The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is a complex one, at times as perplexing to adults as it is to children. But somewhere between the newscast sound bites and the impassioned political, religious and ideological debates lie the stories of real people, of those whose lives have been unalterably affected by the violence. One of those stories is that of Ibtisam Barakat.

Now a poet, educator and activist living in Missouri, Ibtisam was a child of three in the West Bank city of Ramallah when the Six-Day War of 1967 broke out between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Keeping a promise to herself not to forget, but instead to reach for the raft of remembering, in Tasting the Sky, Ibtisam recalls those frightening days and their aftermath from the point of view of her childhood self. Following a harrowing flight from her home, during which young Ibtisam loses her shoes and becomes temporarily separated from her family, the Barakat family eventually find their way to Jordan, where they remain as refugees for more than four months. When they return to their shell-shocked, occupied Ramallah neighborhood, Ibtisam, her parents and her two older brothers must learn to navigate a new reality, gradually adjusting to life under a constant state of war.

The genius of Barakat's memoir is that, by couching it in the perspective of a very young child, she is able to convey intimate observations and astute insights without lecturing her readers. Instead, in this spare memoir, she gains readers' interest and sympathy by providing a glimpse into how families, especially children, cope with the realities of war, living in a near-constant state of fear but nevertheless finding ways from stealing a tray of pastries to caring for a baby goat to preserve childhood and family life. Realistic, tender, sympathetic stories like this are all too rare, but can be the most effective tools to raise awareness, engage dialogue and open hearts and minds to the views of others.

Finally, teen readers can dig into Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill. What better way to learn about the tragic, prize-winning poet than through verse? This series of short poems discusses incidents in the poet’s life, from her birth in Boston in 1932 to her suicide in London in 1963, and includes short biographical notes that offer the reader additional details. The poems are written from the imagined perspectives of family members, friends and other acquaintances. Hemphill’s depiction of Plath is lively and unique. In a note to readers, Hemphill calls her book a work of fiction, explaining that she has taken liberties imagining conversations and descriptions and interpreting the feelings of the real people speaking in these poems. Here’s a poem written from the viewpoint of Plath’s best friend in fifth grade: She wizards her way / through woods and fences, / makes things happen. / Sylvia sees a door / where other people see a wall, / but where will it lead? Your Own, Sylvia (the title is taken from the closing Plath used on letters to her mother) will mesmerize teenagers interested in poetry and one acclaimed poet’s mercurial path through life.

Once in a great while, a publisher brings an out-of-print book back into publication. Repackaged with a beautiful new cover, Julius Lester’s This Strange New Feeling: Three Love Stories from Black History, winner of a Coretta Scott King honor after its original publication in 1982, is sure to find a whole new generation of teen readers. The new preface, an essay on love and empathy, lets the reader know what’s to come: three stories of love, sacrifice and ingenuity in the search for freedom.

Lester tells the whole story, not just the feel-good parts. There are slaves who betray their friends and who lie to the master to save their friends. There are evil slave owners who beat their slaves to death, but there are also white people who risk their lives to help slaves. Lester gets into the hearts of his characters and, even when some don’t live happily ever after, they live with the sure knowledge that they are making their own decisions, no matter what.

Halloween used to be mostly for little kids, but in recent years teenagers and adults have embraced the holiday, not wanting to be left out of the parties, the chance to dress up and most of all, the age-old thrill of being scared. To add to the fun, this fall brings a new crop of scary collections especially for teens.

What Are You Afraid Of? Stories about Phobias is edited by Donald R. Gallo, a well-known anthologist of short stories for young readers. This collection includes pieces by some of today’s top writers for young adults, including Joan Bauer, Angela Johnson and Jane Yolen. The phobias depicted in this book are not necessarily the obvious ones that typically form the basis of horror films, such as arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, or (despite the immense attention given to a certain recent film) herpetophobia, fear of snakes and other reptiles.

Instead, several of the stories provide keen insight into the lives of real teens. The collection opens with Alex Flinn’s hauntingly realistic story, The Door, about a teen named Cameron who has been struggling privately with an increasing sense of agoraphobia. Cameron’s fear of leaving the house only intensifies when his parents leave on a trip. In Joan Bauer’s poignant story, Thin, a young woman struggles with an obsession with gaining weight. In David Lubar’s humorous tale, Claws and Effect, a teen named Randy discovers that the girl of his dreams has one unfortunate drawback: a cat named Johnny Depp. Unfortunately, Randy is deathly afraid of felines.

Deborah Hopkinson’s latest book for young readers is Into the Firestorm, A Novel of San Francisco 1906.

Through art, philosophy, science and storytelling, humans have attempted to understand their essential but frequently paradoxical connection to the rest of the animal world. In an insightful new book for teens, One Kingdom: Our Lives with Animals, Deborah Noyes examines the ways our lives have overlapped with animals and how the human-animal bond has affected our culture. Noyes begins by explaining how early humans had both a practical and spiritual bond with animals, depending upon them for their very survival as sources of food, clothing, shelter and tools, and thus elevating them to a sacred status. The loss of this dependency and intimacy has resulted in the separation of mankind from the rest of the animal kingdom. The more we distance ourselves from animals, the more difficult it is to know them, Noyes argues. She notes that there’s little benefit and much to lose in positioning ourselves outside nature. Our awe and fear of some animals coupled with our sentimental affection for others has shaped beliefs, myths and superstitions in every culture. Noyes shows how animals have figured prominently in fables and folktales, helping to convey cultural mores, traditions and values.

A former zookeeper herself, the author gives careful consideration to the ethics of keeping animals in captivity. The zoo presents a paradox, she says: It provides an opportunity to bring humans and animals together, but the meaningfulness of their interaction is suspect because of the artificial environment.

Noyes acknowledges the difficulty, perhaps even the impossibility, of knowing animals, but challenges her young adult audience to never stop trying better understanding of what it means to be an animal will inevitably lead us to better understanding of what it means to be human. Teens who love animals and especially those with an interest in animal rights will find Noyes’ provocative book both fascinating and compelling.

In Chew on This, Eric Schlosser expands on his best-selling exposŽ of the fast-food industry, Fast Food Nation, this time seeking to get his message to the industry’s biggest consumer group: children and teens. Aimed at 11- to 13-year-olds, Chew on This uncovers the fascinating and often frightening truths behind the sesame bun, exposing the business and health realities of fast food that kids may never have considered.

Although the research and behind-the-scenes revelations in this book are similar to those in Fast Food Nation, Schlosser and co-author Charles Wilson have attempted to recast the information to appeal to the younger set. They start with a historical look at the beginnings of the fast-food industry and delve into the ways these restaurants are marketed to children (Happy Meals, anyone?). The authors keep their focus on kids by telling stories of teens who work for or have protested against the industry. As in Fast Food Nation, some of the most compelling writing is found in reportage on the mistreatment of animals in slaughterhouses that provide the meat for fast-food restaurants, and the health effects of too much fast food on growing bodies. A particularly poignant chapter is devoted to the story of Sam and Charlie Fabrikant, two teen brothers who undergo gastric bypass surgery in an attempt to lose some of the 300 pounds they piled on from a steady diet of fast food.

Chew on This is an eye-opening book with a worthy message. The authors do a good job of uncovering facts that will particularly appeal to teens and pre-teens such as the fact that the pink, red and purple color of many processed foods comes from an additive made from ground-up bugs. However, for the complete message of fast food’s high cost to our society, health, communities and the earth, this book should be consumed with adult assistance.

This true tale of a whaling disaster averted begins in late spring 1871, when 1,219 men, women and children sailed in 39 whaling ships to the Arctic in pursuit of the bowhead whale. Later, when Eskimos warned them that winter was already settling in, only seven ships left to avoid being trapped in the ice. Captains of the other ships would not abandon the rich whaling grounds. How could they ever explain such a retreat to the owners of their vessels? How could they take advice from these people they viewed as so primitive and childlike? But sure enough, the remaining 32 ships became trapped. After an agonizing decision to abandon their ships, it took a heroic 80-mile journey in 200 open boats down a channel, facing extreme temperatures, snow, hail and driving winds to reach the seven ships they hoped were waiting for them. How many could survive such an ordeal, inevitable though it was? As it turned out, all survived, making this one of the great survival stories of all time, a tale of success against the odds, and Martin W. Sandler relates it with all the vigor and passion his subject demands. The narrative opens with a superb discussion of whaling itself. The dangers whalers faced from temperatures, fog, winds and ice are laid out, followed by an answer to the logical question: why did so many young men sign on if the dangers were so great? Lured by employment, adventure and glory, knowing they were entering one of the most dangerous jobs possible, the men could go home with tales to tell, if they ever made it home. This attractive volume is nicely embellished with an abundance of paintings, lithographs, photographs and maps. Excerpts from whalers’ songs add to the fun, and the many sidebars add background information about whales, women at sea, whalers of color, harpoons and New Bedford. The bibliography and glossary are useful, and Sandler’s clear, lively writing makes the adventure palpable. Trapped in Ice! is a fine companion to other excellent true tales of the sea, such as Jennifer Armstrong’s Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World and Walter Dean Myers’ Antarctica. Dean Schneider is a teacher in Nashville.

Best-selling authors Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen teamed up with teen author Deborah Reber to create the latest edition of the wildly popular inspirational series, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul. The Real Deal: School is divided into clear sections, each focusing on a specific teen issue, including peer pressure, academic challenges and friendships. The teen-friendly format combines narration from the authors along with first-hand accounts from students, inspirational poetry, short quizzes and a blend of trivia and practical facts. Insightful, encouraging and honest, this book is a must read for every teenager in transition.

As Walter Dean Myers says in the introduction to Antarctica, his fascination with the earth’s coldest regions began, appropriately enough, during the Cold War, when he was on the U.

S. Shadwell on a military mission taking supplies to a remote base inside the Arctic Circle. By the time the mission was over, he had gained “a new respect for the power of nature and for the explorers and adventurers who dared to risk the cold and ice at a time when nobody knew what to expect.” Now Myers has written “a testament to human courage, persistence, and daring.” Antarctica was not there just to test adventurers’ skill and nerve. It became a pawn in nations’ attempts to gain land, power and profit. Furthering scientific understanding was a later, worthier goal, which continues today with the international research base in the region.

Antarctica, the fifth-largest continent, was “the last unexplored landmass on Earth.” In 1773, Commander James Cook became the first to cross the Antarctic Circle. Much of the early traveling in the area was by sealers, backed by commercial interests, but what they saw first was often in dispute since records and journals were not always kept. The Royal Geographical Society in England was one of the scientific forces that garnered government support for research expeditions, such as that of Sir James Clark Ross, who discovered land farther south than anyone had ever been and saw an active volcano.

Exploration waned in the second half of the 19th century with industrial conflicts in Europe and the Civil War in the United Sates, but in 1909, Robert E. Peary reached the North Pole, leaving only one grand destination for those who sought the fame of reaching a geographic pole: the South Pole. Roald Amundsen’s expedition succeeded, Robert Falcon Scott’s was a deadly disaster, and Ernest Shackleton’s voyage on the Endurance has become the stuff of legend, one of the all-time great tales of endurance and survival. By the time Richard Byrd added “first Antarctic flight” to the chronology of firsts, technology was changing the world of exploration, to the point where the continent is now linked to the rest of the world through telephone, television and the Internet. Myers ends with a discussion of international agreements among 40 nations protecting Antarctica. If a similar spirit of cooperation and protection had existed in this country, perhaps the existence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker would be more than the “slimmest of rumors.” Dean Schneider teaches middle school English in Nashville.

Recent children’s literature has been dominated by fantasies and magical quests, but there are many great nonfiction books out there, too. In one of the finest nonfiction works to appear in recent years, Phillip Hoose describes the fate of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a bird so beautiful and awe-inspiring it was called the Good God or Lord God bird after the exclamations of those who first saw its dramatic forest flights. In Hoose’s book, the Lord God bird is emblematic of how extinction happens and how people can come together to try to prevent it.

Scientists estimate that 99 percent of all species that have ever lived are now extinct. The Earth is now in the sixth wave of mass extinction, which began 12,000 years ago when mankind’s effect on the planet accelerated. But the fate of the Ivory-bill has been determined in just the last 100 years. From the enthusiasm of early collectors for shooting them down as specimens, to the ravages against habitats by loggers in the Deep South after the Civil War, to the Plume War of the late 18th and early 19th century, the forces at work to ensure the destruction of the Ivory-bill gathered. Hoose tells the story in dramatic fashion with descriptions of historical incidents, maps demonstrating the shrinking habitat, archival photographs and sidebars complementing the text. Most of all, it is the author’s passionate telling that carries the story and makes it a tale of conviction and not just a text. Hoose’s own journeys, his enthusiasm for the subject and the idea that, perhaps, the Ivory-bill still exists in some remote forest will enchant readers. Through the drama of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, readers will learn much about various forces in American history and how they converge to threaten an amazing creature and cause the "collapse of the wilderness."

Dean Schneider teaches middle school English in Nashville.

Just in time for spring commencement comes a great literary gift idea, a book that might be classified as an anthology of epiphanies. Culled from published autobiographies of well-known authors, artists, athletes, scientists, filmmakers, and others, all of the excerpts in Heading Out: The Start of Some Splendid Careers explain how the writers chose their respective vocations. Just what made them decide on their paths in life? Did each person have a well-defined goal to pursue, or was there a fair share of luck or serendipity involved? After reading more than 40 autobiographies, editor Gloria Kamen chose compelling stories of talent, hard work and chance, all of which will inspire young readers who might be wondering what to do with their own lives after high school. Believe it or not, beloved author Russell Baker hated high school English the "dull and baffling grammar," the classics thrust on him, "deadening as chloroform." When Baker wrote an informal essay on "The Art of Eating Spaghetti," he wrote it the way he wanted to, thinking he would change it later to fit the teacher’s requirements. But when he didn’t have time to fix it, he turned it in the way it was and got an A+. Suddenly, Baker had found inspiration for his life’s work.

In another selection, Ben Carson was, by his own admission, the dumbest kid in his fifth-grade class. His mother, determined not to let him and his brother get lost, came up with an idea: turn off the television, require the boys to read two books a week from the Detroit Public Library, and make them write reports on the readings. By the end of seventh grade, Ben was at the top of his class. He is now the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Similar moments of awakening, of people on the verge of finding their way, are related by Pablo Casals, Isaac Asimov, Nelson Mandela, Sammy Sosa, Katherine Paterson and many others. Since the excerpts are from already published autobiographies, they are never sappy or contrived. They’re simply moments from the lives of accomplished people that will inspire young readers about to set off on their own journeys. The sheer variety of wonderful stories will give this anthology broad appeal.

How many of you remember the agony of having to memorize the Gettysburg Address in school? Or perhaps it was something by one of the founding fathers? Who needs this stuff? you would moan. What’s the point? The major problem with historic orations, students have always complained, is that they are dry. American Heritage, one of the foremost magazines about this nation’s culture, has collected an eclectic set of speeches given not only by politicians, but also by people in many walks of life, from sports figures to ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

The Book of Great American Speeches for Young People contains over 100 discourses on a myriad of topics. Some classics can be found within, such as Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s address after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. On a lighter political note, there’s the Checker’s Speech, in which Richard Nixon swore that the only gift he received during the 1952 campaign was a little cocker spaniel and that "we’re gonna keep him."   Other orators in The Book of Great American Speeches for Young People include Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, John F. Kennedy, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mark Twain, just to name a few. Speeches are used to influence and encourage, so there are several declamations which consider the struggles for women’s suffrage, civil rights and the evils of slavery. And since the nation was founded on free speech, there are also numerous discourses of protest and dissent. The less earthshaking fare, though no less dramatic, is also here. Lou Gehrig paid an emotional farewell to baseball, in which, though stricken with the terminal illness that would one day bear his name, he considered himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. One of the more poignant speeches, to which young readers will relate, was given by 10-year-old Samantha Smith in 1983 to the Children’s Symposium on the Year 2001, after her impassioned letter to Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov made world news. The letter stated her fears of nuclear war between his country and America, proving that young people can make a difference.

In addition to its generous collection, The Book of Great American Speeches for Young People encourages readers to speak out for what they believe in. Its concluding chapter on how (and why) to make an effective speech will give the reader a boost of confidence and a skill which will prove useful long after school days are over.

Russell Freedman has set the standard for fine history writing for many years, and this new volume lives up to his own high standards. A master prose stylist and an expert at taking complicated subjects and making them specific, immediate and fascinating, Freedman uses wide-ranging research to weave a hugely interesting story rooted in an abundance of detail, but readers will never feel they are reading a textbook or a school report; they are reading a superb story.

Of course, in 1914, when World War I began, it wasn’t called World War I. It was a conflict sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and the nations of Europe—interrelated, connected by a network of military alliances and armed to the teeth—fell into a war through “a series of accidents, blunders, and misunderstandings.” It was the first modern war with new weapons used to deadly effect, and four years later 20 million people were dead and the world had been transformed. As Freedman says, “The Russian Revolution, the rise of Hitler, America’s emergence as a world power, the Second World War, and the continuing turmoil in the Middle East all have their roots in the First World War.”

Each chapter of this superb history has a clear focus. One is devoted to the latest developments in lethal weaponry—rapid-firing rifles, machine guns, barbed wire, tanks, poison gas and flamethrowers. Another focuses on Battle of Verdun, and another on the Battle of the Somme. The roles of women and of African-American infantry regiments are discussed, and the final section explores how the Treaty of Versailles, rather than ending the war effectively, was really just an “armistice for twenty years,” planting seeds of discord in the Middle East and setting the stage for World War II.

Complementing Freedman’s fine writing is the careful design of the volume, full of archival photographs, eyewitness accounts and maps. Even the captions for the photographs make interesting reading. Freedman is always meticulous in his documentation, and in his selected bibliography here, he offers several excellent book recommendations for young readers, including Walter Dean Myers’ The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage (2005) and Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful (2004). Any new book by Russell Freedman is a treat, and this is one of the best books of the year.