middle grade Archives - Page 113 of 366

The Other Side of the River
by Alda P. Dobbs (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Petra Luna is in America, having escaped the Mexican Revolution and the terror of the Federales. Now that they are safe, Petra and her family can begin again, in this country that promises so much. Still, twelve-year-old Petra knows that her abuelita, little sister, and baby brother depend on her to survive. She leads her family from a smallpox-stricken refugee camp on the Texas border to the buzzing city of San Antonio, where they work hard to build a new life. And for the first time ever, Petra has a chance to learn to read and write.

Yet Petra also sees in America attitudes she thought she’d left behind on the other side of the Río Grande–people who look down on her mestizo skin and bare feet, who think someone like her doesn’t deserve more from life. Petra wants more. Isn’t that what the revolution is about? Her strength and courage will be tested like never before as she fights for herself, her family, and her dreams.

Snippet: “I’m not afraid to work!” I blurted. I turned to Abuelita, who stared at the ground in silence. It burned me inside that she wouldn’t stand up for me and tell Doña Juanita all I’d done in our journey. I had to speak up for myself.

Hero for the Hungry: The Life and Work of Norman Borlaug
by Peggy Thomas (Author) and Sam Kalda (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Can a quiet Iowa farm boy grow up to change the world? Norman Ernest Borlaug did.

Born in 1914, raised on a small farm, and educated in a one-room schoolhouse, Norman Borlaug learned to work hard and excelled in sports, and later studied forestry in college, eventually becoming a plant scientist.

Even from a young age, Norman Borlaug dedicated his life’s work to ending world hunger. Working in obscurity in the wheat fields of Mexico in the 50s and 60s, Norm and his team developed disease-resistant plants, and when widespread famine threatened India and Pakistan, Norm worked alongside poor farmers, battled bureaucracy, and fearlessly stood up to heads of state to save millions of lives from mass starvation.

Often called the “Father of the Green Revolution,” Norm helped lay the groundwork for agricultural technological advances that alleviated world hunger, and he went on to win the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1970. He was a true hero for the hungry.

Snippet: The car stops. Norm’s wife steps out. Alarm bells go off in Norm’s head. Margaret looks flustered, which isn’t like her at all.

Norm hurries down the row to the end of the ditch. “What’s wrong?” he calls out. Has one of the children been in an accident? Is his mother or father sick? It has to be something urgent for Margaret to drive all the way out here from Mexico City.

Margaret shakes her head and hollers, “Norman, you’ve won the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Now it’s Norm’s turn to shake his head. “No. No,” he says calmly. “That can’t be, Margaret. Someone’s pulling your leg.”

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!