Good Reads

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Jin-Han begins his story with his first memory, when at age two he loses his hat to a gust of wind. While he never finds it, his search for his "hat" (identity) coincides with his Korean family's search for their place in America. ...More

The author of "Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers" pens a moving story about two teenage sisters, originally from Bangladesh, whose family lives illegally in New York City. After 9/11, immigration regulations change, forcing the family to seek asylum. ...More

Texas Lone Star Reading List 2007-2008
Miguel's life is just beginning. Or so he thinks. Fifteen-year-old Miguel leaves his "rancho deep in Mexico to migrate to California across "la linea, the border, in a debut novel of life-changing, cliff-hanging moments. But Miguel's carefully laid plans change suddenly when his younger sister Elena stows away and follows him. Together, Miguel and Elena endure hardships and danger on their journey of desperation and desire, loyalty and betrayal. An epilogue, set ten years after the events of the story, shows that you can't always count on dreams--even the ones that come true. ...More

Winner - 2005 Newbery Award
kira-kira (kee' ra kee' ra): glittering; shining

Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is "kira-kira" because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is "kira-kira" for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering -- "kira-kira" -- in the future.

Luminous in its persistence of love and hope, ...More

CCBC Choices - 2002
Winner - 2002 Michael L. Printz Award
When she is five, Young Ju Park and her family move from Korea to California. During the flight, they climb so far into the sky she concludes they are on their way to heaven -- that Heaven is in America!

Life in America, however, is far more difficult than the Parks dreamed. Jobs are scarce and money is even scarcer. Young Ju's father soon becomes so depressed and angry that he loses the ability to control his own behavior, his drinking increases, and he hurts his family both emotionally and physically. Dominated by the mores and traditions of their native land, her family is ill-equipped to function in the world they've chosen and they each respond in a way true to their character. ...More

CCBC Choices - 2004
The 2001 winner of the Delacorte Press Prize for a First Young Adult Novel tells the story of a girl who while preparing for her 15th year celebration--her "quince"--probes into her Cuban roots and unwittingly unleashes a hotbed of conflicted feelings about Cuba within her family. ...More

2007 Printz Award Winner
American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he's the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny's life with his yearly visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable. ...More

Ten unforgettable short stories reflect the stunning diversity of experience among teenagers from many countries who make the United States their new home. Includes stories by Pam Muoz Ryan, Minfong Ho, and Marie G. Lee. ...More

What is it like to grow up in different parts of Africa today?

And what's it like to be a child of two cultures -- an American living in Africa, or an African living in America?

In South Africa visit the Bushman Farm, where a lonely girl meets a group of Bushmen who are making their living as a tourist attraction -- and finds friendship and family as she's never known them before. In Tanzania join an American family on an unforgettable safari whose highlights include a broken car, a camp of armed men, heat, tsetse flies, and laughter. In Los Angeles be surprised by what happens when a teenage veteran from war in Sierra Leone comes into conflict with a local gang leader.

Jane Kurtz, who is herself a child of two cultures -- Ethiopia and America -- has gathered a remarkable collection of voices. These twelve stories and three p ...More

With lyrical language and poignant scenes, Sheth unearths the meaning of "home" and "family" in this tender debut novel based on her own experiences as a teenager who moved by herself from India to America. ...More