Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Geography & Cultures

A stray kitty gets a job in a sumo stable, chasing mice in exchange for food. But when eating like a sumo wrestler slows our feline hero down, he realizes he must train like a wrestler, too. Through hard work and perseverance - and with a little help from a big buddy - SumoKitty is born! A funny and heartwarming story inspired by the Japanese saying, "Fall down seven times, stand up eight."

Thirteen-year-old Nandu lives in the newly established Royal Elephant Breeding Center on the edge of the jungle. Here, the King's elephants are to be raised under the protective watch of the stable. Nandu - along with his adoptive father Subba-sahib, his mentors, friends, and the rest of the elephant drivers - is tested by man and nature as earthquakes, drought, wild herds, and rumors of poachers threaten the center.

Otto and Sheed are the local sleuths in their zany Virginia town, masters of unraveling mischief using their unmatched powers of deduction. And as the summer winds down and the first day of school looms, the boys are craving just a little bit more time for fun, even as they bicker over what kind of fun they want to have. That is, until a mysterious man appears with a camera that literally freezes time.

Once upon a time there was a princess...who made a pit stop. While the birds and beasts changed her tires, her fairy godmother told her she was in last place! With just one lap left! She might as well give up! Give up? Not this princess! Instead, she hit the gas! Join Her Royal Highness in the driver's seat for a mad dash to the finish in this exciting ode to auto racing.

Christopher Columbus is one of the most famous explorers of all time, but he was neither the first nor last adventurer to ever stumble upon a great discovery. From the Silk Road of Asia to the icy shores of Antarctica, our knowledge of the world today is in large part due to several intrepid pioneers, risking life and limb for the sake of exploration. After all, setting off into the dark unknown requires an enormous amount of bravery. But every explorer quickly learns that courage and curiosity aren't enough to save you if you can't read a map or trespass on somebody else's land!

The fishermen on Lesvos call her Kanella because of her cinnamon color. She's a scrawny, nervous stray - intimidated by the harbor cats and the other dogs that compete for handouts on the pier. One spring day, a dinghy filled with weary, desperate strangers comes to shore. Other boats follow, crowded with refugees who are homeless and hungry. Kanella knows what that is like, and she follows them as they are taken to a temporary refugee camp set up in the parking lot of an abandoned nightclub. There she comes to trust a bearded man - an aid worker.

Learn bravery and independence with Luz. Luz stays strong on his journey by thinking of his family. His tale is truly a powerful representation of immigration and determination. His real-life adventure across the border will ignite hope in the hearts of every child who listens to this short Spanish story.

Every morning, I'm up at four o'clock. I brush my teeth, get dressed, and drag my sister Melanie to the car where Mami's waiting for us. ¡Se nos va hacer tarde! ¡Apurarse! For the next two hours, we'll be in the car driving—past tamale vendors (my favorite part), through la linea (my least favorite part), and across the US border. That's how we get to school every day. This is our normal. ¡Vamos!

Every morning, I'm up at four o'clock. I brush my teeth, get dressed, and drag my sister Melanie to the car where Mami's waiting for us. ¡Se nos va hacer tarde! ¡Apurarse! For the next two hours, we'll be in the car driving—past tamale vendors (my favorite part), through la linea (my least favorite part), and across the US border. That's how we get to school every day. This is our normal. ¡Vamos!

It's 1975, Tamil Nadu, South India, and nine-year-old Pavi is living a carefree life with her large intergenerational family. Everyday is an adventure. Why not steal 233 mangoes from the neighbor's tree? Or make up grand stories that take her to Jupiter? If only there wasn't a sadness lingering over the family. You see, her uncle Selva died just five months after she was born. Pavi may have been just a baby when Selva died, but she feels close to him, as if he's watching over her, helping her when she needs it. But she has so many questions about Selva's death.

Nosotros, la familia Vargas Ramírez, venimos de un lugar lejano al norte de Tenochtitlan llamado Iztapalapa, lugar de la loza sobre el agua. Una tierra rodeada de autos y pasto seco. Un sitio donde estaban repartidos los pedazos de nuestro pequeño mundo. Ahí vivimos algún tiempo, pero un día mi padre escuchó un canto hermoso de un ave que se elevaba y parecía decir tihui, tihui, tihui: vamos, vamos, vamos. Y así reunimos a nuestros amigos que conformaban ese pequeño mundo y decidimos partir hacia el norte, hacia el otro lado, hacia una vida mejor.

We, the Vargas Ramírez family, come from a faraway place north of Tenochtitlan called Iztapalapa, Land of Clay Upon Water. A land surrounded by cars and dry grass; a place where the pieces of our small world were scattered. For some time we lived there, but then one day my father heard a beautiful birdsong that rose up and appeared to say tihui, tihui, tihui: let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. And so we gathered up our friends who made up that small world and decided to head north, for the other side, and a better life.

Once Mariam decides to start a food business in the refugee camp where she’s spent her whole life, she must see her dream through. She will need money. She will need the right papers. People will tell her it’s impossible. They will tell her not to risk it. But with the women of the camp behind her, she is determined to make it happen.

Told from the perspective of a young refugee girl, debut children's book author and New Voices winner Maham Khwaja tells the story of a family forced to flee their home due to violence. Emotive illustrations by Daby Zainab Faidhi balance the family's love for one another and hope for the future with the harrowing journey to escape on foot, travel by boat, and then finally resettle in a safe place. Through it all, the young girl tries to hold on to all the pieces of her life before and find a way to rebuild a sense of home.

THE HARVEST FESTIVAL of Pongal is days away, and V. Malar could not be more excited for the celebration. With her aunt, uncle, and cousins Priya and Kamal flying in to visit her home in Pori, India, Malar and her parents have food to prepare and a house to clean, so they can be gracious hosts to their guests. When Priya and Kamal arrive, they take over Malar’s room and compare everything about Pori to their home in Seattle. Even when Malar shows them the farm animals and the local temple, her cousins whisper secrets to each other, laughing and making Malar feel left out.

Growing up, Jung-soon spent every moment she could at her grandparents' house. Dressing up and watching cartoons. Dyeing each other's fingernails with crushed balsam petals. Getting the whole neighborhood together to sweep their streets. Falling asleep together...just the three of them, happy. Grandfather was Grandmother's best and only friend. On every Jesa day, during the ancestral ritual, he would gently place the okchundang candy in her mouth, a big smile spreading across her face as it melted on her tongue.

Just like people, there are so many ways a city can be. And this lively book explores all of them. From quiet and dreamy to bright and buzzing, the magnificent diversity of our world is celebrated by connecting the uniqueness of its places with the people who live in them. Wild, gritty, bookish, or sheltering—if you were a city, how would YOU be?

Famous founding father Benjamin Franklin was a proud subject of the British Empire—until he wasn’t. It took nearly seventy years and seven not-so-easy steps to turn Benjamin Franklin from a loyal British subject to a British traitor—and a fired-up American revolutionary. In this light, whimsical narrative, young listeners learn how Franklin came to be a rebel, beginning with his childhood lesson in street smarts when he buys a whistle at an inflated price

Equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, Wrong Way Summer is a road-trip journey and coming-of-age story about one girl’s struggle to understand when a lie is really a lie, and when it’s something more: hope....

What is it like to walk away from your home? To leave behind everything and everyone you’ve ever known? Poetic, sensitive, and based on a true family history, Lost Words follows a young Armenian boy who sets out to find refuge to the day he finally finds the courage to share his story.