Ages 10-14; Gr.5-9
Thirteen-year-old Ava loves to surf and to sing. Singing and reading Rumi poems settle her mild OCD, and catching waves with her best friend, Phoenix, lets her fit in-her olive skin looks tan, not foreign. But then Ava has to spend the summer before ninth grade volunteering at the hospital, to follow in her single mother's footsteps to become a doctor. And when Phoenix's past lymphoma surges back, not even surfing, singing, or poetry can keep them afloat, threatening Ava's hold on the one place and the one person that make her feel like she belongs.

Ages 10 and up; Gr.5-9.
Aware of the racial tumult in the years after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Mei tries to remain blissfully focused on her job, her close friendship with the camp foreman's daughter, and telling stories about Paul Bunyan--reinvented as Po Pan Yin (Auntie Po), an elderly Chinese matriarch.

Ages 13 and up; Gr.7 and up.
When Kim Hyun Sook started college in 1983 she was ready for her world to open up. After acing her exams and sort-of convincing her traditional mother that it was a good idea for a woman to go to college, she looked forward to soaking up the ideas of Western Literature far from the drudgery she was promised at her family's restaurant. But literature class would prove to be just the start of a massive turning point, still focused on reading but with life-or-death stakes she never could have imagined. This was during South Korea's Fifth Republic, a military regime that entrenched its power through censorship, torture, and the murder of protestors. In this charged political climate, with Molotov cocktails flying and fellow students disappearing for hours and returning with bruises, Hyun Sook sought refuge in the comfort of books.

Ages 12 and up; Gr.7 and up
It's hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tié̂n, he doesn't even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he's going through? Is there a way to tell them he's gay?

Ages 12 and up; Gr.7 and up.
Deja and Josiah are seasonal best friends. Every autumn, all through high school, they've worked together at the world's best pumpkin patch.

Ages 10-14; Gr.5-9.
Cult graphic novelist Dylan Meconis offers a rich reimagining of history in this beautifully detailed hybrid novel loosely based on the exile of Queen Elizabeth I by her sister, Queen Mary.

Lexile measure HL740L; Ages 14 and up; Gr.7-10; Locus Award finalist, 2019.
Denise Farber has just moved back to New Orleans with her mom and step-dad. They left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and have finally returned, wagering the last of their family's money on fixing up an old, rundown house and converting it to a bed and breakfast.

Lexile measure GN250L; Ages 10-12; Gr.5-8.
Thirteen-year-old Bina has a long summer ahead of her. She and her best friend, Austin, usually do everything together, but he's off to soccer camp for a month, and he's been acting kind of weird lately anyway.

Lexile measure GN360L; Ages 10-14; Gr.5-8
In Be Prepared, all Vera wants to do is fit in--but that's not easy for a Russian girl in the suburbs. Her friends live in fancy houses and their parents can afford to send them to the best summer camps. Vera's single mother can't afford that sort of luxury, but there's one summer camp in her price range--Russian summer camp.

Lexile measure HL150L; ages 9-12; Gr.5-8.
Jorge seems to have it all together. He's big enough that nobody really messes with him, but he's also a genuinely sweet guy with a solid, reliable group of friends. The only time he ever really feels off his game is when he crosses paths with a certain girl... But when the group dynamic among the boys starts to shift, will Jorge be able to balance what his friends expect of him versus what he actually wants?

Lexile measure 510; Gr.7 and up; National Book Award for Young People's Literature, finalist, 2018.
In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life. His father is a mystery -- Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents -- two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along.

Lexile measure GN490L; Ages 8-12; Gr.6-8.
Ebo is alone. His brother, Kwame, has disappeared, and Ebo knows it can only be to attempt the hazardous journey to Europe, and a better life--the same journey their sister set out on months ago. But Ebo refuses to be left behind in Ghana.

Lexile measure GN360L; Ages 12 and up; Gr.6 and up.
Paris, at the dawn of the modern age: Prince Sebastian is looking for a bride--or rather, his parents are looking for one for him. Sebastian is too busy hiding his secret life from everyone. At night he puts on daring dresses and takes Paris by storm as the fabulous Lady Crystallia--the hottest fashion icon in the world capital of fashion!

Ages 12 and up; Gr.6 and up.
Marjorie Glatt feels like a ghost. A practical thirteen-year-old in charge of the family laundry business, her daily routine features unforgiving customers, unbearable P.E. classes, and the fastidious Mr. Saubertuck who is committed to destroying everything she's worked for. Wendell is a ghost.

Gr.6 and up; Stonewall Honor Books in Children's and Young Adult Literature, 2018.
Charlie Lamonte is thirteen years old, queer, black, and questioning what was once a firm belief in God. So naturally, she's spending a week of her summer vacation stuck at an all-white Christian youth backpacking camp.

Lexile measure GN360L; Ages 9-13; Gr.5 and up.
In his daydreams, Jensen is the biggest hero that ever was, saving the world and his friends on a daily basis. But his middle school reality is VERY different--math is hard, getting along with friends is hard...Even finding a partner for the class project is a huge problem when you always get picked last.

Lexile measure 460; Ages 10-12; gr.5-7.
The triple Caldecott winner David Wiesner brings his rich visual imagination and trademark artistry to the graphic novel format in a unique coming-of-age tale that begins underwater. A young mermaid, called Fish Girl, in a boardwalk aquarium has a chance encounter with an ordinary girl.

Lexile measure GN360L; Ages 12 and up; Gr.6 and up.
Meet Rickety Stitch ... a walking, talking, singing skeleton minstrel. He's the one skeleton in the dungeon who seems to have retained his soul, and he has no idea why. His only clue to his former identity is a song he hears snippets of in his dreams, an epic bard's tale about the Road to Epoli and the land of Eem. His sidekick and sole friend is Goo, a squishy blob of jelly that Rickety alone can understand. Together they set out in search of Rickety's past, with abundant humor and adventure galore.

Gr.6 and up.
Tillie Walden's Eisner Award winning graphic memoir Spinning captures what it's like to come of age, come out, and come to terms with leaving behind everything you used to know.

Ages 11-14; gr.6-9.
Sixteen-year-old Marigold "Goldie" Vance lives at a Florida resort with her dad, who manages the place. Her mom, who divorced her dad years ago, works as a live mermaid at a club downtown. Goldie has an insatiable curiosity, which explains her dream to one day become the hotel's in-house detective. When Charles, the current detective, encounters a case he can't crack, he agrees to mentor Goldie in exchange for her help solving the mystery.

Lexile measure 790; Ages 11-14; Gr.6-9.
Once upon a time, two best friends created a princess together. Libby drew the pictures, May wrote the tales, and their heroine was called Princess X. Then Libby is killed in a car crash May is sixteen when she sees a sticker slapped in a corner window. Princess X?

Lexile measure 770; Ages 10-17; Gr.5-8; Guided reading U
In this magnificent reimagining of the form Selznick originated, two stand-alone stories--the first in nearly 400 pages of continuous pictures, the second in prose--create a beguiling narrative puzzle.   The journey begins at sea in 1766, with a boy named Billy Marvel. After surviving a shipwreck, he finds work in a London theatre. There, his family flourishes for generations as brilliant actors until 1900, when young Leontes Marvel is banished from the stage.

Lexile measure GN450L; Ages 11-17.
"Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City - until she's suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts. But who truly is the new Ms. Marvel? Teenager? Muslim? Inhuman? Find out as she takes the Marvel Universe by storm!"

Lexile measure GN620L; Ages 10 and up; gr.7-12.
Ernest Shackleton was one of the last great Antarctic explorers, and he led one of the most ambitious Antarctic expeditions ever undertaken. This is his story, and the story of the dozens of men who threw in their lot with him - many of whom nearly died in the unimaginably harsh conditions of the journey.

Ages 11-14.
In two volumes, Boxers & Saints tells two parallel stories. The first is of Little Bao, a Chinese peasant boy whose village is abused and plundered by Westerners claiming the role of missionaries. Little Bao, inspired by visions of the Chinese gods, joins a violent uprising against the Western interlopers. But in the second volume, Yang lays out the opposite side of the conflict. A girl whose village has no place for her is taken in by Christian missionaries and finds, for the first time, a home with them. As the Boxer Rebellion gains momentum, Vibiana must decide whether to abandon her Christian friends or to commit herself fully to Christianity.

Lexile measure GN440; Ages 12 and up; Gr.6 and up.
Lovable ne'er-do-well Delilah Dirk is an adventurer for the 19th century. She has traveled to Japan, Indonesia, France, and even the New World. Using the skills she's picked up on the way, Delilah's adventures continue as she plots to rob a rich and corrupt Sultan in Constantinople.

Lexile measure GN800L; gr. 5-8.
Hélène has been inexplicably ostracized by the girls who were once her friends. Her school life is full of whispers and lies - Hélène weighs 216; she smells like BO. Her loving mother is too tired to be any help. Fortunately, Hélène has one consolation, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

Ages 10-14; Gr.5-7.
Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon over Mississippi, she can't really sing. Instead she's the set designer for the drama department's stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget.

Ages 12 and up.
Tina M., sophomore, is a wry observer of the cliques and mores of Yarborough Academy, and of the foibles of her Southern California intellectual Indian family. She's on a first-name basis with Jean-Paul Sartre, the result of an English honors class assignment to keep an "existential diary."

Lexile measure 530; Book level 3.3; Ages 12-18; Gr.6-10.
Jin Wang starts at a new school where he's the only Chinese-American student. When a boy from Taiwan joins his class, Jin doesn't want to be associated with an FOB like him. Jin just wants to be an all-American boy, because he's in love with an all-American girl.

Ages 8 and up.
In a heartbreaking parting, a man gives his wife and daughter a last kiss and boards a steamship. He's embarking on the most difficult journey he's leaving home to build a better future for his family.

Book level 5.1; Ages 12-18; gr.5-8.
Kampung Boy is a favorite of millions of readers in Southeast Asia. Lat recounts the life of Mat, a Muslim boy growing up in rural Malaysia in the 1950s: his adventures and mischief-making, fishing trips, religious study, and work on his family's rubber plantation.

Ages 12-15.
This very first Alex Rider adventure, featuring manga-like illustrations, follows a fourteen-year-old boy, who, after the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, is coerced into continuing his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence agency, MI6.

Gr.7-12