A Sky-Blue Bench

It''s Afghan schoolgirl Aria''s first day back at school since her accident. She''s excited, but she''s also worried about sitting on the hard floor all day with her new prosthetic "helper-leg."

Just as Aria feared, sitting on the floor is so uncomfortable that she can''t think about learning at all. She knows that before the war changed many things in Afghanistan, schools like hers had benches for students to sit at. If she had a bench, her leg would not hurt so much. The answer is obvious: she will gather materials, talk to Kaka Najar, the carpenter in the old city, and learn to build a bench for herself.

In A Sky-Blue Bench, Bahram Rahman, author of The Library Bus, returns again to the setting of his homeland, Afghanistan, to reveal the resilience and resolve of young children—especially young girls—who face barriers to education. Illustrator Peggy Collins imbues Aria with an infectious spunkiness and grit that make her relatable even to readers with a very different school experience. An author''s note gently introduces an age-appropriate discussion of landmines and their impact on the lives of children in many nations, especially Afghanistan, which has the highest concentration of landmines of any country in the world.

Don''t miss The Library Bus, also by Bahram Rahman

• Winner of the Middle East Book Award
• Finalist for the Governor General''s Literary Award
• Finalist for the Florida Literary Association Children''s Book Award
• Finalist for the OLA Forest of Reading Blue Spruce Award
• Winner of the Northern Lights Book Award: Multicultural Category