Abukacha finally throws away his worn out shoes and gets himself a new pair. But the old shoes, somehow, keep finding their way back to him.

When author and illustrator Tamar Tessler was a little girl, her aunt would tell her the story of Abukacha and his shoes — a story that had been told to her by her own Polish aunt, Fella. The plot was always different, but the problem remained the same — Abukacha had the biggest shoes in the world, and he couldn’t get rid of them no matter what he did. Inspired by her husband, who refused to throw away a worn-out pair of shoes, Tamar wrote her own version of the story, and created art that incorporates her cherished family photos.

Written and illustrated by Ningeokuluk Teevee, one of the most interesting young artists in Cape Dorset, home to the great tradition of Inuit art, this is a beautifully simple story, written in Inuktitut and English, about a young Inuit girl who goes to the shore with her grandmother to collect clams for supper. Along the way she discovers tide pools brimming with life – a bright orange starfish, a creepy-crawly thing with many legs called an ugjunnaq, a hornshaped sea snail and a sculpin. This is an enchanting and utterly authentic introduction to the life of an Inuit child and her world.

Alfredito and his family are getting ready to return to their old home in El Salvador for Christmas, their first time back since they left as refugees. But they will make this trip on a plane — the first time any of them has ever flown. The excitement mounts as they drive to the airport, get on the plane and fly up into the air, each step bringing an increasing level of amazement. But the greatest moment of all is when they finally arrive and their beloved relatives meet them. Their old house looks and feels as it always did. The smells, the food, the new puppies, the familiar plants and flowers fill Alfredito's heart with a sense of belonging and joy.

Jorge Argueta is an award-winning author of picture books and poetry for young children. He has won the International Latino Book Award, the Américas Book Award, the NAPPA Gold Award and the Independent Publisher Book Award for Multicultural Fiction for Juveniles. His books have also been named to the Américas Award Commended List, the USBBY Outstanding International Books Honor List, Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Books and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices. A native Salvadoran and Pipil Nahua Indian, Jorge spent much of his life in rural El Salvador. He now lives in San Francisco, California.

For eighteen-year-old Charlotte, university life is better than she’d ever dreamed — a sophisticated and generous roommate, the camaraderie of dorm living, parties, clubs and boyfriends. Most of all, Charlotte is exposed to new ideas, and in 1981 Ghana, this may be the most exciting – and most dangerous — adventure of all.

At first Charlotte basks in her wonderful new freedom, especially being out of the watchful eye of her controlling and opinionated father. She suddenly finds herself with no shortage of male attention, including her charismatic political science professor, fellow student activist Banahene, and Asare, a wealthy oil broker who invites Charlotte to travel with him and showers her with expensive gifts, including a coveted passport.

But Ghana is fraught with a history of conflict. And in the middle of her freshman year, the government is overthrown, and three judges are abducted and murdered. As political forces try to mobilize students to advance their own agendas, Charlotte is drawn into the world of student politics. She’s good at it, she’s impassioned, and she’s in love with Banahene. “The struggle continues! Aluta! Aluta continua!” she shouts, rallying the crowd with the slogan of the oppressed. But her love of the spotlight puts her in the public eye. And when Asare entrusts her with a mysterious package of documents, she suddenly realizes she may be in real danger.

But it’s too late. As she is on her way to a meeting, Charlotte is picked up by national security, and her worst nightmares come true. And in the end, she must make a difficult and complicated decision about whether to leave her education, and her beloved Ghana, behind.

A heartfelt story told with uncompromising honesty, about what happens when youthful idealism meets the harsh realities of power.

Adwoa Badoe is a Ghanaian-born physician, storyteller, educator, writer and African dance instructor. She is the author of the novel Between Sisters, as well as several picture books, including The Pot of Wisdom, illustrated by Baba Wagué Diakité and Nana’s Cold Days, illustrated by Bushra Junaid.

Born in Persia more than a thousand years ago, Ibn Sina was one of the greatest thinkers of his time — a philosopher, scientist and physician who made significant discoveries, especially in the field of medicine, and wrote more than one hundred books.

As a child, Ibn Sina was extremely bright, a voracious reader who loved to learn and was fortunate to have the best teachers. He memorized the Qur’an by the age of ten and completed his medical studies at sixteen. He spent his life traveling, treating the sick, seeking knowledge through research, and writing about his discoveries. He came up with new theories in the fields of physics, chemistry, astronomy and education. His most famous work is The Canon of Medicine, a collection of books that were used for teaching in universities across the Islamic world and Europe for centuries.

Ibn Sina’s story, told in the first person and beautifully illustrated, provides a fascinating glimpse into the life of one of the great intellects of the past.

Fatima Sharafeddine is a Lebanese writer who has twice been nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. After receiving a B.A. in Early Childhood Education, she moved from Lebanon to the United States, where she earned a master’s degree in education and another in Arabic literature. She is an active member of the Lebanese section of IBBY (LBBY) and has written more than one hundred books for children, including The Servant and The Amazing Travels of Ibn Battuta, also illustrated by Intelaq Mohammed Ali.

She now divides her time between Beirut and Brussels, where she writes and translates full time.

Intelaq Mohammed Ali is an Iraqi illustrator, graphic designer and author with thirty years’ experience in the field of children’s culture. Her illustrations and writing have appeared in more than eighty books and magazines for children and adults, and she has made thirty-two animations. Her work has been exhibited in more than fifty international shows, winning a total of nine awards in Japan, Jordan, Iran and Lebanon.

The Amazing Travels of Ibn Battuta, first published in the United Arab Emirates and illustrated by Intelaq Mohammed Ali, was selected for the IBBY Honour List, and Hakaza tatagayar alalwan (Thus the Colors Change), which she wrote and illustrated, has been reviewed in the White Ravens Catalogue (International Youth Library, Germany).

Intelaq has been selected as a jury member for the Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature and the Sharjah Exhibition for Children’s Book Illustration. She has actively participated in many international workshops and seminars, including the UNESCO-BIB Workshop for Illustrators of Children’s Books in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the first IBBY Regional Conference for Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa in Sharjah, UAE.

In 1325, when Ibn Battuta was just twenty-one, he bid farewell to his parents in Tangier, Morocco, and embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca. It was thirty years before he returned home, having seen much of the world. In this book he recalls his amazing journey and the fascinating people, cultures and places he encountered.

After his pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Battuta was filled with a desire to see more of the world. He traveled extensively, throughout Islamic lands and beyond — from the Middle East to Africa to Europe to Asia.

Travelers were uncommon in those days, and when Ibn Battuta arrived in a new city he would introduce himself to the governor or religious leaders, and they in turn would provide him with gifts, a place to stay and study, and sometimes they even gave him money to continue his journey. Some of the highlights of his travels included seeing the stunning Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem; witnessing the hundreds of women who gathered to pray at the mosque in Shiraz; visiting the public baths in Baghdad; and meeting the Mogul emperor of India, who made him a judge and eventually sent him to China as an ambassador.

Ibn Battuta kept a diary of his travels, and even though he lost it many times and had to recall and rewrite what he had seen, he kept a remarkable record of his years away. His adventurous spirit, keen mind and meticulous observations, as retold here by Fatima Sharafeddine, give us a remarkable picture of what it was like to be a traveler nearly seven hundred years ago.

The book is beautifully illustrated by Intelaq Mohammed Ali, with maps and travel routes forming the backdrop for many richly painted scenes.

Fatima Sharafeddine is a Lebanese writer who has twice been nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. After receiving a B.A. in Early Childhood Education, she moved from Lebanon to the United States, where she earned a master’s degree in education and another in Arabic literature. She is an active member of the Lebanese section of IBBY (LBBY) and has written more than one hundred books for children, including The Servant and The Amazing Travels of Ibn Battuta, also illustrated by Intelaq Mohammed Ali.

She now divides her time between Beirut and Brussels, where she writes and translates full time.

Intelaq Mohammed Ali is an Iraqi illustrator, graphic designer and author with thirty years’ experience in the field of children’s culture. Her illustrations and writing have appeared in more than eighty books and magazines for children and adults, and she has made thirty-two animations. Her work has been exhibited in more than fifty international shows, winning a total of nine awards in Japan, Jordan, Iran and Lebanon.

The Amazing Travels of Ibn Battuta, first published in the United Arab Emirates and illustrated by Intelaq Mohammed Ali, was selected for the IBBY Honour List, and Hakaza tatagayar alalwan (Thus the Colors Change), which she wrote and illustrated, has been reviewed in the White Ravens Catalogue (International Youth Library, Germany).

Intelaq has been selected as a jury member for the Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature and the Sharjah Exhibition for Children’s Book Illustration. She has actively participated in many international workshops and seminars, including the UNESCO-BIB Workshop for Illustrators of Children’s Books in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the first IBBY Regional Conference for Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa in Sharjah, UAE.

Amazonia is an extraordinary book of Brazilian folktales that combines the authentic voice of Daniel Munduruku, a noted indigenous author who grew up in the Amazon rainforest, with the imagined Amazon of Nikolai Popov, one of Russia's major artists and its foremost children's book illustrator.

Many years ago, Nikolai Popov, Russia's leading children's book illustrator, illustrated an extensive, academic collection of Brazilian folktales. The sources for his illustrations were the stories themselves and his own richly imagined Amazonia. Today the book is out of print and only a few copies survive -- a fate shared by many great books from the golden age of Russian children's books.

Groundwood in collaboration with a Brazilian publisher, Edicões SM Brasil, commissioned Daniel Munduruku, a noted indigenous Brazilian author, to select those stories he felt were most representative of the peoples of the Amazon and to retell them in his own voice.

Mermaids, jaguars, snakes, flying men, witches -- extraordinary creatures from the world's most important wild jungle live on in these tales. The stories are fascinating, and sometimes startling, as protagonists are killed off or transformed into animals or rise up precipitously into the heavens. But they offer a panorama of experience -- conflict and death, love and seduction, greed and gluttony, hunting and fishing, cooking and caring for plants -- and describe the origins of the natural world.

Munduruku's storytelling and Popov's imagination bring us the tales of the people of the Amazon in all their magic wonder.

An introduction describes the importance of myths, how the stories have survived and their relevance today. A glossary provides more information about animals and plants that may be unfamiliar to North American readers.

Winner of the Governor General's Award

A beautiful and visionary book, Ancient Thunder celebrates wild horses and the natural world of the prairies. Using an extraordinary technique, Leo Yerxa, an artist of Ojibway ancestry, makes paper look like leather, so that his illustrations seem to be painted on leather shirts. The art is accompanied by a rich song of praise for the wild horses that came to play such an important role in the lives of the First Peoples.

Years in the making, the book is truly a work of art — one that reflects Yerxa's sense of nature and the place of the First Peoples within it.

Leo Yerxa was born on the Little Eagle Reserve in northern Ontario. His first book, Last Leaf First Snowflake to Fall, was nominated for a Governor General's Award and won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award, the Mr. Christie's Book Award and the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award. His book Ancient Thunder was winner of the 2006 Governor General's Award for Illustration. Leo lives in Ottawa.

The land, hunting, hunger, magic and extreme weather are themes that resonate for Inuit who live in the Far North. These stories, drawn from the lives of four Inuit artists, offer young readers a glimpse into this rich, remote culture, past and present. Accompanying each story are illustrations by Jirina Marton, who has spent time in the Arctic and whose deep appreciation for its subtle beauty shines through her art. In addition to the stories, there is a feature spread on each artist with a photograph, a brief biography and a reproduction of one of the artist's works.

Raquel Rivera has a degree in fine arts and has worked as a copywriter, freelance writer and illustrator, photographer's assistant, and a teacher of English and life drawing. Visit her author website at www.raquelriverawashere.com for news, reviews and video readings. Raquel lives in Montreal with her family.

Jirina Marton has exhibited her paintings throughout Europe, Canada and Japan. She has illustrated many children's books, including Little Book of Northern Tales: The Bear Says North by Bob Barton, Arctic Adventures: Tales from the Lives of Inuit Artists by Raquel Rivera, Marja's Skis by Jean E. Pendziwol, which was a Governor General's Literary Award finalist for illustration, and Bella's Tree by Janet Russell, which won the 2009 Governor General's Literary Award for illustration. Jirina lives in North York, Ontario.

Kirkus 2010 Best Children's Books selection

The cuisines of many different cultures all over the world include rice and rice pudding. In this title in the Cooking Poems series, Jorge Argueta gives us a bilingual recipe for the classic Latin American version.

From sprinkling the rice into the pot, to adding a waterfall of milk, cinnamon sticks, salt stars and sugar snow, Jorge Argueta's recipe is not only easy to follow, it is a poetic experience. The lively illustrations by Fernando Vilela feature an enthusiastic young cook who finds no end of joy in making and then slurping up the rice pudding with his family.

Jorge Argueta is an award-winning author of picture books and poetry for young children. He has won the International Latino Book Award, the Américas Book Award, the NAPPA Gold Award and the Independent Publisher Book Award for Multicultural Fiction for Juveniles. His books have also been named to the Américas Award Commended List, the USBBY Outstanding International Books Honor List, Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Books and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices. A native Salvadoran and Pipil Nahua Indian, Jorge spent much of his life in rural El Salvador. He now lives in San Francisco, California.