Content Finder

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Grace Lin

Year of the Dog

Grace (aka Pacy) does a lot of growing up during the Year of the Dog. She meets and befriends another Asian girl, learns a bit about her Taiwanese background, and discovers her talent. Simply drawn illustrations and a straightforward voice make this culturally specific story universally appealing.
My Year in the Middle
Lila Quintero Weaver

My Year in the Middle

Genre:
Historical Fiction
Age Level:
Middle Grade

It is 1970 in Red Grove, Alabama, and Latina sixth-grader Lu Olivera just wants to get along with everyone, but growing racial tensions will not let Lu stay neutral about the racial divide in school. 

Grace Lin

Year of the Rat

The Year of the Rat is a year of change for Grace. Melody moves with her family to California, and Grace finds the courage to stand up for what she knows is right. As in Year of the Dog, this sequel recognizes the universal growing pains of childhood in its short chapters and line drawings.
Alison Lloyd

Year of the Tiger

During the Second-Century Han Dynasty, two young boys — one the son of a military commander, the other a child of peasants — form a friendship, despite the rigid class structures. With Barbarians spies just outside the Great Wall, the boys are thrown into political intrigue and adventure.
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Michael Dorris

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water

Genre:
Fiction
Age Level:
YA

Teenage Rayona is abandoned by her parents and goes to live with her grandmother, called Aunt Ida, on the reservation where her Mother was raised. Three generations of Native American women are beautifully portrayed in the audiobook by Dorris and acclaimed narrator Rosenblat.

Images of cityscape and traditional Indian dancers
Mitali Perkins

You Bring the Distant Near

Genre:
Fiction
Age Level:
YA

Five girls. Three generations. One great American love story. You Bring the Distant Near explores sisterhood, first loves, friendship, and the inheritance of culture — for better or worse. Ranee, worried that her children are losing their Indian culture; Sonia, wrapped up in a forbidden biracial love affair; Tara, seeking the limelight to hide her true self; Shanti, desperately trying to make peace in the family; Anna, fighting to preserve her Bengali identity. Award-winning author Mitali Perkins weaves together a sweeping story of five women at once intimately relatable and yet entirely new. Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Honor Award for Young Adult Literature.

If You Come Softly Jacqueline Woodson
Jacqueline Woodson

If You Come Softly

Genre:
Fiction, Romance
Age Level:
Middle Grade

Two 15 year olds — one black one white — meet and fall in love at an exclusive New York prep school. Both deal with their family issues as well as with how their growing relationship is received. This difficult novel is told in the couple’s alternating voices — until the wrenching and tragic conclusion.