Special Collections
Jane Addams Children's Book Award Winners
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Bat 6
by Virginia Euwer WolffThe sixth-grade girls of Barlow and Bear Creek Ridge have been waiting to play in the annual softball game -- the Bat 6 -- for as long as they can remember.
But something is different this year. There's a new girl on both teams, each with a secret in her past that puts them on a collision course set to explode on game day. No one knows how to stop it. All they can do is watch...
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner
The Short Life Of Sophie Scholl
by Hermann Vinke and Ilse AichingerThe biography of the twenty-one year-old German student who was put to death for her anti-Nazi activities with the underground group called the White Rose.
Brave Girl
by Michelle MarkelFrom acclaimed author Michelle Markel and Caldecott Honor artist Melissa Sweet comes this true story of Clara Lemlich, a young Ukrainian immigrant who led the largest strike of women workers in U. S. history.
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.
Berries Goodman
by Emily Cheney NevilleThe Goodman family move to the suburbs and nine-year-old Berries finds his nearest playmate is a girl, Sandra. She is a year older than Berries, feels superior in many ways, and undertakes to teach him prejudice against Jews.
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner
Esperanza Rising (Scholastic Gold)
by Pam Muñoz RyanEsperanza Rising joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!Esperanza thought she'd always live a privileged life on her family's ranch in Mexico. She'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants, and Mama, Papa, and Abuelita to care for her. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard work, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances-because Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.
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.
Through My Eyes
by Ruby Bridges and Margo LundellOn November 14, 1960, a tiny six-year-old black child, surrounded by federal marshals, walked through a mob of screaming segregationists and into her school. From where she sat in the office, Ruby Bridges could see parents marching through the halls and taking their children out of classrooms. The next day, Ruby walked through the angry mob once again and into a school where she saw no other students. The white children did not go to school that day, and they wouldn't go to school for many days to come. Surrounded by racial turmoil, Ruby, the only student in a classroom with one wonderful teacher, learned to read and add. This is the story of a pivotal event in history as Ruby Bridges saw it unfold around her. Ruby's poignant words, quotations from writers and from other adults who observed her, and dramatic photographs recreate an amazing story of innocence, courage, and forgiveness. Ruby Bridges' story is an inspiration to us all.
The Perilous Road
by William O. SteeleChris Brabson hates Yankees, plain and simple. Not only are the Union troops down in Tennessee where they don't belong, but they helped themselves to all the supplies his family had saved for winter. And to add to it all, his brother joined up with the Union Army. How could he betray the south, Chris wonders.
Chris wants to prove his loyalty to the Confederate cause, any way he can. When he sees a Union wagon train cutting through the valley, he has his chance. He tells a spy where and how the Confederates can attack. But then he finds out that Jethro could be driving one of those Yankee wagons! Has he just caused the death of his own brother?
A Newbery Honor book and Jane Addams Children's Book Award Medal Winner
The Road from Home
by David KherdianAn extraordinary biography, this is also a record and reminder of yet another infamous holocaust in our century. Veron Dumehjian was born to a prosperous Armenian family, who lived in the Armenian quarter of the city of Aziziya, Turkey. Her early childhood was idyllic, until 1915, when the Turkish government, after years of persecuting its Christian minorities, decided to rid Turkey of its Armenian population. Veron was deported with her family and survived incredible hardship and suffering until, at the age of 16, she left for America as a "mail-order" bride. Poet-anthologist David Kherdian's story of his mother is a unique and gripping story of courage, survival and hope.
Newbery Medal Honor book
Separate Is Never Equal
by Duncan Tonatiuh
Almost 10 years before Brown vs. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California.
An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, Mendez was denied enrollment to a "Whites only" school.
Her parents took action by organizing the Hispanic community and filing a lawsuit in federal district court.
Their success eventually brought an end to the era of segregated education in California.
2015 Jane Addams Younger Reader Award,
2015 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Book
2015 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
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.
What Then Raman
by Shirley L. AroraA boy in India is the first in his village to learn to read and longs to buy a special book. He comes from a poor country family which has barely enough money to buy food. To earn more money, Raman works gathering plants for an American woman, and learns that with education comes responsibility as well as privilege.
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner
We've Got A Job
by Cynthia Y. LevinsonWe've Got a Job tells the little-known story of the 4,000 black elementary-, middle-, and high school students who voluntarily went to jail in Birmingham, Alabama, between May 2 and May 11, 1963. Fulfilling Mahatma Gandhi s and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. s precept to fill the jails, they succeeded where adults had failed in desegregating one of the most racially violent cities in America. Focusing on four of the original participants who have participated in extensive interviews, We've Got a Job recounts the astonishing events before, during, and after the Children's March.
The Mangrove Tree
by Susan L. Roth and Cindy TrumboreFor a long time, the people of Hargigo, a village in the tiny African country of Eritrea, were living without enough food for themselves and their animals. Then along came a scientist, Dr. Gordon Sato, who helped to change their lives for the better. And it all started by planting some special mangrove trees. This fascinating story of environmental innovation is a celebration of creativity, hard work and the ability of one man to make a positive difference in the lives of many.
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.
A Spirit to Ride the Whirlwind
by Athena V. LordTwelve-year-old Binnie, whose mother runs a company boarding house in Lowell, Massachusetts, begins working in a textile mill and is caught up in the 1836 strike of women workers.
A Long Walk to Water
by Linda Sue ParkA Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about a girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985.
The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours' walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya's in an astonishing and moving way.
Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan.
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner
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
Wilma Unlimited
by Kathleen KrullBefore Wilma was five years old, polio had paralyzed her left leg. Everyone said she would never walk again. But Wilma refused to believe it. Not only would she walk again, she vowed, she'd run. And she did run--all the way to the Olympics, where she became the first American woman to earn three gold medals in a single olympiad.
Sitti's Secrets
by Naomi Shihab NyeA young girl describes a visit to see her grandmother in a Palestinian village on the West Bank.
Rain Of Fire
by Marion Dane BauerWhen Steve's older brother Matthew, returning home after service in World War II, refuses to talk about his wartime experiences, Steve's friends begin to doubt the stories he has told of Matthew's heroism.
Martin's Big Words
by Doreen RappaportThis picture book biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. brings his life and the profound nature of his message to young children through his own words. Martin Luther King, Jr. , was one of the most influential and gifted speakers of all time. Doreen Rappaport uses quotes from some of his most beloved speeches to tell the story of his life and his work in a simple, direct way. A timeline and a list of additional books and web sites help make this a standout biography of Dr. King.
Winner of the Caldecott Honor
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner
The Escape of Oney Judge
by Emily Arnold MccullyWhen General George Washington is elected the first President of the United States, his wife chooses young Oney Judge, a house slave who works as a seamstress at Mount Vernon, to travel with her to the nation's capital in New York City as her personal maid. When the capital is moved to Philadelphia, the Washingtons and Oney move, too, and there Oney meets free blacks for the first time. At first Oney can't imagine being free - she depends on the Washingtons for food, warmth, and clothing. But then Mrs. Washington tells Oney that after her death she will be sent to live with Mrs. Washington's granddaughter. Oney is horrified because she knows it is likely that she will then be sold to a stranger - the worst fate she can imagine. Oney realizes she must run.
A Place Where Sunflowers Grow
by Amy Lee-TaiWhile she and her family are interned at Topaz Relocation Center during World War II, Mari gradually adjusts as she enrolls in an art class, makes a friend, plants sunflowers and waits for them to grow.