Check out our latest Beanstack challenge, Read Across America!
Read Across America with inspiring, diverse books to encourage readers of all ages to explore identity, acceptance, and community. Log your reading to earn badges all month long! Check out our Beanstack app here: https://griver.beanstack.org/profiles/3848210/current_programs
A Phở Love Story
Author(s):
Description:
High school seniors Bảo and Linh, whose feuding families own competing Vietnamese restaurants, conceal their budding romance, as well as Linh's desire to become an artist.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Le
A Sled For Gabo
Author(s):
Description:
Gabo, shy with other children and having no sled or winter clothing, yearns to go sledding and his neighbor's granddaughter, Isa, helps him find a way.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Oth
After The Rain
Author(s):
Nnedi Okorafor
Nnedi. On the road Okorafor
John Jennings
David (Illustrator) Brame
Description:
The drama takes place in a small Nigerian town during a violent and unexpected storm. A Nigerian-American woman named Chioma answers a knock at her door and is horrified to see a boy with a severe head wound standing at her doorstep. He reaches for her, and his touch burns like fire. Something is very wrong. Haunted and hunted, Chioma must embrace her heritage in order to survive.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Oko
All Around Us
Author(s):
Xelena author González
Adriana M. Garcia
Description:
Finding circles everywhere, a grandfather and his granddaughter meditate on the cycles of life and nature.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Gon
Ancestor Approved Intertribal Stories For Kids
Author(s):
Description:
Edited by award-winning and bestselling author Cynthia Leitich Smith, this collection of intersecting stories by both new and veteran Native writers bursts with hope, joy, resilience, the strength of community, and Native pride.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Anc
El Cucuy Is Scared, Too!
Author(s):
Donna Barba Higuera
Juliana Perdomo
Description:
Ramón is worried about his first day at a new school, but it helps to remind El Cucuy, the monster who lives in his cactus pot, of how brave and strong they both are.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Hig
Elatsoe
Author(s):
Darcie Little Badger
Rovina Cai
Description:
"Imagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day. Seventeen-year-old Elatsoe ("Ellie" for short) lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect façade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family" -- Publisher description.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Lit
Finding Junie Kim
Author(s):
Description:
A tale based on true events follows the coming-of-age of a girl who is motivated by an act of racism at school to learn about her ancestral heritage and her grandparents' experiences as lost children during the Korean War.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Oh
How It All Blew Up
Author(s):
Description:
Fleeing to Rome in the wake of coming out to his Muslim family, a failed relationship, and blackmail, eighteen-year-old Amir Azadi embarks on a more authentic life with new friends and dates in the Sistine Chapel before an encounter with a U.S. Customs officer places his hard-won freedom at risk.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Ahm
Jump At The Sun : The True Life Tale Of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston
Author(s):
Alicia Williams
Jacqueline Alcántara
Description:
Zora was a girl who hankered for tales like bees for honey. Now, her mama always told her that if she wanted something, "to jump at de sun", because even though you might not land quite that high, at least you'd get off the ground. So Zora jumped from place to place, from the porch of the general store where she listened to folktales, to Howard University, to Harlem. And everywhere she jumped, she shined sunlight on the tales most people hadn't been bothered to listen to until Zora. The tales no one had written down until Zora. Tales on a whole culture of literature overlooked...until Zora. Until Zora jumped.-- Amazon.com.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Wil
Kiyoshi's Walk
Author(s):
Mark Karlins
Nicole (Nicole E.) Wong
Description:
Kiyoshi asks his grandfather, the wise poet Eto, where poems come from, and Eto takes him on a walk through the city to seek an answer.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Kar
Know My Name : A Memoir
Author(s):
Description:
Brock Turner had been sentenced to just six months in county jail after he was found sexually assaulting "Emily Doe" on Stanford's campus. Her victim impact statement was posted on BuzzFeed, where it instantly went viral, was translated globally and read on the floor of Congress. It inspired changes in California law and the recall of the judge in the case. Now Miller reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words.She tells of her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial, reveals the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios, and illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators. -- ǂc Adapted from jacket
Format:
Book
Call Number:
364.1532 Mil
Last Night At The Telegraph Club
Author(s):
Description:
"Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father--despite his hard-won citizenship--Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day"-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Lo
Living Beyond Borders : Growing Up Mexican In America
Author(s):
Description:
In this mixed-media collection of short stories, personal essays, poetry, and comics, this celebrated group of authors share the borders they have crossed, the struggles they have pushed through, and the two cultures they continue to navigate as Mexican Americans. Living Beyond Borders is at once an eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and hopeful love letter from the Mexican American community to today's young readers.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Liv
Loretta Little Looks Back : Three Voices Go Tell It : A Monologue Novel
Author(s):
Andrea Davis Pinkney
J. Brian Pinkney
Description:
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.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Pin
Measuring Up
Author(s):
Lily LaMotte
Ann Xu
colorist Sunmi
Description:
Having just moved to Seattle from Taiwan, twelve-year-old Cici enters a cooking competition to win the chance to see her grandmother again, but she only knows how to cook Taiwanese food.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Lam
Milkman
Author(s):
Description:
In 1970s Northern Ireland, middle sister stands out for the wrong reasons. She reads while walking, for one. And she has been taking French night classes downtown. So when a local paramilitary known as the milkman begins pursuing her, she suddenly becomes "interesting," the last thing she ever wanted to be. Despite middle sister's attempts to avoid him -- and to keep her mother from finding out about her maybe-boyfriend -- rumors spread and the threat of violence lingers. Milkman is a story of the way inaction can have enormous repercussions, in a time when the wrong flag, wrong religion, or even a sunset can be subversive.
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Bur
My First Day
Author(s):
Nguyen Quang Phung
Kim Lien Huynh
Description:
"This is no ordinary first journey. The rainy season has come to the Mekong Delta, and An, a young Vietnamese boy, sets out alone in a wooden boat wearing a little backpack and armed only with a single oar. On the way, he is confronted by giant crested waves, heavy rainfall and eerie forests where fear takes hold of him. Although daunted by the dark unknown, An realizes that he is not alone and continues to paddle. He knows it will all be worth it when he reaches his destination."-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Phu
My Two Border Towns
Author(s):
David (David O.) Bowles
Erika Meza
Description:
"A boy and his father cross the United States-Mexico border every other Saturday, visiting their favorite places, spending time with family and friends, and sharing in the responsibility of community care"-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Bow
Nuestra América : 30 Inspiring Latinas/latinos Who Have Shaped The United States
Author(s):
Sabrina Vourvoulias
Gloria Félix
Eduardo Díaz
Emily Key
sponsoring body Smithsonian Institution
Description:
Published in association with the Smithsonian Institution and the Molina Family Latino Gallery, a celebration of 30 of history's most influential Latinas and Latinos shares the uplifting stories of subjects ranging from Pura Belpré and César Chávez to Jennifer Lopez and Sonia Sotomayor.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J 920 Vou
Pahua And The Soul Stealer
Author(s):
Description:
While trying to rescue her brother's soul from the spirit world, eleven-year-old Pahua discovers that she is the reincarnation of a legendary shaman warrior.-- Provided by Publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Lee
Planet Of Clay
Author(s):
Description:
Rima, a young girl from Damascus, longs to walk, to be free to follow the will of her feet, but instead is perpetually constrained. She finds refuge in a fantasy world full of colored crayons, secret planets, and The Little Prince, reciting passages of the Qur'an like a mantra as everything and everyone around her is blown to bits. Since Rima hardly ever speaks, people think she's crazy, but she is no fool--the madness is in the battered city around her. One day while taking a bus through Damascus, a soldier opens fire and her mother is killed. Rima, wounded, is taken to a military hospital before her brother leads her to the besieged area of Ghouta--where, between bombings, she writes her story.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Yaz
Thanks A Lot, Universe
Author(s):
Description:
"Brian has always been anxious, whether at home or in class or on the basketball court. His dad tries to get him to stand up for himself, and his mom helps as much as she can, but after he and his brother are placed into foster care, Brian starts having panic attacks. And he doesn't know if things will ever be 'normal' again. Ezra's always been popular. He's friends with most of the kids on his basketball team--even Brian, who usually keeps to himself. But now, some of his friends have been acting differently, and Brian seems to be pulling away. Ezra wants to help, but he worries if he's too nice to Brian, his friends will realize that he has a crush on him. But when Brian and his brother run away, Ezra has no choice but to take the leap and reach out. Both boys have to decide if they're willing to risk sharing parts of themselves they'd rather hide. but if they can be brave, the might just find the best in themselves--and each other."-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Luc
The Arsonists' City
Author(s):
Description:
"The Nasr family is spread across the globe—Beirut, Brooklyn, Austin, the California desert. A Syrian mother, a Lebanese father, and three American children: all have lived a life of migration. Still, they’ve always had their ancestral home in Beirut—a constant touchstone—and the complicated, messy family love that binds them. But following his father's recent death, Idris, the family's new patriarch, has decided to sell. The decision brings the family to Beirut, where everyone unites against Idris in a fight to save the house. They all have secrets—lost loves, bitter jealousies, abandoned passions, deep-set shame—that distance has helped smother. But in a city smoldering with the legacy of war, an ongoing flow of refugees, religious tension, and political protest, those secrets ignite, imperiling the fragile ties that hold this family together."-- book jacket.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Aly
The Chance To Fly
Author(s):
Ali Stroker
Stacy Davidowitz
Description:
After moving across the country, thirteen-year-old Natalie auditions for her new school's play and overcomes her fears and insecurities about performing in a wheelchair.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Str
The Cost Of Knowing
Author(s):
Description:
"Sixteen-year-old Alex Rufus is trying his best. He tries to be the best employee he can be at the local ice cream shop; the best boyfriend he can be to his amazing girlfriend, Talia; the best protector he can be over his little brother, Isaiah. But as much as Alex tries, he often comes up short. It’s hard to for him to be present when every time he touches an object or person, Alex sees into its future. When he touches a scoop, he has a vision of him using it to scoop ice cream. When he touches his car, he sees it years from now, totaled and underwater. When he touches Talia, he sees them at the precipice of breaking up, and that terrifies him. Alex feels these visions are a curse, distracting him, making him anxious and unable to live an ordinary life. And when Alex touches a photo that gives him a vision of his brother’s imminent death, everything changes. With Alex now in a race against time, death, and circumstances, he and Isaiah must grapple with their past, their future, and what it means to be a young Black man in America in the present" --Amazon.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Mor
The Electric Slide And Kai
Author(s):
Kelly J. Baptist
Darnell Johnson
Description:
Everyone in the Donovan family can dance--and has a dance nickname--except Kai, but his family helps him practice his moves to prepare for his aunt's wedding reception.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Bap
The Emissary
Author(s):
Yōko Tawada
Margaret Mitsutani
Description:
Japan, after suffering from a massive irreparable disaster, cuts itself off from the world. Children are so weak they can barely stand or walk: the only people with any get-go are the elderly. Mumei lives with his grandfather Yoshiro, who worries about him constantly. They carry on a day-to-day routine in what could be viewed as a post-Fukushima time, with all the children born ancient--frail and gray-haired, yet incredibly compassionate and wise. Mumei may be enfeebled and feverish, but he is a beacon of hope, full of wit and free of self-pity and pessimism. Yoshiro concentrates on nourishing Mumei, a strangely wonderful boy who offers "the beauty of the time that is yet to come.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Taw
The Girl And The Ghost
Author(s):
Description:
Retells a Malaysian folk tale in which a lonely girl, Suraya, inherits from her grandmother a pelesit, a ghostly demon, who proves to be a good companion, bringing both danger and hope.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Han
The Lost Package
Author(s):
Richard (Children's author) Ho
Jessica Lanan
Description:
A tour of the busy work that takes place at post offices is depicted through the journey of a lost package that receives a little help reaching its destination, proving that distance cannot keep loved ones apart.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Ho
The Mountains Sing : A Novel
Author(s):
Description:
"The Mountains Sing tells the multigenerational tale of the Trần family, set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War. Trần Diệu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North. Years later in Hà Nội, her young granddaughter, Hương, comes of age as her parents and uncles head off down the Hồ Chí Minh Trail to fight in a conflict that tore not just her beloved country, but her family apart. The Mountains Sing brings to life the human costs of this conflict from the point of view of the Vietnamese people themselves, while showing us the true power of kindness and hope" -- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Ngu
The Nickel Boys : A Novel
Author(s):
Colson Whitehead
JD Jackson
Description:
"As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone"... Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South in the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called The Nickel Academy... [It] is a grotesque chamber of horrors, where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear "out back." Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold on to Dr. King's ringing assertion "Throw us in jail and we will still love you." His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked and the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. The tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision with repercussions that will echo down the decades."--Container.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Whi
Tigers, Not Daughters
Author(s):
Description:
"The Torres sisters dream of escape. Escape from their needy and despotic widowed father, and from their San Antonio neighborhood, full of old San Antonio families and all the traditions and expectations that go along with them. In the summer after her senior year of high school, Ana, the oldest sister, falls to her death from her bedroom window. A year later, her three younger sisters, Jessica, Iridian, and Rosa, are still consumed by grief and haunted by their sister’s memory. Their dream of leaving Southtown now seems out of reach. But then strange things start happening around the house: mysterious laughter, mysterious shadows, mysterious writing on the walls. The sisters begin to wonder if Ana really is haunting them, trying to send them a message—and what exactly she’s trying to say" -- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Mab
Tinderbox : The Untold Story Of The Up Stairs Lounge Fire And The Rise Of Gay Liberation
Author(s):
Description:
Fieseler chronicles the event that claimed the lives of thirty-one men and one woman on June 24, 1973, at a New Orleans bar, the largest mass murder of gays until 2016. Relying on access to survivors and archives, Fieseler creates a portrait of a closeted, blue-collar gay world that flourished before an arsonist ignited an inferno that destroyed an entire community.--From statement at Amazon.com.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
364.1523 Fie
Tokyo Ueno Station
Author(s):
Description:
"A surreal, devastating story of a homeless ghost who haunts one of Tokyo's busiest train stations. Kazu is dead. Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Japanese Emperor, his life is tied by a series of coincidences to the Imperial family and has been shaped at every turn by modern Japanese history. But his life story is also marked by bad luck, and now, in death, he is unable to rest, doomed to haunt the park near Ueno Station in Tokyo. Kazu's life in the city began and ended in that park; he arrived there to work as a laborer in the preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and ended his days living in the vast homeless village in the park, traumatized by the destruction of the 2011 tsunami and shattered by the announcement of the 2020 Olympics. Through Kazu's eyes, we see daily life in Tokyo buzz around him and learn the intimate details of his personal story, how loss and society's inequalities and constrictions spiraled towards this ghostly fate, with moments of beauty and grace just out of reach. A powerful masterwork from one of Japan's most brilliant outsider writers, Tokyo Ueno Station is a book for our times and a look into a marginalized existence in a shiny global megapolis"-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Yu
We Belong
Author(s):
Cookie Hiponia Everman
Abigail Dela Cruz
Description:
Through a bedtime story to her daughters, a woman weaves together her immigration story and Pilipino mythology. Includes glossary, songs, and author's note.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Eve
Wings Of Ebony
Author(s):
Description:
'Make a way out of no way' is just the way of life for Rue. But when her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for her and her younger sister changes forever. Rue's taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghazan, a hidden island of magic wielders. Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Miserable and desperate to see her sister on the anniversary of their mother's death, Rue breaks Ghazan's sacred Do Not Leave Law and returns to Houston, only to discover that Black kids are being forced into crime and violence. And her sister, Tasha, is in danger of falling sway to the very forces that claimed their mother's life. Worse still, evidence mounts that the evil plaguing East Row is the same one that lurks in Ghazan, an evil that will stop at nothing until it has stolen everything from her and everyone she loves.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
YA FIC Ell
With A Star In My Hand : Rubén Darío, Poetry Hero
Author(s):
Description:
"As a little boy, Rubén Darío loved to listen to his great uncle, a man who told tall tales in a booming, larger-than-life voice. Rubén quickly learned the magic of storytelling, and discovered the rapture and beauty of verse. A restless and romantic soul, Rubén traveled across Central and South America seeking adventure and connection. As he discovered new places and new loves, he wrote poems to express his wild storm of feelings. But the traditional forms felt too restrictive. He began to improvise his own poetic forms so he could capture the entire world in his words. At the age of twenty-one, he published his first book Azul, which heralded a vibrant new literary movement called Modernismo that blended poetry and prose into something magical." --amazon.com.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Eng
