Topics in the Youth Collection

"This is a story of how the Little Free Library organization brings communities together through books, from founder Todd Bol's first installation to the creation of more than 75,000 mini-libraries around the world. Todd and his friends love heroes. But in school, Todd doesn't feel heroic. Reading is hard for him, and he gets scolded for asking too many questions. How will he ever become the kind of hero he admires?"

"The book narrates young readers a true story of a young immigrant who lead the largest strike of women workers in the USA’s history. This picture book is a biography about the plight of the immigrants in America in the early 1900’s and a timeless fight of equality and judgement".

"This inspiring story of four-year-old Sarah Roberts narrates how the first African American girl to try to integrate a white school, and how her experience in 1847 set greater change in motion".

The true story of a little girl who made an impossible dream achievable. This is the story of a little girl with big dreams. All the girl ever wanted was an education. But in Rhodesia, education for girls was nearly impossible. So, she taught herself to read and write with her brother's schoolbooks and to count while watching cattle graze. When the girl became a young wife and mother, she wrote her goals on a scrap of paper and buried them in a can-an ancient ritual that reminded her that she couldn't give up on her dreams. She dreamed of going to America and earning one degree; then a second, even higher; and a third, the highest. And she hoped to bring education to all the girls and boys of her village. Would her dreams ever come true?

From childhood, Fatima al-Fihri dreamed of starting a school where anyone could study. This biographical picture book describes how she made that dream into reality.

The inspiring story of an Iraqi librarian's courageous fight to save books from the Basra Central Library before it was destroyed in the war. It is 2003 and Alia Muhammad Baker, the chief librarian of the Central Library in Basra, Iraq, has grown worried given the increased likelihood of war in her country. Determined to preserve the irreplacable records of the culture and history of the land on which she lives from the destruction of the war, Alia undertakes a courageous and extremely dangerous task of spiriting away 30,000 books from the library to a safe place. Told in dramatic graphic-novel panels by acclaimed cartoonist Mark Alan Stamaty, Alia's Mission celebrates the importance of books and the freedom to read, while examining the impact of war on a country and its people. From the Hardcover edition.

"This is a story of Louis Braille who is also known as the father of braille, this story narrates how young Louis overcame the adversities at a very young age, he did not give up on his dreams when he lost his eye sight. This picture book helps the reader to understand better and get inspired by young Louis".

"On November 14, 1960, a tiny six-year-old black child, surrounded by federal marshals, walked through a mob of screaming segregationists and into her school. From where she sat in the office, Ruby Bridges could see parents marching through the halls and taking their children out of classrooms. The next day, Ruby walked through the angry mob once again and into a school where she saw no other students. The white children did not go to school that day, and they wouldn't go to school for many days to come. Surrounded by racial turmoil, Ruby, the only student in a classroom with one wonderful teacher, learned to read and add.

"This is the true story of an extraordinary 6-year-old who helped shape history when she became the first African-American sent to first grade in an all white school. This moving book captures the courage of a little girl standing alone in the face of racism".

Born into slavery around 1821 in Petersburg, Virginia, Lilly Ann Granderson secretly learned to read and write from her master's children. Lilly Ann read everything she could get her hands on, and through newspapers, she learned of places in the North where slavery had been abolished. She longed to have that freedom too. As Lilly Ann's reading and writing skills improved, she shared her knowledge with others by starting a school. After toiling for their masters all day, Lilly Ann's students would slip nervously into the night to attend her ?midnight? school. Every noise reminded them of the painful punishment they faced if they were found out. But the students were willing to risk any danger for the chance at an education. Over the years, hundreds of enslaved men and women learned to read and write under their teacher's patient guidance. Midnight Teacher is an inspiring testament to an amazing instructor and a pioneer in education. Lilly Ann Granderson's steadfast courage in the face of adversity provides an inspiring model for all who attempt to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges.

"Over the last forty years, Aaron Lansky has jumped into dumpsters, rummaged around musty basements, and crawled through cramped attics. He did all of this in pursuit of a particular kind of treasure, and he’s found plenty. Lansky’s treasure was any book written in Yiddish, the language of generations of European Jews. When he started looking for Yiddish books, experts estimated there might be about 70,000 still in existence. Since then, the MacArthur Genius Grant recipient has collected close to 1.5 million books, and he’s finding more every day".

“Luis loves to read, but soon his house in Colombia is so full of books there's barely room for the family. What to do? Then he comes up with the perfect solution--a traveling library and travels with the books throughout the land, bringing books and reading to the children in faraway villages”.

If you can't bring the man to the books, bring the books to the man.   Mary Lemist Titcomb (1852-1932) was always looking for ways to improve her library. As librarian at the Washington County Free Library in Maryland, Titcomb was concerned that the library was not reaching all the people it could. She was determined that everyone should have access to the library--not just adults and those who lived in town. Realizing its limitations and inability to reach the county's 25,000 rural residents, including farmers and their families, Titcomb set about to change the library system forever with the introduction of book-deposit stations throughout the country, a children's room in the library, and her most revolutionary idea of all--a horse-drawn Book Wagon. Soon book wagons were appearing in other parts of the country, and by 1922, the book wagon idea had received widespread support. The bookmobile was born!

"Nobel Peace Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author Malala Yousafzai's first picture book, inspired by her own childhood. This book inspires young readers everywhere to find the magic all around them. As a child in Pakistan, Malala made a wish for a magic pencil and even if she never found a magic pencil, Malala realized that she could still work hard every day to make her wishes come true. This beautifully illustrated volume tells Malala's story for a younger audience and shows them the worldview that allowed Malala to hold on to hope even in the most difficult of times".

“The inspiring true story of Malala Yousafzai, human rights activist and the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the power of one young woman speaking up for change with Free as a Bird. This beautiful nonfiction picture book is perfect for sharing at home or in the classroom”.

Cal is not the reading' type. Living way high up in the Appalachian Mountains, he'd rather help Pap plow or go out after wandering sheep than try some book learning. Nope. Cal does not want to sit Stoney-still reading some chicken scratch. But that Book Woman keeps coming just the same. She comes in the rain. She comes in the snow. She comes right up the side of the mountain, and Cal knows that's not easy riding. And all just to lend his sister some books. Why, that woman must be plain foolish; or is she braver than he ever thought?

Miss Dorothy, an enterprising and dedicated librarian who drove a bookmobile to bring books to her neighbors in Appalachia. This nonfiction picture book is an excellent choice to share during homeschooling, in particular for children ages 6 to 8.

This luminous and energetic picture book follows a young boy who takes his younger sister on her first trip to school in the Reconstruction-era South. "Papa, Mama, can I go too?" Virgie was always begging to go to school with us boys. My brothers had doubts. School was seven miles away--a long way from Mama. Virgie was scarcely big as a field mouse. How could she make the trip? And girls didn't really need school. But I got to thinking: Virgie was free like we were. Free to learn. And didn't girls need to know how to write and add, too? Mama and Papa thought so. And one summer, they decided to do something about it. That was the year Virgie came to school with us boys. And she sure showed us!

"This picture book shows how a gift can change the entire life of a poor family, more than anything else young Beatrice wants to be a school girl though she knows that her family is poor and cannot afford to send her to the school. Beatrice receives a wonderful gift and with this gift Beatrice’s dreams may come true after all!".

“A young girl is torn by her desire to stay home with her family and the familiarity of their village, and her desire to go to school and discover the world beyond the mountains that surround them. The story tells an amazing bond between the mother and daughter and their loving exchange reveals the struggles and sacrifices that they will both have to make for the sake of the young girl's future”.

" Orvella and her little brother Junior go to the local school when they are not needed to work in the fields. Their father is a sharecropper and life is hard. The school that they go to is very primitive but Orvella still manages to feel grateful that there is a school to go to. She knows that there are plenty of black children living in the south who don’t get to have any kind of education.
One day there is a meeting at the church. A teacher stands up and tells the congregation about how they might be able to get financial aid so that they can build a new and better school for the children. Mr. Rosenwald, the president of Sears Roebuck, is donating funds to communities so that they can build new schools but the people in the community have to show their commitment to the cause by raising a good portion of the needed money, by securing suitable land, by getting needed building materials, and by building the schools themselves.
This is not going to be easy in a community where people have so little money to spare but Orvella’s family and their neighbors are determined to get the money somehow. Bit by bit they raise money “a nickel and a dime at a time.” Once the money is raised, everyone works hard to build the school on the land the church donated.
This is an inspiring story which shows us all that determination and hard work can make all the difference in the world. Even though they had so little, Orvella’s people found a way to raise money and then they used their skills to build a beautiful large school house. Sometimes all it takes is for someone to give people a helping hand, to give them the encouragement that they need to make a difference in their lives.
This tale is based on the true stories of communities which accepted Mr. Rosenwald’s challenge to improve their lives. By 1932 more than five thousand Rosenwald schools were in use in fifteen states".