beyond our borders

A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in America.

With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely.

After ten years in a refugee camp in Thailand, thirteen-year-old Mai Yang travels to Providence, Rhode Island, where her Americanized cousins introduce her to pizza, shopping, and beer, while her grandmother and new friends keep her connected to her Hmong heritage.

Seven stories, spanning the time period from 1948 to 2000, chronicle the experiences of young people from different races and ethnic groups as they try to cope with the restrictions placed on their lives by South Africa's apartheid laws.

When eleven-year old Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, she must either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of defying her father's wishes.

Thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill-fated arranged marriage and must either suffer a destiny dictated by India's customs or find the courage to oppose tradition.

Yanyan, having always wanted to be a doctor, makes a difficult decision to leave the exciting Liang Baoshu behind in China and moves to New York to attend medical school.

The story of fourteen-year-old Shauzia, who escaped from Kabul, Afghanistan and who is unhappy with her life as a refugee in a camp in Pakistan.

After her father's death, Parvana, now thirteen-years-old, continues to search for her mother in war-torn Afghanistan, joining with two younger children who are also struggling to survive.

Contains the story of two sisters who risked their lives in order to reveal their fight for political freedom, education, and equality under the Taliban in Afghanistan.