A boy learns about his family history and the Partition of India from his great uncle, through stories told over a beloved old teacup.

During a Hindu festival in Kathmandu, Nepal, brothers Alu and Bhalu search for a dog they can honor with food and gratitude. Includes glossary of Nepali words and suggested activities.

When a boy visits another village, he finds people terrified of something that, just because they haven't seen it before, they mistake for a dangerous animal. With his own knowledge and by demonstration, he helps them overcome their fears.

There can seldom have been a more unpromising subject for a film or a book than Chachaji, and yet he became the hero of a celebrated documentary film, CHACHAJI, MY POOR RELATION: A MEMOIR BY VED MEHTA. He also became the hero of this book, which is, among other things, an account of the making of that film. Indeed, he has become, in a sense, a metaphor for the whole of India in all its splendid contradictions. Mr. Mehta and an Anglo-American filming team—led by a Tasmanian-born Canadian producer—travelled to India, where they were soon joined by the producer’s wife, a great-great-grandniece of William Wordsworth. The team spent a month filming Chachaji, an eighty-three-year-old man who weighed eighty-nine pounds and was a messenger-clerk for the Pharmacy of Prosperity in New Delhi. (He was the author’s second cousin; the nickname Chachaji means “respected uncle.”) They recorded the doings of Chachaji: how he lived by his wits, working eight hours a day for sixty cents, and cadging meals, money, and (to preserve his dignity as a clean-shaven gentleman) razor blades from his better-off relations. They followed Chachaji through his typical day—performing his ablutions, waiting in queues, battling bazaar crowds, and bucking bureaucracy. They were also able to capture on film Chachaji’s red-letter days of attending a family wedding, of going on a journey to his village, of bathing in the Ganges—a penitential act of salvation for Hindus. Chachaji, as the object of all this attention, was nothing if not unconcerned; even when throngs were frantically showing off in front of the camera or threatening to destroy it in some burst of pious indignation, he stoically trudged on with a dead-pan expression worthy of Buster Keaton, at most saying, “Never mind. Let it be.” Chachaji never caught on to what a moving picture was—he had never seen one—and throughout the filming he talked about the shots as “the photographs.” The documentary film that the team eventually made was broadcast, among other places, on PBS and the BBC, and was awarded the duPont Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism—the citation commending the film for “its delicacy, its humor, its reflection of a whole nation.” It was acclaimed “an extraordinary memoir” by the Christian Science Monitor and “a classic” by the New York Times. Since this book is both about the making of a documentary film and about Chachaji, it depicts a confrontation, by turns poignant, frenzied, and funny, between two utterly different ways of life—the Western and the Eastern, the modern and the traditional. Writing with ironic detachment, Mr. Mehta brings his distinctive skill as a storyteller to this saga while further exploring themes that have preoccupied him for most of his life.

Winner of the International Literacy Association Social Justice Literature Award An award-winning middle-grade novel about the power of grassroots activism and how kids can make a difference. Every day, nine-year-old Yasmin borrows a book from Book Uncle, a retired teacher who has set up a free lending library on the street corner. But when the mayor tries to shut down the rickety bookstand, Yasmin has to take her nose out of her book and do something. What can she do? The local elections are coming up, but she’s just a kid. She can’t even vote! Still, Yasmin has friends — her best friend, Reeni, and Anil, who even has a blue belt in karate. And she has family and neighbors. What’s more, she has an idea that came right out of the last book she borrowed from Book Uncle. So Yasmin and her friends get to work. Ideas grow like cracks in the sidewalk, and soon the whole effort is breezing along nicely... Or is it spinning right out of control? An energetic, funny and quirky story about community activism, friendship, and the love of books. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.2 Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.6 Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

A little girl and her father have an opportunity to appreciate the wonders of the night sky. Phoebe helps her dad set up telescopes on the sidewalk outside his store. It’s a special night — Saturn and Mars are going to appear together in the sky. But will Phoebe be able to see them with all the city lights? Raindrops begin to fall, followed by lightning and thunder. Phoebe is filled with disappointment as she and her father hurry inside to wait out the storm. But suddenly the power fails and then, amazingly, the rain and clouds disappear. Phoebe and her dad and all kinds of people spill into the street. And there, in the bright night sky, the splendor of the planets and a multitude of stars are revealed for all to see. An illustrated afterword includes information about the solar system, planetary conjunctions and rings, moons, telescopes and light pollution. A glossary and recommended further reading are also included. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

Trapped. For eleven-year-old Gopal and his family, life in their rural Indian village is over: We stay, we starve, his baba has warned. They flee to the big city of Mumbai in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. Gopal is eager to help support his struggling family, so when a stranger approaches him with the promise of a factory job, he jumps at the offer. ?But there is no factory, just a stuffy sweatshop where he and five other boys are forced to work for no money and little food. The boys are forbidden to talk or even to call one another by their real names. Locked away in a rundown building, Gopal despairs of ever seeing his family again. But late one night, when Gopal decides to share kahanis, or stories, he realizes that storytelling might be the boys' key to survival. If he can make them feel more like brothers than enemies, their lives will be more bearable in the shop—and they might even find a way to escape.