Rickshaw Girl

New York Public Library’s “100 Best Children's Books of the Past 100 Years” Jane Addams Honor Book Maine Library Association Lupine Honor Book ALA Amelia Bloomer Project Award Book Bank Street Best Children's Books List (Starred) Association of Children's Booksellers Best Book The moving and critically acclaimed story of a young, artistic Bangladeshi girl who bravely defies tradition in order to support her family through hard times Naima is a talented painter of traditional alpana patterns, which Bangladeshi women and girls paint on their houses for special celebrations. But Naima is not satisfied just painting alpana. She wants to help earn money for her family, like her best friend, Saleem, does for his family. When Naima's rash effort to help puts her family deeper in debt, she draws on her resourceful nature and her talents to bravely save the day. Includes a glossary of Bangla words and an author's note about a changing Bangladesh and microfinance.

When a tiger cub goes missing from the reserve, Neil is determined to find her before the greedy Gupta gets his hands on her to kill her and sell her body parts on the black market. Neil's parents, however, are counting on him to study hard and win a prestigious scholarship to study in Kolkata. Neil doesn't want to leave his family or his island home and he struggles with his familial duty and his desire to maintain the beauty and wildness of his island home in West Bengal's Sunderbans.

Two Burmese boys, one a Karenni refugee and the other the son of an imprisoned Burmese doctor, meet in the jungle and in order to survive they must learn to trust each other.

This novel marks the peak of Lao She's career as a professional writer and registers a new approach to the representation of China in its absurdist situation. It can be read as an "epic" of modern China.

Abbie Adams is a witch. She can't tell anyone, even her best friend, Callie, who notices Abbie acting strange. Instead she uses memory-erasing spells to keep things under control. Abbie hopes for some normalcy when her father brings home a kitten, but when Abbie looks into its eyes, she sees a trapped boy. Now Abbie needs her magic more than ever. Saving him becomes even more important when her family realizes the kitten is actually the young Thomas Edison. The world will be a much different place if they can't return him to create his famous inventions!

Ana loves stories. She often makes them up to help her little brother fall asleep. But in her small village there are only a few books and she has read them all. One morning, Ana wakes up to the clip-clop of hooves, and there before her, is the most wonderful sight: a traveling library resting on the backs of two burros‑all the books a little girl could dream of, with enough stories to encourage her to create one of her own. Inspired by the heroic efforts of real-life librarian Luis Soriano, award-winning picture book creators Monica Brown and John Parra introduce readers to the mobile library that journeys over mountains and through valleys to bring literacy and culture to rural Colombia, and to the children who wait for the BiblioBurro. A portion of the proceeds from sales of this book was donated to Luis Soriano's BiblioBurro program.

In the timely yet timeless picture book Home Is in Between, critically acclaimed author Mitali Perkins and illustrator Lavanya Naidu describe the experience of navigating multiple cultures and embracing the complex but beautiful home in between. Shanti misses the warm monsoon rains in India. Now in America, she watches fall leaves fly past her feet. Still, her family’s apartment feels like a village: Mama cooking luchi, funny stories in Bangla, and Baba’s big laugh. But outside, everything is different – trick-or-treating, ballet class, and English books. Back and forth, Shanti trudges between her two worlds. She remembers her village and learns her new town. She watches Bollywood movies at home and Hollywood movies with her friends. She is Indian. She is also American. How should she define home?

From award-winning author Mitali Perkins and illustrator Sara Palacios comes Between Us and Abuela, a timely debut picture book about love overcoming the border fences between Mexico and the United States. It's almost time for Christmas, and Maria is traveling with her mother and younger brother, Juan, to visit their grandmother on the border of California and Mexico. For the few minutes they can share together along the fence, Maria and her brother plan to exchange stories and Christmas gifts with the grandmother they haven't seen in years. But when Juan's gift is too big to fit through the slats in the fence, Maria has a brilliant idea. She makes it into a kite that soars over the top of the iron bars. Here is a heartwarming tale of multi-cultural families, and the miracle of love.

This elegant young adult novel captures the immigrant experience for one Indian-American family with humor and heart. Told in alternating teen voices across three generations, You Bring the Distant Near explores sisterhood, first loves, friendship, and the inheritance of culture--for better or worse. From a grandmother worried that her children are losing their Indian identity to a daughter wrapped up in a forbidden biracial love affair to a granddaughter social-activist fighting to preserve Bengali tigers, award-winning author Mitali Perkins weaves together the threads of a family growing into an American identity. Here is a sweeping story of five women at once intimately relatable and yet entirely new.

This beautiful picture book celebrates the power of imagination and an appreciation of the natural world. A young girl finds a starfish on the beach and wants to show it to her mother at home, but doesn’t want to take it from its home. With encouragement from her dad and a little imagination, Ana is able to let the sea star go and yet keep it with her at the same time. This beautiful picture book celebrates the power of imagination and an appreciation of the natural world. Back matter invites children into the lives and experiences of a jellyfish, stingray, loggerhead turtle and other sea creatures. “The sea star waited as the sand settled around it. Then slowly, slowly it crept home to the sea grass meadow on hundreds of tiny tube feet.” “Ana watched a snowy plover grab its dinner from the surf. Then the tiny bird skittered across the sand. Ana and Papa followed their shadows home.”