Through My Eyes

A gripping story of one Australian boy's experience of devastating drought. A few kookaburras laugh in the gum trees. Alex grins - they don't often come up this far. His grandpa told him that if kookaburras laugh late in the afternoon, it will rain next day. 'Ha, someone needs to tell the rain to listen, hey Tangi?' She grins at him like it's a good joke. Alex wishes it was just a joke. Thirteen-year-old Alex lives on a drought-affected property in South Australia with his mom, his dad, his kelpie dog Tangi and colt, Jago. When he meets his new next-door neighbor, Bonnie, he is grateful to make anew friend and fascinated by the camels her family has brought to the farm.. For years it hasn't rained enough for them to put a crop in. And while all the farmers in the area are suffering - his dad is struggling more than most. It's nearly winter and the paddocks are still brown. But when Bonnie comes over to visit and cook with him, Alex feels lighter inside. And his mom loosens up a bit as well. As the drought stretches on, feral dogs are causing huge problems for the farmers and their livestock. Throughout the tough times, Alex must help his mom with the farm work, and draw wisdom and strength from his support networks so he can find a way into a brighter future.

A gripping story of one child's experience of the civil war in Syria. Zafir has a comfortable life in Homs, Syria, until his father, a doctor, is arrested for helping a protester who was campaigning for revolution. While his mother heads to Damascus to try to find out where his father is being held, Zafir stays with his grandmother-until her house is bombed. With his father in prison, his mother absent, his grandmother ill and not a friend left in the city, Zafir must stay with his Uncle Ghazi. But that too becomes dangerous as the city becomes more and more besieged. Will Zafir survive long enough to be reunited with his parents?

Shaozhen has no intention of staying in his remote Henan village and becoming another poor farmer: he'll finish school, and then, hopefully, work in a factory in one of the major cities, just like his father. But when Shaozhen returns home for the summer holidays, imagining days filled with nothing but playing basketball with his friends, he's in for a shock. The worst drought in more than years threatens the crops that the entire village relies on for income. As the water situation becomes dire, Shaozhen realizes he must come up with a plan. But will it be enough to save his family and friends and secure the future of his village?

A heartfelt story of a teenage boy living in the conflict zone of Afghanistan. "The explosion jolts him awake. He sits up, gasping for air, heart thumping. Was the blast real? Perhaps it had only happened in his head, a bad dream. Demons of the dark, his father had called them. 'Push them away. They'll only poison your thoughts. Seek the light and they can't hurt you.'"Naveed is sick of war-of the foreign powers and the Taliban, the warlords and the drug barons that together have torn Afghanistan apart. He's had to grow up quickly to take care of his widowed mother and little sister, making what little money he can doing odd jobs and selling at the markets. When he adopts Nasera, a street dog with extraordinary abilities, he has a chance to help rebuild his country. But will a new friend's betrayal crush his dreams of peace forever? From the winter of war comes the spring of hope.

A moving, fictional account of one child's life in a conflict zone, in Mogadishu, Somalia. Amina lives on the edges of Mogadishu. Her family's house has been damaged in Somalia's long civil war, but they continue to live there, reluctant to leave their home. Amina's world is shattered when government forces come to arrest her father because his art has been officially censored, deemed too political. Then rebel forces kidnap Amina's brother, forcing him to become a soldier in Somalia's brutal ongoing war. Although her mother and grandmother are still with her, Amina feels vulnerable and abandoned. Secretly, she begins to create her own artwork in the streets and the derelict buildings to give herself a sense of hope and to let out the burden of her heart. Her artwork explodes into Mogadishu's underground world, providing a voice for people all over the city who hope for a better, more secure future.