Every time you open a book, you enter a whole new world.
Xi’an Liangjiatan International School has always placed great emphasis on developing students’ reading habits. To continue enriching student’s cultural life, XLIS teachers have prepared a special list of books in different languages for their students to expand their minds. We hope each of you can enjoy your reading times and measure the vastness of the world and touch the starry sea of life between the lines.
Books For Lower Primary Students
English Books
Hound Heroes: Beware the Claw
When a spaceship crash lands, it gives a group of dog friends superpowers…and superhero outfits. Each dog in the group has a unique personality but none of the dogs take their powers seriously at first because they’re too busy causing trouble and goofing around. Until…the evil kitties TAKE OVER THE CITY!! Can the Hound Heroes save the day? This book is recommended mainly because of the appeal of its colorful characters. Lower-primary students will enjoy reading about the situations a group of superhero dogs find themselves in.
Big Bad Detective Agency
The Big Bad Wolf, also known as Wolfgang, is the only suspect in the destruction of the Little Pigs’ house. He can’t prove that he didn’t do it, but he is innocent, so he partners with the cheerful 4th Little Pig, Ferkel, to find the real villain who destroyed the Little Pigs’ house. This book is recommended because it gives ‘new life’ to a story most lower-primary students are already familiar with. It is an interesting plot that is easy to understand because it builds on the prior knowledge related to “The Three Little Pigs” story.
White Fur Flying
Zoe’s family rescues dogs in need. A new family has moved in across the street and Phillip, the boy, has stopped speaking. He doesn’t even want to try. But Zoe’s new rescue dog might just help the boy heal and speak. This book is recommended because it is a good story about how animals sometimes touch our lives.
Korean Books
Color of Lies
Chase So Ji-on has a special ability to see gray smoke coming out of his mouth when people lie. Her classmate Ju So-hye is always popular among her friends, but in her Ji-on’s eyes, she sees gray smoke continually pouring out of So-hye’s mouth. In the meantime, Min-ha finds out that her friend’s face grows scales when she lies, and Min-ha and Ji-on share a secret…This book is a book that shows three friends who have secrets related to lies, who initially misunderstand only by looking at their appearance and behavior, but understand each other’s pain and grow.
Magic Red Ball
What if there was a magic ball that would skip time when something happened that you didn’t want to do? This book is a story that takes place after the main character, Song Songi, discovers a red ball with magical power that allows time to skip. Song-i, who is shy, is worried about the singing test on Friday. Song Song-i tries to skip singing time with the magic red ball, but every day something he doesn’t want to do comes up and he contemplates whether to use the magic red ball or not. It contains a warm message that when she solves a problem she wants to avoid on her own, she feels very rewarding and her mind can grow.
Mind Glasses Store
Most people tend to focus on one weakness rather than many of their strengths. This book is a book that helps a child with low self-esteem due to an appearance complex to match a new pair of glasses that fits him at the mysterious “Maeum Optician Shop” and realize that he sees the world with his heart, not his eyes. ‘Different’ is not wrong, but the only ‘special’ in the world. A person who knows how to love himself can love and be considerate of others.
Books For Upper Primary Students
English Books
Trapped in a Video Game
Jesse’s friend gets an early release of a video game — and it sucks in both he and his friend while they’re playing. They’re literally trapped in the video game! Inside the game, they meet a missing classmate who is a grown-up man in the game. Because there’s no way out. Or is there? This book is recommended because everyone knows how much upper-primary students love video games. Who hasn’t thought about what it would be like if your favorite game were real?
Katie the Catsitter
The Chronicles of Narnia:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
During the World War II bombings of London, four English siblings are sent to a country house where they will be safe. One day Lucy finds a wardrobe that transports her to a magical world called Narnia. After coming back, she soon returns to Narnia with her brothers, Peter and Edmund, and her sister, Susan. There they join the magical lion, Aslan, in the fight against the evil White Witch, Jadis. This book is recommended because it is simply a classic of children’s literature. It is a story of good versus evil that has enjoyed so much popularity that it was made into a movie.
Korean Books
White Night Cat
The main character, Ahn-yeon, moved into a small rented room as her family’s financial situation became difficult. Her mother, who lives away from her father and works late, is in no position to take care of Ayeon. For Ayeon, who is always alone with her, reading her favorite children’s book is the only comfort. The small library in the apartment has become a haven for Ahn-Yeon, where he can rest comfortably. It is a depressing yet warm fairy tale that tells the story of a lonely Aeon meeting a white cat and being comforted and healed through lyrical pictures, simple sentences, and beautiful poetry.
Very Big and Fast Ship
The book begins with the story of 10-year-old David’s family migrating from England to the United States by steamboat in 1957. Through the author’s autobiographical experience, scientific information that can be a little difficult, such as the invention and principle of the steam engine and the manufacturing process of the steamboat, is easily released. It is a book that makes you imagine sailing freely on a boat after the corona era is over.
Books For Secondary Students
English Books
Hoot
Children really can protect the environment and change the world.
Smile
Growing up is always hard and being in 6th Grade and being different – Help!
Kensuke’s Kingdom
Marooned on an island with only your dog as a friend. Find out how Michael copes.
Good Night, Mr. Tom
Learn about World War 2 and the bombing of London, England and the consequences on many children who were evacuated to the countryside.
Inside Out & Back Again
War is life changing at any age. Especially when you leave your country and begin again somewhere else.
The Pearl
Becoming rich can change your life but not always with positive consequences. Travel to Mexico to find out what happens and why.
The Outsiders
Friends and belonging can be the most important things in the world, growing up.
Iqbal
Not everyone is born as lucky as you! Discover the consequences of child labour.
Vicious
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates―brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find―aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge―but who will be left alive at the end?
If We Were Villains
Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail – for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he’s released, he’s greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago. As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Dante can swim. Ari can’t. Dante is articulate and self-assured. Ari has a hard time with words and suffers from self-doubt. Dante gets lost in poetry and art. Ari gets lost in thoughts of his older brother who is in prison. Dante is fair skinned. Ari’s features are much darker. It seems that a boy like Dante, with his open and unique perspective on life, would be the last person to break down the walls that Ari has built around himself. But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other―and the power of their friendship―can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on the other side.
Chinese Books
Battle of plants
Every plant in nature is full of wisdom, philosophy and spirituality. Plants may appear to be growing quietly, but they also need a subtle strategy to gain a place in nature. In order to cope with the challenges of different environments, the wonderful stories of cooperation, struggle and continuation of future generations in the plant world are no less than those of human war. The author tells the story of vitality and creativity from the perspective of plants. Just like animals or humans, the thrilling evolution of plants hides many profound ideas about survival and competition. Step into the intelligent and dramatic world of plants, listen to the sounds of plants, and feel the beauty of nature.
Just the Three of Us
This book was published when the author Yang Jiang was 93 years old. From a female perspective, she told the story of Yang Jiang, Qian Zhongshu and their daughter Qian Yuan. She used plain but delicate language to present how beautiful family life look like. The book brings us to experience the joys and sorrows of the world in the crisscross of reality and emptiness and combines the deep feelings that in simple and warm family scenes, so that readers can experience the sadness and deep yearning in the long and heart-wrenching dreams. The ingenious perspective she used, the life with tears and smiles she presented and the strong emotion of relying on each other show us the uniqueness of this scholar’s family. She, like a good teacher, educated us how to play a better role in our family relationship and make our life a pleasant journey.
Pingru Meitang——Our story
“It’s been a long time since to love this world, but this is forever.” Rao Pingru wrote down his memories of Meitang like this. When Rao Pingru was 87 years old, his wife Meitang, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, died. After that, for half a year, he had nothing to do, and every day before going to bed and after waking up, he was sad, so he had to go to the places where the two of them had been and where they got married, to sit and have a look and talk to comfort them. Later, he decided to draw the story of the two of them. He felt that death was inevitable, but when he drew it, people could still exist. So, stroke by stroke, he drew from Meitang’s childhood…
The three body problem
The depth of the universe, the vast starry sky, people always want to explore and understand this unknown to gain a real sense of security, but the distant sky is so far away for us, if we want to touch the starry sky, perhaps only in dreams middle. Today, science fiction writer Liu Cixin has given us a chance to travel the universe spiritually. It is called the “Three-Body Problem”. It mainly tells the information exchange, the life-and-death struggle between the human civilization on the earth and the three-body civilization, and the rise and fall of the two civilizations in the universe. Sociology, philosophy, religion, human nature, and love are vividly displayed.
A Doll’s House
A Doll’s House is a drama about the social status of women written by Ibsen, a Norwegian writer. The drama tells the story about the love and break between the heroine Nora and her husband Helmer and ends with Nora’s awakening and brave departure. Through the text, the author challenges the religion, the law and morality of society and inspires women to fight for freedom.
Skylark crows all day
“Skylark crows all day” is one of the representative works of Mu Xin, with more than 100 poems with far-reaching artistic conception and golden sentences, and more than 100 short sentences of wonderful proverbs. The poems wander through time and space, slowly flowing through the Volga River, Sicily, Istanbul, Java, ancient Greece… Exotic human feelings, Chinese landforms, jump out of the paper. Most of the short sentences are composed for occasional feelings, colorful, similar to haiku and aphorisms. A small poem, just a few words, like a Chinese painting landscape, melts our thoughts, there are thousands of landscapes in the poem, and there are thousands of life.
Korean Books
Dry
One day, the water suddenly cut off in the state of California, which had been in a long drought. Nearby areas blocked the water route to California to secure their own water, and the government was busy confining people in one place in preparation for protests and riots rather than solving a national disaster. Neighbors lost their reason and turned into beasts to get a sip of water a few days after the water supply was cut off. This book is a good book to explore the various human groups that five children meet while struggling to survive. In addition, it shows that humans are infinitely weak in the face of natural disasters, awakening awareness of climate change and disasters.
The Boy Who Sees Sound
A 15-year-old Jang-man who lost his sight due to illness as a child, his younger brother Deok-soo, and a father who takes care of his mother by filling in the void. Although Jang Man lost his eyesight, he has many questions and wants to try. One day, Jang Man, who goes to watch the king’s procession, falls in love with the sound of chanting by blind chanters. Doggyeongsa was an official position that could be climbed even if one could not see. Jang-man treats Yeon-woo, who is in an emergency at an inn, with acupuncture and gets an opportunity to learn how to read sutras. He hopes to get the post of Inspector General of Ming Tong City (Government Office), but the road has been bumpy, but he comes to terms with it. This book frees you from prejudice and misunderstanding about the life of a blind person in an era and teaches you the true “brightness” of hope and growth.
How are you in the age of 15?:
Still a clumsy adult to a dear adolescent
Introduction Adolescence full of energy! I don’t know where it will bounce, but it contains the reason why I love the youthful period, which is light and full of vitality. Still, adolescence is not easy. The parents’ resentful interest mixed with the children’s indifference starts a war. Adolescents live in the same age, but parents cannot find answers in this world. The writer said, ‘I was also a teenager at one time. I like the youth because they are beautiful.’ Through this book, just as girls and boys have kept us silent for 30 years, adults want to become a safe fence, send steady support, and give hope.
World History Upside Down
Kim Yoo-jung’s Short Stories
In 1931, Kim Yu-jeong went back home and carried out her rural education business in her hometown, Sile Village. From this time, her study of Kim Yu-jeong seems to have started in earnest, and her rural experience at the time became the main material for Kim Yu-jeong’s novels, as well as an opportunity to deepen her writer’s consciousness of rural areas.
Every Strategy in the World was Born in War
May all those times spent on reading give you the strength to move forward bravely and surprise you in the future.
Click here for more details.
Author:
XLIS
