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Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is to follow the rules. (Oh, and she’d also like to make it through seventh grade with her best friendships intact, learn to run track, and have a cute boy see past her giant forehead.)
But in junior high, it’s like all the rules have changed. Now she’s suddenly questioning who her best friends are and some people at school are saying she’s not black enough. Wait, what?
Shay’s sister, Hana, is involved in Black Lives Matter, but Shay doesn't think that's for her. After experiencing a powerful protest, though, Shay decides some rules are worth breaking. She starts wearing an armband to school in support of the Black Lives movement. Soon everyone is taking sides. And she is given an ultimatum.
Shay is scared to do the wrong thing (and even more scared to do the right thing), but if she doesn't face her fear, she'll be forever tripping over the next hurdle. Now that’s trouble, for real.
A collection of intersecting stories set at a powwow that bursts with hope, joy, resilience, the strength of community, and Native pride.
In a high school gym full of color and song, Native families from Nations within the borders of the U.S. and Canada dance, sell beadwork and books, and celebrate friendship and heritage. They are the heroes of their own stories.
Mia Tang has a lot of secrets.
Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests.
Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed.
Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language?
It will take all of Mia's courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?
This is the story of a thirteen-year-old girl who is filled with self-loathing and must overcome internalized racism and a verbally abusive family to finally learn to love herself.
There are ninety-six things Genesis hates about herself. She knows the exact number because she keeps a list. Like #95: Because her skin is so dark, people call her charcoal and eggplant—even her own family. And #61: Because her family is always being put out of their house, belongings laid out on the sidewalk for the world to see. When Genesis reaches #100 on the list of things she hates about herself, will she continue on, or can she find the strength to begin again?
Juggling soccer, school, friends and family leaves John with little time for anything else. But one day at the local community center, following the sound of drums, he stumbles into an Indigenous dance class. Before he knows what's happening, John finds himself stumbling through beginner classes with a bunch of little girls, skipping soccer practice and letting his other responsibilities slide. When he attends a pow wow and witnesses a powerful performance, he realizes that he wants to be a dancer more than anything. But the nearest class for boys is at the Native Cultural Center in the city, and he still hasn't told his family or friends about his new passion. If he wants to dance, he will have to stop hiding. Between the mocking of his teammates and the hostility of the boys in his dance class, John must find a way to balance and embrace both the Irish and Cree sides of his heritage.
In one day, four lives weave together in unexpected ways. Virgil Salinas is shy and kindhearted and feels out of place in his loud and boisterous family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister Gen is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just act normal so that he can concentrate on basketball. They aren’t friends -- at least not until Chet pulls a prank that traps Virgil and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well. This disaster leads Kaori, Gen, and Valencia on an epic quest to find the missing Virgil. Through luck, smarts, bravery, and a little help from the universe, a rescue is performed, a bully is put in his place, and friendship blooms.
Regina Petit's family has always been Umpqua, and living on the Grand Ronde reservation is all ten-year-old Regina has ever known. Her biggest worry is that Sasquatch may actually exist out in the forest. But when the federal government signs a bill into law that says Regina's tribe no longer exists, Regina becomes "Indian no more" overnight--even though she was given a number by the Bureau of Indian Affairs that counted her as Indian, even though she lives with her tribe and practices tribal customs, and even though her ancestors were Indian for countless generations.
With no good jobs available in Oregon, Regina's father signs the family up for the Indian Relocation program and moves them to Los Angeles. Regina finds a whole new world in her neighborhood on 58th Place. She's never met kids of other races, and they've never met a real Indian. For the first time in her life, Regina comes face to face with the viciousness of racism, personally and toward her new friends.
Meanwhile, her father believes that if he works hard, their family will be treated just like white Americans. But it's not that easy. It's 1957 during the Civil Rights Era. The family struggles without their tribal community and land. At least Regina has her grandmother, Chich, and her stories. At least they are all together.
In this moving middle-grade novel drawing upon Umpqua author Charlene Willing McManis's own tribal history, Regina must find out: Who is Regina Petit? Is she Indian? Is she American? And will she and her family ever be okay?
For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, and the warmth of her friends close by. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food . . . and the strength of her very own family.
In this beautiful novel in verse, a Chinese-American girl contends with school bullies, tries to solve the mystery of her sister's strange illness, and finds strength and validation at the local tennis court.
Frances Chin, a 10-year old Chinese-American girl, lives in the suburbs of Detroit with her immigrant parents and older sister, Clara. At school Frances copes with bullies and the loneliness that comes with not quite fitting in. At home, she feels a different kind of aloneness. Her parents are preoccupied with work and worry about Clara, whose hair is inexplicably falling out. But, with the help of her friend Annie, Frances is determined to play Nancy Drew and solve the mystery of Clara’s condition. She also faces the everyday challenges and unexpected thrills of being a tween, especially when she receives encouragement from a tennis coach. Although she struggles to speak up, Frances’s powerful inner voice resonates in gorgeous imagery and evocative free verse.
I am learning how to be
sad
and happy
at the same time.
Jude never thought she’d be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her hometown start becoming volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati with relatives.
At first, everything in America seems too fast and too loud. The American movies that Jude has always loved haven’t quite prepared her for starting school in the US—and her new label of “Middle Eastern,” an identity she’s never known before. But this life also brings unexpected surprises—there are new friends, a whole new family, and a school musical that Jude might just try out for. Maybe America, too, is a place where Jude can be seen as she really is.
Moon is everything Christine isn’t. She’s confident, impulsive, artistic . . . and though they both grew up in the same Chinese-American suburb, Moon is somehow unlike anyone Christine has ever known.
When Moon’s family moves in next door to Christine’s, Moon goes from unlikely friend to best friend―maybe even the perfect friend. The girls share their favorite music videos, paint their toenails when Christine’s strict parents aren’t around, and make plans to enter the school talent show together. Moon even tells Christine her deepest secret: that she sometimes has visions of celestial beings who speak to her from the stars. Who reassure her that earth isn’t where she really belongs.
But when they’re least expecting it, catastrophe strikes. After relying on Moon for everything, can Christine find it in herself to be the friend Moon needs?
New York Times–bestselling author-illustrator Jen Wang draws on her childhood to paint a deeply personal yet wholly relatable friendship story that’s at turns joyful, heart-wrenching, and full of hope
Celi Rivera's life swirls with questions. About her changing body. Her first attraction to a boy. And her best friend's exploration of what it means to be genderfluid.
But most of all, her mother's insistence she have a moon ceremony when her first period arrives. It's an ancestral Mexica ritual that Mima and her community have reclaimed, but Celi promises she will NOT be participating. Can she find the power within herself to take a stand for who she wants to be?
A dazzling story told with the sensitivity, humor, and brilliant verse of debut talent Aida Salazar.
In the vein of Inside Out and Back Again and The War That Saved My Life comes a poignant, personal, and hopeful tale of India's partition, and of one girl's journey to find a new home in a divided country
It's 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders.
Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn't know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. When Papa decides it's too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous, and after losing her mother as a baby, Nisha can't imagine losing her homeland, too. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together.
Told through Nisha's letters to her mother, The Night Diary is a heartfelt story of one girl's search for home, for her own identity...and for a hopeful future.
All Nestor Lopez wants is to live in one place for more than a few months and have dinner with his dad.
When he and his mother move to a Texas to live with his grandmother after his dad's latest deployment, Nestor plans to lay low. He definitely doesn't want anyone to find out his deepest secret: that he can talk to animals.
But when the animals in his new town start disappearing, Nestor's grandmother becomes the prime suspect after she is spotted in the woods where they were last seen. As Nestor investigates the source of the disappearances, he learns that they are being seized by a tule vieja -- a witch who can absorb an animal's powers by biting it during a solar eclipse. And the next eclipse is just around the corner...
Now it's up to Nestor's extraordinary ability and his new friends to catch the tule vieja -- and save a place he just might call home.
A collection of eleven short stories focusing on the everyday adventures of Latino youth growing up in Fresno, California.
In claiming as his own the magnificent black pearl he finds, a sixteen-year-old youth enrages the sea devil whom legend says is its owner.
A baby is found in a basket by the rice paddies with only a magic paint brush. His brush leads him to the court of the Emperor where he creates many wonderful things until evil people steal the brush.
Harold, a dog, and Chester, a cat, resort to hilarious antics to alert their family that the newly adopted rabbit may actually be a vampire.
Kids love fast food. And the fast food industry definitely loves kids. It couldn’t survive without them. Did you know that the biggest toy company in the world is McDonald’s? It’s true. In fact, one out of every three toys given to a child in the United States each year is from a fast food restaurant. Not only has fast food reached into the toy industry, it’s moving into our schools. One out of every five public schools in the United States now serves brand name fast food. But do kids know what they’re eating? Where do fast food hamburgers come from? And what makes those fries taste so good?
A savvy street kid finds her roots in the maze of San Francisco’s Chinatown. By the author of Dragonwings.
On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South.
When falling crop prices threaten his family with starvation, fifteen-year- old Victor Flores heads north in an attempt to "cross the wire" from Mexico into the United States so he can find work and send money home. But with no coyote money to pay the smugglers who sneak undocumented workers across the border, Victor must struggle to survive as he jumps trains, stows away on trucks, and hikes grueling miles through the Arizona desert.
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life.
Esperanza thought she'd always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico--she'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home, and servants. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When their new life is threatened, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances-- Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.
From Apollo to Zeus, the compelling legends of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and monsters are presented in a clear, fluid, contemporary style.
An easy-to-read account of the birth of the Paricutin volcano in the field of a poor Mexican farmer. Recommended for beginning-level English Language Development students.
A Chinese girl comes to Brooklyn in 1947, where she struggles to feel at home and make friends until she discovers baseball and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Maroo, a girl of the late Ice Age, must take charge after her father is killed, and lead her little brother, mother, and aged grandmother to the safety of the winter camp before the first blizzards strike.
Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all. Mostly Ivan thinks about art. Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.
In this Newbery Honor novel, New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them. Eleven-year- old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. When they arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with her, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.
Hospitalized with the dreaded atom-bomb disease, leukemia, a child in Hiroshima races against time to fold one thousand paper cranes to verify the legend that by doing so a sick person will become healthy.
This is the retelling of a true story that takes place in rural Mississippi during the Depression. It begins the chronicle of the Logan family that is continued in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Let the Circle Be Unbroken.
When Temple Grandin was born, her parents knew that she was different. Years later she was diagnosed with autism. While Temple’s doctor recommended a hospital, her mother believed in her. Temple went to school instead. Today, Dr. Temple Grandin is a scientist and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Her world-changing career revolutionized the livestock industry.
A boy from a prehistoric nomadic tribe is abandoned by his family and, together with a girl stolen from another tribe, overcomes great odds to survive a cruel winter and teach the tribe an important lesson.
The survival story of a boy marooned alone on a Caribbean island as he struggles with racial prejudice and stereotyping.
A retelling of the events of the Trojan War and the wanderings of Odysseus based on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
The internationally renowned D’Aulaires offer a masterpiece in this perfect retelling of Greek myths for children of all ages. Two cassettes. Highly detailed and awesomely illustrated.
The mythology and principal legends of the Indian subcontinent are generously outlined here. Creation myths are covered first, followed by stories of the old gods (Indra, Agni, and Surya) and some of the greatest goddesses. Holy men who founded the various offshoots of Hinduism are presented, and separate chapters cover Shiv, Vishnu, Ram, and Krishna.
A fourteen-year-old Eskimo boy who feels assailed by the modernity of his life takes a 1400-mile journey by dog sled across ice, tundra, and mountains seeking his own ‘song’ of himself.
Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology retells stories from Chinese mythology, folk tales, and popular superstitions.
A vivid retelling of the myths of Ancient Egypt. Illustrated.
A collection of myths relating the exploits and adventures of the gods and heroes of ancient Greece. Dramatic color paintings and line drawings illustrate this collection.
To win his own freedom, Ranofer, a young Egyptian who wants to be a master goldsmith, must prove his evil brother is a thief
After a plane crash, 13-year-old Brian spends 54 days in the wilderness, learning to survive initially with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents’ divorce.
A retelling of the great tales of heroes and gods from Roman mythology and history. Provides an introduction to ancient Roman history, culture, and beliefs.
Fictionalized view of the Hiroshima bombing as seen by a young Japanese girl.
A young Chinese boy is separated from his parents with only his lucky pig when the Japanese invade his country.
Selected from the vast treasure of myths from around the world, these narratives based on the theme of origin reflect the diverse people who made them and their feeling for the wonder and glory of the universe. Illustrated.
Records the courage and self-reliance of a Native American girl who lived alone for eighteen years on an isolated island off the California coast.
Riveting novel that portrays the plight of three Salvadoran children who enter the country without documents.
Common-sense and courage enable a young Eskimo girl to survive when she becomes lost in the Arctic wild
A story of friendship between a troubled teenage pianist, a street-wise classmate, and a janitor who constructs a LO-planet revolving solar system.
While his brother prepares to mount the throne of Egypt as the next member of the Twelfth Dynasty, the teenage prince Ameni is sealed in a secret tomb in a state of suspended animation, to be revived four thousand years later by the fourteen-year-old daughter of an archeologist.
Two fifth graders uplift themselves and their classmates out of a less than beautiful urban present by encouraging dreams and the desire to achieve them.
A grand adventure set in Ancient Greece where humans mingle dangerously with gods.
Fourteen-year-old Lincoln Mendoza, an aspiring basketball player, must come to terms with his divided loyalties when he moves from the Latino inner city to a white suburban neighborhood.
A thrilling historical adventure about young Dewey and his feisty grandmother fighting for their lives on a river raft.
Mysterious story of the Tuck family: how they drink from a magical spring and suffer the pangs of eternal youth.
Young Geeder is enchanted with Zeely, who seems to be a magical African queen.
Poignant sequel to ”The Island Of The Blue Dolphins,” in which Zia and her Aunt Karana are reunited, but not for long.
The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.
Spunky 11-year-old Charlie hopes to understand her rigid father by finding out everything she can about the Vietnam War, the war that let him survive but killed his dreams.
The endearing story of a little girl, a pig, and Charlotte, a beautiful gray spider.
Joey has problems with both his fifth-grade teacher and his stepfather as he begins to feel his real family is finished.
A series of letters from Leigh Botts to the author, Mr. Henshaw, dealing with Leigh’s aspirations of being an author, as well as excerpts from Leigh’s diary showing the concerns of this bright young boy.
A girl’s journal of her first year at Junior High School 80 in the West Bronx gives us an indelible picture of the inner city and the ups and downs of growing up.
A young African-American moves to a new neighborhood where she confronts the class bully.
Autobiography of Jean Fritz, illustrated with drawings and photographs, covering her life from her birth in China to the present.
After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee’s life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries.
Just fourteen, Rick Walker is alone, on the run, and desperate. Stowing away in the back of a truck, he suddenly finds himself at a dead end, out in the middle of nowhere. The Maze. In this surreal landscape of stark redrock spires and deep sandstone canyons, Rick stumbles into the remote camp of Lon Peregrino, a bird biologist who is releasing fledgling California condors back into the wild. Intrigued by the endangered condors and the strange bearded man dedicated to saving them, Rick decides to stay on. When two men with a vicious dog drive up in a battered old Humvee, Rick discovers that Lon and his birds are in grave danger.
A young boy in Maine, when rescued by a Native American chief and his grandson, must decide whether to spend the winter alone in the woods waiting for his family to return or move on to a new life with his new friends.
Life looks hopeless when Alex’s losing team has to play baseball against T.J.’s winning team. But Alex has a hidden talent that could save the day—unless it ruins his life first.
As the lone young lady on a transatlantic voyage in 1832, Charlotte learns that the captain is murderous and the crew rebellious.
Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg’s father, who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.
On the last day of a sea kayaking trip in southeast Alaska, fourteen-year-old Andy Galloway paddles away from his group to visit the nearby site where his archaeologist father died trying to solve the mystery of the first Americans. A sudden, violent storm blows Andy's kayak off course and washes him ashore on Admiralty Island, an immense wilderness known as the Fortress of the Bears. Struggling to survive, Andy encounters a dog running with wolves and then a man toting a stone-tipped spear. The wild man vanishes into the forest, but the dog reappears and leads Andy to a cave filled with Stone Age tools and weapons. Running for his life, Andy retreats deep into the cave, where danger, suspense, and discovery await.
Recounts the escapades of four animal friends who live along a river in the English countryside—Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger.