Synopsis: More than two thousand years ago, with his land under constant attack from nomads, the First Emperor of China came up with a simple solution: build a wall to keep out enemies. It was a wall that kept growing and growing. But its construction came at a huge cost: it is believed that more than a million Chinese died building it, earning the wall its nickname--the longest cemetery on earth. Through the story of the wall, Patricia Brennan Demuth is…

Synopsis: It is 1945, and courageous ten-year-old Sookan and her family must endure the cruelties of the Japanese military occupying Korea.  Police captain Narita does his best to destroy everything of value to the family, but he cannot break their spirit.  Sookan's father is with the resistance movement in Manchuria and her older brothers have been sent away to labor camps.  Her mother is forced to supervise a sock factory and Sookan herself must wear a…

Synopsis: Gus Dempsey is a newly trained dog handler in the United States Marine Corps, and when he is deployed to Afghanistan he is paired with Loki, a bomb-sniffing black Labrador with a mischievous streak.

Synopsis: “Venkatraman has never met a heavy theme she did not like....Borrowing elements of fable, it's told with a recurring sense of awe by a boy whom the world, for most of his life, has existed only in stories.”—New York Times Book Review The author of the award-winning The Bridge Home brings readers another gripping novel set in Chennai, India, featuring a boy who's unexpectedly released into the world after spending his whole life in jail with his…

Synopsis: Named Temujin at birth by his nomadic family in early Mongolia, the great Genghis Khan used his skill and cunning to create the Mongol Empire and conquer almost the entire continent of Asia. As ruler of the largest empire in human history, he was as respected as he was feared. Learn more about the man and the legend in Who Was Genghis Khan?

Synopsis: The daughter of a samurai never weeps. But Takiko, whose warrior father was killed in battle, finds this a hard rule, especially when her mother remarries a strange and ugly country potter. To get away from her miserable home, Takiko eagerly accepts a position at the imperial Japanese court. There, her beauty and nightingale voice captivate the handsome young warrior, Hideo -- who also turns out to be an enemy spy. As war breaks out, Takiko…

Synopsis: Sun-hee and her older brother, Tae-yul, live in Korea with their parents. Because Korea is under Japanese occupation, the children study Japanese and speak it at school. Their own language, their flag, the folktales Uncle tells them--even their names--are all part of the Korean culture that is now forbidden. When World War II comes to Korea, Sun-hee is surprised that the Japanese expect their Korean subjects to fight on their side. But the…

Synopsis: "All the sizzle, chaos, noise and scariness of war is clay in the hands of ace storyteller Lynch." -- Kirkus Reviews for the World War II seriesDiscover the secret missions behind America's greatest conflicts.Fergus Frew thought he knew what to expect when he signed up with the Navy's demolitions team. But as the Korean War rages on, Fergus and his fellow divers -- a.k.a. "frogmen" -- are tasked with more than just scouting mudflats. Soon they'…

Synopsis: The game is on! Get your hands on this book about one of the most influential companies in the video game industry.Founded in 1889, Nintendo started out as a small playing card company in Japan. Though the cards sold well, Nintendo really became popular when it began creating toys in the 1960s, and then became internationally renowned after developing video games and consoles in the 1970s and '80s. After introducing the world to some of the best…

Synopsis: Gloria Whelan's National Book Award–winning novel, chronicles the breathtaking story of a remarkable young woman who dares to defy fate. Like many girls her age in India, thirteen–year–old Koly faces her arranged marriage with hope and courage. But Koly's story takes a terrible turn when in the wake of the ceremony, she discovers she's been horribly misled; her life has been sold for a dowry. In prose both graceful and unflinching, this…

Synopsis: The only thing you'll find on the summit of Mount Everest is a divine view. The things that really matter lie far below. - Peak MarcelloAfter fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, he's left with two choices: wither away in Juvenile Detention or go live with his long-lost father, who runs a climbing company in Thailand. But Peak quickly learns that his father's renewed interest in him has strings…