Wonder World Book Cafe': Recent Episodes
Susan
In this cafe, I serve up books written mostly for middle school students and young adults. But, even though they’re written for our youth, you’ll find joy in these stories, too. Books written for these audiences are very often compelling for readers of all ages.
Break to You is set in a juvenile detention facility, and is told from alternating teen perspectives: Adriana’s and Jon’s. The authors hope to shed light on the often overlooked world of juvenile detention institutions.
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Release date 10/8/24. Jakob, 19, works the night shift at Bletchley, near London, with other brilliant minds and complex machines all working toward deciphering German messages during WWII. While his sister, Lizzie, 14, is deciphering messages potentially written by their mother proving Lizzie's belief that their mother is still alive despite being told she died in a bomb blast. Timing is everything.
Plenty of suspense with relatable sibling banter and serious riddles and puzzles will keep readers involved.
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Hello! With season six on the way, here I reintroduce myself as Wonder World Book Cafe's podcast host! You can look forward to episode 87 in the very (very) near future!
Joe Oak can rely on math and his grandmum; both are consistent. He cannot rely on food or his mom; both are inconsistent. Joe knows and experiences things kids shouldn't have to, yet being a survivor is his superpower.
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The deep devotion and respect Syrians have for their ancestral homeland is deeply moving and so beautiful. This is a story of history and hope, dreams and believing in a different future.
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Jude, her parents, and her favorite person in the whole world–her older brother–are living in Syria. With political unrest and safety concerns, Jude’s parents decide it’s time for Jude and her expectant mother to move to the United States. (One of my favorites from 2019 and still so relevant today.)
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In and out of foster care, twelve-year old Kita's story is heavy and hopeful. It won’t take but a few pages before readers become Kita’s biggest supporter.
In this graphic memoir, Pan lives with what he calls “The Puzzle.” This unwelcome, relentless Puzzle impacts nearly every part of his life. After nearly a decade, Pan finally discovers he has OCD and candidly explains living with and treatment for this condition.
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13 year-old Jake needs to quiet his inner-bully, the voice in his head so he can begin recovering from disordered eating. Based on the author's own experiences, this story is raw, honest, and necessary.
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Mia Tang is back in book 5 of the Front Desk Series. Readers will enjoy Mia at 13 years old while she explores San Francisco’s Chinatown and attends journalism camp.
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What does it mean to win? Explore this with Grace and Jonah, two highly competitive students, on their way to high school. Keeping Pace has plenty of relatable woes and joys, and heartbreaks and happinesses when it comes to friendships and first love.
Join 13 year-old Pandita as she adapts to MANY changes while honoring her ma's memory and attempting to right a wrong in her community. Set in the 1980s in California's Silicon Valley, a community is divided over affordable housing.
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Seventh-grader Mimi loves living on a beautiful island in Florida, but is appalled at all the plastic and styrofoam she finds on the beach. Inspired by the true story of the Wijsen Sisters of Bali (Bye Bye Plastic Bags), Mimi is determined to ban plastic bags in her community, but frustratingly discovers how many people, locally and online, don't support her.
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✨✨Welcome to Season 5! ✨✨
Written with so much heart, this middle grade novel, Across So Many Seas, spans more than 500 years and follows four girls from generations of Sephardic Jewish families. Incredibly woven together, each girl's story is part of hundreds of years of family history, heartbreak, and so, so much love.
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YA. Written in verse. Persian American, Omid, speaks Farsi and English and LOVES words, but he can't seem to find the right ones when he needs them, yet. A new found interest in listening to and writing Rap music (with a little help from Shakespeare) makes it possible for Omid to talk about his first crush, communicate with his Iranian grandparents, and share what it's like living in Arizona right after 9/11.
YA fans of poetry, rap, Shakespeare, and stories written in verse, here's to you!
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YA. Narrative nonfiction. Unputdownable. There are plenty of WWII and Holocaust stories for teens, though none quite like Impossible Escape. This is the true story of two men who survived an escape from Birkenau concentration camp intent on sharing with the world the atrocities of concentration camps. In doing so, Rudi Vrba and Adolph Wetzler saved 200,000 lives.
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- Historical fiction. Twelve-year old Amil and his family are settling into their new and hopefully safer home in Bombay, India after fleeing their homeland, just after India's Partition. Riots continue. Gandhi is assassinated. Amil is dealing with quite a lot on top of everything else. His relationship with his papa is strained, school is difficult, and he'd love to have a friend. Come along on Amil's journey in this companion story to The Night Diary.
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It seems 13 year-old Ruby has lost or is losing everything she has loved: her Ye-Ye, the beloved neighborhood bakery, her friends, and now her summer freedom. Set in San Francisco's Chinatown, Ruby is navigating a whole lot of change in her young life. Multigenerational love wrapped around these pages.
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1989 Dan’s first year of high school is a few short months away, and he’s about to embark on the biggest “out of his comfort zone” experience of his life, a 3 week study abroad program in Europe. Mix tapes, Kodak cameras, first love...come along with Dan Santat in his graphic novel memoir. This is one for all-ages.
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YA memoir written in verse. Raw. Honest. Real. A gift to readers.
Jiordan is looking toward her first high school year, while trying to understand the crime her dad committed: googling money-laundering, defraud, schemed, and "how to survive prison."
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Tempers flare. Social media posts fly. Friendships severed. Cleverly crafted, Mascot follows a group of six diverse students through their 8th grade year in a town near Washington D.C. as they along with their community hotly debate a controversial, long-standing tradition.
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What can ten-year old Amelia, her twenty-one year old chinchilla, Calvin, and a sugar apple tree possibly have in common? Turns out, quite a bit. Join Amelia as she navigates her life: desperate to find Calvin and deal with a friend who’s turned her world topsy-turvy.
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What can 12 year-old Josh do after his middle school is stained with freshly painted swastikas and antisemitic messages especially given that he doesn't want to reveal his Jewish identify? The Do More Club is fast-paced, written in verse with not only hate, but courage and kindness.
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Step into the life of twelve-year old Tuesday Beals whose story is nearly a love letter to Zion National Park, located in Utah, and her beloved sky.
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Featuring two graphic fictionalized memoirs. Huda, a freshman and new to her high school, is a riot. She will have you laughing out loud while tugging at your heart as she grows up and navigates her place in the world, defining herself as a Muslim Arab American.
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2020: A Zelda loving 13 year old boy and his 100 year old great grandmother living in New Jersey during the pandemic
1930’s: A deadly famine in Ukraine, a privileged Communist girl living in Kyiv, and a girl from Brooklyn, New York
Masterfully written, these intertwining stories all come together.
Based on a true historical event and the author’s own family.
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Cuba, 2018. Soleida, 16, is growing up in a place where art is illegal and sea levels are rising. Her family of artists hides their sculpture garden, but it's discovered during a hurricane which leads to the arrest of her parents leaving Soleida on her own. She ends up in a Costa Rican refugee camp where she meets Dariel, a Californian, who endures all too frequent wildfires. Together they want to find her parents, protect the environment, and explore the budding romance, until Soleida discovers he's a rich boy with famous parents who will never understand a girl like her.
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It's 1996. 13 year-old Sarai is a first generation Puerto Rican who's trying to grow up with her Mami and older sister in Bushwick, a borough in Brooklyn, New York, a neighborhood riddled with drugs and crime. Sarai grapples with her Puerto Rican identity, hunger, poverty, frequent moves and looming neighborhood gentrification. Yet, Sarai is curious and questions the here and now and her future. Situations that seem insurmountable are juxtaposed with Sarai’s curiosity, resiliency, and hopeful spirit.
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Sixth grader Ziggy lives in New Mexico with his dad and sister. When Ziggy was a baby, his mom vanished, a tragic all-too-common occurrence among Native American females. Since nobody is looking for his mom anymore, Ziggy and his friends venture into the desert one night looking for any clue that will lead them to his mom. During this fantastical night, they meet talking animals who have much to teach Ziggy if he will listen. This is a wondrous tale rich with Cherokee history, language and culture juxtaposed with a tragic modern day issue.
🌟Cheers to 60 episodes!
17 year-old Lilah is born to hearing parents who aren't interested in learning sign language, but Lilah wants to improve hers. She can do this by being a summer counselor at Camp Gray Wolf, a place she attended and loved as a child. Not expecting to meet Isaac, romance was the last thing on her mind. Aside from enjoying Isaac’s attention, camp fires, and lake visits, Lilah is busy and worried: high spirited young campers keep her busy and the camp’s financial woes worry her. This story sheds light on the nuances of the Deaf community.
In this middle grade graphic memoir, Mexikid, readers will love Pedro whose family of 11 is leaving their home in Watsonville, California to travel to Jalisco, Mexico in Apa's Winnebago where they'll pick up Abuelito and bring him back to CA. Their 2,000 mile journey is adventurous, hilarious, historic, and heartwarming. Pedro and his siblings are entirely relatable to a wide audience.
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Through 12 year-old Nat's perspective about synchronized swimming and life, Barely Floating offers several jumping-off points for rich conversations: body positivity, dealing with big emotions, activism, acceptance, and challenging societal "norms".
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Read The Probability of Everything and learn what happened when a family is faced with an asteroid that is on track to collide with the world. You'll meet and adore 11 year-old science and probability loving Kemi, but this book is far more than a book about science and asteroids.
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Twelve-year old Adnan lives for table tennis. In this sport, it doesn’t matter that he is left handed, color-blind, or even on the small side. He’s good. He’s competitive. He does not like to lose. Come along on a journey where Adnan, his family, and community face a loss far greater than a table tennis match.
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Sixth graders April and Zee are best friends though more like family. They are inseparable until Zee pursues his dream of being first chair in the Boston Symphony. This means a new school for Zee and gives April an opportunity to act on her drumming dreams. While he and April miss being at the same school, they are handling it until a tragic event occurs, and now April must live without Zee forever. Grief and hope... written lyrically in verse.
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Sixth grader, Andy Zhou agrees to bleaching his hair, joining the dance club, befriending a bully, navigating the culture gap with his grandparents who've just arrived from Shanghai, and being a good son and grandson to please everybody. Add in racial microaggressions, intentional and unintentional, and this causes us to feel deeply for Andy.
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Heera, a fourteen year old girl living in a crudely made shack in Northern India, knows girls like her have only two inevitable life paths: marry young or become a prostitute. She's ambitious, wants an education, and questions "tradition." Come along on Heera's journey. While a work of fiction, this is based off true events that occur across the globe.
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Middle school issues are difficult enough, but Güero and Fregona are dealing with even bigger and more important issues. When Fregona’s dad drops her off on the first day of school, ICE agents take him away.
At 17 years old, Veronica wants to reclaim her body. All her life she’s lived with overbearing parents who worry incessantly about the hip condition she was born with and doctor’s who speak of Veronica’s condition as if she’s not even in the room. She has endured multiple surgeries, physical therapy, chronic pain, ableism, and plenty of people who stare and comment on her “disability.” Veronica finds peace in swimming and of her many goals, she wants to be a mermaid.
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☕Listen in on this espresso-sized episode, shorter than usual, to learn about a few YA highly engaging short stories (but not short stories in the traditional sense). I hope this episode provides you a little extra jolt for reading.
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In this YA novel, Charlie Vega battles with societal expectations, and even her own mother about her body type. She longs for her first kiss and a real date. Charlie is bold and honest about her struggles. Come along on her journey of love, romantic and self.
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In this YA novel, 17 year-old Jamison uses his love of photography to cope with stifling grief and to honor his best friend, his mom. With Dorothea Lange as his inspiration, Jamison decides to take a photo every night, at the very corner he saw each night from his mom's hospital room, at 9:09, the time of her last breath. Come along with Jamison as his photography is a catalyst for healing--for himself and countless others. Jamison's voice, his wit and sarcasm, AND his talent reverberate on the pages.
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In this YA novel, Chaos Theory, meet seniors Shelbi and Andy. Both have distinctive voices and their perspectives on families, friends, addiction, mental health, pain, grief, joy, and love are stories we need in the world.
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In this middle grade book, readers will relish a collection of 18 short stories and poems all from different Native authors. Each piece is written from the author’s own lived experiences and imagination.
People are traveling from Nations within the borders of the United States and Canada to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the annual two-day Dance for Mother Earth Powwow. Ancestor Approved, brings us stories of traditions, celebrations, joy, and hope representing a wide-range of Native families.
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In this young adult, historical fiction, romance novel, four strong Black women's lives intertwine in alternating chapters (my favorite format). As the story begins, it’s 1910. In each chapter, a strong-willed, determined young Black woman tells her story of love, friendship, and living up to or defying family and societal expectations.
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When classmates accuse 11-year old Sicily of lying about her heritage, she sets out to gain an understanding of and ultimately confidence to explain how she is Black first, then Panamanian and Latina. Sicily, a writer, has much to share with the world!
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At the age of nine, Javier Zamora migrated to California. Decades later, Zamora, a Salvadorian poet, tells his story in this memoir, Solito: a nine-year-old boy from El Salvador who embarked on a harrowing "trip" with strangers and a coyote who was paid to safely reunite him with his parents in the United States.
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Twelve-year old Iveliz's story brings mental health conversations to the forefront. She is grieving the loss of her father whose death, she's sure, is her fault. When her Abuela Mimi comes from Puerto Rico, this sets off a generational and cultural rift as Mimi dismisses the need for the therapy and medication Iveliz needs for trauma and PTSD.
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During WWII, ten year old Mari and her family are forced to the Manzanar Relocation Center. Mari is devastated with her brother Mak decides to join the Army, even against his father's wishes. In protest, Mari takes a vow of silence until Mak returns home safely.
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Teenage sisters embark on "world school" with their parents. Listen in on this true story to learn all the places this family of four traveled to along with the many ups and downs of learning about new places and cultures.
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Evan Pao doesn't feel he fits into his new community steeped in its Civil War history and traditions until he learns Chinese soldiers fought in this war. He is delighted to see himself represented. It's a little known fact that Chinese Americans fought in the Civil War.
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Jama, a 12 year-old Maasai girl, lives in rural Kenya and has a heart for "her herd of elephants." She uncovers corruption between poachers and the ranger who is supposed to be stopping such cruel acts. Inspired by the threats elephants in Asia and Africa continue to endure. The Elephant Girl is heart-pounding and heart-warming.
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Indigenous Wisdom and Scientific Knowledge.
Savor the stories. Ponder the questions. Heed the call to action. Use as a reference guide. Care for and love this one Earth.
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Twelve-year old Joseph is aggressive and angry, and now finds himself living with Mrs. F, a cold woman who is trying to keep the few animals left in her family's zoo alive during WWII. One animal is Adonis, a huge ferocious silverback gorilla. Adonis saves him from a school bully, and a friendship between Adonis and Joseph ensues. But, time is running out for Adonis; Joseph and Mrs. F come together to try to find a way to save Adonis's life.
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It's 1965 in Delano, California. Seventh-grader Lula is inspired when she meets Dolores Huerta and thinks maybe she wants to be an activist and organizer, too. But, first Lula's family and all the other farm workers are on strike demanding better working conditions and wages from the growers. The families meet important historical figures fighting on their behalf, such as Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez and Larry Itliong. Lula is stronger than she believes, despite her traditional Papa's goals for her; after all, she's a girl. When farm workers decide to garner national attention, they organize a 300 mile march from Delano to California's capital, Sacramento. Lula desperately wants to convince Papa to allow her to be part of this important, life-changing event.
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Set in Ghana, Abena and Faiza, both 14 years old, meet in a busy market place where Faiza earns a meager living being a kayayoo (a porter girl). Abena left her plush lifestyle behind to spend the summer holidays working in her auntie's market cloth shop. The girls quickly develop a deep friendship; it's inconsequential that they don't speak the same language. Both are bright and curious about the world and are way out of their comfort zone. Auntie cannot support the friendship as she doesn't want Abena associating with a poor, uneducated kayayoo, yet in Faiza, Abena sees well beyond the social and economic disparities.
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Set in 1987, 12 year old Annie's future aspirations include playing in the NBA and performing on the big stage. When she gets a part in her school's production of The King and I, she overhears others saying she only got a part because it's an Asian play, and she's Asian. Annie wonders if this is the end of her acting dream as she thinks people will never see her for her talent or hard work.
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Set in modern Ghana, twelve year-old Ato and his two best friends are inspired when they learn of an opportunity to visit Nnoma, a precious bird sanctuary that Ato's late father helped create. Visiting this bird island is all Ato has ever wanted; now he and his friends set out to create their project, a prerequisite for entry to Nnoma. They're sure they can use organic pesticides to grow vegetables which would ultimately benefit their community, but when their plants and hopes for getting to Nnoma start to die, Ato is convinced their project is being sabotaged.
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Jo and Ronny each have their own dilemmas: Jo is trying to overcome stage fright for her upcoming cello audition while Ronny's entrepreneurial spirit is awakened when he decides to earn enough money to save the family car from being repossessed by the bank. Come along on their journey— just in time for the holiday season, where each of their predicaments is lessened when Jo and Ronny become an important part of their community's home for senior citizens. Throughout this story friendship, kindness, and generosity of the human spirit shine through.
💗The Road to After. Full of heart and hope AND equally important, the reality of trauma and steps toward healing. You’ll want to meet resilient and creative 11 year-old Lacey and learn how nature is so closely connected to her healing from a lifetime of abuse from her father.
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(⏰10 minutes) Two 6th grade best friends, Isaac and Marco, couldn't be more different. But, they have commonality: dads who don't follow through on their promises. Each has a goal. Marco's is to become more responsible with school work which he believes will keep his family together and help his dad stop drinking. Isaac's is to finally do something that will make his dad proud. On these pages, find humor, basketball (even granny shots), authentic middle school experiences, and family dynamics.
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(⏰10 minutes)
WWII. Liesl's family must flee East Prussia in 1944. Through Liesl's story of survival, we learn about Wolfskinder, or wolf children. These were the countless, real children who were orphaned by the war and left to survive on their own, often in forests for long periods. Be inspired by Liesl, her maturity, and ways of finding hope and joy in the darkest moments.
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(⏰10 minutes) 🌟Celebrating episode 30!
Middle schooler Mac and his friends are shocked when they discover the book, The Devil's Arithmetic, about the Holocaust they've selected for their reading group has sections blacked out. Explore the idea of censorship with assertive Mac as he's ready to stand up for his beliefs.
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⏰Listening commitment: 9 minutes
When 12 year old Addie's step dad proposes the idea of adopting her, Addie sets off to find her biological dad. With no help from the adults in her life, Mom included, she finds him and learns she comes from a long line of Mexican wrestlers. She meets Manny (her dad, but she can't get herself to call him that) and loves spending time with her new found abuela, abuelo, cousins, and uncles. Addie loves her new family and all of their special traditions, except that Manny remains distant. Enjoy this multi-generational story filled with love, hope, and big decisions.
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⏰Listening commitment: 9 minutes
Written in verse, What about Will brings light to a dangerous society issue: opioid addiction. After a football injury sends Will into a coma, the aftermath of physical and emotional pain follows. His younger brother Trace, 12, takes on all of his family's problems including Will's frightening mood swings, his stealing, his lying, and his pills. Trace hides all of this to protect his brother and keep peace in his home.
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⏰Fun sized and fewer than 10 minutes.
With one comedic event after another, come onboard The Oceania II with 12 year-old JB and his accidental stowaway, Sidney. Readers will laugh often at their escapades while learning about the threats to our oceans especially Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Learning through story is the best way to learn! Welcome aboard!
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Minni's story shines a bright spotlight on water inequities worldwide. Living in Mumbai, access to fresh water is difficult. People endure long lines at the public water source to get meager amounts of water. Fights over water are common. Water thieves, trying to get rich, exacerbate people's basic right to fresh water. Minni's poetry and her tenacity will delight and inspire our middle grade readers.
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⏰Listening commitment: 9 minutes
Latika wants to make a significant change in her rural village in India - she wants toilets so the females don't have to walk great distances every night "to do what they need to do." Brave Latika will inspire our young people to again realize they can make significant positive impacts in the world. Written in verse with stunning illustrations, this story may be short, but it's powerful and serves to educate the world about why basic sanitation matters especially for females and without it, safety, education, and poverty are critical factors.
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Listening commitment: 9 minutes. Danny is growing up in an Appalachian town during WWII and befriends an older boy, Jack, with a haunting past. Here readers learn what it's like for American towns to do their part to support war efforts and how injustices in the world occur right in our communities.
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Listening commitment: 9 minutes Ava feels like she isn't enough: Persian or American. She loves the poet Rumi, surfing, and claims she's mildly OCD. Summer is here and after this, she's headed to high school, so she plans to surf all summer with the only person who gets her-Phoenix. Life has other, heart breaking plans for both Ava and Phoenix. Readers will delight in the music and poetry. Friendship. Heartbreak. If you pick up Wave, you won't put it down, and even when finished reading, prepare to store it away in your heart.
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Listening commitment: 10 minutes
If 8th grade Haz plans to return to the football field, he must go participate in therapy for his overly aggressive behavior. Couple this with his dad's current job deployment in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army, and quickly realize Max is shouldering some heavy events.
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🌟🌟Celebrating Season 2! Listening commitment: 8 minutes
At 6 feet tall and a recent ADHD diagnosis, sixth grade Max's life is tough enough, but nothing compares to the accident where his best friend, Will, is injured on a fateful night when a group of boys snuck out into a nearby forest. Will is now in a medically induced coma, and nobody knows what occurred during the forest visit to cause Will's head injury. Max and a classmate set out to solve this mystery. Calling: Whodunit enthusiasts and readers who'd like to know more about ADHD.
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✨✨Celebrating episode 20!
⏰Listening commitment: 9 minutes
Samira and her family are left without a country to call home when her own country of Burma (now Myanmar) ceased to recognize them as one of their 135 ethnicities, so they flee to Bangladesh, where they are also unwelcome. Samira is a strong, curious girl, and Rohingya. Learn about her desire to attend school, learn to surf, and her history.
This wraps up season one. Please celebrate with me: leave a review or follow me on Instagram at Wonderworldbookcafe. I'll be back in August and can't wait to launch season two. ✨✨
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⏰Listening commitment: 9 minutes
Meet quirky, word-loving, lexicographer "Worser." He's quick to correct grammatical errors, has one humongous heart, and is learning to live with his new life, one where his mom is recovering from a stroke. Root for and love Worser, and pick up numerous new words to add to your own vocabulary along the way.
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⏰Listening commitment: 7 minutes
On these pages, meet (and love) four unlikely friends (a lost boy, a cake-consumed mole, a withdrawn fox, and a wise horse) who are learning together and sharing lessons of kindness, fear, hope, home, and courage. This is a story for all ages that will sit patiently on your shelf whenever you want to reread it or pick it up and read a page or two.
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⏰Listening commitment: 9 minutes
Addie advocates for people wrongly accused of witchcraft in Scotland, centuries ago. Addie is autistic and realizes she too could have been one of those sentenced to death had she lived during this time only because she is "different." This beautiful and much needed story can span age ranges of readers as it works to dispel stereotypes about autism. Come along on Addie's journey in A Kind of Spark.
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⏰ Listening commitment: 9 minutes
Muki and his family are "moths" in the country of Mariposa. Muki uncovers the president's plan to send moths, people not born here to camps and maybe out to other countries. The president commits to protecting the butterflies, those who "belong in Mariposa" because this is their country where they and their family have lived for many generations.
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⏰Listening Committment: 10 minutes
In Leng'ete's memoir, learn how she escaped the dangerous, potentially deadly, age-old Maasai coming-of-age tradition, female circumcision or FGM (female genital mutilation). Leng'ete is honest about her Maasai traditions as she juxtaposes what she loves, honors, and respects versus what must change. Learn about the all-important work Leng'ete has done and continues to do to educate communities about the positive impact of empowering girls and ending FGM forever.
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⏰Listening Commitment 10 minutes
The last slave ship, The Clotilda, illegally brings 110 West Africans to Mobile, Alabama. When freed after The Civil War, they go onto create a town all their own called African Town. Inspired by true events.
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⏰Listening Commitment 9 minutes
Petra and her family are desperately trying to flee the Federales during Mexico's Revolution in 1913. They trudge through the life-threatning desert in an attempt to survive. Inspired by the author's great grandmother's tales, readers will cry with and cheer for Petra Luna.
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⏰Listening commitment: 8 minutes
High school students, Moth and Sani, have devastating pasts. In each other, they find what feels like "home." The the adults who are supposed to take care of them fail; this becomes the catalyst for a summer road trip where Moth and Sani seek the ghosts of their Black and Native American ancestors. Amber McBride's debut YA novel written in verse is haunting and hopeful. Readers can't decide if they should read it quickly to know what happens next or to savor the lyricalness of McBride's writing. (Suggestion: read twice!)
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⏰Listening commitment: just 9 minutes
Living in India, at the age of 13, Meera is already a widow. She was wed to her husband when she was four years old, and was to move in with him and his family on her 13th birthday. Meera was momentarily thrilled when she learned her husband was killed in a riot with the British who are occupying India. The joy quickly turns to despair when Meera learns she is expected to commit Sati, the ancient tradition where a widow throws herself on her husband's funeral pyre to avoid being a burden to society.
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⏰Listening commitment: just 8 minutes
✨✨Celebrating the 10th episode in our cafe! ✨✨
Young adults and those well beyond will be captivated by this swift moving story that crosses generations, cultures, and countries. All My Rage is filled with so many topics to discuss: grief, trauma, forgiveness, rage, hope, and music (when all else fails, song lyrics say it best). Settle in with All My Rage; you can't put it down. Perfect for book clubs!
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Author’s Website here
⏰Listening commitment: only 7 minutes
🇬🇭Living in Accra, Ghana, sixteen year old Amerley bears the weight of her three younger sisters and emotionally absent mother. Leaving her village to work as a servant seems the only way to help her family survive. While working in a luxurious compound, Amerley is raped, and it seems to be all her fault. Read Even When Your Voice Shakes to learn about the strength and spirit of this young woman.
Transcript and episode notes
Listening commitment: only 9 minutes
Eleven-year old Zlata loves her beautiful city, Sarajevo in the country of Bosina and Herzegovina. Then in 1991, the war starts. Zlata and her family and friends endure constant nearby bombings, food shortages, no electricity, and hauling water to their apartment. Turn Zlata's diary pages to read about about living through wartime horrors. During the war, Zlata's diary was published. Read to find out how this was a turning point for Zlata and her family.
Transcript and episode notes here.
Listening commitment: Only 9 minutes
Meet Reha who is grappling with her identify: Her parents are from India, and she was born in the U.S.
Enjoy music from the 80s as a natural part of this story, then learn how a 13 year-old can be strong enough to help her family when her mother is diagnosed with a serious illness.
Transcript and episode notes here.
Listening commitment: Just 10 minutes
You'll discover a story you'll want to read and put in the hands of young adult readers. While fictional, many aspects contained on the pages in This Light Between Us are true. In the beginning, readers will be delighted with playful, innocent letters exchanged between two unlikely ten year olds. Alex, a Japanese-American, living on Bainbridge Island in Washington becomes pen pals with Charly, a French-Jewish girl, living in Paris. As time marches on, Alex's and Charly's stories are juxtaposed, and are in many ways, surprisingly similar. Learn about the role our Japanese-Americans had in WWII.
Transcript and websites mentioned in this episode here.
Listening commitment: Just 10 minutes
In this episode learn about how the ongoing Palestinian and Israeli Conflict finds its way into a Texas friendship. Can two 7th grade girls with a conflicting historical past be true friends?
I'm sipping on a vanilla latte. I hope you'll pour a warm beverage and join me in Wonder World Book Cafe for this week's episode.
Transcript
Listening commitment: Just 9 minutes
In this episode, learn about the award winning Paradise on Fire by Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes. While a fictional story, wildfires due to climate change are a devastating reality for some states. Pour yourself a cup of tea and cozy up with this coming of age survival story with a strong female role model.
authorsownvoices
Author's website
Books mentioned: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, Ghost Boys and Black Brother, Black Brother both by Dr. Jewell Rhodes Parker
Get in touch with Susan: wonderworldbookcafe@gmail.com
Episode transcript.
Listening commitment: Just 8 minutes
In this episode, learn about Ruta Sepety's award winning book, Salt to the Sea. Sepetys is a "seeker of lost stories." In Salt to the Sea, she brings to light the largest maritime disaster in the world's history. Hint: It's NOT the Titanic.
Ruta Sepety's website
Mischling by Affinity Konar website
Connect with Susan at wonderworldbookcafe@gmail.com
Transcript here
Listening commitment: Just 7 minutes
Dystopian set in Australia
Sixteen year old Piper is an artist who turns activist. Piper is deaf and navigating in a hearing world where cancer is eradicated, there are no fish left in the sea, and the government does not want citizens eating "wild food."
authorsownvoices
Authors website: https://helloasphyxia.wordpress.com/
Connect with Susan at wonderworldbookcafe@gmail.com
Transcript
Listening commitment: Just 6 minutes
In this middle-grade novel, meet 13 year-old Nurah from Pakistan who moves to the United States. Learn about her struggles and triumphs.
Author's website (Reem Faruqi): https://reemfaruqi.com/
Illustrator's website (Soumbal Qureshi): https://www.souqudesign.com/about
Cover artist's website (Molly Fehr): http://www.mollyfehr.com/
Unsettled Awards, see Harper Collins: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/unsettled-reem-faruqi?variant=32271407906850
Book mentioned: Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga http://jasminewarga.com/other-words-for-home
Connect with Susan at wonderworldbookcafe@gmail.com