Donna Jo Napoli

Melkorka is a princess, the first daughter of a magnificent kingdom in mediæval Ireland -- but all of this is lost the day she is kidnapped and taken aboard a marauding slave ship. Thrown into a world that she has never known, alongside people that her former country's laws regarded as less than human, Melkorka is forced to learn quickly how to survive. Taking a vow of silence, however, she finds herself an object of fascination to her captors and masters, and soon realizes that any power, no matter how little, can make a difference. Based on an ancient Icelandic saga, award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli has crafted a heartbreaking story of a young girl who must learn to forget all that she knows and carve out a place for herself in a new world -- all without speaking a word.

An Irish Princess' Tale

Hush

After having lived the perfect life with her daughter in the quiet mountains for so many years, Zel's mother is fearfully worried about Zel's new interest in the beautiful young prince she has met and so devises a plan to keep Zel from ever leaving her. Reprint.

A retelling of Snow White from the evil step mother's point of view as fifteen-year-old Dolce grows up on islands in a Venetian lagoon where she learns how to make mirrors, but when her mother dies she is taken in by a widower and his daughter while she secretly continues making mirrors and slowly goes mad from mercury poisoning.

Dark Shimmer

YOUNG XING XING IS BOUND. Bound to her late father's second wife and daughter. Bound to a life of servitude as a young girl in ancient China, where a woman is valued less than livestock. Bound to be alone, with no parents to arrange for a suitable husband. Xing Xing spends her days taking care of her half sister, Wei Ping, who cannot walk because of her foot bindings, the painful tradition for girls who are fit to be married. Even so, Xing Xing is content to practice her gift for poetry and calligraphy, and to dream of a life unbound by the laws of family and society. But all of this is about to change as Stepmother, who has spent nearly all of the family's money, grows desperate to find a husband for Wei Ping. Xing Xing soon realizes that this greed and desperation may threaten not only her memories of the past, but also her dreams for the future.

Bound

David Wiesner

The triple Caldecott winner David Wiesner brings his rich visual imagination and trademark artistry to the graphic novel format in a unique coming-of-age tale that begins underwater. A young mermaid, called Fish Girl, in a boardwalk aquarium has a chance encounter with an ordinary girl. Their growing friendship inspires Fish Girl's longing for freedom, independence, and a life beyond the aquarium tank. Sparkling with humor and brilliantly visualized, Fish Girl's story will resonate with every young person facing the challenges and rewards of growing up.

Fish Girl

Combines retellings of classic Greek tales with detailed illustrations in an introduction to mythology that is complemented by informative sidebars containing character profiles, historical insights, and cultural facts.

Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes & Monsters

Treasury of Greek Mythology

Elaborates on the tale of "Beauty and the Beast," told from the point of view of the beast and set in Persia.

Beast

In Renaissance Italy, Elisabetta longs for romance, and when Leonardo da Vinci introduces her to Guiliano de Medici, whose family rules Florence but is about to be deposed, she has no inkling of the romance--and sorrow--that will ensue.

The Smile

Frustrated with the restrictions her gender imposes on her life, fourteen-year-old Donata, disguised as a boy, sneaks out of her noble family's house to roam the streets of late sixteenth-century Venice.

Daughter of Venice

Rafal Olbinski

“The first-person narrative portrays Lorraine’s family and community with realistically drawn personalities and relationships as well as fine-tuned ethical dilemmas, while sketching in the backdrop of the wider catastrophe. A moving personal story.” —Booklist (starred review) “Napoli skillfully evokes Lorraine’s close-knit community, interweaving elements of Irish culture, history, and land- and seascape in ways that make the story accessible and appealing…a timely reminder about conditions in our current world.” —The Horn Book Through the eyes of twelve-year-old Lorraine this haunting novel from the award-winning author of Hidden and Hush gives insight and understanding into a little known part of history—the Irish potato famine. It is the autumn of 1846 in Ireland. Lorraine and her brother are waiting for the time to pick the potato crop on their family farm leased from an English landowner. But this year is different—the spuds are mushy and ruined. What will Lorraine and her family do? Then Lorraine meets Miss Susannah, the daughter of the wealthy English landowner who owns Lorraine’s family’s farm, and the girls form an unlikely friendship that they must keep a secret from everyone. Two different cultures come together in a deserted Irish meadow. And Lorraine has one question: how can she help her family survive? A little known part of history, the Irish potato famine altered history forever and caused a great immigration in the later part of the 1800s. Lorraine’s story is a heartbreaking and ultimately redemptive story of one girl’s strength and resolve to save herself and her family against all odds.

A Tale of Courage

Hunger

This is a book for every Bar Mitzvah boy and indeed anyone who wants to learn about the beliefs, philosophies and history of the Jewish religion.

Stones in Water

This book presents illustrated retellings of Egyptian myths, with sidebars for each god, goddess, monster, and mortal that link the tales to history, geography, and culture.

classic stories of gods, goddesses, monsters & mortals

Treasury of Egyptian mythology

When her father suddenly dies while on a business trip leaving her alone on an Italian highway, eleven-year-old Jackie worries what will happen when she is picked up by two men with unknown motives.

Three Days

Richard Tchen

Elaborates on the events recounted in the fairy tale, "Rumpelstiltskin," in which a strange little man helps a miller's daughter spin straw into gold for the king on the condition that she will give him her first-born child. Reprint.

Spinners

Christina Balit

Stories of Intrigue, Trickery, Love, and Revenge

Treasury of Norse Mythology

In this re-imagining of the Pied Piper tale, a boy afflicted with cystic fibrosis in the Middle Ages is an outcast. When the townsfolk of Hameln are affected by a grain mold, he survives an outbreak of madness, followed by a plague of rats.

Breath

In 1892, Dom, a nine-year old stowaway from Naples, Italy, arrives in New York and must learn to survive the perils of street life in the big city.

The King of Mulberry Street

Kepi is a young girl in ancient Egypt, content to stay home with her family, helping her father, who was wounded in the construction of a pyramid for the cruel pharaoh Khufu. But that was before she and her pet baboon, Babu, were kidnapped and held captive on a boat bound for the capital city, Ineb Hedj. And when Kepi and Babu are separated, she knows she has only one choice: to make her way to the capital on her own, rescue Babu, and find a way to appeal to the pharaoh. Khufu is rich and powerful, but Kepi has her own powers, deep inside her—ones she herself doesn’t even know about yet. Donna Jo Napoli, acclaimed author of Zel and Beast, revisits the fabled origin of fairies in this strikingly orig-inal and affecting novel of friendship.

Lights on the Nile

After learning sorcery to become a healer, a good-hearted woman is turned into a witch by evil spirits and she fights their power until her encounter with Hansel and Gretel years later.

Donna Jo Napoli

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