Multicultural Fiction

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Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez   167 pages                                Gr. 4-8

  • Twelve-year-old Anita is faced with the average adolescent obsessions: boys and her appearance. She becomes aware of the mounting political danger to her family in the Dominican Republic of the early 1960s. With her mother, Anita goes into hiding and keeps a secret diary as a means of coping with traumatic events.
  • Call Number: X ALVAREZ 
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Maya Running by Anjali Banerjee    209 pages                                 Gr. 6-9    

  • Maya, a Canadian of East Indian descent, struggles with her ethnic identity, infatuation with a classmate, and the presence of her beautiful Bengali cousin, Pinky, who comes for a visit bearing a powerful statue of the god Ganesh, the Hindu elephant boy.
  • Call Number: X BANERJEE, YA BANERJEE 
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Ernestine & Amanda by Sandra Belton     153 pages                          Gr. 4-6 

  • Although they do not like each other at first, two girls who take piano lessons from the same teacher, share friendship with twin sisters, and have their own personal problems each gradually find their feelings about the other changing.
  • Also by Belton Ernestine & Amanda, mysteries on Monroe Street.
  • Call Number: X BELTON 
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Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac     114 pages                                 Gr. 5-8          

  • After her parents disappear and she is turned over to the care of a strange "great-uncle," Molly must rely on her dreams about an old Mohawk story for her safety and maybe even for her life.
  • Also by Bruchac: Heart of a Chief and Code Talker.
  • Call Number: X BRUCHAC
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 Colibri by Ann Cameron     227 pages                                               Gr. 6-8           

  • Kidnapped when she was very young by an unscrupulous man who has forced her to lie and beg to get money, a twelve-year-old Mayan girl endures an abusive life, always wishing she could return to the parents she can hardly remember. Call Number:
  • X CAMERON
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The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron      71 pages                       Gr. 3-5 

  • Relates episodes in seven-year-old Julian's life which include getting into trouble with his younger brother Huey, planting a garden, what he did to try to grow taller, losing a tooth, and finding a new friend.
  • Also by Cameron: The Stories Huey Tells and Julian, Secret Agent.
  • Call Number: X CAMERON
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 Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell      243 pages                             Gr. 6-8    

  • In alternating passages, two Mohawk sisters describe their lives at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, established in 1879 to educate Native Americans, as they try to assimilate into white culture and one of them is falsely accused of stealing.
  • Call Number: X CARVELL
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 The Key Collection by Andrea Cheng   117 pages                                    Gr. 3-5

  • A ten-year-old boy in the Midwest misses his Chinese grandmother, who always lived next door until her health caused her to move.
  • Call Number: X CHENG 
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The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis  224 pages  Gr. 5-8

  • The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
  • Also by Curtis: Bud not Buddy.
  • Call Number: X CURTIS
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Bindi Babes by Narinder Dhami    184 pages                                         Gr. 4-8

  • Three Indian-British sisters team up to marry off their traditional, nosy aunt and get her out of the house.
  • Sequels: Bollywood Babes and Banghra Babes.
  • Call Number: X DHAMI
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Behind the Mountains by Edwidge Danticat   153 pages                     Gr. 6-8            

  • Writing in the notebook which her teacher gave her, thirteen-year-old Celiane describes life with her mother and brother in Haiti as well as her experiences in Brooklyn after the family finally immigrates there to be reunited with her father.       
  • Call Number: X DANTICAT, YA DANTICAT 
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Double Dutch Sharon M Draper   183 pages                                   Gr. 6-8

  • Set in Cincinnati, Ohio, this novel features eighth graders Delia, Randy, and the Tolliver twins. All of them have secrets. Delia does not tell anyone she cannot read. Randy is afraid to tell anyone that his father is missing. The Tolliver twins project the image of bullies, yet they are shy.
  • Call Number: X DRAPER
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Under the Sun by Arthur Dorros   210 pages                             Gr. 6-8

  • Chronicles the harrowing journey of Ehmet, a thirteen-year-old boy from Sarajevo who gets caught up in the ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.            
  • Call Number: X DORROS 
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The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis    170 pages                               Gr. 6-8           

  • Because the Taliban rulers of Kabul, Afghanistan, impose strict limitations on women's freedom and behavior, eleven-year-old Parvana must disguise herself as a boy so that her family can survive after her father's arrest. 
  • Call Number: X ELLIS 
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The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich    244 pages                    Gr. 4-6           

  • Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. Sequel: Game of Silence.  
  • Call Number: X ERDRICH   
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Zulu Dog by Anton Ferreira     195 pages                                          Gr. 6-8

  • In post-apartheid South Africa, a three-legged bush puppy secretly reared and trained to become a hunting dog becomes the center of an unlikely friendship that develops between Vusi, a Zulu boy, and Shirley, the daughter of a racist white farmer.
  • Call Number: X FERREIRA
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Grape Thief by Kristine L. Franklin    290 pages                                      Gr. 5-9

  • In a small Washington state coal-mining community made up of families from different ethnic backgrounds, twelve-year-old Cuss likes to learn and wants to stay in school, but finances are tight in 1925. The story shares how his family and friends persevere with faith and optimism in spite of multiple hardships.            
  • Call Number: X FRANKLIN 
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Darby by Jonathon Scott Fuqua     242 pages                                       Gr. 4-6 

  • Set in the 1920s, this novel portrays nine-year-old Darby, who stirs up trouble in her small South Carolina town when she writes a story for the local newspaper promoting racial equality.
  • Call Number: X FUQUA
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 Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse       156 pages                            Gr. 6-8

  • After the Japanese bombed Unalaska Island in 1942, the U.S. government relocated the Aleut people to an inhospitable camp near Ketchikan, Alaska, so their island could be used as a military base. The tragic story is told in free verse, each poem depicting life through the eyes of an Aleut girl.
  • Call Number: X HESSE 
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Witness by Karen Hesse    161 pages                                               Gr. 4-8

  • Two young girls move to a small Vermont town in 1924, become best friends, and turn into targets of the Klu Klux Klan because of their race. Leonora, twelve, is black, and Esther, six, is Jewish. Eleven residents speak of personal experiences, fears, and prejudices and reflect on happenings.
  • Call Number: X HESSE
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The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill    115 pages                    Gr. 4-6

  • Ten-year-old Fred (short for Frederika) narrates the story of school and village life among the Athabascan people in Alaska during 1948. This was the watermark year when Miss Agnes arrived in the village as their new teacher and changed their lives.
  • Call Number: X HILL  
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The Trouble Begins by Linda Himelblau    200 pages                       Gr. 4-8 

  • Reunited with his family for the first time since he was a baby, fifth grader Du struggles to adapt to his new home in the United States.
  • Call Number: X HIMELBLAU 
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Keeper of the Night by Kimberly Willis Holt     308 pages                     Gr. 6-8  

  • Set in Guam, this haunting story looks at thirteen-year-old Isabel Moreno and her family trying to cope with the suicide of her mother. The story is presented in short vignettes, each taking the reader closer to discovering the full story of her mother's death.
  • Call Number: X HOLT, YA HOLT
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 Ghost in the Takaido Inn by Dorothy Hoobler     214 pages                   Gr. 5-9

  • While attempting to solve the mystery of a stolen jewel, Seikei, a merchant's son who longs to be a samurai, joins a group of kabuki actors in eighteenth-century Japan. Sequels: Demon in the Teahouse and The Sword that Cut the Burning Grass.
  • Call Number: X HOOBLER, YA HOOBLER
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Any Small Goodness by Tony Johnston      128 pages                           Gr. 4-6

  • After moving from Mexico to the barrio of East Los Angeles with his family, Arturo and his friends share experiences dealing with a teacher who wants to Americanize their names, playing basketball, and championing the school librarian.
  • Call Number: X JOHNSTON 
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The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin     134 pages                            Gr. 4-6           

  • Frustrated at her seeming lack of talent for anything, a young Taiwanese American girl sets out to apply the lessons of the Chinese Year of the Dog, those of making best friends and finding oneself, to her own life.
  • Call Number: X LIN 
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Home is East by Many Ly     294 pages                                               Gr. 4- 8

  • After her mother moves out, a ten-year-old Cambodian American girl and her old-fashioned father leave their home in Florida to begin a new life in San Diego, experiencing turmoil and change as they slowly adjust to their new circumstances.
  • Call Number: X LY 
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The Gold-Threaded Dress by Carolyn Marsden    73 pages                 Gr. 3-5       

  • When Oy and her Thai American family move to a new neighborhood, her third-grade classmates tease and exclude her because she is different.
  • Call Number: X MARSDEN
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The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo    252 pages                   Gr. 6-9

  • This terrifying story follows two Nigerian children, twelve-year-old Sade and her ten-year-old brother Femi, caught in the civil strife of their country during the mid-1990s.
  • Call Number: X NAIDOO, YA NAIDOO     
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Out of Bounds by Beverley Naidoo     175 pages                               Gr. 4-6

  • Seven stories, spanning the time period from 1948 to 2000, chronicle the experiences of young people from different races and ethnic groups as they try to cope with the restrictions placed on their lives by South Africa's apartheid laws.
  • Call Number: X NAIDOO 
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Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell    181 pages                      Gr. 4-6

  • Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.
  • Call Number: X O’DELL
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The Kite Fighters by Linda Sue Park        136 pages                          Gr. 4-6

  • In Korea in 1473, eleven-year-old Young-sup overcomes a rivalry with his older brother who, as the first-born son, receives special treatment from their father and combines his kite-flying skill with his brother's kite-making skill in an attempt to win the New Year kite competition.
  • Also by Park: A Single Shard
  • Call Number: X PARK  
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Sky by Pamela Porter         83 pages                                                 Gr. 3-5

  • Georgia, an Indian girl on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana, finds her morale uplifted when she finds and cares for a horse that survived a devastating local flood.
  • Call Number: X PORTER   
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Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan     272 pages                      Gr. 4-8

  • Naomi Soledad Leon Outlaw has had a lot to contend with in her young life, but according to Gram, most problems can be overcome with positive thinking. And with Gram and her little brother, Owen, life at Avocado Acres Trailer Rancho in California is happy and peaceful...until their mother reappears after seven years of being gone, stirring up all sorts of questions. Also by Ryan: Esperanza Rising.
  • Call Number: X RYAN
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Ninjas, Piranhas and Galileo by Greg Leitich Smith     192 pages       Gr. 4-8

  • Honoria, Shohei, and Elias, who are "united together against That Which Is The Peshtigo School," face conflict over their budding romantic interest and a science project gone awry.
  • Call Number: JPB S 
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Rain is Not My Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith     144 pages     Gr. 5-9           

  • Tired of staying in seclusion since the death of her best friend, a fourteen-year-old Native American girl takes on a photographic assignment with her local newspaper to cover events at the Native American summer youth camp.
  • Call Number: X SMITH 
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Help Wanted by Gary Soto       216 pages                                        Gr. 4-8 

  • Ten stories portray some of the struggles and hopes of young Mexican Americans.
  • Call Number: X SOTO
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Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples    275 pages      Gr.5-9

  • During the 2001 Afghan War, the lives of Najmal, a young refugee from Kunduz, Afghanistan, and Nusrat, an American-Muslim teacher who is awaiting her husband's return from Mazar-i-Sharif, intersect at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan.
  • Also by Staples: Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind
  • Call Number: X STAPLES 
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The Shadows of Ghadames by Joelle Stolz      119 pages                Gr. 4-6 

  • At the end of the nineteenth century in Libya, eleven-year-old Malika simultaneously enjoys and feels constricted by the narrow world of women, but an injured stranger enters her home and disrupts the traditional order of things.
  • Call Number: X STOLZ
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor       288 pages                 Gr.5-9

  • A black family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination that its children do not understand.
  • Sequels:  Let the Circle Be Unbroken and The Road to Memphis.
  • Call Number: X TAYLOR
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Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan         216 pages                             Gr. 5-8 

  • When thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill-fated arranged marriage, she must either suffer a destiny dictated by India's tradition or find the courage to oppose it. Also by Whelan: Chu Ju’s House.
  • Call Number: X WHELAN
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The Red Rose Box by Brenda Woods     136 pages                        Gr. 4-6

  • In 1953, Leah Hopper dreams of leaving the poverty and segregation of her home in Sulphur, Louisiana, and when Aunt Olivia sends train tickets to Los Angeles as part of her 10th birthday present, Leah gets a first taste of freedom.
  • Call Number: X WOODS
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If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson     192 pages                    Gr. 6-10

  • After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's reactions. 
  • Also by Woodson: The House You Pass Along the Way and Hush.
  • Call Number: X WOODSON
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Bear Dancer: the Story of a Ute Girl by Thelma Hatch Wyss   181 pages   Gr. 4-6

  • In late nineteenth-century Colorado, Elk Dress Girl, sister of Ute chief Ouray, is captured by Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors, rescued by the white "enemy," and finally returned to her home. 
  • Call Number: X WYSS
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Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee     248 pages                        Gr. 5-8

  • In a series of journal entries, eleven-year-old child prodigy Millicent Min records her struggles to learn to play volleyball, tutor her enemy, deal with her grandmother's departure, and make friends over the course of a tumultuous summer.
  • Also by Yee, Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time
  • Call Number: X YEE
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Angelfish by Laurence Yep      216 pages                                    Gr. 5-8           

  • Robin, a young ballet dancer who is half Chinese and half white, works in a fish store for Mr. Tsow, a brusque Chinese who accuses her of being a half-person and who harbors a bitter secret.
  • Also by Yep: Child of the Owl, Thief of Hearts and When the Circus Came to Town.
  • Call Number: X YEP  
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