Diverse Reads

Below is a sample of some of the diverse books in the collection.

Diverse Reads

Abdel-Fattah, Randa.  Does My Head Look Big in This?   Orchard Books, 2007.                                  YA FIC Abdel-Fattah                      

Year Eleven at an exclusive prep school in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, would be tough enough, but it is further complicated for Amal when she decides to wear the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, full-time as a badge of her faith--without losing her identity or sense of style.

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Little Brown, 2009.                       YA FIC Alexie

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.

Alonge, L J. Justin. Penguin, 2016. YA Sports FIC Alonge

Justin is having a tough summer in his gritty Oakland neighborhood. In order to distance himself from his alcoholic father and his boring stepfather, he has a list of goals for himself but is torn between his love of video games and literature and his desire to fit in with the other teens in his neighborhood. When Justin's attempt to earn points with the local gang by vandalizing a store ends poorly, his friend Frank decides that the two can prove themselves by defending the neighborhood basketball court against the rival Ghosttown players.

Flake, Sharon. The Skin I’m In. Hyperion Books, 1998. YA FIC Flake; 6-8

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.

Gratz, Alan. Code of Honor.  Scholastic, 2015. YA FIC Gratz

When Iranian-American Kamran Smith learns that his big brother, Darius, has been labelled a terrorist, he sets out to piece together the codes and clues that will save his brother's life and his country from a deadly terrorist attack.

Johnson, Alaya Dawn. Love is the Drug. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2014.  YA FIC Johnson

Emily Bird is an African American high school senior in Washington D.C., member of a privileged medical family, on the verge of college and the edge of the drug culture, and not really sure which way she will go--then one day she wakes up in the hospital with no memory of what happened.

Magoon, Kekla. How it Went Down. Henry Holt, 2014.  YA FIC Magoon

When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson is shot to death, his community is thrown into an uproar because Tariq was black and the shooter, Jack Franklin, is white, and in the aftermath everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events agree.

McCall, Guadalupe Garcia. Under the Mesquite. Lee & Low, 2011. YA FIC McCall

Throughout her high school years, as her mother battles cancer, Lupita takes on more responsibility for her house and seven younger siblings, while finding refuge in acting and writing poetry.

Perera, Anna. Guantanamo Boy. Albert Whitman, 2011. 

 YA FIC Perera                                                                                

Six months after the events of September 11, 2001, Khalid, a Muslim fifteen-year-old boy from England, is kidnapped during a family trip to Pakistan and imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he is held for two years suffering interrogations, water-boarding, isolation, and more for reasons unknown to him.

Quintero, Isabelle. Gabi, a Girl in Pieces. Cinco Puntos Press, 2014. YA FIC Quintero

Sixteen-year-old Gabi Hernandez chronicles her senior year in high school as she copes with her friend Cindy's pregnancy, friend Sebastian's coming out, her father's meth habit, her own cravings for food and cute boys, and especially, the poetry that helps forge her identity.

Reynolds, Jason. All American Boys. Atheneum Books, 2015. YA FIC Reynolds

When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend.

Sarn, Amelie. I Love, I Hate, I Miss My Sister. Delacorte, 2014.  YA FIC Sarn

Portrait of two Muslim sisters, once closely bonded, but now on divergent paths as one embraces her religion and the other remains secular.

Venkatraman, Padma. Time to Dance. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014. YA FIC Venkatraman

In India, a girl who excels at Bharatanatyam dance refuses to give up after losing a leg in an accident.

Woodson, Jacqueline. After Tupac and D Foster. G.P. Putnam, 2008. YA FIC Woodson

In the New York City borough of Queens in 1996, three girls bond over their shared love of Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to make sense of the unpredictable world in which they live.