Teen Middle (Grades 6-8)
by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
When Nadia arrives in Canada in 1950 with Marusia, the woman she calls mother, she is glad to finally be out of the displaced persons camp where she has lived for five years, but is troubled by confused memories of World War II. She speaks Ukrainian, but she seems to remember living with a German Nazi family who called her by a different name, and as she tries to settle into the Canadian-Ukrainian community of Brantford she is haunted by one question: who is she, and where was she stolen from.
by Lois Ruby
During the summer of 1953, thirteen-year-old Marty's parents are suspected of communist sympathies, upending his life and causing him to question what it really means to be a patriotic American.
by Cynthia Kadohata
Twelve-year-old Hanako and her family, reeling from their confinement in an internment camp, renounce their American citizenship to move to Hiroshima, a city devastated by the atomic bomb dropped by Americans.
by Candy Gourlay
More than a hundred years ago, a boy named Samkad thinks he knows everything about the world. He knows the mountains he lives in. He knows his people. He knows his blood enemy, the Mangili. And he wants to become a man, to be given his own shield, spear and axe to fight with. His best friend, Luki, wants all the same things - but she is a girl, and no girl has ever become a warrior. But everything changes when a new boy arrives in the village. He calls himself Samkad's brother, yet he knows nothing of the ways of the mountain. And he brings news of a people called 'Americans', who are bringing war and destruction right to his home...
by Tami Charles
1984, in the barrios of Newark. Beatriz Mendez is looking forward to dancing at her fifteenth birthday, because dancing is her true passion in life. When her brother Juni, leader of the Puerto Rican gang the Diablos, is killed by the rival Haitian Macoute gang she finds herself thrust into the role of gang leader and drug dealer. She meets Nassar, a dorky Haitian boy who shares and reignites her passion for dancing. Will Beatriz choose the life decided for her-- or the one she creates for herself?
Teen High (Grades 9-12)
The Weight of Our Sky
by Hanna Alkaf
Melati Ahmad believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother's death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied. On the evening of May 13th, 1969, racial tensions in her home city of Kuala Lumpur boil over. The Chinese and Malays are at war, and Mel and her mother become separated. With the city in flames and a curfew in effect, it will take the help of a Chinese boy named Vincent and all of the courage and grit in Melati's arsenal to overcome the violence on the streets, her own prejudices, and her djinn's surging power, if she wants to make it back to the one person she can't risk losing.
by Hanna Alkaf
Melati Ahmad believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother's death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied. On the evening of May 13th, 1969, racial tensions in her home city of Kuala Lumpur boil over. The Chinese and Malays are at war, and Mel and her mother become separated. With the city in flames and a curfew in effect, it will take the help of a Chinese boy named Vincent and all of the courage and grit in Melati's arsenal to overcome the violence on the streets, her own prejudices, and her djinn's surging power, if she wants to make it back to the one person she can't risk losing.
Let Me Hear a Rhyme
by Tiffany D. Jackson
When a young black teen is murdered, his two best friends decide to keep his memory alive by promoting his music-rhymes that can turn any hangout into a party-with the help of his younger sister, Jasmine, who is out for justice. As the buzz builds, it forces Quadir, Jarrell, and Jasmine to each confront the death in their own ways.
by Monica Hesse
Zofia, a teenage Holocaust survivor, travels across post-war Europe as she searches for her younger brother and seeks to rebuild her shattered life.
by Deborah Wiles
Told from different points of view-protesters, students, National Guardsmen, and "townies"-this book recounts the story of what happened at Kent State in May 1970, when four college students were killed by National Guardsmen, and a student protest was turned into a bloody battlefield.
by Geraldine McCaughrean
In the summer of 1727, Quill and his friends are put ashore on a remote sea stack to harvest birds for food, and only the end of the world can explain why no boat returns to collect them.
Stephani Lindsey
Youth Specialist
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