The books below are found as print books in our SHS Learning Commons, on MackinVIA, and in Libby, the digital platform of the Scott County Library. These titles have been popular picks for this unit, but you are welcome to choose other books off this guide or books that have a multicultural component that don't appear on this guide that you find in the SHS Learning Commons.
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Borders
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A boy and his mother leave their reservation in Canada to visit the boy's sister in Salt Lake City. But when his mother refuses to identity themselves as American or Canadian at the border, and instead claims their citizenship as Blackfoot, they become caught between the two borders.
Almost American Girl
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Graphic novel in which a South Korean girl named Chun and her single mother leave for America on vacation and end up staying after her mother announces she's getting married. Chun changes her name to Robin and tries to fit in at her local high school where she doesn't know the language. When her mother enrolls her in a comics drawing class, she begins to feel more at home in the United States.
The Magic Fish
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Tien, the son of two Vietnamese refugees, is struggling with the right way to come out to his parents. With a language barrier, Tien wonders how he will ever tell his parents the truth. As he helps them with their English, Tien realizes he may be able to use fairy tales to get his message across.
Will I See
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"May, a young teenage girl, traverses the city streets, finding keepsakes in different places along her journey. When May and her kookum make these keepsakes into a necklace, it opens a world of danger and fantasy. While May fights against a terrible reality, she learns that there is strength in the spirit of those that have passed. But will that strength be able to save her?"--Provided by publisher.
Displacement
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While on vacation in San Francisco, sixteen-year-old Kiku finds herself displaced to the Japanese-American internment camp that her late grandmother was forcibly relocated to during World War II. After finding herself "stuck" in the 1940s, Kiku adjusts to the harsh life of the camp and experiences how the internees managed to create a community and commit small acts of resistance in order to survive.
Everything Sad Is Untrue
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As Khosrou (whom everyone calls Daniel) stands in front of his Oklahoma middle school classmates, he tries to tell them his story from the jasmine-scented city of Isfahan to the terrifying journey out of Iran steps ahead of the secret police to the refugee camps of Italy.
Hearts Unbroken
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Louise dumps her popular, jock boyfriend after he makes some insensitive remarks about his brother's Native American fiancée without regard for the fact that she is also Native American. As a reporter for her school newspaper, she finds herself working on the story of the year alongside Joey. A story that involves racism, blackmail, and bullying centered around the cast of the school play--a cast that includes Louise's younger brother.
Home Is Not a Country
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Muslim immigrant Nina feels out of place in her suburban neighborhood and school; her only friend is her neighbor Haitham. While she wonders what her life would have been like if they had stayed in their home country, Nina begins to grow distant from her mother. When Haitham is attacked in a brutal hate crime that sends him to the hospital, Nina begins to realize that instead of wishing for another life, she'll need to fight for the one she has.
The Astonishing Color of After
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After her mother's suicide, fifteen-year-old Leigh travels to Taiwan where she will finally meet the grandparents she never knew and come to terms with her mother's death. As she immerses herself the culture, she finds signs and hidden meanings all around her, and begins to believe that her mother has been reincarnated as a giant red bird.
Patron Saints of Nothing
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Beautiful Sophie and ugly Agatha, best friends, are taken by the School Master to the School for Good and Evil, where children are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. But when Sophie is sent to the School for evil, and Agatha to princess classes, the shocked girls think it's a mistake and try to switch; but unseen forces work to reveal their true identities.
Trust Your Name
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After Bobby Byington's unforgettable winning high school season, Coach Robison recruits Choctaw players from several communities to play in a summer league. Coach selects the Panther as the team's mascot, saying, \"To many Choctaws, young and old, the panther is an elder watching over us, helping us when we are in need.\" As the team gels and they move to the national tournament, they find out they are up against more than other basketball teams. They must deal with racist taunts and unsportsmanlike conduct on the court. The situation comes to a head when, on the eve of a key game against a bullying opponent, two Choctaw players are arrested for robbery. Never doubting their innocence, Coach Robison asks, \"Who can we trust, and how can we find the truth?\"
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
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Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.
When We Make It
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In this novel-in-verse, fourteen-year-old Sarai navigates life in her Brooklyn neighborhood, chronicling all that she sees around her--from her hard-working, single Puerto Rican mother, to changes in the neighborhood that are squeezing out immigrants like her, to the voices that tell her she won't amount to anything--and offering her own thoughts about her future and what's real.
Solo
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Blade never asked for a life of the rich and famous. In fact, he’d give anything not to be the son of Rutherford Morrison, a washed-up rock star and drug addict with delusions of a comeback. Or to no longer be part of a family known most for lost potential, failure, and tragedy, including the loss of his mother. The one true light is his girlfriend, Chapel, but her parents have forbidden their relationship, assuming Blade will become just like his father.
In reality, the only thing Blade and Rutherford have in common is the music that lives inside them. And songwriting is all Blade has left after Rutherford, while drunk, crashes his high school graduation speech and effectively rips Chapel away forever. But when a long-held family secret comes to light, the music disappears. In its place is a letter, one that could bring Blade the freedom and love he’s been searching for, or leave him feeling even more adrift.
Every Body Looking
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Growing up with a Nigerian father and a drug-addicted mother leaves seventeen-year-old Ada with emotional scares she only begins to unpack when she leaves home for college in Washington D.C. Told in flashback scenes of her childhood, Ada comes to grip with the trauma inflicted by her absent mother, the pressures put on her by her strict father, and the sexual abuse suffered at the hands of male relatives. Through dance, Ada explores life outside of her family, learns who she is, and defines who she wants to be.
Darius the Great Is Not Okay
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Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He’s a Fractional Persian—half, his mom’s side—and his first-ever trip to Iran is about to change his life. Darius has never really fit in at home, and he’s sure things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn’t exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes. Soon, they’re spending their days together, playing soccer, eating faludeh, and talking for hours on a secret rooftop overlooking the city’s skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush—the original Persian version of his name—and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he’s Darioush to Sohrab. Adib Khorram’s brilliant debut is for anyone who’s ever felt not good enough—then met a friend who makes them feel so much better than okay.
Simone Breaks All the Rules
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New Jersey private school senior Simone Thibodeaux teams up with her friends to create a bucket list of all the experiences she'd like to have in her final year of high school that her Haitian immigrant parents have been denying her--beginning with selecting her own prom date. However, her decisions and actions lead to unintended consequences as she comes to recognize the beauty of her heritage and her family's love and sacrifices.
Saints and Misfits
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Janna Yusuf is a sophomore trying to find her place within the splinters of her broken family, crushing on a cute boy, and finding hope within her Muslim faith. But an attempted sexual assault by a devout young man at her mosque has shaken her ability to trust others.
Messy Roots: a Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American
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In this autobiographical graphic novel memoir, Wuhanese American Laura Gao describes her childhood growing up in Wuhan, China, moving to Texas when she was four years old, and adjusting to life in a new country. Follows her experiences as the child of an immigrant, learning she was gay, and dealing with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ichiro
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After spending his life being raised in the United States, half-American, half-Japanese Ichiro feels out of place when he goes to Japan to stay with his grandfather. Soon after, Ichiro is dragged down a hole by a monster and realizes he has left the mortal world and entered the domain of the gods.
Elatsoe
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In an America very similar to ours, Lipan Apache Elatsoe can raise the ghosts of dead animals while others have more dangerous magic skills. When her cousin is murdered, Elatsoe investigates the death and in the process she discovers gruesome secrets in her town of Willowbee.
Sovereign Traces
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An anthology of contemporary North American Indian literature with imaginative illustrations by U.S. and Canadian artists.
Never Look Back
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Eury comes to the Bronx as a girl haunted. Haunted by losing everything in Hurricane Maria--and by an evil spirit, Ato. She fully expects the tragedy that befell her and her family in Puerto Rico to catch up with her in New York. Yet, for a time, she can almost set this fear aside, because there’s this boy . . .
The Black Flamingo
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Michael Angeli, a mixed-race gay teen living in London, tells his story in lyrical verse, describing his struggles with self-acceptance and identity as he grows up without a father. When he moves away from home to attend university, he discovers the drag community, where he finally finds acceptance and a new persona as the Black Flamingo.
Frankly in Love
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As the son of Korean immigrants in Southern California, high school senior Frank Li is expected to find a nice Korean girl to marry. But instead, Frank falls for a white classmate who his parents will never approve of. He meets another Korean American, Joy Song, who is in a similar situation. They agree to be a couple in front of their parents in order for Frank and Joy to be with who they really want, but as their fake relationship becomes more real, they both wonder if they really know anything about love.
