Deborah Ellis
1) Step
In this powerful collection of short stories, children around the world turn eleven and take a step into their futures. Each one is changed in ways both big and small.
Annoyed at having to walk his sister's dog on his birthday, Connor heads into an undeveloped subdivision, where he comes across chilling evidence of a stranger's unhappiness. A girl sneaks away from her class camping trip to a local conservation area
...The third book in the internationally bestselling series that includes The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey and My Name Is Parvana.
Parvana's best friend, Shauzia, has escaped the misery of her life in Kabul, only to end up in a refugee camp in Pakistan. But she still dreams of seeing the ocean and eventually making a new life in France.This is the dream that has sustained her through the terrible years in Kabul. It is
...The fourth book in the internationally bestselling series that includes The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey and Mud City.
In this stunning sequel, Parvana, now fifteen, is found in a bombed-out school and held as a suspected terrorist by American troops in Afghanistan.
On a military base in Afghanistan, after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, American authorities have just imprisoned a teenaged girl found in a bombed-out
...USBBY Outstanding International Books Honor List
In this book, Deborah Ellis turns her attention to the most tragic victims of the Iraq war — Iraqi children. She interviews young people, mostly refugees living in Jordan, but also a few who are trying to build new lives in North America. Some families have left Iraq with money; others are penniless and ill or disabled. Most of the children have parents who are working
...5) Sacred Leaf
USBBY Oustanding International Books selection
After he finally manages to escape from being a virtual slave in an illegal cocaine operation, Diego is taken in by the Ricardo family — poor coca farmers who provide a safe haven while he recovers from his ordeal in the jungle. But even that brief respite comes to an end when the army moves in and destroys the family's coca crop — and their livelihood.
Diego
...Society of School Librarians International Honor Book
Deborah Ellis has been widely praised for her gripping books portraying the plight of children in war-torn countries. Now she turns her attention closer to home, to the children whose parents are soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In frank and revealing interviews, they talk about how this experience has marked and shaped their lives.The children, who range
...8) Three Wishes
Deborah Ellis presents the stories of children of the war-torn Middle East, based on interviews with Israeli and Palestinian children.
In a rehabilitation center for disabled children, twelve-year-old Nora says she loves the color pink and chewing gum and explains that the wheels of her wheelchair are like her legs. Eleven-year-old Mohammad describes how his house was demolished by soldiers. And we meet twelve-year-old Salam,
...Shortlisted for the SYRCA 2013 Diamond Willow Award, selected as an American Library Association 2012 Notable Children's Book, a Booklist Editors' Choice, nominated for the OLA Golden Oak Tree Award, and a finalist for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards: Young Adult/Middle Reader Award, the Governor General's Literary Awards: Children's Text and the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award
There's
...10) Looking for X
Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award
In this urban adventure story, Khyber, a smart, bold, eleven-year-old girl from a poor neighborhood, sets out to find her friend X, a mysterious homeless woman who has gone missing.
The desperate search takes Khyber on a long, all-night odyssey that proves to be wilder than any adventure she has ever imagined.
11) No Safe Place
Finalist for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award
Orphaned and plagued with the grief of losing everyone he loves, fifteen-year-old Abdul has made a long, fraught journey from his war-torn home in Baghdad, only to end up in The Jungle — the squalid, makeshift migrant community in Calais.
When an altercation at the soup kitchen ends up with him accidently stabbing a policeman, Abdul has to flee,
...A remarkable and thought-provoking new novel set on Israel's West Bank, by the author of The Breadwinner.
On Israel's West Bank, a cat sneaks into a small Palestinian house that has just been commandeered by two Israeli soldiers. The house seems empty, until the cat realizes that a little boy is hiding beneath the floorboards.
Should she help him?
After all, she's just a cat.
Or is she?
It turns out
...