy and an animal in Michael Morpurgo's novel and the screenplay by Richard Curtis and Lee Hall," writes Steven Spielberg in his foreword. "But, ultimately, I made it because of what the book and the screenplay say about courage. I t is about the courage of the horse Joey and what he endures to survive, and the courage of Albert in his attempt to find his best friend in a time of war. With every frame of this film, it was my hope to issue a call for courage in our daily lives. A call to ‘be brave.'"Additional forewords by producer Kathleen Kennedy, novelist Michael Morpurgo, and co-screenwriter Richard Curtis reveal their feelings about the story and the process of moving it from page to screen. The main body of the book is divided into three sections:Part 1: Joey's Journey—A visual retelling, along with script excerpts and filmmakers' comments, of the journey taken by Joey, the horse trained by his beloved Albert, from the striking verdant countryside of Dartmoor, Devon, to training in the British cavalry, to trench warfare in France.Part 2: The Making of War Horse—An insider's glimpse of the movie-making process highlighted with fascinating insights from the international cast and the crew about the casting, locations, costumes, horse training, and much more.Part 3: The History of War Horses—An illuminating section on the role of horses in battle, illustrated with iconic images from history, vivid drawings, paintings and photographs.This beautiful book is a testament to what can be done when people become impassioned about a goal. As producer Kathleen Kennedy expresses in her foreword: "War Horse was one of those unusual productions that comes together in an incredibly short time, and for all the right reasons. Everyone involved understood the film's potential, the richness of the characters, the depth of emotion, and the strength of the story's message."

Daughter of the Regiment


Jackie French - 1998
    It was bright and strangely piercing, like a bit of sun had wandered in by mistake. Who is the girl through the hole in the chook-house? Is it a hole in time? And how can you help someone who lived more than 150 years ago. Harry dreads leaving the farm to go to boarding school next year. Cissie is an orphaned girl living with the soldiers at the garrison 150 years ago. Something more powerful than time has drawn them both together.

The Angel of Auschwitz: [Extended Version]


S.A. Falconi - 2014
    I vow to you and to the leaders that you set for me, absolute allegiance until death. So help me God!”The SS Oath of Loyalty – words that became the very death sentence for millions of Jews and Germans alike. Six decades later, we still ask ourselves why and how did it happen? "The Angel of Auschwitz", a tragic epic of historical fiction, explores these inquiries through the eyes of an unlikely antagonist-turned-protagonist – the Nazi soldier."The Angel of Auschwitz" chronicles the life of Wolfgang Bremmer, an adolescent boy from the hills of Hamburg during the Nazi occupation of Germany. As a Hitler Youth, Wolfgang is captivated by the prowess of the Nazis and thrust into the ideologies of Adolf Hitler. With an adoration for the new Fűhrer and the Third Reich, Wolfgang enlists as a young man in the SS-Death’s Head Division, the gatekeepers of the regime’s most lethal concentration camp, Dachau. It is here he is introduced to Theodor Eicke’s “School of Violence” and becomes one of the most ruthless guards the SS has ever seen. After joining Hitler’s Mobile Killing Units, he participates in the invasion of Poland and the evacuation and extermination of its Jewish inhabitants. Wolfgang is the ideal Nazi warrior: vicious, ruthless, and entirely intolerant.But evil erodes even the hardest of hearts and Wolfgang grows weary in the midst of all the death and destruction. His conscience begins to return and with that a gnawing guilt for what he and his fellow Germans have done and are about to do. But with the fear of punishment for treason, Wolfgang is trapped in the cyclone of violence. That is, until he is promoted as a guard at the Reich’s most sophisticated concentration camp, Auschwitz. In the belly of such a beast as Auschwitz, Wolfgang discovers a secret that will not only save his own life and salvation, but the lives of so many prisoners as well.

Fatty Legs: A True Story


Christy Jordan-Fenton - 2010
    Faced with unceasing pressure, her father finally agrees to let her make the five-day journey to attend school, but he warns Margaret of the terrors of residential schools.At school Margaret soon encounters the Raven, a black-cloaked nun with a hooked nose and bony fingers that resemble claws. She immediately dislikes the strong-willed young Margaret. Intending to humiliate her, the heartless Raven gives gray stockings to all the girls -- all except Margaret, who gets red ones. In an instant Margaret is the laughingstock of the entire school.In the face of such cruelty, Margaret refuses to be intimidated and bravely gets rid of the stockings. Although a sympathetic nun stands up for Margaret, in the end it is this brave young girl who gives the Raven a lesson in the power of human dignity.Complemented by archival photos from Margaret Pokiak-Fenton's collection and striking artwork from Liz Amini-Holmes, this inspiring first-person account of a plucky girl's determination to confront her tormentor will linger with young readers.

Three Cups of Tea


Sarah L. Thomson - 2006
    Includes new photos and illustrations, as well as a special interview by Greg’s twelve-year-old daughter, Amira, who has traveled with her father as an advocate for the Pennies for Peace program for children.

Little White Duck: A Childhood in China


Na Liu - 2012
    Da Qin—Big Piano—and her younger sister, Xiao Qin—Little Piano—live in the city of Wuhan with their parents. For decades, China's government had kept the country separated from the rest of the world. When their country's leader, Chairman Mao, dies, new opportunities begin to emerge. Da Qin and Xiao Qin soon learn that their childhood will be much different than the upbringing their parents experienced.

Mamma's Boarding House


John D. Fitzgerald - 1958
    A scarce Fitzgerald title.

Kidnapped and Sold By Indians -- True Story of a 7-Year-Old Settler Child (Annotated) (First-Hand Account Of Being Kidnapped By Indians)


Matthew Brayton - 2010
    Still, this first-hand account does shed much light on what it was really like to come under the charge of many different Indian tribes.Although Brayton’s treatment was not entirely negative or positive, his frank and blunt story does much to dispel the romantic stories that have been perpetuated about young settlers’ children who became Indian chattel. It does much to tell true history and dispel any deliberate or accidental revisions. In many cases the Indians treated Brayton well, but there can be no doubt that they stole from him and his family a life that would end up confused and stuck between two worlds. Although Brayton did finally unite with many of his natural family, he never stopped identifying with Native Americans, and he was forced to leave an Indian wife and child behind. In fact, when the War of Rebellion or Civil War broke out, Brayton enlisted and served in an American Indian brigade. Chet DembeckPublisher of One