African-American Teens
Come Juneteenth by Ann Rinaldi(2007)Fourteen-year-old Luli and her family face tragedy after failing to tell their slaves that President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made them free.
Copper sun by Sharon M. Draper(2006)Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.
The first part last by Angela Johnson(2003)Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.
Harlem hustle by Janet McDonald(2006)Eric "Hustle" Samson, a smart and street-wise seventeen-year-old dropout from Harlem, aspires to rap stardom, a dream he naively believes is about to come true.
Harlem summer by Walter Dean Myers(2007)In 1920s Harlem, sixteen-year-old Mark Purvis, an aspiring jazz saxophonist, gets a summer job as an errand boy for the publishers of the groundbreaking African American magazine, "The Crisis," but soon finds himself on the enemy list of mobster Dutch Shultz.
If you come softly by Jacqueline Woodson(1998)After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's reactions.
The legend of Buddy Bush by Shelia P. Moses(2004)In 1947, twelve-year-old Pattie Mae is sustained by her dreams of escaping Rich Square, North Carolina, and moving to Harlem when her Uncle Buddy is arrested for attempted rape of a white woman and her grandfather is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor.
New boy by Julian Houston(2005)As a new sophomore at an exclusive boarding school, a young black man is witness to the persecution of another student with bad acne.
Standing against the wind by Traci L. Jones(2006)As she tries to escape her poor Chicago neighborhood by winning a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, shy and studious eighth-grader Patrice discovers that she has more options in life than she previously realized.
Tyrell by Coe Booth(2006)Fifteen-year-old Tyrell, who is living in a Bronx homeless shelter with his spaced-out mother and his younger brother, tries to avoid temptation so he does not end up in jail like his father.
Who am I without him? : short stories about girls and the boys in their by Sharon Flake(2004)Teens laugh, cry, scheme, and dream about the opposite sex in this fascinating short-story collection spanning the scope of adolescent love.
A girl seeks advice on how to steal her best friend's thug. A boy discovers what it means to be a man through his treatment of a woman. A teen's severe skin disorder makes her retreat inside her own room, inside her own head. These stories are often humorous, always on-point expositions of youth determined to find self-worth, any way they know how.
Confronted daily with tough issues that seem only to increase as the school day wears on, adolescents of all complexions struggle to make a place for themselves in society while defining their significance in terms of their allure to the other gender.
Books set in Africa
Chanda's secrets by Allan Stratton(2004)A girl's struggle amid the African AIDS pandemic, Chanda, is an astonishingly perceptive girl living in the small city of Bonang, a fictional city in Southern Africa. When her youngest sister dies, the first hint of HIV/AIDS emerges, Chanda must confront undercurrents of shame and stigma. Not afraid to explore the horrific realities of AIDS, Chanda's Secrets also captures the enduring strength of loyalty, friendship and family ties. Above all, it is a story about the corrosive nature of secrets and the healing power of truth.
The ear, the eye, and the arm by Nancy Farmer(1994)In 2194 in Zimbabwe, General Matsika's three children are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine while three mutant detectives use their special powers to search for them.
Karoo boy by Troy Blacklaws(2005)After a freak accident, Douglas's twin brother is dead, and his family's fragmentation begins. His mother packs up their home in Cape Town and takes him to a tiny backwater town in the semi-desert Karoo region, where she withdraws into her painting. Douglas, a city kid in an insular community, makes only two friends: a beautiful girl named Marika, with her adventurous spirit and tyrannical father; and an old garage worker named Moses, with his junkyard Volvo and dreams of driving away to Cape Town. Against the backdrop of the bitter conflict of 1970s South Africa, Douglas develops a clearer insight into himself and his place in the world, a world where dreams and reality meet in a surprising twist.
Listening for lions by Gloria Whelan(2005)Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1918, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital.
No condition is permanent by Cristina Kessler(2000)When shy fourteen-year-old Jodie accompanies her anthropologist mother to live in Sierra Leone, she befriends a local girl but encounters a cultural divide that cannot be crossed.
Over a thousand hills I walk with you by Hanna Jansen(2006)Chronicles the experiences of an eight-year-old girl who was the only one of her Tutsi family to survive the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
The power of one by Bryce Courtenay(2005)Follows Peekay, a white British boy in South Africa during World War II, between the ages of five and eleven, as he survives an abusive boarding school and goes on to succeed in life and the boxing ring, with help from a chicken, a boxer, a pianist, black African prisoners, and many others.
Saba: under the hyena's foot by Jane Kurtz(2003)After being kidnapped and brought to the emperor's palace in Gondar, Ethiopia, twelve-year-old Saba discovers that she and her brother are part of the emperor's desperate attempt to consolidate political power in the mid-1840's.
The year the gypsies came by Linzi Alex Glass(2006)In Johannesburg, South Africa, in the late 1960s, twelve-year-old Emily, who longs for affection from her quarreling parents, finds comfort in the stories of a Zulu servant and in her friendship with a young houseguest who has an equally troubled family.
Asian American Teens
American born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang(2006)Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in comic book format.
Hey, Hmong girl, whassup? : the journal of Choua Vang by Leah Rempel(2004)This novel in journal form conveys the thoughts and feelings of a teenager, Choua Vang, growing up in Minnesota, coping with her family's strict old-world traditions and her friends' and classmates' yearning to be grown-up and independent - and American. It may well be the first book of juvenile fiction directly concerning current issues of race, acculturation, and family among the Hmong in America. (description, from Peppercorn Books)
Necessary roughness by Marie G. Lee(1996)Sixteen-year-old Korean American Chan moves from Los Angeles to a small town in Minnesota, where he must cope not only with racism on the football team but also with the tensions in his relationship with his strict father.
Nothing but the truth : and a few white lies by Justina Chen Headley(2006)Fifteen-year-old Patty Ho, half Taiwanese and half white, feels she never fits in, but when her overly-strict mother ships her off to math camp at Stanford, instead being miserable, Patty starts to become comfortable with her true self.
Seeing Emily by Joyce Lee Wong(2005)Relates in free verse the experiences of sixteen-year-old Emily, a gifted artist and the daughter of immigrants to the United States, as she tries to reconcile her American self with her Chinese heritage.
Shadow of the dragon by Sherry Garland(1993)High school sophomore Danny Vo tries to resolve the conflict between the values of his Vietnamese refugee family and his new American way of life.
A step from heaven by An Na(2001)A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in America.
The stone goddess by Minfong Ho(2003)After the Communists take over Cambodia and her family is torn from their city life, twelve-year-old Nakri and her older sister attempt to maintain their hope as well as their classical dancing skills in the midst of their struggle to survive.
Tangled threads : a Hmong girl's story by Pegi Deitz Shea(2003)After ten years in a refugee camp in Thailand, thirteen-year-old Mai Yang travels to Providence, Rhode Island, where her Americanized cousins introduce her to pizza, shopping, and beer, while her grandmother and new friends keep her connected to her Hmong heritage.
Under the blood-red sun by Graham Salisbury(1994)Tomikazu Nakaji's biggest concerns are baseball, homework, and a local bully, until life with his Japanese family in Hawaii changes drastically after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
Wait for me by An Na(2006)As her senior year in high school approaches, Mina yearns to find her own path in life but working at the family business, taking care of her little sister, and dealing with her mother's impossible expectations are as stifling as the southern California heat, until she falls in love with a man who offers a way out.
Zazoo by Richard Mosher(2001)Amid old secrets revealed and rifts healed, a thirteen-year-old Vietnamese orphan raised in rural France by her aging "Grand-Pierre" learns about life, death, and love.
Books set in Asia
Bound by Donna Jo Napoli(2004)In a novel based on Chinese Cinderella tales, fourteen-year-old stepchild Xing-Xing endures a life of neglect and servitude, as her stepmother cruelly mutilates her own child's feet so that she alone might marry well.
Chu Ju's house by Gloria Whelan(2005)In order to save her baby sister, fourteen-year-old Chu Ju leaves her rural home in modern China and earns food and shelter by working on a sampan, tending silk worms, and planting rice seedlings, while wondering if she will ever see her family again.
Eyes of the emperor by Graham Salisbury(2005)Following orders from the United States Army, several young Japanese American men train K-9 units to hunt Asians during World War II.
The kite rider : a novel by Geraldine McCaughrean(2001)In thirteenth-century China, after trying to save his widowed mother from a horrendous second marriage, twelve-year-old Haoyou has life-changing adventures when he takes to the sky as a circus kite rider and ends up meeting the great Mongol ruler Kublai Khan.
Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-li Jiang(1998)When China's Communist Party detains Ji-Li's father, the 12-year-old is facedwith a difficult choice.
Rice without rain by Minfong Ho(1990)After social rebels convince the headman of a small village in northern Thailand to resist the land rent, his seventeen-year-old daughter Jinda finds herself caught up in the student uprising in Bangkok.
Samurai shortstop by Alan Gratz(2006)While obtaining a Western education at a prestigious Japanese boarding school in 1890, sixteen-year-old Toyo also receives traditional samurai training which has profound effects on both his baseball game and his relationship with his father.
Wandering warrior by Da Chen(2003)Eleven-year-old Luka, destined to become the future emperor of China, is trained in the ways of the kung fu wandering warriors by the wise monk Atami.
Hispanic American Teens
Buried onions by Gary Soto(1997)When nineteen-year-old Eddie drops out of college, he struggles to find a place for himself as a Mexican American living in a violence-infested neighborhood of Fresno, California.
Call me Maria : a novel by Judith Ortiz Cofer(2004)Fifteen-year-old Maria leaves her mother and their Puerto Rican home to live in the barrio of New York with her father, feeling torn between the two cultures in which she has been raised.
The circuit : stories from the life of a migrant child by Francisco Jimenez(1997)"'La frontera'...I heard it for the first time back in the late 1940s when Papa and Mama told me and Roberto, my older brother, that someday we would take a long trip north, cross la frontera, enter California, and leave our poverty behind." So begins this honest and powerful account of a family's journey to the fields of California -- to a life of constant moving, from strawberry fields to cotton fields, from tent cities to one-room shacks, from picking grapes to topping carrots and thinning lettuce. Seen through the eyes of a boy who longs for an education and the right to call one palce home, this is a story of survival, faith, and hope. It is a journey that will open readers' hearts and minds.
Crossing the wire by Will Hobbs(2006)Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores journeys north in a desperate attempt to cross the Arizona border and find work in the United States to support his family in central Mexico.
Cuba 15 : a novel by Nancy Osa(2003)Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student, reluctantly prepares for her upcoming "quince," a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday.
Finding miracles by Julia Alvarez(2004)Fifteen-year-old Milly Kaufman is an average American teenager until Pablo, a new student at her school, inspires her to search for her birth family in his native country.
The flight to freedom by Ana Veciana-Suarez(2002)Writing in the diary which her father gave her, thirteen-year-old Yara describes life with her family in Havana, Cuba, in 1967 as well as her experiences in Miami, Florida, after immigrating there to be reunited with some relatives while leaving others behind.
Heat by Mike Lupica(2006)Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival coaches doubt he is only twelve years old and he has no parents to offer them proof.
Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Sáenz(2004)As a Chicano boy living in the unglamorous town of Hollywood, New Mexico, and a member of the graduating class of 1969, Sammy Santos faces the challenges of "gringo" racism, unpopular dress codes, the Vietnam War, barrio violence, and poverty.
Sofi Mendoza's guide to getting lost in Mexico by Malin Alegria(2007)When Southern California high school senior Sofi Mendoza lies to her parents and crosses the border for a weekend party, she has no idea that she will get stuck in a Mexican village with family she has never met before, unable to return to the United States and the easy life she knew.
Surprising Cecilia by Susan Gonzales Abraham(2006)In the 1930s as she ventures from her small and poor New Mexican farming community to go to high school in the city, teenaged Cecilia finds herself challenged in uxexpected ways.
The tequila worm by Viola Canales(2005)Sofia grows up in the close-knit community of the barrio in McAllen, Texas, then finds that her experiences as a scholarship student at an Episcopal boarding school in Austin only strengthen her ties to family and her "comadres."
Set in Latin America
Before we were free by Julia Alvarez(2002)In the early 1960s in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo.
The bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder(1998)"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." With this celebrated sentence Thornton Wilder begins "The Bridge of San Luis Rey," one of the towering achievements in American fiction and a novel read throughout the world.
By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother Juniper then embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention rather than chance that led to the deaths of those who perished in the tragedy. His search leads to his own death -- and to the author's timeless investigation into the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition. This new edition of Wilder' s 1928 Pulitzer Prize winning novel contains a new foreword by Russell Banks.
Fresh girl by Jaira Placide(2002)After having been sent, at a very young age, from New York to live with her grandmother in Haiti, fourteen-year-old Mardi returns to join her parents and try to shape a new life in Brooklyn.
Go and come back : a novel by Joan Abelove(1998)Alicia, a young tribeswoman living in a Amazonian village in the Andes, tells about the two American women anthropologists who arrive to study the way of life of her people.
I am a taxi by Deborah Ellis(2006)
Journey of the sparrows by Fran Leeper Buss(1991)Maria and her brother and sister, Salvadoran refugees, are smuggled into the United States in crates and try to eke out a living in Chicago with the help of a sympathetic family.
Keeper by Mal Peet(2005)In an interview with a young journalist, World Cup hero, El Gato, describes his youth in the Brazilian rain forest and the events, experiences, and people that helped make him a great goalkeeper and renowned soccer star.
The meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer(2003)"In this novel, we follow a Puerto Rican girl's quest to negotiate her own terms of survival within the confines of her culture. Coming of age in the 1950s, when American influence threatens to dilute the island's traditional Spanish customs, as well as to harm, perhaps irreparably, its fragile ecology, Consuelo watches her family being torn assunder - much like the island itself. Her father believes the future lies in American technology, including the new autopista that will soon cut the island in two. But Consuelo has heard her abuela say that once foreign noise drowns out the song of the coqui, the island's emblematic tree frog, the voices of puertorriquenos themselves will be silenced." "Meanwhile, Consuelo confronts her own transformation. For something is not right in this Puerto Rican family; a tragedia is developing like a tumor at its core. It is Consuelo who first notices her younger sister Mili's vivaciousness turn into mysterious bouts of hysteria, her playful, invented language shift into an incomprehensible and chilling "language of birds." Ultimately it is Consuelo who must choose: Will she fulfill the expectations of her family, offering consolation as their tragedy unfolds? Or will she, like Maria Sereno, risk becoming la fulana, the outsider, in her journey toward a definition of herself as a Puerto Rican woman different from her mother and her grandmother?"--BOOK JACKET.
Red midnight by Ben Mikaelsen(2003)After soldiers kill his family, twelve-year-old Santiago and his four-year-old sister Angelina flee Guatemala in a kayak, trying to reach the United States.
Red palms by Cara Haycak(2004)When fourteen-year-old Benita's wealthy family goes bankrupt as a result of the Depression, they go from their luxurious life in Guayaquil, Ecuador to a primitive island, with the wild scheme of starting a coconut plantation.
Books set in the Middle East
Alphabet of dreams by Susan Fletcher(2006)Fourteen-year-old Mitra, of royal Persian lineage, and her five-year-old brother Babak, whose dreams foretell the future, flee for their lives in the company of the magus Melchoir and two other Zoroastrian priests, traveling through Persia as they follow star signs leading to a newly-born king in Bethlehem.
Anahita's woven riddle by Meghan Nuttall Sayres(2006)In Iran, more than 100 years ago, a young girl with three suitors gets permission from her father and a holy man to weave into her wedding rug a riddle to be solved by her future husband, which will ensure that he has wit to match hers.
The breadwinner by Deborah Ellis(2001)Young Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan. Because Parvana's father has a foreign education, he is arrested by the Taliban. The family becomes increasingly desperate until Parvana conceives a plan.
Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye(1997)When fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.
In the name of God by Paula Jolin(2007)Determined to follow the laws set down in the Qur'an, seventeen-year-old Nadia becomes involved in a violent revolutionary movement aimed at supporting Muslim rule in Syria and opposing the Western politics and materialism that increasingly affect her family.
Mud city by Deborah Ellis(2003)This final book in the trilogy begun in "The Breadwinner" and "Parvana's Journey" paints a devastating portrait of life in refugee camps and shows the resourcefulness of children who endure great suffering there.
Parvana's journey by Deborah Ellis(2002)In this sequel to "The Breadwinner, " the Taliban still control Afghanistan, but Kabul is in ruins. Twelve-year-old Parvana's father has just died, and her mother, sister, and brother could be anywhere in the country. Parvana sets out alone to find them, masquerading as a boy, and she meets other children who are victims of war.
Refugees by Catherine Stine(2005)Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Dawn, a sixteen-year-old runaway from San Francisco, connects by phone and email with Johar, a gentle, fifteen-year-old Afghani who assists Dawn's foster mother, a doctor, at a Red Cross refugee camp in Peshawar.
Song of the Magdalene by Donna Jo Napoli(2004)Relates the story of Miriam, a young girl being raised by her widowed father in ancient Israel, who grows up to be Mary Magdalene.
A stone in my hand by Cathryn Clinton(2002)Eleven-year-old Malaak and her family are touched by the violence in Gaza between Jews and Palestinians when first her father disappears and then her older brother is drawn to the Islamic Jihad.
Under the persimmon tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples(2005)During the 2001 Afghan War, the lives of Najmal, a young refugee from Kunduz, Afghanistan, and Nusrat, an American-Muslim teacher who is awaiting her huband's return from Mazar-i-Sharif, intersect at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan.
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
Ask me no questions by Marina Tamar Budhos(2006)Fourteen-year-old Nadira, her sister, and their parents leave Bangladesh for New York City, but the expiration of their visas and the events of September 11, 2001, bring frustration, sorrow, and terror for the whole family.
Homeless bird by Gloria Whelan(2001)When thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill-fated arranged marriage, she must either suffer a destiny dictated by India's tradition or find the courage to oppose it.
Maya running by Anjali Banerjee(2005)Maya, a Canadian of East Indian descent, struggles with her ethnic identity, infatuation with a classmate, and the presence of her beautiful Bengali cousin, Pinky, who comes for a visit bearing a powerful statue of the god Ganesh, the Hindu elephant boy.
Monsoon summer by Mitali Perkins(2006)Secretly in love with her best friend and business partner Steve, fifteen-year-old Jazz must spend the summer away from him when her family goes to India during that country's rainy season to help set up a clinic.
Naming Maya by Uma Krishnaswami(2004)When Maya accompanies her mother to India to sell her grandfather's house, she uncovers family history relating to her parents divorce and learns more about herself and her relationship with her mother.
Nectar in a sieve by Kamala Markandaya(2002)..this critically acclaimed novel tells the story of India and its people through the eyes of one woman and her experiences in one peasant family in a primitive Indian village. Married as a child bride to a tenant farmer she had never seen, she worked side by side in the field with her husband to wrest a living from the land that was ravaged by droughts, monsoons, and insects. With remarkable fortitude and courage, she sought to meet changing times and fight poverty and disaster.
Shabanu : daughter of the wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples(1989)When eleven-year old Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, she must either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of defying her father's wishes.
The Shalamar Code by Mary Louise Clifford(2006)In Pakistan, fifteen-year-olds Mumtaz and Rashid become involved in political intrigue and drug trafficking when their efforts to stop a man who is spying on Mumtaz's powerful father cost Rashid his job and home.
Shiva's fire by Suzanne Fisher Staples(2000)In India, a talented dancer sacrifices friends and family for her art.
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse(1951)In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of his life -- the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace, and, finally, wisdom.
Native American Teens
Code Talker : a novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac(2005)After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue.
The coyote bead by Gerald Hausman(1999)In 1681 in Boston, fourteen-year-old William, a Narraganset Indian captured in a raid six years earlier, leads a productive and contented life as a printer's apprentice but is increasingly anxious to make some connection with his Indian past.
Crossing the panther's path by Elizabeth Alder(2003)Sixteen-year-old Billy Caldwell, son of a British soldier and a Mohawk woman, leaves school to join Tecumseh in his efforts to prevent the Americans from taking any more land from the Indians in the Northwest Territory.
The final freedom by Bill Wallace(1997)When thirteen-year-old Will Burke and the famed Apache chief, Geronimo, forge a unique bond of friendship, each wins a special kind of freedom.
Horse of seven moons by Karen Taschek(2005)In 1881, after sixteen-year-old Bin-daa-dee-nin, an Apache fugitive, prays for help to survive in the mountains of New Mexico, he encounters a unique horse, and the path of his life with that horse crosses the life path of fourteen-year-old Sarah Chilton.
Last child by Michael Spooner(2005)Caught between the worlds of the her Scottish father and her Mandan mother in what is now North Dakota, Rosalie fights to survive both the 1837 smallpox epidemic and the actions of a vengeful trader.
Moccasin thunder : American Indian stories for today(2005)Presents ten short stories about contemporary Native American teens by members of tribes of the United States and Canada, including Louise Erdrich and Joseph Bruchac.
Sacajawea : the story of Bird Woman and the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Joseph Bruchac(2000)Sacajawea, a Shoshoni Indian interpreter, peacemaker, and guide, and William Clark alternate in describing their experiences on the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Northwest.
Saturnalia by Paul Fleischman(1990)In 1681 in Boston, fourteen-year-old William, a Narraganset Indian captured in a raid six years earlier, leads a productive and contented life as a printer's apprentice but is increasingly anxious to make some connection with his Indian past.
Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen(2001)After his anger erupts into violence, Cole, in order to avoid going to prison, agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative based on the native American Circle Justice, and he is sent to a remote Alaskan Island where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life. This gripping, graphic survival story from an award-winning writer paints an unsparing picture of one violent teen and offers a poignant testimony to the power of pain that can destroy and may also heal.
Whisper upon the water by Connie Vines(2001)Apacheria, 1880. Tanayia is alone in the world. Her village destroyed and her people murdered by a group of revolutionaries who now hold her hostage. A daring escape on the edge of Cochiseb s stronghold saves Tanayiab s life, but she discovers her ordeal is only now beginning.
Story Collections
Into the widening world : international coming-of-age stories(1995)A collection of twenty-six short stories about young people, from twenty-two different countries.
145th Street : short stories by Walter Dean Myers(2000)Ten stories portray life on a block in Harlem.
American eyes : new Asian-American short stories for young adults(1994)These ten stories reflect the conflict Asian Americans face in balancing an ancient heritage and an unknown future.
An island like you : stories of the barrio by Judith Ortiz Cofer(1995)Twelve stories about young people caught between their Puerto Rican heritage and their American surroundings.
Face relations : 11 stories about seeing beyond color
Face Relations offers eleven original works by celebrated authors Joseph Bruchac, Marina Budhos, M. E. Kerr, Kyoko Mori, Jess Mowry, Naomi Shihab Nye, Rene Saldana Jr., Marilyn Singer, Rita Williams-Garcia, Sherri Winston, and Ellen Wittlinger that explore the possibilities of embracing diversity in a world still rife with bigotry and racism. As editor Marilyn Singer writes in her introduction: "...the characters in these stories tear down the barriers that separate us." Their stories may be troubled, funny, sad, or fierce, but all are full of hope.
Finding our way by Rene Saldana
THESE STORIES TAKE the reader to meet mochos; cholos; Mr. and Mrs. Special; Manny with his mysterious phone calls; Melly, who dreams of being the first girl to take the Dive; Andy and Ruthie, who find that being "boyfriend-girlfriend" takes on new meaning the night of the prom; and Chuy, who seems determined to get kicked out of school. Each distinct voice shares secret thoughts that draw the reader into daily dramas of love, danger, loyalty, and pride. In the final story, a shocking tragedy reverberates through the barrio. "With this collection, Saldana makes a significant contribution to the field of Latino short stories for young readers."--"VOYA," Starred "These powerfully written, provocative selections have universal appeal and subtle, thoughtful themes."--"School Library Journal" "While much is revealed, just as much is implied, making the stories layered and rich while still rendering them accessible."--"The Bulletin"
First crossing : stories about teen immigrants(2004)Fleeing from political violence in Venezuela, Amina and her family have settled in the United States. Sarah, adopted, is desperate to know her Korean birth parents. Maya is adapting just fine to life in the U.S. and wishes her strict Kazakh parents would follow suit. Adrian's new friends have some spooky -- and hilarious -- misconceptions about his Romanian origins. Martine is fighting proud of her Haitian roots, while Sopeap embraces her Cambodian heritage more cautiously... Whether they've transitioned from Mexico to the United States or from Ramallah to New Mexico, the characters in this anthology have all ventured far and have faced innumerable challenges.
Once upon a cuento(2003)Once upon a Cuento is a collection of stories by contemporary Latina/o authors, edited by Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review. The stories, written for young people, grade five and up, explore heritage and history, identity, language, and relationships from the perspective of Mexican-American, Cuban-American, Dominican-American, and Puerto Rican writers. In all, the collection features seventeen stories by well-known and emerging writers, most of which are original to this collection. Contributors include acclaimed Puerto Rican children's authors Nicholasa Mohr and Carmen T. Bernier-Grand; Cuban-American novelist, essayist and poet Virgil Suarez; and Mexican-American short story writers and teachers Lorraine Lopez and Sergio Troncoso. Individual stories explore such challenges facing young people as making do with little money, the process of moving to a new country and learning English, and one's relationship to animals and to the natural world. Each story contains a short introduction that offers historical, cultural, and biographical information.Book jacket.
Rites of passage : stories about growing up by Black writers from around the world(1994)Seventeen stories about the experiences of young people of African descent around the world, by such authors as Toni Cade Bambara, John Henrik Clarke, Njabulo Ndebele, and Barbara Burford.
A walk in my world : international short stories about youth. by Anne Mazer(2000)A collection of short stories from around the world including such authors as Valentin Rasputin, Yasunari Kawabata, and Toni Cade Bambara.
What are you? : voices of mixed-race young people(1999)Many young people of racially mixed backgrounds discuss their feelings about family relationships, prejudice, dating, personal identity, and other issues.
Other Places
Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch(2002)Sixteen-year-old Margaret Rose Nolan, newly arrived from Ireland, finds work at New York City's Triangle Shirtwaist Factory shortly before the 1911 fire in which 146 employees died.
The braid by Helen Frost(2006)Two Scottish sisters, living on the western island of Barra in the 1850s, relate, in alternate voices and linked narrative poems, their experiences after their family is forcible evicted and separated with one sister accompanying their parents and younger siblings to Cape Breton, Canada, and the other staying behind with other family on the small island of Mingulay.
Eva underground by Dandi Daley Mackall(2006)In 1978, a high school senior is forced by her widowed father to move from their comfortable Chicago suburb to help with an underground education movement in communist Poland.
Hunter by Joy Cowley(2004)A Maori boy in 1803 and a plane crash survivor marooned on a deserted island in 2003 experience interconnecting visions.
The king of Mulberry Street by Donna Jo Napoli(2005)In 1892, Dom, a nine-year old stowaway from Naples, Italy, arrives in New York and must learn to survive the perils of street life in the big city.
Swimming to America by Alice Mead(2006)Eighth grader Linda Berati struggles to understand who she is within the context of her mother's secrecy about the family background, her discomfort with her old girlfriends, her involvement with the family problems of her Cuban-American friend Ramon, and an opportunity to attend a school for "free spirits" like herself.
