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Having withstood the horrors of Auschwitz and made it out alive, eighteen-year-old Elli is more than ready to leave behind the painful memories and start fresh in America. What she is not fully prepared for, though, are all the challenges of creating a new life in a completely new place — especially one as hectic as New York City! 

Like many girls her age in India, thirteen-year-old Koly faces her arranged marriage with hope and courage. But Koly’s story takes a terrible turn when in the wake of the ceremony, she discovers she’s been horribly misled—her life has been sold for a dowry. Can she forge her own future, even in the face of time-worn tradition? 

When he was 10 years old, Victor wanted to be just like master magician Harry Houdini. For years Victor did not realize what magic he held in his hands with a box initialed “E.W.” What happened years later when Victor discovered that Houdini’s given name was Ehrick Weiss creates a plausible and captivating glimpse at a major historical figure.

“The hour has come to speak of troubled times. It is time we spoke of Skullyville.” Thus begins Rose Goode’s story of her growing up in Indian Territory in pre-statehood Oklahoma. It’s a world where backwoods spiritualism and Bible-thumping Christianity mix with bad guys; a one-legged woman shop-keeper, her oaf of a husband, herbal potions, and shape-shifting panthers rendering justice. Tim Tingle — a scholar of his nation’s language, culture, and spirituality — tells Rose’s story of good and evil with understanding and even laugh-out-loud Choctaw humor.

Life for 14-year old Tomi Nakaji and other Japanese-Americans living on the Hawaiian island of Oahu has changed radically since the bombing of Pearl Harbor the previous year. He confronts violence, despair but ultimately finds hope in this gripping sequel to Under the Blood-Red Sun (1994).

“Young Quebrado’s name means ‘the broken one,’ a child ‘of two shattered worlds.’ The son of a Taíno Indian mother and a Spanish father, he is taken in 1510 from his village on the island that is present-day Cuba and enslaved on a pirate’s ship, where a brutal conquistador, responsible for thousands of deaths throughout the Americas, is held captive for ransom. When a hurricane destroys the boat, Quebrado is pulled from the water by a fisherman, Naridó, whose village welcomes him, but escape from the past proves nearly impossible.” — Gillian Engberg, Booklist

“I never thought one small lady from Japan could make such a big difference in my life, but she did.” So begins Rinko’s story about the time that Aunt Waka came to visit. From Mama’s new business to Papa’s new courage in standing up to Depression-era discrimination against the Japanese, Rinko can barely keep up with the way that everyone in the house (herself included) is changing. Rinko and her relatives are unforgettable characters whose stories are told with an easy familiarity, warmth, and gentle humor.

Readers first met young Yuki and her Japanese American family in Journey to Topaz, a story based on the author’s experience of having her own family uprooted and sent to the Relocation Center in Topaz, Utah. This novel continues their story after they are released into a society full of prejudice and fear.

Nine year old Dodgers fan Maggie and firefighter Jim bond over their mutual love of baseball. When Jim is drafted and returns from Korea traumatized and barely responsive, Maggie is determined to bring him back to his old self. A sensitive and artful work about grief and hope.

Two Japanese American sisters grow up in post World War II America in this Newbery winning book. Katie is the little sister to Lynn, and Lynn is her mentor and friend. When Lynn develops a terminal illness, Katie must try to keep her spirit alive and “kira-kira.” This is also a wonderful audiobook.

It takes great skill to be a kite fighter as Kee-sup and Young-sup know well. The brothers have different talents; the older boy makes kites easily while Young-sup flies them with a sure hand. Loyalty, tradition and rivalry between the boys are themes in this riveting novel set in 15th century Korea.

Even though they were born in different countries, Akilah and Victoria are true best friends. But Victoria has been acting strange ever since she returned from her summer in Nigeria, where she had a special coming-of-age ceremony. Why does proud Victoria, named for a queen, slouch at her desk and answer the teacher’s questions in a whisper? And why won’t she laugh with Akilah anymore?

A lighthouse keeper’s daughter on Fenwick Island, Delaware, chronicles the confusion brought on by the War.

Leander Jordan and Paul Settles are teens who aren’t happy with turns their lives have taken. They join the Union Army and meet in a hospital, totally unaware how much each will change the other. Like a River is told in two voices. Readers will be transported to the homes, waterways, camps, hospitals, and prisons of the Civil–War era. They will also see themselves in the universal themes of dealing with parents, friendships, bullying, failure, and young love.

Lily is looking forward to spending another summer at her family’s vacation home with her grandmother on the shore in Rockaway, New York, when her father drops the news that he must go to Europe with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. Angry at her widower father for leaving, Lily refuses to say goodbye to him and is certain that this summer will be lonely. Then she meets Albert, a Hungarian refugee who lost most of his family to the war and had to leave his sickly sister behind in Europe. The two friends rely on each other to overcome their feelings of guilt in this story of how war affects the children at home.

When rebel soldiers attack his village in Sudan, 11-year-old Salva flees the violence, beginning a dangerous walk toward a crowded refugee camp in Ethiopia, then on to new life in Rochester, New York. Meanwhile, 12-year-old Nya spends her days in Sudan looking for scarce supplies of fresh water for her family. Based on the true story of Sudanese “Lost Boys” who came to the U.S. in the mid-1990s.

Loretta, Roly, and Aggie B. Little relate their Mississippi family’s struggles and triumphs from 1927 to 1968 while struggling as sharecroppers, living under Jim Crow, and fighting for Civil Rights.

Lyddie is a resourceful, self-sufficient girl who leaves Vermont to work in a Lowell, Massachusetts factory. Historical detail about life in 19th century New England combined with a portrait of this fiercely independent girl create an unforgettable novel.

Mattie and the Machine is a fictionalized yet historically accurate account of Margaret E. Knight’s fight to obtain recognition as a 19th century female inventor (she would eventually be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006). This entertaining tale is filled with romance, competition, and treachery, and features a feisty and brilliant female heroine who excels in STEM-related tasks.

The book is about a boy in Warsaw, Poland in the years of World War II during the Holocaust. Over time he is taken in by a Jewish group of orphans and he must avoid the Nazis while living on the streets with other orphans.

Matilda’s Pacific Island village has been torn apart by civil war. Against this harsh backdrop, Mr. Watts, a lonely British expatriate, maintains calm by reading Dicken’s Great Expectations aloud to the village children, transforming their lives.

This story of a young African-American man caught up in a robbery gone bad is a contemporary classic. The screenplay format makes it appealing to reluctant readers, but it’s also well deserving of its honor as the first recipient of the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult literature.

When a petty thief falls through a glass roof while fleeing from the police, it should have been the death of him. Instead, it marks the beginning of a whole new life. Soon he has become the most successful — and elusive — burglar in Victorian London, plotting daring raids and using London’s new sewer system to escape. He adopts a dual existence to fit his new lifestyle, taking on the roles of a respectable, wealthy gentleman named Montmorency and his corrupt servant, Scarper.

“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