South America

Amazonia

The Amazon river starts high up in the Andes Mountains. which  has snowy peaks. If you climb to the top you can get altitude sickness.There is a beautiful lake there called Lake Tittikaka. Llamas, Alpacas, Condors and Eagles live there.The river flows down into the Amazon Basin were there is thick rainforest.

In the rainforest lives Blue Macaws, bright red Parrots and rainbow coloured Toucans, Pythons, Anacondas, Capybaras, Frogs, Insects, Vampire Bats, Piranhas, Alligators, Thick tall trees and vines with poisonous thorns. Mosquitoes, Monkeys. Jaguars, Cougars and Panthers.

The Amazon rainforest is not peaceful and quiet, it is noisy all the time with the screeching of the birds and the rustling of the leaves as the wind blows through them. The frogs croaking constantly and it pours with rain everyday with thunder and lightning. The cicadas are deafening and the monkeys chatter. The sounds of the waterfalls are very calming like the rushing of the river.The Angel Falls are the highest int he world and the Iguazu Falls are enormous and very beautiful but extremely loud.

The ancient civilizations of the Aztec's, Incas and Mayans all left ruins of temples and city remains. El Dorado has never been found to this day and remains a mystery.Today there are many Indian tribes like the Motalones, Aucas and Yukan who continue to live in isolated villages in the same way they have for hundreds of years.

Yellow fever and Malaria from mosquitoes can make you really sick so you hae to be careful to protect yourself from them.

The panpipes and Ocarina were invented by the ancient civilizations there and sound beautiful.

Sam would like to visit there because it would be really cool to canoe down the Amazon river and to go tree jumping but Mikaela would not like to go and visit because it sounds to dangerous, hot and sticky.

Prairie

In the prairie lands there are beautiful flowers like yellow pelted Black Eyed Susan, the tall, pink and orange feathery looking Blazing Stars, the yellow, leafy looking Goldenrod, the pale purple large daisy shaped Coneflower, the tall thin blue flowered Blue Eyed Grass the bright red clusters of Butterfly weed.the tall red, orange and blue Indian Paintbrush, the thin lavender looking Vervain and Jacaranda coloured Asters that look just like daisies and green clovers..

Prairies are made up of big open flat lands and long grasses.When the winds blow the grasses move just like the waves in the ocean.

In Summer, it is very hot and the grass becomes very brown and dry.Fires start very easily and the wind blows the fires to make them huge and very dangerous Big Squalls roll in and the clouds are black and very dark and the winds are very strong.In winter it gets very cold and it snows and hails a lot, You have to tie a rope between the house and the barn if you want to feed the animals so you don't get lost in the snowstorms..

You can usually see cranky badgers which have black fur with white stripes from their heads to their tails. The Gophers and Prairie dogs are adorable. They look like Squirrels and have light brown and creamy coloured fur  and white or black tips on their tails.They make yipping sounds just like dogs.They live under the ground in burrows called towns. They are very social and usually kiss and cuddle each other.Some of the other animals are ferrets that look like long thin raccoons, Elk, Deer, Bobcats that look like a small linx or a cheetah. Big hairy, cow like Bison.Dingo looking coyotes, foxes and wolves,Small, mouse like Shrews, skunks, scorpions and snakes.

I would like to visit the Prairies during winter or Spring because then I could see the snow or the beautiful flowers but not during Summer because that's when there are dried dead grasses and there are lots of fires.

The Rat Catcher’s Son

The only trade the family knew was rat catching. When they caught the rats, they would eat them [YUK!] One day the son accidently dropped a rat and his father beat his as a punishment so badly that it almost killed him. A rich man from his village came along riding his black, fine horse and saved him. He raised him as his own son. One day the son found his real father and his fathers wanted him to come home and help to catch rats again. The son said no. The rich man said to the son ‘take this sword, if you want to live with your fatter kill me. If you want to live with me, kill your father. The son had a hard decision to make. He said I cannot kill either of you, I would rather kill myself. To his father he said, “I honour you because you are my father, but the rich man has loved me like a real father. The rich man relented and the son was allowed to live with him forever.

The Jackal and the Leopard

The Jackal was lonely and wanted a friend so he could boast about his hunting skills. The Leopard also wanted a friend so he could do the same. One day they met and moved into a cave and hunted together. The Jackal caught a cow and the Leopard caught a goat. The Leopard felt ashamed and killing something so small. That night the cow gave birth to a calf which the Leopard took and gave to his goat. The next morning the Leopard gave the calk to the goat. They started to ague about the goat giving birth to the calf and asked the rabit to judge between them. The rabbit was afraid and he ran away. Next they asked the monkey who was also afraid and ran away. Finally they found a Gorilla who wont be afraid. The gorilla asked for two grinding stones. They asked for his answer and he replied that the grinding stones would play music. The Leopard and the Jacksaid this was impossible and the Gorilla agreed and said it was also imposible for a goat to give birth to a calf.

Silkworms

The Mulberry moth is one of the relatives of the silkworm. The females are bigger than the males. The females can lay up to 500  little, yellow eggs. The eat mulberry leaves and spin silk cocoons. The Oak worm moth also spins silk. Once the cocoon has been spun, the silk worn is killed by being cooked which stops the moth from eating its way out of the cocoon. The cocoon is made of one continuous piece of thread. The cocoon can then be unravelled. It takes 15 minutes for the silkworm moth to open its wings completely.

Rickshaw Girl

Naima lived in Bangladesh and loved to paint in her home. Hers are the best in her village but she wants to help her family by earning some money. Her friend Saleem drives a rickshaw to help make some money. Naima decides to dress up as a boy and attempts to rider he fathers rickshaw but in doing so crashes it into a thorny bush as she couldn’t brake as she was going down a steep hill. The Rickshaw belonged to a friend and was being paid off so now her father had no rickshaw to drive and still had to pay off the loan. Naima is very upset so she dresses up as a boy again but this time she gets a job painting rickshaws and she is able to get the rickshaw repaired and makes enough money to pay off the loan.

The Cat that Went to Heaven

Good Fortune is a cat that has three colours, who goes to live with a poor artist who isn’t very lucky until Good Fortune arrives. He has to choose between painting Good Fortune whom he loves or leaving him out as the employer doesn’t want the cat in the painting as he believed a cat represented a demon. The poor artist chooses to paint the cat he loves and the cat dies of happiness at the decision. This means the priest will not want to buy it. At first this is the case but once the cat dies he changes his mind and buys the painting.

New Toes for Tia

Tia a young girl from Thailand was playing around when she stepped on burning hot charcoal and the villiage doctors could help her. Christians came to her village and told her parents about Jesus and a special operation that could help her. Tia hated being different. She watched excitedly as the nurse took the bandages off her feet. Slowly she counted her pink toes. She would now be like the other children, able to run barefoot, swim and explore adventurous places!

The Kite Flyers

Yung Sup and his brother Kee Sup lived in Korea. At the New Year festival, Kee Sup got a kite as a present. As he was flying it Young Sup wanted to have a go at flying the kite. He was very good at it and wanted his own and tried to build their own, Kee Sup built a beautiful kite while Young Sup’s kite was not as good. Young Sup was much better at flying the kites than he was at making them. One day the king who was a young boy saw them flying the kites. He asked Kee Sup to make a kite for him that he could fly a kite too. He did this and they both became good friends with the King.They entered a kite flying competition. The winner had to use his kite string to cut the string of the opponents’ so they would be the only ones left. They used pottery shards on their string to make them sharp enough to cut the opponents’ string. He won. The judges were not sure if this was fair but decided to rule in Young Sup’s favour.

The long Walk to Water

Salva is twelve and lived in Sudan. While he was at school when the class heard gun shots. Their teacher told them to run outside which he did and kept running. He wanted to see his family [three brothers and two sisters] again but knew that he couldn’t because he knew he would be caught. He found a barn and was allowed to stay there to rest. He finds a bee hive and tries to get the honey to eat but gets stung by the bees. He didn’t care it tasted so sweet and delicious. He finds a group of people also running from the soldiers and his uncle is among them. They are trying to get to safety in East Sudan. They have to watch guard each night from the lions and one night his friend gets eaten. They arrive at a river and make rafts out of the reeds so they can paddle across. It took a whole day to paddle across the Nile. The soldiers took them captive again and he had no choice but to swim across a river filled with crocodiles. A little boy tried to hold onto him as he swam but was shot by the soldiers.

Nya had to walk all day to get water and bring it back to her village. It takes even longer when she has to take her younger sister with her. Her sister gets sick from worms in the water. They have to take her to the Dr who is so far away that is takes days to walk there. The Dr tells them to boil the water which means they don’t have enough water to drink.

Even though Salva comes from another tribe, their sworn enemies who attacked him when he was young, Salva helps raise money so that wells could be drilled in Nya’s village so they can have water to drink. Nya is the first to drink the water.

Li  Lun

Li Lun was afraid of the ocean and was to afraid to help his father who is a fisherman. His father tells him he must climb the mountain and plant the 7 grains of rice given him and return with seven times the amount. I Lun think this is impossible. His mother is dismayed at such a difficult tusk given to him. He is given some fertile soil by the wise old man of the village. It takes many nights to climb to the top. He uses the soil and plants the seedlings, makes a shelter for himself. He waters them and lives there until they grow. He is able to return to his village with 99 grains of rice. It wasn’t easy though as seagulls eat some of the plants and rats ate some of the others.

Breaking Stalin’s Nose

Sasha is 10 and lives in Russia; his father is a police officer for Stalin. He wants to join the Young Pioneers. When his father disappears never to return home he has to live in the communal housing with 10 other families sharing the same toilet and kitchen. While he’s at school he is asked to collect the flag and accidently trips over bumping the statue of Stalin onto the ground breaking it’s nose. Sasha is terrified.

Sudaku

Sadako and the thousand paper cranes is based on the life o real little girl who lived in Japan from 1943-1955. She was born to be a runner; her mother said she learned to run before she learned to walk. She was always on the lookout for good luck signs. When she was 11 she went with her family to a carnival. Life went on as usual even though the Americans had let off a huge atomic bomb. But all that ended one crisp cold winter day in February, Sadako was running in the school yard, suddenly everything seemed to whirl around her and she sunk to the ground. One of the teachers rushed to help her but Sadako insisted she was just tired. She had to go to hospital as she atom bomb sickness caused by the radiation. To help her get better she started making paper cranes, all her friends helped her. She believed if she made one thousand paper cranes then she would get better. Her brother hung then up for her. Sadly she died before seeing her goal achieved and her classmates folded 356 cranes with 1000 cranes being buried with her. In 1958 a statue of Sadaku was built in Hiroshima Peace Park holding a golden crane in her hands. To this day people fold paper cranes and ask for peace.

Mother Teresa

Agnes Bojaxhiu was Mother Teresa’s real name. She was born in Skopje Macedonia. She decided to become a Nun and went to Ireland to study. In February 1949 she moved to India to work with the people there who lived in the slums. Each morning as the garbage collectors of Calcutta made their rounds they faced the grisly task of collecting up thirty people who had died on the streets during the night alone and with no one to care for them. Mother Teresa wanted to do something to help and set up places to care for the dying untouchables whom no one else would have anything to do. Soon her work became well known and reporters from around the world came to write stories and take photos of her work. Many Nuns from around the world came to help her. Each year the Indian Government honoured one of it’s citizens with the Padmanshree award for outstanding service and is the highest award a civilian can receive. In 1962 it was awarded to Mother Teresa. She was first person ever awarded to anyone born outside of India.

Gandhi

India is a large country with millions of people living there. Great Britain used to rule over it but the people dreamed of independence but without a leader this seemed impossible. Mohandas Gandhi was born in Oct 2^nd 1869. He learnt about politics from his father who was a government official and about Religion from his mother who was a devoted Hindu. He became a vegetarian and often fasted to purify his body. He was married at the age of 13 and once he had finished his schooling his family paid for him to move to England to become a layer. When he moved back to India he used peaceful protests and hunger strikes to speak out against the injustices the Indian people lived under. He wanted the British to leave India. He was often imprisoned for being so outspoken against the government. He became known as the great soul. August 15^th 1947 became known as Independence Day. His passive resistance influenced many people around the world including Martin Luther King Jr who adopted his strategies. Gandhi was shot and killed.

Little Pear

Little Pear lives in a small village in Chine over 100 years ago. He lives in a little house with paper windows and one long bed in which they all sleep. He gets into lots of mischief as he stows away in a wheelbarrow of vegetables so he can go to the fair. Almost flies away on a kite, has a mishap with a firecracker and almost drowns in the river and has to be rescued by a houseboat family.

The Land I lost

I was born on the Central highlands of Vietnam in a small hamlet on a river bank that had a deep jungle on one side and a chain of high mountains on the other. Across the river rice fields stretched to the slopes of another chain of mountains. There were 50 houses in a hamlet scattered along the river or propped against the mountain side. The houses were made of Bamboo and covered with coconut leaves. Each was surrounded by a deep trench which protected us from will animals such as tigers, hogs, crocodiles and horse snakes water buffalo, monkeys and thieves. The only way to enter a house was to walk across a monkey bridge. They ate the fish they caught and the rice they grew in the rice paddies.