Ordinary life looks different when magic is introduced, which adds to the allure of books centered around magic realism and fantasy. Imagining other worlds, fantastic creatures, and daring adventures enhances the depth and intrigue of real life. This collection of books is selected for readers ages 8-12 and focuses on magic in several forms. From time travel to innate magical powers, the interpretation of the word “magic” differs from one story to the next. However, the themes of cooperation, friendship, and love prevail, no matter where (or when) protagonists find themselves.
Contributed by: Mary Lanni
Visiting her grandmother in the Louisiana bayou, ten-year-old Maddy begins to realize that she may be the only sibling to carry on the gift of her family’s magical legacy.
When twelve-year-old Cisley’s mother, who controls real magic, disappears during a magic act, Cisley is left with her cold, distant uncle and a great mystery, which will only be solved if she can summon her own magic.
In Brooklyn, nine-year-old Jax joins Ma, a curmudgeonly witch who lives in his building, on a quest to deliver three baby dragons to a magical world, and along the way discovers his true calling.
Exploring a mysterious cave in the mountains behind their house, John and his sister Sarah are shocked to discover they’ve time-traveled to ancient Egypt! Now they must work together to find a way back home from an ancient civilization of golden desert sand and a towering new pyramid, without parents to save them. The adventures abound—cobras, scorpions, a tomb robber, and more! The two kids have to trust each other, make friends who can help, and survive the challenges thrown at them or be stuck in ancient Egypt forever.
A trio of friends from New York City finds themselves trapped inside a mechanical board game that they must dismantle in order to save themselves and generations of other children in this action-packed debut that’s a steampunk Jumanji with a Middle Eastern flair. When twelve-year-old Farah and her two best friends get sucked into a mechanical board game called The Gauntlet of Blood and Sand—a puzzle game akin to a large Rubik’s cube—they know it’s up to them to defeat the game’s diabolical architect in order to save themselves and those who are trapped inside, including her baby brother Ahmed. But first, they have to figure out how. Under the tutelage of a lizard guide named Henrietta Peel and an aeronaut Vijay, Farah, and her friends battle camel spiders, red scorpions, grease monkeys, and sand cats as they prepare to face off with the maniacal Lord Amari, the man behind the machine. Can they defeat Amari at his own game?
Eleven-year-old Miri Gill feels left out in her family, which has two sets of twins and her, until she travels back in time to 1935 and discovers Molly, her own lost twin, and brings her back to the present day.
In a world where everyone possesses magical abilities, powerless twelve-year-old Abby, an Ordinary, is sent to a special school to learn how to negotiate a magical world with her unmagical “disability”—and to avoid becoming a victim of kidnappers, carnivores, and goblins ready to prey upon the Ords.
Up until her twelfth birthday, Kiranmala considered herself an ordinary sixth-grader in Parsippany, New Jersey, but then her parents disappear, and a drooling rakkhosh demon shows up in her kitchen. Soon she is swept into another dimension, full of magic, winged horses, annoying talking birds, and cute princes—and somehow, Kiranmala needs to sort it all out, find her parents, and basically save the world.
Halan is a powerless princess. She is heir to the Magi Kingdom, a blazing desert land ruled by ancient magic. But unlike every royal before her, Halan has no magical powers of her own. Nalah is a powerful pauper. The glassblower’s daughter, Nalah, lives in the land of New Hadar, where magic is strictly outlawed. But Nalah has a powerful force growing within her, one she can’t always control. When a legendary mirror connects them, Nalah and Halan finally meet and must work together to save their two worlds before everything they know is shattered forever.
The Pickles are new to Midnight Gulch, Tennessee, a town which legend says was once magic, but Felicity is convinced the magic is still there, and, with the help of her new friend Jonah the Beedle, she hopes to bring the magic back.
In an antique-filled mansion, sisters Claire and Sophie find a ladder to the magical land of Arden, where wraiths roam freely, unicorns have disappeared, and the guilds of magic no longer trust each other.
Minli, an adventurous girl from a poor village, buys a magical goldfish and then joins a dragon who cannot fly on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon in hopes of bringing life to Fruitless Mountain and freshness to Jade River.
Thanksgiving is a time when families and friends come together to share food and laughter as the days are getting shorter and colder. Beginning as a celebration of the welcome early European settlers received from Native Americans, Thanksgiving maintains the sentiment of sharing one’s bounty with others. Each home has its own unique traditions, but there are many shared behaviors across the United States, as well. No matter how the holiday is celebrated, the essence is the same: giving thanks for all that one has in their life. This book list includes titles for children aged 4-7 and shows how people give thanks at Thanksgiving and throughout the year. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
When Tuyet finds out that her Vietnamese family is having duck rather than turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, she is upset until she finds out that other children in her class did not eat turkey either.
In rhyming text, when the whole family and guests show up for the big dinner at Grandma’s house, it becomes clear that the house is much too small to hold them all.
I am Thankful
By: Suzy Capozzi
Illustrated by: Eren Unten
Throughout a Thanksgiving Day filled with family and fun, a child finds opportunities to be thankful.
Illustrations and simple, rhyming text reveal a family’s preparations for their Thanksgiving feast, with everyone pitching in to help—including Baby, who sleeps quiet as a mouse.
When he is invited to five Thanksgiving dinners, Turkey accepts all of his friends’ invitations but wonders if he has room in his stomach for all that food.
Families are anything but perfect, but the stories they share are what makes the world beautiful and vibrant. Under the right circumstances, family members confide deep-rooted truths in one another, allowing them to connect more deeply than they could have done before. Often, these connections grow between adult caregivers and their wards, but sometimes they occur between siblings, as well. This book list includes titles for teens ages 13-18 and highlights various family relationships in several unique circumstances. Through these novels, readers can learn more about themselves and the world around them. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
When seventeen-year-old Ginny receives a packet of mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that transforms her life.
In early fourteenth-century China, Oyuna tells her granddaughter of her girlhood in Mongolia and how love for her horse enabled her to win an important race and bring good luck to her family.
When her alcoholic mother abandons her, high school senior Ruby winds up living with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years. There, Ruby learns about Cora’s new life, what makes a family, how to allow people to help her when she needs it, and that she too has something to offer others.
Teens Octavia and Tali learn about strength, independence, and courage when they are forced to take a car trip with their grandmother, who tells about growing up Black in 1940s Alabama and serving in Europe during World War II as a member of the Women’s Army Corps.
In 1948, while spending the summer with her aunt in West Virginia to find her family roots, Tilara begins visiting the “colored” old folks’ home called McKendree, makes new friends, and learns to love herself.
Seventeen-year-old Ali is simultaneously swept up in a whirlwind romance and down a rabbit hole of family secrets when another Taiwanese family moves into tiny, predominantly-white, Plainhart, Indiana.
Sixteen-year-old Martha’s life is transformed when her mother leaves her in Laredo, Texas, in 1990 with a grandmother she never knew, who is a revered curandera.
In 1942, fourteen-year-old Jill goes to stay with her grandmother on the coast of Maine, where she is introduced to the often gossipy nature of small-town life and discovers that the war is closer than she thought.
Seventeen-year-old Victoria escapes an abusive father by joining the VanDrexel Family Circus in 1965. Fifty years later, her writings guide her granddaughter, sixteen-year-old Callie, in facing the uncharted waters of public high school.
Fourteen-year-old Clara Luna spends the summer with her grandparents in the tiny, remote village of Yucuyoo, Mexico, learning about her grandmother’s life as a healer, her father’s decision to leave home for the United States, and her own place in the world.
Holly Cather is sent to her aunt’s home in Seattle after the death of her parents, and there she and her twin cousins, Amanda and Nicole, become caught up in an intergenerational feud between rival clans of witches.
When Ryan’s father leaves the family during a midlife crisis, his mother sends him to spend the summer with his aunt in Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, where he learns to fish and gets into trouble.
The Halloween season is the perfect time to read spooky stories. Nights are getting colder and longer and mentions of ghosts seem to be everywhere. Ghost stories are often associated with campfires, marshmallows, and bumps in the night. But sometimes, a ghost story is best read alone. This book list includes twelve riveting ghost stories, all written for readers ages 13-18. Varying in length, style, and level of fright, teen readers who enjoy ghost stories are sure to find a new favorite on this list. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
Seventeen-year-old Denise Farber, her mom, and her stepfather are moving back to New Orleans, into the Argonne house, which is over 100 years old and showing its age, but her mother plans to turn into a bed-and-breakfast. But, old houses have histories, sometimes ghosts, and a mysterious old comic book that Denise finds in the attic may hold the answer to a crime and the terrifying things that keep happening in what she thinks of as the “Agony” house.
For three years, seventeen-year-old Cas Lowood has carried on his father’s work of dispatching the murderous dead, traveling with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. But, everything changes when he meets Anna, a girl unlike any ghost he has faced before.
Anya, embarrassed by her Russian immigrant family and self-conscious about her body, has given up on fitting in at school. However, falling down a well and making friends with the ghost there just may be worse.
Sixteen-year-old Cordelia and her family move into the house they just inherited in Pennsylvania, a former insane asylum the locals call Hysteria Hall. Unfortunately, the house does not want defiant girls like Delia, so it kills her. As she wanders the house, meeting the other ghosts and learning the dark secrets of the Hall, she realizes that she has to find a way to save her sister, parents, and perhaps herself.
Okiku has wandered the world for centuries, freeing the innocent ghosts of the murdered-dead and taking the lives of killers with the vengeance they are due. But when she meets Tark, she knows the moody teen with the series of intricate tattoos is not a monster and needs to be freed from the demonic malevolence that clings to him.
I am Alfonso Jones
By: Tony Medina
Illustrated by: Stacey Robinson and John Jennings
The ghost of fifteen-year-old Alfonso Jones travels in a New York subway car full of the living and the dead, watching his family and friends fight for justice after he is killed by an off-duty police officer while buying a suit in a Midtown department store.
In San Diego in 1918, as deadly influenza and World War I take their toll, sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches desperate mourners flock to seances and spirit photographers for comfort and, despite her scientific leanings, must consider if ghosts are real when her first love, killed in battle, returns.
There are three rules in the neighborhood: Don’t cry; Don’t snitch; Get revenge. Will takes his dead brother Shawn’s gun and gets in the elevator on the 7th floor. As the elevator stops on each floor, someone connected to Shawn gets on. Someone already dead. Dead by teenage gun violence. And each has something to share with Will.
Teens Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna follow all the rules, but when their summoning circle is broken, the vengeful spirit of Bloody Mary slips through. As the girls struggle to escape Mary’s wrath, loyalties are questioned, friendships are torn apart, and lives are changed forever.
As fifteen-year-old Pemba adjusts to leaving her Brooklyn, New York, home for small-town Connecticut, a Black history researcher helps her understand the paranormal experiences drawing her into the life of a mulatto girl who was once a slave in her house.
Teenage Bina runs away to New York City’s Catherine House, a young women’s residence in Greenwich Village with a tragic history and dark secrets, where she is drawn to her mysterious downstairs neighbor Monet.
Seventeen-year-old Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat, able to see ghosts in color and capture them on film. But when a routine hunt goes awry, Micheline is infected with a curse known as a soulchain, and if she is unable to exorcise the entity in seven days, she will be destroyed, body and soul.
Latinx voices are important contributors to the fabric of American life. Spanning many countries, people from Latinx backgrounds have a rich and varied history and culture. Latinx Heritage Month, which occurs from September 15 through October 15, is when Americans come together to recognize and celebrate the many contributions of Latinx people. No matter their background, readers of all ages can learn something new about their community members through this book list. These books are specifically geared toward readers ages 8-12 and feature both factual and fictional characters of Latinx heritage. Each story reflects a piece of the Latinx community and provides a means of connection and understanding for all. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
Bold, graphic portraits and beautiful poems present famous and lesser-known Latinos from varied backgrounds who have faced life’s challenges in creative ways.
When his family’s restaurant and Cuban American neighborhood in Miami are threatened by a greedy land developer, thirteen-year-old Arturo, joined by Carmen, a cute poetry enthusiast, fights back, discovering the power of poetry and protest through untold family stories and the work of José Martí.
Twelve-year-old María Luisa O’Neill-Morales (who really prefers to be called Malú) reluctantly moves with her Mexican-American mother to Chicago and starts seventh grade with a bang—violating the dress code with her punk rock aesthetic and spurning the middle school’s most popular girl in favor of starting a band with a group of like-minded misfits.
In 1960s New York, fifth-grader Ruthie, a Cuban-Jewish immigrant, must rely on books, art, her family, and friends in her multicultural neighborhood when an accident puts her in a body cast.
Eleven-year-old Margarito, a big fan of wrestling known as lucha libre, begins to suspect that he has a close connection with his favorite luchador, El Angel de La Guardia, the Guardian Angel.
Eleven-year-old (nearly twelve) Celi Rivera, who is a mix of Black-Puerto Rican-Indigenous Mexican, is secretive about her approaching period and the changes that are happening to her body. She is horrified that her mother wants to hold a traditional public moon ceremony to celebrate the occasion. She must choose loyalty to her life-long best friend, who is contemplating an even more profound change of life or the boy she likes.
Red Panda and Moon Bear, magical defenders of their community, battle ghosts, evil robots, alien invaders, and time portals, all before Mami and Papi get home.
Cuba, 1961: Two years after the communist revolution, Lucia still leads a carefree life, dreaming of parties and her first crush. But when the soldiers come to her small town, everything begins to change. Suddenly the revolution hits home. Freedoms are stripped away. Neighbors disappear. Her friends feel like strangers. And her family is being watched. As the revolution’s impact becomes more oppressive, Lucia’s parents make the heart-wrenching decision to send her and her little brother to the United States—alone. Suddenly plunked down in Nebraska with well-meaning strangers, Lucia struggles to adapt to a new country, a new language, a new way of life. But what of her old life? Will she ever see her home or her parents again? And if she does, will she still be the same girl?
In the Dominican Republic, a boy who dreams of playing professional baseball in the United States crosses paths with a young environmentalist from Minneapolis who is passionate about saving bees.
Mexican-American Stef Soto is hoping to break free from her overprotective parents and embarrassing reputation from her family’s taco truck business, but she soon learns that family, friendship, and the taco truck are important and wonderful parts of her life.
A collection of short stories featuring Latin Americans allows readers to experience life through their eyes, celebrate their victories, and see their hardships.
Eleven-year-old Eddie Aguado is convinced that winning the 14th Annual Arne Hopkins Dock Fishing Tournament (once he actually learns how to fish) will bring him closer to his dad, who died when Eddie was only five.
Never sugar-coated, this kid-friendly tale is grounded with autobiographical truths about foster care. The author’s experiences add depth to this anthropomorphic treatment of foster care placement, which points to deep patience and abiding love as the key elements for successful family building. Josh the squirrel is no saint, but his trouble-making ways don’t deter Grace the stork as she tries again and again to deliver him to the right family. Streamlined text and clever artwork balance the drama and trauma of fitting into (or accepting) a foster family with well-timed, realistic humor. Josh’s fear of trusting anyone drives him to concoct new ways to reject or actively jeopardize his chances with all sorts of families. These include: pelicans (too fishy), porcupines (too prickly), leopards (he connected their dots with paint), and snakes (he tied them in knots). In fact, Josh seems more interested in getting rejected quickly than ever finding a home. Then, he meets the elephants. Rodney and Christine (named for the author’s real foster parents) connect with Josh’s sharp humor, while letting their size and patience stand against his troublesome antics, like tying together their tails or littering their lawn with flamingos. And every night they tell Josh, “We’re glad you’re here with us today. And we’re glad you’ll be here with us tomorrow.” The promise of tomorrow so overwhelms Josh that he plots trouble that plunges him and others into deep danger. With the help of a caring community (including many spurned foster families), the elephants are ready and able to save Josh. Finally, Josh agrees to never forget he will always be loved and have a home. The back cover includes stats on foster care that succinctly underscore the importance of Josh’s story for all readers.
Children’s Lit Reviewer Katie Engen, M.Ed., currently works in a private practice to mentor students with executive functioning and language processing challenges.
As a teenager, it is enjoyable to fall in love with a character or a world and want to keep reading about it. This is exactly what trilogies for teenagers are designed to do: keep teens engaged from one book to the next, continuing a story through several installments. Many of these story arcs involve the complexities of self-discovery, and no matter whether the setting is Earth, space, or somewhere else entirely, the strength of the protagonist shines through. In this book list, readers will find a selection of trilogies written for teens ages 13-18. Taking place in a variety of settings, there is always something more to discover in these titles. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
In The 5th Wave, Cassie finds herself in a world devastated by an alien attack, desperate to save herself and find her lost brother. As the onslaught from the Others—the beings that look human and kill anyone they see—continues, Cassie’s mission is to stay alone and stay alive. But then she meets Evan Walker, who may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother–or even saving herself. Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, defiance and surrender, life and death. Book 1: The 5th Wave; Book 2: The Infinite Sea; Book 3: The Last Star
Seventeen-year-old Karou, a lovely, enigmatic art student in a Prague boarding school, carries a sketchbook of hideous, frightening monsters–the chimaerae who form the only family she has ever known. The series tells the exploits of Karou, who struggles to come to terms with the truth about who and what she is and her role in an ancient war that is still being waged. Book 1: Daughter of Smoke & Bone; Book 2: Days of Blood & Starlight; Book 3: Dreams of Gods & Monsters
Lee Westfall, a young woman with the magical ability to sense the presence of gold, must flee her home to avoid people who would abuse her powers, so when her best friend Jefferson heads out across Gold Rush-era America to stake his claim, she disguises herself as a boy and sets out on her own dangerous journey. Book 1: Walk on Earth a Stranger; Book 2: Like a River Glorious; Book 3: and Into the Bright Unknown
Caught in the crossfire of a megacorporation rivalry in 2575, Kady and Ezra, who have just broken up, flee their home planet on an evacuation ship that is quickly overwhelmed by a fast-spreading plague. Book 1: Illuminae; Book 2: Gemina; Book 3: Obsidio
Tom, a fourteen-year-old genius at virtual reality games, is recruited by the United States Military to begin training at the Pentagon Spire as a Combatant in World War III, controlling the mechanized drones that do the actual fighting off-planet. Book 1: Insignia; Book 2: Vortex; Book 3: Catalyst
In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy. Presents the complete Legend trilogy as well as two original short stories that shed light on the lives of June and Day before they met. Book 1: Legend; Book 2: Prodigy; Book 3: Champion
March (Trilogy)
By: John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement. Book 1: March Book One; Book 2: March Book Two: Book 3: March Book Three
All her life, Cassia has never had a choice. The Society dictates everything: when and how to play, where to work, where to live, what to eat and wear, when to die, and most importantly to Cassia as she turns 17, whom to marry. When she is Matched with her best friend Xander, things couldn’t be more perfect. But why did her neighbor Ky’s face show up on her match disk as well? Book 1: Matched; Book 2: Crossed; Book 3: Reached
A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. Everyone there wants something, and everyone has something to lose. Leda is addicted to drugs she never should have tried, and a boy she never should have touched. Eris faces a betrayal that will tear her family apart. Rylin’s job leads to a new romance and a new life—at the cost of her old one. Watt is a tech genius hired to spy on an upper-floor girl and caught in a web of lies. Avery is genetically designed to be perfect; she has it all—except the one thing she can never have. Book 1: The Thousandth Floor; Book 2: The Dazzling Heights; Book 3: The Towering Sky
A sixteen-year-old girl is caught in an epic clash of civilizations when a society of undersea warriors marches out of the ocean into modern-day Coney Island. Book 1: Undertow; Book 2: Raging Sea; Book 3: Heart of the Storm
In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives “unwound” and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs—and, perhaps, save their own lives. Book 1: Unwind; Book 2: UnWholly; Book 3: UnSouled
An aristocratic girl who is a member of a warmongering and enslaving empire purchases a slave, an act that sets in motion a rebellion that might overthrow her world as well as her heart. Book 1: The Winner’s Curse; Book 2: The Winner’s Crime; Book 3: The Winner’s Kiss
Families come in all shapes and sizes, and they do not always include parents and their biological children. Sometimes, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and even great-grandparents are included in the mix, creating a canvas of experience that shapes children’s lives. The books included in this list are selected to celebrate families that include intergenerational relationships in honor of September, which is Intergeneration Month. Ideally suited to readers ages 8-12, these stories can be shared within families to recognize shared experience or understand more about the lives of others. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
When two brothers decide to prove how brave they are, everything backfires—literally.
Bob
By: Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead
Illustrated by: Nicholas Gannon
Visiting her grandmother in Australia, Livy is reminded of the promise she made five years before to Bob, a strange, green creature who cannot recall who or what he is.
Since her father’s death, Cat has taken care of her brother, Chicken, for their hard-working mother. But, while spending time with grandparents they never knew, Cat has the chance to be a child again.
Even though his awful Great-Aunt Gertrudis doesn’t approve, Micah believes in the stories his dying Grandpa Ephraim tells him of the magical Circus Mirandus: the invisible tiger guarding the gates, the beautiful flying bird woman, and the magician more powerful than any other—the Man Who Bends Light. Finally, Grandpa Ephraim offers proof. The Circus is real. And the Lightbender owes Ephraim a miracle. With his friend Jenny Mendoza in tow, Micah sets out to find the Circus and the man he believes will save his grandfather. The only problem is, the Lightbender doesn’t want to keep his promise. And now it’s up to Micah to get the miracle he came for.
Twelve-year-old Frankie Joe Huckaby, forced to live with the father he never knew, a stepmother, and four half-brothers in Illinois, starts a delivery service to finance his escape back to his mother in Texas, not realizing he is making a better life for himself than he ever had with her.
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.
To battle giant robots and stop his evil grandmother from destroying Earth, Hap Conklin, Jr. will need the help of his family, friends, and some very unlikely allies.
Twelve-year-old Candice Miller is spending the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, in the old house that belonged to her grandmother, who died after being dismissed as city manager for having the city tennis courts dug up looking for buried treasure. But, when she finds the letter that sent her grandmother on the treasure hunt, Candice finds herself caught up in the mystery and, with the help of her new friend and fellow book-worm, Brandon, she sets out to find the inheritance, exonerate her grandmother, and expose an injustice once committed against an African American family in Lambert.
Twelve-year-old Ellie, who has cerebral palsy, finds her life transformed when she moves with her mother to small-town Oklahoma to help care for her grandfather, who has Alzheimer’s Disease.
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother’s route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.
Twelve-year-old Trevor Firestone loves playing war-based video games, and he idolizes his great-grandfather Jacob who came home from World War II a celebrated hero. Jacob, now ninety-three, wants to retrace his journey in memory and reality and return to the small French village that his unit liberated, and Trevor is going with him. Not everyone in the town wants Jacob to come, however, and Trevor is going to learn an important lesson: real war is not a video game, and valor and heroism can be very murky.
Charlie Reese is sent to live with a family she barely knows, but with the help of a skinny stray dog who captures her heart and a neighbor boy named Howard, she learns what the real meaning of family may be.
Every culture in the world has its own heritage and history. No matter where one lives, their unique heritage remains important and deserves to be celebrated! Whether or not it is officially recognized in a national month or day, heritage is vitally important to the complexity and depth of human society. Learning about different cultures and why they are special prepares children to interact with others who may come from different backgrounds and do so from a place of respect and understanding. This book list is designed to help with this learning and includes books from a variety of cultures that celebrate each one’s unique heritage. These books are best suited to readers ages 4-7. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
A Navajo family welcomes a new baby into the family with love and ceremony, eagerly waiting for that first special laugh. Includes a brief description of birth customs in different cultures.
Explores the previously uncelebrated but pivotal contributions of NASA’s African American women mathematicians to America’s space program, describing how Jim Crow laws segregated them despite their groundbreaking successes.
Aneel and his grandfather, Dada-ji, tell stories, use their imaginations, and make delicious roti, a traditional Indian flatbread.
Islandborn
By: Junot Díaz
Illustrated by: Leo Espinoza
Lola was just a baby when her family left the Island, so when she has to draw it for a school assignment, she asks her family, friends, and neighbors about their memories of her homeland and in the process, comes up with a new way of understanding her own heritage.
When his mother sends him to the market to buy necessities for the upcoming festival, Lin Yi is certain his bargaining skills will get him the best prices, and he will have money left over for his coveted red rabbit lantern.
One rainy day, Peekaboo, the poi dog, is feeling restless and is looking for a new game to play. She asks her mother for guidance, leading her on an unexpected imaginary journey across the state of Hawaii. Along the way, Peekaboo encounters wonderful people and creatures while visiting many well-known Hawaiian landmarks: From the Pali lookout to the snowy mountain top of Mauna Kea, Big Island’s highest volcano, her adventures are filled with excitement, discoveries, and enjoyment.
Pepe wakes up energized to attend his first Hispanic Day parade. With new food to taste, music to dance to, and a parade to watch, Pepe couldn’t be more excited to celebrate and share his Hispanic heritage. Many of Pepe’s friends also attend the festival, celebrating their own Hispanic ties. Mexican, Dominican, Panamanian, Colombian, Honduran, Nicaraguan, Chilean, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and Cuban cultures are all represented in the parade. A day filled with joy and pride, Pepe and the Parade is a jubilant celebration of culture and identity.
After a wonderful summer spent visiting her grandmother, Suki decides to wear her blue cotton kimono on her first day of school, where she also shares with her class tales of going to the street festival with her beloved obachan.
Little Thunder wants a name that separates him from his father, Big Thunder, and considers such options as “Touch the Sky” and “Drums, Drums, and More Drums” before his father helps him find the perfect alternative.
The United States is filled with many cultures and languages, all residing together beneath one flag. One of the most common languages spoken after English is Spanish, and many families speak both languages in one home. Books that are bilingual English/Spanish have emerged in recent years to support children learning both Spanish and English, no matter what the primary language spoken in their household happens to be. This book list includes a selection of noteworthy bilingual titles that are geared toward readers ages 4-7. From folklore to friendship, the books listed here showcase Spanish and English together in a delightfully accessible way. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
Abuela
By: Arthur Dorros
Illustrated by: Eliza Kleven
Somersaulting in midair, resting in the sky on a chair-shaped cloud… A little girl and her grandmother, her abuela, soar in this adventure of the imagination as they fly around New York City. In English, with Spanish words and phrases woven into the story, includes a glossary.
Children read aloud in various settings to celebrate El día de los niños, or Children’s Day, in this bilingual story. Includes facts about Mexico’s annual celebration of children and the book fiestas that are often included.
In this whimsical bilingual picture book, Dalia’s hair becomes a magical force of nature, a life-giving cocoon. Author and illustrator Laura Lacámara once again delight children ages 4-9 with her vibrant illustrations and an imaginative story about a girl’s fanciful encounters with nature.
Doña Flor, a giant lady with a big heart, sets off to protect her neighbors from what they think is a dangerous animal but soon discovers the tiny secret behind the huge noise.
Children discover a world of colors all around them. Many of the featured objects are Latino in origin, but all are universal in appeal. A short glossary explains the cultural significance of the colored objects featured in this book.
Mia’s abuela has left her sunny house with parrots and palm trees to live with Mia and her parents in the city. The night she arrives, Mia tries to share her favorite book with Abuela before they go to sleep and discovers that Abuela can’t read the words inside. So, while they cook, Mia helps Abuela learn English (“Dough. Masa”), and Mia learns some Spanish too, but it’s still hard for Abuela to learn the words she needs to tell Mia all her stories. Then Mia sees a parrot in the pet-shop window and has the perfecto idea for how to help them all communicate a little better. An endearing tale from an award-winning duo that speaks loud and clear about learning new things and the love that bonds family members.
In this bilingual version of the classic rhyme set in Peru, Maria takes her llama to school one day.
Not a Bean
By: Claudia Guadalupe Martínez
Illustrated by: Laura Gonzalez
With Spanish vocabulary and a clever counting concept, this poetic story shares the life cycle of a Mexican jumping bean. This curious jumping insect is actually a seedpod from a shrub called yerba de la flecha, into which a caterpillar burrows, living inside the pod until it builds a cocoon and breaks out as a moth. Perfect for preschoolers and pre-readers, this creative picture book explores the Mexican jumping bean’s daily life and eventual transformation and escape from the pod.
Our Celebración!
By: Susan Middleton Elya
Illustrated by: Ana Aranda
It’s a sunny summer day. Come join the crowd headed for the parade! Marvel at the people riding motorcycles, bicycles, tricycles, and unicycles. Duck out of the way as firefighters spray water on hot spectators. Clap to the music as bands of musicians playing clarinetes, saxophones, flautas, trumpets, and drums march by. Feast on lemonade, watermelon, tacos, and ice cream. Wave to the corn princess as her float passes by. Then, take cover when a quick rain shower comes, followed by a bright rainbow. Back in the town plaza as night falls, marvel at the sparkling fireworks that end the day’s festivities. Pop, pop, pop! ¡Bón, bón, bón!
With engaging text and imaginative, whimsical illustrations, Our Celebración! is the perfect way to enjoy a summer day—and learn some Spanish too.
A rhyming, Latino twist on a classic fairy tale in which a queen places a pea under a young lady’s mattress to see if she is truly a princess. Incorporates Spanish words, includes a glossary, and features artwork inspired by the culture of Peru.
Rainbow Weaver
By: Linda Elovitz Marshall
Illustrated by: Elisa Chavarri
Ixchel wants to follow in the long tradition of weaving on backstrap looms, just as her mother, grandmother, and most Mayan women have done for more than two thousand years. But Ixchel’s mother is too busy preparing her weavings for the market. Disappointed, Ixchel first tries weaving with blades of grass, and then with bits of wool, but no one would want to buy the results. As she walks around her village, Ixchel finds it littered with colorful plastic bags. There is nowhere to put all the bags, so they just keep accumulating. Suddenly, Ixchel has an idea! She collects and washes the plastic bags. Then she cuts each bag into thin strips. Sitting at her loom, Ixchel weaves the plastic strips into a colorful fabric that looks like a beautiful rainbow—just like the weavings of Mayan women before her.
When a man brings to a remote village two burros, Alfa and Beto, loaded with books the children can borrow, Ana’s excitement leads her to write a book of her own as she waits for the BiblioBurro to return. Includes a glossary of Spanish terms and a note on the true story of Columbia’s BiblioBurro and mobile libraries in other countries.
Secrets are everywhere…but by their very nature, they are seldom seen. In some cases, secrets bring people together by sharing something unique; in other cases, secrets push people away through their inherent alienation. Regardless of their intent, secrets are coveted, sometimes shielding their carriers from unwanted attention. This book list is intended for readers aged 12-18 and includes titles based in both everyday and magical versions of the world. No matter where humans find themselves, secrets seem to never be far behind. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
One family, three sisters. Grace, the oldest, is a straight-A student. Audrey, the youngest, is a future Olympic swimming champion. Mia is in the middle. Mia is wild and daring, great with hair and selfies, and the undisputed leader of her friends, not attributes appreciated by her parents or teachers. When Grace makes a shock announcement, Mia hopes that her now-not-so-perfect sister will get into the trouble she deserves. But instead, it is Mia whose life spirals out of control — boozing, boys and bad behaviour — and she starts to realise that her attempts to make it ‘All About Mia’ might put at risk the very things she loves the most.
A freshman at MIT, seventeen-year-old Mei Lu tries to live up to her Taiwanese parents’ expectations, but no amount of tradition, obligation, or guilt prevent her from hiding several truths–that she is a germaphobe who cannot become a doctor, she prefers dancing to biology, she decides to reconnect with her estranged older brother, and she is dating a Japanese boy. Can she find a way to be herself, before her web of lies unravels?
In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try. Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile. But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built, her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity begins to fall apart.
Children have always disappeared from Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere … else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced … they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world. But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter. No matter the cost.
Through journal entries required by their social worker at a juvenile detention center, middle-schoolers Katie, Nate, and Renata relate how they came to kidnap their tormentor, Chase, a star athlete from the town’s most prominent family, who surprisingly became their willing victim.
As she begins a very tough last semester of high school, Holland finds herself puzzled about her future and intrigued by a transfer student who wants to start a Lesbigay club at school.
Tired of being known as “the gay kid”, Rafe Goldberg decides to assume a new persona when he comes east and enters an elite Massachusetts prep school–but trying to deny his identity has both complications and unexpected consequences.
Nervous about starting her sophomore year at a new high school, Sadie decides to make herself more interesting by claiming to be allergic to peanuts, but her lie quickly spirals out of control.
In 1974 when her father leaves New Delhi, India, to seek a job in New York, Ashi, a tomboy at the advanced age of sixteen, feels thwarted in the home of her extended family in Calcutta where she, her mother, and sister must stay, and when her father dies before he can send for them, they must remain with their relatives and observe the old-fashioned traditions that Ashi hates.
Two teens from different ethnic groups in present-day Afghanistan must fight their culture, tradition, families, and the Taliban to stay together as they and another village boy relate the story of their forbidden love.
Seventeen-year-old Thistle Tate, a bestselling author with glowing reviews, diehard fans across the globe, and more, struggles with secrets that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect world.
Human culture is built around communities big and small. Whether a community is made up of people who live near one another or composed of those who share a cultural heritage or background, these groups sustain one another. Sometimes, it is hard to see where one community ends and another begins, and other times it is much more obvious. For the most part, people are involved in more than one community at any given time, and it is through the positive efforts of these groups that society can grow and flourish. This book list is intended for readers aged 8-12 and includes a selection of fiction and nonfiction titles, highlighting a small sampling of communities around the world. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
A Japanese American boy learns to play baseball when he and his family are forced to live in an internment camp during World War II, and his ability to play helps him after the war is over.
Describes how children can help their communities in different ways, from tending a community garden and training service dogs to volunteering to help people with disabilities and mentoring younger students.
What is a community? Who are the leaders in communities? Which languages are most spoken in the world? This series encourages geographical inquiry with an interactive, investigative, and visual approach to a wide range of core curriculum topics.
Describes the different types of communities found around the world, from small farming villages to cities, and explains how each community uses energy, finds food and water, and disposes of waste.
Explore the regions of the world’s oceans known for their coral reefs and learn about the life forms that dwell there. First-person accounts from scientists answer important questions about reef communities.
This title looks at offshore fishing. Around the coast of much of North America, fishing stocks have greatly declined as a result of overfishing, pollution, and global warming. Nova Scotia, in the northeast of Canada, once had a huge fishing industry. In 1753, people from Germany, Switzerland, and France came from Europe to set up a colony at Lunenburg on the coast. They soon set up a fishing and shipbuilding industry. The community grew until about 1980 when the fishing industry largely stopped. Since then, the community has had to reinvent itself. It is still largely based on the old industries, but tourism is as important.
What do you do online? What digital communities do you belong to? Learn how your digital activity makes you part of a digital community in this timely book and examine what it means to be a part of an online culture and digital society.
Cycling rules the road in Amsterdam today, but that wasn’t always the case. In the 1970s, Amsterdam was so crowded with vehicles that bicyclists could hardly move, but moms and kids relied on their bicycles to get around the city. Pedal Power is the story of the people who led protests against the unsafe streets and took over a vehicles-only tunnel on their bikes, showing what a little pedal power could do! Author and illustrator Allan Drummond returns with the story of the people that paved the way for safe biking around the world.
The strength of a community often is determined by the resources available where it is located. This resource discusses both human-made resources (such as dams, bridges, roads, buildings, and industry) as well as renewable and non-renewable natural resources (including soil, water, forests, and energy). The text further explores how such resources affect a community’s health as well as the prosperity and opportunities of its members. Young readers will begin to understand the economics of how resources affect trade and industry. This insightful text also introduces the idea that controversies exist about ways to use resources without environmental damage.
It is hard enough watching a loved one fight an illness; it can be even harder to fight illness on one’s own. With illness an inevitability in human society, many turn to books to help manage the emotions that accompany personal or external trauma. When reading about someone else’s experience, even if it is a fictional character, humans can better empathize and process the emotions they feel in their own life. This book list includes a selection of fiction novels about teenage characters living with a variety of illnesses. It also includes several non-fiction titles to help teenage readers learn more about managing illnesses on their own. These books are best suited for readers aged 13-17. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
A book of advice for teenagers with a wide range of illnesses–including cancer, asthma, spina bifida, and cerebral palsy–as well as those who are visually or hearing-impaired or HIV-positive. It also answers questions on such subjects as growing up, sex, and drugs.
The story of a teenage girl who’s literally allergic to the outside world. When a new family moves in next door, she begins a complicated romance that challenges everything she’s ever known. The narrative unfolds via vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists, illustrations, and more.
Despite the loving intentions of her mother and boyfriend, sixteen-year-old Astrid wants to make the decisions about her life and death when her cancer returns, including exploring the possibility of cryopreservation.
When facing a life-challenging or even terminal illness, it’s all about being normal. That’s what kids and teens want for themselves and from the people around them. With wit, wisdom, and courage, young people ages 7–21 tell in their own words what it’s like to be ill while trying to live each minute of their daily lives. Their true stories offer hope and insight to anyone touched by serious illness; their advice is of value to all those who know, love, and treat young people with illnesses or disabilities. For families, friends, classmates, and teachers of affected children and teens; for colleges that offer classes in disability studies; and for doctors and hospitals who want to share hope with their patients.
When her parents confine her to a mental hospital, an overweight teenage girl, who suffers from panic attacks, describes her experiences in a series of letters to a friend.
Family structures are shaken up by illness. Whether the illness is short- or long-term, whether it’s expected or a shock, routines change, and family members take on new duties. The illness of a parent may mean that money is tight. Kids might have to pitch in, cook meals, and clean the house while maintaining their schoolwork and other responsibilities. They may receive less attention from their parents or feel guilty for being healthy. This resource addresses the practical changes that result when a family member falls ill and guides readers through the emotional process of dealing with the illness of a loved one.
After the unexpected loss of his girlfriend, a teenage boy suffering from delusions is convinced that he can travel through time to save her.
Thanksgiving picture book lists typically include a mixture of books about the first Thanksgiving, turkeys trying to escape becoming dinner, and dinner mishaps. For this year’s Thanksgiving list, we focus on the dynamic of the family get-together. Enjoy these 10 picture book recommendations about the most stressful dinner of the year.
In this simple rhyming story, a child says thank you for the gifts nature provides, from hazelnuts in the hedge to apples from the tree, eggs from the hens to milk from the cow. Eventually, the family has enough ingredients to make something special… a delicious apple cake! Since this book involves the autumn tradition of apple picking and gathering with family and friends, it is an excellent addition to Thanksgiving reads.
Grandmother almost loses her secret recipe for cranberry bread to one of the guests she and Maggie invite for Thanksgiving dinner. Includes the secret recipe.
When Tuyet finds out that her Vietnamese family is having duck rather than turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, she is upset until she finds out that other children in her class did not eat turkey either.
Trouble ensues when Papa gets Miguel a turkey to fatten up for Thanksgiving, and Miguel develops an attachment to it.
The Great Thanksgiving Escape
By: Mark Fearing It’s another Thanksgiving at Grandma’s. Gavin expects a long day of boredom and being pestered by distantly related toddlers, but his cousin Rhonda has a different idea: make a break for it – out of the kids’ room to the swing set in the backyard! Gavin isn’t so sure, especially when they encounter vicious guard dogs (in homemade sweaters), a hallway full of overly affectionate aunts, and worse yet, the great wall of butts! Will they manage to avoid the obstacles and find some fun before turkey time? Or will they be captured before they’ve had a taste of freedom?
When calamity stalks every step of the preparations for the Tappletons’ Thanksgiving dinner, they realize that there is more to Thanksgiving than turkey and trimmings.
After burning their Thanksgiving dinner, Ann and Ed head for the local cafe, where they are welcomed by an immigrant family into an unusual celebration that gives everyone cause to be thankful.
The weekend she turns thirteen, aspiring clothing designer Teresa “Reesie” Boone is separated from her family by Hurricane Katrina but, during the horrific storm and its aftermath, begins to find strength in herself.
In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
Fionn Boyle, terrified of the sea, must spend the summer with this older sister, Tara, and their grandfather on Arranmore, an island that has been known to make people disappear, and seems to be restless again.
It’s the summer before eighth grade, and Erica “Chia” Montenegro is feeling so many things that she needs a mood ring to keep track of her emotions. She’s happy when she hangs out with her best friends, jealous that her genius little sister skipped a grade, and passionate about the crushes on her Boyfriend Wish List. But when her mom is diagnosed with breast cancer, Erica feels worried and helpless.
Delsie loves a good storm – except when the squalls are in her own life. Her summer friend, Brandy, is back on the Cape at last—but devastates her by dumping her for a new friend. And she could really use a mom right now – except hers left years ago and her loving Grammy won’t discuss her mom, saying it’s too painful. So, when she meets snarky Ronan, supposedly a liar and a thief, Delsie wonders if he’s another storm on the horizon. Turns out he’s caring and courageous – a fisherman’s son who’d rather protect sea life than eat it. But she recognizes something else, too. He is lonely, just like she is. As they traipse around the island, they uncover deep neighborhood secrets, stand up to cruelty and get into both good and bad trouble. But they also open up to each other and tackle complicated stuff like what it means to be angry versus sad, broken versus whole, and abandoned versus loved.
After her father goes to jail, Cady Bennett, twelve, is taken from foster care to spend a summer with her estranged Aunt Michelle, trying to save her failing pie shop.
Genie’s summer is full of surprises. The first is that he and his big brother, Ernie, are leaving Brooklyn for the very first time to spend the summer with their grandparents all the way in Virginia—in the COUNTRY! The second surprise comes when Genie figures out that their grandfather is blind.
Lindsay can’t wait to spend her summer break reading comics and watching superhero movies–until she finds out she’ll be moving in with her weird older cousin Phoebe instead. And Phoebe has big plans for Lindsay: a BMX class at her bike park with cool-girl Jen and perfectionist Ali. Lindsay’s summer of learning awesome BMX tricks with new friends and a new bike turns out to be more epic than any comic book–and it’s all leading up to a jumping competition. But some of the biker boys don’t think girls should be allowed to compete in BMX. Now it’s up to Lindsay, Jen, and Ali to win the competition and prove that anyone can be great at BMX.
Our teen summer reading list includes essential summer settings. Recommended towards ages 13 and up.
Twenty-five girls are invited to attend the mysterious Camp So-and-So over the summer where they work with their cabin mates to compete in the All-Camp Sports 7 Follies.
Told from separate perspectives, four girls, Britta, Meredith, Kate, and Spider, only two of whom had met before, spend an unforgettable July with Spider’s aunt in the Adirondacks.
When her aunt gets into a car accident, Anise is forced to leave her friends and surfing behind to spend the summer in Nebraska to help care for her cousins, and by doing so, forms familial bonds and new friendships that challenge her feelings of abandonment by her mother.
Olivia plans to spend her summer in the Catskills, binge-watching horror movies and chatting with her online friend Elm. But, things get complicated when she sends Elm her best friend’s picture, and she runs into the last person she thought she would ever see in real life.
In 1920s Harlem, sixteen-year-old Mark Purvis, an aspiring jazz saxophonist, gets a summer job as an errand boy for the publishers of the groundbreaking African American magazine, “The Crisis,” but soon finds himself on the enemy list of mobster Dutch Shultz.
When her mother has the chance to establish an eye clinic for the poor in Cairo, Egypt, seventeen-year-old Caroline reluctantly gives up her plans for a summer spent with her best friend and boyfriend and instead moves to Cairo, where she encounters a culture and city that enchants her and a charming boy who challenges her thoughts on love, faith, and privilege.
Fifteen-year-old Mia’s scarred face is a constant reminder of the car crash that killed her sister, but a summer at her grandmother’s Manhattan apartment and new friends help her find happiness again.
Spending summers on her family’s private island off the coast of Massachusetts with her cousins and a special boy named Gat, teenaged Cadence struggles to remember what happened during her fifteenth summer.
When Dimple Shah and Rishi Patel meet at a Stanford University summer program, Dimple is avoiding her parents’ obsession with “marriage prospects,” but Rishi hopes to woo her into accepting an arranged marriage with him.
Families come in all shapes and sizes, and all of them should be celebrated! This assortment of books examines families of all kinds, including fiction and non-fiction titles. No matter what a family looks like on the outside, it is filled with love on the inside. These books are selected for children ages 5-8 and their families. Contributed by: Mary Lanni
Students in Mrs. Mack’s class describe their families–big or small, living together or apart, with two moms or none–and learn why every family is special and important.
And Tango Makes Three
By: Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Illustrated by: Henry Cole
At New York City’s Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches. Based on a true story.
As a young boy, Bao Phi awoke early, hours before his father’s long workday began, to fish on the shores of a small pond in Minneapolis. Unlike many other anglers, Bao and his father fished for food, not recreation. Between hope-filled casts, Bao’s father told him about a different pond in their homeland of Vietnam.
Celebrate diversity with a picture book for very young children about the many faces of contemporary families. Big or small, similar or different-looking, there are all kinds of families. Some have one parent, some have two, and many include extended family. An inclusive look at many varieties of families.
When a teacher asks the children in her class to think about what makes their families special, the answers are all different in many ways — but the same in the one way that matters most of all. One child is worried that her family is just too different to explain but listens as her classmates talk about what makes their families special. One is raised by a grandmother, and another has two dads. One has many stepsiblings, and another has a new baby in the family. As her classmates describe who they live with and who loves them — family of every shape, size and every kind of relation — the child realizes that as long as her family is full of caring people, it is special.
Represents a variety of families, some big and some small, some with only one parent and some with two moms or dads, some quiet and some noisy, but all alike in some ways and special no matter what.
A Fine Dessert
By: Emily Jenkins
Illustrated by: Sophie Blackall
Depicts families, from England to California and from 1710 to 2010, preparing and enjoying the dessert called blackberry fool. Includes a recipe and historical notes.
In rhyming text, when the whole family and guests show up for the big dinner at Grandma’s house, it becomes clear that the house is much too small to hold them all.
My Blended Family
By: Claudia Harrington
Illustrated by: Zoe Persico
Lenny follows Olivia for a school project and learns about her life with her stepfamily.
Helps children understand what a family is and recognize all the people who are part of their own families. Explains such words as “divorce” and “stepmother.”
A young boy rides the bus across town with his grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things.
Still a Family
By: Brenda Reeves Sturgis
Illustrated by: Jo-Shin Lee
Despite living in separate shelters, a little girl and her parents find time to be together, demonstrating that even in the most trying of times, they are still a loving and committed family.
No matter how far apart they are, a little girl and her grandfather share a cup of tea every day at half past three.
We are Family
By: Patricia Hegarty
Illustrated By: Ryan Wheatcroft
All families are different – and yet in many ways the same! This book uses a gentle rhyming text to follow eight different families, celebrating their everyday differences as well as the similarities they share.
Introduces different types of households and discusses families with children, adoption, foster parents, same-sex parents, and fertility treatments.
Foster care can be a place of safety for some and a place of tragedy for others. This booklist includes stories that look at both sides from a teen’s perspective. Titles are recommended for ages 13 to 18. Contributed by: Elizabeth Bridges
A powerful, fast and timely story of a troubled foster teenager, a boy who is not a “legal” Indian because he was never claimed by his father, who learns the true meaning of terror. About to commit a devastating act, the young man finds himself shot back through time on a shocking sojourn through moments of violence in American history. He resurfaces in the form of an FBI agent during the civil rights era, inhabits the body of an Indian child during the battle at Little Big Horn, and then rides with an Indian tracker in the nineteenth century before materializing as an airline pilot jetting through the skies today. When finally, blessedly, our young warrior comes to rest again in his own contemporary body, he is mightily transformed by all he’s seen.
Seventeen-year-old Ritzy’s carefully made summer plans are ruined when she is sent to a foster home with a cute boy next door, but when her old life catches up with her, those plans and hopes collide.
Sarah Merson, an orphan, mysteriously gains admission to the isolated and elite Sanctuary Bay Academy, but after her roommate disappears, Sarah discovers a dark truth about the school.
Soon after moving to a small Texas town, fifteen-year-old Katie Parker’s rebelliousness complicates her life at home and school, but when she is accused of vandalism, she finds hope through a new friendship, involvement in a play, and her foster family’s faith in God and her.
Traces the author’s painful childhood in a series of foster homes, her deteriorating relationship with her emotionally unstable mother, abuse at the hands of a foster family, and her subsequent efforts to advocate for an improved foster care system.
Traces the author’s life after foster care, describing her adventures in college, her relationship with her spouse, and her decision to have both biological and foster children.
Jack, 12, tells the gripping story of Joseph, 14, who joins his family as a foster child. Damaged in prison, Joseph wants nothing more than to find his baby daughter, Jupiter, whom he has never seen. When Joseph has begun to believe he’ll have a future, he is confronted by demons from his past that force a tragic sacrifice.
Sixteen-year-old Callie Knowles fights her compulsion to write constantly, even on herself, as she struggles to cope with foster care, her mother’s life in a mental institution, and her belief that she killed her father, a minister, who has been missing for a year.
When Ally’s mom dies, Ally is left with no family, no friends and no future. Put into foster care at the age of fifteen, she has less than $200 to her name and nothing left to lose. When Ally meets Tate, a busking fire breather, she starts to see a new life for herself as a street performer. Ally decides to run away from her foster home, but her problems follow her. Hiding her age, sleeping on the streets and avoiding fights with other buskers, Ally discovers that there’s more to life as a fire-breathing busker than not getting burned.
This book list is designed for children ages 8-12 who find themselves in the foster system. The books range in difficulty and include a variety of voices and experiences. Whether these are read independently or together, families involved in the foster system are sure to bond over these stories and begin conversations with one another about their own experiences after absorbing these stories.
A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.
Twelve-year-old genius and outsider Willow Chance must figure out how to connect with other people and find a surrogate family for herself after her parents are killed in a car accident.
A foster child named Angel and twelve-year-old Stella, who are living with Stella’s great-aunt Louise at the Linger Longer Cottage Colony on Cape Cod, secretly assume responsibility for the vacation rentals when Louise unexpectedly dies and the girls are afraid of being returned to the foster care system.
Fearing that her legal guardian plans to abandon her to return to France, ten-year-old aspiring scientist Lucky Trimble determines to run away while also continuing to seek the Higher Power that will bring stability to her life.
From Leslie Connor, award-winning author of Waiting for Normaland Crunch, comes a soaring and heartfelt story about love, forgiveness, and how innocence makes us all rise up. All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook is a powerful story, perfect for fans of Wonder and When You Reach Me.
Eleven-year-old Perry was born and raised by his mom at the Blue River Co-ed Correctional Facility in tiny Surprise, Nebraska. His mom is a resident on Cell Block C, and so far Warden Daugherty has made it possible for them to be together. That is, until a new district attorney discovers the truth—and Perry is removed from the facility and forced into a foster home.
When Perry moves to the “outside” world, he feels trapped. Desperate to be reunited with his mom, Perry goes on a quest for answers about her past crime. As he gets closer to the truth, he will discover that love makes people resilient no matter where they come from . . . but can he find a way to tell everyone what home truly means?
In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie writes about his life, after the death of his parents, separated from his younger sister, living in a foster home, and finding his poetic voice at school.
Stellaluna
By: Janell Cannon
Illustrated by: David Holt
When the adorable fruit bat Stellaluna is separated from her mother, she is adopted by a family of birds, but soon finds that she just can’t fit in. Her playmates like to sleep at night; she wants to fly. They whistle and sing; she doesn’t even have a beak! But just when it seems like she’ll always be an outsider, Stellaluna makes an amazing discovery. Now she’ll learn to cherish the things that make her different from everyone else. And she’ll see that an open mind and an open heart can lead to the greatest gift of all.
When she arrives at her newest foster home, it is clear to Galadriel “Gilly” Hopkins that she is smarter than everyone in Thompson Park. It isn’t long before she decides to run away to find her “real” home in California with her mother, the beautiful woman she barely remembers–but for all of Gilly’s street smarts, things turn out quite differently than she plans.
When the state of Maine threatens to shut down their island’s one-room schoolhouse because of dwindling enrollment, eleven-year-old Tess, a strong believer in luck, and her family take in a trumpet-playing foster child, to increase the school’s population.
A stunning modern-day fairy tale from acclaimed author Anne Ursu. Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. But that was before he stopped talking to her and disappeared into a forest with a mysterious woman made of ice. Now it’s up to Hazel to go in after him. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” Breadcrumbs is a story of the struggle to hold on, and the things we leave behind.
Foster child Tory befriends a pony, Lucky, but after the latter has to be left behind when Tory’s foster family flees a forest fire, the two continue to seek their place in the world, no matter where it is.
A dog describes the emotional ups and downs of being in multiple foster homes and living in unfamiliar surroundings. Includes note to parents.
Zachary’s New Home
By: Geraldine M. Blomquist and Paul B. Blomquist
Illustrated by: Margo Lemieux
Zachary still remembers his “real” parents and finds that adjusting to life as Marie and Tom’s adopted son is sometimes a painful reality.
Maybe Days
By: Jennifer Wilgocki
Illustrated by: Marcia Kahn Wright
Introduces the people and procedures involved in foster care, and the feelings, reactions, and concerns of new foster children. Includes an afterword for caregivers.
A young girl living with her foster parent describes the emotional ups and downs of being separated from her mother and living in unfamiliar surroundings.
All families change over time. Sometimes a baby is born, or a grown-up gets married. And sometimes a child gets a new foster parent or a new adopted mom or dad. Children need to know that when this happens, it’s not their fault. They need to understand that they can remember and value their birth family and love their new family, too. Straightforward words and full-color illustrations offer hope, support, and coping skills for children facing or experiencing change. Includes resources and information for birth parents, foster parents, social workers, counselors, and teachers.
Haunted houses, werewolves, monsters, sinister beings. What is lurking in the closet? Where are the voices coming from?
Why is it that we love spooky novels so much? They keep us up all night, sometimes in terror yet sometimes because we can’t stop reading them. And, it’s not just adults who love scary novels. Some of the most reluctant readers gravitate towards them. A good scary novel can not only be entertaining, but it can also teach plot/sequence of events and predicting.
The 18 novels we have included in our list have brave protagonists in challenging and scary situations. While some may not be for the faint of heart, each represents hours of suspense for middle grade readers.
Practically-perfect twelve-year-old Victoria Wright must lie, sneak, and break the rules when her investigation of the disappearance of her best–and only–friend, Lawrence, reveals dark secrets about her town and the orphanage run by the reclusive Mrs. Cavendish.
Zach, Alice, and Poppy, friends from a Pennsylvania middle school who have long enjoyed acting out imaginary adventures with dolls and action figures, embark on a real-life quest to Ohio to bury a doll made from the ashes of a dead girl.
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.
At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different, ancient, and wild. And it wants something terrible and dangerous from Conor. It wants the truth.
When a mysterious wasp queen invades his dreams, offering to “fix” Steve’s new baby brother, Steve thinks his prayers have been answered. But, he may be dangerously wrong.
When twelve-year-old Joy’s pet frog gets away, she, her brother, and their elusive friend Poppy sneak onto the grounds of the town’s asylum and discover mysteries that only reinforce Joy’s beliefs that there are supernatural forces at work in the town of Spooking.
Irish orphans Molly, fourteen, and Kip, ten, travel to England to work as servants in a crumbling manor house where nothing is quite what it seems to be, and soon the siblings are confronted by a mysterious stranger and secrets of the cursed house.
In 1899, a twelve-year-old rat catcher on North Carolina’s Biltmore estate teams up with the estate owner’s young nephew to battle a great evil and, in the process, unlocks the puzzle of her past.
When eleven-year-old Olive and her distracted parents move into an old Victorian mansion, Olive finds herself ensnared in a dark plan involving some mysterious paintings, a trapped and angry nine-year-old boy, and three talking cats.
Moving into an inherited mansion in Maine with their mother and stroke-afflicted father, three siblings uncover a mystery involving hidden passageways, family rivalries, and healing waters.
Lucy is sure there are wolves living in the walls of her house, although others in her family disagree, and when the wolves come out, the adventure begins.
When eleven-year-old Juniper begins to suspect something is wrong with her mother and father, she and her friend Giles discover they have been selling their souls, pieces at a time, to a silver-tongued creature in a terrifying fairy-tale underworld.
Phears, an evil ghost, wants eleven-year-old Max to help him capture the ghosts of two children whose parents once trapped him, and he sends a Berserker Ghoul to possess Max and convince him to obey.
In the nineteenth century, ten-year-old Florence Crutchfield leaves a London orphanage to live with her great-uncle, great-aunt, and sickly cousin James, but she soon realizes the home has another resident, who means to do her and James harm.
In this twist on “Hansel and Gretel,” two middle schoolers find themselves in a new charter school filled with a mysterious abundance of food at mealtimes and sinister teachers up to no good.
During a long car trip, best friends Quinn and Kara explore the strange and creepy goings-on at a remote Nevada inn when Kara’s family stops for the night.
