World Cultures and Societies

The storySunday Dinner at Grandma's Table — Come to Sunday dinner in Chicago. Three generations of one family sit at one table.

The storyMoving Day in Mongolia — Come to the wide, grassy land of Mongolia. A boy helps his family pack up their round home.

The storyFive Kinds of Bread — One lunch table holds bread from five places.

The storyKenji Says Hello — A new student bows, and the class learns something new.

The storyThe Game That Fell Apart — A tag game stops working. Then the children make one rule together.

The storyA Name for the Fish — A class votes on a name for its new fish. Not everyone wins, but everyone helps.

The storyMarco's Kitchen List — A boy in Chicago goes looking for the world and finds it in his own home.

The storyFour Pen Pals, One Saturday — Four kids on four continents write about the very same day.

The storyAgnes Carries the Water — It is a cold morning in England in the year 1300. Agnes has a job to do.

The storyTwo Cousins, One Dream — Luis and Marisol are cousins. Both want to be doctors. They live in two different countries.

The storyMaya Asks a Big Question — Maya reads about people who were not allowed to vote, and she wants to know why.

The storyThe Last Right on the List — A fourth-grade class writes its own list of rights, and the last one starts a big argument.

The storyThe Sugar Skull — Lucía thinks a skull will be scary. Her grandmother shows her it is full of love.

The storyOne Ball, Five Countries — A single soccer ball travels the world and joins five different games.

The storyThe Oath on the Tennis Court — In June 1789, locked out of their meeting hall, hundreds of French commoners made a promise that shook a kingdom.

The storyThe Piecer — In a Manchester cotton mill in the 1830s, a ten-year-old girl spends her day chasing broken threads.

The storyThe Boy on the Sack — A schoolboy was made to sit apart from his classmates, and he grew up to help write the rules for a whole nation.

The storyThe Bow on the Bridge — A rich merchant in old Edo steps aside for a poor samurai, because the law says rank matters more than money.

The storyA Morning in the Great Market — A trader steps into the market of Tlatelolco, beside Tenochtitlan, and hears thousands of voices at once.

The storySixteen Panels — In Mexico City around 1760, a painter is paid to paint sixteen labels for sixteen kinds of people.

The storyTwo Sides of a Hot Hall — In 1789 French lawmakers picked their seats in a crowded hall, and the way they sat gave the world two new political words.

The storyTwo Ballots on the Same Day — Two imagined countries vote on the same Sunday, and the ballots tell very different stories.

The storyTwo Liberals at One Table — A student from London and a student from Chicago both say they are liberal, and then they start to argue.

The storyA Nurse Explains Her Taxes — A nurse from Copenhagen and her cousin from Ohio compare paychecks and are both surprised.

The storyThe Last of the Grain — In the fall of 1932 a farmer in Soviet Ukraine watches officials search his house for food.

The storyThe List on the Library Door — In the spring of 1933 a Berlin teacher is handed a list of books that must leave the school.

The storyTwo Babies, One Birthday — A student follows two newborns, one in Oslo and one in São Paulo, and asks what their chances really are.

The storyMole in Two Languages — In a Pilsen kitchen, a grandmother teaches a family recipe in Spanish, and her grandson answers in English.

The storyTwenty Leaders on a Grid — A class places twenty leaders on a chart and finds that three of them refuse to sit still.

The storyJune in Seoul, 1987 — Students and office workers fill the streets of Seoul, and a general makes a promise no one expected.

The storyTwo Posters on One Desk — A student lays two posters from the 1930s side by side and finds the same tricks in both.

The storyThe Visitor Who Used to Hate — A former extremist tells a class what pulled him in and what finally pulled him out.

The storyEighteen in Three Places — Three exchange students at a Chicago-area high school discover that turning eighteen means different things at home.

The storyThe Answer Maya Thought She Knew — A student starts her capstone sure of her answer, and the evidence sends her somewhere new.