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Ahimsa by Supriya Kelkar
In 1942, ten-year-old Anjali finds her life completely turned upside down when her mother answers Mahatma Gandhi's call to practice "ahimsa"--non-violent resistance--against the British government. The family must trade in their fine goods for more homely wares and clothing, and then Anjali must get past her prejudices when her mother reaches out to the Dalit community of "untouchables" for further help. When her mother is jailed, Anjali must take her place.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Alma Presses Play by Tina Cane
Half-Chinese, half-Jewish teenager Alma feels her life is split in half everywhere--from her parents who are fighting half the time and the other half silent to her body being halfway grown to adulthood.
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EMS | WMS | Sora
Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay
In a remote village in the Philippines at the end of the nineteenth century, ten-year-old Samkad must deal with a separation from his best friend before unknown American enemies bring war and destruction.
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
Seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan's day job is doing maid work for the spoiled daughter of one of Atlanta's wealthiest men; by night, Jo writes as Miss Sweetie for a news paper advice column. When Jo's "Dear Miss Sweetie" articles become popular, she begins to use her pen-power to address society's ills, particularly challenging ideas about gender and race, drawing a backlash and attempts to uncover her real identity. Then, Atlanta's most notorious criminal gets on Jo's trail, and she will have to decide on standing up for her beliefs or remaining in the shadows of anonymity.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman
Growing up in Bombay during World War II, 15-year-old Vidya's dreams for college are shattered when her father is severely beaten during a nonviolent protest against British rule. Unable to earn money, Vidya's family must move in with her more conservative relatives who feel women are only supposed to marry, bear children and serve their husbands. Only after her chores are done can Vidya escape up the stairs to her grandfather's library. "This is a poignant look at a young woman's vigilance to break from expectations and create her own destiny amid a country's struggle for independence
Stand up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim
Eleven-year-old aspiring comedian Yumi Chung stumbles into a kids' comedy camp and is mistaken for another student. Knowing it's the chance of a lifetime, she decides to play the part and figure out the rest later.
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EMS | WMS | Sora
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
Mia Tang and her immigrant parents are not exactly living the American dream since moving here from China--they live in the Calivista Motel, and Mia must tend to its guests. Her parents, meanwhile, have been hiding illegal immigrants in the motel's empty rooms, risking the wrath of the owner, Mr. Yao. On the personal life front, Mia wants to become a writer, but her mother is being very discouraging because she is better at math and English is not her first language. No matter what, however, Mia vows to follow her dreams.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhà Lai
Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.
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EMS | WMS | Sora
A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata
A boy and his elephant escape into the jungle when the Viet Cong attack his village immediately after the Vietnam war.
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EMS | WMS | Sora
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
Shy twelve-year-old Nisha, forced to flee her home with her Hindu family during the 1947 partition of India, tries to find her voice and make sense of the world falling apart around her by writing to her deceased Muslim mother in the pages of her diary.
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EMS | WMS | Sora
How to Find What You're Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani
Following the Supreme Court's 1967 decision allowing interracial marriage, eleven-year-old Ariel Goldberg's older sister Leah elopes with an Indian man named Raj, devastating her parents and opening up Ariel's eyes to their racist beliefs and new pressures to toe the line. As the only Jewish girl in her class, Ariel faces antisemitism on a daily basis and sees the ways it affects her parents' struggling bakery. Hoping to reunite her family, Ariel sets out to find her sister and is forced to make decisions about her personal beliefs.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
A Place to Belong by Cynthia Kadohata; Julia Kuo (Illustrator)
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.
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EMS | WMS | Sora
Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca
A heartbreakingly hopeful novel in verse about an Indian American girl whose life is turned upside down when her mother is diagnosed with leukemia.
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EMS | WMS | Sora
Tara and the Towering Wave by Cristina Oxtra; Francesca Ficorilli (Illustrator); Jane Pica (Cover Design by)
While vacationing in Thailand for the holidays, Tara and her mother are thrown into survival mode when a massive tsunami sweeps through Phuket.
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EMS | WMS | Sora
In the Beautiful Country by Jane Kuo
Eleven-year-old Ai Shi can't wait to move to America, the "Beautiful Country" with her Taiwanese family. However, when she and her mother arrive in California to meet her father, she gets a rude awakening: they only can afford a small apartment and the business opportunity her father was promised turns out to be a dingy fast-food restaurant the family sinks all their savings into.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
This Is Just a Test by Madelyn Rosenberg
A 12-year-old boy is caught in the middle of cultures, friends, and growing up Chinese Jewish American in this acclaimed, hilariously witty, and heartwarming coming-of-age story.
Troublemaker by John Cho
On the first night of rioting in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, Jordan's father leaves to check on the family store, spurring twelve-year-old Jordan and his friends to embark on a dangerous journey through South Central and Koreatown to come to his aid, encountering the racism within their community as they go.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
For fourteen-year-old budding artist Minoru Ito, her two brothers, her friends, and the other members of the Japanese-American community in southern California, the three months since Pearl Harbor was attacked have become a waking nightmare: attacked, spat on, and abused with no way to retaliate--and now things are about to get worse, their lives forever changed by the mass incarcerations in the relocation camps.
When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park
With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely.
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EMS | WMS | Sora
Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins
Two Burmese boys, one a Karenni refugee and the other the son of an imprisoned Burmese doctor, meet in the jungle and in order to survive they must learn to trust each other.
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EMS | WMS | Sora
Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata
After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on a Mojave Indian reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors, becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream of owning a flower shop.
Ahimsa by
In 1942, ten-year-old Anjali finds her life completely turned upside down when her mother answers Mahatma Gandhi's call to practice "ahimsa"--non-violent resistance--against the British government. The family must trade in their fine goods for more homely wares and clothing, and then Anjali must get past her prejudices when her mother reaches out to the Dalit community of "untouchables" for further help. When her mother is jailed, Anjali must take her place.
The Downstairs Girl by
Seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan's day job is doing maid work for the spoiled daughter of one of Atlanta's wealthiest men; by night, Jo writes as Miss Sweetie for a news paper advice column. When Jo's "Dear Miss Sweetie" articles become popular, she begins to use her pen-power to address society's ills, particularly challenging ideas about gender and race, drawing a backlash and attempts to uncover her real identity. Then, Atlanta's most notorious criminal gets on Jo's trail, and she will have to decide on standing up for her beliefs or remaining in the shadows of anonymity.
Climbing the Stairs by
Growing up in Bombay during World War II, 15-year-old Vidya's dreams for college are shattered when her father is severely beaten during a nonviolent protest against British rule. Unable to earn money, Vidya's family must move in with her more conservative relatives who feel women are only supposed to marry, bear children and serve their husbands. Only after her chores are done can Vidya escape up the stairs to her grandfather's library. "This is a poignant look at a young woman's vigilance to break from expectations and create her own destiny amid a country's struggle for independence
Front Desk by
Mia Tang and her immigrant parents are not exactly living the American dream since moving here from China--they live in the Calivista Motel, and Mia must tend to its guests. Her parents, meanwhile, have been hiding illegal immigrants in the motel's empty rooms, risking the wrath of the owner, Mr. Yao. On the personal life front, Mia wants to become a writer, but her mother is being very discouraging because she is better at math and English is not her first language. No matter what, however, Mia vows to follow her dreams.
How to Find What You're Not Looking For by
Following the Supreme Court's 1967 decision allowing interracial marriage, eleven-year-old Ariel Goldberg's older sister Leah elopes with an Indian man named Raj, devastating her parents and opening up Ariel's eyes to their racist beliefs and new pressures to toe the line. As the only Jewish girl in her class, Ariel faces antisemitism on a daily basis and sees the ways it affects her parents' struggling bakery. Hoping to reunite her family, Ariel sets out to find her sister and is forced to make decisions about her personal beliefs.
In the Beautiful Country by
Eleven-year-old Ai Shi can't wait to move to America, the "Beautiful Country" with her Taiwanese family. However, when she and her mother arrive in California to meet her father, she gets a rude awakening: they only can afford a small apartment and the business opportunity her father was promised turns out to be a dingy fast-food restaurant the family sinks all their savings into.
Troublemaker by
On the first night of rioting in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, Jordan's father leaves to check on the family store, spurring twelve-year-old Jordan and his friends to embark on a dangerous journey through South Central and Koreatown to come to his aid, encountering the racism within their community as they go.
We Are Not Free by
For fourteen-year-old budding artist Minoru Ito, her two brothers, her friends, and the other members of the Japanese-American community in southern California, the three months since Pearl Harbor was attacked have become a waking nightmare: attacked, spat on, and abused with no way to retaliate--and now things are about to get worse, their lives forever changed by the mass incarcerations in the relocation camps.
Weedflower by
After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on a Mojave Indian reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors, becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream of owning a flower shop.
