Chris K. Soentpiet

In the mid-1800s, two brothers come from China to America to help build the Central Pacific railroad, enduring great hardship, danger, and discrimination. Nevertheless, the brothers take great pride in their labors, always remembering that no matter how they are treated, "it is our hands that helped build the railroad." Author Yin offers a gripping portrayal of the Chinese laborers, brought to life with beautiful paintings from Chris Soentpiet.

Product Description: David likes his family the way it has always been, just him and Mom and Dad. He never wanted to be a big brother. And he certainly didn't want Jin Woo, the little baby from Korea, to join the family. Now his new little brother is getting all the attention, and David feels as if no one cares about him anymore. But then a surprising letter helps him to understand that being a brother can mean being surrounded with more love than ever.

All the more moving in its restraint, this picture-book account of a fictional family reveals, with gentle dignity, a sad chapter in American history. Laura Iwasaki and her Japanese-American family will soon move from California to Boston, so they are making one last visit to Laura's grandfather's grave, which lies near the Sierra Nevada Mountains, so far from the sea he loved. Before World War II, he was a fisherman. Then, along with Laura's father, her grandmother, and 10,000 other Japanese Americans, he was sent to the Manzanar War Relocation Center.

A young girl learns to find beauty in her sometimes gritty urban neighborhood, showing how the way one sees makes a difference that affects others. Luminous watercolors detail the child, her neighborhood, and suggest what she sees around her.