Special Collections
Jane Addams Children's Book Award Winners
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Many Smokes, Many Moons
by Jamake HighwaterWith emphasis on the tribes in North America, this book uses the art and artifacts of various Indian cultures to illustrate events affecting their history from earliest times through 1973.
The Endless Steppe
by Esther HautzigA young Polish girl, her father, her mother, and her grandmother are taken prisoner by the Russians during World War II, evicted from their home, and shipped in a filthy cattle car to a forced-labor camp in a remote, impoverished Siberian village. For four terrible years, the family struggles for beds, food, clothing, fuel--all the everyday things that one takes for granted. Despite bitter hardships, the family makes a new life with new friends. And they never lose their deep affection and trust in one another. Esther Rudomin Hautzig's account of her childhood in Siberia is a magnificent story of the triumph of the human spirit.
A Jane Addams Children's Book Award Winner.
The Little Fishes
by Erik Christian HaugaardThe story of a twelve-year-old Italian boy who, while suffering under German occupation, struggles to protect his spirit and humanity which was his late mothers only wish.
Delivering Justice
by Jim HaskinsA respected biographer teams up with an acclaimed artist to tell the story of the mail carrier who orchestrated the Great Savannah Boycott -- and was instrumental in bringing equality to his community. "Grow up and be somebody," Westley Wallace Law's grandmother encouraged him as a young boy living in poverty in segregated Savannah, Georgia. Determined to make a difference in his community, W.W. Law assisted blacks in registering to vote, joined the NAACP and trained protesters in the use of nonviolent civil disobedience, and, in 1961, led the Great Savannah Boycott. In that famous protest, blacks refused to shop in downtown Savannah. When city leaders finally agreed to declare all of its citizens equal, Savannah became the first city in the south to end racial discrimination. A lifelong mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, W.W. Law saw fostering communication between blacks and whites as a fundamental part of his job. As this affecting biography makes clear, this "unsung hero" delivered far more than the mail to the citizens of the city he loved.
Anthony Burns
by Virginia HamiltonThe &“unforgettable&” novel from the Newbery Medal–winning author tells the true story of a runaway slave whose capture and trial set off abolitionist riots (Kirkus Reviews).Anthony Burns is a runaway slave who has just started to build a life for himself in Boston. Then his former owner comes to town to collect him. Anthony won&’t go willingly, though, and people across the city step forward to make sure he&’s not taken. Based on the true story of a man who stood up against the Fugitive Slave Law, Hamilton&’s gripping account follows the battle in the streets and in the courts to keep Burns a citizen of Boston—a battle that is the prelude to the nation&’s bloody Civil War.
Paul Robeson (Crowell Biographies)
by Eloise GreenfieldA biography of the black man who became a famous singer, actor, and spokesman for equal rights for his people.
Waiting For The Rain
by Sheila GordonThis novel shows the bonds of friendship under the strain of apartheid as two lifelong friends, Tengo and Frikkie, come of age amidst the tragedy of South Africa.
Natural History
by M. B. GoffsteinText and illustrations descibe the riches of the earth and how people can promote peace and goodwill by sharing equitably with each other and their fellow creatures.
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner
Emma's Poem
by Linda GlaserGive me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...
Who wrote these words? And why?
In 1883, Emma Lazarus, deeply moved by an influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe, wrote a sonnet that was to give voice to the Statue of Liberty. Originally a gift from France to celebrate our shared national struggles for liberty, the Statue, thanks to Emma's poem, slowly came to shape our hearts, defining us as a nation that welcomes and gives refuge to those who come to our shores.
Jane Addams Children's Book Award Winner
We Will Not Be Silent
by Russell Freedman"Among the wealth of good Holocaust literature available, Freedman's volume stands out for its focus and concision, effectively placing the White Rose in its historical context, telling the story of Nazi Germany without losing the focus on the White Rose, and doing so in just over 100 pages." (Kirkus starred review)In his signature eloquent prose, backed up by thorough research, Newbery medalist and nonfiction master Russell Freedman tells the story of Austrian-born Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie. They belonged to Hitler Youth as young children, but began to doubt the Nazi regime.As older students, the Scholls and a few friends formed the White Rose, a campaign of active resistance to Hitler and the Nazis. Risking imprisonment or even execution, the White Rose members distributed leaflets urging Germans to defy the Nazi government.Their belief that freedom was worth dying for will inspire young readers to stand up for what they believe in. Archival photographs and prints, source notes, bibliography, index.A Sibert Honor Book
Kids at Work
by Russell FreedmanLewis Hine's photographs expose the chilling reality of the inhumane working conditions American children endured during the early twentieth century. Hines's photographs of children at work were so devastating that they convinced the American people that Congress must pass child labor laws.
People Are Important
by Eva Knox EvansExplains the origins of communication and languages and how customs and symbols mean different things to different peoples.
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner
The Surrender Tree
by Margarita EngleIt is 1896. Cuba has fought three wars for independence and still is not free. People have been rounded up in reconcentration camps with too little food and too much illness. Rosa is a nurse, but she dares not go to the camps. So she turns hidden caves into hospitals for those who know how to find her.
Black, white, Cuban, Spanish—Rosa does her best for everyone. Yet who can heal a country so torn apart by war? Acclaimed poet Margarita Engle has created another breathtaking portrait of Cuba.
The Surrender Tree is a 2009 Newbery Honor Book, the winner of the 2009 Pura Belpre Medal for Narrative and the 2009 Bank Street - Claudia Lewis Award, and a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Parvana's Journey
by Deborah EllisIn this sequel to "The Breadwinner, " the Taliban still control Afghanistan, but Kabul is in ruins. Twelve-year-old Parvana's father has just died, and her mother, sister, and brother could be anywhere in the country. Parvana sets out alone to find them, masquerading as a boy, and she meets other children who are victims of war.
The Breadwinner
by Deborah EllisYoung Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan. Because Parvana's father has a foreign education, he is arrested by the Taliban. The family becomes increasingly desperate until Parvana conceives a plan.
Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth Educator, Feminist, and Anti-Lynching Civil Rights Leader
by Michelle DusterIda B. Wells, Voice of Truth is an inspiring picture book biography of the groundbreaking journalist and civil rights activist as told by her great-granddaughter Michelle Duster and illustrated by Coretta Scott King Award Honoree artist Laura Freeman.
The Wheel of King Asoka
by Ashok DavarA brief account of King Asoka and how he ruled over his dynasty making it powerful and symbolized Ashoka Chakra. Throughout centuries the wheel of King Asoka has been there to inspire us to live as did this great king of India - in peace and love.
Sylvia and Aki
by Winifred ConklingAt the start of World War II, Japanese American third-grader Aki and her family are sent to an internment camp in Poston, Arizona, while Mexican American third-grader Sylvia's family leases their Orange County, California, farm and begins a fight to stop school segregation.
Amifika
by Lucille Clifton and Thomas DigraziaWhen Amifika hears that his mother is going to get rid of things his father won't remember, Amifika thinks he might be one of those things since he can't remember his father. So, he looks for a place to hide...
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner
Middle Passage
by Tom Feelings and John Henrik ClarkeThe Middle Passage is the name given to one of the most tragic ordeals in history: the cruel and terrifying journey of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean.
In this seminal work, master artist Tom Feelings tells the complete story of this horrific diaspora in sixty-four extraordinary narrative paintings. Achingly real, they draw us into the lives of the millions of African men, women, and children who were savagely torn from their beautiful homelands, crowded into disease-ridden "death ships", and transported under nightmarish conditions to the so-called New World.
An introduction by noted historian Dr. John Henrik Clarke traces the roots of the Atlantic slave trade and gives a vivid summary of its four centuries of brutality. The Middle Passage reaches us on a visceral level. No one can experience it and remain unmoved. But while we absorb the horror of these images, we also can find some hope in them. They are a tribute to the survival of the human spirit, and the humanity won by the survivors of the Middle Passage belongs to us all.
Winner of the Coretta Scott King Medal
The Princess And The Admiral
by Charlotte Pomerantz and Tony ChenA small patch of dry Asian land called the Tiny Kingdom serves as the home for a community of poor farmers and fisherfolk. The land, as poor as its people, holds no gold, silver, or other riches. For this reason, no country has ever waged war against the Tiny Kingdom, and the people have lived in peace for 100 years. But when Princess Mat Mat, ruler of the Tiny Kingdom, meets with her advisers to plan a great peace celebration, they bring bad news. A large fleet of warships is sailing toward them and will attack their people in just two days. With no army, no forts, and no arsenal, how can the princess defend her country? Her wisdom testifies that the most heroic action does not win wars, but prevents them. Princess Mat Mat devises a plan that includes, as an unexpected ally, the moon.
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner
Finish the Fight!
by Veronica Chambers and The Staff of The New York TimesWho was at the forefront of women's right to vote? We know a few famous names, like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but what about so many others from diverse backgrounds—black, Asian, Latinx, Native American, and more—who helped lead the fight for suffrage? On the hundredth anniversary of the historic win for women's rights, it's time to celebrate the names and stories of the women whose stories have yet to be told. Gorgeous portraits accompany biographies of such fierce but forgotten women as Yankton Dakota Sioux writer and advocate Zitkála-Šá, Mary Eliza Church Terrell, who cofounded the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), and Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, who, at just sixteen years old, helped lead the biggest parade in history to promote the cause of suffrage. FINISH THE FIGHT will fit alongside important collections that tell the full story of America's fiercest women. Perfect for fans of GOOD NIGHT STORIES FOR REBEL GIRLS and BAD GIRLS THROUGHOUT HISTORY.
Journey of the Sparrows
by Fran Leeper BussMaria and her brother and sister, Salvadoran refugees, are smuggled into the United States in crates and try to eke out a living in Chicago with the help of a sympathetic family.
Queenie Peavy
by Robert BurchQueenie Peavy is the worst troublemaker at school and the best shot in Georgia with her father in jail, why shouldn't she be angry? But Queenie wonders what would happen if she tried to behave herself, just for one day...
Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom
by Susan Buckley and Lynda Blackmon Lowery and Elspeth Leacock and Pj LoughranA memoir of the Civil Rights Movement from one of its youngest heroes
As the youngest marcher in the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Albama, Lynda Blackmon Lowery proved that young adults can be heroes. Jailed eleven times before her fifteenth birthday, Lowery fought alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. for the rights of African-Americans. In this memoir, she shows today's young readers what it means to fight nonviolently (even when the police are using violence, as in the Bloody Sunday protest) and how it felt to be part of changing American history.
Straightforward and inspiring, this beautifully illustrated memoir brings readers into the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, complementing Common Core classroom learning and bringing history alive for young readers.
Winner of the Sibert Honor
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner