Ellis, Deborah

After being taken in by a family of coca farmers, Diego is devastated when the army threatens to destroy the only source of income they have and so works to stop the army and save the people he has come to love.

In 1988, the deeply conservative and religious government controls every facet of life in Iran. Fifteen-year-old Farrin falls in love with her friend Sadira, but it is against the law to be a homosexual in Iran, punishable by death. Despite their efforts to keep their relationship secret, the girls are discovered and arrested.

After her father is arrested by the Taliban, Parvana, an eleven-year-old Afghan girl, disguises herself as a boy so that she can work and support her family.

After their father dies of AIDS, Binti and her siblings are orphaned, split up, and sent to live with relatives all over Malawi, but after they suffer increasing hardships, the siblings are reunited through the influence of their formidable grandmother.

Presents the stories of children from the African nations of Malawi and Zambia whose lives have been touched by AIDS, and provides facts about the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Because the Taliban rulers of Kabul, Afghanistan, impose strict limitations on women's freedom and behavior, eleven-year-old Parvana must disguise herself as a boy so that her family can survive after her father's arrest.