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

From Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner Katherine Rundell comes an exciting new novel about a group of kids who must survive in the Amazon after their plane crashes. Fred, Con, Lila, and Max are on their way back to England from Manaus when the plane they're on crashes and the pilot dies upon landing. For days they survive alone, until Fred finds a map that leads them to a ruined city, and to a secret.

Our beloved Harlem family is putting the VAN in Vanderbeekers as they hit the highway to give their dad the best birthday surprise EVER! Re-creating a road trip Papa never got the chance to take with his own father, the whole crew is packed and ready for a cross-country adventure. Things get off to a rocky start when the car breaks down on their way to pick up Papa. But they really veer off course when Laney discovers that Jessie and Orlando are interviewing at a college once they get to California.

McKenna Barney is trying to hide her worsening eyesight and has been isolating herself for the last year. But at the request of her little sister, she signs up for a commemorative mail run race in the Canadian wilderness - a race she doesn't know if she can even see to run. Winning would mean getting her disease - and her sister's - national media coverage, but it would also pit McKenna and her team of eight sled dogs against racers from across the globe for three days of shifting lake ice, sudden owl attacks, snow squalls, and bitterly cold nights.

Eleven-year-old Nhamo is running for her life. When the village witch finder decrees that she must marry a cruel stranger to propitiate an evil spirit, her only recourse is to steal a fishing boat and go looking for a father she has never met. Alone on the Musengezi River, Nhamo has meager resources to help her survive loneliness, hunger, wild animals, and even land mines.

Iqbal, a 13-year-old boy, fights for children's liberation. Bravely, he speaks out against children working long hours in carpet factories in Pakistan.

Grassina has always lived in the shadow of her perfect older sister, Chartreuse. But when a terrible spell leaves the Kingdom of Greater Greensward in great danger, it is Grassina who finds the magic to set things right.

Generations of young readers continue to fall in love with Marguerite Henry’s “horse stories.” In one of her most famous, King of the Wind, the author traces the ancestry of the great Kentucky Derby winner, Man o’ War, whose mysterious pedigree is linked to the noble line leading from the Godolphin Arabian.

Corinne La Mer isn't afraid of anything. Not scorpions, not the boys who tease her, and certainly not jumbies. They're just tricksters parents make up to frighten their children. Then one night Corinne chases an agouti all the way into the forbidden forest. Those shining, yellow eyes that followed her to the edge of the trees, they couldn't belong to a jumbie. Or could they?

Cats don’t really have nine lives, but they can visit nine different lives, anywhere, anytime. This is the secret Jason’s cat, Gareth, tells him. When Jason hears this, he begs to go along. Soon cat and boy find themselves in ancient Egypt on the first of nine fantastic adventures. With the wink of an eye, Jason and Gareth are transported to alluring settings in world history. On their travels they meet interesting and famous people, such as St. Patrick, and Leonardo Da Vinci. Whether the destination is Renaissance Italy or revolutionary America, their appearance never fails to cause a stir.

Twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang has brains, friends, and a bright future. Then Mao Zedong launches China’s infamous Cultural Revolution. Soon school is suspended and students are getting caught up in the fervor of Mao’s extreme politics. When Ji-li’s family is accused of capitalist crimes, all of her beautiful dreams burst like soap bubbles. Because Ji-li’s grandfather was a landlord, her family is harassed and humiliated. Their home is searched, and they live in constant fear. Nonetheless, Ji-li remains loyal to her beloved Chairman Mao....

Noble Prince Jen is the one person that his father, King Ta'i, trusts enough to send on a mission to the legendary kingdom of Tien-Kuo. The prince eagerly begins his quest bearing only enormous pride and humble gifts. From the onset, however, the young ruler marches headlong into misfortune. Separated from his faithful servant, the prince finds himself fending off murderers, falling prey to trickery, and searching for a village girl who plays a magic flute. But it isn’t until he faces his most challenging personal trial that the he fully realizes the power hidden in each humble gift.

After a blissful babyhood being cared for by her loving mother, Pangolina ventures out alone into the forest to become an independent adult, helped along by wise, older animal companions, including a civet and a bat. But one day, cruel hunters trap Pangolina, putting her into a cage along with her friends, and bring them to a market to be sold as wild game. Pangolina is especially vulnerable, since her scales are prized by humans who believe they have curative powers.

The author of My Name Is Maria Isabel offers an inspiring look at her childhood in Cuba in this collection that includes "Where the Flame Trees Bloom", "Under the Royal Palms", five new stories, and more. These true autobiographical tales from renowned Hispanic author and educator Alma Flor Ada are filled with family love and traditions, secrets and deep friendships, and a gorgeous, moving picture of the island of Cuba, where Alma Flor grew up.

When 12-year-old Prince Lev Lvov goes to live with his aunt at Falcon House, he takes his rightful place as heir to the Lvov family estate. Prince Lev dreams of becoming a hero of Russia like his great ancestors. But he'll discover that dark secrets haunt this house. Prince Lev is the only one who can set them free. Will he be the hero his family needs?

Tyler Stoudt’s first assignment in sixth grade is to make a family tree. Tyler has no idea how she will complete the project. The only family she has is Papa. Determined to do her best, she begins to ask her father questions about their family. When he becomes angry, Tyler wonders if the truth is worth the hurt she is causing. But her need to know outweighs everything else, and she presses him for answers. The story he reveals to her is nothing she ever expected.

In 1939 the Nazis invade Lodz, Poland, forcing four-year-old Syvia Perlmutter and 270,000 other Jews into a ghetto surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed men. Scared and confused, Syvia and the others have no idea how terrible their lives will soon be.

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.

A feisty princess befriends a mage’s apprentice—and finds she’s uncannily linked to a dragon—in a suspenseful fantasy charged with warmth and wit. Calen, a lonely young mage-to-be, never dreamed that Princess Meglynne would become his friend. And impulsive Meg never imagined that tending a baby dragon would "link" her to the creature -- for life. And now Meg’s sister is about to marry a prince to end a war between kingdoms, a celebration that Meg and Calen know is endangered by a murderous plot.

Calen is desperate to escape Krelig, the evil mage, but he knows he must first learn as much as he can from this powerful figure if there is to be any hope of defeating him. Princess Meg, who thinks Calen went with Krelig willingly, has been training with her dragon to fight the enemy forces threatening her kingdom. Calen must find a way back to Trelian and earn Meg’s trust again, or all is lost.

Meg will soon be named the princess-heir of Trelian, but her connection to her dragon, Jakl, is making her parents’ subjects uneasy. Calen is about to receive his first true mage’s mark, but the ceremony is disrupted by a mysterious magical attack. Will the people of Trelian accept a dragon princess as their future queen? Will Calen be able to forestall the ominous prophecies that predict a terrifying new danger?