Selected Children’s Books

Atkinson, Chryssa. Lindsey (American Girl Today.)  Pleasant Company Publications, 2001. 
ISBN: 1584854502

Meet Lindsey Bergman, a laugh-out-loud funny ten-year-old girl with a brain for big ideas and a passion for principles. She just can’t help wanting to help people – so why does she always seem to cause more problems than she solves? Whether she’s cheering up her grumpy uncle, defending her best friend from bullies, playing matchmaker between two teachers, planning her brother’s bar mitzvah, or trying to find her lost dog, her heart is always in the right place. Too bad the rest of her is usually in trouble! But she just might surprise herself when she learns there’s more than one way to make a difference.

Beatty, Paul. The White Boy Shuffle.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
ISBN: 0356742803

Paul Beatty’s hilarious and scathing debut novel is about Gunnar Kaufman, an awkward, black surfer bum who is moved by his mother from Santa Monica to urban West Los Angeles. There, he begins to undergo a startling transformation from neighborhood outcast to basketball superstar, and eventually to reluctant messiah of a “divided, downtrodden people.”

Buss, Fran Leeper.  Journey of the Sparrows.  Illus. Daisy Cubias. Puffin Books,
ISBN: 0142302090

Nailed into a crate in the back of a truck, fifteen-year-old Maria, her older sister, Julia, their little brother, Oscar and a boy named Tomas endure a terrifying and torturous journey across the U.S. border and then north to Chicago. There they struggle to find work ---cleaning, sewing, washing dishes ---always fearful of arrest and deportation back to the cruelties of El Salvador. By turns heartbreaking and hopeful, this moving story of secret lives of immigrants is not to be missed.

Cannon, A.E. The Shadow Brothers. Delacorte Press 1990. 
ISBN: 0-385-29982-6

“Marcus and his foster brother, Henry, a Navaho, have always been close. Marcus doesn't mind letting Henry lead the way; after all, he's brilliant, good natured, and a champion runner. But now that they are sixteen and Henry is dating the amazing Celia, and now that he's showing interest in his Navaho heritage and his family on the reservation, Marcus is left behind. Henry is turning toward a world where Marcus will never belong. But like Henry, Marcus must discover his own strengths and passions, including his feelings for the extraordinary girl next door." (Delacorte 1990)

Choi, Sook Nyul. Echoes of the White Giraffe. New York: Yearling, 1993.
ISBN: 0440409705

Choi, Sook Nyul. Year of Impossible Goodbyes. New York: Yearling, 1991.
ISBN: 0440407591

Astonishing, often heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful is this tale of Sookan, a young girl living in northern Korea during the turbulent period of the Second World War.
As the war rages, ten-year-old Sookan, her mother, and her younger brother courageously endure the cruelties of the Japanese military occupying Korea. Forced to work for the war effort, Sookan dreams of a time of peace and liberty for herself and her family. Above all, she longs for the safe return of her father, a resistance fighter hiding in Manchuria, and of her older brothers, who have been taken to the Japanese labor camps.
With the end of the war in 1945, Sookan’s hopes for freedom are dashed as she watches the superpowers divide her country and the Communist Russian troops take control of North Korea, coercing its citizens to adopt the Communist lifestyle. Many North Koreans attempt escapes to the South, which is protected by the United States. Dangerous as it is, Sookan’s family comes to believe that escape is their only change for a happy future.

Cisneros, Sandra.  The House on Mango Street.  New York: Vintage Books, 1989. 
ISBN: 0679734775

Told in a series of vignettes stunning for their eloquence, The House on Mango Street is Sandra Cisneros's greatly admired novel of a young girl growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Acclaimed by critics, beloved by children, their parents and grandparents, taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities across the country, and translated all over the world, it has entered the canon of coming-of-age classics.

Craven, Margaret. I Heard the Owl Call My Name. New York: Dell Publishing, 1973. 
ISBN: 0440343690

Amid the grandeur of the remote Pacific Northwest stands Kingcome, a village so ancient that, according to Kwakiutl myth, it was founded by the two brothers left on earth after the great flood. The Native Amercians who still live there call it Quee, a place of such incredible natural richness that hunting and fishing remain a primary food source.

But the old culture of totems and potlatch is being replaced by a new culture of prefab housing and alcoholism. Kingcome’s younger generation is disenchanted and alienated from its heritage. And now, coming upriver is a young vicar, Mark Brian, on a journey of discovery that can teach him---and us ---about life, death, and the transforming power of love.

At the age of thirteen, Sundara fled Cambodia with her aunt’s family to escape the Khmer Rouge army, leaving behind her parents, her brother and sister, and the boy she had loved since she was a child.

Now, four years later, she struggles to fit in at her Oregon high school and to be “a good Cambodian girl” at home. A good Cambodian girl never dates; she waits for her family to arrange her marriage to a Cambodian boy. But Sundara and Jonathan, an extraordinary American boy, are powerfully drawn to each other. Haunted by grief for her lost family and for the life she left behind, Sundara longs to be with him. But are her hopes for happiness and a new life in America disloyal to her past and her people?

Curtis, Christopher Paul.  Bud, Not Buddy.  New York: Delacorte Press, 1999.
ISBN: 0385323069

I squeezed my bag to my stomach and ran. The train was going faster and faster. People were jumping on and reaching back to help others. I finally go to the tracks and was running as hard as I could. I looked up into the boxcar and saw Bugs. 

He screamed, “Bud, throw me your bag, throw me your bag!”   I used both hands to throw my suitcase at the train. Bugs caught it and as he set it behind him the blue flyer blew out of the twine and fluttered outside the door. But it was like a miracle, the flyer flipped over three times and landed right in my hand. I slowed down and put it in my pocket.  Bugs reached one arm out and screamed, “Bud, don’t stop! Run!”

Draper, Sharon M.  The Battle of Jericho.  New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003. 
ISBN: 0689842325

Sixteen-year-old Jericho is psyched when he and his cousin and best friend, Josh, are invited to pledge for the Warriors of Distinction, the oldest and most exclusive club in school. Just being a pledge wins him the attention of Arielle, one of the hottest girls in his class, whom he’s been too shy even to talk to before now.

But as the secret initiation rites grow increasingly humiliating and force Jericho to make painful choices, he starts to question whether membership in the Warriors of Distinction is worth it. How far will he have to go to wear the cool black silk Warriors jacket? How high a price will he have to pay to belong? The answers are devastating beyond Jericho’s imagination.

Drucker, Malka. Illus. Patz, Nancy. The Family Treasury of Jewish Holidays. Little Brown, 1999. 
ISBN: 0316193135