New Releases

In this book we visit 15 schools in various corners of the world to see how kids learn in different countries or cultures.

Kids go to school all around the world, but the types of schools or the school systems vary from place to place. Would you like to see where kids in Japan or in Himalayas go to school? Would you like to know how a school on a boat works? Or what a school in a rainforest looks like? This book will show you that while some schools are pretty similar to what you know, others can be completely different and surprising.

In each chapter a local kid poses as a guide who introduces us to the type of school or a school system of a certain country or culture. Kids will learn that every nation has its own way of learning and that difference is what makes each culture special.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Selected for the Children’s Book Council’s July 2023 “Hot Off The Press” Reading List

In the next book in the How the Wonders Were Built series, the new seven wonders of the world are introduced from the architectural point of view in this fully illustrated title.

The Great Wall of China, Petra, The Colosseum, Chichén Itzá, Machu Picchu, The Taj Mahal, and Christ the Redeemer were selected as the new seven wonders of the world by over 600 million people who participated in a vote between 2000 and 2007. But have you ever wondered how these monumental structures were built centuries ago without using the modern technologies and heavy machinery that is available today? This book will give you the answers you are looking for.

These buildings are a cross-section of world architecture, offering a unique opportunity to compare the approaches, but also cultures of the entire world and different historical periods. Come and travel with us across the world and time and peek behind the curtain of the creation of the architectural monuments that have helped shape the current world.

Selected for 2024 CBC Children's Favorites Gr K-2

Selected for The Children’s Book Council’s June 2023 “Hot Off The Press” Reading List 

A gentle story about a little snail called Henry who was born without slime and therefore will never be like everyone else.

When Henry finds out he is missing the most important element for snails—their slime—giving up is not an option for him. He tries to find ways to be able to climb things just as the other snails do. He struggles a bit before he finds the right solution, but in the end, he becomes the inspiration for his fellow snails and makes a lot of friends along the way, teaching us that far from being an obstacle, a difference may prove to be the key that opens new horizons.

Using a simple story and a sympathetic hero the kids learn social-emotional skills and are better prepared to cope with everyday life situations.

An original concept where geometry is explained on real life situations showing the practical usage of shapes in our everyday lives.

Geometry is usually considered a demanding, boring or even a scary subject. But shapes are all around us and we use them constantly without even realizing it. Various usage of shapes in different environments is presented in 17 chapters and the book ends with a double-spread where kids can try out their newly gained knowledge.

The aim of this book is to show geometry as a fun and useful subject that can be comprehensible and that helps us in many ways on a daily basis.

Genuine Okinawan Karate was developed as a fighting tool.

Non-Okinawan Karate are for other purposes.

Karate practitioners, scholars, and everyone caring about Asian martial arts and its culture will enthusiastically appreciate this eye-opening work.

Dr. Bayer substantiates further how the art Karate was used to prepare a nation (Japan) for total war, how it was deliberately industrialized into a worldwide Japanized Karate-Do inflation, and how its following transformation into athletic showmanship destroyed the art’s unity and distinctiveness.

The author endorses Karate-Jutsu as a genuine Okinawan martial art even as foreign knowledge and skills from India (speculated) and from China (proven) were integrated― and he explains the imitative social mechanism used to turn this local fighting art into a symbol of national identity.

Since martial arts were initially understood as a moral code-neutral tool, like a weapon, this happens to contradict the modern understanding of Karate being a peaceful art with inherent non-violent values. In truth, moral codes or guidelines on how to use this tool were developed separately, not within the art.

A new “back to the roots” Karate-Jutsu movement gains importance and establishes a counterculture to Karate-Do’s industrialization, helping to integrate some neglected reminiscences of Karate-Jutsu back into Karate-Do. Such a development brings Japanized Karate-Do versions closer to their martial origins, whereas pure Karate-Jutsu will be preserved as a point of reference by a group of dedicated curators.

Contents include:

• Okinawa is the birthplace of Karate-Jutsu and Japan is the birthplace of Bu-Jutsu.
• How Karate and Budo were used for Japan’s war preparations.
• Senpai seniority was the social mechanism to integrate Karate into Japan’s martial arts tradition.
• Consequences of an ancient fighting art being turned into athletic showmanship.
• In Sports-Karate there is no more Kata in Kumite, and there is no more Kumite in Kata either.
• The modern misconception of avoiding a fight by all means.
• The path toward mastery in Karate.
• Sensei correct your errors and blunders, you have to correct mistakes yourself.
• Today’s Karate-Jutsu movement is the counterculture to Karate-Do’s industrialization.
• Karate’s market structure in the 21st century.

Why do states still need diplomats? Despite instantaneous electronic communication and rapid global travel, the importance of ambassadors and embassies has in many ways grown since the middle of the nineteenth century. However, in theories of international relations, diplomats are often neglected in favor of states or leaders, or they are dismissed as old-fashioned.

David Lindsey develops a new theory of diplomacy that illuminates why states find ambassadors indispensable to effective intergovernmental interaction. He argues that the primary diplomatic challenge countries face is not simply communication—it is credibility. Diplomats can often communicate credibly with their host countries even when their superiors cannot because diplomats spend time building the trust that is vital to cooperation. Using a combination of history, game theory, and statistical analysis, Lindsey explores the logic of delegating authority to diplomats. He argues that countries tend to appoint diplomats who are sympathetic to their host countries and share common interests with them. Ideal diplomats hold political preferences that fall in between those of their home country and their host country, and they are capable of balancing both sets of interests without embracing either point of view fully.

Delegated Diplomacy is based on a comprehensive dataset of more than 1,300 diplomatic biographies drawn from declassified intelligence records, as well as detailed case studies of the U.S. ambassadors to the United Kingdom and Germany before and during World War I. It provides a rich and insightful account of the theory and practice of diplomacy in international relations.

An original concept where math is explained on real life situations showing the practical usage of numbers in our everyday lives.

Math is usually considered a demanding, boring or even a scary subject. But numbers are all around us and we use them and math constantly without even realizing it. Various usage of numbers in different environments is presented in 17 chapters and the book ends with a double-spread where kids can try out their newly gained knowledge.

The aim of this book is to show math as a fun and useful subject that can be comprehensible and that helps us in many ways on a daily basis.

One day in a life of a little boy and his pet cat is portrayed in this poetic picture book with dreamlike illustrations.

In this book the readers follow the actions of a little boy and his kitten in the course of one day and during this time we discover that there are more similarities between humans and animals than we would think—from sleeping and eating to playing and taking care of yourself. On each spread there is a question asking the readers about the topic concerned on the given page and making the reading experience interactive. Also, there is a little hidden object game throughout the book.

The lovely illustrations by a world-renowned Japanese artist Iku Dekune in combination with text by Czech contemporary poet Radek Maly makes the book Our Cat's Day irresistible.

SHORTLISTED, THE ALLAN LLOYD SMITH PRIZE FOR BEST MONOGRAPH

Offering an innovative approach to the Gothic, Gothic Things: Dark Enchantment and Anthro­pocene Anxiety breaks ground with a new materialist analysis of the genre, highlighting the ways that, since its origins in the eighteenth century, the Gothic has been intensely focused on “ominous matter” and “thing power.” In chapters attending to gothic bodies, spaces, books, and other objects, Gothic Things argues that the Gothic has always been about what happens when objects assume mysterious animacy or potency and when human beings are reduced to the status of just one thing among many—more powerful—others.

In exploring how the Gothic insistently decenters the human, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock reveals human beings to be enmeshed in networks of human and nonhuman forces mostly out­side of their control. Gothic Things thus resituates the Gothic as the uncanny doppelgänger of twenty-first-century critical and cultural theory, lurking just beneath the surface (and sometimes explicitly surfacing) as it haunts considerations of how human beings interact with objects and their environment. In these pages the Gothic offers a dark reflection of the contemporary “nonhuman turn,” expressing a twenty-first-century structure of feeling undergirded by anxiety over the fate of the human: spectrality, monstrosity, and apocalypse.

Substituting horror for hope, the Gothic, Weinstock explains, has been a philosophical medita­tion on human relations to the nonhuman since its inception, raising significant questions about how we can counter anthropocentric thought in our quest to live more harmoniously with the world around us.

We live in busy, stressful times and finding happiness in our modern world can be a challenge. From the demands of a hectic working life to the relentless cycle of 24/7 news or the constant beep of our smartphones, there are all many things that can trigger negative emotions.

The Little Book of Happiness offers guidance for when the scales of life are tipped and feeling positive feels beyond our reach. Packed full of wise words from some of the world's best-known figures – from ancient philosophers and celebrated writers to modern-day figures – this book will help you to shift your thinking, boost your mood and find your inner joy.

'Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.'
- Frank Tyger

'To be content means that you realize you contain what you seek.'
- Alan Cohen

Have you ever felt like your day-to-day life is one big 'to-do' list? There's the daily juggle of work, an energy-sapping commute, the demands of family life or running a busy household. And then there are life's crucial turning points: relaunching a career, moving house, finding love. Between all that noise, it can be hard to make and maintain friendships.

The Little Book of Friendship offers guidance for when the scales of life are tipped and a moment of companionship is needed. Packed full of wise words from some of the world's best-known figures – from ancient philosophers and celebrated writers to modern-day figures – this book will help you to prioritize your friendships and truly value your loved ones, even when times are tough.

'No road is too long in the company of a good friend.'
- Japanese proverb

'Friendship is essentially a partnership.'
- Aristotle

An energizing case for hope about the climate, from Rebecca Solnit (“the voice of the resistance”—New York Times), climate activist Thelma Young Lutunatabua, and a chorus of voices calling on us to rise to the moment.

Not Too Late is the book for anyone who is despondent, defeatist, or unsure about climate change and seeking answers. As the contributors to this volume make clear, the future will be decided by whether we act in the present—and we must act to counter institutional inertia, fossil fuel interests, and political obduracy.
These dispatches from the climate movement around the world feature the voices of organizers like Guam-based lawyer and writer Julian Aguon; climate scientists like Dr. Jacquelyn Gill and Dr. Edward Carr; poets like Marshall Islands activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijner; and longtime organizers like The Tyranny of Oil author Antonia Juhasz. Guided by Rebecca Solnit’s typical clear-eyed wisdom and enriched by photographs and quotes, Not Too Late leads readers from discouragement to possibilities, from climate despair to climate hope.

A wide-ranging and incisive collection of interviews with Noam Chomsky, addressing the urgent questions of this tumultuous moment.

In these informative interviews, conducted for Truthout by C.J. Polychroniou, Noam Chomsky addresses the rapid deterioration of democracy in the United States and rising tensions globally. He examines the crumbling social fabric and fractures of the Biden era, including the halting steps toward a Green New Deal; the illegitimate authority of the Supreme Court, in particular its decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade; and the ongoing fallout from COVID-19. Chomsky also untangles the roots of the War in Ukraine, the diplomatic tensions among the United States, China, and Russia, and considers the need for climate action on an international scale.

Throughout, Chomsky “remains…a beacon of hope in the darkest of times" (Sarah Jaffe).

A comprehensive and spirited exploration of Asian American history—its movements, cultures, and key figures—beautifully illustrated and compellingly told for readers of all ages.

Co-authors Cathy Linh Che and Kyle Lucia Wu take us on a journey through stories of celebration and resistance: the Third World Liberation Front, the Muslim Ban, Japanese American incarceration camps, Padma Lakshmi, Rashida Tlaib, Sunisa Lee, and more. It is a history of struggle, but also one of great triumph, brought to life with colorful and dynamic illustrations by Kavita Ramchandran.

Written by the directors of Kundiman—an organization dedicated to nurturing Asian American writers—An Asian American A to Z is a book for children of all backgrounds and a vital resource for tomorrow's organizers. Asian American identity formation is expansive yet under-taught, and this book is a necessary intervention that will ground readers in joy, history, and solidarity.

A collection of poetry that moves from family history and the heartbreaks of navigating a predominantly white high school into adulthood, exploring the ways the speaker’s experiences echo those of an expansive and intricate history of Black girls and women.

In this beautiful debut from an exciting new poet, Alexa Patrick’s Remedies for Disappearing memorializes Blackness in its quiet and unexpected forms, bringing the peripheral into focus. These poems muddy Black life and death, observe lineage and love stories, and question what “disappearing” teaches about Blackness and bodies.

Remedies for Disappearing is gritty, sharp, and formally inventive, demonstrating Patrick’s imaginative curiosity, lyrical restraint, and confidence in her handling of language. Moments of aphoristic confession are balanced with imagistic precision as the speaker recounts the ways her aunties, sisters, and even herself have disappeared in order to survive.

Patrick’s poetry is haunting and hopeful, striving to provide readers with the tools and context to acknowledge, define, and honor the complexity of Black girl/womanhood. Remedies for Disappearing connects Black girls and women to each other and to their own histories, and insists that they be fully and wholly seen.