Windows and Mirrors on the Hastings Bookshelf: NonFiction Books at Hastings

Using revealing photography and detailed personal accounts to give unique insight into the diversity of religious faith as experienced by children across the world, this is an ideal book for families to read together.

The meaning of this Islamic holiday and how it is celebrated.

The 2nd Edition of the best-selling book which has sold over 400 000 copies in 17 languages ? updated with new content and insights about the world's people. First published to wide acclaim in 2002, this eye-opening book has since become a classic, promoting "world-mindedness" by imagining the world's population ? all 6.8 billion of us ? as a village of just 100 people. Now, If the World Were a Village has been newly revised with updated statistics, several new activities and completely new material on food security, energy and health. By exploring the lives of the 100 villagers, children will discover that life in other nations is often very different from their own. If the World Were a Village is part of CitizenKid: A collection of books that inform children about the world and inspire them to be better global citizens.

Children Just Like Me is a celebration of children around the world, published to coincide with UNICEF's 50th anniversary. For the past two years, a photographer and teacher have traveled to five continents to meet and talk to children from many different walks of like. Children will enjoy reading about the dreams and beliefs, hopes and fears, and day-to-day events of other children's lives, understanding not just the obvious differences between one another, but discovering the extraordinary similarities. Children are encouraged to participate in a special pen pal arrangement, so that they may share their own experiences with children in other countries.

An Italian boy sips from a fountain in the town square. A hiker takes a refreshing drink from a mountain stream. Black-robed women in India stride gracefully through a field with brass water jugs balanced on their heads. Whether they squeeze it out of a burlap bag, haul it home from a communal tap, or get it out of their kitchen faucet, people all around the world are unified by their common need for water.

Plastic bags are cheap and easy to use. But what happens when a bag breaks or is no longer needed? In Njau, Gambia, people simply dropped the bags and went on their way. One plastic bag became two. Then ten. Then a hundred. The bags accumulated in ugly heaps alongside roads. Water pooled in them, bringing mosquitoes and disease. Some bags were burned, leaving behind a terrible smell. Some were buried, but they strangled gardens. They killed livestock that tried to eat them. Something had to change. Isatou Ceesay was that change. She found a way to recycle the bags and transform her community. This inspirational true story shows how one person's actions really can make a difference in our world.

At a school that sits on the edge of the Sahara, students are learning to speak English from a teacher who stands in front of a Webcam in North America. These students are learning in a virtual classroom. In another part of the world, kids aren't waiting to ride the bus to school--they are waiting to hop in a boat that will take them to a school that floats on a river. And some kids don't mind heights, especially those who attend a school on the slope of a mountain in the Himalayas, in one of the most remote corners of the earth.

Almost 10 years before Brown vs. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California. An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, Mendez was denied enrollment to a "Whites only" school. Her parents took action by organizing the Hispanic community and filing a lawsuit in federal district court. Their success eventually brought an end to the era of segregated education in California.

Step into unique homes from around the world and discover the many fascinating ways in which people live and have lived.If you lived in the mountains of southern Spain, your bedroom might be carved out of a mountain. If you lived in a village in South Africa, the outside of your house might tell the story of your family. And if you lived in a floating green house in the Netherlands, you could rotate your house to watch both the sunrise and sunset. With intricate bas-relief collages, Giles Laroche uncovers the reason why each home was constructed the way in which it was, then lets us imagine what it would be like to live in homes so different from our own.

Dive into this feast of tasty facts about the food and cooking of Nigeria. Learn all about the climate, history, religion, and culture of Nigeria and how they have influenced the national cuisine. Read this book and discover: how to use fufu, a white sticky ball of porridge, to scoop up your soup or stew-when the soup is finished, you eat the fufu how the Igbo people celebrate weddings by breaking and sharing cola nuts how the city of Argungu hosts a festival each year in which hundreds of locals compete to catch the biggest fish in just one hour The book contains three recipes with clear, step-by-step instructions, so you can try cooking up some popular Nigerian dishes for yourself.

Countering the prevailing, traditional story of the first Thanksgiving, with its black-hatted, silver-buckled Pilgrims; blanket-clad, be-feathered Indians; cranberry sauce; pumpkin pie; and turkey, this lushly illustrated photo-essay presents a more measured, balanced, and historically accurate version of the three-day harvest celebration in 1621.

In this Mexican retelling of the Cinderella story, there is no glass slipper and no fairy godmother. All Domitila has are her innate qualities and talents, resulting in the transformation of Timoteo, her suitor.

Once upon a time, in a little village in India, there lived an old woman. Everyone in the village called her Grandma. One day, Grandma received a letter from her daughter, who lived on the other side of the jungle. "Please come and visit me," said the letter. "I haven't seen you in so long. I miss you." And so, Grandma begins a perilous journey to the far side of the jungle. Can she use her keen wit to escape the jungle animals and make it safely home?

Once upon a time, in Mexico . . . in Ireland . . . in Zimbabwe . . . there lived a girl who worked all day in the rice fields . . . then spent the night by the hearth, sleeping among the cinders. Her name is Ashpet, Sootface, Cendrillon . . . Cinderella. Her story has been passed down the centuries and across continents.

'Indian Tales' features stories from all over the Indian subcontinent. Magical spirits in the mountains of the northeast, sneaky robbers and brave heroines in the heart of the Indus Valley, action and adventure in the far south, and much more.

Many years ago in Poland, there lived a rabbi who had a wife and three daughters. One day, the rabbi asks his children a powerful question: "How much do you love me?" His older daughters profess their love in gold and diamonds, but his youngest daughter, Mireleh, declares she loves her father the way meat loves salt. For this remark, she is banished from her father's home.In this flavorful Jewish Cinderella tale, Mireleh's courageous journey is peppered with a perfect blend of magic and romance, leading to a reconciliation with her beloved father.

To us it is just dirt, the ground we walk on... But to Dave it was clay, the plain and basic stuff upon which he formed a life as a slave nearly 200 years ago. Dave was an extraordinary artist, poet, and potter living in South Carolina in the 1800s. He combined his superb artistry with deeply observant poetry, carved onto his pots, transcending the limitations he faced as a slave. In this inspiring and lyrical portrayal, National Book Award nominee Laban Carrick Hill's elegantly simple text and award-winning artist Bryan Collier's resplendent, earth-toned illustrations tell Dave's story, a story rich in history, hope, and long-lasting beauty.