"Multicultural" literature are books by and about people of color: African and African Americans, Native Americans, Asian/Pacifics and Asian Pacific Americans, and Latinos (CCBC 2006). Below you will find an essential list of books for teens in our library system.
1 I am the darker brother : an anthology of modern poems by A edited and with an afterword by Arnold Adoff ; drawings c1997
First published in 1968, this anthology was one of the first collections of African American poetry specifically created with the young reader in mind. Along with selections from Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks, this newly updated version features poems by such contemporary poets as Maya Angelou, Ishmael Reed, Rita Dove, and others. This is a comprehensive reflection of the African-American voice and culture.
2 The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie ; art by Ellen Forney. 2007
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
3 Before we were free Julia Alvarez. c2002
In the early 1960s in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo.
4 The heart of a chief Joseph Bruchac. 2001
An eleven-year-old Penacook Indian boy living on a reservation faces his father's alcoholism, a controversy surrounding plans for a casino on a tribal island, and insensitivity toward Native Americans in his school and nearby town.
5 Bowman's store : a journey to myself Joseph Bruchac. c1997
The author shares in this memoir how he came to fully understand, and eventually claim, his Native American heritage, despite his grandparents' unspoken pact to never discuss Grandpa's Abenaki blood. Photos.
6 Cool salsa : bilingual poems on growing up Latino in the Un edited by Lori M. Carlson ; introduction by Oscar Hijuelos. 1994
Growing up Latino in America means speaking two languages, living two lives, learning the rules of two cultures. Cool Salsa celebrates the tones, rhythms, sounds, and experiences of that double life.
7 The middle passage : white ships/black cargo Tom Feelings ; introduction by John Henrik Clarke. c1995
The Middle Passage is the name given to one of the most tragic ordeals in history: the cruel and terrifying journey of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean. In this seminal work, master artist Tom Feelings tells the complete story of this horrific diaspora in sixty-four extraordinary narrative paintings.
8 The skin I'm in Sharon G. Flake. c1998
Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.
9 Sweet whispers, Brother Rush Virginia Hamilton. c1982
Fourteen-year-old Tree, resentful of her working mother who leaves her in charge of a retarded brother, encounters the ghost of her dead uncle and comes to a deeper understanding of her family's problems.
10 CrashBoomLove : a novel in verse Juan Felipe Herrera. c1999
After his father leaves home, sixteen-year-old Cesar Garcia lives with his mother and struggles through the painful experiences of growing up as a Mexican American high school student.
11 Born confused Tanuja Desai Hidier. c2002
Seventeen-year-old Dimple, whose family is from India, discovers that she is not Indian enough for the Indians and not American enough for the Americans, as she sees her hypnotically beautiful, manipulative best friend taking possession of both her heritage and the boy she likes.
12 La línea by Ann Jaramillo. 2008
When fifteen-year-old Miguel's time finally comes to leave his poor Mexican village, cross the border illegally, and join his parents in California, his younger sister's determination to join him soon imperils them both.
13 Red scarf girl : a memoir of the Cultural Revolution Ji-li Jiang ; foreword by David Henry Hwang. c1997
Ji-li Jiang was twelve years old in 1966, the year that Chairman Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in China. An outstanding student and much-admired leader of her class, Ji-li seemed poised for a shining future. But all that changed with the advent of the Cultural Revolution, when intelligence became a crime and a wealthy family background invited persecution'or worse. For the next three years Ji-li and her family were humilated and reviled by their former friends, neighbors, and colleagues and lived in constant terror of attack.
14 The circuit : stories from the life of a migrant child Francisco Jiménez. c1998
An honest and powerful account of a family's journey to the fields of California -- to a life of constant moving, from strawberry fields to cotton fields, from tent cities to one-room shacks, from picking grapes to topping carrots and thinning lettuce. Seen through the eyes of a boy who longs for an education and the right to call one palce home, this is a story of survival, faith, and hope. It is a journey that will open readers' hearts and minds.
15 The first part last Angela Johnson. c2003
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.
16 Kira-Kira Cynthia Kadohata. c2004
Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.
17 Monster Walter Dean Myers ; illustrations by Christopher Myers. c1999
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.
18 Now is your time! : the African-American struggle for freed Walter Dean Myers. c1991
A history of the African-American struggle for freedom and equality, beginning with the capture of Africans in 1619, continuing through the American Revolution, the Civil War, and into contemporary times.
19 A step from heaven An Na. c2001
A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in America.
20 A wreath for Emmett Till Marilyn Nelson ; illustrated by Philippe Lardy. c2005
In 1955, people all over the United States knew that Emmett Louis Till was a fourteen-year-old African American boy lynched for supposedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The brutality of his murder, the open-casket funeral, and the acquittal of the men tried for the crime drew wide media attention. Award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson reminds us of the boy whose fate helped spark the civil rights movement. This martyrs wreath, woven from a little-known but sophisticated form of poetry, challenges us to speak out against modern-day injustices, to speak what we see.
21 Cuba 15 : a novel by Nancy Osa. c2003
Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student, reluctantly prepares for her upcoming "quince," a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday.
22 When my name was Keoko Linda Sue Park. c2002
With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely.
23 The flight of Red Bird : the life of Zitkala-̈Sa re-created from the writings of Zitkala-̈Sa et. al.
c1997
c1997
Chronicles, through her own reminiscences, letters, speeches, and stories, the experiences of the Yankton Indian woman whose life spanned the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.
24 Blue Jasmine Kashmira Sheth. c2004
Twelve-year-old Seema moves from India to Iowa City and struggles to learn a new culture. When her grandmother falls ill and she visits India again, circumstances help her understand the meaning of "home" and how it is possible to have more than one.
25 Baseball in April and other stories by Gary Soto. c1990
A collection of eleven short stories focusing on the everyday adventures of Hispanic young people growing up in Fresno, California.
26 I hadn't meant to tell you this by Jacqueline Woodson. c1994
Marie, the only black girl in the eighth grade willing to befriend her white classmate Lena, discovers that Lena's father is doing horrible things to her in private.
27 If you come softly Jacqueline Woodson. c1998
After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's reactions.
28 American born Chinese Gene Luen Yang ; color by Lark Pien. 2006
Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in comic book format.
29 An island like you : stories of the barrio by Judith Ortiz Cofer. c1995
Twelve stories about young people caught between their Puerto Rican heritage and their American surroundings.
30 Shine, coconut moon Neesha Meminger. c2009
In the days and weeks following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Samar, who is of Punjabi heritage but has been raised with no knowledge of her past by her single mother, wants to learn about her family's history and to get in touch with the grandparents her mother shuns.
