diversity

Auggie, his sister, and classmates offer multiple points of view about the year Auggie, 10, switches from home schooling to a regular classroom. After twenty-seven surgeries to correct his facial deformities, Auggie still looks strange, and both he and his classmates have to learn how to accept, even welcome, differences.

Ali, a contemporary boy in Baghdad, loves calligraphy and, just as his hero, Yakut, did in the 13th century, finds creating beauty to be a refuge from the trials of war.  Stylized collage illustrations evoke the elegance of Arabic art.

Caught in the act of scaling a skyscraper, 14-year-old Peak goes to Thailand with his mountain-climbing father, a man determined to lead the youngest-ever climber to the top of Mount Everest.  Nail-biting suspense and terrific climbing details abound.

Alternating sections of words and bold pictures show how orphaned Hugo, hidden above a Paris train station in 1931, discovers the secret of a broken automaton and its surprising connection to the history of early movies.

Elijah, the first child born in a settlement of former slaves in Canada, finds his uneventful life disrupted when he attempts to locate the corrupt preacher who has stolen funds intended to purchase a family’s freedom.