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It's Trevor Noah: Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
This fascinating memoir blends drama, comedy, and tragedy to depict the day-to-day trials that turned a boy into a young man. In a country where racism barred blacks from social, educational, and economic opportunity, Trevor surmounted staggering obstacles and created a promising future for himself, thanks to his mom's unwavering love and indomitable will.It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime not only provides a fascinating and honest perspective on South Africa's racial history, but it will also astound and inspire young readers looking to improve their own lives.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman
On a spring morning, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work--Chernobyl--has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who've always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina's estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. In their new lives in Leningrad, they begin to learn what it means to trust another person. Oksana must face the lies her parents told her all her life. Valentina must keep her grandmother's secret, one that could put all their lives in danger. And both of them discover something they've wished for: a best friend. But how far would you go to save your best friend's life? Would you risk your own?Told in alternating perspectives among three girls--Valentina and Oksana in 1986 and Rifka in 1941--this story shows that hatred, intolerance, and oppression are no match for the power of true friendship.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
When a burning cross set by the Klan causes panic and fear in 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, fifth-grader Stella must face prejudice and find the strength to demand change in her segregated town.
Breathing Room by Marsha Hayles
In 1940, thirteen-year-old Evvy Hoffmeister and her newfound friends struggle to get well at Loon Lake Sanatorium, where they are being treated for tuberculosis.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
The Story That Cannot Be Told by J. Kasper Kramer
Ten-year-old aspiring writer Ileana is sent to live with her grandparents after her uncle Andrei disappears for criticizing Romania's communist government in 1989. Away from the secret police and spies, Ileana, a lover of stories and folklore, tries to find her own voice and write her own story as she tries to save the village she now calls home.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
When Arn's hometown in Cambodia is taken over by Khmer Rouge forces, Arn is forced into a labor camp and is separated from his family. As he struggles to survive, Arn is tasked with performing revolutionary songs and finally to become a soldier, always waiting for the moment when his people will be liberated.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein by Jennifer Roy; Ali Fadhil
For forty-two days in 1991, eleven-year-old Ali Fadhil and his family struggle to survive as Basra, Iraq, is bombed by the United States and its allies.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
In 1943 ten-year-old Lida is torn away from her home in the Ukraine, separated from her little sister Larissa, and sent to a slave labor camp in Germany, but when she is moved and set to making bombs she sees a way to strike back at the Nazis.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Rose under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet, Rose Justice, is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious woman's concentration camp. Trapped in horrific circumstances, Rose finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery and friendship of her fellow prisoners. But will that be enough to endure the fate that's in store for her? Elizabeth Wein, author of the critically-acclaimed and best-selling Code Name Verity, delivers another stunning WWII thriller. The unforgettable story of Rose Justice is forged from heart-wrenching courage, resolve, and the slim, bright chance of survival.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Snow Falling in Spring by Moying Li
A memoir of a girl who was twelve when the Cultural Revolution tears her world apart. She recounts her school headmasters beaten in public, her home ransacked, and her family's books banned.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez
Anita de la Torre never questioned her freedom living in the Dominican Republic. But by her 12th birthday in 1960, most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, her Tío Toni has disappeared without a trace, and the government’s secret police terrorize her remaining family because of their suspected opposition of el Trujillo’s dictatorship. Using the strength and courage of her family, Anita must overcome her fears and fly to freedom, leaving all that she once knew behind.From renowned author Julia Alvarez comes an unforgettable story about adolescence, perseverance, and one girl’s struggle to be free.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Two Roads by Joseph Bruchac
In 1932, twelve-year-old Cal must stop being a hobo with his father and go to a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school, where he begins learning about his history and heritage as a Creek Indian.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Lion Island by Margarita Engle
Antonio Chuffat, a young man of Chinese and African descent, works as a messenger for Chinese diplomats in Cuba during the 1870s. Surrounded by African slaves and indentured Chinese servants, Antonio meets a boy named Wing and his sister Fan, both refugees who fled San Francisco during the anti-Chinese riots. The three become determined to fight for freedom. But while Antonio prefers to use words, Wing would rather use force.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
The War Outside by Monica Hesse
Teens Haruko, a Japanese American, and Margot, a German American, form a life-changing friendship as everything around them starts falling apart in the Crystal City family internment camp during World War II.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky by Joe R. Lansdale
When the devastation wrought by endless dust storms in 1930s Oklahoma makes orphans of Jack, his schoolmate Jane, and her brother Tony, they take the truck of a dead man and set out to find a new start.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen
When the Berlin Wall went up, Gerta, her mother, and her brother Fritz were trapped on the eastern side where they were living, while her father, and her other brother Dominic were in the West--four years later, now twelve, Gerta sees her father on a viewing platform on the western side and realizes he wants her to risk her life trying to tunnel to freedom.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
28 Days: a Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto by David Safier
Sixteen-year old Mira smuggles food into the Ghetto to keep herself and her family alive. When she discovers that the entire Ghetto is to be \"liquidated\"—killed or \"resettled\" to concentration camps—she desperately tries to find a way to save her family. She meets a group of young people who are planning the unthinkable: an uprising against the occupying forces. Mira joins the resistance fighters who, with minimal supplies and weapons, end up holding out for twenty-eight days, longer than anyone had thought possible.
Black Dove White Raven by Elizabeth Wein
Having moved to Ethiopia to avoid the prejudices of 1930s America, Emilia Menotti, her black adoptive brother Teo, and their mother Rhoda, a stunt pilot, are devoted to their new country even after war with Italy looms, drawing the teens into the conflict.
Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang
The author tells about the happy life she led in China up until she was twelve-years-old when her family became a target of the Cultural Revolution, and discusses the choice she had to make between denouncing her father and breaking with her family, or refusing to speak against him and losing her future in the Communist Party.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
The Cat I Never Named by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess; Laura L. Sullivan
In Bihac, Bosnia, in 1992, sixteen-year-old Amra and her family face starvation and the threat of brutal ethnic violence as Serbs and Bosnians clash, while a stray cat, Maci, provides solace.
Soldier Dog by Sam Angus
It is 1914, and the world is on the brink of its first World War. Thirteen-year-old Stanley watches as his brother leaves for combat, leaving him with an angry father for family. All Stanley has are his family's greyhound puppies, but one day Stanley wakes up to find both his father and the dogs gone. With nowhere else to go, Stanely lies his way into the army, and is given the task of training a greyhound named Bones in the army's War Dog School.
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.
Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte
Mary Lambert has felt safe and accepted on her beloved island of Martha's Vineyard, comforted by the fact that her great-great-grandfather was the first deaf islander and paved the way for many to learn sign language. However, when Mary's brother dies and her family shatters amidst land disputes with the English settlers and Wampanoag people, it paves the way for an opportunistic young scientist to come and study the island's prevalent deafness.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Planet Earth Is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos
Autistic and nearly nonverbal, twelve-year-old Nova is happy in her new foster home and school, but eagerly anticipates the 1986 Challenger launch, for which her sister, Bridget, promised to return.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
As World War II draws to a close, four teens meet aboard the "Wilhelm Gustloff" a cruise ship that will give them passage out of Prussia before the Russians overtake the retreating German troops. The cruise ship, built to hold 1,500 passengers, is laden with over 9,000 desperate people. The four band together and try to survive when a Russian torpedo slams into the ship.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can.
Read in:
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.
Read in:
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.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
How Dare the Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana; Abigail Pesta
Memoir of Sandra Uwiringiyimana, who was ten years old when rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo killer her mother and sister. Sandra managed to escape and found refuge in the United States through a refugee program. However, in middle school in New York she found an ethnic disconnect to overcome and give voice to her people.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly
Cash, Fitch, and Bird Nelson Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. The Nelson Thomas children exist in their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga. When the fated day finally arrives, it changes all of their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways.
Crossing the Farak River by Michelle Aung Thin
Hasina and her family are Rohingyas, which means they live in constant fear of the Sit Tat--the Myanmar army persecuting their people. When Hasina, her cousin, and her brother Araf flee to the forest during a nighttime raid, they return to a destroyed village and no clues as to what may have happened to their family. Hasina clings to the words of her father, exhorting her to keep the family together, and must figure out how to survive amid the constant threat of violence.
Alex and Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz
Presents a fictionalized love story involving Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler, one of America's first political power couples. When Alex meets Eliza, the American Revolution is in full-swing. And these two lovebirds will not only embrace the passions they feel for one another, but also for their country.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
When the Phillipine government takes over Culion, an island for people with leprosy, Ami is put in an orphanage on another island, where she finds a friend willing to help her return before her mother dies.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick
A twelve-year-old boy and his dog become trapped in New Orleans during the horrors of Hurricane Katrina.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow
In 1936 Berlin, fourteen-year-old Karl Stern, considered Jewish despite a non-religious upbringing, learns to box from the legendary Max Schmeling while struggling with the realities of the Holocaust.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle
Moa, a fourteen-year-old slave, gets caught up in the most significant slave rebellion in Jamaican history, paying homage to freedom fighters all over the world.
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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.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
All the Stars Denied by Guadalupe García McCall
When resentment surges during the Great Depression in a Texas border town, Estrella, fifteen, organizes a protest against the treatment of tejanos and soon finds herself witih her mother and baby brother in Mexico.
Proud (Young Readers Edition) by Ibtihaj Muhammad
Memoir of Ibtihaj Muhammad, a professional fencer and the first female Muslim American to compete in the Olympic Games wearing the hijab.
Read in:
EMS | WMS | Sora
It's Trevor Noah: Born A Crime by
This fascinating memoir blends drama, comedy, and tragedy to depict the day-to-day trials that turned a boy into a young man. In a country where racism barred blacks from social, educational, and economic opportunity, Trevor surmounted staggering obstacles and created a promising future for himself, thanks to his mom's unwavering love and indomitable will.It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime not only provides a fascinating and honest perspective on South Africa's racial history, but it will also astound and inspire young readers looking to improve their own lives.
Blackbird Girls by
On a spring morning, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work--Chernobyl--has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who've always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina's estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. In their new lives in Leningrad, they begin to learn what it means to trust another person. Oksana must face the lies her parents told her all her life. Valentina must keep her grandmother's secret, one that could put all their lives in danger. And both of them discover something they've wished for: a best friend. But how far would you go to save your best friend's life? Would you risk your own?Told in alternating perspectives among three girls--Valentina and Oksana in 1986 and Rifka in 1941--this story shows that hatred, intolerance, and oppression are no match for the power of true friendship.
The Story That Cannot Be Told by
Ten-year-old aspiring writer Ileana is sent to live with her grandparents after her uncle Andrei disappears for criticizing Romania's communist government in 1989. Away from the secret police and spies, Ileana, a lover of stories and folklore, tries to find her own voice and write her own story as she tries to save the village she now calls home.
Never Fall Down by
When Arn's hometown in Cambodia is taken over by Khmer Rouge forces, Arn is forced into a labor camp and is separated from his family. As he struggles to survive, Arn is tasked with performing revolutionary songs and finally to become a soldier, always waiting for the moment when his people will be liberated.
Rose under Fire by
While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet, Rose Justice, is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious woman's concentration camp. Trapped in horrific circumstances, Rose finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery and friendship of her fellow prisoners. But will that be enough to endure the fate that's in store for her? Elizabeth Wein, author of the critically-acclaimed and best-selling Code Name Verity, delivers another stunning WWII thriller. The unforgettable story of Rose Justice is forged from heart-wrenching courage, resolve, and the slim, bright chance of survival.
Before We Were Free by
Anita de la Torre never questioned her freedom living in the Dominican Republic. But by her 12th birthday in 1960, most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, her Tío Toni has disappeared without a trace, and the government’s secret police terrorize her remaining family because of their suspected opposition of el Trujillo’s dictatorship. Using the strength and courage of her family, Anita must overcome her fears and fly to freedom, leaving all that she once knew behind.From renowned author Julia Alvarez comes an unforgettable story about adolescence, perseverance, and one girl’s struggle to be free.
Lion Island by
Antonio Chuffat, a young man of Chinese and African descent, works as a messenger for Chinese diplomats in Cuba during the 1870s. Surrounded by African slaves and indentured Chinese servants, Antonio meets a boy named Wing and his sister Fan, both refugees who fled San Francisco during the anti-Chinese riots. The three become determined to fight for freedom. But while Antonio prefers to use words, Wing would rather use force.
A Night Divided by
When the Berlin Wall went up, Gerta, her mother, and her brother Fritz were trapped on the eastern side where they were living, while her father, and her other brother Dominic were in the West--four years later, now twelve, Gerta sees her father on a viewing platform on the western side and realizes he wants her to risk her life trying to tunnel to freedom.
28 Days: a Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto by
Sixteen-year old Mira smuggles food into the Ghetto to keep herself and her family alive. When she discovers that the entire Ghetto is to be \"liquidated\"—killed or \"resettled\" to concentration camps—she desperately tries to find a way to save her family. She meets a group of young people who are planning the unthinkable: an uprising against the occupying forces. Mira joins the resistance fighters who, with minimal supplies and weapons, end up holding out for twenty-eight days, longer than anyone had thought possible.
Black Dove White Raven by
Having moved to Ethiopia to avoid the prejudices of 1930s America, Emilia Menotti, her black adoptive brother Teo, and their mother Rhoda, a stunt pilot, are devoted to their new country even after war with Italy looms, drawing the teens into the conflict.
Red Scarf Girl by
The author tells about the happy life she led in China up until she was twelve-years-old when her family became a target of the Cultural Revolution, and discusses the choice she had to make between denouncing her father and breaking with her family, or refusing to speak against him and losing her future in the Communist Party.
Soldier Dog by
It is 1914, and the world is on the brink of its first World War. Thirteen-year-old Stanley watches as his brother leaves for combat, leaving him with an angry father for family. All Stanley has are his family's greyhound puppies, but one day Stanley wakes up to find both his father and the dogs gone. With nowhere else to go, Stanely lies his way into the army, and is given the task of training a greyhound named Bones in the army's War Dog School.
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.
Show Me a Sign by
Mary Lambert has felt safe and accepted on her beloved island of Martha's Vineyard, comforted by the fact that her great-great-grandfather was the first deaf islander and paved the way for many to learn sign language. However, when Mary's brother dies and her family shatters amidst land disputes with the English settlers and Wampanoag people, it paves the way for an opportunistic young scientist to come and study the island's prevalent deafness.
Salt to the Sea by
As World War II draws to a close, four teens meet aboard the "Wilhelm Gustloff" a cruise ship that will give them passage out of Prussia before the Russians overtake the retreating German troops. The cruise ship, built to hold 1,500 passengers, is laden with over 9,000 desperate people. The four band together and try to survive when a Russian torpedo slams into the ship.
How Dare the Sun Rise by
Memoir of Sandra Uwiringiyimana, who was ten years old when rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo killer her mother and sister. Sandra managed to escape and found refuge in the United States through a refugee program. However, in middle school in New York she found an ethnic disconnect to overcome and give voice to her people.
We Dream of Space by
Cash, Fitch, and Bird Nelson Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. The Nelson Thomas children exist in their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga. When the fated day finally arrives, it changes all of their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways.
Crossing the Farak River by
Hasina and her family are Rohingyas, which means they live in constant fear of the Sit Tat--the Myanmar army persecuting their people. When Hasina, her cousin, and her brother Araf flee to the forest during a nighttime raid, they return to a destroyed village and no clues as to what may have happened to their family. Hasina clings to the words of her father, exhorting her to keep the family together, and must figure out how to survive amid the constant threat of violence.
Alex and Eliza by
Presents a fictionalized love story involving Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler, one of America's first political power couples. When Alex meets Eliza, the American Revolution is in full-swing. And these two lovebirds will not only embrace the passions they feel for one another, but also for their country.
