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Today we bring you the first in a series of “Top-10″ posts as part of our 10th Anniversary celebrations.  First up is a selection of “Books that Open Windows” by award-winning writer Deborah Ellis.

Deborah’s latest novel came out last month: My Name Is Parvana (Groundwood Books, 2012) is the long-awaited sequel to her acclaimed The Breadwinner Trilogy.  As well as fiction, Deborah has written non-fiction highlighting global social issues from children’s perspectives, such as war, AIDS and bullying, and giving affected children a voice.  You can read PaperTigers’ interviews with Deborah here and here.

Top 10: Books that Open Windows by Deborah Ellis

Jean Little is a wonderful Canadian author of books for young people. She has a special place in my heart because when I was a child, my parents were friends with a friend of Jean’s – Jane Glaves – and I would get Ms. Little’s books for Christmas. One of my favorite Jean Little books is Look Through My Window, where one character talks about looking through someone’s window into who they are and what their lives are like.

The following books are ten I would recommend to anyone interested in seeing what’s inside someone else’s window.

1.   From Anna, by Jean Little ~ Novel for young people about a German family who comes to Canada just before the start of World War 2. The youngest, Anna, has struggles with her eyesight, her awkwardness and figuring out where her place is in her family and in this new world.

2.   All of a Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor ~ First in a series of books for young readers about a Jewish family in turn of the century Brooklyn. As the girls go about the adventures of their lives – such as earning money to pay for a lost library book – the family celebrates the calendar of holidays. As a Protestant-raised small-town girl, this was my first window into a different religion, and set off a respect and fascination for Judaism that continues to this day.

3.   Obasan, by Joy Kogawa ~ Moving telling of a young girl’s experience in a Japanese internment camp in Canada during World War 2.

4.   Nobody’s Family is Going to Change, by Louise Fitzhugh ~ Novel for young people about a girl in New York who can’t make her father see her for who she is. She grows to learn about other kids in other families and their struggles.

5.   A Dog on Barkham Street and The Bully of Barkham Street,  by Mary Stoltz – Look at the same story from two points of view. They taught me how to look for more than one side of the story.

6.   Mighty Be Our Powers, by Leymah Gbowee ~ A powerful memoir of a woman who survived the Liberian civil war and won the Nobel Prize for her work to rebuild the country.

7.   Amazing Grace, by Jonathan Kozol ~ About homelessness and poverty in America and the power of the education system to hurt or help the children in its care.

8.   Shannen and the Dream for a School, by Janet Wilson – part of the Kids’ Power Book series for young activists, this is a profile of Shannen Koostachin and her First Nations community of Attawapiskat as they try to get a safe school built.

9.   Bury Me Standing, by Isabel Fonseca ~ A moving, detailed history of the Roma people.

10.   Grey is the Color of Hope, by Irina Ratushinskaya ~ Prison diaries of the Soviet poet who spent seven years in the Gulags. One of the few records we have about what that time and place was like for women.

I give my college students a religion quiz every semester, and, for a country theoretically operating on Judeo-Christian principles, I’m hard-pressed to find folks who are clear on the Christian stuff, let alone the Judeo. Despite our nearly 80% self-reported Christianity, we don’t really know a whole lot about our own religious history, so how can we possibly be open to and embracing of other worship forms? Growing up in a religious tradition that strongly discourages outside theological exploration, I was always the oddball interested in what everyone else was doing in the worship department. That may come partially from being raised with Southern roots and not being an evangelical. It may come from a natural curiosity. It could definitely be part of my contrary nature. But, at the heart of it, I think my intrigue with other religious traditions started in earnest the moment I opened my first All of a Kind Family book. Sydney Taylor’s series centers on a turn-of-the-century Jewish family, full of children, in working-class Brooklyn. They are devout, close-knit, and have little but each other. I love them and find myself reading about their adventures even as an adult. It is from them and those in their circle that I learned about the forgiveness of Yom Kippur, the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the bounty of Succos, and the sanctity of Passover. In Rabbi Francis Barry Silberg’s The Story of Chanukah, a simple board book tells a powerful story of a great people. Yevarchecha hashem. Amen.

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Chanukah-Francis-Barry-Silberg/dp/0824942256

http://www.ceebj.org/about_us/staff_list/

“Uh oh.”

“What.”

“Yorozu’s got that look again.”

“Did you vote?”

“We’re not supposed to vote, are we?”

“Oh yeah… huh. Well anyway, it’s Friday.”

“And you know what that means.”

“Yay! It’s Ten Update Day!”

“That’s right Ladies and Gentlemints. Ten updates in one day, right here on the world of ferocious guard cats and Professor Planets. We’re also going to have a special event to top it all off later today.”

“Sweet. I love our events.”

“Hooray for us! Ja minna!”

zzzzzzz….

“Oh, and if you haven’t voted yet, go vote. Left side. Big red box with gold letters.”

LadyStar™ Call of the Huntress is Copyright © 2007 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Read Part One
Read Part Two

“You’re a fool. Gold monarchs are the coin of the Branven Merchants.” The small, wiry man twitched annoyingly as he dealt the next hand. “No man is desperate enough to face that problem.”

“You’re a bigger fool if you think I’m going to fall for card tricks after only two flagons,” Kenesh replied, throwing his cards down on the table. “We play corners to edges or I’ll take my business to Yicho. At least in the swamps I can get in a spot of fishing.” Nako shook his head as he shuffled the greasy cards. His face continued to twitch. Kenesh picked up a properly dealt hand and frowned at what he saw.

“What’s your plan?” the dealer chuckled as he opened a cheap bottle. “Wait in a dark alley for a scribe arcanist? She is called Vicereine as far north as Kulnas.” Kenesh became more and more agitated. “There are none in Aventar who even lived when such title was last granted!” The dealer almost shouted. Kenesh slammed his cards down on the table.

“This is my notched blade, Nako. One opportunity to make a career.” Kenesh hissed. “And a fortune to encrust it in jewels.”

“If you see five gold monarchs I’ll sell you the palace for them,” Nako replied. Then he shook his head. “More likely you’ll end up worse than dead.”

“Find me something foul that will finish the job quickly then,” Kenesh reclined. “Perhaps there will be a reward for you as well.”

Nako’s twitching only intensified. He sniffled and itched his right ear, then shook his head as he stood up.

“Going to get us both turned into wretched things that haunt the night,” he muttered, walking past a bloodstained curtain into a darkened alcove. Kenesh picked up Nako’s cards and saw he was still cheating, but had only changed techniques.

“Perhaps I’ll remove a few of your fingers so you’ll not pollute the world with any more of these infernal card tricks of yours!” Kenesh shouted into the back. A dusty wind caused the stained tarp at the front door of the small shack to twist and flap as flakes of dried grime littered the mutilated mat underneath it.

“Since I expect what’s in this bottle to kill you and your horse before you reach the marketplace, I’ll take my payment in advance,” Nako said, as he placed a bright metallic bottle in front of Kenesh and backed away.

“What is it?” Kenesh asked.

“It’s a contact poison made from the eye fluids of shriekbats. Oil your gloves and for the sake of all the swampwater in Gacenar, don’t get any on you,” Nako replied. “You’ll be dead before you feel it.”

“Weapons?” Kenesh squinted his pale eye.

“It will stick to any blade for months,” Nako replied. “You’ll have to burn it off, and don’t stand by the fire either.”

Kenesh picked up the bottle and hefted it. The fluid was much heavier than water, and seemed to be very thick. Kenesh felt it move very slowly from one side of the bottle to the other. It was a disorienting feeling. He put the bottle back down.

“Want to double your payment?” Kenesh asked, looking sideways at Nako, who licked his lips and twitched in response.

To be continued . . .

LadyStar™ Call of the Huntress is Copyright © 2007 Heavy Cat Multimedia Ltd. All Rights Reserved