Bruchac, Joseph

Bearwalker

Native American

Bruchac, Joseph

HarperCollins, 2007

208 pages

5.5MG

In another fine book especially aimed at younger readers, Bruchac tells of Baron, a young boy who goes on a trip with friends to a camp in the Adirondacks.  There he begins to wonder if the legend he has heard about so often from his Mohawk family about the monster, half human and half bear, is really merely a legend.  Perhaps the monster really is roaming the forests of the Adirondacks, as strange events at the camp would seem to suggest.  This is a wonderful suspense and adventure story for young adolescents, filled with the essence of Native American tradition.  Joseph Bruchac's story of Baron, a member of the Mohawk Bear Clan, rings true.  Readers will enjoy the mystery and suspense and learn something of the Mohawk culture along the way.

 

Budhos, Marina

Ask Me No Questions 

Muslim-American

Budhos, Marina

Atheneum, 2006 

176 pages 

4.8, MG

Nadira and her family are illegal aliens, fleeing to the Canadian border -- running from the country they thought was their home. For years since emigrating from Bangladesh, they have lived on expired visas in New York City, hoping they could someday realize their dream of becoming legal citizens of the United States. But after 9/11, everything changes. Suddenly, being Muslim means being dangerous, a suspected terrorist. And when Nadira's father is arrested and detained at the border, Nadira and her older sister, Aisha, are sent back to Queens and told to carry on, as if everything is the same. (Amazon Book Description)

 

Creech, Sharon

Walk Two Moons

Native American

Joanna Cotler, 1994

288 pages

4.9, MG 

Salamanca's mom left home on a spiritual journey and never came home. She and her father moved from Kentucky to Ohio where she met Phoebe, whose mother has also left home. Sal's grandparents take her on a trip to retrace her mother's steps where she must deal with grief.

 

Divakaruni, Chitra

The Conch Bearer

India

Roaring Brook, 2003

272 pages

Set in contemporary India, the story opens in a poor section of Calcutta, where 12-year-old Anand is entrusted with a conch shell imbued with mystical powers. Anand's task is to return the shell to its rightful home high in the Himalayas. Will he succeed? This is literary fiction of the highest order, as well as an adventure story that is almost impossible to put down. (Book description from Amazon)

 

Draper, Sharon

Copper Sun

African American

Atheneum, 2006

320 pages

5.2, MG

The Story of Amari, a girl stolen from her African village to be a slave in America, and Polly, a white indentured girl. Their paths cross and they become friends and runaways.

 

Draper, Sharon

Fire from the Rock

African American

Dutton, 2007

229 pages

5.0, MG

It is 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas and Sylvia and her family are African Americans facing the tumult of the school integration crisis.  Sylvia, who is to attend the all black high school in the fall, is asked to be one of the first few black students to enter all white Central High School in the fall.  She accepts the offer, knowing it will take courage and that she will face a lonely existence away from all of her friends and the friendly environment she has known all of her life.  This is a fine novel about an important segment of US history of which adolescents should all be aware.  It is a coming of age novel which will instill a sense of the time period.

 

Ellis, Deborah

Parvana's Journey

Afghanistan

Groundwood, 2002

176 pages

4.5, MG

Thirteen-year-old Parvana goes in search of her mother and siblings after her father dies in an Afghanishan ruled by the Taliban. Along the way she finds a baby, which she takes with her. Then she meets a one-legged boy. They share a cave where they hope to find treasure but only find bullets.

 

Farmer, Nancy

A Girl Named Disaster

Africa

Orchard, 1996

320 pages

5.1, UG

Nhamo is forced into a terrible marriage in her Mozambique village in 1981. She runs away to her father's family in Zimbabwe. What should be a two day boat trip turns into a one year trek in the wilderness with only her survival skills. A glossary and background information add to the accuracy of this well-written survival story.

 

Fletcher, Susan

Alphabet of Dreams 

Iran 

Ginne Seo Books, 2006 

304 pages 

5.0, UG

Mitra and her little brother, Babak, are beggars in the city of Rhagae, scratching out a living as best as they can with what they can beg for--or steal. But Mitra burns with hope and ambition, for she and Babak are not what they seem. They are of royal blood, but their father's ill-fated plot against the evil tyrant, King Phraates, has resulted in their father's death and their exile. Now disguised as a boy, Mitra has never given up believing they can rejoin what is left of their family and regain their rightful standing in the world. (Amazon Book Description)

 

Hobbs, Will

Crossing the Wire 

Mexico/Immigration 

HarperCollins, 2006 

214 pages

4.3 MG 

Fifteen year old Victor must leave his village in Mexico to illegally cross the U.S. border and try to make money to send to his family.  The border crossing has become more dangerous and difficult since 2001, but he must try, because circumstances will force his mother and siblings to beg on the streets if he does not.  A lively immigration/adventure/survival story.

 

Jaramillo, Ann 

La Linea 

Mexico/Immigration

Roaring Brook, 2006 

125 pages

4.3 MG 

Miguel leaves his village in Mexico to join his parents in California.  But his sister Elena tags along after dressing in men's clothing and foils his plans.  They are caught, thrown off of a bus heading north, robbed in a village, then nearly die in the desert trying to cross La Linea.  Is there really paradise north of the border?  Is it worth leaving all they know and love behind?

 

Jaramillo, Ann

Kira-Kira

Japan

Atheneum, 2004

256 pages

4.7, MG

Lynn and Katie have trouble adjusting when their parents move the family from Iowa to a small town in Georgia, where they are among only 31 Japanese-Americans. Their parents have grueling jobs in chicken-processing plants. Then Lynn becomes deathly ill, and Katie is often left to care for her.

 

Lester, Julius

Day of Tears

African American

Jump At The Sun, 2005

92 pages

4.8, MG

The story of a slave auction in the 1800's from the points of view of the slaves, slave-owners, abolitionists, and auctioneers from one of the most famous African-American writers about slavery.

 

Na, An

A Step from Heaven

Korean-American

Front Street, 2001

160 pages

4.2, UG 

Young Ju comes to America when she is 4 and she thinks it must be heaven because she knows God is in the sky and they have traveled to America through the sky in a plane to this new place. When they arrive, her grandfather tells her it is "a step from heaven." This is a story about the many difficulties immigrants face here, from language to economic to children's shame for their parent's strange customs.

 

Naidoo, Beverley

The Other Side of Truth

Africa

HarperCollins, 2001

272 pages

5.3, UG

Sade and Femi are two Nigerian refugee children who flee their county after their mother is killed in an uprising. They go to London, but are unable to locate their uncle and end up in a foster home where the people are kind but they are still afraid and unhappy. Finally their father shows up illegally in London and they try to get him released from detention.

 

Napoli, Donna Jo

Bound

China

Atheneum, 2004

192 pages

5.4, MG

Xing Xing is the main character in the retelling of the Cinderella story set in the Ming period in China. After the death of her father she is at the mercy of her stepmother and stepsister. She finds a gown and slippers which once belonged to her mother and wears them to a festival. Of course she meets a sort of prince. But is there a "happily ever after" for women in this society?

 

Nolan, Han

A Summer of Kings

African American

Harcourt, 2006

352 pages

5.1, MG 

It is 1963 and Esther and her family live in NYC. They take in a young 18 year old African American, the son of her mother's old childhood friend. He has been accused of murdering a white man in the South, and he's a supporter of Malcolm X and the nation of Islam. Esther tries to understand him by reading James Baldwin, Ghandi, and Martin Luther King. She persuades her family to take part in the 1963 march on Washington.

 

Park, Linda Sue

A Single Shard

Ancient Korea

Clarion, 2001

192 pages

6.6 MG

Tree-ear is a young apprentice to a potter, Min. Min entrusts him with two priceless pieces of pottery to carry to the king in a bag. Along the way he is set upon by robbers and arrives at the King's throne with only a single shard.

 

Park, Linda Sue

When My Name Was Keoko

Korea

Clarion, 2002

208 pages

4.6, MG

This is a story about a brother (Tae-Yul) and sister (Sun-Hee) who lived in Korea during the Japanese occupation of 1940-45. All things Korean were forbidden and Sun-Hee had to change her name to Keoko. She was defiant enough to keep a journal when she was told it was a crime to do so. Her uncle published an underground newspaper. Tae-Yul joined the Japanese army just so he wouldn't have to help look for his uncle. However, they forced him to become a Kamikaze pilot.

 

Pearsall, Shelley

All of the Above

African Americans

Little Brown, 2006

256 pages

5.3 MG

Four inner city kids and their math teacher attempt to build a tetrahedron big enough to get them into the Guinness Book of World Records.  As they work on the project, they learn about themselves, goals, team work, and perseverance.

 

Pearsall, Shelley

Crooked River

Native Americans

Pearsall, Shelley

Knopf, 2005

236 pages

5.5 MG

In 1812 Ohio 13 year old Rebecca witnesses ugly frontier justice when a native American is falsley accused of murdering a white trapper and tried by the white court system.  She is shocked by the town's refusal to see him as a human being.



 

Sheth, Kashmira

Blue Jasmine

India

Hyperion, 2004

192 pages

4.4, MG

Seema and her family move from her home in India to Iowa where she must learn to assimilate into a new culture while cherishing her past. When she finally goes back to India for a visit, she finds that she has changed more than she thinks.

 

Smelcer, John

The Trap

Inuit

Smelcer, John

Holt, 2006

170 pages

6.2 MG

Albert Least-Weasel is nearly 80 and knows he shouldn't be out trapping alone any more in the unforgiving Arctic wilderness.  Yet he has his pride and goes, becoming caught in one of his own traps as the temperature continues to fall dangerously low.  His grandson, Johnny, finally becomes concerned and sets out to find him. 

 

Staples, Suzanne

Under the Persimmon Tree

Afghanistan

Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2005

288 pages

5.9, MG

In the mountains of northern Afghanistan after 9/11, Najmah watches in horror as the brutal Taliban kidnap her father and older brother. When her mother and baby brother die in an American air raid, she stops speaking, and, disguised as a boy, makes a perilous journey to a refugee camp in Pakistan.

 

Whelan, Gloria

Homeless Bird

India

HarperCollins, 2000

240 pages

5.3, UG

Koly never gets a chance to find out if cares for her intended groom. Married and promptly widowed at 13 in India, she finds herself in the grim position of being an outcast in society. With a seemingly hopeless future, this courageous young woman sets out to forge her own destiny.

 

Also:  See Coretta Scott King award books on the Internet.  One good link:   http://www.powells.com/prizes/corettascottking.html