Nadia Mikail0.0 A stunning debut young adult novel set in Malaysia, charting Aisha and her family on a roadtrip through the country in search of estranged sister, June. Set against the backdrop of a world catastrophe, this novel is full of love, healing and hope. Seventeen-year-old Aisha hasn't seen her sister June for two years. And now that a calamity is about to end the world in nine months' time, she and her mother decide that it's time to track her down and mend the hurts of the past. Along with Aisha's boyfriend, Walter and his parents (and Fleabag the stray cat), the group take a roadtrip through Malaysia in a wildly decorated campervan - to put the past to rest, to come to terms with the present, and to hope for the future.
M. T. Khan0.0 Nura longs for the simple pleasure of many things—to wear a beautiful red dupatta or to bite into a sweet gulab. But with her mom hard at work in a run-down sweatshop and three younger siblings to feed, Nura must spend her days earning money by mica mining. But it’s not just the extra rupees in her pocket Nura is after. Local rumor says there’s buried treasure in the mine, and Nura knows that finding it could change the course of her family’s life forever.
Her plan backfires when the mines collapse and four kids, including her best friend, Faisal, are claimed dead. Nura refuses to believe it and shovels her way through the dirt hoping to find him. Instead, she finds herself at the entrance to a strange world of purple skies and pink seas—a portal to the opulent realm of jinn, inhabited by the trickster creatures from her mother’s cautionary tales. Yet they aren’t nearly as treacherous as her mother made them out to be, because Nura is invited to a luxury jinn hotel, where she’s given everything she could ever imagine and more.
But there’s a dark truth lurking beneath all that glitter and gold, and when Nura crosses the owner’s son and is banished to the working quarters, she realizes she isn’t the only human who’s ended up in the hotel’s clutches. Faisal and the other missing children are there, too, and if Nura can’t find a way to help them all escape, they’ll be bound to work for the hotel forever.
Set in a rural industrial town in Pakistan and full of hope, heart, and humor, Nura and the Immortal Palace is inspired by M.T. Khan’s own Pakistani Muslim heritage.
Hillyard Kim0.0 One peaceful Tuesday morning, a loud CRACK could be heard as the last mammoth on earth broke free from her icy shell - here comes Gretel the Wonder Mammoth! Everyone is so excited to meet her but as she settles into her new life, Gretel starts to feel a little overwhelmed and even a bit lonely...
This positive, encouraging picture book teaches young readers that perhaps the bravest act a person (or mammoth!) can do is ask for help.
Gretel the Wonder Mammoth is a perfect bedtime read for fans of Rob Biddulph, Rachel Bright and Jim Field.
