Books published by Levine Querido

Eighteen-year-old Constance is not interested in marriage or in being a ?young lady.? But for a young woman coming of age in the early 1800s, that's just about all that's available to her. When her parents arrange her a marriage with a man more than twice her age, she's powerless to resist. Stance couldn't possibly find her newfound husband less appealing, but what can she do? Here's what: Four months into the marriage, she can slip out of their bed in the middle of the night, and she can put on his clothes. She can look in the mirror and like what she sees. She can sneak out of the house before dawn and visit the baker's scrawny son, who has just been drafted into the army, and offer to take his place. Vive l'Empereur! Hot on Stance's tail all the while is her younger brother Pieter, determined to bring Stance back home to Ghent where she belongs. (The battlefield is no place for a young lady, after all.) Ironhead, or, Once A Young Lady is the riotous and powerful story of a fierce renegade, and the silly men who try to bring her down.

BEST OF THE YEARKirkus · Parents · Chicago Public Library · Washington Post · Evanston Public Library · Los Angeles Public Library Charlotte Huck Recommended Book Common Sense Media Selection It’s Dat’s first day of school in a new country! Dat and his Mah made a long journey to get here, and Dat doesn’t know the language. To Dat, everything everybody says — from the school bus driver to his new classmates — sounds like gibberish. How is Dat going to make new friends if they can’t understand each other? Luckily there’s a friendly girl in Dat’s class who knows that there are other ways to communicate, besides just talking. Could she help make sense of the gibberish?P R A I S E “A superb picture book.”—The Wall Street Journal “Masterly. A tender reflection.”—The New York Times ★ “The execution is stellar. A visually and emotionally immersive immigration story.”—Kirkus (starred) ★ “Delightful. Beginning readers will love this book as the illustrations say it all.”—School Library Connection (starred) ★ “Will give hope to kids dealing with a new country and could inspire others to reach out to struggling immigrant children.”—Booklist (starred)

Our universe is brimming with secrets, and surprising curiosities. Here readers will learn the answers to all the questions they've asked themselves:What does the Sun look like from different planets in our galaxy? Why doesn't the Moon always appear the same? What is the largest river on Earth? And the highest mountain?In Geo-Graphics, our world becomes transformed by acclaimed artist Regina Giménez, into 96 pages of gorgeous shapes and colors. Planets and stars, continents and islands, rivers and lakes, volcanos and hurricanes ¿ here they are presented as circles, polygons, lines, spirals, and accompanying facts that explain the world around us.This special and unusual atlas is a marriage of science and art like no other.

"The trailer Ronny grew up in was never a home; at least not in the sense of a haven. He shared it with his mother and a succession of husbands, learning to keep to himself, get good grades, work toward a scholarship (since no one was going to pay for college other than him). At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Ronny's made some friends, kept his secrets, survived dorm life, and protected his heart. Until he can't. Ben is in some ways Ronny's opposite; he's big and solid where Ronny is small and slight. Ben's at UNC on a football scholarship. Confident, with that easy jock swagger, and an explosive temper always simmering. Straight. He's aware of the overwhelming effect he has on Ronny. It's like a sensation of power. So easy to tease Ronny, throw playful insults, but it all feels somehow...loaded. Meanwhile Ronny's mother has moved to Vegas with her latest husband. And Ben's mother is fighting advanced cancer. A bubble forms around the two, as surprising to Ronny as it is to Ben. Within it their connection ignites physically and emotionally. But what will happen when the tensile strength of a bubble is tested? When the rest of life intervenes? The Dove in the Belly is about the electric, dangerous, sometimes tender but always powerful attraction between two very different boys. But it's also about the full cycles of love and life and how they open in us the twinned capacities for joy and grief"--

Tycho Zeling is drifting through his life. Everything in it – school, friends, girls, plans for the future – just kind of … happens. Like a movie he presses play on, but doesn’t direct.   So Tycho decides to break away from everything. He flies to America to spend his summer as a counselor at a summer camp, for international kids. It is there that Oliver walks in, another counselor, from Norway.   And it is there that Tycho feels his life stop, and begin again, finally, as his.The Days of Bluegrass Love was originally published in the Netherlands in 1999. It was a groundbreaking book and has since become a beloved classic throughout Europe, but has never been translated into English. Here, for the first time, it is masterfully presented to American readers – a tender, intense, unforgettable story of first love.  P R A I S E    ★  “Poetic, intensely emotional, and sensitively philosophical. An enduring story populated with endearing characters.”—Kirkus (starred) ★ “Superb…beautifully written. A richly realized exercise in empathy.”—Booklist (starred)

Her home is in an abandoned mailbox, and she'd rather stay put. Outside kids scream and soccer balls collide, trees look like monsters, and rain is noisy in a scary kind of way. It's much nicer to stay inside, drawing. But then a young boy drops a letter in Willow's mailbox: it's a note to the moon asking for a special favor. Willow knows that if she doesn't brave the world outside, the letter will never be delivered, and the boy will be heartbroken. Should she try? Can she?

It's Rashin's first day of school in America! Everything is a different shape than what she's used to: from the foods on her breakfast plate to the letters in the books! And the kids' families are from all over!The new teacher asks each child to imagine the shape of home on a map. Rashin knows right away what she'll say: Iran looks like a cat! What will the other kids say?What about the country YOUR family is originally from? Is it shaped like an apple? A boot? A torch?Open this book to join Rashin in discovering the true things that shape a place called home.

Osnat was born five hundred years ago ¿ at a time when almost everyone believed in miracles. But very few believed that girls should learn to read.Yet Osnat's father was a great scholar whose house was filled with books. And she convinced him to teach her. Then she in turn grew up to teach others, becoming a wise scholar in her own right, the world's first female rabbi!Some say Osnat performed miracles ¿ like healing a dove who had been shot by a hunter! Or saving a congregation from fire!But perhaps her greatest feat was to be a light of inspiration for other girls and boys; to show that any person who can learn might find a path that none have walked before.

From the acclaimed Ojibwe author and professor Anton Treuer comes an essential book of questions and answers for Native and non-Native young readers alike. Ranging from Why is there such a fuss about nonnative people wearing Indian costumes for Halloween?" to "Why is it called a 'traditional Indian fry bread taco'?" to "What's it like for natives who don't look native", and beyond, Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask does exactly what its title says for young readers, in a style consistently thoughtful, personal, and engaging."

Why is this night different from all other nights?Every year when families gather for the Passover holiday, the youngest child poses that question as part of the poetic Four Questions near the start of the Seder. The answers are no less than the story of a people bound in slavery, their suffering in a foreign land, and their ultimate liberation – the story of Passover.Here the Four Questions are presented in breathtakingly luminous paintings by Ori Sherman. Whimsical animals parade through a unique format that can be read straight through in English or turned upside down to focus on the delicate Hebrew calligraphy and ingenious split-frame pictures. Each side of the Seder table can see its own variation of the richly colored scenes as elephants eat matzoh, monkeys dip herbs into water, and lions recline in newfound freedom. Author Lynne Sharon Schwartz answers the questions with refreshing clarity, providing insight into the symbols and rituals of the holiday.Experience a glorious art book, a beautiful gift for the kids who find the afikomen, and a wonderful way to experience Passover and its unique celebration of freedom.

At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. To them he is a dark-skinned, hairy-armed boy with a big butt whose lunch smells funny; who makes things up and talks about poop too much.But Khosrou's stories, stretching back years, and decades, and centuries, are beautiful, and terrifying, from the moment his family fled Iran in the middle of the night with the secret police moments behind them, back to the sad, cement refugee camps of Italy.and further back to the fields near the river Aras, where rain-soaked flowers bled red like the yolk of sunset burst over everything, and further back still to the Jasmine-scented city of Isfahan.We bounce between a school bus of kids armed with paper clip missiles and spitballs to the heroines and heroes of Khosrou's family's past, who ate pastries that made people weep and cry "Akh, Tamar!" and touched carpets woven with precious gems.Like Scheherazade in a hostile classroom, Daniel weaves a tale to save his own life: to stake his claim to the truth. And it is (a true story).It is Daniel's.

"A sweet story spiced with cultural humor and life lessons." —Kirkus Reviews"A perennial message." —Publishers Weekly"Incorporating the Chinese belief that foods have warm and cool characteristics, Giang's story artfully demonstrates how achieving balance results in positive outcomes." —BooklistTwo very different cousins must work together to save the day for Grandma's birthday! A gorgeous glimpse of Asian American culture in a story all kids will love.Ginger is excitable; she leaps into action, throwing herself headfirst into any project. Chrysanthemum is cooler-headed; she likes to plan, she's organized. She makes lists Yet they are cousins, close as two beans in a pod. Planning Grandma's birthday celebration is going to be a huge challenge. There are presents to buy, decorations to pick, and a special birthday cake to bake.How they manage it is a testament to affection being stronger than differences.

When so much of the world is new, you want to go slowly. to stop and enjoy everything; hills to roll down, perfect-sized rocks, trees that seem to whisper their thoughts. It's the same when you're much, much older, and every time 'round the seasons seems precious. Yet the folks in the middle (we know who we are) are always rushing, rushing, rushing. Appointments to make, trains to catch, places to be, FAST.That's what makes the bond between old dog and the little girl so special. From the time she takes her first steps, old dog finds someone - at last! - who wants to go at the same pace he does. To walk with everywhere, through this wide, wonderful world.A love song to the bond between young and old, this book will make you want to sit right down and read to someone you care about.

Two brothers bound together by affection and responsibility. Jadran is five years older than Josh and huge enough to be nicknamed Giant. Josh is younger, and smaller; but his sweet and stubborn brother thinks in a way that would be more typical of a small child. They are both dealing with changes to their newly blended, Muslim family. So Josh looks after Jadran and they both adjust. When the brothers find an injured young crane, Jadran wants to bring it back to their small apartment and teach it to fly at any cost. And it turns out the cost is high.Intensely moving without ever slipping into sentimentality, The Blue Wings is a warm, love-filled story about fragility, strength, and brotherhood, in all its complications.