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“Luke’s Iñupiaq experience of leaving his home near the Arctic Circle in 1960 to journey with his two younger brothers to the Catholic sponsored Sacred Heart School is based in large part on Edwardson’s husband’s memories of boarding school…Nothing is familiar to Luke and his fellow students; the terrain, the food, the language are strange, and their struggle with feelings of homesickness and alienation is heart-wrenching. Edwardson’s skillful use of dialogue and her descriptions of rural Alaska as well as boarding-school life invoke a strong sense of empathy and compassion in readers as they experience Luke’s emotions along with him.” — School Library Journal

Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic.

Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright’s powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.

Set in West Africa, this a lyrical story-in-verse is about a young black boy who is kidnapped and sold into slavery, and his father who is left behind to mourn the loss of his son. Here’s a beautiful, powerful, truly unforgettable story about family, memory, and freedom.

The letters and thoughts of Thomas Jefferson, members of the Corps of Discovery, their guide Sacagawea, and Captain Lewis’s Newfoundland dog, all tell of the historic exploratory expedition to seek a water route to the Pacific Ocean.

Malcolm Little’s parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that’s a pack of lies—after all, his father’s been murdered, his mother’s been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There’s no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer. But Malcolm’s efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he’s found is only an illusion—and that he can’t run forever. X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.

The narrator, 10-year-old Annemarie, and her family defy the Nazis as Danish Jews are gathered for transport to death camps. They help Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen Rosen, and her family escape to Sweden. The horror of World War II is mitigated by the limited view of the narrator, yet the courage of individuals shines through for a breathtaking look at this time in history.

Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them.

Thirteen-year-old Scott has learned a lot from his Dad — an ace pilot and flying instructor. When Scott adeptly lands a damaged plane on his own, NASA thinks he might just be the ideal candidate for a practice mission to space. Will Scott become the first teenager in space?

Twelve-year-old tomboy May Amelia Jackson, the youngest of seven children and the only girl in a Finnish immigrant family, lives in the wilderness along the Nasel River in Washington State in 1899. Through May Amelia’s travels, readers witness the diverse ways of life in the expanding West: peaceful relations with the Chinook Indians, the dangers posed by the neighboring logging camp, her aunt’s life in the nearby boomtown of Astoria, Oregon, as well as the rhythms of the seasons.

Lonnie, aka Locomotion (first introduced in Locomotion) tries to connect with his sister and to prevent forgetting their “real” parents. As he writes Lili, readers learn about his life including his foster brother who has returned from the Iraq war.

It’s 1953 and 11-year-old Penny dreams of a summer of butter pecan ice cream, swimming, and baseball. This coming-of-age story is populated by a cast of vivid family characters and it explores the things that tear them apart and the things that bring them back together. The book includes an Author’s Note with photographs and additional background on World War II, Internment camps, and 1950s America.

This is the magnificent tale of a twelfth-century monk driven to do the seemingly impossible: build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known.

The year is 1862, and 12-year-old P.K. “Pinky” Pinkerton is on the run from Whittlin’ Walt and his gang of ruthless desperados. P.K. is determined to hold on to Ma’s last priceless possession: the deed to a large amount of land and silver mines in the Nevada Mountains. P.K. will have to be both clever and cunning to evade the band of outlaws. All this is seen through the eyes of P.K., a half-Lakota kid with Asperger Syndrome, which makes him chronically unable to interpret the intentions of people around him.

Twelve-year-old Hanako and her family, reeling from their confinement in an internment camp, renounce their American citizenship to move to Hiroshima, a city devastated by the atomic bomb dropped by Americans at the end of World War II.

Jacob Todd, a British soldier wounded in World War II, falls in love with Geertrui, a Dutch teenager who hides him from his pursuers in 1944. Now his 17-year-old grandson, also named Jacob Todd, has traveled to Holland to visit the grave of the grandfather he never met. Upon arriving in Amsterdam, Jacob is not prepared for the perplexing experiences of the city, seeing Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam, or for the shocking story that reveals family secrets. Two stories, Jacob Todd’s and Geertrui’s, from two different times are intertwined throughout the book and raise some very thought-provoking questions.

In Dakota Territory in the 1880s, half-Chinese Hanna and her White father face racism and resistance to change as they try to make a home for themselves.

When Thomas Peaceful lies about his age to join the service, he could meet his demise, but not in the way that you think. A stunning novel of the First World War, a boy who is on its front lines, and a childhood remembered.

As the Civil War breaks out, India, a young Southern girl, summons her sharp intelligence and the courage she didn’t know she had to survive the war that threatens to destroy her family, her Virginia home, and the only life she has ever known.

Josef is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world …

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America …

Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe …

All three kids go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers — from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, shocking connections will tie their stories together in the end.

This action-packed novel tackles topics both timely and timeless: courage, survival, and the quest for home.

Nine-year-old Ling is very comfortable in her life; her parents are both dedicated surgeons in the best hospital in Wuhan. But when Comrade Li, one of Mao’s political officers, moves into a room in their apartment, Ling begins to witness the gradual disintegration of her world. In an atmosphere of increasing mistrust, Ling fears for the safety of her neighbors and, soon, for herself and family. Over the course of four years, Ling manages to grow and blossom, even as she suffers more horrors than many people face in a lifetime.

Eighth-grader Malian is befriended and protected by a rez dog she calls Malsum when her short visit with her grandparents on the Penacook reservation is indefinitely extended by the pandemic.

Charlotte Parkhurst could do almost anything with horses. Once out of the orphanage, Charlotte masquerades successfully as a man named Charley, and in spite of huge obstacles is able to drive a stagecoach and work with horses. Based on a real person, Charley also became the first woman to cast her vote in the state of California.

From the day a horse stepped on her tiny foot and crippled her, Oyuna’s life has been intertwined with these animals. Now a grandmother, she tells her young granddaughter of her escapades riding in Kublai Khan’s military and her role in saving the Khan’s herd of white horses.

After German forces occupy Denmark during World War II, fifteen-year-old Julie Weinstein and fifteen-year-old Niels Nelson and their friends and families try to cope with their daily lives, finding various ways to resist the Nazis and, ultimately, to survive.