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Young boy holding hands of parent in Japanese-American internment camp
George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott

They Called Us Enemy

Genre:
Autobiography and Memoir
Age Level:
Middle Grade

In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten “relocation centers,” hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard. They Called Us Enemy is actor George Takei’s firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother’s hard choices, his father’s faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future. American Book Award.

They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems
David Bowles

They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems

Genre:
Poetry
Age Level:
Middle Grade

This collection of narrative poetry explores a year in the life of twelve-year-old Güero, a freckled, red-headed, Mexican-American border kid, discovers the joy of writing poetry, thanks to his English teacher.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

They Called Themselves the K.K.K.

The story of how a secret terrorist group took root in America, its evolution from a club formed by six young men in Tennessee to a secret society with members across the South.
Man pointing to his head with speech boxes all around him.
Comprehension

Think Alouds

“When teachers make the invisible mental processes visible, they arm readers with powerful weapons.”  — Chris Tovani

Blog: Shanahan on Literacy

Think-Pair-Share in Reading Instruction: Is It Effective?

When kids get the opportunity to discuss something with a partner before responding to a teacher question, positive outcomes have been seen in the primary grades in reading and in the upper grades with second-language learners.

Thirsty
M.T. Anderson

Thirsty

Genre:
Fiction
Age Level:
YA

Chris has his hands full — he’s growing apart from his friends, his parents may get divorced, his brother is a bully, and, oh yeah, he’s turning into a vampire.

Sid Fleischman

Thirteenth Floor: A Ghost Story

After their parents’ death, 12-year old Bud is in the custody of his sister. Faced with the prospect of selling their family home to repay debts, Bud and Liz go back in time to find help and to save a ancestor accused of being a witch. And it all starts on the 13th floor…
This Is My America
Kim Johnson

This Is My America

Genre:
Fiction, Mystery / Crime
Age Level:
Middle Grade, YA

Every week, 17-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time — her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens. The police arrive in the night, and Tracy’s older brother, Jamal, goes from being a bright, promising track star to a “thug” on the run, accused of killing a white girl. Determined to save her brother, Tracy investigates what really happened between Jamal and Angela down at the Pike. But will Tracy and her family survive the uncovering of the skeletons of their Texas town’s racist history that still haunt the present?