Street of Storytellers Named to Notable Social Studies Book List

Congratulations to Rootstock author Doug Wilhelm, whose young adult (YA) novel Street of Storytellers, has been selected for the 2021 Notable Social Studies Trade Books list, according to the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the Children’s Book Council.

The NCSS and the Children’s Book Council jointly compile the book list, with selections for several age groups. Street of Storytellers is among the recommendations for sixth to eighth graders.

Wilhelm’s 17th book for young readers, Street of Storytellers, is both an adventure story and a multicultural coming-of-age novel. Set during a single week in 1984 in the fabled and dangerous North-West Frontier of Pakistan, the novel is narrated by Luke, an American teenager who is brought there unhappily during school vacation by his father, a professor of ancient history. The novel centers on Luke and three more teenagers—an Afghan refugee who becomes his friend, and a quarreling local brother and sister—as they are caught up in a forbidden romance and the dangerous rise of religious extremism in the city Peshawar by the Khyber Pass.

Street of Storytellers has won three national book honors, and one regional award. Kirkus Reviews called it “an entertaining, thoughtful look at a complicated historical, religious, artistic, and cultural crossroads.”

Street of Storytellers is available wherever books are sold, and through the major book distributors. It can also be purchased through Rootstock Publishing which offers a discount for library and school book purchases. 

Teachers purchasing 5 or more copies may use the code STORYTELLERS20 at checkout from this link: https://www.rootstockpublishing.com/rootstock-books/street-of-storytellers