• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7

In this powerful collection of short stories, children around the world turn eleven and take a step into their futures. Each one is changed in ways both big and small.

Annoyed at having to walk his sister’s dog on his birthday, Connor heads into an undeveloped subdivision, where he comes across chilling evidence of a stranger’s unhappiness. A girl sneaks away from her class camping trip to a local conservation area and experiences, for the first time, the terror and joy of fending for herself for the first time. Dom’s brother gives him a special crystal to boost his confidence, and the gift conjures up a child laborer from the impoverished area of Madagascar where the stones were mined. Mysterious voices at the local county fair prompt Aislynn to think twice after her older sister dumps her for her high-school buddies. While volunteering at his local soup kitchen, Len discovers that there are bigger shames than having the class bully seeing you in a hairnet. And on an historic bridge in Budapest, Lazlo’s dream of the perfect father-son birthday outing becomes a nightmare when his father introduces him to his Neo-Nazi friends.

A companion to the critically acclaimed Sit.

Key Text Features

short stories

table of contents

dialogue

Deborah Ellis is the internationally acclaimed author of more than twenty books for children, including The Breadwinner Trilogy; The Heaven Shop; Lunch With Lenin; Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees; and Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk About AIDS. She has won many national and international awards for her books, including the Governor General’s Award, the Vicky Metcalf Award, Sweden’s Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and the Children’s Africana Book Award Honor Book for Older Readers.Deborah knew she wanted to be a writer at the age of 11 or 12. Growing up in Paris, Ontario, she loved reading about big cities like New York. In high school, Deborah joined the Peace Movement, playing anti-Nuclear War movies at her school. Since then Deborah has become a peace activist, humanitarian and philanthropist, donating almost all of the royalties from her books to communities in need in Asia and Africa. Heavily involved with Women for Women in Afghanistan, Deborah has helped build women’s centers and schools, giving children education and finding work for women.In 2006, Deborah was named to the Order of Ontario. She now lives in Simcoe, Ontario.

Deborah Ellis' profile page

• Short-listed, International School of Beijing Panda Book Awards
• Short-listed, Governor General's Literary Awards, Young People's Literature — Text

Poignant tales told from the young person’s point of view.

Winnipeg Free Press

A first purchase for school and public libraries and a first recommendation for teachers, homeschoolers, and independent readers. STARRED REVIEW

School Library Journal

Read individually, each story is affecting; as a whole, the collection is a potent representation of the onset of mature thought and emotional complexity.

Publishers Weekly

This book illustrates a profound and deep well of insight.

School Library Connection

Simply written, but powerful in its message.

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

A worthy addition for all collections.

Booklist

Poignant, empathy-invoking stories.

Cloud Lake Literary